Quick Cryptic 550 by Flamande

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I think Flamande’s puzzles are generally at the easier end of the spectrum, lately at least, and this one proved to be no exception for me as I completed it in 9 minutes. There are no obscure words nor any strange crossword jargon so I’m hoping that most solvers will have found this a fairly straightforward start to the week. I shall be interested to see what others made of it.

 As usual defintions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions} are in curly brackets and [indicators] in square ones.


Across
1 A wild animal died on boat (6)
ABOARD – A, BOAR (wild animal), D (died)
5 Cook sounds like a donkey, you say? (6)
BRAISE – Sounds like [you say] “brays” (sounds like a donkey)
8 Purpose of wrapping paper, provisionally (3,3,7)
FOR THE PRESENT – A straight definition with a cryptic hint
9 Private meeting-places crammed together, for the most part (4)
DENS – DENS{e} (crammed together [for the most part])
10 American visiting Greek island given a light meal (5,3)
CREAM TEA – AM(American) inside [visiting] CRETE (Greek island), A
11 Some Neapolitans ignoring fellow from Rome? (6)
SIGNOR – Hidden [some] inside {Neapolitan}S IGNOR{ing}
13 Smartly-dressed traveller wanting somewhere to sleep on way back (6)
DAPPER – REP (traveller) + PAD (somewhere to sleep) all reversed [on way back]
15 Reveller in vehicle crossing River Ouse (8)
CAROUSER – CAR (vehicle) contains [crossing], R (river) + OUSE. The setter was very helpful here, giving us the actual name of the river. A definite concession to Quickieland.
17 City, unusually big, behold (4)
OSLO – OS (unusually big – outsize), LO (behold)
19 Health visitor is wrongly instructed, sir (8,5)
DISTRICT NURSE – Anagram [wrongly] of INSTRUCTED SIR
21 Doctor accepting say extremely erudite qualification (6)
DEGREE – DR (doctor) contains [accepting] EG (say), E{rudit}E [extremely]
22 Attempt by US writer to produce verse (6)
POETRY – POE (US writer), TRY (attempt)

Down
2 Insurance agent almost penniless? (5)
BROKE – BROKE{r} (insurance agent [almost])
3 Sinatra dancing for skilled worker (7)
ARTISAN – Anagram [dancing] of SINATRA
4 Creature oddly doomed (3)
DOE – D{o}O{m}E{d} (creature [oddly])
5 Pub employee placing ban on nurse? (9)
BARTENDER – BAR (ban), TENDER (nurse – person who tends)
6 Mug with morning tea (5)
ASSAM – ASS (mug), AM (morning)
7 Frank beginning to snigger during ceremony? Not half (7)
SINCERE – S{nigger} [beginning], IN (during), CERE{mony} [not half]
10 Girl ruined nice shirt (9)
CHRISTINE – Anagram [ruined] of NICE SHIRT
12 One enigma, terribly fancy (7)
IMAGINE – I (one), anagram [terribly] of ENIGMA
14 Things grown for Mussolini (7)
PRODUCE – PRO (for), DUCE (Mussolini – Il Duce – leader)
16 Scoundrel beheaded fish-eating creature (5)
OTTER – {r}OTTER (scoundrel [beheaded]). With apologies to our newest blogger!
18 Unsuccessful type protected by close relatives (5)
LOSER – Hidden in [protected by] {c}LOSE R{elatives}
20 Advice: where to put rubbish? (3)
TIP – Two definitions

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic 550 by Flamande”

  1. 28 mins; usual excuses about touchscreens without pen and paper to find the anagrams apply… average difficulty, which I think is just right!
  3. Like Jack, I thought this one had nothing to scare the horses, although, as I never notice who’s the setter, I can’t say what my experience of Flamande’s puzzles has been in general. A couple of false starts–‘on boat’ at 1ac suggesting S___S (but that would have been ‘on ship’), ‘city’ at 17ac suggesting EC–but they didn’t cause much delay. 14d brought to mind an anecdote about Ignacio Silone: when he arrived as a young man in Rome from his isolated village in the 20s, he found himself caught up in what appeared to be a political rally. The crowd was chanting, “cheDOO, cheDOO”, which he could make no sense of. 5:18.

    Edited at 2016-04-18 04:13 am (UTC)

  4. 2 clues short, after a good start, so a DNF at the one hour cut-off. No excuses, for mssing DEGREE and SIGNOR, although I always struggle to see those “in” clues. Some great clues, esp FOR THE PRESENT and PRO-DUCE. Starting to see some of these common anagrams now, we’ve had ARTISAN from Sinatra recently, as I recall. Good puzzle, just right for me at my stage if puzzling.
  5. All fairly easy apart from dens and degree – just did not see these so DNF.

    Rita

  6. Nice gentle start to ease you into the week, nothing stands out but 6d was satisfying.

    Tyro Tim

  7. A very nice puzzle finished in 5 minutes under my 30 min target. The key clue for me was the tricky anagram in 10D and my LOI was 11A. I thought I had got the hamg of ‘in’ clues but this one was very well hidden.
    Briam
  8. I thought this was slightly harder than the Flamande average of late, but still very enjoyable, especially 14d. I plumped for Mess for 9ac (loi), so a 40mins DNF start to the week. Invariant
  9. My heart sank on first read through, but a couple of useful ones (8a and 15a, 3d) stood out and I just had to work from there. Some needed more rigorous work to deduce but got there in the end. A relief after a couple of DNFs at the end of last week.
  10. Nice to see the Rotter family making an appearance – no apology necessary Jack. A simple stroll, despite the flutters due to yesterday’s footie – a very tense experience for us Foxes fans.

    No timer, but all done and dusted in about 8 minutes by my calculation, with LOI DENS.

  11. I made a fast start but was slowed up by four clues including 10a and 5d. But after 30 minutes all done except 9a. I had Mess for a while, thought about Pens but finally saw Dens when I was on the point of giving up and coming here.
    Relieved to see others also struggled on this little clue. David
  12. No real hold ups for me today until I got to my LOI 9a, which took a few minutes of staring blankly at the page until the penny dropped. I’m not entirely sure I’d describe a cream tea as a light meal but maybe I’m just being pedantic. COD 14d
  14. 9a was my downfall too. 25 minutes for the rest which was really good, but I just couldn’t see the right -e-s to slot in and so it was a technical DNF.
  15. All done in 15 minutes, except for the hidden at 11 accross and missed the word play completely at 5 accross. Elin and Ian.

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