Quick Cryptic 655 by Teazel

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A pleasant offering to start the week, with some good surface readings and a spread of interesting vocab with nothing I would classify as obscure. Thanks, Teazel.

The puzzle can be found here if it’s not available via the usual channels: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20160912/18592/

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Whistled, sad to hear (4)
BLEW – homophone (to hear) of BLUE (sad)
3 Spaniel in season extremely eager (8)
SPRINGER – SPRING (season) + E{age}R (extremely eager, i.e. the first and last letters of the word “eager”). Chambers informatively defines springer as: “A kind of spaniel, useful in copses”.
9 Study hollow that’s saucer-shaped (7)
CONCAVE – CON (Study) + CAVE (hollow)
10 Look to take advantage of insect (5)
LOUSE – LO (Look) + USE (to take advantage of)
11 Meaning to be a vagrant (5)
DRIFT – double definition, the first as in something like “Do you get my drift?”
12 Book is a great departure (6)
EXODUS – double definition, the first being the second book of the Old Testament which describes an example of the second definition. You could also parse the first definition as the book Exodus by Leon Uris – although probably not part of the literary canon, he and his works have appeared in the Times puzzle before.
14 Clumsily enter software for domestic appliance (5-8)
WATER-SOFTENER – anagram of (Clumsily) ENTER SOFTWARE. Not hyphenated in any of the usual sources, but a smooth-surfaced anagram regardless.
17 Silver in the dirt is an illusion (6)
MIRAGE – AG (Silver, i.e. the chemical symbol Ag) in MIRE (the dirt)
19 Prepared to be hurt if husband leaves (5)
ARMED – {h}ARMED (hurt if husband leaves, i.e. the word “harmed” (hurt) without the h (husband))
22 In the grass, very quiet and contented (5)
HAPPY – PP (very quiet, i.e. pianissimo) in HAY (the grass), and another pleasing surface
23 Miserable character, old Marx (7)
GROUCHO – GROUCH (Miserable character) + O (old), for the mustachioed, bushy-eyebrowed, bespectacled, large-nosed, cigar-smoking penpal of T.S. Eliot
24 Around area a priest gathered mistletoe for one (8)
PARASITE – anagram of (gathered) A PRIEST, around A (area)
25 Colonel for example is offensive (4)
RANK – double definition
Down
1 Withdraw from second hill (4,4)
BACK DOWN – BACK (second) + DOWN (hill, as in for example the South Downs)
2 During endless tennis, universal boredom (5)
ENNUI – U (universal) in {t}ENNI{s} (endless tennis, i.e. the word “tennis” without its first and last letters)
4 One, two, and five silver coins? (6,2,5)
PIECES OF EIGHT – one, two, and five equal eight when added together, so they are arguably “pieces of eight”. The coin was so called because it was worth eight reals.
5 Block-house, one not all dark (5)
IGLOO – I (one) + GLOO{m} (not all dark, i.e. the word “gloom” without its last letter). A non-standard definition that prevents what would be a write-in if either snow or Inuit were mentioned instead.
6 Painter in drink most of a month (7)
GAUGUIN – AUGU{st} (most of a month, i.e. more than half of the letters comprising the word “August”) in GIN (drink). I think the “most of” construction usually means all letters bar the last, but in its most general form it can mean any initial string of letters that is longer than half the length of the entire word. Gauguin is perhaps most famous for his stint in Tahiti.
7 Genuine-sounding dance (4)
REEL – homophone of (sounding) REAL (Genuine)
8 Rage at first, later beam (6)
RAFTER – R (Rage at first, i.e. the first letter of the word “rage”) + AFTER (later), with a nice surface
13 Taking pistol round, clear traffic jam (8)
GRIDLOCK – RID (clear) surrounded by GLOCK (pistol). Don Johnson toted a Glock in Miami Vice – for younger readers, it’s the default Terrorist pistol in the game Counter-Strike.
15 Holiday-maker who’s accident prone? (7)
TRIPPER – a play on the fact that the word “trip” means both to stumble and to make an excursion
16 One spouted at afternoon party? (6)
TEAPOT – cryptic definition, hoping to make you think of a person talking at length rather than an item that possesses a spout
18 Fool goes round close to pit (5)
ABYSS – ASS (Fool) around BY (close to)
20 Old bird has companion in for coffee (5)
MOCHA – MOA (Old bird, i.e. a large extinct flightless bird from New Zealand) around CH (companion, i.e. Companion of Honour). Named after a port in Yemen from where the coffee beans were shipped abroad.
21 Slightly damage a piece of potato (4)
CHIP – double definition. Also the nickname of golfer Charles Beck, who is 60 today.

24 comments on “Quick Cryptic 655 by Teazel”

  1. I agree – enjoyable. It was going to be a 10-minute job until I had a mental block on 25. I think I’d gone through almost every word in -a-k before I hit the right one!
  2. Went in smoothly for the most part, other than 14ac taking more checkers than it should have, and an inability to spell GAUGUIN. Liked 13d. 5:25.
  3. This took ages but I finished.

    Couldn’t work out why con was study in concave, or why mistletoe was a parasite, but I know now.

    Thanks for the blog.

    1. There was a discussion on “con” last week (which I’ve linked to in a comment further down) – it crops up very frequently hence is well worth remembering. I’m pretty sure that crosswords are also the only reason I knew mistletoe was a parasite but apologies for not providing more detail.
  5. Would have struggled to spell GAUGUIN without the helpful cluing. And WATER SOFTENER wasn’t the first domestic appliance to come to mind.

    Nice puzzle. Thanks Teazel and Mohn.

    1. Re WATER-SOFTENER – yes, I’m not sure it would even scrape into my top 10 domestic appliances. I was reminded of an earlier Quicky I blogged where DUCKLING was defined as “white meat”.
  6. A very enjoyable 9 minute solve with 4dn as my standout clue. I agree with our blogger’s comments re AUGU{st} as it’s VERY unusual for “most” to indicate removal of more that one letter.
  7. This took ages but I finished.

    Couldn’t work out why con was study in concave, or why mistletoe was a parasite, but I know now.

    Thanks for the blog.

  8. For some reason, I struggled today after my record 15 min finishes last week. I gave up after coming a cropper at 12ac, but looking at the answer, I’m not sure why I didn’t get it. Had to look up Gauguin after writing it, and was not aware mistletoe was a parasite. Pieces of eight is another one that took a while, although I have come across it in a quick cryptic before.
  9. … is perhaps a little easier than average. There were a couple of answers that I would not consider as commonplace vocabulary, and the wordplay for both isn’t necessarily the most helpful, but in both cases the checkers tend to steer you in the right direction.
  10. A fine puzzle possibly at the more challenging end for a Monday QC? 4d was a write-in having read Treasure Island at a young age. Noticed afterwards that the clue also doubly includes ‘silver’, which, if capitalised, would have made it easier, although the coin itself was silver and marked with an 8. Came in at just over seven minutes, BLEW LOI. Thanks mohn and Teazel.
  11. I found this very difficult leading to a DNF. Top left and bottom right corners were the issues for me. Having read Mohn’s blog, however, I have no idea why I struggled. I must remember that con = study. It came up last week but I was still trying to use den to no avail.
    1. Why is “con” study? I’ve seen it crop up recently, whereas study was always “den” to my knowledge in crossword land.
  12. No major problems today, although my LOI, 11a, made me think a bit and I only parsed 13d post solve. 15 minutes.
  13. We struggled with the NE corner, trying hard with den for 9a and slow to see back for second. So a slow finish. Thanks to blogger and setter. Elin and Ian.
  14. Was about to ask why look is lo without and indication like most of but now realise it’s like hear would be hark !
    1. You’ve got it. Both ODO and Chambers mark its usage as archaic (like the “con” discussion above) but at least “lo and behold” still exists in real life whereas I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen con used except in crosswords. Both are well worth remembering for crosswording purposes.
  15. For some inexplicable reason, not explained anywhere, we got this puzzle in our Android edition of The Times last Friday so we had all weekend to do it – and we needed it! We were forced to do the Friday one in print only. Sometimes you give a reference to where the puzzle can be found if not on the usual place but sadly that was missing too.
    1. I’m afraid I only ever do the puzzles on a desktop so I have no experience of the quirks of doing them on Android (or iOS) – you could always try raising the issue on the Crossword Club forums. If you want to access older Quick Cryptic puzzles (on a desktop), I’m maintaining an archive here: http://mohn2.livejournal.com/3077.html
  16. If you put 1,2 & 5 as Roman numerals you get I , II & V which are pieces of VIII

    Great blog as always

    Sybar-kiwi

  17. Was about to ask why look is lo without and indication like most of but now realise it’s like hear would be hark !

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