Quick Cryptic 544 by Joker

Author   emu66Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Many nice surface readings in this week’s offerings – my favourites 14d and 18a. If one is going for a quick solve it’s easy to lose sight of the clue as a whole and that’s often a shame. I liked 6d because of the change in pronunciation, these can often be tricky to get, and 12a, which had to be an anagram and looked like it must end in ING, but didn’t!
Thank you to Joker.

Across
1 Carried north in tidal wave: BORNE
North = N, in tidal wave = BORE
4 Fighters cross when encircled by South African settlers: BOXERS
Cross = X, in SA settlers = BOERS
9 Rattle key before closing: CLATTER
Key = C (musical key, a crossword device for any of the letters from A to G), closing = LATTER
10 Tons ready to pick rubbish: TRIPE
Tons = T, ready to pick = RIPE
11 Fifty-four go missing in lively city: ELY
Roman numerals for fifty-four = LIV, removed from LIVELY
12 Firing? GI in on it, surprisingly: IGNITION
Anagram (surprisingly) of GI IN ON IT
15 Sets of balls art gallery reportedly intended for embellishment: OVERSTATEMENT
Series of balls = OVERS (one of today’s cricket clue), are gallery = TATE, homophone (reportedly) of MEANT (intended) = MENT
17 Sorted out action about Roman Catholic being linked to drugs: NARCOTIC
Anagram (sorted out) of ACTION, about Roman Catholic = RC
18 Cover for habitual offender: LAG
Double definition; the first as in lagging a pipe
20 Insect of lake and river in Sussex: LOUSE
Lake = L, Sussex river = OUSE
22 Value too highly cutting out a run as overweight person did: OVERATE
Value too highly = OVERRATE, cutting out run = R
23 Like more power to hand over: PREFER
Power = P, hand over = REFER
24 After end of July, more than one corn spike ages: YEARS
End of July = Y, corn spikes = EARS

Down
1 Baroque composer has part set up for single male: BACHELOR
Composer = BACH, part = ROLE, which is then set up = ELOR
2 Willing to do something for cash: READY
Double definition, the second as in ‘readies’
3 Rice isn’t cooked with unknown ingredient from abroad: EXTRINSIC
Anagram (cooked) of RICE ISNT, with unknown = X. Didn’t know this word, but word play clear and guessed it must be the opposite of intrinsic
5 Dismissed as outwardly gay: OUT
Double definition; the first as in cricket
6 Perfect example I found in record book: EPITOME
I = I, record = EP, book = TOME
7 Taking refuge in aisle was murdered: SLEW
Hidden word
8 Pulling power holds half of answer for deal: TRANSACTION
Pulling power = TRACTION, including half of answer = ANS
13 Get to explosives initially in what’s attempted treason: TREACHERY
Get to = REACH, explosives initially = E, inside what’s attempted = TRY
14 Reels of old actors with little good in: STAGGERS
Old actors = STAGERS, including little good = G
16 Long period certain for deletion: ERASURE
Long period = ERA, certain = SURE
18 An American shopping centre erected for the Andean resident: LLAMA
A = A, American shopping centre = MALL, all reversed (erected)
19 Start to cheer stage and applaud: CLAP
Start to cheer = C, stage = LAP (as in stage of a race)
21 Little Stephen left by good man turns to a woman: EVE
Little Stephen = STEVE, with good man = ST removed

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 544 by Joker”

  2. I’ve already forgotten what slowed me down, but I slowed down after a fast start. Well, EXTRINSIC was one; ‘outside’, yes, but ‘abroad’? In retrospect, does 22ac work OK? What’s the definition? ‘as … did’? ‘overweight person did’? Having ‘over’ in clue and solution was not ideal, either; why not ‘fat’? And what does ‘it’ refer to in 14d? Wouldn’t ‘inside’ have been better? And why all these rhetorical questions? 7:17.
    1. In my printout 14dn finished at “in”.

      At 22ac, what the overweight person did was he OVERATE. I agree it was unfortunate to have ‘over’ in the clue.

      Edited at 2016-04-08 08:15 am (UTC)

      1. I was thinking along the lines of what he did was OVEREAT, but I’m happy with your reading. 14d, my bad–I was reading the clue from the blog not the puzzle itself.
  4. This was going to be fast, about 17 mins, but I couldn’t parse 9a (“key” = “C”? oh well…) and bunged in CHATTER which turned out to be wrong.
  5. Saved by the Joker, 30 mins and thanks for a great puzzle with no Trout Quintets or sex appeal. I had to grind out OVERSTATEMENT but a nice clue, LOI was CLATTER, which I couldn’t parse. I didn’t know there is an Ouse in Sussex, thought it was in Yorkshire. Those Saxons seemed short on river names, lots of Avons as well, though of course with Exe, Ure, Dee they are loved by setters. 13d and 18d both pleasing, but COD is BOXERS.
  6. Thought I was doing well to get the two long crossers in the middle, but then spent ages in the SE corner having biffed the wrong 3 letter criminal (con). End result was a very slow solve. Invariant
  7. Just at my level. Loved it. 18.5 mins.
    Blogger has an extra “I” in the clue for 7d.
  8. Yep! Nice and simple, sub 10 minutes for this one. I was working on CHANTER for 9a but couldn’t make that work (because it was patently wrong!).
  10. It was nice to finish what’s been a tricky week for me with a completion and it took about 25 minutes. I was held up a bit by initially reading the definition in 15a as establishment for some reason. Plenty of enjoyable clues but my COD goes to 6d.
  11. Thanks for all the comments. I’m quite pleased this one seems to have been less challenging than some of my recent puzzles!
    Joker
    1. Not so fast! I found this very hard and could only finish using trusty Internet aids. I am a relative newbie being able to finish most in about an hour and managed one in (my record) 20 minutes the other day. I thought this was too hard for a QC but as I seem to be in a minority of those who have commented I guess that reflects on me and not on you, the setter.
      However, the ones who have enjoyed it seems to be the old hands, so maybe those less experienced would enjoy a slightly easier puzzle more. I would suggest that those who can finish this puzzle in less than 10 minutes or so are not the target audience for a QC. Anyone else, especially those who struggled, got a view?
  12. Agree with others that today was an enjoyable and gettable puzzle. Took me 16 minutes which, for me, is about as fast as I can go. David
  13. I consider myself a relative newbie, clocking the same kind of times, although I found today’s the easiest of the week. My view is that the QC should be looking to recruit new puzzlers, so should have fewer “crossword arcana”, but still have neat double definitions, anagrams and elegant surface readings. Today’s puzzle seems about right. Certainly this blog makes the whole experience much more enjoyable, and is the best way to learn. The 15×15 remains a big step up, and I have serious respect for folk who clock times sub 15 mins.
  14. Agree with others that today was an enjoyable and gettable puzzle. Took me 16 minutes which, for me, is about as fast as I can go. David
  15. Sorry for the late posting. (We didn’t complete it until late Friday night and have been out all day today.) Will anyone see it?
    We also struggled with 9A – thought it had to be clatter but didn’t feel confident enough. Went for entrinsic for 3D as we hadn’t heard of that or extrinsic and the former sounded a more feasible word. (n is also an unknown.) We also felt that firing was not the same part of speech as ignition for 12A.
    Other than those, a pleasant solve. Thanks emu for a clear blog.
    bandjo

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