Quick Cryptic 1014 by Tracy

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I Thundered through this until I came inexplicably unstuck at 16d. Took 8 minutes in the end. Quite a few write-ins, but the odd trickier one, and a couple of compound anagrams to keep us honest.

Across

1 Putting together of new gable a mess (10)
ASSEMBLAGE – anagram (‘new’) of GABLE A MESS
7 Herb forming part of healthy meal (5)
THYME – Hidden word: healTHY MEal
8 Drink readily available after close of business (6)
SHANDY – Close of ‘business’ is S, + HANDY
10 Drive farm animal (3)
RAM – double definition
12 Sailor left aunt, worried inside by a spider (9)
TARANTULA – ok, a bit of a construction job: ‘Sailor’ is TAR, ‘left’ is L, inside this we have an anagram (‘worried’) of AUNT, then next to all that (‘by’) is A. Phew.
13 Popular pet food (3,3)
HOT DOG – HOT is popular, DOG is pet.
14 Stall, bearing right in London thoroughfare (6)
STRAND – ‘Stall’ is STAND (as in eg lemonade stand), which ‘bears’ R (right). London Street running roughly from Trafalgar Square to Fleet street, and so called because it once formed the north bank of the Thames.
17 Character cutting could be a cheat (9)
CARDSHARP – CARD is ‘character’ in the sense of ‘annoying person who thinks he’s funny’, and SHARP is ‘cutting’. Someone who cheats at cards. My dictionary has it as two words but I gather either is allowable. Often mistakenly called ‘card shark’
19 Brown belt (3)
TAN – double definition.
20 Dearth, badly managed, causing enmity (6)
HATRED – anagram (‘badly managed’) of DEARTH
21 Greek character on time, he volunteers (5)
THETA – T (time) + HE + TA (volunteers, Territorial Army)
23 Two golfing terms for pivot (5,5)
SWING ROUND – self explanatory, even if, like me, you know the square root of sod all about golf.

Down
1 Tremor caused by dessert wine? (10)
AFTERSHOCK – AFTERS (pudding) + HOCK (German white wine)
2 Pronounce “for example” (3)
SAY – double definition
3 Most are blown for conductor, perhaps (7)
MAESTRO – anagram (‘blown’) of MOST ARE.
4 Shine in Ulster broadcast (6)
LUSTRE – anagram (‘broadcast’) of ULSTER
5 Trace female family member holding one (5)
GRAIN – GRAN is the family member, with I inside. Trace as in ‘a grain of truth’.
6 Project worker under notice becoming military aide (8)
ADJUTANT – JUT (project) + ANT (worker) with AD (notice) at the front.
9 Together, as worker being dealt with (4,2,4)
HAND IN HAND – HAND is a worker, IN HAND is being dealth with
11 Relevant stuff (8)
MATERIAL – double definition
15 Tout upset priest about ticket, ultimately (7)
TIPSTER – anagram (‘upset’) of PRIEST with T inside. This was a quick biff, but took slighly longer to parse,
16 Keeper with cosmetics company founder (6)
WARDEN – This took me ages, not having an encyclopaedic knowledge of cosmetics companies, and being too thick to spot the most likely definition of ‘keeper’ (Goalkeeper? Wicketkeeper….?). W is ‘with’, ARDEN is the war paint manufacturer.
18 Vixen showing cunning endlessly (5)
SHREW – SHREWD without the last letter. It means quarrelsome woman.
22 Bird kept by them, usually (3)
EMU – hidden word: thEM Usually

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1014 by Tracy”

  1. 9 minutes with time lost at 1ac where I biffed ASSEMBLING and then hunted for a word meaning ‘trace’ at 5dn with the checkers N_A_N before realising my error.

    I also got stuck on 15dn wondering if perhaps the designer Pierre Cardin had a sideline producing cosmetics. I worked out WARDEN eventually from W (with) + checkers and the definition (keeper), but didn’t recognise Arden until I looked it up and was reminded of Elizabeth Arden, a brand name of procucts used by my mother in my childhood.

    Edited at 2018-01-26 06:24 am (UTC)

  2. At last a sub 20 minute time for me. (18:23) Aftershock held me up right at the end despite having all the checkers. Warden had also been slow to go in as with our esteemed blogger.
  3. Was doing ok until I got to the SW corner. Like our esteemed blogger LOI was Warden but my golfing knowledge was also poor today. I think I had too many options: eagle, wedge, bogie, slice etc and couldn’t get any to work. All in all a slow 40ish minutes. Thanks to Curarist and setter.
  4. Quickest for a long time. ASSEMBLAGE was unusual. I had to work my way carefully through the letters to find what was left for the last three, and I needed the checkers for SHREW. Otherwise a very gentle end to the week
    PlayUpPompey
  5. 15d and 16d took a moment, where I got the word before the solution but parsed on typing in the letters. Is Elizabeth Arden (the products, not the lady) still around? CARDSHARP is yet another case where the setter’s enumeration differs from mine, but no big deal. People who say ‘card shark’ are not saying ‘card sharp’ erroneously, they’re saying ‘card shark’ correctly; if it’s often said ‘card shark’, it isn’t a mistake. 4:43.
  6. Had exactly the same experience as jackkt at 1ac/5dn but still somehow managed to come in at 7 minutes. Cod to 16dn – which I subsequently looked up to find something I must remember for quiz nights – Florence Nightingale Graham went by the business name Elizabeth Arden.
  7. At 22mins, my fastest for a long time and possibly a PB as far as Tracy is concerned. Steady progress from NW to SE, with Tarantula and Cardsharp bifd and then parsed. As Pompey says, a nice end to the QC week. Invariant
  8. Had trouble with the SW which took 6 minutes of my 10:15. Struggled with WARDEN which eventually was my LOI from definition only. All in vain though as I had an inexplicable TANANTULA at 12a. The N is nowhere near the R and I already had LUSTRE! I’d even had my coffee. As with Kevin, an MER at CARD SHARP enumeration. Took me a while to get SWING too. Thanks Tracy and Curarist.
  9. More of the same from me. Almost all done in 11 minutes but another 4 to finish it off. LOI was Warden. Arden occurred to me in relation to cosmetics although I could only think of Mary Arden who I think is an eminent judge. But I did parse it correctly!
    COD to 9d. Thought 17a was tricky (never thought about the 1/2 word issue); also 1d needed some thought. Nice puzzle. David
  10. I thought I was on for a 10 minute finish until I was held up by my last 2 – 10a and 11d, which took my time to 13 minutes. After a long week it was nice not to have to have a battle on my hands. So thanks to Tracey and our blogger.
    CoD 1d
  11. Delayed by being of an age to remember the brand Top Cat pet food which caused the BBC to rename the cartoon, and went straight in at 13a!
  12. Different wavelength to the rest of you today. I found this to be the hardest in a while. Ground to a halt with five or six to go. Not being able to spot 1d held me up, so when that finally dawned on me it opened up hot dog and cardsharp which in turn gave me shrew and swing round (to a loud groan). LOI warden and that was only after looking at the answer above. I must stick to doing this at lunchtime rather than breakfast.

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