Quick Cryptic 894 by Teazel

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Reasonably smooth going today. I solved this having got up early to take Mrs Curarist to the airport, so I am a bit more awake than usual, It came in just under 7 minutes. Lots of double definitions, some homophones, and some nicely disguised definitions. Not sure about 5d, but overall a very nice puzzle. My favourite is 22a

Across
1 Selecting a ballad that’s cheap (5,3,1,4)
GOING FOR A SONG – double definition
8 Underground gets new head, consciously old-fashioned (5)
RETRO – METRO (‘underground’) with a new first letter (‘head’)
9 Amused mark of approval came first (7)
TICKLED – TICK (‘mark of approval’) + LED (‘came first’)
10 Kitchen utensil, I hear, is larger (7)
GREATER – Sounds like ‘grater’ (kitchen utensil)
11 Track down a tiny quantity (5)
TRACE – Double definition
13 Intended recipient of notice sees red, being replaced (9)
ADDRESSEE – AD (‘notice’) + anagram of (‘replaced’) SEES RED
17 Relatives found in usual places, commonly (5)
AUNTS – Now, if you happen to be frightfully common, like, say Parker out of Thunderbirds, you may not aspirate your aitches quite as well as posh people. Thus HAUNTS (‘usual places’) becomes ‘AUNTS. In crosswords, the same speech impediment is assumed of anyone who lives in East London.
19 Travelled zigzag courses as told, an imposition on driver (4,3)
ROAD TAX – ROAD sounds like RODE (‘travelled’), TAX sounds like TACKS (‘zigzag courses’)
20 Unable to sail in a grand circle (7)
AGROUND – A + G (grand) + ROUND
22 Body recently demoted from place ordered out (5)
PLUTO – PL (‘place’) + anagram of (‘ordered’) OUT. I love this sort of imaginative definition. Pluto, once a planet, now just another lump of rock in the Kuiper belt. Sic transit gloria mundi (geddit??)
23 Mad not to be playing with nursery horse? (3,4,6)
OFF ONES ROCKER – double definition

Down
1 Say, a cloth picked up in motor home (6)
GARAGE – EG A RAG ‘picked up’ i.e. upside down. Another cleverly worded definition.
2 Largely at sea (2,3,4)
IN THE MAIN – double definition. MAIN in crosswordland always means the sea, as in ‘the Spanish Main’
3 Exulted, told age was wrong (7)
GLOATED – anagram of (‘was wrong’) TOLD AGE
4 Subeditor here corrected “British Isles” (5,8)
OUTER HEBRIDES – Anagram (‘corrected’) of SUBEDITOR HERE. All punctuation in crossword clues is there to mislead. It may even represent the definition. There was a clue is saw recently the the answer was COLON and the definition was ‘:’
5 A Hibernian course (5)
ASCOT – Now hang on, I thought Hibernian meant Irish?? Spent a while trying to crowbar that in (?AERSE ?AERIN ?AEIRE). I know there’s a Scottish football team called Hibs, but then there’s an English rugby team called London Irish.
6 First off, burn fuel (3)
OIL – I suppose BOIL can mean BURN (e.g. “It was boiling/burning hot”). Take the first letter off.
7 Wander about to obtain device (6)
GADGET – GAD (‘wander about’) + GET (‘obtain’)
12 Very afraid weak crust has collapsed (9)
AWESTRUCK – Anagram (‘has collapsed’) of WEAK CRUST
14 Hair product, counterfeit and low quality, not finished (7)
SHAMPOO – SHAM (‘counterfeit’) + POOR (‘low quality’), take off the R (‘not finished’). Unwritten rule that any word signified in a clue as short or unfinished will be missing only one letter.
15 Tries a drop in house (3,1,2)
HAS A GO – A SAG (‘a drop’) inside HO (‘house’)
16 Area of Somerset no longer low, with river? (6)
EXMOOR – EX (‘no longer’) + MOO (‘low’) + R (‘river’). Low means moo, as in Away In A Manger: ‘The cattle are lowing’.
18 Disdain incentive, finally stubborn (5)
SPURN – SPUR (‘incentive’) + N last letter of (‘finally’) ‘stubborn’.
21 Concerned with following man on the pitch (3)
REF – RE (‘concerned with’) + F (‘following’)

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic 894 by Teazel”

  1. A good puzzle completed here in 9 minutes, with probably 2 of those lost on 8ac where I needed to do an alphabet trawl, and 6dn where I was intially unconvinced by ‘boil’ for ‘burn’ but now accept that it works both figuratively and literally. I hadn’t noticed the apparent error at 5dn but now you mention it, curarist, it does look wrong as I would have expected ‘Caledonian’. However I really don’t know enough about these things to argue the point.

    It’s no big deal, c, but we are missing one or two underlined definitions along the way.

    Edited at 2017-08-11 06:46 am (UTC)

  2. Yes Hibernian can be Celtic but if it is specific it is Irish, often catch people out with that one on my quizzes. Sorry even when I drop my aitch I can’t make haunt sound like aunt. Still not convinced by 6d. Given those moans it was still fun!
  3. 1ac made for an easy start and was home in 7.20mins with LOI 8ac RETRO.

    COD was 22ac PLUTO

    WOD 12dn AWESTRUCK a nice change from AWESOME!

    Mr. C. re- Hibernian it is Irish. However, there is a band from Birkenhead/Tranmere way who go by the name of ‘Half Man Half Biscuit’.
    As a surgeon you might be a bit disappointed – as there is no actual biscuit involved.

    PS Could you also take my wife to the airport!?

    Edited at 2017-08-11 08:33 am (UTC)

  4. Collins English Dictionary online has the following secondary meaning for the word ‘Scot’: ‘a member of a tribe of Celtic raiders from the north of Ireland […]’.

    So perhaps it’s the other way round: Scots are Hibernian because they’re from Ireland.

  5. I have a problem with awestruck meaning very afraid. Not a definition I could find. Astonished ok afraid, I’afraid not. Sorry about that!

  6. I remember being informed in an history lesson that the Picts were from Scotland and the Scots were from Ireland. In any case, the setter is covered. I found this one tricky to start, as despite 1a going straight in, I struggled with the down clues in the NW. Ploughing on, I came back on course when RETRO replaced dated in my thoughts. Liked PLUTO and Motor Home. 9:03. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
  7. Just over 8 minutes, but with an error because I’d biffed SCORN at 18dn and forgot to back to it after entering 20ac.
    Although Pluto’s been demoted, now we’ve had a good look at it, it deserves to be called more than ‘another lump of rock’.
  8. Got home too late yesterday to comment on Izetti. I could not finish it, admittedly in a rather tired frame of mind.
    Today’s was easier and contained some excellent clues I thought e.g. 1d and 15d but clever throughout.
    I knew too little to worry about Hibernian. I finished in 17 minutes with Pluto which was LOI because of a very lazy Exeter at 16d which required correction.
    Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks. David
  9. 7.36 – smooth going indeed. A couple of typos in 4d FYI. Cod 22a loi 23ac as I worked steadily downwards.
  10. After a tricky week in QCland this excellent puzzle came as a bit of a relief with no real hold ups. Particularly enjoyed 1d and 4d, completed in 14 minutes with 10a as my LOI
  11. nice puzzle to end the week and an excellent accessible blog too….

    anyone else having difficulty with accessing this site from an IOS device where it seems to have been hi-jacked by some outfit trying to offload iPhone 8 on us???? Can only access the site now from my desktop machine….anyone had and solved this problem?

    1. I got that in Safari when I used my iPhone. I got rid of it by selecting the “show all open pages” icon and closing the advert.
      1. John – Thx – that seems to have worked. Hoping it stays fixed! Regards – Andrew
  12. Thank you Teazel for making a puzzle accessible to the also-rans like me! So glad to be able to finish one this week. It took me about 25 minutes, but at least I understood and parsed every clue in that time. I was beginning to think that I should give up on cryptics, especially after yesterday’s! This blog is what keeps me plodding on – I really do appreciate all the help and encouragement. MM
  13. Unlike our esteemed blogger, I was a bit less awake than usual, having got up to go take pictures of a dawn launch at the local balloon fiesta. I rose at 4:45 and decided to do the QC over my much-needed coffee instead of the 15×15, otherwise I’d have missed the sunrise!

    12 minutes all told, FOI 1a, LOI 18d, though I didn’t manage to get through them strictly in order, sadly. Nearly scuppered myself by trying to squeeze G+ROUNDED into 20a before seeing the light, but plain sailing apart from that. Thanks to Teazel and curarist.

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