Times Quick Cryptic No 1608 by Trelawney

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Very enjoyable puzzle today, pitched towards the easier end, which Trelawney has been tending to do on about a monthly basis since first setting all the way back in those joyous, carefree, touchy-feely days of August last year. Jackkt gave a good welcome and some info about the name at the time, if you missed it. A number of nice surfaces – my favourites being 9ac, 5d, 6d and 11d – made for a very pleasant 7 minute solve, so many thanks to Trelawney!


Across
1 Roman god: he’s cruel, unfortunately (8)
HERCULES – anagram (unfortunately) of HES CRUEL. The Roman equivalent of Heracles.
6 Leave car electrician has failed to start (4)
PARK – SPARK (electrician) “has failed to start”.
8 Retain possession of stronghold (4)
KEEP – double definition.
9 Seating broken by second very large lady (8)
GIANTESS – anagram (broken) of SEATING, by/beside S(econd). My LOI.
10 Psychological strategy: look out for wild animals (4,4)
MIND GAME – MIND (look out for) GAME (wild animals)
12 Colour of metal tiger’s head (4)
TINT – TIN (metal) T (Tiger’s “head”)
13 Rodent disease contained by artificial intelligence (6)
AGOUTI – GOUT (disease) contained by AI (artificial intelligence). From Central America, and sizable, weighing up to a stone.
15 Consequences of one initially minor agreement (6)
IMPACT – I (one) M (“initially” Minor) PACT (agreement)
17 Shakespeare, perhaps, is forbidden on the radio (4)
BARD – sounds (“on the radio”) like BARRED (forbidden)
19 Redesign secure HQ where the PM stays sometimes (8)
CHEQUERS – anagram (redesign) SECURE HQ
21 Try out underground piece of laboratory apparatus (4,4)
TEST TUBE – TEST (try out), the TUBE = the underground
23 Cut legs when retreating (4)
SNIP – PINS (legs) retreating/reversing
24 Attractive man‘s bit of jewellery (4)
STUD – double definition
25 The current decade represented in tweets (8)
TWENTIES – anagram (represented) of IN TWEETS

Down
2 Smoothing the end of the day (7)
EVENING – double definition
3 Survived being confined, losing oxygen (5)
COPED – COOPED (confined) losing O(xygen)
4 Fall behind lass heading north (3)
LAG – GAL (lass) heading north
5 Lager and cider: you’ll need an antidote for it! (9)
SNAKEBITE – double definition, with an accurate surface: it’s been quite a while since I’ve had that unnecessary mishmash of flavours, the best antidote for which is simply a non-disgusting drink.
6 When a car refuels, containers fall over (3,4)
PIT STOP – POTS (containers) TIP (fall) over/going up/reversing.
7 Rinse strange sticky substance (5)
RESIN – anagram (strange) of RINSE
11 Where the litigious will see you after a good battle (9)
AGINCOURT – IN COURT (where the litigious will see you) after A G(ood)
14 Modernised a dud pet, somehow (7)
UPDATED – anagram (somehow) of A DUD PET
16 Wow, delightful ornamental feature (7)
CORNICE – COR (wow) NICE (delightful)
18 Prevent a former soldier keeping rifle, at first (5)
AVERT – A VET (a former soldier) keeping R (Rifle, “at first”)
20 Overturn unexpected result (5)
UPSET – double definition
22 Observe affirmative response, we hear (3)
EYE – “we hear” the same as AYE (affirmative response)

41 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1608 by Trelawney”

  1. Smooth going, although AVERT took a bit of time, and I needed it to get LOI STUD. Biffed GIANTESS and SNAKEBITE, parsing post-solve. NHO SNAKEBITE, but I assumed it’s a combination of, well, lager and cider. Sounds foul. 4:08.
      1. That’s the one that stumped me. NHO it, didn’t occur to me that it would be a combination of the two drinks. Only got the answer with the help of an aid. I generally don’t see words from patterns – like the crossers for 5d. I bit of a disadvantage when it comes to crosswords!

        Edited at 2020-05-07 12:26 pm (UTC)

  2. I feel bad complaining about a rare sub-10 finish but it took me 90s to get MIND GAME, much of which was spent thinking the first word was FIND in reference to look out in the clue. Panicking about the passing of seconds does not make for faster solving. Enjoyed the sensation of reading clues and knowing the answers, doesn’t happen too often to me – just GIANTESS, AGOUTI and TEST TUBE missed on the first pass of the acrosses. Only the fourth slowest of the all greens on the early leaderboard, that must be close to a personal best too.
  3. About 10:30 on the clock when I put LOI TEST TUBE and corrected See (Si being Yes abroad); I had wondered about SEE. I had also wondered about 6a where I had pencilled in PART but the computer allows no second chances so I knew I had an error. Another day when paying more attention to parsing would have paid off.
    COD to SNAKEBITE, a drink I remember. Most people move on fairly quickly as our blogger suggests. David
  4. Under 10 so fast for me.

    Only hold up was giantess which was tricky.
    COD snakebite. Tried once maybe at uni, I was more like to have lager, gin and tonic, or cheap cider (pulse 7.5%). Happy Days.

  5. 7 minutes confirms I found this on the easier side. My only query was ‘spark’ for ‘electrician’ as I thought that was ‘sparks’ whether referring to one or more of them. SOED confirms that it is usually the case, although ‘spark’ is also possible. Can’t say I’ve ever come across it.
    1. Apologies for not seeing your ‘sparks’ comment before posting mine (below, in full agreement). It always annoys me when people repeat earlier comments because they haven’t read the blog. Now I am one of them. 🙄
      1. Nothing to apologise for, oldblighter, we all do it from time to time and yours was tucked away in a contribution along with other interesting observations. When I read your post I took it that you were supporting my POV and in that light I was pleased to see it (not just me, sort of thing).

        The posters who annoy are usually anon and just make a single point that has already been covered as if they are the first person to have thought of it and that’s all they’ve come here to say.

        Edited at 2020-05-07 10:06 am (UTC)

          1. The great thing about this blog is that there are at least as many views as there are contributors. 😁
  6. Let me be the first of the SCC squad. Started well and found plenty of write-ins but slowed and found this increasingly unsettling. I just didn’t find Trelawney’s wavelength so I ended up 5 mins above my SCC cut-off (and over double yesterday’s time). LOI was SNAKEBITE and, like davidivad, I initially entered SEE for 22d but saw the light when TEST TUBE emerged. Anagrams normally pop out quickly for me but not today even though GIANTESS and HERCULES were gifts, really. I needed the crossers for AGOUTI and didn’t like PARK (an electrician is ‘sparks’ to me, not ‘spark’ **). I liked AVERT and smiled at AGINCOURT (my COD). A different but quite testing QC for me. Thanks to both. John M.
    ** Collins online: Sparks – NOUN (functioning as singular) informal (‘in British English’ !)
    1. an electrician
    2. a radio officer, esp on a ship

    Edited at 2020-05-07 07:48 am (UTC)

  7. Under 20 minutes which is super-fast for me. Held up by AGOUTI which took some remembering, and didn’t undo HERCULES till near the end. POI and LOI AVERT and STUD. Haven’t we had RESIN very recently?
  8. A good day for me again. I secretly think I might just be improving at last.
    I agree that it ought to be sparks, it held me up.
    Diana
  9. Count me as another who doubted the singular SPARK. I was also delayed by GIANTESS, where I was looking for a woman’s name consisting of a five letter word meaning “seating” which contained (was “broken by”) SOS for “second very large”. I think I may have been overthinking things! Other hold ups were AGOUTI (NHO), putting GAME PLAN at first (which works pretty well actually) and needing a trawl for my final intersecting pair, CORNICE and SNIP.

    So unsurprisingly that comedy of errors resulted in a sluggish 2.5K and a Bad Day. But it’s a Bank Holiday tomorrow, huzzah!

    FOI HERCULES, LOI SNIP, COD the very clever PIT-STOP. Fun puzzle and excellent blog, thanks Trelawney and roly.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-05-07 08:53 am (UTC)

  10. An almost pauseless solve resulting in what was possibly my first sub 5 minute completion. I did briefly hesitate over the unknown rodent but I left it until the end by which time the checkers were very helpful. As others have mentioned there were a lot of lovely surfaces but my COD goes to CORNICE.
    Thanks to rolytoly and Trelawney
    1. Oh wow! Congratulations. I’ve never even come close to that, another target is set.
    3. Congratulations – you’ve really stepped up your game. Invariant
  11. Both my dictionaries give spark as a singular but reference the plural. I never heard it used in the singular.
  12. I got distracted and found I was starting this puzzle with 5 minutes already on the clock. Nevertheless I found myself submitting at 11:52, but was distressed to EEE a pink square at 22d where I biffed SEE Signor, but failed to notice that TEST TUBE should’ve made me think again. Careless! Thanks Trelawney and Roly.
  13. ….but it’s always SPARK in this neck of the woods.

    I’d have been more than 4 seconds faster than Kevin if I’d sorted HERCULES out much quicker – I suppose you could say I laboured (groan !)

    In the last century, the TWENTIES were roaring. This time they’re boring.

    FOI PARK
    LOI HERCULES
    COD MIND GAME

  14. More haste less accuracy. This puzzle was right up my street and I submitted in a respectable 6:35 (bronze position on my private leaderboard) but with 1 typo. I think new solvers will find this QC doable and enjoyable. My only biff was GIANTESS which I parsed after submitting. LOI STUD, COD to PIT STOP. Thanks to Roly and Trelawney
  15. Yay! Today’s puzzle has rebuilt my confidence.
    Thanks all round.
    No idea what an Agouti looks like, but was able to guess. Must be improving.
    1. I’m sure I’ve come across ’agouti’ in relation to colouring of the skins of animals – jacob sheep, for example. That might be too esoteric for crossword land, though.
    2. An agouti looks something like a large guinea pig, though with longer legs and snout. A bit like a small capybara if you’ve come across those. They lend their name to a coat colouring where the tip of each hair is a different colour to the rest of the hair.
  16. Another 24 mins of delight from Trelawney – minor quibble at Spark excepted – with three impossible to separate CoDs thrown in for good measure. Agincourt, Pit Stop and Giantess (where I followed the same logic as Templar) were clues to enjoy rather than biff. Today’s setter may well be new to the Times, but is surely an old hand at this game. Many thanks to Trelawney, and Roly. Invariant
  17. I definitely think there are some regional variations on two of the answers today. In my area it was always “Sparky” for an electrician, however I guess the adding of the “y” could be attributed to many a name. Also – I always remember a Snakebite being Blackcurrant and Cider.

    Anyway – an enjoyable puzzle completed in my average of around 30 mins.

    FOI – 1ac “Hercules”
    LOI – 5dn “Snakebite”
    COD – 25ac “Twenties – liked the clever, current surface

    Thanks as usual.

  18. 10 minutes and 10 seconds (10 Guineas, or 10 Mineas?), so easier than usual. Liked GIANTESS and AGOUTI which I remember from warship engine rooms, where so-called agouti pumps pumped air down shafts and through propellers to change the sound Signature of the vessel during the Cold War. Thanks both.
  19. Carelessly bunged in HOLD at 8a instead of KEEP, which made me also biff IRONING at 2d. This meant COPED and HERCULES had to wait until I corrected my errors. The AGOUTI was LOI.

    So, fell into a self inflicted bit of a mess. Still, I thought it a fun puzzle, on the easy side. 5:27.

  20. Tore through this very fast until meeting a hold up in the SW when it took what seemed like ages to get 18dn and 24ac. Probably wasn’t all that long in actual fact. I have always thought of electricians as “sparks” but figured the singular must also exist. Agouti and Snakebite were write ins as I had heard of both and they came quickly to mind. Never had the apparently dubious pleasure of sampling the latter but it doesn’t sound a good combination.

    FOI – 1ac Hercules
    LOI – 24ac Stud
    COD – 21ac Test Tube

  21. Agouti are native to the southern Lesser Antilles, of course.
  22. Thanks Trelawney – so many clever and amusing clues. No real problems until “agouti” which I was extremely pleased to get even though I’ve never come across it.

    FOI: Hercules
    LOI: agouti
    COD: cornice

    Thanks for the blog Roly

  23. …but not sure I would enjoy a Snakebite especially after reading the Wikipedia definition: “equal parts of lager, cider and Pernod. If a dash of blackcurrant cordial is added, it is known as a snakebite & black, a diesel, or a purple nasty.”
    Anyway it took me a long time to solve it even with all the crossers and it was my POI before AGOUTI which I biffed.
    COD to PIT STOP and WOD to CORNICE.
    Thanks to Trelawney for an enjoyable 20 minutes and thanks also to Roly.
  24. Crept in under target at 4’55”. All those who claim to remember SNAKEBITE clearly didn’t drink much of it! Loved the surface of 25a.

    My thanks as ever to Trelawny (a fellow Cornishman perchance?) and Roly.

  25. Finally a QC where I actually managed to finish in a time vaguely resembling the pace at which I started. I thought I might be on for a pb after going through the first half of the clues, and only missing a couple, in just over seven minutes. It didn’t end up quite that quick, but 21:04 probably ranks it as about my 5th or 6th fastest ever. As a non-drinker, SNAKEBITE didn’t come immediately to mind, but I dredged it up from somewhere, and I managed to find CORNICE there as well. LOI was AVERT.
  26. I thought I was fast at 18+, I’m not sure if I can even read as fast as the rest of you 🙂
    As I recall, even though Zeus was his father, Hercules’ mother was a mortal. So at best a Demi-god!
    Cheers
  27. I may have cabin fever but was this a Covid Nina?
    Twenties. Chequers. Lag. Park. Pit stop. Impact. Test tube. Upset. Keep. Mind game. Snip (if only).
    Johnny
  28. FOI 1ac HERCULES – earworm ‘Little Hercules’ Patricia Yearwood.

    LOI 5dn SNAKEBITE only with Guinness in my book – ‘The Black Apple’.

    COD 11dn AGINCOURT

    WOD 13ac AGOUTI

    Flashpoint – as noted earlier (and by Mr. Jordan from the real world) in the Film Biz a spark is a spark – Templar & Co need to get out more! But do please wear a masks!

  29. which cuts my target time in half. I have had a great QC week, to make up for last week’s, when I didn’t make my target once. I felt like I was going backwards! This week I have been under target every day but there is still tomorrow to come of course. I have my fingers crossed that I shall be on the setter’s wavelength.
    Thanks Trelawney for a very enjoyable challenge. I am not saying that just because I was quick (for me). I thought the surfaces were excellent.
    Thanks too to rolytoly and all contributors here. I don’t often comment because I usually tackle the QC late or even the following day but I always read this blog and I do SO appreciate you all. MM

    FOI: LAG
    LOI: STUD
    COD: PIT STOP
    WOD: CORNICE

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