A nicely judged offering from Quiptic regular Pan.
A good variety of clue types, and some nice surface readings and touches of humour. All in all, a very enjoyable start to the cryptic week.
| Across | ||
| 9 | STALEMATE |
Out-of-condition partner in no-win situation (9)
STALE (out-of-condition) MATE (partner) |
| 10 | IDEAL |
Perfect setter to hand out cards? (5)
I (setter, i.e. the setter of this crossword) DEAL (to hand out cards) |
| 11 | ORIFICE |
Opening in workplace, when fellow leaves for Rhode Island (7)
A substitution (when … leaves for …) of RI (Rhode Island) for F (fellow) in OFFICE (workplace) |
| 12 | DRASTIC |
Unpleasant doctor has a staff shortage (7)
DR (doctor) plus (has) A (a) STIC (staff shortage, i.e STICK with its last letter deleted) |
| 13 | MINT |
Money-making herb? (4)
A cryptic definition |
| 14 | COLD CALLER |
Carol singer may be an uninvited visitor (4,6)
A cryptic cum double definition Edit: a rather better parsing of this is suggested by Tom_I @ 20 below |
| 16 | NASCENT |
Beginning of Bonnington’s ultimate climb? (7)
N (Bonnington’s ultimate, i.e. last letter of) ASCENT (climb) |
| 17 | ELASTIC |
Flexible European to remain in charge (7)
E (European) LAST (to remain) IC (in charge) |
| 19 | TOWER BLOCK |
Time to take old beer back to secure accommodation (5,5)
T (time) followed by (to take) O (old), a reversal (back) of BREW (beer), LOCK (to secure). This caused me some head-scratching until I eventually realised that I had to crowbar ‘secure accommodation’ apart |
| 22 | FOIL |
Thin metal sword (4)
A double definition. Thin metal = FOIL, sword = FOIL. This was my last one in. It took me a while to realise that I had to read ‘thin’ with ‘metal’ and not with ‘sword’ |
| 24 | ASSUMED |
Adopted animal and bird from east for daughter (7)
ASS (animal) followed by (and) a reversal (from east, i.e. reading from right to left) of EMU (bird) and D (daughter). I can’t account for the ‘for’ here |
| 25 | RUFFIAN |
Funfair disrupted by thug (7)
An anagram (disrupted) of FUNFAIR |
| 26 | URBAN |
City-bred Dutch expelled from South African port (5)
A deletion (expelled from) of D (Dutch) from DURBAN (South Afrian port) |
| 27 | EXONERATE |
Acquit former partner facing single charge (9)
EX (former partner) followed by (facing) ONE (single) RATE (charge) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | A STORM IN A TEACUP |
Fuss about nothing made when Captain Oates’ rum runs out? (1,5,2,1,6)
An anagram (runs out) of CAPTAIN OATES RUM |
| 2 | PATIENTS |
Those being treated in hospital where clap set in, unfortunately (8)
PAT (clap) and an anagram (unfortunately) of SET IN |
| 3 | LEGIT |
Right to run away? (5)
A double definition. Right = LEGIT (legitimate), run away = LEG IT |
| 4 | BAREFOOT |
Kick outside a match official for wearing no shoes (8)
BOOT (kick) containing (outside) A REF (a match official) |
| 5 | MENDED |
Patched-up bathroom finally completed (6)
M (bathroom finally, i.e. last letter of) ENDED (completed) |
| 6 | HIMALAYAS |
Greeting used by members of ethnic group claiming a mountain range (9)
HI (greeting) plus (used by) MALAYS (members of ethnic group) around (claiming) A (a) |
| 7 | LENTIL |
Terribly ill outside hospital department? Find pulse! (6)
An anagram (terribly) of ILL around (outside) ENT (hospital department, i.e. ear, nose and throat) |
| 8 | ELECTRIC BLANKET |
For a warm layer, choose grandma’s second patterned cable knit (8,7)
ELECT (choose) R (grandma’s second, i.e. second letter of) and an anagram (patterned) of CABLE KNIT |
| 15 | DETRIMENT |
Tried suspect and got together to limit new damage (9)
An anagram (suspect) of TRIED followed by (and) MET (got together) around (to limit) N (new) |
| 17 | ESCARGOT |
Barge’s cargo typically contains a snail (8)
An answer hidden in (contains) BargES CARGO Typically |
| 18 | TROPICAL |
River found in collapsed coal pit is very hot (8)
R (river) inside (found in) an anagram (collapsed) of COAL PIT |
| 20 | WASABI |
Grow as a biennial’s pungent root (6)
An answer hidden in (‘s = has, i.e. contains) GroW AS A BIennial. It took me a while to see the hidden indicator here |
| 21 | LADDER |
Youngster embarrassed to turn up for run (6)
LAD (youngster) and a reversal (to turn up) of RED (embarrassed) |
| 23 | OFFER |
Bid for treasure chest with missing lid (5)
COFFER (treasure chest) with its first letter deleted (with missing lid) |
Thanks Pan and nms
Enjoyable, but I do hate the expression “animals and birds”, used singularly in 24a.
Thanks Pan & nms.
Nice Quiptic, does exactly what it says on the tin.
I liked the COLD CALLER and LEGIT.
Thanks Pan and nms.
The clues were very well written. I did like the out of condition partner and the money-making herb.
WASABI was a new word.
Muffin @1, could one say “animals and birds”, birds are animals.
That’s my point, Cookie – “animals and birds” implies that birds aren’t animals. “Animals” is being used sloppily to mean “mammals”.
I get you now muffin, a question of a comma missed by me.
Does DRASTIC really mean “unpleasant”? Chambers, Collins and Roget’s all define it simply as “severe, extreme”. Drastic measures are often unpleasant, but they don’t have to be (Google finds both “drastic pay cuts” and “drastic pay rises”). Other than that complaint, I thought this was very nicely pitched for a Quiptic. Not a write-in, but nothing obscure either.
Schroduck @ 6
Yes, I wondered about DRASTIC. Perhaps DESPERATE, listed as a synonym by both the Oxford and Collins online thesauruses, might have been a better choice.
[Muffin, I think “animal and bird” is fair enough, if animal is being used in the sense of a quadruped.]
[Cookie – why should animal = quadruped?]
[OCED “animal n 1 a living organism which feeds on organic matter, usu. with specialized sense organs and nervous system, and able to respond rapidly to stimuli. 2a such an organism other than a human. b a quadruped.” Makes one wonder what a human is.]
[Indeed!]
Fine Quiptic – well done, Pan. And as you say, nms, some smiles along the way, which always helps.
I don’t want to clog the blog with this animal/mammal thing, but it does drive me nuts as well. There are essentially two main kingdoms in the Linnaean classification system: Animalia and Plantae (modern biologists recognise others, but we’ll be here all day if we go into that). So if it ain’t a plant, it’s an animal. Insects are animals; spiders are animals; birds are animals; not all animals are quadrupeds, so I have no idea why Chambers defines it thus.
But then again a year or so ago a Guardian crossword had ‘insect’ as the definition and MILLIPEDE as the solution, which is complete balls. But we had the ‘oh well, it’s in Chambers so it must be right argument’. Er, no, it absolutely is not right: it’s scientifically illiterate.
I’ll stop now. And thank nms for a fine blog.
Kathryn’s Dad @12, I was quoting the Oxford Dictionary, I would not stoop to quote Chambers.
This may be A STORM IN A TEACUP, but Pan has used the term “animal” correctly to clue ASS.
Well, I can’t see the problem with ASSUMED. An ASS is an animal and an EMU is a bird. The fact that a bird is an animal is, I think, neither here nor there. As nms points out, the worst part of the clue is the use of ‘for!’
I see no problem with ‘animal’ = ASS and ‘bird’ = EMU.
I’m not sure many solvers, on seeing the word ‘animal’ in a clue, would immediately start running through their mental list of birds. I don’t think I would.
Indeed, I suspect there might have been a few more complaints if Pan had used ‘animal’ to indicate EMU, or ‘animals, one from east’ to indicate ASS + UME.
nms @ 16
That would have been more accurate, though! I dislike the implication that birds aren’t animals. It’s rather like saying “men and Piers Morgan” ………….oh, hang on a minute.
[btw I came across a good quiz question the other day (not a trick question, either). What’s the only living animal whose common name is identical to its scientific name? Clue: it’s not a mammal!]
That would be the boa constrictor snake, the Latin binomial for which is Boa constrictor.
While I’m at it, a tiny detail about the double definition at 14a, COLD CALLER. Isn’t the first “carol singer may be” and the second “an uninvited visitor”?
You win today’s prize, Tom_I – well done!
I agree (unless the carol singer is in the Antipodes). I rather liked the “carol singer may be” part of the clue.
Tom_I @ 20
Thanks. Your parsing of COLD CALLER is better than mine.
This was an excellent crossword, and not just in terms of a Quiptic.
The animal/bird discussion I found rather amusing as/but eventually the surface (which this was all about) isn’t relevant from a cryptic POV.
I fully agree with Robi @15, also re the use of ‘for’.
6d (HIMALAYAS) confused me for a while as ‘Mayas’ are also an ethnic group and perhaps even better known.
I made one mistake.
At 14ac, having all the crossers, I entered ‘loud hailer’.
With a bit of imagination it comes quite close to the clue ….. 🙂