Quick Cryptic 292 by Flamande

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Nice puzzle, so thanks to our setter Flamande. I was going to say it was at the easier end of the spectrum: my only reservation on that assessment would be that there are quite a few abbreviations in play which, to those who are new to the cryptic genre, might not be readily known.

I should add that I think there might be some kind of error around 24ac, but huge apologies if I have gone off the rails here! On edit: thanks to Kevin for straightening me out here. Much egg on face, and apologies to setter and editor for even considering there could be an error!

Definitions underlined: anagrams indicated with *(–)

Across
1 Heavy drinker blushes, to some extent (4)
LUSH – Answer hidden in BLUSHES, with “to some extent” pointing us in the right direction
3 One who values beasts of burden? So right (8)
ASSESSOR – ASSES_SO_R. “Beasts of burden” gives us the ASSES, plus SO plus R (“right”)
9 Enterprising leader of Indian state? (2-5)
GO-AHEAD – GOA_HEAD – i.e. leader of the Indian state Goa. Very neat and witty, my COTD
10 Holiday property unfavourably situated in Virginia (5)
VILLA – V[ILL]A. ILL (“unfavourably”) “situated in” VA (standard abbreviation of state of Virginia)
11 After drink, bachelor wants a dance (5)
RUMBA – RUM_BA. The Bachelor of Arts wants to strut his stuff after a tot of grog
12 Opening seed? (6)
SESAME – Neat cryptic clue based on the “open Sesame” magical incantation in Ali Baba, and the flavoursome seed
14 Tossed about on Italy’s lakes, probably (2,6,2,3)
AS LIKELY AS NOT – *(ON ITALYS LAKES), with “tossed about” as the anagrind
17 Miserable sailor about to board plane (6)
ABJECT – AB_JE[C]T. AB (standard abbreviation for Able Seaman) with C (“about”- circa) “boarding” JET (“plane”). Several common crossword conventions all rolled into one clue
19 I received your message, man (5)
ROGER – Roger as in “Roger that” in radio communications, and also the “man”‘s name. I’ll mark this down (somewhat uncertainly) as a Double Definition, but it might be a Semi & Lit or some other clue type – sorry, this is always a bit of a blind spot for me!
22 Father and mother run inside Italian city (5)
PARMA – PA_R_MA. Mum and dad with an R (cricket abbreviation for “run”) “inside”
23 Silver found during one excavation? Fancy! (7)
IMAGINE – I_M[AG]INE. AG (“Silver”- standard symbol) “found during” I (“one”) MINE (“excavation”). In case anyone is unclear on the definition, think “Just imagine!” as an equivalent of “Well fancy that!”
24 Maybe Leo has prominent role, singing regularly (4,4)
STAR SIGN – STAR_S SINGING (“has prominent role”) plus every other letter (regularly) of ” singing” – starting with the first I. Thanks to Kevin for the correction, and again apologies for my cock up er, hmm… Thought this was every other letter (“regularly”) of SINGING, but now I come to type up the solution it appears (unless I am going cross eyed) that it actually isn’t. Profuse apologies to our setter and editor if I have got this horribly wrong, but I fear there might be an editorial slip here (it would have to be something like STINGING to work)
25 Change of name? I’ll second that (4)
AMEN – *(NAME), with the definition coming from the secular colloquial usage of Amen (in this context usually pronounced with a long A) as in “Amen to that”
Down
1 Cricket ball causing fracture? (3,5)
LEG BREAK – Slightly cryptic definition based on the type of delivery in cricket at which the Australians excel (Warne, Benaud, McGill etc.) and with which English batsmen usually struggle!
2 Small enthusiastic group of workers (5)
SWARM – S (abbreviation of Small) + WARM (enthusiastic) giving us a “group of worker” bees (or ants, I suppose)
4 Sports team breaking up? Very funny (4-9)
SIDE-SPLITTING – Double definition, the first being slightly cryptic
5 The King distributed silver no end (5)
ELVIS – *(SILVER) with “distributed” as the anagrind, giving us the boy from Mississippi born to be king
6 Wise man taking flight alone on Monday (7)
SOLOMON – SOLO_MON. To take a “flight alone” is to fly SOLO, and Monday is frequently abbreviated to MON.
7 Almost prepared to study (4)
READ – READY. Ready (“prepared”) without its last letter (“almost”) is the wordplay, giving study (as in I want to read Medicine)
8 Correct homework again, and make comment (6)
REMARK – Straightforward double definition
13 Doctor eats head of terribly large fish (8)
STURGEON – S[T]URGEON. Surgeon (“Doctor”) including (“eats”) first letter of (“head of”) Terribly. And when they say “large fish” they are not kidding – can grow to 18 foot plus, apparently
15 Country lake overlooking Spain and Portugal (7)
LIBERIA – [L]_IBERIA. L (abbreviation of “Lake”) on top of (“overlooking”) the Iberian peninsular
16 A woman from America in another country (6)
ABROAD – To be in another country is to be ABROAD. And in the USA (think Chandler etc.) “a woman” is often referred to as “a broad”
18 English before ten in the morning, then first of science tests (5)
EXAMS – E_X_AM_S. E (“English”) + X (“ten” – Roman numeral) + AM (“in the morning”) + S (first of SCIENCE)
20 Formidable sounding tale-teller (5)
GRIMM – The fairy-tale teller brothers (Wilhelm or Jacob – take your pick) who sound Grim (“formidable”)
21 Work available in shop usually (4)
OPUS – The musical “work” can be found in (“available in”) SHOP USUALLY

8 comments on “Quick Cryptic 292 by Flamande”

  1. I think 24ac works, Nick: ‘has prominent role’=STARS ‘sInGiNg regularly’

    Edited at 2015-04-22 03:18 am (UTC)

  2. This went smoothly enough, although at 13d I toyed with DR, then MO for ‘doctor’, then thought it might be an anagram indicator, and only finally recalled ‘surgeon’ when forced to by checkers. But it was 16d that really took time; I persisted in trying to find the name of a country. I wonder if anyone today uses the word ‘broad’? I know I’ve never heard it outside of old movies. I’m pretty sure we’ve had GO-AHEAD similarly clued in a 15×15. 7:30

    Edited at 2015-04-22 04:08 am (UTC)

  3. Similar experience to Kevin’s with regard to 16d – my last in. I managed a rare sub-Gregg, so off to celebrate at my favourite sushi place.
  4. 9 minutes for me, so my first sub-10 target of the week. Really liked the SESAME clue. Like others, 16dn was my last one in, delayed briefly by trying to come up with the name of a country.
  5. Failed on my target of sub-10 minutes for the first time for a while. The cause of my problems? Yes, 16d which took me 4 minutes to figure out. If it hadn’t been for that one, I would have been on for a pretty fast time.
    “Roger, Roger” puts me in mind of the film “Airplane” with Captain Oveur.
    See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDUkR3DOFw
  6. Probably my fastest finish or thereabouts. Would have been under 30 mins apart from time lost on 16d. Relieved to see that I wasn’t the only one trying to think of countries beginning with an ‘a’. Invariant
  7. Like others struggled with 16d and eventually gave up on it. The rest was at the easier end of the scale I thought. COD 12d or 8a.
    Couldn’t figure out where the ‘c’ came from in 17a so thanks for clearing that up.

Comments are closed.