Quick Cryptic 415 by Joker

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Again, apologies for the sparseness of the blog. I found this puzzle of average difficulty. I will note in passing that the HTML structure of the Quicky seems to have changed in the last 2 weeks, i.e. there are sentient beings in the IT department of the Times.

The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20151012/10328/

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 A key endorsement gives pleasure (13)
GRATIFICATION – G (A key, i.e. a musical key) + RATIFICATION (endorsement)
8 Cavalryman possibly is cut by a marauder (6)
RAIDER – RIDER (Cavalryman possibly) around (is cut by) A
9 Fugitive losing heart where he comes down after flight (6)
RUNWAY – RUN{a}WAY (Fugitive losing heart, i.e. the word “runaway” without its middle letter)
10 Short-tailed snipe perhaps go away (4)
SHOO – SHOO{t} (Short-tailed snipe perhaps, i.e. the word “shoot” without its last letter). This refers to snipe as in sniper rather than the bird.
11 Strong dislike of state is back on (8)
AVERSION – AVER (state) + SI (is back, i.e. the word “is” reversed) + ON
12 Son heading side showing energy (5)
STEAM – S (Son) + TEAM (side)
13 Cat flap alongside (5)
TABBY – TAB (flap) + BY (alongside)
15 Radar is repaired with end of messy clutter (8)
DISARRAY – anagram (repaired) of RADAR IS, + Y (end of messy, i.e. the last letter of “messy”)
17 Presented a hammer used by auctioneers mostly (4)
GAVE – GAVE{l} (a hammer used by auctioneers mostly, i.e. the word “gavel” without its last letter)
19 Unfinished commercial initially broadcast widely, for example (6)
ADVERB – ADVER{t} (Unfinished commercial, i.e. the word “advert” without its last letter) + B (initially broadcast, i.e. the first letter of the word “broadcast”)
20 Tin managed to open (6)
CANDID – CAN (Tin) + DID (managed to)
21 Exposed threat a new bee represented (7-6)
WEATHER-BEATEN – anagram (represented) of THREAT A NEW BEE
Down
2 Come to hole in the wall where bricks at first have gone missing (5)
REACH – {b}REACH (hole in the wall where bricks at first have gone missing, i.e. the word “breach” without the first letter of “bricks”)
3 Young swimmer needing a little support (7)
TADPOLE – TAD (a little) + POLE (support)
4 A long way to travel, abandoning the east (3)
FAR – FAR{e} (to travel, abandoning the east, i.e. the word “fare” without the E (east)). Chambers has this meaning of fare as archaic, though it can be seen in reasonably common words such as wayfarer.
5 Find fault with door woodworking (9)
CARPENTRY – CARP (Find fault with) + ENTRY (door)
6 One finds barrels all around north African port (5)
TUNIS – I (One) inside (finds … all around) TUNS (barrels)
7 The art of speaking in chapel (7)
ORATORY – double definition
11 Worthy barmaid is upset by ale without a head (9)
ADMIRABLE – anagram (is upset) of BARMAID + {a}LE (ale without a head, i.e. the word “ale” without its first letter)
12 Cheat unpleasant people, netting five-hundred pounds (7)
SWINDLE – SWINE (unpleasant people) around (netting) D (five-hundred) L (pounds). I don’t think the hyphen is needed here.
14 Bedding plant – a big one, unfortunately (7)
BEGONIA – anagram (unfortunately) of A BIG ONE
16 Department chasing a very skilled operator (5)
ADEPT – DEPT (Department) after (chasing) A. Adept can be an adjective or (as here) a noun.
18 I got on board wrong express (5)
VOICE – unless I’m missing something here, this looks like an error, as the wordplay appears to be I inside (got on board) VICE (wrong), leading to VIICE. Perhaps the setter is known to his/her friends as O?
20 Young reporter‘s association – that’s not large (3)
CUB – C{l}UB (association – that’s not large, i.e. the word “club” without the L (large))

18 comments on “Quick Cryptic 415 by Joker”

  1. I found this one hard, although I helped make it harder by not noticing that I’d typed in ‘dissaray’ at 15ac. I also slowed myself down a bunch by fixating on ‘awake’ (=come to; of course that doesn’t work, no need to rub it in) at 2d, which made 2d and 1ac my LOIs (LOsI?). And I put in and withdrew VOICE a couple of times, leaving it in once I had the checkers; I can’t see a solution, either. 10′. Which is longer than it took me to do today’s regular cryptic; to those of you thinking of going on to the 15x15s, verb. sap.

    Edited at 2015-10-12 02:38 am (UTC)

  2. I’m glad I was not alone in finding this on the hard side. 21 minutes, only 8 fewer than I needed for the main puzzle. 1ac was my LOI.
  3. I found this hard too. Was glad and surprised to finish in a little over 16 minutes as for a long time I thought I’d not do it.

    Don’t get 18d either.

  4. Count me in as one who found it really tough going.
    I stopped timing after 15 minutes, so it probably took me at least 20.
    I don’t think it was the vocabulary but the difficulty of the clues themselves – or was it just me on a Monday morning as there was nothing that on reflection seemed unreasonable?
  6. I decided, like out blogger, that the clue at 18d was a mistake, and FARE as ‘to travel’ was new to me too. There also seemed to be a lot of clues needing letters missed out. Otherwise I found this reasonably straightforward. 19a my favourite.
  7. I’m beginning to think there are two different Jokers at work on the QC, or the easier one has been told to up his/her game. Some of the parsing today was very difficult – best I can offer for 18d is I’ve + Co (as in company) ? Invariant
  9. As puzzled as everyone else by voice….obviously the answer but I can’t see a way of parsing…..you learn something every day, I had never thought of adept as a noun before
  10. At first glance today’s puzzle looked tricky. No immediate write-ins: I managed about four dispersed clues on my first run-through.Then I realised it wasn’t too bad; the long anagram at 21a was straightforward and quite quickly I was left with 1a and 10a.
    I’d pencilled in Certification for 1a realising that whilst it fitted the squares it didn’t obviously fit the clue. However I had put in Voice on a similar basis.Anyway I got 1a, a good clue with hindsight, and I thought of Shoo which had to be right (subject to checking birds and other Snipe meanings). David
  11. A slow solve today with 16 and 18d unparsed. Like others I was completely baffled by 18d and I couldn’t figure out how adept refers to the operator part of skilled operator – not heard of it being used in this way before.
    Quite pleased with how quickly I solved the anagram (without checkers in place) in 14d as my terrible knowledge of flora would normally hold me up for an age.
  12. Ref the sentient beings at Times IT, they’ve probably been busy adding the Saturday Latin puzzle to the options on the Crosswords page. Unfortunately on clicking the new button I can see the grid but only a single clue at a time, so it’s yet another SNAFU for our IT friends.
  13. Yes . I think ‘wrong’ is the anagrind. I got = I have = I’ve, and ‘ on board’ = ‘in company’ = co as in ‘ John is on board with Peter regarding this suggestion’ . Katie Rose.
    1. The editor’s admission of a cluing error is acknowledged below now (thanks to mohn2 for pasting it in), but just for the record, indirect anagrams such as suggested by our inventive contributors are simply not allowed. It had to be mistake.
  14. It’s interesting to see the creative ways that people are coming up with to parse 18D, but here’s what the editor had to say on the Crossword Club (in response to Jack mentioning the problem):

    “No I do apologise: it was a rare wordplay error that somehow slipped past setter and vetter (i.e. me)”

  15. I thought it was “voce” as in Viva voce usually reverted to add a Viva (oral exam). Nothing else made sense!

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