Quick Cryptic 58 by Pangakupu

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This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian, intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here

We have another experienced setter experimenting with this format today. Pangakupu is a more recent addition to the Guardian crossword setters, joining in 2022, usually setting Cryptic crosswords with Maori Ninas and Genius puzzles, but has been setting for longer as Phi in the Independent and elsewhere. I couldn’t find that he has ever set a Quiptic puzzle. Today we have some familiar clue types, but only anagrams have all the letters present in the clue, the charades, reversals and “drop a letter” all need synonyms finding before the clue can be solved, and all have been met several times before.

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 blog continues to develop in response to suggestions. We hide the answers and the wordplay descriptions (parsing) too.   To find the solution click on “Answer” and to find how the word play works, click on “Parsing” which will reveal the hidden information. You can choose to reveal everything using the “Expand All” button. If you have partially revealed the page, refreshing it will clear that, and allow you to expand all. The definition is in bold and underlined, the indicator is in red.

For additional help click here

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

For abbreviations and clue tips click here

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.
  • CAPITALS to indicate which bits are part of the answer, e.g. (SENATOR)* for the anagram, haVE ALtered meat for the hidden clue
  • Anagrams – letters used are shown in brackets with an asterisk – so (SENATOR)* becomes TREASON
  • Anagram indicator / anagrind – in this case it’s “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.
  • deletions / drop a letter – the example given is of tRAIN and tells us which letter to remove – so to take a “t” (time away) from TRAIN (coach) to get RAIN (wet weather).
  • reversals to show letters being reversed we use the < symbol, so in the example given DOG < (pet) gives GOD (deity);
  • CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit. These are rare.
  • 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 here – because the clues have moved on from the clue descriptions below, I am now adding more to the descriptions hidden above.

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

  1. Dropped letter Remove a letter from another word:
    ‘Time away from coach in wet weather (4)’ gives tRAIN
  2. Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
    ‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON
  3. Charade Combination of synonyms/abbrevs
    ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
  4. Reversal The answer backwards, and a hint that we’re reversing
    ‘Deity’s pet coming back (3)’ gives GOD

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Clothes with odd design of minarets (8)
Answer

RAIMENTS
Parsing

anagram of (MINARETS)* with anagrind of “with odd design”

6
Abused free returns (7)
Answer

REVILED
Parsing

reversal (returns) of DELIVER (free) < where to free / deliver someone from their sins (in religious language) is what comes to mind.

7
Lived and observed with reflection (3)
Answer

WAS
Parsing

reversal (with reflection) of SAW (observed) < to give one of the forms of the verb “to be” which is often used to mean “live” in crosswordland
9
Hard sources of wood for ship steering systems (5)
Answer

HELMS
Parsing

charade of H (hard – as in pencil grades) + ELMS (sources of wood) – although my thought was elm trees were pretty much killed off in England by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s-1980, so not much chance of using them for wood now, having walked past the remnants of an avenue of elms last week. Adding later helms are the people steering as well steering apparatus.

10
Friend, with some hesitation, looking less healthy? (5)
Answer

PALER
Parsing

charaade of PAL (friend) with ER (some hesitation) – hesitations in crosswordlands tend to be “er” or “um”
11
Live in reverse for a time (3)
Answer

ERA
Parsing

reversal (in reverse) of ARE (live) – another version of the “to be” verb being defined as “live”. The grammar here helps, with the “for” telling us that the synonym for “live” is what is reversed to give an answer meaning “a time”.
12
Was lazy: walked furtively, second to go (5)
Answer

IDLED
Parsing

drop a letter / deletion of S (second to go – s as in the SI unit meaning second) from sIDLED (walked furtively)
14
Georgia encountering the French winds (5)
Answer

GALES
Parsing

charade of GA (Georgia – abbreviation for the American state) + LES (the French – plural “the” in French) – in French there are three versions of “the”, feminine (la), masculine (le) and plural (les) – and all turn up in crosswordland.
16
Old Queen ditching King for a month (3)
Answer

MAY
Parsing

drop a letter / deletion (ditching King) of R (for Rex, but could be K from chess as different abbreviations for “king”) from MArY with a choice of two old Queens (assuming Queens by birth, not as married to kings) – either Mary Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VIII or from the Stuarts, William and MARY
17
Aintree upset apprentice (7)
Answer

TRAINEE
Parsing

anagram of (AINTREE)* with anagrind of “upset”

18
Quantity of wood, large quantity, for marine life (8)
Answer

PLANKTON
Parsing

charade of PLANK (quantity of wood) + TON (large quantity)
DOWN
1 Merrymaking in bar taken the wrong way (5)
Answer

REVEL
Parsing

reversal (taken the wrong way) of LEVER (bar) <

2
Sadly sullied, mistreated (3-4)
Answer

ILL-USED
Parsing

anagram of (SULLIED)* with anagrind of “sadly”.
3
Stop male abandoning repair (3)
Answer

END
Parsing

drop a letter / deletion of M (male abandoning – M for male removed) from mEND(repair)
4
Garden tool not right as bathroom item (5)
Answer

TOWEL
Parsing

drop a letter / deletion R (not right) away from TrOWEL (garden tool)
5
Unusual charisma is an old-world concept (8)
Answer

ARCHAISM
Parsing

anagram of (CHARISMA)* with anagrind of “unusual”

8
Emphasised puddings must be served up (8)
Answer

STRESSED
Parsing

reversal (served up – in a down clue) of DESSERTS (puddings) < – which is so well known it turns up on greetings cards.
10
Servant leading soldier, perhaps, in parade (7)
Answer

PAGEANT
Parsing

charade of PAGE (servant) + (leading) ANT (soldier, perhaps). “Ant perhaps” as it’s a definition by example, a possible soldier. Ants are regularly soldiers in cryptic crosswords, when they are not workers (with bees).

13
Reliable alloy melted (5)
Answer

LOYAL
Parsing

anagram of (ALLOY)* with anagrind of “melted”
15
Caricature of Lenin in underwear (5)
Answer

LINEN
Parsing

anagram of (LENIN)* with anagrind of “caricature” – both using more unusual synonyms – back before the ubiquity of lycra and before that elastic, underwear was made from cotton and before that linen – having handled that weight of linen, it’s very fine, almost transparent, but handkerchief weight. (My daughter experimented with making a linen shirt as was worn for many years, using linen thread.)
17
Women leaving sibling preserve (3)
Answer

TIN
Parsing

drop a letter / deletion W (women leaving – W as an abbreviation for Women as in WI) TwIN (sibling) – TINS have been used for a surprisingly long time to preserve food (canning in the USA)

 

 

30 comments on “Quick Cryptic 58 by Pangakupu”

  1. In what context does H stand for Hard? Couldn’t figure out how to parse 16A at all, above explanation doesn’t really help much…
    OTOH, 17A caused me similar grief, but was obvious once explained (the word “twin” didn’t occur to me…)

  2. I enjoyed this puzzle. The grid gave helpful crossers for some of the trickier clues and there were a good number of anagrams too. Underwear isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think of linen but it made for a good surface and google reveals that linen underwear is still very much a thing. Interested to hear that your daughter used linen to make a shirt Shanne, imagine it was challenging to work with. Thanks for the puzzle Pangakupu and the as ever excellent blog Shanne.

  3. Dylan@1 H = hard on pencils, HB hard black etc.
    I was held up by not being able to spell raiment!
    Thanks Pan and Shanne

  4. The hardest Quick Cryptic so far, I think. I found the dropped letter clues challenging though I got there in the end. It will be a useful clue type to bear in mind when I attempt the full on cryptics. Thanks, Shanne.

  5. Dylan N@1. 16a requires us to think of a 4 letter old Queen (Mary, if you know your queens, or look up a list) and then delete the letter R for Rex/King which gives MAY, the month. If this is new to you, it’s part of the cryptic arsenal, and something to store away for the future.

    If Rex (R) for king is unfamiliar, I suggest looking it up.

  6. [BTW Dylan N@1. I’m an Aussie and I didn’t know me queens and kings and a lot of this stuff when I was starting out. It’s just part of the language I had to learn to join in the cryptic fun, along with football (soccer), and military and chess and biblical abbreviations. I did know something about cricket. 🙂 )

  7. Found this tricky despite the handy distribution of anagrams. Reversal and letter drops are not my favourite clue types so good to get some practice. Enjoyable puzzle despite my initial struggles. Thanks Pangakupu for the grid and Shanne for your blog page.

  8. I totally agree with @Amma. Found all the new style clues hard so explanations essential as usual. Still don’t understand why soldiers is ‘perhaps ANT’. Also confused by SECOND TO GO. The letter is the first one so how do I know that it’s just s for second?? I was amused by 18A when I finally got it. Completed the whole but very puzzled still….. thanks both.

  9. Mary@8. “Perhaps” is one of the ways of indicating a ”definition by example”, as Shanne says in her blog. It’s just cryptic code.

    There are soldier ants, a kind of ant.

    S is a standard abbreviation for “second”, but ”second” could also clue ”mo” , ”tick”, or other words that mean a short time.

  10. Thanks Pangakupu and Shanne
    Isn’t “raiment” plural by itself – clothes, clothing, garments etc.? I don’t think I’ve ever seen RAIMENTS before.

  11. Good one. (I could have sworn ‘helm’ was the pointy bit at front of a ship, but glad to be corrected!)

  13. Very entertaining. Some clever reversals with STRESSED quite brilliant

    I would not call a PLANK a quantity of wood nor a helm a steering system, so those clues needed some crossers to solve

    Thanks to setter and Shanne

  14. Thanks Paddymelon@9. Very helpful. I had totally forgotten that soldier ants existed. (Despite them coming in a neat line from outdoors to the jam cupboard when I was little) thanks for the info about S as well

  16. I found this quick cryptic crossword too hard and very off putting. Even with using Fifteen Squared I found many of the explanations very convoluted. Not a fan, Pangakupu – sorry.

  17. You actually get your choice of Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, and Mary of Teck, Queen Consort to George V (she died in 1953 so is still in living memory, so might not count as “old”). I was surprised to learn that the list of Queens Consort named Mary was as short as just one!

    I agree with George Nixon @15: the surfaces of many of these clues are silky-smooth, and there’s a lot to admire here. The anagram of “sullied” for ILL-USED is particularly nice. STRESSED DESSERTS is a chestnut, but there’s a first time for everyone; and this is the perfect forum for a chestnut, since it’ll be the first time for a majority of the target audience!

  18. Oh, I missed that James II was married to a Mary (of Modena). Also two other Queens Consort of Scotland during the 1500s.

  19. Failed to complete 1D, 3D and 6A even though I had managed to parse them correctly. Once I got the answer for 6A here I was able to complete the rest. Last two QCs definitely feel harder than previous ones.

  20. Not everyone’s favourite setter;I’ve seen some of his works on regular cryptics.Managed to solve most,but admittedly was a difficult one.

  21. I am very new to cryptic crosswords and find the Quick Cryptic and the explanations given by Shanne very useful and educational. So ‘old chestnuts’ are a first for me 🙂

    I only revealed one word (17d) and am beginning to understand better the Charade clues. Dropped Letter are still very challanging for me.

  22. My first ever complete with no checking or guessing. A couple that I couldn’t fully parse but I feel like I’m finally getting there. Thanks setter and Shane.

  23. I’ve gone through and clarified anything that looks as if it was causing confusion – apologies, I was not doing my usual post this overnight, but posting first thing in the morning.

    Amanda @2 – linen is lovely to sew with – the more interesting things were the old techniques that look very like some of the current zero waste ideas – all squares, oblongs or strips, so not wasting any fabric. The nice trick is adding diamond gussets underarm to allow movement (which is something the zero waste guys haven’t picked up on that I’ve seen, and next time I use my favourite zero waste pattern I may add to that pattern to use up a square that’s intended as a pocket and I usually don’t bother adding).

    Well done to Teapotter @22, Marzipan @21 for your achievements – it’s satisfying when you get there, isn’t it?

    muffin @10 – according to Chambers raiment is archaic or poetic for clothing – but digging around on t’Internet, raiments is allowed, equally archaic, but reported in the OED.

    Sorry, yesterday was busy as we were running a stall at the local May Fair – an annual event – which was rather more chaotic than usual as we all put 3 May in our diaries last year, to find when the date was announced it was happening on 10 May – blame the 80th anniversary of VE day, so all the usual people to run this were otherwise engaged and I drew the short straw, with amazing help from a couple of others. So I spent yesterday running a hook-a-duck and splat-a-rat stall next to the coconut shy, trying to recruit more willing volunteers.

  24. I mentioned last week I was unable to complete QC 57 and had to come here for explanations for 8(!) clues. Glad to say I was able to complete this week’s puzzle just now – I’d left three clues overnight that had foiled me (10D, 14A,15D) but with some assistance from my partner, just sussed them out.

  25. Shanne@23 The May Fair sounds fun. Thanks so much for all your explanations here. I found this one challenging but have acquired some good tips and knowledge for the future.
    Thanks for all the time you must spend doing these explanations.

  26. I put ‘tan’ for 17 down (a way of preserving a hide) but (unsurprisingly) could not parse it. Twin did not occur. I am not sure that ‘tinning’ is really used to describe the preserving process even in English English? I got May for 16A but was unable to parse it. did not think of ‘R’ for ditched King! An enjoyable crossword.

  27. Jonathan – according to Chambers (95), a long way down, tin as a verb means to pack (eg food) in tins for preservation, which is how I read the clue, and why I didn’t quibble.

    R is for Rex as in GRII – Georgius Rex II, CRIII – Carolus Rex III, and etc – for king in Latin is a regular in crosswordland. (There’s also R for Regina, meaning queen, which is why we had ERII on everything for 70 years.) The other abbreviation for king that gets used regularly is K from chess.

  28. Jonathan @26
    You may not have come across “tin” as a verb, but I’m fairly confident that you will have eaten “tinned food”!

  30. Very difficult. I’m with Kathleen. Too many things that I don’t seem to have learnt yet despite doing these from the beginning. A bit gutting. 😔

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