Times Quick Cryptic 1246 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A quick quickie today – I went from top to bottom, latching on to a checker each time. No hold ups (except a pause for reflection on the spelling of 7ac) and sprinted across the line in 05:11. If I kept records this would be my record (I think).
Thanks to Orpheus for satisfying the experienced (will any be counting times in seconds rather than minutes?) and the newer comers who, hopefully, will be able to untangle this one. Hope you all enjoy it – let us know.

ACROSS

1. CHINA – Cockney’s mate (me ole China). Dresden is an example of a type of china so this is, possibly, a double definition.
7. PRECURSOR – forebear. (P)erturbed, about (RE), homophone (audible) of swearer=curser. Care needed to refrain from bunging in ‘curser’ with the ‘e’.
9. CADET – trainee officer. Notice (AD) inside church (CE) plus pamphle(T).
10. INSIDIOUS – sly. I had IN_ _ _ IOUS as they fell straight in from trendy (IN) and evidence of any debts (IOUS). I waited for a cross checker to be fully confident of man (SID).
11. TIN – container. Egg (NIT) is sent backwards.
12. UNDERWENT – experienced. A in French (UN), river (DERWENT). This posed no problems as I visited the lovely Chatsworth House yesterday – past which this river flows on its sedate route south through Derbyshire.
14. NAUSEATED – sickened. Anagram (wandering) of A SAD TEEN around university (U).
16. PIT – mine. Homophone (sounds like) one of two prime ministers (one of whom was called ‘the younger’ which rather gives the game away about there being two of them).
18. BOMBSHELL – what a shock. That woman will (SHE’LL), fail (BOMB) at first.
20. EXPAT – one living abroad. Old (EX) man or woman (PAT).
21. DIRECTION – guidance. This ended up being my LOI as it was down the bottom and needed a couple of checkers. Engineers (RE) inside clarity of speech (DICTION).
22. THEIR – belonging to those people. Homophone (we hear) of that place=there.

DOWN

1. CACHET – prestige. Long (ACHE) to be presented inside court (CT).
2. INDIAN SUMMER – unseasonably warm spell. Anagram (random) of MUD REMAINS IN.
3. APTITUDE – skill. Anagram (for distribution) of PITTA DUE.
4. TEASED – ribbed. Southern (S) and press officer (ED) after meal (TEA).
5. FUND – finance. (F)rench, and in German (UND).
6. PRESET – arranged for recording. Quietly (P), relax (REST) about programm(E).
8. SPOKESPEOPLE – representatives. Folk (people) making parts of wheels (spokes) would be SPOKESPEOPLE.
13. REDOLENT – reminiscent. Benefit (DOLE) swallowed up by accommodation charge (RENT).
14. NOBODY – nonentity. Old (O) and bloke (BOD) in New York (NY).
15. THESIS – dissertation. Article (THE), sibling briefly (SIS).
17. TOTTER – walk unsteadily. (T)umbling over fish eating mammal (OTTER).
19. SACK – double definition. As well as a container, sack is any dry white wine formerly imported into Britain from SW Europe.

47 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1246 by Orpheus”

  1. Nearly screwed this up with LOI, SPOKESPERSON, which also wiped out EXSAT and THNIR, but a judicious typo check revealed the impending calamity! 7:56 with a minute of that putting things right. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  2. If only I’d taken Chris’s advice; if only he had given it to me: I typed in PRECURSER, which is not how I spell the word. So why did I type it? Next question. 3:57 otherwise, too.
  3. I thought I was sailing through this but ran over my 10 minute target by 1 minute because of a hitch at the TEASED/INSIDIOUS intersection. At 4dn I had thought the wordplay was indicating the first letter as S, so with one checker missing I was working on a word to fit SE???D. AT 10ac I had IN ??D IOUS, thought of INVIDIOUS first and found it hard to get past that although it obviously didn’t fit all the wordplay. An extra few seconds spent on 7ac prevented me falling into the ER/OR trap.
  4. I’m another precurseror but im on the red wine on a flight back home for christmas so it doesnt really count as dnf!
    25 mins
    Cod expat re the above.

    Ps The 15×15 is reasonable today.

    1. It’s only reasonable if you have an outstanding vocabulary – but as a parsing exercise, it’s right up there !
  5. Lots of typos today it seems although my red square wasn’t a typo, I had TUN not TIN for container. Surprised not to see all green on submitting – just to quick to stick a U between the N and T. Otherwise quite fast at 14.10 but had to have a second look at almost all the acrosses.

    Edited at 2018-12-18 06:57 am (UTC)

    1. Also had TUN which is a container and it is nut backwards which is also both a container and an egg if you allow seed=egg
  6. I was a bit slow getting going, not getting much on a first read through the across clues, but the downs got me going. I had INGENIOUS at first for 10a, but there was nothing to say lose the end of the man… TEASED helped me find SID and I whizzed through the rest from there. TIN LOI only because I nearly overlooked it. COD to DIRECTION. 4:58.
    1. And a pat otb from me too! I thought this was an easy one but judging from most times coming in I’d say that 8:51 challenges your continued membership of SCC.
  8. Tun & precurser both mistakes for me. Tun is such a common crossword answer that I had just assumed that nut must relate to egg somehow (zero in a sport or some such similar). 25 mins to (not) finish.
  9. 07:52 so sub john_dun, sub vinyl, sub jackkt … but still only just under 2 Kevins! Despite that being ahead of such distinguished solvers has to make this an Excellent Day, which is good because today is our Chambers Christmas party which I have organised, so I need all the favourable omens I can muster.

    I did not know that sack was dry: for some reason I always thought it was sweet. Now I learn that it comes from the French “sec”. Every day’s a school day.

    COD TEASED. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.

    Templar

  10. oh dear, for me, the cheesiest of the week and definitely in the SCC group … c. 30 mins which is a little slower than normal.
    i started quite well in the NW corner and then couldn’t see any of the NE so headed SE. A few more dropped quite easily, but 19d eluded me temporarily.
    the E side slowly clicked with 5d (I suspect tricky for some newbies), 8d (i fell for the same trap i.e. person not people), 12a (similar principle as 5d where a minor translation is required).
    a little chewy for me which goes against the grain, but I’m close to a consecutive run of successful “solves” (pathetically 10!), so I suspect the pressure is beginning to tell!!!
    FOI: 1a (an old chestnut!).
    LOI: 19d (couldn’t be anything else, but SACK for wine was new to me).
    COD: 12a
    thanks to blogger, setter and all who contribute
    Carl
      1. ‘‘Tis the season when cheese straws abound and, if left out too long, may well be as you say!
    1. Everyone’s welcome to come along – the entrance test is posting your time and if it isn’t used as a chronological comparator (a la Kevin) then you’re in!
  12. A very slow start in the NW for me – after too many closed doors, I ended up moving from the SE clockwise to the NE. LOI Preset. COD Bombshell.
    Still around 4K at 15.56. I note that sonofjim (above) has definitely graduated from the SCC. I proudly remain firmly ensconced therein. John M.

    Edited at 2018-12-18 10:39 am (UTC)

  13. Wow, I was certainly on the wavelength with this one! Forgot to time it, but no more than 5 minutes. Thanks to Orpheus and Chris.

    Adrian

  14. ….APTITUDE, but slowed down by a double dose of sheer carelessness (incurious, and spokesperson). Straightforward stuff today.

    FOI CHINA
    LOI CACHE
    COD NAUSEATED
    TIME 4:20

  15. Count me in the TUN club – got there by some kind of egg=head=nut thinking. No, me neither.

    3.44 otherwise and I’m ashamed to say an audible expletive, which caused a few stern looks on the train, when I realised the mistake.

  17. Started with 1ac and 2d, which gave me a good foothold and it became a fairly steady solve thereafter. I was tempted by Hock initially for 19d, when I didn’t have the first letter, but I took my own advice about parsing dubious answers and held off until the container became obvious. I’m sure most people would say spokesperson(s), but then Spokespeople has the distinct advantage of fitting the grid… A quick (for me) 21 min solve, with 10ac Insidious my loi and favourite. Invariant
  18. Pretty straightforward. 20ish minutes, so quite quick for me. I also jumped from the NW corner to the SE, and sort of met in the middle. FOI 1ac. LOI PRESET. Didn’t understand the reference to recording, and still don.t, so just biffed it. COD INSIDIOUS. Like the blogger, the beginning and end were straightforward but needed a checker for the ‘man’ in the middle.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. I think it refers to setting the recording levels using controls that were described as presets when I played with such things. might still be, for all I know.
    2. Preset=to set (a timing device) so that something begins to operate at the time specified. E.g. recording a tv program.
  19. I enjoyed this one, unlike yesterday. 1ac was FOI and it all went pretty well apart from the NE but they finally yielded. Probaby about 30 mins – can’t tell precisely as I did it in bits as and when had time. No aids either 🙂
    Thanks to Orpheus for being kind and to Chris for explaining the couple I couldn’t parse (1d, for example)
  20. Managed time to get a look at this at lunch time, as family life is leaving me little time. I’m happy with 25 minutes. Apparently that makes me a member of the newly-formed SCC, of which I don’t see myself graduating from any time soon…
      1. It’s a valiant band of (volunteer) solvers who come forward on this site to post times which are more indicative of newer solver times – as opposed to the ‘old hands’ who regularly post sub-ten minute solves. Oldblighter and sonofjim originally came forward to perform this noble deed (although it seems that sonofjim has outperformed his SCC membership which may now be revoked!).
        It all just fun and stands for Slow Coach Club.
        It really helps if you get a free livejournal ID so that people know who you are – and then you also get an email notification if someone replies to a post.
        Join in – you’re very welcome.
      2. Slow Coach Club – I was a joint founder member, I think, with oldblighter leading the way, for those who take a little longer than the Formula 1 brigade. Regular practice has helped me speed up a tad, for what it’s worth.
  21. Back to a paper solve on the train today. No hold-ups but a couple of traps avoided -Spokesperson made a brief appearance and Sack only emerged after Sect and Sock were given undue consideration. No time recorded but a relatively quick one. LOI was Sack after Bombshell. David
  22. I am a member of the SCC and
    didn’t even know it ! Thanks for the post chrisw91 – good explanation and kind words of encouragement. I am amazed at sub 10minute solutions. Well over an hour on and off for me today but that does not bother me. Retired and have all the time in the world and really enjoy the challenge each crossword presents. Todays was lovely. As is customary – thanks to setter and blogger.
    1. Welcome JC! It’s surprising how ‘over an hour’ or so reduces considerably with practice. It’s all about enjoying the puzzle/journey – but, most of all, the wit and wisdom of the setters. This is why we occasionally send a small crumb of gratitutide in their direction.
  23. I was not on wavelength today and started at a crawl. Completed in about 15 mins with the aforementioned TUN as an error and LOI 18a BOMBSHELL.
  24. Thanks for the reply. I typed the question without realising I hadn’t logged in as was using a different laptop from earlier in the day. Sub 10 minutes seems very fast but (maybe in time with a lot more practice) potentially within reach for me with a following wind & downhill, but the times guys post in low single figures are fantastic. I’m not sure I could even read the clues that fast!
  25. I really enjoyed this puzzle, completed last night having retired to bed feeling under the weather. About 40 minutes (I’m definitely in the SCC), so slower than my target 30 minutes, but I greatly appreciated the inventiveness of some of the clues. COD UNDERWENT, with honourable mention to BOMBSHELL.
  27. I always asssumed I was too dim for this crossword, but now I am hooked I love reading your comments, one and all, and since I was still a cryptic ‘virgin’, teach me how to ‘read’ the clues. As for timing, I am still on about 7 days Haaaaa!
    1. Glad you’re enjoying it – a pastime which can be undertaken anywhere – including waiting for people to finish shopping at sales! Don’t worry about the 7 days – we all started there. If you get a free livejournal account then your email will be pinged if someone replies to you.
    1. Well done! Excellent commitment and attitude. I hope you’ll get the next one inside a month.

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