Just doing this ‘quiptic’ to get another post out quickly – I made some changes to the site template, and I don’t think they get activated until I do another post, so this is it.
The puzzle is https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quiptic/1279 – and a Quiptic should presumably be a cryptic that’s not too hard. But that doesn’t stop me from criticizing it.
1 across: Unpleasant film about posh college boy’s surrender (7)
SUCCUMB ‘scum’ (unpleasant film) about ‘u’ (posh) and ‘c’ (college) — so, the word ‘scum’ wrapped around ‘uc’ — ‘b’ (boy) || it hurts sometimes, doesn’t it? Anyway, ‘u’ means posh because it stands for the ‘upper’ part of ‘upper class’
5 across: Consolidate agreement (7)
COMPACT it’s a synonym of both of the words in the clue || this one took me the longest – funny how that goes sometimes
9 across: Gets out by cutting loose ties (5)
EXITS ‘eits’ is the ‘loose ties’ bit — i.e. the letters of ‘ties’ being let loose and dancing around. ‘x’ is by (as in “5 X 6” can be said as “5 by 6”), so we have ‘x’ cutting in to the ‘eits’ || yep, ouch
10 across: Went quite when thrashed in competition (7,2)
CLAMMED UP ‘lammed’ (thrashed) inside ‘cup’ (competition)
11 across: Doctor honoured fee, reduced in time of crisis (4,2,4)
HOUR OF NEED doctor (i.e. fiddle around with) the letters of ‘honoured’ and ‘fe’ (fee reduced) — in other words, it’s an anagram of honoured and fe.
12 across: Old American tatooist on radio (4)
INCA ‘on radio’ is used here as a way of signalling ‘this sounds like’. What it sounds like is ‘inker’ which, in the wonderful world of crosswords, is a term that could be used to describe a tatooist.
14 across: List each time scrap’s put on dumper lorry (6,5)
TIPPER TRUCK ‘tip’ (list, as in lean over a bit) ‘per’ (each) ‘t’ (time) ‘ruck’ (scrap, as in fight)
18 across: Planned camping by lake on Scottish island (7)
INTENTIONAL ‘in tent’ (camping) by ‘l’ (lake) on (i.e. put all that — intentl — on/around) ‘iona’ (Scottish island): intentional
21 across: Break into computer of poor journalist (4)
HACK A double definition – ‘break into computer’ and ‘poor journalist’ both can be synonymous with ‘hack’ || double definition clues can be quite nice examples of cryptic clue art. When done well, the two definitions flow together to wildly mislead and bamboozle the solver, despite, in two different ways, pointing directly to the solution. But when done merely ‘adequately’, they end up like this one
22 across: X axis range’s big when detailed (10)
HORIZONTAL ‘horizon’ (range) ‘tal’ (‘tall’ — i.e. big — with the end knocked off — i.e. de-tailed) ; the definition part is ‘X axis’ – in Maths, engineering, etc…, the X axis, on a graph or plot, is the horizontal axis
25 across: Delighted by cockapoo running around hotel (4-1-4)
COCK A HOOP It’s an anagram of ‘cockapoo’ and ‘h’ – signalled by ‘running’ (the letters of cockapoo running, as in wildly cavorting and rearranging themselves) around ‘H’; the definition part is ‘delighted’ || This is the sort of phrase that crossword setter’s use when they describe being in a state of joy
26 across: Brief journal that is describing concept (5)
IMAGE ‘mag’ (brief for ‘magazine’), with ‘that is’ describing it — in other words, with “i.e.” around it: image ; the definition part is concept || image == concept ? Yes, kind of, just about; but this sort of thing does turn good folk away from crosswords
27 across: Supplies back up with very naughty son (7)
Purveys ‘pu’ (‘up’ backwards) ‘rvey’ (very naughty — i.e. an anagram of ‘very’) ‘s’ (son)
28 across: Flower acquires good height without effort (7)
LIGHTLY ‘lily’ (flower) acquires (brings into it — i.e. yet another way of saying ‘wraps its letters around’) ‘g ht’ (good height) – the definition part being ‘without effort’ || ‘g’ is often used for good; I see ‘ht’ much less often used for ‘height’, but it is indeed an accepted abbreviation – used by setters when they are getting utterly desperate
1 down: Supporters on course upset over man in rage (6)
SEETHE ‘seet’ (‘tees’ upset/upside-down — tees are the supporters (of the balls) on a golf course course) over (next to, before) ‘he’ (man) || quite a nice one I thought
2 down: Exclusive group’s intelligence collected in evidence (6)
CLIQUE ‘IQ’ (‘intelligence’) inside ‘clue’ (evidence)
3 down: Hunk endlessly showing off’s ignoring the spirit of the game (10)
UNSPORTING ‘un’ (‘hunk’ without either of its ends), ‘sporting’ (showing off)
4 down: Business breaks embargo to get cured meat (5)
BACON ‘ban’ is embargo, and ‘co’ (company/business) is breaking into it.
5 down: Prepared clean home for reptile (9)
CHAMELEON it’s an anagram of ‘clean home’, signalled in this case by ‘prepared’
6 down: Note setter’s method (4)
MEMO ‘me’ (setter — the setter is writing the clue, hence speaking to you – when they refer to themselves it typically signals ‘I’ or ‘me’) ‘mo’ (method, as in modus operandus)
7 down: Making sense of a complicated pudding (6,2)
ADDING UP ‘a’ (a) ‘dding up’ (complicate — i.e. anagram of — pudding) || makes sense
8 down: Nothing wrong with high targets (3,5)
TOP MARKS A double definitioner; if you have nothing wrong, then you will have the highest possible mark; it can also mean high targets || this took me a little while, because I wasn’t really happy with ‘top marks’ meaning ‘nothing wrong’. ‘Top marks’ suggests you score higher than anyone else – but getting nothing wrong means that you might not be top, but only joint top. Welcome to the mind of a crpytic crossworder I guess.
13 down: Outstanding, however victory’s overshadowed by own goal (5,5)
STILL OWING ‘still’ (however) ‘owing‘ win (victory) with o.g. surrounding (‘overshadowing’) it || for those who don’t regularly read football results, o.g. is a standard abbreviation for own goal
15 down: Roux heartily tucked into poisson, potentially toxic (9)
POISONOUS ‘ou’ is the heart of Roux — i.e.the middle bit. It’s tucked into an anagram of (signalled by ‘potentially’) ‘poisson’ || well, indeed, anagrams sometimes only mean a letter or two is shifted
16 down: Thing to shift cold: a paracetamol intitially and something warm to wear in bed (8)
NIGHTCAP ‘night’ (that’s ‘thing’ after shifting the letters around), ‘c’ (cold) ‘a’ and ‘p’ (a, and the initial letter of paracetamol) || the definition is reasonably misleading – in our house a nightcap means a shot of whiskey, which helps you sleep with a cold
17 down: Stand firm with exhaused teams over race vehicle (5,3)
STOCK CAR ‘rack’ (stand) ‘co’ (firm, as in company) ‘ts’ (exhausted teams — i.e. teams with its guts removed); so far we have ‘rackcots – the ‘over’ then tells us to turn all that upside down, and there we are.
19 down: Finally where to find a shoe mender (2,4)
AT LAST A creditable double-definition — where would you find a shoe mender? At work based at one of their key bits of equipment, which is a ‘last’ – typically a wooden foot shape
20 down: Dozy fish turned up on top of pondy wth young (6)
SLEEPY ‘slee’ (fish (eels) turned up) ‘p’ (top, as in first letter, of pond) ‘y’ (abbrev. for young).
23 down: Drive anxious mile to secure parking (5)
IMPEL this time ‘anxious’ is used to indicate the anagram – i.e. the letters of ‘mile’ are anxiously shifting around, and they secure (grab into their midst) a ‘p’ for parking.
24 down: Wear out old horse (4)
JADE it means ‘wear out’, in the sense of personally tiring of something, getting jaded … and it is also an archaic name for a broken-down horse || a symptom of an archaic broken-down setter?
So what have we learned
I didn’t find this particularly quick easy – but I guess it’s very hard for setters to judge. Anyway I now know that ‘jade’ used to mean a broken-down horse, and also that that meaning is potentially behind the way we use it today, as a verb.
A Solver with Opinions 
Leave a comment