Times Quick Cryptic 290 by Tracy

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I wonder how this one will go down. I found some of it quite tough and in several cases needed more than a couple of checkers to come up with the right answer – 1dn being the trickiest of all and my last one in. Apart from that I don’t think there’s anything very obscure in the way of words or meanings or general knowledge so I’m a bit mystified that I needed 20 minutes to complete the grid. Let’s see what others make of it…

Definitions are underlined, {deletions in curly brackets}, [indicators in square brackets]

Across
1 Row of shops next to stadium where troops gather (6,6)
PARADE GROUND – PARADE (row of shops), GROUND (stadium)
8 Not bound to suffer defeat if duck’s bagged (5)
LOOSE – LOSE (suffer defeat) with 0 (duck – as in ‘out for a duck’ in cricket) inside it [bagged]
9 Drive around volcano in Asian republic (7)
VIETNAM – VIM (drive -as in ‘vim and vigour’) around ETNA (volcano)
10 A surprisingly mature ham (7)
AMATEUR – A, anagram [surprisingly] of MATURE,  ‘ham’ being jargon for a bad actor. It’s a bit unfair necessarily to connect bad acting with amateurs as I’ve seen many amateur productions where the acting was first rate and occasional professional ones which left something to be desired.
11 Let it out, showing evidence of ownership (5)
TITLE – Anagram [out] of LET IT
12 Insect discovered in place close to encampment (6)
LOCUST – LOCUS (place), {encampmen}T with ‘close to’ indicating the last letter
14 Hullabaloo behind us (6)
RUMPUS – RUMP (behind), US
17 Foster sister in hospital? (5)
NURSE – Double definition, one as a verb, one as a noun.
19 Reading desk, large, with damaged centre (7)
LECTERN – L (large), anagram [damaged] of CENTRE
21 Sobriquet of English ambassador embraced by former PM (7)
EPITHET – E (English), then HE (ambassador – His Excellency) inside [embraced by] PITT (former PM – with a choice of two Williams to pick from). HE for ‘ambassador’ is one of the oldest crossword chestnuts.
22 Oarsmen scoffed, reportedly (5)
EIGHT – Sounds like [reportedly] ‘ate’ (scoffed). The rowing ‘eight’ is another crossword regular. It also turns up sometimes as the type of boat they crew. Many, including myself, are more like to pronounce ‘ate’ as ‘ett’ but I think the homophone is fair enough nonetheless.
23 Girl’s crossing bound for a town in Australia (5,7)
ALICE SPRINGS – ALICE’S (girl’s) enclosing [crossing] SPRING (bound)

Down
1 Remove a rugby player, cheat (4,1,7)
PULL A FLANKER – PULL (remove), A, FLANKER (rugby player). This one gave me problems as it’s not an expression I’ve come across much, though it sounded vaguely familiar, and the Rugby Union position wouldn’t come to mind.
2 Wine? Nothing in jar I smashed (5)
RIOJA – 0 (nothing) in anagram [smashed] of JAR I
3 Puts off eating one, pointing to those trying to lose a few pounds? (7)
DIETERS – DETERS (puts off) enclosing [eating] I (one)
4 Rule in gaming over non-members (6)
GOVERN – Hidden in {gamin}G OVER N{on-members}. Well-hidden from me for far too long!
5 Evident through time (5)
OVERT – OVER (through), T (time)
6 At first, navvies on street work without a break (7)
NONSTOP – N{avvies}, ON ST (street), OP (work – opus, in music for example)
7 Primates, ones wrongly identified as apes (12)
IMPERSONATES – Anagram [wrongly] of PRIMATES ONES
13 Friendly   drink (7)
CORDIAL – Double definition
15 Doubtful, pawnbroker given a ring initially (7)
UNCLEAR – UNCLE (pawnbroker), A, R{ing}.  ‘Uncle’ for ‘pawnbroker’ may be unfamilar to some but it’s worth remembering because it comes up from time to time.
16 Fine old instruments, wind instruments (6)
FLUTES – F (fine), LUTES (old instruments)
18 Hospital at heart of quote over a moral principle (5)
ETHIC – H (hospital) inside [at heart of] CITE (quote) reversed [over]
20 The Spanish drink in a Scottish market town (5)
ELGIN – EL (‘the’ Spanish), GIN (drink). I’m sure the town has many other claims to fame but its name is perhaps best known in connection with Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who saved or stole those Greek marbles, depending on your POV.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 290 by Tracy”

  1. Flung in several from definition or checkers, but nothing could get me 1d, a combination of a phrase I’ve never come across and a sport of which I’m totally ignorant. I’d totally forgotten about the RP pronunciation of ‘ate’, but fortunately that was all to the good here. I liked 7d, a nice anagram with a lovely surface. 5:30, but with 1d wrong (but in ‘blinder’ in desperation).
  2. I agree, a completion time would be very useful, and is given in all the other interactive puzzles. Holywell
  3. 30 mins of enjoyable early morning brain activity.seemed in tune with Tracy and a great start to the week for me.
    Would appreciate others views on format that is the same as the Sunday Times format – personally I do not like the lack of the Congratulations screen and time., especially as completion in one go is very much a rarity for me.
    Once again many thanks for the solution blog , a really big help for us beginners
    1. They occasionally use the wrong format in the week. It’s very annoying though, I agree. Because of lack of precise timing I’m not sure how long this took but about 20 mins or just under must be the case since I know when I started (to within a minute or so). Unlike The blogger I think this is a reasonable time for me! It certainly felt straightforward enough. I was fine with 1D – my LOI was 10A which I too have a problem with – plenty of pros are hams and plenty of amateurs are fab – after all, most pros started out as amateurs apart from the child actors plucked from the cradle. Like another poster I actually biffed a lot of the answers (more than half I’d say) but I managed to parse them retrospectively so I’m fine with that.
    2. I too do not like the “Sunday” format of the grid. It’s annoying having to retype letters I’ve already typed (as an aside why does every new update or “improvement ” to any software seem to require one more click than before?) and the keyboard seems less responsive than the default (ipad) one.

      I hope it’s just a slip on their part – if it becomes permanent I’ll cancel my subscription.

  4. Very enjoyable puzzle – plenty of wit and sparkle, I thought.

    Have to say I found it to be at the easier end of the Quicky spectrum. As ever, much of it to do with whether the required vocab happens to chime with stuff that is front of mind for you as an individual. 1dn was a write in for me, as it’s a phrase I have heard (and used) a fair bit, particularly in early days as a lawyer in London (when many flanks were pulled!) Plus I played a lot of rugby.

    EIGHT was my LOI as I also do not pronounce the word in the way required for the homophone – but fair clue.

    Thanks for the blog Jack, and to Tracy for a fine puzzle.

  5. I found this quite straightforward and completed it in 20mins. 1d rang a bell somewhere in the back of my head, but wasn’t convinced about it until most of the checkers were in place. 15d went in unparsed as I have not come across the pawnbroker/uncle link before.
    LOI 10a and COD 21a as it was one of those fiddly ones where you have to work out several parts of the clue before seeing the answer – which I usually find difficult
    1. 21a was an early biff for me. Bit lucky really because despite it cropping up only a couple of weeks ago I’d forgotten HE was crosswordese for Ambassador until I parsed it post biff.
  6. Done in morning coffee time so pretty quick for me. I still don’t understand the parsing of 7d though I got impersonates from the anagram. Can anyone help please?
  7. To impersonate someone, you are said to “ape”them. Not sure where this use of the word ape comes from though.
    1. Yes of course how silly. Setter had slyly disguised it as a noun not a verb. Very naughty.
  8. I had 1d as “pull a blinder” since I had never heard the expression “pull a flanker” and since I assumed that “blinder” might be an alternative for “blindside flanker”. Fortunately, the two words had the same 2nd, 4th and 6th letters.
    2. Of course!

      “It is ah not raining in Tokyo…..”

      “Friends all over the world….all over the world!…(none in this country, but all over the world).

      [Copyright Galton & Simpson c1960]

  10. A very enjoyable QC from Tracy. The top half flew in, but progress then slowed (save for the 23ac write-in). I agree that 21ac was a nicely constructed clue – getting it allowed me to complete my LOI 1d. Invariant
  11. This fell into place quite nicely in ten minutes so I must have been on the wavelength. LOI 1dn as I wasn’t familiar with the phrase – but familiarity with the rugby position helped to work it out – that’s the wavelength thing I guess.
  13. Not too much trouble with this one apart from 1D, which I hadn’t heard of – FLANKER was the only rugby position I could think of that fitted the last word so in it went.
  14. ATE vs EAT. Very interesting. Where I was dragged up the pronuncations AYTE or ET were interchangeable in meaning, but certainly differed in context. I always imagined that ET was spelt EAT – but perhaps I never thought about it on the rare occasions I had to write the word.

    Eg: “Where did the cakes go?” – “John et them”

    I’m probably wrong – again . . .

    Philip

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