Apologies for the slightly later than usual blog, down mainly to the fact that it took me a longer than usual time to solve this Quiptic from Anto. Which might be an indication that its difficulty level is not quite appropriate for the slot. Those on the early steps of their cryptic crossword journey will no doubt be best placed to tell us below.
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 Drug supplier quick to hide damage
PHARMACY
An insertion of HARM in PACY. The insertion indicator is ‘to hide’.
5 Boozers: quite attractive, some say
LUSHES
An aural wordplay/soundalike (‘some say’) for LUSCIOUS.
9 Registers offence after attack on king?
CHECKS IN
A charade of CHECK and SIN. The ‘king’ is of the chess variety.
10 Fight about church – it will create division
SPACER
An insertion of CE in SPAR. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
12 Finishes down a hundred and suffers defeat
LOSES
[C]LOSES. The C is the Roman numeral.
13 Something that might cut amber seal apart
LASER BEAM
(AMBER SEAL)* with ‘apart’ as the anagrind.
14 Excited if data field’s in excellent condition
FIT AS A FIDDLE
(IF DATA FIELDS)* with ‘excited’ as the anagrind.
18 They hope to conquer extremely attritional places for example
MOUNTAINEERS
The outside letters (‘extremely’) of ‘attritional’ and ‘places’ gives you ALPS, which MOUNTAINEERS hope to conquer. At a push, this is an extended definition clue, but I don’t really see how it’s truly cryptic, and the ‘for example’ isn’t really doing anything to add to its crypticness.
21 Tourist puts forecaster on spot
SIGHTSEER
A charade of SIGHT(‘spot’) and SEER (‘forecaster’).
23 Institution displaying objects from both ends of Venezuela
V AND A
The outside letters of the country.
24 Confess to creating two sets of papers with information technology
I DID IT
A charade of ID, ID and IT.
25 Cook our veg in French wine
VIN ROUGE
(OUR VEG IN)* with ‘cook’ as the anagrind.
26 Speculate about time invitees turn up
GUESTS
An insertion of T in GUESS. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and unusually the definition is not at the beginning or the end of the clue. Probably not one to include in a beginners’ puzzle.
27 Early telegraph cables initially offering short version of this
ET CETERA
The initial letters of of the first three words of the clue give you ETC, but again, I don’t really see how this is cryptic.
Down
1 Papa goes over child’s little difficulty
PICKLE
A charade of P for the NATO/phonetic alphabet ‘Papa’ and ICKLE, a child’s version of ‘little’.
2 Some language is magnificent, showing discrimination
AGEISM
Hidden in languAGE IS Magnificent.
3 Force to move- it’s only temporary
MAKESHIFT
A charade of MAKE and SHIFT.
4 Relaxed government unit will keep things fresh
CHILL CABINET
A charade of CHILL and CABINET. I am struggling to equate CHILL and ‘relaxed’. CHILLED, for sure. And CHILL is an adjective in ‘a chill wind’; but the wind isn’t relaxed. Is ‘government’ equivalent to CABINET, or do we need ‘government unit’, in which case ‘unit’ is doing double duty.
6 Superior but essentially stupid experts
UPPER
The central letters of stUPid exPERts.
7 Criminal had a nice big property in Mexico
HACIENDA
(HAD A NICE)* with ‘criminal’ as the anagrind.
8 Son, in better shape, that’s useful around the garden
STRIMMER
A charade of S and TRIMMER.
11 One struggling to become free professionally?
ESCAPE ARTIST
A cd.
15 Home defeat means we’re going backwards
IN REVERSE
A charade of IN and REVERSE.
16 Tremendous destruction
SMASHING
A dd.
17 Swamp with lots of paper about company meeting
QUAGMIRE
An insertion of AGM in QUIRE. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ for the third time in one puzzle.
19 Stick, broken, reunited without it
ENDURE
(REUN[IT]ED)* with ‘broken’ as the anagrind.
20 Motor includes compiler and a recording device
CAMERA
An insertion of ME (‘compiler’) in CAR, followed by A. The insertion indicator is ‘includes’.
22 Disgrace adding AI to explosive material
TAINT
An insertion of AI in TNT. The unconvincing insertion indicator is ‘adding … to’.
Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I too thought this too hard for a Quiptic – I found it harder than yesterday’s Prize.
A couple of odd clues, as you say Pierre.
Re 4d, “He’s pretty chill about this” is reasonably normal, I think. I think ‘cabinet’ is government unit, and the definition is just ‘will keep things fresh’.
Thanks to Anto and Pierre
Thanks, Anto and Pierre. For 26a I wonder if the definition is “invitees [who] turn up” (i.e. you’re not a guest if you don’t come) but still feels a little awkward.
Russthree, your example of ‘chill’ is one that is used colloquially, so fair enough. But that was my point about CHILL CABINET: going with your interpretation, ‘will keep things fresh’ is the definition. That’s what a CHILL CABINET does, but it’s not a definition of one. Which is how a cryptic clue is meant to work – definition and subsidiary indicator.
As a beginner/improver/whatever, I found it doable as a Quiptic though I couldn’t parse ENDURE and don’t see how ET CETERA works ( the ‘etera’ bit anyway). I’m always pleased to see Anto, especially today after struggling with Friday’s cryptic. Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Also a beginner/improver/whatever, I loved this. So many favourites, I can’t pick one. Nice misdirection, and a wee bit of guess work to get there in the end.
‘Chill’ is often used as an adjective as in ‘chill time’, so 4d made sense for me. I think ‘unit’ worked too as in government ‘department’.
The ‘turn up’ in 26a, I felt was a bit of misdirection?
Thanks Anto for chilled Sunday morning and Pierre for the parsing.
CHILL is an slangy adjective e.g. “he’s a chill dude”. My issue is that I’ve always heard it called a “chiller cabinet”
Thanks for the explanations!! I managed to finish it, but I couldn’t parse a lot of the definitions.
Pierre #4, I see where you’re coming from.
LobsterDarts #7, I’ve heard ‘chiller’ used, but not with the word ‘cabinet’.
I, too, found parts of it difficult; LOI LUSHES. On GUESTS, I agree with Silent Knight @3; on MOUNTAINEERS, I guess the wordplay is between mountains as “extremely attritional places” (which is true but rather vague, in my view) and “Alps, for example”. I share the blogger’s quibbles for TAINT and maybe ET CETERA though I feel that I liked the latter nevertheless. I was pleased with myself after solving QUAGMIRE, and I think it’s a great clue. Thanks Anto and Pierre!
Even after seeing references to the homophone re 5a Ion the Guardian site i failed to get the attractive connection.
Not complaining about the homophone- I am pretty tolerant of these, just failed to see it myself.
As always I greatly appreciate the bloggers – in this case Pierre – who do the understanding for me
In 27 I took the definition to be the long version of the short version ETC given in the wordplay
Loved the escape artist however, once the penny finally dropped, so many thanks for that (and the rest) Anto
Muffin at #1…I finished this in 30 mins but still only have 3 filled in the prize!
I really like Anto’s puzzles and I think he regularly comes up with brilliant clues. Though I recognise that he sometimes pushes the boundaries of what is normally expected. For example, I wouldn’t exactly agree that ET CETERA is not cryptic, Pierre — the problem (if there is one) is that it just consists of wordplay, with no definition. If it had had “and others” or similar at the end it would have been more conventional.
But on the plus side, my favourites were HACIENDA (Criminal had a nice big property in Mexico) and QUAGMIRE (Swamp with lots of paper about company meeting) for their great misleading surfaces.
In 26a, I think the idea is that “invitees turn up” means that GUESTS appear (turn up) as the answer.
Many thanks both.
I didn’t think much of LUSHES/luscious.
I thought this was fine as a Quiptic – I still think I’m in the improver bracket two years into my cryptic crossword journey and I didn’t race through this. Some tricky bits, some not so. The balance was just about right. No issue with CHILL or CABINET in 4d; agree ‘chill’ in this context is colloquial but that’s OK, and ‘government unit’ works for me, as does the definition and that a ‘chill cabinet’ is something that keeps things fresh. I also thought ET CETERA was fine. I didn’t spot the Alps part in the MOUNTAINEER clue, which I think is clever, and thought the clue was just a cryptic def. (by then I had all the crossers). Thanks Anto, a good workout, and thanks Pierre.
Some say LUSHES sounds like luscious, but I’m not one of them. However, full marks to Anto for acknowledging the not-quite match.
MOUNTAINEERS didn’t really work for me either, but I liked ETCETERA.
Half of it went in easy and then I hit a wall. I thought I wasn’t going to finish it so I’m happy to have solved it in a single sitting even though I couldn’t parse a few. I agree it was a mixed bag. A few excellent clues but spoiled by some really awkward clues. Not the worst quiptic but not the best. Thanks Pierre
I thought MOUNTAINEERS was really hard for a Quiptic and some of the other clues were a bit odd and difficult to parse. I’m still pondering whether the clue for ET CETERA hangs together after reading the blog and everyone’s comments. I didn’t know a QUIRE was an amount of paper which made QUAGMIRE very hard!
So, that certainly pushed this beginner/improver, although I mostly enjoyed it!
I have no problem with this. Yes some of the clues were unusual and it was above the usual difficulty level for a quiptic, but as an improver I don’t mind the workout. I always learn a lot which better prepares me for the full fat cryptics.
So all I can say is chill people 😉and enjoy, and of course thanks to Anto and Pierre.
Amma @5 ETC is a short version of ET CETERA.
Muffin @1 you must have been on fire yesterday, burnt out today, or both!
This felt like a standard Quiptic to me; accessible and fair. I liked MOUNTAINEERS, I DID IT and clue of the day QUAGMIRE.
I like reading posts from people who solved it on a wing and a prayer. You still solved it and it will soon feel easier. These blogs help so much.
Thanks all.
Thanks Anto and Pierre. I think this was pitched well enough as a Quiptic.
I feel 18, 26, and 27, MOUNTAINEERS, GUESTS, and ET CETERA, are exercises in spotting definitions that are perhaps longer than traditional. As others have pointed out, if the definition is “invitees turn up,” then the definition is properly at the end and the solution involves avoiding a bit of misdirection. I’m a fan of the semantic inference needed to get from the Alps “they hope to conquer” to MOUNTAINEERS. ET CETERA is frustrating if you’re looking for the letter-play for ETERA, but semantically satisfying if the full definition is “offering a short version of this,” i.e., the solution has a short version that is “etc.”
I gave up as I was in a hurry today.A bit too advanced for a beginner I feel, depending on what “beginner ” means?
Muffin @1 – I’m staggered. I could not solve one clue in Vlad’s prize yesterday, yet raced through this.
HIYD et al
I must have been on Vlad’s wavelength yesterday. I don’t think I’m burnt out, Martin, as my Everyman solving time (it let me back in today) was just over 9 minutes.