Quick Cryptic 523 by Orpheus

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A very enjoyable puzzle with a good mix of politics, art, music, science, sport, geography and entertainment.  I’d thought there was no literature until I remembered that the prime minister in 6d also wrote quite a few novels.  The named individuals are celebrated enough that they should be quite accessible, although it should be noted that there is nothing remotely contemporary about any of them.  In fact this could almost be a vintage crossword and none the worse for that, I like them.  Definitions in italics underline.  Answers in bold caps.

Across
1.  Church member entertaining a top boxer perhaps (5)
CHAMP.  CH=church, MP=member, containing (entertaining) A.
4.  Report of district that’s more breezy (6)
AIRIER.  Homophone of “area”=district.  The sound-alike clues in the QC always seem to work which is more than can be said for the other cryptics…
9. Italian physicist‘s brief month on island? (7)
MARCONI.  MARC[h]=brief month.  ON.  I=island.  Inventor of radio-telegraphy and pioneer of many of the wonders of the 20th century.  The internet notwithstanding, our grandparents and great-grandparents witnessed the most profound technological changes at a dizzying speed that our era doesn’t seem to come close to.  As a teenager my grandmother met him on a transatlantic liner about 110 years ago and sent a ship-to-ship marconi-gram to her older sister who was travelling in the opposite direction. 
10.  Old railwaymen given points to look after (5)
NURSE.  NUR=old railwaymen.  SE=points.  The N.U.R. was a union representing railway workers which was disbanded in the 1990s.  This is in keeping with the retro feel of the puzzle and is a very neat clue with the double meaning of “points”.  Setters also seem to find the N.U.M. (mineworkers union, still in existence) a useful device.
11. Uproar in first half of meal (3)
DIN.  First half of DIN[ner].
12.  Her deli’s output is greatly enjoyed (8)
RELISHED.  Anagram (output) of HER DELI’S. 
15.  Obliging, acting as landlord? (13)
ACCOMMODATING.  Double definition.  We’ve got two nice long middle struts anchoring this puzzle across and down which is a big help to the solver.  Just need to get the right letters doubled up here.
17. Tear delicate fabric, meeting cost (8)
LACERATE.  LACE=delicate fabric.  RATE=cost.
18.  Bachelor originally attending tennis club (3)
BAT.  B=bachelor (as in B.A.) with the first letters (originally) in A[ttending] T[ennis].
20.  Old English cricketer’s elegance of manner (5)
GRACE.  Double definition.  W.G. Grace (1848-1915) is probably the one cricketer everyone has heard of.  He also sported some serious facial hair.
22. One with no illusions about a register (7)
REALIST.  RE=about. A LIST=register.
23.  Remove obstruction in river (6)
DELETE.  LET=obstruction contained in the River DEE.  “Let” is often coupled with “hindrance” but they mean much the same thing.  And then there’s tennis.
24.  Unusually regal composer (5)
ELGAR.  Anagram (unusually) of REGAL.  Contemporary of W.G. Grace and owner himself of some pretty flamboyant mustachios.  Best known now for Pomp and Circumstance (Land of Hope and Glory) and the Enigma Variations, including Nimrod which is often played on solemn memorial occasions.

Down
1. Entertainer’s scam involving TV, press, etc. (8)
COMEDIAN.  CON=scam containing (involving) MEDIA=TV etc.
2.  In favour of wearing a new pinafore (5)
APRON.  PRO=in favour of contained in (wearing) A N[ew].
3.  Broadcast made by expert with very little weight (9)
PROGRAMME.  PRO=expert.  GRAMME=little weight.  So we have 2 PROs side by side with different meanings.
5.  Pub that’s popular:  Nag’s Head (3)
INN.  IN=popular.  First letter (head) in N[ag].
6. Like Ben-Gurion, head off British prime minister (7)
ISRAELI.  David Ben-Gurion, founding father of the modern Israel.  The prime minister is Benjamin Disraeli with the D removed (head off).  I didn’t think anyone read his novels any more (Sybil, Coningsby) but I see that Amazon has them for sale.  He was older but he overlapped with Grace and Elgar in the 19th century and like them had some interesting facial hair.  I did wonder if the “do’s” were DIY or if they all went to the barber.
7.  Genuine-sounding Scottish dance (4)
REEL.  Homophone (sounding) of REAL=genuine.
8. Rich person‘s factory, one on Yorkshire river (11)
MILLIONAIRE.  MILL=factory. I=one. ON.  AIRE=Yorkshire river.  Things being what they are, at first glance I went looking for a B at the beginning of this, but if we are transported back to yesteryear in this puzzle then the M works.  Ou sont les neiges d’antan?
13.  Unoriginal friend’s impasse in chess (9)
STALEMATE.  STALE=unoriginal.  MATE=friend.  My only quibble here (as a chess ignoramus) is that the word has the same meaning far beyond the confines of the game.
14.  Rabble-rouser finally appearing at a riot, unhappily (8)
AGITATOR.  Anagram (unhappily) of the last letter (finally) in [appearin]G and AT A RIOT.  Neat one.
16.  French painter left to support tea girl (7)
CHAGALL. Russian-born Marc.  CHA=tea.  GAL=girl.  Supported by L[eft].
18.  Old crooner accepts pound for flashy jewellery (5)
BLING.  BING=Bing Crosby, the crooner, containing (accepts) L=pound.  Crosby was the prototype for Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como et. al. and also the star of a number of 1940s “road” movies along with Bob Hope.  Setters clearly find the hiphop neologism “bling” very useful. Bubbling, warbling, trembling ad infinitem.
19.  A good press chief much advanced in years (4)
AGED.  A G[ood] ED[itor]=press chief.
21.  Tailed amphibian familiar at first in sci-fi film (3)
EFT.  First letter in F[amiliar] contained in ET=sci-fi film of the early 80s which is another crossword chestnut to keep in mind.

29 comments on “Quick Cryptic 523 by Orpheus”

  1. 31:51 = average to tricky

    DELETE and LACERATE caused me some difficulties. NURSE was bunged in, and EFT was got from the wordplay, though I have to admit I didn’t know the term for a juvenile newt.

    Noting the timestamp on the blog, do bloggers get early access to these puzzles?

    1. Ref the timestamp, we have an old and somewhat unreliable TARDIS that we pass around between us and sometimes it gets a little out of sync!

      Edited at 2016-03-10 06:31 am (UTC)

  2. 8 minutes for me, so back to normality after yesterday’s more difficult offering. It occurred to me that EFT and CHAGALL may be bordering on the unknown. I certainly needed checkers to come up with the latter.

    I’m not as optimistic as our blogger about the homophone at 4ac. Any sound-alike answer involving two separate Rs is asking for trouble!

    Obviously people of my vintage have known of W.G. Grace since childhood but I wonder how well-known he is to today’s 20-, 30- and 40-somethings. Is he perhaps the Beerbohm Tree of cricket whose time really has come to be given out once and for all?

    Edited at 2016-03-10 06:33 am (UTC)

    1. I’m a 40 something and know all about WG. I don’t know what that says about me other than that my parents made listening to TMS a holiday ritual (us kids had to move the transistor radio around in weird positions in the car as we trundled round Norfolk. In the rain) and knowledge about cricket history was considered basic education 101 in our family. Gender was considered no get out of jail free card on this. Chagall is pretty much common knowledge surely – all kids study him at school (that goat picture anyway).
  3. Took me 25 mins today and had to look up Chagall. At the age of 70 several W G Grace was no problem! ( Are exclamation marks allowed!)

    Rita

  4. Enjoyed this one.. it feels just like a traditional Times daily cryptic, with its cricket and generally old-fashioned feel. It is smaller and might be a tad easier, but not much.
    I read Sybil, not so long ago, having picked it up in a secondhand bookshop. I found it worthy but dull and it both started and also completed my reading of Disraeli’s output…
  5. Enjoyed this one. I seem to be getting a little quicker every day lately, which can’t last!

    I thought of Apron on first reading for 2d but couldn’t see the parsing and it ending being LOI.

    I also spent some time trying to convince myself that Onthoni was a famous Italian physicist and therefore hidden in Month on island.

    Incidentally, I don’t recall learning about Chagall (or his goat!), but remembering tea is cha in crosswordland led me to him.

  6. As a clue, 13a ends with a resounding ‘clunk’. The inclusion of “in chess” can surely only be for QC purposes, rendering the solution an instant biff.

    “Unoriginal friend’s impasse” makes for a neat, concise piece of clueing that would grace any 15×15.

    Otherwise an enjoyable little romp. Thank you Orpheus and Olivia.

  8. Jack has answered the question about the time stamp. The blogger’s Tardis device is handy because otherwise we can find oursleves in a tight spot, as I did at the end of last year solving and then composing the blog on the eve of my younger daughter’s wedding.

    EFT is a staple of the NY Times crosswords which are much easier than these so I didn’t realize it might be obscure. I’ll bow to others on whether GRACE is past his sell-by date as a famous cricketer. The only other one I know offhand is Boycott because of the catchy name.

    CHAGALL is well-known here in NYC if only for his 2 enormous murals in the entrance lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House.

    Quizshark’s Onthoni is very ingenious!

  9. Thanks for a very entertaining and informative blog, Olivia. I found this straightforward except for CHAGALL and LACERATE. With the former, I think of him as Russian and not French, while with the latter, it was simply a case of word blindness. I’ve been experiencing that a bit lately. I had it with EARN in the 15×15 yesterday.
    I liked the story of your grandmother’s encounter with Marconi! B(L)ING reminded me of the one round of golf I played at the swish Wentworth club, near London. This was in the 70s and the bar that golfers could use straight off the course without removing their spiked shoes, had a silver water jug on the bar engraved with the legend “To Wentworth with grateful thanks from Bing & Bob” (or something very similar).
    Yes, this did have a retro feel, however there was no mention of ‘former volunteers’ (TA)
  10. PS….The homophone in 4ac worked fine for me. My standpoint is: can you get there from here? in this case I could, quite easily.
    I shall look out for the bloggers’ Tardis in future, as it hurtles through space!
  11. 3 short. CHAGALL was unknown to me, and I had CHAR for tea, which is not right? Annoyed that I missed LACERATE, no excuses. EFT for newt is a new one for me, but was found by the wordplay. Don’t understand why LET means obstruction? This puzzle has BLING which is a welcome newer word after my recent rants about hoary old crossword abbreviations. More words that my daughter (18) uses, please, setters.
    2. Both spellings are in the dictionary, but CHA is the more common, I think. Pretty sure I’ve seen CHAR come up in the sense of “charlady, cleaner”, though.

      A let in tennis is where the ball is obstructed by the net during the serve. It’s also an archaic/obsolete word for obstacle… “Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.”

      (Pro-tip: dictionary! I’ve made Wiktionary one of the selectable search engines in my browser, for easy access.)

  12. I had not, knowingly, come across Chagall nor Eft before, so I was pleased to get both of these from the wordplay. Otherwise, I thought this was relatively straightforward on the Orpheus scale at 32 mins. Invariant
  13. Is airier really a word? It certainly defeated me. Apart from that and “eft” (a new one on me) no problems and quite enjoyable.

    A “let” in squash is where you interfere with (or should I say get in the way of) the opponent. Not uncommon with two players in the same court.

    Playuppompey

  14. Another nice puzze, finished in my 30 minute but I had to look up 4A from the checkers (I struggle with homophones).
    I couldn’t see ‘Let’ for ‘Obstruction’ but the definition is in Chambers, albeit as ‘Archaic’.
    Another definition given for LET is
    ‘In the imperative with accusative and infinitive without to, often used virtually as an auxiliary with imperative or optative effect’
    Let’s see a clue including that (whatever it means) 🙂

    Brian

    Edited at 2016-03-10 02:10 pm (UTC)

  15. If you live in or visit Kent, do not miss the tiny church of Tudeley near Tonbridge. Chagall was commissioned by a church member to design a window in memory of her drowned daughter. Not only is ithat window stunning but Chagall volunteered to design glass for all the other windows as well. Go on a sunny day or failing that look at them on Google. Chris RS
  16. I found most of this straightforward with the exceptions of the unparsed 4a (missed the homophone) and 10a (not heard of that particular Union before). Chagall was also unknown to me but the word play/checkers made it quite solvable. I used the squash/tennis definition of Let in 23a.
    Thank you for a very informative and amusing blog Olivia.
  17. Much of this seemed straightforward and I was bounding through it. It was GK heavy but I knew most of it immediately bar the French painter. As often seems to happen these days, I had about 3 left after 15 minutes. I struggled with 29a but did know the newt which stopped me putting in Divert for want of anything better. I then got Chagall whose work I know well but not with a French connection. I think I last saw his work in the Russian exhibition at the RA.
    And finally 4a and was almost in need of help from 10a; homophones are a major weakness (along with Spooner clues). I even said Area to myself without realising before I finally twigged it. I will keep taking the tablets. David
  18. After my complete disaster yesterday I was very pleased to finish in a respectable time for me and I enjoyed many of the clues. Like many others Eft was a new word for me, but after a trip to Paris last year Chagall was in my head.
  19. Hail Orpheus
    Accomplished in the space of an ale.
    Fair and witty. Erudite but not recondite.
    You are the example.
  20. Much of this seemed straightforward and I was bounding through it. It was GK heavy but I knew most of it immediately bar the French painter. As often seems to happen these days, I had about 3 left after 15 minutes. I struggled with 29a but did know the newt which stopped me putting in Divert for want of anything better. I then got Chagall whose work I know well but not with a French connection. I think I last saw his work in the Russian exhibition at the RA.
    And finally 4a and was almost in need of help from 10a; homophones are a major weakness (along with Spooner clues). I even said Area to myself without realising before I finally twigged it. I will keep taking the tablets. David
  21. Thank you to all for the comments – as always much appreciated. One person’s GK is another person’s obscurity so what is the setter/editor to do? Make the answers plausible via the wordplay. This puzzle seemed very fair and was a pleasure to solve and blog. Special thanks to Chris RS for the Tudeley mention.
  22. Struggled as usual with my last half a dozen. Chagall would have been easy if I knew the correct spelling. I had 21d as EWT (a tailed amphibian) so a DNF I suppose.
  23. [I’m putting this here as you have privacy settings on your LJ messaging, which blocked my reply there.]

    Thanks, Olivia. I will check them out after reading Diary of a Nobody, about which Tony Sever jogged my memory in a comment.

    Hugh

    — oliviarhinebeck wrote:
    > Hi Ulaca: If you’re not familiar with O. Henry, as a cryptic sort of cove you might well enjoy his short story Calloway’s Code. It certainly appeals to me, although he’s best known for The Gift of the Magi. As for MR. James, his ghost stories are absolutely wonderful even for those who don’t believe in spooks. I think my favourite is The Mezzotint, but they’re all good. I’m putting this here so as not to get zapped on the Forum. Your 100th blog was a blast – thank you so much. Olivia

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