Times Quick Cryptic 2800 by Trelawney

137 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2800 by Trelawney”

1. I was going great guns with this one, tearing through the clues. Biffed Le Carre, coconut, haunted house, scholar, and advert while hardly glancing at the clues. I was left with the crossing of swerve and risotto, and I had one problem: risotto is NOT an anagram of it’s roots, because there’s eight letters, not seven – one extra S. I put it in anyway, saw swerve at once, and hit the stop button. After finishing, I tried to justify the clue, but couldn’t. Possible error?

   Time: 6:10

   1. Thanks for pointing that out and I have added to my comment in the blog. I’m particularly annoyed with myself for not noticing the problem as it’s my habit to double-check all anagrams after completing a blog to ensure I have matched the number of letters of anagrist to the answer. Aside from that, it should also have stood out like a sore thumb that in the surface reading of the clue “its” as a possessive wouldn’t take an apostrophe!

      1. Hmm, I took the surface to mean “it is roots in a stew”—explaining the part before the dash.
         Didn’t notice the extraneous S.

   2. Should it be: “its root’s in a stew”?

2. The first time I’ve ever solved a QC without even a little bit of cheating – mind you, I only started about a month ago. As frustrating as I often find the challenging ones, today’s reminded me beautifully of why the toil is so necessary to the pleasure. Slightly less satisfying because of the simplicity but enjoyable nevertheless.
   Very chuffed I got LE CARRE from only two checkers before I saw the parsing – he is one of my favourite writers.
   FOI ARTIST
   LOI EDGE
   COD TRAINSPOTTER
   Thanks to both

   1. Here at TftT, we have found that if you have the basics, and attempt the puzzle and read the blog every day, you should improve rapidly. All the little tricks that experienced solvers know will become second nature, and before you know it you’ll be posting respectable solving times.

      1. This is exactly what I am finding – thank you all so much for this blog which is really improving my understanding and enjoyment of these puzzles.

         I also managed to complete today with no “reveal words” on the app which is a massive success for me! And fast (for me) too in under 15mins. I can now manage the easiest ones with no clues and only an occasional check – which is a huge improvement.

         I was also confused by the risotto clue as I can never remember how many Ss or Ts there should be – came here for the answer and glad to see I wasn’t the only one. Really enjoyed the rest of the clues though.

   2. Well done! You have to be able to crack the easier ones before you start tearing through Izetti, and all the time you are learning the tricks and Crosswordese that will get you there.

      1. Yes, I’ve only been doing cryptics for about 10 days (since The Times article on MinuteCryptic last Friday) so it’s nice to have an easier one!

         Only missed two (both of which I’m kicking myself about now) and nowhere near six minutes, but this is the first time I’ve got even close to finishing, and I did think that with a bit of concentration I was picking up most of the tricks.

3. 10:16 but should have been faster. Did not see COCO Chanel and went nuts thinking of other nuts that might fit. LOI BUCK.

   RISOTTO looks like a rare error, I couldn’t decide how to spell it, so waited for all the checkers.

   COD HAUNTED HOUSE

   1. What if you take “it’s” as “it has” then you have possibly just it and roots for anagrist?

      1. That would work if the first letter were I and the last letter were T, or IT were the first two letters, but IT doesn’t really have an anagram of ROOTS, because the letters are all mixed together.

         1. Thanks, vinyl1, I see the point.

4. I suspect RISOTTO possibly should been ‘it’s root’ in a stew.

   1. Sadly there’d be a problem with that too. Please see my edited comment in the blog.

      1. May I ask, are you reading ‘root’ as in the sense of beginning?

         1. Yes , I was – so “Italian dish – has it’s root in a stew”. The problem with that is that “its” in that context wouldn’t take an apostrophe, so there’d be another error or misprint. But perhaps you have an alternative reading?

            1. OK. I was on a different surface reading and saw ‘it’s’ as ‘it is’, non-possessive. Given that the clue is food related, I took root to be a root vegetable, carrot for instance. That might make ‘it’s root’ (it is root) kind of possible, leaving just one error in the plural ‘roots’. Maybe a stretch.

               1. I am more of a scientist than a linguist but how would one express ‘the root of it’ as in singular root using ‘its’ would it be ‘its root’ or its’ or it’s??

                  So for example if you were referring to ‘all evil’ ‘money’ and the root

                  So its root’s in a stew…?

                  1. I am thinking that the clue for RISOTTO is a dog’s dinner.

                     I can only see ‘IT has ROOTS anagrammed’ as the intention, where what’s meant is ‘IT plus ROOTS anagrammed’. And no, I don’t like that much for Vinyl’s reasons (sound stuff sir).

                     ‘Italian dish, roots with it in a stew’ would seem to avoid any issues.

            2. Mr SR wondered if the apostrophe was just in the wrong place, so the clue possibly should have read:
               “Italian dish – its root’s in a stew”.
               That way “its root” would be the anagrist and the anagrist “is in a stew”.
               Having said that, we didn’t notice a problem until reading the blog.

               1. That would work perfectly if it’s the case.

               2. Thanks. That’s the only suggestion so far that seems to work on every level and could be accounted for by a single error in the clue. My only question would then be why have the apostrophe s at all? “Italian dish – its root in a stew” would work just as well.

                  1. Yes my thoughts too

      2. Re: Risotto.
         Looks like it is just an error.
         All I would say is that sometimes even Homer nods.

5. 6 minutes for me too, with many answers put in with the wordplay looked at afterwards. I didn’t notice the error at RISOTTO, just put it straight in.

6. Biffed HAUNTED HOUSE & TRAINSPOTTER, and RISOTTO, never noticing the problem. 4:22.

7. Yeah this possibly might have been the easiest QC I’ve ever done. Not a PB for me, but just a zoom through. 7:15.

   I didn’t know Le Carre had died (I just checked for curiosity’s sake). I love me a spy story, I’m currently watching The Americans TV show and loving every moment.

   1. Need to pick the Americans up again. Impatiently waiting for Wednesday for the last installment of this series of Slow Horses (on Apple). Just started Where’s Wanda (also on Apple) hoping it’s even 10% as good as Kleo (Netflix) which I recommend to everyone. Some even agree that it’s amazing.

      1. I’ve not watched Slow Horses – I’ll give it a look when I cycle back around to Apple, I think I’m waiting for the next season of Severence.

         I have netflix though and will give Kleo a look!

         1. Slow Horses – is GENIUS!! Fast, funny but a tad violent in parts. Worth it – HIGHLY rec!

            1. And Mick’s fantastic singing the intro!

   2. The Americans is in my all time top 10 list of TV shows.

8. PB by 45s today, under 6 minutes for the first time. Enjoyed TRAINSPOTTER but was going through so quickly that I didn’t have much time to appreciate the clues.
   I have a very high QSNITCH alignment, so I’m very sensitive to difficulty. This puzzle, for example, I finished in under one third of my average time. I assume its due to relatively limited vocabulary/GK, so although I think I’m not too bad at parsing clues, obscurities really slow me down.

   1. Congratulations!

      I join you in the PB and the quality of the experience.

9. Just about everything went straight in and I thought I might be quicker than the 6.15 I clocked, but on the other hand I wasn’t solving frenetically, just steadily, which is how I like it. LOI was TOTEM POLE, I wanted it to start with ‘temp’ and figured there might be same arcane term for carving of which I was unaware. RISOTTO does look like a boo-boo but I didn’t notice at the time. Favourite clue was TRAINSPOTTER for the def. Thanks Trelawney and Jack.

10. Left at the end with DOCTOR WHO and TRAINSPOTTER so I feel less like a nerd than usual but frustratrated that pausing over those look away a few seconds. Still my ninth fastest ever solve at 7.50 (thanks to the Quick Snitch for keeping records). Enjoyed ENLARGE though I must have seen it before. Eight on the first pass of acrosses and then mostly fast on the downs. Enjoyed it.

11. 9:00 exactly, one of my fastest times. LOI and COD to TRAINSPOTTER. I find it interesting how often those two things go together.

    Thanks to Trelawney and Jackkt.

12. And another PB here at 12.22

    Some really nice lateral thinking in some of the clues, especially trainspotter, our COD

    We would have been even quicker but for putting in crest for 9a (Relax, beginning to climb high ground) became c with rest.

    Thanks Trelawney and Jack for the blog.

    1. Hurray!

13. 7:50, thought I was quite fast today till coming here and seeing everyone else’s times 😉
    I’ll look back later to see if anyone made sense of the risotto.

14. 4:45 corrected DNF which would have been PB by over a minute and a half 🤦‍♂️ Put InPATIENT having momentarily considered IM- and didn’t think the clue through. Despite the DNF really pleased with that and shows me what’s possible on my day.

    I hope Mr Random pops in for that masterclass in QC setting from Trelawney. By no means easy but very doable.

    1. Oh yes I thought of some random chap too!

    2. N for an M cost you a finish under 5 minutes- commiserations!

       1. Impatience costing me in more ways than one!

    3. Hello Mr Plates,
       I’ll just go and ask him if he’d mind.

    4. Wow on the time!

       Good thought about our absent friend.

15. Straightforward top to bottom solve starting with BILLBOARD and finishing with TOTEM POLE whilst being blissfully ignorant of the RISOTTO error.
    Finished in 4.57.
    Thanks to Jackkt

16. 5:53 for me which is second fasted since started on the about 6 months ago but goes down as a fail as inexplicably put LA CARRE

    COD and LOI TRAINSPOTTER

17. Another PB here, 2:53 which gave me great motivation to finally crack a sub-10 Cryptic. I proceeded to finish the Cryptic in 24′ with one error. Hmph.

    1. Zowie!

    2. Wow, congratulations!

18. Delightfully easy (one for beginners?); LOI SWERVE (NHO rally in context of tennis, but Mrs M says it’s GK….).

    1. The longest ever rally in tournament tennis consisted of 643 strokes! At Richmond, VA, in 1984.

       1. At 3 seconds a stroke I make that over half an hour!

          1. Youtube has a 54 shot rally between Djokovic and Nadal from 2013 US Open which last 1min15 and a 71 shot rally between Monfils and Simon at 2013 Australian Open (1min45). Those suggest just under 2secs per shot and probably closer to 20mins in 1984!! But of course the players will get tired as the rally goes on so it might be out to 30mins …

             Nothing beats the drama of this 766 shot table tennis rally … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp2QbJrbzMw … amazing ending!

             1. War of attrition/war of nerves!

19. Terrible typing today (cold fingers on cold iPhone) so had to re-enter numerous answers. At least I spotted them! Had a long pause at RISOTTO because half way through typing it I realised the anagrist was wrong … but it had to be, surely? … head scratching ensued and produced no alternative, so in it went.

    After all that I had a respectable but no PB 06:40 for 1.6K and a Decent Day. Many thanks to Jack and the Squire.

20. 9:15. A nice quick one. Spent some time on RISOTTO, after checking the anagrist to see if there were two Ss or two Ts, finding too many letters, and just bunging it anyway later when I had the crossers. I liked TOTEM POLE

21. A very gentle start to the week. No problems with this at all.

22. Just over 6 minutes, so joining many in a fast time by my standards. L2I the crossing of BUCK and COCONUT – not sure why they held me up so much, as once I saw them they were clear enough, but it seems I’m not entirely alone in finding that they caused a hesitation. OTOH RISOTTO caused no hesitation at all, so I’m clearly another who didn’t count the letters in the anagrist.

    This puzzle might almost have been set by Central Control to encourage Mr Random back: “Houston, we have a problem, one of our favourite contributors is missing” – “Call for Trelawney, if he cannot tempt him to return to the fray we’re sunk”.

    Many thanks Jack for the blog
    Cedric

23. 5:06
    My first ever clean sweep, and a PB.
    Biffed RISOTTO without counting all the letters.
    LOI my local river CAM, merely because as the final down clue it was the last one I got to.

    Thanks Jack and Trelawney

    1. Congrats on the PB and more so for the clean sweep – I was on for one (never had one) until that long across clue, which I just skipped over in the interest of speed and came back to.

    2. Congratulations!

24. Finished corrrectly in 29 minutes. Hooray ! A better start to the week.
    Of course, many will say this was very easy, but I would say “doable”. And a bit of a relief after several really tough ones of late.

    I did not even notice the issue with “it’s roots” = “risotto”. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

    But Jackkt is correct – it must be an error. All I would say is that sometimes even Homer nods.

25. 4:25

    Very quick though there were one or two that needed a second pass, but having only three or four left to fill in after going once through every clue is not too shabby. Only held up really by BUCK – I wasn’t sure that this is a horned creature or not so did a very quick (considering the very fast time) shuffle through the memory banks to see if there was any alternative before committing. Didn’t notice the issue at 14d – glancing at the collection of letters that looked like it might be the anagrist was enough to bung in RISOTTO.

    Thanks Jack and Trelawney

26. Felt as if even my normal leisurely solving hadn’t taken long, and 11.26 on the iPad version clock confirmed it. Everything I would have said has been said above.
    A friendly warm up to the week luring me into a false sense of competence before horrors doubtless yet to come…

27. As easy as it gets really – QUITCH has never been so low since inception in Feb 2023.

    Nevertheless, a neat puzzle, and as so many commenters point out – a real confidence booster.

    3rd fastest time for me, and I was on for a clean sweep, but in the interest of time, I skipped over TRAINSPOTTER on the first pass and came back to it.

    I liked TOTEM POLE. Biffed RISOTTO without a thought as I had most of the checkers.

    3:20

28. It seems everyone is in agreement that this was an easy start to the week, and my time of 6.14 confirms it. Having said that I spent nearly a minute on my last two COCONUT and finally BUCK, so I am left with a feeling it should have been even faster. Like others I noticed the anomaly with RISOTTO in solving, but put it down to one of those rare errors that sometimes occur.

29. Yes, a breeze, good fun. I didn’t notice a problem with RISOTTO, just bunged it in. BILLBOARD is kind of American.
    Liked many, inc TRAINSPOTTER, IMPATIENT, TOTEM POLE, LE CARRE.
    An encouraging QC. Thanks vm, Jack.

30. Back after a holiday and this solver friendly puzzle took me just under 7 minutes.
    LOI TRAINSPOTTER. In my rush I was looking for an anagram of CERAMICIST plus a couple of letters.
    That added a minute or so.
    A nice QC. COD to TOTEM POLE.
    I now have time to go and get a haircut.
    David

31. Was puzzled by risotto though was sure I was right and it must be a rare error. Maybe he set it as quickly as we solved it!

32. Nice one thanks.
    Had to use the fingers of both hands to check the number of letters in ‘it’s roots’ but then assumed the error was not mine for once.
    I’d not noticed before that the only vowels in DOCTOR WHO are three Os.

    1. It was perhaps more noticeable in the title of the spin-off series from DOCTOR WHO which was an anagram of the original: TORCHWOOD. It ran for 5-6 years.

33. Did that in 3:55 which is nearly 3 minutes faster than my previous PB – I dont think I will be challenging that record again any time soon

    1. Wow!!!!

       1. Thanks!

34. I was feeling quite pleased with my 15mins until I saw all the really quick times being posted today. Totem Pole and loi Swerve both took me a ridiculously long time to see, but then the Risotto controversy passed me by, so no real complaints: just a bit slow. Invariant

35. A rare visit to sub 5 territory today. Didn’t notice the RISOTTO problem. From BILLBOARD to BUCK in 4:52. Thanks Trelawney and Jack.

36. 6:06

    Might have been much quicker but for a long pause at RISOTTO.

    LOI BUCK.

    Thanks all.

37. Still nursing half a cup of coffee so I must have whizzed through this one, although held up a bit by SWERVE and RISOTTO (could have done with using the anagrist for correct spelling!).

    The fun for me is figuring out the wordplay, not necessarily the speed of completion, so I didn’t enjoy this as much as usual because most clues seemed eminently biffable. I know I’m likely going against the tide here though… Many thanks Jack.

    1. Yes I know what you mean. I thought 3d was a brilliant surface for only being 3 letters.

38. My fastest ever time, too fast to get in a stew over the problematic Italian cooking. 6:37. Normally double that is a good time for me.

    All the answers went in straight away.

    I don’t know what to do with myself now.

    1. I know the feeling! Congrats nonetheless.

39. Whoop whoop!! Only my 2nd solve in …. 4 years!! Enlisted help of my partner for a horned creature ( couldn’t see Buck ) and the golf (w)edge for 18 down. He’s a golfer. A lovely easy puzzle… giving myself the Oscar today – even with the 2 clue help!

    1. 🏆

40. This was definitely the easiest QC in many a month. I actually finished it without help. What a joy😄😄

41. 05:52
    My favourite setter.
    COD enlarge.

42. Don’t normally bother to time myself, but felt quick, didn’t notice problem with RISOTTO, but chucked in anyhow, ditto parsing ole in TOTEM POLE which was excruciatingly obvious from checkers. C O D : TRAINSPOTTING

43. Four weeks after I started wrestling with the QC each day, today’s puzzle was a breeze – and therefore a great encouragment to me. Much gratitude to Trelawney for this.

44. 7:37 Missed that RISOTTO didn’t work until it was pointed out to me. I remember thinking at the time is root origin or vegetable-oh well, doesn’t matter, answer’s obvious.

45. Here is an important announcement: the clue for risotto has now been corrected! Anyone doing the puzzle from now on will have no idea what we’re talking about.

    1. Do you mind saying what to? The app is currently showing the old clue & I have a friend trying the paper version for the first time, so would like to let him know!

       1. Italian dish — its root in a stew (7)

          1. Thank you!

             1. I’m pleased to report he finished in 40 minutes with all correct and only a few unparsed, and is appropriately chuffed!

          2. Exactly as I suggested at 11:14!

             1. 👍

46. 25/26, so the easiest one I have tackled this year. I just couldn’t see 13A, SWERVE. Very annoying that I failed on that one.

    1. Hard luck Ian. For what it’s worth, I found that one tough and biffed it rather than parsed it.

47. It’s disappointing when it turns out that you’re not brilliant, it’s just an easy puzzle.

48. So keen to speed through that we entirely missed the “it’s roots” error(s)! Never mind, we were rewarded with a substantial new PB of 5:49. So much faster than usual that we may never touch that again, even if I were ever error free in my typing. COD TRAINSPOTTER. Thank you Jack and Trelawney.

49. A gentle start to the week which I completed in 12 minutes, all parsed. Never noticed the problem with RISOTTO as I didn’t check the anagrist – I had enough crossers just to write it straight in. I was slow to see my POI (COCONUT) which I needed to get LOI BUCK. I was kicking myself for not seeing it quicker but I note that several others had the same problem which makes me feel somewhat better.

    FOI – 1ac BILLBOARD
    LOI – 1dn BUCK
    CODs – 8ac COCONUT and 10ac TRAINSPOTTER – both made me smile.

    Thanks to Trelawney and Jack

50. 28 mins.
    Spent ages trying to make anagram involving ceramicist before the penny finally dropped , so trainspotting was LOI.
    Enjoyable though.
    Thanks for blog.

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