QC 1625 by Joker

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Back with you later than expected, with ‘my’ puzzle having been accidentally blogged by Peter a couple of weeks ago during the Times mix-up. Since last time, when I was grateful for a relatively easy puzzle because my Mac was playing up with a horribly flickering screen, I am glad to say that the defect has been remedied entirely under warranty. So many thanks to Apple for sticking by their Ts & Cs and ‘doing the right thing’.

So here I am back with another gentle offering to start the week. A couple of the clues were hardly clues at all (viz. 13A and 3D where we are more or less told what to do in plain English), and there were some straightforward anagrams and charades and one very obvious hidden word. Nevertheless although not all that challenging I really enjoyed a lot of the clues for their humorous construction and surfaces (as you would expect from a ‘Joker’). I particularly liked the playful 1A (my COD), 21A for the misdirection referred to in the blog and 7D for its Shylockian imagery. FOI was 8A and LOI 20D.

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

Across
1 Thought Lab team blue? Exactly the opposite (10)
CONSIDERED – if you convert TEAM to SIDE, then the opposite of LAB(our) SIDE BLUE is CON(servative) SIDE RED.
8 Plant is favourite — any number I planted in middle of quad (7)
PETUNIA – PET (favourite) + N (any number) + I ‘in’ UA (middle of qUAd).
9 Supporters rush finally forward (5)
BRASH – BRAS (supporters) + H (rusH ‘finally’).
10 Burial place of Thomas Black (4)
TOMB – TOM (Thomas) + B (Black).
11 Omelette’s wrong — one sent back everything (8)
TORTILLA – TORT (legal word for wrong) + I (one) + LLA (all (everything) ‘sent back’).
13 Get rid of me over anagramming (6)
REMOVE – ME OVER ‘anagramming’. Must be the most direct anagrind I have ever seen.
14 Plain girl father initially supported (6)
PAMPAS – PAM (girl) + PA (father) + S (initially Supported)
17 Bad robes altered and taken up (8)
ABSORBED – straight anagram (‘altered’) of BAD ROBES.
19 Roman garment of past time on the way back (4)
TOGA – AGO (past) + T (time) all reversed (on the way back).
21 American transporter hit in Los Angeles (5)
LLAMA – LAM (hit) ‘in’ LA (Los Angeles). Possible misdirection playing on inherent cultural imperialism here, as ‘American’ does not necessarily mean ‘North American’.
22 Element some uncovered in salty water (7)
BROMINE – sOMe ‘uncovered’ is OM. Place this in  BRINE (salty water) and you have element number 35 of the Periodic Table.
23 Drunk left together with Queen is northern Scot (10)
HIGHLANDER – HIGH (drunk) + L (left) + AND (with) + ER (Elizabeth Regina).
Down
2 Best to make a choice, one mother’s supporting (7)
OPTIMUM – OPT (make a choice) + I (one) + MUM (mother). ‘Supporting’ here indicates that this is a down clue and that MUM is ‘supporting’ the other elements.
3 Sandown doesn’t have its own beach? (4)
SAND – take OWN away from SANDOWN.
4 Head of chapter restricts company for church officer (6)
DEACON – DEAN (head of chapter) ‘restricting’ CO (company).
5 Contradiction’s genuine about object of ridicule (8)
REBUTTAL – REAL (genuine) ‘about’ BUTT (object of ridicule).
6 Speak slowly, line getting to drag on (5)
DRAWL – DRAW (drag) ‘on’ L (line) in this down clue.
7 Miser keeping pile in curious casket (10)
CHEAPSKATE – HEAP (pile) ‘in’ CSKATE (anagram (‘curious’) of CASKET).
8 Aptly learn swimming, as father treats child? (10)
PATERNALLY – straight anagram (‘swimming’) of APTLY LEARN.
12 Project finished, needing change in the middle (8)
OVERHANG – OVER (finished) + HANG (cHANGe ‘in the middle’).
15 Potential seafront walk is ending in Hove (7)
PROMISE – PROM (seafront walk) + IS + E (is + ending in hovE).
16 Like a word, however Balzac uses it (6)
VERBAL – hidden word: howeVER BALzac ‘uses it’.
18 Small whip cut (5)
SLASH – S (small) + LASH (whip).
20 Swindle involving current 50p, say (4)
COIN – CON (swindle) ‘involving’ I (symbol for electric current in physics).

33 comments on “QC 1625 by Joker”

  1. Biffed a couple. I was a bit slow on SAND, simply because I couldn’t believe the clue was that simple. Not my candidate for COD anywhere. LOI TORTILLA; ‘omelette’ puzzled me–I started by thinking it was anagrist for something–because coming from California my reference is to Mexican food not Spanish, and I had no idea that in Spain a tortilla is an omelette. CONSIDERED very nice, making up some for SAND. 5:31.
  2. 9 minutes, slowed by being unable to come up with the answer at 1ac until I had most of its checkers in place. TBH I hadn’t tried very hard to crack it as one reading was enough to establish that it would need some thinking about, and time being something that I’m never willing to expend on any clue early on in a QC as there are always sure to be easier pickings to be found elsewhere. Both TORTILLA and LLAMA gave me cause to think twice about my answers before moving on.
  3. Like Kevin, I was reluctant to believe 3d was so simple, but entered it and moved on. Sadly I miscounted the Ds in the anagrist for 17a and my 7:05 was nullified by my ADSORBED. Thanks Joker and Don. Glad to hear you got your screen sorted!
  4. An enjoyable start to the week. Another grid that I had to jump around, ending up at the top with COD CONSIDERED. Finished a minute over target (and under 3K) so pretty much the norm for me these days. I especially enjoyed LLAMA, BROMINE, OPTIMUM, DEACON. Many thanks to Joker and Don. John M.
  5. I didn’t find this as straightforward as our blogger with the South American/Spanish clues proving the most obdurate. I was also slow to see what was going on with CHEAPSKATE as i initially tried making an anagram of PILE CASKET. Some nice clues with my favourite being PROMISE. Finished with LOI TORTILLA in 13.56, which is probably a smidge over average.
    Thanks for the blog
    2. Not easy for me either. Also DNK the spanish omelette – what’s a ‘frittata’? Thought that was an eggy thing.

      Agree with others re 3d.

      Edited at 2020-06-01 10:29 am (UTC)

  6. This came together in a little over 10 minutes so I had no real problems and i enjoyed it so thanks Joker and astartedon. My only reservation is that I thought there were a quite a few gratuitous obscurities – gratuitous in the sense that the clues or the answers could have worked perfectly well with common usage and personally I prefer that for quickies. I’m referring to Omelette for Tortilla, transporter for llama (including lam for strike) and drunk for high.
  7. ….that “parentally” is an anagram of PATERNALLY, so it was just as well that the next clue I came to was TOMB, which quickly sorted out the problem !

    I’ve made it into the top 10 today (for now at least) and I have to admit that the feat was possibly wind-assisted since Verlaine appears to have suffered from a typo.

    FOI PETUNIA
    LOI DEACON
    COD CONSIDERED
    TIME 0.64K

  8. This took me just over half an hour, so twice my target. Some of the clues just bamboozled me – which I’m not complaining about because that’s part of the fun. If I looked, solved and entered the answers almost simultaneously, it would be much less fun. Luckily, that’s not a situation that I need to dread as it’s about as likely as my building a rocket in my kitchen.

    Very much liked 1 across, CONSIDERED , – a smart clue, I think. And 21 across LLAMA, made me chuckle. On the other hand, some of the surfaces were a bit inelegant, perhaps, eg PETUNIA and OPTIMUM. Like some others, I resisted putting in SAND for 3 down because it was too overt, too obvious, for it to be right. 22 across, BROMINE, kept me guessing for longer than I can defend, mainly because when I see “some” in a clue, I look for a hidden…. and this, even though I knew that the answer must include BRINE. Most of my time, in fact, was spent gazing hopelessly at the Eastern half of the grid, where I was rendered imbecilic by omelettes and caskets. All in all, though, I remain pleased that I finished the puzzle without recourse to aids and with everything parsed. Thanks so much, Don, for your blog and thanks, too, to the Joker.

  9. Mostly fairly straightforward, but eventually ended up as a DNF for me as I just couldn’t get LLAMA. This was partly because I dismissed out of hand the idea of the word beginning with a double L (outside of Welsh place names I can’t think of any other words in English that do) and also because LAM meaning hit is unfamiliar although I think I have come across it on here before. I was held up by TORTILLA, CHEAPSKATE and PAMPAS too, though I should have got the latter more quickly and that proved to be the key to the others. Overall very enjoyable as usual from Joker.
    1. The one-l lama,
      He’s a priest;
      The two-l llama,
      He’s a beast.
      And I will bet
      A silk pajama
      There isn’t any
      Three-l lllama.

    2. The 15×15 & cryptic Jumbo sometimes throw a llano or llanero at us. A quick Google also reveals that llano came up in QC241.
  10. 21 minutes, just over my target with a mixture of easy and difficult clues. I struggled with CONSIDERED and ABSORBED, but I left a few of the easier (weaker?) clues until I had a checker. As usual with Joker the surfaces were excellent and the wordplay was very clever.
    Thanks to Joker for a nice Monday puzzle and to Astartedon for the blog.

    Brisn

  11. Taken to two minutes over my target range by Joker, despite seeing FOI CONSIDERED straight away. It was the east that slowed me down where not seeing BRASH, TORTILLA or PAMPAS made 7d slow to come together. Thanks Joker and Astartedon.
  12. For whatever reason, I haven’t enjoyed Joker’s puzzles quite as much of late, but I found today’s more than satisfying. A few gifts to keep things ticking over and a quirky sense of humour kept me entertained for 23mins. Might have been a bit closer to 20 on a better day, but I struggled to parse Drawl until I realised it was (L +) draw/drag and not a word meaning drag on, and of course Llama needed several visits before the pdm. CoD to 12d, Overhang, just ahead of Considered. Invariant
  13. SANDOWN was probably one of those clues that seemed like a great idea at the time … But more than compensated for by the fun elsewhere; I really enjoyed that, with lots of wit on show. Since TORTILLA is so often called “Spanish omelette” I really didn’t think that was obscure. BROMINE took me a looong time, however.

    FOI & COD CONSIDERED (lovely!), LOI BROMINE. 1.6K and a Very Good Day.

    Thanks Joker and Don (good to see that your avatar is staying alert with a face mask, Don).

    Templar

  14. I didn’t get 1a on first pass but fortunately 8d PATERNALLY went straight in with lots of useful first letter checkers. Despite this I struggled with LLAMA, I think I was thrown by American in the clue. OVERHANG and PROMISE were biffed and parsed post solve. LOI was PAMPAS as the plain definition was unknown to me. COD to TORTILLA. 2K for an OK day.
  15. Just a bit under 10 minutes, with tortilla my LOI preceded by pampas.
    Would’t have got tortilla until I remembered one of those words that only comes up in crosswords “tort” so more evidence of the more of these one does, the “easier” they become- hopefully some solace to those who find them frustratingly difficult.
    Thanks setter and blogger
  16. Another PARENTALLY here which slowed things down a bit. I liked my penultimate CONSIDERED at lot but not so much my LOI, TORTILLA.

    Many thanks to Joker and the Don (working title for upcoming superhero movie?)
    5’10”

  17. About average for me at 30 mins, but I didn’t think this was too straight forward so in some ways I was pleased with this.

    Apart from 3dn, there were some very clever clues and I particularly liked 1ac “Considered”, 11ac “Tortilla” (which like many I guess I thought would be an anagram of Omelette) and 22ac “Bromine”.

    I also put “Parentally” in for 8dn until I realised 10ac could only be “Tomb”.

    FOI – 3dn “Sand”
    LOI – 21ac “Llama” (took longer than it should)
    COD – 11ac “Tortilla”

    Thanks as usual.

  18. A steady solve. The only holdups were LLAMA (I too forgot to consider S America) and TORTILLA (only known to me as a Mexican flat bread). Never parsed CONSIDERED, although figured it had something to do with ‘con’ and ‘red’.
    Good challenge.
    PlayUpPompey
  20. Not as easy as all that I didn’t think. I was stuck for what seemed a long time in the NE and also with 12dn which was my LOI. I don’t know why the latter seemed so tricky as the clueing is really quite straightforward.

    FOI – 13ac Remove
    LOI – 12dn Overhang
    COD – 15dn Promise – for the lovely surface.

  21. and frittata are from different countries. Tortilla is Spanish, and is just eggs, potatoes and onions. Frittata is Italian and normally has many more ingredients, a bit like a quiche with no pastry I suppose. A Mexican tortilla on the other hand is just a corn flatbread.

    Anyway, eggy diversions aside, this was quickish, and had some very easy clues (SAND!) and some harder ones – such as my LOI – LLAMA.

    5:42 for me.

  22. I tried the 15×15 first today; solved most of it apart from the NW before trying the QC.
    I’m not sure it helped as this one took me about 13 minutes on paper. LOI by a distance was Llama; clever once you see it. My tortilla was unparsed as Mexico is my place of reference. FOI was VERBAL so not a quick start.
    I thought this was quite a challenging QC from Joker, enjoyable too.
    COD to 1a CONSIDERED. David
  23. All ok except Llama and LOI Jay/Sam/Pat/Mae/Gal/Jan/Sal/Val/May/Fay/Gay/Pam pas.

    COD overhang.

  24. Quite a Good Day at a smidge under 2K. Basically what everyone else has said: Sand – hmm; neither omelette nor pile/casket were entirely anagrams, and the American transporter was quite slow. Would you find llamas on the pampas, I wonder? But, as usual with Joker, there was fun to be had – I particularly liked 17a and 12d.

    FOI Petunia
    LOI Llama
    COD Considered
    Time 10:40

    Thanks Joker and Don

    Dare I recommend the biggie again? I found it very approachable today 😊

  25. So thanks to Joker.
    I spent an enjoyable 25 minutes in the afternoon sunshine and tried to submit this comment earlier but my iPad didn’t want to co-operate.
    Like others, I thought that SAND was a gift but CONSIDERED, TORTILLA and CHEAPSKATE were well worth the time spent unravelling them.
    Thanks also to astartedon for the informative blog.

    Edited at 2020-06-01 04:13 pm (UTC)

  26. … in which multiple things went wrong, from the home broadband (essential) to the bread making machine (ditto!). All put right eventually but I only got to this in the evening.

    So what a pleasure to have a satisfying puzzle from Joker, all done in just under 10 minutes. I share the surprise at 3D Sand, not so much a cryptic clue as a set of instructions, but I actually think 13A Remove is a worse clue. Why not clue it as “Get rid of me over mix-up”?

    Those apart, some lovely clues, with 1A Considered my COI; very neat. But several others could have been.

    Thanks to Don for the blog.
    Cedric

  27. I think that this was about 35 minutes since I had a couple of interruptions. Well I really enjoyed Sand since although clearly the contents of a beach didn’t initially equal beach in my mind. (Strand would seem more natural and I’m not the one in the household from Ireland)
    1a 7d and 14a were all fun and I have a big smiley beside 5d. FOI 10a.
    My old work colleague lived in Upper Butts.
    (Brentford)
    Thanks all
    John George

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