Times Quick Cryptic 720 by Flamande

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
8 minutes for this one which I found on the easy side. The surface readings here are particularly good, possibly with one exception which I have noted below. Here’s my blog…

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Ward’s disadvantage? (8)
DRAWBACK – WARD reversed…
5 Love piano accompaniment for American piece of music (4)
OPUS – 0 (love), P (piano), US (American)
8 Everyone in church will welcome a marriage (8)
ALLIANCE – ALL (everyone), IN + CE (church) containing [will welcome] A
9 One who’s against settling in Chiantishire (4)
ANTI – Hidden [settling] in {Chi}ANTI{shire}
11 Very surprised when hedonist collapses (10)
ASTONISHED – AS (when), anagram [collapses] of HEDONIST
14 Garden pests concealed in sap, unusually (6)
APHIDS – HID (concealed) in anagram [unusually] of SAP
15 Transfer some cash (6)
CHANGE – Two definitions
17 Container for angler’s bait is a problem (3,2,5)
CAN OF WORMS – A literal reading followed by a figurative definition
20 Next to odd slices of onion, large cut of meat (4)
LOIN –  L (large), alternate letters [odd slices] of O{n}I{o}N, “Next to” positions the two elements of the answer and possibly adds a little to the surface reading of the clue, but I fancy it might read more smoothly as “Odd slices of onion next to large cut of meat”.
21 Teacher, one with tension after end of term (8)
MISTRESS – {ter}M [end], I (one), STRESS (tension)
22 Goya organised course of exercises (4)
YOGA – Anagram [organised] of GOYA
23 Out of control, they rail with gusto (8)
HEARTILY – Anagram [out of control] of THEY RAIL
Down
1 Tot runs into mother’s embrace (4)
DRAM –  R (runs) is contained by DAM (mother) [into mother’s embrace]
2 Expert turning up in hotel bar (4)
ABLE – Hidden and reversed [turning up] in {hot}EL BA{r}
3 Film making you fed up (7,3)
BRASSED OFF – Two definitions, the first with reference to a low-budget romcom from 1996 that may not be very well known.
4 Nuts for a bird (6)
CUCKOO – Two definitions
6 Writer with song preference (8)
PENCHANT – PEN (writer), CHANT (song)
7 Superficial sort implicated in leak (4-4)
SKIN-DEEP – KIND (sort), contained by [implicated in] SEEP (leak)
10 Met the girl repairing camera accessory (5,5)
LIGHT METER – Anagram [repairing] of MET THE GIRL
12 Mischievous, like Conservative infiltrating political meeting (8)
RASCALLY – AS (like) + C (Conservative) contained by [infiltrating] RALLY (political meeting)
13 Rational article about family (8)
THINKING – THING (article) contains [about] KIN (family)
16 Phone crowd of people — namely about fifty (6)
MOBILE – MOB (crowd of people), I.E. (namely) about L (fifty)
18 Food shop cut delivery by 50% (4)
DELI – DELI{very} [cut…by 50%]
19 One’s quiet before end of birthday party game (1-3)
I-SPY – IS (one’s), P (quiet) {birthda}Y [end]. I don’t really associate I-SPY with parties but I think “party” has to go with the definition here as the Y is already accounted for.

17 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 720 by Flamande”

  1. Thanks. Had trouble getting going, the NW corner only yielding ABLE on the first pass, but the east side fell quickly enough. LOI ALLIANCE. COD DRAWBACK.
  2. I was wondering about BRASSED OFF, never having heard of the film. As Jack says, excellent surfaces (didn’t care much for ‘Chiantishire’, though). 4:26.
  3. 3dn BRASSED OFF LOI – I don’t recall, so held me up to 10.05 – Grimethorpe to Chiantishire – a giant step.

    COD 1ac DRAWBACK WOD 19dn I-SPY!

  4. I’m not sure I’d describe Brassed Off as a romcom – it’s more about a mining community coming to terms with the closure of the pits that supported it through its local brass band. And it had the peerless Pete Postlethwaite in. I’d forgotten about the film itself which is somewhat obscure, so this was my LOI as I tried to figure out the clue. This led me to a time of a shade under 10 minutes.
    I particularly liked the anagram at 10d and the clue at 16a.
  5. Ewan MacGregor, Tara Fitzgerald, Pete Postethwaite, remember it well…. Liked 21ac, very appropriate. Just missed a sub5, thanks jack and Flamande.
  6. DRAWBACK – a great clue. You need the answer before it fully scans (the “-back” telling you what to do with the “ward”.
  7. Got there in the end (40 mins), though I was a bit dubious about several of my answers, but they turned out to be ok. I just don’t get the same level of enjoyment if I can’t parse as I go along. My thanks therefore to Jackkt for his clear explanations. Invariant
  8. About average difficulty for me today (17 minutes), with no real hold ups. Wasn’t too sure about heartily being out of control but it couldn’t have been anything else with the checkers in place. LOI 12d
    1. As jack notes, the ‘out of control’ is the anagram indicator, the definition is ‘with gusto’.
  9. Slow one for me. Only just under an hour at 58:27. I got brassed off, remembering the film well. Was slow to get ABLE and THNKING, as couldn’t quite match the clues with the definitions. Biffed skin deep, so thanks for the explanation on that one.
  10. I had trouble getting going today but once I got a few in lower down I started to flow and ended up with 23 mins. Like others I thought that 1ac and 21ac were particularly good clues in very different ways.
  11. Perhaps it was the effect of spending time on the harder weekend puzzles, but this seemed pretty straightforward. No real hold-ups and finished in about 12 minutes ( I thought I was going to be quicker, but was drinking tea as I went).
    LOI was 12d which I could not fully parse. Also wasn’t quite clear about 13d. Thanks to blogger and setter. David
    PS yesterday’s Sunday Times puzzle was definitely suitable for the experienced QCer.
  12. The crossword is the last place left where you can be so un-PC about mental illness: nuts, cuckoo??!!
  13. I was fairly quick on this by my standards (7 mins) despite initially writing in EARTHILY at 23ac. Perfectly OK in my opinion.

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