Times Quick Cryptic 440 by Rongo

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
At 8 minutes I found this one quite straightforward with no unknown words or meanings. The wordplay didn’t seem very complicated either, but we shall see what others think…

Definitions are underlined. Deletions are in curly brackets. Indicators are in square ones.

Across

1 Urn base I’m changing for deep vessel? (9)
SUBMARINE – Anagram [changing] of URN BASE I’M
6 It sounds like more than one addition (3)
SUM – Sounds like ‘some’ (more than one). I had TOO – sounds like ‘two’ – here before checkers came into play. I looked twice at the literal definition but I think it works well enough.
8 Performer who leaps across, twice dropping small club (7)
ACROBAT – ACRO{ss}, BAT (club). ‘Twice dropping small’ indicates removal of S x 2.
9 What’s sometimes poured on potato, like where one gets buried? (5)
GRAVY – The second part of the clue is a play on words of the type familiar to listeners to R4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ and their ‘Uxbridge English Dictionary’ game. So ‘like a grave’ (where one gets buried) becomes GRAVY.
10 Instant alternative to potatoes, on time? (5)
TRICE – T (time), RICE (alternative to potatoes?)
12 Make possible reversal of part of travel ban, eventually (6)
ENABLE – Hidden [part of] and reversed inside {trav}EL BAN E{ventually}
14 Either punctual or late, at last! (3,6,4)
NOT BEFORE TIME –  Firstly we have a somewhat cryptic defintion. One can be early, punctual or late for an appointment, and NOT BEFORE TIME rules out the first of these leaving the other two options as stated in the clue. The second meaning can be a sarcastic comment that’s made when another person has actually arrived late.
16 Something pinned on church, added to endless stream (6)
BROOCH – BROO{k} (stream) [endless], CH (church)
17 Mix up first of banks to offer loans (5)
BLEND – B{anks), LEND (offer loans)
19 Second German car for Arab, perhaps (5)
SAUDI – S (second), AUDI (German car)
20 United Kingdom wet weather beginning to engulf country (7)
UKRAINE – UK (United Kingdom), RAIN (wet weather), E{ngulf}
22 Give new colour to Doyle’s odd characters (3)
DYE – D{o}Y{l}E [odd characters]
23 Awkward matter with ear, nose and throat’s medical care (9)
TREATMENT – Anagram [awkward] of MATTER, ENT (Ear Nose and Throat – hospital department)

Down

1 Informal language covers container at an angle (8)
SLANTING – SLANG (informal language) encloses [covers] TIN (container)
2 Exclude from pub? (3)
BAR – Two definitions
3 An easy walk, having the capacity to cross motorway (5)
AMBLE – ABLE (having the capacity) encloses [to cross] M (motorway)
4 Experiencing disgrace at Barker’s home? (2,3,8)
IN THE DOGHOUSE – Two definitions, one straight but figurative, the second a literal interpretation of same. Note the example of a word being capitalised that doesn’t need to be, other than to assist the surface reading and mislead the solver. But if a capital letter was actually required, it would not be permissible to omit it.
5 Less than half of English party set in stone, say (7)
ENGRAVE – ENG{lish} [less than half of…], RAVE (party)
6 Unimportant offering from miniature clock? (5-4)
SMALL TIME – SMALL (miniature), TIME (clock)
7 Irish county spread, briefly (4)
MAYO – Two literal definitions. The second meaning is now a word in its own right so ‘briefly’ is not strictly necessary.
11 Migration of deer until middle period (9)
INTERLUDE – Anagram [migration] of DEER UNTIL
13 Draw lifeless feature of desert? (4,4)
DEAD HEAT – DEAD (lifeless), HEAT (feature of desert)
15 Self-centred person is to get ruined (7)
EGOTIST – Anagram [ruined] of IS TO GET
17 Polish up stone and suddenly break open (5)
BURST – RUB (polish) reversed [up], ST (stone – weight)
18 Second-hand American edition (4)
USED – US (American), ED (edition)
21 Substance of glacier that is getting cold inside (3)
ICE – IE (that is – id est) with C (cold) inside it

11 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 440 by Rongo”

  1. Misread the sans serif type and thought it was Um base…, which didn’t make much sense; but checkers to the rescue. I also started with ‘too’, which slowed things down in that corner–County Oleo? 5:50.
  2. Straightforward – the way I like it! Just needed to check the parsing of 23a & 17d here.

    I also read ‘Urn’ as ‘Um’ which was confusing since it was clearly an anagram but had the wrong number of letters!

  3. I know in the past I have advocated the benefits of ignoring surface readings to avoid being distracted by them but this was clearly an example of the dangers of doing so. ‘Um base’ would make no sense whatsoever and should ring alarms. At the very least one might suspect a misprint.

    Edited at 2015-11-16 04:45 am (UTC)

  4. A DNF for me as my LOI was 13dn and I biffed dead cert – at which point, if anyone is interested, it was 9 minutes so that last little rush to finish caught me out. A quicker time would have been possible if I hadn’t also gone for ‘too’ at 6ac. So, all in all, not one of my better days.
  5. A very straight forward 10 mins which would have been quicker if I wasn’t getting used to my new keyboard.
  6. Yes. I put TOO in for 6a until I got to 7d. Otherwise nothing held me up. 13d my favourite.
  7. Completed in one sitting, so definitely at the easier end of the scale for me. I also fell into the Too trap, but other than that the only slight issue I had was getting confused with the spelling of Brooch – I was sure it had an ‘a’ in it, but once I’d remembered brook I saw the error of my ways.
  8. Nice and easy until I got stuck on 13dn, thought about ‘too’ but got ‘sum’ later.
  9. A very easy 1a to get started and the rest followed fairly quickly. I thought there was a lot to like in this crossword e.g. 14a,13d,20a and even 19a- my sort of humour.David
  10. A gentle start to the week, and at 26 mins it equals my PB. I also had Too for 6ac to start with, so Rongo managed to ‘rong’ foot 😊 quite a few of us ! Invariant

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