Quick Cryptic 435 by Flamande

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I thought this puzzle contained a good selection of surface readings, with the difficulty level on the easy side.

The crossword can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20151109/10789/

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Children not keen on first part of The Four Seasons (9)
OFFSPRING – OFF (not keen on) + SPRING (first part of The Four Seasons)
6 Piano work, music youngsters like? (3)
POP – P (Piano) + OP (work). As a fortysomething who still listens to a-Ha and OMD, I suppose that makes me a youngster.
8 Fury as old car fails to start (5)
ANGER – {b}ANGER (old car fails to start, i.e. “banger” without its first letter)
9 Sycophantic knight, we hear, horrid (7)
SERVILE – homophone (we hear) of SIR (knight), + VILE (horrid)
10 What leaderless school must do to make progress (3,5)
GET AHEAD – a leaderless school must GET A HEAD(master/mistress)
11 Don’t eat quickly (4)
FAST – double definition
13 Strongly criticise country’s Christmas fare? (5,6)
ROAST TURKEY – ROAST (Strongly criticise) + TURKEY (country)
17 Cuts of meat reduced in butchers’ shops for a start (4)
RIBS – initial letters (for a start) of Reduced In Butchers’ Shops
18 Reach old ruined town in NW England (8)
ROCHDALE – anagram (ruined) of REACH OLD. Lisa Stansfield is perhaps Rochdale’s most famous pop export.
21 Less than 50%? Absolutely right (3,4)
NOT HALF – literally, less than 50% is NOT HALF
22 Expected almost everyone to attend American university (5)
USUAL – AL{l} (almost everyone, i.e. “all” without its last letter) after US (American) + U (university)
23 Three lakes containing fish (3)
EEL – hidden (containing) in ThrEE Lakes
24 TV compere now introduces member of the royal family (9)
PRESENTER – PRESENT (now) + ER (member of the royal family)
Down
1 Fruit cultivated in Gerona (6)
ORANGE – anagram (cultivated) of GERONA, with the surface reading presumably referring to the Spanish/Catalan name for the city that the English would call Girona. The setter could equally have used Gerano, a township near Rome, or Nagore in India.
2 Aggressive action causing alarm? Not right (5)
FIGHT – F{r}IGHT (alarm? Not right, i.e. “fright” without the letter r)
3 Buy bag containing tea (8)
PURCHASE – PURSE (bag) containing CHA (tea)
4 Cafe isn’t often brewing potentially hot drink (7,6)
INSTANT COFFEE – anagram (brewing) of CAFE ISN’T OFTEN
5 Female left oil installation, heading north (4)
GIRL – reversal (heading north) of L (left) + RIG (oil installation)
6 Ape a man of the cloth (7)
PRIMATE – double definition
7 Forty days and nights in Paraguay’s borders? That’s quite enough! (6)
PLENTY – LENT (Forty days and nights) in PY (Paraguay’s borders, i.e. the first and last letters of “Paraguay”)
12 Share out proceeds from this independent cinema (3,5)
ART HOUSE – anagram (proceeds from) SHARE OUT
14 Like the M25? Part gets spoken about (7)
ORBITAL – BIT (Part) surrounded by ORAL (spoken)
15 Sound of bell in church makes you feel embarrassed (6)
CRINGE – RING (Sound of bell) in CE (church). This clue immediately brought back the memory of, as a novice altar boy, being lambasted by the priest for not generating a loud enough jangle from the altar bell during the eucharist. In possibly related news, I now avoid churches, priests, bells, bread, and red wine.
16 Stock of wine merchant talked about (6)
CELLAR – homophone (talked about) of SELLER (merchant)
19 A mostly uninteresting time for grown-up (5)
ADULT – A + DUL{l} (mostly uninteresting, i.e. “dull” without its last letter) + T (time)
20 Catch one’s breath as general practitioner comes round (4)
GASP – AS surrounded by GP (general practitioner)

12 comments on “Quick Cryptic 435 by Flamande”

  1. A couple of DNKs of a sort–I didn’t know that the M25 is a ring road, and I didn’t know ROCHDALE–but of course one doesn’t need to know to solve them, and no doubt I’ll have forgotten both by lunchtime. As, it seems, always, I was slow to spot the hidden EEL, but something told me that ‘three lakes’ wasn’t going to be LLL. 5:15.
  2. A nice puzzle with some very good surfaces following a couple of trickier ones at the end of last week. I finished this in 7 minutes.

    Lisa Stansfield is actually from Manchester though her family moved to Rochdale when she was quite young. Rochdale’s most famous pop* export surely remains Gracie Fields, born Gracie Stansfield. The jury is still out on whether or not they are related somehow, though if a link does exist it’s certainly not a close one.

    *probably the UK’s most popular singer in her day.

    Edited at 2015-11-09 04:57 am (UTC)

    1. definitely must be on the easier side as I finished it unaided under 1 hour which seldom happens to me !
      Thanks to all setters and bloggers in helping me to reach this point
    2. To me, “pop music” and “popular music” are two different things (although with an overlap), and how famous someone is depends in large part on which demographic you ask, so I think there’s an argument to be made either way for Gracie Fields or Lisa Stansfield as Rochdale’s most famous pop export. As an 80s addict, though, I’m sticking with Lisa 😉
  3. For me, I think this was the easiest one since I’ve been doing the quickie. I broke the 5 min barrier for th very first time. Probably a fluke.
  4. I finished in under 30 mins for the first time, although I spent a bit longer parsing some of them.
    LOI from checkers was SERVILE – the rather evil placing of the first comma put me on the wrong track for ages.

    Brian

  5. Nearly 8 1/2 minutes for me… my slowest for nearly 3 weeks. But that’s because I got stuck for ages on 9a thinking “horrid” was the definition and, in working through the alphabet, it takes a while to get to “V”. I liked 4d.
  6. Definitely on the easier end of the scale, finished in roughly 20 minutes with no major sticking points or hold ups.
  7. Enjoyable puzzle at the easier end but nowhere near a PB for me.

    Favourite 1a with last in 16d.

  8. When I first visited the place 40 years ago the maps showed the Spanish spelling, Gerona. Since the country was divided into 16 autonomous regions, the Catalan version, Girona, is on all the maps. I guess the English spelling would much depend on one’s age!
  9. Solved this quickly today and no particular problems. LOI was 11a.
    Yesterday’s Sunday Times crossword was doable (unlike Saturday’s) and I finished that eventually so I was feeling on form.
    I have tried to set up an identity on Livejournal but Mr Macafee dos not like it so I remain Anon for now. David

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