Times Quick Cryptic No 1178 by Flamande

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I was bang on my target for this good quality puzzle, but there was a bit of trickery and misdirection so I’d say it was a touch on the harder side. The misdirection was of a very satisfying type, with smooth surface readings having to be dissected, such as the “on” in 1ac, the “in” in 18ac, and the S.A. in 11ac. The simple advice when meeting a device like the anagram indicator at 3d is to learn the idea, enjoy the idea, and praise the English language! Good puzzle, much enjoyed, many thanks to Flamande!

Across
1 Sun lounger on front of cruise ship (8)
RECLINER – RE (on, about, etc.) C (front of Cruise) LINER (ship)
5 Healthy food rejected for the most part, unfortunately (4)
ALAS – SALAD (healthy food, usually) rejected/reversed, for the most part = dock the last letter.
8 Father joins retired teacher in European capital (5)
PARIS – PA (father) joins RIS (SIR = teacher. retired = reversed)
9 Course advisor organised trips covering half term (7)
TIPSTER – Anagram (organised) of TRIPS covering TE (“half” of TERM)
11 Leader of Salvation Army gutted, for instance (3)
SAY – S (Leader of Salvation) AY (ArmY, gutted = remove the innards)
12 Remembering the vocation of a teacher of religion? (9)
RECALLING – Having an “R.E. calling” could indeed be the vocation of a teacher of religion.
13 Leave city of London area beset by “rising” problem? (6)
DECAMP – EC (City of London) beset/surrounded by DAMP (as in the problem of rising damp)
15 Disturbance in Cajun restaurant (6)
UNREST – “in” the letters of cajUN RESTaurant.
18 Money expert in more stylish clothing (9)
FINANCIER – IN (in) has FANCIER (more stylish) clothing. Read a bit like a telegram: ‘in, “more stylish” enveloping’.
19 Mongrel’s successful treatment after losing tail (3)
CUR – CURE (successful treatment) loses its tail / last letter.
20 Assumed visitor is to be announced (7)
GUESSED – sounds (“to be announced”) like GUEST (visitor)
21 Overly masculine Scottish fellow with small house (5)
MACHO – MAC (Scottish fellow) with HO. (small/abbreviated house)
22 Taste less than half of small citrus fruit (4)
TANG – less than half of TANGERINE (small citrus fruit)
23 Inclination to write song (8)
PENCHANT – PEN (write) CHANT (song)
Down
1 Did more work as artist’s model and took a break (7)
REPOSED – to do more work as an artist’s model would be to RE-POSE.
2 Transport vehicle on railway (5)
CARRY – CAR (vehicle) on RY (railway)
3 Interns must supply scalpels perhaps (11)
INSTRUMENTS – Anagram (supply) of INTERNS MUST. If something is made supple, it becomes supple-y: a whimsical little device (like a number being a thing that numbs) that will surely flummox you the first time you see it. I can’t think of a similar “-y” trick off the top of my head, but I’m vaguely sure there are some. Any examples appreciated!
4 Attract tourists, principally, in eastern Mediterranean resort (6)
ENTICE – T (Tourists, “principally”) in E(astern) NICE (Med resort)
6 Trio taken short in country road, finding toilet (7)
LATRINE – TRI (TRIO, taken short) in LANE (country road)
7 Youngster getting into humorous programmes (5)
SPROG – the answer gets into the letters of humorouS PROGrammes. Of obscure, nautical origin, possibly related to the earlier “sprag”, a term for a young cod or salmon, and indeed a lively young fellow, but that doesn’t get us very far, as sprag is of equally obscure origin.
10 Description of mum, dad, nan and sis, in a word (11)
PALINDROMIC – cryptic definition, with all four family members being a palindrome.
14 Canadian adolescent in dining room (7)
CANTEEN – CAN. (Canadian) TEEN (adolescent)
16 Eject all those in attendance (7)
TURNOUT – TURN OUT (eject)
17 Bride and I distracted, watching this on camera? (6)
BIRDIE – Anagram (distracted) of BRIDE and I. Presumably a bird-watching (or possibly golf) reference. Shrug and move on. Edit: or better yet, you could read Kevin’s explanation below.
18 Scuffle, with fifty missing trip by plane (5)
FIGHT – (with L (fifty) missing) FLIGHT (trip by plane) – another read-as-a-telegram clue.
19 Two businesses introducing a drink (5)
COCOA – CO. + CO. (two businesses) introducing A.

27 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1178 by Flamande”

  1. An excellent puzzle that kept me fully occupied for all of my target 10 minutes. My LOI that so nearly saw me exceed it was PENCHANT as the result of an error at 10dn where I had written PALINDROMES, a word describing mum, dad etc that came more readily to mind than the required answer, PALINDROMIC. I suspect I shan’t be the only solver today to have fallen into that particular beartrap before realising their mistake.

    Edited at 2018-09-13 05:22 am (UTC)

      1. It got me too! Also was slow to think the right healthy food on 4a. Got obsessed with pulse for some reason. 12:10 in total.
  2. Less than half on first pass but then a good battle to the end. Got the spelling of 9d at the third attempt. I’ve been saying it wring!
  3. Photographers, when photographing little children, (used to?) hold a toy bird on a stick up where they wanted the child to look, saying, “Watch the birdie!”

    Edited at 2018-09-13 07:37 am (UTC)

  4. This was a good ‘un, indeed. I think I had the most trouble with TIPSTER–didn’t get the definition for a long time. I avoided Jack’s mistake, probably (I can’t remember) because I already had PENCHANT in. We’ve had PENCHANT a couple of times in the 15x15s, similarly clued, which helped. We’ve also had ‘supply’ a couple of times there; I’m sure it’s a first in the QCs. 5:26.
  5. Ah, so that’s the reference! Makes the clue a lot better – thanks, will correct the blog.
    1. With a photographer dad I seemed to have spent a large proportion of my childhood watching birdies.
  6. I had a lot of fun with this one, particularly enjoying PENCHANT and TIPSTER, but my CoD goes to 9d for the forehead slapping moment when I finally figured out the parsing. I’d seen that mum was a palindrome but couldn’t figure out how dad, nan and sis fitted into the answer – which feels even dozier having written them out.
    Completed in 12.09.
    Thanks for the blog
  7. Found this a satisfying challenge today. It took me 40 minutes mainly because of 1 across. My first assumption for this was “deckchair ” which, of course, is too many letters but then, for ages, I couldn’t get the idea of “deck ____” out of my head. Really loved all the misdirections in this puzzle, as per the blogger’s description – but 10 across was, for me at least, another red herring as I kept trying to think of “family ” words. Really clever puzzle. Thanks so much, blogger and setter.
  8. Yes, a stiffer challenge than usual. I had to come on here to understand some of the parsing – I didn’t get “RE” for “on”, or how “clothing” worked in 18ac, or why “supply” was an anagram indicator [note: not that impressed by it now it’s been explained!]. So plenty of learning for me today; thanks for educating me, Roly. I did at least get “watch the birdie”, though!

    All done in about 2.5 Kevins. Thanks to Flamande for a very clever puzzle .

    Templar

      2. kevingregg is an experienced solver who generally appears able to set a time around the 5 to 7 minute mark.
        I didn’t believe this possible at first, but the longer I have been attempting these and reading the blog I have steadily been able to improve the number of crosswords that I can complete and lately started to set a target time of 20 minutes which I never thought that I would achieve. I think it must also help if you have a good knowledge of the English language and a fairly good all round knowledge of places and facts and occasional golf or cricket references etc.
        But learning the conventions of the anagram indicators and abbreviations etc. really help the most. And a brain that still works of course….
        Anyway, back to your question, it appears that if Kevin completed in 5 minutes and I completed in 20 then it took me 4 Kevins.
        Just one or more persons bit of fun.
        It amuses me when Kevin completes in 5 and explains how some got him stuck for a while!!
        Best wishes
        John George
  9. Just scraped in under my target at 9:42. I enjoyed this puzzle too. I particularly liked 10d which would have thrown me once upon a time. Some tricky stuff here. Thanks Flamande and Roly.
    1. Indeed, and well noted. Still, the supply/supply distinction has been played with in the 15x15s.
  11. Great puzzle which I found a little easier than yesterday’s. I also liked Tipster and Penchant. Palindromic needed all the checkers before I splapped my head – a clever clue. Recliner was a late addition but my LOI was Tang. Many thanks to Flamande and Roly. 3 Kevins. John M.
  12. Seriously held up by misspelling a wrong answer! Had PALLINDROME at 10d so little beneath it made much sense. Things fell into place once my dual error was spotted and rectified. As others have noted, lots of subtle misdirection that pushes this excellent offering to the harder end of the spectrum. Thanks as always to setter and blogger.
    COD: DECAMP
    WOD: PALINDROMICCIMORDNILAP
    6’45”
  13. One of the best for a long time. Particularly enjoyed PALINDROMIC (once I had figured out the ending). My COD. BIRDIE made me chuckle, as did the allusion to “rising damp”, and the concept of an “R. E. CALLING”. LOI CANTEEN. Didn’t time it, just enjoyed it, but would guess quicker than average.
    PlayUpPompey
  14. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle today, with plenty of the aforementioned forehead-slapping moments. Didn’t get 9a for a long time despite realising that it was probably an anagram of trips and te and ended with ter. COD has to be palindromic, though it was run close by those supple instruments in 3d (I seem to recall we have had supply used to indicate an anagram at least once before). Ended up with 43:03, but reasonably happy with that, given it seemed quite a tough one.

    Oh, and in reference to the origin of sprog, could it have something to do with progeny? Just a guess.

    Edited at 2018-09-13 11:41 am (UTC)

  15. Excellent and quite difficult puzzle. No accurate time for my solve -around 18 minutes I think.
    LOI was Tang, FOI Cur. David
  16. Actually did complete this today with no cheating! 44 mins. I rather liked my parse of supple-y to indicate anagram although straight supply does it too of course (doh!) Blog explained the re in reposed …. Frankyanne
  17. A very enjoyable solve in just a few seconds over my target 10 mins. FOI 1a RECLINER and LOI 13a DECAMP. The only significant hold ups were 22a TANG (don’t know why) and deciphering the last two letters of 10d PALINDROMIC. COD for me, as a middle aged female who enjoys a long hike, is 6d LATRINE.
  18. My favourite candidate for a new word – the art/science of forecasting the sex of a child: “sprognosis”

    Heard on the radio a few years ago.

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