Quick Cryptic 166 by Hurley

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This is at the easier end of the spectrum and an enjoyable outing, with plentiful opportunities to flex one’s anagramming muscles. No obscure vocabulary from what I can see, but the parsing of the clue for 5D took rather more time than coming up with the answer in the first place.

I will be on holiday until mid-November so I will miss my next scheduled blogging slot. Thanks to all who kindly volunteered to stand in for me – william_j_s was the name drawn from the hat, so expect to see him on November 10th.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Asiatic stint excited numbers expert (12)
STATISTICIAN – anagram (excited) of ASIATIC STINT. Shame on you if you saw “numbers expert” and didn’t immediately think “Ah – anaesthesiologist”
8 Tree written about in cultured language (5)
ALDER – reverse hidden (written about) in cultuRED LAnguage. Wikipedia tells me that alder is a popular wood for the bodies of electric guitars
9 Criminally re-use ID that’s left behind? (7)
RESIDUE – anagram (Criminally) of RE-USE ID
10 By sound of it, carefully select photo (3)
PIC – homophone (By sound of it) of pick (carefully select)
11 Nasty frost, wind, feature of winter? (9)
SNOWDRIFT – anagram (Nasty) of FROST WIND. This was clued similarly in a Saturday Jumbo back in February as “Feature of winter weather, mixing wind and frost”
13 Mammal, archaic, oddly abandoned? No! (5)
RHINO – even letters (oddly abandoned) of aRcHaIc + NO. Unlike in real life, “rhino” in Crosswordland generally means money – but not this time
14 First to see border plant (5)
SEDGE – initial letter of (first to) See + EDGE (border). The Ancient Egyptians made papyrus from a kind of sedge
16 Secures cloak for painting (9)
LANDSCAPE – LANDS (Secures, as in lands a plum role) + CAPE (cloak)
17 Lass from Georgia left (3)
GAL – GA (Georgia, i.e. the standard abbreviation for the US state of that name) + L (left)
19 Without the skill to be famous? (7)
NOTABLE – you could call this either a charade or a double definition, as if you are without the skill then you are NOT ABLE
21 Southern shopping area less than normal size (5)
SMALL – S (Southern) + MALL (shopping area)
22 Sadly moan— cider cut without consulting people? (12)
UNDEMOCRATIC – anagram (Sadly) of MOAN CIDER CUT
Down
1 Characteristic feature of Society cheers politician (5)
STAMP – S (Society) + TA (cheers) + MP (politician)
2 Extra item about constant dependency (9)
ADDICTION – ADDITION (Extra item) around (about) C (constant – take your pick from either a generic mathematical constant or the speed of light)
3 Flighty prison rebels I reformed (13)
IRRESPONSIBLE – anagram (reformed) of PRISON REBELS I. One of those clues where either end of it could be an anagram indicator, though the definition only works for one
4 Swimmer starts to train using rural baths outside town (6)
TURBOT – initial letters (starts to) Train Using Rural Baths Outside Town. The turbot is a type of flatfish
5 Source of funds in wall— all that money initially represents? (4,9)
CASH DISPENSER – the initial letters of All That Money spell out ATM, another word for a cash dispenser. A tricky clue whose parsing wasn’t immediately obvious to me
6 Excellent Duke provides support (3)
AID – AI (Excellent, i.e. A1) + D (Duke)
7 Begin to feel comfortable finding wooden bench (6)
SETTLE – double definition
12 Popular cutting remark on new worker (resentful) (9)
INDIGNANT – IN (Popular) + DIG (cutting remark) + N (new) + ANT (worker)
13 Change one’s mind about period of self-denial (6)
RELENT – RE (about) + LENT (period of self-denial)
15 Summerhouse in Graz not right, English boy losing footing (6)
GAZEBO – GrAZ (Graz not right, i.e. Graz without the letter r) + E (English) + BOy (boy losing footing, i.e. boy without its last letter)
18 Vocal, I like bringing up purple colour (5)
LILAC – reverse hidden (bringing up) in VoCAL I Like
20 Container fool overturned (3)
TIN – reversal (overturned) of NIT (fool). I also considered tun, as a tun is a large cask, but I suppose that nut carries connotations of madness rather than foolishness

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic 166 by Hurley”

  1. Thanks for the clear blog. I went for TUN, but I see your point about nut vs nit. The parsing of 5D was completely beyond me — I’ve never seen a QC clue quite like that before — many thanks for the explanation.
  2. Nice and gentle start to the week, but put me down as another who ended up getting it wrong with TUN instead of TIN!

    Also struggled to parse the ATM… Thanks for the explanations Mohn – have a great holiday!

  4. Two reverse hiddens in one quickie; I wonder if that’s happened before. As often with these, I got a couple from checkers and parsed only afterwards, if at all. (I felt sure, for instance, from the enumeration of 5d that it was CASH something.) I assume (correctly?) that ‘boy losing footing’ works only because it’s a down clue? 5:35.
    Note to Nick the ex-Novice: I’ve finished Kate Fox’s book, so now I know all about you folk. I also learned I’m naffer than I thought.

    Edited at 2014-10-27 02:18 am (UTC)

    1. Ha! Never seen the comparative form of naff – nice coinage! I found it profoundly unsettling, as it seems to indicate I am barely English at all… (maybe I have spent too long rampaging around in the Colonies)
      1. I meant to mention–and I really won’t add any more to this off-topic chat–that Kate Fox is the daughter of Robin Fox, an animal behavior specialist who did a lot of his work with Lionel Tiger.
    2. I would agree with you that the footing clue works only because it’s a down clue, but I must admit that when I’m solving I’m not really considering whether a clue is across or down so I don’t think I’d even notice if it was used for an across clue (unless I was blogging it).
  5. All went in pretty smoothly until the turbot-snowdrift crossing – tried to fit in turtle as you would when using a hammer to try to finish a crossword – but sense prevailed in the end.
  6. All very straightforward apart from sedge which took me ages to see. And then of course the slapped forehead. In Rome cleopatra never stopped banging on about being queen of sedge and be, I always thought they were rivers or regions or something. But perhaps she was talking about the plant. Or perhaps the writers just made it up.
    1. You are, of course, correct. Though I’m English (witness the ae diphthong) I have a lot of American friends and sometimes it shows. Anaesthetist has the added advantage that it’s also 12 letters.

      PS Feel free to sign up for a LiveJournal account or at least leave a name – we like and welcome all contributions to these blogs!

  8. The usual time. I would have been slightly quicker had I bothered to look properly at the anagram fodder for 3dn. I initially entered “irrepressible” and didn’t revisit it until I realised the anagram fodder for 11ac didn’t have a P in it. TURBOT was my LOI and I thought it was one of the better clues of its kind because of its excellent surface reading. I agree that the clue for 5dn is quite unusual for a QC.
  9. I enjoyed the anagram workout. Still can’t we them without a letter circle though!

    Good fun, COD to the especially cryptic ATM. Thanks for several parsings, Mohn.

  10. Was having little problem with this one, surprising myself at getting the long anagrams so quickly. But couldn’t finish with 7dn left over. I thought of settle as it would satisfy the first part of the clue, but had never heard of SETTLE=wooden bench, so didn’t have the confidence to put it in. Thanks for the enlightenment mohn2.
    1. Also my LOI. It only made sense once it was explained here!

      Edited at 2014-10-27 06:29 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks william_j_s. Must learn to do as you did, after all there was nothing to lose….

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