Times Quick Cryptic No 2820 by Jimmy

Author   Mike HarperPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 5:19

My first time blogging Jimmy on this, his ninth puzzle. Having averaged 6m 21s for the first eight, I found this marginally on the gentler side with no unfamiliar words amongst the answers.

There are a few bits of hopefully reasonably well-known GK – Paul’s role in The Beatles; James Bond’s drink of choice; and, the most popular chemist in Crosswordland.

And did you spot both current and previous UK Prime Ministers being namechecked?

I hope you all enjoyed it as well – let me know how you got on….

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

Across
1 Opening of fete, not just an amusement park (7)
FUNFAIR – First letter [Opening] of F{ete} then UNFAIR (not just)
5 Tech entrepreneur’s posts (4)
JOBS – More or less a double definition – imho the ‘s is superfluous

Entrepreneur Steve Jobs (1955-2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc.
7 Old druid drained rum (3)
ODD – O (Old) then the internal letters of D{rui}D are removed [drained]

In the 1560s, rum was canting slang [thieves’ jargon] meaning “excellent, fine, good, valuable”. By 1774, it had also come to mean rather the opposite: “odd, strange, bad, queer, spurious,” perhaps because it had been so often used approvingly by rogues, in reference to one another.

In recent years, wicked has taken the opposite journey, meaning both bad and good…
8 Time with eg Rishi, wild and ferocious (8)
TIGERISH – Anagram [wild] of T (time) with EG RISHI

Not sure I’d apply this adjective to our most recent ex-PM…
10 Class securing university meeting place (5)
FORUM – FORM (Class) containing [securing] U (university)
11 Skill getting into car, one James Bond might order (7)
MARTINI – ART (Skill) getting into MINI

In total, throughout Ian Fleming’s novels and short stories, James Bond orders 19 vodka MARTINIs, 16 gin MARTINIs and, in the book Casino Royale, 1 Vesper (a MARTINI made with three measures of Gordon’s gin, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken very well until ice-cold, then garnished with a large thin slice of lemon peel).
13 Arrogant and elated Ruth (6)
UPPITY – UP (elated) PITY (Ruth)

I knew the word only from Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men series of children’s books. Mr. UPPITY was originally released in 1972.

Since 2021, the character has been re-titled Mr. Snooty as the word UPPITY has racial connotations – see www.etymonline.com/word/uppity for more detail.
15 Strategy, something expected of diplomat in charge (6)
TACTIC – TACT (something expected of diplomat) IC (in charge)

i/c as an abbreviation for “in charge” is used especially in military contexts e.g. “the Quartermaster General is i/c rations”
17 Back from nightspot, walk unsteadily? Rubbish (7)
TWADDLE – Last letter [Back from] of {nightspo}T, then WADDLE (walk unsteadily?)
18 Female who’s good at spelling? (5)
WITCH – A gently cryptic clue where ‘good at spelling’ here means ‘good at performing spells’

Given the identity of today’s setter, could this clue be classed as a ‘Jimmy riddle’?
20 Give president weapons and somewhere to sit (8)
ARMCHAIR – To give a president weapons would be to ARM the CHAIR – president here in the sense of the person presiding over a meeting
22 Gospel writer initially lacking craft in the Bible (3)
ARK – The Gospel writer is MARK – remove the first letter [initially lacking]
23 Daughter with musical ability certainly not going for a song! (4)
DEAR – D (Daughter) with EAR (musical ability)

Going “for a song” (All’s Well That Ends Well III.ii.9) means being sold very cheaply indeed – in Shakespeare’s play, the clown refers to a melancholy man having sold a “goodly manor for a song”.
24 Chemist’s brought in toothpaste urgently (7)
PASTEUR – Hidden [brought in] in toothpaste urgently

Our favourite Crosswordland chemist.
Down
1 Mistakes when serving tofu with last of nuts (4,6)
FOOT FAULTS – Anagram [nuts] of TOFU and LAST OF

FOOT FAULTS exist in many racket sports, though most likely to be known of from tennis.

My LOI – took a few moments to twig that “last of nuts” in this case was not the letter S.
2 Hurried up, pinching police officer’s bottom (5)
NADIR – RAN (Hurried) reversed [up] containing [pinching] DI (police officer i.e. abbreviation for Detective Inspector)

In astronomy, the NADIR is the “imaginary point of the celestial sphere vertically opposite to the zenith of the sun”. The sense of the “lowest point” of anything is recorded by 1793.
3 Tried case of arsonist enticed to do wrong (9)
ATTEMPTED – Outside letters [case] of A{rsonis}T then TEMPTED (enticed to do wrong)

Is it so wrong to take that third cream cake having been TEMPTED?
4 Government concerned with eg uprising, arresting one million (6)
REGIME – RE (concerned with), then EG reversed [uprising], containing [arresting] IM (one million)

Nice use of ‘uprising’ as a direction – apposite as this is a ‘down’ clue
5 Shock agreement from German, right? (3)
JAR – JA (agreement from German) R (right)
6 Maybe Paul McCartney’s No 1 for Beatles — Help! (7)
BASSIST – First letter [No 1] for B{eatles} then ASSIST (Help!)

A definition by example (DBE) – Paul McCartney was the BASSIST for The Beatles
9 Problem with hotel Keir sorted out for traveller who doesn’t pay (10)
HITCHHIKER – HITCH (Problem) with anagram [sorted out] of H (hotel) and KEIR

And our current PM takes his bow…
12 Saw dork or drunk showing what may hold drivers up (9)
ROADWORKS – Anagram [drunk] of SAW DORK OR
14 Couple going around river, that is plain (7)
PRAIRIE – PAIR (Couple) going around R (river), then IE (that is – abbreviation of Latin id est)
16 Give a makeover to clergyman and a politician (6)
REVAMP – REV (clergyman) and A MP (politician)

A VAMP was originally the “upper part of a shoe or boot“. From the 1850s, to RE-VAMP was to “provide a shoe with a new VAMP“.
19 Hint — he leaves the running competition (5)
TRACE – HE leaves THE RACE (running competition)
21 Gracious and firm queen (3)
COR – CO (firm i.e. abbreviation for ‘company’) R (queen i.e. abbreviation for ‘regina’)

‘Gracious’ here is an exclamation!

 

78 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2820 by Jimmy”

  1. At last, a quickie that lives up to its name. I missed the past and present PMs so thanks for pointing them out. I always forget that Ruth also means pity, but UPPITY was pretty gettable from arrogant.
    I took the literal in 1D to be ‘Mistakes when serving’, rather than just mistakes.
    Thanks MH and setter.

    1. Thanks Quad – I agree with you on 1D and have edited…

      Thanks to anyone else that pointed this out too 🙂

  2. It took Mike ‘a few moments’ to twig that FOOT FAULT was an anagram, but it took me a minute and a half which dragged my time to 8.12. I had also failed to see that the full def was ‘mistakes when serving’ which would have cleared things up almost immediately. Otherwise a lot of fun and it’s nice to be back in single figures. As regards 15ac, I’ve known political professionals to speak scornfully of those who don’t know the difference between tactics and strategy, but I’ll just leave it there.

    1. I still remember one of the lecturers of my Sport Science degree emphasising how tactics go towards building up a strategy. But I accept they are synonymous to most people.

  3. 8.50 for me, with LOI PASTEUR, only because I worked my way down from the top and it was the last clue I got to. I spotted “mistakes when serving” and wrote in FOOT FAULTS from that and the enumeration (and the rest of the clue having at least some of the letters).

  5. I seem to have biffed a bunch; at least I have no memory of solving eg FOOT FAULTS, NADIR, REGIME, ROADWORKS. UPPITY has come up a couple of times in 15x15s, and Olivia and I have both commented on its associations. I couldn’t possibly use the word; but then, this is a British paper and puzzle. 5:14.

  6. A fun puzzle that we steadily worked through from FOI forum going anti-clockwise.

    All done and pareses in 2o.54 with a few smiles along the way. When the j appeared wondered about a pangram but it wasn’t to be.

    COD to Martini

    Thanks Jimmy, and Mike for the extra info.

  7. 5.41

    I remember Kevin’s comments about UPPITY the last time it appeared so slightly surprised to see it again. Liked BASSIST

    1. It appears without disapproval in Collins and Chambers. We don’t have to import all US sensitivities.

  8. Hurrah, my first completion of the week – thanks Jimmy.
    Mainly fairly straightforward but was delayed by not seeing the full definition for FOOT FAULTS, which is my COD, and JOBS needed a bit of thought even after I had the initial ‘j’.
    Started with FUNFAIR and finished with BASSIST in 6.21.
    Thanks to Mike

  9. I think there have been three more difficult puzzles on the trot, but this was back to being a quick solve, much less than half the time taken yesterday.

    LOI FOOT FAULT, and I liked the incongruous surface for TIGERISH, given that my impression of referenced PM was far from “wild and ferocious”, rather “mundane and tetchy”.

    4:30

  11. Took this gently to savour some really good surfaces – the one for BASSIST is particularly clever and is my COD – to finish in 9 minutes, with LOI FOOT FAULTS biffed and only parsed after completion. An enjoyable puzzle at the less challenging end of the recent spectrum.

    Many thanks Mike for the blog
    Cedric

  12. Cheers Mike, a much gentler puzzle – so much so I almost finished.

    Agree with others here, the definition for 1d is mistakes when serving – this took me a while to realise and I was trying to use serving as the anagram indicator that completely flummoxed me for a while!

  13. 9:38

    Really enjoyed that. I don’t think it was easy per se, as at six and a half mins I still had half the grid to do and looking through afterwards I had to do some unravelling of FOOT FAULTS, NADIR, BASSIST, TRACE among others. Only vaguely familiar with Ruth=pity but thought of the inverse i.e. ruthless someone who has no pity.

    Jimmy has found a style of clueing which is generous. Somehow even the James Bond clue with its “car one” construction in the middle triggered thoughts of the Aston Martin I even though it’s the drink we want.

      1. Yes, I understood that. My point was that while Art-Mini is the correct parsing; there was a secondary route which gets you very close and is probably enough to help out anyone struggling; thus making it perfect for the QC. Whether this is Jimmy’s intention (and therefore high quality setting) or just coincidence I don’t know.

        1. Yes. I saw the (Aston) Martin + I (one) link but wasn’t sure if that was how you parsed it.

  14. Enjoyable puzzle; thank you, Jimmy. Liked HITCHHIKER (surprised it’s one word but Collins agrees). LOI UPPITY thanks to Mrs M; NHO ruth without its -less. NHO FOOT FAULTS but had to be.

      1. No, precisely! This is the sort of thing that English tends to shun – or perhaps we should say, used to shun. Whereas German positively revels in it, by combining words willy-nilly: there used to be the lovely word Schifffahrt (Schiff + Fahrt, trip on a ship) with three Fs, but now sadly I believe some jobsworth committee has met and decided that no word ‘shall’ have three consonants together, so the ‘Neue Rechtschreibung’ is now just Schiffahrt. Sacrilege, I say!

          1. Ha ha – that’s a lovely point – anyone care to beat it?! Of course I should have said the *same* consonant x 3. By the way, in old traditional German ch counted as one letter.

        2. I well remember the joys of the “fahren” verb and its potential for schoolboy humour when conjugating it! Probably no surprise that I ended up with CSE grade 4.

          1. No, they used 2 + 1.
            Apologies: looking this up rather late in the day, I see I have this story the wrong way round: it *used to be* contracted, but is now correctly spelt in full with three Fs. Apologies to the maligned committee!

  15. What a relief to get eight on the first pass of acrosses. I was onto ruth being the opposite of ruthless on sight but it still took me a while to get from there to ‘pity’. Yesterday’s ‘serviceman’ helped me to WITCH and I was just a bit slow for ARMCHAIR, TWADDLE and PRAIRIE. Ended up with COR with a groan. Good one. All green in 10.38. Now to fill the first of three days off!

  16. I was held up by not being able to see LOI FOOT FAULTS, even though I immediately saw it was an anagram and even though I had all the checkers! I was hung up on “serving” being food/restaurant related, durr. Also took me a moment to find JOBS (living person blindness).

    Otherwise a steady solve coming home in reggo 07:32 for 1.5K and an OK Day. Many thanks Jimmy and Mike (great info about REVAMP, Mike!).

  17. COD for me in this proper quick cryptic was the lovely PRAIRIE with the obvious pair with a 3 letter river a delightful misdirection. Apart from the fact I thought SQUAD was the right solution for FORUM until my FOOT FAULT corrected it I enjoyed this. Thank you.

  18. Took ages but finished all correct. Witty but Not that easy, imo. Admittedly I was rather slow and dim about e.g. LOsI TRACE and ARK.
    Liked many once pennies dropped e.g. WITCH, JOBS (COD), BASSIST. Solved PASTEUR before noticing it was hidden.
    Via Swallows and Amazons, I happened to know ruth means pity, but is it common knowledge?
    Thanks so much, Mike.

    1. Hi CW. We also solved Ruth being pity, courtesy of Nancy in Swallows and Amazons! – a
      book we enjoyed reading to our children many years ago.

  19. I think I was still half asleep when I started this, as Foot Faults took absolutely ages to see, even with the correct anagrist. I also dabbled with Merc as the car in 11ac, before coming to my senses. Relieved to see 5ac start with a J, rather than an M 😉 on the first pass, but still not a fan of including living personalities. In the end managed to squeeze in a sub-20, with CoD to 6d, Bassist, in a strong field. Invariant

    1. As per above, Steve Jobs died in 2011. But obviously Rishi and Keir still live on …

  20. 8:43 (Kenneth MacAlpin crowned on the Stone of Destiny)

    As someone who was at primary school at the time of Charles’s Investiture as Prince of Wales, I can’t see the word PRAIRIE without hearing the mondegreen “Oh let the prairie echo, God bless the Prince of Wales.”

    Thanks Mike and Jimmy

  21. An enjoyable QC from Jimmy and a great blog – thanks Mike for the interesting info on REVAMP, RUM, GOING FOR A SONG and UPPITY.

  22. I should have been faster but I took my time parsing BASSIST and was slow to sort out the anagram fodder at 1d so FOOT FAULTS was my penultimate solve. UPPITY was my LOI. I really enjoyed the cluing for HITCHHIKER so that gets my COD. 7:53

  23. There were a bunch of really well written and enjoyable clues here, including BASSIST, TIGERISH, MARTINI – and that’s just the NE! Being a slower solver gives me time to savour some of the constructions that must flash past the speed merchants.
    It would be a shame for the setter’s art to be biffed into oblivion, so I take the time to give the love and attention each clue deserves. That, and my inherent lack of speed. At least this way we both win 🙂

  24. Paradoxically I started at NADIR. Steady progress led me eventually back to 1d which suddenly appeared from the crossers, having resisted intial attemps to parse it. Liked BASSIST. 7:01. Thanks Jimmy and Mike. Nice informative blog!

  25. Some lovely clues here. COD Martini.

    I couldn’t parse some (how is cor! gracious, why arsonist included in clue) but the blog explained things.
    Witch I found jarring but I have been following a certain event which has had misogynist comments.
    Thanks to setter and Mike.
    25’ish

  26. 9:58

    Hit a wall with three to go after 6’. Didn’t see COD FOOT FAULTS was an anagram for ages and then UPPITY and LOI PRAIRIE fell in.

    Thanks Jimmy and Mike

  27. After the last two disasters, I wondered if I might be able to beat my target today, or at least get close to it. Well I found this in the end to be pretty straightforward, and my finishing time of 6.47 was my best for a while. The answer that held me up the most was my LOI as is often the case, and today that was FOOT FAULTS.

  28. I seem to be bucking the trend in finding this quite tough, probably tougher than I found yesterday’s overall apart from the two unknown words which resulted in the DNF. My last two today were the JOBS/BASSIST crossers. Apart from Ringo being the drummer, I’d never thought about the roles of the other Beatles. COD to FOOT FAULTS, Time was 23:51. Thanks Mike and Jimmy.

  29. 20 mins…

    Took a while to get going, but a good puzzle. Couldn’t get “Musk” out of my head for 5ac until I’d resolved 5dn “Jar”. Ruth = Pity was dragged up from some vague recollection and the recent Disney+ series Agatha All Along helped with 18ac “Witch”.

    Do they still have Mr Tickle in the Mr Men series? I’ve a feeling his antics might not go down well in today’s world.

    FOI – 7ac “Odd”
    LOI – 6dn “Bassist”
    COD – 6dn “Bassist”

    Thanks as usual!

  30. After four straight DNFs I was relieved to see Jimmy as today’s setter, as I have fared quite well with his crosswords so far. However, IMO he provided a stiffer challenge today and I was therefore very pleased to cross the line in 25 minutes.

    TIGERISH and FORUM broke the ice for me and I made good progress through the middle phase. My last five in (NADIR, UPPITY, TRACE, JOBS and BASSIST) all required a combination of applied brain power and alphabet trawling and each caused me to fear a first ever fifth consecutive DNF …. for a while, at least.

    As others have said above, strategy and TACTICs are not the same thing (sometimes the opposite, in fact), but I have learnt that connections between words can be quite loose in crosswordland. Also, COR and PITY (for Ruth) flummoxed me completely.

    Thanks to Jimmy and Mike.

  31. 10.02 for me. Thought I was on for a quick one but NW corner slowed me up. Some nice surfaces today.

  32. Didn’t find this as easy as most others seem to have. Struggled with COR, UPPITY, ATTEMPTED and NADIR..

  33. Slow today but very much enjoyed and was able to finish, eventually. All seemed fair in retrospect but held up for ages by JOBS/BASSIST and TACTIC. Liked WITCH because I was misdirected for an embarrassingly long time, and UPPITY because I remembered what Ruth meant! Thanks for the blog.

  34. 18:16 with no errors although I feel like I was off form today. There were quite a few clues where my reaction to the answers were: “should have worked those out faster than I did” including ARK, WITCH, BASSIST, PRAIRIE and TRACE . FOI – FUNFAIR, LOI – TRACE, joint COD – BASSIST and WITCH. Thanks Jimmy and Mike.

  35. 10:12. Really enjoyed today’s- the clues were entertaining and the right level of challenge for me. I would never use COR over here in Canada but rather always say Gorblimey to make my meaning clear to the local populace. Great blog, Mike!

    1. Do you append Guv’nor to your gorblimey utterances? Maybe throw in a Dick van Dyke impression 🤷‍♂️

  36. 12.17 I found this quite tricky and finished in the NW with NADIR, FUNFAIR and FOOT FAULTS. Thanks Mike and Jimmy.

  37. 14m

    Slow to start, old crafty hen effects.
    Liked bassist, foot faults, and witch…

    – I’m not a witch! I’m not a witch !
    – But you are dressed as one.
    – They dressed me like this. – No, we didn’t.
    – And this isn’t my nose. It’s a false one.
    – Well? – We did do the nose.
    – The nose? – And the hat. But she is a witch !
    – Did you dress her up like this? – No, no!
    – Yes. A bit.
    – She has got a wart.
    – What makes you think she’s a witch?
    – She turned me into a newt!
    – A newt?
    – I got better.
    – Burn her anyway!

  38. 16:08, a bit slower than I would have liked, due to FOOt FAULTS anagram not popping out, thought only FOOL would work. Also UPPITY with Ruthless never seen in the positive (like the famous gruntled).

    MY & COR are very common for gracious and other exclamations of surprise. Worth remembering.

    COD PRAIRIE

  39. Much more friendly than yesterday’s offering! I finished this in 18 minutes, all parsed, but it seemed quicker at the time. Slower in the east than the west but no major problems.

    FOI – 1ac FUNFAIR
    LOI – 17ac TWADDLE
    CODs – 11ac MARTINI and 2dn NADIR

    Thanks to Jimmy and Mike

  40. 11:31 for an entertaining solve on the easier end. Enjoyed ARK for the way the clue surface disassembled itself into clear instructions, the essence of cryptic fun. NHO FOOT FAULTS. As I put in my last one, ARMCHAIR, I had to ask myself how I could be so dull that it wasn’t a write-in. Not for the last time, I’m sure.

    Thanks to Jimmy and Mike!

  41. Like Crispin I actually found this quite tough, not helped by erroneous conviction of certain clues and insertion into grid eg WANDA in lieu of WITCH

  42. Enjoyable and fun puzzle taking 33 leisurely minutes.
    Needed an alphabet trawl to get UPPITY and will now add Ruth = Pity to my ever growing list.
    WITCH was a guess until Mike explained it. Should really have spotted it with Halloween tomorrow.
    Thanks for the blog – ‘jimmy riddle’ did make me laugh.

  43. About my average of 12/13 minutes with LOI UPPITY. I nodded off halfway through having played golf this morning; very benign weather today.
    A nice puzzle. COD to BASSIST.
    David

  44. 12:13. Enjoyed this a lot. COD to FUNFAIR for the “oh, that meaning of ‘just’!” moment.

    Thanks to Mike and Jimmy.

  45. 24:14

    Oh dear! This seems a very straightforward puzzle, no tricky vocab or clues and yet well over my 20 minute target. Don’t know why but took an age to unravel the anagram for FOOT FAULTS and didn’t equate Ruth with Pity. LOI COR.

  46. Another slow but satisfying solve in around 45 minutes. Took me ages to get FOOTFAULTS even with all but one of the checkers in. Some very clever and well thought out clues. Enjoyed FUNFAIR and BASSIST. Thanks Jimmy and Mike.

  47. LOI FOOT FAULTS to finish in a relatively quick 9:20. We only get to see the setter when we come to the blog but IIRC I’ve generally enjoyed Jimmy’s puzzles. Thanks too to Mike.

  48. I enjoyed this and narrowly squeaked out of the SCC with 18:49.

    Thank you for the blog! I quite like the sound of the Vesper, though google informs me that Kina Lillet is no longer in production.

  49. 10 minutes.

    Ok I suppose, but scant consolation for the disasters of Monday & Tuesday.

    Didn’t do too badly on big crossword.

    90 mins and 2 DNFs so far this week, so don’t expect joy from me any time soon!

    1. That’s much better than I did, I found this a struggle. Maybe I can claim that it’s a result of the bug I’m recovering from affecting my crossword brain!

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