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.