Quick Cryptic 795 by Flamande

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I always find Flamande’s puzzles entertaining, even if they are rarely at the difficult end of the spectrum, and this was no exception, with an enjoyable set of surfaces and little to quibble with in either parsings or definitions. COD to 14A for making me require three stabs before finally hitting on the correct way to interpret the wordplay.

The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: https://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20170327/22941/

Definitions are underlined, {} = omission

Across
1 Used component for wristwatch (6-4)
SECOND-HAND – a SECOND HAND might be a component for a wristwatch, though there are plenty of wristwatches (and not just digital ones) that don’t have one
8 Sailors with cute, short hairdo (4,3)
CREW CUT – CREW (Sailors) + CUT{e} (cute, short, i.e. the word “cute” without its last letter)
9 Amount of milk stored by shop in Tamworth (5)
PINTA – hidden in (stored by) shoP IN TAmworth. Not an SI unit, but an informal usage that ODO cites as British. A contraction of “pint of”.
10 Managing Director has recruited top class female (4)
MAID – MD (Managing Director) around (has recruited) AI (top class)
11 Carry out investigation about vital organ in school (8)
RESEARCH – RE (about), + EAR (vital organ) in SCH (school). Is an ear a vital organ? See Vincent van Gogh, Reservoir Dogs, Chopper, etc for the argument against. Having said that, Chambers has a variety of meanings for vital ranging from “Extremely important” to “Essential”, with the ear perhaps tending more towards the former.
13 Grab someone’s pet and go off quietly (6)
DOGNAP – anagram of (off) AND GO, + P (quietly). Though dognap is in Collins and ODO (though not Chambers), the only meaning of catnap they contain is with reference to a short sleep. I surmise that this is because the thought of a cat being stolen is so objectionable to right-thinking people that there has been a collective decision by the English-speaking world to not create a separate word for such, in the hope that the lack of a word will somehow ensure the lack of the crime.
14 Wild beast seen round small British city (6)
LISBON – LION (Wild beast), around S (small) + B (British). I suspect I won’t be the only solver who initially assumes that the answer is going to be either a city formed from an anagram of BEAST around B, or a British city formed from an anagram of BEAST around S.
17 I never must follow English designer (8)
ENGINEER – I + NEER (never, e.g. the ne’er in ne’er-do-well), after (must follow) ENG (English)
19 Give out American magazine in revolution (4)
EMIT – reversal (in revolution) of TIME (American magazine). Magazines in Crosswordland are generally Time, Life, Elle, or Punch.
21 Family member that is entering new church (5)
NIECE – IE (that is), in (entering) N (new) + CE (church)
22 Public school pupil recalled mark given to Scottish lad (7)
ETONIAN – reversal of (recalled) NOTE (mark), + IAN (Scottish lad)
23 Wrong to do the twist after country dance (6,4)
TURKEY TROT – reversal (to do the twist) of TORT (wrong, in a legal sense), after TURKEY (country). Chambers: “A kind of ragtime dance”, whose execution Wikipedia describes as follows: “The basic step consisted of four hopping steps sideways with the feet well apart, first on one leg, then the other with a characteristic rise on the ball of the foot, followed by a drop upon the heel. The dance was embellished with scissor-like flicks of the feet and fast trotting actions with abrupt stops.” It was apparently denounced by the Vatican for being too suggestive. The most common meaning of turkey trot these days though, at least on the evidence of Google Images, is a run taking place around Thanksgiving.
Down
2 Ironing, perhaps, some time after dark? (7)
EVENING – double definition, the first referring to the process of making something even
3 Other ranks caught a killer whale (4)
ORCA – OR (Other ranks) + C (caught) + A. Rather generous of Flamande to give us “Other ranks” explicitly rather than something a bit more general such as “Soldiers”, say.
4 Dorothy and Edward covered in spots? (6)
DOTTED – DOT (Dorothy) + TED (Edward)
5 Ideal kind of order for dessert (5,3)
APPLE PIE – a reference to APPLE-PIE order being (Chambers): “Perfect order”
6 One gives Spanish gentleman gold (5)
DONOR – DON (Spanish gentleman) + OR (gold)
7 US president saw nothing out of place (10)
WASHINGTON – anagram of (out of place) SAW NOTHING. Nice anagram and surface, though the solution perhaps jumps out quite readily because the anagram is really an anagram of SAW then an anagram of NOTHING. How about hating snow? Or wins a thong?
8 She’s funny, giving invitation to eat about middle of Lent (10)
COMEDIENNE – COME DINE (invitation to eat) about {L}EN{t} (middle of Lent, i.e. the middle letters of the word “Lent”)
12 Maybe galoshes and mac in war are recycled (8)
RAINWEAR – anagram of (recycled) IN WAR ARE
15 Animated deer turned on Italian child (7)
BAMBINO – BAMBI (Animated deer) + reversal of (turned) ON. Assuming you don’t read “Animated” as an anagram indicator, then you are unlikely to be spoiled for choice in your mental search for an “Animated deer”.
16 Verse in translation, initially extremely hard (6)
SEVERE – anagram of (in translation) VERSE, + E{xtremely} (initially extremely, i.e. the first letter of the word “extremely”)
18 Visitor introduced by colleague, strangely (5)
GUEST – hidden in (introduced by) colleaGUE STrangely
20 Fool oddly late joining party (4)
DOLT – L{a}T{e} (oddly late, i.e. the odd letters of the word “late”), next to (joining) DO (party)

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 795 by Flamande”

  1. I started this after a couple of beers and a large whiskey, just as I should’ve been going to bed. However the top half fell into place quickly although I slowed down a bit at the bottom, carelessly typing RAINWARE, no doubt influenced by last week’s liveware and taking a good 45 seconds to try and correct the entry while the software insisted on making me fill the wrong squares and telling me I was unlucky again as I tried to correct it. Grrhh, treeware is simpler! Anyway 9:45 altogether. FOI ORCA, LOI SEVERE, after which I had to battle the SW to correct RAINWEAR. Liked DOGNAP and BAMBINO. Thanks Flamande and Mohn2.
  2. 8 minutes for this, the second puzzle by Flamande to appear within four QCs. I think PINTA originated in the late 1950s in an advertising campaign sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board: “Drinka Pinta Milka Day”, which for me always conjurs up memories of Tony Hancock in “The Blood Donor” passing time in the waiting room reading out slogans from posters on the wall. Having experimented with the milk slogan putting the stresses in different places he turned his attention to “Coughs and sneezes spread diseases” which he sang to the tune of “Deutschland über alles”. Other slogans from the same MMB campaign were “milk’s gotta lotta bottle” and “Is your man getting enough?”.

    Anyway enough of all that. This was a rather fine puzzle and I particularly liked DOGNAP and TURKEY TROT.

    Edited at 2017-03-27 05:12 am (UTC)

    1. Complete side-track I know but Fay Weldon came up with: “Go to work on an egg”, and Salmon Rushdie penned: “Naughty but Nice” for cream cakes: probably one of his better efforts!
      1. Not a complete sidetrack anon, just building on mine, because the “Go to work on an egg” ads featured Tony Hancock!
      2. Sorry to disappoint but Fay was the Creative Director whose team came up with ‘Go to Work on an Egg!’ You are good on Salmon however.
  3. A DNF for me because of dognap. Didn’t spot the anagram indicator in that one. Apart from that, I thought this was manageable, although turkey trot took some time to get. And that was only helped after tort = wrong has cropped up a few times recently. Gribb.
  4. … is on the easy side. Just don’t biff anything …

    Edited at 2017-03-27 07:41 am (UTC)

  5. 31 minutes with half spent on 20d dolt and especially 23a turkey trot. I didn’t know either words.

    For 22a Etonian, although easy to biff, I was uncertain for the parsing of NOTE = mark.

    Some good clues, I liked 1a second hand and 14a Lisbon but COD to 8d comedienne.

    1. Chambers has a bunch of definitions for note that include mark, e.g. “A significant or distinguishing mark”, “A mark or sign calling attention”, “A stigma or mark of censure”, “A mark representing a sound”, and “To mark”, but the only example of their equivalence that readily springs to mind is perhaps “Mark my words”.
  6. Most of this was relatively straightforward but I was held up by my last three in, 9a where I guessed the answer but took time to spot the hidden, 13a (LOI) as I only saw the anagram after solving and had to resort to running through the alphabet and 23a, which was unknown to me and took me an age to remember the wrong/tort connection even though it’s come up recently. Completed in 17 minutes. COD 15d
  7. ‘turkey trot’ known from famed Shostakovich high-speed orchestration of ‘tea for two’
  8. Got home in 8.24 with LOI 23ac TURKEY TROT – I knew the TORT would be somewhere – somehow.

    COD 7ac WASHINGTON which went in with a satisfying clunk.

    WOD PINTA nice comprehensive coverage on that by Jack.

    DNK DOGNAP! How did I miss that?

  9. More of a galop than a turkey trot until the latter held me up right at the end. I can confirm after years of ownership confirm that dogs do dognap but I can’t recall ever seeing it written down before.
  10. Am just about to take my dog out after her post lunch nap. My LOI was 13a. Prior to that I wrote in most of the answers on first read. It was an enjoyable test; 2 or 3 held me up at the end. About 13 minutes.
    Interesting analysis of catnap etc which also occurred to me. Thanks Blogger. David
  11. DNF as turkey trot and dognap were new to me. Also entered apple pie only because of the dessert reference as didn’t get the cryptic part. Oh well, you re always learning something new. Unclemarvo
  12. Ambled through this for most of the day as I was doing things on and off, but got there in the end.

    Struggled with Turkey Trot and Dolt, with both being biffed. How did I not spot “Tort” being used again?!

    FOI was 19a EMIT.

    COD 15d BAMBINO – is there any other animated deer? Luckily I knew the Italian for child so this was fairly straightforward but enjoyed the clue.

    Interestingly, whilst 6d was fairly straightforward I got it in my head that DON was Italian rather than Spanish – probably thinking of too many Godfather mafia films.

    DR31

  13. Nice and straightforward at the top, even for a rank beginner. Struggled with some of the bottom clues: engineer, turkey trot and dolt, mostly. Some of the others were biffed (egineer, research) but I struggled to see why they were correct.
  14. Started off at breakneck speed only to come to a screeching halt in the SW. Designer=engineer is quite a stretch!
    1. Hate to play the “It’s in the dictionary” card but Chambers’ first two definitions for engineer are: “Someone who designs or makes, or puts to practical use, engines or machinery of any type, including electrical” and “Someone who designs or constructs public works, such as roads, railways, sewers, bridges, harbours, canals, etc”. Collins and ODO also mention design in their first definitions.

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