Quick Cryptic 799 by Joker

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Possibly a relief for some after the last two days?  Dunno, but it took me just under 5 minutes.  I hesitate to offer an opinion on the relative ease or difficulty of the puzzle, but I think it’s fair to say that all of the answers are well-known words, so I guess that’s a start.

There were also a lot of crossword standards in play.  Of course they’re only standards if you’ve seen them before, so that just comes down to experience.  But after doing a few of these puzzles, you’ll jump pretty quickly from “encountered” to “met”, and from “tragic king” to Lear.  Other examples include:

Charity raiser = Rag
School = Eton
Power = P
Spoil = Mar
Second = S
Queen = ER
Drink = Tea
Male = M

….and that’s just the Acrosses.  Quite an advantage when you’ve seen these elements often enough so that you don’t have to “re-solve” them.

Anyway, an enjoyable solve all round today, with the lack of anagrams (only 1.5 of them) mitigated by the clever device at 2dn. Thanks Joker.

Here’s how I parsed it.  Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined.  Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised.  Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay.  (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’.

Across
7 Counter the effect of thin metal sword (4)
FOIL – Double definition
8 Odd call before tragic king gives signal to come out of hiding (3-5)
ALL-CLEAR – (CALL)* before LEAR (tragic King)
Also the signal they use at the trots over here to declare that the result is official and the bookies can pay up.  At Galway races I recall it was the delightful “Winner all right, winner all right”.
9 Encountered core of brick sized in centimetres, perhaps (6)
METRIC – MET (encountered) + RIC (core of bRICk)
Thank goodnes we switched to metric when I was still quite young.  I’m a whizz at my ten-times tables!
10 Violently angry when alcohol is used in student charity raiser (6)
RAGING – GIN (alcohol) in RAG (student charity raiser)
11 Last of articles in illuminated catalogue (4)
LIST – S (last of articleS) in LIT (illuminated)
12 Go off romantic meeting outside school (8)
DETONATE – DATE (romantic meeting) “outside” ETON (school)
15 Make complicated magical sign when lacking power (8)
ENTANGLE – {P}ENTANGLE (magical sign) lacking P (power)
The pentangle is that shape much admired by devil worshippers, but I think they more commonly refer to it as a pentagram don’t they?  Not sure, I’ll have to check with some of the Satanists in the office.
17 Put together game involving cues (4)
POOL – Double definition
4-letter word for “game involving cues”?  Ridiculously easy, but first you have to isolate the definition.  That’s the tricky bit.
18 Vegetable is to spoil, grown without its outer parts (6)
MARROW – MAR (spoil) + ROW (gROWn without its outer parts)
21 Labour wants second rail service (6)
STRAIN – S (second) + TRAIN (rail service)
22 Keep the queen’s long-term servant (8)
RETAINER – RETAIN (keep) + ER (the queen)
Good point by Kevin in the comments.  This clue doesn’t work if you take the apostrophe in “queen’s” as a possessive.  Need to think of it as denoting “is” or “has”.
23 Drink with male group of players (4)
TEAM – TEA (drink) + M (male)
Down
1 Arrive before loud noise envelops a stand-up performer? (8)
COMEDIAN – COME (arrive) before DIN (loud noise) “envelops” A
2 Taking everything outside, chill another excellent wine (6)
CLARET – Outside (first and last) letters of ChilL AnotheR ExcellenT
Always enjoy a tricky device.  Nice one setter.
3 Monitoring body observe, follow closely (8)
WATCHDOG – WATCH (observe) + DOG (follow closely)
4 Not finishing publisher’s book info that’s obscure (4)
BLUR – BLURb (publisher’s book info), not finishing
Need the verb forms of “obscure” and “blur” here I think.
5 Grow tired over large bottle of cider? (6)
FLAGON – FLAG (grow tired) + ON (over)
6 Give notice of conflict over ending of immigration (4)
WARN – WAR (conflict) + N (ending of immigration)
Wonder if Donald Trump does the Times cryptics?
13 Regularly target a certain valuable object (8)
TREASURE – TRE [alternating letters (regularly) of TaRgEt] + A + SURE (certain)
14 Hot and humid current crossing river (8)
TROPICAL – TOPICAL (current) “crossing” R (river)
16 Do a bar when drunk overseas (6)
ABROAD – (DO A BAR)*
17 Equality one’s found in Conservatives or Labour, say (6)
PARITY – I (one) in PARTY (Conservatives or Labor, say)
19 Some Near Eastern region (4)
AREA – Hidden (some) in (neAR EAstern)
20 Breeze in between wife and daughter (4)
WIND – IN between W (wife) and D (daughter)

28 comments on “Quick Cryptic 799 by Joker”

  1. This one came as a relief to me too, taking 6:50(just 31 seconds more than today’s Times2 Concise, which Verlaine(top of the Leader Board at the moment) did in an incredible 1:57!!!). A straight top to bottom solve with no unknowns. FOI FOIL, LOI RETAINER. As a bit of a Folkie, (P)ENTANGLE came easily. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Joker and Galspray.
  2. Luckily, I didn’t see the VIN possibility; I don’t think I went beyond getting RAG, in fact. ENTANGLE was a tricky one. I just now noticed that 3d only works because of UK English agreement rules (Arsenal are ahead, not is, etc.). Also it might be worth reminding folks that, as in 22ac, the ‘s need not be, and often isn’t, a possessive, but rather ‘is’ or ‘has’. 4:44.
  3. Vinyl’s avatar held me up for a while but I got through in 8.15. Can do better!

    COD 15ac ENTANGLE WOD 2dn CLARET

    Edited at 2017-03-31 06:06 am (UTC)

  4. Just under the 10-minute wire with this one but only a couple of seconds to spare. I was for some reason delayed by 14dn, 17dn, 17ac and 23ac, all in the SE corner, and failed to parse FLAGON, missing “over/on”. I have met it before but “over/o” is so much more common (probably because it’s a cricket reference) that I couldn’t account for the N. No doubt in blogging mode I would have got to it eventually.
  5. Probably being thick but why “Odd Call” to denote “ALL” (I can see the “odd call” indicating “A” and “L” but that leaves one “L” short!
    Does your apostrophe need a companion?
    Great blog as usual. Many thanks.
    1. Sorry, just got it!
      Also I should have read your notes about what an apostrophe means in your blog. Slapped wrist time!
      1. Cheers Anon. The best reason for creating a Live Journal account (no cost) is that you can edit or delete your posts when you have a “Doh!” moment. A facility that we all make use of on a regular basis!
  6. Found this one quite tough, much like the main cryptic, in particular taking an inordinate amount of time to parse CLARET. I did wonder if 7A was a triple definition (Counter the effect of/thin metal/sword), as a foil is certainly a thin sword but metal seems a given in that case.

    1. Good catch, and nice work setter, getting a triple in an economy of words with decent surface.

  7. After a bit of a crossword diet, came storming back with a Personal Best of 14:05. Worked steadily through almost all across clues in order. Missed a couple of parsings, such as CLARET, nicely done, setter.

  8. Well, at least I managed to finish this one after yesterday’s DNF, but it still took over 40 minutes. 4 and 5d were the main hold-ups, continuing my usual problems with NE corners.
    I agree that experience helps, but I did have to run through: nip, tot, rum, gin, sup and lap before tea for 23ac. . . Invariant
  9. 11 minutes; probably a personal best. I don’t really keep track, but usual range is 15 to 45 mins.
  10. I enjoyed today’s, about half an hour so not bad for me! ENTANGLE was my LOI, I kept trying anagrams of magical, sigil, spell…I enjoyed CLARET (always do!) and METRIC, and as Galspray says, it was a good one for me to remember the “set” clues eg Lear. Great fun!
  11. Managed to parse everything once I’d taken a second look at 2d, my LOI only because I could not parse it at first sight.
    Lots of excellent surfaces and a relatively easy (compared to the last two days) and enjoyable challenge. 11 minutes. Favourites were 12a and 23a. David
  12. Much relief after the last two days, but probably looked at things a bit too much and got hung up on some clues that were relatively straight forward.

    FOI was 17ac POOL (which felt so easy I was convinced I was wrong) and LOI 5d FLAGON which I’ll admit I kind of guessed.

    SE corner came fairly straightforward, although I wasn’t sure if it was REMAINER, RETAINER or REMAINED. Was obsessed with queens being the two ER’s and thought MAID was in there somewhere as well. Obviously I didn’t isolate the definition well enough. Also thought 9ac was METEOR for a while, which caused some issues until I parsed it properly.

    Setters seem obsessed with ETON for “school”….I’m sure I’ve seen this nearly every other day…but it still catches me out! As a result I had all sorts of combinations of “Go Off” until it clicked.

    Overall very enjoyable with COD 15ac.

    Once again, thanks to the setter and the blog.

    DR31

  13. Nice gentle end to the week and I was very satisfied with 14:58. I agree that we’ve had two stinkers this week but I was sub 15 mins on Tuesday too and avoided a DNF yesterday so all in all some varied challenges which is what keeps it interesting.
  14. A very gentle end to the week for me, with a lot of clues going in at first glance. Only hold up was parsing my LOI and COD 2d. Completed in 8 minutes, which is somewhere around my quickest solve.
  15. It took us lunch and supper together but we’re pleased to complete them. The blog is SO helpful if we get stuck.
  16. Lovely to find consensus. I am not into the timing game, but I guess this was under ten minutes and, in my view, probably the most straightforward QC of all time. DM
  17. We did interpret the Queen’s long-term servant as the possessive. There are references to Queen Victoria’s ‘old-retainer’ in that context, surely? Elizabeth & David
  18. We did interpret the Queen’s long-term servant as the possessive. There are references to Queen Victoria’s ‘old-retainer’ in that context, surely? Elizabeth & David
    1. Hi Elizabeth and David. It’s not that HM wouldn’t possess a retainer (I’m sure she does!), it’s just that the wordplay wouldn’t quite work. It would parse as RETAINERS.

      But if we treat the ‘s as IS, then that just becomes the word that connects the wordplay to the definition.

      1. I mist be missing something here .. the queen’s long-term servant is a retainer. The queen is ER. Keep is retain. The apostrophe is possessive, so I don’t see why retainer would need an s on the end, to parse properly. If anyone is still reading these comments, an explanation would be very welcome. Pam
        1. Hi Pam, you have to read the clue as a whole as well as the individual elements. If you had “Queen’s long term servant” as the whole clue, the correct answer would be RETAINER and the ‘s would be possessive. If you have the clue as presented, with “Keep” giving you “RETAIN” you are then left with ER’s to add to RETAIN, giving you RETAINERS. If you use “Queen’s long term servant” to get RETAINER, “Keep” is then redundant. Hope this helps.
  19. As usual, coming to this on a Sunday.

    Most answers flew in, and after 15m I was left with 7a,15a,21a,3d,4d,5d.

    The final two, strain and blurb took me to 46m in total. Perhaps too much vin yesterday.

    COD 10 raging.

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