Quick Cryptic Number 195 by Teazel

I’m back on the blog after a bit of a hiatus; thanks to Mohn for giving me a holiday two weeks ago.

I found this a tricky puzzle to get into, with particular difficulty in the NW corner. The bottom half of the grid filled up as I plugged away at several half-understood clues, parsed after the event. 8ac was my last one in – our miserable setter can take comfort in a job well done!

Across
1 GROOM – G (grand) + ROOM (place) for Royal official.
8 A DOG’S LIFE – think setter as in the dog breed, for this idiom meaning miserable existence.
9 ALLAYcalm down from ALL (everyone) + AY (all year, all the time) (literary word for always, see comments).
10 TINFOIL – TIN (can) + FOIL (be frustrating) for this wrapper. Difficult if, in your head like mine, this is two words.
11 SEVENTH – SH (keep quiet) surrounding (about) EVENT (happening) in such a heaven.
12 WIMPISH – WISH (desire) around (to suppress) IMP (troublemaker) is rather feeble.
16 CONTESTobject to, TEST (check) on CON (prisoner).
17 EXHAUST – double definition, empty and part of car.
20 BUTCHER – double definition, more aggressively masculine and tradesman.
22 REIGN – G (good) to be in(side) REIN (control) for to be king.
23 RUMINANTSsheep and goats for example from RUM (curious) + IN + ANTS (insects).
24 EIGER – E’ER (always) holds reversal of GI (soldier back) in this mountain.

Down
1 GRASS – double definition. The main constituent of lawn, and weed, a colloquial terms for marijuana.
2 OBLIVIONforgetfulness, and OB (old boy) + IV (one very) taken in by LION (cat).
3 MAYAN – this old Central American is MA (married) + YANk (New Englander briefly).
4 MOUTH-WATERING – MOUTHING (insincerely speaking) around WATER (drink from tap) for whetting the appetite.
5 TSUNAMI – MAN (chap) reversed (go up) inside anagram of SUIT (indicated by tatty) gives disaster, naturally.
6 DIDO – DID (used to) + O (love, in tennis) for old queen.
7 WEALTHYrich from W (wife) + hEALTHY (fit, losing first H (husband)).
13 INFUSING – IN (at home) + FUSING (getting together) and preparing tea.
14 ICEBERG – double definition. Sort of lettuce and something found floating in the sea.
15 METHANE – anagram of THE NAME (indicated by is different) for gas.
18 HORSEhunter perhaps from R (runs) in HOSE (stockings).
19 TONER – final letters from musT gO iN thE printeR, and this! Super clue.
21 TOMEbook. If it’s from you, it’s TO ME?

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 195 by Teazel”

  1. Certainly not the easiest of Quickies. 22 minutes, but I may have nodded off for a moment or two.
  2. The Aenead and the chuckle brothers in one crossword. Found this hard going but plodded through to the end. Despite still (30+ years later) being able to recite all of the bit of the Aenead we had to learn verbatim for o level Latin 6D was my LOI. Shamefully I got the chuckle brothers refence early on.
  3. Did this online in 7 minutes which would have been faster except for usual typing-over problems. Nice gentle evenly-clued puzzle.
    1. Gentle? 🙁 I don’t think I’m getting better at this in fact I’m getting worse and I can’t blame being sick today because I’m better now and have had loads of compensatory sleep. Ah well.
  4. I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to be a good judge, but I thought this was at the harder end of the spectrum as I did it, so was then quite surprised to finish in 22 minutes which is a good time for me.
  5. Can’t sign in but my handle is dobree 49. I found this like yesterday’s very difficult. In fact I really don’t believe this is set at the right level. Also puzzled at the clue to 3d. New York isnot New England. Dido old queen, I assume refers to the old Carthage queen, but what an obscure clue for a quick cryptic. Like many others I amtrying to learn how to do crosswords but setting the puzzles at an advanced level does not encourage beginners it just makes them want to give up.

    As to the bloggers,their help is invaluable and I know they do this on a voluntary basis so it is much appreciated. Having said that some of the bloggers really explain in a way that helps newbies to understand how to unpick a clue, others not so much. Not a criticism just an observation as all help is welcome.

    Excuse the frustration but two days in a row with puzzles that were unsolvable to a level that I have not even got 30% is frustrating after a few weeks of really making progress.

    1. Should be (New Englander briefly). I suppose any American can be called a Yank on this side of the atlantic, which makes the clue work. Evidently, I unconciously equate Yank with NY, hence the slip.
    2. See, I finished both yesterday and today, but found them much more difficult than some of the recent ones (I didn’t find dido obscure because of Latin O level). I don’t have a problem with a mix of harder ones and easier ones (like the Graun has in its cryptic) because it’s been going for quite a while now and those of us who have been doing it for a while need to progress. But there does need to be a mix and for me the last 3 have been pretty difficult (although Wednesday may just have been me being very sick). That’s why this blog is so fab, though – it’s such a valuable part of the learning experience. I only started improving once I’d found this place.
  6. As a novice- if after nearly 200 attempts one is still a novice I think there has been a noticeable upturn in difficulty recently- which is a shame- can’t remember the last time I finished one. However i also appreciate the blogs and I am improving slowly- I had never attempted a cryptic crossword before the quick cryptics started.
  7. I managed to complete this one today but it did take 45 minutes! There were a few I got from the definitions but didn’t understand the cryptic parts so thanks to the blogger for explaining that in 10a ‘can’ is a noun rather than a verb. I also though Tinfoil was two words. I am still getting used to abbreviations (‘ay’ meaning all year – is this just in crosswordland?) and in 18d thought stockings might all mean somewhere where livestock were held. To those other novices who are struggling, keep at it, it does get easier.
    1. Well done! AY was new to me too, and I have to admit looking it up before blogging. Apparently it’s “academic year” or “all year”.
      1. I took the ‘ay’ to refer to the literary word for ‘always’, as found in a well known hymn:

        Let us with a gladsome mind
        Praise the Lord for He is good
        For His mercies ay endure
        Ever faithful, ever sure

        As for AY as an abbreviation, it has no dictionary support as far as I can see.

          1. Isn’t there a toast that goes something like ‘yours ay’? Or a salutation? I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before (or read it, more likely…)
  8. Just a few weeks ago I was reaching for the dictionary and the Ipad and even then using the Solution Checker to see if it revealed that I had got any letters correct in my guess. But now it’s OK pencil and paper and no crossings out except when my wife recognised the “setter” as a dog but put in on “a back seat”!!! What has changed.? But where can I find the interactive version on line now?
  9. 12 minutes, but I thought this what quite tricky – and incidentally a very good puzzle. ALLAY is possibly the stiffest of the lot but I had most difficult with CONTEST, where I was looking for a word meaning ‘object’. A reminder, if one were needed, that every word (and letter, and piece of punctuation) counts!
    1. CONTEST was my LOI by a couple of minutes – even an alphabet run-through didn’t help much (blo0dy CONTEXT got stuck in my mind …)
  10. Another good puzzle with some excellent clues – A DOG’S LIFE, BUTCHER and TONER )my COD) all brought a smile to my face. Incidentally I’ve still no idea who the Chuckle a Brothers are or what the reference to them is/was! (No probs with DIDO though …)

    My two last in were ICEBERG (durr, how did that take me so long?) and CONTEST (which I actually thought was a pretty weak clue, but them I would say that wouldn’t I …)

    Many thanks to William for the blog

  11. I don’t quite know why, but I finished this in close to a PB timewise. That was certainly not my expectation after working through the acrosses, where only a few went in first time. But the downs yielded far more readily and I was able to quickly see a lot of answers once the checkers were in place. I guess I must have hit Teazel’s wavelength, because like others, I thought this was tricky puzzle.

    LOI was DIDO, which I vaguely remembered from some distant past in my life (not a classicist at all). Worked my way through the alphabet, luckily D comes early. My first thought was USED TO=DID was a bit tenuous so carried on looking for the answer. But once DIDO was thought of, I couldn’t see what else it could be.

    Welcome back william_j_s.

  12. Thought this was much harder than yesterday’s near finish. Gave up after a couple of hours with half a dozen clues unanswered. Teazel continues to be a real struggle for me. Invariant.

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