Times Quick Cryptic 1577 by Teazel

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Very slow for me – partly because I’m a little out of practice lately, but also due to quite a lot of those crypticky sideways definitions that I’ve always been slow to twig. I probably wouldn’t have thought much about if were I not blogging today, but 8ac/10ac/11ac/20dn got me trying to define the difference (if any) between a cryptic defintion and a definition with cryptic hint. Anyway, there’s lots of them, which makes the explanations tricky – do ask if I’ve not given you enough to go on.

Definitions underlined.

Across
3 Criticise a conurbation for greed (8)
RAPACITY – RAP (criticise), A, CITY (conurbation). Great clue, which I re-engineered from the made up ‘panatown’.
7 Conditional release of father to attend function (6)
PAROLE – PA (father) next to (to attend) ROLE (function).
8 Sort of group that gets under your skin? (8)
SPLINTER – cryptic definition; a break-away group.
9 Pale daughter’s magic accessory (4)
WAND – WAN (pale) and D (daughter).
10 Burning paper? (3)
SUN – crytic definition referring to the tabloid newspaper.
11 Time-saving tip that’s not so hairy? (5,3)
SHORT CUT – cryptic definition.
13 Love this statue? Turning angry (4)
EROS – reversal of (turning) SORE (angry). Aside from the Yoda-esque definition, I think the question mark takes care of any Eros/Anteros ambiguity.
15 Fly back out of Katanga (4)
GNAT – reverse hidden in (back out of) kaTANGa.
17 From part of hospital, bore off set of clothes (8)
WARDROBE – WARD (part of hospital) and an anagram of (off) BORE.
19 Cry, going with this colour (3)
HUE – ‘cry’ goes with this in the phrase ‘hue and cry’, meaning to raise the alarm after witnessing a crime.
22 Swelling, be very angry (4)
BOIL – double definition.
23 A secondary job working in diesel (8)
SIDELINE – anagram of (working) IN DIESEL.
24 Concerned with omen, stand down (6)
RESIGN – RE (regarding, concerned with) and SIGN (omen).
25 The shape of American defence? (8)
PENTAGON – cryptic definition; both a shape and the name (and shape) of the US Dept. of Defense (sic) headquarters.

Down
1 It’s something to run a temperature: no harm moving around outside (8)
MARATHON – anagram of (moving) NO HARM, surrounding (outside) A and T (temperature).
2 Below NY apartment, see rook or vulture (6)
CONDOR – below CONDO (condominium, US (potentially New York) apartment) is R (rook).
3 Don’t use snooker aid (4)
REST – double definition.
4 Pulsing laser, top guide at night (4,4)
POLE STAR – a.k.a. the North Star – anagram of (pulsing) LASER TOP.
5 Dog carrying stick around at home (6)
CANINE – CANE (stick) containing (around) IN (at home). ‘Carrying’ is an odd equivalence indicator, or should I be thinking of a yoke (or carrying stick) made of bamboo/cane?
6 Rain heavily as hunting party turning up (4)
TEEM – often followed by ‘down’ in this context – MEET (hunting party) reversed (turning up).
12 Cringe frightfully, suppressing cry of pain, doing this? (8)
COWERING – anagram of (frightfully) CRINGE containing (suppressing) OW (cry of pain).
14 Elite institutions that beast can cross? (8)
OXBRIDGE – an OX BRIDGE might be something a beast can cross.
16 Running around, the rat is a danger (6)
THREAT – anagram of (running around) THE RAT.
18 Strong, but run over and broken (6)
ROBUST – R (run), O (over) and BUST (broken).
20 Bird that’s flown as an experiment (4)
KITE – cryptic definition, the hint referring to the famous experiment performed by Benjamin Franklin.
21 Part of winter nasty for bird (4)
TERN – hidden in (part of) winTER Nasty.

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1577 by Teazel”

  1. I think KITE is more from phrases like “kite-flying” which Chambers describes as “testing public opinion by circulating rumors.” I guess it might have something to do with Franklin but I think it is more to do with the idea of putting up a kite to see if there is enough wind for it to fly.

    I also got to RAPACITY via “pan a town”!

  2. I was going along lickety-split, but 8ac (LOI) held me up for at least a minute. I find this kind of clue irritating; a splinter is not a sort of group, although a splinter group is. (A Macintosh is a sort of apple; an eating isn’t. Etc.) Also, I don’t understand what New York is doing in 2d. There are condos throughout the US, and of course most apartments in NY are not condos.6:50.
  3. Finally ended my run of over 20m solves but only just at 19.53 – second slowest of the all green early solvers!. All going very nicely until I got to the final three or four at the top. SPLINTER caused me lots of problems, too focused on vowels filling the gap between S and L at the top and trying to make SILICONE fit because that was all I could make fit. General knowledge let me down yet again with CONDO which I knew but was no where near my thinking when I finally spotted CONDOR, TEEM was last in, can’t explain why, just couldn’t think of a synonym for ‘hunting party’. GNAT was tricky, spotting GN as the start of a word when reading backwards was evil! Happy isolation gang, see you tomorrow.
  4. 7 minutes. no problem, though I suspect it won’t be long before somebody mentions the ‘gnat is not a fly’ argument. Oh dear, I’ve done it myself! Anyhway, I don’t subscribe to it.

    I’m also quite relaxed about ‘splinter’ as ‘sort of group’ and similar-type clues, taking the clue as an instruction to come up with an adjective that can be used to describe a particular sort of something (group) but also fits (in this case as a noun) with the other part of the clue.

    Edited at 2020-03-25 07:16 am (UTC)

  5. Slow at 25 mins.

    Last 2 teem and splinter.

    MERs:
    Sun for burning.
    Don’t use for rest
    The but in 18d

    Didnt parse 19a.

    COD marathon, only because I have one in July in the North Downs, and training outside is becoming difficult, not as is usual here from the increasing temp, but restrictions on running.

    1. I don’t think ‘burning’ is cluing SUN in 10ac. It’s a cryptic clue in which we’re meant to take the two words ‘burning paper’ together. The question mark indicates the need for a little lateral thinking.

      Edited at 2020-03-25 12:25 pm (UTC)

    2. I agree with Jackkt, and I’m afraid I’ve contributed to the confusion by never really knowing how to underline such clues.

      So no MER from me, but I do think it’s a bit of weak clue.

  6. Lots of clever and good stuff in the puzzle today. My FOI was CONDOR. LOI OXBRIDGE where I was looking for a word ending INGS;a close read of the clue was needed.
    Football managers often rest players i.e. don’t use them; no problem there.
    COD to SPLINTER but the SIDELINE anagram and clue very good. Time:11:16. David
  7. I see David has beaten me to it. I had a MER at REST for “Not use” until I thought of managing a football team. LOI SPLINTER, but, unlike Kevin, I saw it straight away, and the game was over less than a minute after half (my target) time as I slotted that one home. I managed to avoid any own goals as I raced through this end-to-end in 3:31.
  8. As ever pleased to finish without aids. 35 mins. MERs noted above were mine too!
  9. Very hard to get a foothold. It felt very very slow but ended up just slow….. 5 mins over my new target and almost exactly 3 on my old scale. I agree with flashman’s MERs. LOsI were EROS and SPLINTER. I quite liked COWERING but was slow to see OXBRIDGE, CONDOR, and GNAT. John M.

    Edited at 2020-03-25 09:37 am (UTC)

  10. 11 minutes for what I considered a bit of a walk in the park. Does that mean I can’t have another one now? FOI RAPACITY and LOI RESIGN (after OXBRIDGE revealed itself). I can’t pick a COD. Thanks Teazel and William.
  12. Like David I wasted some time trying to make my LOI, OXBRIDGE, end in INGS. I often use a REST while cueing, so that was easy, especially with the R from my FOI, RAPACITY. Otherwise no problems and I was all done in 8:33. Thanks Teazel and William.
  13. ….I raced through this in 0.49K and am currently 8th on the leaderboard. Only not having that CONDOR moment immediately prevented a clean sweep.

    FOI RAPACITY
    LOI WAND
    COD KITE

  14. Home in 1.3 Kevins. FOI PAROLE and LOI SPLINTER. I biffed and never did parse CONDOR ….caught out by it in the concise recently and guessed KITE. I have to confess I did not know about the famous experiment but I have now read up about it. HUE was also bunged in from the two checkers. Thanks all.
  15. Had I known a snooker rest was called a rest (which now seems pretty obvious) I might have got SPLINTER but I didn’t, sadly. Otherwise pretty good

    Thanks all round.

  16. 8ac SPLINTER I have absolutely no problem with this more lateral type of clue. My LOI.

    Re – 2dn CONDOR most Brits think of NY as US, but as Andrew Cuomo relates – it ain’t!

    Time 8:45

    FOI 18ac GNAT flyed in!

    COD 25ac PENTAGON – Trump General

    WOD 14dn OXBRIDGE neat,clever,bi-partisan, and British?

    As per 15×15 today I ventured out for the first time in eight weeks.

      1. Getting back home felt better! And it can still flare up again if we are not vigilant. The weather is glorious as were the magnolias and cherry blossoms.
        Today’s 15×15 stressed everyone out, even the Time Lords who usually roll home in less than 10 minutes!
        Mr. Snitch went down from 171-164 second highest of the year. Better luck tomorrow!
  17. The Black GNAT is a well-known trout fly so I had no issues with that … I’m currently hoping that trout fishing is going to be a permitted form of exercise when the season starts (it’s certainly a form of self-isolating).

    I liked SPLINTER and RAPACITY; didn’t like SUN or CONDOR. Took ages over OXBRIDGE because I too was trying to make it end INGS and X is a long way through the alphabet. D&D in 2K for a Decent Day.

    Thanks Teazel and William.

    Templar

  18. For the first time in a week or so I have managed sub 30 mins, so either the puzzle was easier or my brain is getting back into gear.

    However, it did take a while to get my first one in and the bottom half seemed to be a little more straightforward.

    FOI – 17ac “Wardrobe”
    LOI – 8ac “Splinter”
    COD – 1db “Marathon” – for a not so apt surface.

    Thanks as usual

    Edited at 2020-03-25 01:32 pm (UTC)

  19. Enjoyable romp through this one with no real issues. Imagine our surprise when a time of 5 hours 39 minutes and 40 sec (Kevin’s score for the year?) appeared on the screen 😂.

    FOI: wand
    LOI: splinter
    COD: shortcut

  20. We have reluctantly just sold our beautiful boat and used 4d to work out where we were for sixty years, so that was nostalgic (and quick to get).

    Thanks everyone.

    Diana

  21. Another very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you for cheering us up with interesting and entertaining puzzles so far this week – just what we need to keep us going while staying at home.
    FOI 9A
    COD 1D
    LOI 8A (Aid required. I kept thinking of hypodermic, no doubt as intended)
    Thank you, William and Teazel
    Blue Stocking
  22. I really enjoyed this one today. I always take a relatively long time but that’s OK wih me. TEEM was my last in as I didn’t think of meet for a hunting party. Got OXBRIDGE as soon as I had all the crossers. I am sticking to the quick cryptic at the moment as the 15×15 stresses me out and keeping calm is top priority at present! Thanks all.
    1. Wise move – today’s is brutal.

      Late solve today but no problems, 4’15”.

  23. Reasonably quick for me until getting stuck on LOI SPLINTER, where like an earlier commenter I was focusing on a vowel between the S and L. Finally resorted to an alphabet trawl with a difference in that I started with the last letter and worked backwards – once I’d got the R and the T the answer was obvious.
    Finished in 11.38.
    Thanks to william

    Edited at 2020-03-25 04:59 pm (UTC)

  24. At last! Bliitzed a terrific T2 and felt we could post here at last. Beautifully straightforward puzzle with clues that fell like precision dominos. Thanks for a great boost to the ego, Teazel. BFM. FOI Eros, LOI Splinter, COD Parole for a nice clean surface.

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