QC 1375 by Teazel

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Average difficulty for me. Would have probably been about the 8-minute mark had I not got held up slightly by 14A (see below) which was my LOI.

FOI was 9A and COD goes to 5D. Not the most elegant of surfaces perhaps, but a pleasing clue overall particularly for me with the flashback to my Law of Conservation of Matter-defying motorcyclist (see below again). Many thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable 10-minute tussle.

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

Across
1 Allocates such dreadful tee-shirts and jeans (6,7)
CASUAL CLOTHES – straight anagram (‘dreadful’) of ALLOCATES SUCH.
8 Countryman sees game-bird losing height (7)
PEASANT – PhEASANT (game bird) ‘losing’ H (height).
9 Skin lotion not rejected by monarch (5)
TONER – TON (NOT reversed, i.e. ‘rejected’) + ER (monarch).
10 It’s easy to be a little angel? (1,5,2,4)
A PIECE OF CAKE – if the sort of cake you have is an ANGEL cake, then ‘a little angel’ could be a a cryptic definition for a piece of it.
12 A bad mark for this sort of clue (6)
ACROSS – A + CROSS (bad mark).
14 Strode round rural area (6)
DORSET – straight anagram (’round’) of STRODE. I am not entirley convinced by ’round’ as a sufficient anagrind I have to say although I think I have probably seen it before. Certainly OK as an indicator for reversal or inclusion, but that is not what we have here. Then again if you look at STRODE in isolation it pretty much jumps out at you as an anagram of DORSET, so maybe the seasoned solver won’t mind too much. Besides, I suppose if I just swallow my objection and quietly add it to my vocabulary of anagrinds, then the next time it comes up it’ll just be a 10A.
17 Wild flower grew up beside pet (3,4)
DOG ROSE – ROSE (grew up) beside DOG (pet).
19 Animal runs into pipe (5)
HORSE – R (runs) ‘into’ HOSE (pipe).
20 Jump over tomb (5)
VAULT – double definition.
21 Perfect French dessert (7)
PARFAIT – PARFAIT is French for perfect.
22 Fat person’s pudding (4-4)
ROLY-POLY – double definition. One of my favourite puddings at school (served with warm syrup!).
23 Instrument once used in daily recital (4)
LYRE – hidden word: daiLY REcital.
Down
1 Headgear on back of the head (4)
CAPE – CAP (headgear) ‘on’ (in this down clue) E (back of thE). HEAD in the sense of a headland, as in ‘Cape of Good Hope’.
2 A fish that’s biting (7)
SNAPPER – fairly obvious?
3 “A day, long time” — proverb (5)
ADAGE – A + D (day) + AGE (long time).
4 Ship’s tailor? (6)
CUTTER – a tailor does quite a lot of cutting.
5 Suddenly and unexpectedly lacking a couple of presents (3,2,7)
OUT OF NOWHERE – OUT OF (lacking) + NOW + HERE (a couple of presents – as in Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now!”). Reminds me of those humorous extracts the insurance industry releases from time to time from statements made to them following accidents. I heard one once where a driver showed a touching faith in the possibility of spontaneous incarnation by claiming “The motorcyclist came out of nowehere…”.
6 Dye Anne Hathaway originally used up (5)
HENNA – ANNE + H (Hathaway ‘originally’ used) reversed (i.e. ‘up’ in this down clue).
7 Dramatic work by pavement artists? (6,7)
STREET THEATRE – cryptic definition.
11 Worker completed transfer (4,4)
HAND OVER – HAND (worker) + OVER (completed).
13 Grow rapidly, and drive ram away (5,2)
SHOOT UP – SHOO (drive away) + TUP (ram).
15 Such bacon uneven in quality? (7)
STREAKY – double definition.
16 A friend? Only on paper (3,3)
PEN PAL – cryptic definition.
18 Good rule to mix up thin porridge (5)
GRUEL – straight anagram (‘to mix up’) of G (good) + RULE.

16 comments on “QC 1375 by Teazel”

  1. 6 minutes. I don’t have a problem with ’round’ because it can have exactly the same meaning as ‘around’ which crops up regularly and is often designed to bamboozle the solver into wondering whether it’s indicating anagram or reversal. FWIW ’round’ is on the Chambers list of possible anagrinds.
  2. *Pace* Chambers, and Jackkt, I still feel a bit of mer-riness about ’round’ as anagrind. ’round’ is often used, as Jack says, to bamboozle us, but it seems to me the choice is between reversal and inclusion, not reversal and anagram. But wotthehell. Didn’t care much for PARFAIT, a straight translation. Don’s OUT OF NOWHERE anecdote is an all too common example of ‘attention blindness’; see Chabris and Simons, “The Invisible Gorilla”. 5:28.
  3. I had no issue with “round”, which I’m sure I’ve seen many times before and which to me says “move the letters round a bit”. A very enjoyable Monday puzzle, thank you Teazel, and thanks for blogging, Don. FOI CAPE, LOI ACROSS, COD OUT OF NOWHERE. All done and dusted in 1.5 Kevins for a Good Day.

    Templar

    1. I was also on the 1.5K mark for this pleasant and quick start to the week. I took a little time to work out ‘out of nowhere’ and enjoyed the result.
  4. An enjoyable start to the week and neither quick or slow for me in just below 3Kevins.
  5. ….ROLY POLY, it feels me with delight (that’s quite enough of that : Ed.)

    I found this a PIECE OF CAKE, but was fully 80 seconds longer than Verlaine.

    FOI CAPE
    LOI DOG ROSE
    COD STREET THEATRE (although I did like SHOO TUP)
    TIME 3:28

  6. Nothing to frighten the 19a here. ADAGE went in first, and CASUAL CLOTHES preceded my LOI, CAPE. 7:00. Thanks Teazel and Don.
  7. Thought I might be on for a PB after the top half went in without a pause. A slightly slower bottom half meant I just missed out. Finished in 6.28 with VAULT and COD to SHOOT UP.
    Thanks to astartedon
  8. Just over 10 minutes so speedy for me.

    Last 2 roly poly and across.
    Dnk dog rose.

    I remembered the roly polys from tv but I thought it was from the russ abbot show, but it seems it was les dawson.

    Cod cape.

  9. 7.46 so a good start to the week. I biffed OUT OF NOWHERE and rather wish I’d solved that one properly as rather neat. Wondered briefly about CUTTER for tailor but assumed it had to be.

    NeilC

  10. Probably one of my quickest (about 5 minutes) Managed to make up a word and confirmed it existed too (tup – never heard of it ) Expect I will be back to grinding tomorrow 🙂
  11. I started this late but found it a 10across (on my timescale, at least). Just over 2K. FI were CAPE and ADAGE. LOI STREET THEATRE. A nice start to the week. Thanks to Teazel and to Don for his parsing of 5d (which eluded me in my haste). John M.
  12. 8a amused me so much because I remember a pupil in my daughter’s school who wrote a history essay on the PHEASANT’s revolt. The essay even included diagrams of said pheasants. She wasn’t at all embarrassed. 9:46 with my LOI DORSET.
  13. . . .if their definition of Dorset is ‘rural’. But then I suppose apart from Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth which at over 375,000 together, contain over half the county’s population, it might just be deemed rural. Bizarre stuff. Why not go for ‘strode around Hardy country’? Mr (particularly) Grumpy

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