Times Quick Cryptic 1497 by Pedro

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I finished this in an average time, but only by leaving some of the clues unparsed until the end. There are some lovely neat clues amongst a few rather clunky ones, and my COD goes to 16dn.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Article with no charm upset newsreader (9)
ANCHORMAN – AN (article) and an anagram of (upset) NO CHARM.
6 Wetland entry on website ignoring Lake (3)
BOG – B{L}OG (entry on website) missing (ignoring) the letter ‘L’ (lake).
8 Poster promoting stamina? (7)
STICKER – I think this is intended as a cryptic definition, but I’m not sure how it works exactly. STICKER = poster, and STICKER = one with stamina. What have I missed?
9 Lizard, say, returning? Fine about retreating (5)
GECKO – reversal of (returning) E.G. (say), then a reversal of (retreating) O.K. (fine) and C (circa, about).
10 Woman’s clear about new tendency to gather (4,8)
HERD INSTINCT – HER (woman’s) and DISTINCT (clear) surrounding (about) N (new).
12 Damages the planet (4)
MARS – double definition.
13 Initially locked and secure (4)
LAND – first letter of (initially) Locked, then AND.
17 Museum exhibit resembling a head of Lenin, strangely (5,7)
ELGIN MARBLES – anagram of (strangely) RESEMBLING A with the first letter (head) of Lenin.
20 I’m a good source of Expressionist picture (5)
IMAGE – I’M A G (good) and the first letter (source) of Expressionist.
21 How to cook small fish from the ocean floor? (4-3)
DEEP-FRY – FRY (small fish) from the DEEP (ocean floor).
23 Rook avoiding plant in wetland (3)
FEN – removal of (avoiding) R (rook) from FErN (plant).
24 Apostle boarding moving train has protective covering (9)
TARPAULIN – PAUL (apostle) inside (boarding) an anagram of (moving) TRAIN.

Down
1 Article like this enthrals learner as well (4)
ALSO – A (article) and SO (like this) surrounding (enthralls) L (learner).
2 Monstrous creature depicted by that fellow in church, an artist (7)
CHIMERA – HIM (that fellow) in CE (Church of England, church) and RA (Royal Academician, artist).
3 Tree, old, associated with a King (3)
OAK – O (old), A, and K (king).
4 River in principal area is a place with boats (6)
MARINA – R (river) inside MAIN (principal) and A (area).
5 Odd thing left, held by young fellow in entertainment centre (5-4)
NIGHT-CLUB – anagram of (odd) THING, then L (left) inside (held by) CUB (young fellow).
6 Embargo restricting company meat (5)
BACON – BAN (embargo) surrounding (restricting) CO (company).
7 Cave not entirely unpleasant? Nothing more (6)
GROTTO – all-but-the-last letter of (not entirely) GROTTy (unpleasant), with O (nothing) added on (more).
11 Sanitise wrong abbreviation for “iron” in dictionary (9)
DISINFECT – SIN (wrong) and FE (abbreviation for iron) inside DICT (dictionary). A new abbreviation for me to remember.
14 Nude left almost shivering — what’s required? (7)
NEEDFUL – anagram of (shivering) NUDE with all-but-the-last letter of (almost) LEFt.
15 Support story accepted by match official (6)
RELIEF – LIE (story) inside (accepted by) REF (match official).
16 Feature of game linked primarily with snake? (6)
LADDER – first letter of (primarily) Linked, then ADDER (snake). I’ll stick my neck out and describe this as a semi-&lit. The whole clue is the definition, but ‘feature of game’ does not form part of the wordplay.
18 Farm crop may be good with wet weather (5)
GRAIN – G (good) and RAIN (wet weather).
19 Song that has holy men gutted (4)
HYMN – extreme letters only from (gutted) HolY and MeN.
22 Some other age and time (3)
ERA – hidden in (some) othER Age.

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1497 by Pedro”

  1. I see the entire definition, “feature of game,” as entirely separate from the word play, which is just a basic charade. That the game in question is (or might be) called “Snakes and Ladders” just adds resonance, a not uncommon event. The game could, after all, just as easily be “Chutes and Ladders,” the nonherpetological version I played as a child. Besides, “primarily” would make no sense as part of the definition, as “Snakes” (plural as well) comes first.
    1. There was a similar game called Eels & Escalators which featured on SpongeBob Squarepants. It was also one of the questions in Only Connect hosted by the delightful VCM. Perhaps one for the QC in 2020.
      20 mins today so perky. Johnny
  2. 13 mins, not bad as I’m feeling lousy with flu. Only hold ups were the last two disinfect and herd instinct.

    Liked hymn.
    Cod ladder.

  4. 11 minutes because I got myself stuck towards the end at the 10ac / 11dn intersection and lost myself a good 2 minutes over them.

    Like our blogger I am left slightly puzzled by 8ac which seems to be lacking a little something.

    I also wondered about NEEDFUL as ‘what’s required’ but having looked it up I find there are more meanings to the word than I’ve been aware of all my life, having always thought of it simply as a rather old-fashioned synonym for ‘needy’.

    On 16ac, from comments made at TfTT last week re categorising clues I realised there is sometimes disagreement even amongst experts about semi&lit, &lit and cryptics and I resolved to avoid getting too involved in such matters. I plan to continue my policy of dodging around the issue in my blogs when I am not 100% sure. I’ve been getting away with it for 12 years without causing too much dissent in the ranks!

  5. Having spent a little time trying to make FEN work for the wetland at 6ac, it went straight in unparsed for the wetland at 23ac as soon as I had the F. Very convenient. Some lovely clues, LADDER included (which I agree is a semi “and lit”, “chutes and ladders” my foot), with COD from me going to DEEP-FRY for the chuckle. All done in 1.7K for a Very Good Day.

    Thanks Pedro and William.

    Templar

  6. I worked steadily through this without ever really getting into top gear and managed to exceed my 10 minute target, albeit only by 29 seconds. ELGIN MARBLES and DISINFECT held me up slightly at the end. Nice puzzle. 10:29. Thanks Pedro and William.
  7. ….by not immediately seeing HYMN, but I then got DEEP-FRY at once and the light dawned. I’d lost a few seconds cracking HERD INSTINCT, but was still comfortably within target by the finish.

    I wasn’t keen on STICKER either.

    FOI ANCHORMAN
    LOI ELGIN MARBLES
    COD LADDER

  8. Nice puzzle. Wanted to biff ANNOUNCER for 1ac but wasted time when it obviously didn’t parse. Worked around the grid coming back to NIGHT CLUB, CHIMERA, NIGHT CLUB, and LOI LADDER. Back to normal at 3K but I enjoyed it. Thanks to Pedro and William. John M.
  9. Clearly I was on wavelength today. I solved the puzzle in a clockwise direction with FOI at the top right of the grid 6a BOG and LOI, and only real hold up, 10a HERD INSTINCT. As others my COD is 16d LADDER. Done and dusted in 7:10 with only 17a ELGIN MARBLES biffed and unparsed on submission.
  10. About 12 minutes on the Rotterometer, but not accurate, as interrupted by a phone call which my phone tells me took 15 minutes. As a child, I always wondered who Bill Stickers was, and why he was going to be prosecuted, and what for!
  11. 9 minutes – an unusual sort of NINA with a big black H between 12a and 13a to help with 6a and 23a !
    No real holdups, except problem in parsing 23a because I’d misread ‘rook’ as ‘rock’.
    2. Good spot! I almost commented in the blog that we have two deletion clues with the same definition, but I didn’t spot the additional clue!
  12. I decided to solve on paper today. As I glanced at it, FOI was 23a FEN and then it became a bottom up solve. I was going quickly and started biffing -STIR FRY and YOUTH CLUB were examples of how not to do it. But other things fell into place and corrections were quick. LOI was NEEDFUL after a shade over 9 minutes.
    COD to HERD INSTINCT.
    David
  13. At 23 mins, a quick enough solve, but not being able to parse 17ac and 11d left me feeling a bit frustrated. For reasons that now escape me (aka stupidity), I initially thought 17ac was an anagram of ‘a head of Lenin’, but once I had a conflicting crosser I gave up the idea of it being an anagram altogether and, not surprisingly, couldn’t then parse Elgin Marbles. I’ve never come across dict for dictionary, so 11d also remained a mystery. CoD to 21ac, Deep Fry. Invariant
    1. I had a similar issue. For some reason Elgin Marbles popped into my head (and seemed to be correct based on the other checkers) but I just couldn’t get to the grips with the anagram and had all sorts of combinations!
      1. There was a time when I was thrilled just to finish, but now it’s a disappointment if I can’t parse the answers – I suppose that’s progress.
        1. Agreed…still can’t graduate to the big one though. I look at the answers, and they’re often not as complicated as you think, but it’s one thing understanding them after the event and another thing doing it with a blank grid in front of you.
  14. A 45 minute finish for me today which is a PB – I found everything went in fairly easily with a hold up in the SE corner, specifically 13ac LAND and 14dn NEEDFUL.

    I still don’t understand why NEEDFUL is ‘what’s required?’. If it was NEEDED, I’d get it…

    NHO 2dn CHIMERA, however the wordplay was clear.

    8ac STICKER was biffed in thanks to the checkers, but was unconfident as it didn’t seem to fit ‘promoting stamina?’ Is it, perhaps, referring to one who perseveres, therefore a sticker?

    Thanks William and Pedro

    Edited at 2019-12-04 12:26 pm (UTC)

  15. An early finish today. I would have completed in it 20 mins if I hadn’t got hung up on 10ac. In the end, it took about 35 mins.

    Overall, I thought it was relatively straightforward, even if I wasn’t sure about 8ac. I have heard of someone being described as a “sticker” ie. someone who puts effort in (stamina?) and thus should be retained. Not sure if this is what the setter was getting at, but it kind of made sense.

    However, I’m still not sure about 14dn “Needful”.

    For the first time in a while, my first two clues were 1ac and 1dn. LOI was 10ac. Thought 2dn may be Cyclops until I parsed it properly. I’m sure I read a book called “Chimera” by James Herbert (or some other 80’s pulp horror writer).

    COD 16dn “Ladder”.

    Thanks as usual to the setter and b{l}og.

    Edited at 2019-12-04 12:28 pm (UTC)

  16. Not feelng too bright today – as in rather dim! Couldn’t get 10a so used aids to get the instinct part, then herd fell into place. A clever clue but my instinct was off the boil today! Also couldn’t parse disinfect fully 😕 I also thought sticker was a bit odd – a cross between a cryptic and a DD, but not quite.

    So Not A Very Good Day. I often come unstuck with Pedro’s crosswords.

    On the other hand, I think the Biggie is quite approachable today, so if you’re up for it, why not have a go! I only got one wrong there too – so what does that say?

    FOI Grotto
    LOI Disinfect (after a little help)
    COD Deep fry
    DNF

    Thanks all!

    On edit: after checking the solution to the Biggie, I now see that I got two wrong! All the same, it’s worth trying 😊

    Edited at 2019-12-04 03:37 pm (UTC)

  17. Solved within our 30m target, which is satisfactory, with others we got some of the answers without fully understanding the parsing.
  18. A relatively straightforward solve with a slight pause at the end for 17a and 11d, where the answers were clear but the parsing trickier. I’ll give my CoD to DEEP FRY as it made me chuckle but it was pushed close by LADDER.
    As usual I was completely oblivious to the NINA but have to applaud it now it’s been pointed out. Finished in 9.38
    Thanks for the blog
  19. For me, at 8:36.

    LOIs were herd instinct and disinfect, and i never really parsed that properly!

  20. “Chutes and Ladders” isn’t the half of it. A “semi-&lit” is a clue in which some of the words are not part of the wordplay. This is one in which the word “principally” doesn’t make sense of part of the definition. I might call this a “failed & lit,” if it weren’t perfectly understandable as a normal clue without bringing “&lit” into it.

  21. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation………
    Hast thou not seen – all that is NEEDFUL hath been
    Granted in what He ordaineth

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