Quick Cryptic 1077 by Flamande

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A touch harder than the previous puzzles this week, but not by too much. I was slowed down by the Hampshire town and the Russian house (but not the noisy party or wine from castile… honest).

A belated commendation to Brnchn for covering the slot while I was away – thank you! It was my first trip to Japan, and it helped with 15ac!

Definitions underlined

Across
8 Mostly noisy party after a dip of sorts (7)
AVOCADO – all but the last letter of (mostly) VOCAl (noisy) then DO (party), all after A.
9 Store and small house at side of a road (5)
HOARD – HO (abbreviation for (small) house), A and RD (road).
10 Fund for young Tom? (5)
KITTY – perhaps a juvenile tom cat.
11 Go back over caterer’s revised order (7)
RETRACE – anagram of (revised order) CATERER.
12 A priest converted wrongdoers in the main (7)
PIRATES – anagram of (converted) A PRIEST. ‘The main’ in the clue refers to the sea/
14 Large Italian male, agile (5)
LITHE – L (large), IT (italian) and HE (male).
15 Hangman in jail grabbing fighter from the east (5)
NINJA – hidden in (grabbed by) hangmaN IN JAil.
17 Ham a cleric sent back during autumn month (7)
OVERACT – A REV (a cleric) reversed (sent back) inside OCT (autumn month).
19 Show approval of a piano duet attracting praise (7)
APPLAUD – A, P (softly in musical notation, piano), with another P (making a duet), and LAUD (praise).
20 Rogue rejected hotel, wanting a house in the country (5)
DACHA – CAD (rogue) backwards (rejected), with H (hotel) and A.
22 Voter is volatile, it’s obvious (5)
OVERT – anagram of (is volatile) VOTER.
23 New, like coin making initial appearance (7)
NASCENT – N (new), AS (like), and CENT (coin).
Down
1 Group of cubs raising hat in front of king (4)
PACK – CAP (hat) reversed (raising), then K (king).
2 Look after neglected forest (6)
FOSTER – anagram of (neglected) FOREST.
3 Path round valley, initially far from straight (4)
WAVY – WAY (path) around first letter of (initially) Valley.
4 Journalist redrafted second report around middle of evening (13)
CORRESPONDENT – anagram of (redrafted) SECOND REPORT around the middle letter of eveNing.
5 We relax, consuming punch and a mini pork pie? (5,3)
WHITE LIE – WE and LIE (relax), surrounding (consuming) HIT (punch).
6 Commercial vehicle going through Derby, perhaps, and Hampshire town (6)
HAVANT – VAN (commercial vehicle) inside (going through) HAT (Derby, perhaps).
7 A small depression gripping female member (8)
ADHERENT – A, then DENT (small depression) around (gripping) HER (female).
12 Shape of writing implement with label attached (8)
PENTAGON – PEN (writing implement) with TAG (label) ON (attached).
13 Mad hatter’s event in Boston? (3,5)
TEA PARTY – cryptic definition referring to an event in Alice’s Adventures and one in 1773.
16 Small drink for each child (6)
NIPPER – NIP (small drink) and PER (for each).
18 More playful Ambridge resident (6)
ARCHER – double definition.
20 Regularly drowsy, having little energy? Medicine provided (4)
DOSE – every other letter from (regularly) DrOwSy, then E (little energy).
21 Wine from Castile (4)
ASTI – hidden in (from) cASTIle.

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1077 by Flamande”

  1. Never heard of HAVANT, so I was a bit hesitant, but the wordplay was pretty clear. 5:15.
  2. Nothing to hold me up here so I completed it in a few seconds over 7 minutes, but when I tackled today’s main event I was very quickly disabused of any complacency over my crossword skills.
  3. 23 minutes. Quite tricky.
    Last three were adherent, hoard, and LOI white lie.

    I have never listened to the Archers so assumed Ambridge was the town.

    COD pirates or overact.

    1. FWIW, Ambridge is the village featured in The Archers. Borchester is the County Town of Borsetshire, and Felpersham is the cathedral city.

      Edited at 2018-04-25 07:20 am (UTC)

  4. My run of straight 7s came to and end in the NE with 9ac. Road/street – ST, a small house – A S H – so stash for store went in and messed it all up. Still very happy to come in at 9 minutes. COD to 5dn for the surface and the definition – mini pork pie for white lie is excellent.
  5. 19 mins, so just below average. I seem to be on quite a good run at the moment. This felt much more complex than yesterday’s and I biffed Avocado and Dacha. The latter seems to be a favourite in crossword land!
  6. Started very slow in the NW corner so abandoned and revisited with LOI 8ac Avocado. No hold ups after initial shaky start coming in at just over 11 mins.
  7. Surprisingly long for me today at 18 minutes, but I was very distracted by an extremely loud lady sitting across from me on the rattler, talking incessantly and annoyingly to her friend.

    I liked most of this, and learnt more about the Archers from Jackkt’s answer to flashman above than I have ever previously known. I have never listened to a single minute of the radio soap, and it is now one of my ambitions in life to get to the end of it (life) without ever doing so. This isn’t because I don’t like it or anything – I have never heard it so cannot form a judgement – but it has become a kind of negative bucket list objective for me.

    1. Probably not a bad ambition having got this far in life untainted, Rotter, but back in its day, the Archers was as much a part of the national experience as Billy Cotton, Hancock, Life With The Lyons, Two -Way Favourites, Children’s Choice with Uncle Mac etc etc etc ad infinitum.

      Edited at 2018-04-25 01:04 pm (UTC)

      1. Can I bag one of the etc’s for the Navy Lark (left hand down a bit. . .) Invariant
        1. …..and I’d like to bag one for Round the Horn!!
          Much slower today at 29 minutes having achieved my best time ever on yesterday’s (12 minutes!). LOI white lie which also gets my COD, though I very much like the long anagram at 4d. MM
  8. Went over 10 min, having at first had VILLA(INn) at 20ac though the alternative version of the hotel would belong in a Mephisto, not a quickie. My mum came from HAVANT, so a write-in at 6dn.
  9. 12 minutes today so another quick one for me. Started with Asti as, with the newspaper, it’s often easier reading the clues from the bottom. Regularly travel through Hampshire and my wife listens to The Archers, so today’s GK was not a problem. LOI was 5d where I had the answer before the parsing. David
    PS another reminder that Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube is a great resource for solvers wanting to improve particularly from QC level.
  10. Quicker than it felt at around 20mins. WHITE LIE = mini pork pie. Enjoyed that (my LOI and COD). I would be surprised if HAVANT is that well known, but being a Portsmouth man it was very straightforward. Took me a while to realise the meaning of “dip” in 8ac, but otherwise all fairly straightforward.
    PlayUpPompey
  11. Had to chew my pen quite a bit there.

    I’ve decide to set myself a new target time of 3.5 x whatever Kevin’s time is. (I was going to do x 4 but it seemed a bit cowardly.) I think I just made it today, but it was a close run thing!

    Like everyone else I loved WHITE LIE = mini pork pie. Not so keen on vocal for noisy though.

    Excellent blog, thanks

    Templar

  12. Harder than the last couple of days with the NE proving obdurate. Completed in 13.37 with LOI 6d and COD to 5d.
    Thanks for the blog
    Plett11
  13. Tackled this late after a boozy funeral for a lovely lady, a mother to some good friends, who passed away at the grand old age of 90. Started with WAVY and finished with ADHERENT. Liked WHITE LIE. 8:21. Thanks Flamande and William.
  14. 19 mins, so just below average. I seem to be on quite a good run at the moment. This felt much more complex than yesterday’s and I biffed Avocado and Dacha. The latter seems to be a favourite in crossword land!

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