Quick Cryptic 1744 by Trelawney

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An enjoyable puzzle, pitched about right I would say. I was steaming through to start with but slowed as I got further south. I has held up by 19ac, 21ac and 18dn, for reasons that are not clear after the fact. Overall a very nice collection of surfaces. 7 minutes for me

Across

1 Develop simple diet — you might be punished for breaking it! (5,5)
SPEED LIMIT – anagram (‘develop’) of SIMPLE DIET
8 Assist the man with logistics, initially, and sulk (4,3)
HELP OUT – HE + L + POUT
9 A fraction cross inside model hotel (5)
SIXTH – SIT (model) + H (hotel) with X (cross) inside
10 Emperor found in throne room (4)
NERO – hidden word: throNE ROom
11 Resistance of French fellow who’s engaged (8)
DEFIANCE – DE (of, french) + FIANCÉ
13 Clingy sort of scamp, allowed outside (6)
LIMPET – IMP inside LET
14 Under surveillance — and irritated! (6)
BUGGED – double definition
17 Couple with permit for piece of jewellery (8)
BRACELET – BRACE + LET
19 Circus performer to take flight, we hear? (4)
FLEA – sounds like FLEE
21 Monarch drawing aid (5)
RULER – double definition
22 Take that drunkard to this location (2,5)
SO THERE – SOT + HERE. This exact clue was in the 15×15 a few days ago.
23 Used something on the face? (6,4)
SECOND HAND – Double definition, ‘face’ meaning clock.

Down
2 Tablet not finished by serious religious traveller (7)
PILGRIM – PIL(L) + GRIM
3 School‘s collection of bones reduced by half (4)
ETON – second half of SKELETON
4 Second option is coffee with last of sugar (6)
LATTER – LATTE + R
5 Romance of my strange quest to take in India (8)
MYSTIQUE – MY + anagram (‘strange’) of QUEST with I for India in.
6 American former partner wearing brown (5)
TEXAN – EX inside TAN
7 A hard beret, carelessly worn (10)
THREADBARE – anagram (‘carelessly’) of A HARD BERET
8 Pubs supporting trade in bicycle components (10)
HANDLEBARS – HANDLE (trade in) on top of BARS
12 Remarkably quick mice tore about (8)
METEORIC – anagram (‘about’) of MICE TORE
15 Acrimony over period ship (7)
GALLEON – GALL + EON
16 Hold a famous sailor (6)
NELSON – double definition
18 Reference book is finally left unfinished (5)
ATLAS – AT LAST without the last letter.
20 Chit-chat conceals irritation (4)
ITCH – hidden word: chIT CHat

43 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1744 by Trelawney”

  2. A gentle end to the week but highly entertaining nonetheless. My only real pause was a brief flirtation with INNERTUBES at 8d, but couldn’t make it work so had a rethink. I thought MYSTIQUE was going to be my COD until I discovered the speedy mice. Finished in 8.18 with LOI BUGGED.
    Thanks to curarist
  4. All green in a shade over 9m having got 8 of the acrosses on the first pass. Held up by the last three of MYSTIQUE, DEFIANCE and BUGGED. Fell into the R for resistance elephant trap, sorting that out gave me the checkers to see what was going on with the others – no problem with mystique for romance it just took me a long time to see it.

    Edited at 2020-11-13 08:18 am (UTC)

  6. 9:16, a Personal Best to end the week. Breaking the SPEED LIMIT, which was surprisingly the LOI in spite of it clearly being a simple anagram.

    After 8D HANDLEBARS all of its crossers were biffable based on their initial letters which opened the whole grid up rapidly.

    Big difference in vocab between today and earlier in the week. No obscure words, no Brit knowledge or any specialised GK needed at all.

    Minor complaint about Eton, which seems to always be the answer to any school.

    When you have a fast time all the clues feel like COD.
    But COD goes to SECOND HAND, took me a bit to see “face” referred to a clock face.

      1. Better brush up on your Anglo-Saxon history! Seems like you’re going to need it 🙂 Good to defy the Gods and get a pb on Friday the 13th!

        H

    2. Pedants (of which I am not one on this subject) would say that Eton is not a school, but a college. Eton aside, the most popular UK school with setters is Harrow.
      1. Pedants would be wrong. OED meaning 1.2 for “college”: “(British) A private secondary school.”
  7. Comfortably inside my target range at 12 minutes, so an easier one to end the week. FOI SPEED LIMIT, LOI FLEA, COD METEORIC, WOD BRACE. Thanks Trelawney and Curarist.
  8. I agree that this was perfectly pitched. Maybe a shade easy for some, but this is supposed to be a quick crossword and I think that some of our setters sometimes seem to forget that. If it was too easy maybe the main puzzle is better – I’m struggling to make inroads on that one today.
  9. Thanks Curarist for the parsing on 15d. I couldn’t see past ‘period ship’ as the definition. Gall + on (over) and left with a spare E!
  10. 10:33 today with a minute or more staring at my LOI 19a; eventually FLEA emerged.
    A very good puzzle. FOI TEXAN. Liked several clues. COD to SPEED LIMIT just.
    David
  11. 5 mins quicker than my 15 min target and very pleased to finish a difficult week on a bit of a high. Largely straightforward but some nice touches. I enjoyed many of the clues but especially liked MYSTIQUE, SO THERE, GALLEON, and my COD SECOND HAND. BUGGED was my LOI. Many thanks to Trelawney and Curarist. John M.

    Edited at 2020-11-13 09:57 am (UTC)

  12. For some inane reason, I couldn’t think of Bugged.
    Otherwise plodded through happily enough.

    Could not parse Eton but it had to be.
    FOI Bracelet. POI Latter. COD Second Hand

    Thanks all, as ever.

  13. Some really lovely surfaces today, which is always a treat. The tone is set, I think, right from the beginning with 1 across, SPEED LIMIT, which works so perfectly both as an innocent statement and a fine clue.

    I also very much enjoyed the twisty turny parsing here, eg 8 across, HELP Out.

    FOI 10 across, NERO
    LOI 14 across, BUGGED
    COD 23 across, SECOND HAND
    Time, 23 minutes.

    Thanks so much, Curarist, for the blog and thanks, too, to Trelawney for a fun puzzle

  15. At 12mins a very satisfying end to the week, especially as there were enough pauses to make me think that 10mins might actually be achievable. The Bugged/Galleon combination in the SE was the main hold up, with an early U in bugged starting me down a Qu* rabbit hole. Some nice clues, with 23ac Second Hand the stand out CoD. My thanks to Trelawney for another well pitched QC and Curarist for a clear blog. Invariant
    1. Of course, now we’ve both said we think 10 mins is achievable – we will have a flurry of puzzles that either we can’t finish or go beyond 30 mins and further.
  16. A pleasing 13 minute finish – which makes me think that sub 10 minutes may be possible at some point in the future.

    Overall, I enjoyed this. Yes – it was probably on the easier side, but there were still some trickier clues that, if not for “experience”, could have stretched out my time.

    Liked 1ac “Speed Limit”, 5dn “Mystique”, 8dn “Handlebars” and 12dn “Meteoric”. This last one came to mind because of a discussion I’ve seen recently about the misuse (or not) of “meteoric rise” as a general expression. I honestly can’t remember where I read it – hopefully not on here!

    FOI – 1ac “Speed Limit”
    LOI – 19ac “Flea”
    COD – 23ac “Second Hand” – bit of a chestnut along with 19ac, but still made me smile.

    Thanks as usual.

  17. … and quite surprised when I stopped the clock that it only showed 12 minutes. It felt tougher than that – always fair, and many excellent clues, but the SE corner in particular felt chewy. The checkers for my LOI 14A Bugged were initially unhelpful, and I stared at -U—D for a long time; hundreds of words (literally I suspect) fit that and it was only when the G checker fell into place from 15D Galleon (my second last / penultimate one in – is there an abbreviation for that?) that I could finish the puzzle.

    Hard to pick a COD, though I would personally go for 22A So there – simple when one has seen it but very clever.

    Many thanks to Curarist for the blog, and a good weekend to all.
    Cedric

    1. I’m pretty sure I’ve already seen SO THERE this week, with almost identical cluing. Must have been the 15×15???

      H

      1. Just noticed that the blogger already pointed this out! Apologies for not reading the instructions :). H
  18. Was expecting a difficult one for Friday the 13th 🙂 But it filled in easily, apart from DEFIANT where it took me too long to separate French and fellow. Should have used my trick of reading the clue backwards. “French of” would have given me the DE at once I think. I often advise this but frequently forget to do it! Finished in 5:40.

    COD SECOND HAND

    H

  19. have “Friday brain”.

    6:18 which is bang average, so well done to those who walked it!

    FLEA, GALLEON, BUGGED were my last three.

  20. I really enjoyed this and was hoping for a sub 10-minute finish but, like some others, I was held up by the BUGGED/GALLEON intersection which increased my time to 12 minutes.
    ETON and NELSON went in unparsed – didn’t think of ‘skeleton’ or the wrestling ‘hold’ – so thanks to Curarist for the clarification.
    There were many lovely clues including SECOND HAND, LIMPET and METEORIC – and SO THERE has to be my COD for being so amusing.
    Thanks to Trelawney for the entertainment.
  21. More than 10 minutes faster than the last couple of days, so this was definitely on the easy side. I had finished with all parsed except Atlas (thank you Curarist) in 9 mins. Some very satisfying clues making for a pleasurable solve. As commented above, no particularly arcane knowledge or words required which is as it should be for a QC.

    FOI – 9ac SIXTH
    LOI – 19ac FLEA
    COD – 3dn ETON

  22. ….to get home inside 4 minutes, since I found this a little tricky and struggled to find a foothold.

    FOI SIXTH
    LOI LATTER
    COD SECOND HAND
    TIME 3:51

  23. All done bar three in 6 mins but getting BUGGED, GALLEON and FLEA was like pulling teeth and I ended up just over my target, so finishing the week 3 under 2 over.

    Really fun puzzle as others have said, with lots of COD competition; Trelawney is an excellent setter.

    FOI SPEED LIMIT, LOI FLEA, COD BRACELET or LIMPET, time 1.8K for a Decent day.

    Many thanks Trelawney and curarist.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-11-13 03:47 pm (UTC)

  25. Our staircase renovation is complete and we finished this gem of a puzzle in 11 minutes. Really lovely pace throughout with a great mix of clues. Thanks Trelawney – you hit the spot.

    FOI: speed limit
    LOI: mystique
    COD: second hand

    Thanks to Curarist for the blog.

  26. After yesterday’s slog fest for me, I had a quick look last night at today’s puzzle before deciding it was going to be another head banger and went to sleep. The day dawned with sunshine and a steady solve without seeing what troubled me the night before. I don’t like to rush or biff but just work my way through, enjoying the twists and turns before hopping about from side to side, corner to corner or bottom to top when facing frustration and a glaring tapestry of connected empty squares. Thanks Trelawny for an enjoyable puzzle that is right at my level and Curarist for the succinct denouement. Have a good, healthy weekend everyone.
  27. But stopped for 11 minutes to complete this lovely crossword.
    I took a while to get Speed Limit and like some others finished with Galleon and Bugged.
    Couldn’t get why Eton so the blog most useful.
    Very enjoyable.
    Thanks all
    John George
    Back to Augusta with my month pass
  29. This is the first quick cryptic I have solved. Thanks to all for contributing to the site. The explanations have really helped my learning

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