Quick Cryptic no 401 by Breadman

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
No setter’s name online as I post this. I found this a tough but fair Quickie until we get to 6dn which caused me to read jackkt’s post of yesterday on the original aim of the QC with interest: ‘It will be reduced in size and hopefully in difficulty too’. In case anyone else is using an iPad, I just installed IOS 9.0 and have had no end of trouble writing this blog – slow, not easily able to copy sections – hope it sorts itself out soon. This may explain any typos and my grumpiness at 6dn!

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 President not brought back after laundering (10)
&nbsp &nbspWASHINGTON – Not backwards (TON) after laundering (WASHING).
8 Match official before shower repeated lines(7)
&nbsp &nbspREFRAIN – REF before RAIN.
9 Expert regularly handles physical training (5)
&nbsp &nbspADEPT – h(A)n(D)l(E)s, PT.
10 Perhaps saw stolen goods returned (4)
&nbsp &nbspTOOL – LOOT backwards.
11 Most robust male deer crossing different side (8)
&nbsp &nbspHARDIEST – HART around anagram (different) of SIDE.
13 Cook finally coming in cooked lean joint (5)
&nbsp &nbspANKLE – Coo(K) inside anagram (cooked) of LEAN.
14 Celebrity holds right shape (5)
&nbsp &nbspFRAME – FAME holds R.
16 Dish fried quickly starts to reduce, needing extra wine (8)
&nbsp &nbspSAUTERNE – Dish fried quickly (SAUTÉ), (R)educe (N)eeding (E)xtra.
17 Daughter with strange musical instrument (4)
&nbsp &nbspDRUM – D, RUM.
20 What scouts do about centre of local church (5)
&nbsp &nbspRECCE – About (RE), lo(C)al, church (CE).
21 Winding West Indies street crossed by Edward (7)
&nbsp &nbspTWISTED – West Indies (WI) and street (ST) around which is TED.
22 Driving in a fast race, cut part of foot (2,3,5)
&nbsp &nbspAT THE WHEEL – A (A), fast race (TT), cut (HEW), part of foot (HEEL).

Down
1 Some guests, rowdy when turning up: most bad! (5)
&nbsp &nbspWORST – Gues(TS ROW)dy upwards/ backwards.
2 Striking power shown by shire horse (7,5)
&nbsp &nbspSUFFOLK PUNCH – The Suffolk Punch, also historically known as the Suffolk Horse or Suffolk Sorrel, is an English breed of draught horse. The breed takes the first part of its name from the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, and the name “Punch” from its solid appearance and strength.
3 Russian, perhaps: one seen at the front (4)
&nbsp &nbspIVAN – One (I), front (VAN).
4 Friendly girl goes about eastern part of UK (6
&nbsp &nbspGENIAL – GAL around eastern (E), part of UK (NI).
5 Old relative to remove occasionally (2,3,3)
&nbsp &nbspON AND OFF – Old (O), relative (NAN), to remove (DOFF).
6 Artist’s retirement involved collecting silver (4,8)
&nbsp &nbspRENE MAGRITTE – Anagram (involved) of RETIREMENT including silver (AG). René François Ghislain Magritte (French: [ʁəne fʁɑ̃swa ɡilɛ̃ maɡʁit]; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. His work is known for challenging observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality. – well that certainly challenged mine!
7 Virginia perhaps guards posh item of sculpture (6)
&nbsp &nbspSTATUE – Vriginia perhaps (STATE) holds posh (U).
12 Portable shelter housing Geordie and me becomes family residence (8)
&nbsp &nbspTENEMENT – Potable shelter (TENT) holding Geordie (NE) and me (ME).
13 Class of steamship in new rota (6)
&nbsp &nbspASSORT – Stemship (SS) in an anagram (new) of ROTA.
15 Son loses ball on long grass (6)
&nbsp &nbspSNITCH – Son loses ball (O) = SN, long (ITCH).
18 Copy poem written in 1050 (5)
&nbsp &nbspMODEL – Poem (ODE) inside 1050=ML.
19 Struggle with wife’s opinion (4)
&nbsp &nbspVIEW – Struggle (VIE), wife (W).

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic no 401 by Breadman”

  1. I can see this is not the easiest of puzzles but at 11 minutes I got nearer to my 10 minute target than I had managed since last Tuesday.

    Thanks for mentioning my posting re the original aims of the Quickie which is available by clicking this link http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1386267.html#comments

    Comments on this are still welcome either there or in daily blogs like this one.

    As we’ve discovered, the perceived level of difficulty can vary from solver to solver although there are undoubtedly occasions when a consensus is reached that a particular puzzle is a tough one. As for the statement that the Quickie will hopefully be reduced in difficulty (compared with the 15×15) we have to bear in mind that the main puzzle varies in difficulty too so it’s not going against this policy to have more testing clues in the Quickie on occasion.

    Edited at 2015-09-22 01:08 am (UTC)

    1. I got most of these ..but defeated by hardiest and genial. I love the quick cryptic ..it’s a great idea . I can now normally finish it most days and this has given me the confidence to attempt the big one from time to time. The blog is great ..I would never understand some of the word play without your explanations. So please keep it going.
  2. This was definitely challenging, with 2d, 13d, and 11ac especially recalcitrant. With 11, I couldn’t think of anything but ‘stag’–for that matter, didn’t know that a hart was a male. It took me forever to parse 13, and my heart sank when I saw SUFFOLK, but somehow I managed to find PUNCH hiding in my memory somewhere. Biffed 6d on the basis of AG, figured it out once I’d written it in. 8:35.
    1. Breadman still not showing when I load the crossword but, as you can see, your word is good enough for me!
      1. It does in the dictionaries I use. I think technically it is a fast fry in a sparing amount of hot fat tossing the food around.
  4. Very chewy and put the puzzle down a couple of times but got there in the end. GENIAL and SNITCH went in unparsed, last in RENE MAGRITTE. Favourite AT THE WHEEL.
  5. I found this difficult and didn’t quite finish in my hour, though enjoyable enough with a few reservations.
    There were no double or cryptic definitions which I enjoy spotting, and I don’t see ‘Fame’ as ‘Celebrity’ or ‘Involved’ as an anagram indicator.
    On the whole the QC is just right for me.

    Brian

  6. A little harder than average, to my mind, with some complex clues. 5d, 6d and 20a were the best, I think. 8:39.
  7. A full house in the end, but quite a struggle at well over the hour mark. If we are going to have a run of new setters, can we at least have a new easy one, please. Invariant
  8. Not quite getting the word play of 2 down. The shire horse is obviously Suffolk Punch. A punch is a striking power so where does the Suffolk come in?
    2. Suffolk Punches aren’t shire horses as such, but they are heavy horses. So you use shire for ‘Suffolk’

      I was confused by this, but had heard it somewhere and was lodged in the head.

      I found this a really good challenge, very pleased to complete after a bit of a dry run

  9. Had a nightmare this evening, couldn’t get on the right wavelength and eventually gave up with about a third of the clues unsolved.
    The last two days feel to me like mini versions of the 15×15, where I can no longer bifd answers and then figure out the parsing. It looks like I’m going to have to up my game.
    2. Quite agree. Started the QC about a year ago and have been loving it. Thanks to the bloggers for helping me into cryptics. Usually finish (30-40 mins on average) but not the last two days. Nomis.
  10. I emailed the Times last week when I upgraded to ios9 they said they were working on a fix but it’s taking a long time. It’s very difficult to fill the letters in, tick the box and see the final clue. Hopefully they’ve had lots of complaints. I hope they hurry up it’s increasing our completion time by several minutes! Sue
    1. Interesting. I’ve always had slow ‘filling-the-crossword-in’ issues and that seems unaltered. My issue now is the ‘completion-of-the-blog’ time – including copying clues out of the crossword. This took well over 1.5 hours last nighit – and that was definitely not taken up with the composition of beautiful prose! 😄 I think you’re expected to use a Windows thing but I’m battling on.
      1. That last from me – had been locked out – grrr – a relaxing glass of something from Australia is, I think, called for. 🍷😄
        1. Chris, it’s not compulsory to include the clues so if it makes life easier for you when blogging you can omit them. I print the puzzle and scan the clues and then paste them into the template, but for this you’d need a scanner with OCR software. I’m never sure that this saves a lot of time though it does cut down on typing.

          Edited at 2015-09-22 11:16 pm (UTC)

  11. We started well today, but it became another struggle for us – a DNF with 4 clues not solved. We also had difficulty equating celebrity with fame – felt it was a different part of speech – and have discovered assort is an archaic verb for classify or place in a group. Bandjo

Comments are closed.