QC 1265 by Teazel

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Thank you for all the good wishes for my mother who is still recovering in hospital after her New Year fall. Once again I am writing this in a hurry before going to keep up my end of the family visiting effort, so it will necessarily be brief.

I was breezing along nicely until I hit CARLISLE, which stumped me for a couple of minutes. Strange, because I normally do hit Carlisle in reality annnually while travelling up to Scotland (although I have not been to the Gathering mentioned in the commentary at 18D for many a year). You might think therefore that it would spring naturally to my mind as one of the most obvious clues, but unfortunatley not today. I can only put it down to distraction from knowing that I have to finish this as quickly as possible before racing down to St George’s Tooting to perform my filial duties. Unfortunately the helipad facilities are not available to me although the comings and goings of the air ambulance provide an interesting occasional distraction through the window by my mother’s bed.

My FOI was the straightforward anagram at 1A and my LOI was 8A as alluded to above. I thought that although the clues were for the most part straightforward (nearly all definitions or anagrams of one sort or another) there were several neat and natural surfaces. I liked the CAMOUFLAGE/GUACAMOLE link, and I liked ‘Sporty Spice’ who made an anonymous appearance at 3D, but in the end I have chosen 22A as my COD. Many thanks to Teazel for an entertaining Monday morning cup of tea.

Briefly switching on my NATRAF (Nina And Theme Radar And Filter) yielded no results.

Definitions are underlined and everything elese is explained just as I see it as simply as I can manage.

Across
1 Great crime, yet minor, in some way (8)
ENORMITY – a straight anagram to kick off with: YET MINOR ‘in some way’ = ENORMITY.
5 Time to secure such a hotel room? (4)
TWIN – T (time) + WIN (secure).
8 Stocking material on vehicle for city (8)
CARLISLE – CAR (vehicle) + LISLE (stocking material).
9 They look east, certainly (4)
EYES – E (east) + YES (certainly)
11 Relative is a pawnbroker (5)
UNCLE – indeed he is. In the heyday of pawnbroking (whenever that was), if your straitened circumstances unfortunately led you into the arms of the guy with three golden balls (shades of George Lazenby in O.H.M.S.S.), then your euphemistic explanation might be that you were going to visit your ‘uncle’ to touch him for a loan.
12 Eloquent person with year in chapel (7)
ORATORY – ORATOR (eloquent person) + Y (year). Chapel as for example the Brompton Oratory just down the road from me near the museums.
13 Station us in school (6)
EUSTON – US ‘in’ ETON, Crossword Land’s favourite school.
15 Look, try force twice to end session (3,3)
LOG OFF – LO (look, in the biblical sense) + GO (try, as in “‘ave a go ‘Arry”) + F + F (force twice).
18 Is adolescent able to eat here? (7)
CANTEEN – &lit: CAN TEEN (‘is adolescent able’) to eat here (in the CANTEEN).
19 Ruffle little stream after opening of fishing (5)
FRILL – RILL (little stream) after F (opening of Fishing). Reminds me of my father who, although not a religious man, requested on his death bed: 1. that his body should be buried and 2. that we should sing ‘By Cool Siloam’s Shady Rill’ at his funeral, both of which wishes we duly respected.
21 Exuberance in Brazil’s first city (4)
BRIO – B (Brazil’s first) + RIO (city).
22 Profanity of son becoming tedious (8)
SWEARING – S (son) + WEARING (becoming tedious).
23 To be very angry is the fashion (4)
RAGE – double definition. Fashion as in ‘all the rage’.
24 Congenial diner fly worried (8)
FRIENDLY – straight anagram: DINER FLY ‘worried’ = FRIENDLY.
Down
1 Sweat, drinking small quantity in bar (7)
EXCLUDE – EXUDE (sweat) ‘drinking’ CL (centilitre, a small quantity).
2 Who’s rich, hiding someone at Elsinore? (5)
OSRIC – hidden word: whO’S RICh. Osric is a minor character in Shakespear’e Hamlet which takes place at Elsinore Castle in Denmark.
3 Girl finished tidy bit of bowling (6,4)
MAIDEN OVER – MAIDEN (girl) + OVER (finished). In cricket, a ‘maiden over’ is a spell of six balls from a single bowler in which the batsman fails to score any runs. In the score book this will appear as six dots like the ‘six’ face of a die. Often in cricket parlance a bowler is said to be ‘tidy’ if the batsmen find it difficult to score runs off his bowling. Hence a maiden over is indeed a ‘tidy bit of bowling’. Pronounal and nounal apologies to any female cricketers out there. Please take no offence. None was intended.
4 High (ouch!) in fat (6)
TALLOW – TALL (high) + OW (ouch!).
6 Route one should follow? Excellent (3,2,2)
WAY TO GO – double definition to my mind, although the question mark may suggest that the first definition is meant to be cryptic. In my eyes the question mark is just a device to make the surface a bit smoother, although alternative opinions will no doubt be available.
7 A street in New York is unpleasant (5)
NASTY – A + ST (a street) ‘in’ NY (New York).
10 One way to hide fluorine, in mashed guacamole (10)
CAMOUFLAGE – anagram of GUACAMOLE (‘mashed’) with F (chemical symbol for fluorine, the ninth element in the Periodic Table) mixed in there as well.
14 After moral offence, monarch is collapsing (7)
SINKING – SIN (moral offence) + KING (monarch).
16 Everyone intervenes between female and male — who takes the blame? (4,3)
FALL GUY – F (female) + GUY (male) with ALL (everyone) in the middle (‘intervening’).
17 Write this in! (6)
ANSWER – Hmm. OK, that’s what I’ve done…
18 Brace specially, to toss this? (5)
CABER – anagram of BRACE gives CABER, a big, heavy tree trunk that is ‘tossed’ in a celebrated competition in Highland Games meetings in Scotland, the most famous example of which is probably the annual Braemar Gathering.
20 Old walls may be so, I contended (5)
IVIED – I + VIED (I contended).

26 comments on “QC 1265 by Teazel”

  1. I thought I might be heading for a PB at first, as I got all the acrosses on the first pass except LOG OFF & SWEARING; but the downs were a bit more recalcitrant. I thought 11ac was a pretty feeble clue, even for a QC. 4:02.
  2. No problems with this one, but I felt a bit sluggish and took a little bit longer than perhaps I ought to have done. Still under my target though. FOI OSRIC, LOI ANSWER. Liked CAMOUFLAGE and WAY TO GO. 8:40. Thanks Teazel and Don.
  4. I don’t know if British youth talk like this, but in the US at least, “Way to go!” is equivalent to “Congratulations!” or “Well done!”
    1. Thanks for explaining; no wonder I didn’t know it! It’s in Collins (on-line, at least, not in my printed edition) so I suppose it’s okay. The only thing I could relate it to was the expression ‘some way to go’ which to my mind means that the subject under discussion is lacking in some respect and therefore could not be described as ‘excellent’.

      I didn’t mention earlier that I needed 12 minutes to complete this one with a few problems along the way (to go!), another amongst them being that I wouldn’t immediately think of ‘crime’ when I hear the word ENORMITY – more a serious problem.

      Edited at 2019-01-14 06:20 am (UTC)

      1. I’ve always taken the expression to be a form of “That’s the way to go/to do it”.
        I’ve also always taken ‘enormity’ to mean ‘serious crime or evil’; ODE has this as the 2d meaning, with ‘the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad’, or simply ‘large size or scale’ as the 1st, which I take to mean the currently dominant one–and which I assume Vinyl to be thinking of as the incorrect one.
  5. Found this slow going today. Only 3 entered on the first pass of acrosses but the downs were more forgiving. Realised I didn’t know how to spell camouflage when I came across a checking A sooner than I’d planned. Also didn’t know what lisle was – but I know a car is a a vehicle so that was OK. Foxed by EXCLUDE, fully misdirected by the “in” before “bar” and that was a major holdup, when that fell, CARLISLE couldn’t be anything else. Ivied caused me problems too. Otherwise an encouraging start to the week.
  6. A bit slow getting going, distracted by trying to use nylon in 8A, but no real problems. DNK the Shakespearean character at 2D, but it was a clear hidden word. I discovered that another Osric was king of the Hwicce in the 7th century. NE corner was my last finishing with TWIN and EYES. COD to 24A for reminding me… “Keep your voice down, sir, or they’ll all be wanting one”. 4:54.

    Edited at 2019-01-14 11:10 am (UTC)

  7. Good start to the week before fishing (not finishing), with 9.22. CARLISLE was a late one to go in, LISLE lurking in the back somewhere and confirmed by Mrs soj. EXCLUDE LOI as I was looking for a word meaning SWEAT. Thought 21ac quite neat. CAMOUFLAGE is one of those words I always have to think twice about spelling. I know there’s a U in there, but where does it fit best?!
  8. Exactly the same experience (and time!) as vinyl, which is some consolation for clocking in at nearly three Kevins and thus a Not Great Day. The NW had a trio of trickiness (ENORMITY, EXCLUDE and CARLISLE) which combined to give my pencil a good chewing today.

    COD to BRIO from me, very neat. Thanks Teazel and Don.

    Templar

  9. 30 mins with about half spent on enormity and exclude.
    Dnk lisle, brio, or orsic.

    Think canteen is semi &lit.

    Cod eyes or euston.

    1. Yes I think you’re right about CANTEEN. But as I say I was in a bit of a hurry and left the finer points to be commented upon. As you have of course done!
  10. A poor start to the week. I got nowhere at first and had to start at the bottom, working back up to the NW slowly (I found all the NW clues taxing, apart from UNCLE. A firm SCC time for me – low 20s after interruptions. Interesting in retrospect but, unlike the whizz kids above, I found this Teazer neither easy nor especially satisfying. It is Monday, I suppose, so perhaps i need to get out and grab the sun while it lasts. John M.
  11. ….a MAIDEN OVER. Then I married her – big mistake.

    I was thwarted in my attempt to break 5 minutes by spending the last 90 seconds or so on the anagrind at 10D. No problems otherwise, although less seasoned solvers without a knowledge of the Bard might struggle with OSRIC. I was glad to spot the “hidden” quickly for once.

    FOI ENORMITY
    LOI CAMOUFLAGE
    COD EXCLUDE
    TIME 6:09

  12. Just inside my 15 minute target, with the last few in the NE – CARLISLE, TALLOW and EXCLUDE. A nice workout to start the week. Thanks Setter, Blogger and contributors.
  13. Slow start to the week for me. Finished in a sluggish 11:27, which is outside my target. I thought 17d was weak. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Adrian

  14. Slow start to the week for me. I couldn’t get a rhythm going, flitting all over the grid without much structure. Liked CAMOUFLAGE and IVIED, didn’t care for ANSWER or WAY TO GO.
    Many thanks to setter and blogger.
    6’15”
  15. Very much off wavelength today. I’m hoping to improve as the week goes on. I was chuffed I remembered UNCLE and BRIO from previous blogs. I DNK OSRIC but what else could it be from the wordplay? CAMOUFLAGE, IVIED, EXCLUDE and LOI CARLISLE held me up for the longest time. DNK LISLE was a material. 14 min
  16. Dnk osric and struggled with exclude. Loi camouflage seemed to take a while but done and dusted in 9:16.
  17. This felt tricky to me and it was completed in two visits. It is surprising how well you can sometimes do after a break. Exclude, Carlisle, Tallow and Oratory all went in quickly on second view and LOI Ivied.
    I wonder how much the brain subconsciously works on answers when you take a break? Perhaps tests have been done and it is documented.
    Thanks all
    John George
    1. I struggled with this one, but I was doing it online and so far I haven’t found a facility for pausing and coming back. Is there one?

      I had four left to go after about 25 minutes, which is slow for me, and I gave up after another 10 minutes with 2 still to do (exclude and Carlisle). I am convinced that on paper I would have been quicker and when I got stuck I would have gone away and come back to fill in the answers my subconscious had solved for me! I think tests must have been done and documented, though I have no idea when and where. After all students are always advised to read through an exam paper before getting stuck in!

      My favourite today was “Way to go” because it reminded me of the end of “An Officer and a Gentleman”. I had no trouble with the definition just because of this film!!!
      MM

  18. For me Teazel is the setter who is most impacted by the mysteries of wavelength – usually I find him one of the easier setters but occasionally he completely baffles me. Today was one of general bemusement with the NW causing particular problems but with isolated hold ups all over the grid e.g. 20d and 9a (no idea why on this one). Finally completed in 30.58 with last 2 UNCLE and CARLISLE. I’m now going to lie down in a dark room for the rest of the evening.
    Thanks for the blog

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