Times Quick Cryptic 1346 by Rongo

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I felt I was on for a quick time until a few gaps in the SW (notably 16ac and 12dn) ticked the time to just over 10 minutes. 16ac is not without interest so worth a peruse in the blog. Loi 15ac. I may not have much access to the blog from now on today but will catch up on comments as soon as I can.

ACROSS

3. AFTER – triple definition – which fooled me for a while.
7. SEQUIN – shiny decoration. Second (S), of horses (EQUIN)e with tail docked.
8. ACRE – piece of land. Homophone (that sounds like) a continual sore point – an ache is sore, so I suppose that something that always aches is an acher.
9. CONTRITE – sorry. Deception (CON), lacking originality (TRITE).
10. PINK – colour. Writing fluid (INK) on top of which is page (P).
11. MINT CONDITION – pristine state. Proviso (CONDITION) behind herb (MINT).
15. ANTIPERSONNEL – anagram (revised) of PLANNER’S NOTE I.
16. TREK – long journey back. The definition is almost always at the beginning or end of a clue. This is one which justifies the use of the word ‘almost’ always. The definition is journey (TREK). I can’t find anything which suggests that trek means journey back (so I don’t think this is an &lit). ‘Back’ in this clue is an instruction to read the answer contained in (takes) the clue Backpac(KER T)hat backwards.
18. CHIN-CHIN – cheers. Food may dribble onto the chin – twice=CHIN-CHIN.
20. PAIR – couple. Personal assistant (PA) joins Irish (IR).
21. CHAPEL – place of worship. Fellow (CHAP), h(EL)d.
22. YACHT – boat. Anagram (customised) of CATHY.

DOWN

1. DEVOTION – worship. Anagram (different) of I’VE TO DO plus new (N).
2. GUST – bit of wind (not of the gastric variety). Son (S) inside belly (GUT).
3. ANTIDOTE – neutraliser of poison. I (I) and spot (DOT) inside bet (ANTE – the gaming stake put up before the deal in pokerby the players – hence ‘up the ante’).
4. TOME – big book. I think in my direction=TO ME so the ‘coming’ is filler or coming in=to be found in.
5. RASPUTIN – Russian figure. Artist’s (RA’S), inserted (PUT IN).
6. GRIN – broad smile. Seen in skatin(G RIN)k.
12. TRICKERY – deception. With king (K) aboard moment (TRICE) on top of railway (RY).
13. DISTINCT – clear. Circular plate (DISC) holding metal (TIN) with base for bolt – bol(T).
14. ONE-LINER – short joke. About (ON), English (E), ship (LINER).
17. ROAM – travel. New Zealand people=MAORI. Turn this upwards and only take most of it i(ROAM).
18. CHIC – stylish. Greek letter (CHI), chapter (C).
19. CLAW – part of the foot of a crow. Partial &lit. A crow CAWs – which clutches left (L).

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1346 by Rongo”

  1. 12:06 for me today. FOI was GRIN. I had a relatively slow start and needed all the checkers for 15a and 11a (where I needed the herb).So it was a tour round the grid to solve the shorter clues.
    LOsI were CONTRITE and SEQUIN.
    Looking back nothing too unusual or unfair. COD to CHIN CHIN. David
  2. It felt like a good work out today where the two long across clues took some unravelling but it was the NW where I struggled most. 1d, 7a and 9a were the last to fall. Completed in 12.18.
    Thanks for the blog
  3. After the abomination that way yesterday (add a genuine crossing typo to the famous four to make 6), a slightly more cagey approach this morning.

    Well, that’s my excuse anyway.

    After only about 3 acrosses went in on the first pass, i thought i may be heading for a record (slow) time, but the downs soon flowed

    No real complaints, just slowness of brain i think.

    5.40

  4. 10 minutes, but so nearly went over my target because of 9ac which still put up a lot of resistance after all the other clues had fallen.

    My original parsing of 6ac was more complicated: F (following) contained by [coming in] {l}ATER [not the first] which with three definitions on display gives us a clue that’s both all wordplay and all definitions, a sort of variation on the &lit. I suspect Chris’s version is the one intended by the setter, especially with this being a QC puzzle, but I found my interpretation an interesting distraction.

    3. I don’t think that the setter intended the triple definition. The triple definition may be a coincidence but the wordplay is unlikely to have occurred by chance
    5. I didn’t see that but completely agree with jackkt’s additional &lit variation. Great clue!
  5. I parsed AFTER as Jack and everyone did, and didn’t think to look any further. I see now that I never parsed SEQUIN. 4:28.
  6. I thought Trek was cleverly concealed. I’d put it in but needed the blog to spot the word spelt backwards. All fair enough but even though the anagram for anti-personnel is clearly indicated it’s difficult to unravel hyphenated words so it was an extra bit of trickery 🙂
  7. 12 mins here, estimated at 2.5 Kevins and a Good Day. LOI CONTRITE, where right to the end I was unsure how it worked (the idea that “lacking originality” meant a missing first letter wouldn’t go away!). I liked the elegant simplicity of 22ac so that gets COD from me.

    Thanks Chris and Rongo.

    Templar

  8. I also parsed 1ac as Jackkt did – if it was just a triple definition then why the question mark at the end? Not sure I liked ACRE for piece of land but sort of see it. 16ac confused me at the end too for a while? 11.52 in the end.

    NeilC

    1. An acre has to be land, nothing else is measured in acres. Reservoirs are measured in acre-feet though, enough water to cover an acre one foot deep, just less than a third of a million gallons.
  9. I puzzled over the wordplay for ANTIDOTE for some time before realising I had misread ‘stake’ as ‘snake’. Like others, CONTRITE my LOI. I liked CHIN CHIN. 5:00.
  10. 8a ACRE was my FOI but I did say it out loud a number of times before I was convinced. Whilst 9a CONTRITE was a late solve my delay was in the SE corner. Despite having the C checkers in place I couldn’t see 18a CHIN-CHIN for a while. Once solved, the rest of the SE fell into place with LOI CHAPEL. 11:21
  11. A more approachable puzzle today but a nice mix of write-ins and thought-provoking clues for me – thanks Rongo. I liked SEQUIN, ANTIDOTE and CONTRITE (my LOI) but waited for a few crossers to unravel 11a and 15a quickly. CHIN-CHIN raised a smile. 12.58 so slightly sharper today? Thanks to Chris for the usual helpful blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-05-07 09:16 am (UTC)

  12. ANTIPERSONNEL and CONTRITE held me up, so I came in over my target, at 11:15. Nice puzzle. Thanks Rongo and Chris.
  13. Not my type of CW today! Too many obscure connections. 7A and 15A add to frustration. 7A because a “contained in” based on the first letter of a word (Second) is inelegant CW setting opening up too many permutations – my view anyway. 15A because the definition was too tenuous (for me at least) to get to the answer that way and with other obscurities I didn’t have enough cross letters to solve a 13 letter anagram without using an anagram solver.
    Overall, I am left wondering what “quick” in quick crossword means!
    David
    1. For 7a, it is either second of horses (o) or second (s) and then something to do with horses.

      The first checker is e, hence se more likely than oe.

      Now we just need a word relating to horses, a good tip for a u checker is try a q.

      For the anagram, it gets easier with practice, once I had all the checkers, anti jumped out and then the rest is easier.

      Edited at 2019-05-07 03:10 pm (UTC)

  14. The timer said 2 hours but I think it was more like 40 mins, after deducting pesky work interruptions.

    Held up by trickery, trek, chapel, distinct, and loi antipersonnel.

    Didnt like acre.

    Cod chin chin.

  15. ….write out the anagrist for ANTIPERSONNEL with all the checkers completed. After 4 minutes I’d got down to that one, and 7A. I gave up 3 minutes later, and used a letter checker for SEQUIN. Nothing wrong with the puzzle, but I wasn’t on Rongo’s wavelength today.
  16. 20mins, plus another couple unsuccessfully trying to parse 16ac, having ignored rule no 1. I also struggled with parsing 3ac, but then decided it was a triple definition, so it was interesting to read Jackkt’s comment. Like others, 9ac was my loi due to wrong end of the clue issues. I had to biff 13d, but the parsing works well, and the surface flows, so it gets my CoD vote. Invariant
  17. Well, I liked this much better than yesterday. As a very tentative filler of the grid, I was pleased to see and get ‘room’ quickly & sure it was the right answer but I tend to do it on paper and also check the answers on my phone as I go along – just to be sure. Getting room & bolt marked as wrong was very discouraging…

    Today, I managed pretty well to do it on paper without needing to double check as I was sure I had the parsing right. I had no trouble with 15ac, I almost always need to write down the anagrist and after leaving it for a while, the answer popped into my head.

    Couldn’t parse 16ac but the answer had to be right and I needed an aid for 9ac, when had all the checkers.

    No time as it was done over a couple of sessions but must be less than 30 mins – a vg day 🙂

    Thanks, Chris, for the blog and to rongo.

  19. Thanks, Rongo for being on MY wavelength today!! This took me just over 14 minutes which is pretty good for me. I thought I had finished but then noticed that 7a was not complete. Fortunately it didn’t hold me up for long. Thanks, Chris, for the blog and I enjoyed all the discussion re 3a. I had considered it both ways but hadn’t come to a final decision about what was really intended. MM
    FOI 3a
    LOI 7a
    COD 9a
    Didn’t like the picture that 18a conjured. UGH!!

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