Times Quick Cryptic 1776 by Breadman

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I found today’s more difficult than yesterday but as many found yesterday’s quite hard maybe the reverse will hold true today.
I found this chock full of clever clues which I’ve enjoyed untangling for the blog.

I finished just on 12 minutes with LOI 8dn for which I had a great deal of troubling working out both the answer and the cryptic – click ‘read more’ to read of these travails below.

ACROSS

1. Animal shelter contains device which monitors small dwelling (7)
COTTAGE – animal shelter (CAGE) (COTE – a small shelter for sheep or birds) contains device which monitors (TAG).
7. At work, Ray, Lee and daughter like some cakes (7)
LAYERED – anagram (at work) of RAY LEE, daughter (D).
9. Beer seen outside South Africa game usually (2,1,4)
AS A RULE – beer (ALE) seen outside South Africa (SA) and game (RU – Rugby Union).
10. Holiday residence, home for criminal (7)
VILLAIN – holiday residence (VILLA), home (IN).
11. Jab acceptable during training (4)
POKE – acceptable (OK) during training (PE).
12. Wrinkled expert grasping new sequence of steps (4,5)
LINE DANCE – wrinkled (LINED), expert (ACE) grasping new (N).
14. Adult joint’s style of music (9)
BLUEGRASS – adult (BLUE – the magazine/movie type), joint (GRASS – as in drugs).
16. Cheese female consumed the wrong way (4)
FETA – female (F), consumed – ate – the wrong way (ETA).
17. Embarrassed when theatrical person meets newsman (7)
ASHAMED – when (AS), theatrical person (HAM) meets newsman (ED).
20. Loosen piece of hair after bun arranged (7)
UNBLOCK – piece of hair (LOCK) after an anagram (arranged) of BUN.
21. Devilish fifth grade male disrupts teacher in charge (7)
DEMONIC – the fifth letter of grad(E) and make (M) inside (they are disrupting) teacher (DON), in charge (IC).
22. Chaps on rocky peak finally broadcast anguish (7)
TORMENT – chaos (MEN) on rocky peak (TOR) and broadcas(T).

DOWN

1. One who applauds committee’s filming equipment (12)
CLAPPERBOARD – one who capplauds (CLAPPER), committee (BOARD).
2. Much appreciated handkerchief during short tour (5,3)
THANK YOU – handkerchief (HANKY) inside (during) short (TOU)r.
3. Regularly call funny Welshman (4)
ALUN – regularly c(A)l(L) f(U)n(N)y. I haven’t come across this typical Welsh name before.
4. Cricket team in novel event (6)
ELEVEN – inside nov(EL EVEN)t.
5. Bike rides embodying advert for Greek islands (8)
CYCLADES – bike rides (CYCLES) holding (embodying) advert (AD).
6. Legendary monster bore scar centrally (4)
ORCA – central chunks of b(OR)e s(CA)r. Well, ‘it must be’ a legendary monster but I haven’t found any references to it – killer whales – yes – monsters – no.
8. Imbecile Cockney journalist wearing black coat (6,6)
DONKEY JACKET – my problem clue today. It was LOI so I had all the checkers, jacket was obvious and I was itching to put in ‘dinner jacket’ but I couldn’t justify it at all. This transfixed me onto the definition being ‘black coat’ and I just couldn’t pick the clue apart. Eventually donkey jacket went in based on ‘imbecile’ but I still couldn’t work out the rest having considered anagrams (2 Cs in Cockney though). Post solve I looked up donkey jacket to find that it’s a dark BLUE jacket so I was able to prise apart black and jacket and it was obvious. Such a struggle so I must think this was a good clue – so COD.
Imbecile (DONKEY – often, sadly, heard from football crowds), cockney journalist (‘ACK – from hack) wearing (inside) black (JET).
12. Georgia, getting in hardwood, books “bony” joiner?(8)
LIGAMENT – Georgia (GA) getting inside hardwood (LIME), books (NT). My first COD contender for such a wonderful definition.
13. Crippled in heel on type of golf course (4-4)
NINE-HOLE – anagram (crippled) of IN HEEL ON.
15. Seaman reportedly avoided kidnap (6)
ABDUCT – seaman (AB – able bodied), homophone (reportedly) of avoided – ducked.
18. Border patroller’s opening drug (4)
HEMP – border (HEM), (P)atroller.
19. Second character in waterproof coat that gives skiers a lift (1-3)
T-BAR – second character – of the alphabet (B) inside waterproof coat (TAR). A T-Bar is an inverted T which hangs from a wire allowing 2 people to be supported – one on each half.

65 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1776 by Breadman”

  1. That was tough! I didn’t know T-BAR but biffed it. I wrote in DINNER JACKET without knowing why, then changed it to DONKEY JACKET, still without knowing why. And I was quite happy with CAGE for the animal shelter with OTT as some kind of IT related tag. So thanks to the blogger and contributors for helping me out. No accurate time as I had a long break midway through.
  2. 36 minutes with a DNF because I biffed ‘dinner jacket’ without being able to parse it. The jacket part went in easily but I was stuck on dinner and couldn’t let donkey in. What an imbecile. So COD to 8d.

    I got COTTAGE and parsed it by using CAGE as an animal shelter and OTT for a device that monitors. OTT (as in Over The Top) is the generic name for the HDMI device that you plug into your television to receive TV programs over wireless internet connection. Some of you might be familiar with Amazon’s Firestick for example. It’s name comes from the device originally being fitted ‘over the top’ of a cable box. So it seemed to be a perfectly suitable parsing of the clue.

    Thanks to Breadman for an enjoyable puzzle and to Chrisw91 for the blog.

  3. I seemed to have bucked the post Christmas trend and recorded two quick solves. Yesterday’s solve took me 8:20 and today’s solve 8:25. My LOI was COTTAGE which I couldn’t parse but I confidently worked out DONKEY JACKET. Thanks Chris for the blog.
  4. Quite a toughie today I thought with two I failed to parse (1a and 19d), but it could have been worse. I stopped my watch on 37:59 and then had another go at parsing 21a, which I did straight away, before a last look at DINNER JACKET because I really couldn’t see how dinner could mean imbecile. Somehow, after a few seconds DONKEY JACKET came to mind, which I wasn’t consciously aware of being a thing, but I must have known from somewhere. I’m adding 40 seconds to my time and recording it as 38:39, so just inside my “harder puzzle target”, a category which I have just invented. On the subject of orcas not being legendary monsters, I would think that if you were one of those sea lions (or possibly fur seals) in the Attenborough documentary I’m thinking of, you might have a different opinion. It’s all a matter of perspective. Anyway, lots to enjoy here. In fact pretty much every clue was a good one I thought, but COD for its smooth surface to 7a, FOI 9a, LOI 14a. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
  5. 3 fails, bluegrass, orca and torment for some reason. Donkey came at the death, the rest eventually worked out. Overall great clues and no complaints.
    Graham
  6. Finished in 16 minutes with everything correct but a lot of biffing. Never parsed LINE DANCE, ASHAMED or DONKEY JACKET, so thanks to Chris for the explanations. Had a MER at ORCA being defined as a legendary monster.

    FOI – 9ac AS A RULE
    LOI – 17ac ASHAMED
    COD – 1dn CLAPPERBOARD

  8. I think that in this E is maybe not meant as the fifth letter of grade but as a fifth grade after grades A B C D. Thanks for blog.
  9. After a fairly quick start (for me, at least) I was nearly two-thirds of the way through after just 20 minutes. However, I eventually put my pencil down three-quarters of an hour later, once I had plausible answers in for all of the remaining clues. Unfortunately, three of these proved implausible and a DNF was duly recorded in my tracking spreadsheet.

    As I do the puzzle on paper (my son does it online, commandeering our login), I am not prompted by pink squares to correct any errors. Reading the correct solutions here effectively slams the door on any second attempts and DNFs are a frequent occurrence for me.

    Many thanks to Breadman and to chrisw91, in spite of my DNF. I will come back full of hope again tomorrow.

    1. One poster requested the format I use currently so that they could (very carefully) scroll down to one of the answers they couldn’t get (the first unanswered across clue is easier to reveal on its own) so as to reveal just the clue and get to see what the definition is. That alone may be enough to get going again. If not then reveal the answer to just that one clue and use the checkers to keep going. Good luck!
      1. Good hint, Chris! Many thanks for the tip, although I may not use it on the QC, as I’m really severe on myself about the use of aids/hints/consultation/etc with this crossword. However, I often have a go at the Saturday Jumbo as well, so I could follow your advice when I get stuck on that one. Weirdly, I sometimes find resolving longer solutions and multi-word phrases a little easier than I do clues with shorter solutions.
  10. Missed the intricacies of the clues causing others travails, mainly by biffing and not thinking too hard. Could have gone either way I suppose! Got through yesterday’s earlier in the mid 5’s.

    Many thanks to Chris for filling in the blanks today!

  11. Didn’t get ashamed or hemp.
    Got cottage without parsing – would never have worked that out.
    Put dinner jacket. Cockney donkey – ??
    Ridiculously hard for a quick crossword.
    Too close to a 15×15 for me.
    Nick

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