This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here
This puzzle is the 12th Quick Crytic from Budmo. This puzzle has anagrams, hidden word(s) and acrostics with all the letters in the clues, with just a new clue type, soundalike-in-a-clue where the words and letters need to be found by the solver. I found this version of soundalikes took a bit of time to get used to.
The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here – those rules include not posting solving times.
This blog was developed in response to suggestions. We hide the answers and the wordplay descriptions (parsing) too. To find the solution click on “Answer” and to find how the word play works, click on “Parsing” which will reveal the hidden information. You can choose to reveal everything using the “Expand All” button. If you have partially revealed the page, refreshing it will clear that, and allow you to expand all. The definition is in bold and underlined, the indicator is in red.
For additional help click here
There is a summary of the tricks used in the first six months here, if I ever stop for long enough, I’ll build another one, and a Guardian Crossword blog called the ultimate beginner’s guide has tips which may be useful for some solvers.
For abbreviations and clue tips click here
Fifteen Squared uses several abbreviations and jargon tricks, there’s a full list here, of which I’ve used the following in this blog:
- underlining the definition in the clue – this is either at the beginning or end of the clue
- indicators are in red.
- CAPITALS to indicate which bits are part of the answer, e.g. haVE ALtered for the example.
- anagram – letters being used shown in brackets (SENATOR)* for the clue below to give TREASON.
- anagram minus – letters being used are shown as capitals in brackets, with the unused letter in lower case and square brackets – so fluttering (OWLET[s])* becomes TOWEL.
- anagrind – anagram indicator – in the case below it is “arranged”
- soundalike – is indicated by “Wilde” – so in the example, Oscar “Wilde”, the playwright and author, is indicating the soundalike WILD.
- charades – the description below only gives the example of words being added together, but charades can be more complicated, adding abbreviations or single letters to another word. Examples previously used in this series are: Son ridicules loose overgarments (6) S (son) + MOCKS (ridicules), Get rid of dead pine (5) D(dead) + ITCH (pine) – D ITCH, and early on DR (doctor) + IVE (I have) to give DRIVE.
- reversals – the reversal element of a clue is indicated by < – so in the example clue below, VieTNAm <.
- CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit. These are rare.
- DBE or definition by example – e.g. where a dog might be clued as a setter – often using a question mark, maybe, possibly or e.g. to show that this is an example rather than a definition.
- surface – the meaning from reading the clue – so often cryptic clues use an English that could only be found in a cryptic crossword, but a smooth surface is a clue that has a meaning in English, which can be pointed or misleading.
TODAY’S TRICKS – from the crossword site – because the clues have moved on from the clue descriptions below, I am now adding more to the descriptions hidden above. Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
- Anagram Anagram of answer and hint that there’s an anagram
‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON (crime) - Hidden word(s) Answer hidden in clue’s words
‘Some haVE ALtered meat (4)’ gives VEAL. - Acrostic First letters of answer
‘Initially Get A Good joke (3)’ gives GAG. - Soundalike-in-clue Word in clue sounds like hint to answer
‘Reportedly see where to sail (3)’ gives SEA
SEA (where to sail) sounds like “see”.
| ACROSS | Click on “Answer” to see the solutions | |
| 1 |
Five set off, joyful (7)
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AnswerFESTIVE |
Parsinganagram of (FIVE SET)* with an anagrind of “off”. |
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| 5 |
Passenger vehicle building up speed, initially (3)
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AnswerBUS |
Parsingacrostic (initially) from Building Up Speed, with an entertaining surface (the story told by the surface reading of the clue) conjuring up the vision of a speeding double-decker bus. |
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| 7 |
Steel, it’s said, is suitable (11)
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AnswerAPPROPRIATE |
Parsingsoundalike-in-a-clue (it’s said) – so “steel” sounds like (it’s said) STEAL – so what we’re looking for is an 11 letter synonym for STEAL – and this may not be the first word that jumps to mind, but it’s a useful equivalence to file away as it’s one of those words with many meanings, much used in cryptic crosswords. |
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| 8 |
Love god’s sparkling rosé (4)
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AnswerEROS |
Parsinganagram of (ROSE)* with an anagrind of “sparkling”. The clue’s surface uses the apostrophe “s” to suggest the possessive – the sparkling rosé of the love god, but the cryptic wordplay is using the apostrophe to indicate an omission, so this Love god is sparkling rosé. |
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| 9 |
Ripens bananas for shooter (6)
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AnswerSNIPER |
Parsinganagram of (RIPENS)* with an anagrind of “bananas”. |
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| 12 |
Prime Minister in battle energised (6)
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AnswerATTLEE |
Parsinghidden word(s) (in) bATTLE Energised for this Prime Minister. |
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| 13 |
On the phone, brake for photograph (4)
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AnswerSNAP |
Parsingsoundalike-in-a-clue (on the phone) in this case “brake” sounds like (on the phone) BREAK – so the answer is a synonym of BREAK that also means a photograph. |
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| 16 |
Airports eke out Gorbachev’s reforms (11)
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AnswerPERESTROIKA |
Parsinganagram of (AIRPORTS EKE)* with an anagrind of “out” for these reforms by Gorbachev, which I’d forgotten about, but surfaced from the depths of my memory when I had enough crossers. |
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| 18 |
Originally, loads of time for a great deal (3)
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AnswerLOT |
Parsingacrostic (originally) of Loads Of Time. |
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| 19 |
Ban lone working in Middle Eastern country (7)
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AnswerLEBANON |
Parsinganagram of (BAN LONE)* with an anagrind of “working” to give this Middle Eastern country. |
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DOWN
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| 1 |
Vocalist’s billed for game of snooker (5)
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AnswerFRAME |
Parsingsoundalike-in-a-clue (vocalist’s) – so a soundalike of “billed” (vocalist’s) is BUILD – so we’re looking for something that’s a synonym of BUILD that also means a game of snooker. |
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| 2 |
Lesser-known performer is bare to the audience (7)
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AnswerSUPPORT |
Parsingsoundalike-in-a-clue (to the audience) – the clue is asking for a soundalike of “bare” (to the audience) – BEAR, that also means the same as a lesser-known performer. |
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| 3 |
Metal content in environment (4)
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AnswerIRON |
Parsinghidden word(s) (content in) in envIRONment. |
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| 4 |
Some rather random task (6)
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AnswerERRAND |
Parsinghidden word(s) (some) in rathER RANDom. |
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| 5 |
Starts to beat off attacker, one you don’t want around (3)
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AnswerBOA |
Parsingacrostic (starts to) Beat Off Attacker – with a cryptic definition, as this around you would be unwanted. However, another version could be welcome. |
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| 6 |
In part, has heard clip (5)
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AnswerSHEAR |
Parsinghidden word(s) (in part) of haS HEARd and there are several indicators in this clue – “heard” might make the solver think of a soundalike – which are also found in this crossword, but it’s part of the wordplay. |
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| 10 |
Continental boarding house opens in Barking (7)
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AnswerPENSION |
Parsinganagram of (OPENS IN)* with an anagrind of “Barking” – which for those who don’t know is a London Borough (Barking and Dagenham), hence the misleading capital letter. In crosswordland, including misleading capitals is allowed, but not removing capital letters that are needed to indicate proper nouns. In English, and Australian, slang, barking also means mad, and the definition is a French boarding house. |
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| 11 |
Loves Selfridges stocking receptacle (6)
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AnswerVESSEL |
Parsinghidden word(s) (stocking) in loVES SELfridges – stocking meaning to fill the shelves (or store room) with stock, not the women’s hose suggested in the clue surface. |
12 |
Horrify all puritanical people, acting licentiously to begin with (5)
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AnswerAPPAL |
Parsingacrostic (to begin with) of All Puritanical People Acting Licentiously – with another fun surface conjuring up an image of puritanical people looking shocked. |
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| 14 |
Type of flower picked up in prairie? (5)
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AnswerPLAIN |
Parsingsoundalike-in-a-clue (picked up) – so the sound alike we’re looking for here is that for “flower”, and it’s FLOUR – so a type of FLOUR that means the same as prairie. |
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| 15 |
Dull, unvaried rabbit-proof fences (4)
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AnswerDRAB |
Parsinghidden word(s) (fences) in unvarieD RABbit-proof – fence here to reference the film The Rabbit-proof Fence. |
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| 17 |
Heads to Rochester, upmarket town, for period of sexual excitement (3)
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AnswerRUT |
Parsingacrostic (heads to) Rochester Upmarket Town. |
Lovely way to ease oneself into the cryptic weekend before the main courses of the prize puzzles.
Only quibble is 2d – not sure the def. Is really good enough.
Thanks Budmo and Shanne
A couple of the soundalikes really puzzled me. Why does “build” mean FRAME? “Plain” is a very loose way of giving “flour”.
muffin @2 – I suspect FRAME is switching to the verb, not the noun we think of – it’s an equivalence in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, in both directions – so you build / frame a house.
PLAIN for flour took me ages to work out to blog this.
I agree muffin, still shaking my head about 1d
Ooops! Forgetting my manners, thanks Budmo and Shanne
Thanks Shanne
Not convinced by build/frame house!
frame / build a case?
Build/frame I see it as a person’s build/frame.
For plain I had to think a bit, but then it clocked that it meant “plain flour” (as opposed to self-raising), which is a type of flour. For once I have no issues with either.
I thought this was easy, except for the sound alike which I found challenging and had to come here to parse.
Totally not convinced by the support act/bear etc. I can sort of see build/frame. Plain made sense. But that support one is totally past me.
Zurichwelsh @9 I didn’t get it until I saw Shanne’s explanation. I wonder if bear and support are synonymous when thinking about supporting or bearing a weight?
Yes, Kristie @10 – to bear or support weight – and a support act. And you do hear, well, I do hear – Who’s the support? when talking about a gig, and I do go to gigs (missed something last night, sadly).
Being newish to cryptic wordplay, the soundalike-in-clues really confused me. Not sure the example from the tricks massively helps, I read it as ‘find a homonym in the clue’ rather than ‘find a homonym, this is then a synonym’. Everything else was fine! Thanks all
Not keen on those soundalikes – given it’s multiple steps to get to the answer.
14 where you have to convert flower to flour while retaining the “type of” bit feels too much is going for a beginner puzzle. Albeit prairie=plain is very biffable
At least on the other clues steel=steal, billed=build, bare=bear are the thing you have to then come up with a synonym for.
No difficulty here with BUILD/FRAME – for me they’re synonymous in the context of building or framing an argument. But then I’m a retired lawyer, so my vocabulary may be a bit warped.
Found the soundalikes incredibly difficult. Especially build/frame and steal/appropriate. But enjoyed it all the same – thanks Budmo for the strenuous brain work out! Thanks Shanne for making sense of things! 🙂
Well done Andrea @8. That has to be it for build and frame.
The soundalikes in the clue were a bit tricky. I had to keep reminding myself I need to find a soundalike for a word in the clue rather than the solution. Needed some time to parse snap and support, but got there in the end. I didn’t know frame is a game of snooker, but it could not be anything else. Thanks, Budmo and Shanne
Comment #18
Very enjoyable, thank you both. I too found the homophones tricky and some not easy to recognise as such.
Generally nice, but l agree with the general sentiment about the sound-alikes. A bit cranky like the Friday “I’ll get you!” types. 🙂
Thanks both
Like others the Soundalike-in-Clue was a new type of clue to me. Was able to guess the answers to them but had to check here afterwards for the full explanation of the parsing for 1d and 2d. Once explained I thought they were actually quite good fun.
Thanks so much for the blog have been following for a year or so & has demystified cryptic crosswords for me which has opened up a world of pleasure!
Thanks Budmo and Shanne. Would not the clue for SUPPORT – Lesser-known performer is bare to the audience – be improved by the definition-by-example indicator, a ? Then the solver would know the homonym of bare bear is an example of a SUPPORTing act.
2D NHO bear for a supporting act, but filled in from the crossers and recipe. Otherwise a quick and fun solve. Thanks to Budmo and Shanne.
Took me a while to parse the ‘vocalist’s billed’ bit of 1d. I parsed it as frame/build/body.
I was fine with 2d.
A pleasant stroll through the four chosen clue types. As with others, the homophones proved the trickiest. PLAIN I got from the crossers and definition, ditto APPROPRIATE although that was a case of fitting in the obvious answer without figuring out the definition as being another version of STEAL.
Thanks very much Shanne, superb set-up you have going here now. Thanks also to Budmo for and entertaining puzzle.
Fyi, was a bit confused by the intro, so asked AI (via Google search) if Chandler and Budmo are the same. It’s getting very good.
“No, Budmo and Chandler are not the same person. They are two distinct cryptic crossword setters who regularly construct puzzles for The Guardian.The confusion likely stems from a minor typographical slip in a recent community blog post on Fifteensquared, where a review for a puzzle explicitly credited to Budmo accidentally included a line copy-pasted from a previous template, stating: “This puzzle is the 12th Quick Cryptic from Chandler.” “
Thank you, Taffy @25, I’ve corrected that slip (last week was Chandler, and I was building this week’s grid on last week’s grid).
Swyftlyght @23 – bear isn’t a support act – these clues require two steps. The first stage is recognising that BEAR is a homophone of “bare”. The second stage is finding a synonym for both BEAR and a lesser-known performer to give you the final solution – which is SUPPORT – as in a support act and to bear/support the weight of something.
I am not sure I have seen the homonym – synonym clue before. It was certainly an interesting device, and some answers took a bit of time to reveal themselves to me.
I liked the surfaces of EROS, LOT, ERRAND and VESSEL – they read like everyday phrases, which amused me
Thanks Budmo and Shanne