QC 1895 by Teazel

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

OK please move on everybody. Nothing to see here. Thanks to Teazel, my oldest adversary I believe, for a gentle Monday-morning stroll.

FOI was 1A. A lot of clues went in sequentially after that, with LOI being 21D as you might expect. A couple of clues caused hiccups in the smooth sequence, one example being 15D which gets my COD award for reminding me of my favourite underground girl.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics. Everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Language making sober actor struggle (5-5)
SERBO-CROAT – straight anagram: ‘making SOBER ACTOR struggle’.
8 Cleric is hopeless at first in dance (6)
BISHOP – IS + H (Hopeless ‘at first’) ‘in’ BOP (dance).
9 Bird seen round loch is quail (6)
FLINCH – FINCH (bird) ‘seen round’ L (loch).
10 Some sweet nature, but it is liable to erupt (4)
ETNA – hidden word: ‘some’ sweET NAture.
11 To limit error, confirms flight (6,2)
CHECKS IN – CHECK (limit) + SIN (error).
12 Large hole right at side of case (6)
CRATER – CRATE (case) + R (right) at its side.
14 Perhaps straw one is easily taken in (6)
SUCKER – cryptically a sucker could perhaps be a straw.
16 Spare man ordered this to go on pasta perhaps (8)
PARMESAN – straight anagram: SPARE MAN ‘ordered’.
18 Article about the most prolific author? (4)
ANON – AN (indefinite article) + ON (about). There is a lot more written material in the world by ANON(ymous) than by any single known writer.
20 Swordsman who puts up a barrier (6)
FENCER – double definition.
21 Fruit drinks, just short, filled with ice (6)
JUICES – JUSt ‘short’ ‘filled with’ ICE.
22 Little number donned always? This is the only chance (3,2,5)
NOW OR NEVER – NO (abbreviation for ‘number’, therefore ‘little’) + WORN (donned) + EVER (always).
Down
2 Be no longer first (5)
EXIST – EX (no longer) + IST (first).
3 Memorised last of story in the bar, drunk (2,5)
BY HEART – Y (last of storY) ‘in’ BHEART (anagram (‘drunk’) of THE BAR).
4 Catch bluebottle (3)
COP – double definition, bluebottle being a slang term for a police officer.
5 Away three months or so, when it’s cheaper (3,6)
OFF SEASON – OFF (away) + SEASON (three months or so).
6 Feeble king to use his brain (5)
THINK – THIN (feeble) + K (king).
7 To perform on stage, I have to be brisk (6)
ACTIVE – ACT (to perform on stage) + IVE (I have).
11 One turned to reach the wine (9)
CORKSCREW – cryptic definition.
13 Harvest worker extremely prone to break back (6)
REAPER – PE (‘extremely’ PronE, i.e. the letters at the extremes of the word) ‘breaking’ REAR (back).
15 Check girl underground gets drinking bowl (7)
CHALICE – CH (check, as in Chess) + ALICE, a girl who famously followed a white rabbit down a hole and ended up underground.
17 Waterproof being worn is red (5)
MACON – MAC (waterproof) + ON (being worn). Well OK, you do get red wines from Mâcon in Burgundy, but you get whites as well, so the clue might have been better with a ‘could be’ or a ‘possibly’. Bonne santé anyway.
19 Before end of parade, medals far too heavy (5)
OBESE – OBES (medals, specifically Orders of the British Empire in this case) before E (end of paradE).
21 Take top off slightly open pot (3)
JAR – aJAR (slightly open) with the ‘top’ removed in this down clue.

56 comments on “QC 1895 by Teazel”

  2. ….the colour of MACON wasn’t an issue — I just knew it was a wine ! It took me a good half a minute at the end for the PDM on ANON.

    As much as I loved the clue for CORKSCREW, the “girl underground” was the highlight.

    FOI SERBO-CROAT
    LOI ANON
    COD CHALICE
    TIME 3:31

  3. 14 minutes so not a gentle start to the week for me, I’m afraid. Some answers just dropped in with great ease – SERBO-CROAT, ACTIVE, ETNA for example, while others took a good deal of mining, including BISHOP, NOW OR NEVER and the underground girl. In fact, I never did make the connection until coming here! Not sure why I made such heavy weather of it – it’s all perfectly fair and there were some most enjoyable clues, once I stopped fretting about them. EXISTS, BISHOP and FLINCH all got ticks. It was quite hard to pick a COD.
    FOI Serbo-Croat
    LOI Chalice
    CsOD Anon and Corkscrew
    Thanks Teazel and Don

    Think I’ll get a cup of tea before I start the biggie!

  4. 14 minutes for me, but I felt like I wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed ANON, and with ETNA, ACTIVE and CRATER did wonder if there was a volcano theme starting to appear. Thanks both.
  5. Generally this seemed to suit us finishing abt 20m. Loi chalice, we did not get the ch or the girl. Enjoyed sucker and anon. Thanks to all.
  6. Did this this morning and struggled due to tiredness. Nothing unfair in retrospect although had never heard of BLUEBOTTLE for policeman or MACON (us non-drinkers are at a bit of a disadvantage in crosswordland), but it took 45:54 to cross the line with LOI CHALICE, which I’ve always considered to be a cup rather than a bowl. Anyway, COD to OBESE. Thanks Teazel and Astartedon.
    1. You may be at a disadvantage yes. But non-drinkers themselves do turn up fairly regularly as TT or DRY or similar. And I don’t suppose the disadvantage is any worse than the one that we non-ornithologists, or non-horticulturalists, or non-geographers face. These are black holes in my knowledge but thanks to crosswords I am very gradually managing to fill them in. I certainly know a lot more about birds, plants and capital cities and states than when I first started.

      I mean of course I take your point and agree with it — but we all have our blind spots!

      Edited at 2021-06-14 11:09 pm (UTC)

  8. Nothing particularly chewy here. FOI 1ac SERBO-CROAT and pretty much by the numbers to LOI 21d JAR. Completed in 15.

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