Times Quick Cryptic No 1253 by Juno

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well, that was Christmas!  I hope that you all had a good one and are ready for the New Year.

I have never knowingly blogged a Juno puzzle before, and this one took me outside my upper limit to just 5 seconds over 16 minutes, probably taking time to adjust to her (?) style, and to overcome the fog of the holiday.  Some good stuff here, and hard to pick a CoD, but my WoD has to go to BERSERK.

I shall be enjoying Hogmanay in Edinburgh before starting my first year as a full time retiree after more than 52 years in employment.  What will emerge from this new adventure I wonder?

Wishing you all the very best for 2019 and beyond, and thanks to Juno.

Across
8  Falls here again, backing the Gunners (7)
NIAGARA – AGAIN reversed (backing) followed by RA  (Royal Artillery, or more properly, the Royal Regiment of Artillery – otherwise known as the gunners)
9  Very little time to exploit computer accessory (5)
MOUSE – MO (very little time) and USE (exploit).  My first thought was MODEM, but decided that was too old fashioned (like me), and didn’t fit the clue anyway.
10 Dance said to be Disney’s? (5)
WALTZ – Sounds like (said to be) Walt’s, after Walt Disney.
11 Violently crazy fool grabbing Serb briefly (7)
BERSERK – BERK (fool) ‘grabbing’ (containing) SER{b} (briefly indicating to drop the last letter).  BERSERK originates from berserker, A Norse warrior who on the battlefield was filled with a frenzied and irresistible fury.
12  Arab I once treated not in need of oxygen (9)
ANAEROBIC – Anagram (treated) of [ARAB I ONCE].  ANAEROBIC refers to a process which does not require the presence of free oxygen.
14 Generous portion of grub I got (3)
BIG – Hidden (portion of) in {gru}B I G{ot}
16 Political party’s room for experiment (3)
LAB – Double definition, in each case referring to an abbreviation of the clued word (Labour and Laboratory respectively)
18  Fan tended, outrageously, to get accused (9)
DEFENDANT – Anagram (outrageously) of [FAN TENDED]
21  Placed in an impossible position? (7)
NOWHERE – As a noun, one definition of NOWHERE is a non-existent place, or an impossible position in which to be placed.  I’m going to describe this clue as an &Lit, but I usually get into trouble when I do this, so I look forwards to wiser heads telling me otherwise.
22  Pale, having very little energy (5)
WHITE – WHIT (very little) and E{nergy}.  I originally wanted to start this answer with WAN through looking for the definition in the wrong part of the clue, but then I saw the (white) light.  Whit is an unusual word meaning the smallest particle imaginable, or the least bit.
23  Chess player’s bishop something that’s missing (5)
BLACK – Helped by coming immediately after WHITE in the previous clue.  Here, it is B{ishop} followed by LACK (something that’s missing).  I worried at first about LACK for something that’s missing, thinking that should lead to lacking, but a lack (noun) is a deficiency or something missing or in short supply.
24  Bid a lot for smashing newspaper (7)
TABLOID – Anagram (for smashing) of [BID A LOT].

Down
1 What’s transformed Flo’s lawn? (8)
SNOWFALL – Anagram (transformed) of [FLO’S LAWN].  Oh dear, here we go again – is this another &Lit?
2  Trouble had arisen, leading to bloomer (6)
DAHLIA – AIL (trouble) and HAD (had) all reversed (arisen in this down clue).
3  What’s often traditional filling for pizza just returned (4)
JAZZ – Reversed (returned) hidden in (filling for) {pi}ZZA J{ust}.  Trad JAZZ (short for Traditional Jazz) was a style of Jazz that originated in New Orleans in the early 20th century, a musical genre that passes me by completely.
4  Tree starts to blossom, and our bushes are blooming! (6)
BAOBAB – First letters of (starts to) B{lossom} A{nd} O{ur} B{ushes} A{re} B{looming}.  The BAOBAB is the gigantic tropical African (and Australian) tree seen so often in close proximity to David Attenborough.
5  From Crimea, an extraordinary Statesman (8)
AMERICAN – Anagram (extraordinary) of [CRIMEA, AN].  Good misdirection – statesman here refers to a man from the States, rather than a governmental specialist.
6 First rate drink, with ‘yssop, for example (6)
SUPERB – SUP (drink) with ‘ERB ({h}ERB, such as Hyssop, clued as ‘yssop to indicate dropping the first letter – aitch in each case).  It took me a second or two to work out what was going on, and other Setters may have fallen back on the hackneyed ‘cockney herb’, but I prefer this device for its novelty.
7  Platform to adorn (4)
DECK – Double definition, the second seasonal, as in ‘deck the halls…’
13  Visibly embarrassed, passionately kisses country cousins? (8)
REDNECKS – RED (visibly embarrassed) and NECKS (passionately kisses) to give the (slightly) offensive term used to describe poor white farm labourers in SW USA
15 Prepare reworking of end of Renaissance tragedy (3,5)
GET READY – Anagram (reworking) of [TRAGEDY] and end of {renaissanc}E.
17  Cutting tool bends with a weight (6)
BOWSAW – BOWS (bends) with A (a) and W{eight}.
19  Girl is in France: a religious celebration (6)
FIESTA – FI (girl, short for Fiona) and EST (the French word for ‘is’) and A (a).  A FIESTA is a Saint’s day or holiday – a religious celebration.
20  Old heavyweight champion’s performing for girl (6)
ALISON – ALI’S (old heavyweight champion’s, as in Muhammad Ali, previously known as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr) and ON (working).
21  Tips for writer from Northern Ireland, medical graduate (4)
NIBS – N{orthern} I{reland} and BS (Bachelor of Surgery, or medical graduate)
22  Networks when busy regularly dropping out (4)
WEBS – alternate letters (regularly dropping out) of W{h}E{n} B{u}S{y}.

24 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1253 by Juno”

  1. Always enjoy your blog posts, and this was no exception. I read 21ac as a cryptic double definition, with “placed in” = “NOW HERE”. What do you think? And I think 1dn is at least a partial &lit.

    I clocked in at 18:18 on this one, but that’s as a private player with copious use of the ‘Check Grid’ facility, so I’m not sure it means much.

    Enjoy first-footing on Hogmanay. All the best on your retirement.

  2. A plodding solve today, with I think WHITE & ALISON my last ones in. But my troubles started at the beginning, with me reading 1ac as ‘Fails here’. ANAEROBIC took some time to sort out, as did TABLOID. ‘passionately kisses’ for NECKS struck me as a bit odd, although it presented no problem here. REDNECK is a rather offensive term, but in any case it applies typically to whites in the South, not the Southwest. Note, by the way, the capital S in ‘Statesman’; I’m not sure if a setter would feel obliged to capitalize in a 15×15, but strictly speaking the reference is to the United States, or the States, which requires a capital. 9:02.
  3. Congratulations Rotter, still a 20 years and a week stretching in front of me. Not as slow as yesterday but just as tough. All fell into place in the end. Even with all the checkers N_A_A_A the falls eluded me for an age. So did BOABAB which I’d never heard of. When B_B seemed to be the end I revised my approach to the clue. Submitted with some trepidation but all green – day one of “skipped filled squares” has gone well!
  4. Congratulations on the imminent retirement. Enjoy! I think NOWHERE is just a cryptic definition as there is no discernible wordplay (in an &lit all the words in the clue make up both the wordplay and definition). I did consider ‘placed’ might be a second definition, meaning ‘not winning’, but ‘nowhere’ in a race is more accurately ‘unplaced’. SNOWFALL, though, is, I think semi-&lit as most of the words are wordplay and all of them make up the definition. I liked the BLACK and WHITE TABLOID in the nether regions and WALT’S AMERICAN MOUSE at the top. Is our setter taking the Mickey? 5:09

    Edited at 2018-12-27 07:51 am (UTC)

  5. 26 minutes on my phone, tired after a night out in Moscow watching the football.

    Had no idea where the erb came from in superb.

    Necking for kissing was used at my school.
    Cod american.

    Enjoy your retirement Rotter. More golf?

  6. 12 minutes. Lost time working out the parsing at 6dn and am still not entirely happy with 21ac. It seems like one of those clues from archive puzzles where one can see the answer but can’t quite explain it.

    Edited at 2018-12-27 09:01 am (UTC)

    1. Forgot to add, this is a very rare sighting of Juno with only 7 puzzles to date, 2 in 2014, 1 in 2015, 2 in 2017 and 2 in 2018. Of these, Rotter, Pip Kirby and William each blogged 1, and Roly and I have each blogged 2.
  7. I found this a struggle, ending with a DNF in 38 minutes. I still had four to go when I decided to reveal ‘Nowhere’ , which gave me the remaining Bowsaw, Fiesta and finally Tabloid. If I’d had all the checkers I might have biffed Nowhere, but I would never had got it from the clue.

    Brian

    Edited at 2018-12-27 09:18 am (UTC)

  8. 17.43. Thought I was going to be quick today but slowed in bottom half. NHO BOWSAW. REDNECKS and NOWHERE took a while. Then blew any chance of a quick time by slamming in HUBS, seeing a b, s and u, and taking a while to unravel.
  9. There was some chewy stuff in here. I’d never heard of the herb in 6d so that went in unparsed and I’ve now learnt yet another abbreviation for doctor, as if there weren’t enough already!! (I guessed that BS came from Bachelor of Science). Last 2 in were NOWHERE and BOWSAW and completed in 15.02.
    Thanks for the blog Rotter and good luck with your retirement.
  10. A different reaction to many solvers above. I found most answers were almost write-ins and thought I would finish in a record time. I came close at 10.56 which is unusual (and unusually close to Kevin). Perhaps my brain is clearing after very low indulgence last night (wine, I mean). I liked WALTZ and BERSERK but my COD was ANAEROBIC. Many thanks to Juno and sincere congrats to therotter with all good wishes for a happy and fulfilling retirement. As vinyl1 says above, you still won’t find enough hours in the day. John M.
  11. 8:18 for this one. I enjoyed the workout, with some nice surfaces. I biffed 21a as it couldn’t be anything else with the checkers I had.
    Thanks to Juno and Rotter, enjoy your retirement!

    Adrian

  12. This one took me 32 seconds over my 10 minute target, with NOWHERE causing a furrowed brow, but then going in with a shrug anyway. I was grateful for the help with spelling BAOBAB. I usually shuffle the As and Os around in the wrong order. Congrats on your approaching retirement Rotter. After 42.5 years on the treadmill and 2.5 years of freedom I can reiterate Vinyl1 and Oldblighters’ comments that you’ll soon wonder how you ever found time to go to work! I definitely don’t miss being rung up in the middle of the night to be hauled off to some datacentre or other to keep the electronic netherworld going! Thanks Juno, and Rotter for the usual excellent blog.

    Edited at 2018-12-27 11:31 am (UTC)

  13. …. so GET READY ‘cos here I come (The Temptations).

    MER at NOWHERE but no real problems today.

    FOI NIAGARA
    LOI ALISON
    COD SNOWFALL
    TIME 4:09

  14. Second in a row and this was harder than yesterday’s. Thought some of the clueing was too hard for QC. Not a fan of Juno so will not miss the setter if there is not another for a few months. All learning I guess. Tim
  15. that’s more like it, albeit I tried using the phone rather than paper and suffered as a result.
    fairly straightforward and only the SE corner delaying things.
    much luck to the blogger in their retirement.
    Carl
  16. Festivities are still in full swing in my house so I have had to sneak off to complete the daily QC. This Juno QC took me 11:27 mins and I was thoroughly enjoying it until I hit submit and discovered a typo. There were a few write ins but most clues required cogitation. My penultimate solve was 8a NIAGARA and my LOI 6d SUPERB. Thankfully I didn’t have to fret over the spelling of 4d BAOBAB and I had to guess at 21a NOWHERE. Thanks Rotter for the blog.
  17. My second DNF in a row – This time the SW was my sticking point over 21a and 17d. A bit frustrating but it’s all grist to the mill… FOI 9a LOI 20d COD 15d. No (long) time as I did this in bits, waiting for my flu jab, then in the supermarket car park as I twigged another on the drive, and the rest around dinner. I too congratulate Rotter on his impending retirement: My observation (from experience of retiring twice) is that it’s what you’ve been working for – the chance to do all the other things! For me that included starting out on these QC’s as well as a host of other stuff that I’ve always wanted to try. Just don’t volunteer to do things you don’t really want to do!
  18. Have been out all day.This was quite tricky; not timed. LOI was BAOBAB-must remember to look for hiddens in the New Year.
    Best wishes to Rotter on your retirement. It’s great. David

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