One of our regular Quiptic setters with another enjoyable (but occasionally tricky) puzzle.
Most of the standard clue types are here: simple block constructions, insertions, anagrams, reversals, double definitions, and combinations of these. And a groan-worthy pun. Oh, and a pangram too (all 26 letters of the alphabet appear somewhere in the solutions). Lots of fun. It’s hard to pick a favourite clue but I particularly liked 20d, which is obvious when you look at it from the correct angle. Thanks Matilda as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the solution; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters. If anything else isn’t clear, please ask – that’s what we’re here for.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AUTOPSY | Gold beats yttrium in stiff test (7) |
| AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold) + TOPS (as a verb = beats) + Y (chemical symbol for yttrium). Stiff = slang for a dead body; autopsy = examination (test) of a dead body. |
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| 5 | ESSENCE | Sense corruption by church centre (7) |
| Anagram (corruption) of SENSE, next to CE (Church of England). Essence = centre = the most important part of something. |
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| 10 | SASH | Commandos on hotel window (4) |
| SAS (Special Air Service = commandos) + H (Hotel in the radio alphabet). Sash window = one where a movable pane of glass slides vertically in a frame. |
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| 11 | ADEQUATELY | Consider the same sick lady outside as well enough (10) |
| EQUATE (consider the same), with an anagram (sick) of LADY outside it. | ||
| 12 | CAVEAT | Warning! Tiger possibly bitten half the street! (6) |
| CAT (tiger possibly), containing (bitten) half of AVE[nue] (street). My last one in – I thought it was quite tricky, but having spotted most of a pangram I guessed correctly that it would need a V to complete that, which helped. |
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| 13 | ORDINARY | Currency unknown following gold standard (8) |
| DINAR (currency unit in various countries) + Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown number), all following OR (gold in heraldic terminology). We’ve had two clues containing “gold” (see 1a), so Matilda has helpfully reminded us of both standard crossword synonyms for it. | ||
| 14 | LET IT RIDE | Took no action on rent — stupidly I tried! (3,2,4) |
| LET (rent = accept payment for the use of a property) + anagram (stupidly) of I TRIED. | ||
| 16 | FORTY | When life begins to be a bit like a stronghold? (5) |
| Definition and cryptic definition: as in “life begins at 40”, or “a bit like a FORT” (stronghold) = fort-y. People who don’t like puns probably don’t do crosswords. | ||
| 17 | JAMMY | Dodger may be lucky (5) |
| Dodger as in the biscuits, though the brand name is spelled “Jammie Dodgers” – shortbread biscuits with a jam filling. (They also make Choccie Dodgers and Toffee Dodgers.) Jammy = slang for lucky: getting something good without deserving it or without making any effort. |
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| 19 | SIGNATURE | Back soldiers with the wild distinctive mark (9) |
| GIS (plural of GI = American soldier), reversed (back), with NATURE (the wild). | ||
| 23 | HARDSHIP | Certainly no inflatable in difficulty (8) |
| Inflatable = short for an inflatable boat: not as rigid as a traditional solid boat, which would be a HARD SHIP in comparison. Nautical experts may argue about equating boat and ship, because they wouldn’t use the terms interchangeably, but for the purposes of crosswords they’re the same thing. | ||
| 24 | DAMASK | Enquire after barrier material (6) |
| ASK (enquire) after DAM (a barrier preventing the movement of water). Fabric with a woven-in pattern, named after Damascus which was once known for producing and trading it. |
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| 26 | CIGARETTES | Matilda’s magic not starting, backfires and smokes (10) |
| SETTER (Matilda, the setter of this crossword) + [m]AGIC (not starting = first letter dropped), all reversed (backfires). Smokes (noun) = slang for cigarettes. |
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| 27 | XMAS | Kiss on Mother’s Day — in December? (4) |
| X (written representation of a kiss) + MA’S (mother’s). | ||
| 28 | AGREE TO | Okay welcome in the heart of Laos (5,2) |
| GREET (welcome), inserted into the middle letters (heart) of [l]AO[s]. Agree to = okay = permit or approve. |
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| 29 | USURPED | Seized power held by American, rude bastard (7) |
| US (American) + anagram (bastard) of RUDE, holding P (power). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UNAWARE | Oblivious in Cameroun — a war expected (7) |
| Hidden answer in [camero]UN A WAR E[xpected]. Cameroun = French name for the country of Cameroon, or for their former colony which is now part of it. | ||
| 3 | OCHRE | Mock the art set without frames and colour (5) |
| [m]OC[k] [t]H[e] [a]R[t] [s]E[t], without the frames (outer letters). Yellow-brown pigment derived from clay. |
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| 4 | SCATTER | Castrate violently without using a spray (7) |
| Anagram (violently) of CASTR[a]TE without using one instance of the letter A. | ||
| 6 | STURDY | Think about head of rival firm (6) |
| STUDY (think) around the head (first letter) of R[ival]. | ||
| 7 | EATING OUT | Going to a restaurant, or dine at home, with painful disease (6,3) |
| EAT IN (dine at home) with GOUT (a painful disease). The grammar of the surface is a bit clumsy but I like it anyway. | ||
| 8 | CULPRIT | Guilty party‘s rip-off concealed by religious group (7) |
| Anagram (off) of RIP, inserted into (concealed by) CULT (religious group). | ||
| 9 | BEYOND DISPUTE | Did you pen best composition? Absolutely! (6,7) |
| Anagram (composition) of DID YOU PEN BEST. | ||
| 15 | IMMEDIATE | Now‘s the wrong time to constrain mass communications (9) |
| Anagram (wrong) of TIME, containing (to constrain) MEDIA (mass communications). “Now” and “immediate” have the same sense but I can’t think of a sentence where they could be interchangeable. The nearest I’ve come is take action now = take immediate action. |
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| 18 | AMAZING | Wonderful magazine, incompletely edited (7) |
| Anagram (edited) of MAGAZIN[e] (incompletely = last letter missing). | ||
| 20 | NUDISTS | Studs in tatty clothing not for them (7) |
| Anagram (tatty) of STUDS IN. | ||
| 21 | RESHAPE | Alter in the case of quiet mimic (7) |
| RE (in the case of) + SH (quiet!) + APE (mimic, as a verb). | ||
| 22 | THREAT | Moving right up the rat menace (6) |
| THE RAT, moving the R (right) one place towards the start (up, in a down clue). | ||
| 25 | MIXER | Socialiser in 1009 — the Queen! (5) |
| MIX (Roman numerals for 1009) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, the Queen). | ||
Thanks Matilda and Quirister
Very good, but also rather difficult for a Quiptic (as was Matilda’s last offering, I seem to recall). GIGARETTES was very clever; I also particularly liked IMMEDIATE and FORTY – an Uxbridge English Dictionary second definition!
Thanks Matilda and Quirister. A lovely well clued puzzle. JAMMY took a while to click (I don’t think I can blame it on the misspelling of the biscuits since I’d have spelt them Jammy too). FORTY raised a smile as did NUDISTS and the cluing of CIGARETTES.
When I reached XMAS I had the thought that we must be in for a pangram but then promptly forgot. I could have really done with remembering when left with 2 to go (JAMMY and ADEQUATELY) given that’s where the Q and the J sit! Would have sped up the finish I’m sure.
Took me a while and there were a few I had to reveal – but really enjoyed it. Am a lockdown newbie – enjoy recognising the different types of clues – when I can
A challenging Quiptic which I found more difficult than today’s Cryptic. Maybe the editor got confused when selecting which puzzle goes where today?
Liked FORTY
NEW: dodger = bread + jammy = lucky for 17a JAMMY (loi). I needed help from google and dictionary to solve this one. I saw dodger = bread described as Australian slang. I am from Australia but I never heard that before! So I guessed it meant that bread (with jam) could be JAMMY. * ¯\_(?)_/¯*
In the blog it talks about biscuits? I did not run into that on google.
Thanks B+S
Thanks for the blog, Quirister.
A ‘lovely puzzle’ indeed, with lots of clever clues – I had the same favourites mentioned above – and witty definitions (stiff test, clothing not for them, day in December].
Not for the first time, I think the Quiptic and Cryptic puzzles could have swapped places today.
Many thanks, Matilda – most enjoyable.
We crossed., michelle. 😉
I find some setters irk me and others delight me with more or less the same devices or clues – something about the tiny subtleties in the way they are phrased perhaps? It’s like the difference between Mozart and Scarlatti 🙂 Matilda, as ever, was a delight to solve today. Not only could one argue that a boat is not a ship, one could add the most common sort of inflatable is actually a “rigid inflatable boat” or RIB, so it also hard. But one wouldn’t as it would spoil the fun!
Seeing the pangram pointed me to the Q in “adequately” but did not help my last one in (“threat” – very neat). Thanks to M and to Q for a helpful blog.
TILT: why is it called an autopsy? The Greek root suggests something about looking at yourself (“auto” + “optos”, eliding the two) but it is actually “seeing for yourself” ie determining the evidence for cause of death.
Fiona Anne @3: welcome to Fifteensquared, and I’m glad you enjoyed this one. As you’ve probably found, the Quiptic is usually a good place to start for beginners, though as Eileen mentioned the Guardian’s Monday cryptic is often fairly straightforward too.
michelle @4: I hadn’t realised until now that Jammie Dodgers are specifically British. The rest of you don’t know what you’ve missed – over here, they’ve been an important part of childhood (and a nostalgic indulgence for adults) for many years. You may well have something similar where you are, but not by that name.
Matilda can always be counted on to provide an entertaining puzzle at just the right level for a Quiptic, and I wish we could see her more than once a month. I found this one a bit tougher than most, but got there without assistance unless you count using the pangram for a nudge with JAMMY (thanks, Quirister for explaining the biscuit part of that one). I liked the quirky definition for AUTOPSY and the wordplay for CIGARETTES, and thought ‘bastard’ was an interesting anagrind in 29a. Thanks to Matilda for the fun.
Very enjoyable. I too thought ‘yay’ when I saw the setter’s name. I really liked AUTOPSY but there was lots to like, as has been mentioned.
The Zed@7- interestingly the Americans use necropsy rather then autopsy, but I have always preferred the latter term for the precise reason you mention, it is about seeing for yourself, although the perhaps more commonly known term, post mortem, avoids the possible confusion.
Thanks to Matilda for the fun and Quirister for the blog
[It’s just occurred to me that not everyone will be familiar with the Uxbridge English Dictionary. This is a link to an online version.]
As one stuck at the Quiptic level of solution skills, I found this quite tricky. Not helped by the fact that I spotted it was a pangram then failed to notice I already had a J in jammy, so I kept looking for one in one across, my last one in. I agree with others about the many clever and amusing clues. So thanks to Matilda and Quirister
ngaiolaurenson @10, as an American I am quite familiar with autopsy and don’t recall ever hearing necropsy in conversation.
I’ll confess to struggling for a while but I got there in the end. I wouldn’t have complained if this puzzle was in the Cryptic slot instead of the Quiptic.
AUTOPSY, CIGARETTES and especially FORTY raised a smile.
I seem to have had a similar experience to yours, Quirister, in that I ticked 20d NUDISTS (very good), had 12a CAVEAT as my last one in, and had a question mark by 15d – surely “now” is “immediately” not IMMEDIATE?
I took much too long to remember the “stiff test” gag at 1a!
Many thanks Matilda and Quirister.
I did well at this one, though being familiar with neither the biscuit nor the slang, I had to admit defeat to 17 across. Maybe if I had noticed that it was a pangram I would have just thrown a ‘J’ in and guessed, but that’s for an alternate universe. As it was, with the crossers, I spent some time trying to anagram ‘may be’, though it became pretty obvious that wasn’t leading anywhere. Still building my British slang so I can get better at these!
Thanks to Matilda and Quirister!
TheZed@7,DiC@13
Autopsy originates from the French autospie, and can be a review of any event, used in business to determine reasons why a project failed, as well as a body.
Necropsy originates from the greek, necro – a corpse, and is only used on the examination of a body, at least I never performed a necropsy when consulting business failure but often did an autopsy.
There was a discussion recently about whether ‘half the [synonym]’ was unfair, being like an indirect anagram (?) Anyway, I think it’s OK, although it took me a while to see CAVEAT.
I did like the ‘stiff test’. Good Quiptic, perhaps a little challenging for the slot.
Thanks Matilda and Quirister.
Agree with the general feeling that this was tougher than usual for a Matilda Quiptic, and also tougher than recent Quiptics in general, but willing to forgive as several clues made me laugh out loud – it probably helps that I’m quite good at punning. Got to CAVEAT eventually – had CAT confirmed but the filling was harder to find.
Thanks Quirister for parsing the couple I couldn’t, and Matilda for an entertaining start to the week.
CliveinFrance @17, thanks for the additional insight. Unlike some others here, I’ve never studied languages or linguistics in depth, so this forum is gradually providing me with an education.
I came here primarily to check whether others also found this difficult for a Quiptic. I’m relieved to find that quite a few of you did.
Despite struggling more than usual, I enjoyed this puzzle a great deal. I failed to spot the pangram, but the last few clues to fall didn’t have any of the most unusual letters, so it probably wouldn’t have helped me if I had.
To me, a sash is just part of a window, not the window itself. Yes, there is such a thing as a sash window, but I don’t think that that justifies the definition: there’s such a thing as beef stew, but beef is not a stew. But this is quite a minor quibble.
I suppose one could raise the same quibble about using “dodger” to clue JAMMY, but the intent there is clearly playful. Although I’m from the USA, I have had jammie dodgers (and plain chocolate hobnobs, jaffa cakes, and many other biscuits we don’t have over here). But I would have misspelled them in the same way as the clue, so the spelling issue didn’t bother me.
Great fun, Matilda, having done it à trois to much merriment.
Thanks to Quirister and Matilda
Overall a very good crossword but 12a,17a,6d and 15d don’t work for me.
12a tiger possibly has bitten, bites …
17a may be this …
6d I can’t see where “study” could reasonably stand in for “think”
15d or “immediate” for “now”
Dansar @23
I see your points about 12, 6, and 15 (though I was happy enough with them), but I think 17 is fine as a double definition.
Dodger may be (jammy)
lucky (jammy)
@23 The clue seems to require double duty from “about”, once to show that study is to go about the r and once so that study means “think about” as in I’m going to study that problem. Not great but not horrible in my opinion.
muffin @23
That would work if the biscuits were actually called “Jammy”, but even then it should really be “maybe”, rather than “may be”.
The “this” that I have added works (I think), because although they were not called “Jammy” they were, nevertheless, full of jam.
Dodger may be this (jammy), lucky (jammy) – double def
The “may be” takes into account the fact that (as Quirister points out), other flavours are available.
Yes “Dodger may be this lucky” would be more elegant.
@25
You may be right, but “double duty” is such a no-no that it is normally only seen when unavoidable. A simple “involving” or “implicating” would have sufficed so I think that this is more likely to be an example of my least favourite device – “pick a tenuous synonym”.
Many thanks to both as always. An enjoyable romp with the biscuit being a complete guess. Out here we have Shrewsbury biscuits which appear to be the same. Sorry about the late posting but my day has been like that.
Quirister @8 – actually, I think the whole JAMMY clue is British – not just the biscuits, but also the term ‘jammy’ for ‘lucky’. I had to reveal it, though I did remember ‘jammy bastard’ when I did, and there was the very faintest of echoes on the biscuits – must be from my Pommy wife. I also found this tough in places, but there were quite a few nice PDMs.
Me @27
Dodger could be this lucky
would be even better
Over here, ‘jammies’ are baby talk for pajamas. Like TassieTim@30, I’ve never heard of either the biscuits (cookies?) or the slang term. I had to surrender on that one. I figured “dodger” was some cricket term.
CIGARETTES, SIGNATURE, and AUTOPSY took a bit to get, but they made me smile when I did. ADEQUATELY was my LOI, and even then I didn’t fully parse it until reading this blog (h/t to Quinster). I had interpreted “lady outside” to mean ‘take the first and last letter of “lady”‘, which meant I understood which part of the clue was the straight part (since a word ending in LY is likely an adverb) but left me stuck trying to parse “consider the same sick”.
*Quirister (Apologies – I blame my new keyboard)