Quick Cryptic No 432 by Dazzler

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A fairly straightforward puzzle today, I thought, which included several “hidden” type clues – one of which I found to be particularly well disguised at 10ac.

The parsing of 18ac might hold people up for a short while, albeit the answer pretty much jumps out from the definition and enumeration. No real obscurities, although some might not have come across the prophet (I happened to remember him from Sunday School where, as irreverent 10 year olds, me and my mates were quite amused by his unorthodox matrimonial circumstances).

Thanks to Dazzler for an enjoyable offering.

Definitions underlined; DD = double definition; anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Bound to be included in revealing sports event (11)
SHOWJUMPING – JUMP (bound) is ‘included in’ SHOWING (revealing)
9 Calm period – as is seen after end of aggro (5)
OASIS – O (end of aggrO) + AS IS. I’d always thought of an oasis as a place of calm rather than a period of calm, but it can apparently also be used to describe a calm interval in an otherwise hectic time
10 Snob appearing in novel? It is true! (7)
ELITIST – Cunningly disguised hidden (which broadly translates as “took me an age to spot it”) in novEL IT IS True, with ‘appearing’ indicating we are looking for this kind of clue
11 Leaders holding trial: crazy people (9)
HEADCASES – HEADS (leaders) ‘holding’ CASE (trial)
13 The female appearing amongst others (3)
HER – Hidden inside otHERs, again with ‘appearing’ serving as our signpost. Today’s gimme
14 Worry after theatre shows same play again? (6)
REPEAT – REP (theatre) + EAT (worry – as in gnaw away at)
16 In the middle of change it’s mad (6)
AMIDST – *(ITS MAD) with “change” as the anagrind
17 Arrest outlaw on way back (3)
NAB – Reversal of BAN (outlaw – as a verb)
18 Refusal, we hear, by one unbelievable smart alec (4-2-3)
KNOW IT ALL – KNOW (sounds like – we hear – “no”, being a refusal) + I (one) + TALL (unbelievable – as in a tall story)
21 Opera song about area mainly in US state (7)
ARIZONA – ZONE (area mainly -i.e. without its last letter) ‘in’ ARIA (opera song)
23 To have an irritating effect can be wicked, we hear (5)
GRATE – And another homophone – sounds like “great”, which equates to ‘wicked’ in the parlance of people younger than me (thus speaks a man who was once told he was not cool enough to use the word “cool” – ah well…)
24 His poor help upset Isaac Newton, perhaps (11)
PHILOSOPHER – *(HIS POOR HELP) with “upset” as the anagrind. The celebrated mathematician and scientist does not make it into The Bruce’s Philosophers Song – my standard reference source for philosophers – but in his day he was referred to as a “natural philosopher”.
Down
2 Prophet in OT book has house overlooking Galilee, say (5)
HOSEA – HO (standard abbreviation of house) + SEA (Galilee being an example)
3 We must accept one’s attempt to make joke (9)
WISECRACK – W(IS)E – We ‘accepting’ is – plus CRACK (attempt – go on son, ‘ave a crack…)
4 Guides containing no hints at the front for employers (5)
USERS – The H is removed (no hints at the front) from USHERS (guides)
5 Horse caught by one Greek character or another (3)
PHI – H (abbreviation for horse in certain quarters – including, notably, crossword setters) – ‘caught by’ PI (one Greek letter) giving another Greek letter
6 Sounded like filly agitated in hedge (7)
NEIGHED – *(IN HEDGE) with “agitated” as the anagrind
7 Minor wealth? That’s oddly sort of relative (6-2-3)
MOTHER IN LAW – *(MINOR WEALTH) with “that’s oddly” as the anagrind
8 Novelist could be a liar (11)
STORYTELLER – Not quite a DD – more a case of a faintly cryptic secondary definition, I believe – not that it makes any difference…
12 Epitomizing judge’s review of evidence (7-2)
SUMMING UP – … whereas this one truly is a straight DD
15 Issue in boozer is between landlady originally and husband (7)
PUBLISH – PUB (boozer) + IS between first letter (originally) of Landlady and H (husband)
19 Standards of behaviour abandoned by millions in exams (5)
ORALS – M (millions) “abandons” MORALS (standards of behaviour)
20 Saw part of broad agenda (5)
ADAGE – And another hidden (indicated by ‘part of’) in broAD AGEnda
22 Bird dog’s cry initially ignored (3)
OWL – First letter removed (initially ignored) from HOWL (dog’s cry)

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 432 by Dazzler”

  1. I don’t think I even noticed the hidden in ELITIST (I’ve got something of a gift for not noticing hiddens); just biffed from checkers. For what it’s worth, Nick, I think ‘wicked’ is used in (parts of) the US by older folks; at least L.L. Bean, the catalog clothing manufacturer, uses it, and I can’t imagine any young person buying their clothes. ‘Scientist’ was coined in the 19th century by the philosopher Whewell, so as you say. 6:30.
  2. Marginally more tricky than the past few offerings, I thought, but I still managed it in under 10 minutes by a whisker. 3dn and 18ac required a second look to understand the parsing and, as you have said, Nick, the definition of OASIS seemed a bit dodgy at first glance and warranted a visit to the dictionaries where the Oxfords have it covered even if Collins and Chambers don’t.
    1. It seemed to me at the time, and still seems to me, that the metaphorical temporal sense of OASIS fell out so easily from the literal sense that I wouldn’t have objected (and wouldn’t have been that surprised) if no dictionary included it.
      1. I take the point but as we have discovered here on a number of occasions people’s perceptions of meanings of words can vary significantly and in those circumstances we need an arbiter as to what’s valid and what’s not, or at least what’s fair and what’s a bit iffy if one doesn’t want to be too rigid about it. I see respected dictionaries as the best we’ve got.

        Recent controversies over “water table” and “trivia/stat” are good examples, one falling each way in my view (i.e. according to the dictionaries).

        1. And I take your point, and didn’t mean to suggest that we can get away from dictionaries as the arbiters here.
  3. Another slow solve. Last in 19d after I got an unparsed 18a. Joint favourites the two hiddens at 10a and 20d.
  4. Just realised I had 22dn parsed as {y}OWL which I think is valid as it can be defined as a cry of a cat or dog. I suspect {h}owl is what the setter had in mind but at TftT we aim to cover all bases if possible.
  7. For me this was the easiest for some time. I also wasn’t sure about Oasis being a period or Newton being a philosopher, but they couldn’t have been anything else, so thanks for the clarification in the blog. The only real hold up I had was with 1a where I couldn’t get showboating out of my head for a couple of minutes.
    COD 18a
  8. With regular practice I now expect to complete the QC in one sitting in say 30 minutes or less.This one required a couple of goes and I will echo other’s comments. I was delayed by not seeing 1a for a long time. I put in Oasis having only thought it a place.My last in was 14a and all I could see was Replay (can Lay mean Worry? -perhaps in an oasis).
    A good test and I then started on today’s main cryptic which wasn’t too difficult (i.e. I got about half before giving up) David
  11. I thought this was a fairly straightforward QC from young Robert (?), except I made a pig’s ear of 4d looking for a guide beginning with ‘h’. None the wiser after 10mins thought, I biffed ‘users’, so consequently my thanks to Nick for his explanation. Invariant
  12. I found this Crossword Puzzle in a bag of newspapers that was being thrown out. This Puzzle seemed harder than usual for a Quick Cryptic. I put down ‘replay’ for 14 across thinking that the definition might be ‘play again’. This was my only mistake. I knew it was a bit weak but I couldn’t see how the answer could be ‘repeat’. Now I see it: ‘rep’ + ‘eat’ but ‘eat’ did not appear as a synonym for ‘worry’ in my book of synonyms! Also, I did not realise that ‘rep’ can stand for ‘theatre’. I spent a lot of time on 21 across because initially I was looking for a type of opera song and I found it difficult to find definitions for the musical terms ‘amorosa’, ‘apotome’ and ‘apotomy’ and I thought that the potomac had something to do with a US State! For 7 down, I foolishly wrote down ‘nephew in law’ at first but I soon realised that it was ‘mother in law’. I was a bit worried that the answer to 5 down might be ‘pad’ but realised that this did not involve any greek characters. In fact, for 5 down, initially I thought that the answer might be ‘rho’ because the relevant letters appear in ‘horse’ and ‘another’. For 19 down, I kept thinking of ‘norms’ but I knew that this was impossible because the first letter was ‘o’. However, once I’d got o-a-s, I realised that it was ‘orals’. For 4 down, I was thinking of ‘User Guides’ and the fact that the hints are always at the end of ‘User Guides’ not the front!

    Edited at 2015-11-21 05:36 am (UTC)

Comments are closed.