Times Quick Cryptic No 413 by Felix

Solving time: Fair to Middling

It’s gloomy and grotty here, but this brightened up my day somewhat. A nice friendly puzzle that contained some smile moments and one or two to make you scratch your head. The two long answers should give the newer solvers a good foothold on this puzzle.

It’s set me up nicely to get ready to tackle its Big Brother puzzle over lunch.

Thanks to Felix for an enjoyable solve, and I’ll see you next week.

ACROSS
1 JIGSAW – A word sum to start with. JIG (dance) + SAW (understood) = a type of puzzle.
5 SAMPAN – And another word sum. SAM (US uncle, the nickname for the country) + PA (dad) + N (new) gives the name of a Chinese boat.
8 NETHERLANDERS – An anagram (indicated by upset) of SLANDERER THEN leads to a word for people from Holland.
9 STEM – A double definition clue. A word that means to check or hold, as well as a part of a plant.
10 CUT GLASS – An old sword (CUTLASS) with G inside (shown by protecting) gives that name of a sort of vase.
11 CREDIT – A double definition, although it looks like one single definition at first glance. A word for an advance of money can also mean to buy as in to accept or believe something.
13 INSULT – A slightly trickier anagram. An anagram (shown by corrected) of UNTIL + S (first letter of Speech) gives a word meaning to slur someone.
15 GUARD DOG – This is a type of clue called a cryptic definition, these often have a question mark in the clue to indicate that you should perhaps think outside the box with this clue. Something that is man’s best friend and would keep watch.
17 RAPT – A double definition clue, with one of them a homophone of the other. A word meaning consumed, gripped can also sound like something that can be done to a parcel (WRAPPED).
19 THE WIZARD OF OZ – Again, punctuation is often helpful in a clue, and an exclamation mark is usually an indicator of an off the wall definition, or sometimes when the setter thinks he has written quite a clever clue. This time we have a double definition, the name of a musical, and a rather off-the-wall way of describing an expert from Down Under.
21 PRUNER – A word sum. PRUNE (fruit) + R (last letter, close to HARBOUR) gives someone who cryptically docks or cuts something.
22 TEE OFF – When I help my lovely grannies at the bridge club tackling the crossword, I often suggest getting a small exercise book, preferably an A-Z one and ruling each page down the middle. This can be used for storing all those odd little crossword phrases that frequently occur in puzzles, e.g. Flower = can mean river (something that flows). Here ‘swell’ almost never means to inflate but refers to a TOFF, an old meaning of swell. So TOFF (swell) has EE (a homophone, so to speak, of EASE) inside to give a phrase that means to start driving in golf.

DOWN
2 ID EST – A word sum – IDES (Date to beware, as in Julius Caesar) + T (the sixth letter of August) = the Latin phrase that means ‘that is’.
3 SCHEMED – And again. SCH (school) + E (English) + MED (the sea)
4 WAR – Reversal of RAW
5 STARTLING – Another one for the Exercise book. Shy can mean reserved, etc. but can also mean to throw as in Coconut Shy. So here SLING (shy) with TART (prostitute) inside.
6 MODEL – An anagram (fix) of ME OLD gives something that means a replica
7 AEROSOL – Another anagram (refurbished) of LOOS ARE gives a type of spray.
10 COTE D’AZUR – And a third one. An anagram (indicated by unusual) of ZAC TOURED. gives a place in France popular with the jet set.
12 ROUGHER – A hidden answer. Something that means less accurate is hidden (shown by partly) inside THROUGH ERRORS.
14 SCROOGE – Quite a difficult one to work out I thought, though the definition is fairly straightforward. The name of a famous fictional miser is found by reversing (upset, often used as a reverse in a down clue) EGO (I) + OR + CS (gutless, i.e. without innards, COMPANIONS)
16 ROWAN – And one more for the exercise book. Men in Crosswordland can be an indicator for the word OR – In the army, basic soldiers, men i.e. not officers, are O.R. OTHER RANKS)
Here, RO (men, OR, climbing) + WAN (pale) gives the name of a tree.
18 PROOF – O (zero) inside PROF (academic) gives a word for evidence.
20 ROT – A word meaning bunk, or rubbish is found by taking R (last letter of Hosteller) + OT (books, the Old Testament).

Hope you made it through in one piece. See you next week.