Quick Cryptic Number 647 by Mara

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A nice confidence-boosting crossword today, helped along by several anagrams and a string of double definitions. If you’re a complete beginner and have one or two unsolved clues, I strongly advise you go back to it before reading any further; all are entirely gettable!

My vote for COD goes to 15dn, which was made difficult by a very crafty definition. Thanks Mara.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Mediocre journalist getting the chop? (4)
HACK – double definition.
3 Nude king surrounded by people gawping? (8)
STARKERS – K (king) surrounded by STARERS (people gawping).
9 Blood Count? (7)
DRACULA – cryptic definition, somewhat given away by the necessary second capital letter.
10 A thousand men on ship knocked over, ship in ruins? (5)
WRECK – K (a thousand) and an anagram of (knocked) CREW (men on ship) all reversed (over). Or, on further edit, an anagram (knocked over) of K (a thousand) + CREW (men on ship); comments below still apply. See comments below about the convoluted wordplay.
11 Small quantity formerly taken around university (5)
OUNCE – ONCE (formerly) around U (university).
12 Is Shakespearean king back in the country? (6)
ISRAEL – IS, then LEAR (Shakespearean king) backwards.
14 Lick conman? It’s hard to say! (6,7)
TONGUE TWISTER – TONGUE (lick) and TWISTER (conman).
17 Priest altered mark of rank (6)
STRIPE – anagram of (altered) PRIEST.
19 Wonderful US soldier in waterproof coat (5)
MAGIC – GI (US soldier) in MAC (waterproof coat).
22 Speedy writer (5)
SWIFT – double definition.
23 Shock rare primarily during power cut? (7)
OUTRAGE – first letter of (primarily) Rare inside (during) OUTAGE (power cut).
24 Colour around plot of land not entirely considered (8)
REGARDED – RED (colour) around GARDEn (plot of land) without its last letter (not entirely).
25 So found in bath, usually (4)
THUS – hidden in (found in) baTH USually.
Down
1 Terrorist leader inhabiting horrible secret locations (8)
HIDEOUTS – first letter (leader) of Terrorist inside (inhabiting) HIDEOUS (horrible).
2 Feature securing a series of links (5)
CHAIN – CHIN (feature) surrounding (securing) A.
4 Struggling on, I loathed the dish (4-2-3-4)
TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE – anagram of (struggling) ON I LOATHED THE.
5 A sportsman, might one argue? (5)
ROWER – double definition.
6 Something in a kettle — hydrogen or oxygen, perhaps? (7)
ELEMENT – double definition.
7 Japanese drink’s benefit (4)
SAKE – double definition.
8 Office desk (6)
BUREAU – double definition.
13 Cuckoo taking a number of biscuits (8)
CRACKERS – double definition.
15 O no! Awful night! (7)
NOTHING – NO plus an anagram of (awful) NIGHT.
16 Popular friend, prisoner (6)
INMATE – IN (popular) and MATE (friend).
18 Bury something cold, heading off (5)
INTER – wINTER (something cold) without the first letter (heading off).
20 Grind last of corn, having cut around it (5)
GNASH – last letter of corn with GASH (cut) around it.
21 Some uprising from Caesar, a stonking emperor! (4)
TSAR – reverse hidden in (some uprising) caesaR A STonking.

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 647 by Mara”

  1. Thanks!

    Managed to finish under an hour without cheating so quite happy.

    I think 10a is K and crew arranged rather than reversed?

    Edited at 2016-08-31 07:41 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, you’re correct, but I wonder if the setter made a mistake because indirect anagrams are supposed to be off limits in the main puzzle so surely would be in a Quickie.
      2. I’ve posted a query about this in the CC forum and will pass on the editor’s or setter’s response if there is one.
  2. First I’ve finished in a while, so happy with that. My one gripe is that I don’t think the clue in 13dn completely works. The words “taking a” are pretty much redundant. Other than that, very enjoyable crossword.
  3. 20 mins for me today so definitely the easier end of the spectrum. I agree with William on COD – very cunning.
  4. Finished in under 6′ but had SAKI, unparsed, at 7d, in senior moment. 10 ac might work if it were ‘knocked about’ but would still be an indirect anagram. I agree 13d doesn’t quite work either. Liked 3 ac with its allusion to the fairy tale. Thanks william and Mara.
  6. As others have commented I found this quite gentle, finishing in 13 minutes and for once I managed to avoid my usual one unparsed clue today. COD 16d, LOI 20d
  7. Can I ask how people tackle crosswords? I’m fairly new to the game and usually look for the three or four letter ones first. Is there a strategy that people adopt for speed? Thanks.
    1. I don’t waste any time on anagrams first time roumd, it’s amazing how much easier they are with even one checker.
      I found todays very tricky with many of the clues incomprehensible at first, so lots of PDMs. 40 minutes but well worth the effort.
      Brian
    2. I’m not much of a speedster, so you’ll probably get better advice elsewhere, but when I’m stuck trying to get into a grid I usually check the shorter answers (as you suggest) and any with unusual enumerations (e.g. 4dn today). Very short clues (2-3 words) are very often double definitions. A quick skim of potential definitions might throw out a familiar synonyms which can then be reverse engineered. Then, if I’m really going nowhere, I look for the hidden word!
    3. Personally, I work through from top left to bottom right on a first pass, looking for any write-ins (eg ‘some’ usually means a hidden word). Don’t forget to use letters that you already have, rather than tackling each clue as a stand alone, and if you are completely stuck, look for a solution at the other end of the clue. Invariant
      PS Avoid setters whose pen-name begins with a T (at least to start with)
    5. I’ve been trying these for about 2 years and still don’t get them all done correctly…my advice would be to just have fun trying! In the blog for Thursday’s (today’s) there are comments on whether it is more fun completing in 6 minutes of two people taking 6 hours. I’d say: As long they all enjoyed it, then fair enough. I do’t look to the short ones first, but just read through and see what I can spot. I think the first trick is to read the clue and try to establish what type it is – anagram/hidden word/double definition or whatever. Generally the clue gives two definitions of the answer and often the first work (sometimes the last) will be the most concise. This enables to work from both ends, as it were, towards the answer. Something else to remember is that a good clue has no redundant words except maybe one to link the valuable words together. So try to use all the words in looking for an answer. There are some things to look for – e.g. a clue that looks contrived in the wordage might suggest an anagram (count the letters in part of the clue and compare to those needed); setters also seem to like cricketing/tennis terms e.g. o for love, also you’ll find greek alphabet and roman numerals e.g. 1000 = K, another favourite set are musical words like quiet/soft = P(pianissimo) of land/noisy = F(forte). Then there are add-on clues (I call them) where the clue offers syllables that make up an answer – today (Thurs) there was VET+OED and IN+EX+ACT. On vertical clues look for signs of reversed spelling e.g. words in the clue such as ‘rising’. A good hidden clue today was abyssinia – stretched over 3 words. Above all – keep reading the blog and see how the ‘experts’ unravel each one and you’ll begin to pick up useful hints and conventions. Good luck!
  8. I too found this easy initially. All done bar four in SW in 7 minutes. Aware that I might finish under 10 for probably the first time I got a bit over-excited and needed 16 more minutes to finish it off. LOI was 24a and favourite 15d -very clever. David
  9. Increasingly, reference to a titled person can be uncapitalised (unless it is a proper name). You often see written, for example: “…the duke entered the room…”, whereas a few years ago the duke would have been Duke. I only make this point as “Blood count” would be a less obvious clue than “Blood Count”. Maybe I need to get out more. Thanks again for a great and helpful blog.
  10. What is the chance of two days running having TONGUE TWISTER = ITS HARD TO SAY? Pretty low. Anyway thanks to Mara and William.
    1. Thanks for posting this. I thought I had seen it recently but couldn’t find it and had begun to think I was going gaga. My searching hadn’t considered that the clue and answer would be switched around.

      Edited at 2016-08-31 07:02 pm (UTC)

  12. A slightly disappointing 40 mins,. Having talked myself out of the obvious answer for 1ac, the NW corner took much longer than it should have done. COD was definitely 15d. Invariant
    1. The clue works (werks?) perfectly now that I have parsed it correctly. The question is over a matter of style. See Jackkt’s first post, mine in response to Anon below, and/or google ‘indirect anagram’.
  14. Yes, a relatively easy puzzle, but aren’t the gurus getting a bit too prescriptive? If one of my grandchildren knocks over his brother’s pile of bricks they are not going to land in the reverse order of the original pile – they are going to be scattered, jumbled up – call it what you will. And if you get knocked over by car, you may still be the same way round at the end of the experience, whether dead or alive. DM
    1. As I understand it, the question mark is that all of the letters of the angrist should be present in the printed clue, e.g. “A thousand CREW knocked over, ship in ruins?”. It is unusual to be asked to jumble the letters of a synonym or word that is merely indicated in the clue. That is the ‘indirect anagram’ that Jackkt is referring to above.

      This conversation was confused by my earlier incorrect parsing of the clue – sorry!

      1. The only thing I’d add is that if it’s not an error it’s a game-changer. That’s why I’ve asked for one of the editors or the setter to comment.

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