Times Quick Cryptic 1106 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This puzzle was a mixture of lots of easy and small clues with some unusual vocabulary thrown in to balance the books. I took a lot of time at LOI 1dn and unnecessarily held myself up at 22ac. How quickly it takes you to get the long anagrams at 8dn and 15ac may reflect your speed through the rest of the puzzle. I stumbled home in 10 minutes. Good luck!

ACROSS

1. MATCH – double definition.
4. SHEARS – cuts. Society (S), tries as in a trial (HEARS).
9. CABINET – senior ministers. Taxi (CAB), I (I), grab (NET).
10. MARCH – month. Anagram (unusual) of CHARM.
11. ROT – nonsense. Work schedule incomplete (ROT)a.
12. SOMEBODY – no one in particular. Anagram (given new order) of OBEYS MOD.
15. TURN A BLIND EYE – ignore. Anagram (failing) of TINY ENDURABLE.
17. GREEN TEA – drink. Homophone (while speaking) of two parts of a golf course – GREEN and TEE.
18. SPA – spring. Son (S) meets father (PA).
20. RABID – frenzied. Gunners (RA -Royal Artillery) get command (BID).
22. VEILING – disguising. I made this really hard for myself by reading ‘disgusting’ in the clue and then tried to work out this strange meaning of veiling. Victor (V) replaces (C)ornice in cEILING.
23. GUTTER – side of road. Good (G) and complete (UTTER).
24. GUYED – made fun of. Homophone (in speech) of escort – guide.

DOWN

1. MACERATE – steep – in the sense of soaking. I knew of macerators which chew up waste but wasn’t familiar with the meaning of soaking food in a liquid for a period of time so that it absorbs the liquid. I suppose a macerator does the same but speeds the process by mashing it all up. Spice (MACE), cost (RATE).
2. TIBET – in Asia. (T)urkmenistan, I (I), predict (BET).
3. HANDSHAKE – one sealing a deal perhaps. Round of applause (HAND), astonish (SHAKE).
5. HUM – double definition.
6. ABRIDGE – clip. Saddle (RIDGE) underneath sailor (AB- able bodied seaman). I thought saddle=ridge a bit iffy as I thought ridge was long and straight on which may be a saddle. Hoewever Collinsa has a long narrow raised land formation with sloping sides esp one formed by the meeting of two faces of a mountain or of a mountain buttress or spur – so a saddle between two mountain faces.
7. SOHO – area of London. Very (SO), hard (H) to get round (O).
8. Stimulative – exciting. Anagram (strangely) of VAULT ITEM IS.
13. BANDAGING – doing first aid. Group (BAND), getting on (AGING).
14. DERANGED – mad. Action (DEED) interrupted by phoned (RANG).
16. RAREBIT – simple snack (I wonder if anyone will take issue with ‘simple’? As far as I’m aware, a good rarebit is not just plain old cheese on toast). Excellent (RARE), morsel (BIT).
18. SHINY – glossy. Nervous (SHY) about home (IN).
19. BRIG – ship. Right (R) to enter large (BIG). A brig is not only a prison on a ship, especially a warship – it is also a type of ship (brigantine) with two masts and square sails.
21. DOE – deer. Make (DO), (E)nclosure.

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1106 by Teazel”

  1. 8 minutes for this one, held up by needing checkers before GREEN at 17ac would come to mind after I had already solved TEA.
  2. About 15 mins
    Forgot the guyed=mock, known only in crossword land
    And don’t see how do=make
    1. How about.. “For lunch I will do some rarebit” cf “For lunch I will make some rarebit”?
  3. 13 minutes so fast for me.

    Last two were abridge and macerate. Thankfully no brick wall today.
    Macerate looked right and fitted the word play but didn’t know the meaning.

    Liked march and rot, but COD to soho.

  4. Nothing too difficult here, I thought, finishing 2 1/2 minutes under average time. I too thought saddle = ridge was slightly iffy. The definition I found is “a low part of a ridge between two higher points or peaks“. COD to TURN A BLIND EYE for the nice surface and an honorable mention to RAREBIT for reminding me to make some soon. I found a recipe here.

    Edited at 2018-06-05 06:52 am (UTC)

    1. The recipe does back up my query on ‘simple’, but then I’m a chop it all up, bung in a pan and stir for a while kind of cook!
  5. Stormed this *fist pump* in about 12 minutes. The only one that held me up was the 4A/6D — I also bridled at saddle (!). Got there eventually though. Thanks Chris for the blog and Teazel for making my day 🙂
  6. I romped through this in 7:24 only to find I’d carelessly entered TIBBT at 2d. Ah well, on to the 15×15 and see if I can make a better job of that… Thanks Teazel and Chris.
  7. 15 minutes for me, with no major hold-ups.

    Chris, you missed out a part of the anagrind in 8d – the anagram is of [vault item is].

  8. Beaten by 6dn. Just didn’t think of that form of saddle or that meaning of clip. Never heard MACERATE used in the form of soaking or steeping. Like the blogger always thought of MACERATERS as garbage processors. The clue was generous enough though. Otherwise, not easy but came steadily.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. A DNF for me today [hangs head in shame]

    Having spent two minutes failing to get either 1ac or 1dn I then whizzed through almost all of it, starting with the two long anagrams which went in effortlessly … then I returned to the NW corner. Aaarrghhh.

    Eventually I squeezed out MACERATE with the aid of a trawl. But even looking at M-T__ I just could not get 1ac; nor could I get HANDSHAKE. I was a rabbit in Teazel’s headlights – the tyres duly thudded over me and I gave up, today’s roadkill. Oh well.

    I loved MARCH, very neat. I had no issue with saddle = ridge. Thanks for the excellent blog, Chris.

    Templar

  10. Found today’s puzzle a mixture of straightforwardness and hard work – but I am very much a beginner. As such, I have started to write down a list of key words which regularly fox me e. g. “while speaking ” and “in speech” to mean “sounds like” . Also, I’ve never heard of “guy” to mean “mock.” I can’t ever imagine finishing these “quick” cryptic crosswords as quickly as some of the contributors here. I am in awe!
    1. There are lots of us who take things easy, taking pleasure in working out the clues but also enjoying the “surfaces” at the same time. But speed does improve with time. Another hint is to watch for words hidden inside expressions – often an answer when stumped. I got macerate quickly which helped me finish in under 7 minutes – just on the setter’s wavelength I suppose (which is rare for me). Thanks blogger
    2. We all started with the first step. There’s fun to be had (and it’s really useful if you’re stuck on a train or plane or waiting for someone to shop!). Good luck!
  11. A pretty average solve in 13:29 with LOI 3dn HANDSHAKE. A high percentage of my LOIs seem to be at the beginning of the grid when my brain is not in gear so no surprise that 1dn MACERATE was my penultimate solve.
  12. After yesterday’s typo I spent a little longer double checking my completed puzzle today, which took me just over the 10 minute mark. Like others I had to trust the wordplay at 1d. SW corner went in last and my Cod goes to 6d.

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