Quick Cryptic Number 337 by Joker

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was entertaining and on the easy side. A few easy-to-get chemical symbols, enough anagrams, and some chuckles along the way – thanks setter! A couple needed sorting out for the blog after the event, including 11ac (which was very pleasing) and 14dn (which I thought included an anagram while solving).

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Young elephant is mostly placid with female (4)
CALF – CALm (mostly placid) with F (female).
4 Naval colleague met seas running around head in Morocco (8)
MESSMATE – anagram of (indicated by running) MET SEAS around first letter (head) of Morocco.
8 Ask Iran possibly to absorb large island state (3,5)
SRI LANKA – anagram of (indicated by possibly) ASK IRAN containing L (large).
9 Good man has certainly to remain steady (4)
STAY – ST (saint, good man) and AY (agreement, certainly).
10 Proscribe party seizing Northern Ireland (6)
BANISH – BASH (party) around (seizing) NI (Northern Ireland).
11 Linear extent not getting the height, initially? (6)
LENGTH – first letters of (initially) Linear, Extent, Not ,Getting, The, and Height.
12 Small London gallery frequently has core of real modernity (5,2,3,3)
STATE OF THE ART – S (small), TATE (London gallery), OFT (frequently) and HEART (core).
16 One tramp unfortunately a source of odour? (6)
ARMPIT – anagram of (unfortunately) I (one) and TRAMP.
17 Rock made of barium and sodium chloride (6)
BASALT – BA (chemical symbol for barium) and SALT (sodium chloride).
19 Long history of silver being found in South Africa (4)
SAGA – AG (chemical symbol for silver) in SA (South Africa)
20 Union has no beginning in casual relationship (8)
ALLIANCE – dALLIANCE (casual relationship) without its beginning.
21 Peacekeepers resolve trouble (8)
UNSETTLE – UN (peacekeepers) and SETTLE (resolve).
22 Fly with blue back and head of hideousness (4)
DASH – SAD (blue) backwards plus first letter (head) of Hideousness.
Down
2 Part of great road taken over for major artery (5)
AORTA – hidden in (part of) greAT ROAd turned over.
3 Begin to make sense of reduction in best fabric (4,4,5)
FALL INTO PLACE – FALL (reduction), IN, TOP (best) and LACE (fabric).
4 Bavarian capital not allowing one to eat noisily (5)
MUNCH – MUNiCH (Bavarian capital) without I (one).
5 Slug eating every bulb (7)
SHALLOT – SHOT (slug) containing (eating) ALL (every).
6 Get wrong man with sudden stir breaking out (13)
MISUNDERSTAND – anagram of (indicated by breaking out) MAN with SUDDEN STIR.
7 Quality gold for betrayer (7)
TRAITOR – TRAIT (quality) plus OR (heraldic gold).
10 Public transport is mostly out of action? (3)
BUS – most of the word BUSt (out of action).
13 Queen going by rail to see the lie of the land (7)
TERRAIN – ER (Queen) inside TRAIN (going by rail).
14 Inaccurate actors will be ostracised (7)
OUTCAST – OUT (inaccurate) and CAST (actors).
15 Time to set up for a little drink (3)
TOT – T (time) and TO upside-down (set up).
17 Anger about grand nonsense (5)
BILGE – BILE (anger) around G (grand).
18 Certain place swarming grasshopper is finally eradicated (5)
LOCUS – missing lest letter from (finally eradicated) LOCUSt (swarming grasshopper).

8 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 337 by Joker”

  1. I found this rather hard going for some reason, although I don’t see why in retrospect. 12ac was rather ingenious. 8′ on the nose.
  2. I thought it was very difficult. I finished it but…it was a real struggle. LOI 4A – I didn’t see the anagram. I also found 5D tricky, and 20A
  4. I thought this had some quite tricky clues. Just over 7 minutes for me. I liked 11a, 12a and 3d – my second LOI, which helped me finish with 8a.
  5. I didn’t think this was too tough. I completed everything apart from 9a in twenty minutes (quick for me) and then spent another 15 minutes trying to figure out why the answer was stay. Eventually just chucked it in without parsing – it now makes sense, so thank you william.
    When I first saw 17a I thought I was going to have to remember what he chemical symbol for sodium chloride was but fortunately soon realised that wouldn’t be necessary.
  6. Very similar. Quickly solved everything apart from 9a and then had a complete blank. Ran through the alphabet several times and finally put in an unparsed STAY. Seeing the explanation it seems so obvious now.

    Biggest smile was for ARMPIT so that gets my COD.

  7. Goodness me. Next time I think a setter is getting to be a soft touch, I shall keep my mouth shut. A full house, but well over the hour to get there. Invariant
  8. It’s so hard to know how to judge the difficulty pre-blog. Apologies to those who found it harder – I certainly didn’t mean to be dispiriting! There’s plenty to enjoy and that’s the main thing.

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