Times Quick Cryptic No 1118 by Teazel

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A touch on the harder side today from Teazel. I had three blank as my target ten minutes came and went: 1d, 2d and 20ac. The last of these was the first to fall, after I worked out the correct place to put the “it” (no word P_ITR_T_ exists). It took a while, though, to see what was going on at 2d – very nicely masked. That left me staring impatiently at 1d, and I threw in the towel as the clock loomed 13. So a DNF. But on the plus side it’s always good to see the less-showy parent noun of a household adjective. A good dose of nicely unusual words and wordplay elsewhere made this very good fun. Among other things, I learnt/was reminded that an arcade can be a row of arches – crazy, eh? Many thanks to Teazel!

Across
4 Rows of arches, where one finds amusement? (6)
ARCADE – double definition, also applicable to a few arched trees or shrubs.
7 Internal dispute politely conducted? (5,3)
CIVIL WAR – cryptic definition, with a well-appointed question mark, for civil wars tend to be anything but civil: the English Civil War claimed 10 per cent of the adult male population, and pitted many a family against itself.
8 Record tiny stretch of time (6)
MINUTE – double definition. In non-literal contexts, a minute is an instant. Edit: as Jack explains below, this is a triple def. Very nice!
9 So menial prepared grain product (8)
SEMOLINA – anagram of SO MENIAL.
10 Artist catches male bird (4)
RHEA – R.A. (artist) catches HE.
12 Temporary framework round truck stop is disposed of (8)
SCAFFOLD – CAFF (truck stop), around which goes SOLD: one meaning of “to dispose of” is “to sell”.
15 Poetry and music, for example need high-quality skills (4,4)
FINE ARTS – double definition, the second usually humorous/ironic. “Fine arts” now more often refers to the visual arts, but originally applied to any area of human creativity that was to be enjoyed for its own sake, over more practical concerns.
18 Revolutionary circle to form again (4)
REDO – RED (revolutionary) O (circle). Red, as a symbol of revolution, is a vivid reference to bloodshed, violence, and radical change, with the “red bonnet” being a symbol of the French Revolution long before its adoption in Russia.
20 In religious house it is an urgent task (8)
PRIORITY – Inside PRIORY (religious house) goes IT.
22 Victor, one with wise face (6)
VISAGE – V (Victor in phonetic alphabet) I (one) with SAGE (wise)
23 Famous singer astonishes sailor (4,4)
ROCK STAR – ROCKS (astonishes) TAR (sailor)
24 Stop somewhat rude sister (6)
DESIST – In the letters of ruDE SISTer, somewhat.

Down
1 Cunning procedure while out of hospital (4)
WILE – Take the H(ospital) out of WHILE. Cunningly simple cryptic procedure: if a shop out of milk has no milk in it, a “while” out of H has no H in it.
2 In polite exchange, silver as fee for guide (8)
PILOTAGE – Inside an anagram (exchange) of POLITE, put AG (silver). I’d have taken this to simply mean navigation, but I see it can also be a payment.
3 Rustic lovers: river birds captivate one (6)
SWAINS – SWANS (river birds) captivate I (one). A country sweetheart, before that it was more generally a farmhand or countryman, and before that a servant, from the Old Norse sveinn: a boy or attendant. The OED has a “swainess” as a female lover, and a “swaining” as a noun for “love making, ‘spooning’.”
4 Invasion force mass inside a drama school (6)
ARMADA – M(ass) inside A RADA (a drama school). Armada has the same root as army, armour, and, indeed, arm. From Latin or something.
5 Ice-cream, cold one (4)
CONE – C(old) ONE.
6 Comprehensive selected for special duty (8)
DETAILED – double definition.
11 In top of forehead, sort of fracture (8)
HAIRLINE – double definition.
13 Reduced share (3)
CUT – double definition
14 In tangled forests king makes strong defence (8)
FORTRESS – In an anagram (tangled) of FORESTS goes R (Rex / king).
16 Bear being regularly proud and saucy (6)
RUPERT – RU (regular/even letters of pRoUd) and PERT (saucy)
17 Son with nagging desire to change (6)
SWITCH – S(on) W(ith) ITCH (nagging desire). I’m often slow to see the W for with, so it’s welcome practice in an easier clue.
19 Army team in vehicle (4)
TAXI – TA (Army) XI (team = eleven – starting eleven, say)
21 Amphibian pulled along, we hear (4)
TOAD – which we hear the same as TOWED (pulled along)

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1118 by Teazel”

  1. 9ac is a triple definition. A record (of something at a meeting), tiny (when pronounced “my-newt”) and a stretch of time.

    A good mix of clues ranging from the extremely easy (e.g. 5dn) to worthy candidates for the main puzzle (e.g. 2dn). I had to hop around the grid quite a lot to keep up momentum and I came home within my target 10 minutes but with barely a second to spare.

    Edited at 2018-06-21 04:07 am (UTC)

  2. I’m trying to remember what slowed me down; TAXI for one, the XI being slow to come. RUPERT, bless him, appeared recently, or it might have taken me longer to remember him. It’s worth remembering that ‘with’ can also clue AND. 6:53.
    1. Ah yes – the “and” does for me even more than the W, to the extent that I’d forgotten it enough to mention!
  3. Very slow today, over 35 mins, attending a conference so harder to concentrate but it felt tough. Also with the time difference here in the middle east, the football doesn’t finish til late so i’m tired…

    Had to work hard to get lots of clues.
    Dnk swain. Think pilotage has come up before this year, maybe in the main puzzle.

    LOI detailed, mainly because i had arcaid for 4a until I spotted the error, second coffee needed I think.

    COD civil war.

    Edited at 2018-06-21 05:39 am (UTC)

  4. All fair clues but they made me work hard. Over 32 minutes including an interruption for making my daughter’s breakfast (and a typo). SW was last to go in with Rupert the very last in. Annoying to have been unable to solve my own name!
  5. Entertaining, this one, with a decent selection of the devices that regularly flummox the 15ers:
    “With” can be there just to give you W (17)
    NATO alphabet names like Victor (22)
    Changes in word division (ROCKS TAR 23)
    Positively Yoda-ish syntax: round truck stop is disposed of (12),my CoD.
  6. I found this hard but gettable throughout and ended with a different three clues to our blogger which put up stiff resistance but fell in the order 3dn, 7ac and 9ac. Very satisfying challenge which I thought I’d made a meal of but at two Kevins I can’t have done that badly.
  7. 14 minutes today, after finding it difficult to find a foothold and get started for a couple of minutes. Like Jackkt, I was darting about the grid a bit.

    CoD to 1d or 17d. WoD to SEMOLINA (do you say LEE or LIE in the middle?), just for the nostalgia of it.

    Thanks to Teazel, and nice blog Roly.

  8. The cluing for WILE would be fairly rare in the daily, I’d say. That ‘out of’ device I’ve certainly seen, but I’ll venture it’s not all that familiar.

    Nice puzzle, but quite ‘chewy’ as someone said above.

    Edited at 2018-06-21 09:30 am (UTC)

  9. Oh the horror of school semolina …

    Chewy puzzle for me, got stuck in the NW and took ages to see CIVIL WAR (very clever and my COD). Once I had that, then LOI SWAINS fell quickly. Just over three Kevins.

    Post of day (so far): “Positively Yoda-ish syntax”. I am now reading all the clues in a Yoda voice.

    Inspired by Lucy I had a go at the qualifying puzzle yesterday and was amazed to be able to complete 75% of it in 20 minutes – the QC bootcamp is having an effect. I then took another 45 minutes to do the rest … Question for the old hands. Is there any way of finding out how the clues worked? Because I am fairly sure that my last two in are right, but I cannot parse them for the life of me. And I know that I’ll never remember to look at it when the results come out because life moves on.

    Thanks Roly and Teazel.

    Templar

    1. Well done, that’s a very good effort! The blog for qualifying puzzles, as for prize puzzles, are done the following week.
    2. Yes, the QC is definitely training me up Templar! What numbers were your last two in? (I know we’re not allowed to talk about it, but I’d be interested to know if yours were the same as mine!)
      1. They were 20ac and 15 dn (which of course intersect …)

        Oh hang on – having stared at 20ac again I now get it! I knew it was right but couldn’t see why. Now I do.

        Still don’t get 15dn though …

        Thanks for saying it was do-able, I really wouldn’t have bothered to try otherwise! I find the 15×15 a bit intimidating – partly because the standard seems to vary from “basically a bigger QC” right the way up to “all the old hands are moaning about how difficult it is” – so I rarely try it unless someone has remarked on here that it’s worth a go.

        Templar

        1. I suspect we have all arrived at the same answer for 15d, but like you I haven’t got the faintest idea why (apart from the first bit). Invariant
  10. There were definitely some clues at the tougher end of the spectrum today and I fell into the (now very obvious) trap at 22a (LOI) of thinking that victor was the definition. Until reading the blog I thought that 1d was a bit of an iffy clue but I can now see that it’s actually rather clever. COD goes to 7a, which took me a frustratingly long time to work out. Completed in 15.43
    A lot to enjoy today so thanks to Teazel and roly
  11. A trickier puzzle today with some well concealed definitions. The NW held me up with 3d, 2d, 7a and 1d last to fall in that order. 14:48. Thanks Teazel and Roly.
  12. I found this fairly straightforward until I was left with 1dn, which took a long time to spot. I have not across that formulation before. Not come across SWAIN since O level Eng Lit, so that had the cogs churning a bit. RUPERT is also army slang for a senior officer. Is there a context, other than crosswordland, where W is used as an abbreviation for “with”?
    Lots of clues to enjoy, but COD to CIVIL WAR. Lovely play on words.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. I’ve seen w/ and w/o (without) countless times everywhere, and use them myself constantly; which is good enough for me, although I can’t give you any citations. So far as I know, it’s just a (widespread) convention like v. for very.
  13. 13:37, but with a biffed STITCH, as I’d spent so long struggling with 2dn that I submitted without checking elsewhere. I had been trying to find a procedure from which the H had to be removed to leave cunning – NICHE doesn’t work, and the checkers are particularly unhelpful.
  14. I started out with a PB at the beginning of the week and have steadily declined. Hopped around the grid to finish in 20:48 with LOI 2dn PILOTAGE and 12ac SCAFFOLD correct but unparsed, so thanks for the explanation in the blog.
    I grew up in a seaside town with plenty of amusement arcades but have to admit that I didn’t know the architectural definition. Another one for the knowledge bank.
  15. Got 20A on first pass, 15D came much later — and no, I’ve no idea how either (apart from the first bit). Look forward to being enlightened on the 28th! Just having a bash at today’s back page now…hmmm.
  16. Been trying these for six months now, thanks to all you bloggers( and setters) seems to be just starting to click. DNF in 30 mins, but only missed out on four.
    kg
  17. Given the previous comments it seems odd to me that I didn’t find anything here obtuse or really hard – just plodded along to complete over a couple of sittings. However, I’m grateful for the proper explanation of 19d. So far this week we’ve seen several old favourites – e.g. ‘eton/note’ etc and today ‘armada’ and ‘detailed’ – both recalled from earlier QCs. I too am grateful for hints when a 15×15 might be approachable! However, by the time I get to find out, I have to retrieve the main paper from the bin! Hopefully another do-able QC tomorrow will complete a more relaxed week of QC’s. So thx to Teasel and rolytoly for a good puzzle and blog.
  18. I came to this a day late but enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to Teazel and rolytoly.
    I jumped about a bit at first but appreciated the neat touches in many clues (and I got the nice triple def immediately). Held up on the NW corner. 2.5 Kevins so not too bad.
    COD 1d.
  19. This one took me 20 mms, 5 over my target of 15. As an ex-trucker, I’ve seen plenty of caffs, so no problems with scaffold. COD goes to 7a for its nice surface. This is my first ever post, having been an avid follower of your bloggers for a very long time, both here and the 15×15. Thank you all very much for your expertise and help, it’s much appreciated.

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