Times Quick Cryptic 1196 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Just over ten minutes for this one and all the time it seemed pretty tricky. Loi 22ac. Whilst the old timers may sail through, serenely or otherwise, I feel there are a lot of learning opportunities for beginners here. There’s the short form for sickbay, an unusual word for mournful, a gun, a word meaning cunning, a 4 part parse at 25ac and, for those outside U.K., an area of London. Good luck!

ACROSS

3. LOLLIPOP – boiled sweet. Lounge about (LOLL) with father (POP) eating (inside which is) one (I).
7. BLOTTO – canned – one of the many options for drunk. (B)eer, before game (LOTTO).
8. ARTISTIC – pleasingly arranged. Anagram (somehow) of ITS loaded into lorry (ARTIC).
9. INFO – news. Characters inside tra(IN FO)llowing.
10. ARC – part of circle. A (A), church member (RC – Roman Catholic).
11. RECALL – remember. RE MEMBER=a soldier enlisted in the Royal Engineers.
13. TACK – double definition – sharp nail and tack for a horse.
15. STAG – deer. A gat, I think originally from gatling, is a gun. The plural is gats and the whole thing is turned backwards.
17. WHOPPING – very large. Homophone of Wapping.
19. ELI – priest. Regular letters of bell hit – b(E)l(L) h(I)t.
22. RAPT – absorbed. (R)eaders, liable (APT).
23. OUTSIDER – non-member. Forbidden (OUT), homophone of a drink – cider.
24. SATURN – heavenly body. Trade Union (TU) plus final letter of leade(R) inside sickbay (SAN – short for sanatorium).
25. PEAR-TREE – source of fruit. Exercises (PE), cunning (ART), about (RE), key (E).

DOWN

1. PLANGENT – mournful – a resonant and mournful sound. Bloke (GENT) holding up (underneath in a down clue) map (PLAN).
2. STROVE – tried hard. Last or dinne(R) inside oven (STOVE).
3. LOAN – advance. Homophone (reportedly) of without companions – lone.
4. LOTHARIO – libertine. Reluctant (LOTH) to go over a (A), Brazilian port (RIO).
5. INSECT – eg butterfly. Caught (C) inside a small picture (INSET).
6. OMIT – leave out. Books (OT – Old Testament) about Military Intelligence (MI).
12. BEWILDER – baffle. Anagram (mixed up characters in) of (BRIDEWEL)l almost=without the last letter.
14. CONSPIRE – plot. Chapter (C), on (ON), church feature (SPIRE).
16. GEYSER – water heater. Homophone (talked of) of chap – geezer.
18. PARITY – equality. Initially (I)ntroduced inside political organisation (PARTY).
20. HUGE – of substantial size. Embrace (HUG), European (E).
21. ERSE – Irish Gaelic. Poem with the first letter turned out v(ERSE).

52 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1196 by Orpheus”

  1. Fairly straightforward. I don’t think I knew the horsey meaning of TACK, but took it on trust; after all, T_C_ plus ‘nail’ doesn’t leave much choice. (Why ‘sharp’?) As Chris notes, SAN worth remembering–H for ‘hospital’ is the other choice. At 4d the setter was generous in specifying Brazilian; Rio’s just a port in the 15x15s. I know nothing of Wapping but the name; which was enough, of course. I biffed PEAR-TREE from ‘exercises’ and the hyphen, then reverse-engineered the rest. 5:37.
    1. Chambers has: a short nail with a sharp point and a broad flat head, and SOED has similar.
        1. You’re opening up the whole field of carpentry here – but I suppose all nail points aren’t created equal – depending upon the material to tacked/nailed some points need to be sharper than others (but not, as you quite rightly ‘point’ out, blunt).
          1. Does it matter? Is there any reason that the setter should specify ‘sharp’? Like the solver might be grateful that cut nails are not in consideration? Nails are, ceteris paribus, sharp; adding the word simply tosses a red herring on the trail, hardly helpful in a QC.
            1. Well, now we’ve done the research a nail could be a sprig, staple, brad, many other forms of nail and a tack – the tack is the one with a particularly sharp point – so ‘sharp nail’ helps to get to tack.
              Apart from anything else I quite enjoyed the dip into the world of carpentry – or I should say joinery.
              1. No, ‘sharp nail’ does not help to get to tack; it raises an irrelevancy, given that nails–never mind the research that I’m not about to conduct to solve this clue–are sharp; punkt (so to speak).
          1. Thanks, Anon. It’s quite remarkable what a QC will unearth. I’ve just read up on cut nails to find they have more grip than the round sort made from steel wire with a sharp point.
  2. Very little in the NW quarter fell at first glance so I moved on and returned to it after completing the other three-quarters in about 7 minutes. The remainder then took me 4 minutes with PLANGENT and STROVE as my last two in – both being rather difficult, I thought. Target missed again, but not so badly today.
  3. 14 mins. Stupidly held up by biffing “elephant” at 17a on the first pass! Knowledge of London being a dangerous thing. DNK plangent but easily sussed from the clueing and cross-checkers.
  4. Solved from the bottom up. My LOI was a DNK, 1d PLANGENT. I was also slow to pick up the hidden 9a INFO. LOLLIPOP went in unparsed once I had LOAN. Some write ins and some chewy clues stretched me to 18 mins.

    On Edit

    Having now read the blog I realise my parsing of INSECT was suspect. I had IN S (small) with C (caught) and ET for picture. Thanks Chris for showing me the way.

    Edited at 2018-10-09 08:51 am (UTC)

  5. Like, Jack, I got nowhere in the NW corner and moved on. Some challenging clues mixed with a few write-ins if you can spot them. It us always a balance between moving on quickly and persevering and hearing the penny drop (or not). I liked Plangent, Insect, Saturn, and Whopping and biffed Artistic. LOI was Rapt (after getting the checker). 3 Kevins (again! When will I get back to the 2 kevins of old?). Thanks to Orpheus – fair but stretching – and to chris. John M.

    Edited at 2018-10-09 08:48 am (UTC)

  6. I was 5 minutes under my target but I think this was due to the lack of long anagrams as I solve the puzzles on my phone. It was definitely tricky, I had to refer to Chambers to confirm ‘Gat’ and “Plangent’ but new words are never a bad thing. I think Chris could add “Erse’ to his excellent blog, it comes up surprisingly often for an archaic word.
    Thanks
    Brian
  7. Having missed a few days, absence gave me renewed enthusiasm for some solving today! And it was great fun. It took me 35 minutes with my LOI, unbelievably, being 22 across. I just kept staring at it trying to think of a synonym for “mopped up” or “understood”. Duh! For longer than was sensible, I also kept “suture” for 24 across even though it patently made no sense, other than it might be seen in a sickbay. Some lovely clues today, including 3 and 17 across. Thanks so much, blogger and setter
  8. I thought this was going to be another one of those, when the first few clues left me completely baffled, but the bottom half of the grid seemed a little easier and I eventually finished in 35 mins. My main hold-ups were in parsing 11ac where I was fixated on REME for the engineers, and in the NW, where I missed the hidden Info for ages. Once that was in place, the unknown Plangent became unavoidable. Invariant
  9. Thought I was in for another long one when only the NE corner fell at the first across pass, but things eventually picked up.

    Needed a checker or two for WHOPPING, not the first area of London that springs to mind (with apologies to those members of the press that are now based there having relocated from Fleet Street)

    FOI was LOLLIPOP, no issue with TACK (daughter in pony club so horsey terms are pretty familiar), LOI, for no obvious reason, STROVE, because I only think of the stove as being the top of the cooker and the oven as, well, the oven.

  10. 12:45 solving online. So a quick smooth solve for me. Nearly stuck in Woolwich which would have been a whopping error. David
    1. Well, yes. A much harder stretch to woolly mammoth than janesheringham’s elephant (and Castle) above.
  11. Way too hard for me. Interesting to note comments from beginners are becoming less common. I suspect that many are being turned off by the greater number of 15×15 type puzzles than QC. Really have not got the balance right.
    1. Fyi a lot of the people now posting were beginners not so long ago. A little perseverance and a lot more answers click allowing you to have more checking letters on the harder clues.
      1. You might be right but most of the comments are from the same people with very few new names coming along. My point though is that there needs to be a much better balance between very hard and reasonable puzzles. Lately the balance has been very skewed to hard. But maybe I am just crap at these puzzles!!
        1. Whilst this site is produced by solvers, we do know that setters (in the pay of The Times) do sometimes post here so maybe your comments will be made note of. Here we simply explain and encourage.
        2. I must admit that I feel the same way. I’ve been finding them harder recently.

          I rarely post as it’s usually late in the day or even the day after by the time I finish the puzzle.

          1. Yes, there seems little point in commenting on a daily blog when finishing several days behind everyone else. At least I have improved over the years; I think my longest 15×15 solve was two weeks.
            1. If you get a free account then you’d get an email when someone replies. Even though the entries are not on the day, the blogger always gets notified – so any questions, any time, let me know.
      2. You might be right but most of the comments are from the same people with very few new names coming along. My point though is that there needs to be a much better balance between very hard and reasonable puzzles. Lately the balance has been very skewed to hard. But maybe I am just crap at these puzzles!!
  12. Looking back over this, nothing seems too difficult, but it nevertheless took me over my target at 11:23. STROVE took a while to see, and PLANGENT was one of those words I vaguely knew without being able to pin down its meaning. I was held up at 7a trying to justify ALETGO as a word for canned. TACK was no problem as my daughter is a keen rider. GATS should be well known to anyone who reads a certain type of detective novel. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  13. guns bought back is snug which fitted with Geyser. Unfortunately Snug isn’t a meaning of Deer. Spoilt Plangent.
    Slow – 40 minutes and two short.
    Thanks all
    John George
  14. Flew through most of the top half, ground to a halt in the bottom half. DNK PLANGENT, GAT or SAN. None of which helped. TACKS are particularly sharp nails (used in joinery rather than carpentry) many are not (Dad was a joiner). Particularly enjoyed REMEMBER (COD), and WHOPPING. LOI RAPT (4 letter words are often a problem for me).
    I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can imagine newbies having a real problem with it.
    PlayUpPompey
  15. a good challenging QC for this relative beginner.
    I never felt like a got a foothold anywhere and merely persevered until one by one it clicked.
    I admit, there were a couple of obscurities for me e.g. plangent, gats. However, it’s not supposed to be easy and I quite like the sense of achievement when it’s been a slog.
    COD: lollipop!
    LOI: Saturn (I couldn’t parse SAN).
  16. Found this fairly hard needing having to refer for help on some occasions. Did not know plangent, but the clue was helpful. Although slow at first our ritual g and t at 4pm seemed to speed us to a successful conclusion. Elin & Ian.
  17. As relative newbies we got there and these QCs are beginning to make more sense as far as cryptics can. Great blog as ever but please can someone tell us why key is E (25ac)? L&I
    1. In musical keys A-G – used a lot in crosswordland so worth remembering.
      In terms of cryptics making sense – think of a concise crossword where you either know the answer or not. Here you get a concise definition (usually) plus help to make it up (the parsing).

      Edited at 2018-10-09 04:24 pm (UTC)

  18. After the my first run through the top half was worryingly blank so I solved from the bottom up until I was left with the decidedly tricky (for me) NW. Spotting the hidden at 9a seemed to shake things loose but needed all the checkers for the unknown PLANGENT. Completed in 13.28
    ELI for priest is another one of those useful words that seems to appear a lot in crosswords that I’d never heard of before starting the QC.
  20. Well i complete about 10% of the quickies – nearly always get stuck on a few and learn from this site but today felt like a breakthrough as not easy (didn’t know plangent but got from the clue) and sidetracked for about 10 minutes with the Woolwich / Whopping error. However perseverance finally paid off and the checkers helped me find my way. Chuffed.
    Graham
  21. Over 2 hours while watching some American football on tv
    Didn’t get Blotto or Loan.
    Surely “without companions” would be alone
    Blotto surely archaic in 2018
    Had to bif a few as the word play was obscure. San? Gat (Gatling gun?) Erse?
    Is this supposed to be quick?!
    Nick
    1. Well, actually, compared but to the 15×15 this is relatively quick. The QC is either a light puzzle for the seasoned veterans or learning lessons for those on their way. Lots to learn and, if one persists, it’s all delightfully worthwhile.
    2. Well, actually, compared but to the 15×15 this is relatively quick. The QC is either a light puzzle for the seasoned veterans or learning lessons for those on their way. Lots to learn and, if one persists, it’s all delightfully worthwhile.
      1. The quick cryptic is categorically NOT for beginners. Time and time again the comments are full of beginners stating that these crosswords are far too hard, and often just smaller versions of the full crossword. As a result, thousands of potential cryptic crossword solvers have been put off completely. Not that I suppose any of the regulars could care less…
        1. If you ever try the 15×15 you may have a different view. I frequently can’t solve the 15×15 without aids. Cryptic crosswords, QC or otherwise, are not meant to be a simple thing – it’s why they’re called cryptic. Many QCs are much more simple than this example – so take the ones that appeal to you. It’s all about enjoying a mental struggle. Some people do like this and some don’t.
  22. Well i complete about 10% of the quickies – nearly always get stuck on a few and learn from this site but today felt like a breakthrough as not easy (didn’t know plangent but got from the clue) and sidetracked for about 10 minutes with the Woolwich / Whopping error. However perseverance finally paid off and the checkers helped me find my way. Chuffed.
    Graham

Comments are closed.