Quick Cryptic 3020 by Breadman

62 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3020 by Breadman”

1. 12 minutes. I was delayed by OPEN SEA, SHORT HEAD and JERKIN. I thought we were in for a pangram as all the difficult letters are present and correct, but F, V and W are missing

2. All fair in retrospect but too hard for me today. MARENGO a complete NHO, will have to look that up now. Given I see ENG for England every time I watch them on telly I suppose I should have got there. Definitely should have got to ULYSSES S GRANT, SHORT HEAD and HARD TIMES quicker but I was a bit outclassed today – and even failed on SCRUBS (because I was looking for an abbreviation I recognised for Councillor!). Lots of time on the clock when I came here to see what had been going on – thanks Curarist (and Breadman for the battering).

   Did love JERKIN though – really enjoyed that clue suddenlty making sense!

3. Very tricky indeed. Pleased to finish though. The president was my biggest hold-up but everything else just a matter of figuring out the wordplay. We had MAR/Harm recently so that led to MARENGO, which comes up from time to time also. Liked HARD TIMES, a bit 15×15 ish I thought. COD to SCRUBS after wondering what people would wear to the theatre!
   Thanks C and setter.

4. Like our blogger I made hard work of this for no obvious reason. Nothing wrong with the puzzle just an off day for me which was summed up by spending a load of time wondering how ‘teaser’ was synonymous with ‘holiday’ 🤦‍♂️.
   Started with TROUGH and finished with short HEAD in 10.07 with COD to QUICHE.

   Thanks to Curarist and Breadman

5. 14:19. A bit of a struggle. LOI SCRUBS – oh that sort of theatre – I really should know by now. Not a pangram but, as Jackkt says, all the difficult letters are present and correct. The X, Z, Q and J look deliberately placed. I guess, to do that, the setter has to put them in first and work from there. Thank you Breadman and Curarist

6. I’m another who laboured a bit (10.59, let’s say 11) but in retrospect can’t quite see why. SCRUBS was my LOI by quite a margin, but DENMARK and JERKIN (good clues both) took longer than they should have. I knew MARENGO from a recipe Napoleon’s cook worked up. Many thanks to Breadman and Curarist.

7. Well, I’m exactly the same as the others above: took me ages (12) but not sure why. Very much enjoyed, with some clever clues in there, the best of which for me is my LOI SCRUBS.
   Thanks for the workout, Breadman, and Curarist for the blog.

8. DNF. Gave up after 15 minutes with only 4 clues solved.

   Far too hard for a “Quick Cryptic”. Possibly fun for the”experts” but a disaster for me.

   1. I’d be interested in which four.

      I solved five on first pass and then nothing.

      Trough, openers, amiss, styli, rouge

   2. Far too tricky for the overbearing heat I think.

9. My holiday may have refreshed me, a bit of sun for the brain cells, as I ambled slowly but steadily through this, and much enjoyed it. Some slightly convoluted -by QC standards – clues, but fair and entertaining, although a few bits of parsing required our kind blogger to enlighten me. I saw HARD TIMES fairly easily but not quite how the HARD bit worked. MARENGO took a bit of work but then the PDM.
   Liked the naughty bedroom furniture!

10. 8:56 but JERKIN wrong, thought ‘jacket’ would be SKIN. Slower than usual but I wasn’t expecting to be on great form. Some really nice clues.

    The ‘ING’ in the SE corner looks conspicuous to me but can’t find any hidden message.

11. I made heavy weather of this too, but only missed my target due to backing out typos (four of them) which probably cost me 30 seconds or so.

    I knew MARENGO as Napoleon’s horse, and as a chicken dish (never actually tried it), but not as a battle.

    FOI STYLI
    LOI SCRUBS
    COD ONE-NIGHT STAND
    TIME 6:01

    1. Nowt that you know this meaning you have the full set. Would it work as a triple?

       Battle horse casserole (7)

    2. Ah! I recall a story about Napoleon’s horse being ‘Nicol’ – and Napoleon’s request for, ‘bread for Nicol’ .’pain pour Nicol’ leading to use of the word ‘ Pumpernickel’.
       Now I learn otherwise. You are supported by AI…of course AI has it’s limits – and I trust you more than AI anyway : )

12. Took ages but finished all correct. FOI THORAX was an encouraging start but had to dot around the grid solving here and there. Among my slower solves were HARD TIMES, SHORT HEAD, GREASER, ULYSSES and, like others, LOI PDM SCRUBS.
    Was amused by ONE-NIGHT STAND, QUICHE. Actually it even took me a while to COTTON on to DEMARK.
    I knew MARENGO and even cooked it in the sixties.
    Thanks vm, Curarist.

13. 14:50
    Long delay at end, taking ages to see SCRUBS. I had assumed theatre was the definition, and wasted a lot of time trying to fit in names of famous theatres, and synonyms for theatres.
    I could not remember Grant’s first name, and first tried Odysseus, saved by it being a letter too long.

    Thanks Curarist and Breadman

14. 13:47 for the solve. Reached my last of SHORT-HEAD just as I went through the ten minute mark. Was struggling to decrypt the clue or bif an answer which was representative of where I struggled – difficult to know where/how to cut clues up. Noticed the near pangram and was expecting a J which allowed JERKIN to go straight in. NHO MARENGO.

    Time for the week coming in at 1hr15 skewed by 24+ mins on Jalna’s and this is 9th week in a row with a mistake. Oh well, generally very pleased with my solving progress.

    Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to Curarist and Breadman.

    1. Good time – I thought this was really tricky.

       1. Thank-you. Must admit I’m pleased with this after seeing how others did. Breadman has always been a tough setter – a quick look back at last year and 10 of his 14 QCs took me into the SCC and out its back door.

15. Well, I join nearly everyone in finding this difficult, convoluted and with some clues possibly on the edge of QC-dom. Clues that held me up too numerous to mention and the result was a 20:15 time. LOI SCRUBS, did not think of CR as an acceptable abbreviation for councillor (I’ve only ever seen Cllr).

    I’m somewhat surprised to see the SNITCH at “only” 110. HARD TIMES indeed. Many thanks Curarist for the blog.

16. Also tried to make ‘teaser’ mean holiday until PDM. Have noticed J, Q, X and Z being deliberately positioned in other Breadman’s puzzles – one time they formed a diamond in the centre. Could not parse SCRUBS and NHO GREASER in this context, but no problem completing the grid. Used to make chicken Marengo – seems to be out of fashion now! Thanks Curarist and Breadman.

17. I was doing well, slowed by DENMARK, JERKIN, SCRUBS but was totally thrown by a fire alarm in our Yorkshire hotel. Couldn’t settle down after the evacuation and return.
    Beat that for an excuse for an unfinished QC!

    1. I bet that a guest tried to heat a croissant in a rotary toaster. I suggest this as everyone was evacuated from a hotel in Dover, once, for this reason.
       We were out in the rain – no coats, or umbrellas – for an hour.

18. Hardest one for a while, several abbreviations that haven’t come up for a while (didn’t know councillor=cr, greek=gr, breadth=b). Didn’t know Marengo or Styli, don’t know why hairy biker = greaser, never heard of phrase short head, I knew how the clue would work and got short = little after checking letters but couldn’t think of he+ad.

    Also could’ve stared at 16 down all day and wouldn’t have thought of idiot for jerk, in for wearing or jerkin for jacket.

    1. Collins
       greaser in British English
       noun British slang
       3. a young long-haired motorcyclist, usually one of a gang

       1. Fair enough. Never heard of it, and the wordplay was pretty hard as well given how many options there are for holiday.

19. 8.55

    Like Kapietro I still miss that sort of theatre periodically and SCRUBS took some time at the end, not sure where the definition was.

    The surface for GREASER was rather good though never watched the series.

    Thanks Curarist/Breadman

20. FOI, THORAX, LOI, ALDER. Knew the battle and Boney’s horse. Also reminded by other comments that it’s a recipe. I could happily have SHIRAZ with QUICHE or Chicken MARENGO, and could ENDURE COTTON SCRUBS. Trickier than some, but managed withing target. 8:54. Thanks Breadman and Curarist.

21. Completely beaten/off wavelength today and ended up revealing some along the way which is very unusual for me. All completely fair in retrospect but brain cells clearly absent today. I’m blaming the hot weather 😆 Those revealed included SCRUBS (of course!), GREASER (qué?) and DENMARK (doh). COD to ONE-NIGHT STAND, but also enjoyed the simple but effective JERK IN. Many thanks for the blog C and thanks too to Breadman.

22. Fiendish. Started about 9 o’clock, only just finished. Worst was NW corner and LOI GREASER; why? NHO Hairy Bikers, suppose any biker might be called a greaser? Of course flier = AD and Greek = GR, but context for B = breadth, please – does this exist? What a struggle. Thanks, Curarist.
    Oh … I too was expecting F V and W, but no ….

    1. B is used as an abbreviation for breadth most commonly in engineering, architecture, and other technical fields where precise dimensions are being described. It’s in 2 of the 3 source dictionaries used by Times crosswords.

23. 7:33

    Six acrosses in from the first pass and not too many more on the initial downs pass made it seem as if this would be a trudge. Yet, somehow things picked up in the bottom half, giving enough checkers to think of both the president and the ‘fling’, for further footholds in the top half. Not heard the word GREASER for many years, but it was very common when I was growing up.

    Thanks Curarist and Breadman

24. My feeling in solving this was that it’s tougher than average, so I think I must have been on form to finish under target at 9.15. I slowed down quite a bit towards the end where SCRUBS and finally JERKIN took a while to reveal themselves.
    My total time for the week was 44.10 with only one solve over target time, giving me a daily average of 8.50.

25. A struggle in parts, but finished, except for the parsing of scrubs. CR didn’t spring to mind, though it is quite fair.
    Took me longer than usual but nothing wrong with a challenge.

    Thanks Breadman and curarist

26. I took just over 15 minutes, the last 6 taken up with LIO, 4ac. I finally caved and questioned my spelling of ULYSSES and realised I had it completely wrong. SCRUBS went straight in after that. If only I’d made the operating theatre connection 10 minutes earlier…

27. DNF after 40 minutes with M_R_N_O unsolved, although I did get MAR for ‘harm’. Very disappointing, as the first half of my effort had been both enjoyable and productive (19 clues solved by the time the SCC opened its doors) and I’d slogged my way through four of the remaining five clues in the the second 20 minutes – only to be beaten by a NHO.

    The four clues that I did manage to solve after my halfway point were ULYSSES S GRANT, SCRUBS, DENMARK and JERKIN. They all came very late on, but to no avail.

    Many thanks to Curarist and Breadman.

28. A good two cup of coffee QC ! Some unusual abbreviations, eg B for breadth and Cl for councillor, usually outside crossword world it’s cllr. Liked President Grant, usually referred to as Sam Grant, unsurprisingly. Perhaps I’m reading too much into seeing AMISS under OPENERS, re Derek Amiss an English and Warwickshire opening bat.

29. Got there in the end but SCC and counting! Last two in were SCRUBS and SHIRAZ. For the latter I was looking (in vain) for a wine with X in it, and trying to juggle P (for quiet) and RA (for artist). PRAXAI anyone? (It’s delicious). With HARD TIMES in place, my first thought for the battle was MARSTON as in Marston Moor, but crossers ruled that out. My cod was QUICHE – elegant and funny! And as I get balder with age, I’ll think of the humble alder (we have lots of alder, all around). Thanks Breadman and Curarist

30. 24.27 and had to resort to aids/checker.
    A lot of ‘cousin once removed’ answers.
    A definite challenge for us, though not unpleasant – all answers achievable and well explained in the welcome blog.
    Thanks to Breadman and to Curarist.

31. It was a hard lesson with this non-QC by Breadman. Admitting defeat like a sport. Also, I think Oceanic expanse is sufficient to define “open sea” without the unconfined qualifier.

32. I struggled a bit – it would have helped if I had read the clues all the way to the end, as Ulysses S Grant should have been a write-in. I couldn’t remember the battle/horse, and foolishly forgot to use the cryptic to get the answer.

    Time: 9:54.

33. 25.40. My slowest for a couple of months. It was mostly OK then JERKIN, SCRUBS, SHORT HEAD, DENMARK and MARENGO held me up for ages. I’ll blame the heat. Thanks Curarist and Breadman.

34. Having a son with “Waterloo” on his regimental cap badge, in my head Napoleon’s horse is Désirée and I’d never heard of MARENGO as a rival (or indeed as a battle … but it looked plausible enough and fitted the wordplay so in it went). I now find https://www.napoleon-series.org/faq/c_horses.html that Napoleon had an absolute stack of horses, I suppose inevitably.

    The LHS went in easily enough, the RHS much harder work. I finally dredged up the Pres and got there with LOI SCRUBS in 08:37 for a Decent Day. COD to HARD TIMES, really lovely clue.

    Many thanks Curarist and Breaders.

35. 27:17 Undone by a one-night stand with a Jerk in Denmark; will spare everyone’s blushes and not even mention hard times and short head. Got Cotton (well the C in TC made it a write in for me) Thorax and scrubs went in easily although they are more likely to be encountered in Curarist’s theatre than my surgery.
    Toughie but fair and fun
    Cheers C&B

    1. A hearty laugh in the morning. Thanks!

36. 23:37, but with a typo on JEEKIN. But I knew what I meant to type, so I’m still putting this in my mental “completed” column. Broad grin at ONE-NIGHT STAND, my COD.

    Thanks to Breadman and Curarist.

37. Yes, tricky: 15:18 for us. Knew MARENGO so that went in quickly but SCRUBS took a while and our LOI was THORAX which should have fallen earlier. Not sure I’ve ever seen B for breadth before but, with the D and R checkers, of elder and alder only the latter seemed to work. Thanks, Curarist and Breadman.

38. A slow 28:24 with much head scratching involved. Finally remembered MARENGO, with SCRUBS and JERKIN last in. Hard work.

39. Hard work at the end solving SHORT HEAD, GREASER and JERKIN on which I nearly gave up but pleased to finish in 43 minutes.
    COD to SCRUBS but some other good ones such as OPENERS.
    I’ve read a lot about the Napoleonic Wars so MARENGO was easy enough once I spotted the parsing and after rejecting MARSDEN.
    Thanks both.

40. This was just hard enough to be entertaining until it was suddenly hard enough to earn me entry into the club, taking 8 minutes or so to decide on SHORT HEAD and SCRUBS (CR for councillor, must learn, also c’mon, self, “theatre” should be a red flag by now). So 22:43 to finish without knowing what SHORT HEAD means. A lot of ambiguity in that wordplay!

    I suppose for once being American was an advantage. Doesn’t tip the scales very far though.

    I kept thinking there might be a theme. tROUGH, scRUBS, HARD TIMES, cHARD, ENDURE. But nothing systematic.

    So many good surfaces make it hard to choose and OPEN SEA is great, but who can resist ONE NIGHT STAND?

    Thanks to Breadman and Curarist.

41. I started surprisingly quickly but then reality set in, and I finally finished in 26:28. Almost gave up at the end on SCRUBS, thinking that I was looking for an obscure word for “theatre”.

    Thank you for the blog!

42. I’m glad to see I’m not alone in finding this difficult. A disappointing 19:58 for me with way too long spent on SHORT HEAD – ironic as I was watching the racing from Ascot earlier – DENMARK and ULYSSES S GRANT. I’m blaming the heat, of course, and anticipate posting another poor time tomorrow. (May as well get my excuse in early!)
    Thanks to Breadman for the mental workout and the Curarist for the much-needed blog.

43. Like others found this challenging and ended up well into the SCC. But delighted to finish a more challenging QC – I usually end up at least three or four short at this level of Quitch. And mostly parsed, less SHORT HEAD which for a racing fan was obvious from the checkers.

    Many thanks to Breadman for an enjoyable puzzle and Curarist for the blog.

44. 31:07

    Blimey that was tough! NHO SHORT HEAD or LOI MARENGO. Struggled to parse DENMARK too.

45. Too much time in the sun at the cricket led to a tired SCLUBS for LOI. NHO MARENGO.

46. 23:23. SCRUBS and SHORT HEAD were very difficult for me. Stared at both for minutes from different directions! Idiot leading to JERK gave me pause as I considered the former mentally deficient and the latter displaying objectionable behaviour. Interesting research re IDIOT: at one time Morons were considered clinically as having IQ between 75 and 50, Imbeciles 50 to 25, and Idiots on the lowest end, IQ below 25.

47. Dnf…

    I thought this was definitely at the hardest end of the QC spectrum, and probably the most difficult for quite a while. Went slightly awry with 14dn “Marengo” (which I dnk) and 21ac “Denmark” where I put “Outback”. I also made a hash of 11ac “Amiss”, putting “Amien” instead. The rest went in fairly steadily over 25 mins, but there were some devices used that wouldn’t be amiss in the 15×15.

    For what it’s worth, it’s Dave Day tomorrow in Barrow-in-Furness – celebrating the life of Dave Myers, one half of the hairy bikers, who was born in the town.

    FOI – 1ac “Trough”
    LOI – Dnf
    COD – 4ac “Scrubs”

    Thanks as usual!

48. 18 mins. Ok-ish.

49. American. We say won by a nose. Loved learning short head.

50. Its high time for a rebranding ,should be called Quick Cryptic For Experts !

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