QC 1735 by Breadman

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Back again this week after missing my slot two weeks ago. Many thanks to jackkt who sat in for me. The reason for my absence was the untimely death of my mother. I honestly do take all your good wishes and condolences as read so please do not comment unless you really feel you want to. The only reason I mention it here is that I have this community to thank for providing the ideal music for the committal of my mother’s body. Several weeks ago I got involved in a discussion on this blog about Sergei Rachmaninov and to cut a long story short I was introduced to a wonderful version of his Vespers and All-Night Vigil by oldblighter. The Nunc Dimittis from that work was the perfect accompaniment for that part of the service so I want to say a big thank you to all of you and particularly to oldblighter for making the service a truly memorable occasion for my family (virus restrictions meant nobody else could be there of course) and me.

Right. Back to the crossword. I found this to be of medium difficulty but maybe I was just out of the groove after missing the last one. But having looked through it again I think, no, there were definitely some clues that were a bit more difficult than the normal Monday QC. 1A, 18A and 10D for instance might have been able to slip in at the easy end of a Monday 15×15. Many thanks to Breadman for a skillfully composed intro to the week.

I think my FOI was the double definition at 5A, LOI was 1D and COD I have to give to 18A in memory of Jill Masterson on the weekend in which Sean Connery died. As I understand it though this must be pure coincidence as I think the puzzle was probably set just a little in advance of the news of his death.

Some of you may notice that I am trying a bit harder this week to explain even the most basic of crossword currency. This is because on my last blog I noticed a comment from someone who was not familiar with the abbreviations of S for son and D for daughter, and I realised that sometimes we bloggers take a little too much for granted particularly in the QC where some people really are trying to get to grips with cryptics for the first time.

I didn’t get time to look past on Friday to see what everybody made of the 15×15 but I really enjoyed it and I imagine there were some enthusiastic responses. I found the scenery in the SW corner particularly beautiful.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Disease affected legs, lower part first (8)
SHINGLES – SHIN (lower part of leg (going first)) + GLES (anagram (‘affected’) of LEGS).
5 Go away and sing some jazz (4)
SCAT – double definition. SCAT as in ‘get out of here’, and also as the sort of jazz singing at which Ella Fitzgerald used to excel.
8 Mark, good person, regularly patient (5)
STAIN – ST (saint, good person) + pAtIeNt ‘regularly’.
9 Son and dad, covered in blood, become furious (2,5)
GO SPARE – S (son) + PA (dad) ‘covered in’ GORE (blood).
11 Viewer, the first person in auditorium (3)
EYE – sounds like ‘I’ (first person ‘in auditorium’).
12 Set up his tables wrong (9)
ESTABLISH – straight anagram (‘wrong’) of HIS TABLES.
13 Attempt to obtain one pound hat (6)
TRILBY – TRY (attempt) ‘obtaining’ I LB (one pound).
15 Bishop organised church meal (6)
BRUNCH – B (bishop) + RUN (organised) + CH (church). My eyebrow was about to raise because I thought the wrong tense was being used (RUN as opposed to RAN) but then I realised that use of the passive voice makes it OK, as in “The church meal was ORGANISED = was RUN by the Bishop”. 
18 Genuine gold female found in loft, not the first (9)
AUTHENTIC – AU (chemical symbol for gold) + HEN (female) ‘found in’ aTTIC (loft, but not the first letter).
19 Paddle round a river (3)
OAR – O (ROUND) + A + R (river).
20 Suspend pet, with a guilty look (7)
HANGDOG – HANG (suspend) + DOG (pet).
21 Asian country dismissing cases of Hindu bias (5)
INDIA – ‘dismiss’ the ‘cases’ of hINDu bIAs and you have IND + IA = INDIA.
22 Made error accommodating ruminant animal (4)
DEER – hidden word: maDE ERror ‘accommodating’.
23 Musical group embraces new age, advertising online (6,2)
BANNER AD – BAND (musical group) ’embracing’ N (new) + ERA (age).
Down
1 Doubt South American kissed briefly, as you say (7)
SUSPECT – S (south) + US (American) + PECT (sounds like PECKED (kissed briefly) ‘as you say’).
2 Informant inside that is angry (5)
IRATE – RAT (informant) ‘inside’ IE (that is).
3 Reddish lolly, a sweet snack? (11)
GINGERBREAD – GINGER (reddish) + BREAD (lolly – both slang terms for money).
4 Wounded GI and the unknown pensioner might be so old (6)
EIGHTY – EIGHT (anagram of GI + THE (‘wounded’)) + Y (unknown – one of x, Y and z, the letters commonly used to represent unknown quantities in algebraic expressions).
6 Old brass instrument Caroline mostly played (7)
CLARION – anagram of CAROLINe (Caroline ‘mostly’).
7 Maybe canines in part of golf course on Thursday (5)
TEETH – TEE (part of golf course) + TH (Thursday).
10 Removal of U-boat drawing (11)
SUBTRACTION – SUB (U-boat) + TRACTION (drawing (as in dragging)).
14 Concentrated at home on future perhaps (7)
INTENSE – IN (at home) + TENSE (future ‘perhaps’, an example of a TENSE).
16 Difficult to get hold of a particular Bible for US university (7)
HARVARD – HARD (difficult) ‘getting hold of’ A RV (Revised Version, a particular translation of the Bible).
17 Spot Greek character crossing junction (6)
STIGMA – SIGMA (Greek letter or ‘character’) ‘crossing’ T (a type of junction).
18 Companion in A&E, with daughter, felt sore (5)
ACHED – CH (Companion of Honour) ‘in’ A and E + D (daughter).
19 Stranger died in north European river (5)
ODDER – D (died) ‘in’ ODER (north European river).

58 comments on “QC 1735 by Breadman”

  1. I found this quite easy (one of those rare days when I pip Kevin); nevertheless, finishing the last answer or two took a full minute. GINGERBREAD was a little beyond me, thanks to forgetting the meaning of ‘lolly’, and CLARION I had to get from the definition, having misunderstood the wordplay entirely (I was looking for a nickname of Caroline). Others like HANGDOG and GO SPARE were unknown to me but I trusted in the wordplay.

    Finally, I’d like to offer my condolences. It’s never a good time to lose a parent, but these days have been harder than most to begin with. I hope you’re doing as well as can be imagined, and I’m sure I speak for many when I say that we’re glad to have you as a part of this strange little “family”.

  2. Slow going today, with GO SPARE & BANNER AD being as near DNKs as dammit. 7:59.

  3. 9 minutes with minor delays over GINGERBREAD and a couple of others in the NW corner which I had to skip first time round and wait for some checkers. DK BANNER AD but I had all its checkers by the time I got to it so it didn’t give me any problems.

    Good to have you back, Don.

  4. No problem with any of the words and phrases for me but the clues took a while to tease out, especially on the LHS and most especially as others have noted in the NW corner. All green in 16 so quite respectable for me but I did stare at GINGERBREAD and SUBTRACTION for quite a while before seeing what was going on – took a second or two to parse INDIA too even when I had the answer. Enjoyed SUBTRACTION, where I spent a while trying to remove the U from a type of boat to leave a drawing and SUSPECT where PECT came first. My first Monday without a pink square for a while, so a good start to the week.
  5. So sorry about your sad loss. Glad to hear that SVR was able to provide some comfort. I found your comment profoundly moving just thinking about how appropriate and powerful the Rachmaninoff Nunc Dimittis will have been. Best regards, John M.

    Edited at 2020-11-02 08:54 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks John. Yes, there is no such thing as a good funeral. But within that context the music was perfect and I am so glad you introduced me to it.
  6. Strangely frustrating despite no significant challenges. FOI 1A which always lifts the mood but then ground to a halt with LOI SCAT as DNK it in Jazz. Forgot RV was Revised Version. COD 1D for PECT.
    I hope that Astarte, Queen of Heaven, supports you at this sad time.
    Thanks Breadman for a Monday distraction from the world outside whence I venture not.
    1. Thanks, yes, she’s always there watching over me.

      Reminds me of Queen of The South. Isn’t that the only football team mentioned in the Bible?

      1. I believe the Hammers are mentioned several times in Jeremiah amongst others, including Saints (in profusion), Angels (plentiful), Pilgrims, birds – Canaries, Eagles, Magpies. So, no exclusivity for Q of the South for me!
        1. Good point! But those are all nicknames and I suppose I was only thinking of actual names. But hey! As cruciverbalists we should always be alive to those sorts of associations shouldn’t we? So I think you have the better of me there!
            1. Yes, well I must say that Arsenal did cross my mind fleetingly as a potential true biblical team name but I didn’t have the energy to go to the online concordance and check it out. I guess I’m just a lazy bastard and I only mentioned Queen of the South in the first place because I’d heard it before and when I first heard it it seemed such an unlikely correspondence (I mean, it’s not exactly a name you’d make up for a football team and neither is it something you would naturally associate with the Bible) so it stuck with me. But all hail to your biblical footballing knowledge! Are you actually such a biblical scholar as your posts attest? Or are you a footballing quiz demon perhaps?
              1. My days of scholarship are long past although my recall appears to be in reasonable shape. My learning, diverse, was directed jointly to the physical rather than the spiritual and wrt football, I claim only a passing knowledge. Stay safe and sane in enforced isolation.
  7. It took me a while to dust off the weekend cobwebs so this felt like a bit of a slog at times – a good example of my struggles was 19d, where I saw northern river and thought of Oder and then couldn’t thing of any words for stranger to fit the answer!!!
    I gradually got into gear and was left with the NE where my lack of musical knowledge and general doziness WRT 7d was highlighted.
    Eventually finished in 14.12 with the unknown SCAT – which has now doubled the number of Jazz terms I’ve heard of, the key is to try to remember it. My favourite was SUBTRACTION.
    Thanks to Astartedon
  8. Just inside 17 minutes for me, so I think on the harder side. I was held up slightly by being torn between CLARION and CLARINO, both valid answers to 6d, and being slightly misled by TEE being used to describe part of a golf course. The TEE is actually the device used to elevate the ball on the TEEING GROUND, although I suppose I have to accept that TEE has also become synonymous with the teeing ground. I also took a while to spot the sweet snack and justify traction. Otherwise, thanks Breadman and Don, and commiserations for your loss.
    1. Lexico: “A cleared space on a golf course, from which the ball is struck at the beginning of play for each hole.”
  9. An enjoyable start to the week – completing in a pleasing 15 mins – with the left hand side coming much quicker than the right.

    Enjoyed 1ac “Shingles”, 23ac “Banner Ad” and 18ac “Authentic”. I also wondered about the tense for “run” in 15ac but couldn’t see what else it could be.

    FOI – 1dn “Suspect”
    LOI – 5ac “Scat”
    COD – 3dn “Gingerbread” – biffed initially but lovely surface.

    Thanks as usual and sorry for your loss.

  10. FOI was SCAT, the opposite to many it seems. I was quite quick on this but needed time for my last two SHINGLES and GINGERBREAD.
    I pressed submit after 11:39 but I had an error on 15a where I followed what I thought was the parsing to get BRANCH. I didn’t consider Brunch which obviously fits.
    Good puzzle. David
  11. Steady solve with pleasing clues. When I saw “jazz” in a clue at 4A I knew I was in trouble, and SCAT was LOI, after trouble with Clarion. Only ever heard in the context of Clarion Call, I had not thought of it being an instrument.

    COD : TRILBY

    What BANNER AD do you have at the top of LiveJournal today? I have something called Purplefans, which of course says more about me than LiveJournal. Check out Gavin Barwell MP, who embarrassingly misunderstood how they worked.

    I am not familiar with the Rachmaninoff Nunc Dimittis, I will download it today.

    1. If you do download it, try to choose a Russian recording. No disrespect to Kings College and others but the end of the Nunc Dimittis demands Russian basses who can reach subterranean depths, like no others, in the final bars.
      The recording above all others is a recording from the 60s conducted by Alexander Sveshnikov. It took me years of searching to get a copy of the CD from Russia but they now come up occasionally on searches. Others such as Polyansky, Chernuchenko offer fine recordings but Sveshnikov has never been bettered for atmosphere, authenticity and impact IMO.
      Sorry to go on but this is my all-time desert island disc and will surprise those who do not know the breadth of Rachmaninoff’s works.

      Edited at 2020-11-02 07:11 pm (UTC)

    2. Merlin,
      I have just found a download of the performance I mentioned if you are interested.
      Google: ‘ musica russica rachmaninoff all-night vigil ‘ – their catalog number is A128. (There is at least one other performance on this site)
      The Nunc Dinittis is track 5 cost $0.99 and the whole CD is $9.99
      I cannot vouch for the site itself but it looks kosher.
      I searched for years to find the CD they show here and got it direct from Russia in the end. This is a re-mastering of the original Melodiya recording of 1965.
      Hope this helps, John
  12. I’m just below Kevin on the leaderboard so he must have been having a bad day. I’m not sure what my FOI was but it certainly wasn’t either 1a or 1d. There were a couple of clues where I wasn’t sure of the answers but the checkers and wordplay pointed to CLARION and BANNER AD. GINGERBREAD was a late solve as was the anagram ESTABLISH. LOI unparsed was STIGMA. Welcome back astartedon.
  13. Tough Monday. Got really hung up on SHINGLES and GINGERBREAD. My excuse is that being married to a redhead, the word “ginger” has been banished from my vocabulary.

    FOI SCAT, LOI SHINGLES, COD AUTHENTIC, time 1.9K but nevertheless a Bad Day.

    Many thanks Don and Breadman.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-11-02 10:26 am (UTC)

  14. I found this quite challenging but got there (almost) by guessing CLARION and realising that 8a was STAIN not SAINT. However, did not know BANNER AD, so failure.
  15. Tricky for a Monday! 9:19 for me. Don’t know why, nothing seemed especially hard when I’d finished, though I had to biff SCAT as jazz is a closed book to me. Thought for a few seconds that 6D was going to be OCARINA, but quickly realised the error of that. Oh well, looks like no fast time this week …

    And since the blogger mentioned Friday’s 15×15 I have to say I found it a swine!

    COD SUSPECT

    H

  16. Not a fast solve but this was a good puzzle and I did, at least, manage it in under 2K. Others have picked out some of Breadman’s better clues so I will not add to their comments. Many thanks to Breadman and Don. Good to see you back, Don. John M.
  17. Most of this went in without too much trouble, but I really struggled with the NW corner. The combination of Shingles, Suspect and Gingerbread proved beyond me for ages. In the end I realised that 1ac probably ended in -gles, which prompted Shingles and hence Gingerbread. Suspect though still needed an alphabet trawl, but was obvious in the end. Overall, a touch under 30 mins, so a slow start to the weak. CoD to 14d, Intense. My condolences on your loss, Don. Invariant
    1. Thanks very much Invariant. And that is all I can call you because I still haven’t got round to having a proper go at working out your ineffable name!
    1. Yes, well Shirley was the actress but Jill was the character she played from the original novel (well, with a slight change of name as I remember) who got covered in gold paint.
  19. Struggled with the 15×15 today, so pleased to finish this in about 13 mins. Didn’t rush today, leisurely pace.

    Stuck for a little bit on last 2 stigma and hangdog.

    COD teeth.

    Thanks for the blog and I hope you are ok. Will have a look on itunes for the piece.

  20. SVR wrote much wonderful stuff, but the All Night Vigil’is his masterpiece I think.
    1. Yes but his ‘4th & 5th Symphonies’ (The Bells and The Symphonic Dances) come close IMO. 😊

      Edited at 2020-11-02 04:05 pm (UTC)

  21. We started very slowly – our first entry being 12A. Once we got a toehold we speeded up and ended with a completion time of 16 minutes. We enjoyed the puzzle very much – thanks Breadman.

    FOI: establish
    LOI: banner ad
    COD: go spare

    Thanks for the blog Astartedon and condolences on your loss.

  22. In the end I had to search Diseases and then Shingles seemed obvious, and Suspect fell into place, and made me smile. Gingerbread also one of the LOsI.

    FOsI Tribly, Eye,. Oar, Authentic, Ached, Harvard.

    I did know the term Banner Ad luckily. Struggled with Subtraction. But did enjoy it.

    Many thanks all round.

  23. I found this quite tricky in places which led to a time of 23 mins, somewhat outside my target zone. DNK scat as a jazz term and NHO clarion, which led to some difficulties in the NE corner. Never really got into a flow with this one but don’t really know why.

    FOI – 9ac GO SPARE
    LOI – 4dn EIGHTY
    COD – I think 3dn GINGERBREAD and 10dn SUBTRACTION both tie for first place today.

  24. ….and nothing more to add.

    FOI SHINGLES
    LOI INTENSE
    COD SUBTRACTION
    TIME 3:16

  25. Pleased to get Shingles (sounds bad!) as FOI.
    Otherwise a steady solve with most time on the last two – Stigma and Banner Ad.
    Put in Stigma without seeing Sigma surprisingly and Banner Ad wasn’t a natural expression for me but once Band in mind all was well.
    Thanks all
    John George
    (and condolences)
  26. My FOI was SHINGLES and I finished with STIGMA. No particular issues and all done in 7:35. Thanks Breadman and Don.
  27. … and starting in sequence with the across clues as is my style, FOI was not until 13A Trilby. It did not help that I DNK 5A Scat as a term in Jazz, or 6D Clarion as a musical instrument (only knowing it as a word at all through “Clarion call”); that certainly made the NE corner tough. I also put in Subtracting for 10D, which further delayed matters, and Dubai for 21A – seeing hinDU BIAs, thinking it was a hidden (well, the hin- and the -s could be “casing” Dubai) and not noticing the I and the A were the wrong way round. Grrr.

    So a bit of a comedy of errors and unpicking that lot took me to 14 minutes before I finally got all done and green. But an enjoyable challenge. LOI 23A Banner ad, after aforementioned Subtracting had been corrected (-A-G-R in 23A was going nowhere!)

    Many thanks to Don for the blog
    Cedric

  28. A slow start for me too but I managed to parse everything before finishing within 15 minutes.
    Amongst my favourite clues were AUTHENTIC, INDIA and HARVARD – and my COD goes to SUSPECT where I was pleased to remember ‘sus’ for S American.
    Thanks to Breadman and to Don with my sympathy.
  29. Convinced 6d was ocarina which caused us allsorts of problems with 5a and 15a. So a slow start to the week for us. Long time since we have heard scat. Thanks Breadman for the challenge and for the blog.
  30. I wasn’t really with it today so a dnf.

    Didn’t know BANNER AD. But I liked 7d TEETH

    I send you my sympathy, Don – parents are irreplaceable.

    Diana

  31. Started to panic when the NW corner proved initially intractable, but made progress in NE and then worked round and back in an enjoyable solve. Liked Subtraction and Gingerbread. Thanks setter and blogger.
    Plymouthian
  32. Stuggled with 1a, 1d and 5a which made this harder for me than it should have been. DNK Scat’s 2nd Jazz meaning in Chambers (noting 5 other meanings!) DNK Oder either.

    MER for organised=RUN but I suppose passive voice saves this… just about… although it’s still not cricket in my book!

    I liked 3d that’s my COD.

    Love to all
    Woods

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