A neat and friendly Quick Crossword from Tracy today to end the week. 4A was my first one in and it went fairly smoothly for me after that, finishing, appropriately with 1D in just a whisker over 4 minutes. That makes it in the “quite easy” category for me, but I know other people’s mileages can differ. How did everyone else get on? Thank-you Tracy.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, our 20th, entitled “Blooming Lovely”, here. As the title hints, there is a bit of a theme. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
Across | |
1 | Take in synopsis (6) |
DIGEST – Double definition | |
4 | Best stout drunk across heart of Germany (6) |
UTMOST – (stout)* [drunk] outside middle letter of [heart of] GerMany. A typical setter’s trick – you have to separate “Best stout” to find the definition. | |
8 | Girl with horrid cheap mag (5-8) |
PENNY-DREADFUL – PENNY (girl) DREADFUL (horrid). It’s a long time since I came across that expression last… and a long time since there were magazines that cost just a penny. | |
10 | Odd heron in French river (5) |
RHONE – [Odd] (heron)*. | |
11 | Wife brought into A&E? A little overwhelming (7) |
AWESOME – W (wife) inside A E, SOME (a little). | |
13 | Anxious, I’m one receiving medical care (9) |
IMPATIENT – I’M, PATIENT (one receiving medical care). | |
17 | Set out with a compass crossing river (7) |
ARRANGE – A RANGE (compass) including R (river). Not “set out” meaning start a journey. Neat. | |
18 | Live adequately next door to daughter (5) |
DWELL – WELL (adequately) after D (daughter). | |
19 | Speak after bartender initially identifies one who spills a lot? (13) |
BUTTERFINGERS – UTTER (speak) [after] Bartender [initially], FINGERS (identifies). | |
21 | Deal with party, ultimately making pact (6) |
TREATY – TREAT (deal with) partY [ultimately]. | |
22 | Squalid type briefly performed (6) |
SORDID – SOR |
Down | |
1 | Leave extremely disreputable sector (6) |
DEPART – Outiside letters [extremely] of DisreputablE, PART (sector). | |
2 | Person associated with Venice, old region in resort (9) |
GONDOLIER – (old region)* [in resort]. | |
3 | Reportedly, rustic steps in vogue (5) |
STYLE – Sounds like [reportedly] STILE (rustic steps). | |
5 | Zulu in repeat broadcast in bar (7) |
TRAPEZE – Z (Zulu in the NATO phonetic alphabet) [in] (repeat)* [broadcast]. | |
6 | Old couple of females getting away (3) |
OFF – O (old) F F (couple of females). | |
7 | Row about two pounds wanted for a steering device (6) |
TILLER – TIER (row) [about] L L (couple of pounds). | |
9 | Bake grouse in a meat dish (5,4) |
ROAST BEEF – ROAST (bake) BEEF (complaint; grouse). | |
12 | Recovering, continuously swallowing them (2,3,4) |
ON THE MEND – ON END (continuously) [swallowing] THEM. This illustrates one of the ways quick cryptics are made easier than the 15×15 – unless it’s a hidden clue you wouldn’t get part of the answer directly in the clue. 13A is another example. | |
14 | Kick around information that’s hot (7) |
PUNGENT – PUNT (kick) [around] GEN (information). | |
15 | Good scope offered by opening on board (6) |
GAMBIT – G (good) AMBIT (scope). “A gambit (from ancient Italian gambetto, meaning “to trip”) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage.” I seem to recall quoting that in a previous blog…. yes it was on a Des QC in February last year. | |
16 | Humid days came to an end (6) |
CLOSED – CLOSE (humid) D (days). | |
18 | Wild dog shot after row (5) |
DINGO – GO (shot) [after] DIN (row). | |
20 | Draw level, almost (3) |
TIE – TIE |
COD Awesome although I think that popped up quite recently. Don’t know where I dredged up PENNY DREADFUL from and guess it may stump a few people for a while before the “penny” drops. Thanks John, will have a bash at your weekend challenge tomorrow.
Regards to all. Stay safe. Richard
I think there will be complaints over PENNY DREADFUL, a tough word, not really sure what they are. What Dickens wrote?
“In resort” seems an odd anagrind, of the 500 ways of indicating an anagram this seems an odd choice by the setter. Not a great surface, nor sneaky misdirection.
GAMBIT now much more familiar to many after that Netflix series last year.
COD 13a IMPATIENT
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has: “Originally a cheap boy’s paper full of crude situations and highly-coloured excitement. The term was later extended to trashy periodicals in general, although costing more than a penny. A shilling-shocker was a similar but more expensive publication.”
I doubt Dickens’ work, as originally published, would have been considered as part of this genre. (Incidentally, the monthly instalments of ‘The Posthumous Papers of the Pckwick Club’ sold for one shilling in 1836).
Cedric
Pb
Thanks to John for the blog and in advance for your weekend QC
FOI 1A: DIGEST
LOI 16D: CLOSED
Thanks to johninterred and Tracy
When I get stuck on the QC, I find that if I come back in half an hour, or so, my brain seems to have refreshed itself and several answers have shifted from ‘impossible’, to, ‘obvious’ and so I proceed, to complete the puzzle.
Please try, it is so satisfying to complete the quickie and then have a little go at the 15×15.
I did a lot of biffing in the end, and if I’m honest I still can’t see some of the parsing. No stand out clues today for me.
I did turn all green, but it was one of the trickiest in a long time for me.
Edited at 2021-03-12 09:30 am (UTC)
Have a good weekend everyone
… as this was all done and parsed in 12 minutes. And many nice clues too. But one or two minor quibbles for me — I do share SteakCity’s view that continuously is a weak indicator for on end, notwithstanding John’s example, and anxious for impatient is also less than crisp.
As for adequately = well in 18A, for me the two are really not the same, and one simply asks why Tracy could not have used a word which conveys the meaning better. Live successfully, live healthily, even live in style?
Many thanks to John for the blog and I look forward to the Saturday special
Cedric
Edited at 2021-06-17 11:15 am (UTC)
I really got nowhere with this one. Managed to get PENNY DREADFUL and ON THE MEND, among a few others. In my mind, however, “continuously” gave me NO END. But some how it was supposed to be “ON END” to make ON THE MEND.
So, a bad week really for me, with just one completion and several gave ups, including this one.
For me it felt more like a code-breaking exercise than a cryptic. Worth doing for the achievement of solving rather than the enjoyment along the way.
Nothing unfair though – PENNY DREADFUL was a recent hit TV series, so I’d imagine most people will have at least heard of the term one way or another.
Thanks Tracy and John. Looking forward to doing the weekend quick tomorrow morning.
Edited at 2021-03-12 01:45 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-03-12 10:10 am (UTC)
Some quite good clues, I think, especially BUTTERFINGERS and STYLE. I also liked the misdirection in eg 8 down, ROAST BEEF, where “baked ” could conceivably be an anagrind ; ditto “horrid ” in 8 across and “out ” in 17. I didn’t fall for any of them, though, thank goodness, including PENNY DREADFUL, which I actually rather liked (although I had always assumed the phrase related to cheap sensational popular novels as read by late 19th century maids and shop workers ).
I have come across “well” to mean “adequate ” in the QC before, as in DWELL, and I thought it was poor then and I think it’s poor now. I also hesitated for ages over PUNGENT, because I couldn’t accept that anyone would use it to mean “hot “.
Thanks so much, John. Looking forward to your crossword tomorrow. Thanks too to Tracy
Me too – I’m sure someone will find Pungent meaning hot somewhere but really? That smells bad to me
I am relatively new to this but got to be honest find the time boasting to be a real disincentive. Possibly if I could do a puzzle in 4 minutes I would flag it, but then again why would I bother to do a puzzle that was not a challenge. Oh well there is always next week.
However, it gives me an incentive to be able to say that myself one day.
I was in the too tricky group too, marking the end of a frustrating week. Just didn’t feel I was in sync with the setters at all. I had to get down to Treaty before I got a clue today. DNF for me and hoping for an easier ride next week
My favourite was STYLE. A good test. I was slow to get started. FOI was RHONE.
David
I liked BUTTERFINGERS and PENNY DREADFUL (such a descriptive word — we weren’t allowed comics as children, except the bland ones: Girl and Eagle, the others were described as Penny Dreadfuls so of course we surreptitiously managed to get hold of them as often as possible — Dandy and Beano)
Diana
Upon reflection, nothing too hard that couldn’t be gleaned from the parsing and checkers. Even so, I made some early errors that didn’t help. Initially put “Upmost” for 4ac which made 5dn incredibly difficult to work out. Luckily spotted “Butterfingers” early, but took an age on “Penny Dreadful” and “Gondolier”. DNK “ambit” for scope, but biffed 15dn based on my recent Netflix viewing. For some reason I always thought “Pungent” meant smelly.
FOI — 1dn “Depart”
LOI — 17ac “Arrange”
COD — 13ac “Impatient” — mainly because for once I wasn’t.
Thanks as usual.
Edited at 2021-03-12 12:11 pm (UTC)
Very enjoyable solve for me which started well but somehow ended at around 35 mins. All fully parsed which is my way – I hate putting in an answer unless I can parse it even if I know it’s correct. I was stuck on arrange, my LOI, which was easy of course once I got it.
Not keen on ‘in resort’ as another of the endless list of anagrinds.
Thanks to John and Tracy
Edited at 2021-03-12 12:26 pm (UTC)
All I need to do now is to steel myself for sometime later this afternoon, when Mrs R (she’s out at the moment) will undoubtedly knock it off in less than a third of my time and wonder what took me so long. I’ve had a lot of practice at coping with this, but it doesn’t get any easier. Roll on the weekend!
Many thanks to Tracy and to johninterred.
Until I looked up 1a synopsis, I was very slow on GONDOLIER trying to think of characters from the Merchant of V that might fit!
Also looked up Squalid. Agree about PUNGENT.
Managed BUTTERFINGERS ( clever) and PENNY DREADFUL but they didn’t help as much as I hoped. Ditto ROAST BEEF (COD).
Thanks for much needed blog, John. I look forward to your w/e crossword. Am sure it will be much more friendly than this one which I found v tricky.
(Moan of the week: By the way, as far as I am concerned, a Synopsis gives a brief summary of the plot of a novel, say, whereas a Digest is an abridged version, as in Readers Digest. )
Edited at 2021-03-12 03:33 pm (UTC)
FOI: Rhone
LOI: arrange
COD: butterfingers
Thanks to Tracy and John.
Really looking forward to the blooming amazing weekend QC!
I did like BUTTERFINGERS and SORDID when they eventually were dragged to mind!
FOI – 10ac RHONE
LOI – 11ac AWESOME
COD – 16dn CLOSED
FOI off
LOI arrange
COD utmost- lovely surface
Blue Stocking
Collins: “NOUN 1. a kick in certain sports, such as rugby, in which the ball is released and kicked before it hits the ground 2. any long high kick”. Goalkeepers punt the ball in football, for example.
For some reason my brain decided that “heart of Germany” meant G not M (I think I must have read it has “head”) and so I spent 5 minutes or so in utter bafflement.
FOI DEPART, LOI UTMOST, COD BUTTERFINGERS, time 2.8K for an Awful Day.
Thanks Tracy and John.
Templar
Cedric
None of which stopped me meeting my target, but not with great enjoyment.
FOI PENNY DREADFUL (but then I’m ancient)
LOI BUTTERFINGERS (c’est moi ! I’m dyspraxic)
COD STYLE (nothing else came close)
TIME 4:24
Oh well, back to watching Crypto!
Thanks all,
John George