Times Quick Cryptic 1647 by Tracy

50 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1647 by Tracy”

1. I normally find Tracy quite a challenge so was pleasantly surprised to complete this morning’s puzzle in 15m – within my top quartile.
   Much of it was biffable but I did have to think hard about some of them, notably 11d STIPULATE and 16a COLD SHOULDER. Otherwise it was pretty much straightforward.
   Thanks Tracy. Confidence well and truly boosted this morning. Here’s to a cracking July. 👍

   Edited at 2020-07-01 04:57 am (UTC)

2. 10 minutes, only held up by thrash, checking that it could be a party.

   Enjoyed benefit, avarice, ostrich, stipulate, COD cold shoulder.

3. I see I’m not the only one who didn’t know THRASH. I wonder if anyone else bunged in LOW at 5d? Oh. 6:11.
   1. Yes, I too put in LOW.
      1. As did I initially…whilst this puzzle did seem quite straightforward I thought this was just one of many cleverly disguised misdirections.
         1. Absolutely! Very clever.
   2. Even worse! I bunged in ILL!
   3. Yes, I was a bunger-in of low..
   4. A low trick 🤣
4. A fairly uncommon 6 minutes for me on this one which struck me as a beautifully constructed set of clues. A perfect example of what a QC should be.
5. A rare sub 12 this morning despite only getting five on the first pass of acrosses. The downs were much more forgiving – although I did as Kevin suggested some unwary solvers would and put in LOW at 5d with a grumble – should have know better! All progressed well from there with a pause over COLD SHOULDER being misdirected by memories of PADDINGTON from last week and then thinking _O_D at the start must be GOOD before the SHOULDER checkers fell into place. LOI was EVENT once I changed GARTERS at 14d (GOOD SKILL got me GART and I stopped there!). Nice to finish in the very SE corner for once. Pressed submit without a check as the clock neared 12 but all was well as all was green.
6. Whizzed through this with a slight pause over the anagram for STIPULATE, so I left it until I had more checkers. Finished with THRASH, but only because it was the last one I looked at and only realised I hadn’t answered it when I was proof reading. Finished in 5.30 with my favourite being COLD SHOULDER
   Thanks to william
7. Finished in 42 minutes which is a great feeling after a few harder puzzles recently. Confidence also well and truly boosted! I got held up on 4A Benefit (trying to work the letters of suit into the answer) and then again on the combination of 17D/18A Halo and Amiss, both of which should have been easy but refused to appear for me. I was pleased with getting 2D Impressionist despite not knowing the painter. Normally such clues are very difficult but the checkers were generous and for once I was on the right wavelength!

   FOI: 1D Blessed
   LOI: 18A Amiss
   COD: several, but I rather liked the surface for 21A Ostrich.

   Thanks for a good start to July to Tracy and william.

8. I just started learning how to do cryptic crosswords this week and this is the first one I was able to completely finish! Unfortunately, it took me just under 45 minutes….but I hope that’s not a surprise for a beginner. Already feeling much more confident. Came here to find out why 17 down was halo. I was able to figure it out based on definition (which I’ve gathered means I biffed it?) but I didn’t get it otherwise. I’m sure I’ll catch a clue like that next time.

   Excited to try again tomorrow! Looking forward to the day when I don’t take nearly an hour to finish the QUICK cryptic…..

   1. Congratulations, I’m sure it’s the first of many completions.
   2. 45 minutes is not particularly unusual for a QC and especially for a beginner. Many of those who complete in under 10 minutes have been solving cryptics for years so don’t be put off by such times. If you want to measure progress, find a contributor here who posts similar times to yours and use him/her as a yardstick. Finally it would be nice if you gave yourself a name, real or made-up, to distinguish you from other Anons, or better still sign up for a free Live Journal account with a proper user ID.

      Edited at 2020-07-01 09:05 am (UTC)

      1. Good to know that it’s not unusual! I took your advice and signed up. Thank you!
         1. Excellent, Natalie! We hope to hear a lot more from you.
   3. This certainly wasn’t the easiest QC, so for a new solver to finish it, regardless of time, is a fine achievement. Well done, and here’s to your continued progress !
   4. It’s a great feeling – congrats, and keep going. Don’t worry about measuring the time – the enjoyment is what counts!

      On edit: take a look at the glossary to find out what all the jargon means – you’ll be bandying all these phrases around in no time 😊

      Edited at 2020-07-01 12:14 pm (UTC)

   5. Great start! We were so much worse when we first started. This blog is a great place to learn – there are some real experts who are more than happy to help us lesser mortals 😀
   6. Congratulations and welcome.
   7. I’ve been doing these for a couple of years and often take over an hour. Partly because I rarely do less than 30 minutes and because I see it as a leisurely pastime and not a competition. Just enjoy doing them!
9. I started off with low then found I couldn’t get anything for prize and realised it might be nap as explained. I don’t tend to think of nap as down and with pure for total it made that north east corner tricky. It all works but it slightly spoiled it for me. The rest came together much more readily than it usually does for Tracy. Thanks setter and blogger!
10. This must have been one of the easiest Tracy quick cryptics ever – dispatched in 10:04, which is quick for me (disappointed to miss the sub-ten minute mark, but oh well). Didn’t know OS was “out-size” until coming here, so another little slice of crossword knowledge to add to the cake.

    FOI: bring
    LOI: ostrich
    COD: cold shoulder

11. Yes, I biffed LOW as well but realised my error late on, allowing me to finish the NE corner. A very gentle offering from Tracy which allowed me to come in under 12 mins again (parsed) and well under 2K, as yesterday. I can’t help but feel that there is a concerted effort by the editor and setters to get back to the QC ideal after some hard slogs in recent weeks. That is good, especially for the many newer solvers whose posts here are very welcome. My only other hesitation was THRASH which I entered but was unsure about until everything fitted. Nice puzzle – thanks to Tracy (and Jeremy). John M.
12. My FOI was 5d LOW (= down), a hidden -Kevin, you were right. My LOI was 5d NAP once it became clear why I was stuck on 4a and 9a. And I also had a biffed OUTSIZE at 21a before I took my head out of the sand.
    So my time of 13:23 involved a lot of corrections.
    A fun puzzle and mostly not too hard. But more care was needed in my case. David
13. My FOI was BRING and my LOI was BENEFIT, as I followed an anticlockwise path around the grid. No hold ups. 6:48. Thanks Tracy and William.
14. Most of this went in okay, but I was stumped by RIDING so it was a DNF. I committed the schoolboy error of not separating the words and eventually, after considering many possibilities, put in FIXING thinking that that could describe both mounted apparatus and something that restricted noise. Oh well.
15. … by some margin but I still didn’t find it as easy as some others here. I didn’t time myself but I guess it took me just short of half an hour which is considerably longer than I’d like. I got held up with the fall-out from wrong answers such as “low” instead of NAP and “outsize ” instead of OSTRICH and also by my certainty that THRASH couldn’t possibly mean “party”. Well, I’ve never heard of it to mean that but apparently it can. Anyway, these three obstructions cost me a lot of time today. Some nice clues, though, eg SHEPHERDS PIE and COLD SHOULDER. With thanks to William and Tracy.

    Edited at 2020-07-01 12:29 pm (UTC)

16. A really enjoyable puzzle today. About 20 mins.

    I took too long to get EXPRESS for some reason, but enjoyed the thought of all those scouts consuming SHEPHERD’S PIE.

    Thanks William and Tracy.

    Now, what shall we have for lunch?

    Diana

17. Quite a quick solve in 8 mins but with a few hesitations. FOI was BLESSED. I didn’t spot either NAP or ‘low’ at 5d on first pass so assume I correctly solved it with one of the checkers in place. Like Rotter I initially had EXPlain at 8a. I took a little time to come up with STIPULATE (anagram) at 11d and my LOI RIDING had me doing an alphabet trawl. Thanks Tracy and William.

    Edited at 2020-07-01 09:48 am (UTC)

18. Just inside 11 minutes for me, with one slight hold-up after going for EXPLAIN at 8a, which sort of works, until the obvious BISTRO wouldn’t allow it, requiring a revisit. THRASH LOI and otherwise plain sailing in between. Thanks Tracy and William.
19. I thought that was going to be really tough after getting only one of the first 5 acrosses (EXPRESS, since you ask), but then everything else pretty much fell in and I finished in 1.3K for an Excellent Day. “Transport” for BRING seems a bit of a stretch for a QC to me. Lots of very good surfaces.

    FOI EXPRESS, LOI RIDING, COD FORTIFIED WINE (lovely clue).

    Thanks Tracy and William.

    Templar

20. A PB matching 12 mins for me today. However, there were enough possibilities to make easily biffable mistakes for the unwary.

    As already mentioned, I nearly put “Low” for 5dn, even though it seemed really obvious. Similarly, I nearly biffed “Explain” for 8ac and “Titanic” for 21ac, again until I had some checkers.

    I had heard of “Thrash” for a party, although I don’t think it’s that common.

    I agree there was something simplistic, but beautifully crafted, about the clues today. You could just tell it was slightly different as you went through it.

    FOI – 1ac “Bring”
    LOI – 9ac “Purse”
    COD – 16ac “Cold Shoulder”

    Thanks as usual

    1. I won’t say the obvious, but we’ll done on the time.
21. At first I put outsize instead of OSTRICH which made THRASH difficult. Moral – don’t write in bad guesses that don’t parse. But I put Low instead of NAP , like others. And also tried Explain instead of EXPRESS.

    Some gifts – IMPRESSIONIST, SHEPHERDS PIE, FORTIFIED WINE

    Liked Discus..

    Maybe Thrash is old-fashioned, because I knew it.

22. ….BENEFIT of years of experience, because this wasn’t easy. It was, however, beautifully constructed and Tracy earns my total respect – especially for the bear traps (I avoided them all !)

    Four clues in before putting pen to paper, and SHEPHERDS PIE was only solved afterwards.

    FOI PURSE
    LOI HALO
    COD COLD SHOULDER
    TIME 0.67K

23. Thanks to Tracy for a cracking start to the month. Normally I don’t bother with a time (preferring to work on paper), but having penned in 5 answers in less than a minute I decided it was worth a glance at the clock. 20 minutes later I was all done – with COLD SHOULDER, AMISS, GARMENT, AVARICE (a word I’m not fully acquainted with), and THRASH taking up more than half the time. I certainly haven’t solved sub 30 mins before, and I expect only a handful sub hour – so a great day for me!

    FOI: 1a BRING
    LOI: 20a AVARICE
    COD: 18a AMISS – enjoyable in its simplicity

    Edited at 2020-07-01 11:37 am (UTC)

24. I really enjoyed unravelling this one and, although it seemed to take me a while, I finished in exactly 14 minutes.
    BENEFIT went in unparsed as I hadn’t thought of the suit/fit synonym and I didn’t know that THRASH could describe a party – although I’m familiar with the word ‘bash’.
    I thought that GREYHOUND was a lovely anagram but my COD goes to FORTIFIED WINE – an absolute gem.
    Many thanks to Tracy and to William for his clear blog.

    Edited at 2020-07-01 11:59 am (UTC)

25. My first half dozen went in one after the other, no dotting about, and for a brief moment I hoped I might be on for a clean sweep, but no, it wasn’t to be. I didn’t find this too hard for a Tracy, but fell into one of the traps at 5d (ill) until BENEFIT put me right. OSTRICH took a while, but otherwise I found it quite straightforward. Some lovely surfaces – I didn’t appreciate all of them until after I’d finished. DISCUS, IMPRESSIONIST, and FORTIFIED WINE in particular get the thumbs up.

    FOI Bring
    LOI Ostrich
    COD Stipulate
    Time 9:30

    Now I’m off for a cuppa 😊

    Thanks Tracy and William

26. Very nice puzzle today – thanks Tracy. We wandered around a little and took 13 minutes to complete (sometimes jointly solving a puzzle slows you down as some proffered solutions are challenged and it takes time to explain the rationale).

    FOI: impressionist
    LOI: thrash
    COD: cold shoulder

    Thanks to William for the blog.

27. Though as yesterday, i came unstuck. Fell into the LOW and the OUTSIZE “traps”, so somewhat slowed down to 6:28.

    Downs were much simpler than acrosses today.

28. I have been teaching myself how to do Cryptics since lockdown in late March, and have loved reading all the posts and explanations here.
    I don’t bother timing myself but am speeding up and completing finally!
    Today’s puzzle was a real ego-booster because it seemed really fair – sometimes the QC is so tough I can’t believe it’s the simpler puzzle !
    I still need to learn more abbreviations like OS in 21A, and hadn’t heard of ‘Thrash’ before.
    1. What a good use of lockdown! Well done on completing 😊
    2. Good to hear! Seem to be a few new posters since lockdown. Not that I’m someone who has been posting for very long.
29. … and a lovely example of what they should be, as some have already commented. Very doable clues, no totally obscure GK, but several traps and misdirections to stop it being a write-in. And I enjoyed the surfaces too – 21A Ostrich in particular (my COD).

    So thank you Tracey, and. 9 minute 1.5K day is the icing on the cake.

    Thanks to William for the blog.

    Cedric

30. Pretty happy with that as I’d had a long day and a couple of beers to celebrate a double brace from the Toon.

    Thought GREYHOUND a very nice anagram

    Thanks all

31. Really enjoyed this. The NW fell straight in and I had all the N completed and most of the S before having to break off. Coming back, I found it hard to get going (I suppose that was partly because I’d failed on these in the first round) but eventually got started in the SE and into my stride again. FOI 1a bring LOI 9a purse as I had only pencilled this one until I was sure. COD 21a ostrich. Considered 5d low but immediately realised it would not do so deduced nap. Lovely misdirections today and only elusive answers were 11d stipulate and 15d thrash which is a term I do recognise and sometimes still use. Nice blog and good puzzle – thx to both.
32. Came to this late in the day, and didn’t find it quite as easy as some – although perhaps falling into the low trap at 5d has biased my view. 6d, Fortified Wine also took longer to work out than it should have, as did 8ac Express. The nett result was a time of 22mins – not bad for Tracy, but as others have noted this was Tracy in a generous mood. Invariant

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