Quick Cryptic No 404 by Tracy

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This seemed a well balanced puzzle from ‘Tracy’, with four straight anagrams, one hidden clue and several slightly more complex ‘assembly’ clues, nothing too obscure; one or two needed a moment or two to parse (11a, in particular) but there were plenty of checking letters to make the answer obvious.

Across
8 RUFFIAN – (FUNFAIR)*, anagrind ‘vandalised’; D thug.
9 USUAL – U(niversity) inside USA, L(arge); D typical.
10 MEANT – MEAN (poor), T (first in test); D had in mind.
11 ORCHARD – ‘Boast, endlessly about’ = CRO(W), reversed = ORC; HARD = firm; D fruit here. An easy one to guess but not obvious to derive.
12 LADYS MAID – (DISMAL DAY)*, anagrind ‘off’; D servant (‘s = is).
14 RAW – WAR reversed; D unprepared.
16 DOG – DD: to dog someone can be to shadow them and a boxer is a breed of dog.
18 POLITBURO – PRO = in favour of; insert (‘saving’) (O BUILT)*, anagrind ‘badly’; D policy-making authority, e.g. in the Kremlin.
21 POLARIS – P(ower), (SAILOR)*; anagrind ‘unleashed’; D missile.
22 LUTES – FLUTES have the F removed; D (instruments) with strings.
23 AGENT – A GENT (well-bred fellow); D broker.
24 REVERSE – RE = about, touching; VERSE = poetry; D may get one upset. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the RE part or the definition, but it just about works.

Down
1 CRUMBLED – C (Conservative), RUMBLED (found out); D fell apart.
2 AFRAID – A F (loud) RAID (attack); D scared.
3 HINT – Hidden in COAC(H IN T)HEATRE, D tip.
4 ANGORA – A, (GROAN)*; D yarn.
5 MUSCADET – SUM (amount) reversed, CADET = military trainee; D French wine, a white from the western end of the Loire valley, made (confusingly) from a grape called ‘melon de Bourgogne’.
6 AU PAIR – A U (posh) PAIR (couple); D foreign helper.
7 GLAD – GLADSTONE loses his STONE; D happy.
13 SEPARATE – SEE = diocese; insert (A PART)*, anagrind ‘playing’; D individual.
15 WOODSHED – WOOD (golf club), SHED (got rid of); D small outbuilding.
17 GALLEY – G(ood), ALLEY (passage); D old trade ship.
19 LUSTRE – (RESULT)*, anagrind ‘staggering’; D polish.
20 UPTURN – UP = winning, TURN = stage act; D improvement.
21 PLAY – P(age), LAY (amateur); D stage production.
22 LIVE – DD; same word, two different pronunciations.

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 404 by Tracy”

  1. This felt slower than it turned out to be. I biffed ORCHARD and POLITBURO, which no doubt helped timewise. Ironically, I immediately thought ‘crow’ when I saw ‘boast’, but took ‘about’ as a containment indicator. I saw no problem with the RE of 24ac. Like Jack, I was misled by ‘small’ in 15d, and, while I’m happy enough with sheds being small, misleading solvers seems to be the only justification for the presence of ‘small’ in the clue. MEANT took some time, because I don’t use ‘mean’ in the relevant sense. 6:45.

    Edited at 2015-09-25 08:00 am (UTC)

  2. I struggled with this one and required a full 15 minutes having been stuck on 10ac and two or three in the SE corner. I had a mental block at 18ac and 15dn in particular, confused on the latter by “small” which surely had to be cluing an S either as part of the answer or to be deleted from it (in view of “got rid of” that preceded it). Of course it was a “doh” moment when I eventually spotted the answer but I still ask myself whether a woodshed is necessarily small to the extent that it’s a valid part of its definition.

    Edited at 2015-09-25 06:40 am (UTC)

  3. Was beginning to think this would be my third DNF in a row but got there in the end with MEANT last in and ORCHARD unparsed.

    Pip, in my paper version the C in CRUMBLED comes from Conservative not about.

    Favourite LUTES.

    1. Corrected! Thanks. That’ll teach me to blog in a hurry from answers without re-reading the clues properly.
  4. I agree with Pip that this was well balanced, and I finished in just over average time for me. Count me among those who couldn’t parse ORCHARD – thanks for the explanation. I had no problem with 15d having the W in already at the start. My favourites the crossing and matching clue forms at 13d and 18a.
  5. I suppose it’s somehow appropriate to have a tricky one from Tracy to round off this particular week. I can only hope normal service, and solving times, will resume next Monday. Invariant
    1. Invariant, if you (and others) have access to the Times Crossword Club Forum there is a thread under “General/ Quick Cryptic” in which I fed back some of the recent comments here about levels of difficulty, and there is now a response from RR, the Crossword Editor.
      1. Thanks – I will just observe that he doesn’t seem to have changed many difficult ones either. . . Invariant
  6. I don’t sit down with a stopwatch, but try to get as many as I can on the first pass, then puzzle over clues during fag / tea breaks. It’s always nice when you can add one or two new answers in every break, and that’s what Tracy delivered up for me today.
  7. Not too difficult once you got going, but it didn’t feel the most elegant example of Tracy’s work.. Agree with others about small and re, both rather dubious and some of the word builders felt awfully contrived. I just didn’t get that ah that’s neat feeling very often. Maybe it’s because I’m a flautist that the flute lute thing feels awfully overdone now. Come on let’s be more original.

    Now having read this again before posting I guess it shows great progress, a lot due to this blog, as I wouldn’t have dreamt of writing so critically a year ago.

  8. Back after a short holiday,I found this very easy at first but then got really stuck mainly in the SE corner. I had two or three goes and was about to give up when I finally saw the light. Politburo and Upturn left me with 14a and 15d. Once again my golf knowledge bore no fruit having invented Ironshed which made 14a rather difficult. I had 14a as Ran at first (before Ironshed).Anyway a wood was the right club and the war was over. David
  10. I got 15d as BANISHED, fitting with 14a as RIB, but totally flummoxed on ORCHARD and Politburo. I still don’t understand 22d – LIVE is – as it happens, but what has that to do with Last? Ian Donaldson

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