Quick Cryptic 1684 by Joker

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Seemed a bit chewy at the time, but is fairly straigtforward in retrospect, which means the surfaces are clever. LOI 6dn – they get me every time. Curarist’s third law states that if you’re completely stumped, it’s probably a hidden word. One day I’ll start to follow my own advice.

Across

1 A number of people run television for a county (8)
SOMERSET – SOME + R + (tv) SET
5 Cut good tree (4)
GASH – G + ASH
7 Barrier keeping tons off path (4)
RAIL – TRAIL is path, minus T for tons
8 Explosive is key anytime, unfortunately (8)
DYNAMITE – D + anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ANYTIME
9 Wide-ranging elite, 300 in Rome are upset (8)
ECLECTIC – anagram (‘are upset’) of ELITE + CCC (300 in Rome)
11 Unit working with energy (3)
ONE – ON + E
13 Union rioting about cold papal emissary (6)
NUNCIO – anagram (‘rioting’) of UNION + C
16 Ancient European in for a top Olympic medal (3-3)
AGE-OLD – A + GOLD with E inside
18 Marine mammal mostly seen here (3)
SEA – short for SEAL
19 Forking out pence in mailing? (8)
SPENDING – P inside SENDING
20 Be undersized and run down (8)
BELITTLE – double definition
22 Call for a young man in uniform (4)
PAGE – double definition
23 Man, say, is left with ecstasy (4)
ISLE – IS + L + E
24 Concern with bus in Essex dropping last two off (8)
BUSINESS – hidden word BUS IN ESS(ex)
Down
1 Doctor has son to encourage (7)
SURGEON – S + URGE ON
2 Mother queuing up to take drugs (8)
MAINLINE – MA IN LINE
3 Revolutionary is outside rabble-rousing? (9)
SEDITIOUS – anagram (‘revolutionary’) of IS OUTSIDE
4 One hundred to an indefinite number (3)
TON – TO + N
5 Idiot turned up with what may be Oxford detective (7)
GUMSHOE – MUG backwards + SHOE. (‘Oxford’ in crosswords ALWAYS means shoe)
6 Bag carried by fans at Chelsea (7)
SATCHEL – hidden word: fanS AT CHELsea. Stared at this for ages.
10 Never-ending scales, see, when playing (9)
CEASELESS – anagram (‘playing’) of SCALES SEA
12 Name talkative bird in short comment (8)
NOMINATE – MINA is a talkative bird, inside NOTE
14 Pointless to exploit fewer (7)
USELESS – USE LESS
15 Upset with what one needs to know when buying headgear (7)
CAPSIZE – self explanatory
17 Stray remark that’s critical over topless robe (7)
DIGRESS – DIG + (d)RESS
21 Volunteers beginning of Bungalow Bill (3)
TAB – TA + B

67 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1684 by Joker”

  1. Why did so many of us struggle with PAGE? In hindsight it seems trivially obvious what the answer was. I can’t work out why I was fooled by it. Has anybody else any idea why they got stuck? Did we all fix on one reading of the clue and not shift position when that wasn’t working out? I read once, in The Times I think, that Mark Goodliffe put much of his success down to being able to discard a failing parsing very quickly and move onto another one. Perhaps we all need to become more like him!

    H

    1. I don’t think it was obvious in hindsight. I have never “paged” anybody in my life (though I suppose the modern equivalent is texting), and nor would I describe, or think of, a pageboy as “a young man in uniform”. I have no problem with the clue as I can see both meanings are completely legitimate, but I can see why it stumped so many. The reason I took so long was not because of any reluctance to discard a failing parsing, but because there were so many possibilities to discard.
    2. I can’t comment on how others approached this, but I focused on ‘young man in uniform’ and went down the scout/cub blind alley. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hotel page(boy) in real life, but I knew straight away that page was the right answer, just a shame it took me nearly 5mins to get there. Perhaps that’s the sign of a good clue?
  2. Relieved that so many of you also found page to be a stinker. We thought this was a very good puzzle with a good mix of clues – ranging from very simple to some real head scratchers. Took us ages to get page and we ended up with a time of 23 minutes. Thanks Joker – great way to end the week.

    FOI: Somerset
    LOI: page
    COD: capsize

    Thanks to Curarist for the blog.

    Edited at 2020-08-21 02:57 pm (UTC)

  3. Joined others with a very slow start, then the answers started to fall into place, having two brains helped with a number of clues with one of us prompting the answer by the other. Pleased to finish within our 30m target for a clever crossword. Thanks to Joker and for the blog.
  4. I got there in the end but PAGE added a good 5 minutes onto my time so that it was 24 minutes on the clock when, via an alphabet trawl, I realised what it was. I enjoyed this puzzle, though, and thought it was imaginative. I especially liked GUMSHOE and will try to remember that Oxford always means shoe – lovely misdirection! For a while, I had in some wrong ‘uns – eg same for PAGE, medicine for MAINLINE, ten for TON, and my favourite, SHELLING (as in shelling out = forking out, led to this unhappy place by shilling and pence…. Yes, I know… ). Anyway, sense – and impossible parsing – put me straight on all of these eventually. Also, though 1 across, SOMERSET, was my FOI, I don’t think I recall coming across R as an abbreviation for “running ” before. Another one to remember. Thanks to curarist for the blog and to Joker for the puzzle
  5. Yes 22ac was the one that caused me a DNF too. Started with LAUD (lad with U) but it didn’t really mean call and didn’t fit with the down clues. By the time I was left with the -A-E I had lost the will to trawl.
    1. I also had Laud for some time, also misdirected by U=Uniform. That Phonetic Alphabet is used less often than I might have expected, some letters seem to be setters favourites (Charlie, Yankee) and others like today’s Uniform, much rarer.
    3. i also had laud- to hail someone to call? It then left me with a right dog’s ear for 17D
  6. Is a very old expression for injecting drugs into a vein. I remembered this from drugs awareness at school in the 70s. If you used that term in your local crack den these days I doubt you would be understood.
    22 ac. I had CLAD. Thus the SE corner took some sorting.
    Johnny
  7. No problem with PAGE, as I remember the days before everyone had mobiles, so pagers were widely used. MINA was known from previous puzzles – it’s easier for the setter to fit in than the usual spelling !
  8. Was ok with mina we’re a Scottish household and Chambers fans, surprised more didn’t fall for laud but also read country instead of county, really liked capsize and ceaseless once I had untangled all the ees and esses thanks both
  9. A bit behind after a busy week but took ages over this one. A DNF as I was tempted to enter caprice for capsize at 15d despite the obvious problem – just too tired to struggle further! Hope to be solving daily again next week!

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