QC 1075 by Orpheus – Comic Strip?

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This is going to be a quick ‘in and out’ for me this week as I have a very full day (and week) ahead.

It was not a difficult puzzle for me, although I found only a minority of answers going in on my first pass. When I got through the down clues though and back to my second pass a lot more fell into place leaving just a couple for my third and final pass. So it was not a straight write-in job but on the other hand there were no real head-scratchers. That is to say there were no clues where I felt completely stumped but several where I was thinking “Hang on a second, I know this answer, it’s just there coming over the horizon of my brain and soon I’ll be able to see it… ah yes, there it is”. I think in the end it took me just under 10 minutes.

FOI was 9A. LOI was 13A, with my mind wanting to write in REPLAY when I first saw it. As mentioned above though, this was one of those clues where I knew what I was thinking wasn’t right but that the correct answer was just below the surface of my consciousness.

Many thanks to Orpheus for a puzzle that is interesting for its lack of anagrams – only one that I could see. All the other clues rely on other devices, and I also felt that there was a high propotion of natural ‘conversational’ surfaces. This is particularly true of my COD, the frankly smutty 7D, which I am not awarding on degree of difficulty but solely on the narrative idea and the images conjured up. “Where is she (or he) tonight? Oh, (s)he’s OUT STRIPPING!”. And although my personal proclivities lead me to a ‘straight’ visualisation of the scene, it is closely followed by a more gender-fluid version informed as usual by my love of a certain era and style of music, in this case Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life‘. (If you don’t know it and are interested then please Google it (or use one of the many alternative search engines available) to see what I am talking about, although I think it may be out of place for me to quote the relevant lines here.)

Definitions are underlined in italics and everything else is explained as simply as I can.

Across
1 Popular chap I invited out and bullied (11)
INTIMIDATED – IN (popular) + TIM (a ‘chap’) + I + DATED (invited out).
8 In court, youngster takes in many at first — very many! (7)
UMPTEEN – UP (in court, as in ‘up before the beak’) + TEEN (youngster) taking in M (Many at first).
9 Start the day in distinctive clothing? (3-2)
GET-UP – double definition. The second one must be intended as the primary definition and the first as the cryptic as the clue specifies a hyphen in the answer which obviously indicates the noun.
10 Lawyer thus allowed into bar at last (9)
SOLICITOR – SO (thus) + LICIT (allowed) + last letters of intO baR.
12 Organ used in Baroque arias (3)
EAR – hidden word (BaroquE ARias).
13 Further showing of broadcast about fuel (6)
REPEAT – RE (about) + PEAT (fuel).
15 Old cab, reportedly well-proportioned (6)
HANSOM – homophone for HANDSOME.
17 Friend knocking drink back (3)
PAL – PAL = LAP backwards.
18 Deportation excludes ex — it’s the custom (9)
TRADITION – EXTRADITION minus the EX.
20 Improper to take forty winks in it (5)
INAPT – NAP (forty winks) in IT.
22 Flowering plant, one carried by teacher’s favourite girl (7)
PETUNIA – PET (teacher’s favourite) + UNA (girl) ‘carrying’ I (one).
23 Politician introducing more obese-sounding tradesman (11)
GREENGROCER – GREEN (politician, as in a member of the Green Party) + homophone of GROSSER (more obese).
Down
1 Drive mischief-maker over English lake (5)
IMPEL – IMP (mischief-maker) ‘over’ (in this Down clue) E (English) + L (lake).
2 Keen worker at bottom of ditch (9)
TRENCHANT – ANT (worker) ‘at bottom of’ TRENCH (ditch). Again, this wording works in this Down clue.
3 Tiny child receiving letter in Greece (6)
MINUTE – MITE (child) ‘receiving’ NU (thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet).
4 Appreciate archaeologists’ undertaking (3)
DIG – double definition.
5 Walks unsteadily, beginning to track river creatures (7)
TOTTERS – T (beginning to Track) + OTTERS (river creatures).
6 Plan mattered awfully, like some stores (12)
DEPARTMENTAL – first (and only) anagram today! PLAN MATTERED ‘awfully’.
7 Away working in sort of club, excelling (12)
OUTSTRIPPING – OUT (away) + STRIPPING (working in a sort of club – a STRIP club).
11 Pragmatic about girl’s nervous affliction (9)
REALISTIC – RE (about) + ALI’S (a girl’s) + TIC (nervous affliction).
14 Loot obtained by convict breaking into stately home (7)
PILLAGE – a stately home is a PILE, and here a LAG (convict) has broken into it.
16 More affected holiday-maker (6)
CAMPER – double definition. I suppose ‘more affected’ is the slightly cryptic one.
19 Daughter misses meal — it’s part of the target (5)
INNER – if a D (daughter) ‘misses’ DINNER then you have an INNER, part of an archery target.
21 Heavyweight initially training cricket side (3)
TON – T (initially Training) plus ON (one of the two sides of a cricket pitch relative to the batsman – the ON or ‘leg’ side as opposed to the OFF side).

14 comments on “QC 1075 by Orpheus – Comic Strip?”

  1. I think I attempted this too early, 48 minutes with at least 30 spent on umpteen, minute, outstripping and the unknown LOI hansom which seems a bit tricky for a QC, maybe something like: Old cab from orphan’s omen.

    Couldn’t see the parsing for 10a, into bar at last = or, just presumed or referred to a gold bar.
    Also grosser for more obese, instead of more rude.

    COD intimidated

    1. If you ever watch any of the old Sherlock films, people were always jumping in and out of Hansom Cabs.
  2. I was on course for a solve well within my 10-minute target but got held up towards the end by 13ac and 7dn as my last two in and scraped home with only a few seconds to spare.
  3. Can’t remember anything about this, other than I thought ‘well-proportioned’ an odd definition for ‘handsome’. 4:52.
  4. Similar experience to our blogger where some clues charged straight in and the others were all there or there abouts just needing a bit of double checking – none of which held me up in a very fast for me time of 7:21. Last area to complete was the SW with 14dn taking COD for the time it took to get ‘palace’ out of my head as a) it was wrong and b) it didn’t fit!
  5. A steady solve today except for the two which held up Jackkt. If I could have worked out 7d at the start then my overall time would have been very much quicker than the 25 mins that I eventually achieved.
  6. No issues for me, except that, like Kevin, I thought well proportioned was an odd definition for handsome. FOI DIG. LOI OUTSTRIPPING. 7:12. Thanks Orpheus and Don.
  7. Gentle start to the week I thought, with nothing to take exception to. To describe someone who is handsome as well-proportioned is fine with me if a little Victorian. Enjoyed OUTSTRIPPING (my LOI). That takes me back a few years!
    PlayUpPompey
  8. This seemed easy after my struggles with the weekend puzzles and I got home in under 9 minutes,so very quick for me.
    Started with 12a and LOI was Umpteen. COD to 14d.
    David
  9. 20 mins, which is quick for me, especially where Orpheus is concerned. My only real hold up was with my final two clues: 7d and 8ac. I was looking for something involving CT (court) in 8ac, but once I gave up with that idea Umpteen and hence Outstripping quickly followed. 13, 14 and 20 have all figured recently, so if you do get addicted to these things, it does eventually get easier. Apologies if that prompts a stinker tomorrow. Invariant
  10. This went in with barely a pause as I completed it in 8.37. My only slight hitch was, like Invariant, trying to work out how CT could fit into 8a, but 7d sorted that out. LOI was 23a.
  12. This seemed harder work than usual but on completion I don’t see just why. Afternoon energy-dip I reckon. FOI 13a. LOI 16d. COD 11d. Took ages to remember the QC counts the Greens as a Party.
  13. 17.11 This felt like a steady solve but the time says otherwise. LOI 20ac.

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