Solving time: 13:13
Last Wednesday, it was doofenschmirtz’s turn to become the newest blogger on the block – this Wednesday, it’s mine!
None of the vocabulary should be too tricky here, though I had to think twice about some of the constructions. Most of the longer words seem to have been anagrams. How did you find it?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Money prohibited, we hear, for musicians (5,4) |
| BRASS BAND – BRASS (money) + BAND which sounds like [we hear] BANNED (prohibited) | |
| 6 | Youngster to jog but not run (3) |
| TOT – Jog is T{r}OT – remove the ‘r’ – cricket notation for runs | |
| 8 | Petition concerning expedition? (7) |
| REQUEST – RE (concerning) + QUEST (expedition) | |
| 9 | Story of competent female at the fore (5) |
| FABLE – ABLE (competent) with F{emale} stuck on the front [at the fore] | |
| 10 | Team resigned, being involved in a row (12) |
| DISAGREEMENT – Anagram [being involved] of TEAM RESIGNED | |
| 12 | Expert editor returning to newspaper (4) |
| DEFT – ED (editor) is reversed [returning] + FT (newspaper – the Financial Times in this case) | |
| 13 | Greek characters contributing to the task (4) |
| ETAS – Hidden [contributing to] the task | |
| 17 | Celebrity chef perhaps may have art treasure arranged round middle of house (12) |
| RESTAURATEUR – {ho}U{se} [middle of house] with anagram [arranged] of ART TREASURE surrounding [round] | |
| 20 | Dish available in US city no more (5) |
| BALTI – US city is BALTIMORE – remove MORE
Needed a couple of checkers to set me on my way with this one! |
|
| 21 | Scot meets English fellow in ancient territory (7) |
| MACEDON – MAC (Scot) + E{nglish} + DON (fellow)
Macedon, also known as Macedonia, was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece |
|
| 23 | Animal losing tail in river (3) |
| DEE – DEE{r} – random animal with last letter removed [losing tail] | |
| 24 | Trick by French father — daughter rushed off (9) |
| SCAMPERED – SCAM (trick) + PÈRE (French for father) + D{aughter} | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Assumed to be tedious person (4) |
| BORE – Double definition – BORE is the past tense of BEAR as in ‘Mike bore/assumed the responsibility for producing the Quick Cryptic blog every other Wednesday’ | |
| 2 | Get a group of singers to listen to (7) |
| ACQUIRE – Sounds like [to listen to] A CHOIR (a group of singers) | |
| 3 | Observe heads of state expressing enthusiasm (3) |
| SEE – First letters [heads] of S{tate} E{xpressing} E{nthusiasm} | |
| 4 | Flowering plants needed for Easter Sunday (6) |
| ASTERS – Hidden in Easter Sunday | |
| 5 | Turning fifteen, vacant daughter is not the same (9) |
| DIFFERENT – Anagram [turning] of FIFTEEN + D{aughte}R [vacant = empty all letters except the first and last] | |
| 6 | Item of furniture firm when the top is removed (5) |
| TABLE – {s}TABLE = firm with the first letter [top – pertinent here as it is a down clue] removed | |
| 7 | Deal with unknown character, making agreement (6) |
| TREATY – TREAT (deal with) + Y [unknown character – choose from x, y or z – these characters often represent unknowns in algebraic mathematics] | |
| 11 | A curate is naughty — we appreciate the risks (9) |
| ACTUARIES – Anagram indicator here is ‘naughty’ – the anagram fodder is A CURATE IS
ACTUARIES are business professionals who deal with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty |
|
| 14 | Danseur dancing apart (7) |
| ASUNDER – Anagram [dancing] of DANSEUR
ASUNDER is possibly most often heard during the marriage service – those whom God hath joined together, let no man/one put asunder |
|
| 15 | In favour of bottom of river being delved into (6) |
| PROBED – PRO (In favour of) + BED (bottom of river) | |
| 16 | Breach of law over area that is disputed region (6) |
| CRIMEA – CRIME (breach of law) + A [note use of the directional word ‘over’ – applied correctly here in this down clue]
The CRIMEA is a long-disputed peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea |
|
| 18 | What you must do, only having five to fill in (5) |
| SOLVE – SOLE (only) with the Roman five V inserted [to fill in] | |
| 19 | Woman with aim to get around India (4) |
| ENID – END (aim) around I (India in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 22 | Firm with quiet officer (3) |
| COP – CO (firm i.e. CO{mpany}) with P (quiet – from the Italian musical direction ‘piano’ or just ‘p’ = soft i.e. quiet) | |
Stuck on BALTI/SOLVE, the rest quite straightforward for an Izetti!
Took a little while to get going but after that it was a steady SOLVE with no real hold-ups. Everything complete and parsed in 15 minutes which is a reasonable time for me. Welcome to Mike as our latest new blogger and thanks also to harmonic_row for explaining why there’s no N in 17ac. Thanks of course also to Izetti for his usual polished offering.
FOI – 9ac FABLE
LOI – 13ac ETAS (I was thinking I had to join 2 Greek letters together for something meaning ‘task’. Didn’t see the hidden until after the event!)
COD – 20ac BALTI
Thank you Mike and congratulations on your first of hopefully many blogs. With the exception of RESTAURATEUR I made quick work of the QC. FOI BRASS BAND and LOI RESTAURATEUR. COD definitely has to go to SOLVE. 6:36 for an excellent day.
15 minutes and only B – L – I to go and I just gave up without an alphabet trawl.
Cross with myself because I could have got balti and enjoyed the solve…
Dang.
Struggled with the missing n as many others with the Gordon Ramsay.
Liking Rotter’s Second Law.
Thanks all
John
10:42. Many thanks for taking on a regular blog, Mike, hope you enjoy them! Thanks to Izetti too.
A bit of a slow solve today, trying to do anagrams in my head is not a good plan. With apologies to any actual actuaries, I was told that an actuary was someone who tried accountancy and found it too exciting. Apologies to accountants too!
21 mins, but a dnf as I got 21ac wrong and put “scarpered”.
The rest was a nice puzzle from Izetti with the main holds up on the longer clues of 10ac “Disagreement”, 17ac “Restaurateur” and 11dn “Actuaries”.
FOI – 1ac “Brass Band”
LOI – 11dn “Actuaries”
COD – 5dn “Different” – lovely surface.
Thanks as usual!
An enjoyable puzzle with a wide variety of difficulty, but nothing too easy or too difficult, and completed in slightly less than average time. FOI SEE, LOI BALTI, COD SOLVE. I have never seen ETAS used in the plural, so feel a different could have been used here, felt ACQUIRED = LISTENED was a bit of a stretch, and think that one can BEAR responsibility (eg) only after having previously ASSUMED it. However three pedantic MERs were outnumbered by witty clues and excellent surfaces. Thanks Don and Mike.
But ACQUIRED doesn’t = LISTENED… As I think Mike’s blog makes clear, the clue is ‘GET’, and the answer is a homophone (to listen to…) of ‘a group of singers’ – a choir… Can’t argue with your other two ‘pedantic MERs’ though!
Thanks, Bazdolly, you are quite right. Maybe I didn’t read the clue or blog carefully enough, and my apology to Mike, whose blog was indeed spot on. I actually got the clue very early on, but decided to wait until the Q was confirmed before I wrote it in. In due course I solved the relevant across clue and put the down clue in.
I am hard of hearing, and often say “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that” where get = hear. So my thought process was something like “Listen=hear=get=acquire”, which is not only dubious but also quite a stretch which IMHO would be too much for a 225-square let alone a QC, though I wouldn’t put it past some setters.
Hence my ill-advised comment.
Great blog Mike – super clear and well-explained.
Agree with others that this was on the gentle side for an Izetti – I came in a notch over 6 minutes. Lovely puzzle.
A slow but enjoyable solve in 16:09. Not sure what took so long. I was held up by the long anagrams, but managed to get them without resorting to paper. LOI was SOLVE. Thanks Don and Mike
We enjoyed this, fell into place after a slow start. Finished within target, thanks Izetti.
Congratulations on an excellent blog Mike. As an SCC regular, the blogs are vital and yours today was a model of clarity. I am immensely grateful to you and all the others who perform this task.
After a day of frustration on Tuesday, I surprised myself by solving this one without too much trouble. Probably just into the SCC but, for an Izetti, I will take it!
Not sure how, but I seem to be one of the few people who didn’t struggle with the spelling of 17ac. I did however take a while to get to grips with the brilliant 18dn, my LOI.
COD 24ac.
Some really amusing clues today.
Done and dusted in one course.
Does anyone read the posts put up this late in the day?
Sure!
Yes!
Definitely! Some of us don’t actually complete the QC until early evening! Biffed Balti and was amused to see BaltiMORE on the blog. Thanks all.
If you post it, they/we/I will read it!
some of us even read all the comments the next day
Coming at this rather later in the day. Just outside the SCC which I’m happy with. A tale of two halves. No problems with the top half – the bottom wasn’t so easy. Took ages to spot CRIMEA and really wanted to put that ‘n’ in RESTAURATEUR. Otherwise no problems. Liked BALTI and AQUIRE. Many thanks for a great first blog!
Sprinted through the top half, crawled through the bottom half . Thanks for excellent blog.