A smooth and accessible puzzle as you’d expect from this highly experienced Quiptic setter
I’m standing in for the regular blogger today and was pleased to see Carpathian’s name when I opened the puzzle in the Guardian app – a setter whose work I always find a pleasure to solve. I’d say this fills the Quiptic brief perfectly, being light and fun with solid, mostly straightforward wordplay and smooth meaningful surfaces. Thanks, Carpathian!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLAUSE |
Loudly rips part of contract (6)
|
| Sounds like (loudly) “CLAWS” (rips) | ||
| 4 | PAUSES |
Personal assistant exploits interruptions (6)
|
| PA (personal assistant) + USES (exploits) | ||
| 9 | LACE |
Spike netting (4)
|
| Two definitions – to spike eg a drink with drugs and the frilly material | ||
| 10 | UNEQUALLED |
A dull queen strangely without peer (10)
|
| Anagram (strangely) of A DULL QUEEN | ||
| 11 | AGATES |
An entrance with small stones (6)
|
| A + GATE (entrance) + S (small) | ||
| 12 | DRESSING |
Director redesigned singer’s clothing (8)
|
| D (director) + anagram (redesigned) of SINGER’S | ||
| 13 | GRAVEYARD |
Serious distance to resting place (9)
|
| GRAVE (serious) + YARD (distance) | ||
| 15 | FORM |
Class protocol (4)
|
| Two definitions | ||
| 16 | SAND |
Smooth leaders of society attracting new devotees (4)
|
| First letters (leaders) of Society Attracting New Devotees | ||
| 17 | VERSATILE |
Flexible relatives cavorting (9)
|
| Anagram (cavorting) of RELATIVES | ||
| 21 | DOMINEER |
Browbeat active person carrying explosive (8)
|
| DOER (active person) containing (carrying) MINE (explosive) | ||
| 22 | GOVERN |
Control bit of manufacturing overnight (6)
|
| A bit of manufacturinG OVERNight | ||
| 24 | GREAT-NIECE |
Relative is unusually energetic around middle of day (5-5)
|
| Anagram (unusually) of ENERGETIC containing (around) the middle letter of dAy | ||
| 25 | CHEF |
Cook cooked halved elephant fish heads (4)
|
| First letters (heads) of Cooked Halved Elephant Fish | ||
| 26 | EVENLY |
Beryl never holds back consistently (6)
|
| Hidden and reversed (holds back) in berYL NEVEr | ||
| 27 | STURDY |
Solid investigation involving leader of research (6)
|
| STUDY (investigation) containing (involving) the first letter (leader) of Research | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLANGER |
Vacant colonel with temper makes stupid mistake (7)
|
| ColoneL with the middle letters removed (vacant) + ANGER (temper) | ||
| 2 | AVERT |
Deflect state tracing initially (5)
|
| AVER (state) + first letter (initially) of Tracing | ||
| 3 | SQUASHY |
Coy about question by a school’s head being soft (7)
|
| SHY (coy) containing (about) QU (question) + A + first letter (head) of School | ||
| 5 | AMULET |
Charm a stubborn person over time (6)
|
| A + MULE (stubborn person) + T (time) | ||
| 6 | SPLASH OUT |
Spend a lot of money, getting belt aboard jet (6,3)
|
| LASH (belt) inserted in (aboard) SPOUT (jet) | ||
| 7 | STERNUM |
Bone bird in entirety (7)
|
| TERN (bird) inserted in SUM (entirety) | ||
| 8 | TENDER-HEARTED |
Offer card to editor being kind (6-7)
|
| TENDER (offer) + HEART (card) + ED (editor) | ||
| 14 | VENTILATE |
Air talent I’ve developed (9)
|
| Anagram (developed) of TALENT I’VE | ||
| 16 | SCOURGE |
Whip company into upswing (7)
|
| CO (company) inserted into SURGE (upswing) | ||
| 18 | SEGMENT |
Division of, say, soldiers in street (7)
|
| EG (say) + MEN (soldiers) inserted in ST (street) | ||
| 19 | LARGELY |
Mostly rearranged gallery (7)
|
| Anagram (rearranged) of GALLERY | ||
| 20 | FENNEL |
Aromatic plant found in swamp and North Eastern lake (6)
|
| FEN (swamp) + NE (north eastern) + L (lake) | ||
| 23 | VICAR |
Vehicle after six for clergywoman (5)
|
| CAR (vehicle) after VI (six) |
Now that’s what I call a “quiptic”.