This week’s Sunday Cryptic from the Guardian – found here
Harpo sets this week’s Quiptic – I thought it was challenging for a Quiptic as very few toe-holds through hidden and anagram clues – rather more deletion, insertion and cryptic clues with a sprinkling of soundalikes and double definitions. From blogging the Quick Cryptic, I’m aware that newer solvers get a start from the clues with the letters included, and then work out to the other clues.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SHAVER |
What leaves one exhibiting bare-faced cheek? (6)
|
| cryptic definition – a shaver is another word for a razor, and a razor leaves a man with a bare cheek, and chin .. | ||
| 4 | GAFFES |
Blunders made by bosses having run away (6)
|
| deletion of R (Run away) from GAFFErS (bosses) – R for Run comes from cricket abbreviations | ||
| 9 | GAME SET AND MATCH |
Summing-up after court battle (4,3,3,5)
|
| another cryptic definition – the final words from the umpire (summing-up) after a tennis match (court battle) – with the phrasing intended to make the solver think about legal action. | ||
| 10 | RUSSIA |
Country, reportedly one that moves swiftly (6)
|
| soundalike (reportedly) of “rusher” (one that moves swiftly) | ||
| 11 | THE ASHES |
Seethe as Hesketh secures trophy (3,5)
|
| hidden word(s) (secures) in seeTHE AS HESketh | ||
| 12 | REAPPEAR |
To be published again, most of papers are amended (8)
|
| anagram (amended) (PAPER ARE)* where PAPER = most of PAPERs | ||
| 14 | SWANEE |
River bird with wings of eagle (6)
|
| charade of SWAN (bird) with EE (wings of an EaglE) – wings of a word suggests the outer letters.
I know the SWANEE from an old Al Johnson song (actually from Swallows and Amazons) – but according to Wikipedia this isn’t the usual spelling |
||
| 15 | SPRING |
Economical, refusing a rise (6)
|
| deletion of A (refusing A) from SPaRING (economical) | ||
| 18 | COALFACE |
Site of mining company with a large clock (8)
|
| charade of CO (company) A (from the clue) L (large) FACE (clock) | ||
| 21 | HONOLULU |
Hard old Scottish singer nets working capital (8)
|
| insertion of ON (nets working) into charade of H (hard) O (old) LULU (Scottish singer) to give H ON O LULU | ||
| 22 | TANDEM |
Bicycle stand emptied, partly (6)
|
| hidden word(s) (partly) in sTAND EMptied | ||
| 24 | OF NO CONSEQUENCE |
From midday, series involving Charlie Petty? (2,2,11)
|
| charade of OF (from) NOON (midday) SEQUENCE (series) with C (Charlie) inserted (involved) | ||
| 25 | RASHER |
More reckless swine, to a tiny extent (6)
|
| cryptic definition – a rasher of bacon is a small amount of a swine (pig) | ||
| 26 | BEDSIT |
Took effect outside editor’s living room? (6)
|
| insertion of EDS (editors) with BIT (took effect) outside | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STATURE |
Eminence of Queen possessed by Venus de Milo? (7)
|
| insertion (possession) of R (queen) into STATUE (the Venus de Milo) with a question mark to indicate a DBE (definition by example) – one example of statue | ||
| 2 | ABETS |
Helps offender since being impaled with stake (5)
|
| insertion (impaled) of AS (since) around (being impaled with) BET (stake) | ||
| 3 | ELEVATE |
Raise tax in European shelter (7)
|
| insertion – (in) VAT (tax – sales tax in UK) in E (European) LEE (shelter) – VAT is Value Added Tax and is added to optional goods for sale, in theory not essentials, but it took until 2021 for VAT to stop being charged on menstrual products. | ||
| 5 | ADDRESS |
Speak to a groom about daughter (7)
|
| insertion (about) A (from the clue) + DRESS (groom) around (about) D (daughter – from genealogy) – and the clue surface is suggesting a wedding speech, so the immediate thought is the husband to be. To dress/groom the bride’s hair | ||
| 6 | FLAGSTAFF |
One used to keep up standards? (9)
|
| another cryptic definition – a standard is another name for a flag, something that holds up flags is a FLAGSTAFF | ||
| 7 | SECRETE |
Hide case of sleaze on Mediterranean island (7)
|
| charade of SE (case of SleazE) + CRETE (Mediterranean island) – “case”, here, is an instruction to use the outside letters | ||
| 8 | MATTER |
Mother embraces tense affair (6)
|
| insertion of T (embraces T) into MATER (mother) – T for tense comes from grammar/dictionary notation | ||
| 13 | POISONOUS |
Toxic boy, devout externally, pinches ring (9)
|
| double insertion– SON (boy) inserted into (externally) PIOUS (devout) to get to PI SON OUS – O inserted (pinches ring = O) – to get P O I SON OUS | ||
| 16 | PROFFER |
Tender academic intensely passionate? Not half (7)
|
| deletion – PROFESSOR (academic) with SSO removed – which looks like half (not half) of the centre (intensely) of paSSiOnate – but I’m sure someone will come up with a better explanation
and they did – Crispy @2 parsed as PROF (academic) + FERvid (passionate, not half) |
||
| 17 | GLUCOSE |
Compound clues go astray (7)
|
| anagram of (astray) (CLUES GO)* – glucose is a compound, one of the simpler sugars, but there are a lot of compounds | ||
| 18 | COURSE |
Announced vulgar race (6)
|
| soundalike (announced) “coarse” (vulgar) | ||
| 19 | ANTIQUE |
Ancient social worker that is covering up question (7)
|
| charade with insertion – ANT (social worker) + IE (that is) around (covering up) QU (question) | ||
| 20 | CREW CUT |
Rather brief form of shock? (4,3)
|
| another cryptic definition – shock is another word for hair (shock-headed Peter) – so a brief form of hair cut is a CREW CUT | ||
| 23 | NEEDS |
The more of these you have, the more you want (5)
|
| another cryptic definition |
This was certainly a challenging Quiptic and most enjoyable. I liked the two long ones, SHAVER, COALFACE, HONOLULU, RASHER, POISONOUS and GLUCOSE. RUSSIA doesn’t work for me, but presumably does for others, so can’t complain.
Ta Harpo & Shanne.
Hi Shanne. Thanks for your usual clarity. I think the FER in PROFFER is half of FERVID.
Crispy @2 – that makes sense.
Comment #4
AlanC @4 – that’s American spelling, UK spelling is FERvour.
Invisible AlanC @4. Bizarrely, my initial though was FERVOUR, then realised that half of that was FER\, which didn’t work.
I agree with Shanne that it was challenging for a Quiptic and the cryptic definitions would have been hard for beginners – I was unsure of 1ac, 20d, 23d myself. There were probably too many cds (6?) in this puzzle.
New for me: GLUCOSE = compound; FLAGSTAFF = flagpole; LULU = Scottish singer.
I parsed 16d PROF FER[vid] in the same way as Crispy@2.
Haha, when I read Crispy’s comment, I thought ah yes, that’s better, and so like a true coward, I deleted my US spelling of FERVOR, which I realised was a noun rather than an adjective. I’ll stick to my flawed guns next time 😊
This one’s for you michelle
https://youtu.be/sB_gALjOLqI?si=wRkD7GF7fg54Yb_f
Tough for a Quiptic, though I got there in the end. Thanks to Shanne for the excellent blog and for parsing 24a which I didn’t manage to figure out.
I enjoyed this, but Harpo’s fondness for cryptic definitions rivals that of Vulcan! I don’t think they are particularly easy for those setting out on the cryptic journey.
SHAVER is also an old term for an impudent person i.e. one showing bare-faced cheek.
ARhymerOinks @10 – I don’t like cryptic definitions either – I’ve said this on the Quick Cryptic blogs – they rely on knowing something and twisting it into a cryptic version, so you either get them or you don’t, so they’re either immediate write ins, much later with enough crossers or never if you don’t have the requisite general knowledge.
Meandme @11 – the last definition in my Chambers – after the sharp trader. In that context it’s the sort of vocabulary I link with whippersnapper and speech in Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers, putting the words into a crusty old major’s mouth.
I loved the surface of 5d – ‘Speak to a groom about daughter’. It irresistibly brought to mind this passage from ‘The Tempest’, where Prospero, the father-in-law from Hell, speaks to Ferdinand about marriage to Miranda:
Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased take my daughter: but
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister’d,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow: but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both.
My younger daughter is getting married in May, but happily I think that ship has long sailed.
Not very good. Unable to do many of tses clues. Too difficult for a Quiptic for me.
Hubby and I only got there with help from various sources. Embarrassingly we massively over complicated one of the hidden words! Challenging but rewarding.
Agree with all Shanne wrote in the intro and with other commenters. This was on the hard end of the Quiptics spectrum. More than a few cryptic definitions lurking and sound-alikes as well (another not favourite clue type of mine). But also a lot too enjoy like 14a and 24a. Thanks Shanne for the explanations and Harpo for the Sunday brain stretch.
Yoakam@14 Don’t be put off… it was a hard one.
This really didn’t feel like a Quiptic, but I’m sure that’s not the setter’s fault. It must be virtually impossible to gauge how tricky it is for a third party to untangle one’s own clues, and this is why an editor is needed.
In an ideal world.
Poor Harpo: this should have been placed in a different spot.
I had the same struggle parsing 16D as Shanne: thanks to AlanC & Crispy (fervid is a new americanism for me).
Thank you Shanne for the blog – and
Harpo for the challenge
I found this very hard but very enjoyable. The clues, especially the cryptic clues, were solid. Particularly impressed with 9a, 11a, 6d, 13d, 17d. But felt more relief than achievement upon completion
Wellbeck @18 – FERVID is in my Chambers, as a variant adjective from fervent – and fervour as the noun with fervourous as another adjective.
Wellbeck @18. I wasn’t aware that fervid was an Americanism. Nothing to indicate that in a well known red dictionary.
An enjoyable puzzle in itself, but I too thought this was miscategorised. I found Friday’s cryptic easier to navigate – part of that might be about being on the wavelength, I realise.
Literally got HARPOoned with this quiptic.PROFFER was really a bit of a stretch.
I agree with all those who place this at the harder end of the Quiptic spectrum. ‘Compound’ as a definition for GLUCOSE is especially weak, as per the blog, yes it is but so are literally tens of thousands of organic chemicals. How about ‘sugar’ in its place?
But it’s a fine line between quick cryptic and Monday level standards so I sympathise with Harpo and thank him for the unexpected Sunday workout. Maybe a poor editorial decision but I know he ignores all blog comments anyway…
Thanks also to Shanne for the blog.
“Sunday Cryptic” is a most appropriate characterisation, – this is not a quiptic, nor are other Harpo’s Sunday puzzles, brilliant as they are. (I guess all such comments are OF NO CONSEQUENCE…)
I enjoyed all the cryptic definitions as well as MATTER and GAFFES. SWANEE and RASHER were jorums. I didn’t know FERVID and thought of fervent but wasn’t sure how to parse exactly. Thanks Harpo and Shanne (the blog is exemplary I think in how it explains things to newer solvers)!
Unlike some I always enjoy cryptic and double def’s. This was a bit tougher than some quiptics but none the worse for that imho. We learners/improvers can only get better by being tested now and again and I invariably learn something from both the puzzle and the excellent blogs, so thanks to H and S for a nice Sunday lunch workout.
Balfour@13, LOL I feel your pain having given away one of my own recently, not without some relief !
Thanks Harpo and Shanne
I agree with most above – I thought that this was easily the hardest Quiptic I’ve done.
Thanks Harpo and Shanne. I got absolutely slaughtered but enjoyed it thoroughly.
Shanne @20 – I had FERvent, justifying it as being only 3 of the 7 letters, so “not half”.
AlanC@8 – thanks for the Lulu link. I probably should have clarified in my post @7 that the new thing for me is that Lulu is Scottish. I have heard of her since the song To Sir With Love but I guess I always supposed she is English.
Wellbeck@18 – I agree with you that it is not the setter’s fault. The Crosswords Editor should be deciding what is appropriate for the Quiptic slot. In an ideal world!
I also agree with Layman@25 that “Sunday Cryptic” is a most appropriate characterisation. Just stop calling the puzzles Quiptics and everything will be fine.
Good puzzle, but miscategorised as many have remarked. Not Harpo’s fault – I suspect it’s up to the editor to decide which of the puzzles his setters have submitted best fits the slot. I’m not sure anyone is explicitly commissioned to produce Quiptics.
Some posters regularly complain about the vagueness of ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ in the clues. ‘Compound’ for GLUCOSE is at least a thousand times less precise!
Thanks to H & S
This took me rather longer than usual for a Sunday, partially due to my being on a holiday with grandchildren, but, I think (along with many others, I see), that it was very much at the harder end for a Quiptic. These crosswords must be very hard to pull off for the setters – it’s a delicate balance between providing some level of challenge for those with a bit of experience, while giving enough toe holds for the near-novices. So thank you, Harpo, I enjoyed it.
I’m agreed, though, about “compound” for GLUCOSE being unnecessarily vague as a definition, especially for a quiptic.
I particularly liked the long across clues, and the fluid surfaces in a lot of the clues – ADDRESS for example.
Thanks Shanne for a very clear blog.
Comment #33
Thank you, Shanne!
Today there were several clues I didn’t parse. LULU and shock as hair were new to me, but I also didn’t parse ELEVATE and PROFFER.
And yes, I started with hidden and anagrams, but I really enjoyed cryptic definitions today and my favourite is FLAGSTAFF.
Heavens above. What an enormous leap in difficulty between Quick and Quiptic. I breezed through yesterday’s puzzle but barely scratched the surface of this one. If there’s a similar jump up to regular Cryptics I shan’t be tackling one of those for quite some time.
Horizontal @35
Don’t be put off. I thought that this was harder than most weekday cryptics.
Horizontal @35 – I said at the top I thought this was a challenging Quiptic because I solved yesterday’s prize faster than this, along with quite a few of last week’s Cryptics, and the rest in the same sort of ballpark. I have rough times in my head for solving Quiptics, Cryptics and Prize puzzles – and this Quiptic was definitely into Cryptic time.
Enjoyed this but it was challenging for a Quiptic. This wouldn’t be out of place early in the week.
Enjoyed OF NO CONSEQUENCE, HONOLULU and RASHER
Thanks Harpo and Shanne
Quite tough wasn’t it. I do like cryptic definitions, but battled through this in sporadic bursts. I’m not complaining. Anyone completing this is ready to attempt weekday cryptics (and presumably already has been).
Favourites? I don’t know, CREW CUT and SECRETE? Weirdly, I think COURSE was LOI – overlooked more than challenging.
I thought it was “not half” of fervent.
Rather challenging for a quiptic, I thought.