Times Quick Cryptic No 1067 by Orpheus – Wed, 11 April 2018. A flying visit.

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I’m here in a cameo appearance today, filling in for william_j_s, who is on holidays. Good luck to him. My usual beat is the Saturday Cryptic, where I have a week to do the blog, so today will be an interesting change of pace!

I see there are 24 clues as against the typical 28 to 30 in the regular 15 by 15 puzzle, so only slightly smaller. Luckily for me today wasn’t one of those days where I had a blackout over the last few clues, so I finished fairly quickly for me in 8:21. My clue of the day was 14ac, which has a nicely disguised anagram, and an elegant surface to the clue.

Thanks to Orpheus for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, followed by the wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’, with the anagram indicator in bold italics. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Outrageous advert in tortured prose outside university (12)
PREPOSTEROUS: an anagram of PROSE including POSTER (“advert”) and U (“university”).

9 Sources of information chap in goal rejected (5)
MEDIA: the random chap is ED, and he’s inside AIM backwards (“rejected”).

10 Porridge ingredient originally offered at breakfast, perhaps (7)
OATMEAL: O is the first letter (“originally”) of “offered”, then AT, and MEAL (“breakfast, perhaps”).

11 Heavyweight certain to display shaven head (7)
TONSURE: a TON is heavy, SURE is certain, all giving that hairstyle once adopted by monks.

12 Spy given information during army’s retreat (5)
AGENT: GEN is information, inside AT, since TA backwards (“retreating”) is the army.

14 Doctor teaches it, concerned with beauty (9)
AESTHETIC: an anagram of (TEACHES IT).

18 Trap moggy next to church (5)
CATCH: CAT being the moggy, CH being the church.

20 Part of book for cathedral clergy (7)
CHAPTER: a double definition. The second is an assembly of the canons of a cathedral, according to Chambers.

21 Souvenir from Maine not damaged by this compiler (7)
MEMENTO: ME is the code for Maine, ME refers to the compiler, and NTO is an anagram of NOT.

23 Death notice covering Republican’s sphere of action (5)
ORBIT: OBIT around R for Republican.

24 Unusual in Surinam, Med: late warm spell (6,6)
INDIAN SUMMER: an anagram of (IN SURINAM MED).

Down
2 Superfluous revolutionary and German worker (9)
REDUNDANT: a straightforward assembly job: RED is a revolutionary, UND is German for “and”, and an ANT is almost always a worker in crosswords.

3 Paltry sum teachers invested in vegetables (7)
PEANUTS: NUT is the (National Union of) Teachers, inside (invested in) PEAS.

4 Way one brags about article? I am surprised! (5,3,5)
STONE THE CROWS: this was my last one in, but once I remembered that “way” is often ST for “street”, I saw where it was going! ST (way), ONE (literally), CROWS (brags), with THE (an article) inside.

5 Exceptionally wide, perhaps (5)
EXTRA: another double definition, the second being today’s cricketing reference.

6 Poem that’s outstanding when read aloud? (3)
ODE: sounds like OWED (“outstanding”).

7 Greet son with a stringed instrument (6)
SALUTE: S for son, A (literally), LUTE (stringed instrument).

8 Show great agitation, breaking top off TV control (5)
EMOTE: break the R off REMOTE.

13 Volatile former partner worthy of quoting (9)
EXCITABLE: your EX followed by CITABLE.

15 Players entertaining Aussie native in café (7)
TEAROOM: the players being a TEAM, with a ROO inside.

16 Rascal beginning to ingest breaded prawns (6)
SCAMPI: a SCAMP with the I from the start of “ingest”.

17 Fantastic-sounding place to light a fire! (5)
GRATE: sounds like GREAT.

19 Ultimately foolish woman upset dye (5)
HENNA: H is the last letter of “foolish”. Add ANNE (a random woman) written backwards (“upset”) .

22 Bad name Greek character finally earned? (3)
MUD: MU is a Greek letter, and D is the last letter (“finally”) of earned.

 

17 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1067 by Orpheus – Wed, 11 April 2018. A flying visit.”

  1. How long has it been since the army was the TA? I imagine that, like SA and IT, it will live on forever in the hearts of setters. LOI 4d, which I’d never heard of until a 15×15 some time ago; it took a while, but I finally recalled the phrase, though not the meaning. I’d like to think I would have ultimately got the wordplay, but. 5:59. On edit: A look at the club leaderboard shows Jason with 1:49! Jason is one of the very fastest solvers, but still, 1:49!

    Edited at 2018-04-11 12:15 am (UTC)

    1. 7 years. A mere blink of an eye. We discussed this here at some length as recently as last month!
      1. That’s my memory for you; I was going to say, “I think Jackkt mentioned this a year or so ago.” STONE THE CROWS probably came up in February.
  2. I thought STONE THE CROWS was an Australian idiom, and Chambers thinks so too. Possibly obsolete.
    1. Brewers confirms it was originally an Australian idiom dating from the time of the Great War. Variations include ‘starve’ and ‘stiffen’ and a host of other animals and insects, but ‘STONE THE CROWS’ was the one that made it to the Motherland. It was given new life here in the 1950s as a favourite saying of one Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, late of Railway Cuttings, Cheam.

      8 minutes,for this one.

      Edited at 2018-04-11 04:44 am (UTC)

  3. 23 minutes.

    Last few were media, peanuts, redundant, and LOI preposterous.

    Only parsing hold up was memento and maine for ME.

    Enjoyed redundant, aesthetic, salute and COD peanuts.

  4. 19 mins, so just below average. Not many DDs which always speeds me up as I can often build up the answers from the wordplay.
  5. I started with ODE and finished with STONE THE CROWS, an expression I knew, but which took some time to extract from the recesses of my memory. Otherwise no major problems and I was all done in 8:00. Thanks Orpheus and Bruce.
  6. Another high quality QC I thought, which I manged to finish in 15 minutes. LOI was 17d; I always struggle without the first letter.
    COD to 4d. I knew this expression and remember a band called Stone the Crows probably from the 1960s. David
  7. Close to a PB I would guess, although I found some of the parsing quite tricky. Enjoyed STONE THE CROWS. Not heard that for many years, and din’t realise it was Australian.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. I have no idea why, but managed to rattle through this in 22 mins, with two of those spent on loi 4d. Didn’t think it was that easy going through, but I suppose 1ac was a generous enough starter from Orpheus. Doctor (14ac) has caught me out more than once, so I watch out for it and wasn’t fooled today – plenty of time left for that. A nice, clear blog style from our guest, Brnchn. Invariant
  9. Finished, and quite quickly for me, but never biffed so many before! Obviously not on the right wavelength today, but fortunately all easily guessed from clue and checkers. Personally I hate the use of random names (eg Ed, Anne) in answers, seems a bit like an easy way out as the number of letters that could be a name is huge.
  10. I thought this was going to be a bit of a slog as I drew a blank on the across clues until 23 broke my duck. But I had more luck on the downs and then my brain seemed to click into gear. I really wanted to put a second ‘o’ in 21a but the wordplay wouldn’t allow it. Completed in 12.43 with LOI 22d.
    Thanks for stepping into do the blog brnchn
    1. I suppose aim is a synonym for goal but ed is normally short for editor not just a random name. Not impressed by this clue. ‘Media’ has been presented in clues much more eloquently elsewhere.
  12. Finished, and quite quickly for me, but never biffed so many before! Obviously not on the right wavelength today, but fortunately all easily guessed from clue and checkers. Personally I hate the use of random names (eg Ed, Anne) in answers, seems a bit like an easy way out as the number of letters that could be a name is huge.

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