Quick Cryptic No 379 by Teazel

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Not the easiest of quickies, it took me ten minutes or so but I had to duck and dive around the grid, not just write them in from top to bottom. Only two anagrams today and one hidden word so you need your cryptic skills to sort out the rest. For some reason the Down clues are eaiser than the Across, probably because mostly they’re shorter.

Across
1 ASKANCE – ASK = request, DANCE = waltz; heading off = ANCE; def. sideways.
5 HOLLY – WHOLLY = completely, cut off the front; def. prickly shrub.
8 THAT’S TORN IT – Def. Oh dear! Second def. literal pun.
10 MOLE – Double definition. Chestnut flavour.
11 PICKED UP – Another double definition.
12 DAMSON – DAM = mother, SON = child, making a jam variety.
14 ANTHEM – Cryptic definition, as in National Anthem, air or song.
16 HEADWIND – HEAD = promontory, WIND = snake (verb); def. may impede one’s progress. There’s misdirection here to make you think of ASP… words and suchlike.
18 URDU – Hidden word in O(UR DU)TY; def. tongue.
20 TEACHER’S PET – (THE CREEP SAT)*; def. favoured pupil.
22 BROTH – BROTHER (sibling) has the ER (hesitation) removed, to leave soup.
23 UNCTION – FUNCTION = reception, remove the F(emale); def. insincere words.

Down
2 SET-TO – (TEST)*, anagrind ‘out’, O = old; def. argument.
3 AMADEUS – A MAD (crazy) then SUE reversed; def. musical film.
4 COS – CO = company, S – small; def. Greek island. I’ve always known it as KOS as there is no C in the Greek alphabet, but COS is given as an anglicised alternative. Normally a pleasant island but currently not the place to be unless you’re an illegal immigrant, Turkey being only 4 km away.
6 OUNCE – ONCE = in the past, ingests U (uranium); def. small quantity. Ingesting uranium is not recommended.
7 LETTUCE – LET (allow) TUC (workers’ organisation), E(nglish); def. plant, from COS perhaps.
9 ORCHARD – OR, CHARD = vegetable, def. here grows fruit.
11 PINKISH – (KINSHIP)*; def. of the soft left.
13 ABETTER – A, BETTER = improved; def. helper, as in ‘aid and abet’.
15 TRUMPET – (Not very) cryptic definition.
17 DRAFT – Double definition.
19 DITTO – Do is an abbreviation for DITTO, meaning the same. The word comes from the Tuscan language, past tense of dire, meaning ‘said’. The typographic ” is used to represent it.
21 RAN – A (ace) in RN (Royal Navy, one of our services); def. managed.

12 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 379 by Teazel”

  1. This was slow going for me, too, with HOLLY & UNCTION being especially recalcitrant if I recall (both requiring coming up with a word to remove a letter from, and I couldn’t come up with one). Isn’t 1ac an example of the dreaded definition by example? I’ve seen Cos written Kos often enough, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Korinth (well, maybe in Mary Renault) or Korfu. 9:30.
    1. I’ve certainly seen Korinth, on my Greek maps with both Greek and Latinised names, but not Korfu, since the Greeks call it Kerkyra. The use of C arose I think as Greek names were Romanised and K was a seldom used letter in Latin.
  2. All went in pretty quickly until last couple, which caused me no end of grief – could not see ANTHEM (nothing wrong with it, just hit a blind spot!) and HEADWIND (ditto).

    Thanks Pip and setter.

  3. I agree this was tricky. I took 10 minutes for all but 11dn, 16ac and 23ac but needed another 7 to sort them, with UNCTION being my last one in by some distance. It’s nice to be tested a bit though.

    I looked twice at the definition at 3dn as AMADEUS is a film of a stage-play and not a musical in the sense that first comes to mind, though it is of course about music, or more precisely musicians. There’s no inaccuracy here but I sense our setter may have been teasing us, as would well befit his name!

    Edited at 2015-08-21 05:54 am (UTC)

  4. Really struggled with this and at one stage thought it would be a spectacular DNF but in the end just looked up one, ANTHEM. Favourite HEADWIND.

  5. 21 minutes with UNCTION (last in) and HOLLY both causing much trouble.

    If learners find this tough, they can console themselves with the fact that it’s as tough as some main crosswords.

  6. It’s not often I finish Teazel’s puzzles but I plodded slowly through this one. 14a was my LOI and took me a long time to get. Couldn’t parse 19d.
    A good way to end the week.
  7. Did not find this too difficult but most clues required some attention.Practice is helping as I recalled Spy = Mole.Otherwise I would not have got that one.
    I ended up with 23a and struggled for a long time until I finally comprehended unction. David
  9. A little trickier than average, I think, but nothing too obscure – 9 minutes. Mused for a while on country tunes for 14a. Austria is a hymn tune, but 1 letter too long. Then I realised the definition was ‘air of the country’. Ho hum. 20a my favourite.
  10. Our services are fast and reliable, loans are approved within 3 hours
    of application. we offer
    loans from a minimum range of $2,000 to a maximum of $10 million. We
    are certified and
    your privacy is 100% safe with us. Worry no more
    about your loans or finances and contact us today via email at
    (reachgibsonloan@outlook.com)or call (+44)7452189291
    and get your instant loan approval today.

Comments are closed.