Quick Cryptic 791 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Just over the 10 minutes being held up by a couple at top and bottom of the RHS. Here and there some vocabulary which isn’t in everyday use but nothing untoward. For no apparent reason it also took a while to see the playing card reference at 21. So – a QC which was quickish and with something to think about – thanks Teazel.

ACROSS

1. Wake – double definition. The first being how one stirs oneself in the morning, the second a boating reference.
3. Harpoon – weapon (not found in your everyday Western/war film). Keep talking tediously (HARP ON) about old (O).
8. Shooting stars – meteors falling through the Earth’s atmosphere. Also how one could dispose of a star of the screen or stage.
9. Gas – fuel. Part of usin(G A S)olid. Full marks for deception putting solid and fuel together when gas isn’t.
10. Duple – double. Line (L) crossed by patsy (DUPE) – someone could probably list some old gangster movies which used the term.
12. Tankard – from which one drinks (messily or otherwise). Thanks (TA), anagram (messily) of DRANK.
14. Parches – gets very dry. Trims (PARES) around church (CH).
16. Shell – which protects a tortoise. A woman will (SHE’LL).
17. Ash – wood. Like (AS), hard (H).
20. Reception room – party venue. Anagram (must circulate) of PORT ONCE MORE I.
21. The Arts – cultural activities. Adop(T), playing card suit (HEARTS).
22. Fawn – double definition. To fawn upon someone – try to please. Young deer – fawn.

DOWN

1. Washed up – double definition. Feel all washed up/do the dishes.
2. Know – be aware. Homophone (has been announced) of refusal – no.
3. Honest – truthful. Anagram (deceptive) of THEN SO.
4. Rise and shine. Double definition.
5. On a plate – easily. Also how you’d find your car registration number.
6. Nosh – a light meal (dictionary definition) – ‘to get some nosh’. Numbers (NOS), hot (H).
7. Stage whisper. Cryptic definition.
11. Particle – tiny bit. Page (P), piece of writing (ARTICLE).
13. Dalesmen -the term for a male living in the (usually Yorkshire) Dales. Anagram (for change) of SLAM NEED.
15. Satins – materials. Anagram (dreadful) of STAINS.
18. Trot – gentle run. Wrong (TORT) upwards.
19. Toga – classical garment. Took a while to click the measure of warmth (TOG – re duvets), a (A).

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic 791 by Teazel”

  1. 1dn – never heard of it related to ‘after a meal’ – but managed to work it out, forunately.

    Finished in 6:56 – so I would rate this as on the easy side for eager newbies.

    A healthy long anagram 20ac RECEPTION ROOM

    COD 10ac DUPLE WOD 6dn NOSH

    Back to the duvet.

    1. Washed up’s second definiition is ‘cleared away after a meal’ which I found pretty easy being a regular contributor to such activity.

      Edited at 2017-03-21 08:27 am (UTC)

  2. 48 minutes with 3a, 10a, 21a, 5d, 6d, 11d and 18d the trickiest.

    Technically a dnf as I put dople for 10a, patsy being a dope? and dnk duple either.

    9a and 18d were good but COD to 21a the arts.

  3. Sorted in about 40 mins.

    I too biffed toga, tog as a thermal measure is a new one on me.
    Biffed trot too. Ah, tort…. didn’t see that.

    Biffed duple and played around with parches. Not a word you hear very often. Parched maybe, but not parches.

    Enjoyable.

  5. Yeah, I put dople as well, so this was a DNF. My thinking being that it related to doppelganger. But after checking, dople is indeed not a word. Not as straightforward as yesterday, with 1ac, 1dn, 19dn and 22ac taking a while. I did not know trot meant wrong. Gribb.
    1. Tort is legalese for wrong – it actually came up very recently in another QC I think. Upwards means reverse it, which gives you trot. JJ
    2. Tort is legalese for wrong – it actually came up very recently in another QC I think. Upwards means reverse it, which gives you trot. JJ
  6. I found this relatively straightforward, scraping in under 10 minutes at 9:51. FOI KNOW, LOI FAWN. Knew TOG from duvet ratings. Thanks Teazel and Chris.
  7. I enjoyed this QC. Didnt know duple but i got from the word play. Held up slightly by parched rather than parches, but all done in 25 mins.
    CSky
  8. I though this was on the easier side coming in at 17 mins which is below my 20 min target. If you ever need to buy a quilt I would advise getting a 10.5 Tog for the UK as 13.5 Tog is too warm for most of the year and 4.5 Tog is not warm enough for the winter.
  9. All very straightforward but held up by being too clever by half at 9a. I parsed the clue as an anagram (using) of part of ‘solid’, giving me ‘oil’ as the fuel. Soon corrected but I should have realised that partial anagram clues don’t really belong in QC land.
    GeoffH
  10. What a lovely start on a sunny morning – I managed to finish the QC. What more could I ask for……
  11. I too enjoyed this puzzle. I solved pretty quickly until I got to 7d and 20a which held me up. I had Stage Chatter for a time; I knew it had to be wrong but was short of inspiration. And I had the wrong anagram fodder at first for 20a. Anyway got them eventually and thought I had finished when I noticed 22a still unsolved. A minute or so more to get Fawn. 23 minutes in total. Liked 12a. David
  12. Struggled with this today and technically DNF. For some reason got stuck on 15d, mainly because I originally had PARCHED for 14a rather than PARCHES.

    I did know TOG, however, and also enjoyed the deception of solid fuel on 9a

    As the newbie who completed his first one yesterday, any ideas /links on where to start? I find that I always struggle to get the first couple of clues, then it becomes easier.

    DR31

    1. Where-ever you can! I’ve been doing these for about 18 months and generally finish – albeit normally taking a long time. I just work through the clues looking for as many as possible and then working on the many gaps using what letters I’ve got. It helps to pick up the clues for anagrams, hidden words, and such. If you can get a foothold, then start climbing! Just have fun and be amazed at the times the experts post – it can often take me longer just to read through the clues spotting the obvious ones! Enjoy the sit back and challenge, let the competitive element come when it’s ready. Cheers
      2. Thanks for the advice…

        Always thought about starting with the clues with the lowest number of letters, but sometimes these are the ones that can easily stump me.

        DR31

  13. So not difficult but not a complete read and write.
    For a wonderful rant on the absurdity of TOG ratings I recommend a YouTube search for Rhod Gilbert on buying a duvet.
  14. A puzzle of two halves today to, coin a football cliche. Most of it was relatively straightforward but I then got very bogged down with 10a, 20a, 13d, 11d, 18d and LOI 22a. Finally getting 20a seemed to provide the inspiration I needed to complete in 22 minutes. COD 21a
  15. Came in today with 29.56, so almost as close as you can get to my 30 minute target. I too was put off at first my putting in PARCHED instead of PARCHES. Didn’t know FAWN for try to please, but was the only baby animal I could think of ending in “N”. I knew TOG from buying sleeping bags, and more recently baby Grobags. However, that didn’t stop TOGA being LOI. Kicked myself as I went through the alphabet and finally get to T. So T, O, something, A…I knew the meaning of tort, as I work in the general area of law.
  16. Parched almost did it for me. I would have come in under 20 minutes, which is rare for me, but I was another one who put in parched too readily, so I struggled with 15d, which should have been easy. Managed to finish in 22 minutes – one of my best times ever, so a big thank you to Teazel for a satisfying challenge. MM
  17. Still at the bottom of the learner slopes. First one for a while that I’ve finished in time to add a comment here. After one last week that I found straightforward, the last few have been a right trial. This one was so-so. I got most of the right hand side sorted but struggled with the the bottom left. Duple didn’t spring to mind for ages. Dupe is a verb not a noun, in my book.
    I generally get a few from the wordplay and then work backwards by filling in the missing letters and convincing myself that it fits the clue. Not very good at spotting anagram indicators, nor at working them out either.
    FOI 8ac, LOI 11d
    1. Don’t worry – we all started looking up.
      First – comments here are notified to the blogger so it doesn’t really matter when you post – if you’ve got a question we try to pick it up – just as this reply will get to your email – sorry I’m late but I’ve had email problems.
      Second – spotting anagram indicators comes relatively quickly with practice – anything which is to do with disturbing/changing – today here was messily, to change, must circulate, deceptive.
      Keep up the good work!

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