A Monday puzzle from the Don himself.
It's a pleasure to get to solve a Pasquale on a Monday, although it was definitely on the easier side of thr Don's spectrum. STATER may have given some solvers pause, but it's very clear from the wordplay. My favourite clue was the one for FULL STOP, and my LOI was CRAZED but having noticed that the puzzle was a pangram that needed a Z, this was the only possible answer.
Thanks, Pasquale.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | COUSIN |
Penny maybe hugs American relative (6)
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COIN ("penny maybe") hugs US (American) |
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| 6 | PHRASE |
Battles may be reported in this combination of words (6)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [may be reported] of FRAYS ("battles") |
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| 9 | JAILED |
Jack was ill, stuck in prison (6)
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J (Jack) + AILED ("was ill") |
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| 10 | VERTICAL |
Upright vicar let rip (8)
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*(vicar let) [anag:rip] |
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| 11 | FELT |
Touched material (4)
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Double definition |
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| 12 | PARDONABLE |
Fellow in Bible story not doomed to punishment (10)
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DON ("fellow") in PARABLE ("Bible story") |
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| 13 | APPROXIMATE |
Rough map pirate unfolded containing old symbol for treasure location (11)
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*(map pirate) [anag:unfolded] containing O (old) + X ("symbol for treasure location" as in "X marks the spot") |
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| 18 | MATCHSTICK |
Fiery striker in game’s given sign of approval (10)
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MATCH'S ("game's") given TICK ("sign of approval") |
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| 21 | ABUT |
Neighbour – a target of ridicule, we hear (4)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [we hear] of A BUTT ("a target of ridicule") |
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| 22 | ORGANDIE |
Material to fade behind church instrument? (8)
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DIE ("to fade") behind ORGAN ("church instrument") |
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| 23 | REMOVE |
Get rid of this writer going the wrong way in ramble (6)
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<=ME ("writer", going the wrong way) in ROVE ("ramble") |
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| 24 | WHINNY |
Sound of horse – for what reason? – outside pub (6)
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WHY ("for what reason") outside INN ("pub") |
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| 25 | STATER |
Old coin, say, with head of Rex or Regina (6)
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STATE ("say") with [head of] R(ex) or R(egina) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FULL STOP |
What’s the point when the author has finished a bit of writing? (4,4)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 2 | WIND-UP |
Make fun of conclusive act (4-2)
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WIND UP ("make fun of") |
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| 3 | KHARTOUM |
King having a hot rum poured out in African city (8)
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K (King, in chess notation) having *(a hot rum) [anag:poured out] |
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| 4 | MANILA |
Mum with nothing looking down on a foreign capital (6)
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MA ("mum") with NIL ("nothing") looking down on A |
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| 5 | CRAZED |
A bit cracked, in more ways than one? (6)
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Crpytic definition, CRAZED meaning both "deranged" and "cracked" as in crazy paving. |
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| 7 | E-MAILS |
Messages that could bring a smile (1-5)
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*(a smile) [anag:that could bring a] |
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| 8 | OVEREXCITED |
Maiden, possibly former lover, quoted as being too emotional (11)
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OVER ("maiden, possibly") + EX ("former lover") + CITED ("quoted") |
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| 14 | RESIDENT |
Someone having accommodation in desert after wandering (8)
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*(in desert) [anag:after wandering] |
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| 15 | TEAMMATE |
Meat cooked repeatedly for fellow in the side (8)
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*(meat) + *(meat) [anag:cooked] [repeatedly] |
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| 16 | FARROW |
Litter in distant line of terraced houses? (6)
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FAR ("distant") + ROW ("line of terraced houses") |
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| 17 | QUIVER |
The case of an archer making one tremble (6)
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Double definition |
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| 19 | COATIS |
Mammals one’s hidden in garments (6)
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I (one) hidden in COATS ("garments") |
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| 20 | KARATE |
Catherine engages artist in contact sport (6)
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KATE (Catherine) engages RA (member of the Royal Academy, thus "artist") |
Yes, definitely one of Pasquale’s easier creations. I often baulk at too many obscurities, but the only one that was new to me today was the clearly clued STATER. I even new COATIS, having encountered one in South America years ago, which proved to me that they don’t only exist in crosswords.
A most enjoyable experience. (The crossword, not the coati.) 🙂
Didn’t notice the pangram — I never do.
Not that difficult but really not worth the time,on a busy Monday.
An early start today: back problems keeping me awake,so the diversion was especially welcome. All very straightforward and pleasing, i thought. PARDONABLE and APPROXIMATE particularly took my fancy, as did the neat surfaces for FARROW and MATCHSTICK. ORGANDIE brought to mind an early and rather melancholy Simon & Garfunkel song.
Thanks Pasquale and Loonapick.
I have a few queries I hope can be addressed?What is the purpose of having the question mark at the end of clues 24a and 16d?For clue 25a,I’ve never come across a puzzle where one is given an option to choose an opening letter,point in case (Rex or Regina).Thanks in advance.
thanks P and L! in 24a ,”why” is actually a question so “?” is part of the synonym.
Sorry I meant *case in point*.
Thanks loonapick. CRAZED was my second one in, but despite the Z, and the nearby J in JAILED, also early in, I didn’t think to look for a pangram.
What I did notice was that X was the central letter in the whole crossword. Clever. X does mark the spot!
There was a lot happening in the clue for OVEREXCITED. The punctuation is misdirecting and to be ignored. Non cricket aficionados may need a bit of a nudge with “over possibly” meaning a definition by example, a kind of “over” in cricket, i.e. 6 balls bowled without the batter scoring. That’s the way I read the clue anyway.
Liked FARROW for the misdirection of the def “litter”, and CRAZED also for the misdirection of being a little bit mad, but it’s about ceramics. Made me laugh.
Thanks Pasquale for the crossie and the Easter Eggs.
Enjoyable, but over to soon for me. Had to resort to Google for the dnk STATER.
Ronnie B @4: the ‘?’ in crosswords is fairly loosely defined, but you might find it helpful to imagine it’s saying ‘sort of’.
Many thanks to the Don. (I’m surprised he didn’t deploy his other alter ego in PARDONABLE).
A quick finish. Stater was my only unfamiliar word. Thanks for a good start to the week.
Same as Loonapick with CRAZED the last one in helped by spotting a pangram was a possibility. Also not heard of STATER but it was my best guess and probably the only possibility from the wordplay.
PARDONABLE my favourite today.
Seemed very Mondayish in places and far from it in others.
Thanks Loonapick and Pasquale.
Ronnie B @4 – In 24D the question mark is indicating a definition by example (DBE), as a “line of terraced houses” is one example of a ROW.
I do like the way that Pasquale adapts his puzzles to the spots.
Thank you to PeterO and Pasquale.
Favourites: OVEREXCITED, APPROXIMATE, PARDONABLE (mainly because it did not require knowing the name of anyone mentioned in the bible!)
Was unsure how to parse 5d CRAZED (loi) apart from deranged = crazed.
I didn’t notice the puzzle is a pangram.
Not Pasquale’s hardest, but all very neat and tidy. Like paddymelon I found the X positioned at the centre of the grid very satisfying. ORGANDIE was new to me, as was STATER which I had to guess. CRAZED might have eluded me without the pangram. Favourite was the excellent PARDONABLE.
I agree with Shanne@11: you can be sure that a Pasquale puzzle will be suitably hard or easy for its intended slot, and this one fits nicely. STATER is the only relatively unfamiliar word, but the clue is easy enough. COATIS gave me more trouble trying to think of an animal ending in I. I liked the fiery striker and X marking the spot (though I missed the one in the grid), and the suspected pangram helped to get CRAZED.
A couple of thoughts
PHRASE
I think the def should include the ‘this’
(‘this combination of words’ as well as ‘combination of words’ –either can work as an example for PHRASE.
Not sure if intended.)
REMOVE
Def: Get rid of
this writer=ME
Thanks Loonapick and Pasquale.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
I wrote in an unparsed SEND UP for 2d before checking, and I still think it fits the definition better.
Favourites PARDONABLE and the neat TEAMMATE.
Not sure why “church” was needed in 22a, though it does make solving the clue easier.
Another demonstration of the fact that a puzzle doesn’t have to be hard to be enjoyable. With nil placed between ma and a, you could say MANILA was an envelope.
KVa @16 thanks for spotting my typo in the parsing of REMOVE. Will amend when I get a chance
Another where CRAZED was last to fall and like loonapick, I realised it had to be that, to complete the pangram. I also had SEND UP at first but couldn’t make it work. My favourites were PARDONABLE, MATCHSTICK, APPROXIMATE and OVEREXCITED. Nice start to the week.
Ta Pasquale & loonapick.
muffin#16. ORGANDIE. Church instrument is what we’d expect from Pasquale. I don’t understand why the QM.
Neatly done, with the superb surface for APPROXIMATE a particular delight.
I suppose it doesn’t make any difference today, because both APPROXIMATE and OVEREXCITED are very clearly clued; but at the moment the Graun does seem to be making a habit of grids containing clues where a majority of the letters are unchecked, and I wish they wouldn’t.
Thanks, both.
Re #4s comment on 25a, what is the point of ‘or regina’
Benbow@22
STATER
I was thinking that the clue was a nice extended def (and the ‘Regina’ didn’t hurt the WP, though the word was
not essential for solving the clue).
Google says:
Ancient Greek staters did not typically feature the head of the ruling king during the early and classical periods; instead, they usually depicted gods, goddesses, heroes, or civic symbols. The practice of putting a living ruler’s portrait on coinage became standard only later, during the Hellenistic period, starting with Alexander the Great and his successors.
Just found it interesting.
I’m the only vote so far for FULL STOP. I also liked CRAZED yet it failed to alert me to the possibility of a pangram; I suspect I don’t think about if the puzzle’s going in smoothly. NHO STATER, and I was pleased to dredge up with COATIS. I’m another who doesn’t see the purpose in the question mark for ORGANDIE.
[This is the second week in a row in which the Quiptic has poorly pitched, IMO. I felt this Monday puzzle was more straightforward, albeit with a couple of less common words. Yesterday’s Quiptic, whilst being a fine puzzle in itself, was more devious… it even had lift-and-separate (albeit easy ones whose solutions were gettable even if you didn’t spot the device). I was surprised by how little grumbling there was, TBH!]
Stator and coatis, though not exactly familiar, were both lurking in the dark recesses of my mind, which implies to me that I have come across them both previously in cruciverballand.
Sadly not in real life, unlike the lucky GDU@1 on his travels
Muffin@16: SEND-UP was my first thought for 2d, but I couldn’t convince myself it could mean ‘conclusive act’, whereas WIND-UP does fit both definitions.
Failed on COATIS I’m afraid.
I’m another who enjoyed this – but I’m struck by how many commenters have saluted Pasquale’s ability to fit the difficulty level to the slot in question.
A few days ago Soup, possibly in response to a large number of comments about how hard that puzzle had been, took the trouble to explain that he was never given a specific date for his contributions, but simply submitted them – the decision regarding the timing of their appearance being the crossword editor’s. Soup himself was equally surprised to see that puzzle on a weekday.
This would seem to imply that Pasquale hasn’t, in fact, designed this one for a Monday – and would also go some way towards answering AP @24’s query as to why some quiptics are harder than weekday cryptics….
I doubt we’ll ever learn the answer for sure, however, as I understand the Guardian’s crossword editor doesn’t bother to read comments.
Hey ho.
Thank you Pasquale for today’s fun and loonapick for the blog
X marks the spot, and a bang in the middle of the two long words making another X, my first two in just after midnight, pangram me thinks, and it was!
ABUT was cute!
Thanks P&L
Petert@17 I laughed out loud at your manila comment
Today is Pasquale’s first Monday of the year, and with it he has joined Brummie and Brendan in completing the daily set for the year. This is the 5th time he has done so (he previously did it in 1992, 1993, 2017 and 2024).
Unlike the Bs, Pasquale has also provided Quiptics, Quick Cryptics and a Genius this year, so his full set is as full as it gets. He is only the second setter to achieve this in a calendar year – Picaroon did so last year.