Our longest-standing provider of Guardian Quiptics, Hectence, is on the oche today.
Noteworthy today is the inclusion of two clues that require the ‘lift and separate’ treatment. Your chance to get acquainted with it if you’ve never come across it before. Elsewhere a steady solve, I found. And of course, since it’s Hectence, it’s a pangram: all 26 letters of the alphabet feature somewhere in the grid.
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 Waxwork reflected leftist leader and his struggles
POLISH
A charade of OP for ‘work’ reversed, L for the initial letter of ‘leftist’ and (HIS)* The anagrind is ‘struggles’. We need to perform what some people call a ‘lift and separate’ manoeuvre on ‘waxwork’, turning it into ‘wax’ and ‘work’. Then the first particle becomes the definition and the second particle leads us to OP. Not a super common device, but if it’s the first time you’ve come across it, worth tucking away for future reference.
4 Turning point is introduction of Iago in RSC production
CRISIS
An insertion of IS and I for the initial letter of ‘Iago’ in (RSC)* The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘production’.
9 Start sobbing, saying ‘Reduce speed!’ before feathers accompanied by shriek
BREAK DOWN AND CRY
A charade of BREAK, aural wordplay (‘saying’) for BRAKE, DOWN for ‘feathers’, AND and CRY.
10 Dismiss court to pursue concerning point about judge
REJECT
A charade of J inserted into RE and E for the compass ‘point’ and CT. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
11 Stand by sea skipper blowing top
MAINTAIN
A charade of MAIN and [CAP]TAIN.
12 Son laid back lazily with no thought
STUPIDLY
A charade of S, PUT reversed and IDLY.
14 Browsed primarily in Google running streetmap edition
GRAZED
A charade of G and R for the initial letters of ‘Google’ and ‘running’, AZ for the city streetfinder that no-one uses any more because they all rely on Google maps, and ED.
15 Way sunlight diverges
STRAYS
A charade of ST and RAYS.
18 Less polite exclamation of surprise embraced by nouveau riche?
CHEEKIER
An insertion of EEK in (RICHE)* The insertion indicator is ’embraced by’ and the anagrind is ‘nouveau’.
21 Obtains specialist remedies
PROCURES
A charade of PRO and CURES.
22 Nicely warm when central heaters brought into play
TOASTY
An insertion of AS and T for the middle letter of heaTers in TOY. The insertion indicator is ‘brought into’.
24 Accommodate old supporter with hotel, given you’re inside for some time
QUARTER OF AN HOUR
A charade of QUARTER, O, FAN, H for the phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’ and OUR for the inside letters of yOURe. ‘The troops were accommodated/quartered in barracks outside the town.’
25 Shove spades in shed and leave borders
HUSTLE
An insertion of S in HUT followed by LE for the outside letters of ‘leave’. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
26 Gets sick filled with retiring party’s heavy carbs
STODGE
An insertion of DO reversed in (GETS)* The insertion indicator is ‘filled with’, the anagrind is ‘sick’ and the reversal indicator is ‘retiring’.
Down
1 Left hospital department with foreboding
PORTENT
A charade of PORT and ENT for Ear, Nose and Throat.
2 Set off for holiday
LEAVE
A dd.
3 Tranquillised, steadied, I dropped off
SEDATED
(STEAD[I]ED)* with ‘off’ as the anagrind.
5 Travelling’s not right without including French friend
ROAMING
Here’s your second chance to get acquainted with the lift and separate device: this time we need to separate ‘without’ into ‘with’ and ‘out’. Then it becomes an insertion of AMI in [W]RONG. The insertion indicator is ‘including’ and the exclusion indicator for the W (‘with’) is ‘out’.
6 Put off team on course
SIDETRACK
A charade of SIDE and TRACK.
7 Suspect serviceman involved in complex issue
SURMISE
An insertion of RM for Royal Marine in (ISSUE)* The insertion indicator is ‘involved in’ and the anagrind is ‘complex’.
8 Small path circling edges of map gets waterlogged
SWAMPY
A charade of S and MP for the outside letters of ‘map’ inserted into WAY. The insertion indicator is ‘circling’.
13 Have a game of bridge with amusing people following theatre show?
PLAY CARDS
A charade of PLAY and CARDS.
16 By putting personnel in harsh surroundings …
THROUGH
An insertion of HR, Human Resources, or ‘personnel’ in TOUGH. The insertion indicator is ‘putting in … surroundings’. Welcome to the vagaries of English spelling and pronunciation. Pity I didn’t have CHOUGH for my bird link.
17 … rulers unexpectedly have caught one that’s very odd
SURREAL
An insertion of A in (RULERS)* The insertion indicator is ‘have caught’ and the anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’. The ellipses between the two clues can, as in 99 cases out of 100, be ignored. They are there just to make a bit more sense of the two surface readings.
18 Mimic us to mirror characters in tradition
CUSTOM
Hidden in MimiC US TO Mirror.
19 Pull out old pamphlet
EXTRACT
A charade of EX and TRACT.
20 Tunes he composed make one excited
ENTHUSE
(TUNES HE)* with ‘composed’ as the anagrind.
23 Fly kept out of sight after Dad turned up
APHID
A charade of PA reversed and HID.
Many thanks to Hectence for this weekend’s Quiptic.
Long-time lurker, but couldn’t resist making the first comment this morning. 🙂 I always forget to look for the pangram. Thanks very much to Hectence and Pierre, and to all the other 225 bloggers.
Thanks for the blog Pierre and the useful explanation about the ‘lift and separate’ which I’ve not really understood until now. Two good examples, probably my top clues of the grid. I could not parse 1a but I can now. I thought this was a pretty fair Quiptic. Very smooth. Thanks Hectance.
I enjoyed the ‘lift and separate’ clues.
I failed to parse 22ac, and I see now that I wrongly parsed 14ac as G R + a-zed = A-Z street map instead of as Pierre has shown above.
Can someone explain why in 17d one refers to A rather than O or I?
Too tough for me overall but when revealed the clues were fair.
Lapwing @4. Sometimes one can simply mean I, or it can mean A – you just have to figure out which one works. Haven’t come across O meaning one, though.
I had POL as in Pol Pot for the leftish leader thereby missing the lift and separate. Also had SERIOUS for 7d for a while as anagram of OR and ISSUE. Both failed when trying to parse the definition although one was right for the wrong reasons. Also minor quibble but my thesaurus has STAND BY for MAINTAIN. None of which detracted by a pleasant time. Thank you Pierre for explanations and Hectence for gentle frustrations!
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I found the acrosses quite hard, but fortunately the downs were easier. Favourite POLISH when I eventually worked out where the PO came from.
Pedants’ corner: graze and browse are not the same when applied to animals. Grazing is eating off the ground; browsing is eating off trees and shrubs above ground level. I suppose the terms are used interchangeably for humans, though.
Absolutely interchangeably for humans, muffin, which is why the clue works perfectly and there was no need for your pedantry.
Pierre
Important to zoologists; and to people too – they probably don’t realise why are there two different words for the same activity!
Couldn’t see how 22ac worked although I can now see that AS means “when”. Not quite a full explanation by Pierre I feel. However, thanks Hectance and Pierre.
Another very enjoyable and reliable quiptic from Hectence. I found that I didn’t always make an effort to exactly parse an answer once it was clear – a dangerous habit, which I must try to avoid… Didn’t understand how CARDS = “amusing people”. Thanks Hectence and Pierre!
Lapwing @4: an indefinite article sometimes literally means “one”, e.g. “not a chance” = “not one chance”, “an apple a day” = “one apple per day” etc.
I for one appreciated muffin@7 ‘s pedantry. Knowledge I didn’t previously have, and as far as I can see it wasn’t a criticism of the clueing.
Yes, Ridgeowl @10, ‘as’ is very often clued by ‘when’.
You know how it is? That first glass of wine -” ooh, that was nice” – becomes the emptied bottle; that first chocolate- “just one of the nutty ones” – heads for the empty box… Well, just after midnight I thought I’d have a quick look at Grauniad… So my breakfast entertainment was already done and dusted before I went to sleep.
A very nice quiptic, especially with the accompanying glass (ONE glass) of Laphroig. FOI was SWAMPY, then W and a look at the clue and wordage for 9A suggested DOWN and…
All good satisfying stuff.
Many thanks to Hectence for the fun, and Pierre for the very comprehensive blog.