Quick Cryptic 1204 by Oran

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Bit more of a workout today. Took a while to get going, straightforward in the middle then held up at the end. I liked the surface at 20, and I was suitably wrongfooted by 4 and 17. Overall an enjoyable solve. 9 min.

Across
1 Reg rolling in in good time for tea (4,4)
EARL GREY – Anagram (‘rolling’) of REG, inside EARLY
5 Wader in boots is struggling initially (4)
IBIS – Initial letters of In Boots Is Struggling
8 Threatening utterance to become pitiful in the end (5)
GROWL – GROW (become) + L (end of ‘pitiful’)
9 Dishonourably discharge bank employee (7)
CASHIER – double definition. You either know the first one or you don’t.
11 Girl returning in May, victorious (3)
IVY – backwards hidden word  – maY VIctorious
12 ’Alt proceeding in court? Charming! (9)
ENDEARING – cockney-speak for END HEARING
13 Arab perhaps on the radio, sounding rough (6)
HOARSE – Homophone. ‘Arab’ in crosswords is always HORSE
15 An influential person, Bertha? (3,3)
BIG GUN – double definition, the second referring to the nickname of a WWI German artillery piece.
18 Feature of banknote: one stolen from attendant, note (9)
WATERMARK – Attendant is WAITER, take away ‘one’ making WATER, note is MARK
19 Drawing most of snare back (3)
ART – Snare is TRAP, Most of it is TRA, most of it backwards is ART
20 MD upset, somehow finding a way out? (7)
STUMPED – Anagram (‘somehow’) of MD UPSET. ‘Way out’ means a way of being dismissed in cricket, along with bowled, caught, LBW, run out, hit wicket, handling the ball, obstructing the field, hitting the ball twice, and timed out.
21 Am leaving the States to find her? (5)
ERICA – AMERICA, minus AM
22 Something that spins: a child’s toy, timeless (4)
EDDY – TEDDY minus T
23 Fat slob disturbed by loud rocket launch (8)
BLASTOFF – Anagram (‘disturbed’) of FAT SLOB next to F (loud)

Down
1 Glen, upset, modified his language (7)
ENGLISH – Anagram (‘upset’) of GLEN + Anagram (‘modified’) of HIS
2 Small jumper from Australia? Wow, certainly big enough! (5)
ROOMY – ROO (small jumper) + MY (wow!)
3 Awfully ugly person hugging daughter: that’s very sweet (6,5)
GOLDEN SYRUP – Anagram (‘awfully’) of UGLY PERSON + D
4 A bit of Portugal rarely seen these days (6)
ESCUDO – Cryptic definition. Doh. ‘Bit’ here means coin.
6 Kid in Crosby engaged in corrupt practice (7)
BRIBING – Crosby is BING, kid is RIB
7 Special equipment for small branch (5)
SPRIG – SP is special, RIG is equipment
10 Nausea that comes in waves? (11)
SEASICKNESS – cryptic definition
14 Desperate Dan’s out to shock (7)
ASTOUND – Anagram (‘desperate’) of DAN’S OUT
16 The minority or the majority, indeed! (3,4)
NOT HALF – kind of double definition
17 Old German museum, large (6)
VANDAL – museum is V AND A, + L (large). Biffed the answer, but couldn’t parse it for ages. Nice.
18 Used to be — note — rubbish (5)
WASTE – WAS + TE (note as in Do Re Me). I though it was spelled TI, but there seems to be accepted variance.
19 In the morning I leave to see friend (5)
AMIGO – AM + I + GO

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1204 by Oran”

  1. Steady progress until the end. Left with bribing, vandal and escudo for ages – and a half unparsed cashier making me nervous about some checkers. Didn’t quite know escudo so it was only a letter trawl that got me there – and only then did I realise what “bit” was up to. Also trawled museums including the right one but the mental image was of &. Finally decided the Hande probably wasn’t a museum so Handel wasn’t my old German, so then entered bribing and submitted with fingers crossed. Phew, off to work for a rest.
  2. 18 minutes for this one rounded off my worst week of QC solving for a while. I missed my target (10 minutes)for 4 out of 5 puzzles and went into the red (15+ minutes) on 2 occasions. There really wasn’t anything here that should have been difficult for an experienced solver but ESCUDO and LOI VANDAL both held me up unduly.
  3. Another chewy puzzle took me over my target 10 minutes by 2:10. BRIBING, ESCUDO and VANDAL slowed me down. Never did see the parsing for VANDAL until I came here! Didn’t get the @Alt bit of 12a either. I was confused by the rarely seen bit, as it’s not used at all now, but I suppose it can be found in old coin collections. Thanks ORAN and Curarist.
  4. All but two clues completed in 12 mins, another 4 mins needed for 17d VANDAL and then I gave up on 4d ESCUDO resulting in my first DNF QC in over a year.
  5. Talk about stings in the tail! I was on a roll until the last few clues and then more than doubled my time. (I can’t use the Kevin scale today but I am too embarrassed to post a time.) I was seriously delayed by Endearing, Bribing, Escudo and LOI Vandal (I thought Handel as an old German but couldn’t parse it, of course). Clever clues and a sobering workout for the end of the week, Many thanks to Oran and Curarist. John M.
  6. A perfect quick cryptic for me as a novice. Enough easy ones to get you going then some more difficult ones and always at least one I couldn’t get but this blog fantastic for the learning process. Thank you.
  7. I found this quite tricky for a quickie but with lots of lovely clues. I like ASTOUND and ENDEARING but STUMPED is my favourite… way out, indeed. VANDAL my LOI. 8:33
  8. I was solving online and had most of this done in 12 minutes.It felt like an entry-level puzzle until I returned to the four clues which delayed me 9a 12a 4d and 17d.
    I knew Cashier in both meanings so that helped with the others. I thought Escudo was tough as no way of getting it without the GK. Endearing was endearing.
    I had put Handel at 17d and crossed it out. I thought Handel was considered English but he was probably born in Germany-I’m going to check.
    I could not think of a museum which fitted despite visiting the V&A quite often. I was bogged down in the ampersand.
    Eventually I assumed there must be the Hande museum in Germany somewhere so in it went. The machine kindly told me to try again and I thought of Vandal.
    So about 22 minutes in all adjusting for a 5 minutes interruption from my wife. David
  9. DNF for me, had it all done in less than 10 but DNK ESCUDO and gave up because couldn’t break it down from wordplay (I now see there was none). Hey ho.

    Fun puzzle, I thought STUMPED was particularly excellent because even having got the anagram it took me ages to parse it and write it in! Very clever.

    Thanks to Oran and to Curarist for bringing light to my darkness.

    Templar

  10. I was clearly on Oran’s wavelength because all bar the parsing of 17d (LOI) went in fairly easily and I completed the grid in under 10 minutes. Fortunately I did a spellcheck and picked up on 2 typos bringing my time up to 10.35. I’m sure AMIGO and ERICA have appeared recently which helped matters.
    Joint CoD to 12 and 20a
  11. Did three quarters of this quite comfortably and then went out for the day, confident that I’d finish this puzzle in a trice on my return. Uh, no! I did eventually solve all the remaining clues – except for 4 down which I did not know (so could not hope to get) – but I was seriously held up by 14 down. I thought that “Dan’s out” meant remove “d” from “desperate ” to create a word from the remainder that means “to shock “. I only got “astound ” (LOI) when I realised that 20 across had to be “stumped “although (not being a cricket fan), I had no idea why this was “a way out” . I got 6 down but couldn’t understand why “rib ” was in there until I read the blog and even then I had to sit quietly with a cup of tea for 5 minutes before the penny finally dropped. I had assumed that it was some kind of Crossword Landese! Thank you so much, blogger and setter.
  12. Slowest of the week for me at about 40 minutes. Held up like most others by 4d and 17d and needed to come here for the parsing of the latter. Struggled to parse STUMPED which seemed to have the opposite definition until my husband (who doesn’t usually get involved) intervened with the cricket connection.

    Very much enjoyed the challenge. I have been nowhere near my personal best of 12 minutes (just once!) in ages but, sometimes, just reaching the end brings huge satisfaction, which is enhanced by contributors to this blog confirming that it is a real toughie… like today’s.

    Rather liked 3d, but COD has to be 20a for being so obvious from the word play but so impossible to understand why it was right all along! LOI ESCUDO.

    Thanks to Oran for keeping me on my toes and to Curarist for explaining everything. MM

  14. I too had Handel. Turns out there is a Hānde museum so does Handel make the cut as an acceptable alternative to vandal?

    JaneyL

Comments are closed.