Quick Cryptic 680 by Flamande

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Yes, me again, making a rare appearance blogging a puzzle whose number doesn’t end in 5. I’ll be away a couple of times in the next month so jackkt has kindly agreed to swap our slots in that time in order to accommodate my absences – thanks, J.

I haven’t blogged a Flamande for nearly a year and I was once again struck by the quantity of good surface readings. After a bit of hunting around, I was not surprised to find that this is the same compiler who sets puzzles as Dac in the Independent, where his offerings are also frequently complimented on their surfaces. An enjoyable but not particularly difficult start to the week – thanks, Flamande. And best of luck to anyone attending the Championships this coming Saturday.

The puzzle can be found here if the usual sources are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20161017/19496/

Definitions are underlined, omissions indicated by {}.

Across
1 Petty sergeant-major everyone resented (5-6)
SMALL-MINDED – SM (sergeant-major) + ALL (everyone) + MINDED (resented). “Mind” can cover everything from concern to active dislike.
9 Someone of great size I caught leaving doomed ship (5)
TITAN – TITAN{ic} (I caught leaving doomed ship, i.e. TITANIC (doomed ship) without I + C (caught)). J. Bruce Ismay, a high-ranking executive of the company that owned the Titanic, and a survivor of the disaster itself, died today in 1937.
10 Card game — bridge (7)
PONTOON – double definition, the first a variation of blackjack/vingt-et-un/twenty-one etc. This name of the game is apparently derived from vingt-et-un.
11 Carried on cooking aromatic plant (9)
CORIANDER – anagram of (cooking) CARRIED ON. Nice anagram and well blended into the surface reading.
13 Queen Elizabeth I turned in anger (3)
IRE – reversal (turned) of ER I (Queen Elizabeth I). Good Queen Bess has enjoyed something of a renaissance recently, with I think three appearances in one or other Times crossword in the last fortnight.
14 Sort of pipe a rugby player’s heard of (6)
HOOKAH – homophone (heard of) HOOKER (rugby player), for (Chambers): “The tobacco pipe of Arabs, Turks, etc with which smoke is inhaled through water”. A frequent source of tickings off for Premiership footballers by their managers.
16 Left in nest — no small bird (6)
LINNET – L (Left) + IN + NE{s}T (nest – no small, i.e. the word “nest” without the “s” (small)). Though my parents’ garden is a bit of a finch magnet in general, for some reason linnets have always avoided it.
17 Either Claire or Elaine regularly ignored misleading account (3)
LIE – alternative letters (regularly ignored) in either CLaIrE or ELaInE
18 Paint Sid knocked over with outburst of anger (9)
DISTEMPER – reversal (knocked over) of SID, + TEMPER (outburst of anger)
21 Seen on choppy sea, aquatic bird from the orient (7)
EASTERN – anagram of (choppy) SEA, + TERN (aquatic bird). The “Seen on” is just extra verbiage to create a credible surface reading.
23 Top pilot crosses Patagonia’s borders quickly (5)
APACE – ACE (Top pilot) around (crosses) P{atagoni}A (Patagonia’s borders, i.e. the first and last letters of the word “Patagonia”)
24 Checking sappers close to barracks, engaged in exercises (11)
RESTRAINING – RE (sappers, i.e. Royal Engineers) + {barrack}S (close to barracks, i.e. the last letter of the word “barracks”) + TRAINING (engaged in exercises)
Down
2 Trucker initially comes in to secure vehicle (5)
MOTOR – T (Trucker initially, i.e. the first letter of the word “Trucker”) in MOOR (to secure, as in a boat)
3 Help country to protect border well! (4,1,4)
LEND A HAND – LAND (country) around (to protect) END (border) + AH (well!). I can’t find the END=border equivalence in any of the usual sources, which always leaves me slightly uneasy, but it doesn’t seem like an enormous stretch of the imagination. As these things are wont to do, the same equivalence cropped up in a Guardian puzzle I tackled just hours later.
4 Scooter was blue (5)
MOPED – double definition
5 Three slices of banana bread (3)
NAN – the “Three slices” construction is telling us to take 3 consecutive letters of baNANa, to give the Indian/Pakistani bread. It could be argued that “slices” could equally well mean non-consecutive letters but such an interpretation would not be very Timesian. Commiserations to anyone who initially plumps for BAN, a Romanian/Moldovan coin that would fit both the wordplay and the monetary meaning of “bread”.
6 Soon ire can become wearing (7)
EROSION – anagram of (can become) SOON IRE
7 Investor who keeps animals on farm? (11)
STOCKHOLDER – double definition though, as the usual sources give the second meaning as Australian, it’s possible we’re supposed to read it instead as STOCK HOLDER, which would be a way of describing someone who keeps animals on a farm, even if not a standard phrase in itself
8 Lists namely kept by people on the make? (11)
INVENTORIES – IE (namely) in (kept by) INVENTORS (people on the make?)
12 Make trouble, as Adam and Eve were destined to do (5,4)
RAISE CAIN – figurative and literal meanings, as Adam and Eve raised three children including the murderous Cain. The “raise” in the figurative expression is to be read along the lines of “to conjure up the spirit of”.
15 Supervise poetry being written in Old English (7)
OVERSEE – VERSE (poetry) in OE (Old English)
19 Christmas visitor stuck in treacherous Antarctic (5)
SANTA – hidden (stuck) in treacherouS ANTArctic. Chuckled at this one.
20 Sound of aircraft that’s quite visible (5)
PLAIN – homophone (Sound) of PLANE (aircraft)
22 Consume something vegetarians avoid first off (3)
EAT – {m}EAT (the word “meat” (something vegetarians avoid) without its initial letter (first off))

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic 680 by Flamande”

  1. I don’t often pay much attention to surface readings but these caught my eye whilst solving so I made a point of reading them more closely after completion (10 minutes) and really appreciated how smooth they are. 5dn is particularly inventive, I thought.

    I was set fair for a 7 minute solve but needed another 3 minutes to come up with 8dn which then immediately resolved my other problem at 16ac.

  2. Slightly more difficult than average.
    I too had trouble with 16ac LINNET and also 12dn RAISE CAIN

    COD 19dn SANTA – amusant WOD HOOKAH

    Decent blog from mohn2.

  3. I was going great guns, but slowed down a bunch by 10ac, 8d, and 18ac. Finally thought of PONTOON bridge and almost simultaneously remembered the card game; that got me INVENTORIES (my COD); and I finally realized that ‘paint’ was the definition, not part of the anagrist (paintsid + o)! 6:28. I trust you’re duly chuffed, mohn, at the almost fulsome praise?
    1. Chuffed indeed, though to ensure my head doesn’t get too big I’m assuming the reference was to Chambers’ seventh definition (“passable”) rather than the giddy heights of the sixth one (“fairly good”).
    2. I’ve been caught out many times in the past by choosing the wrong anagram fodder – never sure if it’s the setter being sneaky or just an unfortunate coincidence.
  4. Finished everything within the hour except 8d inventories where I think both parts of the definition are a little vague. I was googling “people on the make” and the answer flashed up unfortunately!

    Haven’t heard of “raising cain” but I thought it would be cain or pain.

  5. Finished in around 40 mins, so fairly difficult, I would say. I took an age over 8dn, and agree “people on the make” is a slightly odd expression. Not heard of “distemper” meaning painting, but the clues were generous. Couldn’t get “raise hell” out of my mind for 12dn. And 24ac delayed me as well. A good crossword, though, and just happy to finish it. Gribb.
  7. Flying today, so missed some surfaces. Particularly liked RAISE CAIN. 5’02”, thanks mohn and Flamande.
  9. Not sure what to say about today’s main cryptic – I thought it was marginally easier than average but the times on the leaderboard seem to suggest it was closer to being on the hard side. Maybe a wavelength thing. Regardless, give it a go.
  10. Went very well until I became bogged down on 8dn. I find inventor for “on the make” a real stretch. The acts of inventing and making are quite different I would have thought. Ah well, spotted it in the end. Otherwise very pleasant start to the week, and I agree about some of the surfaces.
    PlayupPompey
    1. You may have a point about 8dn but “inventors” is clued as “people on the make”, not “on the make”.
  11. Distemper was in the Times 2 quickie last week so that helped. Worked with a bad tempered boss called Cain so that helped with 12 dn. Biffed linnet and ended up at 38 minutes
  12. My fastest solve since I started doing the QC a week or so back. Glad that LINNET was familiar from being taught “My Old Man” on a slow day at school. LOI INVENTORIES, which I quickly biffed when I came back to it after a wrong thought involving “investors” got me to the right place anyway!
  13. Excellent puzzle! However, as it’s Monday I’m feeling pedantic so have to point out that mopeds have small engines and pedals capable of providing drive, scooters may or may not have an engine but never have pedals providing drive, so the two are not synonymous. No doubt someone will point to a dictionary that says they are, but they are not.
  14. I had Raise Hell for 12dn and as a result couldn’t get 23ac or 24ac. I did realise in the end 23 ac had to be apace but wouldn’t have got Raise Cain. There is a film called Raising Cain I seem to remember, but hadn;t heard it outside of that

    Was also trying to fit an investor into 8dn, more on the make than inventors.

  16. I recall inventory as the transatlantic accounting word for stock. The English and Americans differed on how to pronounce it. I have recently seen Raising Cain and Linnet in puzzles (probably The Times) so that helped. Finished in 19 minutes; not bad for me. LOI was 4d after 10a. David
    1. I think I experienced it first in text adventure games of the 1980s, where INVENTORY would be the command to list everything you were carrying. I mostly hear it spoken out loud by Americans, and it certainly differs from how I grew up pronouncing it in my head. The iOS Collins Dictionary app seems to have a strange pronunciation halfway between the two…
  17. I found this harder than my solving time (16 mins) would indicate. I couldn’t fully parse 2d and I had only heard of 18a in a sick dog kind of way, but the cluing was generous.
    A question for the more expierienced solvers. Is ‘close to barracks’ necessary in 24a when sappers is plural thereby giving you ‘res’ already?
    COD 12d, LOI 16a.
    1. All the usual sources state that RE stands for Royal Engineers, not Royal Engineer, hence sappers should only mean RE and not REs. Having said that, it hasn’t stopped setters occasionally using the sapper=RE singular form – I can only find it once in the Times (in 2009 and actually in the Sunday Times, i.e. the Wild West of Times crosswords) but it has been used in the Guardian/FT a few times. I doubt you would see such (relatively) contentious usage in the Quicky with the current editorial policy, though.
  18. Struggled with the 16ac/8d combination, which pushed me out to 50 mins despite a quick enough start. Couldn’t parse 3d either, so not the best beginning to the week. Invariant
  19. A good start to this week. Perhaps 18a distemper is an answer more familiar for those of us ‘of a certain age’? Certainly I remembering distempering before emulsioning came in. Pleased to see another blogger clarify 8d ‘on the make’ = invent. A helpful remark for me as I was puzzling over a profiteering direction and wondering about Tories! 10a might have been expanded to add ‘boat’ (a recent very amusing Garrison Keillor book of that title comes to mind). thx to Flamande and our blogger-in-chief.

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