Thanks to Hectence. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
9 Department of Finance getting old lady evicted (6)
10 Some welcome zest in Mediterranean food (4)
11 Right! No heroics when moving wild animal (10)
RHINOCEROS : Anagram of(… when moving) [R(abbrev. for “right”) + NO HEROICS].
12 Be amazed and oddly giggle when hugged by singer Alfie (6)
BOGGLE : 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(oddly) “giggle” contained in(when hugged by) BOE(Alfie, English tenor and actor in musical theatre).
14 Photograph barrister’s material (4,4)
SHOT SILK : SHOT(a photograph/a shot by a camera) + SILK(term for a barrister who is a Queen’s Counsel).
15 Judge sides with one of the police making jokes (7)
JESTING : 1st and last letters of(… sides) “Judge” +STING(musician who was the lead in the band, The Police).
17 Finally Scotland Yard contracted somebody in charge with get up and go (7)
DYNAMIC : Last letter of(Finally) “Scotland” + Y(abbrev. for “yard”, measurement unit equivalent to 3 feet) + last letter deleted from(contracted) “name”(a somebody/a famous person) + IC(abbrev. for “in charge”).
20 Elect to cross river and it’s backfired, creating whirlpools (8)
VORTEXES : VOTE(to elect/to choose one of many candidates) containing(to cross) R(abbrev. for “river”) plus(and) reversal of(…’s backfired) SEX(“it”, as in“they were hard at it”).
22 Disturbing to see vice-president losing head during call (6)
CREEPY : “Veep”(short for “Vice-President”, from its abbreviation, VP) minus its 1st letter(losing head) contained in(during) CRY(to call out for).
23 Puncture cut short a woman taking in Irish county (10)
LANCASHIRE : “lance”(to puncture with, well, a lance) minus its last letter(cut short) + A + SHE(pronoun refering to a woman) containing(taking in) IR(abbrev. for “Irish”).
Defn: … in England.
24 Taking part in Paris-Dakar is known to be a gamble (4)
RISK : Hidden in(Taking part in) “Paris-Dakar is known”.
25 Pointless being deceitful about forgetting last month (6)
FUTILE : Anagram of(… about) [“deceitful” minus(forgetting) “Dec”(abbrev. for the last month of the year)].
26 Son caught by mob has to struggle (8)
SCRABBLE : S(abbrev. for “son”) + C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores) plus(by) RABBLE(a mob/a disorderly crowd).
DOWN
WISE MOVE : [EVE(in the Bible, the first lady created) containing(ring-fencing) MO(short for “moment”/a short time-period)] placed below(to support, in a down clue) WIS(plural of WI, abbrev. for “Women’s Institute”, a community-based women’s group).
2 Being by lake provided energy (4)
LIFE : L(abbrev. for “lake”) + IF(provided/on condition of) + E(abbrev. for “energy” in physics).
3 Oh no! River inlet’s blocked (4,2)
DEAR ME : DEE(river in Scotland) containing(…’s blocked) ARM(an inlet/a narrow strip of water projecting from the sea or lake).
4 Sole supplier has short time to take on pool renovation in New York (8)
MONOPOLY : MO(short for “moment”/a short time) plus(to take on) [anagram of(… renovation) POOL contained in(in) NY(abbrev. for New York)].
5 Fragrance from pudding welcome after horrible starter (10)
AFTERSHAVE : AFTERS(desserts/pudding) + [AVE(an exclamation of welcome) placed below(after, in a down clue) 1st letter of(… starter) “horrible”].
The “after” in the clue caused some hesitation about putting the same word in the answer.
6 Educate child about toilets outside (6)
SCHOOL : CH(abbrev. for “child”) contained in(… outside) reversal of(about …) LOOS(toilets).
A little clumsy in construction, I thought.
8 Need a drink when hot (litres even) during bike races (6)
THIRST : [H(abbrev. for “hot”) + 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(… even) ] “litres” contained in(during) TT(abbrev. for the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy motorbike races).
Defn: A need for a drink.
13 Gents cooked outside food and I start eating with gusto (3,5,2)
GET STUCK IN : Anagram of(… cooked) GENTS containing(outside) [TUCK(food eaten in school) plus(and) I].
Defn: To start something, eating, maybe, with gusto.
16 Future plan has rising writer describing direction in text form (4,4)
NEXT STEP : Reversal of(rising, in a down clue) PEN(a writer/something to write with) containing(describing) [S(abbrev. for “south”, a direction) contained in(in) anagram of(… form) TEXT].
18 Mischievously suggest bagging his nuts (8)
IMPISHLY : IMPLY(to suggest/to refer to implicitly) containing(bagging) anagram of(… nuts) HIS.
19 Observes energy shown by secret agents (6)
ESPIES : E(abbrev. for “energy” in physics) plus(shown by) SPIES(secret agents).
21 Unclear over Press Association question’s point (6)
OPAQUE : O(abbrev. for “over” in cricket scores) + PA(… Media, formerly “Press Association”, the news agency) + QU(abbrev. for “question”) + E(abbrev. for “east”, a compass point).
22 Good health gives comfort (6)
CHEERS : Double defn: 1st: A toast to your fellow drinkers’ good health.
24 Soldiers escort old bishop in ceremonial dress (4)
ROBE : RE(abbrev. for “Royal Engineers”, soldiers in the engineering and technical support corps in the British Army) containing(escort) [O(abbrev. for “old”) + B(abbrev. for “bishop”, the piece in chess)].
In my opinion, this so-called Quiptic is a turn-off for beginners, but it might be quick and easy for solvers who have been doing cryptic crosswords for 20 or more years. Please note that my criticism is aimed at the Editor, not the various setter(s) of Quiptics. I wish that the Guardian would drop the description of a Quiptic being “A web-only, cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry.” The description is very misleading.
A similar comment was posted on the Guardian blog: “Utterly ridiculous to expect a tyro to attempt this crossword. Half of the clues are not quiptic in the least. The Graun is putting new puzzlers off by the lack of a consistent difficulty level, I imagine. Simple techniques should be required for solving a quiptic, not deconstructing lengthy and contrived clues. Sorry, but it’s clear as day.”
I could not parse the WIS bit in 1d.
New for me: Alfie BOE
Thanks B+S
* should be ‘the various setters’ in my post above
Excellent crossword and a pangram to boot.
Michelle #1 – I totally agree with you. This was no Quiptic.
I’m normally a big Hectence fan, but I have to say this seemed a little obtuse. Lots of extra verbiage – plenty of “in”s and “is”s that didn’t seem to belong. Definitions like ARM and AVE were a bit abstruse. I reckon she went full-on for the pangram at the expense of her regular elegant cluing.
Michelle @1 – I agree. A number of clues were well beyond the level of a Quiptic. Thanks to scchua for the blog as there were a couple of clues – 9a and 20a – that i could not fully parse.
An excellent crossword, but I agree that it doesn’t match the description of a Quiptic. The subtractive anagram for FUTILE prompted me to wonder how a beginner might be expected to unravel it. That being said, there was a lot to like about it, including FUTILE as well as JESTING, VORTEXES and AFTERSHAVE. Thanks to Hectence and scchua.
[While I’m commenting on editorial policy, I might as well say that it would be nice to have the Quiptic come out a day earlier to give me something to solve on Sunday (or Saturday night).]
It seemed to me as if it might be a bit too difficult for the average beginner, too. Especially the bottom half, which took me far longer than the top. Of course, hitting a specified standard – for beginners and those in a hurry – consistently can’t be easy. What’s more, I didn’t finish, as I had GOGGLE, not BOGGLE. Really, a singer called Boe does seem to be stretching General Knowledge a bit too much. I hadn’t heard of one called Goe either. DinC @7 – you can always do the Everyman on Sundays – I do. It’s found on the Grauniad site. Thanks Hectence and sschua.
Thanks for the suggestion, TassieTim. I may try it.
Agree with the other comments. An order of magnitude too difficult for the job description. Many of rlthe word plays were quite complex. I have solved many cryptics faster
Yeah I think I’ll pass. Also is there a board game theme? (Monopoly, Life, Risk, Boggle, Scrabble)
Kudos to Mile @ 3 and InvalidD @ 11 – I didn’t spot the pangram or the theme
…. Mike @ 3
Thanks for the blog. I thought that the plural of vortex was vortices, not vortexes, which held me up a bit. Missed the parsing of futile.
I’m far from a beginner but am still not very good. So I usually complete the Quiptic, albeit with two or three clues I find a little chewier. This has always made me wonder whether the setters offer a range of difficulty within the puzzle – so that ‘improvers’ can try their skills on a few more difficult clues, maybe?
This one might have been trying to cover too many bases though, what with the pangram as well as a theme.
I was reassured to see that the consensus is this is a difficult one. I’ve used the lockdown period to learn how to complete cryptic crosswords. Using the Quiptic backlog and this site to improve my skills. So thank you to all the people who comment and the setters and bloggers esp Pierre. I managed my first Everyman yesterday, but had a set back today with three I could not parse.
As others have said, perhaps the pursuit of the pangram turned it into a boojum rather than a snark this week. I was another to whom “boe” and “goe” were equally (un)likely so not the best construction of that clue. “futile” held me up as I tried to remove “ult” (last month) from the anagram fodder, rather than “dec”. I thought it left an unlikely scrabble rack of tiles! A pity “mo” appeared twice in two very close clues, and (for me at least) the identical etymology of “espies” and “spies” makes this a weak clue.
Nevertheless, lots to like and a good fun solve – thank you Hectence and also scchua for both the pictures and the meticulously explained parsing.
Thanks Hectence and scchua
I’m in general agreement – a fine crossword, but not a Quiptic; much more difficult than Matilda’s Cryptic last week – I wonder if they got mixed up.
I did know Alfie Boe, in fact, but I agree that it’s pretty obscure GK.
I loved the clues for SCHOOL and IMPISHLY.
I saw the pangram, but not the theme.
Re Alfie Boe – I think he’s reasonably well known in the UK since he moved from “proper” opera to musicals and crossover.
And this is a UK puzzle!
Yes. I agree. Far too hard for a quiptic. But some nice clues. Thanks all
Bullhassocks @15 – Yes, there should always be variation in a crossword’s difficulty, with the easier ones opening the door to a greater chance of solving the tougher clues once there are a few crossers to work with, although values of “easy” may vary! This is even more true of puzzles with heavy themes, lots of cross references or jigsaws, for which you may need more answers before it translates into anything helpful. In the words of the late, great Araucaria, you should always let the dog see the rabbit.
Anyway, I like the puzzle in general, and some of it was Quiptic, but in line with others, I don’t think it was all at that level. I actually came here to check my parsing of a particularly involved clue, and there were several others which threatened to frustrate my efforts even once I had the answer.
I live in the UK, but I’ve never heard of Alfie Boe, though that is just a gap in my GK.
I agree with the general sentiment that this was a good crossword but not at the right level for a Quiptic.
Thanks Hectence and scchua (and who was Joan Daly?)
Robi @ 22 – Miss Massachusetts 1953 – don’t you know anything?
TCarroll@
Can’t let your arrival go unheralded, so welcome. Hope crypto-cruciverbalism brings you pleasure into the far future.
Well done with yesterday’s Everyman, TCarroll. I was not on the right wavelength at all. This I found more doable though as many have said, on the challenging side for a Quiptic. Thank you to Hectence and sschua.
I admit you can pluralise anything in English by adding (e)s, but who has ever herd of vortexes instead of vortices? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to get hung up on that, especially since 16d, providing the crosser, was so clumsy.
In the meantime The Guardian is an international newspaper and many of us foreigners have been lured to this pursuit. As such, I found 9ac particularly upsetting. “Old lady” only has the required synonym in a small fraction of the English speaking world. Where I’m from it means “wife” or “mother” — certainly not “grandma” (and no-one here calls grandma “nan”). But, then again, clueing “Indian bread thrown out” would have riled many more. My grandma (who no-one called “nan”) was lifelong in the UK and she never mentioned Alfie Boe.
mikeylikesit@27 – I took the clue as a literal ‘old lady’ – that is, a nan (or grandmother) is most likely an older lady
Anyway, this puzzle had a range of difficulty for me. Several clues I figured out the answer pretty easily, but either had to take a step back to or couldn’t parse the clue. 7a DILIGENT was my first answer filled in, partly because I remembered GEN=information and DI=police. On the other hand, I missed somebody=NAME, it=SEX, welcome=AVE, and pretty much all of 3d.
Had never heard of MEZE before. I hazarded it because “welcome zest” was such an odd turn of phrase I figured the answer had to be somewhere in that overlap. Never heard of Alfie Boe, so like TassieTim@8 I initially had GOGGLE.
Not quite Britishisms but still outside my knowledge range were: 14a – SILK=barrister and 8d – TT= (a specific) motorbike race
Words:
Characters:
Oh, and just wanted to add: the last answer I filled in was 25a FUTILE, which was entirely a guess-and-check. I was thinking that UT probably had something to do with ultimate=previous but couldn’t figure out how FILE meant deceitful or forgetting. Completely missed the possibility it was clueing an anagram!
Words:
Characters:
I agree that this quiptic was harder but not excessively so. It took me longer than usual but I was able to complete it without any reveals and I am a beginner, having only done about ten quiptics from the archive.
The problem was the variable difficulty of the clues. I found some were easy (MEZE, RHINOCEROS, RISK, MONOPOLY, ROBE) some less easy but could be decrypted, and there were some I was unable to parse such as 9, 23, 1, 2, 15. For those I could not parse, I was able to make plausible guesses from the definitions and I see nothing wrong with using the check button (as an alternative to the check provided by decrypting) on a genuine attempt, as long as the guess agrees with the rest of the crossword. Another thing I do is use relative frequencies of letter combinations in English. For example, if the second letter is an H, there is a high probability that the first letter is C or S. There are many such combinations for beginnings and endings of words. Combined with crossers, this gives another hint to constructing an answer.
I also did not know who Alfie was, but googling easily gives BOE and so BOGGLE. Notwithstanding some difficult-to-parse clues, I still enjoyed doing Quiptic 1075. Thanks to Hentence and Pierre.
Welcome, archivist, if this is your first comment. Your beginner’s view of the puzzle is interesting (and encouraging, I think, for other newer solvers). You need to thank scchua for the blog, though …
Just tackled this today – was relieved to see the comments above. I have just started trying to learn how to do cryptic crosswords and found this quiptic difficult which was discouraging. Please keep the Monday quiptic simpler for us learners
Pierre@31: thanks for your comment
error in 30: thanks scchua for the blog on Quiptic 1075 by Hectence.
Another long time lurker, first time commenter here. I too found this rather difficult and might have been quite demoralised if not for the reassuring comments here!
Thanks to scchua and Hectence
One may or may not agree with the convention that proper nouns should be capitalised in crosswords, but it is so rarely breached that surely it merits a mention, especially in a Quiptic.
“Judge sides” = “je” is a new one to me as well.
“lance”(to puncture with, well, a lance)
More like “to lance” something, like a boil, as the medical term.
Normally I come by the following Monday to see how daft I was being about the clues I didn’t get. I peer at a few clues each day between work duties and try to have it done within the week.
Now I’m here on a Thursday, having been turned off even attempting any further clues, having correctly filled in 25A and still don’t understand the clue.
As the target audience of quiptics I strongly agree with the above posters’ opinions that some consistency would be nice in this series. This is way above my pay grade.
Another newcomer to cryptic crosswords! My other half used to do them years ago and I persuaded him to show me the ropes during lockdown. I’m getting better at them – lots of guessing and use of the check button – but I can build some of the answers properly now. I generally finish eventually with a bit of help from my husband and we both visit this site for ones we got but couldn’t parse to save our sanity!
I found this harder than some of the daily cryptic crosswords in the Guardian; it’s my first attempt at a quiptic, because I needed a puzzle to solve at the weekend (I fear an addiction is in the offing!).