Quick Cryptic No 3054 by Teazel

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I whizzed through this in 7:02, putting this well into my fastest 10 times. I was this close to the never-achieved “perfect solve” (all the acrosses in order, then all the downs in order), but I couldn’t see SURPRISINGLY on my first visit, so that put an end to that hope.

The problems started when I came to write the blog. I had successfully biffed three clues that I then had trouble parsing and/or explaining: MAD HATTER, LABRADOR and VAIN. Looking forward to seeing whether I missed anything.

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
7 Swap  skilled occupation (5)
TRADE – Double definition
8 Age range for retirement? Exit is arranged before start of summer (7)
SIXTIES – (EXIT IS)* + [start of] Summer
10 Clothes become old, stuff to throw away (7)
GARBAGE – GARB (clothes) + AGE (become old).
11 Let down by large debtor (5)
LOWER – L for large + OWER (debtor)
12 Member of Tea Party’s implied threat? (3,6)
MAD HATTER – Ooh, the lesser-spotted Reverse Cryptic!

MAD HATTER could be a clue for THREAT that would be parsed as MAD being the anagram indicator and HATTER the fodder. I’m not sure what “implied” is doing for us in the clue, I think the clue works just fine without it.
14 One has a blade, decapitating wild pig (3)
OAR – bOAR (wild pig) [decapitated]
15 To some extent ignore conjunction (3)
NOR – Hidden in [to some extent] igNORe.

It took me a moment to remember what a conjunction is.
16 Splits up  unmatched clothing (9)
SEPARATES – Another double definition
18 Offered pound for hammer (5)
GAVEL – GAVE (offered) + L (pound)

I had a slight eyebrow twitch at “gave” = “offered”, but then “he offered no resistance” came to mind.
20 Moving about USSR, Scotsman perhaps used this? (7)
RUSSIAN – (USSR)* + IAN (Scotsman perhaps).

All Scotsmen not called MAC are called IAN in Crosswordland. The answer refers to the Russian language.
22 Doctor, highly talented but not good, failed to settle (7)
DRIFTED – DR (doctor) + gIFTED (highly talented)[without the G for good].
23 Turn round using wide part of foot (5)
WHEEL – W for wide (from cricket and shoe sizes) + HEEL (part of foot).
Down
1 Adjusted damages agent effectively arranged (5-7)
STAGE-MANAGED – (DAMAGES AGENT)*
2 Dog found briefly in experimental area (8)
LABRADOR – I think all that is going on here is that LAB is the common abbreviation for LABRADOR and for LABORATORY.

I’m not 100% convinced of that parsing, but I can’t see any other word play here.
3 Put money on a second-class mark (4)
BETA – BET (put money on) + A (from the clue).

Despite having attended Oxford, I’ve never actually been in a class where Greek letters were used for grades. Perhaps if I hadn’t been doing a science degree…
4 Feature of derelict apse and court (6)
ASPECT – (APSE)* + CT (abbreviation for Court, as in street names)
5 Scout’s former partner given new role in public relations (8)
EXPLORER – EX (former partner) + (ROLE)* in PR (public relations).
6 Compete against women’s opinion (4)
VIEW – VIE (compete), next to [against] W for women’s.

Alternatively, you could construe VIE as “compete against”, but I like my parsing better.
9 Grumpy about power increasing, curiously (12)
SURPRISINGLY – SURLY (grumpy), containing [about] P for power and RISING (increasing).
13 Unqualified, having unchecked power (8)
ABSOLUTE – A double definition, and a good description of … no, I’m not going there.
14 Gave general idea of unpopular policy decision to begin with (8)
OUTLINED – OUT (unpopular) + LINE (policy) + Decision [to begin with].
17 Cut carefully round advertisement for row of shops (6)
PARADE – PARE (cut carefully) containing [round] AD (advertisement).
19 Conceited and idle (4)
VAIN – double definition, the second as in “a vain hope”.

I’m not really happy with the example I’ve given there, but I need to get this blog published!
21 Sons have scattered (4)
SOWN – S for sons, + OWN (have)

77 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 3054 by Teazel”

  1. LABRADOR it had to be but wasn’t sure of the parsing, I think you’re right with ‘lab’ abbreviation. Biffed MAD HATTER and didn’t even look at the rest of the clue, well done D for seeing the reverse. SURPRISINGLY took a while to see but I liked the parsing when I eventually saw it. ABSOLUTE was my LOI. Everything else was pretty straightforward.
    Thanks D and setter.

    Edit: Lab (Labrador briefly) found in experimental area (Lab)

  2. 10.22, with several minutes spent at the end on SEPARATES (I too started with ARCADE which provided no hope), SURPRISINGLY and RUSSIAN. Is that really the definition, the language? Hmm. Similarly I’m not convinced that ABSOLUTE is a DD, more like the same D said twice. AND I don’t get LABRADOR at all and the attempts to explain it so far suggest that nobody else does either. But never mind, quibbles aside it was all good fun, thanks to Teazel and Doof.

  3. Like Vinyl, I biffed LABRADOR & MAD HATTER; the latter a gimme, so a good clue wasted. 6:06

  4. Thanks Teazel and Doofenschmirtz. Could MAD HATTER and IMPLIED THREAT be in a sense a double meaning: two anagrists and anagrinds, in that the second angrind is ‘implied’, which has at its root the idea of ‘folding in’? So if you make HATTER ‘mad’ and ‘imply’ THREAT you get the other one?

  5. It’s going to be mentioned, so might as well get it over early, the term MAD HATTER is not used by Lewis Carroll.

    9 minutes. I had to look more than once at RUSSIAN before I spotted how the definition works.

  6. I thought this was hard at the time but I think that’s because of LABRADOR and MAD HATTER neither of which I could parse – and I didn’t have the courage to follow Vinyl’s “those are the answers – let’s go”, partly because Rotter’s words of wisdom have stuck with me – if it doesn’t parse it’s usually ….”. Vinyl’s was the correct approach today. Thanks due to Mrs Freeman who taught my daughters at primary school for the poster in her room: “there’s a rat in separate” – ended years of indecision and helped today. All green in 8.21.

    Special mention to alexyew888 who completed this in an incredible 22 seconds – but with 24 errors to put him dead last on the leaderboard.

      2. My physics teacher, of all people, taught me that you have to be able to see PART in sePARaTe (because you separate things into parts, not rats, sorry Mrs Freeman), and that if you get it wrong you must be a PRAT (sePeRATe). Never forgotten.

    2. Mr Godwin’s version was that the two Es are separated by the two As, which stuck with me.

      1. ‘You’re not up to PAR if you can’t spell sePARate’
        is what Mrs Miesel taught me.

  7. Very similar experience to our blogger: fast solve (in my case 9:11), thought VAIN was weak, biffed MAD HATTER (I did notice it contained an anagram of threat but didn’t follow that through to spotting the reverse cryptic), and with my LOI, got no further than “both LABRADOR and laboratory have LAB in them, so it must be right”. An odd clue, with no wordplay at all for the -RADOR.

    Many thanks Doofers for the blog.

  8. 9:59 a rare sub ten. Like others several half-parsed answers. Unsurprisingly absolute hold ups for me. Mad Hatter BIFD without even a half parse so thanks Doofers for explaining a very clever clue and thanks Teazel for setting easy answers even if the clues were tricky😉

  9. Spent too long looking at the letters for stage managed before moving on and coming back with some crossers.

    Actually saw the reverse cryptic after biffing the answer which was pleasing. Some answers came very quickly but somehow this took us out to 21.05, can’t quite see why, but an enjoyable solve. Used Vinyl’s approach for Labrador but after trying to parse used a precautionary word check before moving on.

    Liked sixties, thanks Teazel and Doofers

  10. I didn’t find this as easy as some early commenters seem to have done.
    STAGE MANAGED required pen and paper and I just couldn’t get my head around DRIFTED, ABSOLUTE and SEPARATES at the end.
    Finished in 9.40 with MAD HATTER unparsed.
    Thanks to Doofers and Teazel.

  11. I think RUSSIAN is a Semi &Lit? I failed to parse it fully at the time.

    For MAD HATTER I think the ‘implied’ is to denote the Reverse Cryptic. Glossary example uses ‘suggested’ and one that I looked at even said ‘possible clue’ in the question (or do I mean answer?!)

    Very much enjoyed this one. 17:42. COD MAD HATTER, LOI ABSOLUTE

  12. A fairly swift 6.40 for the solve, but with head scratching at the end for LABRADOR. Nobody seems to have come up with a ‘doh of course’ solution for it, so I assume it’s just a less than satisfactory clue. I didn’t have any problem with MAD HATTER which to me parses perfectly well. Didn’t much like VAIN though, as any clue that leaves you wondering whether you’ve missed something isn’t too great.

  13. Biffed MAD HATTER, DRIFTED and ABSOLUTE but steadily worked through the rest in about 20 minutes with no real holdups.

  14. 5.55

    Another (B)OAR; still no Oink. But cracking puzzle from Teazel I thought. Good mix of clues; nice surfaces; no obscurities. And it took me 4 hours fewer than last Friday’s main fare; imagine that!

    Particularly liked STAGE MANAGED. I think the “implied” in the MAD HATTER clue is because you need something to indicate the reverse cryptic (but I’m no expert).

    Thanks Teazel/Doofers

    Ps Didn’t know Carroll never mentioned the phrase (but I do now).

  15. I took 16 minutes on this, including 7 minutes at the end on LABRADOR. I’m rubbish at dog breeds and I think I psyched myself out of it, internally conceding that “as usual this will be a dog breed I’ve never heard of / seen once and forgotten / just can’t bring to mind. Actually it was a very common breed that I still couldn’t bring to mind for ages until I finally put LAB at the start then it fell in place.

    FWIW, I agree with our blogger’s parsing for VIEW and VAIN. Also, for the first time I can recall, I actually saw the reverse cryptic and used it to solve the clue as opposed to biffing it then staring blankly at it for a while before the coin hitting the floor. Felt quite smug about that at the time. 🙂

  16. I should have done more biffing. Instead, I worried too much over some of the parsing, especially LABRADOR, RUSSIAN and MAD HATTER, taking me to 18:14.

  17. A very enjoyable 26 minutes although I could not parse the three mentioned by Doofers either.
    VIEW took a long alphabet crawl especially as I was convinced till the very end that there was no word consisting of _I_W.
    Impressed that jackkt knew about the Mad Hatter. That was new to me.

    1. Maybe it’s a first in a QC but the Mad Hatter thing has been discussed here many times.

  18. 14:28
    I created problems for myself by entering WINCH for 23a (although winch as a verb means to lift with a device that turns round, so not strictly the correct definition). This meant that I was slow to be convinced by OUTLINED.
    My LOI was SURPRISINGLY.
    COD to MAD HATTER.

    Thanks Doofers and Teazel

  19. Made very heavy weather of this. FOI PARADE.
    LOI SURPRISINGLY as I had stupidly biffed Winch instead of the much easier WHEEL.
    CNP LABRADOR – favourite dog though. CNP various, in fact. So thanks, Doofers.

  20. I got through this in a time lower than my Snitch rating, and in two straight passes, yet it didn’t strike me as particularly easy. I thought LABRADOR was poor. I biffed my LOI.

    FOI SIXTIES
    LOI SURPRISINGLY
    COD MAD HATTER
    TIME 4:17

  21. Very easy, whizzed through. Had the same trouble with parsing as mentioned by others. Had a MER at USSR = Russia as it incorporated other countries as well, but of course they did all speak Russian so well thought through. Can you un-MER?
    Thanks to Doofers and Teazel.

    1. Try this: I don’t think the clue is saying that USSR = Russia, only that Ian would (more than “perhaps”!) have used that language throughout that erstwhile large country.

  22. A few unparsed at the time for me coming in just over 22 mins, a bit over my average…

    According to Mr Google’s dictionary (Oxford) … Idle : Old English īdel ‘empty, useless’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ijdel ‘vain, frivolous, useless’ and German eitel ‘bare, worthless’.

  23. Precisely, Doofers. Surprisingly easy for a Teazel (LOI ABSOLUTE) – but the parsing is something else. Well done and thank you.
    By the way (for the record?) of your three I did get VAIN (and even MAD HATTER!) – but it was GARB I couldn’t see. Thank you, Jack – I hadn’t realised (or had forgotten) that Carroll always writes just HATTER, never MAD – a lovely titbit to pick up.
    Beta: I think at Oxford one was reckoned to be too “grown-up” for grades. The use of Greek letters for grading essays was at school.

  24. Same sticking points in parsing as solvers above. For RUSSIAN, I assume ‘this’ means language, but it seems very weak. How does RADOR fit in LABRADOR?
    Today’s puzzle a bit unsatisfactory for me as I like clarity.

    1. LABRADOR is the dog. If you write it briefly you get an experimental area, lab. No more to it than that.

  25. 12:03

    A nice easy one, held up by biffing SEPARATED which caused problems for LOI SURPRISINGLY.

    MAD HATTER was such a brilliant clue, sadly wasted as the answer was so obvious that I didn’t think about the devious wordplay. Thanks to the blog for the explanation.

  26. 5:02

    No bother here except for looking more than once at SURPRISINGLY and SEPARATES. As for others, the parsing of LABRADOR seemed somewhat loose. Saw immediately that HATTER was an anagram of threat so bunged in the obvious answer.

    Thanks Doofers and Teazel

  27. Finished correctly in just under 60 minutes.
    Another an hour of my life which I will not get back.

    I thought that there were several poor clues e.g. 12 Across – “Mad
    Hatter ” of which I still do not understand the parsing. Which means to me that the clue is too difficult for a “Quick Cryptic”. Although the term MAD HATTER is not used by Lewis Carroll, the hatter is said to ber mad by the Cheshire Cat in conversation with Alice :
    ” when she asks ‘what sort of people live about here?’ the cat replies:
    in that direction lives a Hatter, and in that direction, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad!”
    The expression “mad as a hatter” predates Alice in Wonderland. Mercury used to be used in the production of felt hats. Prolonged exposure to mercury sometimes caused neurological damage, leading to symptoms like tremors, slurred speech, and erratic behavior.

  28. Thanks Doofers. I am glad I didn’t have to try and explain LABRADOR and VAIN. I did parse MAD HATTER though. Nonetheless I sprinted from STAGE MANAGED to VIEW in 5:18.

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