Quick Cryptic No 208 by Joker

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Apologies for the rather tardy blog. It’s not appearing online today for me, so I had to buy the paper after a scheduled visit to the dentist; thankfully I am in chilly Oxfordshire for Christmas so buying the printed version was an option. Nothing too tricky in this and some nice seasonal touches.

Across
1 MEDITATE – EDIT (make changes) inside MATE (partner); def. think.
5 BROW – BROW(N) = mostly the colour of dead grass; def. hilltop.
8 SCOPE – S (small) COPE (get by); def. opportunity for action.
9 RED TAPE – RED (looking embarrassed), TAPE (record); def. excessive bureaucracy.
11 AXE – A and E with X (times) inside; def. cut. Simple, but topical surface.
12 SLAPSTICK – (PALS SKIT C)*, the C from Conservatives; def. low comedy.
13 ERRAND – ERR (make a mistake), AND (with); def. delivery run.
15 POORLY – POO ! (expression of disgust), RLY (abbr. railway); def. not being in good shape.
18 DASHBOARD – DASH (urgent journey), BOARD (directors); def. what chauffeur faces.
19 PAL – PAL(L) = grow boring through familiarity, losing the last letter; def. friend.
20 CHINESE – CHIN (feature), then the final letters of onE haS gonE; walls, boxes or lanterns can be such.
21 NOVEL – NOEL (time for Christmas presents), insert V (volume); def. new.
22 YOGA – YO(u) G(o) A(t), i.e. those three words ‘endlessly’; def. Hindu system of philosophy.
28 UNDERDOG – (GROUNDED)*; def. unfavoured competitor.

Down
1 MASSAGE – MA’S SAGE = mother’s very wise; def. muscular treatment.
2 DRONE – R (run) inside DONE (completed); def. a pilotless aircraft, which (if you watch Homeland, you know) is capable of quite amazing acts of destruction.
3 TREASONABLE – T (last letter of buT), REASONABLE (fair and sensible); def. traitorous.
4 TARMAC – (TRAM)* then CA (about) reversed; def. road surface.
6 READIER – A reader is one kind of university lecturer; insert I (one); def. more fully prepared.
7 WRECK – Def. cause destruction; hidden in ne(W RECK)lessness.
10 DISCORDANCE – R inside DISCO DANCE, the theme of the movie Saturday Night Fever with the Bee Gees music; def. lack of harmony.
14 RASPING – RING (call) around ASP (snake); def. filing; a rasp is a kind of rough file with bigger teeth.
16 YULE LOG – (YOU’LL GE)*, losing the T of GET for the anagram fodder; def. chocolate cake over Christmas.
17 TAVERN – N (number), RE (to do with), VAT, all reversed; def. pub. My LOI as I started considering a reversed BAR at first.
18 DECAY – DEC (end of year), AY (certainly); def. deteriorate.
19 PAVED – Initial letters of ‘poles as very English display’; def. covered with flags. Nice deceptive surface.

22 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 208 by Joker”

  1. Much easier today I thought, must be Joker’s Christmas spirit, done by coffee time (or am I getting better? Nah ! )
    1. Easier than yesterday certainly but not a complete walk in the park, I thought. Some chewy bits.
  3. Yes, my quickest ever finish at 1hr 15mins, with the 15mins spent on 20ac and even then I didn’t fully understand it until I read the blog. Agree 11ac is definitely Axe. Invariant
  4. Very enjoyable solve. Quite a few went straight in with RED TAPE being a great quick cryptic clue, but others took some time. POORLY my last in with my favourite, by some margin, DASHBOARD.
  5. Fairly straightforward after yesterday. Still required some lateral thinking which made it enjoyable. Did not know about Chinese boxes and walls but lanterns confirmed the answer. I thought the abbreviation for railway was ry but rly was all that would fit. Thanks for the blog.
  6. An excellent if moderate work-out, and entertaining to boot.

    I solved it in 10 minutes but required somewhat longer to decipher some of the wordplay. It fits exactly with my view that the Quickie should demonstrate tricks of the trade whilst leading to answers that less seasoned solvers will know, and resulting in a very satisfactory “doh” moment when it’s worked out what’s going on.

    Edited at 2014-12-24 02:37 pm (UTC)

  7. I got tarmac but still unsure about the parsing, please can someone explain the abbreviation “ca” for “about”?
  8. Surprisingly despondence also fitted the six letters but I couldn’t parse it. Discordance was my last one in.
  9. Must agree with Jackkt that it was a good example of a quickie, with a good combination of clues and difficulty levels. After yesterday’s puzzle, which I thought was a poor offering, with almost zilch DOH! content, it was good to find a puzzle that could make you smile, rather than grimace. Thank you Joker, and pipkirby for your efforts in getting the blog up.
    1. After yesterday’s blog comments by the thin skinned Izetti, it will be interesting to see what his/her next puzzle is like 🙂
        1. When the quick cryptic started my average solving time was probably 30-40 minutes, it is now 20-30 minutes. However I well remember Izetii’s first quick cryptic, it took me less than 10 minutes but he is now taking revenge.
  10. Hey let’s not get at our setters any more. We totally depend on them and I think Izetti was jolly brave to stick an e-head above the parapet. I think it must be quite hard when setting to judge the degree of difficulty, after all we hardly ever agree on it ourselves.
  11. Enjoyed today’s rather more relaxing offering. Had to think about ‘poorly’ – not used to the extra ‘l’ in ‘ry’ and also about ‘chinese’ – I got it from the definition and then had to work on the word play. Thanks for the blog pip.
  12. Thanks for all your various comments on today’s puzzle. Very interesting and instructive to read all the feedback, as always.
    Can I wish all solvers a very good Christmas and 2015. I hope to continue entertainingly taxing your brains both as Joker and anonymously in the other puzzles over the coming year.
    Joker
    1. Well more thanks to Joker for saying hello. I cannot say strongly enough what a great innovation the quick crossword is and together with this blog has given hours of innocent merriment this year.
    2. Thanks for your comments Joker – Merry Christmas to you! Unfortunately did not have time to tackle your offering today, but have greatly enjoyed all your puzzles during the year, so thanks very much for all your efforts and look forward to your 2015 offerings.

      Nick

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