Time’s Quick Cryptic 1381 by Felix

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A smidge over 10 minutes for this geographically themed puzzle – where we travel as far as the Middle and Far East before returning to Ireland and Kent. I can’t remember being held up on any specific clue (well, perhaps LOI, 18ac, where I fixated over CID). So, thanks to Felix and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

ACROSS

1. Wat Tyler’s wounded by female’s light weapon (10)
FLYSWATTER – anagram (wounded) of WAT TYLERS and F.
8. Cross I value (5)
IRATE – I (I), value (RATE).
9. Girl I had brought in re trip in stolen car? (7)
JOYRIDE – girl (JOY), I’d (ID) inside re (RE).
10. Method of dismissal of nasty white tick (3,6)
HIT WICKET – one of the ten ways of being out at cricket. Anagram (nasty) of WHITE TICK.
12. High explosive one removed from the shade
TNT – one (I) removed from shade (T)i(NT).
13. Queen, meeting communist, was mistaken (5)
ERRED – Queen (ER) meeting communist (RED).
15. Fool in the morning making the tea (5)
ASSAM – fool (ASS), in the morning (AM).
17. Prime pieces of loin: usually very dear! (3)
LUV – possible eyebrow raiser but Collins has Luv a written form of the word ‘love’, when it is being used as an informal way of addressing someone. Prime (first) pieces of (L)oin (U)sually (V)ery.
18. Police crossing unfamiliar lands in wintry spells (4,5)
COLD SNAPS – police (COPS – not CID) crossing an anagram (unfamiliar) of LANDS.
20. Counting and repeating fibs? (7)
RELYING – repeating fibs (RE-LYING).
21. Irish county’s long fields regularly recalled (5)
SLIGO – regularly in l(O)n(G)f(I)e(L)d(S) recalled (backwards).
22. Make rapid progress, then hide in Kentish Town (10)
CANTERBURY – make rapid progress (CANTER), hide (BURY).

DOWN

1. Fear health is bad? They believe they can cure you! (5,7)
FAITH HEALERS – anagram (bad) of FEAR HEALTH IS.
2. Ultimately crazy, the idea peasants not cause of rising (5)
YEAST – ultimately craz(Y) th(E) ide(A) peasant(S) no(T).
3. Without energy, that causes grief (3)
WOE – without (WO), energy (E). I can’t recall having seen this in a puzzle before but, as punctuation marks may be disregarded in crosswordland, it works – Collins has w/o as without.
4. A judge involved in skit upset Asian people (6)
TAJIKS – I rather surprised myself by having this as FOI. A (A) and judge (J) in an anagram (upset) of SKIT.
5. Tangy pies cooked for country people (9)
EGYPTIANS – anagram (cooked) of TANGY PIES.
6. Lots of unleavened bread: it’s apt to go off (6)
PITTAS – anagram (to go off) of ITS APT.
7. What comes with a plot for one’s retirement? (7,5)
BEDTIME STORY – cryptic definition.
11. Popular party chief in a part of Asia (4-5)
INDO-CHINA – popular (IN), party (DO), chief (CH), in (IN), a (A).
14. Rising, as lover does over time (6)
REVOLT – partial &lit with rising being used to indicate that lover is upwards (REVOL) over time (T).
16. Escape from conflict, bearing left (6)
FLIGHT – conflict (FIGHT) bearing left (L).
19. Commercial that is for all to see, and so long (5)
ADIEU – commercial (AD), that is (IE), for all to see (U – film classification).
21. Teacher, close to despair, is upset (3)
SIR – close to despai(R) and is (IS) all upset (upwards).

46 comments on “Time’s Quick Cryptic 1381 by Felix”

  1. It took me a while, and some checkers, to realize that Wat Tyler was anagrist, and to work out DNK HIT WICKET. No problem with LUV; I’d actually expect to see that spelling as a vocative. Some non-UK solvers may not know that Kentish Town is a district in London, which explains the (misleading) capital Town. 5:39.
  2. 9 minutes. Somebody will say it so we might as well get it out of the way early, that CANTERBURY is a city rather than a town, however most dictionaries carry a defintion of a city as ‘a large town’ so the clue at 22ac is okay. As a point of whimsical interest I’d also mention that people born in Kent are divided into ‘Kentish men’ and ‘men of Kent’ (‘maids’ if female) depending on whether they hail from west or east of the River edway, so using the same logic Canterbury, which is to the east, would be ‘of Kent’ rather than ‘Kentish’.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 02:16 am (UTC)

    1. If I recall correctly, the distinction is that a city has a cathedral. Does this work with Scotland? Of course in the US a city is just a large town; or a town is a small city. (In California, for instance, there is no such thing as a ‘town’, officially, just cities.)
      1. There are loads of exceptions to the Cathedral rule in England. Cities without cathedrals include: Bath, Cambridge, Hull, Lancaster, Newport, Nottingham, Plymouth, Salford, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton.

        Towns with cathedrals that aren’t cities include:
        Bury St Edmunds, Chelmsford, Blackburn and Guildford.

        I don’t know about Scotland, but as the rule doesn’t apply strictly in England I don’t suppose it matters much north of the border.

        1. Thanks. This city/town thing has come up several times, and I clearly haven’t been paying attention. What are the objectors objecting too, then?
          1. Such comments usually come from anons who may not have seen previous discussions so I thought I’d get in first.
        2. Good list jackkt but I would offer one amendment. Chelmsford is now a city (since 2012) but I watched Bedford Town played Chelmsford City in the southern league in the 60’s and then they were being pretentious 🙂
        3. for the record, Lancaster (St Peter), Nottingham (St Barnabas), Plymouth (St Mary and St Boniface) and Salford (St John) all have cathedrals. But, as Catholic Cathedrals, they do influence city status.
    2. As Kevin has responded I can’t now edit my spelling, but in my original posting the river should of course read ‘Medway’.

      Edited at 2019-06-25 02:33 am (UTC)

  3. 15 minutes, i was cantering along heading for another sub 10 until flyswatter, bedtime story, luv and loi revolt which took a while to sort out.

    Liked tangy pies but cod revolt.

  4. I saw straightaway that 1a was an anagram and wasted quite a lot of time before leaving it and looking at other clues. In the end it was my LOI.
    No problems today apart from being a bit slow. I’ll give COD to FLYSWATTER as I have never seen that word in a puzzle before. Time was 10:38.
    On the subject of Canterbury, it has two railway stations,East and West. David
    1. Only one previous appearance in a Times puzzle, it seems, in January 2014 clued as:

      More squashed, with terminations in many insects now swiped out by it? (3-7)

      FLY-SWATTER – {man}Y {insect}S {no}W [terminations] in FLATTER (more squashed). The definition was &lit.

  5. I was held up by FLYSWATTER and HIT WICKET, taking 11:32 to complete. Needed TAJIKS to get JOYRIDE. Nice puzzle. Thanks Felix and Chris.
  6. Forgot to say I was a bit confused by ‘light’ in 1ac which seems somewhat random as part of the definition. My first reaction on spotting the likely anagrist was to extract LASER as part of the answer but it immediately became apparent that nothing could be made from the remaining letters, WYTT + F. Once I had the F and Y checkers in place the answer was obvious.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 06:22 am (UTC)

  7. After 1a (Wat Tyler, of course, led the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381), 2d, which also mentioned peasants, and 14d (revolt) I began to wonder if a theme was emerging, but I found no more evidence to justify this theory.
    1. I also wondered about that, and we may be onto something as most sources suggest that Wat Tyler was from Kent (as in 22ac) although some say he was from Essex. Although the Peasants’ Revolt went on for several more months it reached a climax in mid-June (1381) when the rebels led by Wat Tyler arrived in London and had a meeting with King Richard as a result of which Tyler was publicly beheaded.

      Edited at 2019-06-25 06:32 am (UTC)

  8. Nice puzzle. Perhaps I was distracted by listening to ‘Today’ in the background. Yet more mentions of the B-word (no, not Brexit) probably upset my poor brain so it took just over 3K. Difficult to pick out favourite clues but my LOI was FLYSWATTER. Thanks to both, John M.
  9. As a relative newcomer to this fine puzzle, could someone explain the rules regarding clues to which the answer is a set of initials as in 12a. Why is this described in the clue as a three-letter word rather than three singletons?
    1. The overriding rule is ‘if it’s in the dictionary then it’s fair game to the setter’. Collins has ‘TNT is a powerful explosive substance. TNT is an abbreviation for ‘trinitrotoluene’.
      1. TNT is unpronounceable as a word, and surely should be three letters. Or perhaps BBC is also a word? Maybe pronounced bubbuk
  10. 20:43, so dead on my target for what I thought was an excellent puzzle. My COD was BEDTIME STORY, and I finished with FLIGHT and ADIEU which gave me the town. Thank you Chris for the blog and for explaining the U in ADIEU, which I didn’t see.

    Brian

  11. Did this and yesterday’s in succession. This took 15.40 and yesterday’s took 6.03. Not sure I can explain why brain was faster on one than the other! Anyway enjoyed this nonetheless though slow to get LOI BEDTIME STORY.

    NeilC

  12. So glad to read that Jack wasted a little time on the “laser” theory too! 2 Kevins to complete what was, as other have said, a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Felix, and thank Chris for explaining my LOI (LUV) to me.

    Here’s hoping that the Australians exploit all ten ways to get out today and do so eftsoons or right speedily, as Wooster used to say.

    Templar

  13. A typically witty puzzle from Felix. I loved the tangy pies and BEDTIME STORY. I think I would have guessed it was one of his seeing SLIGO at 21A. Is an Irish reference in a puzzle a bit of a trademark? (our setter is Irish). 5:31
  14. 10m and 1s for me for this fine puzzle. FLYSWATTER held me up because I don’t think I have seen it as a single word before, rather than hyphenated or two words. My version of Chambers has it as two words and doesn’t recognise either the singular or hyphenated varieties. I too liked BEDTIME STORY, and HIT WICKET came up in a conversation only yesterday, when I (as an ex-cricket umpire) asked two cricketers to name the 10 ways of being given out in cricket.
    1. FLYSWATTER is Collins and FLY SWATTER is in the Oxfords and Chambers. The only place I’ve managed to find FLY-SWATTER (as in the 2014 clue referenced above) is at dictionary.com
    2. Ten ways of being out – yes. But only nine ways of being given out, surely?
      Tradescant
  15. ….and Kentish references had me wondering if I’d missed a significant anniversary – but then I looked at the puzzle number ! Nice one Felix !

    I found this quite tricky for a QC, and went 5% over target. Thank goodness TAJIKS was simply parsed.

    FOI IRATE
    LOI CANTERBURY
    COD BEDTIME STORY
    TIME 5:15

    1. Well spotted, Phil. So Anon and I were onto something! Various places in Kent claim association with Tyler as his place of birth – Dartford, Deptford and Maidstone, and the first two of these would have made him a ‘Kentish man’.

      Edited at 2019-06-25 01:33 pm (UTC)

  16. Same time as yesterday (22mins) but this time without any mistakes. Fortunately, this month’s Home County’s ‘town’ was sufficiently well known, and the final letter made loi 7d the write-in it should have been several minutes earlier. I thought 18ac, Cold Snaps was going to be my CoD, but Bedtime Story pipped it at the post. Nice clue to round off a very enjoyable puzzle from Felix. Invariant
  17. A most enjoyable outing on this dismal day! Lots of great clues so hard to choose a favourite – really liked the tangy pies and the faith healers but bedtime story made me chuckle out loud, so that gets my vote.

    I’m always amazed that you guys spot the themes here – I’m too focused on just trying to get the answers! It certainly adds to the fun when they’re pointed out. It’s like a lot of things, I suppose – you need time to savour a good crossword and appreciate the setter’s art 😊

    FOI TNT
    LOI Relying
    COD Bedtime story

    Time 9:30 Hooray – I rarely get under 10 minutes! Two days on the trot in fact – yesterday was a record breaking 8 minutes (approx).

    ps Channel 4 had an interesting documentary about Plantagenet Canterbury recently, in the Most Historic Towns series. Probably still on catch-up.

  18. I enjoyed this QC despite having to construct TAJIKS and SLIGO from wordplay and checkers. My final entries were all the long ones 1a, 1d, 22a and finally 7d BEDTIME STORY which is also my COD. 11:24 Well done Phil on spotting the Peasant’s Revolt connection to the QC number.
    1. I think the PEASANTRY might also be “rising” somewhere in the grid 😉
  19. Steady solve finished abt our target time. Slowed by the long clues around the edges, also managed to put telling for 20a, error found when solving loi 1d. Interesting set of clues, enjoyed the historical connection, thanks to Felix and other contributors.
  20. This felt quite slow going so was surprised to see that it only took me 11.16 to complete. It did feel like a bit of an anagram-fest at times, but it proved a nice distraction from the cricket.
    Thanks to Chris
  21. Have to differ with everyone else, we didn’t enjoy this very much, fairly standard time to complete but that was because there were so many anagrams, “oh it’s another anagram” just became a bit boring, and if you take out the time working out anagrams the rest was fairly quick. 7d was a good cryptic clue, but I still have no idea what “light” is doing in 1a, spent some time trying to use “l” instead of the “s” after the apostrophe in the anagrist in an attempt to make sense of it!
    Paan
  22. Sorry but the definition in 1a doesn’t work. If a fly swatter is a light weapon then so is a match
  23. Starting from the P of COLD SNAPS, you can hop your way upwards to the Y of JOYRIDES and spell PEASANTRY (ie “rising peasantry”)
    I know this *could* have been by chance, but I bet it wasn’t!

    Well played, Felix

    and in response to the last Anon, definitions don’t have to be only lead to a single option to “work”; eg lots of words mean “cross”, but that wasn’t highlighted as “not working”

    jb (yeah, I know I’m a bit late and this won’t be read but, you never know)

    1. I have no idea how you spotted that but well done! There’s also Tajiks, flight and revolt in there – Tajikistani revolution 1992.
      If you get a free Live journal account then you’ll a) be known and b) get an email prompt if someone replies to you (which is how I was alerted to this).
      1. I’ve got a bit of free time atm (isolation), so I’m catching up on the ones I missed
        Been meaning to get a real account for years (lurking since 2013!), any time now
        1. Good luck! I look forward to you joining our merry (and erudite, of course) band.
    2. – and a beheaded Tyler (as he was, publicly) lurking in the 11th row, but now I think I might just be seeing things that weren’t intentional

      jb

  24. How is counting a clue for relying? Relying could be a synonym for ‘counting on’, but surely you can’t take phrasal verbs, drop the participle and expect it to have the same meaning!?

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