QC 1275 by Teazel

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I am afraid I am still very tied up with sorting mother out after her fall, but have now thankfully got her installed back home with appropriate care.

I am not even finding time for the 15×15 at the moment which grieves me greatly.

Bare bones stats therefore today.

Time: no idea. Done in odd minutes between sorting out carers and talking to various agencies on the telephone, but it felt like a very straightforward puzzle. Could easily have been a PB under better circumstances. As it is, thank you Teazel for a puzzle that provided a few minutes of welcome respite from less pleasant tasks.

FOI was 1A as you would expect in a puzzle of this sort. Same for LOI 22D.

As I did not feel any clue stood out in terms of difficulty I choose 15D as my COD as being the neatest clue on show.

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

NATRAF (Nina And Theme Radar And Filter) revealed nothing.

Across
1 I had energy put into slim lamp (9)
SIDELIGHT – I’D (I had) + E (energy) ‘put into’ SLIGHT (slim).
6 Make meal shortly for Bill’s companion? (3)
COO – COOk (make meal) ‘shortly’, i.e. with the end chopped off. This gives ‘Bill’s companion’, but perhaps the definition needs a bit of explanation to those of a younger age? Certainly ‘to bill and coo’ was a phrase I heard from my parents’ era although I don’t think it was ever used in anger (or in love for that matter) by me or my contemporaries when growing up. I believe it comes from the behaviour of doves, who join their bills (i.e. ‘bill’) when pairing off, and of course they also make the cooing sound (‘coo’). So two people sitting together and kissing would be said to be ‘billing and cooing’ like doves even though the noises that they made might have been quite different from those that doves make. In time the phrase came to be applied more generally to the activities of lovers doing the sorts of things that they do when getting to know each other properly (after having been formally introduced, naturally).
8 Recipe for stubborn creature finally changed (7)
FORMULA – FOR + MULA (MULE, a stubborn creature, ‘finally changed’).
9 Keep away from a big gap? (5)
AVOID – A + VOID (big gap).
10 I send teen off in order to become competent (4,4,4)
FIND ONES FEET – straight anagram of I SEND TEEN OFF (‘in order’).
12 Point at which we cried (4)
WEPT – WE + PT (point).
13 Bob’s aspiration? (4)
HOPE – cryptic definition, Bob HOPE being a famous American comedian, now deceased and therefore the proud possessor of a Golden Entry Ticket to the great Crossword Land Theme Park in the sky.
17 Free latte was remarkably a universal provision (7,5)
WELFARE STATE – straight anagram of FREE LATTE WAS (‘remarkably’).
20 Pack of something jammy perhaps — love to tuck in (5)
TAROT – TART (something jammy ‘perhaps’, as alternative forms of tart are available), with O (love) ‘tucked in’.
21 Charity event, collecting old clothes? (3,4)
RAG WEEK – RAG WEEK is a traditional student charitable event, and I suppose conceivably the participants could spend the week collecting RAGS (old clothes) for their favourite charities. So I see this as a straightforward cryptic definition.
23 Bricklayer’s tool to take in hand, not large (3)
HOD – HOLD (to take in hand) with the L removed (not large).
24 Communist design to attract alien, from here? (3,6)
RED PLANET – RED (communist) + PLAN (design) + ET (extra-terrestrial = alien).
Down
1 Furniture up till now not quite complete (4)
SOFA – remove the last letter (‘not quite complete’) from SO FAr (up till now).
2 Little rodents in sleeping area freeze (7)
DORMICE – DORM (sleeping area) + ICE (freeze).
3 Look at university for boy (3)
LOU – LO (look [at] (in the bibilcal sense: “And Lo! They were sore afraid…” etc.)) + U (university).
4 Knotty old lady? (6)
GRANNY – In the Boy Scouts if you messed up your reef knot (a very secure knot) you would probably end up with a GRANNY knot (a very insecure knot that would likely slip and allow your companion to fall to a horrible death down whatever bottomless ravine you were trying to negotiate, resulting no doubt in a severe reprimand from Akela). So a straightforward cryptic definition.
5 Statement of the obvious? It settles the matter (5,4)
THATS THAT – Well, THAT IS, undeniably, THAT, and it does indeed settle the matter.
6 Near a hundred are defeated (5)
CLOSE – C (100 in Latin numbers) + LOSE (are defeated).
7 Toy did move about, a curious thing (6)
ODDITY – straight anagram of TOY DID (‘move about’).
11 Heartless drive on farm vehicle that runs one down (9)
DETRACTOR – pluck out the heart from DrivE and then add the most obvious farm vehicle (i.e. not the combine harvester). DE + TRACTOR.
14 Sound of tiny feet — new example (7)
PATTERN – somehow, tiny feet always PATTER don’t they? + N (new) gives PATTERN.
15 Tic could be this regularly? (6)
TWITCH – a nice little &lit. If you TWITCH regularly, you have a TIC. But if you take ‘regular’ letters from TwItCh you also have ‘TIC’.
16 Notice adverse traffic light and lose temper (3,3)
SEE RED – SEE (notice) + RED (adverse traffic light).
18 Ruled out being tempted (5)
LURED – straight anagram of RULED (‘out’) = LURED.
19 Take off small outfit (4)
SKIT – S (small) + KIT (outfit). Take-off in the sense of a humorous piece.
22 Hair preparation used by Nigella (3)
GEL – hidden word: NiGELla. Hopefully not used while she’s cooking or you might get more than a hair in your soup. Oh, but I suppose it can’t be THAT Nigella, as she hasn’t yet earned her Golden Ticket to the Crossword Land Theme Park has she?

21 comments on “QC 1275 by Teazel”

  1. Lots of interruptions but around 25 mins, last 3 taking ages: welfare state, twitch and thats that.

    Cod welfare state.
    Thanks and hope things get better for you.

  2. 10 minutes, so on target but another skin-of-the-teeth job as long as I don’t count having to revisit TWITCH after the event to spot the parsing – quite tricky for a QC in that respect, I’d say. Also I felt I was up against the clock all the way through as I had problems getting started.

    Bob Hope was American as stated in the blog, but born British, and there is Bob Hope Theatre in his birthplace of Eltham near Greenwich which was renamed in his honour.

  3. Went off the rails almost straight away being convinced that Bill’s companion was Ben but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a short form of cook to fit it. Other than that, I ticked steadily through the rest ending up with granny. Cod to 5dn – simply beacause it’s such a daft expression which I use without thinking about how daft it is. A smidge over 10 minutes.
  5. 6:17 Like Chris, I initially bunged in BEN for 6A before realising the wordplay didn’t work. TWITCH is clever and it took me a while to see the parsing. A bit tricky for a QC as Jack says, but the checkers are helpful. COD to FIND ONES FEET. Good luck with getting the domestic arrangements settled, Don.
  6. I’d not heard of ‘bill and coo’ before so had to rely on the generous wordplay to get the answer to 6a. Other than there was nothing too tricky and no hold ups. Finished with 8a and 1d in 10.29.
    Thanks for the blog
  7. Not a good start to my week – Like Flashman, I was just not on the Teaser’s wavelength at all. I found the NW corner impossible at first and had to work back to it after jumping about and filling in checkers, after which most of it seemed pretty obvious. Lots of very good clues, on reflection, but too many Teazel Twists for a quick solve. Firmly in the SCC with a mid-20s time (and I can’t really blame my wife for asking me to resolve an ipad problem in mid-solve). Thanks to Teazel and to Astartedon for a helpful blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-01-28 09:46 am (UTC)

  8. In the absence of the great man I’m guessing that my 8:14 was 2 Kevins, since this felt fairly straightforward despite (like oldblighter) being unable to get going in the NW at first. However, once a foothold was gained it all went quickly for me.

    Loved GRANNY once I had understood it – that made me chuckle and it gets COD from me. Thanks Teazel and Don (and hope all goes well, Don).

    Templar

  9. 14 minutes for me, so inside target range. I was slow to see TWITCH at first, getting hung up on swatch, which did fit the checkers, but not the clue. Similarly, for SIDELIGHT the early checkers and word play put eidelweiss in mind, (spelt wrong) but not surprisingly, I couldn’t make it fit the clue unless the little flower was somehow named as a type of lamp. Its real origin is the German words for noble white I have since discovered. I thought RAG WEEK was a bit weak, but the rest was up to Teazel standard. Thanks Don.
  10. Fortunately I did this on paper first, then tried it again on my Smartphone. The latter attempt yielded errors all over the place – it simply doesn’t work for me, and I’ll be sticking to my pen !

    I found this tricky anyway, and missed my 5 minute target due to bafflement at the TWITCH/TAROT junction. I eventually saw half the reason for TWITCH, but not the other half. Clever clue !

    FOI COO
    LOI TAROT
    COD TWITCH
    TIME 5:48

    Edited at 2019-01-28 10:29 am (UTC)

  11. This was towards the difficult end of the spectrum for a QC, I thought. Finished in 9:52, so just inside my target. Immediately thought of Ben for 6a, which of course was wrong. Good start to the week. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Adrian

  12. I made very heavy weather of this one for no discernible reason. All fairly clued and accessible. The self-referential parsing of TWITCH could be a step up for new solvers, I only saw it post solve.
    Grateful thanks to setter and blogger.
    8’00” approx.
  13. I wasn’t distracted by Bill and Ben, but was a bit of a Slowcoach getting TWITCH and THAT’S THAT, so I only just made it inside my target at 9:24. Nice puzzle. Thanks Teazel and Don. Good to hear your Mother is home, hope everything settles down quickly.
  14. I didn’t find this the easiest start to the week. Biffed 15d TWITCH and 21a RAG WEEK from the rest of the checkers. DNK 6a COO and this was my LOI from the wordplay. 11 mins. Thankyou astartedon for the blog. I needed it today.
  15. … is well worth a go, though if you are like me you will have to trust the cryptic in a couple of places.
    1. Sorry but I disagree. There are a lot of uncommon words in today’s 15×15. Not one for beginners.
  16. I did this on the train into London this morning. Finished in not much more than 10 minutes with a query about Granny ( I thought Grainy might work and did not parse it at the time). I briefly paused over Twitch and again couldn’t see it at the time.
    By the way I’ve now done most of the 15×15 and am now going to check my answers. I have at least three unknown words but have a letter in every square!
    David
  17. 13 minutes at the end of a tough day so happy with that as well inside the norm for me. My thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable puzzle – I liked COO as I hadn’t heard of it and first thought was Ben but had to trust the cryptic part which is something I wouldn’t have done a few months back so personally it’s a pleasing indication of progress.

    Also thanks to Astartedon for the blog as in addition to the above I didn’t parse twitch and learned PT = point so appreciate the time put in as it’s a real help to the less experienced solver.

  18. 14 minutes for me, so inside target range. I was slow to see TWITCH at first, getting hung up on swatch, which did fit the checkers, but not the clue. Similarly, for SIDELIGHT the early checkers and word play put eidelweiss in mind, (spelt wrong) but not surprisingly, I couldn’t make it fit the clue unless the little flower was somehow named as a type of lamp. Its real origin is the German words for noble white I have since discovered. I thought RAG WEEK was a bit weak, but the rest was up to Teazel standard. Thanks Don.
  19. Thanks for the blog. I’m new to cryptic and appreciate the explanations. I am getting some right! Hope things go ok.

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