Quick Cryptic 552 by Mara

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I personally found this one at the very easy end of the spectrum, but such things are highly subjective!

A Double Definition fest (none the worse for that), and both 24a and 17d suggesting (happily) our setter is feeling a bit frisky now that Spring is here. All most enjoyable, so thanks to Mara.

Definitions underlined: DD = Double Definition: Anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Bright start in Brighton, then wet (6)
BRAINY – B (start in Brighton) + RAINY (then wet)
4 Virgin pursued, by the sound of it (6)
CHASTE – Sounds like “chased” (pursued, by the sound of it)
9 Barge that’s easier to lift? (7)
LIGHTER – DD. Straightforward for me as I happened to spend a few months (when a young fellow) as a barman on a Thames ferry boat and learned about lighters etc. Not sure how widely known the barge reference might be outside this community…
10 Lead gone, nearer being a failure (5)
LOSER – cLOSER (nearer) misses its first letter (lead gone)
11 The others have a nap (4)
REST – DD. Not much to add.
12 Huge wallaby at first moving like a kangaroo! (8)
WHOPPING – W (first letter of Wallaby) + HOPPING (moving like a kangaroo)
14 Artisan and clan surprisingly supporting Henry VI, perhaps (11)
LANCASTRIAN – *(ARTISAN + CLAN) with “surprisingly” as the anagrind. Time to brush up on the Wars of the Roses.
18 Inexperienced mum, irate, getting flustered (8)
IMMATURE – *(MUM IRATE) with “getting flustered” as the anagrind
20 Adoration is nothing (4)
LOVE – Straightforward DD.
22 April in Channel Islands or somewhere off Naples (5)
CAPRI – APR (standard abbrev. April) “in” CI (standard abbrev. Channel Islands)
23 Poet has written about a genteel restaurant? (3,4)
TEA SHOP – *(POET HAS) with “written about” as the anagrind
24 Salad ingredient, root primarily, a hottie? (6)
RADISH – First letter (primarily) of Root + A + DISH (hottie)
25 Put back in decanter, alcoholic drink (6)
CLARET – Reverse hidden (signalled by put back in) decanTER ALCoholic
Down
1 Spirit runs in by part of a steeple (6)
BELFRY – ELF (spirit) + R (abbrev. runs) ‘in’ BY
2 Inspiring reverence, a US city (7)
AUGUSTA – AUGUST (inspiring reverence) + A
3 Memo school brought up (4)
NOTE – Reversal of ETON (school brought up)
5 Aircraft base he left, then I left (8)
HELIPORT – HE + L (abbrev. left) + I + PORT (nautical ‘left’)
6 Fish dish – huss cooked with one (5)
SUSHI – *(HUSS + I) with “cooked” as the anagrind
7 Concoct a green incense (6)
ENRAGE – *(A GREEN) with “concoct” as the anagrind
8 Arrange the reactors randomly (11)
ORCHESTRATE – *(THE REACTORS) with “randomly” as the anagrind
13 Bed in farmyard pens for dogs (8)
SCOTTIES – COT (bed) ‘in’ STIES (farmyard pens)
15 Circle inside part of a flower is different (7)
ANOTHER – O (circle) ‘inside’ ANTHER (part of flower)
16 Underground worker securing first of cumbersome grinding equipment (6)
MINCER – MINER (underground worker) with C (first letter of Cumbersome) being included (securing) C
17 An attractive person, former lover put in place (6)
SEXPOT – EX (former lover) ‘put in’ SPOT (place)
19 Two-wheeler was blue (5)
MOPED – Straightforward DD
21 Welcome wintry weather (4)
HAIL – Another straightforward DD

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic 552 by Mara”

  1. Definitely at the easy end for me, except that clumsy typing and failure to notice it added a bunch to my time. I started to fling in ‘helicopter’ at 5d, for instance, realized it wouldn’t fit, and failed to erase, making 12ac impossible until I noticed. I mistyped SCOTTIEE, didn’t notice, making 24ac impossible… Oh, well, as the poet says.6:21.
  2. Another good time 30:22, with no real problems. Nice surface for 5d and COD was the risqué 17d. A little slow at solving the anagram at 8d, with both ‘arranged’ and ‘randomly’ as possible anagrinds not sure what the definition was. 2d is one of the more obscure US cities, but the recent Masters tournament was my memory-jogger.
  3. Only just scraped 10 minutes on this, solved in the early hours. I’d had a hard day!

    Edited at 2016-04-20 04:46 am (UTC)


  4. 10.38 ORCHESTRATE held me up after a brisk start.

    (It’s what they do to noisy 17dn cats, apparently!)

    The 15×15 Blogger has probaly returned to 1963 in the TftT Tardis for the answers – no sign as yet.

    horryd Shanghai

    1. Don’t worry. It will be covered.There’s no obligation to post blogs in the wee small hours.

      Edited at 2016-04-20 06:08 am (UTC)

  5. As soon as COD 1a (tied with 24a) went in I knew this was going to be fun. Almost a write in from top to bottom, just 8d held me up a little and needed all the checkers. Thank you Mara and Nick.

    Tyro Tim

  6. Yes, easy end of the spectrum. Unaccountably, the 1s were my LOIs. Perfectly reasonable clues that I just didn’t see straight away. I put 24 in unparsed, assuming the hottie was related to the pepperiness of the said salad vegetable, so thanks for putting me right Nick. I did think at the time that it didn’t seem very cryptic. Had I been blogging (my turn tomorrow), I’m sure that I would have looked for the deeper meaning.
    1. 1d was also my LOI – for me, Belfry is one of those unlikely looking words (along with Bivouac and a few others) that just don’t seem to bubble up to the surface as readily as others. And I’m sure Terry Thomas would have spotted the Hottie at a thousand paces 🙂 Good luck tomorrow.

      Edited at 2016-04-20 12:12 pm (UTC)

  7. Going through, I thought this was slightly harder than yesterday’s QC, but I finished a couple of minutes quicker. Either way, this has been a gentle enough start to the week. Invariant
  8. Like others, 1d and 8d were the two which held me up but I was happy with a 26 min solve and I did finish today. I spent too long trying to fit Gin or Rum into 1d. I could see the anagram in 8d but took ages working out what the answer was despite the cross checkers.
  9. Pedants’ Corner: a widely-held misapprehension, but sushi is not essentially a fish dish. It’s a rice-based snack that may or may not have fish. It’s like saying pizza is a pepperoni dish. The raw fish dish is sashimi.
    1. Very good point Joe! But sashimi is not technically just a fish dish either. I once had chicken sashimi in Yokohama. They killed the bird downstairs to avoid nasty bugs!

      Anyway an enjoyable puzzle.

      Chris

  11. I haven’t done a Quickie for some time but needed a confidence boost after taking 50 minutes on the championship qualifier.

    Was rewarded by the very 60-ish ‘sexpot’ as well as ‘mincer’, which is synonymous for me now with the wonderful ‘Master of the House’ song’. What a genius that Herbert Kretzmer is.

  12. Most of this went in reasonably quickly but then drew a complete blank over the 1s and 8d (where I couldn’t figure out the which was the definition and which the anagrind). Eventually it took me over an hour across about 3 sittings to finish it off and 1d remained unparsed. COD was 12a for me.
  13. 1a went straight in but my LOI was also 1d. I tried to finish this before going off to play golf today and managed it in about 25 minutes.
    I now see a bit of a golf theme – The Belfry is a famous UK course and Augusta in the US; I did wonder whether Augusta is a city as it is not big. Probably the Americans would call it that.
    Some good clues and very enjoyable. Favourite 7d. David

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