Quick Cryptic 787 by Joker

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Just the harder side of average, for me, with a couple of nudges that I now regard as chestnuts (it certainly does get easier!). I refer to ‘I = one’, ‘C = cold’, and ‘mostly = missing last letter’ (all making double appearances) as well as ‘le = the French’ and several others. On the other hand, there is only one anagram and no double definitions, plus I struggled with the plant and briefly with the March-time date.

I’m hoping that no errors or typos need immediate attention; my school has the pleasure of hosting Her Majesty’s Inspectors at the moment, so I had better get some sleep do some more marking.

Definitions underlined.

Across
7 French author of ‘Silver Nemesis’ (5)
VERNE – hidden in (of) silVER NEmesis. Very economical clueing! There aren’t many pastimes that can get you questioning the definition of ‘of’.
8 Broadcasts in front of very fashionable form of transport (7)
AIRSHIP – AIRS (broadcasts) before HIP (very fashionable).
10 Girl eating a little cottage cheese (7)
RICOTTA – RITA (girl) surrounding (eating) COT (shortened, or little, cottage).
11 Detect both poles coming into view (5)
SENSE – N and S (both poles) inside SEE (view).
12 Rate oil producer’s plant (9)
SPEEDWELL – SPEED (rate) and WELL (oil producer).
14 What runs on snow is about full of potassium (3)
SKI – reversal of (about) IS containing (full of ) K (potassium).
15 What one cold year could be? (3)
ICY – I (one), C (cold) and Y (year).
16 Company gamble about conflict shows faint-heartedness (9)
COWARDICE – CO (company) and DICE (gamble) around WAR (conflict).
18 Assistants having a date in Rome (5)
AIDES – A and IDES (date in Rome).
20 Pause craft and get going again (7)
RESTART – REST (pause) and ART (craft).
22 Former policeman with Ecstasy is let off (7)
EXPLODE – EX (former), PLOD (policeman), and E (ecstasy).
23 One mostly dark northern dwelling (5)
IGLOO – I (one) and GLOOm (dark) missing last letter (mostly).
Down
1 Working out Everest, aim to inflate the level? (12)
OVERESTIMATE – anagram of (working) OUT EVEREST AIM.
2 What one needs to serve up tea in cold part of garden (8)
CROCKERY – C (cold) and ROCKERY (part of garden).
3 Warm headgear lined with an edging of ermine (4)
HEAT – HAT (headgear) on the outside of (lined with) one end (an edging) of Ermine.
4 Small snack father served up during school punishment (6)
CANAPE – PA (father) reversed (served up) inside (during) CANE (school punishment). No comment.
5 Swelter uncomfortably before round’s beginning for fighter (8)
WRESTLER – anagram of (uncomfortably) SWELTER, then first letter (beginning) of Round.
6 Fine to use one’s imagination, mostly (4)
THIN – THINk (to use one’s imagination) missing the last letter (mostly)
9 Forecast keeps the French bias? (12)
PREDILECTION – PREDICTION (forecast) surrounds (keeps) LE (the, in French).
13 Ridicule, showing contempt initially for right verdict (8)
DECISION – DErISION (ridicule) with C (first letter of contempt) in place of (for) R (right).
14 Appropriate regular pieces from studio furniture item (8)
SUITABLE – every other letter (regular pieces) from StUdIo and TABLE (furniture item).
17 College head lacking experience over study (6)
WARDEN – RAW (lacking experience) reversed (over) and DEN (study).
19 Trick expected to take in chump finally (4)
DUPE – DUE (expected) surrounding (to take in) last letter of (finally) chumP.
21 Cut nails back (4)
SNIP – PINS (nails) reversed (back).

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 787 by Joker”

  1. I also thought this was on the more difficult end of the scale, taking 14:01 to complete. I got nothing until SKI and then filled in the SE before working my way round the grid. My LOI was WARDEN as I failed to see the upside down RAW and biffed it from checkers. Liked 13d, and laughed out loud at EX PLOD E. The plant came up in another puzzle quite recently. Thanks Joker and William.
  2. A couple of the clues were more suitable for the “proper” crossword I think. FOI VERNE LOI SPEEDWELL COD EXPLODE
  3. but all came good in the end at 7:42.

    With neither 1dn OVERESTIMATE or 9dn PREDELICTION being write-ins, it was hard to get a rhythm.

    COD 12ac the eternal SPEEDWELL WOD RICOTTA

    Edited at 2017-03-15 03:39 am (UTC)

  4. I made the mistake of looking at an interview with Chomsky on Trump that a friend forwarded before coming here; what little I looked at scared the hell out of me, and made it hard to focus on the clues. Which were definitely respectable. As always, I overlooked the hidden at 7ac and tried to do something with AG (silver), but I did manage to get the two long downs with only a checker or two. SPEEDWELL seems to show up every month in the 15x15s. 8:23.
  5. No unknown parsing, but quite a tough puzzle.
    All done in 43 mins, about half of those figuring out:

    7a (verne) – The silver ref was good misdirection.
    12a (speedwell) – dnk the plant.
    22a (explode) – ok once plod rather than busy/di came to mind.
    1d (over est) – took ages to work out aim to was part of the anagram not the definition.
    13d (decision).

    COD 14D

  6. 32:03 it says on the magic clock.

    LOI SPEEDWELL and DECISION

    Must admit I biffed a few.

    But all’s well the ends well. And easier online too.

  7. 9 minutes with 1ac going straight in, which always helps to boost confidence. Needed most of the checkers to unravel the two long answers.
  8. Yet another DNF due to my lack of knowledge of speedwell and being unable to parse 13dn. Didn’t get the speed = rate connection, so will store that away for future. This week is proving a disaster for me. Gribb.
  9. Hmmmpphh – was going through this at a good rate and rather enjoying myself – even the two long ones fell down reasonably quickly after a bit of effort until I got to LOI 14dn. With everything in place I just stopped and stared and couldn’t make headway. I then got SUI to start with but then couldn’t think of anything ‘suitable’ starting with SUI so almost rejected it. When I eventuallly saw ‘table’ I nearly banged my head against the one I’m sitting at. Crosswords! 11 minutes – doesn’t seem bad against some of the times today but if I was a school inspector my verdict would be ‘room for improvement’ (and good luck with yours William). COD 9dn.

    Edited at 2017-03-15 08:47 am (UTC)

  10. DNF again

    Was convinced the plant would be –Shell, with shell as the oil producer which fitted the checkers.

  11. Seven and a bit minutes with most of the problems of my own making, like trying to work out why an answer would not fit in the wrong place. More haste less speed indeed. Talking of which no problem with speedwell – Speedwell Blue is a fetching shade used on the 1958
    Austin Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite. Odd what useless information hangs around in the dusty corners of your memory.
  12. Agree it was a bit tougher than average. COD to AIDES, given the date of publication.

    Thanks Joker and William.

  13. Almost gave up with LOI 2d extant, but eventually the penny dropped to give a slow 40min solve. You are a lucky gardener if you have never come across speedwell in your lawn. I’m not, so 12ac was a write-in. Invariant
  14. I clearly am not on the same wavelength as Horryd (see above). Overestimate and predilection WERE write ins for me but why is the clue of the day speedwell? I suspect only if you’re one of those solvers who has spent years memorising every plant and animal, and how tedious is that! The COD should have fantastic wordplay or wit, neither of which is present here. Please could the crossword editor be prevailed upon to give obscure botany a bit of a break.
    1. Speedwell obscure? A somewhat tedious comment!
      The COD is entirely at one’s discretion.
      Pray, which was your witty, fantastic COD? Enlightenment please!

      horryd Shanghai

      1. Clearly several others found speedwell obscure. I agree that there no real gems but Aides and Explode were witty or apposite. You have given no justification for speedwell except that it is your right to chose. You also did not comment on the more important issue of the tedious obsession with botany. My love is classical music and we rarely see a composer in crosswordland who is not in the fifty or so most famous. With botany thousands of species are in clues.
  15. Mostly straightforward, but delayed by entering Gabriel (GAL eating BRIE) for 10a. But we had a that answer a day or two ago . . .

    Decision was a tough one until crossers

    Philip

  16. We also found this slow going, but enjoyable and fair puzzle. Suprised at the comment by anomynous above about speedwell, which was very gettable from the parsing even if the plant was unknown. Thanks to setter and blogger. Elin and Ian.
    1. it’s the botany and it’s boring! Gettable though it may be. The whole point of a crossword is the moment the penny drops -not speedwell
  17. Another enjoyable Joker puzzle. I too took a while to get stuck in. FOI was 15a. But then it came together and the two long down clues were not too hard. LOI was 13d and favourite 2d. 16 minutes. David
  18. I was surprised to see that this only took me 15 minutes today as it felt quite tricky as I was solving it. Plucked 12a from the depths of my memory somehow and was quite chuffed to figure out what was going on in 9d. I had most problems with the short ones today – my last 3 in being 6d, 23a and 21d.
    I had missed the significance of 18a until galspray mentioned it above so it gets my COD

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