Times Quick Cryptic No 313 by Teazel

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Solving time: middling

Morning and a thanks to everyone who came to the S&B do on Tuesday. A lovely convivial day with lots of good chat and general fun (will reveal more about what a certain setter got up to for a small fee!).

Today we have Teazel with his usual elegant style and more than a smattering of double definition clues, some of which are part cryptic.

Lots of nice surface readings and although I was made to think a little, just about right for today.

Thanks to our setter and I have to dash off to my holiday home at the local hospital for a check-up! See you next Thursday.

Across
1 PUTT – We start with a cryptic definition. If you go on (a) green in sport, you may do this.
3 WAXWORKS – Definition is museum containing figures. Wax = grow (as in the phases of the moon) + Works (plant as in the name of a manufacturing base).
9 OCTOBER – A month is the definition. An anagram (STEWING) of OBJECTOR minus J (judge).
10 TALON – Hidden inside (indicated by partially) CUT A LONG is a word for a type of claw.
11 OPEN AND SHUT – This is a double definition clue, where one of the definitions is cryptic. A phrase that means straightforward also is something that a door cannot be at the same time.
13 MADDER – A plain double definition clue, one half is a plain definition, a type of plant and the second half a word that means more silly, or no sot sensible.
15 POWDER – Like 11 across, one half is a straight definition, a type of make-up. The second half refers to an expression where something you keep dry means that you are being cautious.
17 WITHOUT FAIL – Like No 47 buses, they keep on coming! Another one of the double defs where half is cryptic! A phrase meaning reliably or certainly could apply to exams where everyone passes!
20 CHINA – And another double definition. The name of a far eastern country is also a Cockney’s way of describing a mate. Notice the incomplete nature of the clue.
21 FOREIGN – This one runs on from the previous clue. This means that it sort of links in to the previous clue or answer. Here it means that you are looking for a word that describes someone not from this country.
22 REGULATE – Definition is control. An anagram (drunk) of URGE plus what you are if you are behind time.
24 VISA – Addition to passport is the definition. A Latin way of saying by means of (via) has S (son) inside.

Down
1 PRO FORMA – The name for the basic version of a document is your definition. If you were asked to choose between two academics, you’d have to decide betwwen PROF OR MA?
2 TITLE – Name is the definition. A type of bird (TIT) plus LE, the extremities, i.e. first and last letters of LARGE.
4 ABRADE – Something that means scrape is the definition. A + and anagram (straggly) of BEARD.
5 WITCH DOCTOR – Tribal magician is the definition. W (with) + ITCH (uncomfortable feeling) + DOCTOR (meddle).
6 RELATED – A double definition. A word meaning connected, and something that a story is if told.
7 SAND – Feature of beach is the definition. N (new) inside SAD (depressed).
9 BLAZE A TRAIL – A cryptic definition. What a pioneer who is on fire would be said to do as an innovator.
12 SRI LANKA – Island is the definition. AIRS (broadcasts) reversed with LANK (long and thin) inside.
14 DOWNING – Another double definition. A word that means drinking is also the name of a college at Cambridge (phew! I guessed right!)
16 COMFIT – A type of (liquorice) sweet is the definition. COM(E) (appear, shortly i.e. minus its last letter) + FIT (in good health).
18 ALIBI – This is disbelieved? is the slightly cryptic definition. The first letters of As Lag Is Back In….
19 SCAR – Evidence of a duel is the definition. SCAR(E) Frighten briefly, minus its last letter.

13 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 313 by Teazel”

    1. Oh good – I thought it was just me with a headful of cotton wool this morning making heavy weather of this.
      I spent ages going through all the options for P-T-, my LOI, until the ball finally dropped in the hole.
      1. I had a problem with PUTT too,but it was worse than that for me as I couldn’t think past GASWORKS at 3ac which was obviously wrong, so as the 30 minute barrier came and went I looked up ‘grow’ in a thesaurus to come up with WAX for WAXWORKS. Not sure I ever had a DNF on a Quickie before.

        Edited at 2015-05-21 12:49 pm (UTC)

  2. I also found this a little tougher than usual. I couldn’t see what on earth 1A could mean, as none of my words for go, on, or green fitted, and it was only once I’d filled in both checkers that I could solve it – I’m assuming the surface is intended to make you think about crossing the road. If I had to name a set of colleges, I’m not sure DOWNING would make the top 10, and COMFIT and MADDER are both not perhaps daily vocab (at least not in my sweetless and gardening-free existence), so the wordplay was welcome. A good challenge – will be interesting to see the comments from people who aren’t regular solvers of the main cryptic.
  3. Two clues split by ellipses have always – in my experience- resulted in a recognisable two-word phrase, so I was stuck for the second word.

    Is this construction acceptable in a TQC?

    Otherwise an excellent and enjoyable challenge. Waxworks was sublime.

    Philip

    1. It’s a fairly uncommon construct even in the more abstruse puzzles and I think it’s the first time it’s appeared in the Quickie (though others will, I’m sure, be quick to disabuse me if I’m wrong).
      Personally I’ve never really understood the notion and always treated the two clues separately, whilst bearing in mind that there may be a tenuous connection between them (but not always).
  4. It took a long time but eventually the penny dropped. I think however that PUTT is a double definition as it is both a noun and a verb. You go on the green to putt and a go on the green is also a putt.
  5. Well that was tough, so it was nice to see that some of the experienced solvers found it more difficult than usual. Unfortunately I finally gave up on 3a – figured it had to end in ‘works’ but couldn’t work out what went before it. 1d was unparsed as I misread the clue as academies not academics and the parsing of 12d was way beyond my abilities.
    As a golfer I didn’t have an issue with 1a.
  6. Thanks to these blogs I can now complete the quick cryptic -slowly-almost every day.
    This one defeated me.There were eight clues I couldn’t get including 1 across -and I am a golfer.
    Looking at the answers it was mainly tough but fair. I didn’t know “Comfit” and I guessed at “Madder” but didn’t put it in as I didn’t know it was a plant.
    I thought 21 meant someone not from China but I can see it now.
    No objections to this crossword -I must try harder.
    1. Teazel is easily the hardest QC setter – I don’t even bother trying anymore. Invariant
  7. Thanks to these blogs I can now complete the quick cryptic -slowly-almost every day.
    This one defeated me.There were eight clues I couldn’t get including 1 across -and I am a golfer.
    Looking at the answers it was mainly tough but fair. I didn’t know “Comfit” and I guessed at “Madder” but didn’t put it in as I didn’t know it was a plant.
    I thought 21 meant someone not from China but I can see it now.
    No objections to this crossword -I must try harder.
  8. It’s got to be said, 1 across is a terrible clue. It doesn’t make any sense. And that is coming from a golfer who has played the game for 35 years.
  9. I do the Quick Crytic to have fun, this was certainly not that. It was off base on more than one occasion. I got Putt immediately, but can’t say that it was a good clue, DOWNING and COMFIT I don’t think are usual, and the … link for FOREIGN was horrible. Generally I like Teazel puzzles, but I think he must have had an off day when he sat down to do this one.

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