Quick Cryptic No 392 by Tracy

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A puzzle at the easier end of the QC spectrum, I thought, but with a few clues that needed a bit of unravelling (e.g. 1ac). No obscurities, assuming you are familiar with the poet featured in 8dn. At time of posting, the crossword was not appearing on line: if anyone is struggling to see it, this link should work

http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150909/9607/

Thanks to Tracy for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions underlined, DD = double definition, anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Row right up close to boat on the rocks (8)
BANKRUPT – BANK (Row) + R (right) + UP + T (close to – final letter – boaT) giving us the person who, financially speaking, is on the rocks. Tricky clue for me, as I initially was thinking Row as in ‘argument’- pushing me towards bunfight as a possible answer. Needed cross checkers to set me straight!
5 Mate after round gemstone (4)
OPAL – PAL (mate) ‘after’ O (round). One of today’s gimmes to get you off the mark…
9 A line by Bottom in book? (5)
ALBUM – A L (A line) + BUM (Bottom)
10 Trendy? That girl has to be with it to take over (7)
INHERIT – IN (Trendy) + HER (That girl) + (‘with’) IT
11 Secure bond (3)
TIE – DD
12 Hitchcock film noir out – so gruesome (9)
NOTORIOUS – *(NOIR OUT SO) with “gruesome” as the anagrind
13 Garbo, curiously, beginning to tease US actor (6)
BOGART – *(GARBO + T) with “curiously” as the anagrind and T (‘beginning to Tease) also thrown into the mix, giving us Humphrey
15 Wreck Caledonian church (6)
SCOTCH – SCOT (Caledonian) + CH (church), giving us a word that might not now be in everyday use, but crops up quite often in Crosswordland
17 Star mimed, unexpectedly, halfway through (9)
MIDSTREAM – *(STAR MIMED) with “unexpectedly” as the anagrind
19 Some Jamaica rum in vehicle (3)
CAR – (Not very) hidden in JamaiCA Rum
20 Published letters in remote military camp (7)
OUTPOST – OUT (Published) + POST (letters)
21 Husband put in delicate position (5)
NICHE – H (Husband) inserted into NICE (delicate)
22 Code word in the chokey (4)
ECHO – Today’s second hidden ‘in’ thE CHOkey, with the definition referencing the ‘code’ words of the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo etc.)
23 View of booklet American dropped (8)
PROSPECT – PROSPECTUS (booklet minus the American – US). Took a while to see this, not least because in a former life I was involved in writing flotation prospectuses for companies, which were typically 400 or so pages long – hardly a booklet! But that’s my problem, and in no way derogates from the clue
Down
1 Bishop raised objection about supervised lucky dip (4,3)
BRAN TUB – B (Bishop – chess notation) + BUT (objection – reversed giving TUB) around (‘about’) RAN (supervised). Not sure if Bran Tubs still happen – memories of church and school fetes when I was a kid in ’60’s England…
2 Person of wealth, the Parisian aristocrat (5)
NOBLE – NOB (person of wealth) + LE (‘the’ in Paris)
3 Pay in rupees worried mountaineer (12)
REMUNERATION – *(R + MOUNTAINEER) with “worried” as the anagrind, and Rupees giving us R to add into the mix. Even though I had most of the letters from cross checkers, this was still a late one going in as I was thinking of mountaineer as the definition, with the wordplay being something to do with pay inside R & S
4 Fielder‘s tip (5)
POINT – DD. Today’s cricket clue – ‘point’ being the position square of the wicket on the offside generally patrolled by top flight fielders: Jonty Rhodes comes to mind…
6 Significance of less than wholesome wine (7)
PURPORT – PURE (less than wholesome – i.e. last letter removed) + PORT (wine)
7 A great many outside uranium plant (5)
LOTUS – LOTS (a great many) go round (‘outside’) U (uranium)
8 Limitations of terse US poet, reportedly (12)
SHORTCOMINGS – SHORT (terse) + homophone of CUMMINGS (e e of that ilk – renowned for his lower case style). Fine clue, I thought
14 Travel with wife, pay half each (2,5)
GO DUTCH – GO (travel) + DUTCH (wife – traditional London slang for ‘er indoors being a contraction of “duchess”)
16 Produce endlessly durable undergarment (7)
HARVEST – HARD (durable without the last letter – endlessly) + VEST (undergarment)
17 Animal lows on top of escarpment (5)
MOOSE – MOOS (lows) + E (on top of Escarpment)
18 Log that may be turned into treen (5)
ENTER – *(TREEN) with “that may be turned into” as the anagrind. Did not know what a treen was (albeit not necessary for solving the clue) – but in case anyone else is wondering, it’s a word for a “small functional household item made of wood”
19 100 hurt in store (5)
CACHE – C (hundred – Roman numeral) + ACHE (hurt)

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 392 by Tracy”

  1. Completed in 8 minutes which surprised me as I had to leave several clues, particularly on the RH side, to return to them when I had more checkers in place. I’m not over familiar with the poet, nor with the required meaning of PURPORT, a word which I tend to think of as pretending to be something (often bogusly) and I’d use ‘import’ or ‘importance’ for ‘significance’. Nothing wrong with it of course; it just caught me unawares.
  2. At first sight this looked hard but we got there in 30 minutes or so. We expected that the inclusion of BUM might provide a comment or two. We thought that e.e.cummings was unique and so there would be little ilk around but I suppose there are plenty of other Cummings.
    1. Re. bum, my other blogging privilege on this site is the Sunday Times cryptic every other week, which can often get quite racy. I’m therefore probably unlikely to raise an eyebrow at something as comparatively innocuous as BUM, but I suppose it’s possible others might…

      Re. the Cummings ilk, your analysis is spot on. I went to uni with two (unrelated) Cummings people, and have also met a couple more subsequently – so they are around…

  3. Thanks Nick for a very good and enlightening blog. As a newby the blogs are so helpful and informative. I imagine they take some time to produce? This would probably count as an “OBN” for “Eye” readers – sorry about this reference if you don’t read “Private Eye” (although you all really should however).
    1. Thank you kindly sir! As an avid Eye reader in the past (seems to have lost its mojo a bit in the last year or so but that’s another story) I hereby officially exonerate you from any OBN allegations (contd. page 94)

      Er, yes, they do take a bit of time, but that’s generally because I do the QC blog the night before (here in Sydney) and have several glasses of red on board before I even start. Then several more during the blogging process. Tough gig, but someone’s got to do it… But seriously, I’m so glad it helps newcomers to this wonderland.

  4. Could someone kindly publish clues 6 And 7 down. I can’t read them in my poorly printed appear today , thanks
    1. Hi
      The clues are as follows
      6D) Significance of less than wholesome wine. (7).
      7D) A great many outside Uranium plant.(5).
  5. Treen is a collective noun like ‘glassware’. You don’t have ‘a’ treen but you do have pieces of treen. Often found in auction catalogues but not seen it anywhere else. Like others I really appreciate these blogs.
    1. Thanks for the further info re. treen. Not being an auction goer, I had never heard of it. I’m sure it will now start popping up all over the place!
      1. A Treen was also one of the green humanoids on the planet Venus, adversaries of Dan Dare in the Eagle comic.
  6. The majority of this was quite straightforward but once again I got had a DNF. Defeated by 1a (couldn’t figure out what the definition was or even what type of row it was) and half of 1d which I’ve never heard of.
    I’m sure I’m getting worse at these not better as completions seem to be harder to come by these days.
  7. Of Fife? Presumably.

    couldn’t see prospectus at all – and I, as an analyst, used to have to read them. Booklet is definitely not the word that came to mind. Searchable PDFs did make an enormous difference though.

  8. Found this quite tricky & was stuck for some time with BANKRUPT (“bank” is not an obvious synonym of “row”, and “close to” meaning “the last letter of” seems like one of those conventions you just have to know). Also hadn’t heard of BRAN TUB but it was the only thing that fitted the wordplay and checkers, so that was my LOI and hope for the best.
    1. Worth remembering Bank / Row as it seems to crop up quite a lot in crosswords: it used to throw me until I got used to seeing it (similarly TIER).
  9. I found this straightforward until coming to a grinding halt with just 21a and 19d outstanding. There were a number of fairly obvious anagrams and straightforward answers. I did not know Cummings the poet but didn’t need to to get 8d.
    Anyway , after yesterday, the word Store in 19d indicated to me possibly Ikea or some other such emporium;couldn’t think of any beginning with C and 5 letters.I thought of lots of other types of stores without success. Not getting Niche until a second or third look was the problem. Anyway, eventually all done correctly. Favourite clue 10a. David

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