Quick Cryptic Number 45 by Rongo

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A lovely puzzle to round off the week. I thought it was going to be very quick, as most of the top half went in without a hitch, but I slowed down considerably in the SE corner. In total, about 25 minutes. I can’t choose between 9ac and 13ac for my clue of the day – the former is a clever one, but the anagram in the latter was an interesting revalation to me.

I’ve been in a mad rush this morning, so apologies for the brief explanations and any mistakes! Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 BRASS OFF – trumpeters, etc. are the BRASS section + OFF (backstage) for exasperate.
5 LOFT – LO (see) + FT (feet) gives space under roof. I feel like we’ve seen “lo” quite regularly in the quickies.
8 SHILLING – pound = L, so double pound = LL, replacing the centre of SHImmerING gives us the old coin.
9 KILT – KIT (gear) is seen around L (loch), and literally gear seen around loch.
11 FLOUTblatenty disregard is FootbalL (outside letters (wingers) of football) + OUT (not at home).
12 EROSION – Initially thought of “eroding” but couldn’t get the wordplay to work. On second thoughts it is NO (number) + I (one) + SORE (source of pain), all reversed, for the noun form of wearing away.
13 LISTEN – anagram of SILENT (indicated by strangely) gives try to detect noise.
15 TERRORfear is the definition, from ERROR (mistake) after T (first of trouble).
18 SIAMESE – I (one) surrounded by (adopted by) SAME (identical) + SE for Asian cat.
19 SEGUEanagram of some of the letters from GUEssES (indicated by revise and partly) for this transition. All’s fair when asked to ignore a particular letter or letters, but I’m not a fan of “just take your pick of 5 from these 7”. On edit: the transition is partly (hidden in) reviSE GUEsses. Thanks rubeculaw, sorry setter!.
21 TALC – a very soft substance is C (chapter) after TALe (short story).
22 ADHERENT – anagram of HEAD (indicated by off) + RENT (hire) for supporter.
23 PERM – for each = PER, male = M to make a hairstyle.
24 ENTREATY – Nebraska State is abbreviated to NE (not NA, as I had assumed), which needs to be reversed + TREATY (pact) for an earnest request.

Down
1 BASHFULretiring is BASH (party) + FULl (having no space left, nearly).
2 AMIGO – AM I? (is the person speaking) + GO (to leave) for chum.
3 SPLIT-LEVEL – anagram of TELL ELVIS (indicated by on the move), with P (piano, quiet in musical terminology) gives us something on various planes.
4 FUNNEL – new is often abbreviated to N, and so is name. NN in FUEL (oil, say) is to pour through a narrow opening.
6 OLIVIER – the serious actor is I (one) in OLIVER (Dickensian musical).
7 TITANgiant = TIT (songbird) + ANd (along with, missing its last letter).
10 WOMENSWEAR – W (with) + OMEN (prophetic sign) + SWEAR (curse) = female habits, or clothes.
14 STAPLER – not so modern is STALER in this case, surrounding (securing) P (page), which gives office equipment.
16 RE-ENTRY – ignore the first letter (leader) of gREEN (environmentalist) + TRY (to attempt) for getting in again.
17 TENDON – TEND (nurse) + ON (in operation) for the sinew.
18 SET-UP – this organised arrangement would be made into a word for unhappy if the parts were switched (i.e. upset). I like this sort of clue, once it eventually clicks.
20 GRETA – ETA (Greek character) after GR (Greek, apparently) gives the woman who wanted privacy, Greta Garbo.

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 45 by Rongo”

  1. 19a is a hidden word, reviSE GUEsses.

    This took me 40 minutes with over 10 on my last 2, 22a and 10d. When I finally got 22a it seemed so obvious.

    Had a chuckle as I put in 9a which should have helped me with 10. I have seen the anagram at 13a before.

  2. Just under 10 minutes. In parsing 8ac, I started with SHINING rather than SHIMMERING but no matter. It still led to the answer.
    1. I had wondered if I should have put shining. For me, glittering connotes flickering, as does shimmering, so I plumped for that. As you say, no matter really, but I am interested to know what the setter had in mind.
      1. Be very afraid, martinp1 – there are a lot of cats on TftT! The dog and his ostensible owner.
        1. Oh, I know! But our two are used to cats. We have 5….and they don’t regard our Miniature poodle, George, as a “real” dog.
  3. 16 minutes for this one, and much the same tale to tell as the blogger as I became bogged down in the lower half. It didn’t help that, aiming for speed, I bunged in GARBO at 20dn with only the G-checker in place, so some unsolving was required before I was able to complete that quarter.

    I agree 11 is brilliant and I’m sorry to say I had thought a rude word was involved in the wordplay at 8ac before realising that would never happen in the Times. Too long spent on PE puzzles in the past perhaps!
    .

    Edited at 2014-05-09 07:35 am (UTC)

    1. I confess ignorance: A rude word never entered my head when looking at 8ac! And I still don’t know what it might be…and I think we’ll leave it there! 🙂
  4. I did wonder what SHIPPING had to do with anything; same-same for GARBA. My last two in were KILT and FUNNEL; both nice clues, I thought. Medium time: 14mins.

    Edited at 2014-05-09 12:48 pm (UTC)

  5. 6 mins. My experience was different than some of you and I had the bottom half complete before I finished off with TITAN/KILT and SHILLING/FUNNEL.
    1. Almost certainly you have to have a subscription to the Times Online. That’s how I access all the puzzles. That or buy the printed version of the paper.

      Edited at 2014-05-09 12:44 pm (UTC)

  6. 14 minutes and very enjoyable. William – I think there’s a typo in 15ac – should be first of trouble. COD to 9ac – maybe I quite like the cd/&lit type clues when they make me smile!
  7. Super blog, William. 28 mins which makes me a very happy birdie!
    I began this all by myself and only asked Z8 a couple of questions near the end.
    We were both bemused by 10 dn the LOI by about 3 mins.
    My COD & FOI was 1 ac. A really lovely crossword – thanks Rongo!
  8. Late entry again as I sit down to the crossword after mowing the garden and moving a pallet load of woodchip ready for renewing the chicken run. A pleasant time was had working through the crossword at a steady pace. A fair amount of typical cryptic fare, which helped ease the solve. Was a little worried about halfway through when I realised how few of the southern acrosses I had, but chipped away with when most of the downs went quickly in.

    Re. style of blog, no need for apologies for me William. I prefer the briefer style and your explanations were very clear and to the point.

    Nigel from Surrey

  9. I’ve finished the puzzle three days on the trot now – head growing so big it’ll barely fit through doorways.

    I found the right-hand corner (SE?) hardest and although I got all the answers, there were more than a handful where I couldn’t properly decode the clue so I’ve still much to learn and could never have got this far without the blog.

    10dn was my LOI (last one in!) and had me mulling over it for some time while I watched the cricket. My COD (Clue of the day!) was 18dn.

    1. Was that IPL or domestic cricket? Apart from the breaks & the irritating trumpet blasts I rather like IPL!
      1. IPL is too exciting to do crosswords to – I was watching England v Scotland ODI.
  10. Struggled with this one. As a total novice, getting about half of the clues in is about my average. My COD was 1ac. Thanks for the helpful and interesting blogs!

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