Quick Cryptic 502 by Dazzler

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I thought this puzzle was around the middle of the spectrum in terms of degree of difficulty. No obscurities, but some of the clues seemed to offer a range of possible constructions that required exploration of several different angles until the penny dropped, so some good challenges.

Thanks to Dazzler for an enjoyable offering.

Definitions underlined: DD = Double Definition: Anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 A spice very quietly eaten by noble (6)
PEPPER – PP (very quietly – music notation) ‘eaten’ by PEER (noble)
4 Law, say, that’s misused on every occasion (6)
ALWAYS – *(LAW SAY) with “misused” as the anagrind
9 Best to get rid of groundbreaking tool (7)
PICKAXE – PICK (best) + AXE (get rid of)
10 In the morning I leave China (5)
AMIGO – AM (in the morning) + I + GO (leave), giving the Spanish version of the Eastender’s china plate/mate
11 Comfort in endless rental agreements (4)
EASE – LEASES (rental agreements) loses its ends
12 Prisoner discovered puzzle (8)
CONFOUND – CON (prisoner) + FOUND (discovered)
14 Pants coming from dogs drinking small spirit (5,6)
BOXER SHORTS – SHORT (small spirit) inside BOXERS (dogs)
18 Expression in America for end of the line (8)
TERMINUS – TERM (expression) + IN + US (America). Fairly straightforward but elegant clue.
20 Run away from what may bite you, say (4)
FLEE – Homophone indicated by “say” – sounds like FLEA (what may bite you)
22 Biblical girl I make complaint about (5)
NAOMI – I + MOAN (make complaint) all reversed (about), giving us the mother in law of Ruth. I vaguely recalled her from inattentive sessions at Sunday School, but even if you did not know her the wordplay was pretty generous
23 Raids made by soldiers in filthy places (7)
SORTIES – OR (soldiers – standard abbrev. of ‘other ranks’) in STIES (filthy places). Apologies for accidental omission of this one from the blog as originally posted (and thanks to jackkt for pointing it out.
24 Getting older, awful gag in English (6)
AGEING – *(GAG IN) with E (English) also added into the mix and “awful” as the anagrind
25 Just about exercises in public 6)
OPENLY – ONLY (just) goes around (about) PE (exercises)
Down
1 Young dog without tail starts to exasperate toy poodle (6)
PUPPET – PUPPY (young dog without tail – i.e. minus last letter) + ET (starts to – i.e. first letters of – Exasperate Toy). The definition is the metaphorical use of poodle as someone easily manipulated
2 Photo on a steamship: old painter (7)
PICASSO – PIC (photo) + A SS (a steamship) + O (old)
3 Regularly need farm for dairy product (4)
EDAM – Alternate letters (regularly) of nEeD fArM
5 Golfer upset about a putt at first in game (8)
LEAPFROG – *(GOLFER) around (about) A P (Putt at first). One of the more embarrassing incidents of my life at Uni was presenting at the local hospital with a “sports injury” – viz. broken wrist – sustained whilst attempting to leapfrog a parking meter whilst on a pub crawl. Not advised.
6 Notice that is at front of university for so long (5)
ADIEU – AD (notice) + IE (that is) + U (front of University)
7 Cast consuming rum of poor-quality (6)
SHODDY – SHY (cast – as in throw, as in coconut shy) ‘consumes’ ODD (rum). Not quite sure what the hyphen is doing here (at least in the online version) but no matter.
8 Drink something unsatisfactory before energetic game (5,6)
LEMON SQUASH – LEMON (something unsatisfactory – as in “the car I bought turned out to be a lemon”) + SQUASH (energetic game)
13 Extremely reliable eyesight needed for a change (8)
REVISION – RE (‘extremes’ – i.e. first and last letters – of ReliablE) + VISION (eyesight)
15 An author to like, possibly new (7)
TOLKIEN – *(TO LIKE) with “possibly” as the anagrind + N (new)
16 Way Australian or New Zealander cut lines (6)
STANZA – ST (way – abbrev. Street) + ANZAC (Australian or New Zealander – the ANZACs) minus its last letter (cut)
17 Small island‘s football shirt (6)
JERSEY – Straightforward DD
19 Some clear honey a flower in Europe supplied (5)
RHONE – Hidden (indicated in some and reinforced by ‘supplied’) in cleaR HONEy, giving us one of Europe’s best known rivers (flower)
21 Rugby player runs into father (4)
PROP – R (runs – cricket abbrev.) ‘into’ POP (father)

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 502 by Dazzler”

  1. Re 7d: I suppose if we take p-q to be the definition, then, since SHODDY is an adjective, we need the hyphen; but ‘of poor quality’ would be a better definition, no? I wasted some time in thinking that ‘run away’ indicated the deletion of an R. But most of the time was taken by trying to figure out BOXER SHORTS & LEMON SQUASH, especially the former (LOI), since I would never have got SHORT from ‘small spirit’. DNK PROP, but no problem. 8:30.
    1. Thanks Kevin – “of poor quality” is a better definition I agree (although must admit Is till don’t get the hyphen either way – not that it matters to the answer or the parsing…)
      1. I put it poorly. I was thinking that if we take just ‘poor q’ as the definition, that’s a noun phrase, so the solution should be ‘shoddiness’, but it isn’t. But ‘poor-q’ is adjectival–a shoddy/poor-q piece of work–so the hyphen would be required. But again, ‘of poor q’ would be the better definition, but that would render the hyphen otiose. The bottom line is what you said in your blog: ‘no matter’. I think I’ll shut up now.
  2. I found this easier than the past couple of days and finished it in 9 minutes. And it would have been a minute sooner if I hadn’t written TOLKEIN at 15dn and then having to ponder what to put at 23ac. Which incidentally is omitted from the blog, Nick. The answer is SORTIES (raids) – OR (soldiers) inside STIES (filthy places).

    I obviously have a problem as my spelling of the author above still looks right to me!

    Edited at 2016-02-10 05:39 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for pointing out the missing 23 – sorry about that, careless of me. Now fixed.
  3. I really made heavy weather of this – 15 minutes – and no real reason why, apart from difficulty spelling TOLKIEN. It’s a pangram by the way.
  4. Ah, well spotted – completely missed that! [Note to self: if one of the answers has a Z in it, do a final check for a pangram…]
  5. Took 15 mins. Struggled to decide between boxer shorts and rover shorts, going for the former eventually. I think both work if you take an American view of the word pants.
  6. Made very heavy weather of this but nothing unfair. Another where TOLKEIN was my initial spelling. Finished with SHODDY and favourite BOXER SHORTS.
  7. I’ve been spending too much time on Dean Mayer’s Sunday instruments of torture, so the moment I see “pants” I think of “rubbish”. After correcting for that I got stuck on the US version of pants which are trousers rather than underwear. So this one clue used up a good wodge of my 7 minutes.
    1. Absolutely with you there re. “the Mayer Effect” Olivia! Interesting phenomenon, the idea of a new slang usage of a word becoming more prominent than the original “correct” usage. I’m sure there are other examples, but can’t immediately think of any off the top of the head.

      However, it occurs to me that a kind of analogous thing from a different field is the fact that (I seem to recall reading somewhere recently) the record sales of an Abba tribute band have now outstripped the sales of Abba themselves. It’s a funny old world…

  8. For a change, this one went in quite easily. My only hold up was loi Amigo – I could see what Dazzler wanted for the answer, but had no idea what this had to do with China, so thank you Nick for the explanation. Invariant
  9. I thought this was going to be a breeze after a few quick early solves in the NW corner. It then turned out to be a real struggle. No obvious reason why with hindsight, maybe it was that elusive wavelength thing, but at one stage I was considering giving up with half the grid still unsolved. But I plodded on and finally completed it despite not knowing what the definition was in 1d. COD 10a.
  10. This was a good test and required proper crossword analysis. But having read the clue properly it was doable and the answers were not obscure. I was held up by Boxer Shorts, which I thought was an excellent clue with so many possibilities for pants.I really liked 18a, so straightforward once you see it; it was new to me. Many other good clues. LOI was 23a. David
    1. Think “it was just a minor oversight…”

      Perfectly standard usage, I would suggest.

  12. I’m fairly new to these and learning slowly. This blog is such a help explaining things I could never work out for myself!
    There are 2 things I still don’t understand this time however!
    In 7d why does rum = ODD?
    In 19d why is the Rhone/a river a flower?
    Thanks again
    1. Sorry for delay in responding – thought there were no more comments!

      Rum meaning odd is quite a common usage – “he’s a bit of a rum sort of character”, “it was a rum do…” etc. Suggest you check in a dictionary for full usage.

      A river “flows”, and is therefore (in cryptic terms) possibly a “flower”. This is a very common device in crosswords so well worth tucking away in the memory bank!

      Glad you find the blog useful.

  13. 19D — seems a bit unfair. I thought the rule was that the definition must be at the beginning or the end. That was the only one we didn’t get!

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