Quick Cryptic 498 by Orpheus

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A well-composed puzzle with some very neatly turned clues.  Nothing obscure or unfair.  Yes, that’s still me, except that it isn’t of course. Just for some variety I’m ringing the changes with my userpics between now and when I bow out for the time being at the end of next month.  I first put this one up as a tease a few months ago when it appeared that some of the solvers on the other blog didn’t know the artist (James Whistler) but I’m sure you do.  Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.

Across
3.  Islander‘s cry of pleasure welcomed by Venetian painter (8)
TAHITIAN.  AH=cry of pleasure contained in (welcomed by) TITIAN.
7. Oddball‘s party by dam in river (6)
WEIRDO.  WEIR=dam in river next to DO=party.  I’m always confused which vowel comes first in the dam but it was clear here thank goodness.  Don’t even mention that “niche” fellow (Nietzsche and yes I checked it the spelling).
8.  Tory ref’s abandoned woodland management (8)
FORESTRY.  Anagram (abandoned) of TORY REF’S.
9.  Head’s cloak (4)
CAPE.  Double definition.
10.  Run alongside end of lake (3)
BYE.  Of course!  Our cricket clue.  BY=alongside plus end of lak[E].
11.  Winner, one with a four-wheeled carriage (8)
VICTORIA.  VICTOR=winner plus I=one with A.
13.  See church and expanse of water up North (4)
LOCH.  LO=see (obviously not a word in general use outside crosswordland) and CH=church.
15. Dog in County Kerry (4)
TYKE.  Containment clue Coun[TY KE]rry.  A mongrel, and also in Yorkshire and the N.E. U.S. a mischievous youg lad.
17. Half-hearted evangelist married after conflict (8)
LUKEWARM.  LUKE=evangelist plus WAR=conflict and M=married.
19.  Feel ill when alcoholic drink is spoken of (3)
AIL.  Homophone for “ale”=drink.
22.  Heroic European film (4)
EPIC.  E=European (not English this time) and PIC=film.
23.  Tirade from dreadful sounding ethnic group (8)
DIATRIBE.  Homophone for “dire” (sounds like dreadful) plus TRIBE=ethnic group.
24. Eg armadillo‘s plates going from back to front (6)
ANIMAL.  “Lamina”=plates back to front.  I skipped it and then returned to it but it was easier than it looked at first glance.
25.  Part-song in which crazy girl tours Rhode Island (8)
MADRIGAL.  MAD=crazy and GAL=girl contains (tours) the State R.I.

Down
1.  Truthfulness of woman going over financial area (8)
VERACITY.  VERA=woman CITY=financial area.  Old fashioned womens’ names must be very useful to setters because we often see Una and Ena et al too.
2.  Study painting externally, being keen (6)
ARDENT.  DEN=study surrounded by ART=painting (externally).
3.  Posh fellow taking time away (4)
TOFF.  T=time OFF=away.
4. Book that’s difficult to support (8)
HARDBACK.  HARD=difficult BACK=support.
5. Tuft of dangling thread disfigured slates (6)
TASSEL.  Anagram (disfigured) of “slates”.
6.  First-class railway – well ventilated (4)
AIRY.  AI=first-class RY=railway.
12.  Motor sport is getting better (8)
RALLYING.  Double definition.
14.  Red priest – a senior one (8)
CARDINAL.  Another double definition.
16.  Person dining around end of this festival (6)
EASTER.  EATER=person dining containing (around) end of [thi]S.
18.  Beetle that’s tiny – and mostly revolting (6)
WEEVIL.  WEE=tiny and VIL[e] mostly.
20.  Gunners carry it for a girl (4)
RITA.  The R[oyal] A[rtillery] contain (carry) IT.
21.  Kentish town producing timber? (4)
DEAL.  Double definition, with just a hint of mischievous misdirection towards a part of London instead Kent.

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic 498 by Orpheus”

  1. Just as Olivia says, nothing obscure or unfair. And nothing particularly striking, either. I wonder whether the ‘part’ in 25ac or the ‘4-wheeled’ in 11ac were a help or a hindrance to anyone out there; since I don’t know from carriages, or madrigals, they probably slowed me down a bit, but then that’s the setter’s job, no? 4:40.
  2. 7 minutes for the easiest of this week’s puzzles (for me, at least). I’m not entirely sure I knew that ‘tyke’ is a type of dog rather than the mischievous young lad, but I may have met it before.

    I missed the misdirection, if that’s what it was, to Kentish Town in London NW5 but the absence of a capital ‘T’ suggests it was probably accidental and would be lost on the majority of solvers anyway.

    Whilst ruminating on this and apropos of nothing of any importance, it occurred to me that the adjective ‘Kentish’ when applied to the people of the county is usually taken to refer to those from west of the River Medway, so ‘Kentish man’ or ‘Kentish maid’, with those from the east being designated as ‘man (or maid) of Kent’. By the same logic (but other definitions are available) Deal, being on the eastern coast, ought to be ‘town of Kent’ rather than ‘Kentish town’. I must get a life!

    Edited at 2016-02-04 06:15 am (UTC)

    1. These ruminations are precisely what makes the blog so interesting. A litany of other cruciverbalist’s solving times without much more can – occasionally – be a little tedious.
      1. Thanks for that, John. We aim to please! There is another side to it however, that sometimes the more that’s written the less I tend to read.

        Edited at 2016-02-04 11:12 am (UTC)

  3. Slip/typo in your answer to 19ac – you have Ale as homophone for Ale, you obviously meant Ail as homophone for Ale.
  4. I tend to find Orpheus quite tricky, and today was no exception. Needed a few alphabet trawls, before finally staggering home north of the hour mark. Looking back, nothing was that unfair – 11 and 15 were unknown to me but do-able. Invariant
  5. My last two in held me up for a long time – 2d and 24a and eventually just chucked them in unparsed, as usual the blog cleared up my questions, so thank you. COD was 23a
    With regard to tyke the only reason I knew it is that I’ve got a vague recollection of it appearing in a childhood comic – The Beano or Buster or something along those lines. However with my memory I may be wrong.
  6. The hardest yet of what has been a tough week for me. Tip for you Olivia “i” before “e” except after “c”, except for some strange reason “Keith”. In germanic words “ei” is pronounced “i” and “ie” is pronounced “e”.
    Today’s totally useless piece of information.
    Playuppompey
    1. So with Germnan ei and ie, I’ve often wonder how the Physicist Rudolf Peierls pronounced his name. Answers, please!
  8. Agree with Olivia’s assessment -nothing obscure or unfair. I did need to give this my full attention but it was reasonably straightforward. LOI was Lamina which illustrates my point. Didn’t know tyke as dog ,nor deal as timber; no problem with the Kentish town-it is becoming fashionable and has always been excellent for golf.And Tahiti appears again! David
  9. As always I’ve enjoyed the comments – in this case more interesting than the puzzle. It’s nice to get up in the morning NY time and see my inbox full of something other than unwelcome stuff. I didn’t have much to say about this one (“gravel’d for lack of matter”) hence the fooling about with userpics and EI/IE spelling. Are we not fortunate to have English as our native tongue – I can’t imagine trying to learn it.
    1. 1st prize in life’s lottery, as someone this side of the pond once said. 😊 Invariant
  10. In Ulster, and Manchester, Tyke is a derogatory term for a Roman Catholic. The Oxford Dictionary of Slang records this use in New Zealand. I’ve always thought it is a corruption of the equally derogatory name “Teague”, though that word has not always been derogatory – please see the old words to Lili Bolero.

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