The weekly cryptic puzzle for “beginners and those in a hurry” from the Guardian – found here
An entertaining Quiptic that felt at the right level. The comments below the line at the Guardian are muttering that some of the general knowledge is a bit old, but not anything I haven’t come across in crosswords before.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MISCREANT |
Various crimes associated with soldier, a criminal (9)
|
| anagram (various) of (CRIMES)* + (associated with) ANT (soldier) | ||
| 6 | DEGAS |
Recalled very old Southern French artist (5)
|
| reversal (recalled) of AGED (very old) < + S (southern) | ||
| 9 | MANDARIN CHINESE |
Small orange feature, see, represented in an Asian language (8,7)
|
| charade of MANDARIN (small orange) + CHIN (feature) + an anagram (represented) of (SEE)* | ||
| 10 | CREW |
Team boasted (4)
|
| double definition – to crow is to boast, in one version of the past tense of crow the cock crew | ||
| 11 | RECYCLED |
Type of transport in Post Office colour given a second chance? (8)
|
| insertion (in) of CYCLE (type of transport) into RED (Post Office colour – in the UK vans and post boxes are red) | ||
| 14 | HIERARCHY |
People in power greeting revival of archery (9)
|
| HI (greeting) + anagram (revival) of (ARCHERY)* | ||
| 15 | HANOI |
Starts to herald a new operation in Vietnamese city (5)
|
| acrostic (starts to) of Herald A New Operation In | ||
| 16 | USAGE |
A long time in pursuit of American custom (5)
|
| AGE (a long time) after (in pursuit of) US (American) – to give US AGE – a charade with instructions to order the parts | ||
| 18 | EMOTIONAL |
Energy proposal for conference almost entirely affected by feelings (9)
|
| charade of E (energy) + MOTION (proposal for conference) + AL[l] (almost entirely – so most of all). E for energy is from physics | ||
| 20 | GRADUATE |
BA or MA? DA, GA, true, would be wrong (8)
|
| anagram (would be wrong) of (DA GA TRUE)* | ||
| 21 | EMMA |
In the morning the writer returned a classic novel (4)
|
| reversal (returned) of AM (in the morning) + ME (the writer) < for one of Jane Austen’s better loved novels (and the inspiration of the film Clueless) | ||
| 25 | ANYONE FOR TENNIS |
Theatrical encouragement to play in afternoon? Yes, possibly involving any number (6,3,6)
|
| anagram (possibly) of (IN AFTERNOON YES + N)* where N is any number – Humphrey Bogart said that in his early days, every role he had at some point required him to bound on to the stage with a tennis racket over his shoulder and asked “Anyone for Tennis”, which cliched phrase has become a song and a stand-up show (plus an obscure play by Priestly) | ||
| 26 | SITAR |
Top performer adopting one Indian instrument (5)
|
| insertion (adopting) of STAR (top performer) around (adopting) I (one) – and the most famous SITAR player was Ravi Shankar | ||
| 27 | CAMEMBERT |
Pet going round leg, perhaps, to get cheese (9)
|
| insertion (going around) of CAT (pet) going around MEMBER (leg, perhaps) – perhaps as this is an example of a member | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MIMIC |
I’m twice upset about impersonator (5)
|
| reversal (upset) of IM IM (I’m twice) < to give MI MI + C (about – circa) | ||
| 2 | SINCERE |
Trustworthy from the period of religious education (7)
|
| charade of SINCE (from the period) + RE (religious education – abbreviation) | ||
| 3 | ROAM |
Travel widely – Italy’s capital, we hear (4)
|
| soundalike (we hear) of “Rome” (Italy’s capital) | ||
| 4 | ARID |
Desert-like? Help to bring in river (4)
|
| insertion (to bring in) – AID (help) with insertion of (to bring in) R (river – from maps) | ||
| 5 | TICKETY-BOO |
Excellent access to concert? O, boy, excited (7-3)
|
| charade of TICKET (access to concert) + anagram (excited) of (O BOY)* – and the character in the play who says “Anyone for tennis?” probably says tickety-boo | ||
| 6 | DAISY CHAIN |
Floral arrangement is presented within 24 hours – church gets one in (5,5)
|
| charade of DAY (24 hours) around (within) IS (from the clue) + CH (church) + A (one) + IN (from the clue) | ||
| 7 | GREMLIN |
Source of mischief? Grand rock band getting nothing back (7)
|
| charade of G (grand) + REM (rock band) + NIL (nothing) reversed < (back) – more about GREMLINs here | ||
| 8 | SPEED-DIAL |
Quickly call major player and face receiving bit of pushback (5-4)
|
| charade of SEED (major player in tennis) + DIAL (face) around (receiving) P (a bit of pushback). Usual crosswordese – a bit of usually means the first letter | ||
| 12 | PAGE-TURNER |
Thrilling tale from assistant to pianist (4-6)
|
| double definition | ||
| 13 | SCIENTIFIC |
Breakdown of insect, if I start to consider like an entomologist? (10)
|
| anagram (breakdown of) of (INSECT)* + IF I (from the clue) + C (start to Consider) – and a cryptic definition, indicated by a question mark | ||
| 14 | HOURGLASS |
A measure of time for us tucking into hot drink container (9)
|
| insertion (tucking into) of OUR (for us) into H (hot) + GLASS (drink container) | ||
| 17 | ANALYST |
Researcher etching a line in any stone (7)
|
| insertion (etching) of A L (a Line) into ANY (from the clue) + ST (stone – abbreviation from the weight) | ||
| 19 | NOMINEE |
No source of coal linked to European candidate (7)
|
| charade of NO (from the clue) + MINE (source of coal) + E (European) | ||
| 22 | ASSET |
Something useful when fixed (5)
|
| charade of AS (when) + SET (fixed) | ||
| 23 | GRIM |
Crag’s lowest edge is dark and gloomy (4)
|
| charade of G (craG’s lowest – in a down clue) + RIM (edge | ||
| 24 | TEAM |
A cuppa with the first of my co-workers? (4)
|
| charade of TEA (a cuppa) + (with the) M (first of My) |
Love the ‘anyone for tennis’ story – thanks!
Thanks Shanne. Quite a quick solve, but for some some reason I couldn’t see the full parsing of SPEED DIAL. I agree with Polyphone about the tennis. I never realised it was quite such a cliché.
I liked CAMEMBERT.
Couldn’t get a foothold until getting TICKETY-BOO, then everything fell into place. A very good quiptic; I liked HOURGLASS, NOMINEE, CAMEMBERT and MISCREANT. Didn’t know the tennis phrase. Thanks Pangakupu and Shanne!
ANYONE FOR TENNIS was new to me, and I couldn’t find much help on the net, so thank you Shanne for the background.
I usually avoid Pangakupu’s, as a few early attempts ended in tears, but as this was a “quiptic” I thought I’d give it a go. It turned out to be the right level of difficulty, and all was TICKETY-BOO.
At first I was thinking the definition of Anyone for Tennis was “number”, thinking of the Cream / Clapton song. Thankyou for a better explanation!
TICKETY-BOO indeed. Enjoyed CAMAMBERT and ANYONE FOR TENNIS.
Ta Pangakupu & Shanne.
Thanks Pangakupu & Shanne! Had heard the Tennis phrase but didn’t know the full story so couldn’t quite make sense of the clue, and didn’t quite parse speed-dial, so much appreciated for those two, in particular!
An excellent Quiptic with just the right level of difficulty for a lazy Sunday morning. Thanks to P and to Shanne for the excellent and informative blog. [& my condolences to all the fans of the Gunners].
Well, wasn’t that nice! Aimed to take a break at the halfway mark but, with the help of some well-placed crossers and lucky guesses, all done in one sitting. Thank you both.
I’m not convinced it was intentional but I had PAGE-TURNER as being a knight’s assistant PAGE + a famous pianist TURNER; it turns out there was a jazz pianist in the 20th century called Joe Turner. Probably too esoteric to be valid, but very impressive if Pangakupu meant it to work that way too.
Good one – thanks.
(I parsed 1A as MISC (various) C (crime?) RE (associated with) ANT (soldier), but I guess it’s OK to have two wordplays?)
Tachi@10: likewise on PAGE-TURNER.
Some clues were a bit deceptively ambiguous as to how to sort them out : for example, I tried to start what turned out to be MANDARIN ORANGE with “MINI”, and “floral arrangement” led me initially down an anagrammatising path… but it all added to the fun of a nice quiptic.
TICKETY-BOO indeed!
Thanks Pangakupu and shanne.
I was trying to parse PAGE TURNER the same way as Tachi@10. Turner? Who he? I liked HIERARCHY, GRADUATE and CAMEMBERT.
Earworm warning!
This is where I learned TICKETTY BOO: a Danny Kaye film called Merry Andrew.
All good fun with lots to like. Definitely a good Quiptic fit and a nice relaxing solve after the tail-end of the weekday Cryptics last week – at least for me LOL. Thanks Pangakupu, and thanks Shanne.
12d Why did Fats Domino enter my head
David @15 – I don’t know, why did Fats Domino enter your head? To get to the other side?
Lovely Quiptic. I feel like we had more ot less that exact clue for PAGE TURNER someplace else fairly recently. But that sort of coincidence is inevitable.
I thought this was a very nice Quiptic: entertaining, not too difficult, with thoroughly sound cluing.
I’m another who didn’t know the story behind “Anyone for tennis?”
I’m curious: is the surface in 20ac supposed to mean something? What do DA and GA mean in this context? (Just wondering about the surface; I get the cryptic reading.)
I find there is a Wikipedia article on “Anyone for Tennis?”. You wouldn’t get that in the Encyclopedia Britannica…
Ted@18 – I guess one could have a “Dabbler in Arts” or a “Grandmaster of Arts”, but as far as I know, no university offers these degrees.
This is probably getting a bit repetitive but… great nicely pitched quiptic. Didn’t know the source of ‘Anyone for tennis’ but I have heard the phrase. Got held up by using x in the anagram fodder as any number instead of n but once I got HOURGLASS and ANALYST it was easy to finish the bottom half. Again, wasn’t able to parse SPEED-DIAL.
loi was RECYCLED, which I think was a bit difficult as a cryptic definition and slightly obscure instruction. ‘Given’ is normally used in cryptics as an instruction and ‘in’ sometimes links two parts of the clue so I was looking for a type of transport as definition. A nice bit of misdirection perhaps but it’s not my favourite clue.
One last grumble for an excellent quiptic; how is ‘for us’ our? If something is left for us then it could be ours but I can’t think of any sentence where you could swap for us with our.
Isn’t an hourglass a measurer of time rather than a measure of time?
80% of this flew in and I was coveting visions of gloriously claiming a first ever full quiptic write-in. Then Pangakupu, as Pangakupu is wont to do, absolutely demolished me down the bottom left. ANYONE FOR TENNIS last in, and only because of getting the A from HOURGLASS – a smart clue that completely poleaxed me as the anagram just didn’t occur!
Great puzzle, ta!
Ted @18: I’m guessing they’re common abbreviations ending in A – maybe American states? GA is Georgia, I know that. Not sure about DA
Super Quiptic, thanks Pangakupu and Shanne – fab explanations! Took me slightly longer than I’d care to admit… 😁
Ted@18
They don’t need to have any significance; they are anagram fodder but the clue could also work as a kind of &lit as to include DA and GA in a list of graduate abbreviations with BA and MA would be wrong.
Great puzzle and blog, thank you. I parsed 12 as pianist having something to do with a TUNER, but didn’t bother accounting for the rogue R.
I rather thought 22D should have had a ? as “fixed asset” is a well-known phrase and in fact I assumed it was a CD.
wrows @27 – it’s saying it’s a definition by example (DBE) with the “when fixed” – but it’s not a double definition, as the word play is a charade – AS + SET.
When is L used as an abbreviation of “line”? (17d)
Sumit Rahman @29 – in literature – referring to a lines in a text, so in a poem or a Shakespeare play.