Times Quick Cryptic 871 by Corelli

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another Corelli, another 15 minutes of entertainment – finished, finally, at 20ac with a far from obvious hidden clue.
I had a double take on the parsing at 6dn and a triple take on whatever was going on at 22ac but all was 3dn. COD to 4ac – having gone through the Drake bowling scenario it was a pleasure to see the simple, yet elegant, clue.
So this wasn’t easy – but it was fun – thanks Corelli.

ACROSS

1. Caff – tea shop. What do you get if you take the caffeine out of a tea shop? In s(CAFF)olding.
4. Bowl over – greatly impress. Girlfriend perhaps (LOVER) after gallant gesture (BOW).
8. Split pea – pulse. Run away (SPLIT), physical exercise (PE), a (A).
9. Emus – non-flyers in Australia. English (E), Greek letters (MUS).
10. By hand – delivered personally. Homophone (we hear) of buy hand (of cards).
11. Siskin – songbird. Sibling (SIS), family (KIN).
12. Paddle-steamer – one in Mississippi perhaps. Anagram (ordered) of ME A STEPLADDER.
16. Plaque – double definition.
17. Cherub – little angel. About (C), 15dn (RUB), held within this (hugging) is guy (HE).
19. Inca – old/ancient people of the mountains of Peru. Home (IN), (C)inem(A).
20. Eleventh – anniversary. I initially didn’t click with this but further thought brought me round to Remembrance Day – eleventh hour, eleventh month. I think the (?) encourages us to look that bit more deeply. Quarr(EL EVEN TH)ough.
21. Patently – evidently. Anagram (dubious) of PENALTY about time (T).
22. Then – next. Thursday (TH), finish (ENd) closing early – without the final letter.

DOWN

2. Apply – exercise (e.g. common sense/p, restraint). Cider tastes of apples so can be said to be apple(y). I’m not sure of the spelling here so am happy that there’s a (?) in the clue – these tend to be used to point out that licence is required for looser translations etc.
3. Fair and square – not cheating. Blonde (FAIR), with (AND), old fogey (SQUARE).
4. Biped – man for example. One (I) and quietly (P) tucked into bunk (BED).
5. Whatsit – unnamed object. Come again (WHAT?), take a seat (SIT).
6. Overstatement – exaggeration. Concerning (OVER), position (STATE – as in a company’s financial position/state), blokes (MEN), (T)ake.
7. Erudite – learned. Anagram (composed) of DIRE TUnE – without having the name (N).
10. Bap – bread roll. Lots of fun to be had around the county with something as simple as a bread roll – bap, batch, cob before you even get into submersible ships. A (A) and penny (P) underneath ker(B).
13. Atlanta – Olympic City once (1996). A (A) and bronze (TAN) securing large (L), cheers (TA).
14. Everest – peak. The day before (EVE), holiday (REST).
15. Rub – difficulty – as in ‘aye, there’s the rub’. Food (gRUB) has no starter letter.
17. Chewy – like toffee. Cold (C), bcut (HEW), unknown quantity (Y – as in maths).
18. Untie – free. Countries United (UN – United Nations), bond (TIE).

19 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 871 by Corelli”

  1. Slow but fairly steady, CHEWY and LOI ELEVENTH taking some time. (Chris, you’ve got a typo at 17d: but for cut.) I don’t care for cross-referential clues like 17ac, especially in Quickies; but then, what I don’t care for probably doesn’t matter much to setters. 7:51.
    1. As per the 15×15 the same time as “Our Jack’, as was standard on ‘Corrie’.
      And it’s almost certainly Captain Corelli not Mr. Corelli.

      I now have a theory that there are no more than six setters in our QC universe – employing hundreds of names to confuse the tax-man, so they don’t pass thresholds! Keeps Biddlecombe on his toes.
      I would hate to blog but love to set the QC once in a while under the name GRUMPY.

      COD 20ac ELEVENTH.

      WOD 5dn WHATSIT – whatever – I haven’t had a Cheesy WHATSIT in years! Probably best!

  3. 10 minutes with the rather well-hidden 20ac as my last one in. If an answer doesn’t leap out at me when solvng QC’s I tend to move on to another clue and hope for an additional checker or two to have appeared by the time I return to it. Having three ‘E’checkers in an 8-letter answer was likely to prove difficult, and so it proved, especially as the definition turned out to be a rather vague one.

    Corelli appeared as setter quite early in QC history with puzzle #13 back in March 2014. Since then he set for us twice more in that year, four times each in 2015 and 2016, and today’s was his first outing for 2017 – rather late on parade, Mr C!

    Edited at 2017-07-11 05:00 am (UTC)

  4. A very speedy (for me) 17 minutes today, so I found this easier than usual. I made some silly mistakes, though, which slowed me down a bit. I put BY MAIL for 10ac and CANDY for 17dn initially. I wonder if anyone else made these same mistakes? Like the posters above, my LOI was the well hidden 20ac. A treat of a crossword, though. Gribb.
  5. I had never heard of a Siskin and was another who missed the hidden in 20a. Therefore another slow time today. However, if Eleventh really is a justifiable answer to a clue of Anniversary in crosswordland then that seems to be taking obscure to new extremes to me!

  6. This scored a 5 on my personal richter scale of difficulty i.e. I found it tough and DNF.

    20a and 23a – didn’t spot either the anagram or the hidden and eventually gave up on them.
    Oh dear, L and L.

    A good tussle though, so thanks Corelli and Chris

  8. I found this very tough today, particularly my last two in – 20 and 22a. No exact time but would estimate 30+ minutes. COD 5d. Thanks for clearing up a couple of my dodgy partings Chris.
  9. Took some time to get on Corelli’s wavelength, and even then the 4ac/5d combination held me up for ages. 1ac and 20ac were nicely hidden as well. All in all, a satisfying 30 minute solve. Invariant
  10. Never spotted eleventh and didn’t parse then. Ah well, always tomorrow.
    PlayUpPompey
  11. Slightly trickier than some, keeping me guessing for 11:26. FOI CAFF, LOI the well hidden ELEVENTH. Liked WHATSIT. Thanks Chris and Corelli.
  12. Lots of ‘it must be…’ and not so many fully parsed on first attempt. I thought some of the clues a tad vague but wonder of wonders, all my answers were correct – rather a (nice) surprise! It took a full hour to complete with 10a the FOI, 22a LOI, COD 12a. Still haven’t finished yesterdays! Good job our blogger understood them all – thx. I hope we see Corelli again soon.
    1. It’s certainly an extra incentive to work out the complete parsings when musing to others online. Feel free to have a go!
    2. 12 months or so ago I would have said the same (and probably did)! With a year’s practice this was just about doable but too many obscurities and ‘quaint’ words for a QC surely? Pexiter
  13. As a beginner this was next door to impossible for me. Give me a Hurley xwd and I’ll complete it no probs. Hawthorn, too, I’m quite good with.

    I suppose this type of xwd is helpful as it was all about cryptic abbreviations of which I only know a few.

    1. It’s surprising how they get stored away – the more often the brain is routed to them the better they get remembered – which means practice (and patience) do work.

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