Times Quick Cryptic No 1382 by Breadman

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

Didn’t time myself as I had to work in dribs and drabs, but there wasn’t anything of note here. As always, feel free to leave questions in the comments if you’re newer to solving and want additional help or explanation.

Solutions

Across

1 Sluggish pig circling pound (4)
SLOW – SOW (“pig”) around (“circling”) L (“pound”, as in the currency)
4 Celebrity to start physical exercise (4,4)
STAR JUMP – STAR (“celebrity”) + JUMP (“to start”, as in a car)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_jack
8 Formal attire — tone altered with diamonds perhaps (4,4)
ETON SUIT – TONE (“tone”) anagrammed (“altered”) + (“with”) SUIT (“diamonds perhaps”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_jacket
9 Part of time-share network (4)
MESH – letters in (“part of”) TIME-SHARE (“time-share”)
10 Party run by group [in] English county (6)
DORSET – DO (“party”) + R (“run”) + (“by”) SET (“group”)
11 Savings account reviewed in cathedral city without a problem (6)
EASILY – ISA (“savings account”) reversed (“reviewed”) in (“in”) ELY (“cathedral city”)
12 Unremarkable / feature of earth tremor? (2,5,6)
NO GREAT SHAKES – double definition
A ‘tremor’ is a small earthquake.
16 Fruit seaman knocked back with Charlie (6)
BANANA – AB (“seaman”) reversed (“knocked back”) + (“with”) NANA (“Charlie”)
Both ‘nana’ and ‘charlie’ are synonyms for ‘fool’, neither of which I knew.
17 Wife and two females, consumed by beer, talk gibberish (6)
WAFFLE – W (“wife”) + (“and”) FF (“two females”) in (“consumed by”) ALE (“beer”)
‘Gibberish’ feels like a stretch to me. I only know of ‘waffle’ in the meaning of ‘vacillate’, but apparently it can also mean to speak in a vague manner.
19 One who entertains son during baking (4)
HOST – S (“son”) in (“during”) HOT (“baking”)
Nice tricky use of ‘baking’ in the adjective form.
20 Rogue pipe reportedly [transmitted] disease (5,3)
SWINE FLU – SWINE (“rogue”) + FLUE (“pipe”) replaced by homophone
A ‘flue’ is a pipe that acts as a chimney.
21 Lose the friendship of Natalie, moving east (8)
ALIENATE – NATALIE (“Natalie”) anagrammed (“moving”) + E (“east”)
22 Fish salsa, for example, not new (4)
DACE – DANCE (“salsa, for example”), removing (“not”) N (“new”)

Down

2 Release brick-building toy around the end of August (3,2)
LET GO – LEGO (“brick-building toy”) around (“around”) the last letter of (“the end of”) AUGUST (“August”)
3 Royal residence[‘s] type of chair by shed, extremely large (7,6)
WINDSOR CASTLE – WINDSOR (“type of chair”) + (“by”) CAST (“shed”) + first and last letters of (“extremely”) LARGE (“large”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_chair
4 Fanatic upside down in street, a daring feat (5)
STUNT – NUT (“fanatic”) reversed (“upside down”) in (“in”) ST (“street”)
5 On front of stage amongst organised cast? She might be (7)
ACTRESS – RE (“on”) + first letter of (“front of”) STAGE (“stage”) in (“amongst”) anagram of (“organised”) CAST (“cast”)
6 Old US president? Press regularly sees cartoon character (5,8)
JAMES GARFIELD – JAM (“press”) + even numbered letters in (“regularly”) SEES (“sees”) + GARFIELD (“cartoon character”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield
7 After short time, retailer reduced European wine (7)
MOSELLE – after (“after”) MO (“short time”), SELLER (“retailer”) with last letter removed (“reduced”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moselle#Wine
10 Assume complete, mostly (3)
DON – DONE (“complete”) with last letter removed (“mostly”)
13 Having continued success, Jonah’s content to wallow (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL – JONAH’s (“Jonah’s”) middle letters (“content”) + ROLL (“wallow”, like a pig, not a depressed teenager)
14 Large body of water abroad Alan found in different areas (4,3)
ARAL SEA – AL (“Alan”) in (“found in”) anagram of (“different”) AREAS (“areas”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
15 View / bishop’s office (3)
SEE – double definition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_see
17 Produce literary work fit to broadcast (5)
WRITE – RIGHT (“fit”, such as for a position or role) replaced by homophone (“to broadcast”)
18 Half-finished lips lacked colour (5)
LILAC – first halves of (“half-finished”) LIPS LACKED (“lips lacked”)

26 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1382 by Breadman”

  1. NHO STAR JUMP (they’re called jumping jacks in the US); and although the wordplay was clear enough, I decided not to risk it. Biffed ON A ROLL, never returned to analyse it. ‘Gibberish’ felt like something of a stretch to me, too. When the politician avoids a clear reply to a reporter’s question, he may waffle, but he’s not likely to talk gibberish. And I thought the reason we all know of the ARAL SEA was precisely because it’s no longer a large body of water.
  2. 20 mins with ages spent on swine flu which needed an alphabet trawl.

    Dnk james garfield, eton suit, dace.
    Read about the assassination of Garfield by charles guiteau, a very odd person.

    Cod lilac or alienate.

    Breadman has maybe been birdwatching: seen tit in columns 5 and 7.

    Edited at 2019-06-26 05:17 am (UTC)

    1. Most of them are decidedly odd!

      FOI 2dn LET GO

      LOI 20ac SWINE FLU

      COD 18dn LILAC

      WOD 8ac ETON SUIT

      Will 14dn the ARAL SEA become the ARAL SEE as per 15dn?

      Kevin – back in Blighty, jumping-jacks are fireworks.

      Time a sluggish 7.50 mins

  3. 9 minutes. Took a moment to remember the US President. I can’t see anything wrong with WAFFLE/gibberish and would have no difficulty applying either epithet to what I hear coming out of many leading politicians’ mouths these days!

    Edited at 2019-06-26 05:20 am (UTC)

  4. Quick question from a novice. Why is 12A no great shakes; shakes being plural, when tremor in the clue is singular ?
    I got the answer, but thought the answer should follow the same grammatical pattern as the clue.
    I know it’s splitting hairs, but just trying to become more proficient.
    Thanks.
    Nick.
    1. Well, for one thing, a tremor (=earthquake) involves more than one shake, alas. And ‘no great shake’ is not a lexical item — not, in this case, an idiomatic expression — hence not a valid solution to a clue; while ‘no great shakes’ is.
    2. I read it as “an earth tremor is a very minor seismic event and so it doesn’t cause any massive shocks” – hence “no great shakes”
  5. Fast start,slow finish for me solving top to bottom mainly. It took me ages to think of the American president and near to last in LILAC and SWINE FLU. My LOI was BANANA as I had assumed it ended BA so was trying to think of various exotic fruits.This was a puzzle with some hidden depths and quite difficult GK. 12:02 in the end which I was quite pleased with. David
  7. I’ll need to consider my reaction to this one. I moved quickly at first but got bogged down with the last few and I’m not sure why. Like therotter, I struggled with Garfield (doh) but I managed to finish over 4 mins quicker. I had never heard of an Eton Suit (my LOI) but biffed suit anyway because I couldn’t think of anything else to fit the crossers that made any sense at all. I rather liked DON and LILAC. John M.

    Edited at 2019-06-26 08:35 am (UTC)

  8. Well I don’t mind admitting that this took me 22m, mostly due to my lack of familiarity with past US Presidents, and NHO ARAL SEA (I thought I had sailed all the seas). The wordplay was fair though, and I eventually found both answers from that. Thanks Breadman and Jeremy.
    1. I therefore assume Mr. Rotter, that you are not lacking in familiarity with the present US President?
  9. ….NO GREAT SHAKES, and felt the word “minor” should have defined “earth tremor” before that clue could work properly.

    I started really well, and was down to the last three clues well inside three minutes, but then battled about as long again to wrap it up.

    NHO STAR JUMP, never considered GARFIELD until I was running out of options, and had to alpha-trawl my LOI.

    FOI SLOW
    LOI SWINE FLU
    COD ACTRESS
    TIME 5:20

  10. I am another one who spent ages in the SE corner. Having biffed the JAMES part of the president as I was unable to parse it, I then guessed DACE and saw LILAC (very clever) but SWINE FLU required an alphabet trawl and was my LOI. 16 mins
  11. Was going along quite well, helped by a write-in at 3d once I had the initial W, but then had to stop to receive a parcel. Found it much harder on my return, although that did coincide with the SE corner, which I thought was a tricky part of the grid – 6, 20 and 22 were my last three. Just short of 30 mins in total, so a bit harder than average. Invariant
  12. Flying along, happy with the rest, including star jumps. The last 3 minutes were spent on the crossing of swine flu (not sure why that didn’t click into place) and LOI the president. James was obvious and the last bit just had to be field but it took ages to see the grumpy cat. 11 minutes in the end.
  13. A decent puzzle spoilt by ARAL SEA (too obscure for a QC) and JAMES GARFIELD (also obscure and poorly clued to boot – what on earth is the question mark doing in there?). I got ARAL SEA but in the end looked up a list of past presidents so DNF. Otherwise fairly enjoyable. Thanks for the blog, Jeremy.

    Templar

    1. I had, naively it would seem, thought that the Aral Sea (that was) was well known, but Garfield (the President, not the repellent cat) certainly struck me as obscure–we Murcans only know him because he was assassinated. As it was, it took me a while to remember his first name–I never worked out the wordplay.
      1. What about the question mark, Kevin? I didn’t understand why it said “Old US President?”. Was there some doubt over him? Did he fail to inhale during his inauguration or something? Is there some other equally famous (obscure) James Garfield, with the question mark indicating that this is just one possibility? I just didn’t get that.
        1. Sorry; I meant to say that I didn’t understand why the ? either. Actually, all in all it’s not a sterling clue.
  14. I’ve never heard of the President although I had James and guessed …FIELD so DNF. FOI 1a and then I wrote in 3D without looking at the rest of the clue. I was unsure about banana and write but the rest went in without much trouble. COD 18d. Thank you, Breadman.
  15. A steady solve with the only real hold up being when I tried to fit AVIAN flu into 20a, unsurprisingly I couldn’t parse it. Completed in 12.13 with LOI ACTRESS.
    The Aral Sea is quite a sight these days with rusting ships randomly scattered around the landscape where they’ve been left as the sea retreated. It’s really quite depressing.
    Thanks Jeremy

    Edited at 2019-06-26 05:12 pm (UTC)

  16. This was OK although I hadn’t heard of DACE or JAMES GARFIELD the clueing fitted the answers.

    However I am surprised at “AL” being considered a shortened version of Alan. – this is my son’s name and he has never been called that. In fact it was chosen because it couldn’t be shortened (I hate being called Sue!) Here in Scotland we would only use “Al” (or “Ali/Ally”) as a nickname for Alastair.

    Thanks again to setter and blogger – i have now progressed to attempting the 15×15 after a lot of practice on the QC.

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