A very quick search suggests that Dice has previously only compiled Quick Cryptics for the Guardian (which are also blogged on Fifteensquared). So a welcome to her in the Quiptic slot.
My first blog of 2026 and a puzzle with a nod or two to the season. A solver-friendly grid with clues to match, I would say.
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 With regard to getting answers, new year, new you?
RESOLUTIONS
A charade of RE and SOLUTIONS, setting the tone for the first Quiptic of 2026.
9 Raised platform that is shaped at the front for flowers
DAISIES
A charade of DAIS, IE for id est or ‘that is’ and S for the first letter of ‘shaped’.
10 Draw, roughly, cat and rat with trucker’s cap
ATTRACT
(CAT RAT T)* with ‘roughly’ as the anagrind.
11 Couple with Pingu, randomly, getting a membership
JOINING UP
A charade of JOIN and (PINGU)* with ‘randomly’ as the anagrind. Never heard of Pingu? Charming little fellow, with a cute sister called Pinga.
12 Fly film I’d generally disregarded somewhat
MIDGE
Hidden in filM ID GEnerally.
13 BA guards emptied out luggage
BAGS
A charade of BA and G[UARD]S.
14 Fake port I’m crazy to sell on for more
MAKE PROFIT
(FAKE PORT IM)* with ‘crazy’ as the anagrind.
16 Good weather in the new year? Time for some mocktails!
DRY JANUARY
‘Good weather’ at this time of the year might be DRY. It is where I live currently, and very cold to go with it. Good photography weather.
19 Setter becoming single – time to lose weight?
DIET
The setter is Dice. Strictly, that’s plural: if there was only one it would be a DIE, to which you need to add T to get your solution.
21 Senior picking up award for not drinking
SOBER
An insertion of OBE in SR. The insertion indicator is ‘picking up’.
22 They might indicate sex workers guided Conservative groups, according to Spooner
RED LIGHTS
Spooner might have this as LED RIGHTS.
24 Special little moment with man having a puff
SMOKING
A charade of S, MO and KING for the [chess] ‘man’.
25 Rate Doc’s unusual 20s style
ART DECO
(RATE DOC)* with ‘[i]s unusual’ as the anagrind.
26 Go in street, catch bottoms of exuberant reckless lovers
SWEETHEARTS
A charade of WEE inserted into ST, HEAR and TS for the final letters of ‘exuberant’ and ‘reckless’. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
Down
1 Maybe having a facelift? Surprising!
RAISING EYEBROWS
A cd cum dd.
2 Film genre capturing hearts of muscly Brits – uplifting anime
SCI-FI
The central letters of muSCly, BrIts, upliFting and anIme.
3 Confusing Australian/American slang for Italian dish
LASAGNA
(A A SLANG)* with ‘confusing’ as the anagrind. Lasagna in Italian is singular, for one sheet of pasta; lasagne is the plural. In British English, the preferred spelling for the dish is LASAGNE; in American English, it’s LASAGNA. Our Australian regulars will tell us what they prefer. I would always write LASAGNE for the dish, since I would never write Spaghetto, Raviolo or Tagliatella, which are also the singulars. My Chambers gives both options, without referencing the BrEng/AmEng difference.
4 Stomp over sheep pelt, mangled on the outside
TRAMPLE
An insertion of RAM in (PELT)* with ‘mangled’ as the anagrind and ‘on the outside’ as the insertion indicator.
5 Best available public transport capsized
OUTSMART
A charade of OUT and TRAMS reversed.
6 Tendency to keep away from stall with salmon, perhaps, on Scottish headland
STANDOFFISHNESS
A charade of STAND OF FISH (‘stall with salmon, perhaps’) and NESS.
7 Book of the Bible supporting origins of one decidedly deadly Bond villain
ODDJOB
A charade of ODD for the initial letters of ‘one’, ‘decidedly’ and ‘deadly’ and JOB. ‘Supporting’ works because it’s a down clue.
8 Second time around part of forest road
STREET
An insertion of TREE in S and T. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
15 A year besieged by compliments leads to increase in wages in USA
PAY RAISE
An insertion of A Y in PRAISE. The insertion indicator is ‘besieged by’. This is firmly AmEng, hence the indicator in the clue.
16 Stop – hiding in Lourdes is trespassing
DESIST
Hidden in LourDES IS Trespassing.
17 Honourable puritan invested in long life
UPRIGHT
An insertion of PRIG in UHT. The insertion indicator is ‘invested in’. UHT or Ultra High Temperature milk, for example, is often described as ‘long-life’ milk.
18 Volatile AI rated broadcast
RADIATE
(AI RATED)* with ‘volatile’ as the anagrind.
20 Catching every other St Ives shoot – we watch it on the box
TV SHOW
The odd letters of ST IVeS sHoOt We.
23 Bury playwright, Harold, without his head?
INTER
[Harold] [P]INTER.
Many thanks to Dice for the first Quiptic of 2026. Quiptic no. 1 was published on 23 November 1999.
I initially failed to see that RESOLUTIONS sets the theme for the whole puzzle and thought it to be a rather vague definition – it’s actually good. I particularly liked the wordplay in RAISING EYEBROWS, STANDOFFISHNESS, DIET and UPRIGHT. Spent a while on DRY JANUARY. Overall, I thought this to be an extremely good quiptic, mild (with a couple of more difficult bits) but very entertaining. Thanks Dice and Pierre!
Lovely puzzle to ease me into the day. Held up considerably by misspelling dais and so trying to plant dahlias where DAISIES were sown. Lots to enjoy – DRY JANUARY made me smile as well as DIET which reminded me of constant childhood admonishments for saying “Hand me the dice,” during board games that only had one such numbered cube. Back to work tomorrow so back to lurking after Christmas break. Thank you Dice and Pierre
3D France tends towards the over-pluralisation of pasta, in that you have to eat spaghettis, lasagnes, and paninis, though you are allowed to have a singular pizza.
I have been known to ‘edit’ blackboards outside eating establishments in order to remove superfluous pluralisations of Italian dishes. Drives me mad!
In other news, I enjoyed this puzzle, apart from LASAGNA of course!
I enjoyed this puzzle.
New for me: DRY JANUARY.
Favourite: SWEETHEARTS (loi).
Thank you Pierre for helping me out with UPRIGHT, DIET, and the question of LASAGNA. Thank you too, of course, to Dice for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle that is perfectly judged for this slot.
I particularly liked DRY JANUARY.
A lovely puzzle; was flying to begin and got held up a bit in the SE.
Thanks to Dice and Pierre – does Pingu count as an ‘obligatory bird link’?
3d, A Centurion goes into a bar: “Gimme a martinus”
“Don’t you mean a martini?”
“If I wanted a double I would have asked for one…”
A nice puzzle that brought me several smiles, especially the long life milk reference and the Spoonerism.
As an Aussie I would say lasagne, but the answer fitted easily.
Thanks Dice and Pierre.
I added LASAGNE in the first place, but it quickly became clear it would be the other spelling. Anyway, a relief to have a well-pitched (and enjoyable) quiptic after last week’s, which was one of the very small number which needed several reveals.
That was nice. Spot on for a quiptic. Big tick for the clever and smile-inducing STANDOFFISHNESS.
I think “Ness” for “headland” isn’t so much a Scottish thing as a Scandinavian thing, so it’s common up and down the coast of the Danelaw as well as the east coast of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. Many holidays of my childhood were spent in Skegness, on the Lincolnshire coast. It’s so bracing!
Many thanks Dice and Pierre.
Welcome to the quiptic slot, Dice!
Spain falls firmly on “lasagnA”, and I suspect many other countries do as well, so it’s great to learn “lasagnE” is preferred in Italian.
“Setter becoming single” a very fun device and great surface! And I have fond childhood memories of Pingu, charming indeed.
On the other hand, Dry January new to me, and UHT=long life was understandable, but not something I would’ve thought — so thank you to Pierre!
Not too easy, not too hard… just right. Thank you for an enjoyable puzzle.
Felt similar in difficulty to the Quick Cryptic, so I liked it a lot. Not as ‘quippy’ as a Quiptic might suggest though. Or is it supposed to be a portmanteau of ‘quick cryptic’?
DTS @11 You’re correct about NESS not being distinctively Scottish, except of course as a loch. Here in East Anglia and not far from Balfour Towers we have Shoeburyness, Thorpeness and Orford Ness., and even down in Kent there is Dungeness Meanwhile, I have memories of my older son as a toddler watching Pingu and laughing hysterically. Then he graduated to The Fimbles. He has, alas, no memory of either.
Not your typical Quiptic as I was able to complete it.
Holypeanut @#7: the answer is not the bird, the whole bird and nothing but the bird, but I might claim that one anyway.
[Balfour@15: According to wiki, “The word ness is a geographical term for a promontory, cape or headland, a strip of land projecting into a body of water, and derives from the Old English næs, meaning headland (related to Old Norse nes)”. So not even especially Danelaw, as your examples show.
Ah, Shoeburyness. Thanks for the reminder. An old friend of mine came from there, and was charmed to find it immortalised (?) in Billy Bragg’s “Route 66” parody: “A13, Trunk Road to the Sea“.]
Re. 5D, why is available out? Can anyone tell me?
Perfect level of Quiptic for a relative newby like me. Thank you Dice. Hope to see many more from you this year.
Hello, Anne @#19. ‘The new album will be out/available on Saturday.’
Thanks, Pierre@21 😉
Many thanks Dice for a well pitched and most enjoyable Quiptic – the first of many I hope.
And of course thanks to Pierre for your blog.
The intersecting UPRIGHT and DRY JANUARY took me as long as the rest of the puzzle, I think. Neither prig nor uht come easily to my mind, and despite having DRY early on I just couldn’t see the JANUARY bit – taking a break and coming back after lunch finally sorted it.
Thanks to Dice and Pierre.
This was pitched beautifully for a newbie like me and I enjoyed it a lot. I struggled with “Setter becoming single” as my version of the Guardian App doesn’t tell me who the setter is! Eventually found a way to access that information without exposing myself to spoilers. Are other people solving on a different app to me?
Rachel@25 – it’s an annoying thing about the app that the “puzzles” page, which provides the more direct link to the crossword of the day, doesn’t show the setter’s name. To get that you need to look at the “archive” – the link is at the bottom of the “puzzles” page.
An alternative way to see the name of the setter is to select Menu, then Crosswords from the Guardian Homepage.
Dice rolls a good ‘un and hopefully this is the first of many from this setter. Took me a while to get going but all good in the end. UPRIGHT was my last one in and via crossers rather than understanding the wordplay. Understand it now from Pierre’s blog but I just didn’t twig either UHT or PRIG. Other than that it all felt fairly clued. Thanks Dice for the excellent Quiptic, and to Pierre for the explanations.
I do hope that the single DIE is not autobiographical.
Otherwise favourite Quiptic ever. Some really great clues.
My best guess as to why it’s LASAGNA rather than LASAGNE here (USA) is that it’s generally prepared by layering it with meat and cheese and then baking it until it’s consolidated into a single slab of pasta casserole, so it doesn’t feel very plural. Does anyone ever really prepare lasagne in any way that makes them distinct noodles? Interestingly when you buy the dried noodles in the store here, the package does in fact say “lasagne”, at least on most brands.
I quite enjoyed this puzzle; it’s rare to have a Quiptic with a theme, and this one was much appreciated. I assume that SMOKING was part of it, even though “quit” is absent from the grid.
This was an enjoyable puzzle.
Personally I do not like clues that do not stand on their own and are not understandable outside of a context. These include:
• Clues that refer to a setter pseudonym
• Clues that refer to another clue
• Clue that refer to an overall indication associated with the crossword.
Derekthesheep @26 – thanks for the tip! That works!
Welcome aboard. I could have done with an encouraging quiptic like this when i started out a few years ago. It has just enough to test the solver but not enough to drive one away in frustration.
From a newbie point of view I thought 5D “OUTSMART” and 19A “DIET” were particularly neat in their construct
Many thanks
Allan
Many thanks Dice and Pierre, this was thoroughly enjoyable.
Long time reader, first time poster.
Having returned to crosswords with the Quick Quiptics, which I’ve found a fantastic gateway back in, I’ve been working my way backwards through the cryptics and completing the new puzzles each week. These blogs are an invaluable resource to me so I’m so grateful for the effort you all put in with clear explanations and helpful responses in the comments. And hats off to the community, I always look forward to reading the comments (almost as much as completing the puzzle!) as it makes me feel I’m not doing it all alone.
Thank you for your first post, Wallsio. Those are nice compliments to the community. Welcome.
I found this very entertaining. Nothing I had to look up and no obscure GK but challenging enough. The only clue I couldn’t parse was DIET even though I had checked the setter at the start and it was actually a very good clue. I loved all the constructions. I don’t think there were any dispensable words or words not doing a job in the clue and a good mix of clue types. I hope to see this setter in this slot again.
Thanks Pierre.
Much to enjoy here and set at the level that I believe the Quiptic should be.
Already said but enjoyed DRY JANUARY. I’m taking part in it myself and my solving, particularly of an evening, has massively improved.
Dice has clearly been wasted being confined to just the Quick slot.
Did anyone else find this really tough? I have never heard of a prig, UHT, Harold Pinter, or ‘King’ as a synonym for ‘man’. I don’t understand why ‘public transport’ is ‘trams’ plural as opposed to the singular (take public transport/take the tram). 1D, 10A, and 22A just flew over my head completely, and I wouldn’t have gotten 3D (and by extension 14A) without the check button. I always feel out of my depth with these puzzles, but if this is one of the easier ones as I’ve seen people saying then I don’t know if I’m smart enough for this