Times Quick Cryptic No 3103 by Wurm

107 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3103 by Wurm”

1. I had considerable difficulty. For one thing, I put in sini as a possible Italian sauce, and biffed advert where adrift should go. I also NHO stitch up meaning swindle, even though the cryptic clearly points to it.

   The usage of turnpike in the US for any sort of limited-access highway was common in the 50s and 60s, but nowadays people are more likely to say interstate.

   If I am in the SCC, you can bet the puzzle was hard, although not as hard as I made it. Unfortunately, none of the regulars seem to have made it.

   Time: 21:59

   1. I think once the turnpike had “paid” for itself it ceased to be one, so another name had to be found. The idea was a business would build a road for free, and keep the tolls until some measure had passed, when the whole shebang was gifted to the govt.

2. I needed to look up DRAG. I’ve never heard of TV as an abbreviation / slang term for ‘transvestite’, though I see it appears to be in use online, at any rate. The only slang term I was aware of was ‘trannie.’

   A bit of a throwback clue, indeed!

   1. “Trannie” or “tranny” is actually an intentionally offensive term for either (more common these days) a transgender person or a transvestite.
      TV for transvestite is not usually regarded as or intended as pejorative. No “offensive” tag is attached to it in any dictionary I’ve seen.

      1. Without wishing to enter into a discussion about any rights or wrongs, the online (i.e. most up-to-date) ODE has TV as ‘sometimes offensive’. The printed version doesn’t include that caveat, but it hasn’t been revised since 2010.

         1. I guess it all depends on the tone in which it is uttered.

         2. I would not use TV for that meaning. My eyebrows were raised.

      2. Unless, of course, it refers to a step up transformer for increasing the output voltage of a moving coil cartridge before feeding the signal into a phono preamp.

         1. Haha

   2. In a simpler time not so long ago, a “trannie” in Australia was a transistor radio. I won’t try to describe the awkward conversation in which I learned of the updated definition.

   3. Where is Tim Curry when you need him?

3. 9 minutes – my first within 10 for more than a week! My only MER was ‘swerve / WARP’ which I now see is in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary so I suppose is okay. I can see them working via a 3-point turn but can’t think of an example where they might substitute directly.

   1. Chambers has “swerve” as the third intransitive verb definition of WARP. Definition 2 for the verb as transitive is “to turn from the right course.”

4. Also spent a lot of time on webcam. Spotted the TV allusion to transvestite pretty quickly, due in part to an episode of Just a Minute in which Kit Hesketh Harvey refers to “TV” meaning transvestite and Nicholas Parsons does not get it for at least 5 minutes, thinking that someone can be dressed as a television…

   12:43 for me.

5. DNF

   Quite a few I couldn’t get

   Also had HELP for 11a. Which did not help

6. I’ll never be a fan of Crosswordland’s transitive property of synonyms. Swerve may mean to turn sharply and warp may mean to turn sharply, but no one would ever use swerve as a synonym for warp in real life, e.g., “I warped to miss that deer in the middle of the road.”

   Having said that, the rest was a welcome challenge, and COD was definitely 10a. I’m a golfer, and I still didn’t pick up on the wordplay until late in the solve.

   Thank you Wurm and Templar.

   1. Juat because you haven’t encountered it doesn’t mean a usage isn’t current.
      According to Collins, WARP also has the nautical noun sense of « a rope used for warping a vessel ».
      Which obviously means making a ship swerve, not stretching it out of shape!

      1. Sometimes, technically correct isn’t the best kind of correct. My point wasn’t that the synonymous use of swerve and warp was unjustified in the clue. (I, too, consulted Collins.) As I said, setters using this transitive property of synonyms is endemic to Crosswordland, which is fine. It exists. I accept it as being in bounds. I was just conveying that I don’t like it.

         My main point was that a proportion asymptotically approaching 100% of English-speaking human beings, — a proportion I venture to guess is not much lower among the subset of Times crossword solvers — don’t use swerve and warp synonymously. (Nevermind that even in your justification, it’s a noun form being synonymous with a verb form.)

         And just to address your first sentence, which came off as a tad impertinent, there’s a difference between something previously unencountered being something worth learning — which I experience at least once in every Times puzzle I attempt to solve, especially being an American having to learn all things British to even have a chance of finishing — and encountering something that I will gain next to nothing from learning, whether that be in my everyday life or while solving crosswords in the future or, heck, even while on any of my next 10 excursions on a boat.

         But don’t fret. Forevermore, I will always remember that warp is synonymous with swerve…for that one time in the distant future when the same wordplay appears.

         1. Welllll, you did say “the rest” was “a welcome challenge,” implicitly making WARP = swerve unwelcome, by my reading. I guess it is a bit much for a Quickie, though.

         2. *looks up “asymptotically”*

            *decides that must work the phrase “a proportion asymptotically approaching 100%” into next skeleton argument*

      2. Warping doesn’t mean making a ship swerve. It is moving it using lines in tight spaces (apparently), especially sailing vessels. I’ve been in the maritime industry for 35 years (at sea and ashore) and have never heard of the term so it obviously isn’t that common.

         I found this really tough and gave up. First DNF for a few weeks.

7. Some clever clues here but after DRAG turned out to be right I started losing interest and gave up over WEBCAM and WARPLANE as the 20min mark approached. Thanks to both.

8. Just four on the first pass of acrosses and then the downs were hard too. As for others WARPLANE, WEBCAM, GREENS and SPIRIT caused me difficulty – PUTRID too. Loved NO BALL, surprised at DRAG. All green in 21.24.

9. I notice that the name of the compiler no longer appears in the online Times puzzles app!

   1. On the other hand, the compiler name has re-appeared in the print version, so some sort of progress is being made.

   2. It’s in ‘settings’ under ‘puzzle info’ in the app

      1. Cryptic use of ‘settings’

10. My favourite bit was reading Templar’s blog.
    As for the solve – absolute treacle in my and himself ‘s world. Like many, struggled with WARPLANE, WEBCAM, DRAG, TURNPIKE, NO BALL… crawled through the whole thing actually (bar the instantly seen RAGU).
    That said, GREENS – very clever! Full extent missed until the blog. HIRED GUN a good anagram that took us way too long.
    Off to get a reviving coffee – happy to shout STARSTRUCK one, too.

11. 12:11, I thought it was tough. I put in DRAG with a shrug after failing to think of any clothing-related sense of PROG, because I know that RuPaul’s Drag Race is a very popular programme. But the TV = transvestite abbreviation escaped me.

12. About 6 adrift when I threw in the towel. I’d never have got WARPLANE as swerve = warp is beyond me, and ditto DRAG as TV for transvestite also NHO. I might had I slogged away a lot longer have got a few of the other missing ones but in Templar’s words for 23A, I was by then “past caring”.

    A puzzle for others perhaps but too hard for me. DNF, did not enjoy, did not think this a QC – and at least the SNITCH agrees with me. Many thanks Templar for the blog.

    1. Absolutely agree. Also gave up third non finish in a row for me

13. Wow, tough. Didn’t enjoy it at allz

14. Definitely a toughie but i actually rather enjoyed it.

    My eyebrow twitched over TV/DRAG but I’m never entirely confident about which terms are offensive and which are considered ok. I got WEBCAM from the wordplay without fully understanding the definition despite having an account with said app and regulalry using it for work. Now that Templar’s explained it, it gets my COD.

    Started with RAGU and finished with an unparsed GREENS 🤦‍♂️ in 12.35.
    Thanks to Templar and Wurm.

15. 57:00 (average: 38, target: 60)

    Another one that I was glad to have finished. It’s been a tough few days on the QC. Always enjoy the challenging ones though.

    Wanted to check my thinking on HAND’s parsing. Glad you agreed. I always feel I’m missing something when I reach for the triple definition.

    Thanks Templar, Wurm and Starstruck (I use the Quitch most days to set an achievable target).

16. This was a contender for the hardest QC I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried a lot. More appropriate for a 15×15.

    After 15 minutes that felt like stumbling through a dark forest, 3 clues eluded me: PUTRID, NO BALL, WEBCAM. I just wouldn’t have thought to separate ‘set’ and ‘free’ for ‘put rid’, and foolishly assumed Zoom couldn’t possibly be referring to the software. Anything to do with cricket is always likely to be a struggle for me.

17. 9:42, which is a long way over target. I navigated most of the tricky bits OK, but got stuck in the top left for ages at the end before I saw HAND was a triple and eventually came up with WARPLANE, not thinking WARP could be a synonym for “swerve”. I liked EDITOR and NO BALL. Thank-you Wurm and Templar.

18. 6:33 A tough Quickie for sure, and my eyes flicked to the top of the screen more than once to confirm that I hadn’t opened the 15×15 by mistake.

    No complaints though. Enjoyed GREENS and didn’t fully appreciate WEBCAM until reading the blog.

    Thanks Wurm and Templar.

19. Has anyone else had trouble logging into the crossword club – both via the app and the web? Has been happening since yesterday.
    Tbh I am getting really, really irritated with the constant IT difficulties. It always seems to take the Times ages to solve them as well.

    1. It is a known issue. As someone here always has difficulty accessing the crossword club, I suspect this known issue has been around for months. The Times must be the worst app/ website I use – by far.

    2. Yep – it keeps asking me to log in and then takes me back to the page where it asks me to log in etc etc. Sooo frustrating, and so soon after the last lot of issues, which you kindly raised with the power that be. Fingers crossed they resolve this more quickly than last time 🤞

       1. I’m having the same barriers to the smooth use of the Times’ app. Multiple sign-ins required every day, as soon as I want to read a comment.

20. DNF after 30 mins. I could not see PUTRID, WEBCAM, NO BALL, ADRIFT and PETER PAN. I got GREENS, but couldn’t see why it was right until the penny dropped after reading the blog. PUTT-ING. Doh!

    When I struggle like this, I dread coming here, expecting to see lots of people saying that they found it straightforward or at least manageable. Today, though, I was heartened to read that many other people (all significantly more competent than I) found it tough as well. No schadenfeude.

    As others have said, the most enjoyable part of the puzzle was watching the Templar tantrum!

21. DNF

    Threw in the towel (maybe a tad prematurely) after 11 minutes having stared at _U_R_D for some time. I did consider the penultimate letter not being E but obviously not with sufficient conviction. Actually a great clue. As others have said quite a few tricky ones here (WEBCAM was tough).

    Thanks Wurm and Templar.

22. Gosh that was hard. I struggled through in 18:26, with the last 5 spent on trying to find the answer to 4d. PROG looked like it might fit, but matched no clothing that I knew of. Eventually spotted DRAG and saw the other meaning of TV.

    Thanks Templar and Wurm

23. I also enjoyed Templar’s tizzy and agree with some of his and others’ complaints, especially the warp/swerve debate. But I still enjoyed the puzzle and thought some of the clues were very neat. 12:05.

24. What a stinker! I finished but I biffed DRAG (TV for transvestite is not in my vocab), WARPLANE (swerve/warp?), and WEBCAM (a very slow penny drop; too clever-clever for a QC IMO) and agonised over quite a few more including SPIRIT, GREENS, and even TOAD until I had all the crossers. I am glad that I am not the only one in the SCC (25 mins for me).
    HIRED GUN and NO BALL were neat but, overall, I did not enjoy this puzzle. It certainly was closer to a 15×15 in parts.
    Thanks to Templar for the blog. Yes, that was the best bit.
    Roll on tomorrow…….

25. 11:48

    Yikes! That seemed harder than usual, though looking back, I’m wondering why I thought so. It was certainly a challenge getting going working through the clues in order – when this happens, I sometimes approach from the bottom up, which this time, immediately gave TOAD and EDITOR, ADRIFT and PETER PAN. I was mildly foxed by NO BALL, even pencilling in NO BULL (Completely?) until the scales fell from my eyes. Missed the Zoom reference at 21a – that was clever, particularly as half the world must have used it at some point in the last five years. Finished with a disappointing TURNPIKE (not just American!) and a less-disappointing DRAG (penny drop for the TV meaning).

    Thanks Templar and Wurm

26. 18 minutes. Always reassuring to come here and find I wasn’t even slower than usual on the uptake today. I suppose a MER at ‘Swerve’ / WARP but as one of my last in, I didn’t have the energy to pursue it – thanks to those above who did. Favourite would have been WEBCAM if I’d been able to parse it properly but that was beyond me, so I’ll go for the yucky PUTRID instead.

    Thanks to Templar and Wurm

27. Not my worst attempt at a QC, but I found some too convoluted (eg WEBCAM).
    Like Templar I am more familiar with the historical UK use of TURNPIKE than the US.
    Thanks for the blog Templar

28. That wasn’t a QC. I think I only completed about half of the grid. I genuinely cannot remember a time when I have failed on so many clues and I have been doing this for at least 8 years. Thanks Templar….I am grumpy too.

    1. Wow, some big names hitting the hurdles today!

29. Definitely not a beginner’s QC.

    Arnold Lane had a strange hobby….

    I associate transvestite with someone that wears woman’s clothes for personal pleasure whereas a drag artist wears an exaggerated version and usually excessive makeup in order to present themselves as entertainment for others. The Rocky Horror Show was definitely seventies but the film version ran for 20 odd years in a cinema on the Marylebone Road. Several touring stage versions ran in the 1990s. Time Warp is a classic rock song which I have rendered several times at karaoke including mimicking the various accents. I avoided the cross dressing though…

30. Completed in 11 minutes against a target of five.

    Definitely at the hard end of the spectrum for me.

    As others have said, a MER for warp meaning swerve, but if Jack says it’s in Collins then fair enough.

    COD to greens for its simplicity.

31. I did this in 19:06 which means I found it harder than average but was more on the wavelength than most

32. I knew loi Prog was probably wrong, but by then I was not only past caring but beginning to regret persevering with Wurm’s idea of a QC. Enough said. Invariant

    1. Ditto!

    2. Agreed

33. Far too difficult for me. Cant be bothered with the arcane quibbles about definitions. If there is a quibble at all then it belongs in the 15×15.
    I liken my QC solving to a walk in the park, each morning I follow a different guide, sometimes they take me on flat tarmac paths, and sometimes there are rocky or muddy bits, all are ok and I like the birdsong and the trees and flowers. Every so often the guide takes me straight to the athletics track and says today’s walk is 20 laps. When I politely demur they call me a great wimp, proudly announce that they can do 20 laps in 45 milliseconds and that its great training for the London Marathon.

    1. 🙂

    2. 👍😆

    3. 🤣

34. Gave up on 35 minutes with 6 unsolved, mostly in the NE. The top half was almost completely blank for quite a while until SPIRIT appeared. NHO TV as an abbreviation for transvestite and wanted to put ‘prog’ in if only I could have thought of a connection with clothing. Well, there’s always tomorrow.

    FOI – 12ac HIRED GUN
    LOI – DNF
    CODs (of those I solved) – 10ac GREENS and 2dn PUTRID.

    Thanks to Wurm and Templar.

    1. In a clutching at straws moment, Prog Clothing did produce a few hits in Google. . .

35. Webcam drag noball imho.
    After 13 minutes I had to use the crossword genius app to get webcam and then it had to be no ball.
    Didn’t parse webcam but using ‘zoom’ is quite clever; didn’t parse drag and having discovered the likely TV reference I’m very glad it didn’t come to mind as I too was very much taken aback by it and I my children think I’m rather un-woke.
    So it’s a No Wurm rather than a Yes Wurm from me. I enjoyed many of the other clues and Templar’s blog was top class.
    Ta TAW

    1. What is really clever is making Zoom the first word, so it could be capitalized. If the clue read ‘Way to capture an insect by the river with a Zoom lens’, it would be a dead giveaway.

36. Glad to see someone else (Invariant) put down PROG for 4d. I’d penciled it in earlier and when TURNPIKE fitted, I had a bit more confidence in it. Nevertheless, I should have looked at it again, but after getting my LOI PUTRID on 33:42, I’d had enough. Not sure I’d have got it anyway as I’m not familiar with TV as an abbreviation for transvestite. This is my fourth DNF in five QCs. Surely things have got to get better soon. Thanks all.

37. 36:30

    I found that extremely tough. Lots of misdirection, oh, that sort of extra, that sort of TV!

    Chipped away it by bit until just the top left corner was left where I struggled with SPIRIT and WARPLANE (didn’t think of warp = swerve) and finally LOI PUTRID.

38. From RAGU to PROG (sadly) in 15,18. Thought of DRAG but was fixated on goggle box rather than cross dressers. Bit of a stinker all round. Thanks Wurm and Templar.

39. I rather enjoyed this one. Having been misled by the easy 7a RAGU I soon realised it was going to be tough and settled in for the long haul. Quick SNITCH of 147 confirmed this.
    Only needed help with two to keep going (better this than just giving up as you learn more by working away at clues)
    My only MERs were DRAG- TV is just too unhelpful – and IT.
    Didn’t understand WEBCAM but Templar explained it and it’s rather clever.
    GREEN was my COD.
    Thanks Templar and Wurm, but please don’t make them all like this.

40. My thanks to Wurm and Templar.
    I usually complete the QC easily enough, but DNF, the 8a Turnpike did for me and that made 4d Drag impossible. I was going for TRY*****, and the way I was looking for wasn’t tarmacked. Even after I cheated and had -R-G I didn’t get 4d although drag looked the most like a garment. NHO TV=transvestite, and never thought that kind of indirection was meant. I thought we might have to translate to set, or idiots lantern or box or something. I only got 5d and 6d after the big cheat.
    POI 1d Warplane; I was surprised that the Spitfire was capitalised; that means it has to be the WW2 plane, not a cannon nor fiery person. Setters usually use caps deceptively in my experience.
    Other than that I thought it pretty hard, with 23a Webcam a bit of a b****r, never thought of Zoom the program so biffed. Nuff said.

41. This crossword does indeed require an ‘Editor’ . If these were edited the setters might be advised when they have pitched it wrongly, have been unnecessarily controversial or used terms which are outdated and potentially offensive!

    1. Totally agree!

    2. Many years ago, RR assured me that (as Editor) he rejected numerous clues, which I found a bit surprising as some of the ones that got through still seemed quite difficult. I can now appreciate what an excellent job he did. (© Tom Sawyer)

       1. RR is Richard Rogan, who very sadly died last year. I’m posting this just so that you know why I’m going to remove your comment (and this one!).

    3. Thank you Templar for your note to me and for your sensitivity!

       1. 👍🏻

42. For the second day in a row I bucked the trend, and completed within my QSNITCH average, although I had my LOI outstanding after the second pass. Even so, I was surprised to find myself 7th of 126 on the leaderboard.

    FOI HAND
    LOI WEBCAM
    COD DRAG
    TIME 4:31

43. Had one of my two crossword gurus here to lunch and he couldn’t do any of the seven I was stuck on, either! SPIRIT, ADRIFT (ADverT wrong of course), WEBCAM, LIMP, WARPLANE, RINGWORM, EDITOR, NO BALL too difficult for the likes of us. Glad to read the above and see we weren’t alone. Thank you, Templar; even you must have suffered.
    Still can’t quite see character = SPIRIT. NHO BLIMP. How is WARP = swerve, please? (Oh, thank you, jackkt, though I confess I agree with intentional rounding.) In EDITOR, why “this” boss?

    1. . . . because the answer (an Editor) might be the person/boss requiring the changes to be made.

44. DNF Disaster.
    I second all the queries above. NHO TV for transvestite. Won’t bother repeating all the other Major Eyebrow Raises. Pate = spread??
    Thanks vm, Templar. Sorry you had a bad IT day as well as a weird puzzle.

    1. I’d usually spread chicken liver paté (remember that accents aren’t part of this particular pastime!)

45. A very long lunch break today but eventually got over the line with a little help (looked up synonyms for swerve) to get WARPLANE. Had -RAG and ran through all the possibilities. Settled on DRAG but it took a while to make sense of TV (enough said above). Followed the wordplay for TURNPIKE but not fully convinced. Redemption came in the form of WEBCAM – what a fantastic clue. Also liked LIMP. Many thanks Wurm. I enjoyed it. Thanks too to Templar.

46. 12:27. Being tougher helped by slowing me down and so avoiding the typos I get when my brain has moved on to the next clue leaving my fingers to catch up unmonitored.
    We had the TV device in a 15×15 not too long ago otherwise LOI might have turned to DNF. Lots of clever tricks but COD WEBCAM. Thanks both.

47. Even using all available aids this was a DNF (turnpike, drag, greens, hand and no ball). I also got an error message trying to log in to the site saying I had made too many tries in the time which was odd since it was my first try today!

    1. Yes I’ve just got that error message too – first time I’ve seen it and it only appeared when I tried to access the site on my phone – PC still OK (as witness this comment)

       1. Had it too about 6 hours ago.

48. Dnf…

    Not a cat in hell’s chance with this. Over the last 3 to 4 years in putting down my times, I’ve only had a handful of puzzles where I’ve barely got anywhere – and I’m afraid I’ll have to add this to the list. Even a couple I thought I had were wrong – for example, 13dn wasn’t Coldsore. Too many obscure definitions in my view.

    FOI – 7ac “Ragu”
    LOI – Dnf (surprised I got a fourth one in, let alone a last one)
    COD – 2dn “Putrid” – not a great deal to choose from.

    Thanks as usual!

49. After persevering to complete in 48:51, I am glad to see that I am not the only person to find this a challenge.

    I submitted with a few unparsed (WEBCAM, SPIRIT) or at least dubious about (WARP…, DRAG), so happily surprised to get all green.

    I don’t want to complain though as, being a relative beginner, I feel I learnt more from this than the very easy Monday puzzles we have recently been having. (Which I assume is now a thing for the QC? Since Feb the SNITCH shows the Monday puzzle to generally be the easiest of the week). So glad for the mix of difficulties.

50. Oh Wurm.

    This took me 31:13 to finish in two sessions, and then I failed on 17d anyway, cricket is killing me this week. Some really amusing clues — COD PETER PAN — and some very stretchy definitions that had me tied in knots. Though my LOI, PUTRID, seems pretty obvious in retrospect, a classic cryptic clue experience.

    This puzzle seems to have given us a collective case of the grumps. Oh well, at least we’re together.

    Thanks to Wurm and most especially to Templar for exceptional perseverance, and to Starstruck.

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