Times Quick Cryptic 1487 by Pedro

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Not easy for me, resorting to the downs to get anywhere, and ending up with my worst time in a while. I thought that all four long answers were difficult to get, despite seeing how they worked, and 19ac was the first of these to fall. I had to look more than twice to figure out 4dn and 16ac (quite tricksy) and 21ac is one of those words I’ve seen but never bothered to look up (shameful, I know).

COD to 18dn – I now normally solve on the Northern Rail service to work, so this one ticked all the right boxes!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Military leader straddling horse, recalled in pottery? (7)
CERAMIC – CIC (Commander-in-Chief, military leader) containing (straddling) MARE (horse) reversed (recalled). I didn’t immediately think of the acronym, biffed it, then got side-tracked on a Google search with Combat Information Centre and Counter Intelligence Corps!
5 Lines known by the expert (5)
ROPES – cryptically defined as things known by the expert, and taught to a newbie, as in ‘shown the ropes’.
8 Ill-fated pair connected in error (8-5)
ACCIDENT-PRONE – anagram of (in error) PAIR CONNECTED.
9 Common tree seen around University (7)
POPULAR – POPLAR (tree) containing (seen around) U (university). Hmm… slightly different meanings in my book.
10 I had nothing invested in it, being a fool (5)
IDIOT – I’D (I had), then O (nothing) inside (invested in) IT.
11 Each expert will consume dessert? (6)
APIECE – ACE (expert) containing (will consume) PIE (dessert, in some cases).
13 Memorable description of successful fielders? (6)
CATCHY – a cryptic-y hint. Successful fielders catch a lot of balls, and so are catchy. Writing this feels like explaining an already bad joke!
15 Piece of music displayed in order on door (5)
RONDO – hidden in (displayed in) ordeR ON DOor.
16 Mythical creature, gold in the middle? Not quite (7)
CENTAUR – AU (gold) inside (in) all-but-the-last of (not quite) CENTRe (the middle).
19 Good to indicate, after burglary, where something’s cracked (8-5)
BREAKING-POINT – G (good) and POINT (indicate), after BREAK-IN (burglary).
20 Scotsman’s to know an indication (5)
TOKEN – TO KEN (to know) in Scots dialect (Scotsman’s).
21 Slander male in a variety of lunacy (7)
CALUMNY – M (male) inside an anagram (variety) of LUNACY. Had to look this up to confirm.

Down
1 Pain from running, perhaps — affected after covering run (5)
CRAMP – CAMP (affected) containing (covering) R (run).
2 Group of journalists attending party where guests arrive (9,4)
RECEPTION DESK – DESK (group of journalists, as in ‘the sports desk’) on (attending) RECEPTION (party).
3 Way left to produce scaled-down version (5)
MODEL – MODE (way) and L (left).
4 Bird call receiving an answer (6)
CANARY – CRY (call) containing (receiving) AN and A (answer).
5 Papa, enthralled by antique item, getting a copy (7)
REPLICA – P (papa, phonetic alphabet) contained in (enthralled by) RELIC (antique item), then A.
6 Civilian romps wildly, displaying narrow outlook? (13)
PROVINCIALISM – anagram of (wildly) CIVILIAN ROMPS. I thought of ‘parochialism’ first, but that’s not thirteen.
7 We engaged in changing style in a pleasant manner (7)
SWEETLY – WE contained (engaged) in an anagram of (changing) STYLE.
11 A Balkan resident embracing British circus performer (7)
ACROBAT – A CROAT (a balkan resident) containing (embracing) B (British).
12 Start work to study adopting security measure (5,2)
CLOCK ON – CON (to study) containing (adopting) LOCK (security measure).
14 South Carolina, uncommonly nice and picturesque (6)
SCENIC – SC (South Carolina), then an anagram of (uncommonly) NICE.
17 Friend from Newcastle, perhaps, in mountain country (5)
NEPAL – Newcastle being in the North-East, my pal (friend) from there is my ‘N.E. PAL’.
18 Easily annoyed a couple of times aboard railway (5)
RATTY – A and TT (couple of times) contained by (aboard) RY (railway).

33 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1487 by Pedro”

  1. 31 mins.

    Held up by provincialism, reception desk and ropes.

    Thought the desk and ropes were very poor clues.
    As was token. I’m probably just ratty as I start 1 week looking after the kids alone.

    Cod apiece.

    Edited at 2019-11-20 05:41 am (UTC)

  2. 13 minutes. I also had problems getting started on this one and must have attempted 6 or more clues before I found something to write in, and it was a while after that that the answers started to flow.

    Between QCs, the 15×15 and possibly even a Jumbo we seem to have had a lot of POPLAR/POPULAR clues recently, so it’s time for them to disappear for a while. I didn’t have a problem with ‘common’ as definition though, as I think it can be substituted in this entry from Collins:

    Popular ideas, feelings, or attitudes are approved of or held by most people.
    Contrary to popular belief, the oil companies can’t control the price of crude.
    The military government has been unable to win popular support.

    It’s certainly much nearer the mark than ‘beloved’ which defined ‘popular’ in the QC I blogged last week.

    I have to disagree with Flashman over ROPES which I think is a fine example of cryptic clue.

    Edited at 2019-11-20 05:44 am (UTC)

  3. Very annoying error at 12d: I immediately thought of CHECK IN, but clearly that wouldn’t work, so I moved on, and later thought of LOCK and put in CLOCK IN, forgetting about CON. Didn’t even think to check, especially since I’ve never heard of clocking ON. RATTY wasn’t new to me–it’s been in a couple of cryptics–but it’s not in my dialect and I’ve never learned it, so I needed the checkers before I could put it in.7:04 but.
    I agree with Jack about POPULAR: no problem here, a problem there, and maybe we can do without it for a while.

    Edited at 2019-11-20 05:45 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, it’s perhaps a bit of a naughty one for a QC as one can clock both ‘in’ and ‘on’ and both expressions are listed in Collins meaning exactly the same thing. On the other hand I suppose it serves as an example of a bear-trap for biffers.
      1. It certainly was for this biffer! Serves me right for overlooking the familiar CON. I also use ‘log in’, but have seen ‘log on’ lots of times; ‘clock on’, never.
  4. Not a very enjoyable puzzle but got there in the end – and jumped a bit when congratulations flashed onto the screen as I thought I’d been solving in the crossword club. ROPES was last one in, completely beaten by the clue, so thanks for the blog. SLOI was RECEPTION DESK, I wasn’t close to answer and was distracted by NEWSPAPER fitting the first bit with the checkers I had for a long time. NHO RONDO (more cultural ignorance) but it looked feasible and I not sure I knew what CALUMNY meant and I certainly couldn’t have spelled it without checkers and knowing it was an anagram. APIECE surprising hard!
  5. I shared the CLOCK IN error with Kevin – I didn’t parse it fully at first, either. This was tough. I spent a while on the top half and got only two. Made more progress when I started to crawl up from the south but it was hard going.
    More like a 15×15 in parts. I thought the long anagrams were tough and needed plenty of crossers even when doing them on paper. LOI was CATCHY. RECEPTION DESK was a bit contrived but I liked CERAMIC, APIECE, CENTAUR and TOKEN. I biffed REPLICA.
    It took me over 4K. Looking back, it was clever but I didn’t get the usual sense of satisfaction – just relief to finish. Thanks to william for a helpful blog. John M.
  6. I had a gap year job in an insurance company which had “flexitime” – you got a card to stick into a slot when you arrived and removed it when you left, so that your exact hours were recorded and you could make up for being late in by working a bit later. This was called “clocking on”. Needless to say the old hands soon introduced me to a way of making it look as though you’d removed your card from the slot but it was in fact still ticking up the hours … Despite these advantages CLOCK ON was still my POI.

    I thought this was pretty stiff and crept over 20 mins again, but since that turns out to have been 2.9K I’m going to call it a Could Have Been Worse Day. Funny how clues come in 3s, the poplar/popular link is obviously all the rage in the Setters’ Common Room.

    FOI MODEL, LOI APIECE, COD BREAKING POINT. Thanks Pedro and thanks for the blog, William – I had no idea what was going on with CERAMIC!

    Templar

  7. I thought this was a little too tough. The right hand side came together quite well but I ended up stuck on the top left.
  8. This one had me racking my brain for ROPES and TOKEN, my last 2 in, for a good few minutes. It was 16:12 before I submitted, and then I got a pink square due to a typo, CERANIC. Drat! I knew both CLOCK ON and CLOCK IN, so looked carefully at the clue. Thanks Pedro and William.
  10. Completing in 3K I think it is fair to say that I found this tough going. My FOI was 1d CRAMP and I was hoping that this would help me with 1a but it didn’t. I biffed RECEPTION DESK, guessed CALUMNY as DNK, correctly parsed CLOCK ON, needed all the checkers for CERAMIC and finally ground to a halt with my last two CATCHY and ROPES. I agree with Flashman that the cluing for ROPES was poor. You don’t have to be an expert to ‘know the ropes’ and as for CATCHY as a descriptor of a successful fielder..well enough said. Thanks William and Pedro for the workout.
  11. DNF. Gave up after 40 mins, with four clues left, and with a good bit of help from the check button. Not come across con meaning study. Thanks for the blog as one or two needed some explanation for me.
    2. As Kevin says, “con” for study is worth remembering … but annoyingly, you also need to remember that study sometimes = “den” instead!
  12. ….this was somewhere near it, and I came down to Earth with something of a bump after yesterday’s triumph.

    I knew the ROPES (eventually), and although I used to clock in at Renold Chains 1968/9 I avoided the elephant trap – and recognised it as such.

    I took a while to see DESK, and TOKEN held me up by hiding in plain sight.

    FOI POPULAR
    LOI RECEPTION DESK
    COD BREAKING-POINT
    TIME 6:08

  13. I always stop at half an hour or things pile up around me. At the thirty minute mark today, I had still not answered 5 across nor down nor 11 across. Very disappointed with myself not to have got the last two but I’m not sure “ropes ” would have occurred to me without the first R as supplied by “replica”. Ah, well, c’est la vie. I did get 16 across but thought the parsing was rather complex, ditto 1 down. Just having a grumpy bad morning, I suspect. Thanks as always to blogger and setter.
  14. I thought this on the tricky side, getting to 10A before I found one I could answer and then only had a handful filled in as I got to the downs. The 4 long clues proved intractable until I had plenty of checkers 13-letter anagrams just offer too many potential combinations! LOI CANARY after CERAMIC. I liked ROPES. 6:46.
  15. Another difficult QC, not helped by biffing Reception Room, which made the SW corner quite challenging until I realised my mistake. Crawled over the line just north of 40 mins with 4d, 11ac and 5d/ac the last few to yield. 21ac Calumny was completely unknown (to me) until it came up in a QC blog discussion a few years ago – nice to see it again. Invariant
  16. I felt like swimming through treacle with this one. Despite getting 1a, 5a, 1d and 11d right away, thereby setting the grid up for a brisk attack, the long ones took some unravelling, as did the tricky C words (CANARY, CENTAUR, CALUMNY and CLOCK ON). Six minutes flat seemed slow but, on coming here, it now feels more than respectable.
    Many thanks to William and Pedro.
  17. 11:45 but with one error. Canard being bunged in from “ANA” and “bird” (albeit a French one), without consideration that CRD doesn’t mean anything… Insert rolling eyes emoticon at solver stupidity.
    Enjoyed the challenge though, so thanks to Pedro.
  18. I had a busy morning and warmed up for this on the 15×15 -about half done so far.
    This was a real test. FOI POPULAR which,as noted, is very popular at present.
    I made pretty good progress after that.Some good clues;my COD to IDIOT, so well sculpted.
    I noted 18:48 on the clock (which would not have been a bad time for this) as I settled to my LOI 11a. I tried so many combinations without really seeing the meaning. The EACH had to be important and finally after 27:11 I got APIECE.
    Excellent challenging puzzle.
    David

  19. Took me quite a while, but eventually got there. Clues tortuous largely rather than neat, I feel.
  20. After 15 mins of not getting anything, I thought this was going to be another DNF. However, I persevered, and am pleased to say that I completed it in about an hour. But, I agree, this was on the hard side.

    I have to admit, there were a few clues that I got (whilst not biffed) were not exactly the parsing described above. Ones that come to mind include: 8ac “Accident Prone” (didn’t spot the anagram), 18ac “Breaking Point” (thought it was more a pure cryptic) and 21ac “Calumny” was a guess (based on the anagram).

    In addition, a few completely threw me at first. Trying to fit “Stitch” into 1dn didn’t help, nor initially biffing “Prose” for 5ac.

    FOI = 15ac “Rondo”
    LOI = 5ac “Ropes”

    COD = 18dn “Ratty” – not sure if it was deliberate or conincidence, but Ratty is also the name for the Ravenglass to Eskdale railyway in West Cumbria.

    Thanks as usual.

  21. Definitely a challenge which took me the best part of 20 mins but didn’t think there was anything unfair or particularly obscure. Was feeling a bit of a 10a (my FOI) as I didn’t get another until 21a. But down clues seemed easier and eventually it all fell into place. CODs jointly to ROPES and APIECE. Both five-word clues with beautifully smooth and deceptive surfaces. Thanks Pedro and blogger.
  22. First time I’ve attempted this, but seen a few reviews before and thought all of them to be eminently solvable. This was a little harder than i expected but a thoroughly enjoyable sove that flowed after getting a foothold. Took about 35 minutes.
  23. Some of this felt at the trickier end of the scale and I made things harder for myself by biffing RECEPTION LINE – one of those awful things at some weddings – and it took me a while to unscramble the SW as result. Finally spotted TOKEN which resolved things and only left ROPES as LOI and it went in with an ‘it can’t be anything else’ shrug.
    Like others I groaned at another POPLAR/POPULAR reference and one day I might even get round to working out exactly where it is.
    Thanks for the blog
  24. I usually call it a day around the 20/25 minute mark but strangely this was such a slow burner and I must have been in the mood to just slog on…so delighted to finish in just under the hour mark. LOI Centaur
    Only just able to keep it going and on several occasions was about to give up but begrudgingly enjoyed the experience!!!!
    Thanks Pedro and thanks all,
    John George
  25. 21ac Calumny is such a lovely word, so few understand it

    FOI 5ac ROPES

    LOI 20ac TOKEN

    COD 6dn PROVINCIALISM

    WOD 18dn RATTY (Wind in The Willows)

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