Times Quick Cryptic 1397 by Wurm

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Wurm has caught me out numerous times in the past, so I was glad to finish this in just a little over my target time: a mid-difficulty puzzle, I’d say. I had a bit of biffing to unravel afterwards at 15ac, 1dn and 13dn as described below.

What a set of clues, though! Almost all of them are of 6 words of fewer, and to pack in so much wit and misdirection is marvellous.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Some twelve-stone sprites (5)
ELVES – hidden in (some) twELVE-Stone.
4 Monk has no resistance to plague (6)
BOTHER – Brother (monk) missing the (has no) ‘r’ (resistance).
9 Officer gone mad in German city (7)
COLOGNE – COL (colonel, officer), with an anagram of (mad) GONE.
10 Sad song in Matrix about Neo’s heart (5)
DIRGE – GRID (matrix) reversed (about) then the middle letter (heart) of nEo.
11 Shining learner having that certain something (3)
LIT – L (learner) and IT (that certain something).
12 A chartered accountant meant to back the universities (8)
ACADEMIA – A, CA (chartered accountant), then AIMED (meant) reversed (to back).
15 Confuses players coming in by boat (6,7)
PADDLE STEAMER – ADDLES (confuses) and TEAM (players), all surrounded by (coming in) PER (by, as in ‘by means of’). I count myself very lucky to have spotted the boat with just the enumeration and a few checkers, and apart from TEAM, left the untangling until I’d stopped the clock.
17 Barrow worker caught by deceit (8)
HANDCART – HAND (worker), C (caught) and ART (deceit).
18 Gullible person in France not returning (3)
SAP – reversal of (returning) PAS (‘not’, in French)
20 Trouble as wrecked Argo ships gallons (5)
AGGRO – anagram of (wrecked) ARGO containing (ships) G (gallons).
22 Policeman circling hospital in helicopter (7)
CHOPPER – COPPER (policman) surrounding (circling) H (hospital). My first thought was ‘chinook’ for some reason, but I quickly corrected myself.
23 Kind disposition (6)
NATURE – double definition. My LOI; so simple once the penny dropped.
24 Wild animal in eastern country (5)
ELAND – E (eastern) and LAND (country).

Down
1 Sliced veal, look: avoid eating that (8)
ESCALOPE – LO (look, as in ‘lo and behold’) with ESCAPE (avoid) surrounding it (eating that). I came back to parse this one too. The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I needed all the checkers to jog my memory and then a bit of time post-solve to work out the word play.
2 Man having beer in Vermont (5)
VALET – ALE (beer) in VT (state abbreviation for Vermont).
3 Frisky single lad gave hint (9)
SIGNALLED – anagram of (frisky) SINGLE LAD.
5 Rum included in good diet (3)
ODD – hidden in (included in) goOD Diet.
6 Dauntless display might be moreish (7)
HEROISM – anagram of (might be) MOREISH.
7 European losing final in ping pong (4)
REEK – gREEK (European), excluding (losing) the ‘g’ (last letter of (final in) ping). An excellent example of the need to lift and separate words from natural phrases, and my COD.
8 Survey ignoring Conservative revival (11)
RENAISSANCE – REconNAISSANCE (survey) missing the (ignoring) ‘con’ (conservative).
13 Conductor travelled with those chosen (9)
ELECTRODE – RODE (travelled) with ELECT (those chosen). Another I am only parsing now, having semi-biffed it earlier. I read that the elect were those chosen for salvation in Christian theology, or can be those selected for any position, but the plural noun/adjectival sense of the word was new to me.
14 All set having shaved in advance? (8)
PREPARED – ‘pre-pared’, or pared (shaved) in advance.
16 Plan announced for man on board (7)
DRAUGHT – the small disc-shaped playing peice (or man) on a (draughts/checkers) board; sounds like (announced) “draft” (plan). At first I was thinking the ‘man on board’ could be a conscript, or someone selected to be part of a team, and a little research has left me very confused about the difference between ‘draft’ and ‘draught’. It seems either can be used for a sketch / plan, and either for a conscript / to conscript, and that the preferred usage differs between the UK and US. Thankfully I spotted the game-based explanation while writing the blog!
18 Brown as pie in the cooking? (5)
SEPIA – anagram of (in the cooking) AS PIE.
19 Sunrise sketched, right away (4)
DAWN – Drawn (sketched) with the ‘r’ (right) missing (away).
21 Rower starting out at regatta (3)
OAR – first letters of (starting) Out At Regatta.

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1397 by Wurm”

  1. 12 minutes, and a rare wrong answer from me in a Quickie, with NOTARY at 23ac. I knew it was wrong, but I made an association between ‘notary’, a person who draws up legal documents, and ‘disposition’ which can be a deed of title, and wrote it in – a fatal error as I then forgot to go back and look for something that fitted all the clue properly. I had lost time over several other clues through misdirection as discussed by Will in his blog and I was very conscious of my target about to be missed, which it duly was anyway.

    Edited at 2019-07-17 04:19 am (UTC)

  2. When I saw Wurm’s name (he also uses Neo, see 10a) at the top, I thought this could be tricky. But there were a number of easy clues to get me started; FOI ELVES for example. Almost inevitably I ground to a halt a number of times.
    After 20 minutes I had three left: 8d, 16d and 23a. After 23:55 I had two left. I finally saw DRAUGHT then resisted shoving in NOTARY which like Jack I thought might work at first. So LOI was NATURE. A very good puzzle. 25:51 in the end. COD to .. can’t decide; a number of contenders. David

    Edited at 2019-07-17 10:51 am (UTC)

  3. I was also stretched to just over my target time by this puzzle. I often find Wurm a tricky setter. REEK took a while, but eventually I was pulled over the line by HANDCART which took a good minute or two on its own. 10:43. Thanks Wurm and William.
  4. Yes, Wurm is at the top of my list of tough setters too, and this was a stiff challenge completed in 15:11 for an estimated 3K and a Decent Enough Day. I spent at least two of those minutes trying to parse PADDLE STEAMER, since I don’t like biffing, but I just couldn’t work it out and had to write it in with a shrug! Thank goodness for the blog; William, you brought light to my darkness.

    FOI ELVES, LOI RENAISSANCE (I thought that was really tough), COD DIRGE (I liked the clever reference to the Matrix films).

    Thanks Wurm and William.

    Templar

  5. A DNF with RENAISSANCE, I was on 29 minutes when I got DRAUGHT then spent another five staring at it before giving up.
    I thought the wordplay as a whole was very tricky and I did a lot of biffing, including PADDLE STEAMER from three checkers, and never did parse it.
    Thanks to William for sorting things out.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-07-17 08:14 am (UTC)

  6. Well off the pace today, 20 mins or so, took ages to see RENAISSANCE and REEK. Lovely clues though, toughest for a while for me.

    NeilC

  7. Well I’m glad other people found this tough. I was dreading opening up the blog and seeing a phrase like “gentle enough offering” or “nothing to scare the horses here”. I suppose I can just about live with William’s “mid-difficulty” assessment, although I would disagree as this took me 92:10, the majority of which was spent trying to figure out 8d and 13d. It didn’t help that for much of the time I had pencilled in gardener (barrow worker) for 17a though I knew that could be wrong as I couldn’t parse it. When I went over the hour I was tempted to give up, but eventually I got electrode and then the other one looked so doable as I could guess that it was probably RE_A_S_ANCE. Somehow it still took a while for the penny to drop and that was having thought about the word reconnaissance earlier. Not being able to spell that didn’t help mind. All good experience I know, but hopefully tomorrow won’t be quite so hard.
  8. As David said – easy enough to start. However finishing was an altogether trickier proposition. The concise clueing and well hidden hefferlump traps kept me on my toes for seemingly ages. Surprised to see my clock stop at only 6’10”.

    Very well deserved thanks to setter and blogger.

  9. Another DNF as I was caught out by 7d REEK. I gave up after two alphabet trawls.
  10. ….REEK. A Scots benediction for continued good health (“long may your chimney smoke” in translation). Of course, if you smoke like a chimney it’ll make your clothes reek – and worse will follow !

    My only real difficulty was my LOI which added half a minute to my time.

    FOI ELVES
    LOI RENAISSANCE
    COD REEK
    TIME 4:35

  11. If I get 1a as my FOI, I always assume it can only go downhill, and so it proved today! Like others, I find Wurm a tough but entertaining setter. I really enjoyed reek – a nice Penny Drop Moment when I finally separated ping from pong (and maybe even whaff from whiff). Again, like others, I couldn’t parse paddle steamer – but had never heard of a muddle steamer! No time as I did this over a couple of sessions – mabe 15 to 20 minutes.

    FOI elves
    COD reek
    LOI prepared

    Thanks as ever to our indefatigable blogger for sorting out the muddle and to our setter.

  12. I enjoyed this puzzle. It was a challenge and I almost made it. However, 8D Reek, was never to be. Also having read the blog, and understanding the removal of “g”, I still cannot see where Reek fits in as a solution with the wording within the clue.

        1. ‘Final in ping’ means the last letter of ping, which is ‘g’. Remove this letter from gREEK and you get ‘pong’!

  13. Having mentally congratulated myself (such vanity!) after getting Reek (CoD) and parsing Paddle Steamer, the fall had to come at some stage. I kept on coming back to 8d as the grid slowly filled, but eventually it was my loi and proved to be one too far. The cryptic was clear enough, but I was looking for a survey beginning with C or Con that could then be discarded. After a further 10mins and numerous alphabet trawls I gave up and used aids. Perhaps if the clue had read Military survey… but no complaints, this was a fine puzzle. Invariant

    Edited at 2019-07-17 12:39 pm (UTC)

  14. And Edinburgh is sometimes known as ‘Auld Reekie’ when not being referred to as Athens of the North.
  15. After yesterdays, this was a real struggle. Sunk by 16d where we needed aids, and others we found very slow to solve. Parsed 15a eventually, thanks to Worm for the challenge.
  17. I must have been on Wurm’s wavelength because I didn’t find this too tricky – and finished it in 10.41. However I forgot to go back and parse RENAISSANCE, which would have added a couple of minutes. I also spent some time thinking that the barrow was going to end in ‘CANT’.
    Lots to enjoy but I’ll join those selecting REEK as COD.
    Thanks for the blog
  19. 30 minutes today with the last 5 minutes spent on REEK. At least I completed it but must admit to failing to parse 15a and I also forgot to go back to try to parse 8d. Of course I might have failed anyway but I like to at least try!!
    A really challenging QC from Wurm and a very helpful blog from William. My thanks to both. MM

    FOI 1a
    LOI 7d
    COD 1d though there are many contenders… including 7d.

  20. Bit tricky in places, but what a great bunch of clues! Will go for REEK as head boy, though a number of strong contenders.

    Thanks to Wurm for putting a good few easy ones in to get me started, and thanks to William too.

  21. Beautifully entertaining, but tough to finish, although I got there in the end. Was pleased to get and parse PADDLE STEAMER and REEK within the first half hour. ELECTRODE took far longer than it should – I knew it was something to do with electricity and elections, but struggled to put it together. LOI was DRAUGHT, which I assumed to be to do with someone press-ganged for a ship, but the board game explanation seems clearer. Many thanks to Wurm for the beautiful surfaces and challenging puzzle.

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