Times Quick Cryptic No 888 by Howzat

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Amid the novelty of the exciting new website, this is Howzat’s fourth puzzle since first appearing at the start of the year. Very nice it was too! I had a mere two mistakes at the 12 minute mark: “add” for 19ac and “ruck” for 22ac. No real reason, but a small dissservice to two quite nice clues. I noticed lots of other nice clues on closer examination – many thanks to Howzat!

Across
3 Sweet pea still out (8)
PASTILLE – anagram (out) of PEA STILL.
7 Some characters in Gibraltar mad about Spanish ships (6)
ARMADA – Some characters in gibraltAR MAD About. I never knew about the equally doomed English Armada of the following year until watching an episode of QI a while back. The Spanish, in turn, launched two extra, doomed (if greatly depleted) armadas a few years later, after which both sides rather sensibly gave up on the idea.
8 Afternoon refreshment for the elite? (5,3)
CREAM TEA – cryptic definition, with a pun on cream = elite.
9 Fish and a loaf brought back (4)
TUNA – A NUT (loaf/head/etc.) brought back/returned.
10 Fitting a small part (3)
APT – A Pt. (small “part”).
11 Mother upset about father backing image (8)
METAPHOR – Anagram (upset) of MOTHER around AP (Pa/father, backing).
13 Rebecca’s son seen in smoke sauna (4)
ESAU – seen in the letters of smokE SAUna.
15 Distinctive theories one added to text message (4)
ISMS – I (one) added to SMS (text message). (I initially wondered if sim[ulation]s could be distinctive theories, but no.) Its use is chiefly derogatory. While we’re on the subject, a Rastafari will likely be doubly unappreciative if you use the word Rastafarianism. Pastafarians are generally in solidarity with the unappreciativeness.
17 A job worried religious dissident (8)
APOSTATE – A POST (job) ATE (worried).
19 It’s a plus but often comes between partners (3)
AND – double definition: “+” = “plus” ; Jack AND Jill.
22 One gets right in front — to win it? (4)
RACE – ACE (one, in cards, etc.) gets R(ight) at the front, which might lead to one winning a race.
23 Short piece of writing with plot gets a tick? (8)
PARASITE – Para. = paragraph = short piece of writing; SITE (plot).
24 Fan outside set, somehow, for tie (6)
FASTEN – FAN outside STE (set, “somehow”)
25 Make clear list of passengers (8)
MANIFEST – Double definition – verb, noun.

Down
1 Those waking up after trouble initially flares? (8)
TROUSERS – ROUSERS (those waking up) after T (trouble, initially)
2 Spanish city festival recalled up in Massachusetts (6)
MALAGA – GALA (festival), recall/reverse it in MA(ssachusetts)
3 Auditor’s full agreement (4)
PACT – Full = packed, which to an auditor/listener sounds like PACT.
4 Care is on revised plan (8)
SCENARIO – anagram (revised) of CARE IS ON.
5 One behind bars in pub mentioned pal (6)
INMATE – IN (inn/pub spoken/mentioned) MATE (pal)
6 Vegetable vessel overturned (4)
LEEK – KEEL (vessel) overturned/reversed. The keel is the large beam down the middle of the base of a boat. “Keel” for the whole of a boat cropped up last Thursday in the 15x crossword, where Bigtone53 pointed out that this in an example of a synecdoche, where a part of something is used to refer to the whole, as in a “suit” for a “businessman”.
12 Row after boss gets a title (8)
HEADLINE – LINE (row) after HEAD (boss)
14 Diplomatic specialist, democrat, is spoken for (8)
ATTACHED – ATTACHE (diplomatic specialist) D(emocrat). Nice definition – as in a relationship. What I want to know is: if a “suit” is a “businessman”, can “attaché case” be a synecdoche for “attaché“?
16 Mal is a silly sausage! (6)
SALAMI – anagram (silly) of MAL IS A.
18 Refuse to eat hard batter (6)
THRASH – TRASH (refuse/rubbish) to eat H (hard – for pencils, say)
20 Pop to see Oscar’s successor (4)
PAPA – Double definition: pop = father, and the letter after “O” in the phonetic alphabet. So now I know – hopefully in future I won’t have to frantically think of a different word for “Piss”.
21 Allowed to drink fine port (4)
LEFT – LET (allowed) to drink F (fine – also for pencils)

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 888 by Howzat”

  1. I’m afraid I have to report 18 minutes for this one, my worst time since 19 on 2nd June, but to be fair it was only one clue that gave me trouble and took me over my target 10 minutes. The troublesome one was 23ac with its all-vowel checkers. I started an alphabet trawl but it all got too complicated so I gave up and decided to go for lateral thinking and wait for inspiration which was a long time coming! 15 and 19 were also a bit tricky.

    Edited at 2017-08-03 05:19 am (UTC)

  2. Took ages, almost an hour, but with an awful hangover, so net effective time = half hour!

    Stuck on pastille, metaphor, pact (missed auditor as a homophone indicator) and scenario.

    COD 19A, I had add first before seeing AND.

    1. A problem may eat into you as an acid eats into something. Past tense; “the issue ate into him”.
      1. Thanks – I imagined it might mean that – I suppose I was looking for something more convincing from everyday usage 🙂
  4. Due to a fuzzy head, I failed to see 23a and looked it up, then I found I also had a careless AROUSERS at 1d, so a DNF and one wrong in 20:08. Thanks Howzat and Roly.
  5. A DNF for me today because of 25ac. I didn’t know the “list of passengers” definition. After three quite straightforward days, I felt this was undoubtedly a return to more trickier fare. 20dn took me an age, and for a while I had PALO in, thinking (PA) “pop” and (LO) to see, but knew PALO didn’t make sense. Felt 17ac, 12dn and 14dn were also quite tricky. Gribb.
  6. After almost 20 minutes I had only answered a handful of clues and was completely stumped so I took break and when I came back slowly completed the grid. In other words I struggled with this one. In hindsight it was tough but fair.
    Failed to parse 3d as I was thinking of accountants. LOI 11a, COD 1d, completion time, ages!
    Thanks Rolytoly
  8. I obviously didn’t see the same problems that slowed others, and finished this in 13 minutes, so I must have been on the setter’s wavelength. I did spend a bit of time trying to fit a shortened version of PRECIS into 23 before ‘oscar, papa, romeo’ came to me.

    Nice puzzle and good blog Roly.

  9. I don’t think keel is necessarily a synecdoche, as it’s also a flat-bottomed boat. DNF due to papa – I hope they don’t rescind my VHF licence!
    1. Ah thanks for that, good to know – I only gave it a quick look and saw it was a poetic word for any boat, so stopped there!
  10. Now that I have a real subscription I can do these, and hopefully will comment on the blogs from time to time accordingly! I don’t think there’s an awful lot I can think of to say about clues as simple as these though. Before I was verlaine online I was “Armada”, though, so that’ll have to be my Quick COD I think.
    1. Welcome to the QC V (that sounds like a shopping channel?).

      As you are probably 5 to 6 times quicker than me on the 15×15 and I do the QC in between 5 and 6 minutes, I reckon you have 1 minute.

      1. I’m going to blame the difficult-to-master new format for not having scored any 1-minute QC times. But I seem to have gotten a few of them done in under 4 already. A nice extra warm-up for the 15×15 event!
        1. Yes, welcome Verlaine. I look forward to the development of your format-mastery so we can hone in on the maximum physical QC speed limit – I see by jabbing in letters at random I can “complete” the grid in about half a minute, so v = m will be impressive!
  11. Got there in the end, but I felt some of the clues were a bit ‘left field’ for me. Definitely one of the harder ones this week.
  12. Glad to be able to return to the QC, having found a Times sub that works for me. Eleven and a half minutes today, with PARASITE last in. FOI 1a, WOD ISMS, a word that still doesn’t really look like a word to me….
    1. Agreed! I was surprised by how long it’s been around for – the OED has a quote from 1680. It also has a load of nonce derivative words like “ismdom” (the world of isms) and “ismal” (relating to an ism), which I think suggests it looks like a bit of a nonce word itself.

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