Quick Cryptic 1834 by Felix

72 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1834 by Felix”

1. Curarist has got it spot on for me (and thanks for the pre-historic ‘joke’!). A slow start and a crawl to the finish. Thanks for clearing up the old city — no room for doubt about the solution but I was puzzled by that definition for a current city with a new (old) name. Other hold ups: I though the Cardinal was going to be ‘Ten’ for a long time but couldn’t see what to put in the middle. I’ve never heard of Cardinal NEWMAN but I was glad to see him when he finally turned up. Never heard of LEHAR either but the H of HAWK cleared it up. NICHOLAS took a while to turn up and then MADELINE arrived shortly afterwards but it was MULBERRY that took the time. I had _U_BERRY and still couldn’t crack it! LB for pounds finally arrived. All green in 22 but I had to work really hard

   Edited at 2021-03-19 11:53 am (UTC)

2. As so often with Felix we have a NINA and not on an obscure theme this time. I have noted 6 references spread over 10 clues. Won’t give away just yet in case others want to have a go.

   I have posted my findings on my Home page which can be accessed by clicking my user name.

   14 minutes for the puzzle, btw.

   Edited at 2021-03-19 08:21 am (UTC)

   1. There are enough messages in the discussion now so I have posted the Nina details further down the thread. If you don’t want to see them, beware!

      Edited at 2021-03-19 02:51 pm (UTC)

3. Found this one a hard slog. It took a long time for me to find any answers. Too many people’s names for my liking. Time 26:27 not a bad time for me, but had to guess a few answers. I must admit that IFS baffled me for ages until I saw the anagram in 9 across. Good end to the week though. Enjoyed it. Thanks
4. Tricky going, particularly in the NW, in which only AVARICE presented itself on my first run through. I made things harder for myself by somehow thinking that Starling could be made out of the letters of listening minus an i.
   I ended back in the NW and realised that I had been looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition in 1a and MADELAINE helped open up the remaining answers.
   Finished in 16.12 with LOI EVENSONG. COD LAUDA and WOD NOGGIN.
   I shall await later enlightenment for the NINA, as I’ve got a hectic day lined up.
   Thanks to curarist.
5. Too hard for me, it’s not been a good week. I’m consoled by realising even the usually unnervingly fast solvers didn’t find it easy.

   Diana

6. I think I’ve found every puzzle this week a bit of a mixed bag.

   There were some outstanding clues in this one. I loved MIKE, BEER MUG and MACABRE, and AVARICE, NOGGIN and NESTLING were very elegantly clued.

   But it was pretty hard going in places, and LEHAR and NEWMAN are both pretty obscure GK for a quick aren’t they?

   Ah well, thanks Felix and Curarist, and enjoy your weekend everyone.

   1. Lehar was a household name at one time as composer of ‘The Merry Widow’ as everyone knew its famous Waltz, if not the rest of it. I guess times change.
      1. Fair enough then. I’ve never even heard of his name until this clue but maybe it’s just me.

         At least with the excellent clueing it was gettable even without knowing who he was. There’s only really one way of placing an ‘H’ in LEAR and it looking like a surname.

7. I can’t see either LEHAR or NEWMAN as obscure, even for a QC. On the other hand, I never heard of LAUDA. Put in ELGAR at first–no good reason why–before changing to LEHAR. 7:28.
   1. I disagree. LAUDA was no problem for me (and I’m not a fan of the sport) but LEHAR and NEWMAN were completely unknown and wholly reliant on wordplay.
   2. I agree about LEHAR and NEWMAN being pretty well known but not everyone has a history of following Formula One. I guess we all have our blind spots. The nice thing is that people frequently admit to them on this blog.

      Edited at 2021-03-19 11:55 am (UTC)

      1. The whole point of cryptics is that you can get the answer even if you have never heard of it. Experienced solvers do this all the time.
      2. I only solved half this one but I did see without difficulty Newman, Lehar, Lauda. Also pleased to unscramble Noggin and Innoway!
8. Flushed with early successes, I became totally immersed in this challenging but rewarding QC — to the point where I was staggered to see a time of 25 mins when I finished it (all correct and all parsed, albeit quickly). Some very fine clues — I am sure that I could fill this post with a list — but I will now simply enjoy going back over them all with the help of curarist’s blog.
   A superb, totally absorbing puzzle. Many thanks to Felix and curarist. John M.
   I don’t normally bother with Ninas but I think I have this one. No spoilers from me, though.

   Edited at 2021-03-19 10:10 am (UTC)

9. I don’t know when I last enjoyed a QC as much, this was right on my ideal borderline of tricky but doable. Good hiddens, the Cardinal had me too juggling numbers rather than reading what was in plain sight. As Curarist said, a neat trick, much appreciated.
   A wide variety of clues and devices, but all very fair once I picked them apart.
   Too many good clues to pick any particularly but EARTH made me laugh, eh! NHO the composer but the clue was cluing was clear. Now to go NINA hunting. Many thanks to Felix and blogger.
10. Not easy. I liked EARTH and MADELINE, and MIKE was very well put together.

    I finished in 6:58. Last one was EVENSONGS. Services later indeed.

    Thanks to Felix, and of course to curarist.

11. Solved, but slowly, thirty-eight minutes. FOI hair, LOI Madeline. Solved all on paper except 5d and 1 ac. Was heading for a DNF so typed all in to computer grid and tried blessings for 5d. As the i was a pink square, evensongs fit and was biffed, then Madeline was clear. I’ve never seen evensong in the plural. I didn’t parse it, either. Didn’t fully parse bloc, mulberry, avarice or earth. Still greatly enjoyed the puzzle as always. Didn’t see the Nina, I never do, but was pleased to be informed that there was one, and now have a better idea of what one is. Thanks, Curarist, for the clarificatons, Jackkt for the blog about the Nina, and Felix for the entertainment. GW.
12. Just inside the SCC today at 19 minutes, rounded up. This was a challenge, although I did spot the NINA, but following Jackkt’s lead, I won’t divulge it here. Excellent puzzle, all doable despite never knowingly hearing of the composer (the clueing was helpful). Thanks Felix and Curarist. Very satisfying!
13. 23 minutes, 3 over my target but good for a Felix puzzle. I got off to a good start with four of the first five acrosses, and at 18 minutes I had just EARTH and MADELINE to go.
    I think the problem newer solvers have with Felix is that you have to work hard to un-pick the wordplay from his smooth surfaces, very little jumps out at first.
    As usual, didn’t spot the nina.
    Thanks to Felix and Curarist.

    Brian

    Edited at 2021-03-19 10:05 am (UTC)

14. Had to peek at blogger’s answer to 1a in order to get IFS and EVENSONG.
    Also had a mental blank about MULBERRY which I could have solved. Struggled with DESTROYS but got there eventually. Was again tricked by expecting past tense.

    Managed LAUDA, NEWMAN, LEHAR. FOsI ALACK, BRAY, BEER MUG. Liked NOGGIN, MACABRE, NESTLING.

    re Curarist’s thought. Mine is: the craft of hedge-laying is an art, as is dry stonewalling, but you would’t expect to find examples in an art gallery?

    1. There’s a beautiful old Mulberry tree (supported in places by wooden props) at one end of the world famous long border at Great Dixter in East Sussex. With due respect to all of the other lovely gardens around the place, GD is the best garden on the planet in my opinion. Fergus Garrett, the head gardener, and his team are stars – as was the late Christopher Lloyd, who would have been 100 earlier this month.
       1. Yes, must visit!
       2. Sorry, best garden has to be Kew.
       3. Best garden on the planet right now is the one outside our back door as its the only one accessible until this CoVid scourge is laid to rest.
    2. Hmm. Very subjective I think. Ai Weiwei has several examples in galleries of what look like dry stone walls that many regard as art, but then again, not very practical as a wall.
       Knitting is generally a craft, but a painting of someone knitting is more likely regarded as art.
       Both require skill and creativity, so is the difference merely in your own perspective? Both can be either or neither.
15. 12:15 so missing my target once again. I have NHO LEHAR or NEWMAN and I would have thought the more common spelling of MADELINE is MADELEINE. At least NICHOLAS was easy for me as it is my husband’s name. NOGGIN was biffed. A very chewy QC to end the week. I’m off to look for the NINA now.
16. A real grind and not very satisfying sadly. Far too difficult in my view. 3d would be stretching it for a 15 x 15. I couldn’t get in to it because Madeline is a less common than Madeleine I would suggest. Personally I’m never keen on boy or girl being used for a forename ( or lass for that matter) but maybe that’s just me. Thanks though!
    1. For experienced solvers, 3 down is easy. Craft is very commonly art, what is usually eh, put one in the other, done! When the answers are so short, the cryptic is usually simple to work out.
       1. I usually complete these in under 15 mins – my best is under 5. I complete the Jumbo Cryptic on a Saturday in an hour or two most weeks and can have often complete the 15 x 15. I suppose i’m a novice really!
17. I enjoyed the Nina, which I needed to google the first reference to find. I counted only 9 clues for the 6 references – I wonder what I missed. As for the puzzle… Rather tricky for a QC, I thought. For 6D I took the definition to be “this” and the rest of the clue to be a cryptic hint. I’ve no idea what to call that either. 7:35.
    1. I counted 10ac twice because it’s used twice but you’re right that it’s only 9 clues in all. Unless we add 25ac as suggested by templarredux
18. … with Felix as Wackford. Crikey, that was tough! But as others have said, enjoyable. And the Nina was very good indeed – I finally twigged when MULBERRY HAWK emerged, and following that with KATE DESTROYS was a superb effort. Bravo.

    FOI IFS, LOI MADELINE (if only I’d seen the Nina earlier … I was busy sulking about it probably being the names of Felix’s godchildren or something), COD MULBERRY (brilliant), time 17:39 which is 2.4K and normally a Bad Day but given the times of Jack and plett11 I’m going to rank it as an OK Day. Desdeloeste’s time awaited! [on edit … I swear her post wasn’t there. Hey ho. Thumped by you today, Des, I’m going to have to downgrade to a Not Very Good Day]

    Many thanks Felix and curarist. Hard but really fun.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-03-19 11:07 am (UTC)

    1. … except that none of the weird ones you mention ARE clued.
19. I did not really get anywhere with this one, with less than half of the clues answered.

    Surprisingly, I did get 5d (EVENSONGS), though only pencilled it in. One thing I did not like about this clue was GS = Grammar School. I understand, of course, that G and S are the first letters of Grammar School, but how am I supposed to know that I needed to take the first two letters of those words? There is nothing indicating as such, and certainly in my Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary there was no indication that Grammar School = GS. I find that sort of cluing quite frustrating to be honest.

    I liked 14d. MACABRE, which I answered.

    I did not answer 6d, but I did pencil in BEER CAN, which made no sense to me, and so it remained in pencil.

    A disappointing end to the week for me. Oh well, at least I have the experience of having a sharp metal object plunged into my arm to look forward to tomorrow morning.

    1. GS is in Chambers dictionary as Grammar School but not in Collins or the Oxfords I think. I have seen it before but very rarely.
    2. Having checked Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary I see that GS is the very first entry under ‘school’. It doesn’t say what it stands for, but nor does it explain every abbreviation in every list, presumably for reasons of space, and that’s more the function of their main dictionary which does have GS = Grammar School.
20. Lots of tricks of the trade today from Felix. I spotted most of them.
    FOI was YES and then steady progress to need two after 11 minutes. At 14d I assumed it ended ABLE and was trying to fit in MULE. Some delay there.
    And finally to 13a. Whenever I see Cardinal in a puzzle I freeze as it has so many meanings. I thought about TEN to start and only a long alphabet trawl got me to NEWMAN -and it was a hidden! Worse, my nephew went to Cardinal Newman school.
    Just under 14 minutes in the end which doesn’t seem too bad compared to others.
    A tough test for a QC. COD to DESTROYS.
    David
21. Felix is once again on a Dickens theme, this time it’s Nicholas Nickleby

    The references to characters I spotted are:

    1ac/6ac: MADELEINE BRAY
    10ac: NICHOLAS
    10ac/12ac {nichola}S MIKE
    13ac/15ac NEWMAN NOGG(s ){in}
    21ac/23ac MULBERRY HAWK
    24ac KATE (nickelby)

    Templarredux posted this on my home page:

    Thanks Jack. I would only add that I suspect “MULBERRY HAWK” being followed by “KATE DESTROYS” is deliberate, given that he tries to ruin her but ultimately his pursuit of her destroys him.

    Edited at 2021-03-19 10:34 am (UTC)

    1. I am still trying to work out where Nicholas Lauda fits into the Dickens list…….

       Edited at 2021-03-19 10:46 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks for this. I haven’t read Nicholas Nickleby or watched any adaptations thereof. I think I would have had a greater chance of spotting a Formula 1 theme.
    3. Curses that I managed to insert a second E in MADELINE!
22. … and this duly stretched me mightily. All done in just over 15 minutes but with a couple not parsed; needed Curarist’s excellent blog to unravel 3D Earth and DK second meaning of Hawk = cough up.

    LOI 1A Madeline delayed me too — having never read Nicholas Nickleby I was not familiar with that spelling of the girl’s name (is not Madeleine more common?), but at least the cluing was transparent.

    Name changes can be confusing — I have a friend whose father was born in Petrograd, Russian Empire, who himself was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union and whose son was born in St Petersburg, Russian Federation. The family (he, his wife and his son) came to England 25 years ago and subsequently applied for British nationality, and all these various city and country names had to go on their application forms. Full marks to the Home Office (not a sentence one writes very often!) as they handled all of them completely accurately.

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

23. I found that tricky, but worked steadily through without spotting the nina, as I haven’t read that particular book. FOI IFS, LOI, EVENSONGS. 14:16. Thanks FELIX and Curarist.
24. And much easier, IMO, than yesterday’s where the three synonyms required to reach “MISTRANSLATE ” had me pulling my hair out.
    I think today’s clues were superb. Luckily, I’m not so fluent in Crosswordese that “cardinal ” instantly meant NUMBER, so as soon as I read the clue in 13 across, my absolute first thought was NEWMAN. I was also fine with LAUDA and, though I have NHO LEHAR, the word play made it obvious. Too many potential CODs to pick from but the list would definitely include MULBERRY, EVENSONGS and the beautifully neat ALACK.

    Can’t see the Nina, though….. Hmmmm…..

    Thanks so much curarist and thanks too to Felix.

25. Felix on a Friday: Battle Ensign hoisted, so I’ll take 24mins as a good outcome. FOI was 6a, Bray, and a clockwise solve thereafter. I kept on thinking that was a hard clue for a QC, but they kept on coming, albeit with long pauses. Lehar and Newman were known, so no problems with those two — if only I could say the same with Madeline and Kate… Commiserations to those new to this game who will have struggled today. Quite a few CoD candidates, but I will go for 14d, Macabre, for the surface. Invariant

26. I didn’t think this was too hard but it was a DNF for me as I hadn’t heard of Newman, which is obvious now. Also NHO Lehar but got him from the clues. And Evensongs was pretty tough, spent a fair bit of time trying to get g before the first s. Still clever wordplay by Felix, interesting clues.

27. Another tricky puzzle in my view, and very pleased again to come through unscathed, this time in 36 minutes.

    The LEHAR/HAWK pairing delayed me by a few minutes, partly because I initially had PAWN for ‘Offer for sale’. But the MADELINE/EARTH combo caused me the most grief and I had to resort to alphabet trawling __R_H. I found MORPH for ‘Craft’, but obviously struggled with 1a having an M in it. It took me 10 minutes in total to arrive at the correct solutions for these two clues. N.B. Mrs R wondered whether 1a should be spelled MADELEINE.

    Speaking of Mrs R, she polished off today’s puzzle in 27 minutes and immediately followed up by solving yesterday’s Teazel in 30 minutes, thereby restoring her rightful place as Random family champion.

    Thanks, as usual, to Felix and curarist.

28. DNF for me today. Never seen MADELINE so could not get 1a (LINE = policy?) and as a result not 2,3,4,5d either, but, having seen the blog, I should have. Never mind.
29. An enjoyable challenge for Friday , although it took me a good 40 minutes — the last of which were puzzling over 20dn “Lehar” (NHO) and 23ac “Hawk”.

    Always find with Felix you have to look at every aspect of the clue — even the smallest part of the surface could be key. Today was no exception.

    3dn “Earth” and 7dn “Alack” were troublesome, the latter itching for me to put in “Alas” somewhere. Similarly, toyed with “deserted” for 25ac until I finally realised it just wouldn’t fit.

    FOI — 6ac “Bray”
    LOI — 20dn “Lehar”
    COD — 21ac “Mulberry”

    Thanks as usual

30. Cardinal Newman and Nikki lauda very well known. Lauda for having been badly burnt in racing and for starting lauda airlines only a few years ago
31. Just squeaked under my target time at 19:41. A well-balanced QC, no chance with the Nina BTW, as have never read NN.

    Cardinal (Newman) had me hunting for Cardinal compass points. Like many : I knew exactly two of the trio: LAUDA/LEHAR/NEWMAN.

    Skeletal=tall? I thought it meant thin.

    COD DESTROYS

    1. TALL is part of the anagram: the definition is “very thin”
32. ….as I enjoyed the puzzle without spotting the Nina. Nicholas Nickleby was one of the three Dickens novels we did NOT have to read in the Austen-Dickens seminar in the Yale PhD program.

    This puzzle definitely yields to standard cryptic techniques, if you have enough experience. And if you have heard of Lauda, Newman, and Lehar, you will do quite well. Fortunately, my brother was a F1 fan in the 70s, and he subscribed to Road and Track.

33. Excellent puzzle. I hope the fact that I didn’t find it too hard means that I am improving. There were some gppd challenges, though — the last few clues took a wee while. About 15 mins in total I think — forgot to check!
34. Liked it. Tricky for a QC but they gradually all fell.

    Thanks Curarist and Felix

35. The target on a Felix day is 15 minutes, so I was happy to slide in a minute under that! Pleased to be in the same area as Jack, John D and David today 😊

    I also knew to look for a nina and saw all the names – I did (briefly) wonder after last week if they were his children! Unfortunately, although I do remember watching a BBC classic series of Nicholas Nickleby donkey’s years ago, I remember very little of the storyline. It wasn’t until starting to read everyone’s posts that I remembered that Felix is very keen on Dickens, and the relevant book title popped into my noggin.

    Anyway, there was lots to enjoy, and for me, no problems with the GK. Curarist made me laugh out loud with his comment about Cardinals (in fact, I read it out to my non-crosswordy husband). I fell into the same trap and started trying to make a number fit.

    FOI Bray
    LOI Evensongs
    COD Newman – so well hidden and a great surface, but also enoyed ALACK. EARTH and .. no, I’d better stop. As oldblighter says, so many to choose from.

    Many thanks Felix and Curarist

36. Finished in 26 minutes with several unparsed and one on which I had to use aids. Quite tough, although at least I finished which I didn’t manage to do yesterday. No problem with the general knowledge required for the names (but still struggled to see NEWMAN). Thanks to Felix for the challenging puzzle and to Curarist for the exlanations.

    FOI – 8ac HAIR
    LOI – 13ac NEWMAN
    COD – 14dn MACABRE

37. ….was this all about ? Obviously I didn’t spot the NINA, but at least it didn’t impact too severely on the quality of the puzzle like some of Felix’s other offerings.

    FOI BRAY
    LOI MULBERRY
    COD NICHOLAS
    TIME 5:37

38. DNF today as the failure to get Madeline stymied the NW corner. There is only one Wikipedia entry for anyone so called. Frequently such spellings are caused by an inebriated uncle going down to the registry office.
    I had assumed that the same applied to the US tour golfer Jhonattan Vegas but apparently this is a common enough Spanish spelling. So watch out for it soon!
    I have ranted before about names. Still waiting for Jaydon, Kanye etc.
    Rap artist destroyed African country. Or does the anagrist have to be in the clue?
    Johnny
    1. I don’t know if the angriest has to be in the clue, although I’ve never seen one that wasn’t in a QC, but as I understand it, you can only reference people who are dead except for the Queen. Hence we might get to see such luminaries as The Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac, but Kanye might not appear for some time.
39. Ooh this was tough. I know there’s beeen lots of discussions recently about whether QCs are being set at the right level of difficulty but I think it’s ok to have an occasional “tester”.

    I do take the point about the “famous” names — here I knew lauda and Newman but not lehar. I think in such cases the wordplay needs to be unambiguous.

    Thx for those pointing out the Nina as I’d missed it and I love Dickens.

    Excellent puzzle but took me 15:55.

    Thanks curators and felix

40. I’m surprised to see that I have done all the QCs this week. I enjoyed this one, though I felt there were too many names. I evidently know nothing about Nicholas Nickleby as none of the names rang any bells, unlike Barnaby Rudge earlier in the week whom I have at least heard of. I thought perhaps there was a horsey theme (6a, 14d) for Cheltenham. I’ve heard of Lehar and Lauda though I’m not sure I would have known how to spell them without the clueing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I finished this in 23 minutes even with plenty of chewy clues.
    FOI in no way (I like starting with phrases)
    LOI Madeline (the crossers weren’t a lot of help)
    COD lots of possibilities but I’ll go for hair as it made me smile and mine is getting very shaggy.
    Thank you Felix and Curarist
    Blue Stocking
41. Slow but steady solve today. No unknown words, we finished in the ne corner, loi madeline, needed all the crossers for that one. Thanks Felix and for the blog.
42. No problem with 1a Madeline (I had an aunt of that name) once I was satisfied it parsed. 13a Newman not a problem but missed the hidden! 19a Nestling deduced but would have been safer if I had spotted the anagram… 18d Lauda not a problem once Senna was discarded. 16d In No Way seemed to fit but missed out on parsing it. 4d Ifs – I think a bit iffy as a word/answer but nothing else fitted. Still, a DNF as I missed 20d Lehar – although I should have got that one – I was looking for a composer/king WITHOUT an H. That also left me with only one letter for 23a Hawk – another I should have got; I did toy with ‘pawn’ but that only made 20d harder still. Not a Dickens reader so missed the Nina. FOI 6a Bray. LOI 19a Nestling COD 11d Leningrad – a good hidden. Thanks to Curarist for explanations and the blog, and Felix for a fair challenge that shouldn’t have escaped me today. Bah humbug ?
43. Well, Kevin, Elgar used Cardinal Newman’s poem to write the Dream of Gerontious so maybe that’s where the thought came from?
44. Quite tough, hadn’t got a hope of seeing the Nina and I’ve definitely never heard of LEHAR, but a lot easier than yesterday’s car crash, which I completed (well, DNFed) very late and so decided to save my blushes by not posting about. FOI BRAY, LOI EVENSONG, COD DESTROYS, Time: 34:54. Thanks Felix and Curarist.
45. The third dnf of the week
    Someone yesterday was hoping for an easy one today. Kindly do not say that again if this is what we get!
46. I think that may have been me, sorry!

    Diana

47. The cross of 1a and 3d did for me — so did not get Madeline or Earth.
    Really worked hard to finish — a good hour on this but try as I might these last two were beyond me.
    I read with thanks from others that 3d was a write-in since Craft = Art for the experienced…and Eh = what but I do feel that these are too obscure for the same clue in the QC.
    I suppose that my request — please educate and lead us novices on — but try not to put obscure with obscure in the same clue.
    Same as Earth.
    And yesterday Millrace… I love that I have learnt this word but it was an obscure word clued with obscure references.
    And of course I have not read Nicholas Nickelby and cannot spell it!! So although I appreciate the Nina effort it still won’t count as a clue to the obscure Made Line….
    That’s it! A brilliant crossword spoilt for my level by those last two.
    But, thanks all
    John George

    Edited at 2021-03-19 11:04 pm (UTC)

48. With a big fat DNF – our worst performance in a long while. Took us ages to get going and quite a long time to solve many if the clues. After 34 minutes we were left with only 2 to solve – MADELINE and KATE but we just couldn’t work them out. Thus ends a week of highs and lows for us.

    Thanks to Felix and Curarist.

49. Found it very tricky! Isn’t the real meaning to 7d just “regret” with the “to say” a homophone indicator? “A” can sound like “I” with some accents! Therefore “I lack”.

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