Times Quick Cryptic 1936 by Tracy

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

At just over 12 minutes, this took nearly twice as long as yesterday’s. I struggled mostly in the NW. After solving this QC I carried on chewing away at a paper version of last Friday’s very hard 15×15 – I wish I’d not left it so late as one answer in that would have cracked 1ac here and solved many troubles. 2dn and 10ac were the last two in where I couldn’t see the correct synonym for either definition wfor tsome time.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Caterpillar: type found in southwest or Middlesex, principally (8)
SILKWORM – type (ILK) found inside southwest (SW), or (OR), (M)iddlesex. I had S___WORM for a while but knew sandstorm couldn’t be right. See 13ac from last Friday.
5 Communal dining room in an untidy state (4)
MESS – double definition.
8 After adjustment, agree best rent, being accommodating (5,2,6)
EAGER TO PLEASE – anagram (after adjustment) of AGREE, best (TOP), rent (LEASE).
10 Mugs, fine ones (5)
FACES – fine (F), ones (ACES). I was trying for a fool/idiot.
11 Dug line out producing spoil (7)
INDULGE – anagram (out) of DUG LINE. Great surface which took some digging out.
12 Special gift Capone put in marquee (6)
TALENT – (AL) Capone inside marquee (TENT).
13 Fellow with vital dope (6)
DONKEY – fellow (DON), vital (KEY) – so not gen or info then.
16 Seen in midnight sun, a mighty big wave (7)
TSUNAMI – seen inside midnigh(T SUN A MI)ghty.
18 American returned his cracked Japanese dish (5)
SUSHI – American – us – backwards (SU), anagram (cracked) of HIS.
20 Without restrictions, distributed LSD on board her (2,5,6)
NO HOLDS BARRED – anagram (distributed) of LSD ON BOARD HER.
21 Go one better than catching river fish (4)
CARP – go one better (CAP) catching river (R).
22 Periodical trouble working back in bush (8)
MAGNOLIA – periodical (MAG) then trouble (AIL) and working (ON) both backwards.
Down
1 Female with a fine bundle (5)
SHEAF – female (SHE), a (A), fine (F).
2 US soldier in pub reasoned correctly (7)
LOGICAL – IS soldier (GI) inside pub (LOCAL). Local came a long time after bar/inn etc.
3 Action unlikely to be taken about French novelist, regardless of her faults? (5,3,3)
WARTS AND ALL – action (WAR), unlikely (TALL) around French novelist (SAND). I liked this clue as the ‘her’ in the definition turned out to be because the French novelist was female – Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, best known by her pen name George Sand, was a French novelist, memoirist, and journalist.
4 Piece that is for a beginner (6)
ROOKIE – piece (in chess – ROOK), that is (IE).
6 Message European man picked up (5)
EMAIL – European (E), homophone (picked up) of male.
7 Screen wild unknown landscape (7)
SCENERY – anagram (wild) of SCREEN, unknown (Y).
9 Senora’s song? (4,2,5)
LADY OF SPAIN – a popular song composed in 1931 by Tolchard Evans with lyrics by “Erell Reaves”, a pseudonym of Stanley J. Damerell and Robert Hargreaves. I know it through the Jeeves and Wooster episode where the Drones Club went on a ukulele tour.
12 Monster film (7)
TITANIC – double definition – possibly a triple given that Titanic has a running time of nearly 3hrs 14mins – and so could be described as a monster of a film.
14 Small falcon among quickest released (7)
KESTREL – in quic(KEST REL)eased.
15 Tea is prepared after son’s afternoon nap (6)
SIESTA – anagram (prepared) of TEA IS after son (S).
17 Court official, that woman below us (5)
USHER – that woman (HER) below us (US).
19 Home help raised in Asian country (5)
INDIA – home (IN), help – aid – upwards backwards (DIA).

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1936 by Tracy”

  1. ….but I managed to finish in 7:21 – good thing we had that silkworm clue last week. Eager to please, no holds barred, and warts and all were pretty easy biffs, so that sped things up. Unwary solvers might put monkey instead of donkey – hey, mon! Nope.

    A warning to Crossword Club users: they seem to have run into difficulties over there. First there was the problem with getting users mixed up that was reported yesterday, but today it seems like they can’t update your puzzle status to completed, hence the leaderboard is not populated. As I told Jeremy, the most likely cause of these types of problems is running out of space, either in the database or in the filesystem. This happens when you run a production system for a long time, nobody checks, and everything gradually fills up.

    1. Mrs Random and I prefer to solve on paper, and I record our outcomes in an Excel file. Since starting last June, my spreadsheet now comprises 312 rows of data, but I think the maximum number of rows possible is 1,048,576. That means I will have to set up another Excel file in just over 4,016 years’ time. I’ll put a note in my diary.
  2. No problems here, although I biffed the two long acrosses, never bothered to parse if I recall correctly. ‘Eager to please’ is a famous phrase in linguistics, after Chomsky used the pair eager to please/easy to please. I wrote to the Club forum about the problem Vinyl mentions; at least they’re still recording the times. 4:24.
  4. Not my finest showing, stuck at the end debating whether MON was the fellow we were looking for. MAGNOLIA also held me up considerably.

    Incidentally, I have been streaming some of my solves here: https://www.twitch.tv/plusjeremy. Not sure how this could be useful to people who are trying to solve the puzzle themselves, but hey, someone from Scotland showed up.

    2. Jeremy, from someone who usually takes around 30 minutes to solve the QC, that’s brilliant and made me smile. There will be nobody on this side of the pond who is not screaming the answer to your LOI at least 10 minutes before you get it. What I go through every morning. Thanks again!
      1. Glad you enjoyed it. I believe if you follow me on there you will be notified next time I stream.
    3. Dear Jeremy,
      I loved watching you solve today’s QC. Your speed around the grid was most impressive, but it was also comforting (to this confirmed member of the SCC) to see that a couple of clues held you up at the end. For what it’s worth, Mrs Random also got properly stuck on both the same clues today.
      Mr R.
      1. Glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to follow so you can be notified when I go live. And if you have suggestions for what I should do on the stream, I’m open to them!
  5. 13:55. FOI MESS but the four long clues were tougher today. NHO LADY OF SPAIN which was therefore LOI.. NHO author Sand, so that remained unparsed.

    COD ROOKIE

    Edited at 2021-08-10 05:52 am (UTC)

    1. I had to look that one up – is it a good idea to drink at the Swindlestock Tavern?
  6. Lots to get our teeth into today. Had to biff LADY OF SPAIN as we’d never heard of it and it took us a long time to get MAGNOLIA. We eventually finished after 15 minutes.

    FOI: MESS
    LOI: MAGNOLIA
    COD: DONKEY (liked EAGER TO PLEASE too)

    Thanks Tracy and Chris.

  7. A shade under 12 today. The long anagrams came late, EAGER TO PLEASE in particular, which wasn’t helpful. LADY OF SPAIN and George SAND were both unknown but proved gettable. Ended up with MAGNOLIA where I needed all the checkers to be sure which end to start. Special mention to TSUNAMI, a very ambitious word to hide which I was disappointed to spot too quickly. Enjoyed ROOKIE too for the moment of realisation about what ‘piece’ was up to.
  8. FOI: 5a. MESS
    LOI: 9d. LADY OF SPAIN
    Time to Complete: 42 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 21
    Clues Answered with Aids: 3
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: Nil
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 24/24
    Aids Used: Chambers

    Another fairly easy QC for me. I was not aware of the song LADY OF SPAIN. I guess Spain quite early on, and Lady eventually came. The ACES in FACES took me some time to work out too. INDULGE also took me some time to work out.

  9. I see this has given some trouble. I guess it’s a generation thing, but the song of that name was a huge hit for Eddie Fisher in 1952 when I was growing up, and it was hard to avoid it. Sad to say there was a mildly smutty alternative version of the second line of the lyric which I tend to think of before the original. I don’t know whether it ever extended further into the verse.
    2. I remember the Eddie Fisher version–didn’t remember that it was Eddie Fisher–and I’m afraid I remember the childish revision.
  10. A 10 minute finish, but a couple unparsed …
    … which I suspect harder self-critics would not be satisfied with. I NHO 9D Lady of Spain, and could not parse 3D Warts and all, so they were biffs, I am still at the “relatively inexperienced solver” stage though, so I count a completed puzzle with biffs as a finish!

    Two very impressive hiddens in 14D Kestrel and 16A Tsunami, the latter very clever indeed as not a promising set of letters to “hide”.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  11. An entertaining solve.
    I somehow managed to pluck the song from the depths of my memory but in my mind I have an image of it being sung on a TV show (Sharpe) relating the the Napoleonic Wars – clearly not the song referenced in the clue!

    On edit
    I’ve just done some googling – the song I was thinking of was ‘Spanish Ladies’ a traditional naval song.

    It’s not often I choose hidden clues as my favourites but I thought both KESTREL and particularly TSUNAMI were excellent. Finished in 8.00 with LOI ROOKIE with WARTS AND ALL unparsed.
    Thanks to Chris.

    Edited at 2021-08-10 09:14 am (UTC)

  12. After finishing the last two QCs quickly (for me) I was slow to start this one. I moved away from the NW quickly and had more success on the RH side before slowly moving clockwise around the grid. I was helped by a few fairly easy clues and enjoyed some very neat construction and some clever misdirection as well as two excellent hiddens. My COD is SILKWORM. I must say that, unlike Kevin, I didn’t fill in the long across answers until near the end. An enjoyable QC that took me a minute over my target. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2021-08-10 08:22 am (UTC)

  13. FOI MESS, LOI EAGER TO PLEASE.
    Like others, I found the NW difficult but after solving ROOKIE, I saw SILKWORM, and hence SHEAF. All clever clues.
    No problem with LADY OF SPAIN (…I adore you) or MAGNOLIA, though the latter is a tree/shrub not a bush.
    Liked WARTS AND ALL. Knew SAND must come into it somewhere when I saw And but had to wait for PDM.
    Thanks vm, Chris.
  14. apart from the biffed LADY OF SPAIN and WARTS AND ALL, this was all on the reasonable side of things, and those two went in easily enough from the definition. DONKEY was actually my LOI.

    4:45.

  15. Well done all above, beat me hands down. DNF here, just could not get MAGNOLIA. In my view that is a poor clue since although you do get magnolias in bush form you also get them in tree form (I have 2 magnolia salicifolias and they are 40 foot high now), so it’s a DBE and should have been indicated as such. Humph.

    Even without that I was 12 mins, so twice as long as yesterday. NHO LADY OF SPAIN, DNK a SILKWORM is a caterpillar (Colin, anyone?), put MONKEY at first (hoots mon!) though knew it wasn’t right and did get there in the end … slow all over the grid.

    Hey ho, there’s another one tomorrow!

    Many thanks Tracy and Chris.

    Templar

    1. I believe the silkworm is the caterpillar of a moth, but I guess few make it to adulthood.
  16. A DNF for me as I guessed LIDA OF SPAIN for 9d. Now Chris has mentioned it, I do vaguely recall the Jeeves and Wooster episode and I should have spent a minute or two trying to think of a more satisfactory answer, but I had it in my head that it was an unknown song about a named Spanish girl and the best I would be able to do was guess. Even disregarding the error, the puzzle took 28:44, so not my finest (half) hour anyway. Plenty of great clues though. TSUNAMI was easily spotted, but hats off to putting a 7 letter word across four words, and I liked the simplicity of CARP. COD however, goes to DONKEY. Thanks to Tracy and Chris.
  17. Lots of biffing for me today, going from SHEAF to MAGNOLIA in 6:31. As Jack says, to those of a certain age, LADY OF SPAIN was a write in. I remember the alternative version too! Thanks Tracy and Chris.
  18. A combination of straightforward clues and some much more difficult ones. Eventually finished in 18 mins, exactly twice as long as yesterday. Didn’t parse 8ac, 3dn or 22ac. For a long time at 8ac I was looking for an anagram of agree best rent before deciding that just couldn’t work. Thought of the answer to 3dn quite early on but waited for all the crossers as I couldn’t parse it. Didn’t know the song, which didn’t help, so took a (correct) punt on that. Thanks to Tracy for an enjoyable puzzle and to Chris for shedding light where there was none.

    FOI – 5ac MESS
    LOI – 22ac MAGNOLIA
    COD – 21ac CARP

  19. … of Mrs Random (but not Mr R) suffering the curse of the LOI. Even more strange then (as Mrs R is an excellent and very keen gardener) that her LOI was MAGNOLIA. I was delighted to finish in 26 minutes, and Mrs R crossed the line in 44 minutes today.

    My favourite clues – for their cleverness – were SILKWORM, EAGER TO PLEASE, TSUNAMI and KESTREL. I biffed WARTS AND ALL and had to parse it after putting down my pencil. Also, I had NHO the French novelist or the Senora’s song.

    Many thanks to Tracy and chrisw91.

    Stop Press: Mrs Random has just taken out her LOI frustration on yesterday’s Orpheus, which she completed in 17 minutes – almost twice as fast as me, even though my time yesterday was my best ever against that setter. So, order has been quickly restored in the Random household.

  20. Still kicking myself over this one. Spent far too long trying to use ‘agree best rent’ as the anagram fodder in 8ac and was then desperate to pick up the pace lower down the grid. I was convinced the song was Lady IN Spain and, with the clock fast approaching 25mins, that meant loi 13ac just had to be Mickey (as in Mickey Finn/dope — I can be very creative at times). On the other hand Sushi, after last week, was a write-in… Invariant

    Edited at 2021-08-10 11:15 am (UTC)

    1. Often get stumped by those types of anagrams as well — the ones where there are the right number of letters, but the setter has cleverly restricted the anagrind to part of it and the rest are just synonyms of the actual words.

      I’ve found for the big ones it’s best to sometimes just step back and see if the answer pops out (with relevant checkers) before diving in.

  21. An enjoyable 15 mins for me, although there were quite a few biffs going on (3dn, 8ac, 20ac and the before mentioned “Lady of Spain”).

    As seems to be common these days, made no headway in the NW corner to start so ventured over to the East.

    FOI — 5ac “Mess”
    LOI — 1ac “Silkworm”
    COD — 10ac “Faces”

    Thanks as usual!

  22. After 9 minutes two to get — then after Magnolia — 13 minutes with one to get — all done in 15 minutes after LOI Carp.

    I had Lady in Spain for a while having first thought of Lady in Black and got fixated with ‘in’. But fortunately saw Don for fellow and all fell into place. NHO the song.

    Good hiddens and pleased to get 1a as FOI

    Thanks all

    John George

    Edited at 2021-08-10 01:01 pm (UTC)

  23. …after a very poor showing last week. All done in just over 20 mins which is a really good time for me. Like many, biffed WARTS AND ALL (NHO Sand) and EAGER TO PLEASE. Enjoyed ROOKIE and FACES. FOI LOGICAL, LOI CARP. Many thanks Chris and Tracy.
  24. 10 minutes dotting around the grid somewhat. It wasn’t a MESS but not a very LOGICAL solve either. No probs with the GK — nowadays George Sand is probably known as much for her affair with Chopin as for her writing and independence / feminism. I can’t say I know any of her work though! The song popped straight into my mind even though I haven’t heard it for DONKEYs years — I’ve got an annoying earworm now. A SILKWORM would be preferable 😀
    FOI Mess
    LOI Faces
    COD Tsunami, although I liked Faces and Siesta a lot too
    Thanks Tracy and Chris
  25. Similar to many other solvers today with FOI MESS and biffs of the long ones, the one exception being a guess at LADY OF SPAIN which I have NHO. My LOI was ROOKIE but only because it was the last clue I read. 7:57
  26. No time for me today, as done in two sessions before and after a relaxed breakfast with a fellow golf-widower (Mrs R playing golf today with his wife). I had no real problems though and expect that I completed within or on target. LOI MAGNOLIA like others. Thanks both.
  27. ….but it didn’t set me up for the 15×15 , where I floundered again (by my standards !)

    FOI MESS
    LOI DONKEY
    COD LOGICAL
    TIME 3:42

  28. 13 mins. Usually with Tracy I race through but get stuck on one clue. Luckily donkey went in pretty quickly.

    COD sheaf.

Comments are closed.