Quick Cryptic Number 145 by Rongo

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit of Friday fun, which took me much longer to blog than to solve. Many of the surface meanings are neat and misleading, but not so devious as to throw us off the scent for too long. Unusually for me, I wasn’t held up too much by the cryptic definitions (where there may be no “instructions” in the clue, which is instead is a lateral thinking or tongue-in-cheek definition).

My clue of the day: 6dn for its simplicity!

Definitions underlined.
Deletions in curly brackets.

Across
1 SNIDE – a nice gentle start. Derogatory from N (name) in SIDE (team).
7 LOINCLOTH – clothing tied to the hip (“hip” garment) is L (length) + an anagram of THIN COOL (indicated by woven). Nice that the indicator fits so well with the surface meaning.
9 AGATE – an entrance is A GATE, also a (gem)stone.
10 CLEVEREST – C (for clubs) with LEVER (bar) and EST (abbreviation of established) gives us most sensible.
11 DUB – how to make a knight, and reversal of BUD (prepare to shoot).
12 REPLENISH – a really neat charade, I thought. The definition is fill up, from REP (repertory, theatre company) + LEN (Leonard) IS (has the role of) H (Henry).
14 RETENTIVE – RE (regarding, about) + TENT (e.g. big top) + I’VE (I have), gives able to remember.
16 WIN – W (wife) + IN (at home) for secure.
18 BRASSIERE – BRASS (metal) + I (one) + ERE (before) for garment sometimes containing wire. The definition popped into my head long before the wordplay.
20 ELDER – double definition. Tree and of greater age.
21 OVERNIGHT – NIGH (nearly, see 17dn) in OVERT (public) gives the period from one day to the next.
22 HARDY – good at surviving and HARD (difficult) + Y (year).

Down
1 SEABED – cryptic definition. Where one might rest if sleeping with the fishes.
2 IN ALL BUT NAME – anagram of BULLETIN A MAN (indicated by distributed) gives us effectively.
3 ELECTRON – a tiny part, and possible campaign slogan for Ronald Reagan (“elect Ron”). Not sure that the “of” fits with either half of the clue.
4 SIZE UP – SIZE is wallpaper paste and the verb to apply it (new to me) + UP (finished). Gives the definition assess.
5 ACNE – spots from the first and last letters (boundaries) of AzteC and NaturE.
6 THATCH – THAT CH (the church over there) and put a roof on.
8 ONE-HIT WONDER – ONE (I) + HINDER (stop) around TWO for an unrepeated success.
13 EYE TEETH – another name for the upper canines. A cryptic definition.
14 REBOOT – bad indicates an anagram of O{c}TOBER, without the letter c (dismissing chapter) for new start.
15 ICE AGE – I + C (caught in cricket) + EAGE{r} (keen, short) gives period of low temperature.
17 NEARLY – not quite from N (knight in chess) with EARLY (of olden times).
19 SINK – S{hr}INK (psychiatrist) without HR (human resources) for decline.

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 145 by Rongo”

  1. Much harder than yesterday for me and I struggled for more than half an hour. The introduction of 17d to give nearly as the definition of nigh seemed unnecessarily complicated. I struggled for a long while with one-?it as I did not recognise one-hit wonder. However I managed to solve the anagram for “in all but name” without using the app and anyway apps are not much use when there are several words in the answer.
  2. As William says, a number of nice surfaces. I especially liked 11ac and 2d. 4d struck me as rather a hard one; with everything but S and Z in, I would have probably had to run through the alphabet if I hadn’t come across the word recently, I believe in a 15×15 cryptic. As often with these Quickies, I solved a number of clues on checkers and definition, parsing only after the fact: 14ac, 21ac, 8d, 15d, which always feels a bit like cheating. 5:20.
  3. 5 mins. I found this enjoyable and more straightforward than the last couple, and REBOOT was my LOI after BRASSIERE.

    Regarding silverwaver’s point about the way 17 is used in the clue for 21ac, this type of cluing convention is probably used less in the Times than the Guardian or the Independent, but it is worth remembering. You also have to be aware that when a number is used within a clue it doesn’t always relate to the clue of the same number, i.e. 10 can mean X, 5 can mean V, and 10 can sometimes mean the letters IO, although I’m not sure if that last one is allowed in the Times.

    1. My understanding (for want of a better term) was that in the daily Times puzzles, Arabic numbers refer to clues; so that e.g. ’10’ would not mean ‘X’, although ‘ten’ could.
  4. Thanks William. Less than half an hour so pretty quick for me. Nothing particularly noteworthy from my perspective other than learning a new meaning of ‘size’.
  5. Managed to get all the right answers with only a little help from phone app but some of the word play escaped me: bar = LEVER, nearly = NIGH, finished = UP, stop = HINDER, knight = N (I don’t play chess). As always the blog is very helpful and completes the learning experience, hopefully keeping the brain in trim!
    1. For what it’s worth, K=king, so knight=N; this N shows up often enough that it’s worth keeping in mind. ‘king’ is more often R, but can be K, too (as well as e.g. GR [George Rex], ER, etc.).
  6. Way back in the early 60’s, my dad taught me that I should never attempt to hang wallpaper without making sure the wall was sized (had an application of runny paste) first. God bless him, it came in useful eventually.
  8. A nice fun puzzle. Liked REPLENISH, which I solved from the literal and plenty of checkers. But when I parsed the answer it made me smile. I usually post late as I do the paper version late afternoon or early evening and I’ve noticed fewer contributions to the blog of late. It would be a shame if interest in the Quick Cryptics is declining as I’m finding them very enjoyable.
    1. I agree it’s a shame that there is a decline in the number of comments on Quickies of late. I imagine the number people who read the blogs would be more encouraging if only we had some means of knowing it.
  9. I’m a regular reader of the blog and a big fan of the quick cryptic – but never comment. Consider this a note of encouragement!
  10. The quick cryptics keep us amused for days – as do the comments ! Please don’t stop them – learning loads from the masters.
  11. I’ll second those comments – I’m enjoying the Quick Cryptic hugely and these blogs are a very important element of that enjoyment.

    I’m often several days behind before I get the chance to have a go at them, so don’t often post, but rest assured the blogs are appreciated.

    As an example, I also had replenish on the basis of Rep + Len + the checkers i and h, but couldn’t quite make the final connection until I came on here tonight.

    I’ve even managed a couple of full Saturday Cryptics and no doubt wouldn’t have got there without this forum.

  12. I too am a regular (read: daily) visitor to this blog, only ever completed about 5/50!! Very new to cryptics (I’m 22 so felt I needed to spice my Friday nights up from normal crosswords!) and find this an invaluable learning resource! Please keep them coming!
    1. You too!

      I suspect there are many like us who lurk on this blog. Your comments will always be welcomed.

  13. Thank you for this blog. It has been a great help to me as I have only recently started doing cryptic crosswords..The explanations are invaluable to me.

Comments are closed.