Quick Cryptic No 127 by Vista

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
If, like me, you find this more of a flapjack than the definition of 17dn – it may help to know that in some cases the definitions are quite get-able but the word play is convoluted. So if you think you’ve got the right answer – you probably have! This is, though, a good puzzle with some clever clues which I suspect the regulars will find more of a cream sponge. I enjoyed blogging more than solving – 16 minutes and a wrong letter in 6dn.

Thanks to Ian for the blog last week – and yes the seafood was wonderful – best starter ever (there’s a challenge!) – scallop medallions cooked with bacon on a base (see 22ac) of lettuce.

So, having whetted our appetites, here we go…

Definitions are underlined.

Across
8 A very odd riot involving a pilot (7)
AVIATOR – A (A) very (V) anagram (odd) of RIOT including a (A). Tricky word play but get-able from the definition.
9 Moved gently and stopped, losing head (5)
EASED – Stopped (cEASED) without the first letter (losing head).
10 What’s written to promote obscure book? (5)
BLURB – Obscure (BLUR) book (B) – nice clue.
11 Puzzle for crossword solvers, perhaps starting point for trainspotting? (7)
ANAGRAM – Well, we should all get this from the definition alone. I didn’t get the word play immediately – STARTING POINT is an anagram of TRAINSPOTTING.
12 Pace back and forth to find where the stars are (4,5)
DEEP SPACE – I tried too hard to work STAGE into this but take pace (SPEED) backwards then PACE forwards – back and forth.
14 Chief dismissing one fellow (3)
MAN – Chief (MAiN) without the one (I).
16 Concession that’s very pleasing at first (3)
SOP – Very (SO) and first letter of Pleasing.
18 Plan to reject extremely good pastry dishes (9)
STRATAGEM – Extremely good (MEGA) pastry dishes (TARTS) all backwards (rejected). I should ‘fess up’ that I spelled this originally as strategem but, as is often the case, the word play helped me work out my spelling problems.
21 Blurt out old demand (7)
EXCLAIM – Old (EX) demand (CLAIM).
22 Fed up as soldiers kept in base? (5)
BORED – Soldiers (OR) inside base (BED – think scallops and lettuce – I still am!)
23 A small article about one from China, say (5)
ASIAN – A (A) small (S) article (AN) around one (I).
24 Came across criminal on train (3,4)
RAN INTO – Anagram (criminal) of ON TRAIN.

Down
1 Boozer, British, with soft drink turning up somewhere in Caribbean (8)
BARBADOS – Boozer (BAR), British (B) with soft drink (SODA) backwards (turning up).
2 Unable to speak outside home for a short time (6)
MINUTE – Unable to speak (MUTE) around home (IN).
3 Counterfoil of cheque? Objections raised (4)
STUB – Objections (BUTS) backwards (raised).
4 Fleet member — 7 falling short (6)
ARMADA – Member (ARM) 7 (ADAm) without the last letter (falling short).
5 Immoral collection of books appearing after a number of years (8)
DECADENT – I was too quick to put AGE NT at the end of this answer so was thinking this was a definition of immoral with which I was not familiar. Sanity prevailed – collection of books (NT – New Testament) after a number of years (DECADE).
6 Resistance met in a bogus retreat in India (6)
ASHRAM – This was was my wrong letter. Resistance (R) inside a (A) bogus (SHAM – I put SCAM).
7 First person needing trailer in the morning (4)
ADAM – Trailer (AD) in the morning (AM). The first time I’ve seen first person=Adam being the definition – it’s commonly found in word play.
13 Supports America over blemishes (8)
SUSTAINS – America (US) backwards (over) blemishes (STAINS).
15 Mention celebrities to impress? Pardon me — that’s out of order (4-4)
NAME-DROP – Anagram (out of order) of PARDON ME.
17 When talking choose nice, but not last, piece of cake (6)
PICNIC – Homophone (when talking) of choose (PICK = PIC), nice (NICe) without the last letter.
19 Comment about teacher’s assessment (6)
REMARK – About (RE), teacher’s assessment (MARK).
20 Piercing sound of bell at end of match (6)
GORING – Sound of bell (RING) after (at end of) match (GO – as in the colour of his eyes go with the Bloody Mary cocktails he was drinking all last night).
21 Cutting taken from sweet alyssums and others (2,2)
ET AL – the answer is in the clue (cutting taken from) sweET ALyssums.
22 Sound made by outlawed group of musicians (4)
BAND – Homophone (sound made by) outlawed (BANNED).

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 127 by Vista”

  2. 2nd Sept 2014

    11 ac

    I still cannot understand what the word anagram has to do with train spotting

  3. This took me forever, but I completed it eventually – however I had to resort to going through the alphabet to make my LOI (17D) work. Favourite clue 18A which nicely matched my own particular knowledge set (as did 12A).
  4. 5 mins. I agree that there was some interesting cluing here, and if a few of the definitions had been more cleverly disguised I may have struggled. It took me a while to see go=match at 20dn, and I didn’t bother to check the starting point/trainspotting ANAGRAM at 11ac although it was a good one. DEEP SPACE was my LOI and only parsed post-solve.
  5. 6 min. Like Andy, struggled to justify GO = MATCH in 20d. A really good quickie this, I thought, with some lovely smooth surfaces. I particularly liked 15d although, as others have said, a more cleverly disguised definition would have made it a real challenge. Thanks to the setter and to my namesake for a very helpful blog.
  6. Spot on overall assessment by our blogger Chris, if I may say, about the answers being gettable by definition, but the wordplay being very tricky in some instances.

    This applied to me in the cases of ANAGRAM (excellent clue, as it turned out – but I failed to spot the anagram in the clue!), STRATAGEM (missed the obvious “rejected” device) and GORING (worked on basis that GO could – maybe – be an acknowledged abbreviation for Game Over!)

    Tough puzzle but most enjoyable. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2014-09-02 10:00 am (UTC)

  7. 33 mins with some curate’s egg Z8ery. I ended up following our excellent blogger’s advice (which I read once I had finished solving, obviously), and just went for the answers & worried about the parsing later.
    My COD was STRATAGEM – I spent ages trying to fit strudel-like pastries in forwards until I realised the import of ‘reject’. Solved REMARK faster than Z8, unsurprising as that’s what I’ve been doing all summer!
  8. Completely agree re. tricky wordplay, a few evaded me completely (I was a million miles from getting Stratagem) but I liked the surfaces, particularly Name-drop and Blurb. Will have to add OR to my (increasingly long) list of abbreviations.
    1. We rewatched The Sontaran Stratagem last week, so luckily for me the word was at the forefront(ish) of my mind. Bizarrely today’s Graun cryptic also had a DW related answer. So much nicer than cake based clues/answers.
  9. Remembering advice from people on the main puzzle blog, I worked through mainly on the literals and finished with DEEP SPACE. Thought of the answer early on, but didn’t expect PACE to be so obviously included.

    A hard quickie and happy to complete without cheats. Thanks to chrisw91 for such a clear blog and must confess I did enjoy MEGATARTS 🙂

  10. OK, seven years late to the party, but could the explanation of 22AC perhaps actually be soldiers (RE — Royal Engineers) kept in base (BOD — Base Ordnance Depot)? I admit Google was my ally in finding that acronym!

    Edited at 2021-02-12 06:25 pm (UTC)

    1. Wow – some time ago – but we valiant bloggers are always willing to help. If this was a Friday 15×15 cryptic then your solution could possibly be correct. It’s highly unlikely here, as this is the Quick Cryptic – so I think my explanation from all that time ago stands. For my interest, how come you’re having a go at a a crossword from so long ago?
      1. Thank you for your reply! I arrived here because I’m working through Book 1 of Quick Cryptic Crosswords, which I suppose includes some of the very first puzzles published. Having already completed some of the later books, I get the feeling that the puzzles were harder when they first started!

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