Times Quick Cryptic No 688 by Orpheus

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was a lovely crossword. Tricky in parts, with the SW and NE corners taking me past the 15 minute mark, but lots of smooth surface readings and satisfying clues to solve along the way. A few bits of obscurity, such as 7d and 24ac (for me, at least) but both of these were generously clued. 12ac was known vaguely at best but, such is the advantage of cryptic crosswords over non-cryptics for flattering one’s sense of general knowledge, it went in with a confident nod and without a checker in sight. This is certainly not the principal advantage of cryptics, but it does permit a tut to the imaginary onlooker: yes of course that’s the messenger god. Duh. I think my favourite clue was 14ac – one of the easier in the puzzle but with a superb surface reading that really grew on me. Definitions underlined, and many thanks to Orpheus for this – much enjoyed.

Across
1 Quote Italian in church
CITE: IT. (Italian) in C.E. (Church of England)
3 In class a boy is relaxed and friendly
INFORMAL: IN, FORM (class) AL (a boy)
9 Lively person’s son, a footballer, perhaps
SWINGER: S (son) WINGER (a footballer, perhaps)
10 Endless to-do about commander’s centre of activity
FOCUS: FUSS (to-do; endless = drop the last letter) going around O.C. (commander): as in Officer Commanding, apparently – new to me, I was only aware of C.O.
11 Consumed in college, we hear
EATEN: Eton, audibly (we hear).
12 Messenger god immersed in another message
HERMES: hidden, or immersed, in the letters of anotHER MESsage.
14 But would a driver’s unwelcome adviser withdraw thus?
TAKE A BACK SEAT: An interesting clue to categorise, this: it’s a double definition (a driver’s unwelcome adviser ; withdraw) with the conflicting meanings of the two definitions made into an all-in-one (or &lit) surface question. As in: could a back-seat driver take a back seat? It could even be mused rhetorically by a driver to said annoyance, with a possibility of getting peace and quiet for a second or two (or at least a change of conversation).  I scribbled this in quite quickly without really thnking about it, but on reflection it’s an excellent clue.
17 Possibly fellow Lithuanian’s element?
COBALT: CO-BALT (fellow Lithuanian, possibly, as a Balt is not necessarily from Lithuania).
19 Spiritual leader’s tailless pet?
RABBI: RABBIT (pet, losing its tail/last letter)
22 Send message to European man verbally
EMAIL: E (European) MAIL (male, verbally)
23 Attendants English can put in French street
RETINUE: E (English) TIN (can) put inside RUE (French street).
24 Top score? A sucker might get it!
BULL’S-EYE: double definition, the second one cryptic – or very cryptic if, like me, you had not heard of the hard boiled sweet called a bullseye that can be sucked for some nominal degree of pleasure. “Top score” has a question mark because, for example, it is on an archery target but isn’t on a dart-board.
25 Club accommodating old vessel
BOAT: BAT (club) accomodating O (old).

Down
1 Film container actors originally employed around filming location
CASSETTE: CAST (actors) E (originally [i.e., first letter of] Employed) going around SET (filming location).
2 It isn’t commonly a stain or blemish
TAINT: ‘t ain’t = it isn’t, commonly.
4 Start here, only travelling towards John o’Groats, say?
NORTH-EASTERLY: anagram (travelling) of START HERE ONLY.
5 Tender Conservative not opening box
OFFER: coffer = box, without the opening C (conservative).
6 Friend carrying revolutionary bladed weapon
MACHETE: MATE (friend) carrying/holding CHE (our stock revolutionary, Che Guevara)
7 Device a shoemaker uses after everything else?
LAST: double definition, the first one being the model/mould around which shoes are shaped. News to me. Derives from the Old English, where a “last” was something along the lines of a footprint.
8 Posh bird, some say, in East African state
UGANDA: U (posh, short for upper class) GANDA can sound like GANDER (bird).
13 Raucous start to squabble over ballistic missile
STRIDENT: S (start to Squabble) over/above TRIDENT (ballistic missile)
15 Clever Dick takes risk ultimately climbing on barrier
KNOW-ALL: K (risK, ultimately), NO (on, climbing – same as reversing in an across clue), WALL (barrier). “Takes” is a link-word between the definition and cryptic parts of the clue.
16 Girl describing a run or a martial art
KARATE: KATE (girl) describing/being written about A R (a run).
18 Book of maps finally almost finished
ATLAS: AT LAST (finally, almost finished = missing the last letter)
20 Large circle adopting northern game
BINGO: BIG O (large circle) adopting/taking on N (northerm)
21 Basil, perhaps — a girl’s boyfriend at first
HERB: HER (a girl’s) B (boyfriend, at first)

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 688 by Orpheus”

  1. Very similar experience. I’m sure it wasn’t by accident that the NW was easy but the rest was harder. LOI HERMES, not having spotted that it was hidden.

    I didn’t get the “sucker” clue in 4ac till you explained it (Thanks!) but LAST was okay – I’m sure it’s come up in a Times cryptic at least once lately.

  2. I never know how to categorize half the clue types, but I’d think here the whole clue is the ‘definition’, as indicated by the ? In any case ‘a driver’s unwelcome adviser’ can’t be the definition of TAKE A BACK SEAT. (It is a nice clue, anyway.)
  3. I did myself no good at all by bunging in SEAL at 21d (‘Send Out More Flags’), thinking to figure things out later; and, as always, forgetting to figure things out later until forced to. As a rhotic dialect speaker, I found it refreshing to see the ‘some say’ at 8d. 6:13.
  4. Of course 7dn LAST (a shoe-in?) is a thing of the past – so rolytoly – our Mr. Blogs – must be of tender years. When I were a lad, cobblers were always at their lasts re-heeling etc. But these days shoes do not last.

    Talking of which – my last one in was 17ac COBALT at 10.37

    COD 4dn NORTH EASTERLY

    WOD ORPHEUS

  5. I needed a minute over my target 10 for this one, suggesting that for me at least it was a little above average in difficulty.

    Actually that extra minute is easily accounted for by my biffing “canister” at 1dn with only the C-checker in place and a vague acceptance that CAST clued by “actors” would be somewhere in the answer. I didn’t bother to look at it any further at that stage as a “canister” is more associated in my mind with film storage than is a cassette which I think of as containing recording tape.

    BULL’S EYEs were a great favourite in my childhood, though their bulk and tendency to have sharp edges (until sucked a bit) could lead to a sore mouth on occasion.

    HERMES as messenger of the gods has lent his name amongst things to the courier service and a brand of typewriter that used to be in many an office before the arrival of the word-processor. Also various computer things, some of them relating specifically to communication.

    Edited at 2016-10-27 04:59 am (UTC)

  6. 1.5 hours but another late boozy night so I won’t be too hard on myself.

    I completed the left hand side quickly and spent a long time on the right. The breakthrough came when I saw that 4d was an anagram.

    Annoyingly couldn’t get Eros out of my head for the god clue.

    Last few in were: 19a (looking for a pet starting rasta!) 25a, 13d (I was thinking torpedo) and 20d.

    Now to have a crack at the 15×15.

  7. I also put cannister at first at 1dn.

    I didn’t know 7dn, so a DNF for me. I liked 17ac, but would say trickier than average at around 20 mins with one missing.

  8. Ahh BULLS’ EYES, along with humbugs, huge lumps of hard sugar that required a vast amount of sucking. Were CASSETTEs those black plastic things old film, pre-digital, came in? COD COBALT, could spark a list of similar, such as ‘fellow academic painkiller’ or ‘fellow old runner, I should hope’. 7′, so about average. Thanks roly and Orpheus.
  9. There’ s been some good puzzles this week and this was another, completed in 20 minutes (my target time). I was unfamiliar with 7d (LOI) and the sweet in 24a, but they were both kindly clued. COD 17a
  10. I got a bullseye once with my first set of bow and arrows. The arrows had suckers on the end which, if you slobbered it enough at the end, would stick to (“get”) the metal target.
  11. Hardest of the week so far for me. My problems seem to have been different to everybody else’s. So I am old enough to remember sucking BULLSEYES and shoemakers working on a LAST. In fact it is the thing I most associate with shoemakers or cobblers. Whilst I accept that a MACHETE is used as a weapon, that is not what it is designed for. So not really happy with that clue. My problems were with 9ac where I spent a very long time looking for a footballer as the answer, and 8dn where I forget that posh =U in crosswordland. All in all, pleased to have finished at all after two sessions.
    PlayupPompey
  12. I lost count of the number of times I had to come back to this, before my last pair 5d/10ac finally succumbed – NE corners are proving tricky this week!
    As regards CO v OC, I always understood the distinction was whether or not a formal appointment was made (CO) or you happened to be the senior officer (OC) around at the time. If you are old enough to remember (the film, that is, not the battle. . .) think of Lt John Rouse Marriott Chard (OC) at Rorke’s Drift. Invariant
  13. New to these postings and relatively new ( two years) to this cryptic. I normally finish but do it at different stages of the day ( my brain seems to appreciate refreshing itself). Normally come in at about 2-3 hours. Been away in the Indian Ocean and took the TQC book to stop going stale, nevertheless since coming back have had considerable difficulties in half completing most days’ puzzles. Then today (688) I did the whole thing in about an hour which is probably a personal best. I’m wondering if it’s the compiler or some other factor which is either engaging said brain or not as the case may be. As a bit of an oldster I am often surprised at how I can judge the age of contributors from the answers they’d never heard of. ‘Last’ must have dropped out of parlance since nobody really repairs their shoes nowadays. On a more prosaic note, rolytoly, the bulls eye on a dartboard is the highest score (50)., not just an archery target.
    Thanks for the advice and jokes from the contributors, they make my day.
  14. …so about as fast as I can tap the answers in to my ipad. Quite surprised to see the comments today as I thought it was the easiest for some time. COBALT the only one needing a second look.
  16. Finally got there, sitting up in bed determined! LOIs 5d but for the wrong reason, ditto 10a. Where would we be without the blog to point out how dense we are (me, anyway, this evening). Really liked 20d bingo and 8d Uganda. I too remember Lasts and bulls eyes (Just William & gang, Jumble and Violet-Elizabeth Bott). Think I still have a Last rusting on the garage.
  17. Jakkt, thanks for reminding me about treble twenty. Told everyone my brain wasn’t working lately.
    I give up.

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