Times Quick Cryptic No 1399 by Breadman – Stormy petrel on a breadstick

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A lovely puzzle from Breadman today with an interesting array of vocabulary and General Knowledge. It helps to know your Old English alphabet, Scottish towns, ancient highways, paper sizes and Arthurian legends, for example, but the answers are all readily gettable from the wordplay, I think. Well I managed not to get stuck, anyway, finishing in just under 4 1/2 minutes. Thank-you Breadman for the entertainment. How did you all get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Refund arranged by motorway business somewhere in east Scotland (11)
DUNFERMLINE – (Refund)* [arranged] [by] M (motorway) LINE (business, as in “What’s your line?”). Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground 3 miles from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. I’ve passed it many times heading further north (or home again) but never stopped there.
8 Munch, say, French bread with endless seabird (7)
PAINTER – A definition by example [say]; PAIN (French bread) TERn [endless] (seabird). I enjoyed the surface. I hope you didn’t get sidetracked into looking for a synonym of “munch”. But why you would eat a seabird with your bread? Albatross! I digress. The example painter in question, of course, is Edvard Munch, famous for “The Scream”.

National Gallery and Munch Museum Oslo
9 Brush sleeping area when Ed leaves (5)
BROOM – BedROOM (sleeping area) without the Ed [when Ed leaves].
10 Rather smart bar is in outskirts of Christchurch (9)
CLEVERISH – LEVER (bar) IS [in] outer letters [outskirts] of CristchurcH. Fortunately our already rather eclectic general knowledge today doesn’t extend to New Zealand urban geography.
12 Daughter favoured loud noise (3)
DIN – D (daughter) IN (favoured, like “Gin is the in drink this year”).
13 Second American drinking tea, for example (4,2)
SUCH AS – A bit of a sneaky one. Were you thinking we had another definition by example, perhaps? It is S (second) US (American) outside [drinking] CHA (tea).
15 Constellation Greek character starts to recognise using specs (6)
TAURUS – TAU (Greek alphabet character) and the first letters of [starts to] Recognise Using Specs.
17 Turkish leader Afghan regularly avoided (3)
AGA – Alternate letters [regularly avoided] of AfGhAn.
18 Sword European unknown primarily carried before burial at sea (9)
EXCALIBUR – “Is there a word for burial at sea?”, I thought initially. But that’s not the definition, “sword” is. We take E (European) X (unknown, like X-factor) with the first letter of [primarily] Carried and (burial)* [at sea], to get the famous one found stuck in a stone.
20 Visual representation that is covering magazine (5)
IMAGE – I.E. (id est, that is) outside [covering] MAG (magazine).
22 Horseracing venue isn’t gratis, except for female (7)
AINTREE – AIN’T (isn’t) fREE (gratis), without [except for] the F (female). Home of the Grand National.
23 Amiable sound of horse, big and sturdy, circling ring (11)
NEIGHBOURLY – A friendly clue to finish the acrosses. NEIGH (sound of horse) and BURLY (big and sturdy) ouside [circling] O (ring).
Down
1 Road runs through disreputable place (5)
DRIVE – R (runs) inside [through] DIVE (disreputable space). I needed the D from 1a to see this – being misled, at first, into thinking “place” was the definition.
2 Cathedral reflected on woody plant around embankment (5,4)
NOTRE DAME – I biffed this when solving. The answer is constructed thus… NO (on backwards; [reflected]) TREE (woody plant) [around] DAM (embankment).
3 Secretly listen in on insect (6)
EARWIG – Double definition.
4 Doctor constrains old disorderly crowd (3)
MOB – M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine, or in Latin: Medicinae Baccalaureus; doctor) outside [constrains] O (old).
5 Popular religious fraternity operating appropriately (2,5)
IN ORDER – IN (popular) ORDER (religious fraternity, such as the Capuchins).
6 Stoats reportedly deal with major English road (6,6)
ERMINE STREET – ERMINES (stoats) TREET [reportedly] (sounds like) TREAT (deal with). One of the four highways of mediaeval England, Ermine Street ran from London to York via Lincoln. The other 3 are the Icknield Way, Fosse Way and Watling Street. So now you know!
7 Remote observatory room with office (5,7)
SPACE STATION – SPACE (room) STATION (office; place where (e.g. police) officers are based). I came across this decoration above the bijou old police station in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire last weekend…

Little boy blue. Geddit?
11 Top act, male, extremely assured on ship (9)
HEADLINER – HE (male) with the outside letters of [extremely] AssuredD [on] LINER (ship).
14 Indian side-dish bloke consumed shortly before one (7)
CHAPATI – CHAP (bloke) ATe (consumed) without the E [shortly] I (one, the roman numeral).
16 Ring tax company about book of a certain size (6)
OCTAVO – O (ring) VAT (Value-added Tax) CO (company) all reversed [about]. Read all about book sizes here.
19 British fighting force is nuts (5)
BARMY – B (british) ARMY (fighting force). The Barmy Army certainly got something to cheer about last Sunday. Blimey!
21 Old English letter seen in archive throughout (3)
ETH – Hidden in archivE THroughout. Don’t know your futhorc runic alphabet? Learn about it here.

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1399 by Breadman – Stormy petrel on a breadstick”

  1. I note that over on the 15×15 site, ‘Brother Jonathan’ is bemoaning the ‘UK-centric’
    nature of this puzzle! Given the ‘divissiveness’ of things back home no more should be added.

    Time 12.35 mins

    FOI 1ac DUNFERMLINE

    LOI 21dn ETH from ‘The Glums’ (Ron & Eth)!

    COD 6dn ERMINE STREET

    WOD 18ac EXCALIBAR

    John, I enjoyed the visuals especially the ‘Boy Blue’. I know St. Ives very well, as I lived in Godmancheseter for many years, but it was unknown, thank-you.

    Up The Barmy Army!

    Edited at 2019-07-19 04:12 am (UTC)

    1. Whoever ‘Brother Jonathan’ is supposed to be, no one has (so far) bemoaned anything.
    2. I’m glad you enjoyed the serendipity of that recent image. I’m always amazed by the connections thrown up by our conversations in this community. How did you end up where you are now from being in Godmanchester?
      Oh. By the way, I think you’ve got my fellow bloggers mixed up. It was guy_du_sable who commented on nearly getting stuck on this with 2 UK-centric clues crossing, but I don’t think he was bemoaning the fact.
  2. I had a bit of a scare with 1ac, but ‘Patrick Spens’ came back to me to save the day. I also biffed NOTRE DAME, but parsed it afterwards. DNK ERMINE STREET, or the other three, although I’ve probably come across Watling Street. 5:47.
  3. A bit distracted by The Open golf this week.
    This took me about 15 minutes and I went for OCVATO at 16d and then looked at the answer to save time.
    ERMINE STREET I got but entirely unknown ;so too ETH.
    This was quite a difficult puzzle because of the obscurities. David
    1. Hi David. On the basis of your post here, I gave you a mention in this. I think you would enjoy that crossword!

      Edited at 2019-07-19 09:13 pm (UTC)

  4. I worked my way through this without too much trouble, but found that 12:43 had elapsed before I was able to submit. FOI, MOB. Spent some time on my LOI, ERMINE STREET, as I hadn’t heard of it although the wordplay was clear. Toughish, I thought. Thanks Breadman and John.
  5. 7 minutes for what had felt like a harder than average puzzle with its unrelenting procession of wordy clues. I stopped at one point to double-check that I was not solving a 15×15.

    I learnt something about Roman roads today having noted a query re 6dn that surely the road in question was the Ermine Way rather than ERMINE STREET. Checking on it later I found that ‘The Ermin Way’ (minus the final ‘e’) is quite separate, on the other side of the country and runs from Gloucester to Silchester via Cirencester.

    It’s also interesting that Collins has ETH only as a variation of ‘edh’ whereas the Oxfords are the other way round. Chambers on-line doesn’t acknowledge either of them but in its printed edition agrees with the Oxfords. Good job the wordplay left no doubt as to what was expected as the answer.

    Edited at 2019-07-19 06:31 am (UTC)

    1. Since the symbol represents a voiced sound (the ‘th’ of ‘this’), EDH makes a certain sense; but English spelling doesn’t have ‘dh’ (well, yes, ‘adhere’ etc., but).
  6. I found myself totally immersed in this QC (a sign of a good puzzle?) and, on finishing, was staggered to find myself in the SCC. FOI MOB and LOI SUCH AS. I biffed HEADLINER and it took a lttle time for the parsing to click. I quite liked EXCALIBUR and PAINTER but not CLEVERISH. I needed a few crossers for DUNFERMLINE and CHAPATI. Nice puzzle but quite tricksy IMO. Thanks both, John M.
  7. The various British obscurities plus the number of the puzzle (1399, as every schoolboy knows) led me to go Nina-hunting for a Richard II/Henry Bolingbroke/Henry IV connection – like Bolingbroke leading his army up Ermine Street to Dunermline while wielding Excalibur and shouting his war-cry of “Eth! Eth!”. But I couldn’t find one. Huh.

    I found this of medium difficulty apart from having to write in two of the obscurities with a shrug and a prayer, clocking in at a whisker under 2 Kevins and a Good Day. (4.5 minutes John! That was RAPID, chapeau.)

    FOI DUNFERMLINE, LOI ERMINE STREET (you wot?), COD EARWIG.

    Thanks Breaders and John.

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-07-19 08:50 am (UTC)

      1. Of course I should have mentioned today’s 15×15 too as an excellent themed crossword. It should also not be unsurmountable to folk here.

        Edited at 2019-07-19 09:55 pm (UTC)

  8. I found this quite tough but got lucky with some guesses which proved good. Eth from the glums was more familiar than OE letter – don’t know what that says about me 🙂
  9. Another steady solve for most of it and had about three quarters done inside 20 minutes including Ermine Street and Eth which I’d never heard of. After a little longer I was left with 10a and 16d. Cleverish just took a lengthy trawl through the possible letters at different positions, but Octavo really stumped me. I thought there might be some kind of marriage tax called a ring tax or perhaps another word for a ring, or failing those, a word that meant “of a certain size”. I don’t think I even considered the possibility of book sizes which I have never heard of, though probably should have. Finally, after 59:13 and lots of alphabet trawls and thinking about different taxes and tax companies I hit upon putting all three of O, VAT and CO backwards and hoped for the best. So an educating puzzle overall. I just hope I can remember it all.
  10. ….the AINTREE iron. If anyone knows what Scaffold were on about with that ditty, do please enlighten me.

    A quite tricky, and very enjoyable QC, which took me ever so slightly over my target. Thanks to Breadman for the challenge.

    FOI PAINTER
    LOI AINTREE
    COD NEIGHBOURLY
    TIME 5:04

  11. This felt a bit like wading through treacle at times. Its difficulty came from the wordy clues and occasional obscurity. All very fairly clued and, in hindsight, quite 10a in places.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.
    5’25”

  12. My Oxford English has 2 Ts for Chapatti, but presumably elsewhere one T is shown as acceptable?

    Would never have thought of cleverish, even with all the checkers. Some great clues today though. Really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.

    1. Collins and Chambers have single T as the main entry with TT as an alternative whereas the Oxfords are the other way round. SOED has ‘chupatti’ too.

      Edited at 2019-07-19 04:04 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks. For what it’s worth I never knew it could be spelt with a double t so I was oblivious to there being a potential problem.
  13. I had to hop around the grid quite a bit, so no surprise this took me around 30mins including parsing. A plesent surprise to see Aintree and Dunfermline in the same puzzle, albeit I needed quite a few crossers for the latter. I was also slow with 7d – having initially thought of the Hubble Telescope I didn’t manage the ‘small step’ to Space Station until near the end. CoD to 8d, Painter, for the penny drop moment. Invariant
  14. My three DNKs ETH (but an easy hidden), ERMINE STREET (I live close to Watling Street and am familiar with Fosse Way) and finally OCTAVO, my LOI, stretched me to 12 minutes. I seem to be missing my target 10 minutes quite frequently of late. Thank you Breadman and John.
    1. My local is the Icknield Way, which is the most ancient of them, but I’ve only walked short stretches of the northern end of it. I suppose it should be on my list of walks to do, but the Norfolk Coastal Path is currently top of my list of long distance walks to attempt.
  15. This felt harder than my time of 11.51 would indicate, with the same three unknowns as many others. I briefly wondered if PAINGUL was a word before the simpler solution appeared. Particularly enjoyed AINTREE and CLEVERISH and required an alphabet trawl for LOI OCTAVO.
    Thanks for the blog
  16. Solved this evening after catching up on two puzzles from earlier this week – it all went in quite nicely for me. FOI DUNFERMLINE, was pleased to know both ERMINE STREET and OCTAVO with a dim memory of ETH,LOI CHAPATI – we occasionally enjoy an Indian takeaway, and I was distracted by trying to remember what is on the menu (not chipati’s as it happens).

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