Times Quick Cryptic 1657 by Teazel

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Posting a bit later than usual – apologies to our esteemed friends across the pond. This one held me up a little, taking me average time and a half,  but I can’t see why now. I’m curious to find out how you all got on.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Just light entertainment (4)
FAIR – and we kick things off with a triple definition.
4 No confidence water vapour leads to corrosion (8)
MISTRUST – MIST (water vapour) and RUST (corrosion).
8 To be inferred, simplicity has no limits (8)
IMPLICIT – remove the first and last letters from (…has no limits) sIMPLICITy.
9 Cattle without water (4)
NEAT – double definition. The first continues to catch me out, despite repeated attempts to remember it for next time.
10 Cautious course across river (4)
WARY – WAY (course) containing (across) R (river).
11 Liable to error, bail fell out! (8)
FALLIBLE – anagram of (out) BAIL FELL.
12 Film villain is curious Old Testament character (6)
ODDJOB – ODD (curious) and JOB (Old Testament character).
14 Perfect in diplomacy (6)
INTACT – IN and TACT (diplomacy).
16 Irritable person, sensible, not coming forward (8)
CRABWISE – CRAB (irritable person) and WISE (sensible). Not a meaning I knew, but it does make sense once you’ve worked it out: going sideways, like a crab.
18 Naughty girl in furs, we hear (4)
MINX – sounds like (we hear) “minks” (furs)
19 Insipidly sweet short message broken off (4)
TWEE – TWEEt (short message) without its last letter (broken off).
20 One’s missing, having been east on tour (8)
ABSENTEE – anagram of (on tour) BEEN EAST.
22 New Moon Street (8)
CRESCENT – double definition.
23 Young player left in bed (4)
COLT – L (left) inside (in) COT (bed).
Down
2 Evidence of authority to issue weapons to troop (7)
ARMBAND – ARM (issue weapons to) and BAND (troop).
3 Start to recover from exchange of shots (5)
RALLY – double definition.
4 Host accepts a coat (3)
MAC – MC (Master of Ceremonies, host) contains (accepts) A.
5 Latest lie concocted that goes all round the world (9)
SATELLITE – anagram of (concocted) LATEST LIE.
6 Go berserk, having to manage tumultuous crowd (3,4)
RUN RIOT – RUN (manage) and RIOT (tumultuous crowd).
7 Take boat round north, a slow mover (5)
SNAIL – SAIL (boat) containing (round) N (North).
11 Produce cabaret, if in resort (9)
FABRICATE – anagram of (in resort) CABARET IF.
13 Out of work, Jack has nothing to be thankful for (7)
JOBLESS – J (jack), O (nothing), and BLESS (be thankful for).
15 Hide in attic, once alone (7)
CONCEAL – hidden in (in) attiC ONCE ALone.
17 Argumentative sportsman? (5)
ROWER – cryptic definition, with the first syllable pronounced to rhyme with ‘how’ or ‘toe’.
18 Hyperactive person in charge (5)
MANIC – MAN (person) and I.C. (in charge).
21 Fixed a number of games (3)
SET – double definition.

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1657 by Teazel”

  2. Took me a while to get going today passing over four clues before WARY. The bottom half seemed more forgiving and I ended up with six filled in on the first pass, which is a pretty normal return for me. The downs didn’t come to the rescue with only MAC going in from the top row leaving me lots to do in the north. Pen and paper had to come out in the end for SATELLITE, that T in third place and the Ls in the anagrist made something like ‘latitudinal’ very hard to get out of my head. Never did spot that FAIR was a triple definition, so apologies to Teazel for silent grumble about fairs not being light entertainment but I did appreciate CONCEAL being a lurker. LOI was RUN RIOT – having been through WILD and AMOK and I just couldn’t think of any other ways to go berserk until I resigned myself to an alphabet trawl. Ended up all green in 17 enjoyable minutes.
  3. No problems; fortunately CRABLIKE never occurred to me. Looking at the blog, it suddenly occurred to me to think that ‘cattle’ should equal NEATS, so I looked it up and it turns out that in fact the plural is NEAT after all. 5:51.

    Edited at 2020-07-15 07:49 am (UTC)

  4. Did not know that NEAT was a hornless or
    dehorned bovine, neat. Now I do.
    COD CRABWISE.
    Thanks Teazel and William.
  5. Got nowhere with NW corner, but better with the rest. Got stuck on CRABWISE, never heard of it. Finally left with NEAT which i still don’t understand and RUN RIOT, which I had to go through the alphabet to work out. Not sure why, it should have been obvious. So 22:57 in the end . Nice workout though. Thanks Teazel.
  6. I’d not heard of (or I’d forgotten) that NEAT can refer to bovines so after being unable to think of any other alternatives I put it in with some trepidation. My LOI was CRABWISE which needed an alphabet trawl, where I fortunately I managed to miss the CRABLIKE option.
    The rest of the puzzle was relatively straightforward with lots to enjoy but my favourites were FAIR and MINX. Finished in 8.16.
    Thanks to william
  7. 8 minutes, but another with CRABLIKE at 16ac. I wouldn’t say I biffed it because I worked hard to understand the wordplay but concluded I must be missing something – after all there couldn’t possibly be more than one 8-letter word beginning CRAB and meaning to move like a crab could there?

    Collins: crablike – like, resembling a crab esp. in movement.

    Edited at 2020-07-15 06:25 am (UTC)

  8. A game of two halves Brian – failed on no fewer than 7 acrosses at first pass, but then got all the downs straight off. Mopped up the Secret Seven quite quickly (after hesitating for a long time over CRABLIKE, finally deciding that it didn’t work and eventually seeing CRABWISE) to finish in 1.6K for a Very Good Day.

    FOI FAIR, LOI CRABWISE, COD CONCEAL (a brilliantly self-referential clue, bravo).

    Many thanks Teazel and William.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-07-15 07:41 am (UTC)

  9. This took me absolutely forever – 33:41. An annoying one where the last 2 clues took up probably half the solving time. CRABWISE was the most difficult – I knew ‘crabby’ but it took me a long time to get there, and then from there to ‘crab’. ARMBAND took me much longer than it should have done too. NEAT for ‘cattle’ is completely new to me.
  10. Slow to start in the NW again but a steady, slow solve in 19 mins – over target yet again. I liked MISTRUST, ODDJOB CRABWISE, JOBLESS but was disconcertingly slow to see MAC and RIOT (despite having RUN in place). A fair workout. Thanks to TEAZEL and william. John M.

    Edited at 2020-07-15 08:13 am (UTC)

  11. Not good this morning. I wasn’t on the wavelength at all.

    NHO neat for cattle, but having now understood it I hope I remember it in future.

    COD CONCEAL

    Thank you Teazel and William

    Diana

  12. Mixed bag this for me- lots of nice clues but a few that were too much of a stretch as far as I was concerned. Thanks anyway setter and blogger!
  13. I was very much on wavelength. I’m travelling through France and solved on my phone app so I couldn’t see the setter. I was loving the wordplay and because I have seen it in a cryptic clue before I got NEAT straight away. Pretty much all the answers came to me straight away with the exception of CRABWISE. Crabby is a word I often use but crab was a guess. Fortunately I didn’t think of like as an alternative to wise! 8:39
  14. A slow start; 01:42 when the first clue went in- FAIR. Next time I’ll start at 1a. Then good progress. 12:30 on the clock, just the SW to solve. Eventually I crossed the line in 19:44 with CRABLIKE! I agree Wise is better for sensible, but crabwise is a new word to me and Crablike seemed OK.
    POI was CRESCENT, my COD.
    This was tough. Congrats to anyone who got it all correct.
    David
  15. I worked my way round this puzzle trying hard to follow the advice which I read on here about a month ago (by Cedricstathersby?? ) that one shouldn’t linger too long on clues that stump you when there are other clues available that you haven’t even read yet. There were a few such stumpers here today but I still got to my LOI, NEAT, in 22 minutes so I think the method suggested is a good one even if my (very un-sensible ) instinct is to keep on struggling with stubborn clues when what I should be doing is moving on to the next. However, when you come to the final clue, and you’ve put it off repeatedly but there’s nowhere else left to go to, then you’re stuck with it. And thus it was with 9 across. I looked at “N*A*” for some time knowing that the first missing letter must be E and the last one must be R or T and it was only when – at last! – I thought of alcohol being served “neat ” that I got it. Never heard of the “cattle ” connection, though. One to tuck away into the cerebral back-of-the-sofa until next time. I was fine with CRABWISE because, luckily, words like “clockwise ” came instantly to mind. Thanks to blogger and setter today.
    1. While you’re rummaging down the back of that sofa, it’s worth remembering that as shepherd is to sheep, so NEATHERD is (or more likely was) to cattle.
  16. I finished this one in 45 minutes with one error (I had absented for 20A as I missed the anagrist completely!). However I needed a few aides to help with the last couple: 9A Neat, 16A Crabwise and 18A Minx all caused me difficulty. I’ve never heard of neat to mean cattle and did’t see the minx/minks homophone – I had mane instead for a long time even though it didn’t fit. I don’t particularly like crabwise, it sounds like a made up word to fit the clue, despite finding it in the dictionary!

    FOI 4D Mac
    LOI 16A Crabwise
    COD 8A Implicit, for its elegant simplicity!

    Thanks for the blog and the puzzle

  17. Thought I’d done well today, ending up with 18:42 after toying with the hope of a pb for a while as I got most of the words from the clue alone. However, pride comes before a fall and it was with dismay that I came on here to find I had not only fallen into the CRABLIKE trap (it was my LOI and I was so eager to stop my watch I failed to re-read the “sensible” part of the clue) but I also had RELAY in for 3d, which still seems a reasonable-sounding answer, though not nearly as good as the real one. My first thought for 9a was that the cattle were OXEN because somehow part of water (oxygen) was without its middle. I couldn’t parse it of course so I only put it in lightly, but it made me think it would be another nice way to make a clue for cattle. Something like “Cattle take empty yawn from life giving gas.”
    Anyway, thanks to Teazel and William
  18. Apparently, no one has heard of neat’s-foot jelly. Mind you, I’ve never seen any, but somehow I’ve known of it for decades.
    1. I’ve heard of it, but always assumed it was some kind of plant name. Rather glad I haven’t encountered it now I know what it is!
  19. 20 minutes, dead on my target for an excellent QC, with all the deception and smooth surfaces I expect from Teazel.
    I got off to a slow start, but I knew NEAT from previous puzzles. My last two were RALLY then FAIR as I couldn’t see the wordplay. For the first I was looking for R ( Start to recover) + another word – the penny finally dropped – but I never did see the triple definition, thank you William for pointing it out.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-07-15 09:36 am (UTC)

  20. But had to look up Neat.
    I enjoyed Oddjob.
    Put Run Wild at first which didn’t help Intact.
    Unable to parse MAC, but now know to look out for MC!
    I too struggled with Crabwise but got it finally.

    Felt pleased to finish this quite difficult puzzle.
    Thanks as ever.

    Edited at 2020-07-15 10:17 am (UTC)

  21. ….because not considering “Tweet” as a short message was one of the contributory factors to me reaching the SW corner inside 3 minutes, but then more than doubling my time to finish.

    FOI/COD FAIR (I love a triple !)
    LOI TWEE
    TIME 6:28 (or 1.1K)

  22. Good puzzle, but struggled to get it right. DNK NEAT = Cattle, had to biff CRABWISE and had RUN WILD which caused a problem.
  23. After a couple of slow ones, I was back on form for this puzzle. NEAT was well known from 15×15 puzzles, and, having changed my pillow, I’d had a reasonable night’s sleep. FAIR was FOI(saw the triple def) and CRABWISE was my last. I saw CRABLIKE first but wasn’t happy with like for sensible, and soon spotted WISE. 6:26. Thanks Teazel and William.
  24. Took 50 mins on this one. I’m tempted to blame the fact I was listening to the radio at the same time, but that’s no excuse – just couldn’t get going.

    After all that, still technically DNF, as I put 22ac down as “Freshest”. Thought of every moon “Gibbon, Half, Waxing, Waning” apart from the obvious, and then decided “Freshe” must be an obscure satellite of Uranus or something.

    Also had difficulty with 6dn – just couldn’t get “Run Wild” out of my head, even though 14ac had to be “Intact”

    Saying that – some clever clues. In particular, 13dn “Jobless”, 9ac “Neat” (never heard of the cow thing either), 2dn “Armband”.

    FOI – 11ac “Fallible”
    LOI – 22ac incorrectly
    COD – 16ac “Crablike” – however I think I went backwards

    Thanks as usual.

  25. Freshest – me too! And via the same process as James. Just couldn’t see it, so a frustrating DNF. I got FAIR straightaway, registering that it was a triple, but it was a bit slow thereafter. Like Templar, I didn’t get many acrosses to start but the downs went in much more quickly. No problem with NEAT – it comes up very often, so definitely one worth remembering. Didn’t know it was de-horned tho, so thanks Steakcity for the new info. I usually struggle a bit with Teazel, and today was no exception, but I always enjoy the challenge 😊

    FOI Fair
    LOI Armband, but then 21a was wrong
    COD Fair
    DNF in 12 mins

    Thanks Teazel and William

  26. Thanks to Teazel for enabling me to complete this in just 12 minutes.
    I DNK NEAT for ‘cattle’, nor MC for ‘host’ so two to add to my hint list.
    JOBLESS. MINX and ABSENTEE were all pleasing but my COD goes to CONCEAL for being so well hidden.
    Thanks to William for the concise blog.
  27. Some days – very, very rarely – everything just clicks. Answers appear almost without conscious thought, chestnuts abound and all is good with the world.
    Many thanks to Teazel and William.
    3’05”
    1. What a time! Normally takes me 3 minutes to read the first clue, think about it and have a sip of coffee.
  28. this puzzle. Some NEAT clues.

    Blinking flip @meadvale – v fast – I thought I’d done well to be 5 seconds ahead of phil, though still >1K.

    CRABWISE was my LOI, and I very nearly biffed “LIKE” until I spotted “sensible” in the clue.

  29. 19 minutes for another over target solve. NEAT LOI despite having seen it as a possible answer on first examination. I was well aware of the cow meaning, but just didn’t think of the straight alcohol meaning until forced to look again at the end. I liked the triple def and simplicity of IMPLICIT, and ODDJOB raised a smile. Thanks William and Teazel.
  30. Didn’t time this but it seemed fast. I had to jump around the grid somewhat to make progress but there were no significant hold-ups anywhere. Had a vague recollection of NEAT having something to do with cattle and never even considered CRABLIKE for 16ac, so managed to avoid that trap.

    FOI – 3ac MISTRUST
    LOI – 20ac ABSENTEE
    COD – 12ac ODDJOB

  31. NEAT is well known to those of us who regularly solve the 15×15 as it’s a handy word for setters and comes up a lot. I don’t think it’s widely known outside crosswords – when I played Neat Neat Neat by The Damned at my music club when it was “mammals” week I had a bit of explaining to do.

    To answer our blogger’s query on how I got on, I had a similar experience – I normally try and come in under 5 minutes but this one took 6:41. I think that was partly just me trying to over-complicate things, e.g. at 8a looking for a word meaning simplicity to truncate, rather than just the word itself. I also stumbled over my final three of CRABWISE, ROWER and TWEE (Attorneys at Law).

  32. … which along with many it seems I have not met meaning cattle before. It delayed rather than upset my completing the puzzle, as the second meaning (without water) was so clear, but it gave me a 17 minute finish.

    One learns, one stores away, etc; but actually, is the word used at all in this sense any more? I note that my dictionary labels it “archaic”; a more accurate label might perhaps be “now entirely restricted to crosswords”!

    That apart I also had Crablike for 16A for a while, but doubts about the parsing nagged at me and I put in Crabwise in the end. Not as good a word IMO, but clearly fits the cluing better!

    So a bit of a curate’s egg for me. But a good workout. Thanks to William for the blog.

    Cedric

  33. Then saw Crablike and used aid for Neat having stupidly dismissed it on the alphabet trawl (nho cattle connection although Phil’s Neatherd rang bells)
    So about 22 minutes with Crablike error…
    Enjoyable though so…
    Thanks all,
    John George
  34. I have seen a few clues for “WARY” but I think that the best was
    “Initially reserved in manner”
  35. Hopefully we’ll have time to do the QC on the day it is issued next week. Reasonable time for us today but we also fell into the crablike trap. Steed’s extensive knowledge of various oils, including “neat’s foot oil”, was key to 9A. This was a fun puzzle and we enjoyed it – thanks Teazel.

    FOI: fair
    LOI: crabwise
    COD: mistrust

    Thanks to William for the blog

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