Times Quick Cryptic 1686 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A hold up on 1ac and 3dn delayed my finish to 10 seconds outside my target of 10 minutes. No grumps from me, though, as I enjoyed this one a lot. Clues to enjoy around the grid but 1ac takes COD for me.

ACROSS

1. Traitor in Paris who attracts support (8)
QUISLING – rather than springing to mind, my mind had to crawl laboriously towards this one. A great word though – which I did know so no excuses. In the language used in Paris ‘who’ is ‘QUI’ with the not so obvious support = SLING next to it.
5. Type of seabird others rejected (4)
SKUA – auks are other seabirds – which, when rejected/backwards = SKUA.
9. Member of clergy beheaded for crime (5)
ARSON – our clergyman is a pARSON without the first letter.
10. A model unexpectedly receiving right noble rank (7)
EARLDOM – anagram (unexpectedly) of A MODEL with right (R).
11. Decline of French people of similar age (12)
DEGENERATION – ‘of’ in French – DE, people of similar age – GENERATION.
13. Going to ground, getting beating (6)
HIDING – double definition.
15, Greek character concealing source of this disgrace (6)
STIGMA – Greek character – SIGMA holding (T)his.
17. Memory concerning offertory (12)
RECOLLECTION – concerning RE, offertory COLLECTION.
20. Condition backed by more senior cricketer, perhaps (7)
FIELDER – condition – if – backed – FI, more senior – ELDER. I liked the unusual if = condition.
21. Instruction to supply goods called for by the Speaker? (5)
ORDER – double definition – the second was amusing – being the parliamentary pantomime.
22. Symbol of rank crack troops held at first (4)
SASH – crack troops SAS, (H)eld.
23. Lines by English novelist identifying  vegetation (8)
GREENERY – lines – RY (railway), next to English novelist – GREENE.

DOWN

1. Crucial-sounding place for loading and unloading ships (4)
QUAY – homophone (sounding) of crucial – key.
2. Affair producing children? (5)
ISSUE – double definition.
3. Transparency islander lent freely (7,5)
LANTERN SLIDE – anagram (freely) of ISLANDER LENT. The transparency used in a slide projector or magic lantern.
4. Reportedly worked flour into dough, as required (6)
NEEDED – homophone of kneaded.
6. Giving birth on farm? – not being serious! (7)
KIDDING – a goat giving birth on a farm could be said to be ‘kidding’.
7. Caucasian soldiers initially installed in Irish islands (8)
ARMENIAN – soldiers – MEN and (I)nstalled inside Irish islands (ARAN – the isles of).
8. Breaks rest to develop a mode of swimming (12)
BREASTSTROKE – anagram (develop) of BREAKS REST TO.
12. She plays a series of jazz chords for law officers (8)
SHERIFFS – she (SHE), plays a series of jazz notes (RIFFS – the verb).
14. Noblewoman‘s daughter beginning to understand board game (7)
DUCHESS – daughter (D), (U)nderstand, board game (CHESS).
16. One who endures being a carrier of equipment? (6)
 BEARER – double definition.
18. Senior citizen taken in by soldiers (5)
OLDIE – well, oldie is in Collins – and quite rightly as it’s the name of a magazine which contains the ever enjoyable genius crossword. Inside s(OLDIE)rs.
19. Cook disturbed by a noisy quarrel (4)
FRAY – affray is similar but with a greater element of fighting. Cook (FRY) holding a (A).

42 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1686 by Orpheus”

  1. I evidently biffed QUISLING and SKUA, so I must have had a checker or two; can’t remember. But I do remember QUISLING being clued a couple of years ago in a 15×15, and being surprised by the number of people who didn’t recognize the name; I suspect there will be some today. I liked the FI of FIELDER; ‘provided’=IF is worth keeping in mind, too. 5:03.
  2. fades with time – he was truly horrible. My WOD – lest we forget.

    FOI 2dn ISSUE

    LOI 11ac DEGENERATION – Pete Townsend!

    COD 3dn LANTERN SLIDE, but not a lot else.

    Time 7.45mins

  3. Greetings from a wet Isle of Wight. Solved on my phone which is as hard as people say it is, not that that is my excuse for taking 23m, I just found it hard to dredge up vocab. No problem with QUISLING, that went in straight after QUAY but ARMENIAN, SKUA, FRAY GREENERY caused me trouble – GREENERY most annoyingly because I failed to try RY for lines because I was lookjng for a shorter novellist for some reason. NHO of LANTERN SLIDE – even with all the checkers I found that hard without pen and paper – or Aran but perhaps that’s where I’ll try next after the Isle of Wight.
  4. 10 minutes with most time lost over 7dn where I had overlooked the specific geographical meaning of Caucasian as opposed to its more general usage with reference to ethnology. I needed all the checkers to think of ARMENIAN and the wordplay fitted although I couldn’t have sworn with any certainty exactly where Armenia is.

    QUISLING and SKUA/AUKS might have been a bit tricky for newbies but neither clue gave me any trouble.

    1. Forgot to say I can’t share your enthusiasm for the Oldie Genius puzzle these days, Chris. For many years it was a highlight of my month but since the original setter, Antico, retired it has been very tame stuff and the new setter’s heart doesn’t seem to be in it.
  5. I got the 1s straight away and proceeded smoothly until left with LANTERN SLIDE, where I needed all the checkers to unravel the anagram, OLDIE, SKUA and ARMENIAN. Fortunately none of them proved too obdurate and I finished in just over 10 minutes. Lots to enjoy today but the standouts for me were QUISLING and SKUA.
    Thanks to Chris
  6. 15:57. Nice clues throughout, I liked the simplicity of SHE-RIFFS at 12d. Just because it was relatively easy doesn’t mean it can’t be COD. Also liked 1A as FOI, giving a Q in the top left straight away means that the NW corner will open up quickly.

    I biffed ARMENIAN, and justified it on the basis of RM (Royal Marines = soldiers initially) in those lesser known Islands the Aenians, somewhere off mainland Greece, mentioned in Thucydides, probably.

    LOI DEGENERATION, and lost much time on the tough anagram at 3d.

    I just did a Wikipedia look up on Vidkun Quisling and found out he was executed by a Norwegian Firing Squad in 1945. Did not know that detail.

  7. 5:30. All went in pretty easily, but I got stuck for a short while on OLDIE. Knew it had to be but just didn’t see it, doh! If I’d biffed I might have beaten my target of five minutes.

    COD SKUA.

    H

  8. An absorbing QC which exercised my remaining cells for 16 mins. I did a few in the NW but then had to move S and work my way back up. SKUA and ARMENIAN (my LOI) held me up. My COD was SHERIFFS but I was tempted to make it OLDIE for old times sake because I actually won the Oldie Cryptic Competition some years ago. Thanks to Orpheus and Chris for the blog and for showing me the correct parsing of ARMENIAN. John M.

    Edited at 2020-08-25 09:18 am (UTC)

  9. I found this very difficult, partly because of lacking the necessary GK. DNK the Aran islands; Arran yes. Never heard of LANTERN SLIDE.Thought of QUISLING but thought it might have a Z. And my seabirds include only gulls and terns.
    Anyway FOI ARSON; LOI ARMENIAN. Time 17:01 which I was pleased with as I am never sure where the Caucasus are.
    David
  10. Sorry, I really didn’t enjoy this one….too may unknowns including QUISLING, SKUA and AUKS, LANTERN SLIDE (although I may have seen this before), isle of ARAN and a MER at KIDDING meaning giving birth. I always struggle when quite a bit of GK is needed. Thanks anyway.
      1. Minor Eyebrow Raise…see the link to the Glossary on the RHS of the blog

        Edited at 2020-08-25 10:48 am (UTC)

    2. We don’t seem to have a problem with lambing, calving or pupping, so why an MER at kidding?
      1. In truth I have NHO pupping either. Whelping yes but pupping no. I put it down to my dearth of GK which does seem to be improving from my 3 plus years of tackling the QC.
  11. I am still in the Highlands and was talking about the local skuas with a neighbour just yesterday. Still took me a while to see the backwards auks, mind you. I enjoyed that, even though LANTERN SLIDE has a very Victorian whiff. QUAY and NEEDED were the easiest homophones imaginable (waits for someone to say “It doesn’t sound like that in my accent”).

    FOI QUAY, LOI ARMENIAN (brute of a clue), COD FIELDER, time 1.6K for a Very Good Day.

    Thanks Orpheus and Chris.

    Templar

  12. ….KIDDING, but Chambers gives it specifically. I enjoyed this, but fully understand that the GK required might prove a stumbling block to others.

    FOI/COD QUISLING
    LOI LANTERN SLIDE
    TIME 3:47

  13. Went over my target time on this one with last 3 in, QUISLING, QUAY and ARMENIAN causing most of the delay. 12:33. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  14. Found this one really tough, but it was at least satisfying unlike those puzzles where most goes in easily and it’s just one or two clues that take all the time. Didn’t get my FOI until 13a and unlike yesterday, the downs were no more forgiving that the accrosses. Never heard of LANTERN SLIDE and didn’t see it as an anagram for a while. In retrospect I have heard of QUISLING, but I wasn’t familiar enough with him for 1a to spring out. It was my LOI and I had to put it together from wordplay, even though my poor French wasn’t up to the job. I’m okay with a = un and the = le/la, but who = qui (and of = de in 11a) didn’t immediately come to mind. They’re slowly getting lodged in there though. Anyway, eventually got the SLING part with an alphabet trawl and stopped my watch at 62:06. COD to the devilishly hidden 18d. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  15. I expect this is a crossword that may split the solvers, both across generational lines and historical knowledge. DNK 1ac Quisling and wasn’t good enough to get it from the clueing. So I had to abandon after 30 mins with 1ac and 2dn incomplete.

    Overall though it was a good test, with the bottom half coming much more easily than the top. Managed to see 8dn “Breaststroke” straight away which helped, but got held up by the NE corner towards the end. I also was thinking ethnology for 7dn rather than geographical location and was also a little unsure about “Kidding” for 6dn. As my seabirds tend to be limited to “Tern” it also took a while to dredge up 5ac.

    FOI – 4dn “Needed”
    LOI – DNF
    COD – 20ac – “Fielder” – lovely wordplay

    Thanks as usual

    Edited at 2020-08-25 11:06 am (UTC)

  16. after a slow start. It is interesting that I found this one OK and yesterday’s impossible whereas others of my skill level thought the opposite.
    Guessed Armenian tho couldn’t parse. LOI

    FOI Arson

    Many thanks all round.

  17. A Good Day here, well under my par of 12 mins and with no problems with the GK. I think that is often my saving grace! I really enjoy quizzes – I hope we’ll be able to get back to the pub eventually 😕 Amazed to find that I achieved 2 Penfolds – even more amazed that I stuck with the biggie and finished it!

    Lots of fun clues today, with a nice mix of hard (ARMENIAN and OLDIE) and easy (QUAY, ISSUE and NEEDED). Actually, there are a few crackers in the 15×15 too.

    FOI Quay
    LOI Oldie
    COD Skua – I thought was particularly good as skuas are very aggressive birds which snatch food from other birds. I’m sure the auks would love to reject them on a fulltime basis!
    Time 8 minutes

    Many thanks Orpheus, and Chris

  18. 14 minutes for me, which I consider not bad after struggling with ARMENIAN LOI. A good puzzle from Orpheus in my opinion, with some gimmes and some meatier clues. Thanks Chris.
  19. Much tougher than yesterday’s, but got there eventually with some help. Guessed OLDIE, FRAY (knew affray but not fray) and ARMENIAN which all turned out to be right – thanks for explanations!
  20. A rare sub-4 minuter for me which was pleasing after I raised the white flag on the 15×15 which is even rarer.
  21. Unlike you 3 down was one of my first in. I then guessed Quisling at 1 across because that gave me the homophone at 1 down. 12 down was my hold up.
  22. … which can be my Achilles heel, but today I did know all of it so a pleasing 9 minute finish. COD 5A Skua: skuas are tremendous birds, real bandits who feed by attacking other birds, and I am lucky enough to have seen them a lot in the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland, where they have the local name Bonxie). The sight of them taking on a gull in mid air and forcing it to disgorge the fish it has just caught is spectacular.

    Biffed 18D Oldie and a real Duh moment when I read Chris’s excellent blog.

    No problem with the French words Qui and De, but it does make me wonder where the line is drawn on how much French us solvers are expected to know!

    Thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  23. Great mix of clues ranging from the very simple to the very hard. We had never heard of Quisling but worked it out – so feeling very satisfied to have avoided a DNF by the skin of our teeth. We finished in 16 minutes. Thanks Orpheus.

    FOI: quay
    LOI: Quisling
    COD: degeneration

    Thanks to Chris for the blog.

  24. …and a few unparsed clues – QUISLING, SKUA and ARMENIAN – so thanks to Chris for the explanations.
    I appreciated the easy ones – ARSON, QUAY and NEEDED – and the clever anagram – BREAST STROKE.
    COD goes to SHERIFFS as I always think this has a double R and one F so the clue will help me to remember the correct spelling in future!
    Thanks to Orpheus for a satisfying 16 minutes.
  25. Slowed down appreciably after a quick start in the NW and had to go down to the bottom and work my way back up again. Luckily no problem with the GK but found the anagram at 3dn needed quite a few checkers before revealing itself. Thankfully the one at 8dn was a good deal easier. Never parsed 7dn or 20ac, so thanks for the explanations on those Chris. Eventually finished in 20 mins (same as yesterday), although it seemed quicker.

    FOI – 1ac QUISLING
    LOI – 18dn OLDIE
    COD – 5ac SKUA – so clever, but you have to know your seabirds.

  26. Knew all the required GK but was stuck for an age on my LOI 11a since I was confident it ended with NATION.

    FOI 1a and COD to 5a.

    Had a go at the 15×15 today but it was a major DNF for me. The quickie is my level.

  27. For years assumed this was the gerund of a long gone verb only to discover its origin.
    What’s the term for a noun named after a person? Can only think of boycott- Mrs not Geoffrey.
    Finished in 20 bar SKUA for which I would need another 20 years inshallah. Johnny
        1. This gives rise to a paradox, if someone is called Mr Non-Eponymous, then do they have an Eponymous name?
  28. I did this early this morning, but then had to go out for most of the day. I found it quite chewy in places, despite knowing Quisling, who was a write-in after 1d Quay. Degeneration and Lantern Slide were the main hold ups, though I also lost time trying to parse Oldie before spotting the hidden. Guessed correctly that Fray might be related to affray, and once owned a car with Auk in the registration so I knew the reverse bird (via a twitcher friend). I was surprised to finish within a minute of yesterday’s time for what seemed a much harder puzzle. Invariant
  29. enjoyed this puzzle pleased with my FOI quisling but got stuck on bearer/greenery axis although on reflection should have worked it out, thanks both
  30. Difficult but fair I thought. Pitched just right for beginners who have had a bit of experience.

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