A straightforward puzzle from Tracy that doesn’t contain any particularly complicated constructions or difficult words. I thought that the surface readings were generally good, which might not help with solving but indicates that care has been taken over the writing of the clues. I found (my parsings of) 1A and 16A a little unsatisfactory.
Please ask in the comments for any clarification needed.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Worry about running short in shire (9) |
| CARTHORSE – CARE (worry) about anagram (running) of SHORT. An interesting one to start with. A shire horse is certainly a type of carthorse, but I can’t see any dictionary support for just shire on its own having that meaning – see jackkt’s comment below. Some indication of the definition-by-example might have made this more acceptable. I will mention here that a well-known anagram of CARTHORSE is ORCHESTRA so keep an eye out for that | |
| 6 | Graduate packing old feather scarf (3) |
| BOA – BA (Graduate) around (packing) O (old). Other than the feather scarf and the snake, another possibility for BOA is Mr John Boa, the current World Porridge-making Champion. Sadly he would probably be considered too obscure to appear in a Times puzzle (not to mention that he’s still alive, which would fall foul of the Times rule that living persons except the Queen can’t be used in answers – though I don’t know if that applies to the Quicky) | |
| 8 | Book is on units of heredity (7) |
| GENESIS – IS next to (on) GENES (units of heredity) | |
| 9 | Grazier originally brought in an American breed of cattle (5) |
| ANGUS – G (Grazier originally, i.e. the first letter of Grazier) inside AN US (an American). Perhaps most commonly encountered in Aberdeen Angus | |
| 10 | Established nunnery left on Hebridean island (12) |
| CONVENTIONAL – CONVENT (nunnery) + IONA (Hebridean island) + L (left) | |
| 12 | Outspoken, shocking court (6) |
| DIRECT – DIRE (shocking) + CT (court) | |
| 13 | Go round part of theatre (6) |
| CIRCLE – double definition | |
| 16 | Even at cribbage? (5,7) |
| LEVEL PEGGING – I can’t find any definitive origin of this expression, but a likely one is from the game of cribbage itself (in which scores are kept on a hole-filled board via the use of pegs), which would make this clue verge on the non-cryptic. Another alternative is that this is a cryptic definition where we are supposed to read “Even” in a different sense, e.g. “My father cheats at all card games.”, “What, even at cribbage?” | |
| 19 | House in very seedy area (5) |
| VILLA – V (very) + ILL (seedy) + A (area) | |
| 20 | Scamp learning to beg (7) |
| IMPLORE – IMP (Scamp) + LORE (learning, as a noun). We had this clued very similarly in the main cryptic last November as “Monkey learning to beg”, and in Quicky 100 a couple of months ago as “Beg mischievous child to go with traditional knowledge” | |
| 22 | Corruption – zero tolerance cases (3) |
| ROT – hidden (cases) in zeRO Tolerance | |
| 23 | Ivy, perhaps, always jealous (9) |
| EVERGREEN – EVER (always) + GREEN (jealous) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | First in court given long time in prison (4) |
| CAGE – C (First in court, i.e. the first letter in court) + AGE (long time) | |
| 2 | Bitterness of private, reportedly (7) |
| RANCOUR – homophone (reportedly) of ranker (private, in the sense of a soldier). This homophone has been used a number of times in the main cryptic, the most recent being “So-called private resentment” in April of last year | |
| 3 | Holds hearts and spades, initially (3) |
| HAS – initial letters of Hearts And Spades | |
| 4 | Feel bitter about unopened gift (6) |
|
RESENT – |
|
| 5 | Questioning former Ugandan president in Ghana’s capital (9) |
| EXAMINING – EX (former) + AMIN (Ugandan president, i.e. Idi Amin) + IN + G (Ghana’s capital, i.e. the capital letter in Ghana). There’s scope for confusion in parsing this clue, as Idi Amin is a former Ugandan president but we need to consider him as just a Ugandan president in order that the wordplay will work | |
| 6 | Start being silly (5) |
| BEGIN – anagram (silly) of BEING | |
| 7 | Pardon a crack about bishop (7) |
| ABSOLVE – A + SOLVE (crack) about B (bishop) | |
| 11 | Wobble, being unwell during leave (9) |
| VACILLATE – ILL (unwell) inside (during) VACATE (leave) | |
| 12 | Food store with very short supply (7) |
|
DELIVER – DELI (Food store) + VER |
|
| 14 | What’s Conservative agreed to turn a blind eye to? (7) |
| CONDONE – CON (Conservative) + DONE (agreed) | |
| 15 | Extremely visitable, pleasant Italian city (6) |
| VENICE – VE (Extremely visitable, i.e. the extremes (first and last letters) of VenicE) + NICE (pleasant). Anyone visiting at the height of summer might add a couple of less complimentary adjectives to this description. Marco Polo was supposedly born in Venice today in 1254 | |
| 17 | Manservant forgetting article at end of dance (5) |
|
VALET – VALET |
|
| 18 | King, white, finally in check (4) |
| REIN – R (King, i.e. rex) + E (white, finally, i.e. the last letter of whitE) + IN | |
| 21 | Boxer dog (3) |
| PUG – double definition, the first a short form of pugilist | |
http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140915/268/
The Times button has been broken for four weekdays now.
This was fairly straightforward but it delayed me for 13 minutes. I don’t think there’s more to 16ac than meets the eye with reference to crib scores. Collins has “Shire” – see “shire horse” and under “Shire horse” it has “often shortened to shire”.
Edited at 2014-09-15 12:34 am (UTC)
As for the puzzle link, words fail me. I’d fudged the URL on Friday so I could do the puzzle and blog it over the weekend. I did actually try the link from the Times website at midnight and it didn’t work but, as on previous occasions, I wasn’t sure if that was a general problem or just me.
Clearly it is not just you.
I just get told either the crossword is loading or I haven’t logged in. Am I right to assume that others are getting the same message?
I reported the problem on the first day (Wednesday I think) via the Times chat-line (advised as the best means of reporting faults by both the Times Crossword Editor and Peter B at the Sunday Times)and was assured they were aware of the problem and were treating it as urgent.
Not sure how you reduce a darts score though (taking him down a peg or two).
I’ve just about had enough of the contempt for its online customers displayed by the Times.
The ongoing incompetence of the IT Department was a weary joke for many weeks, but has now (for me) graduated from farce to utterly unacceptable.
Such a shame that a great initiative has been so badly undermined by the crass incompetence of the IT Department.
I will continue to do my Wednesday blogs (if I can ever find the crossword) out of loyalty to this lovely community, but other than that I am suspending all engagement with the Quick Cryptic until these idiots sort themselves out. Time to make a stand against this contempt for customers.
Global brand? Do me a favour! Junior provincial newspapers such as the Somerset County Gazette have got it all over the Times in terms of online reliability.
Edited at 2014-09-15 01:20 pm (UTC)
I note nine answers contain the letter V – usually only 1% of typical English text. This occasionally prompts me to consider such an oddity in taxing answers – made ABSOLVE much easier.
Another example of a NINA?
Philip
Pam