Quick Cryptic No 209 by Tracy

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’ve blogged this a few days ahead as the holiday period allows little space or peace for concentrated solving, toddling grandchildren are the priority. I’ll check the blog when I can, as the puzzle numbering seems to have gone a little unpredictable this week. This was a pleasant ten minute stroll with nothing very taxing.

Across
1 FULL OF BEANS – Def. in high spirits; a field full of runner beans. Wiki says the idiom dates from 1840s or before, and possibly relates to coffee beans?
8 ALL TOLD – A, LOT’LL reversed = LL TOL, D (aughter); def. taking everything into account.
9 TOPIC – TOP (spinner), IC (in charge); def. talking point.
10 TAOISEACH – (HE A STOIC A)*, def. foreign PM, Irish equivalent of Prime Minister. Is ‘foreign’ also the anagram indicator? If you spelt it correctly, without the checkers there, well done.
12 OWN – Hidden in CR(OWN)S, def. have.
13 RASCAL – (SCAR)*, AL (Capone); def. villain.
15 OBJECT – Double definition;, aim, lodge a protest.
17 TIP – PIT (mine) reversed; def. upset, as in tip over.
19 PROMOTION – PRO (in favour of), MOTION (proposal); def. publicity campaign.
20 OVERT – OVER (finished), T (first in ‘the’); def. open.
22 PELICAN – (A PENCIL)*; def. aquatic bird.
23 ENTERTAINER – ENTER (put down, as in diary), T(R)AINER (coach, less R); def. singer, perhaps.

Down
1 FOLIO – FO (foreign office); LIO(N) (celebrity, shortly); def. file.
2 LOOK SHARP – LOOK (appear), SHARP (keen); def. be quick.
3 OLD HAT – (LOT HAD)*; def. boringly familiar.
4 BAT – Double def; bat = flutter as in bat an eyelid; bat = club.
5 APPROVE – A, P P (very quiet), ROVE ramble); def. commend.
6 SECOND TO NONE – SECOND (moment), T(O N)ONE = TONE (pitch) outside ON; def. best.
7 MASTERSTROKE – A Master Stroke would be an expert oarsman; def. outstanding piece of strategy.
11 HOBGOBLIN – GO (turn) inserted into HOBBLIN’ (walkin’ awkwardly); def. bogey. HOB comes from ROB, Robin Goodfellow, of whom I waxed freely recently.
14 SAPIENT – (SIP NEAT)*; def. wise.
16 HOOPLA – HOOP (ring), LA (French for ‘the’); def. game.
19 INCUR – IN (at home), CUR(L) wind, endlessly; def. suffer.
21 TAR – TAR(ZAN), half of man of great strength; def. sailor.

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 209 by Tracy”

  1. Another 10 minutes but it was technically a DNF because even with the checkers in place I wasn’t able to work out the correct spelling of the Irish PM. Incidentally I’d say the definition is ‘PM’ and ‘foreign’ is the anagrind as suggested in the blog, though of course it also adds to the surface reading. Oh dear, bat/club again, and so soon!
    1. 10A was an answer in the Graun a few days ago. So the spelling is seared on my memory. For a few days at least. It is a word I know, being of irish heritage, but it’s a bugger to spell.

      Is anyone going to blog the jumbos? I haven’t finished yesterday’s yet (though I’m making good progress) and I see there’s one today too. They are spoiling us so they are (a bumper crop of number puzzles too but all ridiculously easy).

  2. I needed to look up several words like hobgoblin and masterstroke using the checkers and I managed to invent the word for the president of ireland as it was not in the app. Good fun though!!

    Edited at 2014-12-26 12:08 pm (UTC)

  3. I also had to look up hobgoblin and the spelling of the Irish PM but was pleased to finish and understand all the parsing. Re bat/club, a baseball bat is defined as a club by Wikipedia so maybe it is ok in a American setting.
    1. The usual dictionary sources are fine with it so it’s okay with me, but one of our contributors had a problem with it last time round.
  4. Well, I actually thought that was quite hard for Tracy. Over 2 hrs for me despite a reasonable start. Hobgoblin took ages, but it’s my cod. Why is lion a celebrity in 1d ? Invariant
    1. If someone is “lionised” they are treated as a celebrity, hence “lion”.
      And no, I couldn’t spell “Taoiseach” without some help!
  5. Like others I could not spell TAOISEACH without a dictionary, so a technical DNF. But otherwise enjoyed the solve. As soon as hobbling came to mind, HOBGOBLIN went in without further parsing and was my COD. It’s also the name of a good quality beer that I see regularly, so no problem with spelling. Also wondered about celebrity=lion. Not something I would ever think of matching with celebrity, but the answer seemed otherwise obvious.

    Season’s greeting to everyone.

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