Quick Cryptic 984 by Felix

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Slightly more challenging than usual, I’d say. I came in at just under 10min. There are a couple of good examples of the compound anagram, which is important training for the 15 x 15. Some of the other clues seem deliberately simplistic as though compensating for other challenges. I have had to underline an ellipsis for the first time. Overall, too many puddings.

I enjoyed the combination of references to George Best and Liver. Best was a football star who enjoyed a drink or two and ended up needing a new liver, which he controversially received on the NHS. At the time many people asked what George Best had done to deserve a new liver, though the more apposite question was what had the new liver done to deserve George Best…

Across
1 Strongholds in castle I’d converted (8)
CITADELS – anagram (‘converted’) of CASTLE ID
5 Employer’s bum steers, every so often (4)
USER – alternate letters of bUm StEeRs
8 Boy, we hear, to go on a bender (5)
KNEEL – sounds like NEIL. Interesting definition.
9 Hair needing to be cut, perhaps, though hardly extending this far! (7)
FURLONG – self-explanatory
11 They drop to deadly effect — in two ways (4-7)
DIVE-BOMBERS – hardly even cryptic. Both DIVE and BOMB mean drop in different ways. Unless I’m missing something.
13 Bear’s friend in bygone days with body of deer (6)
EEYORE – YORE is bygone days, body of ‘deer’ is EE. The miserable thistle-eating creation of A A Milne.
14 One swearing aloud, finding something on computer screen (6)
CURSOR – homophone, sounds like ‘curser’
17 Hen parties I organised: one’s held by apprentice (11)
TRAINEESHIP – anagram of HEN PARTIES I. I’ve seen this one before
20 Are these speakers barking? (7)
WOOFERS – cryptic definition
21 Heap of dust finally placed in bag (5)
STACK –  SACK (bag) with T (dust finally) inside
22 Pudding that’s no good (4)
DUFF – double definition
23 Oily bend in pipe, perhaps, with suction breaking (8)
UNCTIOUS – bend in pipe is U, plus an anagram (‘breaking’) of SUCTION

Down
1 Sweet, some music a keyboardist produces! (4)
CAKE – hidden word: musiC A KEyboardist
2 Irregularly, stayed outside university for part of the week (7)
TUESDAY – anagram (‘irregularly’) of STAYED with U (university) in.
3 Rescue last of fine offal placed in skip (11)
DELIVERANCE – E (last of fine) + LIVER (offal) put inside DANCE (skip)
4 Socialists exist, ignored? (4,2)
LEFT BE – self explanatory
6 A very good man — I rock! (5)
STONE – ST (saint, very good man) + ONE (I)
7 Boy is to attempt record collection (8)
REGISTRY – REG (boy) + IS +TRY. Hard to imagine a child called Reginald nowadays, but hey.
10 New author’s Muir, they say (6,3,2)
RUMOUR HAS IT – anagram (‘new’) of AUTHORS MUIR.
12 Gave Irish footballer ring midweek? (8)
BESTOWED – Irish footballer is George BEST, ring is O, midweek is WED
15 Bribe artist, and no singer (7)
SOPRANO – SOP (bribe) + RA (Royal Academy, ie artist) + NO
16 Naval hero’s grip on opponent (6)
NELSON – Double definition.
18 A pudding sent back cold (5)
ALOOF – A + FOOL (pudding) backwards
19 Son heads for Klosters in Switzerland and …? (4)
SKIS – S (son) + first letters of Klosters In Switzerland

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic 984 by Felix”

  1. I first put in UNCTUOUS, but the wordplay insisted it must be UNCTIOUS. Seemed Google didn’t want to give me any results for that word at all, but I eventually found some slight justification for considering it an archaic form. How many times does a word have to be misspelled a certain way before that spelling is considered a “variant”? I don’t think the clue was so good in other respects as to warrant extraordinary measures.

    I, too, find the clue for DIVE-BOMBERS to be thin gruel, if I’m not missing something.

    I didn’t know anything about George Best, so thanks for that background.

    Edited at 2017-12-15 08:33 am (UTC)

  2. 14 minutes, so my third missed 10-minute target in a row.

    Not entirely happy with CAKE for ‘sweet’ – a ghastly non-U expression for ‘pudding’ anyway.

    Also not sure about describing Best as ‘Irish footballer’. He identified himself as Northern Irish whereas ‘Irish’ on its own is usually taken to refer to the Republic.

    Edited at 2017-12-15 09:10 am (UTC)

  3. Isn’t the point that a dive-bomber “drops” twice? Most bombers fly at a level altitude, open the bomb doors, drop the bombs. But with the dive-bomber (eg the Stuka), first the plane itself “drops” – ie dives, loses altitude, pointing itself at the target – and then in addition it “drops” its bomb or bombs. So they drop in two ways, is how I understood it.

    Medium difficulty, LOI FURLONG (had become convinced “floor” must come into it when I got the F). Thought “go on a bender” was a pretty iffy definition for KNEEL!

    Templar

  4. I was undone by a careless typo ALLOF/WOLFER. Otherwise a tricky but fair puzzle taking 9:35. I did the same as Guy with UNCTUOUS changed to fit the wordplay. Liked DELIVERANCE. Thanks Felix and Curarist.
  5. I was under the impression that, for day-to-day crosswords, definitions, spelling etc. had to be supported by Chambers, Collins and the OED. ‘Unctious’ doesn’t appear in the first two of these. If it’s intended as an elephant trap, it’s a poor one, therefore. Am I alone in thinking it’s an error that’s slipped through?
  6. I was going great guns on this until I became stuck in the SW corner. I am not a great man for puddings, or sound systems come to that. For my generation, Best was undoubtedly the greatest of all Irish footballers, in fact one of the greatest footballers ever. A joy to watch.
    Didn’t really understand the clue for DIVE-BOMBERS. And even with the explanations given above am still not convinced.
    Overall a bit quicker than average.
    PlayUpPompey
  7. UNCTIOUS might constitute a clever trap in a harder crossword (a Listener perhaps) but it does seem a bit “stiff” for a Quick Cryptic!
  8. Oxford Dictionary Online describes ‘unctious’ as a common misspelling of ‘unctuous’ (which I submitted, not having checked wordplay carefully) – so this seems to be an error not picked up before publication.
    I came to same idea as Templar about ‘dive-bombers’, but I don’t like that clue much.
  9. Still recovering from yesterday’s ordeal (well, that’s my excuse), so 45 mins didn’t seem too bad in comparison. A very hit and miss start, so I had to turn to the long anagrams for help with very few crossers in place. Fortunately, the ‘m’ in 10d was enough to point me in the right direction, and that gave me a foothold in the centre. By the time I arrived at loi 23ac, I was just happy to finish, and so I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t even notice the unusual spelling. Invariant
  10. Second last in was 7d. Having that G finally made me stop trying to force forelock, extra letter and all, into the checkers for 9a. Just under 30m, might have been under 25 but I can’t be sure how long a colleague’s anecdote lasted.
  11. Inside my 15m target today, so easier than yesterday by my reckoning. Same as everyone else with UNCTIOUS, but went with the anagrist rather than spelling it as I always have. I can’t see or use unctuous without thinking of Uriah Heep.

  12. Similar comments to others. Not sure about Dive Bombers and I used the anagrist to get Unctious with an uneasy feeling. I did like 8a , my COD.
    I started with 4d and LOI was Duff -not a duff clue. Time was 18 minutes. David
  13. WOD Unctious slipped in very easily without thought to the more common spelling. It brought to mind Father Todd Unctious who visited Father Ted to steal his Golden Cleric award in the much missed sitcom referenced above.

    In all I found this offering very accessible. ‘On a bender’ I’ve seen before but still clever enough to get COD. Like others, not convinced by 11a but couldn’t be anything else.
    Thank you as ever B & S.
    5’ flat

  14. Delayed by putting in fringes for 9ac. Eventually got furlong but rather prefer my first answer.

  15. Tough today: 35:01.

    Also did not see how DIVE BOMBERS worked, but went with it after a couple of checkers. LOI STONE.

  16. But fell into that unctious trap. Third error this week but at least this time the spelling mistake was not mine
  17. Completely missed the whole UNCTIOUS/UNCTUOUS controversy. Not sure what’s going on there. Having said that, the noun from which it derives is UNCTION so I’m not sure why it ever came to be spelled with a U. Too obscure for the quickie really, I’m guessing it’s an error.
  18. A bit less demanding than yesterday but I would still classify this as being at the harder end of the spectrum. Like others I spent some time on my LOI 23a flipping a coin as to the spelling and in the end went with the wordplay, but it felt like an unsatisfactory ending.
    Enjoyed 9a and 10d, completed in 26 minutes
    Thanks for the blog
  19. UNCTIOUS for UNCTUOUS both is and isn’t an error.
    Meadvale above has unwittingly it seems put his finger on the reason.
    There are in fact several Father Ted priests in the grid (can anyone spot them all?)
    I was carried away by the Father Ted spelling (obviously chosen for ease of cluing!) while the thing to do if course would have been to go with the proper spelling.
    So apologies for the confusion.

    Father Felix The Penitent

  20. I too was confused by the unctuous/unctuous issue; dubious about 1d; not sure about 4d as an unfamiliar expression when variants would trip off the tongue; and I can still get confused with clues such as 14a with the choice between curser/cursor – sometimes it is obvious but not for me today. Altogether a slow solve with plenty I found hard to get into reading correctly. So (?) FOI 10d, LOI 6d. COD 13a. So this has been a helpful blog either to verify my reasonings or help polish some others. Thx then to today’s blogger and setter.

    I still haven’t completed yesterday’s QC, but gather from comments today that I am not alone in finding it a stinker. At least I have a couple of sessions over this weekend to try to get further than the eight I have answered so far… at least the blog will be here to help me either when I give up or want to check I’m all correct!

    1. Fathers Benny CAKE (who never actually appears) Liam DELIVERANCE (who compered the lovely gairls contest and wrecked the parochial house with his exposure of the ‘cowboy’ builders), and Noel FURLONG of course

    2. Fathers Benny CAKE (who never actually appears) Liam DELIVERANCE (who compered the lovely gairls contest and wrecked the parochial house with his exposure of the ‘cowboy’ builders), and Noel FURLONG of course

  23. Isn’t the other dive bomber in a swimming pool? Deadly might be how the swimmers describe it.

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