Quick Cryptic Number 567 by Felix

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A cracking little puzzle from Felix, just the trickier side of medium in difficulty for me. From a list of smile-inducing clues, I will pick 11dn as my favourite – it made me laugh again as I write the blog!

Very much worth the effort, so thanks.

Definitions underlined.

1 Southern side’s trendy form of transport (9)
STEAMSHIP – S (southern), TEAM’S (side’s), and HIP (trendy).
6 One blowing a whistle, note, loudly (3)
REF – RE (with regards to, note) and F (forte, loudly).
8 Means to sweep around boy’s sleeping area (7)
BEDROOM – BROOM (means to sweep) around ED (boy).
9 One striving, perhaps, to catch head of poisonous snake (5)
VIPER – VIER (one striving, perhaps), to go around (catch) first letter (head) of Poisonous.
10 Jack, perhaps, used by card game: a capital feature (6,6)
LONDON BRIDGE – Jack LONDON (author) by BRIDGE (card game). My LOI on account of my literary impoverishment.
12 Old emperor’s order to arrest the girl speaking (6)
CAESAR – homophone of (speaking) the order to ”cease her” (arrest the girl).
13 Cashpoints with nothing in? Tenner at first, no more (2,4)
AT MOST – ATMS (cashpoints) with O (nothing) inside, then first letter of Tenner.
16 Novel deals in prose that’s specially tailored (12)
PERSONALISED – anagram of (novel) DEALS IN PROSE.
19 Batting side at cricket makes billiard shot (2-3)
IN-OFF – IN (batting) and OFF (side in cricket, not the leg side).
20 Bill singing out clearly? (7)
INVOICE – double definition.
22 Five expelled from the Fleet in denial (3)
NAY – V (five) missing (expelled) from NAvY (the fleet).
23 Invitation to a christening? Whatever! (3,4,2)
YOU NAME IT – cheeky double definition.
1 Call for help involves bishop producing these? (4)
SOBS – SOS (call for help) including B (bishop).
2 Final comment need not change (7)
ENDNOTE – anagram of (change) NEED NOT.
3 Rural sound maiden loves (3)
MOO – M (maiden) and OO (two loves).
4 Variety of pigeon in thirty seconds maybe devoured by boar (6)
HOMING – MIN (half a minute, thirty seconds maybe) inside (devoured by) HOG (boar).
5 Singer appearing in a TV broadcast with Portia (9)
PAVAROTTI – anagram of (broadcast) TV and PORTIA.
6 Sort of music I had to make fast (5)
RAPID – RAP (sort of music) and I’D (I had).
7 Enthusiastic offer ventriloquist has grabbed? (7)
FERVENT – hidden in (or grabbed by) ofFER VENTriloquist.
11 Unusually dangly for an insect (9)
DRAGONFLY – anagram of (unusually) DANGLY FOR.
12 Title, fitting one, held by Tory (7)
CAPTION – APT (fitting) and I (one) all held by CON (conservative, Tory).
14 A single sentence, perhaps, from the past (3-4)
ONE-TIME – ONE (a single) and TIME (sentence, perhaps).
15 African country, but endless Caribbean beach (6)
MALIBU – MALI (African country) and endless BUt..
17 Small marsupial of mine becoming fairly big (5)
ROOMY – ROO (small, or shortened version of, marsupial) and MY (of mine).
18 Quietly consume a source of fuel (4)
PEAT – P (quietly) and EAT (consume).
21 Going through southern half of Baltic country (3)
VIA – bottom (southern) half of latVIA (baltic country).

24 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 567 by Felix”

  2. I think the setter meant ‘Californian beach’; I don’t know of any Malibu in the Caribbean. Then again, what I don’t know would fill a book.
  3. I was getting a bit nervous as I passed through the entire set of acrosses without getting a single one, but the downs were a bit kinder. Missed the hidden, as usual, the first time around, but. I especially liked YOU NAME IT. 6:13.
  4. 14 minutes. I missed my target today, delayed by only one clue, 12ac, which took me 4 minutes to crack as I simply couldn’t work out what was going on. Crazy!

    I’m not sure the first part of 23ac works. Surely it’d be an “invitation to conduct a christening”; the guests don’t name the baby.

    Edited at 2016-05-11 05:12 am (UTC)

    1. I hadn’t noticed that. I suppose if I invited you to come and name my baby, you might say you were invited to a christening, although you probably don’t have the credentials to carry one out. Now I have to not especially like it, I suppose.
  5. A DNF because like Jack held up with 12a, bunged in CRETAN sounds like Rita in CN which I convinced myself was some form of arrest warrant, and the Cretans sort of ruled the Mediterranean, didn’t they? On balance I think CAESAR may be better, all right so much better it is now my COD, don’t you just hate it when that happens?
  6. Harder than yesterday, with some very nice clues. Spent time trying to parse 7d as a ‘sounds like’. 23ac, as noted, would be better as ‘invitation to christen’. CAESAR was fine, but pedantically note than in Latin, as far as we know, it is pronounced kai-zer, the same word as the German title. In 10ac I put ‘jack’ and ‘capital’ together in my mind, LONDON, but suspect that Jack is a very good misdirection. Btw, Jack London was a stalwart communist and wrote a great book called ‘The Iron Heel’, a dystopian novel about a future struggle against massively oppressive capitalism. Enjoyed today a lot, 7’9″.
  7. Found a few clues difficult today. I just couldn’t see Malibu or via- but putting you call it instead of you name it didn’t help!

    Rita

  8. 10 minutes yesterday, 58 minutes today. I got very held up in the top right hand corner. For some reason whistles and refs escaped me for ages and I missed the hidden clue in 7d. I couldn’t for the life of me some up with anything ventriloquist related which fitted the letters I had. COD for me was 13a.
    Is it cheating to look at an atlas of the world when doing the crossword or does that count as an aid?
    1. No it’s not cheating, slightly unsatisfying maybe. I am at the stage where I expect to do the QC without aids unless I am confirming a spelling or an answer I have worked out from the word play, a few months ago I would have looked up more, and so now I consider it a DNF if I have to look something up. The 15×15 is another matter, today I have had to look up two answers, both of which I had nearly worked out from the word play, one I had never heard of, the other I realised I may have heard of but I didn’t actually know. The important thing is when you have looked it up is to see how it is derived from the clue. I still am missing 4 from today’s 15×15. If you don’t know the way from A to B do you consider the use of a map or GPS cheating, and no I WON’T stop and ask the way however much my wife tells me to, that is cheating and very unmanly.

      It depends upon your level, you set the rules, you are competing with yourself.

      Edited at 2016-05-11 01:22 pm (UTC)

  9. This took me longer than recent puzzles. Well over 30 mins. Enjoyable and challenging. For some reason AT MOST held me up at the end.
  10. 45 minutes again today, but I’m much happier than yesterday given the difficulty of some of the clues. 12d was my favourite, because I started looking for the wrong sort of title and had to wait for the penny drop moment. Invariant
  12. Babies aren’t the only things which get christened.

    I’m sure I heard our Queen suggest BoatyMcBoatFace as she swung the champagne at 90: she’d have been invited – and may yet visit the Antarctic, bless her.

    Philip

  13. I found this one much harder than the others this week and somehow it was more satisfying for it. Finally finished in 30 minutes. I was held up by getting the definition and anagrind the wrong way round in 16a, so spent some time trying to think of novels starting with P. LOI was 15d where again I was looking for the wrong definition (in this case an African country ending in u, which proved tricky!). Some great clues today but my favourite was 20a.
  14. I always thought that Malibu was in California. Malibu rum maybe Caribbean but not the beach
  15. Another DNF, although was going well until stopped dead by YOU _A_E IT, and cycled through dozens of plausible four letter words. Double Defs can be frustrating when you can’t see them. COD 13a (ATMOST). A perfect five last week followed by three DNFs this week: reminds me of a one word entry on a report card from school: “inconsistent”.
  16. I got most of this in about 30 minutes, so definitely harder than the last two days.
    I carelessly put in Piped for 6d and then Pan for 6a which seemed OK. But this made 7d impossible. Once I revisited 6d I saw my error but I must have spent another 30 minutes on it. A good puzzle . David
  17. A DNF today. Foxed by 15d Malibu and 6d rapid; also very annoyed with myself for not getting 23a despite all the checkers. My COD 30a invoice.
  18. 23:47. Trickier than some recently. Took a long time to get PERSONALISED since it seemed like one of those anagrams that could work either way. A nice puzzle overall.
  19. I initially thought the answer to 23a might be ‘you bore me’! I have a teenager and that’s precisely what ‘whatever’ means in my house.

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