Times Quick Cryptic 2241 by Trelawney

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

A good start then a slow finish in the SW. 1ac went straight in and the top half went in nicely. Much slower further down with the SW taking me over 10 minutes – LOI 15dn is amazingly easy if you don’t get stuck on vision as the sense.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics.

Across
1 Martial art — it’s surrounded by magical charm (7)
JUJITSU – it’s (ITS) surrounded by magical charm (JUJU).
5 Broken sculpture (4)
BUST – double definition.
7 Basis for soup — last of celery with plenty of beef? (6)
STOCKY – basis for soup (STOCK), celer(Y).
8 Obtain parking place outside theatre finally (6)
DERIVE – parking place (DRIVE) outside (around) theatr(E). I thought ‘outside’ related to the parking space outside a house but revised that thought.
9 Badly built rental vehicle that’s rapid (6,5)
BULLET TRAIN – anagram (badly) of BUILT RENTAL.
10 Set free? That’s rotten! (6)
PUTRID – set (PUT), free (RID).
12 Grabbed by green ogre in film, I scream (6)
SHRIEK – I (I) inside (grabbed by) green ogre in film (SHREK).
14 Think about West Country heroine (6,5)
WONDER WOMAN – think about (WONDER), West (W), country (OMAN).
17 Airman bombing harbour (6)
MARINA – anagram (bombing) of AIRMAN.
18 Briefly look good with weapon (6)
GLANCE – good (G), weapon (LANCE).
20 Hand over some choice delicacies (4)
CEDE – some of choi(CE DE)licacies.
21 Smelly stuff next to one revolting prison (7)
DUNGEON – smelly stuff (DUNG), anagram (revolting) of ONE.
Down
1 Black plane (3)
JET – double definition.
2 Beginning of joke to do with looking humorous? (7)
JOCULAR – (J)oke, to do with looking (OCULAR).
3 Herb produced by your old-fashioned setter (5)
THYME – your old-fashioned (THY), setter (ME).
4 Taped us changing latest news reports (7)
UPDATES – anagram (changing) of TAPED US.
5 Rumba dancing in part of Asia, once (5)
BURMA – anagram (dancing) of RUMBA.
6 Number observed outside party, perhaps (9)
SEVENTEEN – observed (SEEN) outside party (EVENT).
9 Creature‘s vulgar cry picked up (4,5)
BLUE WHALE – vulgar (BLUE), homophone (picked up) of cry=wail.
11 Action movie I’d heard is dreadful (3,4)
DIE HARD – anagram (is dreadful) of ID HEARD.
13 Run amok and barge into errand boy (7)
RAMPAGE – barge into (RAM), errand boy (PAGE).
15 Sensory organ captures one sound (5)
NOISE – sensory organ (NOSE) with one (I) inside.
16 Comedian aboard cart (5)
WAGON – comedian (WAG), aboard (ON).
19 Prisoner‘s trick (3)
CON – double definition.

 

66 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2241 by Trelawney”

  1. A rare sub 10 mins for me – coming in at 8 mins, which must be close to a PB.

    Just one of those puzzles where every answer came pretty much immediately. Only hold up were the last two of 10ac “Putrid” and 11dn “Die Hard” (which I thought was a cryptic clue rather than an anagram).

    The thought of a West Country Wonder Woman makes me hark back to a possible David Prowse voiced Darth Vader. Thankfully, they went with James Earl Jones – but it could have been fun.

    FOI – 1dn “Jet”
    LOI – 11dn “Die Hard”
    COD – 14ac “Wonder Woman”

    Thanks as usual or, should I say, yippee ki-yay!

        1. If only it worked the other way around as well ! I would gladly put up with a run of DNFs for a chance of a sub-10 😉

  2. A rare sub 10. I fear I may have missed a rely fast one by solving on a phone in a cafe. WONDER WOMAN nearly did me in. First because I wanted Tess to be in there and then because separating West and Country is so hard for a Somerset lad.

  3. No problems until jocular, putrid and got stuck on shre(i)k.
    Liked marina, wagon, COD wonder woman.

  4. Like many others I started with a bang at the top and the top half was speedily completed. I slowed down appreciably in the bottom half but after 16 minutes (a reasonable time in my book) I just had 12ac to crack. Unfortunately I never managed to. I couldn’t work out what was going on in the (slightly contrived) clue and wasn’t sure whether I was looking for a synonym of grabbed or scream. Neither could I bring any green ogres to mind! Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

    FOI – 1ac JUJITSU
    LOI – DNF but would have been 12ac SHRIEK
    COD – 10ac PUTRID

  5. 11.04 PB for me today. Wow! After yesterday’s trudge this was a gift.
    Somewhere deep in my family history there is allegedly a connection to Trelawn(e)y of ‘The Song of the Western Men’. That was one of my favourite songs to sing at school many, many years ago.

  6. We also found the top half straightforward, then slowed down by wonder woman, and some others. Pleasant puzzle, thanks Trelawney.

  7. 16:17 here, with the last 3 minutes spent trying to find RAMPAGE and PUTRID. As others have said, it’s nice to see some cultural references more recent than Biggles.

  9. 12:42

    Definitely one of the easier ones. Thought a sub 10 was possible as the top half flew in but slightly slowed at the bottom overthinking LOI WONDER WOMAN.

  10. I thoroughly enjoyed this and was on for a sub 20 min time until I was left with 12ac. I worked out the wordplay but just couldn’t get first the Incredible Hulk and then the Jolly Green Giant out of my mind. Got there eventually.

    This QC was about my level. Enough to make me think but a respite after some recent horror shows. 10ac required an alphabet trawl and is my COD.

    Thanks as always Chris for the blog and congratulations 🎉 to those of you who recorded some impressive times .

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