An entertaining and teasing challenge from my favourite Manchester City fan and guinea pig fancier.
One or two of the solutions took a little assembling from their components parts but there were some nicely economical clues and some nice surface readings.
The puzzle was notable for the number of word splits required to dig out the cryptic indicators from their hiding places.
Good fun and a very pleasant start to the cryptic week.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HOSTEL |
English student pursues landlord for cheap place to stay (6)
E (English) and L (student) following (pursues) HOST (landlord) |
| 4 | COMPRESS |
Arrive shortly before media pack (8)
COM (arrive = come, with its last letter deleted, ‘shortly’) in front of (before) PRESS (media) |
| 9 | SEIZE |
Impound drug in bulk (5)
E (drug) contained in (in) SIZE (bulk) |
| 10 | UNCURLING |
A French dog has large home, good for stretching out (9)
UN (the indefinite article A in French) CUR (dog) next to (has) L (large) IN (home) G (good) |
| 11 | HEALTH SPA |
Left enveloped in warmth and quiet reflection, Dad’s in place for a pampering but … (6,3)
L (left) contained in (enveloped in) HEAT (warmth) followed by (and) a reversal of (reflection) SH (quiet) PA (Dad) |
| 12 | FRILL |
… brother’s not feeling well — in fact rough, you might say! (5)
FR (brother, as in friar) ILL (not feeling well). The definition here is hiding behind a homophone (you might say) of ‘rough’. We have to translate this to ‘ruff’ before we can get to the definition. The exclamation mark is to alert us that something a little unusual is going on |
| 13 | SILVER MEDALS |
Awful Elvis impersonator’s last, with Motorhead and Slade take-off getting second prizes (6,6)
Here you need to split the word ‘motorhead’ into ‘motor’ and ‘head’. The clue is an anagram (awful) of ELVIS, R (last letter of impersonator) plus (with) M (motorhead = the first letter, or head, of motor) plus (and) an anagram (take-off) of SLADE |
| 17 | ESCAPOLOGIST |
Key defender is one who can get out of a tight spot (12)
ESC (key, on a computer keyboard) APOLOGIST (defender) |
| 20 | LUPIN |
Plant‘s in a better position with nothing reversing over it! (5)
A reversal (reversing) of NIL (nothing) containing (over) UP (in a better position) |
| 21 | HEAVY-DUTY |
Substantial job for a tough guy? (5-4)
A cryptic definition. A job for a tough guy might be a duty for a heavy |
| 23 | ACQUITTAL |
Indeed resigned to gangster being found not guilty (9)
Here you have to split ‘indeed’ into ‘in’ and ‘deed’. The clue is QUIT (resigned) contained in (in) ACT (deed) next to (to) AL (gangster) |
| 24 | CLASP |
Group of children briefly and quietly embrace (5)
CLAS (group of children = class, with its last letter removed, or ‘briefly’) plus (and) P (quietly) |
| 25 | SHERLOCK |
Detective hides her laptop in some clothing (8)
Here you have to split ‘laptop’ into ‘lap’ and ‘top’. The clue is SOCK (some clothing) containing (hides … in) HER (her) L (laptop, or the first letter, ‘top’ of lap) |
| 26 | STREET |
Way setter worked (6)
An anagram (worked) of SETTER |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HUSH-HUSH |
Secret hard drug grips America, repeatedly (4-4)
US (America) contained by (grips) H (hard) and H (drug = heroin). Then the same thing again (repeatedly) |
| 2 | SUITABLE |
Appropriate to take legal action over mouldy balti (8)
SUE (to take legal action) containing (over) an anagram (mouldy) of BALTI |
| 3 | EXERT |
Employ former partner to model after some hesitation (5)
EX (former partner) next to (to) T (model) following (after) ER (some hesitation) |
| 5 | ONCE AND FOR ALL |
Finally, do call for Anne to go out! (4,3,3,3)
An anagram (to go out) of DO CALL FOR ANNE |
| 6 | PORTFOLIO |
Drink to silly fool accepting one of minister’s responsibilities (9)
PORT (drink) next to (to) an anagram (silly) of FOOL containing (accepting) I (one) |
| 7 | ELICIT |
Obtain unlimited happiness (6)
FELICITY (happiness) without its first and last letters (unlimited) |
| 8 | SAGELY |
Wilt see with great wisdom? (6)
SAG (wilt) ELY (see). It took me a little while to realise that ‘wilt’ was not an archaic form of ‘will’ |
| 10 | UNSYMPATHETIC |
Mean to operate at my punchiest! (13)
An anagram (to operate) of AT MY PUNCHIEST |
| 14 | ESSENTIAL |
All-important sale is rearranged to include e-books (9)
Here you have to separate ‘e-books’ into ‘e’ and ‘books’. The clue is an anagram (is rearranged) of SALE IS containing (to include) E (e) and NT (books, as in New Testament) |
| 15 | SIMULATE |
Amulet is sadly fake (8)
An anagram (sadly) of AMULET IS |
| 16 | STAYS PUT |
Doesn’t move when corset’s in place! (5,3)
I’m probably missing something obvious but I’m not sure I can quite parse this. I can see STAYS = corset and PUT = place. I like the clue so perhaps it’s best to read it as a cryptic definition |
| 18 | CLOAKS |
Semi-clad with wood, having various final coats (6)
CL (half ‘semi’ of clad) plus (with) OAK (wood) plus (having) S (various final = last letter of various) |
| 19 | OPAQUE |
Dull pain reported after surgery (6)
A homophone (reported) of ACHE (pain) after (after) OP (surgery) |
| 22 | YACHT |
Chatty about time out in sailing boat (5)
An anagram (about) of CHATTY minus a T (time out) |
Thanks Hectence and nms
Quite tricky, I thought. I didn’t fully parse SILVER MEDALS or ESSENTIAL.
I agree about 16d – the “in” is needed for the surface, but spoils the wordplay for me.
Thank you Hectence and nms
For those who love anagrams (like me), this was a perfect Quiptic. I liked so many of the clues – 11a, 13a, 5d, 6d, 10d, 14d, 19d, 23a, 18d and my favourites were 21a, 25a, 7d, 17a.
I was especially pleased that this was the first time that I parsed ESC = ‘key’ on my own in 17a!
This was a very enjoyable diversion when I woke up an hour before the alarm went off. There are some nice clues and misdirections (well, they misdirected me, anyway). I initially tried FRAIL for FRILL, then having seen ESCAPOLOGIST from the definition spent a while wondering what indicated removing the E from the ESCAPE key, but both were soon resolved. I think HOSTEL is my favourite – smooth surface, economical construction, and very suitable for a Quiptic – with my runner-up (appropriately) the much more convoluted SILVER MEDALS.
Thanks, Hectence and nms.
I think 16d works fine if you read “put” as the past tense. “It’s put” isn’t very idiomatic, but it’s at least plausible as a synonym for “it’s in place”.
Note the pangram.
This was good clever fun. 1-across, 11, 13-across, and 10-down made me smile.
My only quibble: I’m sure Fr. for friar is in the dictionary somewhere, but during my Catholic upbringing, Fr. was always an abbreviation for Father; if the cleric was a brother rather than a father (i.e., has not taken orders as a priest), he was Br. So-and-so rather than Fr. so-and-so.
Thanks Hectence and nms.
As muffin @1 says, this was quite tricky. I thought ACQUITAL, ESCAPOLOGIST, SHERLOCK, PORTFOLIO and OPAQUE good.
Never mind about the pangram–we’re short a J. Sorry.
Thanks nms,
A breath of fresh air after last week’s awful Anto. I always enjoy Hectence and I found this to be one of her easier offerings : she’s usually at the more difficult end of the Quiptic spectrum. A good variety of clues here and very enjoyable too. The long anagrams I managed to see nearly straight away so that was a good start. I liked also SHERLOCK and SIMULATE. Many thanks Hectence.
Enjoyable as always but I wonder if Hectence can step these clues up to a full cryptic. I for one would like to see that.