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Thank you to Anto. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Difficulty opposing what’s upfront? (8)
DOWNSIDE : DOWN(opposing “up”) + SIDE(opposing/instead of “front”).
5. Shuts down shabby stores Scotsman has in centre (6)
ABORTS : Middle 2 letters, respectively, of(… has in centre) “shabby stores Scotsman”
9. Heavy drinkers they say are quite rich (8)
LUSCIOUS : Homophone of(… they say) “lushes”(heavy drinkers).
10. Being a bit pious, a blessing can work (6)
USABLE : Hidden in(Being a bit) “pious, a blessing”.
12. Starting out, vandal expects real trouble, that’s clear (5)
OVERT : 1st letters, respectively, of(Starting) “out, vandal expects real trouble”.
13. Price regulations Spooner said have no hope (4,5)
LOST CAUSE : Spoonerism(… Spooner said) “cost(price) + laws(regulations).
Defn: An objective that is hopeless.
14. Unsaddle foal bucking around without warning (3,2,1,6)
ALL OF A SUDDEN : Anagram of(… bucking around) UNSADDLE FOAL.
18. Unofficial book for everyone showing where the public can’t swim (7,5)
PRIVATE BEACH : PRIVATE(unofficial/having no public role, as in “private dick”) + B(abbrev. for “book”) + EACH(for every one/individually).
21. Wolverine perhaps making our sheep restless around river (9)
SUPERHERO : Anagram of(making … restless) OUR SHEEP containing(around) R(abbrev. for “river”).
Defn: An example of which/perhaps is:
23. Meticulous old deed (5)
EXACT : EX-(prefix signifying something old) + ACT(deed/something done).
24. Expanding state benefit by two days is an easy task (6)
DODDLE : DOLE(state benefit viz. unemployment benefit) containing(Expanding …. by) DD(2 x abbrev. for “day”).
25. Select fish for preserving (8)
PICKLING : PICK(select/choose) + LING(a long-bodied edible marine fish).
A typical result:
26. Most reluctant to give positive response in bed (6)
COYEST : YES(positive response) contained in(in) COT(a small bed).
27. Useless criminal sheds load, dumping heroin (8)
DEADLOSS : Anagram of(criminal) [ “sheds load” minus(dumping) “h”(abbrev. for “heroin”) ].
Down
1. Earth cover lifted revealing some stimulating objects (6)
DILDOS : Reversal of(… lifted, in a down clue) [ SOD(earth/turf) + LID(cover for the top of a container) ].
Defn: Sexually ….
2. Son immersed in drink is good for nothing (6)
WASTER : S(abbrev. for “son”) contained in(immersed in) WATER(an essential drink).
Anwser: A good-for-nothing.
3. Trace crime farmer reported (9)
SCINTILLA : Homophone of(… reported) [ “sin”(a crime/an offence) + “tiller”(a farmer, one who tills/prepares land for crop cultivation) ].
4. Unloved, obese revolutionary is a lethal agent (6-1,5)
DOUBLE-O SEVEN : Anagram of(… revolutionary) UNLOVED, OBESE.
Defn: Reference to …, viz. the fictional James Bond, from his code number 007, a licence to kill.
6. Graduate, as presented, is pretty ordinary (5)
BASIC : BA(abbrev. for “Bachelor of Arts”, a university graduate) + SIC(used to signify that words are copied or quoted as is/as represented).
7. Comes back with note on limits (8)
REBOUNDS : RE(note on the sol-fa music scale) placed above(on, in a down clue) BOUNDS(limits/boundaries).
8. Embarrassing display by United in passage of play (5,3)
SCENE ONE : SCENE(an embarrassing public display/outburst of anger) plus(by) ONE(united/as a single unit).
Defn: The first ….
11. Keep out of sight and dodge bill (6,6)
ESCAPE NOTICE : ESCAPE(to dodge/evade) + NOTICE(a displayed sheet giving news or information/ a bill).
15. The solution has four such letters – that’s not verified (9)
UNCHECKED : Descriptive of the 4 letters where the solution to this particular clue does not intersect with any across solutions in the grid.
16. Broadcast is copied in sequence (8)
EPISODIC : Anagram of(Broadcast) IS COPIED.
17. Flat casually put together in a bright way (8)
LIMPIDLY : LIMP(without energy/flat) plus(… put together) IDLY(in a purposeless/informal or casual way).
Defn: …/clearly.
19. Have a go at trendy old Italian snack (6)
PANINO : PAN(to criticise/have a go at) + IN(trendy/in fashion) + O(abbrev. for “old”).
An Italian snack:
20. Extremely smart acting enlivens where it’s performed (6)
STAGES : 1st and last letters, respectively, of(Extremely) “smart acting enlivens”.
Defn: …, ie. on which actors perform.
22. Force abandoning weapons causes annoyance (5)
RILES : “f”(abbrev. for “force” in physics) deleted from(abandoning) “rifles”(weapons, in this case, guns with a long barrel discharging bullets).
It took me a while to get there – NW corner in particular took a bit of thought.
Plenty of nice surfaces. I liked SUPERHERO and LOST CAUSE (a rare spoonerism that works!).
A few questions: is DEADLOSS really a single word? In 17, does “in a bright way” really mean “clearly”? And who writes “DOUBLE O SEVEN”?
Thanks Anto and scchua
Up until now I wasn’t aware that ‘broadcast’ could be an anagram indicator, I’ve only encountered it as a homophone indicator. We live and learn
Can’t say I enjoyed this. I completed all of Monday to Friday’s cryptics this week, with my usual guess and check method but I’m completely stuck on half a dozen clues today. What identifies a quiptic as such? I’m interested in the parsing of 20d, STAGES. I read it as an anagram of ‘sagest’, meaning ‘extremely smart’, with ‘acting’ as the anagrind (given that almost anything can be an anagrind, it seems) but scchua’s explanation is more straightforward! Maybe I’m overcomplicating things.
Thanks Anto and scchua
Good to see a proper singular PANINO!
I too have never seen DEAD LOSS as one word. Looks like an error.
Amma@3, your idea for “sagest” would be an “indirect” or “ghost” anagram. In other words “think of a synonym and then make an anagram of that word”. This is thought of as unfair as there are simply too many possibilities for the solver to work through, so you won’t see it in any mainstream puzzle.
As for anagram indicators, they must tell the solver to rearrange the letters of text within the clue, so it’s not a case of anything goes. My favourite list of acceptable anagram indicators is here which is perhaps worth a browse.
Hope that helps.
I’m confused by this. I thought the Quiptic was now taking up the slot left by Everyman’s departure, but this puzzle seems like a regular Cryptic to me. I don’t even recognise the traditional quick clue style of the regular Quiptic here.
After a quick scan through, I only got two clues and decided to move on. On that basis, I’d say Imogen’s regular Cryptic on Friday was much easier!
I really don’t think that LUSCIOUS and lushes are soundalikes, though perhaps I can forgive Anto on this occasion as he used PANINO correctly.
I don’t have Chambers but I checked Collins online and it has 27ac / DEAD LOSS as two words not one.
Thanks Jay@5. I get what you say but from my limited experience of cryptic crosswords (a year doing only those in The Guardian), I’m not convinced setters always abide by these (unwritten) rules. Anyway, I see that my parsing was wrong and scchua’s makes perfect sense.
Totally baffled by all of this.
Max@6 I agree that the Friday crossword was much easier than today’s Quiptic!
Jay@5 I followed your link to the list of possible anagrinds. There are 958 (including ‘acting’)! Maybe I’ll take up knitting instead to keep me amused.
Liked DOWNSIDE, DODDLE, SCINTILLA, DOUBLE-O-SEVEN, ESCAPE NOTICE and STAGES.
Beginners and relatively newer solvers must have found this somewhat tough, I think.
Thanks Anto for the puzzle. Thank scchua for your ever-enchanting and enlightening blog.
A few observations:
LUSCIOUS
I’m not sure ‘are’ (the link word) works in cryptic grammar.
LOST CAUSE
Looks like there’s a part of speech mismatch between the def and the solution.
Does it work if we take the def as ‘no hope’? Not sure.
DEAD LOSS vs DEADLOSS (as others have said)
Also, the def is an adjective, but the solution is a noun. Am I right?
Fran@2
Broadcast in the sense of ‘scatter’ is used as an anagrind (well, not that regularly).
I have Chambers as an app on my phone, and that has dead loss as two words.
This was slow and steady for me, with the NW giving me the most trouble. I agree with ARhymerOinks @7 that LUSCIOUS (my LOI) doesn’t really work.
I’d mixed up the definition and wordplay indicator in 16d but it still seemed to work in my mind.
Thanks to Anto and sccahua.
I’m with those who found this at the level of a normal cryptic, with some entertaining clues, as is always the way with Anto, who does set out of the box most of the time. (It’s why I don’t think he’s a good fit for the Quiptic).
If I’d been blogging I would have quibbled about LIMPIDLY being clued as “in a bright way”; limpid, according to Chambers means clear or transparent, which isn’t the same as bright – which is defined as: shining, full of light, clear, cheerful, vivacious, clever, illustrious, hopeful, having good prospects. I’m with those who didn’t think LUSCIOUS sounds like “lushes” – I’d say lush – us and Chambers agrees. Chambers also has DEAD LOSS as two words
Amma @12 – we’ve had 172 different anagram indicators in the first 53 Quick Cryptic puzzles (I need to add the information in for the last 6 puzzles).
Thank you to scchua and Anto
LUSCIOUS
If we consider lushers instead of lushes, does it get any better?
Yet another Quiptic that really wasn’t that easy. It was perfectly ok as a crossword, but in the wrong day – if the “easier Sunday” thing still exists, that is, which I doubt.
When I was starting out, Quiptics & Mondays were all I could manage; as I grew more practised I took to treating Quiptics as a pleasant way to relax on a lazy Sunday morning.
These days they’re often just as tricky as the weekday offerings and heaven knows how beginners cope. Perhaps they just give up and try other pastimes. My heart went out to Steffen last week; maybe the poor chap is already seeking alternative intellectual entertainment.
I liked OVERT, ABORTS and (yay – singular!) PANINO.
I agree with Muffin @4 and others: DEAD LOSS is two words.
Thank you scchua for the blog and Anto for the challenge.
Feels reassuring to see that others found this more cryptic than quiptic, over on the site itself I seemed to be in a minority judging by the other comments. There have been times lately when I’ve been wondering if my solving capabilities generally are actually getting worse.
I’m sorry to disagree with so many of my esteemed fellow-commenters, but I really did not feel that this was anywhere close to a midweek cryptic in terms of challenge/difficulty. But hey, what do I know? I probably am not in the Quiptic’s target solving demographic, but, having renounced Everyman, it is all I have to exercise me on a Sunday morning. It certainly didn’t have anything akin to last week’s COLT, on which I commented at the time.
Me too, Balfour @19 – it’s this or nothing for me on Sundays – but I suspect a fair number wouldn’t consider this Quiptic a crossword that’s easily or quickly solved…
Don’t be sorry, Balfour @19! It’s always going to be subjective to some degree, and good to know that for some people it’s hit the spot.
[Balfour @19 – I’ve just checked the midweek cryptics last week, and because I solve on the app, I have solving times, which is a sort of comparison. I solved Philistine quickest and quicker than this, by around 5 minutes. Then looking at the other puzzles, I solved the Imogen, Paul, Harpo, Brummie and Brendan’s Prize within a couple of minutes difference of each other one way or another and about the same time as this one. (I’m not including this week’s Kite because I solved it twice and still had the original on my app.) I solved last week’s Harpo Quiptic faster than both the Philistine and this puzzle.
I reckon to solve what I think fits the Quiptic brief significantly faster than the midweek Cryptics – which happens when Carpathian, Pasquale, Picaroon or Matilda set, not that Picaroon or Matilda are setting Quiptics any more.]
Anto’s Quiptics are routinely harder than the slot requires, though anyone who found Friday’s Imogen easier has my respect! My rather elderly Chambers only has DEAD LOSS as two words: I don’t think anybody has found a one-word example yet, so it’s probably an error.
No, LUSCIOUS doesn’t quite work for me either, and I don’t think “side” is the opposite of “front” in 1a. People are complaining about UNCHECKED on the Guardian thread, but I can’t see why: I liked it along with SUPERHERO, DOUBLE O SEVEN and ALL OF A SUDDEN, and Anto’s trademark insides and outsides clues in ABORTS and STAGES.
Re anagram indicators: of course the list is long, since setters are always coming up with new ones. So it’s absolutely not worth memorizing a list of them, or even trying!
They will always be words in one of the following categories:
1. Adverbs, adjectives or phrases suggesting confusion or disorder (e.g., unusually, oddly, confused, puzzling, broken)
2. Verbs directing you to put something into disorder or rearrangement (e.g. chop, reform (read as re-form), broadcast (think sowing seeds for that one), spread, juggle, etc.)
3. Nouns like “salad” or “shambles” that apply to something that has been rearranged. Some people on here disapprove of these, but if used carefully, I think they can make sense.
4. Instead of confusion or disorder, they might stretch that to “error,” which is I guess a different category (words like “wrong” or “mistakenly”)
5. Also words suggesting drunkenness, since I guess when you’re drunk you’re all over the place: drunk, high, sloshed, smashed, etc.
6. This one has fallen into disfavor a bit: words suggesting insanity. The disfavor is because we are a little more sensitive about mental health than we were 50 or even 20 years ago. But you do still sometimes see “crazy” or some such as an anagram indicator.
Thanks scchua and Anto.
Reasonable Sunday fare (SCINTILLA, DOUBLE O SEVEN, ABORTS, DODDLE all very smooth) but I think there are a few hangups that push this out of quiptic territory. UNCHECKED a little too meta for my liking, clued loosely LIMPIDLY is a little obscure for the slot, DOWNSIDE doesn’t feel precisely right in my view, LUSCIOUS I extrapolated from crossers but lushes is a new one. Not to go all Michael Gove, but is a PANINO really just a snack? I’d consider it (and the image provided above) pretty substantial.
Also I’m not a child, I’m not really impressed by the idea of smuggling in rude words like DILDOS, maybe it’s just me but it lowers the tone and suggests if the setter isn’t taking things seriously why should I? The wordplay isn’t even that interesting for what it’s worth…
Definitely not a quiptic!
Another in agreement with the consensus. Very tricky and a tad underhanded in parts IMHO.
Another fine Anto crossword – always fun and inventive.
For me the ‘quiptic level’ thing is a bit ott. Of course there should be harder quiptics as well as easier ones – how else is one to improve.
For what is worth, Collins gives bright as a synonym for limpid, though I’m not convinced myself.
Thank you Anto and scchua, a very enjoyable puzzle, just the right level for a Quiptic. I seem to remember C.P. Snow often using limpid for bright when describing a person’s eyes.
Well, Tim S @30, we seem to be in a minority of two on this one. I just wish that those commenters who found it egregiously difficult for a Quiptic or downright ‘underhanded’ (Jules42 @27) had specified what clues they found to be so, because even on reviewing the puzzle in the light of the majority view, I could identify none.
Balfour et al
I didn’t think this was anything like as difficult as last week’s Harpo. One or two slightly dodgy clues (1, 9, and 27, though that’s probably just a Grauniad error), but fewer than typical for Anto.
Balfour, Muffin,
I agree totally that today’s Quiptic was was nowhere near the level of Harpo’s Quiptic from last week. Last week’s was for me impenetrable whereas today I found it relatively straightforward to work out how to solve the clues. 15d was the exception, though, so I learnt something new.
Whereas I sailed through last week’s Harpo and found this harder – it also shows that there’s something to do with wavelength here and that there’s no easy way of categorising the easiness or difficulty of these puzzles because we have different general knowledge and find different clues more or less challenging.
In 18a I wondered if private=unofficial because in the army a private is a non officer. But the other meaning is maybe more obvious!
Re anagram indicators, I think the more crosswords you do, you begin to spot what could possibly mean “mixed up” or “resequenced”. I don’t think there’s much point trying to learn a list! Try making up your own and that might help you see.
Maybe: blended, thrown, shook up, scattered, re-placed, untidy, moving,…
Anto has set harder ones than this as Quiptics in the past – I always enjoy both his Cryptics and his Quiptics, but sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
Re anagram indicators: if there’s something that looks as if it might be one, start counting letters in the other words. You can’t learn a list: there are too many and setters invent new ones all the time. When I started doing the Guardian crosswords, “pants” was the newly fashionable one.
It’s too late, nobody will read this , but heavy drinkers are LUSHES not LUSHERS which works better.
Balfour @32, As a relative novice who found this hard (I rarely have the same wavelength as Anto tbh), these were the bits that I got really hung up on:
1a (I still don’t really understand this even with schhua’s explanation)
1d (A lot of options for the wordplay, combined with a punny definition)
9a (archaic word, combined with a dubious soundsalike. Also I still don’t see what the ‘quite’ is doing for the clue)
17d (obscure word)
27a (never seen that as a single word)
19d (saw it as an option but wouldn’t call it a snack and pan=have a go at seemed a stretch, – if critics pan a movie, they aren’t exactly having a go at it IMO. Not speaking the language, I could easily imagine Italians enjoying a nice TRYINO or NAGINO)
Not complaining, just trying to give an understanding of why I found it harder than average. Mostly I think it was that cluster in the north east – combined with WASTER and SCINTILLA being non-obvious, if fair, clues there was a lot of real estate in the grid where I had nowhere to start.
In the interests of balance, really enjoyed 14a – lovely anagram and surface
Gecko@38
Re 1a. I think it means the opposite to up-front could be down-side. I know down back makes more sense, but on a 3d shape you could kind of say a side is opposing the front
Alison @39 thanks, I kind of see it if I squint but I just can’t convince myself that the side is opposite to the front – surely that’s the back.
At least I got nearly all of this, as opposed to last week’s Quiptic. But are words like Scintilla really in people’s vocabulary? Or is there some sort of a crossword dictionary that devotees/setters use to identify words that fit the crossers?
Well I managed to get a whole five clues solved (albeit 19D with the wrong last letter) and then gave up. Really struggled with this (again) and I am firmly in the camp that this was yet another non Quiptic crossword when taking these to be a step up in difficulty from the Quick Cryptic as the yardstick.
Having seen the answers there are a few that I probably could / should have got but having such a paucity of crossers to work with it just makes solving much more difficult. Also just realised that I didn’t pick out a single anagram clue this week and that’s usually something I pick up on quite quickly. Not sure if they were less obvious signed than normal or I just ran out of the will to look for these.
Anyway at least I managed to ‘solve’ the Everyman this week (well I think I did but won’t know till Sunday if I am right) so not a total waste of a weekend.
This one took many visits over the last couple of days and was on the uppermost limits of the Quiptics I’ve tackled over the last year IMO: tricksy anagrinds for one, obscure words, and clever misdirects; and then UNCHECKED which I still don’t understand in spite of Scchua’s explanation. Thanks Anto and Scchua.
Fun but a bit of a struggle at times. I was very slow to start! Thanks scchua and Anto.
thecronester@43 if you’re still around this may be of some help.
https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/09/crossword-grid-checking.html
You have to look at the grid for this crossword to get the full picture.
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quiptic/1330
Looking at the grid you’ll see that the solution, UNCHECKED, has 4 letters which don’t intersect with another answer. The clue is a double definition, one meaning is this one about the unchecked letters in the cryptic crossword sense, and the other is ”unverified”, which could mean unchecked in the sense of facts or data.
Double-o seven is such a ridiculous and counter-intuitive way of writing that answer, it really annoyed me.
It took me less time than last week’s, so I’m happy about that. Until checking here I didn’t understand “UNCHECKED” and “STAGES”, so thanks for the explanations!
Re bright v limpid, in brewing ‘bright’ beer is beer that has had all the sediment removed and so remains clear (limpid) and can be poured straight away without having to settle e.g. for an outside bar at a party.