Times Quick Cryptic 1191 by Pedro

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Thanks to vinyl1 and plusjeremy for stepping in over the last couple of weeks. It’s very hectic having just got back – two interruptions during the course of solving means that I have no meaningful time to report but I thought it was above average difficulty (but then I may just be rusty). Several large gaps all over the grid were eventually filled in with loi 5dn.

ACROSS

8. AVOCADO – fruit. I’m not sure about business=DO (which is normally a party as in 22ac). Carrying on with a slight shrug of the shoulders, I get business (DO) led (preceded) by the first letters of (A) (V)ery (O)ld (C)hap (A)t. With thanks to kevingregg, it’s business (ADO) led (preceded) by (A) (V)ery (O)ld (C)hap at first.
9. TRAIL – follow. Court case – trial – in which the ‘I’ appears later i.e. after the A (TRAIL).
10. GYPSY – traveller. Borders of (G)erman(Y) and (S)hortl(Y) to be passed through (entered) by quiet (P).
11. BACKING – supporting. Re-elected (BACK IN), leader of (G)overnment.
12. SHERIFF – lawman. Quiet (SH), passion recalled – backwards (FIRE), very loud (F). With thanks to jackkt, it’s quiet (SH), passion recalled – backwards (IRE), very loud (FF).
14. LLAMA – source of wool. A (A) and lot of shops (MALL) all backwards.
15. ODIUM – hate. Chemical element s(ODIUM) not sulphur = no ‘S’.
17. RAREBIT – cheese dish. Seldom (RARE) getting a little (BIT).
19. HAVE-NOT – poor person. Shelter (HAVEN), selection from Bible (OT).
20. FLUKE – unexpected success. Following (F), apostle (LUKE).
22. RADON – gas. Sailors (Royal Navy – RN) outside (A) and party (DO).
23. MONARCH – ruler. All set (ON – I’m on/all set for a game of table tennis) inside (to participate in) demo (MARCH).

DOWN

1. PANG – mental anguish. Opening (GAP) upwards about new (N).
2. CORPSE – collapse in giggles (corpsing is British theatrical slang for unintentionally laughing during a non-humorous performance). Group of soldiers (CORPS) before end of exercis(E).
3. WARY – cautious. Methodology (WAY) to contain river (R).
4. NOT BEFORE TIME – long overdue. Anagram (put out) of MORE BENEFIT TO.
5. STICKLER – someone who is very insistent. Line (L) should be included in label (STICKER).
6. MARINA – where boats are moored. Damage (MAR), in (IN), area (A).
7. FLAGRANT – outrageous. A patriotic tirade may be a rant about the flag of the country.
12. SHOEHORN – struggle to accommodate. Something from last – a last being the wooden or metal form on which a shoe or boot is fashioned or repaired (SHOE), instrument (HORN).
13. IMMINENT – right now. I’m (IM) and ‘not’ without the middle letter (NoT) are placed around bomb (MINE).
16. INVADE – attack. A (A) and Democrat (D) inside an anagram (comic) of VEIN.
18. BLURRY – opaque. Comments about a book is ‘the blurb’ – a reduction in this gives us (BLUR) on railway (RY).
20. FIND – discovery. Homophone (we hear) of penalised-fined.
21. ECHO – reverberation. In th(E CHO)ir.

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1191 by Pedro”

  1. I read this as A V O C + ADO (business). I don’t think just ‘first’ would do as initial-letter indicator.

    Edited at 2018-10-02 04:12 am (UTC)

  2. I was ready to throw in the towel on this one after staring at 2d for what seemed like hours; then finally remembered CORPSE–from one of the 15x15s, naturally. I should have thrown that towel, though; I typed IMMANENT. 10:08.
  3. Welcome back, Chris. At 12ac ‘passion’ = IRE with FF as ‘very loud’. If the clue had omitted ‘very’ your reading would have been the correct one. I only spotted this because I made the same error myself to start with.

    12 minutes. I felt right from the start that I’d be lucky to finish within my 10 minute target but it was some of the parsing (eg SHERIFF and AVOCADO) that held me up rather than the answers themselves. If I’d indulged in a biffing-fest I’d have made it home with time to spare.

    Edited at 2018-10-02 06:43 am (UTC)

  4. 25 minutes but with typo avocaco.

    Fairly difficult but I was also rusty.
    Guessed corpse and blurry.

    COD odium.

  5. 30 minutes, mainly because I was stuck in the SE corner as I could not get FLUKE. I understood that the clue was asking for F + the name of an apostle, but having tried FJOHN, FPAUL etc, it took me a long time to come up with LUKE, because he is not normally classed as an apostle! Evangelist yes – not an apostle. A minor quibble perhaps. Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to blogger and setter.
    PS I have just found out that in the Eastern tradition he is known as an apostle, so all is well!

    Edited at 2018-10-02 07:24 am (UTC)

  6. I was held up at the end by Blurry and Shoehorn. I’m not surprised by the latter now that I have read the blog – ‘something from last’ = shoe was unknown to me. I had also been thinking for a while that the instrument part might be Harp. 21 mins
  7. Certainly more difficult than Monday’s QC. LOsI Shoehorn and Odium. Some nice clues (mainly summarised by posters above). Can’t post a time – did it whilst sitting in a waiting area (waiting for 2 madly expensive tyres to be fitted to my car) with too many interruptins. John M
    1. Cryptic crosswords may not ease the pain of bills, but they do make waiting around a lot easier.
  8. Took me 33 minutes but broke through the finish line grinning! After a string of DNFs, this was a very satisfying moment. LOI was 5 down which puzzled me for ages. For a while, I had “couple” as my answer to 2 down but I kept returning to it because I couldn’t parse it. Then again, I REGULARLY can’t parse my answers even when I know from the word play that what I’ve written must be right. Thank goodness for this blog! Lots of nice clues today. Especially liked 12 down. Very clever. Thanks to blogger and setter.
    1. Well done! As you can see from the blog, I had a couple of answers right but without having quite the right parsing today. Thank goodness for the posters!
    2. Well done! As you can see from the blog, I had a couple of answers right but without having quite the right parsing today. Thank goodness for the posters!
      1. Thanks, Chris! But we posters wouldn’t have anything to say without the bloggers… Louisa.
  9. 45 minutes, 15 over my target so a very difficult one, but not impossible like a few of last weeks. An enjoyable struggle.
    LOI was ‘pang’ as I forgot about UP in a down clue.
    Brian
  10. Came in at 44:12 today, though I actually finished a while before that and spent some time searching for an alternative to corpse that couldn’t possibly be right because what on earth could a dead body have to do with giggling? It is no surprise to find it comes from the same people who think breaking a leg is a sign of doing well. And if that was a clue I could parse but didn’t understand the answer, I had the opposite difficulty with 8a where I got avocado but parsed wrongly, conveniently forgetting the existence of the ‘old chap at first’. I had ‘a v(ery)’ leading the grocery-delivery business Ocado. Apart from that, I couldn’t work out what shoe had to do with last, so thanks for explaining that one. COD 7d.
  11. This one had a real transitional feel to it, with many clues worthy of 15×15 status (e.g. SHOEHORN, FLAGRANT). I also went for the FIRE option at 8a, it being a better synonym for passion than IRE which I associate more with anger.
    Many thanks to setter and blogger.
    8’15”

    Edited at 2018-10-02 10:44 am (UTC)

  12. Definitely trickier than yesterday’s offering, this one took me to 15:26. SHOEHORN took a while and BLURRY was my LOI. Some well concealed definitions here! Thanks Pedro and Chris.
  13. Tough today I thought. There were several clues where I had all the checkers but very little idea of the answer at first. Trail, Shoehorn and Corpse were my last three.
    I wasn’t totally confident about Blurry either. 30+ plus minutes for me and my average is about 20.
    COD to Shoehorn. David
  14. Above average time at 40 mins or so. LOI SHOEHORN when I eventually realised “last” was the noun not the adjective. (My Dad kept a last to repair his workshoes). COD FLAGRANT (amused me), and enjoyed the construction of IMMINENT. Remembered that CORSE was an acting term, but thought it meant to forget ones lines rather than to giggle.
    Much to enjoy today.
    PlayUpPompey
      1. You made me look it up John. OED has “corpsing” as forgetting one’s lines OR. giggling
        1. Ah well, we live and learn, although if we’ve corpsed, we obviously didn’t learn properly:-)
  15. DNF – just shoehorn to go but called it a day after ~30 minutes looking at it. Good crossword though.
    Thanks all
    John George
  16. Around 45 mins, so on the hard side today. Corpse was the only one I couldn’t parse, having never come across that meaning – I thought it was very obscure for a QC. The Stickler/Backing combination also took a long time to see. So did 12d, Shoehorn, but it was a really good clue and gets my CoD vote, just ahead of Flagrant. Invariant
  17. Very tough. Finished in 20:15 with LOI 12d SHOEHORN and penultimate solve 2d CORPSE. I also struggled with 8a AVOCADO and biffed 18d BLURRY once I had all the checkers. I’m increasingly finding that I need quite a few checkers to solve clues of late which I think is a reflection of the tough run of QCs. The lack of obscure words does however get my thumbs up. Thank you Pedro and Chris.
  18. Took this one on the chin and taken away some learnings as a few clues were beyond me. Having read this blog I feel slightly better. Onwards.
    Graham
  19. 30.05 today with final 10 minutes trying to think of a type of harp for 12d. I eventually resorted to several alphabet trawls to find a word that fitted the checkers and pressed submit with fingers crossed – I never heard of SHOE in that context.
    Several other tricky clues but I particularly enjoyed FLAGRANT and BACKING.
    Thanks for the blog
  20. A few tricky clues .. ie collapse in giggles (2D).. but had to smile at the fruiterer run by a very old chap (8A).
  21. Had 6 left when went to sleep last night! Woke up at 6.20 this morning with SHOEHORN somehow accessed from the depths of my sleepy brain. Then got FLUKE BLURRY PANG and GYPSY. However failed on 2d as put TOPPLE. I couldn’t parse it so all I could align it to was collapse. Good crossword and thanks for the blog. Very helpful for us novices!
  23. Spent an absurd amount of time on this one, though I did complete it. Far too difficult for a ‘Quick’, and with some questionable clues. ‘Quicks’ of this difficulty can only discourage the very people they are supposed to be encouraging. This is a recurring fault of the QC. Crossword editor please take note.

    treesparrow

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