Times Quick Cryptic 1287 by Pedro

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1287 by Pedro”

1. I thought this was generally tricky so I was a bit surprised to find myself on my final clue as my target deadline of 10 minutes approached, however I hadn’t bargained on the sting in the tail provided by 2dn for which I needed another 5 minutes, and even then I didn’t recognise the answer I eventually constructed correctly from wordplay.

   I checked later that ASGARD has come up only twice before in the main puzzle since TftT began, in 2009 and 2013 when I also commented that I didn’t know the word; other than those outings it has appeared a few times in the Mephisto and TLS puzzles. This would suggest it’s a bit out of place in a Quick Cryptic.

   Edited at 2019-02-13 07:36 am (UTC)

   1. Asgard. As with any word you either know it or not. Why not good for TQC?
      1. Because it’s supposed to be an easier puzzle one might expect the answers to be pretty much in everyday vocabulary though the clues leading to them might vary considerably in construction, some being simpler than others. I wasn’t actually complaining but merely suggesting that a word that has only appeared in the main Times crossword twice in the past 12 years might be a little on the obscure side for the QC’s target audience.

         Edited at 2019-02-13 01:01 pm (UTC)

         1. Did’nt imply you were complaining my query was your view re: Asgard cos i’d suggest it is less unknown than say the word canard which appeared a while ago which other than used in a puzzle i have never read or heard anywhere else wheras anyone who has watched a film/documentary/fictional tv series on the Vikings or Norsemen or Norse mythology or read a book of the same or indeed been to a Viking museum will have heard of Asgard. Of course this is just a thought and most subjective.
2. Good puzzle with a challenging grid and four clues that really held me up. ASGARD was LOI for me too. About the last five minutes of my 20 spent putting random letters in the remaining spaces, reversing them and then seeing if they meant anything. DRAGS just didn’t come to mind for pulls for some reason. My heart sinks when I see double unches and this time my fears were confirmed with DEADLINE, in desperation I wanted to put in dialtime to fit – I was looking the wrong end of the clue for the least cryptic definition. Also struggled with SPRINKLER. We had SP for betting recently but I’d forgotten it by today, anyway stumbled across the answer and the RINKLER bit persuaded me. Blog also needed to parse LOLLIPOP. Not submitted in total confidence but all green. Thanks for the blog William, needed today.
3. I had some trouble getting SPRINKLER, TURNTABLE, & LOLLIPOP. ASGARD not a problem, although I was a bit surprised to find it here. ‘herb had years’ somehow stood out–some anagrist does, some doesn’t–so 5d was easy; as was AILMENT, a pretty weak anagram of ‘I lament’! 7:22.

   Edited at 2019-02-13 08:53 pm (UTC)

4. 25 mins but at least 10 on deadline, i also couldn’t get past dial something. Also struggled with sprinkler and the vaguely recollected asgard, probably from vikings on netflix

   Cod deadline.
   Thanks.

5. Another case of Asgard being LOI. A new word to me and pleasantly surprised to have the iPad version tell me I’d finished the puzzle without errors after I’d bunged it in. 18.33. Some of the clues such as sprinkler quite testing for a QC.
6. Just short of 16 minutes in the end, after a flying start. No problem with Asgard thanks to reading too many Thor comics as an ankle-biter! My mind got fixated on APOCRYPHAL, so it took a while to see ANECDOTAL despite the anagram being obvious and my fancied word fitting neither the number of spaces nor the checkers! It is a strange place – my mind. Thanks Will and Pedro.
7. I knew ASGARD from watching Stargate SG1, but it still took a while to come. My other main holdups were SPRINKLER and DEADLINE, where I also wanted to put DIALTIME. This last entry held me up for a good 5 minutes before the obvious clicked. The 3 clues mentioned took me the last 7 minutes of my total. 16:24. Thanks Pedro and William.
8. I was another held up by LOI DEADLINE. That must be COD. There was a lot of tricky stuff here and ASGARD was unknown to me but it felt right when I worked out the cryptic. Clues like 11d LOLLIPOP could have been in the 15×15 in my opinion.
   A good test which I finished in 17:35.
   David
9. DNF for me, blew out on ASGARD. Very crossmaking because I had finished the rest of it in 6 mins and was on for a PB! And I knew the word, and I had deconstructed the clue correctly. But I still couldn’t do it, perhaps because I was so eager to finish or perhaps because I got annoyed with myself as time ebbed away and stopped thinking properly.

   Hey ho, well played Pedro. Lovely puzzle, with DEADLINE my COD. Thanks for the very good blog, William.

   Templar

   1. Indeed will
10. Well, after a good start I got stuck in the same places as most of the contributors above. LOI ASGARD which had to be constructed (slowly, with fingers crossed and an online check). Definitely a BOAB. I biffed a few then parsed later, for example ANIMAL and ANECDOTAL. Once again, I found the long answers easy but my COD is DEADLINE. 18.09 mins. A good puzzle from Pedro and a very good blog today – thanks to William. John M.

    Edited at 2019-02-13 09:51 am (UTC)

11. A very enjoyable puzzle completed in 25 minutes, the five over my target spent on DEADLINE, a lovely clue. It’s strange how much of a hindrance a double-unch is, I think I would got this easily without it.

    Brian

12. Squeaked inside 10 mins with some relief after having struggled with loi deadline. I was another who battled valiantly to make ‘dial’ work. So 7dn has to be my cod. Strange what helps in Crosswordland – a friend’s parents named their house ‘Asgard’. I agree with William that Sprinkler seemed fiendish at the time but it produced a smile when the parsing broke up into view.
13. 14.45. SPRINKLER, DEADLINE and ASGARD for me, too. The latter known through avid reading of Roger Lancelyn Green Norse myths as a boy, reinforced by Marvel films in later life. My COD the neat RIP.
14. I really enjoyed this puzzle by Pedro. 2d ASGARD was my LOI but I had heard of it care of Tolkien. I solved the anagram at 16a ANECDOTAL very quickly but 5d HABERDASHERY required all but one of the checkers and I am glad I didn’t waste time trying to solve it earlier. 10a SPRINKLER gave me pause for thought as I DNK SP = starting price. Thanks william j s for the blog. 10:39
15. I fortunately knew ASGARD from Mephisto and AZED appearances, but agree it’s a little obscure for a QC. Otherwise an accessible and enjoyable offering from Pedro.

    No real hold-ups, and delighted to find I’ve pipped Verlaine on the leaderboard – yesterday’s early 9th spot subsided to 22nd, so let’s see where today’s identical current placing finishes up.

    FOI MEDIA
    LOI SPRINKLER
    COD DEADLINE – also liked MAPLE
    TIME 3:43

16. 1ac/1dn came straightaway so off to a good start. The anagrams came quickly as well. Never heard of ASGARD & spent some time before the right synonym for ‘pulls up’ came to mind. Enjoyed DEADLINE – wicked little clue (anybody tell me what an ‘unch’ is?
    FOI CHAFFINCH
    LOI & COD DEADLINE
    Good fun
    PlayUpPompey
    1. Unch is an unchecked square
17. Forgot to time this one, but about 20 minutes. Most of that time spent staring at 2d. Thanks to setter & blogger.

    Adrian

18. Enjoyed the puzzle – I don’t know how long it took as I was interrupted far too many times and lost track.

    I don’t mind the odd ‘Asgard’ in a QC when it’s just 1 or 2, as with the wordplay they’re within reach of newer solvers (as I am) and provide a stepping stone towards harder crosswords. If there are more than a couple in the same QC it turns it into a bit of a slog – and I have enough slog-like cryptics available elsewhere.

19. A DNK on 2d meant a DNF. This was a shame as the long anagrams and 6d 11d 19a just flew in. Agree 14d was a bit weak. Couldn’t parse 10a completely but it had to be. Otherwise 35 mins spent gently musing the answers and getting correct parsing was quick for me with a lot of that spent on 2d before conceding defeat when my Costa became cold. FOI 1a LOI 2d COD 6d for amusement value.
20. My heart sank when 1ac was a no-show to start with, but the first letter of 6ac was enough to give me 6d and almost everything was fine after that. Almost, as in up to the last two, lollipop and, of course, Asgard. The latter needed a second sitting despite seeing how the clue should work. Count me as another who tried to get Dialtime to fit the cryptic for 7d, before the penny drop moment (can’t quite remember whether that was button A or B?). My CoD vote goes to 10ac Sprinkler, which I actually solved working from right to left. Invariant
    1. Coins were put in first. You pressed button A when the call connected which meant that you paid. If the call didn’t connect then button B got your money back. I remember using them but had to look this up to make sure of the details.
       1. See Button B discussions in today’s 15×15 (27274). How’s that for coincidence ?
21. Held up by ASGARD, but I did know the word, and for about a minute by DEADLINE, my LOI, where I was convinced it started with DIAL. Doh! COD to the not-a-lumberjack clue – MAPLE. 7:20
22. We are also in the dialtime group so dnf, after a quick, for us, solve of abt 20m until 7d.
23. This was one of my quickest but only because I invented Asgard and was able to confirm its existence. Enjoyed it overall so many thanks and certainly wouldn’t want to moan, but I do think factual stuff should be general knowledge for the QC

    Edited at 2019-02-13 06:07 pm (UTC)

24. Strange what throws you and what doesn’t – the first few clues all flew in first glance, for a pleasant surprise, and the puzzle as a whole went very swiftly. Got held up at the end trying to work out 1ac and 13ac (DNK either of them although eventually puzzled out chaffinch – flora and fauna are often my problems!). Yet I was absolutely kicking myself Asgard took as long to work out as it did, particularly considering its prevalence in modern media. Strange also that Greco-Roman mythology is par for the course, yet Norse is terra incognita!
25. We are also in the dialtime group so dnf, after a quick, for us, solve of abt 20m until 7d.
26. Finished for the first time! Asgard held me up at the end, but I suddenly worked out it might fit, looked it up to see what the word meant, then went back to parse it. I do agree it doesn’t belong in a QC, if I have any right to comment. My clue of the day (if that’s what COD means) would be Deadline which was irritatingly clever. Thanks to all those who contribute here: on previous did-not-finishes over the last few weeks you gave me much hope that one day I would. Oh, time? 60 – 90 minutes. (PS can’t find a list of LOI, biffing etc…. anyone care to list…)

    1. Fantastic – well done persevering! And thanks for your contribution to the blog.

       We really should publish a list of these on the site somewhere. Off the top of my head:

       FOI: First one in.

       LOI: Last one in.

       COD: Clue of the day.

       WOD: Word of the day.

       BIFD: Bunged in from definition, without the wordplay being fully parsed or even looked at (this gives ‘biffed, biffing, biffer, etc.).

       Unch: Unchecked squares (not crossed by another word).

       SCC: Slow coach club, used in a very positive sense, improvers.

       MER: Minor eyebrow raise, something of a disappointment or a quibble.

       GR: Golden Raspberry, stronger than a MER.

       Anagrind: Anagram indicator word/phrase.

       Anagrist: Letters to be anagrammed.

       Others will hopefully follow!

27. DNK: Did not know

    DNF: Did not finish

    1. A Kevin: 1 x the solving time posted by kevingregg, used as a benchmark as he’s almost invariably the fastest daily contributor!

28. A mixture of the straightforward and the tricky with a couple of the usual suspects holding me up – SPRINKLER and ASGARD, which was known to me but I was convinced that the ‘g’ would belong to TUGS/GUTS and it took me a while to see past it. LOI in was LOLLIPOP as I couldn’t see the parsing sol I left it to the end. Completed in 13.09
    Thanks for the blog
29. Thanks – particularly on LOI/FOI which I’d wondered about!
30. Much childish amusement tonight when whilst doing 12a my (adult) daughter exclaimed “I’m into anal”! 😱😀

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