Times Quick Cryptic 2890 by Alex

86 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2890 by Alex”

1. 8.18, no dramas, LOsI were ABUNDANCE and DETERIORATE. Thanks Alex and Kitty.

2. 11 minutes, delayed by biffing FORMS at 7ac which gave me problems with solving 1dn. I knew it wasn’t right when I wrote it in but still persisted!

3. Tough for us, 1 second shy of 32 minutes, with the SE holding out longest.

   We struggled to get any real momentum popping in answers all over the place. This tragedy probably not helped being out late last night watching a Bee Gees tribute band (I’ll get my coat).

   Liked a bun dance and grapevine in particular. Thanks Alex and Kitty

   1. Went to a Candlelight tribute concert to Queen on Saturday night. String quartet. Unusual. Excellent. Revived memories of Knebworth with a very different kind of Magic. RIP Freddie.

      1. I went to one of those at The National Marine Aquarium! Local, very talented, string quartet playing Queen hits by candlelight in front of a 4 metre high glass wall with giant rays, moray eels, sharks etc swimming past. Very surreal; hope they do it again.

4. Not so easy. I found myself in the bottom right hand corner and slowly worked back to where I had failed to make a start. 30 mins.
   Nothing too obscure, probably just a sleepy brain. Thanks Kitty and Alex.

5. After a brisk start, with both 1s going straight in this turned into a steady solve, finishing in 7.34 with my last two in being WARMTH and the surprisingly elusive BELT.
   Thanks to Kitty

6. 17:19 for the solve! That’s about my average time these days. Everything in there was solid wordplay but I wouldn’t fancy it as a beginner – quite a few terms I’ve learned along the way and a bit of misdirection thrown in. Glad to get the week off to a decent start.

7. This was the most difficult puzzle of the last week. I got only 8 clues and even with the explanations nothing was obvious.

8. A nice puzzle. A quick start but I slowed down for one or two of the quirky ones. I finished, all parsed, and was relieved to avoid the SCC by a couple of minutes.
   Thanks, Kitty.

9. Found this very tough. Luckily the club page wasn’t found so endured the annoying non-club version. Received ‘congratulations’ after 20m of hard labour.

   1. The one with the tempting “check” button.

10. I found that tough but I am tired after a working weekend. Slow to see how STRUDEL, ABSTAINED and OGLING worked; ignored the wordplay at 15d by lazily deciding that it wasn’t going to end AH; didn’t know SO could be spelt SOL. Not my finest 10 minutes and 23 seconds!

    Many thanks Kitty and Alex.

    1. I vaguely remembered something called the “Tonic Sol Fa” system. But- there are so many options when the clue uses “notes”….

11. More haste, less speed or accuracy. Bunged in MIDWIFE seeing deliverer which slowed down the SE and half-biffed BEAT for BEST and one pink in 14.12. Not the only one?

12. Failling to see the two part anagram clues where you first have to extract the letters and then reorder them.

    I found today’s particularly hard. I only achieved two red and lei….

    Perhaps I should stick to soduko…

    1. It’s frustrating when you start, but if you stick in, do what you can, read the blog then the various tricks, abbreviations etc start to make sense, then it gets (a bit!) easier!

    2. You’ve posted this before 9am UK time. Assuming you’re based here and your circumstances allow, you have the rest of the day to come back and take another look at a puzzle. Seasoned solvers will tell you that even just a few minutes away can lead to breakthroughs and get things moving.

    3. Fear not, so much of solving these means learning a code that will become clearer over time. It helped me to solve in “Private” mode at first and make liberal use of the “check” function. Also once I had finished or given up, to go back and review all the parsing (which is also fun!)

13. I was 30 seconds slower than the 15*15 today (if you want to attempt the main cryptic today is a good day to have a go!) 25min SCC, so a hard one IMO. I got the wordplay but struggled to get the words. eg light=day term=name go=game belt=band tears=rips called=cited breadth of vision=eyeshot orate=lecture
    Is it just me that found the synonyms somewhat relative with with an extra ar…
    Thanks for the workout and explanations

    1. Hey TC! I think your list of synonyms is the difference between those who can do the 15×15 and those who only do the QC.

14. 7.39

    Thought there were a few tricky ones here (eg EYESHOT) and didn’t spot the MESSIAH quickly. Slight panic with the four letter DD at the end but B was early in the alphabet.

    Thanks Kitty and Alex

15. 29 mins…

    Whilst I thought this was on the harder side, there were some great clues. 17ac “Abundance”, 22ac “Icing” and my COD 15dn “Messiah” all come to mind. I wondered whether 7ac could be “Forms” rather than “Terms”, so had to wait for 1dn “Deteriorate” for the relevant checker. Similarly, I always thought “Ogling” was “Oogling”, but might be just imagining that.

    FOI – 1ac “Disband”
    LOI – 19ac “Sol”
    COD – 15dn “Messiah”

    Thanks as usual!

16. Didn’t get into any sort of rhythm for this one, but just managed to finish within my target. FOI DETERIORATE, LOI ICING. Needed all the crossers for ABSTAINED. 9:27. Thanks Alex and Kitty.

17. 15m
    I caused my own problems today with strudle/strudel, defer/deter, forms/terms.

    Eventually all sorted, LOI ogling.
    COD strudel.

18. 16:06 for a bitty solve where I jumped all over the place and never got a feel for the puzzle – relieved some others also found it a toughie and it wasn’t just me! All now clear with Kitty’s excellent blog but at the time I struggled with SOL (I thought the note was So), TERMS (another who tried Forms first), SPIRITS (biffed, not parsed) and SEE THE LIGHT (was looking for the “say sorry” meaning of repent). LOI OGLING for which I needed all the checkers – excellent clue, I was well misled into looking for a game fish.

    Many thanks Kitty for the blog
    Cedric

19. DNF.
    One short at the 20 min mark. Just could not see SPIRITS. No excuses.

    These old fashioned names for notes are trying: how many ways can they be spelt. At choir practice last week, if the choirmaster had talked of an interval a “Sol”, everyone would have been baffled. Better: Martian day is almost exclusive (3)

    But lots of great clues, esp MESSIAH.

    1. SOL = martian day? That’s specific rather than genreal knowledge. I like the space and the stars but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you.

20. Finished it after a long struggle. LOI SPIRITS, mainly because I was ‘initially’ fooled by 5d “initially” into the apparently obvious LYE (tips of leafy + first letter of evergreen) and couldn’t understand why dictionaries didn’t back me. But then ICING isn’t in my Collins either (may we have an explanation, even derivation, for that, please?). NHO EYESHOT, and a few other CNPs, so thank you, Kitty.

    1. ICE = kill is in Colins as US slang

       1. Thank you – I thought it must be. It’s not in mine (2000), but there’s always a newer edition. Anyone know *why* ICE should = kill, though?

          1. My oldest Collins is the 9th edition (2007). It’s some way down (entry 14) but in this sense ‘ice’ is a verb and the verbal meanings don’t start until entry 11.

             My etymological sources date it from the mid-20th century which might just about fit with the era associated with US mobsters. Bodies go cold when dead, and I imagine there’s nothing much more to it than that.

             1. Thanks, jackkt. You make my 2000 edition sound almost antiquarian! Indeed, I see it’s the 5th edition. And also: I do see that though it’s not there under icing, it is indeed there (as entry 13) under ice – as U.S. slang. You’re quite right – all clear – thanks.

                1. Thanks, I’m glad it’s resolved. Not every form of a verb is listed in dictionaries if the standard rules of grammar apply. Same as with plural nouns. Only exceptions would be noted.

       2. US slang in a UK crossword? Why is it allowed? It’s hard enough keeping abreast of UK slang.

          1. Ha! Thank you for that, though it’s dangerous; you’re provoking me to be even more tiresome than some are doubtless already accusing me of being. For I confess to being guilty of banging on this drum every so often: the extent to which we, doing (as you say) a UK crossword, are confronted with, and expected to be abreast of, US culture and slang. I think the response is to claim that US slang is ubiquitous as soon as you watch a film, and therefore rates as valid GK, whereas the reverse (UK slang being GK for Americans) does not hold. Do others agree?

    2. EYESHOT grated with me too, I’ve heard ‘within earshot’ but is there an ‘eye’ equivalent?

       1. I’ve never heard of it but I guess this puzzle is proof it exists!

21. Not the easiest start to the week, and I found myself diving all over the grid to get answers. I finished up reasonably quickly however, and crossed the line in 10.18 just a little outside target. OGLING and finally ABSTAINED my LOIs. Never heard the expression ICING as a definition of a mobster’s killing, but the cryptic clueing made it easily solvable.

    1. ‘Mobster’ is more of an indication of ICE as American slang for ‘kill’, but I’d guess it more than likely originated in mobster circles before becoming more widely used.

22. I’m putting this QC in the harder than average category. I got off to a good start with DISBAND and LOBE and ‘forms’ only made a brief appearance but I was slow to see ABSTAINED, ICING, OGLING and SEE THE LIGHT. The latter two were biffed and parsed post submission. I don’t really see how day = LIGHT. I crossed the line in 9:40. COD to ABUNDANCE.

23. 9:17

    My first four gave me all the checkers for SPIRITS, but it still held out to be LOI after quite some thinking time.

    Good challenge to start the week, thanks Alex and Kitty.

24. I found this one very difficult and gave up after 30 minutes with 9 clues unsolved. For me this was the hardest QC for the last few years.
    Thanks Kitty for the blog and putting me out of my misery. Prof

25. DNF SPIRITS. Probably would have got it in the end but felt I had spent far too much time on this difficult puzzle already. But the sun has appeared outside – good news. I SEE THE LIGHT.
    ABUNDANCE made me smile. Also liked EYESHOT, MESSIAH.
    Did not understand ICING.
    Thanks vm, Kitty.

26. For me a MER at ‘up’ being an anagram indicator for STRUDEL. I thought it usually meant read a down clue backwards.

    1. MER for me too, though an interesting setting question is whether the editor should allow more obscure indicators if the anagram itself is easier – ie shorter or with more clearly identified anagrist

27. Bit of a slog today but did get there eventually. Spent too long on DETERIORATE at the start rather than just moving on. Convinced definition was ‘lecture’ (with wordplay an anagram of ‘degenerate’ plus ‘i’) for way too long 🙄 COD to ICING which made me smile. Couldn’t parse OG part of OGLING – thanks kitty – obvious now. A bit of a disjointed solve for me. Thanks Alex.

28. A slowish 22 minutes for me. Not really on the wavelength today. I was another that biffed the unparsed forms at 7ac which obviously made deteriorate slow to appear. I wasn’t sure about the anagram indicator at 2dn or the clueing of see the light at 9dn.

    FOI – 1ac DISBAND
    LOI – 16dn ON EDGE
    COD – 22ac ICING

    Thanks to Alex and Kitty.

29. 7:38

    I thought this wasn’t too tricky – bit slow to see DETERIORATE and SEE THE LIGHT but saw the E YES quite early which left little else to do with EYESHOT. MESSIAH spotted once the first two checkers in place. LOI ABSTAINED just after OGLING.

    Thanks Kitty and Alex

30. 15:30 Lots of tough but fair and eventually gettable clues.

31. DNF.

    Foxed by ICING, MESSIAH, and worst if all SOL. A one time Oratory chorister might be expected to get that. Harrumph.

32. DNF on loi Spirits thanks to a careless Bilni at 6d. I’m (fairly) sure I would have spotted my mistake in an across clue, but pulled stumps after 5mins worth of fruitless alpha-trawls messing around with S*i*l*s. Not exactly quick up to that point either, so no great loss.
    Also, am I the only one who thought 12d Grapevine/Gossip was a bit odd ? The anagrist left no doubt, but I can’t think of a sentence with a direct interchange. Invariant

    1. I thought so, too. Gossip passes along the grapevine (so different nouns), and I’ve never heard “to grapevine” as a verb. But it was so clearly the right (and only) answer that I gave it a mer not a MER

       1. On further thought: ‘She kept abreast of the local grapevine/gossip’ gets Alex off the hook.

          1. I can see the link, but I’ve not heard ‘grapevine’ used that way – it’s always been the mechanism, not the info.

33. 22.32 DNF. I found this hard. I spent several minutes at the end trying to think of a better answer then BEAT. When the pink square appeared it obviously should have been BELT. Gah! Thanks Kitty and Alex.

34. On the tougher side I thought. NHO EYESHOT nor ICING = killing and took a while to see BELT and SOL.

35. We really struggled. Really, really, struggled.
    DNF (or did, but with helpers)
    Resorted to synonym hunt (am sure not allowed…)- not that it generally helped.
    Eventually gained a little traction in SW corner, only to lose it on moving to SE.
    Never heard of EYESHOT, ICING.. queried GOSSIP=GRAPEVINE.
    When we ‘SAW THE LIGHT ‘ we were unsure if we had – queried how it aligned with ‘repent’.
    For us, wading through treacle.
    Relief rather than joy when we signed off at 39.40.
    That said – as always, we learn something and sigh at how, in some instances, the obvious can be so elusive. Thanks to all.

36. Pretty tough. I finished after an hour with a little bit of help to sort out FORMS for 7a which unfortunately fitted all too nicely with DEFER for ‘put off’ as a start to 1d.
    I did like most of the clues (not EYESHOT) and it was a good mental tussle.
    COD MESSIAH which took some working out.
    Thanks both.

37. Unable to complete due to a glitch in the app. I entered MESSIAH but when I entered the second S the first one disappeared. Same problem with TERMS. Never seen this before.

    Would have been around 25 minutes.

38. That was very hard. Something over 40 minutes for me, but not all were parsed. SPIRITS, OGLING and ICING all went in without me really knowing why.

    The two top row clues, DISBAND and LOBE, came quickly and I thought I might be on for a day out from the SCC. However, it was not to be and many of the clues put up a real fight. BELT and (the NHO) EYESHOT were my last two in.

    Many thanks to Kitty and Alex.

39. 11.02, but that includes the Times website misbehaving.

40. I wandered through this in 16:07. It felt quicker but I’m in a state of hibernation so time is strange today. After a bit over a year of doing these, occasionally a clue appears chestnutty to me, and there were a few like that in this puzzle. Liked SEE THE LIGHT. But – oh! now “up” is an anagrind?! Are there no limits? Have these people no shame?

    Thanks Alex and Kitty!

41. 23:43 with no errors. I too struggled with MESSIAH,SEE THE LIGHT, OGLING and the previously NHO EYESHOT and BLINI. FOI – RED, LOI – SOL which I should have got earlier as I’ve seen the phrase “Sol-Fa scale” used when describing Doh Re Me etc. COD – LEI for the misdirection of including “initially” in the wordplay as one of the “tips” instead of it’s usual function. Also liked ICING. Thanks Alex and Kitty.

42. A little off the wavelength today but all good and fair. I particularly enjoyed “abundance.”
    I sometimes wonder how easy it would be to explain the use of anagrinds to somebody who’s only just starting crosswords. We get so used to just spotting them, but justifying the word “abroad” as an anagrind does seem a bit of a stretch. Indicating not in the usual place perhaps? Perhaps I am alone in this.

    1. Most anagrinds have some sense of error, movement, chaos, or transformation etc. In the case of ‘abroad’, Chambers lists an archaic sense of “astray”, which I presume is the justification, and its versatility for setters means it has persisted.

       Similarly, meanings 11 & 12 of ‘up’ in Chambers are ‘in an excited state’ and ‘in revolt’, while meaning 15 is ‘amiss’ (I think as in “What’s up?”) . They’re not the most obvious by any means, but they’re not invented from whole cloth!

       But you’re right about getting used to spotting them. There was a discussion a while ago about “away” as an anagrind – most people seemed to see it without issue, although it’s far from obvious how it actually works!

       1. 👍
          The cryptic quintagram uses “vagrant” as the anagrind today. Not quite “error movement, chaos, or transformation“ but somehow vaguely along those lines. We spot them, but as I said, tricky to justify to a newcomer. Thanks for your comments.

    2. I thought that ABUNDANCE was indicated by one of the best clues I’ve ever read. Glad you enjoyed it, too.

43. No serious problems. Nice blog, Kitty

44. DNF but once I read the blog and entered Terms my missing Deteriorate, Strudel and Ogling came in a flash, creating a cheated 32 min finish. Thanks for the parsing of more than a few, Kitty. And Alex, good puzzle

45. We have been without heating or hot water for nearly a week, and my brain was ICING up, I’m sure of it! I thought this was trickier than usual for Alex, and struggled with the biggie too. But when our lovely heating engineer fixed everything when I was about halfway through that, everything started to slot into place. I hope this is a good omen 😂
    12:53 FOI Lobe LOI Abstained COD Abundance
    Thanks Alex and Kitty

    1. No heating or hot water? I sympathise, Penny. Even though I’m down here in the namby-pamby South I still have to keep on top of our heating, otherwise I would be in hot water with Mrs R.

       1. We’re now into our 6th week without central heating 🥶😂

          1. Good grief – you poor things. I hope you’ve at least got hot water, and more to the point that it gets sorted out very soon🤞
             It did remind us of how cold we were as children, waking up to ice on the insides of the windows. Less chance of that these day.

             1. Thanks Penny. A few more weeks I think 😩 but yes, we do at least have hot water!

       2. 😂 Well, you wouldn’t her to get frosty with you!

46. A 40 minute solve from a soaking wet windy Algarve. With nothing better to do today I could give it my full attention – it would have taken me a lot longer normally as I found it quite tricky. I too had FORMS which held me up. LOI SPIRITS.
    Some very good clues thank you Alex and thank you Kitty for the explanations – I could not parse ON EDGE.

47. DNF. Could not get into this.
    I found the 15×15 a lot easier and much more enjoyable.
    I do wonder why QC is called QC at times.
    Thanks for blog.

48. Having resisted the temptation to put in BEAT at 22ac, and gone through the alphabet (unable to see past BEAT for B), I was pleased to think of WELT. This seems to me an alternative valid answer?

49. I found this tough, finished in 25:04 with an aided word search for the game fish that turned out not to be a fish at all. COD to ABUNDANCE, which had a lovely PDM for me.

    Thanks to Alex and Kitty.

50. Difficult to impossible for us. Though we did get Abundance.. v clever clue.

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