Times Quick Cryptic 1437 by Oran

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Apologies for the terse blog – not much time for pursuits recently with changes at work and an increasingly complex house renovation… This was a fine puzzle – thanks Oran – a little on the harder side, I’d say. After a flying start, I was bogged down a bit by the left hand side, but can’t see a reason in hindsight! LOI the plant (naturally), COD to 6dn, although I suspect it might prove a bit marmitey.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 American navy in Naples moved north (13)
PENNSYLVANIAN – anagram of (moved) NAVY IN NAPLES, then N (north).
8 Huge birthday meal? Deal with the candles! (4-3)
BLOW-OUT – cryptic / double definition.
9 Drinker reflected about something to smoke (5)
TOPER –  reversal of (reflecting) RE (regarding, about) and POT (something to smoke).
10 Plant that’s unusual astounded Reg (6-6)
ADDERS-TONGUE – anagram of (unusual) ASTOUNDED REG.
12 Shaking booty next to head of your younger partner (3,3)
TOY BOY – anagram of (shaking) BOOTY, then the first letter (head) of Your.
14 Become more compassionate, perhaps, or arrogant (6)
UPPITY – cryptic definition – UP PITY (become more compassionate, perhaps).
17 Some cruets apparently brought back for chemist (7)
PASTEUR – reverse hidden (some… brought back) in cRUETS APparently.
19 Around six fifty, complain (5)
CAVIL – CA (circa, around), VI (six, roman numerals), and L (fifty, more roman numerals).
20 River, one west of North Dakota, America (5)
INDUS – I (one) in front of (west of) ND (North Dakota), and US (America).
21 Riotous party in joint with drink (5-2)
KNEES-UP – KNEE (joint) and SUP (drink).
22 Direction was rated poorly (8)
EASTWARD – anagram of (poorly) WAS RATED.
23 Deadly reptiles decapitated insects (4)
ASPS – remove the first letter from (decapitated) wASPS (insects).

Down
1 Plumbism oddly appearing in the locals (4)
PUBS – every other letter from (oddly) PlUmBiSm.
2 Number any do, possibly twelve (7)
NOONDAY – NO (number), then an anagram of (possibly) ANY DO.
3 Nick a result? (5)
SCORE – double definition.
4 News of the French cricket match (6)
LATEST – LA (the, in French) and TEST (cricket match).
5 Case prepared for holiday? Exciting! (6-6)
ACTION-PACKED – ACTION (case) and PACKED (prepared for holiday?)
6 So about to drop litter, the swine! (2,3)
IN PIG – if so (i.e. in pig), one of the porcine ilk is ‘about to drop litter’.
7 They’re for gentle decline, rather than going downhill fast (7,6)
NURSERY SLOPES – cryptic definition.
11 I cap rate, revised for a hefty fee (2,1,5)
AT A PRICE – anagram of (revised) I CAP RATE.
13 Supervised and completed cut (7)
OVERSAW – OVER (completed) and SAW (cut).
15 Provides, at home, underclothes (7)
INVESTS – IN (at home) and VESTS (underclothes).
16 Selling agent, maybe, even more hard up? (6)
BROKER – double definition.
18 Teams close to abyss on fateful day in Rome (5)
SIDES – last letter of (close to) abysS, and IDES (fateful day in Rome).

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1437 by Oran”

  1. The definition is “about to drop litter,” though it is odd to have another word right in front of it—as far as I can see, this is for the surface, the wordplay, such as it is, seeming to allude to a person littering, which is a swinish practice.
    1. FWIW, I parsed it as our blogger did taking ‘So’ to be a reference to the rest of the clue, standing for ‘like so’ in the same way as we often have ‘this’ referencing another part of a clue. It would have worked just as well without ‘so’ of course.
      1. That doesn’t make “So” the definition. “So” doesn’t mean “about to drop litter” or IN PIG, at least not in any dialect of which I’m aware.
  2. 10 minutes. Hesitated quite a lot over 6dn before writing IN PIG which had been my immediate thought but I couldn’t see the wordplay for a while. Also looked twice at BLOW OUT wondering why ‘birthday meal’?, but of course it’s for the surface reading. Dredged up ADDER’S TONGUE from somewhere, but only after the checkers were in place. Wondered about ‘provides/invests’ but my thesaurus advises it’s okay in the sense of ’empowerment’.

    Edited at 2019-09-11 04:49 am (UTC)

  4. Not easy from Oran. It was inevitable for me that I was staring at the plant as my LOI. I had 14:45 on the clock at that time. I had put a very shaky IN PUP at 6d but I erased it after writing out the anagrist. Eventually I got ADDERS TONGUE. The key for me was guessing where to put the U. Time 17:19.
    A high quality puzzle from Oran. Cod perhaps to NURSERY SLOPES.
    David

    Edited at 2019-09-11 07:04 am (UTC)

  5. Some tricky clues in here, but I really struggled with my last two, the plant and IN PIG where I had no idea what was going on, but fortunately with only 2 unchecked letters it couldn’t be much else. Particularly enjoyed UPPITY. Finished in 11.51.
    Thanks for the blog
  6. Still don’t understand in pig.
    If the definition is swine about to drop litter, what is the wordplay?

    Also don’t understand huge birthday meal.

    Dnk cavil or adders tongue.

    Roll on tomorrow.

    1. Blow Out is slang for a big meal. If it was a birthday meal there would be candles on the cake to blow out.
  7. A tricky offering which took me over my target. Struggled with the wordplay for IN PIG, didn’t know ADDERS TONGUE, so had to wait for checkers. Generally had to work hard to tease out the definitions. FOI PUBS, LOI UPPITY. 13:36. Thanks Oran and William.
  8. Tough but good, thanks Oran. Like others I struggled over the unknown ADDER’S TONGUE but I’d heard of a plant called “mother-in-law’s tongue” and that got me there in the end. Really struggled over UPPITY, though, which required a trawl. Lots of nice clues but I really didn’t rate NURSERY SLOPES, which seemed very feeble to me (although since David has it as COD it clearly divides opinions!).

    FOI PUBS, LOI UPPITY, COD TOY BOY (very funny surface). All done in 15:17 for an estimated 2.75K and a Decent Enough Day. Thanks for the blog, William.

    Templar

  9. ….IN PIG, I enjoyed this puzzle. I don’t remember encountering Oran before, but he’s welcome to come back soon. I was surprised to come home in such a quick time, as this was quite a stern test for a QC. There were a number of clues here which would have graced a 15×15.

    FOI BLOW-OUT
    LOI AT A PRICE
    COD ACTION-PACKED
    TIME 3:41

    1. In the Jack-ometer which he posted recently, he rated Oran second only to Hawthorn for degree of difficulty. I was therefore pleased with my time of 20min.
  10. Glad others found this tricky too, though it was only the right hand side that caused me problems. I don’t think I’d heard of adder’s tongue, but I was lucky enough to see tongue from the letters and after a moment considering ‘sadder tongue’ saw a more likely answer. Never heard of toper, only vaguely knew cavil (and only from here I think), and thought the nursery slopes clue was more of a straight definition than a cryptic. LOI was in pig, an expression I’ve never heard (though we had ‘in pup’ relatively recently which helped), but the so at the beginning confused me. It seems like another straight definition to me, or would be if you just put “Swine about to drop litter”. Where’s the word play? COD 21a Time 46:11, though I had most of it done in about a third of that.
  11. There have been 19 puzzles by Oran so far. His first was #35 in April 2104 and his latest before today was nearly a year ago, #1204 in October 2018.
  12. 6d beat me – all I could see was In pig, but as it didn’t make sense to me, I didn’t enter it, so DNF today.

    As we’re just about to head off to the airport, having finished packing, 5d was particularly appropriate! I often find funny / apposite connections between clues and the day’s events 😊

    FOI Blow-out
    COD Action packed (obvs)

    See you all soon 😊

  13. IN PIG totally defeated me. I had never heard the phrase. If the clue had read ‘if so..’ I might have stood a chance. DNK ADDERS TONGUE, and needed all the checkers for that one.
    A good challenge. Enjoyed the ‘BLOW OUT’
    PlayUpPompey
  15. A tale of two halves, the bottom went in without problems, but we found the top half very tricky. Flower unknown, and also toper. A challenge after one or two easier puzzles recently. Time around 45m after about 20m yesterday.
  17. Late I know. DNF as had taper not toper (tap being something that draws liquid – eg from a barrel, re reversed, and a taper being a small candle – and therefore a smoker). Half marks?

    Mighty

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