Quick Cryptic 506 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Excellent offering today. Didn’t seem too hard but took me 13 minutes – some of which was spent admiring the clues. Good, humorous clues just kept on coming – in my solving order – 23, 17 and 11 across but my LOI in and definitely COD was 8dn. A special mention of 18dn is deserved for its cleverness. Thank you Mara for some good entertainment.

ACROSS

1. Rose bush – plant. Anagram (wild) of SHRUB SO containing prickl(E).
5. STOP – seeing red light. A lot (POTS) reversed.
9. Belle – beauty. Ringer (BELL), English (E).
10. Average – mean. To declare (AVER) before time (AGE).
11. Postmistress – female in charge of letters. Anagram (off) of SISTER STOMPS.
12. Update – latest information. Anagram (for broadcasting) of APT DUE.
15. Crayon – thanks to our contributors below we have established two solutions to this one.
A. Crayon – material written by. Conservative (C), children’s author (RAYON). I hadn’t heard of Polly Esther Rayon – author of The Babysitter etc but didn’t need to when I’d seen what the full definition was.
B. Crayon – children’s writer. Conservative (C), material (RAYON).
I tend to agree with our contributors belown rather than my own solution and favour ‘B’.
17. Shocking pink – colour. Loved the connection with electric blue.
20. Orlando – city in Florida. Just in case some of you were thinking that the state capital of Ohio could also be Orlando, I should point out that it’s actually Columbus. The word play is made up from OR, state (LAND), capital – first letter of – (O)Hio.
21. North – point (of the compass). Anagram (nasty) of THORN.
22. Test – double definition.
23. Fearless – brave. Female (F), if you don’t have the means to hear you may be EAR-LESS.

DOWN

1. Ruby – red. Massage (RUB), lowest part of (last letter of) bod(Y).
2. Salvo – round (as in shooting). Anagram (wrong) of OVALS.
3. Breathtaking – awesome. Another lovely clue – to inspire is to breath in so an inspirational activity is taking a breath.
4. Stalin – Soviet leader. Some of sadini(STA LIN)ks.
6. Tragedy – sad thing. Anagram (extraordinary) of GREAT DaY but not the ‘a’.
7. Pheasant – game (game bird). Farm labourer (PEASANT) around hard (H).
8. Letter opener – bladed instrument. Loved this one. A letter usually opens wth Dear so and so.
12. Cut short – interrupted. Anagram (ruined) of CHORUS and two times (TT).
14. Doodles – casual sketches. Five hundred in roman numerals (D), very many (OODLES).
16. Insole – part of a shoe. Anagram (disturbed) of LESION.
18. Nerve – a triple definition – bundle of fibres, cheek and lip – which, as a whole, also works as a cryptic definition.
19. Thus – so. The borders of (T)oug(H), America (US).

18 comments on “Quick Cryptic 506 by Mara”

  1. I found this on the tricky side and needed 14 minutes to complete the grid. I wasn’t particularly of aware of nerve as fibre or bundle of fibres but it’s in the dictionary, and familiarity with the expression ‘bundle of nerves’ rather served to distract me though the answer was never in any doubt.

    Edited at 2016-02-16 10:51 am (UTC)

  2. Fairly tough I thought, but with several quite splendid clues. 3dn and 8dn very clever, but for me 17ac was a gem.
    Being picky, I take issue with salvo as a round. A salvo is a number of rounds fired at the same time by a battery of guns.
    Playuppompey
  3. Heading for a quick solve until I got stuck on 8d and 11a where for some reason I missed it was an anagram. Like others have said, 8d was very clever and my COD.

    Sad news, today’s Times has an obituary for crossword setter Bob Hesketh who had compiled 28 Quick Cryptics amongst many others.

  4. I think it’s material (rayon) and definition is “children’s writer”.

    Or am I being a bit thick?

  5. I read 15d differently: “Rayon” (material) next to (written by) “C” (conservative), with children’s writer the definition. I think the author Rayon is a happy coincidence.

    Henry

  6. An average solving time today, but well above average enjoyment. As others gave noted, 3, 8 and 17 were all excellent clues, so to have all three in the same QC was a treat. Thank you Mara. Invariant
  7. I seemed to be on the right wavelength for this one. All but two clues done in 15 minutes which is fast for me. And I finished with Doodles in about 20.Lots to enjoy and I also thought 8d excellent.
    Sad to see in the obituaries the death of a setter -Dazzler. David
  8. Thanks to all again. Good finish today, 8dn popped right up but the subtleness sailed on by, so sorry. I’ve even recently reverted to ‘Dear’ for emails rather than ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ or plain nothing, which all leave me a bit dissatisfied. Anyway our own bladed implement is quite a cheap one (not dear!) so that confused me a bit. Final score, Setter A+ Solver B-
  9. As others have said I thought this was a very entertaining puzzle and not too tricky either, although the parsing of 8d did leave me a bit confused until checking the blog. I always have a sinking feeling when I see the word shrub or plant in a clue so was relieved when 1a revealed itself to be one of the more common varieties. My CoD was 18d but it was a close call.
  10. I got shocking pink but couldn’t parse it.-presumably ‘electric’ is shocking, but why pink?
    Thanks, Hannah
    1. The question mark at the end of the clue implies a certain latitude to the definition; often a “humorous” element. So in this case both colours are taken as a whole and appear related (ho! ho!

      Bob

  12. 36 mins, which to me indicates medium difficulty. LOI was LETTER OPENER which was pretty clear, but I didn’t understand the wordplay. I also thought 20a ORLANDO was strangely un-cryptic until I read this blog and realized I’d fallen for the parsing trap (though it makes no difference to the solution).
    1. You may be fine with this now but just in case – for letter opener the definition is ‘bladed instrument’. The word play is ‘that’s usually dear’ – the opening words of a letter are usually Dear Sir etc.

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