Quick Cryptic 33 by Flamande

Greetings from New Caledonia, where Mrs. Novice (there’s some scope for wordplay in there somewhere) and I are currently holidaying. A delightful piece of France in the South Pacific, here you can sit under a palm tree tucking into a perfect andouillette and gazing out at a coral reef lagoon, prior to humiliating yourself on the (quite demanding) local golf course. And it’s just a two and a half hour flight from Sydney (which I guess is not much use if you live in Croydon but is pretty handy if you are a francophile based down under…)

Anyway, on with the blog. Pretty much straight up and down military medium I thought, but with the odd one darting away off the seam to keep you on your toes (apologies to non cricketers, but there seems to be widespread use of cricket terminology in Times crosswords so I hope the odd analogy is acceptable). Couple of quite amusing ones – enjoyed 6 dn and 15 ac. And a palindrome lobbed in to boot! Plenty to like, so thanks to Flamande. Apologies but have still not worked out how to include definitions – despite template and guidance from Ian (sorry, I’m just a complete dummy on this kind of stuff): hope to have this resolved next time.

Across
4 DAMSON – “Fruit” is definition. Wordplay also giving the answer is DAM (“nuts” – MAD – backwards – i.e. “returned”) and “boy” giving SON
7 PLEASURE – “Delight” is definition. Wordplay is PURE (“utter”) “going round” LEAS (“fields” – where the lowing herd winds slowly…)
8 FALLEN – “Stumbled” is definition (On edit: but see further jackkt comment below on this). Wordplay is FEN (“boggy area”) with ALL (“everyone”) stuck in it
9 BASTILLE – “French prison once” is definition. Wordplay is TILL (“container of cash”) found in BASE (“lowly”)
10 ICON – “Computer symbol” is definition. Answer also constructed from “I” with CON (meaning “study” – somewhat obscure bit of vocabulary but seems to crop up quite a lot in crosswordland)
12 PATCHING – “Mending” is definition. The answer is an anagram (signalled by “in disarray”) of “giant chap” but missing an “a” – “one article mislaid”
15 PASSPORT – “Official document” is definition. Answer also (somewhat jokily) shown in (“reveals”) PA’S SPORT (i.e. “old man’s game”). Well, it made me chuckle…
18 SARK – “Island” is definition (or at least an exemplar). Wordplay is S (abbreviation of “Southern”) with (“near”) ARK (“vessel full of animals”)
20 JIGGERED – “Tired” is definition. Wordplay is JIGGED (“did lively dance”) “round” RE (“about”). Have not heard this word in day to day usage for upwards of 30 years: it was a favourite of my father, who used it if Mother was in earshot (but would resort to earthier alternatives when she was not). So, useful bit of vocabulary to have in the kitbag when taking tea with one’s Great Aunt
22 DONATE – “Give” is definition. Wordplay is DON (“teacher”) with A (“top grade”) “before” TE (i.e. first “half” of “term”)
23 CREDITOR – “he’s owed money” is definition. Wordplay is CR (abbreviation of “councillor”) with (“meets”) EDITOR (“top journalist”)
24 ATTEST – “Witness” is definition. Wordplay is AT with TEST (international cricket match). Not the most inspiring clue of the day…

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Down
1 FLEA – “Jumper” is the definition (as in the insect with its predilection for leaping around: other “jumpers” in crosswordland can be frogs, kangaroos and the like). The wordplay is FLE (“mischievous type” – ELF – backwards – “getting up”) with A
2 HASTINGS – “battle site” is definition (or exemplar). The wordplay is HAS (“experiences”) with TINGS (“sounds of bells”). More of a ding dong than a ting man myself, but fair enough, I suppose…
3 PULL-UP – The whole clue is a kind of double definition – and ingenious at that. A PULL-UP is an exercise on a bar in the gym (or elsewhere for that matter – how robust are your curtain rods?): “one way or another” indicates the delightful palindrome
4 DEFECT – straightforward double definition: further explanation probably superfluous
5 MALL – “shopping arcade” is the definition. The answer is also constructed from SMALL (“modest”) without its first letter S (“head away”)
6 ONE-LINER – Another double definition kind of clue – liked this one for its wit. A cruise company with just one liner would indeed be a “very modest” outfit: and we all enjoy a good one-liner…
11 CRASH OUT – Bit of a complex construction here. “Sleep” gives the definition. The wordplay is CR (“cry briefly” – i.e. without its last letter) with another (“again”) “cry” (this time SHOUT) “after A”
13 AIR – “song” is the definition with the answer also derived from the first letters (“introductions”) of “an indie rock“. Conjures up a pleasing image of our MC saying “and now ladies and gentlemen, Death Cab For Cutie will give us their rendition of ‘Londonderry Air'” (Stranger things have happened…)
14 HYSTERIA – “Overexcitement” is the definition. The answer is also an anagram (signalled by “spreading”) of “this year”
16 OBJECT – Double definition. “Thing” is an object, and also object is here used in the sense of objecting to (“minding”) – as in “do you mind if I smoke?”, to which the classic answer was “Smoke? Sir, you can burst into flames for all I care”
17 TAGGED – “with label attached” is the definition. The answer is also an anagram (signalled by “fancy”) of “gadget”
19 PALE – “Sickly looking” is the definition (although those who consider themselves to be “pale and interesting” might take issue with this…) The wordplay is PAL (“friend”) with E (abbreviation of – “little” – “energy”)
21 ETON – “school” is the definition. The answer is also derived from every other letter (i.e. “regularly”) of “went round

11 comments on “Quick Cryptic 33 by Flamande”

  1. Would have been faster, but I stalled on TAGGED; simply didn’t read the clue right, and wasted bags of time looking for something to add on to (attach to) TAG. A number of standard clues to keep in mind here: ‘boy’=son or lad, ‘study’=con (or read or den), ‘jumper'(often =roo), ‘journalist’=ed, usually, here the full editor. DNK JIGGERED, or at least didn’t know it meant ‘tired’; I started off thinking of ‘reeled’ until I got the J.
  2. Top half went in quickly but got stuck on the bottom half until I saw passport. Like Nick I liked this clue although it was a mixture of a smile and a groan when the penny dropped. Total time around 30 minutes. Also liked gadget as it took some time for me to see it was an anagram. LOI crash out.
  3. 14 minutes for this one with no major problems along the way though, as so often, I seemed to take a while to get started. I haven’t mentioned recently that my Quickie times include parsing and marking up the clues to save me thinking them through again later when comparing notes here.

    I looked twice at ‘stumbled’ = FALLEN but I think it works in a figurative sense with reference to sinning, for example.

    Edited at 2014-04-23 05:52 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for picking that up – must admit I was a bit cavalier in analysing this. I don’t have a proper dictionary to hand, but I suspect the state of being Fallen is what occurs after one has Stumbled… (maybe?). Have amended blog accordingly.

      Edited at 2014-04-23 07:13 am (UTC)

      1. The Oxfords seem to support my original view but Collins has “trip or fall whilst walking or running” so the setter is completely exonerated.
  4. Very enjoyable on several fronts. First is that the only person I’ve ever heard use the term jiggered is my Mum – so there’s some kind of global mature female vocabulary thing going on here. Second that I had my own 14dn moment when I found that ALL (even the right hand half) of the iPad Safari keyboard works if you turn the thing around and use it in portrait mode. No time for the crossword as I can’t remember how long I spent struggling before this major revelation. LOI Crashed Out – took a long time to see this one. Finally I’ve enjoyed the mental picture of Nick blogging within sight of a coral reef lagoon. 🙂
  5. 5 mins, and this puzzle felt a little more difficult than the last couple of QCs. HASTINGS was my LOI after CRASH OUT, which I agree was a fairly complex construction for a QC clue.
  6. Well blogged, Mr Nick Novice. Glad you are enjoying Nouvelle Caledonie, I went diving there with Amedee a few years ago and had a great time. Am envious! This quickie took me 6 minutes, thought I’d better practice for my turns to blog.
  7. Thanks for blogging from hols – very dedicated!

    This was spot on for me in difficulty; many required a second look, a couple really had me scratching my head, but all solved and good fun.

    Never heard JIGGERED before. Enjoyed PASSPORT, CRASHED OUT (eventually), ONE LINER and FLEA.

    Thanks Chris for solving the keyboard problem, which also occurs on my android phone. Hopefully the option to print won’t be too long coming.

  8. On a trip with Z8 to fetch copies of the Mozart Requiem for the choir… Slightly disturbed by raucous funfair music & a senior moment when I forgot to start timing. Z8 reckons less than 20 with very few hints. COD no actually COY (Clue of the year) 6 dn – absolutely wonderful!!
    Je vous remercie, M le Novice, pour un blog tres exact. Bonnes vacances!!
  9. Thanks,Nick. Yes, I think “military medium’ describes this. 16mins but held up by putting DESERT instead of DEFECT and puzzling over why the latter sounded wrong.

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