Quick Cryptic 2972 by Teazel

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This came in at six and a bit minutes which puts it in the medium category. Generally enjoyable with one or two sticky ones, I spent longest trying to parse 21ac but got there in the end.

Across
1 Defeat is bad in the highest degree (5)
WORST – Double definition. ‘Worst’ meaning ‘defeat’ as a verb , which is weirdly synonymous with ‘best’ and thus beloved of crossword setters.
7 Contact island to the west within range (9)
REACHABLE – REACH (contact) + ELBA backwards
9 Firm supporter in emergency committee (5)
COBRA – CO (firm) BRA (supporter). UK govt committee named after the venue for their meetings, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A
10 Anonymous card somewhat ambivalent in expression (9)
VALENTINE – hidden word, and arguably an &lit.
11 Sticky stuff in mountain lake with no name (3)
TAR -TARN minus N for name
12 Friends recalled criticism for comedy (9)
SLAPSTICK – PALS backwards + STICK
14 Be confused with Tuesday the last chance to eat (3-2,4)
USE-BY DATE – anagram (‘confused’) of BE + TUESDAY
16 Drop around for fuel (3)
GAS – SAG backwards
18 One stirring has to confront blank expression (5,4)
POKER FACE -POKER (one stirring) + FACE (confront)
20 It isn’t commonly a contaminating influence (5)
TAINT – T’AINT. How common people say ‘it isn’t’.
21 Can do boar in stew? Beef, rather (9)
CARBONADO – anagram (‘in stew’) of CAN DO BOAR. I got very confused here thinking of CARBONNADE, which is a beef stew. Turns out CARBONADO is a piece of meat scored before being grilled, and not necessarily beef. The OED says it’s obsolete.
22 Nick’s not connected to church (5)
NOTCH – NOT + CH
Down
1 Gate that may fall on cricket pitch (6)
WICKET – Double definition
2 Sightseer’s drunk beer with Bruckner (12)
RUBBERNECKER – anagram (‘drunk’) of BEER + BRUCKNER
3 Video ref overturned in bad-tempered farce (8)
TRAVESTY – VAR (video assistant referee) backwards inside TESTY
4 Trouble had upset delicate flower (6)
DAHLIA – AIL HAD backwards
5 Flimsy object’s no good (4)
THIN – THING minus G for good.
6 Extremely bare area of ship to decorate (6)
BEDECK – B[ar]E + DECK
8 There’s no water higher than this (7,5)
BOILING POINT – cryptic definition
13 Type of key item one would prefer not to have in cupboard? (8)
SKELETON – double definition
14 Take apart or reverse one’s choice? (6)
UNPICK – cryptic definition
15 Screen image of a sailor hugging Virginia (6)
AVATAR – A + TAR with VA (Virginia) inserted
17 Second wife longing to change (6)
SWITCH – S + W + ITCH
19 With this, king moves to castle (4)
ROOK – cryptic definition. In order to castle, king moves with rook.

74 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2972 by Teazel”

  1. I really liked this. WORST and best come up every now and then so was aware of what was going on. Knew the WICKET as a smaller door usually within a larger one, such as a hangar door but didn’t know the gate meaning. Had the same thought about CARBONADO, thinking it must be an Italian version of Beef Carbonnade. Liked BOILING POINT when I saw what was going on. COD to USE BY DATE. Thanks Curarist and setter.

  2. 11 minutes. Struggled a little with CARBONADO as I only knew ‘carbonnade’ and was also confusing it in my mind with ‘carbonara’ which in culinary terms is something different.

    1. Before double checking the grist we wondered if carbonaro was some masculine version of carbonara!

    2. In Shakespeare’s King Lear Kent threatens to CARBONADO Oswald’s shanks and he seems to mean by this to stab him with his sword repeatedly. Probably no relevance to the meat dish under discussion here unless a connection with scoring the meat before cooking.

  3. Enjoying this, and with the clock around 18 mins and 2 to go thought we might escape the SCC but carbonado took a lot of unpicking. Once Rook went in the crossers sorted the vowel placements and it was a guess on mixing the n,d,b. Carbonado sounded most plausible but a complete guess.

    Without the b starting letter for boiling point I was convinced it must be ceiling something which fitted the crossers and is definitely the highest, but ceiling paint which fitted with the crossers was unparsable! With the b arriving you could hear the penny clang from down the street, very clever.

    22.10 for Teazel is a good result in these parts. Thanks.

  4. 12:51 and delighted to not be SCCered by Teazel (perhaps not knowing the setter before one attempts the QC is a mercy)
    Bunged in Carbonara NHO Carbonado which did a great job for me and was easily corrected when I found the skeleton.
    Thanks Curarist and Teazel. It was enjoyable and no shame on anyone today despite the monumental puzzle…😉

  5. From WICKET to CARBONADO, (most likely combination after crossers were in) in 8:44. Took a while to get the right definition for TRAVESTY. BOILING POINT was a good one! Thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  6. A steady solve with plenty of ‘aha moments’ to enjoy along the way.

    NHO of CARBONADO so guessed the order of the unchecked letters on the basis that it sounded a bit like carbonara and submitted with fingers crossed.

    Finished in 8.30 with COD to TRAVESTY.
    Thanks to Curarist and Teazel.

  7. 8.57

    I thought this was quite tricky but I didn’t see RUBBERNECKER until later and that would have given a lot of checkers. Didn’t know carbonnade had two ns so CARBONADE went in very confidently which caused some head scratching with LOI SKELETON

    Thanks Teazel/Curarist

    Ps Just seen Plett’s post – agree TRAVESTY was vg

    1. Carbonade is in Wiktionary with 1 N and 2, and was my biff for a while til I saw the absence of E in the grist.

  8. Liked BOILING POINT and SKELETON.
    With my latest novel called The Mongoose and the Cobra, I would have liked to make COBRA my COD but I am finding bra/supporter a bit over-used.

    2. Much enjoyed all four books – prompted to read by an earlier blog. Another one in progress?

      1. Thank you so much. Yes, I finished Book 5 today ready to go out to the beta readers. It’s called The Green Feathers. I am so lucky to have a wonderful publisher in Hobeck Books.

  9. Ejoyable puzzle, all done in 9:08. CARBONADO vaguely remembered once the second O appeared as a checker, and LOI ROOK put in with fingers crossed without understanding why it was correct. Not surprised it turned out to be a straight cryptic clue; I often find them difficult as there is no “second way in” to unlock the answer if you do not see the cryptic.

    Many thanks Curarist for the blog and explanations

  10. One pink square. CARBONARO. I had CARBONARA first, then adjusted after SKELETON went in. I justified it on the basis that the -A form was feminine, and with masculine pasta forms (bow ties, perhaps) a masculine form was needed.

    I don’t always scrupulously check anagrams like this, and it caught me out today. But miffed, it’s obscure and obsolete.

  11. After finding only four in my run through the Acrosses I was anxious, but then things started to come together, slowly. RUBBERNECKERS helped a lot although the BOILING POINT held out rather longer. And another CARBONARA here, until it wasn’t.
    Most fans would concur with feeling testy about VAR, so has to be COD. VALENTINE was neatly hidden, missed that until the V went in and then it was blindingly obvious, as is the way with clever clues.
    Well into the SCC but happy. Thanks setter and Curarist.

  12. DNK CARBONADO (or carbonnade, for that matter), but it seemed likely. Luckily, I’d just learned what COBRA is. Biffed TRAVESTY, never parsed. 6:44.

  13. Slow start with WORST and expected a difficult Friday which didn’t actually occur. Confidently put Carbonade before SKELETON changed it to CARBONADO for a lucky escape. COD TRAVESTY which was difficult. All done in 26.35 for a bit difficult but not too difficult Friday. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.

  14. I struggled with this puzzle as I did with yesterdays, finishing in a similar time of 13.54. I was in the dark as far as CARBONADO was concerned, and only felt relatively confident of putting it in after all crossers were in place. Held up mainly at the end by RUBBERNECKER and finally WORST my LOI, and true to form it took me far too long to spot the hidden VALENTINE.
    My total time for the week was 54.20 giving me a daily average of 10.52, almost a minute outside my target time.

  15. Very gentle, and perfectly nice. DNK CARBONADO, but it had to be. COD to BOILING POINT
    5:57, thanks T and C

  16. What a slog! But I got there eventually under my own steam. Forget Slow Coach Club, I was in No Coach Club territory. Clever crossword, though NHO CARBONADO.

    Pi ❤️

  17. I liked this, especially TRAVESTY and USE-BY DATE. CARBONADO unheard of (can anyone have heard of it?) but the wordplay sealed it. 8:45.

  18. 14:46 with another coinflip lost on CARBONADO. Exactly the same problem as yesterday – possibly worse – as CAR-O-A-O with B,N,D to go in … went for carbodano which seems equally plausible as the answer if you NHO. Lots of outrage from others yesterday, don’t see any posted so far, wonder why that is.

    Post solve had to stare at WORST, TAINT and ROOK to understand the parsings. Most of this went in quickly but was held up by the 1s particularly along with the SW. Coin flip aside – good puzzle from Teazel (thanks).

    3 DNFs in a row after 28 successes in a row. Total times for the weekdays including corrections coming in at 1hr08 which is decent. Have a good weekend if you’re not back for the Saturday QC, and if you are back – have a good weekend 👍

    Thanks to Curarist for the blog

    1. Please see my logic for “Carnobado” below. I’m with you on these types of obscure clues – the letter combinations mean there could be a variety of plausible solutions.

      1. Commiserations but it’s a good momble.

        I reckon trying out the six possible variations for a known word I might be missing added at least a couple of mins to my time, plus I was never certain about the O for ROOK as I couldn’t see the parsing. Maybe that doesn’t seem much extra time but it probably dragged the puzzle from being in my “sub 12- that’s a good time” to “about 15 mins that’s average”.

  19. There is only one cabinet office briefing room in Downing Street so the A has only been added for effect. The committee can meet in venues other than Downing Street. I would imagine that there is another similarly equipped room at Chequers. I’ll see if I can find out …. there must be people on this thread that know the answer….

    I managed seven quite quickly. I had trouble parsing even with the answers revealed.

    1. I biffed worst from the W wicket and wrote in rubberneckers from the R and seeing two Bs and the K in the anagrist. Dyslexia helps sometimes. Biffed Gas. Parsed cobra, tar, and bedeck.

  20. Arrrgh DPS. TReVESTY meant that I made a travesty indeed of my COD. I was typing badly today, cold fingers, and lots of corrections. Should have proof read. What a twerp.

    07:23 but OWL (and being the end of COBRA too, it gave me two errors for the price of one typo).

    Fun puzzle. BOILING POINT very good too. WICKET gate known from Pilgrim’s Progress. I put CARBONADE but SKELETON then overwrote it to CARBONADO, so I checked the anagrist and realised that that must be right.

    Many thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  21. 10:08
    Add me to the list of those who had NHO CARBONADO and assumed it was an alternative spelling of CARBONNADE.
    I liked BOILING POINT, despite my scientific education insisting that steam is water, just in its gaseous phase.

    Thanks Curarist and Teazel

  22. Some tricky clues today. PDM parsing TRAVESTY, but my COD. DAHLIAS need lifting in the autumn – does that make them delicate? Same thoughts as others re CARBONADO. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  23. Fail. The first clue was prescient in that this was one of my WORST QC performances. I was plain careless, ignoring the obvious anagram fodder and entering DUE BY DATE for 14a which gave me the nonsense word DEPICK for 14d.

    I hope I’ve learnt my lesson but probably not!

    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist

  25. Amazingly it all went in, even the NHO CARBONADO, though several no idea why and now looking forward to much instruction from the good Curarist, to whom many thanks.
    Woe! One shoulder too many was shrugged; had NiTCH (= nick = steal? maybe not) – just wrong.
    Golly it had to be TRAVESTY given those nice crossers, but NHO VAR; hardly any comment on that above – is that something you all know? Context?

    1. VAR only a recent addition to my knowledge pot — seen on TV for tennis ‘line calls’- also used in some other sports, though I believe it is not universally loved.

    2. VAR is the acronym for the Virtual Assistant Referee, which has been a feature of decision making in the premier football competitions for the past five or six years.

      Where there is any dispute over an offside, a call for a penalty, or a foul deserving of a red card, then the VAR (basically just a bunch of referees with access to multi-angle action replays) can help the on-pitch referee to come to a decision.

      1. Thank you both! Tout s’explique: so it’s yet another piece of specifically sport GK. No wonder it was NHO.

  26. Took me 40 minutes, struggling to solve several which were obvious in the end. NHO CARBONADO, but with the crossers and being an anagram it couldn’t be anything else.

  27. I thought this was quite tough but fair; Teazel sucked me in and I completed it with the clever BOILING POINT having only just heard the gong for my entry to the SCC.
    Some very good clues including some head scratchers. I biffed REACHABLE and smiled at the excellent RUBBERNECKER.
    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist.

  28. Oh, happy day. After defeat and misery yesterday we very much enjoyed this. Himself wasted no time on BOILING POINT. We chuckled at UNPICK and SKELETON. Carbonnade leapt out- thankfully carefully letter checking meant the ‘O’ had to feature.
    21.56 with two interruptions from nice GWR people offering coffee and snacks. (Who are we to say no?)
    We may have avoided the SCC.
    Thank you Teazel – a delight – and Curarist for lesson of the day (there is always at least one) ‘WORST’.

  29. I was very slow getting started, then tried to rush things to get a decent time. Bad idea.
    This was a more haste, less speed puzzle.
    At least I refrained from bunging in Carbonara as I could see a D was needed; NHO CARBONADO but not hard to construct with checkers.
    Biffing PINCH, then PITCH at 22a was silly. Hence LOI was SKELETON after BOILING POINT.
    An excellent puzzle I thought with lots of COD candidates; I’ll go with USE-BY DATE.
    17 minutes in all with much time spent on corrections.
    David

  30. 6:46

    Didn’t start too well – there was a lot of empty windows in the top half – but improved when the downs started going in. Wasn’t 100% on UNPICK (what was ‘one’s’ doing there?) until USE-BY DATE went in. VALENTINE was a nice hidden. LOI was BOILING POINT which, as for others, needed the B to see the answer.

    Thanks Curarist and Teazel

  31. Remind me never to do this on my phone in a coffee shop – disaster! Far too much noise and distraction. Crawled over the line eventually, although ended up revealing LOI SKELETON (what else could it be!). Some lovely clues from Teazel which sadly I could not fully appreciate. NHO CARBONADO but sounded plausible (a bit like astatine yesterday). Remarkable silence on blog compared to yesterday… I did like POKER FACE. Anyway, many thanks Curarist and Teazel. Lesson learned – coffee and QC at home from now on!

    1. Cryptics in a coffee shop, I’m amazed anyone can do it at all! I have to do them in deep silence, birdsong being the most distraction I can function with.

        1. That’s my recipe too! The family know to keep quiet and MrB always asks: ‘Are you timed?’ if he comes into the room 😅 I’m amazed that Vinyl can do even the super-tricky ones with his amazing record collection in the background.
          In fact, I don’t even drink or eat, as that’s too distracting 😂 But a large mug of tea first wakes me up a bit!

  32. Cheeko and Shay – Please take note! Teazel, my usual nemesis, demonstrates today exactly how to compile a QC. Approx. 15 minutes for me, which after yesterday’s debacle suggests the two puzzles were set under completely different criteria.

    It’s quite rare these days for me to escape the SCC, but I really enjoyed my canter through some interesting and, most importantly, doable (by non-experts like me) clues today. A true one cup of coffee QC.

    I struggled to parse UNPICK and ROOK, and completely failed to parse WORST which (along with BEST), can’t be ‘verbed’ IMO.
    I also had some difficulty parsing 17d and (rather embarrassingly) arrived at SWITCH without using the word ‘longing’. Perhaps I’d better not mention that to Mrs R.

    Many thank to Curarist and Teazel.

  33. Enjoyable puzzle. Finished all correct. Quite fast until slowed down a bit for last solves REACHABLE, THIN and DAHLIA. CNP THIN, and missed Elba, oh dear.
    Biffed a few en route e.g. CARBONADO.
    Not v keen use of Bra but I guess we have to put up with it ( ha, ha!)
    Liked SLAPSTICK, USE BY DATE, TRAVESTY, and FOI WICKET. COD SKELETON.
    Tried to fit in Spring Tides but BOILING POINT it had to be.
    Many thanks, Curarist. On rereading, I see quite a few I did not properly parse.

  34. Found this easy all green in 6.24 could have been better but lazily misspelled CARBONADO leaving my a bit of a struggle for LOI ROOK.

    Thanks all

  35. Most of this went in steadily as I went through the clues until I was left with the interconnected 10ac, 5dn and 8dn plus 19dn. The first three of these took me about 10 minutes of head-scratching and 19dn defeated me completely. I was aware that king and castle are chess pieces but I know nothing about chess so Curarist’s explanation in the blog doesn’t help much – I was never going to solve this without a very lucky guess. NHO CARBONADO but I assumed it was an alternative name for carbonnade. I also started with pinch at 22ac before SKELETON made me think again. Not a good end to the week.

    FOI – 11ac TAR
    LOI – DNF
    CODs – RUBBERNECKER, BOILING POINT and UNPICK

    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist.

  36. Lots of nice PDMs today, taking me 14:09 in total. Not really a fan of CARBONADO, which I guessed correctly but without any confidence. Didn’t we have a similar complaint yesterday?

    Thank you for the blog!

  37. 15:50 UNPICK took ages- thought it started with RE until I saw USE-BY- DATE. I also thought Bruckner would lead to Anton, and the one stirring was obviously a baker. Gee, I always sign Valentine cards but I guess many are too shy to openly declare their feelings. TRAVESTY, SKELETON, and BOILNG POINT were great.

  38. I’m experiencing whiplash after yesterday’s DNF, completed this in 10:55. A surprise from Teazel who is usually hard for me. Lucky for me that CARBONADO presented itself by magic from some dim corner of my memory; I couldn’t have told you what it meant. Today I learned that VAR is a thing. COD ROOK.

    Thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  39. I’m wondering if there is a small error at 21a as I confidently put in CARBONADa which is an Argentinian beef stew. I didn’t check the anagram fodder but it looked about right. I only changed the final a to an O when SKELETON arrived and then assumed it was an alternative spelling, which it isn’t. The actual definition would work so much better if ‘Beef maybe’ was substituted for ‘Beef rather’ in the cluing. Anyway minor quibble over! I solved from WORST via the unknown gate and a biffed TRAVESTY to BOILING POINT in 7:52. Thanks Curarist.

  40. 11.17 DNF. My goal for ages has been to complete a week with my NITCH and WITCH all green. And I would have if I hadn’t carelessly put CARBONARO. Curses. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.

  41. Found this trickier than Shay’s QC yesterday mostly due to more cryptic definitions without wordplay help. Oh well. Some nice fresh clues otherwise., like the one for Boiling Point.

  42. NHO Worst’ meaning ‘defeat’ as a verb! How does that work exactly? To worst = to defeat? I defeated him = I worsted him. Or what?!

  43. Just remembered that castling kingside in chess is written “o-o” which would make the king to castle a very neat clue indeed?

  44. Most enjoyable puzzle taking 40m+
    Like others I tried various versions of CARBONARA and CARBONADA before SKELETON and the available letters clinched it.
    LOI BOILING POINT. Rather clever.
    COD ROOK
    Thank you to Teazel and Curarist.

  45. 20 mins…

    A good, challenging puzzle from Teazel – although, unless you knew it, I don’t think “Carbonado” was as straight forward as some have made out. You could quite easily have had “Carnobado”, with the “Carno” element almost signalling some kind of meaty reference. I did dally with this for a while, before opting for the right one, but it was more a guess based on the way it flowed and sounded than anything else.

    Similarly, until I had some checkers, I put “Spoon Face” for 18ac 😂

    FOI – 6dn “Bedeck”
    LOI – 21ac “Carbonado”
    COD – 3dn “Travesty” – VAR often is.

    Thanks as usual!

    1. It seems like everybody else just went down the adjusted “carbonara” route. And that may be exactly why I lost the coin flip for a 2nd day in a row – I have decent GK and even when I don’t know something it’s often vaguely heard of – so I opted for the less likely combinaton as the correct solution rang no bells.

  46. Finished but with some help. We were slow to get the play on words in some clues.

  47. At 12:24 we were somewhere around par but slower than yesterday. I’d biffed carbonade, thinking I recognised it, fortunately Mrs T was with me to point out the E missing from the anagrist. Corrected with the O but still assumed it was the same thing. Thanks for the culinary education, Curarist. I’m a bit surprised that TAINT didn’t cause more problems for overseas solvers. COD BOILING POINT for me but the hidden VALENTINE was also good. .

  49. DNF

    18 minutes, but a DPS on CARBONADO. Failed to check the anagram and put carbonara, which didn’t work so changed to carbonaro. Should have know.

    Otherwise nothing too bad.

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