Quick Cryptic 1914 by Orpheus

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
So a little more tricky than usual, I’d say. I found myself taking an unusual clockwise route round the grid. There are a couple of obscure terms that only the more seasoned solvers will have seen before, and I was slowed down by a couple with too many permutations, e.g 1D. I knew immediately I needed a painter and an islander, but there are thousands of painters and millions of islands, so it didn’t immediately jump out. There ought to be a crosswordy term for such a clue. 9 minutes for me.

Across
3 Titled lady a person’s seen in pubs (8)
BARONESS – ONE inside BARS
7 Good meal including a high-class cake (6)
GATEAU – G (good) + A + TEA + U (high class à la Nancy Mitford)
8 Wastes pieces of fruit fried in batter (8)
FRITTERS – Double definition. Second one doesnt have to be fruit.
9 Gaze intently, we hear, seeing breakwater (4)
PIER – sounds like PEER
10 Pass senior officer briefly (3)
COL – mountain pass/short for colonel
11 Strike leading actor without regret ultimately, up until now (8)
HITHERTO – HIT + HERO with T inside
13 Isaac’s son’s particular appeal in Europe (4)
ESAU – SA (sex appeal) inside EU
15 Rebuff press employee round back of inn (4)
SNUB – SUB (editor) with N inside
17 Old man in temporary shelter given government protection? (8)
PATENTED –  PA + TENTED
19 Blunder, introducing Republican to Queen! (3)
ERR – ER with another R for Republican inserted
22 State of mind of officer originally in defence ministry (4)
MOOD – MOD with O inside
23 Bird requiring warmth in river (8)
WHEATEAR – HEAT inside WEAR (as in Tyne and)
24 Carelessly singes coarse-grained rock (6)
GNEISS – Anagram (‘carelessly’) of SINGES. Not a terribly familiar word, I would say.
25 Oarsman with Yankee in room by kitchen (8)
SCULLERY – SCULLER + Y

Down
1 Islander, one who painted outside a hotel (8)
TAHITIAN – TITIAN with AH inside
2 Try at first to hog this warm, inviting place (6)
HEARTH – HEAR (try as in courtroom) + T + H
3 Polish aficionado (4)
BUFF – double definition
4 Unusual Croatian waterproof garment (8)
RAINCOAT – Anagram (‘unusual’) of CROATIAN
5 A stingy type to annoy! (6)
NETTLE – Double definition
6 Father beginning to show anger (4)
SIRE – S + IRE
12 Sound of old magistrate supporting agent’s stay of execution (8)
REPRIEVE – Old magistrate is a REEVE, which sounds like RIEVE. Add REP for agent on top.
14 A parasite hanging around bounds of English tavern (8)
ALEHOUSE – A LOUSE with EH (outer letters, i.e ‘bounds’ of ENGLISH) inside.
16 Happen to live by cataract (6)
BEFALL – BE (live) FALL (cataract)
18 Less sensitive group (6)
NUMBER – Double definition
20 Stylish clubs here in Rome once (4)
CHIC – C + HIC (latin for ‘here’)
21 Wild party where Bess’s man loses head (4)
ORGY – Bess’s man is PORGY, remove first letter.

58 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1914 by Orpheus”

  1. My FOI was GATEAU, but several minutes then passed without any further progress before I made headway again, in the lower third of the grid (ERR, MOOD, etc.). I find Orpheus the most challenging of all of the QC setters, and was therefore very pleased to keep the ball rolling, albeit jerkily, until four clues remained (BEFALL, ESAU, ALEHOUSE and PATENTED). These took 15 minutes or so to crack, but I succeeded and crossed the line in 42 minutes. Given that my success ratio with Orpheus is still less than 40%, I count today as a good day.

    Mrs Random is a day behind the rest of us at the moment. She completed yesterday’s Felix in 22 minutes this morning and, as I had suspected, didn’t have any trouble (unlike me) with AGAMEMNON. She just solved the three component parts, assembled them and assumed she was correct. Yesterday, I solved two of the three parts of that clue, but, try as I might, the third escaped me and a DNF was recorded.

    Many thanks to Orpheus and curarist.

  2. … with an enjoyable puzzle, all done and parsed in a fraction under 10 minutes. My LOI though, 14D Alehouse only succumbed to an alphabet search (luckily not too long given the A-EH start), and parsed after writing it in.

    I didn’t know any of the chestnuts, which actually I think made it more fun to have worked then out. I sometimes wonder whether crosswords would be so enjoyable if one had seen all the clues before. But I’m not likely ever to reach that stage!

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

  3. Toiled for 30 mins until I only had 13ac and 14dn. Unfortunately my biblical knowledge let me down, and as it wasn’t my usual go to of “Eli” I just couldn’t get the first letter for “Alehouse”. Even then, it’s not the first tavern name that would come to mind.

    Annoying really as there were lots of clues I DNK (or was a little hazy) but managed to get the answer from the wordplay — “Wheatear”, “Gneiss”, “Chic” and “Tahitian” come to mind.

    With regards to “Fritters”, the only ones I’m aware of are potato based. Also thought the order of letters for 7ac “Gateau “ was a little devious — spent quite a bit of time trying to work out why “ate” was a meal. In addition, still have no idea why cataract = fall.

    FOI — 10ac “Col”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 3dn “Buff” — childishly made me laugh.

    Thanks as usual!

    1. Fritters (frittata) are commonly potato, vegetable, fruit, seafood, or bean-based.
      Like you, I grew up with potato fritters but always thought the word was just used to mean ‘fried’. John
      1. Just looked it up and so it is! Never ceases to amaze me what I learn on here (and how little I know) 😀
  4. Defeated by 11a hitherto, the rest of the nw corner we found tricky, got hearth without parsing and needed help fot 1d tahitian. No problems with wheatear and gneiss.
  5. I did struggle a little bit, TAHITIAN was a new one for me, WHEATEAR was constructed. Loads of good clues, and as with all the puzzles that take me over my target, all parsed too, rather than hurriedly biffed!

    ALEHOUSE probably by favourite.

    6:31

    1. An ALEHOUSE would definitely be my favourite as well, especially right now — after several hours of heavy work in the garden.
  6. A struggle to get enough clues solved to help with the rest, but I got there in the end — 18 minutes with several distractions, so I’m happy.
  7. Very late posting after a lovely visit to a garden where we were absolutely amazed to see a small flock of flamingos strolling across the lawns. Not that common in rural Northants 😂 And I promise I hadn’t been anywhere near an ALEHOUSE.
    This was an enjoyable 10 minutes with no scary bits for me — GNEISS only known from crosswords though.
    FOI Baroness
    LOI Pier
    COD Nettle
    Thanks Orpheus and Curarist

    Edited at 2021-07-09 08:24 pm (UTC)

    1. Was that the garden Carol Klein did a documentary on recently? If so, would you recommend Mrs Random and I paid it a visit at some stage (it’s a good few hours from us)?
      1. Yes it is! Coton Manor — about 15 minutes off the M1. It was our first visit but we’d go again. It’s delightful — not huge but you could happily spend a few hours there. Lots of different areas, fab colour in the herbaceous borders, very relaxed — and flamingos! I’m sure you’d find a few other nice things to do in the area if you made a weekend of it 😊
        1. Many thanks for the recommendation. The gardens looked very good on the telly. Mrs R is definitely up for a visit and a couple of days away. I’m not aware of any flamingos near here, but we are close to a flock of storks — the first to have bred in this country for 600 years — at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
          1. West Sussex — one of my favourite parts if the country. Lucky you 😊 Have seen the Knepp rewilding project on tv — looks fascinating!
  8. DNF today, mainly stuck on what you experienced solvers call chestnuts (WHEATEAR, TAHITIAN). I will commit these to memory! Needed blog to parse ESAU and PATENTED (didn’t think of SA for ‘particular appeal’ and was expecting ‘pa’ to be contained by ‘tent’ in some way, rather than the wordplay pointing to the state of being ‘in temporary shelter’). Still thinking too rigidly! Many thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and for the informative blog.
  9. Failed at the last on this one, unable to come up with WHEATEAR or ALEHOUSE. I’m not great on English rivers, and the latter because of a misreading of the clue – I was looking for a parasite including the letters E and N: the bounds of English tavern. That old problem of picking the wrong end of the clue. Sigh. Fifteen minutes of effort on the rest. Found this one tricky.

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