Quick Cryptic 212 by Orpheus

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Thanks to Orpheus for a most enjoyable puzzle. I think it’s probably towards the easier end of the QC spectrum, but with a wide range of clue types in play, and very nicely done. Access seems OK today, but in case anyone is struggling it is here http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20141231/480/

Happy New Year to all at this site, and of course to all our setters. Thanks to all for the encouragement and for the sharing of wisdom: I’ve learnt a massive amount since first coming across this site in February. And to all the regulars here at the QC, thanks for putting up with my rants, long-winded anecdotes and attempts at humour – here’s to a great 2015!

Across
1 SLUGGISH – moving slowly is our definition. Answer also from SLU[GGI]SH: “melting snow” (SLUSH) with G for “good” and GI for “soldier”. When I first read the clue, good soldier took my thoughts straight to Svejk and I thought we were in for a real doozy of an anagram…
5 COMB – device for tidying hair is the definition. Answer also from CO-MB (“fellow doctor” – CO as in co-pilot, and MB being one of the several abbreviations for medics such as DR, MO etc.)
8 BRACELET – ornamental chain is the definition. Answer also built from (“manufacturing”) BRACE (“pair”) with LET (“allowed”)
9 DEAL – Double definition, with deal being a hardwood timber
11 SNAPDRAGON – spiky plant is the definition. Answer also built from SNAP (“Photograph”) with DRAGON (“fierce woman”)
14 ORATOR – speechmaker is our definition. Answer also from OR_AT_OR: a brace of ORs (“two lots of men” – with OR being standard military abbreviation of Other Ranks) including (“welcoming”) the Territorial Army (TA) backwards (“return of army”). Where would setters be without military abbreviations? Probably making more extensive use of chemical symbols and medical abbreviations, so personally I’ll keep quiet and happily carry on learning my REs, ORs, TAs etc.!
15 EMBOSS – to carve in relief is the definition. Answer also built from EM (“half of them”) with BOSS (“manage”)
17 MAGISTRATE – JP is the definition. Answer also from MA (“Arts degree”) with the letters of “it’s great” rearranged (“somehow”). Works fine in England where a Justice of the Peace is indeed a magistrate, but may cause a bit of confusion here in Australia where magistrates and JPs are quite different from one another. But, it’s a UK newspaper so home ground advantage – fair enough!
20 NAVE – body of church is the definition. Answer also from KNAVE – “Scoundrel dispatching king”
21 TEA CADDY – Double definition, with each being slightly cryptic and one also being a homophone for good measure. A tee (sounds like tea) and a caddy are both in a sense “supporters for golfer”: and the contents of the tea caddy may well be the Earl Grey leaf
22 YORK – City is the definition. Answer is hidden (“in”) “TurkeY OR Kenya”
23 WELSHMAN – “He may be in Cardiff” points us towards a bloke hanging around in the land of the rugby playing choristers. These suspicions are confirmed when we spot that “when alms” is an anagram (signalled by “distributed”) of Welshman

Down
1 SUBS – Double definition – subscriptions and sub editors
2 UTAH – US state is the definition. Answer also from U (“Posh” – as in the U / non U dichotomy coined by Nancy Mitford, a crossword staple) and HAT reversed (“headgear raised”)
3 GREENHOUSE – where plants grow is the definition. The answer is constructed from GREEN_H_OUSE: “Party member” gives us GREEN, “beginning to haunt” gives us H, and the OUSE is the “river” (Sussex Ouse, Yorkshire Ouse, Great Ouse or Little Ouse – take your pick…)
4 SLEEPY – Drowsy is the definition. Answer also comes from PEEL backwards (“old PM brought up”) “in” S_Y (“borders of Surrey” – i.e. first and last letters of our friend Nigel’s stamping ground). I remember learning at school that Sir Robert Peel was nicknamed ‘Orange Peel’ in Ireland due to his supposed anti-Catholic stance – always made me chuckle
6 OVERGROW – become too big is the definition. Answer also constructed from OVER_G_ROW: G (“grand” – abbreviation) and ROW (“argument”) come “after” OVER (“deliveries” – cricket reference whereby a series of six deliveries – or balls bowled – comprise an over). For the benefit of any newcomers to crosswordland, cricket references are deeply embedded in the DNA of Times cryptics – as are bras, Kipling’s poem “If”, Al Capone and the Royal Engineers – an unlikely cornucopia, but transport yourself to the mindset of a 1950’s English public schoolboy and you’ll be fine…
7 BALINESE – Asian islanders is our definition: the delightful natives of Bali, as gentle, and fun-loving a group of people as you are ever likely to meet. Answer also constructed from BA(LINE)SE – LINE (“part of verse”) “penned by” (i.e. surrounded by) BASE (“ignoble”). Very nice clue I thought – great surface and elegant construction
10 DRUMSTICKS – Double definition, one literal and one cryptic. For anyone who didn’t get it (took me a while) drumsticks are used to perform drum “rolls”. Witty misdirection from our setter, sending many of us (I suspect) up the blind alley of fillings for lunch rolls…
12 HOGMANAY – Our setter’s nod to tonight’s celebrations… Scottish festival is our definition. Answer also from HOG MAN (“pig breeder”) with AY (“always” – for ay endure…)
13 HANGOVER – …and our setter’s nod to the likely aftermath. Result of boozing is the definition. Answer also constructed from HAN(G)OVER – G (“boozing ultimately” – i.e. last letter of boozing) “in” German city from where Britain used to source its kings…
16 FRIEZE – part of entablature is the definition. Answer is also a homophone (signalled by “say”) of FREEZE (“become motionless”). Hard one if (like me) you had no real idea what entablature means: I managed to work out the answer (eventually) from cross checkers and the homophone, but my LOI by a country mile
18 ADAM – Gentle cryptic clue based around DAM being a word for mother, and the first gardener arriving other than through the usual delivery channel
19 CYAN – Greenish-blue colour is the definition. Answer also from Y (“unknown”) “in” CAN (“half of Canada”). X, Y or Z are the usual suspects when an unknown crops up in a clue

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 212 by Orpheus”

  1. 8 minutes. A return to form for me after several recent lapses. A very enjoyable and amusing puzzle. I thought the setter was kind at 15ac giving us EM as ‘half of them’ and not being tempted into the jargon of printing measurements that so often appears in the main puzzle e.g. EM and EN and their respective dashes etc.
  2. pleasant stroll today, and all the clues perfectly clear and not too convoluted.. though there were several neat “misdirections” which most of us will have fallen into at least once 🙂
  3. Got held up when I couldn’t get away from ‘bad=ignoble’ in 7dn for ages. Ended up taking 12 minutes in theory but a DNF in practice as I leapt into 16dn with freeze. The clue is quite correct though, the ‘say’ homophone indicator is separated from the entablature bit by ‘seeing’. On cricketing references – there’s a great difference between a rant at the umpire and stout defence with a straight bat! Thanks for all your QC wit and wisdom this year.
  4. Re Good Soldier – me too! Although I prefer the ‘Privtae Schultz’ reworking. Slightly topical too given the recent sad death of Billie Whitelaw.

    I thought this was a decent puzzle, started slowly but then a nice even solve with no big hold ups or revelations. LOI was Hangover but that was just because I looked at it last not because it was tough. COD probably emboss. Was very pleased I spelled frieze right – I do have a problem with homophones, not ‘getting’ them as such, but working out which spelling is the on required for the answer.

  5. Didn’t even need the blog for this one ( first time!). But the blog was still the most enjoyable bit of the whole thing and today contained an observation that is so accurate as to be an unfair aid (like Andy’s anagrams). And most of those public schoolboys snagged NS commissions in the RASC or similar where they mastered the vocabulary of Colonel Blimp. Bless ’em all!
  6. Maybe I am improving after all and if so substantially due to the ex lent bloggers here. I did this in one sitting over coffee after about five minutes in the docs, with about half the clues written in…..an excellent year on this site, good wishes to all and long may it continue….the QC brightens up the day no end.
  7. 9 mins for me, so most definitely at the easier end of the Quickie spectrum. I thought 18D (ADAM) was particularly neat.

    Thanks to all the bloggers and setters of this year’s Quickies, which have proved a most worthwhile addition to The Times’s crossword range, offering a way into the world of cryptics for the rookie solver and an enjoyable daily warm-up for the more seasoned cruciverbalists.

  8. Whizzed through this in under 6 minutes – nice to end the year on a high.
    My eyebrows raised at the thought of a snapdragon being “spiky” but on reflection I suppose the plant itself looks like spikes rather than actually having them.
    Happy 12d to all fellow cruciverbalists.
  9. What a glorious, light-hearted, witty puzzle with which to end the year! Huge thanks to Orpheus and to Nick-the-definitely-no-longer-Novice, whom I had the pleasure to meet at this year’s championships.

    It took me 17 mins which has to be my fastest time, with an occasional interjection from Z8.

    I agree with Deezzaa that no way are snapdragons spiky – I was initially envisaging some kind of cactus.

    My LOI was SLUGGISH to match my initial brain. I had 3 CODs – greedy I know but I couldn’t prioritise: DEAL for the beautifully simple double meaning, DRUMSTICKS for the really clever misdirection and finally TEA CADDY, which contained elements of both, exquisitely expressed.

    My 2014 has been enriched, both by my attempts at solving the QC but far more meaningfully, by the lovely people I have met here, both online and in the flesh!

    May 2015 be an excellent year for all!

    1. I would have been delighted to have met you at the championships, but sadly I was not there! Maybe someone masquerading as me (late middle aged bloke with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder clutching a glass of red – there’s probably quite a lot of us about…)

      Best wishes for 2015
      Nick

      1. I’m wondering who on earth I confused you with… I’m so sorry please count it as a senior moment.

        I don’t ever make New Year’s resolutions – broken as soon as they are conceived – but I will try to remember whom I spoke to 🙂

        Ho hum – today is another year!

  10. Once again got all answers except I put in FREEZE for 16d (I am not sure what the significance of ‘seeing’ is in the clue). I got ORATOR but did not understand the OR reference. Never heard of DEAL timber. Thanks for the explanations Nick and Happy New Year.
    1. As I see it, ‘seeing’ is essentially a link word, joining the two parts of the clue (‘giving’ is often used in this way, and other words are of course possible, such as ‘for’). There does seem to be something else going on here – this being a homophone clue – inasmuch that the ‘seeing’ contrasts rather neatly with the ‘hearing’.
  12. Add my thanks to the pile of others – have enjoyed the blog without which my attempts to get to grips with the cryptic world would almost certainly have foundered.

    Today’s was the easiest ever. I finished in 13 minutes without even a hint of a cheat. I even got the right frieze.

  14. Well, after a month at this game I have finally managed to finish one in less than an hour. Just 45mins today, and I don’t care if it was at the easy end – they all count. Thank you very much, Orpheus, for making my day/year !
    And a big thank you also to all the bloggers for your patient explanations and very helpful hints. Happy New Year everyone. Invariant
  15. I thought this was a nicely constructed puzzle, certainly well towards the easier end but very entertaining to work through. Enjoyed a number of clues, e.g. SLUGGISH, TEA CADDY, BALINESE, but my favourite was HANGOVER – very droll.

    Happy New Year to all here and particularly to the bloggers and setters for their time and efforts and to the setters for producing such well balanced puzzles.

  16. ‘Spike’ is a botanical term for a flower cluster. Both Collins and the Oxfords mention ‘spike’ in their definition of ‘snapdragon’.
    1. Thanks, Jack 🙂 That may explain why my Biology teacher, Anne Taylor of blessed memory, despaired of me!

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