Quick Cryptic 2852 by Trelawney

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I enjoyed this. Lots of nice surfaces and pretty straightforward for the most part. I couldn’t parse SPORRAN initially, even though it was the obvious answer, and didn’t twig with SONG until afterwards. End result a tad over-par 7 minutes.

Across
1 New-look squad a mere pretence (10)
MASQUERADE – anagram (‘new-look’) of SQUAD A MERE
8 Carry around air conditioning? That’s refreshing (7)
BRACING – BRING around AC
9 One with informal business by a Spanish island (5)
IBIZA – I + BIZ (business, informally) + A
10 More than six balls? (4)
OVER – double definition, the second a cricket reference
11 Lack of stuff? Don’t worry about it (2,6)
NO MATTER – double definition
13 Swamp-like planet extremely heavy (6)
MARSHY – MARS (planet) + H[EAV]Y
14 Oxford inspector left small piece of food (6)
MORSEL – MORSE + L. Inspector Morse, fictional detective who had to investigate Mexico City levels of violent homicide in 1990’s Oxford colleges.
17 After popular pet returns, I go quiet (8)
TACITURN – CAT backwards + I TURN. ‘Popular’ is redundant
19 Reverse middle part of Kiss tune (4)
SONG – SNOG (kiss) with the middle letters switched
21 Show up uninvited to stock market event (5)
CRASH – Double definition. The first an abbreviation of ‘gatecrash’
22 Bear and cat dancing for show (7)
CABARET – anagram (‘dancing’) of BEAR CAT
23 Ensnare owl flitting around US city (3,7)
NEW ORLEANS – anagram (‘flitting around’) of ENSNARE OWL
Down
2 Non-professional seen in team at Euros (7)
AMATEUR – hidden word
3 Seafood with no starter for pound (4)
QUID – [S]QUID
4 Christmas drink, for example, picked up award (6)
EGGNOG – EG + GONG backwards
5 Airman to upset cartoonist (8)
ANIMATOR – anagram (‘upset’) of AIRMAN TO
6 Kick out some of the Victorians (5)
EVICT – hidden word
7 Not too heavy without first large decoration (5,5)
FAIRY LIGHT – FAIRLY LIGHT with the first L removed
8 Top of bookshelf — space to put quidditch gear (10)
BROOMSTICK – B[ookshelf] + ROOM (space) + STICK (put). The mode of transport used in the fictional game of Quidditch from Harry Potter.
12 TV programme’s food includes pork pies, say? (4,4)
CHAT SHOW – CHOW (food) with HATS inside. Pork pie being a type of hat, and not for once cockney rhyming slang for ‘lie’
15 Following short game, took off tartan accessory (7)
SPORRAN – SPOR[T] + RAN. Pouch worn with a kilt.
16 Shopkeeper is even more repulsive when talking (6)
GROCER – sounds like ‘grosser’
18 Series featuring murderer outside hotel (5)
CHAIN – CAIN with H inside. Cain is the biblical murderer who killed a quarter of the world’s population, i.e. his brother.
20 Leader of orchestra regularly broke instrument (4)
OBOE – O for orchestra + BrOkE

85 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2852 by Trelawney”

  1. What a lovely puzzle. So many really smooth surfaces. Was going really well until breeze blocked by fairy light which took almost 2 of our 12.52 which is close to PB territory

    COD is tough as so many candidates but will go with quid for the smile

    Thanks Squire and Curarist.

  3. Note: There’s something odd going on re this puzzle at The Times which may affect the SNITCH. Here are the two comments posted in The Times forum so far:

    jackkt Fri 06 Dec 2024 04:37:29 AM

    In today’s Crossword Club there are two links to QC 2852. One of them works, the other goes to an error page. So we have the access we need but the duplication needs to be removed.

    kapietro Fri 06 Dec 2024 06:21:35 AM

    I don’t get an error page. I get the same crossword again, but with a different list of solvers: 37 of us on this page and smarter 22 on the other page. They would need to be combined when removing the duplication.

      1. Yes on further inspection the error message only comes when I go to print one of them. It appears that behind the scenes the puzzle is linked to two different urls only one of which is active.

  4. 7:23, very fast.
    MASQUERADE went in first, then all of its descendants. BROOMSTICK also flew in. Leading to another raft of initial letters.

    COD SONG, WOD SNOG

  5. I’m on the leaderboard, but not on the SNITCH.. Anyway, I don’t remember anything but was sluggish overall, once again. 7:32.

    1. Hi Kevin and all,

      There are two versions of the Quick Cryptic on the Club site with separate leaderboards. The SNITCH is only picking up one, so if you’ve solved on the other, I don’t see your time. If you report your time in your blog comments (and the SNITCH knows your TfTT name is matched to your club name), your score should eventually be reported in the SNITCH leaderboard.

      My apologies. I can’t think of any quick way to fix this, as monitoring both leaderboards would take quite a few changes to the code.

  6. The ever-reliable Trelawney delivers again, with a puzzle of wit, sparkle and getable clues. So, fast and enjoyable for me, all done in 6½ minutes, with only minor hold-ups wondering what the word popular was doing in the clue for TACITURN and parsing CHAT SHOW, a clever clue that is my COD.

    Many thanks Curarist for the blog and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

    1. I read popular as a nice little piece of misdirection. It certainly had me starting off by looking for a word that began IN.

      But the SOED gives as its first definition of popular as ‘1. Prevalent or current among the general public; commonly known, general’.

      So I think popular is fair game as a definition for cat.

  7. It’s always good to see Trelawney’s name at the top of the puzzle and this one was of his usual high quality.
    Started with MASQUERADE and finished with FAIRY LIGHT in 5.48 but with too many good clues to pick one out.
    Thanks to Curarist.

  9. Turns out I can neither spell SPORRAN nor read to the end of a clue to parse properly. A well-deserved pink square in an otherwise most enjoyable 12.54.

  10. Thank you, Trelawney (can we please correct the spelling of his name in the heading?), for being a friendly setter. All done; LOI EGGNOG (DNK anything Christmassy about it, but Mrs M assures me).
    CNP CHAT SHOW or SPORRAN, so thank you, Curarist. NHO pork pie hat, but Mrs M has – she ought to be doing these puzzles, not me, but she’s far too busy!

  11. Here’s hoping the SNITCH doesn’t pick up my DNF, a careless CABERET giving me the DPS and a jolt of shame. Dear oh dear. Can’t even claim a fat finger, I just got it wrong. Would have been 06:38 but WOE indeed.

    Great puzzle. IBIZA COD for me in a packed field. Many thanks Curarist and the Squire.

  12. Down there over the Tamar, Trelawney is a great hero, subject of the eponymous Cornish “anthem”, and it seems he (must be the same guy, surely!) is just as feted amongst this community.
    Give the man a pasty for this fine puzzle, and thanks also for the blog.
    Nicely sub SCC with FAIRY LIGHT and SNOG as my head scratchers of the day.

  13. I’m still relatively new at all this but I managed to fully complete this one in 40 minutes. Really really enjoyed it!

    FOI – MASQUERADE
    COD – CHAIN (I’m starting to spot some regular expressions, like CAIN for murderer)

    Feeling chuffed this morning 🙂

  14. 12:33

    A fairly easy end to the week. The first few went straight in and thought a sub 10 was on the cards but the last few took a bit more teasing out including TACITURN (tried to include IN for popular) and the unparsed LOI CHAT SHOW.

  15. 18:40 – my slowest Trelawney of the year. And it was DNF because I bunged in BeArING before wading through 5mins of trawling to figure out BRACING – until I thought of AC for air con. Generally I was slowed up by trying to come up with a LAS/LOS American city, didn’t understand CHAT-SHOW, couldn’t parse FAIRY-LIGHT and anyone of my age or younger would say “No worries” or “No problem”. On the flipside I loved the SONG and BROOMSTICK raised a hearty laugh.

    Anyway for those not coming back on Saturday (and Kevin) – have a good weekend 👍

  16. 11:31
    I normally race through Trelawney puzzles, but struggled today.
    Still enjoyable, just had to think through clues rather than writing straight in.

    COD song.
    thanks

  17. An enjoyable puzzle. QUID was FOI, after which I did the rest of the top line down clues, then got MASQUERADE. I then went back to doing the acrosses in order. After a couple of passes, NEW ORLEANS was LOI. 6:35. Thanks Trelawney and Curarist.

  18. A nice level to end the week, held up by SONG which was LOI after FAIRY LIGHT gave a lot of help. COD MORSE, distracted by thinking of Oxford as a type of shoe….

  19. Finished correctly in 35 minutes. First success for a while. Hooray!
    Fairly Light –> Fairy Light , I thought was very tough. Did not like this clue.
    Taciturn took time also, even though my favourite pet is our Tabby ( I must go and check how it is doing in that box).
    Had to look up Quidditch – apparently it is something to do with Harry Potter. Should references to children’s books be allowed in these puzzles ? I think not – except for Alice in Wonderland, possibly.
    Grocer = repulsive ? Is that why Private Eye called Ted Heath ‘Grocer’ Heath ? I think we should be told.

    1. No, I believe it was to do with Heath’s apparent interest in Common Market food prices. But the pun you mention has had good mileage in the media in recent days with reference to the alleged antics of the bald man who presents MasterChef.

  20. 11:34
    Needed pen and paper to untangle MASQUERADE. LOI QUID.

    I didn’t spot the duplication on the crossword club, but I did note that it gave me 842 points for an 11:34 solve, as if it was scoring the QC as a 15×15.

    Thanks Curarist and Trelawney

  22. 6:45

    Came to a shuddering halt with about two thirds done, needing to write out the letters of 1a to see the obvious answer – that released the tension, giving me in quick succession QUID, ANIMATOR, NO MATTER and FAIRY LIGHT topped off by SONG. I liked CHAT SHOW.

    Thanks Trelawney and Curarist

  23. 7.41. Lovely puzzle. I’ll never be a very fast solver as my brain just doesn’t work quickly enough, but it gives me some time to enjoy the clues.

  24. Pretty straightforward with only CHAT SHOW and TACITURN causing brief holdups. A pleasant end to the week.

  26. I made heavy weather of the first two puzzles this week, particularly Mondays offering, but things have improved in the second part of the week, and my time today of 8.10 is comfortably inside target. It took me a while to see how SONG was parsed although the answer was obvious. I join others in saying what a good puzzle this was, so well done Trelawney.
    My total time this week was precisely 65.00 minutes giving me a daily average of 13.00. Just short of 24 minutes for Mondays puzzle didn’t help!

  27. I found this much gentler than of late. Only slights hold-ups were NEW ORLEANS and CHAIN (only saw Cain post-biff 🙄). COD to FAIRY LIGHT for the festive smile. Thanks for the blog C.

  28. Didn’t stop to parse POI CHAT SHOW (thank you, Curarist) but NO MATTER, 8:02 was our fastest for what seems a long while, despite taking quite some time to try and put IN into 17a. Thank you, Trelawney!

  29. My fastest of the week at 13 minutes. Biffed several: CHAT SHOW, SONG and SPORRAN so thanks to Curarist for shedding light on those. Great crossword – thanks Trelawney.

    FOI – 8ac BRACING
    LOI – 18ac SONG
    COD – 7dn FAIRY LIGHT

  30. 10 of which three were bifs
    Best of the week.
    Anyone have a better explanation for sporran please?

    1. A sporran is that little pouch people wear with kilts. So, accessory for tartans.

      A game = sport

      A short game = spor (the word sport. Shortened)

      Took off = ran. Eg. The policeman took off after the burglar

      So the word ‘ran’ – following – ‘spor’ =sporran

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