Quick Cryptic No. 98 by Rongo

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Sorry for delay. I arrived at the polyclinique for my 6 monthly going-slowly-blind check-up, to find the space now occupied by a ‘gynaecologiste’, which was not of much use to me. Eventually I discoverd the new location of my ophtal. man a mile or so away and had to wait as I’d missed my slot. Meanwhile I’d polished this off in 10 minutes except for 10ac (which took a while to see) and got half way through the Cryptic.
Nothing here of great controversy, a fine medium weight Quickie puzzle.

Across
1 STAY PUT – (UP TASTY)*, def. ‘don’t move’.
7 HARDISH – HASH (mix-up) around RD I, def. ‘quite solid’.
9 TOP-HOLE – Amusing double def. What-ho, Jeeves!
10 BOTTLER – Another clever double def. Took me a while to stop trying to ‘package’ CO inside something.
11 ROAM – Def. ‘travel freely around’, sounds like ROME.
12 POST HASTE – POST (pole) HAS T (last of CUT) E (ecstasy). Def. ‘with all speed’.
14 EYES RIGHT – YES (sure), R, inside EIGHT (4 x 2), E(YES R) IGHT, def. ‘order to turn head in drill’.
16 VEST – VET (check suitability of), holds S (front of sleeve), def. ‘garment with none’ i.e. no sleeves.
17 FARRIER – FAR (distant) RIER (RIDER without the third letter), def. ‘horseshoer’. Is horseshoer a real word?
20 REPTILE – RE (regarding) P (soft) TILE (floor covering. Reptiles have cold blood, even colder than assassins.
21 TO SCALE – TOSCA (operatic heroine) L(OV)E, def. ‘in proportion’.
22 THOUGHT – THOUGH (yet) T (time), def. ‘meditation’.

Down
1 SATURATED FAT – (TRUE DATA FAST)*, def. ‘something bad in diet’. Allegedly.
2 APPLAUSE – APPLE (orchard fruit) with A (area) US inside, def. ‘hand showing approval’.
3 PROD – PRO (in support of) D (daughter), def. ‘nudge’.
4 THEBES – THE BES(T), ancient city in Egypt so named by the Greeks.
5 CROTCHET – CROCHET (work of looped thread) with T (tension’s beginning) inside, def. ‘note’.
6 HILL – H (height) ILL (poorly), def. ‘raised part of landscape’.
8 HARLEY STREET – Cryptic def, street in London full of posh, expensive medics.
12 PARTISAN – PART (role) IS A N(ew), def. ‘supporter’.
13 SCREWING – SING around CREW (sailors), def. ‘twisting’. As in with a screwdriver, I suppose.
15 GARRET – Hidden word, BEG(GAR RET)AINS, def. ‘dismal attic’. Do garrets have to be dismal?
18 RUSH – Double def.
19 UP TO – (POUT)*, def. ‘capable of’, as in ‘he was up to the task’.

20 comments on “Quick Cryptic No. 98 by Rongo”

  1. I agree that this was a bit harder than yesterday but all was fair. I tried hard with “eremite” as a possible answer for 22 across but I then found that eremite means hermit rather than meditation.
  2. 9 mins, the last three of which were spent staring at 10ac which I couldn’t see for the life of me despite having all the very helpful checkers. I was over-thinking the clue and was trying to fit TT (gives up drinks) inside BALER (packaging company), but that would have given me “battler” which was the opposite of what the definition appeared to be, to say nothing of the lack of an inclusion/enclosure indicator and the “gives up” in the clue doing double duty, which is usually a no-no. When I realised it was a straightforward DD I could have kicked myself.
    1. Me too, Andy, I was thinking why battler? it stumped me and I started the main puzzle then it suddenly hit me, just before the eye man called me out of the queue.
  3. Having successfully completed the past two day’s QCs ( a record for me) I finished this one (so I thought) in just over an hour – about half of what it usually takes me – so finding two incorrect answers was frustrating. 13d ‘SHEERLEG’ (deviating, swerving) should have been SCREWING, the error leading to 20a ‘REPULSE’ instead of REPTILE, the ‘blood running’ reference fixing me on ??PULSE. We live and learn … slowly in my case.
  4. A little harder than yesterday. 53 minutes including parsing and the odd interruption.
    Completed the L/H side very quickly then slowed up on the R/H side for some reason.

    Eurc.

  5. Took me a good 40mins – found it hard today. Didn’t help I misread meditation as mediation.
  6. 12 minutes.

    Yes, there is a verb ‘to horseshoe’ and ‘horseshoer’, the agent noun derived from it, is listed in Chambers.

    Edited at 2014-07-23 10:41 am (UTC)

  7. Like Andy Borrows, I became focused on BATTLER for 10ac. 5d also gave me difficulties so my worst time: 34mins.
  8. I assumed that suitability was what vests were without, and gave it a ! Accordingly. How disappointing if it’s only sleeves. No real man apart from bruce willis wears a vest
  9. I found it much harder today – could only do the left hand side and then ran out of time/inclination! It seemed to me that there were a lot more words in the clues than usual which I found confusing. I still don’t understand bottler – any further explanations would help please. Thanks again for a great blog.
    1. To bottle out of something is to give in easily; packaging drinks is bottling, as in wine.
      Good puzzle but took 20 minutes…
  10. This is a surprise. Lacking bottle and bottling out both imply a lack of determination. A bottler is one who lacks determination rather than one who shows determination.
  11. Only did about 30%. Could someone explain 20ac. Why is soft p? Also 10 I understand the answer but cannot see why that connects with one easily gives up. Losing one’s bottle is I guess what it is supposed to mean, but if that is it it seems a poor clue, as I think that phrase means losing ones nerve, in my mind a different thing.

    New to this so appreciate the help.

    1. “P” is musical notation for “piano” meaning to play softly……
    2. Sorry, P for soft is such a regular crossword-speak thing I assumed it rather than explaining i detail. I’ll go into more explicit detail in future.
      The bottler clue seems good to me, I appreciated the double meaning as a clever clue, once the penny dropped.
      Pip
  12. Could someone please explain the link between ‘post’ and ‘pole’ in 12Ac? Thank you!
    1. Technically I suppose it is a bit tenuous but if you look at Collins on line for the definition of post then all will become clear.
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