QC 3071 by Oink

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

Pretty easy going from Oink today, 7:20 for me. No obscurities, but a couple of clues tripped me up as being “too easy”, still not sure what’s going on at 5d.

Definitions underlined in bold, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, synonyms in (parentheses), deletions in {curly brackets} and [ ] for other indicators.

Across
1 Regularly connected in times gone by (4)
ONCE – {c}O{n}N{e}C{t}E{d}
4 Senior officers stop bars becoming anarchic (3,5)
TOP BRASS – (STOP BARS)* [anarchic]

From the brass insignia worn by high-ranking military officers, Earliest documented uses date to around the 1890s-1900s in military contexts and 1920s for broader usage.
8 Noise made by the Bells in heated argument (4-4)
DING-DONG – Double def,

DING DONG for a fight or argument, not so common, but definitely still current, often preceded by “a right”
9 FBI agents — good chaps (1-3)
G-MEN – G{ood} + MEN (chaps)

A somewhat dated term for “the feds”, (usually the FBI, but could be the IRS, or other “Government Men”. First popularised in the 1930s when J Edgar Hoover was launching the FBI.

G-MEN is also a term used for members of G Division, a Dublin Metropolitan Police unit operating out of Dublin Castle prior to Irish independence in 1922 and this predates American usage.
10 Help a speculative venture (4)
ABET – A + BET (speculative venture)
11 Fan of The Crown? (8)
ROYALIST – Cryptic (barely)

Without the italics this would be a straight definition such as you might find in the Concise crossword. The italics refer to the Netflix show.
12 Fleet of ships near Madagascar is closing in (6)
ARMADA – hidden in near Madagascar

“Is closing in” is the containment indicator, but doesn’t quite work for me. “Encloses” yes. “Is hidden in” yes.
14 Angry following American from one side to the other (6)
ACROSS – A(merican) + CROSS (angry)

As noted before, A for American has not been spotted in the wild, but only in Collins. I put the latest version of ChatGPT on it, which came back with there doesn’t seem to be any credible example—whether in crosswords, editorial style, technical codes, or scholarly writing—where “A” by itself stands specifically for “American.” It’s just not used that way.

The challenge is to find it not as part of another abbreviation.

It suggested further looking at “military dispatches, older telegram codes, or specialized dictionaries” and came up with one example: the Canadian Football League (CFL). They label player status with a single letter e.g., the Negotiation List shows the A/N/G column and explicitly defining A: American.
16 Heck, I’m so desperately longing to be back in Britain? (8)
HOMESICK – (HECK IM SO)* [desperately]

The suffix -SICK works in two opposite ways : The “yearning sick” words (homesick, lovesick) are metaphorical use where “sick” meant something closer to “afflicted with longing.”

The “causative sick” words (airsick, seasick) follow the more modern, literal pattern where the preceding word identifies what’s making you physically ill.
18 Mess about in large vessel (4)
LARK – L{arge} + ARK (vessel)

“vessel” is one of the most vexing words to see in a clue. It is used by setters for ships (like today), containers such as basins, pots etc and also for tube-like things such as arteries.

I think setters use it to tune a clue to make it a bit harder, as today “ship” would have been a bit easier.
19 English social worker heading west for Italian hotspot (4)
ETNA – E{nglish} + ANT (social worker) reversed [heading west]

ETNA being, of course the Sicilian volcano, hence a hot spot.

This time Oink tunes the clue a bit easier, because omitting “Italian” would have made it considerably harder.
20 13-year-old maybe knocking over green tea (8)
TEENAGER – (GREEN TEA) * [knocking over]
22 Amphetamine discontinued? That’s a blow (8)
UPPERCUT – UPPER (amphetamine) + CUT (discontinued)

The Times crosswords often requires deep knowledge of drugs and their slang. Amphetamines are called “uppers”, though “speed” is also common.
23 Post small object (4)
SEND – S{mall} + END (object)

“End” as in the aim(object) of an action, as in “They worked tirelessly to that end”
Down
2 Arrest local in beauty salon (4,3)
NAIL BAR – NAIL(arrest) + BAR (local)
3 Cardinal’s importance initially ignored (5)
EIGHT – {w}EIGHT (importance)

EIGHT is just one of the Cardinal numbers. It’s a linguistic term rather than a mathematical term, for numbers one, two, three etc written out as words. Mathematicians like me don’t use this term, and we never write numbers out. We say “integers” and it’s more precisely defined.
4 Briefly sound one’s horn as well (3)
TOO – TOO{t} [sound one’s horn]

I think “toot” is a bit too polite for a car horn, I’m sure that “honk” is generally more common in Britain?
5 Popular investment product for the young? (5,4)
PIGGY BANK – ?Cryptic?

Not sure what Oink is getting at here. Children have Piggy Banks, is that it?
6 Soldier who’s often found in same pub? (7)
REGULAR – Double def

Soldiers who serve under regular, standardized conditions: consistent pay, uniform training, organized ranks, and permanent service. This contrasts with irregular forces like militias, partisans, mercenaries, or volunteer units.

And someone who drinks in the same pub.
7 They help one see tiny particles, I’m told (5)
SPECS – sounds like SPECKS (tiny particles)

Homophone indicated by “I’m told”
11 Lifelike articles I manufactured (9)
REALISTIC – (ARTICLES I)
13 OK to declare how old one is? (7)
AVERAGE – AVER (declare) + AGE (how old one is)

AVER=declare (or say) is very common in crosswords.
15 Son harbouring desire to be a medic (7)
SURGEON – SON contains URGE (desire)
17 Books acquired by old age pensioner freely available (2,3)
ON TAP – OAP contains NT (New Testament=books)

I think OAP is generally frowned upon. There was even a petition to ban its usage even though the Govt just calls it “State Pension”.  The US “senior citizen” is making inroads.
18 Boys drinking nothing — or a lot? (5)
LOADS – LADS includes O(nothing)
21 Take in Cockney’s warmth (3)
EAT – H{EAT}

“Cockney” is just how setters indicate that an aspirated H is to be dropped.

90 comments on “QC 3071 by Oink”

  1. Another easy one like yesterday to ease us into the week, and nothing held me up unduly finishing in 6.02. Having said that I had a brainstorm at 5dn where I inexplicably initially put in PIGGYBACK where the words ‘popular’ and ‘for the young’ were enough for me to get hold of the wrong end of the stick. Fortunately an instant rethink enabled me to correct it.

  2. 7 minutes for me. LOI ACROSS. I was aware that American might be A.
    Lots of great surfaces in this and a fun QC.
    COD to SURGEON.
    David

  3. Only real hold up was writing in “speedcut” and then looking at it for a bit thinking “that can’t actually exist”. So LOI & COD to UPPERCUT.

    No issues with A for American given that, as vinyl points out, it is used all the time in very common initalisms.

    All done in 04:55 for a Red Letter Day. Many thanks Merlin and Oink.

    1. I plumped for SPEEDCUT as was taxiing on a Ryanair at Stansted about to takeoff otherwise would have shaved 30 seconds off PB as it was otherwise correct in 3.53

  4. 12 minutes all parsed. Definitely at the speedy end of the spectrum for me. However like AndyPandy I put piggy back in at 5dn. Unlike AndyPandy I didn’t change it as I had heard of piggyback loans in the world of finance and assumed that this was the investment product referred to. I am counting this as a valid answer.

    FOI – 1ac ONCE
    LOI – 5dn the incorrect piggy back
    COD – 19ac ETNA

    Thanks to Oink and Merlin.

  5. 8 minutes. I had exactly the same initial thought about UPPERCUT as many others it seems. I quite liked the ‘investment product for the young’ cryptic def. Slow to see SURGEON for ‘medic’ at the end.

    Thanks to Merlin and Oink

  6. No new personal best for me in over two months, and then I break it in consecutive days! All done in 5:17, had never heard of G men, and didn’t understand uppercut but guessed it from ending in cut, and knew it was right as soon as on tap went in. Everything else almost immediate.

  7. A sub 5 for the second day running! I though this might be a PB, but the QSnitch tells me I was once 5 seconds faster in September 2023. From ONCE to UPPERCUT in 4:12. I thought of speed when I saw amphetaine, but fortunately was familliar with UPPERCUT. Thanks Oink and Merlin.

  8. Not often that I get two sub-tens in a row, so a nice continuation of the week for me with 8:49. I think we’ve seen AVERAGE clued very similarly in recent weeks.

    Thank you for the blog!

  9. 9:54

    Another easy one. Couldn’t see how ROYALIST was cryptic, it almost seemed too easy, but couldn’t be anything else. Held up by putting speed for amphetamine before seeing the mistake then getting LOI AVERAGE.

    Edit: I see from the comments that speed was a rather common mistake, so I don’t feel so bad about it now.

  10. Managed this in just under half an hour – NHO G-MEN but figured there wasn’t much else it could be, and having read many of the other comments, don’t feel bad about putting in SPEEDCUT last only to immediately get an ‘Unlucky!’ before I could really think about whether it made sense or not… Thanks Merlin and Oink!

  11. 4.18

    Can’t go much quicker tapping with my one finger on phone.

    I guess there are bank accounts etc specifically aimed at parents for children but agree it was a v gentle cryptic. Re our bloggers comment it has taken me a long time to think of ARK for vessel. No doubt it wont be long before I forget it again!

  12. 9:28. I enjoyed PIGGY BANK. Nice clue. Thanks Oink. And thank you Merlin for the fine blog

  13. 6.43 A second quicker than yesterday. I was a bit slow on LOI ACROSS which gave me time to realise that SPEEDCUT isn’t a word. Though it would be a blow. Thanks Merlin and Oink.

    P.S. In maths cardinal numbers are the sizes of sets.

  14. Eventually disregarded SPEEDCUT and got where I was supposed to go, which slowed me up somewhat.

  15. Good gentle puzzle, completed in 13’35”. I missed out on a first ever sub-10 minute solve by taking forever to see “average”.

    “Uppercut” made me chuckle.

    Many thanks to the setter.

  16. DNF. Needed marital aids to prompt me to lark and across (yep spent a while on whether lurn was a thing), and had joined the throng guessing speedcut was an obscure term for a cut and blow dry. Oh well.

    FOI Ding Dong
    LOI across
    COD Eight

    Thanks

    1. I spent a short time wondering about lurn, too! I didn’t admit to it in my post, though.
      Nice to know I was not alone…..

  17. 25 minutes (quite fast for me), but it could/should have been an SCC escape.

    I started well with ONCE and TOP BRASS and progressed well until hitting the buffers with a couple of clues to go. Unfortunately, I had rING tONe at 8a, which made P_e_Y _A_K impossible until I’d realised and corrected my error. This took several minutes and so my day out was scuppered.

    UPPER for amphetamine and. G-MEN were NHOs, and I still have no idea why ROYALIST is in a cryptic crossword.

    COD: NAIL BAR

    Many thanks to Merlin and Oink.

  18. DNF. Piggyback, speedcut, even almost ring-ding- brain obviously not up it today!

  19. 10:16 but WOE; as so often happens I was undone by thinking that my weird NHO “answer” must be due to my lack of the required GK. Today it was failing to get UPPERCUT (SPEEDCUT not a thing haha, oh well, at least I’m in good company). Fun puzzle though!

    DNK DING-DONG either so half expected a pink square there, and only VHO NAIL BAR. And in general felt that the amount of time I was taking was really unnecessary, yet there you go. And wherever you go, there you are.

    Thanks to Oink and Merlin, especially for the chatty blog! I dunno, though, “cardinal” seems like a mathematical term if you’re doing set theory. Or is that not “real mathematics”? On another topic, as an old person myself I find it sad when people try to de-stigmatize old age by changing the words we use. “Old” is a fine word and I claim it without shame.

  20. 9:13, held up by having to come up with an alternative to SPEEDCUT. Oh, and by being convinced that 11a would be MONARCHIST and not pausing to think of a synonym when that didn’t fit. Ho hum.

    Thanks to Oink & Merlin.

  22. Stumped by EIGHT as never heard about cardinal numbers, but very interesting. A good puzzle. Thank you for the blog 😁

  23. 10 minutes.

    Just over half on 15 x 15. Lousy performance. I haven’t got much idea what I’m doing most of the time. I cannot read clues properly no matter how hard I try.

    1. You might find it beneficial after each day’s solving disaster to go back through the puzzle and breakdown every single clue and explain them out loud (or write them down) as you would to a beginner. To account for every letter of every answer and word of every clue. No skipping or rushing past any. No guarantees but it might help you to see how setters write clues and therefore help you to decode them better.

  24. Late solve today. Luckily never thought of speed for amphetamine. Held up by ACROSS, but no idea why. NHO G-MEN. LOI EIGHT. COD DING-DONG 😆 Many thanks all.

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