Times Quick Cryptic 150, by Oran

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Here I am again, deputising for Pip Kirby. I found this quite hard! I reckon it took me nine or ten minutes, and there is hardly a clue here that is not up to full cryptic standards. I reckon anyone who can complete this can also complete the daily cryptic, on some days at least.
I am on a day trip to France today, so questions might not get a response until evening I’m afraid

Def. is short for definition, of course, and rev. means reversed

Across
1 sporting – SPORT (show) IN G(uatemala), def. is “fair.”
6 ammo – AM (in the morning) + MO, very little time as in “half a mo”
8 skid – S(mall) KID (child), to slide
9 fraction – R(iver) in FACTION, a camp as in the Green faction etc., def “part”
10 of course – anagram of O(ld) US FORCE
11 ugli – hidden, rev., inside untIL GUests.. ugli is actually a registered trademark, used for marketing a fruit which is a hybrid of an orange, a grapefruit and a tangerine. What were that marketing department thinking of when they dreamt that name up?
13 understanding – two definitions, one the literal UNDER STANDING, inferior rank..
16 stag – STAGE, a leg, but not quite long enough so STAG. A ruminant, incidentally, is a mammal that not only digests its food, but actually ferments it.. I tend to prefer to let others do the fermentation, and take over from there
17 ring road – anagram of I GRAND OR. The “unusual” tips us off to the the anagram and using I where one is written, or similar contraction, is a common ploy. And where would a ring road be seen, but around a town?
19 Pericles – L(ine) in an anagram of PRECISE. Everything I know about Shakespeare I know from crosswordland, including the existence of this play
21 blew – sounds like “blue,” depressed..
22 arch – two words, two definitions.. one a noun, one an adjective
23 Toy Story – TOYS (plays (with)) and TORY..

Down
2 poke fun at – anagram of “fake put on”
3 radio – small girl, ie DI, in OAR (row) reversed. It is not obvious that oar and row are interchangeable words, but Collins does have to oar as a verb “to row or propel with or as if with oars.” Tricky clue..
4 informs – IN FORM (fit) with S(hirt), the def. being briefs, as in updates
5 glaze – G(rand) and LAZE (ie lounge)
6 astound – fault finally, ie (faul)T, inside A SOUND, a firm.. the def. being “floor”
7 moo – MOO(D), a never-ending humour, as in “Ill-humoured” etc. And the def. is low, a word that usually means the noise cattle make, in crosswordland
12 lend an ear – what a mean corn producer might not do, the def. being “listen”
14 English – anagram of SHINGLE(S).
15 amnesty – the girl is AMY, containing NEST, a comfortable home
17 relit – TILER, the mosaic artist, is rev. to give relit meaning “fired anew”
18 robot – ROB (steal) and OT, the Old Testament.. both OT and NT turn up all the time. I suppose robots “act thoughtlessly,” which makes it all the more galling to lose to them at chess.
20 err – (fin)E (weathe)R and R(ight). The def. is “to be out,” as in “her calculations were out”

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 150, by Oran”

  1. At 17’45”, this was certainly one of the toughest quickies yet (of those I’ve done). INFORMS, my last in, was clever. Ticks also against 9 and 13a.

    Edited at 2014-10-03 01:59 am (UTC)

  2. I’ve no time to offer on this one but it was off the scale partly because I found I had not printed off the first 4 Down clues so had to go and retrieve them, and partly because I then became stuck with 4dn, 9ac, 17ac and 18dn unsolved, though I got them eventually.

    21ac needed care without checkers in place because ‘blue’ meaning to spend extravagantly or squander has come up a number of times recently in the main puzzle. I very nearly wrote it in without considering options but was alerted by the prospect of a -U_R ending to 12dn which looked a bit unlikely.

    Edited at 2014-10-03 05:50 am (UTC)

  3. 11 mins. My experience was the same as Jerry’s, and I think that this is basically a main cryptic with a few less clues. I had the most trouble in the NE and finished with the ASTOUND/FRACTION crossers after INFORMS.
  4. Not as quick as yesterday! Took me several sessions and found the NE very difficult. Used an aid to get FRACTION and was then able to solve INFORMS and ASTOUND my last two in.

    Solving this one was more of a struggle rather than fun. I did like AMMO, took me ages to work out the necessary meaning of rounds.

    1. I can’t get it either. I’m in Italy on holiday sorunning to newsagents for print copy is not an option 🙁
      3. It has now arrived on the updated edition. I had managed to print a copy but have got used to doing it on screen now!
  6. Definitely tricky: 15 minutes dead. I agree that some of the clues had the air of the full cryptic, but highly enjoyable and nothing to complain about.
  7. Harder than normal, but no real difficulty other than struggling with the parsing of LEND AN EAR. Just under 8 mins, so one of the very rare occasions that my time was less than Andy’s; that’ll cheer me up for the day!
  8. I have completed the last five I’ve attempted but the NE corner of this one was too hard for me. I probably should have got AMMO and MOO but INFORMS, FRACTION and ASTOUND were beyond me. Still, glad to see that this is rated quite hard for a quick, which gives me hope.
  9. Pride comes before a fall!. Yesterday almost completed the main Cryptic but today nowhere near finishing the “Quickie” and those I did get were a struggle, no quick write-ins at all. Oh dear, back to square 1 – perhaps that’s where this saying comes from!
  10. No QC in online Times first thing this morning so tried the Cryptic- no problem.When this finally appeared I struggled- certainly not the easy option today!!
  11. A real tough one, which I failed to complete with 9ac and 6dn causing the problem. Did not see the literal for 6dn and becoming fixated with AGROUND being the answer. Can only agree with Andy Borrows, in that it seemed like a mini main cryptic.

    12dn “had to be” LEND AN EAR and I thought of it as Jerrywh has blogged, but still find the cryptic rather weak. I could take issue with the definition of robot as, these days, they do not act thoughtlessly. They are programmed to act intelligently, usually repetitively, but with intelligence inherited from the programmer. But that definition may open up another can of worms and I won’t even mention Turing 🙂

      1. Hi Ulaca,

        They can be programmed to do just that – that’s essentially what optimisation programmes do. The decisions they make may be essentially binary in nature (i.e. good or bad), but they will form a judgement on the input given to them through a rational process of logic, treat complex processes and form a judgement to get to their final answer.

          1. Hi Ulaca,

            I think it must be. “A definition” of reason is the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgements logically.

  12. I don’t attempt this every day but I think this had the most number of gaps ever with 1a,9a,22a,23a,4d,5d,6d and 18d all missing.
    As others have said , it is a cut down main crossword which I didn’t think was the point of it. I thought it was to give us lesser mortals a 1a chance of finishing it in a reasonable time.
  13. Not clever or delightful or a crossword that will make beginners like us want to do more. Obviously just for the little club of insiders.
    Linda
  14. My GK let me down with Toy Story but it had to be right. I found several tricky definition viz sporting=fair and err=is out but I got there in the end with a bit of help from the apps.
  15. Much too hard today so very demoralising for beginners. Please remember we are trying to improve but this was far far too tricky. And I had been doing so well too
  16. I am new to cryptics but started with the quickies and already can generally finish them within 2 hours. My progress is almost entirely due to my daily visit to this wonderful blog – so a big thank you to all contributors. Got 2 wrong today and unable to see ammo. I like a test every so often – it means I am still learning. Positives I have taken from today are I did get fraction / astound and I may be getting near to having a go at the main cryptic! Exciting – thank you bloggers! Gill
    1. Welcome, Gill, and your comments about the usefulness of the blog are much appreciated. Hope you will stick around and contribute regularly. Perhaps even open a Live Journal account so you can have a user pic? It doesn’t cost anything.

      Edited at 2014-10-04 04:31 pm (UTC)

  17. grateful for the weblog on this one
    Xword attempted after a long day @ work !

    Edited at 2014-10-04 05:46 pm (UTC)

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