Times Quick Cryptic 1517 by Howzat

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Happy New Year to all – I hope that 2020 brings you many PDMs and fast times.

I found this tougher than average, and it took me a long while to get going. We seem to be required to know more French lately with ‘winter’ recently and a couple more today, which suits me, but I did not know the SA province and fell short with the lateral thinking as per usual.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Sound of hooter about one (5)
NOISE – NOSE (hooter) containing (about) I (one).
4 Awkward for the Left in Paris (6)
GAUCHE – French for (in Paris) ‘left’.
9 Gas and water in French country house (7)
CHATEAU – CHAT (gas) and EAU (‘water’ in French).
10 Strike in troubled times (5)
SMITE – anagram of (troubled) TIMES.
11 Driver’s aid is what this begins with (3)
TEE – ‘this’ begins with the leter TEE. An aid to the driver of golf course variety.
12 Respected hospital given permission (8)
HALLOWED – H (hospital) and ALLOWED (given permission).
15 Misdirect a soldier and there could be this? (3,2,4,4)
EGG ON ONES FACE – cryptic definition. These soldiers are the dippy kind.
17 School PTA loses supporters (8)
APOSTLES – anagram of (school) PTA LOSES.
18 Sailor’s muscles? (3)
ABS – double definition.
20 Refuse to entertain day in English city (5)
LEEDS – LEES (refuse, from the sediment in wine) containing (entertaining) D (day).
22 A little tin with fly in it (7)
SMIDGEN – SN (chemical symbol for tin) with MIDGE (fly) inside it.
23 Definitely not a motorway overseas (6)
ABROAD – A B-ROAD (definitely not a motorway).
24 Former S African province of birth (5)
NATAL – double definition.

Down
1 Degrees of precision and what smart men wear? (8)
NICETIES – NICE TIES (what smart men wear?).
2 How pantomime ends is silly (5)
INANE – the word ‘pantomime’ ends IN AN E.
3 The planes flying could be jumbos (9)
ELEPHANTS – anagram of (flying) THE PLANES.
5 Idiot in Massachusetts (3)
ASS – hidden in mASSachusetts.
6 Fabulous creature to agree with artist (7)
CHIMERA – CHIME (to agree) and RA (Royal Academician, artist).
7 With force away, not so many in jug (4)
EWER – fEWER (not so many) without the ‘f’ (with force away).
8 After bad flu, shelling out for cooked breakfast (4,7)
FULL ENGLISH – anagram of (bad) FLU, then an anagram of (out) SHELLING.
13 Complex old boy overlooking meeting (9)
OBSESSION – OB (old boy) on top of (overlooking) SESSION (meeting).
14 Private parking near New Orleans (8)
PERSONAL – P (parking) and an anagram of (new) ORLEANS.
16 Break from education to go into space? (3,4)
GAP YEAR – cryptic defintiion, suggesting that during the year one might go into a gap/space.
18 What starts off anxious new guy sensing trouble? (5)
ANGST – first letters from (starts of) Anxious New Guy Sensing Trouble.
19 Sort of market for jumper (4)
FLEA – double definition.
21 Endless dispute in resort (3)
SPA – remove the last letter from (endless) SPAt (dispute).

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1517 by Howzat”

  1. Not an anagram, simply stuffing a bread soldier into a soft boiled egg with undue haste and making a mess.
  2. To amend Anon’s comment slightly, I’d say the idea was to take the soldier and not get it neatly in one’s mouth. I’d forgotten about the edible soldier and just biffed this, after thinking of GI for a while, but I put in IN instead of ON. I’ve never cared much for clues like 19d; a flea is not a sort of market, a flea market is a sort of market. 5:59, for all the good it did me.
  3. 7 minutes, so all straightforward here although I had to check wordplay to avoid the alternative spelling SMIDGIN at 22ac. SMIDGEON is also allowable but obviously wasn’t going to fit today. Back in the 1950s I knew someone who lived in NATAL, so I had no problem with that other than not realising it no longer exists.
    1. Geography is a bit like the offside rule in football. You learn it in your youth and then the committee decides to change it all.
  4. 23 minutes, so about average for what I thought was an excellent start to the new year. I particularly liked ABROAD and NICETIES, and the mis-direction in ‘New Orleans’, although GAP YEAR was a bit weak.
    Thanks to William and Howzat, keep up the good work.

    Brian

  5. Another year of puzzlement begins.

    FOI 1ac NOISE

    LOI 18dn GAP YEAR

    COD 19dn FLEA perfectly good clue – hair-splitting from Osaka methink.

    WOD 15ac EGG ON ONE’S FACE

  6. An interesting change – it took me a few minutes to get into Howzat’s style – so it took me a little over 3K in the end. I ended up in the NW corner with NOISE and NICETIES, both of which were pretty obvious when the pennies dropped. EGG ON ONES FACE took longer than it should have. I liked INANE and SMIDGEN and thought that PERSONAL was nicely constructed. Thanks to Howzat and Jeremy for a good start to 2020. John M.
  7. For the third day in a row I managed to more or less write in the answers without any particular trouble about 7 mins today. Vaguely worrying 🙂
  8. I found the NW a bit chewy today, with EGG ON ONES FACE, NICETIES and the parsing of INANE taking some to work out. But I managed to take my levels of doziness to new heights with my LOI, TEE, where I needed an alphabet trawl for this old chestnut!! Finished in 13.40 with my favourite being 15a.
    Thanks to William.
  9. Early on I was going so quickly I was thinking of PB territory. I was definitely on this setter’s wavelength. FOI was GAUCHE.
    But I slowed down a lot and my LOI ANGST took most of a minute; I nearly went for AUGHT in desperation. Prior to that SMIDGEN (my COD amongst a number of good candidates).And I hesitated over LEEDS which I failed to parse -thanks for that.
    So a good start to the year in 09:10. Excellent puzzle with lots of humour.
    Happy new year to all bloggers and contributors here.
    David
  10. 11 minutes, so easier on my scale. I put in NECKTIES originally, but was unhappy that I couldn’t parse it properly, so luckily returned to it before completion, when the penny finally dropped. Some nice clues here, on this first day of a GLEEMing new year – see the 8th column.
  11. Just under 2K for me, which seems to be my mark. A very nice puzzle from Howzat with some lovely clues that misled on first reading – I spent a long time trying to find the anagram in 15A. Misdirected indeed by the clue! Also noticing the increase in French required these days – not my strong suit.

    Thank you William for the blog and Happy New Year to all.

  12. ….and my first sub-3 minute solve for quite some time. I suppose 2020 will be downhill all the way from this point !

    One does not require soldiers to get EGG ON ONE’S FACE. A FULL ENGLISH does the job perfectly adequately for we bewhiskered participants. And I never refuse to entertain a day in LEEDS, a city with plenty to offer the serious connoisseur of decent ale !

    FOI NOISE
    LOI ABROAD
    COD EGG ON ONE’S FACE

  13. No problem with NATAL as it was still called that when I lived there as a boy. No problems with anything else for that matter a I romped through this. Some great clues. TEE, INANE and ELEPHANTS all got a tick on my copy. A nice start to the year. Thanks William and Howzat. 3:46.

    Edited at 2020-01-01 12:48 pm (UTC)

  14. Whenever I crack a clue that makes me particularly admire the setter or makes me giggle, I doodle a smiley face next to it to remind me to comment on it. In today’s puzzle, clues with smiles on them outnumbered those without! What great fun. Super misdirection, lovely imagery and cracking word play. I’m not sure I can choose a COD – there are too many contenders – but, if I was pushed, I’d go for the sweetly humorous 15 across. LOI was 22 across which had to be “smidgen” but which foxed me in the parsing because I did not know “SN” for tin. Are there towns called “stannards”? Vague bells ring in my head about there being places authorised to check tin purity. Thanks so much, Howzat, for a great start to the year and thanks, too, to William for the very helpful blog.
  15. Fairly straightforward, and most enjoyable. Nice sense of the cryptic in several of the clues. Natal Province was where the Battle of Rorke’s Drift (amongst others) was fought. Most VCs ever awarded for a single engagement. Today’s piece of useless information.
    1. Natal, now part of KwaZulu-Natal, was also where the Battle of Isandlwana was fought when the British Army suffered its worst defeat against an indigenous foe with vastly inferior military technology and was, IMO, the main reason for so many VCs coming up with the rations following the defence of Rorke’s Drift. Stephen
      1. … then again, 155 vs 3,000+ might have had something to do with it as well.
  16. This was a very enjoyable start to the new year. Like Rotter I had NeCkTIES for 1d and wasn’t happy with the parsing. I corrected it just before submitting in a pleasing 1.33K. I enjoyed quite a few clues including 1d, 2d, 23a (similar wordplay), the anagram at 17a and of course EGG ON ONES FACE. Happy New Year to all.
  17. Really enjoyed this, and at 15mins easily my fastest of the year (😉)… and one of my better times over the last 12 months as well. Like Louisajaney, my paper was covered with cod prompts at the end of most of the clues, but I think 2d, Inane, just nudges it. A Happy New Year to everyone, and especially Howzat. Invariant
  18. Inane was pipped to COD by egg on one’s face. It had onto be but I was still puzzling over it when I’d completed. When the penny dropped it gave me a smile. A smidgen under 2K. Thanks to William and greetings to all.
  19. Really fun puzzle, with lots of wit and sparkle. Only 1.25K which is an Excellent Day, even if I messed up my Crossword Club entry by typing AAS for ASS. Now I understand why the keenies always rue their lack of proof-reading!

    FOI NOISE, LOI INANE, COD EGG ON ONE’S FACE because the soldier sent me off on completely the wrong path; excellent clue.

    Thanks Howzat and William.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-01-01 02:01 pm (UTC)

  20. Really enjoyed this with lots of amusing and clever clues. However, I had “Neckties” for 1dn so technically DNF and left me with 15ac (should have checked the parsing more carefully).

    Regarding the French, I always thought Chat = Cat, but then again I did German and not French at a higher level. DNK “Lees” as refuse (wine sediment) for 20ac either, but Leeds was easily biffable.

    Like many above, there were a number of contenders for COD. It was going to be 15ac “Egg On Ones Face” until I finally got 2dn “Inane” which made me laugh out loud.

    Overall it took me about an hour.

    Thanks to Howzat for a great start to the year and, of course, to the blog.

    [EDIT: Just realised the Chat = Gas isn’t French at all. Doh! Even more 15ac!!]

    Edited at 2020-01-01 03:18 pm (UTC)

  21. Happy new year- here’s to another year of learning from this blog- thanks all. The penny dropped a couple of times- should have got 15A and 1D sooner but a most enjoyable crossword, needed this blog to understand LEEDS and can’t spell smidgen! Thanks Howzat and William.
  22. Fun crossword with some excellent and fun clues.

    FOI: 1A
    LOI: 22A
    COD: 15A
    LOL (I.e. most amusing): 23A

    Happy New Year!

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