Quick Cryptic 1004 by Wurm

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Something of a gothic feel to this what with all the vampires and eternal damnation. Heavy use of the double definition. It took me 9 minutes, though looking back I seem to have made unnecessarily heavy weather of it. Hard to pick a favourite, maybe 21 ac?

Across
1 Writer seen with family pet (7)
LAMBKIN – LAMB (Writer) + KIN (family). ‘Lambkin’ is a term of endearment, like ‘pet’. I assume they are referring to essayist Charles Lamb, who is forever showing up in the 15×15 as ‘Elia’
7 Lady first to encourage and tend other ranks (7)
ELEANOR – E (first letter of ‘encourage’) + LEAN (tend, as in lean towards) + OR (other ranks)
9 Viper sliding around before noon is deadly biter (7)
VAMPIRE – Anagram (‘sliding’) of VIPER surrounding AM (before noon)
10 Handsome and in hurry (7)
DASHING – double definition
11 Cost of living slashed (4)
RENT – double definition
12 Ten hotels demolished in watery region (3,6)
THE SOLENT – anagram (‘demolished’) of TEN HOTELS
14 Eternal punishment in The Netherlands? (9)
DAMNATION – DAM + NATION. whimsical definition. I though they were dykes, not dams.
16 Good to have garment (4)
GOWN – G (good) + OWN (to have)
17 Anger to burden the country (7)
IRELAND – IRE (anger) + LAND (burden, as in ‘land with’)
20 Joseph’s son puts one in broken hamper (7)
EPHRAIM – anagram (‘broken’) of HAMPER + I
21 European sailor hurried back to tell story (7)
NARRATE – E (european) + TAR (sailor) + RAN (hurried), all backwards. Have we done all the different words for sailor before? Whatever, lets do it again: TAR, SALT, AB (able seaman), OS (ordinary seaman), RN. Any more?
22 Fiery monster devouring old soldier (7)
DRAGOON – DRAGON ‘devouring’  O

Down
1 Northerner has meat and dessert with pin-up (12)
LIVERPUDLIAN – LIVER (meat) + PUD (dessert) + LIAN, (nail, up)
2 Political group’s instant sign of hesitation (8)
MOMENTUM – MOMENT (instant) + UM (hesitation). Newish neo-marxist political group in the UK
3 Join outfit guarding an indefinite number (4)
KNIT – KIT (outfit) with N (indefinite number) within.
4 Get to the point (6)
NEEDLE – double definition
5 Something for stirring pot, as one’s brewed (8)
TEASPOON – anagram (‘brewed’) of POT AS ONE
6 Opponent from Byzantium (4)
ANTI – hidden word
8 Correct to present island’s trusted adviser (5-4,3)
RIGHT-HAND MAN – self explanatory
12 Reckless young person in rip-off (8)
TEARAWAY – double definition of sorts
13 English lord stirred trouble in fabulous location (2,6)
EL DORADO – E (English) + anagram (‘stirred’) of LORD + ADO (trouble)
15 Certainly that’s in legal document (6)
INDEED – IN + DEED
18 Nobleman almost skinned! (4)
EARL – NEARLY minus outer letters i.e. ‘skinned’
19 Artist embracing explosive goddess (4)
RHEA – RA (Royal Academy, i.e. artist) around HE (high explosive). Rhea is mother of Zeus, though technically she’s a titan, or is that a subspecies of god?

25 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1004 by Wurm”

  1. Nicely-weighted QC. I think the TEASPOON is pretty good, and for me there are other niceties, such as 4D.

    In terms of DAMs, I think the Amstel (Amstelredamme)has one.

    Thanks curarist & setter.

  2. I made heavy weather of this, finally crossing the line at 30:25. It would have helped if I had twigged Liverpudlian sooner I feel. I agree about the gothic feel!
  3. 8 minutes. I thought I detected quite a lot of words and meanings that may be unfamiliar to some so I shall be surprised if we don’t have comments to that effect. From a contribution made by the Crossword Editor (RR) last week re the QC milestone puzzle 1000, it appears he thinks of Friday as being the most suitable day for a more challenging puzzle. This rather surprised me as I had thought the day of the week was considered irrelevant to the level of difficulty although it seems to have been an accepted feature of the Telegraph cryptic at one time if not still today.

    Wurm first set for us last June and has appeared roughly once every two months since then (June, August, October, November and January).

    Edited at 2018-01-12 09:24 am (UTC)

  5. Steady going, but I originally had RING at 3d (RIG around N, seemed possible at the time, but), which delayed what should have been an easy 1ac. 5:47.
      1. Oh, that’s interesting, I hadn’t even considered that a jolly jack tar might just be a happy sailor, as distinct from a different type of seagoing “jolly”! Where’s an essay about derivations when you need one…
        1. The OED entry for jolly as a noun, meaning Royal Marine inter alia, just points back to jolly as adjective for etymology. But it includes a quote from Kipling which I vaguely recall:

          I’m a Jolly—’Er Majesty’s Jolly—soldier and sailor too!

  7. TEARAWAY beat me. Neat clue though. Found this hard-going throughout. Definitely not my day today.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. I suppose tear = rip and away = off in that one. A bit of word collision, but technically a charade?
  9. My FOI was KNIT. I then went all round the grid and came back to make LAMBKIN my LOI. 8:34. Liked LIVERPUDLIAN. Thanks Wurm and Curarist.
  10. … but held up by becoming fixated on Novocastrian for 1d once I had the checking V. Spotted kit quickly but then couldn’t work out what to do with an x or y! So 1a LOI. I biffed Lambkin and then saw David Lambkin was an author and felt reassured but still unsatisfied with lamb meaning pet and the ordering of words. Never heard of Charles Lamb but shall file him and the Elia fact away for future reference.

    See you next week. Telegraph crossword tomorrow and a day off on Sunday.

  11. The first few went in easy enough, but then progress slowed to a crawl. Eventually I was left with 1ac, 3d and 13d, and after a lot of thought managed to see Tearaway. Desperately wanted to put Pi in the middle of 3d, but of course nothing would then fit the rest of the clue. Revisited after a cup of tea and saw Knit almost straight away. That just left 1ac, which also nearly got the better of me, but got there in the end. Definitely thought today’s was not a run of the mill QC, but no doubt good practice for the bigger version. Liverpudlian was my favourite today, just beating Damnation. Invariant

  12. DNF, which is becoming very common for me in 2018. TEARAWAY stumped me.

    I’m always a fan of the double def or whimsical clue, and several today provided a smile.

  14. At the end I was held up by 1d and 1a; and also wondered about 3d (UNIT felt wrong but I needed the checker).
    After a trip round Scandinavia and other points North, I finally alighted at Liverpool; reading the clue carefully helped.
    No exact time as fell asleep on the train but 20 minutes or so. LOI was Knit after Lambkin which I wasn’t certain about. David
  15. I think I’ve struggled with Wurm before and today was the same. On first pass the across clues were elusive but working the downs from the bottom up brought me more joy. Eventually I was just left with the NW which proved very tricky. After a tea break I realised I’d been looking much too far north for 1d and that opened the rest up, although LOI 1a went in tentatively.
    No exact time today but I would estimate around the 30 minute mark all told.
  16. This didn’t come easy, taking about 25% longer than average, but it was all fair and entertaining. It may be partly due to unfamiliarity with Wurm’s style which meant I was slow getting going. I took a while to see 1d, which I needed to see 1a – not a term of endearment I can remember ever hearing. I liked TEASPOON… and the suggestion of the gothic flavour. Maybe Wurm is wanting to NARRATE the tale of the DAMNATION of a DASHING TEARAWAY VAMPIRE EARL with a RENT GOWN in IRELAND. INDEED!
  17. DNF – had to look up lambkin – I don’t think I’d have ever have got that. Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle, thanks setter and blogger.

    Mighty

Comments are closed.