Wish you were here: Times Quick Cryptic 694 by Felix Friday 4th November 2016

Author   robrolfePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A swift solve for a Friday, about six minutes, accompanied by Us and Them and Hound Dog simultaneously running through my brain, joined by Another Brick in the Wall and See You Later Alligator; and of course I started reciting “If you can keep your head when all about you…”. A fine offering from Felix, with COD (clue of the day) to 18ac and 19d

ACROSS

7. Cut bits from dried fruit (5)

PRUNE – a double definition, as one prunes shrubs etc. in the garden, and a prune is a dried plum, much championed during WW2 by the public health authorities.

8. Has boil, festering, to get rid of (7)

ABOLISH – an anagram (festering) of HAS BOIL

10. Insult coming from a van overheard (7)

AFFRONT – an AFFRONT is an insult, and sounds like (overheard) A FRONT – the van is the front of a battle formation

11. Retreating molten rock close to stern of ships (5)

NAVAL – definition is ‘of ships’, backwards (retreating) LAVA (molten rock) + N (close to (last letter of) stern).

12. Piano disposed of kindly for rock band (4,5)

PINK FLOYD – the fabulous band, or so you think you can tell, from P (for piano, the musical direction) + an anagram (disposed) of OF KINDLY. Still not gone to the great gig in the sky, or even the dark side of the moon – who could ever forget the 1973 album and cover?

14. Pickle: or something sweeter (3)

JAM – a ‘pickle’ in the sense of a scrape or tricky situation = JAM, also a sweeter thing found in a jar.

15.One’s going to … — well, no! (3)

ILL – definition is ‘well, no’, and ‘One’s going to..’ is I’LL, short for I WILL or I SHALL. Took some thinking about, this one.

16. Reptile unsettled a girl a lot (9)

ALLIGATOR – an anagram (unsettled) of A GIRL A LOT gives the toothy creature. I used the phrase “see you later. Alligator” long before I knew what one was.

18.Keep a tugboat, for example (5)

TOWER – a double definition – a ‘keep’ is the central fortified TOWER in a castle, and ‘a tugboat, for example’ tows ships and is thus a TOWER.

20. Sport permitted little drama (7)

PLAYLET – a short play or little drama, made up of SPORT (play) + LET (permitted).

22. In retro Aldershot cafe, decor is effective (2,5)

DE FACTO – Not effective in the sense of efficient, but actually in place, and backwards (In retro) inside Aldersh{OT CAFE D}ecor.

23. Chocolate producer approximately doubled output initially (5)

CACAO – the cocoa plant CA (circa, approximately, doubled) + O (output initially).

DOWN

1. New app isn’t ready to be given fresh colour scheme? (5-7)

SPRAY-PAINTED – an anagram (new) of ‘app isn’t ready’. If you suspect an anagram, count the letters. Getting an answer like this early on, with lots of first letters for other answers, will really impact on your solving.

2. Big match is fun: I clap wildly (3,5)

CUP FINAL – another anagram (wildly) this time of ‘fun I clap’ to give CUP FINAL. They don’t seem as important as when I was young.

3. A duck of note turning up in Australia (4)

ZERO – A ‘duck’ is a cricket term, when a batsman scores no runs in an innings, short for ‘duck’s egg’ (think of the shape), and a similar etymology to ‘love’ in tennis, derived from l’oeuf (French for egg). Answer is obtained by turning up {RE (the second note of the scale) in OZ (short for Australia)}. Non-cricketers should acquaint themselves with the many terms which appear in Times crosswords, e.g. {ON OFF LEG COVER FOUR SIX BREAK TON POINT SILLY SHORT PAIR RABBIT BOUNCER and of course GOLDEN DUCK} – this is a very partial selection.

4.Military display rubbish also (6)

TATTOO – a TATTOO is a military display (for civilians to watch) of precision, marching, music, doing things with field guns etc.- TAT = rubbish, TOO = also.

5.Relentlessly pursue setter maybe for fifties record (5,3)

HOUND DOG – HOUND (Relentlessly pursue) + DOG (setter, maybe, a setter being a type of canine) – the very famous Lieber and Stoller song, recorded many times, firstly by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952, selling half a million copies. The standout recording is by Elvis Presley from 1956, which has sold about ten million copies.

6.City of Helsinki evacuated (4)

KIEV – the capital city of Ukraine, contained in Helsin{KI EV}acuated. Of course, this could also clue the little known cities of Heli or Heki.

9. Little Henry travelling to Farnham for running event (4-8)

HALF-MARATHON – HAL (little Henry, as in the Fifth) + an anagram (travelling) of TO FARNHAM. A running race over thirteen and a bit miles, or 21.1 kilometres. I have run a fair few in my time, PB 1:30:31.

13. Uninteresting people in Derby, for example (4,4)

FLAT RACE – FLAT (uninteresting) + RACE (people) = Derby, an annual horse race held at Epsom with variations in the US and Australia, among others. Horseracing is either flat (no obstacles) or steeplechasing (fences) at racecourses. Other events are available. I’ve been to Derby too, it has a big post office.

14. Make return flight around nightfall, finally: very dark (3-5)

JET-BLACK – definition is ‘very dark’ – JET BACK (make return flight) around L (nightfall at last, the last letter).

17. Computer needing circuit: the best (6)

LAPTOP – ‘Computer’ is the definition. LAP = circuit + TOP = the best.

19. Other half of famous poem we devoured (4)

WIFE – ‘Other half’ is slang for one’s wife, husband or in some cases partner, the famous poem is IF by Rudyard Kipling, inside (devoured) WE.

21.Vault artist raised over church (4)

ARCH – the architectural feature known as a vault, vaulted ceilings are seen in church towers and elsewhere. Parsing is AR (artist, RA, raised) over CH (church). A wonderful surface to finish the puzzle.

Incidentally, I was in Spain when my last blog appeared, so today’s title may have been appropriate then.

Please comment on this blog, and help others.

25 comments on “Wish you were here: Times Quick Cryptic 694 by Felix Friday 4th November 2016”

  1. All a bit retro – with 12ac PINK FLOYD

    Back then I did one of their posters a 48-sheet special that went up on Hammersmith Flyover and other prime sites announcing ‘OINK,OINK, WOOF, WOOF, BAAAA’

    and 6dn HOUND DOG from The King.

    I was over the line in 8.33 COD 23ac CACAO it was sotempting to put COCOA but that woukld have meant a badly disrupted HALF-MARATHON.

  2. 11 minutes, delayed over my target by 12ac as I know little of pop music post c1964. Q & X needed for a pangram.
    1. Mmmm… Pink Floyd arrived on the music scene in 1965 but were hardly ‘Pop music’ they were indeed clssified as a Rock Band – a fine distinction: more ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ than ‘Top of the Pops’.
      1. I understand their first records (LP and singles) were released in 1967. I don’t normally have the need to make fine distinctions in terminology on this subject as it’s all pop music to me and once I reached a certain age I didn’t listen to any of it by choice.

        Edited at 2016-11-04 08:19 am (UTC)

  3. 16:20, so my third good time in a row. COD CACAO because of the temptation for the similarly doubled (and more common) COCOA which also fits the definition. I had it until I completed my Half Marathon. I didn’t like the clue for ILL, which was the only one I didn’t parse. Four clues had a checker of a final ‘O’ today, which helped.
  4. Another easier one but nearly went belly up over COCAO until I parsed it properly.
    Still time to catch up on iplayer Pink Floyd Beginnings, has a live version of Atom Heart Mother and finishes with one of my favourites from Obscured by Clouds.
  5. Troubled by 3 down. I had always thought the second note on the scale was RAY not RE. But there you go. Doh, as Homer S might say.

      1. It actually comes from a Latin hymn for St. John’s day – 24th June or Midsummer’s Day – by Guido d’Arezzo. In the traditional plainsong tune, Each line begins on a note one higher than the line before. The first syllable of each line then gives its name to the note. Ut, re, mi, fa, so, la – hence re is the ‘correct, spelling. Strange but true!
    2. I parsed it as note = re in a grammatical not musical sense. If I’m right, as a complete novice, I’d be delighted to get one over a blogger!!
  6. 32 mins for me today so middling to easy difficulty in my view. I particularly
    enjoyed Tower and Wife.
  7. 550 mins today – I feel asleep in the middle…

    “Of course, this could also clue the little known cities of Heli or Heki.”
    Not true since, by convention, words are hidden whole.

  10. Around 40mins today, which is about 20 quicker than I thought I was going to be after a very disappointing first pass. Strange QC, with answers coming in dribs and drabs. Just the wrong wavelength for me. Invariant
  11. 11 minutes without a problem until I came here and checked the spelling of Cocoa.
    I put Cocao to fit with the marathon.
    Enjoyable puzzle . Last in was Hound Dog. David
  12. Just under the hour for and a personal best. COD 18A which I struggled over for ages and then had the last part of 1D as PRINTED till I saw the error pf my ways.
    All of this offset by spending about three hours yesterday trying and failing to get RAFTER ! What happened to yesterday’s solutions as I had to wait for the paper today and was chasing a compiler in my dreams?
  13. Nice end to the week. Helped by a clue from an earlier QC with the answer ‘tower’ so saw that trap in 18a. Had to check 23a cacao was a word. Otherwise all good fun and enjoyed 19d COD. LOI 19d but so obvious once written in! Fun blog today and thx too to Felix.
  14. A nice gentle end to the week, with the exception of my LOI, 15a, which I couldn’t make head or tail of. Fortunately with only one letter to guess the answer was clear, but needed the blog to see what was going on. Like some others 18a was my favourite today. Completed in 15 minutes so slightly easier than average for mel.
  15. Late to the party, but this was about 40 mins.

    I missed 3 anagram indicators so this added more time:
    12a – disposed? not too sure about this as an indicator.
    1d – new, this should have been easy.
    9d – travelling. Ditto.

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