Had to bash this out fast as a result of (a) work and then (b) champagne as the fruits of work. No frills; no time either (see point (b) above). Hope you enjoyed it.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Makeshift quantity of butter he’d put in cup (7-2) |
| PATCHED-UP – PAT [quantity of butter] + HE’D inside CUP. | |
| 6 | Pet fur? Nothing shed (3) |
| CAT – C{o}AT. A coat could be “fur”, remove the o [nothing shed]) | |
| 8 | Glamour in good collection of puppies? (7) |
| GLITTER – G [good] + LITTER [collection of puppies]. | |
| 9 | Some assassin in Japan (5) |
| NINJA – hidden, and an &Lit. | |
| 10 | Confirm nastiest tuba is melted down (12) |
| SUBSTANTIATE– anagram [is melted down] of “nastiest tuba”. | |
| 12 | Hard wood is what steerer holds (4) |
| HELM – H [hard] + ELM [wood]. I got fixated on “ash” for the wood and had to move on till the E arrived. | |
| 13 | Boy returned hot food (4) |
| NOSH – NOS [boy returned, i.e. reversal of “son”] + H [hot]. There used to be a takeaway van on the pier at Tobermory called Posh Nosh, marvellous scallops straight off the boats. | |
| 17 | Emergency worker can name album that’s playing (12) |
| AMBULANCEMAN – anagram [that’s playing] of “can name album”. | |
| 20 | Skill retaining O and A in key supply of blood (5) |
| AORTA – ART [skill] including O [retaining O] + A [and A]. | |
| 21 | Emergency mission, perhaps, first couple of chaps having fallen from mountain transport (7) |
| AIRLIFT – {ch}AIRLIFT. Chairlift is “mountain transport”; remove the CH [first couple of chaps having fallen]. | |
| 23 | Popular name for place to get drinks (3) |
| INN – IN [popular] + N [name]. | |
| 24 | Precocious child — great new source of exasperation, possibly (9) |
| TWEENAGER – anagram [possibly] of “great new” and E [source of exasperation]. Chambers doesn’t list tweenager at all [edit: see the discussion in the comments below. I was using Chambers online, which doesn’t have it, but it seems that various paper editions do. I didn’t bother checking my paper Chambers, since there was no entry online!] Collins just has it as “a child of approximately eight to fourteen years of age”, nothing to do with being precocious. Not totally convinced by the definition, therefore, but I don’t have online OED and my paper one is far too elderly to have it, so one source unchecked. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Servant opening up over closure of palace (4) |
| PAGE – PAG [opening up, i.e. reversal of “gap”] above [over] E [closure of palace]. | |
| 2 | Compliment family welcoming aunt regularly (7) |
| TRIBUTE – TRIBE [family] containing [welcoming] UT [aunt regularly]. | |
| 3 | Attractive MC disowning son (3) |
| HOT – “host” [MC, i.e. Master of Ceremonies] without the S [disowning son]. | |
| 4 | Doctor to act badly around university city (6) |
| DURHAM – DR [doctor] + HAM [to act badly] going outside [around] U [university]. | |
| 5 | Little change about English idiot? A sorry state (9) |
| PENITENCE – PENCE [little change] going around [about] E [English] + NIT [idiot]. | |
| 6 | Conservative General Assembly dance (5) |
| CONGA -CON [Conservative] + GA [General Assembly, no doubt a valid abbreviation somewhere for someone]. | |
| 7 | In the morning, diving into the southern river (6) |
| THAMES – AM [in the morning] going inside [diving into] THE + S [the southern]. | |
| 11 | Time to support distribution of musical’s programme on different media? (9) |
| SIMULCAST – T [time] at the bottom of [to support] an anagram [distribution of] “musical’s”. | |
| 14 | Winter sport takings revived (7) |
| SKATING – anagram [revived] of “takings”. | |
| 15 | Question one kidnapping a sailor from Arab country (6) |
| QATARI – Q [question] + I [one] containing [kidnapping] A TAR [a sailor]. Doesn’t look right without a U, does it? | |
| 16 | I am at end of line welcoming new resident (6) |
| INMATE – I’M [I am] + AT [at] + E [end of line] containing [welcoming] N [new]. | |
| 18 | Dull person endlessly referring to chemical element (5) |
| BORON – BOR{e} [dull person endlessly] + ON [referring to]. | |
| 19 | Celebrity’s backing singers (4) |
| STAR – people who “sing” (grass, squeal, inform) are sometimes called “rats”. Reversal gives you STAR. I hate it when the reversal indicator is the middle of three words. Rats/star, star/rats. No real way to be sure which it was so I waited for checkers. | |
| 22 | Sprint disaster — I must drop out (3) |
| RUN – “ruin” [disaster] without the I [I must drop out]. | |
You might have an older Chambers, Templar. I think it was the 2014 Chambers that was the first to include the following definition of tweenager: A child who, although not yet a teenager, has already developed an interest in fashion, pop music, and exasperating his or her parents.
5:25, got held up by the long anagrams.
Hmm, thanks George. I used Chambers online and it still gives me “Sorry, no entries for Tweenager were found.”
https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=Tweenager&title=21st
I’ve never worked out what that site uses, as it’s certainly not the standard Chambers dictionary. I think to get that you would have to subscribe to an app. Others will know.
TWEENAGER is in my 2011 12th edition of Chambers, but also in my original copy published in 2003. The ODE defines it as a child between the ages of about 10 and 14 which sounds more plausible to me than Collins starting at 8.
Could you change the category to Quick Cryptic please to keep the archive in order? Many thanks.
Done, sorry.
14 minutes with time lost on TWEENAGER and ruling out HASH at 12ac. The former appeared once before in a QC 4 years ago.
We have TIMES QUICK across the middle.
Good catch!
Thank you! Didn’t spot that. See point (b) again. Don’t drink and solve, kids.
Ah. So there is a U after the Q after all …
Seeing TIMES QUICK didn’t help me with a quick time and I just avoided the SCC at 19 minutes. Never really got going and I thought there were some hard ones here, especially TWEENAGER (love the Chambers def) and SIMULCAST. I agree with Templar about the positioning of the reversal indicator for STAR at 19d, especially as the across clues providing crossing letters weren’t easy.
Favourites were NINJA and THAMES; I imagine not too much morning diving taking place with your current weather.
Thanks to Pedro and Templar – enjoy the champers
Surprisingly straightforward with some chestnuts and anagrams that jumped out into place. Finished in 16mins for a good result. Cold wind dropped the temperature to forego fishing so opted for a sweater and bike ride instead. Definitely exercised pedalling back against the wind.
Thanks Pedro and Templar.
A good one not to submit a time on, with a SNITCH well north of 120.
10:16 for me, with the tricky (and ugly) TWEENAGER going in last.
Second the frustration with 15d. It’s even more frustrating when getting the reversal backwards scuppers a relatively brisk solve via incorrect checking letters in a crucial location. AIRLIFT and TWEENAGER were my LOIs because I was looking for a precocious child with an S at the end and an emergency mission with an R at the end.
Even if this was my slowest QC in ages (10:47), it was nevertheless an enjoyable solve. And ironically enough after the struggles detailed above, my COD was the one for TWEENAGER. Thanks Templar and Pedro!
Turns out I can’t spell PENITENCE. If only I’d parsed properly I’d have caught that A! Super fast until a standstill, partly caused by reversing the wrong word at rats/STAR and partly because SIMULCAST and TWEENAGER were both stored in the deep recesses. Huge relief to finally see how TWEENAGER worked – that is was an anagram remained hidden for ages. Just under 17 with a well-deserved, non-typo, pink square.
A disaster for me (not unusual for a Pedro puzzle) which tipped me into the SCC. Just not on wavelength. I finished it but found it an unsatisfying slog, I’m afraid.
Thanks to Templar for helping me appreciate a couple of clever clues that I had glossed over.
21:04 – about average time for me. Held up by SIMULCAST & TWEENAGER: what is precocious about one? Slow to get going with the acrosses, but found the downs easier.
A sparkling 9:09 for me, and especially pleasing as I often find Pedro challenging. By the time I got to 19D I had the T checker so fortunately there was no chance of being confused by whether it was STAR or RATS, but I agree it is not ideal when a clue cannot be solved at all on its own. It would never make a Quintagram clue!
My bigger hold-up was with SIMULCAST and TWEENAGER, neither of which are words I am familiar with. Both solved from wordplay alone and put in with fingers crossed on the grounds that, even if not very elegant, they looked plausible enough. I did actually look up Simulcast after completing the puzzle and I’m not sure the definition is quite there – it seems from the dictionaries (and indeed the construction of the word) that the essence is that the broadcasts are not just on different media but simultaneous – of which there is no hint in the clue.
Many thanks Templar for the blog.
Pushed over my target by this tricky offering. From HOT to TWEENAGER in 11:46. Thanks Pedro and Templar.