Quick Cryptic 1097 by Felix

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’ve finally got round to using mohn’s excellent script and instructions to post this blog – kudos to him for solving that puzzle! I’m very glad that I can now show clues in blue, as I’ve come to agree that it makes reading the blog that much easier (hopefully it publishes as I can see it now!).

I thought I was on for a blinder today, but got slowed right down in the bottom half of the grid. 14dn and much of the SE corner took me as long again to solve and parse. DNF in the end as I had ‘ower’ for ‘been in debt’ – I remember feeling uneasy with my answer at the time and am now kicking myself for not having another good look. Hope you did better.

Across
1 Crazy last letter by no one in particular (4)
ZANY – Z (last letter) by ANY (no one in particular).
3 Training birds of prey, disturbing a cornfly (8)
FALCONRY – anagram of (disturbed) A CORNFLY.
8 Go with a f-firm? (9)
ACCOMPANY – A and C-COMPANY (firm, written with the same stammer as in the clue).
10 Pop this way and that (3)
DAD – palindromic (this way and that) synonym for ‘pop’.
11 Bird trapped by enormous elephant (5)
OUSEL – hidden in (trapped by) enormOUS ELephant.
12 A lot of straw perhaps making one unhappy (7)
BALEFUL – double definition, as in a bale full of straw.
13 Wife I had been in debt to having lost her? (7)
WIDOWED – W (wife), I’D (I had), and OWED (been in debt). The slightly vague, self-referential definition gave me enough ropeto hang myself with ‘widower’.
18 Scent a person wandering around picked up? (5)
AROMA – homophone of (picked up) “a roamer” (a person wandering around).
19 Girl getting nothing back, sorry for herself? (7)
MAUDLIN – MAUD (girl) and NIL (nothing) reversed (back).
20 One’s a fool to obstruct chief (9)
BLOCKHEAD – BLOCK (to obstruct) and HEAD (chief).
22 Get rid of E London journalists for speaking out (3)
AXE – homophone of (for speaking out) “(h)acks” (journalists, presumably pronounced without the initial ‘h’ in East London).
23 Money from swindle — say nothing! (4)
DOSH – DO (swindle) and SH (say nothing).
24 Equally divides accommodation (8)
QUARTERS – double definition.
Down
1 Fanatic taking centrepiece from gazebo often (6)
ZEALOT – middle letters (centrepeice) from gaZEbo, then A LOT (often).
2 Most pleasant scent I sprayed (6)
NICEST – anagram of (sprayed) SCENT I.
4 Pathway regularly chosen causing surprised reaction? (3)
AHA – alternate letters from (regularly chosen) pAtHwAy.
5 Shout loudly accusing Mrs Peacock? (3,4,6)
CRY BLUE MURDER – Mrs. Peacock is the blue piece in the board game Cluedo (or Clue, in America).
6 Consent of female to fall asleep (3,3)
NOD OFF – NOD (consent), OF, and F (feamle).
7 Unknown poem Lowry perhaps sings (6)
YODELS – Y (unknown, in mathematics), ODE (poem) and L.S. (Lowry, perhaps).
9 Suit at KLM ordered to do several things at once (9)
MULTITASK – anagram of (ordered) SUIT AT KLM.
12 Left in period of prosperity to flourish (5)
BLOOM – L (left) inside BOOM (period of prosperity).
14 Shift last of grime by pad that’s available in private hospital (3,3)
PAY BED – anagram of (shift) last letter of grimE, BY, and PAD.
15 Ecstatic girl’s embracing you (6)
JOYOUS – JO’S (girl’s) surrounding (embracing) YOU.
16 Split stick (6)
CLEAVE – double definition.
17 If not in the shade, removing top (6)
UNLESS – sUNLESS (in the shade) without the first letter (removing top).
21 English copper coin of old (3)
ECU – E (english) and CU (copper).

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1097 by Felix”

  1. Slowed down here and there–FALCONRY for instance, and OUSEL, where I was as usual blind to the hidden. NHO Lowry, but YODE was of course enough. But I blew 14d putting in ‘day bed’ (DNK PAY BED) 7:10 but.
  2. No ton-up in sight for our setter today or anytime soon as although Felix seems to have been around for ever (his first was QC24 in 2014) he’s an occasional visitor and has to date notched up only 30 on the old scoreboard. His contributions are very welcome nonethless, and this one was definitely on the tricky side. More on that in a moment.

    But first belated congratulations are due to today’s blogger, william_j_s, who posted his 100th QC blog on 28th February, and this is his 105th. Will was one of the original gang of 10 QC bloggers starting with QC5 and covering alternate Fridays before switching to Wednesdays. Well done, and many thanks, Will!

    I had some problems with this puzzle and needed 13 minutes to crack it. The unchecked last letter in 13ac was bear-trap – rather unkind for a QC, but the sort of thing one needs to be aware of if aspiring to the 15×15. I very nearly fell into it but just caught myself in time. I didn’t really understand 5dn but suspected it might be something to do wih Cluedo which I haven’t played for years and avoid like the plague whenever it’s suggested I might play it.

    AGA at 4dn instead of AHA would have given us a pangram.

    Edited at 2018-05-23 07:29 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks Jackkt! I remember QC5 well, as I was nervous to get it all parsed and avoid any technical difficulties in posting. That one took me 75 minutes, this one took me 12 (my new average this year).

  3. 29 minutes, slowed by axe, aroma, quarters, cleave, joyous, and LOI the unknown pay bed. I thought of day bed but couldn’t parse it and was glad to spot the anagram.

    Ousel also unknown. Glad falconry was an anagram as saw cornfly and feared the worst.

    Axe was a bit convoluted.

    For cleave, I knew the split bit, but assumed the stick was similar to cleaver, not knowing it also means to stick.

    Liked unless, joyous, and COD Nod off.
    Thanks and congrats William.

    Edited at 2018-05-23 07:49 am (UTC)

  4. Was I off the pace today. Somewhere round 3.5 Kevins, with alphabet trawls for no fewer than three clues (QUARTERS, and then the unholy duo which really stumped me of ZANY and ZEALOT). And yet the first 75% went in so easily …

    Excellent puzzle which had me well beaten, many wounds to lick today. Loved AXE, thought OUSEL was well hidden, had no problem with WIDOWED (how could it be “widower”? I think I’m too dim today even to see the trap, let alone fall into it).

    Congratulations to Will!

    Templar

  5. DNF today, stumped by PAY BED (you wot?) and AXE. How come three-letter words are so often my downfall? Liked the top half, though. Thanks Felix and especially William for clarification.
    1. DNF too. Similar to others. Put in “day bed” in spite of having understood the anagram, just seemed to ignore the “p”?!

      Like others was thinking this was easy on the top half, slowed down significantly on the bottom half.

  6. I also zipped through the top half of this puzzle, only to slow to a crawl, particularly in the SW, where my last 3 in, JOYOUS, DOSH and PAY BED accounted for several minutes. A satisfying solve though. 8:29. Thanks Felix and William.
  7. About a minute over average for me. I’m not sure why, in retrospect. SW corner held me up the most with the innocuous DOSH my last one in. I had a bit of a MER at 13a – I’m not familiar with “widowed” referring to a man who has lost his wife, but I see that Chambers says it’s OK. I liked the Cluedo clue.
  8. Hush was so obviously the right answer to 23ac that I assumed I must have 20ac wrong. I didn’t so couldn’t finish.
  10. With just a G short of a pangram I tried for ages to squeeze it in with the remaining V into 16d CLEAVE my LOI. Also like others went with WIDOWER so a DNF today.
  11. Just 15 minutes needed today, but I was another Widower.
    Other than that I had a slight hold-up at Cleave and Axe. David
  12. I found this tricky for many of the reasons mentioned above. I completed it in 23.20 and I reckon the last 8 minutes of that was on LOI Pay Bed – is that even an expression? – where I missed the anagram and was trying to move an e around (last of grime). Finally biffed it in desperation and was relieved to see my guess was correct. CoD to 19a
    Thanks for the blog.
    1. It’s in all the usual sources. Here’s the entry in Chambers: a hospital bed, the occupant of which receives more privacy in exchange for a small payment.
  14. A DNF – the first for ages….managed 13a ok; still don’t understand 8a but biffed correctly – what else could it be, but unsatisfying not to to satisfactorily parse – is it supposed to be ‘a c-company’?; beaten by 22a and couldn’t see where the clue for 17d was going (without 22a, unable to come up with anything plausible). So the SE was the trickiest corner for me. Had 22a as HUSH until i saw the anagram for 14d and was then able to finish that corner. FOI 1a, LOI 16d, COD 13a.
  15. LOI. Eventually wrote in the correct answer without having any idea how to parse it. Awful clue for an obscure answer, which marred a puzzle in which many of the clues were a delight, esp in the upper half.

    treesparrow

Comments are closed.