Quick Cryptic 355 by Dazzler

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A slightly harder than average offering from Dazzler today, I would say, with the slang at 7D having the potential to trip people up – at least if it wasn’t remembered from Quicky 61 in June of last year. I thought this was a good challenge.

The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150720/8076/

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 British gang about to fail badly (4)
BOMB – reversal (about) of B (British) + MOB (gang)
3 A joke one Master of Ceremonies pens is magnificent (8)
MAJESTIC – MC (Master of Ceremonies) around (pens) A + JEST (joke) + I (one)
8 Criticise prisoner, leader of malcontents, in study (7)
CONDEMN – CON (prisoner) + DEN (study) around M (leader of malcontents, i.e. the first letter of “malcontents”)
10 First class permit almost misplaced (5)
PRIME – anagram (misplaced) of PERMI{t} (permit almost, i.e. the letters of “permit” except the last one)
11 To be fair, carry on with tennis match? (4,3,4)
PLAY THE GAME – double definition, the first figurative and the second literal. I didn’t know the figurative meaning – I actually thought that it meant to do things according to an unwritten set of rules, not necessarily fair, in order to achieve an end, such as succeeding in politics or business, but Chambers says otherwise.
13 In Civil Service, shock for people leading meetings (6)
CHAIRS – CS (Civil Service) around HAIR (shock)
15 Phrase repeated in German translation (6)
MANTRA – hidden in (in) GerMAN TRAnslation
17 Actor vainly playing a fortune teller (11)
CLAIRVOYANT – anagram (playing) of ACTOR VAINLY
20 The girl tucking into a new pasty (5)
ASHEN – SHE (The girl) inside (tucking into) A + N (new)
21 Insect on motorway bridge (7)
FLYOVER – FLY (Insect) + OVER (on)
22 Early bird with egg initially laid in a month? Nonsense! (8)
MALARKEY – LARK (Early bird) + E (egg initially, i.e. the first letter of “egg”), all inside MAY (month)
23 Supporter eating large pastry dish (4)
FLAN – FAN (Supporter) around (eating) L (large). My first thought for this was “pile”, i.e. pie around l, though this would have required a more contorted reading of the clue than perhaps I would expect in a Quicky.
Down
1 Second group to go hiking (8)
BACKPACK – BACK (Second, as a verb) + PACK (group)
2 Guy on island, first character to display obsession (5)
MANIA – MAN (Guy) + I (island) + A (first character – of the alphabet)
4 Dutch city close to sea with ships on border (6)
ARNHEM – A (close to sea, i.e. the last letter of “sea”) + RN (ships – the Royal Navy) + HEM (border)
5 Former scheme a Conservative used to clarify (11)
EXPLANATORY – EX (Former) + PLAN (scheme) + A + TORY (Conservative)
6 Spear I had thrown into river (7)
TRIDENT – ID (I had, i.e. I’d) inside (thrown into) TRENT (river). This occurred last week in Quicky 353 via the similar but even more helpful: “Fishing spear I had found in river at Nottingham”, and also in the FT in March via: “Spear I had found in river”
7 Warder, losing head, talked big (4)
CREW – {s}CREW (Warder, losing head, i.e. “screw” without its first letter). Screw is a slang word for a prison officer. Crew in this case is the past tense of crow. I suspect that I would have found this the hardest clue in the puzzle if years of doing cryptics hadn’t internalised the warder=screw equivalence.
9 New internet era for performer (11)
ENTERTAINER – anagram (New) of INTERNET ERA. Nice anagram.
12 Very strong players getting support of press (4-4)
CAST-IRON – CAST (players, i.e. a group of actors) + IRON (press). The “getting support of” is just a way of indicating in a down clue that IRON is beneath CAST.
14 In local ordered mainly hot drams, for example (7)
ALCOHOL – HO (mainly hot, i.e. all but the last letter of “hot”) inside an anagram (ordered) of LOCAL. Chambers tells me that the dram is also the standard monetary unit of Armenia.
16 Hardly anything for dessert (6)
TRIFLE – double definition
18 Article: nothing about very small ear bone (5)
ANVIL – A (article, specifically an indefinite article) + NIL (nothing) around V (very small, i.e. a small representation of the word “very”)
19 Ointment one gets from some herbal medicines (4)
BALM – hidden in (some) herBAL Medicines

10 comments on “Quick Cryptic 355 by Dazzler”

  1. I had the same understanding of ‘play the game’ as Mohn did, I’m happy to say. As in ‘Play up, play up, and play the game!’ (Sir Henry Newbolt’s “Vitaï Lampada”). Also like Mohn, I thought of ‘pile’ before getting FLAN. I was going great guns through this, but hit a wall with 8ac, 4d (all I could think of was Amstel, which didn’t help), and LOI 22ac–I had to rack my brains to get the word, then reverse engineer to get the wordplay; are larks particularly early among the birds? 6:40.
    1. Yes they are, hence the expression “up with the lark” meaning to get out of bed early in the morning.
  3. 11 mins. I struggled to get going on this and a lot of the answers didn’t come easily. Putting PATSY in for 20a didn’t help. 12d my favourite.
  4. A DNF this time. I had MANIC- C as the first (letter in)’character’ instead of A, which meant I didn’t get 11A and ‘crew’ was a little too obscure for me. A good puzzle, though.

    Brian

    Edited at 2015-07-20 12:53 pm (UTC)

    1. ‘crew’ as the past of ‘crow’=brag is worth keeping in mind, if you’re going on to the 15x15s.
  5. A really good QC from Dazzler, which I managed to finish on the hour mark. Re 11ac, I would have thought Newbolt’s poem, especially the first verse, was spot on with the figurative meaning – well worth a read if you have the time. Invariant
  6. A good puzzle this one, as in it was testing but solvable. I thought the link between backpacking and hiking was a bit tenuous. 4d was unparsed and LOI was 22a.
  7. I solved this steadily whilst watching golf and finally got stuck on 7d.
    I tried lots of permutations before eventually putting in Crew (having realised the headless screw part of the clue).
    Didn’t get the talk big part until reading this blog.
    David

  8. Utterly ridiculous. And unfair.
    7d being but one example. To posit “crew” as the recognisable past participle for the verb to crow (as opposed to “crowed”) is abject setting.
    Shimson

Comments are closed.