Quick Cryptic 2134 by Teazel

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This took a while to get going, and I stared for ages at 15dn until it twigged, so an above-par time of 9 minutes for me. Nice surfaces generally. My COD has to be 16ac.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Impose hand threateningly? Nothing in it (5)
FOIST – O (nothing) inside FIST
4 Battles to send back uncooked food (7)
WARFARE – RAW backwards + FARE
8 Cutlet cooked with last of the salad (7)
LETTUCE – anagram (‘cooked’) of CUTLET plus E
9 Plan to return by motorway to find seaside resort (5)
MIAMI – AIM backwards + MI
10 So loud it breaks the organ? (3-9)
EAR-SPLITTING – cryptic-ish definition, the organ being ear
12 Son, crazy, with a rash look? (6)
SPOTTY -S + POTTY
13 Made a gesture, and added name (6)
SIGNED – double definition
16 Law: handrails must be fitted for this ancient structure (8,4)
HADRIANS WALL – anagram (‘fitted’) of LAW HANDRAILS
18 A gorilla is dangerous (5)
HAIRY – double definition
20 One inheriting man’s sound sort of post (7)
AIRMAIL – sounds like HEIR MALE
21 Fine country, not good as marsh (7)
FENLAND – F + ENGLAND minus G for good
22 Check on success, lifting machine (5)
WINCH – WIN + CH
Down
1 Adjusts after force is checked (7)
FALTERS – ALTERS after F for force
2 Point relation out for introduction (13)
INTERPOLATION – anagram (‘out’) of POINT RELATION. The definition is a bit of a stretch but just about works
3 Swan, perhaps, or elephant (9)
TRUMPETER – a trumpeter is a kind of swan
4 Small snack put together for romantic film (6)
WEEPIE – WEE + PIE
5 Hit hard, run a mile (3)
RAM – R + A + M
6 A couple of improvements to make repeatedly (5,3,5)
AGAIN AND AGAIN – A GAIN x 2
7 Impressive film to be seen online? (4)
EPIC – E-PIC
11 Brothers perhaps man such a ship (4-5)
TWIN-SCREW – TWINS + CREW
14 Treacherous woman: all hide, trembling (7)
DELILAH – anagram (‘trembling’) of ALL HIDE
15 A name in a piece of ID is a hoax (6)
CANARD – A+N inside CARD. My LOI
17 Cook some quiche — fabulous (4)
CHEF – hidden word: quiCHE Fabulous
19 Nine months suggested, indeed (3)
YEA – three quarters of YEAR, so nine months

24 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2134 by Teazel”

  1. I found this hard for some reasoin and needed 17 minutes to crack it. Hang on though, I just noticed I hadn’t completed 1dn although it has come to me immediately on returning to it now.

    I also wondered about the definition at 2dn but eventually concluded that it’s fine.

    Edited at 2022-05-13 06:23 am (UTC)

  2. Went across the top to get started with 5dn RAM FOI. Then tough going digging out answers from wordplay to LOI: SIGNED.

    I had a question mark against FALTERS/Checked as I don’t quite see it, the answer was obvious from the wordplay though.

    25 minutes all parsed here in the Fenland capital.

      1. Yes, after reading the blog and extending the definition I made the connection.
  3. Had SNOOTY look – crazy anagram of “son” to begin it and explains why it never quite parsed the rash part but there are always known unknowns in QCs for me.

    Such as a TWIN-SCREW (which I could parse but NHO boat) but NHO TRUMPETER (being a swan), HAIRY (vaguely seen this before as a gorilla) or YEA (being short for a year). And the parsing of FENLAND being nothing to do with the fine land of FiNLAND!

    Also double-checked meaning of CANARD before I put it in.

    FOI MIAMI
    LOI FALTERS
    COD EPIC

    All in all, felt tough as the definitions/clues weren’t as generous as other days but strangely quickest filling out of the week.

    Thanks to Curarist and Teazel.

    Edited at 2022-05-13 07:23 am (UTC)

  4. A strange solve with most of it going in ok and then being left with 4 clues with all the checkers in place and being completely stumped. I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition for FALTERS and WARFARE, struggled to see HAIRY and was focused on the UK for MIAMI.
    My LOI was actually CANARD simply because I hadn’t see that it was unsolved until doing my proof read. Finished in 10.26
    Thanks to curarist
  5. Tough. The sort of puzzle where I expected there to be a nina to explain the choices. Only LETTUCE from the first pass of acrosses. Downs a little more forgiving but nothing came that easily. INTERPOLATION wins some sort of prize for being the longest it’s taken for an anagram to fall for ages. Ended up all green in 21. Would have sat in a darkened room to recover had the dog not insisted on being walked.

    Edited at 2022-05-13 08:55 am (UTC)

  6. I found that tough. FOI FOIST. Almost LOI was INTERPOLATION, after which I then had to change my biffed HEAVY to HAIRY. 13:45. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
  7. 17 minutes, which I was disappointed with until I came here and saw how others had struggled. HAIRY was the most intransigent, but needed to be solved before I saw YEA. I also struggled with SIGNED and TRUMPETER for a while. COD eventually to SIGNED. Thanks both.
  8. Too much of this was a stretch for me – tenuous clues to tenuous answers so not very enjoyable for me. Thanks though – I know it’s all subjective!
  9. Tough one.
    Had wargame but wasn’t convinced so tried again for warfare.
    Main puzzle is not too hard for a friday.
    COD ear splitting.
  10. Yup found this tough. NW was the last to fall but turned out I had also gone for WARGAME.

    Nho TWIN-SCREW though it was v believable with the checkers.

    Thanks all

  11. Having failed on RAFTER a few days ago and having learned from it certainly helped me with FALTERS! Never think of MIAMI as a seaside resort nowadays but I think it started out as one. Enjoyed WEEPIE, SPOTTY and TWIN-SCREW. Thanks for parsing of FENLAND and rest of blog!
  12. Total time = 56 minutes. My verdict: neither I nor Teazel were on form today.

    My last two in (EPIC and WARFARE) took me more than a quarter of an hour. Nothing wrong with the clues, just my rusty brain. I couldn’t for the life of me see FARE for food or E-PIC, despite several lengthy alphabet trawls. Earlier, I had NHO the TRUMPETER swan and DNK the hoax meaning of CANARD. So, that was me being useless.

    As for Teazel, I remain unconvinced by some of his clues. HAIRY for ‘A gorilla’ strikes me as poor. Gorillas may be described by many other adjectives as well. INTERPOLATION hardly means ‘introduction’, and since when did ‘mile’ (in 5d: RAM) get shortened to just ‘M’? The abbreviation for mile is ‘Mi’, to distinguish it from M (the SI abbreviation) for metre. So, not one of Teazel’s best, IMHO.

    Mrs Random, on the other hand, didn’t worry about such trivialities and fairly whizzed through in 24 minutes. We had started at more-or-less the same time and I had barely reached the halfway point when she moved on to some other activity. For me, an unsatisfactory end to an otherwise excellent week.

    Many thanks to Teazel (I will forgive him this time) and curarist.

    1. Sorry to take issue, src, but ‘m’ for ‘mile’ or ‘miles’ is standard stuff (MPH).

      The cryptic definition in support of ‘dangerous’ = HAIRY is ‘a gorilla is‘, which it undoubtedly is.

      If you interpolate something into a discussion or argument, you introduce it, so ‘introduction’ can mean INTERPOLATION.

      All that being said I think this was a beast of a QC.

      Edited at 2022-05-13 01:28 pm (UTC)

      1. Yes, ‘interpolation’ got a MER from me. I have an engineering background and a quite precise view of what it means in a mathematical sense. I’m prepared to admit that, if you interpolate between two points, you introduce another point but I’d never have solved the anagram without an aid as it’s not a link that would have occurred to me. I struggle with anagrams at the best of times but I did manage 16a – but it was clearly signposted by the definition.
  13. a bit of a friday fiend, but no worse for that.

    SIGNED was my LOI — trying to add an “N” some something else, which was the wrong tree to be barking up.

    FOIST was a good ‘un.

    9:45

  14. Thought I’d done well to finish what was clearly a toughie in 19 mins until I realised that the correct answer for 21ac was FENLAND not FINLAND. No wonder I couldn’t parse it. Otherwise all correct but I did have a MER at both the gorilla and equating INTERPOLATION with INTRODUCTION.

    FOI – 4ac WARFARE
    LOI – 15dn CANARD
    COD – 11dn TWIN SCREW – made me chuckle.

    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist

  15. Although I took a punt with “Canard” for 15dn as I wasn’t sure if “card” on its own could really be described as a form of ID.

    I seemed to be at odds with others as I enjoyed it. I did wonder about the definition for 2dn “Interpolation”, but I thought the rest were fair and obtainable. My main hold ups were the SE corner and getting 11dn “Twin Screw” (DNK), 20ac “Airmail” and the above mentioned 15dn.

    FOI — 4ac “Warfare”
    LOI — 15dn “Canard”
    COD — 18ac “Hairy”, although I thought 19dn was clever as well.

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2022-05-13 02:02 pm (UTC)

  16. Slight delay in NE as WARTIME (send =EMIT + RAW both back) won’t go at 4a because of 6d.,but still within 10 minute target despite several dodgy definitions, as already remarked.
  17. ….but now that my tablet has deigned to work again, I’ve just done the rest of the week’s QC’s in sequence. I did well with Tue/Wed/Thu which all took me less than 4 minutes, but found this excellent offering from Teazel rather trickier, and missed my target. There were few clues that were shoo-ins, but none that were unparseable, and that in itself is a tribute to the art of the setter

    FOI FOIST
    LOI EPIC
    COD CANARD
    TIME 5:29

    Edited at 2022-05-13 02:30 pm (UTC)

  18. Pencilled in 21a as Finland and never went back to firm it up so a DNF. FOI 9a Miami. LOI 1a Falter after finally getting 1a Foist. IMHO, some unsatisfactory clues, but really liked as COD 11d Twin Screw. Also liked 10a Ear Splitting and 16a Hadrians Wall.

  19. First comment on new site! Many thanks to the organisers.
    I confess that I’ve found recent puzzles quite difficult – hope to do better next week

  20. Many thanks to all who have worked to get us back on track without any Kremlin connections. Much appreciated.
    I have enjoyed doing the QC without a break. Released from any pressure to quote a time, I have stayed comfortably within my usual time range. Didn’t check a time today but I think I was verging on the SCC.
    I look forward to hearing from many old friends on the blog now we are back in touch.

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