Guardian Quiptic 1,339/Anto

37 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,339/Anto”

1. Agree that this was a nicely pitched offering with only a couple which I struggled to parse but finally got there. I liked MIDDLE AGE SPREAD, SONGWRITER and LET RIP. I also noticed the slipshod errors, which marred an excellent puzzle.

   Ta Anto & Pierre.

2. Not the first time Anto has confused it’s and its. But enjoyable on the whole, and yes at Quiptic level.

3. Thanks Anto and Pierre
   As well as HOARDS, ETNA is ambiguous – I entered it the wrong way at first.
   DAVID was neat.

4. Quite enjoyable. Took me a while to work out the answers to 23ac and 16d.

   Favourite: SONGWRITER.

5. Have I at last managed to complete a quiptic by Anto?! Alas, not exactly unaided, – I needed a few checks before I got the last two (LET RIP and LIVE UP TO) right; kicking myself for not thinking these through well enough.

   But anyway, this is a new and much improved Anto to me compared with the backlog of his quiptics I’ve tried to do before. As much as I’d have liked to credit this to my grown skill, it is rather, I believe, due to Anto having mastered the Art of the Quiptic. Witty, but not too difficult.

   Re: spelling – well… I can also remind of him misspelling Grieg(!) in a quiptic a couple of years ago… I would include ETNA/ANTE in the list of ambiguities, but given that the crossers are not too difficult, I guess it’s a fair game

6. I would add 9ac to the list of ambiguous clues, although I know that “without” can mean “outwith”.

7. Sorry hadn’t noticed muffin@3 having already mentioned ETNA

8. No problem, Layman.
   [There are now “Special Instructions” that the two mistakes have been corrected.]

9. I’ll send my fee for proofreading to the crossword editor …

10. I feel seen with the ‘decent puzzle, but not a Quiptic’ quote. I came to this after the errors had been corrected, so I’ll be brief and say ‘decent Quiptic’.

11. Thank you Pierre and Anto. Like Layman, I thought maybe it was just me that was getting the knack of reading Anto’s clues, but I think the comments about him getting better at pitching the quiptic are merited.

    SHADOWED and IPSO FACTO are my highlights; DAVID is ostentatious for a relatively easy definition but I like it. LET RIP very nice, I was convinced it was some weird cycle related to the word ‘doubled’ becoming ‘triple’ but certainly coincidental.

    And now with the pendantry: I thought HOARDS was fine, I did a double-take to check I’d picked the right one and I think the ‘in’ separating ‘reported’ from ‘stores’ points to what the definition is. Just.
    ETNA I got first time, but I already had the E, everyone is right to be annoyed there.
    9A feels lumpy, not sure INSULTED is close enough to ‘humiliated’ and INSULATED to ‘protected’ for a clue like this at Quiptic level. 16D took a while and I think just gets under the wire today. NHO MIDDLE AGE SPREAD but it’s (Look Mum! I didn’t write its) seemed to go down well…

12. Thank you for blog and to Anto. Here’s a question: I’ve had feedback on another site about a puzzle I set telling me that the part of speech in my clue should match the part of speech in my definition. In this enjoyable puzzle, there are at least three clues that don’t do this: e.g. extant is an adjective; sextant is a noun; shatter is a verb, proof is a noun, shatterproof is an adjective. Is this a question of knowing the rules well enough to break them (Anto is a professional – I’m certainly not!) or is this one of those “rules” that really are guidance or am I taking this far too seriously?!

13. I don’t understand 1 across. How can rescue be a definition for release?

14. I think it’s release in the sense of freeing. If you rescue a hostage, you have released them from captivity for example.

15. I don’t really like the definition for SHATTERPROOF; something of that nature is absolutely possible to crack surely? It’s just that it won’t then shatter or splinter.

16. I enjoyed this as much as Anto’s previous Quiptic. He appears to have acclimatised to the Quiptic altitude as well as anyone, so I’m now looking forward to his next outing.

17. I thought this was a very good Quiptic. Having complained about Anto before, I want to give him his due when deserved.

    I came to it after the errors in 17ac and 4dn had been corrected.

    I did notice that 2ac was ambiguous but not that 19dn was. I’ll disagree with Meandme @6 about putting 9ac in that category, as the length of the answer resolves the ambiguity.

    (Personally, I’m in the camp that doesn’t object to this sort of ambiguity anyway, as long as it’s resolved by the crossers, but I know that others disagree, and I respect their position even though it’s wrong.)

18. [IG@12: My understanding is that the part of speech in the defining part of the clue must match the part of speech in the solution. Your examples satisfy this rule: “surviving”/”extant”; “impossible to crack”/”shatterproof”]

19. Some really great surfaces brought plenty of smiles. I found the top half went in easily, bottom took a bit more time. This happens to me a lot. I wonder whether I lose concentration or feel I need to hurry to the finish.

    Ticked COUP D’ETAT, ADVENT, LET RIP and BREATHLESS

    I also had several quibbles but they have already been covered.

    Thanks Anto and Pierre

20. Enjoyable diversion for a wet Sunday; was pleased to complete. Thanks setter and blogger

21. To be fair, Autocorrect often decides you meant it’s when you typed its, and vice versa, so it may not exactly be Anto’s fault.

    The clue for INSULTED seems to me to be written the wrong way around, which was my main annoyance here.

22. I enjoyed this, and thought it was well-pitched. Favourite was LET RIP.

    My quibbles have already been mentioned, and I agree with MediumOne@15 about SHATTERPROOF although I must admit I didn’t question it at the time after getting it from the checkers. I put in ANTE at first instead of ETNA.

    Tony B@13, IG@14: I interpreted it along the lines of rescue/release an animal from a trap.

    mrpenney@21 I interpret without as outwith, which gives a suitable reading. [Edit: cross-posted with you about the autocheck thing, below]

    Ted@17, I don’t think either camp is wrong, just as I don’t think everyone need agree about what makes a sound clue in general. Both positions are justifiable, and I’m in the “don’t like ambiguity” camp because I like each clue to be self-contained, something to be enjoyed as a unit (and potentially shared with other enthusiasts who didn’t do the puzzle). The “wait for the checkers” camp presumably prioritise the wider puzzle over the individual clue, and that’s also fine of course; the puzzle itself is a unit too.

    Regarding the errors, I see no reason not to give the setter the benefit of the doubt. We don’t know the processes which happen to get the submitted puzzle online or on paper, and it’s plausible that it goes through systems, IT or human, that potentially cause unintended changes. I wouldn’t bet against it, as least. And that’s what the Editor is for…

    Thanks both

23. Its (sic) not cool for year 6, its (idem) annoying for a crossword setter but utterly shaming for a National Newspaper. Typical Grauniad I suppose.

    3D is (4,1,4) not (4,5). Similarly shaming by year 9.

    But I finished it (with only a little assistance from the ‘check’ button) thanks in no small part to help from this blog over the past few weeks.

24. James @23
    It’s standard Guardian style to enumerate 1’4 as 5. You may not agree (and I don’t), but it’s how they do it.

25. Great fun although was confused by the special instructions. It’s been too long a day and I read it as needing to add them to the clue. I was mightily confused until I came here. Shame they got in, it’s the sort of thing a cursory reading should pick up.

    Not heard of MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD but I think I’m experiencing it.

    Liked BREATHLESS and SHATTERPROOF

    Thanks Pierre and Anto

26. Wow. So much better than last week – all done and with only one referral to the Thesaurus (23A), one wrong answer (9A) and one semi guess (21D). Thesaurus check was needed to undo the stubborn SW corner and I had ‘unsuited’ as the answer for 9A which seemed right to me at the time but the correct parsing was obvious once the first and fifth letters disappeared when I hit Check All. For 21D – I gambled and got lucky with that – don’t think I would have worked that out ever but it is reasonably obvious having looked at the explanation here.
    Just reading through comments above – I also made the Etna\Ante mistake and it gave me all sorts of grief until I twigged it (not helped but actually having parsed 1A correctly but discounting it since 2D was ‘obviously right’). Foolish boy!
    Should say that I do tend to find Anto’s style agrees with me but given my recent lack of any success on the Quiptic I feel rather pleased with myself anyway. 😎

27. 23@: sure, RENT is a synonym for LET, but not for RIP? That would be REND, I think.

28. 23a: sure, RENT is a synonym for LET, but not for RIP? That would be REND, I think.

29. Aphid@27: RENT is a synonym for RIP if both are nouns.

30. Also joining the hoard praising the level this week, it felt perfectly pitched for the slot, especially after the brutal combination of quiptic and Monday cryptic last week. Lots of answers where I solved the wordplay first and then backed into the definition, which for me is the perfect kind of clue (even if I look a little silly asking if anyone knows what a brut is). I’m even willing to ignore the emotional rollercoaster that 2D caused me 🙂

31. I needed to sleep on it, but it went in without any significant cheating.

    Favourites were SONGWRITER and HOARDS (it didn’t occur to me to parse it the other way round).

    I didn’t parse THREE; thanks Anto and Pierre.

32. Good good. Thanks Anto and Pierre. I got fixated on SEE RED for LET RIP so you can imagine how that went. A couple of wavelength-mismatch issues for me but generally pretty fair!

33. For me it was a mix of Anto get’s better at Quiptic clueing, and I have got better at reading Anto clues – I think. Managed quite a lot of this over a number of visits but still felt there were some that were obscure for the Quiptic slot and I’ve had to come here for clarification. Never heard of RIP as a synonym for ‘rent’. Thanks Pierre and Anto.

34. The rent/rip association might be familiar from Christian wedding ceremonies: ‘What God has put together, let no man rend asunder’. Rend is the root verb; rent is the past tense and past participle, and rent is also a noun meaning ‘tear’ or ‘rip’, as gladys @29 pointed out.

35. @vogel@32: I too got fixated on SEE RED – failed at LET RIP, so thanks Pierre for explanation
    @thecronester@33: It’s RENT as in ‘torn up’ as in RIPPED (rather than RIP?)
    @James@23 – I agree! It should be (4,1,4) not (5,4) for 3D. Or better (4’1,4) – we include hyphens in the letter count so why not apostrophes?

36. Pierre@34 and Smaje@35 Thanks both, got it now 🙂

37. Crowds reported in stores
    HOARDS is an anagram of HARODS

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