Times Quick Cryptic No 2796 by Joker

Author   Mike HarperPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 6:38

Not too many difficulties with this midweek grid from the Joker, which comes with plenty of ‘Insert this/Remove that/IKEA’-style clues and surprisingly few anagrams (3), double definitions (2) and hiddens (1). There are also three clues where the wordplay is mildly cryptic.

I had to guess 7a as the parsing didn’t leap out at me until post-completion but otherwise I would suggest that this is a very accessible puzzle which may (or may not 🙂 ) see some pleasing finishing times (get down from that fence, Michael!)

I look forward to reading how you all got on.

On another matter, I was interested to look at the Trends page on the Quick Snitch website (https://quick.xwdsnitch.link/solving_averages). What particularly caught my eye was that even though the number of reference solvers has doubled over the last fourteen months, and the average time for completion has increased overall, the difficulty of the QC hasn’t really changed that much over the same period, whatever our perception may be. Thoughts welcome….

Across
4 Bishop managed church office locally (6)
BRANCH – B (Bishop) RAN (managed) CH (church)
7 You once brought inside garden watering pipe — here? (8)
HOTHOUSE – THOU (You once) inside HOSE (garden watering pipe)

Why does the definition ‘here?’ = HOTHOUSE? It is one place where one might use a garden watering pipe (very long-winded definition for HOSE).

My LOI which I failed to parse in flight. With all checkers in place, I could see HOSE with a U in it starting from the fourth letter, but was looking at the wrong H and a modern ‘You/U’ rather than an old-fashioned ‘THOU’…
8 It is over where boxers appear to be running out of energy (6)
TIRING – IT reversed [is over] gives TI, then RING (where boxers appear)
9 Be prominent and covered in fat? (5,3)
STAND OUT – AND covered in STOUT (fat)
10 Milk pudding needs gas ring cooking (4)
SAGO – Anagram [cooking] of GAS O (ring)

SAGO pudding is a creamy dessert made by boiling or baking milk (or water) and other flavourings such as sugar or syrup, with SAGO pearls, which are extracted from the spongy centre of tropical palm stems.
12 One that can be let off employment after sack (8)
FIREWORK – WORK (employment) after FIRE (sack)
15 Home cared for fiancé (8)
INTENDED – IN (Home) TENDED (cared for)
18 Word for time spent at school (4)
TERM – Double definition – for the first definition TERM is a ‘Word for (something)’ or as one online dictionary describes it, “a word or phrase used to describe a thing or to express a concept“
20 Attraction at Greenwich? Intend to go round free one (8)
MERIDIAN – MEAN (Intend) to go round RID (free) I (one)

Between 1884 and 1974, the Greenwich Meridian was officially the international standard prime Meridian, enabling all timekeepers and shipping worldwide to sing from the same hymnsheet as far as global positioning was concerned – Before that, many countries relied on their own MERIDIAN (usually passing through their own country).

As the marking strip of the Greenwich Meridian was actually 5.3 seconds west of 0°0′0″, the modern standard for global positioning at 0° longitude is now snappily called the IERS Reference Meridian (IRM) and is maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).
22 Problem in a gem being reset (6)
ENIGMA – Anagram [being reset] of IN A GEM

ENIGMA comes from the Latin “aenigma” which in turn is derived from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”).
23 One new position for illustration (8)
INSTANCE – I (One) N (new) STANCE (position)
24 Continue nursing fibrous tissue (6)
TENDON – TEND ON (Continue nursing)
Down
1 Fur ball seemingly swallowed by moggy (4)
COAT – O (ball seemingly) inserted into [swallowed by] CAT (moggy)

“seemingly” seems somewhat superfluous. Could not the clue simply have read “Fur ball swallowed by moggy”?
2 Ben on his broken tibia (8)
SHINBONE – Anagram [broken] of BEN ON HIS
3 Stop to put in end part of sleeve (3,3)
CUT OFF – TO put in CUFF (end part of sleeve)
4 Who places wager with more success (6)
BETTER – Double definition
5 Distinctive quality of gold shown by artist (4)
AURA – AU (gold – chemical symbol) shown by RA (artist – Royal Academician)
6 Trickster to fool member of judge’s panel (8)
CONJUROR – CON (fool) JUROR (member of judge’s panel)
11 Report girl above weight (8)
ANNOUNCE – ANN (girl) OUNCE (weight)

‘above’ is apposite as this is a down clue
13 What comes in cubes cut up, topped and tailed (3)
ICE – DICED (cut up) with first and last letters removed [topped and tailed]
14 Recall how many football matches end? (8)
WITHDRAW – Some football matches end WITH DRAW i.e. both teams have scored the same number of goals

The definition is in the sense of recalling/WITHDRAWing faulty goods from the market, or of recalling/WITHDRAWing troops from the front line. There is also an archaic definition of “revoke or annul (an action or decision)”.

Over the last ten English Premier League seasons, approximately 23% of matches have ended in a draw i.e. around 874 of 3800 matches.
16 Commit matricide in field? (6)
DOMAIN – DO MA IN (Commit matricide) – a chestnut
17 Force put on clothes covering uniform (6)
DURESS – DRESS (put on clothes) covering U (uniform – NATO phonetic alphabet)
19 Old kept in, avoiding cold (4)
AGED – CAGED (kept in) with the C removed [avoiding cold]
21 Structure employed in perpendicular churches (4)
ARCH – Hidden [employed in] in perpendicular churches

96 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2796 by Joker”

  1. 11:00 Finally a success after two disasters! HOTHOUSE and ICE were favourites. I wondered if “seemingly” just hinted at the fact that the two-dimensional letter “O” is not really a ball? I also wondered how the Greenwich Meridian would stray. Wasn’t it arbitrarily sited there and the calculations refer back to that point? Thanks for ENIGMA backstory and footy DRAW stats, Mike, plus rest of blog.

    1. 9:13 ⚡

      I thought there was competition between London and Paris to site the meridian as this all happened in 19th century when these were the dominant empires. Long time since I’ve read Latitude which probably explains a lot of this stuff – might have to dig out a copy

      Agree with comment about seemingly.

      Great puzzle from Joker – back on his old standard after setting some tougher ones the last six months.

        1. Indeeed I do, thank-you. I said it was a long time since I read it – late 90s when it came out!

  2. Flew through this with everything going in almost from the literals. The only ones that made me pause were 3d, CUT OFF and 20a, MERIDIAN where I saw ‘mean’ straight away and assumed mean time, but that didn’t fit with 14d, WITHDRAW. 1d, COAT was very cleverly clued I thought. My first thought for 13d was OXO! COD though to 15a, INTENDED.
    Thanks MH and setter.

  5. 5.55, with a bit of time lost in the top half as I struggled to get going after quickly spotting FOI BRANCH. I blame some crafty lateral definitions for throwing me off the scent. Curryowen makes the point that ‘O’ is not actually a ball. Maybe, but ‘o’ sure looks like one and I too am puzzled by ‘seemingly.’ But it’s no big deal, fun puzzle, thanks Mike and Joker.

  6. Back under 10 for the first time in a while. A solid 8 on the first pass of acrosses with only the NW looking particularly empty. Downs sorted most of that and I finished in the SE with INSTANCE and WITHDRAW holding out until the end. All green in 9.33.

  7. 11 minutes. I also liked FIREWORK but am struggling to see any redundancy in the definition.

      1. Bit nick-picky though?

        On seeing ‘one that can be let off’ first letter ‘F’ my first thought was along completely other lines!

        1. I didn’t see any redundancy in the clue, and only looked at it after reading your comment.

  8. 12m

    I was racing through but slowed on the last four or five clues.
    LOI tiring.
    COD shinbone.

  9. 9 minutes, with main holdup being HOTHOUSE, my LOI. I was convinced that “you once” would be YE and needed all the checkers to confirm it couldn’t be and that we were looking for the singular not plural old version of you. The answer followed but I only vaguely parsed it.

    Otherwise, a pleasant puzzle after two tough ones. Many thanks Mike for the blog – I too am both interested to hear that the Meridian at Greenwich has moved away from 0° 0′ 0″ (5 seconds of arc is a lot, around 100 metres) and puzzled as to how given that it is (or was) by definition the reference line.

    Cedric

      2. The word ‘ye’as used in a tavern or on a business should not be actually pronounced using the ‘y’ sound at all. The ‘y’ is used to substitute for the letter thorn – derived from the phonetic alphabet of Futhark – and it should be pronounced like ‘th’ as in ‘the’. Due to most printing presses not having the letter thorn available, it became common practice to use a ‘y’ instead, leading to ‘ye’ – so it’s really saying ‘the’ after all.

    2. I thought the use of thou was a bit familiar for The Times. . . (don’t thee thou me 😉)

  10. 08:11. Nothing too tricky here. I liked having some more cryptic definitions there. COD DOMAIN. thanks both!

  11. 17.43 is a good time here. A solid steady solve following through words linked from each answer found, with lots to like along the way.

    They may be chestnuts but for us newbies do ma in is definitely COD. Announce took a while as got fixated on annagram (even though it’s the wrong spelling)

    Thanks Joker, and Mike, especially for the parsing of stand out which completely eluded us.

  12. I know I’m slower when I tackle it on my phone but I do wonder just how much slower.

    In my haste to achieve something close to a PB I inexplicably put in ANNTONNE and ended up with red squares and a redder face

    HOTHOUSE was my favourite

    Thank you blogger and setter

  13. Steady going, with only HOTHOUSE causing any serious issues.
    Started with BRANCH and finished with TIRING in 7.43.
    Thanks to Mike

  15. 4:46. LOI CUT OFF. Quite accessible for a Joker puzzle, I thought. As for “here” in the clue for HOTHOUSE, I just take it to mean where you would bring a hose in to water the plants. Thanks Joker and Mike.

    1. Yes, I thought the same about ‘here’. Other places you brought a hose to would be outside, so ‘inside’ doubles up as a literal.

    2. No. No. I had quite different thoughts about Joker being “here” in a hot house. It’s October 2nd and chilly. He has put his heating on for the first time for months.

      1. While I am empathetic to those who have been victims to matricide, the phrasing is hilarious 🙁

        1. It reminded me of the 1987 film, “Throw Momma from the Train”, which treated this concept in a comic manner.

  17. A leisurely solve but in only 14 mins, so quite a pleasant change from recent trials. Nothing too difficult but enjoyed it all. I actually remembered DOMAIN so I must be starting to settle in to Crosswordland, albeit as a lowly toiler in the foothills of knowledge.

  18. 8:55
    HOTHOUSE LOI and COD.
    I live within a mile of the MERIDIAN, and several of our local walks are waymarked ‘GMT’ as part of the Greenwich Meridian Trail.

    Thanks Mike and Joker

  19. Nice steady phone solve, acrosses first (so that when I came to BETTER, five out of six letters were already there!). COD to HOTHOUSE, which produced a pleasing clunk when I abandoned “ye”.

    Lots of good clues. All done in 07:45 for 1.5K (and Plett +1!) and a Decent Day. Thank you Joker and Mike.

  20. Yes we had DOMAIN not so long ago, always a fun one. All doable; LOI WITHDRAW which I struggled to equate with recall, but ok. Thank you, Joker. Liked FIREWORK, great surface.

  21. I found this quite easy and didnit in ten mins which is quick for me. From yesterday (which i did today) dont forget the little river Lee; flows past my home.

  22. Finished correctly in 45 minutes. First success for a while. Hooray !
    The only problematic one for me was 7 Across – HOTHOUSE. Something of a guess. I had forgotten how
    often THOU is used for you in cryptics.
    I hope for another ‘doable’ one on Thursday.

  23. Mostly straightforward, though hampered by using a tablet rather than a keyboard at the moment. Going by the concise, I think I lose 20 to 30 seconds.

    I lost an embarrassing amount of time on my LOI wondering how THRING meant “it is over”. The ring losing “e” for energy. I talked myself out of it in the end…

    5:36

  24. 5:45

    A rare sub 6’. Almost as fast as I can write, although I had to return to LOI CONJUROR.

    Thanks Joker and Mike.

  25. The easiest Joker I can recall as reflected in my time of 6.12. This included about 30 seconds on my LOI CUT OFF, where I initially put in PUT OFF before realising PUT was in the clue. I also initially put in MEANTIME for the Greenwich clue, where a sight of ‘intend’ was enough for me to go down the wrong path. If it wasn’t for these two necessary corrections I think I would have been nearer the five minute mark.

  26. Enjoyable puzzle, though I was rather slow in SW. LOsI TENDON, ANNOUNCE, and then nearly missed TIRING. All good clues.
    Also liked FIREWORK, MERIDIAN, among others. Have stood on the Meridian line🙂
    Thanks vm, Mike.

  27. Was whizzing through this, only not getting MERIDIAN and INSTANCE of the acrosses and then getting all the downs until I was halted by ANNOUNCE. Having all the checkers already in place for that one, I saw my chance of a sub-10 go out the window. I eventually finished with MERIDIAN on 16:04. COD to DOMAIN which I don’t remember seeing before and which elicited a chuckle. Thanks Joker and Mike.

  28. I found this trickier than most so far seem to have. Didn’t see AGED or TENDON for ages, sadly. Not my best day.

  29. Straightforward solve top to bottom, with my LOI, and a slight hold up, with TENDON. Enjoyable, with COD to HOTHOUSE.

  30. Just noticed Mike’s comment re Quitch stats. I’ve always thought that the QC demonstrates remarkable consistency in level over the medium to long term. My own monthly average time has varied by only 30 seconds over that same period.

    Bravo setters and editor for providing a very consistent gateway into this pastime/hobby. Also to the bloggers and site admins who provide this valuable resource.

  31. Thanks, Mike, for your interest and comment on the Quick SNITCH data.

    At the risk of being nerdy…

    The number of solvers is increasing because I’m collecting data from solvers’ blog-reported solving times, even if they don’t make it into the top 100 leaderboard. (With the top 100 spots for the QC being hard to get into, this allows a much broader participation from people who participate in the TfTT blog.) But this means that I’m picking up new solvers whose average time is slower than those in the top 100. As more of these solvers make it into the reference list, the number increases but the average solving time also increases.

    The difficulty level is always based on average solving time for the reference cohort, so the average will always be around 100. (If you really want to know, it is updated on a month-by-month basis, based on a 6-month rolling average.) So, even if the puzzles were actually getting harder, the average SNITCH value would still be around 100.

    To check if the puzzles are getting harder overall, it’s probably worth looking at the trends for individual solvers, especially those that have been there from the beginning. On a quick sample of individual trends (see verlaine’s here for example) their average solving times move around a bit from month to month but are generally steady. So, I’d be estimating that the overall difficulty has remained about the same.

    1. I don’t know how relevant the SNITCH is to SCC solvers. Have just checked it and HNO most of the snitchers.

    2. For all those who (like me) enjoy the Quitch/Snitch, a quick reminder that an easy way to show one’s appreciation and help cover the costs of running is to “buy a coffee” every now and then. There’s a link on the relevant pages. Thanks again starstruck!

    3. starstruck_au – two questions if I may …

      1) the Quitch is supposed to pick up times from bloggers who reported solving times regularly over the last six months. I did this for a while and have never been picked up. Is it actually looking at the QC or main blog to get blog solvers? What is the criteria?

      2) Any chance of Saturday data being included?

      1. Hi New Driver, thanks for the questions!

        1. For solvers who only report times via the blog, I have a strict “opt in” policy. I only include them in the solving stats if they request it. If people are already on the club leaderboard and report on the blog as well, I pick up their data from the blog, as I assume they’re okay to have their data included.

        I’m very happy to include you as a Blog Solver and have now done so. I’ve given you an average of 20:19 based on your reported times. You should now be listed on all crosswords where you’ve posted an error-free time. But please let me know of any issues.

        2. Yes, indeed. Request noted. I should find the time to do this.

        1. Wow! Thank-you very much – I appreciate it. That 20:19 means I’m back in the SCC 😀

      2. Hi again, I’ve now added Saturdays to the Quick SNITCH. This data won’t be included in the Trends page, but the SNITCH and individual results for Saturday crosswords will now be shown. Thanks again for your interest.

  32. Normal service resumed after my trials of the last two days. I finished this in 13 minutes with everything parsed except STAND OUT and ICE which were biffed from the crossers. It seemed more straightforward than many of Joker’s recent offerings although this may just be my impression.

    FOI – 4ac BRANCH
    LOI – 16dn DOMAIN
    COD – 7ac HOTHOUSE. I also liked TENDON, WITHDRAW and DOMAIN, even if the last one is a chestnut.

    Thanks to Joker and Mike

  33. Definitely a gentler offering from Joker today. From BRANCH to INSTANCE in 6:36. Liked HOTHOUSE and MERIDIAN. Thanks Joker and Mike.

  34. I once asked an Irishman what they do for Irishman jokes. He said in Ireland they’re Kerryman jokes.

  35. I agree this was pretty straightforward, but I still made heavy weather of it, with just the pick of window seats as a consolation. Outhouse seemed a perfectly sensible place to keep the garden hose, though the parsing did seem a tad difficult for a QC. Also, Enigma eluded me (🙄) for a surprisingly long time, despite knowing the word. All sorted in the end, but this was definitely a sub-20 that got away. CoD to 24ac, Tendon, for the pdm. Invariant

  36. Only three clues left after the first pass, and they were quickly mopped up. Thanks Joker and Mike.

    FOI BRANCH
    LOI INSTANCE
    COD FIREWORK
    TIME 3:50

  37. In the OWL club again with THRING! Ah well, I did better in the 15×15 today.

  38. Easier than yesterday but still made a bit of a meal of this. LOI ANNOUNCE took an embarrassingly long time to solve (initially tried anntonne…). Remembered DOMAIN from a previous QC. Also held up by TIRING (same as hopkinb above). Needed blog to parse the biffed HOTHOUSE. Many thanks Mike. Great blog.

  39. 12:34

    Well that was a relief after this week’s puzzles. Nice and simple. LOI DOMAIN.

  40. Back in the land of sogginess – and back on paper. Interestingly, I think I may be a bit quicker overall on my tablet, but I prefer seeing the crossword as a whole and writing the clues in, as well as having somewhere to make notes when stuck.
    So 8:34 today. FOI Branch LOI Firework COD Withdraw (although BETTER got a tick – a bit of a chestnut, but an elegant way to clue it, I thought)
    Thank Joker and Mike

    1. There is something satisfying about using a paper and pen even though I’ve got used to using my tablet when I’m away or on a Saturday. However, I have reached a compromise by carrying a sheet of paper to doodle and make notes on as I’m doing it.

  41. 13 mins…

    Definitely one of Joker’s more gentle puzzles. Only hold up was my LOI 23ac “Instance” and a mental review of all Greenwich’s attractions. Once made the mistake of visiting the maritime museum during a half term – never again.

    FOI – 1dn “Coat”
    LOI – 23ac “Instance”
    COD – 16dn “Domain” – think I’ve seen this one before, but still made me chuckle.

    Thanks as usual!

  43. 9:43 in the end felt a little disappointing, certainly on the faster side for us but well off a PB, because it had felt rather faster on the whole as we were going through it. Remembered DOMAIN, after a few seconds, from last time. Couldn’t say the same of LOI INSTANCE which involved rather longer staring whilst we conjured up the right position. Earlier on, ENIGMA was also slow to go in because ‘imagine’ (yes, 7 letters!) had popped up in my brain first and took some clearing out. STAND OUT was perhaps the standout clue for me. Thanks Joker and Mike.

  44. From BRANCH to HOTHOUSE in 7:39. I was a little slow to see JUROR and I biffed STAND OUT and TENDON. My COD is DOMAIN for a much needed LOL moment.

  45. Steady rather than fast solve for me, with LOI HOTHOUSE – had to be once I’d got COAT and had abandoned my first thought which was MADHOUSE. Here? Well, maybe. ANNOUNCE and DOMAIN may be chestnuts but both new to me and both brought a smile. Much enjoyed – thanks to Joker and to Mike

  46. Not speedy but no big frustrations either and enjoyed my 16:47 minutes of solving. Like CONJUROR best.

    Thanks Joker and Mike!

  47. At 28 minutes I finished just inside my standard target, albeit with a very uneasy feeling about TENDON which I could not parse and still don’t like. I can’t imagine TEND ON ever having been a synonym for continue nursing and have never heard or read it anywhere.

    BRANCH was my FOI and, for once, I made good progress during my first pass through the grid. I stumbled a bit, for a while, by biffing MEANTIME before finding MERIDIAN some minutes later. Then came TENDON (see above) and, my LOI, HOTHOUSE.

    Verdict: A proper QC.

    Thanks to Joker and Mike.

    2. Re TEND ON. A possibility for me is that it’s a cross-Atlantic hybrid of the classic film Carry On Nursing and Garth and Wayne’s Party On slogan from Wayne’s World.

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