Quick Cryptic 3045 by Breadman

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Parksolve time 37:47, slightly sluggish all round.

Today’s entertainment is brought to you by Breadman.  A nice meaty one I think with nothing too controversial, so let’s just get on with it.

Let us know in the comments how you got on.

(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics.  In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc.  Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
Across
1 Right to divide Scotsman’s brandy (4)
MARC – R (right) “divides” MAC (Scotsman)
4 Hunting dog terribly loud, Ken holding lead in hall (8)
ELKHOUND – (LOUD KEN)* “holding” H (lead in Half)
8 Maybe Ben’s horse in top-class condition heading for Newmarket (8)
MOUNTAIN – MOUNT (horse) + AI (A1, in top-class condition) + N (“heading” for Newmarket)

Ben being Scottish for mountain, of course.
9 Long letter (eighth) wanting answer (4)
ITCH – AITCH (eighth letter) “wanting” A (answer)

Wait, you mean it’s not haitch?
10 Live temporarily with American in hovel (4)
STAY – A (American) in STY (hovel)
11 Fungus spread rapidly (8)
MUSHROOM – Double definition

A mushroom is an edible fungus, sometimes used as a murder weapon in rural Victoria.
12 One owing money, say, finally sold single Born to Run (6)
DEBTOR – DE [last letters (finally) of solD singlE] + B (born) + TO + R (run)

I’m not quite sure what “say” is doing in here.  I suppose a debtor could owe something other than money, but the standard definition is “one who owes money”.
14 Vigorously jerked part of foot, left unseen, in yard (6)
YANKED – ANKE [ANKLE (part of foot) without L (left)] in YD (yard)
16 Clergyman’s tea without milk or sugar? (8)
CHAPLAIN – CHA (tea) + PLAIN (without milk or sugar?)

I have a friend who, when asked how he takes his tea, always responds with “normal”.
18 Some hiker hurried over European river (4)
RUHR – Reverse (over) hidden (some) in hikeR HURried
19 Lake that is beyond edges of Exmoor (4)
ERIE – IE (that is) beyond ER (“edges” of ExmooR)
20 One traditional athletics race keeping crowd riveted? (8)
IMMOBILE – I (one) + MILE (traditional athletics race) “keeping” MOB (crowd)
22 Absurd debates start to demand support for lying people? (8)
BEDSTEAD – (DEBATES)* + D (start to Demand)
23 Name fashionable English square (4)
NINE – N (name) + IN (fashionable) + E (English)

Nine being the square of three.
Down
2 Champion prop getting in beer (7)
APOSTLE – PROP (post) getting in ALE (beer)

Yes, I learned very early in my rugby days not to drink with the props.
3 Limitations of costly confectionery in US (5)
CANDY – C AND Y (“limitations” of CostlY)

Nice one Breadman, always good to see some lesser-used clueing techniques.
4 Meg Ryan regularly ignored age (3)
ERA – alternate letters (regularly ignored) of mEg RyAn

That’s Meg of “I’ll have what she’s having” fame.  Enough said.
5 Monarch, secretive, joining new knight somewhere in East Anglia (5,4)
KINGS LYNN – KING (monarch) + SLY (secretive) + N (new) + N (knight)

Famous for its rich maritime heritage, according to Google.
6 Character overseas moronic surprisingly (7)
OMICRON – (MORONIC)*

I think “surprisingly moronic character overseas” would have been a smoother surface.
7 Mexican food found in Arizona chophouse (5)
NACHO – Hidden in arizoNA CHOphouse
11 Naval soldier grabbing scrap of cloth lifted greasy stuff (9)
MARGARINE -MARINE (Naval soldier) “grabbing” GAR [RAG (scrap of cloth) reversed (lifted)]
13 Tense, work not as much? Adult model may appear thus (7)
TOPLESS – T (tense) + OP (work) + LESS (not as much)
15 European Commission man alone uncovered rank in organisation (7)
ECHELON – EC (European Commission) + HE (man) + aLONe (alone “uncovered”)
17 Huge number of people gather in auditorium (5)
HORDE – Homophone (in auditorium) of HOARD (gather)
18 Steal from home bird (5)
ROBIN – ROB (steal from) + IN (home)
21 Mother and daughter out to lunch (3)
MAD – MA (mother) + D (daughter)

46 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3045 by Breadman”

  1. I biffed KINGS LYNN (from K, Y), MARGARINE, & HORDE, parsed post-submission. 6:03

  2. 11:54, not sure what’s been going on this week, hoping to get back on track with target times next week.

    This one was pleasantly chewy. I don’t think anything needs special comment, although I found APOSTLE really hard for some reason. Thanks all!

  3. 8.01 with a typo

    Also thought APOSTLE was tough and struggled to parse DEBTOR so gave up and bunged it in. Great song.

    Thanks Galspray and Breadman

  4. 13 minutes.

    I can see that APOSTLE would be hard but for some reason the answer leapt out at me – perhaps I’ve seen something similar before.

    I lost time elsewhere however, as somehow between spotting NACHO as a hidden word and writing the answer in the grid I managed to confuse it with another Mexican dish ‘taco’, and entered TACHO. That gave me problems solving 4ac ELKHOUND until I’d noticed the error and corrected it.

  5. Struggled to get going with this and some went in unparsed, for example DEBTOR. Got there in the end with this chewy but enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI Elkhound
    LOI Echelon
    COD Chaplain

  6. A steady solve until getting bogged down with my last two – STAY, where I was looking for a synonym of ‘hovel’ and APOSTLE, which is not the first meaning of champion that springs to mind (although perfectly fair).
    Finished in 7.55
    Thanks to galspray and Breadman

  7. I was 9:05 today, with LOI MOUNTAIN, which took me a good minute thinking about. Somehow I was trying to justify FOUNTAIN for a while even though the first thing I think of when I see “Ben” in a clue is “Ben Nevis”, especially following closely after a Scotsman (nice to see it wasn’t Ian, but then I’ve definitely never heard of a Brandy called IRAN) clue.

    Totally agree with Galspray about the surface of OMICRON and the curious “say” in DEBTOR (which surface also would have been improved by its omission).

    Thanks Breadman, a nice puzzle, not too easy, not too hard, to kick off what currently looks like a very wet weekend.

  8. Another tough one to finish a tough week. 44:45 for me.
    Enjoyed the tussle though and there were some nice PDMs.
    NHO MARC and also wondered if IRAN might be a brandy. Could not parse ITCH or CANDY but the blog gave good explanations.
    COD CHAPLAIN
    Thanks Breadman and Galspay.

  9. A bit slow and dim today but got there in the end. LOI ECHELON as had misspelt RUHR.
    COD CHAPLAIN. Also liked ELKHOUND, MOUNTAIN.
    Biffed APOSTLE.
    Thanks vm, Galspray.

  10. Another day another typo! Not my week. From MARC to IMMOBILE via TOPLEES in 6,57. Drat and double drat! Thanks Breadman and Galspray.

  11. NHO OUT TO LUNCH meaning MAD, but obvious from the clue. Otherwise a satisfying solve. LOI APOSTLE. Thanks Breadman and Galspray

  12. Enjoyable challenge, with nothing very obvious leaping out. Still find it hard to remember A for American, so that only went in the crossers. Thanks to Galspray and Breadman.

  13. 32.52 m (majority completed in c15 mins.. then plodded). Used checker for MARC.
    Really enjoyed this, slow as we were .
    14A ignored ankle – focused on sole, heel … 19A, partially biffed MERE (at least we acknowledged the ER), causing delay in that corner.
    Innocently (naively ☺️) swallowed every misdirection.
    Great puzzle, excellent and amusing blog.
    Learnt much more about ‘Omicron’.
    What a nice way to spend a bit of a Saturday morning.
    Thanks all.

  14. Marc is a French brandy distilled from what is left after grapes have been pressed. Can be delicious and very alcoholic. A good scrabble word. The Italian version is grappa.

    1. I’m with you as far as ‘interesting’, but I’m afraid ‘delicious’ is a step too far.

  15. 18:29
    I missed the “over” in 18a, and entered the river as RHUR. This caused a long delay in seeing ECHELON, my LOI.

    I have walked the Ouse Valley trail from KINGS LYNN to Milton Keynes, so 5d went in quickly.

    COD CHAPLAIN

    Thanks Galspray and Breadman

  16. I found this tough going, and it never really enthused me. Some odd definitions (how does Champion = Apostle?), clunky surfaces (agree that Galspray’s rewording of 6D is much superior) and less than obvious wordplay (eg “traditional athletics race” for mile) meant I was never on wavelength. But all done eventually in a slow and forgettable 18:10.

    Many thanks Galspray for the blog and a good weekend to all.

    1. Amongst other meanings Collins has for apostle ‘an ardent early supporter of a cause, reform movement, etc’, which seems good enough to me as ‘champion’.

  17. I flew threw this, and all the Down clues went in on the first pass. I biffed my LOI, and still couldn’t parse it – cheers Galspray!

    FOI MARC
    LOI IMMOBILE
    COD CHAPLAIN
    TIME 3:38

    1. Wow, a stunning time! And puts my travails into perspective – exactly 5 times as long.

  18. NHO Marc so had to google that one. I also struggled with Apostle as not the first word I think of when presented with champion.
    COD Nine
    LOI Stay
    Thanks Galspray and Breadman

    1. One year touring France, at the end of the meal each night my wife had the local cheese and I had the local marc. She had some really good cheeses and I had some really ropey marcs.

  19. Very bad DNF.
    Started badly by misreading Meg Ryan as EON, which made MOUNTAIN impossible and I was going through famous Bens. Also NHO GAR, so could not finish MAGARINE, and never though to split MARINE up that way, and desperately tried to make MARINADE work.

    The “joke” about Rivetted led me to think about actual rivets, and an athletics event from the 1900 Olympics where they threw an iron bar or something. Honestly those old Olympics had bizarre events like speedboat racing, live pigeon shooting and roque.

    I pressed Submit with blanks everywhere and am 144 of 145 on the loser board.

    2. I missed the “lifted” altogether and had GAR as a fragment (scrap) of garment. Wrong route – right destination.
      Straightforward for me. Thanks to both.
      Didn’t have time yesterday hence late post.

  20. 10:12. Stared at the obvious DEBTOR for a long time but couldn’t figure out the parsing. Also missed secretive for sly in KING’S LYNN. There’s a doctor, Sir Omicron Pye, in one of Trollope’s Barchester novels.

  21. 17:11

    Breezed through most of this in 10 minutes. Had to convince myself ITCH was correct but then struggled in NW corner with STAY and APOSTLE proving tricky before finally getting LOI the NHO MARC.

  22. 7.28 Surprisingly quick today. The SE was stickiest. Thanks galspray and Breadman.

  23. Found this quite difficult and took over 29 minutes to struggle home. Biffed ELKHOUND (NHO) MARGARINE and ECHELON . A struggle.

  24. 11:26, quickish for me. By chance, I’d seen KINGS LYNN in another puzzle just yesterday, so that was a write-in. I think ECHELON was my favourite today.

    Thanks to Breadman and Galspray.

  25. Really nice crossword, not difficult but needed some thought. LOI APOSTLE, like most others here. CHAPLAIN made me smile. 8 mins.
    Thanks Breadman and Galspray: and I hope your lot turn up next week for the second Test. 😉

    1. Thanks Dai. I hope one of your lot actually manages to make the team. 😉

  26. Took me 70 minutes, but a very good tough puzzle. Loved the clues for CHAPLAIN and CANDY. Thank you for the blog 😁

  27. 25:35 and my third visit to the SCC this week. That well known apostle Ben the Mac Nevis of the North West did it for me. After I had the brandy I was left with no champion and couldn’t get across, the mountain.
    Cheers Gallers and Bready

  28. Usual Saturday disaster.

    How is it possible to get progressively worse at these puzzles? Not expecting an answer.

  29. I liked this one. Biffed then parsed IMMOBILE, DEBTOR and CHAPLAIN. Had to think long and hard about ECHELON, STAY and APOSTLE. Favourite clue was CHA PLAIN 😆 LOI ELKHOUND. Thanks Breadman and galspray.

  30. Tackled this earlier today, but for various reasons had to wait until now to comment. About 15mins for everything apart from loi Apostle. Completely breezeblocked and lucky in the end to squeeze out a sub-20. CoD to Debtor for the parsing – I have been in debt to quite a few people during my life, but only ever had the one mortgage 😉 Invariant

    1. Good point, I also thought the “say” was superfluous, but many Oscar winners etc. say “I am indebted to … ” without meaning money.

      1. They may say they’re indebted, but it’s unlikely they’ll refer to themselves as debtors.

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