QC 1365 by Tracy

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hmmm. Another Tracy. My second in a row. And for me this was definitely another Tracy. The last one I found quite straightforward. I didn’t set any records on my own terms but everything went in very easily and I didn’t have to stop and think about anything much before writing it in. This one was quite another matter.

Most of the grid was filled in under eight minutes but then there were I think four clues left that took me another four. Looking back though I can’t see any excuse except for slowness in waking up and the setter’s skill. Which way that bias lies will become apparent when I see what the rest of you made of it. Maybe it was a sort of cumulative effect because I felt that all the clues were of a high standard such that the number of easy write-ins was lower than usual. If I had been batting I think I would have said that I had had to grind out every run and taken most of them in singles rather than glorious strokes to the boundary. Much praise to Tracy, therefore, I really enjoyed it as one of the most challenging QCs I have blogged.

FOI was 9A. LOI, amazingly, was 21D. I just couldn’t see it. COD, unusually for, me goes to the anagram at 15D. I loved the definition.

Having said all that, I think if I had encountered these clues in a 15 x 15 they would have probably been near write-ins. For instance in that context I believe I would have seen 15D very quickly, and might even have thought it a bit of a 5D. Anyway, I could pontificate for hours but I’ll leave it there and submit it all to the court of your opinion.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can manage. No activity on the NATRAF needle that I could detect.

Across
8 Closest among relatives are in cosy home (7)
NEAREST – ARE ‘in’ NEST (cosy home).
9 After hour, girl returned hair dye (5)
HENNA – H (hour) + ENNA (Anne, a girl, presumably, ‘returned’).
10 Afterwards, roof worker loses head (5)
LATER – chop the head off sLATER (roof worker).
11 Cost of corresponding after decline (7)
POSTAGE – POST (after) + AGE (decline). A bit ageist I suppose to assume that one declines with age but then again maybe it’s a bit sexist in this day and age to assume that ANNE is a girl (9A).
12 Smoother, second eleven in front of club (5,4)
STEAM IRON – S (second) + TEAM (eleven, as in football or cricket) + IRON (club, as in golf).
14 What sounds like bent grass? (3)
RYE – a WRY grin is a bent one, and it sounds like RYE, a type of grass.
16 Second bachelor in disorderly crowd (3)
MOB – MO (second, as in “wait a mo”) + B (bachelor).
18 Traditional dish in bar, almost cooked (5,4)
ROAST LAMB – straight anagram (‘cooked’) of BAR ALMOST.
21 Hobby in father’s era (7)
PASTIME – PAS (father’s) + TIME (era).
22 Sea fish about right money (5)
BRASS – BASS (a sea fish) ‘about’ R (right).
23 Match a colour, almost (5)
AGREE – A + GREE (‘almost’ GREEn).
24 After commencement of case, guarantee condemnation (7)
CENSURE – C (‘commencement’ of Case) + ENSURE (guarantee). (As a grumpy aside, such is the quality of modern subediting that I have seen CENSOR and CENSURE confused somewhere in a recent newspaper article, and I am pretty sure it was in the very organ which carries our favourite crosswords.)
Down
1 Answer male supporting relatives in the US government (5,3)
UNCLE SAM – A + M (answer + male) ‘supporting’ (i.e. ‘under’ in this down clue) UNCLES (relatives).
2 Fortified stronghold and lake in order (6)
CASTLE – L (lake) ‘in’ CASTE (order, referring to the caste system of India).
3 Endless courage results in try (4)
HEAR – HEARt (courage) without the end gives HEAR (= try in the sense of a judge ‘hearing’ a case).
4 A state of shock as US port bombed (6)
STUPOR – straight anagram (‘bombed’) of US PORT.
5 Old joke that may get a roasting? (8)
CHESTNUT – pretty obvious? Bit of a CHESTNUT really.
6 Dishonest female fired from amusement park (6)
UNFAIR – remove F (i.e. ‘fire’ a female) from the front of fUNFAIR and there you have it.
7 Come up against fine champion (4)
FACE – F (fine) + ACE (champion).
13 Stickler‘s point in market (8)
MARTINET – TINE (point, as in the TINES of a fork) ‘in’ MART (market).
15 Some debs, surprisingly, did relief work? (8)
EMBOSSED – straight anagram of SOME DEBS. Relief work in the sense of artwork that is raised above the surface of the medium.
17 Restaurant in street covered by writer (6)
BISTRO – ST (street) ‘covered by’ BIRO (writer).
19 Get on with head of crime in New York bureau (6)
AGENCY – AGE (get on, as in ‘getting on a bit’) + C (head of Crime) ‘in’ NY (New York).
20 A taxi brought over American? One may count on it (6)
ABACUS – A + BAC (CAB (taxi) ‘brought over’) ‘over’ (in this down clue) US (American).
21 Top dog, reportedly (4)
PEAK – sounds like PEKE (as in Pekinese, or is it now politically correct to call them Beijinese?).
22 Attempt to save knight in difficulty (4)
BIND – BID (attempt) ‘saving’ (i.e. surrounding, as if from marauding attackers) N (knight, the standard abbreviation for the chess piece).

18 comments on “QC 1365 by Tracy”

  2. I wanted to put ROAST BEEF at 18a, but the anagrist wouldn’t let me. Needed a couple of crossers before spotting EMBOSSED. Like Kevin, my LOI was BIND, which took some thought. Nice puzzle. 7:41. Thanks Tracy and Don.
  3. Like our blogger, I started at Twenty20 rate then slowed considerably to Test pace to finish, and enjoy, the final 3 – Uncle Sam, Bind then Hear. Just on 11 minutes. A fine spell of bowling by Tracy.
  4. 10 minutes, but it was another skin-of-the-teeth job to complete within my target time. I find it disconcerting when I’ve completed half the puzzle (in this case the top half) apart from one word that just won’t come to mind, as it distracts my concentration whilst working on the remainder. The recalcitrant clue today was at 3dn, which as my LOI eventually required an alphabet trawl on ?E?R to persuade it to give up its secret.

    Edited at 2019-06-03 06:50 am (UTC)

  5. Most of this went in without too much trouble but was left with 3 short ones at the end that proved stubborn – HEAR, RYE (the parsing of) and BIND, which needed an alphabet trawl. Completed in 9.50.
    Thanks for the blog
  6. Acrosses were easier than the downs for once. Took me over 20m and even then I managed to write in ACABUS, no idea why. Mightily held up by HEAR and BIND. I did wonder if BANG fitted but fortunately didn’t persuade myself that BAG could mean difficulty. No excused for time taken over HEAR just fell for the try misdirection.
  7. I must have been in the mood today. I enjoyed this QC and it went in pretty smoothly apart from a few hiccups (all mentioned in previous contributions). I found myself missing 2K by a few seconds so I was pleased to have managed to complete a ‘Tracy’ so well – I normally struggle more. My last in were AGENCY and BIND. Thanks to Tracy and the Don (I agree with his COD). John M.
  8. Two sittings today. Having wasted ages by misreading Smoother in 12ac as Smother (really must get some new glasses), I didn’t have the stamina to unpick my last three (3d, 7d and 22d) without stopping for a cup of tea. Even then, each of those required an alphabet trawl – what is it with 4 letter words that makes them so tricky? CoD to 13d Martinet. I knew the word but not the meaning, so thank you Tracy for that. Invariant
  9. ….BRASS in pocket, and I had Tracy in my pocket straight away on this one. Perfectly on my wavelength, and my LOI was the only answer that I didn’t write straight in on a basically top-to-bottom solve.

    FOI NEAREST
    LOI CENSURE
    COD HEAR
    TIME 2:55

  10. 18 minutes, so within my target 20. Steamed along at first but was slowed, as others here report, by the short words. Thanks Tracy and Don for an enjoyable start to the week of QCs. Just one little query, are dishonest and unfair really synonyms? I think of dishonest as untruthful. MM

    FOI HENNA
    LOI HEAR
    COD AGENCY

  11. About 10 mins for everything except martinet.

    Dnk or had forgotten martinet and tine, so it was tricky. A few attempts during the day later I was left with martimet or martinet, and chose correctly.

  12. Have been at Walton Heath today watching golfers trying to qualify for the US Open -full marks to Lee Westwood for trying at least.
    This puzzle was a good test;excellent smooth surfaces I thought. I got most of it in 12 minutes but then was stuck on four down clues:22d,19d, 6d and 3d. I solved them in that order to finish in 15 minutes on paper.COD to Agency just beating Steam Iron, but lots of good clues. David
  13. As others, we thought we were in for a fast time until the last few clues which added another 10 minutes to sort out. The same clues, eg 22a etc. Thanks to Tracy for an interesting puzzle.
  14. A slow day for comments with only 14 at 6pm…

    No one seems to have queried unfair = dishonest – not the same in my view but I suppose the dictionary will prove me wrong?

    1. That’s exactly what I queried in my comment this morning, so I am relieved to see your post and find that I am not the only one! MM
  16. Very tough for me. Do the number of comments serve as an indication for difficulty?

    I really liked 5d which was obvious with hindsight but I was a good 5+ clues from finishing. Found the style very different but also very enjoyable. Thanks.

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