Quick Cryptic Number 297 by Teazel

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was quite a grown-up crossword, which for me felt in equal parts frustrating and revelatory – just as it should be! I had difficulty with some vocabulary at 16ac and 18ac, and one last piece of wordplay (at 14dn) remains unsatisfactorily parsed. I am hoping the cavalry will arrive shortly…

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Artful, perhaps, condescending to eat seconds (9)
DESIGNING – deigning (condescending) consuming S (seconds).
6 Extremely restless in misery is not so good (5)
WORSE – extreme letters of RestlesS in WOE (misery).
8 Left book showing responsibilities of minister (9)
PORTFOLIO – PORT (left) with FOLIO (book).
9 Dance round on leg perhaps (5)
LIMBO – O (round) on LIMB (leg, perhaps).
10 As plaything, order calculator (5,4)
SLIDE RULE – SLIDE (plaything)) with RULE (order).
12 Versailles, for example, compact (6)
TREATY – double definition. A famous example, and compact – a formal agreement or contract.
13 Believe notice about newspaper chief (6)
CREDIT – CRIT (notice, a critical review) around ED (newspaper chief).
16 Consider goin’ in to accept thanks
ENTERTAIN – ENTERIN’ (entering pronounced in the same way ‘going’ is in the clue) accepting TA (thanks).
18 Snake: lifeboat turns back with it (5)
KRAIT – ARK turns backwards plus IT. A venomous snake from India.
19 Ace inn, say, demolished regardless (2,3,4)
IN ANY CASE – anagram of (indicated by demolished) ACE INN SAY.
21 Old Prime Minister’s gone back … to this? (5)
SLEEP – PEEL’S (former PM’s) backwards. I suppose sleep is something you might be said to ‘go back to’.
22 I plan, lest ordered to be participant in quiz show (9)
PANELLIST – anagram of (indicated by ordered) I PLAN LEST.
Down
1 Please take a chair, to accept record down-payment (7)
DEPOSIT – DO SIT (please take a chair) containing EP (record).
2 Newly risen, eating a snack (6)
SARNIE – anagram of (indicated by newly) RISEN containing (eating) A.
3 Boss shortly makes a mistake (5)
GAFFE – GAFFEr (boss) missing final letter (shortly).
4 Why in bed, needing tablet first off? (3)
ILL – pILL (tablet) with first letter off.
5 Make too much fuss, leaving trench? (2,4,3,3)
GO OVER THE TOP – double definition.
6 Article in wood is soft? That’s an illusion (4-1-3-4)
WILL-O-THE-WISP – THE (article) in WILLOW (wood) plus IS and P (piano, soft).
7 Concerned with doctor and examination, most faint (8)
REMOTEST – RE (concerned with) plus MO (medical officer, doctor) and TEST (examination).
11 Wave almost unwarranted, not in time (8)
UNDULATE – almost UNDUe (unwarranted) and LATE (not in time).
14 Dost thou rate as most highly disagreeable? (7)
RANKEST – I’m unsure of the wordplay here. Rate = rank, therefore ‘dost thou rank?’ could be ‘rankest thou?’.
15 A rule for entering fast road in the country (6)
MALAWI – A LAW (a rule for) entering M1 (fast road).
17 Member of this family finds Republican not initially faithful (5)
ROYAL – R (republican) plus lOYAL (faithful, missing initial letter).
20 Girl takes a couple of notes (3)
ANN – A plus a couple of Ns (n against a page number refers to a note).

7 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 297 by Teazel”

  1. I cannot parse 14d either but your analysis seems OK William. Another tough crossword. Did not know 18a and looked it up, perhaps I should have got the wordplay. Favourite WILL O THE WISP.
  2. I agree with the parsing of 14d but I think it’s a fair enough clue. Strangely I found this the easiest of the week so far.
    I must confess to knowing KRAIT from many hours playing the space trading game Elite on my old PC where all the enemy spacecraft were named after snakes. The Krait was particularly vicious.
    1. That’s how I knew KRAIT too, though when this turned up in the main cryptic at the end of 2013 I don’t recall many solvers saying that they’d come by that knowledge in the same way. I have a decent Elite clone called Oolite (Object Oriented {E}lite) for the Mac, which coincidentally turned up in the Concise today with its other meaning.
  3. At 12 minutes this was the first puzzle since Izetti’s last Thursday to stretch me beyond my target 10. I think your take on RANKEST is exactly right, William.

    KRAIT was my last one in, worked out from wordplay but then I recognised it as something come across before and not so long ago. Bit naughty for a Quickie maybe but deducing unfamiliar or unknown words from wordplay is part of the game and it’s good to be tested from time to time.

    Edited at 2015-04-29 09:48 am (UTC)

    1. It took me half an hour. But I got there unaided. I just out krait in from the wordplay, once I had the K and the T, and hoped for the best. Hardest puzzle for ages. But I enjoyed it. Thanks for the blog.
  4. This one took some thinking about and it was a DNF as I got completely stuck on 11d and eventually just bunged in underage as it fitted with all the checkers and I was focusing on ‘time’ rather than ‘wave’ – the answer as usual seems obvious now I’ve read the blog.
    Some very enjoyable clues today esp 1a, 10a and 6d.
  5. This took me a while and my last two were Rankest (14D) and 18 Across which I guessed as Kraft. Didn’t know about the snake.

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