QC 1865 by Pedro

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I went through this completely sequentially, from top to bottom then left to right. Either I was on that mysterious ‘wavelength’ or Pedro was being especailly kind to us for the bank holiday weekend. Only you can tell me which it was and I look forward to reading your comments. Many thanks to Pedro (who I don’t think I have blogged before? Certainly not more than once or twice anyway) for a gentle start to the week.

Following my comments above I don’t really need to say that my FOI was 1A and LOI 19D. But there, I’ve done it anyway. I think my COD was 11A which took slightly longer than the others to go into the grid.

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

Across
1 Militia crazy to jettison leader (4)
ARMY – bARMY (crazy) ‘jettisoning leader’. Unless, of course, you are in the Barmy Army following the English Cricket team around the world (when allowed to do so).
3 I’m supporting exercises, right? Wrong (8)
IMPROPER – IM (I’m) + PRO (supporting) + PE (exercises) + R (right).
8 Church provided most of item for baptism — material for gown? (7)
CHIFFON – CH (church) + IF (provided) + FON (‘most of’ FONt, ‘item for baptism’).
10 Prosper — not, say, going backwards (3,2)
GET ON – NOT + EG (say) all ‘going backwards’ (i.e. reversed).
11 About to move round striker in later game (6,5)
RETURN MATCH – RE (about) + TURN (to move round) + MATCH (cryptically a ‘striker’).
13 Desire a bit of sunshine in most of the days of November (6)
THIRST – S (a bit of Sunshine) ‘in’ THIRTy (‘most of’ the THIRTY days in November).
15 A second court case will liberate one of the stars (6)
ASTRAL – A + S (second) + TRiAL (court case ‘liberating’ I (one))
17 Anti-regalia, possibly, being against class distinction (11)
EGALITARIAN – straight anagram (‘possibly’) of ANTI REGALIA.
20 A bishop not entirely sharp? These assist with calculations (5)
ABACI – A + B (bishop) + ACId (if ACID is sharp, then ACI is ‘not entirely’ sharp).
21 Pens, say, recreated a connection in the mind (7)
SYNAPSE – straight anagram (‘recreated’) of PENS SAY.
22 Article put behind sailors in drink (8)
ABSINTHE – THE (definite article) ‘put behind’ ABS (Able-Bodied Seamen, or sailors) + IN.
23 Fool left in bed (4)
CLOT – L (left) ‘in’ COT (bed).
Down
1 Precise account supported by clergyman (8)
ACCURATE – AC (account) ‘supported by’ CURATE (clergyman). As this is a down clue CURATE is ‘underneath’ AC and therefore ‘supports’ it.
2 Damp fog — nothing visible in that (5)
MOIST – it’s that least favourite Susie Dent word again. O (nothing) ‘visible in’ MIST (fog).
4 Note on area identifying low points (6)
MINIMA – MINIM (a note of two beats as I remember it) ‘on’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) A (area).
5 A hart rising after injury, quite fit (5,2,4)
RIGHT AS RAIN – straight anagram (‘after injury’) of A HART RISING.
6 One throwing a jug (7)
PITCHER – double definition.
7 Area of frozen water? Heading away from edge (4)
RINK – bRINK (edge with the heading taken away).
9 People here are often told to go to blazes (4,7)
FIRE STATION – cryptic definition.
12 Resonant scheme supported by man (8)
PLANGENT – PLAN (scheme) ‘supported by’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) GENT (man).
14 Cold areas? One cold area turning up here (7)
ICECAPS – I (one) + C (cold) + ECAPS (SPACE (area), reversed, i.e. ‘turning up’ in this down clue).
16 Equipment given to school is trashy stuff (6)
KITSCH – KIT (equipment) + SCH (school).
18 The writer’s heading for Pamplona, taking on the Spanish force (5)
IMPEL – I’M (the writer’s) + P (heading for Pamplona) + EL (‘the’ in Spanish).
19 Asian island language used by programmers (4)
JAVA – double definition.

47 comments on “QC 1865 by Pedro”

  1. Both courses today..never heard of plangent but liked the tone of it.

  2. it was Monday.

    5:55.

    Not fast, not slow. ABACI LOI as I’d bunged in FIRE STARTER mistakenly. Correcting that made it fall into place.

  3. But most of it achievable.
    I didn’t understand why Thirst but it had to be, but my confidence dented I gave up with Icecaps, Abaci and Java remaining.
    Plangent would have been impossible for me except I do recall it from before — when it was a word that annoyed me so much at the time that I haven’t forgotten it! Not that I could recall what it meant!!
    I haven’t heard the ‘right as rain’ expression in many a year though.
    Thanks all, a good but tricky puzzle.
    John George
  4. Nobody seems to have pointed out that precision and accuracy are quite different. I thought we had some scientists here!
    Katy
    1. Hi Katy

      You are absolutely right of course. Both to point out the difference and that there are quite a few scientists here. I am, or have been (I have been many things), one myself.

      My philosophy on doing the blog is more or less if I can see what the setter is trying to achieve then I will just parse the clue and move on. Only if there is a mistake in the way the wordplay works or some glaring error will I point it out. But of course sometimes it is subjective: every now and again there is something that just gets my goat and in that case I may just comment on it because it bugs me personally.

      But largely I will leave it to the commenters to pick up on — as you have done! And as kevingregg did in the first post of the day (he’s ALWAYS the first post by the way — or nearly always) regarding SYNAPSE, and you will see a similar reply from me there. Because you are the people we do the blogs for anyway and we love it when you get involved, start a conversation, challenge someone’s thinking.

      Having said all that, I did just check on the online dictionary and the first definition of ACCURATE gives:

      “…free from error or defect; consistent with a standard, rule, or model; precise; exact.”

      So what we often find is that language moves on, and sadly for some of us pedants, walls are broken down and definitions start to include other terms that were originally quite distinct. Examples are endless and I gave up tearing my hair out over them long ago. Language is whatever it becomes. I fully expect, for instance, that the distinction between PRINCIPAL and PRINCIPLE will be eroded by the tides of ignorance at some point in the future simply because nobody out there (including subeditors of certain newspapers that shall remain nameless) really gives a damn.

      Don’t get me wrong. I’m with you on this and I do give a damn. But that’s how it is.

      But lovely to hear from you. Why not join up and become part of the community? Then when you get involved in a discussion we’ll feel like we know you!

      Kind regards

      Don

      1. And having seen jackkt’s reply as well I would also say it is possible to believe six impossible things before breakfast and also to hold two contrarian views at the same time. Because I agree with both of you. When you are using it in the precise (oops!) sense of describing the characteristics of some sort of scientific instrument then the two terms have quite distinct meanings. But in the wider world such distinctions are less important. Context is very often all.

        Edited at 2021-05-03 07:58 pm (UTC)

    2. In some circumstances they have different meanings but in others they can mean the same and the usual dictionaries reflect that e.g. SOED has:

      Accuracy: 1 The state of being accurate; precision, correctness. M17.

      Precision: 2 The fact, condition, or quality of being precise; exactness, definiteness; distinctness, accuracy. M18.

    3. After an engineering career which included the specification of many systems, several being expressed by more than a thousand individual requirements, I can offer the following. If, e.g. the velocity of a object is measured as 270.000 degrees, 358.495 kt, the measurement is precise. But if the actual velocity is 275.000 degrees, 340.000 kt, the measurement is inaccurate.

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