Times Quick Cryptic 1390 by Joker

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

At 9 minutes this seemed quite straightforward to me with few if any unknown words or meanings, but I’m sure as always opinions will differ so I shall be interested to read what others made of it.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across

1 Time in Channel island is bleak (5)
STARK – T (time) contained by [in] SARK (Channel island)
7 No one from space is real thing, unfortunately (9)
EARTHLING – Anagram [unfortunately] of REAL THING. I think we’re from space too, but you get the idea!
9 Machine for turning articles in France and here (5)
LATHE – LA + THE (articles in France and here – UK)
10 Quickly running past those (9)
POSTHASTE – Anagram [running] of PAST THOSE
11 Eccentric old king losing head (3)
NUT – {c}NUT (old king) [losing head]. He wasn’t spelt like this in my schooldays!
12 Idea so far is to change given expression earlier? (9)
AFORESAID – Anagram [change] of IDEA SO FAR
14 March could feature this bird before tons in September (5,4)
GOOSE STEP – GOOSE (bird), then T (tons) contained by [in] SEP (September). All the usual sources spell this with a hyphen (5-4).
16 Allergy regularly does for part of the body (3)
LEG – {a}L{l}E{r}G{y} [regularly]
18 Doctor concerned with substance not entirely uncommon (9)
REGISTRAR – RE (concerned with), GIST (substance), RAR{e} (uncommon) [not entirely]
20 Fabric made from odd bits of tow, poor in quality (5)
TWILL – T{o}W [odd bits], ILL (poor in quality)
21 More than just the colon during exam in English? (9)
INTESTINE – IN (during), TEST (exam), IN, E (English)
22 Far from stiff from marathon, perhaps, west of New York (5)
RUNNY – RUN (marathon, perhaps), NY (New York). ‘West of’ is simply a positional indicator here and not really needed other than for the surface reading.
Down
1 Readily imbibing a litre in bar (6)
SALOON – SOON (readily) containing [imbibing] A + L (litre)
2 A later idea Mad Hatter fought (12)
AFTERTHOUGHT – Anagram [mad] of HATTER FOUGHT
3 What helps one remember to stock rice wine (8)
KEEPSAKE – KEEP (stock – as shops stock certain goods), SAKE (rice wine)
4 Quickly stop work in Post Office (6)
PRESTO – REST (stop work) contained by [in] PO (Post Office). I lost time thinking ‘pronto’ here.
5 Keep quiet about a Persian ruler (4)
SHAH – SHH (keep quiet)  about a Persian ruler. We don’t often see Shh! – it’s more usually Sh!, and Sh-Sh! is also possible.
6 Went along with a deadly sin (6)
AGREED – A, GREED (deadly sin)
8 Hold up in one country military establishment (12)
INSTALLATION – I (one), then STALL (hold up) contained by [in] NATION (country)
13 Former beer is a seller abroad (8)
EXPORTER – EX (former), PORTER (beer)
14 Some sugar, licorice and another pungent flavouring (6)
GARLIC – Hidden in [some] {su}GAR LIC{orice}
15 Root Internet Protocol under change of direction (6)
TURNIP – TURN (change of direction), IP (Internet Protocol as in ‘IP address’)
17 Ship having good passage (6)
GALLEY – G (good), ALLEY (passage)
19 Indifferent beginning to operation after distress call (2-2)
SO-SO – SOS (distress call), O{peration} [beginning]

21 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1390 by Joker”

  1. I had to drop this because I had a train to catch, then was interrupted a couple of times. I flung in PRONTO at 4d, which didn’t help matters; and it took me some time to remember the old king. I’d also forgotten that a REGISTRAR could be a doctor; biffed this from RAR, then saw the wordplay. 7:42.
  2. I was not on Joker’s wavelength today and made some careless errors en route. For example I had PROMPT for 2d which I replaced with PRONTO -not clever and hold-ups ensued. I took a long time to get 1d and my last two were AFORESAID and INSTALLATION.
    There’s nothing too obscure or unfair about this on reflection but it did require very clear thinking. 21:26 in the end. David
  3. I struggled with this one this morning. FOI EARTHLING and LOI INTESTINE. 12a AFORESAID anagram required most of the checkers unlike the anagram at 2d. I also biffed 8d INSTALLATION. Thank you Jackkt and Joker. 14 minutes.
  4. Another PRONTO here, which held me up for POSTHASTE. I also spent half a minute proofreading having managed a stupid typo in the Concise. AFORESAID didn’t hold me up for long. 8:38. Thanks Joker and Jack.
  5. I was also one to put in pronto first, but couldn’t parse it and immediately saw presto. Nice puzzle though.
  6. Just inside 10 minutes which is pleasing. I liked a lot of the clues – registrar, intestine, aforesaid – COD to earthling.
  7. Nice balance today, felt like a fast start but slowed up by the anagrams which needed some thought. I also had PRONTO before realising 10AC couldn’t have an N… 6.54

    NeilC

  8. Joker must be chuckling having caught almost all of us with PRONTO. It certainly held me up before, failing to get anything to fit the crossers for 10a, I was able to correct it and finish with POSTHASTE (after nearly 2.5K). I was slow to see NUT but my COD is GOOSE-STEP. Good puzzle. John M.

    Edited at 2019-07-08 08:34 am (UTC)

  9. ….PRESTO, I avoided the bear trap. No other problems, although I jumped around the grid a lot, and slowed down in the NE quadrant.

    FOI STARK
    LOI EARTHLING
    COD GOOSE STEP
    TIME 4:11

  10. 15m and a handful of change, so I’m going to claim that I made my target. Like nearly everyone else my first thought was PRONTO before being disillusioned by the anagrist at 10a. STARK and LATHE went straight in, but I wasn’t certain about equating INSTALLATION with a military base. However, Chambers says it’s ok. Thanks all.
  11. Thank goodness for Kevin’s train and his People from Porlock, which enabled me to come in on this one at only just over 1K for an Excellent Day. Fortunately I had already done 10ac before I got to 4dn, so ‘pronto’ never entered my head. Only held up by the TURNIP/REGISTRAR intersection. COD to INTESTINE from me because of the neatness of the play on colon.

    Thanks Joker and Jack.

    Templar

  12. Nothing too tricky today and fortunately PRONTO didn’t enter my head so I avoided that pitfall. My delays were mainly in unravelling the long anagrams and with my LOI REGISTRAR, where I initially wanted to find word meaning not uncommon starting with MORE.
    Completed in 11.08, with my favourite being INTESTINE.
    Thanks to Jackkt
  13. Wow! 14:42, my PB, and the first time I’ve beaten 15 minutes. LOIs were INTESTINE then AFORESAID.
    I’m not sure why I was so fast, the checkers just seemed to fall into the right places (they usually don’t).
    The only bit of wordplay I didn’t get was ‘in’ for ‘during’ in 21A, so thanks to jackkt for sorting that out.

    Brian

  14. On the basis that Ront doesn’t mean stop work, I didn’t fall for Pronto, but I was slow to spot the anagrams at 7 and 10ac. In fact, this was a steady but slow solve, running out to 26mins before loi 8d finally yielded. I don’t think all military establishments are installations, nor all installations military establishments, but that’s a minor quibble. Overall, a fair but testing start to the week, with 21ac, Intestine, my favourite. Invariant
  15. Just over 20m which is good for us. No real holdups, bunged in registrar without understanding the parsing. Thanks to Joker for a pleasant solve.
  16. at 8dn Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’ came to mind and RAF Strubby!

    Time Ten-thirty

    FOI 5dn SHAH

    LOI 15dn TURNIP

    COD 7ac EARTHLING

    WOD 14ac GOOSE STEP

    RONT should be a word – a measure of something unpleasant perhaps?

    Edited at 2019-07-08 03:20 pm (UTC)

  17. Solved on Tuesday. 19m.

    Shh held me up but it had to be shah.
    Had pronto momentarily.

    Cod intestine or turnip.

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