This week’s Quiptic can be found here
The “web-only, cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry. It is published on theguardian.com every Sunday” does what it says on the tin. Carpathian dialling up the difficulty from the Quick Cryptic with some multistage clues but with enough straightforward fodder to get a foothold for newer solvers. I hope I’ve explained any crosswordese or slightly more obscure answers. .
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LONG STANDING |
Well-established desire to hug bear (4-8)
|
| insertion (to hug) of LONGING (desire) around (to hug) STAND (bear) | ||
| 9 | OSCAR |
Love Mark getting award (5)
|
| charade of O (love) + SCAR (mark) | ||
| 10 | AUTOMATON |
Fruit held by gold, new clockwork device (9)
|
| insertion (held) – of TOMATO (fruit) surrounded by (held by) AU (gold) + N (new), which brings to mind the saw: knowledge is being aware that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. | ||
| 11 | SCHNAPS |
Sleeps following second cold then hot drink (7)
|
| charade of NAPS (sleeps) after (following) S (second) + C (cold) + H (hot) with ordering instructions | ||
| 12 | MEANDER |
Snake wrongly renamed (7)
|
| anagram (wrongly) of (RENAMED)* – snake as in a the path snaked/meandered around the mountain | ||
| 13 | PERPETUATE |
Preserve and tea peer put out (10)
|
| anagram (out) of (TEA PEER PUT)* | ||
| 15 | LESS |
Leaders of legal establishment start speechifying to a smaller degree (4)
|
| acrostic (leaders of) Legal Estaablishment Start Speechifying | ||
| 18 | BASK |
Bishop to question lie (4)
|
| charade of B (bishop – chess notation) + ASK (to question) – think of basking seals | ||
| 19 | HANDICRAFT |
Workmanship shown by worker in charge a lot (10)
|
| charade of HAND (worker) + I/C (in charge) + RAFT (lot) – a raft/lot of ideas were floated at the meeting | ||
| 22 | DIABOLO |
Old boa I reshaped into circus prop (7)
|
| anagram (reshaped) of (OLD BOA I) for this circus prop | ||
| 24 | PASTURE |
Meadow beyond river (7)
|
| charade of PAST (beyond) + URE (river) – one of the Yorkshire rivers that turns up regularly in crosswords | ||
| 25 | EMOTIONAL |
Upset menial too sensitive (9)
|
| anagram (upset) of (MENIAL TOO)* | ||
| 26 | OCTET |
College note in books for group (5)
|
| insertion of C (college) + TE (note) into OT (books) where TE comes from the sol-fa scale, sometimes spelled ti and OT is the Old Testament, often described as books, because it is a collection of books. | ||
| 27 | UNDERDRESSED |
Renders dudes drunk and overly casual (12)
|
| anagram (drunk) of (RENDERS DUDES)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LOCK HORNS |
Engage in combat using bolt and car parts (4,5)
|
| charade of LOCK (bolt) + HORNS (car parts) | ||
| 2 | NARRATED |
Managed to rise and judge first of defendants chronicled (8)
|
| charade of RAN (managed) < reversed (to rise) to give NAR + RATE (judge) + D (first of Defendants) | ||
| 3 | SCAMS |
Son caught in the morning with first of scarpering cons (5)
|
| charade of S (son) + C (caught) + AM (in the morning) + S (first of Scarpering), where S for son comes from genealogy and C for caught comes from cricket. | ||
| 4 | ATTEMPTED |
Tried allure during unusual date (9)
|
| insertion (during) of TEMPT (allure) in an anagram (unusual) of (DATE)* to give AT …. ED | ||
| 5 | DEMEAN |
Humble setter embraced by churchman (6)
|
| insertion (embraced) of ME (setter) into DEAN (churchman) | ||
| 6 | NOTED |
Celebrated journalist after negative time (5)
|
| charade of ED (journalist) after NO (negative) + T (time) with ordering instructions to put NO T before ED. T for time comes from scientific notation, ED for journalist refers to editor, which is really the journalist’s boss, but in crosswordland, ed is a journalist. | ||
| 7 | GOSSIP |
Try and go up for idle chat (6)
|
| charade of GO (try) + reversal (up in a down clue) of PISS (go) – I didn’t enter this clue until I had crossers because I didn’t think the “go” would be repeated. | ||
| 8 | SNARES |
Various reasons love left traps (6)
|
| subtractive anagram (various) of (REASoNS)* without the O (love left) | ||
| 14 | UNADORNED |
Simple doctor adored nun (9)
|
| anagram (doctor) of (ADORED NUN)* – doctor as in doctoring (changing) the books | ||
| 16 | EVALUATED |
Left Charlie out for line to be judged (9)
|
| substitution of L for C (Charlie out for Line) in EVACUATED (left) – C for Charlie from the NATO phonetic alphabet, L for line comes from literature. | ||
| 17 | SCISSORS |
Small cross is reformed as cutting instrument (8)
|
| anagram (reformed) of (S CROSS IS)* where S is Small (from clothing sizes) | ||
| 18 | BUDGET |
Mate to obtain spending allowance (6)
|
| charade of BUD (mate) + GET (to obtain) | ||
| 20 | TWENTY |
Note clue number (6)
|
| double definition – as in UK currency / paper note and this is clue 20D | ||
| 21 | MOBILE |
Crowd lie about phone (6)
|
| charade of MOB (crowd) + anagram (about) of (LIE)* | ||
| 23 | ACORN |
A seed fruit (5)
|
| charade of A (from the clue) + CORN (seed) | ||
| 24 | PULSE |
Beat bean? (5)
|
| double definition the beat of the heart gives a pulse and a bean is an example of pulses, with a quesiton mark to show that it’s a DBE (definition by example) |
I wrote most of the across solutions straight in, which made life easier. A couple of the longer anagrams resisted a first glance solve but everything came together quickly. TWENTY was an eye opener. I realised I hadn’t fully parsed EVALUATED as I’m on holiday and had to get to breakfast.
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.
A nice gentle start to a Sunday morning. Definitely does what it says on the tin, clever and simple. First time I’ve seen SCHNAPS with one P, but Collins gives it as an alternative spelling. I read TWENTY as a non-cryptic clue initially but can see the parsing now. And is this the third time this week we’ve had OSCAR?
Very enjoyable Quiptic, well chosen for this category.
New for me: DIABOLO = circus prop.
TWENTY was delightful!
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne 🙂
Yep, Carpathian is still the best at this format, although TWENTY is a bit of an eye-roller for my liking.
Answers like AUTOMATON, ATTEMPTED, LOCK HORNS, UNDERDRESSED, SCHNAPS and DEMEAN show you don’t need to be reinvent the wheel to be elegant. A perfect little crossie for all on a Sunday.
A nice, neatly clued puzzle that reminded us that tomatoes and acorns are fruits. I only couldn’t parse 19A.
Thank you, Carpathian and Shanne.
Well, I didn’t think much of the clue for TWENTY.
My only gripe — all else was enjoyable.
A nice, straightforward Quiptic. Not quite a write-in, but all the usual constructions were there, including OT for books, URE for the river, ED for journalist, T for time etc etc.
In reference to 10A, the D&D version of the quote goes:
Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Charisma is convincing someone that it would be a good idea anyway!
You have explained everything brilliantly, Shanne.Thanks to you and Carpathian.
HANDICRAFT, DIABOLO, and PASTURE threw me, but TWENTY atoned for it. Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.
It is great to have this resource – thank you – but it would be really helpful if these were published in the same style as the weekend quick cryptic explanations with the gradual reveal so we could see the hints before the answers
divadskoorb @11 – I am not going to pretend that I couldn’t add the coding into these blogs too, because I am the blogger for the Quick Cryptic puzzles, but … there’s a lot (raft) of extra coding included in those Quick Cryptic crossword blogs which is fiddly to include because the software we use for these blogs doesn’t like it and corrects it out whenever I get a character out of place. Secondly I am one of a team producing the Quiptic blogs. For us to change the format, we, the whole team, would all have to sign up to the extra work for it to happen.
For comparison, it takes me roughly four times the time to produce a Quick Cryptic puzzle blog (2 hours) than it takes me to produce one of these Quiptic blogs (30 minutes), partly because it’s a different layout (clue then answer reading across), partly because I have to do a lot of loading the questions, grid and other information on manually, and partly because, as above, the program we use means I have to type it all in in code to get it to work.
I know, because I tested it the last time someone asked, I could start with this layout by using what’s called the utility – a piece of software that sets up the blog with the questions and page layout already installed as above – we just have to use a page to add the answers and explanations (which is how I do this so fast). To get the coding in place I added the coding to hide the answers and parsing as an extra step. But, firstly, in that test it doubled the time to produce the blog. secondly, I’m the only person of the team who blogs the Quiptics using the utility and no-one else was keen to take the extra work on. (When it doesn’t work it’s a lot of extra work reading coding trying to spot what is missing.)
I’ve got a weekend coming up when the only way you’ll get a Quick Cryptic blog is if I stay up to stupid o’clock when the puzzle comes out to blog it (start at 1am – sleep at 3am) or get up at 4 or 5am to get it out before the other thing I’m doing that day (setting up and running a market from 9am).
Shanne, I’m sure I’ve seen divadskoorb’s question and your response before. Since the Quiptic audience always includes recent graduates from the Quick Cryptics, it is understandable that the suggestion/request will crop up occasionally, so you will have to reiterate your response regularly.
You do a brilliant job with both the Qs and the QCs, so please don’t change a thing.
And Carpathian does a brilliant job with her Quiptics – excellent for beginners, and interesting enough for more experienced solvers to enjoy them.
Ah. Understand Shanne – alternative suggestion is that the questions could be put below the parsing so I could gradually scroll to it. Ie scroll to reveal the clue annotation then the parsing then reveal the answer. Obviously with the completed crossword below all this. But thanks so much for your hard work.
Cellomaniac @13 – when ken and I built the format for the Quick Cryptic, I did think / say that we’d made a rod for our own backs (and everyone else’s). And yes, I keep explaining it, but last time around I did test it out.
divadskoorb @14 – changing the table around is huge – if you look back at the first few Quick Cryptics, we started with the answer first, question second, and changed it around for #16, also moving the grid to the bottom for #17, but I took hours putting all that together. It’s a complete rewrite of the software we use or however we put these things together and again, this one is a team you’re asking to do it, not just one person..
A fine Quiptic. Thanks Carpathian, and thanks Shanne.
Certainly fit the brief. It could have been a little more difficult for my liking but lots of very neat clues. I think maybe a few too many obvious anagrams but the surfaces were so good it’s hard to not enjoy.
Seems like 20D is really splitting the crowd. I’m in the ‘only gripe’ camp. I just feel like the surface of the clue is alluding to the second definition so it’s not cryptic. I didn’t parse it as a double definition so it’s a bit clever than I gave it credit for but still not great. Could have referenced the clue number without saying clue.
TWENTY was just stupid (brazen?) enough for me to enjoy.
14D tripped me up because I originally put in BRAIN (as in, ‘bean’ being a slang word for head in crosswordland + ‘braining someone’ meaning bashing their head in)
WhiteDevil@8 Cue the bard suggesting that a tomato-based fruit salad is just salsa!
A bit of a panic as nothing went in in the top half before speedily rattling off the second half. It seemed a different puzzle when I went back up top so maybe I just needed to warm up the brain.
I quite enjoyed TWENTY but can see why it is divisive. EVALUATED my other favourite.
Thanks Shanne and Carpathian
I enjoyed that – mostly pretty approachable, but with a few tricky ones. I struggled particularly with OCTET and EVALUATED so am particularly grateful to Shanne for clear explanations on those two!
Great Quiptic and blog! Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.
I’d say I’m the sort of person Quiptics are aimed at – not a complete beginner, but find the harder cryptics a struggle. This took about an hour, and was a lot of fun, so fitted the bill perfectly for me. Thank you to Carpathian, and to Shanne for the detailed explanations which revealed a few nuances of parsing which I had missed.