Quick Cryptic 551 by Rongo

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I romped through this in 7 minutes 43 and enjoyed every clue. The word play has been equally pleasurable to blog. This is about as ideal a QC as I think you can get. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did – thank you Rongo.

ACROSS

1. Accordion – musical instrument. A, C, string (CORD), one (I) attached to (ON).
6. Cup – there might be a drink in it. Caught (C), out of bed (UP).
8. Torrent – rushing water. Rocky peak (TOR), split (RENT).
9. Swear – promise. Second (S), use of clothing (WEAR).
10. Kindergarten – nursery school. More caring (KINDER), anagram (developed) of GREAT, name (N).
12. Felt – double definition.
13. Gift – present. Annoying person (GIT – noun (British, slang) a contemptible person, often a fool), containing (receives) feminine (F).
17. Inhospitable – unfriendly. Anagram (changes) of RELATIONSHIP with bishop (B) replacing rook (R).
20. Delta – alluvial formation. Held (LED) backwards, by (beside) the edge (last two letters of) fl(AT). The answer is in the clue (held by), reversed (back) fl(AT LED)ge.
21. Portico – colonnade. Ships left side (PORT), island (I), company (CO).
23. Fox – cunning creature. Following (F), bull (OX).
24. Party line – political group’s policy. I’m old enough to remember when telephones had a dial and shared (party) lines. You had to pick up the phone and press a button to start the call – you couldn’t do this if the other party was using the phone. Seems another world to today’s ubiquitous mobile phones.

DOWN

1. Arty – creative. Extreme letters of AuteuR TheorY.
2. Carmine – Crimson. Vehicle belonging to me CAR MINE?
3. Rye – type of whisky. Right (R) on top of ‘the’ of old (YE).
4. Intern – trainee in work. Bury (INTER), new (N).
5. Nostalgia – fondness for times remembered. Anagram (tragically) of lost again. COD for this most poetic of clues.
6. Chest – a box for treasure perhaps. Church (CH), established (EST).
7. Parent – someone with a child. Personal assistant (PA), money for housing (RENT).
11. Date stamp – which may show when they (the dates) were bought. Partial &lit. Sweet fruits (DATES), pack down (TAMP).
14. Fellini – Italian director. Collapsed (FELL) in (IN), middle of ed(I)ts.
15. Kind of – in a way. Family (KIN), do (DO), fine (F).
16. Kipper – smoked fish. Starter (first letter) is taken off captain s(KIPPER).
18. Helix – shape for spring (the bouncy kind found in beds). The man (HE), 59 (LIX – Roman numerals).
19. Jove – God. Jove is another name for Jupiter – (in Roman tradition) the king and ruler of the Olympian gods Greek counterpart: Zeus.
Judge (J), almost (nearly all of) above (OVE)r.
20. Ray – double defintition.

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 551 by Rongo”

  1. 21 mins: on the easier end. Initially I started making up words for 15d since it looked like the definition was “family” and it was an anagram of “do fine”, but the big “Unlucky” message set me straight and knowing that something was wrong it was easy to find and re-think my error. Anyway, good puzzle.
  2. A couple of these were perhaps too easily biffable from checkers or def (5d, say, or 17ac–which is a pity as it’s a very clever clue).4:21.
  3. It was a bit of a romp and I crossed the line in 7.05 my PB.

    So certainly not a MELDREW.

    Only PORTICO had me in a slight dither.

    Oh for the days when I was sometimes under 20 for the 15×15 my PB is 8.17 (Three MaGoos) – it was a Thursday!

    What is the timed record for the Quick Cryptic? is it even faster
    than the 15×15?

    horryd Shanghai

  4. Slight hold up in SE corner, apart from that, steady away. 11d very nice especially when I stopped reading when for where.

    Tyro tim

  5. Today I finally joined the elite group of solvers who measure their efforts in minutes. Personally I have no interest in recording the time but it was done over breakfast in well under the hour. Some very neat clues and enjoyable. But what the heck am I going to do over morning coffee. Any suggestions Rongo?
  6. Chris, a small typo in your answer to 6 (put instead of out), and in 18 (shake for shape). My parsing for 20 is a reverse hidden (held back) {fl}AT LED{ge}.

    A nice puzzle with some good clues. Just inside the 10 minutes for me.

    Edited at 2016-04-19 08:35 am (UTC)

  7. As the architectural editor of the Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary I would have been ashamed not to see this as a write in. But a story from my student days in Oxford might amuse crossword solvers and setters. One exercise we had to undergo was to draw and Chinese ink wash a classical portico with all the sciagraphy (projected shadows). Underneath in large freehand Roman letters we had to write “A classical portico”. This is very difficult to do well. A Norwegian student thought he had a cunning short cut and wrote “a classic porch”. A humourless tutor failed his effort. Synonyms are not always good enough outside crossword land.

    Edited at 2016-04-19 09:34 am (UTC)

  9. That was fairly straightforward, but with a slightly slower SW corner. Didn’t spot that 17ac was an anagram, and struggled/failed to parse it, so no full house 24ac was my favourite today, from lots of nice clues. Invariant
  11. I parsed 6d as an inclusion clue: chur(ch est)ablished, ‘a box for treasure, perhaps’ being the definition with ‘a box for’ doing double duty as the inclusion indicator.
    GeoffH
  12. Firstly I agree with our blogger, this was an excellent and enjoyable QC. Precise clueing led me being nearly finished in about 10 minutes, so I rushed a bit and put in Sort Of for 15d -it works superficially. But it caused me to grind to a halt. Starting the anagram at 17a with O -a valid letter -caused a long and entertaining diversion.
    But my new strategy worked again; if in real trouble, you’ve probably made a mistake. And I had -which I corrected and then the anagram was easy. Much enjoyed. David
  13. Yes that was a nice one today. I had “fly” in place of fox until helix presented itself. I wasn’t quite qure why it was fly, but I liked the idea that a fly would be a follower, or fan, of bull (in the BS sense of the word). I guess it follows the animal as well. I also misbiffed accordiAn. I could have sworn that was the spelling – oops!
  14. Enjoyed the QC today. Straightforward with a good variety of clue types. Many biffable including accordion where I remembered to check my spelling. Went on to the 15×15 like Harry Kane in search of his second only to come up against the defence of Juventus in the 80s. So a hard earned 1-1 draw today and need to lie down.

  15. Enjoyable, just under the hour which is a bit slower than average for me. What I liked was that the clues were solvable, with persistence, without any use of extremely obscure words or meanings – hooray! (Won’t get into whether ‘ye’ is only an old version of ‘the’ by mistake)
  16. All but four done in 20 mins and all but one by 33mins but Jove got me in the end for a second DNF in two days. However, I’m very happy that for two days running I’ve nearly got finished in around 20 minutes and some great clues from Rongo today.
  17. I think this was my first sub 15 minute solve, it all just seemed to flow today. The only slight hold up I had was 17a where it took me a while to work out the anagram.
  18. A very good time for me – inexact but well under the hour, possibly even 40 minutes! All clues were accessible and I enjoyed what was, for me, whizzing through for a change. I’m sure we’ve had 24a party line not so long ago. My COD 18d helix. Will be able to catchup on my pile of reading this evening… Thanks to Rongo for a pleasurable Costa break and the bloggers for pointing out the better ways of resolving some of the clues
  19. Joining the bloggers who recorded a good time today, for a rare sub 30 min at 25:33. I agree that this is pretty close to the optimal QC, although a couple of biffable clues at the end such as ACORDION and NOSTALGIA meant I could get complete without a full solve. Lots of good clues, I liked HELIX as COD. Thanks Rongo for a great puzzle: come back soon.
  20. I’ve never been tempted to post a comment before, but wonder whether there may be an alternative solution to 19 down. DOGE (the elected chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa) fits as well as JOVE, and, if one takes “above” (in a down clue) as meaning a letter reversal one can see this alternative solution in the last two words of the clue – abovE GOD. What do others think?

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