Times Quick Cryptic 1031 by Flamande

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A brief blog today due to travel. I found this medium difficulty which seems about right for a QC – enough to think about but all gettable. Good surfaces and a couple of &lits (clues where the definition is tied up in the wordplay) made this particularly interesting.

ACROSS

7. Rifle – something to shoot with. Partial &lit clue as shot is used for ‘shot with this’ in the definition and as an anagram indicator of FLIER.
8. Cellist – string player. Left (L) with a homophone (we hear) of composer (Liszt – LIST) after church (CE).
10. Arsenic – rarely included in medicines. Our second partial &lit clue as the definition ‘medicines rarely include this?’ also contains the answer – in the clue backwards (in retrospect) medi(CINES RA)rely.
11. Medoc – wine. Morse perhaps (CODE) knocked backwards after (M)eal.
12. Inanimate – not moving. In (IN) with a (A) pal from Northern Ireland (NI MATE).
14. Ire – anger. Regularly seen in IsRaEl.
15. Ate – scoffed. At (AT) scen(E).
16. Transient – nomad. Tent (TENT) in which is (invaded by) an anagram (torrential) of RAINS.
18. Issue – question (the issue of how long it takes to solve a QC). Does Susan exist? IS SUE?
20. Tipper – boozy sort. The sort that leaves gratuity (TIPPER) when consuming litres (L).
22. No can do – impossible. Tory (CON) backed, a (A), new (N), party (DO).
23. Mused – thought. Managing Director (MD) at each end of (will limit) employment (USE).

DOWN

1. Organisation – management. Speech (ORATION) about an anagram (I’ll-gotten) of GAINS.
2. Off-stage – in the wings. Anagram (uncomfortably) of GEOFF SAT.
3. Tern – bird. Settling in wa(TER N)earby.
4. Acacia – shrub. A (A) chartered accountant (CA) spies (CIA).
5. Plumbers – craftsmen. Loading junk (LUMBER) into empty Pick-upS.
6. Bird – creature. Over road (RD) you’ll see big tailless (BI)g.
9. Ticket to ride – an extremely appropriate (to me today) Beatles song. A single is an example of a ticket to ride – as is a return.
13. In the end – at last. Plan (INTEND) to welcome His Excellency (HE).
14. Idealist – dreamer. One (I), I (I) spotted inside Kentish Town street (DEAL ST).
17. Action – battle. Minority group losing leader f(ACTION).
19. Sect – religious group. Ready (SET) to carry (C)ardinal.
21. Pump – shoe. Little dog (PUP) eating male (M).

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1031 by Flamande”

  1. A bit easier than usual but some nice surfaces. A typo for the tippler though at 20 across. One litre more for the road?
  2. 22 mins. Quite enjoyable apart from:

    Don’t understand how “does susan exist” can be expressed as “is sue”
    And have never hear of Deal st, which seems to be a minor road in Whitechapel.

    COD 10a arsenic.

    1. It’s DEAL (Kentish Town), ST (street).

      I think, therefore I am (I exist).
      Susan thinks, therefore she is.

      Is Sue? Does Susan exist?

      Edited at 2018-02-20 06:06 am (UTC)

      1. More precisely, Kentish town; Kentish Town is in London. On ‘is Sue’, I might cite Tom Stoppard’s “Jumpers”, where the hero, a philosophy don, working on his contribution to a debate on the existence of God, gets to “Is God?”, which he later revises to “Are God?” 5:15.

        Edited at 2018-02-20 06:17 am (UTC)

        1. “Kentish town” indeed, but I was quoting from the clue in my parsing. I commented about the London district in my own contribution but you may not have seen that as I was editing it as you were writing yours. [I’ve edited it again since to correct a spelling error so the timeline looks a bit out now].

          Edited at 2018-02-20 06:25 am (UTC)

          1. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see the part about KT; I fervently hope so! I deleted a comment of mine a couple of days ago after finally noticing that the blogger had already said the same thing; too embarrassing.
            1. There’s always likely to be some crossover when postings appear close on each other’s heels.
  3. 8 minutes. My only difficulty being at 1dn which I returned to several times as checkers were added but needed them all before I eventually solved it as my LOI. It might have been worth investing a little more time on it on the first or second visit as it would have yielded dividends by providing first letters for so many Across answers, but on the Quickie my policy is generally that if an answer doesn’t leap out at me I move on until I find another clue where it does.

    At 14dn it’s perhaps worth noting the deliberately misleading use of a capital T in Town. By convention, setters are allowed to add a capital where one is not required in order to misdirect the solver. The clever thing here is that Kentish Town does actually exist as an area of Camden in London (so nowhere near Deal) and as a tube and main-line railway station.

    Edited at 2018-02-20 06:24 am (UTC)

    1. As a footnote, I had wondered if ‘Kentish’ could be applied to the whole of Kent as when it comes to terminology referring to the inhabitants of the County, ‘Kentish Men’ is only used for people from the west side of the River Medway and those from the east side (which would include Deal) are known as ‘Men of Kent’. Anyway it turns out that in all other contexts ‘Kentish’ is fine.
  4. I too found this on the easier side, getting the first 7 across clues before I had to leave one to come back to. I quite liked the quirky 18a. 1d my LOI as I initially thought ill-gotten gains was the definition. No 9d for me today as I’m working from home.
  5. 20 minutes so a very average time for me. Not sure about ‘torrential’ as an anagram indictator!
    1. Yur. TORRENTIAL was my last one in because I couldn’t work out what was going on there.

      Over the years I’ve apparently become more forgiving about what can constitute an anagram indicator (with some setters, almost anything!) but I still couldn’t spot this one until I got the answer and worked backward to the anagram indicator…

      1. For what it’s worth ‘torrential’ is not on Chambers extensive list of anagram indicators in their Crossword Companon supplement. In my thesaurus, only one of suggestions seems to fit the bill, and that’s ‘swarming’ but I’m hard pressed to see ‘torrential’ and ‘swarming’ as synonyms so it’s not much help really!
        1. Well, it’s not like I don’t need the practice when it comes to spotting new ones. I seem to remember one of the Guardian setters often surprises me with what she uses for indicators, so it’s probably best for my brain to be expecting the unexpected!
  6. I have to thank the late Frank Muir ( A Kentish lad) for immediately pointing me to the county rather than London. I put plumbers in for 5d but needed the blog to fully justify it
  7. Yes, this one really was a quickie at about 11 minutes. I too struggled to see 1d, LoI, falling for the same misdirection as others, and not separating the words management and speech until far later than should have been the case.
  8. Straightforward I thought, although I needed the blog to see the parsing of IDEALIST. TICKET TO RIDE might fox the non-Beatle fan ( I assume there are some). Enjoyable with some neat surfaces.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. A PB at 7:21. I don’t think it was particularly easy – I just seemed to be on the wavelength.

    COD 11a – most convivial! It’s knocked back btw Chris, not backwards. Thanks for the blog and thanks to Flamande.

    1. Agreed but I was trying to say that the word ‘code’ goes backwards after ‘M’ – perhaps I should have said CODE backwards (knocked back).
  10. I must stop doing these puzzles while trying to prop my eyes open before retiring. I took 16:33 to solve this one with 1d causing most of the delay, but then found on submitting that I’d managed to mistype LICKET TO RIDE, which made 8a CELLISL too. In fact I messed up the whole of the NW for ages by extracting ERNE for 3d and then putting LIFER for 7a for no other reason than it fitted my wrong crossing letter. Drat and double drat! Thanks Chris and Flamande.
  11. 28 mins, so a bit on the slow side for Flamande, but then I also thought this was harder than usual in places. Not living in London, the KT issue was but a distant speck in the sky, so knowledge of the standard Kent town proved perfectly sufficient for 14d However, with luck, I might now be able to remember which way round the Kentish Man/ Man of Kent goes, . . . at least until next week. 17d was my loi – I could see Action would fit, but hesitated for a minute or so until Faction came to mind. Invariant
  12. Was 9 down a Cryptic Definition? I found the clue downright unfair, this in turn affected five other clues for me, not that the rest of the crossword was much easier. Hopefully tomorrow’s puzzle will be enjoyable.

    Thank you to the blogger.

    Edited at 2018-02-20 01:08 pm (UTC)

  15. I tried doing this in a rush at the end of a long day and therefore didn’t take enough time to enjoy the clues as I went along (note to self to not do that again). It took me 18 minutes to complete, so around average, but was held up by 1d, 5d (LOI) and 12a where I was determined to get static into the answer. Enjoyed 18a
  16. Oh what a lovely crossword…. Some really entertaining clues. FOI 8a LOI 17d where I needed to be certain of the parsing. COD 16a. Thx to Chris for pointing out I had missed the hidden reverse word in 10a and for showing me a better way to resolve 13d…but I made it anyway. I suppose plumbers can be craftsmen… I don’t think Flamande expects us to be walking AtoZ’s and was happy to have a town in Kent + St. Thx setter!

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