Commenting on the level of difficulty in Quickies seems to be a bit controversial these days so I shall limit myself to saying that this one took me 8 minutes leaving 2 minutes of my target time to spare. Who knows what people may know or not, but there’s an old song title and a Spanish princess that I would not be surprised to find had caused some difficulties.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
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 | Strengthen control on behalf of Church of England (9) |
| REINFORCE – REIN (control), FOR (on behalf of), CE (Church of England) | |
| 6 | Looking embarrassed about diamonds (3) |
| RED – RE (about), D (diamonds) | |
| 8 | Male brought in injured party for treatment (7) |
| THERAPY – HE (male) enclosed [brought in] by anagram [injured] of PARTY | |
| 9 | Male, when working, is one who dresses stone (5) |
| MASON – M (male), AS (when), ON (working) | |
| 10 | Flower festival failing to open (5) |
| ASTER – {e}ASTER (festival) [failing to open] | |
| 12 | Polish in Ulster, working (6) |
| LUSTRE – Anagram [working] of ULSTER | |
| 14 | Sausage dish: one hotel had it prepared (4-2-3-4) |
| TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE – Anagram [prepared] of ONE HOTEL HAD IT. Yummy if it’s a good one with lots of rich gravy! Not for those on a diet though. | |
| 16 | Black box caught out research scientist (6) |
| BOFFIN – B (black), {c}OFFIN (box) [caught out] | |
| 17 | Swear nothing’s missing from racetrack (5) |
| CURSE – C{o}URSE (racetrack) [nothing’s missing] | |
| 19 | Frequently fall in value? Not shares, initially (5) |
| OFTEN – {s}OFTEN (fall in value), [not Shares, initially]. “Soften” in this sense is used in business, for example with reference to share prices so the surface reading is right on topic. | |
| 20 | Typical woman admitting age? Just the opposite! (7) |
| AVERAGE – AGE contains [admitting] VERA (woman) is ‘just the opposite of’ VERA (woman) containing [admitting] AGE | |
| 22 | Conceit, for example, shown by Oscar (3) |
| EGO – EG (for example), O (Oscar – NATO alphabet) | |
| 23 | Trees attracting much interest in Hampshire town (9) |
| ALDERSHOT – ALDERS (trees), HOT (attracting much interest) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Withdraws religious education pamphlets (8) |
| RETRACTS – RE (Religious Education), TRACTS (pamphlets) | |
| 2 | Fair enough concealing intense anger (3) |
| IRE – Hidden [concealing] in {fa}IR E{nough}. I’m not aware that “ire” is specifically an intense form of anger but two of the usual sources define it as “wrath” and when I look that up I find “intense anger” so I suppose it’s okay. | |
| 3 | Learner in market displaying natural talent (5) |
| FLAIR – L (learner) in FAIR (market) | |
| 4 | Banner, excellent example (5,8) |
| ROYAL STANDARD – ROYAL (excellent), STANDARD (example) | |
| 5 | As one man sees changes (2,5) |
| EN MASSE – Anagram [changes] of MAN SEES | |
| 6 | Ice, mostly, round Irish lake (9) |
| RESERVOIR – RESERV{e} (ice) [mostly], O (round), IR (Irish). A good misdirection here as ’round’ is often a containment indicator, but not so today. | |
| 7 | Accomplished poet, we’re told (4) |
| DONE – Sounds like [we’re told] “Donne” (poet). Perhaps Crosswordland’s favourite poet who appears more often than not as a homophone. | |
| 11 | Song from old musical, tap-danced originally with special footwear (3,3,3) |
| TEA FOR TWO – T{tap-danced} [originally], anagram [special] of FOOTWEAR. I imagine the song is famous enough to be known to a fair number of solvers but I wondered if I might be the only one aware that the original musical it came from was called “No, No, Nanette”, first staged in 1926. The song was revived in a film bearing its title in 1950 in which it was sung by Doris Day and Gordon Macrae. The tune is by Vincent Youmans and the lyric by Irving Caesar. | |
| 13 | Small mountain most difficult to endure (8) |
| SEVEREST – S (small), EVEREST (mountain) | |
| 15 | Current admirer cheers the king of Spain’s eldest daughter? (7) |
| INFANTA – IN (current), FAN (admirer), TA (cheers). Perhaps a little on the hard side for a Quick Cryptic? | |
| 17 | Comfort / food and drink (5) |
| CHEER – Two definitions, the second usually referring to some sort of festive gathering. | |
| 18 | Unknown individual in band (4) |
| ZONE – Z (unknown), ONE (individual). “Unknown” letters in crosswords are usually limited to X, Y or Z. | |
| 21 | Has broken wood (3) |
| ASH – Anagram [broken] of HAS | |
WOD 14ac TOAD IN THE HOLE sage sausages baked in Yorkshire pud! A long time since I have had the pleasure and as Jack states rich gravy essential.
COD 16ac BOFFIN
For 23ac ALDERSHOT – ‘A Subaltern’s Love-song’, Miss Joan Hunter Dunne etc – John Betjeman at his finest.
Edited at 2017-06-26 04:56 am (UTC)
Nice surfaces today, well done Tracy. And thanks Jack (BTW you have a surplus “IN” at 1ac).
I found quite a lot of this hard going.
Biffed 11d, 20a and my LOI 19a with fingers crossed
so thanks for the explanations, as ever, Jackkt.
COD: INFANTA which I guessed from def. but seemed to me ok to parse.
Thanks Tracy.
Completed in 18 minutes, LOI 17d
The King of Spain’s daughter came to visit me…….
And just possibly the origin of the famous roundabout and area in SE London, the Elephant and Castle, maybe cockney for Infanta de Castille. References Katherine of Aragon…
Thanks jack and Tracey.
Edited at 2017-06-26 10:25 am (UTC)
Anyway. Nice puzzle, fair mixture. Thanks jackkt for explaining Oscar to me, I always forget the NATO alphabet.
I just timed myself writing all the answers down – it took 3 mins 17 seconds. That’s knowing them all. So people who can do these puzzles in sub 5 minutes must hardly stop to think on anything!
Templar
I remember he completed it in fewer minutes than it would take to write in – adding that he got held up in the SW corner. He rarely wrote the answers down (so he said . . .)
I rarely write the answers – because I rarely get them.
Philip
I remember he completed it in fewer minutes than it would take to write in – adding that he got held up in the SW corner. He rarely wrote the answers down (so he said . . .)
I rarely write the answers – because I rarely get them.
Philip
I remember he completed it in fewer minutes than it would take to write in – adding that he got held up in the SW corner. He rarely wrote the answers down (so he said . . .)
I rarely write the answers – because I rarely get them.
Philip
loi cheer – obvious once you have the definitions
However I got Aldershot and everything else in 15 minutes.
Enjoyable puzzle. David
16ac, 20ac, 13d all caused me problems and, as usual, even where I got the right answer from the crossings, I had to come here for the explanation. Thanks Jack.