Quick Cryptic 2588 by Teazel

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This one should be popular. 4 minutes 12 for me, and not much longer to blog it.  Generally an enjoyable solve with nice tidy surfaces.

Across
7 Extra starters from waiter in diner eventually (4)
WIDE – acronym. Nice to get correct cricket terminology after the bye/wide horrors of last week.
8 Little followed by lots is unreasonable (1,3,4)
A BIT MUCH – self-explanatory
9 Rick, resident originally in a warmer country (6)
SPRAIN – R[esident] inside SPAIN
10 Soft bed for sportsman (6)
PLAYER – P + LAYER
11 Outfit including line in national dress (4)
KILT – KIT with L inside
12 A large painting done out of doors (8)
ALFRESCO – A + L + FRESCO. I though this was normally two words but I guess they are both acceptable.
15 Astonished from the off: was in front! (8)
STARTLED – START (the off) + LED
17 Cut round circular figure to make a coil (4)
LOOP – LOP (cut) round O
18 Female telling stories in a plane? (6)
FLYING – F + LYING
21 Place and time for crop pest (6)
LOCUST – LOCUS (place) + T
22 Candidate is poisonous creature, I storm angrily (8)
ASPIRANT – ASP + I RANT
23 Related to lord (4)
TOLD – TO + LD
Down
1 Find exact place that could give you a sharp prick (8)
PINPOINT – self explanatory
2 Engineers finished meal (6)
REPAST – RE + PAST
3 Bad weather only half rare during autumn (8)
RAINFALL – RA[re] + IN FALL
4 A bit of cloud in view is pleasant (4)
WISP – hidden word
5 I have no suntan: spit! (6)
IMPALE – I’M PALE. Spit as in ‘put on a spit to roast’.
6 Came struggling to make summit (4)
ACME – anagram (‘struggling’) of CAME
13 Tidy file? Somehow that’s showing devotion (8)
FIDELITY – anagram (‘somehow’) of TIDY FILE
14 Annoyed to travel regularly on such a tyre? (5-3)
CROSS-PLY – self-explanatory. PLY as in ‘ferries that ply the Channel’
16 Artist is home for a little fruit (6)
RAISIN – RA + IS +IN
17 Identify centre of loch, not in time to go round (6)
LOCATE – OC (centre of LOCH) with LATE outside
19 Strong desire of lieutenant to tour America (4)
LUST – LT with US inside
20 Rudely take lighter, shortly given up (4)
GRAB – BARGE (ie type of boat) minus the last letter, backwards. This is the only one that made me pause and come back. Not the first definition of lighter that came to mind.

109 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2588 by Teazel”

  1. Having revisited this after a night’s sleep and having read the blog I’m baffled that somehow I managed to take 13 minutes to solve this one.

  2. I don’t think I had to skip any clues and come back to them later, they all slipped straight in. Finished at 6:30, a PB by a full minute. Put me in a good mood for the rest of my Friday!
    I’ve got on quite well this week with a total time of about 90 minutes (40 spent on Tuesday…), compared to 120 minutes last week.

  3. I got 13:42 if you pretend I’d heard of CROSS PLY before or knew that PLY meant travel regularly

    Because I was trying all sorts of regular letters in the word ‘travel’

    I DNF for those who aren’t delusional like I am

    I also tried ‘A BIT RICH’ for A BIT MUCH

    And couldn’t parse GRAB. I didn’t know a lighter was a boat.

    1. Ok i googled cross ply tyre and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not a term I need to ever know in my every day life

      However maybe the vintage 1950s project car in the shed that my husband may one day work on will have them? Maybe? Idk

      1. If you approach the QC on the basis of words that you would use in everyday life, I fear you will be continually disappointed!

        1. Oh no, I’ll definitely remember the word now, I was trying to justify not knowing the word to myself

          I also have a feeling we might call them something else in Australia but honestly if it was common or happened before the 90s I’m unlikely to know it

    2. As a retired taxi driver, the meaning of ‘ply’ as ‘to travel regularly’ is well known. When a cab has its “for hire” light on while not on a rank it is said to be “plying for hire”. This old term persists in legal terms that are used to this day, despite the relevant Act of Law being on the statute books some 40 years before the motor car was invented.

      1. My husband had a lot to do with the taxi legislation here where I live – I see that the word ‘ply’ is used here in our Act too.

        I’m gonna bring it up with him see how he feels about the word

    3. I had exactly the same experience with CROSS PLY and ended up googling tyres and finishing in 18:02. I’m calling it a win on the grounds that it’s not reasonable to require an obscure definition of “ply” to get something as technical as a near-obsolete type of tyre construction. Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle!

  4. Remembered CROSS PLY from the adverts that advised not mixing them with radials but I’ve never them in real life. Held up at the end by GRAB which looked like it must be the answer but I couldn’t parse it. Before that held up by TOLD where I was just slow to see what was going on and WISP where I missed the hidden and was desperate for it to be ‘nice’. Enjoyed seeing extras back on the grid. All green in 12, including a break to point out where my daughter’s school skirt was and to hand over cash for the lunchtime disco – might have one of those myself today. Wonder what Mrs M’s diary looks like.

    1. I tried mixing cross ply and radials once as a teenage money- saving endeavour. Resulting cost of bodywork repairs proved idiocy of ignoring paternal advice.

  5. Blimey! Cross ply tyres. There’s a blast from the past. I switched to radials after a particularly buttock-clenching slide in my MkII 1600L Cortina in 1978 and never looked back. And I’m so glad we had another cricketing ‘extra’ clue. We don’t get nearly enough of those.
    Another finish today, even though I couldn’t for the life of me parse PLAYER, so that was a lucky guess. I remain on the back row though at around 22 minutes so no promotion for me today. Still, it’s been a good week with 4/5 successes.
    I liked ASPIRANT and FIDELITY.
    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist for their work.

    1. I don’t think I ever had the (mis)fortune to experience cross-ply tyres though I heard plenty of tales about them. I’ve had similar sphincter-testing moments of my own in a Peugeot 205 GTI on radials, so perhaps I wouldn’t even be here today if I’d had cross-plies!

  6. I managed all green in 22 mins, which is decent for me tackling a Teazel.

    I couldn’t parse GRAB even though I know what a lighter is. And I biffed WIDE despite not understanding cricket gobbledegook. Cricketese will remain forever impenetrable, I fear.

    1. Caution: Cricket Lesson Coming Up.
      Whenever you see the word ‘extra’ in a clue it’s worth considering WIDE, NO BALL or BYE as these are three ‘extra’ ways a batter can add RUNS without actually hitting the ball (although technically it’s the bowler adding the runs to the batter’s team by misbowling, but we’ll leave it there.)

      1. For the benefit of anyone who’s “Down Under” and isn’t a fan of cricket – yes, there are a few – what we call “extras” you call “sundries”.

        1. I don’t think we call them sundries anymore – nor heard any commentators use the term though to be fair I do tune them out a lot. (except for Isha Guha her voice is so lovely)

          I think some ye olde scoreboards might have the word though. I like the term! It fits in with the other ridic words in the sport

          1. They’ve been extras here for ages. I was at the Oz v Pakistan Boxing Day test at the MCG and from memory Oz’s second best first innings scorer (after Labuschagne got 70-odd) was extras with about 54. We were trying to figure out a way of applauding as they left the ground..

      2. Here there are FOUR types of extra on the cricket score card. LEG BYES are listed separately.

      3. Although the batsman could hit a No Ball for six and score runs too.
        PLY was my LOI and was a bit of a guess and gave me a time of 14 minutes.

      1. Thanks all – CW1 for the congrats, and everyone else for the cricket lessons. I feel a little like Pandora, just after she opened the box…😬

  7. Whizzed through most of this until hitting the buffers with TOLD (doh!) and PLY having NHO the tyres, so spent time looking for regular letters of something.
    Finished in 7.52
    Thanks to Curarist

  8. It often surprises me how differently solvers react to a puzzle – the consensus here seems to be that Teazel was in generous mood with this one, yet I struggled with good parts of it and took a well-above-average 15 minutes to come home. The NW corner was especially sticky, as I displayed an extreme determination to get the wrong end of the stick on just about every clue!

    Minor delays over Rainfall (rain is not always bad weather, and prolonged absence of rain is much worse), Player (biffed, but slow to see layer = bed) and Impale (I wasnt sure spit in the cooking sense could be a verb) all contributed to the slow time, but in retrospect they’re all fair enough so I shall just concede the day to Teazel this time.

    Many thanks Curarist for the blog
    Cedric

    1. Hear hear on RAINFALL – a spot of rain can be very good weather if the crops/garden need it!

      1. As Billy Conolly said, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.

  9. A speedy 7:28 here. LOI was IMPALE for no apparent reason. I thought a couple at the bottom could be trippers-up – GRAB (need to know ‘lighter’ and then twist it round) and ASPIRANT (angrily was not an anagram indicator). Good puzzle.

  10. Not so “popular” with non-sportsmen! NHO extra = WIDE; NHO rick = SPRAIN (and why is Spain “warmer”? warmer than what?); NHO bed = LAYER (noun or verb?); and NHO spit as a verb in that context (do you “spit” a piece of meat to roast?). So, failed those four, and without the necessary crossers also failed to see PINPOINT and WISP (wrist duly slapped). Remainder doable enough (still have a 1969 car but never had cross-plies on it! or should that be plys?).

    1. I sympathise. I thought en passant that Spain has some high mountains, a few with permanent snow on.

  11. Good morning all. Our first post having watched from the sidelines for the last year. Mrs RH and I do the QC together over a pot of coffee and enjoy reading the blog after our attempt. About 24 minutes for us today which is a good time. Much biffing but we both had cross plies back in the day, on a 1965 Vauxhall Viva HA for me!
    Thanks for the blog and the comments.

    2. “Sammy the Seal” (SEA716L) was my ten year old 1973 Viva HA. Only kept her a year, as she’d drop a cylinder at regular intervals. Not a bad car overall

      Welcome aboard – we hope to hear more from you.

      1. A truly terrible car, rusted instantly, rear axle vaguely held in place with a pair of cart springs, axle tramp so severe it pulled the plastic petrol pipe off the metal bit – expensive and dangerous leak.
        Apart from that the gearchange was a delight, steering light and a bit responsive, clutch ditto, metal so thin the power-to-weight ratio wasn’t too bad. This is damning with faint praise.
        Oh, the HB was quite good!

  12. 6:53 (two marriages between offspring of Penda of Mercia and offspring of Oswig of Northumbria)

    Smiled at the correct cricket reference. LOI was RAISIN.

    Thanks Teazel and Curarist

  13. 4:10 A little slow to start but pausing only over GRAB at the end, when lighter = barge took a while to float to the surface. COD to ALFRESCO – a Banksy, perhaps? Thanks Teazel and Curarist.

  14. After my first pass through the clues I’d cleared all the Downs and went straight back for just four Across answers that then fell straight in. Very gentle, but nicely put together by Teazel.

    FOI WIDE
    LOI TOLD
    COD A BIT MUCH
    TIME 3:23

    1. Ha – exactly the same pattern for me, except that (a) I had 5 acrosses unsolved not 4, and (b) I took exactly twice as long as you!

  15. I think this might actually a marmite one – a piece of cake for some and too tricky for others! I wasn’t on Teazel’s wavelength so some of it was a grind for me. 13 minutes ish

  16. 8 minutes for me which I consider a fast time.
    Nearly ground to a halt at the end but was able to get WIDE and LOI RAINFALL pretty quickly.
    Lots to like in here and some good lessons for beginners- know your cricket terms being one.
    Which reminds me – I must check how we are doing against India.
    David

  17. I was around average on this Teazel offering. I seem to be going through a run of breezeblocks, and today’s were SPRAIN and LOI PINPOINT. Only vaguely heard of the tyre type.

    Lots of neat clues, but favourite was A BIT MUCH.

    6:25

  18. Whizzed through before being stumped at the crossing WISP and PLAYER which held me up for at least 8 minutes. All fair and parsed eventually.
    There were some interesting clue forms today and overall a lovely puzzle to end the week on.

  19. I started with the acrosses and found them quite chewy. Fortunately the downs all went straight in, thus allowing a swift mopping up.

    IMPALE made me chuckle so that gets COD from me, and I thought RAISIN was a very elegant clue.

    All done in 06:47 for a Very Good Day. Many thanks Teazel and Curarist.

    Templar

  20. 10:34. Nothing like as quick as the speedsters, including our obviously wide-awake blogger. The only one I can PINPOINT as being a difficult one was, well… I liked CROSS-PLY for ‘tyre?’, a term I haven’t heard of in years. Yes, my first car was a used Vauxhall Viva too, re-badged here as a Holden Torana. It was the SL (Super Luxury) version with high-end features including four on the floor, bucket seats, a heater & fan, go-faster GT stripes and a gold paint job.

    Be careful of what you wish for, but as others have said, RAINFALL isn’t necessarily ‘Bad weather’ and is usually something to be welcomed in this part of the world, especially in summer.

    Thanks to Curarist and Teazel

  21. Most went in reasonably smoothly but was left with CROSS-PLY and TOLD after my allocated hour so a DNF 😒

  22. 6:38

    A bunged-in A BIT RICH held me up at the end, getting IMPALE first before changing RICH to MUCH. Had four in from the first pass of acrosses, but the downs were more generous and set me on my way.

    Thanks Teazel and Curarist

  23. 10′ for a nice puzzle. Always interested to see how cricketing terms seem to result in much friendly badinage. Football terms often get a harrumph!

  24. 11:31, slowish start but motored on, with fewer unplanned stops than my first car, a Simca 1100, ASF443L. I can’t remember the plates of any of my other cars, including my current one. No idea what tyres it had: old, cheap and a bit bald. Just like me, now.

    COD IMPALE

    1. Now there’s a blast from the past! My mum had a Simca 1000 (EYJ232E). I vaguely remember it being quite fun, but the most memorable feature was the windscreen fluid pump being a rubber bulb on the floor which you had to squeeze repeatedly with your left foot. It worked though.

  25. After some pretty poor times for the last couple of weeks, and being reduced to one wheel on my wagon in yesterdays post, I called the AA out and the wheels were back in place ready for todays offering from Teazel. The answers came pretty swiftly to me and I crossed the line in 6.17, which is pretty fast by my standards.
    However, the weeks total time of 56.43 tells an altogether different story, and my daily average for the week was 11.23.

  26. 12:38. Another who thought A Bit Rich for A BIT MUCH before the M from IMPALE appeared. I think I even considered A Bit Dicy. A song I used to enjoy singing or humming on rainy walks was RAIN by the Beatles:
    “When the rain comes
    They run and hide their heads
    They might as well be dead” and also
    “When it rains or shines
    It’s just a state of mind”. I’ve often lamented our lack of monsoons here in Ontario!

  27. The (horrible) portcullis grid and a slow start – only 3 clues solved after 6-7 minutes – rather put me on the back foot throughout today. Fortunately, I managed to get my act together during the middle phase, but I slowed to a crawl again from the 7-to-go point. The SE corner was eventually unlocked by the belated, but sudden appearance of ALFRESCO (CROSS PLY, LOOP and TOLD followed quickly) and my key to the NE corner was PLAYER, which led to WISP and IMPALE (my LOI).

    I had NHO ACME for summit and I never managed to parse GRAB – an extremely difficult clue, IMHO. Time = 33 minutes, which is not bad for me, but nowhere near as straightforward as our blogger and others imply above.

    Many thanks to Teazel and Curarist.

  28. Only dimly aware of CROSS-PLY so this was a bit of a guess. Biffed both WIDE (hadn’t even considered cricket context!) and GRAB – thanks for explanations Curarist – otherwise the most straightforward Teazel puzzle I can remember. COD to IMPALE, although ASPIRANT was a close second. Many thanks all.

  29. I write from below the bottom rung to share that yesterday, for the first time (has taken a while -and no guarantee it will happen again) I finished with no checks, no reveals, no aids and in under 21 minutes. My Usain Bolt moment. Usually at 30 I’m still going. Would’ve had a drink had it not been 0930.
    Your joint input in getting me there cannot be understated. Thank you : )
    Today came from wrong direction with 23A, confused by 20D, spent too much time trying to use ‘I storm’ as a contributing anagram, NHO WIDE(my knowledge of the creature exceeds that of the game) and had IMPALE but didn’t parse it with spit. Thank you for explanation.
    My results rarely seem to echo the Snitch rating.
    Wonder which of age, education, location, interests etc. affects that most?
    Anyway, continued thanks to all. Also for much spontaneous grinning and mirth in these parts… you are a funny lot. 🙂

    4. Isn’t it fun when that happens! Congratulations! I’ll lift my next glass to your time.

      This blog is so great, there’s no way I’d be doing the QC without it.

    6. Congrats on yesterday’s success – here’s to many more! Hope you’ll continue to join in the fun 😊

  30. I learned to drive in my Dad’s furniture van which was an old PO delivery van, a bullnosed Morris 36cwt light diesel (TGU 922) with no synchromesh on any gear and cross ply tyres. Paul Simon could’ve written Slip Slidin’ Away about it! The family car was a 1961 Standard Vanguard 2 litre 6 cylinder estate (RGR 576) bought new from Windmill Garages in Sunderland in 1961. I much preferred driving that. It had radial tyres, but I still managed a 360 on some black ice on a roundabout over the building site that was the new A1M near Durham on the way to school one chilly morning. Anyway as already mentioned, a gentle offering from Teasel today. From WIDE to LOOP in 5:42. Thanks Teasel and Curarist.

  31. I did not find this one too difficult. No help needed from the cat (who stole my toast!)

    14d and 20d took the longest.

    Other than that I completed it fairly quickly (for me).

    1. I’d get my own back tomorrow, and pinch his Whiskas… (Other cat foods are available…)

  32. Dnf…

    After 25 mins, I’d completed the grid, but I put “Cross Fly” for 14dn. Cross Ply does ring a vague bell, so probably should have got it. For some reason, the other main hold up was 2dn “Repast”, but I’d thought the plural for engineers meant “Res” rather than “Re”, so I was trying to too clever for my own good.

    FOI – 7ac “Wide”
    LOI – 2dn “Repast”
    COD – 16dn “Raisin”

    Thanks as usual!

  33. Enjoyed this one but had to get some prompts for possible solutions to 5 down. I still don’t equate spit with impale, though the ‘I’m pale’ was amusing.

  34. 10.38 for me. Did this ages ago and then went to the cricket at the G (there were a few extras but not too many WIDES) (Oz won by eight wickets v WI btw) and can’t remember any particular issues but an enjoyable Teazel. Thank you Curarist.

  35. DNF

    Obviously way off the pace today. Struggled with the PINPOINT and SPRAIN crossers, which left me with the impossible _R_A_E after 9 or so minutes not thinking to question A BIT RICH.

    Teazel 1-0 Dvynys

    Have a good weekend everyone

  36. 15.05 Slowest of the week. PINPOINT, TOLD and CROSS PLY held me up at the end. Like Mendesest, I remembered the adverts from decades ago so I knew it was a CROSS something but it took five minutes to dredge up PLY from my memory. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.

  37. DNF, which is a pity as I’d been having a good run. Quite a tricky one in parts. Failed on PINPoint (Doh!) and I admit I looked up tyres to get PLY.
    A few biffs like LOOP, GRAB. Slow in NW.
    Liked KILT, LOCUST, ASPIRANT, REPAST, IMPALE.
    Thanks vm, Curarist. I thought you were joking when you said this one shd be popular🙂

  38. Gave up at 13 minutes. I was held up by PINPOINT and ASPIRANT but totally failed on CROSS-PLY. The CROSS bit was straight forward but I was never going to get PLY. I’ve heard of plywood and someone plying their trade but confess to never having heard ply for travel. Another one for my QC dictionary.

  39. Taken just over the 20 minute mark today by an age spent on 5d. Only solved in the end by belatedly going back to question A BIT RICH. I’d have felt better about it if IMPALE hadn’t seemed such a sensible (but clearly wrong because it didn’t fit!) answer some time earlier. I also couldn’t parse GRAB so thanks, Curarist. You live and learn.

  40. Always amazed at the rapid finishers, to whom my congrats. 24 mins, which is reasonable for me today.
    Still trying to break 10 min
    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist

  41. I struggled with this one although there is no obvious reason why. Some perfectly striaghtforward clues such as 2dn and 17dn held me up for much longer than they should have done. I eventually finished in 19 minutes with everything parsed except (for some reason) 3dn. I was another who had a bit rich at 8ac, which seemed to be confirmed when I got to the downs and acme fell into place. Cue a rapid revision when impale appeared after I had stared at 5dn for some time.

    FOI – 7ac WIDE
    LOI – 2dn REPAST
    COD – 5dn IMPALE. I also liked 14dn CROSS PLY which I am old enough to remember from my early motoring days.

    Thanks to Teazel and Curarist

  42. A bit of a breeze block but all done and dusted over a cup of tea.
    Did like the discussion about tyres.
    Three in row this end of the week

  43. 9:37 here, which I’m very pleased with. Almost came a cropper with TELL for TOLD, but – for once – paid attention to the little voice telling me that it didn’t parse.

    Thanks to Teazel & Curarist.

  44. Even I enjoyed this one. I didn’t know “ply” but it feels plausible. The puzzle didn’t require the usual silly toff-esoterica.

  45. Stumped by 4 clues, having seen the answers, we cannot understand why. Must be our old brains. Otherwise an enjoyable solve.

  46. About 25 minutes which is my current par, so can’t complain. Like many I was held up by CROSS-PLY until I managed to dig it out of the memory hole. Then I was argumentative about PLY meaning to travel regularly until our blogger pointed out that a ferry plies the waters.

    Much enjoyed A BIT MUCH!

    Thanks Teazel and Curarist!

  47. Completed! On paper so no accurate time but guess 20 mins. That was astonishing given that as I went through the across clues 11a was my FOI. After that the bottom half flowed.

    LOI Player
    COD Aspirant

    Thanks all

  48. 13:00

    Pretty quick for me so must have been on the easier side. Put A BIT RICH for 8ac which held me up until I saw IMPALE.

  49. Another late post as I have only just got in after a somewhat fruitless afternoon looking for birthday presents! I did this before going out and thought it was quite tricky, having got stuck on the same two as many others – TOLD and CROSS PLY. So I was relieved to finish in about 11 minutes with all parsed.
    FOI Wide LOI Cross ply COD Told
    Thanks Teazel and Curarist

  50. Gosh – I had cross-ply tyres on my Hillman Husky SHV9, Morris 1100 GLK348 and then on my Sunbeam Alpine (couldn’t afford a TR4A) and swopped to radials on that – what a difference! Then had to resort to series of Minis… Happy, but poor, days…
    Nice puzzle BTW!

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