Times Quick Cryptic 1006 by Alconiere

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
That Alconiere is having some fun with us is not in doubt for this is a pangram without the letter ‘V’ which, research tells me, is a pangrammatic V-lipogram. The question is how much fun? Given that this is the revered and august The Times, surely there can’t be a theme based on an offensive sign involving the letter ‘V’? Am I reading too much into the offence taken in the play referenced in 1ac or references to said sign in 14ac, 24ac and the cheeky 13dn. How far does one go trying to analyse these things – can the 6th row be a Nina insult? Discussion appreciated on whether any of this may be true or if I should get a nice hot cup of tea and go and sit quietly somewhere where I can’t do any harm.

ACROSS

1. Major Barbara – a work by George Bernard Shaw in which the Salavation Army Major Barabara is offended by her father donating money. Huge (MAJOR), double obstacle (BAR BAR) met by a (A).
9. Pilot – steer. Behold (LO) trapped in hole (PIT).
10. On the QT – secretly. Anagram (moving) of TEN TO HQ.
11. Automat – vending machine. Gold (AU), fruit almost (TOMAT)o.
12. Yemen – state. L(Y)c(E)u(M) b(E)i(N)g.
14. Number two – deputy. Miner’s Union (NUM), man (BERT), without (W/O).
18. Oxeye – plant. Made up of some of the clue (not entirely) in reverse – gr(EY EXO)tic.
20. Ill-used – maltreated. Anagram (rank) of SULLIED.
21. Jericho – middle eastern (ME) town. Girl (JO) hugging boy (ERIC) and hard (H).
23. Idaho – state. Nothing (O), held (HAD), one (I) all backwards.
24. Middle finger – something digital. Anagram (wandering) of FILMING DEER around woo(D).

DOWN

2. All at once – suddenly. Everyone (ALL), in agreement (AT ONE) about topi(C).
3. Optimum – best. Work (OP) by small boy (TIM) with little hesitation (UM).
4. Blow the lid off – be revealing. Anagram (resolved) of WHO FELT BOLD IF.
5. Ritzy – elegant. Anagram (playing) of jaz(Z I TRY).
6. Axe – cut. A (A), ten (X), point (E).
7. Acting – double definition. Stage player’s profession and as a substitute – acting before a job title indicates it’s of a temporary nature – acting chairperson.
8. Spray – double definition.
13. Moonscape – view of Apollo astronaut perhaps. Reveals bottom (MOONS) and head (CAPE).
15. Tolkien – famous author. Anagram (hack) of NOT LIKE.
16. Logjam – deadlock. Record (LOG) and preserve (JAM).
17. Ad hoc – for particular purpose only. Homophone or include wine – add hock.
19. Excel – to be superior. Former (EX), Anglican (CE), fifty (L).
20. Rod – staff. Do right (DO R) upwards (to return).

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1006 by Alconiere”

  1. I also wondered if there was significance in the missing V, expecially as it would have been so easy to place one as the unchecked letter in 6dn.

    Perhaps the setter put in some slightly risque references to shake us up a bit if he considers Times solvers are a 9 and 10ac?

    10 minutes.

    Chris, you have a typo at 21ac where the boy should be ERIC.

    Edited at 2018-01-16 06:12 am (UTC)

  2. Found this a bit of a slog, especially the unknown major Barbara and acting crosser.

    Also had tolkein for a while which held up Idaho.

    Dnf as had spear for spray.
    Mental note: must have second coffee.

    COD Jericho.

    1. I struggled, too. The Shaw work I’m afraid I had to google – Saint Joan, Pygmalion and Man and Superman I knew (toyed with the last one as the checkers suggested it might be at play). Tried to make an anagram of A/SPACEMAN at 13d which didn’t help matters!
      All the clues were fair, but I agree this was hard-going for those new(ish) to cryptics.
  4. I think this was a bit tough for a QC I think the Shaw work and the plant wouldn’t spring to many minds. The solutions were fair enough though. Am I the only one who does a slight double-take when ‘small’ is used for a shortened name? I wonder eg if Tim Rice thinks of himself as a small boy. Just saying 🙂
      1. Yes indeed – I was going to argue that it’s used more widely but then I realised last time I saw one it was used for ‘Tom’ and by the same logic it could be Tom Thumb 🙂
  5. Found this hard going and pleased to finish in about 20 mins. Was certainly misdirected in plenty of places and very pleased to get the unknown 1ac. Had Barbara in fairly early but took a long while for major to come to mind.
  6. This was definitely at the difficult end of the scale taking me 15:08. I didn’t know the Shaw work and had to construct it from wordplay. I didn’t make an entry until 8d. Lots of unusual stuff for a QC. I would just say to any of the newer members who feel disheartened by this, that we also sometimes get a 15×15 puzzle which is much more difficult than usual, so it’s an indication that however good you get at solving, the setters can always make things more difficult. This is probably a good thing as we’d eventually get bored otherwise. As Chris points out, there is a bit of risque stuff in here too. Quite amusing. There seems to be a competition between the setters as to who can get the most outrageous cluing past the editors:-) Yesterday’s Indy by Knut was a tour de force in excoriating the orange topped chap over the pond! Thanks Alconiere and Chris.
  7. … harder than average QCs. Getting 1a early certainly helped but the normally easy multiple word solution anagrams at 4d and 10a slowed me up somewhat.
    FOI. 1a
    LOI. 18a
    COD. 10a for use of QT
    Thanks as always to setter and blogger .
    5’45”
  8. Thank you Alconiere for a fun crossword.
    I, too, thought that I was missing something with the absent “V”.
  9. Never heard of OXEYE. Nor Major Barbara come to that, but the clue was sufficient to take a reasonable stab at that. Enjoyed the anagram at 4dn, that took me a while. Overall a long hard grind only to be defeated at the end. A quickie – not for me it wasn’t.
    PlayUpPompey
  10. This wasn’t easy but I solved pretty much top to bottom needing 18a and 24a after 17 minutes.I knew Major Barbara and got 4d pretty quickly.
    24a needed some work and then I was on the search for the unknown plant. With all the checkers it was just a matter of finding the right letters to reverse. So about 20 minutes in total. COD to 7d. David
  11. I also thought this was the second QC in a row that was harder than usual, but then not knowing 1ac didn’t help matters. I needed the anagrams to keep things moving along, and eventually finished in just over 40 mins. CoD to 15d, and just thankful the setter didn’t include a comma after Hack. Invariant
  12. 16 minutes – one my slowest quickies, though no actual unknowns – somehow the words didn’t come to mind. 26ac did at once remind me of the riddle ‘What do we do with two fingers whereas the Americans only use one?”, but I didn’t see that a V was all that was needed for a pangram.
  13. I agree with most of the comments above – a bit of a toughie that took me 22 miutes, but technical DNF as I had to check Major Barbara, which I had not knowingly heard of.

    I like Chris’ setter conspiracy theory in the blog, but wonder if our setters are really that devious. However, as jacckt points out above, it would have been easy to make this a pangram. Indeed, it could have started life as one, in which case it does raise the question ‘why not leave it as one?’. Now it is I that needs to sit quietly in a darkened room.

    I do like to speculate on the reasons for some of our setters’ (and bloggers’ and commenters’) adopted aliases, but have no clue about Alconiere, other than it could refer to the Ausro-Hungarian painter who adopted that name on conversion from Judaism to Catholicism. There is one other trait that may be entirely tenuous and not worthy of comment – many of Alconiere’s previous offerings have numbers ending in the digit 6, or are multiples of 6. Any theories? (I’m fairly confident that Jacckt will disprove my contention).

    1. Given that Alconiere is an anagram of “I, Once Earl”, I suggest that we now know what Lord Lucan’s up to these days 😀
  16. Found this one tough. My literary knowledge let me down in the same places as others: NHO MAJOR BARBARA and I also managed to spell TOLKIEN wrong for a while, which made IDAHO tricky to come up with. Luckily I knew I might’ve got it wrong, so I did keep considering the alternative.

    AD HOC my last in, partly because of my lack of crosser from IDAHO and partly, I think because I’ve never really considered exactly what it meant too closely, so the definition passed me by for ages…

  17. Some chewy stuff in here today and not being very familiar with Shaw’s works made the NE particularly tricky. My other hold up was with my LOI 13d where I was looking for a word ending ‘space’.
    However it was a very satisfying puzzle to complete, which I did in 24 minutes
  18. I was soon looking for the pangram and was surprised not to find it. Lots of tricky clues and excellent mis-directions but all fair enough once put on my guard for these. I’m amongst those who have seen 18a before, but it was the checkers who led me to deduce the answer correctly. I finally messed up 13d having got to moons-a-e and not figuring cape=head. Annoying as the rest went in ok and felt a ‘properly’ cryptic to me (still hopeless at the 15×15). FOI 1a, LOI 13d (failed) and COD 16d. A really helpful blog, thx. Also to our setter for an amusing puzzle. My mother used to talk about 10a’s and I never have really understood the proper derivation – any ideas? Is it just spelling shorthand? Where did it come from?
  19. I enjoyed your comments much more than the actual clues. I simply did not get the intended, suggested or often anagram side of it all. Gies to show my limitations, but am old, foreign and just started these in the last few months. Should I give up?
    1. Please don’t! Years of pleasure await you (along with some tearing out of hair!). We’ve all been where you are, recently in some cases, years ago in others, but have pushed on through. Anyone for whom English is not their first language who attempts to tackle the infinite vagueries of the cryptic earns my absolute respect.

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