Quick Cryptic 669 by Teazel

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Nearly twelve minutes for me, how did the rest of you go?

My major hold-up at the end, for no reason I can offer in hindsight, was the classic old TV show at 24ac.  One of the few comedies of that era that still holds up pretty well when you stumble across it on cable TV, IMHO.  The wordplay was pretty straightforward as well, but sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees.  Well done setter.

Hope you all enjoyed it.  I did, despite the low anagram count (just two today).  Thanks Teazel.

This is how I parsed the clues…..

(Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined.  Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised.  Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay.  (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’).

Across
1 Roll up hair length (4)
FURL – FUR (hair) + L (length)
A word you don’t often see without an “un” in front of it.
3 Monkey’s limb doctor holds to fix (8)
MARMOSET – MO (doctor) ‘holds’ ARM (limb), + SET (fix)
One of Crosswordland’s favourite apes.
8 Looking embarrassed, protects Maoists (3,6)
RED GUARDS – RED (looking embarrassed) + GUARDS (protects)
10 Signal that is used by potter (3)
CUE – Double def, the second one referring to a snooker (pool, billiards, etc) player
11 Splendid old woman and daughter (5)
GRAND – GRAN (old woman) + D (daughter)
12 Collector of scraps beginning to get thinner (7)
GLEANER – G (beginning to get) + LEANER (thinner)
13 Sticky liquid, a centilitre found in maple, for example (7)
TREACLE – A + CL (centilitre) found in TREE (maple, for example)
18 Jane tours one highly isolated position (5)
EYRIE – EYRE (Jane) ‘tours’ I (one)
19 Strain is back in part of joint (7)
TENSION – SI (is back) in TENON (part of joint)
Refers to the “mortise and tenon” joint commonly used in furniture making.
20 Man, to hold battle: magical success! (3,6)
HEY PRESTO – HE (man) + TO ‘hold’ YPRES (battle)
22 Voice criticism of short volume (3)
BOO – BOO{k} (volume)
23 Oddly, tried unknown orderly (4)
TIDY – TID (odd letters of TrIeD) + Y (unknown)
24 Parents host TV show (4,4)
DAD’S ARMY – DADS (parents) + ARMY (host)
Took so long to get it, I could feel Arthur Lowe shaking his head at me and muttering “stupid boy…”
Down
1 Seek food article in smithy (6)
FORAGE – A (article) in FORGE (smithy)
2 In Leningrad, I always spoke (6)
RADIAL – Hidden in LeningRAD I ALways
As in the spoke of a wheel.  It’s these quirks of the English language that allow us to have cryptic crosswords!
4 Not at first reasonable impression (3)
AIR – {f}AIR (reasonable)
5 Assorted clues some nail after working out (13)
MISCELLANEOUS – (CLUES SOME NAIL)*
First instinct was that “assorted” was the anagrind.  Nice bit of misdirection by the setter.
6 Support dispatch commander put in (6)
SECOND – CO (commander) ‘put in’ (SEND)
7 Conjecture the other ranks verify finally (6)
THEORY – THE + OR (other ranks) + Y (verify finally)
9 Don’t put on enough lingerie? (9)
UNDERWEAR – Double def
The first def is whimsical, the second is a DBE (definition by example), as signalled by the question mark.
12 Two soldiers, one huge (5)
GIANT – GI (soldier) + ANT (soldier)
14 The rod may become overheated (3,3)
RED HOT – (THE ROD)*
15 Called harshly, wanting a little light in bunk (6)
BRAYED – RAY (a little light) in BED (bunk)
16 Watch set round British wood (6)
TIMBER – TIMER (watch) round B (British)
17 Dog tending to pry? (6)
SNOOPY – Double def
21 Main coal deposit metres short (3)
SEA – SEAM (coal deposit) minus M (metres)
Main=sea is another crossword standard. As in “sailing, sailing o’er the bounding main”.

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic 669 by Teazel”

  1. Biffed 24ac and 20ac, which may have added to the feeling that I was speeding through this. Tried ‘Jane’ as anagrist for a while, got nowhere, of course. SNOOPY was my LOI, as I was searching for a breed not an individual. 6:21.
  2. Similar solving experience to Gallers and Kevin, finishing, in a little under 11 minutes, with 17 and 24. I thought DADS ARMY was particularly clever, a) because I wasn’t fooled by the setter into thinking I was looking for a TV show(!) but rather a phrase meaning ‘show’ and b) because when you read ‘parents’, you think ma and pa, not one of that set pluralised.

    I sometimes end a stressful day by choosing at random an old episode of the comedy classic from YouTube. Apparently, Arthur Lowe in person was much like the character he played.

  3. 13 minutes here which together with Galspray’s and Ulaca’s times suggests this was towards the harder end of the scale. I thought HEY PRESTO and CUE were brilliantly clued.

    There’s no need in the UK to search through satellite listings or go on-line to see DAD’S ARMY as one of the two main BBC channels runs repeats ad infinitum early evening each Saturday. This has been going on for years with occasional interruptions to allow for special events.

    Edited at 2016-09-30 05:53 am (UTC)

  4. Wow! found that a toughie, Teazel had me going all over the place, more misdirections than the Brexit campaign. COD – most of them.
  5. Same experience as nearly everyone else, possibly my longest ever QC solve at 16′, of which at least ten spent in the SE, looking for a breed, and clearly -R-Y must start with a consonant, and parents are MA and PA, maybe we have a group consciousness. Great puzzle, thanks gal and Teazel.

  7. Yes very tricky this. I also got stuck in the SE, couldn’t get Snoopy. I think three letter words are often these hardest.

    Also DNK Gleaner as collector of scraps.

  9. A DNF for me as I was unaware of 3ac or 8ac. Just couldn’t for the life of me think of a word for protects. Not really comes across army for host as well. A toughie!
  10. DNF for me today, but unlike some others my problem came in the NW with 8a being my undoing, I just drew a complete blank – seems so obvious now. As usual with Teazel I thought this was an excellent puzzle with too many great clues to pick one out as COD.
  11. This seemed easy at first but I ended up with three left in the SE: 22a, 24a and 17d.
    I thought the dog was a breed and had Bay at 22a as could not think of anything better. Anyway I got those two and was left with 24a; looked at it for aged=es and could not think of anything, so was defeated today. I see the answer was obvious. David
  12. Took several sittings at this. The E was done first and despite having 5d most of the W gave me fierce resistance. Needed help with 3a and faintly surprised with 17d as a character rather than breed and also 24a being an actual programme as I thought that might perplex solvers from outside the UK (l suppose it has become a cultural icon etc but the principle applies, no?). A good week with some testing moments….where would the likes of me be without the blog! Thx to all

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