Quick Cryptic No. 164 by Teazel (guest blog by faceofboe)

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Welcome to guest blogger faceofboe, who is standing in for macavity, who is unable to blog this one. Our best wishes go with macavity, and our thanks to fob…

Across

1 MANSFIELD PARK – mans = chap field= part of farm park = leave car whole thing – novel
8 BLOODY – old boy anagram
9 DENISE – girls name, den= study ise=is seen at close of annexe (is and last letter I suppose)
10 SWAN – bird; s= small wan= pale
11 PASSPORT – thing that allows you to come and go; pass = circulate port= decanter
12 MORAL I suppose it’s a double definition although I’d quibble with moral being the end of a story, more like the point
13 APPLY – make use of. App = phone feature, LY = first and last letters of lightly
15 BADGERED – hassled. Badge= ID red= a colour
17 SODA – soft drink. Sod= turf a=a
19 SUPINE – lethargic, sue= girls name, around (pockets) pin= brooch
20 STINGY – mean (as in tight) sting = overcharge y= unknown amount (in algebra)
21 METEOROLOGIST – double definition

Down

2ALLOW – permit; AL = a pound Low= cheap
3 SPOONER – double definition
4 IVY – double definition? Sort of? Ivy climbs and there’s an Ivy League
5 LADYS MAID – anagram of madly said, a servant
6 PINUP – pretty picture. Pup (pet) around in (home)
7 RESPRAY – is this what you mean by an &lit? To RESPRAY your car is to give it a new coat of paint
11 POLAR BEAR – big beast, polar = opposite bear= stand (as in I simply can’t BEAR it any more, something my 11 year old is often heard to declaim mainky referring to her brother)
12 MEASURE – is this another &slit? It’s a quantity of drink everywhere I think so I suppose also in American bars…
14 PUSHING – pressing (like the pressing game favoured by the 1951 push and run team) pug (dog) round shin(part of leg)
16 GUISE – a homophone. Guise = appearance, sounds like guys
18 DEGAS – artist. Lovely paintings of ballerinas. Lots of them in the NYC Met museum of art. Highly recommended. D= daughter, egas= (upset) sage (wise)
20 SAL – girl – first letters (first of all) of Seen Applying Lipstick

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 164 by Teazel (guest blog by faceofboe)”

  1. Thanks for stepping in.

    5 mins. I thought that quite a few of these clues had more of a main puzzle feel to them, and I confess that MEASURE, my NTLOI, went in from the “quantity of drink” definition only. SUPINE was my LOI.

  2. Luckily got 1ac and 21ac first, but generally I thought some clues excessively obtuse.

    Is there nothing more to “respray” – and whence “bar” in 12d?

    Nevertheless, 3d and 11d excellent.

    Philip

  5. Had a few problems with this one which delayed me for 20 minutes. Nothing wrong with the clues I hasten to add, just my brainpower.
  7. 10 minutes for this – I thought SUPINE was especially tricky.

    I think ‘end’ of story refers here to its purpose. One thing blogging these puzzles does is give one a feeling for the (usual) accuracy of the setter/editor team.

    Having said that, excellent stuff, and thanks for stepping into the breach.

    1. Just goes to show how people’s brains work differently. supine was a write in for me, although it wasn’t my FOI because there were several other write ins higher on the clue list. I didn’t know the american usage of the term ‘measure’ – bit embarrassing since I am a musician! Although I no longer earn a living from music. I just checked with friends who do still earn their living from music and 50% of my sample of 4 knew it, the other 2 didn’t. Well, they all do NOW, as do I. 🙂
      1. I didn’t know of it till coming to HK, where the conductor of the first choir I joined was an American.
  8. I’m inclined to agree that measure = American “bar” is perhaps a step too far for the quick cryptic. Also respray in 7dn is a cryptic def. which is technically fine but still somehow an unsatisfying clue

    Still, it helps to teach us that not every clue will be precise, but an answer has to be bunged in anyway!

  9. I think I was definitely on Teazle’s wavelength. Which might explain why I sometimes struggle with other setters, if it is such a different wavelength than is the norm…

    I did actually really enjoy deconstructing the reasons for each answer. I always force myself to do it when solving (or not!) to ‘prove’ I’ve got the right answer before moving on, but it was fun to actually write it all down.

    I also try the Graun cryptic every day and with that I quite often can’t ‘prove’ the answers. I might give the grown up times cryptic a go later on today or perhaps tomorrow. At some point, I have to at least try…

  10. Certainly held me up for much longer than usual.

    MEASURE and BADGERED were particular problems for me. I spent some time trying to decide if the 4-letter word at 5dn was lady or maid, and still missed the solution! I haven’t felt this far from the setter’s wavelength in a while.

  12. Gave up initially after 18 mins & 1/2 as many possible answers. Z8 came to the rescue but I’m not posting a time.

    Not my normal happy joy joy self after a person I thought I could rely on let me down hugely & maybe coloured my approach to the Teazel-offering.

    Thanks for the blog FoB – my COD was SPOONER, LOI – BADGERED.

    Tomorrow is another day

  13. After yesterday’s offering, I thought this one was much tougher and was defeated by 15ac and 16dn. Came to the blog for for the answer to 15ac and 16dn then became clear. Not quite a DOH! moment, but quite close. Many thanks faceofboe – must remember more synonyms for ID 🙂
  14. Just shy of 17 minutes for me. Can’t see I’ll ever match QC supreme Andy Burrows’ times but at least my LOIs were the same as his. By the looks of things, MEASURE caught us all out!
  15. Thank you for covering for me. A brilliant blog!

    Let me know if I’m needed to cover in the future.

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