Quick Cryptic 185 by Flamande

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Not my normal slot today – I’m returning the favour to william_j_s for standing in for me a week or so ago while I was on holiday.

If you’re having problems accessing the puzzle, it can be found here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20141121/356/

This day in 1905 saw the publication of Einstein’s academic paper in which he first posited the equivalence of mass and energy via the famous equation E = mc2. Fortunately today’s puzzle doesn’t require such penetrating insight into the very fabric of matter, with no obscure words or complicated wordplay, though it’s still an enjoyable solve with the good surfaces that I’ve come to associate with this setter.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Expert history teacher (4,6)
PAST MASTER – PAST (history) + MASTER (teacher)
8 After first sign of snow, we rate knitted jumper (7)
SWEATER – S (first sign of snow, i.e. the initial letter of snow) + anagram (knitted) of WE RATE
9 We run behind officer and hide in fear (5)
COWER – WE + R (run) behind CO (officer, i.e. Commanding Officer). The same setter clued this in Quicky 146 as “Business we run will make you cringe”
10 Old Testament book giving accurate facts, except for first part (4)
RUTH – tRUTH (accurate facts) without the initial t (except for first part). Ruth comes between Judges and 1 Samuel.
11 Fee for long-standing servant (8)
RETAINER – double definition. This was clued in the Sunday Times Cryptic in May 2012 as “Servant’s fee, paid in advance”
13 Newly-wed‘s second-class journey? (5)
BRIDE – B (second-class) + RIDE (journey)
14 Criticise characters in state government during recession (3,2)
GET AT – reversed hidden (during recession) in sTATE Government
16 Refined journalist from Warsaw? (8)
POLISHED – POLISH (from Warsaw?) + ED (journalist, i.e. editor)
17 Soldiers capturing a base (4)
MEAN – MEN (Soldiers) around (capturing) A, where “mean” here is an adjective
20 Health resort in European country (5)
SPAIN – SPA (Health resort) + IN
21 Fiddles making loud noises (7)
RACKETS – double definition
22 Helpless, being under influence of drugs but not alcohol? (4,3,3)
HIGH AND DRY – HIGH (being under influence of drugs) AND DRY (but not under influence of alcohol)
Down
1 Difficult question for artist’s model (5)
POSER – double definition
2 Bill given with last course? That’s a bloomer (5,7)
SWEET WILLIAM – SWEET (last course) + WILLIAM (Bill). Wikipedia claims that the flowers of the Sweet William are edible – please comment below if you have recently munched on one.
3 Ally regularly embattled (4)
MATE – alternate letters (regularly) of eMbAtTlEd
4 Loud yell from hikers in trouble (6)
SHRIEK – anagram (in trouble) of HIKERS
5 Swap old coins? (8)
EXCHANGE – EX (old) + CHANGE (coins?)
6 How one might shirk duty? He’s wangled it somehow (5,3,4)
SWING THE LEAD – anagram (somehow) of HE’S WANGLED IT. This phrase apparently has a nautical origin, referring to sailors who dawdled while taking soundings.
7 Territorials and gunners twice climbing mountain (6)
ARARAT – TA (Territorials, i.e. Territorial Army) + RA + RA (gunners twice, i.e. Royal Artillery twice) reversed (climbing). The mountain that is rumoured to be the final resting place of Noah’s Ark.
12 Link she forged with one capital city (8)
HELSINKI – anagram (forged) of LINK SHE + I (one). This was clued in the Guardian earlier this year via “Where Catalans might wash in the middle of this European city” – such whimsical wordplay is unlikely to make it into either the main Times cryptic or the Quicky, but I thought it was amusing.
13 Way to get round heart surgery? (6)
BYPASS – double definition
15 Deficiency daughter identified on our planet (6)
DEARTH – D (daughter) + EARTH (our planet)
18 A street in New York is very unpleasant (5)
NASTY – A + ST (street) all inside NY (New York)
19 Examine small container (4)
SCAN – S (small) + CAN (container)

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 185 by Flamande”

  2. I was going to say the same thing as Mohn–not about Einstein, whoever he was, but about the nice surfaces. 6d took a moment, since I only came across the phrase once, in a regular cryptic; but at least I didn’t have to write down the anagrist letters, something I have to do all too often with the regulars, and occasionally here. 4:30.
  3. Took me 12 minutes but I honestly think that’s as fast as I could ever manage on an iPad. Every single one was a write in, I didn’t even need to work out the anagrams like I normally do. I enjoyed it though, because this is the first one I’ve ever done where I genuinkey just filled it all in without a pause.
  4. A write in for me too, less than 5 mins with only 4 down (first thought was “scream”) and 17 ac (had to pause for a mo) requiring any real thought.

    Chapeau to Flamande for 22 ac, though, a genuinely excellent and witty clue!

  5. I too found it a breeze. 6 minutes. Very few needed more than a few seconds thought. After an unusually quick drive to work, today has begun very well.
  6. Managed to solve all the anagrams in my head but not all answers were write ins for me. Just under average solving time for me.

    The story that the Scots call 2d Stinking Billy as a reference to William, Duke of Cumberland and victor at Culloden is a nice idea but completely untrue.

    Favourite and last in HIGH AND DRY.

  7. I haven’t been here for a bit because I’ve got so much better at solving these puzzles! The difference has been that I can now most often at least understand why an answer is right, even if I can’t solve the clue myself. I’ve come back today just to boast how this was the first time I just sat down and solved a puzzle in one sitting, and in less than half an hour. It may be trivially easy for you lot, but for me it’s a triumph! I couldn’t have got this far without you, so thanks everyone for your patient explanations of the last 184 Quick Cryptics.
  8. A 7.54′ tap in which is about as fast as I can go on the ipad while holding a cup of coffee in the other hand!
  9. No trouble with 16 since I learned that ‘men’ (surely only in crosswordland) can still be synonymous with ‘soldiers’. I would say that this is so far away from present day usage as to need some sort of ‘olden days’ link. Army officers invariably describe themselves as soldiers. And the ancient ‘Officers and Men’ distinction is no longer useable. ‘Officers and Men and Women’ would sound quite ridiculous. Of course there is still a need to distinguish one group from the other but words like ‘squaddie’ do the job in real life.
    1. You might be right about the archaic use of “men” – I keep getting the image of Captain Mainwaring exhorting his platoon with “Come on, men..”
    2. Everyone has their own opinion of what a given word means, so there has to be a central arbiter for such discussions, which in our case is the dictionary. Of course, it’s entirely possible that the dictionary can be “wrong” but that’s the risk that we take – any such issues are something for the dictionary compilers to deal with, not the setter.

      I don’t know which dictionary is the standard one for the Quicky, but in the most common dictionaries “man” is defined as “an uncommissioned soldier” (Chambers), “ordinary member of the armed forces as distinct from an officer” (Oxford), and “a member of the armed forces who does not hold commissioned, warrant, or noncommissioned rank” (Collins), with no indication in any of them that it’s archaic. I have no idea if it actually IS archaic, but for crosswording purposes we have to accept the verdict of the dictionary. I speak as a victim of numerous instances over the years where the dictionary defied my personal opinion of what a word meant!

    3. My son-in-law (a captain) told me not so long ago that I had offended one of his friends (a major) by calling him a soldier. He was in fact an officer, it seems… and they definitely have men under their command.
      1. In I think the first volume of ‘Dance to the Music of Time’, the narrator makes the same error in French.
  10. And good. But I still couldn’t get men/mean. Almost mor annoying as I did everything else quite straightforwardly.
  11. I think sailors literally swung a lead weight on a long rope to find the depth of water below them. This was understandably seen as the easy option.
  12. Completed in 21 minutes, my first time under half an hour. Very enjoyable. Thanks for the blog which I read everyday
  13. Mohn2’s last sentence says it all for me and rather more eloquently than I could have done.

    Liked most of the clues, in particular 16ac, 22ac, 2dn and 7dn. The expression SWING THE LEAD needed a little working out with the checkers in place. It’s an expression that was dragged from somewhere in my memory bank, but still confuses me as to why it should mean shirking. As our blogger says, I remember it being something to do with swinging a lead weight on the end of a rope to measure depth of water when in a boat. But still not sure why it should be associated with shirking.

    1. When you ‘swing the lead’ you don’t drop it into the water, and so don’t have to use energy pulling it back in again !
      1. Many thanks for that anon. I’ll lodge it adjacent to ‘swing the lead’ in my brain somewhere 🙂
  14. This is two consecutive days with completed crosswords but with an error in each! This time 17a as REIN. I couldn’t get past RE for soldiers and went for IN having seen that as ‘home’ in earlier crosswords and hoped this would pass as ‘base’. I was encouraged by having the E and N to work with. Not so, it seems. So thx again for the blog pointing out my error – even if it was a little let down…. Now have to wait until next week.

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