Quick Cryptic No 2850 by Breadman

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I found this one a pretty stiff challenge. I just dodged the SCC, coming in at 19:10, over my target of 15 minutes. The first two acrosses came very quickly, but then I only got two more of the acrosses on the first pass through. Unusually, not a single clue was a straight anagram today.

My COD award goes to RUSTY.

Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.

Across
1 Flat-bottomed boat  not so heavy (7)
LIGHTER – A double definition to get us started.
5 Anaesthetic in patella colonel recalled (5)
LOCAL – Hidden in patelLA COLonel when reversed [recalled].
8 Exotic mineral found by steadfast traveller out of this world (4,9)
NEIL ARMSTRONG – (mineral)* + STRONG (steadfast).
9 Kentish chap grabs minute portion (7)
SEGMENT – SE GENT including M for minute.

Kent is in the south-east of England, so a Kentish chap is a SE gent. For ages I wondered whether I was supposed to know a particular word people from Kent use to describe themselves.
10 German agreed to track port and Spanish wine (5)
RIOJA – JA (German agreed) follows RIO (a port).

If you track someone, you go after them, so I quite like “to track” here meaning “to follow”. Rio is by far the most frequented port in Crosswordland.
11 Composer and Charlie enter vehicle? (6)
CHOPIN – C (Charlie in the NATO alphabet) + HOP IN (enter vehicle).
13 Individual keeps tree burning (2,4)
ON FIRE – ONE (individual) contains [keeps] FIR (tree).
15 Heather in charge during long period (5)
ERICA – IC for in charge inside ERA (long period).

Erica is the genus of “roughly 857” (Wikipedia) species of plants, commonly known as “heather”.

The other word you’ll sometimes see for heather is “ling”. And of course that was the one that came to mind for me first.
16 Disregard false leg caught in fishing gear (7)
NEGLECT – (leg)* + C (caught, from cricket) in NET (fishing gear).
19 African landmark old monarch declines (8,5)
VICTORIA FALLS – VICTORIA is the old monarch + FALLS (declines).
20 Rugby star, missing half year, out of practice (5)
RUSTY – RU (Rugby Union, one of the two codes of the game of rugby) + STar [star, missing half] + Y for year.

Very deceptive punctuation from Breadman here.
21 Slippery creature among salespeople lying about earring (7)
SLEEPER – EEL (slippery creature) in REPS (sales people) all reversed [about].
Down
1 Golf course with large signs in US (5)
LINKS – L for Large + INKS (signs in US).

That’s “signs” as a verb, as in “to ink the deal”. My dictionary marks this usage as “chiefly N. Amer”.
2 Attending pastry chefs regularly failing to cope (5,2,6)
GOING TO PIECES – GOING TO (attending) + PIE (pastry) + every other letter [regularly] of C h E f S.

“Will you be going to the meeting?” is synonymous with “Will you be attending the meeting?”
3 Comb back of mullet with simplicity (5)
TEASE – Last letter [back of] mulleT + EASE (simplicity).
4 TV accessory’s key test probing centre of screen (6)
REMOTE – E (a key, from music) + MOT (a test) inside scREen [centre of screen].

MOT stood for the Ministry of Transport, and the MOT test was an annual check of a vehicle’s roadworthiness.
5 Former Republican working afterwards (5,2)
LATER ON – LATE (former) + R for republican + ON (working).
6 Line of people cold, on edge, wanting electrical device (9,4)
CROCODILE CLIP – CROCODILE (line of people) + C for cold + LIP (edge).

I think “crocodile” in the sense of a line of people is most often applied to small children being supervised by teachers.
7 Heave into narrow sled: suitcases, holdalls, etc (7)
LUGGAGE – GAG (heave, as in to vomit) inside LUGE (narrow sled).

I just spent 10 minutes trying to justify how this was LUG for heave + GAGE. Fortunately, for once I paid attention to the little voice that says “you’re about to make a complete numpty of yourself”.
11 Chopper used for taking holiday in Cromer’s outskirts (7)
CLEAVER – LEAVE (holiday) in the first and last letter [outskirts] of CromeR.
12 In motor racing, a burst’s overcome initially, acting all together (2,1,4)
IN A BODY – First letters [initially] of A Burst’s Overcome, inside INDY (a type of motor racing).

The racing is more commonly referred to as “Indycar racing”.
14 Heard enjoyable rock (6)
GNEISS – Sounds like [heard] “nice” (enjoyable).

And today I learned how this word is pronounced. Not sure I’ve ever actually heard it said.
17 Georgia — fine, feminine English bloomer (5)
GAFFE – GA (abbreviation for the US state of Georgia) + F for fine + F for feminine + E for English.
18 Shocking weapon seaman hides somewhere peripherally (5)
TASER – TAR (seaman) including [hides] SomewherE [peripherally].

 

105 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 2850 by Breadman”

  1. Failed on ‘GNEISS’, so a DNF for me today. NHO it so I didn’t have much of a chance.

    Rest of it was fairly quick, although ‘IN A BODY’ was a a stab-in-the-dark biff as I’ve NHO ‘Indy’ or ‘In a body’.

    COD: NEGLECT

  2. 47 minute DNF (almost at 2 hours for the week)!

    I solved all clues bar CROCODILE CLIP and GNEISS in 14 minutes. I eventually got CROCODILE CLIP but I put ANDIES for GNEISS, resulting in another incomplete QC and a very disappointing time.

    Another miserable day. Don’t expect me to be positive when I’m posting this kind of performance.

    1. Gary, I wonder whether you saw Friendly onlooker’s response to your post yesterday? It sounds as if you view this hobby solely in terms of your performance. Was there maybe a clue that stood out or something that you enjoyed about the process of solving today? That might be worth focusing on rather than concentrating on what didn’t go so well. Just a friendly thought.

      1. Thanks fabian. I didn’t see that post, so will take a look. I appreciate your advice and will try to change my approach.

  3. 24:13, so like our blogger, I found this challenging. On the one hand, VICTORIA FALLS was a giveaway, but on the other CROCODILE CLIP was very hard for me. In my dialect, it’s an alligator clip, and we don’t call a line of people a crocodile. So there nah. (I actually find the “crocodile” thing charming.) Embarrassingly, I also took a long time to see NEIL ARMSTRONG.

    I liked CHOPIN! Hop in, Charlie! I might have heard of SLEEPER as an earring, but I doubt it, and actually toyed with SPEELER before deciding it was less likely. I see it’s actually a word. I didn’t parse LUGGAGE, though I saw LUGE and decided that was good enough; as I’m just getting over some digestive upset, it’s probably a happy thing that I didn’t see it! I need to learn this BLOOMER thing–bread, goof, what other surprises await me?

    After seeing the repeated assertions that IN A BODY is an Americanism, I felt I had to chase down my feeling that in fact I had first encountered it in British English. Sure enough, Wilkie Collins, no American he, wrote the following in the 19th century novel The Moonstone:

    ‘They bounced out of their corners, whisked upstairs in a body to Miss Rachel’s room (Rosanna Spearman being carried away among them this time), burst in on Superintendent Seegrave, and, all looking equally guilty, summoned him to say which of them he suspected, at once.’

    (I’m not arguing, presumably it has survived better over here than with you all. But I don’t feel that it’s particularly common here.)

    Thanks to Breadman and Doof!

    1. I’ve seen a group of pre-schoolers walking along holding onto either side of a green plastic crocodile when going between a local nursery and playground – all togged out in their little hi-vis tabards. Absolutely adorable!
      It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, which apparently dates from the 1870s. In my book it only applies to a line of children walking in pairs – I wouldn’t ascribe it to a group of adults, unless I was being a bit facetious. I now await a difference of opinion!
      Hope you’re feeling better after your bug 😊

  5. 11.01 I’m pleased with that. Yesterday’s, which the Quitch rates as easier, took three times as long. I would have been quicker but I was breeze-blocked by IN A BODY. Thanks Doofers and Breadman.

  7. Late in the day to this and found it an enjoyable challenge, having heard of LOI GNEISS, at 15:40, helped. IN A BODY is neither a phrase I have heard nor would use (‘as one’ perhaps) but with some checkers it was guessable and, after some musing, I saw the INDY bit. Thanks to Breadman and Doofers.

  8. DNF, as I was completely beaten by N_I_ A_M_T_O_G, where I spent around 10 minutes trying to think of a suitable exotic mineral. I simply never saw that it was an anagram. Not having any of the seven checkers from 8a slowed me down significantly on some of the Down clues, of course.

    Elsewhere, I found it a tough challenge, but just about doable and probably reached 8a in around three-quarters of an hour.

    Many thanks to Breadman and Doofers.

    1. It was one of my last ones, as it is the most curious collection of letters! Bad luck – fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow 😊

  9. Difficult parsing today, so I crossed my fingers and biffed my way to 14d in about 12 minutes. I stared at _ N _ I _ S for another three minutes or so, and then shrugged and got unreasonably lucky with a guessed (and NHO) GNEISS, for a total of 15:38.

    Thank you for the blog!

  10. 11:11. Found most of it ok, I was lucky to have spotted GNEISS quite quickly otherwise that could have taken a long time…

    COD must go to CROCODILE CLIP – v clever and a nice surface.

    thanks both!

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