Times Quick Cryptic 1680 by Trelawney

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 8 minutes. I found this one straightforward with only one word (22ac), or rather its required meaning, unknown to me. Edit: I missed that it’s a pangram, so thanks to zenpublisher for pointing that out.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Old Zulu enters South African watering hole (6)
BOOZER : O (old) + Z (Zulu – NATO alphabet) contained by [enters] BOER (South African).  ‘Watering hole’ is jocular slang for ‘pub’, as is ‘boozer’.
4 Hobbit takes in a Spanish city (6)
BILBAO : BILBO (hobbit – Mr Baggins) contains [takes in] A
8 Publisher, if fearless, conceals officer of the law (7)
SHERIFF : Hidden in [conceals] {publi}SHER IF F{earless}
10 Snare catches male vagabond (5)
TRAMP : TRAP (snare) contains [catches] M (male)
11 US state must wash regularly (4)
UTAH : {m}U{s}T {w}A{s}H [regularly]
12 Baffle gardener, primarily, with affection for purple flower (8)
FOXGLOVE : FOX (baffle), G{ardener} [primarily], LOVE (affection)
14 Somehow let a horse become discouraged (4,5)
LOSE HEART : Anagram [somehow] of LET A HORSE
18 Youngster with extremely rowdy soldiers (8)
INFANTRY : INFANT (youngster), R{owd}Y [extremely]
20 Returned therefore to see Shrek, perhaps (4)
OGRE : ERGO (therefore) reversed [returned]
22 Monster made from Lego pieces by Mike (5)
GOLEM : Anagram [made from…pieces] of LEGO, then M (Mike – NATO alphabet again). Most sources have this as a human figure supernaturally brought to life, an automaton, but one entry in Collins mentions the word ‘monster’. I have met the word before in a puzzle I blogged 12 years ago but on that occasion it was defined as ‘robot’.
23 Prattling monarch follows shaggy beast (7)
YAKKING : YAK (shaggy beast), KING (monarch)
24 Go past ice, finally, and slip (6)
ELAPSE : {ic}E [finally], LAPSE (slip)
25 Creepy-crawly‘s nicest cooked (6)
INSECT : Anagram [cooked] of NICEST
Down
1 Reportedly enjoy the sun from a region in Spain (6)
BASQUE : Sounds like [reportedly] “bask” (enjoy the sun)
2 In general, bid higher without clubs (7)
OVERALL : OVER{c}ALL (bid higher) [without clubs]
3 Muslim leader in semi-retirement (4)
EMIR : Hidden [in] {s}EMI-R{etirement}
5 Whole triangle is redesigned (8)
INTEGRAL : Anagram [redesigned] of TRIANGLE
6 Courageous not finishing last of tobacco — well done! (5)
BRAVO : BRAV{e} (courageous) [not finishing], {tobacc}O [last]
7 Bird initially occupying small quarry (6)
OSPREY : O{ccupying} [initially], S (small), PREY (quarry)
9 Reckless to trick an author (9)
FOOLHARDY : FOOL (trick), HARDY (author – Thomas)
13 Huge waves ruin man’s suit (8)
TSUNAMIS : Anagram [ruin] of MAN’S SUIT
15 Gelatin’s crazy slogan (3,4)
TAG LINE : Anagram [crazy] of GELATIN
16 Dance on dodgy leg and wobble (6)
JIGGLE : JIG (dance), anagram [dodgy] of LEG
17 Significance of delay in speech (6)
WEIGHT : Sounds like [in speech] “wait” (delay)
19 Stumbled over a bloke (5)
FELLA : FELL (stumbled), A
21 Hide southern relations (4)
SKIN : S (southern), KIN (relations)

51 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1680 by Trelawney”

  2. Damn. Was going to be a 5 minute solve, but it took me another five minutes to get BASQUE/BOOZER and WEIGHT. Ah well.
  3. Biffed 24ac, parsed post-submission. It took me a couple of encounters with BOOZER to finally learn that it can be a place as well as a person; it was still my LOI (or POI, with BASQUE being last; I forget which). I think the definition at 1d is ‘from a region in Spain’; BASQUE as a noun refers to either the language or the people or a member of the people. The region is Basque Country. 4:38.

    Edited at 2020-08-17 03:22 am (UTC)

  4. Fast until weight, elapse, overall, boozer and LOI basque.
    15 in total.

    Cod foolhardy.

    The 15×15 is worth a go today, i got everything in 20 mins except 3 clues which annoyingly I couldn’t solve.

    1. Thanks for the tip on the 15×15. I solved it in 28 minutes which is just about as fast as I can go. Only 1 guess needed.

      Edited at 2020-08-17 01:07 pm (UTC)

  5. Saw the time was 9.50 something with just BILBAO to type so submitted in a hurry – missing EMIT not EMIR and not getting under 10 anyway (10.03). Annoying as it’s been quite a while since I’ve been under 10. Only five on the first pass with many clues looking like they would put up a struggle. Downs were more forgiving. Had to pretend to be Geordie to get bask to sound like BASQUE. Just checked the leaderboard – I am the only person to have made an error today and all because I can’t type out a hidden properly – dunce.
    1. Pretty much the same hold ups as others. FOI was UTAH and the last three in were WEIGHT, BOOZER and BASQUE which is when I spotted the pangram. 10:04 Thanks Trelawney and Jack.
  6. I enjoyed that very much; Trelawney has a knack with surfaces. Nearly a true clean sweep but ELAPSE held out and needed a second visit.

    FOI BOOZER, LOI ELAPSE, COD OSPREY, time 2K and a Good Day.

    Thanks Trelawney and Jack.

    Templar

    PS on edit – I thought that defining FOXGLOVE as “purple flower” was iffy given that they come in all sorts of shades, including white and pink.

    Edited at 2020-08-17 08:43 am (UTC)

  7. A steady solve today, with the dodgy homophone causing a few issues, as did the SW corner, for no apparent reason now I look back on it. Having said that I did have a MER at FELLA, as I assumed it was slang and therefore wouldn’t be in the dictionary – but I see that it’s in Collins…
    Finished in 12.18 with LOI FOOLHARDY and my favourite being the prattling monarch.
    Thanks to Jack and Trelawny for an enjoyable start to the week.
  9. Outside my target but 19 mins went by quickly. Nice puzzle. LOI was BOOZER despite getiing BASQUE early on. Too many clever/neat clues to list but I never spot pangrams. Thanks to Trelawney and jackkt. John M.
  10. I did not find this easy and my problems in the NW remained until the end. I am not a Lord of the Rings man, nor Shrek, so my GK for this was weak. GOLEM another word that sounded strange to me.
    Nothing wrong with the puzzle and the cryptics eventually guided me to the finish in 14:24 -quite pleased with that under the circumstances.
    FOI UTAH; LOI OVERALL; COD to the tricky BASQUE. David
  11. No particular problems, although BILBAO and OSPREY took a while to see. 8:21. Thanks Trelawney and Jack.
  12. 20+ mins, LOI of ELAPSE took too long.

    Was surprised to see FELLA written out, not sure I’ve seen it in print before, certainly not in The Times.

    COD FOOLHARDY, although I was off on the false scent of “reckless” as an anagrind cueing up the nine letter anagram of “to trick an”.

    Also spent some time trying for a homophone for “Aragon”, which was the only six letter Spanish region I could come up with for 1D.

    INTEGRAL is yet another anagram from the highly fungible TRIANGLE (Relating, Alerting, Altering etc)

    1. Surprised people were looking for the name of a region for 1D. The clue is from a region, so it can only be the adjective, surely? From Aragon would be Aragonese I think. Fortunately Basque is itself the adjective so does work.
      Cedric
  13. So enjoyed it.
    Spelt Bilbao wrong originally which didn’t help with Osprey. I am confessing this to encourage other slowcoaches. Was wondering if there was a bird called Asprey when the penny dropped.
    Liked Foolhardy and Basque and Foxglove
    FOI Tramp. LOI Elapse

    Many thanks for this and weekend crossword.

  14. Just outside target range at 16 minutes, held up by the usual suspects. LOI WEIGHT. When 1a didn’t fall easily I immediately switched to the first lot of downs, all of which appeared immediately with the exception of 1d. Like Jackkt, I missed the pangram, but did look for a Tolkien theme with BILBO and GOLEM / GOLLUM making an appearance. I suppose OGRE could count as well. Thanks both.

    Edited at 2020-08-18 08:27 am (UTC)

  15. Had to seek help for a couple, guessed GOLEM when I had 3 of the 5 letters (!) and struggled to get WEIGHT and BASQUE.
  16. 19 mins for me with 24ac “Elapse” and 17ac “Weight” taking longer than they should have at the end.

    Nice and steady this I thought with nothing too taxing. For once I identified a panagram early when I saw the “q” and “z” (not that it helped with my final two).

    Only niggle was 19ac “Fella”. Thought it might be too slang like – but couldn’t see what else it could be and it did make me think of Ted Hastings from Line of Duty.

    FOI – 1dn “Basque”
    LOI – 24ac “Elapse”
    COD – 9dn “Foolhardy”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-08-17 10:46 am (UTC)

  17. Drew a blank with 1ac/d, so started in the NE and solved more or less clockwise thereafter. Boozer and Basque thus became my final pair, by which time (20mins) I had begun to suspect a pangram. Yakking and Jiggle both required alphabet trawls to prompt initial letters, but the answer to the dreaded homophone clue (17d) actually came to mind quite quickly. Miss-parsed 2d as (c)over-all, which almost works, and was unsure about the unknown Golem, but a gentle enough start to the week. CoD to 24ac, Elapse. Invariant

    PS. I will echo Flashman in saying that today’s 15×15 is definitely worth trying

    Edited at 2020-08-17 01:34 pm (UTC)

  18. As I had to take my car in for a service today, from which I ran home, I solved this later than usual and at my desk rather than lying in bed, which I hoped might make me a bit quicker. When I saw it was a Trelawney puzzle as well, I hoped that I might have encountered the perfect storm conditions for a pb and for a while it looked like it might be. After 15 minutes however, I still had a few in the NW to get as well as 24a and I realised it wasn’t going to happen. I had visions of it being one of those days where I stared at the last couple of answers for half an hour or something, but thankfully I suddenly remembered the necessary region of Spain, which then prompted the realisation that I did know the name of a South African, and getting that opened my eyes to OVERALL. Is it possible that to bid higher is to ‘cover all’ rather than ‘overcall’ by the way? I’ve never heard of the expression overcall, but that probably isn’t saying much.
    Anyway, that just left me with 24a as my LOI and thankfully that came to me without too much delay, so I was able to stop the clock on 19:58, which I see isn’t too bad compared to others on here, so I can live with that. Plenty to like, but I think my COD is 1a. Thanks to Jack and Trelawney
  19. No problems, as you’d expect on a Monday, and all words known to me. 6:15.

    COD – FOOLHARDY

    H

  20. Definitely not “cover all”. “Overcall” is a standard term in bidding at bridge.
  21. ….until I reviewed the puzzle afterwards. It’s not something I’d attempt in one of my humble offerings !

    FOI SHERIFF
    LOI JIGGLE
    COD WEIGHT
    TIME 3:33

    1. Nor did I. Thanks for the weekend crossword. Tried to comment on the blog but it did not appear.
    2. I enjoyed the weekend crossword as well – first time I’d done it and found it a nice challenge. Thanks.
    3. I think Araucaria did one once and managed to get A-Z as the initial letters for the answers. Class! I can’t remember what shape or how big the grid was.

      H

  22. No undue delays on this nice offering from Trelawney and all finished and parsed in around 15 mins. Spent a little time trying to fit BAILIFF into 8ac before I saw the hidden and also originally had YACKING at 23ac (thinking you could perhaps spell the animal YAC) but that made 21dn impossible so I soon saw the light. I also had a MER at 19dn and in fact left it until I had all the crossers just to make sure.

    FOI – 4ac BILBAO
    LOI – 19dn FELLA
    COD – a tie today between 1ac BOOZER and 9dn FOOLHARDY.

  23. With one of our fastest times – 11 minutes. Really enjoyed this entertaining and amusing puzzle. Thanks Trelawney.

    FOI: Bilbao
    LOI: emir
    COD: foolhardy.

    Thanks to jackkt for the blog.

    Weekend QC no 5: thanks to Phil for a challenging but enjoyable crossword – definitely the hardest WEQC to date. Sadly we just couldn’t get deejays – we got the Dee but not the jay! Doh!

    Edited at 2020-08-17 12:35 pm (UTC)

  24. Of course I didn’t spot the pangram! But it was a very nice start to the week, with some fun clues – BOOZER and INSECT both made me smile, and well under par.

    As foxgloves’ Latin name is digitalis purpurea, I guess that makes purple flower ok in the clue. I was reading recently – in the Times gardening pages of course – that self-seeded foxgloves nearly always revert to their natural colour eventually. That would account for why all the lovely white and apricot ones have disappeared, and I just get purple ones these days!

    FOI Bilbao
    LOI Basque – a nice link as Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque region, although not the capital as I thought
    COD Foolhardy
    Time 8:45

    Thanks Trelawney and Jack

    1. I was reading recently – in the Times gardening pages of course – that self-seeded foxgloves nearly always revert to their natural colour eventually. That would account for why all the lovely white and apricot ones have disappeared, and I just get purple ones these days!

      You can identify the purple ones, before they get big enough to flower, by the colour of their leaf stalks and pull them out. Of course you need to have a few hundred to make this a feasible operation, else you’ll end up with no foxgloves 🙂 Famously this was done at Knightshayes Court in Devon, giving them a big stand of white foxgloves.

      H

  25. A gentle start to the week and just within my target of 15 minutes with only a couple of hold-ups – YAKKING (I also thought it was ‘yacking’) and ELAPSE (which puzzled me even with all the checkers in place!)
    I liked BASQUE, OGRE and OSPREY and my COD goes to FOOLHARDY for making me smile.
    Thanks to Trelawney and to Jackkt for the clear blog.
  26. Liked BOOZER, but then I normally do, ELAPSE was my LOI, failed to spot the pangram..
  27. As happens more often than I like I was stuck on one clue, in this case BOOZER but eventually got it.

    MER over FELLA and OVERALL was not parsed.

    Despite the above I did like the crossword, thanks setter and blogger.

  28. A pleasant steady solve working clockwise from the NE. No real holdups so finished well within our target at 23m.
  29. … as initially I tried Giggle for 16D, and only changed it when I couldn’t find a J. So a rather fortunate all green in 8 minutes for a Good Start to the week.

    22a: Did not know Golem but assumed it was right. The only possible alternative would have been Gelom and that sounded even less likely!

    Really enjoyed the Saturday crossword – thank you very much Phil. And thanks too to Jack for today’s blog.

    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-08-17 06:06 pm (UTC)

  30. I actually finished this crossword – first time!! Hooray!
    I don’t know what a pangram is?
    I think golem may be in Sherlock Holmes or other gothic type novels and fella is what Chief Superintendant Hastings says in Line of Duty which is being repeated on BBC 1 at the moment – watch it if you haven’t seen it, it’s great.
    I can’t join in with the posting of times activity as I do the crossword on paper – we buy the newspaper- so retro!! 🤣 but it took me about half an hour which is fantabulous for me!
    1. Welcome Caroline, and congratulations on your first solve – 30mins is an impressive time for that. There is a glossary of terms at the top/bottom of this page depending on what device you are using, but a pangram occurs when all 26 letters of the alphabet appear somewhere in the answers. Sometimes this is a useful if, say, you know one of the last few answers needs to contain a specific letter to complete the pangram.
      1. Thank you. I have been trying for a while and using the blog to get the missing answers but this time I got them all myself!
        Thanks for the pangram explanation
  31. Got this in about 10 minutes. Very enjoyable puzzle with some utterly lovely surfaces and mild but clear humour.

    Many CODs for me but 22a, 23d and 25a were splendid.

    New to me was the wordplay in 2d, dropping the C, without clubs. Also DNK overcall – I guess that is some bridge term.

    Thanks jackkt and Trelawney for a smashing start to the week, WS x

Comments are closed.