Pasquale is on double duty this weekend having set both the Quick Cryptic and the Quiptic …
… and has done a good job of fitting the description of the Quiptic: “A web-only, cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry. It is published on theguardian.com every Sunday”, with this puzzle
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCRUBS |
Discards hospital attire (6)
|
| double definition – first the verb, when an idea or suggestion is scrubbed, the second the uniform used by hospital workers | ||
| 4 | PRESSED |
Exerted force on journalists and editor (7)
|
| charade of PRESS (journalists) + ED (abbreviation for EDitor – often seen in Private Eye) | ||
| 9 | ANCHORAGE |
Place for vehicles to stop in Alaskan port (9)
|
| double definition – although we usually think of wheeled vehicles, boats also count | ||
| 10 | ARENA |
Stadium zone accommodating small number (5)
|
| insertion (accommodating) of AREA (zone) around (accommodating) N (small number) | ||
| 11 | LOPED |
Ran, being guided outside work (5)
|
| insertion (outside) of LED (being guided) around (outside) OP (work – short for opus) | ||
| 12 | MASTERFUL |
Domineering maiden has ‘er faults unfortunately (9)
|
| anagram (unfortunately) of M (maiden) + (‘ER FAULTS)* | ||
| 13 | TERRAIN |
Piece of ground in second half of season needing wet weather (7)
|
| charade of TER (second half of season – winTER) + (needing) RAIN (wet weather) | ||
| 15 | RAPIER |
Greek character pinned by exceptionally rare sword (6)
|
| insertion (pinned by) of PI (Greek character) in (RARE)* with an anagrind of “exceptionally” | ||
| 17 | BATTLE |
Bishop and former PM endlessly struggle (6)
|
| charade of B (bishop in chess notation) + ATTLEe (former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee – endlessly) | ||
| 19 | ABRIDGE |
Shorten a card game (7)
|
| charade of A (from the clue) + BRIDGE (card game) | ||
| 22 | INTERSECT |
Bury group, about a hundred, becoming cross (9)
|
| charade of INTER (bury) + SET (group) inserting (about) C (hundred in Roman numerals) – for where two lines or roads cross or intersect | ||
| 24 | ONSET |
Attack with stone being thrown (5)
|
| anagram of (STONE)* with an anagrind of “being thrown” | ||
| 26 | THORN |
Old English character conveyed by author naturally (5)
|
| hidden in (conveyed by) auTHOR Naturally | ||
| 27 | EDUCATION |
Action due to change in school activity (9)
|
| anagram of (ACTION DUE)* with an anagrind of “to change” | ||
| 28 | DESSERT |
Sweet son stuck in Sahara? (7)
|
| insertion of S (son) into DESERT (Sahara? – with the question mark indicating a DBE – definition by example). | ||
| 29 | BERTHA |
Woman in the bar, sozzled (6)
|
| anagram of (THE BAR)* with an anagrind of “sozzled” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCARLET |
Claret’s alternative red (7)
|
| anagram of (CLARET’S)* with an anagrind of “alternative” | ||
| 2 | RECAP |
Agent penning account, upsetting summary (5)
|
| reversed insertion – REP (agent) around (penning) AC (account – abbreviation from banking or accounting) upsetting so reversed to CA (in a down clue, upsetting is a reversal indicator) | ||
| 3 | BROADCAST |
Big actors in TV show? (9)
|
| charade of BROAD (big) + CAST (actors) for another definition by example, hence the question mark. | ||
| 4 | PLEASER |
Entertainer with requests, entertainer completely gutted (7)
|
| charade of PLEAS (requests) + ER (from EntertaineR completely gutted – so inner letters removed) | ||
| 5 | ERASE |
Expunge article in Irish language (5)
|
| insertion of A (article) into ERSE (Irish language) | ||
| 6 | SHEFFIELD |
Eastern females needing external protection in Yorkshire city (9)
|
| insertion of E (eastern) FF (females – one F = female, FF = females) into (needing external) SHIELD (protection) | ||
| 7 | DEARLY |
Readily working, one coming out at great cost (6)
|
| anagram of (READiLY)* minus the I (one coming out) with an anagrind of “working” | ||
| 8 | CARMEN |
Vehicle with chaps in opera (6)
|
| charade of CAR (vehicle) + MEN (chaps) for the Bizet opera | ||
| 14 | REACTIONS |
Chemical processes bringing responses (9)
|
| double defintion | ||
| 16 | PARSONAGE |
Servant admitting fiery crime in minister’s home (9)
|
| insertion: PAGE (servant) around (admitting) ARSON (fiery crime) | ||
| 18 | ELEMENT |
Familiar territory for copper perhaps (7)
|
| double definition – copper is one example of an element, so the perhaps indicates a DBE (definition by example), and if someone is in familiar territory, they are in their element (like a fish in water) | ||
| 19 | ARTHUR |
King showing skill. monarch finally coming to old city (6)
|
| charade of ART (skill) H (from monarcH finally) + UR (old city) for the legendary king of old England | ||
| 20 | ESTONIA |
Collapsed in seat, hugging love in the country (7)
|
| anagram (collapsed) of (IN SEAT)* around (hugging) O (love) | ||
| 21 | FITTED |
Healthy Edward given appropriate kit? (6)
|
| charade of FIT (healthy) + TED (Edward – one of several abbreviations of Edward) | ||
| 23 | RINSE |
Get up about middle of morning and wash (5)
|
| insertion of: RISE (get up) about N (middle of morNing) | ||
| 25 | SHIFT |
Move and keep quiet if having little time (5)
|
| charade of SH (keep quiet) IF (from the clue) + T (little time – abbreviation for time from scientific formulas) |
Thanks Shanne.
And for ones who aren’t familiar with the Old English character THORN. See this.
Personally this felt easier than yesterday’s quick cryptic.Favourites ARTHUR,PARSONAGE and ELEMENT.Thank you Shanne and Pasquale.
Oops, I edited my post but it didn’t come up. Old English character. As in Old English orthography which I can’t reproduce here. Icelandic is the only living language which has that character, but when I studied Old English here in Oz, which might be surprising, my lecturer, Ozzie too, had been to Iceland out of his interest in studying the connection. That is where the languages diverged from Gothic. Iceland as an island remained isolated and retained much of the old language.
As for the crossie, the only one I stumbled on today was SHEFFIELD, but parsed.
Personally I continue to find myself on a different wavelength to Pasquale
I ticked RECAP
Why do we need small number for N? Why not just number? Ditto small time. Why is 4d “completely gutted”? Why not just gutted? Thanks for explaining THORN pm@1.
Thanks Pasquale and Shanne (also on double duty)
And the only one I can see from Pasquale’s “churchiness”‘ is PARSONAGE. Liked ERASE, amongst others.
Thank you for parsing of 18D. Though I would describe element as one’s favourite territory.
Thanks to Pasquale and Shanne.
New for me: SCRUBS as uniform, TED as an abbreviation for Edward, and ELEMENT as familiar territory. But overall, I would probably agree with the Dr. @2 that yesterday’s QC was harder. Martyn @4: I think the setter put in extra words to try to help newer solvers, this being a quiptic… I liked SHEFFIELD. Thanks Pasquale and Shanne!
Paddymelon @1,3. Looks like the link worked. Thanks for that, and thanks to Shanne for the very clear parsings. And, of course, thanks to Pasquale.
My first time having a go at the Quiptic having started on the easy one on Saturday. I’m getting there. These are another level and I struggle to work out which is the definition. Thanks for the explainer Shanne. I’ll keep trying.
Not a fan of “exceptionally” as an anagrind and never heard of “Erse” but otherwise a good fun solve.
(meant to add “unusually rare” would have worked better, IMHO)
I love this thread. Always learning new factettes. Such as thorn. Thanks paddymelon @1,3.
Also, have we gone back to ‘normal’ numbering of posts? Phew
19d King showing skill. monarch finally coming to old city – why is there a full stop and no capital for the following word (monarch)?
Thanks Shanne always so helpful for novices!
Tepee @13 – no significance to that, it’s a typo in the puzzle, should have been a comma. A typo in the Guardian? Whatever next?!
Dylan N @10. Erse is worth remembering – it crops up from time to time
Teepee @13 – it’s as it appears in the crossword, I used a tool that copies and pastes across from the crossword online, and although I did notice it later, I normally ignore punctuation, so it didn’t hold me up.
Sorry Dylan N @10: ERSE I knew as a older way of describing Irish Gaelic or Gaelige, from some of my eclectic reading material, as usual. I didn’t think it was so unknown.
Thank you paddymelon @1 and @3 – I did mean to link to the THORN, but forgot.
Thanks for the nice puzzle, Pasquale, and Shanne for the as-usual very educating explanations. Didn’t know thorn, and didn’t see the hidden word.
Wouldn’t 22a work just as well without ‘about a hundred’? I saw it as INTER (bury) + SECT (group). The hundred confused me.
Amma @22 it might if it wasn’t there, but it was, so you have to parse with it 😃. C is generally a good bet for 100.
Nice little quiptic today I thought. Not exactly a write-in but very gentle. “Small time” tripped me up a bit trying to fit SEC in, but that’s a gentle enough trick for a quiptic I think. Thanks to Pasquale and Shanne 🙂
Nice quiptic. Is there a reason people want clues to not have superfluous words even if they still make sense or have nicer surfaces with them. Small time is just as acceptable for t as time. Obviously they’re here as a clearer signpost for beginners to know what to do but even if this was in an difficult crossword I’m not sure what the problem would be. Thanks Shanne and Pasquale, hadn’t heard of erse or thorn but figured it all out.
Martin@20 I get that and I know my Roman numerals; ‘about a hundred’ just seemed unnecessary.
Thank you, miserableoldhack @15 and Shanne. I spent ages trying to work out if it was a Grauniad special or a really deep part of the clue!
paddymelon @3
Thank you so much! It is really very interesting.
And thank you Shanne for the blog and everybody for the interesting discussion.
As for Quiptic, all the clues were quite clear this time, though little/small as an indicator of abbreviation was new to me. I had to google for the former Prime Minister to solve the clue and for THORN to check the answer I made from the clue and the crosses. And information found was really interesting. Other than that, everything was gentle but enjoyable. Thank you, Pasquale!
I thought this was perfectly pitched for a Quiptic. Thanks to Pasquale and Shanne.
Maybe this is the way quiptics should always be but this seemed genuinely easy, with many clues being write ins and I am by no means a pro. The guardian quiptic has had a tendency to get more difficult over time (I usually find it harder than everyman) but this was a reversal of that trend.
Great fun and markedly easier than Pasquale’s very own Quick Cryptic on Saturday. Thorn was new but an easy enough guess with the crossers in. Several very nice clues but I particularly liked Intersect and Parsonage. Thanks Shanne and Pasquale.
Nice quiptic. Thank you.