Quick Cryptic 358 by Tracy

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
As there’s no sign of today’s blog and it’s getting late, I am preparing an emergency version and will post it at 3:00 PM unless it has appeared by then or I’ve heard from the blogger in the meantime.

It’s now past 3:00 so here goes:

6 minutes for this one after a run of several quite hard puzzles in a row. The clue constructions are mostly very basic so I think I set a record time for blogging given that I put it together as a rush job. The two place names at 9 and 7 may be unfamiliar to some

Definitions are noted at the end of each item, { } indicates deletions, and [ ] indicators.

Across
1 STEAMER – A+M (male) inside [aboard] STEER (pilot). Def: ship
5 ETCH – {k}ETCH (sailing ship) with first letter ‘taken out’. Def: carve
7 CHAIR – I inside [must sit in] CHAR (daily – as in daily cleaner). Def: seat
8 GOURMET – G{roup), OUR (of us). First letters [initially] of G{roup}, O{f}, U{s}  R{estaurateurs},  MET (encountered). Def: connoisseur of good food. Thanks to an anon for pointing out my error made in haste.
10 NET – TEN (number) reversed [on the way back]. Def: catch
11 HANDS DOWN – HANDS (workers), DOWN (not working). Def: with complete ease
13 STREAM – STEAM (energy] contains [needed to cross] R (river). Def: flow
14 IGUANA – Anagram [roaming] of AGAIN around U (for all to see – film classification). Def: lizard
17 GRACELAND – GRACE (favour), LAND (country). Def: mansion in Memphis – Elvis’s home
19 SPA – S{hort}, P{etty}, A{rgument}. SPA{t} (petty argument)  with last letter removed [short].  Def: health resort. On edit: Thanks to Dan for pointing out my initial error, though I had it right whilst solving.
20 TITANIC – TIT (bird), A, NIC{e} (kind) with its ‘tail’ removed. Def: extremely large
22 RENAL – Anagram [out of sorts] of LEARN. Def: about the kidneys
23 BRAG – B (British), RAG (newspaper). Def: boast
24 LOYALTY – {r}OYALTY (Stuarts, for example) with its first letter changed. Def: allegiance

Down
1 SECOND SIGHT – SECOND (supporter), SIGHT (view). Def: clairvoyance
2 EXACTOR – EX (former), ACTOR (player). Def: demanding type
3 MARCH HARE – MARCH (protest), HARE (race). Def: I was at the Hatter’s tea party
4 REGINA – Anagram [remarkable] of REIGN, A. Def: queen
5 EMU – Hidden in {th}E MU{ppets}. Def: bird
6 COMBO – COMB (search), O (round). Def: small jazz band
9 TIN PAN ALLEY – Anagram [off] of IN LANE APTLY. Def: London’s Denmark Street – the home of music publishing at one time
12 SAGE DERBY – SAGE (wise), DERBY (local teams’ game). Def: cheese
15 ARSENAL – Double def: football club / magazine – munitions
16 RASCAL – RA’S (artist’s) CAL{l} (title) with its last letter removed [abridged]. Def: villain
18 ALTAR – A, L (line),TAR (sailor). Def: where knot may be tied – with reference to the marriage ceremony. My clue of the day.
21 NAG – Double def: harry / horse

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic 358 by Tracy”

  1. Thanks for putting me out of my misery. A DNF and all my own fault – I got LOYALTY but put in ROYALTY for no reason except stupidity, so I didn’t get RASCAL.
    So frustrating, I don’t finish many!!!

    Brian

    Edited at 2015-07-23 02:35 pm (UTC)

  2. Thanks for the blog Jack, I missed how to get the U in IGUANA. Enjoyable and not too difficult. I parsed SPA the same as Dan.

    Last in HANDS DOWN. Joint favourites CHAIR and ALTAR.

  3. For me 19ac is better as spa{t} as it seems there is no indicator for the initial letters of the words short petty argument. Perhaps either solution would do or perhaps I’ve missed the point?

    Dan

    1. You’re quite right and that’s how I marked it up whilst solving but then made an error in the blog. Will amend when home later. Jackkt

  4. I think the solution is obtained by G + OUR
    Rather, I think GOUR are the initial letters of the words “Group Of Us Restaurateurs”
    Otherwise, there is no reason for the word restaurateurs!
  5. I DON’T think the solution is “G” plus “OUR”
    Rather, I think GOUR are the initial letters of the words “Group Of Us Restaurateurs”
    Otherwise, there is no reason for the word restaurateurs!
  6. I think the answer SPA is obtained by “cutting short” SPAT (a petty argument)
  7. First of all, well done Jackkt for stepping in at short notice – a couple of minor errors is completely forgivable in an emergency blog.
    As to Tracy’s offering, everything was going fine until I convinced myself that 11ac was Hands Free. This played havoc with 6d and the unknown 9d anagram. Got there in the end, but it certainly wasn’t the shortest route. Invariant
  8. So fantastic to be able, when going mad trying to understand those last few clues, that here, in extremis, SOMEONE cares enough to make sure the answers are always there. On behalf of all those of ordinary intellect, but who enjoy the challenge, THANK YOU!
    Linda Taylor
    Cambridge
    (Where I live but certainly not where I graduated ha ha)
  9. A good puzzle I thought and thanks Jackkt for stepping in. Had a senior moment for 6d where I stuck in Cameo for some reason. I’d heard of 9d before but for some reason thought it was in New York.
    1. You’re absolutely correct that TPA was in New York, but Denmark Street was the London equivalent and was named after it.

Comments are closed.