Quick Cryptic 44 by Chandler

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This is the forty-fourth Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords.  The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here – those rules include not posting solving times.  This puzzle can be found here.

Following a number of comments we now hide the answers and the wordplay descriptions too.   To find that hidden information, click on “Details” and it will pop up, or you can choose to reveal everything using the new “Expand All” button.  The definition is in bold and underlined, the indicator is in red.

This week we have the return of Chandler to the Quick Cryptic, one of the regular Quiptic setters.   Today we see anagrams and acrostics with all the letters present, charades and double definitions, all of which we’ve seen many tiimes before.

There is a summary of the tricks used in the first six months here and a Guardian Crossword blog called the ultimate beginner’s guide has tips which may be useful for some solvers.

Fifteen Squared uses several abbreviations and jargon tricks, there’s a full list here, of which I’ve used the following in this blog:

  • underlining the definition in the clue – this is either at the beginning or end of the clue
  • indicators are in red – adding later and some of these are split.
  • CAPITALS to indicate which bits are part of the answer, e.g. some haVE ALtered meat, Get A Good,
  • anagram *(SENATOR) shows letters in clue being used, see clue below – in this crossword, there is a subtraction of one of the letters before it is rearranged.
  • anagrind the anagram indicator (arranged)
  • charades – the description below only gives the example of words being added together, but charades can be more complicated, adding abbreviations or single letters to another word.  Examples previously used in this series are: Son ridicules loose overgarments (6) S (son) + MOCKS (ridicules), Get rid of dead pine (5) D(dead) + ITCH (pine) – D ITCH, and early on DR (doctor) + IVE (I have) to give DRIVE .
  • CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit.
  • DBE or defintion by example – e.g. where a dog might be clued as a setter – often using a question mark, maybe, possibly or e.g. to show that this is an example rather than a definition.
  • surface – the meaning from reading the clue – so often cryptic clues use an English that could only be found in a cryptic crossword, but a smooth surface is a clue that has a meaning in English, which can be pointed or misleading.

TODAY’S TRICKS – from the crossword site – which can be found at  www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/44 – because the clues have moved on from the clue descriptions below, I am now adding more to the descriptions above.

Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:

  1. Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
    ‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON
  2. Charade A combination of synonyms
    ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
  3. Double definition Both halves are definitions!
    ‘Search scrub (5)’ gives SCOUR
  4. Acrostic The first letters of the answer
    ‘Initially get a good joke (3)’ gives GAG

ACROSS
 Click on “details” to see the solutions
1
Ask caterer to reassemble janitors (10)
CARETAKERS
anagram of (ASK CATERER)* with anagrind of “reassemble”
7
Groan about gaseous element (5)
ARGON
anagram of (GROAN)* with anagrind of “about” for one of the noble gases 
8
Construct place for film actors ahead (3,2)
SET UP
charade of SET (place for film actors) + UP (ahead) 
9
Perhaps, one anaesthetic (6)
NUMBER
double definition – the first is a definition by example – perhaps 1, the second something that numbs, so a number
10
Openings for silky artistry regularly in Indian dress (4)
SARI
acrostic of (openings for)  Silky Artistry Regularly In 
13
Colour mood (4)
TONE
double definition – this was one of my last in as I’d quibble about tone meaning colour, in art terms, it means darkness of a tint or colour
14
See sir represented in group of related TV programmes (6)
SERIES
anagram of (SEE SIR)* with anagrind of “represented in” – as in re – present – the letters are re-presented in a different way
16
River in dark gorge encircling principally narrow hilltop (5)
RIDGE
acrostic of (principally)  River In Dark Gorge Encircling  
18
Struggling OAP in part of an orchestra? (5)
PIANO
anagram of  (OAP IN)* with anagrind of “struggling”  – and apparently, a piano can be part of an orchestra as well as an accompanying solo instrument.
19
Using paid work (10)
EMPLOYMENT
double definition – I’m happy with paid work meaning employment, and using/employing something or use/employment of something, but I can’t work out how to interchange using and employment in a sentence.  It feels like the wrong part of speech, a verb compared with a noun.  I wait to be convinced otherwise. 
DOWN
1 Tea about to happen in one of a series of outlets (5,5)
CHAIN STORE
charade of CHA (tea) + IN STORE (about to happen) – cha for tea is a regular in crosswords, and it’s one I’ve heard used. 
2
Mere gin interfered with prescribed course of treatment (7)
REGIMEN
anagram of (MERE GIN)* with anagrind of “interfered with” 
3
Compassionate proposal (6)
TENDER
double definition – the second as in the tendering process that many big public projects are required to go through.
4
Show sign of affection having adjusted skis (4)
KISS
anagram of (SKIS)* with anagrind of “having adjusted” 
5
First signs of rubbish on terrace and decay (3)
ROT
acrostic of (first signs of) Rubbish On Terrace
6
Killjoy plunders fortified wine (10)
SPOILSPORT
charade of  SPOILS (plunders) + PORT (fortified wine) 
11
Upset a US soldier fronting gallery (7)
AGITATE
charade of  A (from the clue) + GI (US soldier) + (in front of / fronting) TATE (gallery) – we’ve come across the TATE galleries before in this series, another regular in cryptic crosswords – two in London, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, plus Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool.  We’ve also come across GI for US soldier.
12
Scottish banker gets to work in an intense way (6)
DEEPLY
charade of  DEE (Scottish banker) + (gets) PLY (to work)  –  Aberdeen is on the river Dee – and in cryptic crosswords banker is a regular descriptor of a river because they run through banks  (also flower, because they flow).   
15
Source of water in a healthy state (4)
WELL
double definition – lots of holy wells around the UK, both as names and actual sources of water.  
17
Vague leads for detectives in Met (3)
DIM
acrostic of (leads) of Detectives In Met – and the surface refers to the Metropolitan Police – the London police force.

 

29 comments on “Quick Cryptic 44 by Chandler”

  1. I agree about using/employment. Otherwise a good quick cryptic. Thanks Chandler and thanks Shanne for all the work you put in to blogging these.

  2. I had a couple of quibbles about this but you covered them, Shanne. My LOI was DEEPLY. As a non-Brit I knew from crosswords DEE is in UK but did not know it is in Scotland. Thanks for the tip on Aberdeen (that I do know where that is)

    No clues jump out as favourites.

    Thanks Chandler and Shanne

  3. @3 Martyn British kayakers/rafters are more likely to think of the River Dee that starts up in Snowdonia and ends in Liverpool Bay.

    12d I had a P crosser, so I was trying to make OP work for work.

    13a I’d put BLUE in (until I looked at 2d) which I think is a better answer.

  4. That was fun and Chandler helping us learn some of the less obvious vocab which comes up often in Crosswordland e.g. UP=ahead, river=banker=Dee, work=ply, anaesthetic=number

    My talkthrough solve is available at … https://youtu.be/QE6xAIes828 … which should give tips and tactics on how to approach the puzzle. Apologies for lots of ums and ers in the beginning – not quite awake!

  6. Well I was caught out by 9A because I had ‘numbed’. Now I can get most of the clues I am beginning to understand an anagrind, which has been mostly a mystery for me as there are so many different possibilities and approaches. I guess that’s what makes it puzzling!! I had no knowledge of the rivers meaning bankers so the explanations of answers are totally essential to my learning. Thanks for a fun crossword and its explanation.

  7. Very well clued and good level for the quick cryptics. I struggled with 12d, 9a and 15d even with crossers in place. For 9a and 12d it took ages to spot the definition. Enjoyable start to a Saturday, thanks Chandler. And thanks to Shanne for setting out the solutions so clearly.

  8. I think (although I’m not an expert) that 19A is known as a gerund… where a verb is used as a noun. I always think of “the leaving of Liverpool” as an example.

  9. cynickel @6 and MrsSandgrounder @9 – I agree that leaving works as a gerund, but I can’t find “using” as a gerund. My problem is that to replace using with employment in a sentence, say using a tool, the change becomes: employment of a tool. You need the extra of to make the sentence work.

    I’d be happier if the clue read “Use paid work” – because use does mean employment with both words as nouns, as in the use/employment of a tool. Although in that example of the clue, use is a verb, but that’s OK as part of cluing to mislead.

  10. Like some others I hadn’t come across BANKER denoting a river before so that’s one to note. Thought overall a decent QC. Thanks Shanne.

  11. I also found the same quibbles with the meaning of TONE and EMPLOYMENT, as opposed to ‘employing’.

    Never knew ‘banker’ meant river. Also first time I’ve come across ‘represented in’ and ‘struggling’ as anagrinds.

    My favourite was AGITATE, and I found the cluing very straightforward.

    Thank you Shanne for great blog and Chandler for an intro to cryptics.

  13. Agreed that TONE was on the obscure end for a double definition – but good practice for alphabet trawling with crossers!

    Your parsing is definitely correct, Shanne, but I’d read ‘groan about’ as ‘ARG + ON’ to get the same answer!

    Thanks, Shanne and Chandler.

  14. I agree that BLUE is as good an answer as TONE for 12a, so you need a crossing letter to decide which is correct. (Nothing wrong with that, it is a CROSSword after all.)

    Re unusual anagrinds: I sometimes think that setters worry that anagrams are too easy, so they try to hide them with deceptive anagrinds. One way to deal with this is to always look for an anagram, and if you find one, then look for the weird word or phrase that might possibly be the anagrind.

    Excellent QC and blog, Chandler and Shanne. From the comments I see here and in the Quiptic, Everyman and Monday Cryptics, I think these puzzles and Shanne’s blogs are doing their job, recruiting newcomers to this wonderful hobby.

  15. So which River Dee does the Miller of Dee live on–the one in England or the one in Scotland?

    In these things, a banker is always, always, ALWAYS a river. There are no famous literal bankers, and no synonyms for banker, so…always. Flower is trickier, since those are more often literally flowers than rivers (there being hundreds of well-known flowers).

    Also, to clip and save, here’s a short list of commonly seen bankers: Dee, Cam, Exe, Ouse, Ure, Po, Don. Rivers with longer names generally appear only as answers, not as bits and pieces of them. (Our American rivers are right out: imagine a setter trying to fit, say, Chattahoochee into a clue.)

  16. [I guess the Platte (a major tributary of the Missouri, mostly in Nebraska) has possibilities, as it’s almost all of the word PLATTER. And you could use the Red–which forms most of the border between Texas and Oklahoma–but there are so many more useful referents for that word that I doubt any setter would reach that far. Anyway, sorry for the digression.]

  17. mrpenney@16 – because the Miller of Dee was collected in Aberdeenshire I suspect the Scottish Dee – see Mainly Norfolk, which is where I’d start for checking to find out additional information for folk song – I know the Paul Sartin version, but I also know the Arrowsmiths as part of the Melrose Quartet.

    To your list of rivers, I’d add the Avon (there are several of those), Tees and Fal, also Isis (the Thames in Oxford). The Wye and Tweed turn up as a soundalikes and/or double definitions too.

  19. Very enjoyable, I thought 17d was on the tough side for a QC so well done to those who got it. I don’t think any of the three parts of the clue were the most obvious synonym.

    I learned that anaesthetic = number through cryptics but after all this time I never knew why. Absolutely kicking myself after this blog explained it to me.

    Thanks Chandler and Shanne

  20. mrpenney @16: I’d say that Rothschild is a famous banker, and Messrs Lloyd, Barclay and Nathaniel West count somehow, but that’s being picky – when it comes to crosswords, ‘banker’ = ‘river’. I won’t say ‘universally’ because I can’t vouch for every crossword clue ever, but I’m being very cautious there.

  21. Juandango @16 Nathaniel West as in the author? NatWest the bank gets its name from National Bank + Westminister Bank (at least according to Wikipedia).

    I think I’ve seen (Mervyn) King clued as banker before.

  22. Gerunds can function as nouns, albeit clunky ones:

    The employment of this service is subject to certain rules.

    The using of this service is subject to certain rules.

    Google’s Ngram viewer has instances of this.

  23. Festschrift @23 – any English teacher I’ve encountered would mark “The using of this service is subject to certain rules” down as incorrect. It should be “The use of this service …”. And those examples sound as if they’re created by AI or a bad translation program.

  24. Thanks for all the river prompts. So pleased with my progress and definitely getting the cryptic addiction after years of the Quick. Reading ‘Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose’ now.

  26. I checked through to the copyright pages of those books and found that the authors had copyright in Nigeria (the God’s Will book), Romania (I think that was the magnetic resonance for detection of mines) and South Korea/Japan (for the computing book), which I found interesting.

  27. Excellent QC. Well pitched and “gettable”. I had clocked banker meant river but as others had said the Dee I know is in North Walesish! Still, crossers gave it away.

    These have been well constructed over the last few weeks.

  28. I first tried to get my head round cryptic crosswords in lockdown, and while I got the hang of the basics, I struggled to find training-level puzzles I could actually complete, and mostly gave up. Now I’ve discovered Quick Cryptics, my solving and confidence has improved tenfold. What a fantastic resource, as is reading Shanne’s blog after each puzzle for any wordplay I’ve missed – this time I’d figured out 12d must be DEEPLY, but didn’t quite know why! Banker = river is a great trick.

    I finally feel ready to try out some Quiptics alongside the QCs and see if I can stretch my new skills further. Thanks Shanne and to all the brilliant QC setters so far.

  29. mrpenney@16, according to the sources I’ve checked the song is from the Chester area of NW England. That river Dee is arguably Welsh (Welsh Name: Afon Dyfrdwy) as it rises in the hills of Snowdonia, then forms part of the border between Wales and England and eventually flows through Chester.

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