Times Quick Cryptic No 134 by Orpheus

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Hi everyone

Sorry for lateness. Rushing round getting things ready for a last minute holiday. This includes copious amounts of poking and prodding and testing by clinicians to make sure I am fit to fly long-haul.

Orpheus is here with a really nice puzzle, well suited to the requirements of the Quickie.

I must admit I hadn’t heard of one of the definitions at 12 across. My Bradford’s is packed in a box at the moment (redecoration while I am away!), so I couldn’t check it. A very helpful friend gave me a heads up on it.

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Across
4 BANNER – We start today with a double definition clue, with one of them slightly cryptic. The name for a military standard, plus a way of saying someone who prhibits things.
7 NEGATIVE – Apathetic = definition. An anagram (new) of AGENT + I’VE (the compiler’s)
8 ASTERN – The rear of the vessel = def. A + S (small) + TERN (seabird).
9 BECOMING – A simple double definition.
11 RHEA – Flightless bird = def. HE inside RA The abbreviated name for the building known as Burlington House – the Royal Academy).
12 GREETING – My last one in today. Had never heard of the second of these two definitions. The first is what “Good Morning” is an example of, while the second is a word that means weeping.
15 PLAYMATE – Child’s friend is your definition. LAY (put down) + MAT (floor cover) inside PE (gym).
18 PASS – A triple definition.
20 COLESLAW – A nice clue that made me smile. COLE’S (an example of a famous Porter) + LAW (rule). The definition is for making salad.
22 FINISH – The definition is Veneer with the remainder a clue to a homophone of the word, i.e. Scandinavian.
23 EMIGRANT – one moves abroad is the definition. EMIT (put out) with GRAN inside.
24 BEAKER – Drinking vessel is the definition. BEAK (magistrate) + ER (hesitation).
Down
1 CEDE – Another double definition clue, with one part a homophone. A word meaning to give up can sound like a way of describing an offspring of someone.
2 MAHOGANY – Wood is the definition. MANY (a large number) with A HOG (a pig) inside.,/td>
3 HIDING – A double definition. Something that means the same as going to ground is also a way of describing a violent attack.
4 BEAGLE – Small hound = definition. B (beginning to BAIT) + EAGLE (bird of prey).
5 NUTS – Crazy is the definition. NUT (supporting teachers) + S (first letter of schoolboy).
6 EARNINGS – Income is the definition. An anagram (collected) of A SINGER goes around (tourning) N (north).
11 HILLSIDE – Sloping ground is your definition. HIDE (shelter) with ill s (sick son) inside.
13 RUT – Tw definitions. A dreary routine, plus the name for the mating routine of stags.
14 TAPESTRY – The name for the way of recording an event (Think Bayeux!) TAPE (Record) + TRY (attempt) with S (second).
16 ARCHER – A way of describing the day job of William Tell is the same as describing someone who is quite playful.
17 ECLAIR – Small cake is the definition. E (English) + CLAIR(E) [girl fails to finish, lacking its last letter]. Odd this one, as Clair in its own right is a girl’s name.
19 SILK – Barrister is the definition. S (First letter of Sound) + ILK (kind)
21 ARNO – Italian river is the definition and it is hidden in “popular northern”.

Thanks to our setter today, and I’ll see you in three weeks!! Hope someone has offered to cover!

PS Sorry about the formatting – not sure what has happened to the formatting in the wordpad template.

17 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 134 by Orpheus”

  1. Just in case there’s any of our friends from Finland reading this blog, thought I should point out that (re. 22 ac) Scandinavia does not include Finland (or Iceland come to that) – at least as far as the good people of those lands are concerned. They regard themselves as Nordic rather than Scandinavian.

    I had this reinforced to me many times by irritated Finns when I used to go there on business, so I just pass it on in order to help keep the peace!

    1. I did say I would be back in a few with them. Patience is a virtue, as is having the courage to identify yourself when you are criticising. It does give your complaint some validity to my mind.
  3. Tricky puzzle overall. Guessed RHEA from the RA reference, and had no idea about the weeping definition of greeting – just slapped it in on basis it could not be anything else!

    Have to confess I did not get CEDE – just totally eluded me. So, my first DNF quickie for a long time.

    Wishing you a great holiday macavity!

  4. ‘greeting’ looks a bit odd, though correct: it’s used disparagingly and informally in speech, not writing, so it’s more accurately rendered as ‘greetin’, or even ‘gree;glottal-stop;n’
  6. I made a dog’s breakfast of this one and stimied myself by putting POLISH at 22ac whilst thinking that polish is not the same as veneer (except perhaps in a figurative sense) and Poland isn’t really North European unless one is thinking from the perspective of, say, a Spaniard. That left me with ‘hillsome’ as the best option for ‘sloping ground’ which didn’t really seem likely. Elsewhere I had BEAR at 1dn and GROOMING at 9ac.

    As mentioned in the other blog I’ve had a very stressful few days and my brain is clearly not functioning properly in crossword mode at the moment.

  7. Enjoyable puzzle but with plenty of problems in the top left. Initially put in a dodgy BLOOMING for 9a. Finally got CEDE but used an aid to get BECOMING. Favourite clue COLESLAW. 12a went in with no knowledge of the weeping meaning.

    Bon voyage Macavity.

  8. I also had blooming instead of becoming but did not make the fix so ended up with an unsatisfactory SELL (CELL) for 1d. Greeting for crying is used a lot in Scotland.
  10. Mostly a fun puzzle but I admit I had to google Burlington House before I could get Rhea and had to come to the blog after failing to really parse Greeting, Silk and Beaker (thanks, Macavity!). COD for me was Coleslaw, and I also thought Playmate was a neat surface.

    Edited at 2014-09-11 02:52 pm (UTC)

    1. I think we’ve had Rhea for a flightless bird before. Or maybe that was in the Guardian – it can be confusing following two papers! Greeting is well known in scotland, I’m not scottish but I have Scottish friends who use it a lot. Yet again I DNF as a result of a cake based clue. There was also a cake based clue in today’s Graun cryptic which I did get (I finished that one completely) so all those hours of watching bake off under duress may be paying off – but clearly not as well as I need them to! Apart from the cake debacle I thought this was a nice puzzle though. The whole RHS came very easily in particular. The left was trickier but still rewarding as it fell out.
  11. 4 mins. I also initially entered “Polish” at 22ac and didn’t revisit it until I couldn’t make 11dn work. BECOMING was my LOI after MAHOGANY.

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