Quick Cryptic No. 128 by Joker – Times for The Times

Nothing obscure here, a good puzzle, only around 3 on the Richter scale, but parsing 12ac, 20ac and 20dn may make some scratch their heads for a while.

Across
1	PANORAMA – PANAMA (part of Central America) aorund OR (alternatively), def. view.
8	TERN – Sea bird; sounds like TURN as in Autumn leaves turning.
9	SEDATE – (TEASED)*, def. boringly respectable.
10	TRIED – TIED (bound) around R (river), def. attempted.
11	ICE – DICE = cut into cubes; remove the D (diamonds); def. diamonds. As slang for diamonds this term dates to 1906 or before.
12	RATION – Def. Allotment. It’s ORATION (address) with the initial O (round) dropped.
14	REPAST – concerned with = RE, earlier = PAST, def. meal.
16	CELLAR – Def. stock of wine; hidden word in CAN(CEL LAR)GE.
18	SCREAM – S (small) CREAM (dairy’s product); def. cry. Every crossword I blog seems to have either MUNCH (Edvard) or SCREAM in it.
19	EYE – Def. see, sounds like I.
20	VENUS – Places are VENUES, take out an E so there’s only one E(astern); def. goddess.
21	CROWED – CROWD (a lot of people), introduce E; def. boasted.
23	TRUE – T (end of argument) followed by RUE (regret); def. sincere.
24	NERVE GAS – (AVENGERS)*, def. a lethal weapon.

Down
1	LACERATE – LACE (delicate fabric) RATE (measure, as in judge, give a value to); def. cut.
2	SODA – A DO’S (a party’s) reversed; def. fizzy water.
3	CAVE IN – C (note) A, VEIN (blood vessel), def. succumb to pressure.
4	CANTER – CAN’T ER (the Queen); def. ride at a fair pace.
5	STRIPPER – S (second) TRIPPER (tourist); def. one who takes off. Clothes, paint, wallpaper, as you wish.
6	ARID – AID (help) contains R (last of water); def. very dry.
13	ISLANDER – I SLANDER = I speak badly of; def. one living apart. Seems an odd definition; I suppose, it relates to living apart from mainlanders, but still with other islanders?
15	SPACE BAR – SPACE (area), by BAR (pub); def. what’s used to keep characters apart. A space is an ASCII character as well, I think, but never mind, it works in print.
17	RESENT – PRESENT (here), remove the P (parking); def. begrudge.
18	SECURE – SURE (certain) around EC (city, as in City of London post codes); def. feeling confident.
20	VERB – Trickiest clue of the grid. PAINT can be a verb, whereas you can’t ‘acrylic’ something, it’s not a verb; VER = nearly all of very, B = black.
22	OVEN – OVE = not quite OVER (finished), N (new); def. cooker.

7 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 128 by Joker”

Managed to solve all but the 3 mentioned by Pip. Thought about VENUS but discarded it. Not even close to getting the paint not acrylic bit, I was looking to remove an a from a word. RATION is a good clue which I should have got but did not.

Yes, the 20s both gave me some pause for thought but didn’t delay me long. I’m not sure that 20dn belongs in a Quickie. 11 minutes total.

I had to give up with three to go although I guessed ration but was unable to parse it. There was little to get started on verb and venue. Otherwise this was a good one.

6 mins. The LHS was definitely trickier than the RHS. I saw VENUS/VERB just about simultaneously and thought they were both excellent clues. My last ones in were the RATION/ISLANDER crossers.

Didn’t get 20d but got 20a. Have to admit “Verb” didn’t even occur to me. Had “Gave in” for 3d and was a little unhappy about tenses. About 30 mins for me.

Some good clues in an overall enjoyable quickie, finished in 5 min 30 or thereabouts – marginally faster than Andy, which must be a first(not that I’m the least bit competitive!).

This one defeated me. I guessed RATION and CELLAR but couldn’t parse them and got fixated that 20ac was an Indian goddess, i.e. Shiva. Many thanks to the blogger for the clarification. Must continue to learn……

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