Times Quick Cryptic 2211 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I got off to a good start with 1ac and then just about kept going, although it seemed rather sticky. I finished in the SE with 22dn just on 9 minutes. Looking back this seems like a pretty decent time. Having now had time to appreciate the complexity of the clues and the smoothly polished surfaces, I do congratulate Joker for a great puzzle.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics.

Across
1 Who’ll do supper for Meryl’s shows? (9)
PERFORMER – I rather surprised myself by seeing the hidden straight off (shows – as in shown in) in su(PER FOR MER)yl.
6 Down south and missing north (3)
SAD – south (S), (A)n(D) without ‘n’ for north.
8 One small seabird beside cold reservoir (7)
CISTERN – one (I), small (S) and seabird (TERN) beside cold (C).
9 What makes dad a native of China? (5)
PANDA – I think this is what makes (PAN – as in one makes things in a pan), dad (DA). The ‘and’ in the middle of ‘pa’ gives me pause for thought though. With thanks to Kevin – what’s makes Dad (PA) is (P and A).
10 Eg, a loincloth is out of order in referring to peoples and cultures (12)
ETHNOLOGICAL – anagram (is out of order) of EG A LOINCLOTH.
12 Swindle involving one currency item (4)
COIN – swindle (CON) involving one (I).
13 Sadly, a girl loses her last son (4)
ALAS – a (A), girl (LAS)s losing her last son – ‘s’.
17 Pirate upset splitting share getting sent home (12)
REPATRIATION – anagram (upset) of PIRATE splitting (inside) share (RATION).
20 Innocent I has divided part of church (5)
NAIVE – I (I) divided (inside) part of church (NAVE). The one surface not quite a smooth as the rest.
21 Bind queen’s lavender, stripping outer pieces (7)
ENSLAVE – take off the outside of que(ENS LAVE)nder.
23 Great success with hospital information technology (3)
HIT – Hospital (H), information technology (IT).
24 Sweetheart low with start of new period after wedding (9)
HONEYMOON – sweetheart (HONEY), low (MOO), (N)ew. Virtually every surface is slick and smooth today – I think this one and 14dn ‘take the biscuit’.
Down
1 A quantity of pickled peppers picked to nibble (4)
PECK – an impressive double definition.
2 Dish to stir, mixing round (7)
RISOTTO – anagram (mixing) of TO STIR, round (O).
3 Lyric poem found in Hesiod especially (3)
ODE – inside Hesi(OD E)specially. Hesiod btw was an Ancient Greek poet.
4 Masculine outlook is butcher (6)
MANGLE – Masculine (M), outlook (ANGLE).
5 Ruling about turning up is unacceptable (9)
REPUGNANT – ruling (REGNANT – as in a monarch) about up turning upwards (PU).
6 Game hedgehog going at some speed (5)
SONIC – double definition.
7 Departs before time and at great cost (6)
DEARLY – departs (D), before time (EARLY).
11 Anniversary — then tie-in needs developing (9)
NINETIETH – anagram (needs developing) of THEN TIE IN. I tried to hammer nineteenth in to start with.
14 One green and largely stoned in a mostly noisy party? (7)
AVOCADO – a (A), mostly noisy (VOCA)l, party (DO). Brilliant.
15 Bishop managed church division (6)
BRANCH – Bishop (B), managed (RAN), church (CH).
16 Bird, one good in open flying (6)
PIGEON – one (I) and good (G) inside an anagram (flying) of OPEN. Strange what sticks with you. I had always been tempted to add a ‘D’ into pigeon until Manuel in Fawlty Towers wondered what a PIG E ON was – thinking it had something to do with Oink.
18 Photo of queen included in volume (5)
PRINT – Queen (R) inside volume (PINT).
19 Plant in river amid wetland (4)
FERN – river (R) amid wetland (FEN).
22 It’s artful and crafty, ultimately (3)
SLY – an &lit to finish a very polished QC – it(S) artfu(L) craft(Y).

 

64 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2211 by Joker”

  1. Just a couple of seconds slower than Pitcaithlie and a few seconds faster than Kevin makes this an Excellent Day 😊 I’ve been finding Joker quite tough too, but somehow everything just clicked today. Having said that, I think I may have missed some of his subtleties – I had to read several clues more than once later on to get the full effect.
    I did like 20a – I sort of biffed and parsed it at the same time. I did see that it was Innocent the First, but thanks to Merlin’s fuller explanation, I can see it’s an even better clue! A few were a little melancholic though – ALAS, SAD and HONEYMOON. Perhaps its the effect of impending autumn.
    A surprising number of hidden today, I thought.
    FOI Performer LOI Repugnant 7 minutes
    Thanks Joker and Chris

  2. 29 mins…just a minute away from my cut off.

    Thought there were some tricky and clever clues in this with lots of potential misdirection. Main hold up was the SW corner where I stupidly biffed Parish without looking at it properly. Never did see the hidden word in 1ac, so bravo for that.

    FOI – 3dn “Ode”
    LOI – 14dn “Avocado”
    COD – 6ac “Sad” – although it could have been a number.

    Thanks as usual!

  3. Very happy to finish this in 9:33. Lots of very neat clues, I particularly liked NAIVE, MANGLE and DEARLY, but can’t choose a favourite today. Like others, I totally missed the hidden PERFORMER and ENSLAVE, so needed the blog to show me what was going on.
    Thanks to Joker & Chris.

  4. Made slow but steady progress. FOI – CISTERN. Liked HONEYMOON and REPATRIATION. Biffed PANDA (but reading the blog, what a lovely clue); completely missed PERFORMER but, when spotted, that gave me LOI – MANGLE. I also was trying to get Streep into 1A somewhere.
    Thanks to Joker and Chris.

  5. An excellent if tricky puzzle which I was pleased to complete earlier today in 22:37. Didn’t see either of the hiddens before I stopped my watch, but ENSLAVE was my LOI and I parsed it afterwards. COD to MANGLE. Thanks Joker and Chris.

  6. Another day, another struggle. Glad to finish but never really got going as I would like . Too embarrassed to give a time. Thanks for the blog which I needed for parsing a couple.

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