Times Quick Cryptic 1351 by Teazel

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this pretty tough (especially the SW) but I was solving on paper, in lovely weather, sitting by a lake. I’ll be interested to see other comments as I suspect the setting/distraction added to the time. My solve drifted, slowly, along like this:

ACROSS

1. DALMATIANS – cryptic definition.
8. BANQUET – feast. Not allow (BAN), one (I) to leave peaceful (QU)i(ET).
9. GNASH – strike together. I’ve always thought gnash was more ‘grind’ together. Nasty wound (GASH) round knight (N).
10. TO-DO – fuss. Daughter (D) joins in also (TOO).
11. WRETCHED – miserable. Day (WED) in which is to be sick (RETCH).
13. STAIR – step up (and down). Homophone (to speak) of look – stare. I completely messed this up by missing the homophone here and thought we were expected to get stare from an expressive way of looking. I’m starting to reassess my view of ‘tough’ for this puzzle.
14. VIRUS – infection. Starting letters of Very Innocently Rocks Us Seriously.
16. LINGERIE – underclothing. Hang on (LINGER), that is (IE).
17. WING – one may score a goal when playing on the wing. Secure (WIN), (G)oals.
20. SLUNG – hammock thus put up (one slings a hammock, often by a lake). Small (S), breather (LUNG).
21. TONSURE – shaved hair. Not coming backwards (TON), certainly (SURE).
22. COMPLIMENT – praise. One (I) is given to Poet Laureate briefly (PL) in review (COMMENT).

Down

1. DEBUT – first performance. Low grades (DE), although (BUT).
2. LONG-DRAWN-OUT – extended. Anagram – which I also failed to spot for a long-drawn-out period – (after review) of TURN DOWN GOAL.
3. ARUM – flower. A (A), curious (RUM). If anyone spent time trying to work out how ‘qua’ could mean curious, then they have my sympathies. I may have heard of arum at some stage but it was not readily available for me today.
4. IN TURN – one after another. Good books (NT – New Testament) go in one (I) and large container (URN).
5. NEGATIVE – pessimistic. Anagram (being ruined) of VINTAGE beside tail of hurrican(E).
6. FATHER FIGURE – older advisor. Overweight (FAT), woman’s (HER), shape (FIGURE).
7. SHADES – double definition.
12. ARPEGGIO – chord. DNK this. It was clear it was an anagram (fluffed) of OPERA GIG, but, not having the second letter (last of 13ac), it felt like it was RAP or PAR eggio. Time slip slided away.
13. SPLASH – a little tonic being added (a spirit and a splash). Miss the glass = splash the surrounding area.
15. BIG TOP – place for circus. Rock (GIB – Gibraltar) upwards, best (TOP). This was a bif – I’ve only just seen the rock=Gib.
18. GHENT – Belgian city. Chap (GENT) tours hot (H).
19. ANTI – one not pro – i.e. against. Worker perhaps (ANT), one (I).

23 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1351 by Teazel”

  1. 10 minutes but only just stopped myself writing PING at 17ac based on wordplay PIN (secure) G without having the remotest idea how it might be played on to fit the definition.

    Also lost time over the parsing at 22ac which relies on PL = Poet Laureate. Referring to the usual sources, this appears only in Chambers, and as far as I can tell has only appeared previously in the Times Mephisto puzzle, so it seems a little out of place in a QC.

    I’m afraid I’m venturing into ‘the dictionaries are wrong’ territory over 12dn or at least what some of them say may be open to misinterpretation, as a chord is musical notes struck together whilst an arpeggio consists of the notes of a chord sounded in quick succession (spread) or separately in a pattern (broken).

    Edited at 2019-05-14 05:17 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t share your misgivings about this, Jack, as the phrases spread chord and broken chord are, I think, common parlance for arpeggio.

      I thought this on the harder side and took a while to get going. Like Chris, I failed to spot the homophone for 13a at first and needed the checkers to think of the dogs at 1a. I liked DEBUT and FATHER FIGURE. 6:33

      Edited at 2019-05-14 06:56 am (UTC)

      1. I think arpeggio = chord is fine but on checking, Collins is (unusually) slightly inconsistent:

        chord n 1. the simultaneous sounding of a group of notes

        arpeggio n 1. a chord whose notes are played in rapid succession rather than simultaneously

        So “chord” should really say “simultaneous or successive”.

        And I think the word “rapid” should be omitted from the definition of “arpeggio”.

        Otherwise all good!

    2. I thought Poet Laureate briefly was reasonable for PL – the briefly being reasonably key here. Although in doubt, I used do assume there’s some unknown capitalisation, rather than in this case a specific Poet whose name has been shortened (which would be very mean for a QC!).
  2. Wow -that was tough. FOI was TO DO and then I solved a few around the grid but had lots of gaps. Too many tough clues to mention individually but ARPEGGIO delayed me a lot and my last two were 2d (did not spot the anagram until after solving) and COMPLIMENT where I assumed PL was the abbreviation and that we did not need to know the name of the new poet laureate -or the last one.
    I finally got home in 21:49 and feel pretty pleased with that. Excellent and challenging puzzle. David
  3. A lot of this went in without any issues but the chord held me up, music being one of my many blind spots and I was sorely tempted to go for PING at 17a (LOI) before resorting to an alphabet trawl to look for alternatives that made more sense. The parsing of COMPLIMENT also took some unravelling. Completed in 9.54.
    Thanks for the blog
  4. Done in 2 sittings, about 35 mins in total.

    Was stuck on arpeggio (discounted an anagram because of the ‘IN’), slung, splash, stair, and wretched.
    They all came quickly at the second attempt.

    Couldn’t parse compliment and missed the gib for gibraltar ref.

    Cod lingerie or stair.

  5. I made a hash of this in 13:09, by not discounting PING and by making my usual error with DALMATIONS, despite having done this several times in the past. No problem with ARPEGGIO, except the time it took me to unRAVEL the anagrist! Too much rushing to finish after taking much longer than usual to solve the puzzle! Well payed Teazel, and thanks Chris.
  6. I found this tough too but generally quite satisfying so thanks. I confess to using an anagram solver arpeggio. Not too keen on splash slung and wing but maybe I am just not on that wavelength
  7. I started off in the NW corner at quite a pace but got bogged down by the time I reached the SE corner. I biffed NEGATIVE, WRETCHED and SPLASH and didn’t bother to parse them until after completion. I also biffed COMPLIMENT and failed to parse it. 13a STAIR was a late solve as I too missed the homophone and my LOI was 17a WING having initially put in hits before my penultimate solve 18d GHENT. 13:38. Thanks to Chris for the blog and to Teazel for the workout.

    Edited at 2019-05-14 08:51 am (UTC)

  8. 27 minutes, but a DNF by looking up the chord. I think I would have sorted it out on paper, but solving anagrams on the phone is another matter.
    I didn’t know this was by Teazel but I could have guessed by the number of clues that meant absolutly nothing on first reading. He (or She) hides the wordplay beautifully, like the homonyn for STAIR – solving that one un-locked the difficult SE corner for me.

    Brian

    Edited at 2019-05-14 09:38 am (UTC)

  9. Crashed and burned today. Mid-entered LINERRIE at 16a, thus making a complete nonsense of the anagram at 12d.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger
    DNF

  10. A bit on the tough side, even though I kicked off with 1a in about a nanosecond – I think you either spot (tee hee) these straight away or they take forever.

    I also struggled in the SW until 2d finally unlocked it. Thanks for the blog.

  11. Seemed average difficulty to me and I clocked my average time, 13:36 (wot no Kevin? Estimated 2.5 Kevins, a Decent Day). Nothing to add to the chord debate apart from the fact I couldn’t do the anagram in my head and had to write it down!

    Have never liked advisor instead of adviser (6dn), and am pleased to discover that my Oxford says that “advisor” is “disputed”.

    FOI DEBUT, LOI WRETCHED, COD ARPEGGIO

    Thanks to Teazel and Chris.

    Templar

  12. Another one who had a slow start. I couldn’t settle down to this to start off with for some reason – I’ll blame the sunshine too, and a brain full of the Spanish subjunctive after my class this morning! However, once I’d had some lunch, and started to concentrate, everything went in relatively smoothly – all the same, it was quite slow today. I often find Teazel’s puzzles quite challenging, but always fair and with some great surfaces.

    FOI to-do
    LOI splash
    COD Dalmations – took me a while to get it but it really made me smile

    By the way Chris, I found today’s 15 x 15 quite approachable, apart from one clue that I got wrong, thus leading to another one I couldn’t solve! It often seems to be the way 😉

  13. ….on the WING, on the WING. But not, unfortunately I, on the ping. Not my finest hour today

    COD SLUNG, the rest irrelevant.

  14. Thanks to Teazel for another brilliant but tough one. Very nice clues throughout – it would be unreasonable to pick some out from such a good bunch. FOI anti was the weakest for me. I do agree with bripriuk about the number of clues that meant nothing on first reading and required some serious untangling. I was just in the SCC today again but was happy with the workout. Thanks to Chris, too. John M.
  15. Glad to hear others found this tricky. We were slow to solve the long clues which affected the rest of the puzzle. Thought 11a was cleverly constructed, and resorted to help for this. Could not see why we were slow on some of the others, we blame the sunshine!
  16. Similar to our blogger but distracted this time by pods of dolphins making their way across the bay in front of me. Oh the crossword – yes tough in the SW, otherwise sound.
    1. Are you on Mull? We stayed near Fionnphort last year and had a trip to Iona. Really enjoyed it!
  17. Very tough. Nowhere near finishing after about 40 minutes. Needed the blog today!
  18. As is evident from the lack of beginners comments this was unsuitable for a quick cryptic

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