Guardian Quiptic 627 by Beale

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I have not blogged a Quiptic before, so this was interesting, and not all that easy.   Thank you to Beale.

Hold mouse over clue number to see clue.

Across
1 SMOKESCREEN SMOKE (have a cigarette) before SCREEN (test)
9 TOCCATA O (love, zero tennis score) inside (ACT ACT)* (repeatedly act out) – definition is ‘music’
10 RISOTTO TO SIR (teacher) reversed and TO – definition is ‘food’
11 FERTILISE (IF STERILE)*
12 MOUTH Double definition
13 EATS gAme (second letter) inside SET* – definition is ‘takes in’
14 EGG POACHER Definition and cryptic definition
16 SUBCULTURE SUB (advance, early payment of one’s wages) CULTURE (the arts) – definition is ‘unconventional group’
19 WOLF FLOW (run) reversed
20 IMAGE Double definition, a ‘double’ is something that ‘is the image of’
21 GO IT ALONE IT inside GOAL (aim) and ONE (only, the last one) – definition is ‘to leave partner’
23 TAKE OUT Double definition – ‘destroy’ and ‘produce from within’, take something out of a container
24 SLACKER Double definition
25 THE INTERNET ET (alien) added to (to = put against) THE INTERN (trainee)
Down
1 SECURITY BLANKET Cryptic definition
2 OKAPI O (oxygen) K (potassium) and P (quietly, music) inside AI (A1, first class) – definition is ‘creature’
3 EVADING GIVEN* outside (without) AD (advertisement, notice) – defionition is ‘copping out’
4 CARVE-UP CARP (complain) about V (versus, opposing) E (European) U (union) – definition is ‘redistribution’
5 EASY MEAT EASY (not hard) MEAT (sounds like ‘meet’, come across) – definition is ‘soft target’
6 NOT MUCH TO LOOK AT (TO THANK LOCUM TOO)*
7 STUFFED SHIRTS STUFFED (very fed up, has overeaten) TRISH* and S (Sun, abbreviation) – definition is ‘pompous lot’
8 MOTHER OF PEARL (FROM THE OPERA)* and L (student, e.g. learner driver) – the hard lining of shells
15 TUBEROSE TUBE (underground) with ROSE (sprang up) – definition is ‘flower’, Polianthes tuberosa. I can’t give a good reason why TUBE is before ROSE, not after. Another possible explanation is that this is a double definition clue, ‘flower’ and ‘sprang up from underground’ where tuberose is being used as an adjective. This does not seem quite right either since tubers do not spring up from the ground. Tuberose really means ‘shaped like a knobbly lump’.  Tube could possibly mean flower in the sense ‘something for making things flow’, and the definition for tuberose would be ‘from underground’.   This seems rather obsure, particularly for the Quiptic.  If anyone has a solid explanation for this clue please help me out.
17 TIGHTEN TIGHT (merry, drunk) mEN (without leading letter) – definition is ‘screw up’
18 REISSUE RE (refering to) ISSUE (children) – definition is ‘new edition’
22 AGAIN AGA (oven) and IN (at home) – definition is ‘shall we have another?’

*anagram

6 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 627 by Beale”

  1. PeeDee

    Thanks for the blog, and thanks to Beale for a crossword that gave me more pause than most Quiptics.
    I am sure that your first explanation of 15D is correct, and the order of the elements is because it gives an answer that way – or, to put it another way, there is no good indication in the clue for it.
    BTW, in 2D, the chemical symbol for potassium is K, which is all that is required for the wordplay.

  3. Thanks Peedee and Beale.

    I agree with PeterO in all his comments, and I think the reason I found it slightly tougher than I would ahve expected is that some of the definitions are rather vague: “music” for TOCCATA; “food” for RISOTTO; “flower” for TUBEROSE …

  4. Thanks, PeeDee. Like others, was held up with this for longer than I should have been for a Quiptic. We haven’t seen Beale for a while, I don’t think.

    I liked SUBCULTURE, and also SECURITY BLANKET, because it reminded me of Linus in the Peanuts cartoon strip.

  6. 15 DOWN: underground = the (London) rube; rose = sprang up
    You will be fully aware of that now; just thought your deliberations sounded a bit insecure.

    From one of the rare breed of German enthusiasts

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