Quick cryptic No 863 by Flamande

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I haven’t knowingly blogged an offering by Flamande before, but found this nice and certainly up to scratch.  It took just inside my 15 minute target, with two or three of those spent looking at 13d before the penny dropped.

I thought at first that we might be looking at a pangram, but actually we are five letters short, so nowhere near really.  A lovely mix of clues though, with double definitions, &Lits, hiddens, misdirection, homophones, anagrams and initial letters – perfect fare for a QC.  Also a smattering of Latin and a bit of General Knowledge (14a), but all fairly clued.  Thanks Flamande.

I quite like the sound of Miss Teak, so make that both my word of the day and clue of the day (WOD and COD).

Across
1  Potato chips ultimately followed by desert (4)
SPUD – Chips ultimately gives S (last letter of {chip}S) followed by PUD{ding}
4  Slash cost of delicate material? (8)
LACERATE – The delicate material is LACE and cost gives us RATE.
8  Form of classical language got Linda confused (3,5)
DOG LATIN – Anagram (confused) of [GOT LINDA].  DOG LATIN refers to a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin
9  A teachers’ union recalled one in school (4)
TUNA – A (a) NUT (teachers’ union) all reversed (recalled) to give the name of a fish.  The school is here a collection of fish, although other types than TUNA are available, hence the question mark
10  Legendary creature still seen to west of island (4)
YETI – Still is YET, to the west of (i.e. to the left of) I{sland}
11  Colonists, people who pay their debts (8)
SETTLERS – Double definition
12  Type of play broadcast all at once (3-3)
ONE-ACT – A kind of cryptic definition.  A one-act play, such as Anton Chekhov’s ‘A Marriage Proposal’  is a play that has only one act, although it may have multiple scenes – all a little confusing for a plebeian like me.  On edit:  As Kevin points out below, this is an anagram (broadcast) of [AT ONCE], making it an even better clue – where I was misled by the neat surface.
14  American composer responsible for Hair? (6)
BARBER – A double definition, the first probably referring to Samuel Osborne Barber II, although it could also have been Stephen Barber who has worked with Keith Richards, the LSO, etc.  However, my money is on Sammy because he is dead (1981), and the Times do not traditionally include living people in their crosswords (other than the Queen and a couple of other notable exceptions)
16  Secret fascination of Miss Wood, we hear (8)
MYSTIQUE – A homophone (we hear) of Miss Teak (wood)
18  Portion of corn served with soft fruit (4)
PEAR – The portion of corn is an EAR, which here appears with P for soft (as in P{iano})
19  Vehicle returned at eleven (4)
TAXI – Reverse AT (returned) followed by XI (eleven in Roman numerals)
20  A box containing copper?  Absolutely right (8)
ACCURATE – A box gives A CRATE, into which we insert CU (Copper) as instructed
22  Money to be made in half-term holiday (8)
INTEREST – IN (in) TE (half TE{rm} and REST (holiday)
23  Unwell and so weak in the end (4)
SICK – In Latin, SIC means ‘thus’ or ‘and so’ as in ‘sic erat scriptum’ (thus it was written).  This is followed by the last letter of {wea}K (in the end)

Down
2 Important part of diet for adolescent, it’s said (7)
PROTEIN – Another homophone clued by ‘it’s said’ of PRO TEEN (or ‘for adolescent’)
3  Group of model Hindus found here (5)
DELHI – An &Lit where the whole clue not only gives the definition, but also conceals the answer in {mo}DEL HI{ndus}
4  Allow any number to ignore period of fasting (3)
LET – LENT is a period of fasting (this last Lent, I gave up giving up things!).  N is often used to symbolise an unknown number (or any number), so take n out of LE{n}T for the answer
5  Policeman’s list of wrong-doers (9)
CONSTABLE – A list of wrong-doers might be a CONS’ TABLE
6  Dog hunting vermin traps large snake (7)
RATTLER – A dog hunting vermin might be a RATTER, capturing L{arge} for the most famous of all North American snales
7  Cosmetic contained in compact, one realises (5)
TONER – Hidden answer in {compact}T ONE R{ealises}
11  Class having old-fashioned aid for technical drawing (3,6)
SET SQUARE – Class gives SET and SQUARE is old-fashioned
13  One enthralled by a celebrated English dancer (7)
ASTAIRE – This took me a while to see and was my last one in (LOI).  In this case, ‘one is enthralled by’ means that the letter I (one) is surrounded by A (a) STAR (celebrated) E{nglish}, to give the dancer – {Fred} ASTAIRE
15  Resilient characters from Castile (7)
ELASTIC – Straightforward anagram (characters from) [CASTILE]
17  Long period of time before noon (5)
YEARN – The period of time is a YEAR which precedes N{oon} to give YEARN.  To YEARN for something is to long for it
18  Dad taking teacher around European capital (5)
PARIS – PA is ‘dad’ and teacher is SIR which is reversed (around)
21  Initially censor’s unlikely to make incisions (3)
CUT – First letters (initially) of C{ensor’s} U{nlikely} T{o}
 

34 comments on “Quick cryptic No 863 by Flamande”

  1. It’s an anagram, innit? ‘broadcast’ being the anagrind, ‘at once’ the anagrist; ‘all’ seems otiose. (I’ve always wanted to use that word. Why? You may ask. You may indeed.)
    1. Thanks Kevin – now amended in the blog – stupid of me not to spot that!
  2. Steady going, by and large. Liked MYSTIQUE and INTEREST, which I think was my LOI. ‘Enthralled’ struck me as stretching things a bit for an inclusion clue; maybe ‘captivated’ would have been better? On BARBER: the clue reads ‘…Hair?’ and the capital H is important, I think; it misleadingly suggests the person who wrote the musical. And the ? tells us the setter isn’t being literal. Also, I’d say DELHI is only a hidden clue, not an &lit; Delhi is certainly not a collection of MODEL Hindus. 5:06.
    1. It may be of mild interest that the Chambers list of containment / insertion indicators (a supplement in the 12th edition) has ‘enthral’ but not ‘captivate’. It’s quite a short list – only one page compared with eight pages of anagrinds – so hardly comprehensive.

      Edited at 2017-06-29 06:37 am (UTC)

  3. A very entertaining puzzle that I completed in 8 minutes.

    The dancer at 13dn could also refer to (but certainly doesn’t), Fred’s sister, Adele, with whom he danced on stage for 27 years until she retired in 1931 to marry into the English aristocracy – she married a son of the Duke of Devonshire. When they worked together she was the more famous of the two and reputed to be the better dancer, possibly because she was the older by 3 years.

    Rotter, you have blogged Flamande twice before (#613 and #623) both in July 2016 in consecutive appearances for both of you. I bet that doesn’t happen very often! We must see if he turns up again for your next outing on 13th July.

    Edited at 2017-06-29 06:39 am (UTC)

    1. Oh dear! I seem to be getting it all wrong today. Last July was before I started saving blogs with the Setter’s name in the filename. Thanks Jack, I’ll look out for him in a fortnight to see if history repeats itself.
    2. I recently hadn’t a chat with a couple of dance instructors where, for no obvious reason, the question came up of who was the better dancer – Astaire or Rogers. Answer – Rogers did everything Astaire did, but backwards.

      Edited at 2017-06-29 09:59 am (UTC)

      1. Yes, it’s a good line, Chris! Of course Fred also devised much of the choreograophy himself, certainly for his own routines, so he gets extra credit for that, but it’s not so well known that he relied heavily on co-choreographer Hermes Pan who also contributed hugely and was responsible for coaching Rogers and the other co-stars and the ensemble in rehearsals. Pan also rehearsed with Fred, dancing Ginger’s “backward” steps.

        Edited at 2017-06-29 10:15 am (UTC)

  4. A speedy (for me) 18 minutes, although a few were biffed in. Didn’t really understand why MYSTIQUE worked, so thanks to the blogger. I was also unaware a ratter was a hunting dog, so assumed vermin = rat, and dog = ter in this case. Never heard of a ter dog? No, me neither! 17dn held me up as I was thinking of “long” in the length sense. My LOI was 22ac. It took a while for the penny to drop on that one. My COD would have to be 2dn. I was even tempted to pop in pre-teen, before the genius of the clue presented itself. Gribb.
    1. I’m no expert on dogs but I think RATTER is simply a dog that hunts and catches rats or vermin in general, not a specific breed of dog. And just to add to the merriment, my dictionary says it can also be a cat although in my experience cats that are expert in catching vermin are called ‘mousers’, a word that frequently comes up on Countdown and maybe occasionally in crossword puzzles too.
  5. But ended up with a DNF – failed on ASTAIRE. Even once I knew the answer I’d have struggled to identify him as a dancer … and the word play was pretty tough I think (not the “enthralled” as an inclusion indicator, which I got in the end, but “star” for “celebrated”. Hey ho, another one to try to remember!

    Liked it otherwise, COD for me was the humble TUNA which provoked an appreciative snort on the 8:03!

    Thanks Flamande and to the Rotter for his customarily enjoyable blog.

    Templar

    1. Just noticed that TUNA was my COD. There’s a parable in there somewhere.

      Templar

  6. This had a similar feel to yesterday’s puzzle for me, in that most of it went in relatively quickly but was held up at the end by the unknown 14a and 22a (LOI). As usual with Flammande there were a lot of excellent clues including 5d, 16a and 14a. Completed in 16 minutes
  7. I enjoyed this puzzle, but again took longer than usual with Fred or Adele holding me up at the end. Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is one of my favourite pieces. FOI SPUD. 14:42. Thanks Flamande and Rotter.

  8. TWICE I had to go off and make a cup of tea today. Ist was for the penny to drop with Miss Teak and the second for my LOI Astaire. I’d convinced myself that ‘dancer’ would refer to a thing or creature that danced- as can often be the way with cryptics- so it took some time for me to do a 360 and think of an actual dancer.

    Fun CsOD: 2d and 16a.
    A taxing (for me) but very enjoyable QC. Thanks to Flamande and Rotter.

    PS. I’ve always thought 8a was Cod Latin?

    1. From that great encyclopedia in the cloud, wikipedia:

      Dog Latin, also known as Cod Latin, macaronic Latin, mock Latin, or Canis Latinicus

      So any of these alternatives are OK.

      Incidentally, the same page expands and corrects John Dun’s example in the post above to say:

      Caesar adsum jam forte
      Brutus aderat
      Caesar sic in omnibus
      Brutus sic in at

      1. I’m not sure jam is a correction for iam, but I’m already to be told different 🙂

        Edited at 2017-06-29 11:15 am (UTC)

      2. Thanks for that info. I never think of wikipedia so have just tried it and, Lo and behold, it came up just as you said.

        Thank God my children don’t read this blog. The teasing would be life-long!

  9. Liked the clues at 2dn protein and 13dn mystique. DNK dog latin so was was trying to work out why old latin fitted the clue. Then I got the crossing letter so was confronted with ?O? with just g and d to fit in. For all I knew god latin was some form used in the church as a classical language but happily plumped for dog. Thanks to The Rotter for the definition which leads me to think that the Harry Potter spells were dog latin – in which case if only ‘para bloggio!’ worked. 11 minutes.
  11. Yes, my first thought was Barnet, too. Also at 13dn I had Antoine (Troupe, Hunter or Marc?) even though it wouldn’t parse and referred to living people.
  13. Never heard of Dog Latin but guessed it couldn’t be God Latin. COD Interest as it wasn’t obvious from the checkers. I got very excited at 9a accidentally thinking the clue started “A student’s union…” – nearly biffed Anus (sorry all). All done and dusted in just over 10m for an enjoyable puzzle with lots of variation. Thanks Slogger
  14. After yesterday’s keen (just doesn’t read as well as grief, does it ?), today’s offering from Flamande was an enjoyable 23 min solve. Hard to pick a favourite, but perhaps 13d gets a nose ahead of 4, 19 and 22ac. Invariant
  15. I always think of fox terriers as RATTERS – leaving beagles to do their job.

    COD 12ac ONE ACT

    WOD ASTAIRE Fred or otherwise.

    Yes, I too was in BARNET before GOING to the BARBERs!

  16. Quite hard going today and held up by two at the end- 22a and 13d which both required a second look.
    I managed to parse Interest -was not sure at first – and then had to see what 13 was about. I got there by using the clue and eventually Astaire appeared.
    Good test I thought. COD to 13d. Something over 20 minutes. David

  17. I thought this might another fast solve for me in under 30 minutes, until I was stumped by 13d and 22a. After a break, they came in ok. FOI 1a LOI 22a COD 17d.
  18. I know this is a bit late in the day to be useful, but the main puzzle today isn’t too bad. Quite a few of the long clues can be biffed and then worked out, and there is a cracking long anagram. Invariant
  20. I found this more enjoyable than other recent ones. A lot went in quite easily and the ones that were left were not as difficult as I have found the last week or two’s.
    I missed the inclusion at 7d so had no idea how it was parsed. Also, didn’t think of SIR for teacher, so needed the blog to help out there as well. Thanks to Rotter for the explanations and to Flamande for an enjoyable QC
  21. Was going quite well today and after about 35 minutes was left with only 12ac, 13dn and 22ac. Gave up on them after another ten minutes and stopped my watch, only to get ‘one-act’ a short while later. I just might have got Astaire but was put off by thinking I didn’t know any English dancers. I should have thought the English bit was just a reference to E. I did a similar thing with Rattler, which I got but didn’t parse properly as I was thinking a rattler was a ‘large snake’ instead of just a snake which included the letter L. Never mind, still getting better I think. Only a couple of months ago these would take all day, and I still rarely finished. Thanks Rotter and Flamande.
    Crispian.

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