Quick Cryptic No 177 by Rongo

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Blimey governor! Time for a cup of strong Rosy Lee. I thought this was a medium solve until I processed the blog. I suspect some terminology may not be obvious to all. Either definition or wordplay should be get-able though so good luck!
Completely off-topic, but crossword related, on my way to Heathrow on a very crowded tube, I was (naturally) doing a crossword. When my pen refused to work despite much scribbling, a young lady offered me her own (and let me keep it) thereby allowing the crossword to be completed before journey’s end and renewing my faith in human nature. Should she be reading this then thank you once again.
So back to the present – definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Theatrical group supporting a doctrine (4)
&nbsp &nbspCAMP – Double definition. Camp as in acting theatrically and also as in a group supporting something e.g. the socialist camp.
4 Weird hiss surrounding string instrument tuned a bit too high? (8)
&nbsp &nbspSHARPISH – Amagram (weird) of HISS around string instrument (HARP). Someone who is a bit too highly tuned/strung could react sharply and so be sharpish.
8 Pressure person getting out of bed to hold onto captive (8)
&nbsp &nbspPRISONER – Pressure (P), person getting out of bed (RISER) around (holding) on (ON). Not sure that the ‘to’ of ‘onto’ will please everyone but I think a little filling to make the clue work is fine – assuming of course you get the answer!
9 Weight of young man eating nothing (4)
&nbsp &nbspLOAD – Young man (LAD) around (eating) nothing (O).
10 Young man eating last of cooked flesh (4)
&nbsp &nbspBODY – Young man (BOY this time) around (eating – again) last letter of cookeD.
11 Climber bungled a wee step (5,3)
&nbsp &nbspSWEET PEA – The climbing plant is an anagram (bungled) of A WEE STEP.
12 Someone selling very last part, alternatively (6)
&nbsp &nbspVENDOR – Very (V) last part (END), alternatively (OR).
14 Hurried activity having broken sides of latrine (6)
&nbsp &nbspBUSTLE – Broken (BUST) plus the sides of LatrinE.
16 Arrange instruments with pipes around one end of stage (8)
&nbsp &nbspORGANISE – Instruments with pipes (ORGANS) around one (I) with the end of stagE.
18 Some bread, good for a bribe (4)
&nbsp &nbspBUNG – Some bread (BUN), good (G).
19 Hacker gives extra to someone listening (4)
&nbsp &nbspADZE – Homophone (to someone listening) of gives extra (ADDS). An axe or adze is used to hack.
20 Measure of business that baker makes (8)
&nbsp &nbspTURNOVER – A baker may bake a turnover (let’s say apple).
22 Article between meadow and railway is similar to hide (8)
&nbsp &nbspLEATHERY – Article (THE) between meadow (LEA) and railway (RY).
23 Look after home possessed by managing director (4)
&nbsp &nbspMIND – Home (IN) inside (possessed by) managing director (MD). A child looker-after is a child minder.

Down
2 Perfect job accommodating husband’s breathing space (3,4)
&nbsp &nbspAIR HOLE – Perfect (AI), job (ROLE) inside which (accommodating) is husband (H). I suspect that the correct term is blowhole but air hole is close enough for me to remember the delight in hearing porpoises clearing theirs and breathing – all in the crystal waters of Scottish sea locks. Route 66 does not seem to have this pleasure – but the ribs go a long way to making up this shortfall.
3 Unhealthily pale savoury 20 (5)
&nbsp &nbspPASTY – A savoury turnover = a pasty – yet another favourite.
4 Source of light paper (3)
&nbsp &nbspSUN – Double definition – one of which being a raunchier stablemate of The Times (so I’m told).
5 A large bee, surprisingly pleasant (9)
&nbsp &nbspAGREEABLE – Anagram (surprisingly) of A LARGE BEE.
6 Feet of Cockney adopting current exercise system (7)
&nbsp &nbspPILATES – Having just had a chat to folk here in USA an explanation of this clue may well be needed. In cockney rhyming slang (which is a 13dn), ‘plates of meat’ means feet. So we take PLATES and insert (adopting) the symbol for electrical current (I) to end up with a type of exercise.
7 Counterfeit Ecstasy is something regrettable (5)
&nbsp &nbspSHAME – Counterfiet (SHAM), ecstasy (E).
11 Protection against a spill or struggle in rough street (9)
&nbsp &nbspSERVIETTE – Nice definition – a serviette protects you from spillages made up from struggle (VIE) inside an anagram (rough) of STREET.
13 The way some talk of ruined citadel (7)
&nbsp &nbspDIALECT – Anagram (ruined) of CITADEL.
15 Lamp held by planter nightly (7)
&nbsp &nbspLANTERN – The answer is in the clue pLANTER Nightly.
17 Top off structure that spans hill’s crest (5)
&nbsp &nbspRIDGE – Take the first letter off a structure which spans (bRIDGE).
18 Lake in period of growth shows a lot of algae, perhaps (5)
&nbsp &nbspBLOOM – Lake (L) inside period of growth (BOOM) give a bloom, say, of algae.
21 Some light, flat fish (3)
&nbsp &nbspRAY – Double definition.

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 177 by Rongo”

  1. Struggled a bit to finish this off in the SW with the 17dn / 19ac crossers but got there in the end. 20 minutes.

    Edited at 2014-11-11 02:24 am (UTC)

  3. CAMP is indeed lovely; wonderfully misleading. I was also misled by 14ac, thinking, until I had some checkers, that ‘activity’ was between initial L and final E. I remembered CRS ‘plates’ just after I typed in PILATES, which I got from checkers. 7:15.
  4. All went swimmingly well until I encountered ADZE (or rather, I didn’t encounter it as totally unknown to me and could not work out even with the assistance of cross checkers).

    Other than that, nice puzzle. Thanks for great blog Chris: random acts of kindness always make for good reading…

  5. I enjoyed the challenge – LOI was ADZE, but I was also held up by the TURNOVER/SERVIETTE crossers.

    COD to SHARPISH – although I thought “tuned too high” also referred to instruments (as in sounding sharp).

    Thanks Chris.

  6. I agree about sharpish. I had the word sharp in mind first as being tuned too high, as opposed to too low which would be flat. Then seeing harp I completed the answer…..Though I must confess I have never heard a musician describe something as sharpish….it would always just be sharp

    Edited at 2014-11-11 12:47 pm (UTC)

  7. What a glorious, witty, light-hearted crossword! Huge thanks to Rongo & Chris 🙂

    Took 32 mins but was a virtually flying solo effort. The mechanic (Z8) chatted while I stalled, which got me going again.

    I too thought sharpish referred to the musical sound; we have a choir rehearsal tonight and I’m sure I’ve heard a conductor refer to our singing as sharpish on occasions.

    I knew ADZE playing too much ‘Words With Friends’, but it was still my LOI.

    My COD was the delightful TURNOVER – being both a former Business teacher and current gourmand it resonated wonderfully.

  8. Everyone, absolutely everyone, speaks in dialect. Standard English is one example of a dialect. ‘We’ would have been a better clue.

    Great puzzle though!

    1. Can I disagree about dialect? In the days of Received Pronunciation – that would transcend region/group – and so would not be a dialect. You could argue that it was the ruling class pronounciation but it was widely emulated.
  9. Adze feels to me too much like a scrabble word – ie obscure but useful – when there were others that would have fit.
  10. Very enjoyable although a struggle at times – CAMP and AIR HOLE must have taken 10 minutes at least at the end.
  11. So near and yet so far! 19a adze stumped me, also missed out on 13d as an anagram (but so obvious now!) but not sure it would have helped. Heigh ho. Thx to all for blog comments. Regards.
  12. I have many of these puzzles in a book and on this one when it came to 22 across I was racking my brain for another word for hide as in the thing you hide in to look at birds when inevitably I came up with nothing and gazed at the blank squares with Ry at the end and recalled my dad trying to teach me cryptics as a child and the word lea having to do either with a sheltered side or meadow it all came together and I realized It was leathery and not something to do with feathery sorry couldn’t resist that and thankyou for a great resource I was too young when my dad tried to teach me and so when he died I was determined to Take something good from what he gave to me and bought a book that told me how to do cryptics so now I love them
    1. That’s a lovely story. You may be interested in the online times subscription (a fraction of the cost of the papers per week) and join in on a daily basis. You’d be very welcome – especially if you got a free live journal login. This would send you an email if someone replied as I have just done.
  13. I came across this crossword in a compilation book of Quick Cryptics. In the published version there is one slight change to 18d. It instead reads ‘Lake in period of growth produces flower’, perhaps to make this clue slightly easier?

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