As always, a delightful Quiptic from Pan. Plenty of devices for the beginner to get his or her teeth into, and some smooth surface readings to boot. And if you are a beginner, just ask if there is something that you don’t understand.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Facial hair (and fringe) goes up in smoke
SIDEBURNS
A charade of SIDE and BURNS.
6 Man taking drugs from Native American
PAWN
PAWN[EE] The ‘drug’, as so often, is E, and there are two of them, hence ‘drugs’. The reference is to the chess ‘man’.
8 Pure river spirit found in small container
VIRGINAL
An insertion of R and GIN in VIAL.
9 Slim pedestrian carrying hamper
IMPEDE
Hidden in slIM PEDEstrian.
10 Waste product generated by special agents
STOOLS
A charade of S and TOOLS gives you a word for poo most often used by your GP. ‘Are your stools regular, Mr Arbuthnot?’
11 Force completed reorganisation
MAKEOVER
A charade of MAKE and OVER. ‘She made me/she forced me.’
12 Leaves theses unbound
SHEETS
(THESES)* with ‘unbound’ as the clever anagrind.
15 Money made by professional joining top players in audition
PROCEEDS
A charade of PRO and a homophone (‘in audition’) of SEEDS (think Wimbledon).
16 Employer wearing retro type of pants?
TROUSERS
An insertion of USER in SORT reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’; the reversal indicator is ‘retro’.
21 Old note found in burnt out part of engine
TURBOFAN
An insertion of O and FA for the musical ‘note’ in (BURNT)* The insertion indicator is ‘found in’; the anagrind is ‘out’.
22 Dishes in Bake Off served with hollowed biscuits
KEBABS
A charade of (BAKE)* and BS for the outside letters (‘hollowed out’) of ‘biscuits’.
24 Clubber at event holding dress down
BERATE
Hidden in clubBER AT Event.
25 Harsh regulations restricting time at hospital allotted to head of surgery
RUTHLESS
An insertion of T and H in RULES, followed by S for the first letter of ‘surgery’. The insertion indicator is ‘restricting’.
26, 19 Foreign nanny nursing European throwback to English queen
ANNE BOLEYN
An insertion of E, LOB reversed and another E in (NANNY)* The two Es are for ‘European’ and ‘English’; the insertion indicator is ‘nursing’. The reversal indicator needs what some folk call ‘lift and separate’. You have to separate out ‘throwback’ into ‘throw’ and ‘back’, turning LOB into BOL. One of the most written about Queens in English history: a scheming, sexually voracious, social climber or a multi-lingual, politically aware, faithful wife, according to your point of view. Whichever way you look at it, it didn’t end well for her.
27 Doctored graph stopping virgin on the rebound getting contraceptive
DIAPHRAGM
An insertion of (GRAPH)* in MAID reversed. The anagrind is ‘doctored’; the reversal indicator is ‘on the rebound’; the insertion indicator is ‘stopping’.
Down
1 Spell isn’t broken on time
STINT
A charade of (ISNT)* and T.
2 Animal missing? Blast it!
DOGGONE
A simple charade of DOG and GONE gives you the (mainly American) interjection.
3 Woman embraced by doctor making proclamation
BANNS
Setters are always going to the doctors. It’s either an anagrind, or a source of abbreviations: MD, MO, GP, DR, or – here – BS for Bachelor of Surgery. Keep a lookout for ‘bones’ as well. An insertion of ANN in said BS gives you the ‘proclamations’ you have to have read out in church before you get married so that any ‘just impediments’ can be aired.
4 Character told to clean fish fillet
ROLLMOP
A charade of a homophone (‘told’) of ROLE and MOP. Herrings.
5 Small burial chamber containing writing material, book and source of foul smell
STINK BOMB
A charade of S and INK plus B inserted into TOMB. The insertion indicator is ‘containing’.
6 Fathers holding short bear close to little baby carrier
PAPOOSE
A charade of POO[H] in PAS followed by E for the last letter of ‘little’. The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
13 That man with nuclear particles is extremely difficult
HERCULEAN
A charade of HE and (NUCLEAR)* with ‘particles’ as the instruction to make an anagram. ‘Completing Pan’s puzzle today was a Herculean task.’
14, 7 Swedish fly deafened unbalanced English football team
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
One for Owls fans. (SWEDISH FLY DEAFENED)* with ‘unbalanced’ as the anagrind.
17 Daft tip-off given to newspaper covering earl’s offence
UMBRAGE
A charade of [D]UMB, RAG and E for ‘Earl’.
18 Grains sprinkled on American drink
SANGRIA
A charade of (GRAINS)* and A with ‘sprinkled’ as the anagrind.
20 Division of leaf on large heart of speciality plant
LOBELIA
A charade of LOBE, L and IA for the central letters of ‘speciality’.
22 Son abandoning rough drawing of sailing boat
KETCH
[S]KETCH
23 Doctor shed tears over breast
BOSOM
What was I saying about doctors? A reversal (‘over’) of MO and SOB.
Many thanks to Pan for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Pan and Pierre
Lots of fun. Favourites IMPEDE, KEBABS, and HERCULEAN (though isn’t “that man” “him” rather than “he”?)
Neither cobro nor brojo was on form today, with LOI IMPEDE – we are very bad at seeing hidden words!
Enjoyed SIDEBURNS and RUTHLESS.
Now off to attempt the cryptic.
Thanks to both!
@muffin — as long as ‘that man’ is the subject of your sentence, ‘he’ would be fine… đŸ™‚
Bachelor of Surgery was new to me.
Crosbie @3
Yes, of course. I was just thinking of him as the object. Neither he nor him would substitute well for “that man” in the clue, though.
BS was a new doctor for me, too. I was another one not quite on form this morning, so I found this harder than it should have been. I might leave the Cryptic till my mind has cleared. Thanks to Pan and Pierre.
All nicely clued if a bit doctor heavy. Unfortunately both the queen and the soccer club went in from enumeration which left me picking apart the clue afterwards. Hardly Pan’s fault though. I thought “particles” a very good example of a non-standard anagrind which could not be disputed. Mind you if I had a penny for every time I’ve typed “unclear physics” instead of “nuclear…”
Thanks Pierre (sorry there were no birds) and Pan.
Is BS much used, in fact? When my wife qualified, she became M.B., B.Chir.
(Medicinae Baccalaureus Baccalaureus Chirurgiae)
muffin @7 – My son has an MBBS (Medical Bachelor, Bachelor of Surgery – or some Latin equivalent), which was the medical degree given here in Tassie, so you have to ‘lift and separate’ here too. Can I be cliched and say that this was tougher than the Cryptic? Unlike TheZed @6, I don’t like ‘particles’ as an anagrind. Some nice clues, but some I struggled with – the above two, STOOLS, TROUSERS, TURBOFAN (what’s that?) would all be quite difficult for a beginner, I would have thought. Thanks, Pierre and Pan.
Thought this was a lot harder than the cryptic today, but surely that’s the editor’s decision as to where the puzzles go. Only guess was the BS in BANNS, so thanks for that explanation Pierre. Bit weak having two ANN/Es in the same crossword?
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY currently bottom of the English Championship (the division below the Premier League) on -12 points, following a 12-point deduction for breaching financial rules.
I thought I would try the Quiptic first before the cryptic and found it quite difficult, but enjoyable.
BS is not listed under doctor in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, so pretty difficult for a ‘beginner’ crossword.
BERATE was nicely hidden, I thought.
Thanks Pan and Pierre.
All tightly wrapped as usual from Pan. I decided to have a go at untangling the long anagram instead of googling English football clubs and was pleasantly surprised when I succeeded. I also hadn’t heard of LOBELIA, but it was clear from the wordplay. My loi was BERATE – like brojo @2, I’m often bad at seeing hidden words, but I credit the skill of the setter to keep what should be the most obvious cluing device from being a giveaway. Thanks to Pan and Pierre.
Possibly the two best-hidden words I’ve seen all year! Well played, Pan.
thanks Pierre and Pan.
I failed to parse BOSOM.
Cryptic and Quiptic back to front again. Preferred the Quiptic today.
A nice quiptic today, pitched at the right level I think. An almost complete for me!
Only bit of parsing I can’t quite get is 6D – what is the indicator for the last letter of little?
Rebster @16
“close to little” i.e. its last letter.
Rebster @ 16: ‘close to little’. The closing letter of ‘little’ is ‘e’.
I got stuck in the NW for a while. My excuse is that I’d never heard of ROLLMOP, nor did I know that a doctor could be a BS.
My botanical knowledge is weak, so I didn’t know that LOBELIA was a plant. My only association with that word is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, but since female hobbits are often named after flowers, I should have known. I also knew that PAPOOSE meant a baby, but not that it could be a baby carrier.
Ted @19 Two classic examples of how the same GK can be transparent to one person and opaque to another. I grew up on rollmops – something to do with my dad working in Scandinavia a lot, and a Jewish background contributing too. We always called them rollmops and never “pickled herrings”. As for lobelia, we have masses of it in our hanging baskets which we brought on from seed this year so although I am no botanist this one was right in my comfort zone.
TheZed makes a good point, Ted – GK for crosswords must be difficult for setters to gauge, since people’s backgrounds and interests vary so much. I guess for cryptics the ‘five miles wide, one foot deep’ kind of GK is best, but in the end you do have two routes to the answer. Plants are definitely my weak subject, but Lobelia is very common as a bedding plant, so today I didn’t struggle with that one.
I learned that PAPOOSE can have both meanings through crosswords.
Ted @19
Do try rollmops if you ever see them on a menu – delicious!
I try not to complain about puzzles requiring GK, for the reason TheZed gives. And to be clear, I didn’t intend my comment as a complaint. My ignorance of these things is not Vulcan’s problem!
Many, but by no means all, of the gaps in my knowledge when solving these puzzles come from the fact that I’m a transatlantic solver. I think that two of the examples (ROLLMOP and BS) I mentioned fall in this category. But again, I don’t mean this as a complaint — I’m the one who chooses to solve a puzzle in a UK newspaper, after all! And sometimes being from the US gives me an advantage: I’ve probably heard the names of the various American Indian tribes, which come up from time to time in these puzzles, more often than the typical UK solver. Abbreviations of the names of US states, which come up quite frequently, are also probably more familiar to me.
Very new newbie here. Can you explain LOBELIA a little further? I’m not sure where the LOBE part came from.
Also, shout-out to my fellow American solvers! Sheffield Wednesday? Forget it!
Of course, LizNY. LOBELIA is a charade – three elements to the clue to be added together. A LOBE is a botanical term for part of a leaf (I guess in the same sense as an ear lobe). Then you need L for ‘large’ (very common abbreviation), and IA. The last part comes from the ‘heart’ of ‘specIAlity’ – in other words, the central letters.
It’s always nice to have comments from our American solvers. You’ll struggle on a few, no doubt – but as Ted says, you’re first in the solving queue when it comes to US states or US usage. Or New York City districts …
I thought I had no chance when it said “English football team” and then when I tentatively put letters into the anagram circle it jumped right out at me!
Very embarrassed by the ones I didn’t get this week, but once again there’s vocabulary I didn’t know, so I don’t feel too badly about those.
Can’t believe I didn’t get DOGGONE!