Times Quick Cryptic No 1968 by Corelli

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I was 8 minutes yesterday and 12 today, done straight after, so either this was a(nother) tough one or my wavelength is all over the show. My major holdups were having to write out the anagrams for 2d and 21ac, and then needing a bit of a think for 5d at the end. It would be unusual for Corelli not to set a Nina, and as we have had some brilliant ones in the past I did spend a bit of time post-solve trying to find one. Oh well, I look forward to seeing what sharper eyes than mine can find. A fine puzzle with or without the Nina – many thanks to Corelli!

Across
1 Tease very loudly after tea (5)
CHAFF – FF (fortissimo = very loudly) after CHA (tea)
7 One no longer beating person offering clarification (9)
EXPOUNDER – or an EX-POUNDER could be a person no longer beating/pounding
9 Extremist’s quality real, but regularly overlooked (5)
ULTRA – is q U a L i T y R e A l except “regularly overlooked”
10 Gang in West Side Story film, travelling socialites? (3,3,3)
THE JET SET – The Jets are a gang (= SET) in the film, but I haven’t seen it. Edit: as Pb notes below, it’s “THE JETS from West side story with ET as the film”, which is much better,
11 Lout starts off yelling on bus (3)
YOB – “Starts off” Yelling On Bus. Originally (ca. 1850) just a neutral word for a boy, right around the start of when “back slang” was becoming a thing in Victorian England, yob being boy backwards.
12 Our Phoebe, getting worked up, a possible Brexit supporter? (9)
EUROPHOBE – anagram (getting worked up) of OUR PHOEBE
14 Delivers shilling found in small fruit pie (5,4)
TURNS OVER – S(hilling) found in TURNOVER (small fruit pie).
16 Old coin found in tart, not the last (3)
SOU – SOUr (tart), not the last.
18 Consistently, college class lazy in the extreme (9)
UNIFORMLY – UNI (college) FORM (class) LY (LazY “in the extreme”)
20 Asian artist and queen visiting India twice (5)
IRAQI – RA (artist) and Q(ueen) visiting I I (India, twice)
21 Ban a stunt that’s recreated a feature of apartheid (9)
BANTUSTAN – anagram (that’s recreated) of BAN A STUNT.
22 Fools back in diocese, egotistical (5)
GEESE – “Back in” diocESE EGotistical. I think (if I was to use the word at all, for fool) I would say “look at those two gooses” sooner than “look at those two geese”, but I would be wrong. I see “gooses” does exist as the plural of a tailor’s smoothing iron, though.

Down
1 Foreign nobleman and Yankee causing division in England? (6)
COUNTY – COUNT (foreign nobleman) and Y(ankee)
2 Trio into a ban might turn out to be this (4-8)
ANTI-ABORTION – anagram (might turn out to be) of TRIO INTO A BAN. The definition “this” refers back to the pro-banning trio, but if there’s anything more specific going on with the trio it eludes me.
3 Plumes of smoke finally welcomed by priests (8)
FEATHERS – E (smokE “finally”) welcomed by FATHERS (priests)
4 Show what’s on mobile phone? Something to listen with (6)
APPEAR – APP (what’s on mobile phone?) EAR (something to listen with)
5 Dark horse seen over eastern hill at coast? (4)
DUNE – DUN (dark horse) seen over E(astern).
6 Hard to get inside pen: twist (6)
WRITHE – H(ard) to get inside WRITE (pen)
8 Record being played so behind schedule makes you sad (12)
DISCONSOLATE – DISC (record being played) ; SO ; LATE (behind schedule)
13 Norm making a bow perhaps, and celebrating? (8)
PARTYING – PAR (norm/average) TYING (making a bow perhaps)
14 Digits therefore must include megabytes (6)
THUMBS – THUS (therefore) must include MB (megabytes)
15 Chucks in five skips (6)
VOMITS – V (five) OMITS (skips)
17 Positive aspect is due to reform, quietly included (6)
UPSIDE – anagram (to reform) of IS DUE, with P (piano = quietly) included
19 Work beginning for office: drink up! (4)
OPUS – O (“beginning” for Office) SUP (drink) “up”

62 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1968 by Corelli”

  1. Slowed down by ANTI-ABORTION, where it was difficult to sort the anagrist out in my head, and where the definition was an unhelpful ‘this’. I failed to notice that my hair-trigger keyboard had typed 2 M’s at VOMITS, giving me two errors. 6:50.
  2. 14 minutes, possibly slightly distracted by Corelli as the setter and being on the lookout for a theme or Nina. No, Roly, I wasn’t able to spot one either.

    Out of his 25 puzzles set since 2014 Corelli has given us 7 NOTs (Ninas or Themes). Topics have been ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Little Dorrit’ (Felix territory there!), the Great Fire of London (QC 1666, of course), ‘READ BETWEEN THE LINES’, Ian McEwan, and Spoonerisms (PUNNING CLAN, BEDDING WELLS etc). A couple of those are on literary topics virtually unknown to me, so today if there is a NOT it could well be another one of those. Other than that I can only suggest that BANTUSTAN GEESE might be a clue to something.

    Edited at 2021-09-23 02:59 am (UTC)

    1. Ah interesting, thanks for the stats – if I’d known Corelli’s NOT-rate was only 1-in-4-ish it would have saved me a bit of time post-solve!
      1. Thanks, Roly, I knew the overall odds but I still spent a lot of time looking for something today as I also knew that 6 of the 7 consecutive Corelli puzzles before today had NOTS (or should that be TONS?). The exception was QC1904 on 25th June but of course it’s possible it contained something that we all missed at the time. I may take another look at it.

        Correction on edit: A ‘Down’ theme has now been established for today (thanks Plymouthian). Also I just looked back at the blog for QC1904 and note that someone pointed out there was an animals theme. I have amended the archive to reflect this. That gives us 9 NOTS in a row from Corelli. I wonder if we missed any others.

        Edited at 2021-09-23 09:32 am (UTC)

  3. All the aids came out today on the way to a 26m solve. Misdirected a lot and a bit short of knowledge.
  5. I kind of lost interest in this after unravelling the (to me) nonsensical ANTI-ABORTION and HNO BANTUSTAN anagrams, with about half the grid remaining.
    I assumed that there was an unnecessary nina in the grid but plodded on anyway and finished in 14.59.
    Thanks to Rolytoly
    1. Well spotted! Seems a bit random though – can’t see how it works for quite a few clues
    3. Seems good! Now that you’ve spotted this can we all pool our thoughts?

      I can see COUNTY Down, UPSIDE down, THUMBS down around the edges, but WRITHES down? I don’t know that as an expression but if you ignore the H you have WRITE down. I know ‘goose down’ of course but not GEESE down! Any others?

        1. Yes, FEATHERS and PARTYING fit and being DISCONSOLATE is down – I’m not sure if oldblighter was alluding to that below. A DUNE is a down according to SOED, and CHAFF may qualify with reference to hairs etc on plants and seeds. If one VOMITS one can’t keep food down, but perhaps that’s stretching things a little too far!

          Edited at 2021-09-23 09:18 am (UTC)

            1. Yes very well spotted! I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be thrown in a dungeon and promised freedom only after the correct solution to a puzzle. I think in this case, in the mists of eternity, on guessing the word “down”, I would feel a bit aggrieved on hearing the reason why. As templar says it does seem a bit random. And it would be even more mind-melting to see you stroll out of the neighbouring cell after just a couple of minutes.
  7. I quite enjoyed this QC, especially after yesterday. The anagrams seemed to pop out without recourse to p&p but some of the clues were tougher: WRITE, DUNE, EXPOUNDED, TURNS OVER, and (LOI) APPEAR took longer than they should have done. They took me 3 mins over target but it was a pleasant solve.
    I especially liked COUNTY, DISCONSOLATE, FEATHERS, and PARTYING. Thanks to Corelli and Roly.
  8. I found this tricky as I don’t have pen and paper with me and had to do the anagrams in my head. CHAFF was FOI and BANTUSTAN LOI. 14:09. Thanks Corelli and Roly.
  9. As per plett11, pretty much to the second. Didn’t enjoy that one much. Next!

    Thanks for the blog, roly.

    Templar

  10. Slow and steady, with DUNE and APPEAR last in. I wasn’t stuck forever on the last two clues.
    Thanks as always for the excellent blog service, and thanks again to the setter for a nice puzzle
    BW
    Andrew

  11. DNF at 20 mins. For 7a both Explainer and Expositor fitted nicely. Could not think of a third one.

    Also missed DUNE, I never get horse colours: bay and roan also appear a lot in crosswords. They all look brown to me.

    Had “Jet set something” at 10 a which had me trying to work Frijoles in at 3D, a good effort to get a J in.

    COD THE JET SET

  12. Had nearly all in at 45 minutes, then spent another 8 minutes or so trying to work out WRITHE — only after a trip to Chambers could I write in the answer, although I still wasn’t 100%.

    I’m still not regularly completing the QC, so I’m always happy with a finish although this was only by the skin of my teeth today! I found the majority of the clues fairly beginner friendly although I had SLU in for an old coin, Tart=Slut (!) but having never heard of SLU I eventually gave in and guessed on SOU.

    Very happy with my efforts parsing DISCONSOLATE — not a familiar term for me but worked out purely using the wordplay.

    NHO BANTUSTAN, although with the checkers in place I guessed the rest, was either going to be BANTUSTAN or BANSUTTAN and I got lucky…

    I couldn’t parse DUNE although the answer was obvious from the definition.

    Liked THE JET SET, made me chuckle.

    FOI CHAFF
    LOI WRITHE

    Thanks to Corelli and Roly

    Edited at 2021-09-23 08:53 am (UTC)

  13. I thought this was tricky too. I didn’t think the Anti-abortion clue worked and hadn’t heard of Bantustan — although knew Bantu as a tribe so thought it must be that. I found the right hand side much slower than the left and like Merlin struggled with dune (my LOI) and expounder. Also had a typo in opus so a bad day for me!
  14. A little on the tricky side. DNK my last one in, BANTUSTAN but it fit the checkers and anagram fodder. 5:12
  15. ….so there’ll be a theme (which I won’t notice) and consequently any number of obscurities just to help it along its not very merry way. And I may as well forget my target….

    FOI CHAFF
    LOI BANTUSTAN (NHO)
    COD SOU
    TIME 5:28

  16. I was held up by SOU, OPUS and my LOI the NHO BANTUSTAN. Thankfully I know of BANTU as a language so that determined the order of the last remaining letters in the anagram fodder. The nina passed me by and even when pointed out with a one word reference I still didn’t see it! Oh well. 11:52
  17. About 12 minutes to get to my last two. Eventually I got DUNE (unparsed) and then plumped for BANSUTTAN. So I missed the order of the letters for this, to me unknown, word.
    Still no idea what it means so I will look it up later.
    About 19 minutes when I finally pressed submit.
    David
  18. After yesterday’s toughie it was more like business as usual today. Really interesting and entertaining puzzle with lots to think about. Although we solved the anagram in 2D we didn’t really understand the clue. NHO of BANTUSTAN so we learned something new today. All done in 12 minutes.

    FOI: CHAFF
    LOI: WRITHE
    COD: VOMITS

    Thanks to Corelli and Rolytoly.

    Happy 60th birthday to the cryptic crossword editor too!

  19. 30 mins for me, but I thought this was only slightly easier than yesterday and there were a couple of educated guesses including 21ac “Bantustan” (going to have to look it up as I have no idea what it means), 22ac “Geese” and 16ac “Sou”.

    There were some fairly clever clues here, which meant the anagram at 2dn “Anti-Abortion” took an age to see as did 6dn “Writhe”.

    FOI — 1dn “County”
    LOI — 6dn “Writhe”
    COD — 15ac “Vomits” — love a sick joke

    Thanks as usual!

  20. quicker than yesterday, but not a lot.

    Another trickier one, well over target.

    LOI was the NHO BANTUSTAN, but as with desdeeloeste, knew BANTU as a southern African language, and stuck a STAN on the end.

    I enjoyed quite a few of the clues – VOMITS, TURNS OVER. I just about avoided having to resort to writing out the anagrists.

    10:12

      1. Yes, I meant to pick up on that. Bantu is a very large GROUP of languages, of which Swahili is the most widely spoken.
        1. Language schmanguage. 🙂

          Top level pedantry chaps, duly noted, but it helped me solve the clue, despite it being erroneous “knowledge”.

          Edited at 2021-09-23 10:46 am (UTC)

          1. Don’t worry – I thought it was from Star Wars – but then realised I was thinking Bantha which is a large animal.
  21. Slightly surprised to sneak a sub-20, but I was lucky enough to get Expounder, The Jet Set and even Bantustan quite quickly, so they gave me lots of crossers. I needed all of them for loi Anti Abortion, which still seems an odd clue. I ran through quite a few words for 12ac, but had to settle for one that fitted the crossers and spaces. CoD to the aptly nearby Disconsolate. Invariant
  22. Difficult. Stuck to the read-right-through method, but came in at 23 minutes. FOI chaff – good vibes – 9 on first pass, then had to rattle my brains. LOI Bantustan, NHO, needed all the other letters. COD disconsolate. Despite the long solve, I managed to parse almost all, but the theme passed me by as usual, I forget to look for them. I enjoyed the theme once it had been pointed out. Thanks, Roly, bloggers, and setter. GW.
  23. I found this relatively straightforward, certainly as compared with yesterday’s effort. Everything complete and parsed in 13 mins. No real hold-ups anywhere, just a steady solve. NHO Bantustan but, like others, had heard of Bantu, so the answer became fairly obvious. Missed the them but I wasn’t looking for one (wouldn’t have seen it even if I had been). Nice puzzle – thanks to Corelli and thanks to Rolytoly for the blog.

    FOI – 1ac CHAFF
    LOI – 8dn DISCONSOLATE
    COD – 1ac CHAFF

  24. Roly, there’s a missing ON in your blog for 8d.

    Thanks for your blog, I find all the blogs fascinating.

    john

    1. Ah yes thanks, well spotted – probably a bit late to merit editing the blog: the confused late solver who can’t be bothered reading the comments will simply have to remain in the dark!
  25. I saw Corelli’s name but decided to just focus on the puzzle and look for the theme afterwards — and of course I didn’t see it! Well spotted Plymouthian 😊 Another 13 minute solve for me with a few smiles on the way, but BANTUSTAN after yesterday’s anagram of a French phrase? Hmmm — these quickies are quite tricky at the moment, I think.
    I liked the retired basher and VOMITS raised a rather sickly smile.
    FOI Chaff
    LOI Appear
    COD Partying
    Thanks Corelli and Roly
  26. Better today than yesterday, with a good variety of clues.
    EXPOUNDER I just didn’t see; never heard it other than as a verb!
    Realised I like clues such as DISCONSOLATE and UNIFORMLY where each word in the clue provides a part of the answer in sequence. Very satisfying!

    Thanks for the explanations and the puzzle

  27. Too difficult as far as I was concerned. Threw in the towel with several left to solve.
    Oh dear.
    Liked TURNS OVER, DISCONSOLATE, THUMBS, UNIFORMLY.
    A dun horse is not usually dark, quite a pale colour in fact.
    Thanks for much needed blog, Roly.
    1. Yes, I was going to mention that in the blog, as I looked into it: the OED says that “dun” can be any colour of horse you like, so long as it has a dark mane and tail with a dark stripe on its back. Potentially quite far from a dark horse in my opinion, but there we are!
    2. I should add that there is a wide range of definitions elsewhere for what constitutes a dun, to the extent that I would be asking for quite a lot more information should I ever be buying one.
  28. 5:16 this morning. Another QC that was tricky in parts.
    For me the only obscurity was 21 ac “bantustan” where the anagrist looked unpromising at first. I think the name may be more familiar as “homeland(s)”?
    15 d “vomits” — according to Chambers “up” needs to be added to “chuck” to complete the synonym, but I have no desire to dwell on this.
    Well done Plymouthian for spotting the theme, of which again I was totally oblivious.
    Thanks to Roly and Corelli.
  29. I only managed to answer half of this puzzle before giving up after a total of one hour. Some of the clues I found easy, others too difficult.

    I read that yesterday’s QC was very difficult. I refuse to try Izetti’s QCs as I really do not rate him at all as a QC setter. Seems like it was a very difficult one judging by the comments.

    Hopefully tomorrow’s QC will be a nice one.

    1. You wouldn’t have enjoyed it…however, even though I also spat out my dummy, if you don’t do them sometimes you don’t pick up on certain things.

      Edited at 2021-09-23 01:06 pm (UTC)

  30. A rapid start with 1a and 1d going in straight away, followed by most of the NW corner – although I know I was lucky to biff ANTI-ABORTION from just A_T_ ________. Then, a 10-minute hiatus, during which not a single clue was solved. Eventually, I got GEESE (right down in the SE corner) and it was jerky progress from there to the finish.

    I couldn’t remember the West Side Story gang until all of the checkers were in place, and I had to trust to luck with BANTUSTAN (my LOI) as the most likely combination of the given letters. I found TURNS OVER very difficult, and OPUS, SOU and THUMBS all presented their challenges. However, I stuck at it and crossed the line all correct in 39 minutes.

    Mrs Random also found today’s puzzle hard, but her progress was slightly smoother, albeit only a little faster – 36 minutes in total. She now has a 4-0 lead over me this week.

    Many thanks to Corelli and rolytoly.

  31. Slow going for us, not helped by putting expounded for 7a, which made 6d difficult. Happy to finish, if over our target.
  32. I dis not not spot the Nina and was just over 15 minutes on this rather annoying puzzlement.

    FOI 1ac CHAFF which is a down clue as per Jack

    LOI 15dn VOMITS – vomitorium – a passage at a footy match for a quick downward exit. I think there was one at Highbury.

    COD 21ac BANTUSTAN

    WOD 10ac THE JET SET

  33. … which took me just over 11 minutes. I had heard of Bantustans, the best-known of which (and the only one which even semi-functioned) was Transkei. It’s an odd word though, as -stan meaning an area, country, unit of administration etc is more associated with central Asia — Afghanistan and Pakistan being the best known, but also the ex-Soviet republics like Uzbekistan and some wannabe countries like Kurdistan. Where the Afrikaners got the word from I don’t know.

    That apart, a puzzle with some great clues but also some rather odd ones I thought — 2D Anti-abortion was not Corelli’s finest surface IMO, and is Geese really a synonym for fools? But enjoyable enough overall even with the odd shrug of the shoulders.

    Many thanks to Roly for the blog
    Cedric

    2. Bantu (Zulu word for people) + staan (Afrikaans word for stand, or limited area), when combined, drops one of the ‘a’s, to form Bantustan.
  34. An odd word to slip into a QC! This was a tough nut as I did not know BANTUSTAN or spot the NINA – I never do! COD 3dd FEATHERS. Time 6:17 mins. Thank-you Captain Corelli.
  35. Found this a lot harder than yesterday overall, with the exception of the unknown French phrase, but I would much prefer to have a hard but satisfying solve, than have most of it go in easily and then be stumped at the end by one NHO. I suppose BANTUSTAN would qualify as an obscure term and it was clued as an anagram, but as others have said, once you put BANTU in there (and I’m afraid I too thought it was a language in its own right), it can’t be much else. I eventually got there in 36:21, but it was then nearly a DNF as I came on here before thinking I’d better go back and think some more about the unknown SLU coin I’d put in at 16a. I vaguely remembered coming across a SOU before, so then I just had to come up with a four letter word for tart which started that way. I had been thinking of another kind of tart entirely. Anyway, thanks Corelli and Rolytoly. Liked the origin of YOB info. Are there any other words with a similar origin?
    1. No other words is current usage that I can find – I suppose it was ultimately far too restrictive, and workoutable when the code had been cracked, compared to Cockney Rhyming Slang, for example, which had a similar purpose as a sort of thieves’ cant. The only other vaguely good one is “kirp”, but there again “berk” beats that hands down!

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