Quick Cryptic 3041 by Bjorn – an itsy bitsy teenie weenie bit tricky

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I found this a bit on the harder side as indicated by my time of 12:55. Better than my last Bjorn effort when I was well into the SCC. A number of interesting clue constructions to start off with and some less common words, eg 20a and a bit of UK-centric knowlege required, eg 17a. I wasn’t sure what 20d (On edit: Apologies, I meant 19d – thanks MartinG) was referring to and had to look it up only after getting the answer from wordplay. The six anagrams did help to get a few answers in and the double defs weren’t too hard.

I liked the surfaces for 11a and 23a.

There’s a little stocking filler in the grid, which would have helped had I picked it up sooner. As always in retrospect, not hard to spot, but if you still can’t see it, click on the button below.

Spread across the centre of the grid is… CENTRE SPREAD and down the middle column is… MIDDDLE COLUMN.

 

Thanks to Bjorn

Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.

Across
1 Silly, mardy, sad old men playing soldiers (4,4)
DADS ARMY – Anagram (‘Silly’) of MARDY SAD

No problem with the TV programme (still being shown on repeats here) but I didn’t know ‘mardy’ which Oxford Dictionaries gives as “Northern English: in a petulant bad mood; sulky or grumpy”. The whole clue could also be seen as the definition.
5 Fungal blight infesting farmer’s cabbage (4)
SCAB – Whole clue as definition and a hidden (‘infesting’) in farmer’S CABbage’

I knew SCAB can be a skin disease in animals, but not being a gardener, I didn’t know that SCAB is also a fungal disease of plants.
8 Cornish river southeast? That’s wrong (5)
FALSE – FAL (‘Cornish river’) SE (‘southeast’)

‘That’s wrong’ referring back to ‘southeast?’ as the location of Cornwall. Another clue for which the whole clue is a non-cryptic definition.
9 Loot piled so high? (7)
DESPOIL – Anagram (‘high’) of PILED SO
11 Very attractive, the Spanish goalie — he’s bedded plenty (11)
HOTELKEEPER – HOT (‘Very attractive’) EL (‘the Spanish’) KEEPER (‘goalie’)

Maybe on obvious one, but still my COD. A whimsical def and not the sort of ‘bedded’ the surface suggests.
13 Cross netball player (6)
CENTRE – Double definition

Centre for ‘cross’, usually seen in a sporting sense
14 Before stuffing down blanket (6)
SPREAD – PRE (‘Before’) contained in (‘stuffing’) SAD (‘down’)

Not the expected ‘down’ as a noun.
17 Change for Waterloo Stn, where there’s a runaway train (5,6)
ALTON TOWERS – Anagram of (‘Change for’) WATERLOO STN

I’d just heard of this. A historic estate, theme park and “resort complex” in England (Staffordshire) which has a roller coaster called the “Runaway Mine Train“.
20 Bikini top reportedly outlawed? Oh … (7)
BANDEAU – Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) of BANNED (‘outlawed’) and of OH

I didn’t know this term. According to the OED, first used in this sense (earlier senses were as a hair band or eye bandage) in 1915.
21 Fabulous writer regularly made a scoop (5)
AESOP – Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of mAdE a ScOoP

‘Fabulous’ possibly in two senses, but I think the “given to fabling” rather than the “wonderful” one is primarily intended.
22 Taking lead from smallest bridge player (4)
EAST – Deletion of first letter (‘Taking lead from’) LEAST (‘smallest’)
23 King wearing exotic panties in disorderly house (5,3)
SNAKE PIT – K (‘King’) contained in (‘wearing’) anagram (‘exotic’) of PANTIES

Don’t even try to make a mental image of this! I think of a SNAKE PIT as an environment in which everyone is at each other’s throats, rather than a ‘disorderly house’ but Chambers has as sense 2: “A place, or circumstances, characterised by disordered emotions and relationships” so ‘disorderly house’ seems OK.
Down
1 Weak-minded Democrat behind (4)
DAFT – D (‘Democrat’) AFT (‘behind’)
2 Very intelligent individual with no DPhil, strangely (7)
DOLPHIN – Anagram (‘strangely’) of NO DPHIL

Not the human ‘individual’ I was expecting.
3 Spy called in extremely offensive chemical weapon (5,6)
AGENT ORANGE – AGENT (‘Spy’) then RANG (‘called’) contained in (‘in’) OffensiveE (‘extremely offensive’)
4 Male, lazy, nursing onset of drinker’s belly (6)
MIDDLE – M (‘Male’) then IDLE (‘lazy’) containing (‘nursing’) Drinker’s (‘onset of drinker’s’)

‘Belly’ for midriff, or MIDDLE part of the body, or for the central part of eg muscles.
6 Loudly munch cutlet after eating starter of melon (5)
CHOMP – CHOP (‘cutlet’) containing (‘after eating starter of’) Melon
7 English pounds accepted by second-rate European capital (8)
BELGRADE – E (‘English’) L (‘pounds’) contained in (‘accepted by’) B GRADE (‘second-rate’)
10 High-level worker wrecked Jeep’s tackle (11)
STEEPLEJACK – Anagram (‘wrecked’) of JEEPS TACKLE
12 Scratch word game (8)
SCRABBLE – Double definition
15 Popping tablets into each drink relaxes (5,2)
EASES UP – ES (‘tablets’) contained in (‘(popping…) into’) EA (‘each’) SUP (‘drink’)
16 File article for newspaper (6)
COLUMN – Double definition

My last in. I spent too long with A, AN and THE.
18 African city last to shut universities (5)
TUNIS – shuT (‘last to shut’) UNIS (‘universities’)

In the past, UNIS for ‘universities’ would have been regarded as very non-U.
19 Catch sight of 40 on board heading north (4)
SPOT – Reversal (‘heading north’) of TOPS (’40 on board’)

TOPS is the double twenty (=40) scoring area at the top of the darts board. This term is perfectly logical, but there is plenty of other darts jargon that isn’t.

76 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3041 by Bjorn – an itsy bitsy teenie weenie bit tricky”

  1. 48 minute DNF.

    Could not get BANDEAU (despite having first 5 letters!!!) or COLUMN. Spent over 30 minutes staring at these clues and saw nothing. How bad is that?

    Enjoyment – nil
    Sense of achievement – nil
    Self-confidence – nil

    Why can’t I do this? Where am I going wrong? I am so frustrated and angry at my lack of ability and failure to improve. I wish I knew the secret to this, but I don’t think I ever will. I am so envious of the rest of you.

    I’m too fed up to even think about looking at the 15 x 15. ☹️

  3. DNK the darts lingo, I thought TOPS was referring to Top 40 on the (Bill)board charts! The definition was clear so I didn’t think about it too hard.

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