Quick Cryptic 444 by Teazel

Author   emu66Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Rather too many ‘well, it must be that’, write it in and ask questions later, clues for me this week! All seemed fair, though in the calmness of later analysis, but I’d never heard of busy as a term for detective, and had to check Britannia was indeed an alloy. Crossword only vocabulary this week has to be cove. Thank you, Teazel.

Across
1 BRITANNIA – double definition; pewter type alloy, and the Royal Yacht
6 KEG – cask; kilogram = KG, initially empty = first letter E, inside
8 SAPLING – tree; carol = SING, protecting (surrounding) a place = A PL
9 POWER – might; prisoner = POW, monarch = ER
10 BACON – meat; embargo = BAN, broken by firm = CO(mpany)
12 THRIFT – economy; THe endless = TH, division = RIFT
14 DIVIDE AND RULE – advice for keeping control; anagram (may become) of UNAIDED DRIVEL
16 TRAGIC – most unfortunate; part of record not quite = TRAC(K), broken by serviceman = GI
17 TUTTI – cryptic definition; orchestral direction ‘all’
19 OZONE – gas; ounce = OZ, single = ONE
20 MARLOWE – playwright; month = MAR(CH), depleted = LOW, energy = E
22 PIE – cooked dish; penny = P, that is = IE
23 SANCTUARY – double definition

Down
1 BUSYBODY – guy interfering; apparently a slang word for detective = BUSY, body = CORPSE
2 IMP – troublemaker; single = I, person in the Commons = MP
3 AVIAN – of the birds; a vehicle = A VAN, holds one = I
4 NIGHTWATCHMAN – double definition – nightwatchman being the term for the batsman still in at close of play
5 ASPIRED – aimed; anagram (to change) of DESPAIR
6 KIWI FRUIT – cryptic definition
7 GARB – clothes; not quite covering film star = GARB(O)
11 COVER NOTE – insurance document; bloke = COVE, right = R, pay attention = NOTE
13 DELIVERY – conveyance; free = DELIVER, in the sense of freeing from tyranny, end of day = Y
15 DIGRESS – wander off; anagram (moving) of ridges, south = S
17 TAROT – pack (of cards); nothing = O, in pastry = TART
18 POOP – deck; going up and down => palindromic word
21 OVA – eggs; homophone (some say) of OVER (finished)

25 comments on “Quick Cryptic 444 by Teazel”

  1. G’day Emu (that just sounds right). I would bracket “busy” with “neat” and “jolly” (and many others I’m sure) as everyday words that are commonly used in crosswordland, but with a totally different meaning to how they’re used anywhere else.
    1. The busys have always been the police (see also coppers, rozzers, plod etc). I dont know where the term comes from. I don’t think its cockney rhyming, nor palare. I could be wrong though. But it crops up a lot in crime novels, telly etc. Not, as far as I’m aware, specifically detectives though. Just any old police. Cove was another word which I don’t agree is only found in crossword land – I’m sure rum coves are staples of eg Wodehouse.

      I thought this crossword was really hard though, despite those two clues being ok. It took me 25 mins – but I did it. So I feel pleased.

      1. Ah yes, no doubt many ‘rum coves’ crop up in Bertie Wooster’s life. I suppose I meant they don’t really occur much elsewhere. But I might just start using it now!
      2. I fancy that the term busy for policeman originated in Liverpool (they always seemed to be using it in the Liverpudlian-based TV programmes Brookside and Bread).
  2. Galspray beat me to it about ‘busy’ (which in fact I continually forget, or confuse with ‘jolly’). BRITANNIA metal I remember because Jaggers’ silverware in “Great Expectations” is made of it. Spent some time barking up wrong trees: looking for -EST at 16ac (‘most X’), running through apse/nave/transept etc. for ‘part of church’, that sort of thing. Glad to see that the (for me, non-) homophone OVA was at least clued as ‘some say’. 8:35.
  3. Another at the trickier end of the spectrum for me with far too many clues that didn’t seem to trigger anything in my brain until I got a checker or two. My fault, not the setter’s I’m sure. 14 minutes.

    Edited at 2015-11-20 08:07 am (UTC)

  4. I think “busy” is mainly a Scouse term for police -“Run lads the busies (pronounced bizzies) are coming”. Awful word imo and just because it can be used in crosswordland , it doesn’t mean it has to be.
    1. Not just scouse. But yes, its a term one used to hear in Brookside certainly. Back in the day.
  5. Historically sanctuary is not a double definition. The sanctuary of a church (Sanctus= holy) was the place in a church you had to reach in order for it to be illegal for your pursuers to apprehend you, hence sanctuary was the safe place. A Nightwatchman is a lower order batsman sent in when a wicket falls very near the end of play for a day in order to preserve a better batsman from coming in and losing their wicket in the last over or two. It is not any batsman who is still batting at close of play. Katie Rose.
    1. Completely agree about ‘sanctuary’ , but thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt as it’s in the cryptic crossword, rather than the general knowledge. Stand corrected on nightwatchman – practically everything I know about cricket is learned from crosswords!
  6. Like Katie, I thought 23a was barely a double definition and she is right about the cricketing term too. Slightly tricky, as Teazel’s puzzles always are, but nothing held me up much. Just over 6 mins.
  8. DNF in my 40 minutes, and I found it a bit unsatisfactory as most of the wordplay was beyond me. Perhaps there were too many bits of ‘Crosswordland’ in one puzzle, bits that a relatively new solver like myself hadn’t come across.

    Brian

  9. Managed to finish today – an enjoyable challenge. I got 6d relatively easily with a few checkers, but the significance of “But it wouldn’t be” totally eludes me.

    Philip

    1. Cryptically a Kiwi fruit might be any fruit from NZ e.g. an apple from Auckland, but what we call “a Kiwi fruit” is not an apple. Hence “but it wouldn’t be”.
  10. I found this hard and nearly gave up with the SE quadrant unfinished.My first in was 22a and I had to work from there; rather like my experience when I try the big crossword- I might get the odd three letter clue to get me started.My last two were 17a and 13d. I did not know Busy for police nor Britannia as a metal; but I did think this was a good test and nothing to complain about. I thought 4d was an excellent clue. David
  12. Typical Teazel fare I thought. I started off scratching my head despairing of getting more than a handful of clues, but once I got my eye in the pace picked up. Had an awful lot of trouble with my last two – 17a and 13d. I had T _ T as checkers for 17 and couldn’t get ‘titch’ out of my head they made up the first letters of the clue. I knew it couldn’t be the answer as it didn’t even make sense to me. Anyway I finally got 13d and something clicked.
    Very chuffed to have finished this one even if a couple were unparsed.
  13. I take ages. 6 mins or 15 mins seems like an unreachable dream to me. but I do love it and am glad to say that neither 11d, 4d or 6d foxed me. 17a however I found strange and difficult

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