23,564 – Accidentally Like A Martyr

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : About 50 mins

I thought this was fair crossword overall; I like puzzles that you can complete without any (or with very little) specialist knowledge. There were a few words that I didn’t know – but they were all gettable, thanks to decent clueing.

Across

1 QUI(C[oo]KS)ET – the last one to go in today – a quickset is a hedge, which I didn’t know – I guessed it had to be something in QUIET but it took a while for doctors=CooKS to suggest itself.
9 TIME OUT(=relaxation) OF MIND(=mental) – I got this pretty fast, Time Out Of Mind being the name of Bob Dylan’s 1997 album (big fan – I’m seeing him four times this month!). The phrase is defined in Collins as ‘from time immemorial.’
11 I(NUN)D,ATE – I only read one ‘had’ at first, this held me up a little bit.
13 A,DOLE’S,CENT
15 OC(=officer commanding),HE
16 LONG – a reference to buying stocks, shares etc in advance, I guess
21 GE(R)T,RUDE – I wasn’t sure about puzzle=get but I guess it’s used in phrases such as ‘you’ve got me there…’
22 T(ENAC)E; CANE reversed in extremes of T[onbridg]E – I thought about this but wasn’t sure it was a word – it is a term used in whist and bridge.
23 IN THE SAME BOAT – refers to the poem by Edward Lear – putting ‘Cat and owl’ instead of ‘the owl and the pussycat’ didn’t prevent me getting this quickly.
26 ARTIFICE – anagram of ‘if I react’

Down

4 S(P)OON
5 TIT,MICE – ‘Short’ here doing two jobs – Tit. is an abbreviation for Titus and it is also one of the shortest Epistles.
6 DEFAULTED; anagram of ‘ dated fuel’ – it’s worth noting that ‘supply’ is often an adverb in crosswords.
8 GO,DUTCH – I remember dutch=’Duchess of Fife’=wife but I know that there has been some discussion as to its true origin.
14 S(UC,CU,LEN)T; Copper=Cu going both ways before LEN in the street (ST).
17 ON(E)TIME; ’employee finally’=E
19 IKEBANA – the Japanese art of flower arranging (yes, I checked in the dictionary), hidden in ‘lIKE BANAnas’
20 A(SCET)IC; TECS in CIA reversed – this one held me up for a bit – I’ve never come across TEC as being short for detective.
22 TREAT[y]

7 comments on “23,564 – Accidentally Like A Martyr”

  1. 6:51 here – QUICKSET/TITMICE were last to go in – this meaning of quickset was new, and Tit. isn’t the first “book” to come to mind. I was also hazy about the def for ‘time out of mind’ so had to wait for most checking letters to be sure. Nice to see that tenace, tec and ikebana are novelties for someone!
  2. what this one? I got most of the rest before turning to your page, and you don’t mention it?!?!
  3. 7:13 for me, though I thought I’d been a bit faster as I didn’t have any real problems. Agonised over 16a – but not for too LONG.
  4. I initially came to ask for an explanation for 21a thinking that the king was ER leaving GR for puzzle, but that has been explained above. I wish to tell you site is invaluable to me as a fairly new solver trying to hone my skills, My time was about 1hr 15mins with the aforementioned clue, quickset and oche being the last to go in “tsk tsk I used to be a fair darts player in my day”
    1. If it’s any consolation that’s the last one I got too and I’m still a very good darts player!
  5. How upsetting to ask for help with an “easy” to be told it was Child’s Play! In case there are any more bunnies here are the “easies”:

    6a Remove one’s name from plan (6)
    DE-SIGN

    10a (Silent)*, prepared to pay attention (6)
    LISTEN

    18a Piece of cake, little one, spread out (6-4)
    CHILD SPLAY

    25a Told to hang on, being a burden (6)
    WEIGHT. Sounds like WAIT.

    2d (Intrude)* surprising virgin (7)
    UNTRIED

    3d Moths will emerge (4,2,5)
    COME TO LIGHT

    7d Runner introducing Some Kinky Innovations (3)
    SKI

    12d Setting down and going to sleep (8,3)
    DROPPING OFF

    24d Yank’s stomach upset (3)
    TUG. Gut upside down.

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