Quick Cryptic No 253 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The well oiled machinery of the TfTT has clicked smoothly into gear and I am, as seamlessly as possible, standing in for macavity123 this Thursday and next.

A medium difficulty (15 minutes) crossword today – some easy, some amusing, one unusual and others, notably 15dn and LOI 13ac which hid their secrets well. The only piece of vocabulary which may cause problems is a plant (it usually is for me) at 5dn but this does tend to crop up in Crosswssword land so it’s as well to file it away.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 One taking a risk that’s not so bad (6)
&nbsp &nbspBETTER – Double definition.
4 Idiot hiding empty suitcase in storage room (6)
&nbsp &nbspCLOSET – Idiot (CLOT) inside which (hiding) is empty (S)uitcas(E).
8 Block for each plug (7)
&nbsp &nbspSTOPPER – Block (STOP), for each (PER).
10 Atletico’s leader needs win once more (5)
&nbsp &nbspAGAIN – First letter (leader) of(A)tletico, win (GAIN). Do we give credit to The Times Crossword team for putting this clue in the day after a Champion’s League game featuring said team from Spain? Or do we believe in coincidences?
11 Closely follow mother for firm principles (5)
&nbsp &nbspDOGMA – Closely follow (DOG), mother (MA).
12 Start to play with baby’s toy rabbit (7)
&nbsp &nbspPRATTLE – First letter (start to) of (P)lay, baby’s toy (RATTLE).
13 Wind entering a citrus grove could produce this (9)
&nbsp &nbspTANGERINE – Lovely word play (well, once you’ve got it otherwise it’s confusing!). Anagram (wind) of ENTERING A. Citrus groves are well known for their tangerine producing capabilities.
17 Be impertinent and quietly start once more (7)
&nbsp &nbspPRESUME – Quietly (P), start once more (RESUME). I presume you all got that easily?
19 Look into page being given dress (5)
&nbsp &nbspPROBE – Page (P), dress (ROBE).
20 South American range with tops of eternal snow (5)
&nbsp &nbspANDES – With (AND), first letters (tops) of (E)termal (S)now.
21 The more complicated algebraic rule? (7)
&nbsp &nbspTHEOREM – The (THE), anagram (complicated) of MORE.
22 Slips made putting traitor inside a long time (6)
&nbsp &nbspERRATA – Traitor (RAT) inside a long time (ERA).
23 Take-off of a perfume (6)
&nbsp &nbspASCENT – A (A), perfume (SCENT).

Down
1 Next to live dies, unfortunately (6)
&nbsp &nbspBESIDE – Live (BE), anagram (unfortunately) of DIES.
2 Tough trader traps husband and English psychic (7-6)
&nbsp &nbspTHOUGHT READER – Unusual construction here. Take TOUGH TRADER inside which (traps) husband (H) and English (E) should be inserted in the appropriate places.
3 Give a reason for former partner having no pretensions (7)
&nbsp &nbspEXPLAIN – Former partner (EX), having no pretensions (PLAIN).
5 Climber needing a pin to go up (5)
&nbsp &nbspLIANA – A (A), pin (NAIL) all upwards. Our answer is any of various woody climbing plants mainly of tropical forests.
6 Go right to the end to prop up a row of bricks (4,3,6)
&nbsp &nbspSTAY THE COURSE – Prop up (STAY) a row of bricks (THE COURSE).
7 Fire-fighting vehicle requiring gentle handling (6)
&nbsp &nbspTENDER – Double definition.
9 Mean travelling salesman has to feel bitterness (9)
&nbsp &nbspREPRESENT – Travelling salesman (REP), to feel bitterness (RESENT).
14 What journalist’s badge says to make an impact (7)
&nbsp &nbspIMPRESS – A joke from Joker. A journalist’s badge would say I’m press.
15 Musical work I took in for something soothing (6)
&nbsp &nbspOPIATE – I got the answer a long time before the word play. Musical work (OP – abbreviation of opus), I (I), took in (ate). Similar to ‘took in’, P.G. Wodehouse’s Wooster regularly got outside of his eggs and b.
16 Interior design feature of rebuilt temple (6)
&nbsp &nbspPELMET – Anagram (rebuilt) of TEMPLE.
18 Disrupt cheerful group (5)
&nbsp &nbspUPSET – Cheerful (UP – as opposed to depressed=down), group (SET).

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 253 by Joker”

  1. LIANA wasn’t a problem for me–shows up all the time in the NY Times crossword–but PELMET slowed me down a bit, since I didn’t know the word. (If pressed, I would have said it referred to animal dung, but that’s fewmet–I think that bit of useless GK came from ‘The Once and Future King’. But I digress.) Fortunately, there aren’t too many ways of arranging those letters. I gather that this is the thingy we Murcans call a valance. I didn’t care much for STOPPER or ANDES (name another SA range), but TANGERINE was quite nice. 14d uses a device you’ll see again from time to time to get IM-; verb.sap. 4:45.
  2. I thought I was about to achieve my 10 minute target for the first time in a week of Quickies but I came horribly unstuck with 6dn putting paid to my chances. However I got there in 14 minutes. I took ages afterwards to twig that 13ac was an anagram despite its clue beginning with “wind”! Nice bit of misdirection there with the surface reading leading one to think of breeze and mispronounce it in one’s head rather than see it as an anagrind.
  3. Tricky QC. Fairly early I thought 13a was going to be TANGERINE but could not parse it at all but then a major penny drop moment seeing wind as an anagram indicator.

    COD THEOREM for the excellent surface reading. Last in LIANA where I was toying with llama until I worked out the word play.

  4. This was a relief after yesterday’s! Nice and straightforward. My LOI was 1A – in fact the NW corner was my last bit to tackle. I didn’t realise Tangerine was an anagram, I got it from the crossers. COD 6D. The Liana could have stuffed me, knowing nothing about plants but luckily I know everything about game of thrones so that was ok. Liked the cheeky chas and Dave reference after yesterday’s lapse in taste.
  5. Well, I learned today that a row of bricks is called a COURSE. TANGERINE is good, though I never parsed that one either. 8’20”.
    1. I associated it immediately with “damp course” which I know is not made of brick but it seemed logical the bricks above and below it might also be “courses”.
      1. My DIY is so bad – living in a flat in HK for donkey years gives me some excuse – that I would struggle to explain what a damp course is.
        1. May be a dumb question – the long white legs(?) are confusing me – but what exactly is Eurc?
  6. There’s a definite theme going on for me this week – solve all but one of the clues, which is very frustrating. Today’s missing clue was 19a, which I decided, without much confidence should be Prove. When I saw the answer in the blog it just increased the frustration. Very pleased to get 22a, as I’d never heard of it before but managed to work it out from the word play. Like others it took me a while to work out that I was misreading ‘wind’ in 13a.
    1. I understand the frustration – we’ve all been there. For future reference page is very often ‘P’ which would have then left you with _O_E for dress – which is how I realised it was probe.
  7. Proceeding quite smoothly until I hit a brick wall with 7 clues left in the NE and SW corners. Did the usual thing when that happens and came back to it later. On returning, I was still looking at it blankly for a few minute until I twigged 6dn and then everything clicked into place for both errant corners. TANGERINE went in uparsed, having failed to spot the anagrind. Thanks and well spotted Chris 😀.
  8. Fairly steady solve of about 30 minutes (though I did not parse tangerine). I recalled liana from somewhere – were they what Tarzan used to swing from?

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