Quick Crytpic 616 by Alconiere

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
If you’re familiar with saints days then getting the long anagram quickly will speed you through this. I ended up on 14 minutes. A good crossword with plenty to work out – a good balance, I thought – thank you Alconiere.

ACROSS
1. Dessert – pudding. DESERT around seconds (S).
5. Baked – very hot. A and (K)id in BED.
8. Kick one’s heels – have nothing to do. Give up wearing stilettos – to give up is to kick, stilettos are heels so to stop wearing them is to ‘kick ones heels’.
9. Orifice – opening. An anagram (moves) of twice I (I, I) and FORCE.
10. Aware – conscious. A, major conflict (WAR), close to home – hom(E).
11. Alpine – in the mountains. A, large (L), tree (PINE).
13. Stamen – a bit of a bloomer. Anagram (all over the place) of AM SENT.
15. Sinew – tendon. Stitch (SEW) holding IN.
16. Foresaw – predicted. Gold (OR) inside an anagram (strangely) of FEW AS.
19. Madame Tussaud – founder of exhibition. Anagram (works) of AT A MUSEUM ADDS.
20. Doyen – senior member. Party (DO), intense desire (YEN).
21. Dunedin – city down under – in South Island, New Zealand – the location of my only forage into sheep farming (I helped round up and hold lambs for inoculation for a couple of hours).

DOWN
1. Dekko – butchers (hook = look). Dithce(D) th(E) por(K), a big blow KO – knockout.
2. St. Crispin’s Day – October 25th. Anagram (prepared) of SANDYS SCRIPT I.
3. E-Coli – bacteria. Upwards in so(IL OCE)an.
4. The Met – London police. Topic (THEME), (T)hat’s.
5. By heart – how to memorise things. Times (BY – multiplication), man (HE), skill (ART).
6. Keen as mustard – raring to go. In the role of Cluedo suspect Colonel Mustard (often to be found in the library with a lead pipe – but each to their own).
7. Discern – make out. Record (DISC), queen (ER), new (N).
11. Assumed – took on. Idiot (ASS), (U)ndress, sea (MED).
12. Newsman – reporter. Novel’s (NEW’S), isle (MAN).
14. OFSTED – inspectors. Anagram (version) of FT DOES.
17. Risen – in state of revolt. D(R)u(I)d'(S) b(E)i(N)g.
18. Woden – ancient God. Without (W/O), somewhere to retreat to (DEN).

16 comments on “Quick Crytpic 616 by Alconiere”

  1. Going for a record until the two devilishly clever clues at 1d and 9a, both I consider worthy of the 15×15 especially 9a, spent a few minutes looking for an anagram of TWICEIF. I wonder if 2d was a write in because of my knowledge of Shakespeare or the Perishers in the Mirror, it’s someone’s birthday, Boot’s I think.
    Thanks blogger and Alonciere I enjoyed that.
  2. Wouldn’t this crossword have been better had it been held up until 25 October? 19 July is St. Elias’s day – amongst others.
    St. Crispin is the Patron Saint of Cobblers and St. Elias of the Tardy!

    11 mins – with MADAM TUSSAUD the COD

    horryd Shanghai

  3. Tougher than usual, 39:05, and very hard to get started. DEKKO held me up, as didn’t see that ‘finally’ referred to the three previous words, not just the ‘k’. Also was slow to be sure about DESSERT, as I thought ‘seconds’ would account for both s’s. Never heard Down Under used for NZ towns, but knew DUNEDIN from the cricket. Had ASSURED, for ASSUMED so that held up 19a. COD 4d

    Edited at 2016-07-19 11:33 am (UTC)

  4. Only had two across clues on the first pass, but the downs were much more to my liking. 40 mins in the end, with 1d responsible for nearly 10 of those as I couldn’t see the other meaning of butcher. 22ac was my favourite, but lots of good clues. Thank you Alconiere. Invariant
  5. Back from Scotland (or not?) and solved yesterday’s QC in 13 minutes before taking on the main cryptic and solving all of that without aids ( a rare event which again proves the benefits of the QC and this blog).
    Today’s QC looked tough to me and so it proved. After 45 minutes or so I had two left -1d and 18d. I was looking for the name of a druid hidden regularly. Eventually I saw the alternative -RISEN- but even then was not sure; why the question mark?
    I thought 1d must be the name of a wind and only after nearly giving up did I see the alternative meaning of Butcher’s; but could not parse it so thanks as ever to the blogger. David
    1. I was up in Scotland a couple of weeks ago. Since then in Norfolk and the Cotswolds. Hence my doing the blogs and not answering comments for a while. Got to keep the country’s tourist trade in business!
  7. I sat in the shade in the garden with this and polished it off in about 12 minutes while eating prawns and tomatoes and dropping pips on it. What a lovely lunch break.I thought it was pretty standard. Biffed DEKKO without parsing so thanks blogger. My last one in was RISEN which took me ages to see and without that hold up (and having to keep throwing the dog his Frisbee)this would have been under 10 minutes. The main is VERY straightforward today. It only took me about half an hour which is unusually quick for me and a lot were write-ins.
  8. Really nice crossword. Last in and favourite clue was DEKKO. Excellent use of Butchers. Biffed BY HEART but so easy explanation after reading the blog. Thanks Alconiere and Chris
  9. I thought this was quite straight forward, easy than yesterday and about 17 minutes for me. Also did not parse Dekko or by heart, so thanks ChrisW for the explanation and Alconiere for the confidence boost.
  10. I must have been on the right wavelength today as I whizzed through this until my LOI, 18d. I’d mispelt 19a by putting an s on the end of it and missing out the final ‘u’ – which will teach me to pay more attention to anagrams. Finally saw my mistake and completed it in 21 minutes. I hadn’t heard of 1d before but the word play was clear to me. COD 9a.
    Now off to go and try the 15×15
  11. Dekko? Where did that come from? 1930? No one else has complained but I will! Never heard of it. Now I have.
    1. I just checked and it’s army slang originally from the Hindi “dekho” meaning “look!”. Examples of usage cited by the ODE range from 1894 to 1961 with current usage at only 2/8, so somewhat dated it seems, as you suggest.
      1. Ok, thanks. I hope it comes up again somewhere now I’ve learnt about it! I can remember “butcher’s” meaning “look” from my childhood but not being aware that it was rhyming slang until much later.
  12. A toughie, 36:34. I’ve not heard of DEKKO either (I got it via a lucky key press), but in my defence, I am under 75.
  13. 18 Down: I put Noden as an ancient Roman-British god.Completely scuppered and chance of getting the rest of the clues.

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