Times Quick Cryptic 1410 by Orpheus

19 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1410 by Orpheus”

1. ….trotted home in 8:50, including 30 seconds of proofreading the unchecked letters. However, a number of good solvers had an error, so there may be some trap I didn’t see.

   There are a number of chestnuts like the UK rain, the girl in Bengali, and the L in camp. Beginners may not have seen these before, so will go somewhat slower, but everything is quite fair.

   1. Thanks.
      I did struggle with those three but as you say they seem fair.
      How do you know a number of good solvers struggled?
      DavidS
      1. DavidS,

         If you visit the Times Club you can see how the on-line solvers fared. I don’t often look, but the regulars know what to expect from each other.

         Edited at 2019-08-05 09:23 am (UTC)

2. As per Lord Vinyl but slightly slower than his trot.
   11 minutes plus small change.

   FOI 6ac ASS

   LOI 20ac TO SCALE

   COD 11dn IMPROMPTU

   WOD 20ac UKRANIAN

   Although today is somewhat ‘Un-Mondayish’ it is a peach and at least worth a butcher’s. The setter’s art exemplified, without being abstrustissimo.

3. I thought of EAVESDROP immediately, couldn’t parse it and moved on, then thought of EAVESDROP because of checkers, and didn’t parse it until post-submission. LOI 8d–didn’t expect a K. ‘corded fabric’ at 22ac is the sort of additional information the setter often provides in a QC (where in a 15×15 one might expect just ‘fabric’), but for someone like me, who knows that REP is a fabric but not what kind, it actually slows one down. 5:50. Horryd’s right about today’s main cryptic; give it try.
4. I was obviously way too tired when I did this, as I failed to notice that GREATER didn’t fit the grid and then still failed to notice my error when I put AT SCALE in. To make it worse I saw exactly how both clues worked, but failed to see either error. 10:03 with 2 errors. Thanks Orpheus and Jack.
5. 10.05 with a good minute at the end on SIDECAR which I’ll sheepishly admit I didn’t know. I wanted it to start SED… making the chap DES before I read the clue more closely. Oddly few anagrams today, or at least I didn’t write out the fodder so must have been easier ones than usual. Good puzzle to start the day.

   NeilC

6. I agree the 15×15 is worth a go, but don’t be disheartened if you don’t manage to complete it. I’ve blogged over 400 of the things but I was left with one clue unsolved – a name I never heard of that was not really deducible by other means.
   1. True; I’d forgotten about that one.
7. 12 minutes, but still quite chewy in places.
   Didn’t parse eavesdrop.
   Last few were noise, panicking and sterner.
   Like NeilC I initially stuck in sedecar.

   Csod: Ukrainian, panicking and impromptu.

8. … and for someone like me who had no idea that REP was a fabric of any sort, corded or otherwise, it slows one down even more! Well ye ken the noo, as my grandmother would have said.
9. About 1.9K so a Very Good day. Only real hold ups were SHARP (which I just couldn’t parse, thank you for explaining it to me Jack) and DISCOURAGING (because I have a reflex action that “party” always = “do” and it took me a very long time to get past that).

   FOI EAVESDROP, LOI DISCOURAGING, COD IMPROMPTU

   Thanks to Jack and Orpheus.

   Templar

   Edited at 2019-08-05 09:13 am (UTC)

   1. It seems to be ‘disco’ these days as often as ‘do’. I still don’t think it fits particularly well but it seems to have become an accepted part of the lanscape now.
10. I started off quickly with the NW going in with barely a pause and had some other answers scattered round the grid, but then came to a grinding halt with about half the puzzle left. I just drew a complete blank on everything I looked at. Eventually SATISFACTION cracked and I was off and running again, without really understanding the hold up. I finished with SHARP, SIDECAR and REP of which the last 2 were unknown to me. Finished in 13.58.
    Thanks for the blog
11. I thought this was going to be a quick time, as the first few answers went in without too much trouble. The long answers at 10 and 15ac soon convinced me otherwise, but progress was still decent enough until I came to a halt in the NE corner. Just couldn’t see 5, 6 and 9 despite having all the other crossers. Had to go away and have a cup of tea before Alibi, Noise and loi Panicking became a cascade of loose change. CoD to 13ac, just ahead of 20ac. Invariant
12. Slow to start and late to post. I was not on wavelength today and the grid looked very sparse after 5 minutes had elapsed. I did have Do for party rather than DISCO which didn’t aid matters and I thought of REP for 22a but had no idea it was a fabric. I didn’t fully read the clue for 23a and tried to fit Bahraini in. So all in all this was a sluggish Monday solve in 14:29.
13. ….put me on the back foot straight away, and my “anagram bypass syndrome” also made me struggle with TO SCALE.

    I’m not sure even now whether this was tricky, or if I wasn’t switched on fully.

    FOI ASS
    LOI DISCOURAGING
    COD TIMBER
    TIME 4:50

14. Ah well, someone has to admit to being (just) in the SCC today. Perhaps I tired out my brain doing the Torygraph cryptic first (I admit to picking it up as a freeby in Waitrose but I only explore the Cryptic on the back page….. My difficulties and preferred clues are all listed above so I won’t repeat them. Thanks to Orpheus and Jack. John M.
15. We had almost exactly the same clue for 12 across last Tuesday. Which was handy!

    11d has come up quite recently too although I can’t quite remember when.

    Nice puzzle. Not too taxing but challenging enough.

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