Quick Cryptic 766 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Some unusual vocabulary/use of terms to be found in some definitions (11ac, 12dn, 13ac and 20ac) but all clued so that they couldn’t really be anything else. These gave me the additional pleasure of diving into the reference works to provide the high level of blog we always strive for. Quite why I spent an age staring at 6dn as LOI I can’t explain. I rather liked 10ac – COD. 12 minutes.

ACROSS

1. Stench – foul smell. Small (S), fish (TENCH).
4. Bred – brought up. Homophone (for listeners) of staple food (bread).
9. Cartridge – bullet case. Farm vehicle (CART) by narrow hilltop (RIDGE).
10. Bar – save (it’s all over bar the shouting). The Dog and Duck is an example of a bar.
11. Aristocratic – stylish – elegant or stylish in appearance and behaviour. Anagram (touring) of COSTA RICA IT (R)emaining.
13. Isopod – crustacean – any crustacean of the order Isopoda, including woodliceand pill bugs, in which the body is flattened dorsoventrally (no less!). Thus (SO) invading one (I), school of whales (POD).
15. Fresco – wall decoration. Almost new (FRES)h and firm – company (CO).
17. Childishness – silly behaviour. Head (NESS) observed after most of cold (CHIL)l, course (DISH).
20. Ibo – the language of the Ibo people of W Africa living chiefly in S Nigeria and belonging to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congofamily: one of the chief literary and cultural languages of S Nigeria. In Nairob(I BO)ulevards.
21. Lax – negligent. Bloke (GENT) with an anagram (broken) of LEG in Northern Ireland (NI).
22. Fuss – to do. Female (F), American (US) with son (S).
23. Agency – bureau. Mature – the verb (AGE), Conservative (C) in New York (NY).

DOWN

1. Sack – double definition – the commonly know bag and the less commonly known dry white wine formerly imported into Britain from SW Europe.
2. Error – mistake. Troublesome kid t(ERROR) losing head.
3. Co-respondent – alleged adulterer – a person cited in divorce proceedings, who is alleged to have committed adultery with the respondent. Run (R) is taken away from reporter (CORRESPONDENT).
5. Rebates – discounts. Welshman (REES) securing club (BAT).
6. Director – one serving on board. Woman (DI), priest (RECTOR).
7. Idiom – turn of phrase. Papers (ID) on Isle of Man (IOM).
8. Heart-rending – agonising. Tendency (TREND) to interrupt trial (HEARING).
12. Mischief – injury – a violation or infringement of another person’s rights that causes harm and is actionable at law. Head of Military Intelligence (MI) is MI’S CHIEF.
14. Ominous – threatening. (O)ld (M)an, I (I), sense (NOUS).
16. Usage – customary practice. Upper class (U), savant (SAGE).
18. Stern – strict. Republican (R) covered by gun (STEN).
19. Stay – double definition.

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic 766 by Orpheus”

  1. Made heavy weather of this. Quite a few vague definitions so not much room for biffing! FOI ERROR LOI STAY COD HEART-RENDING

    Not a specially cheery xword for Val Day so here’s a x from my <3

  2. 12dn MISCHIEF is my COD and WOD with DORSOVENTRALLY a close second!

    9.30 so a little chewy esp. that long Costa Rican anagram for 11ac ARISTOCRATIC. My edition of Chambers doesn’t mention stylish – is this really synonymous?

    I failed to parse REES as the Welshman.

  3. I think it took me all the checkers to get ARISTOCRATIC, about which I share horryd’s doubts. SACK was Falstaff’s standard tipple. Liked REBATES & OMINOUS. 6:33.
  4. Several clues would not yield on first, second or even third reading so I was not surprised to find that I had exceeded my 10-minute target by 2 minutes.

    SOED has “Aristocratic” as: Befitting an aristocrat; grand, stylish, distinguished. M19.

    Edited at 2017-02-14 06:25 am (UTC)

  5. Toughie, taking about an hour.

    Last stubborn clues were 17a, 23a, 8d and 18d.

    Few bits also slowed me down.
    Dnk isopod.
    Haven’t heard of the ibo language.
    Didn’t equate stylish with aristocratic.

    COD 6d director.

    I recommend the 15×15 today.

  7. Ness is a promontory or headland. It is found in place names – Inverness, Dungeness, Orford Ness.
  8. I like others found this quite tricky today, but still managed 27 minutes, which surprised me. Very stop – start throughout. I ended with 5d and 17a unparsed. Mischief was definitely of COD.
  9. That was hard. Took a full hour to solve and parse with 8d my loi. On a par with yesterday’s 15×15 in terms of difficulty as far as I’m concerned. Invariant
  10. Found this a real toughie. All morning on and off. Strangely enough 6dn was my LOI as well. Hit on the answer quite quickly but could not for the life of me parse it. Not at all convinced by the definition of aristocratic, but close enough I guess, But then our nearest aristocrat is the splendid Marquess of Bath, whom I have heard described as many things but never “stylish”.
    PlayupPompey
  11. I particularly enjoyed this one and it felt harder than my solving time of 16 minutes would indicate. I was helped by finally recognising some of the setters standard phrases (if that makes sense) e.g. Woman = Di, Head = Ness.
    LOI 11a and was a bit dubious of the definition, until jack confirmed it appeared in the dictionary. COD 2d for the mental image it provided.
  12. Not the easiest today. I was helped I think by having tried the 15x15s. My last two were 12d and finally 13a. All the answers were available from the clues (eg unknown Ibo) and I liked the humour – 6d my favourite but other good contenders. 17 minutes without any big hold-ups. David
  13. Everything except the North East corner were completed in reasonably quick order, but for some reason, I failed to see 4, 10, 6 and 8 on my first attempt, so I had to leave it and come back later, when they all fell into place. As a result of the shiftwork, I don’t know my real time, but I expect it was longer than my 15 minutes target.
  15. Just on 6 minutes for me, so a little faster than average, but it felt harder than that. I nearly came a cropper with STUCCO for 15a, but saw it didn’t parse. ISOPOD a new word on me, but clear enough from the checkers and wordplay.
  16. Ness is a promontory or headland. It is found in place names – Inverness, Dungeness, Orford Ness.
  17. I agree, more tricky today. Still I managed in more or less an hour so rather surprised I achieved that. DNK 20a but deduced it and then checked it was right. Missed some of the subtleties in the clues eg 4a as a homophone but worked it out anyway. Biffed 5d and 2d and was pleased to have these correct. Dragged 13a out of some very dim memory once I had the checkers and saw ‘pod’. Altogether lucky to have completed all correct. FOI 1a LOI 23a COD 12d. Grateful for the blog for reminding me of a few tricks e.g. ‘ness’ and Orpheus for a nice work-out.

  18. Tricky one today, but done in about 30 mins. Not a fan of NESS=HEAD. DNK ISOPOD, but got it as LOI. Also did not like ARISTOCRATIC for stylish.

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