Quick Cryptic no 27 by Flamande

Some good clues here so I quite enjoyed myself. This doesn’t seem like a Quick breeze as there’s good surfaces and quite a lot of play in the word play. I usually struggle with flowers (the ones with petals rather than the rivers) but at least it was an anagram. The scientist I knew so don’t know why it took some time to get the answer from pretty clear word play. Flamande does seem to enjoy double definitions.

The definition/’whole thing’/’concise clue’ is underlined. The word or phrase which indicates an anagram is shown as (anagrind) and the words of the  anagram (anag).

Across
1 Take Flight To escape, go by plane – double definition.
8 Bag LadyHomeless woman happy (GLAD) to settle in (inside) alcove (BAY).
9 ReadsStudies concerning (RE) publicity (ADS).
10 Task – After very little time (T), beg for (ASK) some work.
11 Camellia – This person (ME) cuts (inside) variety (anagrind) of lilac (anag), a flowering shrub – in the family Theaceae – maybe this is why I don’t like plant clues – too many vowels.
13 TracerOne eventually finds (someone who traces) a kind of bullet – double definition.
14 Yellow – Shout (YELL) ouch (OW), being cowardly.
17 Well Done – My (WELL as in ‘My! Cryptic crosswords are fun!’) teacher (DON), first to express (E) words for encouragement.
19 MailLetters man read aloud (MAIL sounds like male).
21 LatheMachine produces articles for use on both sides of the channel (LA en France, THE in UK).
22 BrownieCake for future Guide? – double definition.
23 RutherfordScientist’s dull routine (RUT): woman’s (HER) cross (FORD)! Father of nuclear physics and a great experimentalist – would maybe have appreciated our efforts to fine tune these blog formats.

Down
2 Augusta – Distinguished (AUGUST) area (A) in US city. At the recent Master’s tournament, a friend of our non-skiing son – Matt Fitzpatrick – did really well but sadly missed the cut by a single shot.
3 ExamTest now in the afternoon? If it is no longer (EX) morning (AM) then it must be now in the afternoon. Nice clue!
4 LaymanAmateur needed by pLAY MANager. The answer is in the clue – needed in the sense that the letters layman are needed to make play manager rather than pager.
5 Gardener – Forest (ARDEN) kept by (inside) German (GER) horticulturalist. It’s easy to start with, to think that cryptic clues have answers you’ve never heard of – how many German horticulturalists do you know? But more often than not the setter is fooling you with a clever surface which needs to be looked through to find a simpler word like gardener.
6 TrailTrack advertisement for future program – double definition. Can a trail (rather than a trailer) be an advertisement? Is advertisement a verb?
7 Oscar WildeWriter so upset (OS) and angry (WILD) when taken into (inside) care (CARE).
8 Bath Towels – Wash bottle (anag) out (anagrind) and dry with these, after soaking in the bath say.
12 Dead BeatLout is exhausted – double definition – we seem to be clocking these up – that’s 5 so far.
15 LearnerPupil left (L) to join person getting income (EARNER) – a nice twist as pupil in crosswords is usually L but here it’s the definition.
16 UnableNot fit, having polished off (anagrind) BUN with ALE (anag).
18 Later – Person working on roof (sLATER) loses head (minus the first letter) subsequently.
20 LoafDo very little to get bread – our final double definition making half a dozen in all. Nice follow on – ‘to get bread’ – from ‘earner’ above.

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic no 27 by Flamande”

  1. Found I can do these quicker if done after the big cryptic. Agreed there’s some good clues here, though I think we’ve seen the EX-AM device before.

    TRAIL is OK as an alternative for “trailer”. I got caught on this a while back as I didn’t know it then. ODO’s example is:
    “A recent television trail for ‘The Bill’”.

  2. 16 minutes for this one. I struggled at the end to think of the bullet but most time was lost by having (r)AFTER at 18dn which should be a perfectly acceptable alternative but for the first checked letter. It fits as a person who works on a roof too.
  3. or so I believe. Like Jackkt, I put in ‘after’. I also put in ‘loll’ instead of LOAF–I think I had some idea of lolly minus the y–which made RUTHERFORD a long time in coming. Chris, you should like phlox, then.
  4. Just a thought. Would the following format make the analysis of the anagram clues a little easier to read, without compromising the explicitness?

    Instead of:

    This person (ME) cuts (inside) variety (anagrind) of lilac (anag)

    This person (ME) cuts (inside) lilac* (‘variety’)

    One can keep the descriptions free of metalanguage such as anagrind and anagram by means of the asterisk, which is both common and easily assimilable, and inverted commas.

    Up to you of course!

    1. I don’t think we shall ever get to one-format-fits-all-bloggers, nor should we necessarily wish to, but personally I would prefer clues, if they are to be included, to be kept separate from explanations other than for the definition to be indicated in some way – underlining being the obvious means of doing this.

      The example you have given is clear but it might not look so good when the anagrist consists of two or more words which presumably would then need to be in brackets. This in my opinion would confuse the eye when viewed alongside brackets indicating something else. And the subtle use of quotation marks inside brackets is one step too far for my poor brain to cope with!

      Edited at 2014-04-15 05:37 am (UTC)

      1. I take the point entirely about the freedom for the bloggers to do as s/he pleases. It was only because my mind was struggling to handle so much information that I mentioned it at all. It probably reflects more on said mind than on any law of diminishing returns!

        Edited at 2014-04-15 06:38 am (UTC)

  5. Very enjoyable puzzle, about 20 minutes. Off to a good start with 1a a write in. Particularly enjoyed YELLOW and the tricky RUTHERFORD. Was not able to parse 17a so well done to Chris. LOI DEAD BEAT.
  6. 4 mins, and another good QC IMHO. MAIL was my LOI after OSCAR WILDE. I have got into the habit of doing the QC after the main puzzle and my times seem to be quite consistent so that’s what I’ll continue to do.
  7. Thanks Chris for a nice, clear blog.
    Completed all but one clues in 23 with a bit of Z8ery, as it was late and I’d been at work. The LOI, dead beat, took 2 mins to figure out with Z8 and I looking at each other blankly. I would have thought a lout was a lot more proactive than a dead beat. COD was 22ac – I was both a guide and brownie in my past…

    I guessed a couple of clues – gardener & Rutherford from cross- clues but Z8 refused to allow me to continue until I’d parsed them.. Nothing like being trained to do it correctly 🙂

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