Times Quick Cryptic 1597 by Teazel

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Apart from a couple of slightly unsatisfying clues in the downs (I’m looking at you 4 and 18), I found this a fair and enjoyable mid-week test. There are lots of clues with self-referential definitions or semi-&lit-ishness, which not only slowed me down when solving, but makes it difficult to know where to underline in order to best explain the workings. Newbies/lurkers: just ask if anything is unclear.

Definitions (sort of) underlined.

Across
3 Awaken love in cunning plan (5)
ROUSE – O (love) in RUSE (cunning plan).
7 Dog beginning to burrow great hole on course (6)
BEAGLE – first letter of (beginning to) Burrow, then EAGLE (two under par, great hole on golf course).
8 Briefly, priest always — does this? (4)
PRAY – PR (abbreviation of (briefly) priest) and AY (always).
9 Child has grand liking for such gentle treatment (3-5)
KID-GLOVE – KID (child) with G (grand) and LOVE (liking). I’m more familiar with this as a plural noun, but the adjectival meaning (‘kid-glove treatment’) makes sense too. Again, though, it is difficult to see a clear definition to underline (perhaps such? Or gentle?) so I’ll just pass it by breezily and hope no-one notices…
10 Sort of hammer sharp nail (4)
CLAW – double definition.
11 Kent town fed up, we hear, producing old-fashioned advertising (8,5)
SANDWICH BOARD – SANDWICH (Kent town) and a homophone of (we hear) “bored” (fed up).
15 Cooling down rioter, fearing collapse (13)
REFRIGERATION – anagram of (collapse) RIOTER FEARING.
16 To do with the ear, some notice (4)
OTIC – hidden in (some) nOTICe.
18 Foolishly misreads what officers carry (4,4)
SIDE ARMS – anagram of (foolishly) MISREADS. A side arm is not necessarily a gun; a truncheon or TASER will do.
20 Firm welcomes one with a greeting (4)
CIAO – CO (company, firm) contains (welcomes) I (one) and A. Used as both ‘hi’ and ‘bye’.
21 Shrewd expression of disapproval, entering turbulent sea (6)
ASTUTE – TUT (expression of disapproval) contained within (entering) an anagram of (turbulent) SEA.
22 Right to affirm mad person (5)
RAVER – R (right) and AVER (to affirm).

Down
1 Table I replaced in church: that’s just like some priests (8)
CELIBATE – anagram of (replaced) TABLE I inside CE (church).
2 In the past, good to be expectant (4)
AGOG – AGO (in the past) and G (good).
3 Clergyman giving approval? Withdrawing it? (8)
REVOKING – REV (clergyman) and OK-ING (giving approval).
4 Head going off to purge press (4)
URGE –  remove the first letter from (head going off) pURGE. To paraphrase Pauli, this clue is not even easy.
5 Top piece translated in Virgil, say (4,4)
EPIC POET – anagram of (translated) TOP PIECE.
6 A father’s taken up artistic movement (4)
DADA – reversal of (taken up) A DAD (a father).
12 Woman priest, one on board (8)
DIRECTOR – DI (woman) and RECTOR (priest).
13 Greeting Yorkshire racecourse, arriving in this? (5,3)
HIRED CAR – HI (greeting) and REDCAR (Yorkshire racecourse).
14 One sharing with me has opportunity to finish board game (8)
ROOMMATE – ROOM (opportunity) and MATE (finish board game).
17 Fool races round West Indies (4)
TWIT – TT (races) surrounding WI (West Indies).
18 Black-marketeer that would upset the elite (4)
SPIV – reversal of (upset) VIPS (very important people, the elite).
19 Book variety performances (4)
ACTS – double definition.

35 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1597 by Teazel”

  1. I can never remember what a SPIV is, and I almost flung in SHIV. I always get nervous when a clue has e.g. ‘Kent town’; I know of Sandwich and I know of Kent, but I didn’t know that Sandwich is in Kent. But almost always that knowledge is unnecessary (although it would have helped, I suppose). 5:51.
  2. Didn’t think this looked like a promising grid and the feared the worst only getting five of the acrosses on first pass. Things improved rapidly from there, ten of the acrosses went straight in and the checkers were generous. All done and all green in 9.02, could have been my second ever under 9 if only I hadn’t glanced at the time got all excited and made a mess of typing BEAGLE, twice. Wasn’t 100% on what was going on for ROOMMATE or PRAY but felt confident enough.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 05:56 am (UTC)

  3. 7 minutes. I wondered if there’s any significance in ‘C A ROUSE D’ in the top row and ‘T RAVER S E’ at the bottom.

    Looked twice at 18ac wondering why ‘officers’ particularly.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 05:13 am (UTC)

      1. Could well be so but I don’t see it mentioned in the definitions I’ve looked at.
          1. Thanks, I’m sure what you say is right, but I wonder if this is really such an established custom well-known enough to define the word ‘sidearm’ for crossword purposes. And doubly so for a Quick cryptic. If it is, I’d expect to find it mentioned somewhere in a dictionary definition, but so far I’ve not done so.
            1. If you google sidearm it mentions police officers as well. Once I got ‘arms’ then side was the only possible word obvs. Some Crossword GK is quite obscure, it seems to me, even in this Quick one. Good thing I know a smattering of e.g. golf terms.
  4. About 20m. No accurate time as done in 2 sittings, with director, raver, spiv, claw and dada left til later.

    COD Virgil, we did part of the Aeneid for GCSE.

  5. Not an easy grid and not a smooth solve for me. I did the NE very quickly but slowed as I moved clockwise round the grid leaving too many gaps. 4 Mins over target in the end finishing with CELIBATE and BEAGLE (great clue). TWIT and SPIV needed crossers and I wasn’t impressed by ROOMMATE. I liked ASTUTE, REVOKING, HIRED CAR. Overall, a good puzzle but not without some uneven bits. Thanks to both. John M.
  6. A bit underwhelmed by this one, which was disappointing as Teazel’s one of my favourite setters. Completed in 10.21 with LOI ROOOMMATE, with VIRGIL and BEAGLE being my favourites. The less said about 4d the better.
    Thanks to william
  7. I had nothing after two minutes and then found FOI OTIC. A bottom-up solve ensued. Like Rotter it seems.
    I had no problems with 4d -why not in a QC?
    My only comment is about my LOI BEAGLE. An eagle is not a hole on a golf course but a score of two under par.
    Sometimes too much knowledge gets in the way. I was wasting time trying to think of anywhere in Kent that is 8,5- and I live here.
    12:57 on the clock; a fast finish. David
    1. If you shoot an eagle (not an albatross, as Coleridge would warn you) your fellow players might clap you on the back and exclaim “Great hole !” Be careful, the drinks may be on you at the 19th !
  8. I had a dreadful time with this. So many clues were seemingly based around a religious theme which threw me. I then struggled to remember towns in Kent and a racecourse in Yorkshire. Even when I did put in an answer I doubted myself. How many four letter words end in a V (Derv didn’t fit)? My FOI was BEAGLE and my LOI CIAO with plenty of head scratching in between. Oh well, off to see if I fare any better on the concise. 17 mins.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 08:31 am (UTC)

  9. A very slow 22 minutes for me, failing to get a foothold in the acrosses until REFRIGERATION, and the first down clue entered was DIRECTOR. The bottom half was completed before any of the top half fell – very unusual for me. I also failed to notice the caroused / traverse spotted by Jackkt, but having had it pointed out, can’t see a link or reason for it. Well beaten today by Teazel.
  10. I thought I was going to finish this in record time – a rare occurrence in itself – but in the end I had to give in and look up the answers to 7a and 4d and then feel stupid that I didn’t get them easily.

    Took me longer than it should to get the girl’s name in 12d…! (but I’ve always fought, not necessarily successfully, against having my name shortened)

    Diana

    1. I’m with you on name-shortening; I absolutely hate ‘Kev’.
      So hang in there, Di (just joking) ana!
  11. Unusually for me, I found this pretty straightforward. I had to Google Yorkshire racecourses – I had ‘hi’ and thought the second word could be ‘car’ but couldn’t see what would go in the middle. That’s my perennial problem with crosswords – my other half would just look at a few crossers and words will immediately pop into her brain. If only…

    FOI 3a, LOI 1d where I didn’t think of ‘replaced’ as an anagram indicator. Was convinced that ‘altar’ should be in there somewhere.

    Also unusually, there was nothing I couldn’t parse.

    About half an hour I think.

    Thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable start to the day and to William for the blog.

  12. Caroused and Traverse can’t be an accident but I’m darned if I can see the connection. Well spotted, Jack!

    This felt harder than yesterday’s but came in quicker at 1.6K and a Very Good Day. I left REFRIGERATION to the end, which is just as well since I was thinking it must end ING. Three other acrosses held out on first pass – PRAY, CIAO and RAVER – but all the downs went in and the others only required one revisit.

    Lots of military websites refer to the tradition of pistols being primarily (though not exclusively) for officers.

    FOI ROUSE, LOI REFRIGERATION, COD HIRED CAR. Many thanks Teazel and William.

    Templar

  13. Enjoyed this -I particularly liked revoking – thanks all. I didn’t have any problem with urge or roommate but I did wonder is a composer of epic poems is him/herself epic?
    Does that mean that Shakespeare is both comic and tragic??
  14. I didn’t see 3a straight away, so looked at 4d and thought “eh?” and moved on. DADA was my FOI. PRAY and CLAW went in next giving me our EPIC POET. REVOKING went in next and gave me ROUSE, which confirmed that 4d was indeed URGE! after noting that my local racecourse is indeed back in Yorkshire, I spotted the SANDWICH BOARD. No horses were startled in completing the grid from there. 8:30. Thanks Teazel and William.
  15. ….call it blind man’s buff” as Rush have it in in their song KID GLOVES, but I never got on Teazel’s wavelength despite finishing quickly.

    MER at HIRED CAR. Where does the D come from ? It’s a hire car surely !

    As Davidivad will concur, there are plenty of great holes at Royal Sandwich (eagle one of those, mate, and we’ll seriously review your handicap !)

    I’m with William as regards 4D – my LOI simply because it was – errrm – too simple. SPIV was OK by me though. A quick post-solve check of aids reveals no less than 10 four letter word ending in V. I challenge anyone to write a decent clue for “eruv” though !

    FOI PRAY
    LOI PURGE
    COD BEAGLE
    TIME 0.6K

    2. The 149th Open was due to be played at Royal St George’s, Sandwich, in July this year. I have tickets for it!
      However it has been cancelled and is now planned to be played there next year, with the 150th Open at the home of golf [left blank for quizzers].
  16. I thought this was a good QC – completed in about 25 mins.

    Agree with 4dn being a bit poor, and also wondered whether 9ac tends to be used more in a plural sense, but other than that some nice clues. Only other issue was thinking Ripon for the Yorkshire racecourse a bit prematurely.

    FOI – 7ac “Beagle”
    LOI – 4ac “Pray” (just couldn’t see this at first)
    COD – 11ac “Sandwich Board”

    Thanks as usual.

  17. Loved Beagle and was pleased to get Epic Poet but failed in SE corner and bottom lines too. Carelessly put refrigerating and horse box which did not help.
    Should have rubbed out latter as I knew it was wrong.
    Did not think of Ciao.

    Thanks though!

  18. Finished most of this pretty quickly but was left with 8ac, 6dn and 20ac. After a break ciao fell and I entered pray with a bit of a shrug. Never did manage to crack dada (have vaguely heard of Dadaism) so a dnf for me today. I thought the clues for 4dn and 8 ac were poor.

    FOI – 3ac Rouse
    COD – 3dn Revoking or maybe 12dn Director

  19. …through all but 3 in 3 minutes 20, which got me thinking of a possible pb if I bunged in the last ones in less than 23 seconds. So naturally I took a further minute and thirty to get ROUSE, URGE and REVOKING in that order.

    Bah.

  20. Chewy but tasty (thanks Teazel). Took us longer than it should have as we doubted some of our parsing at various points. I thought that Redcar was further ‘oop north’ than Steed (who happens to be a Yorkshire man) – that cost us some time as we debated it.

    FOI: rouse
    LOI: ciao
    COD: revoking

    Thanks for the blog William

  21. … for a 9 minute solve, though I never did see the parsing for 14D Roommate. I shall have to remember that opportunity can mean room!

    Otherwise a nice puzzle, and COD for me was 3D Revoking – a nice clue because of the diametrically opposite meanings of “giving approval” and “withdrawing it”.

    Many thanks to Teazel, and to William for the blog.
    Cedric

    1. It’s a synonym rather than an abbreviation.

      Chambers has:

      Aye or Ay

      (archaic)

      1. Ever

      2. Always

      3. For ever

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