Quick Cryptic No 157 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This is a top notch offering which travels around the northern hemisphere, has some witty clues (I’ve selected 2 COD – clues of the day) and has the reappearance of a sweet which appeared in my doodlings last week.
Medium strength difficulty – (12 minutes) – I struggled with the first few across and the first few down – so I’d recommend you start at 9ac.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 City university invested in a type of motor insurance (9)
&nbsp &nbspVANCOUVER – The city is the beautiful Vancouver – one of my favourites – made up from a type of motor insurance (VAN COVER – not obvious this is it?) with university (U) inside (invested).
6 Afterthought about a place like Cheltenham (3)
&nbsp &nbspSPA – Moving from the west of Canada to Cheltenham, also known as Cheltenham Spa – a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, England, located on the edge of the Cotswolds. Made up from afterthought (postscript – PS) backwards (about) = SP with a (A).
8 Forceful end of lecture on how we count decimally? (7)
&nbsp &nbspINTENSE – How do we count decimally? In tens of course so that gives us INTENS – pop on the E from the end of lecturE and there you are.
9 Caught vessel carrying hot milk container (5)
&nbsp &nbspCHURN – Caught (C), vessel (URN) carrying hot (H).
10 One popping up playfully to kick TV (4-2-3-3)
&nbsp &nbspJACK-IN-THE-BOX – To kick as in a habit (JACK IN), TV (THE BOX).
12 Small coin dispatched to listeners (4)
&nbsp &nbspCENT – Dispatched is SENT – which has the homophone (to listeners) of CENT.
13 Old boy in extremely respectable vestment (4)
&nbsp &nbspROBE – Old boy (OB) inside the first and last letters (extremely) of RespectablE.
17 Look out for hospital doctor and storekeeper (12)
&nbsp &nbspWAREHOUSEMAN – Look out (WARE as in beware) for hospital doctor (HOUSEMAN).
20 Spiny projection lacerated husband entering (5)
&nbsp &nbspTHORN – Husband (H) entering lacerated (TORN).
21 Robber’s gang capturing oil installation (7)
&nbsp &nbspBRIGAND – Gang (BAND) around (capturing) oil installation (RIG).
23 Prospective fodder that’s oddly heavy (3)
&nbsp &nbspHAY – Odd letters of HeAvY. ‘Propsective’ as it has to be cut and dried before being fodder (according to Collins – so any farmers reading please take this up with them and not me!).
24 Complicated procedure in Rome a girl recollected (9)
&nbsp &nbspRIGMAROLE – Anagram (recollected) of ROME A GIRL.

Down
1 Useless, being self-important (4)
&nbsp &nbspVAIN – Double definition.
2 Off-peak charge, say, for fertilizer? (7)
&nbsp &nbspNITRATE – My first COD is a homophone of night rate as opposed to peak rate during the working day.
3 Personal cricket side touring West (3)
&nbsp &nbspOWN – The batman’s leg side in cricket is the on side giving us ON around (touring) West (W).
4 Compete with girl that’s raised capital (6)
&nbsp &nbspVIENNA – Off to Austria now and the subject of a dashed fine ditty by Ultravox made up from compete with (VIE) and girl (ANN) upwards/backwards (raised).
5 Chores are terrible! You can bet on it! (9)
&nbsp &nbspRACEHORSE – Anagram (terrible) of CHORES ARE.
6 Question little brother or sister about firework (5)
&nbsp &nbspSQUIB – SIB is defined by Collins as a brother or sister; sibling. Put this about question (QU) and you have a firework which won’t work if damp.
7 Extension built by a couple of knights on river (6)
&nbsp &nbspANNEXE – A (A) couple of knights (NN) on the river EXE.
11 Know Queen entertains longing for old soldier (9)
&nbsp &nbspKITCHENER – I thought we were looking for an old rank – lancepesade or some such but, no, it’s Lord Kitchener who pointed out how much one was required by the country. Know (KEN), Queen (ER) around (entertains) longing (ITCH).
14 Well done, restraining a duke’s bluster! (7)
&nbsp &nbspBRAVADO – Well done (BRAVO) around (restraining) a (A), duke (D).
15 Swap comic in school (6)
&nbsp &nbspSWITCH – Comic (WIT) inside school (SCH).
16 Hard boiled sweet? Nonsense (6)
&nbsp &nbspHUMBUG – Groundhog day for me – 1ac last week had sweet = HUMBUG and here we are again – this time it has a double definition of nonsense.
18 Marsupial on motor yacht with a lot of space (5)
&nbsp &nbspROOMY – Marsupial (ROO) on motor yacht (MY).
19 Lazy maid left in the centre (4)
&nbsp &nbspIDLE – My second COD is an excellent ‘in the clue’ clue – the answer is in the centre of (maID LEft). The surface leads you to think of lazy susans – those spin-around things in the middle of tables at a Chinese restaurant.
22 Girl requiring papers first of all (3)
&nbsp &nbspIDA – Papers (ID) with first letter if All.

33 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 157 by Orpheus”

  1. Very pleasant, if pretty straightforward, offering. I finished with NITRATE, which took quite a bit of working out, not having the agricultural background of a Nick the Novice and scientific knowledge to compete with CS Lewis! 6’20”.
    1. Yes, my youth spent listening to wise old blokes who loved the smell of cow dung in the morning prepared me well for this moment…

      However, use of the word “homophone” in this society would have resulted in some old fashioned looks.

      1. Yes, but only if you’re being very mischievious and pronouncing it with long ‘O’ sounds.
        1. Short ‘O’s are pretty much unknown in Somerset dialect: being mischievious is de rigeur
  2. I wonder if we’re in a run of slightly easier puzzles at the moment since the somewhat brutal challenge set by Izetti @ #152. This one took me 9 minutes. We also seem to be having an answer in common with the main puzzle each day or sometimes from one day to the next.
  3. Enjoyable but I did not find this very easy. All correct with LOI IDA which I failed to parse. Favourite KITCHENER where I too initially was looking for a type of soldier rather than an individual.
  4. Have been attempting the quick cryptic for a couple of months now and enjoying it more each day. When time allows, I also now have a go at the main and happy to say I can now usually do around half. Today’s QC I thought was very enjoyable apart from the trouble I caused myself with horserace instead of racehorse at 5d.
  5. Found this a deceptively tricky offering. Most (certainly the lower half)went in very quickly, but ground to a halt with the more challenging northern reaches – some quite tough stuff there.

    COD to the excellent KITCHENER (and a pleasing image to boot, if that is not in some way treasonable… would such a clue pass muster in Thailand?)

    1. Thought you might have liked 18 dn – I had a vision of you sailing round Sydney harbour with a kangaroo – but thought it might have been a little too distracting for the blog!,
  6. Many thanks to Chris for a beautifully clear blog and to Orpheus for a very satisfying puzzle. I finished in 25 with a smidgen of Z8ery, but I was very rusty.

    I also have 2 CODS – I share NITRATE with Chris but also rather liked BRAVADO.

    LOI was IDA – took my old brane some time to equate ‘papers’ to I.D.

    1. A very warm welcome back into the land of CODs , LOIs and anagrinds! I think can understand your ID problem – presumably exam papers came first to mind?
  7. 4 mins. I saw SPA immediately, quickly followed by SQUIB and ANNEXE. The B?X checkers they gave for the end of 10ac made that clue a write-in (good clue nonetheless), and the K checker from it made KITCHENER just about a write-in as well. I was then able to flesh out the rest of the puzzle and finished back in the NW with the VANCOUVER/VAIN crossers. Another enjoyable QC, IMHO. Nice to see you back munk1puzl.
  8. For me, this was pretty much everything I want in a QC. A few write-ins to get started, a few tougher ones to keep going (with some humour), all done in 16 minutes with no straining for general knowledge or unknown vocab. A perfect break from work without lingering too long! Thanks to Orpheus and to Chris.
  9. Oops, sorry. Not Nick Clegg, I meant bezevcik. Yet another enjoyable puzzle with a well judged level of difficulty to keep you on your mental toes 🙂

    Edited at 2014-10-14 04:00 pm (UTC)

    1. Good analogy. The guys and gals who do the 15×15 in around 10 minutes must therefore be the mental equivalent of Fred Astaire.

      Edited at 2014-10-14 04:57 pm (UTC)

      1. The speedsters are certainly not on the same dance floor as me! But, on the positive side, I’m really happy to take some time over the puzzles and enjoy the experience. I’d find it a bit frustrating to finish so quickly and then think, hmmm, was that it? There are a few analogies I could think for that, but probably not for a blog such as this 🙂
  10. First one I’ve attempted since failing on 152. Took about 40 minutes but got it done. Surprised that MY is an acceptable abbreviation of motor yacht. Is this common usage?
    1. Not sure the difference between a MY and a MV – maybe the former has masts. Whether it’s common usage is less relevant in crossword land than whether it’s in Collins – and it is.
      Keep at it!
      1. Thanks Chris. I thought I’d got to grips with the standard abbreviations (ie those not signposted by ‘initially’, ‘at first’ etc) but this was a bit of a surprise. I’ll keep at it. I attempt about two a week and have gone from 4 or 5 clues to completion about half of the time so progress has been made!
  11. I normally take about 40 minutes for the quick and a day for the 15×15, but I did this one in 8 minutes 41 sec. Feeling really pleased with that. Thorn came up in the cryptic as well.
    1. Welcome. If you get a free live journal account you get an email notification if anyone replies. As for the 15×15 my record is 24 minutes for the easiest of all time – equally I can take one on holiday and struggle with it for 2 weeks!
  12. After my morning on the train, I still had KITCHENER and SQUIB to get. Couldn’t get the latter with 20 minutes of staring! The rest was a lot of fun – particularly VANCOUVER and RACEHORSE.

    Great blog – thanks Chris.

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