Quick Cryptic 1094 by Pedro

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Last time I completely misjudged the mood of the room and praised a puzzle that you all thought was a stinker. This week, I’m going to stick my neck out again and risk my remaining shreds of credibility by giving this one the thumbs up too. Mainly straightforward but with a few witty clues and a new anagrind (for me at least.). 8 Minutes.

Across
1 Woodman to add to sailor’s burden? (10)
LUMBERJACK – LUMBER (add to burden of) + JACK (tar, sailor). I always thought it was ‘woodsman’, but both are apparently valid
7 Smoke starts to creep into half of garden (5)
CIGAR – CI (initials of Creep Into) + GAR
8 Surprised exclamation about capital city, recalled in nostalgia (6)
MEMORY – MY about ROME backwards
10 Plan, article adopted by legislator (3)
MAP – A inside MP
12 It is back in Iceland, unexpectedly — the very same (9)
IDENTICAL – IT reversed, inside an anagram (‘unexpectedly’) of ICELAND
13 Medical assessment has one probing temperature and madness (6)
TRIAGE – T is temperature, RAGE is madness, stick I inside. From the French trier, to sort.
14 A doctor with it is covering round with skill (6)
ADROIT – A + DR + IT with O (round) inside
17 Is it ever wrong about blood group types? (9)
VARIETIES – A is the blood group, inside an anagram (‘wrong’) of IS IT EVER
19 A lot of wrestling in total (3)
SUM – Most of the word SUMO
20 Conservative in E-type getting armed guard (6)
ESCORT – E-type is E SORT with C for Conservative inside. Nice.
21 Best I do some trading (5)
IDEAL – barely even cryptic
23 Torture device butchers heads of men and women indiscriminately (10)
THUMBSCREW – this is nice: an anagram (‘indiscriminately’) of BUTCHERS + M + W

Down
1 See company incentive and train (10)
LOCOMOTIVE – LO + CO + MOTIVE
2 Fool thinking to disregard sin (3)
MUG – MUSING without SIN
3 Wrong about a piece of jewellery (7)
EARRING – wrong is ERRING, add A
4 Sweater bound to come with little hesitation (6)
JUMPER – JUMP (bound) + ER
5 Astronomical phenomenon to arrive on time (5)
COMET – COME + T
6 Curried rice soup is greatly appreciated (8)
PRECIOUS – anagram (‘curried’) of RICE SOUP. I don’t think I’ve come across that anagrind before. Nice.
9 Two ill with meal dished up? That’s the nadir (3-4,3)
ALL-TIME LOW – anagram (‘dished up’) of TWO ILL MEAL
11 Flower in formal lines, we hear (8)
PRIMROSE – sounds like PRIM ROWS
15 Sack girl after course has finished early (7)
DISMISS – Girl is MISS, after DIS which is short for DISH
16 One suffers endless prison sentence after endless crime (6)
VICTIM –  endless crime is VIC(e), endless prison sentence is TIM(e). Nice
18 Hard to manage standing up for a long time (5)
EPOCH – Hard is H (as in pencils), Manage is COPE, all upside down.
22 Each source of riches gets attention (3)
EAR – Each is EA, source of riches is R

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1094 by Pedro”

  1. I really am on an early train then! Took me 1.5 Curarists.

    I enjoyed that puzzle very much and thought there was lots of neat and witty cluing; thank you Pedro. Liked LOCOMOTIVE which took a while to spot but COD for me was SUM, which made me chuckle with appreciation.

    LOI was MUG and I needed the blog to understand it – thanks Curarist!

    Templar

  2. I typed in ‘tirage’ and failed to notice it for a long long time, all the while trying to figure out what the hell flower it was. 8:20.
  3. A straightforward solve staring with LUMBERJACK and finishing with IDEAL. No particular hold ups, although ALL TIME LOW and PRECIOUS needed a few crossers before becoming apparent. 7:53. Thanks Pedro and Curarist.
  4. Sub-average time for me. I discovered only when I got here that I just biffed LOCOMOTIVE so missed the neat wordplay. I liked that there were 3 medical clues in a row in the acrosses and 3 meal-related clues in the downs. The curried rice soup my favourite. Neat puzzle. Thanks Pedro and Curarist.
  5. Yes 8 minutes for me suggests this was a little easier than some recent QC puzzles. Re 8ac, ‘MY’ as an expression of surprise was discussed here only yesterday.

    Edited at 2018-05-18 07:02 am (UTC)

  6. Just about matched your 8 mins but I was struggling to justify Jumper and Ear – goodness knows why – they were both obvious when I read you blog – thanks to you and Pedro
  8. Straightforward end to the week after 2 DNFs. Particularly enjoyed LUMBERJACK, but overall good variety of clues.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. Usual time of about 8 or 9 minutes, but ‘train’ as a definition of ‘locomotive’ is simply a display of ignorance – a locomotive is an engine used to haul a train (usually freight nowadays, as passenger trains just have power cars).
  10. Thoroughly enjoyed this; finished in 15 minutes so quite pleased. Difficulty level about right for me! Some great clues. Liked ESCORT (although I wondered at first if there was an army called the JACONG, like the Vietcong, ha!) and THUMBSCREW. Cheers Pedro. And Thanks Curarist for confirming the parsing of JUMPER.
  11. I found this tricky. Even when I had an answer I had to pause to parse e.g. MUG.
    I had most of it done in 20 minutes but my last three -17a, 20a and 18d took me about another 10 minutes. At 20a I was initially trying to fit JAG (unlikely I know) into the answer. I had not got Primrose at that point. And I had the anagram at 17a staring VER.. So all self-inflicted wounds. LOI was 18d.
    Good puzzle. David
  12. I completed this in 16.04 and spent the last few minutes of it starting blankly at 13a trying to think of synonyms of insanity and trying to get ‘twinge’ out of my head. Fortunately sanity eventually won through and the annoyingly obvious answer popped into my head.
    An enjoyable puzzle and I thought 16d was particularly good.
  13. I hard a hard start to this. Eventually got into the SE and forced my way round the rest. Once I had a feel for the style I made better progress and wondered why such as 1a and 1d had been so obscure when I began. FOI 14a. LOI 16d. COd 6d.
    1. Strictly true of course but everyday usage can be more flexible and that’s what’s being reflected here. In addition to the accurate definition, Chambers has ‘train’ as ‘loosely, a locomotive’ so the setter is covered.

      Edited at 2018-05-18 08:51 pm (UTC)

  15. About 30 mins with last few, varieties, epoch, thumbscrew and ideal.

    COD escort.

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