Quick Cryptic 17 by Teazel

Howdy y’all. I’m on a road trip from the mountains of Colorado to the Lakes. Having stayed on Route 66 (at Springfield MO – home of the mighty Bears Soccer Team), I’m now in Memphis Tennessee – so let’s get rocking and rolling…
Or rather I would if the online paper updated – I was looking forward to doing this at midnight UK time (6pm here) and its now gone midnight here, early morning UK – the Quick puzzle is ‘not found’ but the regular one is there. Ah – is this all some kind of April fool’s joke? Thanks to Ulaca for pointing out the missing zero on the address so – eventually here we go.
i really can’t work out why the formatting goes awry after 10 across but I’m too tired to do much about it – sorted now thanks to mohn2.

Across
1 So-so – SOS plus zero is only so-so
3 Scowling – Cow inside sling
9 Cranium – Uranium with C for carbon replacing the first letter
10 Sushi – American (US) inside ship without the last letter
11 Range – Double definition
12 Layers – Another double definition
14 Christmas Tree – Cryptic definition
17 Sweden – anagrind is stormy – of Wednesday minus ‘day’.
19 Facet – Fact around e for English
22 Rheum – Rum around HE for governor (his or her excellency I think)
23 Airmail – Announce is the ‘sounds like’ indicator (soundind?) Heir Male
24 Bullseye – Frantically is the anagrind for Buy sell plus e for European this time
25 Fray – double definition

Down
1 Sack race – Cryptic definition – do they still do these at schools sports days or have they been vetoed by the health and safety mafia?
2 Spain – Spin around a
4 Complimentary – Another double definition
5 WispyYet another double definition but a tricky one. I’ve never heard of Wispy and my brief look up just now didn’t find much – could have been wishy or washy but I guessed right. Oops – just seen this one – W for with plus I Spy.
6 Insurer – Cryptic definition
7 Grip – Double definition time again
8 Divers – And again
13 Mentally – People =men add up=tally – I seem to think we’ve had this recently – but then again I’ve been going through a 2006 Times Cryptic Crossword book on my travels so it may have been ages ago
15 Raw deal – War backwards plus anagram of lead
16 Safari – Cryptic definition
18 Dumps – Double definition – drops and you get down in the dumps when you’re low
20 ChairWasn’t quite sure of why – maybe carry is a sounds like indicator of triumphantly (chair could possibly sound like cheer? – doesn’t sound very convincing) and a professor has a chair at university and it means to carry triumphantly on the shoulders of others (thanks Ulaca)
21 Drab – Bard for poet backwards

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 17 by Teazel”

    1. Yes, of course! We’ve jumped from 116 for #16 to 118 for #17. That makes perfect sense. Should have seen that one coming.

      The setter is Teazel, btw.

      1. Also the Play link on the puzzles page is to 2014041/118/, so it’s broken anyway. What a shower!
  1. I raced through the LH and thought I was heading for a record solving time but then fell foul of the RH where I found myself struggling in both quarters. Finished eventually in 20 minutes.

    There’s room for a spelling error on an unchecked letter in 4dn, I think.

  2. Think Bobby Moore being carried aloft by Nobby Stiles et al holding the Jules Rimet Cup. Them were the days…
    1. I thought you were an Antipode, ulaca!! Maybe visions of Andrew Strauss being chaired when we had an Ashes series victory.. All English cricket has left now is old memories..sigh!
  3. 5 mins but like Jackkt I raced through the LHS before finding it trickier to finish the RHS. INSURER was my LOI after I finally saw COMPLIMENTARY and then SCOWLING. Good puzzle.
  4. 22 mins some clues went like a hot knife through butter but then I got snarled up. Put 7dn as grab until Z8 pointed out the error of my ways (He’s had loads of practice doing that…)
    10 ac & 22 ac stodgy ‘oh of course!!’ solutions.LOI and COD was 8dn. Z8 increasingly on sidelines just around for the odd yell of ‘help!’ Very pleased to plunge straight in with 1 ac – meaning I didn’t need a kick-start to get going 🙂

    Super blog Chris! Missing you already…

    Edited at 2014-04-01 09:46 am (UTC)

  5. Finished all but two more rapidly than usual but a DNF for me in my time limit. Stumped by CHAIR and FRAY. Never heard of the triumphant use of CHAIR and just didn’t dig FRAY out of my memory. They didn’t yield for me after coming back later either.

    Ho Hum.

    Thanks very much for the blog Chris.

  6. In the HTML, there seems to be an opening table tag at the end of the SUSHI definition, instead of a closing cell data (td) tag.
  7. Good blog, Chris, and jealous of your stateside road trip. COD to WISPY. I was surprised to see SACK RACE putting in an appearance just 24 hours after it last came up, though at least the clues were completely different.
  8. No, I’m a Brit living in Hong Kong, though I’m toying with idea if taking up Dutch nationality before the next various World Cups.
      1. I’d be surprised if Belgium get very far – one top player and a lot of decent ones.
        1. Hmm If you look at the Premiership it’s littered with very talented Belgians.
          I’m guessing Vincent Kompany as your ‘top’ player.. but the put Jan Vertonghen as the other CB with Simon Mignolet behind them in goal and Thomas Vermaelen as another CB if one has to mention Ars players. Then Dembélé & Nacer Chadli in midfield (that just from Spurs) Eden Hazard, Marouane Fellaini,Christian Benteke, Kevin Mirallas, Romelu Lukaku..
  9. In my edition of The Times, the number of letters for the answers to the Down clues are all wrong!
  10. Hmmm – this one took me longer than the other Times crossword, but I think it was the cryptic definitions that I didn’t see. I thought grip was a little iffy as a double definition, especially with gain also fitting the letter pattern

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