Quick Cryptic Number 547 by Tracy

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this a bit of a work-out, slowing down with half of the clues yet to solve. One or two tricky parsings that required more than one operation to be performed on a part of the answer – all good practice I suppose! I ended up completely stuck in the NE corner, with the flower and city unknown; I guessed the former but had to cheat to answer the latter. Hope you fared better.

Definitions underlined.

1 Reads list for new naval officer (5,3,4)
FIRST SEA LORD – anagram of (new) READS LIST FOR.
9 Great alarm in ship: an iceberg! (5)
PANIC – hidden in (in) shiP AN ICeberg.
10 Bloomer affected one performing (7)
CAMPION – CAMP (affected), I (one), and ON (performing).
11 Light tail of teal, an aquatic bird (7)
LANTERN – last letter (tail) of teaL, AN, and TERN (aquatic bird).
12 Tackle papers, stiff (5)
RIGID – RIG (tackle) and ID (identification, papers).
13 A sign, primarily, is put in street to help (6)
ASSIST – A, first letter of (primarily) Seal, and IS inside ST (street).
14 Hit hard with a new advertising phrase (6)
SLOGAN – SLOG (hit hard) with A and N (new).
17 Tories’ leader, at heart of crushing defeat, returned in coach (5)
TUTOR – first letter (leader) of Tories, in the middle (at heart) of ROUT (crushing defeat) backwards (returned).
19 Crazy heir, way out (7)
HAYWIRE – anagram of (out) HEIR WAY.
21 People generally warm on island in the British Isles (7)
MANKIND – KIND (warm) on MAN (island of British Isles).
22 Allowance reduced in proportion (5)
RATIO – RATIOn (allowance) without last letter (reduced).
23 Empty trash, the lot — exactly what’s needed (3,4,5)
THE VERY THING – first and last of (empty) TrasH, and EVERYTHING (the lot).
2 Gin drunk inside taverns for a spell (7)
INNINGS – anagram of (drunk) GIN inside INNS (taverns).
3 Tight-lipped, overhaul intelligence agency (6,7)
SECRET SERVICE – SECRET (tight-lipped) and SERVICE (overhaul).
4 Back runner-up (6)
SECOND – double definition.
5 Landmark building‘s charm — a yard lit subtly (9,4)
ADMIRALTY ARCH – anagram of (subtly) CHARM A YARD LIT.
6 Outstanding old annexe (5)
OWING – O (old) and WING (annexe).
7 Expected around noon, daughter in New Zealand city (7)
DUNEDIN – DUE (expected) around N (noon), plus D (daughter) and IN.
8 Mate after ring and gemstone (4)
OPAL – PAL (mate) after O (ring).
13 Aim at office worker on short time (7)
ATTEMPT – AT, TEMP (office worker), and T (abbreviation for (short) time).
15 Good to pay attention, then shine (7)
GLISTEN – G (good) and LISTEN (pay attention).
16 Poor-quality rum imbibed by cast (6)
SHODDY – ODD (rum) inside (imbibed by) SHY (throw, cast)
18 Not relaxed in past, perhaps (5)
TENSE – double defintion.
20 Sensitive over a winged nude statue? (4)
EROS – reversal of (over) SORE (sensitive).

10 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 547 by Tracy”

  1. This went in fairly smoothly, except that I fumbled the ball at 21ac, my LOI, persisting in thinking that the solution was an island, and compounding that error by putting in ‘men’ instead of ‘man’. This cost me over a minute, plus a few seconds to swear at myself. CAMPION not a flower that springs to mind, but ‘affected’ triggered CAMP, and Bob’s your etc. 23ac is rather neat. 7:27.
  2. 11 minutes, so I missed my target by 1. I was delayed working out the city from wordplay as I wasn’t completely sure of its name or spelling. Too many false starts gave me odd words dotted around the grid and it was while before the answers started to flow and join up. A shade more difficult than yesterday but we need variety.

    Edited at 2016-04-13 05:58 am (UTC)

  3. Needed two sessions on this, and at no point did it flow for me. I knew Dunedin (well known to cricket fans) but struggled with CAMPION (although it stirs vague memories) and MANKIND since I associated “generally” with “warm” rather than “people”.
    All in all a good challenge.
    PlayupPompey
  4. As a relative newcomer to the blog I think this is the first time I have bettered Jack’s time. Everything went in from NE to SW on almost the first read.I can generally finish the QC in under 20 mins and can sometimes complete the 15×15. COD 9a lovely surface. Regarding the 15×15, completed Mondays in under 30 mins and spent 30 mins yesterday to put in three answers and then went to sow some beetroot, radishes and broadbeans as that seemed a better use of my time. This was confirmed when I read the blog.

    Tyro Tim

  5. I started with 20d and confidently wrote in Sore. I then travelled around the grid looking for the easier clues. Once I got 1a it all flowed in nicely until I got back to the SE and my sore problem; after a brief hold-up I realised my mistake. 16 minutes in all. A good challenge. LOI was 16d. David
  6. I thought that was another tricky one from Tracy, with the SW corner offering plenty of resistance. I always try to parse as I go along, which can make for slow times (that’s my excuse anyway) and certainly did today. Invariant
  7. Got off to a reasonable start but held up at ADMIRALTY ARCH so the bottom half didn’t flow too well.

    13.58 was nothing to write home about. But I’m writing anyway.

    horryd Shanghai

  8. This took a bit of thinking about but felt like a fair challenge and took about 30 minutes. All parsed, except 23a which having now seen the answer is my COD. MY LOI was 21a where I seem to have gone through the same thought process as kevingregg above by looking for an island starting with Men, but fortunately I finally saw the light
  9. A steady finish at the hour mark, but very pleasing solve with no lookups or errors. CAMPION was last one in (one of the rabbits in Watership Down was the reminder) Also struggled with MANKIND, but a fair clue. As noted previously cricket knowledge always handy which led to DUNEDIN.

    Some great clues, esp 23a and 15d.

    I’m seriously tempted to give Monday’s 15×15 a shot based on the enthusiasm of the QC bloggers.

  10. This was no walk in the park; had it all done except some clues in the SW corner by the time half an hour rolled around, but I’m trying to keep a disciplined schedule for myself so didn’t have time to ponder on the last few. Could probably have got them if I’d spent another 20 mins or something. There are few ways to buy extra time on this Earth, but hitting the “reveal grid” button is one of them, so thanks for the 20 minutes.

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