Quick Cryptic 1914 by Orpheus

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
So a little more tricky than usual, I’d say. I found myself taking an unusual clockwise route round the grid. There are a couple of obscure terms that only the more seasoned solvers will have seen before, and I was slowed down by a couple with too many permutations, e.g 1D. I knew immediately I needed a painter and an islander, but there are thousands of painters and millions of islands, so it didn’t immediately jump out. There ought to be a crosswordy term for such a clue. 9 minutes for me.

Across
3 Titled lady a person’s seen in pubs (8)
BARONESS – ONE inside BARS
7 Good meal including a high-class cake (6)
GATEAU – G (good) + A + TEA + U (high class à la Nancy Mitford)
8 Wastes pieces of fruit fried in batter (8)
FRITTERS – Double definition. Second one doesnt have to be fruit.
9 Gaze intently, we hear, seeing breakwater (4)
PIER – sounds like PEER
10 Pass senior officer briefly (3)
COL – mountain pass/short for colonel
11 Strike leading actor without regret ultimately, up until now (8)
HITHERTO – HIT + HERO with T inside
13 Isaac’s son’s particular appeal in Europe (4)
ESAU – SA (sex appeal) inside EU
15 Rebuff press employee round back of inn (4)
SNUB – SUB (editor) with N inside
17 Old man in temporary shelter given government protection? (8)
PATENTED –  PA + TENTED
19 Blunder, introducing Republican to Queen! (3)
ERR – ER with another R for Republican inserted
22 State of mind of officer originally in defence ministry (4)
MOOD – MOD with O inside
23 Bird requiring warmth in river (8)
WHEATEAR – HEAT inside WEAR (as in Tyne and)
24 Carelessly singes coarse-grained rock (6)
GNEISS – Anagram (‘carelessly’) of SINGES. Not a terribly familiar word, I would say.
25 Oarsman with Yankee in room by kitchen (8)
SCULLERY – SCULLER + Y

Down
1 Islander, one who painted outside a hotel (8)
TAHITIAN – TITIAN with AH inside
2 Try at first to hog this warm, inviting place (6)
HEARTH – HEAR (try as in courtroom) + T + H
3 Polish aficionado (4)
BUFF – double definition
4 Unusual Croatian waterproof garment (8)
RAINCOAT – Anagram (‘unusual’) of CROATIAN
5 A stingy type to annoy! (6)
NETTLE – Double definition
6 Father beginning to show anger (4)
SIRE – S + IRE
12 Sound of old magistrate supporting agent’s stay of execution (8)
REPRIEVE – Old magistrate is a REEVE, which sounds like RIEVE. Add REP for agent on top.
14 A parasite hanging around bounds of English tavern (8)
ALEHOUSE – A LOUSE with EH (outer letters, i.e ‘bounds’ of ENGLISH) inside.
16 Happen to live by cataract (6)
BEFALL – BE (live) FALL (cataract)
18 Less sensitive group (6)
NUMBER – Double definition
20 Stylish clubs here in Rome once (4)
CHIC – C + HIC (latin for ‘here’)
21 Wild party where Bess’s man loses head (4)
ORGY – Bess’s man is PORGY, remove first letter.

58 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1914 by Orpheus”

  1. 17:41 for a clean sweep for the week, first time all five completed inside target time (20:21). Total time for 5 puzzles 72:37. A. Good. Week.

    FOI BUFF (Thanks Horryd for engaging with me in stamp colours yesterday, which put this word in my mind). In fact setter missed a possible Triple Def…

    LOI The tricky HITHERTO. I was a bit confused about the construction of this clue, with the abtruse “without” meaning “includes”. I was looking at STAR, without the R (as instructed), before attacking the front with HIT.

    GNEISS was a word from the back of the vocab, although I did think of “igness” first, which I thought could be the noun from “igneous”.

    Mercifully I did not parse ESAU, already knowing the name of Isaac’s two sons. Otherwise the tiresome SA=appeal would have had me ranting. Its not just both dated and sexist; it’s not even a good clue fragment with “appeal” in the clue and answer.

    Please to have unpicked ALEHOUSE, with the unlikely “EH” in the middle, one of many interesting clues. HEARTH also felt right without me really being able to see just how it worked. And TAHITIAN of course brought to mind Gauguin, who famously painted them, not that this info was needed for the clue.

    COD WHEATEAR as I was pleased to identify the river WEAR, one of the less common short river names that appear in Crosswords.

    2. I’ve never before seen or heard of SA as standing for sex appeal, and I’m old enough to have lived through some particularly non-PC times. Seemed pretty lazy on the part of the setter.
  2. An entertaining end to the week with lots of interesting clues. I thought the bird was going to cause me all sorts of headaches but the checkers gave me the HEAT bit and the river quickly followed. GNEISS and TITIAN have moved from the depths of my memory to nearer the front since starting cryptics so neither of those potentially difficult clues held me up for long today.
    Finished in 7.39 with ALEHOUSE, which is my joint favourite along with RAINCOAT.
    Thanks to curarist
  3. I biffed GATEAU & HITHERTO, parsed post-submission. I had NEEDLE at 5d until FRITTERS made me change. Curarist, as well as HEARTH, you’ve got a typo at ALEHOUSE: A + L(EH)OUSE. 5:01.
  4. I got nowhere with this one. Many of the clues were simply too difficult or obscure for me. I gave up in the end.
    1. Never mind PW, it was a stiff one. Have a good look at the blog and you’ll do better next time!
    2. I managed this one without only two holding out and needing aids (PIER and TAHITIAN) But then you fared better than I did on yesterday’s, where I struggled.

      Definite MER at pier=breakwater but I’m always in a minority on these definition disagreements!

      Edited at 2021-07-09 12:40 pm (UTC)

      1. It’s always worth a look in a dictionary. SOED has ‘pier’: 2a A solid structure extending into the sea or a river to protect a harbour and form a landing stage for vessels; a breakwater, a mole. Also, a similar structure in the form of a platform supported on pillars or girders for use as a pleasure promenade or landing stage.

        Edited at 2021-07-09 10:15 pm (UTC)

        1. Trouble is, that’s the wrong way. Pier might give breakwater but, in my Chambers, at least, not the other way round. Pier just didn’t occur to me, I’m not good at thinking of possible synonyms. Struggle with anagrams to, for that matter. I guess I should just ask my bette half – she’s very good on both counts..
    3. Sorry to hear that. We finished today but you beat us soundly yesterday!
    4. I agree. For me this was a very difficult. one. I either complete or nearly complete most of them thanks in main part to this really excellent forum which I watch every day. But I didn’t get even half of this one. Prob my fault.

      Fred

  5. Great puzzle from Orpheus today – so much to get our teeth into. We were all done in 14 minutes.

    FOI: BUFF
    LOI: ALEHOUSE
    COD: RAINCOAT (tough choice as there were so many clever clues)

    Thanks Orpheus and Curarist.

  6. This felt a lot harder than my time; half the clues seemed to create a thought process of “no idea …” followed by “oh hang on” just as I was about to move on. A good testing puzzle. I followed the same clockwise journey as our esteemed blogger and for once ended up with the same sort of time.

    FOI BARONESS, LOI SNUB (was fixated on ED for the press employee), COD NETTLE (“stingy” fooled me!), time 08:51 for 1.8K and a Good day.

    Many thanks curarist and Orpheus.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-07-09 08:26 am (UTC)

  7. 7 minutes. The painter / islander thing is something of a chestnut so wouldn’t be a problem for experienced solvers and is worth remembering by newbies meeting it for the first time. I thought I might be stuck on my LOI for a while but fortunately I dredged up GNEISS from somewhere once the checkers were in.
  9. No major issues apart from being distracted by needle at 5d until FRITTERS put me right. FOI, BARONESS, LOI, ALEHOUSE. 7:40. Thanks Orpheus and Curarist.
  10. I found this hard work in places. I had no problems with TAHITIAN or even ESAU but I spent a long time working out the interconnecting ORGY, WHEATEAR (unknown) and GNEISS (unknown) before returning to the top of the grid and an alphabet trawl for my LOI PIER. 10:25 but it felt longer.

    I have now read curarist’s blog and realise I also biffed CHIC.

    Edited at 2021-07-09 08:49 am (UTC)

  11. Got there in the end with much to enjoy. A little to obscure in many places to be q quickie in my opinion. Thanks all though!
  12. I found this a bit of a biff-fest (like GW) but I did parse them all. Some answers just appeared, given the odd checker, but there is plenty here to go back over and enjoy. I wrote niggle for 5d at first but realised my error when FRITTERS was obvious. I knew ESAU but the dreaded SA passed me by again. Does anyone actually use this abbreviation?? WHEATEAR, GNEISS, SCULLERY, ORGY, and TAHITIAN all appealed to me and my LOI was ALEHOUSE. A bit of a tricky one which stretched my remaining cells but I managed to get the all clear just 4 mins over target. Thanks to Orpheus for a very good puzzle and to curarist for a good, concise blog. John M.
  13. I think you have a typo here otherwise your parsing doesn’t make sense
    Surely hear plus first of to and hog = H T..?

    Good testing puzzle and blog thank you

  14. 11:35 today with some time at the end finally working out ALEHOUSE. I see others also have that as their LOI. FOI BUFF.
    Nothing held me up unduly. Was pleased to remember GNEISS.
    My favourites were SIRE and RAINCOAT; a good quality puzzle all round.
    David
  15. Feeling v slow today but meandered through this gradually. Amused by the Croatian raincoat. More than usual not fully parsed so thanks for filling in the gaps for me. Remembered GNEISS from A Level geography, WHEATEARS we see locally, so those came easily but it took me a while to find the right islander.
    I have a total blind spot for “old man” = pa. Every time it is a head slap when the light comes on, even though it is frequently used. Hmm. Maybe I should start every puzzle by looking for PA references before anything else until it sticks. I’m sure others have those “doh!” moments too but it really annoys me…
  16. I hit the wall at 5dn which I threw in as NIGGLE and not NETTLE – different sort of ‘stingy’!?
    So my 8ac my LOI FRITTERS were way over-cooked Thus 16:30 mins. Dough!!

    FOI 1dn TAHITIAN – flying start!

    COD 23ac WHEATEAR – lovely creature

    WOD 25ac SCULLERY – my grandparents ever ate here and never the breakfast-room even the kitchen.

    24ac GNEISS was a write-in due to A-level Geology.
    I had to look-up 21dn – NHO.o

    Edited at 2021-07-09 11:57 am (UTC)

  17. An enjoyable mental work-out today. All within reach but took some stretching.
    I finished the RH side long before the LH, and the bottom corner before the top . I’ve NHO WHEATEAR so that was my LOI in that corner but my biggest hold-up was the TAHITIAN / PIER combo, mainly because I couldn’t believe that a pier was a breakwater so assumed I must be wrong. I realised that it had to be correct when Titian came to mind in 1 down at which point, it was Game Over, and last one in.
    Thanks, curarist, for the helpful blog and thanks, too, to Orpheus

    Edited at 2021-07-09 09:25 am (UTC)

  18. Just over ten minutes to complete, with a lot of biffing. FOI baroness, and only three acrosses on first pass. Then all started to fall into place once I started filling in the down clues. Amazed to find all the answers I inserted were right after all the biffing. Many thanks for clearing up the parsing, Curarist. I was in the needle club until fritters cleared that up. LOI hearth, one of the few I did parse, aha. COD wheatear, though I enjoyed many of the clues. Thought I had no chance with Bess’s man, so was pleased when Porgy popped into my head. I once shared a tiger safari with an opera singer whose main role had been Porgy. Much time spent on his knees, he said.
    Thanks for the puzzle, Orpheus. Feel I didn’t do it justice by not parsing more clues. GW.
  19. With McDuff gone – I much enjoyed Orpheus’s spam fritter too. 24ac GNEISS was my only holdover. COD to 17ac PATENTED.

    Edited at 2021-07-09 09:44 am (UTC)

  20. Taken over target by the left hand side, where TAHITIAN, BEFALL and SNUB were L3I in that order. Otherwise, no real problems or stand-out clues. I’m going to award my COD to FRITTERS for the remembrance of spam fritters as a kid. As Curarist says, they aren’t always of the fruit variety. 17 minutes all in.

    I hesitate to point it out C, but as well as problems with HEARTH and ALEHOUSE, you have an error in 1a, where it is oneS inside bars.

  21. Needed aids for the unknown Wheatear, even with heat pencilled in, and Gneiss, so by the time I reached loi 8ac I was already thinking about pulling stumps on this. I had Needle for 5d (nettle for annoy is a new one to me, but apparently well known to everyone else) so Fritters escaped as well. A disappointing end to the week. Invariant
  22. Needed help for ALEHOUSE (thought of every other unpleasant parasite but louse) and GNEISS – NHO.
    Biffed WHEATEAR (LOI) , HEARTH
    Liked FRITTERS, PATENTED. BUFF made me smile.
    Kept trying to fit in Haitian before PDM re islander.
    FOI COL, ESAU, tho SA archaic term.
    Thanks vm, Curarist.
  23. The 11/2 interchange was the one that took an age for me. My birding knowledge helped me get WHEATEAR, which is a beautiful little bird that is seen on spring migration in late March.
    I liked the RAINCOAT anagram.
    Have a lovely weekend
    A
  24. Sticky solve today – started like a train in the NE but then had to sit and stare at almost every other clue to derive any meaning whatsoever; I blame the quality of the wine last night!

    Lots of (in retrospect) well crafted clues, but particularly enjoyed NETTLES and NUMBER – the latter has the feel of a chestnut that I haven’t experienced yet!

  25. Fun and challenging puzzle. Thought I’d cracked it only have a red letter at the end of 17a where I entered patenter. Still vaguely hanging onto the thought it is a valid answer; the person who was granted the patent is protected and someone in a tent could be called a tenter (number is allowed for the less sensitive). Probably just me.

    I don’t comment often but read the blog daily. My thanks to all the bloggers/setters here and on the weekend extra – all much appreciated. Sam

  26. 4:06 this morning. For whatever reason, I found this a gentle end to a week of QCs where I managed to get under target every day, which hasn’t happened too often, but also perhaps suggests that there has been a sequence of easier puzzles recently.
    COD 24 ac — Gneiss to see you, to see you gneiss.
    Also interesting that Croatian is an anagram of Raincoat.
    Thanks to Curarist and Orpheus
  27. Another tough one, taking me to 24 minutes – well over target, as yesterday. Struggled in the NW and I was another who initially had NEEDLE at 5dn. Luckily 8ac FRITTERS popped into my head pretty quickly, prompting a rapid rethink. At 1dn I was aware that I needed a 6 or 7 letter painter ending in “n” into which I had to insert “a” or “ah” but for the longest time I could only think of Gauguin. Oh well, painters are not exactly my area of expertise.

    FOI – 10ac COL
    LOI – 2dn HEARTH
    COD – 4dn RAINCOAT

    Thanks to Curarist for explaining those that I biffed and to Orpheua for an enjoyable puzzle.

  29. 25 minutes of fairly enjoyable stuff today — so not quite as Orful as I feared. (Yet steeped in ye olde worlde stylie)
    Chic difficult — Latin unknown; Number again rears it’s bloomin head; as did the nasty Col…and as so many others I got the needle before the fritters burnt me.
    Gneiss just familiar and was LOI.
    I remember seeing a wheatear once and was pleased to cross it off in my bird book.

    Thanks all
    John George

    Edited at 2021-07-09 02:18 pm (UTC)

  30. My FOI was GATEAU, but several minutes then passed without any further progress before I made headway again, in the lower third of the grid (ERR, MOOD, etc.). I find Orpheus the most challenging of all of the QC setters, and was therefore very pleased to keep the ball rolling, albeit jerkily, until four clues remained (BEFALL, ESAU, ALEHOUSE and PATENTED). These took 15 minutes or so to crack, but I succeeded and crossed the line in 42 minutes. Given that my success ratio with Orpheus is still less than 40%, I count today as a good day.

    Mrs Random is a day behind the rest of us at the moment. She completed yesterday’s Felix in 22 minutes this morning and, as I had suspected, didn’t have any trouble (unlike me) with AGAMEMNON. She just solved the three component parts, assembled them and assumed she was correct. Yesterday, I solved two of the three parts of that clue, but, try as I might, the third escaped me and a DNF was recorded.

    Many thanks to Orpheus and curarist.

  31. … with an enjoyable puzzle, all done and parsed in a fraction under 10 minutes. My LOI though, 14D Alehouse only succumbed to an alphabet search (luckily not too long given the A-EH start), and parsed after writing it in.

    I didn’t know any of the chestnuts, which actually I think made it more fun to have worked then out. I sometimes wonder whether crosswords would be so enjoyable if one had seen all the clues before. But I’m not likely ever to reach that stage!

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

  32. Toiled for 30 mins until I only had 13ac and 14dn. Unfortunately my biblical knowledge let me down, and as it wasn’t my usual go to of “Eli” I just couldn’t get the first letter for “Alehouse”. Even then, it’s not the first tavern name that would come to mind.

    Annoying really as there were lots of clues I DNK (or was a little hazy) but managed to get the answer from the wordplay — “Wheatear”, “Gneiss”, “Chic” and “Tahitian” come to mind.

    With regards to “Fritters”, the only ones I’m aware of are potato based. Also thought the order of letters for 7ac “Gateau “ was a little devious — spent quite a bit of time trying to work out why “ate” was a meal. In addition, still have no idea why cataract = fall.

    FOI — 10ac “Col”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 3dn “Buff” — childishly made me laugh.

    Thanks as usual!

    1. Fritters (frittata) are commonly potato, vegetable, fruit, seafood, or bean-based.
      Like you, I grew up with potato fritters but always thought the word was just used to mean ‘fried’. John
      1. Just looked it up and so it is! Never ceases to amaze me what I learn on here (and how little I know) 😀
  33. Defeated by 11a hitherto, the rest of the nw corner we found tricky, got hearth without parsing and needed help fot 1d tahitian. No problems with wheatear and gneiss.
  34. I did struggle a little bit, TAHITIAN was a new one for me, WHEATEAR was constructed. Loads of good clues, and as with all the puzzles that take me over my target, all parsed too, rather than hurriedly biffed!

    ALEHOUSE probably by favourite.

    6:31

    1. An ALEHOUSE would definitely be my favourite as well, especially right now — after several hours of heavy work in the garden.
  35. A struggle to get enough clues solved to help with the rest, but I got there in the end — 18 minutes with several distractions, so I’m happy.
  36. Very late posting after a lovely visit to a garden where we were absolutely amazed to see a small flock of flamingos strolling across the lawns. Not that common in rural Northants 😂 And I promise I hadn’t been anywhere near an ALEHOUSE.
    This was an enjoyable 10 minutes with no scary bits for me — GNEISS only known from crosswords though.
    FOI Baroness
    LOI Pier
    COD Nettle
    Thanks Orpheus and Curarist

    Edited at 2021-07-09 08:24 pm (UTC)

    1. Was that the garden Carol Klein did a documentary on recently? If so, would you recommend Mrs Random and I paid it a visit at some stage (it’s a good few hours from us)?
      1. Yes it is! Coton Manor — about 15 minutes off the M1. It was our first visit but we’d go again. It’s delightful — not huge but you could happily spend a few hours there. Lots of different areas, fab colour in the herbaceous borders, very relaxed — and flamingos! I’m sure you’d find a few other nice things to do in the area if you made a weekend of it 😊
        1. Many thanks for the recommendation. The gardens looked very good on the telly. Mrs R is definitely up for a visit and a couple of days away. I’m not aware of any flamingos near here, but we are close to a flock of storks — the first to have bred in this country for 600 years — at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
          1. West Sussex — one of my favourite parts if the country. Lucky you 😊 Have seen the Knepp rewilding project on tv — looks fascinating!
  37. DNF today, mainly stuck on what you experienced solvers call chestnuts (WHEATEAR, TAHITIAN). I will commit these to memory! Needed blog to parse ESAU and PATENTED (didn’t think of SA for ‘particular appeal’ and was expecting ‘pa’ to be contained by ‘tent’ in some way, rather than the wordplay pointing to the state of being ‘in temporary shelter’). Still thinking too rigidly! Many thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and for the informative blog.
  38. Failed at the last on this one, unable to come up with WHEATEAR or ALEHOUSE. I’m not great on English rivers, and the latter because of a misreading of the clue – I was looking for a parasite including the letters E and N: the bounds of English tavern. That old problem of picking the wrong end of the clue. Sigh. Fifteen minutes of effort on the rest. Found this one tricky.

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