Quick Cryptic No.50 by Felix

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This took me 10 minutes on my Android tablet (the Times pop-up keyboard works in Firefox for Android, I have discovered, but not in the default browser). Several of the clues were not instant write-ins and required checking letters first; one or two I feel are tricky enough for the main Cryptic, so well done to any beginners who are keeping up with the march of progress. And well done Felix for a ‘happy’ puzzle.

Across
1 FLABBERGASTED – Anagram (aged Barb’s left)*, indicated by ‘poor’, def. ‘stunned’. If you did the easier 1dn first and then knew it begins with F, it was much easier to unravel.
8 NUMBERS – sort of amusing cryptic definition, and obvious from the checkers, a number is a synonym for a song especially in a live performance; is there something else going on here I’ve missed? [Added: extras, as in a movie, make up the numbers: thanks ulaca].
9 LINED – double def., ‘filled’ (the pie dish is lined…) and ‘with wrinkles’ as in ‘his face was lined’.
10 HAPPY-GO-LUCKY – an easy one. Def. = carefree, HAPPY = dwarf, at first (one of Snow White’s friends), GO = journey, LUCKY = charmed.
12 OLDHAM – Used = OLD, poor actor = HAM, for the place with an Athletic football team. I dimly remember the ad for car batteries as well – ‘I told ’em…’
14 INDIGO – At home = IN, followed by DIG O (do no gardening) the def. is ‘sort of blue’. Mood Indigo – great tune by the Duke.
17 KITCHEN – A very neat clue; the anagram of (THICKEN)* is indicated by ‘stews’ and the def. is the whole clue (often called an &lit. clue).
19 SLANG – Did hymns = SANG, with fifty in = insert L, def. vernacular.
20 YUKON – That = YON (as in ‘see yon cow, it’s a bull’). Insert UK (‘eclipse this country’) for a part of Canada. There aren’t many parts of Canada with five letters, so you probably guessed the answer and saw the ‘YON’ bit afterwards, or not.
21 RANSOME – He didn’t manage the lot, he RAN SOME. Arthur Ransome, 1884 – 1967, author of Swallows and Amazons, and various other more adult stuff, he even has an asteroid named after him.
22 DIOXIDES – Def. ‘compounds’. (Six odd i.e.)* indicated by ‘unstable’. And some dioxides are unstable, others (like titanium dioxide) are not.
23 ADDS – A vaguely amusing cryptic definition, misdirecting you to think of harvesting and the like.

Down
1 FUNK – Entertainment = FUN, K = start of karaoke, def. ‘music’. Not my kind of music, and also the name of an unfortunately named American golfer, Fred.
2 ARMBAND – A, RM (Royal Marine) BAND (ensemble), something which helps keep you afloat.
3 BLEEP – Def. ‘something added by censor’, hidden word in OBJECTIONA(BLE EP)IC.
4 RESIGN – Sway = REIGN (in the sense of ‘hold sway over’), insert S = small, def. ‘stand down’. I had to think about this one for a minute or two.
5 AULD LANG SYNE – (DEAN SUNG ALL)*, indicated by ‘wrong’, with Y inserted. I could go into reams about the answer, but I’m not Scottish, so I won’t.
6 TUNIC – ‘Friar briefly’ = TUC(K), insert IN = fashionable, def. ‘coat’.
7 DADDY LONG LEGS – Def. ‘fly’, DADDY’S is ‘holding’ LONG LEG. Easy if you know cricket or another name for crane flies.
11 JOCKEYED – Probably the most tricky clue today. Wisecrack = JOKE, insert a C (the C is for Conservative), gives you JOCKE, then YE’D = you’d, def. jostled.
13 ASHANTI – Remains after firing = ASH, opponent = ANTI, def. West African. The Ashanti people live mostly in Ghana and once had an Empire.
15 IN A WORD – I, (ONWARD)*, indicated by ‘ploughed’, def. ‘briefly’.
16 UNTRUE – Another tricky one. HUNT = trail, remove the H (‘left by leader’) to get UNT, add RUE = regret, def. ‘false’.
18 TOKYO – The outskirts of ‘territory’ gives you T and Y. Insert OK = fine, gives you TOKY; add an O = old, a complicated way to get the short name of a city. If you already had the O from 22ac it was easy to guess then see why afterwards.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic No.50 by Felix”

  1. 28 mins 🙂 I started off at a canter but floundered after the top section.Z8 agrees with you,Pip, that several of the clues are worthy of the biggie. A delightful crossword with a delightful blog to match!
    2 ac is almost my COD but that honour has to go to one down, as it is one of my favourite genres of music. If any of you are funk fans I can highly recommend Brother Strut, a newly-formed outfit made up of highly experienced session musicians. Otha Smith’s guitar playing is up there with May & Clapton. They can be found on Facebook.
    1. I will check them out. I used to play in a jazz-funk band (although we were much more funk than jazz) and since solving 1dn I have had Maceo Parker doing ‘Pass the Peas’ in my head. As earworms go there are worse.
      Nice puzzle this.
  2. Slow to get going but things opened up when I got 1a. About 30 minutes. First one in was 17a, I am pretty sure we had much the same clue in an earlier quick cryptic.

    Liked 7d but was unable to parse fully RESIGN and UNTRUE.

    Last one in was IN A WORD since I missed the now obvious use of ploughed as an anagram indicator.

    Good puzzle.

  3. Bit of a vintage feel to this with FLABBERGASTED, RANSOME and, perhaps, AULD LANG SYNE. I am ashamed to confess that I learnt today that DADDY-LONG-LEGS are flies. I have never liked them though I am very fond of bees and even spiders – apart from the ones that bite me on summer woodland walks in Hong Kong, when I unwittingly walk through their webs.

    Pip, I think you’re being a little harsh on 23a, which I think is rather good, especially with ‘does’ being an anagram of ODES to entrap the unwary.

  4. I took the ‘extras’ to refer to those who make up the numbers, as on a film set.
    1. Ah yes, probably that, I was stuck in cricket mode (and I’m not an umpire!)
  5. Yes, a very enjoyable puzzle that took me 12 minutes. This was only Felix’s second outing and his first one took me 18 minutes.
  6. Nothing in here particularly tricky, but no very easy stuff either. Took a while to get going, but then they started falling in to place after had got a few. Took round about the half hour.

    LOI ASHANTI which I only got(tentatively)from the wordplay of Ash and Anti. Had never heard of these good people.

    COD 7 dn for me.

    Thanks for a very neat blog Pip.

  7. 18 minutes. Nicely-done puzzle and blog. LOI for me was OLDHAM, believe it or not! I was looking for a word meaning “used”. Then suddenly the obvious struck me, momentarily followed by my hand hitting my forehead…..
    1. Nice idea, and maybe a more erudite answer, Mr Anon, but put in ADDS and the online version says it’s correct. Maybe in the TLS crossword!
  8. Is this the first time for diagonal symmetry (as opposed to the more usual rotational)? First time I’ve noticed it anyway.
    1. Yes I was going to ask the same thing. This diagonal line symmetry has appeared once or twice in The Independent but it’s the first time I’ve seen it in The Times.
  9. 5 mins, although I agree that there were some clues here that wouldn’t have been out of place in the main puzzle, particularly the construction of 18dn. UNTRUE was my LOI after DIOXIDES.
  10. Pip said one or two I feel are tricky enough for the main Cryptic, so well done to any beginners who are keeping up with the march of progress
    This one was definitely too hard for me. I managed 7 clues after 3 sittings and then stomped off and ate chocolate.

    Are you saying you think the QCs will get harder over time? I do hope not because beginners have to start somewhere. I was presuming they’d stay within the same range of difficulty with nice easy ones and also ones like this at the harder end of the spectrum. I would keep on practising and hopefully improving and then one day I might be able to give the grown-up crossword a try.

    Meanwhile, I’ll cheer myself up with a good 55 minute Killer SuDoku!

  11. I don’t understand 23 across. ADDS. I think odes is a better answer. Anagram of does. Ode is a musical work. But I’m a beginner to this.

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