(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) An enjoyable straightforward Quiptic with nice storytelling surfaces in the clues, thanks to Provis (aka Magwitch in the FT). Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Economical vehicle switches fuel (7)
CAREFUL : CAR(a vehicle) + anagram of(switches) FUEL.
Answer: …. with the use of resources.
5 Drop in last month’s score (7)
DECLINE : DEC(abbrev. for December, the last month in the year) + LINE(to score;to make a mark in the form of a, well, line, as in “underline”/”underscore”).
9 Sore from cruel treatment (5)
ULCER : Anagram of(… treatment) CRUEL.
10 Collects a Nazi unit badge, trimmed with silver originally (9)
ASSEMBLES : A + SS(abbrev. for “Schutzstaffel “, a Nazi paramilitary unit) “emblem”(a badge;a symbol) minus its last letter(trimmed) plus(with) the 1st letter of(… originally) “silver “.
11 Trust prisoner to dispose of loot without papers (10)
CONFIDENCE : CON(short for “convict”;a prisoner) + FENCE(to sell off;to dispose of stolen property;loot) containing(without) ID(abbrev. for identity documents;papers).
12 District is more open, we are told (4)
AREA : Homophone of(we are told) “airier”(more open to the air).
14 Suited to take over (11)
APPROPRIATE : Double defn: 1st: Apt; and 2nd: To take over, usually unlawfully.
18 Polish crash disrupted financial support for students (11)
SCHOLARSHIP : Anagram of(… disrupted) POLISH CRASH.
21 A regularly grumpy host (4)
ARMY : A + the 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(regularly) “grumpy“.
22 Ruled out backing Big Issue initially in popular women’s magazine (10)
INELIGIBLE : Reversal of(backing) [BIG + the 1st letter of(… initially) “Issue ” ] contained in(in) [ IN(popular;in fashion) + ELLE(the popular women’s magazine) ].
25 I’m working to protect international film-maker from cheap copy (9)
IMITATION : [ I’M + ON(working, as with an electrical appliance, say) ] containing(to protect) [ I(abbrev. for “international) + TATI(Jacques, French film-maker) ].
26 Run madly to secure gold for Pacific island (5)
NAURU : Anagram of(… madly) RUN containing(to secure) AU(chemical symbol for the element, gold).
27 Tungsten drill bit which is used to support a climber (7)
TENDRIL : Hidden in(… bit) “Tungsten drill “.
Defn: That which is used by a climbing plant to support itself.
28 Gave feedback about performance by journalist (7)
REACTED : RE(short for “with reference to”;about)+ ACT(a performance) plus(by) ED(abbrev. for “editor”;a journalist).
Down
1 Not needed with an automatic grip (6)
CLUTCH : Double defn: 1st: Cryptic, referring to what is not needed with an automatic, a car with an automatic transmission engine.
2 Respectable Democrat replaced by Republican not long ago (6)
RECENT : “decent”(respectable) with “D”(abbrev. for “Democrat”) replaced by “R”(abbrev. for “Republican).
3 Threatening reshuffle for a Lib-Dem (10)
FORMIDABLE : Anagram of(reshuffle) FOR A LIB-DEM.
4 The French greeting when on holiday (5)
LEAVE : LE(“The” in French) + AVE(an expression of greeting – and also of farewell).
5 Attractive guy, not fully dressed, is found in the kitchen (9)
DISHCLOTH : DISH(an attractive guy;a hunk) + “clothed”(dressed) minus its last 2 letters(not fully …).
That could be a dishcloth, I guess, or at least it could be called a dish-cloth.
6 Affected about a Westminster politician (4)
CAMP : C(abbrev. for “circa”;about, used with a date) + A + M.P.(abbrev. for a Member of Parliament, a politician, in say, Westminster).
Defn: … in mannerisms, dress, etc.
7 I will deal with abuse (3-5)
ILL-TREAT : I’LL(contraction of “I will”) + TREAT(to deal with;to handle, eg. a situation).
8 In the end Poles are trapped (8)
ENSNARED : END containing(In the …) [S,N(abbrev. for , respectively, the South and North Poles) + ARE].
13 Information put out in favour of godless American lawyer (10)
PROPAGANDA : PRO(in favour of, as opposed to “con”) + PAGAN(godless) + D.A.(abbrev. for “District Attorney”, a Public Prosecutor in the U.S.;an American lawyer).
15 Constant peril, involving an enemy navy initially being at sea (9)
PERENNIAL : Anagram of(… being at sea) [PERIL plus(involving) AN + the 1st letters of, respectively(… initially) “enemy navy “].
Defn: Everlasting.
16 Spies act out a Walter Mitty character? (8)
ESCAPIST : Anagram of(… out) SPIES ACT.
Defn: An ordinary, mild person who fantasises about personal adventures and triumphs, from the character in James Thurber’s short story
17 Stick up for the man I love keeping married name (8)
CHAMPION : [ CHAP(a man) + I + O(letter signifying 0;love in tennis scores) ] containing(keeping) M(abbrev. for “married”) + N(abbrev. for “name”).
19 Make off with sailor’s pipe (6)
ABDUCT : AB(abbrev. for “able-bodied seaman”;a sailor) + DUCT(a pipe;a tube).
20 Give money back to daughter after funeral is endlessly re-arranged (6)
REFUND : D(abbrev. for “daughter”) placed below(after, in a down clue) anagram of(… re-arranged) “funeral ” minus its last 2 letters(is endlessly). A minor quibble with “endlessly” denoting not the last one but the last two letters.
23 Ship some of the petrol in error (5)
LINER : Hidden in(some of the) “petrol in error “.
24 Fine with a strong breeze (4)
FAIR : F(abbrev. for “forte”, the musical direction to play in a loud and forceful manner) + AIR(a breeze;an atmospheric movement).
Defn: … eg. as with the weather.
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The following pictures have unidentified links to the puzzle.
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.)
Hi scchua
Pic 1 the top two are Alan Turing and Albert Einstein. Turing was CAMP. but I don’t thin Einstein was!
Pic 2 is a type of Gibbon; Edward Gibbon wrote DECLINE and fall of the Roman Empire
Pic 3 is ET (with Michael Jackson). ET might have landed at Roswell, AREA 51?
Pic 4 features, inter alia, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Is CHAMPION the wonder horse lurking there somewhere too?
Pic 5 is of the Women’s Land ARMY in the Second World War.
In Pic 6, are the women inserting LINER notes in the records?
Pic 7 is some sort of open-cast or strip mining – possibly for phosphate rock.
Apparently a lot of phosphate was mined on NAURU.
The missing people in #1 are, I think, Steve Jobs & Nikola Tesla.
All ‘mad’ scientists?
“Mad” was in the main puzzle, not this one, robi.
#3 ET & FLY
…….’run madly’………
Yes, sorry – but I’m fairly sure that Nauru is the phosphate-mining one. (Unless scchua is referring to clues as well as solutions.)
#1 Perhaps they were all ESCAPISTS – they seem to have been retrospectively diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders.
Hi muffin @11; I agree with your #2, DECLINE & Fall; #7, phosphate mining in NAURU & Land ARMY #5.
#4 perhaps it’s that RR was an IMITATION of Gene Autry as a ‘singing cowboy?’
#3 perhaps ET & MJ were both ESCAPISTS
muffin @5; I think you were almost correct – women inserting LP records into LINERs.
I think that’s enough for now – how are we doing, scchua??
Actually, I don’t think panel 3 of #1 is Steve Jobs, I now think it’s Linus Torvalds, who invented Linux.
pic 5, are the women picking tomatoes, they are sometimes called vines even though they don’t have TENDRILs. That photo was taken in East Malling (not Melling, a spelling error), two of my aunts were there.
The four in #1 were finalists in the Geek Madness competition – maybe they were all CHAMPIONs of their time??
Gene Autry owned Champion the Wonder horse, and he featured in the Gene Autry Show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Champion_%28TV_series%29
muffin @21; nice one!
Pic #5 – besides the aforementioned Roy Rogers and Gene Autry who rode Champion are Iron Eyes Cody, Clayton Moore who played the Lone Ranger and Pat Buttram who was Autry’s sidekick. The last one is a guess.
Cheers…
Impressive muffin – almost full marks the first time round (sorry I didn’t have the time to respond earlier):
Pic2: A gibbon, not the Edward who wrote “The History of the DECLINE and Fall of the Roman Empire”
Pic3: The stranger one (the one on the right) had his kind landing in AREA 51, according to some even stranger humans
Pic4: Perhaps they didn’t have enough room for Gene Autry’s horse, CHAMPION
Pic5: Those were from the Women’s Land ARMY, or the Land Girls
Pic6: Records being put into their LINERs (the technicality as pointed out by Robi)
Pic7: NAURU was a phosphate rock island, which mineral was mined to depletion there.
That leaves Pic1, actually 1/4.
Well maybe as geeks they were all CAMP?
pic 1, a CLUTCH of geeks.
perhaps I should have said a CLUTCH of eggheads
Thanks scchua – entertaining as always.
Why is the paper on the outside of the record called the “liner”, I wonder?
muffin @28, there was a paper liner inserted into the record cover, usually plain white, to protect the record. One took the liner and record out together, then the record out of the liner…
The outside being the “sleeve”?
Oh, just remembered, when one put the record back into the cardboard cover, one took care that the open side of the liner was at the top, that way the record could not slip out…
Thanks sschua for the fun, and well done muffin!
we still don’t have an answer for pic 1!
Hi all,
The recent film “The IMITATION Game” was loosely based on the biography of Alan Turing, 1/4 in Pic1 (hint @24).
Thanks scchua
We should have got that (though I haven’t seen it). Despite your hint, the other three red herrings misled us. (Lovely word – when I first came across it when I was lttile I assumed that it was pronounced “mizzled”!)