Times Quick Cryptic 2767 by Felix

Author   TemplarPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

It’s a Felix. There must be a theme. Can I tell you what it is? Reader, I cannot. It could be musical/pop related, given 1a, 5a and 7a, and I did notice that 24a is the title of a single by Tom Robinson in 1982 (my era). I got no further and await enlightenment!

Ah yes, the puzzle. Lots of lovely clues and I found it very easy – until suddenly it wasn’t, when after 5 minutes a trio of harder clues stopped me in my tracks. In the end I got one of them wrong, so a big fat DNF for me today grr. Hope you were more successful!

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
1 Signal in card game by the French (7)
WHISTLE – WHIST is the “card game”; LE is “the French”.
5 Churchwarden, say, to narrowly defeat English (4)
PIPE – a CHURCHWARDEN is a type of pipe – hence “say”, to indicate that this is a definition by example. PIP is “narrowly defeat”, + E for “English”. CHURCHWARDENs have a very long stem and are a prized find for the Thames mudlarking community (of which I am an occasional member). In German they are called “Lesepfeife” (which means “reading pipe”), because the long stem keeps the smoke away from your book.
7 Can try interesting novels: how they begin! (3)
TIN – “can” of beans, TIN of beans. First letters (“how they begin”) of “try interesting novels”.
8 Fur perhaps of tailless racoon vet upset (8)
OVERCOAT – another DBE (“perhaps”), because most OVERCOATs are not made of fur. An anagram (“upset”) of “racoo vet” – you have to remove the final N from “racoon” because it is “tailless”.
10 Derby runner maybe coming in sixth or seventh (5)
HORSE – hidden inside “sixth or seventh”.
11 Equipment, hour to hour, is ok (5,2)
RIGHT OH – RIG for “equipment”; then H-TO-H for “hour to hour”. Very clever, I enjoyed that one.
13 Objects seen in drunken nights (6)
THINGS – anagram (“drunken”) of “nights”.
15 Heavily defeat female, gaining a couple of meters (6)
HAMMER – HER for “female”, inside which (“gaining”) is AMM for “a couple of meters”. “Norwich hammered Ipswich 1-5 at Portman Road”, for example.
17 A group of musicians performing in desert (7)
ABANDON – A BAND ON = “a group of musicians performing”. Here we want the verb to desert, rather than the noun. Sneaky.
18 Remove from garden container for warehouse? (5)
DEPOT – a pot is a garden container; if you remove a plant from a pot, you “de-pot” it. Ho ho!
20 Head of heron with beak: a flier (8)
HANDBILL – this was the first one to give me pause, because I was fooled into thinking that I was looking for a bird as the “flier”. Not so: here it’s one of those little bits of paper handed out by bored people in the street advertising a new bar or similar. The wordplay is H for “head of heron”; AND for “with”; BILL for “beak”.
22 Lead taken outside university bar (3)
PUB – PB is the chemical symbol for “lead”, coming from the Latin “plumbum” (from which we get our word “plumber”). Inside it goes U for “university”.
23 Top man getting promotion (4)
HEAD – I tried to make this work as a double definition, tossing up between HEAD and “lead” (neither of which really work as a DD but both of which are sort of in the right postcode). But actually it’s HE for “man” + AD for promotion. Durr. LOI for me.
24 Cautious about British sailor making arrival during conflict? (3,4)
WAR BABY – WARY is “cautious”, which goes around (“about”) B for “British” and AB for “sailor” (Able Seaman). A WAR BABY is “a child born in wartime, especially the illegitimate son of a soldier” (Collins), hence the clever, indirect, definition. Very good, COD from me.
Down
1 Observe small, separate, revolutionary thing on wrist? (10)
WATCHSTRAP – WATCH for “observe”, S for “small”, then TRAP is “part” backwards. Here “separate” and “part” are both verbs – “they parted/separated at Paddington Station”. Funny how clues sometimes arrive in groups, like buses – 18d on Monday was “Observe item on strap (5)” (Mara).
2 Tavern I hesitate to say is private (5)
INNER – INN for “tavern”, ER for “I hesitate to say”. Your INNER life is “private”.
3 Like trousers — or ties often? (3-6)
TWO-LEGGED – cryptic definition. Trousers have two legs; in sport, a cup-tie in particular is often played over “two legs” (home and away).  “Norwich beat Ipswich 4-2 over the two legs of the 2015 Championship play-off semi-final”, for example.
4 Some supreme, erstwhile Islamic rulers (6)
EMEERS – hidden inside “supreme, erstwhile”. Took me a moment to see because I am more familiar with “Emir”. And the comma obstructed my view.
5 Briefly choose illustration (3)
PIC – PIC{k}.
6 Ghost wandering around Hampton (7)
PHANTOM – anagram (“wandering around”) of “Hampton”. Lovely surface.
9 Kindly bachelor in Italy supporting cleaner (10)
CHARITABLY – B is the “bachelor”; he goes inside (“in”) “Italy” to give is ITABLY; that goes underneath (“supporting”) CHAR for “cleaner”.
12 Drug Allan arranged for a type of fever? (9)
GLANDULAR – anagram (“arranged”) of “drug Allan”.
14 One’s a friend found in caliph’s office (7)
IMAMATE – and this was my downfall. I’d never encountered this word before and piecing it together with most of the checkers in place decided that “One’s a friend” indicated “I’s a mate” rather than what turns out to be the correct “I’M A MATE”. So in went “isamate”, up popped the Dreaded Pink Square and rage ensued. Hey ho, every day’s a school day.
16 Win I’ve contrived is discernible (2,4)
IN VIEW – anagram (“contrived”) of “win I’ve”.
19 Oddly disappearing up Limpopo as girl appears (5)
PIPPA – remove the odd letters of “up Limpopo as” and PIPPA appears.
21 Performed most of Queen of Carthage (3)
DID – DID{o} was the Queen of Carthage, familiar to classicists through the Aeneid and to lovers of Baroque opera through Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas. To others, perhaps not so familiar. Our local hills in the Highlands are full of limestone caves which my wife’s family historically called “Dido holes”; since her entire knowledge of the classics came from Asterix I had to explain to her that this was a reference to the cave in which Dido and Aeneas have sex. (He then abandons her, claiming that his duty to find a new home for the Trojans is more important than love, and in despair she kills herself. All very moral.)

95 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2767 by Felix”

    1. Well done, George, I think you have nailed it. TIN / WHISTLE , PIPE, HEAD, {over}COAT, HORSE, {de}POT, {war}BABY are all mentioned in the lyric. Maybe more. I guess PUB is on the theme too by implication, although it’s not actually mentioned in the song.

        1. Ah, I’d looked at the published Dubliners’ version that covers only 5 nights. 6 and 7 were considered too racy apparently.

  2. 11:19. RIGHT OH and WAR BABY were favourites. IMAMATE took the longest as I always stumble over one’s leading to I’M.

  3. 8.47, it felt quicker than that while solving but the clock does not lie. I too looked for a bird and not a pamphlet at 20ac, and tried to force hornbill in there despite the parsing being way off. FOI PIPE, LOI CHARITABLY which I suppose means kindly but it feels strange. Likewise RIGHT OH, which seems to need a hyphen and anyway I would usually use righto. A nice puzzle, thank you Felix and thanks T for the informative-as-ever blog. No idea about any kind of a theme but I never do.

  5. Isn’t a caliph’s office a caliphate? I would have thought an imamate is an imam’s office.

    1. I did wonder about that. But definition 2 of “imam” in Collins is “2. a caliph, as leader of a Muslim community”.

      1. As a novice who takes about an hour to do these things, more often than not these day (and this was a DNF) I don’t finish on the day so don’t comment. Today I feel obligated as a lifelong Tractor Boy to take issue with our bloggers examples in 15a & 3d yesterday. May I remind our blogger, a Canary no doubt, of the events of May 6 1978 and the 1981 UAFA cup final, both of which I remember clearly 😁

    2. Quite right. Felix can’t spell emirs either. Emeers is surely just illiterate, or worse, American?

  6. Lots of NHOs today so didn’t finish but really needed the blog for the parsing of HEAD. I feel a bit silly now.

    1. Apologies, posted my comment as reply to you in error. Sometimes when finger scrolling to bottom of the comments a momentary pause can inadvertently open the reply box and generate a reply rather than a new comment. Too careless!

      1. Sometimes ? It’s a constant hassle for me. I did suggest moving the reply button to a more central position when the new site first opened, but to no avail.

  7. 8 minutes. I wasn’t sure about the second part of TWO-LEGGED, so thanks for that, Templar.

  8. Yes, like our blogger, definitely a game of two halves, although we needed his help in understanding that two legged was referring to something similar.

    We also needed help parsing head, pipe and right oh.

    Also went for isamate as LOi so DNF in 31.16 with a good chuckle at de-pot on the way

    Don’t know the song so no help there despite looking for a Nina as we progressed. Wondered if it was going be about some 1940’s detective novel!!

    Thanks Felix, and Templar

  9. 12 minutes but with two pink squares. NHO a churchwarden pipe, so I essayed PoPE as the “guardian of the Church”, and I was another with IsAMATE. I readily concede the first to Felix (if you don’t know GK you don’t know it), but the second is a poor clue IMO, as while Isamate could be a word for a caliph’s office for all I know, Imamate surely cannot be, as that can only be the office of an imam. (Though no doubt there is a dictionary somewhere that shows it has also been used to mean caliphate …)

    So not a great day. Many thanks Templar for the blog
    Cedric

    1. And I see that as I typed this, Templar has found that Collins has the required get-out for Felix. No surprise, but doesn’t change my view of the clue!

  10. I enjoyed this, and for once I spotted the theme. I saw The Dubliners in concert at The Lowry in Salford some years ago – an excellent evening.

    I got all but my LOI in two passes, and then wondered whether Richard had been thinking of Jethro Tull as well. They issued the albums Heavy HORSES and WAR Child, and had a track called The Whistler on Songs From the Wood.

    I had no problem with IMAMATE.

    FOI PIPE
    LOI WAR BABY
    COD HANDBILL (brilliant misdirection)
    TIME 4:30

  11. Got there in the end but HEAD, IMAMATE and CHARITABLY all put up stiff resistance at the end. Tent solving makes me miss pen and paper and a table.

    Never knew nights was an anagram of THINGS. Amazing!

    All green in 20.46. Every second a pleasure – apart from the very few when frustration took over!

  12. Narrowly avoided the DPS after a late review changed IsAMATE to IMAMATE both of which were unknown to me, as was FOI PIPE which went in from the wordplay alone.
    Finished with OVERCOAT in 7.28 with HANDBILL and WAR BABY being my favourites from a strong field.
    Thanks to Templar

  13. Mostly easy until it wasn’t. Finally defeated by IMAMATE – an alphabet trawl with the checkers in place gave IMAM as the start, and I jumped to the conclusion this was being clued by ‘caliph’, so I needed a 3 letter word for office – the definition being ‘One’s a friend’. After that there was no chance, and alphabet trawls are useless to uncover a NHO word.

    FOI PIPE
    LOI GLANDULAR (having read fever as lever), but DNF by 1
    COD ABANDON
    About 10 – enjoyable – minutes until I came off the rails.

    Thanks for parsing it all Templar.

  14. Thankfully I’m in Plett’s camp today rather than Templar’s – a late change to LOI IMAMATE from ISAMATE due to the latter just seeming nonsensical (not that that precludes it from being a word).

    WAR BABY COD.

    6:22

  15. Much of it enjoyable, but WAR BABY too difficult for me, one letter wrong in HANDBILL, and could only guess ISAMATE (no chance of guessing the NHO IMAMATE correctly). Too late, sadly, to complain to Felix about the American meter; but couldn’t it have been corrected before publication? And Mrs M (expert in Islamist manuscripts) objects to EMEER (indeed, it’s not in Collins), says it has to be EMIR. NHO churchwarden pipe, but it had to be.

    1. At the time I was completely with Mrs M – EMEER is surely wrong! But Collins online does have it as ‘American English’ and my complete OED gives it its own entry (but then it also has about 450,000 other words that no one ever uses). I guess it’s a problem of transliteration from non-Roman scripts… spelling is potentially a bit fluid, much to the benefit of crossword setters!

      1. I am with both of you about meter and emeer. Like, there’s spelling or there’s not…

        1. With respect, yes it’s “in” Chambers, but the entry merely says “See emir”, which surely implies that it is not to be regarded as a proper spelling of the word. Maybe it’s more common in the US, in which case I would refer to my comment on meter equally …..
          As to what has “come up here”, well, miniscule “came up here” once …..

          1. Also with respect, dictionaries don’t list spellings that that are invalid and if they put in cross references as in this case it’s merely a matter of avoiding repetition and saving space. Under emir in Chambers there’s also ‘amir’ and ‘ameer’ as alternative ways of representing the Arabic word in English.

            I’d agree EMEER is less common than ’emir’ and might have sympathy with doubts about its suitability for inclusion in a QC puzzle had it not been clued as a hidden word so that with a couple of checkers in place (if needed) the answer was effectively handed to us on a plate.

            1. OK, if you say so. My MER had nothing to do with difficulty (as you say, it was easy to spot), only whether the spelling can be deemed correct English.

  16. Got there in the end but HEAD, IMAMATE and CHARITABLY all put up still resistance at the end. Tent solving makes me miss pen and paper and a table.

    Never knew nights was an anagram of THINGS. Amazing!

    All green in 20.46. Every second a pleasure – apart from the very few when frustration took over!

  17. Did not know DIDO and NHO IMAMATE. Clever hidden HORSE, I was misdirected to think along the lines of unplaced. COD HAND BILL which caused a smile. More focused today than yesterday waiting to have a biopsy.
    Thanks Izetti and Templar for the insight

  18. A very fine puzzle, and very helpful blog. Several potential clues of the day measured by surface, solvability rather than biffability, parsability, misdirection, and lack of obscurity yet cunningly disguised. My favourites were HORSE, DEPOT, WAR BABY, ABANDON. IMAMATE seemed fair enough to me, easily constructed from the clue even if I usually think of Caliphate. Thanks.

    I enjoy the occasional debates about what is the purpose of the QC and whether a particular puzzle is really a 15×15 standard rather than QC grade. I don’t think it is necessary to avoid a DNF in order to enjoy the incomplete puzzle. I get my kicks from improving my solving skill, vocabulary and general knowledge, which most QCs deliver on.

    Does anyone know of a good source in how our setters construct a puzzle? I guess they start with the given grid template, but how do they populate it with answers, and do they work backwards from answers to clues or forwards from clues to answers?

    1. I’ve often thought the same about constructing a Sudoku, particularly how to get the right level of difficulty.

      2. My gripe about sudoko (which I play every day) is that if I can’t complete it, there’s no way if finding out how I should have solved it. Yes I can see the completed grid, but not the logic of getting there. Whereas with crossword blogs like this, I have many “doh!” moments…

        1. You might enjoy the Cracking the Cryptic Youtube channel, which has two sudoku videos every day (though usually variants rather than “classic” sudoku).

  19. Yes, failed on IMAMATE. POI PIPPA.
    Liked HORSE, WAR BABY, WATCHSTRAP, HAMMER.
    Thanks vm, Templar. An enjoyable puzzle buy tricky in parts.

  20. Started with PIPE, tried HORNBILL for 20a until IMAMATE (remembered from somewhere) and DID(o) put me right. LOI was CHARITABLE which was mightily delayed by RIGHT HO until reason prevailed. Liked WAR BABY. 8:12. Thanks Felix and Templar.

  21. I’m with others who thought that ‘One’s’ directed you to ‘I’s’ to make ISAMATE, although did feel it was unlikely. NHO churchwarden pipe but answer was obvious. COD WAR BABY. Thanks Templar for great blog.

  22. I found this one quite manageable! 16:48 but without a single use of the reveal button and only a little use of the check button. Easily the closest I have come to a true solve.

    The only tricky one for me today was Imamate as a NHO word I had “Isamate” confusing one’s for I’s instead of I’m which was spotted with the check. Seems like others made the same error.
    A couple other hiccups on “whistle” and “right oh” took me coming back to them with all the checking letters to solve. I also have not heard of char for cleaner, but it was easy enough to guess the whole word.

    FOI: Tin
    LOI: Imamate (after correction)
    COD: Charitable (despite not knowing “char”, it has a lovely surface)

  23. Completed it with made up words that proved to be correct. Neither my brand new Collins or my tatty OED has emeer – only my equally tatty Chambers recognised it. If a blogger does not finish something is wrong isn’t it?

  24. 10:11
    NHO of IMAMATE, but had heard of an Imam, so avoided the trap that caught others.
    LOI HEAD, after eventually spotting how it worked.

    Thanks Templar and Felix

  25. A few NHOs but got there in the end after a 27 min slog. Loved the blog, Temps. Excellent as ever.

  26. Revealed LOI HEAD, then couldn’t parse it. Like Tina I’m now feeling a bit silly! NHO pipe/CHURCHWARDEN and thought I had cleverly worked out yet another hitherto unknown bird in HANDBILL (oops). Liked WAR BABY and RIGHT OH. Thanks for the blog Templar.

  28. Another ISAMATE here but otherwise a clean finish in 32m.
    Nice mix of clues with stand outs being ABANDON and WAR BABY.
    Good start to the day and now the sun is actually shining.
    Thanks Felix and Templar.

  29. 14 minutes of hard work. LOI was INNER.
    But I too had ISAMATE. Enough said about that already.
    I knew the pipe immediately -from doing these puzzles; perhaps I have become an old hand.
    Lots of COD contenders. I thought HEAD was very good.
    David

  30. I was pleased with my fourth consecutive comfortably under target time of 7.53, until I discovered that I’d fallen into the ISAMATE trap. Had I given it a little more thought I may well have got the correct answer.
    I remember singing Seven Drunken Nights with my pals in my late teens after a ‘good’ night out, and yes Jackkt, our version would make a censor blush.
    Templar, an interesting football analogy for 15ac and 3dn! I take it you’re a diehard Norwich City fan with a dislike of their local derby rivals Ipswich Town. If so it must have hurt a bit when Ipswich got promoted!

  31. 23a I too was tempted by Lead rather than Head, and even tho’ I never parsed it I plumped correctly. Not good then.
    LOI 14d Imamate.

  32. DNF

    Ha! Exactly the same pitfall as Felix with isamate instead of IMAMATE.

    Struggled anyway. Had the wrong sort of flier and put HORNBILL and thought ok was RIGHT ON. Took over 25 minutes to unravel those errors but disappointed to get a pink square.

  33. This was the sort of Felix puzzle that demonstrates what a loss we have suffered – if only we could have weaned him off Dickens. I ticked half a dozen clues as potential CoD’s, but on balance agree with Templar that War Baby just pips Abandon, Depot and all the others. 20mins of fun, finishing with a duff Isamate in the absence of any alternative nho. Invariant

    1. I was thinking that this may be one of his last puzzles and really savoured the solve.
      21 minutes and isamate thrown in and not remembering to revisit…it felt wrong and I am pleased that others mentioned Imam… I should have tried an alphabet trawl…
      But how enjoyable – a splendid puzzle in my opinion although missed any theme – we love the Dubliners in my house….. happy days all children have Irish passports!

  34. 4:42

    That’s three in a row in less than five minutes – I am clearly on fire, and what is more, I am absolutely certain it won’t last. My only momentary pauses were for HANDBILL where I considered HORNBILL, and RIGHT OH where I didn’t immediately get the wordplay. As for IMAMATE, guessed it must be something similar to a caliphate.

    I had no idea about the nina – not familiar with Seven Drunken Nights – and can’t put my hand on my heart and say that I’ve ever heard anything by The Dubliners either.

    Thanks Felix and Templar

  35. The best comment was Ipswich losing 5-1 to Norwich, and yes a Canaries fan since the 58-59 cup run, although my first visit to Carrow Road wasn’t until 1960. Anyway, back to the business in hand. Beaten by HANDBILL (I had HORNBILL but couldn’t parse it) and NHO IMAMATE. COD WAR BABY.
    Apologies to any Ipswich fans!

  36. Got there. Was actually quick for me other than it took ages to work out Pippa and Warbaby. Mostly because I had charitable instead of charitably. Which was a bit thick in hindsight but seemed to make sense at the time I wrote it in. I have never heard of a handbill. But it seemed to be the only word given the clear clue. Not had I heard of Imamate. And I too thought about isamate. But it just didn’t sound right so I guessed the other way.

  37. DNF IMAMATE and HEAD. I was off on the IMAPAL/ISAPAL route. And thus after the obscure EMEER for what surely everyone calls an Emir (itself quite an obscure word). I must tell my emeerati friends from the United Arab Emeerates that they are getting it all wrong.

    Shame, because there were some terrific clues such as WAR BABY and RIGHT OH.

  38. 7.53

    Classics A Levels + Purcell = no problem with DIDO and knew IMAMATE from these things. Started filling WAR BABY in from the w/p without quite knowing where it was going and hey presto! Great clue. Great blog as always, as well

  39. Had to look up IMAMATE. Fairly steady solve for the rest, although finding PIPPA took me much longer than it should have!

  40. Like many others, failed with ‘IMAMATE’. You could say that I metaphorically reached the play-offs but, like Norwich, failed to gain promotion (unlike our arch-rivals, who sailed through another promotion year).

    Ipswich Town fan. 🙂

  41. Dnf…

    15 mins, but also put “Isamate” for 14dn. In hindsight, the connection to “Imam” should have twigged, but I didn’t immediately associate that with caliphate. Thanks for the explanation for 23ac “Head” – I thought it was a double definition as well and never really parsed it.

    FOI – 1ac “Whistle”
    LOI – 14dn “Isamate” (incorrect)
    COD – 3dn “Two-Legged”

    Thanks as usual!

  42. There’s a Blues/Canaries theme here too with all these Ipswich/Norwich comments! I’m a Blues man and feeling blue about my biffed ISAMATE: that apart I finished in 19 minutes so just avoided the SCC. Nearly fell into the HORNBILL trap but it had to be Dido at 21d so HANDBILL/flier suddenly occurred. Wasted a minute trying to think of deserts beginning with A and ending in N until ABANDON = desert also popped up. For me, the hardest so far this week but 6 months ago I wouldn’t have completed half, so some progress! Thanks Felix and Templar!

  43. 10.34 DNF with ISAMATE. IMAMATE is a lot more plausible so I can’t grumble. Thanks Templar and Felix.

  44. Back to my canonical phone-solving time of 25 to 30 minutes. Except that I dnf for the same reason as everyone else, and feel foolish as a bit of thought would have saved me.

    Lovely puzzle, great theme which of course I didn’t see though an American version is familiar to me. I guess the British say RIGHT OH as well as right-o, huh. Glad I didn’t waste time trying to figure out what is TWO-LEGGED about a tie, it would have been hopeless. PIPPA was my favorite, just because I love the word Limpopo.

    Thanks to Felix and Templar!

  46. I felt pleased when I finished in the 19s, and more so coming here and seeing I dodged a few potential heffalump traps. A few partial parsings but all clear now from the, as usual, excellent blog. I’d heard of an Imam so guessed that was the way the Caliph clue was going. Had Right On until the last letter didn’t fit my Down answer, and worked out HANDBILL after a few false starts. Not a clue about the Nina even now I’ve seen the explanation – off to the Interweb to find out…

  47. DNF due to IsAMATE. 30 minutes wasted.

    A plea to all setters: if a particularly obscure word is required to avoid having to re-jig a whole section of the crossword please, please, please clue it very easily and unambiguously. A DNF caused by a not-likely-to-have-heard-of just causes irritation, irrespective of how enjoyable the rest of the puzzle has been.

    Ditto with DID(o), the Queen of Carthage (Who?).

    Many thanks to Templar.

  48. I am so fed up with this.

    I had the grid completed in 9 mins, but realised that WAR FARE was not correct. After changing CHARITABLE to CHARITABLY, I eventually worked out WAR BABY. That took me to 21 minutes.

    This was however immaterial as I put LEAD rather than HEAD. How am I able to get tough clues (IMAMATE was a write in) and then make this kind of idiotic mistake?

    So a DNF and yet another week blown to smithereens. How to get any sense of achievement or enjoyment from this continues to elude me, perhaps because I am just not good enough?

    Every day I find a new way to let this puzzle beat me up. My failure to achieve a simple target (5 solves in under 2 hours) is now a weekly humiliation and it is driving me up the wall!

    I’m approaching the point of no return with this. I know when I’m beaten. ☹️

  50. Well that broke our run of quite decent times. 15:23 to finish with ISAMATE, which almost seems to be getting enough usage to qualify for its own dictionary ENTRY. On correction, IMAMATE seemed so much more likely, even though NHO, that a little more thought might have avoided the error. We were also tempted by HORNBILL. Thanks to Felix and Templar

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