Quick Cryptic No 269 by Teazel

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Nothing too obscure here but plenty of practice at unravelling cryptic clues with relatively obvious definitions to help you along. Ten minutes for me. I can’t think of anything else useful to add.

Across
1 THROUGH – TH = the, short; ROUGH = part of golf course (the part I never visit); def. over, e.g. ‘I walked over the field’.
5 SPAWN – S = small, PAWN = man on board; def. give birth to.
8 RESENTFULLY – RE-SENT = transmitted afresh; FULLY = without omission; def. not with good grace.
10 ONCE – ON = working; CE = church; def. not again!
11 CUL DE SAC – (L ACCUSED)*, the L from Liberal, anagrind = wrongly; def. this is going nowhere.
12 BREEZE – Double definition; a breeze block, an easy job.
14 TIRADE – (READ IT)*, anagrind = ‘out’; def. violent speech.
16 CLAPTRAP – CLAP = applaud; PART = role, reversed = TRAP; def. nonsense.
18 SOWN – S = last of refugees; OWN = have; def. scattered.
20 PROSPECTIVE – PROSPECT = view; IVE = I’ve, I have; def. likely.
22 SEVER – SEVER(N) = British river, short; def. cut.
23 OTHELLO – Hidden in pl(OT HE’LL O)veract; role in the play.

Down
2 HERON – HER = woman, ON; def. wader.
3 OBSCENE – OB = old boy (of school); SCENE = dreadful fuss; def. rude.
4 GIN – Gin and It was a popular drink, especially with my Mother, It being Italian vermouth.
6 PULSE – (PLUS)*, anagrind ‘extraordinary’, E = ecstasy; def. a throb of excitement.
7 WAYLAID – WAY = method, LAID = put in place; def. unexpectedly attacked.
9 FELT-TIP – FELT = experienced; TIP = advice; def. writer. Neat.
11 CLEAR UP – Double def.; clear up = explain, and we say the weather improves when it clears up, although it’s an odd expression when you think anbout it.
13 RELAPSE – R = run, (ASLEEP)*, anagrind ‘shattered’; def. fall back.
15 RESPITE – RITE = ceremony, around ESP = extrasensory perception, unusual powers; def. relief.
17 PROBE – P = power, ROBE = dress; def. examination.
19 WHEEL – WHEE ! = shout of excitement; L = left; def. turn.
21 CAT – (ACT)*, anagrind ‘badly’; def. role in Dick Whittington. Teddy my dog could probably solve this one.

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 269 by Teazel”

  1. 9 minutes. I forgot to go back and rethink the wordplay at 19dn where I was puzzled by W (with), HEE(shout of excitement???????), L (left).

    Edited at 2015-03-20 07:03 am (UTC)

  2. 8′ 45″, held up a little by biffing ‘perspective’. CUL-DE-SAC and the River SEVERN are popping up quite a bit recently.

    CLAPTRAP put me in mind of Mr Enlightenment’s home-town in CS Lewis’s Pilgrim’s Regress.

  3. Had a good view of the eclipse (south Cheshire), did the quickie in 20 minutes and then thought I would try the main one and did it in 50 minutes. Thanks to the bloggers for the help with the quick cryptic which ahs given me the confidence to try (and occasionally) complete the main one.
    1. Congratulations! If you haven’t already tried them, the consensus is that this week’s puzzles were on the less challenging side, so you might want to try some of the others.
  4. In 4dn surely it should be It not it, so this word had to be at the start of the clue. Shocking thing for The Times to do. And I thought it was supposed to be helping novices (actually it is, and a wonderful thing too, but this sort of thing goes against the grain).

    Edited at 2015-03-20 10:34 pm (UTC)

      2. I stand corrected. Sloppy. Should have looked it up. I find it rather odd though, since surely it’s gin & French
  5. Thought this was a toughie. SE corner did me in. Misspelling 13d didn’t help either. Plett11

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