Times Quick Cryptic No 1148 by Tracy

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Middle of the road from Tracy today. I was held to a couple of minutes over my target thanks to a mental block at 1ac: I had all but five done by the 6 minute mark and needed the same again to finish it off. 1ac, 18ac, 1d, 2d and 3d were the fairly blameless culprits, although I might have needed a bit of time to get 1d without that first letter. Nothing much in the way of obscurity, although I did discover that angora wool doesn’t come from a goat an unceasing trust in WIkipedia is a mistake, and how a bit of sodden bread is related to a concession, other than sounding more tempting than a cinema hot dog. Enjoyable fare as always – many thanks to Tracy!

Across
1 Fair punishment, as only sweets mentioned (4,7)
JUST DESERTS – JUST (only) DESERTS (sounds the same (“mentioned”) as DESSERTS)
8 Work with uranium, fast becoming rich (7)
OPULENT -OP (work) with U(ranium) LENT (fast at Easter)
9 Taken from recipes, tomato sauce (5)
PESTO – “Taken from” the letters of reciPES TOato
10 A linen hat ordered for boy (9)
NATHANIEL – anagram (ordered) of A LINEN HAT
12 Bill in club, withdrawn (3)
TAB – BAT = club, withdrawn = taken back
13 I grew agitated holding a small insect (6)
EARWIG – anagram (agitated) of I GREW holding A
15 Yarn from an artist about travel (6)
ANGORA – AN (an) R.A. (artist) about/around GO (travel). Fur from the angora rabbit, wiki tells me – not the angora goat, which is called mohair. Wrong! See Jack’s post below.
17 Briefly carry toddler (3)
TOT – TOTE (carry), briefly = dock the last letter.
18 Fulfilled? Sure (9)
SATISFIED – double definition
20 Sound of hooter I installed (5)
NOISE – NOSE (hooter) with I installed.
22 Female cutting inch of woven fabric (7)
CHIFFON – F(emale) cutting/intersecting an anagram (woven) of INCH OF.
23 Cash column includes article that’s off-the-peg (5-2-4)
READY-TO-WEAR – READY = cash/dosh TOWER (column) includes A (article)
Down
1 Short cheerful pleasure trip (5)
JAUNT – JAUNTY (cheerful), short = dock the last letter. Jaunt and jaunty are unrelated: jaunty is an anglicised spelling of French gentil, and originally meant genteel/well-bred; jaunt possibly comes from French jaunce, to prance with (or like) a horse.
2 Call for help about care in bad circumstances (9)
SCENARIOS – SOS (call for help) about an anagram (bad) of CARE IN
3 A particular detachment of troops (6)
DETAIL – double definition
4 Like this parking concession (3)
SOP – SO (like this, as in “do it so / like this”) P(arking). As in the phrase: “a sop to Cerberus”. A sop is a piece of soaked bread, and a drugged one was given to Cerberus to allow safe passage to the underworld, hence its meaning as a bribe/placation
5 Rice dish in foremost of restaurants — it’s too exotic (7)
RISOTTO – R (foremost of Restaurants); anagram (exotic) of ITS TOO
6 Activity at St Moritz? Last of passengers currently embarking (12)
SNOWBOARDING – S (last of passengerS) NOW (currently) BOARDING (embarking)
7 Singer in bar, one over in centre of Montreux (12)
COUNTERTENOR – COUNTER (bar); ENO (one over/reversed) in TR (centre letters of monTReux)
11 Runaway victory of country team rounding lake (9)
LANDSLIDE – LAND (country) SIDE (team) rounding L(ake)
14 Wine, mostly red — sat in getting drunk (7)
RETSINA – RE (“mostly” RED), anagram (getting drunk) of SAT IN.
16 Reportedly fixed old plasterwork (6)
STUCCO -STUCc (sounds like/is reportedly STUCK) O(ld)
19 Gather inside train ferry (5)
INFER – “inside” the letters of traIN FERry
21 The French put up close to Canterbury, a cathedral city (3)
ELY –EL (The, French = le, put up = reversed), Y (close/end of canterburY)

22 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1148 by Tracy”

  1. SOED has:
    4 Fabric made from the hair of the angora goat; mohair. Also designating a garment etc. made from this. M19.

    5 Fabric made from a mixture of sheep’s wool and angora rabbit hair. Also designating a garment etc. made from this. M20.

    Collins has:
    2. Angora cloth or clothing is made from the hair of the angora goat or rabbit.

    Chambers has:
    Wool or cloth made from the soft silky wool of the Angora goat. adj 1 denoting a breed of domestic goat that originated in Turkey, but is now widely bred for its soft silky wool, known as mohair. 2 denoting a breed of rabbit, native to the island of Madeira, that produces fine white silky wool.

    Wiki is much better and more reliable than the early days but I’m still inclined not to trust it implicitly.

    11 minutes for this one, held up similarly by failing to solve 1ac and 1dn until I had most of the checkers.

    Edited at 2018-08-02 04:24 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for this Jack – I was a bit surprised when I read the wiki page, but did rather blindly accept it. I even think I’ve got an angoran wool jumper kicking about somewhere. It is always good to be reminded of the value of a bit of critical thinking!
  2. Hesitated over 1d; glad to find out that the two words aren’t related. There’s a famous bakery in San Francisco called Just Desserts, which no doubt helped me biff 1ac. I’m not sure I’d call RETSINA wine, but. 5:49.
    2. More like creosote, I’d say – although back when I had any I could only afford the cheap stuff.
  3. 2d SCENARIOS was the sticky bit for me: a word with SOS as its frame just looked unlikely, and I failed to split bad and circumstances so missed the anagram indication. Sometimes, if it’s not working, you need to change your point of view.
  4. 15 mins so 2.6 Kevins or 1.4 Jackkts if using british units.

    Finally I seem to be on Tracy’s wavelength, I used to struggle the most with his/her puzzles.

    Last few were satisfied, scenarios, and stucco.

    I was glad to have seen countertenor a few times here before, reminds me of pavement artist which crops up regularly in the 15×15 usually with a quirky cryptic definition such as: They need walk-on parts for their sketches.

    COD Scenarios.

    Edited at 2018-08-02 07:15 am (UTC)

    1. Tracy is a ‘he’. Real first name Allan, if that helps. He set the Everyman in the Observer for many years.
  5. I am normally on Tracy’s wavelength but not today. I had no problems with 1a but struggled with 7d COUNTERTENOR which I am sure we have seen before but refused to yield until I had all the checkers. I biffed 22a CHIFFON and my final two were the interlinking ANGORA and then LANDSLIDE. All done in 14:47.
    Thanks for the blog.

    On edit, I forgot to say that I initially had Jolly for 1d which then gave me the J for 1a JUST DESERTS! Serendipity.

    Edited at 2018-08-02 10:22 am (UTC)

    1. If the first word is omitted from the clue, JOLLY would be a good answer, making the clue a double definition. Adding ‘…for sea-soldier’ at the end would make it a rarer triple definition, but make it a bit easy.
  6. I found this quite tough, spending a while on 2d before finishing in about 15m (can’t be bothered with seconds, except if it’s a glass of retsina). A good challenge -thanks setter and blogger
  7. 13 minutes for me, slowed down by too much Rioja last night. 1a my CoD and JAUNT my WoD.
  8. This was at the tougher end of the scale I thought. Started slowly and rather plodded through it. LOI SCENARIOS.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. SCENARIOS was my LOI as I finally spotted the anagram fodder and lifted and separated BAD and CIRCUMSTANCES. I failed to spot “inch of woven” and biffed CHIFFON. Otherwise a steady solve taking me to 9:38. Thanks Tracy and Roly.
  10. My heart sank when I saw Tracy’s name, given the way things have gone so far this week, but I finished feeling quite satisfied with my time of just over 30 mins. My loi, Scenarios, took ages because, like others, I was looking for something to do with bad circumstances rather than a part anagram. Quite ironic that I spotted ‘woven’ (22ac) straight away, and completely missed ‘bad’. 6d made me smile, and for that it gets my CoD vote. Invariant
  11. All but one of the long answers around the edge were slow to fall for me and so I was just over target in 22 minutes. Generally a gentle week from my perspective, so I’m expecting a stinker tomorrow.
  12. I had no trouble with the other two outsiders but ready-to-wear and loi countertenor brought my run of sub 10s to en end – 10:25.
  13. and took ages to see! I had no idea that rabbits could ever be involved in angora, well well. Maybe that’s why Trotsky kept them in his house in Mexico City (now a museum, toured it today). A rabbit’s whisker over 2 Kevins.

    Templar

  14. I completed this in 19.55 – half of which was spent on LOI 2d which wasn’t helped by misspelling 10a where I put the second a and e the wrong way round. This made spotting the anagram in 2d a bit of a problem. Very relieved to finally spot what was going on.
  15. unsuitable for a quick cryptic I thought. I speak as a novice who has no interest in the 15×15
    2. Hmm. Shows how difficult it is to judge the difficulty of a crossword.

      I also have no interest (or ability) in the 15×15. I often take well over an hour for the quick cryptic, occasionally a few days! (hence why I am behind!) But today I did this one in 12 minutes, which is my best for over a year.

      I can’t write for you, but for me some days no clues make sense, and others, the very same clues seem childishly easy and I cannot understand why I found them difficult…

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