Today sees a milestone with the publication of Quick Cryptic No 500 following the inaugural puzzle which I had the pleasure of blogging on 10 March 2014. This innovation has certainly created a lot of new interest in solving cryptic puzzles with many new contributors to TftT, some of whom now seem like old friends. I hope this corner of our commmunity will continue to thrive during the next 500 and we shall see even more new QC solvers with some of them eventually graduating to the 15×15 to enjoy the delights on offer there.
I was half expecting something special to mark the occasion and our setter Corelli has not let us down on what I think is only his (or her) 6th outing. The Roman numeral for 500 is of course ‘D’ and all the Across answers begin with that letter. Additionally all the Across answers that abut the right edge of the grid also end in ‘D’. This then gives us whole columns of unchecked ‘D’s at either side of the grid. If there’s more than that going on and I’ve missed it then I apologise and no doubt someone will point it out later. The total number of ‘D’s in the puzzle is 25. 11 minutes.
As usual, definitions are in bold italics, deletions are in curly brackets and indicators are in square ones.
|
Across |
|
|---|---|
| 7 | Hamlet, perhaps, containing public house displaying shrub (6) |
| DAPHNE – DANE (Hamlet, perhaps – Prince of Denmark) containing PH (public house – as abbreviated on Ordnance Survey maps, for example). The shrub is a relative of the bay or laurel. | |
| 8 | Thought British river connected to the sea (6) |
| DEEMED – DEE (British river), MED (sea – Mediterranean) | |
| 9 | Dip into home video, rewinding (4) |
| DIVE – Hidden and reversed [rewinding] inside {hom}E VID{eo} | |
| 10 | After remaking bed, Doris undressed (8) |
| DISROBED – Anagram [remaking] of BED DORIS | |
| 11 | Tend to mix with chum, and folk from Amsterdam? (8) |
| DUTCHMEN – Anagram [mix] of TEND CHUM | |
| 13 | Legal document? Not a word! (4) |
| DEED – A straight definition plus a cryptic hint with reference to sayings such as “words not deeds” (or vice versa) and “in word and deed” | |
| 15 | US lawyers put together artistic movement (4) |
| DADA – DA (US lawyer – District Attorney) x 2. This unconventional art form came up as recently as 1 Feb 2016 in QC495 and also previously in July 2014 in QC 88, both set by Izetti. | |
| 16 | Girl, very loud before start of debate, was not the same? (8) |
| DIFFERED – DI (girl), FF (very loud – fortissimo – music), ERE (before), D{ebate} [start] | |
| 18 | Within month, see one becoming tyrannical (8) |
| DESPOTIC – SPOT (see) + I (one) inside [within] DEC (month) | |
| 20 | Die-hards regularly unresponsive (4) |
| DEAD – D{i}E-{h}A{r}D{s} [regularly] | |
| 21 | Thingamabob labradors perhaps carry home (6) |
| DOINGS – DOGS (labradors, perhaps) contain [carry] IN (home). This is an informal term for anything of which the name is unknown or unspecified and corresponds pretty much to ‘thingamabob’. The example given in Collins is ‘have you got the doings for starting the car?’. | |
| 22 | He‘s old and decrepit (6) |
| DONALD – Anagram [decrepit] of OLD AND | |
|
Down |
|
| 1 | Glacial winds around head of unclad old emperor (8) |
| CALIGULA – Anagram [winds] of GLACIAL containing U{nclad} [head of] | |
| 2 | Challenge wimp to change practice in car park (5-8) |
| WHEEL-CLAMPING – Anagram [change] of CHALLENGE WIMP | |
| 3 | Small tree houses do, once in a blue moon (6) |
| SELDOM – S (small), ELM (tree) contains [houses] DO | |
| 4 | Eccentric child, most likely? (4-2) |
| ODDS-ON – ODD (eccentric), SON (child) | |
| 5 | Bill should get this support before university (6,7) |
| SECOND READING – SECOND (support – as in ‘second a proposal’), READING (university). Rather an odd choice of university for a crossword puzzle perhaps, but it does come up occasionally. This a stage in the legislative process in Parliament which starts with the First Reading of a Bill and ends with the Royal Assent. Actually it’s two stages as there’s one Second Reading in the House of Commons and another in the House of Lords. | |
| 6 | Heard fancied tennis player perhaps give up (4) |
| CEDE – Sounds like [heard] “seed” (fancied tennis player perhaps) | |
| 12 | High priest: the Spanish one (3) |
| ELI – EL (the, Spanish), I (one) | |
| 14 | Grabbing arts graduate, European screams and watches closely (8) |
| EYEBALLS – E (European), YELLS (screams) contains [grabbing] BA (arts graduate – Bachelor of Arts) | |
| 16 | Can’t stand editor up before international match (6) |
| DETEST – ED (editor) reversed [up], TEST (international match) | |
| 17 | Brave, with trailer going in front (6) |
| FACADE – AD (trailer – advertisement) going in FACE (brave, as a verb as in ‘brave the storm’ for example). | |
| 19 | Famous school, observe, coming up (4) |
| ETON – NOTE (observe) reversed [coming up] | |
Last in DOINGS and favourite for the smooth surface reading of DONALD.
Playuppompey
Today’s is certainly most enjoyable. Even with the priming I didn’t notice the D theme until almost finished – which is par for the course with me because I never see Ninas either. DOINGS has a sort of Bertie Wooster/Lord Peter Wimsey flavour so Pompey is spot-on!
Actually it’s by chance that I got to blog #500 as I started with #1 but along the way something went out of sequence and I ended up blogging round numbers on Mondays.
I misparsed 5d as not the town of Reading but the fact that you read a subject at university, so thanks for the clarification jackkt. Also not heard of doings in that sense before, but it couldn’t be anything else.
I got stuck with 17d (LOI) and 22a which I wanted to be Arnold for a time.This was an enjoyable test and I think 2d is my favourite. Completely failed to see all the Ds. David
By the way, a little late, and I know The Times is always even-handed, but on the subject of praise, on Friday, we had the QC answer “laud a Tory”, really? Sorry!
Hearing that people are now tackling the Jumbo as a result of starting off with the Quick is also gratifying.
It was unfortunate that SECOND READING should appear again so soon, but the later puzzle was rather an immovable feast. And at least the phrase in context was rather appropriate 🙂
RR
Did not notice all the Ds until reading this blog, and probably wouldn’t have appreciated their significance!