Quick Cryptic 1434 by Breadman

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Now, I’m going too stick my neck out and say this is a nice easy one that should generate some quick times, provided the mild general knowledge required doesn’t cause trouble. 6dn my favourite

Across
1 Churchmen smell a piece of chicken? (7,4)
PARSONS NOSE – straightforward double definition
9 In station, tape’s readily available (2,3)
ON TAP – hidden word: statiON TAPe
10 Combat sport which often divides neighbours (7)
FENCING – double definition of sorts
11 See dry rot, unfortunately in naval vessel (9)
DESTROYER – anagram (‘unfortunately’) of SEE DRY ROY
13 Heroin regularly taken for a very long time (3)
EON – alternate letters of hErOiN
14 Steal the Spanish coin (6)
NICKEL – NICK (steal) + EL (‘the’ in Spanish)
16 Fashionable basin reportedly matching (2,4)
IN SYNC – IN (fashionable) + sounds like ‘sink’ (basin)
17 Father left friend (3)
PAL – PA + L
18 Conservative sold headless pack of fish (3-6)
OLD-SCHOOL – OLD is sold without its first letter, pack of fish is SCHOOL
21 Type of delivery completed by member (7)
OVERARM – OVER (completed) + ARM. Method of bowling in cricket, as opposed to underarm, famously deployed by the cheating Australians
23 Narcotic I dump at the centre, after work (5)
OPIUM – I + UM (centre of ‘dump’) with OP in front
24 Prayer that gives one a lift (11)
PATERNOSTER – Double definition. A paternoster lift is one without doors that moves continuously and passengers step on an off as required. So called because the whole device forms a loop like a rosary bead. PATER NOSTER means ‘our father’ in Latin, hence the prayer

Down
2 Perform the role of accountant, lifted by words of gratitude (3,2)
ACT AS – CA is (chartered) accountant, upside down (‘lifted’) + the plural of TA
3 Comic-book star rose up magically, holding that lady (9)
SUPERHERO – anagram (‘magically’) of ROSE UP with HER (that lady) inside
4 Smart current newspaper in US city (5)
NIFTY – I (electrical current) + FT (newspaper) inside NY
5 Sister omitting nothing in part of speech (3)
NUN – Part of speech is NOUN, omit O (nothing)
6 Belt up one so nervous (7)
SHIVERY – SH (belt up) + I (one) + VERY (so). Nice. I like clues that make use of little words or even punctuation that the unnwary might disregard.
7 Badly done now? Oops! Here’s booby prize (6,5)
WOODEN SPOON – anagram (‘badly’) of DONE NOW OOPS
8 Depression in young man broadcast where personal problems are published (5,6)
AGONY COLUMN – anagram (‘broadcast’) of YOUNG MAN with COL inside. COL is a mountain pass, not sure it’s really a depression but whatever
12 Unexpectedly encounter a mongrel under ladder (3,6)
RUN ACROSS – A + CROSS (mongrel) with RUN (ladder, as in tights) on top
15 Crater roughly enclosing tree (7)
CALDERA – CA (roughly) with ALDER inside. Volcanic crater, named after the Spanish for boiling pot.
19 Doctor in private room, a person of great energy (5)
DEMON – MO (doctor, Medical Officer), inside DEN
20 Fruit old and bad rejected (5)
OLIVE – O (old) + EVIL backwards
22 A sort of church expert (3)
ACE – A + CE (Church of England)

25 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1434 by Breadman”

  1. I finished this in 13.06, so around average difficulty for me. I had to dredge 1 and 24a out of the depths of my memory and 4, 12 and LOI 6d took a while to fall. But overall an enjoyable end to the week.
    Thanks for the blog
  2. 1ac took me a while, as on my side of the pond the nose is the Pope’s, which clearly wouldn’t do; I toyed with BISHOPS, but wisely waited for some checkers. I was a lot less wise in flinging in GOLDEN SPOON and forgetting to go back and look at the clue (WOODEN SPOON has not, apparently, crossed the pond). I had a trifecta today: 1 error each in the Concise, the QC, and the 15×15. 5:36, but.
  3. Apostrophes are of course ignored in the grid and not indicated in the enumeration (unlike hyphens), but the term is PARSON’S NOSE. But the clue says ‘churchmen’ not ‘churchman’s’ (well, it pretty much has to); and ‘parsons nose’ is nonsense. I can’t recall this sort of thing arising in other cryptics.
      1. I quite agree. If you accept, as my dictionary does, that ‘nose’ can be a verb as well as a noun, it makes perfect sense.
        1. I didn’t think past ‘nose’ and ‘smell’ being synonymous nouns -‘nose’ as such often being used with reference to wine.
          1. I’m happy with PARSONS=churchmen NOSE=smell. But the solution is PARSON’S NOSE. Of course the ‘ can’t appear, but the solution doesn’t follow from the wordplay, since the wordplay would give us ‘parsons nose’, which while grammatical as Anon points out, is not a part of any chicken I know. What I was asking was whether that sort of overlooking of the apostrophe was OK.
            1. FWIW (probably very little) my view is that it doesn’t really matter in the wordplay element of a clue. The definition (piece of chicken) is sound and the wordplay is there to provide an alternative route to the answer which doesn’t have to be taken 100% literally. I note that the setter has placed a question mark at the end of the clue which I can’t see any reason for other than as an admission that a little flexibility in interpretation of wordplay might be required.

              Edited at 2019-09-06 05:05 pm (UTC)

              1. Of course I’ve realised now that ‘piece of chicken’ is a DBE so that probably explains the question mark, but I’m still of the view that the wordplay doesn’t have to fit 100% re the apostrophe.
  4. I finished this 30 seconds inside my 10 minute target, but three answers towards the bottom of the grid, CALDERA , DEMON and PATERNOSTER nearly did for me. The rest of it seemed quite straightforward to this seasoned solver.

    On our blogger’s query re 8dn, SOED has COL as: A depression in the summit-line of a mountain chain; a saddle between two peaks.

    Edited at 2019-09-06 07:21 am (UTC)

  5. ….IN SYNC today, and this enjoyable end to the QC week was soon dealt with.

    FOI ON TAP
    LOI PATERNOSTER
    COD IN SYNC
    TIME 3:44

  6. No problems with CALDERA or COL for me, but I had forgotten to remember the name of the lift I used to use (and abuse) in Leicester Poly or College of Art when I was a schoolboy in neighbouring Gateway Boys Grammar School! I had to resort to an alphabet trawl before I recalled the LOI at 24a. This took my time to 15 minutes and 58 seconds, so outside my target and not simple for me. Thanks Breadman and Curarist.
  7. A slowish feeling 25 mins today. Held up at the end by loi 6d Shiver, where I had to go back to basics to work out what was going on, and 24ac Paternoster. Like the Rotter, I used one for many years, so not spotting the answer straight away was doubly disappointing. Asking engineers to sketch how they worked was a standard interview question. Invariant
  8. I’m afraid I have to disagree with the blogger’s description of the “mild general knowledge” used here, although of course that’s always going to be subjective. I have never heard of any part of a chicken being called a parson’s nose, and am at a loss as to what part it could be. Nor have I come across a col being a depression or a pass, or a run being any kind of ladder. My last two in were 19d (had it said study rather than room, I would have got that quicker) and then finally I saw paternoster, which I only knew because it came up in one of these a couple of years ago when I was a real noob. At the time I was so aghast at being expected to know something I regarded as totally obscure, that the word stuck in my mind. Unfortunately I remembered it only as a form of lift, not as a prayer or the Latin for Our Father, so I still needed all the checkers to dredge it out. I guess as I’ve never had the fortune/misfortune to have studied Latin, my idea of general knowledge may be different from those who have. Anyway, after a steady solve for about 33 minutes, I was left with those last two, which I stared at for some time, then dozed off, and then got quickly when I came to. COD to Old School.
    1. The parson’s nose is the tail end of a chicken carcass – the expression goes back to a Victorian-era joke which depended on the notion that the clergy would be offended by a reference to that part of the body.
      A ladder in a stocking is often called a run.
  9. Fortunately I remembered the lift from previous crosswords, although it was still my LOI. Thought of ARMBALL for 21A at first, but of course that deosn’t work and WOODEN SPOON set me straight. I liked IN SYNC best, but I shared our blogger’s admiration for SHIVERY too. 4:47.

    Edited at 2019-09-06 10:56 am (UTC)

  10. Never heard of PATERNOSTER so couldn’t do that one, nor have I heard of CALDERA, or CA meaning roughly. Where does that come from? I guessed at the U in RUN ACROSS which helped me get ACROSS after a few more letters. Apart from that I got through the rest fairly speedily for me – about 45 mins before I got stuck and gave up.
    -CHS
  11. A straightforward one today, I thought. Some interesting vocab and a nice mix of clues. I did know Caldera from a 70s jazz rock band (I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, either here on the biggie blog) and paternoster makes sufficiently regular appearances that I now remember it!

    For fans of the Tour de France (and their wives) the Col de Tourmalet is a well known mountain pass in the Pyrenees! Not forgetting the cyclists who actually struggle up it 😉

    FOI Nifty – I tend to dot around the grid until my eye falls on something – not very structured, I know, but it works for me!
    LOI Act as
    COD Wooden spoon – it passed the chuckle test

    Time ca 12 minutes

  12. No problems today. I dashed this off before setting off to Beamish Park Golf Club(it’s next door to the Museum) from where I have just returned with aching bones. PARSONS NOSE was FOI. PATERNOSTER was LOI. I considered GOLDEN SPOON at 7d but sanity prevailed. Liked OLD SCHOOL, IN SYNC and SHIVERY. 8:23. Thanks Breadman and Curarist.
  13. “Shivery” as a synonym for “nervous”? Not in any of the lists I have consulted. And “Belt up” for “sh!” Not where I come from. Nicky
    2. On SHIVERY, Collins has: suffering from cold, fear, etc. I’d suggest that ‘fear’ covers nervousness.

      ‘Sh!’ and ‘Belt up!’ are both instructions to shut up, be silent.

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