Times Quick Cryptic No 2019 by Corelli – Yes I saw Lisa

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A lovely middle-of-the-road quick cryptic to end the week from Corelli that took what is, for me, an average time of about 5 1/2 minutes. A few trickily disguised definitions caused me a bit of head-scratching… and might for others too. COD to 6D for the dig at President Vlad, but I enjoyed 17A and 12D too.

Noticing that our setter was Corelli, I remembered that previous crosswords had some sort of theme. My suspicions were aroused when I got to the seemingly random girl’s name at 16D which got me wondering… So what did I find? After you’ve tried looking for yourself, click on the link below to see (and hear). Nice one Corelli! Thank-you! And thank-you also for the reminder that “we’re not as smart as we’d like to think we are”. How did you all get on?

[What I found]

In the grid we have LUCKY STARS by DEAN FRIED.. MAN (over two lines) and DENISE MARSA (with a right-angled turn up at the end). No I didn’t remember it. Did you? You can hear the delightful 1970s duet here.

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword here. 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 Small motor, crimson, bearing marks (7)
SCARRED – S (small) CAR (motor) RED (crimson). A straightforward one to start.
5 Desperate character grabbing English head of college (4)
DEAN – DAN (Desperate Dan, cow-pie eater and mascot of the Dandy) “grabbing” E (English).
7 Polish off beef, maybe, without starter (3)
EAT – mEAT (beef, maybe) “without starter”, We had this with a very similar clue just last week – see here.
8 Find pear, strangely, cooked in shallow fat (3-5)
PAN-FRIED – (Find pear)* “strangely”.
10 Fortunate girl, visited by king (5)
LUCKY – LUCY (girl) outside, “visited by”, K (King).
11 Staff generous, displaying humanity (7)
MANKIND – MAN (staff) KIND (generous).
13 Neat piece of software featuring in German article (6)
DAPPER – APP (piece of software) in DER (German article).
15 Minnesota city street with university crossed by friend (2,4)
ST PAUL – ST. (street), and U (university) inside PAL (friend). Saint Paul is the capital of Minnesota.
17 Give the right payment: it leads to contract (7)
ENTITLE – Hidden, “to contract” in paymENT IT LEads. Sneaky definition where you have to split “right payment”.
18 Sailor on board ship finds celebs (5)
STARS – TAR (sailor) “on board”, i.e. in, S.S. (steam ship).
20 Having evidently put on weight, her life’s in disarray (8)
FLESHIER – (her life’s)* “in disarray”. It was only when I spotted the anagram that I realised what the definition was.
22 Expected early moisture to be picked up? (3)
DUE – Sounds like, “to be picked up” DEW (early moisture).
23 War god’s spoils (4)
MARS – Double Definition.
24 Send Tom out furthest (7)
ENDMOST – (Send Tom)* “out”.
Down
1 Means to climb stage with large snake (10)
STEPLADDER – STEP (stage) L (large) ADDER (snake).
2 You need skill, in charge of large lorry (5)
ARTIC – ART (skill) I.C. (in charge).
3 Part enemy played in compensation (9)
REPAYMENT – (Part enemy)* “played”.
4 Power source so many determined to hold up (6)
DYNAMO – Reverse hidden, “to hold up” in sO MANY Determined.
5 Doctor possessing old Beetle (3)
DOR – DR. (doctor) around O (old). A sort of dung beetle – see here.
6 Country originally annexing Crimea out of order (7)
AMERICA – “Originally” Annexing (Crimea) “out of order”. A reminder of the ongoing conflict in the area.
9 Rise to collect unemployment benefit for teenager? (10)
ADOLESCENT – ASCENT (rise) outside DOLE (unemployment benefit).
12 Less visibly embarrassed about initially having nothing! (3,1,5)
NOT A SHRED – NOT AS RED (less visibly embarrassed) “about” “initially” Having.
14 Hard cap taken from head, all upside down (7)
PATELLA – PATE (head) ALL “upside down” -> LLA. The kneecap.
16 Female study is close to garage (6)
DENISE – DEN (study) IS “close to” garagE. Who is Denise? And is she related to Dean at 4A, I wondered?
19 Brief inspection of accounts: nothing sound (5)
AUDIO – “Brief” AUDIt (inspection of accounts) O (0, nothing).
21 Elite military band cut short (3)
SAS – SASh (band) “cut short”.

57 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2019 by Corelli – Yes I saw Lisa”

  1. ….dealing with typos, I might just have broken 3 minutes for the first time in quite a while. The problem — yet again — was a false FOI (SCARLET), and once I spotted DYNAMO, backing it out was tricky. I fat-fingered at least three more entries. I’m about to tackle the 15×15 (once I’ve read Merlin’s much appreciated blog of my “Weekender” of course), and I’ve vowed to sacrifice speed in favour of accuracy !

    REAL FOI DEAN
    LOI NOT A SHRED
    COD FLESHIER
    TIME 3:40

  2. We joined those who were slowed down by the sw corner, in our case it was a full stop for a while. A g and t eventually got us there with some help. Time unmentionable.
  3. A frustrating 25 mins for me, especially as I thought I was on for a sub 15, only to be reeled in by 17ac “Entitle” and 12dn “Not A Shred”. The latter was even more annoying as I misread the letter order and thought it was a 3,2,4 combination.

    A good puzzle overall — although, as usual, I didn’t spot the Nina.

    FOI — 1ac “Scarred”
    LOI — 12dn “Not a shred”
    COD — 14dn “Patella”, although I also liked the accounting humour in 19dn.

    Thanks as usual!

  4. Late to this after golf. LOI was ENTITLE after PATELLA- both not fully parsed. Time was 10:12.
    I have heard of Dean Friedman but failed to suspect a nina.
    Good puzzle.
    David
  5. of once watching the marvellous spectacle of dung beetles beetling. We were never introduced so I didn’t know their name. I did resolve St Paul and checked it out by stealth. Entitle took a while to see the definition, but not the hidden Ent’it’le, my eyes were blind (again). A good working 45 min for me, certainly GN9* for doing so well today. Appreciations all round.
  6. Struggled with NOT A SHRED but no other difficulties. The LH side won’t in in about 5 mins the right a little slower.

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