Times Quick Cryptic No 1319 by Felix

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A neat, witty and, dare I say, not too tricky puzzle (judging by my F1set solving time of sub-4 minutes) from Felix, (our crossword editor) today. Leading by example, perhaps? The enjoyment started with the stuttering TV announcer at 1A and plenty more fun followed. What an entertaining set of surfaces; a hallmark of a good crossword, in my book, and I’ve tried to highlight that in the blog. Thanks Felix! How did you all get on? I hope you enjoyed it too.

Definitions underlined in italics, Abc indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and [] other indicators.

Across
1 TV announcer answered, er, awkwardly (4-6)
NEWS-READER – Anagram of answered, er [awkwardly]. Have you ever heard a news-reader say “Er”? That would be an awkward moment.
7 Dark, headless horseman (5)
NIGHT – Decapitate [headless] kNIGHT (our horseman). That will be the Green Knight then.
8 Director general in new role as tenant (6)
LODGER – DG (director general) [in] anagram of role. A renting Director General. Hmm. I don’t think I would object to him/her as a tenant if I were a landlord.
10 Draw stomach back (3)
TUG – The stomach is GUT. Reverse it [back]. As one might, to avoid looking fat in a photo. Guilty as charged.
12 Lift a car number plate, we hear, that’s finely balanced (5,4)
RAZOR EDGE – A “sounds like” clue, indicated by [we hear]. RAISE (lift) A (a) REG (car numberplate). Lol.
13 Feed friend initially, then stranger (6)
FODDER – Friend [initially] ODDER (stranger). Is that correct etiquette? Shouldn’t you serve the stranger first?
14 Description of tiny particle from potato, microscopic (6)
ATOMIC – Hidden in potATO MICroscopic. Tiny particles of potato? For mash get smash!
17 Unofficial cop versus one GI with large stake (9)
VIGILANTE – A four-part charade. V (versus) I (one) GI [with] L (large) ANTE (stake).
19 Short rest not awfully peaceful at first (3)
NAP – Initial letters of Not Awfully Peaceful [at first].
20 Pudding that’s prepared faster (6)
AFTERS – Anagram of faster [prepared]. So what’s a fast-food pudding? Well you can scoop ice-cream straight from the carton, I suppose.
21 Kid brewed drinks and coffee, finally (5)
TEASE – TEAS (brewed drinks) [and] coffeE [finally]. Finally. Yes. That’s what I find when I ask my kids to serve drinks to our house-guests.
23 One following US rock band is at death’s door (2,8)
IN EXTREMIS – I have to admit I biffed this with the benefit of the checkers and only worked out the parsing now. I (one) NEXT (following) R.E.M. (the rock band) IS. Rock music is not really my cup of brewed drink. I had heard of the band but didn’t know they were from the US and couldn’t name any of their songs. Were they any good?
Down
1 Add this to get fourteen office hours? (4-2-4)
NINE-TO-FIVE – Wry cryptic definition. If you [add] NINE to FIVE, you should get 14, if your arithmetic is any good.
2 Women’s Institute good making syrup (3)
WIG – Eh? I thought. The wordplay is clear W.I (Women’s Institute) G (good), but I didn’t know syrup could mean wig. It is, as you all may know, a classic example of Cockney Rhyming Slang…. Syrup of figs -> wigs.
3 One no longer working on Hebridean island (7)
RETIREE – RE (on) TIREE (Hebridean Island). Tiree is the most westerly island of the Inner Hebrides. It’s high time I went and visited. And became a retiree, perhaps?
4 A short jacket, brightly coloured? (6)
ABLAZE – A BLAZEr (jacket, [short]). Like autumn tree colours.
5 Visibly embarrassed, that is, after recalling duck (5)
EIDER – Take RED (visibly embarassed) and add I.E. (that is) and reverse it all [recalling] to get the duck with the nice soft feathers.
6 Farmworker who drives poor hens mad, crossing river (8)
HERDSMAN – Take an anagram of [poor] hens mad and include [crossing] R (river). Nicely deceptive definition!
9 Magistrates and journalists getting form of exercise (5,5)
BENCH PRESS – BENCH (magistrates) [and] PRESS (journalists). As some might do in a gym. But not me. I prefer the great outdoors for my exercise.
11 Ideal person in gallery present (4,4)
GODS GIFT – GODS (the highest gallery in a theatre) GIFT (present). Hmm. A person who thinks they are ideal, perhaps? I call it bumptiousness and do not condone.
15 Speaker taking to social media? (7)
TWEETER – If you post on Twitter (unlike me), you would be a TWEETER. A tweeter is also a type of loudspeaker that is designed to produce high frequencies.
16 Colleges attended by former partner — coed? (6)
UNISEX – UNIS (colleges) EX (former partner). This has me puzzled. UNISEX (one sex) for COED (mixed sex education)? Is there a “not” missing before “coed” in the clue? Or have I missed something? It wouldn’t be the first time! Elucidation, please. Thanks jackkt for correcting. UNISEX, of course, means for use by either sex, not by one sex.
18 Neil getting up around one — having had this? (3-2)
LIE-IN – Another great surface. Write NEIL upwards [getting up] to get LIEN and put it about [around] I (one). Sleeping till 1pm? Yes that would be a proper lie-in!
22 Direct ambition (3)
AIM – Double definition.

27 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1319 by Felix”

  1. Mazel tov on your very impressive time, John! I was rather slower, even though I biffed IN EXTREMIS and RAZOR EDGE (I had no idea that a license plate is called a REG over there, so I got as far as ‘raise’). DNK syrup=WIG, and waited for both checkers. I think UNISEX caused a brief, slight raising of an eyebrow, but nothing more. As far as I can tell, you’re right and the clue is wrong. (A ‘coed’ is a female college student–presumably at a coed school–but that doesn’t get us very far.) 5:12.
    1. I suspect co-ed meaning a female student is an Americn usage whereas a co-ed school in the UK usually means one that accommodates male and female pupils
  2. A very pleasant end to the crossword week. A steady solve for me, comfortably under my usual 30 minutes (plus) and a rarity to solve from NW to SE. For what it is worth I rationalised unisex as in clothing ie suitable for both sexes.

    Thanks to Felix and John – the blogs are a great help and much appreciated

    Sean – apologies for posting as anonymous, but without any social media accounts I’m not sure how to do otherwise

  3. I don’t see a problem with UNISEX. Collins has: Unisex is used to describe things, usually clothes or places, which are designed for use by both men and women rather than by only one sex.

    That’s fits ‘coed’ doesn’t it? I’ve certainly heard of places with unisex toilets and changing rooms etc, and also the phrase ‘single sex’ (as in ‘single sex wards’ in hospitals) to describe the opposite.

    I needed 11 minutes for this.

    Edited at 2019-03-29 05:08 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks! I knew I must have got something wrong. I should have checked my dictionary. Will amend the blog.

      Edited at 2019-03-29 06:20 am (UTC)

  4. Their ‘Losing My Religion’ is probably my favourite popular song of all time. This was a steady solve – particularly liked Razor Edge! Thanks to Felix and blogger.

    Edited at 2019-03-29 07:08 am (UTC)

  5. A rare sub-10 for me even with a hold up with the crossing ABLAZE – RAZOR EDGE. Once had the Z it couldn’t be anything else but I had to actually say it out loud to convince myself. Might work better in other parts of the country but a bit of strain in the West Country, Geordie seems to work well.
  6. Not F1 but a hat trick of sub 10s with 9.48. Echo John’s comments re entertaining puzzle. Losing My Religion one of my favourites, too. Thanks for elucidation on the homonym for REG, and the full parsing of VIGILANTE. COD WIG.
  7. There were some tricky clues today but I paid close attention to the cryptic and that got me home. DNK Wig as syrup. My last two were UNISEX and AFTERS -both very good and not immediately obvious to me. Time:11:50.
    Good to be back on the computer at home after yesterday being on a train without a pen!
    Nice picture in the blog -is that really Tiree? Looks lovely. David

    1. Yes. I took the picture from their site. There’s a link to it in the blog entry.
  8. 1.5 Kevins, a Very Good day. Thoroughly enjoyed the smooth surfaces in this one, especially the sly topical reference at 15dn which gets my COD.

    Tiree is a lovely place with more sunshine than anywhere else in the UK and fabulous windsurfing!

    Thanks Felix; and thanks for the blog, John – I could not for the life of me work out the homophone in RAZOR EDGE even though I said it out loud about a dozen times!

    Templar

  9. Printed it out today and solved on a sun lounger as the weather has finally changed here in the desert, so much nicer than on a phone at work.

    17 minutes very enjoyable.
    Marked eider, gods gift, vigilante, and tease as cod.

    Almost totally messed up by trying to shoehorn the band Extreme into 23a as inextremes as I didn’t mark the enumeration. Couldn’t parse it so went back and reworked thankfully.

    Dnk tweeter for the speaker. Loi ablaze.

    Thanks

  10. What a nice end-of-week puzzle. Thanks, Felix (and john). I thought I would break the 10 min barrier for a change but got bogged down with TUG and GODS GIFT. Wasted more time at the end because I mis-typed ‘ritiree’! Too many attractive clues to list. 14.36. John M.
  11. Comfortably sub-10 minutes for me and very enjoyable at that. I wasn’t aware that Felix was our crossword editor, so thanks for that. The TWEETER is like a polar opposite of a WOOFER in hi-fi land – lovely names that are very apt IMHO. Syrup for WIG is old titfer in Cockney Rhyming Slang. A lovely end to the week. Thanks all.
  12. And there are those that would say that REM aren’t really rock either. Me included. Middle of the road pap if you ask me.

    Currently listening is Moonglow by Avantasia. now there’s ROCK. sort of. Very much a marmite band I would say.

    Anyway, just over 5 mins for this, not being helped by the bounciest train in history. Not even like we were late, but felt like it could be hitting the sound barrier any second …..

  13. 20 Minutes, so dead on target but with too many elements un-parsed. I think I could say UNISEX was a reverse Biff – I got it from the wordplay but couldn’t see the connection to the definition. I still think it’s a bit tenuous, coed mainly infers both sexes whereas unisex infers either sex. Or perhaps it’s just me!

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-03-29 10:44 am (UTC)

  14. I’m another who enjoyed this QC. It’s been a much better week for me than last week, when I began to wonder if I should give up.

    Like others, I biffed 23ac, being a Radio 3 listener and not much into pop for the last few decades, at least. (But I shall watch the Beatles on BBC 4 tonight). Also biffed ‘wig’ as I’d never heard that particular bit of slang.

    20ac fooled me completely – I struggled with it and didn’t realise it was an anagram until I finally had the checkers and biffed it.

    Let’s hope Felix is setting the tone for future QCs!

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  15. ….at the very thought of a BENCH PRESS.

    A really nice puzzle with some lovely surfaces. I probably spent longer going back to appreciate the quality of the clues than I did solving the puzzle.

    I considered Extreme for the band (and INXS who were Australian anyway !), and only spotted REM on my post-solve parse. “That’s me in the corner” with a dunce’s cap on then !

    RAZOR EDGE works perfectly for me, but overseas solvers have my sympathy !

    FOI NEWSREADER
    LOI IN EXTREMIS
    COD WIG
    TIME 3:32

    1. At first I tried to fit in The Eagles, then Nirvana -and then just went to the definition.
      REM, automatic for some people, featured in a question on Popmaster (Radio 2) this morning.
  16. At 23a I thought of INXS first, but spotted REM and NEXT fairly quickly. I’ve also just read in today’s Times that In Extremis is the name of a Biography of Marie Colvin. I started with WIG, quickly followed by NEWS READER. GODS GIFT needed most of the crossers before I saw it. I once went to Tiree harbour on a trip from Oban to Coll. The ferry normally docks at Coll first then carries on to Tiree, but on this particular stormy day, having set off at 11am rather than 7am, the Captain decided to go to Tiree first to give the conditions at Coll a chance to calm down. The idea was to go on to Coll from Tiree and see how it looked, and to take us back to Oban if the swell was still too high. Fortunately we managed to land, but at 5pm rather than the expected 10am. We were a bit frazzled by then, but at least we didn’t have to try and find accommodation in Oban! I didn’t find the puzzle difficult, but it still took me to just short of my target time at 9:49. Thanks Felix and John.
  17. A lovely end to the week. I’m always put in a positive frame of mind when I get 1a and 1d straight away. I semi parsed VIGILANTE, biffed both TWEETER and my penultimate solve 12a RAZOR EDGE (needing the blog as R EDGE/Reg homophone was lost on me). My LOI was 4d ABLAZE which was obvious once the Z was in situ. Thanks John and Felix. 8:30
  18. Thoroughly enjoyed this and gained two totally useless pieces of information, SYRUP – wig (that is truly obscure) and R.E.M. is, or was an American rock band (I feel much better for knowing that)
    PlayUpPompey

  19. I thought I was on for a ridiculous time today as I only had 3 left after 5 minutes, but a bit of a pause over HERDSMAN, RAZOR EDGE and ABLAZE meant I finished in 7.46, which must be close to a PB so I can’t complain. Lots of contenders for CoD but my vote goes to 17a.
    Thanks for the blog
  20. A great puzzle from Felix which I just managed to finish in my target 20 minutes, though I have to admit that I hadn’t remembered to go back and try to parse 23a. I doubt that I could have worked it out so thank you, John, for enlightening me. MM

    FOI 22d because I decided to approach this one backwards!!
    LOI 4d – it took me a while to see what was going on here.
    COD Can’t decide between 1d, 17a and 12a. So many good ones today.

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