Times Quick Cryptic 1450 by Orpheus

59 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1450 by Orpheus”

1. I realize now that I never checked PILCHARD, just biffed from checkers and def. Once again I failed to notice a typo, IIE for IRE. Irritating, both because I’ve done this a lot recently, and because my time was 4:04.
   1. Bad luck. But I’m sure you will break 4 minutes soon
2. …with a time of 7:36. Quite an easy puzzle, but I can never remember how to spell ‘colander’.

   Amazingly, the leaderboard on the main page shows that I have solved 20 puzzles in the last month with 0 errors. This can’t last….

3. 5dn is puzzling for 2 reasons. First, it doesn’t seem to have a containment indicator for the hidden answer. Second, it seems to suggest the &lit. definition is the language spoken by Alexander Selkirk, but a quick web search suggests A.S. was Scottish, and Erse is the Irish version of Gaelic?
   1. I read it as

      AlexandER SElkirk contains [has – ‘s] language

      with the apostrophe S as the containment indicator.

      Edited at 2019-09-30 05:17 am (UTC)

      1. Aha! Too clever for me. Thanks.
         1. I was going to edit in an alternative:

            Another possibility might be to treat the apostrophe S as a possessive and interpret the clue as:

            The language belonging to / found within the name ‘AlexandER SElkirk’

            Edited at 2019-09-30 05:26 am (UTC)

4. A strange puzzle in that it was relatively straightforward but I pressed submit with some hesitation over a couple of the answers – the spelling of ODER where I wasn’t sure of the second vowel and CHEAPO, although the wordplay was clear on this one. FANLIGHT was also new to me but it couldn’t be much else. Finished in 9.21 with LOI ODER.
   Thanks for the blog
5. ….I shall DEFECT from the QC blog, unless there is a discussion of genuine interest in which I wish to take part, or I have an issue which needs to be raised.

   I appreciate that my speed of solving is generally well above average, but this appears to be intimidating to some contributors. I shall continue to contribute to the 15×15 blog.

   1. No point leaving because of 1 buffoon, see my comment last friday.
   2. Phil. I was baffled by this til I went back to Friday’s blog. Don’t let one sniping anonymous coward deprive the rest of us of the pleasure of your company. Please stick around.

      I really can’t do better than copy and paste John’s response to the anonymous idiot: “The art form and skill of the setters of the QC is much admired by many experienced solvers. Indeed many of the best do it every day (including the runner-up at last year’s crossword championships). And Phil is one of those. That he chooses to participate here and share his experiences enriches this forum, to my mind. I’m not in that class, but like many other contributors here I am no beginner and enjoy the QC enough to do this blog every other Friday and comment most days.”

      1. Thank-you for saving me having to repeat myself. Personally, I always look forward to hearing how Phil found it. Please don’t stop, Phil!
   3. I missed the, ah, contribution from the turkey on Friday. But let me add my comment to those who have already done so: Stay here.
   4. I can only echo what others have said Phil, please ignore the anonymous prat and carry on posting as usual. Of course the QC puzzle is open to all so what they seem to be suggesting is that only beginners are entitled to comment on it here at TftT which is not, and never will be, the case. We do however retain the right to remove comments posted by disruptive trolls.

      Edited at 2019-09-30 09:16 am (UTC)

   5. Isn’t it called the Quick Cryptic? So what could any sensible person complain about if you are indeed quick? I am definitely in the category of those who are just delighted to finish, eventually, and anything around 20 mins is a champagne moment. That others can go faster is simply an incentive to keep trying, and picking up all the helpful info in the main blog, and all the comments.
      Plymouthian.
   6. Nil illegitimi carborundum, Stay, stay and thrice stay!
   7. I don’t know what’s going on around here but I’m very unhappy about the level of rudeness some people have been employing recently. Lively conversation is one thing, trolling quite another. I feel very strongly that if you would not say something to someone’s face, then you shouldn’t say it to them online either.

      Please don’t go Phil. We need to keep this site friendly, encouraging and entertaining, and I, for one, always enjoy reading your posts. We should not give in to the bullies. I was sad to see last week that Louisajaney had stopped contributing because of the abuse handed out to another blogger.

      On the subject of times, I think crispb makes an excellent point. When I found this site a few years ago, I was also quite intimidated by the fast speeds some people were posting and wondered if this was really the place for me. I was too shy / embarrassed to post my times in those days. Nowadays I don’t really care – some days are great, some are rubbish, most are middling, but I always enjoy having a go. Long live the SCC!

      1. pebee, it is true that I stopped contributing and for the reasons you say. However, I do miss being part of the community!This being so, and encouraged by some very kind comments made to me by Chrisw91, I can see now that it makes better sense to combat the handful of nasties here by offering humble and heartfelt support to the contributors who are kind and positive i.e. the overwhelming majority.
         1. LouisaJ – welcome back! I’m not sure how many women contribute to this site, but I suspect there aren’t too many of us, so it’s good to have some company 😊

            I totally agree with you about recognising and acknowledging the stars among us. I can’t read the clues as quickly as some people complete the grid, and I never will, but the only person I might even compete against is myself!

            But it is important to remember how demoralised you can feel as a newbie when nothing seems to click and you’re faced with loads of blank squares. So to those beginners, I can only say: stick with blog, enjoy and learn, and don’t be put off by either the whizzbangers or the meanies!

            1. Sorry, pebee but, somehow, I’ve only just seen this. I think you’re right – there doesn’t seem to be many women here. On the other hand, it’s not always obvious from people’s user names. There used to be a contributor here called Nurse Ratchet and I always assumed that such a name would mean a female writer – wrong!! Thank you for your encouragement.
               1. No probs! Good to hear from you 😊 And yes, usernames can be confounding! Penny
   8. Phil, I love to see fast speeds – yours included! It’s like being a slow runner but still getting pleasure from watching the Olympics: you are a Crossword Athlete!I will never be as fast as you but I am a lot faster than I was and that’s by dint of daily practice and of reading – and learning from – the blog. Yes, this crossword has the name “quick” in it – but I see that as a relative term and as one that differentiates it from the 15X15. As somebody that’s just come back, can I add my voice to the others and say ‘please don’t go’?
      1. Great to have you back. I’ve always enjoyed hearing how you get on. As a QC blogger…
         a) I love to see how regular contributors progress
         b) I like to hear what people find tricky so I can provide an appropriate level of explanation in my blog
         c) I love being made to stop and smell the roses by having to explain it to everyone here.
         d) I will always endevour to respond to people’s queries when there is something they don’t understand.
         Long live the QC and this forum to discuss it!
         1. Hear, hear!

            Thanks, John. Good to be back.

6. 18 mins, really held up by enormous (cod), poodle, oder and LOI test (dnk).
7. 12.08 here with at least the last two on TEST searching for a better word for analyse before going for it. Never heard of the river even living in the south… PILCHARD took a while too. Otherwise no issues.

   NeilC

   1. Charging along until the NE – cheapo, erse and pilchard proving to be the problems. Still finished in just under 10 minutes so I’d agree with general sentiment of this morning.
8. I was quite pleased with 10 mins but then saw it was 2.5K … hey ho, it can only go down as a Decent Day!

   Took me a wee while to parse ERSE (as per Jack’s first interpretation above) and to drag ODER up from the depths (eventually misremembering it from the Dam Busters – turns out that was the Eder).

   FOI CHEAPO, LOI ODER, COD PILCHARD. I do love a pilchard on toast.

   Thanks Jack and Orpheus.

   Templar

9. 12m and a handful of seconds for me, but it felt longer. I haven’t yet seen the comments from Friday, but i do hope that Phil will reconsider and continue to grace our presence here on the QC blog.
10. Found this one relatively tricky in comparison to some we had last week, with not many going in straight away. I guess my brain was just not in gear for some reason, as most of the ones that held me up I looked back on and wondered why. Having said that, there were several answers that, whilst not totally unknown, had definitely been filed at the back of the draw as things that I don’t need very often (Rivers Test and Oder, esprit, Prince Hal). Never heard of fanlight and was also going to query the missing hidden indicator for Erse until I read Jack’s explanation. LOI was comb (alphabet trawl needed there) and time was 34:35.
    And just a quick comment about Phil’s fast times putting off beginners. Being a relative beginner myself, I think the main problem on here is not the fast solvers posting their times, but the lack of beginners posting theirs. I seem to almost always be the slowest person to write on here, but I like to think that by doing so I might give a bit of encouragement to other less experienced solvers. If a few more beginners posted their times, the blog would be a bit more representative and other newbies wouldn’t get put off.
    1. I too found this difficult and in fact did not finish. I don’t post my times which are pretty slow because I find the whole posting pointless, other than to stroke the egos of the fast solvers. All that seems to happen is a fast solve followed by a comment that the puzzle is easy, which is fairly depressing for those of us that are relatively new and find the puzzles hard. I would much rather no times were posted. Still I suppose this all depends on whether the solving is supposed to be a competition.
       1. With respect, I think you’ve slightly got the wrong end of the stick. People don’t post times to be boastful (chance would be a fine thing in my case) but to help others know how easy/hard they found the puzzle. I guess we could all just say easy/medium/hard, but a number gives more clarity and, after all, this is the times for the Times site. However, please don’t be discouraged. We all started with a diary rather than a stopwatch. Read Templar’s comment below about learning the tricks by reading the blog – it will get easier. Invariant
    2. Always pleased to see your views – you encounter many of the difficulties I do, and our times are about the same.

       Stay on board . . .

       Philip

11. After being bruised and battered by the weekend puzzles, it was good to be back in QC land albeit with a grid where lots of first letters were missing.
    I started with CHEAPO and my last two were STEAK and KING CRAB ( I thought Man on Board was a sailor at first). COD to COWARDLY. Time was 10:38.
    I like to see the comments and times of all solvers and what is clear to me is how quickly you can improve if you solve daily and read this blog.
    David
    1. STEAK and KING CRAB ? A rather tasty Surf’n’turf there !
12. Getting back into the swing, I completed last week’s Concise puzzles yesterday and then did the QCs this morning. This one I found straightforward, coming in at 7:34. CHEAPO was my FOI, PILCHARD eluded me for a while and POODLE brought up the rear. Today’s 15×15 was a different kettle of fish! Just 4 15x15s to catch up on now. I think they can wait a while. Thanks Orpheus and Jack.
13. I did this during the slow parts of the 1st half of the Scotland v Samoa game, so no real time, but not that fast. I thought Orpheus did a good job of hiding some straightforward answers in complicated surfaces, and, as I don’t like to biff unless I have to, that made for slow going in places. My favourite today, 6d Pilchard, is a good example – no idea what was going on until “cheapo’ made me think of lip. Invariant
14. I’m still very much a beginner, even though I’ve been doing the QC for a year or two. I’m not sure I’m really improving. My trouble is that I just don’t see words… Sometimes, I use an aid – or just ask my wife, who usually spots things straightaway. Ho hum.

    Anyway, today seemed hard to begin with, nothing obvious until 18a. Then things began to fall into place. Struggled with Prince – half isn’t a small drink for me, that would imply a tot or a sip.

    I guess it took me around 30mins but I don’t time myself and rarely do it all in one sitting, so I can’t really oblige and post my times @crispb.

    1. My wife’s the same, but remember it doesn’t count if you can’t parse it. 😉
15. Well, at the risk of annoying some people, I’ll admit to finding this one pretty easy. Quite a nice start to the week, but I’m not looking forward to the biggie, having seen a couple of comments!

    Time – less than it took to eat an egg mayo sandwich, perhaps 9 or 10 mins
    FOI – Easily (was that a hint – ha ha!)
    LOI – colander – no reason, just the way I went round the grid
    COD – Test – a nice, succinct clue, and a very beautiful river 😊

16. I got stuck more than usual, and needed aids to help with PILCHARD and TEST to finish in 16 minutes, and several written in (like ODER) as hit-and-hopes. Definitely on the trickier end for me!
17. I can normally do about 50pc of the QC before I give up. Today I managed about 10pc. My view is that many of these so-called quicks are too difficult for someone of my level, and often dispiriting to try and solve.
    1. Keep reading the blog – it’s packed full of tips and explanations. Setters use the same tricks over and over (especially for the QC, which is at a simpler level than the 15×15) and so if you persist I promise you that it’ll get easier, because you’ll learn from the blog what the setters have done and so next time the same trick is used (like “flower” = a river) you’ll have a better chance of remembering and spotting it.
18. We have not seen the blog for last Friday, but we would echo the comments above supporting the value of the blog as a whole. We were away last week, and completed the puzzles without the benefit and enjoyment of the comments, which are mainly interesting and helpful, together with wit. Unwanted and rude comments should just be ignored. Regretfully there will always be some.
19. It is ridiculous to say someone should not post because they are quicker than me (sadly that is many).

    Begone anyone who censors comment.

    I liked this crossword because I could finish it in under15 minutes.

20. I finished today in 21 minutes but needed help with Test. I have been doing these for about 3 years and initially didn’t believe the fast times. But after keeping going it is true that one starts to read the clues in a new light and slowly speed up. I finished one in 11 minutes the other day and was actually faster than some of the people who I used to aspire to – but it was a one-off.
    But I appreciate that some have had a lifetime of completing many puzzles a lot harder than this and fair play for all of the learning and experience that has resulted in.
    This is a blog to report times taken.
    Who knows, if I do this for a further 3 years even I may approach the 5 minute mark in one eventful flurry of nerves and excitement.
    Thanks Phil
    And thanks all,
    John George
21. Not my fastest time at 6:52 but the first time I’ve ever solved all clues on the first pass.

    And spoiled at the end by mistyping ERSE!

    Never mind, thanks for the blog Jack.

    1. Woo! Almost (barring the mistype) a “clean sweep”! I think it was former champion Tony Sever who coined this phrase for solving the whole crossword visiting each clue only the once. I don’t think I’ve ever managed that.
       1. Thanks John, I wasn’t aware of the term. Hopefully (if there’s a) next time I’ll type all the answers correctly!
22. Well quite a discourse today! For what it’s worth, I found this on the easy side of average, but with lots to admire. I confess to biffing PILCHARD, only parsing it post-solve, Nice clue, so my COD (if you will excuse the fishy pun). 4:55,
23. Started well, the middle was maybe slightly faster than average, but then got stuck in the NE. I worked out CHEAPO as a possible solution, but wasn’t totally convinced by heap=old car, nor cheapo as an adjective. Took longer than it should to sort out PILCHARD, but at least that confirmed that CHEAPO must be right. But my LOI was ERSE, which I didn’t consciously know. I spotted that “er se” would fit, and in the absence of anything else might be a reasonable guess, but although I’ve been doing QC’s a while now (and have done more than a hundred), I wasn’t familiar with ‘s as an indicator of a hidden. Thus I decided to look up Alexander Selkirk, and greatly enjoyed the diversion of learning about various marooned sailors and their adventures. Since Gaelic or Scots didn’t fit, it then took another internet search to find that Erse was the 17th century Scots language name for Scottish Gaelic. So, lots learnt from the final clue! Thanks to Orpheus, and to bloggers and contributors of all speeds and none.
24. Well I’m glad you all found it easy – for us mere mortals I found it extremely obtuse – took over two hours and had to use the web to cheat.
    Never heard of Alexander Selkirk, Erse, the Oder, Ven, the Test.
    Biffed many and took some minutes , if at all, to parse
    Another Orpheus effort aimed at the 15 x 15ers who obviously found it a doddle.
    I wish he’d go underground again!
    Nick
25. I’m still very much a beginner, even though I’ve been doing the QC for a year or two. I’m not sure I’m really improving. My trouble is that I just don’t see words… Sometimes, I use an aid – or just ask my wife, who usually spots things straightaway. Ho hum.

    Anyway, today seemed hard to begin with, nothing obvious until 18a. Then things began to fall into place. Struggled with Prince – half isn’t a small drink for me, that would imply a tot or a sip.

    I guess it took me around 30mins but I don’t time myself and rarely do it all in one sitting, so I can’t really oblige and post my times @crispb.

26. A late start after a long day. Didn’t find it easy but I didn’t quite enter SCC territory. Most of my thoughts and difficulties have been pointed out by others so I won’t list them (I’m sure no-one reads the blog this late anyway….). LOI was ERSE because it was all that could reasonably fit and then I saw that was hidden. Some nice clues but not a walk in the park for me. John M.
    1. I’m a night owl too…..
       1. I have been one for most of my adult life but my brain no longer seems to get sharper at night. I now seem to be better in the early morning with some background music on radio 3.
          I’ll see what I am like tonight, though. I’m just about to start an 8-hour drive back home from Scotland. I certainly can’t concentrate now after suffering a load more evasion and waffle from Boris on radio 4. Am I allowed to say that on this blog?
    2. Late contributions will almost certainly be read at least by the blogger as we are notified by email when somebody adds a comment.
       1. That’s good to know. Thanks.
          1. I usually come to the blog a few days after it was posted. Rarely do I manage to tackle the QC on the day it’s printed.

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