Quick Cryptic No 241 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Some challenging vocabulary for which the definitions given are from Collins. 19ac required a (fortunately correct) guess between the two usual types of graduate. Not many went in from the definition alone so the wordplay had to be steadily worked through. LOI 2dn as the NW proved the most tricky.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Combination of parties in Arab location (4)
&nbsp &nbspBLOC – In araB LOCation.
4 Gift a private secretary carried — in this? (8)
&nbsp &nbspKNAPSACK – A private secretary (APS) carried by gift (KNACK).
8 Proceed on horseback, holding one’s container (8)
&nbsp &nbspCANISTER – Proceed on horseback (CANTER) holding one’s (IS).
9 Friend missing start of mass meeting (4)
&nbsp &nbspALLY – Mass meeting (rALLY).
10 Hoyden’s witty remark about lout from east (6)
&nbsp &nbspTOMBOY – Witty remark (MOT) backwards (about), lout (YOB) backwards (from east). A hoyden is a wild boisterous girl; tomboy.
11 Popular youngster beginning to interpret nightmares (6)
&nbsp &nbspINCUBI – Popular (IN), youngster (CUB), beginning to (I)nterpret. Incubi is the plural of incubus which is something that oppresses, worries, or disturbs greatly, esp a nightmare or obsession.
12 Crazy, serving drinks before 1960s dance! (5,3,5)
&nbsp &nbspROUND THE TWIST – Drinks (ROUND) before 1960’s dance (THE TWIST).
16 Suppress part of list, if legitimate (6)
&nbsp &nbspSTIFLE – Part of liST IF LEgitimate.
17 Neat coniferous tree (6)
&nbsp &nbspSPRUCE – Double definition.
19 Graduate crossing a lake, one in North Wales (4)
&nbsp &nbspBALA – Graduate (BA – but could have been MA) crossing a (A), lake (L). Lake Bala is a narrow lake in Gwynedd: the largest natural lake in Wales. Length: 6 km (4 miles). FYI Mala is (Hinduism) a string of beads or knots, used in praying and meditating. So, not a lake in Wales then.
20 Rush off, seeing reckless hooligan (8)
&nbsp &nbspTEARAWAY – Rush off (TEAR AWAY).
21 Heavenly girl embracing soldiers first of all (8)
&nbsp &nbspETHEREAL – Girl (ETHEL) embracing soldiers (RE), first of (A)ll.
22 Carry a dram of liquor east (4)
&nbsp &nbspTOTE – Dram of liquor (TOT), East (E).

Down
2 Everyone raised a small number — that’s plain (5)
&nbsp &nbspLLANO – Everyone (ALL) upwards (raised), a small number (NO). A llano is an extensive grassy treeless plain, esp in South America.
3 Big firm McLean organised, building playground amenity (8-5)
&nbsp &nbspCLIMBING-FRAME – Anagram (organised) of BIG FIRM MCLEAN.
4 Money set aside for child’s cat? (5)
&nbsp &nbspKITTY – Double definition.
5 Transport organisation in row after broadcast? (7)
&nbsp &nbspAIRLINE – Row (LINE) after broadcast (AIR).
6 Authorisation to hunt war chest distributed around Scottish island? (6,7)
&nbsp &nbspSEARCH WARRANT – Anagram (distributed) of WAR CHEST around Scottish island – our old friend ARRAN. COD, I think, for the deception of authorisation to hunt.
7 Stars accepting English name of Sulawesi once (7)
&nbsp &nbspCELEBES – Stars (CELEBS) accepting English (E). Celebes is the English name for Sulawesi which is an island in E Indonesia: mountainous and forested, with volcanoes and hot springs. Pop: 14 946 488 (2000). Also called: Celebes.
10 Rocky peak identified by mounting rubbish? (3)
&nbsp &nbspTOR – Rubbish (ROT) upwards (mounting).
13 Survive longer than old-fashioned cobbler’s model (7)
&nbsp &nbspOUTLAST – Old fashioned (OUT), cobbler’s model (LAST).
14 Revised rate for admission to the National, perhaps? (7)
&nbsp &nbspTHEATRE – Anagram (revised) of RATE inside THE. The Royal National Theatre used to be just plain old National Theatre.
15 Draw an item of formal wear (3)
&nbsp &nbspTIE – Double definition.
17 Diminutive head of shopping precinct (5)
&nbsp &nbspSMALL – Head of (S)hopping, precinct (MALL).
18 Skill displayed by service in court (5)
&nbsp &nbspCRAFT – Service (RAF) in court (CT).

18 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 241 by Orpheus”

  1. I had the strongest feeling I’d never finish this, and was surprised to see it only took 8:20. I went with BALA, too, although I checked before submitting. 7d went in on definition (Chris, I’d extend your underline to include ‘once’); only checked the wordplay after. Similar for 6d, where once I had a couple of checkers I saw that ‘authorisation’=WARRANT, and indeed didn’t parse it. I’d agree with Chris that it’s the COD. DNK ROUND THE TWIST, but it seemed pretty inevitable. If I recall–I know, I could look it up–incubi are female succubi; or is it the other way around? They do improper things with you while you sleep. On edit: of course, it’s the other way around.

    Edited at 2015-02-10 03:02 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for the comment on the full definition on 7dn. Whilst blogging I got myself a bit tied up as Collins said Celebes ‘IS’ the english name. Fuller reflection made this clear but I then forgot to go back and re-edit. Now corrected.
    2. Succubi are the females because they lie under (“SUB”).
      Incubi are the males because, they lie into (“IN”) – say no more.
      SUB becomes SUC in many Latin compound nouns where the second half begins with the letter “C” (e.g. succumb).

      It’s just occurred to me that ‘succubus’ should actually be ‘succuba’ (the female form). The fact that it is not presumably suggests that the devil that has taken the female form retains his essential masculinity. So that’s a double deception (say no more).

  2. 12 minutes, and I was similarly surprised to find it hadn’t taken as long as it seemed to complete the grid. BALA rang the faintest of bells but I had no idea about Sulawesi/CELEBES as I never heard of either so was completely reliant on the wordplay. Solvers who didn’t know “hoyden” (another faint bell-ringer for me) could well have plumped for TOYBOY at 10ac and I’ll admit that was my first thought too. I fear there may be complaints about the difficulty of this puzzle which would at least reassure me that people haven’t given up on the Quickie (yet) as might appear to be the case given the lack of activity here e.g. yesterday – or on reflection maybe that was down to the blogger.

    Edited at 2015-02-10 05:23 am (UTC)

    1. “I fear there may be some complaints”
      Only surely if you think QCs are there to help newbies like myself. Once you accept that they are a game to see if there are more words in the shorter Oxford than used in normal conversation then today’s puzzle wasn’t a problem at all.
      Needless to say, a DNF for me. Invariant
      1. More colourful and punchy than my ‘some challenging vocabulary’. 😊 I can understand your point of view but can also see the other side of this coin. If the QC is a step on the road to a 15×15 then working out unknown terms is par for the course. Whilst there were a lot today, they were easier to tease apart than many a 15×15 – as I can testify – sometimes taking hours over a 15×15 only to turn to the blog in the end. I suppose what I’m saying is that, if there are say 10 steps of expertise to a 15×15, people would never get there if only step 1 was served up in a QC.
        Experience is all – so do keep going!
        1. Agreed re the need for a reasonable challenge.
          Perhaps I’m being naive/optimistic but I would at least like to recognise the word in a QC when I have the answer, without resorting to A to Markworthy . . Invariant
    2. I forgot to add that the National Theatre has been officially designated “Royal” since 1988 but under various artistic directors has mostly chosen not to use the word in its signage and marketing for political reasons. Why am I not surprised that when it then comes to accepting the knighthood that seems to go with the top job none of the incumbents has seen fit to turn it down?

      Edited at 2015-02-10 06:35 pm (UTC)

  3. it would be nice to be able to rate a puzzle on this site-say from 1 to 5 stars-I thought this puzzle was quite a good one
  4. A good challenge which I completed in just over 30 minutes. I learned some new words (HOYDEN, TOTE, and INCUBI), no problems with BALA as I was walking near there (Cader Idris)last autumn. I wasn’t quite sure about the use of CELEBS for stars; I suppose it is in common usage now but doesn’t seem quite right for the Times crossword. Thanks to setter and blogger.
  6. Darn, or some other appropriate word that I’m not sure I should use here. Outdone by one letter. Had never heard of LLANO, but worked out that it should be LLA*O. Unfortunately guessed LLAMO instead – really should have seen the right answer 😞

    Worked out TOMBOY fine (hadn’t heard of Hoyden), also BALA and CELEBES (ditto). and was otherwise very happy to work through what I thought was a tough puzzle. As others have found, the solve went surprisingly quickly until the 2dn/10ac crosser where I dithered with TOMBOY for some time.

    Great fun, so thanks Orpheus and to Chris for the blog.

  7. Too tough for me today, I was left with 4 clues I couldn’t get my head round, but it’s all part of the learning process. COD for me was 21ac, simply because it’s not one I would have got a while back.
    1. Good effort plett11 – I hope, though, that you’ve now seen how the word play worked so next time you’ll be forewarned and forearmed!
  8. Not sure how you go about putting in answers you don’t know like Celebes or Llano. Or rather I get no satisfaction from it. Nor do I like clues/answers which are so out of date: Ethel. Who’s called Ethel these days?

    Plenty of other good clues though.

    1. I didn’t know these two answers either but I think that for a cryptic crossword clue one can work out the answer without knowing it beforehand – whereas for a concise crossword clue you either know it or you don’t. So the way you go about putting in answers you don’t know is to try to get some checking letters, work out the definition and therefore what’s left is the word play. Use each word of it, and come up with something that sounds like a good shot. Then the crucial factor is to have the confidence (which mainly comes from experience) to ‘bung it in’. This is, after all, meant to be fun!
      BTW – anyone – including all Ethels – are extremely welcome to comment – whether your name is at the top of the ‘baby’ charts or not.
  9. As a relative newbie I struggled with this. Looking up Sulawesi online helped! Not clear how RE equals ‘soldiers’ though. I did solve it in just over an hour but used a fill in the blanks crossword solver to find ethereal and incubi. That’s cheating, I guess!

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