Times Quick Cryptic No 1593 by Joker

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was an absolute delight from Joker, all done and dusted in 13 minutes, so a perfectly targeted quick cryptic as far as I was concerned.  From the very first clue there was much to admire (see my comments below), and it continued to delight as it was regurgitated in writing this blog.

COD has to be the multi-dimensional DASH, although an honourable mention needs to go to 5d, with WOD going to GUTTER as used in the sense intended here.

Thanks Joker, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Across

1  Destroy; animation; strike; hurry, primarily (4)
DASH – This is a much cleverer clue than it appears at first sight.  First letters (primarily) of the first four words in the clue – each of which also provides a definition, and together make a very rare quadruple definition (there could have been more, but it is a four-letter answer!).  In turn, and illustrated by example usage, they are – to dash the hopes of; she showed dash and determination; the waves dashed against the rocks; I have to dash to the shops.  A thing of beauty!
3  Where a control tower might be in broadcast range (8)
AIRFIELD – AIR (broadcast) and FIELD (range).
8 Captain needing to miss Peru, having no uniform (7)
SKIPPER – SKIP (miss) and PER{u} (having no U{niform} (phonetic alphabet)).
10 Expertness of second murder (5)
SKILL – S{econd} and KILL (murder).
11  Street urchin to start to go out with bird (11)
GUTTERSNIPE – GUTTER (to start to go out, as a candle gutters) and SNIPE (bird).
13 Use polymer endlessly for remoulding (6)
EMPLOY – Anagram (for remoulding) of POLYME{r} (endlessly).
15  Former old king’s minister (6)
PASTOR – PAST (former) with O{ld} and R{ex} (king).
17  I’m a nice cad, a perverted RA member, perhaps (11)
ACADEMICIAN – Anagram (perverted) of [I’M A NICE CAD, A].  The ‘perhaps’ is because other ACADEMICIANs are available, other than those belonging to the Royal Academy of Arts (RA).
20  Be biased against women perhaps not having sons (5)
EXIST – {s}EXIST – not having S{ons}.  ‘Perhaps’ here does a similar job – other types of sexism are also available.
21  Phone to hire out small band (7)
RINGLET – RING (phone) and LET (to hire out).
22  Gratuitous point, empty semantics (8)
NEEDLESS – NEEDLE (point) and S{emantic}S (empty).
23  Sort found in sleepy towns all over (4)
TYPE – Reverse hidden (all over) inside {sle}EPY T{owns}.

Down

1  Clothing stylist perhaps bucks including symbol (8)
DESIGNER – DEER (bucks) around (including) SIGN (symbol).  In this clue, ‘perhaps’ does double duty, indicating that DESIGNERs can style other things as well as clothing, and that the DEER world includes more than just bucks – it wouldn’t be much fun without the does as well.
2  Comedy sketch about queen’s dress (5)
SKIRT – SKIT (comedy sketch) around (about) R{egina} (queen).  Some might quibble about the equivalence of SKIRT and dress, but a SKIRT is a mode of dress, so fine in my book!
4  Sudden move to the centre in close-pressed crowd losing its head (6)
INRUSH – IN (in) and {c}RUSH (close-pressed crowd, losing its head (first letter)).
5  Allure of Italy maybe under Mussolini, no saint? (11)
FASCINATION – NATION (Italy, maybe – other nations are available, hence the ‘maybe’) under FASCI{st} (Benito ‘Il Duce’ Mussolini was famously head of the Italian National Fascist Party).  No saint indicates to drop the ST from the end of FASCI{st}.
6  Clear identification needed to enter race (7)
EVIDENT – EVENT (race) containing ID (identification).
7  Beginning to distil drink in northern valley (4)
DALE – D{istil} (beginning) and ALE (drink).  ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…’.
9  Protect lady suffering old reptile  (11)
PTERODACTYL – Anagram (suffering) of [PROTECT LADY].
12  Dark-haired animal getting outside trap (8)
BRUNETTE – BRUTE (animal) containing (getting outside) NET (trap).
14  Unfortunately plainer chocolate filling (7)
PRALINE – Anagram (unfortunately) of [PLAINER].  PRALINE was invented by the cook of French soldier Marshal Duplessis-Praslin, after whom it was named.
16  Partly hide Bristol’s scattered rubbish (6)
DEBRIS – Hidden (partly) in {hi}DE BRIS{tol’s}.
18  One new place for decorative work (5)
INLAY – I (one) N{ew} and LAY (place).
19  Marshy area includes river plant (4)
FERN – At last, a plant that I can name – FEN (marshy area) containing R{iver}.

36 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1593 by Joker”

  1. 11 very enjoyable minutes. Must admit the quadruple definition at 1ac was overlooked in my hurry to get on and get to the end.
  2. I was miles off the wavelength today – 36 minutes! Built from the bottom up with the clues in the top half falling very slowly. Certainly a lot of my difficulties were of own making, the seemingly easy (once I’d got them) DESIGNER, SKIPPER and SKIRT were among the LOIs – I became fixated on SHIFT for dress, just couldn’t make the connect with dress – not really that big a leap! I thought I’d made a breakthrough when I got FASCINATION but the checkers didn’t help that much. Always disappointing to come here and not read of difficulties but some consolation from the early leader board, I’m not the slowest and there’s a lot more incorrects than usual. Spotting PTERADACTYL straight away probably my best moment of the morning.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 07:39 am (UTC)

      1. Can’t claim a typo those letters are opposite ends of the keyboard! But no pink squares in the blog so I remain unruffled! Thanks for your vigilence!
  3. About 20 mins. My only holdup was the unknown or forgotten guttersnipe which I guessed but could not parse as did not know the candle gutter or the bird snipe.

    Cod Dale.

  4. I found this a delight, harder in some ways than today’s 15×15 and much more fun. I had to hunt and peck around the grid and biffed most of the longer clues (but did parse afterwards). Well over my target at around 16 minutes. Great blog (good spot on 1a) and thanks setter.
  5. Like Jack, dashing through this I failed to see the cleverness of 1A. Kudos to Joker for getting PTERODACTYL and GUTTERSNIPE into a puzzle too. COD to FASCINATION. 4:16.
  6. Not in a Joking mood, today, I’m afraid. I must stop listening to the politician’s interviews on Today before attempting the QC – does my ‘ead in! This just didn’t click despite an easy start with DASH (the subtlety was lost on me so thanks to rotter). I spent an age jumping around before finally getting my act together 10 mins over target. LOI GUTTERSNIPE. I won’t add my own list of Joker’s attractive and clever clues since rotter has done such a good job. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 05:26 pm (UTC)

  7. A very enjoyable solve, although I missed the full cleverness of 1a until you pointed it out Rotter, so thank you for that. Nothing too tricky, but I made hard work of 9d where I initially got the definition and anagram fodder the wrong way round so was trying to make a word up out of old reptile. Finished in 11.40 with LOI PASTOR and my WOD going to GUTTERSNIPE, which I really must try to use more often.
    Thanks for the blog.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 08:44 am (UTC)

  8. Hang out the bunting and put another teacake in the toaster, mother – at 6:20 this was a SUB KEVIN!! (According to the leaderboard on the club website.) And thus a Red Letter Day. I am taking this as divine intervention, rewarding me for doing “PE with Joe” four days in a row via YouTube. Lockdown does strange things to a man.

    And it was so nearly the ever-elusive “true” clean sweep … I had all the acrosses bar two on first pass, and then all the downs at first pass. So only two clues away. But a fail is a fail; the quest continues.

    FOI DASH; LOI EXIST; COD GUTTERSNIPE. Many thanks Joker and Rotter.

    Templar

  9. “Finished” this in just over 12 minutes, all correct but with several incompletely parsed, and then turned to Rotter’s blog. What a delight, and today more fun even than the puzzle! The cleverness of 1A Dash was not just one but several levels above me …

    LOI 20A Exist, and I wonder if I am wholly alone and far too nitpicking in thinking that “not having sons” should imply that both Ss should have been excluded from Sexist. The clue could have read “… not having a son”.

    But when the sun is shining, and Joker can include words like Guttersnipe and Pterodactyl, it would be petty to cavil.

    Thank you to Joker for the puzzle and especially to Rotter for a great blog.

    Cedric

  10. I mostly enjoyed this puzzle but the clock was ticking for an extra 5 minutes with two clues outstanding before submitting. I am another one who did not see the quadruple definition at 1a. COD for me was 20a EXIST. The two final clues I struggled with were GUTTERSNIPE which I put in without truly knowing the meaning of GUTTER in this context and LOI INRUSH. Sub 14 mins. Thanks Rotter and Joker.
    1. I seem to have bucked the trend of previous posters having solved and then sat back and admired 1ac as FOI (and COD). Then, again against the trend, spent quite some while to crack fascination and pterodactyl – some anagram to throw at us. However, I join everyone in their appreciation of Joker’s puzzle and The Rotter’s blog. 11 minutes.
  11. I did pause to question how the definition could be part of the wordplay at 1a, but still missed the quadruple definition. Clever indeed! No problems with the rest of the puzzle. Liked GUTTERSNIPE and FASCINATION. 8:03. Thanks Joker and Rotter.
  12. I found this a bit hard-going tbh and it took me just under 30 minutes to solve.
    When I look back, nothing stands out as being particularly difficult but I obviously wasn’t on Joker’s wavelength today.
    Satisfying to finish though.
  13. An excellent puzzle which made me work hard to get to the end.I had to derive almost all the answers from the cryptic;as was the case for my last three.
    FASCINATION only emerged after wondering what the allure of Italy was in particular. Eventually I thought of the Fascists. Then onto AIRFIELD which I thought ended HEAD. Finally having got INRUSH from the cryptic I hesitated for at least a minute to see if there was something better; but I was sure about C-RUSH. 16:04 of enjoyment. David
  14. Even if it was a struggle in parts, I got there in the end so was satisfied. Many of the answers
    seemed obvious once solved!
    Sitting in the garden listening to lambs and birds.
  15. ….FASCINATION, and I salute Joker’s SKILL in producing such a gem. Equally, Rotter is to be much congratulated for a really entertaining and informative blog.

    I started with DASH, and, having had issues with punctuation of late, I paused to assess the need for the semicolons. Thus I saw the true brilliance of the clue before moving on.

    My only real problem was entering “inset” at 18D, which was a believable option. That held me up by suggesting that 23A was “otyp”, and only getting RINGLET resolved the situation.

    FOI DASH
    LOI FASCINATION
    COD Obviously DASH, but honourable mentions for FASCINATION, GUTTERSNIPE, and EXIST

    TIME 0.77 Templars !

  16. Just in under 30. Started quickly, finished very slowly.

    Got GUTTERSNIPE, I suspect I from Mr Burns in the SImpsons rather from anything more high brow. I parsed it as G (start to GO) + UTTER (out with (it)) + SNIPE (bird), which seemed unlikely so I was reassured to be reminded of the candle gutter.

    Eventually got SHOGUN, reminded of shun from teenage Air Training Corps days. Enjoyed the OG part, seems a lot of football references lately.

    LOI PASTOR, mainly due to thinking up old kings and not being literal enough.

  17. Not too hard today, LOI 20ac where I just couldn’t think of a word for ‘biased against women’!

    I’m a little hesitant to proffer an alternative parsing (often not being able to parse clues at all) but I though of 5d as “Italy under Mussolini” being a “FASCIST NATION” and then dropping the ST. The “maybe” indicating that other fascist nations are available…

    No time as I did it in a few sessions but probably 30-40 mins

    Thanks Rotter for the excellent blog, as always…

  18. Good steady smooth run through a puzzle littered with clever clues – thanks Joker.
    We too completely missed the subtlety of 1A and focused solely on the first letter solution (thanks Rotter). It’s possible that, as we become more adept solvers, we may lose the joy of the puzzle and become obsessed with speed. I’d hate that…

    Anyhow, that’s enough philosophising for today..

    FOI: dash
    LOI: pastor
    COD: fascination

    Edited at 2020-04-16 12:51 pm (UTC)

    1. Just try and parse every clue as you go along – essential in my case, to weed out the mistakes.
  19. After yesterday’s scrabble, this was mainly smooth sailing. I liked GUTTERSNIPE. I was somewhat delayed by my LOI due to trying to make a word meaning “protect lady” from OLD REPTILE, before counting the letters and switching my focus to the correct anagrist.

    6:46.

  20. Rattled along today, that is until I got to the SW corner. A respectable low twenties solve slowly morphed into a tardy 27mins, with Fern (I know, I know), Needless and finally Exist all causing problems. Missed the cleverness of 1ac, even wondering where the definition had gone… However, CoD to 20ac, Exist – thank goodness that by then I had all the crossers. Invariant
  21. But I got to the finish line on just over 20 minutes. I normally finish Joker grids faster than this but, somehow, I just wasn’t on the wavelength today. The multi definitions in 1 across went straight over my head until I read The Rotter’s fab blog, as did the parsing of GUTTER – so obvious once explained. My LOI was 6 down EVIDENT which I only got once the crosses were in. I just hadn’t thought of race/event although I’m sure it’s come up before. I agree with an earlier poster about 22 across and the suggested plurality of sons. That notwithstanding, I thought it was a great clue and I also liked 5 down today. Very clever. Thanks, Rotter, for the blog and thanks, too, to Joker.
  22. I take my virtual hat off to Joker and Therotter for both the quality of the puzzle, with some really super words weaved in coupled with an expert guide to help us slowcoaches who missed the excellence of 1a (thought it was a weak clue until coming on here) and the gutter explanation. How the setter thinks these clues up (fascination was my favourite) is amazing. The puzzle took me ages, as most do, but time is something I have plenty of at the moment and I want it to take a long time!
  23. Above average for me (around 40 mins) but none the less enjoyable. The SW corner seemed to cause the most problems for some reason.

    Although I pulled out “Guttersnipe” from somewhere, I didn’t get the candle reference so thanks for the insight. 17ac also posed a few issues around spelling, but got it in the end (not sure I could say it though).

    FOI – 1ac “Dash”
    LOI – 20ac “Exist”
    COD – 5dn “Fascination”

    Thanks as usual.

  24. was my FOI and fully parsed! Time an undashing 9.45 mins. So where is Our Kevin? He tends to disappear when his times are bested by the ever faithful Knight Templar!

    LOI 4dn INRUSH

    COD 1ac DASH

    WOD Guttersnipe – shame on you Flash!

    The Rotter shines as ever! (What a shower!) Give him a Biggy!

  25. I started well and thought this would be a speedy solve but then I got stuck in the NE particularly 3a, 4d, 5d, 6d and 15a. I had no bright ideas for 3a and I don’t think I would have ever got 5d without aids. Once they were both in everything else fell into place. About half an hour so could have been worse.
    FOI dash
    LOI pastor
    COD pterodactyl
    Thank you Joker and Rotter
    Blue Stocking
  26. VG puzzle
    COD guttersnipe…there must be a Xword clue for ragamuffin somewhere but I cannot think of it.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 06:12 pm (UTC)

  27. Fairly routine, I thought. ‘Guttersnipe’might seem clever but is unoriginal.

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