Times Quick Cryptic No 74 by Teazel – Double Trouble!

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Solving time: Medium.

I found this quite a challenge today, with a couple of definitions that were new to me and had to be verified by my dictionary (the trusty Big Red Book – Chambers Dictionary). We seem to have a lot of clues today where there are two definitions as the predominant clue type. This again makes for a slightly stiffer challenge, IMHO.

Across
7 NIMBY – Not sure I understand this, got it from the checking letters. I think it’s a cryptic definition. The Big Red Book (Chambers) defines it as someone wanting something else to happen but elsewhere.
8 CAMELOT – Court = definition. CAME (arrived) + LOT (Chance).
10 FORBEAR – Refrain = def. FOR + BEAR (Pooh?)
11 LATTE – Coffee = def. LATE (delayed) with T (time) inside it.
12 RASPBERRY – Double definition with one part cryptic. Fruit = main definition. What one is likely to get if you are derided or hated by people.
14 SET – Double definition. Organised and a series of games, in tennis for example.
15 HUN – oLD INVADER = definition. HUN(T) (search, endlessly, minus last letter.)
16 ALCHEMIST – Gold-seeker = definition. An anagram (extraordinary) of CLAIMS THE
18 PALED – Looked shocked = def. PA (SECRETARY) + LED (Was in charge).
20 NOWHERE – The definition here is the whole clue, with the first half, also providing the indications. NOW (currently) + HERE (present).
22 TAKEN UP – Accepted = definition. A way of describing how you would be if you were given a ride in a hot-air balloon. The question mark here is quite important to show you need to think outside the box.
23 SCENT – Trail = definition. One of the ways that compilers show that something is contained within a clue is say that one word “drops” over another. That is how this clue works. SENT (made) ‘goes over’ C (cold).

Down
1 ONE FOR THE POT – Contribution to kitty is the main definition of this double def clue, with the other being cryptic. How you sometimes describe putting a teabag into your teapot.
2 IMPRISON – Send down = definition. IMP (naughty child) + SIR (rev) [Teacher’s up, i.e. reversed in a down clue] = ON (working).
3 TYPE – As with 20ac, this has two definitions, part of which does double duty. The sort = one part of definition. A description of what someone may do if they don’t use a pen.
4 SCARER – One (who) frightens = definition. S (son) + CARER (nurse).
5 EMPLOYEE – One used = definition. EM (me, reversed, upset) + PLOY (DEVICE) + EE (the end letters, extreme, of elaborate).
6 FLAT – Two definitions, a place to live and when something is described as boring, it is this.
9 TWENTY-TWENTY – Again, two definitions. You are looking for a type of cricket match (note the use of ‘perhaps’). The description of perfect vision is the same name.
13 BOARDING – Another two definitions, Getting on to a vehicle and a type of school.
14 SHIVERED – ..and two more definitions! An effect of appearing cold, and something that means to disintergrate (a definiton I wasn’t aware of, and verified in Chambers!).
17 CANAPE – The definition is (a) bite (of food). CAN + APE (WILD ANIMAL)
19 LIKE – Two definitions. One of the options available to users of Mr Zuckerberg’s site means that same as a word used to compare something.
21 WASP – Insect = def. A way of saying something wasn’t loud is to say it WAS + P (quiet)!

Thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable solving session. There are a few entertaining puzzles around today. Perhaps go and discover them!

13 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 74 by Teazel – Double Trouble!”

  1. ‘Not in my back yard’. E.g., someone who’s all in favor of providing housing for the homeless, but will fight against a shelter being established in his neighborhood..
  2. My first 10-minute solve since #64 and I have to go even further back for a sub 10. Didn’t know the cricket reference at 9dn which according to my dictionary is spelt Twenty20. Liked NIMBY but 10ac was a bit weak using ‘for’ for FOR.

    Edited at 2014-06-19 07:57 am (UTC)

  3. 7 mins so definitely on the trickier side for me. I had the RHS finished before I made many inroads into the LHS, although in retrospect it isn’t easy to see why. BOARDING was my LOI, and it was quite a straightforward clue. Although using for=for in 10ac and can=can in 17dn is unusual in a Times puzzle that sort of cluing convention is used more often in Guardian puzzles so didn’t concern me.
  4. Must be a wavelength thing – I found this one of the easiest for weeks, and probably my fastest ever solve (but I don’t really time them as I just enjoy the solving process). That said, was unable to fully parse SHIVERED.

    Lots to enjoy in this puzzle. Highlights for me: 7ac was ingenious, 16 ac was a very nice surface, and the excellent Twenty-Twenty was my COD.

    Thought the definition of EMPLOYEE as “one used” was a tad controversial / politically charged, but no complaints – if Teazel was a British Leyland shop steward in a previous life and I am on the same wavelength as him/her, then this has indeed been a wonderfully surprising voyage of self-discovery!

    Edited at 2014-06-19 11:16 am (UTC)

  5. I was not on the wavelength for this one but did manage to complete in about 25 minutes. Count me as one who thought the definition for EMPLOYEE was dodgy although the wordplay is clear. Particularly liked NOWHERE. Last one in SCENT.
  6. Anonymous has just made my day with BANANA! That follows on from the instruction booklet for our newly delivered refrigerator. It’s French made, but the instruction booklet comes in English as well. In French the advice about not letting children use the appliance without supervision is straightforward enough: “Ne laissez pas les infants s’approcher de l’appareil sans surveillance…” etc. The English translation says: “Don’t put the child in the fridge so as to avoid any danger”!
    23 mins for this one as I wasn’t on Teazel’s wavelength.
  7. One for the pot is what you add after putting one in for each cup you’re intending to get out.

    Loved 2020 and nowhere.

    Couldn’t see employee at all and feel that it is stretching it a bit.

    Banana? ROFL.

  8. A Nimby is relatively open-minded compared to a Banana – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything…
    1. With a comment like that you deserve to be known, not anonymous! Very good! Give yourself a name and an identity fifthwith!
  9. Stands for not in my backyard. Not sure it is a good clue as it is not a word in itself.
    1. It’s in all the usual sources (Concise Oxford, Chambers and Collins dictionaries) as a noun so it’s fair game for inclusion here. It’s not uncommon for acronyms to find their way into standard usage as a word, think NAAFI/Naffy during WWII, or more recently Laser.
  10. I got nimby, being sadly familiar with exemplars, but I can’t really see a second part of the clue.
  11. I thought ‘not in my backyard’ as in someone who is resisting a development taking place next to them. I.e.elsewhere! just a thought.

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