Quick Cryptic No 294 by Corelli

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well, inspired by Verlaine’s recent personae changes, I thought I’d change my avatar to something more relevant; but as nobody has commented on my hi-jacking of good old Rip Kirby – either with praise or condemnation – I’m going to be an owl again; I just love owls.

This puzzle took me 10 minutes to finish. It has some nice anagrams and neat clueing, there’s nothing obscure, and we’ve got a horse racing clue again. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Across
1 ONE MAN BANDS – A nice witty cryptic to begin.
8 SLEIGHT – Insert LE = cross-channel article, inside SIGHT = vision; def. deception, as in ‘sleight of hand’.
9 REMIX – Hidden reversed word in TA(XI MER)RILY; def. refreshed song.
10 OVEREATEN – OVER = regarding, EA = each, TEN(T) = canvas, endlessly; def. scoffed excessively.
12 DOH – HOD = what brickie carries, reversed; def. note. If you carelessly entered HOD, say DOH! and read the clue more carefully.
13 GROTTO – GROTT(Y) = unpleasant, mostly; O for old; def. cavern. Apparently grotty comes from ‘grotesque’, coined in the 1960’s by the Beatles.
15 STUCCO – CUTS = hacks, turning over = STUC; CO = firm; def. wall decoration. For once, hacks are not journalists.
17 LEI – Reversed in F(IEL)D; def. ring of flowers. Hawaiian term for objects (usually flowers) strung together to be worn.
18 ROTTERDAM – ROTTER = rogue, MAD = crazy, backwards = DAM; def. Dutch port. Boring fact: The port of Rotterdam is the largest cargo port in Europe and the 10th largest in the world.
20 CRAFT – Ships are craft, and shipbuilders build them, and craft is handiwork; I can only smile.
22 PLASTER – P = soft (piano); LASTER = survivor; def. dressing for wound.
23 PRIME MOVERS – Amagram (indicated by ‘involved’) of (P RIVER SOMME)*, the P being plan, initially; def. chief architects.

Down
1 OBESE – O.B.E.s = honours, E = European; def. heavyweight.
2 EGG BEATER – EG = say, G B = Great Britain, EATER = diner; def. kitchen utensil.
3 ASTUTE – U = tip from you, inserted in (TASTE)*, indicated by ‘poor’; def. sharp.
4 BAR – Double def., as in ‘bar of music’ and ‘bar none’. Se discussion below.
5 NOMADIC – I’D A MO = I had a moment, reversed = reflected, then inserted into NC for North Carolina, N(OM A DI)C; def. wandering.
6 SIXTH FORMERS – (SEXIST FROM HR)*; def. senior class members.
7 ASCOT GOLD CUP – (COULD GO PAST C)* the C from top of camel; def. racing trophy. The actual title of the race does not include the word ‘Ascot’, but there are other Gold Cups, like Cheltenham, on which shirts can be lost. I lost mine on Tied Cottage in 1980 (he won at 14/1 and was later DQ for theobromine traces, allegedly because a stable boy had given him a corner of a Mars Bar).
11 NOTRE DAME – NOT RED = either green or amber presumably; A M(iddle) E(ast); def. church. Good stuff.
14 ORIGAMI – O = over, RIG = equipment, AM I = is the writer; def. folding. Well, a specialised kind of folding.
16 STOP-GO – STOP = finish, GO = turn; def. proceeding fitfully, as in a stop-go policy.
19 DATES – Double definition.
21 TEE – A plane is one sort of TREE; it loses the R for ‘runs out’. Tee-pegs are used by golfers to rest their balls on.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 294 by Corelli”

  1. Very tough for me but all correct. SLEIGHT my last in and it took me a long time to parse. Some very fine clues but the stand out for me was NOTRE DAME which brought a big smile when the penny dropped.

    Thanks Corelli and Pip.

    1. Yes I too thought it was tought – the toughest one we’ve had for a while. I got there eventually but it must have taken me a good half hour. I enjoyed it though.
  2. Another 10 minute solve here. I think we’re getting a good mix of difficulty at the moment. Very nearly fell into the HOD trap at 12 and stopped myself just short of biffing DATED at 19dn.
  3. Is the DD in 4D not Bar as in Ban, rather than as in ‘Bar none’? Because surely bar none means including everything, and not, in fact, omitting anything? I suppose bar ONE would work but not bar none? And even then I think bar=ban is clearer? Perhaps I’m missing something, I’m not exactly good at this…:)
    1. Your example works too, but IMO ‘bar none’ means ‘ban none’? If you’re including everything, you’re barring none. And there, barring means banning. I know bar means ban but was using a much used phrase to illustrate it. At least I think I was. Regards pip
  4. Probably just under the half hour, which is quite quick for me, helped by solving the anagrams with little trouble.

    Wasn’t aware that there was such a word as laster (and I see that the spell checker has just rejected it!), however the dressing couldn’t really be anything other than PLASTER.

    Overall an enjoyable puzzle, with NOTRE DAME my favourite. Thanks for the blog.

  6. On “bar” – in betting terminology, bar means omitting all the odds already listed.

    Eg horse A 3-1, horse B 4-1, horse C 8-1, 20-1 bar. Means all the horses other than A, B and C are 20-1.

  8. Missed the anagram in 23a, so was completely stumped by that and then couldn’t get 16 down (I always forget that turn often means go in crosswordland). A frustrating end to the week.
    Other than that a very enjoyable puzzle

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