QC 2015 by Jalna

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hi Jalna, I don’t think we have ever met before, but thank you for this elegant offering which took me back to one of my favourite works of literature (Ulysses) and managed a slyly topical reference (or was it just a coincidence?) at 7D. Either way, very entertaining.

FOI was 1A and LOI was I think 8A because my mind was trying to parse ‘born right’ as NEE or NE + R until I had finished everything else. As soon as I revisited it I realised it was much simpler than that. Although I greatly enjoyed 5D and 6D I think my COD goes to their neighbour, the aforementioned 7D, for its neat topicality although the wordplay was fairly straightforward.

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

Across
1 Less rapid fluid distribution (9)
DISPERSAL – straight anagram (‘fluid’) of LESS RAPID.
6 Rope caught with skill (5)
CABLE – C (caught) + ABLE (with skill).
8 Antelope born right at the end of season (9)
SPRINGBOK – B (born) + OK (right) ‘at end of’ SPRING (season).
9 Area of France featuring in some documentaries (5)
MEDOC – hidden word: ‘in’ soME DOCumentaries.
10 On camera I prepared a hot drink (9)
AMERICANO – straight anagram (‘prepared’) of ON CAMERA I.
12 Yellow bird at front of cage (6)
CRAVEN – C (‘front of’ Cage) + RAVEN (bird).
13 Stolen files ultimately erased (6)
SWIPED – S (fileS ‘ultimately’) + WIPED (erased).
16 State of heightened activity concerning campaign push (9)
OVERDRIVE – OVER (concerning) + DRIVE (campaign push).
18 Took horse round for cowboy event (5)
RODEO – RODE (took horse) + O (round).
19 Rugby player tucked in, devouring a good spread (9)
PROPAGATE – PROP (Rugby player) + ATE (tucked in) ‘devouring’ A + G (good).
21 Reference book finally abridged (5)
ATLAS – AT LASt (finally ‘abridged’).
22 Europeans from San Marino, possibly (9)
ROMANIANS – straight anagram (‘possibly’) of SAN MARINO.
Down
1 Prepare fish? Fresh eels and dace, mostly (7)
DESCALE – anagram (‘fresh’) of EELS and DACe (DACE ‘mostly’).
2 Guard spotted protecting both ends of corridor (6)
SCREEN – SEEN (spotted) ‘protecting’ CR (both ends of CorridoR).
3 Boredom reining us in from time to time (5)
ENNUI – rEiNiNg Us In ‘from time to time’.
4 Replacement transport heading north (3)
SUB – BUS (transport) reversed (i.e. ‘heading north’ in this down clue).
5 Vigorously enjoy vintage footwear? (4,3,5)
LIKE OLD BOOTS – LIKE (enjoy) + OLD BOOTS (vintage footwear). Not a phrase I consciously knew but it was there on the edge and it couldn’t be anything else. I say consciously because it seems that it appears in Ulysses which I have read many times, but it is impossible to remember all of Joyce’s ramblings: “Gob, he golloped it down like old boots and his tongue hanging out of him a yard long for more.” I thought from the sound of it that it must be from the Cyclops episode, and so it proved. Didn’t someone once say: “Dear Reader, Joyce remembered more than you have ever forgotten”. Or something like that. Very apt.
6 Fail to show up a hairdresser? (4,1,7)
COME A CROPPER – COME (show up) + A CROPPER (cryptically someone who crops, i.e. a hairdresser).
7 Playful banter is hurtful in time (8)
BADINAGE – BAD (hurtful) + IN + AGE (time). Neatly topical if you’ve been following the Yorkshire cricket ‘you lot’ incident.
11 Lops head off plant (8)
ASPHODEL – straight anagram (‘off’) of LOPS HEAD.
14 Was hiding in this place, however (7)
WHEREAS – WAS ‘hiding’ HERE (in this place).
15 Detectives carrying around a bug (6)
CICADA – CID (detectives) ‘carrying’ CA (circa, round) + A.
17 Pipe close to overhead shower (5)
DRAIN – D (close to overheaD) + RAIN (shower).
20 Electrical unit erected inside farmhouse (3)
OHM – SI unit of electrical resistance. Reversed (i.e. ‘erected’ in this down clue) hidden word: ‘inside’ farMHOuse.

51 comments on “QC 2015 by Jalna”

  1. Thanks to all who’ve commented so far.

    This may be one of those situations where the setter and editor are familiar with a phrase and therefore don’t realise it’s actually fairly obscure, I dunno. A quick search online and in dictionaries seems to back up the obscurity bit, and I appreciate that the double-unched grid isn’t helpful. Apologies if this bruised anyone’s leaderboard stats.

    1. I wonder if, like many expressions, it depends on which part of the country one grew up in? It was a familiar expression to me (and to my wife) but we grew up in the NW of England.

      Edited at 2021-11-29 05:56 pm (UTC)

    2. I don’t see any need for an apology.
      It doesn’t do any of us solvers any harm to get something wrong occasionally.
      Not everything in life is black and white.
      A very good puzzle — thanks. John.

      Edited at 2021-11-30 09:36 am (UTC)

  2. We were shoes too (and we’re British!). Great puzzle though. Took us ages to solve 15D because we were convinced that the word started with “DIS” — and we couldn’t think of any suitable insects 🤣. We finished in 15 minutes despite not sticking the BOOT in….

    FOI: MEDOC
    LOI: CICADA
    COD: COME A CROPPER

    Thanks to Astartedon and Jalna.

    Edited at 2021-11-29 02:12 pm (UTC)

  3. 10 minutes to complete everything bar the last word of 5d and after a minute and a half of staring blankly at it I chucked in SHOES from the checkers – bit of a GR in my opinion.
    Other than that a decent puzzle.
    Thanks to astartedon
  4. ….as OLD BOOTS (which I biffed correctly), but sufficiently so to take me over my target.

    FOI DISPERSAL (nice anagram)
    LOI ASPHODEL (should have got it earlier !)
    COD CRAVEN (first thought obviously ‘canary’)
    TIME 5:13

  5. Well they walked all over me! Definitely dragged my heels to say the least as this turned out to be a Ulyssean challenge to complete under 2xSCC.
    NHO Asphodel. Never warmed to Botany but of late have been successful propagating basil in profusion to make pesto.
    Enjoyed CICADA but unlikely to hear any buzzing tonight with another 0C night ahead.
    Thanks Jalna and Astartedon
  7. Well I enjoyed this until I got down to three to go. I managed to get CABLE although I didn’t quite see how able meant skill until I came on here and saw it was “with skill”, but the last two, 5d and 7d completely foxed me. I gave up after 39 minutes knowing I was unlikely to get the plant and suspecting (correctly) that BADINAGE was a word I hadn’t heard of. Strangely I had little trouble with LIKE OLD BOOTS. It’s not a phrase I’ve heard of, but I have heard of “tough as old boots” so I assumed it was some kind of variant of that. Anyway, tomorrow is another day, but thanks to Jalna and Astartedon.
  8. A quote from Ulysses seems very unfair for the QC, ditto a plant generally unknown. Are you trying to put off newcomers? Another sad DNF for Dave and Sal
    1. I don’t think it was really meant to be a quote from Ulysses, I just thought I’d heard it somewhere and it turned out that that was probably where. As the setter himself posted above, it was probably just an unfortunate coincidence of both setter and editor knowing the phrase reasonably well and so assuming that it was fair game for the rest of us.

      As others have pointed out there was no way of differentiating the footwear from others that fit the checkers such as SHOES and CLOGS. I simply said “it couldn’t be anything else” in my blog because the BOOTS version was the first phrase that occurred to me and although I wasn’t 100% sure of it I was sure enough and when I put it in it was OK. Having had the other options pointed out after the event though BOOTS still just sounds a lot more ‘right’ to my ear so even if I had though of the other possibilities I think I would still have gone with BOOTS. But it felt right enough for me not to go looking for other answers anyway.

  9. Not a good start to the week. Dare not reveal my time, but only one error. Managed to put Remonians in 22a. Had San Remo in mind and didn’t appreciate it was an anagram!
  10. Ninja-turtled my way to all green in my hotel bar thanks to an Army chum who regularly says “f*** my old boots”. 10:34

    Thanks all

    Templar still in the throes of trial

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