Quick Cryptic 854 by (Sir Donald) Breadman

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another Friday struggle for me, falling outside the magical (?) 11-minute barrier by one second.  An enjoyable challenge as usual though.

Breadman seemed to dip into the “extended” set of Crossword standards for this one, presenting us with sport=RU, upper-class girl=GEL and headland=NESS, along with all the standard standards.  Also I thought that some of the clue constructions were slightly more intricate than usual.  Possibly building that bridge from the Quicky to its big brother?  Maybe.  Will be interested to hear how you all fared.

Here’s how I parsed it all…
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 Unrefined team sport, with good man in charge (6)
RUSTIC – RU (Rugby Union, team sport) + ST (saint, good man) + IC (in charge)
And if ever a game needs a good man in charge, it’s rugby.  Don’t get me started on northern hemisphere refs.
4 A cadet’s outside with drink and behaves badly (4,2)
ACTS UP – A + CT (CadeT’s “outside”) + SUP (drink)
9 Referee, endlessly hard, one using teeth (7)
ARBITER – AR (“endlessly” hARd) + BITER (one using teeth)
10 Sounds like cow, eastern US mammal (5)
MOOSE – MOOS (sounds like cow) + E (eastern)
11 Old foreign money Marilyn’s grabbing, on return (4)
LIRA – Reverse hidden (grabbing, on return) in mARILyn
12 Culinary device, say, Tim and Reg ruined (3,5)
EGG TIMER – EG (say) + (TIM + REG)*
14 Father disturbed rest on lift (11)
PATERNOSTER – PATER (father) + (REST ON)*
Undoubtedly Horryd’s WOD, and who could disagree with him?
Here’s one for your enjoyment……mind the gap!
18 Churchman returned, opening alcoholic drink (8)
VERMOUTH – VER [REV (churchman), returned] + MOUTH (opening)
20 Drug addict heads for urban site expecting rendezvous (4)
USER – First letters (heads) for Urban Site Expecting Rendezvous
22 Hoard one hundred yen (5)
CACHE – C (one hundred) + ACHE (yen)
23 Heavenly upper-class girl, one in middle of dance (7)
ANGELIC – GEL (upper-class girl) + I (one) in ANC (middle of dANCe)
24 High-flying singer hurt badly by silence (6)
THRUSH – (HURT)* + SH (silence)
25 Evil old US lawyer rebuffed handsome chap (6)
ADONIS – [SIN (evil) + O (old) + DA (US lawyer)] reversed (rebuffed)
Down
1 Very concerned with partner (6)
REALLY – RE (concerned with) + ALLY (partner)
2 Brother or sister, on time, collecting one in Asian region (7)
SIBERIA – SIB (brother or sister) + ERA (time) “collecting” I (one)
3 Enthusiastic about pub also, we hear (4)
INTO – Homophone (we hear) for INN (pub) + TOO (also)
5 Extremely drowsy mother in bed, oddly ousted (8)
COMATOSE – MA (mother) in COT (bed) + OSE (odd letters of OuStEd)
6 Severe weather feature? Way round found by marines (5)
STORM – ST (street, way) + O (round) + RM (Royal Marines)
7 Work up energy and attempt lines by Chaucer? (6)
POETRY – PO [OP (work) reversed (up)] + E (energy) + TRY (attempt)
8 Two similar animals in London road? (4,3,4)
FROG AND TOAD – Cockney Rhyming Slang for “road”
13 Wicked lady’s protest over headland (8)
DEMONESS – DEMO (protest) + NESS (headland)
15 Greek character recording wild lions (7)
EPSILON – EP (recording) + (LIONS)*
16 Shore bird flying to cave (6)
AVOCET – (TO CAVE)*
17 Creature that snaps our side’s bulbous plant (6)
CROCUS – CROC (creature that snaps) + US (our side)
19 Fast driver: note vehicle overturning (5)
RACER – [RE (note) + CAR (vehicle)] reversed (overturning)
21 Elderly newsman, silver on top (4)
AGED – AG (silver) on ED (editor, newsman)

26 comments on “Quick Cryptic 854 by (Sir Donald) Breadman”

  1. Fairly straightforward, although I’d never heard of FROG AND TOAD; I assumed it was CRS. PATERNOSTER I only knew from a 15×15. Biffed AVOCET from checkers, solved post hoc. 6:17.
  2. Frog and Toad was not a problem.

    Had dragon instead of crocus for a while…. snap dragon may have been the thought path. But Adonis set us on the right path.

    LOI DEMONESS.

    Done in just over a lunchtime and then some.

  3. One short after 20 mins, although kicking myself for not getting it: Paternoster. I knew it was a lift: Sheffield University still has one.

    I knew there was a CRS for road. I hate CRS with a vengeance, so looked it up.

    Some good clues today, but tough for a QC.

  4. A DNF for me today because I put BARONESS instead of DEMONESS for 13ac, which left 14ac impossible to get. Would be interested if anyone else mad the same mistake. I was hoping “bar” meant “protest” in crossword land, and the “over” gave “o”. I didn’t understand the parsing of ANGELIC at the time. I think the rest was quite straightforward, so annoyed at my mistake at 13dn. Gribb.
  5. Crawled over the finishing line in an hour.

    Dnk avocet, so harder to solve with the anagram.
    Also dnk LOI paternoster = lift but knew the word.

    Some really excellent clues: vermouth, epsilon, comatose, poetry and COD really!

    Couldn’t parse angelic so thanks for the blog.

  6. 8 minutes. Frog and Toad for road is not an example of CRS that leapt immediately to mind. I suppose I must have met it before, and possibly many times, but somehow it became buried.
  7. Learnt some new ‘Cockney’ today, my LOI.

    Knew paternoster as L.P. but assumed the ‘lift’ was related to the emotion some may feel after reciting it!

    Thanks to Lord Galspray and Sir Don Breadman who sound as if they may be colleagues of Sir Gawain.

  8. Had to sit down in Pret with an espresso to finish it!

    Only because of three clues though – FROG AND TOAD I had never heard of, despite boxing for years in Bethnal Green; DEMONESS is just not a word (ok, obviously it’s a word but you know what I mean); and my LOI was PATERNOSTER which I only got by staring at the checkers over a second espresso!!

    Some great clues; felt much more technical than the usual QC though.

    Thanks to Breadperson and galspray.

    Templar

  9. Biffed 14a. Didn’t know thrush was a high flyer!
    Definitely never heard of frog and toad!!( in fact, had to google crs!!!). You learn something new every day.
    Still enjoyable puzzle, thanks to blogger and setter.
    Cheers
  10. 7 minutes with a few that needed some thought. Experience definitely useful for words like PATERNOSTER where the father from the clue immediately has you looking for PA/PATER at the beginning.
  11. A slight return to form, with a 40min solve of what seemed like a hard QC. Frog and toad and avocet were both unknowns but solvable. Used to work in a building with a paternoster (cod), and asking engineers to sketch how they worked was a standard interview question – do have a go ! Invariant
  12. Hell’s bells. I’m 20 minutes in and I’ve only got three 🙁 This seems more like a “back pager”, to me, though I actually did pretty well on that yesterday. Better than this so-called quicky! Might well be a DNF.
  13. After a valiant struggle I gave up on PATERNOSTER. Real mixture I thought of some very straightforward offerings and some quite complicated formulations. FROG and TOAD was a new one on me as well, although biffable.
    Interesting challenge
    PlayUpPompey
  14. As a birder I know of nothing ‘high-flying’ about a thrush – skylark yes. I assume therefore there is either some crossword-ese here, or just Sir Don doesn’t know his birds.
    Anyone?
    1. Do you know of any birds that only fly low?

      Edited at 2017-06-16 04:17 pm (UTC)

  15. Just over an hour today. Knew all the words but struggled with decoding the clues. Good to get some new (to me) twists and turns but I did struggle and had to use some fairly strong aids to get finished (but not by peeping here – that’s too easy!). Pexiter
  16. This required a real effort. I had never heard of Frog and Toad but managed to work it out. I have lived in the London area for a long time but Cockney hasn’t been spoken for even longer.
    LOI was Demoness. Liked 15d inter alia.
    No time recorded as was watching US Open highlights and solving during ad breaks. David

  17. This was tough for me with the three unknowns at 8d, 16d and 14a all proving tricky to decipher. 14a was my LOI and it’s a while since I’ve written anything in quite so tentatively.
    Overall it felt far more like a mini version of the 15×15 than a regular QC, which is no bad thing.
    No time today as it took three sittings but it would have been well over 30 minutes.
  18. I can’t remember when I did this puzzle, as yesterday was a bit of a blur with Vin Garbutt’s funeral and Wake. When I checked to see if I had attempted it this morning, I got a congratulations with a time of 6:53, so whenever I did it, I obviously didn’t struggle. I knew Paternoster(it’s also a piece of fishing tackle), Avocet and the CRS, so wasn’t held up by them. If I remember correctly, FOI was RUSTIC and LOI VERMOUTH. Nice puzzle, I think. Thanks Breadman and Galspray.

    Edited at 2017-06-17 01:39 pm (UTC)

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