QC 1925 by Pedro

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

FOI was the well signposted anagram at 1A, and funnily enough I think my LOI was the next clue in order, 8A, which I just didn’t see until the end. No particular standout COD but I think I’ll go with 11D for neatness of surface.

No problems with solving any of the clues for me really, just my usual problem with reading them. Now that I am allowed to I really must make a catch-up appointment with my ophthalmologist as I think my prescription has changed significantly during the lockdown. Many thanks to Pedro (whom I have come across only infrequently in my time as blogger) for an enjoyable start to the week.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Rebuilt each, partly following a model (10)
ARCHETYPAL – straight anagram: ‘rebuilt’ EACH PARTLY.
8 Dances with wife following a puzzle (6)
JIGSAW – JIGS (dances) + A + W (wife (W) following A).
9 Very unfortunate time, with export from Cuba brought back (6)
TRAGIC – T (time) + RAGIC (CIGAR (export from Cuba) ‘brought back’).
10 This could supply water — what do you think? (4)
WELL – double definition. “Well? What do you think?”.
11 Inclination to write song (8)
PENCHANT – PEN (to write) + CHANT (song).
12 Uncommon panic about Conservative (6)
SCARCE – SCARE (panic) ‘about’ C (Conservative).
14 Meaning to get stuff from abroad? (6)
IMPORT – double definition.
16 Note heartless opponent finding monument? (8)
MEMORIAL – MEMO (note) + RIvAL (‘heartless’ opponent).
18 Compete to restrain constant crime (4)
VICE – VIE (compete) ‘restraining’ C (constant).
20 Flan rapidly cut by that man (6)
QUICHE – QUICk (rapidly ‘cut’, i.e. with last letter removed) + HE (that man).
21 About to show signs of exertion, returning for a quick snooze (6)
CATNAP – CA (contraction of circa, Latin for about) plus PANT (show signs of exertion) ‘returning’ (i.e. reversed).
22 Gloomy note disrupted study of insects (10)
ENTOMOLOGY – straight anagram (‘disrupted’) of GLOOMY NOTE.
Down
2 About to capture hydrogen in river (5)
RHINE – RE (about) ‘capturing’ H (hydrogen) + IN.
3 Swindler almost entirely ruthless, sadly (7)
HUSTLER – anagram (‘sadly’) of most of the letters (‘almost entirely’) of RUTHLESs.
4 Draw tops of the old windows (3)
TOW – tops, i.e. first letters of, The Old Windows.
5 Chance of success? Work up talent, I fancy (9)
POTENTIAL – PO (work ‘up’, i.e reversed in this down clue) + anagram (‘fancy’) of TALENT I.
6 Restraint for dogs beginning to hunt beyond meadows (5)
LEASH – LEAS (meadows) + H (beginning to Hunt).
7 Champion, with something short of a bullseye (6)
WINNER – W (with) + INNER (something short of a bullseye).
11 Identification adopted by current leader (9)
PRESIDENT – ID (identification) ‘adopted’ by PRESENT (current).
13 New reporter cuddling that woman’s little angel (6)
CHERUB – CUB (new reporter) ‘cuddling’ HER (that woman). I am glad to see that Pedro is obviously an equal opportunities employer, balancing things up as he does against ‘that man’ in 20A!
15 Crucial US city to important figure, on reflection (7)
PIVOTAL – LA (US city) + TO VIP (to important figure) ‘on reflection’, i.e. all reversed.
17 Individual bringing in copper when required (2,3)
ON CUE – ONE (individual) ‘bringing in’ CU (copper, chemical symbol Cu).
19 Family beginning to generate loud noise (5)
CLANG – CLAN (family) + G (beginning to Generate).
21 Odd bits of charm in English river (3)
CAM – just what it says on the tin: the ‘odd bits’ of ChArM.

47 comments on “QC 1925 by Pedro”

  2. I had a little four-inch QUICHE lorraine for dinner the other day. Never thought of quiche as flan, but it’s close and what is called “flan” varies around the world…
  3. 9 minutes, no problems.

    Pedro has set 84 QC’s going back to August 2014 and this is Don’s second encounter with him, the first being in May this year. I’ve blogged only four of his.

    Intrigued by the comment above I did an image search on ‘American flan’ and was overwhelmed with pictures of what I’d call Crème caramel or Caramel custard. How our cousins get this as a ‘flan’ is quite beyond me!

    Edited at 2021-07-26 05:24 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks for the usual statistical background jackkt. I thought I had come up against him more than once but that was obviously another one of my ever-increasing cloud of false memories!
  4. FOI: 13d. CHERUB
    LOI: 10a. WELL
    Time to Complete: 50 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 22
    Clues Answered with Aids: 2
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: Nil
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 24/24
    Aids Used: Chambers

    Very slow to start, finding many of the clues initially very puzzling. But as I applied what I have learned so far in during the past 8 months, I was able to get a lot further than I thought I would. I needed help in answering the penultimate clue, and the one before it (I am not sure if there is a word for immediately preceding penultimate), with well coming to me eventually.

    Good start to the week with a completion bang on my average time.

    1. antepenultimate; it’s actually used, in phonetics for instance: ‘university’ is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.
        1. In modern Greek, stress is crucial too. Took me a year to be able to pronounce our landlord’s name. Mr Paraskevopoulos stress on the VOP, but his wife would have been Kyria Paraskaskevopoulou stress on the POU. Paraskevi means Friday, as far as I remember, stress on last syllable.
          (sorry, I don’t know how to move this to below Merlin’s !)

          Edited at 2021-07-26 12:57 pm (UTC)

  5. Tricky one today I thought. Scraped home in just under 20 following big hold ups with PRESIDENT, PENCHANT and MEMORIAL. LOI was WELL where I got to ‘spring’ quickly but for whatever reason WELL took a lengthy alphabet trawl. Only four on the first pass of acrosses, so nothing came that easily.
  6. 12:16, and this after repeated getting the spelling of 1a wrong. No real problems, though did not parse PIVOTAL or WINNER. Is Inner something on a dartboard? I thought something short of a bullseye was the larger ring, which I always called the Outer Bull, or the 25.

    Long ancient Greek names usually have the stress on the ante-penultimate syllable: Aristophanes, Thucydides, Themistocles etc..

    COD CHERUB

    1. Hi Merlin

      I think we’re talking Archery here and perhaps I should have elaborated. I believe the ‘inner’ on an Archery target is the smallest ring and inside that is the bull or bullseye. I believe the bull is gold in colour and the inner is red.

      I did a small amount of Archery when I was in my teens and this is about all I remember of it.

      2. I may be wrong (Mrs Random would say that I’m usually wrong), but I think INNER refers to the (25 point) ring around the bullseye (50 points) on a dartboard. There is no such thing as a bullseye in archery – it’s called the ‘gold’.
        1. I’m afraid the green ring round the bullseye on a dartboard is most definitely not called the inner – in fact it’s called the “outer bull” (or more usually, at least when you hit it, “GREEN BITS!!!!”, screamed in a very excited Geordie accent).
      3. Thank you Phil and Random. Nice pun but there is absolutely nothing superior here to bow to!

        As I tend to do though I tried looking this up. Weirdly to my mind there doesn’t seem to be any strict terminology. I though that Archery nerds would be much like any other nerds and be fiercely protective of their definitions but it seems not.

        I had always believed that the ‘inner’ ring came fom Archery, and it does seem that this term is used but there doesn’t seem to be any strict definition laid down. Equally ‘bullseye’, which I agreed with Random was probably loose usage on my part (like him I thought it only applied to Darts) but what the hell, everyone would know what I meant. And yet it seems that usage of the term in Archery is acceptable after all.

        But although I say ‘acceptable’ this Archery lot seem to be very easygoing and it looks like they would find almost anything acceptable.

        1. Possibly too late to be useful but in full-bore rifle shooting the scoring rings on the target,, for reasons I can’t explain, are called bulls eye (5 points), inner (4), magpie (3) and outer (2). I don’t know if archery uses similar terminology. Sam
  7. Steady solve today in around 25 mins. Narrowly avoided looking up LOI MEMORIAL after staring at it blankly for quite some time. Trying my hardest to persevere to keep the grey cells firing…! Couldn’t parse WINNER as NHO ‘inner’ although does now make sense — many thanks astartedon. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Pedro.
  8. 07:09 – easily a new PB for me (previous was 10:3x). LOI QUICHE

    Switched my methodology from starting with a “first pass” of all the across clues, to getting 1a, then using that answer as feedstock for the intersecting down answers, and “spreading” across the grid. So maybe that’s the reason…
    …or possibly it was just a really easy one
    …or possibly I’M ON FIRE today!

    Best wishes, Denise

    1. Or just maybe all 3 ? The technique change puts you into the same method I’ve used for all these years, though I find it works far better on paper than it does online !
  9. I found this quite chewy in places, as I usually do with Pedro. I had a particular issue with ENTOMOLOGY as I got hooked on trying to make etymology work despite their being the wrong number of letters! PRESIDENT and LOI MEMORIAL also held me up. Hard to choose a favourite but I found PENTCHANT very satisfying to solve. Finished in 10.36.
    Thanks to astartedon
    1. Glad I didn’t realise it was Pedro, whom I find rather intimidating. I just assumed it would be a softer Monday puzzle and attacked accordingly! Biffed MEMORIAL, thanks for the explanation.

      FOI LEASH (I wanted to see if 1ac ended “ly”), LOI VICE, COD PIVOTAL, time 07:19 for 1.4K and a Very Good Day.

      Many thanks Pedro and Don.

      Templar

  10. I was totally puzzled by 8A and stared at it for ages, JIG didn’t come to me as a dance, so I knew the W but not much else, and didn’t really equate JIGSAW with puzzle. The rest went in around it fairly steadily. A brain scratching start for a Monday. All those great Olympic performances were distracting, especially a Gold for the Plymouthian, Tom Daley.
  11. A mixed bag for me. I jumped about the grid, as usual. I made better progress working up from the bottom having seen ENTOMOLOGY quickly although the SE corner only finally fell when I got the V of PIVOTAL. I needed crossers for 1a and, like Plymouthian, took ages to see JIGSAW. I spent a minute more than my target on this one so not a great start to the week for me (but a good puzzle).
    I liked PENCHANT, QUICHE, PRESIDENT, WINNER, CHERUB, ON CUE. Thanks to Pedro and Don. John M.

    Edited at 2021-07-26 08:46 am (UTC)

  12. In rush today so had a 20 min time window which I duly failed.

    Saying that, managed everything apart from 2dn “Rhine” and 8ac “Jigsaw”, but couldn’t get the latter as I incorrectly put “tie” for 4dn.

    FOI — 10ac “Well”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 11ac “Penchant”

    Thanks as usual!

  13. I was on Pedro’s wavelength this morning. FOI TOW; LOI SCARCE.
    No particular hold-ups. The clueing was very precise, like an Izetti, so I followed what I thought were the instructions and it worked.
    Nice puzzle. Time 08:43.
    David
    PS re comments above, if you ask for a flan in France, you’ll get crème caramel.
  14. 9 minutes for me and much to enjoy …
    … in what I thought was a very good QC, with no dodgy clues, unfairly obscure GK or worn-out clichés. Thank you Pedro.

    Only slight hesitation was 10A Well. The answer was clear, given the checkers and the first half of the clue, but I wasn’t sure at first about Well = What do you think, which seemed a little odd at first. But one accepts and moves on.

    Several contestants for COD but I go for 7D Winner — I did know inner and the surface is very smooth (and topical given the Olympics, where Archery is indeed one of the sports).

    Many thanks to Don for the blog
    Cedric

  15. FOI was such a long time ago (puzzle solving spasmodic today) that I can’t remember. May have been LEASH and CAM and TOW.
    Liked WELL, CHERUB, PENCHANT (LOI)
    Slow on 1a, JIGSAW and TRAGIC.
    CATNAP unparsed, ditto POTENTIAL, PRESIDENT, PIVOTAL. Only parsed the ‘memo’ of memorial.
    Thanks all, esp Don.

    Edited at 2021-07-26 11:00 am (UTC)

  16. 11:12 here, so a gentle enough Monday. FOI ARCHETYPAL, LOI PRESIDENT, COD MEMORIAL. Thanks both.
  17. I think I left my brain in bed when I did this one. Got well and truly bogged down and at 9 minutes had less than half the grid completed. TOW and RHINE were first 2 in, but when I typed in ARCHETYPAL, I missed the E and finished up with ARCHTYPAAL, which made POTENTIAL impossible until I finally noticed. Not surprisingly POTENTIAL was my LOI. 14:59. Thanks Pedro and Don.
  18. Twenty minutes, a nice distraction from the inconvenience of workmen in the house for which I should be grateful. For whom I should be grateful clarifies that I should be grateful for the workmen, but I am grateful for the distraction. FOI tragic, LOI jigsaw. A very enjoyable puzzle even if I didn’t solve it very quickly. Three unparsed – catnap, president, pivotal. Is a clang always loud? I thought it was just metallic. Ding dong bell, tragic that the cat is in the well. COD entomology. Thanks, Don, for clarifying the clues, and to Pedro for a rather nice puzzle. GW.
  19. My struggles continue into a second week (still no rain here). Curse of the loi, Memorial, took me sailing well past 25mins. Even after biffing the answer, I pulled stumps on parsing at the 30 min mark, having exhausted Me + MorXial options… who would have thought of Memo for note 🙄. I thought the meanings of Import and Penchant were a touch on the obscure side for a Monday, and I was grateful for having come across the President clue before or that would have been another delay. CoD to 15d, Pivotal, a nice one to parse. Invariant
  20. Clock’s been stopped on 37mins but I’ve been splitting my attention between the QC and work, so actual “in-play” time would have been far short of that.

    Nothing jumps out as hugely difficult or memorable – LOI MEMORIAL required all checkers, but other than that was a slow but steady solve.

    Thanks both,

  21. ….”cenotaph” into 16D despite already having the L of POTENTIAL in place, this presented no real problems or bones of contention.

    FOI ARCHETYPAL
    LOI PRESIDENT
    COD WELL
    TIME 3:37

  22. Seriously off the pace on this one, eventually finishing in an interrupted 40 minutes. Not sure what I found so difficult as there was nothing obscure or complicated. Eventually solved from the bottom up, having read all the across clues until I finally managed to solve 22ac. Nice puzzle though, even though it nearly defeated me.

    FOI – 22ac ENTOMOLOGY
    LOI – 9ac TRAGIC (sums up my efforts today!)
    COD – several contenders. I liked 11ac PENCHANT, 7dn WINNER and 11dn PRESIDENT

  23. Following a lovely walk around parts of the Knepp estate this morning, where we saw some storks (they’re huge), wild ponies, deer and various butterflies, Mrs Random and I both zoomed (almost as fast as we ever zoom) through today’s o offering from Pedro. I romped home in 22 minutes and Mrs R once again escaped the SCC in 15 minutes.

    All clues were fully parsed. No esoteric GK required. No archaic or rare words. Just what I envisage a QC should be.

    Many thanks to Pedro, whom I usually find quite challenging, and astartedon.

    Edited at 2021-07-26 03:23 pm (UTC)

  24. Archers do talk about an inner since tje introduction of 10 zone scoring by World Archery but never a bullseye
    I believe that comes from rifle shooting

    Easy finish today in about 10 minutes

    1. And your name is toxshot. Does that by any chance mean that you are a toxophilite? If so then you obviously know what you are talking about!
  25. I’ve been tackling these QCs for some time now, slowly improving but still very much at the amateur end of the spectrum. Target is 20 minutes, under 10 exceptional, over 30 miserable though sadly still commonplace.

    Just couldn’t see jigsaw and Rhine despite being obvious in hindsight.

    21:06 today.

  26. Due to being on hols in Cornwall.

    6:06, jabbing myopically at my phone screen.

    It felt harder than my 6 seconds over target would suggest. Seems like SCARCE went in last.

  27. This looked hard at first, but once I got started the answers flowed quire steadily, although PRESIDENT and POTENTIAL needed a bit more time.
  28. No real time since spread over three efforts but I found this difficult.
    I spent far too long seeing Archetypal and Potential (misdirected anagram even though I knew “work” was then superfluous)
    But just couldn’t see Memorial or Quiche.
    Brain freeze with the first letter blank…
    Was convinced Memorial begun Ne as the heartless note — so misdirection beat me again….

    But otherwise an enjoyable crossword for me.
    Thanks all
    John George

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