Quick Cryptic 531 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The western half flew in – the eastern half was a different story. I acknowledge that I misread the clue at 4dn which didn’t help at all but I had the feeling that I was on Teazel’s wavelength for only half the crossword. 18 minutes in the end.

Interested in your experiences as always.

ACROSS

8. Thistle – plant. Anagram (changed) of LIST inside THE.
9. Arena – contests held here. Anagram (ground – as in ground up) of NEAR A.
10. Mug up – revise. Fool (MUG), at university (UP).
11. Sincere – guileless. SINCE, RE.
12. Press on – don’t delay. PRESS, ON.
14. Hedge – horses jump these in races. An &lit clue. Horse (H), advantage (EDGE).
15. Anger – range. R(ANGER).
17. Capital – double definition.
19. Donegal – county. Anagram (remarkably) of GLAD touring ONE.
20. Bland – dull. Black (B), LAND.
22. Women – no mere girls. WON catching ME.
23. Machete – knife. MATE holding revolutionary (CHE Guevara).

DOWN

1. Stem – double definition.
2. Single – double definition.
3. Stop – block. Sinks a ball in snooker – POTS – upwards.
4. Nelson’s Column – in London square? I read the clue as 5 letters in the second word so was convinced it was ‘place’ which messed up machete and most of the eastern half. The question mark applies, I think, to the definition and also the word play of ‘Nelson’ Mandela.
5. Pawnshop – where one can pawn or ‘pop’ an item (pop in here). Chessmen (PAWNS), move like knights (HOP).
6. Beheld – noticed. Find oneself under arrest – BE HELD.
7. Bakewell – tart. Don’t undercook – BAKE WELL. Funnily enough I’m going there today – where la piece de resistance is actually the Bakewell pudding.
12. Play down – don’t exaggerate. Quietly (P – pianissimo), went for a rest (LAY DOWN).
13. Scrag end – neck of mutton. Information (GEN) inside an anagram (for cooking) of CARDS.
16. Genome – set of chromosomes. Contributed by (in) Geor(GE NO ME)rvyn.
18. Teaser – double definition – a problem and someone one shouldn’t take seriously.
20. Buck – animal. The responsibility (Buck) stops here.
21. Deep – double definition.

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 531 by Teazel”

  1. 47 mins, which was frustrating as only had three left at the 20 min mark. 21d held me up as with those two checkers, dozens of words fit. 14a contained another of those crossword abbreviations that don’t seem to exist in the real world, ‘h’ for horse. Can someone give me an example of when that was ever used? I liked 5d, COD, although ‘pop’ for ‘pawn’ is a new one.
      1. I’m not sure that it’s valid to take an individual letter from a longer abbreviation and apply it more generally to that letter. In this case I’d have taken the drugs route that I know some solvers object to, i.e. H = heroin = horse.

        Nice puzzle, solved in 10 minutes for the first time in a week by skin of teeth.

        Edited at 2016-03-22 02:08 pm (UTC)

    4. Drug culture has a strong foothold in the setter’s mindset, not for any chemical cravings but more for the plethora of abbreviations and euphemisms employed to describe the various substances. A pertinent example for this clue is H for heroine which is also known as horse. Pot, grass, speed, e, blow, crack, smack; the list is long and the setter will make good use of them.
      GeoffH
  2. Me too, west side quick, east side tough, though now I see the answers I can’t understand what the problem was. Sincere, Capital, Machete, Pawnshop, Beheld, Bakewell, Teaser: darn, what’s so difficult, especially with checkers?! BD
  3. This was a crossword of 2 halves! I found the west half easy and the east side ( especially north east) impossible. DNF today.

    Rita

  4. Seemed like more Double Defs than usual today. Also cruised through the West, I had NELSONS COLUMN in early, but made heavy weather of the NE corner.
  6. As with everyone else, west first east a bit trickier. Managed to finish quite quickly never the less. Put in 10ac as a pure guess but it worked.
  7. I was almost identical to Merlin today – 47 mins eventually but virtually finished in 20. Like others, west was fine, east, particularly NE and pawnshop, was not.
  8. This looked difficult at first and I started at the bottom. But each clue seemed precise to me and I had all the bottom half bar 18d quite quickly.
    I thought the top would hold me up but each clue studied properly suggested the answer.I was definitely on the right wavelength.
    I finished the NE quarter last -like others -and then went back to 18d. Happily I rejected Travel and found Teaser. About 15 minutes so close to my personal best. David
  9. Strangely, I skated through the eastern side but struggled on the west; my wife found the western side easy but got nowhere with the west. Together, we finished it in no time at all!
  10. We also found th sw corner more difficult, especially the hidden in 16 d. Elin and ian.
  11. After a good run found myself with three clues that would not come to me 6dn, 14ac and 18dn.. Took the rest of the day and several re-visits to gradually knock them over. Thought of just about everything horses could jump, guns, fences, moon (but that’s cows), water but never a hedge until 6dn finally dawned on me. A fairly typical Teazel for me, he usually gives me some heartache somewhere. But as usual, well worth the effort.
    Playuppompey
  13. Like others most of this went in pretty quickly for me, but was stopped from a quick time b 20a, 20d and my LOI 6d – each of which seemed fairly obvious once solved. Finally finished in roughly 35 minutes. COD 5d.
  15. As with everyone else, west first east a bit trickier. Managed to finish quite quickly never the less. Put in 10ac as a pure guess but it worked.

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