Times Quick Cryptic 1711 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A fast start to the week for me – yesterday’s and today’s both in 8 minutes. The top half flew in and then I worked just as fast down the right hand side. The left made me pause but, even with a couple of unknowns, the clueing was clear enough to keep some momentum.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

ACROSS

1. Intrepid daughter missing parent’s sister (9)
DAUNTLESS – daughter (D), missing parent’s sister (AUNT-LESS).
6. Literary genre in South Carolina, one including Kipling poem (3-2)
SCI-FI – South Carolina (SC), one (I), inside which is Kipling poem (IF). This is the poem that starts ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing a theirs’ and ends (after some good stuff in the middle) with ‘Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!’.
8. Training device transforming Liam’s tour (9)
SIMULATOR – anagram (transforming) of LIAMS TOUR.
9. Plant serving sauce with meat (5)
OXLIP – sauce (LIP) with meat (OX). I thought ox=meat a bit tough (!) – Collins has ‘used for draught work or meat’ so I suppose that’s OK?
10. Clothing submerged in northern river? (9)
UNDERWEAR – submerged in northern river (UNDER WEAR).
12. Popular act, without doubt (6)
INDEED – popular (IN), act (DEED).
13. Position of rubbish in South America (6)
STATUS – rubbish (TAT) in South (S) and America (US).
16. Element Mendeleev originally found in flowering plant (9)
GERMANIUM – (M)endeleev inside flowering plant (GERANIUM). The element is found in Zinc ores and used in transistors. Mendeleev was a chemist who has a law named after him – that the chemical properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic weights.
18. Head of police called, revealing accident (5)
PRANG – (P)olice, called (RANG).
19. Switch posts near ground (9)
TRANSPOSE – anagram (ground) of POSTS NEAR. This one held me up for some time being unsure which was the anagram indicator and which the definition.
21. With cunning, son locates youth leaders twice (5)
SLYLY – son (S) then (L)ocates (Y)outh- twice. I enjoyed this less than usual device.
22. Stun factory, displaying alyssum, for example (4,5)
ROCK PLANT – stun (ROCK), factory (PLANT). I did myself no favours on this one by mis-reading asylum.

DOWN

1. Argument inspector advanced in Home Counties (7)
DISPUTE – inspector (DI), advanced (PUT) inside Home Counties (SE).
2. Destroyed a Parisian serving-girl verbally? (6)
UNMADE –  a in Paris (UN), homophone (verbally) of maid (MADE).
3. Roofer left in middle or row (5)
TILER – left (L) in the middle of row (TIER).
4. Amphibian originally eaten for tea (3)
EFT – (E)aten (F)or (T)ea. Anyone else biff eel at first?
5. Unexpectedly grumpy about quiet revolution (12)
SURPRISINGLY – grumpy (SURLY) about quiet (P) and revolution (RISING).
6. One making meteoric progress at Bisley, say? (8,4)
SHOOTING STAR – my sources from Gloucestershire inform me that the BBC descended on Bisley, near Stroud, in 2019 to shoot Agatha Christie’s Pale Horse. However, I think our setter is referring to the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Centre being based at Bisley, Brookwood, Woking, Surrey, where, presumably, the stars of the rifle shooting world attend.
7. Insular type this writer maligns (8)
ISLANDER – this writer (I), maligns (SLANDER).
11. Plea to dine among competitors (8)
ENTREATY – dine (EAT) among competitors (ENTRY).
14. Storm created by English politician during trial (7)
TEMPEST – English (E) and politician (MP) inside trial (TEST).
15. Shrub found in Michigan, Missouri and South America? (6)
MIMOSA – Michigan (MI), Missouri (MO), South Africa (SA).
17. Model put up by a fabulous writer (5)
AESOP – model (POSE) put upside down next to a (A).
20. Part of circle a churchgoer joined (3)
ARC – a (A), churchgoer (RC).

43 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1711 by Orpheus”

  1. Thanks for clarifying SHOOTING STAR, which was clearly the answer, but I didn’t understand the full meaning! Everything else was more or less straightforward… I didn’t know ALYSSUM, but the clue taught me the meaning!
  2. As a NY high school paper put it back in the 30s, If you can keep your head when everybody round you is losing his, then it is very probable that you don’t understand the situation.
    Fortunately Bisley showed up in a 15×15 a week or two ago; I’d never heard of it. I almost submitted with a blank square: I’d never tried to solve 1d, but it was done for me! Liked 19ac (LOI). 4:28.
  4. Managed my worst ever typo for my LOI, having worked out an alyssum must be a ROCK PLANT I then managed to type in RCL_-PLANT, ruining ARC in the process to leave me with a OK time of 14 but with three pink squares and two wrong answers. Entered EFT without parsing and a worry that there must be more going on but apart from that some hard definitions were well balanced with well constructed clues I thought. Things started badly when I spotted the double unches and then only got four on my first pass but the downs were more accessible and the checkers generous so the top began to fill up nicely. Didn’t know I could spell geranium and I’m not sure where I’ve heard of GERMANIUM but I was pleased with myself when that went in. I’ve recently started using the Crossword Club stats to chart progress, I usually seem to end up very close to 160th, highest to date is 102nd, so need to crack the top 100 – but today I fear I shall be dead last all day. That moment when I clicked the second submit only to see what I’d done was terrible, made worse by the brief moment of hope when it looked like I could still change it before the reds and greens appeared. My spirits won’t be down for long though – managed the QC, 15×15 and Telegraph triple yesterday, so I’m on a crossword crest of a wave.
  5. I thought I might be on for a really fast time when 1a and 6d went straight in, but I didn’t find all those starting letters as useful as I hoped. However I can’t complain with a sub 10 minute time and I enjoyed working my way around the grid. I had a big penny drop moment over the parsing of STATUS (realising that South America had to be separated), which left me staring blankly at the SURPRISINGLY elusive 5d for my LOI.]
    Finished in 9.26 with my COD going to SLYLY.
    Thanks to Chris
  6. FOI 1d, but incorrectly as “DISSENT”. Had to change it almost at the end as 10a was revealed. Cheeky! LOI 4d. COD 6d, as we have one next door. (We are at pains to be ever on good terms.)
  8. We who were reading Brian Aldiss’s anthologies and Kingsley Amis’s seminal critique “New Maps of Hell” in the sixties tend to call the genre at 6a “SF”, but the rule seems to be that popular usage wins. For example “protest” (originally meaning “support”) is used in “protest against”; the second word is dropped, and “protest” now means “oppose”. And I guess “SF” doesn’t lend itself to clueing.
      1. When the term ‘sci-fi’ came to prominence SF fans would pronounce it ‘skiffy’ and only use it for the popular rubbish which which gave the genre a bad name.
  9. DNF Again, failing at 9A OXLIP

    I enjoyed the puzzle today, in spite of a poor time. Knowing GERMANIUM felt like Mondays GK crossword, and that was a good clue. GH also needed for ROCK PLANT, but that was guessable.

    I was slow with UNDERWEAR even though I had hit on Wear as the likely rived, but thought that ‘submerged’ would be ‘in’ it.

    So OXLIP. Never heard of the flower, although I have of course heard of Cowslip. With three checkers and alphabet trawls (which went through ‘X’) I still did not have either parts of the clue. Lip for Sauce was hard, I was going through the (many) slang words for alcohol. Eventually bunged in two random letters and was presented with red and a DNF.

    COD : Several great ones, but GERMANIUM gets it.

    1. Yes, a bit of plant GK needed today. Oxlip, primrose, cowslip are all primulas. We have the last two in the garden and I’m hoping to introduce oxlips. And of course we’ll be looking out for primslips and cowroses – they do like to cross!

      H

  10. A good one from Orpheus. Not simple but easy to get immersed in and, ultimately, manageable. Time 17.30. I liked quite a few including DAUNTLESS, GERMANIUM, ISLANDER, ENTREATY, SURPRISINGLY, and UNDERWEAR. I was strangely slow to see Sci-Fi and needed crossers before ROCK PLANT emerged. A nice mix of GK, humour, and guile. Thanks to Orpheus and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 08:42 am (UTC)

  11. By my standards, Zoomed through though interrupted. All pretty easy. Hesitated about Germanium LOI but it was obvious from the cluing.
    FOI Dauntless

    I don’t think of alyssum as a rock plant but guess it must be. Oxlip is a Codeword favourite.

    Liked Underwear, prang, Indeed, Mimosa. Shooting Star went straight in as Bisley is well known for shooting competitions in UK.

    Thanks for a most encouraging crossword.

  12. Lots of mental stretching today but good fun and all done in 15 minutes which, for me, is fast. Lots of nice clues today. I especially liked DAUNTLESS, SLYLY and ROCK PLANT. I was fine with Bisley and SHOOTING STAR as I have a nephew who is a fan. EFT, 4 down, is only known to me through the QC and I didn’t know GERMANIUM but it was pretty obviously clued. I couldn’t see the parsing of 5 down, SURPRISINGLY, so thanks, Chris, for that. I don’t think I’ve come across ground – 19 across, TRANSPOSE – as an anagrind before so needed that pointing out to me, too. Thanks again, Chris, for the blog and thanks too to Orpheus
  13. Enjoyable – thanks chrisw91 and Orpheus. Gave myself a problem because I started thinking about a turnstile at a football ground but nothing else was right about it so I knew it had to be wrong. The anagram clicked soon enough but it turned 8 minutes into 10 🙁
  14. A slow start for me; I think I just chose the wrong clues to read first. But after EFT and a couple of others I speeded up. I knew Bisley was about shooting so I assumed the second word for 6d was SHOT. This held me up at the end getting TRANSPOSE and ROCK PLANT. Lots of plants today but I knew them all for once; only from crosswords.
    The Sunday Times clue writing competition has just asked us to clue Underwear. Would Orpheus have won?
    10:33 on the clock. Nice puzzle. David
  15. No problems for me. Started with SCI-FI(I still have all my Arthur C Clark and Isaac Asimov paperbacks from teenage days!)and finished with MIMOSA, then ROCK PLANT. 8:15. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  16. Found this quite hard but managed it after needing help with OXLIP (Ox meat?) and guessing EFT and GERMANIUM (unknown).
  17. Struggled today, as I have the last few days, which is partly down to tiredness and partly down to puzzles on the tough side I think. Today I was all done bar the 7d/9a combo after about 35 minutes, but I could feel myself nodding off by then. I came to about 15 minutes later upon getting a text from the NHS urging me to download the tracing app, and after a minute or two saw ISLANDER and shortly afterwards hit upon OXLIP as a possibility. Couldn’t think of anything else that remotely fitted, so I went with it on 57:48, which was about the same as yesterday, except that required three sittings and I haven’t checked I’ve got everything right yet. FOI 1a, LOI 9a, COD 5d, WOD 18a Thanks as usual.
  18. One for the gardeners today (which reminds me that I never got to the w/e crossword over the w/e!), with flowers in abundance. I too misread “alyssum” for “asylum”, and puzzled over whether “switch” or “ground” was the definition (needless to say fixed on the wrong one). I also was convinced that 13ac was STATES (“America”), but couldn’t parse it and eventually saw the light. All that pushed me the wrong side of ten minutes.

    FOI DAUNTLESS, LOI STATUS, COD SHOOTING STAR, time 2.5K for an Indifferent Day.

    Many thanks Orpheus and Chris.

    Templar

  19. A rare sub 20 mins for me at 17 mins and a few seconds. I really enjoyed this, although I’ll admit it there was a fair amount of biffing going on as the answers just seemed to appear. 6dn “Shooting Star”, 5dn “Surprisingly” and 10ac “Underwear” all come to mind.

    It took a few checkers before the answer to 6ac “Sci Fi” became obvious. Whilst legitimate, I always recall arguments from many years back whether the word/expression “Sci Fi” trivialised the genre, with some fans thinking it should be just SF (Science Fiction). Not sure whether this holds true today or not, but when I see it I’m always reminded of it.

    FOI – 3dn “Tiler”
    LOI – 9ac “Oxlip”
    COD – 1ac “Dauntless”

    Thanks as usual.

  20. … as half way through I found myself looking at a completed right side of the grid, and no answers filled in at all on the left side! Eventually the left fell into place too for a 9 minute finish and a very nice puzzle.

    Ox for meat in 9A caused me a wry smile too. I’ve only knowingly eaten ox (as opposed to oxtail) on a few occasions, mostly in the form of an ox-roast (think hog roast for 4 times as many people). It’s flavourful but very tough!

    Chris, your blog for Germanium confuses me a bit: Germanium is not really found in Zinc, as they are separate and distinct elements – Ge and Zn for the scientists among us.

    Otherwise all clear. My COD 5D Surprisingly, nice clue.

    Thank you to Chris for the blog.

    Cedric

    1. Ox liver was popular in my childhood, possibly because meat was in relatively short supply as we’d only just come off the ration. I’m sure it can be prepared beautifully but my memories are pretty disgusting.
      2. My mother was a reasonable cook, given the family budget constraints, but any sort of liver stayed in the frying pan until it resembled shoe leather. Fortunately, French cuisine has converted me, and it’s now one of my favourite dishes.
    2. No surprise that you’re absolutely right. It seems I glanced too casually at Collins which has:

      a brittle crystalline grey element that is a semiconducting metalloid, occurring principally in zinc ores

      I’ll add ‘ores’ into the blog. Thank you for the clarification.

  21. I had to plod through this one and didn’t get any of the Across clues on first pass. Luckily the Downs went in much more easily and the only one I couldn’t parse was DISPUTE as ‘put’ for ‘advanced’ seems a bit odd to me as does ‘entry’ for ‘competitors’ in ENTREATY. I also had to guess at GERMANIUM but it was obvious from the definition.
    Some lovely clues though such as UNDERWEAR, PRANG and ISLANDER and my COD has to be SURPRISINGLY for its clever construction.
    Thanks to Orpheus for keeping me on my toes for 18 minutes and to Chris for his informative blog.
    1. I’ve had to think hard about out/advanced as you’ve raised it. I’ve come up with – I put/advanced my view which I think works. Also – ‘how many is the entry for the marathon?’. Good questions.
      1. Hi, Chris. Thanks for taking the time to explain these.
        Your explanations make sense but they’re not expressions that immediately spring to mind…
        Happy 1st October!
  22. This is shaping up to be a hard week. Like Plett, I started with 1ac and 8d and thought it would be plain sailing, but none of Oxlip/Islander and loi Entreaty came to mind quickly and I ended up just a few seconds short of 25mins. It would have been a lot longer without those first two, especially the generously clued 6d, but my CoD vote goes to its companion 1ac, Dauntless. Invariant
  23. Having shot at Bisley a couple of times I can assure everyone that not all who attend Bisley are shooting ‘stars’. Far from it in my case. The ‘100’ (100 targets in a line) is quite a sight though.
    Never really found this easy and OX = meat stumped me for a long time (LOI).
    Good challenge and happy to have finished in 30/40 minutes or so.
    PlayUpPompey
  24. ….”undaunted” I progressed reasonably well, although I only parsed SURPRISINGLY afterwards.

    FOI TILER (which cured the stupidity)
    LOI OXLIP
    COD PRANG
    TIME 4:22

  25. An Average Day, having completed on par. I thought I was on for a quicker time initially, but slowed right down for the last few, with DISPUTE and SURPRISINGLY taking a while to see.

    Some fun clues on the way – GERMANIUM, TRANSPOSE and SHOOTING STAR in particular, the latter reminding me of the bonkers Reeves and Mortimer quiz show!

    FOI Sci-Fi
    LOI Surprisingly – thanks for the parsing
    COD Underwear – made me giggle
    Time 12 mins

    Thanks Orpheus and Chris

  26. A minute quicker than yesterdays at 7:03, so bang on what I aim for.

    A good puzzle, SURPRISINGLY was LOI, and very much bunged in, though I did parse before coming here, and having done so, made it my COD!

  27. A fairly straight forward solve in just over 8 minutes. EFT I have seen before but I didn’t remember it as a juvenile newt. SHOOTING STAR went in once most of the checkers were in place as I wasn’t aware that Bisley is home to the National Rifle Association. LOI OXLIP. Thanks Chris for the explanations.
  28. I was, I think, a shade under seven minutes (interrupted by ‘phone call). The only one that held me up was DISPUTE but then that pretty much put itself in as the crossers went in. As of course would TEMPEST but that was obvious and already in. Would a real pro skip the clues for these sort of self-solving words and not “waste” time on them unless necessary? PJ?

    H

  29. All completed in 17 mins apart from 1dn and 9ac. I knew one down had to be DISPUTE but couldn’t parse it and therefore hesitated to put it in. Stared at 9ac for a long time and eventually had to use an aid to come up with the unknown OXLIP. As well as 1dn I failed to parse 19ac and 5dn as the checkers made the answers obvious. Thanks to Chris for explaining those.

    FOI – 10ac UNDERWEAR
    LOI – 1dn DIDPUTE
    COD – 10ac – made me chuckle!

  30. Obviously we’re still in catch up mode. Really enjoyed this tricky puzzle which had some very clever clues. Didn’t record a time but it was probably an average solve for us. Thank you Orpheus.

    FOI: eft
    LOI: germanium
    COD: oxlip

    Thanks to Chris for the blog

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