Times Quick Cryptic 1580 by Joker

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Time slipped away from me on this one and I needed 14 minutes to complete it, missing my target by 4 minutes. Put it down to the troubled times we are living through, as I don’t think there was much if anything here that should have delayed an experienced solver.

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 Bloodsucking insect‘s low around sierra desert (8)
MOSQUITO : MOO (low) containing (around) S (sierra – NATO alphabet) + QUIT (desert). Anyone not familiar with ‘low’ in this sense might have come across it the second verse of Away in a Manger which begins: ‘The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes…’
5 Four cardinals making the headlines (4)
NEWS : The four cardinal points of the compass are North South East and West; arrange them in a suitable order to make a word that fits the definition.
8 Son isn’t a good man (5)
SAINT : S (son), AIN’T (isn’t). This reminded me of a rather good musical that ran in the West End in 1999 called A Saint She Ain’t. When I saw it at the Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue I was sitting behind Maureen Lipman and her husband, the playwright Jack Rosenthal.
9 Strangely put into uncommon ecstasy (7)
RAPTURE : Anagram [strangely] of PUT, contained by [into] RARE (uncommon)
11 Jumper displayed in foie gras shop, perhaps (11)
GRASSHOPPER : Hidden [displayed] in  foie GRAS SHOP PER{haps} It’s very unusual to have a hidden word that doesn’t span every part of the phrase in which it is hiding, but of course ‘foie’ has to be present because ‘gras’ on its own would not be legitimate. Allowing for that, this serves only to draw attention to the beginning  of the word that we’re looking for, so that it’s barely hidden at all. But then this is a Quick Cryptic.
13 Where huskies may be used to decorate hat (6)
ICECAP : ICE (decorate e.g. a cake), CAP (hat)
14 What reduces impact of broadcast carrier (3,3)
AIR BAG : AIR (broadcast), BAG (carrier)
17 Awfully big lie — one fired with yen for fitness (11)
ELIGIBILITY : Anagram [awfully] of BIG LIE, then I (one), LIT (fired), Y (yen)
20 Stumbles around beach regularly twisting muscle (7)
TRICEPS : TRIPS (stumbles), containing [around] {b}E{a}C{h} [regularly] reversed [twisting]
21 One minding children of girl in New York (5)
NANNY : ANN (girl) contained by [in] NY (New York)
22 Church ceremony set down on paper for reading out (4)
RITE : Sounds like [for reading out] “write” (set down on paper)
23 One who praises figures I work on some time afterwards (8)
IDOLATER : I, DO (work on), LATER (some time afterwards). I’m doing / working on my blog at this moment.
Down
1 Millions beg for protective cover (4)
MASK : M (millions), ASK (beg)
2 Sole broken by hard beach stones (7)
SHINGLE : SINGLE (sole) containing [broken by] H (hard)
3 Sort of blue extreme Republican in New England state (11)
ULTRAMARINE : ULTRA (extreme), then R (Republican) contained by [in] MAINE (New England state)
4 Songbird‘s quiet after American’s finished (6)
THRUSH : THRU (finished) [American], SH (quiet). The song thrush came up in the 15×15 puzzle I blogged last week where we learnt that its alternative names are ‘throstle’ and ‘mavis’.
6 Stock English joke (5)
EQUIP : E (English), QUIP (joke)
7 Cheapest way to travel is always poetically in coach (8)
STEERAGE : E’ER (always, ever, poetically) contained by [in] STAGE (coach)
10 Supply a learner driver that’s qualified (11)
PROVISIONAL : PROVISION (supply), A, L (learner driver)
12 One who’ll stage a play and record it when running (8)
DIRECTOR : Anagram [running] of RECORD IT
15 Stab at one by going mad (7)
BAYONET : Anagram [going mad] of AT ONE BY
16 Perhaps sexist one when in bed (6)
BIASED : I (one) + AS (when) contained by [in] BED
18 I had sex appeal to ensnare old fool (5)
IDIOT : I’D (I had), IT (sex appeal) containing [to ensnare] O (old)
19 Textile worker set up in Surrey docks (4)
DYER : Reversed [set up] and hidden [in] {sur}REY D{ocks}

33 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1580 by Joker”

  1. at one o’clock – the next plague is just arriving in Shanghai and at 1ac.

    FOI 9ac SAINT

    LOI 16dn BIASED very poor cluing IMHO (and 11ac!)

    COD None

    WOD 3dn ULTRAMARINE

    15 minutes – very uninspiring!

  2. LOsI were 13d, 17ac, and 13ac, in that order. 17 was biffed and only completely parsed post-submission. I should have had BAYONET much earlier on, but for some reason I was trying to make ‘by going’ the anagrist; dumb. 7:02.
  3. I was back onto Joker’s wavelength today. FOI was NEWS. Then I proceeded without any major hold-ups or errors. With my checkers for 15d the first word I thought of was BEYONCE; how would Joker have clued her I wondered. Perhaps ineligible under the still-alive rules?
    LOI was ULTRAMARINE.Time 10:43.
    I enjoyed this. David

  4. Just a footnote to mention that the main puzzle is definitely worth a go today for those aspiring to step up.
    1. Thanks for your tip. Yes the 15×15 was approachable today. I enjoyed it and finished it in a little over an hour. Perhaps my brain is not totally dead yet (I was beginning to wonder after the recent run of QCs)! John
      P.s. Re your comment above I think there was enough in today’s QC to delay this solver, despite having experience of a fair number of Xwords. I suppose we all have our off days. I just seem to be having more than usual with the QC in the last week or more.

      Edited at 2020-03-30 02:03 pm (UTC)

  5. At my 20 minute target I still had two to go, and it took another six to get BIASED and then ICECAP. As usual with Joker the surfaces were excellent with the exception of ‘fois’ in 11A, but overall a very nice QC.
    Thanks to Jack for sorting out ‘thru’ and ‘lit’, the bits of wordplay I missed, and to Joker for the puzzle .

    Brian

  6. As johninterred, I bucked the trend and found so many of these write ins. Like Kevin, I did get held up in the SW – COD eligibility fooled me with the definition of fitness. 8:32 so a smidge over a K but about 2 Js.
  7. I downed this one with it barely touching the side, starting with the first 3 across clues and pausing only to check the parsing of ELIGIBILITY. LOI DIRECTOR. I liked ICE CAP and the topical MASK. 4:33.
  8. Disaster. Despite a quick start, this took me twice my target time. Most went in smoothly but I was slow to see ELIGIBILITY and I had real difficulty seeing ICECAP, IDOLATER, and my LOI BIASED (this last clue was not up to Joker’s usual standard IMO). Roll on Tuesday……. John M.

    Edited at 2020-03-30 12:22 pm (UTC)

  9. Well my time matched Jackkt’s at 14 minutes, but comfortably within my own target, so I didn’t think it particularly hard. Jackkt is usually about 2/3 of my time in his solves. My first thought for 3D was aquamarine, but it didn’t have enough letters, and didn’t fit the clue. It took a while for ULTRAMARINE to occur to me. GRASSHOPPER (admittedly not the best hidden clue) reminded me of the 70’s TV series Kung Fu with David Caradine (?) which I was a big fan of at the time.
    1. On reflection, the hidden-word indicator ‘displayed’ could not have been more appropriate on this occasion!
  10. ….than Joker’s usual fare. I came home in 0.66K, and had it not taken 10 seconds for the penny to drop on my LOI I wouldn’t have been marginally slower than johninterred.

    FOI MOSQUITO
    LOI AIR BAG
    COD MASK (for its topicality)

  11. … rather more perhaps than others here seem to have done. Even 11 across, where “foie ” hits you in the face impressed by – I certainly wouldn’t have been able to find a set of consecutive words in which to hide an 11 letter answer. I also enjoyed 23 across and 2 down. I’m less happy with the strangulated brain-tangle required to produce 20 across and I’m also not wild about the “stage” / “coach ” combo. Thanks, Jackkt, for the blog and thanks too, to Joker, whose puzzles I always enjoy.
      1. Hi, there. Yes, I got this connection – but, for me, that’s all it was. Just a connotative connection. Still enjoyed the puzzle, though.
  12. I thoroughly enjoyed that and aided by 6 espressos whizzed through in 1K + 32 seconds, which makes this an Excellent Day albeit my hands feel a little jittery.

    Is 1dn our first CoronaClue? It’s the first one I’ve noticed. One of the few bonuses of lockdown is that two of my sons are getting more and more into the cryptics and one of them is now in a crossword Whatsapp group with his friends, one of whom has produced an entire lockdown-themed puzzle of his own devising today! I’m going to point them at today’s puzzle.

    FOI MOSQUITO, LOI BIASED, COD MASK

    Thanks Joker and Jack (and thanks for the 15×15 tip, Jack).

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-03-30 11:10 am (UTC)

  13. AIR BAG

    Kit bag? Bin bag? Took me a while, not helped by the fact that ‘broadcast’ was used differently from usual.

    Edited at 2020-03-30 11:25 am (UTC)

  14. Definitely on the slow side today – I even managed to miss Grasshopper until I had nearly all the crossers in place. 5ac News was another late entry, despite having come across something very similar before. Biased was my sloi, and had a distinct ‘iffy clue’ feeling, but the real hold up today was loi Icecap. I just couldn’t see what was going on, and needed a tea break to clear the mind. Not the best way to start the week. Invariant
  15. Struggled through to finish in two sittings. Difficult SE area plus eligibility.
  17. 8 across reminds of mother overheard correcting her child in waiting room of a Birmingham hospital…”no it’s not I aren’t it’s I ain’t.”
  18. We were definitely on Joker’s wavelength today and finished it well inside our target time of 20 mins. Enjoyed it.

    FOI: mosquito
    LOI: biased
    COD: eligibility

    Thanks for the heads up re the 15×15

  19. I screamed through most of this in 6 minutes until I hit a wall with the same 3 left as Kevin, 12d, 13a and 17a. I finally limped home with ICECAP in 9:01. Thanks Joker and Jack.
  20. Ugh. Took about 4 minutes to get it, with all the checkers.

    Otherwise a puzzle of average difficulty. I liked. IDOLATER.

    11:15, but ruined by the shade of blue.

  21. Was doing ok and then hit an ultramarine icecap wall.
    Finishing in 25 mins.

    COD director.

  22. Completed in 30 mins but then realised I had 23ac wrong. I put “adulater” thinking it was a homophone (ie. add you later – figures/numbers I work on later) – albeit a poor one.

    Other than that – the rest went in ok and I generally enjoyed this puzzle.

    FOI – 1ac “Mosquito”
    LOI – 23ac “Adulater” (wrong!)
    COD – 1dn “Mask” – very apt

    Thanks as usual.

  23. I didn’t manage to parse all of my answers so very grateful for the blog. I saw MOSQUITO immediately but couldn’t work out why and much the same with TRICEPS. Struggled with ELIGIBILITY and also with trying to get 10d to fit supply as the definition, couldn’t make it long enough – then the penny dropped. Thanks for the tip that the 15×15 might be worth looking at today. Thanks again all and see you tomorrow!
  24. This definitely seems to split our merry band today! I quite enjoyed it, although there was quite a lot of biffing or semi-parsing going on, tbh. The liverish grasshopper confused me greatly – I frequently miss hiddens, and this one struggled to jump out at me (even though it was quite obvious really!) Eligibility also took a while – it seemed quite tricky for a quickie.

    All the same, it was Quite a Good Day as I came in under my par of 12 minutes.

    FOI Mask – I did wonder briefly if we were going to have some sort of Covid-19 nina
    LOI Eligibility
    COD Icecap – it made me smile
    Time A tad over 11 minutes

    Thanks Joker and Jack

    I’d agree that the biggie is worth a try today 😊

  25. A steady solve today with the SW proving the trickiest part – particularly my last 2 in 17a and 16d. Finished in 13.40.
    Thanks to jackkt
  27. … with most clues in in under 10 minutes, but 20A Triceps took a long time to come for a final 12 minute finish. Not helped by initially putting Rote in for 22A – did anyone else go down this garden path? It felt wrong though, and it took a few moments before I saw the RIGHT answer and could WRITE in RITE.

    Finished in the end though. FOI 1A Mosquito, LOI 20A Triceps, COD 23A Idolater.

    Thanks to Joker for a nice puzzle and to Jack for the blog
    Cedric

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