Times Quick Cryptic 1466 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This QC was so well devised that it led me the wrong way around most of the clues. I gave up on any thought of timings and settled down to work through and enjoy the cleverness of the clues. I struggled most trying to finish in the NE but made it in the end.
For Jackkt (and anyone else) who has mentioned problems with reading the font, I would point out that the word in 3dn is BURN (not bum).

ACROSS
4. Eccentric drunken widower giving out whiskey (6)
WEIRDO – anagram (drunken) of wIDOWER – without whiskey (W).
7. Sell death-trap missing odd parts for prolonged quarrel (8)
VENDETTA – sell (VEND), d(E)a(T)h (T)r(A)p.
8. What tea does at home — fine with us English (6)
INFUSE – at home (IN), fine (F) with us (US), English (E).
9. Current desperate before court is not going straight (8)
INDIRECT – current (IN – vogue), desperate (DIRE – bad), court (CT).
10. Notice small storage container (4)
SPOT – small (S), storage container (POT).
12. Chest bone found in tumulus near the end (8)
MORIBUND – chest bone (RIB) found in tumulus (MOUND).
15. Star rode about in open-top car (8)
ROADSTER – anagram (about) of STAR RODE.
18. Chairmen regularly feel concern (4)
CARE – (C)h(A)i(R)m(E)n.
20. Discovering strange and flashy jewellery (8)
RUMBLING (finding out about) – strange (RUM), flashy jewellery (BLING).
22. Cast embracing chap showing compassion (6)
HUMANE – cast (HUE/shade/colour) around chap (MAN).
23. Dislike a particular edition (8)
AVERSION – a (A), particular edition (VERSION).
24. A key opening for period before Christmas (6)
ADVENT – a (A), key (D – music), opening (VENT).
DOWN
1. Be inclined to be skinny (4)
LEAN – double definition.
2. Hooked cadet did badly (8)
ADDICTED – anagram (badly) of CADET DID.
3. Burn saint concerning a mass (6)
STREAM (this meaning of burn took me ages) – Saint (ST), concerning (RE), a (A), mass (M – as in mass in physics not in a church). COD for doubly confusing me.
4. One serving island in the sea, perhaps (6)
WAITER – island (I) in sea, perhaps/for example (WATER).
5. Intelligence of kinfolk? (4)
INFO – of as in belonging to as in inside the word k(INFO)lk. expertly hidden in plain sight.
6. Creator of grid seen to be twisted (8)
DESIGNER – anagram (to be twisted) of GRID SEEN. I spent a long time trying to fit In an anagram of ‘seen to be’.
11. Advance for the UK’s currency (8)
PROPOUND – for (PRO), UK’s currency (POUND).
13. United previously eliminating clubs (3)
ONE – previously (ON)c(E) – omitting clubs (C).
14. Support flogging for a violent reaction (8)
BACKLASH – support (BACK), flogging (LASH – not sure these are really synonymous but by now I’m enjoying the clues too much to quibble).
16. Hard coming in to deal with possibility of trouble (6)
THREAT – hard (H) coming in to deal with (TREAT – eg patient).
17. Sheep, black is a bit of a fast fighter? (6)
RAMJET – sheep (RAM), black (JET). Well, I suppose I’ve heard of ‘ramjet’ and I’m sure it’s in all the sources but it didn’t leap out at me.
19. Become weaker and pale with little energy (4)
WANE – pale (WAN), little energy (E).
21. Corner quite the opposite of satisfactory (4)
NOOK – the opposite of satisfactory=NO OK. a final devious twist to finish us off – thanks Joker.

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1466 by Joker”

  1. 21 mins.
    Got stuck on loi wane which required an alphabet trawl.

    My only parsing pauses were cast for hue in 22a and 21d which looked like notok.

    Dnk ramjet.
    Liked infuse, rumbling, stream, and propound.
    Cod moribund.

    Edited at 2019-10-22 07:30 am (UTC)

  2. No problems with this until my LOI 17d. I had thought of RAM immediately but then could not find an answer so went back to trying to think of various sorts of sheep. All of that added about 6 minutes to my time until I rammed in the unknown RAMJET and was pleased and a bit surprised to find it was correct. I’m going to look it up now.
    Time was 20:12,invokes memories of that great year in London.
    David
  3. Slow going, though now I can’t remember why. Never knowing how to spell ‘weird’ played a part, until I got INFO. And I wasted time on 4d thinking of AIT as the island, and wondering pointlessly about how WER worked. I’d take (the) LASH as an abstract noun, rather like (the) ‘gallows’=’hanging’. 7:56.
  4. A very good puzzle but a DNF for me because I’d never heard of a RAMJET and failed to work it out from wordplay (couldn’t see past B for the “black”). Hey ho. 12 enjoyable mins for the rest.

    FOI WEIRDO, LOI (that I got) and also COD MORIBUND.

    Thanks Joker and Chris.

    Templar

  5. I found this relatively straightforward apart from the sheep where I was trying to fit ROMNEY in, except that I couldn’t parse it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romney_sheep I spotted RAMJET once I’d equated RAM to part of the clue and JET for black soon followed. I did know the engine type. 7:43. Thanks Joker and Chris.

    Edited at 2019-10-22 08:29 am (UTC)

  6. An excellent puzzle. A nice mix of write-ins, misdirection, and real head-scratchers – but all were reasonably accessible, I thought. I liked STREAM, PROPOUND, RAMJET, INFUSE, MORIBUND, RUMBLING, and INFO was well hidden. Just under 2.5K so not bad for a Tuesday. Many thanks to Joker and to Chris for his usual fine blog. John M.
  7. I normally whiz through Joker’s puzzles. Not today, sadly. I gave up after half an hour with 17 down and 12 across still not answered. DNK RAMJET. Felt sure that 12 across must pay some attention to “sternum”. Alas, no. Not wild about the clueing in that one as it seems rather contrived to me. Perhaps I’m just feeling grumpy. I was also held up by putting in POST for 10 across, parsing it as receiving post being akin to receiving a notice. Only when I cracked – finally – 11 down did I see the error of my ways. Liked 3 down – it was one of my first answers. Thanks, Chris, for the blog, and, thanks, too, to Joker.
  8. This proved a steady solve starting off in the NE corner and then attempting clues with checkers in situ on what seemed a rather unhelpful grid. I didn’t spot VENDETTA, MORIBUND or HUMANE on first pass and my LOI after putting in RAM, doing an alphabet trawl and crossing my fingers was RAMJET a word I am unfamiliar with. Thank you all. Just over 10 mins.
  9. A slow solve today by my recent standards, though 37:09 is still under my target. Perhaps it’s time to reduce the target to 35 minutes or even 30. Anyway, a few things I hadn’t heard of or at least were at the extremities of my memory, but they could all be worked around with a combination of wordplay and checkers. Ramjet was one, but jet for black has come up fairly recently I think so that went in, cast for hue is unfamiliar, and I couldn’t remember what a tumulus was although I’m sure it has come up before. You can always rely on Joker being scrupulously fair though, and if he does include something a little more obscure, he always gives you enough help to work it out. That’s my experience anyway. LOI was ‘nook’, COD was either 7a or 4d.
  10. 17m for me, held up by RAMJET which I had heard of, but failed to spot for a while.

    Chris, whilst you have explained how 1d works, you have omitted the answer in your otherwise excellent blog.

    1. Thanks. I’m out at the moment and find that, on the phone, I can only see html format. Rather than risk fouling the whole thing up, I’ll add ‘lean’ in when I get to a better machine.
  11. 15 minutes for the second consecutive day means I’m not having a good week with the QCs so far. I lost time getting started and also over the unknown RAMJET which I bunged in eventually from wordplay.

    Edited at 2019-10-22 01:02 pm (UTC)

  12. ….in the SE corner before RUMBLING RAMJET. Nice puzzle, finished within target.

    I before E except after…er….W ?

    FOI WEIRDO
    LOI NOOK
    COD MORIBUND

    1. You’ve forgotten the last bit of the rhyme, Phil – “I before E, except after C – when the sound is E” is the full version!
  13. Nice work out today, solved on paper so not sure of time. (However long it takes to get from East Finchley tube station to Tottenham Court Road).

    A lot of the time could’ve been squeezed out of that if I hadn’t stared at RAM_E_ for ages. Thought the sheep was definitely ram, but was expecting a B next for black. Eventually I remembered jet being used for black sometimes and tentatively entered what turned out to be the right answer!

    RC

  14. Just for other pedants out there, ramjet is the term for the engine not the aircraft (as in fighter). Would be fast though…
    1. Collins has ‘both a type of jet engine’ and ‘an aircraft powered by such an engine’
      1. Small snag with both crossword and dictionary definition is that you cannot power an aeroplane with a ramjet. They produce no thrust at low speeds and so could neither take off nor land.
        They are used in missiles where the initial thrust is provided by a rocket.
        Also they are not very efficient, jet fighters use turbo fan engines.
  15. Struggled to get going with this – those answers I managed to get on the first pass were scattered across the grid and not much help. After that, it was a slow slog, picking off the odd clue after much thought. Finished in the SE corner with Ramjet, Nook and Aversion just north of 40mins, so not a good day. 5d, Info, was definitely well hidden! Invariant
  16. Took me an hour or thereabouts. Didn’t know what a tumulus is so had to look it up, at which point the answer was obvious. RAMJET was straight forward so long as you knew of them. Unusually had to resort to pen & paper for some anagrams.
    Ah well, not my day but good to have finished.
    PlayUpPompey
  17. Like Templar, I got stuck on Ram + something beginning with B, and got fed up so cheated! So another DNF here 😕 A shame, because I always enjoy Joker’s puzzles and usually complete them.

    It’s a toss-up for COD today – there were several great surfaces. 15a Roadster brought back very happy memories of bombing around in my MGB Roadster (chrome bumpers, none of that rubber nonsense!). I liked Designer a lot too, but I have to go with Rumbling, because it made me smile.

    FOI Vendetta
    LOI Well, Ramjet with aids
    Memory of the Day Roadster

    1. A pleasure. A free livejournal login would give you an email nudge if someone responds to you.
    1. At a guess, because you are not logged in! Try just keeping the livejournal page open and then step through to the next day’s blog each time.
    2. LJ often logs users out for no discernible reason but it’s easy enough when posting to see if your user name is in the box above the typing area or it says ‘anonymous’. If the latter, then you need to go to the top of the page and log back in.
    3. If you were using your google account to log in to LJ, that’s stopped working.

      Used to have a toy transformer called RAMJET, no problems there

  20. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to struggle today, it felt as if my head was in neutral for a lot of this. Like others I struggled with LOI 17d, staring for a while at RAMBBE_ before I managed to dredge the correct answer from the depths.
    To cap it all off I was certain that I changed my initial biff of FADE to WANE at 19d only to see a couple of pink squares appear post submission. So a DNF in just over 18 minutes.
    Thanks for the blog

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