Times Quick Cryptic No 1512 by Wurm

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

A gentle, enjoyable puzzle for Christmas Day. I would have finished in 5:20, but couldn’t get 19 Down. I knew what was going on but simply didn’t know the word. Two minutes later, I looked up the answer and that was that. Happy Christmas, everyone!

Solutions

Across

1 Time Magazine, maybe, a disposable paper (6)
TISSUE – T (time) + ISSUE (magazine, maybe)
4 Mature answer good by news boss (4)
AGED – A (answer) + G (good) + (by) ED (news boss)
9 Snake? Stormy petrel eats one! (7)
REPTILE – anagram of (stormy) PETREL (petrel) around (eats) I (one)
10 Hunter about to cross Spanish river (5)
ORION – ON (about) around (to cross) RIO (Spanish river)
11 Lucky escape, then a grin perhaps (4,5)
NEAR THING – THEN A GRIN (then a grin) anagrammed (perhaps)
12 Notice nothing [causing] fuss (3)
ADO – AD (notice) + O (nothing)
13 Shoe in box for delivery (6)
OXFORD – letters in (in) BOX FOR DELIVERY (box for delivery)
I put this one in from the crossing letters, assuming it was a double definition. While writing the blog I was Googling cricket terms and coming up with nothing.
15 Popular action? Certainly! (6)
INDEED – IN (popular) + DEED (action)
17 Round dispenser? (3)
GUN – cryptic definition
Guns fire ’rounds’, hence a gun could be called a ’round dispenser’.
18 News has spread about Zorro’s skill (9)
SWORDPLAY – WORD (news) has (has) SPLAY (spread) around (about)
21 Ace puzzle [offers] surprise (5)
AMAZE – A (ace) + MAZE (puzzle)
22 Practical husband with boy (5-2)
HANDS-ON – H (husband) + AND (with) + SON (boy)
Didn’t get the wordplay while solving. Quite cute!
23 Affected material finally deleted (4)
TWEE – TWEED (material) without the last letter (finally deleted)
24 Distant meteor to break up (6)
REMOTE – METEOR (meteor) anagrammed (to break up)

Down

1 Hector on tower guarding this city (7)
TORONTO – HECTOR ON TOWER (hector on tower) contains the answer (guarding this)
2 Brownish colour very good in ocean (5)
SEPIA – PI (very good) in (in) SEA (ocean)
3 Kinky setter in nude — not curious? (12)
UNINTERESTED – anagram of (kinky) SETTER IN NUDE (setter in nude)
5 Anguished expression [from] serious expert (7)
GRIMACE – GRIM (serious) + ACE (expert)
6 Trained dog to keep at home — not this one! (5)
DINGO – anagram of (trained) DOG (dog) around (to keep) IN (at home)
Because a dingo is a wild Australian dog.
7 Still one [sees] legendary highlander (4)
YETI – YET (still) + I (one)
‘Legendary highlander’ is nicely misleading as a definition.
8 Musical drama? (4,3,5)
SONG AND DANCE – cryptic definition
‘Song and dance’ means ‘fuss’, ie ‘drama’. But the literal words convey something musical in nature, hence ‘musical drama’.
14 Cool food [generating] some publicity? (7)
FANFARE – FAN (cool) + FARE (food)
This is referring to the notion of something happening ‘with fanfare’, which means ‘with publicity’.
16 Senior woman rough on needy (7)
DOYENNE – anagram of (rough) ON NEEDY (on needy)
17 Colossal Scotsman in sports car (5)
GIANT – IAN (Scotsman) in (in) GT (sports car)
I knew neither of the requisite ingredients.
19 Local site for missile launch? (4)
OCHE – cryptic definition
The ‘oche’ is the line from which darts (missiles) are thrown (launched). It is a location (site) which could be (?) found in a bar (local). I got what was going on here, but simply didn’t know the word. It’s pronounced like ‘hockey’ but without the H.
20 See! That catches animal! (5)
LASSO – LO (see) around (that catches) ASS (animal)
This is a strange kind of ‘&lit’ clue in that the entire clue is wordplay, but only part of the clue is the definition. If I recall correctly, a ‘semi-&lit’ is where the entire clue is the definition indicator, but only part is wordplay. Hm.

14 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1512 by Wurm”

  2. What Vinyl said about OCHE, and about FANFARE, which was my LOI, following POI GUN; the two of them took me my final 2 minutes. I biffed SWORDPLAY, parsed it post-submission; a neat clue, fit for a 15×15. 7:20.
  3. Thought for a while that I was on target for a solve nearer 5 than 10 minutes but I slowed down considerably in the lower part of the grid and finished in 8.
  4. I felt I was getting bogged down, but it might have been that my head was fuzzy from the Christmas Eve indulgences. I used to throw missiles from the OCHE in my local many years ago, so no problem there. OXFORD took a bit of spotting. It also took me a while to get my head round LASSO. As Vinyl says, Wurm can be a bit tricky. Managed to get under my target at 9:15. Thanks to Wurm and Jeremy and Festive greetings to all.

    Edited at 2019-12-25 02:03 pm (UTC)

  5. A lovely puzzle with the exception of Oche. Although I play darts I didn’t know that the line had a name. The only thing I could think of to fit in was OAHU and I knew that was wrong, so like plusjeremy I had to use the dictionary.
  6. A steady solve today until my final three – 1d, 13a and 14d – where I had a brain freeze. Eventually completed in 12.39. Loved GUN and OCHE.
    Thanks to Jeremy and Wurm
  7. Struggled for a while with Oche and would have got it immediately if it had been, launch “arrows” rather than “missiles”. Had to ponder to get gun too. Liked Oxford (bought a pair for son for Xmas) and Swordplay my COD. Merry Xmas everyone and thanks to Wurm, Jeremy and family.
  8. No accurate time but all went in okay, even oche. For my level of skill that was the perfect balance on the easy-difficult scale.
    Thanks Wurm and Jeremy, and, as one of my Christmas cards said, Warm Winter Wishes to all.
  9. SCC today at a little over 3K. I don’t know whether it was Wurm or last night’s ‘preparation for Christmas’ that slowed me. Last in were YETI, GUN and OCHE (spent a lot of time on that!). I liked HANDS ON and FANFARE and thought NEAR THING was well disguised. Thanks to Wurm and Jeremy. John M.

    Edited at 2019-12-25 02:33 pm (UTC)

  10. Entertaining….
    liked 20D “see! That catches animal!(5)”

    Edited at 2019-12-25 06:21 pm (UTC)

  11. A message of sympathy. An almost identical clue for OCHE stumped me in a daily puzzle a few years ago.
  12. A nice little teaser from Wurm with my morning coffee before anyone else was awake. Lovely hidden at 1D and I enjoyed HANDS-ON and SONG-AND-DANCE. SWORDPLAY my LOI not knowing what Zorro was good at. OCHE brought back memories of the great Sid Waddell. Thanks Wurm and Jeremy. 5:24.

    Edited at 2019-12-25 09:45 pm (UTC)

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