QC 1355 by Tracy

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

No problems this week, everything slipped in nice and easily just under the 10-minute mark and when I pressed the button all was present and correct.

FOI was 1A, LOI was 5D. COD could have been 5D too as I thought it was a fairly neat clue, but I felt that 11A and 7D were slightly neater. Very difficult to choose between those two as both surfaces are very natural but 7D has slightly more moving parts so I’ll go for that one. Thanks Tracy for an entertaining and enjoyable cup of tea.

A slightly cultural theme this week perhaps, with literature extending from the nursery to the A-level Eng. Lit. syllabus with Aldous Huxley and, by quotational reference, to Shakespeare’s Tempest, nodding to Joe Orton and Dvorak along the way. Not enough to cause anything more than a brief twitch on the NATRAF needle though.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Grey flatfish crossing river (4)
DRAB – DAB (flatfish) ‘crossing’ R (river.
4 Kind female by a church font (8)
TYPEFACE – TYPE (kind) + F (female) + A CE (Church of England)
8 American manoeuvres kept secret (2,6)
IN CAMERA – straight anagram of American (‘manoeuvres’).
9 Reportedly follow story (4)
TALE – sounds like (‘reportedly’) TAIL (follow).
10 Key member, close (6)
LEGEND – LEG (member) + END (close).
11 Quick pint after concert (6)
PROMPT – PT (pint) after PROM (concert).
12 Put off M1 before race, leading to conviction (13)
DETERMINATION – DETER (put off) + MI (M1) + NATION (race).
16 One pointing out group one disapproves of? (6)
SHOWER – double definition. SHOWER as in someone who shows + SHOWER as in “You don’t want to hang out with that shower.”.
17 Sacked from Orton play (Joe’s last), departs (6)
LOOTED – LOOT (a play by Joe Orton) + E (JoE’s last) + D (departs).
19 Mark in second vehicle (4)
SCAR – S (second) + CAR (vehicle).
20 Animal: one leapt out (8)
ANTELOPE – straight anagram (‘out’) of ONE LEAPT.
21 Good boys protecting kid in best clothes (4,4)
GLAD RAGS – G (good) + LADS (boys) ‘protecting’ RAG (kid).
22 Part of conditional release the old man ignored (4)
ROLE – PAROLE (conditional release) ‘ignoring’ PA (old man).
Down
2 Compass showing north during storm (5)
RANGE – N (north) ‘during’ RAGE (storm).
3 Novel and courageous symphony? (5,3,5)
BRAVE NEW WORLD – BRAVE (courageous) + NEW WORLD (symphony (by Anton Dvorak)).
4 Time to remove unwanted plants in river (5)
TWEED – T (time) + WEED (remove unwanted plants).
5 Drama writer in junior enclosure (7)
PLAYPEN – PLAY (drama) + PEN (writer).
6 Fictional railway boss‘s diet, perhaps? (3,10)
FAT CONTROLLER – whimsical cryptic definition. The FAT CONTROLLER was the guy who ran the railways in the Thomas the Tank Engine books, and this could also be read as a cryptic definition for a diet.
7 Combo’s leader plays new love song (7)
CALYPSO – C (Combo’s leader) + ALYPS (anagram (‘new’) of PLAYS) + O (love).
10 Young man may get praise skipping university (3)
LAD – LAUD (praise) ‘skipping’ U (university).
13 Decent chalet, I suspect (7)
ETHICAL – straight anagram (‘suspect’) of CHALET I.
14 Unfortunately butter possibly going up, and dessert wine (7)
MARSALA – read this backwards (i.e. ‘going up’ in this down clue) and you have ALAS (unfortunately) + RAM (a ‘butter’).
15 Fellow brought over gives slight bow (3)
NOD – DON (fellow) reversed (‘brought over’).
17 American after fortune for plant (5)
LOTUS – US (American) ‘after’ LOT (fortune).
18 Get rid of former PM, half-heartedly (5)
EXPEL – EX (former) + PEL (PeEL, a Prime Minister ‘half-heartedly’).

26 comments on “QC 1355 by Tracy”

  1. Raced through this in 8 minutes. The FAT CONTROLLER’s ‘real’ name is Sir Topham Hat, which I prefer, and he was originally nicknamed ‘The Fat Director’ which I don’t like at all.
    1. My recollection from 20 years ago is that the ‘Fat Controller’ as written in the books by Rev W Awdry only ever appeared on US TV as Sir Topham Hatt. I found it to be a little too PC.
  2. I was also racing through this but was held up at the end by 22a where I was looking for the old man and finally LOI RANGE.
    I knew the required GK which was a big help. Time:11:01.
    A nice puzzle to start the week. David
  3. Just scraped inside my target time at 9:55, with LOOTED LOI and holding me up for a while. Now I remember we had LOOT as an Orton play in the 15×15 not too long ago. No trouble with The Sodor Rail Executive. Nice puzzle. Thanks Tracy and Don.
  4. I’ve jumped straight in at the foot of the blog without reading anything. Since I got up this morning, every attempt to access the Times app generates a message “oops, something went wrong”. Can anyone advise if this is a general problem, specific to Android phones, or something peculiar to me please ?
  5. Typo in 4 across should be CE surely?
    Thanks to setter and blogger – very entertaining start to week

    DT

  6. I’m a paper solver, but I just checked my Times access on PC to see and this puzzle came up fine.
    1. Thanks – so it’s either an Android problem, or something specific to me. Now solved on paper, knew all the GK, so no problems.

      FOI DRAB
      LOI GLAD RAGS
      COD ROLE
      TIME 3:09

  7. Amazing how many sweet wines have 7 letters beginning with M – I puzzled over Madeira and then Malmsey before ANTELOPE gave the crucial A. Sub 10 for me, estimated 2 Kevins and a Good Day. Only real delay over the CALYPSO/PROMPT intersection. Enjoyed that, thanks Tracy.

    FOI DRAB, LOI PROMPT, COD FAT CONTROLLER which made me chuckle.

    Thanks for the blog, Don.

    Templar

    1. ….came to me first, as it’s the necessary ingredient in zabaglione, my very favourite dessert ! It would have taken me some little time to come up with Malmsey though – I only know of it as a drowning medium really !
  8. 23 minutes with a large part spent on marsala, looted and loi role.

    Dnk the play loot or marsala, but I was slow twigging role/part.

    Foi tale.
    Cod playpen.

  9. I was held up at the end by the wine but with hindsight the word play was generous enough to not have required the alphabet trawl I resorted to. I didn’t particularly like the KEY/LEGEND link in 10a but the answer couldn’t really be anything else. Other than that an enjoyable start to the week, completed in 11.20.
    Thanks for the blog
  10. Haven’t always got on with Tracy but I enjoyed this – thanks. I sent myself down some blind alleys eg looking for an anagram (novel) of and courageous, but Brave new world should have been a gimme. In every case it was a fair cop and raised a few smiles along the way. Good stuff!
  11. I find IN CAMERA a strange definition for kept secret but I have seen it enough times now to recognise the definition. I needed to solve 1a before I could solve 3d BRAVE NEW WORLD and I biffed my last two in 16a SHOWER and 17a LOOTED so thank you astartedon for the explanation. 10:56
  13. I enjoyed this accessible QC. I had the same experience as Astartedon including CALYPSO as my COD plus my first sub-10 finish for a while. I liked MARSALA too. Thanks to Tracy and Don. John M.

    Edited at 2019-05-20 11:06 am (UTC)

  14. 19 minutes, the first time I’ve been under my 20m target for a few weeks, with the right checkers falling in the right places. I spent some time on 20A going through the Nyalas and Okapis before realising it was simply ‘Antelope’. My LOI was SHOWER, I thought of it first time through but thought it was too easy.
    Brian
  15. I’ve either had a good start to the week, or this was one of the more straightforward offerings from Tracy. I’ll take it either way. All three of the long answers went in without too much thought, and even the potentially unknown font at 4ac turned out to be something more straightforward. Held up at the end by the unknown play (and, sad to say, playwright as well) at 17ac, but L*o*ed didn’t leave many options. 25 mins in total – quick for Tracy. Invariant
  16. an easy start to the week. FOI 4a LOI 22a COD 10a Must be missing something as don’t see the ref to the Tempest… 14d had to be marsala but needed the blog to see the ‘butter’ element – so thx to our blogger for that, and Tracy for the entertaining start to the week!
    1. There isn’t one in the puzzle, that’s why I said “by quotational reference”. It’s just that that is where the title “Brave New World” comes from. I think it’s Miranda? “Oh brave new world that has such people in it…” or something like that.
      1. I did The Tempest for O Level Eng Lit so I think I can confirm that 🙂 Compared with Caliban, the new arrivals were fairly good looking!

        Edited at 2019-05-20 10:56 pm (UTC)

  17. Almost finished it last night, but my LOI ROLE had to wait until breakfast – I found the clue difficult to get my head around. Some excellent surfaces and fun answers. Perhaps my COD was TYPEFACE, just because of the gap between the surface and the answer. At my institution our governing council have “in camera” sessions to discuss sensitive matters, so this was my first one in. Many thanks to Tracy for a fun and accessible puzzle.

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