Quick Cryptic 1012 by Orpheus

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A pleasant, gentle puzzle from Orpheus which I suspect will be eminently accessible to newcomers and which should be meat and drink to more experienced players, with no obscure vocabulary and minimal general knowledge required.

LOI was 12d as I was thinking about the wrong kind of wrangling (wrestling livestock as opposed to disputation), and COD to 24ac simply because I enjoyed the rather intriguing image conjured up by the surface.

Thanks to our setter – look forward to seeing how you all got on.

Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}

Across
1 Former copper takes fur? It’s defensible (9)
EXCUSABLE – EX (former) + CU (copper) + SABLE (fur)
6 Dad’s sort of music? (3)
POP – DD
8 Fly back, beginning to organise dance (5)
TANGO – GNAT reversed (fly back) + O (beginning to Organise)
9 Morally upright, as the laic may be (7)
ETHICAL – *(THE LAIC) with “as…may be” indicating the anagram
10 Austrian prince: he initially cared madly about our
country (8)
ARCHDUKE – *(CARED) – with “madly” signalling the anagram – and H (He initially) also going into the mix, with the rearranged letters also going around (about) UK (our country)
11 Reportedly battled in stronghold (4)
FORT – Sounds like (reportedly) FOUGHT (battled)
13 Sketch newlywed outside trendy place of relaxation
(7,4)
DRAWING ROOM – DRAW (sketch) + GROOM (newlywed) go around (outside) IN (trendy)
17 Judge leaves second? That’s dubious (4)
IFFY – {J}IFFY (J – abbrev. Judge) ‘leaves’ jiffy (a very short time – perhaps a second)
18 Specific study introducing Greek island (8)
CONCRETE – CON (study) goes in front of (introducing) CRETE (Greek island). Anyone who has been hanging out in crosswordland for any length of time will be familiar with the somewhat archaic usage of CON meaning to study. For real newcomers it is well worth remembering as it crops up quite a lot.
21 Fire bank employee (7)
CASHIER – DD, the first being the (mainly military) usage of dismissing someone for bad conduct
22 Try quitting business for an Asian river (5)
INDUS – INDUS{TRY} (business with TRY ‘quitting’)
23 Friend left with personal assistant (3)
PAL – L (left) ‘with’ PA (personal assistant)
24 Riddle of sister tucking into fish and strong drink (9)
CONUNDRUM – NUN (sister) ‘tucks into’ COD (fish) + RUM (strong drink)
Down
1 Catch parent out (6)
ENTRAP – *(PARENT) with “out” signposting the anagram
2 Some fancy nice person holding sceptical views (5)
CYNIC – Hidden in (some) fanCY NICe
3 Act as guide to NI county, provoking clash (8)
SHOWDOWN – SHOW (act as guide) + DOWN (NI county)
4 Chicken thieves may do it, before and after the crime
(5,4,1,3)
BREAK INTO A RUN – Cryptic definition. If you are going to nick some chickens, you may well decide to break into a chicken run – and then scarper after commissioning the crime
5 Reverberant sound from the chorus (4)
ECHO – Our second hidden of the day – thE CHOrus
6 Choose a deep sound? Not from this! (7)
PICCOLO – Sounds like “pick a low” (choose a deep sound) – whereas the piccolo is limited to the higher ranges of notes
7 23 dined, revealing sense of taste (6)
PALATE – PAL (answer to 23ac) + ATE (dined)
12 Lie about Republican wrangling (8)
FRICTION – FICTION (lie) around (about) R (Republican)
14 Failure to cooperate changing FA rules (7)
REFUSAL – *(FA RULES) with “changing” indicating the anagram
15 Minor setback here in ancient Rome over award (6)
HICCUP – HIC (‘here’ in Latin – i.e. in ancient Rome) sits on top of (over) CUP (award)
16 Cargo thrown out of planes before noon (6)
JETSAM – JETS (planes) + AM (before noon)
19 Presbyter of greater seniority in the family (5)
ELDER – Straightforward DD
20 Record in field event — not American (4)
DISC – DISC{US} – field event without the US (not American)

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1012 by Orpheus”

  1. Gentle indeed. I must say that a DRAWING ROOM does not conjure up the idea of relaxation for me; the reverse, if anything. 5:06.
  2. 7 minutes for this one so I’d agree it was at the easier end of the spectrum. I’ve solved 59 of 1013 QC puzzles in 7 minutes, 20 in 6 but only 2 in 5 minutes, my fastest time to date.

    Edited at 2018-01-24 06:06 am (UTC)

  3. 21 minutes with the only holdups being:
    palate, as I initially had ward for 11a (warred), piccolo where I needed the checkers to get the spelling right, and LOI friction.

    Liked drawing room, indus, and COD break into a run which was great.

  4. This started off at a run then slowed in the bottom half – no real reason – just wasn’t ‘thinking in the right direction’ for the 17ac/15dn pair.
    Wod scarper.
  5. About average for me. Enjoyed BREAK INTO A RUN (COD). LOI FRICTION. The early checkers told me wrangling had to end ING. Bah!
    PlayUpPompey
  6. I found this not too tricky and finished in 8:24, but I failed to proof read properly and didn’t watch what I was typing at 2d, entering CCYNC. Gadzooks! Nice puzzle though. Thanks Orpheus and Nick.
  7. Enjoyed this, definitely easier than yesterday’s! Didn’t know CON for study so yes I’ll remember that (I hope). And CASHIER for fire, same. This kind of puzzle gives us novices a boost. Thanks Nick for parsing 18/21A, and thanks to Orpheus.
  8. 4.13. Second in a row which was far too easy. Almost all the single word answers are the most obvious synonym of the clue. Thanks for no flora or fauna though.
  9. I’m not at all sure what went wrong today, apart from persisting with an unparsed Mishap for 15d for far too long, but I found this considerably more difficult than usual for Orpheus. Write-in and hiddens aside, each clue seemed to take an age to fathom, before seeing what was all along the obvious answer. Struggled on to the end, but took nearly an hour to get there. Appropriately enough, 24ac is my CoD. Invariant
  10. … thoroughly enjoyed it. Top half looked hardest but went in first in the end. LOI was concrete with a groan – I’d been trying to fit crete in earlier.
    Needed the blog to understand the hic in hiccup – thanks!
  11. I can’t quite believe I played golf today -wind and horizontal rain. But when four of you have driven to the club, it seems a shame to go home without playing.
    The experience clearly set me up for the crossword as I finished in 10 minutes, about half my average time. Some nice clues and not that easy. LOI was 10a. David
  12. A strange solve for me today as I completed all bar 18a and 12d in 10 minutes then took a further 20ish to get my head round those two. With hindsight I can’t see why I found them so elusive.
    Enjoyed 6d and 24a in particular
  13. No problems with this, but not too easy, so a pretty good QC, I think. Well played Nick in the explanations to help the novices and improvers here. As a fellow QC blogger I think, from the comments I’ve received too, that it is well appreciated. And, of course, sometimes our more experienced solvers enjoy the explanations of the subtleties they may have missed. I concur on the delights of 24a, by the way.
  14. P.S. Just had a peak at the stats for this on the club site, and I see that our longtime champion, Magoo, did the QC today too, and was fastest in 1:50! I don’t think I could type in the answers that fast even if some one was dictating them to me as I typed.

    Edited at 2018-01-24 09:54 pm (UTC)

  15. Straightforward top half and challenging lower half made for an engaging puzzzle for us novices. Thanks Nick for guidance over e.g. ‘con’ (I had concrete but couldn’t parse the con! Your kindly explanations really open up the world of cryptics and are much appreciated.
    Thanks to too Orpheus.

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