Quick Cryptic 372 by Des

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Overall I found this a relatively straightforward offering, but with a few that had me scratching the head for a while. Some very nice clues – particularly liked 20 ac, 22ac, 2dn and 21 dn.

Thanks to Des for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions underlined; DD = double definition; anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 King, unwell, with girl’s wet blanket (7)
KILLJOY – K (king -chess notation) + ILL (unwell) + JOY (girl)
5 Item of cutlery from Post Office pinched by boy (5)
SPOON – PO (Post Office) taken inside (pinched by) SON (boy)
8 Accept – as a director? (4,2,5)
TAKE ON BOARD – Nice supporting cryptic definition
10 Concert for Mozart, primarily (4)
PROM – PRO (for) + M (Mozart primarily – i.e. first letter thereof)
11 Manoeuvring of troops in high places (8)
ROOFTOPS – *(OF TROOPS) with “Manoeuvring” as the anagrind
12 Dirty type endlessly cheated (6)
SORDID – SORT (type endlessly – i.e. with last letter knocked off) + DID (cheated)
14 Scotch – or soft drink (6)
SQUASH – DD (‘scotch’ being used here in the sense of quashing – I dimly recall a line in Macbeth “we have scotched the snake – not killed it”) Took an age to see this as I was looking for something starting STUN – and I’m not very well up on soft drinks either…
16 Given name for a time at Cambridge (4,4)
LENT TERM – Given provides the LENT, and name the TERM: the Oxford equivalent for this period being Hilary term. If I was of a nit-picking disposition I might (with the utmost respect) question the definition, in that several other academic institutions have a Lent Term, and thus a “perhaps” or some other indicator of Cambridge being an exemplar might possibly be appropriate: but hey, life’s too short!
18 In jam, not starter, there’s food for children (4)
TUCK – STUCK (In jam) without the initial S (not starter), giving the stuff kids buy at the Tuck Shop. Is Bunter still waiting for his postal order to arrive? Does anyone under the age of 50 actually know what a postal order is? Such questions tend to arise in the mind of a man rapidly approaching his 60th birthday!
20 Fitting for a rapper we could admit? (4-7)
DOOR-KNOCKER – Nice cryptic clue which I only got after the two K cross checkers fell into place
22 ‘Not the time before Christ’ – well-known saying (5)
ADAGE – … as opposed to the BC AGE. Neat clue
23 Immoral putting potassium in this large quantity of alcohol? (7)
SKINFUL – K (potassium – chemical symbol) inside SINFUL (immoral). Not sure if SKINFUL is used much outside the UK as a slang term for an alcohol binge, so this may be a bit tricky for non UK solvers
Down
2 Italian team put in grave position? (5)
INTER – Reference to Inter Milan (one of the top Italian footy teams for the benefit of anyone who is not a follower of ‘the beautiful game’) with secondary cryptic definition of interring the dead. Neat clue, I thought
3 Vigorously approve of start of mass publicity (4,3)
LIKE MAD – LIKE (approve of) + M (start of Mass) + AD (publicity)
4 Nothing on the house? That’s a surprise! (3)
OHO – O (nothing) ‘on’ HO (abbreviation of house). Have not actually heard anyone say “oho!” for an awfully long while (if ever) but it’s in Chambers so fair enough
6 Design, over time, machinery (5)
PLANT – PLAN (design) + T (time)
7 Use iPod wrongly: it’s sort of complex! (7)
OEDIPUS – *(USE IPOD) with “wrongly” as the anagrind
9 Fully develop weapon, mainly, to contain defeat (7)
BLOSSOM – BOMB (weapon mainly – i.e. without the last letter) ‘contains’ LOSS (defeat)
11 Visibly embarrassed, snog country bumpkin (7)
REDNECK – RED (visibly embarrassed) + NECK (snog). Snog = neck = kiss was terminology we used in Somerset when I was a lad, but not sure if it will resonate with contemporary solvers in other parts of the world…
13 Took too far from Dover damaged passport, maybe (7)
OVERDID – *(DOVER) with “damaged” as the anagrind, + ID (passport, maybe)
15 Free from junta (Kenyan) (7)
UNTAKEN – Hidden (indicated by “from”) in jUNTA KEN ya
17 Strap, however, no good (5)
THONG – THO (poetic term for “although” = however) + NG (no good)
19 About four moving to find holiday destination (5)
CORFU – C (about – circa) + *(FOUR) with “moving” as the anagrind
21 What you’ll find looking up in wiki or Yahoo (3)
OIK – Reverse hidden (indicated by “what you’ll find looking up”) in wiKI Or, with Yahoo here being used in the originally created sense by Swift in Gulliver’s Travels as a boorish, brutish kind of creature (I happen to know this thanks to the Sunday Times 4653 that I had to blog a week ago!)

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic 372 by Des”

  1. Took bags of time to get 12ac, my LOI; misparsed it first, looking for a past tense verb …DED, then having to run through the alphabet, where for some reason S is placed way toward the wrong end. Remembered INTER, although I couldn’t have told you what country they play in. You’ve got a typo at 11d, Nick; and do Brits use REDNECK? For me, a redneck is a Southern, racist (white) bumpkin, not a bumpkin in general; but I’m sure the term is used more generally. 8:35.
    1. Thanks for spotting the typo Kevin – fixed.
      Yes, REDNECK also gave rise to a minor bit of eyebrow action for me, but I ended up thinking “close enough for Crosswordland…” The term is used in the UK (and a lot here in Australia where I am currently based), but I think usually when it is used it is recognised as being borrowed from the USA, and carries similar connotations. I’ve not heard it used as a synonym for a bumpkin generally – yokel would be more likely…
  2. At 7 minutes this was my first single-figure solve since Tracy’s QC358 on 23rd July, and all the more welcome for that. Didn’t understand 2dn, international football not being my strongest subject though, on reflection, I have come across INTER before in a puzzle so would probably have dredged it up from memory if I’d been on blogging duty. I agree with everything that’s been said about REDNECK.

    Edited at 2015-08-12 05:34 am (UTC)

  3. I found this quite straightforward at just over 6 minutes. Some fun clues, though. 3d my favourite.
  4. I parsed the clue for LENT TERM slightly differently, with “given name for a time” as one part of the wordplay, and “at Cambridge” as the definition. For Nick’s parsing to work it would need “lent” and “given” to be synonymous, and IMHO they aren’t. If I give somebody something I don’t expect it back, but I lend somebody something I do.
    1. Hi Andy, Thanks for feedback. Apologies, but struggling a bit to see how “at Cambridge” is the definition?

      Agree lent and given are not synonymous, but are arguably close enough – if I lend something to you, I think it is inherent within that transaction that I hand it over (give it) to you? Or maybe I’m missing the point…

  5. Three finishes in a row, so we’re either having a more straightforward week or my head’s back in the right place.

    1a was a lot easier after I stopped looking for a word beginning with ‘r’ for king. Is there a way of telling which letter is needed with a word like king as it seems that either K or R can be applicable?

    For 12a I thought cheated was the definition for a while so was held up there and I missed Yahoo being another term for Oik in 23a.

    1. No magic formula for working out whether “king” is K or R, I’m afraid. It can also (in some crosswords I’ve seen) give us (e.g.) GR (i.e. King George…)

      The good news is that it at least narrows the range of possibilities in the answer – if you are looking for a K or R, you are in a much better spot than if you are looking for any one of 26 different letters!

  6. Thoroughly enjoyable offering today – nine answers included a K.

    In this new format for the blog, Is anyone else having problems with the icon to get to the comments page (on iPad)?

    Philip

  7. I too struggled with LENT because I didn’t see it as synonymous with given, which held me up for a while. When the last checker went in and it still fitted I bunged it in anyway, but remained doubtful. Regarding Nick’s request in the blog for an indicator of Cambridge being an exemplar, isn’t that the function of the question mark at the end of the clue?
  8. I think you’ll find “Lend” and “give” are synonymous in many cases.
    “LEND” can mean to impart a quality etc

    FGBP

  9. There are some high expectations around. This was one of the best that I have seen. It took my usual half hour, I did not parse oik and lent term completely but otherwise I had a lot of fun.

    Edited at 2015-08-12 03:00 pm (UTC)

  10. For some reason I find Des really hard going. Had to leave this one and come back to it several times during the day before finally managing to finish. Can’t really find fault with any of the clues, so it must be a wavelength issue – or the fact that I’m not that good at crosswords. Invariant
  11. I was in far too grumpy a mood this morning after my struggles with 10ac in the main puzzle. I still think my parsing could work because the question mark hints at the possibility of a whimsical definition. However, I concede that lend and give can be synonymous. The example that FGBP gives above is a good one, and I should have thought of “lend a hand” and “give a hand”.

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