Times Quick Cryptic No 2011 by Tracy

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

As your regular Tuesday blogger Chris is away for a while, I’ve come off the substitutes’ bench to fill his slot today. When I printed out this crossword from Tracy, I was struck by the concision of the clues – all of the down clues and all but two of the across clues fitted on a single line each – totalling 14 lines of text. Furthermore there are 13 clues with 5 words or less. It has impeccable surfaces too; my favourite being 1D. A super example of a Quick Cryptic, to my mind.  It was maybe the short clues that helped me to a very speedy time of 3:34. Thank-you Tracy! How did you all get on?

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

Across
8 Row upset caterer (7)
TERRACE – “Upset” (caterer)*.
9 In abeyance in old Mediterranean resort (2,3)
ON ICE – O (old) NICE (Mediterranean resort).
10 Private meal missed by daughter (5)
INNER – dINNER (meal) without the, “missed by”, D (daughter). We had a very similar clue in last Tuesday’s 15×15.
11 Sailing ship: grand one at sea impressing everyone (7)
GALLEON – G (grand), (one)* “at sea”, outside, “impressing”, ALL (everyone).
12 Common, half of ales in bar (9)
PREVALENT –  “half of” ALes “in” PREVENT (bar).
14 Hint of mine recalled (3)
TIP – PIT (mine) reversed, “recalled” -> TIP.
16 Manage to flee (3)
RUN – Double definition.
18 Woodworker in vehicle heading for paddock with log (9)
CARPENTER – CAR (vehicle), first letter of, “heading for”, Paddock, ENTER (log).
21 Rejected job in remote settlement (7)
OUTPOST – OUT (rejected) POST (job).
22 Hairy ape is a brownish colour (5)
SEPIA – “Hairy” (ape is)*. Nice anagrind to give a smooth surdface reading.
23 Annoyed about temperature in large shop (5)
STORE – SORE (annoyed) “about” T (temperature).
24 Toy to wind with silver key inserted (3,4)
RAG DOLL – ROLL (wind), with AG (chemical symbol for silver) D (key) “inserted”.
Down
1 Nightclub entertainer beginning to shock tourist (8)
STRIPPER – “Beginning to” Shock, TRIPPER (tourist). Another great surface. It made me smile, anyway.
2 Orchard’s initial scope for fruit (6)
ORANGE – Orchard’s “initial”, RANGE (scope).
3 Quite good food, reportedly (4)
FAIR – Sounds like, “reportedly”, FARE (food).
4 Black bird dog (6)
BEAGLE – B (black, as in B&W for black and white) EAGLE (bird).
5 Allowed to enter course for a game (8)
ROULETTE – LET (allowed) inside, “to enter”, ROUTE (course). There are some who would complain about the superfluous “a”, but it does read better with it.
6 Take in compendium (6)
DIGEST – Double definition.
7 Soldiers circling a base (4)
MEAN – MEN (soldiers) “circling”  A.
13 Moored and set about task (8)
ANCHORED – AND “set about” CHORE (task).
15 Piano or desk perhaps, easily moved about (8)
PORTABLE – P (piano, the musical dynamic marking) OR, TABLE (desk, perhaps). My kitchen table is my desk as I type this.
17 Idea unacceptable around island (6)
NOTION – NOT ON (unacceptable) “around” I (island).
19 Royal Engineers go, then come back (6)
RETURN – R.E. (Royal Engineers) TURN (go). Very generously clued.
20 Best to follow leader of group (3,3)
TOP DOG – TOP (best) DOG (follow).
21 Evict some from various tenements (4)
OUST – Hidden in, “from”, variOUS Tenements.
22 Herb in sink close to spice (4)
SAGE – SAG (sink) and last letter, “close to”, spicE.

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2011 by Tracy”

  1. We weren’t on our game today and needed 15 minutes to complete the puzzle.

    FOI: TIP
    LOI: DIGEST
    COD: PREVALENT

    Thanks John (especially for explaining RAG DOLL) and Tracy.

  2. That’s more like it. I found this a super quick anti-clockwise solve from FOI STRIPPER to LOI BEAGLE. I only part read the clues for CARPENTER and GALLEON in my haste. I did slow to parse RAG DOLL my COD. 5:59 Thank you John for stepping in for Chris and Tracy for an excellent QC.
  3. Thanks to Tracy for a great puzzle and thanks to John for helping with the parsing of CARPENTER and SAGE, which I had biffed. Slightly quicker than yesterday for me at 17 mins with no great hold-ups anywhere.

    FOI & COD – 9ac ON ICE
    LOI – 7dn MEAN

  5. I’ve just remembered that The Beagle was a ship too …

    Edited at 2021-11-23 02:56 pm (UTC)

  6. … as I was another with Tip top for 20D Top dog. I concede that Top Dog is a better solution (it parses better) and I realise I am in the minority (though it is not I see a minority of one) but I think this could be seen as an alternative solution not an outright error — “Best to follow” gives Top at the end, and “Leader of group” gives Tip. I have certainly seen far more dubious synonyms than “leader of group” = tip! So not entirely happy with the pink squares and for me it was slightly loose cluing and knocks what was otherwise a really good crossword just one notch below 100%.

    Many thanks to John for the blog
    Cedric

  7. … Mrs Random took a relaxed approach to today’s QC. She finished in 27 minutes, which is about par for her at the moment, despite getting “horribly” held up on DIGEST.

    Mrs R has asked me to time the cake, but my hearing’s not what it used to be and I’m not sure if she said it needs to bake for 4-5 hours or 45 hours. I’ll be in for the high jump if I get it wrong.

    1. If it makes you feel better, I timed myself for the first time today and felt rather pleased to finish in 45 minutes, with at least five trawling through the alphabet before settling on DIGEST. Luckily it starts with a D and not a Z, or I’d be competing with your Christmas Cake for timing!
      1. Well done Mr/Mme Bintangdua. The cake’s still in the oven at the moment — I haven’t forgotten it yet.
  8. Well we do take longer. This was a good one for me, complete bafflement and then the mists slowly cleared. With all thanks to all. GN10 is high on my time index, all correct though.
  9. Was held up by not knowing what “In abeyance” meant and also by putting TIP TOP in faintly, meaning to come back and parse it, but then forgetting. Thankfully I saw it very soon after I’d stopped my watch, so I was able to re-start the clock. One advantage of completing on paper. Final time was 24:20, so not as easy for me as for some. COD to NOTION. Thanks Tracy and John.
  12. 14:59 but with tip top in place of top dog. Annoying as this was an otherwise fun puzzle and well under 20 minute target.

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