Quick Cryptic 460 by Flamande

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I fook a while to get properly going on this one. I bunged in 7ac immediatly but none of the adjoining answers sprang to mind so I had to find another foothold and lost time in doing so. Eventually I built up steam and things started to flow and I finished in 13 minutes, so I would rate this as far from easy. But as usual we shall see what others made of it.

If you are having problems accessing the puzzle or copying it for printing in the new format, you can access it in the old format here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20151214/11637/

Definitions are underlined, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [indicators are in square ones]


Across
7 Stadium near redeveloped area (5)
ARENA – Anagram [redeveloped] of NEAR, A (area)
8 Large dog getting mother tense (7)
MASTIFF – MA (mother), STIFF (tense)
10 Distant rulers in China once working on the land (7)
FARMING – FAR (distant), MING (rulers in China once)
11 Bill and Edward had roles in play (5)
ACTED – AC (bill – account), TED (Edward)
12 A Democrat, he hires out supporters (9)
ADHERENTS – A, D (Democrat), HE, RENTS (hires out)
14 Friend starts to prosper, at length (3)
PAL – First letters of [starts to] P{rosper} A{t} L{ength}
15 Fish medic sent back (3)
COD – DOC (medic) reversed [sent back]
16 Significant warning sign to America, after end of Vietnam (9)
MOMENTOUS – [End of] {Vietna}M, OMEN (warning sign), TO, US (America)
18 This trumpeter shows one way to play an instrument (5)
STRUM – Hidden [shows] in {thi}S TRUM{peter}
20 Capital tour to west of oil-rig, oddly (7)
TRIPOLI – TRIP(tour), O{i}L {r}i{g} [oddly]. ‘To west of’ merely adds to the surface reading and although it also indicates the position of ‘trip’ in relation to the remainder of the solution, it’s not really required for that purpose.
22 Vegetable no longer fresh, mate (3,4)
OLD BEAN – Two meanings, the first literal, the second is colloquial and a little dated but it’s the sense in which this expression would be more likely to be used.
23 Break savoury biscuit without hesitation (5)
CRACK – CRACK{er} (savoury biscuit) [without hesitation]

Down
1 American city allowing Swiss currency in various casinos (3,9)
SAN FRANCISCO – FRANC (Swiss currency) inside anagram [various] of CASINOS
2 Examined contents of her case at sea, heading for Dover (8)
SEARCHED – Anagram [at sea] of HER CASE, [heading for] D{over}
3 Cab turned up at eleven (4)
TAXI – AT reversed [turned up], XI (eleven)
4 Name of lady, one married old dope (6)
IMOGEN – I (one), M (married), O (old), GEN (dope)
5 Killer donkeys at home (8)
ASSASSIN – ASS + ASS (donkeys), IN (at home)
6 Heard Hungarian composer’s record (4)
LIST – Sounds like [heard] “Liszt” (Hungarian composer)
9 Violinists’ bows rot (12)
FIDDLESTICKS – Two meanings, both with coloquial elements to  them
13 Don’t forget about person in the club (8)
REMEMBER – RE (about), MEMBER (person in the club)
14 Plan for new soap to have late start (8)
PROPOSAL – PRO (for), anagram [new] of SOAP, L{ate} [start]
17 Greek character heads insignificant rebellion (6)
MUTINY – MU (Greek character), TINY (insignificant). I’m not entirely convinced that ‘tiny’ and ‘insignificant’ are necessarily the same.
19 Rough rugby side? Not the first half (4)
RUDE – RU (rugby – union), {si}DE [not the first half]
21 Desire to remove lead from dog (4)
ITCH – {b}ITCH (dog) [remove lead from]

18 comments on “Quick Cryptic 460 by Flamande”

  1. 28 mins. Mostly easy I thought. LOI 21d… looked at I_C_ for 6 or 7 minutes and went through the alphabet a couple of times before getting it.
    1. Desire = itch is definitely one to store in the memory banks as it crops up pretty regularly – it’s a useful device for compilers to get that “itch” combination.
      Strangely, unlike Jackkt, I found this quite straightforward: easily sub-10 minute and would have been even quicker if I hadn’t spelt 1d incorrectly!
  2. Most went in quickly but held up at the end as I took a long time to see the anagram at 2d. Last in ADHERENTS and favourite MOMENTOUS.

    I parsed the OLI in TRIPOLI differently, west of I took as OIL only from oil-rig and then oddly indicating an anagram.

    1. It’s an interesting alternative parsing and I can see that it sort of works. The only thing that puts it in doubt as far as I’m concerned is that it’d be a device I’ve never seen before – taking half the letters of a word (albeit one with a hyphen) and treating them as anagrist. Anyway, arriving at the right answer is the main thing, by whatever means.
  3. A puzzle of two halves – the top went in easier than the bottom for me. But overall about average difficulty I thought – and an average time for me. Nice misdirection in 12a had me trying to make an anagram of ‘he hires’ after the ‘a’ + ‘d’ and of ‘oil-rig’ after ‘t’ (west of ‘tour’) in 20a. 16a my COD, although I didn’t think the comma was needed.

    Edited at 2015-12-14 09:41 am (UTC)

  4. I didn’t think there was anything too testing in here, apart from the fact that I couldn’t parse 14d. I knew it included an anagram of soap and an l but missed ‘for’ meaning ‘pro’. One day I’ll learn to pay more attention to the small words in the clue. COD for me was 16a.
  6. Good one, Nick. I think I prefer yours slightly but there’s very little to choose between them. Does that make it a bad clue, I wonder?

    Edited at 2015-12-14 05:20 pm (UTC)

  7. Gone are the days of only getting one or two clues…

    This was my first finished quickie, completed on my 30 minute tube journey to work, without error.

    Even got about 70% of the main crossword! I’m definitely leaving beginner status behind, and will be ready to challenge my dad this christmas.

    Alex

    1. Alex, that’s great news, and congrats on your achievement with today’s “Biggie”. I was going to recommend it here but one answer was an absolute stinker so I didn’t do so for fear of adverse comments. Good luck at Christmas!
      1. Thanks! I’ve been knocking on the door for a week or so now, but always falling one or two short, or getting one wrong.

        The biggie was definitely accessible today. Made my head hurt for 5 minutes or so until I got in tune with it. I did fail to get an answer what will henceforth be referred to as l ‘Bulgaria-gate’. I could just about construct the word from the clue, but had no proof,

        1. I didn’t know the word either, although it turned out that it appeared previously only just over a year ago. There’s nothing to be done in those circumstances but to trust to the wordplay and check the answer later.
  8. Going like a train, until the 12ac, 16ac, and 17d log jam slowed me to a crawl. Shame really. Invariant
  9. 11 across could also be divided into ACT (bill in the sense of Parliamentary Bill or Act Of Parliament) and ED for Edward.
    1. Indeed it could as was pointed out by “anon Nick” above! It hadn’t occurred to me whilst solving or blogging as, having spotted a parsing that worked, I didn’t bother to think further. Alternative parsings like these that appear to work equally well don’t seem to happen very often in my experience and I wonder if setters and crossword editors would usually check for such occurrences and take evasive action by changing the clue.

      On further reflection I wonder if a pedant might argue that a Bill is not an Act?

      Edited at 2015-12-14 08:52 pm (UTC)

  10. Having nearly finished the big crossword on my outward train journey today, I approached this with confidence on the return.And I breezed through it fairly easily and quickly. I liked 3d very much and 9d.
    And for anyone who hasn’t looked, the big crossword has a lot of accessible clues today. David
    1. In a word, ‘information’.

      ‘Dope’ is information on a particular topic or of a kind not generally divulged. ‘Gen’ is information in a more general sense, which is perhaps its origin.

      Welcome to TftT if you are new. It’d be nice if you added a name or pseudonym to your anon contributions. Or opened a free Live Journal account and obtained an ID.

      Edited at 2015-12-15 05:48 am (UTC)

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