The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29932.
A gentle offering from Maskarade, with a good sprinkling of simple anagrams for less experienced solvers to get a foothold.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DOWNING STREET |
Drewsteignton oddly with Whitehall address (7,6)
|
| An anagram (‘oddly’) of ‘Drewsteignton’. DOWNING STREET is a spur off the road Whitehall; in the definition ‘Whitehall’ is the surrounding area (or a metonym for the Government). Drewsteignton is a village in Devon. | ||
| 10 | OUTINGS |
I go nuts arranging day trips (7)
|
| An anagram (‘arranging’ – which would tend to make me think that the anagrist follows) of the preceding ‘I go nuts’. | ||
| 11 | NIAGARA |
Falls again, turning back with artist (7)
|
| A charade of NIAGA, a reversal (‘turning back’) of ‘again’, plus RA (‘artist’). | ||
| 12 | NIGHT |
The dark man on board, it’s said (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘it’s said’) KNIGHT (‘man on board’, chess). | ||
| 13 | SCINTILLA |
Very minor piece composed, it’s all in C (9)
|
| An anagram (‘composed’) of ‘it’s all in C’. | ||
| 14 | TONIC |
Heavyweight in charge of drink (5)
|
| A charade of TON (‘heavyweight’) plus IC (‘in charge’). | ||
| 16 | IN A SECOND |
Newly canonised, very quickly (2,1,6)
|
| An anagram (‘newly’) of ‘canonised’. | ||
| 18 | EGLANTINE |
For instance, worker in business producing plant (9)
|
| A charade of EG (‘for instance’) plus LANTINE, an envelope (‘in’) of ANT (‘worker’) in LINE (‘business’), for the sweetbriar rose. | ||
| 19 | FUDGE |
Ineffectual compromise that a confectioner provides (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | LISTENERS |
Old BBC magazine’s ears? (9)
|
| Double definition, if the apostrophe s is included in the first definition. | ||
| 23 | CARES |
Sweetheart in saloons worries (5)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘swEerheart’ i.e. the heart of sweet) in CARS (‘saloons’ – an unanounced indication by example). | ||
| 24 | CEDILLA |
Cover turned back in fancy lace – as seen in Façade (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of DIL, a reversal (‘turned back’) of LID (‘cover’) in CELA, an anagram (‘fancy’) of ‘lace’. A cedilla is the twiddly bit under the c in ‘Façade’ (and the capital F suggests the poems by Edith Sitwell set by William Walton). | ||
| 25 | SHANNON |
Quiet before long consumes northern river and sea area (7)
|
| A envelope (‘consumes’) of N (‘northern’) in SH (‘quiet’ as an imperative) plus ANON (‘before long’). | ||
| 26 | ARC DE TRIOMPHE |
French landmark damaged car he imported (3,2,8)
|
| An anagram (‘damaged’) of ‘car he imported’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OCTAGONAL |
Like a stop sign a lot can go out of shape (9)
|
| An anagram (‘out of shape’) of ‘a lot can go’. | ||
| 3 | NONET |
Group not heartless, embracing individual (5)
|
| An envelope (’embracong’) of ONE (‘individual’) in ‘n[o]t’ without its middle letter (‘heartless’). | ||
| 4 | NOSES |
Pries into one’s new suit first (5)
|
| A charade of NOSE, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘one’s’, plus S (‘Suit first’) | ||
| 5 | SYNDICATE |
Group supplying material to newspapers announces two girls (9)
|
| Sounds like (‘announces’) CINDY KATE (‘two girls’). | ||
| 6 | ROAST BEEF |
Criticise complaint at Sunday lunch (5,4)
|
| A charade of ROAST (‘criticise’) plus BEEF (‘complaint’). ‘at’ might be added to the definition. | ||
| 7 |
Communication of some parliamentary upset (5)
|
|
| A hidden (‘some’) reversed (‘upset’ in a down light) answer in ‘parLIAMEntary’. | ||
| 8 | ROUND THE CLOCK |
How hands move 24/7? (5,3,5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 9 | SALAD DRESSING |
South African boy making smoother mayonnaise (5,8)
|
| A charade of S (‘south’) plus A (‘African’) plus LAD (‘boy’) plus DRESSING (‘making smoother’). An indication by example. | ||
| 15 | CANCELLED |
Revoked, when intoxicated in prison room? Quite the opposite (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of CELL (‘prison room’) in CANED (‘intoxicated’; I am familiar with canned in this sense, but it seems that CANED is another of the many words and expressions wiith this meaning). | ||
| 16 | ITINERANT |
I can go on about English drifter (9)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of E (‘English’) in ITINRANT, a charade of ‘I’ plus TIN (‘can’) plus RANT (‘go on’). | ||
| 17 | OLD FRENCH |
Vieux? (3,6)
|
| Cryptic definition, sort of. | ||
| 21 | SEDER |
Meal for Passover some organised erroneously (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘organiSED ERroneously’. | ||
| 22 | SUSHI |
Delicacy from his US cooking (5)
|
| An anagram (‘cooking’) of ‘his US’. | ||
| 23 | CHARM |
Goldfinches in a group delight (5)
|
| Double definition, the first being the collective noun. |
Nice puzzle, nothing too contrived or obscure.
I will mention one curious thing, though. While vieux is OLD FRENCH, it isn’t Old French. Old French for “old” is “viel” (see here).
Tx.
Caned? Another to add to the very long list of synonyms for “intoxicated”. Do we need any more?
Unsurprisingly, I’d not heard of the old BBC magazine, but it couldn’t have been anything else.
I learnt a new collective noun. And I’d never heard of SEDER till I looked it up. Of the UK-specific clues, DOWNING STREET was easy, SHANNON less so, but the wordplay was straightforward.
A plesant solve with plenty of smiles, thanks Maskarade.
Thanks PeterO. I thought the anagrist and answer for1 across was a great find. I imagine it’s been done before (but couldn’t find it on 15sq search). I bet the locals know it. (I live in a town spelt with half the letters of the alphabet, none of them repeated, and all of the vowels included, but I bet apart from me and the person I stole that fact from, no one else probably knows.)
I was intrigued and looked up Drewsteignton and found it was recorded in the Domesday Book. Is Maskarade telling us something about Downing Street?
My favourite was SCINTILLA for its musicality. SYNDICATE induced a gruckle. (groan/chuckle) Near enough but good enough (not in my dialect though).
Liked DOWNING STREET, SCINTILLA and ITINERANT.
OLD FRENCH: Agree with the blogger (not quite cryptic).
Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.
Good question, pdm @3. [As it happens, I knew about Drewsteignton as we have friends who live there].
Nice gentle puzzle, ta both.
[Oh and another old mate lived a couple of stops further up from yours ….]
@2 Geoff that made me laugh. There is an excellent skit by the comedian Michael McIntyre where he says the same thing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O597Bs6LZ7U
Good one, Rats.
I used to think that our longest lists of euphemisms belonged to toilets and sex, but I might think again. 🙂
[gif @6 Let us know if you’re ever coming this way.]
A pb for me.
SEDER unknown, but easily solved.
Thanks M and P
Comment #11
[Ta much pdm, love to but travelling days sadly over]
The four outside ones went straight in, so I knew from the off that it was a gentler Maskarade, and very enjoyable it was too.
I always rather enjoyed the dear old Listener magazine. [The BBC’s in-house one is – or was, it may well have bitten the dust too – Ariel (after Prospero & Ariel, though many folk understandably misspelled it with a second A), and the two in-house wines – which surely no longer exist! – were Tontine and Sans Fil: Auntie and Wireless.]
SEDER and CHARM were new to me; I like the latter, but doubt I’ll get much chance to use it…
Thanks Maskarade and PeterO
Certainly one of the most gentle offerings from the Guardian for a while. Even the two words I didn’t know went straight in. Only my poor French caused me any trouble.
Some neat anagrams in this as well.
Thanks PeterO and Maskarade
Not difficult, but all very nicely done. Especially liked NIGHT, CHARM and the lovely anagram spots for SCINTILLA and IN A SECOND.
Gentle offering, enjoyed SYNDICATE, SCINTILLA and CEDILLA. I’m ambivalent about OLD FRENCH.
Ta Maskarade & PeterO.
Way too gentle for my taste – I’m very much in favour of easier crosswords to help those starting out in solving but I find Maskarade’s clues are typically easily solvable without having to understand the cryptic component of the clue. This, for me, makes the exercise far less enjoyable.
Thanks Maskarade and PeterO
Sorry, this was genuinely a complete write-in – easier than Saturday’s Quick Cryptic.
Quite liked CARES for “sweetheart”.
I do admire a setter who can regularly produce puzzles at both ends of the difficulty spectrum.
In the CANCELLED clue, I wonder why Maskarade didn’t simply opt for “punished” instead of the obscure “intoxicated”. For me it would improve the prison surface.
Many thanks, both.
I never thought I’d say this but I found this very easy, almost a write-in. The only answer that I had a bit of an issue with was OLD FRENCH which I thought a bit weak. Nho seder but it went straight in. I’m also not a fan of obscure collective nouns such as CHARM. Like others my favourite answer was DOWNING STREET. Very clever.
Ticked SYNDICATE for reminding me of Alan Connor’s classic PATELLA clue (& book)
In defence of VIEUX it’s the only clue I’m still thinking about an hour later. What’s next? Nein = no German…
Cheers P&M
So many NONETS over the past two years! Between The Guardian and The FT they’d combine into an orchestra’s worth.
Definitely at the easier end of the spectrum as I finished it before I finished my cup of coffee. Thanks to P & M.
[Martin @22: So you’d be saying “No, No, Nonet”?…]
[Bodycheetah@21 “I don’t know French? (2,2,4,3)” “How to win? A Spaniard hasn’t a clue (2,2,2)” “Sceap hund (3,7,8)”…too many ridiculous possiblities]
Well constructed puzzle that really belonged on Monday. Splendid anagrams, but my favourite was the beautifully surfaced SCINTILLA.
SUSHI might just about be appropriate for Chinese New Year, but Mardi Gras is too early for a SEDER.
Thanks to Maskarade and PeterO
[JoFT @24: Sceap hund is beautiful 🙂 ]
Just for anyone who doesn’t already know, Maskarade masquerades as Doc in The Spectator whose puzzles we’ve recently started blogging.
Well worth a look.
PhilB @20
I would have thought that “a charm of goldfinches” was one of the better known collective nouns.
CHARMs of goldfinches happen, unlike parliaments of owls – they are usually solitary. There are a couple of rough corners full of teasels round here, which are often full of goldfinches in autumn and winter, and there was a charm on the buddleia outside the kitchen window recently. There’s also Charm on, Goldfinch from The Lost Words.
It wasn’t easier than the Quick Cryptic, honestly.
Thank you to PeterO and Maskarade
Very enjoyable and definitely would have fitted in as a Sunday Quiptic. I consider myself in the improver bracket so this was a great grid for me as I found yesterday’s Vulcan a bit of a challenge. I really liked OLD FRENCH and EGLANTINE, CEDILLA and SCINTILLA were also good. Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.
More of a Quiptic than last week’s Quiptic was. Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.
I failed to parse ITINERANT – the can=tin thing always passes me by – but otherwise everything went in beautifully, fully parsed. My sense of achievement is slightly dampened by the knowledge that many others found it easy, or a ‘write-in’ even. I found it a pleasure anyway, especially after staring blankly at the Vulcan cryptic yesterday.
Straightforward but enjoyable. I liked the good anagrams for DOWNING STREET, SCINTILLA and IN A SECOND. I also liked SYNDICATE, which, the same as bc @21, reminded me of patella.
Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.
I’m sorry to find in the (minority) camp of “rather too easy for a weekday crossword”. It would have been a splendid Quiptic, but when it’s all done and dusted in less then the time it takes to drink the accompanying mug of coffee, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
That’s not to say there weren’t some neat clues – quite a few made me smile (CEDILLA and SCINTILLA for example), but with no more chewy bits to give the mind a bit of a workout, I felt a bit underwhelmed.
Hey ho… I see there are many for whom it hit the sweet spot, so that’s all good.
Thanks both!
Am inclined to agree with the too easy camp – I don’t do the other lesser crosswords, but this was notably the easiest Guardian cryptic I’ve ever done. Both from the clues and the absence of obscurity in the solutions. Hats off, however, to Maskerade for the range of difficulty he is able to master.
btw – It is weakish, but “Vieux” is the correct clue for OLD FRENCH. For the clue “VIEL” the solution would have to be OLD OLD FRENCH.
The Listener crossword (quite a challenge) was famous, and still exists in the Times every Saturday.
I hardly ever do a weekday crossword.
We’re having our windows replaced so thought I’d sit down with this one to keep me occupied most of the day, as I can’t get on with much else.
I enjoyed it enormously, but now I need to find something else to do!
After a few entries I started wondering if there had been an editorial blunder. The date at the head says ‘Mon 16 Feb 2026’.