Times Quick Cryptic 1646 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Add a few names, a fair few abbreviations and the odd composer then mix cleverly.

9 minutes for this enjoyable QC with a mind-blank on the two longer downs – 6 and 9.

All questions welcomed.

ACROSS

1. Scottish citizen‘s misguided gag in Wales (10)
GLASWEGIAN – anagram (misguided) of GAG IN WALES.
7. Make insistent demands on section of media (5)
PRESS – double definition.
8. Your compiler’s beyond taking on old painting technique (7)
IMPASTO – Orpheus was a musician poet and prophet but not a painter, it seems. Your compiler’s (IM), beyond (PAST), old (O). Impasto comes up pretty often – a technique of painting thickly so the brush/palette knife leaves a mark.
10. Teach girl badly, being exceptionally drowsy (9)
LETHARGIC – anagram (badly) of TEACH GIRL.
12. Tedious routine involving stags in autumn? (3)
RUT – double definition.
13. Very cold, as a vicious dog might be! (6)
BITING – double definition.
15. Popular ship’s officer, one serving time, perhaps (6)
INMATE – popular (IN), ship’s officer (MATE).
16. Teashop vessel used in our neighbourhood (3)
URN – in o(UR N)eighbourhood. Perhaps the ‘teashop’ is a little generous but this is a QC.
17. Send down girl who’s out of practice in speaking? (9)
RUSTICATE – homophone (in speaking) of girl (KATE) and out of practice (RUSTY) giving us RUSTY KATE – COD for this smile.
20. Contempt shown by inspector, attorney caught in wrongdoing (7)
DISDAIN – inspector (DI – Detective Inspector), attorney (DA – District Attorney) caught inside wrongdoing (SIN).
22. Anger about chartered accountant’s girl (5)
ERICA – anger (IRE – about – backwards), chartered accountant (CA).
23. Smooth chap identifying a European songbird? (4,6)
SAND MARTIN – smooth (SAND), chap (MARTIN).

DOWN

1. Large recess in fireplace place, so to speak (5)
GREAT – homophone (so to speak) of GRATE.
2. A British composer, one who’s on the wagon (9)
ABSTAINER – a (A), British (B), composer (STAINER – Sir John 1849-1901).
3. Twist organ a bird uses to fly across river (5)
WRING – organ a bird uses to fly (WING  – an organ is any part of the body that has a particular function) across river (R).
4. Doctor getting to grips with youth leader’s severe pain (3)
GYP – doctor (GP) gripping (Y)outh. I’m familiar with gyp – a term used by a friend of mine.
5. American visiting courts in EU country (7)
AUSTRIA – American (US) visiting (inside) courts (ATRIA).
6. Period certain to get us enthralled (10)
SPELLBOUND – period (SPELL) certain (BOUND). I think the ‘us’ casued me delay here as I couldn’t see how to fit it in. Necessary filler for the surface, I think.
9. Excel as strategist away on common (10)
OUTGENERAL – away (OUT), common (GENERAL). My blank moment came about by not seeing all the first three words as the definition.
11. Happy to shelter in Europe, perhaps (9)
CONTINENT – happy (CONTENT) to shelter in (IN).
14. Sporting a suit in African republic (7)
TUNISIA – anagram (sporting) of A SUIT IN.
18. Woman in Iowa supporting male offspring (5)
SONIA – Iowa (IO) supporting male offspring (SON).
19. Stranger taking a rest at end of garden (5)
ALIEN – a (A), rest (LIE), garde(N).
21. Help finish off Italian opera (3)
AID – take the finishing letter off Italian opera (AID)a.

46 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1646 by Orpheus”

    1. Accepted two letter state abbreviation for Iowa is IA, here is the complete list.

      TWO LETTER STATE ABBREVIATIONS
      Alabama AL Missouri MO Alaska AK Montana MT Arizona AZ Nebraska NE Arkansas AR Nevada NV
      California CA New Hampshire NH Colorado CO New Jersey NJ Connecticut CT New Mexico NM
      Delaware DE New York NY District of Columbia DC North Carolina NC Florida FL
      North Dakota ND Georgia GA Ohio OH Hawaii HI Oklahoma OK Idaho ID Oregon OR Illinois IL
      Pennsylvania PA Indiana IN Rhode Island RI Iowa IA South Carolina SC Kansas KS
      South Dakota SD Kentucky KY Tennessee TN Louisiana LA Texas TX Maine ME Utah UT
      Maryland MD Vermont VT Massachusetts MA Virginia VA Michigan MI Washington WA
      Minnesota MN West Virginia WV Mississippi MS Wisconsin WI Wyoming WY

      Edited at 2020-06-30 04:01 am (UTC)

  2. An interesting puzzle, but I would quibble that gyp is a “severe” pain. I think that the clue is better without the additional word.

    Edited at 2020-06-30 03:55 am (UTC)

    1. I must admit, I’ve always thought of gyp, as in pain, as a bit of a whinge but then, maybe I’ve been underestimating the suffering of others.
      Collins has:
      British and New Zealand slang
      severe pain; torture
      his arthritis gave him gyp
      1. If a pain is “giving you gyp” it’s more persistent than severe as I’ve always understood it.
  3. GYP isn’t in my idiolect, so I don’t know how severe it is, but I’d agree with idbgreen that ‘severe’ could well have been left out. Chris, at IMPASTO, IM=your compiler’S. 6:11.
  4. … I ground to a halt because I‘d put in GRATE instead of GREAT (I so often out down the wrong homonym. Some sort of mental blockage?) for 1d which made 7a PRESS impossible and thereby rendered 6d SPELLBOUND undoable until I’d realised my mistake. Doh!
    Proud that I worked out (‘parsed’?) 8a IMPASTO, having never heard of it, and I totally ground to a halt with LOI 9d OUTGENERAL, which was not in my vocabulary either. As a result no time given, but probably around the 25 minute mark, which was disappointing as I‘d made such a cracking start.
    Favourite clue 1a GLASWEGIAN.

    Edited at 2020-06-30 05:06 am (UTC)

  5. Struggled to get going being still half asleep but it started to flow after a bit

    Unfortunately I managed to invent the well known avian BALD MARTIN. Doesn’t look very likely when you look at it post-solve. Ugh!

    Liked AUSTRIA

    9 and a half minutes with that clanger

    Thanks all

  6. 10 minutes for all but 9dn where I had brain-freeze and despite a couple of alphabet trawls failed to come up with the answer and resorted to aids.
    1. Just looked at your new Setter difficulty table – for which many thanks. We obviously operate on slightly different wavelengths, but aside from that it’s interesting to see the year on year variation. Do you think it’s random, or is it that the setters pay heed to the feedback from livejournal?
      1. Thanks for your interest. No, it’s all completely random depending mainly on my mood and solving ability on the day but it makes for a bit of fun and something to chat about.
  7. Nothing like a crossword to show up your ignorance. Couldn’t work out where the T in DISTAIN came from but decided to bung it in until the checkers disproved it – never a good strategy but a hard habit to kick. Submitted in 14 thinking all was well only to find a pink square. I’ve being saying DISDAIN wrong all these years. Explains why I couldn’t see the T. Took me a while to spot the anagram for TUNISIA, wanted TUNIC to be in there. Ignorance also shown up in never having heard of OUTGENERAL but I’m less embarrassed about that – wanted that to be OUTPERFORM but it would neither parse nor fit!
  8. 15 mins, quite a few unknowns: outgeneral, stainer.
    Also didn’t twig atria for plural of atrium.
    LOI outgeneral submitted with fingers crossed.

    Cod biting.

  9. Started well at the top of grid then ground to a halt. DNK outgeneral or the composer so came to a halt and my brain stopped.
    Eventually 21 :04 so just outside my target. Thanks for the info on US state abbreviations .
  10. Had four clues left to do after 15 mins, trudged through two of them in the ensuing 15 mins and gave up at 30 mins in still without RUSTICATE and OUTGENERAL (not a word I’ve heard used, but one I should have been able to get). My brain feels like mash potato today…

    FOI: glaswegian
    COD: rusticate

  11. Must have been a bit more ‘in the mood’ this morning. This developed pretty well by my current standards – finished in 12.05 which is, at least, under 2K. No great hangups apart from OUTGENERAL where, like others I wanted to enter outperform. At least that opened up my LOI ERICA. RUSTICATE and ABSTAINER raised smiles. Many thanks to Orpheus and Chris. John M.
  12. This wasn’t easy so I was pleased to be down to my last two after 12:44. However 23a needed a good look;I was also tempted by BALD (smooth) but once Martin occurred to me,I was fine.
    LOI 9d (it seems this will be LOI for lots) took a long look and an alphabet trawl to find the rather clunky OUTGENERAL. 14:58 on the clock, so better than yesterday.
    COD to RUSTICATE. I seem to be nominating homophones more orphan than before.
    David
  13. I enjoyed this – thanks again setter and blogger. I liked Austria because although I have never come across the plural of Atrium there was enough there to help me get it, so I learned something and that was great for me. I have got irritated in the past when an obscure word is used with an equally obscure clue but this was fine!
  14. 20 minutes and 31 seconds with OUTGENERAL the most significant factor, before LTI RUSTICATE and ALIEN. I have no idea why ‘recess in’ is needed in 1d except to confuse – the clue would work perfectly well without those redundant words, and I agree that ‘severe’ is both redundant and potentially misleading in 4d. My experience with the use of the word GYP is that it is usually applied to a nagging, rather than severe pain, as in “I have a bit of gyp in my left knee”. Other than those two bits of redundancy, And the Iowa mistake, I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
    1. Re gyp – please see the reply I’ve just made to idbgreen above.
      As for grate being a recess in a fireplace – I suppose the metal bars which comprise the grate do have to be recessed inside the fireplace itself – otherwise smoke would go up inside the room rather than the chimney. I suspect that our setter was distinguishing between grate and hearth (upon which the grate sits).
  15. Had all bar 9d after 10:33, then managed to sumbit at 15:03, just before I was minded to use aids. Not sure if I’ve heard of Stainer or not. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  16. Managed to do today’s (with a bit of help). DNK IMPASTO, STAINER, ATRIA. Gyp is not severe pain, surely.
    1. Collins has:
      British and New Zealand slang
      severe pain; torture
      his arthritis gave him gyp
  17. I thought I might well be on for a pb today as I motored through most of this in about 13 minutes (I went through most of the across clues in 3 minutes something and glimpsed what life must be like for the sub-10 minuters amongst you) and then I ground to a halt with 17a, 9d and 19d to go. I also wasn’t sure about my answer for 8a as I thought “beyond” might mean either ‘post’ or ‘past’ and both made a reasonable-sounding word that I’d never heard of. Anyway, I managed to work out RUSTICATE which I felt was a bit obscure but I have vaguely heard of. That gave me ALIEN which I probably should have thought of earlier, but OUTGENERAL took me another 20 minutes at least to take me to nearly an hour. I thought of OUTREFERAL on the way (re = on and feral = common maybe) but decided that was unlikely (and referral has two Rs). OUTGENERAL seemed almost as unlikely to be honest, but seemed to fit the wordplay better so I went with it. It’s always nice to learn new words, but I feel if you’re going to put something obscure in a QC, the wordplay or checkers should make it more gettable.

    Edited at 2020-06-30 10:36 am (UTC)

  18. ….as Private Eye’s setter might have clued SAND MARTIN.

    I was quick this morning, but that wasn’t because it was particularly easy. A really nice puzzle in my opinion, so thank you Orpheus.

    FOI GLASWEGIAN
    LOI SPELLBOUND
    COD BITING
    TIME 0.54K

  19. A good start, with 1ac Glaswegian and its offspring going in quickly, though I needed 7ac Press to confirm I had the right Great. After that it became a slow but steady solve. DNK Stainer as the composer, and agonised over the songbird at 23ac until I saw Martin. That just left 9d and several minutes worth of alphabet trawls to produce the unknown Outgeneral, but with a, by then, slightly disappointing 28mins on the clock. Quite tricky in places, with my CoD to 11d Continent for the smooth surface. Invariant
  20. A nice puzzle today which didn’t provide any undue difficulty I thought. NHO impasto, so googled it post solve, but it was fairly clear from the clueing. Didn’t really like outgeneral as a word and common doesn’t seem particularly good as a synonym for general.

    FOI – 10ac lethargic
    LOI – 8 ac impasto
    COD – 17ac rusticate – lovely clue and raised a chuckle.

  21. … with generous cluing to help where I didn’t know the words or the GK. Such as 2D Abstainer, where the composer Stainer is not someone I’m familiar with, or 8A Impasto, another DNK, or 9D Outgeneral, a word which while perfectly obvious what it means nevertheless is not one I’ve met.

    So, I followed the clue constructions trustingly and Orpheus helped me home in 11 minutes.

    COD 17A Rusticate – my daughter is Kate and this made me smile.

    Many thanks to Orpheus for a pleasant puzzle and Chris for the blog

    Cedric

  22. Thwarted by OUTGENERAL, which I didn’t know of as a word and which still looks unreal, where the out part was obvious but didn’t get common > general. One for the notebook. Had BITTER instead of BITING for too long so ABSTAINER wouldn’t fit although it seemed obvious, albeit never heard of Stainer. Should have been able to biff RUSTICATE but brain was giving up by then.
    Plymouthian
  23. I enjoyed solving this one and learned a couple of words along the way. I thought that RUSTICATE only referred to living in the country and I’d never heard of OUTGENERAL.
    A better time than of late too – at just over 14 minutes.
    My COD goes to ALIEN for its simplicity.
    Thanks to Orpheus and Chris – also to Jackkt for his interesting league table.
  24. Otherwise finished in my own slow way.
    Not familiar with Stainer but guessed. Pleased to get RUSTICATED.
    Liked Spellbound.

    Thanks to all.

  25. all sorts of rubbish like CONTENTED and OUTPERFORM, which all had to be unpicked, and led to a time of 11:27. Well done setter, slap on the wrist for me.
  26. Fortunately the unknowns were kindly clued at 2d and 8a or this would have been a much slower solve. Like others OUTGENERAL was my LOI and required an alphabet trawl and my other hold up was whether the unlikely sounding BALD MARTIN existed. Fortunatley common sense prevailed. Finished in 9.41 with my favourite being RUSTICATE.
    Thanks to chris
  27. DNF because I CBA to do a trawl for OUTGENERAL. 9 mins for the reset, same surprise as others that the dictionary justifies calling GYP “severe”.

    Brilliant table from Jack!

    Thanks Chris and Orpheus

    Templar

  28. Following on from some comments yesterday, not only is my warp drive not aligned but impulse engines are down and I seem to be running on auxiliaries.

    I really struggled on this and for the first 5 minutes had absolutely nothing filled in, resulting in me having to stop and come back later. In the end I completed just about everything in about 35 mins, but 9dn “Outgeneral” just stumped me so another DNF.

    Some good clues though including 6dn “Spellbound”, 8ac “Impasto” and 17ac “Rusticate”, although I didn’t recognise “atria”= courts and didn’t think “gyp” was severe pain.

    Also – not happy with general names in answers, even when they are fairly obvious.

    FOI – 16ac “Urn”
    LOI – DNF
    COD – 17ac “Rusticate”

    Thanks as usual.

  29. ….we wasted time by putting the almost right answer in and then having to go back and correct it. Plus we can across a couple of things we didn’t know e.g. outgeneral and Stainer. However, it was a good puzzle and we enjoyed the challenge – thanks Orpheus.

    FOI: Glaswegian
    LOI: sand martin
    COD: rusticate

    Thanks to Chris for the blog

  30. No time. Had to look up synonyms to get OUTGENERAL after 15+ minutes of working on that clue alone.

  31. NHO OUTGENERAL, which defeated me – I wonder if I can work it into a conversation tomorrow. Too obscure for most of us I note.

    Otherwise enjoyed, thanks all.

    Diana

  32. MER or was it a golden raspberry? But having looked it up I rather like the word Outgeneral and – as another suggested – should try to work it into conversation tomorrow! (Or soon)
    Good fun and slowly worked through but needed to look up synonyms for common for 9d LOI. 17a I haven’t heard since I could have been back in the 70’s!
    Always pleased when I complete (albeit with help with LOI) an Orpheus! Circa 35 minutes.
    Thanks all
    John George
  33. I had to attempt this in two sittings and ended up with revealing several after well over an hour which I just couldn’t see, 17A Rusticate being one of the principle problems! Interestingly I didn’t have an issue with 9D Outgeneral but perhaps because I was looking for something that sounded like a military term from the reference to strategy and thought it sounded like to “out general (manoeuvre)” someone! Hopefully tomorrow will be an improvement.

    Thanks for the blog and the puzzle!

    1. Good commitment and dedication! Rather than ‘reveal’, here’s what I do on some 15×15 (especially Fridays!) answers I just can’t see. I go to the blog and, starting with the acrosses I don’t have, I scroll down really carefully to the clue only of first one I’m stuck on – this then at least gives me which is the definition to the clue – which is often enough to get me going. If it isn’t, then I look at the answer and fill that in – to get some more checkers before trying to complete again myself. If that doesn’t happen then I repeat the process. I find this helps me learn some of the more intricate types of clue device.
      1. Thanks you, that’s a good way of looking at it! I also always come and read through the blog after finishing to check I understand the clues I’ve got and often learn why some of the answers were right! Without the blog and comments progression would be quite hard. Even if the talk of 10 minute solves seems very far away! I will be very happy to reach a consistent 30 minutes so the QC becomes a good lunchbreak activity.

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