Quick Cryptic No. 70 by Orpheus – European flavour with regular ingredients

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This seems to me to be a notch more difficult than Wednesday’s quickie, it’s a good work-out using some frequently occurring crossword clue-bits, as we shall see.

Across
1 INTENDED – At home = IN, looked after = TENDED, def. ‘fiancee’. The Times typesetting doesn’t do accents.
6 CAWS – Sounds like CAUSE = reason, def. ‘noise made by rooks’.
8 ACHE – A CHE (Guevara), def. ‘form of suffering’. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara has been dead for nearly 50 years but appears very regularly in crossword clues.
9 PRIORITY – PRIORY = brothers’ place, put in IT, PRIOR(IT)Y, def. ‘the main consideration’.
10 PARTISAN – P = power, ARTISAN = craftsman, def. ‘taking sides’.
11 IOTA – OT (sacred books) is ‘digested’ by the initial letters of I(n) A(thens), I(OT)A, the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.
13 SIT ON THE FENCE – (CONTENT HIS FEE)*, indicated by ‘oddly, def. ‘be indecisive’.
16 HEAT – Double definition. HEAT can be a synonym for anger.
17 MOUNTAIN – MOUNT = horse, IN = not out, insert (‘to cross’) A, MOUNT(A)IN, def. ‘high peak’.
19 INSIGNIA – (GAIN IS IN)*, indicated by ‘unexpected’, def. ‘badges of high office’.
21 UNIT – Hidden word, OUTG(UN IT)ALIAN, def. ‘army division’.
22 ETCH – ETC = and so on, H = h(usband), def. ‘make an impression’. e.g. ‘etched on my memory’.
23 TEETHING – Amusing homophone, say = ‘sounds like’ TEA THING, def. ‘babies go through it’.

Down
2 NECTARINE – (TREE IN CAN)*, indicated by ‘for cooking’, def. ‘fruit’.
3 EVENT – ET = popular film (another regular in xwordland), VEN = archdeacon (yet another regular), E(VEN)T, def. ‘incident’.
4 DEPOSIT – DEPOT = warehouse, insert initial letters of Sale Items, DEPO(SI)T, def. ‘place’.
5 DEIGN – Another homophone, sounds like DANE, of which Hamlet is a prime example. Def. ‘condescend’.
6 CARMINE – Carmine is a bright red colour, and sounds like CAR MINE, the setter’s car. Well, it’s dodgy grammar but you see the point; CARSMINE isn’t a colour.
7 WIT – Double definition, where WIT can also mean practical intelligence; e.g. ‘he had the wit to flash his lights to warn the oncoming traffic’.
12 TACTICIAN – Def. ‘planner’, sounds like TACK (course of action) and TITIAN, a 16c Venetian painter, whose real name was Tiziano Vecelli.
14 OSTRICH – OST = German for east, RICH = rolling in it, def. ‘bird’.
15 EDUCATE – E E (East Europe originally) has DUCAT (old gold coin, another regular) inserted, E(DUCAT)E, def. ‘train’.
17 MONET – M T = outskirts of Muscat, insert ONE, M(ONE)T, Claude Monet the impressionist painter.
18 TOUGH – TROUGH = receptacle in field. Remove the R (last of wateR), result, def. ‘ruffian’.
20 NET – Double definition. NET means ‘clear’ in the sense of ‘after all expenses’ or suchlike. The Wimbledon bit is clear enough too.

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 70 by Orpheus – European flavour with regular ingredients”

  1. Lovely crossword today – many thanks Orpheus and Pip for the beautifully clear blog
    23 mins & lots of giggles so an excellent start to the day

    A couple of hints from Z8 somewhat offset by his extra uninvited comments..

    FOI & COD was CAWS instantly put me in a good mood. I also like PARTISAN & PRIORITY very clever. 🙂

  2. Good one. This is probably a pretty fair example of what I was anticipating when the Quickie was launched. Most clues (I’d imagine) fairly accessible to newcomers to the dark art, and a few trickier ones to keep the more experienced players on their toes to boot.

    Waltzed through much of it, then started to hit choppy waters with TACTICIAN, EDUCATE and CARMINE – all of which held me up for a while.

    COD toss up betwen DEIGN and TACTICIAN.

  3. 11 minutes with a mental block at 15dn which took me over my 10-minute target; I was misled by the redundant ‘in’ as to what was going inside what. Glad not to repeat my error the last time TACTICIAN came up when I spelt it with three T’s.

    I was interested that my solving times this week averaged 15:20, exactly the same as last week, but last week I solved two in under 10 minutes whereas this week I failed to achieve that even once. It says something, but I don’t quite know what!

    Edited at 2014-06-13 08:32 am (UTC)

    1. Two possible explanations spring to mind:
      – the “degree of dificulty” this week was pretty consistent, whereas last week there were some easy ones and some real snorters; or
      – the crossword gods have ordained that you shall henceforth forever average 15:20 come what may 🙂
  4. I think the clue for CARMINE is acceptable grammar as long as you read it as “vehicle” (=CAR) and “belonging to the compiler” (=MINE) rather than “vehicle belonging to the compiler”.
  5. Good fun but struggled with several. INTENDED was my LOI, and I definitely had more difficulty with that corner than with the rest of the grid out together. In retrospect, I can’t see too much of a reason why; it must be Friday. COD to CAWS.
  6. Must have been right on wavelength today for me – 12 minutes and no holdups. Enjoyed this very much..
  7. Just under 5 mins, and another enjoyable QC. MOUNTAIN was my LOI because until I had all the checkers I’d been thinking that “horse” was the definition.
  8. After yesterday’s fun and games at 18ac, and the welcome comment from Izetti,
    the solution in today’s newspaper is … NESTLING!

    I would like to thank Andy Borrows for his regular solving time contributions.
    Invariably I’m a minute or two slower to the finishing line; but today – the roles were reversed!

    Stronon

    1. I didn’t see yesterday’s late post either. Considering the setter, or somebody posing as the setter, said the answer was SETTLING then there is clearly a disconnect somewhere. Which, taking into account all the troubles there have been since the QC was born 70 puzzles ago, doesn’t surprise me in the least. Congrats on your time.
      2. Thanks, Andy. I do hope these are just ‘teething troubles’. I think the Quick Cryptic concept is a brilliant one.
        I wish it had been born 70 years ago – not just 70 puzzles ago!
        Stronon
  9. Yesterday’s blog (12 June, Comment 22)
    Apologies – I didn’t read this comment this morning.
    Stronon

Comments are closed.