Quick Cryptic no 3087 by City

Author   Cedric StatherbyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Good morning, and we have a brand new setter this morning as City makes their debut.  I make that our fifth new setter of the year, joining Dangle, Jet Lag, Juji and Shay, and what a sparkling debut City has given us.  In my opinion there are several really excellent clues, many lovely smooth surfaces, and no obscure words or questionable definitions.

As for the standard of the puzzle overall, City seems to have hit the QC spot first time out, with a nice balance of easier clues and others that require a bit more thought.  At any rate the puzzle took me 12:05, which is almost exactly bang on my average.  I suspect others may be considerably faster, but I wanted to relish the excellent surfaces on this one.

I have decided to copy others in using the ~ mark to show where insertions are;  thus in the first clue, T~OM means that the R is inserted after the T of TOM.

How did everyone else get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, ~ marks insertion points and strike-through-text shows deletions.

Across
1 Cat trapping right clavicle, say, in instrument (8)
TROMBONE – T~OM (cat) containing (ie “trapping”) R (right), + BONE (clavicle, say).  And I was off to a flyer, as what little musical talent I have is spent tootling away on a trombone.  Great instrument, though perhaps not one for the shy and retiring type.
5 Composer beginning to hail taxi that’s reversing (4)
BACH – H (beginning to, ie first letter of, Hail) + CAB (taxi), all backwards (ie “reversing”).
9 What goes with gin, too nice not to finish (5)
TONIC – TOo NICe, with both words losing their last letter (ie “not to finish”).  A very good surface, and these days there are several premium tonics which certainly fit the bill as “too nice not to finish”.  Even without gin.
10 Clay pit breaking standard (7)
TYPICAL – (clay pit)*, with the anagram indicator being “breaking”.
11 Somehow he set our axle straight (12)
HETEROSEXUAL – (he set our axle)*, with the anagram indicator being “somehow”.  Another very smooth surface, as setting something straight is a well known phrase.
13 New version of extremely rare footwear (6)
REBOOT – RE (extremely, ie first and last letters of, RarE) + BOOT (footwear).
15 Most of metal framework is free (6)
GRATIS – GRAT (grate, ie metal framework, with the last letter deleted, given by “most of”) + IS (from the clue).
17 Construction of deck that is vulnerable in high winds? (5,2,5)
HOUSE OF CARDS – The deck here is a deck or pack of cards, and the construction is the tower of cards that one can – if one has very steady hands – make with them.  And it is indeed very vulnerable in a high wind; indeed when I try to build one it usually falls over of its own accord without needing a puff of wind to help it.

The tallest house of cards I have been able to find on the internet was a frankly unbelievable 25 feet high – that’s 7.6 metres.  See here: https://www.cardstacker.com/tallest-house-of-cards.
20 A swift shortly clutching at marine? (7)
AQUATIC – A (from the clue) + QU~IC (quick, ie swift, with the last letter deleted, given by “shortly”), containing (ie “clutching”) AT (from the clue).
21 I, for example, am returning picture (5)
IMAGE – I (from the clue) + MAGE, formed from EG (for example) and AM (from the clue), all 4 letters then reversed (“returning”).  A little care it needed here, as only 4 of the 5 letters are reversed, the I staying at the front of the clue.
22 Initially, spider is tangling every part of web (4)
SITE – Formed from the first letters (ie “initially”) of Spider Is Tangling Every.  Another very smooth surface, as the web we want is the World Wide Web not, as one might be led to think, a spider’s web.
23 Sluggish man who’s getting married with relative tranquillity at first (8)
STAGNANT – STAG (man who’s getting married) + NAN (relative) + T (Tranquillity “at first”, ie first letter of).
Down
1 Gallery of rubbish — English? (4)
TATE – TAT (rubbish) + E (English).  Even if one does not have the T checker from 1A, this should be a good starter for most people for the down clues.

There are of course other galleries in the world, but as far as Crosswordland is concerned, “gallery” is nearly always the Tate.
2 Weight to ruin a chef, regularly ignored (5)
OUNCE – Every other letter of tO rUiN a ChEf, given by “regularly ignored”.
3 Celebrate dancing with hot unmarried woman (12)
BACHELORETTE – (celebrate hot)*, with the anagram indicator being “dancing”.

I needed all the checkers for this one, as while the meaning of the word is obvious once one sees it, it is not a word I have seen in real life before – the dictionaries suggest it is “mainly US”, as used in the phrase “bachelorette party”, which this side of the pond is called a hen night.  Whether one knows the word or not, though, one can admire another very smooth surface from City – many men would indeed celebrate if they were dancing with a hot unmarried woman.
4 Nato admitting one new country (6)
NATION – NAT~O (from the clue) with I inserted (given by “admitting one”) + N (new).

NATO admits new members rather more often than I realised.  Having started with 12 founder members in 1949 and relatively quickly added Greece, Turkey and Germany by 1955, its membership was then static for over a quarter of a century.  But since 1980 it has more than doubled in size, with 17 further members added at fairly regular intervals over the last 40 years or so, the most recent new member being Sweden, who joined last year.
6 Relation of current peer (7)
ACCOUNT – AC (current) + COUNT (peer).  Relation as in the telling of a story, rather than a member of one’s family.

I was very slow to solve this one, as Count is not a title in the English peerage and I didn’t think of it for ages.  Why, alone among the names for peers, we retain the Saxon word “earl” for this rank of the peerage, when almost all other titles use the Norman French terms (Duke, Marquis, Baron, Baronet, even Viscount), I do not know – and what makes it even more of a puzzle is that the wife of an Earl is given the title Countess.  I look forward to the answer from other contributors – I am sure someone will know!
7 Impotent part of the LP lesson (8)
HELPLESS – A hidden, in tHE LP LESSon, with the hidden indicator being “part of”.
8 Express’s lead editor involved in distributing fast optical character recognition? (5,7)
SPEED READING – SP~READING (distributing), containing E (Express’s lead, ie first letter) + ED (editor), with the inclusion indicator being “involved in”.

A somewhat whimsical definition, and I was sent down all sorts of blind alleys thinking of acronyms for technology that can read printed text into a computer.
12 Warms up beforehand, concerned with preliminary races under pressure (8)
PREHEATS – RE (concerned with) + HEATS (preliminary races), all prefaced with (ie “under”, this being a down clue) P (pressure).
14 Audibly jeer Kay’s smell (7)
BOUQUET – Sounds like BOO (jeer) + KAY (from the clue), with the homophone indicator being the very straightforward “audibly”.
16 Remnant of copper wrapped in newspaper (6)
OFFCUT – OF (from the clue) + CU (copper) inserted into (given by “wrapped in”) F~T (newspaper).
18 US state expelling popular huntress (5)
DIANA – inDIANA:  the US state is Indiana, with the deletion of IN (popular) given by “expelling”.
19 Car manufacturer’s  vehicle part (4)
SEAT – A DD, and City ends with yet another very smooth surface.

56 comments on “Quick Cryptic no 3087 by City”

  1. Biffed TROMBONE, BACHELORETTE, SPEED READING. I’d never heard of SEAT when it appeared some time ago; surprised that I remembered it. 6:24

  2. 13:30. Agree with Cedric this puzzle was of really high quality and very enjoyable- and thanks for showing me how to parse SPEED READING!

  3. 13 minutes. NHO BACHELORETTE and don’t much care for the word although it’s a marginal improvement on ‘spinster’. I missed the full parsing of SPEED READING.

  4. 3:27 to round off my workweek with a pleasing time. I agree this puzzle felt high-quality. Thanks Cedric for the Earl-Countess factoid and City for the challenge.

  5. 17:09 for the solve. In agreement that this was a lovely debut even if I did get stuck with crickets from 9-16mins!!

    Was going along nicely but had tentatively put REshoe and that gave me no chance on BOUQUET when I reached the Downs even though I thought of boo-. Stuck on that along with HOUSE-OF-CARDS, AQUATIC, and STAGNANT. Took the unravelling of OFFCUT to kickstart and bang those in.

    Remember the SEAT / SAY-AT clue from about a year ago. Interested to see how many remember it.

    Thanks to Cedric and City – hereby known as the C&C Crossword Factory

  6. A nice debut puzzle but my sluggishness today was summed up by wondering (for far too long) whether ‘reshoe’ could possibly be justified for new version.

    Started with TONIC and finished with SEAT, which I’d forgotten to fill in, in 9.57 and COD to BACHELORETTE.

    Thanks to Cedric and City

  7. 10:56 (battle of Glasbury. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn defeats the Bishop of Hereford)

    An excellent puzzle. Slight delay trying to fit OCR into 8d. LOI was HETEROSEXUAL.
    Mildly disappointed not to see OUNCE clued as a cat.

    Thanks Cedric and City

  8. 14 minutes. Slow but happy to spend the time, solving in the first place, then working out the parsing. TROMBONE, BACHELORETTE (LOI), SPEED READING and STAGNANT were my favourites.

    Plenty of clues to raise a smile and overall v. enjoyable.

    Thanks to Cedric (sorry, can’t help with Count/Earl) and to our new setter City – look forward to your next puzzle

  9. 32:37 (average: 37, target: 30:20)

    No Quick SNITCH today at the time of solving so had to do a less accurate target based on the averages for the last few days.

    Yes I agree this was a puzzle with great balance with an excellent mix of difficulty levels and clue types. The top half of the grid went in very quickly while the bottom half required a lot more thought.

    LOI: SEAT. I just couldn’t see it for so long and was stuck thinking VENT for about 5 mins convinced there was something I just wasn’t seeing.

    COD: HOUSE OF CARDS. So neat and obvious when you see the answer, but I went all over the shop before I got to it.

    Thanks Cedric for the thorough write up. That fact about Earl is a fascinating observation. Thanks City for the very new and welcome flavour in the now more familiar overall style of the QC.

  10. In football terms, I’m a fully paid-up member of the ABC Club (Anyone But City) and if there is any correlation between our new compiler and that outfit in sky blue shirts (not Coventry) I’m prepared to forgive it on the basis of this perfectly pitched QC. Nothing obscure, excellent surfaces, and dispatched in two straight passes with a smile – what’s not to like? And topped off by Cedric’s usual excellent blog. A good start to my weekend.

    FOI BACH
    LOI SEAT
    COD HETEROSEXUAL *
    TIME 4:24

    * I thought this was perfect – accessible enough at QC level, but not out of place were it a 15×15.

  11. 16:26, top half fast bottom, esp SW much slower.

    I think The Conqueror initially wanted to keep some of the remaining Saxon aristocracy such as Edwin and Morcar who submitted to him after Hastings. As more Norman nobles poured across post -conquest and got free lands, they ended replacing most of the “eorldman” with Normans. Perhaps keeping the old name was a way of slotting the new guys into the old structures. Castle-building and general harrying did the rest.

    COD HETEROSEXUAL

    These 500 errors on the blog seem to be getting worse.

  13. A very good puzzle that unsettled me in parts after I started quickly and thought it would be a doddle. Careless typos slowed me down, in particular my recognition of BOUQUET. Rushing at the end, I lazily biffed SPEED READING and my LOI ACCOUNT.
    I only just avoided the SCC and will now explore Cedric’s blog properly.
    Welcome to City – hope for a return soon – and thanks to Cedric.

  14. I am pretty sure that I once read something by George Garnett saying that William decided to retain Earl (a) for continuity to reassure the conquered, (b) to placate those who were already Earls and might have kicked off, rather than accepting the new order, at having their titles changed; and (c) because Counts were two a penny in France whereas there were few Earls! But I can’t find any trace of this on the web so no warranties are offered.

    Good puzzle, found the bottom a lot harder than the top, had to get out pen and paper to crack HETEROSEXUAL which was annoying because I normally manage anagrams in my head, spent too long thinking it was “groom” not “stag” and that it was “say” not “eg”. All done in 09:03 for 1.5K and an OK Day. COD to AQUATIC because I pieced it together from wordplay and only saw that it really was a word as the C went in.

    Many thanks City and Cedric.

  15. Not much to add to the above. Bifd SPEED READING, left 11a till last, as the anagram didn’t immediately unravel, and then had to write the remaining letters out to get the other meaning of straight, which was my only minor holdup. Cedric’s comments on English aristocracy were interesting – having never given it much thought, I didn’t realise that a Count is referred to as an Earl in the UK, being presumably of Anglo-Saxon or Viking origin. It brought to mind the anomaly of the meat of an animal having French origin, whilst the live creature had an Anglo Saxon one. So beef (boeuf) was consumed by the Norman overlords, but the cow was raised by the English peasants.

  16. Having read the first word of the clue for 1a as Car, I didn’t solve it and headed for 1d where the ubiquitous gallery popped up. OUNCE and BACHELORETTE followed and I revisited 1a, reading it properly this time, after which one of the 76 items from Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man blared its presence. Sometime later, having wrangled ACCOUNT into a relation and biffed SPEED READING, I was left with a car part which took a surprisingly long time to morph into a SEAT. 9:05. Thanks and welcome to City, and thanks to Cedric for the Blog. Always wondered about Counts and Earls!

  18. 19 with a high percentage of bifd and help from crosser . Not sure what to make of that.

    Isn’t Seat/seat a straight double definition?

    (y) C & C

  19. I thought that this puzzle was another on the more difficult side. A couple of biffs again needed to limp home with BACHELORETTE and SEAT last in. A disappointingly slow 27:25 to finish.

  20. 29 mins…

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought that this was going to be breeze. I even got that bit of giddiness when I believe I might be on for a very quick time. Alas, I was brought down to earth with the bottom half as quickly as I completed the top.

    11ac “Heterosexual” is so obvious that I cannot understand how I managed to ponder over the anagram for so long. Similarly, I was obsessed with sand for 17ac.

    Overall though, a great debut from City.

    FOI – 1ac “Trombone”
    LOI – 11ac “Heterosexual”
    COD – 11ac “Heterosexual”

    Thanks as usual!

    1. Had my first ever write-in on any puzzle of Acrosses then Downs when I tackled the The Guardian Quick Cryptic this morning. So when the first four Acrosses went in on this I was wondering if the stars had aligned. Fortunately heterosexual set me straight (pun intended) as I decided against trying to unravel it without checkers. Agree about it being COD.

  21. What fun! Excited by possibility of sub 10 (first ever for us) then breeze blocked for TEN minutes on the last four. BOUQUET, REBOOT, AQUATIC and STAGNANT.
    Really enjoyed the clever surfaces of so many clues.
    Thanks Cedric for helping us to fully parse SPEED READING – great blog and welcome CITY.

    Can someone give an example please of RELATION = ACCOUNT. He gave an account of events ..yes, get that.. however, can’t make the next step.. Fear I am about to be embarrassed.

      1. Am I alone in detecting an American accent here?
        Deck of cards, bachelorette, rhyming the beginning of bouquet with boo and relation meaning account.
        Also, is a count actually a peer? We don’t have counts (see above) do countries that have them have “peers”?
        Enjoyed it anyway.

      2. Thank you! Appreciated.
        And sorry for slow acknowledgement – I am having repeated ‘ Error 500 – internal server error’ notices. Am I the only one?

        1. Glad it makes sense now.

          500 errors currently seem to be commonplace. See discussion further down.

  22. 12:46. Like Templar, I pieced AQUATIC together from wordplay, but it didn’t click. I failed to see I had constructed a real word. It meant nothing pronounced (in my head) with the stress on the first syllable. (Water flea, perhaps??) I had to come back to it before the pronunciation penny dropped. LOI HETEROSEXUAL. COD TROMBONE.
    Thanks to City, nice QC, and thank you Cedric for the entertaining blog as always

  23. 6:28

    No major issues with this puzzle. BACHELORETTE known to me from an American TV show that my then-teenage daughter was watching. SPEED READING was a write-in from enumeration plus a few checkers. Mrs H drives a SEAT so that came to mind fairly quickly.

    Thanks for the blog Cedric, and welcome City

  24. Excellent debut from new compiler City. Lots to enjoy here with some very good surfaces. FOI – BACH, LOI – ACCOUNT, COD – HOUSE OF CARDS which I took far too long over but really liked when the penny dropped. Thanks to City – looking forward to your next one – and Cedric

  25. 06:32. Great puzzle, LOI was BOUQUET (with a little assistance on that from my 9yo son who was looking over my shoulder and helpfully yelled it in my ear).

  26. 8.48 BACHELORETTE and HETEROSEXUAL needed the checkers and I was breeze-blocked for a couple of minutes by SEAT. Thanks Cedric and City.

  27. I found this tricky and DNF SEAT 🙄 Lots to like but brain just not working very well today. COD BOUQUET. Only just got why ACCOUNT= relation, and still don’t understand parsing of SPEED READING. Could anyone shed any further light?
    Many thanks City and Cedric.

    1. Express’s lead gives E, editor gives ED, distributing gives SPREADING. Put EED inside SP~READING to get SPEED READING. Greetings from a fellow victim of SEAT.

  28. 20:26

    A splendid puzzle indeed, but I was needlessly held up by putting reshoe instead of REBOOT. This made LOI BOUQUET somewhat tricky until I saw the error.

  29. I found this tricky, but enjoyable.
    The bottom half took longer.
    I particularly liked “House of cards”

    Thanks Cedric and City

  30. Error 500 – Internal server error

    An internal server error has occured!
    Please try again later.’

    Not always, but again and again, when accessing or refreshing the TftT website:

    ‘Error 500 – Internal server error

    An internal server error has occured!
    Please try again later.’

    Is it possible to sort this (it has happened over weeks and months) or explain what we should do to avoid it happening?

    Thanks, in advance.

          1. I was just playing as, while the 500 errors are happening frequently and it is somewhat frustrating, I’m also aware the site is hosted and run by voluntary efforts – mainly JohnI for the actual site. It would indeed be nice to get an understanding and even better a resolution as you request.

            1. I had not realised that the software itself was down to volunteers. I have appreciated TftT for years and it is a great service but, yes, it would be good to resolve this continuing issue.
              My first attempt to post this reply was ignored by the software but I have learned to copy what I write before posting.
              So, I have deleted my draft and will try again.

Comments are closed.