Quick Cryptic No 258 by Pedro

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An extremely quick solve – until the NE where progress was made only by a great deal of effort. This averaged out to a medium (15 minutes). I, unsually, had no problems at all with the plants at 12ac and 19dn but 10dn, 9ac, 15ac and LOI 6dn caused my problems – others may not get so held up and wonder what I’m going on about.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Admit first of hordes into imposing municipal building (4,4)
&nbsp &nbspTOWN HALL – Admit (OWN) and first of (H)ordes inside imposing (TALL).
5 Highlander‘s second bed (4)
&nbsp &nbspSCOT – Second (S), bed (COT).
8 Equestrian clause added to document (5)
&nbsp &nbspRIDER – Double definition.
9 Relation providing financial statement (7)
&nbsp &nbspACCOUNT – A double definition but for me a fiendish one. I could see that AUNT fitted so was sold hook, line and sinker down the road of family tree type relations.
11 Beer head avoided by healthy (3)
&nbsp &nbspALE – Healthy h(ALE) losing its first letter (head avoided).
12 Plant, inelegant, straggling (9)
&nbsp &nbspEGLANTINE – Anagram (straggling) of INELEGANT. I must have remembered this from other crosswords so maybe there is cause for hope on my plant blind spot. Another name for sweetbrier which is a Eurasian rose, Rosa rubiginosa, having a tall bristly stem, fragrant leaves, and single pink flowers.
13 Close to swallowing first and last of claret — a lovely drink (6)
&nbsp &nbspNECTAR – Close to (NEAR) inside which (swallowing) is the first and last of (C)lare(T).
15 US state not entirely colourful (6)
&nbsp &nbspFLORID – So, so easy when you have the answer – so what was the problem? I just couldn’t see this for ages. US state (FLORID)a without the last letter (not entirely).
18 Game? Poet’s written about harmful one (9)
&nbsp &nbspBILLIARDS – Poet’s (BARDS) about harmful (ILL), one (I).
19 Firm succeeded in producing lettuce (3)
&nbsp &nbspCOS – Firm (CO), succeeded (S).
20 Gal, as an alternative, bringing Italian dish (7)
&nbsp &nbspLASAGNA – Anagram (alternative) of GAL AS AN.
21 Suffer popular treatment mostly (5)
&nbsp &nbspINCUR – Popular (IN), treatment (CUR)e without the final letter (mostly).
22 Question development of thaw? (4)
&nbsp &nbspWHAT – Anagram (development of) THAW.
23 Show no progress when results are delivered? (4,4)
&nbsp &nbspMARK TIME – A pun.

Down
1 Queen boarding railway vehicle for country (7)
&nbsp &nbspTERRAIN – Queen (ER) boarding railway vehicle (TRAIN).
2 Golf-club with sharpness (5)
&nbsp &nbspWEDGE – With (W), sharpness (EDGE). By coincidence this is the club I use most in attempting to extract myself from the rough as mentioned on Tuesday.
3 Charge on, sir, wildly riding in contest (5-6)
&nbsp &nbspHORSE RACING – Anagram (wildly) of CHARGE ON SIR.
4 Likely experimental area blocked by one French article (6)
&nbsp &nbspLIABLE – Experimental area (LAB – short for laboratory), inside which (blocked by) is one (I), French article (LE).
6 Font appropriate for message? (7)
&nbsp &nbspCOURIER – A courier transports messages hence appropriate for message. It feels like this is a well known font but it must have been buried under all the plants I’m trying to remember!
7 What identifies book, and part of effect it left? (5)
&nbsp &nbspTITLE – The answer is in the clue (part of) effec(T IT LE)ft.
10 One supports wicked things (11)
&nbsp &nbspCANDLESTICK – Cryptic definition – wicked things are things with wicks – doh!
14 Church getting least wrecked keyboard instrument (7)
&nbsp &nbspCELESTA – Church (CE), anagram (wrecked) of LEAST. Hadn’t heard of this but it fell into place. If you’re interested it is a keyboard percussion instrument consisting of a set of steel plates of graduated length that are struck with key-operated hammers. The tone is an ethereal tinkling sound. Range: four octaves upwards from middle C.
16 Merit of French tennis stroke (7)
&nbsp &nbspDESERVE – Of French (DE), tennis stroke (SERVE).
17 Artist upset, very upset with a feature of naval scene? (6)
&nbsp &nbspARMADA – Artist (RA) backwards (upset), very upset (MAD), a (A). I suspect that the Spanish Armada, as a backdrop to a bowls session, was painted – hence featuring in a naval scene.
18 Setback around end of course — inferior (5)
&nbsp &nbspBELOW – Setback (BLOW) around end of cours(E).
19 Curtain’s opening on start of play, revealing desert plants (5)
&nbsp &nbspCACTI – Curtain’s opening letter (C), opening start of play (ACT I).

10 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 258 by Pedro”

  1. 9 minutes. Really liked 10dn. Slight hold-ups along the way while I thought twice about the Italian dish and the musical instrument, both of which I spell ending with an E rather than an A.

    The best known example of celeste playing is Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from “The Nutcracker” in which it has a starring role.

  2. 10’30” with exactly the same last four as Chris. Was onto a computer font early but couldn’t think beyond Calibri, and was slow to spot the double definition at 9a, whence started the rot! Agree with Jack that the CANDLESTICK clue is well wicked…

    Edited at 2015-03-05 04:57 am (UTC)

  3. Was racing through this although ACCOUNT went in unparsed until my last two, 23a and 10d. Took ages to see MARK TIME and then the excellent CANDLESTICK. Also liked BILLIARDS.
  4. I always like to think of ‘train’ describing exactly what it says on the tin, a line of things, like carriages behind a locomotive engine. Of course the advent of the single carriage car has so far defied the efforts of BR neologists to come up with anything better so the clue is fully valid even without recourse to a fat dictionary. Even so I think that if the setter had pluralised ‘vehicle’ the clue would have been slightly more subtle.

    And whilst ‘serve’ no doubt has Dan Maskell frowning from the grave it is an equally accurate, and in every sense more common, usage than the original.

    Incidentally do they still so clearly enunciate ‘second service’ at Wimbledon?

  5. Eglantine from Oberon’s speech in MSND: I know a bank where the wild thyme grows…

    Isn’t courier the original typewriter font?

    Was stumped by candlestick.

  6. A nicely set out puzzle I thought, with a good range of clues. Did not know EGLANTINE or CELESTA. Thought early on they were likely answers, but waited until the checkers were in place to write them down.

    A number of excellent clues, with BILLIARDS and ACCOUNT fooling me for a while. Mistakenly wrote badminton for billiards, but looked at it again and spotted the correct answer. Last two in were MARK TIME and CANDLESTICK. Was only able to see the latter when the K from mark time was in, then the DOH! moment struck. Lovely 😄.

    Thanks to Pedro for the “well good” puzzle and to Chris for the excellent blog.

  7. For me this puzzle ranged from the straightforward (NW corner) to the too tough for me. Plants are really not my thing, so I missed out 12a even with all the checkers and 17d was made impossible by me spelling lasagna with an ‘e’ on the end, unforgivable as it was an anagram. 10d was a really excellent clue, which was baffling me until the ‘k’ of 23a went in.

    Edited at 2015-03-05 06:02 pm (UTC)

  8. Struggled with candlestick and billiards as my last two, but then my better half spotted candlestick. Neither of us could see why until reading the blog. English can be quite difficult at times, even for natives! Invariant
  9. Couldn’t complete the NW corner. Never heard of the plant and lab just didn’t occur to me in 4d so I kept trying to understand how an anagram of area could possibly fit in. ‘Candlestick’ I did get – one of the best clues I’ve come across.
  10. Was really dumb today having 17 down as strait as the naval scene anagram of artist totally screwed everything else up. Must try harder.

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