Times Quick Cryptic No 808 by Teazel

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I really enjoyed this – there lots of lovely clues on show today. I particularly liked the intriguing cryptic definition at 1d and the light bit of black humour at 1ac – got a chuckle from me at any rate. The SW corner I found a bit trickier than the rest, holding me up by a couple of minutes and pushing my time up to the 11 minute mark. It all added up to be a very satisfying puzzle of middling difficulty that as a bonus provided me with the somewhat novel experience of having a completed crossword to blog – many thanks to Teazel.

Across
1 To doctor, evidence of his failure? (4)
TOMB: TO (to) MB (doctor – Bachelor of Medicine). Love it!
3 After turning up, one jostling is an easy target (8)
PUSHOVER: After PU (“up” turning), SHOVER (one jostling)
9 Retire? That might be good bet (2,2,3)
GO TO BED: Anagram (that might be) of GOOD BET.
10 Lover put small jumper round me (5)
ROMEO: ROO (small jumper) round ME.
11 All the flowers are for her (5)
FLORA: cryptic definition, what with Flora being the goddess of flowers.
12 Worked with detectives to get rank (6)
RANCID: RAN (worked) with CID (detectives)
14 In most dangerous position, in ship’s bow? (2,3,5,3)
AT THE SHARP END: cryptic definition, with the bow being the sharp end of a ship.
17 Escort struggling to show restraint (6)
CORSET: Anagram (struggling) of ESCORT.
19 Artist expected resistance capturing king (5)
DURER: DUE (expected) R (resistance) capturing R (king)
22 No time for headdress in town (5)
URBAN: tURBAN (Turban without the t)
23 God, support us when we speak (7)
BACCHUS: or BACK US when we speak it.
24 Having power, makes contact in lectures (8)
PREACHES: REACHES (makes contact) has P(ower).
25 Conform to orders, being extra yielding at first (4)
OBEY: first letters of “orders being extra yielding”.

Down
1 Event in which the first over the line are the losers (3-2-3)
TUG-OF-WAR: Our third cryptic definition, and a lovely one at that.
2 Saw a little marmot today (5)
MOTTO: hidden in letters of marMOT TOday (saw = proverb/saying)
4 Illegal to be totally drunk (5,3,5)
UNDER THE TABLE: double definition, and a nice one.
5 Bird swimming in Rhone (5)
HERON: Anagram (swimming) of RHONE.
6 Dracula maybe in rage chasing seductive woman (7)
VAMPIRE: IRE (rage) chasing VAMP (seductive woman).
7 Black bird in castle (4)
ROOK: double definition, for non-chess-pedants.
8 A jacket almost on fire (6)
ABLAZE: A BLAZEr (a jacket “almost”).
13 Perhaps one may risk speaking (1,4,3)
I DARE SAY: double definition-ish, the first idiomatic, the second fairly literal: “if … , I find your noise policy in this library to be quite arbitrary,” should you want a bad example.
15 Difficulty replacing our belt (7)
TROUBLE: anagram (replacing) of OUR BELT.
16 Edit socialist law (6)
REDACT: RED (socialist) ACT (law)
18 Sort of boom very pleasant, having no end (5)
SONIC: SO NICe (very pleasant, having no end)
20 Where to be rescued from severe habit? (5)
REHAB: “from” the letters of seveRE HABit.
21 Youngster saves pounds for such fiction? (4)
PULP: PUP (youngster) saves L (libra = pound, giving the stylised L for pound sign).

24 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 808 by Teazel”

  1. 42 minutes, slowed by 24a preaches, 13d I dare say, and 12a rancid.

    The word play ran = worked held me up, I presume he ran the machine, he worked the machine?

    Dnk Durer, so was pleased to have the checking letter, as I was tempted by Duker.

    COD 2d.

    1. Durer is actually Dürer, so one could say it should be spelled ‘Duerer’; he’s shown up a couple of times in the 15x15s, and I think someone may have said it (not me! [I hope]).
      1. An interesting point. It’s standard practice in Times crosswords to ignore accents, so by that convention DURER is fine, but has an answer ever included the additional E that can be used to stand for the umlaut in German words? If so, I don’t recall it.

        Edited at 2017-04-13 07:06 am (UTC)

  2. Fairly smooth going, except for 14ac, which took me a good deal of time, even when I’d reached AT THE H R END. I’d never come across the phrase. 6:25.
  3. A very nice puzzle completed in 8 minutes with a slight hold up due to biffing AT THE FRONT END at 14ac.
  4. 25 mins! Easily my best time ever!-think I’m getting the hang of these at last! (3 in a row btw)
    Dnk 19a but with checkers,couldn’t be much else.
    COD 23a
    Cheers Teazel and blogger.
  5. How do I get rid of the annoying BT offer that continually blocks my view of the blog ?
    2. I use Ghostery which is extremely good.
      One word of warning though when using these blockers: you sometimes have to turn it off to make certain websites work properly.
    3. What are you viewing this on (iPad, desktop, etc)? I don’t have an adblocker installed but I’ve never seen the blog obscured by adverts.
  6. An entertaining puzzle which took me 20:39 so bang on average for me. I would have been much quicker if I could have seen Under the Table earlier. I even had Under the —– for a while and still didn’t twig!
  7. I enjoyed today’s offering. 16 minutes is good for me.
    I think the blogger has missed the ‘R’ from resistance in parsing 19a. Thanks for explaining my biffed answer to 18d: this is the sort of clue I find most difficult.
    I found the top half to be a 3a, but the bottom half caused me 15d!
  8. 9:01 today, with most answers going in without too much mental strain. 4d and 13d gave me pause however. Didn’t know the artist but the wordplay was clear. FOI was MOTTO and LOI PREACHES. Thanks Teazel and Roly.
  9. I thoroughly enjoyed this one with lots of witty clues to entertain me e.g 1a, 13d an 14a but my COD goes to 23a. Only real hold up was the unknown artist in 19a (LOI), where I overlooked ‘expected’ and initially focused on trying to find a 4 letter word for resistance to surround king.
    Completed in 15 minutes
  10. …that I’ve completed the QC (about 15 minutes) after struggling with the main puzzle today. Good to see a Zed in the QC too. Thanks to Teazel for a splendid puzzle. Thanks blogger and Happy Easter to all of you.
  11. Lotos of double definitions and cryptic clues today which I found very enjoyable. Technically DNF as I got 19ac wrong – I hadn’t heard of Durer and the parsing didn’t twig.

    FOI was 7d ROOK – although NW corner was completed first. Rushed into 8d and put BLAZER until I realised it didn’t fit with 14ac.

    23ac BACCHUS I’m sure was another answer from an earlier crossword, so that also helped.

    COD for me was 1dn.

    Thanks to Teazel and the blog.

    DR31

  12. Relieved to find this easy after taking a kicking from the big puzzle (eek more Zs). Generous definitions and enumeration meant many went in with just a nod to the cryptic and I finished with a near-but-not-quite PB 4.36.

    Edited at 2017-04-13 01:22 pm (UTC)

  13. A late post but nice to complete in one sitting again today. Started without any great success and began to conclude my extra good lunch with friends was perhaps too good….but once started with 25a (!) it came in fits and starts to completion in well under an hour – so another good time (for me) over a single Costa. I took some time to settle on my LOI 24a as ‘lectures’ didn’t seem to me to be a good fit. Lots of lovely clues by COD is either 25a or 12a.
  14. 14 minutes today for a very enjoyable puzzle.
    LOI was Rehab, FOI was 14a. Needed to look around the grid to get started but once I had it was smooth. COD 21d. David
  15. I put Tome not Tomb as evidence could be a book rather than a burial site? why should evidence of failure be a tomb??

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