Quick Cryptic 2864 by Joker

Generally straightforward but with a bit of a NW – SE divide. Some slightly off-the wall definitions to slow you down, but enjoyable nevertheless. 7 minutes for me.

Across
1 Loud organ causing fright (4)
FEAR – F (loud) + EAR
3 Mostly deal with certain valuable objects (8)
TREASURE – TREA[T] + SURE
8 Case for an embassy worker (7)
ATTACHE – double definition
10 Quiet compulsion to get out (5)
PURGE – P + URGE
11 No good chasing Henrietta — terribly scary (11)
THREATENING – anagram (‘terribly’) of HENRIETTA plus NG
13 Working with team in agreement (6)
ONSIDE – ON (working) + SIDE (team)
15 Model university in New York, say (6)
STATUE – STATE with U inserted
17 Break up when taking part in masquerade (11)
DISASSEMBLE – AS (when) inside DISSEMBLE. The definition is a stretch but it works
20 Fabric ending up pink peach taffeta, dark one (5)
KHAKI –  last letters of pink peach taffeta, dark + I
21 Meddle with untried arrangement (7)
INTRUDE – anagram (‘arrangement’) of UNTRIED
22 Like a tuned piano worked some of the time swallowing note (8)
TEMPERED – TEMPED with RE (do re me etc) inserted. As in Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier.
23 Drop building on garden plot, perhaps (4)
SHED – double definition
Down
1 Father with lawsuit getting tiny amount (8)
FRACTION – FR + ACTION
2 Influential part abandoned by fine thespian (5)
ACTOR – FACTOR minus F for fine
4 Narcotic product extracted from tree ferns (6)
REEFER – hidden word. I lost this battle years ago, but narcotics are drugs that act on opioid receptors and do not include cannabis, as found in a reefer. That’s the end of my TED talk.
5 Possible application for program meeting? (11)
APPOINTMENT – APP + OINTMENT. The program is the app and the application is the ointment. Clear?
6 At college just standing (7)
UPRIGHT – UP (at college) + RIGHT
7 Day before getting new flat (4)
EVEN – EVE + N
9 Secret family group to ordain (11)
CLANDESTINE – CLAN + DESTINE. A perfectly familiar word we never normally see in the infinitive.
12 Clergyman beginning on rite always with purpose (8)
REVEREND – R for rite + EVER + END
14 Weapon can be expensive to acquire in video game (7)
SIDEARM – DEAR inside SIM
16 Desire what church will often support (6)
ASPIRE – Churches often support a spire
18 Book career for cleaner (5)
BRUSH – B + RUSH
19 Go round abolishing king in comedy sketch (4)
SKIT – SKIRT minus R for king. But keeping K for king. Any questions?

79 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2864 by Joker”

  1. I biffed DISASSEMBLE & SIDEARM, parsed post-submission. I never did parse APPOINTMENT, although I broke it down into its two parts. 7:04.

  2. Very fast -possible PB rate – on top half but slowed markedly on bottom half for a 10 minute finish. I join those for whom Destine is unfamiliar/unknown (and my autotext has just “corrected” it to destined), but as Jack says, not a problem. Slightly more surprised at SIM being clued as video game, and STATUE for model, but they caused only minor delays.

    Many thanks Curarist for the blog
    Cedric

  3. Mainly straightforward but with a couple of tricky ones at the end, those being APPOINTMENT, DISASSEMBLE and LOI TEMPERED (NHO of TEMPED).
    I’m with our blogger on the REEFER/narcotic thing, but the answer was obvious.
    Finished in 7.06.
    Thanks to Curarist

  4. 8:29
    LOI was APPOINTMENT, unparsed. I am not convinced that an app is something to which ointment can be applied, or am I misreading it?
    COD to SIDEARM.

    Thanks Curarist and Joker

    1. Didn’t see it at first but I read it that ointment is something that has to be applied (usually in the instructions for use) therefore it is an application!

  5. Biffed TEMPERED with fingers crossed which took me above my usual 30 min cutoff. Not sure why I made heavy weather of it. Only excuse is conflcting thoughts of tasks to be completed before Xmas arrives and foreboding of parcel wrapping. In future I shall remember previous thoughts that all gifts should be delivered in rectangular boxes and avoid clothing.
    Thanks Curarist (to whose fellow exponents and associates I have been most grateful), and Joker

  6. A little obscure in places but lots of good clues – thanks Joker and Curarist. At risk of being pedantic fractions can be quite large amounts can’t they? 🙂

    1. I thought that too but in general use ‘a fraction’ can mean something that’s small.

      Collins has: 3. a small piece; fragment

  7. Unusually quick write-in for me today but could not parse TEMPERED or APPOINTMENT. Thanks Curarist for explaining. Had to assume SIM is a video game, but it didn’t delay me. A satisfying QC.

  8. Started nice and easy but ended with five to the bad. But all perfectly fair, thank you, Joker and Curarist. Only SIM … heard of a SIM card for a phone (though don’t possess such a thing), but not as a video game?

    1. It’s short for ‘simulator’, so a genre – flight sims are what spring to mind, although others including trucking are available.

  9. Very fast at the top – each of the first six went straight in – but more normal at the bottom, apart from being very slow on TEMPERED which I entered after a couple of alphabet traws – could see ‘temped’ and ‘re’ but not a clue about the piano meaning. Took a long time to get to INTRUDE from untried too. All green in 10.34.

  10. Thanks to Joker for the first true QC since Trelawney (2852). Enjoyable and clever with the occasional quirk (SIM, DESTINE were unknown to me) but I was ‘on the wavelength’ and these were easily dealt with.
    My time matched jackkt’s (to the second) so that can’t be bad. I used to be happy with sub-10 min times but I don’t rush these days and a sub-15 time gives me pleasure.
    Thanks to Curarist and, again, to Joker for a well-judged QC that nicely bridged the gap between a doddle and an unrealistic challenge for me.

    1. Great to hear from you again, Mr B. And very well done today. I don’t agree, however, with your assertion about the Q bit of QC, but that may just be down to my inadequacies, of course.

      1. Not at all Random. It is all down to ‘wavelength’, mood, and luck as well as experience.
        Templar’s comment below makes clear how personal it all is.
        I should know better than to follow others who, for example, post sub-10 minute times and say how ‘straightforward’ everything is. 😄

  11. Thanks to Curarist for parsing DISASSEMBLE which I biffed. I share his MER at REEFER. I was slow by my standards (2 seconds over target), and took a while to see APPOINTMENT, while SIM as a video game was something I’d never considered.

    FOI FEAR
    LOI TEMPERED
    COD THREATENING
    TIME 6:02

  12. I knew TEMPERED from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier which always brings up an image of a piano in a good mood. Still didn’t parse it though.
    Quite a few unparsed biffs but finished in sub 30 minutes.
    I liked 20a KHAKI as it seemed impossible initially from the word endings.
    COD ASPIRE.
    Thanks Curarist for parsing my biffs and Joker for a very nice QC.

  13. 6:05

    Failed to parse CLANDESTINE, SIDEARM and DISASSEMBLE in flight – not sure I could have equated masquerade to DISSEMBLE, so it’s a good job that the clue’s definition was clear and that the checkers were friendly. Didn’t know either that pianos could be TEMPERED – the wordplay was pretty clear though.

    Thanks Curarist and Joker

  14. Another awful one by Joker’s past standards, bunged in TIMBERED at 30mins as had spent 5mins specifically on that. Top half flew in but then screwed over by APPOINTMENT , unparseable DISASSEMBLE, NHO destine and STATUE=model meh. Another one better suited to the biffers which feels like where the QC is heading more often than not these days.

    1. Agree that TEMPERED was a tough one unless the piano reference hit the right note, but the rest seemed to parse fairly, if not easily?

      1. Parseable but not so easy to build up from the wordplay especially if, like me, you don’t know dissemble or destine.

        As I said last time we had a Joker puzzle. I feel sad that their puzzles have got increasingly harder/more complex over the past year. I used to rate Joker as my favourite setter and unfortunately I’m not sure they’re even in my top 5 now. The humour of the past puzzles has ebbed away.

        The top half of today’s puzzle felt like the Joker of old but then it all became too wordy and misdirecting for me to enjoy it as a QC.

  15. Looks likely to be appealing to the Biggie people and probably appalling to the newer members. I was deep in the SCC and ready for a stiff drink.
    I clearly wasn’t well tempered to Joker’s wavelength as I hit several bum notes, and there were a lot of long unscored rests as I eventually finished well behind most of my fellow players.
    All fair by our setter, although TEMPERED felt much more 15×15; my very hazy memory of Bach got me over the line, I wouldn’t have got it otherwise. APPOINTMENT was a PDM and a wry smile: as with several others, obvious once solved but frustrating until then. Needed the blog to understand SIDEARM. Why ATTACHE took me so long is a mystery. I knew I knew it but it taunted me for ages before leaping out and making me feel very stupid indeed. Oh well.

  16. Like yesterday I had another crops/corps moment at 19d. This time I wondered whether an obit could be a comedy sketch! I biffed a lot today. NHO destine and struggled with DISASSEMBLE, my LOI, in 8:34.

  17. I’m a newbie beginner (would love to know what all the abbreviations mean, and biffed etc). I didn’t find this one too bad, managed to do 16 clues before giving in, after about half an hour, including attache and statue. And guessed at appointment but couldn’t see why it was right. But 13A, 17A and 22A completely stumped me, plus destine.

    1. 16 on this one is good going for a beginner, it’s not easy if you are new. Keep going and post often! It’s a very supportive and friendly place.

  18. 10 minutes for me today. LOI TREASURE; was uncertain about Trade or Treat at first.
    For me ,knowing little about music, TEMPERED was the hardest one; I was pleased to parse it.
    COD to ASPIRE.
    An easier QC than the last few this week.
    David

  19. My time for a Joker puzzle is rarely inside target time, and this rather tricky puzzle took me 14.42 to complete. The last four minutes or so were spent on ASPIRE (I did like that clue), SIDEARM and finally after a lot of head scratching TEMPERED. My head continues to itch as I didn’t manage to parse it, and it went in with fingers crossed.
    My total time for the week was 50.27 giving me a daily average just outside target at 10.05.

  20. From FEAR to SIDEARM in 6:57. Didn’t manage to parse SIDEARM or DISASSEMBLY. Took a moment to see TEMPERED but then remembered Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier which refers to his method of tuning the instrument in a way so that pieces played in different keys sound in tune. As I understand it, if the individual notes are tuned to an exact pitch, the harmonies sound wrong when chords are played. Thanks Joker and Curarist.

  21. There’s a hilarious contrast in views above, ranging from “first true QC since 2852” through to “awful … better suited to the biffers”. Who’d be a setter?

    Seemed pretty standard to me, with a lot of fairly easy clues to get going and then some tricksy clever ones to make you chew your pen. The trio of APPOINTMENT, SIDEARM and TEMPERED were what held me up and I needed the blog to understand LOI APPOINTMENT – aha! So the application was not the APP! Very good.

    All good fun and done in 07:17 for 1.1K and a Good Day. Many thanks Joker and curarist.

  22. I found this fairly middling, easy in places, but a bit more thought required elsewhere. My favourite clue was LOI APP-OINTMENT for the PDM and smile. Couldn’t parse SKIT and took an age over POI STATUE (doh). REEFER seems to come up quite frequently. A lovely puzzle that got my brain whirring. Thanks Joker and C.

  23. Made heavy weather finishing in 16:00 dead. Suspect mind not fully engaged in it distracted by the usual trying to get everything finished on last working day before Christmas pressures.

    Didn’t help myself by trying to use P for hard in 1ac.

    Couldn’t disassemble DISASSEMBLE so thanks Curarist for the parse.

    LOI ASPIRE
    COD APPOINTMENT

    In retrospect a tough but fair Friday offering so props to the Joker.

  24. Like others, I found this the exact opposite to yesterday, with a straightforward top half of the grid and some really tricky stuff down below. A comfortable window seat in the SCC beckoned, but I lingered to have a second (unsuccessful) attempt at parsing Skit 🙄, Disassemble (!) and Appointment (thanks, Curarist), before pulling stumps at 25mins with the coach starting to fill up. CoD to loi 16d, Aspire, for the pdm. Invariant

  25. I found this very hard and finished only with use of aids. About 40 mins.

    However, I thought it was mostly fair, although I needed the blog for parsing. COD DISASSEMBLE , despire needing aids for this.

    I am sure that trickier QC markedly ++ increase the divide between the pros and the novices. A bit like an adult and a 5 year old adding 4 + 1 easily, but the 5 year old being stumped with 18+ 19. ( my TED talk 😀)

    Re narcotic as reefer. Narcotics induce narcosis My understanding of narcosis is sleepiness, decreased consciousness.
    See nitrogen narcosis et al. I suppose (just)cannabis can be classified as a narcotic this way.

    In US law illegal drugs are referred to as narcotics ( but no US allusions in clue). Not UK.

    Chasing the dragon is well known but also see this science direct article
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395920300712
    about heroin reefers

    Thanks for very helpful blog.

  26. 8.14. Was going like a rocket until I hit the bottom half, there was some obscure stuff in this puzzle. DISASSAMBLE I got from the B crosser and guessed others like SIDEARM and TEMPERED which, if it relates solely to a Bach composition of which most of us have never heard, is seriously annoying.

    1. TEMPERED is probably known to most people via Bach. But in fact it refers to various methods of tuning, especially but not exclusively of tuning keyboard instruments. If you start tuning a chromatic instrument to mathematically pure intervals, you find that you are stuck, and only a few tonalities will sound good while the rest sound awful. Tempering refers to various methods of compromising so as to get more, or all, tonalities to sound reasonably good.

      Here endeth the lesson.

  27. 18 mins…

    Nice and steady I thought with some good clues. Main hold up was 19dn “Skit” and 22ac “Tempered”. The remaining “k” threw me for skit and I couldn’t see what the “go round” synonym was. Similarly for 22ac, the “re” for note, when I was expecting a letter from “a” to “g’.

    FOI – 1ac “Fear”
    LOI – 22ac “Tempered”
    COD – 1dn “Fraction”

    Thanks as usual!

  28. 07:29
    Prob one of my fastest joker times, so he was being generous. Last day for many schools so busy with pick ups and trying to get work finished.

    LOI and COD Aspire.

    Look out for the Christmas Quickie tomorrow!

    1. That is a really good way to learn! In the days before finding this blog, that’s how I (and I guess most people) used to try and work out what had been going on, but of course, I’d have to wait until the next day! But I still often didn’t understand 😅 TfTT has really made a difference. Keep plugging on – you’re doing very well!

      1. Thanks, enjoy the Christmas special, it should be be very interesting to see clues from a variety of fellow solvers!

  29. 31 minutes.

    Straightforward? Not for me.

    A tough day to end a frustrating week.

    Totally lost for at least 10 mins and only marginally better thereafter. Became stressed out at the thought of finishing with several incomplete, and lost my head.

    Monday’s fail meant my target was unachievable this week, and I also had 2 deep into SCC days. 1 hr, 52 mins for week. 1 DNF and 2 SCC escapes. Disappointed.

    1. GaryA, 1 Dnf sounds like an improvement. And you are doing well on the 15×15.

      The Quickie Christmas crossword is published tomorrow so maybe have a go at that.
      Off work now so might not post as much over the next few weeks.
      Merry Christmas everyone!

  30. 11.31 This didn’t feel too hard but I was slow throughout. I’m blaming the lino glue induced headache. Last two DISASSEMBLE and APPOINTMENT were unparsed. Thanks Curarist and Joker.

    P.S. At a loose end, I decided to attempt an early QC. The first one I could find on the crossword club site was number 76. Has anyone succeeded in accessing an earlier one? The date restricted search always gives me “an unexpected error has occurred”.

    1. Many of the earlier ones (including 76 – xword 40 in book 1) were in the books which are still readily available on ebay

  31. Spot on 20 minutes for me with a number unparsed. Main problems were in the right hand side which remained pretty blank for quite a long time. Not so easy imo.

    FOI – 1ac FEAR
    LOI & COD – 16dn ASPIRE

    Thanks to Joker and Curarist.

  32. 18 minutes to a DNF. I don’t know why I lost patience but I did, got ATTACHEd to “article” and didn’t hang around long enough to get unstuck. Good puzzle though! Liked 10A as the clue surface is all too pertinent. I had to try an unreasonably large number of permutations to get INTRUDE – crazy since only the vowels had to be moved. COD APPOINTMENT, which made me laugh. SKIT had me properly fooled, so I just biffed it.

    Thanks Joker and Curarist!

  33. Since my last post (2.33pm), I have been attempting the 15 x 15.

    As with yesterday, I was agonisingly short, this time failing to get one answer (despite several checkers). That drives me up the wall!

    I have spent over 15 hours on cryptics this week (I’m on holiday). I hope this huge investment of time pays off soon because right now it doesn’t feel like it ever will.

    1. I haven’t had a proper go at it, but I feel Friday’s is a bit of a stinker. My first glance only got the composer and 7d. I would definitely recommend having a go at Monday’s 15×15, as I seem to remember it was a lot easier to solve from following the wordplay. Joker’s was pretty good today, I thought, but not too easy.

  34. Finished in 18:27 but it felt a bit weird, as if Joker started the day thinking “Time to set a lovely puzzle!” and then turned into Darth Vader halfway through.

    Thank you for the blog!

  35. Normal speed through most of the top half of the grid, but my progress through the bottom half was barely noticeable and really needed a geological clock. However, I did (eventually) cross the line unscathed, in maybe just short of an hour.

    Didn’t like TEMPED for ‘worked some of the time’. Not sure it’s even a word.
    Had no idea what SIM has to do with ‘video game.
    Is KHAKI a fabric? Or a colour scheme?
    NHO DESTINE as a word.
    Getting to DISSEMBLE from ‘masquerade’ was beyond my (limited) vocabulary.
    I never managed to parse APPOINTMENT.
    Etc.,etc.

    Thanks to Joker and Curarist.

  36. Had to biff a few (again) as NHO TEMPED or DESTINE or SIM as a game – I only know this as a SIM card.
    Otherwise a steady solve.

  37. Came to this after a very jolly pre-Christmas lunch and feared my brain might be addled – but no! All done in 15. TEMPED is fine: an office temp does temping and might easily say “Oh, I temped at company X last year”. ATTACHE was a write-in and FRACTION was clear enough, despite slight ambiguity. Great fun: maybe I should make merry more often before tackling the QC!

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