Quick Cryptic No 319 by Pedro

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The Times IT chaps seem to be jumbling up the URL numbers for the quickies on their site, so this time I was unable to guess it and solve ahead and post ‘early doors.’ This was straightforward, taking me 8 minutes and half a slice of toast; a well balanced entry level puzzle with nothing obscure or unfair, I thought.

Across
1 MURDER – RED RUM = colourful drink, reversed; def. death.
5 PROTON – PRO = supporting, TON = large amount; def. tiny particle. One of the fundamental particles in the nucleus of the atom, the number of protons being the factor which determines which element it is.
8 SCRAP-MERCHANT – (CARS PARCHMENT)*, anagrinds ‘dodgy’ and ‘torn’; def. dealer in old stuff. A nice anagram clue.
9 DELI – Hidden in SI(DELI)NES, def. foodstore.
10 WARDROBE – WA = was, cut down, (BORDER)* indicated by ‘reshaped’, def. item of furniture.
11 IMAGES – I’M AGES = I’m a long time; def. pictures.
13 DEMISE – DE = of in French, ME = the writer, insert (capture) IS, def. end.
15 AMICABLE – AM I CABLE = TV subscription; def. friendly.
17 SOME – Half of SOME(RSET); def. certainly not all.
19 POWER STEERING – (REPORTS E G WINE)*, anagrid ‘mistakenly’; def. something benefitting drivers.
21 CHOSEN – CH = church, (ONES)* anagrind ‘converted’; def. selected.
22 KEYPAD – KEY = significant, PAD = flat;; def. component of phone?

Down
2 UNCLE – UNCLE(AN) = dirty, drops the AN; def. relative.
3 DRAWING – Cryptic double definition.
4 RAM – Double definition, not even cryptic.
5 PARTRIDGE – PART = some, RIDGE = outcrop; def. bird.
6 OTHER – MOTHER = parent, remove the M = blowing top; def. different.
7 OMNIBUS – SUMO = wresting, reversed = OMUS, insert NIB = writer; def. anthology.
10 WASH-BASIN – (BASH AS)*, anagrind ‘riotous’, inserted in WIN = victory; def. some clean-up occurs here.
12 MAMMOTH – MAM = old woman, MOTH = insect; def. large.
14 MISERLY – M = start of music, (LYRE IS)* anagrid ‘replaced’; def. offering little.
15 CHESS – Game, hidden in MAT(CHES S)HOWCASING.
18 MANIA – MAN = fellow, I, A = initially admired; def. obsession.
20 ELK – EL = the Spanish, K = king; def. deer. Is an elk a deer?

11 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 319 by Pedro”

  1. Very straightforward, no obscure vocabulary or general knowledge, neatly constructed clues and a welcome reference to my adopted county …so why then did it take me almost twice as long as yesterdays?
    That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.
    1. I too thought it was a lot harder than yesterday. 5A LOI, took me ages to get, I’d say that was definitely specialist knowledge for those of us whose school days are long long gone. In my world these days the word proton if seen at all is usually seen in conjunction with ‘gun’ or similar, or possibly beam. I can’t remember the last time I had cause to consider the elements of an atom.
      1. The joys of cryptic crosswords – where else do you get the un-looked for opportunity of considering the elements of an atom?
        1. Perhaps sadly, it’s a topic I turn to voluntarily quite often, I must get out more.
  2. I thought I’d struggled on this – but if Pip took 8 then my 12 minutes seems pretty quick! 10ac caused me to stop and consider the age of the language involved in the place you hang jackets up.
    Unlike the Tuesday puzzle, the two long anagrams today came pretty quickly. LOI 1ac – couldn’t get away from ‘sup’ as the drink for too long.
  3. Managed this in one longish cup of coffee! Personal best! Thanks so much for this blog – I now finish the Quick Cryptic most days without cheating and have a wonderful sense of achievement. Now I’ll be aiming at improving my times. Thanks again. Mary (not sure how to make myself un-anonymous)
    1. Well done, Mary. To be un-anonymous you need to sign up as a (free) LJ user, using a new name or e.g. your Facebook sign-on (as I do). But anon is OK as long as you sign off ‘Mary’ so we know which anon you are! It’s rude to be an anonymous anon.
  4. Having completed this I don’t understand why I found it a struggle in places. I got about two thirds of it done and came to a grinding halt. Things picked up again when I finally realised that 17a had ‘all’ at the end of the clue.
  5. I would like to echo Mary’s comments.I finished this today in two shortish sessions thanks to all the help from this blog and the 15×15 blog over the last few months. My thanks to all bloggers.
    Enjoyed today’s test as fair and clear. David (also unclear how to cease being anonymous).
  6. Had to read seven or eight clues before finding an answer that jumped out at me, but having written it in I was able to build successfully from there. I agree PROTON was a hard one for a Quickie, but with checkers in place it came to mind, though I only know it from 15x15s.
  7. Having a Natural Sciences degree and a science teacher wife 5ac was FOI for me. 13ac made me think “Favourite horse comes back to a heinous 13” for 1ac. Maybe not. Hats off to the compiler for better clues – some nice ones today. 5:17.

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