Quick Cryptic No 336 by Orpheus

A very enjoyable outing as an easy start turned into more of a challenge on the right hand side. 11 minutes makes this easy-medium and I enjoyed some of the clues especially COD 2dn. LOI 5dn.

Definitions underlined, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition, deletions CROSSED OUT

Across
7 Happened to live by upland moor (6)
&nbsp &nbspBEFELL – Live (BE), upland moor (FELL).
8 Old boy meeting orchestra leader is German wind player (6)
&nbsp &nbspOBOIST – Old boy (OB), (O)rchestra, German word for is (IST).
9 Threadbare, as clothes may be (4)
&nbsp &nbspWORN – dd.
10 Lodgings in north and west, for example (8)
&nbsp &nbspQUARTERS – dd. Quarters are military lodgings and a quarter is a region, direction, or point of the compass so north and west, for example, are quarters.
11 Small sprite, not so altruistic (8)
&nbsp &nbspSELFLESS – Small (S), sprite (ELF), not so (LESS).
13 Bridge player missing beginning of banquet (4)
&nbsp &nbspEASTFEAST.
15 Eg Marilyn Monroe’s heavenly body? (4)
&nbsp &nbspSTAR – dd.
16 Typesetter’s error, to run fast on motorway! (8)
&nbsp &nbspMISPRINT – Motorway (M1), SPRINT.
18 Old employment you once accepted, building shed (8)
&nbsp &nbspOUTHOUSE – Old (O), employment (USE) inside which (accepted) is you once (THOU) – all these build up to make up a word for shed.
20 Agile agent crossing Russia’s capital (4)
&nbsp &nbspSPRY – Agent (SPY) crossing (R)ussia.
21 A university teacher is a handsome young man (6)
&nbsp &nbspADONIS – A (A), University teacher (DON), is (IS).
22 Like some lagerand some of its drinkers, eventually? (6)
&nbsp &nbspCANNED – dd. Preserved and stored in airtight cans or tins, a slang word for drunk.

Down
1 Give in about party? That’s suggestive (8)
&nbsp &nbspREDOLENT – Give in (RELENT) around party (DO).
2 Girl on distant object — an old form of transport (5,8)
&nbsp &nbspPENNY FARTHING – PENNY, FAR THING.
3 Commemorative tablet removed by a dentist? (6)
&nbsp &nbspPLAQUE – dd.
4 Boggy area trapping soldiers in great number (6)
&nbsp &nbspMORASS – Soldiers (OR – other ranks) trapped in great number (MASS).
5 Reason thanks are given on a birthday just now? (3,3,7)
&nbsp &nbspFOR THE PRESENT – dd.
6 Old ruler schoolboy initially dropped in sticky substance? (4)
&nbsp &nbspTSAR – (S)choolboy inside TAR.
12 Starts to seek Klosters, intending to do this? (3)
&nbsp &nbspSKI – (S)eek, (K)loisters, (I)ntendiing. Skiing being the done thing in Kloisters.
14 Various items somehow insured against loss at last? (8)
&nbsp &nbspSUNDRIES – Anagram (somehow) of INSURED plus los(S).
16 Rodent eating last of delicious dessert (6)
&nbsp &nbspMOUSSE – MOUSE around deliciou(S).
17 Drawing of second sailing-vessel (6)
&nbsp &nbspSKETCH – Second (S), sailing vessel (KETCH).
19 Some favour Dutch as a language (4)
&nbsp &nbspURDU – Favo(UR DU)tch.

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 336 by Orpheus”

  1. For me, the right hand side was a breeze and the left hand side was fiendish! My LOI was 5D. 1D also took me ages to see. Agree with your COD (which also took me some time to get).
  2. 1d was my LOI; thinking of a different ‘suggestive’. A couple of the clues struck me as giveaways even for a Quickie, like 9ac and 15ac. I guessed CANNED, as I didn’t know the ‘drunk’ sense; then again, just about any verb in the passive can mean ‘drunk’. 5.10.
    1. I found this quite tricky to start and to finish but in between went swimmingly. I was quite surprised to find I completed it in 8 minutes.
  3. Just over 6 minutes for me. Bottom half went in easier than the top half. 4d my LOI as I thought “great number” was the definition rather than “boggy area”. I liked the hidden language in (part of) a language at 19d.
  4. I started slowly and gradually picked up the pace – the two long down clues helped a lot (both of which brought a smile to my face – and then came to a grinding halt with my LOI which was 1a. I eventually gave up on it and cheated by looking up synonyms of moor, at which point the answer became obvious. So unfortunately it goes down as a DNF today.
    Thanks for the clarification of 18a as that went in unparsed.
  5. Quite a few write-ins, but a fair number of tricky clues as well, so I was actually quite pleased to finish around the hour mark. Like others, the 1d 7ac combination was responsible for most of the hold up. Invariant
  6. Nice puzzle but didnt understand why it was north *and* west. For ‘quarters’ shouldn’t it north *or* West. Funny that it was the NW corner that defeated me! Anon Richard
    1. Richard, a quarter is a point on the compass so North is a quarter and so is West but North and West are quarters. Well, that’s what I understand from the Collins definition.

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