Quick Cryptic No 357 by Noel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Standing in for william_j_s who has gone on a spur of the moment holiday – lucky man! He has, on the other hand, missed a tasty treat as Noel has dished us up a near-double pangram. A pangram is where every letter of the alphabet is used in the answers – and this one has every letter twice – except there are no ‘L’s. I wondered about this for a while and then realised that NO L is a homophone of our setter’s name – it is ‘NO L”s crossword. So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in an appreciative round of applause for this brilliant crossword setting.

So – a highly enjoyable puzzle, not as hard as yesterday’s, has 5 homophones (possibly to draw our attention to ‘NO L’) and there’s even a spoonerism thrown in for good measure.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Top set of administrators right for the navy? (9)
&nbsp &nbspSTARBOARD – Administrators (BOARD) and a top set of these would be a STAR BOARD.
6 Regret common currency being cut back (3)
&nbsp &nbspRUE – (EUR)o backwards.
8 Actress none boast about (5)
&nbsp &nbspGARBO – None (O), boast (BRAG) all backwards.
9 Engineers joke about private in the end getting kit out again (2-5)
&nbsp &nbspRE-EQUIP – Engineers (RE), joke (QUIP) around privat(E).
10 Tree: kind that’s damaged and messed about (8)
&nbsp &nbspTINKERED – Anagram (that’s damaged) of TREE KIND.
11 Mark short item of neckwear (4)
&nbsp &nbspSCAR – (SCAR)f.
13 Contestants at Aintree, say, start manoeuvres (4-7)
&nbsp &nbspJUMP JOCKEYS – Start (JUMP), manoeuvres (JOCKEYS – as in ‘for position’).
17 Brings in, for audience, pots of tea? (4)
&nbsp &nbspURNS – Homophone (for audience) of earns.
18 Spooner’s fastened tissue in part of throat (8)
&nbsp &nbspWINDPIPE – Pinned – sounds like PIND, tissue = WIPE – the spoonerism is to swap the first letters.
21 City ace, maybe, one starts to find fifth-rate (7)
&nbsp &nbspCARDIFF – Ace (CARD), one (I), (F)ind (F)ifth.
22 Come round squat after six (5)
&nbsp &nbspVISIT – Squat (SIT) after six (VI).
23 River that often marks spot, it’s said (3)
&nbsp &nbspEXE – Homophone (it’s said) of X – think Long John Silver and treasure maps.
24 Trader Zoe arranged to be tax exempt (4-5)
&nbsp &nbspZERO-RATED – Anagram (arranged) of TRADER ZOE.

Down
1 Quotes, to those who’d hear, tourist attractions? (6)
&nbsp &nbspSIGHTS – Homophone (to those who’d hear) of cites.
2 Month on front of stage (5)
&nbsp &nbspAPRON – Month (APR), ON.
3 Deposit in different pubs — spent on these? (5-3)
&nbsp &nbspBOOZE-UPS – Deposit (OOZE) in an anagram (different) of PUBS.
4 Get aid for free, anyhow, and stop arguing (5,2,6)
&nbsp &nbspAGREE TO DIFFER – Anagram (anyhow) of GET AID FOR FREE.
5 Right to stop moisture getting extracted (4)
&nbsp &nbspDREW – R inside DEW.
6 Beam outside a French church is rather dirty (7)
&nbsp &nbspRAUNCHY – Beam (RAY) outside a French (UN), church (CH).
7 European representative with passion for his domain? (6)
&nbsp &nbspEMPIRE – European representative (EMP), passion (IRE).
12 Parachutist getting kids very jazzed up (8)
&nbsp &nbspSKYDIVER – Anagram (jazzed up) of KIDS VERY.
14 Intimidate frontrunner, vexed to an extent (7)
&nbsp &nbspUNNERVE – Frontr(UNNER VE)xed.
15 Question cook cutting ends off tart (6)
&nbsp &nbspQUICHE – (QUI)z, (CHE)f.
16 Time former partner and boy sent message (6)
&nbsp &nbspTEXTED – Time (T), former partner (EX), boy (TED).
19 At home, ready for mini-picture (5)
&nbsp &nbspINSET – At home (IN), ready (SET).
20 Court orders, it’s said, somewhere posh to stay (4)
&nbsp &nbspRITZ – Homophone (it’s said) of writs.

22 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 357 by Noel”

  1. Had the same experience as yesterday’s, starting off fast and then continuing, ah, not so fast. DNK ZERO-RATED or JUMP JOCKEYS; the first wasn’t much of a problem, but since I never even thought of the appropriate sense of JUMP, I went with ‘jump start’ as my justification. (Fortunately, I did remember that Aintree is a race course, knowledge fairly recently gathered.) RAUNCHY took time, as did discovering the hidden UNNERVE. Had no idea a pangram was involved, let alone the truly clever version of it. All in all, a lovely puzzle. 9′

    Edited at 2015-07-22 01:53 am (UTC)

  2. Yes, most enjoyable, including the setter’s little jape. I had suspected something was afoot as soon as I saw the setter’s name which has only appeared once before, in a special seasonal themed puzzle last Christmas Day.
  3. Yes, excellent example of the art. I didn’t see the No L until I was running through the letters looking for a pangram, and got UNNERVE without seeing the hidden.
  4. What a great crossword. I also spotted the near pangram was missing any L’s, but didn’t read the setter’s nom-de-plume. Very clever. I found this quite tricky coming in at about 11 1/2 minutes. I took ages to see the spoonerism and 5d was my LOI as I was thinking ‘right’ was the definition. 15d my favourite… and I’m having some QUICHE for lunch today.
  5. I enjoyed this one, not that I got all the answers, being a newcomer to this. How on earth would you have noticed the double-pangram (minus the L)? As a general question, is this something that crossword setters strive for, to add an extra layer of complexity? Tom
    1. Welcome Tom! I think that setters enjoy the challenge – it’s not easy getting every letter and having all the words being reasonable English. To have every letter twice in the smaller 13×13 grid is, IMHO, astonishing – to then ‘play’ with the ‘No L’ speaks of a humour – the author of which I’d love to stand a pint! So when I see Zs, Qs and Ks coming up I have a quick check to see – but they are pretty rare. FYI setters, also very rarely, leave hidden messages (called ninas) in the lines of letters not used to cross with other clues. These letters are unchecked so Crosswordland, highly amusingly, call them unches. I did look to see if there was also a message in today’s – the second row nearly has ‘program’ and there’s ‘red’ and ‘sepia’ in some columns – usually these make no words at all so I half wondered if there had been a plan to include a Nina which then didn’t work out.
      1. Fascinating – I had no idea of the hidden depths, even in a quick cryptic. Many thanks. As a final point, do the setters ever get in touch to point out that a blogger has missed the (painstakingly hidden) joke/message that they’ve put in?? Must be a bit galling to do all that work and not have it publicly recognised…Tom
        1. In my experience setters very rarely post on the blog site. I vaguely remember a 15×15 blog years ago when the setter cleared up some confusion. For the 13×13 I only remember one setter who posted to complain about perceived unfairness of criticism.
          1. For some reason I can’t reply directly to Tom above but just butted in to say that being able to spot a possible pangram can be useful on occasion as it could alert you to the fact that a tricky last answer might contain a J, Z or Q for instance if all the other letters of the alphabet appear elsewhere in the puzzle.
  6. An excellent QC. I found this much trickier than usual taking around 50 mins. Spotted the pangram bit but not the nuance of Moel. Excellent Blog chrisw91 – thank you.
  7. Jack kindly tipped the 15×15 regulars to try this. Chapeau to the setter! And thank you to the blogger.
  8. Brilliant Quickie, which would not have been out of place as a main-paper cryptic. The setter’s “no Ls” joke completely passed me by – many thanks to setter and to blogger Chris for pointing it out.
  9. Started well with 1ac and 1d as write-ins and thought this is going to be easy. Two hours later I was still short of 6d, 9 and 18, so called it a day. A little too tricky in parts for me, but enjoyed the ones I could do. Invariant
  10. Forgive my slowness in replying, but I have been in bed since my last outing at Christmas 🙂

    Thank you for the positive feedback. I always think the Quick Cryptic should not be above a little extra diversion from time to time provided it does not make the puzzle a lot harder.

    By the way the lipogram (to give it its posh name) extends to the clues also. And gets a name check in the grid …

    1. Noel,

      My offer of a pint stands! As you’ll see from the above comments I noticed row 2 nearly spelling program – I now see it spells IPOGRAM – lipogram without the ‘L’. So even the Nina complies to the L- less lipogram. I am seriously impressed.

      And now, having read your comment more closely I’ve just checked the clues and they also comply.

      I may have had a glass of good wine too many by now but this, to me (having had a very short stab at setting), is genius.

      We all hope that your recovery continues well in the hope that you will continue to entertain and beguile us.

      Thank you.

    3. Bit slow coming to this as never check till following day. This was a DNF for me, but having attempted all 357 with varying degrees of success, just like to say this is genius, and much appreciated!!!! May the muse continue to be with you! Pam
  11. Thanks Noel. Don’t know how you do it, but sincere congratulations. and thanks.
  12. Well all the nuances passed me by, but it’s clearly a very clever puzzle and enjoyable at the same time. A bit tough for me though. Missed out on 18a and had April for 2d,which blew 10a. CODs for me were 6d and 15d. Plett11
  13. On a small grid, this is a double pangram without “L”s (set by No-el).
    In addition, none of the clues have an “L”.
    It is an example of a Lipogram (which appears in the second line of the solution but again without an “L”).
    Excellent.
  14. I solved this yesterday apart from 18a. Some of the clues were fairly easy standard QC fare,but it felt different from normal.
    I don’t recall a puzzle with two Qs,two Zs and two Xs.
    Of course I missed the subtleties described by the experts above.
    I got completely stuck on 18a. I thought “fastened” had to be tied,which fitted nicely with the letters I had.I thought “tissue” might be physical matter or a hankie; couldn’t see the solution and know nothing about the throat.
    I didn’t want to give up so came back to it this morning-and got Windpipe.
    A brilliant puzzle.
    David
  15. Tried this following a recent tip off
    – very impressive work, Noel and well worth the visit

    I noticed that the lipogram also applies to the Across clues and Down clues separately, but not quite to the Aross and Down solutions (just H and J not appearing in the Acrosses and Downs respectively)

    Even Chris got in on the act by repeating the feat for the Down clues’ blog (really Could Have Tried Harder with the acrosses there Chris!)

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