QC 1515 by Orpheus

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This was a very straightforward puzzle, but I can’t really tell you how that translates into time as I did it during a fairly chaotic interlude spent lodging with my mother while her carer was off for the Christmas holidays. Inevitably during this time several household chores crept out of the woodwork which needed to be addressed (broken toilet seat, blocked drain, the usual suspects) which meant that the expected few days of quietly catching up on admin tasks such as calculating the size of the New Year’s gift I am expected to send to HMRC never quite materialised, with the result that such joys are now postponed until the early part of January. Similarly the blog got squeezed into a corner and once again I find myself rushing to finish it without enough time to say anything very much apart from reporting the standard stats. Many thanks to Orpheus for an entertaining cup of tea to start the week.

FOI was what I think of as the ‘Gigolo Aunt’ (any other Syd Barrett fans out there?) at 1A as you would expect in a puzzle of this level of difficulty. I think my LOI was technically 17A because although I wrote in the obvious answer early on, I was thinking of ‘son’ as being the usual abbreviation to ‘S’ and so didn’t quite see how it worked. It was only when I sat back and drew breath at the end that I realised it was actually easier than that and I didn’t even have to make the abbreviation. As usual I have difficulty in choosing a COD because no clue stands out as being particularly challenging so I think I’ll plump for the smooth surface of 11A.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it in the plainest English I can manage.

Across
1 High-spirited relative in borders of Jersey (6)
JAUNTY – AUNT (relative) in the ‘borders’ of JerseY.
4 Metallic element unknown in China’s capital (4)
ZINC – Z (unknown) + IN + C (China’s capital).
9 Crackpot’s proceedings against teachers? (7)
NUTCASE – NUT (National Union of Teachers) + CASE (proceedings).
10 Supporter employed in theatre as elocutionist (5)
EASEL – hidden word (’employed in’): theatrE AS ELocutionist.
11 Certain to be in tears breaking up valuables (9)
TREASURES – SURE (certain) ‘in’ TREAS (anagram (‘breaking up’) of TEARS).
12 Grassy area providing shelter, by the sound of it (3)
LEA – sounds like LEE, as in a LEE SHORE.
13 Country game with good person in charge (6)
RUSTIC – RU (Rugby Union (game)) + ST (saint (good person)) + IC (in charge). Country here used as an adjective as in Hamlet: “Do you think I meant country matters?”. Or now I come to think of it just as in a ‘country lane’ or a ‘country house’.
15 Cook too much, having finished party? (6)
OVERDO – OVER (finished) + DO (party).
17 Woman abandoned by son, a heavyweight boxer once (3)
ALI – ALISON (woman) ‘abandoned’ by SON.
18 Weapon in new condition in plant (9)
SPEARMINT – SPEAR (weapon) + MINT (new condition).
21 Pugnacity of a gang going round Oxford, originally (5)
AGGRO – first letters (‘originally’) of A Gang Going Round Oxford.
22 Flavouring substance in vehicle, one everybody rejected (7)
VANILLA – VAN (vehicle) + I (one) + LLA (ALL (everybody) ‘rejected’).
23 Terrible-sounding person changing colour of cloth? (4)
DYER – sounds like DIRE (terrible). Aren’t the Dyers the livery company that comes just outside the ‘Top Twelve’ at number thirteen in the list of precedence? Anyway, they are the ones that go swan-upping on the Thames and enjoy eating swan at their dinners (just because they are the only ones who are allowed to).
24 Pay for high-backed bench (6)
SETTLE – double definition.
Down
1 Doorman brought up rubbish after New Year’s Day (7)
JANITOR – TOR (ROT (rubbish) reversed, i.e. ‘brought up’ in this down clue) after JAN I (New Year’s Day).
2 Free time in university — Edinburgh, principally (5)
UNTIE – T (time) ‘in’ UNI (university) + E (Edinburgh ‘principally’).
3 Brown’s undertaking involving king’s broadcast (12)
TRANSMISSION – TAN’S (brown’s) + MISSION (undertaking) ‘involving’ R (king).
5 Detached ruins scattered around US city (7)
INSULAR – anagram (‘scattered’) of RUINS ‘around’ LA (US city).
6 Woman about to receive priest (5)
CELIA – CA (circa, about) ‘to receive’ ELI (biblical high priest).
7 For example, the Earl of Emsworth’s equal? (4)
PEER – double definition.
8 Tenacity of agent upset over separation (12)
PERSEVERANCE – PER (REP (agent) ‘upset’ over (in this down clue) SEVERANCE (separation).
14 Run round hard pebbles on beach (7)
SHINGLE – SINGLE (run) ’round’ H (hard).
16 Indignation that’s not in fashion? (7)
OUTRAGE – OUT (not in) + RAGE (fashion, as in ‘all the rage’).
17 A protégé’s recognition of distinguished service (5)
AWARD – A + WARD (protégé).
19 Covetousness of emissary lacking nothing (4)
ENVY – ENVoY (emissary) ‘lacking’ O (nothing).
20 At home, permitted to see bay (5)
INLET – IN (at home) + LET (permitted).

26 comments on “QC 1515 by Orpheus”

  1. A gentle QC for Monday. I biffed EASEL and AGGRO before noticing the wordplay. ALI gave me a bit of a pause, as I’d never heard the name ALIS before; like Don, I’m so used to ‘son’ cluing S that it didn’t occur to me that it was cluing SON. 4:59.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 01:10 am (UTC)

  2. 10 minutes with DYER as LOI. Also I failed to parse ALI on writing in the answer and forgot to return to it.
  3. My LOI also DYER -needed a careful look. A couple of traps en route- I had DELIA at 6d and RUSSIA at 13a before rethinks.
    Otherwise not too difficult as Don says and I finished in 09:02.
    A nice puzzle to start the day.
    David
  4. I think this was a personal best for me – a bit under 5 mins with virtually evrything going straight in. I appreciated this as a gentle start to the week – thanks Orpheus and Asterdon
  5. I didn’t find this quite as straightforward as our blogger but there weren’t too many hold ups along the way. Like David I initially biffed RUSSIA at 13a, but couldn’t make head or tail of the parsing so had a rethink before pressing submit. AGGRO took a bit of thinking about as, for me, it doesn’t feel like a direct synonym for pugnacity but the wordplay was clear. Finished in 11.58 with LOI SPEARMINT.
    Thanks for the blog
  6. Perhaps I am the first to have been somewhat wrong-footed by this Orpheus offering. I certainly would not have described it as ‘very straightforward’. I found it a strange mix of quite chewy clues and the terribly obvious (which I wasn’t expecting after drawing some blanks early on). In the end I was not too far from 4K and, looking back, couldn’t work out why. Just not on the right wavelength, I suppose. Perhaps I enjoyed the Port too much last night. John M.
  7. 11 minutes with distractions at a stopover on the way to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, so easy on the Rotterometer. After entering JAUNTY and ZINC as FTI, I thought we might be heading for a pan gram, but we end up 5 letters short. Thanks both.
  8. I can confirm that the Dyers eat swan – my school was associated with the Worshipful Company of Dyers and as a boy chorister I sang at several of their grand dinners, watching the ceremonial carrying in of the swan.

    This felt like a gentle start to the week with only a few clues requiring a second visit (I missed the hidden EASEL first time around, for one). All done and dusted in 1.6 Kevins for a Very Good Day. (I did it through the Crossword Club which I don’t normally do – you definitely feel the pressure on the LOI when that timer is ticking away!)

    FOI JAUNTY, LOI SPEARMINT, COD JANITOR

    Thanks Don and Orpheus

    Templar

  9. No problems here apart from correcting AGROO to AGGRO during proof reading. FOI, JAUNTY, LOI SPEARMINT. 5:39. Thanks Orpheus and Don.
  10. ….to rattle through this one. I think my current position of 5th on the leaderboard is my highest ever, although I expect to slip below my PB of 9th by sunset.

    FOI JAUNTY
    LOI SETTLE
    COD PERSEVERANCE

  11. I found this a fair but not straight forward puzzle. Biffed UNTIE and could not parse it as fixated on U for University. At 12a I put in LEE initially so understandably struggled to solve my LOI 6d CELIA. I submitted in just over 10 minutes. COD to 13a RUSTIC as I methodically had to type in RU ST IC before seeing the answer.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 01:11 pm (UTC)

  12. Quite a lot of this was straightforward, but I just about doubled my time to 44:20 with the 16d/24a combination in the SE corner. Outrage just wouldn’t come for ages and I am not familiar with what a settle is. Thankfully, when I finally got outrage, something clicked and settle came to me. A couple of others I got but wasn’t sure about were aggro for pugnacity and janitor for doorman. I always thought a janitor was a caretaker, or does that reveal I was brought up on too much American TV and films?
    1. Yes, it came as a surprise to me too but SOED has the definitions in this order:

      1 A doorkeeper, a porter; hist. an ostler*. M16.

      2 A caretaker of a building, esp. a school, responsible for its cleaning, heating, etc. E18.

      * an ostler was a stable boy or groom.

      1. Surprise to me as well – I always thought of it as a caretaker (Hong Kong Phooey came to mind for those old enough to remember)
      2. Upon asking my dad, who is a classical historian and so knows a bit more about this sort of thing than me, I was informed that the word janitor comes from the Roman god Janus who was the god of beginnings, transitions, gates, doorways and the like. January is also named after him as it acts as a kind of gatekeeper for the year.
  14. I thought a few of the clues today (eg 6d) were quite tricky, so I was pleasantly surprised to finish in a fairly average 24mins – a lot quicker than with Orpheus’s last run out. 15ac, Overdo, struck me as a bit weak, but it couldn’t really be anything else. Lost a couple of minutes at the end trying to parse 21ac, Aggro, and wondering where the group was before the inevitable clang of the pdm. Invariant
  15. Just outside 10 minutes for me, as I spent a bit of time working out 13A. I put in RUSSIA first (as a country), wasn’t happy with the parsing and then finally but only belatedly saw RUSTIC. For which it gets my COD.

    A nice start to the week, and thank you Astartedon. Will there be a puzzle on Wednesday (1 Jan)?

  16. Generally I thought this was ok, with quite a few answers biffed straight away. I would have completed it in around 30 mins if I hadn’t got stuck on 9ac “Nutcase” and 7dn “Peer”. Just couldn’t see these immediately so had to come back later when they graciously popped into my head.

    Have to admit, like a few above, was slightly surprised by 1dn “Janitor” for doorman. Also, got held up by 6dn “Celia”, mainly because I didn’t equate Eli with a priest. I was mistaken in thinking it was a book in the Bible.

    FOI = 4ac “Zinc”
    LOI = 7dn “Peer”
    COD = 9ac “Nutcase” (because it initially had me stumped!)

    Thanks as usual.

  17. I’m an EMI Harvest nerd and dug out Barrett last night and played side one – so missed hearing Gigolo Aunt – but a coincidence nonetheless..

    I then played a new album by Sharon Van Etten which, in the appreciative mode that I was in at the time, sounded superb throughout.

    I bought Weyes Blood today so will give that a spin soon. Ordered WH Lung…

    I found the crossword tricky but completed it with no assists. The knowledge of Eli and Settle and Ward among others from many previous crosswords certainly helped.

    Time probably of the order of 30 minutes but fell asleep during proceedings!
    FOI Jaunty
    LOI Zinc

    Thanks all
    John George

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