Quick Cryptic 1374 by Corelli

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Whoops, sorry I’m late. Had it in my head that my day was next week. Luckily this is a very straightforward offering from Corelli which I managed in just under 6 minutes. Nice surfaces on the whole, hard to pick a favourite, probably 8a. Overall a good example of what the quickie should be. I would have posted quicker if there was internet in this tunnel.

1 Rugby player’s support for part of hospital (4,7)
PROP FORWARD – PROP is support, + FOR WARD
8 Covered in snow, he really is impossible to find! (7)
NOWHERE – hidden word sNOW  HE REally
9 Little bird, just beat it! (5)
PIPIT – To just beat someone is to PIP them, + IT
10 Unorthodox letters from Aethelric (9)
HERETICAL – anagram (‘letters from’) of AETHELRIC
12 Off and on, Natasha gives exclamation of pleasure (3)
AAH – alternate letters or nAtAsHa
13 About to retweet sharp response (6)
RETORT – RE (about) + TO + RT (Retweet, which I gather is a term used on this new-fangled electric inter-net by the young people)
15 Punches landed also, we hear (3-3)
ONE-TWO – sounds like WON TOO
17 Peg is to pour, missing out Mark (3)
TEE – TEEM (pour) missing M for mark. Notice the capital M is superfluous. Capitalisation and punctuation are legitimately used to throw the solver.
18 Hawk and wren Margo trained (9)
WARMONGER – anagram (‘trained’) of  WREN MARGO
20 Swede delivered around start of January (5)
BJORN – BORN around J
22 Excited, maybe, preparing to answer quiz question? (7)
BUZZING – crypric definition
23 Former board member, Yankee, not in the book (2-9)
EX-DIRECTORY -EX (former) + DIRECTOR (board member) + Y (Yankee, NATO alphabet)

Down
1 Colditz prisoner, perhaps, with little hesitation, might (5)
POWER – POW (prisoner of war) + ER
2 Get rid of deliveries on Thursday before argument (9)
OVERTHROW – OVER (6 legal cricket deliveries) + TH (thursday) + ROW
3 Run from church in warm coat (6)
FLEECE – FLEE + CE (Church of England)
4 Sort of theatre for traveller (3)
REP – Double definition. The first is short for repertory
5 Protective coating putting stop to poisoner (7)
ASPHALT – stop is HALT, poisoner is ASP
6 Wife, roughly as old as us, taking heart from the bottle? (5,7)
DUTCH COURAGE -Wife is DUTCH (no idea why) + C (roughly) + OUR AGE
7 A lubricant he’s given out, not very generous (12)
UNCHARITABLE – anagram (‘given out’) of  A LUBRICANT HE
11 Capital place to see the animals here! (6,3)
LONDON ZOO – cryptic definition
14 Hotel do breaks: it’s what the climber needs (7)
TOEHOLD – anagram (‘breaks’) of HOTEL DO
16 Sara, bickering, holds tongue (6)
ARABIC – hidden word: sARA BICkering
19 Goes round yelling at first, claiming I’m filthy … (5)
GRIMY – first letters of Goes Round Yelling placed around IM
21 … and not what’s expected, not quite (3)
NOR – NORM, truncated.

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1374 by Corelli”

  1. About 22 mins. Completed with pencil and paper at home for a nice change.
    A little sticky in places.

    Last few: warmonger, grimy, asphalt, pipit.

    Csod: buzzing, nowhere, Dutch courage and grimy.

    Like the new glossary and I also discovered the snitch which looks useful for finding easier puzzles to practice on.

    Thanks.

  2. Not difficult today. Started with PROP FORWARD and finished with EX-DIRECTORY. 6:57. Thanks Corelli and Curarist.
  3. I came up with BACK FORWARD, but felt that couldn’t be right; PROP took a while. I’d forgotten ‘pipped at the post’, but it didn’t matter, with the checkers. 6:50.
    1. can you access the glossary now Kevin? If not, what equipment & browser are you using?

      Edited at 2019-06-14 08:04 am (UTC)

      1. I think the problem is with my uni–password or something. I’ll talk with someone next week if I have time.
  4. Not a regular visitor here, but thought I would pop in to mention the new glossary that vinyl & I have added to the site. There is a link in the “Links” section, top right of the page, underneath the Snitch. At least, that’s where it is when viewed as a standard webpage .. for those on phones, ipads or other strange devices, it might be somewhere different.
    Please feel free to chip in with suggested additions, (in reasonably common use) or amendments. I’m also on the lookout for really good example clues to illustrate entries.
    Since I was coming here I did do today’s quickie and found it rather harder than I expected .. mainly because 9ac and 5dn took longer to arrive than they should have done!
    1. Which site is the Glossary on? Is it on the ‘live journal’ site? If so, I can’t find it perhaps because i’m an iPad user. Is anyone able to help me? Many thanks
      Btw I find this blog so helpful – I am a very slowly improving novice!
  7. Maybe it is the post Galapagos trip jet lag but I found that mostly I was writing in answers and parsing belatedly. FOI UNCHARITABLE, PROP FORWARD unknown to me and was constructed from wordplay, biffed RETORT, guessed ONE-TWO and ASPHALT and DUTCH COURAGE followed at the rear. 10:20
  8. My experience chimes with flashman’s in almost all repects (including time). Quite a chewy one, this. Enjoyable but unusual. Some of the 3-letter clues didn’t drop out as easily as they usually do. Thanks to Corelli and Curarist. John M.

    Edited at 2019-06-14 09:25 am (UTC)

  9. I thought this was going to be a toughie as my first run through the across clues only gave me PIPIT but working from the bottom up the downs proved more amenable. Once I got on Corelli’s wavelength the acrosses turned out not to be as tricky as I feared.
    An enjoyable solve, completed in 13.57 with LOI 6d and my favourite being ASPHALT.
    Thanks to curarist
  10. Contrary to many others, this was my slowest solve for months in 38 minutes. I just didn’t seem to be able to get on Corelli’s wavelength as there is nothing particularly difficult here.
  13. Finally got back sub 10 this week in 8.26. No quibbles, good puzzle thanks

    NeilC

  14. …and not as late as I would have been… I had a mild panic at about 8:15am that I had forgotten it was my turn! Nothing too difficult, although the anagram at 7D took a while to unravel and I wasted some time trying to construct an anagram for 6D. I also worried that I’d missed a Q for a pangram, but the K is missing too. FOI PROP FORWARD, LOI BJORN, COD to DUTCH COURAGE… roughly as old as us – lol, 6:08.
  15. Teem for pour , rep for repertory, Dutch for wife, RT for retweet and prop forward for rugby player were speed breakers.
    Still enjoyable.
    Thanks
    SRT
  16. 6d – probably Duchess of Fife in CRS?
    [CRS = Cockney rhyming slang – suggested addition to glossary]

    About 8 min – when I try to be quicker I usually submit with a typo 🙁

    Edited at 2019-06-14 02:55 pm (UTC)

  17. Enjoyable evening solve. COD to the beautifully hidden NOWHERE. Never heard of RT for retweet, only saw DUTCH COURAGE when I had lots of checkers, and like many had difficulty in understanding how “wife” maps to DUTCH. ASPHALT also tricky, but was enjoyable once spotted. 35 minutes, consistent with my average these days – definite progress since my first attempts. Many thanks to Corelli for today’s puzzle, and all the bloggers and commentators who’ve helped since I started the QC’s.
  18. Chewy one, this, helped immeasurably by Mrs Tim (not that Tim) finding UNCHARITABLE early on despite claiming to be hopeless on anagrams. Gradually got to grips with Corelli’s style and finished in 30 mins. Good workout.

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