Quick Cryptic 543 by Dazzler

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Something of a musical theme today, which isn’t my strong point, but I still managed to get this done in 12 minutes.  This is my first blog, so please be gentle with me.  I struggled only with a couple of parsings, and lack of musical knowledge.

Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: Anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across

1 A greater number arrived outside British holiday resort (9)
 MORECAMBE – a greater number (more) arrived (came) outside British (b)

6 He died after minutes in violent crowd (3)
 MOB – ob. (latin abbreviation for obit – died) after m (minutes)

8 Hopin’ to get something to relieve pain (7)
 ASPIRIN – aspiring (hoping) minus the g as in hopin’

9 Kid needs letters to be read out (5)
 TEASE – think Kid as in trick rather than ankle-biter, goat or leather.  Sounds like several letter Tees read out

10 Strongly resisting having status (12)
 WITHSTANDING – DD – holding out and with standing (having status).  I usually like the longer answers better, but I needed a fair number of the crossing letters in place before I spotted this one

12 Times in which tragic King in play is unfocused (6)
 BLEARY – the tragic King (LEAR) inside BY (as in times by)

13 Name ignored by brutal girl (6)
 VIOLET – take n for name out of violent (brutal) to give a girl’s name

16 Turn to quiet composition: time for Schubert’s piano piece (7)
 TROUT QUINTET – anagram (composition) of *(TURN TO QUIET) plus an extra T for time.  I had never heard of this, being something of a philistine, but the anagram indicator was plain enough and it was guessable with the crossers.  It was actually “Das Forellen Quintet”, and apparently that is the same as the Trout one in some other language.

19 Note it’s a palindrome (5)
MINIM – our second musical clue.  A MINIM is both a note and a palindrome (same forwards as backwards).  Is it the only one?

20 I shoot up, we hear, in very ugly building (7)
 EYESORE – sounds like (we hear) I SOAR

22 Originally called part of engineering (3)
 NEE – hidden in engineering.  Originally called as in Mrs Rotter, nee something else

22 Shot fails me in almost last cup game (4,5)
 SEMI FINAL – anagram (shot) of *(FAILS ME IN)

 Down

1 Disgraceful chap swallowing drug (4)
 MEAN – man (chap) swallowing crosswordland’s favourite drug (E).  Mean can also be sordid, base, despicable, as in disgraceful

2 Traveller with hat a loathsome person (7)
 REPTILE – traveller (REP – my dad was one) and TILE which can be slang for hat apparently

3 My choir has only odd characters (3)
 COR – alternate letters of ChOiR.  ‘My’ is often used to clue COR in crosswords, and is worth remembering.

4 Very little time (6)
 MINUTE –  dd.  As in very little and as a measure of time

5 Wing added to house without anxiety (9)
 EXTENSION – I aspire to a small conservatory rather than a whole wing (quite difficult in an end of terrace anyway).  Ex TENSION could be without anxiety.

6 I may initially end up in US resort (5)
 MIAMI – I struggled to parse this initially.  MI from first letters of ‘I May’ initially, and an end is an AIM so reverse the lot (up) and you get the famous US resort.  Voila!

7 Swollen belly of eg brute that’s drunk (4,3)
 BEER GUT – I’m quite familiar with this condition.  Anagram (that’s drunk) of EG BRUTE

11 Admits her changes required for novel (4,5)
 HARD TIMES – Tenth novel by Charles Dickens, anagram (changes) of ADMITS HER

12 Crazy article about married cricketer (7)
 BATSMAN – crazy (BATS) and article (AN) around (M)arried – our obligatory cricketing clue.  Has any other sport contributed so much to crosswordland?

14 After story daughter to have short rest (3,4)
 LIE DOWN – (D)aughter after story (LIE) and before to have (OWN).  Assemble the pieces.

15 Parent accepting employment in Ashmolean, say (6)
 MUSEUM – MUM (parent) accepting USE (employment).  The Ashmolean is a very highly rated example (say) of a MUSEUM

17 Wild cat’s endless leaps (5)
 OUNCE – Leaps = b(OUNCE)s ‘endless’, i.e. take off the two ends, to give the name of a snow leopard.

18 Vegetable turns up in part of boat (4)
KEEL – Leek reversed.

21 Supernatural creature found in Angel Fish (3)
ELF – hidden (found in) angEL Fish

22 comments on “Quick Cryptic 543 by Dazzler”

  1. Congratulations, Rotter, and thanks. It’s always interesting to see what is (un)familiar to a setter or solver: I’ve learned MORECAMBE, for instance, the hard way, through these cryptics, while the Trout Quintet is an old favorite, so the enumeration and ‘Schubert’ was pretty much enough. (Seems a bit misleading to call a quintet a piano piece, but.) I slowed myself down, though at 5d, trying to work ‘ell’ into the solution. I liked the use of ‘times’ in 12ac, although ‘tragic king’ is probably enough to settle the matter. 5:35.
  2. Welcome aboard, Rotter.. a fairly friendly start I thought, not much here to frighten the horses.
    Ounce = cat, and cor = my, and Hard Times, and Lear are all regular crossword fodder.
  3. Hi Rotter, great blog, thanks.

    Miami/Tease were last ones in, semi-parsed at best. I didn’t see the ‘say Ts’ so thanks for that.

    I hadn’t heard of the Ounce as a leopard and incidentally had pounces before taking the ends off, not that it matters.

    Can anyone explain why COR = MY? To me, at the moment, that’s like saying Piano is often used to clue Golf!

    Edited at 2016-04-07 09:03 am (UTC)

    1. As in they are both exclamations, as in Cor blimey, or My Word. However, they both work in that context unaccompanied, as in Cor! look at that. Or My! What a beautiful view.

      And by the way, Pounces is better than Bounces, so I think you are right.

      Edited at 2016-04-07 09:42 am (UTC)

  4. Excellent blog Mr Rotter. This puzzle instantly took me back to my childhood pop North. Father’s first record on his spanking new stereo was The Trout (along with steam trains going from speaker to speaker) and big family gatherings in Happy Mount Park (Morecambe) in those glorious days when kids could safely go to the park!
    All done in abou 10 minutes but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
    Alan
  5. Just over half and hour for me today, but many answers not properly parsed so many thanks for the excellent blog. Miami was clever and I liked Eyesore. However, as a relative newbie, Ob for died, tile for hat and cor for my were beyond me and three such abbreviations on one day was a bit much I felt. Tease was also way beyond my logic and resulted in a technical DNF.
  6. Never heard of Trout Quintet or an Ounce Cat, although the checkers led me to the answers. Didn’t like the clue for 9ac, although I realised it was kid in the sense of mislead, and now that I have had it explained I still don’t.
    PlayupPompey
  7. Welcome, Rotter (your user pic of T-T always cheers me up), and congrats on your first blog. At 8 minutes I achieved my target for the first time this week.

    I’m not sure I ever knew that tile was slang for “hat” as I think of it as a particular style, namely a topper, and Chambers confirms this is what it is or was to the Scottish. I had a certain Scottish influence in my upbringing so maybe I picked it up. But Collins and the Oxfords say it’s slang without specifying any particular type of head-wear and I’ve learned something. I know it comes up in the lyric to “Any Old Iron” but had never visualised it in that context in which I suppose a topper might be unlikely, though not impossible.

    Like quizshark above I had {p}OUNCE{s} at 17dn and I had thought this fitted the surface reading better as wild cats pounce rather than bounce, but then I remembered Tigger! Anyway, as he said, it doesn’t really matter.

    Edited at 2016-04-07 10:00 am (UTC)

  8. I found this one difficult but I enjoyed the 45 minites I spent on it. It was a technical DNF as I resorted to my checker app for 9A 20A and 2D. Im not surprised as the first two were homophones but I didnt see Tile for Hat untilI checked the dictionary.
    Thanks to Therotter for an axcellent first blog, although I disagree that ‘composition’ is an obvious anagram indicator (Ill know next time).

    Brian

    Edited at 2016-04-07 11:01 am (UTC)

  9. There was a well-known music hall song where the refrain was – “where did you get that hat, where did you get that tile?”. Good blog Terry!
  10. Hello Rotter. If the rest of your blogs are as good as this one, we are in for a fortnightly treat. Well done.
    As to the QC, a very civil collection of clues, with only LOI 17d causing some consternation. 35 mins, so about average. Invariant
  11. Thanks for the excellent blog.

    Today was a big fat DNF for me, REPTILE, TEASE, EXTENSION, OUNCE causing grief.

  12. Yesterday was 16 minutes including the lawn mower; today’s puzzle was all done bar 17d in about 25 minutes.
    All I could think of for 17d was Ounce but did not know the cat. I had thought of pounces and bounces.
    Welcome and thanks to new blogger. David
  14. Congratulations on the excellent blog, Mr. Rotter!

    I enjoyed this but found it a bit harder than normal. I didn’t get 2D – I was probably vaguely aware of reptile for loathsome person (and the logic isn’t exactly obscure), but if I’ve ever heard of tile for hat then it’s been well and truly forgotten. I see the adjective works as well: reptilian – it’s of course far too speciesist to use in polite circles but I do like it.

  15. Thanks for the excellent blog Rotter.
    I seem to be going through one of my occasional periods of regression as I’m really struggling with these at the moment. Another DNF today, I missed out on 13a, 17d and most annoyingly I missed that 16a was an anagram and was cursing my lack of musical knowledge, which pretty much starts and ends with sonata.
    Oh well there’s always tomorrow.
  16. Big fat DNF for me as well, now I’ve seen the solution I’m glad I gave up when I did. I am a keen hat wearer and have never heard of ‘Tile’ for any kind of hat. As for OUNCE or TROUT QUINTET I never had a chance. And today has another of those stale old crossword in-jokes, with Cor for My ( I still don’t get it) Also missed VIOLENT, no excuses for that one. COD 1a, and I always like palindromes such as MINIM.
    1. I really don’t think it could be explained more clearly than in Rotter’s posting timed at 10:18 am, although his original blog covered it too. They’re perfectly valid expressions of surprise to be found in any good dictionary, so not a stale old crossword in-joke.
  17. That’s two tough ones in a row this week. Missed my 10′ target with consummate ease for the first time in ages. Some useful examples for new solvers to add to their memory banks – cor, Lear, ounce, rep – all setters’ favourites.
  18. Mr Rotter – Congrats for grasping the nettle so well!

    I would like to be as brave one day 10.28.

    horryd Shanghai

  19. Amazing how few people have picked up on this howler. It’s not a piano piece: it’s a piece in which the piano features, which isn’t the same thing. I suppose you could say that a piano concerto is a piano piece since it features so prominently, but in the trout quintet the piano is just one of five. You wouldn’t say that the song (for voice and piano) ‘The Trout’ by Schubert is a piano piece even though the piano features quite prominently. But then I know nothing about whole areas of music that no doubt are obvious to all those people who expressed ignorance of the T Q.

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