Times Quick Cryptic No 988 by Flamande

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A lovely puzzle from Flamande, a bit towards the harder end of things. I was four minutes over my target ten, having stared blankly at 13 across for a good couple of those before impatiently clicking the answer: I came, I stared, I gave up. But I did learn of a new vegetable at 10d, which is always good. I also learnt the etymology of “rapscallion” at 4d, and, perhaps less whelmingly, “to guy” at 6d. Cramble and crape also scropped up at 15d, courtesy of some idle curiosity. All in all, very enjoyable indeed, so very many thanks to Flamande – and a very merry Christmas to one and all.

Across
1 Cigarette’s harmful, principally: my one tip to reform smoker (7,3)
CHIMNEY POT – Principal letters of Cigarette’s Harmful; anagram (to reform) of MY ONE TIP.
8 Small apartment, dull, to rent out (7)
FLATLET – FLAT (dull) LET (rent out)
9 Run after husband when entering church (5)
CHASE – H(usband) AS (when) entering CE (Church of England)
10 Edible plant partly wolfed down (4)
EDDO – “Partly” wolfED DOwn. Never heard of it – a tropical vegetable apparently, closely related to “taro”, the famously eccentric sellers of which inevitably being called “taro cards.” Huh.
11 Without vehicle, touring capital of Egypt is irresponsible (8)
CARELESS – CAR-LESS (without vehicle) touring/going around “capital” of Egypt. Never been, but good advice by all accounts.
13 Son taking school test fully (6)
STRAIN – S(on) taking TRAIN (school). I failed to separate “test” and “fully”. For the surface, “fully” = “drunkenly” (at least, that’s how I’m reading it.)
14 Fellow after mainly fast food (6)
QUICHE – a he = a man = a fellow, after QUICk (fast, mainly/mostly)
17 Hat Norma ruined in race (8)
MARATHON – Ruin the letters of HAT NORMA.
19 Leader abandons group of soldiers in parade ground (4)
QUAD – the leading letter abandons sQUAD (group of soldiers)
21 Cut top off rose, for instance (5)
LOWER – take the top off fLOWER (rose, for instance)
22 Western pop artist’s cover? (7)
WRAPPER – W(estern) RAPPER (pop artist)
23 Puddings I’d sent back, upset (10)
DISTRESSED – DESSERTS ID (puddings I’d) sent backwards.

Down
2 More difficult saving nothing — for this person? (7)
HOARDER – This person can be clued as HARDER (more difficult) saving/holding/keeping safe O (nothing)
3 Exploit dairy produce (4)
MILK – a double definition of the definitely better-than-average variety, if you’re occasionally vaguely sympathetic to veganism.
4 Catch some violent rapscallions (6)
ENTRAP – “some” of the letters of violENT RAPscallions. Great word, rapscallion – derives from rascal, which itself derives from the Middle French verb “rasquer”, to scrape [for which see 15d]. The OED has a nice citation that alludes to this, from 1893, from something called Grisly Grisell, by someone called C. M. Yonge: “Methought I had best shift myself ere more rascaille came to strip the slain.”
5 Stopped working and prepared to leave? (6,2)
PACKED UP – another double definition of the better-than-average variety.
6 Drinks served to English guy (5)
TEASE – TEAS (drinks) served to E(nglish) – to guy = to ridicule, from Guy Fawkes – makes sense, never really thought about it, in part because I’ve never said it.
7 TV presenter answered differently, with some hesitation (10)
NEWSREADER – ANSWERED, arranged differently, with “er…” (hesitation)
8 Gift distributed by female reps (4,6)
FREE SAMPLE – anagram (distributed) of FEMALE REPS, with the surface reading nicely enhancing the definition of “gift.”
12 Waders nipped small sea birds (8)
BITTERNS – BIT (nipped) TERNS (small sea birds)
15 Cruel MP’s unexpected collapse (7)
CRUMPLE – anagram (is unexpected) of CRUEL MP. If I’d done this puzzle on paper, I’d have scrawled in “scrumpl…” before realising something was amiss. So I see sticking an “S” in front of things like “crunch” is (very) basically emphatic. “Cramble”, anyone? “Crape”? They’re the original. They’ve rather gone the (opposite) way of the “napron”, haven’t they?
16 Conflict in the main upset inexperienced medic (3,3)
COD WAR – upsettify/arse-over-tittify RAW (inexperienced) DOC (medic). Main = sea.
18 Went on journey, you say? Took boat (5)
ROWED – sounds the same as RODE (went on journey)
20 What’s needed for exam success? I can’t answer that (4)
PASS – third double definition of the better-than-average variety.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 988 by Flamande”

  1. Gone are the days, at least for the moment, when missing my 10 minute target was the exception, but with today’s puzzle taking me to 14 minutes that’s now 6 of the last 7 QCs that have beaten me in that sense.

    Apart from the unknown EDDO, which actually didn’t take me long as I spotted it was probably hidden and trusted to my instincts, I had problems with the definitions in two other clues that accounted for all of my lost time. And I’m still not totally convinced by them. ‘Test fully’ = STRAIN does it? I can’t find a dictionary definition that covers it, but perhaps somebody else can.

    Also QUAD came up in a puzzle I blogged within the last couple of weeks and I researched it extensively at the time. It’s a space in the shape of a quadrangle (obviously) surrounded for the most part by buildings and is particularly associated with the world of academia. Quads are common in university colleges, and schools where they are often used as a playground. I don’t know of any specific military connection unless perhaps the setter had in mind schools with Cadet Corps who might use their school quad for parades and drill. Again perhaps I’m thinking too narrowly and somebody with better knowledge of things military will put me right.

    My Bunter pic is in honour of Greyfriars School which famously had a quad.

    Edited at 2017-12-21 06:45 am (UTC)

  2. Trudged through this one, looking for something I could solve, and was ready to throw in the towel as I saw the clock ticking. But I managed to get them, one by one–well, it’s hard to do it any other way–even EDDO yielding at last. But 1ac did for me. I got the CH, and I had the other checkers; what I didn’t have was a clue. So I flung in the only thing I could think of to fill in the gaps, sc. CHAMBER POT. 10:07.
  3. Quite a battle today. Made it in the end. 16d was last one in but also held up by 22a and 23a and by two unexpectedly early risers demanding breakfast and generally being very, very excited by Christmas.
  5. I gave up at 28 mins with quad still missing – obvious when you know the answer. I needed the blog to explain three clues today which is unusual as I can usually get there in the end, so as always thanks for the blog.
    1. Don’t know if anyone’s mentioned the helpful crosswording tactic of ‘see a “u”, try a “q”‘, but it’s certainly helped me a few times when I’ve been desperate.
  6. At the trickier end of the spectrum for me. I spent some time trying to make a pudding out of an anagram of I’d sent back’ and couldn’t get a very dodgy spelling of Matterhorn out of my head at 17a. there were a couple of other hold ups along the way including LOI 13a. Some excellent clues but my favourite goes to 16d. Completed in 24 minutes.
    Excellent blog as usual rolytoly
  7. Strangely enough, given the comments above, I found this fairly straightforward. Never heard of EDDO, but it was obvious once the checkers were in. Have never thought of QUAD as a parade ground in a military context, but the clue does not require it. Presumably the population of a school could parade (ie form up) in the quad? A STRAIN test is a well known testing method whereby an object is “strained” to its theoretical limits, thereby testing it fully.
    Anyway, I enjoyed it which is the object of the exercise.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. All the usual sources define ‘parade ground’ with reference to ‘soldiers’ or ‘troops’, but Chambers perhaps gets nearest to ‘quad’: the square or yard where soldiers assemble for inspection, marching practice, etc. I’ve still never heard ‘quad’ used in that context though.

      Thanks for your explanation of STRAIN test.

        1. Thanks for this and I got the military reference in ‘squad’, but my point was, as explained in my additional comment timed at 12:50pm, that ‘parade ground’ i.e. the definition in the clue, is defined in all the usual sources with reference to ‘soldiers’ or ‘troops’ so it’s legitimate in my view to expect the answer to be a word with military parade connotations, which in my experience ‘quad’ is not. I’m not claiming the clue is unfair or invalid only that the definition requires a bit of a leap of faith and that was why I took so long to think of the answer and then be satisfied with it as the correct one.

          Edited at 2017-12-22 12:24 am (UTC)

  8. Didn’t need a hard one today as its my last day at work before flying back to UK for the hols, so rushed a bit. Also managed to submit with ‘packee up’ for 5d, not sure how that happens because I definitely wrote packed up!

    About an hour, but many interruptions so more likely 30-40 mins.

    Held up by LOI strain, also free sample, distressed, and a few more.

  9. Was out yesterday so I only got around to Mara’s puzzle this morning. I thought it was excellent , a humdinger.
    Today’s I found a bit easier, perhaps because I had warmed up.
    No particular hold-ups despite the possibly unknown Eddo until I reviewed my initial answer to 13a. As soon as I saw “test fully” I thought of a stress test and so put in Stress, leaving the parsing till later. Later, once I had Bitterns, I found Strain which parsed and seemed fine to me.
    All done in 14 minutes. COD to 16d -which includes COD!. David
  10. I thought I had made heavy going of this, but given some of the comments above, 40mins doesn’t seem too bad. Took some time over 13ac, and just like Plett I went pudding hunting for 23ac when in fact it was a simple write it backwards clue. Having made a determined effort with the 15x15s of late (still plenty of room for improvement! ) I now seem to be over-reading the QC clues – sometimes you just can’t win. Nice blog, Roly, and a Merry Christmas to you as well. Invariant
  11. I found this one on the tougher side, taking 14:29, and also managed a typo at 8d, with FREE SAMPLS. I guess I pluralised it while typing without watching carefully. Lots of careful clue analysis required for this one. Thanks Flamande and Roly.
  12. In true Christmas spirit I won’t be rude about Flamande but there were too many very hard clues for this to be a QC. Quite spoilt my day when I couldn’t finish it. I usually do finish in in an enjoyable 30-40 minutes. No fun today. Pexiter.
  13. alas, I tried! it felt tough all day long.
    12, 13, 14, 18 & 21 outstanding.
    COD 14 – despite my failure, that’s a gem.
    LOI 16 – perhaps apt how I felt after this!
    much fun and really challenged this learner. I hadn’t heard of flatlet and quad threw me a little too.
  14. Glad to find that I’m falling in with the 13a-last-one-in crowd. It also took me a surprising amount of time to get the LOWER/ROWED crossers. Odd, given that I live in a city where you see just as much rowing as sailing, but I couldn’t get “sailed” out of my head…

    Ah well. Got there in the end. 13:16.

  15. 1 short for a 20 min time. Spent ages looking at _A_S, handed the iPad to my daughter who got it in 10 secs.

    Tough week generally, but at least now the days are getting longer.

  16. I needed help to finish this… I read 13 across as test fully = strain. I didn’t quite get the meaning given above. Thanks for the help.

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