Times Quick Cryptic No 969 by Rongo – Great! Super!! Brill!!!

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this a bit of a testing little number from Rongo with some tricky clues and a couple of traps for the unwary to fall into. Like I did, as you will see. It took me about 8 minutes, which is a bit longer than average for me. But all is fairly clued and I don’t think there’s much to scare the horses. There are some lovely surfaces. 4a is, I think, my favourite and my nominee for Cash On Delivery Clue Of the Day, although 13d also deserves an honourable mention. Thank-you Rongo for what I thought was a thoroughly entertaining puzzle. How did you all like it?

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Remove from fighting of French unruly crowd (5)
DEMOB – DE (of, in French) + MOB (unruly crowd). As in release from service in the armed forces. Neat surface.
4 Fibres woven into underwear (6)
BRIEFS – (Fibres)* [woven]. Another great surface. I’d be lying if I said mine were woven from finest 7d – they are 95% cotton and 5% elastane. A.k.a. “pants” in the UK and worn under trousers.. or worn under pants in the US. The joys of a common language separated by the wide Atlantic.
9 Forgive swindle perpetrated (7)
CONDONE – CON (swindle) + DONE (perpetrated). Hmm. I hesitated about this as condone  means ‘refrain from punishing’, rather than forgive. Never mind. Pardon my hair splitting. The clue is admirably concise and the answer is beyond doubt given the wordplay.
10 Fantastic fish (5)
BRILL – Even more concise and  a double definition, the first being the contraction of BRILL{iant}. Not an expression I’ve heard used much lately. It got me thinking of Tony and David, the junior executive workmates of Reginald Perrin and their alternating “Great!” and “Super!!”. “I didn’t get where I am today….“. I even went and found the first episode for you…. well for myself really. Brill!!!
11 Set down narrative poem for singing (3)
LAY – Another double definition, the latter being a name for a lyric poem written by a troubadour expressing courtly love. Those were the days.
12 Scornful behaviour, inside or out (8)
DERISION – (inside or)* [out]. Like mocking laughter or a scornful put-down. It is said that Jean Harlow once called Margot Asquith “MargoT.” The latter had the perfect comeback: “No, my dear, the T is silent. As in Harlow.”
15 Possible Oscar-winning performance when January begins? (4,2,3,4)
TURN OF THE YEAR – Double definition, first one cryptic. For auld lang syne.
17 Part of bound ream that is not thought of (8)
UNDREAMT – [Part of] {bo}UND + REAM + T{hat}. If you had not thought of looking for a hidden word in this clue you might not have solved it.
18 This physician returned cash on delivery (3)
DOC – Reverse of [returned] Cash On Delivery or C.O.D. as it is usually abbreviated. Oh dear. I got into a bit of a temporary tangle in this corner, being tempted at one point to reverse the physician…. (q.v.)
20 Try not to meet a very old identity (5)
AVOID – A + V (very) + O (old) + ID (identity). Just like that.
22 For Spooner, maybe Scottish legislation might be a cause of speech impediment (7)
LOCKJAW – A big welcome to crosswordland’s favourite doctor. A spoonerism of JOCK (Scottish) + LAW (legislation). Ho. Ho. Ho.  Actually, lockjaw is no laughing matter and affects rather more than your speech!
23 Land fowl (6)
TURKEY – Another nice two word double definition. Did anyone else have GUINEA to start with?
24 Cores of blue and black materials from the moon (5)
LUNAR – Middle letters [Cores] of bLUe aNd blAck mateRials. Easily biffable, but did you see the parsing?
Down
1 City idol’s strange meek quality (8)
DOCILITY – (City idol’s)* [strange]. The nature of being quiet and easy to influence, persuade, or control. Mrs Interred continually fumes about the conspicuous lack of this admirable (if you are a teacher) quality in the yoofs she attempts to educate.
2 A large number drinking gallons, sick as a dog? (5)
MANGY – MANY (large number) with G (gallons) inside [drinking]. As in suffering from mange. No, it’s not caused by drinking too much.
3 Secondary highway to secure psychiatric hospital (9)
BROADMOOR – B ROAD (Secondary highway) + MOOR (to secure). A high-security hospital in Berkshire. Most of the patients there have been diagnosed with severe mental illness and have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. Maybe a stretch to your general knowledge for some of our overseas solvers.
5 Polish gemstone lacking finish (3)
RUB –  The gemstone is a RUB{y} without its last letter [lacking finish]. Rubbing yourself with cabbage is apparently a Polish health tip. Better than vinegar and brown paper, it’s claimed. Oy! Cut out those howls of 12a!
6 Speedo I rigged is only part of the story (7)
EPISODE – (Speedo I)* [rigged] giving us one part of a serial. Episode 1- I remember swimming in Speedos… You’ll have to wait for another blog to get the rest of this story.
7 Fine thread of singular type (4)
SILK – S (singular) + ILK (type), as in “of that ilk”. What my 1a are not woven from.
8 Sad, seeing the Spanish repeatedly beat Germany up (11)
REGRETTABLE – This one took some working out. EL (the Spanish) + BATTER (repeatedly beat) + GER (Germany) all going upwards. I thought it was “the Spanish repeatedly” to start with and was looking for a word with two “EL”s.
13 Foolishly accept lies without first bit of evidence? Unlikely to do that! (9).
SCEPTICAL – Another tricky one. (ACCEPT LI{e}S)* [foolishly] without the ‘e’ (first bit of evidence). If are this you would be unlikely to accept lies. Nice. A candidate for Clue Of the Day.
14 Struggle in which participants keep discounting earlier deals? (5,3)
PRICE WAR – Cryptic definition. I had TRADE WAR at first which led me to change 18a from DOC to COD…. until I came to 18d. Anyone else fall into that little trap? Maybe not. Just because I blog the odd crossword doesn’t mean I’m BRILL at solving them.
16 Managed most of trial venue in spite (7)
RANCOUR – RAN (Managed) + COUR{t} [most of] (trial venue). With 12a, perhaps?
18 Detective Inspector and Judge working where mustard comes from (5)
DIJON – DI (Detective Inspector) + J (Judge) + ON (working). Who makes the best mustard? My son chooses the English over the Dijon every time.
19 Like a gift for the listener, spellbound (4)
RAPT – Sounds like [for the listener] wrapped (like a gift). No. Please don’t mention Christmas. It is still a month away.
21 Give colour to odd bits of Dryden (3)
DYE – Every other letter [odd bits] of DrYdEn. Let’s finish with a quote from him… “Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.” Amen to that.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 969 by Rongo – Great! Super!! Brill!!!”

  1. Brought to a halt by REGRETTABLE; the ‘repeatedly’ had me stumped for a while, with time wasted thinking it might mean two EL’s or something.5:27.

    Edited at 2017-11-24 07:50 am (UTC)

    1. +1 to that. All done bar 8d in 4-and-a-bit minutes then some blank staring until the penny finally dropped at 6.16
      1. I only noticed after posting that our blogger also fell into the EL, EL trap (and paulmcl and ant below). Nice to be in such company, anyway.
  2. 3/4: Trade war here too, for a wee bit; broadmoor unheard of; sceptical briefs were my favourites too; never had guinea though

    Nice easy puzzle

  3. Once again I needed 2 minutes over my 10-minute target with 8dn and 14dn the ones that gave me trouble at the very end.

    I had all the checkers but that still left the choice between REGRETTABLE and REGRETTABLY at 8dn so I had to consider the part of speech that would best fit the definition and understand the wordplay to make double-sure.

    WAR was obvious at 14dn and like others my first thought was ‘trade war’, but it couldn’t be correct because of the C-checker. The wordplay was unhelpful, it being simply a cryptic defintion, so I was forced to start an alphabet trawl before coming up with an alternative that worked on all counts.

    24 was a bit unusual taking two letters from one word then one each from three others.

  4. Having just eaten some, it being Thanksgiving (even though it is already Friday in London) had no problem with that clue. But ground to a halt with just REGRETTABLE last, since I couldn’t fit anything. I’d thought the spanish repeadedly could be one of ELEL or ELLOS SOLLE ELLAS etc. Then I saw it, and stupidyly wrote REGRETTABLY and hit submit at the same moment as I realized it had to end LE.

    Happy Belated Thanksgiving (still not midnight here).

  5. I completely failed to spot the possibility of an anagram in 12a and 13d ( which are both great clues) and was another looking to put two Els into 8d. Therefore I came to a temporary halt in the middle of the puzzle before finally cracking regrettable. 26 minutes
  6. with a lot of rewriting of TRADE WAR to PRICEWAR @14dn COD to DOC @18ac and CAJAN to DIJON @18dn (Doh!)

    CAJAN Mustard – nothing like it! Louisiana Custard.

    COD 24 ac LUNAR I suppose!

    WOD 23ac TURKEY as it’s Thanksgiving well cold TURKEY I suppose. And thank you POTUS and the ‘Scarecrow of Truth’, Kellanne Conwoman for making me larf so much!

    Edited at 2017-11-24 11:40 am (UTC)

  7. I took a little while to come up with PRICE WAR, but was still finished, apart from 8d, in just over 8 minutes. Trying to fit 2 ELs into that took me to 10:17 after finally having to write the whole thing out and stare at it until I started to look at it backwards and saw the EL and BAT at the bottom and GER at the top. Well disguised Rongo! Smiled at LOCKJAW, although as John says, it’s not really something to smile about. Thanks Rongo and John.
  8. Most of this went in easily enough, but 8, 12 and 13 took ages. Not only did I take a long time to even spot that two of them were anagrams, I was also trying to fit El x2 into 8d. Not a good end to the week, compounded by having to use aids for loi 19d. I’m not sure whether Homophones or Spoonerisms are my least favourite clue type, but they are certainly a long way behind anything else. Invariant
  9. A smidge under ten minutes today, with REGRETTABLE needing all the wordplay at the end. A nice flow throughout, apart from that. FOI 1a DEMOB, COD 2d MANGY for the definition. WOD LOCKJAW.
  10. DNF with 8d proving too tricky for me. Some nice clues though, especially 10a – must try to remember that one next time we visit an aquarium.

    Thanks for the blog, but your son is wrong. Dijon every time.

  12. 8D had for me, too, resulting in a teeth-gritting DNF after doing well thus far. And I fell for the COD/TRADE thing until I realised CAJUN really couldn’t be mustard-related (Colman’s all the way for me). Thanks Rongo. And what a great blog, John – made me laugh after a long day at work and I look forward to the next Speedo episode!
  13. A gentle Friday evening solve for me, until I hit LOI 8d which had me scratching my head for a while. Like others I was looking for 2 els so eventually focused on the other end of the clue and all became clear. Completed in 14 minutes with another vote for 4a as COD.
    Thanks for the entertaining blog john
  14. … of a cryptic crossword. All the major clue constructions, a bit of GK, a couple of well disguised heffalump traps (not all avoided either) and the occasional giggle. If I was sitting down with an absolute novice to introduce them to the world of cryptics, this would be one I might choose. Chapeau to Rongo (and a very fine blog to boot!)
    5’30”
  15. Just back from a day in Winchester -great cathedral and where Jane Austen died.
    15 minutes to get all but my LOI -8d.
    3 more minutes of concentration led me to Regrettable.
    Not much to add; COD to 4a and equally 22a -a Spooner clue I liked. David
  16. Completed on the following Sunday as usual.

    Great puzzle, I also looked for 2 ELs, and 2 words for beat until I saw the batter reversed.

    Pleased to get the dreaded spooner.
    Thought this was going to be tough until I spotted all the anagrams.

    COD either the speedo themed episode or briefs.

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