Quick Cryptic No 178 by Flamande

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Mostly straightforward, with 1a and 21a perhaps requiring a little more thought. Some familiarity with London geography, rhyming slang and north of England endearments would make it easier, but the word play is clear enough.

Across
1 DISH – Double def; ‘dish’ can mean destroy, as in ‘Ed Milliband could dish Labour’s chances…’ perhaps.
4 CAPITALS – Double def. Capital letters seen, and cities my be capitals.
8 ISLANDER – (DARN LIES)*, Sicilians are islanders.
9 SEAL – SEA (salt water) L(ake): def. creature.
10 DETOUR – DE (from, in French), TOUR (Tours, French town on the Loire, short of its S; actually a sizeable city not a town); def. deviation.
11 PSYCHO – (SHY COP)*, def. Hitchcock movie.
12 HAVE A BUTCHER’S – Double def. Rhyming slang, short for butcher’s hook = look.
16 FATHER – FAT (plump), HER (girl’s); def. Dad.
17 ROLLER – Double def. of a sort; there’s a roller bandage, and if I had hair I could put rollers in it to make it curl.
19 SOLE – cryptic def, sort of fish, alone.
20 INSTALLS – Def. positions; IN STALLS = in a part of the theatre.
21 EYESIGHT – Eyesight is a sense; YES (OK) enters EIGHT (mid evening), E(YES)IGHT.
22 TINY – IN (home) inside TY (outskirts of Torquay); def. very small.

Down
2 ISSUE – Double definition.
3 HEAD OVER HEELS – HEAD (school principal), OVER (finished), HEELS (rotters); def. in love.
4 CEDAR – (CARED)* indicated by ‘doctor’; def. tree.
5 PARAPET – PARA (member of airborne troops), PET (ducks, term of endearment up in’t North East); def. defence work.
6 TO SAY THE LEAST – Whimsical cryptic definition. Def. without any exaggeration.
7 LEATHER – LATHER (agitated state) with E (leader of exiles) inserted; def. whip.
10 DOH – Double def; musical note, as in Doh re mi, and sound made frequently by Homer Simpson.
13 ANATOMY – A TOM (cat) included in ANY; AN(A TOM)Y; def. scientific study.
14 BARKING – Double def; mad, and a place to the East of London. In British slang “Barking” is short for “barking mad”, and Barking is sometimes cited as the origin of the phrase, attributed to the alleged existence of a medieval insane asylum attached to Barking Abbey. However, the phrase first appeared in the 20th century. A more likely derivation is from comparing an insane person to a mad dog. [Wiki]
15 SIR – First letters of Sign In Register; call the (male) teacher Sir.
17 RESIT – REST (holiday) has I (one) inserted; def. second go at exam.
18 ELLEN – Today’s hidden word, girl’s name in repELLENt.

12 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 178 by Flamande”

  1. A touch over 8 minutes for this fellow, where the unknown meaning in each of the double definitions makes this trickier than it would otherwise have been.

    14d always reminds me of the Bobby Moore: ‘Born Barking. You wonder how his mum must have felt.’

  3. Found that most of these went in on first pass, but was stuck on 1ac and 2dn before finishing. I’ve not heard of heel = rotter before, so another one for the bank.

    Thanks Pip

  4. Found this not too difficult but held up by my last three which were 6d, 9a and finally ROLLER. Some good clues with my favourite EYESIGHT.
    1. It seems not, see this reference from Wiki article
      Edward Walford (1883), “Barking”, Greater London, London: Cassell & Co., OCLC 3009761
      See comment below about adding an alias or registering please.
  7. LOI 9a, and couldn’t get it. I was rather put off by the four letter word hidden in ‘salt water lake’ which i knew wasnt the right answer. I don’t find salt water lake easy to change into sea +l, since a salt water lake is by definition not the sea.
  8. Three excellent 13-letter clues.

    Got held up by 8ac – went for Sire (spread) + Accuse (darn lies) = Syracuse.

    Must stop complicating things and remember Occam’s Razor!

    Philip

    1. ISLANDER was a top clue – one where a little knowledge (for me largely gained via football teams and diml remembered Classics) is a dangerous thing.
  9. Anon, you miss the point, separate the parts; salt water = sea, L = abbr. for lake.
    Please add a name or alias to your anon posts (or register) so we can tell which ‘anon’ you are, and it’s polite.

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