Quick Cryptic No 256 by Teazel

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 256 by Teazel”

1. Firstly may I recommend that solvers wishing to practise their skills on the main puzzle should have a go at today’s offering. Quite a lot of the clues are easier than some in this Quickie, in my opinion.

   Having said that, I had a bad day on this one and came home in 20 minutes by the skin of the proverbial teeth. If I’d known that astronomer before having all the checkers in place it would have helped.

   1. Thanks for the hint regarding the main puzzle. I need all the help I can get so no problem with the “insights” here. Managed to complete all but 3.

      As for the QC, I cheated to get 13a. Favourite PTOLEMY.

2. The hardest quickie for me in a long time:12’30” (did the biggie today in 14:15; as Jack says, if you got through this one fairly smoothly, you should try the 15×15). I think I managed URN on the first pass of acrosses, and a few on the downs, then settled down to a steady misunderstanding of wordplay. LOI 1ac; it’s not a US phrase, but I knew it so that’s no excuse. I put in CAPPUCCINO, then took it out because 2 P’s didn’t look right at first. (The supreme capo, by the way, is the capo di tutti capi.) I believe it was Beachcomber who said of Puccini that he was the Wagner of music; or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, it’s way near the top of my wish-I-had-said-that’s. (On edit: it was the other way around: W is the P of m.)

   Edited at 2015-03-03 08:33 am (UTC)

3. 11′ 45″, so quite chewy, I thought, especially the unfamiliar word COVEYS (clued testingly) and 13d, where I was hunting for an author (Novalis?) rather than a synonym. The Ptolemaic model of the universe was a great favourite of CS Lewis’s, so not too much problem there, but undoubtedly another tricky clue.

   To chip in with another music quote, I’ve always enjoyed Twain’s verdict on Wagner – ‘not as bad as it sounds’.

   I will throw a spanner in the works and urge caution re today’s main puzzle. Many traps for the unwary.

4. s’funny – I thought this was pretty straightforward (7 minutes) compared to yesterday’s which took me almost twice as long.
   I too would urge some caution with today’s 15×15 – it took me quite a while to get into it, though there’s nothing too convoluted and there’s some good cluing if you happen to know some of the tricks.
   Another good Wagner quote is from fellow composer Rossini: “Monsieur Wagner has good moments, but awful quarters of an hour”

   Edited at 2015-03-03 05:47 pm (UTC)

5. deezzaa, you might want to edit out your ‘e.g.s’, as folks can get the parsing from Jack’s blog, and may not want it in advance!
   1. Quite. I was going to try it but now I probably won’t
6. At first I thought this was easier than yesterday’s which was a DNF for me but couldn’t get all the word play partly because I mistakenly had COVERT instead of COVEYS and PIONEER instead of PTOLEMY!!
7. This was a rare no-cheating finish for me. Only held up for long convinced 9dn was an anagram.
8. A somewhat strange solve today. Went through the acrosses and part of the way into the downs, with only 4 or 5 clues written down. But there were enough checkers in place to get a fresh insight into the missing clues and fairly sped through after that. Still quite surprised at how quickly I finished as my first thoughts were that it would be very tough. Wonder if the grid helped, as getting 1ac and 1dn provided a good foothold into the puzzle. Wasn’t familiar with relax as an anagrind, but remembered NILE GREEN from a recent puzzle and then saw the anagram.

   Thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable puzzle and to Chris for the informative blog.

9. Can anyone tell me where to find the blog for yesterday’s puzzle. Thanks.
10. Click on ‘Recent Entries’ at the very top left of this page and you’ll find all the blogs for the last week or so.
11. Unspammed
12. I started this morning and could barely get an answer, which after yesterday’s nightmare made me start to think my brain had melted over the weekend.

    Came back after work and completed most of it, although it took me an age to spot the anagram in 17a. Failed to get 3d (not helped by having a guess at covens for 13a). For 20a I thought ‘as afterthought’ indicated that the answer ended in ‘as’ and couldn’t think of any books which fitted.
    Glad to hear that some others found it at the harder end of the spectrum

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14. Could someone please explain why fine = AI. I’m sure it will be obvious once explained.

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