Quick Cryptic 51 by Grumpy

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Yet again the Quickie button at the Times has failed and the ‘backdoor’ route is out of sequence so here’s the link if you need it: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140519/158/

It’s hard to judge how others will fare but I think I can safely say this is at the easier end of the scale for a Quickie as I can’t see there are any unusual words or shades of meaning, nor any particularly tricky wordplay. Grumpy has set us five puzzles before today and I struggled a bit with two of them, but this was more or less a write-in and I completed it in 9 minutes. Please don’t hesitate to ask if further explanation is required on any point.

Across
1 Thirty-one days of military music (5)
MARCH – Double definition
4 Monday’s awkward for current suppliers (7)
DYNAMOS – Anagram [awkward] of MONDAYS
8 One puts clothes on sideboard (7)
DRESSER – Double definition
9 Singer taking part in Britten oratorio (5)
TENOR – Hidden [taking part] in BritTEN ORatorio
10 Religious types visit Lancs resort (10)
CALVINISTS – Anagram [resort] of VISIT LANCS
14 Fashionable team doing time (6)
INSIDE – IN (fashionable), SIDE (team). Those in jail are said to be ‘inside’ or ‘doing time’
15 Air gently moving piece of cake (6)
BREEZE – Double definition. ‘Breeze’ and ‘piece of cake’ are two expressions that describe something that’s very easy. ‘Stroll in the park’ is another one that’s used a lot at TftT when we get an easy puzzle.
17 Lead, for example, in a type of rock (5,5)
HEAVY METAL – Double definition. The ‘rock’ referred to is music on this occasion.
20 The French teacher is enticed (3,2)
LED ON – LE (the, French), DON (teacher)
22 Object in torn clothing (7)
RAIMENT – AIM (object) inside RENT (torn). I seem to remember there are a lot of renting of raiments going on in the bible.
23 Mark is to withdraw from contest (7)
SCRATCH – Double definition
24 Furnish European with clever remark (5)
EQUIP – E (European), QUIP (clever remark)

Down
1 Way in which lawn was cut, we hear (4)
MODE – Sounds like ‘mowed’ (way in which lawn was cut)
2 Tall grass in which animals turned up (4)
REED – DEER (animals) reversed [turned up]
3 Farm work provides married man with endless cereal (9)
HUSBANDRY – HUSBAND (married man), RYe (endless cereal)
4 Obtain parking place outside house finally (6)
DERIVE – DRIVE (parking place) outside housE
5 Requirement for tennis? Put up half of it (3)
NET – TENnis partially reversed [put up half of it]
6 Clergyman – one found in church (8)
MINISTER – I (one) inside MINSTER (church). This must be one of the oldest chestnuts of all time.
7 Under pressure, puddings rise (8)
STRESSED – DESSERTS (puddings) reversed [rise]
11 River rodent in unsophisticated story (9)
NARRATIVE – R (river) + RAT (rodent) inside NAÏVE (unsophisticated)
12 Colin has changed his name (8)
NICHOLAS – Anagram [changed] of COLIN HAS
13 Jerseyman, for example, I defame (8)
ISLANDER – I, SLANDER (defame)
16 Hard ground that’s by the fire (6)
HEARTH – H (hard), EARTH (ground)
18 People start to understand list of options (4)
MENU – MEN (people), Understand
19 Second best bar (4)
STOP – S (second), TOP (best)
21 Silly-billy in kilt with odd bits missing (3)
NIT – Alternate letters [with odd bits missing] of iN kIlT

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 51 by Grumpy”

  1. I found this pretty easy (5′), but finding it easy and getting it right aren’t necessarily the same thing: I was in too much of a hurry to check 21d, and put in ‘nut’ (which isn’t right for ‘silly-billy’ anyway). No excuse. Thanks, Jack, for the link; today was the first time I haven’t been able to access the Quicky. (Every day, by the way, when I’m told to log in–or when I’m shown as logged in, it doesn’t matter–I’m then told that I’m already logged in ‘on another device’ (I only have the one), and then have to wait 5 seconds before being redirected. Anyone else have this experience?)
    1. Not exactly the same but it doesn’t allow me to log in on the Times for the
      Times site and always redirects me to log in on the Live Journal page.
  2. Managed this in 30 minutes. Only the second time I have completed a Quick Cryptic in under an hour so certainly one of the easier ones. Thanks for the blog.
  3. This seems to be the level that we were expecting for the Quickie so it’s good to hear folk are completing. Hopefully they’re then having a peek at the 15×15, 7 minutes for me. I’ve now sussed that jackkt’s format is the same as the weekend blogs so I’ll adopt it too.
    1. I am on the verge of dipping a toe into 15 x 15 waters.. Thank you Chris, for your unfailing encouragement to us newbies 🙂

      I have memories of accompanying Z8 to the annual competition in a hotel in central London in the 80’s and managing to solve 1 clue in the time it took him to solve 4 crosswords. That was in the era when spectators could attempt the puzzles at the same time as the competitors.

  4. I was mislead by silly bill YIN in kilt. Went for the big yin Billy Connelly
    1. That’s raises an interesting question as in the 15 x 15 cryptic living persons are excluded, the only exception being HM the Queen. I wonder if we can take it that the same applies to the Quickie.
      1. Thanks, Jack, for sharing the interesting information about the convention regarding names of the living – was not aware of that.

        However, this weekend just gone you and I exchanged (sheepishly?) comments regarding our new mutual friend the ARGALI. From memory (always dangerous!) I’m pretty sure the ALI bit was clued by a reference to Muhammad Ali who, as far as I am aware, has not yet passed on to the great boxing ring in the sky.

        Does the convention not apply to the use of a living person where it is just a building block in an answer (as opposed to the whole answer)? Appreciate (as ever) your insights.

        1. Nick,

          ARGALI was in the Sunday Times. Different paper and different crossword editor (Peter B) so it marches to the beat of a different drummer.

          As far as I’m aware the daily Times rule about deceased people applies to all parts of the clue.

          Regards

          1. Aha! Yet another layer of subtlety in this exquisite game. Can’t help but think of the marvellous “Mornington Crescent” from R4’s old antidote to panel games.

            Thanks very much for clearing that one up.

  5. Pretty much the perfect entry level cryptic I reckon – hats off to Grumpy.

    Took me around 15 minutes – STRESSED held me up for a while (not being a pudding eater), and ironically – given my given name (albeit the full 3 syllable version has not been used for well over 50 years) – so did NICHOLAS.

  6. All by myself – 18 mins 🙂 What a lovely, accessible Quickie – many thanks, Grumpy. Equal thanks to Jack for a beautifully clear blog.
    LOI was 16 dn but 12 dn took me the longest to solve as I was looking for a word that meant ‘name’ eg appellation or some such, as opposed to an actual name. D’oh.
    Some super double definitions: DRESSER, SCRATCH and MARCH but my COD was 7 dn simply because I hadn’t twigged previously that DESSERTS was stressed reversed.
    A great start to the day! 🙂
  7. 3 mins and definitely one of the easier QCs, but still an enjoyable solve. NICHOLAS was my LOI.
  8. Thanks for blog and for the first time I learned nothing new, no offence meant, but it just confirmed eloquently everything I had deduced for myself. All without any aids at all, sitting in waitrose cafe. I don’t bother with times as life goes on in parallel so the time elapsed is meaninglessly variable
  9. 4m. Just what these things should be.
    12dn is rather neat, because Colin is a diminuitive of NICHOLAS.
    1. Really? Colin is my real name and I’m unaware of this. Struggled a bit with this one, didn’t get narrative or raiment. Still, an enjoyable puzzle.
      1. Yes. My dad’s name is Colin, which is how I know this. It’s not the only origin of the name (and probably not the most common) but it is one of them. Wikipedia has the details!
  10. 19 minutes including a phone call. Very straightforward but nicely put together.
  11. I seemed to spend the whole day on trains and was more than little distressed when I found the website was still showing the previous day’s puzzle so thanks very much for the link. This was the perfect crossword for me and I finished the whole thing *on my phone!* admittedly not until after midnight though. I was delighted to discover you can keep solving clues even without a mobile signal – that’s nice.
  12. …this was a lovely puzzle for us newbies, thank you Grumpy.

    I always get a sense of satisfaction and great motivation when I can do 1a straightaway, which was the case today. Spurs me on every time!
    I only had 30 minutes to devote to solving, so didn’t finish it, but got a fair way through the top section and think I would have had a fair shot at getting close to finishing, had I enough time. There’s hope!

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