Times Quick Cryptic 2286 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

Having just written out the blog, I’m not sure why this took me 13 minutes. All very enjoyable – thanks, Teazel.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics

Across
1 Band that used to be someone’s pawn? (5)
QUEEN – in chess, a pawn which gets to the other side of the board can become a queen.
7 A social event including cake, lots of it (9)
ABUNDANCE – a (A), social event (BUN DANCE) including cake (BUN). I’ve been to a barn dance but never the bun version.
9 Make sense, in total (3,2)
ADD UP – double definition.
10 Can I become genial? (7)
AMIABLE – can I (AM I ABLE).
11 Suspended sentence? (7)
HANGING – cryptic definition.
12 From which presenter reads rolling news? (7)
AUTOCUE – cryptic definition.
15 Hospital ward struggling on — to such a success? (4,3)
HARD WON – hospital (H), anagram (struggling) of WARD, on (ON).
18 Confusing speaker helping himself to sugar? (7)
SPOONER – a spooner could spoon sugar.
20 Understanding relationship of music and wine (7)
RAPPORT – music (RAP), wine (PORT).
22 A large limb creates panic (5)
ALARM – a (L), large (L), limb (ARM).
23 One playing with brass elephant, perhaps (9)
TRUMPETER – double definition or a humorous reference.
24 Announce day finally set (5)
TELLY – announce (TELL), da(Y).
Down
1 Cancel soft drink, after taking top off (5)
QUASH – soft drink s(QUASH) without the top letter.
2 Put at risk, need Gran resettled (8)
ENDANGER – anagram (resettled) of NEED GRAN.
3 Not available, shocking pink cloth (6)
NAPKIN – not available (NA), anagram (shocking) of PINK.
4 Junkie using very large cup, one breaking law (6)
ADDICT – very large cup (DD) and one (I) breaking (inside) law (ACT).
5 Handle king, then aristocrat (4)
KNOB – king (K), aristocrat (NOB).
6 Little creature allowed outside always (7)
LEVERET – allowed (LET) outside always (EVER).
8 Ignatius, apt to fail in difficulties (2,7,2)
UP AGAINST IT – anagram (to fail) of IGNATIUS APT.
13 Gosh: new boundary for county (8)
CORNWALL – gosh (COR), new (N), boundary (WALL).
14 Relief organisation is nervous about it (7)
CHARITY – nervous (CHARY) about it (IT).
16 Exclamation, making mistake with croquet equipment (6)
WHOOPS – with (W), croquet equipment (HOOPS).
17 Initially, musician with light-weight skill? On the contrary (6)
MOZART – &lit. (M)usician, light weight (OZ), skill (ART). Mozart certainly wasn’t a light-weight musician (on the contrary). COD.
19 Strong drink before my card game (5)
RUMMY – string drink (RUM), my (MY).
21 Sulky look when nothing is in place (4)
POUT – nothing (O) inside place (PUT).

 

72 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2286 by Teazel”

  1. I thought this was a bit of a mixed bag – some great clues, but one that was barely cryptic, and one that took far too long! AUTOCUE seemed so obvious that I thought I needed to look for something more complicated (I take Jack’s point about the pun, but even so …) whereas I couldn’t see ADDICT for a couple of minutes, even though the definition was jumping out at me 😅 It was nice to see SPOONER as an answer, rather than an irritating device (irritating because I really struggle with spoonerisms!).
    I did wonder at one point if it was a pangram, as there were a few of the more unusual letters, but then there was no F, J or X to be seen.
    QUEEN gets Band of the Day – I saw them quite a few times in the 70s and they were just brilliant live.
    FOI Queen LOI Addict CsOD Abundance and Amiable – both made me smile
    Thanks Teazel and Chris

  2. I found this slightly hard going but really enjoyed the many witty clues, which reminded me of Tracy’s oeuvre.

    I noticed that a lot of the answers have double letters in the them. Is there a name for this, or an underlying pattern, or is it just the setter enjoying themself?

  3. I thought this was an excellent offering by Teazel with some first rate clues. I particularly liked the MOZART clue linked in with TELLY, the former being my LOI. No reservations from me about the AUTOCUE clue, I think it works perfectly well. My time was 10.38, so once again just outside target.

  4. Not a fan of AUTOCUE. I was stuck at various points around the grid including QUEEN/QUASH, ADDICT, AMIABLE and LOI RAPPORT. 15:16 for a ‘can do better’ day.

  5. Confidently entered ‘Alice’ at 1ac, thinking of hair bands and the chess board in Through the Looking Glass. Reading the clue to 2dn forced a rapid rethink! Also had a problem at 12ac, not because it was hardly cryptic, but because I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the machine which displays the rolling text. It wasn’t until I solved 13dn that it sprang to mind. I didn’t think much of it as a clue and the same applies to 11ac. Other than that a fine puzzle and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. All done in a rather pedestrian 22 minutes.

    FOI – 9ac ADD UP (although my wrong answer at 1ac technically preceded it)
    LOI – 20 ac RAPPORT
    COD – 10ac AMIABLE

    Thanks to Teazel and to Chris

  6. First ever finish in under an hour: 37.29 minutes to be precise (oddly just 1 second ahead of L Plates)
    LOI was 16d WHOOPS after rejecting WHOOPE which didn’t look right.
    COD 17d MOZART
    Old enough to remember ‘what’s on the telly?’
    With K,Q,Z,K and Y appearing I was expecting to need an X somewhere but it didn’t materialise.
    Thanks Teazel and Chris

    1. Well done that man 👍 Very satisfying when you finally break a barrier and, in your case, absolutely smashed it 💥

    4. Excellent performance. Talk about smashing the hour mark! Delighted for you and a just reward for your patience and perseverance.

  7. Only two clues solved after my first reading of the Acrosses … and one of those (‘ready’) was wrong. So, given that I struggle with Teazel more than with any other setter, I really expected a right roughing up today. However, the Down clues proved more submissive and I started to make some genuine progress. I made two other mistakes, putting ‘mugger’ (a law breaker who uses a large cup) and ‘AffABLE’ before AUTOCUE forced a re-think of 4d. Both ADDICT and AMIABLE then fairly soon came to mind. I DNK the meaning of CHARY and was unsure about HANGING, but I was pleased to see WHOOPS. Despite my slow start, I crossed the line in a very respectable (for me, at least) 34 minutes.

    Mrs Random worked through the clues more quickly than me and finished in 24 minutes. Unfortunately, however, she had biffed ‘article’ instead of AUTOCUE, so it goes down as a DNF.

    Many thanks to Teazel and Chris.

  8. some nice funny clues
    Oz for ounces was easy to parse.
    Only got rapport when looking at charity and found support didn’t fit

  9. Interesting, this newbie who happily lives in the SCC found this straightforward and very doable. All completed without aids. All parsed except for ADDICT. Thank you Teazel.

  10. 17:00

    I inadvertently pressed submit with 2 to go but a quick glance at the top left corner added QUEEN and QUASH in a matter of seconds. Nothing particularly difficult today, just a steady solve.

  11. Can’t make up my mind as to whether I enjoyed this or not. Began it 15 mins into the WC semi-final and had it done just after the ref blew for the break, so a decent time. But never felt I was on the wavelength and struggled with parsing.

    COD – 7ac
    LOI – 20ac

    Great blog Chris, many thanks

  12. PS Made me smile to read that Kevin took ‘forever’ – 10.13 mins. What I wouldn’t give to be able to say that!

  13. Only nine clues solved today. AUTOCUE leapt off the page, which, by my low standards, proves that it is not suitable for a cryptic. The other eight, ENDANGER, ADDICT, KNOB, CHARITY, UP AGAINST IT, CORNWALL, AMIABLE and HANGING went in quickly, but everything else stumped me.

  15. Unlike everyone else I didn’t like 17 d. Easy to put in Mozart but why both initially M for musician and the definition for the same word ? Maybe missed something. Never parsed Addict. Not so knowledgeable re. bras. Didn’t like Spooner. Nothing particularly to do with sugar. Maybe I am getting too picky in my old age.

    1. Mozart is an ‘and literally so’ (&lit) type of clue. The whole clue makes up the answer – which is the answer.
      Some others have agreed with you on spooner – in my view it’s OK – cryptic crosswords need give the solver a chance of solving with hints and tips but then make them do some work for the answer.

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