Times Quick Cryptic 1507 by Trelawney

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This might prove dispiriting for those on the K-scale – it’s going to be difficult to keep up, I think!

Trelawney has typically been a welcome respite from obscurities and tortuous wordplay, and while no gimmie, today’s is another great puzzle to cut your teeth on. There are plenty of anagrams to help get some letters in the grid (though not indicated in the most common ways – if you haven’t seen it before, remembering the device at 7dn could save you many minutes dredging up numerous abbreviations). Much of the rest is crossword bread and butter.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Mocking food in Germany, primarily (8)
SCOFFING – SCOFF (food), IN, and the first letter of (primarily) Germany. ‘Scoff’ can be the food, as well as the act of quickly eating it.
5 Cut some French opals (4)
CHOP – hidden in (some) frenCH OPals.
8 Anoraks touted initially by weather watchers? (13)
TRAINSPOTTERS – first letter fo (initially) Touted, and RAIN SPOTTERS (weather watchers?).
10 Perfume from a city in Italy (5)
AROMA – A and ROMA (city in Italy).
11 Eagle in clumsy descent (7)
LINEAGE – anagram of (clumsy) EAGLE IN.
12 Fictional horse‘s reward for finishing second (6)
SILVER – double definition.
13 Rich dessert found back in imperial Ceylon (6)
ECLAIR – reverse hidden (found back in) impeRIAL CEylon.
16 Connected new treadle (7)
RELATED – anaghram of (new) TREADLE.
18 More trouble? Don’t start! (5)
OTHER – bOTHER (trouble) missing its first leter (don’t start).
20 Sack idle tradesmen from Iran, perhaps (6,7)
MIDDLE EASTERN – anagram of (sack) IDLE TRADESMEN.
21 American jerk (4)
YANK – double definition.
22 Extremely robust fine (4,4)
VERY WELL – Extremely (very) and robust (well). Chambers has ‘robust = constitutionally healthy’.

Down
1 Indian proverb: Heads of state usually take religion away (5)
SUTRA – first letters from (heads of) State Unusually Take Religion Away.
2 Marge might go here, being successful (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL – crytpic and literal; margerine (marge) might go on a roll.
3 Support a crazy principle (11)
FUNDAMENTAL – FUND (support), A, and MENTAL (crazy).
4 Man up to swallow friend’s fiery concoction (6)
NAPALM – reversal of (up) MAN containing (to swallow) PAL (friend).
6 Scavenger‘s triumphant exclamation, pocketing money (5)
HYENA – HA! (triumphant exclamation) surrounding (pocketing) YEN (money).
7 Doctor captures headless French scientist (7)
PASTEUR – anagram of (doctor) all-but-the-first letters from (headless) cAPTURES.
9 Nice layouts arranged with great determination (11)
TENACIOUSLY – anagram of (arranged) NICE LAYOUTS.
12 Secret agent drinking cold liquor and strong cider (7)
SCRUMPY – SPY (secret agent) surounding (drinking) C (cold) and RUM (liquor).
14 Runner let into swimming heat (7)
ATHLETE – LET inside an anagram of (swimming) HEAT.
15 Stick advertisement in this location (6)
ADHERE – AD (advertisement) and HERE (in this location).
17 Left port heavily loaded (5)
LADEN – L (left) and ADEN (port).
19 Somehow learn of the kidneys (5)
RENAL – anagram of (somehow) LEARN.

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1507 by Trelawney”

  2. I thought this was a cracker, not too much on the first pass of acrosses – only three and a strong temptation to bung in METEROLOGISTS – but all fair and some nice penny dropping moments. Solved bottom up to finish in 13:33 which is not pb territory but the fastest for quite a while. HYENA was last one in and had to write in down to spot it with TRAINSPOTTERS and LINEAGE the other clues to hold out to the end.

    Good to hear the 15×15 is accessible – will have to make sure I get hold of the paper and have a crack over lunch.

  3. was born in Chicago, so I reckoned he wasn’t really Syrian – so 20ac had to be MIDDLE EASTERN! Bit of an anagram!

    FOI 1dn SUTRA

    LOI 12ac SILVER Heigh-ho!

    COD 8ac TRAINSPOTTER

    WOD IMPEACHMENT

    Time 14 mins. Do try today’s 15×15 – I was home and dry in 27 minutes.

    1. Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I finished today’s 15×15 in under an hour which isn’t bad for me. John M.
  5. This seemed a relatively gentle challenge from Trelawney but I was held up by my last two SILVER and SCOFFING. Early on I nearly went for Spoofing but restrained myself for once; clearly it doesn’t parse; so I needed a trawl to get Scoffing. COD to ATHLETE which confused me for a time.
    Time was 12:59.
    David
  6. I agree that this was a good QC unlike some recent offerings (which are nicely described by William). I shared my last two with David, above, and did a similar double-take before seeing the parsing of ATHLETE. I was within a minute of his time, too. Sutra was nicely misleading.
    Thanks to Trelawney for an enjoyable but accessible QC and to William for his blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-12-18 09:12 am (UTC)

  7. Bunged in “scorning” at 1A, having seen 1D, corn-in-g seeming to fit, whilst foolishly ignoring the “s”. Had to review later to get 3D but otherwise a steady solve, and enjoyed. Plymouthian
  8. Just heard a news report that there are moves afoot to have use of terms such as ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ designated as a hate-crime. Can ‘anoraks’ be far behind?
  9. 13 minutes for this little cracker. I tried scorning initially for 1a but was unhappy because I couldn’t see where the S came from. When 3D refused to yield, I was forced to take another look at it and saw it straight away. Thanks Trelawney and William.
  10. I didn’t type it in, but I was sorely tempted by SCORNING at 1a. The S didn’t parse so I left it until later when enlightenment dawned. The rest went in without much fuss and I submitted for an all green at 7:51. Thanks Trelawney and William.
  11. I’m on a roll. A sub 9 minutes finish with LOI HYENA. I had no problems with SCOFFING as I do use the word in both contexts. I particular liked the cluing for PASTEUR, LINEAGE (my penultimate solves), ATHLETE and FUNDAMENTAL. Thanks William and Trelawney.
  12. Very enjoyable. Seemed hard at a first look through, but persistence paid off and solutions gradually came to hand as I worked through. Just the right level for the quick cryptic.
  13. A very pleasant 20min solve with some humorous clues to cheer up a dull day (weather wise): 2d, On a Roll, certainly gets my CoD vote. Having been caught out (several times) in the past by the sneaky Doctor in 7d, I was ready for him/her/it this time… now, if I can just remember Who as well. Haven’t tried today’s 15×15, but yesterday’s was quite friendly (for the most part). Invariant

    Edit: Hmm, overall I thought yesterday’s 15×15 was a bit easier.

    Edited at 2019-12-18 05:57 pm (UTC)

  14. ….on Trump’s impeachment proceedings, “American jerk” seemed pretty topical.

    Apart from toying with “fanbase” for the support element of 3D, I wasn’t overly troubled, and finished within my target. An enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI CHOP
    LOI SILVER
    COD SCRUMPY

  15. A very enjoyable offering from Trelawney after a sucession of DNF’s this week.

    Finished up in just over 35 minutes which is about as quick as I get… Held up on 8ac TRAINSPOTTING until I had all the checkers, but a great clue after I spotted (!) it.

    DNK The Port of ADEN in 17dn, but the definition was obvious enough to biff it in.

    I couldn’t work out why 2dn ON-A-ROLL had anything to do with (what I assumed to be) Marge Simpson and the penny only dropped having read today’s blog; thanks William.

    FOI 5ac CHOP
    LOI 8ac TRAINSPOTTING

  16. I got through this quite steadily. LOI SCOFFING – the F checker helped with that. YANK and HYENA were both gimmes from recent crosswords. Mostly I liked ATHLETE. How many good runners are good swimmers too, I wondered? 4:59.
  17. no one seems to have noticed that the explanation of 8 ac is incorrect.
    touted initially is t, weather is rain, and watchers is spotters.
    1. No one has noticed because it IS correct!

      Another good workout today, a four way struggle with the long ones held me up and pushed me well over budget at 6’10”. I liked the fictional horse but ‘reward for finishing second’ narrowed the potential field way too quickly.

      My thanks to Trelawney (a fellow Cornishman/woman, perhaps?) and William.

    2. I’m no expert but the fact there is a question mark can signify that it could be an example or loose interpretation of a weather watcher ie. a rainspotter.

      I can see where you are coming from though.

  18. I completed this in a leisurely 30 mins, but I’m sure if I’d concentrated a bit harder I could have done it quicker. However, it was an enjoyable puzzle with the only sticking points 1ac “Scoffing” (I also had “Scorning” to start) and 7dn which I eventually got but just couldn’t parse.

    FOI = 1dn “Sutra”
    LOI = 7dn “Pasteur”
    COD = 2nd “On a Roll”

    Thanks as usual.

  20. Very fair offering today. Enough to challenge but not to cause any major holdups until LOI 6D. Even with three checkers and knowing I was looking for a currency, I was stuck. In desperation I looked up “hleva” and wondered about old Danish cents (ore, not oer, as I had thought). Eventually the yen dropped at 11 mins. Enjoyed TRAINSPOTTERS and PASTEUR.
  21. Like other’s I found this fairly gentle but no less enjoyable for it. I had a brief pause sorting out the anagram at 9d but other than that nothing to overly strain the grey matter. Finished in 7.29 with LOI ATHLETE
    Thanks for the blog
  22. 6:47. So a couple under par, without ever feeling quick.

    I did bung in scorning, which made fundamental impossible. Other was my LOI for some reason.

    Finished work for a couple of weeks, so will be tackling the 15×15 as well as the QC in between the mince pies.

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