My attempts at predicting how difficult others will find any given Quicky have generally been lacking in accuracy, however I’m quietly confident that I will be in tune with the consensus when I say that this is a hard puzzle. We have several unusual words and a few parsings that may not spring immediately to mind, the whole producing a satisfying mental workout. Thanks to Izetti for creating a serious challenge befitting the first Quicky of 2017, and best wishes to all for the coming year.
The grid is also a pangram (i.e. it contains all letters of the alphabet at least once). Seeing rarer letters such as a Q or Z early on may put you on the scent of a pangram, which may then help with filling in subsequent answers, but bear in mind that there are many more non-pangrams than pangrams so this kind of thinking may produce dead ends too often to be a sensible tactic. Though I may just be saying that as I don’t think I have ever both spotted a likely pangram AND used that knowledge to solve a recalcitrant clue.
The puzzle can be found here if other channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20170102/21483/
Definitions are underlined, {} = omission
| Across |
| 7 |
Taunt from joker, no good person at heart (4) |
|
JEER – JE{st}ER (joker, no good person at heart, i.e. JESTER (joker) without ST (good person, i.e. saint) in the middle (at heart)) |
| 8 |
Cool-headed way in which Greek character protects queen (8) |
|
TRANQUIL – TRAIL (way), in which NU (Greek character, i.e. the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet) surrounds (protects) Q (queen) |
| 9 |
Weaver as lowest of the low? (6) |
|
BOTTOM – double definition, the first referring to Nick Bottom the weaver from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
|
| 10 |
Longs to have time with partners at table (6) |
|
YEARNS – YEAR (time) + NS (partners at table, i.e. North and South in card games such as bridge) |
| 11 |
Row right after cup game? (4) |
|
TIER – R (right) after TIE (cup game – referring to, e.g., a football match in a knock-out competition) |
| 12 |
Big horse eats a medium soft plant (8) |
|
SAMPHIRE – SHIRE (Big horse), around (eats) A + M (medium) + P (soft), to give (Chambers): “An umbelliferous plant (Crithmum maritimum) which grows on sea-cliffs”, where umbelliferous is the adjectival form of umbellifer, which means (Chambers): “Any plant of the Umbelliferae family, with umbels and divided leaves”, and an umbel is (Chambers): “A flat-topped inflorescence in which the flower-stalks all spring from about the same point in an axis”. Phew. |
| 15 |
Chemical compounds got from crumbling deep pits (8) |
|
PEPTIDES – anagram of (crumbling) DEEP PITS, where a peptide is (Chambers): “Any of a number of substances formed from amino acids in which the amino group of one is joined to the carboxyl group of another” |
| 17 |
A female making comeback, this person is celebrity (4) |
|
FAME – reversal (making comeback) of A + F (female), + ME (this person) |
| 18 |
Foreign minister — namely, one to accompany Her Majesty (6) |
|
VIZIER – VIZ (namely – short for the Latin videlicet) + I (one) + ER (Her Majesty), to give (Chambers): “A minister or councillor of state in various Muslim states”, i.e. you need to read the definition as a minister who is foreign rather than a foreign minister à la Boris Johnson |
| 21 |
Sailor dispatched, not here (6) |
|
ABSENT – AB (Sailor) + SENT (dispatched) |
| 22 |
Support team that is 9 (8) |
|
BACKSIDE – BACK (Support) + SIDE (team), to give us another word for the answer to 9 across (BOTTOM) |
| 23 |
Wickedness not recorded after revolution (4) |
|
EVIL – reversal of (after revolution) LIVE (not recorded) |
| Down |
| 1 |
Some idle drunk to play music (8) |
|
MELODISE – anagram of (drunk) SOME IDLE. Not a common word, with only ~26,000 Google hits, though it’s not much of a leap to get there from melody. |
| 2 |
Old vehicle beginning to rust in pit (6) |
|
CRATER – CRATE (Old vehicle) + R (beginning to rust, i.e. the first letter of the word “rust”) |
| 3 |
Strange deities, about a thousand, put into list (8) |
|
ITEMISED – anagram of (Strange) DEITIES, about M (a thousand) |
| 4 |
Like something wicked making one irritable? (4) |
|
WAXY – double definition, the first requiring you to interpret “wicked” as something with a wick (e.g. a candle) rather than evil, and the second an old informal British meaning. Tough clue, especially as I hadn’t heard of the second meaning. |
| 5 |
Put an end to game (6) |
|
SQUASH – double definition |
| 6 |
Appearance of soldiers capturing island (4) |
|
MIEN – MEN (soldiers) around (capturing) I (island). Pronounced the same as “mean”. Chambers and Collins both describe this as a literary usage, with Collins’ trend graph showing a sharp peak in 1779. |
| 13 |
Communications taking long time after disorder (8) |
|
MESSAGES – AGES (long time) after MESS (disorder) |
| 14 |
Minor act excited one sort of poet (8) |
|
ROMANTIC – anagram of (excited) MINOR ACT, to give a term used to describe poets such as Keats and Shelley |
| 16 |
Awkward time with Richard (6) |
|
TRICKY – T (time) + RICKY (Richard) |
| 17 |
Encourage replanting of forest (6) |
|
FOSTER – anagram (replanting) of FOREST. Maybe not a standard anagram indicator, but it suits the surface reading well. |
| 19 |
Monk initially entering an hour after midnight as man of prayer (4) |
|
IMAM – M (Monk initially, i.e. the first letter of the word “Monk”) in (entering) IAM (an hour after midnight, i.e. 1 AM) |
| 20 |
Engineers at home making check (4) |
|
REIN – RE (Engineers) + IN (at home) |
The worst example is 4dn where there are some 50 words that fit the checkers and when running through them, none of them obviously fits either of the definitions in the clue. Waxy / irritable is obscure, and like our blogger I don’t recall ever meeting it before. The wick-ed /wicked trick (which I have seen before) can work but doesn’t really in this context as things with wicks don’t have to be waxy, for example oil lamps and stoves. Okay, so it’s by example and we have a question mark, but even so. We’re supposed to be encouraging people here.
Edited at 2017-01-02 05:43 am (UTC)
(Entered the language between 1850-1855 Random House Dictionary)
(LAZY (idleness being a sin – thus wicked and irritable – old British slang but not in Chambers either)??)
I totally agree with Jack – somewhat perverse.
COD 4dn WAXY WOD Izzzzzzzzzzzzzzetti
COED has: Brit. informal, dated -angry or bad-tempered
Collins has: Brit. informal, old-fashioned – bad-tempered or irritable; angry
Chambers has (under Wax 3): Brit. informal, old-fashioned – bad-tempered or irritable; angry.
Apart from my misgivings about the “wicked” thing as mentioned above my concern is not that the setter set it, but that the editor(s) let it through without intervening on the behalf of novice solvers.
And a footnote to vinyl’s comment: Yes, I did find today’s 15×15 easier than this.
Edited at 2017-01-02 05:41 am (UTC)
It wasn’t just ‘waxy’; the construction of ‘tranquil’ is very complex, and ‘samphire’ and ‘squash’ are not exactly obvious either. This one took me quite a while.
Beware of tyros and novices and slavery at Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk!
Best wishes for the New Year to everyone and especially the bloggers and setters (even Izetti!)
Rita
Put all but NE in after an average time, then completely stuck. Dnfed after about 45 minutes, first time ever, alphabet checks unable to come up with TRANQUIL, SQUASH or WAXY. Even with word lists did not parse TRANQUIL and like others not able to get WAXY, and if I’d put it in it would have been a guess.
Happy New Year all, including Izetti. The only way is up!
As for the crossword – our friend Izetti does like to give our little grey cells a good work out. I for one need it – if mine had been functioning better I would not have put melodies at 1dn which then made the chemicals at 15ac impossible. 4dn waxy – I was thinking candles – may have been possible if all the rest had been completed and I’d had a paper version – in this case the pangram would have been clear and with just w and x left 4dn would have fallen.
Ifs buts and maybes – another DNF here.
With 4d left to complete, as an old hand I should have spotted that only W & X were left for a pangram. This is 15×15 stuff not the QC.
River27
Yep, easily the hardest Quicky we’ve seen. But kudos to Izetti for sticking his head up in the comments above!
Thanks Izetti and Jack, and a Happy New Year to you both.
Ah well, welcome to 2017. Things can only get better.
PlayupPompey
My FOI was 20d followed by 23a as I tried to find a way in. It was a bottom up solve for me: the bottom half done in 12 minutes; another 13 to get the NW and finally to the blank NE. LOI was 4d and I strongly suspected a pangram at that stage. This made me more confident in Waxy; the “wicked” device I have come across a couple of times and I just assumed there must be another meaning of waxy.
So I managed to finish in 43 minutes; quite a long stint, but it was worth it.
HNY to all. David
I’m off for some light relief with the 15×15!!
The odd harder one is I am afraid inevitably going to sneak through occasionally.
RR
horryd Shanghai
Although not specifically relevant to this crossword, I also wonder if the use of old fashioned language means I am too young for the QC and Cryptic.
As ever, thanks to bloggers who are a constant encouragement to join the cryptic solving (and appreciating) community.
Even with the main cryptic, there can be quite a range of difficulty, and I think in general that meets with approval amongst the solving community – sure, there will be grumbles about obscure words and tenuous definitions and the like in the harder puzzles, but that’s always going to be the case when setters are catering for an audience of differing abilities and experience. It’s good to be stretched every so often (though not TOO often, from the point of view of confidence and entertainment).
It’s similar for the Quick Cryptic. Granted, this particular puzzle was a toughie, but I would hope that anyone trying to get into crosswords would be sampling the Quick Cryptic over a number of days, which I think would show that the general difficulty level is pitched about right. (Having said that, I didn’t do many Quick Cryptics over the holidays so I can’t comment on whether there has been a string of hard ones – if there has, I would guess it’s a coincidence rather than a deliberate ramping up of the level of difficulty, though the thinking behind today’s might have been that people may have more spare time on a bank holiday.)
I wouldn’t worry too much about old-fashioned language in either the Quicky or the main cryptic. You’re much more likely to encounter words that are perfectly current but which might not intersect with your particular interests (e.g. my heart sinks whenever plant names come up).
Don’t be disheartened about a puzzle that may seem over your head – it’s that process of learning new words, learning new wordplay, and seeing how a difficult clue should be parsed that enables people to improve. Whatever frustration/annoyance/hopelessness you may feel at the time, seeing the answers and how they should be arrived at will have made you a better solver, and you’ll be ready to apply that knowledge next time it’s needed. Hope that makes some sense!