Quick Cryptic 1064 by Joker

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Managed to make this one take 10 minutes, but it’s hard to see why, given how most of the parsings seem to be X + Y. A bit of a quibble with 9ac, but nothing particularly sneaky. The only one to need much thought in the parsing was 23 ac, but it was easily biffed first. I anticipate some above-average times..?

Across
3 Paper ties tear badly (8)
TREATISE – anagram (badly) of TIES TEAR
7 Approached artist for something to make a picture with (6)
CAMERA – CAME (approached) + RA (Royal Academician,i.e. artist)
8 Conservative pamphlet’s become shorter (8)
CONTRACT – CON + TRACT
9 Island nation bans a whisky (4)
MALT – MALTA minus A. Technically if it ‘bans’ A, it should be MLT
10 Structural rod is not quite level (3)
TIE – Level is TIER, not quite complete.
11 Show daughter is nearby (8)
DISCLOSE – D + IS + CLOSE
13 Vagrant’s lost millions in trick (4)
TRAP – TRAMP minus M for millions
15 Partly swollen stye in part of the eye (4)
LENS – hidden word swolLEN Stye
17 Angled to include home that’s completed (8)
FINISHED – FISHED with IN inside
19 Fool’s not left with girl? (3)
ASS – Girl is LASS, minus L for left
22 Further a London orchestra (4)
ALSO – A + LSO (London Symphony Orchestra)
23 Initially moved a boring plant with long-lived orange flower (8)
MARIGOLD – M + A + RIG (boring plant, as in oil rig) + OLD. Took a while to spot this. I always panic when it’s anything to do with plants, not being any kind of gardener. RIG is a nicely hidden element.
24 Large mass of party rejected number of votes cast (6)
DOLLOP – DO (party) + POLL backwards
25 Witches struggle in a city (8)
COVENTRY – COVEN + TRY

Down
1 Hanger-on in airborne soldiers’ base? (8)
PARASITE – PARA (airborne soldier) + SITE
2 Man in charge around court is frantically active (6)
HECTIC – HE + IC (in charge) all around CT. ‘Frantically’ looks suspiciously like an anagrind, so wasted some time trying to make an anagram of ‘active’.
3 Audibly changed direction in diplomatic understanding (4)
TACT – Sounds like (‘audibly’) TACKED
4 Genius that is returning playing tennis (8)
EINSTEIN – EI (that is, backwards) + anagram (playing) of TENNIS
5 Object sailor has to receive (6)
TARGET – TAR is a sailor, GET is receive
6 Bag a quick bite to eat, but not beginning to nibble (4)
SACK – SNACK without N (first letter of nibble)
12 Unsatisfactory film development on the side (8)
OFFSHOOT – OFF + SHOOT
14 Great dislike of a particular interpretation (8)
AVERSION – A + VERSION
16 Like the oceans seal’s swimming around in (6)
SALINE – anagram (‘swimming’) of SEAL with IN in.
18 Means of securing unravelling pleats (6)
STAPLE – anagram (‘unravelling’) of PLEATS
20 Milk pudding son wants earlier (4)
SAGO – S + AGO
21 Whirl round headless toy bear (4)
EDDY – TEDDY minus the head.

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1064 by Joker”

  1. I’m not sure I commend your argument for 9ac MALT – seems reasonable to me. X-Y?

    FOI 5dn TARGET
    LOI 10ac TIE
    COD & WOD MARIGOLD

    Time 7.22

    Edited at 2018-04-06 07:42 am (UTC)

    1. I’m reminded of Thurber’s “The Wonderful O”, where that letter was banned, across the board. (Ophelia Oliver had to retire from society.)
  3. After two chewy days I found this to be a gentle end to the week. I completed it in 9.58 with last one in 9a which took a little time to figure out the parsing – which made sense to me. Enjoyed 25a, Not much more to say about it really.
    Thanks for the blog
  4. After two DNFs (one of which I found particularly irritating – a tweet is not a message, it’s a post [unless it’s a DM]; if a tweet’s a message then headline writers are just writing messages to their readers!) this one was just at the right level for me. Some thought, some I had to come back to, finished in 12.30. LOI Dollop – always struggle with the words that mean ‘turn it round’.
  5. A nice straightforward puzzle which took me 7 minutes precisely. Started with TREATISE and finished with PARASITE, the NW being my last few entries.
    Thanks Joker and Curarist.
  6. 10 minutes. Anon’s comment about ‘tweet’ makes no sense to me.

    Edited at 2018-04-06 10:24 am (UTC)

  7. Managed to fail on MALT. Oh dear oh dear. Though I have no problem with it as a clue. In fact I thought it was very obvious. Find an island nation and take an “A” out. Just didn’t of Malta. Missed the parsing of Marigold (very neat). Otherwise, quite straightforward end to the week.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. A welcome 27 min finish to quite a testing week. Nothing too difficult today, though I needed the checkers in place to see what was going on down in the SE corner. Invariant
  9. Another QC which I found quite testing. FOI was 13a and I needed 25 minutes finishing with Dollop.
    Part of my problem was having a fairly confident Ballot at 24a. LOT for Large Mass and LAB for party rejected. I had to get Eddy to correct this. David
  10. Semi-biffed 24a, got “do” then guessed dollop from the checkers, and finally saw poll reversed – never seen rejected meaning reversed before. Is it my imagination or are we getting more “unusual” indicator words lately?
  11. Misdirected by 9a for ages. I was looking for an Island made up of a nation but without A or W(hiskey) – like Mali and Malawi only with the answer actually being an island! So that was my last one in – in retrospect can’t see why I had to complicate things!
  12. Scraped under 40 minutes.

    I had ballot as well which delayed things.

    Last few were marigold, biffed it early on but couldn’t parse for ages, dollop, eddy and LOI malta.

    COD finished or dollop.

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