Quick Cryptic 1187 by Orpheus

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this a real slog, taking over twice as long as normal to complete it, and still having to look up some of the vocabulary before blogging. On top of this ignorance (4ac, 9ac), a few clues are quite whimsical cryptic-y definitions (which I always find tricky), and so I didn’t really get a foothold in any quarter. Also found it very difficult to provide straightforward this + that parsing, so apologies in advance if it doesn’t make sense.

On the other side of the coin, I enjoyed the rather easy 14dn, and especially 21ac, which gets my vote for COD. Hope I’m having a slow day, and that you fared much better.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Lucky creature heading off for racecourse (5)
ASCOT – mASCOT (lucky creature) missing the first letter (heading off).
4 Provide funding for track skirting quarters (7)
SPONSOR – SPOOR (track) surrounding (skirting) N and S (quarters (of the compass)). In case you have the same blind spot, Chambers defines ‘spoor’ as, “a track or trail, especially that of a hunted animal”.
8 In Montmartre, a clear, sticky substance (7)
TREACLE – hidden in (in) montmarTRE A CLEar.
9 Drunk crossing Channel Islands? It’s legal (5)
LICIT – LIT (drunk) surrounding (crossing) C.I. (Channel Islands). A double whammy for me, as I did not know this particular slang term for ‘drunk’ (how many are there!?), and the answer didn’t come to mind as easily as the antonym ‘illicit’ would have.
10 Female army chaplain, perhaps? (12)
SERVICEWOMAN – cryptic definition. I hope I’ve got this right: a female army officer is a woman who serves, and a female chaplain is a woman who delivers service, both of which could be whimsically described as a ‘servicewoman’.
12 Pot being knocked over, family finds clothing protector (6)
NAPKIN – PAN (pot) reversed (being knocked over) and KIN (family).
13 Light eater primarily tucking into cured meat (6)
BEACON – first letter of (primarily) Eaten inside (tucked into) BACON (cured meat).
16 Swede possibly travelling in Canada is extremely vain (12)
SCANDINAVIAN – anagram of (travelling) IN CANADA IS and outside letters of (extremely) VaiN.
18 Flag horribly at first, like Oscar Wilde? (5)
IRISH – IRIS (flag, and crossword chesnut) and first letter of (at first) Horribly.
20 He abandons the Russian currency, creating difficulty (7)
TROUBLE – take ‘he’ out of (he abandons) The, with ROUBLE (Russian currency).
21 Go off at a tangent about son in lodgings (7)
DIGRESS – RE (with regard to, about) and S (son) in DIGS (lodgings).
22 Err, but remain outside right (5)
STRAY – STAY (remain) surrounding (outside) R (right).

Down
1 Skilled worker’s twin primarily lives in 18 islands (7)
ARTISAN – first letter of (primarily) Twin, then IS (lives), inside (in) ARAN (a group of islands belonging to the answer to 18ac).
2 Choosing the best person for harvesting fruit? (6-7)
CHERRY-PICKING – Is there a definition of ‘cherry-picking’ as choosing the best person, as opposed to just choosing the best? If not, this is another whimsical definition that I can’t decide how to underline.
3 Planner’s course of action Italian painter talked of (9)
TACTICIAN – sounds like (talked of) “tack” (course of action) and “Titian” (Italian painter).
4 Almost stop before going in to get sound unit (6)
STEREO –  ERE (before) inside (going in) all but the last letter of (almost) STOp.
5 Bird of prey’s plaintive cry mentioned in Albert Square? (3)
OWL – hOWL (plaintive cry) as it might be pronounced in the East End of London (setting for “Eastenders’, the Albert Square soap opera).
6 Mountaineer supporting party — an uppish type? (6,7)
SOCIAL CLIMBER – CLIMBER (mountaineer) underneath (supporting) SOCIAL (party). Again, the defintion is playful, referring to one who is moving up, rather that one who is literally uppish.
7 Woman’s tedious routine held up by husband (4)
RUTH – RUT (tedious routine) above (held up by) H (husband).
11 Employees in exchanges, or in certain theatres? (9)
OPERATORS – cryptic definition. Those who work in telephone exchanges, or surgical theatres.
14 Athlete losing head in New York convent (7)
NUNNERY – rUNNER (athlete) without the first letter (losing head), inside NY (New York).
15 In break, shout greeting in our direction (6)
HIATUS – I wasn’t sure if ‘shout’ was necessary at first, but I’ve convinced myself. HI AT US, as opposed to ‘hi to us’, suggests that the greeting was shouted in our direction.
17 Chicken, possibly, served in can? (4)
BIRD – double definition, the first by example, indicated by ‘possibly’. The rhyming slang term ‘bird-lime’ for ‘time’ is shortened to ‘bird’ (i.e. that served in can). Thanks to Kevin for the gen.
19 Shade regularly displayed in house (3)
HUE – every other letter from (regularly displayed in) HoUsE.

29 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1187 by Orpheus”

  2. I didn’t notice the person problem in 2d; it is a bit odd. I assumed that Albert Square is in East London. 4:51.
  3. 11 minutes, so tricky enough for me to run over my target 10 once again.

    I wondered about ‘creature’ at 1ac but Collins has ‘animal, toy or symbol’ so it’s fine other than venturing into DBE territory without indication.

    We’re also in DBE territory for the first definition at 2dn as ‘cherry-picking’ in that sense doesn’t have to refer to a person, but this time it’s signalled with a question mark.

    I think ‘lit’ for ‘drunk’ may have started as ‘lit up’ and the ‘up’ is commonly dispensed with. There’s a wartime song ‘I’m gonna get lit up when the lights go on in London’.

    Edited at 2018-09-26 05:04 am (UTC)

  4. I think my average solving time has lengthened of late. This one took me 24 minutes despite getting off to a flying start in the NW corner with the exception of my penultimate solve 10a SERVICEWOMAN which I do not think was clued well. My LOI was 11d OPERATORS similarly clued. I also biffed 4a SPONSOR and 9a LICIT as I DNK Spoor as track or Lit as drunk. Thank you William for the blog…I certainly needed it today.
  5. Wow. This was more like a 15squared to me. Over half a !?!*! hour. I biffed a few (thanks to william for some parsings). Looking back there are some very nice clues but I failed to appreciate them whilst drumming my fingers and sighing. I just cannot believe that anyone could complete this in under 5 minutes. Perhaps I am in a minority of one on this one. John M
  7. I enjoyed this but ended up mildly irritated. Lit for drunk – where please??? In one way it doesn’t matter because the answer was obvious but why use such a rare definition?? Similarly artisan suggested itself for skilled worker but the clue is a bit obscure in my view for a qc
    2. “Lit” is very common among millennials. I was happy to see a clue geared towards younger solvers like me, for once!
      1. Wow that is heartening!! I’d assumed that its more likely to be one for last century’s millennials 🙂
        1. Just looked at the link from anon above your reply. Gives it as an origin from 1914. So was my initial cynicism founded ? or was the solver latching onto some modern revival?
  8. I started off quickly but then got reined back, eventually clocking off at 9:46. Unfortunately in my tired state (it was 1:30am) I didn’t read the clue properly at 3d and entered TACTITIAN. Eeejit! Some good stuff here, and an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Orpheus and William.
  9. I found this very difficult in places. As others have indicated, lit for drunk, spoor for track and Aran as a group of Irish islands were unfamiliar and I took ages to get servicewoman even though I had all the checkers (it’s actually a clever clue in my opinion). Therefore 37 minutes.
  10. Really tough today. Gave up on 57 minutes with just ‘servicewoman’ to go, though I’d got most of the way in about half that. In retrospect, I should have got ‘operators’ and ‘Scandinavian’ quicker. Hadn’t heard of spoor or lit, or come across quarters for compass points, or bird for time (although I just assumed it was referring to a person, a jail bird, who was being served in prison). Still, always good to learn some new things.
  11. Mer at CHERRY PICKING referring specifically to people but I suppose the question mark gives the setter some license. OPERATORS was biffed and I forgot to go back at parse. A good leg stretch today.
    6’00”
  13. I found that really hard. Two sittings, and even then I very nearly gave in. I had Straightlace (I was struggling) at 10ac for ages, until Operators finally came to mind for 11d. Sponsor, Stereo (loi) and Bird all took a long time. Well north of the hour, with only 15d, Hiatus, breaking the gloom. Invariant
  14. I nearly gave up with 4d unsolved. I had Servingwoman for 10a which I had spent a long time on.I had these two left after 35 minutes and put this puzzle to one side and looked at the 15×15 and immediately solved three clues two of which were clearly QC level.
    Anyway I eventually thought of Servicewoman and on a final reading of the clue I thought of Stereo. So a long time for this one. Very difficult for a QC I thought but I enjoyed the challenge. COD to 21a. David
  15. Enjoyed but came unstuck with Stereo – although I had guessed the ERE part and play records on my stereo all the time. And just couldn’t get Servicewoman which defeated me – must think services when confronted with army in future. Thanks all.
    John George
  16. This was very hard. In fact as if late the puzzles are getting more difficult and there is no consistency in the level. There is a group of us ( 9) who started doing these at the same time. We have all felt the same that recently the level has gone up so most of us are not even close to solving. Today about 7 clues solved.
    Can I stress that many of us have no interest in puzzles that are like the main puzzle and simply want a 20 minutes solve not a off putting unsolvable puzzle.
    We all accept the odd very difficult puzzle but come on give us beginners a chance as lately it has become a turn off.
  17. I found that a stiff but fair challenge, coming in at just over 4 Kevins. Main hold ups were SPONSOR and STEREO. I liked SOCIAL CLIMBER very much and it gets my COD.

    Posting anonymously because I couldn’t remember my password and LiveJournal has temporarily banned my IP Address, it tells me sternly!

    Templar

  18. A DNF in 45 minutes with 5 clues still to go. Some of my answers were not so much biffed as guessed, and even with the blog were not obvious. Give me Joker and his devious surfaces any day.
    I don’t think the QC is getting more difficult in general, but there has been the occasional stinker recently.
    Brian
  19. I must have been on the right wavelength today as I didn’t find this too tricky on the whole, although my last 3 in needed a bit of figuring out – 10a, 13a and LOI 4d, where I was trying to think of a decibel equivalent. I was also fortunate to know all the obscurer bits of vocabulary. I thought HIATUS was very good. Completed in 14.02.

  20. Found this one to be a real stinker, even after reading the blog there seems to be too many clues that were one step too far or too obscure for a QC. I’m 41 and I hear “lit” every day but I am a teacher..and to my kids it just means something is great rather than “drunk” but I’ve heard it used occasionally as in “I was so lit last night” with older kids.

    Edited at 2018-09-26 07:17 pm (UTC)

  21. I usually manage to finish and if I don’t there is usually just one clue left. Today there were 4 left 4a, 4d, 10a, 11d after 24 minutes and I had made no further progress at the 30 minute stage! Eventually I used a checker for 10a which helped me to get 11d. 4a went in unparsed and I never did get 4d. What a disaster! I very much needed this blog to make me feel better about it. Hearing that many others had struggled was very reassuring. Thank you William for taking the time to explain everything.

    I especially liked the two long clues, but COD goes to 21a. MM

  22. Still at that stage where to finish is a celebration but the blogs are great and you learn loads. However do feel a bit cheated by this QC. Too many obscure words and I really don’t like clues like 1d which in part require you to have solved another clue- which I hadn’t! This was more chore than pleasure but tomorrow’s another day.
    L&I
  23. I thought this was an excellent puzzle, containing a very good – and witty – cryptic definition (SERVICEWOMAN) and introducing core cryptic crossword vocabulary such as LIT, BIRD, ARAN and SPOOR in a pretty accessible way. No problems with CHERRY-PICKING either, though, like some others, I’m not that keen on clues that reference other clues. Still, they do crop up quite a bit, though very rarely in the Times Cryptic.

    Thanks to Orpheus and well done William!

    Edited at 2018-09-27 03:00 am (UTC)

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