Times Quick Cryptic No 2018 by Pedro

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A stiff enough challenge today from Pedro. The grid was looking rather bare after a first pass of the acrosses, not helped by a total lack of anagrams, which often provide a foothold: I only managed 9, 10, 14, 17 and 20 ac, and one of those was wrong. Nothing that could reasonably be called obscure (with the possible exception of 16ac), so the difficulty all came from an array of effective misdirection which made for a very satisfactory solve. I was 13 minutes compared to 8 for yesterday’s done just before. Lovely stuff – many thanks to Pedro!

Across
1 Demo going round obscure London landmark (6,4)
MARBLE ARCH – MARCH (demo) going round BLEAR (obscure)
8 Noisy bang involved in opening light source (3-4)
GAS-LAMP – SLAM (noisy bang) involved in GAP (opening)
9 Secretary getting employment and a rest (5)
PAUSE – PA (secretary) getting USE (employment)
10 Some film speed (4)
CLIP – double definition, the second as in to clip along or a fair clip. I originally had REEL, which doesn’t quite work.
11 Fairground ride to be exciting in California (8)
CAROUSEL – ROUSE (be exciting) in CAL(ifornia)
13 Brass instrument to annoy the French (5)
BUGLE – BUG (annoy) LE (the, French)
14 Head of Government in control for period in office (5)
REIGN – G (“head” of Government) in REIN (control)
16 I brought in wall-painting, unusually large, back in well-lit room (8)
SOLARIUM – I brought in MURAL (wall-painting) OS (outsize = unusually large), back = reversed. LOI
17 Comfortable seeing weapons returned (4)
SNUG – seeing GUNS (weapons) returned
20 Temptation to snatch Charlie’s sordid gains (5)
LUCRE – LURE (temptation) to snatch C (C = Charlie in the phonetic alphabet ; or, if you prefer, C = cocaine = charlie)
21 Hard to find English active around us (7)
ELUSIVE – E(nglish) LIVE (active) around US
22 Build pressure, with outfits given to crew (3,2,5)
GET UP STEAM – GET-UPS (outfits) given to TEAM (crew)

Down
1 Very special microphone inlaid with silver (5)
MAGIC – MIC(rophone) inlaid with Ag (silver)
2 Green plastic ruined grave (7,5)
RESTING PLACE – anagram (ruined) of GREEN PLASTIC
3 Large dull fellow to stand around idly (4)
LOAF – L(arge) OAF (dull fellow). Originally spelt AUFE, that the OED describes as “An elf’s child, a goblin child, a changeling left by the fairies; (hence) a misbegotten, deformed, or ‘idiot’ child; a half-wit, a simpleton.”
4 Shock about European legal process (6)
APPEAL – APPAL (shock) about E(uropean).
5 Directors supporting trophy cabinet (8)
CUPBOARD – BOARD (directors) supporting CUP (trophy). Very neat.
6 Parliamentary procedure is not quite me, somehow (8,4)
QUESTION TIME – anagram (somehow) of IS NOT QUITE ME. This and the other two anagrams were all very neat as well.
7 Live on both sides in German city (6)
BERLIN – BE (live) on RL (right/left/both sides) IN. Nice nod to East/West Berlin.
12 Disjointed reverie about prisoner’s initial pardon (8)
REPRIEVE – anagram (disjointed) of REVERIE about P (Prisoner’s “initial”). Lovely surface!
13 Broken line that’s overlooked in commotion (6)
BUSTLE – BUST (broken) LE (LinE that’s overlooked IN). I was looking for an anagram (broken) of LinE THAT, and “hattle” almost looks like it could be a word for a commotion.
15 Lover seen outside old city office (6)
BUREAU – BEAU (lover) outside crossword’s favourite old city of UR
18 Jungle, Amazonian, absorbing this flash of light (5)
GLEAM – junGLE AMazonian is “absorbing” the answer.
19 Loud American ship creating bother (4)
FUSS – F (forte = loud) USS (American ship)

45 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2018 by Pedro”

  1. Struggled with MARBLE ARCH but penny dropped in the end. Couldn’t parse that one or various others so blog much needed. Thanks, Roly.
    FOI CAROUSEL. Liked BUGLE, CLIP, GET UP STEAM, among others.

    ELUSIVE reminded me of next door’s builder. He said he was digging up the bamboo because it was so evasive. Not everyone finds this amusing but I thought you lot would. (Tho non-gardeners may not know invasive bamboo can be)

    Edited at 2021-12-02 01:50 pm (UTC)

  2. Started very slowly with the across clues but made steady (but still rather slow) progress once I tackled the downs. Completed with all parsed in 19mins. A fine crossword with some really smooth surfaces.

    FOI – 9ac PAUSE
    LOI – 20ac LUCRE
    COD – 6dn QUESTION TIME for the surface although 2dn, 5dn and 7dn were also contenders.

    Thanks to Pedro and Roly

  3. 3:46 this morning, before Mrs P and I went out for a walk in the countryside in zero degrees but invigorating nonetheless.
    A well constructed and fair QC with no real obscurities as far as I was concerned.
    FOI 1 ac “Marble Arch” and had to return later to 2 d “resting place” where the anagram was not resolved at my first attempt.
    LOI and COD 16 ac “solarium” where no word for “well lit room” sprang to mind immediately (well they are a rarity in Scotland these days) and I had to rely on disentangling the word play on its own.
    Thanks to Roly and Pedro.
  4. … as I find Pedro often is, and took almost 15 minutes before all solved. Never did parse 1A Marble Arch though (answer was clear even if Blear was unknown — I see my dictionary marks it as Archaic), or my LOI 16A Solarium, got from the checkers alone.

    Some excellent anagrams, 2D Resting place and 6D Question time especially.

    Many thanks to Rolytoly for the blog
    Cedric

  5. Over 5 minutes under target, so a good puzzle. Wasn’t sure about LOAF but it fit so in it went. Otherwise no obscure vocab apart from BLEAR but I just ignored that as once I had MARCH 1ac couldn’t be anything else.

    Edited at 2021-12-02 06:21 pm (UTC)

  6. My second QC of the day today, as I did yesterday’s one at lunchtime. That one took a just over target 26 minutes, but this one was nearly half as long again at 38:43. Although BLEAR is certainly obscure to me, I did manage to see what was going on there, but I didn’t manage to parse SOLARIUM. LUCRE is only known to me from doing these, so that didn’t come immediately, and my LOI LOAF required an alphabet trawl. All enjoyable nonetheless, so thanks Roly and Pedro.
  8. has kept me busy since last week, in London town of all places (sorry!). Back to solving today in two sessions and a break between, 43 min in all, my reliable GN9. I used to drive round Marble Arch every day long ago, I didn’t find it obscure though I was often bleary. I would like to carouse on a fairground ride but will wait for Noel! All thanks.
  9. It’s Saturday and we’ve only just got to this one (busy week). Great puzzle which we completed in 9 minutes.

    FOI: GAS LAMP
    LOI: BUSTLE
    COD: QUESTION TIME

    Thanks Rolytoly and Pedro.

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