Quick Cryptic 255 by Grumpy

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I don’t seem to have had much success in the past in attempting to objectively gauge the difficulty level of these puzzles but, despite that, I’m still going to claim that this week’s is easier than average. There are plenty of straightforward constructions of the form A+B, and only a couple of answers that might not be considered everyday vocab. Overall an undemanding but pleasant solve – my COD goes to 11D for its believable surface.

Definitions are underlined.

On this day in 1882, Queen Victoria survived the last assassination attempt of her reign, courtesy of the inaccurate marksmanship of Roderick McLean. The event was commemorated by William McGonagall, regularly considered a contender for the title of worst poet in British history, in his Attempted Assassination of the Queen. It’s hard to pick a favourite verse but I’ll plump for this one:


Long may she be spared to roam
Among the bonnie Highland floral,
And spend many a happy day

In the palace of Balmoral.

Across
1 Drug produced by a police department (4)
ACID – A + CID (police department, i.e. Criminal Investigation Department). Acid is a slang term for LSD.
4 They resist difficult puzzles after work (8)
OPPOSERS – POSERS (difficult puzzles) after OP (work, i.e. the usual abbreviation for opus)
8 Criminal American behind closed doors (2,6)
IN CAMERA – anagram (Criminal) of AMERICAN. A phrase perhaps most often used in reference to legal proceedings. This is a popular anagram, having appeared in the Financial Times puzzle twice this year already.
9 Right time for storm (4)
RAGE – R (right) + AGE (time)
10 Passion in part of contest (4)
HEAT – double definition
11 Brass covering northern hills (8)
PENNINES – PENNIES (Brass, i.e. money) around (covering) N (northern). A natural barrier that keeps the Lancastrians at bay. Less facetiously, the area contains some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK.
12 Wide stand for one painting animal (6)
WEASEL – W (Wide) + EASEL (stand for one painting)
14 Just holding empty plate for all to see (6)
OPENLY – ONLY (Just) holding PE (empty plate, i.e. the word “plate” with its inner letters deleted)
16 Substitute with good reputation (8)
STANDING – STAND-IN (Substitute) + G (good)
18 Keep close to English giant (4)
HUGE – HUG (Keep close to) + E (English)
19 Just passable (4)
FAIR – double definition
20 Swiss legend possibly revealing secrets (8)
TELLTALE – the Swiss legend of William Tell could possibly be described as a TELL TALE
22 They open out for novice (8)
NEOPHYTE – anagram (out) of THEY OPEN. Perhaps not a common word, unless you regularly listen to Walt Frazier commentating on New York Knicks basketball games. The other possible anagram from this is HYPNOTEE, but that doesn’t fit the definition.
23 Page concealed by one poet or another (4)
POPE – P (Page) inside (concealed by) POE (one poet). Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven) and Alexander Pope are the poets in question. Pope’s work An Essay on Criticism is responsible for several well-known quotations – “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”, “To err is human; to forgive, divine”, and “A little learning is a dangerous thing”.

Down
2 Grant some academic once denied (7)
CONCEDE – hidden in academiC ONCE DEnied
3 Silly frame for Rembrandt’s capital sketch (5)
DRAFT – DAFT (Silly) outside (frame for) R (Rembrandt’s capital)
4 Poem due to be heard (3)
ODE – homophone (to be heard) of OWED (due)
5 Unattractive boy with grand church music (9)
PLAINSONG – PLAIN (Unattractive) + SON (boy) + G (grand, i.e. 1000)
6 Leaders in South American republic eat fish (7)
SARDINE – SAR (Leaders in South American republic, i.e. the first letters of South American Republic) + DINE (eat)
7 Short acknowledgement outside university for scoundrel (5)
ROGUE – ROGEr (Short acknowledgement, i.e. roger without its last letter) outside U (university)
11 Male is taken in by worthless fortune-telling (9)
PALMISTRY – M (Male) + IS, all inside (taken in by) PALTRY (worthless). This was clued very similarly in a Guardian Quiptic a couple of years ago as “Male is taken in by trivial fortune-telling”
13 Puritans resolved to avoid one hot spot (7)
SUNTRAP – anagram (resolved) of PURiTANS without the I (to avoid one)
15 Fielder supports insolence (3,4)
LEG SLIP – LEGS (supports) + LIP (insolence). This is a fielding position whose name will tell the cricketing neophyte as much about its whereabouts on the field as gully, point, third man, or cover.
17 Wind up with letters read aloud (5)
TEASE – homophone (read aloud) of tees/Ts/T’s (letters)
18 Agitated male? Woolly male! (3,2)
HET UP – HE (male) + TUP (Woolly male). A tup is a ram.
21 Rest claimed regularly (3)
LIE – alternate letters (regularly) of cLaImEd

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic 255 by Grumpy”

  1. Going by the time the blog was posted I assume you obtained the puzzle in advance, m, and if so, I hope you didn’t have to use trial and error to find the relevant url code as I see that following on from last Friday the next 133 numbers in sequence have been omitted. Well done for perseverance if you did!

    I was a bit slow on this one and needed 13 minutes. I lost a bit of time along the way because on the last occasion the word at 11dn came up it was spelt with an E and caught me out, so that was the spelling I started with today and only realised my error when 16ac wouldn’t fit. I should have paid more attention to the wordplay.

    1. Believe me, there were plenty of non-crossword-eligible words uttered in the mohn2 household over the weekend until I finally found the correct URL. I initially tried the next 100 numbers with no success, then tried the same thing with 20150301 as the date (the thought being that the Times IT department might have used the wrong date – not inconceivable). When that didn’t work either, I returned to the correct date and carried on where I’d left off, encountering both the Times 2 and main cryptic along the way, until the Quicky finally showed up. As my fellow Monday blogger, I suspect that you’re the only other person who knows of this fortnightly ritual – we happy few …
      1. I do sympathise and am happy I’m not a Monday blogger. For the record though, Tuesday QCs sometimes have a leap in the number sequence.
        1. My commiserations – and also my apologies at not recognising a fellow traveller on the road that Jack and I are plodding!
      2. Well done, mohn2! I’ve often wondered about the odd Times2 and main puzzle encountered along the way, and am rather afraid the only answer I can come up with is that SNAFU Central have not abandoned the appalling prospect of moving all the puzzles to the software used by the Quickie, and these are the remnants of on-going experiments. I hope I am wrong as we would lose all the Club interaction and possibly even the ability to print puzzles without cutting and pasting screen shots.
  2. As Mohn says, a lot of straightforward clues, including some that were straightforwarder than I gave them credit for, e.g. taking 6d ‘eat’ as indicating inclusion, or looking for a reversal ‘wind up’ at 17d (‘wind up’=tease is not an American usage, he said defensively). 7’.
  3. It thought this was quite challenging in terms of vocab and cultural knowledge (leg-slip, wind up=tease, as indicated by Kevin). The latter crossing with the excellent clue for STANDING made that little part my last in. 7’50”.

    A good Times lite: nail puzzles of this type and it’s time to try the main event (for those who want to, of course). 🙂

  4. The crossing neophyte and LOI, palmistry took some effort. 13 minutes which scores an average on my scale. COD to 17dn which was an amusing double homophone clue for me – solved after realising it was wind as in turn as opposed to scared and then the homophone of the letter.
  5. Thought this was going to be difficult, but then a few began to fall into place allowing a finish just over the hour, so roughly average difficulty by my standards. Didn’t know a neophyte was a novice, which disproves the proverb, but worked it out anyway. Thanks to Mohn for a very clear blog. Invariant
  6. That was my worst effort for many months – just could not get on the right wavelength. At one point I thought I was only going to be able to get a few of the clues, but I struggled on and eventually gave up with 8 blanks. I’m having flashbacks go when the QC started.
    Better luck tomorrow – hopefully!
  7. It’s always interesting to see how varied the comments are re.difficulty. So for my part I found it fairly straightforward, but with some clues giving a little concern at the time with regard to a successful solve. A good number of clues raised a smile, e.g. PALMISTRY, PLAINSONG and TELLTALE, all of which made for an enjoyable solve.
    1. Zest would fit the “passion” section of the clue, but not the “part of contest” section.

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