Times Quick Cryptic No 3038 by Asp

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A Quick Cryptic puzzle at the harder end of the difficulty scale to keep us on our toes for a Friday from Asp today. Lots of good clues, and a bit of head -scratching along the way took me to 7:03 – a minute and a half or so over my average. Last two in were the cleverly hidden  1D followed by 8A with a bit of a head-slap. Favourites included the &lit 9A, the groan-worthy homophone at 16A, the clever wordplay at 14D and the semi-&lit 17D. Thank-you Asp! How did you all get on? P.S. As he has outed himself on X, I don’t think he’ll mind me telling you Asp is a pseudonym of our crossword editor Jason Crampton. Thank-you, Jason, for all you do.

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic.  This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “See-saw to Arkansas”  here.  Can you (without googling the title) identify the theme and find the thematic references? If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 133 here.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.

Across
1 See what is being said? (3-4)
LIP-READ – Cryptic definition. I like it.
5 Bring back drink fit for a king (5)
REGAL – LAGER (drink) brought back -> REGAL.
8 What goes round room, bypassing senior management? (8,5)
SKIRTING BOARD – SKIRTING (bypassing) BOARD (senior management). My LOI misled into thinking rumours and the like.
9 Work with case in theatre (7)
OPERATE – A neat &lit. OPERA (work) and outside letters [case] of T{heatr}E.
10 Papers I returned to fool (5)
IDIOT – ID (papers) I and TO [returned] -> OT.
11 In GCHQ, briefly shed light on computer problem (6)
GLITCH – GCHQ here is just GCHQ… [briefly] -> GCH, with LIT (shed light on) inside.
13 Exquisite selection (6)
CHOICE – A straight forward double definition conforming to the late Rotter’s rule – “If a clue consists of only 2 words, it is very likely to be a double definition“.
15 Strange article about invention (5)
ALIEN – LIE (invention) in AN (indefinite article).
16 Successor man announced in letter? (7)
AIRMAIL – A groan-worthy homophone [announced], AIR MAIL sounds like HEIR (successor) MALE (man).
19 Judgement voided debatable conclusion (13)
DETERMINATION – Outside letters of, [voided], DebatablE, TERMINATION (conclusion). Sometimes, like the bear of little brain, long words bother me, but not this one.
20 Sign up loner to go travelling (5)
ENROL – (loner)* [to go travelling]. Our first anagram.
21 Fantastic story can spread in capital city (7)
ROMANCE – (can)* [spread] in ROME (capital city).
Down
1 Animal catcher employed by professional association (5)
LASSO – Hidden in [employed by] professionaL ASSOciation. Did anyone else take a while to spot this was a hidden answer? Nicely disguised, I think.
2 Great office of strait-laced English clergyman (5,8)
PRIME MINISTER – PRIM (strait-laced) E (English) MINISTER (clergyman).
3 Additional cast member having little to do (5)
EXTRA – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint.
4 Stubborn person put on small island (6)
DONKEY – DON (put on clothes) KEY (small island; think Florida Keys).
5 Refuse to criticise (7)
RUBBISH – Double definition with a neat surface.
6 Pleasure beginning to gain approval (13)
GRATIFICATION – First letter of Gain, RATIFICATION (approval).
7 Boisterous young woman jetted all over naked (7)
LADETTE – Reverse hidden, removing just the outside letters [over naked] of {j}ETTED AL{l} -> LADETTE. The answer came first but then I had to deduce the wordplay.
11 Broadcast enraged eminent individual (7)
GRANDEE – [Broadcast] (enraged)*.
12 Calm surrounds every other part of unitary authority (7)
CONTROL – You have to split “unitary authority” to get the definition. The wordplay is COOL surrounding alternate letters of [every other part of] uNiTaRy.
14 Greek character stops behind raised weapon (6)
RAPIER – PI (Greek alphabetical character) inside [stops] REAR (behind) [raised] -> RAER. A bit tricky, that one. “Stops” for”goes inside” is worth remembering. Think cork stopping a bottle.
17 Genuine monarch’s principal possession? (5)
REALM – REAL (genuine) and first letter [‘s principal] of Monarch. A semi-&lit where the whole clue is the definition and only “possession” isn’t part of the wordplay.
18 Cut into network cable at both ends (5)
LANCE – LAN (local area network) and both end letters of CablE.

84 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3038 by Asp”

  1. The four long ones were surprisingly easy. Unlike me usually, I spotted the hidden LASSO almost right off. What slowed me down were GRANDEE (LOI; I almost hit ‘submit’ before I noticed I’d never returned to solve it) and AIRMAIL. 9:11

  2. Interestsing that two of the long ones involved long sub-words (DE with TERMINATION, and G with RATIFICATION). No holdups for me. I completely missed what was going on with OPERATE. I saw “work” and “case in theatre” and immediately thought OP and TE and just put in OPERATE without further thought. This is not how the clue works at all!

      1. Oh. I’ve just seen it’s not a CD but an &lit. The work is an OPERA…. Blog updated.

        1. Opera synonymous with work I find a bit of a stretch. I thought that to work in (a) theatre is to operate, simple cryptic.

  3. Some nice wordplay here. LIP-READ was a write-in along with SKIRTING BOARD. Got LASSO from the ‘L & S’ in those two and missed the hidden. OPERATE fooled me again, really must learn to associate ‘theatre’ with surgery rather than just entertainment. The SE corner proved the trickiest with the RAPIER/AIRMAIL crossing taking the longest. ROMANCE also held me up with the ‘can’ misleading me into the ‘loo’ trap. COD to GRATIFICATION.
    Thanks John and setter.

  4. 9 minutes with most time lost on the parsing of LADETTE although I saw the answer immediately. With QC’s my timings include parsing unless otherwise stated.

  5. 10 initially and four more parsed after revealing a few that I was never going to solve. Top half was definitely easier for me.

    Thanks John and Asp

  6. Three on the first pass of acrosses and not many downs before a bit of a flurry after PRIME MINISTER went in. Not all green though because I managed to spell LADETTE with two Ls at the start. A bad week for good typing. 22.38.

  7. Very difficult here! Good job it’s a beautiful morning to sit in the garden solving with a jug of coffee, for 42 minutes!

    A lot of head slapping and groans as pennies eventually dropped

    Thanks Asp, and John especially for parsing of operate, we to had op!

  8. I was slow to start and found it difficult to get on to Asp’s wavelength. I found the long ones straightforward and did almost all of the puzzle before the SCC beckoned.
    I hesitated with CALM/COOL but the NTR made CONTROL inevitable. However, my interest gradually evaporated and I did not persevere with DONKEY, AIRMAIL or RAPIER. So, dnf. I enjoyed bits of it but just didn’t ‘click’ with this one.
    Note, I checked and found I had exactly the same response to three previous offerings from Asp. We are clearly wired differently.

  9. I sped my way through this in a faster-than-usual 11:40, much helped by getting the 4 long ones pretty early on in the solve. And much enjoyed too, with many good clues, though a few only parsed after entry. GLITCH held me up – the idea of “briefly” referring to a set of initials for some reason causing a brainfade – and the SE corner generally, the last area to fall.

    And then I find the SNITCH is rather higher than yesterday’s, which I really struggled with. The mystery of what makes an “easier” or “more difficult” puzzle, and perhaps why QCs are not graded as for example Sudokus are.

    Many thanks John for the blog, and I look forward to the Sunday Special.

  10. 20:33, hello, SCC.

    Never really got going, just could not easily see the double defs like CHOICE and RUBBISH.

    Couldn’t parse LASSO. And didn’t appreciate the elegance of OPERATE until coming here. RAPIER is definitely 15×15 level.

    COD SKIRTING BOARD

  11. 17:50. I found this one much tougher than the Snitch suggests; perhaps just knowing it’s an Asp puts me in a lower gear. FOI the excellent LIP-READ. LOI AIRMAIL with a long-delayed PDM. I liked GLITCH and SKIRTING BOARD.
    I DON’T think Asp needs to be “outed” John. I recall great consternation here when the compiler of such hard QCs was made the editor. We needn’t have worried. I endorse your thanks to him for all he does.
    And thanks to you too for the blog

  12. A laboured 25 minutes to limp home. Struggled to get going, but found the down clues easier and getting the long words helped to biff a couple of unparsed answers. RAPIER/AIRMAIL last in. Hard work.

  13. 11:37 (Deaths of Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, William the Saint, Duke of Aquitaine, and Louis the fat, King of France. Marriage of Louis’ heir Louis to William’s heiress Eleanor).

    I did not find this too hard – definitely easier for me than yesterday’s.
    My favourite clue was RAPIER. LOI was ENROL.

    Thanks John and Asp

  14. A very enjoyable puzzle most of which I solved without too many problems before becoming breezeblocked by my last two, AIRMAIL and the first part of SKIRTING BOARD.
    Finished in 9.23.
    Thanks to John and Asp

  15. Tough and enjoyable puzzle. Really had to scratch my head to understand RAPIER; only thought of OPERATE as a rather weak cryptic definition, whereas I now see it’s far better than that; didn’t spot LASSO for too long; and needed all checkers for LOI LIP READ (I hate it when 1a is LOI).

    Lots of cracking clues; GLITCH gets COD from me.

    All done in 10:05 for 1.1K and a Decent Day. Many thanks John and Asp.

  16. 17:25 for the solve with last four+ mins on DONKEY. Thought we were in for another toughie from Asp when I only got CHOICE, ALIEN and ENROL on the Across clues and it had taken three mins to wade through them. But then six of the seven Downs went straight in and by eight mins I only had the SE corner and LOI to do. Thanks to Asp for the puzzle and to Jason for all the editing!

    Decent enough week totalling 1hr09 and back-to-back error-free weeks. The past three days all coming in around 17-18mins which is slower than my average whereas the Quitch scores them around 100. I think par for the Quitch is really about 85-90.

    Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to JohnI for the blog. Particularly for explaining OPERATE which I couldn’t parse beyond a potential double-def type of thing.

    Edit: Thanks again to JohnI for the WeekendQC – 7:17 – my word, that was excellent. Especially 10 & 12. Didn’t understand the theme until afterwards. Brings back some happy memories!

  17. 14 minutes. As expected from Asp, I found this harder than average. I particularly liked OPERATE for both being a clever &lit clue and for combining the surgical and entertainment senses of ‘theatre’ and the idea of the PRIME MINISTER being a ‘strait-laced English clergyman’.

    Thanks to Asp and John

  18. Couldn’t parse OPERATE. My last two in LIPREAD and LASSO – both really obvious in hindsight, so no excuse. Thanks Asp for clever puzzle and John for good blog.

  19. Another DNF. LIP READ took a long time to work out but even with the D in situ I still failed on DONKEY. I also couldn’t work out AIRMAIL so no score on the board today. Thanks John

  20. I thought this was a lovely puzzle. Couple of harder ones, enjoyed the long words and particularly liked the &lit OPERATE. I agree it was slightly on the hard side. I took 10:35, but wasted 35 seconds correcting an error – I somehow thought that AIRBILL might be a word, obviously conflating AIRMAIL and WAYBILL (but not thinking of the first one), and thinking BILL was the male. I often get caught out when the aural wordplay indicator encapsulates multiple words in the definition, hence not thinking of Mail / Male for the second part.

  21. A toughie! From LASSO to GLITCH in 9:42. Didn’t parse OPERATE correctly. Thanks Asp and John.

  22. I’m on a hot run of, er, two, in that the last pair are often real bugbear setters for me, and both have been a real pleasure to solve. What will tomorrow bring? Will John’s Weekend Special turn out to be a an Izetti on steroids monster…
    No major issues, a nicely testing solve with lots to enjoy and engage on the way. LASSO was well hidden, liked LIP-READ and RAPIER amongst most others. The long ones were clued generously so provided plenty to work with.
    Thanks Asp, and John. Back to my shady spot in the garden, coffee and Day 2 of the cricket.

  23. 5.26

    Unusually the long ones didn’t detain me, but was still surprised to see this was such a (comparatively) good effort. I’ll put it down to the calming, beautiful English Suites (Schiff) on in the background.

    OPERATE was rather good.

    Thanks John and Asp (the first time I can thank a setter I have actually met)

  24. Normal speed until my last two. After 12 minutes I just needed AIRMAIL which I spent ages on and RAPIER which I had pencilled in but could not see the parsing.
    16 minutes in the end with RAPIER parsed en route to my computer.
    Agree this was quite a tough QC but lots of different candidates for COD as noted above. I’ll vote for RUBBISH because of the smooth surface.
    David

  25. 10:31, having spent at least 3 minutes on AIRMAIL and RAPIER. Somehow the MALE-MAIL connection took a long time, even though HEIR-AIR is surely not tough to spot. RAPIER not my favourite sort of clue, in that it took a long time and wasn’t really satisfying to me when it went in.

    In general I’m not a massive fan of the Greek character device, because it’s very hard for setters to hide it, and it often leads to a dull Greek alphabet trawl and even that can turn up nothing.

    Otherwise, a nice puzzle.

  27. DNF

    I can’t believe I was tripped up by LOI DONKEY after we had the key equals small island only last week.

  28. Tough but enjoyable coming in at 29:45.
    I thought SKIRTING BOARD was a terrific clue and it is my COD.
    Spent some time unravelling IDIOT but failed to parse RAPIER and OPERATE.
    LOI DONKEY which required getting to K before the penny dropped.
    Thanks John and Asp.

  29. After being comparatively slow and way off the wavelength yesterday, today was a complete reversal finishing in a nippy 7.20. I note that quite a few who submit times that are regularly faster than mine were a good deal slower today, so I conclude the brainbox was fully engaged today. RAPIER detained me a little at the end, otherwise no problems.
    My total time for the week was 54.53, giving me a daily average of 10.59.

  30. A slow effort from me. Not helped by three workmen installing a new hob and oven in the kitchen at the same time as I was attempting the solve. Found the puzzle challenging and struggled with a few clues. But in the end all parsed and the kitchen is back to normal

    Thanks for the challenge and thanks to John for the blog

  31. Very difficult, took a break after about 40 mins with only 6 solved, 1 unparsed. Took the dog for a walk. All but the last two then tumbled in quickly. Difficult, but nothing unfair, I don’t think any of the clues were too difficult for a QC, there were just a lot at the harder end of the scale and not very many easy ones.
    Realm is a great clue IMO. Is genuine part of the definition?
    Thanks to Asp and John.

  32. 17.17 Pleasing time for me yet a strange experience.
    Only ONE on first total run through. Then all slowly followed in a continuous yet clunky fashion. Can’t say I was ever on the wavelength. All was entirely logical, however, it didn’t sing for me. Can’t quite put my finger on why. Perhaps, for me a number of connections were not immediate (e.g. exquisite >choice, fantastic story >romance, letter>airmail, eminent individual>grandee, stubborn person>donkey). That said, very clever and many thanks to Asp and John I.
    COD LIP-READ.

  34. Brilliant puzzle. I’ll choose OPERATE as COD among several lovely clues. I confess I didn’t parse RAPIER. Thanks Asp, and John for the blog

    EDIT: great fortnightly puzzle too, John, thank you.

  35. 36:45

    Oh this was a real struggle, with after the fact obvious answers (with the exception of RAPIER – thank you John) being really slow to come.
    Only ENROL on the first pass of the crossers, GRATIFICATION going straight in but PRIME MINISTER taking an age to see?
    Nearly threw the towel in with 2 clues to go – AIRMAIL then RAPIER, but pleased I persevered.
    Weird how many QC’s others find ok that I struggle with, and the few QC’s I find ok that others struggle with – age and demographic?

    Thanks to Asp and John

  36. DNF, not on the wavelength. Not a good week. I was stuck in the top half, so was forced to reveal LIP READ and REGAL to finish. Both good clues, I admit. Also liked SKIRTING BOARD. Missed hidden LASSO.
    Thanks vm for great blog, John.

  37. I bucked the trend by finding this quite straightforward, and posting my best time of the week. However, straightforward doesn’t mean simple in Crosswordland, and there were plenty of excellent surfaces, and some nicely subtle misdirection.

    FOI LIP-READ
    LOI AIRMAIL*
    COD SKIRTING BOARD
    TIME 3:56

    * This was my only leftover after two passes. I commented on “wavelength” yesterday when I was some way off it. Today I was bang on it.

    Thanks Asp and John.

  38. 18:12 NHO SKIRTING BOARD but pleased to work it out successfully. LADETTE learned from previous puzzles. I thought CONTROL might be CENTRAL but finally saw COOL. AIRMAIL was LOI and RAPIER my COD.

    1. Maybe you are in America where I believe skirting boards are called baseboards.

  39. Dnf…

    15ac “Alien” and 16ac “Airmail” I probably should have got, but I’ve never heard of 4dn “Donkey” for a stubborn person. Not one of my best performances, and was certainly towards the harder end.

    FOI – 1dn “Lasso”
    LOI – Dnf
    COD – 8ac “Skirting Board”

    Thanks as usual!

    1. I only got to donkey because “stubborn person” is occasionally clued for mule; until then I’d been thinking of bull. Thought it was a tough clue with the precision of the words, wanting to put S=small at the bottom and the “K” missing from the checkers isn’t one you think to insert during trawls.

      1. This is where a misinterpretation (or not knowing) a definition can lead one astray – even when going through an alphabet trawl, if you have no concept of what it is getting at it, obvious words may be mentally dismissed. Frustratingly, “key” was used for Isle just the other day, but I would argue it’s not one of the more common ones. Factor in trivial small connecting words of “Put On” for “Don” and it was always going to be a struggle.

    2. If you ever get around to reading RL Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey, you’ll never lose that association. (I confess I couldn’t finish it as the donkey beatings were upsetting me.)

  40. Last time, after yet another DNF with Asp, I vowed not to attempt any more of his QCs until there was clear evidence he had successfully adjusted his level of difficulty to that of a QC. However, given my reluctance to attempt anything too active or strenuous in this soporific weather, I relented and gave this a go – with an open mind, of course. And, despite a difficult start, I’m glad I did.
    A first-time finish for me in 47 minutes.

    IDIOT and AIRMAIL got me going, but only six others (all short) had been added by the time I entered SCC territory and I was definitely regretting my decision to pitch in at this point.

    My first long clue (SKIRTING BOARD) came after 25 minutes or so and my second (GRATIFICATION) arrived fairly soon afterwards. The SW corner was conspicuously empty at the 40-minute mark, but GRANDEE opened it up for me and it was unexpectedly plain sailing from there to the finish line.

    Many thanks to John and Asp.

  42. Fun and challenging (for me) at the door of the SCC with 19 minutes. We had PRIM yesterday or the day before meaning strait-laced so 2d went straight in. And approval = ratification seemed obvious at 6d so that went in after the G. GLITCH took a while because I thought the Q had to be in somewhere until the briefly indicator flashed red! 13a CHOICE was my choice for cod because of its elegant simplicity. My loi was 4d DONKEY because I was convinced it was DENIER but couldn’t of course parse it! Are climate change deniers stubborn people? That’s what I was trying to figure when DON for put on led to the key chain! Many thanks to Asp and to John

  43. Great QC that had me well and truly beaten. Ended up revealing LASSO, SKIRTING board and DONKEY as I’m off to watch the tennis! Liked RAPIER and AIRMAIL. Thanks for the blog and thanks to Asp – nice one.

  44. That wavelength thing struck again today but this time in a negative way. A very sluggish 27 minutes with all parsed except LASSO – completely missed the hidden.

    FOI – 5ac REGAL
    LOI – 4dn DONKEY
    CODs – 8ac SKIRTING BOARD and 2dn PRIME MINISTER

    Thanks to Asp and John

  45. I seem to be at a stage of development where easy puzzles are really easy and somewhat harder ones are really, really hard. 21:08 to finish, and when I started I felt as if I’d never solved a cryptic clue before in my life. Yet as so often looking back makes me wonder what was so hard, and near the end answers fell into place quickly.

    There were many very fine clues in a style that seemed a little unfamiliar. I never did parse OPERATE (could not get “case in” to mean “case of”). Liked IDIOT, found GLITCH elusive, and had loud clanging penny drops on the long ones. Clung to the wrong end of the clue for ROMANCE until the crossers pried me loose. LASSO hid from me until just now. And PRIME MINISTER, which should have been a write-in, wasn’t. COD LADETTE, what a surface, with REALM a close second.

    Thanks to Asp and John.

  47. Amazingly I fairly romped through this – and enjoyed it too, although I must admit to not fully parsing OPERATE. Now I understand it, I can see what a cracking clue it is.
    So a Red Letter Day as I got less than IK, 1T and 1 P11 😅 I think I’d better have a lie-down.
    As I did it online, I didn’t make notes of my FOI and LOI, but can safely say that I didn’t start at 1A, as I rarely do!
    7:55 Hard to choose a COD as I liked so many – LIPREAD, SKIRTING BOARD, PRIME MINISTER, LASSO, and GRANDEE especially. But I think I’ll plump for DONKEY. The surface for 13a made me think of all the OTT names supermarkets give their slightly better quality labels 😅
    Thanks Asp and John

      1. It’s Aldi’s ‘Exquisite’ range that cracks me up. Do you have Aldi in the US? It’s a budget chain – not exactly Fortnum and Mason 😅

        1. That is funny, isn’t it? We have them here too. I have to admit that they have the very best chocolate covered cookies.

          1. Aldi and Lidl – they’re taking over the world, either in the Exquisite or Deluxe versions 😋

    2. OTT supermarket names… lol. Hyperbole is everywhere and it drives me nuts. By the way, there is a clue for you in my latest Weekend QC. Do give it a go and see if you can find it.

      1. Thanks John – I’m honoured 😂 SC’s in there too! And SRC come to that.
        In fact, I thought I’d found it at 12a, but then there was the icing on the cake. A really fun crossword – congratulations.

  48. Oof, 27:17 here. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who found this one to be tough.

    Thanks to Asp and John.

  49. DNF for me today, couldn’t get on Asp’s wavelength. Looking at the clues they were cleverly done. Thank you for the blog 😁

  50. 12.45 This felt hard but the Quitch is average and it was very enjoyable. I thought of LASSO and OPERATE immediately but it took most of my solving time for the pennies to drop. ALIEN was LOI. Thanks John and Asp.

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