Times Quick Cryptic No 979 by Tracy

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hooray! It’s my turn to blog again… and my first crossword from Tracy to disect. What a cracker it is! I romped through most of this with a chuckle here and there, but ended up having to do some serious pondering to finish things off. It’s the third in a sequence of tricky QC puzzles this week. So, if you are one of the less experienced solvers still trying to learn the ropes and didn’t manage to finish this, don’t be discouraged. I struggled too, ending up taking nearly twice my average time. Not that there is anything particularly difficult, *redacted* [oops, nearly gave 22d away]. 19a and 20d were my last two in. My favourites, though, were 4d, 15d and 16a – a tricky but great example of constructing the answer from a number of bits. I hope you all enjoyed this too. Thanks, Tracy! [Edit: Well I’m perversely pleased that most people found it not too hard and didn’t get as bogged down as I did. Maybe if I’d done it in the morning when I was fresher it would have been a different story. Thanks to all for the illuminating and entertaining comments.]

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Full ticket price shown in street (12)
THOROUGHFARE – I had to wait until I got all the checkers before I eventually saw this as I hadn’t spotted that “street” was the definition and thought the answer must start with an S and end in a T. Neat trap. Did anyone else fall into it? The answer is, of course, THOROUGH (Full) + FARE (ticket price).
8 Awkward writer reflected in it (5)
INEPT – You get to this by taking your PEN and putting it back [reflected] in IT. Not as awkward as some of the other clues!
9 New threat involving English playhouse (7)
THEATRE – Anagram [new] of THREAT + E (English).
10 Reversal of decline in fossil fuel (3)
GAS – The decline here is SAG and you apply the [reversal] instruction to get the fuel we’ve been taking from the North Sea for so long that there can’t be much left. It’s time someone invented the solar-powered cooker. Oh. Wait a minute. What about feeding my family in the evening at this time of year? Cold meats and salad it is then.
11 Country importing a Greek scent (9)
FRAGRANCE – Bonjour tout le monde… Our favourite next-door-neighbour country (perhaps) is FRANCE and we stick A GR ( a Greek) in it [importing] to get a bit of a whiff. Smell is a sense not to be underestimated.. How do you rouse a sleeping deaf person alone in a hotel room in the case of a fire? With wasabi in the air-conditioning, that’s how! I’m not kidding. It was an Ig Noble award winner in 2011.
13 Fury as old car fails to start (5)
ANGER – If your {b}ANGER (old car) [fails to start], you might not be very happy. Being furious, though, is a bit of an over-reaction. An old banger needs LTC to keep it going. (A bit like me).
14 Hot in pleasant corner (5)
NICHE – A neat and concise clue – perfect for a QC, I think. Here we learn how to do an insertion… H (hot) is inserted into [in] NICE (pleasant) to get the shallow recess in the wall where you might display your Dresden china shepherdess, if you had one.
16 All right to be carried by the man on lorry leaving plant (9)
ARTICHOKE – And now we get to do a bit of a tricky building job. Hard hats on. This is OK (All right) inside [to be carried by] HE (the man) after [on] ARTIC (lorry) leaving you with a (to my mind) strange vegetable that comes in three, quite different, varieties : globe, jerusalem and chinese. Which, if any, do you like? None of them ever appear on my shopping list, I’m afraid.
17 Take steps in a court (3)
ACT – Devilishly simple. A + CT (court). Just do it.
19 The height of women’s fashion? (7)
HEMLINE – I’m not sure why this took me so long. My second last one in. For ages I thought it must be HER + something meaning fashion. But no. Woof! Woof! Barking up the wrong tree again. It’s a straight cryptic definition. And a famous predictor of stock market prices to boot (Is that boot to ankle, knee, thigh?).
21 Ingrained dirt, dreadful by end of aisle (5)
GRIME – Not as I initially read it, an anagram of DIRT + E, but, more straightforwardly, GRIM (dreadful) + [end of] {aisl}E. That was me trying to be too clever by 3/4 as my Dad would say.
22 Interceptors faulty, on reflection (2,10)
IN RETROSPECT – (Interceptors)*. Not too hard an anagram, thinking about it afterwards. *cough*.
Down
1 Object? Fine and good (5)
THING – Object the noun, not the verb… THIN (Fine) + [and] G (good).
2 Innocent mistake concerning vision (9)
OVERSIGHT – Another neat construction. OVER (concerning) + SIGHT (vision).
3 A bit rusty, like a retired GP? (3,2,8)
OUT OF PRACTICE – Double definition, second cryptic. How rusty is your spelling? PRACTISE or PRACTICE? It’s the noun form, so the latter, but I nearly got it wrong.
4 Cake and a drink in heart of Burgundy (6)
GATEAU – That sounds nice, but I think I’d prefer the wine to the cake… A drink, here, is A TEA inside [in] {bur}GU{ndy [heart of].
5 Batteries not included in preparing this food (4-5,4)
FREE-RANGE EGGS – I had a good chuckle at this cryptic definition. If your egg-laying hen is not in a battery, it would be FREE-RANGE.
6 Nonsense, coming from brother-in-law (3)
ROT – Watch out for the hidden words, They can be difficult to spot sometimes. But this is not hard to find… [coming from] {b}ROT{her}. The superflous “-in-law” is just to deceive. Some pursists might object, but I think it is fine.
7 Strict member of the clergy turned up in diocese (6)
SEVERE – The member of the clergy is REV and we put him or her back in [turned up in] SEE (diocese).
12 Working in a centre for fruit (9)
NECTARINE – [Working] (in a centre)*. Now that’s not hard is it? Actually I prefer this fruit hard rather than soft as the juices make such a mess.
13 Native American quickly casing hotel (6)
APACHE – APACE (quickly) outside [casing] H (hotel) giving the tribe that gave its name to a Web Server. Did they know and approve what their name was being put to, I wonder? Mind you, I never got a say in how the Americans use my forename.
15 Certainly not name of listener (2,4)
NO FEAR – Another neat and concise word-builder… N (name) + OF + EAR (listener).
18 Taking offence (5)
THEFT – Just two words so it (almost) has to be a double definition or a cryptic one, (I think. Go on – prove me wrong) This is the latter.
20 Husband a bishop, perhaps (3)
MAN – Oddly, my last one in. Double definition. A husband is [On edit: (usually)] a man, as is the diagonally constrained chess piece.

33 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 979 by Tracy”

  1. After yesterday’s 42 minute ordeal I came some way to redeeming myself on this one, completing it in 9 minutes (fully parsed) one minute within my target 10.

    I lost a moment along the way making double sure of the penultimate letter in 3dn and looking twice at 20dn – could the answer really be that simple? (Yes, it could). Thanks to our new(ish) Friday blogger for a very entertaining read.

    Edited at 2017-12-08 06:24 am (UTC)

  2. I did this on a different computer so can’t review it on the club site, but I think I was tempted by ‘street’ at 1ac, too. MAN was long in coming–needed the M–and working out the anagram at 22ac. HEMLINE came only once I got rid of the idea that it would be HEAD something. I got FREE-RANGE well before I figured out free-range what; was bemused by the thought of all those eggs out and about. 6:45.

    Edited at 2017-12-08 08:58 pm (UTC)

    1. I loved the thought of the freely-roaming eggs. Wonderful what an external perspective can bring to local colloquialisms. Thanks, Kevin.
  3. A slow start but got going and completed except for 20 down – man – missed the chess connection. Loved 5 down – free-range eggs! As always, thanks for the blog.
  4. 22 minutes so just slightly over average for me. I was slightly held up by not filling in Rot straight away as the ‘in law’ made me think I was missing something. Some great clues today.
  5. I think yesterday’s torture must have trained me up as well as this was possibly my quickest at under 10. At risk of venturing in to the facetious I’m not sure that we can assume a husband is necessarily a man 🙂
    1. Well I think you are right. But I think you are demanding too much from the setter. If the clue had the definition “dog” and the answer (following the wordplay) was, say “collie”, would you object to the clue on the basis that not all dogs are collies?
      1. Yes I didn’t mean to complain, at least not about the clue! Life and vocabulary moves on 🙂
  6. One of my quickest ever. Not a lot to add really. Enjoyed FREE RANGE EGGS. Gave me visions of a Duracell battery advert. Puzzled by the unnecessary addition of “in-law” in 6 ac, but why not? As to 20d, I was thrown recently by a woman talking about her wife, thus making her the husband I assume. My simple youth of the 1950s really has been shattered.
    PlayUpPompey.
    1. I have no intention of putting my head above the parapet to answer that one! Suffice to say we live in gender-fluid Times.
      Normal service resumed after yesterday’s battering.
      MER at apparently superfluous ‘in-law’ but the hyphens probably allow the setter to get away with it. ‘Full ticket’ had me thinking along the lines of mental capacity, much like the full shilling – nice deception.
      Thanks to John and Tracey.
      5’45”
    2. If that’s supposed to be a joke (“… thus making her the husband”) then it’s not very funny. Grow up and stop being a dinosaur, Anonymous.
      1. I don’t think it was meant to be a joke, merely an observation on changing perceptions and conventions.

        Constructive criticism of other posts is fine and welcomed, but not if it spills over into personal abuse, particularly when hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. Bordering on trolling, please don’t.

        1. If it wasn’t merely a bad joke, that makes it worse. An “observation on changing perceptions and conventions” is fine, but not when it involves making a snide and, frankly, bigoted poke at people in same-sex marriages. Drawing attention to an offensive comment of that sort is certainly not “bordering on trolling”.
          1. Guys, Please don’t. I have to say I wasn’t quite convinced by husband = man, but if we take every clue absolutely literally we would never solve the crossword. Whilst I appreciate the sentiments and sensitivities, this is not the place for discussions about political correctness. I’m sure our commenter had no intention to offend but was merely making an observation.
  7. Definitely seems (to me at least) to have been a tougher week on the Quickies, with quite a few clues having more than a little nod towards the main event.
    Took a while to get started on this one but then pennies started to drop at regular intervals right up until the grammar test at 3d, which nudged me just over the 5 minute mark.

  8. Count me as one – the “in-law” didn’t seem to add anything to the surface, and not required in wordplay so why bother with it?
    1. Lol.But sometimes a little “obfuscatory obscurantism, my little chickadee” adds to the fun. And if you know what that’s a quote from I’ll be well impressed!
  9. Cherokee yesterday and Apache today. Looks like we’re in for some tricky clues next week (Iroquois anyone?). The long clues made this very accessible and I was pleased to complete in under 10 minutes, although I find trying to complete quickly often reduces the pleasure in such wonderfully constructed puzzles. Loved the blog – thank you for putting so much effort into it. Thanks setter too
  10. I tackled this one just before going to bed so I was fairly tired, but it was only in the SW I had to think really hard to come up with MAN and my LOI HEMLINE. IN RETROSPECT also took a bit of cogitation. Enjoyable puzzle. Liked the roaming pre-chickens. Thanks Tracy and John.
  11. The “diagonally constrained” bit is a little hard to swallow. Surely the link is the Bishop of Man (actually, Sodor and Man).

    Hemline and Man were also MY penultimate and ultimate clue solved.

    Regards

  12. After only a couple of days ago saying (accidentally anonymously) that I had failed to finish for a while, I get my best time ever today. First time under 15 minutes with a time of 14.51. Very pleased with that.
  13. Another great puzzle, it’s been a really enjoyable week. Thanks, Tracy. I though FREE RANGE EGGS was brilliant, my COD.

    I too needed all the checkers to get THOROUGHFARE and MAN was my LOI (had forgotten the chess type of man, thanks John for the reminder).

    Templar

  14. Was at Twickenham yesterday and did not get round to Thursday’s QC till late. It was very difficult; as if Dean Mayer had strayed into QC land. I had to finish it this morning with Ashlar the LOI. A very good challenge and lots to learn from it.
    Today’s took me 20 minutes. LOI was Man, a slightly unsatisfactory clue I thought. Otherwise another good challenging QC. Artichoke tricky; I’ve never thought of it as a plant. COD to 1a.
    Great blog. David
  15. I was held up at the end by my last 2 in 19a and 20d, which pushed me up to the 20 minute mark. A very entertaining puzzle with my COD going to 19a, just beating 4 & 5d.
    Excellent blog
    1. I like it! Nice thought. Alas it doesn’t work as you need to get the “GAT” from somewhere.
  18. DNF. Like others, man and hemline held me up. Eventually hesitatingly put in the former, but I just couldn’t see the latter. Tough one, generally, I thought.

    Mighty

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