Turnstone is a name I haven’t come across before, and it appears this is their first Quiptic, having compiled a Quick Cryptic in the Guardian earlier this month.
Thoughtfully constructed, with one or two less common words clearly clued, and a nice variety of clue types. Well done to Turnstone on the debut (and of course for having an appropriate name for a Pierre blog …)
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 Pallid Offa defiantly holds revolutionary national emblem
DAFFODIL
Hidden reversed in PaLID OFFA Defiantly. ‘Revolutionary’ tells you that it’s a reversal.
6 Kind chap starts to lend encouragement
GENTLE
A charade of GENT and LE for the initial letters of ‘lend’ and ‘encouragement’.
9 Piece of cake and some cheeses, we’re told
BREEZE
Aural wordplay (‘we’re told’) for BRIES. ‘Solving the puzzle was a breeze/a piece of cake.’
10 Lively Margate embraces independent poet
ARMITAGE
An insertion of I in (MARGATE)* The insertion indicator is ’embraces’ and the anagrind is ‘lively’. Margate is quite lively these days, I hear. The reference is to Simon ARMITAGE, the English poet and erstwhile Poet Laureate.
11 Stress when preparing pie and mash before suppertime on vacation
EMPHASISE
A charade of (PIE MASH)* and SE for the outside letters of ‘suppertime’. The anagrind is ‘when preparing’.
13 Charge in transistor mechanism
STORM
Hidden in transiSTOR Mechanism.
15 Ignore trickery in speech
SLIGHT
Aural wordplay (‘in speech’) for SLEIGHT.
17 Release standard expression of approval on the continent
PAROLE
A charade of PAR and OLE, the Spanish word used to express appreciation.
18 Linen not available for every year
NAPERY
A charade of NA, PER and Y.
19 A reed’s cultivated in area near Egypt
RED SEA
(A REEDS)* with ‘cultivated’ as the anagrind.
21 Fastidious cleaner back from factory
CHARY
A charade of CHAR and Y for the final letter of ‘factory’.
22 Reportedly fly staff in old aeroplane
HURRICANE
Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) for HURRY followed by CANE.
25 Uncontroversial fashion degree
MODERATE
A charade of MODE and RATE.
26 Powerful ballad absorbs translator
STRONG
An insertion of TR in SONG. TR is an abbreviation for translator, used in bibliographies, dictionaries, and literary credits, I learned this morning. The insertion indicator is ‘absorbs’.
28 Partition badly set up before beginning of meeting
SEPTUM
A charade of (SET UP)* and M for the initial letter of ‘meeting’. The anagrind is ‘badly’.
29 Error when married nobleman loses head
MISCOUNT
A charade of M and [V]ISCOUNT.
Down
2 Broadcast top recipe
AIR
A charade of AI (A one) and R. R for ‘recipe’ is a crossword staple: it’s from the days of old doctors’ or apothecaries’ prescriptions, and is the imperative form of the Latin recipere, meaning ‘take’ (two tablets per day, for example).
3 Cheeky underling returns to hotel
FRESH
A charade of SERF reversed and H for the NATO/phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’.
4 Part of DJ’s accompaniment?
DRESS SHIRT
A cd. The DJ is not one who spins discs, but a dinner jacket.
5 Connect electric current in renovated aisle
LIAISE
An insertion of I, the symbol for electric current, in (AISLE)* The anagrind is ‘renovated’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’.
6 It’s part of playing American football, say
GAME
Hidden in playinG AMErican.
7 Signs from states encircling capitals of Oklahoma and Texas
NOTATIONS
An insertion of O and T for the initial letters of the two states in NATIONS. The insertion indicator is ‘encircling’.
8 Finesse stage opening in England with finale of Tour tomorrow in France
LEGERDEMAIN
A charade of LEG for ‘stage’, E for the first letter of ‘England’, R for the final letter of ‘Tour’ and DEMAIN for the French word for ‘tomorrow’. A less common word, but clearly clued. Its origin is French, but nothing to do with ‘tomorrow’: literally translated it means ‘light of hand’ (LEGER DE MAIN).
12 She distrusts everyone working in metaphors!
MISANTHROPE
(IN METAPHORS)* with ‘working’ as the anagrind.
14 Those intent on advancement air secrets ill-advisedly
CAREERISTS
(AIR SECRETS)* with ‘ill-advisedly’ as the anagrind.
16 Tense, describing what was happening?
IMPERFECT
A bit of linguistic knowledge required here: the IMPERFECT is a verb tense describing actions in the past over a period of time, typically setting the scene before the simple past is used to describe an action completed all at once. In English, it’s usually was/were …ing. ‘Jane was watching TV when John knocked on the door.’
20 Employ in quiet place of study
MUSEUM
An insertion of USE in MUM. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
23 Regularly scour port city for unusual object
CURIO
A charade of CU for the even letters of sCoUr and RIO.
24 Serenity derived from mathematical musings
CALM
Hidden in mathematiCAL Musing.
27 On reflection, this sister doesn’t change
NUN
The clue reflects the fact that the word is a palindrome.
Many thanks to Turnstone for the debut puzzle. Here’s the once-only Obligatory Pierre Bird Link. A bird most often found in marine or intertidal habitats, creeping and fluttering over rocks, picking out food from under stones – whence the name.
Thanks Turnstone and Pierre
Mostly very good, but I thought some of the definitions were rather offcentre – CHARY, MISANTHROPE (why not use dislikes rather than distrusts?), MODERATE, and NOTATIONS (to some extent).
This was enjoyable and a perfect gentle accompaniment to sunday breakfast.
There were some pleasing surfaces too.
When I got the first L in 8D I thought, ah – lundi! Then spent a while trying to find a word that included the other four letters, before light dawned.
Thanks Pierre for the blog – and for the bird (I didn’t know a Turnstone was a bird: I thought your remark about an appropriate name was because “pierre” is stone in French)
Thank you Turnstone for the fun, I look forward to our next encounter.
Wader changes colour (9) is the most recent appearance of the bird on the other side of the equation, Wellbeck. Maskarade in a cryptic from autumn 2021.
Thanks Turnstone and Pierre.
I thought this was a well set Quiptic. The top half flowed out nicely but then I had some hold ups in the bottom half. LEGERDEMAIN and HURRICANE were my favourites and MODERATE my LOI.
Enjoyable puzzle with good constructions and surfaces – I especially liked the ‘pie and mash’ anagrist.
I agree with muffin @1 that some of the definitions are a bit tangential, but the only one which didn’t work for me was for LEGERDEMAIN: ‘finesse’ isn’t the same as ‘sleight of hand’ to my mind. Nice construction though.
Hope to see more from this setter.
Thanks to Turnstone and Pierre
Is there a wind, or air, theme? I noticed FRESH AIR, a GENTLE BREEZE, a MODERATE STORM (or maybe a STRONG one) as well as a HURRICANE. Nice bit of LEGERDEMAIN if so …
Pierre @3: I probably never saw that clue. It’s only in the past 2 or 3 years that I stiffened the sinews, summoned up the blood and began tackling Maskarade’s offerings.
I shall not forget turnstones, however.
For me, crosswords are educational as well as entertaining – and, thanks to you, I’m certainly familiar with many more birds now…
Didn’t like it at all. Not what I would hope for from a quiptic.
New for me: ARMITAGE = poet; HURRICANE = aircraft.
Favourite: DRESS SHIRT.
Like muffin@1, I thought some of the definitions were off-centre – more like extended definitions. I also thought some answers were too obscure for what I would consider a Quiptic.
I didn’t enjoy that at all I’m afraid and found it impenetrable in places like last weeks quiptic. Had to reveal a few just to get started. Given the comments so far, I’m in the minority. Thanks Turnstone and Pierre.
I just don’t see how this is a Quiptic. It’s a good puzzle, no doubt; but so much obscure stuff – of course this being a matter of GK/vocabulary. I couldn’t finish it; NHO DJ as “dinner jacket” (thought briefly it could be a certain Donald J but this got me nowhere). I liked MISCOUNT and IMPERFECT. Thanks to Turnstone (who is also the setter for this month’s Genius) and Pierre!
Redrodney#6, I like your theme idea. There is also CALM.
The poet ARMITAGE was unknown to me, which I guess says more about me than about him. And demain for tomorrow is beyond my limited knowledge of French; I don’t think it’s really fair in a supposedly easy English-language crossword. (In the two modern languages I’ve studied, it’s mañana in Spanish and Morgen in German–Morgen is also German for morning, but conext almost always makes it clear which one you mean. Is mañana fair game? Is Morgen? No? Then neither is demain. I believe in general that foreign words should be limited to the ones that well-educated but monoglot solvers can be expected to know.) Fortunately the word LEGERDEMAIN is not beyond me, so I did get there.
Welcome to Turnstone, with a well-judged Quiptic. Perhaps not as easy as some, but nicely clued. TR(anslator) was new to me, but not hard to get, and I wasn’t sure that CHARY fitted its definition. It’s 50+ years since I did formal grammar lessons, so I guessed IMPERFECT from the crossers. Nice to see a present-day poet for once (especially one I’ve heard of).
Turnstones, unlike most waders, are quite relaxed around humans and can be found pottering around among the tourists in many seaside towns.
I agree with Layman @12, I think this was all pretty fair, but NAPERY, CHARY, CURIO and HURRICANE all seemed a little old hat to me. Although I admittedly took longer than I’d like to admit with ARMITAGE right under my nose.
Requiring the French word for tomorrow to solve the relatively difficult LEGERDEMAIN is what I think pushes this over the top from being Quiptic.
Nonetheless I’d be interested to see what Touchstone brings on a weekday with some sneaky clues. Thanks T & P!
I’m in the ‘not quiptic’ brigade again – for me this would sit nicely as a midweek cryptic.
I really enjoyed this puzzle from Turnstone, with its variety of clue types and some lovely words in the solutions. Favourites were LEGERDEMAIN and MISANTHROPE.
I also liked IMPERFECT but it seemed more GK than cryptic and having studied French, an obvious answer.
I couldn’t parse DRESS SHIRT, not knowing that DJ means dinner jacket.
Thanks also Pierre for the bird link and your very clear blog. I appreciated you naming the devices used in each clue; very helpful for newer solvers.
I guess DJ for dinner jacket is knowledge that comes with that sort of event – and they do go with some universities, even the redbrick version I attended. (Boyfriend at the time was delighted to have found a DJ on Portobello Road for the coat of hiring one once.)
I wondered about March as a theme, coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb or vice versa – daffodils, gentle breezes, hurricane, storm, calm — and the blackthorn winter we’ve yet to experience.
Thank you to Pierre and Turnstone.
Quite off-putting for relatively new solvers like myself. Like last weeks “quiptic” this one would, if I wasn’t so pig-headed, convince me that I’d never be good enough for the grown-up cryptics!
Someone at our Sunday market who saw me working on this at my stall said he was thinking of moving up from “Quick Cryptics” to harder stuff via the quiptics, and I suggested that this one probably wouldn’t be the best pick for a first outing.
That’s especially so with quite a few of the definition parts of the clues making me think “well, OK, I suppose, but really, that’s a bit of a stretch”: SLIGHT, MISANTHROPE and CHARY for example.
But hey ho – all good fun and games.
Really enjoyed this one. Thanks Turnstone and Pierre. I also thought of the French stone. Loved 9a but thought DJ was a disc jockey as my partner is one on Boom Radio. He came up with dinner jacket!
It seemed pretty straightforward to me. There were some tricky words but they were very clearly clued. I’ll bow to other’s opinions though. Am I so old that HURRICANE has become an obscurity without me noticing? I liked DRESS SHIRT and agree with SueM @18 that IMPERFECT wasn’t cryptic.
Thanks Turnstone and Pierre
I enjoyed this. I couldn’t parse a few answers – PAROLE, MODERATE and MUSEUM – though they were clear enough. I’m pretty good on basic French, tenses and English poets so didn’t have those problems.
Thank you Turnstone. And, with SueM @18, thank you Pierre for naming the device. So helpful when stepping up from the Quick to these Quiptics.
I am convinced that the theme is the shipping forecast. Calm and moderate are sea states. Others have commented on the winds. Lots of adjective modifiers that give winds heard of in the forecast and the Beaufort scale too, i.e. gentle breeze.
Shanne @19, our local high school has a prom for leavers, which means all the boys have to learn about the black tie dress code when they attend. So maybe this knowledge is becoming more widespread.
Some nice anagrams. Other than that, I best liked MODERATE, and MUSEUM.
I am another who found this difficult in places, mainly due to some loose definitions and GK I do not have.
Thanks Turnstone and Pierre
A warm welcome to Turnstone. Chewier than par for a Quiptic, but imo totally fair, and very enjoyable.
Thanks to the setter, and to Pierre for the blog!
Thankyou Pierre. I found this a little harder than usual, but the less common words were clearly clued as you mentioned (NHO napery). IMPERFECT seemed more like a straight definition to me. Favourite: LEGERDEMAIN. Thanks Turnstone
As experienced solvers we enjoyed this, though a bit challenging in places and, we thought, a bit too difficult for a quiptic. And we didn’t think 16dn particularly cryptic – almost a straight definition. We liked the special OPBL, though.
Thanks, Turnstone and Pierre.
Agree with Redrodney @6 about his theme, including CALM before the STORM and SLIGHT, GENTLE, MODERATE, STRONG BREEZEs before a STORM and a HURRICANE. Very enjoyable but I don’t see how CHARY is the same as fastidious.
Ta Turnstone & Pierre.
Very enjoyable. I felt this was upper end Quiptic, could do all but two. Thanks Turnstone and Pierre (nice bird link!)
Also the (IM)PERFECT STORM,
Great fun, I thought this was a tough Quiptic but Inthought the same of the Quick they set last week so maybe it’s a wavelength thing with the setter.
Enjoyed the anagram for EMPHASISE
Nice to have a poet I have read quite widely as well.
Thanks Turnstone and Pierre
Another vote for “tough for a Quiptic” from me. I only got to look at it late Sunday evening, couldn’t complete then & finished this morning. Having said that I liked it once I got on Turnstone’s wavelength & think would have been a great early midweek crossword. ARMITAGE was a NHO for me here down under (the last Poet Laureate that springs to my mind is Betjeman!) but an obvious anagram so fair enough.
Thanks to Turnstone & Pierre.
I’ve heard of Armitage and DJ meaning dinner jackets. Legerdemain I managed to guess from the wordplay. But I totally failed on CHARY. I don’t think I’ve heard the word before.
First time I’ve not completed the quiptic in 8 months.
It’s the Beaufort Scale of wind speeds: CALM, (S)LIGHT AIR, LIGHT, GENTLE, MODERATE, FRESH and STRONG BREEZEs, then STORM and HURRICANE. I wonder if GAME was going to be GALE, but nothing fitted A_L_T_G_ ?
A very tough quiptic which I couldn’t finish. I had heard of armitage, but the number of obscure words (chary, careerists, legendemain) combined with stretched definitions left me struggling with less than half the grid complete and rolled eyes on review of the answers. Hoping monday’s puzzle is a little more straight forward.
Interesting comments, and thanks to those who have pointed out the wind speed theme. On the basis of the ‘keep it simple’ approach for Quiptic setters, maybe ‘keep it theme-free’ would also be good guidance. Some of the comments about slightly obscure words might well have been the result of having to force solutions into the grid for the sake of the theme. Still a good crossword, though.
And I should have seen the theme myself, but when I’m blogging a Quiptic, it’s never on my radar to go looking for one.
Featur request: can we get a similar set up as seen in the quick cryptic? There are (many) times when I want to check an answer immediately before I forget… but here I get spoilers galore, so can’t quite do it (but do it anyway because I can’t do these in any case…)
Andrea @41
If you solve online, you can use Check or Reveal on a single clue.
Very enjoyable but some very obscure words not found in my thesaurus, meaning couldn’t complete all but some lovely cluing. Hope to see more of Turnstone. Thanks Pierre.
@muffin, what I meant is that I want to find out *why* the answer is what it is. If I leave it I end up forgetting.
Andrea – what I do is “Check Word” for ones I cannot parse (even if I’m sure I have the correct answer). That way, the clue gets a check mark, and I can use that when I come here after final solve to remind me which ones to look for.
Definitely on the harder end of quiptic territory.
Enjoyable but quite difficult! Some excellent clues. Thanks Turnstone and Pierre.