Times Quick Cryptic 1591 by Wurm

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A tough one which I only just completed thanks to some unlikely memory retrieves (1ac, 20ac, 13dn) plus a fingers crossed LOI at 10ac. 13 minutes. Beginners on the cryptic crossword road do need to be aware that it is a journey which increases your knowledge as well as solving skills. No one ever said cryptic crosswords were meant to be easy – good luck!

ACROSS

1. Furry animal, feline, one devouring duck (5)
COATI – I just about remembered this raccoon type animal. Feline (CAT) and one (I) devouring duck (O).
7. Ancient Kingdom amid ocean that’s stormy (9)
MACEDONIA – anagram (that’s stormy) of AMID OCEAN.
9. Sound to cover expletive in unforgettable episode (5)
BLEEP – in unforgetta(BLE EP)isode.
10. Plant an oribi chewed (7)
ROBINIA – anagram (chewed) of AN ORIBI. the anagram was clear but was it rObInia or rIbOnia? The first one sounded better. AKA the locust tree.
11. Poison sarnie upset Conservative (7)
ARSENIC – anagram (upset) of SARNIE, Conservative (C).
12. Turn up in a foreign land (7)
UNEARTH – a foreign (French – UN), land (EARTH).
15. Underground toiler opposing a goddess (7)
MINERVA – another GK test but this one was at the front of my brain for some reason. Underground toilet toiler (MINER), opposing (versus – V), a (A). Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, arts, trade, war strategy, medicine, poetry and handicraft – I guess she was good at multitasking.
18. Storm battered MEP cutting tax (7)
TEMPEST – anagram (battered) of MEP inside tax (TEST).
20. Composer admits second sin to French king (7)
ROSSINI – the French king (ROI) got me into this one, then second (S) and sun (SIN).
22. Creature in lake with Buddhist monk (5)
LLAMA – lake (L), Buddhist monk (LAMA).
23. One sitting in judgement shows awareness (9)
SENTIENCE – one (I) sitting inside judgement (SENTENCE).
24. Mother, child and secretive lodger?
MASON – COD for the definition – Mason’s attend secret lodges (apparently). Mother (MA), child (SON).

DOWN

1. Firm support for lethal striker (5)
COBRA – not the meeting – the snake. Firm (CO), support (BRA). We had an epidemic of these supporters a year or so back but their use (in crosswords) seems to have declined.
2. Dislike a particular account (8)
AVERSION – a (A), particular account (VERSION).
3. Threaten naughty child with death (6)
IMPEND – naughty child (IMP) with death (END).
4. Safe to eat? Editor given terrible bile! (6)
EDIBLE – editor (ED), anagram (terrible) of BILE.
5. Man one to be skinned soon (4)
ANON – take man and one together and skin off the outside letters m(AN ON)e. I wonder if we are missing ‘unknown’ at the start of the clue to make the definition
6. Goat god longing for real style (7)
PANACHE – didn’t really need to know that Pan is depicted with goat horns to solve this clue. Goat god (PAN), longing (ACHE).
8. Revolutionary movement, a magazine’s readership? (11j
CIRCULATION – double definition.
13. Sailor in Israel bothered old French writer (8)
RABELAIS – sailor (AB) inside and anagram (bothered) of ISRAEL. Old as in historic – he was around the turn of the 16th century.
14. European married iron lady in power (7)
EMPRESS – European (E), married (M), iron (PRESS).
16. Endlessly cultivating dried fruit (6)
RAISIN – missing the last letter of cultivating (RAISIN)g.
17. Sign from Ensemble Modern (6).
EMBLEM – from Ens(EMBLE M)odern.
19. Artist coming in can instruct (6)
TRAIN – artist (RA) coming inside can (TIN).
21. Founder of some business in Knightsbridge (4)
SINK – some of busines(S IN K)nightsbridge.

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1591 by Wurm”

  1. No problems except NHO ROBINIA, where I reasoned as Chris did. 22ac reminded me of Ogden Nash’s poem: The one-L lama, he’s a priest/ The 2-L llama, he’s a beast;/ And I will bet a silk pajama / There isn’t any 3-L lllama. Chris, it’s underground toiler! 5:28.

    Edited at 2020-04-14 01:47 am (UTC)

  2. 20 mins but with Ribonia.

    I think the editor needs to create a decision making flowchart. One question would be: does the puzzle contain an obscure plant clued by an anagram…Just read an article in Gardening gone wild about the invasive Robinia, so wont be planting that but will hopefully remember next time.

    Haven’t heard of Rabelais but pieced that together assuming the sailor was at the top. Google comes up with an odd quote from Rabelais: “But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose”

    15×15 is ok today, but I’m stuck on 3 clues.

    COD mason.

    Edited at 2020-04-14 05:58 am (UTC)

    1. I’d forgotten that chapter (hell, I’ve forgotten virtually all of the two books); thanks, I guess, for reminding me of it! Rabelais was one of the dirty writers in the River City library that the ladies complain of in “The Music Man”: “Chaucer! Rabelais! Balzac!” I first heard of Rabelais at the age of 12 when I saw the musical, and immediately went to check him out from the public library. (That’s ‘arsewipes’, isn’t it?)

      Edited at 2020-04-14 07:54 am (UTC)

  3. A shade under 20. I take Chris’s point that each crossword helps us grow but I don’t have to enjoy them at the time! ROBINIA & RABELAIS unknown, ROSSINI not really known – I couldn’t hum a tune – but had at least heard of and PAN and MINERVA OK. Lots of hiddens – perhaps more than I’ve ever seen in one place before – so that helped with checkers. Favourite penny-dropping moment came with SINK where I’d spotted it very early but took a second look to see what founder meant.
  4. It was a very close thing as to whether I would achieve my 10 minute target today but I managed it with a couple of seconds to spare. ROBINIA rang the faintest of bells and I’d have sworn it had come up quite recently but according to a TfTT Google search this is its first appearance in any Times puzzle. I must have met it elsewhere.

    Edited at 2020-04-14 04:55 am (UTC)

  5. I found this tricky in places due to a couple of unknowns – the animal, author and plant – but had to the rely on the wordplay and submit with fingers crossed. An enjoyable solve, finished in 11.23 with LOI RABELAIS and my favourite being SINK, due to the penny drop moment.
    Thanks to chris
  6. Held up at the end by PANACHE having successfully navigated MINERVA, RABELAIS and the unknown ROBINIA. I liked BLEEP. 4:48.
  7. I think you do need to know that Pan had goat horns – I didn’t and couldn’t justify Panache even though i thought it had to be. Never heard of a coati, never heard of Rabelais or Robinia. Dnf and glad I never bothered!
  8. Wow, tough enough. COATI constructed entirely from wordplay – what a stinker for 1ac. Fortunately I have two ROBINIAs outside my study window and the smutty bits of RABELAIS were compulsory reading at school. All done in 1.5K for a Very Good Day but it felt uphill most of the way. It took me ages to see the definition of ANON so you have my sympathy, Chris.

    I’m very glad Kevin posted the llama poem, I was struggling to remember it but it makes me chuckle!

    Chris, you’ve turned MINERVA into a chap (“he was good”). Very gender fluid. Thanks for the blog and thanks Wurm.

    Templar

  9. A strange and quite testing QC. Some gifts but some head scratchers and good misdirection. I got nowhere from the top until I reached ARSENIC but it gradually took shape (much easier as the crossers emerged) and I finished back in the NW with BLEEP, COBRA, COATI. Just over target but within 3K. I liked ROSSINI, MASON, EMPRESS, SINK, ANON. For me, this was easier than Juno’s QC yesterday. Thanks to Wurm for a good puzzle and to Chris for the good blog (I didn’t notice the blips, Chris). John M.

    Edited at 2020-04-14 08:53 am (UTC)

  10. I’m with Mendesest, you don’t have to enjoy a puzzle, and I didn’t enjoy this one. I’ve never liked ones with strange grids and triple checkers, and I’m not sure where I got MINERVA, RABELLAIS and ROBINIA from. I finished on 30 minutes with SENTIENCE, and I enjoyed the blog more than the puzzle! Thanks, Chris.

    Brian

  11. I enjoyed today’s grid from Wurm which took me just under 20 minutes to complete. All very fair clueing and, if you trust the setter’s directions, journey’s end is definitely achievable. Lovely surfaces and some subtle misdirection provided by eg tax, iron lady and founder with their connotations of VAT, Margaret Thatcher and benefactor, respectively. Very much liked 6 and 21 down. Thanks, Chris, for the blog and thanks, too, to Wurm.
  12. This took me to exactly 19 minutes, so definitely chewy, with the usual subjects causing the problems. Heaven knows where I dragged COATI from, but RABELAIS and ROBINIA were only vaguely remembered.

    Chris, in 5d the definition is soon, another meaning of ANON, as in ‘I’ll be with you soon / anon’.

    1. Of course it is – thank you! I got anon (anonymous) in my head and couldn’t see past it.
  13. This is my first post and, as a relative newcomer to the Times QC, this was one of my fastest times – at just over 15 minutes.
    I particularly enjoyed MASON and COBRA which both raised a smile.
    Thanks to Wurm and Chris. I thought you’d written ‘underground toilet’ as a joke!
    Stay safe everybody.
    1. Welcome Gill! I’m afraid that proofreading, as you’ll be able to tell, is not one of my strong points.
  14. Was your comment about Minerva being “at the front of your brain” intended to be humorous?
    Made me laugh anyway, knowing her origin.
  15. ….in the underground toilet (brightened my morning Chris, even if unintentionally !), or, indeed anywhere else. If you had all the GK required, it wasn’t too difficult (as a second successive 0.66K bears out), but if you hadn’t got that edge I can appreciate it would be quite tricky.

    My father, born in Hull in 1912, would take his leave of friends with “I’ll see you anon”.

    FOI COATI (Scrabble players should watch for their opponents playing “coat”)
    LOI UNEARTH (finally dug it up !)
    COD MASON (see Python’s “Architect Sketch)

    1. Steed’s dad was also born in Hull in 1933 and he also would say “see you anon”
  16. I found this very easy, submitting in 5:16. Sadly I’d been very careless with the anagrist for the unknown plant and shoved in RABINIA. Eejit!! Thanks Wurm and Chris.
  17. Firstly a tip of the hat to Juno, yesterday’s setter, for a nina which eluded nearly all of us. Had I seen it my resit would not have been necessary.
    Re today’s puzzle, I knew all the GK including the plant so I was home in an untroubled 11 minutes on paper. FOI was SINK. Last two were PANACHE and UNEARTH. COD to COBRA on a day when a lethal Swedish striker is on the back page of The Times.
    I thought WURM was a little easier than usual but if you have the GK it’s usually easy to spot the answer. David
  18. A toughie I thought, taking me well above my average, and the first for a while where I thought a bit of GK was needed. Still, there were some clever clues and nice misdirection.

    As above, I didn’t get anywhere until 11ac “Arsenic”, with the rest going in steadily until my holds ups of “Robinia”, “Minerva”, “Empress” and “Rabelais”.

    FOI – 11ac “Arsenic”
    LOI – 13dn “Rabelais”
    COD – 24ac “Mason”

    Thanks as usual.

  20. A hard one for a change… Struggled through, (Rabelais in a QC?), picking up crossers here and there until I was down to my last pair, 12ac and 6d. Eventually saw Unearth (why not French rather than Foreign?), but by then I was losing the will to carry on and gave up with Panache extant 😉. CoD to 24ac, Mason, a high spot on a less than enjoyable journey. Invariant
  21. I enjoyed this, and having all the bits of GK somewhere in my brain meant I could biff and then retro-parse in a number of places. SINK and ANON took a while to click. The use of “can” in 19D eluded me for a while but then raised a smile. Minerva I know mainly as a local pub name. Plymouthian
  22. Tough but fair and enjoyable. Plugged away and got them all, then could savour the deceptions in COBRA, SINK and MASON, among others. COATI and ROBINIA vaguely informed guesses, as so often the case for me with the natural world. No time but no rush, sitting in the sun with pen, newspaper and coffee.
  23. Pretty straightforward run for us today. We were held up for a moment with the robinia anagram as we’ve been incorrectly pronouncing it as “rubinia”. – so you learn something new every day.

    Enjoyable puzzle – thank you.

    FOI: Macedonia
    LOI: Rabelais
    COD: cobra

    Thanks Chris

    Edited at 2020-04-14 01:50 pm (UTC)

    1. Is COUNTDOWN still on the go!? My mother used to mainline it with Yorkshire Tea and a mince pie. Loved ‘Imoff’! Remember the ties!? And the naughty one!?

      Edited at 2020-04-14 02:50 pm (UTC)

      1. It’s in it’s 38th year (I wish I was). “Imoff was a lovely guy. I appeared on the show in the early 90’s, and some 10 years later I met him at Beverley Races. I’d decided not to approach him, as his horse was about to run, but he spotted me and I was astounded when he recognised me ! I spent the rest of the meeting in a private box with his party. A most convivial afternoon, topped off by getting the last winner of the day at 8-1 and wiping out my earlier losses.
  25. I enjoyed this today and finished in under half an hour which is fine by me. I wasn’t sure about COATI and checked in the dictionary. I was also not sure if it was Rosinni or Rossini but the clueing sorted that out.
    FOI robinia (I’ve heard of it but couldn’t tell you what it looks like)
    LOI aversion (as I had hesitated over coati)
    COD unearth
    Thank you Wurm and Chris
    Blue Stocking
  26. Finally got round to my entry – done in 10.45 mins after brekker and the 15×15 – very busy day. Whilst some have been lolling in front of Countdown, other’s have been at the coal-face!

    FOI in COATI the animal from Scrabbleland.

    LOI 9ac BLEEP I had BLOOP! Followed by AVERSION therapy.

    COD 23ac SENTIENCE seamless

    WOD 10ac ROBINIA from the garden of my youth.

    Tomorrow is another day…

  27. … as I was very much on Wurm’s wavelength for a finish in just over 7 minutes with all parsed.

    The GK was familiar and the only real holdup was COD 12A Unearth, where I spent a few moments looking for a word meaning turn that I could run backwards in a word meaning foreign until the penny dropped.

    A Good Day, and thank you Chris for the blog, much enjoyed whether proof-read or not, and to Wurm for the puzzle.

    Cedric

  28. …another hidden LOI, and one that took a shamefully long time, so the misdirection of FOUNDER/SINK worked a treat on me!

    11:02. None of the trickier vocabulary or GK posed a problem, just AVERSION and me being unable to get Harrods out of my head!

  29. I also seem to be going against most views on this one – I had the GK, followed the wordplay, and had a much better time (in both senses) than yesterday, so all in all, I found it most enjoyable. In fact, at 1.65K, I’d go so far as to say it’s A Good Day!

    I was quite taken aback at the amount of hiddens (I counted five), though, and there was also a fair smattering of anagrams and part-anagrams. Lots of entertaining misdirection, as others have commented – I too thought immediately of Harrods at 21d. BLEEP and PANACHE both made me smile.

    FOI Macedonia
    LOI Rabelais – I’ve never read any Rabelais, but certainly know the adjective Rabelaisian to describe something raunchy
    COD Mason – there’s a story in there somewhere
    Time 9:01

    Thanks Wurm and Chris

  30. I come into the didn’t enjoy it and it was hard group today! Even after reading the blog and all your comments I still don’t understand how the definition of SINK is founder although I found it fine and entered it! Hope I enjoy tomorrows more! Thanks all.
  31. Not sure how you get circulation from revolutionary ( unless it’s the Morning Star of course). Interesting that bloggers swallow Coati and Rabelais happily but think Telstar is obscure- see daily quiz immediately above.
    1. It’s revolutionary movement = circulation. Cars move in a revolutionary movement geographically, round the North Circular.
  33. Hi Rowena. I think when a boat sinks it’s said to founder but often the word flounder is used which ironically is also a fish. I think both words have been muddled so much in recent times that I certainly wouldn’t know the correct use. DNF today due to the chews above as had to return to my Covid paintathon. 😡
    1. I think you mean flounder – a flatfish. But yes, a boat can founder=sink on an unseen reef.
  34. Absolute rubbish from Wurm.
    Again.
    1ac. 10ac. Are you joking?
    23ac. A sentence is not a judgement- though it can in some senses be the opposite of one.
    Step up.
    1. From Collins:
      noun) in the sense of verdict
      Definition
      the decision of a law court as to what punishment is passed on a convicted person
      When she heard of the sentence, she said: `Is that all?’
      Synonyms
      verdict
      order
      ruling
      decision
      judgment
      decree

      Edited at 2020-04-14 09:00 pm (UTC)

    2. Looks like you need to look at a dictionary or thesaurus.

      Not really rubbish though, was it? All the trickier words were fairly clued, and when all’s said and done, it’s a cryptic crossword, albeit a “quick” one. It’s not a wordsearch.

    3. I take your point, though felt that your tone was rather sharp. A verdict is the judgment, a sentence is the tariff.
  35. … who needs to invest in a good dictionary, in my opinion. Sentence is defined at various points in both mine (Chambers and Collins) as ‘judgement’, and the setters can only go with what’s available at source, which for The Times is Collins, as far as I know. And 1 and 10ac, as jokes, make rather good crossword clues, for me.

    So, absolute rubbish from Maximus, or a bad case of sour grapes.

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