Quick Cryptic 2576 by Teazel

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I found this on the easy side. I completed it in two sittings so I don’t have a time, but I guess quicker than usual. Lots to like, but top prize goes to the magnificent 3dn.

Across
1 Quickly produce winning blow (8)
KNOCKOUT – Would be a double definition but KNOCK OUT (quickly produce) needs a space
6 Select the best tool (4)
PICK – Triple definition
8 Be able to buy a fine car (6)
AFFORD – A + F + FORD
9 County girl with a baby at last (6)
GALWAY – GAL + W (with) + A + [bab]Y
10 One on the board at church: not her, we’re told (4)
HYMN – Sounds like ‘HIM’
11 Apparently last, as it turns out (5,3)
AFTER ALL – Double definition
12 It’s fitting in the bathroom to offer extra time (5)
BIDET – BID (offer) + ET (extra time)
13 Detective’s clothes are so simple (5)
PLAIN – Self-explanatory
15 A couple allowed a bit of bling (8)
BRACELET – BRACE (two) + LET
17 Pet sent back small drink (4)
PUSS – S + SUP backwards
19 I run into head buccaneer (6)
PIRATE – I + R inside PATE
20 In cold capital cross the most exciting part (6)
CLIMAX – C (cold) + LIMA (capital of Peru) + X
21 Plagued — by a piece of it? (4)
AGUE – Hidden word, and an &lit
22 Lute I’d played in the old festive period (8)
YULETIDE – anagram (‘played’) of LUTE ID inside YE (‘the’ old)
Down
2 Knight, a bit dodgy, giving off bad smell (5)
NIFFY – N (Knight in chess notation) + IFFY
3 New king had — to be this? (7)
CROWNED – New king is Charles Rex (CR) + OWNED. Lovely &lit and the first sighting (by me) of CR in the wild. Our monarch remains the only living person allowed in The Times crossword, in clues or solutions. Note though that this does not apply to the Sunday Times, which can feature anyone. (Last week’s had a reference to a certain orange politician in a clue).
4 Strange old large cup (3)
ODD – O + DD (bra size)
5 Being drunk, note, is a tricky situation (5,4)
TIGHT SPOT – TIGHT (drunk) + SPOT (note)
6 Less colourful pair drinking beer (5)
PALER – PR (pair) with ALE inside
7 Place in sequence for a Charlie (7)
CHAPLIN – PL (place) inside CHAIN (sequence)
11 Fairly regularly holding the helm for gunners (9)
ARTILLERY – Alternate letters of fAiRlY with TILLER (helm) inserted
12 Republican slogan maybe is mad (7)
BARKING – With a space it is BAR KING
14 Put into place a quiet fielding position (7)
APPOINT – A + P + POINT. For the benefit of our American readers, Point is a fielding position square of the wicket on the off side, roughly between cover point and gully.
16 Long to see river in grotto (5)
CRAVE – R inside CAVE
18 Reportedly remained sober (5)
STAID – Sounds like STAYED
20 Firm line shows way through mountains (3)
COL – CO (firm) + L

103 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2576 by Teazel”

  1. I struggled at first with this and never really got into a flow, but managed to finish in 11 minutes. LOI BARKING.
    It was an excellent puzzle and I immediately ticked CROWNED for my COD and clue of the week/month too.
    David

  3. This all went in quite quickly except for the inevitable head-scratchers at the end. I eventually finished in 18 minutes having failed to parse CHAPLIN and PLAIN. Lots of fine clues here so I was hard pushed to select a COD.

    FOI – 6ac PICK
    LOI – 13ac PLAIN
    COD – I think it has to go to 12dn BARKING. 1ac and 10ac also very good.

    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist

  4. 16:01
    Tiredness leading to a slow finish.
    There were 10 clues remaining, I was started to consider a defeat, but kept going.
    COD Barking.

  5. Left with only 13A – it had to be PLAIN but it left me wondering where the detective was involved.
    reading “self explanatory” in the blog did not help then the penny dropped from a great height. Doh!

  6. FOI KNOCKOUT and LOI APPOINT in 8:27 which is about average for me. I didn’t see the parsing of CROWNED and ARTILLERY until after I submitted and also incorrectly parsed BIDET. I struggled to solve AFFORD and PLAIN but the PDMs were worth the wait. CsOD to the two king clues CROWNED and BARKING.

  7. A PB for me today. 11 mins. A steady work through slotting them in with the crossers. For once, I wasn’t left with lots to go back to. Feeling v chuffed

  8. I thought this was quite tricky so was pleased to finish in 10:26 – I mostly seem to be around the 10 – 15 minute mark at the moment.
    I didn’t know point for the fielding position, and I was very unsure of BARKING so was pleased to see it was right, but I still didn’t understand until I read Mike H’s comment. A real PDM 😉 Sorry Curarist – you did say the same thing – but for some reason, I was none the wiser! I liked HYMN, PLAIN and TIGHT SPOT. YULETIDE practically wrote itself in but I really liked the surface. I’m another one who briefly had very raised eyebrows at 17a – thank goodness it turned out to be PUSS!
    FOI Pick LOI Climax COD Crowned
    Thanks Teazel and Curarist

    Re the biggie: I usually finish the 15×15 a couple of times a week, and get pretty close the rest of the time, but not today! After at least half an hour, I’ve got four clues – I might give up 😅

    1. Given your comment on the biggie I looked at the SNITCH of 147 and thought I’d give it a go. My modest target was four clues in half an hour. I surprised myself as I solved all but three intersecting clues in the SE corner in 50 minutes…..I was never going to solve the last three though. I like clever wordplay but tend to avoid the biggie because my GK is poor. Don’t give up Penny!

      1. Brilliant J – well done! I feel that I’d better return to it now. In fairness, I had to go out for the afternoon so always intended to give it another go when I got back, but feel determined to at least try and double my score 😅

  9. I was slow to get started but eventually NIFFY came along followed by HYMN and things began to move. Took a while and some crossers to see KNOCKOUT. CROWNED was good. PUSS was LOI. Just over my target at 10:41. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  10. 13:39. I needed to read blog for complete parsing of CROWNED and BARKING. CHAPLIN eluded for way too long (and I’m christened Charles). PLAIN and NIFFY were hard too. Like others I thought SIP for drink first but had doubts setter would refer so blatantly to micturition(even the term urination is a little too bold for me). Also I must confess to blushing at DD and BIDET as I haven’t moved beyond the maturity of a 14-year-old yet.

  11. DNF, too much of a novice and an American! But some great clues, loved BARKING! And everything was fair, I just got tired.

  12. Second completion of the week and most proud after such a slow start. 12a was my FOI. A good run through the downs gave me the checkers for the awkward crosses.
    LOI climax

  13. 15:13 here, but I never parsed my L2I, PLAIN and BARKING. Liked CROWNED and ARTILLERY a lot.

    Thanks to Curarist and Teazel.

  14. we found this quite hard with problems on 12a bidet, 12d barking, 7d Chaplin . Lack of anagrams which are our strong point. poor end to the week.

  15. 12.29 This was mostly straightforward but I was halfway through reading the comments before I realised what PLAIN had to do with detectives. It was explained a little further on. Doh! When the blogger writes “self explanatory” there are bound to be several of us who have missed the point. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.

  16. 22:50

    All set for target sub-20 minute solve until I hit the buffers with LOI HYMN. The only word I could fit was CYAN but that made no sense. Probably 5 minutes on that clue before the penny finally dropped.

    PS thanks Curarist for the blog. Re Charles, we did have the living actress Sophia Loren earlier this week.

  17. 20 mins

    Of the 26 clues, I solved 21 of them in 6 minutes. My first 12 were write ins! I don’t do all the across clues and then all the downs any more, so this was a mix of across and down clues.

    With 5 to go, I was hoping for a good time, but it wasn’t to be. 14 mins to get BARKING, CLIMAX, BIDET, CHAPLIN and PLAIN.

    PLAIN was my LOI. I had thought of it much earlier, but couldn’t parse it, and still couldn’t when I put it in.

    Please don’t take this as a complaint (because I think you all do a brilliant job and I would be completely lost without you), but it isn’t helpful when bloggers say simply that an answer is self-explanatory. For those of us of limited ability, we need everything explaining! PLAIN was, at least for me, far from obvious and it took several minutes of thinking before I worked it out. Having got P, I was thinking PI for a while.

    It’s not been a good week. Three hours, 50 minutes, with one DNF. Equally galling is the fact that I had three 20-minute finishes, and so had no SCC escapes when I might have had three.

    Thanks to everyone for their comments yesterday and to Curarist for today’s blog.

    1. Glad you came back, and well done. Agree about self-explanatory (and of course your overall appreciation for the bloggers).

  18. 4:25. Great puzzle by Teazel, not as hard as some of his. LOI HYMN. COD to the super CROWNED. Thanks Teazel and Curarist. Ha ha. Comment left unposted in my browser since this time yesterday.

  19. Rather late for this one (busy day on Friday) so I’m sure no one will see this – no matter! NHO POINT, and many other difficult ones. NHO ET = extra time; in what context, please?

    1. In football, if a cup tie is level after 90 minutes, they play 30 minutes extra time, often abbreviated in news reports to ET.

    2. It’s worth familiarising yourself with the fielding positions in cricket. They do tend to come up quite often, particularly leg/on and off for the two different sides of the pitch.

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