Quick Cryptic 924 by Tracy

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Right. Hmmm. Difficulty: high, I would say. Took me 11min. Some distinctly postgraduate wordplay mixed in with some very obvious write-ins, like the setter wanted to compensate for the harder clues. 19dn has given long and distinguished service and should be retired. That said, it’s not without wit, and was an enjoyable solve overall. Apologies to experienced solvers who may think I am teaching them to suck eggs at times, but I feel a duty to the beginners, especially here in the quickie.

Across
1 Cautious about frightening, one having escaped (5)
CHARY – C (about) HAIRY (frightening), take out the I
4 Played initially, recent or old gramophone record (7)
PLATTER – P (first letter of played) LATTER (recently)
8 Description of a nobleman taking in clubs (7)
ACCOUNT – A COUNT taking in C (clubs)
9 Report of armistice in newspaper article (5)
PIECE – Homophone of ‘peace’
10 I pay con woman for arranging ship’s ladder (12)
COMPANIONWAY – anagram (‘for arranging’) of I PAY CON WOMAN
12 Cycled round hot southern island (6)
RHODES – RODE around H with S on the end
13 French woman almost checked out after years (6)
YVETTE – ‘Checked out’ is VETTED, ‘almost’ means it’s shortened, Y for ‘years’ at the front. Tried to make YVONNE work initially. Not sure how French it is, sounds distinctly English to me.
16 Tablet unfortunately crushed in field (12)
BATTLEGROUND – TABLET ‘unfortunately’ (= anagrammed) becomes BATTLE. ‘Crushed’ is GROUND. I was thrown because I expected ‘crushed’ to be the anagrind, which is the sort of error that comes with experience. Rather like an outswinger in cricket that will take the edge of a top-order batsman, but won’t get the number 11 out because he won’t get anywhere near it. ‘Field’ is a bit generic for the definition but it can be used to mean specifically a battleground, usually by poets, ‘In Flanders fields’ etc
18 Come up a slope (5)
ARISE – A + RISE
20 Second smoked herring for captain (7)
SKIPPER – S + KIPPER
21 Paddy, dry, swallowing an alcoholic drink (7)
TANTRUM – ‘Dry’ in crosswordland always seems to be TT (teetotal). So here it’s TT ‘swallowing’ AN with RUM on the end. I like the definition.
22 Group’s leader cutting dreadful lament (5)
DIRGE – G inside DIRE (dreadful)

Down
1 Opportunist appearing in court, shortly (7)
CHANCER – Easier to biff than parse. (Biffed = Bunged In From Definition, parse = work out why it’s right). CHANCER is an opportunist. CHANCERY is a division of the High Court of England and Wales, and also a type of court in certain US States, e.g. MI, TN, NJ
2 Housing agreement (13)
ACCOMMODATION – double definition
3 What happens to a baby at a christening? Anything? (3,4,2)
YOU NAME IT – double definition
4 Foul place to clear (6)
PUTRID – PUT (place) + RID (clear)
5 When pressure generated by snake (3)
ASP – AS (when) + P (pressure)
6 Deviously test Hals’ most important painting (3,4,6)
THE LAST SUPPER – this I thought was a bit stiff for the quickie. It’s a fairly complex construction and arguably incorrect in its cluing. ‘Deviously’ shouts anagram, but you won’t get the whole thing. Rearrange ‘test Hals’ and you get THE LAST S, add UPPER for ‘most important’, though it should really be ‘more important’. Took me an age to spot this.
7 Part of film may be true, it’s said (4)
REEL – sounds like ‘real’
11 Flipping lair must contain rats? It doesn’t matter (5,4)
NEVER MIND – Another ‘biff first, ask questions later’. ‘Lair’ is DEN, reverse it (‘flipping’), insert VERMIN.
14 Back last nag, not the first (7)
ENDORSE – END (last) + (H)ORSE (nag)
15 Discarded stuff from planes in the morning (6)
JETSAM – JETS + AM. Explanation of the various things that end up in the sea here
17 Unable to move quickly (4)
FAST – double definition. Could have made it a nice triple by adding ‘Starving:’ at the beginning
19 Nobleman briefly getting attention (3)
EAR – Short for EARL. A very time-honoured clue.

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic 924 by Tracy”

  1. After several hours and 2 classes, I can’t remember much about this. I surprised myself by remembering ‘paddy’ from a 15×15. I think I biffed BATTLEGROUND. I agree that 6d is pretty challenging for a Quicky, but there’s nothing wrong with ‘most important’. 4:56.
  2. 1a chary unknown
    4a platter unknown
    companionway unknown etc etc

    Prefer the 15×15 on tracy days.

  3. I found this quite tricky and biffed 1d and 1a. I completed in 12:24 but annoyingly found I had yet another typo at 14d, having somehow entered ENDOREE. *&@##**. I thought THE LAST SUPPER was tricky for a QC. Thanks Tracy and Curarist.
  4. 6d is devious indeed. A tiny bit too much knowledge meant I was fooled for ages thinking it must be a painting by Fran’s Hals. But I don’t think the laughing cavalier would fit. Of it isn’t….oh dear
  5. I missed my target 10 by 1 minute today mainly down to time lost on THE LAST SUPPER and 1ac where I thought of CHARY immediately but confused myself for ages over the simple wordplay.

    Edited at 2017-09-22 09:17 am (UTC)

  6. I guess most people try and start with 1ac/1d, so Tracy flagged this one as difficult from the start. Staggered across the line an hour later – some humour (14d) along the way, but it was too hard a road to be enjoyable. Invariant
  7. 15 minutes – loi putrid cod endorse. Felt like quite a struggle for a QC but, as I haven’t time for the biggie today, i was happy to have something bite-size to get the teeth into.
  8. As per everyone else, bar kevin, a slightly tricky solve today – but it is afterall Friday.

    COD 10ac COMPANION WAY with 13ac YVETTE a decent clue.

    WOD 4dn PUTRID

    Same problem with 1ac CHARY as Our Jack.

    I biffed 6dn THE LAST SUPPER – as per Mr.Curarist a clue that came up short.
    Tracy?

  9. A slow solve for me at 11:50 but I enjoyed it nonetheless as there were some nice clues. COD for me goes to TANTRUM for the lovely, misleading surface.
  10. 9:33 for me, despite feeling like it was going rather slowly. FOI 1a CHARY, LOI 4d PUTRID. A fair bit of biffing, of the somewhat risky “Oh, that must be THE LAST SUPPER even I can only see half the letters” kind.

    WOD CHANCER, whose clue also gave me today’s learning opportunity: Chancery Lane in London is one of those names I grew up with (my family lived a fair way out of London proper, but we were on the Central Line) and as such, it’s never really occurred to me to wonder where it came from. Thanks to Tracy and our blogger for helping me find out.

  11. ……but satisfying to get there in the end. I’m still a bit grumpy about ‘field’ for ‘battleground’ as a battleground is often used more generically e.g. Atlantic Battleground rather than referring to a particular field, although it does have that usage of course. So not sure why I feel grumpy about it! Some other clues had difficult synonyms but I expect that from Tracy. Pexiter.
  12. Seems “paddy” has its origin in an ethnic stereotype. Partly (Scotch/)Irish myself, and the tempers in my family were notorious. But still…! (Ha)

    Edited at 2017-09-22 05:28 pm (UTC)

  13. A distinctly tough end to the week. I knew I was in trouble when I only had two answers after my first run through all the clues. Eventually I got most of the left hand side completed and required a break before tackling the right. I tried inventing a new word for 4a (Platest) but it never looked right.
    No time today but I would estimate 30-35 minutes with LOI 1a, due to parsing issues. Enjoyed 4d

  14. 29:00 a toughie, very hard to get started. East side easier than west. Never heard of Companionway; liked the double def of YOU NAME IT.

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