I’ll be sharing the Saturday Quickie duties with Cedric for the foreseeable future, and he’s set the bar high with his critically-acclaimed debut performance last Saturday*.
Old-timers here might recall that I shared the Jumbo and Quickie blogging duties for a year or two in 2016 and 2017, back in the LiveJournal days. We’re on a new website now but not much else has changed, except that we’ve lost a few of our good’uns along the way.
But enough. What about today’s puzzle…
I don’t have a time because I was more preoccupied with the new blog software, but it was pretty straightforward wasn’t it? Certainly no obscurities in the answers, with the possible exception of “sharp practice”.
A pretty typical Quickie I think. We had our standard selection of illicit drugs, and most of the setter’s tools of trade were in play. There’s even a triple def, but surprisingly few anagrams (three by my count).
What did you make of it all?
In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in italics.
In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope.
*Speaking of last Saturday, I see from the comments that we have some dedicated Parkrunners on board. I like their notion of a combined “run + solve” time so I’ll be posting my own in future blogs. Not today though.
| Across | |
| 1 | Landed gentleman holding right large rodent (8) |
| SQUIRREL – SQUIRE (landed gentleman) holding R (right) followed by L (large) | |
| 5 | Try cricket equipment that’s been returned (4) |
| STAB – BATS (cricket equipment) in reverse
As in let’s have a stab at solving this thing. |
|
| 8 | Urban sedition somehow becoming defiant (13) |
| INSUBORDINATE – (URBAN SEDITION)* | |
| 10 | Declare government plight (5) |
| STATE – Triple definition
What was that English sitcom where the husband was doing time? I recall the female characters using the expression “two ‘n’ eight” for state, referencing the third definition here. The only other thing I recall is that their house was in Brian Close (tee-hee). |
|
| 11 | Crazy about detectives and naked people (7) |
| NUDISTS – NUTS (crazy) around DIS (detectives)
Or Detective Inspectors, to be precise. |
|
| 12 | Fold outside of carrier with facility (6) |
| CREASE – CR (“outside” of CarrieR) + EASE (facility) | |
| 13 | Radical people on reflection embracing calm (6) |
| PLACID – Reverse hidden in raDICAL People | |
| 16 | Quiet part of church with plant in (7) |
| APPEASE – PEA (plant) inside APSE (part of church) | |
| 18 | Dismiss leaders of English judiciary evaluating covid tribunal (5) |
| EJECT – Leaders (first letters) of English Judiciary Evaluating Covid Tribunal | |
| 20 | Dodgy dealing pacts reap rich changes (5,8) |
| SHARP PRACTICE – (PACTS REAP RICH)*
Quite a dated term and I think it’s mainly restricted to legal circles. I’m sure I’ve seen it in the context of the Laws of Cricket but a quick search suggests it’s not there now. |
|
| 21 | Son guided wheelless conveyance (4) |
| SLED – S (son) + LED (guided) | |
| 22 | Hurries after Charlie and subdues (8) |
| CHASTENS – HASTENS (hurries) after C (Charlie) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Vessels with small joints (5) |
| SHIPS – S (small) + HIPS (joints) | |
| 2 | Draw attention away from happy male on ecstasy (7) |
| UPSTAGE – UP (happy) + STAG (male) + E (ecstasy) | |
| 3 | Masseuse character is OK (11) |
| RUBBERSTAMP – RUBBER (masseuse, as in one who rubs) + STAMP (character)
We need the verb sense of OK here. Was anyone else surprised to see this rendered as one word? Google suggests it’s not as common as the two-word version, but that doesn’t make it wrong. |
|
| 4 | About to return currency commission (6) |
| ERRAND – ER [RE(about) in reverse] + RAND (currency)
As youngsters we were sent to do “messages” rather than errands. Not sure if that was a localised usage. Anyone? |
|
| 6 | Second bit upside down in nets (5) |
| TRAPS – S (second) + PART (bit). All upside down | |
| 7 | Officially approved of minor getting in cot? (7) |
| BLESSED – LESS (minor) in BED (cot)
Let’s just let that one go through to the keeper. |
|
| 9 | Treats silenced gun badly (11) |
| INDULGENCES – (SILENCED GUN)* | |
| 12 | French ass isn’t holding framework (7) |
| CHASSIS – Hidden in frenCH ASS ISn’t
“Holding” is one of the myriad devices for indicating a hidden. Also see bottles, invests, part of, etc |
|
| 14 | Caught vicar with meth and crack (7) |
| CREVICE – C (caught in cricket) + REV (vicar) + ICE (meth)
Kid, you’ll never make it in Crosswordland if you don’t know your drugs. |
|
| 15 | Lack of hatred unusually (6) |
| DEARTH – (HATRED)* | |
| 17 | Quiet road transport (5) |
| PLANE – P (piano, musical-ese for quiet) + LANE (road) | |
| 19 | Swarms encounter rising sun initially (5) |
| TEEMS – TEEM [meet (encounter) reversed] + S (sun, initially) | |
17:17
Very slow but par for the course on a Saturday after Friday night.
Liked rubberstamp, nudists, and chassis.
thanks
Enjoyed this one but my could not get rubberstamp or parse Placid. Otherwise I’d been happy with my 22 mins
Very tough indeed! I had only four solutions written in after my first full pass (NUDIST, EJECT, CHASSIS and TEEMS) and 12 minutes had elapsed by this stage. My solving pace increase slightly after that, but I found myself staring at the clues without any ideas how they worked for long periods on several occasions.
The bottom half of the grid did eventually fill up and the NE corner followed sometime later, but the NW corner remained completely blank until I managed to crack the INSUBORDINATE anagram with only the second I and the E in place. By this stage, I was 40+ minutes into proceedings and I was anticipating an almost certain DNF. However, INSUBORDINATE unlocked several clues for me and I finally staggered across the line in 50 minutes. Phew!
Many thanks to Alex and Galspray (and ‘No! It wasn’t “pretty straightforward”, at least not for me’).
DNF for me. These are getting rarer but I struggled with much of this and was finally undone by the SW corner. Must remember to check harder for hiddens. Thank you for the very enlightening blog!
A fairly desultory solve this morning taking over 7 minutes before getting a lift to the station for my train to Colchester and the Winter Beer Festival there. (No Newcastle Brown Ale or Old Peculier there today). Another who wrote in CRUSHES before finding it was a letter short. LOI CHASSIS and COD to the druggie vicar. Thanks Alex and Gallers.
I felt a little guilty after meeting Galspay at The George last summer (see here) not to have asked him if he wanted his old blogging spot back (I took over the once-a-fortnight Friday QC and every fifth Jumbo blog from him in 2017), but good to see you back, Gallers. You wouldn’t like the Jumbo Cryptic slot back (and Monthly Club Special too), by any chance?
Thanks John. Great to be reminded of that excellent day (evening, night…) at The George. We can discuss the Jumbo blog next time we’re there!
I’m very dull today, coming down with something I hope isn’t covid, but decided to wander through the QC anyway. No idea how long it took, forever compared to the times here. But finished, surprisingly. Really enjoyed the long ones. For sure I’m not well, as my last ones in were the rather obvious STAB and TRAPS!
Thank you for the entertaining puzzle and the excellent blog.
Finished in just over 37 minutes with two moseys down to the ‘check’ button (weaning self off this- am I the only one who came up through this path?)
Wasted some minutes trying to accommodate French donkeys.
Did not relate ‘up’ to happy, fleetingly attributed it to status of ‘stag’ in context of male on ‘stag’ night (doubtless not woke, but I am old. No excuse, simply explanation).
Once again I have been set straight by the blog (on that matter and on several others).
Enjoyed this. Thank you Alex and Galspray.
Sounds like perfect use of the check button TOL. They call it “scaffolding” in education circles. Provide a bit of support along the way and gradually remove it as it’s no longer (or rarely) required.
I first learned cryptics by doing puzzles in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph that had two sets of clues, cryptic and straightforward, for the same answers. Gradually came to understand the cryptic clues by reverse-engineering the answers to the straightforwards.
That’s really clever: I’ve never seen that. But there’s a thought: provide a set of concise-style clues for the puzzle. No, no, that way lies madness.
19:24 here. Enjoyed this very much: CHASSIS may be my favourite hidden to date. Welcome back to Galspray.
Hello everyone, time to step gingerly into the light. I’ve been lurking, just looking, for some time when I’ve found it hard to parse a clue or got to that aggravating ‘not going to finish on my own’ moment, but decided to join the chat today.
Been doing the QCs on and off for as long as TT have been publishing them and sometimes have a stab at the biggies but usually only get < half the clues. I can finish most QCs on my own but very rarely with a time outside the SCC. I'm very pleased when I get a score over 600!
Today TRAPS beat me completely, then when I pressed submit I found that I had typed BLEESSD instead of BLESSED, so didn't even make 600.
I enjoy reading the comments on here as much as the blog itself – helps me see how other people think. Anyway see y'all again soon, and thanks for today's help (and apparently welcome back) Galspray.
Welcome Mrs Taite and congrats on dipping your toe in!
Unfortunately the caravan moves on pretty quickly around here so your comment will go almost totally unseen by those who would normally welcome you aboard. I only saw it because the blogger gets a notification whenever a comment is posted.
Please post again as soon as you can, preferably on the day of publication of the crossword if possible. Based on your first post I imagine you’ll fit in very well.
Welcome Mrs Taite, it’s more fun when you participate!
Welcome!!! I’m feel very validated? That someone else also struggled with TRAPS. Such a face-palm moment.
Enjoyed dipping in and out all over the weekend. Just got there with APPEASE being my LOI. Is there now a need for a “some random plant” club???!