Quick Cryptic 1904 by Corelli

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another gentle outing, with little to trap the unwary except for a couple of bits of slightly obscure vocabulary. Just over 5 minutes for me.

Across
1 Put off, with bombs laid? Resolute! (10)
DETERMINED – DETER (put off) + MINED (bombs laid)
8 True about first half of semi being close again (6)
RESEAL – REAL outside SE (half of ‘semi’)
9 Monthly, perhaps, miners getting large bottle (6)
MAGNUM – MAG (i.e. monthy magazine) + NUM (National Union of Mineworkers)
10 Huge land mass, like one close to Africa (4)
ASIA – AS + I + A (closing letter of ‘Africa’)
11 Musical works about New Testament — a task unfinished (8)
CANTATAS – CA (about) + NT (new testament) + A TAS[k]
12 Protect piece oddly only appearing in verse (6)
POETIC –  alternate letters of PrOtEcT pIeCe
14 Songbird cut half of this fly (6)
THRUSH – TH (half of ‘this’) + RUSH
16 Boy clutching twisted ankle in English national park (8)
LAKELAND –  anagram (‘twisted’) of ANKLE, inserted into LAD
18 Record thanks at start of gym class (4)
TAPE – TA + PE
20 Wide-sleeved garment in khaki — monochrome (6)
KIMONO – hidden word: khaKI MONOchrome
21 Rubbish I used to kick? (2,4)
MY FOOT – self explanatory
22 Bedpan Alex ordered that can be enlarged (10)
EXPANDABLE – anagram (‘ordered’) of BEDPAN ALEX

Down
2 Beer or tea makers have dropped the first two jugs (5)
EWERS – BREWERS without the first two letters
3 A gentle eccentric, dignified and graceful (7)
ELEGANT – anagram (‘eccentric’) of A GENTLE
4 Honey from bee? Well, finally (3)
MEL – last letters of froM beE welL. I was not aware of this word, but it apparently means honey when used in pharmceutical preparations 
5 Sadly admit none put up for post? (9)
NOMINATED – anagram (‘sadly’) of ADMIT NONE
6 Closely follow mother’s principles (5)
DOGMA – DOG + MA
7 Turned up a copper in standard old money (6)
DUCATS – A CU (a copper) inside STD (standard) all upside down
11 Raise a ring, ecstatic (4-1-4)
COCK-A-HOOP – COCK (raise) + A + HOOP (ring)
13 Took a pistol, cornering wild mammals (6)
OKAPIS – hidden word: toOK A PIStol
15 Liqueur drunk at a fair (7)
RATAFIA – anagram (‘drunk’) of AT A FAIR. Never heard of this one.
17 Fiancée, finally, bound to run off secretly (5)
ELOPE – E (end of fiancée) + LOPE
19 Move stealthily from front of boat at length (5)
PROWL – PROW + L
21 Staff removing the last of stacks (3)
MAN – MANY truncated. ‘Staff’ as in a verb.

82 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1904 by Corelli”

  1. Whether it’s a national park or not, I didn’t know LAKELAND, but it was hardly a problem. Biffed MEL–not too risky with the M and L in. MEL as in MELlifluous. 5:55.
    1. I agree with you – it couldn’t really have been anything else but I’m not sure the compilers always think about that when they use obscure words. My feeling is if it isn’t in all the standard dictionaries (eg Chambers Collins or OED) it’s probably not suitable for a quickie!
      1. 4Dn MEL was my first one in – from the Latin.

        Edited at 2021-06-25 10:22 am (UTC)

        1. I keep bees and, over the years have been given numerous honey pots, often with the word Mel rather than Honey — expecially if bought abroad.
          1. These responses miss the point. It may be in use and it may be in some dictionaries but if it isn’t in eg the OED it is too obscure for a quickie in my view
              1. Yes it is a real word but that was never my point – it’s not in the OED . If it had been in the OED and Collins but not in Chambers I would have said the same!
      2. Just checked the full OED, and MEL=honey does not appear in its 600,000 words. But look out for “A unit of subjective pitch, the pitch of a note of frequency 1000 Hz being equal to 1000 mels”.


        Unit of pitch ends calm lute madrigal (3)

    1. ‘English Lakeland’ is an alternative name for the Lake District, a mountainous area in north west England.
      1. Indeed it is Jack, but the clue specifies “national park” so it’s an incorrect usage.
  3. 9 minutes for this one.

    MEL was completely new to me. I knew RATAFIA as a type of biscuit, a macaroon flavoured with almonds or apricots or both in combination; I’m not sure if I’ve met it as a liqueur before but presumably that’s where the flavouring comes from.

    Corelli is a very occasional setter having given us only 23 puzzles since his first QC #13 in March 2014. At least 7 of them have had themes and 5 of those on literary stuff. I looked for something today but wasn’t able to find anything. Perhaps someone else can?

    Edited at 2021-06-25 06:13 am (UTC)

    1. Maybe pushing it a bit as a literary theme, but Wordsworth, that famous Lakeland poet, wrote ‘The Reverie of Poor Susan’ about a country girl in London hearing a thrush.
  4. Nothing too taxing despite a couple of unknowns in MEL and RATAFIA. I did briefly look for a nina but it’s very rare that I spot them and today was no exception. I enjoyed the concept of an EXPANDABLE bedpan. Finished in 8.39 with an unparsed MAN.
    Thanks to Curarist
  5. I found this a toughie. 21m. The NW took ages. Not heard of Mel even though I knew the french word (doh). I was looking for two words to truncate for Ewers and even toyed with Tsetsi for the the fly. Got there in the end and well done setter. Thanks to blogger too.
  6. I have to disagree with curarist and say the inclusion of obscure vocabulary made this decidedly tricky. I don’t recall seeing MEL or RATAFIA in a QC before. MEL was the easier to decipher. I was slow to get going. I think ASIA was my FOI. I particularly struggled with EWERS and MY FOOT and biffed my LOI MAN. Thanks for the parsing. 11:21

    Edited at 2021-06-25 08:50 am (UTC)

  7. Not that easy but a pleasant change to be within target by over a minute (a few seconds under 14 mins and all parsed). FOI EWERS and LOI MAN. I agree with the comments on ‘oddities’ above but none of them caused me any problems.
    Mel is close to the French miel and means honey in Portuguese (apparently with a Latin root). MEL is used, particularly for extra-pure honey obtainable in Pharmacies. Yes I did look it up after completion.
    Thanks to Corelli and curarist. John M.

    Edited at 2021-06-25 01:31 pm (UTC)

  8. Pretty standard stuff, but with some alarm on pressing Submit with MAN /MEN both looking possible. Went with MAN if ‘staff’ was read as a verb, if it were a noun, then either work. A 2-1 score meant that MAN went in for a green 17:05.

    I was undone by a single pink square on Tuesday. Without that it would have been a week of 5 solved in about 80 mins total.

    I had to wait for all checkers for RATAFIA, but there was no other plausible way those vowels could go in, apart from a dodgy Dutch spirit with a double A.

    NHO MEL, I thought honey=girl=Mel.

    COCK=raise? What’s that about, cocking a snook?

  9. FOI: 10a – ASIA
    LOI – 21a – MY FOOT
    TIME: 61 minutes
    Clue Answered with Aids: 9

    I found this quite tough, with some clues being entered apprehensively, such as 16a – LAKELAND. I knew of the Lake District, but Lakeland? After I had entered the answer I Googled Lakeland National Park, but all it came up with was Lake District. So, I think Corelli was pushing it a bit on this one.

    For the moment I have abandoned my “3 lives” where aids are concerned, as it was restricting me too much, causing many DNFs. This in turn would lower my morale, and as such I would approach the crossword with a degree of pessimism. Hopefully there will come a day when using an aid will be a rarity for me, but for now I will allow unlimited use of aids, but only when I have exhausted my mental abilities to solve the clue.

      1. Thank you meolodymaker63, I appreciate your support.

        I now need to rethink my candy rewards. Perhaps only when I complete a puzzle using no aids. Else with my new approach to these crosswords I may start to get fat.

    2. Totally agree. I seek to finish each QC by any means possible. I prefer to do it without aids but, if I have to, I’ll use whatever I can. Then I can ‘reverse engineer’ the clue and, hopefully, learn something for the future.
  10. Bother, it would have been my first completion for some time if I’d ever heard of MEL which I hadn’t so yet another dnf.

    But a good puzzle all the same, mind bending and challenging. PROWL went in easily, MY FOOT was tricky — I still don’t really get it.

    Thanks to Corelli and Curarist.

    Diana

    1. “My foot” is just an expression of disbelief, as in “Poison Wyvern completed the Times 15×15 without using aids, in under 30 minutes? My foot!”
      1. I was ready to bring my psychological cudgel down hard, on whoever was making you the butt of a joke. Then I saw it was your name. Phew! What a lovely, self-deprecating sense of humour, you have. 😉
  11. Is there an animal theme? ERMINE, DOG, CAT, SEAL, ANTELOPE, APE, GNU, ELAND, PANDA, OWL

    Edited at 2021-06-25 08:53 am (UTC)

  12. I enjoyed this so thanks setter and blogger BUT I’ve never heard of MEL and if the blogger hasn’t heard of a word and even the OED doesnt list it, what on earth is it doing in a quickie?
  13. 11:39 for me after LOI MEL with fingers crossed. Did not see the parsing and I was working from the French word for honey -MIEL. I nearly went for MIL.
    Knew RATAFIA was a word but did not know it as a liqueur. And I also wondered about MAN at 21a.
    So quite a few uncertainties in this puzzle. But most seem to be guessing correctly so far.
    No one clue stood out for me today but a pleasant challenge.
    David
  14. FOI DETERMINED made me smile, as did EWERS.
    LOI DUCATS, parsed the ‘cu’ but missed ‘std’ so hesitated.
    Knew RATAFIA, and when I saw the checkers I knew the answer must be OKAPIS without looking at the clue. Setters love this animal.
    As OldB says, Miel is French for honey. NHO MEL but it had to be.
    When I look at the answers, most seem obvious. Don’t know why it took me so long.
    Thanks vm, Curarist.
    Later: oh dear, I had men instead of MAN.

    Edited at 2021-06-25 09:16 am (UTC)

  15. Not as easy for me as some others: guessed MEL (NHO) and struggled with MY FOOT/MAN – don’t get MY FOOT = rubbish. Is LAKELAND a national park?
    1. See explanation above from PW. It is an old-fashioned expression I’ve not heard since my childhood, but in Crosswordland that’s normal.
      1. I think it may also be a way of saying ‘rubbish’ using a phrase which refers to another part of the body without upsetting those of a sensitive disposition — My **** !

        Think Ricky Tomlinson in ‘The Royle Family’……..

        Apologies for lowering the tone.

        Edited at 2021-06-25 04:13 pm (UTC)

  16. Didn’t know MEL but the wordplay and checkers made it so. FOI, EWERS. LOI, DETERMINED. Missed the theme ’til it was pointed out, as usual! 9:15. Thanks Corelli and Curarist
  17. Lakeland is an older name for the general geographical area of the Lake District. You hear it occasionally from people who have lived in the area all their lives — normally the ones who still refer to the areas of Cumberland and Westmorland.

    But the national park is the Lake District. That’s what it’s officially called and how it’s branded, so if you’re being pedantic then Corelli is slightly off the mark.

    Putting all that aside, I enjoyed this and came in at 20 mins, which is the best I’ve done for ages. There were a few obscure answers (“Mel”, “Ratafia”) but all obtainable through generous cluing. I nearly got caught out by Man/Men for 21dn, but luckily “many” suddenly came to mind before I finished. Similarly, struggled with the “ag” element of magnum (assumed monthly was “m”).

    FOI — 1ac “Determined”
    LOI — 7dn “Ducats”
    COD — 2dn “Ewers” — knew the answer but took a while to properly parse.

    Thanks as usual!

  18. Unlike our blogger I found this challenging …
    …and ended with a complete guess for 4D Mel, put in only because of the French word miel. Fortunately correct, so the record books will show a 15 minute solve, but it was a struggle.

    I join those with a MER (that’s major eyebrow raise in this case) at 16A Lakeland; it may have surfaced in the occasional marketing-speak piece but I know of literally nobody who calls the Lake District (aka the Lakes) “Lakeland”. Not Corelli’s finest!

    Many thanks to Curarist for the blog and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

  19. No especial difficulties today. Luckily, I knew all the words, including MEL, because of its existence in other languages, eg meli in Greek (I seem to remember that Melissa means honeybee). Like others here, I hesitated a little over MAN but put that in because of its staff definition. I also didn’t realise that LAKELAND was a national park (what? Not a purveyor of domestic goods? ).
    Love all the animal references! Didn’t see them at all until I came here. Is MEL the back end of a camel? (as it were… )
    Thanks,curarist, for the blog and thanks, too, to Corelli
  20. So what have we got:
    ermine seal gnu ant thrush eland ape panda ewe antelope dog cat cock okapi rat owl and man
    And Pooh if you like
    What else?
  21. Plus ewe, ant, cock, rat, the two actuals … any others? Ten miunutes, all parsed except for man, which I biffed and was lucky, I could have put men, I dithered over which but decided to use staff as a verb, as stated above. FOI Asia, LOI, man. A great crossword for me, all those animals. Would not have seen the NINA without the list of animals above, then I looked to see if there were more. COD the two that make up antelope, found that very funny. Thanks, Curarist, and Corelli. GW.
  22. I was slow today — perhaps just not on the right wavelength! Lake District is I think a better term for the National Park — Lakeland makes me think of plastic kitchenware (and very good stuff too). I didn’t know Ratafia but it was obvious from the clue. MEL went in straightaway as MÊL is Welsh for honey. Love the connection someone made with mellifluous.
  23. of this puzzle than many others i.e. that it was on the gentler side. NINA passed me by as usual.

    Never particularly heard of MEL, but given M?L, and “from bee well finally”, it’s not too much of a hit and hope to put in the last letter of bee, especially if you have spot of Spanish or French (or Greek, as louisajaney points out).

    DUCATS a semi biff.

    MY FOOT went in last mainly because I came to it last.

    Sneaked under 4 mins.

    3:57.

  24. Sorry Jack, but Alfred Wainwright eschewed the use of ‘The Lake District’ – and used ‘Lakeland’ in all of his works – ‘The Bible’ on this subject. I have ’em all.

    FOI 4dn MEL (as above)

    LOI 8ac RESEAL

    COD 13dn COCK-A-HOOP!

    WOD 16ac LAKELAND

    Time 7:30

    Edited at 2021-06-25 10:42 am (UTC)

      1. I now notice that Mr. Jordan also misread your entry – thus I have removed my ‘Clang’!
        Your defence was unclear.

        Edited at 2021-06-25 05:36 pm (UTC)

  25. Stiffish for me, never felt on top of this one. Whenever your LOI is 1ac you know you’ve not done well! Really struggled with EWERS like Des and had to wait for all the checkers before sticking the remaining vowels into what I hoped were the logical places for RATAFIA (phew).

    Cracking good fun, a very creative puzzle.

    FOI ELEGANT, LOI DETERMINED, COD CANTATAS, time 12:02 for 2K and a Reasonable Day.

    Many thanks Corelli and curarist.

    Templar

  26. A fairly straightforward, but still enjoyable, solve with the very clever Nina completely missed as usual. Ducats, with std for standard, was the only significant hold up once I had enough checkers to sort out Ratafia. Mel went in with a shrug from the wordplay, as did Lakeland. 20mins and change in total. Invariant
  27. 5:29. Didn’t find this particularly easy, concentrating sufficiently on solving the clues to totally miss the Nina (so what’s new…)
    Thought it was a very good puzzle, simply shrugged at 4 d “Mel” but as others have already said, what else could it have been.
    COD 22 ac . “Alexander’s Expandable Bedpan” — now there’s a thought to take to the weekend…
    Thanks to Curarist and the Captain
      1. From the glossary..

        “Nina – a hidden theme or motif. They are named after the daughter of US artist Al Hirschfeld, whose name he hid in most of his artwork. Ninas are common in Times concise crosswords. They seldom appear in the daily cryptic but they have been known. For an example, look up Saturday Times cryptic 25,741 (22 March 2014). Ninas are similar to themes, but are invariably hidden.”

        I think you might have been thinking of a pangram, where the completed grid contains all the letters of the alphabet?

        Unless I’ve missed your point, in which case you can safely ignore me!!

        Edited at 2021-06-25 12:54 pm (UTC)

  28. Came to this late. MEL was unknown but well clued and close to Italian’s miele (I have one of their vacuum cleaners) and didn’t know RATAFIA and I was held up by MY FOOT which denied me the F (‘I used to kick’ needed an ‘am’ or no “I” didn’t it?). Before then I’d been desperate to whack in ‘retsina’ which has come up recently even though it didn’t work. No one else has mentioned not having heard of CANTATAS so I’m keeping quiet.

    Edited at 2021-06-25 12:54 pm (UTC)

  29. A slightly better end to the week at 11 minutes, but no nina spotting! ‘Felicitaciones’ to Desde tho 😊 Well spotted — and what fun. There weren’t as many contortions to fit the nina as can happen either. No problem with RATAFIA as a clue, but definitely as a liqueur! I didn’t know MEL but it seemed obvious from miel, as others have said.
    FOI Ewer
    LOI Man
    COD My foot 😅

    Many thanks Corelli and Curarist

  30. All done in 10 minutes. Of course we didn’t spot the NINA, but once it’s pointed out you just can’t believe you didn’t see it!

    FOI: EWERS
    LOI: MY FOOT (doubt I’ll ever use that in normal conversation)
    COD: COCK A HOOP

    Thanks to Corelli and Curarist.

  31. Only my second ever 5-0 week versus the setters, and all comfortably within my revised target of 50 minutes (2 mins per clue, on average). Actually, a total of precisely 3 hours of brain work this week.

    NHO MEL, but parsed the clue (and received another side-swipe from Mrs Random for my poor French). Took quite a while to get MY FOOT, and this gave me ‘men’, which I then couldn’t parse. Luckily, I thought of (and plumped for) MAN before putting down my pencil. I hadn’t thought of MANy, but my very flaky justification was that The Old MAN of Hoy might be the last of several sea-‘stacks’ in its vicinity.

    Mrs Random also finished in 36 minutes today, having been interrupted a few times. Unfortunately, she put MEN in 21d, so a rare tie between us turned into a DNF for her. However, there is still some lovely looking asparagus (Mrs R’s all-time favourite vegetable, along with corn-on-the-cob) on display at our local grocery, so I will buy her some this afternoon as compensation.

    Many thanks to Corelli and to curarist for fully explaining the solutions.

      1. Thankyou! It was much needed after last week.
        N.B. Friday’s are also Mrs R’s Gin & Tonic (which we shorten to ‘Ginc’) evening, so all will be well shortly.
  32. 22 mins – my fourth in a row at over 20 mins, so not a particularly good week. Really struggled with this one, failing to completely parse MAGNUM, CANTATAS, DUCATS and THRUSH. In fact I biffed so many that when it came to my LOI at 21dn I just put in MEN without attempting to parse it. Oops! Took time out to check on MEL (nho) but I had heard of RATAFIA, so that didn’t hold me up.

    FOI – 10ac ASIA
    LOI – 21dn the incorrect MEN
    COD – definitely the EXPANDABLE bedpan

    Thanks to Curarist for resolving those that I couldn’t and to Corelli for the workout!

  33. ….LAKELAND, I’ll merely say that the unidentified NINA didn’t spoil this for me.

    FOI MAGNUM
    LOI DETERMINED
    COD PROWL
    TIME 3:46

    1. and am ahead of Kevin, pitcaithlie, plusjeremy and the other regular sub 6’ers from the regular contributors to this blog, I am agog, waiting for your time, to see if I’ve managed to pip you. 11s shy. Dammit. 😉

      At least a decent end to a sluggish week for me.

  34. 4Down: Mel is Welsh for honey. To be strictly accurate there needs to be a roofed accent over the letter e giving it a long sound rather like the English “male”. Stuart.
  35. 15 minutes for me, in a rush, first thing this morning. Standard fare but for the Nina.

    Thanks to all for the good wishes for my upcoming birthday. We were exactly half way to Edinburgh last night when we heard that the McRotter bubble was forced into isolation yesterday by the potential exposure of a McRotter ankle-biter at school, so we now face a week in Edinburgh, and my birthday, on our own! Ah well, we’ll have a nice break anyway. Thanks again!

    2. Avoid Japanese restaurants in Edinburgh! One once nearly did for me! Otherwise try and visit the dungeons at The Castle. Truly horryd!
      1. Thanks all. I’m sure we will have a good week in any case, and it will save a few Bob. We are being stoic about it, and I can’t be unhappy, enjoying a bottle of St Julienne in the very nice apartment we have found in central Edinburgh.
    3. Huge shame. Especially as the laws or guidance rules don’t apply to the Powers That Be when it suits them.
  36. Finished abt our target time, but some clues caused problems. Failed to parse magnum, but decided it must be right. Loi 7d, ducats which we were very slow on. As one half of this duo is Welsh, mel was a write in. Thanks, Corelli and for the blog.
  37. Finished in 35 mins with no wrong answers today! Biffed MAN and MAGNUM, needing curarist’s explanation for both — thank you. Enjoyed DETERMINED and MY FOOT (not something I tend to say too often!). Thanks Corelli. Bedtime for me now I think 😴
  38. I seem to be out of step with this one, finding it quite tricky. FOI EXPANDABLE at 22ac, LOI 8ac RESEAL, but I’m a DNF, failing on MEL, which NHO, nor OKAPIS, and disappointed not to work out POETIC. Talk about obvious. Obviously got Friday brain fog!
  39. Not convinced that Lakeland is the “National Park”. That would seem a little off to me. Yes, it is a common name for the area, but the NP is called the Lake District. As for Wordsworth (1770-1850) being the Lakeland poet, that sobriquet was given before the formation of the National Park (1951).
  40. Late entry as did the main fare earlier in the day rather than this one. DUCATS needed a squint to parse as my LOI but otherwise no problems as MEL is honey in Greek — thank goodness my A Level has finally come in handy 😀

    Brilliant Nina. Obviously passed me by as did the equally obvious one in the main fare

    Thanks all

  41. Enjoyed this one though NHO mel, but it had to be given the clue. And yes parsed 21D (man) as i tried to decide between men and man. 25 mins, thanks Corelli

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