Quick Cryptic 967 by Pedro

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An eminently completable crossword, but not without its various traps and difficulties if you’re a beginner. Apart from the unknown boat at 11ac and an unusual synonym for drunk (isn’t it amazing how many there are in English?), I was held up momentarily trying make “kit” work at 1dn then trying to take apart the cryptic definition at 4dn. Meteorologists among us might quibble about 3dn, too (please do, I’m dying to know the difference).

Definitions underlined.

Across
8 Fire or non-fire, possibly (7)
INFERNO – anagram of (possibly) NON-FIRE.
9 String of islands having a charge for crossing? (5)
ATOLL – A and TOLL (charge for crossing).
10 Summons to meal draws in one attending (5)
GOING – GONG (summons for meal) surrounding (draws in) I (one).
11 Boat more likely to float? (7)
LIGHTER – double definition.
12 Curious when taken aback by excellent Japanese warrior (7)
SAMURAI – RUM (curious) and AS (when) all reversed (taken aback) next to (by) AI (A1, excellent).
14 Manmade material sported by many Londoners (5)
NYLON – hidden in (sported by) maNY LONdoners.
15 Country I name that has rejected support (5)
INDIA – I and N (name) with AID (support) backwards (rejected).
17 Prominent foreigner seen in street (7)
SALIENT – ALIEN (foreigner) inside ST (street).
19 Gangster in Sofia, corrupt in a short time (7)
MAFIOSO – anagram of (corrupt) SOFIA) in MO (short time).
20 Danger for each one left (5)
PERIL – PER (for each), I (one) and L (left).
22 Small corner hard to be found in French resort (5)
NICHE – H (hard) inside NICE (French resort).
23 Out of bed, drunk and tense (7)
UPTIGHT – UP (out of bed) and TIGHT (drunk).
Down
1 Equipment includes new telephone (4)
RING – RIG (equipment) surrounding (includes) N (new).
2 Ratify a fine company (6)
AFFIRM – A, F (fine) and FIRM (company).
3 Mist surrounds river and pond creature (4)
FROG – FOG (mist) surrounding R (river).
4 Not something you’ll salvage from a wreck, perhaps (2-6,5)
NO CLAIMS BONUS – cryptic definition.
5 Alarming changes in key election seat (8)
MARGINAL – anagram of (changes) ALARMING.
6 Job almost entirely involving the mail (6)
POSTAL – POST (job) and all but the last letter of (almost) ALl (all, entirely. Apologies for the font).
7 Instrument, note, used in lively recital (8)
CLARINET – N (note) inside an anagram of (lively) RECITAL.
12 I’m beginning to mature in handling of golf-club under waterlogged conditions (8)
SWIMMING – I’M and first letter of (beginning to) Mature, inside SWING (handling of golf club).
13 Boy, English, engaged in study? That’s sensible (8)
REASONED – SON (boy) and E (English) all surrounded by (engaged in) READ (study).
16 A mistake to change sides? (6)
DEFECT – double definition.
18 Wind up new newspaper appearing in middle of week (6)
ENRAGE – N (new) and RAG (newspaper) within the middle letters of (in middle of) wEEk.
20 Compassion? Heartless party will suppress it (4)
PITY – all but the middle letters of (heartless) PartY surrounding (will suppress) IT.
21 First of lunches consumed behind schedule (4)
LATE – first (letter) of Lunches and ATE (consumed).

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic 967 by Pedro”

  1. A lot of inept typing helped slow me down (and wind me up) a bunch, with ‘inferon’ doing the most damage, as it made NO-CLAIMS BONUS, which I only know from cryptics to start with, all the more out of reach. 8:11.

  2. 20:24, with NO CLAIMS BONUS LOI.

    ‘Lighter’ for a boat is one that crops up regularly in crosswords. COD 17a —SALIENT.

    Melanie Reid in this paper has kicked off a list of words for drunk this week, and she’s got some choice Scots ones.

  3. Whizzed through this in 10 minutes, only held up by reasoned and no claims bonus, until I hit the 17a wall of salient, which took another agonizing 15 minutes, until alien for foreigner finally came to mind.

    Couldn’t get solvent out of my head, but was cautious after the recklessness of the last few days.

    Uptight has a good surface but COD like Merlin to salient.

  4. 10 minutes by skin of teeth. NCB was my LOI – rather an unexpected answer as until the “doh” moment I’d been thinking along completely different lines.
  5. One of my good days judging by the times listed – 8:49. Had to realise I’d spelt (referring back to yesterday’s QC) Samurai wrongly before getting loi 13dn.
    So – to prevent our dear blogger from a premature demise:
    The only difference between mist and fog is visibility. The phenomenon is called fog if the visibility is one kilometre (1,100 yards) or less. In the UK the definition of fog is visibility less than 100 metres (for driving purposes, UK Highway Code rule 226), while for pilots (and nautically) the distance is one kilometre.
  6. I’d completed all except 4d at just over 6 minutes and then came to a grinding halt trying to imagine what a diver might not want to bring up from the deep, and had to write the checkers out horizontally and scrutinize the result before the penny dropped and I clapped a hand to my forehead. 9:37. Nice puzzle. Thanks Pedro and William.
  7. I also struggled with 4d, perhaps because the term tends to be no claim discount these days – itself a misnomer as your premium invariably goes up after a claim regardless of NCD.

    Thanks for the blog and thanks Chris for the definition of fog. Altogether now… “There’s a mist along the horizon”. Oh, hang on.

  8. I was all fingers and thumbs today- I really should use treeware!

    4dn NO-CLAIMS BONUS came reasonably quickly and was my COD

    WOD 19dn MAFIOSO

    Why so few contributions today?

  9. 13 minutes for me, so I am happy, although that did include boarding the rattler and finding a seat, so probably a minute or so faster in reality.

    NCB was LOI for me too, with a similar reaction when I saw it to other commentators. I only saw it after scanning for a middle word that fit the crossers, so it was pretty determined to remain hidden, despite the very few candidates for the first, two-letter word.

    I haven’t finished it yet, but the bottom half of the 15 x 15 went in quite quickly for me this morning, and might be worth a look at by nervous newbies wanting a challenge.

  10. Most of this went in without too much trouble, save 12d where I wanted to include Grip, but then I came to a complete halt with loi 4d. Needed a second sitting before the penny dropped with a very loud clang. It’s not as if something similar hasn’t come up before, so that made struggling with it doubly disappointing. Invariant
  11. I thought no claims bonus was unfairly terse. It is surely wrong also. You would keep you no claims bonus if you were not to blaim surely
    1. Well the clue does say “perhaps”, so I think it’s OK. Like others, I did need a few checkers before I saw it, though. No real hold ups for me with this so a sub-average 5:45. I liked SWIMMING and REASONED for taking a bit of working out and SALIENT, my COD.
  12. 14 minutes to do all of this except 12d.
    I thought I was looking for a Seedling or something similar and could not make it work. 2/3 minutes more led me to Swimming.
    Liked the anagram in 5d and have seen Lighter before so no real problems. David
  13. two days on the trot finished, for a newbie, I’m happy.
    it was good fun throughout and again, enough to keep you interested, but not easy to finish quickly …. for me anyway!
    19 threw me as I’d put mafiosi then mafiosa and finally o!
    LOI no claims bonus
    COD india
    thanks Pedro & William.
  14. Like others most of this went in without too many problems but 4d took some figuring out and, like Rotter,I got there by running through the possibilities for the middle word before the penny dropped.
    Completed in 15 minutes with LOI and COD 4d.
    Thanks William
  15. Sleep deprived and sunburned, but it all went straight in. Thought the big long one was quite good
  16. I thought no claims bonus was unfairly terse. It is surely wrong also. You would keep you no claims bonus if you were not to blaim surely
  17. DNF – no claims bonus eluded me. Even worked out third word pretty much had to be bonus. Didn’t think this was a great clue, but then I wouldn’t!

    Mighty

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