Quick Cryptic 295 by Pedro

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A pretty straightforward Quicky today with nothing, I think, likely to cause major delays. I’ll give my COD to 14D.

Wikipedia tells me that today is the feast day of the Italian Saint Zita who, amongst other things, is the patron saint of lost keys. My mother generally invokes the assistance of St Anthony if she has lost something, but I’m not sure if she’s aware of the more specialist talents of St Zita. Hopefully no-one will need to drop a line to St Jude with this puzzle.

Definitions are underlined.

(Adding the link in case people are unable to access the puzzle from the Times site: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150427/2972/)

Across
1 Church altar he’d rebuilt after start of century (9)
CATHEDRAL – C (start of century, i.e. the first letter of “century”) + anagram (rebuilt) of ALTAR HE’D
6 Penny, say, or Margaret? (3)
PEG – P (Penny) + EG (say), for the not-so-intuitive diminutive of Margaret
8 Be a chauvinist, getting head bitten off (5)
EXIST – {s}EXIST (chauvinist, getting head bitten off, i.e. “sexist” without its first letter)
9 Great conductor? Most are excited (7)
MAESTRO – anagram (excited) of MOST ARE. I would guess that the most famous conductor in Crosswordland is Toscanini.
10 Male that is eating corn, say, gets a headache (8)
MIGRAINE – M (Male) + IE (that is), around GRAIN (corn, say). Try either St Aspren (there’s a joke there somewhere), St Gereon, or St Ubald for migraine relief.
11 Retraction of nitrogen? A long story (4)
SAGA – reversal of A GAS (nitrogen?)
13 Third of rocks amongst various ruins, with board giving away little (11)
INSCRUTABLE – C (Third of rocks, i.e. the third letter of “rocks”) inside an anagram (various) of RUINS, + TABLE (board). Fittingly, an inscrutable surface reading.
17 Opponent‘s somewhat frantic (4)
ANTI – hidden in (somewhat) frANTIc
18 Seem less controlled, put in a quandary (8)
BEWILDER – BE WILDER (Seem less controlled)
21 That fellow’s put into care after developing wild fancy (7)
CHIMERA – HIM (That fellow) inside an anagram (after developing) of CARE
22 £1000 gets you a piano (5)
GRAND – double definition, though that will only get you a couple of legs of a Steinway, even at second-hand prices
23 Understand excavation (3)
DIG – double definition
24 Criminal misrepresented crimes by soldier? (9)
MISCREANT – anagram (misrepresented) of CRIMES, + ANT (soldier?)
Down
1 Rich and thick counterpane initially placed on sheets before end of day (6)
CREAMY – C (counterpane initially, i.e. the first letter of “counterpane”) + REAM (sheets, i.e. 500 (or 480) sheets of paper) + Y (end of day, i.e. the last letter of “day”)
2 Item, not very credible, supported by leader of government (5)
THING – THIN (not very credible) + G (leader of government, i.e. the first letter of “government”)
3 Bewitch path into building? (8)
ENTRANCE – double definition, and a rather odd surface reading
4 CIVIC figures? (5,8)
ROMAN NUMERALS – cryptic definition, based on the fact that C, I, and V are all Roman numerals. The surface reading is presumably supposed to make you think of mayors or aldermen or the like, but the capital letters don’t exactly slip under the radar.
5 Notice omitted from editorial? That’s an odd look (4)
LEER – LE{ad}ER (Notice omitted from editorial, i.e. AD removed from LEADER)
6 Suggestion taken up before autumn problem (7)
PITFALL – Reversal (taken up) of TIP (Suggestion), + FALL (autumn, as it is called in North America)
7 See book carried by girl around the world (6)
GLOBAL – LO (See) + B (book), inside (carried by) GAL (girl)
12 Seem ill: upset a gremlin (8)
MALINGER – anagram (upset) of A GREMLIN
14 Love new concoction of hot gin (7)
NOTHING – N (new) + anagram (concoction) of HOT GIN, for the word for zero predominantly encountered in tennis
15 Worked as senior policeman in rank (6)
RANCID – RAN CID (Worked as senior policeman)
16 Believe in arrangement not requiring immediate payment (6)
CREDIT – double definition
19 Runs into obstruction over a play (5)
DRAMA – R (Runs) inside DAM (obstruction), + A
20 Some better material seen in part of school year (4)
TERM – hidden in (Some) betTER Material

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic 295 by Pedro”

  1. I’ll go along with Mohn as to the straightforwardness, and the COD. 13ac looked scary at first, but with a few checkers things became clear. Biffed a couple, like LEER, which helped me get a pb of 3:50.
  2. 9 minutes with temptations to biff resisted as I take the view that as an old hand at 15×15 puzzles I should expect fully to understand each clue in a Quickie before claiming the total solving time taken, though sometimes I may return to parse some clues at the end before stopping the clock.

    I wondered if I was having a senior moment concerning ‘b’ for ‘book’ in 7dn because I suddenly had doubts whether or not it’s among the standard single-letter abbreviations. A moment’s research revealed that although it’s listed in Chambers and is therefore okay, it’s not in Collins, the Concise Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English or the massive two-volume Shorter Oxford, so I feel my doubts were understandable if not fully justified in the end.

    13ac was my LOI too as I needed every checker to bring it to mind.

    Edited at 2015-04-27 05:12 am (UTC)

    1. I do enough puzzles elsewhere that it’s just too confusing to try to remember which abbreviations are or aren’t in the Times list, so I didn’t stop to consider the b=book equivalence as I’ve seen it previously. Where it’s used in the real world, though, is another question …
  3. Based on the solving times on the Crossword Club, today’s main cryptic would appear to be on the tricky side. However this is more from the point of view of the wordplay than any obscure answers, so you may want to don your definition-spotting hat before having a crack at it.
  4. Anyone found the link for this one? I have no problem with the link from the paper to the 15/15 but the quickie never works so have to resort to fidning the link – got up to 2835 with no joy

    Simon

    1. It’s 2972, but the link from the paper seems to be working – are you sure you’re letting the entire page load before clicking on the link?
      1. The button is very temperamental, m. It seems to be working now if you wait long enough for the page to load, but prior to about 1:00 or 1:30 it wouldn’t open even then. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a GMT clock somewhere in the coding that prevents it rolling over to the next day at midnight
  6. Must just say that I was amused that both my sister-in-law and I made up a clue today. Must also say many thanks to all bloggers for their help – I’m so glad I found this site and have learnt a lot from you. Penny
    1. Congratulations to you both! As a John, I’ve appeared in a few clues in my time though all too often in the context of an informal word for the toilet …
      1. Sorry – I meant we both featured in a clue (6a). I should make myself clearer, especially somewhere where every word really does count. I’d love to get to the stage of making up clues! Penny
        1. No, I understood what you meant – the congratulations were for having the opportunity to bask in the warm glow of being mentioned in a national newspaper, however coincidentally 🙂
          1. I don’t know if you’ll get this message now, as it’s Tuesday now but thanks:) Penny
  7. Well I finished it but didn’t find it as straightforward as some on here. 5 and 7d were unparsed, so thank you for clearing them up. I got very held up by my last 2 in; 21a (never really known what a chimera is before) and 15d, where I was looking for another word for ‘worked’. Fortunately i finally saw the light.
    COD 18a as it made me smile when I got the answer.
  8. Struggling to find a blog for the 15 x 15 today. I finished ok and think I parsed it all but like to check and read others’ comments. Any clues as to where it is?
    1. Click on Next Entry near the top of the page, or click on 26th in the calendar – today’s 15×15 blogger lives in the US and posted their blog when it was still the 26th US time (even though it was the 27th in the UK).
  9. my COD was 16d and read its compilation as much more than a simple double definition. I also had ‘believe in’ as ‘predict’ then arrangement (anagram minus the ‘P’ – “not requiring immediate payment”) to give ‘credit’. Thought this gave the clue a surface reading with an extra layer of complexity. Clever compiling – Well done Pedro!
    1. I wouldn’t be happy with equating “predict” with “believe in”, nor equating “not requiring immediate payment” with “remove the letter p”, nor seeing this as an &lit (which it would have to be if your suggested wordplay were correct), however I also would not want to discourage such creative thinking! Perhaps Pedro could comment if he/she drops in but I’m still inclined to think it’s a double definition, dull though that might be.

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