QC 2765 by Teazel

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

14:23, which included a couple of clues where I was searching for a non-existent anagram.

Some cracking words here like Mountebank and Balderdash.

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

Across
1 One uses trickery to climb eastern slope (10)
MOUNTEBANK – MOUNT (climb) + E{astern} + BANK (slope)

Excellent word, of the same insult level as Cad or Bounder. It has its origins in the Italian phrase monta in banco, which translates to “mount on a bench.” This referred to a quack or charlatan who would stand on a bench in public places, such as markets, to sell dubious medicines and attract a crowd with their boasts and sales pitches. Go to Westminster bridge for latest examples.
7 Is not able to love section of long poem (5)
CANTO – CAN’T (Is not able to) + O(love)

It’s really pretty much the same as a verse, or a stanza. Use it to sound more erudite when discussing Dante or Chaucer.
8 One, or many teams so called (6)
UNITED – Double def,

There are many football teams called United: 8 in the current English leagues. (Oxford, Peterborough, Rotherham, and Sutton being the ones you’re struggling with)
10 I’m surprised, first to meet a measure of resistance (3)
OHM – OH! (I’m surprised) + M{eet}
12 Supports fast bowling as key (9)
BACKSPACE – BACKS (supports) + PACE (fast bowling)

Backspace being a well-used key by typists and setters. Others to look out for include ALT and ESC. TAB and SHIFT can be clued in many other ways, so I’ve not seen those clued by “key”.
13 Having money, we brought back nut-tree (6)
CASHEW – CASH (money) + EW (WE reversed)

The “having” is a bit confusing here, as “having money” leads to words like “rich”, not words for money itself.
14 I go red all round, or a bit like another colour (6)
BLUISH – BLUSH (go red) contains (all round) I

One of a couple of misdirected anagrams today, as it looks for all the world like (I GO RED)*, and those painters and stamp collectors have lots of weird colour words (sepia, cerise, ochre, umber) so  I spent a bit of time chasing down diogre, ogride etc.
17 Force to join journalists’ team (9)
PRESSGANG – PRESS (journalists) + GANG (team)

A group of men, usually led by a naval officer, who were empowered to force men into naval service. Alarmingly common in Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries. They tried advertising with something like this:

“Brave lads sought for service aboard His Majesty’s ships! Face perilous seas, scurvy and the threat of enemy fire for meagre pay,  discipline is enforced by the lash. Two years minimum commitment”.

Or just bash them over the head and drag them onboard.
19 Possesses marijuana but not heroin (3)
HAS – HAS{h} (Marijuana) with the H{eroin} cut

The setters seem alarmingly au fait with drug slang. E{cstasy} also makes a very frequent appearance.
20 In basement, vendor heard (6)
CELLAR – Sounds like SELLER (vendor)
21 Fall behind, walking route (5)
TRAIL – Double def
23 Not so hairy a race? Nonsense (10)
BALDERDASH – BALDER (not so hairy) + DASH (race)

The etymology is disputed, so we are waiting for a London Tour Guide to make something up.
Down
1 Scientific instrument trashed in comic prose (10)
MICROSCOPE – (COMIC PROSE)* [trashed]

My FOI.
2 Run off for large teapot (3)
URN – (RUN)* [off]

Sometimes these very short anagrams can be hard to spot, I was looking for the word RURN to take the R{un} off from.
3 After time, currency is in difficulty (7)
TROUBLE – T{ime} + ROUBLE (currency)

And yes, the Rouble is in trouble.
4 Black cat’s spring (6)
BOUNCE – V{lack} + OUNCE (cat, specifically a snow leopard)

And this is the word I can never remember. I know it is the snow leopard, which is known as the “snow leopard” but for some reason in crosswords it is know as an Ounce.

I looked it up this time, it comes from the Old French word once, which was originally used for the Eurasian lynx. I will now promptly forget it until next time.
5 Secures what are on hand (5)
NAILS – “what are on hand”

Nice cryptic definition.
6 Huge stone finally going in the mail, remarkably (8)
MEGALITH – (THE MAIL)* [remarkably] contains {goin}G

I first read this as {Ston}E (finally) going in (THE MAIL)* and that’s the anagram I worked on.
9 An old man myself, so fit to turn up (10)
METHUSELAH – ME (myself) + THUS (so) + HALE (fit) reversed

Nice one, and my LOI. Famously, the oldest person in the Bible. He doesn’t do a lot else, apart from being old. Noah and Adam were also nonacentarians.
11 Assembled, as keen as this, may we hear? (8)
MUSTERED – Sounds like MUSTARD as in “as keen as mustard”

The phrase “as keen as mustard” can be traced back to the “association of mustard with excitement and flavour”. Life must have pretty boring in 1672 (first citation)
15 Barge is not so heavy (7)
LIGHTER – Double def

Another critical crossword word, its an old name for a barge, and there’s also Lighterman for those who row them.
16 Spoiled, being wed, if one leaves (6)
MARRED – MARRIED (being wed) without I (one leaves)
18 Proposals advanced to hold dance (5)
SALSA – Hidden in “Proposals advanced”
22 In the style of a West Coast city (1,2)
A LA – A + LA (West Coast city)

The phrase “à la” comes from French, where it is shortened from “à la mode de,” meaning “in the style of”. It entered English in the late 1600s and since around 1800, “à la” appears with English words  (without the “mode” part, and latterly without the accent either) but retaining its original meaning of “in the style of”.

Yesterday when Mara used a pig clue, it could have been said to be “A La Oink”

69 comments on “QC 2765 by Teazel”

  1. 9:20 Could have been a minute or two quicker had I not stubbornly hung on so long to BACKSLASH and INDIGO instead of BACKSPACE and BLUISH. Very humorous blog, Merlin thanks! ( But surely “À l’Oink”?)

      1. I thought about that, but “a la” is now an English expression, appearing without an accent and without italics. So it should behave like an English word. I mean, who says two cappuccini ?

  2. Not knowing what fast bowling is, it took me a while to come up with PACE. BLUISH was also slow in coming. 7:12.

  3. MOUNTEBANK was a NHO but the rest was pretty enjoyable. We had PRESSGANG on the 14th August clued then as ‘force in iron club’ so it was fresh in my mind. BACKSPACE was tricky, I’m used to keys being ALT, DEL, etc.
    Thanks setter and blogger.

  4. BLUISH! BALDERDASH!

    Fun times. And only about 17 minutes on my phone.

    Thanks to Teazel and Merlin!

  5. All done in 10:00 precisely, but with a careless typo in MOUNTEBANK. Dang.

    COD to BLUISH, where my experience was exactly the same as Merlin’s.

    Thanks to Teazel and Merlin.

  6. A quick time for me, 6.38, with LOI METHUSELAH guessed from checkers. I figured out the WP post-solve but if I’d tried doing it from scratch I suspect I’d still be working on it. An entertaining puzzle from Teazel. I was puzzled by SALSA until Merlin pointed out it was a, er, hidden. In 1dn MICROSCOPE the ‘in’ intrigues me, coming between the anagrind and the anagrist. I know it helps the surface, but in a sense it reads backwards, as though the clue is suggesting that a trashed version of the answer (microscope) is contained in ‘comic prose’. It is quite possible I’m overthinking this.

    1. I think your description of how it works is spot on. I don’t see that as a problem, but it’s quite possible I’m underthinking it.

      1. Not a problem at all, just curious. I’m used to the conventional def-anagrind-anagrist format and not sure I’ve seen this kind of reverse-engineered approach before, especially in a quickie. Anyway, we live and learn. At least in theory.

    1. Ounce is worth remembering, it comes up from time to time. Hale is as in “hale and hearty”. Having said that, I biffed methusela and couldn’t see the word play..

  9. Well there you go. I always assumed “keen as mustard” was just a whimsical play on the well-known brand of mustard. But the 1672 citation mentioned by Merlin would pre-date the work of Mr Keen and his boys by seventy years.

    3:14 today despite a brief foul-up with the anagrist for MEGALITH.

    Thanks Teazel, great blog Merlin.

    1. So it would seem, with Mr Keen launching his brand in the late 1700s, so perhaps a case of nominative determinism.

  10. 9:36. Off to a good start with FOI MICROSCOPE. LOI METHUSELAH, grateful that the wordplay gave the spelling: I think I might have given him an A instead of the E. I liked MARRED

  11. 10 minutes. No problems for me other than checking the wordplay for METHUSELAH very carefully as I have spelt him incorrectly in the past. I was aware whilst solving however that the setter might be accused of using several less than familiar words.

  12. Oh, second day in a row put LOI as a bit of a guess and got it wrong, only to immediately spot the correct answer. Backstage are definitely “support” in the theatre and fitted in the crossers – assumed the rest was some reference cricket we didn’t know – pity the definition was at the other end of the clue!

    All done in a typical time of 21.16, not bad for a Teazel. Lots of lovely surfaces and clever misdirections. COD to balderdash, great word and nice surface that brings a nice mental picture of the balder dash.

    Thanks Teazel, and Merlin for the entertaining read.

    1. And who could forget the great Commodore 64 game set underground about avoiding getting crushed by heavy rocks. Boulder Dash.

      1. Oh yes, I had one of those, and that game, that you loaded from a cassette tape! I must check my mum’s loft, I’m sure it’s hiding up there somewhere.

  13. Very nice puzzle, all done in just under 9 minutes. I was another with BACKSLASH in at first, but that made METHUSELAH impossible so I revisited it, found the BACKSPACE key and that gave me the old man as my LOI, put in from definition and checkers and not parsed.

    Thank you Merlin for the entertaining blog.
    Cedric

  14. I remember the old Bamforth comic postcard, where a group of female soldiers are lined up for inspection. “Are all the girls MUSTERED?” “Yes sir, especially the redhead….”

    An enjoyable offering from Teazel, again nailed in two straight passes – but definitely a shade harder than yesterday’s.

    Great blog Merlin – but you need to reduce the number of UNITEDS as Sutton were relegated to the National League last season – where they join others : Ebbsfleet, Maidenhead, Southend, Hartlepool, and Boston.

    FOI MOUNTEBANK
    LOI MEGALITH
    COD BLUISH
    TIME 3:50

  15. Pretty gentle until getting breezeblocked by my LOI where I had to wait for ‘hale’ to come to mind before the penny dropped. Was aware of the words MOUNTEBACK and CANTO but couldn’t have told you what they meant but the wordplay was clear.
    Started with MICROSCOPE and finished with METHUSELAH 6.07 with lots to enjoy along the way.
    Thanks to Merlin

  16. 14 mins is about as fast as my brain and fingers go, or choose to go, so a brisk finish today. Must be the boost from having successfully grappled with the 15×15 yesterday – give it a bash if you haven’t already.
    MOUNTEBANK needs to be revived for political commentary, likewise BALDERDASH. Excellent words you can really roll around the mouth.
    Fun puzzle and equally fun blog, thanks.

  17. At 11 minutes, only a shade longer than yesterday’s. Either Teazel is getting more friendly or I’m improving. Nothing too obscure – knowing nothing about cricket BACKSPACE was LOI, but plenty of other now-familiar crossword tricks to keep things moving.

    FOI MICROSCOPE with the same momentary pause about the significance of ‘in’ as LindsayO above
    LOI the PACE bit of BACKSPACE
    COD CASHEW

    Thanks Teazel and Merlin for a most informative blog.

  18. I got the “mustered/mustard” clue because remembered vaguely that James Joyce uses the same pun in Ulysses –
    “Sandwich? Ham and his descendants mustered and bred there.”
    Thanks for a fun puzzle.

  19. Enjoyed the great blog as much as doing today’s puzzle. Interesting derivation of MOUNTEBANK. LOI METHUSELAH – needed all the checkers. Thanks Merlin and Teazel.

  21. 11:48
    Heading for a fast time, then breezeblocked by BACKSPACE, where for ages I could only see BACKSTAGE. I had just about convinced myself that a backstage worker could be a key worker, but could not see a connection between TAGE and fast bowling.
    Nice to see our old friend the ounce make an appearance. Most of the feline population of crosswordland used to be queens or ounces, but the latter have become quite rare recently.

    Thanks Merlin and Teazel

  22. FOI MOUNTEBANK (Tony Shiels, Times’ obit yesterday, ‘shameless mountebank’) LOI METHUSELAH. Another day, another MAR! That’s 3!
    Steady solve, but struggled with BLUISH until the penny dropped.
    Off to the usual chair in the SCC for a quick coffee before heading out.
    Thanks Merlin and Teazel

  24. Had to look up fast bowling to get Pace as I was stuck on BACKS****. POI PDM METHUSELAH. An amusing QC. MOUNTEBANK! BALDERDASH!
    Also liked PRESSGANG, MEGALITH, MUSTERED.
    I thought mustard was made by people called Keen. Sorry, I now see Galspray has mentioned this.
    Thanks vm, Merlin.

  25. Lovely puzzle – especially enjoyed BACKSPACE, BLUISH and METHUSALEH. Know nothing about bowling but PACE seemed fine even without it. LOI MUSTERED. Thank you, Teazel.

  26. 4:21

    One of those days where everything goes in first time – only pause was ensuring that METHUSELAH was parsed and consequently spelt correctly. Must admit I would have guessed that there were more than eight UNITEDs in the top four divisions, and I can think of Manchester, Newcastle, West Ham, Sheffield, Leeds, Cambridge, Colchester and Carlisle aside those you mentioned, Merlin – nice blog btw.

    Thanks also to Teazel

  27. A second under 10 minutes in a row, must be the new coffee I’m trying! Several clues that made me smile, BALDERDASH, BACKSPACE amongst them. LOI BLUISH, COD METHUSELAH. Thank you Teazel.

  28. Some very clever clues that took some time to unravel, but altogether an entertaining challenge. LOI METHUSELAH, and alphabet trawl needed for MOUNTEBANK, probably COD.

  30. Perhaps PRESSGANG is being used as a verb here, thus giving full meaning to the phrase “Force to join” in the clue?
    Thanks for the blog, Merlin.

  31. Another who was held up by a BACKSLASH. That delayed METHUSELAH, but I had everything sorted out in 14 minutes.
    I spent a day at The Oval on 22 August and saw nothing but pace bowling as Surrey tried to get Lancashire out; but PACE did not occur to me today.
    COD to BALDERDASH.
    David

  33. Surprised myself by spelling METHUSELAH correctly, although I needed to return to it prior to stopping the clock as I wasn’t that confident. I was expecting to unravel an anagram, but I quickly saw the required parsing. A fairly nippy 7.22 for me, so with yesterdays similar time, a good start to the week.

  35. 13:13

    Pretty quick by my standards. Everything went in easily apart from the top right. Not helped by biffing MONOLITH. Only when I finally saw BACKSPACE did the rest fall into place which left LOI MOUNTEBANK, a word I’m only familiar with from Agatha Christie novels.

  36. Spot on QC from Teazel.
    This is the fourth time OUNCE has come up since I started the QC and I remembered it for once.
    LOI was MUSTERED which after the PDM became COD.
    Thanks Merlin for the blog and the etymology of MOUNTEBANK. Incidentally I parsed 13a as ‘we brought back having money = nut tree’

  37. In contrast to yesterdays, this one was a little tricky.
    Solve time was something like 20 mins, unclear as I was doing other things at the same time.

    Tricky ones:
    Mounteback – NHO
    United – not sure why but just didn’t come to mind, I guess I am not a very sports-minded
    Mustered – I guessed the word from the checking letters I had but didn’t understand it. Turns out I have NHO the phrase as keen as mustard.
    Methuselah – Easily the hardest question here. NHO, vague definition, tricky wordplay with quite a few steps. I had all the checking letters and didn’t have a clue (other than “me” at the start).

    FOI: Canto
    LOI: Mounteback
    COD: Microscope

  38. Very slow today. When will I remember ounce! Didn’t solve MOUNTEBANK until near the end so no B to help with BOUNCE which I revealed in desperation. LOI METHUSELAH, biffed not parsed. Typically entertaining Teazel puzzle and a great blog. Learned a bit about origin of mountebank (thanks Merlin) and reminded myself about Methuselah – a good day 😃 Many thanks all.

  39. Just inside my target five minutes. Great puzzle, even better blog, thanks Merlin. LOI Mustered, which brought a smile.

  40. Very tough towards the end.
    CANTO, BOUNCE, UNITED, MOUNTEBANK (surely not a real word), METHUSELAH and BACKSPACE were my last few in.
    Time = 37 minutes.
    Thanks to Merlin and Teazel.

  41. I raced through most of this QC and it would have been a sub 6 mins solve had I heard of the word MOUNTEBANK (love your explanation Merlin). As it was I solved anticlockwise from my FOI MICROSCOPE. I did bung in an unparsed MonoLITH at 6d which slowed things up a little. Solving UNITED opened the door to the NE corner with my LOI a semi parsed BACKSPACE (I wasn’t sure how bowling fitted in). 7:20

  42. A thumb injury today led to even more than the usual typos on my rather small keyboard, requiring constant retyping, otherwise this could have been a PB. As it was, 8:53 was still more than respectable in our books. Good puzzle and very entertaining blog!

  43. Teazel normally a breeze for me, although not sure about the ‘in’ ref. MICROSCOPE also repeated mis-spelling of METHUSELAH didn’t help relatively easy finish.

  44. I did this a while back and don’t remember much. It seems I didn’t do as well as I should have.

    I liked MOUNTEBANK.

    5:55

  45. 6.16 That mostly flew in. BACKSPACE was LOI. I was disappointed to be reminded of Hale and Pace. Thanks Merlin and Teazel.

  46. 15/24. Much easier than yesterday, when I solved 10/26, so I am hoping that they get easier each day this week, and that I’ll solve Friday’s offering!

  47. I’m a permanent member of the SCC (except on the days when I don’t do enough to qualify). I thought this a really lovely QC, thank you Teasel.

    It did help that I had heard of MOUNTEBANK,OUNCE and METHUSALEH. Perhaps that speaks of having done lots of QC’s? 😂🤣

  48. Great puzzle.
    FOI 1d Microscope
    LOI 9d Methuselah
    COD 9d Methuselah
    Also, Great Blog!

  49. DNF in about 10 minutes. Made a silly error with BACKSPACE and a typo in METHUSALEH to boot. Otherwise a fun puzzle, with some challenging clues for a QC. Thanks to Merlin and Teazel!

Comments are closed.