Guardian Quiptic 1,329/Harpo

45 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,329/Harpo”

1. Thanks Harpo and Pierre
   Yes, not a Quiptic, especially UNRELATED and PADDINGTON BEAR. I needed the explanation for the ED in the former, and I’m not totally convinced it works.

2. Lots of that felt above my level and not what I want to face on a sunny Sunday morning.

   Had no idea about why COLT other than it’s a young animal and I could see L=left and COTs are baby related. NHO ENTRETOP or OVERJOY (although I know transport can be related to elation/joy). RAW=cruel seems obscure, JELLY for explosive is very obscure unless you’re working with the stuff regularly (“hand me the jelly Ron”)

   Moans aside, I’m happy to have got through it with just TeSTERS mistake – I’m sure there was an ASTER/ESTER clue in the last month in either the Quiptic or Everyman. Harpo delivered a real test for the Quiptic slot.

3. Thanks Harpo and Pierre. With the exception of ‘raw’ for ‘cruel’, I thought that it was a fun puzzle. It was much harder than I was expecting, probably not great given the target audience.

   I didn’t understand COLT, but now you have explained it, I really like the clue. I agree that it should not be in a beginner’s crossword.

   I had never heard of an entrepot. I have one more useless word in my head. A Sunday win.

4. I muddled through this somehow but some of the parsing escaped me completely. I still don’t understand where the D E in 10a comes from. In 14a I was trying to build an answer round UCU (the universities’ union). I recognise ‘affray’ as meaning a scuffle but not ‘fray’ though it is in the dictionary. Never heard of ENTREPOT. All in all, quite hard – don’t know how I managed it really! I didn’t reveal any but did a great deal of guess and check.

5. COLT was similar to Vlad’s clue for FACE CARDS in his Prize of 3rd May, where “drivers at first suitably placed” planted the initial D for ‘drivers’ inside CARS and so ‘suitably placed’. I am not the Quiptic’s target solver, but that did strike me as perhaps bafflingly oblique. I will be interested to see how those graduating from the QC found that clue and the puzzle overall if they did not immediately run for cover.

6. Amma @4

   The D and E come from the end (“ultimately”) of “and” and “live” (“both ultimately”) for “and live, both ultimately”.

7. What a clumsy word SOBERER is. Wouldn’t one say “more sober”? Doesn’t make it wrong of course.🤷

8. Well yes it wasn’t that easy but then ever since wotsisname took over as editor the whole what’s-easy/hard-on-which-days thing has gone to pot, so I wasn’t surprised.
   I liked DOORKNOB, ATHENS and the misdirection in PADDINGTON BEAR (I’ve never cared for Fleming’s stuff, so spent a while wondering about villains or implausibly-named females, before the penny dropped).
   Thank you Pierre and Harpo

9. Finished with a shrug, as I found that far too difficult for the quiptic slot. Whereas I can usually adjust my approach and enjoy the puzzle regardless of miscategorisation, then I just found this a bit of a frustrating experience.

10. I enjoyed this but as others have said it was very tough for a Quiptic and would have not looked out of place as a weekday Cryptic. The QC / Quiptic categories have been very hit and miss in difficulty level the last few weeks. Picaroon is much missed.

11. NHO “entrepot” but the clue is clean could google the term after guessing different (potter)* candidates.

    My nominal level is quiptic but I found this a trickier than usual e.g. multi word clues, and did not understand parsing for some. Favourite clue is 11a,12a (Paddington Bear).

    Thanks Pierre and Harpo.

12. AR@6 – thanks, I get it. I thought there had to be some reason for ‘live’ being there.

13. I like Harpo’s style but this was a very good cryptic, period. I liked the clever COLT, PADDINGTON BEAR, YOUNG PRETENDER, CLOSE SEASON, FIRE DEPARTMENT and NARCOTICS AGENT. I agree that cruel and raw is a massive stretch.

    Ta Harpo & Pierre.

14. This was really difficult to do,just as difficult as the daily cryptics.Transport as overjoyed?,now that’s a word nobody would use in their daily interactions.

15. Thanks Harpo and Pierre.

    I think a lot of the clues here were too loose to be satisfactory. 1a, 9a, 10a and 6d as mentioned above don’t seem all there. I kind of shrug my shoulders at the CDs at 25a and 17d. I think if 21a were ‘US Brigade’ rather than ‘US fighters’ it would be more fitting.

    While I appreciate the care taken to place multiple two-part clues over the same line, I’d personally advise against it with the beginners in mind as it gives less opportunities to get a foothold and put crossers on the board. If you don’t twig the Michael Bond misdirection or know who the Young Pretender at Culloden was, it makes life much harder.

    FWIW I got the whole way there, but on another day, I could see myself getting quite annoyed at this one.

16. [The use of the word transport in the sense of OVERJOY, always makes me think of this transport of delight.
    For all fans of Flanders & Swan]

17. Great fun, some clever clues but it was far from being a Quiptic. Some difficult wordplay with sneaky definitions. I really think in these puzzles you should limit needing to do multiple types of wordplay in the same clue. Other than Vlad’s offering on Friday which took quite a while this was no quicker solved than any of last weeks cryptics. I think this would have got a great reception if published tomorrow.

    Liked COLT and PADDINGTON BEAR though and the puzzle as a whole.

    The Quiptic’s difficulty varies so much they really should just rebrand it as the Sunday Cryptic. I’m not sure how publications like the Times manage to pitch their Quick Cryptic right most of the time despite publishing one six times a week yet the Guardian struggles with just one on a Sunday.

    Thanks Harpo and Pierre

18. I don’t get EA in the explanation for 18 across. Is that a standard abbreviation for “each?”

19. More difficult than I would have liked, with many wordy clues and references I did not know. I found the SE corner most slow going

    Why would cockney consumers like JELLIED EEL, for example? And what is the function of “lowercase” in ATHENS, as another?

    Thanks Harpo and Pierre

20. Thanks Pierre. Too many clues testing the limits of my knowledge I think so I left this one unhappily half solved.

    I’m still not seeing how ‘Several deliveries given’ leads to OVER in 1A?

21. Prondle @20

    In cricket a “delivery” is a ball from a bowler to a batter. An “over” is 6 deliveries. Each bowler bowls an over at a time.

    Gawd cricket is not easy to explain… 🙁

22. Frogman @18 – yes, EA is a standard abbreviation for each – often seen on price tags.

    Prondle @20 – an over is six balls in cricket and each ball is a delivery or delivered – in cricket jargon – don’t ask me why, my cricket knowledge comes from my cryptic crossword habit.

    Martin @19 – JELLIED EELS are definitely an East End / Cockney delicacy, which I am willing to leave for the aficionados to enjoy. I have tried them – I like smoked eel, which cuts through the richness of the flesh – but in jellied eels the cold fish jelly, to my taste, adds nothing to that dish, although I love soused / pickled herring, which is also an acquired taste. I think there’s still a pie and mash shop in Chrisp Street market, Poplar (very much where the Call the Midwife books are set) that sells jellied eels, otherwise I can think of others in Wanstead and further out into Essex. But they are getting rare, the East Enders I know like being told where their favoured dish can still be found.

    Thank you to Harpo and Pierre for the crossword and blog.

23. Shanne @22: The Bush Pie and Mash and Liquor restaurant on the Uxbridge Rd, is very popular with QPR fans in Shepherds Bush, far from the East End, although I imagine it probably originated from there.

24. Is this April Fool’s Day? A puzzle for beginners?

    I am a real moaner at times, but I cannot solve any clues at all, and I don’t have a “way in” for any of them. 3 sittings for me. Nothing.

    Am I allowed to say this is monstrously above the level it should be pitched at?

    Rant over.

25. @24 It was definitely above the level I’m used to for a quiptic, with some specialised knowledge needed and woolly logic in the clueing. I wouldn’t get too wound up about it though. It’s only a bit of fun, and I learned something today. And I’ve got a good backlog of puzzles to tide me over till next week.

26. I’m very much with Steffen here and also Pierre who called it out as taking them too long with some stretchy clues.
    Took me an age. Far too many guesses from crossers and the definitions and no clue as to how to get there.

    The tin says “For beginners and those in a hurry”. Ronseal would be sued for this one. However, I am unsure if this was the Setters fault or if the Editor decided it would make a good Quiptic so will reserve judgement.

    Thank you Pierre. Harpo too.

27. Steffen
    As someone who happily does the Guardian Prize and the Maskarade specials, I absolutely agree with you. I come to a Quiptic with an expectation of being able to solve it without difficulty. This caused me headaches, not least because of that expectation. I kept on looking for the relatively easy answers, only to discover that they didn’t exist.
    Sorry, Harpo, but your editor let you down here by putting this in the Quiptic slot (IMVHO).

28. Regarding 9a, ‘Raw’ would = Cruel in the sense of a Raw Deal?

    Definitely trickier than normal. I didn’t even try to parse some of them, it hurt my head XD

29. Nothing wrong with this one, and I enjoyed it – but it wasn’t a Quiptic. CO(L)T in particular was a device well above the Quiptic’s pay grade.

30. I think 21/22 is probably referring to the fact that here in the US the people who work in the fire department and race out in the red engines are called “fire fighters”. (Used to be “firemen”, but these days they need something gender-neutral.)

31. In 20d, “lowercase” appears redundant (except, possibly, to misdirect). Is this acceptable?

32. I thought so, AR. Makes for a good surface.

33. Not a Quiptic. Unhappy with 10 and 7d is not a storehouse but an area where storehouses holding import/expert goods are to be found. Gave up at that point.

34. Very hard to justify this as Quiptic. I think a beginner (as I was this time last year having just started on the Saturday QCs and had started to try the Quiptics as a stretch exercise) would be running for the hills, and it took ages to complete – so not for someone in a hurry. Persevered and agree there’s some very neat clues. I liked many of the multi word clues and got most of them eventually although CLOSE SEASON wordplay eluded me apart from SON until seeing the explanation here. I felt DOORKNOB and LINE JUDGE were more quiz-like than cryptic definition but CDs are not my favourite clue type anyway. Thanks Pierre for clearing some things up for me. And thanks Harpo for the somewhat brutal mind game LOL 😂

35. Shanne @22 Thank you for the explanation.

36. Loose clueing, oblique definitions, clues across several entries.

    None of these make for a Quiptic.

    This definitely wasn’t my style, so I would have found it a sticky wicket for a weekday. But honestly, this just wasn’t fun as a developing solver. PADDINGTON BEAR has a lot going on for a Quiptic anyway without the ‘Bond character’ misdirection. SOBERER isn’t a word that fills you with a joy of recognition. Lots of very wordy definitions – NARCOTICS AGENT a particular offender but some other excessive circumlocutions too – JELLIED EEL too.

    Not Harpo’s fault – it’s very good as a medium to tougher end crossword. But how does the editor let this be a Quiptic? Quality control failure there.

37. Fine for me, but 6d is ridiculous for a quiptic.

38. I am one who ran for cover. After a year of QCs I thoroughly enjoy them, and generally finish the Quiptics after a couple of sessions. But this..! I came to fifteen squared to be educated, but although I am in awe of those who win through, it’s like turning up at Junior school and finding yourself sitting a BSc exam.

39. I finally gave up on the last few and came here for the answers. I enjoyed parts of that, but overall I think I’d advise past me to use that time on something else.

    I agree with Tachi @15 Having a very difficult set of clues combined with the reduced number of chances (since three just read “see x”) felt like being kicked when down.

40. Managed this finally with just one reveal for overjoy. Awesome puzzle, but I wouldn’t mind a quiptic for next Sunday.

41. Pierre @32

    Thank you! That’s helpful.

42. Enjoyed it, though agree it’s a bit beyond Quiptic. Slightly delayed by having LOUT for the young animal left sleeping like a baby. Cruel/raw wind perhaps?

43. This one just about made me give up on cryptics. It has taken me a week and I only finished the last few by going to an online solver that suggests words that will fit the crossers.
    So I am really happy to read that this was hard, and it’s not that my brain has just stopped working after a recent illness.

44. What is wrong is the definition of quiptic as being for beginners and those in a hurry. I’m neither a beginner nor in a hurry but I do enjoy a puzzle that can be done in a coffee break without recourse to a dictionary. This wasn’t one.

45. We enjoyed this one, but definitely at the harder end. It took a number of goes over several days. Still, we don’t do the daily quiptics, so it’s good to be stretched from time to time. I had to read the explanation of COLT twice just to understand the explanation…….. And I got JELLIED EEL but didn’t parse the clue correctly. It does help to have been born in the fifties – there’s often reasonably old vocabulary.

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