Times Quick Cryptic 1587 by Tracy

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit of a harder puzzle than of late, which I solved pretty much bacwards. The left hand side of the grid felt decidedly trickier than the right, and I ended up in the NW corner, with 1ac my LOI. Hope you did better!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 French accountant invested in sparkling wine, Italian wine (8)
FRASCATI – FR (French), then CA (Chartered Accountant) inside (invested in) ASTI (sparkling wine).
5 Celebrity beginning, but not ending (4)
STAR – STARt (beginning) except the last letter (but not ending).
8 Remarkable additional routine (13)
EXTRAORDINARY – EXTRA (additional) and ORDINARY (routine).
10 Took a risk, and perished rounding Cape (5)
DICED – DIED (perished) containing (rounding) C (cape).
11 Shoulder bag in small chalet exploded (7)
SATCHEL – S (small) and an anagram of (exploded) CHALET.
12 Delight as first of properties let (6)
PLEASE – first letter of Properties, then LEASE (let).
13 Irritable agent ringing down (6)
SNAPPY – SPY (agent) containing (ringing) NAP (down).
16 Grill room on left close to patisserie (7)
LATTICE – ATTIC (room) next to (on) L (left), then last letter of (close to) patisseriE.
18 Model and I do business (5)
IDEAL – I  and DEAL (do business).
20 Reporter runs into person cited in divorce proceedings (13)
CORRESPONDENT – R (runs) inside CORESPONDENT (person cited in divorce proceedings).
21 Extremely large implement (4)
TOOL – TOO (extremely) and L (large).
22 Knife fight about cash register that’s short (8)
STILETTO – SET-TO (fight) containing (about) TIL L (cash register) without its last letter (that’s short).

Down
1 Participants in range (5)
FIELD – double definition.
2 Object of bizarre recital (7)
ARTICLE – anagram of (bizarre) RECITAL.
3 Secret in family meant stopping short (11)
CLANDESTINE – CLAN (family) and DESTINEd (meant) without the last letter (stopping short).
4 Flog junk husband collected (6)
THRASH – TRASH (junk) containing (collecting) H (husband).
6 Instruct apprentice, initially in college (5)
TEACH – first letter of (initially) Apprentice inside TECH (college).
7 Payment to Prince, say, a member of the monarchy (7)
ROYALTY – a payment made to a musician (Prince, say).
9 Scruffy lot ate in inn as planned (11)
INTENTIONAL – anagram of (scruffy) LOT ATE IN INN.
12 Place to free smelly mammal (7)
POLECAT – anagram of (free) PLACE TO.
14 Quietly feel bitter about award (7)
PRESENT – P (piano, quietly) and RESENT (feel bitter about).
15 Tyrant from regimental HQ around the South (6)
DESPOT – DEPOT (regimental HQ) containing (about) S (south).
17 Body temperature, approximately (5)
TORSO – T (temperature) then OR SO (approximately).
19 The Parisian got prepared for release (3,2)
LET GO – LE (‘the’ in French, i.e. Parisian) and an anagram of (prepared) GOT.

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1587 by Tracy”

  1. Straightforward, although LOI SNAPPY took me a while, as I couldn’t get a handle on the parsing and hesitated between snappy and snippy. Royalties aren’t paid only to musicians; Prince is an example of a royalty recipient, not a musician. 4:24.
  2. Maybe I wasn’t fully awake but I found parts of this very tricky. I too dithered between Snippy and Snappy. At 7d I wanted payment to be RENT, say to be EG, so it had to be Regent something. I took ages to get the Italian wine and my last two were TORSO and LATTICE. I only just stopped myself putting in Latrine just to get finished. 18:58 on the clock.
    COD to the devilish TORSO. Great stuff from Tracy. David
  3. 27 mins but didn’t occur to me that either grill = lattice or down = nap so held up on both, and couldn’t parse teach. COD stiletto.
  4. A step up from the last couple of days with the NW proving decidedly tricky, especially the 1s, which were my last in. Like others I initially thought of SNIPPY but couldn’t make the parsing work. NHO the person cited in a divorce so 20a wasn’t fully parsed. Lots to enjoy but my favourites were DICED and POLECAT. Finished in 12.57.
    Thanks to william for the blog.
  5. Definitely tougher after two gentler puzzles I made up Frascati and hoped that it existed as I’d never heard of it. My OED checker even said it was rare! Likewise it looked like Stiletto and didn’t see set to. A shade tough that for a quickie but all in all a good workout . Thanks all
  6. Yes, down to earth after two consecutive 5-minute solves, finishing in 13 minutes.

    There’s nothing too difficult here but some stuff that needed a little more thought to satisfy myself that I understood everything before moving on to the the next clue.

    CLANDESTINE, PLEASE and POLECAT were the three that delayed me for longest. NHO Prince as a performer, so took ‘payment’ as one definition and lumped ‘prince’ in with the second one.

    Edited at 2020-04-08 08:26 am (UTC)

  7. 21 minutes, on target for what I thought was perfect for a QC. Last ones were FIELD and IDEAL, and everything was parsed except SNAPPY. Frascatti was our wine of choice at one time, beautifully light and dry.
    Thanks to Tracy for another excellent puzzle and to William for explaining why ‘down’ = ‘nap’.

    Brian

  8. 18 minutes and back to Earth after the heights of a couple of sub-10-minute solves. I should have got FRASCATI, FIELD and THRASH much more quickly than I did. I can understand the confusion between SNAPPY and SNIPPY, particularly if one is trying to justify NAP in the sense of a short sleep (as in going down for a nap), but in its other sense (meaning the downy surface on something such as a snooker table or golf green) the clue makes perfect sense.

    Jackkt, I’m surprised you managed to never hear of Prince – the rock performer who changed his name to a squiggle and was henceforth known as ‘the artist formerly known as Prince‘.

    Thanks Tracy and William.

    1. All fans of PG Wodehouse will remember “co-respondent shoes” – brogues made with some white leather panels included for early C20 bling. Jeeves did not approve. I’m sure the Rotter/Terry Thomas would have worn them!

      Tougher than of late but still sub 10 for 2.1 Kevins and a Good Day. FRASCATI was a tester as 1ac but the top half went in fast; the bottom half, however, was a completely different story and I had to dot around. POLECAT was a very well-concealed anagram but once the penny dropped that opened things up. PLEASE needed a trawl; fortunately there aren’t that many letters that will plausibly fit between P and E.

      FOI FRASCATI, LOI PLEASE, COD POLECAT. Thanks to Tracy and William.

      Templar

    2. Rotter, you may be even more surprised that I never heard of Freddie Mercury until I saw a headline in 2 inch letters that he was dead. I’ve also never seen STAR WARS!
      1. Jethro Tull? (Ian Anderson – the flautist not the agriculturalist)

        Edited at 2020-04-08 09:27 am (UTC)

        1. I was aware of him at some point having seen him on TV possibly when he was starting out. My disconnect with mainstream music of the day began around 1970, so it must have been before that.
  9. Early start for me today…I am on week 4 of couch to 5K (not Kevin) with my working from home daughter. We live on top of a hill so the final leg of running is not easy. It was with some relief that I sat down to solve this Tracy QC and although a little slower than on previous days I found a lot to enjoy. FOI FRASCATI. The 4 long clues required a few checkers and EXTRAORDINARY was the last of the 4 to fall after belatedly solving FIELD. I enjoyed the cluing for TOOL, STILETTO, INTENTIONAL and TORSO. LOI in just under 2K was LATTICE.

    Edited at 2020-04-08 09:07 am (UTC)

  10. A very good puzzle that had me totally immersed. More difficult than the last two but lots of pleasure. I thought I was quicker than my real time which was within a few seconds of my target (but 3.5K). My LOsI in were FIELD and FRASCATI. I enjoyed STILETTO, SNAPPY, LATTICE, PRESENT, DESPOT, TORSO. Many thanks to Tracy and William. John M.
  12. If I’d never heard of Frascati, Freddie Mercury or Umberto Fellatio I would never let on.

    Fashion update. I wore co-respondent shoes in blue and yellow, bought from ‘Kween’ King’s Road in 1972. Also their marooon stack-heel boots which Mr. Robert Plant envied. ‘Grey Flannel’ off Baker Street (cue music) was all the rage for tank-tops and linen suits. Then it all changed and ‘Comme de Garcon’ rolled-up. Hair by ‘Leonard’s’ Mayfair’.

    FOI 1ac FRASCATI – and managed two more in my 13 minutes.

    LOI 13ac SNAPPY – get me a crocodile sandwich and make it snappy! (Groucho)

    COD 22ac STILETTO – never knowingly wore ’em.

    WOD 3dn CLANDESTINE

    All my clobber these days is from Marks & Sparks!

    Edited at 2020-04-08 09:52 am (UTC)

    1. Hi David
      Where did fellatio come from? It’s almost impossible to use that in a sentence without a double entrendre.
      Made me laugh anyhow which is much needed at the moment. Let’s face it, there’s no 8yo s doing cryptics. Or are there??
      Hopeless today. Big work problem and unless I’m focused my target of 25 is challenging if it’s a toughie like today.
      Stay safe. Johnny
  13. At one time FRASCATI was my wine of choice when eating Italian, so that was my FOI. I then made reasonable progress around the grid apart from the SW which needed the extra neuron’s engagement. I was also slow to come up with SNAPPY, not being sure about the “down” meaning of NAP. I eventually saw POLECAT and filled up the SW, with LATTICE being my LOI. 11:41. Thanks Tracy and William.
  14. A nice puzzle for the QC today – completed in my average of about 30 mins.

    However, nearly got hamstrung by biffing “griddle” for 16ac before I had any checkers and having to reverse ferret once I had the rest of the SW corner completed. I also didn’t easily equate down with “nap” for 13ac “Snappy”.

    Being an accountant myself, I had all forms of ACA, ACCA etc. before realising it was the simplest CA for Frascati.

    FOI – 5ac “Star”
    LOI – 18a “Ideal”
    COD – 22ac “Stiletto” – took me ages to see the “set to” for fight.

    Thanks as usual.

  15. LATTICE for grill was LOI and only just seemed to fit, so submitted with fingers crossed. All done in 15m which would be totally reasonable were it not for the last two days. Both POLECAT and ARTICLE took a bit of unraveling.
  16. Off the boil again today, struggling with clues that shouldn’t have been that much of a problem, although Snappy went in without any second thoughts. In the end I needed two sittings to finally crack the 1st column. Polecat was a very well hidden anagram, but CoD to 17d Torso. Invariant
  17. Finished but put snippy and had to look up lattice in crossword dictionary . Oh well.
    Quite a bit of darting about needed.
  18. ….grill in the culinary sense, but grille in the sense given here, I felt the nonce word “lattic” would have been apt.

    I was slightly off the pace today at 1.045K and like others here I can see no reason why.

    FOI STAR
    LOI FIELD
    COD THRASH

  19. Pretty straightforward and we enjoyed it. LOI was polecat but we got it because of the checkers – we didn’t see the anagram. FOI was article – where we did see the anagram. COD – lattice.

  20. … with an 11 minute solve. But actually, good to stretch the little grey cells – one doesn’t, in these days of staying at home, want every day to be a 5 minuter!

    Struggled to see Nap = down in 13A until I read the blog and comments above, and Field for participants in 1D is another I had not met before and will store away for future reference. But otherwise, a very fair and satisfying puzzle from Tracy.

    FOI 5A Star, LOI 16A Lattice (I confess I don’t often think of an attic as a room – probably because our attic is a ghastly dusty glory-hole), COD 22A Stiletto, nice clue.

    Thank you William for the blog.

    Cedric

  21. Grill threw me, as – like Phil – I would spell the lattice ‘grille’ and snappy took a few extra seconds. Otherwise, I didn’t find this too hard with lots to enjoy. I used to like Frascati a lot, but you don’t really see it much these days (well, I don’t see anything much these days – can’t wait to get past my front door.) The ubiquitous Pinot Grigio has superseded most Italian wines, as far as I can see! Although we did recently enjoy a very nice bottle of Gavi that our daughter bought us – to be recommended 🥂

    FOI Article
    LOI Present
    COD Torso
    Time 11 minutes (or so)

    Thanks, as ever, to Tracy and William

  22. Struggled with this – especially in the NW and then the LOI lattice. Good deception from Tracy. 13 minutes.
  23. Can someone explain 13a. I cannot understand how nap comes from the clue and connects to ringing
  24. Hopeless today, not on the same wavelength at all, so thanks to everyone for their explanations!
    Diana

  25. Thanks for your question.

    Nap = a downy covering, like that on a snooker table, clued as just ‘down’.

    Spy = an agent (of the secret kind).

    SPY is ringing NAP (i.e. encircling it), to give S-NAP-PY

    Hope this helps!

    1. Oh dear, I read it as “nap” = down, as in not operating or being asleep. Thanks for the explanation.
  26. Enjoyed this harder test today, we failed with 16a, and could only think of latrine to fit. We agree with the comments on the spelling of grill, which threw us of the scent. Thanks to Tracy for the puzzle and as always the helpful and often amusing comments above. Most helpful in this lock down situation.
  27. Prince sold 100m albums, more than Elton John and twice as many as Bob Dylan
  28. Does anyone on the team have direct access to the Times HQ…? If so may I suggest you ask them to extend the QC to Saturday and Sunday as we are all spending a LOT of time enjoying these…
  29. 10:01.

    I prefer them to be a bit more difficult, but appreciate that beginners need encouragement. I see I was very slow indeed, being over 2K, when I’m normally in the 1 to 1.5 range.

  30. Can someone explain 13a. I cannot understand how nap comes from the clue and connects to ringing
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