Quick Cryptic No 454 by Joker

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’m standing in for Emma today as we had some IT issues when (not) finding the puzzle in time for her to blog; hopefully all will be good for next Friday. On my PC The Times site is still offering yesterday’s Quickie by Hurley, so here’s the URL for today’s:
http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20151204/11077/
EDIT: The Times site is now updated (mid morning).
It took me 6 minutes to print, complete and parse; one dodgy deity might be an unknown but gettable from the word play. Plenty of anagram practice for all.

Across
3 MISTRUST – MIST is fine spray, RUST is oxidised iron (ferric oxide), D suspect, as a verb.
7 DONATE – DON for lecturer, ATE for polished off, D grant.
8 SPINNING – SINNING for making serious errors (well, sort of), insert P for parking, D turning.
9 IMAM – (MAIM)*, anagrind ‘badly’, D leader of Muslims.
10 MOO – MOO(D) is state of mind, without the ending D; low means moo, what a cow does.
11 BLOCKAGE – B for British, LO for do see, CAGE for prison, insert K for King; D hindrance.
13 MUSH – MUSH(ROOM), half of common fungus; D wet pulpy mass.
15 DYED – Soiunds like DIED = stopped, D coloured.
17 ARTISTRY – (IT STARRY)*, D creative skill.
19 ERR – ERR(AND) = first half of delivery journey; D go wrong.
22 RING – Double definition.
23 BASILICA – B (Bishop), A SILICA = sandstone; D church.
24 STAPLE – (BARN)STAPLE is a town in North Devon; D most important, as in staple diet.
25 WATER TAP – (A WET PART)*, D what might be running. Sorry, this clue fell off the bottom of my printout at first, now added.

Down
1 NORMALLY – If you had NO RM ALLY, you’d not be a friend of the Marines; D as a rule.
2 TARMAC – (TRAM)*, A, C; D road surface.
3 MESS – D jumble, hidden in TI(MES S)UPPLEMENT.
4 SHIPMENT – SHIP MEN are sailors perhaps, add T for tons, D cargo.
5 RANSOM – RAN for managed, SO a note, M for millions; D payment for release.
6 SEND – S for small, END for climax; D rouse to ecstasy.
12 ALARMIST – ALARM = danger warning, IST = centre of BR IST OL; D doom merchant.
14 STRANGLE – STRANGE = alien, insert L being the eastern part of Roswell; D suppress.
16 DERIVE – Insert ER = Queen, into DIVE = low nightclub; D get.
18 SCREAM – S = second, CREAM = best; D loud cry.
20 RAMA – RA for Egyptian sun god, MA for mother; D deity. Apparently RAMA is the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, and a king of Ayodhya, but knowing that wasn’t essential.
21 WASP – WAS = existed, P = start of Palaeozoic; D flying insect.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 454 by Joker”

  2. 25a : WATER TAP – (A WET PART)*; D What might be running. A typical Joker puzzle with several easy clues but a few trickier ones to make it interesting. 1d, 14d and 18d my favourites. 6 mins.
  3. 10 minutes but with a wrong answer – possibly my first ever in a Quickie. The fact that I was unable to parse CADE as ‘prison’ at 11ac should have rung alarm bells but nevertheless I stuck with my answer ‘blockade’ instead of BLOCKAGE.
    1. I admit to cheating a *tiny* bit – bringing up this blog and then CTRL-F to find if the answer is there. If not, I know I’ve got to think again.

      (Not really in the spirit of things, is it?)

  4. This was just the right level for me, finished in 30 mins apart from 22A which I got from my checker app. I did think it was a bit mean to leave two As and two Is as the only checkers!
    Great surfaces from Joker as usual, it really does add to the enjoyment.
    Brian
  5. Enjoyed 1dn. 6dn is going back a bit isn’t it – “It just sends me man”!! Showing my age now. Fun offering
  6. Dear Compilers, I look with awe at the comments and the times given for completion. Sometimes the quick cryptic takes me a whole day with frequent reference to the internet. Please don’t forget those of us who struggle! LD
    1. Believe me I do know how you feel.
      There was a time not so many years ago when I thought it a red letter day if I got more than 2 answers in the 15×15 (before there was a Quickie). However after much perseverance I can now finish it more often than not, which is a huge buzz for me. But I still stand in total stupefaction of those who complete it in what seems super-human times.
      I wish I’d discovered this blog site earlier though, it’s been quite an education as I’m sure it is for you too in explaining how things work.
      The key points I’ve discovered are firstly not to think literally about the clue, but just take the words one at a time. The second is to identify the words that are possibly archaic and only crop up in crossword-land nowadays. Lastly, learn to recognize key words that indicate an anagram, hidden word, initials etc. After a while spotting these cues does become second nature, honest.
      Most of us on this site, I’m sure, aren’t particularly super-intelligent or massively talented, we’ve just shown a lot of dedication to the cause.
      So keep at it – it will be worth it, and remember we are always willing to help on this site.
  7. This was my worst result for some time with 3 missing answers. I’ve not heard of 6d in that context before but should have been able to figure it out from the word play, 24a I had completely the wrong end of the stick and 20d was unknown to me. Not a good end to the week!
    Still some good clues in here I thought esp. 1d and 11a
  8. Needed two long looks at this but got there in the end. I could not parse Err.
    I had 5 or 6 clues left at half time and I wasn’t helped by not seeing Mistrust for quite a while. Getting that enabled a rush to the finish with 14 d Strangle LOI. On reflection not too hard, but I seem to have gone off the boil. Bizarrely my FOI was 20d. David
  10. Quite tricky – didn’t get
    SEND – never heard this meaning “rouse to ecstasy”, and I thought “climax” meant the high point rather than final particularly, but I might have being confusing it with “apex” my whole life
    BASILICA – well sandstone isn’t silica. It’s made mostly of silica, but that’s like having a clue which is ‘wood’ and the answer being ‘chair’ or something.
    STAPLE – Clearly my geographical knowledge of Devon needs work
    1. Good point, it seems. It’s not something that I would know about but I can’t find any definitions in the usual sources to support the clue.
    2. Indeed, as a one time chemist I know my silicon dioxide from my rock, but thought it was acceptable compiler’s licence. It made for a nice surface reading.

  11. Took us about an hour but came up with wrong result on two clues.

    We had 1D as Formulae: – FO E not a freind; R ULAE anag “a rule” with M of the Marines : D a set of formulae make a rule

    Then

    15A we had as REND R Reporting; END Stopped; D “being coloured”

    OK, END is not past tense

    Ah well …

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