Quick Cryptic 832 by Flamande

38 comments on “Quick Cryptic 832 by Flamande”

1. ….who want to feel like they’re Magoo! My time of 6:36 was a new PB, so this sure was a mighty easy puzzle. My first idea was correct in most cases, or I just left it blank and came back later. From ‘diva’ to ‘madam’, all complete and correct. I only hesitated on ‘madam’ because of ‘precocious’ – I was thinking, just the opposite.

   Edited at 2017-05-16 11:35 pm (UTC)

   1. I seem to recall a line from a book somewhere where some little minx, asked what she’s going to be when she grows up, says: “When I grow up I’m going to be a proper little madam”. I may have that slightly wrong, but the principle validates the clue 🙂
      1. It was a television advert – google tells me for Clark’s Shoes, though memory insists it was Heinz beans!

         Templar

2. Like Vinyl, I wondered about ‘precocious’–not a meaning of MADAM that I’m familiar with–but it had to be. I biffed SNOWDON from the S (note this can only work with a down clue) because it’s the only Welsh mountain I know; parsed later. I’m not sure why the setter included suspension dots in 1d. 5:40.
   1. A phrase that was frequently used by my parents a propos any young girl they did not approve of – so a straightforward one for me and apologies for not commenting further on it.
      1. Thanks; the extended phrase is a lot more recognizable. Did your parents characterize such girls as ‘common’?
         1. Not necessarily – if anything it was the more upmarket gels who had a tendency to be PLMs in my parents’ view. That said, my Mother – bless ‘er – regarded a remarkably high proportion of the population as being “common”…
3. Definitely on the easier end of the spectrum, taking me 7:01, which is approaching a PB for me. FOI VITAL, LOI XMAS. No hold ups. A confidence booster. Thanks Flamande and Nick.
4. 8 minutes again. Never heard of IRON MAN. MADAM as precocious female has come up before but possibly not in a QC. It’s often preceded by “little”.
   1. I did this in the absence of a 15×15. The Club site has a retro from 1970. Do you have a working URL for 26727 which is a Qual? (The one on the newspaper site doesn’t work.)
      1. I found that the one on the newspaper site does not work, but if you right-click and say ‘open in a new tab’, it does work. Try that.

         If it doesn’t work, you can try the actual underlying URL:

         https://nuk-tnl-deck-prod-static.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/338489820a84a474848cbd261f5c7b79.pdf

         1. Many thanks! Now I can make a coffee.
   2. I know an ex squaddie who does these things. It involves a lot of running swimming and cycling without a break. Definitely not for me!
   3. A huge sport in Australia (from which I am relatively recently returned after 15 years serving my time) and, I have to say, participants are extraordinarily impressive athletes. Local adverts (and parental guile) testify to the fact that the most effective way to enthuse young kids about wholesome food is to refer to it as “Iron Man food”.

      Edited at 2017-05-17 12:48 am (UTC)

5. 17 minutes so finally a good score.

   I did a half iron man in Dubai in Jan so that was a nice clue.

   Lots of nice clues but my fave to 13d eyesight or 16d lavish.

6. Even with your explanation it took a moment for the penny to drop – forgive my own pun 🙂
7. To anyone who found today’s QC on the easier side, may I recommend the Times Qualifier 15 x 15. Far from being more difficult, they are generally easier in my opinion. Today I took 15 minutes instead of my usual 30 or my DNF (Did Not Finish) yesterday.
8. But I still needed the blog to explain HIS EXCELLENCY to me – thanks Nick!

   Favourite was DOGFIGHT, very neat

9. Finished in 18 minutes, so my best time in a long, long time. LOI was HIS EXCELLENCY and needed this blog to see how it worked. I dallied over XMAS, thinking that such a colloquialism (or is it?) wouldn’t appear in crossword land. Loved LAVISH, and this was one of the last to go in. Thanks, Flamande. Gribb.
   1. The first rule of crosswords is that will use absolutely any word or expression, although the Times tries to avoid indecency.
10. Hurrah, 20 minutes all in. Couldn’t parse 14A and took a while to “see” (!) 13D, as you guessed I might, Nick. Still think 14A is a bit…off? I liked 17A (though at first I wanted to put MISSAL), 20D and – yes – LAVISH made me smile. Great fun. Might have a go at the back page while I’m on a roll…
    1. Bloody hell, scrap that last bit. I *think* I’ve got ALFRESCO but that’s about it. Don’t get above your station, Brooke.
       1. What have you got ALFRESCO for? I’m actually doing OK on this, (I’m usually awful) but don’t see where ALFRESCO could be at all. Is it 15ac? But 16dn’s GALLIPOLI would prevent that. Cheers. Gribb.
          1. For ALarming FRacturES on the outside…but not sure where the CO comes from. As I said, it was only a guess and with no checkers I gave up, anyway. Just had a bash at Sunday’s with my mother – she was infuriated I got LLANO for “plain” 🙂
             1. Dear all
                Please don’t comment on other current crosswords on this thread, they have their own. Mentioning specific answers may spoil enjoyment for others yet to attempt the puzzle under discussion.
                Moan over.
                4′ dead today.
                GeoffH
    2. Interesting (well, relatively speaking…!) See Jack’s comment on this below – and my somewhat waffly reply.

       Edited at 2017-05-17 05:46 pm (UTC)

11. Oh, dear …. I didn’t find it easy at all. I put a number of answers in without knowing why they were right. Thanks to Nick for the explanations.

    Ho hum ….

12. Took a while to get going with 7dn being FOI…the rest seemed fairly striaghtforward, albeit I thought the SW corner was more tricky.

    (A question: are the corners designed to be of different difficulty?)

    “Madam” didn’t twig initially for precocious, but for once I did spot the palindrome. However, in the context of a child it now makes sense. In addition, I didn’t equate “sinister” with scary. Didn’t get the wordplay for 21dn but biffed it as it was the only thing that seemed to fit. Upon reflection, that also now makes more sense and was the LOI.

    Have to admit, was expecting a pangram with he use of “x” and “y” etc.

    My COD was 17ac.

    Thanks as usual.

    DR31

13. Yes, today’s main puzzle was very Mondayish 🙂
14. I’m with many others – best time in ages (14:06) and much amused by Lavish
15. 19:40 for me. Not far of PB of 18mins, something. I’m always very happy to be below 20 minutes, as my usual target is 30. Last one in VICES, just didn’t see the hidden word, or pick up on it’s (now) obvious indicator.
16. I made things in the SW corner a bit trickier for myself as I invented a new Greek island called Sosus, which left me stumped for a while over 20a. I also dallied over writing in Xmas (LOI) as I wasn’t sure abbreviations were ‘allowed’. Got there in the end in a leisurely 16 minutes. Enjoyed 14a and 1d
17. It occurred to me whilst solving but I forgot to mention it earlier, whether cluing HIS EXCELLENCY as “initially he” is breaking the convention regarding use of capital letters in clues. According to this it’s permitted to add capitals in a cryptic meaning but not to leave them out when they are required for the actual meaning. “HE” may stand for His Excellency, but “he” doesn’t. Perhaps “initially” has some bearing on this. I’m not even sure if the “rule” is supposed to extend to abbreviations.
    1. Yes, a similar thought (or at least a slight sense of unease with the cluing) also crossed my mind, although I’m not particularly au fait with the “rules” at this detailed level.

       I thought it was probably on the right side of the line in that the “literal” definition was “ambassador” whereas the “he” was part of the supporting cryptic wordplay (in which case – as I understand it – the setter can monkey around to his heart’s content with misleading capitalisation / non-capitalisation). Or maybe I’m missing the point!

       1. I see the point here – capitals are still something I’m getting to grips with. It’s hard for a novice to know whether to ignore them – along with various punctuation marks – or imagine them there…perhaps the latter in this case? Tbh, I was that chuffed I finished so quickly (for me) that it was cause for celebration.
          With these Ferrero Rocher, Nick, you are really spoiling us 🙂
       2. Insofar as there is a “rule” (or “convention” as I prefer to think of it), this is how it was explained some years ago by Peter Biddlecombe, TftT founder and now the Sunday Times Crossword editor:

          Words that require capital letters in the cryptic reading must have them. However, ‘deceptive capitalisation’ is permitted. In other words, a word with a capital letter in the clue doesn’t necessarily have a wordplay meaning requiring a capital letter – so Joanna Strong’s instrument (10) could be PIANO,FORTE.

          This may not be exactly in line with how I tried to explain it in my original comment, however I still have a feeling that “he” for “His Excellency” is not quite playing fair.

18. I came to this rather late after a day getting soaked on a golf course.
    A pleasant puzzle. Started quickly but had a few hold-ups. Last two were Nest Egg and Eyesight. No time recorded but not too long. David
19. I came to this rather late after a day getting soaked on a golf course.
    A pleasant puzzle. Started quickly but had a few hold-ups. Last two were Nest Egg and Eyesight. No time recorded but not too long. David

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