Times Quick Cryptic No 2039 by Breadman

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

We have reached the last Quick Cryptic of the year, so Happy New Year to all our solvers and setters when it comes tonight. Our setter today is Breadman and I found this mostly straightforward apart from my last one in – the English river, which I hadn’t heard of. Eventually I put my trust in the wordplay and was relieved to see all green. COD to 17D for the great surface.Thank-you Breadman. I was finished in a time of 4:40, my fastest of the week. I think it’s definitely a lot easier than yesterday’s Izetti, but how did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, “Goodbye 2021 and Hello 2022” here. Enjoy! If anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to all 41 here.

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

Across
7 Classical hero to relax in sea to the west (8)
ACHILLES – CHILL (relax) “in” SEA reversed, “to the west” -> AES
8 Greek character joins learner and others (2,2)
ET AL – ETA (Greek character) L (learner).
9 English river’s constant — woman following it (6)
ITCHEN – C (constant) HEN (woman) “following” IT. The River Itchen is in Hampshire, apparently. I’d never heard of it. It is world-famous as a chalk stream for fly fishing.
10 Raymond entertains non-drinker, irritable (5)
RATTY – RAY (Raymond) “entertains” TT (teetotaller; non-drinker).
11 Stain wood navy blue last of all (3)
DYE – Final letters, “last of all”, of wooD navY bluE.
12 Card game‘s deck controlled by captain (6)
BRIDGE –  Double definition. Nice surface including “game’s deck” of cards.
14 Beam of light reflected terrace’s herbal plant (6)
YARROW – RAY (beam of light) (hello again Raymond) “reflected” -> YAR, ROW (terrace). “Yarrow is a plant that has been used for centuries in traditional medicine. It is also commonly known as achillea, bloodwort, carpenter’s weed, devil’s nettle, nosebleed, old man’s pepper, staunchweed, thousand-leaf, and wound wort (among other names).“
16 The German introduces beer merchant (6)
DEALER – DER (the, in german) “introduces” ALE (beer).
18 Well-mannered cops, having time for Charlie (6)
POLITE – POLIcE (cops) replacing the C (Charlie) with T (time).
19 Poem daughter’s seen in Old English (3)
ODE – D (daughter) in O (Old) E (English).
20 Block used by blacksmith in Asian village (5)
ANVIL – Hidden “in” AsiAN VILlage.
21 Dicky clear about new soldier (6)
LANCER – “Dicky” (clear)* “about” N (new).
23 Fruit couple heard of (4)
PEAR – Sounds like PAIR (couple), “heard of”.
24 Once seabird confronting Alan outside (8)
EXTERNAL – EX (once) TERN (seabird) AL (Alan). Hmm. Not sure I get the surface meaning.
Down
1 Maybe Glaswegian father evacuated estate without harm (4-4)
SCOT-FREE – SCOT (maybe Glaswegian) FR (father) EstatE “evacuated”.
2 Detective’s hot meal (4)
DISH – DI‘S (detective’s) H (hot).
3 Fair-haired British duke in isolated environment (6)
BLONDE – B (British), D (duke) inside, “in…environment”, LONE (isolated)
4 Poser troubled unknown raptor (6)
OSPREY – (poser)* “troubled” Y (unknown).
5 Muscle training on hill in California (8)
PECTORAL – P.E. (training), TOR (hill) “in” CAL (California).
6 Body of seamen lifted vehicle with Yankee (4)
NAVY – VAN (vehicle) “lifted” -> NAV, Y (Yankee in the NATO phonetic alphabet).
13 Supply food shop particularly (8)
DELIVERY – DELI (food shop) VERY (particularly).
15 Running away, knight enters hotel abroad in the morning (2,3,3)
ON THE LAM – N (knight in chess notation) in (hotel)* “abroad”, AM (in the morning). Does anyone use this phrase any more, I wonder?
17 Posh car that might be stuck in Barnet (6)
ROLLER – Double definition, the first ROLLER (Rolls-Royce; posh car) and the second a cryptic hint using the Cockney Rhyming Slang Barnet (Fair) = hair, i.e. ROLLER (something that might be stuck in your hair). With the M1 ending in, and the A1 passing through the Borough of Barnet, I can imagine the traffic there might well be rather busy. Nice one. My COD.
18 European group interrupting dad’s ball game (6)
PELOTA – E (European) LOT (group), inside PA (dad). “Pelota is a game that is played in Spain, America, and the Philippines, in which the players hit a ball against a wall using a long basket tied to their wrist“. I knew this, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it played.
20 Middle Eastern port, a retreat (4)
ADEN – A DEN (retreat).
22 Spy initially navigates rescue boat (4)
NARK – Navigates “initially” ARK (rescue boat).

85 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2039 by Breadman”

  1. Quite straightforward in a ponderous way but some answers jumped off the page. Had to think about ITCHEN a bit as I had NHO the river but used to sail in Chichester harbour from Hayling Island and knew Itchenor. ON THE … had to be LAM which brought Cool Hand Luke to mind, a firm favourite and one to watch over the weekend perhaps.
    Thank you Breadman and John and all for your comments, wit, insight and entertainment.
    I hope you have all made your NY resolutions to last beyond 1/1/2022.
    Happy and healthy New Year
    Richard
    🎆
  2. We are near the Itchen too so that went in easily.

    Back from the USA and isolating so thankful for these puzzles to keep me occupied.

    To my shame, failed to get ARK. Not a boat that springs to mind!

    Thanks Breadman and John.

    Diana

        1. I lived in Hampshire for a few years during my childhood. Then, without moving house, I lived the rest of my childhood in Dorset.
  3. Mostly straightforward but a couple to get the grey matter working. I’m in the NHO ITCHEN camp and like Rotter and Invariant spent some time wondering if PESETA could possibly be a ball game, before dredging the correct answer from the depths. YARROW and ADEN, where I had a brain freeze, were my last two in, with COD to ROLLER. Finished in 8.20.
    Thanks to John and happy new year to all
  4. Taken just over 10 minutes by ‘pelota’ and LOI ‘on the lam’ which I’d never heard of.
  5. A nice way to finish the year, at just over 2xPhil or just under 1K! No problem with the GK – I knew of the Itchen although the Test is more familiar, not just from Crosswordland but because we have spent some lovely holidays in the area. DISH took longer than it should have but otherwise it was a relatively smooth solve.
    FOI Blonde (just spotted it from the off)
    LOI Dish
    COD Roller
    Many thanks to Breadman and John for today’s fun, and a collective thank you to all setters, bloggers and posters for making this such a entertaining part of my day 😊 I wish I could say the same about LJ – still having all sorts of problems on my laptop. I’m going to have to go to the new tablet in order to post a few 🔥s and 🧡s!
    Happy new year one and all 🍾
  6. Much quicker than the last few days but held up in thse corner with on the lam etc. Lived in Romsey for some years, so no problem with Itchen, perhaps th Test will arrive some day. A nice puzzle to finish the year, happy New Year to all.
  7. COD to 15dn ON THE LAM I haven’t heard this for yonks. WOD POLITE NOTICE as per local parking signs.
  8. I have a feeling that ON THE LAM appeared here not too long ago. Otherwise, I would never have come across the phrase.
  9. Fairly easy though technically a DNF as had ITSHEN, she being the woman and n the constant, but of course the wrong way round.
  10. … and I nearly escaped the SCC (a very rare occurrence). I had only one clue to get after 17 minutes, but I’m afraid NARK took me 4 minutes. I’d heard of a copper’s NARK (Didn’t Ronnie Barker use the term in Porridge?), but I was slow to parse the clue and couldn’t convince myself it was the answer for a while. PELOTA went in faintly and wasn’t firmed up until the end. Total time = 21 minutes.

    many thanks today to Breadman and John, and many thanks generally to all setters, bloggers, contributors and readers for making this such an enjoyable read and intellectual pastime.

  11. Missed out on 2 which about sumd ip the year in general.
    Best wishes to all and lets hope 2022 is better
  12. Very late to the blog today: mildly surprised no-one has pointed out there’s also a River Itchen in Warwickshire.

    Jim R

    1. Well that’s interesting. Thanks, Jim. I didn’t even know the one in Hampshire so didn’t know to mention it in the blog. Thanks for the enlightenment. Surely there must be others who live in Warwickshire here who could have said? I see though it is a bit of a tiddler at 12 miles long. For anyone wanting to know more, read about it here. Incidentally we have a couple of chalk streams locally here, the Rivers Lark (50km long) and Linnet (10km long, so shorter than your Itchen). See here.

      Edited at 2021-12-31 07:32 pm (UTC)

  13. What a great QC to end the year. An excellent mix of the straightforward, the tricky and the difficult. Thoroughly enjoyed this after struggling yesterday.

    Thanks to all the setters for providing us with QCs throughout the year. Thanks also to the bloggers for making everything so clear.

    Best wishes to everyone for 2022.

    Gary A

  14. 5:11 this morning but only got round to a quick contribution here, following a protracted battle with the 15 x 15 and a pleasurable Hogmanay dinner thereafter ( Beef Wellington and a 2009 Ribero del Duero if anyone is interested)
    Really enjoyable QC from Mr Baker with, for me, 2 NHOs “itchen” and “lam” which I entered with a shrug.
    COD 18 ac ” pelota” , reputed to be the fastest ball game in the world ( apart from a shank at golf) which Mrs P and I witnessed in Biarritz in 1979. Never seemed to catch on outside the Basque region for whatever reason.
    Thanks to John for the blog and to setter. And more generally to all setters, bloggers and contributors throughout the year. Its been a lot of fun!
  15. Can someone explain how dicky translate to lacer. I could not see dicky as anything other than a name,a bow tie, or something slightly off. Where does lacer fit in. Thanks Tim

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