Quick Cryptic 917 by Pedro

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I had most of this done very quickly and on first pass, but couldn’t see the wood for the trees at 15dn and a handful of other clues. Eventually reflecting on an average time, I see no real reason for the hold ups, except perhaps some lovely neat clueing.

Note the &lit (and literally), in which every word of the clue is required for both definition and wordplay. COD to the aforementioned 15dn – great when the penny dropped.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 A sham critic could possibly be appealing (11)
CHARISMATIC – anagram of (could possibly be) A SHAM CRITIC.
9 Cordiality and warmth – that’s about right (5)
HEART – HEAT (warmth) surrounding (about) R (right).
10 Large insect found behind mother (7)
MAMMOTH – MOTH (insect) after (found behind) MAM (mother).
11 Superfluous, and under changes with time (9)
REDUNDANT – anagram of (changes) AND UNDER with T (time).
13 Spoil horse, having tail docked (3)
MAR – MARe (horse) missing last letter (having tail docked).
14 Such as vinegar, excellent applied to nervous condition (6)
ACETIC – ACE (excellent) and TIC (nervous condition).
16 In charge after curtailment of prison medical centre (6)
CLINIC – I.C. (abbreviation of in charge) after CLINk (prison) missing last letter (curtailment).
17 Individual working with energy (3)
ONE – ON (working) and E (energy).
18 Lost again at sea, looking back over one’s course? (9)
NOSTALGIA – anagram of (at sea) LOST AGAIN.
21 Attempt to accommodate ancient play like Hamlet (7)
TRAGEDY – TRY (attempt) surrounding (to accommodate) AGED (ancient).
23 What’s topping individual cakes, including nice gateaux? (5)
ICING – first letters of (what’s topping) Individual Cakes Including Nice Gateaux. A clear example of an &lit clue.
24 The writer put in revised other term for measuring device (11)
THERMOMETER – ME (the write) put inside an anagram of (revised) OTHER TERM.
Down
2 Difficult keeping old collection stored away? (5)
HOARD – HARD (difficult) surrounding (keeping) O (old).
3 Keeping school punishment with new head taking over (9)
RETENTION – dETENTION (school punishment) with R replacing first letter (different head taking over). No indication of what the new letter should be, but clear from the definition.
4 Dance when lifting business degree (5)
SAMBA – reversal of (lifting) AS (when) and MBA (business degree).
5 Point a major road uphill (3)
AIM – A and reversal of (uphill) MI (M1, a major road).
6 Tough sports event to flatten many, but not all (4,3)
IRON MAN – IRON (to flatten) and all but the last letter of (not all) MANy.
7 Swear he misled when covering fight location (11)
WHEREABOUTS – anagram of (misled) SWEAR HE, surrounding (covering) BOUT (fight).
8 Fail to give full details to brusque coppers? (5-6)
SHORT-CHANGE – SHORT (brusque) and CHANGE (coppers).
12 Take vital moves, providing a running commentary? (9)
TALKATIVE – anagram of (moves) TAKE VITAL.
15 English trees? Nonsense (7)
EYEWASH – E (english) with YEW and ASH (trees).
19 Directive for one young man has overlooked name (3-2)
SAY-SO – SAY (for example, for one) and SOn (young man) ignoring (overlooked) N (name).
20 Men overheard in this pretence (5)
GUISE – homophone of (overheard) “guys” (men).
22 Attention seized by the artist (3)
EAR – hidden in (seized by) thE ARtist.

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic 917 by Pedro”

  1. I was withihn a second or two of exceeding my 10 minute target on this one, held up towards the end by 19dn and 6dn. I was completely reliant on wordplay for IRON MAN as I’ve never heard of it as a sporting event. 7dn had delayed me earlier because I needed every checker to think of a word that fitted, and reverse engineered to discover what was going on in the clue.

    No problem here with EYEWASH as it came up in the main puzzle I blogged only last week where it was also defined as ‘nonsense’.

  2. Ironman came up in the quick cryptic (832) 17 May 2017, clued as:

    Somehow I ran on, covering miles in demanding sports
    event (4,3).

    Took 20 minutes and then ground to a halt with nostalgia, thermometer, retention, say so, guise and LOI Eyewash which always seems to cause me problems.

    So best part of an hour including breakfast!

    COD ICING.

    Edited at 2017-09-13 05:40 am (UTC)

  3. ICING has to be my COD too, as it virtually depicts the meaning, “coating” the last five words.
  4. Just less than my average 20 minutes at 19:37 but held up by failing to get either of the two long down clues until the very end. I too very much appreciated 23a.
  5. Made clean sweep, entering all acrosses before getting to downs – but even skipping filled cells still took nearly 6 minutes. I’m amazed by Verlaine’s keyboard facility in being three times as fast !
  6. Excellent puzzle by Pedro, with some lovely clues (23a already recognised above). COD to 18a which scans nicely. Completed in just over 10mins with a bit of head scratching over 7d. Now, where did I put that pen…? Very accessible 15×15 today. Thanks all
  7. Hamstrung by biffing ‘retaining’ at 3D, rendering 11a and 18a impossible. When I eventually owned up to the possibility, however remote, that I may have made a mistake somewhere, the remainder fell quickly into place. Thanks to setter and blogger.
    5’45”
  9. Completely screwed this one up by submitting without realising I hadn’t completed 20d and missing the parsing of 19d, entering SAY GO instead of SAY SO. Ah well, on to the 15×15. Better have a cup of tea first. Thanks Pedro and William. Oh, 10:34 for what it’s worth.
  11. Felt like my solving was a bit scrappy on this one, but I got there in 8:42, which is about what it took me to fill in half of today’s 15×15. I shall have to take my Times performances today as solace against being beaten yet again by Boatman in the Guardian…
    1. It’s taken me about 5 years to get anywhere close to Boatman’s wavelength and even then his puzzles regularly take me much longer than the majority of Times puzzles. Today’s I actually found easier than usual to complete, though I couldn’t parse everything and most of the theme passed me by. He is one of the more libertarian setters at the Guardian and I find his style quite unique. I think he published a book last year of his first 50 Guardian puzzles.
      1. Yes, the theme wasn’t helpful for me, either. I think I’ll enjoy his style once I get somewhere near finishing them! Perhaps I’ll put the book on my Christmas list, but it might be next Christmas before I get used to him…
  12. 20.03 for me, so well within my 30 min target. All went in nicely, with only SAY-SO taking a bit of parsing. EYEWASH is a word I only know from crosswords, but as I listed all the three-letter trees with middle letter E (having already guessed ASH, I know straight away EYEWASH was the answer.
  13. Never felt comfortable with this one, so I’m not surprised it took a full 40 mins. If you could get the 4 long answers quickly, it was probably a breeze – I didn’t, so it wasn’t. I thought 7d was just ahead of others as CoD. Invariant

  14. 16:28. Also flew through across clues but bogged down by the two long down clues. Avoided ‘Acidic’, which looked like a clever mislead.

  15. 12 minutes today -quick for me -but with one wrong. I hastily put Say No for 19d. Was in a bit of a hurry so did not stop to parse.
    LOI was Eyewash but unparsed -could not see the trees for the wood. Thanks for the explanation.
    Nice puzzle. David
  16. A couple of tricky clues took me up to 20 minutes today – in particular my LOI and COD 20d (damned homophones!), the parsing of 19d – which I eventually gave up on and 7d also took some figuring out. The rest went in without many hold ups.
    Thanks for the blog.
  17. … which is not bad for me. It made me happy as I have struggled so far this week and it included icing (an excellent clue) which also makes me happy especially if it is lemon or chocolate!! I also very much liked the concise clue for 15D. MM

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