Quick Cryptic 1574 by Joker

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Fairly straighforward, though 16a and 7d might cause difficulty. just over 8 minutes for me

Across
1 Thin tree chopped up, a number being bad (8)
THIRTEEN – anagram (‘chopped up’) of THIN TREE
5 I turn back behind unknown Hindu ascetic (4)
YOGI – I GO backwards + Y (unknown)
8 One vinyl is quiet, playing in a curious manner (13)
INQUISITIVELY – anagram (‘playing’) of  I VINYL IS QUIET
10 Throw out English judge before European court (5)
EJECT – E + J + E + CT
11 Round tamale that’s mixed up milled grain (7)
OATMEAL – O (round) + anagram (‘mixed up’) of TAMALE
12 Boy wizard too much wrapped up in short hair style (6)
POTTER – OTT inside PER(m)
13 Caper left one in short dress (6)
FROLIC – L + I inside FROC(k)
16 Young swimmer initially drowning, passed out in story (7)
TADPOLE – D (for drowning)  + PO (passed out – new one on me) inside TALE
18 Small stringed instrument needing tuning? (5)
SHARP – S + HARP
20 Unlimited oil and unction flowing (13)
UNCONDITIONAL – anagram (‘flowing’) of OIL AND UNCTION
21 Christopher E Bird (4)
KITE – KIT + E
22 Hot ire over sycophantic follower (6-2)
HANGER-ON – H + ANGER + ON

Down
1 Spare key, yours some time ago? (5)
THINE – THIN + E
2 Coroner’s investigation of death during hunt (7)
INQUEST – In + QUEST
3 Transporter of seeds was first in the conurbation here (11)
THISTLEDOWN – IST inside THIS TOWN Edit: LED inside THIS TOWN
4 Newspaperman given some credit, organisationally (6)
EDITOR – Hidden word crEDIT ORganisationally
6 Rather large robes employed, but not all (5)
OBESE – hidden word rOBES Employed
7 Perfect day in Scilly I, going about topless (7)
IDYLLIC – D for day inside CILLY I backwards
9 Taking it easy after middle of winter is potentially appealing (11)
INTERESTING – RESTING after (w)INTE(r)
12 Pull off penning religious books, whatever comes (3,4)
POT LUCK – PLUCK with OT inside
14 Student left with something quite profitable (7)
LEARNER – L + EARNER
15 Some eye queen with time for golf? (6)
RETINA – REGINA with T instead of G
17 Vessel contains a gold coin from the past (5)
DUCAT – DUCT with A inside
19 Support from chirpy Londoners (5)
PYLON – hidden word chiPY LONdoners

36 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1574 by Joker”

  1. Easiest of the week 6 minutes 45s.

    FOI 1ac THIRTEEN

    LOI 15dn RETINA

    COD 8ac INQUISITIVELY – might that be vinyl1?

    WOD 3dn THISTLEDOWN

  2. Slowed down by LOI RETINA and by having to do UNCONDITIONAL in my head. DNK PO. 6:47.
    1. You don’t need to know “po” Kevin – it’s simply the initials of three consecutive words.
  4. 12 minutes and yet another target missed.

    Slowed by THISTLEDOWN which came easily to mind but I took a while to see the parsing, also by the ‘boy wizard’ as I have studiously avoided all the Harry Potter hype of recent years so I didn’t think of him and was working on BOB as the ‘short haircut’.

    My first thought for ‘Young swimmer’ was TIDDLER.

    SHARP is of course out of tune, but the surface led me to think of instruments needing tuning, and most musical instruments left to their own devices will go flat rather than sharp, so that was another distraction in my thought processes.

    1. Wind and brass instruments tend to go sharp as they warm up from playing. Players need to play them to warm up before tuning at the start of a concert. Many a time I’ve cringed at school/youth orchestra performances where they hadn’t.
      1. Indeed. I had meant to write ‘stringed instruments’ as in the clue which had set me on my train of thought.
  5. I clearly had a major attack of glue brain today as I found this decidedly tricky. The NW held me up for too long, which wasn’t helped by being unable to unscramble the anagram at 1a, despite resorting to pen and paper. The 12s also proved obdurate where, like jackkt, I spent time assuming BOB would be involved.
    Eventually fell over the line in an undignified heap in 22.04 with LOI RETINA.
    Well played Joker and thanks to curarist.
  6. 21A… Did the architect have E as a middle initial? I assumed so and WREN had to be the answer… until I tried to find a word -U-W for 12D and then spotted DUCAT. I checked. No he didn’t, so I can have no complaint. Did anyone else fall for that one? 5:50.
    1. I also spent some time contemplating the WREN option but couldn’t make it work.
    2. Fortunately I wasn’t clever enough to think of that! (Great time, applause.)

      Edited at 2020-03-20 09:14 am (UTC)

  7. Thank you Joker. The only ray of sunshine on an otherwise thoroughly depressing birthday. 😟
  8. Is the DPO not just the initials of drowning passed out rather than the po meaning passed out?
  9. I usually struggle with Joker but perhaps he was in generous mood (three hidden words!) because this was only 1.2 Kevins for an Excellent Day. Fortunately it was one of those days when the anagram answers just popped into my head unbidden, instead of requiring lots of pen sucking, and that opened it all up. Lots of fun clues, hon mentions to KITE and INQUISITIVELY with its lovely nod to vinyl1.

    FOI THIRTEEN, LOI FROLIC, COD SHARP (very neat).

    Thanks Joker and curarist.

    Templar

  10. ….I have learned something about the tuning of instruments this morning !

    0.52K and very straightforward.

    FOI THIRTEEN
    LOI RETINA
    COD THISTLEDOWN

  11. After a run of missing my target or having silly errors, I left the puzzle until after a night’s sleep and was rewarded with an all correct in 6:58. THIRTEEN went straight in, KITE made me pause momentarily, but I didn’t think of WREN, and I finished with PYLON after considering PALIN(g) but fortunately saw the hidden before going anywhere with it. Thanks Joker and Curarist.
  12. I found this tricky but very satisfying – each parsing, when established, clicked together tightly. SW was my stumbling block – staring for ages at port luck then loi kite flew in. 12 minutes.
  13. I initially thought this was going to be a tricky end to a decidedly mixed week, but the top line eventually gave me a foothold and progress was steady thereafter. I even managed to get both long anagrams almost straight away, in marked contrast to yesterday’s poor performance – I’ve no idea why this happens. I certainly struggled with 3d, but thinking it might start with Twisthe- was enough to make the jump to Thistledown, though I needed the blog for the parsing. Finally crossed the line in 23mins (annoyingly, still just behind a limping Plett 🙂). Invariant
  14. I found this one of Joker’s hardest ever puzzles so hats of to all those who got it done quickly.
    FOI was EJECT. I made reasonable progress after that but biffed OUT TURN at 12d so when POTTER occurred to me for 12a, I rejected it at first. THISTLEDOWN took a while; hard for a QC I thought.
    I kept coming back to 15d which, as I suspected it would, became my LOI. After a long look I worked out the substitution device which I have seen in other crosswords and I finally alighted on Regina for queen and changed the G to T. COD to that.
    27:54 on the clock. David
  15. Finished apart from Retina which I should have guessed even if I couldn’t parse. A lot better than yesterday!
    Thanks for help.
  16. THISTLEDOWN was long forgotten and took ages to see, even with all the checkers. Otherwise quite straightforward.
    My thanks to Joker and Curarist.
    6’45”
  17. Well, I’m firmly with davidivad on this one. It was an absolute ******* in my view. I can’t believe so many people found it a doddle. I managed it a very few minutes quicker than david but I was over 3.5K. Some very nice clues, with hindsight, but they didn’t seem so at the time. Either my brain is glued again or I started it too late in the day and my brain was already exhausted. Roll on Monday. A frustrating end to a tough week (for some of us). John M.
  18. Looked very hard at first but answers gradually came, helped by a couple of correct guesses (THISTLEDOWN & TADPOLE). LOI RETINA.
  19. Maybe I am being very dense but how is ‘some eye’ the definition for retina?
    L&I
  20. I found this a pleasant end to a slow week. I think it always helps when 1a goes straight in. Some of the clues were quite tricky. All those I checkers in INQUISITIVELY seemed to hinder rather than help me, THIN = spare was a guess, THISTLEDOWN required all the checkers and I didn’t parse KITE until post solve. FOI THIRTEEN and LOI INTERESTING.
    Sub 11 mins. Thanks all.
  21. Finished just within our 30m target, so pleased with that, except we had regina for 15d, loi. Did not understand some eye as definition, as mentioned above, and we remain unsure about the explanation, missing the “of”.
  22. I thought this was a bit easier than puzzles earlier in the week and got on quickly to start with. Then I was totally stuck on 3d and 15d – because I had TIDDLER for 16A. (I was trying to work out how 15d could be Eroica or troika!) When I realised where my mistake lay, I finished it off quickly though I couldn’t parse thistledown or retina. I find these clues where one letter is replaced by another (regina to retina) very tricky. Thank you to Joker and Curarist for a happier end to the week.
  23. Probably the easiest of the week for me, but I still technically DNF as I put “Medina” for 15dn thinking it was a golf course. Couldn’t parse it, so should have known it was wrong. Overall took around 45 mins.

    Only other pause was 3dn “Thistledown” which didn’t immediately come to mind.

    FOI – 2dn “Coroner”
    LOI – 15dn “Medina” (wrong)
    COD – 3dn “Thistledown”

    Thanks as usual.

  24. … for a 15 minute finish, but pleased after a week I have found challenging to get over the line in one piece. Anagrams went in smoothly but SW corner my undoing, took a lot of staring at.

    A rare case at 4D where we have the Newspaperman in full – Editor. So often he is just Ed!

    Thank you to Curarist and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

  25. Minor quibble:Duct doesn’t really work as a vessel. Pipe or drain would’ve been better. Apart from that a fair effort

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