Times Quick Cryptic No 1152 by Oink

Don’t know that I can think of a better compiler name than Oink, especially since my 2 1/2 year old is working on a pig puzzle while I write this blog. I didn’t time myself because I am juggling the morning’s activities and am rather preoccupied. This was a nice puzzle I had to think about, though there wasn’t a lot of variety in the clues. Child 2 (of 2) is expected any day now — by the time I write the next blog, I imagine I’ll have another son.

Across

1 Coped with ice somehow that was attached to hose (8)
CODPIECE – COPED (“coped”) + (“with”) ICE (“ice”) anagrammed (“somehow”)
I was startled by my first interpretation of ‘hose’, before realizing that it just meant ‘bottom-half clothing’, as in ‘hosiery’. Hands up if your mind went to the dirty place.
5 I don’t know / way through mountains (4)
PASS – double definition, the first in quotation marks, for instance a response on a quiz show
9 Warning from jobcentre lady when coming back (5)
ALERT – letters inside (“from”) JOBCENTRE LADY (“jobcentre lady”) reversed (“when coming back”)
10 Ugly sight I witnessed, you might say (7)
EYESORE – I SAW (“I witnessed”) sounds like the answer (“you might say”)
11 Stomach beginning to tighten? I’m not sure (3)
TUM – first letter of (“beginning to”) TIGHTEN (“tighten”) + UM (“I’m not sure”)
12 Rebuild ancestral city in the north (9)
LANCASTER – anagram (“rebuild”) ANCESTRAL (“ancestral”)
13 Shrink back in fear on meeting snake (6)
RECOIL – RE (“on”, as in ‘regarding’) + (“meeting”) COIL (“snake”, the verb)
15 Pictures [of] retreating men obstructing US agents (6)
CINEMA – reversal of (“retreating”) MEN (“men”) inside (“obstructing”) C.I.A. (“US agents”)
17 Doctor home at ten, worn out (4-5)
MOTH-EATEN – anagram (“doctor”) HOME AT TEN (“home at ten”)
19 Criticise author after change of heart (3)
PAN – PEN (“author”) with middle letter changed (“after change of heart”)
20 A jar containing rice for the most part, [or] fruit (7)
APRICOT – A (“a”) + POT (“jar”) around (“containing”) RICE (“rice”) without its last letter (“for the most part”)
21 Dropout Charlie banned from fast-food joint (5)
HIPPY – C (“Charlie”, in the phonetic alphabet) removed from (“banned from”) CHIPPY (“fast-food joint”)
22 Estuaries regularly neglected? You bet (4)
SUREESTUARIES (“estuaries”) removing every other letter (“regularly neglected”)
23 Sat very still after lady of the night suggested marriage (8)
PROPOSED – POSED (“sat very still”) after (“after”) PRO (“lady of the night”, ie a prostitute)

Down

1 Gossip about Panama producer? (7)
CHATTER – C (“about”, as in ‘circa’) + HATTER (“Panama producer?”, Panama being a type of hat)
2 Reverie [produced by] putting E in drop of Scotch? (5)
DREAM – putting E in (“putting E in”) DRAM (“drop of Scotch?”)
3 Fancy telling niece what MI6 is after! (12)
INTELLIGENCE – anagram of (“fancy”) TELLING NIECE (“telling niece”)
4 Uncle Andrew partly Polish, maybe (5)
CLEANUNCLE ANDREW (“uncle Andrew”), reduced to some letters inside (“partly”)
6 Advocate[’s] mail found in a pile, half missing (7)
APOSTLE – POST (“mail”) inside (“found in”) A (“a”) + PILE (“pile”) without the first two letters (“half missing”)
7 Vegetable sister’s eating? [It’s] a bit of broccoli (5)
SPEAR – PEA (“vegetable”), SR is (“sister’s”) around (“eating”)
8 Amorous affair [of] family member on QE2? (12)
RELATIONSHIP – RELATION (“family member”) + (“on”) SHIP (“QE2”, Queen Elizabeth 2)
14 Supplier of food [from] rocky terrace (7)
CATERER – anagram of (“rocky”) TERRACE (“terrace”)
16 Irritated butcher one November day (7)
ANNOYED – anagram (“butcher”) ONE N. DAY (“one November day”)
17 Money / matters (5)
MEANS – double definition
Someone can perhaps help me with the second definition. Near as I can tell, ‘matter’ means ‘mean something’, but not just ‘mean’. EDIT: Ah, perhaps it’s something like ‘What does it matter/mean to you?’.
18 Teacher [of] Old Testament, stuck in rut, heading north (5)
TUTOR – OT (“Old Testament”) inside (“stuck in”) RUT (“rut”), reversed (“heading north”)
19 Diarist has a furtive look, they say (5)
PEPYS – PEEPS (“has a furtive look”) sounds like the answer (“they say”)

50 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1152 by Oink”

  1. I biffed a couple, like HIPPY–didn’t know the relevant meaning of ‘chippy’–ANNOYED, and INTELLIGENCE. I’m happy to say that I got CODPIECE without any, ah, distractions. Didn’t think anything of means/matters, but now that you mention it, I can’t think of a context that would allow intersubstitution. 5:16.
    1. I should have mentioned, I didn’t know CHIPPY but I have heard of ‘chip shops’ so I figured it must be right.
  2. At 1 across I thought immediately of Baldrick, whose uncle was of course a stunt codpiece for Macbeth. Whether he had a large part or not depended on who was playing the Thane of Cawdor. For the US slang meaning (strangely related) I am indebted to Jeremy after making an Internet search.

    8 and a half minutes for this, with a shout out to 15 across.

        1. That’s what I suspected, though all relevant senses of the word seem to be international. I am still unable to parse one answer from the 15×15, so had the feeling I could be missing something else…
            1. I took Jeremy’s “dirty place” reading to refer merely to an obvious metaphorical extension of the kind of hose a fireman uses, which term is common on both sides of the pond, but now it seems I really don’t know what you’re talking about.
              1. That’s the thing – never heard of that use of hose before Googling today. Never reached this side of the other pond perhaps…
                1. It’s not used commonly as a synonym over here either; the word just readily lends itself to such a double meaning.
                  1. Um, indeed. Fire hose is particularly good, I note from a Wiktionary page devoted to the subject.
                    1. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard “fire hose” used as definition 4 there.
                      1. My daughter once dated a member of a rock group who was nicknamed “hosepipe” for a discernible reason. Does that help?
                        1. This term seems a bit redundant, but I see that it is a particularly British variant.
  3. I’ve just finished the 15×15 and can endorse vinyl1’s warning.

    Nice blog Jeremy – very well explained for newer solvers! I also hesitated at 17dn, but luckily I didn’t have to worry about a blog so I biffed it in.

  4. 10 minutes for this (only the second) offering from OINK, who dropped by to chat to us last time so perhaps he will again today. In his first puzzle the word ‘sty’ appeared twice in the grid but I can’t see any pig references today, and anyway he assured us it was pure serendipity on that occasion.
  5. 23 minutes. Started slowly but finished quickly.
    MER codpiece until reading the blog.

    Last few were annoyed, cinema, and LOI apostle.

    Liked proposed, but COD to (c)hippy as I’m looking forward to being able to frequent one when I fly back on Thursday morning.

    Good luck with cost centre 2 Jeremy!

    Edited at 2018-08-08 06:43 am (UTC)

  6. A few missed today. I’ve Ben doing the QC for a couple of years and reckon 16d is a hard construction. The QC doesn’t usually have anagrists that need to be constructed like this.

    Also PRO=prostitute doesn’t sit well. Plenty of other ways to clue PRO.

  7. I came to the QC for some sensible offerings after the twisted mentality of Big Brother (by coincidence included in the clues). Not disappointed: sensible but not merely simple stuff. I particularly liked the clues for PASS and RECOIL. If ever I do Mastermind, my specialist subject will be “questions to which the answer is pass”. I’ll do just fine.

    All the best with no. 2’s introduction to the world, Jeremy. You may find, after this, keeping a lockable codpiece handy is a good idea.

  8. A very enjoyable puzzle today. Oink ought to be encouraged to become a more regular contributor. (16 mins)
  9. An enjoyable puzzle from oink and thanks for the blog, Jeremy. Hope all goes well for your wife.
    I liked chatter, cinema, apricot and apostle.
    Disappointed to take almost 18 mins today. I started quickly but the LHS slowed me down, rather. John M
  10. I enjoyed this overall but I didn’t like 17d – I suppose someone of means has money and if you say something means something I suppose you can argue you care about it (it matters to you) but it’s obscure for a quickie in my view.
  11. 13 minutes again today, although I felt comfortable with the setter’s style straight away, despite limited exposure in the past.

    I did note a number of slightly risque (ooh er missus!) clues as I completed; hose (yes, I thought that too), amorous affairs, ladies of the night, but it was all innocent enough in retrospect.

    Thanks Oink and Jeremy. Good luck with the new arrival when he arrives!

  12. At 8:43 this one was one of my faster solves. I was on wavelength today helped by the fact that I went to see Mission Impossible at the CINEMA last night which features an adversary called the APOSTLEs and also bandied about MI6 INTELLIGENCE. My LOI was 1a CODPIECE which only held me up because I read Copied as opposed to Coped and thought I had too many letters for it to be an anagram. More haste, less speed.
  13. On a bit of a roll today after a stellar performance on the testing 15×15. After that this felt very mild and I paused briefly just on MEANS before stopping the clock at 4:40.
  14. Really enjoyed this, finishing in just under 20 minutes. I’m rather a newbie so I’m encouraged by what, to me, is a fast solve. I needed it because I found yesterday’s puzzle really hard… Especially uncles and pawnshops! Thanks, setter and blogger for today.
  15. To find I finished without any cheating in 28 mins – a first! Biffed ‘recoil’ and ‘means’ so needed blog to explain. Frankyanne
  16. I went back after submitting, to parse 16d and got there eventually, but I thought it was a bit convoluted for a QC. Nevertheless an enjoyable puzzle which took me 8:31, with an MER at 1a until the other meaning of hose occurred to me. MEANS was LOI after a moment’s thought. Thanks Oink and Jeremy. Good luck with the new arrival!
  17. This is a busy day for comments – over 30 already and I’m early looking in today. I don’t usually get around to it until the evening.

    I enjoyed the crossword, for one still scrabbling round the foothills, I was pleased that I managed everything, apart from 17d, without help. I had to look for synonyms of “money” as I was as confused as others by the second definition.

    Thanks to Oink and Jeremy and best wishes for the happy event.

    PS: my favourite invented word – for forecasting the gender of a child – “sprognosis”.

  18. I really enjoyed this offering from Oink, with at least three or four to choose from for CoD. 32 mins on the clock, but some of those were time gladly spent admiring the surfaces. Nice also to see the NW getting another look in with Lancaster. I’ve gone for 16d, Annoyed, as my CoD, just ahead of 13 and 15ac. Invariant
  19. Pretty straightforward. MEANS = matters? Stretching it a bit. Enjoyed 1ac, my mind having initially gone to garden attachments, so had a chuckle when the penny dropped. My COD & LOI.
    Pleasant run-out.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. Pear isn’t a vegetable and ‘eating’ doesn’t clue containment. So I’ll stick with PEA in SR.
    2. Just clearing my backlog so probably a bit late, but a bit of broccoli is a head not a spear (just look at the shape of it for goodness sake). Asparagus comes in spears. Also SR for sister???
      1. “A spear is the whole broccoli with edible stem and florets. The stalk is just the edible stem without the florets.” —unattributed internet source

        SR for ‘sister’ is a religious title, see also FR for ‘father’, etc.

  20. Another neat puzzle from Oink with great surfaces. Not very difficult, but lots to enjoy. I particularly liked MOTH-EATEN and DREAM. 4:55
  21. My second completed QC of late so pleased with the progress. I enjoyed today’s puzzle. Of course my mind went to penis – I challenge anyone’s that didn’t!
  22. I enjoyed this puzzle and managed to finish it in 14 minutes before nipping out for golf. FOI was 1d and LOI was 13a. I liked 5d very much and plenty of others.
    I thought I was going to get stuck but each clue unravelled nicely. I also liked the Chippy and the Hippy. David
  23. I struggled to get onto Oink’s wavelength today and a number of the clues felt like a bit of a battle – a reflection on me rather than the quality of the clues. But things picked up towards the end and I crossed the line in 21.26. Lots to pick from for CoD but 21a just gets my vote.
    Thanks for the blog Jeremy and I hope everything goes smoothly.
  24. Thanks to all for the comments. Thanks especially to plusjeremy for the blog. May the expected one arrive safely and in timely fashion!

    On 17d Money matters = MEANS my thinking was as jeremy suggested: e.g. it means/matters a lot to me.

    And on 7d SPEAR, the intended parsing is again as jeremy has it: SR (sister) containing PEA (vegetable).

    My second outing in the Quick Cryptic slot. I suppose I might in time get used to the exalted company I’m keeping.

    All good wishes

    Oink

  25. I meant to say, nice to see some newer solvers taking up the cryptic challenge and making progress.

    Onward and upwards!

    Oink

  26. Looked up synonyms for advocate, but as a comparative — and irregular — newbie was chuffed to finish in 30 minutes.
  27. Thanks for the blog and comments all. I came here to check I had understood it all and am delighted to be able to confirm all my answers. It only took me 3 days! Nice to have PAN explained. Onwards slowly..

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