Quick Cryptic 181 by Teazel

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This one took me 15 minutes, and wasn’t the easiest of puzzles. There are a few local geographical references which may cause some difficulty overseas and perhaps a couple of slightly obscure meanings, but nothing too difficult I’d say. The code number in the URL came as  a surprise today having leapt forward by 27, but it leaves lots of scope for filling in the missing ones later and confusing me still further! If any Quickie bloggers are looking for their puzzles for the remainder of the week I’m afraid they’re out of luck for the moment as the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday puzzles loaded to the Quick Cryptic page are actually Concise puzzles 6561-6563.I have posted a message to this effect in the General Forum in the hope that it can be sorted out before tomorrow.

Definitions underlined
Deletions in curly brackets

Across
1 Ladies’ man more sensible, touring Moslem country (9)
WOMANISER – WISER (more sensible) goes around [touring] OMAN (Moslem country)
6 Very British cry (3)
SOB – SO (very), B (British)
8 Coward shaking, crossing line – but no actual fighting here (4,3)
COLD WAR – anagram [shaking] of COWARD around [crossing] L (line)
9 A trollop returns to American city (5)
TULSA – A + SLUT (trollop) reverses
10 What oracles troubled duke in country house? (6,6)
CASTLE HOWARD – anagram [troubled] of WHAT ORACLES, D (duke) – the stately home in Yorkshire most widely known as the setting for “Brideshead Revisited” both on film and TV
12 People at university get list of choices (4)
MENU – MEN (people), U (university)
13 Army doctor introducing himself, making rounds (4)
AMMO – AM, MO (army doctor – Medical Officer) – the idea here is that he introduces himself saying (I) AM (the) MO. ‘Ammo’ is short for ‘ammunition’ which comes in rounds.
17 Showing arms raised arrogantly (4-8)
HIGH-HANDEDLY – two definitions, the latter being figurative and in common usage
20 Stow a jacket (5)
PARKA – PARK (stow), A
21 To disparage massage a mistake (7)
RUBBISH – RUB (massage), BISH (mistake). The answer is being used as a verb here.
23 Brought light (3)
LED – double definition, the second referring to Light Emitting Diode
24 Observes proper military order (4,5)
EYES RIGHT – EYES (observes), RIGHT (proper)

Down
1 Northerly town – it burns (4)
WICK – double definition, the first being a town in Caithness, Scotland
2 Fight to stop man producing harmful app (7)
MALWARE – WAR (fight) inside MALE (man). ‘Stop’ is the enclosure indicator here.
3 Today be aware leader’s absent (3)
NOW – {k}NOW (be aware)
4 In London, Oxford or Liverpool, say (6)
STREET – examples (say) of streets in London
5 Reason gets one into a real mess (9)
RATIONALE – anagram [mess] of INTO A REAL
6 Dance son’s entered unfortunately, going the wrong way (5)
SALSA – S (son) inside [entered] ALAS (unfortunately) reversed
7 Refuse extremely dry drink (6)
BRANDY – BRAN (refuse), D{r}Y. ‘Bran’ = the husks separated from flour after grinding, hence ‘refuse’ or ‘waste’. ‘Extremely’ indicates we need only the first and last letters of ‘dry’.
11 To make brief contact and ask for money ignoble (5,4)
TOUCH BASE – TOUCH (ask for money), BASE (ignoble)
14 I will get porcelain round for grinding (7)
MILLING – MING (porcelain) around I’LL
15 Place of worship built cheap – a pound (6)
CHAPEL – anagram [built] of CHEAP, L (pound – as in L.s.d)
16 Course held in centre ended (6)
ENTRÉE – hidden inside {c}ENTRE E{nded}
18 Appear bloody, wounded by bull (5)
GORED – GO RED (appear bloody)
19 Try a lot of pellets (4)
SHOT – double definition
22 Ban from pub (3)
BAR – double definition

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic 181 by Teazel”

  1. Found this reasonably straightforward until the last couple, which I was stuck on for some time. For some reason, struggled to spot the CASTLE HOWARD anagram – was looking for something more complex involving an anagram of Oracles and something about a duke or a country… no idea why I make life so difficult for myself!

    LOI was TOUCH BASE, where I convinced myself “ignoble” was the definition for the complete answer: having got the TOUCH quite quickly, I then got into murky waters trying to find ignoble touching scenarios.

    Agree with you re. obscure UK geography. I happened to know WICK (for some reason the name appealed to me when I was a kid), but it would not be widely known amongst the good people of Western Sydney. Oxford and liverpool Street OK for me as I reckon anything on the Monopoly board has become part of the global vocabulary (yes, big call I know!)

    Thanks for raising the numbering in the forum. I’m on this Weds and tried to get an advance viewing, but failed. Then ran through multiple permutations and still failed… Hope they get it fixed so I can tackle the blog Tuesday!

    Edited at 2014-11-17 02:30 am (UTC)

  2. Not very keen on the clue type in 4d, the crypticity being reduced periously close to zero. Pretty straightforward overall if you’re a mapaholic type.
  3. Do millers throw bran away? Is it not supposed to contain all kinds of nutritious stuff, highly valued in these days of high fibre diets? I thought ‘chaff’ was the throw away bit.
  4. Bran was also a problem for me and I looked for other meanings of refuse. I looked at a lot of northerly towns like Bury, Diss and Rhyl before I chanced upon the northernmost one in Scotland viz Wick. Castle Howard was the most difficult and I had to resort to Andy’s anagram solver until I eventually got there.

    Edited at 2014-11-17 02:02 pm (UTC)

  5. Agree about bran.. I buy the stuff to add to the loaves I make. However i concede that it has been treated as rubbish often enough.. a bran-tub for example, is hardly a high value usage of the bran.

    So far as the url numbering is concerned, I expect the Times will change it soon to make it opaque, as they did with the urls of their other crosswords once they became public property. So enjoy it while you can!

    Edited at 2014-11-17 02:15 pm (UTC)

  6. I actually got there by parsing as BAN refuse extremely and DRY. I am sure this is wrong but it worked a miracle
  7. Solution 1: as described above

    Solution 2: spell WOMANISER as WOMANIZER then you can have ZEROES for 4 DOWN, meaning there are two “O”s in each of the words.

  8. Worked through this one steadily and without too many problems in the end. Around the middle level of difficulty for a quick cryptic I thought.

    Like Ulaca didn’t much like 4dn. Couldn’t see any other answer but BRANDY for 7dn and agree with achillesheling that chaff is the rubbish. But if that’s what Chambers says, then who am I to complain….. With respect to 1dn, I seemed to remember Wick as a town (didn’t realise it was in Scotland though) but initially clued the answer as something that burns and after that couldn’t see another answer.

    Thanks for the blog Jackkt.

    Edited at 2014-11-17 06:29 pm (UTC)

  9. I am very old but I have never seen bran in a bran tub. When I was young, forties, fifties, shops did sometimes have tubs where for a fee a kid could rummage around for a ‘lucky dip’. But it was always sawdust we were exploring and it felt great.
  10. My new job, combined with subsequent Grandma-stuff conspired to get me starting to solve at 11.42pm.

    Took 24 mins with a light smattering of Z8ery. Unlike Ulaca 4dn was my COD; I thought it was ingenious.

    17 ac was my LOI – took ages to enter the crossing ENTREE. I’m not known for my Geographical prowess but @I did know both Wick & Castle Howard.

  11. I guessed Wick as a possible town early on but was unwilling to plump for it, objecting that the whole idea of a wick is not to burn. It is the oil or candlewax, etc, which burns. Any burning of the wick is an inconvenience in an oil lamp and, in a candle, the consequence of exposure to the atmosphere when the surrounding candlewax has burnt away.

    From Misocapnic.

    1. Well they still burn (by your own admission “any burning of the wick”) otherwise a burnt out candle would leave its wick intact.

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