Quick cryptic 483 by Joker

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
For me this was the trickiest of the most recent puzzles and took me about 7 minutes.  With this one, however, it would be worthwhile to forget solving speed and savour a demonstration of the setter’s art.  Very many of the clues stand on their own as neat little vignettes.  We solvers who took part in setting clues for the 2013 and 2014 Christmas Turkey puzzles on this site (sady we didn’t have one for 2015) are only too aware of our shortcomings when we switch roles.  Mercifully my efforts were not singled out for mention by our distinguished blogger Peter Biddlecombe….  Many thanks to Jackkt for some practical blogging tips.  Definitions are in blue italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.

Across
1.  Despicable person holds Penny enthralled (4)
RAPT. RAT=despicable person holding P.
3.  Required fellow to go out with daughter (8)
MANDATED.  MAN=fellow.  DATE=go out with.  D[aughter].
8.  One off travelling – he’s deserted Jack, perhaps (7)
TRIPPER.  That would be Jack, as in T[he] Ripper.  Remove HE from THE.
10.  Card sent back to desert (5)
TAROT.  TO RAT (desert) is reversed (sent back).  Second appearance of RAT but with a different meaning.
11.  Dare America to go all out for brotherhood (11)
CAMARADERIE.  Anagram (all out) of DARE AMERICA.  I tend to misspell this so it paid to pause and make sure all the right component vowels were in, and in the correct order.
13.  Sleep with chap in Italian resort (6)
NAPLES.  NAP=sleep and LES is the chap.  I’m not sure I think of Naples as a resort exactly (unless it’s Naples Florida) but no matter, it works nicely.
15.  Bill has problem keeping time (6)
POSTER.  POSER=problem contains (keeping) time.
17.  Spontaneously broken asunder here (11)
UNREHEARSED.  Anagram (broken) of ASUNDER HERE.
20.  British endure forceful attack (5)
BLAST.  B[ritish] LAST=endure.
21. Perform in theatre with heartless take on Tosca say (7)
OPERATE.  OPERA=Tosca with T[ak]E (heartless).  The medical kind of theatre.
22.  Cheapest accommodation always included in part of development (8)
STEERAGE.  E’ER (poetic “ever”=always) in STAGE=part of development.
23.  Be waiting around Gatwick finally for take-off (4)
SKIT.  Quite apart from the sympathetic moan it evokes this is a very neat clue.  SIT=waiting, around the last letter in [Gatwic]K (finally).

Down
1.  Withdrawn, it’s returned in new packaging (8)
RETICENT.  IT backwards (returned) contained in (packaging) RECENT.  This didn’t yield at first glance, or second, because I wasn’t sure if it was the “withdrawn” or the “returned” that was telling me what to do, and the definition wasn’t the first one that came to mind.
2.  Spectrum initially discovered in proper optical glass (5)
PRISM.  First letter in “spectrum” contained in PRIM=proper.
4.  Scrape away a beard, roughly (6)
ABRADE.  Anagram (roughly) of “a beard”.
5. Decline to discourage what speaker does when one’s interrupted (11)
DETERIORATE.  DETER=discourage.  ORATE=what speaker does.  Interupted by I=one.
6. Severe suffering of soldiers in damaging action (7)
TORMENT.  MEN=soldiers contained in TORT=damaging action.  In law a civil wrong, as when your neighbour in dead of night dumps his mouldy old fridge on your property.  The police aren’t interested, you can’t afford to sue and can’t prove it was him anyway although you know it was.
7.  In need of cleaning but son’s avoided responsibility (4)
DUTY.  S[on] removed (avoided) from “dusty” (needing cleaning).
9.  Peter Parrot murdered?  This one did the deed (11)
PERPETRATOR.  Anagram (murdered) of Peter Parrot.  See further parrot reference a la Monty Python at 14d.
12.  Bank gift of money without fail (8)
GRADIENT.  GRANT=gift of money contains (without=outside) DIE=fail.
14.  Something desirable on mature bird’s feathers (7)
PLUMAGE.  PLUM=something desirable.  AGE=mature.  Ah yes, the Norwegian blue, beautiful but very deceased.
16.  We backed out of the wrong gathering (6)
THRONG.  Remove WE reversed from TH[E W]RONG.
18. Electrical discharge beam kills primarily (5)
SPARK.  SPAR=beam and the first letter in K[ills] (primarily).
19. Bird nesting in hibiscus (4)
IBIS.  To be found nesting in the plant – [h]IBIS[cus].

14 comments on “Quick cryptic 483 by Joker”

  1. I found this hard too. Of the 10 puzzles so far this year I’ve achieved my target of under 10 minutes only 3 times. 5 were between 10 and 15 minutes and 2 were 15+ including today’s for which I needed 18.
  2. Yes, difficult! I was stuck after 40 minutes with six clues still to solve, but if I’d got 15a I might have had a chance.
    I don’t mimd the occasional tricky one, there is always something to learn from them.
    Brian
  3. I’m a rookie, couldn’t get most of the clues. Seeing the explanations, darn, they’re good.
  4. By far the most difficult for some time for me too. This one took me just over an hour in two sittings. I was totally stuck for ages in the NE but once the penny dropped for 5d I was able to complete using the cross checkers.
  5. I would like to apologise unreservedly for my mistake in implying a few months ago that Joker was a push over. Ever since then he/she seems to delight in proving me ever wider of the mark. This one took hours and several attempts – 7 and 16d being particularly sneaky. Invariant
  6. Struggled manfully, but the SE corner defeated me. No shame though, this was really very difficult compared to the 150 or so QC I’ve attempted.

    I was thinking that there ought to be more difficult puzzles to help with the step up to the 15×15, so this was very welcome.

  7. Unlike yesterday’s which I solved quickly (my comments disappeared into Spamland),this was tricky.
    I nearly gave up with four clues left in the SE- 15a,12d,18d and 23a.But I persisted and finally saw the answers,LOI being SKIT. A good challenging crossword. David
  8. A very enjoyable puzzle that had me baffled at times. The LHS went in relatively quickly but the right was a real battle. Got there in the end with my LOI, 12d, unparsed, so thanks for the explanation. Too many excellent clues to pick out a COD, but honourable mentions to 5d, 21a and 23a.
    I also spent a couple of minutes figuring out where the vowels went in 11a.
  9. Thanks to all for the comments. We’ve been having a run of hard ones on the other cryptic this week so it really isn’t surprising that we’ve had a corresponding level of difficulty here. One of these days it would be nice to see one or more of the setters and editors given serious public recognition for what they do for us 365 days a year.
  10. Unlike yesterday’s which I solved quickly (my comments disappeared into Spamland),this was tricky.
    I nearly gave up with four clues left in the SE- 15a,12d,18d and 23a.But I persisted and finally saw the answers,LOI being SKIT. A good challenging crossword. David
    1. David, I rescued your comment yesterday before the end of the day. I think today’s may have gone to Spamland too as it’s missing a space after a full-stop but one of my colleagues may have reinstated it without comment.
  13. Was left stumped by 12d despite having all the checkers… first time I’ve encountered “without” indicating “containing”. Is this standard? I can’t see any link between “without” and “outside”, other than the “out” part of the word being the same.

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