Times Quick Cryptic 2216 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

A scorpion of a QC! I was well and truly bitten by the sting in the tail which was 13dn. Until then it was smooth sailing (I got both the long vertical and horizontal clues which helped) and I’d completed all bar the unchecked letters of 13dn. There are only 4 but they took an extra minute each. Even when I had the answer, I did some research for the blog.
I counted 6 double definitions which seemed a lot.

So, here goes – I hope you knew the GK and breezed through.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics.

Across
1 A right turn-off, corporation’s tree plantation (9)
ARBORETUM – a (A), right (R), turn-off (BORE), corporation (stomach – TUM).
6 Caught a glimpse of cutter (3)
SAW – double definition.
8 Retired minister with a roofed canopy (7)
VERANDA – minister – rev – retired (VER), with (AND), a (A).
9 On radio, remained calm and composed (5)
STAID – homophone (on the radio) of remained – stayed.
10 Light fabric produced by commercial traveller in church (5)
CREPE – commercial traveller (REP) in church (CE).
12 Observe article and be furious (6)
SEETHE – observe (SEE), article (THE).
14 Can someone else write this? Not on your life! (13)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY – cryptic definition.
16 Head of quiet university isn’t commonly olde-worlde (6)
QUAINT – (Q)uiet, university (U), isn’t spoken commonly (AIN’T).
17 Civic dignitary initially respected by Irish county (5)
MAYOR – (R)espected next to Irish County (MAYO).
19 Couple providing support? (5)
BRACE – double definition. We managed to avoid the female clothing reference.
20 Large books finally deter unworthy intolerance (7)
BIGOTRY -large (BIG), books (OT), dete(R) unworth(Y).
22 Draw bow, perhaps (3)
TIE – double definition. To draw in a game is to tie and bow tie.
23 Charlie entering place set out for extravaganza (9)
SPECTACLE – Charlie (C) entering an anagram (out) of PLACE SET.
Down
1 Lawyer endlessly imbibing a liqueur (8)
ADVOCAAT – lawyer endlessly (ADVOCAT)e containing a (A).
2 Secure watering hole (3)
BAR – double definition. Secure as in barring a door.
3 Extent of shooting area (5)
RANGE – double definition.
4 Able to be conveyed to Barnstaple somehow, crossing river (13)
TRANSPORTABLE – anagram (somehow) of TO BARNSTAPLE around river (R).
5 Wrongly assume right to be manipulator (7)
MASSEUR – anagram (wrongly) of ASSUME, right (R).
6 Cheerfully casual friends turned up slightly drunk (4-5)
SLAP-HAPPY – friends – pals – upwards (SLAP), slightly drunk (HAPPY/merry).
7 Broad identification you and I must go without (4)
WIDE – identification (ID) with you and I (WE) outside.
11 Attendants in French trip get older (9)
ENTOURAGE – ‘in’ in French (EN), trip (TOUR), get older (AGE).
13 Poet’s mature association with nature? (3,5)
EYE RHYME – for a QC, I’d say this was a fiendish cryptic definition of what, in poetry, could be the association between ‘mature’ and ‘nature’. The checkers led me to eye rhyme which IDK so I had to wonder what was going on. When I noticed the ‘ATURE’ at the end of the two words and thought ‘well, it must be’ so bunged it in. Collins has ‘a rhyme involving words that are similar in spelling but not in sound, such as stone and none’.
15 Water heaters in British tankers, for example (7)
BOILERS – British (B), tankers for example (OILERS).
17 Power could — possibly? (5)
MIGHT – double definition.
18 Technology holding up former pupil’s death notice (4)
OBIT – technology (IT) underneath former pupil (OB).
21 Hearing blood-sucking arachnid, it might be nervous (3)
TIC – homophone (hearing) of tick.

 

87 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2216 by Orpheus”

  1. At least two ridiculous clues here. EYE RHYME is bad enough, but corporation for “tum”? Come off it. QC’s are supposed to be approachable, surely, not some private club for a privileged few.

    Boo.

    1. Why does having to learn some new vocabulary make this a “private club for a privileged few”?

      If you don’t like learning new words, this may not be the hobby for you.

  2. Hadn’t heard the term EYE RHYME so that took a while.
    I’m also fairly new here and was under the impression that Chambers is the standard.
    They have EYE-RHYME, with a hyphen. I know it doesn’t really matter, but, which is correct and is there a standard source for all spellings?

    1. The standard dictionaries for Times daily cryptic puzzles are Collins and either the Concise Oxford or the Oxford Dictionary of English (of the Oxfords I thought it was the latter but Peter B’s recent comments have raised doubts in my mind). Anyway, in this case all three have ‘eye rhyme’ as two separate words. Chambers is the dictionary for Mephisto puzzles.

        1. You’re welcome. Collins is available free on line. The Oxfords were free under Lexico until a couple of weeks ago but have now been incorporated with the American dictionary.com and I don’t think it’s been established yet whether their content is reliable for Times crossword solving.

  3. Dnf…18 mins for everything apart from 13dn which I’d never heard of.

    The rest I thought were generally fair.

    FOI – 10ac “Crepe”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 1dn “Advocaat” – just for the memories of egg-nog.

    Thanks as usual!

  4. DNF – could not get or guess EYE RHYME, unknown to me. Quite a few tough clues BIGOTRY, ADVOCAAT – not a liqueur that readily springs to mind), VERANDA. 1a ARBORETUM – obvious from “tree plantation”, but TUM = corporation? Not heard of it = stomach.

  5. On a par with jackkt and Plett11 needing just a few seconds more to commit to EYE RHYME in 7:17. It was so frustrating to watch the timer move from 5 plus to 6 plus mins with just this last clue to solve. COD to SLAP HAPPY because it made me smile.

  6. A Red Letter Day, as I whizzed through this in 5:50 – I really can’t write much faster! All done and dusted, even EYE RHYME, which I’ve definitely seen before, although more likely on the other side.
    I was amused by Chris’s comment about 19a – the undergarment is still hidden in BRACE! I always forget that definition of a pair for some reason (no additional pun intended!)
    No problem with CORPORATION as I commented to Merlin. In fact, I really don’t mind old fashioned slang – it’s all part of the language. Does anyone say groovy any more, unless they’re being a bit tongue-in-cheek? We still know what it means. Tina’s and Ellie’s references yesterday to ‘yeet’ sent me rushing to the urban dictionary, however 😅
    FOI Arboretum; LOI Bar (simply because I somehow skipped it and just noticed a gap at the end!); COD Staid (nice surface)
    Thanks Orpheus and Chris

  7. DNF. Like most others on here, defeated by 13D, which I’d never heard of. An alphabet trawl showed these as potential answers and I suppose I should have resorted to something like Google to check it out.
    TUM for Corporation was the other strange thing, however the remainder of the clue led to a reasonable solution, so it went in with a shrug.
    The rest of the puzzle seemed quite fair. Just these two oddities.
    Thanks to Chris for the blog

  8. FOI ARBORETUM, LOI SLAP HAPPY, but DNF and am not ashamed to have been foxed by my COD, which I think is a clever double definition. NHO eye rhyme, but assume it is two words which appear to rhyme but don’t, tough though that may seem (pardon the pun!). DD because a poet can say “I rhyme!” I seldom enjoy a DNF as much, so thanks Orpheus and Chris. Do eye rhymes exist outside English?

        1. No, oeuf and oeufs are pronounced completely differently, but look as though one is a simple plural of the other.

  9. DNF, joining the crowd beaten by EYE RHYME. Was on for an uncommon sub-10 minute day until I was held up by BRACE, which eventually came, and EYE RHYME, which didn’t. After turning to Chambers online to fill in the blanks, I gave the clue a grudging smile: I had been sent entirely the wrong way.

  10. 24 minutes and DNF due to 13d
    I’d not heard of the expression and assumed it was an obscure poet that I had not heard of.
    In hindsight I wished that I had studied the clue more.
    Thanks all
    John

  13. DNFed on EYE RHYME after 30, which was a shame as there were many other good clues. I have heard the term I think, so it would have been fine if it had been clued more kindly. I just assumed I was looking for the name of an obscure poet, or at least one I hadn’t heard of, Gye Royce or Tye Rayne for example. Oh well.

  14. Enjoyed this one. Solved much later than usual on a kindle, which hasn’t given me a time – quickish I think, even allowing for EYE RHYME.

  16. If you have guests for Christmas, try pouring chilled advocaat over warm mince pies. It tastes delicious and will raise some eyebrows when it looks like custard…

  17. 9.09 after a few bevvies in the pub with work colleagues (a rare sighting – only been in four times in almost 3 years). Hence slightly sub-comparison time but happy enough

    Tend to agree with the comment about 13d being slightly out of place in this puzzle. Hadn’t heard of it the first time it came up in a 15×15 but did remember it here

    Pleasant fare elsewhere though a lazy ADVOCATE delayed the answer to the AUTOBIOGRAPHY

    Thanks all

  18. The best example of an EYE RHYME is perhaps.

    There was a young lady from Slough
    Who once had a terrible cough
    She sounded quite rough
    But battled on through
    I think she’s better now though.

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