Times Quick cryptic 744 by Orpheus: Triskaidekaphobia

Friday 13th January 2017

This puzzle has everything: lots of musical references, as befits Orpheus; Shakespeare; geography; mathematics; an obscure new word or two; two chemistry references; plus some lovely clue structures at e.g. 10ac, 16ac, 17d. Fitted my general knowledge and specialisms very well, so despite not being able to type, and being fat-fingered, did a better-than-average time online.

ACROSS

7. A bit of rope rarely seen at 1? (5)

OPERA – A bit of r{OPE RA}rely seen at 1 ac, i.e. Covent Garden, a reference to the Opera House and Theatre Royal rather than the former fruit and vegetable market. This clue is most unlike the Times, with one clue referencing another, there may be complaints from purists.

8. Supervise poetry in Old English (7)

OVERSEE – To oversee means to supervise, VERSE (poetry) in O.E. (Old English)

10. Number one book about instinctive feeling (7)

EMOTION – definition is ‘instinctive feeling’ – the definition is at the beginning or the end nearly all the time, great clue this. It’s NO I TOME backwards.

11. Awkward person originally caught in one trap (5)

INEPT – inept = awkward, P (person originally, i.e. first) in I NET

12. It should kindle the fire, all being well (9)

TOUCHWOOD – noun (archaic) ‘ready flammable wood used as tinder, especially when made soft by fungi’. This meaning was completely new to me, even after a childhood of lighting coal fires. One says or indeed does ‘touch wood’ when hoping/wishing all will be well.

14. Whale finally entering quiet area — it’s in a pod (3)

PEA – nice surface, which completely passed me by the first time through. PEAs are in a pod, and so are whales. P for quiet, E for ‘Whale finally’, A for area.

15. A card, this brave fighter pilot (3)

ACE – double definition, an ‘ace’ being a playing card and also a title given to fighter pilots who shot down a specified number of enemy planes. Presumably such pilots are brave, but the word seems redundant here.

16. Jittery old man engaging in theft (9)

PANICKING – equals ‘jittery’. PA = old man, + NICKING = engaging in theft.

18. Graduate following possible setter’s code of beliefs (5)

DOGMA – MA = graduate, Master of Arts following DOG = setter, the breed.

20. Element two animals put together (7)

WOLFRAM – good general knowledge required here, knowing that WOLFRAM is the old name for Tungsten, hence the chemical symbol W for Tungsten. Incidentally the word tungsten comes from the Swedish for ‘heavy stone’ and its atomic number is 74.

22. Apprehensive over Sun getting involved! (7)

NERVOUS – anagram (getting involved) of ‘over Sun’.

23. Stoneworker’s mother and offspring (5)

MASON – MA (mother) + SON. Not much else it could be, except in the senses of jeweller, or maybe (old GK needed here) compositor.

DOWN

1.London district badly contravened ruling in the end (6,6)

COVENT GARDEN – see the first across clue above. An anagram (badly) of ‘contravened’ + g (ruling in the end, i.e. the last letter). The area was originally a convent garden, but somewhere lost a letter.

2. Bold about note on old stringed instrument (8)

RESOLUTE – definition is ‘Bold’ – RE (about) + SO (note, which isn’t correct, should be SOL or SOH) + LUTE (old stringed instrument). Other parsing suggestions please.

3. Indonesian island’s grain, by the sound of it… (4)

BALI – Name an Indonesian island, and after considering JAVA, get to BALI, which by the sound of it, is barley = grain. Indonesia may in fact consist of 13,466 islands, but you only need a few for crosswords.

4. …an island Oberon represented (6)

BORNEO – after 3d, this is a gimme, if your mind is in that part of the world. An anagram (represented) of Oberon, king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

5. Full stop in Chaucer initially recurring at intervals (8)

PERIODIC – Definition is ‘recurring at intervals’ – PERIOD (American for ‘full stop’) + I + C (in Chaucer, initially, i.e. the first letters). It is just possible that this is also an allusion to the previous clue, referencing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a major theme of which, unmentioned at school, is menstruation. Also see 20ac.

6. Man possibly removing article from passage (4)

ISLE – another island, this time the ISLE of Man, AISLE (passage) without the A (article). The mind may boggle at the surface of this clue.

9. Break-up of odd blokes in sci-fi film (12)

ESTRANGEMENT – definition is ‘Break-up’. STRANGE MEN in E.T.

13. Plane figure fashionable once, with label on (8)

HEPTAGON – a seven-sided polygon, a plane figure. Greek for seven angles, HEPT and SEPT being interchangeable, but HEP = fashionable, an old-fashioned term for HIP + TAG (label) = ON. If you look in your pocket or purse in the UK you’ll find two sorts of heptagon, though they are not strictly polygons, having curved edges. And in the near future we will have dodecagonal coins once again! Also, it’s a pity that the word in the blog title is too long for the crosswords.

14. Senior nun’s urge to tour Brazilian port (8)

PRIORESS – Definition is ‘Senior nun’, the apostrophe indicates ‘is’ PRESS (urge) around (to tour) RIO (Brazilian port). A prioress is next in rank below an abbess, but a prioress can be head of house in certain orders.

17.Fairly recent desire to support Tyneside (6)

NEWISH – excellent clue this, WISH (desire) underneath (to support) NE (North East) where Tyneside, representing the region, may be all that most people down south know about the North East. cf Kent for SE.

19. Travel on railway? It’s bloody! (4)

GORY – Go (travel) on RY (abbreviation of railway). GO + RY = GORY, full of gore, blood. I left that particular hell some years ago, but still allow double the time to go from A to B by rail.

21. Walk unsteadily, being flabby (4)
LIMP – Those who limp are often quite steady, but it works.

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