Times Quick Cryptic 1426 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I was pleased to come home a few seconds under 10 minutes. Nothing very contentious here – I’ve explained a few definitions which may not be immediately obvious to everyone. I rather enjoyed it – some humour and clever clues – so, thanks to Teazel.

ACROSS

1. Disconcerting to be away at golf practice? (3-7)
OFF-PUTTING – double definition – the second humorous.
7. Pay for handle (5)
TREAT – double definition – pay for – handle/treat e.g. delicately.
8. Roman soldiers, say, eaten by wild animal (6)
LEGION – say (EG) eaten by wild animal (LION).
10. English bishops become less intense (3)
EBB – English (E), bishops (BB).
12. Plough is heavy to carry (5,4)
GREAT BEAR – heavy (GREAT), carry (BEAR) – heavy=great in the sense of great in amount, degree, or intensity.
13. Property in the form of matching items (6)
ASSETS – in the form is matching items (AS SETS)
14. A case for fighting (6)
ACTION – double definition – legal case/military action.
17. Emphasise what one may do after work (5,4)
DRIVE HOME – double definition.
19. Vital area of Turkey (3)
KEY – area of the word Tur(KEY).
20. Add page to rental agreement, if you would (6)
PLEASE – add page (P) to rental agreement (LEASE).
21. Watch Roman poet right away (5)
VIGIL – roman poet having right (R) taken away (VI)r(GIL).
23. Dramatist to have fun with the Conservatives? (10)
PLAYWRIGHT – to have fun (PLAY), with (W), Conservatives (RIGHT).

DOWN

1. Likely to find pips here? (2,3,5)
ON THE CARDS – you’ll find pips (being spots or single devices, such as spades, diamonds, hearts, or clubs) on playing cards.
2. Consider reduced payment (3)
FEE – consider reduced by one letter (FEE)l. Consider in the sense of do you consider/feel it is right to…
3. Out of bed, drunk and irritable (7)
UPTIGHT – out of bed (UP), drunk (TIGHT).
4. Counted aloud as bell did this? (6)
TOLLED – homophone (aloud) of counted=told.
5. It may be black chess piece (not king) (5)
NIGHT – chess piece without king (K) – k(NIGHT). Clever clue gets COD.
6. Off work, and why? Abroad, unhappily (8)
HOMESICK – if you’re off work you may be home sick/ill. Abroad in the sense of away/out – not necessarily in another country.
9. Annexe in New York in flagrant disrepair (6,4)
GRANNY FLAT – the ‘NNY’ from crossers and NY gave this one. New York (NY) inside an anagram (disrepair) of FLAGRANT.
11. Be touring a peaceful prison (8)
BASTILLE – be (BE) touring around outside a (A) and peaceful (STILL).
15. Caught one departing in chopper (7)
CLEAVER – caught (C), one departing (LEAVER).
16. Modest about myself and daughter in drama (6)
COMEDY – modest (COY) about myself (ME) and daughter (D). Comedy can be more than humorous – this from Collins – a dramatic or other work of light and amusing character/the genre of drama represented by works of this type/(in classical literature) a play in which the main characters and motive triumph over adversity
18. Message received from a mile off (5)
EMAIL – anagram (off) of A MILE.
22. Joke produces silence (3)
GAG – double definition.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1426 by Teazel”

  1. 8 minutes, but I found the lower half more difficult than the upper. BASTILLE in particular was tricky and I still can’t get used to thinking EMAIL without a hyphen.

    Edited at 2019-08-27 05:07 am (UTC)

  2. I found this pretty straightforward, with a slight pause at the end for ON THE CARDS and TREAT, where I couldn’t see the 2nd (handle) definition. Other than that it was all plain sailing, finishing in 7.58. I particularly enjoyed BASTILLE and VIGIL.
    Thanks for the blog
  3. I had this all done in about 11 minutes apart from 17a. Originally I thought of BRING HOME but that caused a problem so I deleted it. For 1d I had ON THE LAPEL which seemed okayish at the time.
    I did finally unravel it but only after at least doubling my time.
    A nice puzzle overall. David
  4. I found this a very strange solve. Some answers I wrote in without even finishing reading the clue. Others I just looked at blankly. The three that caught me out at the end were 13a ASSETS, 17a DRIVE HOME and my LOI and very much a guess 1d ON THE CARDS which I was unable to parse. Thanks Chris and Teazel. 11:49
  5. A nice puzzle. I started with 1d which I thought was ON THE PHONE and this came back to bite me when I tried to work out ASSETS and DRIVE HOME (both good clues). I realised that I was living in the past with ‘pips’ on the phone (younger solvers won’t know what I am on about) and sorted it but this took me perilously close to SCC territory (no K measure today, yet). I thought BASTILLE, HOMESICK, and VIGIL were particularly good. Thanks to Teazel and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2019-08-27 08:58 am (UTC)

  6. ….seemed a strange concept, and gave me a wry smile.

    Nothing here to frighten the horses.

    FOI OFF-PUTTING
    LOI BASTILLE
    COD GREAT BEAR
    TIME 3:31

  7. Just outside the 15m target for me, held up by the cards and TREAT. I had considered RADIO and some sort of fruit for the home of the pips before the cards came to me, and I just didn’t trust TREAT until I had 1d sorted. I liked ASSETS and HOMESICK. Thanks Chris and Teazel.
  8. Nothing sprang to mind until I reached EBB, and I still struggled to fit anything else into the NW, but I eventually got moving and found myself finished in 7:09. ON THE CARDS was my LOI and required a bit of though even with all the checkers and ON THE filled in. Liked VIGIL. Thanks Teazel and Chris.
  9. Not on Teazel’s wavelength at all today. Maybe my brain wasn’t working because I had just done a ten mile run in the heat and was thus tired and dehydrated, but this took me an hour and three-quarters, although I did doze off for about half an hour in the middle. By that time I had all the SE half, but only ebb in the NW. When I came to again I managed to get Bastille and then slowly the others fell into place. I was dreading looking at this and finding a “relatively straightforward” comment, and Chris duly obliged. Never heard of tight meaning drunk. I’d have thought it would be more likely to mean the opposite. Nor had I heard of the symbols on cards being pips. Anyway, glad to finish. Now I just hope that the reason there aren’t many comments so far might be because some others found this difficult too.
    1. Experience shows there’s no way of deciding the difficulty of a puzzle for someone else – all I can do is give my time/experience as an indication. Maybe the 10 mile run (I’m impressed by the way) didn’t help.
    2. Experience shows there’s no way of deciding the difficulty of a puzzle for someone else – all I can do is give my time/experience as an indication. Maybe the 10 mile run (I’m impressed by the way) didn’t help.
  10. Another easy one for me.

    The only one giving pause was KEY, in which the hidden ‘area’ turned out to be the last three letters. That’s not really hidden for me, but I know others, especially those who once enjoyed an Araucaria, will disagree.

  11. I thought it was really hard too especially as yesterday’s went in so easily.Sometimes I am just not on the wavelength so check blog sooner rather than later to avoid getting frustrated.At least you had done a long run beforehand I have no such excuse!Don’t give up!
    1. Welcome, anon. It would be nice if you added a name (real or made-up if you prefer) so we can recognise you.

      I had to unspam your posting for it to appear and you can avoid this problem in future if you make sure always to put a space between a full stop and the first letter of the next sentence. Probably after exclamation marks too, though I’m not sure about that one. Otherwise Live Journal treats postings as ‘suspicious’ and puts them into a sin bin.

      Edited at 2019-08-27 04:46 pm (UTC)

  12. Slow going, blaming the heat. Finished with some help, slow on getting 1d, and some others. We found 6d particularly troublesome, being put off getting the definition by the comma between abroad and unhappily.
  13. This clue was carefully worded, I think, as “area of Turkey” which is not quite the same as a normal “hidden” eg “in Turkey” so I think it’s fine.
    1. The indicator used is as one would find in a hidden clue, I’m pretty sure, and by convention one is steered towards looking ‘inside’ a word or phrase for the answer. Indeed I’m not quite clear how one would indicate bits of words at the front or end, unless the region were a perfect ‘50%’. With Araucaria, you had to assume the ‘part’ could be anywhere, as he didn’t suffer conventions gladly.

      I’m not absolutely against the clue as it stands, but I think it worthy of discussion in a beginner crossword.

      1. I think the difficulty with Araucaria for some was that the ‘part’ could vary in length at times, but this would be mainly where it was just one element of the cryptic build-up. Here, however, with the answer being a three-letter word it’s pretty easy to find. I think logically that “area of Turkey” includes KEY even though they are the last three letters. Similar fairly clear choices in a “hidden” though it can’t include the first or last letter. I’ll admit it first took me by surprise today but when I thought about it a bit further esp with the precise wording, I thought I saw what was maybe intended.
  14. Harder than yesterday but still manageable. I had no problem with 1d and a lot of others gradually fell into place as the checkers went in. Struggled with the roman poet and 16d.

    Thanks to Teazel and Chris

  15. 6 down. Sadly I thought all was well until I checked the blog. I entered Lovesick.

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