This week’s Sunday Cryptic offering from the Guardian …
comes from Hectence, who, as usual in her puzzles, provides a pangram (a puzzle that uses all the letters of the alphabet) – which if you remember can help, although I didn’t need it this week.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PLAYS IT COOL |
Posh locality unexpectedly losing hotel appears unbothered (5,2,4)
|
| anagram of (POS |
||
| 9 | NOT TRUE |
Trump’s no politician, taken in by message that’s false (3,4)
|
| insertion of TRUmp (TRUMP from the clue without MP – no politician) inside NOTE (message) – NO T TRU E | ||
| 10 | ICED TEA |
Drink delicate cocktail left disregarded (4,3)
|
| anagram (cocktail) of (DE |
||
| 11 | BETRAYING |
Risk’s always in syndicate selling out (9)
|
| charade of BET (risk) + AY (ever) in RING (syndicate) to indicate R AY ING | ||
| 12 | CANOE |
Stick around in boat? (5)
|
| CANE (stick) with O inserted (a round in) – and a question mark to indicate a tricksier clue. | ||
| 13 | EWER |
Sample from microbrewery in jug (4)
|
| hidden (sample from) microbrEWERy | ||
| 14 | PERSISTS IN |
Perseveres, training sisters to break code (8,2)
|
| anagram (training) of (SISTERS)* in (to break) PIN (code) | ||
| 16 | PREJUDICED |
Discriminatory before judge, you ultimately played a risky game (10)
|
| charade of PRE (before) J (judge) U (yoU ultimately) DICED (played a risky game) J for judge is used in case law citations | ||
| 19 | LAZE |
Read aloud places to chill out (4)
|
| soundalike of “lays” (places) with indicator of “read aloud” | ||
| 21 | LOTUS |
Insect mostly eating Thailand’s sacred flower (5)
|
| I parsed this as most of |
||
| 22 | ERROR-FREE |
All right after slip negotiating reef (5-4)
|
| ERROR (slip) + (REEF)* – indicated by “negotiating” | ||
| 24 | AMERICA |
Setter invested in first-class air travel, including Cuba and the US (7)
|
| ME (setter) inserted into A (first class) + (AIR)* with “travel” to indicate an anagram + C (Cuba – again from international driving plates) | ||
| 25 | TYCOONS |
Autocrats switch rhetoric to business, working with rich men (7)
|
| TYrantS (autocrats) switching the RANT (rhetoric) to CO (business) + ON (working) | ||
| 26 | NON-STICK PAN |
New in stock, rudely find fault with cooking vessel (3-5,3)
|
| anagram of (N IN STOCK)* with anagrind of “rudely” where N = new, to give NON-STICK, followed by PAN (find fault with) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PUTS THE KETTLE ON |
Prepares tea set and evenly soaks the nettles for brewing (4,3,6,2)
|
| PUT (set) + anagram of (brewing) OK (from evenly sOaKs) + THE NETTLES to give PUTS THE KETTLE ON | ||
| 2 | AORTA |
Vessel in painting capturing old voyager’s heart (5)
|
| ART (painting) capturing O (old), so insertion of O into ART + A (voyAger’s heart) | ||
| 3 | STERILE |
Lister analysed disease, finally finding antiseptic (7)
|
| anagram (analysed) of (LISTER)* + E (diseasE finally) | ||
| 4 | TWINGES |
Set about suppressing arm spasms (7)
|
| anagram of (SET)* with anagrind of “about” around (suppressing) WING (arm) | ||
| 5 | OVERCAST |
Some cricket players being dull (8)
|
| charade of OVER (some cricket) + CAST (players) | ||
| 6 | LET ONES HAIR DOWN |
Undo locks and drop barriers for fun? (3,4,4,4)
|
| double definition, one literal and the other metaphorical | ||
| 7 | UNABLE |
Powerless when embargo’s lifted, breaking endless rules (6)
|
| insertion of NAB < (BAN – embargo, lifted – reversed in a down clue) into ULE (endless rULEs) | ||
| 8 | CAVERN |
CERN incorporates a very large underground chamber (6)
|
| insertion of A V (a very) into CERN | ||
| 15 | QUESTION |
Unusually quiet, son has problem (8)
|
| anagram of (QUIET SON)* with anagrind of “unusually” | ||
| 16 | PILLAR |
Start off spiral design encircling long column (6)
|
| anagram of (PIRAL)* (start off spiral) with anagrind of “design” around (encircling) L (long) | ||
| 17 | INEXACT |
Cancel tax set up by court that’s not correct (7)
|
| AXE (cancel) NI (tax – National Insurance, UK tax take) to give INEXA + CT (by court) | ||
| 18 | ERRATIC |
Shifting rodent found in damaged rice (7)
|
| RAT (rodent) inserted into (found in) (RICE)* (damaged) | ||
| 20 | EVEN SO |
Still flat, soprano’s gutted (4,2)
|
| EVEN (flat) + SopranO (soprano’s gutted) | ||
| 23 | RECAP |
Run with mounting speed and go over again (5)
|
| R (run – from cricket) + PACE < (mounting speed, so reversed in a down clue) |
LOTUS
Looks like it’s
T in LOUS(e)
Thanks Hectence and Shanne.
Thanks Shanne, for NI National Insurance, which I couldn’t parse. My first thought for LOTUS was also locust, until I saw the louse. Agree with KVa@1..
What pm@2 wrote. Aside from also not knowing AY for “ever”, it all went smoothly.
Thanks Hectence and Shanne
Good fun although a couple I couldn’t parse very well. Still don’t understand AY for “ever”. Revealed LAZE as “lays” for “places” wasn’t obvious and I wasn’t going to spend all morning (it would probably have been all week) to find the final two missing letters.
Nice and easy, although didn’t get a few parsings. My favourite is 6d. Also found “LAZE” the most difficult, got it from the definition and wasn’t sure whether “lays” mean “places”. Thanks Hectence and Shanne
The UK tax in INEXACT meant I was unable to parse. I struggled to identify all of the anagram fodder in 1d, as it didn’t occur to me to change set to put. I too tried to use “locust” in parsing LOTUS, and thought it was an iffy clue, but your explanation, KVa makes more sense.
I’m reliably informed that “ay” is a contraction of “always” used by various poets of yesteryear.
I could not parse 12ac or 24ac apart from ME = setter. International licence plate codes? I didn’t even know that is a thing!
New for me: NI = national insurance tax.
Quite good to have a more difficult Quiptic today as I no longer do the Everyman puzzles.
Thought that was quite tough for a Quiptic and I was thankful for remembering that Hectence‘s predilection for a panagram in order to get my LOI 19a. Thanks to Shanne for an excellent blog and for explaining 17d.
Thanks S&H.
I think Hectence’s theme today is things in her kitchen! (Pans, kettles, iced tea, ewers)
Some stuff a little shaky and not too quiptic imo. Archaic poetic use of ‘ay’ in 11a and license plate codes for Cuba and Thailand are a little out there for the beginners imo. D for Germany or E for Spain might fly but I can’t say I’m ever confronted by cars from either nation…
Quite a few loose word uses: in 25a is a rant really rhetoric? 3d is a nice surface, but don’t you use an antiseptic to make something sterile? Related, but I’m not convinced they’re interchangeable.
6d felt particularly messy: I have absolutely no idea what ‘drop barriers for fun’ is supposed to mean. I got held up after putting in ‘Let your’ instead of ‘Let ones’ and outside having crossers, can’t tell why you’d go one way or the other.
Tachi @9 – It’s the Guardian, that means that crosswords usually use ONE’S not your – I don’t know if it’s house-style or what, but that seems to be the convention.
Hectence does pangrams, I don’t think she’s ever set a puzzle with a theme! And that Z was helpful for LAZE. There are other setters where a theme is common: Qaos, Brummie some of the time, Brockwell, Paul quite often uses a theme, Tramp – although his themes can be quite obscure.
To LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN metaphorically is to remove any barriers to enjoyment, to forget to be stuffy and serious – certainly in English English. That one is a straight double definition.
Also something that is antiseptic is sterile – a surgeon has to use antiseptic/sterile instruments for surgery.
Layman @5 – if someone lays the table they place the utensils and plates on the table – he lays/places the casserole in the middle of the table.
Another for whom the pangram helped with LAZE, my loi. NOT TRUE was amusing, as was LET ONES HAIR DOWN and TYCOONS was an interesting clue.
Ta Hectence & Shanne.
Same in pretty much every respect as per @4 Gliddofgood’s comment.
Had a fairly swift start thanks to a few write-ins on the right-hand side, though slowed down with a handful of chewier ones holding out at the end, with 19 being a reveal.
Yes those pangrams do help when you’re down to just a couple of letters – especially if one of them is a Z!
I agree with Tachi @9: rant isn’t a synonym for rhetoric. (Some rants may be rhetorical, but that doesn’t apply to all of them.)
My faves were CANOE and OVERCAST: Hectence has a lovely way with succinct clues.
Many thanks to her and to Shanne
This isn’t an earworm – but it came to my mind the very instant I hit “post comment”.
It’s a rant containing some lovely touches of rhetoric!
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/om7O0MFkmpw
Fair enough, it appears that the Vehicle Registration Identification code for Thailand is T, which is weird as it’s TH everywhere else (Thai Baht is THB, the TLD is .th, Thai’s ISO 639 language code is TH). Also, it used to be SM when Thailand was called Siam.
Is that another crosswordy piece of trivia that old hands just know?
I really need to remember which setter does the pangrams!
Thanks Hectence and Shanne – struggled to parse a few of these, so the blog was really appreciated!
Shanne @11 – oh right, I’ve thought of a noun in plural, not of a verb. Silly of me. Thanks again!
Wellbeck@15. Loved the link. Thank you
What AlanC@12 said.
I had such a similar experience of this lovely puzzle.
Thanks Hectence and Shanne.
Deebster @16 – no, I constructed LOTUS and then looked up why T = Thailand to blog this. I do know the main European ones, the ones I’m likely to have seen on lorries: F for France, D for Germany, NL for Netherlands, E for Spain and GB for Great Britain, but it’s not something I know, know.
When people comment about ‘not a quiptic’ I realised a long time ago that it’s all about the setter. Hectence is the setter that I can’t get on the same wavelength as. My heart sinks to see her name on a Sunday, as I know it’s going to be a slog for me, and then I’ll come here and see all the comments about how nicely clued everything is and how amazing her crosswords are, and I can see it is, but we just don’t work together.
Deebster @16: I think it’s fair to assume that the IVR code for any non-European country you see in a crossword is going to be just its first letter in English. That’s my assumption, anyway, based on the fact that only in Europe do cars usually have them displayed, so they represent obscure knowledge anywhere else. That means that the only ones you actually need to learn are the large European countries that don’t follow that pattern: D for Germany, CH for Switzerland, E for Spain, NL for Netherlands, and PL for Poland.
Separately, I concur with the “too tough for this slot” opinion about the puzzle that seems to be going, but the Quiptic audience does need a slightly steeper challenge once in a while. I was particularly fond of the very apt Lister/STERILE clue (Joseph Lister having been the pioneer of antiseptics) and the very topical NOT TRUE.
Found it ok in places and tricky in others. I also thought LOcUST and then anagrammed to get me LOTUS, so nice to have a better explanation. Likewise for some other clues. Being Hectence I assumed pangram and that did help along the way. Thanks Shanne for the wordplay explanations and Hectence for the puzzle.
I got Lotus from Locust. Still not sure how Louse fits in with the clue, as a Louse is not an Insect, whereas a Locust clearly is.
I can only echo others. I thought of locust first but changed track to louse almost straight away. Talking of straight away, LAZE took way longer than that, maybe 25% of total solve time. Unlike AlanC, I wasn’t wise enough to think of seeking a pangram. I shall be more vigilant in future if I see any letter that would score more than 5 in Scrabble.
Louse is am insect isn’t it? According to quick online search
Longname@22 I thought that was nothing like a Quiptic and I am neither a beginner nor I was in a hurry. Like you, I was surprised that a lot of people thought this was ok. Although sometimes the early replies set the tone for the rest of the comments. The reverse of ‘I’m Spartacus.’
A louse is certainly an insect.
I liked this puzzle a great deal. It went in quickly at first, but had some chewy bits (for me, anyway) at the end.
NI for tax didn’t leap to mind for me (a non-UK resident), although I’m sure I’ve seen it before. I failed to parse BETRAYING (although now I don’t see why) and TYCOONS.
I remembered the pangram in time for it to help a bit with LAZE.
Thank you, Shanne.
I couldn’t parse AY in BETRAYING and AMERICA apart from ME. Your blog helped as always. Also thanks for your comments regarding LAYS and LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN.
@Gawny 27 and Ted 29. I think I have clearly gotten my lice mixed up. Woodlice are not insects, but Lice are; my bad, to use the Americanism…..
Thanks Hectence and Shane. I found this a bit tougher, with 3 reveals (laze, aorta and even so), but still enjoyable as a beginner.
Great fun. Had to work hard for the last couple. Thought again this was a Quiptic that could have easily been the Monday puzzle. I would love to see what the Guardian’s directions are for setters of the Quiptic.
Liked NOT TRUE and STERILE plus quite a few others.
Thanks Hectence and Shanne
I guess that was fine for a quiptic, as I could do it. Enough easy clues to get helpful crossers for the more tricky ones.
A typically enjoyable but quite tough Hectence which I completed with some unparsed answers which I only understood after coming here. Thanks Hectence and Shanne
[NMc @31 — I’d heard the word woodlouse but never known exactly what it was. Thanks for nudging me to look it up! Coincidentally, I also encountered the similar-sounding word “woodwose” in a book recently and had to look that up.
My main association with the word “louse” is with head lice. I’ve never had an infestation myself, but they seem to be quite common among schoolchildren. On multiple occasions, one or more of my young nephews got them, and rather than trying the more standard treatments their father just shaved the heads of everyone in the household except the boys’ mother (who declined to participate, and I think escaped without infestation).]
Needed a couple of crossers to be sure it was LET ONES HAIR DOWN and not LET DOWN ONES HAIR, and yes, I used the locust, too.
Took me four times as long as Vulcan’s Monday one. I’d have thought St Austell’s post-industrial landscape as far away from Riviera as one can get but solved it straight away- only one I did on first pass! Thanks Hectence, although I find you intimidating too. Don’t know what I’d do without fifteen squared to tell me how I did it.
Blimey I’m feeling thick! I’ve even looked it up and I still don’t understand how laze relates to a panagram. Does it mean that the answers as a whole contain every letter of the alphabet? Is that a bit perverse?
Hi Seensaw@39 – Hectence usually designs crosswords with a pangram – which means using every letter in the alphabet. For those of us that notice these things, if we hadn’t solved 19A, we could get an additional clue from knowing that we hadn’t used the z yet. It’s a lot easier working out a word that is ZA_E or _AZE to fit the clue.
Thank you Hectence and Shanne. I love the quiptic when Hectence does them because I come near to solving it. Lovely puzzle. Quite hard in p,aces, for me.
Challenging and somewhat satisfying, once I remembered that the concept of a Quiptic has been all but abandoned.