Quick Cryptic Number 214 by Izetti

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I really enjoyed this puzzle, which I found to be slightly more difficult than average. It just seems polished and neat, with many words used in unfamiliar and interesting ways. The material (that’s appeared here recently), a posh girl, a rubbish sportsman, a French word that isn’t “the”, and a lovely word for a plant shoot all made me think and smile. COD to 8dn for a great surface and anagram fodder, only just ahead of 3dn in my opinion. I spent several minutes with just 10ac remaining; the word is new to me.

As you can see, I have included the clue here in the blog, as many others now do. I hope I haven’t made a rod for my own back with the attempt to make my write-ups clearer – if anyone knows of an easier way to extract clues without having to type them, or has any thoughts on how I can make my posts better/more consistent in 2015, I’d be glad to know.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Panic about risk ultimately with fashionable cosmetic treatment (8)
SKINCARE – SCARE (panic) around K (risK, ultimately) with IN (fashionable).
5 Has snow melted? (4)
OWNS – anagram (melted) of SNOW.
9 Contamination — it is not very common (5)
TAINT – ’it is not’ said with a very common accent.
10 Pirate‘s vulgar tone evident to listener (7)
CORSAIR – homophone (evident to listener) of “coarse air” (vulgar tone).
11 Member posh girl pushed around (3)
LEG – reversal (pushed around) of GEL (posh girl).
12 Once again going over material at the meal table? (9)
REPEATING – REP (material) plus EATING (likely reason for being at the meal table).
13 Incompetent performer’s talk (6)
RABBIT – double definition.
15 Outside a little beast, inside the girl’s a little angel? (6)
CHERUB – on the outside is CUB (infant animal, little beast), and on the inside is HER (the girl’s).
17 I wrote all about a bathroom feature (5-4)
TOWEL-RAIL – anagram (about) of I WROTE ALL.
19 The nest is home to this bird (3)
HEN – hidden in tHE Nest.
20 Sketch left by man (7)
PORTRAY – PORT (left) by RAY (a man’s name)
21 Dance held by generous ambassador (5)
SAMBA – hidden in generouS AMBAssador.
22 Party repeatedly gets the bird — dead long ago (4)
DODO – DO (party) twice (repeatedly).
23 Alienate sergeant, looking dishevelled (8)
ESTRANGE – anagram (looking dishevelled) of SERGEANT.

Down
1 Person arriving in country takes dog around lake (7)
SETTLER – SETTER (dog) around L (lake).
2 Decoration here in Paris no good (5)
ICING – ICI (‘here’ in French) plus N (no) plus G (good).
3 Provide sustenance on posts for insects (12)
CATERPILLARS – CATER (provide sustenance for) on PILLARS (posts).
4 Review harvest about to be stored (5)
RECAP – REAP (harvest) with C (circa, about) inside (stored).
6 Person with something on, I gathered, that’s not so fresh (7)
WEARIER – WEARER (person with something on) with I inside (gathered).
7 Little son, goody-goody, showing a bit of growth(5)
SPRIG – S (little son) plus PRIG (goody-goody).
8 Best ale Harry’s drunk — reason why he won’t risk driving? (12)
BREATHALYSER – anagram (drunk) of BEST ALE HARRY.
14 Experiencing tedium, you and I being shut in, enclosed (7)
BOWERED – BORED (experiencing tedium) with WE (you and I) put inside (being shut in).
16 Group wanting mature dress (7)
BANDAGE – BAND (group) with AGE (mature).
17 Bound, perhaps, to be recorded (5)
TAPED – double definition.
18 Pit donkey that’s kept by (5)
ABYSS – ASS (donkey) holding (that’s kept) BY.
19 Person to be active, a knight (5)
HUMAN – HUM (to be active) plus A and (N (knight, chess notation).

28 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 214 by Izetti”

  1. I agree definitely on the trickier end of the spectrum today – the 15×15 took me hardly any time longer! (Note to those who want to try the larger one, today might be a good day for you)

    Maybe I just took a bit longer to get going today as nothing is too difficult – once you’ve got the answer anyway.

    LOI 14d as I’d never heard BOWER used as a verb. My COD to 9a – it brought a wry smile to my lips.

    William: personally I like the blog as you’ve got it now. It’s nice and clear how the clue works and succinctly describes how the answer is derived. To me it’s a winner – no need to change it.

    1. I did try the 15×15 on your recommendation and although I DNF I made a decent fist of it for a novice, I feel. Was stumped on about 5 clues. Will continue trying I think. Time allowing.
  2. Excellent blog. Thanks for your efforts which are much appreciated (by me, certainly). Thought the puzzle was hard but fair.
  3. I copy and paste the clues into the blog – the added advantage is that you get the clue number so don’t get out of sync.
      1. This may be an iPad thing but I touch the clues in the crossword and get the option to copy. Then I paste into the blog between all the > < stuff.
        1. Thanks, Chris. There’s nothing like that on the PC version. I can download and save the web page and open it in an editor but the clues are all mixed up with the coding and the answers are there too. I’ll stick to OCR scanning for now.
  4. 15 minutes, so another at the harder end of the scale from this setter but with no obscure words this time so perfectly fair. I wasn’t over familiar with BOWERED as ‘enclosed’ but the wordplay was clear and the definition makes sense when you think about it.

    Your blog format is fine, William, so no changes needed for next time in my view. I print and scan the clues using OCR and then paste them in, but it’s a fiddly process.

    Edited at 2015-01-02 10:10 am (UTC)

  5. 19 minutes here so I agree with everyone’s assessment of difficulty level. Really liked caterpillar for the amusement and bowered for the struggle to get it. Debatable point here – but I think there’s a small typo in 15ac – ‘the girl’ could be ‘she or her’ whereas ‘the girl’s’ is definitely ‘her’.

    Edited at 2015-01-02 10:39 am (UTC)

    1. I agree and have ammended the blog accordingly.

      Edited at 2015-01-02 02:08 pm (UTC)

  6. That almost deterred me totally – I spent 10 mins staring at the grid getting increasingly disheartened.

    Only Z8’s chivying & hinting got me going, whereupon I discovered at least 2 clues that I enjoyed! It took me (us) 30 mins, unsurprisingly.

    LOI was BANDAGE, which I should have got sooner, having been excessively familiar with that meaning of ‘dress’ until 3 years ago!

    COD was CORSAIR – I love witty wordplays. I knew the word both through Byron and one of my favourite composers, Hector Berlioz.

    Huge thanks, William, for a brilliant blog & to Izetti, whose QC’s should maybe come with a health warning 🙂

  7. Just under 12 mins for me. Lots of witty stuff. My LOI was BOWERED, not a word that often trips off my lips, but the cryptic parsing was clear.
  8. I found this quite hard work but got there in the end with a bit of help by Googling some synonyms. I had not heard of the material REP or the incompetent performer(RABBIT). The latter sounds like a cricketing expression but not one I have heard on TMS. Is it from down under? Blog is very clear, thanks.
  9. Tough for a novice but I got there in the end – about 50 minutes I think. Some really good clues, particularly breathalyser and corsair. Never heard of rep but it’s good to pick up at least one bit of new vocabulary per puzzle.
  10. First DNF for quite a while, being defeated by RABBIT. But I’ve only myself to blame for that, as having played cricket for many years its use is very common for a batsman a bowler expects to get out quickly. After all of the hullabaloo with his biography last year, it made me smile to remember there was a period when the notorious Kevin was considered a rabbit for pretty much any test standard left arm spinner 🙂

    A very enjoyable puzzle, so many thanks to Izetti and william_j_s for the blog.

  11. I assumed ‘rabbit’ to refer to a lower level golfer. Most clubs have a Rabbit’s section for those whose handicap is 18 or higher. Not familiar with it in cricket but it may well have crossed over.
    1. Hi achillesheling,

      Rabbit is standard terminology in cricket and the Oxford Dictionary of English concurs. It’s thought to originate from the tail end batsmen.

      “Nine, Ten and Jack” can refer to the last three players in the batting order, after the card sequence. The person batting last is usually the worst batsman on the team, hence he’s the “Jackrabbit” or now more commonly a “rabbit.” It’s also used for a batsmen who always gets out to the same bowler (or type of bowler), hence Pietersen is a rabbit for a left arm spinner, Mike Atherton was Glenn McGrath’s rabbit…. The list is almost endless 🙂

      1. Certainly my local golf club refers to a class of membership known as rabbits for whom special tournaments are organised, so not just cricket.
        1. Hi Bryan,

          I’m sure it is used in golf, though as a golfer, it’s new to me. I’ve heard an 18+ golfer called all sorts of things, particularly when you’re in a match play comp, but never a rabbit :). But the Jackrabbit makes sense if you want an etymology.

  12. Really enjoyed this, despite a tricky NE corner until the penny dropped with 1ac.
    Corsairs featured in the battle scene from Return of the King, so for me at least that went straight in. Invariant.
  13. Beginning to look as if our friend Gaetano is at the trickier and more devious end of the spectrum. At first I thought this looked like his revenge but gradually all became clear even if a few words such as bowered were only arrived at through checkers. Great fun, lasted me all day coming and going.
  14. After several enjoyable puzzles this was too hard with too many obscure words and meanings. Not quick cryptic material at all.
    1. Your comment might carry more weight if you were to give examples of the words and meanings you feel are obscure. I’m baffled by your comment as I can spot only two, maybe three at a stretch, that I’d have thought could possibly fall into that category, so it would be interesting to know more. Also those who read the blog tend to take more notice if “anon” contributors add a name to their postings. It can be real or made up.

      Edited at 2015-01-02 11:46 pm (UTC)

      1. While I appreciate that us Anonymae need to make a name for ourselves, our views are no less valid. 10 ac was an obscure word for me in an otherwise very enjoyable puzzle.
        1. You have a point about validity of views however this is a friendly community hosted by a group of volunteers and it surely doesn’t take much effort for newcomers or long-term lurkers to introduce themselves by adding a name or nickname when contributing to it.

          Posting completely anonymous, negative yet unspecific comments such as the original “Ugh” above (evidently posted by a different Anon) seems on the face of it a bit impolite (though it may well not have been intended that way) and unlikely to lead to constructive dialogue so I was hoping to get that poster to expand on the views expressed.

          10ac, which you have mentioned, was one of the two words I had identified as possible obscurities and 14dn was the other. Thanks for your comment and I hope you will stick around.

          Edited at 2015-01-03 02:19 am (UTC)

        2. As pointed out above Corsair is used in pop culture so it really can’t be considered obscure. Rabbit is more obscure (although known to me due to voracious reading of school stories when a child).
  15. I worked all day from time to time but I failed to finish. I knew all the words with LOLs when I saw the blog but half of the squares remained unfilled. Am still trying to work out why I got so stuck when I used to complete the puzzle every day last year. Congratulations to the blogger though and I hope that this is not a sign of my running down in 2015.

    Edited at 2015-01-03 10:07 am (UTC)

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