Times Quick Cryptic 1000 by Des

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I completed this in 11 minutes missing my target by 1 minute, but who cares when it’s enjoyment that matters far more than solving speeds? As mentioned here last Friday, although today’s puzzle number is 1000 this is actually the 1001st Quick Cryptic as there was an unnumbered special set by Noel on Christmas Day 2014 which interrupted the numerical sequence.

This one is by Des, a rare contributor who sets only two or three QCs each year, but it’s appropriate that he should be on duty today as he was responsible for the inaugural puzzle which appeared on 10th March 2014 and I had the honour of blogging. The glitch in the run of numbers means I get to blog all the milestone puzzles, for which I also feel honoured.

Many thanks are due to all the setters and Times Crossword management who instigated the QC puzzle which has introduced many new enthusiasts to cryptic solving. It also livened things up at TftT as we have been able to welcome a whole new bunch of bloggers to the team, so a big ‘thank you’ to all those recruits (many of them now practised old hands) for sharing the increased workload. I mustn’t forget also to thank all the commenters who contribute to the discussions on our QC blogs.

If anyone wants to revisit the very first Quick Cyptic, it’s available here and the link to its blog is here. Whilst researching this I found that the unnumbered Christmas Special QC doesn’t appear to be in the Club archive but it’s accessible here if you want to have a go at it. This is the link to its blog.   

SPOILER ALERT

THERE IS A NINA (OF SORTS) TO MARK THE OCCASION. IF YOU HAVEN’T SPOTTED IT AND WANT TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK BEFORE READING MY BLOG, PLEASE EXIT NOW.

OK, you were warned…

Whilst solving this puzzle I was on the lookout for a NINA, a theme, hidden message or some other trick the setter might have used to mark the occasion. All I could see at first was the name of the setter ‘DES’ which appears at the end of 1ac, but then I noticed an unusual amount of repetition of letters in the grid and on investigating further I found that only the 9 letters ADEHNOSTU appear in the answers. I wondered if this might be an anagram but nothing came to mind until I spotted that, leaving the E aside, the remaining letters could be rearranged to make THOUSAND. I then needed to account for the E and eventually realised that if one allows double usage of O and N, the 9  letters can be arranged to make ONE THOUSAND. I’m not entirely sure that there isn’t something else going on, so if anyone has any further suggestions, please mention them below.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Newspaper’s connected to underworld — they deflect the heat? (9)
SUNSHADES – SUNS (newspaper’s), HADES (underworld)
6 Brick carrier, note, returned (3)
HOD – DOH (note) reversed [returned]
8 Fools grandmothers (5)
NANAS – Double definition
9 Girl, initially not available, almost caught (7)
NANETTE – N{ot} + A{vailable) [initially], NETTE{d} (caught) [almost]
10 They receive an unfinished banknote outside front of ATM (8)
ANTENNAE – AN, TENNE{r} (banknote) [unfinished] containing [outside] A{tm} [front]. Attention to wordplay was required here to avoid the alternative plural ‘antennas’.
11 Ignore informal parade ground command (4)
SHUN – Two definitions The second is a contraction of ‘stand to attention’.
13 Stands on odd roundabout giving advice (3,3,5)
DOS AND DON’TS – Anagram [roundabout] of STANDS ON ODD
17 Could be Hazel’s crazy! (4)
NUTS – Two meanings
18 House, not unexpectedly, eclipsed (8)
OUTSHONE – Anagram [unexpectedly] of HOUSE NOT
21 Teacher fixed equipment for language lab? (7)
HEADSET – HEAD (teacher), SET (fixed)
22 Getting article on the day is the very devil! (5)
SATAN – SAT (day), AN (article)
23 Small girl’s point (3)
DOT – Double definition
24 Thrown out unused, being far from reliable (9)
UNDUTEOUS – Anagram [thrown] of OUT UNUSED. I couldn’t find this word in any of the usual sources but it’s in SOED as ‘archaic’ and a couple of online American dictionaries trawled by OneLook also list it. The appearance of such a rare word in a QC was one of the factors that convinced me there must be a NINA lurking somewhere in the grid, otherwise the setter might have reworked the SE corner to avoid it. Some solvers may not be too happy about including it but if it was needed to keep the NINA on track I’d say it’s understandable and we shouldn’t complain on this special occasion. Given that its an anagram, once the checkers are in place it’s pretty obvious where the remaining letters need to go.
Down
1 Ice in the second half of the weekend, we hear (6)
SUNDAE – Sounds like [we hear] “Sunday” (second half of the weekend). Another bear-trap for biffers in a hurry with the last letter being unchecked.
2 Piece contributing to compilation one thousand (5)
NONET – Hidden in [contributing to] {compilatio}N ONE T{housand}
3 Stockings girl’s heard about leading to exclamations of praise (8)
HOSANNAS – Sounds like [heard] “hose” (stockings) + “Anna’s” (girl’s)
4 Finished off dad’s untended patio, finally rebuilt (4,3,6)
DONE AND DUSTED – Anagram [rebuilt] of DAD’S UNTENDED {pati}O [finally]
5 Dispatched exhausted, having lost power (4)
SENT – S{p}ENT (exhausted) [having lost power]
6 Piping filmed for expert (7)
HOTSHOT – HOT (piping), SHOT (filmed)
7 Lastly, had you take on an extra governess (6)
DUENNA – {ha}D {yo}U {tak}E {o}N {a}N {extr}A [lastly]
12 Minded accommodation for someone in South Sea resort (5-3)
HOUSE-SAT – Anagram [resort] of SOUTH SEA
14 Way to serve cheese, perhaps, and one short health drink? (2,5)
ON TOAST – ON{e} [short], TOAST (health drink)
15 Hudson runs around barefoot (6)
UNSHOD – Anagram [runs around] of HUDSON
16 Fellow’s keeping odd bits of non-fat dyes (6)
HENNAS – HE’S (fellow’s) containing [keeping] N{o}N-{f}A{t} [odd bits]. I think ‘henna’ has to be taken as a verb here as it’s a mass noun which can’t be pluralised.
19 Best to expose swindle (5)
OUTDO – OUT(expose), DO (swindle)
20 Biblical brother cheated in games, audaciously (4)
ESAU – Hidden in {gam}ES AU{daciously}. According to the story in the Bible, Esau was cheated out of his birthright by his younger brother, Jacob.

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1000 by Des”

  1. 34 mins, slightly rusty after 2 weeks off in the cold of UK and Russia. Great blog thanks Jack. Didn’t spot the Nina but saw there were something unusual with the letters.

    Lots of cleverly disguised anagrams.
    The “about” in 3d threw me, and it took 20 mins to get the last 3 or 4.
    LOI Unduteous which went in with fingers crossed.

    COD Hotshot.

  2. You want *more* Nina than just using the very restricted subset of the alphabet containing in ONE THOUSAND?

    I thought that was clever enough, but when I released that even the setter’s name conformed to the “rules”, I was delighted. Though when you think about you, I suppose it’s a Nna not a Nina.

  3. Expertly crafted by Des and expertly blogged by jackkt – to both of whom I raise my new blogger cap with barely practised hands.
    Quite an effort to complete the grid – but highly satisfactory in the end. The time for this, if a record is required, slipped into my ‘tricky’ category.
  4. Congratulations to the setter for a fantastic crossword. Also thanks to jackkt. I saw the restricted palette, Des etc but couldn’t make THOUSAND work. Great fun.

  5. Well, this being No.1,000, I was on the lookout for something tricksy and for quite some time was convinced that it would be found in 2d i.e. connected to ‘complilation one thousand’.
    Not sure I’ve quite got the hang of Ninas yet: I was looking for words, it would never have crossed my mind to check out the number of letters used and to make an anagram of them! So thank you to Jackt for, as ever, an excellent blog and to Des for a fun one thousandth QC.
  6. Congratulations all round! Jack and Andy Wallace (Linxit) deserve great credit for getting the TFTT part of this effort off the ground and keeping it aloft. I came in as an early blogger (QC 9 with no by-line) and greatly enjoyed doing it and I know we have several alumni who now do the 15×15 for us.

    I’m absolutely hopeless at spotting Ninas although I did learn to look out for the Myrtilus one when we did the TLS here. And then he goes and puts a double one (top and bottom lines) in the Turkey …

  7. An enjoyable solve and whilst I noticed that the same letters appeared a lot I didn’t get close to putting together the Nina – well done jackkt for figuring it out. Hats off to Des for putting that together, we seem to be blessed with some ingenious setters.
    I found the puzzle to be edging towards the trickier end of things with some well disguised anagrams with the unusual 24a being my LOI.
    Completed in 20 minutes.
  8. 11 minutes, but with hastily entered S at 11ac. Although I spent a little time after submission looking to see if THOUSAND was hidden in the grid somehow, I didn’t appreciate Des’s tour de force.
  9. As this was a landmark puzzle I thought I’d make a rare excursion into quickie territory. An enjoyable puzzle, very cleverly put together.

    I did wonder if I needed to squeeze an H or something into the back end of HOSANNAS as the wordplay seems to require homophones for both HOSE and ANNA’S.

  10. I made a complete dog’s breakfast of this one with one typo and 3 errors, so I’m going to draw a veil over it and hang my head in shame. NANNS, SUNDAY, ANTENNAS and UNDETUOUS. Let’s see if I can do better in the 15×15. Thanks Des and Jack.
  11. I might have been a bit quicker than 45 mins if I hadn’t lost time trying to make the letters fit a 4,3,4 answer for 13ac, but probably not by that much. Besides, 7d and 23ac were unknowns that turned out to be correct, so it was swings and roundabouts (x2) today. I looked for a Nina but couldn’t see one, even after being prompted by Jack’s blog, so congratulations to Des for such a cleverly constructed QC. A shame we don’t see him more often. Invariant
  12. Great fun today, so thanks to both Des and Jackkt. I just crept in sub my 20 minute average, but Duenna was a new word to me. A good job it was clued so clearly.
  14. Completely forgot about the momentous day so took the puzzle on its merits.
    I found it difficult. Even when I knew there was an anagram I couldn’t solve it quickly; my LOI was 13a.
    I also paused over Duenna but could not parse it. I knew the word but my parsing was D-YE-AN -E. For once I went with a word I vaguely knew.
    After 20 minutes I had four left and completed the puzzle in 25-30.
    I have done the QC pretty much from the start and it has now got me hooked on crosswords. Many thanks to all who made it happen and particularly to today’s blogger and setter. David
    PS if you want to see an amazing pangramtastic puzzle , have a look at Simon Anthony’s solve of a Maize puzzle from 1 January 2018 -Cracking the Cryptic on Youtube.
  15. I found this on the hard side, but not extremely so. Never heard of DUENNA or UNDUTEOUS so was very pleased to finish at all. As for the NINA, afraid such things are well beyond my humble horizons. I was just pleased to finish it. Good challenge.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. DUENNA’s definitely worth remembering; I’ve definitely seen it a few times in the 15×15.
  16. As one of those who started on the Quick Crossword in 2014 and who has now graduated to the Cryptic Crossword congratulations on getting to 1000 and thanks to Jack and the other bloggers for help in getting started. If it wasn’t for the QC I would not be doing the main one which is a daily pleasure even though my times are nothing to write home about.
  17. Meant to say out of many excellent clues, my COD was 12d.
    And I should have echoed the praise for the ingenious use of the ONE THOUSAND letters. David
  18. Great fun today, so thanks to both Des and Jackkt. I just crept in sub my 20 minute average, but Duenna was a new word to me. A good job it was clued so clearly.
  19. Expertly crafted by Des and expertly blogged by jackkt – to both of whom I raise my new blogger cap with barely practised hands.
    Quite an effort to complete the grid – but highly satisfactory in the end. The time for this, if a record is required, slipped into my ‘tricky’ category.
  20. Well, this was fun and I’m glad I came here to have the Nina pointed out. I tried to do this one in strict order, all acrosses followed by all downs, and was doing well up until UNDUTEOUS. I needed rather more than zero crossers to convince myself it was an anagram, let alone work it out…

    Still, I’m finding the strict-order discipline quite helpful for training my brain not to just move on to another clue too quickly if I can’t immediately see an answer, which is probably good for me. And all the downs then went in in strict order before I finished off with 24a, and I think that’s the closest I’ve ever got to a clean sweep, so that’s encouraging!

    Thanks to all concerned. A thousand quickies. Goodness me.

  21. As puzzle 1000 (strictly, as pointed out, No 1001) is reached a thank you to the bloggers whose comments here are very useful feedback on the difficulty of these crosswords.
    I was aware that allowing this device would lead to a few words not normally seen so often in the Quick, so it was a relief to discover that it was not TOO much more difficult than normal. Had Noel’s Xmas special from a few years back been numbered then No 1000 would have been last Friday, perhaps a more appropriate day for a trickier puzzle.

    Here’s to the next 1000

    RR

  22. Sorry to rain ln your parade, as it were, but while all you ‘experts’ are wagging your tails and mutually back- slapping, please remember that the circulation of The Times is +400k and therefore most cryptic solvers are more likely to be like us. OAPs, not demented yet, reasonably intelligent and LOVE crosswords – however, delighted if we actually finish and so grateful for the live journal to learn what the answer to eg 4a was AND why.

    So a big THANK YOU for providing relief before we rush out to buy the next day’s paper, and also providing the explanations. But do we care that you all did it in 10 minutes. Really. Guess you are writing for a very small club (considering the Times readers) – are we allowed to crib the answers at all?
    Linda

  23. It was a relief to find others had their problems with this one. I thought I was losing my marbles when I took just over half an hour (after a couple of errors that I deduced and corrected).
    Brilliant stuff, though the whole Nina thing passed me by.
  24. Well blogged Jack – no way I’d have spotted the clever celebratory device in use here! And thanks for being the de facto “godfather” of the QC TfTT forum since the puzzle’s inception – you’ve provided encouragement, wit and wisdom to all of us. Best wishes to you.
  25. No idea of time as split into two separate train rides and some time at home, but not good.

    While I appreciate the skill of the restricted letter set, it led to a lack-lustre crossword. cod 6d, enough said.

    As for UNDUTIOUS, if you have to trawl until you find an “archaic” in the SOED which is not in any of the mainstream dictionaries at all then you really are scraping the barrel. What next – used once in a 1953 Woman’s Weekly?

    Dissappointed, I hoped for something better for the 1000th.

    The sixpence in the pudding though is the link to the xmas special which passed me by at the time.

    Many congrats and thanks to all of the setters and bloggers (and whoever´s bright idea it was in the first place). Although reading the Times for 45 years the 15×15 was just too inaccessable for a complete beginner, but now with the ramp of the QC, with not just the answers, but also the parsing provided by TfT, I have pb of 7:50 for the QC and 58mins for the 15×15.

    Edited at 2018-01-08 11:54 pm (UTC)

  26. As I slowly worked my way through this, I started to notice the restricted palette of letters and was impressed to see there were none that didn’t appear in DES THOUSAND… near enough! Of course ONE THOUSAND, DES is even better. UNDUTEOUS was unknown but I was held up most by trying to make a 13 letter word for 4d, rather belatedly looking at the enumeration.
    A great feat of setting, and nicely blogged as ever, Jack. Thanks to you both, and here’s to the next 1000!
  27. Didn’t like this at all. Not a quick cryptic at all really but a puzzle for those who like obscure words and imprecise definitions. Disappointing.
  28. This one felt like inscrutable poetry . Hotshot, Nannette, unduteous, duenna, nanas. Wow. Some ensemble indeed.

    Srt

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