Times Quick Cryptic No 1323 by Orpheus

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well this proved to be a quickie for me from Orpheus, completed and parsed pretty much from top to bottom inside 8 minutes, which is close to a PB.  My COD is 21a for its neat surface, and WOD has to be APOSTATE, where at first I thought the answer might turn out to be an anagram of turncoat, but obviously it wasn’t.

Thanks again Orpheus – nicely crafted!

Across

7  See church and northern lake (4)
LOCH – LO (see) and CH{urch} for the Scottish (northern) name for a lake or arm of the sea.
8  Contemplative monarch of slender build (8)
THINKING – A monarch of slender build might be a THIN KING.
9 Bumpy drive finally fenced in by a French priest (6)
UNEVEN – UN (a or one in French) and VEN{erable} (venerable is an honorific prefix to an archdeacon, hence priest) ‘fencing in’ or containing the last letter of {driv}E (finally).
10  Arrest Greek character involved in racket (6)
DETAIN – ETA (Greek character) inside (involved in) DIN (racket).
11  Fish in burn? (4)
CHAR – Double definition, the first being a fish of the salmon family, and the second being to scorch or burn. I think the question mark is to indicate that sometimes ‘charring’ is a desirable effect, rather than as when Alfred burnt those famous cakes!  When I first read this on my I-pad, I misread it as ‘Fish in bum’ which caused an MER until I read it again, properly.
12 Dubliner possibly misusing his main river at first (8)
IRISHMAN – Anagram (misusing) of [HIS MAIN R{iver}] (at first).  The ‘possibly’ is because not all Irishmen are Dubliners, nor vice versa.
15  Vocalist keeping extremely popular type of spaniel (8)
SPRINGER – The vocalist is a SINGER into which are inserted the first and last letters (extremely) of P{opula}R.  The SPRINGER spaniel is apparently a gun dog useful in copses to ‘spring’ or flush game, although also widely used these days as sniffer dogs.
17  Academic briefly in favour of opening of faculty (4)
PROF – PROF{essor] (academic briefly), and PRO (in favour of) and F{aculty} (opening)
18  Artful youth leader following boat (6)
CRAFTY – CRAFT (boat) and Y{outh} (leader).
21  Went into beginning and end of Tchaikovsky score (6)
TWENTY – WENT (went) inside T{chaikovsk}Y (beginning and end).  I am not sure, and haven’t had time to research why SCORE came to mean TWENTY, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some ancient accountants made a ‘score’ on a clay tablet each time 20 sheep passed a gate, or changed ownership, or similar.
22  Eg Ben’s horse, popular around area (8)
MOUNTAIN – MOUNT (horse) and IN (popular) surrounding (around) A{rea}.  Ben of course is Scottish and Irish for mountain peak, unless it is over 3,000 feet, when it might be a munro (but is still a ben).
23  Letter incorporated in Riot Act (4)
IOTA – The Greek letter equivalent to I, hidden (incorporated in) {r}IOT A{ct}.

Down

1         Heavyweight vessel holding whiskey in urban area (8)
TOWNSHIP – TON (heavy weight) containing W (whiskey in the phonetic alphabet) and SHIP (vessel).
2  Some initially talk nonsense, producing razor (6)
SHAVER – S{ome} (originally) and HAVER (talk nonsense).  I was a little unsure about the equivalence of RAZOR and SHAVER.  In my mind the first is what is used in a wet shave whilst the second is more commonly applied to an electrical device, but actually, SHAVER is defined as an electric razor, so I guess it is fine.  However, HAVER has left me with a Proclaimers earworm – I would walk 500 miles… 
3  Putting up with not having a seat? (8)
STANDING – If one didn’t have a seat, one might be STANDING (but might not be, hence the question mark).
4  Benevolent type (4)
KIND – Double definition.
5 Drawing of ultimately notorious hangman (6)
SKETCH – Last letter (ultimately) of {notoriou}S and KETCH (hangman).  John (Jack) Ketch was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II.
6  Paint this regularly for an opponent (4)
ANTI – Alternate letters (regularly) of {p}A{i}N{t} T{h}I{s}.
13  Irish girl joins National Trust – a cause of annoyance (8)
IRRITANT – IR{ish} and RITA (girl) join N{ational} T{rust}
14  Turncoat given a job at head of enterprise (8)
APOSTATE – A (a) POST (job) AT (at) and E{nterprise} (head of).
16 Young child identified by foot-soldiers leaving railway (6)
INFANT –  Foot-soldiers are INFANT{ry} (leaving railway (RY))
17  Mine includes rising little Scottish shore bird (6)
PEEWIT – PIT (mine) ‘including’ WEE reversed (rising little Scottish).
19  Australian native beginning to fix top of house (4)
ROOF – ROO (short form of KangaROO – Australian native) and first letter (beginning to) of F{ix}.
20  Period of time that’s long?  Not altogether (4)
YEAR – YEAR{n} (long – dropping last letter – not altogether).

22 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1323 by Orpheus”

  1. No problems here, other than that I’d forgotten what HAVER means. I took the ? at 11ac to mark the ambiguity of ‘burn’, where the suggested meaning (‘stream’) is the wrong one. (There seems to be a bit of a Scottish/Irish theme: LOCH, burn, Dubliner, ben, HAVER, Irish, Scottish.) 4:13.
  2. After a quick and fruitless look at the NW I moved on and FOI was DETAIN.
    After that things went very quickly; I was slowed up a bit at the end by my last two:TOWNSHIP and CHAR. And the clock said 8:07, so very quick for me.
    I too thought of The Proclaimers as Haver came to mind.
    As our blogger says, a nicely crafted puzzle. David
  4. My first sub-20 this week but still 15.14, held up in the SW, where CRAFTY and MOUNTAIN both had me stumped up until ROOF yielded. Not sure I’d heard of a PEEWIT – worried it might be PUFFIN for a moment and would have been more unsure but for TWENTY being so generously clued. Couldn’t parse UNEVEN – thanks Rotter and didn’t know APOSTATE meant turncoat. But all green and in reasonable time. Solved on paper yesterday so didn’t have to guess the missing letters for the cricket – but can confirm KATYDID would have been third (more probably fourth) guess.

    Edited at 2019-04-04 07:30 am (UTC)

  5. I didn’t find it that easy and staggered home in 30 mins but that might be the Leffe talking.

    Struggled with mountain, infant, crafty, township and char but they all look easy now.

    Dnk Mr ketch or peewit.

    Cod twenty.

    1. Leffe usually causes me to stagger home. I was assisted through my endeavours today by a nice pint of Saltaire Amarillo.
  6. A quick start and then serious deceleration in the SW corner – LI were INFANT and CRAFTY which seem very straightforward, once seen. 15 Mins seems to be becoming my norm (plus or minus a few seconds). I biffed SKETCH and quite liked APOSTATE, TWENTY, UNEVEN, TOWNSHIP, and IRRITANT (though these came relatively slowly to me). Thanks Orpheus and Rotter. John M.

    Edited at 2019-04-04 07:59 am (UTC)

  7. This was almost my second PB of the week, but CRAFTY and MOUNTAIN slowed me down at the end. I solved it pretty much from top to bottom and particularly enjoyed the surface of 14d. Finished in 7.10.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. 19:37, so a few seconds under target. Two visits to Chambers for APOSTATE and HAVER, and UNEVEN un-parsed, so thank you therotter for VEN . Also, thanks to Orpheus for the puzzle, even though it had two Greek letters, a random girls name and an un-helpful grid.

    Brian

  9. PB here at 5.24, a good 20s better than previous record. Not sure I could have read and written much faster so that might be the limit! At first I thought no anagrams but realised I biffed IRISHMAN. Nice start to the day, thanks setter and blogger

    NeilC

  10. I forgot to time it but between 10 & 15 minutes I reckon. Hadn’t heard of Mr Ketch and struggled with Mountain which was my LOI. Good puzzle and blog so thanks.
  11. Best of the week so far with 11.03. A few holdups over MOUNTAIN LOI, SHAVER and UNEVEN.
  12. 13:26 so quite quick today. I found the RHS went in very easily but the LHS was more challenging and like Plett11 I was slowed down at the end by Crafty and Mountain.
  13. Rattled along, and thought this was going to be a comfortable sub-twenty, until I came to a complete halt at loi 22ac. Had no idea what was going on and tried to think of a word starting with I to match up with the final N for popular. Needless to say, I didn’t get very far with that approach. Eventually gave up looking at the clue and resorted to alphabet trawls to find the answer. A cartwheel penny drop moment. An enjoyable puzzle, with 8ac, ThinKing, just edging out Twenty as my CoD. Invariant
  15. And this is indeed the next. Started immediately but then froze in the NW. Switching to NE and working clockwise had the desired effect.

    FOI LOCH
    LOI SHAVER
    COD UNEVEN
    TIME 3:34

  16. No problems for me today. Trotted through this in 6:14. FOI LOCH, LOI CRAFTY. Thanks Orpheus and Rotter.
  17. I would have been close to PB territory if it wasn’t for my LOI 22a MOUNTAIN which I just couldn’t see and solving required a very slow alphabet trawl (twice through). The common letter checkers didn’t help solve 22a but the H and V in 2d and the K and H in 5d helped me biff both SHAVER and SKETCH. NHO of HAVER (and spell check doesn’t like it either) or KETCH but it is always good to expand ones general knowledge. I must have seen CHAR before because I wrote it in before I had any checkers in play. Just under 9 mins with 2 spent on LOI. Thanks Rotter for the blog and Orpheus for the QC.
  18. I wasn’t expecting a particularly quick time today when I saw the grid with its unchecked opening row and column. I was more then surprised to stop my watch in a PB equaling 3’20”. All bit of a biff-fest at the time but, on reflection, a very well crafted puzzle.
    Many thanks as always to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2019-04-04 02:52 pm (UTC)

  19. Zipped through that in just over 2 Kevins, a Good Day and a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. Found the acrosses much harder work than the downs (which went in without a hitch); took a wee while pondering over MOUNTAIN and LOI LOCH, despite being a West Coaster! Thanks Orpheus and Rotter.

    Templar

    PS Phil – the second one in the series was actually “What Katy Did At School”, so “What Katy Did Next” (the third in the sequence) wasn’t due until tomorrow!

  20. That’s better. After two very slow solves I was relieved to finish this under my target 20 minutes. It felt quicker, but I was determined to parse everything. In the end I needed help from Rotter’s excellent blog. I knew that the answer to 2d had to be shaver, but as I was working with rave instead of haver (NHO) for talk nonsense, I was never going to get there!! MM

    FOI 12a
    LOI 7a no idea why it took me so long!!
    Orpheus provided some wonderful surfaces but my COD 21a
    WOD Thinking because I enjoyed the vision that entered my head – definitely not Henry VIII.

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