Times Quick Cryptic No 1369 by Pedro

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I find Pedro has the knack of combining the straightfoward clues needed to get you going with some that need a bit more thought, and today’s crossword did just that for me. Nothing too obscure or difficult, but not easy, and some devious definitions and a couple of tricky bits of wordplay meant I took well over a minute over my target of 6 minutes. Smooth and entertaining surfaces abound and there are a few garden paths to wander up… as I duly did. A bit of a tester to end the week, I think. Thanks Pedro! How did you all get on? [On edit] If you found it difficult, don’t despair, you are in good company as even the experienced solvers found it hard.

Definitions underlined in italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions like this and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Pub bore at first provokes sharp comment (4)
BARB – BAR (pub) Bore [at first].
4 Most of current metal good for shipbuilding work? (8)
RIVETING – RIVEr [most of] (current) TIN (metal) G (good). My last one in, needing the V to think of river for current.
8 It’s a bit of fun to encourage flowering plant (8)
LARKSPUR – LARK (a bit of fun) SPUR (emcourage). “What larks”, said Joe to Pip in Great Expectations, I seem to recall from my ‘O’ level English Literature studies.
9 Small play on words ending in hilarity (4)
PUNY – PUN (play on words)  and last letter of [ending in] hilaritY. I tried SPUN first, but that’s not very hilarious.
10 Beer? Doctor swallows one litre (4)
MILD – MD (doctor) outside [swallows] I (one) L (litre). My local brewery produces an award winning mild, but it’s served in only a few pubs. Hmm. I must visit the Rose&Crown for some the next time I’m in town.
11 The second keyboard instrument — nothing less will do for performer (8)
THESPIAN – THE S (second) PIANo (keyboard instrument), without the O [nothing less].
12 Son to finish parody (4-2)
SEND-UP – S (Son) END-UP (finish).
14 Set off recall of some fleeting images (6)
IGNITE – Reverse hidden [recall of some] in fleETING Images. Even seeing it was a hidden from the indicator, it took me a while to spot it. Ah. That sort of “set off”.
16 Fake blues, lacking heart – it’s a mess (8)
SHAMBLES – SHAM (fake) BLuES [lacking heart]. Anyone else fall for this? Thinking the definition was “fake”, I tried BLuES and an anagram of “it’s a”.
18 Crow King included among birds shot? (4)
BRAG – R (Rex; king) [included among] BAG (birds shot), as in “the amount of game shot by a hunter”.
19 Performer rejected new routine (4)
TURN – N (new) and RUT (routine) reversed [rejected]. The top of the bill for a show could be called the “star turn”
20 Thin material sags more when crumpled (8)
GOSSAMER – (sags more)* [crumpled].
22 Learned river flows back, covering ancient coin (8)
EDUCATED – Did any of you just biff this? The river is the DEE. Reverse it [flows back] and insert (covering) DUCAT (ancient coin).

Author ENSIGN at English Wikipedia
Read all about the coin here.
23 Sulphur and oxygen no good for the air (4)
SONG – S (sulphur) O (oxygen) NG (no good). Burning sulphur in oxygen produces sulphur dioxide, which is indeed no good for you – it’s toxic.

Down
2 Greed: a sin engrossing a Queen (7)
AVARICE – A VICE (sin) outside [engrossing] R (Regina, queen).
3 A thousand invested in somewhere to sleep that’s heated (5)
BAKED – A K (kilo-, thousand) in [invested in] BED (somewhere to sleep).
4 Criticise genre of popular music (3)
RAP – Double definition. Popular with many, but not with me!
5 Contend connections should involve half of area classes (9)
VARIETIES – My second last one in…. VIE (content) TIES (connections) outside [should involve] [half of] ARea. Nothing to do with a group of schoolchildren, as I thought at first.
6 Feature of bowler’s delivery: position taken up on leg (7)
TOPSPIN – SPOT (position) reversed [taken up] on PIN (leg). I don’t suppose one is allowed to remark “She’s got a nice pair of pins” these days without attracting a certain amount of oppobrium.
7 Assassin popular in New Jersey area (5)
NINJA – IN (popular) [in] NJ (New Jersey) A (area).
11 Excellent way to reach the attic? (3-6)
TOP-FLIGHT – Double definition, second cryptic.
13 Source of dubious income turned out to be fiendish (7)
DEMONIC – First letter [source of] Dubious (income)* [turned out]
15 Hurry up with a German car deal, perhaps (5-2)
TRADE-IN – DART (hurry) reversed [up] and EIN (a in German). Neat deception with “hurry up” not meaning “go faster”.
17 Follow a Parisian boarding carrier (5)
HOUND – UN (a in french, as a Parisian might use) inside [boarding] HOD (carrier, e.g. of bricks).
18 Vegetables, note, fed to animal without tail (5)
BEANS – I took a while to twig the parsing…. the note is not E or A but N. Put it in BEASt (animal) [without tail], i.e. missing its last letter.
21 Blue almost all absent from greens (3)
SAD – Another clever one to finish. The greens are a SalAD. Make [almost], i.e. most of the letters of, ALl [absent], i.e. remove AL.

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1369 by Pedro”

  1. I felt very dull, and took a good deal of time to get several, like VARIETIES (LOI?), IGNITE, THESPIAN, TOPSPIN. HOUND in the sense of ‘follow’, as opposed to ‘harass, persecute’, was new to me. 8:19.
      1. But that seems to be covered by ‘harass, persecute’. My creditors tend to stay where they are and send me nasty letters.
        1. My local dictionary says “to chase someone or refuse to leave someone alone, esp. because you want to get something from that person” so hound as a synonym for follow seems OK to me as a fenland polytechnic alumnus.

          Edited at 2019-06-07 08:17 pm (UTC)

  2. I also struggled with this, and like vinyl1 above I needed 16 minutes to complete it – the first time this week I have missed my 10-minute target.

    I got started quickly enough with BARB going in at first glance, but I lost confidence when neither of the 3-letter answers jumped out at me and eventually I needed checkers for both before they would come to mind.

    Also I made a foolish error at 2dn by writing in AVERICE whilst knowing full well the correct spelling, and I can only think that I was momentarily distracted thinking that ‘Queen’ in the clue was ER. Whatever the reason, the misplaced E gave me a knock-on problem with 8ac which I had to keep returning to throughout the solve and ended up as my LOI once I had corrected my error at 2dn.

    Edited at 2019-06-07 04:36 am (UTC)

  3. Another day where I got stuck at the end; my last two were THESPIAN and TOPSPIN. FOI was RAP but then I then I struggled with the top half. 21:30 in the end, faster than yesterday!
    A good challenge from Pedro. COD to Trade-in. David
  4. Scraped in under my 10 minute target at 9:49. I usually find Pedro puzzles on the tricky side and this was no exception. LARKSPUR slowed me down as I though it was going to start with BACK, so I needed the final crossers to spur me on. At least I didn’t make a 16a of it. Thanks Pedro and John.
  5. Biffed Varieties LOI and Riveting LBOI otherwise quite straightforward. Managed to get in under an hour so pretty much on par.
  6. Pedro definitely sits at the tougher end of the spectrum. I found the bottom half fairly plain sailing, but the top half bristled with reefs and rocks. Reached port in the end at just over 2 Kevins for a Decent Enough Day, having spent a long time scratching my head over the RIVETING, VARIETIES and LARKSPUR intersections.

    FOI MILD, LOI LARKSPUR, COD BRAG

    Thanks for an excellent blog John, it was nice to see that you’d been up some of the blind alleys which deceived me!

    [On edit – I usually don’t bother with the 15×15 because I find it too hard, but I did it today and genuinely found it easier (and more fun!) than Pedro’s offering today. So it’s very accessible, I’d say.]

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-06-07 09:07 am (UTC)

  7. After a week of good times this one seemed to take an age and the SE corner really did not want to yield. Eventually scraped home in 28 minutes.
  8. It took me 30 minutes, 10 over target, but after reading the comments above I’ve got to be pleased with that.
    It was a strange solve, after the first few it was one answer giving one checker which led to the next answer and so on.
    A few biffs and semi-biffs, I was lucky to get EDUCATED by thinking the coin was an ‘ecu’, and with my LOI ‘TURN’ which I biffed thinking ‘routine’ was the definition.
    Thanks to Pedro for the deception and to the Blogger for sorting out my lack of parsing.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-06-07 08:29 am (UTC)

  9. Well that was my longest time for ages, around 45 mins in 2 sittings.

    Last few were thorny:
    Riveting – river for current held me up).
    Larkspur, almost put wack(y)spur.
    Brag – birds shot for bag is harsh.
    Varieties – needed the v from riveting before the ducat dropped.
    Trade in – where was the merc or bmw?!
    Beans – not leaks…
    Sad – unparsed

    Cod mild or song.
    thanks

    Friday’s 15×15 is not too Fridayish.

  10. A lot to enjoy here but I think it was a little too difficult to be classed as a quickie for most. 5d is an obvious example but there were quite a few slightly iffy definitions. Thanks though!
  11. Far too obscure and difficult for me. Surfaces were so smooth they didn’t obviously break into solvable parts. How does this CW qualify as quick cryptic? Should be full cryptic even if not 15×15. How can we pass on displeasure to Pedro? DavidS
    1. I agree it was hard, but there has to be a variety of difficulties, otherwise the step up to the main crossword is too big.
      1. Thanks for supporting the concept of the quick crossword. You have described exactly what it is for!
  12. But pleased to finish in 35 minutes. Not familiar with K Kilo thousand so struggled with Bamed and then put in Bated until just got spur and thus Larkspur to put in Baked and wonder why.
    Likewise Avarice tricky trying to put in ER. And Varieties LOI. But 9 in on first across sweep and 9 in on first down sweep. Couldn’t parse Beans.
    Educated was not an educated guess since remembered from before…
    It was tricky trying to get many elements to piece it together but overall hung in there.
    Many thanks,
    John George
  13. ….is a minute less than our blogger, and I also missed out (just). Thanks for parsing SAD John, I just couldn’t see it.

    I couldn’t see why “CNA” had anything to do with Noo Joyzy, and only overwrote “Cinna” once I cracked RIVETING. Thanks to Pedro for a rewarding challenge.

    FOI BARB
    LOI NINJA
    COD VARIETIES
    TIME 5:12

    Edited at 2019-06-07 10:57 am (UTC)

  14. Got there eventually and was pleased to do so. Not at all happy with ‘current’ = RIVER. Can’t find any reference to river as a synonym, so biffed that one after a long time thinking through the elements of shipbuilding.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. I wasn’t fully convinced by ‘river/current’ either. SOED starts vaguely enough with ‘current’ as ‘something which flows’ but then gets more specific with ‘spec. a portion of a body of water, air, etc., moving in a definite direction’. ‘Portion’ being the operative word, I’d say.

      FWIW, Collins Thesaurus lists ‘river’ against ‘current’ but we know thesauruses are a bit dodgy in this respect.

      1. Yes. I found that a bit of a stretch too, but ‘something that flows’ is good enough for me.
  15. Way to difficult for me got nowhere. A step up is ok, a 15*15 disguised as a Qc is not.

    Maybe Pedro should stick to the harder puzzles and not set the QC’s

    Tim

    1. I sympathise with your comment, Tim. But I disagree with your assessment that it is a 15×15 disguised as a quickie. Today’s 15×15 is at the easy end of the spectrum, yet it took me nearly 2 1/2 times as long as this did. Yes there are some 15×15 level clues here today, but also some that would be considered too easy for the 15×15. A hard QC? Yes. But 15×15 level of difficulty? No…. IMHO!
  16. Well, I managed to avoid an entire week of solves in the 30 – 40 mins bracket, but only by sliding out to nearly 50 with this teaser from Pedro. Quite a struggle, particularly if like me you parse as you go along. My condolences to newbies, but one’s like this can only help when stepping up to the 15×15. My CoD vote goes to the above mentioned 11ac, just edging out the equally challenging 15d. Invariant
  17. Like many, I found this a mix of simple and testing clues. Lots to enjoy but I am firmly in the SCC today. Slowest of the week. Thanks to Pedro for the test, and John for the good blog. John M.
  18. Difficult but more tricks learned. I do have a question please. I thought that all words in the clue were there for a purpose. In 11ac what is the ‘will do’ doing. It’s not part of the definition ( I thought it was) and it doesn’t seem to be needed to drop the o from piano. Am I missing something? Thank you as ever to blogger and setter
    L&I
    1. I think it just means “will produce the answer”, ie “(this + this + this-that) will make/will produce/will do for (the answer)”. That was how I read it, anyway!
      1. Thank you, that helps. Partly I guess it’s the old chestnut of not reading the clue as it is written. I was certainly misdirected!
        L&I
      2. Thanks for stepping in to answer. I love the way members of this community help each other! That’s how I read it too, although I did consider flagging [nothing less will do] as the indicator. As our anon contributor suggests, the purist view would be that every word in the clue has to be part of the definition or wordplay, but I, personally, am quite happy to allow for a few words of padding to build a sensible surface meaning. “The second keyboard instrument — nothing less performer” just wouldn’t make sense.
    2. I think it helps the surface (the way it reads) of the clue. Alternatively, it adds to the confusion of what was already a tricky clue…
    1. Commiserations. But I hope you learned a bit about the things you got stuck on here… It’s what this blog is for!

      Edited at 2019-06-07 08:39 pm (UTC)

  20. Mrs not that Tim and I don’t time ourselves on the crossword — we do the paper version, don’t always finish it and like to chat over the clues anyway — but we actually got this one over the line in about 40 minutes. We were pinging in top-half acrosses like nobody’s business and herself actually biffed RIVETING with no checkers and no attempt at parsing, which was a real 35-yard screamer to the top corner. The downs were a lot tougher.
    She’s a beginner and I’ve been tackling the QC for a few months.
    Tim (not that Tim)
    1. I love the idea of the 35-yard screamer. I recognise the feeling. Sometimes the answer comes and I’ve no idea how, but I usually take the precaution of parsing to be sure I’ve got the right rather than a random answer. But tip of the hat for RIVETING like that… it was my last one in.
  21. Toughest of the week for me, finishing in 17.06 but without parsing SAD or BEANS, so thanks for the clarification. LOI was THESPIAN which took a lot of figuring out even with all the checkers in place.
  22. Too many googlies doosras sliders etc for me today. And then you get done by the ‘armball’. Which is basically a straight clue.
    Love to all. Johnny
    1. Yep, that is me when I’m struggling. I take the whole thing apart, deconstruct it piece by piece and then realise (or not) that it’s a double definition or some such.
      Tim (not that Tim)
  23. I found this very difficult (which in my case means it overran my cooked breakfast by some margin). I never time my crosswords, and I am always reluctant to biff. I do the thing on paper and only write in happily if I can parse with assurance. In this crossword, I simply couldn’t parse BEANS, my LOI. And SAD was a source of anxiety, though as it happens my parsing was sound.
    To be honest, I find Pedro’s clueing style a bit tedious. As someone else iinplied above, just not fun. Sorry, Pedro, though I’m sure you can manage without me.

    treesparrow

  24. Way to difficult for me got nowhere. A step up is ok, a 15*15 disguised as a Qc is not.

    Maybe Pedro should stick to the harder puzzles and not set the QC’s

    Tim

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