Quick Cryptic 666 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
666 may be ‘the devil’s number’ but this was 13 minutes of entertainment from Joker. With a mix of easy-in and harder clues, my COD goes to 11ac for the definition. I have a bit of niggle with 15ac as it took me so long to guess where the letters should go but I like a crossword which gives me something to chew on.

ACROSS

3. Degas – French impressionist – noted for his ability to convey movement, esp in his studies of horse racing and ballet dancers. (D)raw, for example (EG), like (AS).
7. Presto – as in hey presto – fast moving. Preston without the closing letter.
8. Late – not delivered on time. Dish (pLATE) with the P (quietly) forgotten.
9. Ignoring – passing over. One (I), good (G), number (NO), phone (RING).
10. Pump – device for moving fluids. Turned up (PU), representative (MP).
11. Strike Breaker – one in when others are out. A lovely definition which took some time to figure out – then the word play was easy. Hit (STRIKE), runs (R) inside cup (BEAKER).
15. Inflorescence – the part of a plant that consists of the flower-bearing stalks. For those, like me, who had never heard of this it, was something of a challenge. LOI as the crossing letters were required to work out where the anagram could fit – but I felt the first ‘I’ and the first ‘E’ could have gone either way round. Anagram (altering) of FEEL CONCERN IS.
16. Coda – ending – of a musical or literary work. (C)ause, fuss (ADO) over – backwards.
18. Complete – full. Competition (COMP), allowed (LET), English (E).
20. Here – present. Weat(HER E)xtremes.
21. Retina – part of eye. Concerning (RE), girl (TINA).
22. Delay – wait. DAY importing ‘the’ in Spanish (EL).

DOWN
1. Frighten – get alarmed. Just (RIGHT) inside flooded area (FEN).
2. Oslo – Scandinavian city. Anagram (must be given a makeover) of LOOS.
3. Domineer – boss. One taking action (DOER) about pit (MINE).
4. Gong – medal. Almost lost (GONe), (G)ymnast.
5. Slippage – running late. Error (SLIP), young attendant (PAGE).
6. Item – piece of news. One (I), encountered – met – rising (TEM).
12. Ill-fated – doomed. Unwell (ILL), obese (FAT), Edward (ED).
13. Rosemary – plant. Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, with the words switched round.
14. Exciting – getting emotionally aroused. Coming out (EXITING) around clubs (C).
17. Omen – warning for the future. Old (O), soldiers (MEN).
18. Call – phone. ‘Phone’ twice in the crossword but in 9ac it meant ring. About (CA), lines (LL).
19. Lots – double definition.

22 comments on “Quick Cryptic 666 by Joker”

  1. Not quite a beast but I found this quite hard. I thought I wasn’t going to finish as I was stuck on 7a, 9a, 11a and 1d.

    Also for 20a I was initially looking at WR** for weather extremes.

  2. Managed to finish this in 45, but I still reckon this was harder than usual. 11ac took an age to get, as did 15ac as I’ve never heard of it. Did anyone else make the same mistake as me at 20ac and put “wear” thinking it was the extremes of WEAtherR? Was probably just me haha.
    1. For 20ac I understand your take that wear could be ‘show it’ – but that leaves ‘present’ without a role.
      For 5d – I see the point of how does one phrase exactly replace another in a sentence. Late running is interchangeable with slippage though.

      Edited at 2016-09-27 08:13 am (UTC)

      1. I was actually taking “present” to mean wear. A bit of a stretch for the definition, I know haha. And the “show it” as referring to the extremes of weather “showing it”. Think I was looking for the harder clue when the bleedin’ obvious was right there!
  3. Dnk INFLORESCENCE, needed nearly all the checkers. The MARY ROSE was indeed ILL FATED, I strongly recommend the exhibition in Portsmouth. SLIPPAGE’s meaning is still changing, nowadays it often refers to holding back on carrying through agreed policies, or gradually reneging on promises made when campaigning at elections. I like the obligatory mention of cricket at 11ac; my immediate, quite wrong, thought was ‘pinch-hitter’, an import from baseball, the name Americans give to their form of rounders. Incidentally, some authorities believe the number of the Beast was mistranslated or mistranscribed, and should be 616. 6′ today, thanks chris and Joker.
  4. Why did 15ac cause so much trouble? It is perfectly well used botanical term for flower branching. Maybe it was the long anagram that was off-putting.WOD

    I came in at 9.31 and thus would rate this as medium-ish.

    COD 7ac PRESTO!

    horryd Shanghai

  5. I missed StrikeBreaker, Frighten and Exciting, darn! Also Inflorescence – my shoulders slump when I see plant or bird clues.
    1. Although I managed to retrieve this from somewhere in my memory.

      About 8 minutes for this one, followed by another 20 minutes for 11a.

  6. Despite what Horryd says, I think “inflorescence” isn’t really a QC word. Otherwise a fun puzzle.

    Took me a couple of minutes at the end to find the error that the website said I had. I’d biffed “dally” for “delay”.

  7. I finished all but 15A in 35 minites, so a DNF. I might have got it by trial and error except for a silly spelling mistake, but I thimk ithe term was too technical for an anagram in a QC.
    I also think Presto refers to the musical term rather than HEY….. .
    Another great puzzle by Joker apart from 15a.
    Brian

    Edited at 2016-09-27 11:26 am (UTC)

  8. 8.22 for this, mostly spent writing out and juggling the letters for 15a. The rest was very straight forward, with a brief pause over 11a.
  9. A very odd QC, with some very simple clues and some absolute stinkers. The 1d/11ac combination needed electronic help to crack, and 15ac was a guess given the letter combination. The Setters are certainly mixing things up at the moment. Invariant
  10. I thought this was a superb puzzle, slightly harder than some but then the QC should be nudging improvers to solve the 15×15. Spotting the two long clues I solved around the grid and, with all the checkers, these fell quite readily. Loved the 11a clue which was my LOI. I always drive warily on the A666 near Bolton just in case.
  11. 15 minutes for this one, mainly held up by the two long answers (I had *****E-BREAKER at 11 but needed all the checkers to think what went in front), and for some reason FRIGHTEN.

    I’m another who hadn’t come across INFLORESCENCE or had forgotten it. I remember learning many botanical terms for parts of flowers at school but this one seems to have passed me by.

    Edited at 2016-09-27 12:58 pm (UTC)

  12. Over the last few days the puzzles have been getting harder. Ok for a couple of difficult ones each week but don’t overdo it setters if you actually want to encourage new solvers. Another dnf for me

    Tim

  13. I thought this was a superb puzzle, slightly harder than some but then the QC should be nudging improvers to solve the 15×15. Spotting the two long clues I solved around the grid and, with all the checkers, these fell quite readily. Loved the 11a clue which was my LOI. I always drive warily on the A666 near Bolton just in case.
  14. I had a similar experience to yesterday whereby I solved most of this quite quickly and then got held up by my final 2 clues, 5d and 15a. I finally completed it in 21 minutes but the order of the letters in 15 relied on an educated guess. COD was 11a for sending me down completely the wrong path for a while – I assumed it would be cricket clue.
  15. Couldn’t see DEGAS (8ac) but guessed it must be right couldn’t get CODA (15ac) otherwise not too bad.
  16. Made steady progress but had to leave 11a and 15a till the end so that I had as much material to work with as possible. Thought 11a was a cricket clue for quite a while. 15 was LOI and I too had never heard the word before but was able to guess it. Good puzzle. Not sure of time as was interrupted, but not quick. David
  17. Found this tough going and was surprised and pleased to finish in just over 11 mins. 15a was a bit of a guess with all the checkers in place. Not a word I’d heard of.

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