Time’s Quick Cryptic 1371 by Teazel.

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Just crept within ten minutes although LOI 2dn made it mighty close. I think I got it ‘the wrong way round’ but it had to be the answer. Otherwise all plain sailing. Here’s how I got on.
Thanks for your comments on the format last week. Hopefully it’ll be easier to achieve this week (now I know that the underline in iPad editor doesn’t carry through to livejournal).

Anagrams – *anagrist*, definitions underlined.

ACROSS

4. GIVING. Offering French wine (VIN) during performance (GIG).
7. HIMALAYA. One (I) SE Asian (MALAY) in hot (H) area (A) – mountain range. I, and Collins, have always thought that it was ‘The Himalayas’ but Wikipedia tells me that this range is also known as Himalaya.
8. RECIPE. Finally agre(E) on new *price* formula.
9. DECADENT. After ten years (DECADE), good books (NT) decaying.
10. COUP. Promoted (UP) after firm (CO)’s sudden success.
12. NARROWED. Confined as in a river): out of priso(N) at last, went straight (ARROWED).
15. VETERANS. Very (V) *earnest*, wounded old soldiers.
18. TINY. Very small, like the prong of a fork (like a tine)?
20. CONFOUND. Politician (CONservative) perceived (FOUND) to bewilder.
22. STARCH. Vermin back (RATS backwards) at church (CH) for carbohydrate.
23. ENTANGLE. Without hesitation, enter (ENT without the hesitation – er) corner (ANGLE) and get involved.
24. PORTER. A pint perhaps for the doorman.

DOWN

1. FILE. Set of documents: may it be at your fingertips (nail file)?
2. OAK APPLE. Gall on tree – fine (OK) to eat a (A) fruit (APPLE). A gall-apple is a type of plant gall that resembles a nut. A gall is a growth on the surface of a plant that is caused by an insect, disease, fungus, or injury.
3. RAKE IN. Rapidly acquire garden tool (RAKE) at home (IN).
4. GARTER. It holds up (a sock/stocking) a top Order (Order of the Garter).
5. VICE. One clamping down on wickedness.
6. NAPOLEON. *Plan one*’s manoeuvring to capture old (O) emperor.
11. ONE OR TWO. A few find *wooer not* crazy.
13. ANN. Girl eaten by (inside) c(ANN)ibal.
14. OUTDOING. Abroad (OUT), busy (DOING) excelling.
16. ARCHER. Sportsman taking a bow.
17. SONATA. Boy (SON) engaged with (working AT something) a (A) piece of music.
19. WRIT. Summons intelligence (WIT) to overcome resistance (R).
21. NILE. River‘s wiggly *line*.

31 comments on “Time’s Quick Cryptic 1371 by Teazel.”

  1. I dithered over 5d, as the clamper is a VISE where I come from–but not, as I just discovered, in the UK. 5:44. Chris, you’ve got a typo at 2d; I assume you mean ‘oak-apple’.

    Edited at 2019-06-11 12:49 am (UTC)

    1. I was looking up ‘gall’ as it was unknown to me and Collins accepts gall-apple which redirects to gallnut. I think they’re the same thing as an oak apple. Given the wide range of GK of Times crossword solvers, I hope someone may clarify.

      Edited at 2019-06-11 07:11 am (UTC)

  2. My trip to Guildford to watch cricket today has been delayed to allow the ground to dry out a bit,so here I am.
    This was difficult I thought.No long easy answers so after FOI DECADENT I toured round the grid looking for scraps. And some of the parsing was tricky and necessary e.g. HIMALAYA where I had a minor eyebrow raise. I was not troubled by ARROWED as went straight however.
    Last three were ENTANGLE, OAK APPLE and CONFOUND and my time could have been much more than the 15:46 it took me.
    David
  3. Swift until left with the ENTANGLE/OUTDOING intersection, which doubled my time to 3 Kevins and a Just About OK Day. Frustrating! (Minor grumble – not convinced by “outdo” as “excel”. Outdo means comparative performance, not absolute performance. Bitterness of the defeated etc etc.)

    A very good puzzle, thank you Teazel. FOI FILE, LOI OUTDOING, COD VETERANS (a neat concealment of the anagram). Thanks for blogging, Chris.

    Templar

  4. 11 minutes delayed by there not being enough squares to write HIMALAYAS which as far as I’m concerned will remain the English language name of the range no matter what Wikipedia says. What next, ‘the Pyrenee’? I also continue to say ‘Himmer-layers’ despite ‘Him-ARL-e-ars’ seeming to be more fashionable these days among some folks.

    Can someone please explain how ARROWED means ‘straight’?

    Edited at 2019-06-11 06:11 am (UTC)

    1. It means “went straight”, ie went directly to/travelled in a straight line, like an arrow. Arrow doesn’t seem to feature as a verb in Collins but it does in other online dictionaries, defined as “To move swiftly and directly (like an arrow)”
  5. After 15 minutes I had just three to go, but CONFOUND and OUTDOING took another five, and my LOI PORTER another three (probably because I can’t stand the stuff).
    I didn’t really enjoy it as I thought a lot of it was a bit wooly, with, for example, ‘con’, ‘found’, ‘out’ ‘doing’ and ‘outdoing’ itself being only just viable as synonyms.

    Brian

  6. 33 minutes, I usually enjoy Teazel but I found this a mixture of difficult clues (narrowed, tiny, confound, oak apple) along with added words to improve the surfaces and as Brian said tenuous clueing (rake in is not really rapidly, abroad for out, promotion for up)

    Sometimes I wonder if the times are trying to encourage new solvers or put them off.

    Cod Nile.

    1. As indicated in Chris’s blog, ‘rake in’ is clued by ‘rapidly acquire’, not ‘rapidly’. Collins has: to gather an abundant amount of (money) rapidly.

      On ‘abroad’ SOED has: Out of one’s house or abode. ME.
      e.g. Henry Miller -The greatest delight…was…to walk the streets at night when no one was abroad.

      I agree that promotion doesn’t of itself mean ‘up’ but the clue has ‘promoted’and that seems more reasonable to me.

      Edited at 2019-06-11 08:59 am (UTC)

      1. Hi Jack
        I don’t associate raking it in with speed, more the amount and ease.

        I get abroad for out, but its listed as archaic on my dictionary.

        I’m not saying these are unfair, just more tenuous than normal for the QC.

        Anyway at least there seem to be less plants and fish these days than when I started!

  7. 20m for me, held up in the SE for no very good reason. The top and bottom lines make words in themselves, but I can discern no real connection or theme, so probably accidental. Thanks for the blog Chris, and Teazel for the challenge.
    1. Seeing those two words emerging helped me to finish the puzzle. Only a guess, but I think it may have been intended by the setter.
  8. OAK APPLE my last one in. I hadn’t realised it was a gall, but you can read all about it here. Otherwise nothing delayed me for long. I pronounce the mountain range like Jack, with the accent on the 3rd syllable. 4:56.
  9. ….a decent PORTER occasionally, especially Elland 1872, or Titanic Plum Porter.

    No problems here, nice puzzle I thought.

    FOI GIVING
    LOI NILE
    COD TINY
    TIME 2:59

  10. Great time, Phil!
    This one really hit my wavelength, almost like I’d seen every clue before. A PB today of 3’10” to follow a PB of 8’45” in the 15×15 yesterday. All downhill from here I suppose.
    My thanks as always to setter and blogger.
  11. I don’t think I’m ready to accept Wikipedia as an authority yet (though I’ll concede it’s better than it was a few years back!) . Anyone can contribute to its ‘knowledge’ bank and assertions remain in place until they are corrected if ever!
    I thought this was on the tough side – more suited to the 15 x 15 but perhaps I had a bad day!
  12. It took me longer than usual to disentangle this puzzle, despite OAK APPLE going straight in. Nothing beyond my ken, but just extra thought required to get to the finish line. I was also surprised by the singular HIMALAYA. 11:35. Thank Teazel and Chris
  13. An enjoyable challenge for me, and nearly got there in the end. However it was a DNF as never heard of an Oak Apple, and having the A bunged in Bad as only thing I could think of – knowing it was wrong! Thanks to blogger for enlightening me.
  14. Please start by underlining the definition and stating the clue on a separate line from th solution.
    This helps beginners to think through the possible answer before being told what it is as they can keep it hidden on the iPad until ready to check their answer!
    Many thanks
  15. Only ever heard of GALL in the context of impudence. But knew of oak apples and ‘fine’ = OK gave that away. Thought ‘perceived’ = FOUND was a bit tenuous. Enjoyed the misdirection in ARCHER. Overall nice balance and good fun.
    PlayUpPompey
  16. Dotted about the page but only major holdup was the up to now unmentioned FILE which took ages and ages – I don’t file my fingertips and brain too literal today to see past that! Second day in a row on paper so no acurate time but not fast – even before 1a struggle.
  17. Not to bad a day. Finished in 35mins but with a bit of help. And some biffing. Oak apple is a gall caused by an insect, IIRC. Have known that since childhood. Not the sort of apple you can eat, though.
    A definite mer for decadent meaning decaying. They’re not even the same part of speech..

    Thanks, as always, for the blog.

  18. Same experience as others with the SE corner. Otherwise fairly straightforward. With 20a we thought found as a synomyn for perceived to be a bit of a stretch. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks to all.
  19. SCC today – I was not helped by being on public transport and trying to get to grips with the QC on a ruddy iPhone (not an experience I would choose voluntarily). Some very good clues including one or two I answered with fingers crossed, despite my parsing. Thanks to Teazel and Chris. John M.
  21. I found this tough going with the OAK part of 2d requiring a slow alphabet trawl. Also struggled with OUTDOING, GARTER and ONE OR TWO. Finished in 17.17
    Thanks Chris
  22. Good going for me at 32 minutes, somehow managed to be on the right wavelength for many of the less obvious clues. I have heard of the singular Himalaya, although I can’t remember where, and was pleased to trawl up oak apple from the distant past when I had a beautifully flowering but less-than-healthy apple tree in the garden of my first house. SE corner was last to fall, but didn’t take as long as I feared it was going to. Happy SCC member today.
  23. I has ‘bad apple” as gall means ill-will or bitter. Made sense to me, although I suppose parsing fine to eat doesn’t quite fit.

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