QC 1335 by Joker

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Another very brief visit from me this week as this solve and blog were squeezed into the early morning fog in the middle of a packed bank holiday weekend of entertainment and general feeding and watering of both sides and three generations of the astartedon family over Easter.

FOI was 10A. LOI was 8A. I was thinking IMMORALLY if you see what I mean, and was beginning to doubt my ability to spell when it wouldn’t fit. That must be my COD as well. Took me just under 10 minutes while dealing with a lot of other stuff (see above) so I think it was probably pretty straightforward for most people. Good mix of clues, with only one anagram as far as I can see, with a hardly a ripple in the hyaline surfaces. Thank you Joker for a skilfull Monday-morning composition.

Definitions are underlined as usual and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can manage. NATRAF did not even give a flicker although there were some interesting combinations of words that I might have commented on had I had but world enough and time.

Across
7 Secret language of fish — English? (4)
CODE – COD (fish) + E (English).
8 Unethically taking a medicine initially by mouth (8)
AMORALLY – A + M (medicine initially) + ORALLY (by mouth).
9 Fix up couple again (6)
REPAIR – RE-PAIR (couple again).
10 Dull field study (6)
LEADEN – LEA (field) + DEN (study).
11 Roman sea horse (4)
MARE – MARE = sea in Latin.
12 Where batter needs to stand to rise (8)
INCREASE – in cricket the batsman, or batter, stands IN the CREASE.
15 Uncalled for to provoke Nazi police (8)
NEEDLESS – NEEDLE (provoke) + SS (Schutzstaffel, Hitler’s notorious bodyguard and special police force).
17 Bivalve left in river (4)
CLAM – L (left) in CAM (river).
18 Go along with sector changes (6)
ESCORT – straight anagram (‘changes’) of SECTOR.
21 Noticed big ship in Mediterranean (6)
MARKED – the ARK was a big ship, and here it is ‘in’ the MED(iterranean).
22 Concerned with large ship round cape that goes flat out (8)
RECLINER – RE (concerned with) + LINER (another large ship) ’round’ C (cape).
23 Endlessly examine horses at breeding farm (4)
STUD – STUDy ‘endlessly’.
Down
1 All the press reports Conservative too old? (8)
COVERAGE – C (conservative) + OVER AGE (too old).
2 Discussion with girlfriend, perhaps about English book (6)
DEBATE – DATE (girlfriend, perhaps) ‘about’ E (English) + B (book).
3 Very fine hotel supported by British Airways? (8)
HAIRLINE – H (hotel) ‘supported by’ (in this DOWN clue) AIRLINE (British Airways? – the interrogation mark is because alternative airlines are available).
4 Bird, female bird (4)
FOWL – F (female) + OWL (bird).
5 Is able to copy small snack (6)
CANAPE – CAN (is able) + APE (to copy).
6 Bill used regularly to be sad (4)
BLUE – BiLl UsEd ‘regularly’ = BLUE.
13 Just after money for expensive fabric (8)
CASHMERE – MERE (just in the sense of ‘only’) ‘after’ CASH (money).
14 Spies finally remove surveillance (5-3)
STAKE-OUT – S (spieS ‘finally’) + TAKE OUT (remove).
16 Error removed from V-1 missile sketch (6)
DOODLE – DOODLEBUG (nickname for the V-1 missile during WWII) with BUG (error (in computer programming)) removed.
17 Dead body of rook in a group of trees (6)
CORPSE – R (rook as in chess piece) ‘in’ COPSE (group of trees).
19 Oven-cooked dish starts to smoke the embarrassing way (4)
STEW – intial letters of (‘starts to’) Smoke The Embarrassing Way.
20 Some unfortunate fish (4)
TUNA – hidden word: unforTUNAte.

24 comments on “QC 1335 by Joker”

  2. An enjoyable puzzle which wasn’t too taxing. I started with CODE and finished with RECLINER. I wondered whether there might have been a Roman called MEDH for a brief moment before the obvious became obvious. 7:13. Thanks Joker and Don.
  3. Today I had to revisit too many clues too many times to achieve my target 10 minutes. I completed in 13 with MARE as my LOI.
  4. Mostly OK but still ended up with 18 due to a huge mental blank over 1d. Became obsessed with it starting with CON so even when I realised it must end AGE I still couldn’t see it for ages. I had to solve that way because even when I saw COVERAGE I had to reread the clue twice to see what was going on. Had always associated DOODLEBUG with V2 rather than V1 – nice to have a shortcoming in my knowledge of history exposed to balance the more frequent cultural blanks.
  5. Going fair till brought up by DOODLE and LOI RECLINER for another 13 min (13.10) solve. Classical education enabled me to ping in MARE. Neat puzzle.
  6. Also 13m for me. There is a wee GNATty NINA, but it doesn’t mean anything I am sure. I liked HAIRLINE. Thanks Joker and Astartedon.
  7. Just over 11 minutes today but with a good minute on my LOI, and a guess at that, 11a MARE. A and E are not particularly helpful checkers. COD 3d HAIRLINE which required more than one visit. Thanks for the Easter blog.
  8. I fell into the same trap as our blogger with a misspelt IMORALLY at 8a which needed unravelling before I could get LOI HAIRLINE, adding a minute or so to my time of 10.29. It felt a bit trickier than that time would indicate with LEADEN, NEEDLESS and STAKE-OUT also needing some thought.
    Thanks for the blog
  9. ….despite the CLAM and the BLUEfin TUNA. I did find myself jumping around the grid a little, but finished well within my target.

    FOI CODE
    LOI STEW
    COD STAKE-OUT
    TIME 3:46

  10. Enjoyed this – some really good clues thanks! I thought stews tended to be cooked on the hob but SWMBO tells me I’m wrong.
    1. I agree with you, but don’t tell ‘er indoors! According to Wiki:

      “A distinction can be made between casseroles and stews: stewing is a cooking process whereby heat is applied to the bottom of the cooking vessel (typically over a fire or on a stove), whereas casserole is generally baked in an oven, where heat circulates all around the cooking vessel.” Jeffrey

  11. It took me a while to get going; FOI was BLUE after I had read quite a few clues. I then proceeded steadily; no gimmes for me.
    Finished in 14:33 with TUNA after ESCORT.
    Good puzzle. COD to HAIRLINE. David
  13. Anyone else tempted to put REDLINER at 22a?

    I always feel a bit short-changed where a word is simply used to indicate its first letter which is not (to my knowledge at least) a recognised abbreviation (cape for C in this case). Probably due to my tendency to over-think the clues! I suppose C is difficult to clue otherwise although ‘large ship round key’ would still sound nautical!

  14. Thought there might be a bit of a nautical theme going on in this as we had cod, tuna, clam and sea horse featuring as well as mare, liner, ark and blue. Found this quite easy for the first few clues, but then slowed down, although, as is typical for a Joker offering, in retrospect nothing looks like it should have been that hard. Ended up with 40:57, which is probably about average for me.
  15. Post weekend wine induced fog and after 10 minutes I got bogged down in the nw: needless, code, coverage, debate and loi mare taking me out to a dissapointing 30 mins.

    Cod increase.

  16. I enjoyed this, despite interruptions from a (welcome) young visitor. Just over 2 kevins (but under 15 mins) – can’t time it to the second. I had problems in the NW corner because I answerd 11a as NERO (a Roman and I was convinced a Nero was a type of seahorse – where did that come from? **). Once that was sorted, it all flowed fairly smoothly. I liked HAIRLINE, AMORALLY, and DOODLE. Thanks both. John M.
    ** perhaps I was thinking of a fish restaurant in Venice) or even Disney’s Nemo…….

    Edited at 2019-04-22 02:43 pm (UTC)

  18. I thought this was one of the hardest quick cryptics I’ve attempted. Took me two days.

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