The Sunday morning Guardian Quiptic, found here
Pasquale sets this morning’s Quiptic, with his usual wide vocabulary and a variety of clues, including accessible anagrams to get a foothold.
One of the trademarks of Rufus was a his cryptic clues, and Pasquale does the same. If cryptic clues are easier for you, they are often a quick way in, but I find them harder as they rely on general knowledge you’ve either got, or haven’t, and don’t give another route in by building the solution from the wordplay
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GRASSHOPPER |
Chatter about latest in sportswear with purchaser, chirpy type (11)
|
| insertion plus charade of GAS (chatter) around (about) R (latest in sportsweaR) + SHOPPER (purchaser) | ||
| 9 | HARBOUR |
Nurse brings support, returning within 60 minutes (7)
|
| reverse insertion – of BRA (support, returning) < inserted into (within) HOUR (60 minutes) | ||
| 10 | INSIPID |
Greek character beset by awful din is dull (7)
|
| insertion into anagram – PI (Greek character) inserted into (beset by) anagram (awful) of (DIN IS)* | ||
| 11 | GUATEMALA |
A gut upset by a meal cooked in the country (9)
|
| anagrams of (A GUT)* upset by (next to) + (A MEAL)* cooked | ||
| 12 | CANTO |
Piece of poetry penned by American tourist (5)
|
| hidden word (penned by) AmeriCAN TOurist | ||
| 13 | NEST |
Home one finally found in North Street (4)
|
| insertion of E (one finally) inserted into (found in) N (north) ST (street) | ||
| 14 | BEHIND BARS |
Like people serving drinks in prison? (6,4)
|
| quirky double definiton – if you’re in prison you’re behind bars, and most bar tenders are behind bars | ||
| 16 | PREMEDICAL |
Carpe diem spouted by learner concerning early academic course (10)
|
| anagram (spouted) of (CARPE DIEM)* + (by) L (learner) – and a pre-medical or pre-med course is a single year course catching up on subjects required for a medical degree | ||
| 19 | SLUR |
Drink nosily, not quietly, bringing insult (4)
|
| deletion (not quietly) from SLUR[p] (drink noisily, correcting the typo) where the P is removed (not quietly). P for piano is a musical indicator to play quietlly | ||
| 21 | USHER |
The female in old city who will take you to your seat? (5)
|
| insertion of SHE (the female) into UR (old city) – and the whole clue is almost a clue as definition (CAD), imagining theatres in Ur | ||
| 22 | ACADEMIES |
Media aces working in educational establishments (9)
|
| anagram (working) of (MEDIA ACES)* | ||
| 24 | CORSAGE |
My son needs time to make flower arrangement (7)
|
| charade of COR (my) + S (son) + AGE (time) – Cor! for My! as in exclamations – the sort of things uttered in the old-fashioned children’s cartoon magazines. | ||
| 25 | AGROUND |
Silver circle stuck in a difficult place (7)
|
| charade of AG (chemical symbol for silver) + ROUND (circle) – silver is one of the chemical symbols that refers to its Latin name – argentum | ||
| 26 | SEE EYE TO EYE |
Two people looking at each other will agree (3,3,2,3)
|
| cryptic definition – two people looking at each other are looking eye to eye, but that’s also a phrase meaning to agree | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GERMAN SHEPHERDS |
Her garden she maps out with small area set aside for dogs (6,9)
|
| anagram of (HER GARDEN SHE M[a]PS)* with an anagrind of out – and the instruction to remove the second A is “small area set aside” | ||
| 2 | ADORE |
Fuss about worship (5)
|
| charade of ADO (fuss) + RE (about) | ||
| 3 | SURNAME |
Nurse running around in the morning to get personal label (7)
|
| anagram of (NURSE)* with an anagrind of “running” – around AM from morning – |
||
| 4 | ORIGAMI |
Old French friend about to arrange creative work (7)
|
| insertion: O (old) + AMI (French friend) about RIG (to arrange) | ||
| 5 | POSTCODE |
Characters associated with a local area (8)
|
| cryptic definition – like the US Zip code, the UK has codes that link to addresses, as I’m in Durham for the weekend, the city centre here is all DHI and then a 4 alphanumeric code to indicate the locailty. | ||
| 6 | REPENT AT LEISURE |
What to do after a match hastily arranged! (6,2,7)
|
| another cryptic deifinition this one coming from the old saw: Marry in haste, repent at leisure | ||
| 7 | SHOGUN |
Commander with weapon wasting little time (6)
|
| deletion (wasting little time) from SHO[t]GUN (weapon) with the T removed – and a SHOGUN is Japanese commander | ||
| 8 | ADD-ONS |
Bread Don supplies – just some extra bits (3-3)
|
| hidden word(s) found in breAD DON Supplies – “just some” of those letters | ||
| 15 | RECREATE |
Once more make caterer agitated before end of dance (8)
|
| anagram of (CATERER)* (agitated) + E (end of dancE) | ||
| 16 | POUNCE |
Quiet leopard to make swooping attack (6)
|
| charade of P (quiet) + OUNCE (snow leopard) | ||
| 17 | INANELY |
One grandma, see, in foolish mode (7)
|
| charade of I (one) + NAN (grandma) + ELY (see) Ely is a see as there is a cathedral at Ely, and cathedrals come with dioceses or sees. | ||
| 18 | ADAMANT |
Intransigent pop singer emerging in the eighties (7)
|
| double definition – ish – ADAM ANT otherwise known as Stuart Goddard, is a pop musician, still around, but his Adam Ant era was dramatic and flamboyant and started in the 80s – I meant to add this bit, but forgot | ||
| 20 | RESIDE |
Live wire’s idea’s accommodated (6)
|
| hidden word(s) (accommodated) in wiRE’S IDEa’s | ||
| 23 | EERIE |
Eastern lake is spooky (5)
|
| charade of E (eastern) + ERIE (lake – one of the Great Lakes) |
Thanks Shanne. I read SURNAME as (NURSE)* around AM, rather than an anagram of the whole thing.
I parsed SURNAME in the same way as Crispy.
I wasn’t sure what “emerging” was doing in 18D. (I don’t know much about ants, but assumed it had to be something connected with them. After all, would one say that Kylie or Bono emerged in the 80s? It’s an odd choice of verb…)
BEHIND BARS and REPENT AT LEISURE made me grin.
Thanks Shanne and Pasquale
I enjoyed the cryptic definitions – usually do – and was pleased to remember that ‘ounce’ is a leopard. I also remember ADAM ANT from the 80s. I had trouble with the parsing of CORSAGE and didn’t see that ADD-ONS is a hidden word. Fun.
Crispy @1 and Wellbeck @2 – I’ve corrected the blog to use your interpretation of SURNAME, still can’t see the insertion indicator that way round. And added the bit I meant to, which was Adam Ant was particularly famous in the 1980s.
Shanne, Running is the anagram indicator, then around AM (in the morning)
Hi Shanne. A bit more detail about why I read it the way I did :
Nurse running (anagram of NURSE) around (insertion of) in the morning (AM).
Chambers (sorry!) gives “a.m. or am ante meridiem (L) before noon i.e. in the morning”
Hope that makes it clearer
Sorry Crispy @6 I was trying to do something else at the same time – corrected, I hope.
Thanks Shanne and Pasquale!
Enjoyable one for me.
Stuck for ages on 1A being a bird – couldn’t reverse engineer “gnatcatcher”, cheated and then face palmed.
1D – Would the clue be clearer with just “area set aside…” as we’re only removing the A? I know it’s not enough letters to remove the S(mall) *and* the A, but did feel confusing.
Anyone else think 16a was predecimal, with early meaning from a long time ago? Crossers didn’t help realise my mistake.
I managed to get them all correct, but failed to parse 16 (not familiar with ounce = leopard), 24 (didn’t spot the cor=my until later), 4 (I had amigo around ri and couldn’t see how that could be old French).
Pauly @8. I had the same issue with GERMAN SHEPHERDS.
Crispy @11 and Pauly @8 – I read it as small meaning abbreviation for area.
Shanne – not a problem, just two ways of reading the same clue, hence the confusion. The confusion comes from Pasquale using small, which itself has an abbreviation of S, to say “use an abbreviation for area”. As Pauly said, A (for Are, a unit of area) would have sufficed IMHO.
It took a while for the parsing of CORSAGE to snap into place, but very nice when it did. It also took me a while to spot the buried CANTO (sometimes I can look and look and still not see the bleedin’ obvious), after which LOI POSTCODE made itself clear.
I am not enjoying the latest iteration of the Guardian app’s rendering of crosswords for my Android tablet. The previous version was bad, with its tiny grid and large blank area; now the grid over-fills the screen, so I have to pan a bit from side to side and up and down to see the whole thing. At first I thought I’d clicked for the quick crossword by mistake. Also, the letters when inserted are tiny, and clicking on a clue doesn’t snap to the first blank letter, as it used to. It all rather spoils the pleasure of doing the puzzle.
My thanks to Pasquale and Shanne
Thanks Shane for the blog! A couple of new tricks for me in this one: I’ve not previously seen “My” used to imply an exclamation like “Cor!” In a crossword and I also hadn’t thought of using “see” to mean “area overseen by a bishop”, although I knew the vocabulary. “Ounce” as a synonym for “leopard” on the other hand was entirely new vocabulary!
Rachel @15 Gosh, I can tell you don’t attempt the midweek cryptics, where all three of these are absolutely standard issue. In fact, I recall one blogger not long ago suggesting that OUNCE really ought to be retired on grounds of over-familiarity. Why don’t you try life outside the safe Quiptic and Quick Cryptic zone?
Didn’t know about the PREMEDICAL course, and was convinced that the chirpy type was going to be a bird, but otherwise no problems. I liked REPENT AT LEISURE.
Didn’t parse CORSAGE, and for a moment I had ‘plunge’ instead of POUNCE, but corrected that fairly quickly. Otherwise, the only quibble I would have are ‘small’ in 1D and ‘little’ in 7D – these immediately made me think of S and L to be used. Since they weren’t, what were they doing in the clue?
Thanks Pasquale and Shanne.
I really enjoyed this one from the Don. Lots of smiles along the way, too many to mention. For once the playful cryptic definitions jumped out of the grid for me. Spot on puzzle for the Quiptic slot I felt. Thanks Pasquale, and to Shanne for your explanations.
I didn’t get INANE, and I want to complain that inane and foolish don’t mean the same thing, but I know that’s just me being grumpy about not getting the clue.
I also found the use of “small” and “little” as abbreviation indicators, but not abbreviations themselves, to be confusing. I guess if you do the maths around the number of letters to be fed into the anagram then this is a bit of a clue that there would be a surplus letter if you included it as an abbreviation itself.
Thanks S&B
Thank you, Shanne. I needed explanations about ADAMANT and also Cor in CORSAGE and Ely in INANELY. Thanks for this perfect blog!
Good accessible diversion. All solved and parsed without too much trouble although I was slow on the uptake with POSTCODE.
I liked GRASSHOPPER, BEHIND BARS and ORIGAMI.
Thanks Shanne.
Perfect.
Ta Pasquale & Shanne.
Derek The Sheep#14
I too use an Android tablet for the Quiptic.
I access it by clicking on fifteensquared then on Guardian under “Today’s Quiptics” in the top left corner. From there it is simple to click on Quiptic and up it comes as it always has. You do have to get rid of the request to take out a subscription, which I already have for the print version.
Was looking for a Japanese theme early with GRASSHOPPER (character from Kung Fu TV series), SHOGUN and ORIGAMI but that was it.
Pino@24 —many thanks for that “one weird trick that works”. Why the %=&£^<! the Guardian can't get it right I don't know. Possibly the developers have fallen into the "everyone has an iPhone/ iPad" delusion.
Of course Kung Fu is of Chinese origin but…
On my Mac laptop, a keystroke fills two boxes of a Guatdian grid with the same letter. No problem with the FT
Seemed difficult for a Quiptic but then didn’t take any longer than usual. A lot of the answers leaped out once a few checking letters were in so got easier as it went on.
Liked PREMEDICAL. A good spot by Pasquale.
Thanks Shanne and Pasquale
Found that really tough. Fun though
Doddie @9: yep, me.
Balfour @ 15. I wouldn’t attempt to speak for Rachel, but for me, as a recent entrant into the world of cryptic crosswords, the Quiptic does not yet feel safe at all!
I thought that this was ideal apart from POSTCODE which eluded me. I was looking some wordplay: there isn’t any. As for a cryptic definition, it’s not really cryptic, is it? That’s pretty much a literal definition of what a postcode is. Now if that had been in the Quick crossword I might have found it. I was looking for something much cleverer.
Thank you Shane and Pasquale. I always enjoy Pasquale’s Quiptic and Times Quick Cryptic. Yes his clues require General knowledge of British slangs 24Across and idioms, 6D, and 18D made me smile. This is why I like British Cryptics esp the Guardian and Times. I learnt much.