Quick Cryptic No. 72 by Flamande

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hello all!

As Olivia once remarked, the office temp here standing in for Chrisw91 whilst he is on his travels. A perky little number this one. Some really clever clues I thought and I puzzled over it for much longer than normal.

Definition parts of clues underlined where appropriate.

Across
1 Ramble Andrew organised (6)
WANDER – Anagram of Andrew indicated by organised.
5 Film maker arrived before artist (6)
CAMERA – CAME(arrived) +(before) RA(artist, short for Royal Academician).
8 Type of wrestling: fun, eventually (3,2,4,4)
ALL IN GOOD TIME – ALL IN(type of wrestling) + GOOD TIME(fun).
9 What traveller pays for food (4)
FARE – Double definition.
10 Repetitious exercises in gym, initially boring (8)
DRILLING – DRILL(repetitious exercises) + IN + G(first letter of Gym indicated by initially). At first I thought this was a simple double definition and couldn’t see the point of the word initially in the clue. Words are rarely wasted in clues though.
11 Can largely dispose of Christmas decoration (6)
TINSEL – TIN(can) + SELl(largely dispose of). I didn’t get the SELL bit until I looked it up.
13 Sample exotic treats (6)
TASTER – Anagram of treats indicated by exotic.
15 Ignore religious festival (8)
PASSOVER – Double definition.
17 Examination not really putting off odd characters (4)
ORAL – nOt ReAlLy.
19 Ride wave near shore, with some hesitation (6,7)
ROLLER COASTER – ROLLER(wave) + COAST(near shore) + ER(some hesitation).
21 Army rejected shabby item of clothing (6)
TABARD – TA(army) + BARD (drab or shabby reversed). Not sure of my ground on this.
22 Stuck in traffic, I rant (6)
TIRADE – I(literally stuck in) TRADE (traffic).

Down
2 Everyone gets round a Scottish town (5)
ALLOA – ALL(everyone) +(gets) O(round)A(literally).
3 Clubs for motorists (7)
DRIVERS – Double definition.
4 Newspaper reader admires Guardian leaders (3)
RAG – first letters of Reader Admires Guardian indicated by leaders.
5 Singer, one drowned by most of orchestra, unfortunately (9)
CHORISTER – anagram of most of the letters of ORCHESTRa indicated by unfortunately with I inside(drowned).
6 Somewhere to stay in remote land (5)
MOTEL – Hidden reMOTE Land.
7 Italian church appearing in novel? (7)
ROMANCE – ROMAN(italian) + CE(church).
10 Surrendered, being deprived of vital organ? (9)
DELIVERED – Double definition. My clue of the day.
12 Name of woman – one’s lover, you say? (7)
ISADORA – Sounds like IS ADORER. Didn’t like this much.
14 Liverpudlian employer supporting small business (7)
SCOUSER – USER(employer) underneath(supporting) S(small) CO(business).
16 Steps taken to produce tomato sauce (5)
SALSA – Double definition, a dance and a tomato sauce.
18 Repair plug employees installed (5)
AMEND – AD(plug) with MEN(employees) inside.
20 Unfashionable youth centre (3)
OUT – centre of yOUTh.

11 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 72 by Flamande”

  1. Usually a good omen when I can enter 1 ac straight off. About 15 minutes. Liked ALL IN GOOD TIME. Last one in TABARD and I agree your parsing.

    Ian, for 10 ac you are missing an N from IN Gym. I only saw that post solve.

  2. 4 mins with ISADORA my LOI. I agree that TABARD might not be too familiar, while DELIVERED raised a smile. I’ve gone through my whole life without realising that my name is an anagram of WANDER. That’s why I’m a solver and not a setter.
  3. I raced through most of this but lost a little time in the SW and came home in 14 minutes which was longer than expected. I can’t see there’s anything requiring much GK here though perhaps TABARD is not familiar to all. Before learning of it being a garment I first came across the word as the name of the Inn where Chaucer’s pilgrims set out on their journey to Canterbury, and then as a pub in Chiswick in my early student drinking days. Pictures on pub signs can be a useful source of knowledge.
  4. Thank you stand in expert blogger (not office temp at all!). Happened to be back in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, today which has wifi – and where locally caught crayfish tails and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc are about to make me 10d. 16 minutes for an enjoyable puzzle – would have been more enjoyable if I’d spelled chorister right first time and not been hung up by Isadore rather than Isadora – both seemed to work – I agree adora is better but I share the feeling for this clue.

    Edited at 2014-06-17 12:13 pm (UTC)

  5. 50 minutes for me. Is it cheeting to use an ap to find anagrams?, afterall a good part of the skill is deciding what the anagram fodder is. What is the concensus. I also use chambers crossword dictionary and my family say this is cheeting, although I disagree.
    1. So long as you enjoy yourself, I don’t think it matters. The quickie is there to have fun with. You aren’t competing with anyone else. It’s your puzzle so make your own rules up.

      Have you tried just jotting the letters of the fodder down in a random fashion on a piece of paper? You might find the extra challenge of that makes the puzzle more enjoyable. I can rarely solve anagrams without doing it.

    2. As Ian says, the rules are entirely up to you.
      Anyway, what gives you more fun: only completing half the grid and then giving up completely stumped, or using a few aids to break through the brick wall and then having the pleasure of being able to complete the rest?
      Regarding anagrams, I tend to write the consonants randomly in a line with the vowels similarly underneath. It seems to be easier to work out without the vowels.
  6. My best yet! 11 minutes. Thanks to all here for making this a daily pleasure rather than a mystery.
  7. I didn’t finish till the middle of the afternoon but this probably represented less than an hour of concentrated solving time so I’m rating this as a triumph. No recourse to online anagram solvers, no need to press the solution button just to see if everything is right so far, no need to sneak a look at a couple of the answers in the blog because I’m irrevocably stuck. And the sun is shining too, so an excellent day all round!
  8. This is the first time I’ve done it without having to cheat on any of the clues. Many thanks to this blog for helping me get the idea with the previous puzzles.
    12d is better if you view the IS as 1’S ie one’s rather than is the verb.

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