Times Quick Cryptic 1081 by Corelli

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
1081 by Corelli

Smiles all round today starting at 1ac, again at COD 7dn and finishing with LOI 13dn – a ‘doh’ to end the puzzle. I spent 11 enjoyable minutes completing this so I’d judge that as medium in difficulty. Not quite a pangram and no hidden messages that I can detect. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

ACROSS

1. DISHWATER – dishes are washed in it then dried. Anagram (comes out) of DRIES WHAT.
6. SIP – short drink. Is returning (SI), quiet (P).
8. GIRAFFE – mammal. Blunder (GAFFE) trapping small Irish (IR).
9. GENIE – bottled spirit. That is (IE) to follow dope (GEN).
10. IZMIR – Turkish city (by coincidence I was looking at Mediterranean holidays yesterday and came across Izmir). Inside pilg(RIM ZI)gzagging – backwards.
12. ANORAK – raincoat. Girl (NORA) inside the middle of l(AK)e.
14. HOT-AIR BALLOON – means of travel. Boasting (HOT AIR), swell (BALLOON).
16. OFFERS – presents. Unopened boxes c(OFFERS).
17. TIGER – powerful economy. Deposit grand (G) inside bank (TIER).
19. CHINA – cockney’s friend (usually preceded by me-ole). Punch (CHIN), a (A).
20. EVASIVE – not forthcoming. Anagram (ordered) of VISA EVE.
22. OWE – in the red. Old (O), Bridge team (WE – West/East).
23. DISPARAGE – slur. I’d retracted (DI), well (SPA) before fury (RAGE).

DOWN

1. DOGFIGHT – arial contest. Contest between two boxer (dog)s.
2. SIR – how to address a teacher. (S)tudent (I)s (R)ight.
3. WAFER – thin disk. Iron (FE) inside battles (WAR).
4. THE DAM BUSTERS – war film. Anagram (dicky) of HURST MADE BEST.
5. RAG DOLL – cloth toy. Charity event (RAG), function (DO), left (L), large (L).
6. SING-ALONG – musical event. Anagram (out) of GONGS LAIN.
7. PREY – victim. X, alphabetically, is before (PRE) the letter (Y). Excellent!
11. MET OFFICE – weather forecasters. United (MET), not on (OFF) wintry weather (ICE).
13. UNFREEZE – relax restrictions on (e.g. bank accounts). Homophone (by the sounds of it) of un-frees which would be to restrict.
15. ICELAND – country. Clubs (C) inside an anagram (strangely) of DENIAL.
17. TIARA – headdress. (T)r(I)n(A)c(R)i(A)n. Not being familiar with the word trinacrian, I looked it up – FYI it’s of or relating to Trinacria (the Latin name for Sicily) or its inhabitants.
18. ECHO – reverberating sound. Coming from scre(ECH O)wl.
21. IDA – girl. Establish the identity of (ID), a (A).

26 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1081 by Corelli”

  1. I fared better with this than yesterday’s puzzle coming in 6 minutes sooner, but I still missed my target (10) by 1 minute by having brain-freeze over my LOI at 13dn.

    I would not have known 10ac if it hadn’t come up in a 15×15 as recently as March where it caught me out because it was clued as a homophone and I opted for ‘Ismer’. It seems much fairer since this is a QC to clue it as a hidden reversed answer.

    The ‘powerful economy’ at 17ac appeared as part of wordplay in a puzzle that’s still under wraps, so that helped a bit too, but on the negative side, I think ‘raincoat’ clueing ANORAK is a bit of a stretch as the latter is a warm weatherproof jacket which is not the same thing at all.

    Corelli is one of our original setters having started with QC13 in March 2014, but his contributions have been sporadic with 2 more in 2014, 4 each in 2015 and 2016, 2 in 2017, and 2 in 2018 so far, making a total of only 15 puzzles overall.

    Edited at 2018-05-01 06:40 am (UTC)

  2. Just over 30 minutes with interruptions.

    Last few were offers, owe, met office and LOI unfreeze. Sing along also took a while to crack the anagram.

    For 11d I had met from weather forecasters and was looking for something wintery as the answer.

    Couldn’t parse unfreeze, so that went in with fingers crossed.

    COD disparage.

  3. Slowed down at a couple of places, ANORAK being one, for reasons Jack gives–I wouldn’t let go of MAC until I finally had to– and CHINA, which I had from the beginning but couldn’t see how it worked, so waited for the checkers and biffed. It also took me a while to recall the movie. 7:08.
  4. I fared much better today, coming in at 15:36 which is well below my average but nowhere near PB territory. It does help in terms of time if you know all the words which complete the grid, and yesterday I didn’t.
  5. Still on the back foot after yesterday’s DNF. Crossed the line in 18:45 with LOI UNFREEZE. COD the elusive PREY.

    Edited at 2018-05-01 08:18 am (UTC)

  6. Lots of clever stuff here – really enjoyed it X being pre y made me chuckle. Not sure it was necessary to use dope for gen – it’s not a usage you find in the UK these days outside of crosswords like this, and I doubt it’s even used in the US
    1. dope? or gen? ‘Gen’ has never been used in the US, to the best of my knowledge, but I wouldn’t be surprised to come across ‘dope’.
      1. Not sure if you were being- if so sorry. I think in the UK it was often used to describe someone stupid but not so much these days. I also recognise that it is widely used both sides of the pond for (usually illegal) drugs. Personally I have never heard it used for gen or info and am not convinced by the OED’s example.
        1. I usually am being, so no need to apologize. But I’m afraid I still don’t know what you’re talking about. My question was about what your ‘it’ referred to. I gather now that it was to ‘dope’ with the meaning of ‘information’. In which case, while I have nothing to say about its use or non-use in the UK to mean ‘information’ or ‘fool’, I’ll repeat that ‘dope’ is still, in the US, at least sometimes used to mean ‘fool’ (while ‘gen’ just isn’t used).
          1. Ah ok. Dope in the clue is intended to lead to ‘gen’. OED says that dope can mean “”informal information ….. eg give us the dope on the local hotspots around town”. I have often heard people ask for ‘gen’ in the sense of info but in all my days I have never heard anyone use dope as the OED suggests
            1. I often have, though always in the phrase “inside dope” – eg “what’s the inside dope on this?”

              Templar

              1. Fair enough- you may notice I held back from fully dismissing the validity of using dope for gen. you and the setter obviously share the same circles 🙂
                1. Of course nearly current (ie no longer so because I know it) meaning of dope is “good” or “excellent” in US slang, just thought I would add another layer of confusion.
                  Paulw
              2. I often have, too. In an unfamiliar setting, someone might be heard to say, “so, give me the dope on this place”. Sal
  7. An enjoyable puzzle where my only hold up was trying to parse UNFREEZE, which I only managed a few seconds after submitting with trepidation. I liked PRE-Y too. Like Jack I remembered IZMIR from a recent 15×15 with a wry smile. No problems with ANORAK. 7:18. Thanks Corelli and Chris.
  8. Quite a relief after yesterday. Enjoyed PREY (LOI). Clever. No problem with ANORAK. They are waterproof after all. Didn’t parse CHINA, but Cockney friend was a giveaway. Didn’t parse UNFREEZE. Now that it has been explained don’t like it. Seems forced to me. Is there somebody called Dicky Hurst, or is that just plain invention?
    PlayUpPompey
  9. Finished in 10:56 which I was pleased with. Like others held up by insisting Mac was raincoat and LOI 13d. Had to come here to parse it.

    Much better than yesterday though which took over an hour to limp home on.

  10. Back to more normal territory for me after yesterday’s slog, at just outside my 15m target. Like others, I enjoyed X being pre-Y. Nothing held me up particularly. Thanks blogger and setter.

  11. Though still scarred from yesterday I approached with caution.

    Super puzzle, lots of wit and sparkle. Loved PREY in particular. Liked the fact that The Dam Busters was in there – co-incidence or not, Michael Anderson (director of the 1955 film) died very recently and I read his obituary in the Times.

    Have never seen “comes out” as an anagram indicator before, must remember that one (won’t).

    Finished within 3 Kevins, but definitely at the hard end for me, with ANORAK and UNFREEZE (LOI) taking forever. Was also misdirected by “swell means of travel” and spent ages trying to think of a nautical answer.

    Thanks for the blog, Chris, I needed it to understand 1ac and 19ac.

    Templar

  12. Excellent puzzle which I solved during a rather long AGM so concentration was sporadic.
    I had the same reactions as others: Liked PREY, held up by ANORAK and LOI UNFREEZE.
    Hard to estimate time and to pick COD. David
  13. That was a very enjoyable puzzle, with some well-crafted clues. I particularly liked 1d, 7d and 23ac, with Dogfight just edging out the other two. 28mins in total, with loi 13d responsible for nearly 5 of those – had to resort to an alphabet trawl before the penny would drop. Invariant
    1. Agree all round, almost the same time and same favourites and problems. Looking back now, I think spa for well is a bit of a reach, but it didn’t cause any problems at the time. I probably retrofitted it from the rest and it seemed reasonable, but I’m not sure I would have constructed the answer from it – aren’t spas usually springs not wells?
      Paulw
      1. SOED has 1 ▸ b A spring of water supposed to be of miraculous origin or to have healing powers. Now spec. a medicinal or mineral spring; in pl., a place or resort with this, a spa.

        Also we have Tunbridge Wells – city & spa in Kent, SE England:

    2. Agree all round, almost the same time and same favourites and problems. Looking back now, I think spa for well is a bit of a reach, but it didn’t cause any problems at the time. I probably retrofitted it from the rest and it seemed reasonable, but I’m not sure I would have constructed the answer from it – aren’t spas usually springs not wells?
      Paulw
  14. I got completely held up by 13d and after many alphabet trawls finally crossed the line in 33.14 – over 10 minutes slower than yesterdays stinker! Strange how these things go. Apart from 13 an enjoyable puzzle.
    Thanks for the blog

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