A delightful surprise for me this morning when I opened up the Quiptic and found Pangakupu’s byline at the top.
My personal entry into the black arts of cryptic crosswords was through the Everyman puzzles, and then working my way back through the Quiptics. Once I felt comfortable enough to tackle a daily cryptic, it was the Independent puzzles I started on, since that was my paper of choice. So this setter – Phi in the Indy – has been a staple of my crosswording life for nearly fifteen years; but despite being an Indy blogger since 2011 our paths have never crossed on Fifteensquared, since he sets the Friday puzzle and I blog the Monday puzzle. So it’s a pleasure to blog his debut Quiptic puzzle as Pangakupu, which is his pseudonym for the Guardian, where he started setting around three years ago.
I think the ‘beginners and those in a hurry’ will have enjoyed this one, but we’re about to find out.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Particular way of thinking cares about film alien
MINDSET
A charade of MINDS and ET. Pangakupu is being especially kind to newbies: normally ET is just ‘alien’.
5 Giant pig concealing rear end when reversing
GOLIATH
An insertion of TAIL in HOG, all reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘concealing’.
9 Major country’s machinations partly revealed
CHINA
Hidden in maCHINAtions.
10 Rip apart good ground? It produces signs of sadness
TEAR GLAND
A charade of TEAR, G and LAND.
11 Support accepting source of light? Difficulty – this emits no light
BLACK HOLE
An insertion of L for the initial letter of ‘light’ in BACK, followed by HOLE. The insertion indicator is ‘accepting’.
12 Beat and energy in dance
TANGO
A charade of TAN and GO.
13 Fish: catching 90, do well
EXCEL
An insertion of the Roman numerals XC in EEL. The insertion indicator is ‘catching’.
15 I’m a puritan, not heartless, but unwise
IMPRUDENT
A charade of IM, PRUDE and N[O]T.
18 Take apart battered tin medals
DISMANTLE
(TIN MEDALS)* with ‘battered’ as the anagrind.
19 Unexciting line penned by group
BLAND
An insertion of L in BAND. The insertion indicator is ‘penned by’.
21 Wagon carrying a measure of gold
CARAT
An insertion of A in CART. The insertion indicator is ‘carrying’.
23 Formal sign in US elections
PRIMARIES
A charade of PRIM and ARIES.
25 Copy broadcast of later epic
REPLICATE
(LATER EPIC)* with ‘broadcast of’ as the anagrind.
26 Broadcasting extract from Siberian orchestra in reverse
ON AIR
Hidden reversed in SibeRIAN Orchestra.
27 Island resident, a man, holding group back
MALTESE
An insertion of SET reversed in MALE. The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
28 Leather producer woman featured in essay
TANNERY
An insertion of ANNE in TRY. The insertion indicator is ‘featured in’.
Down
1 Frightening horse seen around hansom
MACABRE
An insertion of CAB in MARE. The insertion indicator is ‘seen around’.
2 Fine distinctions about island pests
NUISANCES
An insertion of IS in NUANCES. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
3 Dismissal keeping 50 without a lot of work?
SLACK
An insertion of L in SACK. The insertion indicator is ‘keeping’.
4 Hide art from this artist?
TATTOOIST
A cd. You need to think about ‘hide’ and ‘skin’ being synonyms.
5 Look astonished about source of ripe fruit
GRAPE
An insertion of R for the initial letter of ‘ripe’ in GAPE. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
6 Delicate garden item – indication of a bright idea?
LIGHT BULB
A charade of LIGHT and BULB.
7 American tucking into a drink one more time
AGAIN
An insertion of A into A GIN. The insertion indicator is ‘tucking into’.
8 Mostly horrible time in refuge
HIDEOUT
A charade of HIDEOU[S] and T.
14 Stupidest, nevertheless, in America
LEASTWISE
A dd, if you separate out the two elements for the first definition.
16 Leader’s power given to citizen
PRESIDENT
A charade of P and RESIDENT.
17 Eliminate idea and react strangely
ERADICATE
(IDEA REACT)* with ‘strangely’ as the anagrind.
18 Seemly behaviour heading off public meeting after last month
DECORUM
A charade of DEC and [F]ORUM.
20 Ruin of the French city of antiquity
DESTROY
A charade of DES, which can translate as ‘of the’ in French, and TROY.
22 Turn away and show astonishment about start of play
REPEL
An insertion of P for the initial letter of ‘play’ in REEL. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
23 Gospel character I omitted in part of service
PLATE
P[I]LATE.
24 A farm crop is source of much growth
ACORN
A charade of A and CORN.
Many thanks to Pangakupu for his first contribution to the Quiptic slot. The first of many, I hope.
As an improving solver I, at first, feared the name but then rather enjoyed the quiptic, which I thought very much fitted the brief. Thanks Pangakupu and Pierre!
I liked LIGHT BULB for its reference to emoji and a clever TATTOOIST, which was my LOI. I didn’t know TEAR GLAND or hansom, and was misled for a while by the “about” in 1a, which turned out not to be an indicator of anything. I’m still not sure why PLATE is part of service even though I vaguely remember seeing it somewhere (BTW, Pierre, you may want to correct this one, as “Gospel character” is, surely, PILATE)
Thanks Pangakupu and Pierre
Layman @1
A PLATE could be part of a dinner service – i.e. a set of crockery. (Wrong bit underlined, Pierre.)
Pangakupu usually has at least one Maori Nina – can anyone see one?
Misunderlining corrected. Apologies.
Enjoyable, neither too hard nor too easy.
Thanks for the blog. Unsurprisingly I have questions (I solved 7 clues)
11a – where does HOLE come from?
27a – where does SET come from?
28- I’m not familiar with ESSAY = TRY
4d – I have no idea how you get this answer.
14d – ditto
Steffen
HOLE is ‘difficulty’.
That one’s in the dictionary; comes up a bit so worth taking on board
TATTOOIST is a cryptic definition, which you either see or you don’t at first glance. The setter is cryptically calling a ‘hide artist’ a TATTOOIST because they create art on people’s hide or skin.
LEASTWISE is American English for ‘nevertheless’ and the setter has indicated this usage in the surface reading.
Hope that helps.
muffin@2, thanks for the explanation!
A lot of comments on the other site reporting this as gentle, a write-in, etc. Not my experience – a lot of it fell into place but there were a good few that I had to spend some time over (e.g. 2, 4, 10). As I said over there though, I suspect this may well be down to familiarising myself with a new setter as far as the Quiptic slot is concerned.
All the ones I laboured over were entirely fairly clued, so I think further Quiptics from Pangakupu will be an intriguing prospect.
Thank you Pangakupu and Pierre. I quite enjoyed this puzzle, although I don’t think the setter was in the most compliant mood for a Sunday this was definitely fair; some clues take some eking out though. GOLIATH, EXCEL, DECORUM and IMPRUDENT my favourite clues. I echo scraggs in saying I’d like to see Pangakupu return for more quiptics.
Steffen @ 5 has flagged three of the clues I expected may prompt difficulty: the provenance of HOLE in 11a, 4d and 14d.
In 27a the SET is a group that is back. For 28a essay can mean try or attempt; and yes I’ve only ever seen this in crosswords, but frequently enough that it just seems obvious now.
MACABRE I like as well, although this was another I thought might slip through the net if the solver doesn’t know what a hansom cab is.
I agree with Scraggs. I didn’t find it easy but I did find it very rewarding. Challenging but fun. Thank you!
Once again aQuiptic I can’t finish but I can finish Everyman. I give up
I tried the first couple of Pangakupu’s offerings many moons ago and have since given him a wide berth, but I thought I’d see how I’d go on his first (?) quiptic. Thoroughly enjoyable, and it’s encouraging to know that there’s still at least one setter who can correctly pitch a quiptic. Plenty of good clues, with nothing obscure, controversial or iffy!
I think it’s fair to say that there are a good number of setters, Geoff Down Under, that can correctly pitch a Quiptic these days.
I had to reveal 19a as thought it was BOARD – “unexciting” with (line penned) being the soundalike for a GROUP.
Also got stuck on Maltese but otherwise I was on the right wavelength. Very satisfying; particularly enjoyed 4D and 5A. Thanks pangakupu and Pierre!
Parsed most, guessed some and needed to look up a few.
Good fun all round
Thanks Pangakupu and Pierre
Very enjoyable – for me, this was the perfect Quiptic. Favourite: 4d TATTOOIST. I do hope we see more from Pangakupu here.
Thanks Pangakupu and Pierre
Surely 6D LIGHT BULB is a DD, not a charade?
Nice puzzle, well pitched. Nothing obscure or complicated.
Thanks all.
Sometimes being French is an advantage when doing crosswords, as rarely used synonyms of French origin may appear in clues or answers. In rugby a “try” is “an essai” in French (pronounced like “essay” in English), and the verb “try” translates into “essayer.”
I read somewhere that some native English speakers find the French a bit pompous when they speak in English. This may be because the French find it easier to remember English words of French origin. When a French person uses “ameliorate” instead of “improve” (which in French is “améliorer”) this may, indeed, appear a bit grandiloquent.
I enjoyed the crossword. The clueing was fair and ideal for a quiptic.
This was perhaps pitched more at improvers’ rather than beginners’ level, but certainly a quiptic. Most enjoyable.
Thanks, Pangakupu and Pierre.
Very enjoyable. Neither too easy, nor too hard, so just right I felt for a Quiptic. Thanks Pangakupu, and Pierre.
What Allan_c@19 wrote
I ticked DESTROY. TATTOOIST was groan-worthy
NHO LEASTWISE even though I have spent a lot of time in US. Maybe our American contributors can help
Thank-you Pangakupu, and Pierre.
Martyn @21: it’s not a super-common word, and it strikes me as a little quaint and maybe also rustic. But I have seen it. Also, it isn’t quite “nevertheless”; it’s more like “at least” or “at any rate.” Leastwise, that’s how I would use it.
Martin @17: it can’t be a double definition, since LIGHT BULB is not really a definition of a ‘delicate garden item’. No-one would say ‘I’m going to plant some light bulbs in the garden next spring’.
Tachi@9, as a reader of fantasy novels essay is used in quite a lot of medieval fantasy setting stories in the sense of try, possibly to evoke a slightly archaic feel.
Similarly sally is used in its original context, to leave a castle quickly (often through the sally port) to attack the enemy, extending to the usage rush out quickly.
Well no, but isn’t that why there’s a question mark on the end? Can it be a charade if it’s two separate words, nothing’s been joined together and they’ve been defined as a pair twice? I’d have thought this was a cryptic double definition. Anyway, it’s not important. Thanks for replying and thanks for the blog.
Gosh, Frogman – doing cryptic crosswords in what I assume is your second language! Chapeau!
“a man” instead of just “man” had me flummoxed on 27. 1a similarly with “film alien” where I kept thinking I needed two words to solve, one for film and one for alien given either one of those would be sufficient if we only needed “ET”.
In both cases, once the crossers went in they became a lot more obvious.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Very enjoyable not sure there was a duff clue in there. Quite plain sailing but TATTOOIST and PLATE took an age. Sometimes I need to remember it’s a Quiptic and I don’t need to go to the lesser read pages of the bible or recall an obscure artist.
Liked DECORUM, HIDEOUT and DESTROY
Thanks P&P
martin@21 and mrpenney@22 … I’ve lived in the US about 30 years, and the word has become a normal part of my vocab (it’s useful, in the ‘at any rate’ sense mrpenny gives and breaks down into ‘least wise’, wh I find amusing). Downside for me is that I keep forgetting which parts of my vocabulary are English, Australian or American … not helped by aging (though little is, except a good wine) … right now I stumble on ‘boot’ and ‘trunk’ for no good reason but that I’m too lazy to learn by rote which is which – leastwise, that’s what I tell myself :-).
Really enjoyed this!
Finished but didn’t really enjoy it. A question for the experienced solvers please.
Do you work out solutions like PRIMARIES, GOLIATH or TANNERY from the wordplay? To me they look impossible to get as there are just too many obvious substitutions which – dozens of women who – would fit.
James @31:
TANNERY: Backsolved the girl’s name from the definition and “try”.
PRIMARIES: Had enough crossers to deduce that “sign” meant ARIES, got the definition, backsolved PRIM.
GOLIATH: One of my LOIs, had all crossers, used the definition and backsolved.
In short: no not really!
Thank you. GOLIATH is spectacularly clever, but would require an enormous leap of faith!
Thanks to Pangakupu and Pierre. I found this quiptic very enjoyable, I didn’t know Leastwise or Imprudent but I love learning new terms through my weekly quiptic. It might just be my own opinion but it felt quite American, but that’s probably because I had to spend ages thinking of President and Primaries!
Agree about the overall quality! minor note about P,RESIDENT — I’m sure many Americans are worried about whether resident in fact is a citizen. Our friend Trump has stirred up a hornet’s nest.
For what it’s worth, this American thinks that LEASTWISE has an old-timey air about it. I’d be surprised to hear someone use it in conversation today.
I would spell the measure of gold purity KARAT. I know CARAT just as the unit of mass commonly applied to gemstones. But apparently this is yet another US-UK spelling difference. Wikipedia says “The carat (UK spelling, symbol c or Ct) or karat (US spelling, symbol k or Kt) …”
> For what it’s worth, this American thinks that LEASTWISE has an old-timey air about it. I’d be surprised to hear someone use it in conversation today.
Same — I’ve lived in America for ~40 years, and don’t know that I’ve ever heard/seen this one in normal usage. Feels more like something you’d see in a movie. (Though maybe its just regional!)