Times Quick Cryptic No 1642 by Felix

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

Finished in 9:23. I had hoped for something a bit faster as I’ve been working on improving my speed. But when the pressure’s on, I seem to slow down! In any case, a tricky puzzle with some unknown words for me. Maybe half the clues went in from definition alone, so I’ll be figuring out the wordplay on the fly.

Solutions

While writing up the blog, I realized this was a themed puzzle. What a delight, as my sons and I are reading Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington these days.

In this puzzle, we have PADDINGTON (10a) Bear from DARKEST (4a) PERU (1d), sent to England by his AUNT (18d) LUCY (2d). His favorite food is MARMALADE (3d), which he often enjoys in SANDWICH (13d) form. He’s often depicted in a yellow MAC (21d). In the last and most memorable of Michael Bond’s timeless tales, Paddington falls on HARD (19d) times and lands in PRISON (16d), where he develops an OPIUM (20a) addiction and becomes obsessed with DE SADE (4d). Finally, he takes his own life with a SPATULA (22d). Etc.

Checked the unches for any references to Michael Bond, ‘bear’, etc, but couldn’t find anything. Also I’m not aware of any relevance of the date 24 June to either the author or the story. Clearly, Felix must have simply known that I have Paddington on the brain. Someone please do a Pooh/Milne puzzle for me!

Across

1 One dressed in purple [finding] old javelin (5)
PILUM – I (one) in PLUM (purple)
An old Roman javelin.
4 Most obscure desk art rubbished (7)
DARKEST – anagram of DESK ART
8 Chronicles concerned with trousers (7)
RECORDS – RE + CORDS (trousers)
From ‘corduroy jeans’, I believe.
9 Their sharp points scratch this, at intervals? (5)
CACTI – every other letter of SCRATCH THIS
A bit loose as a definition. “Their sharp points scratch” could be a definition but then ‘scratch’ does double duty.
10 Railway station put out some pop, adding to noise (10)
PADDINGTON – hidden in POP ADDING TO NOISE
My sons and I are reading A Bear Called Paddington these days, so it came immediately to mind, though I delayed putting it in because I couldn’t figure out the wordplay. Eventually I got the answer from the crossing letters, but still didn’t see the sneaky hidden word until writing the blog, where even then I was confused for a minute or two!
14 Girl going with sailor [to see] film (6)
AVATAR – AVA (girl) + TAR (sailor)
2009 James Cameron animated film with blue thingies.
15 Gazes fixedly, flight being heard (6)
STARES – homophone of STAIRS (flight)
17 Admires loo after refurbishment: this one? (6,4)
LADIES ROOM – anagram of ADMIRES LOO
20 After work, I’m swallowing universal painkiller (5)
OPIUM – OP (work) + I’M around U (universal)
22 Kitchen utensil put, alas, in the wrong places (7)
SPATULA – anagram of PUT ALAS
23 Medic greeting Rod’s short hairstyle (7)
MOHICAN – M.O. (medic) + HI (greeting) + CANE (rod) without the last letter
24 Auditor’s seen in place (5)
SITED – homophone of SIGHTED (seen)
Never heard ‘sited’ used in this way, but it makes sense.

Down

1 Land [in] gym before football game (4)
PERU – P.E. (gym) + R.U. (football game)
2 Girl fortunate to have avoided work, ultimately (4)
LUCY – LUCKY (fortunate) without last letter of WORK
3 Preserve horse for transporting mother and boy (9)
MARMALADE – MARE (horse) around MA + LAD
4 Overrides a decision to include controversial nobleman (2,4)
DE SADE – hidden in OVERRIDES A DECISION
Another hidden I couldn’t find until writing the blog.
5 Legendary bird[’s] goodness recalled (3)
ROC – COR (goodness!) reversed
6 Climb initially into exotic tea tree and rest (2,6)
ET CETERA – first letter of CLIMB in anagram of TEA TREE
And *the* rest, as we say in English, but I’ll allow it!
7 Most meagre pub in the street (8)
THINNEST – INN (pub) in THE + ST. (street)
11 In no atlas, strangely, [will you find] a country’s inhabitants (9)
NATIONALS – anagram of IN NO ATLAS
12 Function venue one used to sweep round completely (8)
BALLROOM – BROOM (one used to sweep) around ALL (completely)
13 Submarine, perhaps, [making for] Kentish port once (8)
SANDWICH – double definition
“While once a major port, [Sandwich, Kent] is now two miles from the sea due to the disappearance of the Wantsum Channel.” (Wikipedia)
16 Voting system is possible [as] form of punishment! (6)
PRISON – PR (voting system) + IS ON (is possible)
18 Relative[’s] jibe when head goes missing (4)
AUNT – TAUNT (jibe) without first letter
19 Difficult / set (4)
HARD – double definition
21 Old woman, cold, [finds] coat (3)
MAC – MA (old woman) + C (cold)

60 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1642 by Felix”

  1. I biffed PADDINGTON and assumed it was an anagram of some of the rest of the clue without checking. A clever hidden. I was slow too at nearly 13 minutes. I’m not sure I knew PILUM but it couldn’t be much else once I had the checkers. I never noticed the Paddington Bear connections…I never seem to see Ninas.
  2. I did this on the Times site rather than the club’s, since the club site isn’t working for me (nor is the club’s Customer Service, who gave me totally irrelevant advice), so I don’t have my grid to consult. But as I recall, I biffed a bunch. Got DE SADE from the enumeration, then noted the hidden. SANDWICH was just in a 15×15, where the blogger (jackkt, I think) explained what happened, so it was an easy solve/biff here. Pilum? PILUM??? It’s not even in ODE, for heaven’s sake. 7:33, or 6 Phils.
    1. PILUM is in Chambers, and I vaguely remember it from my “O” level Latin studies. Not even 2 Phils I’m sorry to say !
      1. What isn’t in Chambers? That everything is in Chambers is why it’s used for Mephistos. That 0.16K is out there, Phil, trust me; keep trying!
  3. Rather discouraging that this was my second DNF in less than 2 weeks – previously an extremely rare occurrence for me.

    I had taken ages to work out the unknown PILUM so I was going to be in my red zone (>15 minutes) anyway, but what did for me was confidently writing SCENE at 24ac (like vinyl1 above) which then made 18dn and 19dn impossible to solve.

    I had been looking for a Nina because Felix (actually the Times Crossword Editor) had given us 4 rather spectacular Ninas over his previous 7 outings, so it seemed likely there might be another one, but unfortunately I know nothing about Paddington Bear so I was never going to spot it.

    Edited at 2020-06-24 04:01 am (UTC)

  4. Tripped up by my LOI, 1a PILUM (in my haste I put O for ‘one’ and got polum – silly error but a very obscure clue for us non-classicists). Very delayed by 13d SANDWICH (good clue though) and managed to find 17a LADIES ROOM from the anagram but still can’t see the definition.
    A poor day for me. No time provided as I got one wrong, but well over 25m including coffee top up.
    Thanks Felix.

    Edited at 2020-06-24 05:47 am (UTC)

    1. “loo” is doing double duty – both as part of the anagrist, and as the definition (“LADIES ROOM” is yet another polite euphemism for that place where the fair sex go to “powder their nose”)
  5. I found this really hard, especially in the NW. Back over 20m but all green at least. Just couldn’t get RECORDS – I’m not ashamed of not being able to bring CORDS to mind for trousers but when it finally fell that gave PERU (I was well misdirected with ‘football game’ thinking match or tie or derby rather than RU and in turn than made the unknown PILUM gettable. Also didn’t know what was going on with SITED – still don’t (I’ll search next, don’t tell me!). Missed the theme – if I can’t get this one I fear they’ll always pass me by. DE SADE also held me up. Only got four on the first pass so it was always a struggle.

    Edited at 2020-06-24 05:53 am (UTC)

  6. I’m still smarting from a massive fail on the 15×15 yesterday but this was right up my street: no plants or proteins and only a mythical bird. Even the GK was friendly – my parents lived in Sandwich Bay where my brother was born (very Call the Midwife in the Sixties as there aint a maternity hospital anywhere near). All resulting in an exceptionally rare sub- Kevin though it did occur to me whilst typing in the letters that if a tiny former port on the US coast was clued I’d probably still be chewing my pen now.

    Didnt pick up on the theme – never do

    Thanks all

  7. Missed the theme, as usual, and struggled in the SW, so my time was well over my target at 14:04. I got OPIUM, MAC and LADIES ROOM without too much difficulty, but struggled with BALLROOOM, SANDWICH, MOHICAN, PRISON and AVATAR. Thanks Felix and Jeremy.
  8. 19 minutes, held up by paddington (the extra put out initially confused), de sade (nicely hidden), and Peru (rugby = football).

    Seeing the paddington theme might have helped me get comfortable with darkest for most obscure earlier.

    COD records.
    PS where is Mr Horryd?

    Edited at 2020-06-24 07:27 am (UTC)

  9. Found this hard to get started. 37:30 finally. The top left was the worst. Hate girls or boys names in crosswords. Still don’t understand what auditor has to do with sited. My brain hurts but thanks Felix anyway, for stretching it.
    1. If you’ve seen something you’ve sighted it.
      Wish I’d spotted the nina. I love Paddington.
      NHO PILUM, but enjoyed this.
      I totally agree with you about names.
      Diana

      Edited at 2020-06-24 08:06 am (UTC)

    2. Auditor = homophone = sounds like: sighted (seen) = sited (definition in place)
      1. Latin strikes again – although an auditor is generally a member of the accountancy police, the original meaning is “one who hears”. Quite a common usage for a homophone (and this one was perfectly fair).
  10. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and that was before Jeremy pointed out the nina. Fortunately PILUM is part of my GK and I remembered the SANDWICH/SUBMARINE connection from a previous QC, when it had caused me a major headache. Finished in the SW west with BALLROOM and AVATAR in 13.28 which is around average for me. My favourite was RECORDS.
    Thanks to Jeremy and Felix
  11. FOI DARKEST;LOI AVATAR. Time 12:24 which I was pleased with as this was difficult in places. I managed to work out SITED but it took a while and NHO of PILUM but it sounded plausible.
    Sandwich appears again to remind me of this year’s Open golf championship,now postponed to 2021. A good puzzle; COD to PRISON.
    Before coming here I checked the puzzle for ninas and completely missed the Paddington story. Well done -again- to Felix,and well spotted Jeremy.
    David
  12. I found this tough and shared some of the problems mentioned above, such as scene/sited. It took shape slowly and erratically taking me a few seconds over 20 mins. Finished with a sigh of relief. LOI was PADDINGTON (I only use St Pancras !) which I thought was hidden brilliantly. The Paddington connections were clever but, as ever, I failed to spot them. They would have helped if I’d realised. Good puzzle with some brilliant, disorienting clues. Thanks to Felix and Jeremy. John M.

    Edited at 2020-06-24 11:13 am (UTC)

  13. 1ac greatly assisted by a working knowledge of Asterix in Britain – when the Romans are running over an immaculate English lawn, the furious householder discourages them with a spear and when the decurion asks him if he dares to oppose Rome, he answers “Maybe my garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum”. I’ve never forgotten it. Is that what the cool kids on here call Ninja Turtling?

    Anyway. I really enjoyed that and came in at K + 4 seconds, which is an Excellent Day. If only I hadn’t paused to enjoy the Nina (spotted for once) along the way. I noticed one more Nina element – Paddington gives people of whom he disapproves HARD (19dn) STARES (15ac), and I’m now going to have to give Jeremy one of those for saying that Paddington’s duffel coat is a MAC, and another for inventing such a dark ending in his blog. Bad Jeremy!

    FOI PILUM, LOI MOHICAN, COD … well it has to be PADDINGTON, doesn’t it?

    Many thanks to Felix for such a witty puzzle, and thanks for the blog Jeremy.

    Templar

    1. If I remember rightly, the householder lived in Wimbledon? And thought the lawn would look half decent in a couple of millennia?
    2. 😉

      Actually I’m with you on MAC. At least in the original he certainly isn’t wearing one, although Mrs Brown wants to buy him one in an early chapter.

      However when you search for it online it’s quite clear that there are many images of Paddington in a plastic raincoat, so I figured this must be the reference. I don’t know exactly where it comes from.

  14. Race through the 15 x 15 yesterday and the quickie too but ground to a halt with this one. Put Sandwich in and checked that submarine might be a sandwich because I’d never heard of it. Likewise Pilum. De Sade might be fair enough except I don’t think I’ve heard him referred to without his title. Apart from adding to I can’t see how Paddington comes together but some of you got it so maybe I’m having a bad day!
    1. some (of) poP ADDING TONoise – a hidden. Hope that helps 😀

      Scrolling down, I see that lots of others have mentioned it’s a hidden – I should read everything first!

      Edited at 2020-06-24 11:35 am (UTC)

      1. Ah I hadn’t seen that at all nor the comments. I was looking to make too much of the first few words. As I say a bad day at the office but I do think it was a bit OTT 🙂

        Thanks though

      1. I’ve lost you sorry – are you flagging up that your blog explains that Paddington is hidden?
        1. I was asking. That is the point of the blog, after all!

          It does say “hidden in […]”.

          1. It’s a fair cop – I could have read your blog more carefully. Your hidden wasn’t as badly hidden 🙂
            1. I do care! I used to be more painstaking with my blog, detailing the meaning of every word in the cryptic. But people didn’t seem to like that so I abbreviated things. My rule of thumb is to explicitly identify the wordplay, though.
              1. You do a great job, Jeremy and I am not alone in appreciating your efforts plus those of our other faithful bloggers. Thanks. John
  15. I was just on my 20 minute target but with a lot of biffing, and more than usual un-parsed. PILUM was my LOI as I thought I needed an O for ‘old’, but Chambers came to the rescue. I didn’t spot that PADDINGTON was a hidden word but it must rank as one of the best, and of course didn’t spot the theme.
    I wonder which Paddington book featured de Sade?
    Thanks to Felix and to Jeremy for explaining all the parsing that I missed.
    Brian
  16. 21 minutes for me and off the Rotterometer scale, but really satisfying. PILUM unknown, but gettable from wordplay.
    After completion, I did my usual scan for Ninas or themes, and Paddington shone out. I didn’t spot all the references, but there was enough in what I did know (DARKEST PERU, MARMALADE SANDWICH, AUNT LUCY) to see the theme. Excellent puzzle!
  17. Although I’m an English teacher, I occasionally teach Latin and Classics so PILUM was my FOI. Bizarrely, the clue that gave me far and away the most grief today was 11 down, NATIONALS. How I stared and stared at that (and some of those stares were hard). For some reason, I couldn’t get it out of my head that I needed to find a nationality. Anatolians was glued in my brain for a while even though the letters and numbers don’t work. It added several minutes to my timing, finally falling into place when the clock said 23 minutes. I didn’t spot the Nina either. I wish I did! They’re such a help. Neither did I see that PADDINGTON was a hidden, even though I could see ADDINGTO right there. What on earth is PN? I thought. Lots of good clues here but, after much reflection, my COD is PRISON because I like its smoothness. Thanks so much, Jeremy, for the excellent blog and thanks, too, to Felix for a great challenge.
  18. Another satisfying solve, a little over target at 44:47, but not as much (proportionally speaking) as some others. Didn’t spot the Paddington Nina, but would have if I’d looked for one. There seems to be a bit of a film theme going on as well – AVATAR, LADIES ROOM, Strictly BALLROOM, Last Of The MOHICANs, OPIUM and PADDINGTON itself, but then I suppose you might be able to say the same about many crosswords. LOI and COD to the very well hidden PADDINGTON. Thanks Jeremy and Felix
  19. I found this very tough, stopping at 66 minutes but without really understanding why many of the answers I had were correct. 6D Et Cetera was by far worst, as I did not equate “and rest” from the clue with “and the rest” to get etc and eventually just looked it up. Taking a break has not helped my solving! COD has to be 22A Spatula as the clever surface made me laugh.

    Thanks for the very helpful blog and a clever puzzle!

  20. Failed in Peru and De Sade, stupidly. Had to look up Pilum.
    Liked sandwich
    Not a great day.
  21. ….a SPATULA. Brilliant flight of fancy from Jeremy in deconstructing the NINA, which I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t spot, even when reappraising the clues afterwards.

    Quite a tricky offering from Felix which almost took me over my target, but a pleasure to solve. I had the same problem as Louisajaney with NATIONALS, and was another who caused an unwarranted “scene”.

    FOI DARKEST
    LOI AVATAR
    COD MOHICAN
    TIME 0.64K

  22. I thought this was quite hard in places, so I was surprised to find I finished a minute or two quicker than yesterday’s 25mins. Scene never occurred to me for 24ac, otherwise the SE corner would have been a lot more difficult. I was also fortunate not to biff Crewcut for 23ac when I just had the C from Mac. On the other hand, I agonised for ages over loi 1ac: polum, palum, pilum which one to choose? In the end I reasoned that One would take preference over Old, and that Pilum was therefore the best fit. CoD to 3d, Marmalade – even its intersection with Paddington didn’t ring any bells 🙄 Invariant
  23. I have NHO PILUM but it had to be once all the checkers were in place. I was also late to spot the hidden PADDINGTON and I certainly didn’t spot the NINA…..well done Jeremy.
    My last two took an age. They were DE SADE (another hidden) and after an alphabet trawl PRISON. 14 mins. I realised that while I had heard of DE SADE I did not know anything about him. Now I have researched him I’m not sure I needed to know!
  24. My first one in was 20A OPIUM so I knew it was going to be ‘one of those days’ but I was relieved to finish in just over 20 minutes.
    I didn’t spot the theme until entering PADDINGTON itself and, like some others, I did not know PILUM but (with PERU, LUCY and MARMALADE in place) it couldn’t really have been anything else.
    Again, several CODs to choose from but I think I’ll settle for LADIES ROOM which made me smile.
    Thanks to Felix and to Jeremy (and fingers crossed for a Pooh theme soon!)
  25. Another Nina not spotted (I never see them) – and what a shame, because it was a great one! I remembered that Felix is one of the crossword editors, and I remembered that his puzzles are often very tricksy, so started this not expecting a great time, and I was not disappointed. All the same, it was fun, and I came in (again) at just under 2K.

    Thanks Jeremy for the tragic-comic end to the Paddington story. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the poor bear actually does go to prison in the second film. Spoiler alert: fortunately he gets out! All the same, the juxtaposition of bear and marquis makes the mind boggle.

    FOI Darkest
    LOI de Sade (didn’t see the hidden)
    COD Sandwich, although Ladies room was very good too
    Time 15 mins

    Thanks Felix and Jeremy for the entertainment

  26. … as for the second time in a few days I struggled with Site/Sight. Last time it was not spotting the way Sight could be used, this time I had a mental blank on Sited = in place and put it in unparsed. All clear from Jeremy’s blog so it must just be absence of grey cells.

    That led to a slow for me 16 minute finish, with the last two in being the two hiddens at 4D De Sade and 10A Paddington. Why I find it hard to spot hiddens is one of life’s many mysteries but these were good ones. On the other hand 1A Pilum was my FOI, with exactly the same mental image of a British lawnkeeper from Asterix that Templar had!

    A very enjoyable workout and COD to 16D Prison. Very nicely constructed – is it the case that crossword setters sometimes use exclamation marks when even they think the clue is quite clever?

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog.

    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-06-24 01:16 pm (UTC)

  27. Similar experiences to a lot of other solvers really, although I did manage to avoid going into the “scene” cul-de-sac at 24ac. I had also heard of pilum from somewhere – possibly the Asterix connection quoted by Templarredux. Never saw the nina but that is par for the course as far as I am concerned and I have never read a Paddington book. I also had a greater than usual number which went in unparsed, so thanks to Plusjeremy for elucidating. Thanks too to Felix for an enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI 4ac darkest
    LOI 1dn Peru
    COD 7dn thinnest

  28. Thought this was a tough solve but we kept up momentum and finished it in 14 minutes i.e. a smidgen within our target time. Thanks Felix for some very clever clues – it was a pleasure to solve them.

    FOI: pilum (and WOD)
    LOI: prison
    COD: ladies room

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog

  29. Thought this was going to be a tricky one after having nothing in the grid after 7 mins and having to delve into the bottom half.

    However, after inventing a new country for 11dn “Latinoans”, I managed to pull myself together and complete/correct all in 35 mins.

    I biffed 10ac “Paddington” but thought it as an anagram as well (didn’t spot the hidden word) and DNK 1ac “Pilum” but worked it out. Delighted that the film for once was actually a film and not ET – will we ever see those Avatar sequels?

    FOI – 15ac “Stares”
    LOI – 7dn “Thinnest”
    COD – 14ac “Avatar” or 23ac “Mohican”

    Didn’t spot the Nina either. Thanks as usual.

  30. Those were HARD STARES of Paddington’s not hard times 🙂

    Sorry about PILUM which is borderline fora QC

    1. Oh gosh! How could I have missed it?! Interrobang!

      Felix, what inspired this Paddington puzzle?

      Edited at 2020-06-24 02:04 pm (UTC)

  31. Yes – apologies if you felt I was suggesting anything other. Also I’m sorry if my earlier apology was more implicit than explicit and I agree that you and the bloggers do a fantastic job – wouldn’t have wanted to irritate you.
    1. Not at all! I’m trying to find the best way of doing my job, so it matters to me when people miss what’s written. Finding the right balance is tricky.
  32. I have no idea how long this took me as I was interrupted several times throughout. Felt like a fairly quick solve with the exception of DE SADE which I had never heard of before, but saw the hidden answer after a long time of being completely stumped. SANDWICH presented an issue for me as I wasn’t thinking of a submarine as a type of sandwich, but managed to get there eventually by trying to think of Kent towns. Annoyed I didn’t get to do this all in one go.

    FOI: pilum (not that I had ever heard of this)
    LOI: de sade
    COD: ladies room

  33. Usually complete in 25 and played golf there but could someone please explain that clue. Johnny
    1. ‘Submarine’ (or just ‘sub’ for short) is colloquial for a type of sandwich – chiefly North American, according to SOED. I expect you know the sort of longish bread roll that looks vaguely like the shape of a submarine.

      Edited at 2020-06-24 07:46 pm (UTC)

  34. A day late but only finished at breakfast. I missed several hidden answers but it had to be de Sade and Paddington… also completely thrown by Auditor as a homophone indicator so Sited went in as a desperate solution! Still, all done and ready to tackle today’s puzzle. Lovely Nina. Very clever. I wonder if there is substance to the comment some weeks ago that it perhaps puts too much pressure on setters and leads to some weaker clues?
  35. Paddington also gives ‘hard stares’ when he is displeased.
    I don’t know what a submarine has to do with a sandwich though. Thank you for the answers I couldn’t get them all.

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