Quick Cryptic Number 397 by Rongo

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Following the quick entry of 6dn (in this unusual grid) there were no hold-ups until my last one in – 7dn. Fairly straightforward then, but entertaining. I especially liked the translation from possession (in the wordplay) to action (in the solution) in 9ac.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Move around behind large stove (9)
REARRANGE – REAR (behind) plus RANGE (large stove).
6 Old-fashioned fool interrupts gym class (5)
PASSE – ASS (fool) inside PE (physical education, gym class).
8 Bullet casing with raised line found behind barrow? (9)
CARTRIDGE – RIDGE (raised line) behind CART (barrow).
9 Son to possess smooth face? (5)
SHAVE – S (son) plus HAVE (to possess).
10 Nice try in developing urban problem area? (5,4)
INNER CITY – anagram of (developing) NICE TRY IN.
12 Kitchen for craft right out of art venue (6)
GALLEY – remove the ‘r’ (right) from GALLErY.
13 Look, lad’s not finished garden feature (6)
GAZEBO – GAZE (look) with BOy (lad unfinished).
16 Off-the-shoulder end of Teeswater held by wire fastener beside ship (9)
STRAPLESS – last letter of TeeswateR inside STAPLE (wire fastener) next to SS (ship).
18 Fool accepting second surprising plot development (5)
TWIST – TWIT (fool) taking in S (second).
19 Goddess of beauty atrophied terribly (9)
APHRODITE – anagram of (terribly) ATROPHIED.
21 Beam of light in contact with synthetic fabric (5)
RAYON – RAY (beam of light) and ON (in contact with).
22 Aircraft circling fringes of eastern New York, which Beatles sang about (5,4)
PENNY LANE – PLANE (aircraft) going round first and last letters (fringes) of EasterN with NY (New York).
Down
1 Get to mislead, with Republican replacing Democrat (7)
RECEIVE – dECEIVE (to mislead), with R (Republican) replacing d (Democrat).
2 Publicising longest UK road with circular shape (6)
AIRING – AI (A1, UK longest road) with RING (circular shape).
3 Less common instalment of Frasier, a rerun (5)
RARER – hidden inside (instalment of) FrasieR A RERun.
4 Encouraging sign from sleepy land? (3)
NOD – nod of approval and the land of nod.
5 European, extremely old, stopping to become less hard occasionally (5,2,5)
EVERY SO OFTEN – E (european), VERY (extremely), and O (old) interrupting (stopping) SOFTEN (to become less hard).
6 One might be attached to a parcel, a tiny bit of land? (7,5)
POSTAGE STAMP – double defintion.
7 Flashy gem that gets waved around when guy’s on fire? (8)
SPARKLER – double definition, the second referring to Guy Fawkes Night, when his effigy is burned.
11 Name I yet find strange (8)
IDENTIFY – anagram of (strange) I YET FIND.
14 Gold and stone, before going without luxuries (7)
AUSTERE – AU (gold), ST (stone), and ERE (before).
15 Eye part which damage could make tear in? (6)
RETINA – anagram of (which damage could make) TEAR IN.
17 Someone acting for another in favour of two unknowns (5)
PROXY – PRO (in favour of) plus X and Y (two unknowns).
20 Layer often found in batteries? (3)
HEN – cryptic definition. One who lays and may live in a battery cage.

12 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 397 by Rongo”

  1. No hold-ups for once, only slowed down a bit to wonder at a couple of odd surface readings, like 5d and 16ac (what could it mean?). I was going to single out 9ac as a nicely crafted clue, but William beat me to it. 3:30.
  2. 13 minutes for this really entertaining little puzzle with 7dn the best of several excellent clues. I thought we might be heading for a pangram but J & Q are missing.
  3. Very enjoyable and done in 10 minutes – although I do confess to bunging in a few and waiting for William’s clear explanations for the full word play.
    I wonder how non-UK folk will get on with the A1 clue.
  4. I had an ominous feeling after getting only a couple of answers on first read through. Managed to finish but took longer than normal.

    Last in GAZEBO with favourite SHAVE.

  5. Lots of straightforward clues today, so I romped through in a PB. But 9a and 7d are gems. The A1(2d) was much improved by the removal of roundabouts north of the Buckden roundabout between 2006 and 2009.
  6. I finished in 30 mins which is half my usual time so it was either too easy or I was on exceptional form (I suspect the former).
    I got all the anagrams straight off, I prefer trickier ones, and somehow most of the definitions had only a single meaning and answer. The grid didn’t help, and 20D was a great clue spoilt by having H and N as the checkers by the time I got to it.
    I still enjoyed it, though.
    Brian

    Edited at 2015-09-16 09:49 am (UTC)

  7. Pretty straightforward – definitions seemed to stand out a bit too easily in the clues (e.g. 19a, 14d, 8a). But some clever wordplay and some fun ones to solve.
  8. I thought this was at the easier end of the scale. I was going to complain about how the clue in 9a seemed a bit clunky, but having read the blog it now makes perfect sense.
    Spent a bit of time trying to work out if ‘miring’ could be an obscure word for publicising before seeing the error of my ways.
  9. I did not whizz through this at all and made a couple of mistakes first time through. I put in IDENTITY for 11d and not Identify.I realised it didn’t quite fit on checking. More unhelpfully I decided that for 1d I had to replace the D of Mislead with an R and then solve an anagram. I got Realism, changed it to Realise (=Get) which again doesn’t quite work but created real problems for me with 8a and 9a. But got there in the end. A good puzzle I thought and harder than some this week -for me at least. David
  10. Enjoyed this one – probably easier than most but nice to finish in, for me, a respectable time dining out alone on a field trip. 5d and 22a my favourites today. Thx for the blog making more elegant sense in parsing 6a. Always good to understand the ‘correct’ reasoning!
  11. Not too hard, SPARKLER LOI, made harder by PASSE being 2nd LOI. 27m with a few interruptions. Agree that some clues were made too easy by having too many checkers. But if I wanted a hard ride I’d do the 15×15!

Comments are closed.