Times Quick Cryptic 1480 by Trelawney

48 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1480 by Trelawney”

1. I had the feeling at one point that all the clues were going to be anagrams; but wotthehell. POPLAR was my LOI, and I had the same doubts as Jackkt. Is AMIGO a DBE? I read it as analogous to, say, ‘a French’ =UN. 5:29.
   1. Yes, I was probably overthinking it. My reasoning was that ‘amigo’ is not specific to Madrid, nor even to Spain for that matter, but I can see that’s perhaps taking things to an extreme.

      It’s true we accept e.g. ‘Nice’ to indicate a French word, almost daily but I think that’s more likely to be part of wordplay contributing a couple of letters (‘un’ in your example) rather than the whole answer as in today’s clue, and I wonder if that makes any difference anyway.

      It would be interesting to hear whether other bloggers and seasoned solvers ever experience doubts when they start thinking about things that they’ve possibly accepted without question for years.

2. ….so this must have been quite easy. I had a hard time remembering ‘poetic justice’, and ‘poplar’ gave a lot of trouble. Other than that, a genuine biff-fest.
3. A nice easy start to the week. Fortunately I spent 35 seconds proof reading or I’d have been just under 6 minutes with SKINNT DIPPING. PESTER was my FOI and led straight to POPLAR. 6:32. Thanks Trelawney and Jack.
4. I found this pretty gentle too, hesitating only over ACCLAIM and ON ICE.I enjoyed the linked 11 and 12A. 4:12.
   By the way, today’s 15×15 is on the easy end of the spectrum, so may be worth a try by QCers.
   1. We greenhorns on the lower slopes of Crosswordland are really grateful for indications about the daily 15×15. Many thanks: it encourages us to have a go, though for me not yet with more than 60% success!
      1. I have completed 15×15 several times now after being prompted by the QC. PB still 1hr 58 mins but none the less the tip offs here are very welcome
   2. I had ago at the 15×15, too. I found it absorbing but it took an hour and a half. Not proud but at least I finished it. I used to do the big one quicker than that so perhaps my powers are declining.
5. 8.5 mins with last few: acclaim, poetic justice and LOI poplar.

   Enjoyable start to the quickie week.
   COD poplar.

   Agree with John, 15×15 is accessible today.

6. 8.15 with her indoors’ birthday interrupting.

   Mr. Jordan please note today – no horryd co-joining of the QC and 15×15. But there is a link, methink! As per Johnint and Flash, the Big One is very Monday-ish worth a bash! Esp. 1ac.

   FOI 1ac POPLAR

   LOI 4ac PERSIA

   COD 22ac SLEUTH nicely hidden anagram

   WOD 6dn SKINNY DIPPING

   The weather here in Shanghai is as nice as it can be.

   Edited at 2019-11-11 07:34 am (UTC)

   1. 18.50, so just under target. There were so many anagrams that I wasted time looking for ones that weren’t there! LOIs were PESTER then POPLAR, after getting my last checker P with an alphabet trawl.
      Thanks to Trelawney for a very good puzzle and to jackkt for the blog.

      Brian

   2. Your good lady and I share a birthday, so my best wishes to her !

      If I had seen POPLAR sooner, this might have been my elusive clean sweep.

      FOI PERSIA
      LOI CROOKS
      COD SKINNY DIPPING

      1. Happy Birthday Phil 🍺
         1. 🍻a distinct possibility later !
      2. Happy Birthday Phil:-)
7. A fun puzzle today.My last two were PERSIA and finally ANORAK where I was briefly trying to think of one of the many words for knife. COD to INEPT.
   Time 08:01. David
8. So close to a PB… but knowing I had 10 seconds on the last clue to get said PB is probably what made me take 30 instead… LOI being FORGET. Time was 5.44 which makes me question how anyone can get sub 5 if you actuallly allow time to read the clue and write the answer! One day I’ll get there… Otherwise almost all were write ins with only TAPIR needing me to trust the wordplay. Thanks all

   NeilC

9. I’d second the motion of trying today’s 15×15. I just did the main puzzle, commented on the blog there and finished the QC, all within 50 minutes, which is a gratifying change from my usual pace. .

   Here I helpfully spotted POPLAR as soon as I got FOI 1d PESTER and just raced along from there, finishing at 22a SLEUTH and getting a new P.B. of 4:36. Perhaps I’m just on form today; we’ll see how the Guardian goes at lunchtime…

10. PB for me today and the first time I’ve ever managed sub 10 minutes with 9:22. Thanks as always for the blog!
11. Dear Neil C,

    Please note that Lord Verlaine, recently indisposed by influenza, managed to waltz through today’s 15×15 in a mere 204 seconds!! (I reckon he might have been the setter!?)

    As I reported last year, I have almost done it: filling in a blank 15×15, with all the answers known, it took me 205 seconds. Doh!

    Hats off to the Time Lord! And to your 5.44. And on edit the Gothick One’s 4.36!

    Edited at 2019-11-11 10:55 am (UTC)

12. 11m, so at the quicker end of the rotterometer. I too worried about equating beloved with popular, and in my mind I equate the first more with an individual and intense feeling, whilst the latter is more a group and milder thing. My Chambers doesn’t link them as synonyms, but I guess they can be similar when referring to a popular or beloved leader for instance.

13. 22:11 which is rapid for me even though I got slowed down by SW corner. FOI 4A and got more acrosses in first run-through than usual, allowing me to biff many of the downs. Liked 2D. LOI 23A.
14. A gentle start to the week, finishing in 8.41 with 1a being the only real hold up. In the main it was a top to bottom solve with my LOI being CROOKS.
    Thanks for the blog
15. A nice gentle start to the week – thanks to Trelawney. I liked ANORAK, PESTER, SLEUTH, TAPIR, and my LOI CROOKS. I was happy with the anagrams – they all seemed to drop out easily without pen/paper. Well under 2K today so that makes a change. Good, concise blog. John M.
16. Thank you, Horryd!
    1. Yes, cracking time Matt!
17. I’m another with LOI POPLAR and remain unconvinced about popular – beloved synonym. I also didn’t understand the reference to valuable in 15d so thank you Jack for the explanation. JAMES BOND required a number of looks and my SLEUTHing skills were somewhat defective rather than detective like at 22a. I liked 6d SKINNY DIPPING as it brought back some happy memories. Done and dusted in just under 2K so quite a good day.
18. This felt like an easy start to the week and everything went in fairly quickly. As a result, I managed a PB of around 18 mins.

    FOI 8ac = “Sketchy”, LOI 1dn = “Poplar”.

    COD 17ac = “Rossini”

    Only hangups were that I nearly put “Forgot” rather than “Forget” until I’d worked out the parsing properly.

    Also – as a non chess player, I wasn’t sure whether Rook was “valuable” or not. I always thought the King, Queen and Bishops were the top pieces. Happy to be corrected here.

    Thanks as usual to the blog.

    Edited at 2019-11-11 11:49 am (UTC)

    1. Also as a non-chess player (I know how to push the pieces around, but not much more) I can only assume that the King doesn’t have a tactical value because it’s game-over if he’s taken.
       1. Very true…although I don’t think the King can actually be taken, only “check-mated” – but I’m probably straying into dangerous waters here (as well as being pedantic!)
19. A much fairer puzzle for a QC today.
20. Started with 1d, and the initial P was then enough for the tree even if popular/beloved was a bit of a stretch. After that, a fairly steady solve with everything bar 7d and 22ac completed in just under 20mins, I then had a proper look at 7d and spotted what was going on, which just left 22ac. There are so many words for a drunk that I kept myself entertained for several more minutes trying to match one of them to a detective to get hustle. Eventually I belatedly took my own often repeated advice, looked at the other end of the clue and realised my mistake. After that, the brilliantly disguised (cough) 22ac Sleuth, has to be my CoD. Invariant
21. 13 mins. Within half of my target. 😀
    But why are 11 and 12 linked? Could someone pls explain. Johnny
    1. You couldn’t begin 12A with “and” if you didn’t link it to the previous clue for a smooth surface. This is an old setter’s device, though it’s less common nowadays.
       1. We crossed there Phil! Happy birthday 😊
       2. Thanks Phil. You’re right. Rarely seen. J
    2. They aren’t really – the ellipses are there to make for better surfaces for both clues, but the clues actually stand alone. Hope that helps.
       1. ….but, sometimes they don’t! Remember, all’s fair in cryptics.
22. D’oh 😕 Tootling along quite nicely with this and then forgot (!) to enter and parse 23a, so DNF at 10 minutes!

    FOI Sketchy
    COD Pester
    LOI Would have been Forget

    To all of you who would like to venture in 15×15 land, I echo previous comments: definitely have a go at the biggie today – there are lots of accessible clues and even if you don’t finish, I think you’ll enjoy the ride.

    1. sorry that was me.
23. 13.44 so quickish for me, surprising as the SW took an age. ON ICE my LOI, thoroughly misdirected – took an age to see SLEUTH too. Also struggled with ROSSINI and CROOKS – will have a crack at the 15×15 this evening if bedtimes run smoothly.
    Mendesest
24. …anagrams for this solver, and neither of the long down clues were write ins.
    A stodgy feeling 6:47 over a burrito.
    LO’sI were FORGET and FRIGHT.
    Will head over to the 15×15 this evening.
25. Another vote for a mer – or even a MER – at 1ac…

    I, too, enjoyed this accessible QC so thanks Trelawney. Completed in around 20mins, so a good day.

    I confess to not being able to parse 23ac, being fixated on the ‘f’ being part of the ‘initially’.

26. Pleasant solve with few holdups, not pb but not far away at 20m. Solved 23a, but failed to parse, so puzzled over forget or forgot before choosing the correct one. Enjoyed 2d and 6d.
27. From sunny Basilicata. Finished this rather nice puzzle in 12 minutes and 10 seconds so a nice straightforward challenge for a Monday evening! I have answered it on an iPad and without benefit of pen and paper so I was forced to sort out the anagrams in my head – easier than I’d feared. Very much liked 1 down – a clever clue. For a while, I feared that I would not be able to provide an answer to 7 across, expecting to produce the name of an African knife so it was a relief to see what was actually required. Thanks, Jackkt, for a very helpful blog, and thanks, too, to Trelawney, for an enjoyable puzzle.
28. Caught up with last week’s backlog so pleased to find this straightforward. I should have timed it as it would have been a fast solve (for me). FOI 1d LOI 15d COD 17a. Having now got an evening free, I’ll have a stab at the 15×15.
29. Breakfast solve for me – and a new PB! For me this is 16 minutes, but still very pleased. Everything went in smoothly, until the last few when I realised I was on target for a record time which disrupted my train of thought somewhat. Enjoyed the surface of PESTER, and thought JAMES BOND and SKINNY DIPPING were simple fun, too.
30. I had the most difficult time with:

    Secret agent cunningly amends job

    There weren’t enough letters for the CORRECT answer:

    Bond, James Bond!!

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