QC 1425 by Oink

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Can’t remember if I’ve blogged an Oink before. I think I might have done one, but I certainly haven’t done many. I found this very entertaining, if a little on the easy side with several obvious anagrams, double definitions and cryptic definitions, but I loved the sense of humour. And having been a ‘BEGGER’ (or BEGGAR?) as referred to in 14A in a previous life I am awarding that my COD for the pleasing cryptic definition. So thank you, Oink, hope to meet you again soon.

FOI was the obvious anagram at 1A. LOI I can’t rightly remember but I think it may have been 4D, which was one of those clues where the answer always felt as though it was but a synapse connection away from resolution but unfortunately the vital link wasn’t made until the end.

I am finding it difficult to record realistic times at the moment as I spend a lot of time actually reading the clues. I think my reading eyesight (bad at the best of times) is undergoing one of those middle-age changes that periodically necessitate a visit to my optician. It was about 10 minutes but I’m sure it could have been a lot quicker had my eyes not kept going in and out of focus.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can manage.

Across
1 Play around and perversely earn DPhil (9)
PHILANDER – straight anagram (‘perversely’) of EARN DPHIL.
6 Could only odd characters chew this? (3)
CUD – the odd characters of CoUlD.
8 Son joins in attacks (7)
SALLIES – S (son) + ALLIES (joins in).
9 Top-class puzzle. Wow! (5)
AMAZE – A (top class) + MAZE (puzzle). To wow is a verb these days and not just an exclamation. (Another usage that I had forgotten about until now was in the phrase ‘wow and flutter’ in the assessment of the performance of record turntables back in the day. Nothing to do with the clue, I just remembered it as a concept I used to think about occasionally that I now haven’t thought about for decades. Just thought I’d mention it as a disappearing usage and wave goodbye.)
10 With time to spare, a little like a nobleman? (5)
EARLY – whimsical definition. If you were EARL-Y, might you be said to be a bit like an EARL?
12 Medici cleverness concealing evidence of freeze (6)
ICICLE – hidden word (‘concealing’): MedICI CLEverness.
14 Communication from solicitor? (7,6)
BEGGING LETTER – cryptic definition, a solicitor being one who solicits, or begs.
16 At around one, cooked pie in Asian capital (6)
TAIPEI – TA (at ‘around’) + I (one) + PEI (anagram of PIE (‘cooked’)).
17 At last expectant ambassador gets thank you letter from Greece (5)
THETA – T (expectanT ‘at last’) + HE (His or Her Excellency, the usual formal title of the ambassador to Crosswordland) + TA (thank you). THETA is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet. (Actually I just corrected a felicitous misprint on reading this through which has given me a new neame for Crosswordland: Crossworld. Maybe I’ll start using that and trying it on for size.)
19 Australian unit making gas (5)
OZONE – OZ (Australian) + ONE (unit). The definition is GAS. I only mention that because the underlining is a bit difficultto see, but then again maybe only to my eyesight (see above).
20 Rubbish place to clean a pig? (7)
HOGWASH – whimsical definition. You clean a car in a carwash, so why not a hog in a HOGWASH?
22 Woman knocking back some chartreuse (3)
SUE – hidden word (‘some’) backwards (‘knocking back’): chartrEUSe.
23 Team unhappy about LA dish (4,5)
SIDE SALAD – SIDE (team) + SAD (unhappy) ‘about’ LA.
Down
1 Observer employing a Serb spy (6-2)
PASSER-BY – straight anagram (’employing’) A SERB SPY.
2 Jack leaves Jill out of sorts (3)
ILL – JILL minus J (Jack) leaves ILL.
3 Friendship? A girl must embrace it (5)
AMITY – AMY (a girl) ’embracing’ IT.
4 Determined to be famous (13)
DISTINGUISHED – double definition.
5 Effect of ale is … er … getting drunk! (7)
REALISE – straight anagram (‘getting drunk’) of ALE IS ER. Perhaps a difficult definition for anybody who has ever struggled with the different uses of AFFECT and EFFECT. One use of the word EFFECT is ‘to bring about’ or ‘realise’ as in “the new head effected many changes in the school curriculum”.
6 A pudding for Miss Bronte? (9)
CHARLOTTE – double definition, the Misses Bronte being Emily, Anne and CHARLOTTE.
7 It’s a noble act, whichever way you look at it (4)
DEED – read backwards or forwards, it is still a DEED.
11 Restore large Miro? That’ll be a lengthy process (9)
RIGMAROLE – straight anagram (‘restore’) of LARGE MIRO.
13 Came to after Papa gave sermon (8)
PREACHED – P (phonetic alphabet Papa) + REACHED (came to).
15 Grab mischievous child on ship (7)
IMPRESS – IMP (mischievous child) + RE (on) + SS (ship). If you are a bit stumped by the definition here we are talking ‘grab’ in the sense of ‘grab one’s attention’.
17 Turn gun on American banker in Portugal (5)
TAGUS – Richard Jordan Gatling was the American inventor of the Gatling gun. I am not a firearms expert but I think it is the type you see in old gangster movies where there is a circular magazine that feeds bullets into the barrel, so to my mind that seems like an early form of machine gun or ‘automatic’. I’ll now put my head back below the parapet while all the people who know about such things pelt me with comments on my ignorance. But back to the clue. Gatling is often abbreviated to GAT. So ‘turn’ that and you have TAG. Add on US (American) and you have TAGUS, a river in Portugal. The next thing you have to know is that in Crossworld (see above) rivers are often cryptically called ‘BANKERS’ (because they have banks), and for that matter also ‘FLOWERS’ (because they flow). Obviously this is second nature to people who regularly do the 15 x15 but at the level of just starting out on your cryptic crossword journey you may be wondering what’s going on.
18 What cow does in periods of depression? (4)
LOWS – double definition.
21 The whole of the room, except Henry (3)
ALL – a HALL is a room, remove H (Henry, either in the sense of the abbreviation of a king’s name or as the standard abbreviation of the SI unit of inductance in Physics) and you have ALL.

28 comments on “QC 1425 by Oink”

  1. 10 minutes for this very nice puzzle from Oink with at least three farmyard references including one that’s porcine. I gather that HOGWASH is kitchen swill for feeding to pigs rather than for bathing them.

    Edited at 2019-08-26 07:34 am (UTC)

  2. I think this was a pretty straight forward Oink QC (including the obligatory porcine reference). I still skipped a few clues on first pass including BEGGING LETTER, PASSER-BY, DISTINGUISHED, IMPRESS (struggled with grab = impress which I think refers to the commandeering of goods) and my LOI SALLIES. I really wanted to put in MOOS for 18d but I resisted. 10:16
  3. 18 minutes, so under target, a rare event over the past few weeks.
    I wasn’t really held up with anything except 17D until I remembered that a banker could be a river, and my last two
    DISTINGUISHED and REALISE. I think these definitions fell into the ‘I suppose it could possibly be’ class, but thats what checkers are for. Perhaps we could have an official Crosslandese dictionary!
    Thanks to Oink for a nice puzzle and to astartedon for the entertaining blog.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-08-26 07:39 am (UTC)

  4. Just under 13 mins so a good time, coming back after summer break to the desert and crosswords.

    Last 2 were amity and sallies.
    Liked hogwash and lows, cod to preached.

    Takes ages for the website to load, keep on getting a message “This site can’t be reached”?

  5. I found this easier than normal but had to biff Tagus and couldn’t parse banker. Thank you for the explanation. Very enjoyable start to the week, blessed with a sunny bank holiday to boot.
  6. I had trouble remembering BEGGING even with the ING LETTER, and I had trouble remembering RIGMAROLE; having trouble remembering is something I’m becoming better at as time goes by. I think–and I’m not going to look into it–that ‘gat’, while it does derive from the Gatling gun, came to mean just ‘gun’. Anyway, 5:26.
    1. Yes, I didn’t actually say that did I. But it’s a bit like a Hoover in that respect.
  7. A good start to the Bank Holiday with a nice puzzle from Oink. A mix of easy and quirky but at an overall level that leaves me feeling less dull than have most puzzles during the last couple of weeks. Under 3K so an improvement on recent efforts. I liked SALLIES, AMITY, PREACHED, and THETA. Same COD as our blogger. Thanks to Oink and to astartedon for a comprehensive blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-08-26 08:37 am (UTC)

  8. Lovely puzzle from Oink once again. He really has been a great addition to the QC Setter Stable. I really enjoyed that, thanks Oink. Done and dusted in 1.9K, a Very Good Day. DNK TAGUS but the wordplay was solvable.

    FOI PHILANDER, LOI TAIPEI, COD EARLY, which made me smile. Thanks for blogging, Don.

    Templar

    1. Agreed. I really enjoyed this puzzle. Nothing, except the Portuguese river – which I didn’t know – flummoxed me. More Oink please….
  9. Nothing too tricky today and although the pudding was new to me it was very kindly clued. I particularly enjoyed BEGGING LETTER and HOGWASH. Completed in 9.56 with LOI SALLIES.
    Thanks for the blog

  10. Would maybe argue about defining the Tagus as a Portuguese river. 445 miles of it are in Spain, 29 miles form a border between the two countries, and the last 171 miles of it are in Portugal.

  11. Thought this ridiculously easy, apart from the strange inclusion TAGUS. That clue was quite hard and really one for the daily.

    Speaking of which, IF these puzzles are meant to prepare solvers for the daily, at this level of difficulty they may not, in my view anyway.

    I was through this in sub-5, with a smile for the perhaps somewhat chestnutty AMAZE.

    Edited at 2019-08-26 10:09 am (UTC)

    1. I’m afraid I have to beg to differ. As one of the QC bloggers, I take a great interest and pleasure in the progress of commenters on the blog. As an introduction to the cryptic clue devices to be found in the 15×15, I think it is first class. Whilst today’s may seem easy for you (and me, for that matter) it provides entertainment for new, progressing, experienced and even Championship Grand Final level solvers alike. As I found, several years ago, in conjunction with the blog, it has enabled many a solver (myself included) to progress to the 15×15.

      As for today’s, TAGUS was half-known, but otherwise no difficulties, with a pretty average solving time for me of 5:45. Great blog Don – absolutely in the spirit of helping those who are on a learning curve. COD to HOGWASH. Oh. Thanks to Oink too for another entertaining puzzle.

      Edited at 2019-08-26 05:32 pm (UTC)

      1. Spot on, John! I think this may be the first time that anyone has complained that a QC is too easy.
      2. Thanks John, very kind of you and I do agree to disagree. If you find the QC too easy you don’t have to do it and doing this blog does show that there are many people out there who do need a bit of a guide even with the very easy ones. And it’s always subjective anyway. For instance granted this one was not very challenging but it was by no means the easiest I have come across.
    2. I disagree. As very much a beginner in cryptics, it’s nice to get an approachable puzzle occasionally to stop me getting too depressed and giving up entirely.

      This one used a lot of standard techniques and helped me to restore some confidence after some recent stinkers.

      1. Ha ha. I think we disagreed at the same time. Your post appeared as I refreshed after updating mine.
  12. A slow 30 min solve today for two reasons: I entered the answer for 22ac (Sue) as 21d and struggled for ages in the SE until I realised what had happened, and secondly my nerves are still shot to pieces after watching yesterday’s cricket. But you know what? I don’t mind in the slightest 😊 Invariant
  13. One of the problems with machine-guns is that the rate of fire causes the barrel to heat up and expand. Hence the gun jams. Gatling overcame this by providing multiple barrels on a spindle. As each shot is fired the gun moves to the next barrel Thus as the barrels rotate they cool. . Some forms did have a circular magazine, others a simple straight one. Today they use belt-fed ammunition.
    GAT’ is (or was in the gangster period) just US slang for a gun of any kind.
    PlayUpPompey
  14. Although some may say on the easy side and not challenging I thought that this combined many elements that those of us on a long ride (don’t like journey!) to improve can use to polish off and reaffirm learnt knowledge. Sallies and Distinguished last two in. DNK Charlotte for pudding. Tagus just heard of and Amity slightly unsure but all good.
    Enjoyable
    Thanks all
    John George l
  15. A gat gun was a pretty rubbish air pistol that many of us lads used to own. Fortunately you couldn’t hurt people with them much.

    Apparently gat is a 1920s ganster abbreviation for said gatling gun.

    Coincidence or maybe the setter can inform us?

  16. Don, you may like to know that you blogged a puzzle by Oink (#1305) on 11th March this year. I haven’t had the pleasure myself as yet.
    1. Thanks Jackkt, that was what my memory told me but thank you for confirming as it too often proves to be false these days!

      Don

  17. Just back from a golfing weekend in the depths of Lincolnshire and catching up with a few days of puzzles. I enjoyed Oink’s usual humour in this puzzle and polished it off in 6:15. Thanks Oink and Don.

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