Quick Cryptic 14 by Izetti

Today’s Time 4 min 07 secs.

Morning all!

I suspect today’s Quickie will divide the camps. My guess is that most of the regulars around here will probably post their fastest times so far. I managed to complete it waiting at the doctor’s surgery, and I didn’t have to wait too long! A nice friendly puzzle from a certain Oxford person (you can work out who the setter is, surely?). Nothing terribly troubling but something that will please the grannies at my bridge club. Everything is nicely constructed and nothing too challenging. The equivalent of a nice mug of hot chocolate at the end of a tiring day. Only tiny grumble is that if you solve in sequence rather than as you go along, you run into all the anagrams together.

My choice of music was from my present to myself – the new Dermot O’Leary Radio 2 compilation album, lots of live sets from the guest artists, some cracking stuff.

Here it is:- enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXtYP32VvrA

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Across
8 GORILLA – GO (travel)+ RILL (stream)+ A with wild animal as definition
9 TRICK – T (time) + RICK (Richard) – def is ‘create cunning play’.
10 ENTRY – E.N.T. (hospital department) RY (railway) ‘Lobby’ is definition
11 NANKEEN – NAN (Grandma) + KEEN (eager) definition = ‘material’
12 POSTERN – Definition is ‘gate’. POSTER (PLACARD) + N (name)
14 OLDIE – Remove the ends (frayed at the edges) of SOLDIER to get a word for a person of advancing years.
15 REACT – RE (concerning) + ACT (piece f legislation). Definition is ‘respond’
17 HITCHED – H (first letter of husband) + ITCHED (felt irritation). Definition is being attached) (
19 ASPIRIN – One from the box marked “Standard crossword clues” – wish I had a pound for every time I had seen this. A word meaning hoping, minus its last letter (shown by apostrophe) is a type of medication to deal with 4 down, maybe?
20 DEMOS – Hidden answer ‘ruDE MOStly, with ‘but, not entirely’ as your indicator.
22 CURSE – CURS (nasty dogs) + E (final letter of bite) definition is ‘swear’.
24 CONVENT – Definition is ‘religious building’. CON (study) + VENT (airhole)

>

Down
1 OGRE – Hidden answer, indicated by ‘some’, in word prOGREss
2 BRUTUS – Definition is ‘conspirator’, one of the plotters who murdered Julius Caesar in fact. BRUT(E) (beast, mostly) + us (american)
3 PLAY – PLY work with A inside – definition is ‘bit of drama’.
4 PAIN IN THE NECK – Something you may need a 19 for. A cryptic definition of something described as a pest. Had to check it was a Times puzzle and not Cyclops in Private Eye to ensure I had the right last word!
5 STAND OUT – STAND (stall, as in market) + OUT (on display) – definition is ‘to be prominent’.
6 BIG END – BID (offer) with GEN (information) inside. Definion is ‘could feature in car manual’.
7 SKINHEAD – This is one of those clues where the whole clue provides your definition. An anagram (riot) of HE’S A KIND.
12 PARLANCE – Nice clue. It’s an anagram but the two words that make up the anagram of the answer go around the anagram indicator. PLAN + CARE with ‘constructed’ as the indicator.
13 EATERIES – Definition is ‘places for diners’; an anagram (arranged) of ARE SET I.E.
16 AMPERE – A MP, a + politician; here is A is important, because it would be ‘an MP’ normally. Add this to a word meaning before and you get a measure of (electrical) current.
18 HAMLET – Double definition clue – the name of Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark, and the name for a small rural village.
20 DONE – D (end of (FOO)D) = ONE. Definition is ‘performed’.
21 SITE – Definition is ‘place’. IT is inside SE (standard crossword abbrevition for the Home Counties).

Thanks to Izetti for a good entry level puzzle for the newbies to our wacky world. Now back to that beast of a 15 x 15 puzzle……

33 comments on “Quick Cryptic 14 by Izetti”

  1. Wow. Yesterday’s quick cryptic took 45 minutes, today’s 9 minutes and by far my quickest.

    Did not know NANKEEN but the answer was clear from the wordplay (beginning to sound like a cryptic veteran). My favourite was SKINHEAD and LOI CONVENT.

    Will Friday’s quick cryptic bring me down to earth with a bump.

    Thanks for the blog macavity.

  2. I would imagine old hands like me would post very quick times on this one, as it contains a number of ‘old favourites’. Don’t think I’ve ever solved a crossword faster than today. Just what was needed after the fight with the main crossword.

    Thanks to the setter and macavity too

  3. My fastest solve too, somewhere short of 20 minutes, so I’ve had a bit of a confidence boost this last two days. I do hope tomorrow’s doesn’t in some way make up for for it since I’m supposed to be writing it up!

    NANKEEN was new to me, and I’m still unsure why BIG END might feature in a car manual – my LOI.

    COD – SKINHEAD. Our first &lit clue?

    1. I didn’t use &lit because I thought some of the newer solvers would wonder about what it actually meant. I am trying to avoid crossword blog jargon in my analyses.
  4. My understanding was that The Times wanted very easy puzzles to encourage newcomers, and I seem to have hit my target spot on. The camps ought not to be divided by a puzzle like this and the granny sneer is a bit unwelcome. If these puzzles tilt towards the blogging wolves, the purpose of the new venture will not have been undermined methinks.
    1. Well no complaints from me, very much residing within your target audience! Thanks for a fun puzzle.
    2. The granny comment is not a sneer.

      At my club, there are six or seven “grannies” (what they call themselves) and all have switched their allegiance from the Telegraph to the Times because of this puzzle (although I do have to photocopy the Monday Rufus for them!). They are also hanging around here too, so I shall wave at them!

      I have absolutely no problem with the puzzle (or the series)and it’s one of the reasons I joined the blogging panel.

      Edited at 2014-03-27 01:27 pm (UTC)

    3. I think you’ll find that the grannies in question are grannies who in addition to learning bridge are also learning how to solve cryptic crosswords and no sneer is/was intended.
  5. Yes, quick one this: about 3½ minutes. Like crypticsue I don’t think I’ve ever solved a crossword faster and it was a relief after the main event.
    And yes I did clock the setter’s name!
  6. A very pleasant puzzle that allowed me 9 minutes of enjoyment between two very stressful events in the early hours, namely printing and solving the 15×15 puzzle.

    This was my joint-fastest time on the Quickies but on the previous occasion I recorded 9 minutes I hadn’t resolved always to included parsing time, so I reckon this one must be a PB.

    Good blog, mac.

  7. Quickest one for me too, coming in at 3:28 with almost a clean sweep of the acrosses followed by all the downs in order. The only one I missed in the sequence was DEMOS, the hidden answer! I thought of it but couldn’t see the wordplay so decided to move on.

    A lot of old chestnuts, but that’s fine with the quick as it gives people new to the game a good way of learning all the tricks.

    1. because a big end is the colloquial name for a car engine part – old cars would commonly have their ‘big end’ gone!
  8. If Izetti also composed today’s main cryptic he caused no small amount of agita with 16d over there – wicked. Magoo clocked in at a sluggish 13 minutes which means that I reached my goal of beating his time there with my time here by a whopping 8 minutes. Not bad for this granny!
  9. Does the back door to quick cryptic not work any more? Keep getting routed to Times login screen.
    TomC
  10. Lovely clear blog, Macavity, many thanks! Equally good music; being a cynic I would not have thought it would have been Dermot O’Leary’s choice!
    21 mins – occasional hints from Z8, but decreasing.. Groaned at 18 dn, COD is 19ac nice use of apostrophe!
    Got a smidgeon delayed/distracted by Z8 trying to explain &lit mid-solve, I’m glad you did not follow suit. I think I’m beginning to approach the clues more analytically.
    I’m the Grandma who played bridge from the age of 14 but no longer does so!
  11. Clever clogs may have solved this in minutes but as one moving for the first time into cryptics I was pleased with under 2 hours plus the use of a phone app so don’t make them too hard,
    1. I’m only daring to venture in because my husband does these already and he’s been supporting me – my bike still has stabilisers! I think you’re brilliant to go it totally alone!!
      1. I did wonder whether there should be a moratorium on Times for this puzzle. It can be off-putting to newer solvers to find someone has done it in a fraction of the time.

        I want as many people as possible to solve this, it’s not meant as a coffee break for the geniuses around here (and I’m not trying to disrespect you and your solving ability).

        I offered to blog this to encourage newer solvers and maybe a more gentler approach to analysing clues to help you get the conventions, similar to other sites may work and help.

        I welcome new solvers to our wonderful world. I was lucky to be taught my my old Latin Master who inspired me in so many ways. We want people to make the leap from Times 2. There are people around here no names, no flower-baskets who will openly admit they are in a different solving place than they were a few yers back.

        Practice makes perfect, and when those stablisers come off, you’ll really enjoy things.

        There are some very good books around. The amazing Brian Greer’s How to Solve the Times Crossword, and the equally wonderful Tim Moorey’s books are both good places to start as is a certain person’s Chambers Crossword Manual.

        You can get them all fairly cheaply on e-bay or similar.

        1. I also found today’s the easiest so far. As a regular Times2 solver who in the past would get half a dozen at most of the main cryptic clues I am really enjoying the fact that I can finish the quick cryptics in an hour or so – and fully understand the wordplay. So this is a great addition to the Times daily puzzles from my perspective.
        2. Thank you for your post macavity. As a newbie determined to solve these type of clues (and finding it fascinating) I was really pleased with myself having solved today’s puzzle apart from three clues and with the aid of my thesaurus manual in a couple of hours.This new puzzle and this blog are very good. However it is really off putting to read posts from experienced solvers who are completing them in three minutes over a cup of coffee. Hats off to them- that’s great and it must be very satisfying but it just leaves me feeling very inadequate and thinking I’ll never be that good! Perhaps more newbies will blog. I’ll have a look for those books…..
          1. Hello xeno_17 and WELCOME!

            I completely understand how you find the times posted by experienced solvers off putting. However, I do not think it should make you feel inadequate. The people posting these times have probably all invested massive amounts of time on the main crossword to get to that level of proficiency. At some point I am sure they have all felt as humbled as I did by today’s main puzzle when they could only put a few solutions in like I did.

            I volunteered to blog here on the quick cryptic precisely because I felt it would facilitate a place for people to come and get to understand how to solve these puzzles without feeling intimidated. I never had anyone to explain it to me. How else are we supposed to learn without places like this?

            I find the QC challenging and the main puzzle impossible more often than not. I’m still fascinated by it though. I also live in hope of being able to regularly complete it in under an hour.

            I do hope you keep coming back here and feel able to ask any questions without fear of ridicule or embarrassment. I’m sure I will learn something from most questions you ask and hopefully I will be able to answer one or two. I promise that you will never get a patronising response from me just like I have never received one.

            For all you speedy, experienced and regular contributors to the main puzzle posts. You may feel that the original purpose of the blog is deviating from the original intention. If you feel that doesn’t suit you, maybe we should start a separate one?

  12. I have never been able to understand cryptic clues and am really enjoying learning how to approach them by reading this blog. Still only getting a few right myself but enjoying it!
  13. Fair point about times. I think it’s really good to have people starting out on the journey stop by here to rest and chat and remember the rest of us have just spent longer at it.

    I got a bit cute on the setter’s name, wondering if (s)he could be LeClerc, given the pseudonym is ‘It is I’ reversed, phonetically at any rate. The mention of Oxford put me on the right track, though. For those who are still wondering, think Lucia di Lammermoor or Fille du Regiment.

    Edited at 2014-03-27 06:28 pm (UTC)

  14. Crossword solved ok but no idea who setter is . I’m afraid Lucia di Lammermoor or Fille du Regiment means nothing to me.
    Agree that solving times should be excluded.
  15. I am feeling triumphant – the very first time I have ever managed to solve a complete cryptic crossword 🙂 This particular one was just right for me as a newbie in terms of difficulty; slow going early on but once half a dozen answers entered got a bit easier/could tackle the harder clues. I can now recognize a fair number of ‘tricks’ and codewords but some of the anagrinds still going over my head. Abbreviations also a bit hit and miss – I remembered ‘ENT’ (hospital department) and ‘US'(American) from previous crosswords; but have never heard of ‘SE’ for Home Counties. Had to check Nankeen in dictionary as after hesitantly putting it in, I took it out again thinking I had just made up a new word for material in my eagerness to complete the grid!

    Btw, what do COD and LOI stand for?

    Keep up the blogs – i am loving them.

    1. My understanding is clue of the day and last one in.

      Congratulations on your triumph.

      For me, the blogs are the best part of this site.

    2. SE stands for South-East, where the Home Counties are located. You’ll also occasionally see references to Cornwall in a clue, which will more often than not indicate that SW will be needed somewhere in the answer.
  16. Agree wholeheartedly with those new to cryptics and enjoying the Quick Cryptic. But if they are too hard, defeats the purpose. Thank you to Izetti – was losing a lot of confidence over the last few days and really helped to have a solvable one today – inspired now to keep trying.
  17. At the moment, it’s me, because it’s the clever people’s abbreviation for, I believe, Last One In.
    COD I think is that person’s favourite Clue of The Day.
    I have limited time most days to give the crossword a go, so loving this quickie version.
    Used to do a bit of the main cryptic most days, but rarely got beyond about two thirds even on a good day. Now I am finishing regularly with this one, and it is definitely making me better on the main one. Great intro to the tricks and, from what the experienced are saying, the more common key words.
    Blogs continue to be excellent, in combo with the new format this is the perfect way to get into cryptically, surely!
    Plymouthian

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