Quick Cryptic 494 by Joker

Author   emu66Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
After last week’s scamper, I found this one the hardest in a long time, but perhaps others will differ! I think it was due to a number of the definitions (eg 17d, 19a) having meanings other than the usual, or perhaps just my, usage, even allowing for deliberate misdirection by the setter. But let’s see…
Thank you to Joker.

Across
1 Ready for posting with European charge: STAMPEDE
Ready for posting = STAMPED, European = E. Clever surface reading here
5 Bathed, displaying problem about weight: SWUM
Problem = SUM, about weight = W. Hesitated a little with this past tense. See comment below – participle, not past tense.
8 Arrive outside capital of Thailand to find French philosopher: COMTE
Arrived = COME, capital of Thailand = T. Didn’t know the philosopher, but word play was clear.
9 Bitter criticism of three players involved in foul to a large extent: VITRIOL
Three players = TRIO in VIL(e)
11 Time involved in computer modelling yields excitement: STIMULATION
Time = T, in computer modelling = SIMULATION. Tried an anagram here (modelling) before the checkers proved that idea wrong.
13 Part of Utah? It is somewhere in the Pacific: TAHITI
Hidden word
14 Disease-bearing fly circles in the middle of eatery: TSETSE
A fairly common word in crosswords. Circles = SETS (in dances), in middle of eaTEry
16 Details of a scriptural rewriting: PARTICULARS
Anagram (rewriting) of A SCRIPTURAL
18 One who charges account operator: ACCUSER
Account = ACC, operator = USER. Another nice surface reading.
19 Faithful former partner has to do something: EXACT
Former partner = EX, to do something = ACT. Faithful as in a faithful representation.
20 Fish senses with its head concealed: EELS
Senses with head concealed = (f)EELS
21 Seeing so, one would agree being at close quarters : EYE TO EYE
Double definition, one cryptic

Down
1 Plunder what may be found in wine cellar: SACK
Double definition, with that famous crosswordland wine.
2 Prosaic hamlet rebuilt with character: ATMOSPHERICAL
Anagram (rebuilt) of PROSAIC HAMLET
3 The treatment of children as patricide is punished: PAEDIATRICS
Anagram (punished) of AS PATRICIDE. Slightly iffy anagram indicator forgiven because the clue seems to work so well otherwise!
4 Eagerly put away mostly pious king: DEVOUR
Mostly pious = DEVOU(t), king = R
6 Exploding weapon hit ship: get ready for action: WHIP INTO SHAPE
Anagram (exploding) of WEAPON HIT SHIP
7 Mother to stay put and feign illness: MALINGER
Mother = MA, stay put = LINGER
10 Frank instructs mother or father – I must leave: TRANSPARENT
I leaving Instructs = TRA(i)NS, mother or father = PARENT
12 Wise about most important power strike: STOPPAGE
Wise = SAGE, about most important = TOP, power = P
15 Where one might find serpentine creature that’s hunted: QUARRY
Double definition, serpentine being a mineral. Devious surface – nothing to do with Nessie!
17 Vein needs removal of large swelling: STYE
Vein = STYLE, as in ‘in the same vein’, with L (large) missing.

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 494 by Joker”

  1. Not just you, I think, Emma. I found this one really hard and needed every second of 20 minutes to get through it. At one point I was completely stuck for several minutes with only about 4 answers in place. In several cases, even when I had come up with an answer that fitted one part of a clue I couldn’t relate it to the other part e.g. QUARRY with reference to ‘serpentine’ and EXACT to ‘faithful’, though I saw them all eventually.

    By my reckoning that’s three toughies in a row this week which is not a good thing if it’s likely to scare newbies off.

    It has occurred to me that those wishing to try something a bit harder but are not yet ready for the daily rigours of the Times main cryptic, could do worse than have a go at the “Everyman” published each Sunday in the Observer. It’s available throughout the week under “Crosswords” on the Guardian site which is free of charge. It’s a very nice puzzle.

    1. I do the Everyman every week. It’s a nice puzzle, usually. Generally takes me under half an hour (but not always much under). It’s often quite biffable. Once you get the hang of the style.
  2. Three long anagrams in one quickie! And all downs, which makes it harder for me, anyway. Problem=SUM is something of a chestnut, one more to store away in memory. (SWUM, by the way, isn’t past tense, so presumably ‘bathed’ in the clue is also the participle, not that one could tell.) Biffed TSETSE; would never have got the dance meaning of ‘circles’–and indeed, need it be the dance meaning? He moves in rather posh circles, etc.? Anyway, the definition and an S were enough. 6:30.
    1. Thanks – knew there was something wrong with the past tense idea; amended above. And yes, many kinds of circles – at the time convinced myself it was dances!
  3. I agree it was quite difficult – we seem to be in a bit of a run of more challenging Quickies at the moment with the level of GK and vocabulary definitely on the up.
    My LOI was 6d, inexplicably failing to see it was an anagram for far too long. I particularly liked 15d for the misleading mineral connection and congratulations to the setter for coming up with a more unusual way of cluing 14a than using the repetition.
    Well blogged by the way.
  5. A bit tricky but I did it in just over my normal time – about 20 min. ‘Quarry’ puzzled me – thanks for the explanation. I parsed ‘tsetse’ by thinking of mathematical sets/ Venn diagrams rather than barn dancing!
    1. I think I prefer that idea (especially as just about to mark some questions involving the very same!).
  6. Great little end of the week puzzle. 10′ before being completely stymied by 15d, despite owning a couple of holiday souvenirs made of serpentine.
    Emu66, the anagram fodder for 16a is A SCRIPTURAL, I’m sure it was just a typo.
    Thank you Joker and Emu
  7. Found this challenging (again!). Biffed Tsetse and DNK Serpentine = mineral so thanks for the insight. Spent about 30 mins but got there in the end.
  8. Parsed this as restaurant (eatery) which contains est, reverse it twice (circles – once would be circle) and there you go. But as somebody said, once you had the s it fell into place. Enjoyed this, some really taxing clues. Playuppompey
  9. But also think that every one this week has been a real struggle, and how this might be discouraging newcomers.

    What would be really helpful (for me at least) as a leg-up to the 15×15 is the introduction of some “busier” clues – in other words, clues with more elements to them. The big difference between the 13×13 and 15×15 is that the former puzzles only have a couple of elements to work out. Take 1ac today: “ready for posting” + European = definition. Two elements and a definition.

    Would anyone else welcome a couple of three or four element clues?

  10. I guess some harder clues would be fine if they were rationed so we could get the checkers. Found this one tricky and a DNF getting stuck with 1a as had Savour for 4d. Struggled with several others too eg 17d seemed obvious but couldn’t see vein as a style. Hopefully a better run next week. Where would we be without the blog to give us back our sanity!
  11. Another tough one and after 10 minutes I think I had two answers in place and was starting to despair. Getting 2 and 3d seemed to kick things off but it was still a slow plod to get it finished. Last two in were 4d and 9a – both fine clues once solved but might frustrating beforehand. 1 and 15d were unparsed so thanks for the clarifications emu.
  12. After the last two days I found this fairly easy and solved it without much pause. Tahiti again for at least the second time in a few days. The first clue I looked at was 17d and it turned out to be my LOI. Needed a minute or two to parse it. I found the anagrams very gettable and that unlocked the whole thing for me.
    With time to spare I looked at today’s main crossword; it’s not too difficult for we QCers. I’ve done the top half fairly easily but running into trouble now. David
  13. I would never have been able to parse tsetse , just BIFD it. I understand that sets , as circles , might refer to Venn diagrams. That was far too arcane for a quickie.
  14. After the last two days when we didn’t even finish, this was satisfying as we did! Still took over an hour but we got there on the end.
  15. Found this one very easy for some reason. 24 mins, which is probably one of my top 5 times ever.

    What’s with crossword setters’ obsession with Tahiti? This is about the 4th time I’ve seen this island referenced!

Comments are closed.