Times Quick Cryptic No 69 by Izetti

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Solving time: Easy end of scale.

The Don is back with another user-friendly quick crossword that is straightforward to solve and shouldn’t cause too much stress. Nothing caused me any difficulty; there are a couple of slightly obscure / cryptic defs, but they were covered by the other parts of the clue being clear.

Across
7 RAGOUT – Something in cookery section, maybe = definition. RAG (paper) + OUT (published).
8 AMOUNT – A sum of money = def. A + MOUNT (horse).
9 THIS – Not this = def. TH(E) [shortened article] + IS.
10 TOGETHER – Double cryptic definition. The aim of boy pursuing girl gives a phrase (2,3,3). This phrase joined into one word means the two as one.
11 BLANDEST – To be most inoffensive = def. LAND (country) inside BEST.
13 ACHE – A pain = def. AC (abbreviation for bill, account) + HE (the man).
15 FREE – Released = def. RE (about) inside FE (iron).
16 SPACE BAR – Key = def. SPACE (room) + (at front of)BAR (PUB)
18 NESTLING SETTLING – Getting comfortable = def. NEST SETT (Beastly home OF A BADGER) + LING (type of heather).
20 TOTS – Double definition with one of them cryptic. A word that means young children and very small glasses of alcohol.
21 BEAT IT – Similar to 10 across. A phrase that means to go away, can be split differently to read an expression that means to be a small bird>
22 ROOFER – Cryptic definition – referring to a person who works on the top of a house.

Down
1 BACHELOR – Cryptic definition. Someone who has not yet matched (i.e. got married).
2 HOUSING ESTATE – Residential area = def. An anagram (various) of GHETTOES IN USA
3 STATUE – Sculpture = def. U (upper class – top people) inside STATE (country).
4 FAGGOT – Bit of food = def. FAG (tiresome work) + GOT (obtained).
5 CONTRAVENTION – Breach = def. T R A (first letters, initially of The Regulators Are) inside CONVENTION (normal practice).
6 KNEE – Joint = def. Hidden inside “pipework needs”.
12 SAP – Three definitions. To drain (the life out of), a liquid (inside a tree orr plant) or a type of trench (see Chambers).
14 HEARTIES – They sound cheerful = def. HEAR (Listen to) + TIES (couples, joins).
16 SAINTS – Types deemed very good = def. INT (international) inside S A S (specialist soldiers).
17 ANGERS – French town = def. (D)ANGERS (a word meaning perils minus the first letter).
19 EDEN – Old garden = def. E (eastern) + DEN (hideaway).

There’s an edit to 18 across – see below!

Thanks to our setter for today’s challenge. I’ll see you next week.

24 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 69 by Izetti”

  1. Not only does SETTLING also work, it’s the solution (damn it); and one must allow that birds aren’t beasts, although some beasts have nests, so macavity and I (and no doubt others) wuz robbed. And ‘sett’ is maybe a bit arcane a term for a quickie? Ironically, I was worried about finishing because of 2d and 8ac; I had to run through the alphabet until the obvious M came along for the horse, and I simply didn’t notice the enumeration for 2d, so I wasted time thinking of a single long word that would fit. (I do wish they’d print the clues bigger.) I liked BEAT IT; have we had a clue of this type here before? 9:20, with the (quasi-) error.

    Edited at 2014-06-12 02:03 am (UTC)

  3. Well, I found this harder than average and imagine quite a few will find it a struggle. Having said that, it’s a very fine Donesque puzzle – I especially like the “little-story” clues at 10 and 21 across. The Three S’s – SPACE BAR, SAP and SAINTS – were my last in, and I managed to get one wrong, bunging in “contraception” (which almost works, and even has “breach” in the clue as a pretty effctive distractor) at 5 down, in my 12-minute solve.
  4. I am afraid that the NESTLING solution never occurred to me (nor I guess to my esteemed editor!). These things happen, and maybe in a serious Times final competition both solutions would have been allowed. However, I would defend SETTLING as the better answer — and I think it would have been rather dull anyway to have used NEST as a component within a clue for NESTLING since the longer word derives from the shorter one — something I would try to avoid.
  6. My second excursion to 20+ minutes territory this week (21 actually) so I agree with Ulaca that this was not a straightforward Quickie. Some of it was a write-in but there were enough clues that weren’t so I found myself skimming through them picking out the easier ones and it was a while before any sort of flow was established. 5dn, 8ac (glad to see I wasn’t alone on this one, Kevin) and, very strangely, 12dn pushed things well into injury time.

    I’m tempted to say I didn’t know the ‘trench’ meaning of SAP but since it must surely be the reason why Royal Engineers are called ‘sappers’ I assume it must be something I knew but it slipped my mind. I only thought of ANGERS as a French city because it came up in a 15×15 within the past month.

    Edited at 2014-06-12 06:02 am (UTC)

    1. You are all going to find that hard to believe but when I solved the puzzle, I wrote in SETTLING. As I am off to hospital for some treatment, I did the blog at ridiculous o’clock and was parsing things I didn’t look at my solution and without thinking came up with NESTLING.

      It does work as there are a couple of animals who have a nest as the name for their home, but it is more precise for it to be SETT.

      Happy to correct it. Silly me!

      Edited at 2014-06-12 06:28 am (UTC)

      1. The Poirot in me was wondering how you could do the puzzle online without clicking the ‘Solution’ button.

        I hope the treatment is efficacious.

        Edited at 2014-06-12 06:33 am (UTC)

    2. I thought I must have run across this in ‘Tristram Shandy’ – as Uncle Toby is obsessed with fortifications – and sure enough a quick search reveals ‘batteries, saps, ditches, and palisadoes (sic)’.
  7. 6 mins, and count me as another who didn’t think this was too easy. I’m glad I didn’t think of “nestling” for 18ac because I would have been seriously torn between the two. CONTRAVENTION was my LOI.
  8. I’ve been looking at this blog for a few weeks now and wanted to say thank you to all the authors.

    Inspired by the Quick (ie easier!) crosswords I decided to try to learn how to solve the puzzles. Thanks to what I have learned from this site I can now finish the Quick Cryptic on my own most days (although struggled this morning) albeit in far less impressive times than those posted by most here – usually 30-45 minutes. I am also having a good crack at the jumbo ones at the weekend.

    Thanks again, I really appreciate the effort you all make in doing this.

    G

  9. I found it tough even with a bit of Z8ery. 31mins 🙁

    Lovely blog Macavity, do hope the treatment went well.

    LOI 5d reminded me rather forcibly of the job I just resigned from.

    COD TOGETHER aaw, bless!

  10. Learning quickly – but can’t uncrypt “Z8ery”. Tried “sitting down” (sedentary) but didn’t improve my solving time.
    1. Z8b8d8k is the partner of MunkPuzl – the assistance provided with cryptic solving is referred to here as Z8ery.
  11. 22mins so equal longest solve for me in the Quickie. I also opted for NESTLING even though I realised that a bird is not necessarily a beast. SPACE BAR and RAGOUT were good.
  12. I found it not at all obvious, but a good puzzle nonetheless. Count me in as another who went for NESTLING….. 30 minutes.
  13. I’m another new addict. Have decided to try my hand at cryptic crosswords and this quick cryptic together with the blog means I’m learning loads. I managed to finish today although wasn’t quite sure why some of my answers were correct. The blog really helps. Thank you
    1. Excellent. Well done! Hope you will stick around and get yourself a Live Journal ID (it’s free), or simply put a name at the end of your contributions.
  14. It was a busy day but I’d agree this puzzle wasn’t entirely straightforward. Got 60% right initially and more words dropped into place when I’d cribbed two answers from the blog. Three things spring to mind.

    1. Thank heavens for this blog.
    2. Lesson learnt: don’t attempt to complete the crossword online using a touchscreen laptop as it seems impossible to stop the touch keyboard popping up unnecessarily and obscuring half the screen.
    3. Lesson learnt: It’s too hard to avoid the temptation of pressing the solution button whilst solving the online puzzle!
    4. Help required: is it usual to have the first three letters of a clue repeated in the solution? eg 21a “Be a little bird” answer BEAT IT. I decided it couldn’t be the right answer.
  15. I agree that SETTLING is better than NESTLING and that was my answer too but the official solution given in Friday’s paper is NESTLING! Grrr!
      1. Gloom n doom! If the Quick Cryptic is meant to encourage ‘newbies’ to participate in solving cryptic puzzles, this isn’t going to help, is it!

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