QC 1145 by Breadman

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I seem to be saying this rather a lot recently, but I am doing this blog in the midst of chaos. Just to give a flavour of the rich tapestry of life here at Astartedon Towers I currently have on the agenda: a mother who has fallen over and gashed her head and whiplashed her neck; a wife who has slipped over getting out of the bath and pumpkinned her knee; a son who is trying to move into a flat to start his job as a junior doctor where the selling solicitors are being remarkably slow (even for solicitors) in getting their act together; a friend of said son who has split up with his GF and been kicked out and is using the bedroom thus vacated in our house and who requires entertaining on an industrial scale with the sort of thing that young men do at that age (e.g. pub crawls along the river); and another son who is going through a bit of a crisis in deciding what he is going to do with that precious commodity called life (although just in passing I have to say that I don’t think that I have ever really found an answer to that conundrum in my own existence). Oh yes, plus the phone continues to ring off the hook with potential new clients.

The result is again that I am not able to give this all the attention it deserves. First off, I believe I have to welcome Mr Breadman to the QC blog with what I think must be his first offering. So he is even newer to the QC than I am to blogging it! And many thanks to him for what I thought was a very thoughtfully constructed puzzle. If I had to explain why I liked it so much I think I would have to talk about how, for me, it sits skilfully on the spectrum of difficulty that runs from the easiest 13 x 13 through to the hardest 15 x 15. I think with the QC I often find the answers are more or less the first thing I think about, whereas with the 15 x15 the answers are normally the last thing I think about. (I know that sounds logically obvious, a bit like whoever that comedian was who said: “How come whenever I lose my car keys they’re always in the last place I look?”, but I hope everybody knows what I mean.) Whereas in this puzzle, although all the answers were eminently within my reach, they weren’t usually the first thing I thought about, but more often the second, third or fourth thing that I thought about. Also, as I look back over the clues, I notice there are a pleasingly small number of anagrams (two and a half that I can see) with a good variety of other devices.

So, overall it took me about 10 minutes, although what with all the stuff mentioned above, my concentration was not as full as it could have been. FOI was 6A, LOI was 22A (because of what I thought was a nice misdirection that misled me into entering THEM first time around, only finally changing it with the insertion of 14D with its final checker), and out of several CODs that I could pick, I am finally going for 12D, closely followed by 13A.

Definitions are underlined in italics. Everything else is explained as simply as I can.

Across
1 In cooler, test soldiers (8)
INFANTRY – IN + FAN (cooler) + TRY (test).
6 Tea time conversation (4)
CHAT – CHA (tea) + T (time).
8 Boast of book accompanying charity event (4)
BRAG – B (book) + RAG (cherity event).
9 Elizabeth interrupts Sadie broadcasting complaint (8)
DIABETES – BET (Elizabeth) ‘interrupting’ an anagram (‘broadcasting’) of SADIE.
10 Official document father left around ship (8)
PASSPORT – PA (father) + PORT (left) ‘around’ SS (steam ship).
11 Party leader’s latest welcome (4)
RAVE – R (leadeR’s ‘latest’) + AVE (welcome, as in AVE MARIA).
13 English town centre’s type of secondary road uneven (13)
MIDDLESBROUGH – MIDDLES (centre’s) + B (type of secondary road, as in B road) + ROUGH (uneven).
16 Fly in jet, angled westwards (4)
GNAT – reversed (‘westwards’ in this across clue) hidden word: jeT ANGled).
17 Husband away from family residence reportedly allowed fried food (8)
OMELETTE – H (husband) ‘away from’ HOME (‘family residence’) = OME. Add on LETTE (sounds like (‘reportedly’) allowed, or ‘LET’) gives OMELETTE.
19 Oil-producing plant primates found in tall grass (8)
RAPESEED – APES (primates) ‘found in’ REED (tall grass).
21 Polish unknown gemstone (4)
RUBY – RUB (polish) + Y (unknown, that is one of x, y or z typically in algebra).
22 Those people hurt finally call for attention (4)
THEY – T (hurT ‘finally’) + HEY (call for attenstion).
23 Scandinavians note equestrian chaps, heading off (8)
NORSEMEN – N (note) + ORSEMEN (equestrian chaps, Horsemen, with their heading, H, off).
Down
2 A bishop visits country, storytelling (9)
NARRATION – A + RR (A Right Reverend, or Bishop) ‘visiting’ NATION (country).
3 Breed of cattle nibbling peripherally in Australia (5)
ANGUS – NG (NibblinG ‘peripherally’, i.e. ‘the outside letters of’) ‘in’ AUS (Australia).
4 Little rod gets this young amphibian? (7)
TADPOLE – a TAD is a ‘little’. Plus a POLE (rod) = TADPOLE.
5 The old street accommodates a brewery agent (5)
YEAST – YE (‘the’ old) + ST (street) ‘accommodating’ A.
6 Two Europeans in choir organised farewell (7)
CHEERIO – anagram of CHOIR + EE (two Europeans).
7 At regular intervals, watched champion (3)
ACE – regular letters of wAtChEd.
12 Half have become fit — squash perhaps? (9)
VEGETABLE – VE (half of ‘have’) + GET ABLE (‘become fit’).
14 Uncertain ID turned up on the railway (7)
DITHERY – ID ‘turned up’ (in this down clue) ‘on’ (again in this down clue) THE RY (railway).
15 Big boozing session includes litre cocktails mixed in this? (7)
BLENDER – BENDER ‘including’ L ‘litre’.
17 Vast expanse of water damaged canoe (5)
OCEAN – anagram (‘damaged’) of CANOE).
18 Observer guards river with one bird’s nest (5)
EYRIE – EYE ‘guards’ R (river) + I (one).
20 A quiet wood (3)
ASH – A + SH (quiet).

20 comments on “QC 1145 by Breadman”

  1. 15:20 for me today and so a good time. A very steady solve I felt with very few clues holding out. LOI was Diabetes – I spent too long trying to think of a shortened version of Elizabeth rather than working on the definition.
  2. 25 minutes.Quite tricky for a Monday.

    Not helped by dithering over wordplay: bet for Elizabeth rather than Liz or Beth, fan for cooler, RR for bishop.

    Vaguely remembered eyrie, delayed by being fixated on frogspawn for 4d, and diarrhea for 9a.

    Last few were Dithery, tadpole and diabetes.

    Favourite clues were omelette, norsemen, and COD blender.

  3. I’m sure Jackkt will know, but I think Breadman has provided us with a number of QCs before, just not very often. A search found his 30th Jan, where Jackkt said it was his 5th since Sept 2015.

    I enjoyed that one, and liked this too. Nice to see the appearance of the erstwhile local town where my sister was born and wife did her degree. I wonder if it so well-known to our overseas solvers, though.

    Held up only by putting HEM for the call for attention at 22a rather than HEY. But getting stuck at 14d, which had to end in RY fixed that.
    COD to VEGETABLE for the double meaning of squash. Nice puzzle and blog. Thanks Breadman and A.

    1. Thanks for putting me straight about Breadman. Certainly to my knowledge I was a virgin until today!
  4. The curse of the typo struck this morning despite doing what I thought was a thorough spellcheck, leaving me with BLENDRR at 15d. An enjoyable solve which I ‘completed’ in 13.57, my biggest hold up being the with 9a where I’d not heard of that abbreviation of Elizabeth before. COD goes to 12d
  5. 10 minutes but it was a close run thing whether I would hit my target as DITHERY eluded me until all its checkers were in place and even then the answer didn’t exactly leap out at me.

    Thanks to johninterred for digging out the info on Breadman; I would only add that, judging by his past form we may not see the setter again until 2019.

    Edited at 2018-07-30 08:59 am (UTC)

  7. Fairly straightforward, steady rather than rapid. Took me a while to think of BET for ELIZABETH. I was married to an ELIZABETH who would have hit me if I had called her BET. So DIABETES my LOI. VEGETABLE my COD, having got stuck on Squash being the game.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. 5:19, pretty much solved in order except for DIABETES, which required a second look to find the right Elizabeth, and MIDDLESBROUGH which I left until all the checkers were in guessing (correctly) that the answer would then be obvious. A pleasant middle-of-the-road puzzle.
  9. Despite sitting here in Middlesbrough, I didn’t make much of an effort to solve 13a until I had a number of checkers, at which point it was staring me in the face, as it were. As Don says, a lot of clues in this puzzle needed a couple of different approaches before the correct angle of attack was found. I didn’t see the butternut squash until I had the G from The Boro, despite having VE and ABLE from the wordplay. Nice puzzle. Thanks Breadman and Don.
    On edit: forgot to say 8:50.

    Edited at 2018-07-30 10:57 am (UTC)

  10. About average for me in 12:58. Last two in were 11a RAVE and 12d VEGETABLE forgetting that squash is one. I will now have to read the blog carefully as I am sure I didn’t parse some answers fully. Thanks Breadman and Astartedon.
  11. Slow start to the week at just over the 30min mark – struggled with 9ac and 15d (!) but several others didn’t exactly jump off the page either. It’s probably a chestnut, but the neat surface of 5d gets it my CoD vote. I would be interested to know if our experts ever ‘struggle’ (that is take an extra minute or two) with unfamiliar setters, say from a different newspaper, or whether it makes no difference ? Invariant
  12. DNF but enjoyed most of the puzzle. Galling not to get 13ac without the checkers, Im a boro lad!
    kg
    1. Of course I was North of the Tees, so 13ac was “the south”… and “Yorkshire”. But good to find another historical local here.. although I’m in East Anglia now.
      1. I did my very first Times cryptic(15×15) in a cottage near Aldborough where my daughter took me for my 60th birthday present. 🙂 We had a trip to Jimmy’s farm and bought some rare breed sausages and bacon. Luckily it wasn’t the vegan daughter! Dolly helped my grandson to catch his first fish:-)
  13. In a strange twist of synchronicity, my bookmarked LJ took me straight to a Breadman entry today…I started reading and thought, “Hang fire, these clues aren’t the ones I’ve answered!” — it was the blog from February last year, for some unknown reason. Thought I was in a parallel universe for about 30 seconds 🙂 Spooky eh?
    Was checking the blog as 23A refused to show itself (I insisted it must end in S, thus throwing myself off the Scandinavian scent), so a DNF. Not a great start to the week, but an enjoyable one. Thanks Astartedon for your usual entertaining blog…hope you survive the pub crawls.
  14. Always a challenge to get on the wavelength of an unfamiliar setter….But over a couple of sessions I eventually managed to successfully complete this. FOI 8a LOI 11a where I doubted ‘rave’ on the earlier go-rounds until 12d decided it for me. I loved the lots of different ways these clues were set – really a very fair test for an average sort of solver like me. COD 17a. Happy to see more from Breadman, and thx for the informative blog. Envious of anyone whose phone keeps ringing off the hook with potential clients! Happily those days are now behind me but with a son starting a new career as a pro-photographer I painfully remember that (his) talent and expertise doesn’t generate customers – and not helped these days by GDPR rules constraining business promotion.
  15. I found this a nice easy puzzle, and have just the one quibble, at 19ac. The oil produced from the plant is indeed rapeseed, but this is because it is made from the seeds of the rape plant.

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