Times Quick Cryptic 930 by Tracy

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This one took me 12 minutes with the 2 over my target 10 accounted for by 23ac where I needed an alphabet trawl to come up with the answer, and even when I’d found the most likely word that fitted I struggled to see how it worked with the definition. A few moments with a dictionary cleared that up later. I can’t see much to scare the horses here but who can tell?

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

Across
7 Leg spinner in a dominant position (2,3)
ON TOP – ON (leg), TOP (spinner)
8 Considerable trouble taken by a wife of David (7)
ABIGAIL – A, BIG (considerable), AIL (trouble). This is the David who slew Goliath and later became King of Israel and Judah.
10 Swear after chum creates a fuss (7)
PALAVER – PAL (chum), AVER (swear). Probably destined to be our Shanghai correspondent’s Word of the Day.
11 Joke about unusual, empty prison camp (5)
GULAG – GAG (joke) containing [about] U{nusua}L [empty]
12 Rail bent badly across one in situation marked by tension (9)
NAILBITER – Anagram [badly] of RAIL BENT containing [across] I (one)
14 Very good time in mine (3)
PIT – PI (very good – pious), T (time)
15 Composed of women, at that time lacking leader (3)
HEN – {t}HEN (at that time) [lacking leader]. As in ‘hen party’.
16 Healthy to sink a few, it’s said! (9)
WHOLESOME – Sounds like [it’s said] “hole ” (sink), SOME (a few). I was going to argue that even if a ship is ‘holed beneath the waterline’ it may not necessarily sink, but a little research has revealed that ‘hole’ can mean to sink a mineshaft. On edit re ‘sink/hole’: Having read the comments below I see I missed a reference to golf – no surprise there then!
18 Article on Christmas tree, perhaps from a new set (5)
ANGEL – A, N (new), GEL (set)
20 Vagrant crossing island for papers (7)
DOSSIER – DOSSER (vagrant) containing [crossing] I (island)
22 I arrive dishevelled in coastal region (7)
RIVIERA – Anagram [dishevelled] of I ARRIVE
23 Breeding good stock (5)
GRACE – G (good), RACE (stock). Both ‘breeding’ and grace’ can mean behaving with good manners.
Down
1 Become excited, / as those flying out of Heathrow must? (2,2,2,3,3)
GO UP IN THE AIR – Two definitions, one figurative and one cryptic
2 Horse from stable, popular round ring (8)
STALLION – STALL (stable), IN (popular) containing [round] O (ring)
3 Dodgy dealer could get top brass upset (4)
SPIV – VIPS (top brass) reversed [upset]
4 Repeat the usual nonsense (6)
PARROT – PAR (the usual), ROT (nonsense)
5 Leering nastily, taking in one’s underwear (8)
LINGERIE – Anagram [nastily] of LEERING containing [taking in] I (one)
6 Irishman, maybe, turned up for post (4)
MAIL – LIAM (Irishman, maybe) reversed [turned up]
9 Jovial girl hated the bubbly (5-7)
LIGHT-HEARTED – Anagram [bubbly] of GIRL HATED THE
13 Become more violent and confound (8)
BEWILDER – Alternatively spaced this would give us BE WILDER (become more violent)
14 Gold pair ordered, being recklessly extravagant (8)
PRODIGAL – Anagram [ordered] of GOLD PAIR. Possibly not known to those unfamilar with the parable of the prodigal son.
17 Trying experience in centre of historical Kent town (6)
ORDEAL – {hist}OR{ical} [centre], DEAL (Kent town)
19 Provide / flexibility (4)
GIVE – Two meanings
21 Culinary herb in sink, last of thyme (4)
SAGE – SAG (sink), [last of] {thym}E

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 930 by Tracy”

  2. Fairly smooth going, although I can never remember just what SPIV means, and for me PALAVER means ‘discuss, negotiate’ and I never remember the other meanings. Fortunately ‘Liam’ figured in a recent cryptic, as it’s not a name that springs to my mind. 4:50.
  3. 51 minutes. Lots of easy clues but stuck for 35 mins on Abigail, wholesome, angel, grace, parrot, Liam and bewilder.

    Grace went in with fingers crossed after an alphabet trawl. For me grace/breeding and esp race/stock were not obvious.

    Didn’t really like up in the air, glad to have the heathrow part as I haven’t hear the other meaning and its not in the online oed. Up in the air for unresolved is.

    COD wholesome.

  4. Lots of clever stuff here for which thanks. Agree with the misgivings about ‘go up in the air’ its just never used like that! Also one of my pet hates is Pi – as I suspect it never occurs in the 21c outside of cryptic crosswords.
  5. About “go up in the air” not really being an expression.

    Pretty gentle (thank goodness, on Monday morning). Done soon after Orpington. I thought 9dn was a really neatly concealed anagram so gets my COD, followed by GULAG.

    Thanks for the blog, jack.

    Templar

    1. Thought 9d very clever. Was that technically &lit.?

      As jovial and bubbly are synonyms. Tried for ages to get an anagram for fizz. Asti cava prosecco. Etc.

      John

  6. Fairly standard stuff, finished in 10:49. I’ll add my weight to those who are uneasy about “go up in the air”. Even though I’ve heard of “up in the air” to mean excited, I’ve never heard it used in that manner, and wouldn’t even think of using it that way myself.
  7. I seem to be suffering from brain fade as this took me 16:30 with the SE creating most havoc. A biffed BLUSTERY at 13d held me up for a while. However, ANGEL in the SW eventually led me to BEWILDER which led me to WHOLESOME. GRACE had me racking my brain to see if I could bend the required definitions to fit. I also though GO UP IN THE AIR was a clumsy expression with only a vague hint of familiarity. Thanks Tracy and Jack.
  8. Sounds like I had a similar experience to previous posters in finding 1d a bit iffy. I got through all of this bar 8a (unknown to me) and 23a in 15 minutes and then spent a long time on those two before the penny finally dropped.
    COD 10a

  9. Bad showing, several short in the lower half. I’ll put it down to jet lag.

    Old PI=good appeared today, I even googled P1 to see if it was one of those wartime classifications like A1. Still never heard it used. Ever.

    I pencilled in GRACE earlier on but felt race=stock was too much of a stretch.

    Was annoyed I missed BEWILDER: COD.

    Thanks blogger for the answers today: my new rule is to stop at 30 mins.

  10. Well Merlin, I pushed on for an hour but still couldn’t get the 17d/20ac pairing. Looking at the wrong end of the clue (a common enough failing for me) with 17d and was trying too hard to get Is or ID into 20ac. Rats. Invariant
  11. Took forever today so I tried The Big One and did it in the same time – 35 mins. Odd.
  12. Agree 1d a bit iffy and wrote Grace at 23a with a moment of doubt.
    Two excellent anagrams at 5d and 9d (my COD).
    Finished in 23 minutes.
    Would have been quicker if not for a confident Liam at 6d ; interesting how often he “comes up”.
    And I put Medway at 17d before Wholesome eventually emerged ( I liked this clue). David

  13. My mother always used the phrase “pi” , but very slightly deprecatingly. It was not a characteristic to aim for.
  14. Terrible performance here, but I’m not sure how terrible, as it started with Safari presenting me with a great white hole where the crossword should be. It’s doing that for both the QC and the 15×15, where normally it’s absolutely fine.

    Anyway, I’m about to see if I can debug it, as that may help others who are stuck in the same situation. In the meantime, suffice it to say that the clock said nearly 20 minutes, and the two that caused me most trouble were GRACE—where I didn’t really see the it as a synonym of “breeding”, and also didn’t at all see “race” for “stock”— and ABIGAIL, where I thought the unknown wife of David was part of the wordplay rather than the definition. Oh, yes, and I had no idea how GO UP IN THE AIR worked, or what it has to do with Heathrow.

    Bah.

    Edited at 2017-10-02 09:29 pm (UTC)

    1. It’s a cricketing reference:

      “The area to the left of a right-handed batsman (from the batsman’s point of view – facing the bowler) is called the leg side or on side, while that to the right is the off side.”

      There’s plenty more to look out for, especially from scoring abbreviations: “O” for “over”, “R” for “run”, “W” for “wide”, etc.

      Edited at 2017-10-05 10:18 pm (UTC)

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