Times Quick Cryptic 1386 by Tracy

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Never got to grips with this one so ended up slipping about all over the grid for 12 tricky but enjoyable minutes. Loi 10ac, COD 22ac.

ACROSS

1. Penny amends homework.
PREPARATION – penny P, amends (to make amends) REPARATION.
8. Opening first of louvres in part of church.
CHANCEL – pening (CHANCE), (L)ouvres.
9. Difficult question for model.
POSER – double definition.
10. A hotel – inn arranged without delay.
ON THE NAIL – anagram (arranged) of A HOTEL INN. Didn’t see this at all but it was the only way to hammer in the jigsaw pieces of the anagrist. Looked it up for the blog – (of payments) at once (esp in the phrase pay on the nail).
12. Leader of advance party in trouble.
ADO – (A)dvanced, party (DO).
13. Answer the phone and hear.
PICK UP – double definition.
15. Copper with most unusual habit.
CUSTOM – copper (CU) with an anagram (unusual) of MOST.
17. The writer is going to some trouble.
ILL – the writer (I) is going to do something (I’LL).
18. Let up in respect of crusade.
REMISSION – in respect of (RE), crusade (MISSION).
20. Is stuck in very warm lift.
HOIST – is (IS) stuck inside very warm (HOT).
22. Are all sozzled imbibing English beer?
REAL ALE – anagram (sozzled) of ARE ALL imbibing English (E). Excellent! COD.
23. Discourage one old judge in decline.
DETERIORATE – discourage (DETER), one (I), old (O), judge (RATE).

DOWN

1. Scheme that initially works.
PLANT – scheme (PLAN) (T)hat.
2. Former scrutineer, reportedly in Treasury department.
EXCHEQUER – former (EX), homophone (reportedly) of scrutineer – checker.
3. At sea, a duck coming in low.
AFLOAT – a (A), duck (O) coming inside low (FLAT – E.G. country).
4. File does not include river snake.
ASP – file – rasp – does not contain river (r) – r(ASP).
5. Immediate flash.
INSTANT – double definition.
6. Conservative knight objected to cornering pointer.
NARROW-MINDED – knight (N), objected to (MINDED) cornering/containing pointer (ARROW). Conservative – definition 7 in Collins – a person who is reluctant to change or consider new ideas; conformist.
7. Professional discharged.
ACCOMPLISHED – double definition.
11. Girl touring island, an American state.
LOUISIANA – girl (LOUISA) touring island (I), an (AN).
14. Musician in small room is close to vocalist.
CELLIST – small room (CELL), is (IS), close to vocalis(T).
16. What could be the beginning, or be my undoing.
EMBRYO – anagram (undoing) of OR BE MY.
19. Marauder blowing top, up in arms.
IRATE – marauder without the top letter p(IRATE).
21. Rocky height in Pretoria.
TOR – in Pre(TOR)ia.

17 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1386 by Tracy”

  1. Sir Norman Fowler ……Well he was narrow minded and knighted wasn’t he? Two brains in the wee small hours thought this was better for 6d. Messed up solving for quite some time!
  2. 23 mins but was stuck on preparation, afloat, and accomplished for ages.

    Dnk on the nail for without delay, or rasp for file.

    Cod custom or embryo.

  3. 11 minutes, so my run of 10-minute targets achieved has ended at 13.

    I was delayed by three of the four long answers and required most of their checkers before they came to mind (the exception was DETERIORATE at 23ac) but I’d still have made it in time but for getting completely stuck on 3dn. When I revisited it for he umpteenth time as my last outstanding answer I still had a minute to spare but the pressure of the moment got to me and it was not to be.

    Edited at 2019-07-02 06:15 am (UTC)

  4. I found this difficult, particularly the four long answers around the edges. LOI was 1a.
    It was a high quality puzzle I thought with nothing unfair or obtuse, but lots of traps like PLANT and the duck in 3d. I wasn’t sure about On The Nail meaning without delay but the anagram was clear.
    COD to 15a as I’ve just finished reading a Colin Dexter novel and it made me think of Morse. 16:28 today. David

    Edited at 2019-07-02 07:56 am (UTC)

  5. This one looked as if it had DNF written all over it, so I was pleased to finish in 29 minutes, even if I didn’t understand some of the wordplay. LOIs were the long ones (mostly from checkers) and then ILL.
    Chris, thank you for sorting out the parsing for me.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-07-02 07:48 am (UTC)

  6. This one came together nicely for me with a couple of minor hold ups as CELL for small room was elusive and I had SOLOIST in mind, and (p)IRATE also took a while to see. Nice puzzle. 7:29. Thanks Tracy and Chris.
  7. Slow to start but plenty to keep the brain moving on the way to a time within a minute of david’s. I liked this one from Tracy. Like anonymous above, I wanted to put in Norman Fowler for 6d but desisted; I didn’t find it easy, though. Last in for me were ACCOMPLISHED and ILL. I was slow to spot the anagram for EMBRYO, my COD. John M.

    Edited at 2019-07-02 09:48 am (UTC)

  8. It was Norman Mailer who came to mind for me. I didn’t know who he was and I now see he was American so he wouldn’t have been a knight, but at the time I thought he might have been. I couldn’t make him fit the clue though so I was always aware it was probably wrong, and when I finally got remission, the correct answer miraculously occurred to me. That just left -m-r-o for 16d and I saw it had to be embryo and then saw it was an anagram clue. Doh and COD.
    I’m not sure I’ve ever appreciated that “prep”, meaning homework, was short for preparation. At my school, and all the schools I’ve taught at, which is a lot as I’m a supply teacher, it has always been called homework and is rarely preparation for anything, taking the form of follow up work instead. I think I first heard the term prep when I became friends with an ex-Uppingham student at university, but of course he never used the full word.
    1. I took it a a synonym along the lines of
      She had done her homework and researched the company before joining
    2. My old headmaster, who taught maths, always referred to it as ‘further enjoyment’
  9. ….and thoroughly enjoyable.

    I have three criteria for QC’s :

    1. They should avoid obscurities.
    2. You should be able to solve them in whatever time frame you consider to be “quick” – 5 minutes for me – and probably at the top end of that scale.
    3. You should feel encouraged to go back over the clues when you’ve finished, and appreciate the setter’s craft.

    This met all three fully, so many thanks Tracy.

    FOI POSER
    LOI ILL
    COD ACCOMPLISHED
    TIME 4:37

  10. When I drew a complete blank with 1ac and 1d, I guessed this was going to be a bit of a teaser, so I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at my loi, 6d, after 25mins. However, it then took me a further 5mins and numerous alphabet trawls to get Narrow Minded, so quite tricky overall. The ‘nails’ by the way, are still visible outside the corn exchange in Bristol. My CoD vote goes to 16d, Embryo, for its smooth surface. Invariant
  11. The origin of this is from the corn exchange in Bristol. In the street outside (Corn St) are are some bollards with a round flat top which look like large tacks or nails, and are known as the Corn St nails. People wishing to buy corn placed their cash on the nail for an immediate purchase. Still there and famous in Bristol.

    dbfromgb

  12. Stuck on 3D and 7d, so asked my W for another word for at sea and she said afloat. Showed her what letters I had for 7d and she said accomplished would fit but she didn’t know why. Annoying!
    Also for 17a had (qu)ill for the writer etc
    Malcolm
  13. An enjoyable struggle today, if that makes sense, with only a few easy ones to get started. As others have noted the 4 long clues were all tricky but I came to a grinding halt with my last two CHANCEL, where I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition, and AFLOAT where I was just baffled until I got the final checker.
    Completed in 16.44 with my favourite being EMBRYO, one of the harder 6 letter anagrams I can recall.
    Thanks for the blog

Comments are closed.