A Quiptic from Picaroon which I enjoyed solving and blogging. A couple of clues that took a bit of pencil-chewing; but it’s all clearly signposted if you read the instructions carefully.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
4 Berks maybe and Yankee following aristocrat
COUNTY
A charade of COUNT and Y for the phonetic alphabet ‘Yankee’. Royal Berkshire, if we are to give it its full title, presumably because it’s full of posh folk (and because William the Conqueror established a royal presence at Windsor, apparently).
6 President claiming one has hollow victories
TRIUMPHS
A charade of I inserted into TRUMP and H[A]S. The insertion indicator is ‘claiming’.
9 Rob Roy’s head stuck in brass instrument
BURGLE
An insertion of R for the initial letter of ‘Roy’ in BUGLE. The insertion indicator is ‘stuck in’.
10 Italian lady expelling son, not heartless or uneducated
IGNORANT
A charade of [S]IGNORA and N[O]T.
11 Princess put on hair curlers and a kind of shoe
ROLLER SKATES
A charade of ROLLERS and KATE.
15 It holds hot liquids mother’s brewed
THERMOS
(MOTHERS)* with ‘brewed’ as the anagrind.
17 One glib criminal lacking honour
IGNOBLE
(ONE GLIB)* with ‘criminal’ as the anagrind.
18 Tuchel in job that’s changed? Me too!
JOIN THE CLUB
(TUCHEL IN JOB)* with ‘that’s changed’ as the anagrind.
22 Painting funny op art – it’s about right
PORTRAIT
An insertion of R in (OP ART)* and IT. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and the anagrind is ‘funny’.
23 How unfortunate! King meets head of Asian state
ALASKA
A charade of ALAS, K and A for the initial letter of ‘Asian’. The USA’s biggest state, for the next time you are doing the pub quiz Geography round.
24 Day Blair follows old, dull routine
MONOTONY
A charade of MON, O and TONY.
25 Partisan’s offer to capture area Sudanese vacated
BIASED
An insertion of A and S[UDANES]E in BID. The insertion indicator is ‘to capture’.
Down
1 Labour PM – a dry and flipping slippery customer
ATTLEE
A charade of A, TT and EEL reversed. Clement ATTLEE was British Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951, and the subject of Winston Churchill’s famous putdown when he described him as ‘A modest man with much to be modest about’.
2 Realistic person’s yearly meeting – in part, it’s reorganised
PRAGMATIST
An insertion of AGM in (PART ITS)* The anagrind is ‘reorganised’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’.
3 Maybe German’s regret about frank, entertaining article
EUROPEAN
A charade of RUE reversed and an insertion of A in OPEN. The insertion indicator is ‘entertaining’.
4 In the nude in musical nightclubs
CABARETS
An insertion of BARE in CATS. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
5 A French commander accepting one is more disruptive
UNRULIER
A charade of UN for one of the French words for ‘a’ and I inserted into RULER. The insertion indicator is ‘accepting’.
7 Ring friend, filled with energy
PEAL
An insertion of E in PAL. The insertion indicator is ‘filled with’.
8 Drunkards call for help – about time!
SOTS
An insertion of T in SOS. The insertion indicator is ‘about’
12 Doubts working cop in US is following lead for shooting
SUSPICIONS
A charade of S for the initial letter of ‘shooting’ and (COP IN US IS)* The anagrind is ‘working’.
13 Bloke is dancing around on small stone pillars
OBELISKS
A charade of (BLOKE IS)* and S. The anagrind is ‘dancing around’ and ‘on’ works because it’s a down clue.
14 Critical over committee’s computer equipment
KEYBOARD
A charade of KEY and BOARD. Again, ‘over’ works because it’s a down clue.
16 Former PM, one gutless Tory for the greater part
MAJORITY
A charade of [John] MAJOR, I and T[OR]Y. Picaroon is not being 25ac today: we have had a Labour and a Conservative PM. Churchill’s comment about Attlee might well have applied to Major as well, some would aver.
19 Curry accompaniment served up, eating the French cake
ÉCLAIR
An insertion of LA for one of the French words for ‘the’ in RICE reversed. The reversal indicator (since it’s a down clue) is ‘served up’ and the insertion indicator is eating’. Two vaguely relevant facts about ÉCLAIR. It’s the French word for ‘lightning’; and Chambers defines it (still) as ‘a cake long in shape but short in duration’. The two are related: it’s said that the name came from the fact that when they were first produced, they were so delicious that people ate them ‘in a flash’. I’m not convinced, but that seems to be the accepted etymology.
20 Plans written up in annoying emails
SPAM
A reversal (‘written up’ since it’s a down clue) of MAPS.
21 Run round entering trendy club
IRON
An insertion of R and O for ’round’ in IN for ‘trendy’. The insertion indicator is ‘entering’.
Many thanks to Picaroon for this week’s Quiptic. This is my last Quiptic blog of the year, so I’ll just say thanks to all the setters, to the editor and to the many commenters here who have made Quiptic solving in 2024 a more interesting and enlivening experience. Happy New Year to all.
Thank you Pierre for your efforts through the year.
As always, Picaroon has produced an excellent puzzle. Some newer solvers may find themselves working back from a few answers derived from the crossers they have, but that’s fine as it encourages parsing in order to learn crossword conventions. The definitions are very well signposted.
Best wishes to all.
A lovely Quiptic and great blog – thank you very much Picaroon and Pierre. I particularly enjoyed the political clues, and was stuck over Alaska for ages. Happy Everything, everyone!
Favourites: CABARETS, IRON, EUROPEAN (loi).
Thanks, both.
As perfect as ever, always a treat to see the setter’s name.
Ta Picaroon and Pierre for your enlightenment throughout the year.
Thanks Picaroon and Pierre
Not as easy as Quiptics often are – I took some time to complete the NE. Good puzzle, though.
15a reminds me of the child’s question ” a Thermos flask keeps hot liquids hot and cold liquids cold, but how does it know which are which?”
[Incidentally the Dewar flask, which gave rise to the Thermos, was indeed invented to keep things cold; Dewar was investigating behaviour of materials at very low temperatures.]
Many thanks Picaroon and Pierre. I enjoyed this one, bottom half was done quite quickly but I struggled a bit more in the top half.
I’d never seen TT for dry, and I can’t understand where it comes from. Is it for Time Trial as in dry run?
Thanks Picaroon and Pierre
Lovely Quiptic
Sebd TT = teetotal IE dry, no alcohol
I revealed one or two when I couldn’t stare at them any longer but worked out most of the answers. Some I guessed from definitions and crossers, some I could parse fully. Grateful for the enlightenment this blog always offers me. Enjoyable.
Thanks Picaroon and Pierre – very grateful for this website!
Chewy one for me. Missed parsing cabarets and European (“Frank” and “Euro” had me thinking of currencies, even if Germany was the wrong country for the former).
I often fall foul of the short word synonyms (like RUE etc) – need to play some more bananagrams this Christmas to help internalize these…
Sebd@6: Teetotaler.
Picaroon’s ability to produce consistent crosswords at different levels beggars belief. Another perfectly judged Quiptic. Unfortunately lacking in having no bird answer. Didn’t he know Pierre was blogging today?
Thanks both for the pleasure you’ve given today and throughout the year.
Excellent Quiptic, very heavy on insertion clues. Good anagrams.
Teetotal (TT) apparently originated as a facetious emphatic version of ‘total’, but was adopted to mean abstemious.
ALASKA also used to be the answer to the pub quiz question ‘what is the US state with the smallest population?’ – but it has overtaken Wyoming in this respect.
Thanks and seasonal greetings to the Pirate and Pierre
[Gervase @11
The pub quiz question I associate with Alaska is “In which states are the northernmost, southernmost, easternmost and westernmost points in the USA?”
Surprisingly, three of them are in Alaska! The exception is southernmost, which is in Hawaii.]
Gervase @11 – one of the leaders of the total abstinence movement had a stutter so the t-total abstinence movement was renamed as teetotal – I looked it up to blog and liked that his name was Richard Taylor.
Much enjoyed this and thought it fitted the Quiptic spot well.
Thank you to Picaroon and Pierre.
Shanne @13 what a shame he wasn’t Timothy Taylor, which would have been funny at least two ways …
TT = dry is new to me. Or, perhaps as likely, I’ve seen it before but it’s not stayed with me. Not knowing that, nor one or two other elements in other clues, may have slowed me down a bit but were in the end no obstacle to completion of an enjoyable puzzle.
Bleugh, got that wrong – it sticks in my head as Taylor, for all those reasons vogel421, he was Richard Turner.
Great quiptic and great blog. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre.
Thanks Picaroon and Pierre for a lovely puzzle and the very clear explanations.
I used this puzzle today to show my 9yo grandson how cryptics work. (He enjoys words.) The clues were beautifully constructed, a range of devices used and it was straightforward enough to explain as I solved. A perfect Quiptic, I think.
Joint favourites EUROPEANS, ROLLER SKATES, JOIN THE CLUB.
Thanks to Picaroon for this week’s quiptic and to you for the parsing Pierre – I can happily say I managed to complete the whole puzzle without revealing and then came here for only a couple of the parsing – that’s definite progress!
For 21D I assumed O for round in IN for trendy – is R for run a standard crossword clue that should just be known? Does it come from somewhere in particular?
Since I’m only ever really here for the Guardian Quiptic I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and who knows, maybe next year I’ll be commenting on the Cryptic! Thanks to all at FifteenSquared for continuing to teach me a variety of crossword tricks, and other miscellaneous information,
GrumpyBear@19 Congrats on completion.
Yes, R is a standard abbreviation for run. Think of cricket scoring.
Nice and straightforward, I certainly found it a lot easier than the Everyman, which I still haven’t finished.
[Shanne @13: The Richard Taylor story may be apocryphal. If he had a stammer, he would surely have said ‘tuttotal’.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the tee- in teetotal is the letter T, so it is actually t-total, though it was never spelled that way. The word is first recorded in 1832 in a general sense in an American source, and in 1833 in England in the context of abstinence. Since at first it was used in other contexts as an emphasised form of total, the tee- is presumably a reduplication of the first letter of total, much as contemporary idiom might say “total with a capital T”.]
Hurrah ! Completed with only two reveals. And managed to parse most. This was an excellent quiptic which ( for me) was about the right level. So many thanks Picaroon as setter and Pierre for the helpful blog. Have photocopied Everyman to take away over Christmas.
I really appreciate being part of this supportive and informative group. Hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas whatever you are doing and wherever you are.
Liked the neat lift and separate for BURGLE.
I thought it was a neat clue too, gladys, but I wouldn’t describe it as a ‘lift and separate’, since Rob and Roy are already separated. I only use that description for a clue where you have to separate a single word into two parts and then use those individually, either as part of the definition or as an element in the wordplay.
It appears it is time once again to complain that rob ≠ BURGLE. To rob is to steal by use of force or threat; to burgle is (with numerous legal wrinkles I’ll omit here) to break and enter for purposes of committing a felony. Note in particular that burglary does not even require theft (the motivating felony could be rape or murder just as easily). Put another way, robbery is a theft crime, while burglary is a trespass crime.
But I’m not complaining too loudly this time, because the clue was otherwise lovely.
Liked BURGLE, TRIUMPHS, IGNOBLE, SOTS, MAJORITY, CABARETS. I agree with mypenny about BURGLE being incorrect, but it was a nice surface and it was not rhyming slang.
Aside from BURGLE, one quibble is a foreign indicator is missing from COUNTY, given counts are not part of UK aristocracy.
Thanks Pierre and Picaroon
I once thought that TT was “tea-total”, being someone who only drinks tea. Well it worked for me 🙂
Thanks to Picaroon for another delightful Quiptic, and to Pierre for another year of fine blogs.
Lots to like in this one. Got most of the wordplay, and some after guessing and working backwards. How EUROPEAN worked eluded me and was my regular Doh! moment after reading Pierre’s explanation. Thanks Picaroon for the puzzle and Pierre for the explanations.
Same here, Humble Tim. We may be wrong but at least we’re logical. Although only in the UK.
Thanks Pierre and Picaroon.
I’ve been doing these a couple of months now, moving from Minute Cryptic to Lovatts to Times QCs and these Guardian/Observer puzzles (with a fair deal of Quicks thrown in to help train my brain for definitions/synonyms). Now I mostly expect to complete the Quiptic without help and tackle some of the weekly cryptics.
Picaroon’s puzzles are quickly becoming my favorites – this was fun to solve and shows a real love of language and general knowledge. This was a pleasure to work through.
Especially useful as a developing solver were PEAL and IRON. My strategy is starting with the short clues as generally there’s only so many ways to go wrong if you figure out the grammar of the clue. Both of these took a bit longer than normal, but all totally fair. PEAL’s clueing led me to think of opal as a possibility, but unable to link it to energy – thus being instructive on how to use the whole clue. And IRON had a lot to put together, but once I figured trendy=in, it reminded me that club could be read in many ways.
Really feel like this was an excellent training session.
Muffin@12
Alaska reminds me of something I read in a children’s annual.
D’you know the capital of Alaska?
No
Juneau
(irritatedly) No, I don’t
J. U. N.E.A.U
I don’t often do the Quiptic but was tempted when I saw who set it and pleased when I did.
Pierre@25: there are differences of opinion on what constitutes a lift and separate. I have been reprimanded here for using it when the item to be lifted and separated is a single word, and also (by different people) when it is two words that usually go together, like Rob Roy. Since I don’t care enough either way to want to start an argument, let’s just say it’s a neat clue and leave it at that.
Indeed, gladys. My comment certainly wasn’t a reprimand. If it’s a good clue, it’s a good clue. And that one was.
Thanks to Picaroon for a nicely judged challenge, and to Pierre.. the little excursions in the parsing and visitors’ commentary make this blog a very pleasant stop-over after a solve.
Took me a while, particularly the NW quadrant, but got there in the end. The only one I didn’t understand was 2d, AGM is a new one for me.
Thanks Pierre and Picaroon.