Times Quick Cryptic 1807 by Orpheus

Due to considerable difficulty breaking into the NW corner, and a couple of other spiky clues, I finished in a respectable but above average time. I thought some of the anagrams (and indicators) were lovely. I only had to look up one piece of vocabulary post-solve. Did anyone else go searching for 27dn early on…?

Definitions underlined.

Across
1	Continental fellow in Scotland perhaps, carrying twisted fibre (8)
	EUROPEAN – EUAN (fellow in Scotland, perhaps) containg (carrying) ROPE (twisted fibre).
5	Live with copper — 27, possibly (4)
	CUBE – BE (live) with CU (copper).
7	Longing to remove initiator of political clean-up (4)
	URGE – pURGE (political clean-up) missing its first letter (to remove initiator).
8	Going on for ever about unidentified person outside (8)
	EXTERNAL – ETERNAL (going on forever) containing (about) X (unknown person).
9	Sentimental type initially involved with Marconi (8)
	ROMANTIC – anagram of (involved) the first letter of (initially) Type and (with) MARCONI.
11	Religious female going backwards and forwards (3)
	NUN – palindromic (going backwards and forwards) religious female.
13	Rodney relaxed over there (6)
	YONDER – anagram of (relaxed) RODNEY.
16	Get even with archdeacon in maturity (6)
	AVENGE – VEN (Venerable, honorific for archdeacon) in AGE (maturity).
18	Greek character returned and dined (3)
	ATE – ETA (Greek character) reversed (returned).
19	Sound money getting father something to suck (8)
	LOLLIPOP – sounds like (sound) “lolly” (money) then POP (father).
20	A chap crossing Morecambe, maybe, one from the States (8)
	AMERICAN – A MAN (a chap) containing (crossing) ERIC (Morecambe, maybe).
22	Knowledgeable about Shintoism? Not entirely (4)
	INTO – hidden in (not entirely) shINTOism.
23	Responsibility of bachelor abandoning extra benefit (4)
	ONUS – B (bachelor) removed from (abandoning) bONUS (extra benefit).
24	Change too much? About time to retire! (8)
	OVEREDIT – OVER (about) and TIDE (time) reversed (to retire).

Down
1	Key question about king’s personal attendant (7)
	EQUERRY – E (random musical key) and QUERY (question) containing (about) R (Rex, king). Tricky stuff.
2	I’m in surrogate ruler’s section of army (8)
	REGIMENT – I’M inside REGENT (surrogate ruler).
3	English reader, a Liberal, relating to voters (9)
	ELECTORAL – E (English), LECTOR (reader), A, and L (liberal). This was my missing vocab; a lector is a church reader or university lecturer.
4	Obsessive person in teachers’ union (3)
	NUT – National Union of Teachers (teachers’ union). Solidarity.
5	Vivid red vehicle belonging to this compiler (7)
	CARMINE – CAR (vehicle) and MINE (belonging to this compiler). Not your everyday colour but familiar enough, to me at least.
6	Like invigorating air beginning to boost activity at Epsom? (7)
	BRACING – first letter of (beginning to) Boost, then RACING (activity at Epsom).
10	Confront Helen, a GLC eccentric (9)
	CHALLENGE – anagram of (eccentric) HELEN A GLC.
12	University man receiving old writing implement still in wrapping (8)
	UNOPENED – U (university) and NED (man) containing (receiving) O (old) and PEN (writing implement).
14	A Roman senator originally abandoned one on the river (7)
	OARSMAN – anagram of (abandoned) A ROMAN and the first letter from (originally) Senator. My first thought was that I needed a Roman senator xOARSMAN missing his first. Thankfully not.
15	Just rewards — puddings. by the sound of it (7)
	DESERTS – sounds like (by the sounds of it) “desserts” (puddings).
17	Take advantage of former plan to tour India (7)
	EXPLOIT – EX (former) and PLOT (plan) containing (to tour) I (india, phonetic alphabet).
21	Imitate a dove? Goodness me (3)
	COO – double definition.

99 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1807 by Orpheus”

Funny, CUBE was the first thing that came into my head on reading 27, without even registering the rest of the clue — almost a write-in. Good clue for a mathematical chemist! I really enjoyed the puzzle and it wasn’t too hard — 20 mins while cooking supper. Thanks!

Managed to get through them all until OVEREDIT, nice deflection using ABOUT = OVER as so used to ABOUT being RE or C or as a wordplay indicator although still struggling to think of hearing that usage in a sentence. I was not helped by my thinking that COR was the answer for 21D as “Goodness me!” apparently, this isn’t what it sounds like when doves cry…

Humph – a DNF. I admit to not being my sharpest after a day of gruelling physical labour, but I managed to fight my way through the W but had snookered myself in the E. A bad answer for 11a Eve, instead of Nun screwed up not just 12d (looking for varsity or something) but also 16a Avenge. Also saw 5a Cu but assumed it ended the word rather than started it, so Cube was elusive (should have thought more about 27). 5d was initially Crimson but I knew it didn’t parse properly and anyway C wouldn’t be the start of 5a and so got bogged down. Deciding to cut my losses rather than stare at it dumbly while not firing on all cylinders I came here and that gave me 11a Nun and then everything fell into place immediately. So one initial error did for my solve… Managed only 3a (including the error Eve) and 8d on first pass. FOI 2d Regiment. LOI irrelevant. COD 14d Oarsman. Fell into all the usual traps too. Not an edifying performance today!
I wasn’t putting up a good enough fight to overcome Orpheus’s fair challenge and really appreciated William’s blog and the discussion.

Seeing the total contributions standing at 99 at 7 minutes to midnight I can’t resist adding one more just to make it the round ton. I’m not sure that’s ever been achieved before by a single puzzle of any sort!

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