Times Quick Cryptic 1026 by Tracy

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Long anagrams and literary clues notwithstanding, I managed this entertaining puzzle just within my ‘quick’ category. The literary clues just happened to hit on my limited knowledge and I was equally lucky with the hermit and system of weights.

ACROSS

1. Old wives tale – a myth. Anagram (wild) of WOLVES TAILED.
9. Get on – make progress. Good (G), public school (ETON).
10. Red tape – bureaucracy. Gradually reduced (TAPERED) switching the front and back parts (tape and red) around.
11. Growing – on the increase. Arguments (ROWING) following golf (G – NATO phonetic alphabet).
12. Sushi – fish dish. American (US) having hot (H) one (I) after (S)alad.
13. Ornate – heavily decorated. Knight (N) entering to make a speech (ORATE).
14. Please – satisfy. (P)olitician with tenancy contract (LEASE).
17. Terse – brusque. In daugh(TER’S E)stimation.
19. Outpost – remote settlement. Disclose (OUT) stake (POST).
21. Vamoose – to leave hurriedly. Virginia (VA – the US state) meeting large deer (MOOSE).
22. Intro – opening. Keen on (INTO) securing right (R).
23. Anything Goes – Cole Porter musical. My initial shiver on reading these three words were quickly overcome when I realised I did know it. Anagram (fresh) of GAY SONG IN THE.

DOWN

2. Let down – lengthen (e.g. trousers). Lease (LET), depressed (DOWN).
3. Winnie the Pooh – children’s book. Anagram (new) of HE WON’T I HOPE IN.
4. Virago – domineering woman. Part of horoscope (VIRGO) about a (A).
5. Side-splitting – extremely amusing. Team (SIDE) parting company (SPLITTING).
6. Amass – gather. A (A) large amount (MASS).
7. Eremite – hermit – unusual term meaning religious hermit which I found I knew. In spar(E TIME RE)ad about (backwards).
8. Agog – keyed up. A (A) try (GO) (G)ame.
13. Octavia – Shakespearian character (another quickly suppressed shiver). Endless series of notes (OCTAV)e I (I) associated with a (A). Mr. Shakespeare wrote Anthony and Cleopatra in which Octavia appeared. Some quick research establishes that she was related to a lot of the great and good and maybe not so good – she was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus (known also as Octavian), the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, maternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal great-grandmother and maternal great-great grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
15. Apostle – messenger. Porter (ALE) collecting mail (POST).
16. Done in – exhausted – often followed by the eminently unlikeable ‘IN I’. One (ONE) breaking racket (DIN).
18. Rummy – card game. Odd (RUM) exclamation of surprise (MY!).
20. Troy – system of weights. Hear (TRY – in court of law) about old (O). Troy is a system of weights used for precious metals. The term didn’t come from the ancient city but probably takes its name from the French market town of Troyes in France where English merchants traded at least as early as the early 9th century.

15 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1026 by Tracy”

  1. Didn’t we just have TROY in a 15×15? (I hope not in a prize puzzle.) Pretty straightforward. hear=try is a chestnut worth remembering; and I assume everyone knows N=knight by now (in chess, because the king’s got the K). 5:03.
  2. 29 minutes but happy to finish, I feared the worst with the last two: virago and the well hidden and unknown eremite.

    Troy was in the 15×15 yesterday, same setter?

    I haven’t heard keyed up for eager/agog.
    Might not meet the times guidelines but how about:
    Some shag ogler open mouthed!

    Liked done in but COD red tape.

    Edited at 2018-02-13 04:47 am (UTC)

  3. 8 minutes with no hold-ups. Nice to see ANYTHING GOES getting a mention. The title song is still well-known today but the show itself tends to be forgotten. The story’s intentionally corny but the score includes many of Porter’s best songs.
  4. I went to see Bernard Cribbins in Anything Goes, years ago in the West End, but I struggled with the anagram for ages as I’d biffed OCTAVIO at 13d. Sorted it eventually, but it was my LOI and took me to 11:18. Luckily I remembered the EREMITE from a 15×15 some time ago. I think I’ve seen TROY in an Indy recently too. Might even have been yesterday. Nice puzzle. Thanks Tracy and Chris.
  5. After yesterday’s defeat this seemed much easier but there were still two I had doubts over: Troy (failed to parse it but saw it yesterday) and Eremite which I also failed to parse but vaguely remembered the word. 12 minutes including a couple on the hermit. David
  6. 3 minutes inside my 20 minute target today and thought it was relatively straight forward. DNK eremite or virago but pleasingly got them from the clueing. Thanks to Chris and Tracy
  7. I’m another who has benefitted from dabbling with the 15x15s of late – Troy and Vamoose were write-ins today. In fact, given that I usually struggle with Tracy, I was surprised by just how straightforward this one was. Eremite was unknown, and I couldn’t parse Red Tape (thanks, Chris), but even the anagrams were familiar subjects . . . unlike yesterday’s cinéma vérité. 27 mins in total, with 15 and 16d my joint favourites. Invariant
  8. 13 minutes today (rattler-solved well before Surbiton), so on the easier side. Early solving allowed me to get more than 50% of the 15 x 15 done on the same journey – nice!

    I struggled to solve the Cole Porter despite recognising the anagrind right away, and the hermit was a bit of a biff. Otherwise all straightforward solving.

    WoD has to be VAMOOSE.

  9. As I’ve mentioned before, sushi is not a fish dish – it’s a rice dish – clumps of the special sushi rice are the only essential, usually with veg and stuff added – only with modern affluence, I think, has fish come to be universally expected
    1. Thank you – most interesting. I won’t make any bones about it as the scales have now fallen from my eyes even though I think it is all a little fishy.
  10. My first DNF for ages. I can’t believe that I wrote tail instead of tale in 1A. This completely wrecked what I think would have been one of my best times as I was, not surprisingly, unable to find anything to fit into t-e-i-e. SO FRUSTRATING as I am aware of the word eremite and I am pretty sure I would have finished. Attention to detail required!!!! FOI 8a COD 16d. MM
  11. A fairly gentle offering today which I completed in 13 minutes – the last 3 of which were spent on 7d and the parsing of 10a. WOD Vamoose
  12. You have to trust the cryptic in a few places, but as Rotter implied, today’s 15×15 is pitched at a nice level for anyone trying to move up. Invariant

Comments are closed.