Quick Cryptic 1037 by Joker

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I thought there were plenty of ways in to this puzzle (through 11dn, if nothing else), but had to jump around the grid to complete it. There are some tricksy and well-hidden definitions: 6ac and 3dn for example, the latter involving an obvious/deceptive indicator, depending on taste! My COD to 10ac.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Albacore freshly served around northern Spanish city (9)
BARCELONA – anagram of (freshly) ALBACORE, surrounding (served around) N (northern).
6 The way in which food’s given away cold (3)
HOW – cHOW (food) without (given away) ‘c’ (cold).
8 Best man hugged by old friend (7)
OPTIMAL – TIM (man) surrounded (hugged) by O (old) and PAL (friend).
9 Mostly lukewarm about medium speeds in music (5)
TEMPI – all but the last letter of (almost) TEPId (lukewarm), surrounding (about) M (medium).
10 We had sound of bell spoil church piece by Mendelssohn (7,5)
WEDDING MARCH – WE’D (we had), DING (sound of bell), MAR (spoil), and CH (church).
12 Really dislike half of side before cricket international (6)
DETEST – last half of siDE, then TEST (cricket international).
13 Difficult adhesive (6)
STICKY – double definition.
16 Now grim anger is all over the place promoting conflict (12)
WARMONGERING – anagram of (is all over the place) NOW GRIM ANGER.
19 Part of roof beginning to break in high wind (5)
GABLE – first letter of (beginning to) Break, inside GALE (high wind).
20 Interlink European night train initially with Bordeaux? (7)
ENTWINE – E (european), then first letters of (initially) Night Train, then WINE (bordeaux?).
22 Manage a score at cricket (3)
RUN – double definition.
23 Will meant to be changed during trial (9)
TESTAMENT – anagram of (to be changed) MEANT, inside (during) TEST (trial).
Down
1 Purchase includes round float (4)
BUOY – BUY (purchase) surrounding (includes) O (round).
2 Give way concerning cure (7)
RETREAT – RE (regarding, concerning) and TREAT (cure).
3 What has branches in Chelmsford? (3)
ELM – hidden in (deceptively indicated by just ‘in’) chELMsford.
4 Thrashing one-nil where Internet games are played (6)
ONLINE – anagram of (thrashing) ONE-NIL.
5 Change round what may be shown on dial for cockpit instrument (9)
ALTIMETER – ALTER (change) surrounding (round) TIME (what may be shown on dial).
6 Iliad’s author is in capital of Rhodes (5)
HOMER – HOME (in) and first letter (capital) of Rhodes.
7 Substantial work at first needing a total of four scores (7)
WEIGHTY – first letter of (at first) Work, then EIGHTY (twenty multiplied by four, total of four scores).
11 Dish one street that’s corrupt (9)
DISHONEST – DISH, ONE, and ST (street).
12 Undertake bet for titled widow (7)
DOWAGER – DO (undertake) and WAGER (bet).
14 Enclose penalty payment after swindle (7)
CONFINE – FINE (penalty payment) after CON (swindle).
15 For instance, topless dress is way out (6)
EGRESS – E.G. (for instance), then all but the first letter of (topless) dRESS.
17 Christmas bird takes a lot of covering (5)
ROBIN – most of the letters from (takes a lot of) ROBINg (covering).
18 Put nitrogen in to check gas exhaust (4)
VENT – N (nitrogen) in VET (to check).
21 Side’s lost minutes in afternoon break (3)
TEA – TEAm (side) missing (lost) M (minutes).

31 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1037 by Joker”

  2. Felt I should have been faster, but 6ac slowed me down; I had trouble making sense of the clue. 6d struck me as a gimme, even for a Quicky. 5:07.
  3. 9 minutes. 11dn was the one that struck me as being far too easy – hidden without any attempt to conceal it.
  5. Can 11d also be a straight hidden?

    18 minutes, only held up by how and weighty.

    COD Entwine.

  6. How do you even read the crossword in less than 6 minutes??
    I’ve been doing the quick cryptic since it started and can now finish it most days. (When I started I could only do 2 clues!)
    It takes me at least 10 minutes to get all but 2/3 clues- then the last few clues usually take me another 5 minutes!!
    15-20 minutes is normal for me. Am so impressed with you bloggers.
    Keep up the good work. I use your blog as a teaching aid.
    1. Dear Anon, re timings.
      Like you I started about two years ago but you are faster than me. Like you I am amazed at how quick the bloggers are. They must have lightening quick word recall and vast general knowledge, as well as plenty of experience. I am obviously not good at this business because I rarely finish without help, and then not often, and then it still takes me a good half hour. Today I finished without any help in 20 mins so it must have been especially easy.
  7. I finally got a grip today and finished in 15 mins. Very like Anon above, all done in ten minutes bar the last two or three. It’s a common pattern for me too.
  8. 17 minutes for me, all correct. My best result in the two months I have been doing daily QC. Encouraging. Thanks to the bloggers who have really helped.
  9. Everything fell into place – 7.45 here which included sorting out a typo in 1dn before getting 8ac. Didn’t parse 17dn on the way through (so – thanks William) but as it couldn’t have been turkey there wasn’t much choice!
  10. Gentle run out today. The only hold up being 6ac, although once the checkers were in place it had to be. The penny dropped afterwards. 10ac COD for me. Well constructed clue.
    PlayUpPompey
  11. First QC ever completed without any help whatsoever – rather pleased, even if I did completely biff a couple (17d in particular). Took about 18mins.
  12. Hate to bang on about this but is it within crossword rules/etiquette for the first four letters of a clue to be the first four letters of the answer?
  13. Hate to bang on about this but is it within crossword rules/etiquette for the first four letters of a clue to be the first four letters of the answer?
    1. Well, in this case the first 9 letters of the clue are the answer! Not sure if the setter saw that?!
  14. A fairly easy one for me today taking 6:28. I couldn’t for the life of me see how 17d worked though. Thanks for explaining William. I felt as though most of the answers appeared subliminally as I read the clues. FOI BARCELONA, LOI ROBIN. Thanks Joker and William.
  15. Got txt from chum about going to Barcelona for footy about 10 seconds before I started so that helped. Even so took me 6 mins my best by 9 mins. Bit like breaking 80 at golf and then shooting 100 the next day. Ye olde paper and pen today but did it badly on the phone yesterday. Anyone else struggle with the e-version? J

  16. A good 11:59, which surprised me as it did not feel like a fast one.

    I did not think 11d was so easy, as I was looking for an anagram of ONE STREET which was a type of dish, maybe some kind of Italian pasta? Needed all the checkers before a “Doh” moment. Was my LOI.

    6d was “almost too easy”, I mean, Troy is in the BBC at the moment.

  17. This did not seem that difficult but I had a few problems parsing my answers. I was caught out by Sweat Gland in yesterday’s 15×15 so I was more mindful today of the need to parse. Could not see 17d, 6d 9a nor my LOI 6a. I did manage to work out HOW. Thanks to Blogger for the explanations.
    Anyway done in under 20 minutes. David
  18. 16 minutes for me, easily my PB. I’ve been doing the quickie for around 2 years, normally taking around 40 minutes, with a previous best of 21 minutes. I wouldn’t have improved this much if I hadn’t been following the blogs, so my thanks to all the bloggers.
  19. Raced along with this one and became very conscious, at 14 mins, that I was on for a PB. I had lost a minute or so trying to parse 17d along the way, so I had no time left to give loi 6ac too much thought, but then it was just a matter of choosing the right vowel. What could be hard about that ? It was obviously going to be Hew, because it was ‘in’ tHE Way. . . Invariant
  20. 12 minutes, almost a record – I average about 20. I have been doing the QC almost daily, since retirement, for a few years. Like others, I can’t imagine being as fast as some bloggers – today’s went straight in with very little thinking time really. I’m finding it much easier these days to spot the structure of the clue and identify the likely straight definition. It’s all great fun, and like others I’m enormously grateful to the bloggers for helping me work on one of my retirement ambitions! (The other one, learning Welsh is also going well. Perhaps one day I will be able to combine the two…)

    Edited at 2018-02-28 04:49 pm (UTC)

  21. … with the last three spent on 18d – have no idea why I found it so difficult. Thought at one point that this would match my personal best of 14 minutes, but never mind.
    I agree, with other contributors, that without this blog I would never have got to where I am. Following so many tips and so much advice from the experts, I almost always finish. A huge step forward. Thank you all. MM

    (I still make no headway on the 15×15 even when advised by our bloggers that it is a relatively “easy one”. Perhaps I just feel intimidated by the enormity of the task!!!!!)

    FOI Barcelona
    COD 10a

    1. Like you MM I really struggle with the 15×15 and am still waiting for my first completion. But I can highly recommend the Cracking the Cryptic page on youtube. I started looking at it about a month ago and my attempts have improved a lot since then. I probably completed 3/4s of today puzzle which I couldn’t have done a couple of weeks ago.
  22. A nice gentle way to get over my DNF yesterday. Completed in 8.5 minutes with the only (very minor) holdup being with 6a and LOI 7d.
    Thanks for the blog

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