Times Quick Cryptic 1641 by Pedro

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

9 minutes – so a little trickier than yesrterday’s but not much. A fair few anagrams, a couple of not too obvious double definitions and lost of fun deciphering the parsing. Very enjoyable – thanks Pedro.

ACROSS

1. La mer, most disturbed here? (9)
MAELSTROM – anagram (disturbed) of LA MER MOST. I didn’t get this straight away. When I came back to it I had M?E to start which helped a lot.
6. Nothing between first couple of swine? Here’s the female (3)
SOW – nothing (O) between (SW)ine. Nice clue – the definition refers back to the swine in the parsing. I suppose Oink doesn’t have exclusive use of pig related clueing.
8. Darken, as it were, pleasure (7)
DELIGHT – a delightful clue – to de-light could be taken to mean to darken.
9. Revolutionary to stagger around leader of Bolsheviks (5)
REBEL – to stagger (REEL) around (B)olsheviks.
10. Doze off during it? Not appropriate (5)
INAPT – doze off (NAP) during it (IT).
12. Flowers: one comes up (6)
IRISES – one (I), comes up (RISES).
14. Want for activity in the nude? (4,7,2)
HAVE NOTHING ON – double definition. Took a while to see that the first part of the clue was also a definition.
16. Island dweller heard from ships company? Very much (6)
CRUSOE – homophone (heard) of ships company CREW and very much SO.
17. Hardy hero bearing good figure in court (5)
JUDGE – Hardy hero (JUDE – the Obscure) bearing good (G).
19. Sources of whisper, hushed, in Rolls-Royce? Sound of engine (5)
WHIRR – sources/original letters of – (W)hisper (H)ushed (I)n (R)olls (R)oyce.
20. Couple, heading off, left transport hub (7)
AIRPORT – couple with the heading/first letter missing p(AIR), left (PORT).
22. Odd elements of party interfere (3)
Odd elements of (P)a(R)t(Y).
23. Graduate meeting royalty unexpectedly in town office (9)
MAYORALTY – graduate (MA) meeting an anagram (unexpectedly) of ROYALTY.

DOWN

1. Power to restrict horrible din late in the day (8)
MIDNIGHT – couldn’t be any later in a 24 hour day. Power (MIGHT) to restrict an anagram (horrible) of DIN.
2. Fish in sheltered marine area turning up (3)
EEL – a sheltered marine area is LEE – turning up=backwards/upside down.
3. A great deal in view (5)
SIGHT – another double definition where the first didn’t seem obvious – his eyesight was a great deal/a sight worse.
4. What will have treatment in store? (6,7)
RETAIL THERAPY – cryptic definition – a store (online or now physical) is where to go to indulge this.
5. Skill evident in small cocktail (7)
MARTINI – skill (ART) inside small (MINI).
6. Overwhelmed Bishop in grip of total raging greed (9)
SUBMERGED – Bishop (B) inside total (SUM), anagram (raging) of GREED. Quite a surface.
7. Wife I left – and daughter – will be angry (4)
WILD – wife (W), I (I), left (L) and daughter (D).
11. Very staid, suffering in hard times (9)
ADVERSITY – anagram (suffering) of VERY STAID.
13. Former family members attempt to support balls after duke’s departed (8)
ANCESTRY –  attempt (TRY) to support balls d(ANCES) – after duke (D)’s departed.
15. Cure? Doctor runs to source medicine. (7)
NOSTRUM – anagram (doctor) of RUNS TO, (M)edicine.
17. Our moves keeping Juliet from Romeo? I determine the guilty party (6)
JUROR – anagram (moves) of OUR in between Juliet (J) and Romeo (R).
18. Exchange boggy area after losing a bit of money (4)
SWAP – boggy area (SWA)m(P) after losing a bit if (M)oney.
21. Painting over one line.
OIL – over (O), one (I), line (L).

49 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1641 by Pedro”

  1. I got the THERAPY part of 4d, but couldn’t remember the first word until I got some checkers. The idea of shopping for pleasure has always been an alien one for me. Has ‘doctor’ been used before as anagrind in a QC? 4:25.
    1. Yes, it has because I’ve met it before and the QC is the only crossword I attempt (other than an Australian one that I’ve started recently )
  2. All green in 16. Some kind clues to get things moving – I had seven in the first pass of acrosses – but then some stiffer tests at the end. Held up at 1a by STORM being in the anagrist – had to give up and move on, although when I came back all that had changed was I knew it ended in M but that was enough for the answer to jump out. Best moment was decoding SUBMERGED after realising I was going to have to work hard at the clue ahead of similar with ANCESTRY. Appreciated the coming together of JUDGE and JUROR. LOI was NOSTRUM, which I’d never heard of and wasn’t helped by being unable to unravel the clue – I think we’ve had Dr NO quite recently so I had that to explain the beginning and then the hint of a couple of Rs and an M. Finally went back to the beginning and saw I’d misdiagnosed Doctor. This was a cracker – thanks Pedro!

    Edited at 2020-06-23 05:50 am (UTC)

  3. Found it tricky today. Not sure why. LOI CRUSOE which had me scratching my head for ages. NOSTRUM I’ve never heard of and MAYORALTY was a bugger, slowed down by my brain refusing to admit MA as the graduate (surely MA is a postgraduate?)
    No time today as I got three wrong, but must’ve been well over 30 mins.
    Ah well……

    Edited at 2020-06-23 06:04 am (UTC)

  4. All done quite quickly, but then needed a break to get retail therapy. Not too bad online or alone.
    COD delight.
  5. 11 minutes, delayed at the end by 4dn and 16ac where I thought I had to find the name of an island and then worry about what its residents might be called.

    I may be missing something but I don’t understand ‘what will have’ at the beginning of 4dn. ‘Treatment in store’ would have sufficed surely? As it is, ‘what will have…’ seems to be leading to the name of a condition that can be treated by a bout of shopping rather than the treatment itself.

    Edited at 2020-06-23 05:58 am (UTC)

    1. Retail therapy is the activity of shopping for clothes and other things in order to make yourself feel happier. I saw the clue as what condition can be treated/have treatment in a store.
      1. But therapy IS treatment; what will have that treatment is presumably some (unnamed) condition where one wants to buy things.
      2. Retail therapy is the cure to the condition not the condition itself, therefore the clue is incorrect and misleading
    2. That was just what I thought. It doesn’t quite work, because the clue indicates the malady but the answer is the treatment itself.
      1. I share Jack’s MER. At the very kindest it is an awkwardly worded clue; when I solved it I thought it simply did not work. “What will have treatment” implies the illness needing/receiving treatment not the treatment itself.
  6. Seemed trickier than yesterday but still not too hard, done in 18:47 today. Didn’t get a large number when doing the initial sweep of down and across clues, but all started to fall into place when I had some checkers.DELIGHT sounded like it should be a chestnut, but I haven’t seen that clue before.

    FOI: sow
    LOI: ancestry
    COD: delight

  7. Couldn’t seem to get this started. Didn’t even get the 3 letter words started. Found it hard going. I couldn’t remember the retail bit of therapy either. Anagrams helped a bit. Back to my now normal time of 22:30 . 🤥 Good workout though. Thanks Pedro.
  8. A clever puzzle, much enjoyed. All done in the same time as yesterday but since it was only 1.8K today I’m ranking this as a Good Day. The intersection of JUDGE and JUROR was nice, as mendeset has remarked. I didn’t think much of the anagrist for MAYORALTY, though, bearing in mind that ALTY was already in the right order! The origin of NOSTRUM is that it was “our” medicine, i.e. of the seller’s own secret recipe.

    FOI MAELSTROM, LOI RETAIL THERAPY (agree with Jack’s analysis above), COD DELIGHT (really neat).

    Many thanks Pedro and Chris.

    Templar

  9. I found this quite tricky with the 1s and the two long central clues proving particularly obdurate. I had a serious brain fade with CRUSOE where I immediately thought of Crew but couldn’t work out what that had to do with islanders. Getting HAVING NOTHING ON seemed to unblock the logjam and I eventually finished with IRISES in 13.42. As others have noted I thought that RETAIL THERAPY was a bit iffy, but DELIGHT made up for it.
    Thanks To chris
  10. An interesting puzzle – a tantalising mix of some easy clues and some more testing challenges. The trick was to enter the easy answers, get the crossers, and then deal with the more difficult clues. Trouble is, it is easy to get sucked in searching for an answer that is tantalisingly close. I succumbed to a couple of these so ended up a few seconds over my 15 min target. LOI CRUSOE (I got closer when I accepted that the island of Tresco just wouldn’t do). I crossed my fingers with SIGHT being slow to ‘get’ the other definition. MAYORALTY and MAELSTROM needed crossers. I enjoyed SUBMERGED and ANCESTRY. Thanks to Pedro and to chris for his usual helpful blog which made me appreciate some clues afresh. John M.
  11. A fast start was followed by a slow middle and after 15:30 I just needed 16a. I knew when I first read the clue it looked like the problem for me. Eventually, after several alphabet trawls and thoughts, I went with CRU and then had to find a word that sounded like Very Much. CRUSOE emerged after 22:32. Glad I didn’t give up. A fun puzzle and COD to CRUSOE. I don’t orphan give homophones the vote. David
    1. ….but then it’s a 100% unarguable homophone (unless somebody knows differently).
  12. I found it a lot tougher than yesterday and missed my target by a minute (11 mins). My last two were NOSTRUM because I missed the anagrind ‘doctor’ and finally CRUSOE. An enjoyable QC, thanks Pedro and Chris.
  13. Another enjoyable puzzle – thanks setter and blogger. I didn’t realise that martini with a small m is a cocktail, but with a capital is a standalone vermouth. Not too keen on sight meaning a great deal but I suppose it just about works 😉 Thanks again!
  14. 13 minutes and in the middle of the Rotterometer, with some very nice clues, including COD DELIGHT. FOI MAELSTROM which was also a contender for COD. In answer to Kevin, I think we have had doctor as an anagrind before in the QC, and my head says quite recently, but I couldn’t swear to that. Thanks Pedro and Chris
  15. I didn’t time this but it took me about 25 minutes, I guess, which seems to be becoming my new normal. I think it might be because I’ve become rather fixated on parsing everything before I put in my LOI. It’s satisfying to know why everything is right before you read it but it does make for slower times – in my case at least! This is especially so if the parsing foxes me, as in CRUSOE where I could see what was going on but believed that CRU alone was enough of a homophone for “crew ” and that left me with SOE which was very troublesome. Thanks, Chris, for putting me right on that one. I was also stuck for a while with Hardy’s hero in 17 across, being sure that Gabriel Oak must be the chap in mind – Jude is a rather obscure choice of hero IMO. I hesitated over SIGHT for a moment, too, as, though that worked for “in view “, I wasn’t seeing the “great deal” part and, again, I needed Chris to explain. Ditto, WILD, 7 down, which I answered as my LOI because there is no instruction that I can see for first letters. I really needed the blog today! Thanks, Chris. Thanks, too, to Pedro.
    1. Very happy to hear such great progress. I’m assuming that ‘rather obscure choice of hero’ is humorous – I certainly enjoyed it. As for wild – they aren’t, for this clue, the first letters (although they do happen to be so), which is why there’s no indicator. They’re just common abbreviations for the words. In the case of I, well it’s just I. I grant you that it’s unusual to find 4 all together. I hope that made sense?
      1. Thanks, Chris. My reference to poor old Jude was partly humorous. He’s a hero in a classical sense, I guess, with his bravery in the face of suffering, failure and endless defeat, but rather less so in the more popular sense of being a commanding presence, in the figure of a strong, brooding and handsome man . What I was trying to say in my comment was that his was not the name that first sprang to mind when I was trying to think of a Hardy hero. Obscure seemed a handy descriptor, then, for two reasons!
        As for 7 down, WILD, although I entered the right word, I was confused by it because, although I’ve obviously come across I, L and D as abbreviations, I don’t ever remember seeing W for “wife”. Of course, once I’d read your, as always, enlightening and interesting blog, I got it. But, even so, it seems to me that the surface of the clue isn’t amazing.
        In the end, I suppose that we each respond to clues based on all kinds of criteria, and even that can change according to memory and brain cooperation. And they’re often, for me at least, quite fickle friends. I really value the blog and the insights it offers. Thank you so much.
        1. Somehow, I’ve posted this twice. I remember reading somewhere how to remove a comment – can someone remind me, please?
          1. I think you should see a little dustbin at the top of the post, just under your name and the time stamp. Worth a try?

            Cedric

  16. I thought this was a cracking QC from Pedro, with a few gifts along the way to help with the more difficult clues. I slowed down a little as I enjoyed parsing the clues and finished, like Louisajaney, on the 25min mark. Might have been a tad quicker, but having initially put Maelstorm (not a word I use everyday, but really should have known better) for 1ac, Retail Therapy took quite a bit of solving. Hard to choose a CoD given the number of candidates, but I think 8ac, Delight, just gets the nod. Invariant
  17. … and all solved in 14 minutes, slightly longer than par. Much enjoyed a lot of this, and all parsed apart from 4D Retail therapy, which I have commented briefly on above on Jack’s entry, and 3D Sight, which I needed Chris’s blog to connect to “a great deal”. Not the most straightforward linkage!

    Nice to see that in 12A, for a change “flower” did actually mean something that blooms not a river!

    COD 8A Delight, which delighted me, but there were several contenders.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog and Pedro for an interesting puzzle.

    Cedric

  18. …..this was a DELIGHT – thanks Pedro. Another example of a puzzle where I spent longer appraising some first rate clues afterwards than I did actually solving it.

    FOI MAELSTROM
    LOI/COD CRUSOE
    TIME 0.97K

    1. Next time, try appraising them before solving; maybe your K score will go over 1.0 for once.
  19. A good challenge from Pedro with some tricky clues and a few unknowns. Finished in around 30 mins which is bang on average.

    For some reason hadn’t heard of 15dn “Nostrum” – but I couldn’t see what else it could be based on the anagram. Luckily 16ac “Crusoe” came quickly and I didn’t get hung up on a specific island. Main issue was 4dn “Retail Therapy” which took up a good 5 to 10 mins of my total time.

    FOI – 6ac “Sow”
    LOI – 4dn “Retail Therapy”
    COD – 6dn “Submerged”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-06-23 10:57 am (UTC)

  20. Quite a bit harder than yesterday I thought, but satisfying. Didn’t have much after going through the clues once, but getting MAELSTROM really helped and after that it was a steady solve except for the NHO NOSTRUM which was my LOI and which accounted for quite a lot of minutes of my 56:30 time. It would have been a lot easier had I seen that doctor was an anagrind earlier, and I should have because it’s come up quite a few times before I think. For anybody who wants to move up to the 15×15, yesterday’s offering is reasonably accessible, by the way. I haven’t quite managed to finish it yet but a lot of the clues wouldn’t be out of place in the QC. Anyway, thanks to Chris and Pedro for today.
  21. Must have taken about an hour.
    Wish I had got Maelstrom sooner but was thinking of an actual place. Liked Have Nothing On.
    Mayoralty – had to check there was such a word. Nostrum I guessed once I had the checkers.

    Yes, good one, Louisa J, re Hardy.

    Thanks as ever.

  22. Lots of concentration needed for this one.
    I had to biff ANCESTRY and NOSTRUM and didn’t spot the double definition of SIGHT.
    It took me a couple more minutes than yesterday – just over my target of 15 minutes – but I now know that ‘doctor’ is yet another anagrind.
    Several worthy contenders for COD but I think I’m settling for SUBMERGED for the sheer joy of solving it!
    Many thanks to Pedro and Chris.
  23. …garden, and very nice it was too. I also cleaned and lubricated my bike chain and popped in some new brake pads.

    I can only assume that the sun fried my brain, as I was approaching 2K with 8 mins 33s.

    As others have said, a mix of gimmes and tougher clues, but no real reason to slip to a lower than usual S.I. unit of QC solving time!

  24. Harder than yesterday but all the more enjoyable for the tougher challenge. Steady solve that took us 18 minutes – so a smidgen outside of our target.

    FOI: maelstrom
    LOI: Crusoe
    COD: have nothing on

    Thanks to Pedro and Chris.

  25. Progressed steadily with this one until I was left with two blanks: the first half of 4dn and 12ac. These must have taken almost as long as the rest of the puzzle combined. I never understood Delight and had to turn to the blog for enlightenment – thanks Chris.

    FOI – 6ac sow
    LOI – 12ac irises
    COD – got to be 8ac delight only I was too dumb to see it at the time.

  26. Usually, I find that I am not on Pedro’s wavelength, but although today was slow, it was steady, and only RETAIL THERAPY and CRUSOE really gave me much trouble. In fact, I really enjoyed this – lots of lovely surfaces and a few candidates for COD. I particularly liked HAVE NOTHING ON and ADVERSITY.

    De-light – a construction you’ll see quite often in the 15×15. In fact, there is a similar clue in today’s. Retail therapy – as many others have said, it was an odd clue. I just biffed it in the end. Crusoe – I was also marooned on Tresco for a while. I can think of worse places … my house, for example. Am so glad shielding restrictions are going to be lifted soon.

    FOI Sow
    LOI Crusoe
    COD Maelstrom
    Time just under 15 minutes – didn’t time myself precisely today

    Thanks Pedro and Chris

  27. Finished in under 22minutes today. I hesitate to say I may be improving, but it definitely feels more comfortable at the moment – until tomorrow…
    COD’s DELIGHT and HAVE NOTHING ON.
    Thank you, everyone!
    Diana
  28. Lots in pencil today as I struggled to find any pace. FOI19a (!) whirr. LOI 12a irises. COD 14a – have nothing on – just so amusing! Once completed in pencil with everything fitting, I decided I was done, and so it proved. It shows that a change of setter really makes a difference for me. Several interruptions today so only a guess at my time at 75 minutes – not in the SCC, still running after it… Helpful blog for a fun crossword from Pedro.
  29. But how did it take so long for Retail Therapy to kick in? I’ve seen it in QCs at least twice before.
    Anagram (cocktail) of “in small” – another lost cause in misdirection.
    So pleased that I got Juror – the sort of clue that normally turns me to mush. (Ok it wasn’t that hard!)
    16a tricky but pleased to see it and 17a was going to be obscure until Juror popped in and, well, Hey Jude!
    NHO Mayoralty but it had to be.
    LOI Ancestry – trying Ex Kin Try for a while.
    CsOD 17a and 17d Judge and Juror!!
    Thanks all, (and I think that might be my first completed Pedro? Maybe not, but)
    Oh and 24 minutes
    John George

  30. 21 minutes for this entertaining puzzle…
    liked 14A “want for activity in the nude? (4,7,2)”
    Thanks to Pedro and Chris

    Edited at 2020-06-23 07:44 pm (UTC)

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