QC 2675 by Orpheus

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

13:28 Some obscurities held me up here, including a NHO which still looks an unlikely word, I should imagine a few solvers mouthing a word of prayer before pressing submit.

Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.

Across
1 A jolly poster, perhaps, introducing a naval force (6)
ARMADA – A + RM (Royal marines = jollies) + AD (poster perhaps) +A

Royal Marines are called the Jollies, a piece of information I learnt doing crosswords and never heard IRL. For me, Jollies are holidays.
Obscure slang indicates an uncommon abbreviation, off to a tough start.
4 Way to stop a youth’s initial lack of interest (6)
APATHY – A + Y{outh} contains PATH (way)
8 Simple peasant meeting posh Asian worshipper (5)
HINDU – HIND (Simple peasant) + U (posh)

I have never heard of Hind=peasant, the OED has several similar meanings, and its an Old English Word that seems to have disappeared with other feudal designations for peasants like churl, villein, fyrd etc. The OED has no usage for 150 years.

I think in the QC should not use definitions like this, my alternatives:

Deer heads posh Asian worshipper (5)

Rear end touches posh Asian worshipper (5)
9 Afterthought about angry sea robbers (7)
PIRATES – PS (Postscript = afterthought) contains IRATE (angry)

VIKINGS and RAIDERS also possible guesses for “sea robbers”.
10 So ill, reportedly (3)
SIC – Homophone for SICK (ill)

SIC (sic) is a handy device for indicating that a quote contains a mis-speak, misprint or some other error that the quoter can feel superior about.
11 French cow, possibly, standing by back of large car (9)
LIMOUSINE – LIMOUSIN (a breed of cow from France) + larg{E}

I thought the parsing might be something to do with the sound of MOO, but it is simpler than that. Note that “large” is not part of the definition, although Orpheus helps out here, could have chosen an adjective like “miniscule” to misdirect.
12 Improves English manuscript, including the last bit (6)
EMENDS – E{nglish} + MS (manuscript) contains END (last bit)

I’ve blogged before on the difference between Emend (improve) and Amend (change).
13 Touch down on eastern half of this detached territory (6)
ISLAND – LAND (Touch Down) + th{IS} (Eastern half = second half)

I immediately thought of ENCLAVE, but of course an island is a detached territory too.
16 Nut-tree that breaks up as I chop it (9)
PISTACHIO – (AS I CHOP IT)*

So that’s how you spell it.
18 Small 13, but crucial (3)
KEY – A cross reference to 13A=ISLAND, a KEY is a type of Island, as in the Florida Keys

KEY (also “cay”) comes from Spanish cayo: shoal, rock, barrier-reef, or possible from a long lost native word.
19 Canny ruler around at this time (7)
KNOWING – KING (ruler) contains NOW (at this time)
20 Empty-headed granny in outskirts of Ilfracombe (5)
INANE – I{lfracomb}E contains NAN (Granny)

This diminutive for grandmother is common in Northern England, often as “Mi Nan”,or “our Nan”. And my Granny (Ann) was called Nan by everyone, apart from her grandchildren who called her Granny.
22 Immaturity of horse carrying on excitedly at first (6)
NONAGE – NAG (horse) contains ON + E{xcitedly}

Geez. This was a NHO and didn’t look like a word at all. I can’t remember the last time I had to use a dictionary to confirm a word in the QC. I think usage is similar to “dotage”. The OED has a quote from as late as 1989:

“Industry was still in its infancy, the working-class movement in its NONAGE.”  — Journal of History of Ideas vol. 50, 1989

Sadly I cancelled my subscription after volume 49.

According to the Crossword Solver, Orpheus could have chosen NINIGI (grandson of Amaterasu and first ruler of Japan). Couldn’t have been any worse
23 Artist’s workplace and breeding establishment originally in Oxford (6)
STUDIO – STUD (breeding establishment) + I{n} + O{xford}
Down
1 Remains of an oleaceous tree? (3)
ASH – oleaceous is a genus of tree, which includes the Ash

When seeing a word such as oleaceous my usual approach is to look for a “hidden”, but “remains”=ash is common in crosswords, so I just assumed that ash was a type of oleaceous tree. As are olive, jasmine, lilac, forsythia, privet.

oleaceous is not in my Apple autocorrect, which confirms its obscurity, but I am tempted by the suggested replacement of “olé Aloysius”
2 Chap carrying can over form of restraint (7)
MANACLE – MALE (chap) contains NAC (“can” backwards)

Took some time to parse, as of course the first thing to try is MAN + ACLE, and then thinking that ELCA could be a type of Can, which would be at the same level of obscurity as hind, oleaceous or nonage.
3 Scheming lookalike finally fled London borough (6-7)
DOUBLE-DEALING – DOUBLE (lookalike) + {fle}D + EALING (London borough).

Was tempted to look for a London Borough that fitted the enumeration, Tower Hamlets comes close.
5 One banging about in the kitchen? (13)
PERCUSSIONIST – “kitchen” is slang for the Percussion section of an orchestra

Pretty obscure, also used in Jazz bands. “Battery” is used in a similar way, look out for that one too, I guess.
6 All the players — nearly half the ice cream (5)
TUTTI – TUTTI-{frutti} (ice cream)TUTTI is the instruction in sheet music for everyone to join in after a solo.

Be warned about asking for one in Belgium where, according to Wikipedia, Tutti Frutti contains a combination of raisins, currants, apricots, prunes, dates, and figs.
7 The old strayed badly in the recent past (9)
YESTERDAY – YE (“The” in Olde English) + (STRAYED)*

Other bloggers have commented about Ye, with the “y” really being an old character for “th”. You can read more here: Ye olde.
9 Big cat identified by secretary without hesitation (4)
PUMA – PA (Secretary) contains UM (hesitation)

Without, opposite of within. As in the church St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate.
10 Covering of animal pen sheik’s replaced (9)
SHEEPSKIN – (PEN SHEIKS)
14 Difficult week disturbing a protégé (7)
AWKWARD – W{ee}K inside A WARD (protege)
15 Hooligan initially hiding in towing vessel (4)
THUG – H{iding} inside TUG (towing vessel)
17 Sneer at last of this cereal (5)
SCORN – {thi}S + CORN (cereal)

I had SCOWL here, even though I didn’t see cowl=cereal. But i was making no progress with NONAGE, so it stayed in for too long.
21 Self-esteem and energy to depart (3)
EGO – E{nergy} + GO (depart)

98 comments on “QC 2675 by Orpheus”

  1. Second day in a row for a DNF. It was NONAGE that stumped me.

    I found this slow going at first.

    Usually I put a 😀 by clues that give me those aha moments or make me laugh. There are no such marks on my newspaper today just large ?’s.

    Ah well – I’ve learnt a lot from the blog so thanks folks, Orpheus and Merlin.

  2. I managed to grind this one out in 21 minutes but it was quite a struggle. Couldn’t parse ARMADA or PERCUSSIONIST. NHO of the slang needed for these two. I had, however, heard of the French cow, hind for peasant and the word NONAGE, although I would have been hard put to supply a definition of the latter.

    FOI – 8ac HINDU
    LOI – 1dn ASH (I left this until I had solved 1ac just to check that it was indeed ASH as oleaceous meant nothing to me)
    CODs – 9ac PIRATES and 3dn DOUBLE DEALING

    Thanks to Orpheus and to Merlin for providing the missing parsings

  3. 5.16 so not bad. Didn’t know simple peasant or the French cow, but both otherwise clued very easily, so happy to learn something from the quick cryptic. Great blog Merlin. Thanks.

  4. I found this a strange crossword as I filled in most of the answers immediately from the defs (sometimes without even finishing the clue), which is a sort of biff but not quite, as I didn’t fret trying to parse the answers – almost like completing a non-cryptic.

    So a remarkable (for me) sub-3 min completion. Very strange, but still enjoyable!

  5. A bit slow to get going but 14:55 was substantially faster than yesterday so perhaps the jet lag is wearing off. That said, NHO NONAGE or hind = peasant and didn’t know that ash is a member of the oleaceae so fingers were definitely crossed at the end with LOI APATHY. Thanks, Merlin, for an informative and very amusing blog and thanks to Orpheus for a stretching but manageable puzzle.

  7. Definitely hard for this resident of the SCC, especially with the varieties of obscure words noted above. The good news, though, is that a couple of years working on QCs mean I finished! Yes, help was needed with NONAGE and yes several were biffed (Thanks for the blog). But evidence of learning 😀

  8. Biffed at least three of them, apart fromNONAGE- no chance,
    Reluctant to biff as completely new word to me.Finishedapart from that

  9. 9:30. Lots of ‘definite’ biffs so the time would have been less but for puzzling over PERCUSSIONIST and loi TUTTI – two music clues I dnk. I did remember NONAGE from somewhere but wasn’t quite sure what it was – makes sense that it’s the opposite of dotage.

  10. Feeling very dull today but still managed to finish in 22:03 with my fingers crossed for NONAGE. I have to disagree with our blogger that NINIGI (!) couldn’t have been worse, though. At least I had the analogy with dotage to go on.

    Too out of it to remember the jolly thing or the kitchen thing, or to see anagrams, or to understand that it doesn’t matter that I hardly know any London boroughs. I’ve heard of Limousin, but my knowledge of French cows is nil. Generous cluing got me through. Enjoyed TUTTI. Managed to parse MANACLE so I must be waking up at last.

    Great blog Merlin, and thanks to Orpheus for the kind cluing.

  11. Another enjoyable solve to add to this week’s entertainment. Took me about 35 minutes after entering Emends and Tutti after some deliberation (thanks for the explanation – never heard of Tutti in a musical sense).
    Thank you Orpheus and Merlin.

  12. Very slow to get going picking off clues here and there so the crossers eventually made life easier. Didn’t know the meaning of percussionist but it just had to be and that helped. Remembered TUTTI from an old TV programme to do with rock and roll. Thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

  13. 14:47

    Something of a biff fest today. Lots of write ins without being fully parsed. Still, not complaining after DNFs yesterday and on Saturday.

    LOI NONAGE was from the wordplay alone though.

  14. 17 minute DNF.

    I can’t take much more of this daily humiliation.

    Even more incompetent than yesterday. Put HANDU for 8ac, thinking a simple peasant was a HAND.

    If I had thought, even more a moment, about the straight definition, the answer would have been blazingly obvious.

    An appalling error under any circumstances and another howler to add to the list. What is it about the QC that makes me leave my brain at the door?

    I haven’t read any other comments, but I’m sure there were many good times today, so well done if that applies to you.

    I can’t remember what it feels like to record a decent performance. Two lousy DNFs this week instead of two SCC escapes. Unforgivable.

    I also butchered the Quintagram – 2/5, so a thoroughly awful day (what’s new?)

  15. A slow and steady one for me. What slowed me up most was my LOI PERCUSSIONIST as I don’t think I’ve ever come across this meaning of kitchen. Also never heard of the cow or NONAGE or the meaning of TUTTI. I had heard of hind as a peasant from one of these ages ago and for some reason it has always stuck with me. Anyway, I ended up with 21:34, so not my best time, but an enjoyable solve. Thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

  16. No problem with the cattle, but unaware of the ‘kitchen’ reference but it had to be. Had forgotten ‘jolly’. I thought this a bit too obscure in places to be a proper QC so was very surprised to finish in one Costa. Not all parsed, but none-the-less all done.
    FOI 9a Pirates
    LOI 12a Emends – have seen that several times in the QC but still elusive to my memory
    COD 19a Knowing

  17. 15:29 here, reasonably happy since this was definitely a tricky one. My experience mirrors Merlin’s almost exactly.

    Thanks to Orpheus and Merlin.

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