Quick Cryptic Number 477 by Pelmas

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I don’t think we’ve had one from Pelmas before, but hope to see him/her appear more often because I enjoyed this puzzle. I little harder than average perhaps? I thought 17ac and 23ac were excellent, and 16dn held me up while I looked for alternate letters of the word “travel” in all configurations. On the other hand, I’m still not sure I’ve got to the bottom of 11ac.

Most enjoyable.

Definitions underlined.

1 Vegetable found in vehicle along with rubbish (6)
CARROT – CAR (vehicle) and ROT (rubbish).
4 Watch bags, said to be something mountaineer might need (3,3)
ICE AXE – homophone of (said) “eye” (watch) and “sacks” (bags).
8 Gallery in bar was revolving (7)
ROTATED – TATE (gallery) inside ROD (bar).
10 Ornamental stone article found by entrance (5)
AGATE – A (article) by GATE (entrance).
11 What’s tea for drinking in? (5)
CHINA – CHA (a drink using tea, what’s tea for) around (drinking) IN. I may well have missed the point here, as I thought that tea=cha, rather than it being useful for cha. On edit: double definition, see comments below.
12 Part of chair, smarter after makeover (7)
ARMREST – anagram (makeover) of SMARTER.
13 Removed from fast food restaurant around noon (5,4)
TAKEN AWAY – TAKE AWAY (fast food restaurant) surrounding N (noon). An abbreviation for midday that I did not know.
17 Port concealed in kitchen, naively (7)
CHENNAI – hidden in kitCHEN NAIvely.
19 One of eight, perhaps, who’s getting in an argument? (5)
ROWER – double definition.
20 Starters of rolls or asparagus soup tried for Sunday lunch? (5)
ROAST – first letters (starters) of Rolls Or Asparagus Soup Tried.
21 Aphorism altered PR image (7)
EPIGRAM – anagram of (altered) PR IMAGE.
22 Dehydrating and fading: about right (6)
DRYING – DYING (fading) about R (right).
23 Top milk producer (6)
JERSEY – double defintion
1 Copper, rather vulgar, in minister’s office (6)
CURACY – CU (copper) and RACY (rather vulgar).
2 Treating oneself in the shops? (6,7)
RETAIL THERAPY – cryptic defintiiton.
3 Remote country — where a return ticket takes you? (7)
OUTBACK – a return ticket takes you OUT and then BACK.
5 Reticent person stifling one’s pretence (5)
CLAIM – CLAM (reticent person) surrounding (stifling) I (one).
6 CDs are a mad way to arrange prizes for acting (7,6)
ACADEMY AWARDS – anagram of (to arrange) CDS ARE A MAD WAY.
7 Ultimately unsuitable outlets for sporting contests (6)
EVENTS – last letter of (ultimately) unsuitablE, and VENTS (outlets).
9 Sort of trousers I pin clumsily in cloth hanging (9)
DRAINPIPE – anagram of (clumsily) I PIN, inside DRAPE (cloth hanging).
14 Abnormal growth I’m experiencing initially in time of conflict (7)
WARTIME – WART (abnormal growth), and I’M with first letter of (initially) Experiencing.
15 Frightened of French motoring organisation’s returning (6)
SCARED – DE (of in French) and RAC’S (motoring organisation’s) all backwards (returning).
16 Travel regularly around border, formally (6)
PRIMLY – PLY (travel regularly) around RIM (border). Think planes plying the skies, etc.
18 Idea that one has left is unacceptable (3,2)
NOT ON – NOTiON (idea) without the I (one).

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 477 by Pelmas”

  2. This took me 8 minutes after a couple of days where I failed to achieve my target of 10 so it seemed marginally at the easier end of the scale.

    I’m sure our anon friend is right about the reference to china for drinking out of, but I had already noted 11ac as “clumsy” on my copy and I stand by that unless I’ve missed something.

  3. I haven’t done any Quickie since they changed the format, but today after futzing around a bit, I realized that if I shrink the thing to close to the limit of my eyesight, I can do it; so I did it. I wondered about CHINA–I started with ‘cuppa’ faute de mieux–and still do; I’m with Jack on this one. DNK RETAIL THERAPY, which made those two my LOIs, and slowed me down some. 5:50.
  4. Welcome to a new setter. I took a short while to get on the right wavelength but finished it all in about 30 minutes -quick for me.
    I thought it was all pretty fair but had written in Cuppa provisionally for 11a.
    I agree with others’ comments. I thought it was obvious enough in the end. LOI was 4a which I liked. David
  5. None of my 3 dictionaries (Chambers, Oxford Concise, Collins) show any connection between “claim” and “pretence” – can anyone explain?
  6. I thought this was a good mix of easy and more testing clues. My last two, 5 and 16d took ages to see, but got there in the end. Invariant
  7. I couldn’t see the connection to ‘claim’ either, and would never had thought of ‘clam’, perhaps they crop up in crosswordland.
    Apart from that I enjoyed it, and would have finished in my 30mins target except I put in ‘rotates’ for 8a and mis-spelt ‘academy’ which caused me an extra 20mins of pain.
    Brian
  8. I read it in the sense of, pretence = claim to have a particular quality.

    Oxford Dictionaries has the example, “he was quick to disclaim any pretence to superiority”.

  9. A strange puzzle for me today. I found most of it pretty straightforward but ended up with a DNF as I went completely blank on 23a. As usual once I’d read the blog the answer seemed annoyingly obvious.

    Did anyone else find 14d a bit clunky? The answer was clear from the wordplay but the fact that ‘time’ appeared in both the clue and the answer had me really doubting myself.
    Overall though an enjoyable puzzle with 17a being my COD

  10. 38 mins (rounding down)

    Also semi-biffed CUPPA at first, which slowed down entry of 2d. No huge problems overall and an enjoyable puzzle. Had similar doubts about WARTIME, with “time” in the clue.

    “Milk producer” for types of cow is a bit of a chestnut that I’ve seen before, which let me get 23a.

  12. Pelmas makes Teazel seem rational.
    (Which Teazel isn’t)
    14d is an abomination of setting.
  13. We completed this in better than our average time, and found it generally enjoyable. Had no problem with 2dn, except that it was just cryptic. 11ac didn’t cause too much problem – we saw it as a DD – but I’m now inclined to agree with Sue that cha is “what is tea”, and it is drinking ‘in’, and therefore &lit. We also struggled with 16dn (LOI) to associate primly with formally, but looking it up afterwards proved it to be so. Thanks Pelmas. Looking forward to your next sample. bandjo (Still can’t sign in.)
  14. FWIW I also saw the clue for CHINA as an @lit rather than a DD. I agree that the use of “time” in both the answer and the definition for 14dn was less than elegant, but to call it an abomination as the nameless troll did above is harsh.

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