Quick Cryptic No. 103 by Izetti

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Greetings from Paris, where Mrs. Novice and I are currently holidaying in a charming appartment in the heart of the Marais. The holiday mood (coupled with a significant intake of Cotes du Rhone) probably impacted my performance on this one, but overall found it towards the trickier end of the spectrum, albeit with a few easier ones scattered throughout to give us a way in.

Several things to like about this puzzle, so thanks to our setter. A nice broad range of clue types – homophones, hiddens, double definitions, anagrams, shortened words etc. – with pride of place going to the crackerjack anagram at 6 down.

I’ll get back to address any comments / questions later, but in the meantime I’m off on my continuing quest for the definitive Andouillette…

By the way, I’m at large in London early part of next week (Monday 5th – Wednesday 7th) prior to heading back to Sydney, so if anyone fancies catching up for a beer / lunch, it would be great to meet up – any takers, please do drop me a line

Across
1 PERSEPHONE – underground queen is the definition (Persephone being the queen of Hades in Greek mythology – and also doubling as goddess of vegetation: formidable multi-tasking…) The answer is also built from PER SE (Latin phrase meaning “by itself”) with PHONE (“ring” – i.e. get on the dog). Bit of an unusual clue, as traditionally (as I understand it) the definition element is either at the beginning or end of the clue – whereas here it is in the middle. Nothing wrong with that as I see it – just unusual enough to be worth a mention – but some of the senior pros here might want to comment further on this one.
8 REAGENT – chemical is our definition. Answer also comes from RE (“engineers” – the Royal Engineers as abbreviated crop up very frequently in crosswordland) with A GENT (“polite fellow”). If I was a paid up member of Pedants’ Corner I might be arguing the point that the plural “engineers” is a tad misleading, as it could be said to be pointing to RES (rather than a singular RE) – and the surface of the clue would probably lose nothing by having a singular engineer. But, I’m on holiday in Paris and this is no time for splitting hairs…
9 ADORN – Deck is the definition (as in “deck out with bunting”). Answer also from the wordplay A DO (“party”) with RN (Royal Navy – “group of sailors”)
10 SALE – Double definition type of clue – type of trading activity, and a Manchester suburb. Easy when you see it, but this held me up for a time as I was convinced we were looking for a hidden answer “within” Greater Manchester
11 ANIMATED – excited is the definition. The answer is also an anagram of “dame ain’t” (signalled by “stirred up”)
13 DACHA – country house is our definition. The answer is also hidden in (indicated by “located in”) “wood a charming“. I must admit I did not know this word, albeit slapped it in on the basis of cross checkers and from the hidden – it just looked right. I was going to suggest it was a bit obscure, but checked with Mrs. Novice who assured me that I was probably the only bloke in the world capable of completing Times cryptics but not familiar with this word. So, I slunk away, resolving to brush up my Checkhov…
14 SAUCE – Relish is the definition. Answer also comes from the wordplay U (“superior” – as in U / non U) CE (“church” – of England) with SA (“Salvation Army”) in front (“led by”)
16 BUTCHERS – Double deinition. Purveyors of joints, and Cockney rhyming slang (butcher’s hook = look). For newcomers to cryptics, it’s useful to know some basic cockney rhyming slang as it often crops up in clues – particularly China (mate), whistle (suit) and butchers (as here)
17 BRAG – Show off is the definition. The answer also comes from GARB backwards (“dress back to front”)
20 TROVE – treasure is our definition. The answer is also derived from the wordplay T (standard abbreviation of “time”) with ROVE (“wander about”)
21 DERANGE – Disorder is the definition. The answer is also an anagram of “angered” (signalled by “could make”)
22 RESENTMENT – bitterness is the definition. The answer is also hidden (signalled by “will show”) in “represent men that“

Down
1 PARIS – City is the definition. The answer also comes from PARISH – i.e. “church’s area slightly reduced”
2 REALLOCATION – more equitable sharing is the definition. The wordplay also giving the answer is REAL (“Proper” – as in “now that’s a real pork pie”) with LOCATION (“place”)
3 EXES – Old lovers is the definition. The answer also comes from the wordplay SEE backwards (“notice, turning up” – as usual with cryptic clues, ignore the punctuation – it is generally there to make the surface read better) with X included (“to grab kiss”). I’d not come across this plural of the ubiquitous Ex before, but limited online research suggests it’s standard
4 HATING – One of the gentler clues offering an entry point into the crossword. Definition is Detesting, with the answer also being an anagram (signalled by “going wrong”) of “a thing”
5 NEAR MISS – Lucky escape is the definition. The MISS bit is easy enough (from “young lady”), but the NEAR bit is causing me some difficulty. I assume that “near” is some kind of definition of “mean”, but I’m not familiar with this usage and currently have no access to usual sources (quick online serach yielded nothing). Appreciate a hand here! On Edit: apparently, near can also mean “stingy” – thanks to Kevin and Rubeclaw for this explanation…
6 PORT AU PRINCE – Capital is the definition (as in capital city of Haiti). Cracking anagram (signalled by “having wandered around”) of “Procure a pint”.
7 ON EDGE – Nervous is the definition. The answer also is built from the wordplay ON_E (“individual”) with DGE (first letters – “starts to” – of “dither getting emotional”)
12 CASHMERE – material is the definition. The wordplay also giving the answer is CASH (“hard money” – as in “hard cash”) with MERE (“only”)
13 DEBATE – discussion is the definition. The answer also comes from DATE (“time”) with EB (standard abbreviations for “English” and “Bishop” respectively) included (“involved”)
15 BRIDGE – Double definition type of clue – the “game” and the thing that will “go over” a gap of some sort
18 GREAT – Remarkable is the definition. It’s also a homophone (sounds like) kind of clue with GRATE (“rasping sound is heard”)
19 BRAT – Troublesome youngster is the definition. The answer also comes from R (“right”) inside BAT (“club”)

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 103 by Izetti”

  1. At 15:25, this took me longer than today’s regular cryptic, although I can’t now remember what slowed me down; probably everything. I couldn’t for the life of me remember Persephone, until I got enough checkers, for instance, or think of what might fit for ‘church’s area’; and EXES took a long time. And so on. In retrospect it doesn’t look that hard, but. Near=mean (stingy), at least in UK dialects (I don’t think we Murcans use it that way; for me, anyway, ‘mean’ is nasty, as in Ruth Etting’s classic ‘Mean to Me’).

    Edited at 2014-07-30 08:08 am (UTC)

  2. Very enjoyable puzzle which took 20 minutes to complete but a couple more minutes to parse 1a and 7d.

    Looking it up I see near can mean (no pun intended) stingy.

    Given your location Nick, I am surprised 1d was not your favourite, mine was 17a. Last one in, BRAT.

    On edit: I see Kevin got in before me with stingy.

    Edited at 2014-07-30 07:18 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks to Kevin and Rubeclaw for the clarification around near and stingy. Never come across this usage before.
  3. No time to read in full now but will return later. Just wanted to say that I completed all but 1ac in 15 minutes but took another 12 on that one alone! The total (27 minutes) was exactly my solving time on the main puzzle today.

    Later. On reflection there’s little more to say except the unconventional construction in 1ac certainly caught me out.

    Edited at 2014-07-30 10:51 am (UTC)

  4. 7 mins and I found it on the tricky side. The construction of 1ac was indeed bizarre, but the answer, together with the two elements of the wordplay, were obvious enough once enough checkers were in place. I finished in the SW quadrant with the well hidden RESENTMENT after the BUTCHERS/CASHMERE crossers.
  5. 13.5 minutes for a puzzle that is a genuine “mini me” in terms of being very much like a Times puzzle but altogether more “congruent” / less devious. Hats off to the setter for achieving this, even if it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

    I thought the clue for EXES was particularly good.

  6. An enjoyable crossword but Persephone was my downfall. I missed per se and I was not looking for the Queen of the Underworld in the middle.
  7. I thought the clues for this were all fully capable of being used in the bigger cryptic crossword.. this quickie at least only qualifies as such by virtue of being smaller. some nice clues, also nice blog.. thanks to both

    So far as 1ac is concerned, indeed it is unusual to see the def. in the middle, though by no means unknown. Why she has been put there is unclear to me and to my eye the clue doesn’t quite make sense. Though nor would “By itself ring underworld queen.”

    In such cases I tend to resort to the “practicality test,” as follows: “Did you solve the clue, OK? Yes? Well then it worked; stop whining and move on..”

    btw, near = stingy and deck = adorn are regular devices, you will see them again before long

    Edited at 2014-07-30 11:52 am (UTC)

  8. Albeit in over 2 hours and with some on line help (I didn’t know who the queen of the underworld was for example) I finished and am thrilled! Delighted to buy Nick the Novice a drink to celebrate next week if he’s anywhere near Fleet Street!
  9. Unlike Jerry I am going to whine. As far as I’m concerned 1a fails the “say what you mean” test. The cryptic reading just doesn’t work IMNSHO.

    Did it stop me solving the clue? Well yes, actually, it did.

    1. Yes, on re-reading it the surface is a bit odd. But then again I’ve just finished last Sunday’s Tim Moorey offering and there’s some pretty odd surfaces in there too!

      I guess I’m in the pragmatists’ camp: but had I not got it, I probably would not be… damn I’m fickle 🙂

      Edited at 2014-07-30 06:14 pm (UTC)

      1. Nick, it’s not the surface I have a problem with, it’s the underlying “instruction” on how to piece the wordplay elements together – there’s nothing to tell you to place per se in front of phone to get the queen of the underworld.
  10. I finished after numerous interruptions of work (necessary evil) so I can’t come up with a time. I assume around an hour.
    1ac I had come across before but still needed checking letters to aid memory.
    Favourite being 16ac, last ones in 17ac 18dn.

    Eurc

  12. Very enjoyable, finished in 62 minutes. Last one in was Persephone Thanks for the blog, I find it most helpful
  13. Good fun; thrown by 21a where I was fixated with my anagram of enraged rather than derange – so couldn’t enter 6d which would have helped me complete ok.
  14. Seem to remember we had this use of near meaning mean only recently and I was a bit grumpy about it then. Can anyone remember if it was the same setter is is this disease catching in the setter fraternity?
  15. I agree with all those who cast doubt on this clue’s soundness. I can’t believe the Don would have come up with this and suspect it is an error of transposition somewhere down the line. At least that’s what it seems to me: no doubt there’s a perfectly simple way of saying why PERSE is linked with PHONE.

    And yes it did combine with some other very tricky clues to lead to a time that I usually better on the main cryptic. My time for this was extraordinary: usually I have been around 10 minutes, sometimes less, and I regard it as a small failure if I’m over 10. And I’ve never before been over 20 minutes. Yet for this I took 37. My excuse to some extent is that the test match was on in the background. But that’s not really enough to explain things.

    Edited at 2014-07-30 10:04 pm (UTC)

  16. My original clue was ‘Underground queen’s greyish blue ring’, but I respected the editor’s wishes to avoid greyish blue for perse. I think his clue works, even if the construction is a little more difficult
    1. Thanks very much, Izetti, for the insight: most interesting for punters like me to see how the editorial process works.

      Must admit perse as a colour is unknown to me, although I long ago gave up trying to work out whether my vocabulary (or lack thereof!) is in any way representative of those who play the game – see my comment re. Dacha above…

      This may be a situation where comparative newcomers (such as myself) are less thrown by an unorthodox clue arrangement than the more experienced brethren.

      Anyway, we now have a definitive explanation so thanks very much for that.

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