Times Quick Cryptic 986 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This one just squeaked within my ‘quick’ category but it felt along the way that I was riding a wavelength with Joker. Having completed the blog I see quite a lot of multiple word play shenanigans which has been great fun to unravel. Hope you enjoyed it too – let us know either way.

ACROSS

1. Acquisition – making a gain. Anagram (rolling) of I QUIT CASINO.
9. Norma – Bellini opera. Not quite all of standard (NORMA)l.
10. Amnesia – forgetting. Anagram (abandoned) of MEN inside large continent (ASIA).
11. Earliness – being ahead of time. Rows (LINES) in some corn (EARS).
13. Rub – polish. A gemstone without an end (RUB)y.
14. Suitor – wooer. LOI as I didn’t initially get ‘go along with’=SUIT, but the ‘our’ heartlessly (O)u(R) was fine.
16. Modest – unspectacular. Ways of operating (MODES), (T)rain.
17. Tic – literally so (&lit) – what twitch regularly shows. Clued by (T)w(I)t(C)h.
18. Suspender – one that keeps stocking up. COD – purchaser (SPENDER) outside United States (US).
21. Visible – open to inspection. Awful (VILE) outside Securities and Investments Board (SIB).
23. Adopt – take on. A (A), party (DO), (P)arliamen(T).
24. Crestfallen – sad. Mountain top (CREST) has collapsed (FALLEN).

DOWN

2. Carer – tender (someone who cares is a carer, someone who tends is a tender). Drayman without the fourth letter (CAR)t(ER).
3. Unanimous – thinking alike. I’m (IM) absorbed by intellect (NOUS) when chasing (after) girl (UNA).
4. Stake – bet. Son (S) to accept (TAKE).
5. Tan – brown. (T)oast (A)nd (N)othing.
6. Observe – see. Anagram (irregular) of VERBS inside Old (O) and English (E).
7. Insensitive – uncaring. Anagram (atrociously) of INVITEES SIN.
8. Barbiturate – sedative drug. British (B), decide a dispute (ARBITRATE) about university (U).
12. Stonewall – be defensive. In reaction(S TO NEW ALL)owances.
15. Incisor – tooth. I (I), anagram (deployed) of SONIC, cleane(R).
19. Sheaf – bundle of corn. Most of cut off (SHEA)r, force (F).
20. Drove – went off in car. Doctor (DR), a short version of finished (OVE)r.
22. Bus – public transport. Not all of overcrowded (BUS)y.

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 986 by Joker”

  1. I can’t remember being particularly held up anywhere. NORMA is a frequent visitor to cryptics; here the setter helpfully gave us ‘Bellini’. 5:52. On edit: I forgot to mention that in the US, suspenders hold up trousers; socks, or stockings, are held up by garters.

    Edited at 2017-12-19 10:16 am (UTC)

  2. 38 minutes, a lot of time spent on earliness, suitor, stonewall and modest. I suspect it might be the woozy head because after a break and coffee the answers finally came.

    For stonewall, in desperation I was even looking for an anagram (new) of allowances!

    COD suspender.

  3. 12 minutes, so another target 10 missed. Time was lost over 22dn because I couldn’t imnmediately parse what seemed to be the obvious answer and I waited until checkers had confirmed BUS as the only solution before returning to it and spotting BUS{y}.

    Is it just my printer that leaves no white space between lower case r and m? In both 11ac and 19dn I read ‘corn’ as ‘com’ and wondered for a while what the hell was going on.

      1. Similar, yes, but I’ve never yet confused them. In my original posting, now uneditable since it was replied to, I meant to write ‘lower case r and n?’ which then amalgamate to form ‘m’.
  4. Joker by name, joker by nature. I was flying through this only to be brutally derailed by 14a, 16a, 24a and 12d, finally limping in like Jackkt over my 10 minute mark. So this has to go down for me as nearer the difficult end of the spectrum.
    Nevertheless, an excellent puzzle with 12d being one of the best hidden words I’ve seen.

    Edited at 2017-12-19 08:46 am (UTC)

    1. Amen to that. Couldn’t see it for ages, costing me minutes as my LOI.
      A tough 9’ for me.
  5. Terrific fun puzzle, thanks Joker

    The hiding of STONEWALL was brilliant, but it didn’t hold me up because of a piece of wisdom given to me by this blog – “if you can’t break the clue down look for a hidden”!

    Couldn’t parse BARBITURATE, thanks for the explanation Chris

    COD CRESTFALLEN

    Templar

  6. Well outside my target time at just under 20 minutes, although that could be as much to do with the excellent hospitality I enjoyed last night as it is to do with the difficulty level.

    Like others, I enjoyed SUSPENDER and STONEWALL, and there was much else to admire.

    Thanks Joker and Chris

  7. I’m another admirer of Stonewall. Couldn’t believe it when I suddenly spotted it. 24 mins today so just over average after a very quick start aided by two of the long words being anagrams.
  8. Definitely at the harder end of the spectrum for me. Took me a while to recognise a Drayman as a Carter, having my mind stuck on carrier. Enjoyed STONEWALL. something our batsmen in Australia could usefully learn (did we send any batsmen to Australia?). is there really an opera called “NORMA”? Ah well, live and learn.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. a really good puzzle, I loved 11a (couldn’t get away from tiers and trying to make earliest fit!), 14a (once OR appeared …) & 16a (the definition eventually gave it).
    18a was my COD and 23a LOI.
    like others, a great tip, if all else fails, it’s a hidden and it solved 12d quickly!
    many thanks to Chris and Joker.
    Carl
  10. Like others, I was hoodwinked until the very end by STONEWALL, my LOI, which took me to just over 10 minutes. An enjoyable puzzle requiring careful attention to the wordplay. Thanks Joker and Chris.
  11. I found this quite tricky; just one of those days where the anagrams wouldn’t come (I’m normally pretty good at them). And I saw the hidden STONEWALL straight away, but kept reading it as STO-NEW-ALL and thought surely that can’t be a word for defensive?! A dog walk and a strong coffee and lo, the veil was lifted. Felt a bit of a chump…
  12. I made a fast start getting 1a straightaway and 7d shortly after. I have now met Norma in a number of puzzles so that was a write-in. Then things slowed down a bit, but after 13 minutes I had everything but 11a.
    I was another distracted by Earliest. Another 2 minutes saw me over the line.
    I do enjoy Joker’s puzzles. COD to 18a. Thanks to setter and blogger. David
  13. Quite a testing QC. Started ok, with the long outer clues, and even saw stonewall more or less straight away, but 11, 14 and 16ac all delayed me. Loi 2d, carer, struck me as a weak clue at the time, but the blog has explained the carer/tend-er link, so I’ll let Joker have that one. 40 mins all told. Invariant
  14. Got through all of this bar 14a pretty quickly but then drew a complete blank, after a couple of revisits with no inspiration I came here to find the answer. So a DNF on an otherwise very enjoyable puzzle – like others I thought 12d was particularly good.
  15. Nothing looked too easy on the first read through. Started with the three letter words and slowly progressed as checkers built up. 11a was second last in giving only two letters to get from 2d, so I finally realised what a drayman must be. Needed this blog to parse 3d.

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