QC 1085 by Tracy

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Another very quick blog from me this week as I have been away at a music festival with my son, so my head is fuddled with too much drink and noise from last night.

Plus I have just been trying to upload this and none of the hotel wifi networks seem to work. I am now doing this via my mobile phone hotspot so I hope it gets there!

Again, medium difficulty for me (just over 10 minutes). FOI was 1A just as it should be. LOI was 16A, adding I think a good 2 minutes to my time, a fact which seems inexplicable to me now that I look back on it (but then that is surely the mark of a good clue). A lot of enjoyable clues, but if I have to choose a COD it would probably be 1D. Many thanks to the setter, and also many congratulations as I am told by those who have been at this much longer than I have that this is Tracy’s century puzzle. 100 not out and here’s to many more! I also look down the (very short) list of blogs that I have written and I see that this is the first time I have encountered Tracy. Pleased to meet you sir (or madam?). Excuse my ignorance. The handle is ambiguous and I haven’t been at this long enough to get to know anybody in real life, whatever that may be.

Definitions are underlined in italics, and everything else is explained in the plainest English I can manage.

Across
1 Thrilling ride: at first boy and I gripped frantically (3,6)
BIG DIPPER – B (at first Boy) + I + anagram (frantically) of GRIPPED.
6 Youngster in society lacking length (3)
CUB – CLUB (society) ‘lacking’ L (length) = CUB.
8 Legal action taken by head, a very foolish person (7)
NUTCASE – NUT (head) + CASE (legal action)
9 Seeing that Saint in church (5)
SINCE – S (saint) + IN + CE (Church of England).
10 Incensed with anger, freebooter having lost power (5)
IRATE – PIRATE (freebooter) having lost P (power) = IRATE.
12 Trip away and at home? Good (6)
OUTING – OUT (away) + IN (at home) + G (good)
14 Awfully good nurse here achieves academic success (7,6)
HONOURS DEGREE – anagram (‘awfully’) of GOOD NURSE HERE.
16 Critically appraises book (6)
JUDGES – double definition, Judges being a book in the Old Testament coming between Joshua and Ruth if memory serves me correctly.
17 Almost reserved object (5)
DEMUR – DEMURE (reserved) without its end (almost) = DEMUR.
19 Duke having a tea in a country house (5)
DACHA – D (duke) + A + CHA (tea) gives this Russian holiday home.
20 In mouth of count is gold tooth (7)
INCISOR – IN + C (mouth of count) + IS + OR (heraldic gold).
22 Damage sign, knocking end off (3)
MAR – MARK (sign) with its end knocked off.
23 Green seas generated enthusiasm (9)
EAGERNESS – anagram (‘generated’) of GREEN SEAS.
Down
1 Fun working in large hotel beginning to throw a tea party (8)
BUNFIGHT – UNF (anagram of FUN – ‘working’) in BIG (large) + H (hotel) + T (beginning to Throw).
2 Understand start of gruesome film (3)
GET – G (start of Gruesome) + ET (film, the Extra-Terrestrial).
3 Silly section of refrain, an embarrassment (5)
INANE – hidden in refraIN AN Embarrassment.
4 Having round agent, attractive (13)
PREPOSSESSING – POSSESSING (having) ’round’ REP (agent).
5 Prize dog not right after run out (7)
ROSETTE – RO (run out) follwed by SETTE (SETTER (dog) minus R (not right)).
6 Sister devoured by fish – odd riddle (9)
CONUNDRUM – NUN (sister) ‘devoured’ by COD (fish) + RUM (odd).
7 Complaint from bishop over raised charge (4)
BEEF – B (bishop) over EEF (FEE (charge) ‘raised’ in this down clue).
11 Newscaster: can one run broadcast? (9)
ANNOUNCER – anagram (‘broadcast’) of CAN ONE RUN.
13 Accept members carry weapons (4,4)
BEAR ARMS – BEAR (accept) + ARMS (members).
15 Improve ranking after winning (7)
UPGRADE – UP (winning) + GRADE (ranking).
17 Colour scheme in wide corridor (5)
DECOR – hidden in wiDE CORridor.
18 Cheese and English crackers served up (4)
EDAM – E (English) + DAM (MAD (crackers) reversed (served ‘up’ in this down clue)).
21 Spend time with someone in diocese (3)
SEE – double definition.

24 comments on “QC 1085 by Tracy”

  1. Slowish going, and 9 hours later I can’t see why. 7:54, which puts me at 23d of 42 (I’d say 22d of 41, as I find it hard to credit the number one time), with Jason coming in at a stunning 2:04!
  2. Congrats and thanks to Tracy. I find he/she is very reliable at setting mid difficulty puzzles, and today was no exception with me coming in at 21:12. I like Jackkt was held up by the Judges/upgrade interface at the end.
  3. Under 30 minutes but with an inexplicable cob for cub.

    Beef came up on Friday: Complaint from bishop returning payment.

    Dnk freebooter.
    LOI judges.
    COD prepossessing or incisor.

  4. Yes, indeed today is Tracy’s ton-up so I’d like to add my congrats and look forward to many more. His first was was QC2 on 11 March 2014 and he followed that making totals of 19 in that year, 24 each in 2015/16/17, and 9 so far this year.

    I made good early progress with this one but as my 10 minute target went by I still had 15dn (UPGRADE) and 16ac (JUDGES) missing and I needed a further 3 minutes to bring them to mind. I was helped a little by ROSETTE / prize having come up in the main puzzle within the past week when I failed to solve it and had to resort to aids.

    Not sure I ever knew that BUNFIGHT (or BUN FIGHT as some sources have it) is specifically a tea party. I thought it was just a general term like ‘beano’ or ‘bash’.

    Edited at 2018-05-07 08:05 am (UTC)

  5. I finished after 22:22 which is pretty poor for me on a Tracy puzzle. My last ones in were 16ac JUDGES and 1dn BUNFIGHT which I only knew in the context of a heated exchange. Had to look the tea party definition up. Also failed to parse 5dn ROSETTE, so thank you for the explanation.
  6. A good mix of write ins and those that needed a bit of thought. Like others I had only heard of bunfight in the context of a dispute but I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out the parsing it. Completed in 12.55 with LOsI 9a and 5d. CoD to Incisor
  8. Another good one from Tracy. Congrats on the 100-up and looking forward to many more. I breezed through this in about 2 minutes below average time. COD to CONUNDRUM.
  9. Misbiffing wastes so much time, doesn’t it?.In this one UPSCALE instead of UPGRADE (and why not?) made finding the JUDGES somewhat trying. In the 15-a-side I put AIRHEAD instead of FATHEAD, although in that case I should have read the whole clue and nothing but the clue. Anyway, eventually ended up comfortably in mid-table in both.
  10. Certainly easier than last Friday, but still took me just over 30 mins – I didn’t see the hidden in 17d, and only got there via a slow alphabet trawl for 17ac. I still find Tracy one of the harder setters, but wish him well on his hundred. CoD to 16ac – a typical Tracy clue, being impossible until it’s obvious. Invariant
  11. A nice puzzle and no particular problems finishing in under 15 minutes.
    LOI was Bunfight which needed a bit of time for parsing.
    Thanks to Tracy for all his puzzles. David
    1. I’m not sure which comment you are referring to, anon, but just to be clear, it is indeed TftT policy not to refer directly to an answer in another puzzle published on the same day as the blog, nor (again directly) to an answer in an earlier puzzle that is still “under wraps” because it’s subject to competition rules. If by chance you were referring to ROSETTE in my comment above, no such restrictions currently apply.

      Edited at 2018-05-07 04:18 pm (UTC)

  13. I was referring to the mrkgrnao comment – which I’m sure was made without having adverted to the fact that someone (like me!) might read one blog before tackling the other puzzle.

    Sorry if that was not clear.

    1. Yes that occurred to me too. I remember that answer from a puzzle some days ago but given that answers often come up twice or more within a short space of time, as I read it I thought ‘Oh no, please don’t tell me that’s from today’s 15 x 15 as I haven’t looked at it yet!’
    2. As the author of the original comment, I say thanks for this, mrkgrnao. I knew it was inadvertent. These things happen! I appreciate your commenting now.
  15. Well completing it in 20 minutes made me happy any way, especially as I found all but one last week a real struggle… even had a DNF.

    LOI 16a. FOI 1a which I really liked, but favourite was CONUNDRUM. Thanks Tracy and thanks too for the blog. MM

  16. Tackled this a day late due to lots of musical festivities yesterday. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who spent ages(5 mins!!) getting my last one in, JUDGES. 15:50. Congrats Tracy and thanks to Don for the blog.

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