Times Quick Cryptic 1337 by Marty

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I struggled accross the line in twice my normal time, and didn’t really get to enjoy much of it unitl writing the blog. I thought the last few down clues were really good fun, for example, and my favourite is 18dn despite not knowing the word! Some others also took a bit of working out (14dn, 15dn, and inexplicably the anagram at 17ac), and I’m still not convinced by 6ac – what am I missing?

It’s not unusual for me to turn red when, after blogging a puzzle I found quite easy, several commenters report that they had the very opposite experience. Let’s hope it’s the other way round today, and I turn green instead!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Utilise CV somehow to create Biblical work (9)
LEVITICUS – anagram of (somehow) UTILSE CV.
6 Uniform worn by daughters is no good (3)
DUD – U (uniform, phonetic alphabet) surrounded by (worn by) two Ds (daughters). I think we may have had this conversation before, but to me ‘X worn by Y’ naturally indicates ‘Y surrounded by/wearing X’, not the other way round. Anyway, it’s not Xs and Ys, it’s Ds and Us, so the answer was easy enough.
8 Trouble removing edging from aperture, black (7)
PERTURB – all but the outermost letters (removing edging) from aPERTURe, with B (black).
9 Proportion grasped by adroit artist, looking back (5)
RATIO – reverse hidden (grasped by… looking back) adrOIT ARtist.
10 Put a different way, this order now transformed (2,5,5)
IN OTHER WORDS – anagram of (transformed) THIS ORDER NOW.
12 Every so often, bear will cry loudly (4)
BAWL – every other letter from (every so often) BeAr WiLl.
13 Previously, and never to be repeated? (4)
ONCE – double definition.
17 Ponder dismal moves to find paradise (8,4)
PROMISED LAND – anagram of (moves) PONDER DISMAL.
20 Bell for dinner perhaps catches one leaving (5)
GOING – GONG (bell for dinner, perhaps) surrounding (catches) I (one).
21 Pipe crossing road by a green (7)
VERDANT – VENT (pipe) surrounding (crossing) RD (road) and A.
23 Organ is present for Cockney speaking (3)
EAR – sounds like a Londoner saying (for Cockney speaking) “ere” (here, present).
24 Where to place billiards cue, being alert? (2,3,4)
ON THE BALL – double definition.

Down
1 Bound to cut loose in the end (4)
LOPE – LOP (to cut) and the last letter of (in the end) loosE.
2 Queen entering London museum’s portico (7)
VERANDA – ER (queen) inside (entering) V AND A (Victoria and Albert, London museum).
3 Greek character is tense, failing to reach conclusion (3)
TAU – TAUt (tense) without the last letter (failing to reach conclusion).
4 Unfortunately, owe BBC for item of spin? (6)
COBWEB – anagram of (unfortunately) OWE BBC.
5 In which to gauge the opinions of suckers? (5,4)
STRAW POLL – cryptic definition.
6 Prevent gent leaving cleaning fluid (5)
DETER – DETERgent (cleaning fluid) with the ‘gent’ bit missing (leaving).
7 Sleepy and thirsty, suppressing pained cries (6)
DROWSY – DRY (thirsty) surrounding (suppressing) OWS (pained cries).
11 Lecture from monarch in total disarray (7-2)
TALKING-TO – KING (monarch) inside an anagram (disarray) of TOTAL.
14 Preserve farewell musical setting (7)
CANTATA – CAN (preserve) and TA-TA (farewell).
15 High point of a river: wow! (6)
APOGEE – A, PO (river), and GEE (wow).
16 Material taken from novel vetoed (6)
VELVET – hidden in (taken from) noVEL VEToed.
18 Willow, abnormally large, that is overlooking river (5)
OSIER – OS (outsize, abnormally large), I.E. (that is) on top of (overlooking) R (river).
19 Turned up after hours with others (2,2)
ET AL – reversal of (turn up) LATE (after hours).
22 Eggs in a line picked up? (3)
ROE – sounds like (picked up) “row” (a line).

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1337 by Marty”

  1. PROMISED LAND required a little time to sort out, and I biffed TALKING-TO, parsing post-submission. DUD went in without a thought, but William certainly has a point. 4:07.
  2. A little over 21m for me, so much longer than I’d have liked. I only got three of the acrosses on the first pass and wasn’t much better on the downs but what I did get gave me enough to get going, albeit with gaps all over the grid. SE was the last to fall where I was totally misdirected – bravo Marty – missed the hidden and thought I was looking for an anagram of vetoed (almost convinced myself devote could mean material) and then mistook “picked up” to signify a reversal which frustrated ROE – my LOI. Trouble in that corner compounded by never having heard of CANTATA and thinking ON THE BALL might end in SPOT for a while.
  3. At 9 minutes this was my first sub-10 minute solve this week with everythng flowing on reasonably smoothly throughout. My LOI was APOGEE but it went in immediately following the arrival of the final checker.

    Your point about 6ac is well-made, Will, although I can’t say that the apparent problem had occurred to me before you mentioned it today. I feel there ought to be a way of thinking that makes it work, but so far I haven’t managed to come up with it. Perhaps somebody else can? I would mention that Chambers 12th edition which has a whole section devoted to such matters, lists ‘wear/wearing’ as both containment and insertion indicators, but the passive ‘worn by’ is surely a separate issue and they don’t cover it.

    Edited at 2019-04-24 05:04 am (UTC)

  4. I agree with comments about 6a, but also didn’t notice it during the solve. I didn’t race through this, but finished comfortably withing my target at 8:45. Started with TAU and finished with ET AL. Thanks Marty and William.
  5. Really enjoyed this one with the last few in being particularly satisfying when the penny dropped, namely APOGEE, STRAW POLL and CANTATA.
    I didn’t have a problem with 6a as if something is wearing something else they are inside it i.e. clothes worn by Bob would indicate that Bob is inside the clothes. Anyway it made sense to me at the time but the more I think about it the more my head starts to hurt, so I could well be wrong.
    Completed in 11.17
    Thanks for the blog
    1. Yes – I agree with this interpretation of ‘worn by’ although accept that it is debatable.
      I found this fairly straightforward today coming in a 12:47.
  6. I found this one very difficult, taking twice my 20 minute target for a DNF with STRAW POLL. I thought it was less enjoyable than most with rather loose definitions.

    Brian

  7. I found this quite tricky and so was pleased to stop the clock at 13:07, but I see that that’s over 3 Kevins and so this can only be a Decent Day. Needed all the checkers for CANTATA (spent some time trying to make an anagram out of “musical” when I only have the C and one A) and TAU required an alphabet trawl (mercifully quick!) as LOI.

    I had no issue with “worn by”, since I just thought the daughters had “put on” the uniform and so uniform must be inside. But like plett, thinking about it now makes my head hurt!

    Thanks to Marty and William.

    Templar

  9. 5.36 here (so almost but not quite a PB) after 2 weeks away in the US with no crosswords. Maybe being fresh helps? No complaints, thanks blogger and setter.

    NeilC

  10. About 25 minutes, with the bottom half accounting for the delay.

    Loi cantata and verdant.

    Not sure what straw has to do with suckers.

    Cod apogee or cobweb.

  11. As my biblical knowledge is limited I solved the QC from the bottom up. APOGEE and OSIER went in from the wordplay with crossed fingers but CANTATA was a write in. I biffed STRAW POLL once I had most of the checkers. My LOI in an OK 10:24 was VERANDA.
  12. Another head starting to hurt here so I’ll stop after this, but I’d mention we have had similar before and it passed without comment e.g. this from a QC last year:

    Jewelled head dress, one worn by groups of soldiers (5)
    TIARA – I (one) inside (worn by) TA and RA (groups of soldiers).

  13. ….the uniform has been swallowed by the daughters, but I merely shrugged and carried on with what was practically a write-in.

    FOI LEVITICUS
    LOI APOGEE
    COD STRAW POLL
    TIME 3:01

  14. Struggled at the beginning (where I tried to make an anagram out of CV + Somehow (!)) and at the end with the 13ac/14d combination. In between was a pleasant enough solve with a good mix of easy and more challenging clues. CoD to 15d, Apogee, which I managed to get without any crossers having finally lodged Po as a two letter river in my crossword word bank. 29mins in total. Invariant
  15. I really struggled to get going and found it very frustrating early on. I got more pleasure from this as I persevered and began to appreciate some rather clever clueing and I don’t resent a SCC score of 24 mins. I liked VERANDA, ET AL., APOGEE, CANTATA and my LOsI were all in the NE – DROWSY, DUD, and DETER (doh!). Thanks both, John M.

    Edited at 2019-04-24 02:19 pm (UTC)

  17. 12 minutes and all parsed! Really enjoyed this – seemed to be on the wavelength today. Makes up for a few DNFs and slow times recently. Thought all the cluing was excellent, but perhaps that’s just because it worked for me (and perhaps it is also because I am not analytical enough to see the problems in clues such as DUD). MM

    FOI 1d
    LOI 7d
    2 x COD 5d and 14d – I always find it hard to choose just one!!

  18. Solved this after my return from Royal Mid Surrey golf club. I went by train and was persuaded to have a drink afterwards and so I was tired and not quite at my sharpest when I got home.
    I finished in about 20 minutes with On the Ball and Et Al holding me up. I was looking for On the Mark for some reason or something to do with a rest. Wanting to put OVA at 22d was anther time waster.
    Good puzzle. David
  19. 5.36 here (so almost but not quite a PB) after 2 weeks away in the US with no crosswords. Maybe being fresh helps? No complaints, thanks blogger and setter.

    NeilC

  20. Enjoyed all of this and would have been pleased to join the SCC at 25 mins if I hadn’t too casually biffed 1d as LEPT – so a DNF after all. FOI 9a LOI 7d – the NE being the last corner to fall. COD 5d for the whimsy – more Frank M than Denis N I thought…
  22. 5.36 here (so almost but not quite a PB) after 2 weeks away in the US with no crosswords. Maybe being fresh helps? No complaints, thanks blogger and setter.

    NeilC

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