Times Quick Cryptic 1534 by Grumpy

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I am posting this as an emergency blog.  I needed 19 minutes having been stuck on 16dn and 22ac.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Rapid growth ruined a coastline (10)
ESCALATION : Anagram [ruined] of A COASTLINE
8 Woman at sea in yacht (7)
CYNTHIA : Anagram [at sea] of IN YACHT
9 Part of Mayfair is home for some Europeans (5)
IRISH : Hidden in [part of] {Mayfa}IR IS H{ome}
10 Note English line dance (4)
REEL : RE (note), E (English), L (line)
11 Bear that’s found by side of road (8)
SHOULDER : Two meanings
13 Old Gaelic speaker possibly sheltering old cat (6)
OCELOT : O (old), CELT (Gaelic speaker possibly) containing [sheltering] O
14 Unable to proceed, removing last firm plaster (6)
STUCCO : STUC{k} (unable to proceed) [removing last], CO (firm)
17 Frenchman’s refusal to accept a foreigner as emperor (8)
NAPOLEON : NON (Frenchman’s refusal) containing [to accept] A POLE (a foreigner)
19 Swallow displaying soft feathers (4)
DOWN :Two meanings
21 Diving gear stowed aboard, initially worn by youngster (5)
SCUBA : CUB (youngster) inside [worn by) S{towed} + A{board} [initially]
22 Sneaky round is not very good (7)
SAINTLY : SLY (sneaky) containing [round] AIN’T (is not)
23 Accept less rum in glasses (10)
SPECTACLES : Anagram [rum] of ACCEPT LESS
Down
2 Not affected as outsiders in race (7)
SINCERE : SINCE (as), R{ac}E [outsiders]
3 Husband in great pain (4)
ACHE : H (husband) in ACE (great)
4 Lack of interest, in a way, on the fourth of July (6)
APATHY : A, PATH (way), {jul}Y [fourth of]
5 Entering island state, I abandon crime (8)
INIQUITY : I  QUIT (I abandon) contained by [entering] I (island) + NY (state)
6 Nymph heard near middle of meadow (5)
NAIAD : NAI sounds like[heard] “nigh” (near), {me}AD{ow} [middle of]
7 Fish taken by fellow with no white wine (10)
CHARDONNAY : CHAR (fish), DON (fellow), NAY (no)
8 Actor is not cast to be producer of pictures (10)
CARTOONIST : Anagram [cast] of ACTOR IS NOT
12 Coca leaf assortment? Collier may take his pick here (8)
COALFACE : Anagram [assortment] of COCOA LEAF
15 Time left to be engaged in task? What a laugh! (7)
CHORTLE : T (time) + L (left) contained by [to be engaged in] CHORE (task)
16 Lettuce prepared for pet (6)
COSSET : COS (lettuce), SET (prepared)
18 They’re used for stopping publicity (5)
PLUGS : Two meanings
20 One second inside current record (4)
DISC : I (one) + S (second) inside DC (current)

29 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1534 by Grumpy”

  1. Thanks for stepping into the breech Jack. I found this puzzle tricky to get into, with less than half done after 6 minutes. Thing then came together and I finished in a spurt at 9:09. ACHE was my FOI and SPECTACLES brought up the rear. I tried to make a anagram out of lettuce at 16d until crossers ruled it out. INIQUITY took a while. Liked CHARDONNAY(who doesn’t?). CHORTLE is a nice word:-) Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Grumpy and Jack.
  2. 39 minutes for me, am for once glad of the absence of the blog as I stuck at it when usually I’d have thrown in the towel and eventually completed it!

    Had never heard of a naiad, and quite a few went in very slowly after much thought over the wordplay.

    There’s a lesson in here somewhere about not giving up, maybe i’ll learn it someday…

  3. Dear me,I do hope the poisoner is OK!

    We’re closed hereabouts due to CNY – the Year of the Rat!

    FOI 3dn ACHE

    LOI 19ac DOWN

    COD 6ac CYNTHIA

    WOD 8dn CARTOONIST

    Me – I’m not big on 7dn. Time 13 mins

    Edited at 2020-01-24 12:09 pm (UTC)

  4. Can’t remember a thing about this, but evidently I was a bit sluggish. Thanks for pinch-hitting, Jack. 7:13.

    Edited at 2020-01-24 12:14 pm (UTC)

  5. Another taking 20 minutes – a tough couple days. No problem with NAIAD – I served on HMS Naiad many years ago. I’m also with Horryd, not a great lover of 7d, or white wine in general. I think of the genre as akin to drinking lager when bitter is available. Why drink white when one can enjoy the depth and complexity of reds. Thanks for stepping in Jack – I was close to doing it myself.
  7. ….and consequently DNF. I took “prepared” as an anagram indicator, not helped by correctly having
    -R-F-T in place. I’m no expert on rabbit food, and so invented a strain of lettuce called porfet.

    COD CHORTLE

  8. Tough. I sweated to get my first answer before jumping around and gradually speeding up. Trouble is, I slowed down again at the end with the likes of iniquity and sincere. Some excellent clues and a good 15d at 15d. Incidentally, I love decent Chardonnay – not just white burgundy but also the better quality wines from the best of the Chilean, Australian, high-altitude Argentinian winemakers. Not the low-cost mass-market stuff, though. I took over half an hour again but found it an enjoyable exercise. Thanks, both. John M.
  9. Of easy and hard. Thanks, Jackkt, for stepping in. I, too, kept going beyond my usual cutting off point when I couldn’t find the blog. I had problems with 6 down because I thought “naiad” was spelt neiad – but I think that’s because of its association with “neriad”. That, and 22 across were my LOIs. Some very clever clues today. I liked especially 11, 17 and 23 across and 7 and 16 down. Great surfaces. Thanks, Jackkt, and thanks too, to Grumpy (a new setter? )
    1. Grumpy seems to have been on a sabbatical for a while, but he used to appear from time to time
    2. Grumpy has set 32 puzzles in all, starting with QC#3 in March 2014. Over recent years he set only 1 in 2017, 3 in 2018 and 2 in 2019. Before today his last appearance was in April 2019.

      Edited at 2020-01-24 06:59 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks for this, both. I have only been attempting the QC for two years. In that time, I will have seen 5 of Grumpy’s crosswords – I’d just forgotten his name even though it is quite a catchy one!
  10. We raced through this then came to a bit of a halt with 22A and 5D. But after a bit of head scratching we finished. No idea of the time but not one of our quickest efforts.

    Thanks to all of the bloggers – we really appreciate being part of this forum 😀

    Edited at 2020-01-24 01:43 pm (UTC)

  11. Kept plugging away at this after a very slow start working out the anagrams at 1 and 8ac, but it was hard getting onto Grumpy’s wavelength. 2d Sincere and 11ac Shoulder finally put me in sight of the finishing line, but in the end I had to use aids for 5d Iniquity and 23ac Saintly, where for the second day running I was trying to fit ‘is’ (round is) into the answer. Special thanks to Jackkt for standing in today. Invariant
  12. I also got stuck on the same two as Jack i.e. 16d COSSET (not an anagram of for pet!) and 22a SAINTLY. I resorted to aids to solve 16d and then 22a fell into place. Unfortunately no amount of looking at 5d I_I_U_T_ helped me solve the clue. Had I considered the possibility of a Q next to the U then I may have got there but I gave up at the 15 minutes mark for a DNF. Thank you Jack for stepping into the breach.
  13. 11:05.

    SAINTLY held me up at the end a bit, but liked it when I figured it out. COSSET and APATHY also ticked my boxes today.

  14. I had XX minutes to do this before going to Troy (at the British Museum). When my time ran out I still had VI clues to solve. So it took me quite a bit longer than Felix’s “difficult” ninafest yesterday.
    After Troy I found a pub and, with a pint of Spitfire, I got the final clues quite quickly. My last II were CHARDONNAY and SAINTLY.
    Excellent puzzle and I cannot precisely explain why it took me so long.
    David
  15. Made a dogs dinner of this and DNF (even after giving it a break and coming back after a few hours). My first thought was that there were a lot of anagrams – at some point I will check and the blog and see if there were more than usual.

    Struggled badly on the NE top half – not knowing 6dn “Naiad” nor 13ac “Ocelot” and then having a blank on 5dn and 11ac. Thought 16dn was a Lettuce so biffed “Rocket” even thought I couldn’t parse it. As a result, couldn’t get 22ac.

    At that point I chucked the paper across the room in a hissy fit.

    Thanks as usual for the blog – always good to see where I went wrong.

  16. Thanks Jack. I would have stepped in for my Friday Oppo but I was out from 8:30 with some walking grop friends doing the Sailors’ Path from Snape to Aldeburgh and back. It’s quite a while since we had a QC from Grumpy. I seem to remember finding his relatively hard before; I certainly did today. INIQUITY my LOI. I liked CHARDONNAY best. 7:24.
    1. I sat on that shell when I was 60. My kids took me to stay in a cottage about 15 miles from Aldburgh 🙂
  17. I’ve been lurking on this blog for a few weeks now and thank you, thank you all so much for your amazing contributions.
    I’m a late returner to the skills of the cryptic – used to do the Telegraph in the pub with my mate in my early 20s. I’m now 63 and have to re-learn a lot of stuff. I hope I can give some solace to other newbies out there.
    My first goal is to understand the parsing, so I do use various cheats, currently, so I can get some clues filled in. I’m happy I got the gist of the clue at all.
    Having said that, I’ve done a few QCs in sub 30 mins with little cheating. However the iPhone version that lets you check as you go along is a big help!
    Hello to one and all and my 33:48 today I considered ok for what I found a toughie.
  18. I was hoping for something at the gentler end of the spectrum after a long week but I found this quite tough in places. I was particularly slow unscrambling some of the anagrams especially at 1a and the 8s. INIQUITY, OCELOT and SINCERE brought up the rear after a bit of a scrap so I was quite please to sneak under the 15 minute mark.
    Thanks for stepping in Jack
  19. I’m surprised and impressed that no one has really whined about this. I know I’ve had a couple of unsettled days but I was nowhere near the wavelength and was a hopeless dnf with more than 50% incomplete after what felt like an hour.
    It seemed more 15×15 in as much as each clue could be interpreted several ways and even the anagrams that I spotted appeared very tricky.
    I met my match with this one.
    Oh well, live to fight another day.
    Thanks all
    John George
  21. This was tough but there was great satisfaction in unpicking the tricky clues and much admiration for the elegantly deceptive surfaces. Favourite was 22ac where beginning and end pointed to definitions which are the opposite of the actual one (sneaky and not very good). LOI was 5d which I just could not get. I’d even called up the blog page but averted my gaze for one last look at the grid and iniquity revealed itself. Perseverance rewarded.
  22. … a few others also found this hard, as this was a rare DNF, in fact a CHGS (Could Hardly Get Started). I could plead a long lunch with some very good friends (well it is Friday), but I don’t think I would have done much better even fully sober.

    A good weekend to all, and thank you to Jack for the blog.

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