Times Quick Cryptic 1341 by Grumpy

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well, what a pleasure. This took some time (15 mins) but I was never grumpy as I enjoyed every moment relishing the surfaces. To anyone coming recently to cryptics from concise crosswords – look for the concise definition which is there together with either the parsing which builds up the answer (e.g. 5ac) or a second concise definition (e.g. 1ac). The art of the setter is to confuse the solver by making the surface reading (surface) of the clue read as a sentence. Thanks to Grumpy for such a great start to the day.

ACROSS

1. CATARACT – double definition. (Water)falls/that can impair one’s vision.
5. TSAR – ruler. Leaders of (T)he (S)oviets (A)ssassinated (R)ussian. Excellent surface. This is what cryptic crosswords are all about – anyone looking at this from a ‘concise’ crossword background would be stumped but us times for the timesers know to break off the definition from one end or the other and then find the parsing. In this case it couldn’t be simpler.
8. SEARCH ME – I don’t know. By searching me one could discover what I’m carrying.
9. HIDE – double definition. Don’t reveal/skin.
11. OCEAN – a lot of water. (E)nough inside old (O) and container (CAN).
12. USELESS – ineffectual. Exhortation to be more economical – USE LESS.
13. FASTER – double definition. Once again Grumpy’s surface goes into overdrive. Splitting the sentence – one doesn’t eat/more quickly.
15. STODGE – unappetising food. For example (EG), little (short name for) girl’s (DOT’S) rejected = all backwards.
18. UNEARTH – find. Anagram (astray) of A HUNTER.
19. TACIT – implied. One (I) should be employed in diplomacy (TACT).
21. HART – deer. Homophone (reportedly) of compassion – heart.
22. PLEASANT – nice. I remember a teacher at school getting very upset about the term nice – these days they may be labelled a termist. Lake (L) enclosed by rural labourer (PEASANT).
23. RIDE – lie. Interested in comments here. As far as I know you can ride at anchor and lie at anchor. Ride is therefore a synonym of lie but not of lie at anchor. I think the direction in the clue is telling us that the answer is not simply ‘in’ but ‘at anchor in’ the Heb(RIDE)s.
24. PRESERVE – keep. Book (RESERVE) on/after piano (P).

DOWN

1. CAST OFF – no longer wanted. Players (CAST), below par (OFF – their game was off).
2. TRADE – business. Set up = all upwards – European (E), missile (DART).
3. RACONTEURS – storytellers. Anagram (prepared) of TO RUN RACES.
4. CAMPUS – college grounds. Page (P) penned by French Author (CAMUS).
6. STIPEND – money paid (to e.g. clergyman). Pit’s about (backwards=S’TIP), close (END).
7. REELS – double definition. Some dancing/bobbins.
10. DEATH TRAPS – dangerous things. Anagram (out) of THAT SPREAD.
14. STEERED – directed. Whilst solving I couldn’t see why ‘lose one’s rag’ was seered but, of course, it’s SEE RED. This keeps (holds) time (T).
16. ENTITLE – double definition and another top surface. Give the right/name.
17. CHOLER – anger. Homophone (we hear) of surrounding band – collar. This took some time to get.
18. USHER – one employed as director (in a cinema/wedding). American (US), female (HER).
20. CHAIR – double definition. I’m losing track of the number of great surfaces – is this one the best of the lot? Be in charge of (at a meeting)/post (of professor) at university.

23 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1341 by Grumpy”

  1. I didn’t think about RIDE, but I’d agree with Chris’s reading. CHOLER took some time, as I’ve always taken it to rhyme with ‘coaler’; not that I’ve ever used the word in my life. LOI STEERED: I wasn’t sure what ‘lose one’s rag’ meant (I think I came across the phrase once, in a cryptic). 6:00.
  2. 12 minutes with time lost on TRADE and CHOLER mainly but also trying to justify CAST OUT at 1dn before realising it wasn’t right. DK the anchor clue, but RIDE it had to be. Wondered about ‘fallS’ in the clue at 1ac vs ‘cataract’ in the answer.
    1. I paused at that one, too; but after all, it’s Niagara FallS, Victoria FallS, etc., but you likely wouldn’t refer to X Falls as cataracts.
  3. CHOLER was last one in. Having missed the right answer on the first alphabet trawl became fixated on WHALER sounding like Wailer even though I knew it couldn’t be right – didn’t fit the cryptic and anyway there were at least two Wailers. Not many letters can go before an H so I got there in the end. LHS went in first, then NE and finally SE – CHOLER and PRESERVE were my LOIs. PLEASANT held out longer than it should have too. Thought DEATH TRAPS was a great clue. Great puzzle, great blog. Well done all round!
  4. I thought this was going to be a very quick solve as the top half (except STIPEND) went in with barely a pause. However the bottom half proved much more testing with HART and STEERED proving particularly tough to crack. I also did a double take about the lack of an ‘s’ at the end of 1a but it couldn’t have been anything else. CoD to TSARS, completed in 13.21.
    Thanks for the blog
  5. I had to give up on this after 30 minutes unable to find the unknown CHOLER .
    Prior to that STEERED held me up but I saw the parsing eventually and TRADE was also tricky.
    Otherwise I thought this was a bit harder than average with some excellent clues. David
  6. This was enjoyable but not an easy solve. I need 16 plus minutes with LOI 17d CHOLER. FOI was 9a HIDE. SEARCH ME eluded me for a while as did STODGE but then it has got a random girl’s name in it. I guessed RIDE and I really must learn to spell RACONTEURS. Thank you Grumpy and Chris
  7. CHOLER sprang to mine quickly enough after getting the checkers. DEATH TRAPS was actually my LOI as I waited for checkers to see that one too. I liked STEERED best. 4:41.
  8. Like Plett, I thought this was going to be a quickie early on but I got more and more bogged down with clever, devious clues. LOI CHOLER was impossible but I couldn’t find anything else apart from WHALER to match the crossers and it took ages of trawling. I liked DEATH TRAPS, STEERED, and USHER. A testing puzzle – I took a break after 30 mins and was too grumpy to time my return – but, on reflection a very good workout. Parts were more suitable for the 15squared IMO but many thanks to Grumpy and to Chris for his usual excellent, concise blog. John M.
  9. Glad I wasn’t the only one. Definitely chewy, but excellent crossword, causing a return to SCC. My stickers were USHER, STEERED, HART and TRADE, but no problem with CHOLER. Nod to CAMPUS which I biffed, without spotting Albert as the French author. 21.28.
  10. I had some crossers before I looked at CHOLER so that came easily. CATARACT was FOI but I had to correct the last letter as I automatically typed CATARACTS. DEATH TRAP was well hidden. LOI HIDE after STIPEND. No particular problems. 9:02. Thanks Grumpy and Chris.
  11. I made quite heavy weather of this one. Nearly saw red when I eventually saw SEE RED – try saying that five times quickly. In hindsight there was nothing particularly difficult about this, just expertly crafted by Grumpy.
    6’45”
  12. I enjoyed this – thanks. Not sure if falls needed to be plural and though the answer was obvious enough I don’t know why the setter needed an obscure use of ride. I’m being picky though – most of the ones I struggled with were fair cops 🙂
  13. ….can break your HART. I enjoyed this one – the time looks quick, but I certainly had to use the old grey matter (my hair matches it these days).

    FOI CATARACT
    LOI STEERED (almost COD)
    COD CHOLER
    TIME 4:20

  14. I thought I was doing the main cryptic. Definitely not easy at least for those who really are new to these puzzles. Gave up after 40 minutes with about 50% done

    Tim

  15. Gave up on steered with whaler already in.
    Think the level of difficulty not quite right for a quickie.

    Cod search me.

  16. After 30 minutes I had all but CHOLER. I just couldn’t get it even after an alphabet trawl and had to use an aid (which I usually avoid). Never mind I completed and parsed all the rest and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge Grumpy set. Thanks to him and to Chris for the blog. MM

    FOI TSAR
    LO3I PRESERVE, CHAIR, CHOLER (these three took me from my 20 minute target to over 30 minutes!)
    COD USELESS…. as I was, failing to see CHOLER with all the checkers there!!!

  18. Two and a half hours and missed four in the SE corner.
    Choler? Really?
    I mean really. In a QC?
    Never heard of this word in my 61 years!
    And I certainly wouldn’t rhyme it with collar.
    Nick
    2. Well, in my 74 years I had heard of choler in the sense of someone having a choleric complexion – i.e. bright red with anger. I don’t think I’ve ever had to pronounce it but would have used the hard ‘c’ I think.
  19. Well, that was — genuinely — a fun couple of hours. Needed to go online for synonyms of anger to land CHOLER (only had the aitch) and get the SE section under way. Tough, but rewarding.
    Tim (not that Tim).

Comments are closed.