QC 1455 by Joker

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I found this very easy. In fact I think it would have been a PB if I had sat down and done it under exam conditions. As it was though I got started, realised I hadn’t got my reading glasses on, and then struggled on regardless peering uselessly at the screen for a bit before eventually reaching for the glasses and getting them entangled with my normal glasses, which then fell under the bed. By the time I had recovered all my eyewear and put it all back where it should be and got the reading glasses on my nose, about 2 minutes had gone by. I then finished in about 7 minutes even though my wife was interrupting me and giving me instructions about all the stuff that we had just unloaded from the car having just returned from our holiday. So what with all that I think it is fairly likely that I might have got in under the 5 minute mark. But hey, so what, who’s counting. The fact is that practically every clue I looked at more or less wrote itself into the grid.

FOI was 1A as you would expect, and LOI I think was similarly 19D. It really was that linear. I think maybe one or two clues were written in out of order but it was more or less sequential. No particular COD jumps out and hits me in the face but I will go for 20A. Many thanks to Joker for an enjoyable experience. It is not often that things happen that smoothly for me.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can manage.

Across
1 Message sent from holiday job by Joker, perhaps (8)
POSTCARD – POST (job) + CARD (Joker).
5 Hurtful remark from pub bore, initially (4)
BARB – BAR (pub) + B (Bore initially).
9 Knock back beer fit for a monarch (5)
REGAL – LAGER (beer) backwards.
10 A time in location that’s calm (7)
PLACATE – A + T (time) ‘in’ PLACE (location).
11 Openly gay youth stripped (3)
OUT – yOUTh ‘stripped’ (i.e. with outer letters removed).
12 Idiot sues bizarrely, promoting disorder (9)
SEDITIOUS – straight anagram (‘bizarrely’) of IDIOT SUES.
13 Shortly getting in a large car (6)
SALOON – SOON (shortly) ‘getting in’ A + L (large).
15 Left, for instance, to finish traditional tale (6)
LEGEND – L (left) + EG (for instance) + END (to finish).
17 What can control large tour going round? (9)
REGULATOR – straight anagram (‘going round’) of LARGE TOUR.
19 Setter, perhaps, is good after party (3)
DOG – DO (party) + G (good).
20 Gasp about restraint for one being treated (7)
PATIENT – PANT (gasp) ‘about’ TIE (restraint).
21 Join university with term half gone (5)
UNITE – UNI (university) + TE (TErm ‘half gone’).
22 Beam about new story (4)
YARN – RAY (beam) ‘about’ = YAR + N (new).
23 Credit us with cooking raw fruit & veg (8)
CRUDITES – straight anagram (‘with cooking’) of CREDIT US.
Down
1 Soul-rap rocks? Dire (7)
PARLOUS – straight anagram (‘rocks’) of SOUL RAP.
2 Express sadness over onset of tunnel vision (5)
SIGHT – SIGH (express sadness) ‘over’ (in this down clue) T (onset of Tunnel).
3 Show indifference to lamb joint from yesterday? (4-8)
COLD-SHOULDER – cryptic definition. Where my family comes from originally the traditional Monday evening meal was ‘Stovies’, consisting of the heated up stewed remains of the previous day’s roast (I understand that alternative regional variants are available).
4 Very fast unexpected attack grabbing power (5)
RAPID – RAID (unexpected attack) ‘grabbing’ P (power).
6 Edible shellfish in middle of seabed singly (7)
ABALONE – AB (middle of seABed) + ALONE (singly).
7 Bishop with fewer to consecrate (5)
BLESS – B (bishop) + LESS (fewer).
8 Scene of conflict sees site of historic abbey reduced to dust (12)
BATTLEGROUND – BATTLE (site of the historic Battle Abbey) + GROUND (reduced to dust).
14 Large open boat is not so dark (7)
LIGHTER – double definition.
16 Get sidetracked — I note during shift? (7)
DIGRESS – I + G (note) ‘during’ DRESS (shift).
17 Give money back to travelling salesman, certainly (5)
REPAY – REP (travelling salesman) + AY (certainly).
18 Express disapproval over Romeo teacher (5)
TUTOR – TUT (express disapproval) + O (over) + R (Romeo).
19 Daughter on break to travel aimlessly (5)
DRIFT – D (daughter) ‘on’ (in this down clue) RIFT (break).

36 comments on “QC 1455 by Joker”

  1. Straightforward, although I certainly didn’t solve the clues in sequence. Biffed 8d (DNK Battle Abbey) and 16d. ‘Edible’ struck me as unnecessary in 6d. 4:32.
  2. Finished in 7:19, held up mainly because I find anagrams difficult on the computer. Probably did not read more than half the clues :/ so I agree, on the easier side.
    1. You just did: a saloon is a type of car (in the UK), corresponding I think to what an American would call a sedan–although I haven’t heard that word in years.
  4. 7 minutes with CRUDITES as my LOI – a word that always looks wrong to me on paper and without its acute accent. I though ABILONE and SEDITIOUS might cause problems for some too as they’re not exactly everyday words. Thought ‘battlefield’ first at 8dn and took a moment or two to come up with an alternative that fitted the grid and wordplay.
  5. A gentle start to the week from Joker; nearly a “clean sweep” for me with only two clues requiring a second visit – SALOON (where unaccountably I tried to fit “soon” into “a l” rather than the other way round) and YARN (where I thought “about” indicated “around” and tried to make “rany” work …). But otherwise it was “read clue write answer” for 1.5K and a Very Good Day.

    Glad to have the Alfie Nina explained to us by the “anon” (presumably Alfie himself, exasperated by the swine before which he had scattered his pearls). Thanks for pointing it out, Jack.

    Thanks to Joker and Don.

    Templar

    1. I wondered if it was perhaps Alfie himself. The anon post has a Dublin IP address, not that that proves anything.
      1. Just to clarify for avoidance of doubt that the comments were neither by the setter nor the crossword editor. Magnificent puzzle, many thanks to Alfie.
      2. Thank you, Jack, for all the effort you go to with your statistics. It was great that via you and Johninterred I was able, not only too appreciate the nuances of Friday’s QC, but also to access QC 357, which was superb. I didn’t know that it was possible to go back more than 6 days on The Times website. Is it easy to access old QCs? At weekends I would love to solve some of the originals that were around before I discovered the joy of the cryptic!! MM
        1. You’re welcome, MM, and thanks for your kind comments.

          Yes, in theory all the past QC puzzles are available via the Crossword Club page. Go to this link:
          https://www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzleclub/crosswordclub/?first_page=y

          and scroll to the bottom where you will find the Crossword Search fields. You can select Quick Cryptic as the ‘crossword type’ and insert a puzzle number, or there’s also a ‘search by date’ option which is very user- unfriendly unless you are looking for a fairly recent puzzle

          I said ‘in theory’ above because there seem to be a lot of puzzles missing in the range 75 to 999, but after 1000 it seems to be okay and that should give you more than enough to play with for the time being! Good luck.

          1. Thank you! The link worked perfectly.
            I shall enjoy working through the back catalogue in the knowledge that I can always find guidance for any that stump me on this website. MM
  6. I agree that this was a gentle start to the week – thanks all! I wasn’t sure of abalone and had to remember that a dress might be a shift but all straightforward.
  7. As others have said already, a nice and easy start to the week. It took me 15 minutes which, for me, is fast. No big problems. Particularly liked 1 across plus the potentially misleading “setter” in 19 across and “shift” in 16 down. Thanks, Joker, for a nice puzzle and thanks, too, to Don for an entertaining and helpful blog.
  8. A nice start to the week. Some clever misdirection in a few clues. I hesitated too long over BATTLEGROUND looking for a word for reducing to dust. I rather liked COLD SHOULDER, DIGRESS, and ABALONE. 3K for me so a slower solve than it seemed. Many thanks to Joker and the don. John M.
  9. I didn’t find this as straightforward as some, but there was nothing that required too much thought. LOI was BATTLEGROUND as the abbey was unknown to me. Finished in 10.08 with a nod to COLD SHOULDER.
    Thanks for the blog – now off to see what Alfie was up to

    Edited at 2019-10-07 08:59 am (UTC)

  10. Just a couple of seconds over 10 minutes for me, so at the easier end of the Rotterometer. I needed most of the checkers for BATTLEGROUND, but mostly entered sequentially, NW to SE.
  11. A nice gentle start to the week for me too. REGAL and SIGHT were my first 2 in, and I finished with YARN. I tend to hop around the grid following helpful crossers. BATTLE is a name I haven’t thought of for years, but it sprang to mind quickly as a place near Hastings. 5:24. Thanks Joker and Don.
  13. DNK 12 across and 6 down. Most of the rest gradually revealed itself so fairly satisfied. Close but no cigar.

    Graham

  14. Almost a clean sweep, if I’d only got POSTCARD straight away.

    FOI BARB
    LOI UNITE
    COD DIGRESS

  15. As with many in the recent athletics World Champs, a massive PB, breaking 3’ for the first (and probably last) time. Not quite top to bottom solving but pretty close. POSTCARD required a revisit. CRUDITÉS, PARLOUS & ABALONE are towards the far edge of everyday vocabulary and BATTLEGROUND required a modicum of British history to parse.
    My thanks to setter and blogger
    2’55”

    PS: just noticed autocorrect has added the accent to the dipping food.

  16. Wasted what turned out to be a crucial minute or so trying to start with either 1ac or 1d before moving on to the NE corner. After that they just kept coming, and, once I had the C from Cold Shoulder, Postcard and then Parlous (not an everyday word) became obvious. Not knowing the Abbey, 8d Battleground was my loi after 14min, which I think equals my PB. Either way, this was a fairly gentle start to the week. CoD to the lamb joint. Invariant
  17. Really enjoyable – one that made me feel like I am really making progress. Everything went in pretty much as I pottered round the grid. And I managed to parse everything except 13a and there I was just being dim….

    Thanks Joker for a boost to my confidence.

  18. Very smooth no real issues. Starting to see the “perhaps” indicators…
    Somehow all the tricky ones like Parlous, Seditious, Abalone were vaguely familiar enough.
    Lighter was a write in only since it has been in a couple of times recently,
    Thanks all,
    John George
  19. I knew everyone would find this easy, because I smashed my PB by over 2 minutes coming in at under 10. (I wish I had timed myself precisely now.) I definitely took only just over 2 Kevins…. even though my husband insisted on reading me snippets of news from the paper as I worked! So, even though it was deemed easy by all and sundry, it feels reasonable to give myself a pat on the back. Thanks, Joker – I need an easier one occasionally to keep my spirits up. MM
    FOI 1a
    LOI 17a
    COD 3d
      1. I’d love to think so, but this was a VERY easy puzzle and I am afraid that, apart from the days when one of you clever people advises that the 15×15 is doable for a QCer, I can’t get very far with it at all.
        I do appreciate all the support I receive from this site. It is invaluable. I certainly wouldn’t be finishing the QC (nearly) every day without you. I don’t often contribute because I don’t have time to sit down and solve until later in the day, but I always read the blog and the comments.
        Thank you! MM
  21. Well done! That is up with the top solvers – I’m talking Crossword Championship contenders.
  22. I guess it was relatively easy, but quite delicious… starting with 1A. The epitome of a QC, I say. Thanks, Joker. 4:02.
  23. One wonders how those who spell Abilone thus rather than abalone manage to claim completion…

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