Quick Cryptic 35 by Oran

Without the grid-width 1ac, and with only 3 of the 6 first down clues, I found this a bit of challenge to get into. And had a lot of fun as a consequence! Very satisfied to put the last couple in at 20ac/20dn.

Across
1 WINDOW-SHOPPERbrowser or WINDOWS (operating system) + HOPPER.
8 IDIOCY – I’D (I had) + IOC (International Olympic Committee) + Y (last letter of say) gives something daft.
9 NATURE – double definition, the second somewhat cryptic; kind (the characteristic or nature of something) or sort of mother (mother nature).
10 TAXI – the definition is one to be hailed from TA (informal thank you, along with cheers) + XI (eleven, the number of players on a cricket team).
11 DALMATIA – anagram of matilda (indicated by waltzing) + A gives place you’re unlikely to hear Waltzing Matilda (the Australian folk song) namely, a region of Croatia. Quite a vague definition, which basically amounts to “somewhere (Country? City?) not in Australia”, but I can see why the anagram was too tempting to pass up! Nice clue. Apologies for an earlier parsing mistake, now corrected.
12 LOGIC – LO! (behold!) + GI (American soldier) + C (first of concern) for sense.
13 BASISfoundation is BA (Bachelor of Arts, graduate) + SIS (female in family, sister).
15 HOT WATER – piping = HOT, what piping may carry = WATER. You may be said to be in this if in difficulties.
17 AXIS – in cricket, SIX is a big shot, which needs to be reversed (ricocheting) and placed after A. Avoiding the pistol-themed misdirection, the definition is a revolver’s central line, i.e. something that revolves. My vote for COD.
19 ISRAEL – anagram of SERIAL (indicated by broadcast) for the country.
20 PEDALOpleasure craft is PE (exercises in school) + reversal of O (old) LAD (boy). Convinced this word started BO, I had to wait for 20dn before committing to an answer here.
21 NELSON’S COLUMN – this London landmark is comprised of NELSONS (a nelson is apparently a wrestling hold) + COLUMN (regular newspaper feature). Solved from checkers and definition before googling the unknown manoeuvre.

Down
2 INDIA – if you’re home, you’re IN + AID reversed for the required state.
3 DRONING – flooding = drowning in this case. Removing the W (wife escapes) gives buzzing.
4 WRY – W (western) + RY (railway) = twisted (think “wry sense of humour”).
5 HANDLEBAR – nice double definition with the first part cryptic. A pub’s manager must handle the bar, and part of a cycle.
6 PITTA – William Pitt the Elder was the first of two Prime Ministers with that name (the second being his son, the Younger), and could perhaps be known as Pitt “A”. Also a type of bread. Made me smile.
7 EARWIGSuses bug (listens in, taps) or bugs of the insect order Dermaptera.
11 DECATHLON – DEC (last month of the year) + ATHLONe (Irish town without its last letter) for a sporting event.
12 LOOK-SEEgander is LOOKS (beauty) + EleganceE (extreme letters).
14 SCANDAL – in cricket, C = caught; wearing (surrounded by) SANDAL (light footwear) for disgrace.
16 WRAPS – homophone of “raps” (knocks, indicated by loudly) for parcels.
18 ISLAM – the religion we’re looking for is an anagram of MAIL’S (indicated by abused).
20 PIC – camera picture or snap and PICk (digging implement with the bottom letter missing).

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic 35 by Oran”

  1. Nice work William – sounds like you had some tricky issues to contend with beyond working out the answers and blogging.

    Found this one pretty hard going – posibly hardest QC so far? (or maybe I am in holiday mode and struggling with the intellectual effort of doing much beyond ordering nicely balanced foods and wines).

    DECATHLON was easy from definition and a few other checkers, but had never heard of Athlone so could not parse (with apologies to the inhabitants of that no doubt great place).

    DALMATIA was also somewhat problematic for me. Sussed out it must be an anagram so went in OK (by the way William, you might want to mention the additional A), but given the propensity of Aussies for singing Waltzing Matilda in all sorts of unlikely venues (e.g. a trade show in Croatia I was at a couple of years ago) this was a bit misleading for me.

    AXIS I did not get at all – first QC clue I have grappled with and ended up with absolutely no idea how to resolve.

    Edited at 2014-04-25 09:22 am (UTC)

  2. A very entertaining puzzle from a new setter – I had thought the whole crew was probably on board after nearly 7 weeks. I particularly liked 6d which uses a device we have not seen in the Quickies to date.

    14 minutes. Every week so far I have managed one puzzle within 10 minutes so this week is my first failure in that respect.

    Edited at 2014-04-25 09:24 am (UTC)

  3. 5 mins so not much different from my other times this week, but I agree that this was a fun puzzle. NATURE was my LOI after EARWIG.
  4. Quickest solve for some time, just under 15 minutes. Really enjoyed this with lots of cracking clues. 1a was my COD closely followed by 6d. Almost stumbled with my LOI pedalo as I initially toyed with paddle but then saw the correct parsing.
  5. As a newbie to cryptics I measure my solving time in hours rather than minutes but am seeing some progress. Thanks for all the blogs they are a great help. I look forward to getting faster and completing a QC in under an hour.
    1. Have never been good at cryptic crosswords so decided to really try to master the new Times Quick Cryptic. Have managed to complete 3 so far, but usually only get a max of 8 clues right. Any tips?
  6. Patience and practice. Coming here to read the blogs to find out how the answers have been arrived at is a good starting point. Your recognition of the various types of clue should improve with time, and as long as your vocabulary is up to the task it will become easier to get the answers. It didn’t happen with me overnight by any means.
  7. This was the first Quick Cryptic *ever* where I completed the grid! On checking your answers here I found I made a mistake with Pedals instead of Pedalo for 20A. I didn’t see how it quite fit the clue but it did fit the grid and I realise that was sloppy of me. Nevertheless, I think the completed grid still means an extra ration of chocolate.

    Thanks again for the excellent explanations — they’re making it so much easier to master the craft. I think you all deserve extra chocolates tonight!

    Edited at 2014-04-25 06:13 pm (UTC)

    1. Congratulations, and a memorable puzzle. As a non blogger I am having something slightly stronger than chocolate tonight.
  8. Congratulations to those who finished or got close. I saw this as a QC towards the harder end of the range.
  9. I hate to say this, but 6 in Roman numerals is VI. If the Big Shot is referring to cricket, shouldn’t the answer have a V in it?

    Teragram

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