Quick Cryptic Number 342 by Teazel

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Thought this one was of moderate difficulty – some easy ones and a few that were quite tricky.
Couple I did not know (4dn and 15dn) but both were reasonably clear from the wordplay and cross checkers.

Thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions underlined: anagrams indicated by *(–): DD = double definition

If anyone has difficulty accessing the puzzle, the link is here http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150701/7186/

On edit: apologies for accidentally omitting 1dn on the original posting, and thanks to Anon for pointing out my sloppy error.

Across
1 Do well to dispense with a certain condiment (3,3,7)
CUT THE MUSTARD – Guess this could possibly be classed as a double definition, although I think it is more correctly a definition with a secondary cryptic supporting road to the answer (not that it really matters provided you get there in the end!)
8 Not happy, getting stick for eucalyptus (7)
BLUEGUM – BLUE (not happy) with (getting) GUM (stick). Fortunately straightforward wordplay as my knowledge of eucalypts (or, indeed, trees generally) is extremely thin
9 College window (5)
ORIEL – DD. The Oxford college and a type of bay window
10 Without direct involvement, but less than a metre away? (2,4,6)
AT ARMS LENGTH – Not unlike 1ac in terms of clue type, with a primary definition and a secondary cryptic one (the reference being to the fact that a yard – being just less than a metre – was originally conceived as a measure based on the length of a man’s arm, to wit the arm of Henry 1)
12 Threat from people, one in a suit (6)
MENACE – MEN (people) + ACE (card – in a suit – with a value of “one”)
14 Awful critic is sort of acid (6)
CITRIC – *(CRITIC) with “awful” as the anagrind
17 Quiet exercise at river, say, being something of a fish (4,3)
SOFT ROE – SOFT (quiet) + ROE (homophone – indicated by “say” – of “row” – exercise at river) giving part of a fish
19 Compound kept by some Westerners (5)
ESTER – Hidden (indicated by “kept by some”) in wESTERners, giving a type of chemical compound
20 Instrument played by old Marx (5)
HARPO – HARP (instrument) + O (old) giving the Marx brother – the one with the curly hair who never spoke. Apparently, he was a pretty good self-taught harpist, and also an excellent croquet player
21 Trade vehicles (7)
TRAFFIC – Nice straightforward DD
22 Lean over a short distance in tournament centre (8)
TILTYARD – TILT (lean over) + YARD (short distance) giving centre stage in a jousting arena
23 Desperate man, eastern European (4)
DANE – “Desperate” DAN (legendary comic character in The Dandy) + E (eastern)
Down
1 Youngster on a Caribbean island</u> (4)
CUBA – CUB (youngster) on A
2 Keep making fun of West Country town (7)
TAUNTON – Pun based on “taunt on” (keep making fun of) giving the county town of Somerset. Wild excitement for your blogger as this was the town where I spent my childhood!
3 Embrace with hesitation, being so much bigger (5)
HUGER – HUG (embrace) + ER (hesitation), giving the comparative of “huge” – something I think you are only likely to encounter in Crosswordland!
4 Plant, one most short, held by mother (6)
MIMOSA – I (one) + MOS (“most” short – i.e. minus its last letter) all inside MA (mother), giving a kind of shrub with a bluish flower. Had to resort to the wordplay (which was generous enough) as I did not know the plant
5 What Lincoln wore as top – Veep has it covered (9,3)
STOVEPIPE HAT – *(TOP VEEP HAS IT), with “covered” as (I think) a somewhat cryptic anagrind. One of the more remarkable types of headgear devised by man over the centuries
6 Copying a high pitched sound (5)
APING – A + PING (high pitched sound – forever associated for me with the “machine that goes ping” in the Python sketch)
7 I’d help to rebuild boat – I gave ambiguous advice (7,6)
DELPHIC ORACLE – *(IDHELP) – with “rebuild” as the anagram – plus CORACLE (boat). And if you think The Times cryptic is impenetrable on occasion, try the old Delphic oracle…
11 Break with smack: big success (5,3)
SMASH HIT – SMASH (break) + HIT (smack)
13 Superficial nursery rhyme (7)
CURSORY – Rhymes with “nursery”. Must admit this is not a clue type I’d seen before. Either I’ve led a sheltered life or this was quite inventive…
15 Rodent with a fine instinctive appetite at first for biscuit (7)
RATAFIA – RAT (rodent) + A + first letters (at first) of Fine Instinctive Appetite, giving the almond flavoured biscuit similar to the Amaretto. Another unknown, but obtainable from the wordplay
16 Sample getting street excited (6)
TESTER – *(STREET) with excited as the anagrind. A tester might usually be though of as someone doing the sampling rather than the sample itself, but by analogy with “taster” I think either works fine
18 Some prefer a lion that’s untamed (5)
FERAL – Hidden (indicated by “some”) in preFER A Lion

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 342 by Teazel”

  1. So you don’t have to recite The Man From Snowy River to get through Immigration these days?
  2. Very tough and a DNF for me as I looked up 7d and 22a. Looking at it again perhaps I should have got them from the checkers. Also did not know 17a or 15d but got them from the word play/checkers.

    Favourite STOVEPIPE HAT.

    Teazel tends to produce tough puzzles but no complaints from me. It is good to be stretched at times.

  4. As usual I found Teazel’s offering difficult, but I must be getting better at these things as there were several unknown words to me which I managed to work out from the word play e.g. 8a, 22a and 15d. COD for me was 7d and 13d was unparsed
  5. Rather tricky. Mostly done fairly quickly but held up for ages in SW corner – didn’t know TILTYARD or SOFT ROE so had to trust the word-play. 13d my COD. I was fooled into thinking of a nursery rhyme rather than rhyme for nursery.
  6. Unable to complete without aids. BLUE GUM unknown, TILTYARD known but I was misled by ‘short distance’ which relies on a comparison to be accurate. I was thinking inch, millimetre, centimetre, maybe even foot, compared with which ‘yard’ is not short.

    Edited at 2015-07-01 04:51 pm (UTC)

  7. Two tough ones in a row! Took ages to get started and then faltered until the Costa kicked in! 3d seemed rather contrived but it was the only option. Had to resort to aids to get 15d and 8a and so another DNF but I enjoyed both yesterday’s and today’s – as remarked above, it does no harm to be stretched to (my) limit.
  8. By gum this was difficult for me with several unknowns- ratafia,tiltyard and bluegum for example.
    But I guessed them all which shows that the clues contained adequate information.
    Harder than yesterday I thought.
    A good puzzle.David
  9. Bluegum, Tiltyard and Ratafia too obscure for a QC surely. Oriel and Mimosa also tough but just about ok I guess. I f the QCs are going down this path then I will give up on what has been a very enjoyable pastime. No fun though when too hard, just frustrating and annoying.

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