Another Quiptic for me to blog from Pangakupu. Life is good.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Left to follow Oxford detective a bit
MORSEL
A charade of MORSE and L. Endeavour MORSE is the gifted, flawed, crossword-loving, Oxford-based Inspector in Colin Dexter’s novels.
5 Old man getting six: hero in part of cricket ground
PAVILION
A charade of PA, VI and LION.
9 Instrument’s note in peculiar recital
CLARINET
An insertion of N in (RECITAL)*. The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘peculiar’.
10 Corruption at Eton’s beginning to produce revolution
ROTATE
A charade of ROT, AT and E for the initial letter of ‘Eton’.
11 Snack dished up in white barrels?
WELSH RAREBIT
(WHITE BARRELS)* with ‘dished up in’ as the anagrind.
13 Note, second presented by the writer
MEMO
A charade of ME and MO for ‘moment’.
14 Tunesmith revamping old times
MELODIST
(OLD TIMES)* with ‘revamping’ as the anagrind.
17 Soccer team starts to have lower expectations in topmost level
ATHLETIC
An insertion of HLE for the initial letters of ‘have’, ‘lower’ and ‘expectations’ in ATTIC. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. ATHLETIC is a less common descriptor for a football team: City and United lead the way, but ATHLETIC is a traditional name for a side coming initially from track and field clubs. Oldham Athletic and Charlton Athletic are examples in the top leagues.
18 Join, except when led by American
ABUT
A charade of A and BUT. ‘But/except for me, this would never have happened.’
20 Launch opportunity having put $1000 up front
GRAND OPENING
A charade of GRAND and OPENING.
23 Convent member leading company welcoming one papal ambassador
NUNCIO
A charade of NUN and I inserted into CO. The insertion indicator is ‘welcoming’. Still newish to cryptics? Make friends with NUNCIO: because of its letter combinations, you will meet it much more often in crosswordland than in real life.
24 Superficial type gripped by bishopric’s power
SKIN-DEEP
An insertion of KIND in SEE followed by P. The insertion indicator is ‘gripped by’. Pangakupu has been kind in clueing SEE as ‘bishopric’. Usually it’s ELY.
25 League initially brought in graph about footballing legend
CHARLTON
An insertion of L for the initial letter of ‘league’ in CHART, followed by ON for ‘about’. You could have your pick of two: Jackie CHARLTON was the lanky centre-back, but the man he referred to as ‘wor kid’, his brother Bobbie CHARLTON, is probably the ‘legend’ in most people’s eyes. So now we have CHARLTON ATHLETIC in full in the grid. I know not why, but can tell you that they won their opening match of the EFL Championship season yesterday 2-1 at home to The Rams. So nobody put the mockers on them.
26 Set of chromosomes – information some at first ignored
GENOME
A charade of GEN and [S]OME.
Down
2 Part of no Slovenian city
OSLO
Hidden in nO SLOvenian.
3 Head of league engaged in revision of sport law and quick survey
STRAW POLL
An insertion of L for the initial letter of ‘league’ in (SPORT LAW)* The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘revision of’.
4 Liberal working with cathedral, having no support?
LONELY
A charade of L, ON and ELY. When it’s not a see it’s a cathedral, btw.
5 Stop – let’s get a cynical view
PUT THE MOCKERS ON
A dd cum cd. Whimsically, if you put on the MOCKERS, you’d get a cynical view of the world.
6 Part of equation? Feasible to include answer, excluding content
VARIABLE
An insertion of AR in VIABLE. The insertion indicator is ‘to include’ and the AR comes from removing the ‘content’ of ‘answer’: A[NSWE]R.
7 Some quiet talk over coffee
LATTE
Hidden reversed in quiET TALk. My usual choice if I am out and about, but I have a coffee aficionado friend who describes it as ‘coffee for people who don’t like coffee’.
8 Pot Louisa stirred, filled with unknown broth
OXTAIL SOUP
An insertion of the mathematical ‘unknown’ X in (POT LOUISA)* The insertion indicator is ‘filled with’ and the anagrind is ‘stirred’.
12 Fail to be deceived by description of audacious dress?
SEE THROUGH
A dd.
15 Last members of daring little band, beset by monster, kept going
DRAGGED ON
An insertion of GED for the final letters of ‘daring’, ‘little’ and ‘band’ in DRAGON. The insertion indicator is ‘beset by’.
16 Tubby, seen around ordinary party, was prominent
STOOD OUT
An insertion of O and DO in STOUT. The insertion indicator is ‘seen around’.
19 Industrial activity repeatedly popular in classic British car firm
MINING
An insertion of IN and IN in MG. The marque is Chinese-owned now, but MG was certainly a classic British brand, derived from Morris Garages in Oxford and producing classics like the MGB and MG Midget.
21 Pleasanter to turn up in Empire Cinema?
NICER
Hidden reversed in EmpiRE CINema.
22 Direct line cutting border
HELM
An insertion of L in HEM. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
Many thanks to Pangakupu for this week’s Quiptic.
Just the right level. Thanks to P & P.
[Does anyone use the iPhone app? It has just been updated and they have ruined the experience. Check now shows the wrong letters rather than highlighting the wrong word and navigating takes you to the next clue – it used to go to the across and then the down clues 🙁]
Nice set of clues and I also spotted CHARLTON (LOI) ATHLETIC. My favourites were GRAND OPENING and PUT THE MOCKERS ON. I thought OSLO was rather weak.
Ta Pangakupu & Pierre.
“Put the mockers on” was always used in our family to say that whatever you’d just said would make the opposite happen (for instance in this dreadful summer saying “Oh good – it looks like rain” when finally there’s grey cloud – “That’s put the mockers on it, hot and dry for the next month now”)
Pierre, I don’t know if you noticed, but there is a Nina of RAM (as you mentioned) just above the H in ATHLETIC – they were on top in the first half.
Very enjoyable – well pitched at beginner/improver.
Favourites were MORSEL & ABUT. Struggled with LONELY but got there eventually!
Thanks Pangakupu & Pierre.
I don’t know whether it’s just my Guardian Android app but the Quiptic link this morning took me to an unknown Cryptic instead.
It was only coming here in despair thinking this was a lot tougher than usual Sunday fair and realising this was a totally different grid which made me realise!
SimoninBxl #1 I use the app on the iPad and couldn’t agree more. I had an email from Alan Evans saying that the old version was over 10 years old and that the new one would be smoother and better. Poppycock. Now when you highlight a long clue the end of it disappears. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t lost the functionality whereby the selected clue would appear under the grid. At the risk of sounding like an old person, I’m 74, I wonder why they can’t look at things that work fine and just leave them alone.
Needed online help for the football GK. New for me: ATHLETIC = soccer team; Bobby CHARLTON = football player (for 25ac), and PUT THE MOCKERS ON.
Missed the theme as I also never heard of Charlton Athletic FC.
[Interesting. I had the new experience on Android a month ago – when it was actually unusable as I couldn’t access the whole keyboard. Various serious issues have been fixed since. I didn’t actually have the link problem today, but it was persistent for a while. I commented about the whole thing in 225 several times with nobody sharing my frustrations. I wonder why the expected torrent of comments has only started today. Welcome to my world!]
Mostly straightforward but had never heard the MOCKERS phrase before so that was my LOI
Still reeling after not completing this setter’s “quick cryptic” a few days ago, I wasn’t sure whether to attempt this. But I’m glad I did — perfectly pitched and good fun. I couldn’t see the relevance of a soccer team in ATHLETIC; thank you for the explanation, Pierre.
Pangakupu is one of my favourite setters both in the Sunday spot and in the weekday cryptics. Spot on level for the Quiptic with lots to like (including 1a and 8d). Thanks P and also to P for the blog.
ATHLETIC
Supplementing the blog:
From Wiki:
Athletic Club (Basque: Athletic Kluba; Spanish: Athletic Club), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (Spanish: Athletic de Bilbao), or simply Athletic, is a professional football club based in the city of Bilbao, Spain.
The new Guardian app showing the wrong letters makes checking the word impossible without cheating it entirely … grrr
[Just curious as to whether people have raised the app issues with The Grauniad?]
Thanks to pangakupu and Pierre. As a fan of 25 17 this was a treat, especially after their uncharacteristically 20 to the season yesterday.
Just thought somebody should mention Wigan Athletic.
Sorry, Crispy. My bad.
Crispy #15
[reported it, with screenshot, yesterday. No response yet. It is, after all, the weekend.]
[Crispy@15. Emailed crossword editor and letters page and put something on the comment section on the website. Won’t make any difference I suppose, unless there are more complaints made by other App users].
[Deadhead@7 – my thoughts exactly.]
SimoninBxl @20 & @1, and Crispy @20 and others.
This happened to me on Android phone a couple or so days ago. See my comments in General Discussion @34 & @38. My tablet hasn’t changed yet.
[I sent lots of things to the bug fix over the weeks but they’ll only address things that aren’t working*, not personal preferences. I’d rather see the whole grid, but hey ho.
*There were a lot!]
Instead of using the App try googling crosswords on line instead. All works perfectly on there.
Steve Corless #23
[if you have the app installed the crossword opens there even if you select it in the browser]
I don’t have the App and have been using crosswords on line and free at the Guardian for many years now. There have only been minor changes none of which are detrimental and like I say works perfectly.
Perfectly pitched for a Quiptic. No Maori Nina today?
[Steve@25. I have been using the iPhone App for years – more convenient when on planes etc. It did the job well enough – now they have tarted it up and ruined it.
The Worst change is the navigation between clues – a swipe right used to take you to the next across clue and on reaching the last one, it would start at the first down clue. Now it just takes you to the next clue on the grid – which is not how i solve crosswords].
[deadhead@24 You can turn that off in Settings/Apps/Default Apps/Opening Links]
[I print the puzzle as I enjoy scribble room. On rare occasions I use the interactive web page which works very well (far better than the FT’s). It tells me that there’s a “better experience” with the app, but I’m happy doing it on the web page when for some reason I’m unable to print out.]
Thanks both. I nice Sunday solve. Re put the mockers on, I am in line with urbanotterspotter @3. I have only ever encountered the phrase when it is being used to mean to jinx something. E.g. don’t say that otherwise you’ll put the mockers on it.
WhiteDevil@26 He only does Maori hints for numbers in regular cryptics (and I think the prize). Next up is 52. I was slightly underwhelmed by 51; but stand amazed at his ingenuity doing this – there have to be some difficult times ahead (1037 is not obvious to me, that that’s a way off … ).
I have not heard the expression PUT THE MOCKERS ON (it must be British), so that was my last in. CHARLTON I only know from having done far, far too many puzzles themed around the 1966 England squad. Can’t you guys get it together and win another one so we don’t have to keep hearing about that team?
MINING and DRAGGEDON both produced a grin.
It’s very nice to have the EFL start before the Prem circus strikes up, isn’t it?
[I tried, and uninstalled, the Grauniad’s app. Even on the phone, the webpage is better.]
What SteveCorless@25 and GDU@29 said: nothing I have heard about the App tempts me to install it, and after Deadhead@24’s warning I definitely won’t be.
Had the same experience as AlanB @6.
Both puzzles are by pangakupu, so there’s something going on there, whether it’s an automatic system or buman error.
I found the actual cryptic that it led to very difficult (managed about 60%), but it was interesting to see where setters can twist knobs to make things more challenging.