Times Quick Cryptic 2806 by Pedro – how many ells?

92 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2806 by Pedro – how many ells?”

1. I found this a bit tough in places, and needed 13.23 to get it done. I thought a couple, such as the convoluted parsing required for PAPRIKA, and the stupid plant, pushed the outside of the quickie envelope. I was fooled by the misdirection of LLAMA, thinking there would be a ram there somewhere. In SUPREMACY I wasn’t sure about pacy = smart but I was pleased to see Pedro taking advantage of the relaxed rule about the living and the dead. I’m sure REM are still touring somewhere…

   1. Actually, I think REM disbanded 10+ years ago, but I daresay there will be a number of tribute bands out there playing their stuff for audiences around the world.

   2. I’m a dyslexic novice…10 solved this morning. Also ADHD so I don’t have much patience. I either see the answers or I don’t. Quite often I get the answer from only half the clue.

2. 14 minutes is only just within my revised target and reflects my not finding this particularly easy. SEE needed both checkers before I could see it and I spent far too long at the SUPREMACY/PAPRIKA intersection.

   I looked twice at ‘Do water sport / SKI’ as skiing is not a water sport – that’s waterskiing – but I suppose the question mark is intended to mitigate that.

   1. I didn’t even notice the SKI problem–I do a lot of not even noticing–but thought, after reading your comment, that it could be short for ‘waterski’. Which it is, according to ODE; but as a noun, not as a verb. Collins US (and COBUILD) list it as a verb.

      1. Thanks. Yes, I’d come to the same conclusion about noun and verb.

   2. One could SKI (spend kids’ inheritance) by doing water sports, I suppose. In fact, Mrs R and I have been doing just that for the past week, in Greece. Unfortunately, our time is nearly up – we return home tomorrow.

      1. At least you’ve had lovely weather for it. Mrs W and I are off to Kos on Wednesday!

         1. I hope you enjoy your holiday. Bon voyage!

3. Started fast with geography A level speeding me to PERMAFOST but somehow I failed to think of the hare for ‘rabbit like creature’ to be held up at the end. Should have got there sooner as I’ve always wanted to get a couple of rabbits tattooed on my head. From a distance they look like hares. SUPREMACY put up stiff resistance, as did PHILANTROPY which I just couldn’t bring to mind to see if the letters fitted. End up all green in 16.21, so a pretty tough start to the week.

   1. Hares on head! That’s very clever.

   2. Very good 😂😂😂

   3. . . . and very old

      1. A heckler shouting “tell us a joke we know” is one of my highlights from Phoenix Nights.

         1. Garlic bread?

            1. Which was a clue in tonight’s Only Connect (if you didn’t see it!)

4. Biffed the four long corner ones, SUPREMACY, AMARYLLIS, probably more; and still couldn’t get under my target of 6′. 6:41, a few seconds over my average time.

5. Well off the pace today and couldn’t help thinking that the puzzle would have been a lot easier if either (or both) of the 1s had gone straight in – unfortunately I needed multiple checkers for both.
   Started with APHID and finished with PAPRIKA (anagram hat clearly still doing weekend things) in 11.41.
   Thanks to Kitty

6. Got through in average time but had to really think about some: SHARE, PAPRIKA, AMARYLLIS and SUPREMACY. Liked the surface for PERMAFROST while managing to make the anagrist describe the farmer’s problem. Bit of a mer with ‘make improvements’ for REPAIR, I would have thought repair meant fixing something broken.
   Some tricky wordplay for beginners here.
   Thanks Kitty and setter.

7. I spelt Philanthropy wrong (last 5 letters in wrong order) which goofed up bottom left for a long time until I sorted!

   1. Ditto. It was far too easy to finish with ‘trophy’

8. We were right on the Pedro wavelength, popping 1a and 1d straight in and progressing nicely to Finish in 18.12 although LOI supremacy needed Kitty’s help in the parsing, thank you.

   Our favourite is haberdashery, brings back memories of the opening titles from “Are you being served”, although I can’t remember which floor it was on 😀

   Thanks Pedro

   1. Ground floor

      1. “Ground floor: perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food, going UUUPPP!”

         1. That’s the only time I ever heard the word HABERDASHERY. Well remembered.

9. I don’t remember seeing REP (as opposed to just R) for Republican before, so REPAIR ended up being LOI. And I had to check the spelling of VETERINARY very carefully. Otherwise brisk business and I finished in 06:11 for an Excellent Day. COD to AMARYLLIS for reminding me of Milton’s Lycidas.

   Many thanks Kitty and Pedro.

   1. I only just caught a mistake in the blog where I’d omitted the EP from my explanation of REPAIR.

10. 11 minutes, but with LOI SUPREMACY unparsed. Grateful for Kitty’s blog for that one, doubt I’d have got it even in a further 11 minutes. Rest a good Monday workout, made easier by getting 1A and 1D almost straight away. I liked the foolish sheep, and an amaryllis is one of my favourite flowers.

    Many thanks Kitty for the blog
    Cedric

11. Fun puzzle – thank you, Pedro. LOI SUPREMACY – NHO any rock group and smart = PACY on the tenuous side, but apparently had to be. Liked SILLY backwards.

    1. Everybody hurts….REM

       1. You mean that’s their most famous song???? – is that the idea? that we should “at least” have heard of that???

    2. I would venture a small wager that you have heard of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Martinů?

       1. Ha ha – yes of course. (Though I couldn’t name a song by the latter.) And there will be some amongst you who will have heard of Mozart and Beethoven, but not of Martinů. OK Martinů won’t feature in a QC, but Smetana did – perhaps a better analogy.

          1. I would hasten a guess that you would at least recognise (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

             1. You’re completely right – “recognise” – but wouldn’t have known who it was by!

                1. I’ll wager as a result of that comment, Bohuslav will certainly appear at some point in a quickie. You’d better be solving that day!

                   1. Can’t wait for the red-letter day! 🙂

          2. It is jazz that doesn’t figure too often in puzzles – we’ve never seen Trane, for example.

             1. 28780

                1. Well, at least you didn’t quote my comment! To get a jump on the trolls, I said:

                   “I thought of Trane right away, of course, while reading the clue, and then dismissed the idea. Of course, if you’re an experienced solver, your first idea is often a right one.”

                   So I was Miles off on this one!

                2. Took me a while, but at last tumbled to it. Nickname of John Coltrane – well I’ve learnt something – thank you. Good stuff – I enjoy it – but can never remember or recognise from the music who is who. By the way Martinů wrote a piece called Le Jazz.

12. A decent test for a Monday I thought.

    Last two in and cause of going over average time were PAPRIKA (not hot in my experience, though I know it can be), and REPAIR, where I had the same experience as Templar – I was looking for R and then a 5 letter word for attitude.

    ARMISTICE was very neat, though a biff at the time.

    7:07

13. An enjoyable start to the week. 39m.
    Biffed SUPREMACY assuming it was connected with The Supremes.
    LOI REPAIR (unparsed)
    COD SHARE for the misguidance
    Thank you both.

14. I spelled ARMISTICE incorrectly and hence struggled both with parsing it (how does ‘race’ mean grain? – stupid) and with my LOI, REPAIR, for which I was looking for R_P_A_ and all I could think of was ‘repair’ which didn’t fit …..
    Please could someone explain a context in which ‘pacy’ can mean ‘smart’?

    In 20a, what is the purpose of the words ‘to appear in’ in the clue? Those words do not support either the definition (PAGEANT is a noun) or the construction of the answer since ‘ant’ does not appear in ‘page’.

    1. Collins: Smart – vigorous or brisk

       1. I was looking for a context in which I can use pacy instead of smart. Can anyone put that in a sentence for me?

          1. His horse set off at a pacy/smart trot?

    2. Pageant can be a verb but I suspect that’s not the intention here (being a QC) so it’s probably just padding to make the surface smoother.

    3. PAGEANT – I would read it as [wordplay] to appear in [answer as defined], so a linking phrase between wordplay and definition.

       PACY – The example given by OED is he set off at a smart pace. Of course you’d have to then substitute a different word for pace, but it’s clear enough that in this example smart means on the quick side.

15. Fun puzzle which didn’t get me to the SCC, so a steady but not swift start to the week in about 17 mins. 5D, I assumed REM would figure, and it had to start SU but needed the checkers before realising the PACY element to find the appropriate ending.
    INANE rang a faint bell so may be something of a chestnut, but I liked it anyway. Plants are frequently difficult for me to pick out, although I enjoy a bit of gardening, but AMAR seemed the likely start, which didn’t leave much room for uncertainty.

16. 1a and 1d came late, so I couldn’t take advantage of any starting letters and had to populate the grid more laboriously. However, I did make good progress on my first and second passes and only really had to apply my few remaining grey cells with around 6-7 clues to go. Fortunately, I wasn’t stalled for too long and I finished with PERMAFROST and AXE (my LOI).

    My CoD was INANE, a clue with which I usually struggle. Today, however, it was my FOI and brought a smile to my face right at the outset. Time = 22 minutes, which is fast for me.

    Many thanks to Pedro and Kitty.

    1. Agree, seeing and solving a clue like INANE always brightens my day too.

17. I was on for a first ever clean sweep of all the across clues, but PAGEANT scuppered me. Probably took a bit too much time on them though. Given I had almost all the checkers, the downs mostly went in easily too, but PHILANTHROPY held out. Ended up with a rather disappointing 15:24 given I’d started so well. COD to AMARYLLIS. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.

18. I recently visited a museum dedicated to PAPRIKA, in Hungary, and now possess a decade’s supply of the stuff, so that went straight in.

    Otherwise no issues, 5’55”.

    Thanks Kitty and Pedro.

19. A one cup of coffee solve today. As with Templar, I hesitated with REPAIR, my LOI, as I couldn’t see EPAIR as an attitude to follow R for Republican. REP has always been a Representative to me. Several amusing clues and my COD INANE. The quickest Pedro yet.

20. 10:50 (Macbeth makes pilgrimage to Rome)

    An enjoyable solve. I nearly misspelt ARMISTICE, but was save by checking that I had MIST inside it.
    LOI PAGEANT.
    Thanks for quoting the Ogden Nash poem. My copy of his collected poems has a footnote reading “The author’s attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh.”

    Thanks Kitty and Pedro

21. All done and dusted quickly this morning. LOI SUPREMACY was an easy biff with all the checkers. POI SHARE held me up the most. Liked building up AMARYLLIS from the word play. Another surprised to find REP = Republican but shrugged and moved on. In my youth I worked on the haberdashery counter (affectionately known as ‘habby’) of a very old-fashioned department store. I’ve never been so bored in my entire life and it was a relief to be moved on to ‘Ladies Foundations’ – remember that?! Nice puzzle. Thanks for the blog kitty.

22. 7:52

    Mainly struggled with the four perimeter anagrams – much easier once all/most of the checkers were in place. Liked AMARYLLIS and SUPREMACY.

    Thanks Kitty and Pedro

23. Finished correctly in 35 minutes. Hooray ! Great start to the week.
    Also the sun is shining in Bolton. A minor miracle in itself. N.B. :
    8 Across- ” Foolish way for both life and fame to end? (5)
    INANE — The words life and fame both end IN AN E”
    Good clue but I am sure that we have had this before – or something very similar.
    18Across – ” A foolish sheep overturned flowering plant (9)
    AMARYLLIS — A followed by the reversal of (… overturned) SILLY (foolish) RAM (sheep)”
    I am a gardener and I guessed this plant. I did the parsing afterwards. Is there a song “Show me the way to Amaryllis” ?

    5 Down “Elevated American rock group into smart, dominant position (9)
    SUPREMACY — US (American) written upwards (elevated …) + REM (rock group) inserted into PACY (smart)”
    I tried to link this to the Supremes for ages (even though they were never a rock group) until I eventually got it right. Never heard of REM. (RAM and ROM yes, but not REM).
    Permafrost I remembered this term from geography lessons nearly 60 years ago. Seem to remember it
    being linked to the Mammoth Steppe – but perhaps this is a steppe too far.

    1. Well done, Mr K!

    2. 👏👏👏

24. A very slow start to the week for me finishing in 15.19. I was surprised to see most found it straightforward with some pretty good times being posted, so I guess it was just me having an off day. Unlike Kitty, I didn’t immediately get 1ac and 1dn, and perhaps if I had the resulting time would have different. I also have trouble with the spelling of VETERINARY, and there were quite a few crossings out where the down clues rendered my initial attempt to be wrong.

25. DNF!

    I knew as soon as I entered it that I didn’t know how to spell VETERINARY. Just didn’t look right so I transposed the middle R and N for double DPS. A slow solve anyway at just under 25 mins.

    Struggled with SUPREMACY, oh, that rock group! LOI INANE.

26. Despite having at one time had a full collection of REM albums, I biffed SUPREMACY without the slightest idea of what was going on, and thus completed the puzzle in the ‘regulation’ two passes.
    Maybe I’m just not a Shiny Happy Person
    these days, since by mid afternoon I often
    become a Daysleeper. Thanks Pedro and Kitty

    FOI PERMAFROST
    LOI INDIGO
    COD AMARYLLIS
    TIME 4:31

    1. That’s me in the corner …

       1. Today’s earworm and their best song, in my view, closely followed by Night Swimming 😊

27. Made heavy weather again today but did finish. Had to start at the bottom and work up. Once I solved PHILANTHROPY matters improved. Other PDMs were PERMAFROST and SUPREMACY. NHO REM and also thought it must be something to do with the Supremes.
    Liked AMARYLLIS, PAPRIKA, LLAMA (unparsed), HABERDASHERY.
    Thanks for much needed blog, Kitty.

28. Despite a promising start, with Permafrost a write-in, this turned into a slowish grind. In fact I almost pulled stumps with two to go, before a dimly remembered Amaryllis finally unlocked Supremacy (the rot continues). I suspect the resulting lack of a window seat will do nothing to improve my mood. CoD to the appropriate Inane. Invariant

29. Slowish 15:43. Held up by clumsy REAMS. LOI CASTLE.

    I also knew that I didn’t know how to spell veterinary, so left the middle bit blank until I could be sure.

    COD INANE.

30. 9 minutes today with several going in quickly from the definition , with parsing to follow.
    Last two were PAPRIKA and SUPREMACY (unparsed -thanks Kitty) which were my main hold-ups.
    I know REM well but could not imagine which group the setter would choose.
    COD to AMARYLLIS.
    David

31. Disappointed to have to find a seat in the Club after my time of 21 minutes. I don’t think it was as tricky as I made it. Couldn’t/Didn’t parse several including SUPREMACY and INDIGO.

    FOI – 10ac ARMISTICE
    LOI – 3dn AXE
    COD – 18ac AMARYLLIS. Also liked INANE, although it is a bit of a chestnut.

    Thanks to Pedro and Kitty

32. I was held up by not seeing 1a or 1d until the very end, and by not considering REP for Republican in REPAIR. I also failed to properly parse SUPREMACY by not lifting and separating US Rock Group and assuming UPREM was the elevated part of the clue, which left SACY as smart. I shrugged and moved on as SUPREMACY was obviously correct. FOI, AXE, POI, PHILANTHROPY and LOI PERMAFROST with a Doh! 9:46. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.

33. I took a while to get ‘on wavelength’ but once I did, it flowed nicely: 19 minutes. Parsing a bit iffy in places: I thought SUPREMACY derived from the Supremes and INANE had to be, but I couldn’t parse it (thanks Kitty). PAPRIKA can be unusually hot, but not always so: living in meat-starved Hungary in the 1970s, one feature of the cuisine was the subtle, mild paprika flavour imparted to many a dish! Like Tokaj, paprika can be ranked in scale from barely discernible to downright unbearable! Happy days!

34. Nice puzzle. Took me a while to see PHILANTHROPY, and then it became easier.
    Good start to the week.

    1. PHILANTHROPY should make things easier!

35. Good puzzle, some excellent surfaces, Pedro had me there with HABERDASHERY and SULTANATE, my last two in, taking me to a slowish 18:49 minutes of puzzling. I feared I might be HEXed by those unches at the top but did manage to finish with the aid of paper and pencil. Liked INANE, haha.

    Lesson of the day for me was don’t be intimidated by all those words in a clue (7D)!

    Thanks to Pedro and Kitty!

36. 9.27 I liked INANE and AMARYLLIS. PAPRIKA, REPAIR and SEE were slow at the end. Thanks Kitty and Pedro.

37. Praise be to the god of biff who got me home in about 10 which is vg for me.
    LOI supremacy. Couldn’t get Supertramp out of my head.
    It’s 1-30pm in the uk so presumably some of you are currently enjoying breakfast in America. J

    1. Breakfast In America? By Supertramp?

38. 18 mins…

    Though in places, but enjoyable. Never did parse 13ac “Tribal” – too focused on thinking about OT and NT rather than looking at the obvious.

    FOI – 3dn “Axe”
    LOI – 5dn “Supremacy”
    COD – 8ac “Inane”

    Thanks as usual!

39. 13:31. Thanks, Kitty, for help parsing PAPRIKA, SEE, and SUPREMACY!

40. Assumed SUPREMACY was something to do with ‘Supremes’ (as in Diana Ross)pop (rock?) group without really attempting to fit ACY in with any degree of certainty

41. 09:12
    Some tough clues. Didn’t parse supremacy because I couldn’t equate pacy/smart.
    Liked permafrost, paprika, amaryllis (easy to remember how to spell now), and pageant.

42. This was just a bit more difficult than usual for me. Although I got 3 out of the four long ones quickly, I needed all the crossers for haberdashery, which was then biffable. I tried some other peppers before seeing how paprika worked, too.

    Time: 10:17

43. Should have been 15:53 with no errors, but unfortunately I mistyped “veterinary” so two pink squares for the transposed r and n in the middle. FOI PERMAFROST, LOI REPAIR, COD AMARYLLIS, although I haven’t heard of it the wordplay was very helpful. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.

44. An about on par 12:23 with an unparsed LOI SUPREMACY. Thank you Kitty! And a good puzzle, Pedro.

45. 8:20

    LOI and COD to A SILLY RAM. A fine start to the week I thought.

    Thanks Pedro and Kitty.

46. 23 mins, a good time for me. Would have been quicker had I not struggled with Philanthropy and Pageant. Many flew in without full parsing, including Supremacy where I had the Supremes as a US Rock group (I do know they not rock). Thanks to Kitty for straightening me out on the parsing of some of the clues. And good one Pedro

47. Off to a brisk start this week with 13:18. It would have been quicker had I not unwittingly typed REAKN for 2d, which made ARMISTICE rather more difficult that it needed to be. That said, it might not have made any difference because it turns out that I don’t know how to spell ARMISTICE, VETERINARY or AMARYLLIS. Fortunately the wordplay came to my rescue, and I enjoyed the silly ram just as much as the entrepreneurial lllama.

    Thank you for the blog!

48. Lovely puzzle to start the week. Four long anagrams to get me going. Liked the foolish sheep and LLAMA.
    Thanks Pedro and Kitty

49. 17 minutes.

    Make of that what you will. I’m off to see how many errors I made on the 15 x 15. Took 20 mins to get beyond one clue solved today. Hopeless!

50. I thought this was quite hard and couldn’t get started with the first half dozen across clues, so moved to the downs, which helped.
    10:15 FOI Philanthropy LOI Supremacy COD Amaryllis
    Thanks Pedro and Kitty

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