Quick Cryptic 536 by Tracy

Something of a struggle today – 17 minutes and a final slip at 14ac making a DNF. The bottom half of the grid came together slowly but it wasn’t until 3dn finally clicked that the top half opened up for solving.

I hope your wavelengths were better tuned in than mine – but I have no complaints – I’d rather have a bit of a struggle to get my brain going in the morning than an easy stroll.

ACROSS

1. Strike a light – expression of surprise. Come out (strike), a, mild (light).
8. Ebony – wood. (E)dinburgh, lad (boy) around northern (n).
9. Whistle – blow me! I have to confess that I know of Whistler’s Mother more because of the Mr. Bean film than any cultural learning. (Whistle)r.
10. Tragedy – play like King Lear. Hear (try – as in court case) around old (aged).
11. Taper – narrow. Measure (tape), counte(r).
12. Hearth – home. Centre (heart), now(h)ere.
14. Status – position. Briefly express (stat)e, American (us). The benefit of taking longer to fully parse clues is shown by my quick dash at ‘states’ resulting in a DNF.
17. Rated – considered. Price (rate), daughter (d).
19. Anagram – crossword compiler may use one. A, nag, ram.
21. The Wash – English estuary. Anagram (lost) of ‘what she’.
22. Haydn – composer. Had, note (n) about unknown (y).
23. Royal Marines – part of our navy. Anagram (new) of ‘serial on army’.

DOWN

1. Sweet Charity – Broadway show. Cautious (chary) about ‘it’ after delightful (sweet).
2. Rioja – wine. Anagram (smashed) of ‘jar I’ and Barol(o).
3. Key West – Florida city. ‘We’ inside important (key), street (st).
4. Always – every time. Means (ways) supporting (Al) Capone.
5. Idiot – dope. One (I) inside ‘I’, spot (dot).
6. Hotspot – popular place of entertainment. Son (s) inside ‘hotpot’.
7. Refreshment – snacks. First year students (freshmen) dividing an anagram (prepared) of ‘rest’.
13. Art Deco – design style. Anagram (original) of ‘traced’, old (o).
15. Teacher – tutor. Pain (ache) inside (ter)m.
16. Mayhem – madhouse (a state of uproar or confusion). Month (May) on top of edge (hem).
18. Drama – play. Wee drink (dram) before (a)fternoon.
20. Rayon – material. C(rayon) is something to draw with so is a drawer.

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 536 by Tracy”

  1. 15 minutes for me, which is over my self imposed ‘good time’ but I still felt happy about this one. I would have had a quicker time if I’d just gone with the several write ins (eg 1A, 12A, 1D and 3D) without trying to parse them but that felt like cheating, so I parsed each one (eventually) before moving on. LOI 16D. COD 1D (love that show).
  2. A lengthy 20mins+ DNF for me – 14a also – States not Status. Had never heard of the musical but got it from checkers and was also slow on 1a. Definitely a struggle today.
  3. 53 mins. None of the 12 letter outside clues were write-ins, and LOI was 1d, I have never heard of this show. Also had NOTED for RATED at 17a, which didn’t help. Also was not sure of spelling if Haydn, (Hadyn). Really struggled with clue at 20a even after spotting ‘draw-er’ for artist. COD 6d, HOTSPOT. Nice surface reading at 23a
  4. Once I had put in Strike a Light, this one came fairly easily. I usually struggle a lot. I could just remember being a Fresher and the Broadway Hit Sweet Charity. I did not know that Key West was a city on several islands, I thought that it was just an island. I did not know of Whistler’s mother and so I have learned some new things as usual.
  5. I thought this was going to be a more difficult struggle than it turned out to be as I only had two first time round. However I found that what checkers I had were really helpful for once and the answers slowly fell into place. LOI was 7D, when I went to Uni (briefly) in the 60s we were ‘freshers’.

    Brian

    Edited at 2016-03-29 09:45 am (UTC)

  6. I was pleased to sneak home in 10 minutes, so hitting my target time but only just. None of the long clues around the edges leapt out at me until I had several checkers in place.

    I wasn’t sure of the status of THE WASH as an estuary as it’s fed by four rivers but it seems to be the correct terminology along with “bay”.

    SWEET CHARITY was a film as well as a Broadway show so might be better known to some for that. Its most famous song is “Big Spender” – a huge hit for Shirley Bassey.

  7. Now I’ve seen Chris’s solution I see I fluked 20d. I had RA for draw-er (an artist is one who draws), then YON for not the first’, (distant, not the one at hand)
  8. This was more like the Tricky Tracy of old. 45mins here, but that was also with states for 14ac. Even then, I was helped by spotting 1ac straight away – it’s amazing the way some clues jump out, while others (eg 12ac) have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the deeper recesses of the mind. Invariant
  9. About 15 – 20 minutes in two sittings. Not helped by misspelling the composer.

    Good workout, this one.

  10. This was a long and slow, but steady, solve for me. Only a few came easily, so I was quite pleased to finish it. Fortunately I did know Sweet Charity. Cannot remember the last time I heard strike a light. I always associate it with “Cor blimey Guv”.
    Assuming that dope had something to do with either drugs or lacquers did not help at all. So last one in.
    Good challenge. Well done setter.
    PlayupPompey
  11. Made heavy work of this but finished in 43:12

    Sweet Charity is not a musical I’ve heard of, and “chary” is an uncommon word, so this took a while to get. MAYHEM and ANAGRAM were last ones in.

  12. This felt tricky whilst I was doing it but I finished it in around 30 minutes in one sitting, so about on target timewise for me – although there was a bit of dodgy parsing going on. Please could someone explain to me the ‘nag’ part of 19a, as I still can’t figure it out.
    Pretty pleased to have got 1d from the wordplay alone as I’ve never heard of the musical but my COD goes to 16d mainly because I somehow managed to avoid the temptation of biffing asylum.
      1. Thanks Chris. Penny just dropped and I’m now feeling a little foolish – completely forgot about nag meaning horse.
  13. Sweet Sixteen is not a delightful Broadway show, as I learned later from Wiki. But it fitted in and also created a rather appealing ‘Eyewash’ for 21a, at that point I should have seen the warning signs …
  14. This certainly seemed harder than yesterday and I needed to pause on 14a when also considering States (it didn’t seem quite right but I had to work out why). My last two were 16d and 19a; annoyingly I could not get Diagram out of my mind for 19a;then I got Mayhem and somewhat embarrassingly 19a was my LOI. David
  15. 39 minutes with 12a as LOI. I’m sure that Hearth = Home is completely legit but can anyone give me an example of actual usage? Maybe I’m being thick.

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