Quick Cryptic No 183 by Marty

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Very nice QC, I thought: no arcane GK required, a bit of wit and whimsy (loved 22a), and a good variety of different clue types.

Thanks very much to our setter Marty. (If anyone is struggling to access the puzzle, it is located here http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20141119/354/ ).

Across
1 TOTEM – Sign is the definition. Answer also from TOTE (“carry”) with M (“head of march” – i.e. head being first letter)
4 DEAD SEA – feature in Middle East is the definition. “departed” gives us DEAD, and “reportedly to visit” gives us SEA (sounds like – “reportedly” – SEE)
8 DUKEDOM – Definition (or, in this case, exemplar) is Cornwall, say. Wordplay also giving the answer is anagram of ODD ME (signalled by “travelling”) around UK (“this country”)
9 ELECT – Choose is the definition. Answer is hidden – backwards (signalled by “retrospective”) – in “best celebrities”
10 LITTLE BO PEEP – Children’s rhyme is the definition. Answer is also an anagram (signalled by “out”) of PEOPLE BELT IT. Nice whimsical surface presenting a bizarre image of a gusty rendition of this soft lullaby by a beery rugby crowd…
12 RE-EDIT – Correct – yet again is the definition. answer also from REED (“marsh plant”) “next to” IT
13 TRY OUT – Experiment is the definition. Answer also from TROUT (“fish”) with a Y (“unknown”) included (“consumed”). Unknowns are generally leading us to an X, Y or Z from mathematical conventions
16 WINNING POSTS – Double definition, both a little bit cryptic / jokey.
18 YOKEL – country cousin is the definition. Answer also from YOKE (“join”) “by” L (standard abbreviation of “lake”)
20 BARBARA – Girl is the definition. The wordplay also giving us the answer is BAR (“save”- as in all bar none) “twice” with A
21 ROYALTY – Double definition: further comment probably superfluous
22 DEFOE – Novelist is the definition (he of Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe fame). Answer is ingeniously constructed from DE (“free of” – as in “de-flea your cat”) and FOE (“enemies”). Definitely my COD

Down
1 TIDDLER – one very small is the definition. Answer also built from TILER (“Floor repairer maybe”) with DD inserted (“interrupted by daughters” – D being the standard definition of Daughter)
2 TAKE THE MICKEY – ridicule is the definition. Answer also built from TAKE THE MIC (“Prepare to do karaoke perhaps”) with KEY (‘Explanation”)
3 MEDALLION – Award is the definition. Answer also from an anagram (signalled by “badly”) of LAMED with LION (“international rugby player” – reference to the British Lions, the touring team who generally seem to demonstrate that the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts…)
4 DEMOBS – Removes from service is the definition. Answer also from DEMO (“protest”) followed by (“after”) BS (“empty BUS”)
5 APE – Double definition: parrot (as in imitate) and I suppose you could say an ape is “often at home in tree”. Not the most satisfying of clues, barely cryptic at all unless I have missed something
6 SKELETON STAFF – Small crew is the definition. Answer is also an anagram (signalled by “to be replaced”) of LEFT OFTEN ASKS
7 ANTE – Stake is the definition (think “up the ante”). Our decapitated poet is DANTE
11 PERSPIRED – Sweated is the definition. Answer also derived from the wordplay SPIRE (“top of church tower”) with REP (“traveller”) reversed (“climbing”), and the final D coming (I think – took me a while to see this) simply from the pluperfect sweating of the REP (‘d)
14 TESTATE – with a will is the definition (as opposed to the more frequently heard intestate). Answer also from ATE (“tucked in”) “following” TEST (“examination”)
15 SNOBBY – Arrogant is the definition (jarred a bit with me, but I guess it is technically correct: I tend to think of snobbery and arrogance as two somewhat separate forms of obnoxious behaviour). Answer also from the wordplay SNO (“son undone” – letters rearranged) with B(B)Y “by crossing bishop” (B being abbreviation of bishop in chess notation)
17 DYER – Double definition, one of which is a homophone. The yarn worker is the literal, and the answer also sounds like (“to listen to”) DIRE (“dreadful”). If I was of a picky disposition, I might query the yarn worker / dyer connection in that my understanding (limited though it is in these fields) is that dying can occur with any material – yarn or otherwise. But hey, this is Crosswordland and the double meaning of yarn (story) with its linkage to “listened to” provides a more interesting surface
19 LIL – LILLY (or LILLIAN – take your pick) is our small girl, and the shortened mattress is LILO

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 183 by Marty”

  1. There were a couple of answers here, 1d and 2d, that I wasn’t sure of–neither TIDDLER nor TAKE THE MICKEY being in my dialect. Didn’t know about the Lions, but given the definition it had to be. I agree with Nick about SNOBBY, but I suppose snobs are generally arrogant; still, the partial mismatch did slow me down. I also join Nick in giving DEFOE the COD, although I also liked PERSPIRED. 7:15.
    1. 13 minutes, so north of my 10 minute target yet again and I’m beginning to forget what it feels like to achieve it. I thought quite a few of these clues were bordering on 15×15 territory and I share the reservations expressed re APE and DYER. I can’t find a direct link for snobby/arrogant in the dictionaries but Collins Thesaurus lists them together.
  2. I have no problem with SNOBBY being clued as arrogant. If someone is called an intellectual snob, I think most people will equate that with arrogance.

    Lovely puzzle, this, with another shout-out for DEFOE, the type of quirky clue that the main puzzle has, but the Quickie rather less so. So good practice. BARBARA also very nice. Felt a bit of a twat for having ANTE as my last in, given that the seasoned solver should read ‘5-letter poet’ and think DANTE or DONNE. 12 minutes.

    1. Yes, on reflection take the point re. intellectual snob – I guess I saw them as close cousins rather than as twins.

      ANTE was also my LOI. I may have got it more quickly had I started from the poet end, but instead tackled it from the stake end on the basis there were probably fewer synonyms for stake than there are poets. As it was, it took me a while to move from wooden posts to gambling dens…

      1. Well, they are, of course, as are most synonyms. If you have twins in languages, one tends to get pushed out of the pram sooner or later.
  3. Of course, originally the distinction was between nobs and snobs, with the snobs servilely trying to imitate the nobs, and the nobs being the arrogant ones. Evidently, at least if one reads Kingsley Amis or Edward St.Aubyn, they still are. I think I might be more accepting of ‘snobby’ as the definition for ‘arrogant’ than, as here, ‘arrogant’ meaning ‘snobby’.
    Ulaca, may I hope that you felt a bit of a twit?
  4. Thought it was going to be a toughie after first read through only yielded 3 answers,ELECT, DEFOE and ANTE. However I was soon tucking into a samosa (per the blogging jargon). Last in was DUKEDOM with TAKE THE MICKEY my favourite.

    Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Marty and Nick.

  5. 15 mins. Only just started doing these as my online account doesn’t seem to let me access them. I’ve started buying the paper again for work though now, so I get to do the paper copy. 15 mins is my target which I usually get, although I’ve not hit 10 yet.
    I would have been quicker but got stuck on 17/21. I had LYRE at 17 to start with which left me stuck at 21. I also had TODDLER at 1d at first which left me wondering what a TOLER was before the penny dropped.
    1. Dave, great to have a senior pro such as yourself dropping in to join those of us who hang out predominantly in the public bar!
      1. I suspect that you would find that quite a few 15 x 15 solvers will also do the Quick, and quick isn’t always easy. Anyway, if you are a crossword junkie, Quick methadone is better than no fix.
        Another nice blog Nick.
    2. As far as I’m aware the Quickie is available on all subscriptions. I pay the lowest possible sub and have always had access – not sure about all devices though.
  6. Been starting to get the hang of these although have never completed one. Found today’s really hard and could not even get one answer after about 30 minutes. Obviously not on the setters wavelength, but have never liked this setters puzzles. Can’t seem to sign in today so this is written as anon.

  7. I too had a struggle on my hands today. It took a second go this evening with less than half the grid filled, before the long answers clicked. then a steady solve backwards towards the NW corner. DEFOE and RE-EDIT were favourites of mine.

    Thanks for the blog, Nick, which I resolved not to peek at successfully before completing!

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