Times Quick Cryptic No 418 by Dazzler

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Morning all

Can’t remember the last time I blogged a Dazzler Quick Cryptic. It was a most pleasant solve and definitely at the easier end of the scale. Nothing terribly complicated here, apart from 11 across, and I hope to read that most of you found this accessible as well.

If you are interested, one of my puzzles will be the Independent General knowledge Jumbo on Saturday. You can win some chocolate prizes by solving the puzzle or by simply finding the link between a few answers.

ACROSS
1 PROSPECT – We start with a double definition clue today. A word that means hope is also what people used to do when they looked for gold in the US or Australia.
5 EDIT – A word that means to change is hidden (shown by during course of) inside the word EXPEDITION.
8 SERGEANT – Have lost count how many times I have seen this clue in various puzzles. Definition is Police Officer, and it’s SERGE (material) + ANT (worker). Last week I suggested building a small dictionary for popular and misleading words used in puzzles. Here ‘WORKER’ would go straight in there. Sometimes, ‘Social worker’ is used and invariably in a puzzle it means ANT. They live in colonies and are described as social insects, and a worker is a type of ant.
9 DATA – Information is the definition. D.A. is an abbreviation for a District Attorney, an American lawyer and T.A.is the Territorial Army, a volunteer force. Again another for the Dictionary, ‘volunteers’ in Crosswordese almost always indicates the letters TA.
11 QUADRANGLE – Probably the hardest clue to work out today. QUA (Latin word meaning ‘in the manner of’) + DR (doctor) + ANGLE (crook, can mean curved or distorted, think shepherd’s crook).
14 AFRAID – Here, the surprise attack (RAID) is tacked on to A F (a female) to give a word for one who is scared.
15 BEAT IT – Another Wordsum clue. BEAT (flog) + I.T. (computers) = to make a quick getaway.
17 BOWLED OVER – This is a double definition clue, where one of the part is a bit cryptic. Astonished is the normal definition, and the other definition is a cryptic definition of what a cricketer could do.
20 IRIS – What flowers? is the definition. The odd letters of In RuInS.
21 BADINAGE – Witty conversation is your definition. An anagram (wrongly) of I BEGAN with A D (a daughter) inside (interrupted).
22 EDGY – Nervous is the definition. ED (journalist) + GY (GUY without U, not upper-class).
23 MISSPENT – Wasted is the definition. MISS (female) + PEN (writer) + T (little time).

DOWN
1 PAST – The Downs start with a wordsum. PA (old man) + ST (way) = A word meaning forgotten.
2 OGRE – Seen this one a few times, too! OG = Go reversed, i.e. leave upset + RE (about) = a type of mythical monster.
3 PREJUDICED – Biased is the definition. J (judge) inside an anagram of DUPE CRIED.
4 CANADA – A hidden word (shown by protected). Inside ‘REPUBLICAN A DANGEROUS’ is the name of a country.
6 DRAUGHTS At first, I thought the first part of this double definition clue was ‘announced plans’ as in DRAUGHTS, as in Draughtsman. However the ‘announced’ here is a homophone indicating it refers to DRAFTS. The other half of the clue refers to the game.
7 TRAVESTY – Farce is the definition. A VEST (a piece of underwear) inside TRY (attempt).
10 DAREDEVILS – My favourite clue. The majority of the clue is the definition of the word with the remainder indicating an anagram (unusually) of SEVERAL DID. The whole clue has a nice surface reading.
12 LAMBLIKE – Another anagram, indicated by strangely, this time of MAKE BILL gives you a description of someone meek and gentle.
13 BROWNING – A double definition. The name of a famous poet is also a word that means toasting or grilling something.
16 SOMALI – African is the definition. OS is very big and this is reversed (uprising) – add to this MALI (another african country).
18 LAZE – A double definition with one of the definitions a homophone (we hear). The normal definition is to lounge, and the other a homophone of LAYS.
20 TEXT – EX (former partner) inside (blocks) TT (the extremes of TRUCULENT) to give a type of message.

That’s yer lot for this week! See you next Thursday! I’m off to bake scones! We are having a Great British Bake Off day for charity at work!

15 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 418 by Dazzler”

  1. This was of middling difficulty for me but all correct and parsed. Took ages to get LAMBLIKE even though I knew it was an anagram, ditto for BADINAGE. Last in MISSPENT and agree with Macavity that DAREDEVILS was the best.
  2. 7 minutes but needed all the checkers to get QUADRANGLE. In case anyone’s wondering the definition is ‘court’ as in ‘courtyard’. It may not be familiar to some but followers of Billy Bunter and other stories set in posh schools several decades ago will know of ‘the quad’ as an alternative term for the more common ‘playground’.
    1. And also today at Oxford; called Courts at Cambridge . Not so much playgrounds as ‘Don’t walk on the grass’ grounds. Katie Rose
      1. Indeed though I never went there myself other than as a sightseer. Bunter’s school was more my level!
  3. I had to work hard at this and was about to give up with three clues left -4d, 16d and 11a.I’d thought of Canada for 4d early on but couldn’t parse it. I wrote it in provisionally to get another missing letter for 11a. Eventually saw the hidden answer. For 16d I had Togo originally and then got Mali. To me 11a suggested that the word was enclosed by Court (Ct perhaps). Eventually I untangled it.
    Looking at the answers, all the letters of the alphabet seem present;have not fully checked.So a demanding crossword;all fair and favourite clue 11a -great satisfaction when you work it out. David
    1. Unspammed. This is what did it, David, the full-stop with no space following it:

      11a.I’d thought

      Edited at 2015-10-15 02:59 pm (UTC)

  5. I found this really difficult and eventually gave up with 23a, 16 and 18d unsolved.
    Please could someone explain why OS = very big. Is it short for Outsized??
    1. We may need to from time to time, as long as the word is sufficiently used in English to be in one of the standard dictionaries (usually taken to be Collins, Chambers and COED). One would hope that setters would keeps this to a minimum in Quickies but it’s one of the tricks of the trade that solvers need to be aware of if they aspire to tackling the 15×15 so it’s effectively part of the training to have the occasional example.
  9. Had two goes at this, but still needed electronic aids for the last few. Even then, couldn’t parse 3d and 11ac. Not a good day at all. Invariant
  10. Worth mentioning, perhaps, this puzzle was a pangram—no mean feat in a 13×13!

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