Times Quick Cryptic No 2736 by Joker

Author   Mike HarperPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 7:01

Reasonably middle-of-the-road fare from the Joker, I felt. I liked the surface of 12a – how many of us were thinking of various Tower inmates, I wonder? And 19a was one of those that can tie you in knots until the answer becomes clear.

All of the answers should be in the very-gettable zone though.

How did you all find it?

Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].

Across
1 Go over role of female at wedding holding key (6)
BRIDGE – BRIDE (role of female at wedding) holding a musical key, in this case G
4 Crook — bit like I might clue it? (6)
BANDIT – B AND IT – the word ‘bit’ as the setter might clue it.

BANDIT meaning “lawless robber, brigand” comes from 16th century Italian bandito (plural banditi) and is related to both “ban” and “banish”.
8 One put in homeless person’s file (7)
DOSSIER -Take a DOSSER (homeless person) and insert I (one [put in])
10 Get angry about loud firearm (5)
RIFLE – RILE (Get angry) about F (loud i.e. f is short for the musical direction ‘forte‘ meaning “Strong (i.e. to be played or sung loudly)”)

‘Get angry’ doesn’t quite sit right with me – can you say ‘I rile easily’?

Or is the verb to rile always applied to another person e.g. ‘I riled Jimmy’ or ‘Jimmy riled me’.

Ever wondered why a RIFLE is named so? It’s specifically a “portable firearm having a barrel or barrels with a spirally grooved bore”. The spirals impart rotation to the projectile, making its flight more accurate.

Back in the 1750s, the word was particular to the grooves themselves. The verb RIFLE meant “to cut spiral grooves in” (a gun barrel).
11 Table liqueur is allowed no reuse (5)
CHART – CHARTREUSE (liqueur without [is allowed no] the letters ‘reuse’)
12 Tower inmate confused about origin of ravens (7)
MINARET –  Anagram [confused] of INMATE about the first letter [origin] of R{avens}

Took me a second look to lift and separate ‘Tower’ and ‘inmate’.
13 Unpunctuality of feasts eaten by sailors (9)
TARDINESS – DINES (feasts) inside [eaten by] TARS (sailors)
17 Division of an English county is a square (7)
HUNDRED – Double definition – the second being 102 = 100

The origin of the division of counties into hundreds is described by the OED as “exceedingly obscure”. It may have once referred to an area of 100 ‘hides’ – in early Anglo-Saxon England, a hide was the amount of land farmed by and required to support a peasant family, though by the 11th century, in many areas, it supported four families.

Alternatively, the hundred may have been an area originally settled by one hundred men at arms, or the area liable to provide one hundred men under arms.
19 Separate? See this could be that (5)
APART – The first part is a straight definition i.e. Separate = APART. For the second part of the clue, if you replace ‘this’ with the answer APART and ‘that’ with the word SEPARATE, and ‘could be’ is an anagram indicator, then the wordplay reads “SEE APART (this) is an anagram [could be] of SEPARATE (that)”.
20 Faint any minute now when wife comes in (5)
SWOON – SOON (any minute now) with W (wife) inserted [comes in]

From a thirteenth century word, suowne meaning “a fainting, temporary state of unconsciousness”. This in turn is probably from Old English geswogen “in a faint”, the past participle of a lost verb swogan
21 Duplicate parcel I replaced (7)
REPLICA – Anagram [replaced] of PARCEL I
22 Attempt to hear the middle of Bliss number (6)
LISTEN – The middle letters of {b}LIS{s} then TEN (number)
23 After exercise, an enthusiast’s common snack item (6)
PEANUT – After PE (exercise) A NUT (an enthusiast)

‘common’ seems superfluous.
Down
1 Person cool in tight corset (6)
BODICE – BOD (Person) ICE (cool)
2 What’s immediate sensation mixed with tuna (13)
INSTANTANEOUS – Anagram [mixed] of SENSATION and TUNA
3 Note rubbish sparkle (7)
GLITTER – G (Note) LITTER (rubbish)
5 Thirty days on aircraft parking area (5)
APRON – APR (APR being short for April which has ‘Thirty days’) ON

I wondered why an aircraft parking area is called an APRON specifically, but can’t find any explanation online.
6 Find trees too rampant about area? This may be the answer (13)
DEFORESTATION – Anagram [rampant] of FIND TREES TOO about A (area)
7 Agreement judge has to take food in (6)
TREATY – TRY (judge) has EAT (take food) within [in]
9 Those left a note to do something around the first of April (9)
REMAINDER – REMINDER (a note to do something) around A (the first letter of April)
14 Without enough punishment serving as a warning? (7)
EXAMPLE – EX (Without) AMPLE (enough)
15 Tool caught the man’s heel? Not half (6)
CHISEL – C (caught – cricket shorthand) HIS (the man’s) {he}EL [Not half i.e. remove half of the letters of HEEL]
16 Channel’s forthright in broadcast (6)
STRAIT – Homophone [in broadcast] of STRAIGHT (forthright)
18 Anger about new cooker (5)
RANGE – RAGE (Anger) about N (new)

82 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2736 by Joker”

  1. Smashing the 10-minute barrier with 9.59, I took a long time to get going today. I got RIFLE then stopped again, but the downs were more helpful and INSTANTANEOUSLY came quickly. Thanks to Mike for explaining BANDIT. You lost me on APART but I’ll take your word for it. I think rile here is used in the second sense, to get someone angry can be to rile them. Possibly. A nicely-pitched QC from Joker I thought, COD to DEFORESTATION.

  2. Missed the number 1 comment again. Bah.

    V good puzzle this – thanks @Mike H for explaining APART.

    DEFORESTATION favourite, BANDIT mentioned in dispatches. LISTEN LOI.

    5:56

    1. Getting in first has drawbacks. Like when you say wow, that was hard, just escaped the SCC, then you notice everyone who follows is doing it in under 6…but I have things to do on Thursday morning (Oz time) so I’ll be out of your way, go for it!

  3. 13:20. I was pleased to crack the parsing of SEPARATE but couldn’t figure out BANDIT. I always thought the spiralling action of the RIFLE barrel was just for increased distance but thanks to the blog my understanding is augmented. Also re HUNDRED, BANDIT and SWOON too, thanks, Mike!

    1. Re: Rifling, my understanding has always been that it increased accuracy AND distance, the rotation of the missile making the airflow over it more consistent.

  4. APART was clever–rather too clever for a QC–but it was wasted on me; I spent 10 or 15 seconds trying to figure it out and then figured the hell with it, I’ve got the answer anyway. 7:19.

  5. APART was too clever for me, I just bunged it in thinking the second part of the clue was something maybe being “a part”. I liked CHARTreuse. I was putting in DEFOLIATION before I realized it had too few letters (and the wrong ones obviously) and made a course correction. I forget my time, around 10 mins.

  6. 12 minutes. I found this quite hard in that the majority of answers came from wordplay and with few easy biffs around I was unable to establish any flow as I progressed through the clues.

    ‘Rile’ can work either way, and ‘I rile easily’ (the usage required by the clue) sounds perfectly natural to me.

    HUNDRED as a division of an English county is pretty obscure these days, but you see it on historical maps and it’s still used in the parliamentary expression ‘The Chiltern Hundreds’, an office MPs can apply for if they wish to resign their seat.

    I missed the parsing of APART, having solved the clue intending to return to sort out the wordplay later which I then forgot to do. I like to think I would have seen it eventually if I had.

  7. Just over the par 10 mins for me, but that’s not unusual for a Joker. Super stuff, though I biffed CHART (d’oh!) and APART, for which I thank Mike for the parsing. BANDIT made me smile!

  8. Just over 10 minutes – though I didn’t understand the wordplay for CHART or BANDIT and I nho of DOSSER or HUNDRED being a county division they were reasonable guesses.

    Same with APART.

    My dad, who doesn’t speak much English uses ‘bandit’ to describe anyone improper or unsavoury. I once watched Fight Club with him and he was quite upset, saying that movie was not for young women but for bandits only.

  9. I never counted on requiring mind-bending drugs to parse APART and BANDIT. I got both answers from the definitions, but the clues were the product of a deranged mind. Get some help, Joker, you’re not well.

    Separately, I note that 18D works with or without the word “new”.

      1. ‘Anger’ has the N; taking ‘about’ as the anagrind, you have ‘anger about cooker’.

  10. All good fun and finished in 19.19 for a rare sub 20.

    Thanks Mike for the parsing of apart, which took about 3 minutes to understand!

    COD to chart which needed all of the crossers bringing a clanging PDM. Does anyone still drink Chartreuse?

    Great anagram of instantaneous, thanks Joker

    1. I’ll treat you to one next time – it’s my absolute fave. Always have it in stock, and drink it on special occasions; it’s expensive; so only the most favoured guests are offered it! NB the green one is the real McCoy, the yellow is bogus. Look forward!

    2. I had to read it about 5 times and I’m still not sure I understand it 😀

  11. A fast solve turned to par with BANDIT, CHART and PART all taking time. Solved with coffee outside the tent – could have done with pen and paper for DEFORESTATION and INSTANTANEOUS (where I failed to use the E to pick up a pink square).

  12. Started at a sprint with the whole of the NW (bar 11a) going straight in and continued swiftly until left with BANDIT and COD CHART which added a minute or so to my time.
    APART was way too clever for me so went in with a shrug but the joy of this blog is knowing that I could come here for enlightenment (thanks Mike).
    Finished in 6.49.

  13. It took a little while to get going even after FOI RIFLE but BODICE opened up the NW corner and slowly worked through it working out the parsing as I went to what I thought was my LOI RANGE only to see gaps at 11ac, bunged in CHART and then wrote out ‘Chartreuse’ for my COD along with BANDIT.

    Parsing APART nearly gave me a headache and again when reading the blog.

    It was a longer-than-normal but enjoyable exercise.

  14. Excellent puzzle. Saw both the long ones immediately which helped; lovely surface for DEFORESTATION. LOI APRON. Couldn’t see the wordplay for BANDIT, CHART or EXAMPLE, so thanks for excellent blog as always.
    But oh! find “B-and-IT” a BIT clunky …… and I suppose EXAMPLE is a punishment – is it?

    1. I too wondered about EXAMPLE as a punishment – the EXAMPLE is the person being punished (‘make an example of you’), not the punishment itself IMO.

      1. Collins has: example –a punishment or the recipient of a punishment serving or intended to serve as a warning

  15. I found this distinctly chewy, but APART from one clue I managed to parse it all while solving.

    FOI RIFLE
    LOI CHISEL
    COD BANDIT
    TIME 5:51

  16. A perfectly pitched and enjoyable QC. Not a fan of ‘note’ or ‘key’ clueing any of 7 (or 8) letters, but with 1a solved the right note (G) was already in mind for 3d, so that was a tonic. With Bliss, Bridge and forte, a decidedly musical flavour today.

    CHISEL took some unravelling; BANDIT and APART were biffed – perfectly fair, but way too subtle for me to parse. The two long anagrams at 2d and 6d were a great help early on.

    COD 6d among many little gems today.
    FOI BRIDGE
    LOI CHART
    16 mins. Thanks Joker and Mike.

  17. I found that really hard, getting badly stuck on BANDIT, APRON, CHART and LOI APART. I really don’t like submitting unless I can parse everything and I just couldn’t parse APART at all, staring at it for quite a while. I could see that all the letters for “apart” were in “separate” but that was as far as I got – I looked for a hidden, then a backwards hidden, then tried to think why “this” could be “a part” of “that”. In the end I gave up and hit submit, waiting for the DPS. Thank goodness I wasn’t blogging today because I would never have worked it out!

    Many thanks Joker and (especially) Mike.

  18. A good puzzle for QC, no silly “cleverness” or inaccurate definitions, and of intermediate difficulty. Why can’t some of the other setters compile like this?

  19. Quite tricky in places, and those of us who try to parse their answers before moving on were at a distinct disadvantage today. . . I never did fully work out Apart (thanks, Mike), stopping like Templar once I saw that the letters were part of Separate. CoD Chart(reuse) was a headslap pdm when it eventually came, but what ‘fun’ getting there🙄. Just about early enough for a window seat, which I will gladly take as a win. Invariant

  20. 12:02
    With a pink square in GLISTER, which in retrospect was completely avoidable. Again it’s a case of assuming a word exists that does not, and should certainly have spotted that a single letter change would yield one that I know definitely does.

  21. 5:08. I was a bit slow getting started but then a steady solve to finish just over target but under my average time. I liked BANDIT and APART. LOI PEANUT only because it was the last to be looked at a second time. I was a little surprised to see “April” in the clue for 9D when that is the month required for 5D. I think I might have used “August” instead. Thanks Joker and Mike.

  22. 10:43
    I just biffed apart and moved on.
    Got stuck at the end on chart which ruined my time.
    COD bandit and also liked minaret and chart.

    There are also some good linked answers: bridge bandit, hundred apart, bodice chisel!

  23. I found this quite hard but worked through it steadily and eventually succeeded. We seem to have been having a lot of “keys” lately – G today in 1a. COD CHART.

  24. 9:25

    Steady solve with plenty of thought. Ideal; thanks Joker.

    FOI DOSSIER
    LOI STRAIT
    COD DEFORESTATION

    Thanks Mike

  25. I finished this one in 7.37 which for me is a quick time for a Joker puzzle. I made only one initial error when I biffed CRUET for 11ac, when I just had C- – – T to go on. Solving 2dn gave me a middle A, so CHART seemed to fit although it took me a further twenty or so seconds to correctly parse it.

  26. Another one I couldn’t finish due to lack of motivation, but I do find that with Joker QCs.

  27. Completed in 16 minutes – a considerable improvement on my efforts this week so far. All parsed except BANDIT and APART. Excellent puzzle.

    FOI – 8ac DOSSIER
    LOI – 11ac CHART
    CODs – 23ac PEANUT and 6dn DEFORESTATION

    Thanks to Joker and especially to Mike for providing the missing parsings – I would never have got them.

  28. Nice QC. Admired Deforestation. Could not parse Apart and Bandit, so thanks Mike, and of course Joker.

  29. I started off very slowly with FOI RIFLE but picked up the pace. I didn’t fully understand the parsing for 3 clues but fortunately none of them intersected and they were my LOsI. I couldn’t recall the HUNDRED being a division of an English county, could only see AND in BIT for BANDIT and went around in circles trying to understand why the anagram of APART inside of see was clued as such. 6:12 for an excellent day and many thanks for the blog Mike which I very much needed.

  30. 22:00, well outside target time.

    Ages spent on CHART, BANDIT and APART. None of which I could parse. Even STRAIT/STRAIGHT took time, and that’s surely a chestnut.

    COD DOFORESTATION

  31. Well! A week away and my cryptic skills are still on vacation it seems, because with sheer stubbornness and a lucky guess of CHART I finished in 36 minutes. A table is not a chart, I kept insisting, but nothing else fit and finally I parsed it. BANDIT haha took me ages. I had to write down the letters of the long anagrams but at least they rearranged themselves without too much fuss. HUNDRED was a DNK, but cute and I am a numbers person so not impossible. Did not parse 19A, so thanks Mike for the lucid explanation! As I’m about to be away for a month I fully expect to be back to one-hour solves when I return.

    Thanks to Joker for the jokes and Mike for the blog, love the word origins!

  32. Why is it that when everyone finds this ok I have an absolute stinker. Like Mondays puzzle I really struggled to make much headway. Better luck the rest of this week

  33. Spent ages trying to parse APART but had to concede defeat. Having seen the explanation I realise I would never have got there under my own steam! Otherwise no particular problems although I was slowed down by APRON. Liked DEFORESTATION. Thanks Mike.

  34. Too hard for me. Can anyone suggest a book or website that might help me to learn please? I am not progressing!

    1. Hi Ian – I always struggle. I have found the blog to be the most helpful for future solves. Do as much as you can then look at the blog to reveal the answers for the rest – it always explains how the answer is formed. Solving anagrams is always a good way to start so look out for the indicators such as mixed, about, tizz, moving, etc. I never thought I’d be able to do cryptic puzzles but perseverance pays off. Good luck.

    2. Hi Ian,

      There’s a book by Don Manley (Izetti to you and me) called the Chambers Crossword Manual. I tried it and didn’t find it helpful, but perhaps that says more about me than it does about the book! It’s worth a try and you can find it on Amazon.

      1. I would second that. A book that I learnt much from way back when by a master setter and former Times editor.

    5. The thing that I found most useful was to watch experts solving on Youtube and explaining the answers as they went along. The channel Cracking the Cryptic is a good starting point, especially if you go back to some of their older videos, when they were more focused on crosswords rather than sudoku.

    6. Hi Ian – I’ve been putting my live solves up on Youtube over the past month. Here is my solve for this puzzle … https://youtu.be/r0ClwPhEuLo

      Also might I suggest having a look on Saturday’s at The Guardian’s Quick Cryptic where they only have four types of clue thereby giving less to think about.

  35. 18.05 Having a slow week. CHART took a while and APART and BANDIT were biffed to finish. I did like MINARET. Thanks Mike and Joker.

  36. As usual I found this very tricky but did manage to eventually finish in 35 minutes. On first read through of clues I thought I’d never get started but the two anagrams at 2 and 6 d were the trigger point. Couldn’t parse CHART or CHISEL. Last two in were TREATY and BANDIT. Spent ages trying to get a J into 7d! Thanks Joker and Mike.

  37. Well we didn’t find it easy: a bit below par at 14:32. Some lovely clues though, e.g., BANDIT and CHART. Mike, I’ll just take your word for the parsing of APART. To me it sounded rather like an introduction to “One song to the tune of another” in the rather apt “I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue”. Non-Radio 4 listeners will just have to look that up or, better, search for a relevant clip or two.

    Thanks to Mike and Joker.

  38. I was almost done by 7 minutes, but then got breezeblocked on BANDIT. The main reason for this was a careless REFORESTATION. Too busy counting As to avoid AFFORESTATION and missed the D! I eventually saw it, but by this time I was up to 13:41. Doh! Thanks Joker and Mike.

  39. You may wish to avoid me today …

    I’m totally fed up with being no good at this. Another week ruined.

    35 minutes of torture and a DNF as well – put GLINTER for GLITTER. Inexcusable. I knew it was wrong but I had run out of steam and was just wanting to finish. It was my LOI and I had already spent 10 mins staring at it dumbly.

    I found several clues unfathomable. That isn’t a criticism of the setter, but rather a comment on my level of ability. I am completely off the wavelength currently and struggling to find the will to continue. I feel ignorant and out of my depth. So many answers were complete guesses – APART, HUNDRED, APRON, BODICE, CHART.

    Four years of the QC and I am absolutely nowhere! I must have done around 1,000 QCs, together with the Quintagram and some attempts at the big crossword. At a conservative estimate, that will be around 800 hours. How do I not progress beyond beginner level in that time?

    I apologise if this seems negative, but I just cannot find a way forward with the QC in terms of either time spent or enjoyment.

    I still don’t understand how ‘bit like I might clue it’ gets you to BANDIT. Can someone explain?

    PS Totally mess up on the Quintagram as well. A bad day all round (as per usual).

    1. Joker might clue BANDIT by working with “B and IT”. Nil desperandum, it wasn’t the most obvious clue you’ll ever encounter.

  40. 12:56 (Llywelyn ap Gruffudd reconquers eastern Gwynedd from the English)

    APART and BANDIT both went in from the definition, without seeing how the wordplay worked. Thanks Mike for making sense of it.

  41. A DNF today but nearly a finish.
    A foolish AFFORESTATION for 6d made BANDIT unguessable and TEASEL for 15d (alternate letters of ‘the man’s heel persuading me a teasel must be a tool) made HUNDRED unguessable too. However once I revealed my mistakes they fell into place.
    Thanks Joker and Mike for 40 minutes of enjoyable solving.

  42. Solving this late in the day, which has the advantage that one learns one is not alone in finding BANDIT and APART a step-change from the other clues. I did eventually work BANDIT out, post-completion but before coming here, but I never worked APART out at all. Quite “brave” to include it as a clue in a QC in my view, and I’m glad it wasn’t on my watch as a blogger.

    That apart, I started slowly but the down clues were kinder and I finished in 11 minutes, all green but as I say not all parsed.

    Many thanks Mike for the blog and chapeau for unravelling 19A.
    Cedric

  43. We found this more difficult than yesterday, needed help to get help with bandit and treaty.

  44. 23 mins…

    I thought this was on the trickier side, with 11ac “Chart”, 19ac “Apart” and 15dn “Chisel” all taking a while. For 18dn “Range”, I had it as an anagram of ‘anger’ so was wondering what the “new” was all about.

    Prior to completing this, I was reading a review of the new Time Bandits series – which seemed to help with 4ac.

    FOI – 4ac “Bandit”
    LOI – 11ac “Chart”
    COD – 9dn “Remainder” – nice surface

    Thanks as usual!

  45. Completed ok, albeit biffing BANDIT, which seemed a bit abstruse to me, I’m taking another blogger’s advice not to bother with timings, just enjoying completing the puzzle and isn’t so depressing when you see other people’s superfast completions.

  46. I eventually staggered over the finishing line in 18:33, but never parsed APART or BANDIT. Anagrams are my least favourite clues, so I struggled to get the two long down answers, which was a definite handicap today.

    Thanks to Joker and Mike.

  47. I managed to finish this after golf and came here to see if it was just me that found it very difficult for a QC.
    LOI CHART after a long think. BODICE and DOSSIER held me up and HUNDRED required some quite obscure knowledge.
    Time not recorded but lots when added up.
    But a good challenge. I enjoy Joker’s puzzles.
    COD to PEANUT.
    David
    PS No, I did not parse APART

  48. Quite tough! I crossed the line in 38 minutes, but with my fingers tightly crossed about 11a. Try as I might, I simply could not parse CHART and (to me) it’s just not a synonym of table. However, the only other words I could find after 5+ minutes of slow/careful alphabet trawling (chant, coast and craft) bore even less relation to the clue.

    Otherwise, I enjoyed the puzzle and astonished myself by getting both of the 13-letter anagrams without having to write out the letters and with very few checkers.

    Many thanks to Joker and Mike H.

  49. I seem to be going against majority but I enjoyed this – fun clues and enough checkers around to help over the harder bits. 9:09 thanks all.

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