Times Quick Cryptic No 1322 by Tracy

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A coincidence at 10 Across? In any case, Tracy has my number. Or perhaps a nod to Ximenes and his immaculate “I have most of the time to sew, then I iron (9)”?

Taking 9 minutes and 15 seconds, this puzzle gave me no trouble whatsover, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the faster solvers come in around the three-minute mark. I’m just glad I didn’t have to blog Monday’s quickie, which beat me within an inch of my puzzling life.

Here’s my order of solving. Across: 9, 10, 13, 19, 20, 22; Down: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17; Across: 1, 6, 8, 12, 16, 23; Down: 2, 5, 18, 21. Always happy to answer any questions about solving; just leave a note in the comments.

Across

1 Excellent spinner having fine match (3-6)
TOP-FLIGHT – TOP (“spinner”) + (“having”) F (“fine”) + LIGHT (“match”)
At first glance I was thinking A1 for ‘excellent’ and looking for AIR-something. By the second pass, I’d sorted it out.
6 Vessel [of] note, heading off (3)
ARK – MARK (“note”) without the first letter (“heading off”)
Briefly considered the usual suspects on the first pass: TUB, URN, MUG, etc, but missed ARK.
8 Trick, good during last act (7)
FINAGLE – G (“good”) in (“during”) FINALE (“last act”)
I had the right idea the first time, but was looking for G in FINAL + ‘act’ and that was too many letters.
9 Expert, extremely derisive in a gym (5)
ADEPT – first and last letters of (“extremely”) DERISIVE (“derisive”) in (“in”) A (“a”) P.T. (“gym”)
PT = ‘physical training’, though in America that abbreviation is more likely to stand for Physical Therapy. I liked the obscured part of speech here, and I did briefly wonder if ACE+DE was an old Roman gym.
10 He’s out mostly working, save he’s not the breadwinner (12)
HOUSEHUSBAND – HE’S OUT (“he’s out”) without the last letter (“mostly”), anagrammed (“working”) + HUSBAND (“save”)
The last part is a common definition of ‘husband’ in crosswords. As I suggested in the intro, I put this in immediately from the definition as child-rearing and house-keeping is mainly what I do these days.
12 Extremely small [and] quiet nursing home (6)
MINUTE – MUTE (“quiet”) around (“nursing”) IN (“home”)
Quite deceptive wordplay, with many possibilities that lead nowhere. I probably would have gotten the answer sooner if I’d felt confident there was no short abbreviation in British English for ‘nursing home’.
13 Refuse fine offer involving gold (6)
FORBID – F (“fine”) + BID (“offer”) around (“involving”) OR (“gold”)
OR and AU for ‘gold’ are definitely two to know.
16 Competent head of security is locking up at mill (12)
SATISFACTORY – first letter of (“head of”) SECURITY (“security”) + IS (“is”) around (“locking up”) AT (“at”) + FACTORY (“mill”)
Subtle wordplay that I only figured out while writing the blog, as the crossing letters and definition practically gave it to me at the end.
19 A clipped English accent (5)
ACUTE – A (“a”) + CUT (“clipped”) + E (“English”)
It may only be in British English that ‘acute’ is a noun meaning ‘an acute accent’.
20 Names I confused after onset of alarming medical condition (7)
AMNESIA – NAMES I (“names I”) anagrammed (“confused”) after (“after”) first letter of (“onset of”) ALARMING (“alarming”)
22 Tree inside Chelsea showground (3)
ASH – letters in (“inside”) CHELSEA SHOWGROUND (“Chelsea showground”)
23 Follow part of castle pathway (4,5)
KEEP TRACK – KEEP (“part of castle”) + TRACK (“pathway”)

Down

1 Swell time away (4)
TOFF – T (“time”) + OFF (“away”)
Or as I like to call them, ‘fancy-pants’.
2 Card game, / type of bridge (7)
PONTOON – double definition
Lucky guess for me from the crossing letters. It’s something I’d heard of.
3 Stage left, for example (3)
LEG – L (“left”) + E.G. (“for example”)
4 Article supporting move over East German writer (6)
GOETHE – THE (“article”) under (“supporting”) GO (“move”) above (“over”) E (“East”)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, that is.
5 Take / delight (9)
TRANSPORT – double definition
6 Locality housing northern stadium (5)
ARENA – AREA (“locality”) around (“housing”) N (“northern”)
7 Grasshopper [in] bottom of net caught by a kiddy playing (7)
KATYDID – last letter of (“bottom of”) NET (“net”) in (“caught by”) A KIDDY (“a kiddy”) anagrammed (“playing”)
Wrote out KATIDYD just to make sure it didn’t look right.
11 Therefore spreading pâté’s OK, in a way (2,2,5)
SO TO SPEAK – SO (“therefore”) + anagram of (“spreading”) PÂTÉ’S OK (“pâté’s OK”)
12 Cosmetic mother used to mask a blemish (7)
MASCARA – MA (“mother”) around (“used to mask”) A (“a”) + SCAR (“blemish”)
14 Coffee shop worker [and] I sat in relaxed manner propping up counter (7)
BARISTA – I SAT (“I sat”) anagrammed (“in relaxed manner”) under (“propping up”) BAR (“counter”)
15 Loss [of] silver accepted by lady (6)
DAMAGE – AG (“silver”, on the periodic table) in (“accepted by”) DAME (“lady”)
17 Hard, however, when first husband lost (5)
TOUGH – THOUGH (“however”) when first (“when first”) H (“husband”) is removed (“lost”)
18 Support / rear end (4)
BACK – double definition
21 Fish cut up, [then] fruitcake (3)
NUT – TUNA (“fish”) without the last letter (“cut”), reversed (“up”)

38 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1322 by Tracy”

  1. 1ac took some time, even though I had TOP; I’m not sure why. 8ac also. ‘Mask’ was a bit infelicitous in MASCARA; but there were a number of nice surfaces elsewhere: 10ac, 12ac, 16ac, 1d, 15d, inter alia. 6:37, just over 2 Verlaines.
  2. I had to summon up more neurons than usual for this puzzle, but got there in just under my target 10 minutes, then hesitated before confirming submit as I hadn’t proof read the whole thing, then decided oh well, go for it, only to find that I was logged at 10:02. Boo hiss! Hadn’t come across a KATYDID before, except as a series of books by Susan Coolidge. I was slowed at 15d by inserting silver at the A from SATISFACTORY, before wiser counsels prevailed. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy.
  3. 10 minutes. I knew the word KATYDID from somewhere although if it hadn’t been for the clue I’d probably have guessed that it was a bird. One source says the UK equivalent is a ‘bush cricket’ as opposed to ‘true cricket’ – not that I’ve ever heard of either, only ‘crickets’. FINAGLE was a bit left-field, but other than that this was straightforward for me.
  4. About 20 minutes but dnf from katydid.

    For unknown words clued by anagrams I can sometimes see the letters fall in a specific pattern but here it seemed a random choice from:
    KATIDYD
    KATYDID
    KITADYD
    KITYDAD
    KYTADID
    KYTIDAD.

    I plumped for kitadyd. Its a hard word to clue so Tracy is forgiven.

    Didn’t parse 1a as missed top for spinner.
    Thought factory for mill might need a ?

    Not sure how transport = delight.

    Cod katydid!
    Thanks

    2. Chambers gives transport as a verb “to throw into ecstasy”, and as a noun “ecstasy, or any strong emotion”. Flanders and Swann’s excellent song about a London bus driver is entitled “Transport of Delight”.
  5. Just inside my 15m target, being held up by the NHO LOI KATYDID. I was also slow to get HOUSE-HUSBAND from the unlikely looking checkers. It has always been two words for me, or at least hyphenated. On first pass, I tried to stretch housekeeper to the extra letter needed, but obviously, that was wrong. Thanks Jeremy and Tracy.
  6. I knew the book “What Katy Did” (Susan Coolidge, 1872) but have only just discovered what a katydid is, and the fact that Coolidge was punning on the insect in writing her title. Well well. Anyway, my ignorance cost me a DNF today (I went for kytadid, which is obviously the Greek for grasshopper, isn’t it? Oh.). Not that I was on for a good time anyway having struggled with both HOUSEHUSBAND and DAMAGE (where I thought I was looking for a four letter female name with AG in it … katage, kagate, janage and jagane all crossed my mind before eventually stumbling on the right answer).

    So thoroughly beaten by Tracy today, well played. Thanks for the blog, Jeremy.

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-04-03 09:12 am (UTC)

  7. ….in going back after completion to better appreciate the quality of the surfaces in this excellent puzzle.

    Like Kevin, I wrote in TOP immediately, then faltered.

    MER at DAMAGE = loss, but Chambers concurs. One never stops learning in Crosswordland.

    Thanks to Plusjeremy for the fine Ximenes clue.

    FOI TOFF
    LOI MINUTE
    COD HOUSEHUSBAND
    TIME 3:38

  8. 14.48. Took a while to remember and work out KATYDID, possibly exhausted by trying to defy Vinyl’s warnings to SCC of the impenetrability of Mephisto (finally completed over 3 days, though expect a couple to be wrong). Shows that perseverance and learning from bloggers (exceedingly clear today, Jeremy) will work.
    1. Kudos on your Mephistophilean effort! I used to have a go at the TLS puzzle before access was removed, but have never had the urge to try a Mephisto.
      1. Thanks, John. I think, now I have proved to myself I can sort of get there, I’ll stick with more standard crossword fare. Quite apart from the time involved (not good for sending brain to sleep last thing), I find the trickery involved in QC and 15 x 15 over mainly known words more satisfying.
  9. I finished just outside my 10 minutes target. This QC was a mixture of write ins e.g. PONTOON, LEG, ARENA, MASCARA, biffs as in TOP-FLIGHT and ARK and construction of DNKs from wordplay specifically KATYDID (lucky guess) and FINAGLE. My last two in were 10a HOUSEHUSBAND and 4d GOETHE. I think I’d rate this as quite 17d. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy.

    1. My mind was severely boggled this morning reading how no one seems to have heard of KATYDID, which seemed a pretty commonplace word to me. Then I looked it up: of course, it’s a North American term, mainly. I believe they’re referenced in Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It”.
      1. I always thought it was a local (i.e., US) term for a cicada, but evidently it’s a type of grasshopper. I do remember from childhood something about Katy did/ Katy didn’t.
  10. Anyone else notice if you print the online version it dates the crossword as Thursday 4th April?

    Wonder if we get today’s crossword tomorrow, instead?!

  11. As one who doesn’t care to time his efforts (but is pleased to complete in under 20 minutes), I found this a very searching test. Several clues sent me firmly up the wrong path and a couple of words were far from familiar. I write only occasionally, though I read the experts’ words most days and my mission now is on behalf of the slower coaches to counter any impression that this was a doddle. I remain anonymous partially for preference but also because I have no idea how to construct one of the marvellous pictorial identities so widely favoured. DM
  12. Amazingly, Tracy managed to find two English words that I have never come across before – only another 50k or so to go… On a more serious note, while Finagle was solvable, the crossers in Katydid allowed for several possibilities, so it gets a GR from me. Although I could see that 10ac was Househusband, I didn’t spot the Save/Husband link until reading the blog. My thanks to Jeremy for the tip. Invariant
    2. I needed a second sitting too and my total time was about 45 minutes!!! I aim to finish in 20 minutes but I struggled with yesterday’s (40 minutes) and today’s. My worst times in ages.
      Thanks, Jeremy, for clarifying so much but I was surprised by your estimation that it was easy with words like FINAGLE (NHO) and KATYDID. I had vaguely heard of the latter but it took me a long time to dredge it up. Looking forward to tomorrow with finger’s crossed for a QC on my wavelength. MM

      FOI First half of 1a and so my FOI was really 1d which I looked at next.
      LOI 7d
      COD 16a

  13. Did anyone else get 7 down from the picture on the cover of Steely Dan’s Katy Lied album?
    1. katydid noun, N Amer any of various species of grasshopper, with antennae often much longer than its body.

      My entry above mentions the UK meaning

      Edited at 2019-04-03 02:59 pm (UTC)

  15. We did not find this easy, solved with some help just over target. Finagle solved from wordplay, Katydid unknown. Fooled by loss as a synonym for damage. Thanks to Tracy for extending our knowlege and the usual helpful comments above.
  16. Interesting Jeremy, we have been doing QCs for about 18 months, and for the last year have been fairly consistent at the 25-35 minute mark, however for the last couple of weeks up to today we have been around 15 mins fully parsed. I was wondering if we had jumped a quantum level in solving, but today was back to 25 mins, so I certainly couldn’t say it was easy as it probably took about as long as Monday and Tuesday put together. I suppose it is just a matter of being on the setters wavelength, whilst not difficult per se, we just found this a bit convoluted, requiring a while to parse a lot of the clues.
    P&A
  17. No problem with this. Neat puzzle. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy. COD to HOUSEHUSBAND, which I am too.. well some of the time as I still work 2 days a week. 4:59
  18. A good puzzle let down by the grasshopper. I find obscure words clued by anagrams to be deeply unsatisfactory as you invariably have to make an (un)educated guess at the answer. Fortunately today I guessed correctly and even managed to squeeze in under my target time by finishing in 14.56.
    Thanks for the blog
  19. We were also flummoxed by katydid. It might have been clued in the two obvious halves: Katy and Did?
  20. Just over 15 mins whilst waiting for an appointment. First time doing it on my phone which isn’t as easy as on th iPad. Had to look up the weird grasshopper to confirm my anagram solve, though. Apart from that it was fun and fair. John M.
  22. Many thanks to Jeremy for the additional commentary. I found it very helpful.

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