Quick Cryptic No 200 by Pedro

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
It doesn’t seem more than a few months since the ‘Quick Cryptic’ kicked off, yet here we are at No. 200; for me, it was easier than Wednesday’s 198 and no harder than they were in the first week or two. One odd answer here, at 5d, but I checked it was correct before submitting the blog. I hope our nursery-slope solvers enjoyed Pedro’s well-constructed puzzle and that our blogs are making a difference.

Across
1 LIGHTHOUSE – LIGHT (undemanding), HOUSE (theatre); def. a warning in the main; see ‘main’ think ‘sea’ or ‘ocean’.
7 SINGE – SIN (crime), GE (for example = e.g., reversed); def. damage by fire.
8 SCANTY – SCAN (glance at), T Y (telly, losing heart); def. having little coverage, e.g. of minimal beachwear.
10 OFF – TOFF (posh fellow) loses T (head), def. not on, so it’s off.
12 BUTTERCUP – Cryptic double definition, one sort of amusing, a dairyman’s prize could be a BUTTER CUP which is also a flower.
13 FOLDER – F (opening of file) OLDER (more ancient); def. file. That simple.
14 DANIEL – (IN LEAD)*, Old Testament prophet.
17 CAB DRIVER – CAD (scoundrel) insert B for bishop, beside RIVER (Thames); def. taxi-man.
19 TAB – TA (volunteers, the Territorial Army), B (billions); def. bill. As we saw on Wednesday.
20 SCORER – CORE (heart) inside the first letters of Smash Runs; S(CORE)R; def. cricket official.
21 ADIEU – DIE (depart) with AU (French for ‘to the’) around it, A(DIE)U; def. farewell.
23 SLEEPY-HEAD – (SHEEP DELAY)*, def. one dropping off.

Down
1 LOSS OF FACE – Cryptic definition, humiliation, and specifically for careless watchmakers.
2 GIN – GAIN (win) loses A, def. drink of spirits.
3 TREMBLE – TREBLE (high singer) captures M (music’s first); def. quaver.
4 ON SITE – ONE holds SIT (position); def. at one’s place of work.
5 STAGE – Well, ST = stone and AGE = AGE, and STAGE could mean period; I checked this was correct, but it seems hardly a clue at all, with AGE repeated in the answer; is it a misprint?
6 STOCKIST – STOCK (standard, as in stock answer), IS, T (first letter of trading); def. shopkeeper.
9 SPELLBOUND – SPELL (period), BOUND (certain); def. transfixed.
11 FULL BACK – FULL (well fed), BACK (sponsor); def. footballer.
15 ALREADY – A L (pound) READY (cash); def. previously.
16 AVERSE – AVER (to claim), S E (heartless state); def. disinclined.
18 RURAL – R (river), URAL (Russian river); def. rustic.
22 ICE – I.E. (id est, that is), has C (cold) inside; def. wintry stuff.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 200 by Pedro”

  1. 10 minutes for this very enjoyable milestone of puzzle.

    Yes, my jaw dropped a little at 5dn (as it did for one clue in today’s 15×15!) but I can’t see how it can be a misprint as “Stone” and “Age” inevitably have to go together for the surface reading in addition to their part in the wordplay. The only error I can imagine is that the editor didn’t reject it and ask for a rethink.

    I also wondered about ‘B’ for ‘billions’ at 19ac as I don’t recall meeting it before. COED and Collins don’t seem to have it, but Chambers has b = billion, so that’s okay, assuming the singular can include the plural.

    12ac reminded me of an amusing pun in a Fry & Laurie sketch but unfortunately it can’t be written down without losing its point. For those who might remember it, it was from a literary narration and began something like “As I walked across the green meadow I stooped to pick a buttercup…”.

    Edited at 2014-12-12 07:24 am (UTC)

  2. pipkirby, thanks for the blog. I can’t speak for others but they have made an enormous difference to me. I’ve gone from the very early quick cryptics where I got maybe half to being able to finish without aids on most days. I’m just getting the confidence now to have a go at some of the 15×15 and the jumbo at the weekend.

    Enjoyed today’s QC which I finished in about 20mins, but held up quite considerable by 5d as Shale, Slate and Stage all competed to go in. In the end I plumped for the right one but it didn’t feel very satisfying.

    2. Thanks gilesr, good to know the blogs are worth the effort, helping people along, as the novelty and thrill of doing them wears off soon enough! Roll on no. 300 – pip
  3. Crikey, 200 up! I remember blogging QC No. 3 (first time I’d ever done anything of this nature) and it was quite terrifying – not helped by the fact that the technical gremlins that plagued this puzzle in its early days meant that I was only able to access it late in the day…

    All in all, I think this has been an excellent innovation by The Times, so thanks very much to all who have driven it and made it happen. A raft of new names have appeared at this site over the last few months, which has been great. At the same time, on behalf of all us novices, I’d like to thank the senior pros who regularly show up here for their enthusiastic mentoring of those of us who (in golfing terms) are still playing off 25 or worse – thanks guys, you know who you are…

    And today’s offering? Good standard QC fare, with a refreshing lack of anagrams. I technically did not finish, as I rejected STAGE on the basis that no Times crossword (quick or otherwise) could have a clue where AGE was in both the clue and the answer, so I ended up putting in shale without being able to parse it!

    Thanks for the blog pip

  4. 7:25 for me. I’ve only started doing the QC quite recently, but I’m enjoying them. It’s a good way to warm up the brain in the morning ready for the day ahead.
    I raised a slight eyebrow at 6d, but never doubted it was correct. You wouldn’t expect to see it in the 15×15, but I think you can forgive such trivialities in the quickie from time to time.
  5. Another big thank you to pipkirby. I usually get the words filled in but there is often a residue of ‘cannot parse’ (today 21) that without the help of the bloggers would bug me to the extent that I would stop doing the puzzles at all.
  6. This blog has been absolutely brilliant for me. Discovering it made all the difference. I sometimes wonder if I’m improving, and sometimes I think I’m going backwards, but I’d be nowhere without the blog. Thanks to all the contributors (and commenters).
  7. Let me echo heartfelt thanks for all the help. I too have gone from frustrated novice to a keen solver over the last year, mostly thanks to the patience and effort from those more seasoned, and always willing to help.
  8. Happy birthday to the quickie which has made a huge impact and is an excellent innovation as others have said. Also happy birthday to the bloggers without whom the quickie would be much diminished. Like others I had 5d but rejected it on the grounds it was too weak….maybe I’m getting picky.
  9. Like others I completed the grid but couldn’t parse 20a, 21st and 4d I put SLATE for 5d as Late is a geological period and S for stone but it clearly doesn’t work. Thanks to bloggers for their help.
  10. First thing I noticed was the grid, which I can’t remember seeing before, and initially thinking it could be quite a tough one. But, once I seemed to hit Pedros’ wavelength, everything went in quite smoothly (I think I may have been overcomplicating things e.g. FOLDER, STAGE and others).

    Quite a few went in without full parsing and looking back there were a number of clues I felt were a bit flat. For example ADIEU, STAGE, LOSS OF FACE and ICE. Like others wondered what else STAGE could be, but could not think of a reasonable alternative.

    Let me join everyone here in wishing the QC a happy 200th birthday and a special thank you to all you bloggers who do such a splendid job!

  11. Thank you, one and all. Like many here, I would not have continued with crosswords in any serious way without the quickie and this blog.

    I also echo Dave’s comment about it being pitched well to wake your brain cells up in the morning! I didnt finish today’s on the train and had to return to it just now. Unlike Nigel, I quite liked ADIEU, also SLEEPYHEAD.

    Looking forward to measuring my progress properly with the toughie over the Christmas break.

  12. A really fun milestone puzzle. Thanks to the Times for introducing the QC (I’ve attempted all 200 of them!) and to all the bloggers for patiently explaining the clues that have mystified me.
  13. A bit odd perhaps, but in clues you often have unchanged bits like ‘a’, ‘one’, or even ‘the’, so it doesn’t seem all that much of a stretch to have ‘age’. And it was such a nice surface that it was OK I think.
  14. This puzzle I chose for No 200 to try and reassure people that the aim is NOT to make these puzzles progressively more difficult over time.
    5 down was deliberate, with the above in mind.

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