Quick Cryptic 824 by Oran

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Late edit.  I completely missed the message from the setter in the grid.  He’s wishing COLE RAIN (Coleraine) GOOD LUCK TOMORROW in the IRISH CUP FINAL at WINDSOR PARK.  Very nice.  Not sure whether there’s any other references I’ve missed, but for the setter’s sake I hope they’re ON A ROLL, and don’t have an UNFRUITFUL outing and end up finishing SECOND.  If they RELY on ETHEL (?) and ERNIE to show some OOMPH, they should have nothing to GROUSE about.

Thanks David Anonymous for bringing this to our attention, and my apologies to the setter for failing to spot something that now looks screamingly obvious.  If it makes him feel any better, I wish the Bannsiders the very best.

Late late edit.  It gets better.  Oran is their manager!  Well Oran Kearney is at least.

Final edit.  Unlucky Oran.  3-0 to Linfield.  There’s always next season.  Now back to my earlier post….

Well I thought this was a tough one for a Quicky.  I don’t have an exact time because of interruptions, but it was up around 15 minutes.  Not sure now what the problem was, as it always looks easier when you go back to write it up.  (At this point I’m supposed to say “perhaps I just wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength”, but I banished that term years ago.  It continues to be the most over-used word on these blog pages, so let’s see who can come up with the best alternative).

Non-Brits may have been at a slight disadvantage here, with Berkshire towns, Scottish explorers, old comedians and a slang term being sprinkled throughout the grid, but I wouldn’t describe any of them as obscure.  Except maybe the Scottish guy, or is it just me that hadn’t heard of him?  Oh, and you need to know your cabbages as well.

There’s also what appears to be a typo in 1dn, unless I’m missing something.

Anyway, thank you Oran for the challenge.  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
1 Could go badly, King’s message of support (4,4)
GOOD LUCK – (COULD GO)* + K (king)
Nice clue, good start.
5 Cabbage, perhaps, a fuel we hear (4)
COLE – Homophone (we hear) for COAL (a fuel)
An old term for a plant of the brassica genus, especially cabbage, kale or rape.  But I think in the UK it may just be used as a synonym for cabbage?  Happy for someone to clarify.
8 Redesigned motor, line for the future (8)
TOMORROW – (MOTOR)* + ROW (line)
9 Bad weather: hurried to shelter one (4)
RAIN – RAN (hurried) “to shelter” I (one)
11 Girl nonetheless much reduced (5)
ETHEL – Hidden in nonETHELess
12 Overlook trick performed (7)
CONDONE – CON (trick) + DONE (performed)
Overlook as in “turn a blind eye to”.
13 Very little time to transfer support (6)
SECOND – Triple definition
Yes, one of those rare birds.  Wondered what transfer was doing in there, but of course it’s in the sense of being temporarily moved to another job or position.  That’s the one with the emphasis on the second (fourth meaning) syllable.
15 Asked questions, endlessly grating (6)
GRILLE – GRILLEd (asked questions) without the last letter (endlessly)
18 Snakes, a golden colour, in Berks town (7)
WINDSOR – WINDS (snakes) + OR (a golden colour)
Apparently Windsor is in Berkshire.  You probably knew that.
19 Language of girl initially harsh (5)
IRISH – IRIS (girl) + H (initially harsh)
21 Scottish explorer to stop and leave (4)
PARK – Double definition
My LOI, took me ages.  Didn’t know the explorer, and just couldn’t sort out the wordplay properly.  Great clue.
The man in question is Mungo Park, who seems to have lived a fascinating if tragically brief life.
22 Sporting event, initially comfortable, turning painful (3,5)
CUP FINAL – C (initially Comfortable) + (PAINFUL)*
23 Count, entirely missing the first half (4)
RELY – entiRELY missing enti (the first half)
Hmmm.  I spent a while thinking of the back halves of words that meant “entirely”.  Failed to actually consider “entirely” itself.  One of those days I guess.
24 Genteel watering hole: money talking (4-4)
WELL-BRED – WELL (watering hole) + BRED [homophone (talking) for BREAD (money)]
Down
1 Collects pistol belong to girl (7)
GATHERS – GAT (pistol) + HERS (belonging to girl)
Has to be a typo, I believe.  Should be belongING.  And I always thought GAT for gun referred to the Gatling gun, which is anything but a pistol.  But apparently GAT is a slang term for pistol.  Not round here it’s not, but then I’ve never had much to do with pistols, guns and the like.
2 Nothing old having speed and energy (5)
OOMPH – O (nothing) + O (old) + MPH (speed)
Should this have changed to OOKPH back in the 70’s?  Not in Britain I guess.
3 Illness Rod licked, displaying noble quality (10)
LORDLINESS – (ILLNESS ROD)*
4 Pick house in Channel Islands, by church (6)
CHOICE – HO (house) in CI (Channel Islands) + CE [church of England)]
Take three crossword standards and assemble them to get the solution.
6 Oran (LOL), amazingly yet to lose (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL – (ORAN LOL)*
Looks like our setter was enjoying him/herself!
7 Wise, maybe, turning up in blue? In red (5)
ERNIE – Reverse hidden in (turning up in) bluE IN REd
Will probably unleash the hounds, but I never found this guy and his mate particuarly funny.
10 Barren: incapable of giving a fig, presumably (10)
UNFRUITFUL – Double definition, the second one a little cryptic
14 Major, lent car, travelling around (7)
CENTRAL – (LENT CAR)*
16 Once-healthy daughter was blowing (7)
EXHALED – EX-HALE (once healthy) + D (daughter)
17 Game bird, beef or carp (6)
GROUSE – Triple definition
Another one!  Or really a double, as beef and carp have the same meaning in this context.
18 Cloth salesman, one wife upset (5)
WIPER – REP (salesman) + I (one) + W (wife), all reversed (upset)
20 Champion missing first part of target (5)
INNER – wINNER (champion) missing first (letter)
The inner is part of the central target in darts.

39 comments on “Quick Cryptic 824 by Oran”

  2. Another time-consuming quickie. Like galspray, I don’t see now what it was that slowed me down. Aside, that is, from flinging in ‘kohl’ at 5ac, which certainly made ERNIE ungettable for a while. I never did see the entiRELY, just biffed. PARK was a gimme given ‘Scottish explorer’, but I hesitated over ‘stop and leave’. ‘Gat’ is an old term for a gun, galspray; you’d find it in Mickey Spillane stories and such. Or Dashiell Hammett stories; no reason to read Spillane. (Never even noticed the ‘belong’ problem.)
    1. Thank goodness for that Kevin. I’m still catching up on the Milton homework you assigned to us yesterday.
  3. I put my slow time (18 minutes) down to brain still being out of crossword gear following recent events so I was relieved to come here find that others struggled a bit too.

    COLE for cabbage is most common in “cole slaw” a garnish comprising mainly shredded cabbage in mayonnaise.

  5. My problem is that I am generally not on the solver’s wavelength.
  6. So yesterday’s easier offering was just a flash in the pan. No idea how long this took (also due to interruptions) but I thought some of the vocabulary here was reasonably obscure. Gat and Cole were new to me and I didn’t know of the explorer Park. In the end it was actually a DNF as I decided the answer to 9d must be another obscure word, Einre, having been pleased to spot the hidden but failing to spot the reverse.
  7. Blimey, that was hard work. Ethel and Iris, Ernie…Park?! I had to use Google for him, I’m afraid. And LORDLINESS took me ages (because I’d put the wrong number of dashes in my doodling). I shall make a strong coffee next time I see Oran on the header.
  8. After this week’s Quickies I’m going back to the Polygon! (Although that was hard today)

    Rita

  9. I had a an absolute nightmare on this. Added to the fact I couldn’t get 5ac, 12ac or 7dn, I had wrongly put in CHOOSE for 4dn and PART for 21ac. No wonder 12ac stumped me, as I had it beginning with an “s”. Never heard of COLE for cabbage. Was thinking it might be SOUP, but couldn’t fathom how that sounded like fuel. The clue is, it doesn’t. The “wise” in 7dn is very sneaky. Other tricky ones included 19ac, 18dn and 18ac. Dear me, this was hard. Gribb.
  10. A slow one for me, today, as well, with 38 minutes. Outside my usual 30 minute target. Never heard of COLE, but I guess that explains the word coleslaw. Will try to remember that on. Had to look up a list of scotish explorers, and Livingstone didn’t fit, so plumbed for PARK. Couldn’t get the connection of Ernie and Wise until I said the two words out loud, and then facepalmed.
  11. A real struggle, and in the end a DNF because Kohl for 5ac made 7d impossible – it’s not as if I eat the stuff anyway. Should really have spotted the reverse hidden, so no excuse. 22ac was my favourite, but not a day to remember. Invariant
  12. My last two were 5a and 21a. I guessed Cole (forgetting the slaw) and Park on the basis it was slightly better than Part (and more like a name). Could not think of any 4 letter Scottish explorers.
    I agree that the 1d surface must be wrong but that only held me up a little.
    All done and luckily correct in about 30 minutes. Certainly not easy today.
    I have a friend who lives in Cole Park Road but not in Windsor. Maybe it’s where the setter lives.
    Good luck tomorrow. David
    1. “Linfield manager David Healy hopes his side can banish the memory of losing to Glenavon in last year’s Irish Cup final when they face Coleraine in this year’s decider at Windsor Park on Saturday.”

      I have twigged that it’s the Irish cup final tomorrow at Windsor Park.
      Hence the “good luck tomorrow” in the grid and all the rest.
      Have a look!
      David

      1. Excellent and I am sorry that I missed it.

        I am not sure that all new solvers of the QC will know that setters hide messages in the grid (either using the non-crossing letters or the actual answers as you have done).

        “Good luck Coleraine tomorrow” and “Irish cup final Windsor Park” is impressive.

          1. What did you say about not being on the setter’s wavelength?!?!

            As I said above, I am not even on my own wavelength.

  13. I’m glad that I have found someone else who didn’t find Eric and Ernie funny. Sure if the BBC had its way they would still be on Christmas Day.
    Enjoyed the xword
    1. I suspect time changes taste, but I recall my older generation loving them and I still chuckle when I see a replay of the above joke. Also broke some rules with two men in a bed. This puzzle took me just over 15 minutes and after a first look at the across clues I thought “oh dear”. But the down clues give a foothold (handhold?) and I solved steadily from there. Took several minutes to get my LOI 23a. Good use of “target” in 20d as “outer / inner” is quite common in clues mentioning archery, darts, targets etc. Thanks setter and blogger for excellent Friday fun.
  14. This I believe is a message from the setter relating to tomorrow’s Irish Cup Final at Windsor Park.
    Not sure if Ethel is playing.
    David
    1. Thanks David, can’t believe I didn’t notice this. Knew nothing of the event obviously, but now I think I’ll be a Bannsider for a day.

      Though not a soccer fan, I actually went to a game at the Brandywell in Derry back in the 80’s. It was some cup match (I think) between Derry City and a visiting Welsh team. Loved it.

      1. Found it! It was Derry City v Cardiff City in the UEFA European Cup Winners Cup (whatever that is) on September 7, 1988. Jeepers, nearly 30 years ago.
        1. Thanks for the update to the blog.
          I have become sufficiently interested to want to follow what happens.
          It looks like the BBC will oblige. David

          Irish Cup final: Coleraine v Linfield
          Date: Saturday, 6 May Venue: Windsor Park, Belfast Kick-off: 14:30 BST
          Coverage: Live on BBC One Northern Ireland and the BBC Sport website. Live on Radio Ulster and Text Commentary on the BBC Sport website

        2. In the “old days” there were only three European football cups, the European cup for the winners of the league in each country, the Cup Winners Cup for the winners of the major trophy in each country (in our case the FA Cup) and the Fairs cup, the qualification for which eludes me.
  15. Like ‘anonymous’ above, I had Kohl for 5 across which made 7d impossible.
    I found this the most difficult qc for ages.
  16. Another very tough puzzle for me. I eventually had to make guesses for unknown 5a and 21a and had never heard of gat either. Others that caused me problems included 19a, 7d and my LOI 23a. No exact time but I would guess around the 30 minute mark. COD 18d
  17. 1d is correct in the first person singular – I belong to my wife – I am hers.
    About 12mins, I had to guess Cole and Park, but the rest chugged along nicely, although I also didn’t spot the good luck message
    Gat is (or at least was) a manufacturer of air pistols, the type where the whole barrel springs forwards. I still have one.

    Edited at 2017-05-05 09:56 pm (UTC)

    1. Yes, but the answer (or the relevant part of it) isn’t “am hers”, it’s “hers”.
  18. The real problem is that the surface reading without the ‘ing’ doesn’t make a proper sentence. I must say I never spotted it, though… nor the hidden message. Very impressive. I enjoyed the clues too – especially the triple definitions and 6d. PARK my last one in, but Mungo floated up from some ancient memory quickly enough. 6:44.
  19. Thanks for the comments. Sorry about the mangled clue to One Down and the fact that the puzzle proved harder than I had anticipated.
    The result didn’t go our way but it was a good day out 🙂

    Oran OK

  20. Again late to party as I flew back last night and completed Thursday and Friday’s puzzles this morning.

    Found this tough and it took about an hour, although technically a dnf for 21a as I tried part, pare etc until park got the green light, didn’t twig the park = get out the car and leave.

    Bunged in cole on the strength of sounding like coal, but I think cole/cabbage has come up before.

    Also gat has come up before it was still one of the tricky ones, gathers, oomph, park and rely.

    thanks setter and blogger.

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