Times Quick Cryptic 1736 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A cracking QC from Joker. Quick – the clock stopped at 7:57. It seemed that I’d flown through this – occasionally only having a passing acquaintance with the parsing. Some great clues which I’ve relished writing up – COD 13ac. LOI  16dn. Highly enjoyable.

ACROSS

1. Hang around cloister chapter and Saint have left (6)
LOITER – chapter (C) and Saint (S) leaving c(LOI)s(TER).
4. Hitchin caller regularly observed hard water in winter (6)
ICICLE – h(I)t(C)h(I)n (C)a(L)l(E)r.
8. Thinking of confusing VAT incomplete (13)
CONTEMPLATIVE – anagram (confusing of VAT INCOMPLETE.
10. Apologetic with small truck not starting (5)
SORRY – small (S), truck not starting l(ORRY).
11. Turning paler, intitially suffer extreme return to bad health (7)
RELAPSE – paler backwards (RELAP), (S)uffer (E)xtreme.
13. Aims often broken? (9)
MANIFESTO – COD for this lovely &lit/anagram. The definition is ‘aims often broken?’ which gives us (MANIFESTO) made up from an anagram (broken) of AIMS OFTEN.
17. Stadium housing second Lima football team (7)
ARSENAL – stadium (ARENA) holding second (S) followed by Lima (L).
18. Diamond perhaps with slight, not light, colour (5)
STONE – slight without the light (S)light, colour (TONE).
19. What has metal core working with good capture? (13)
ELECTROMAGNET – partial &lit – anagram (working of METAL CORE, good (G), capture (NET).
21. Swindle with pie lacking English seafood (8)
SCAMPI – swindle (SCAM), pie without English (E) – (PI)e.
22. Loom I repair without pressure (6)
IMPEND – I repair (I MEND) inside which is pressure (P).

DOWN

1. Destructive insect – place has tons (6)
LOCUST – place (LOCUS), tons (T).
2. Lunatic or amusing fool? (9)
IGNORAMUS – anagram (lunatic) of OR AMUSING.
3. Each evening going on railway (5)
EVERY – evening (EVE), railway (RY).
5. Wine with tea, not quite the greatest joy (7)
CHABLIS – tea (CHA), not quite the greatest joy (BLIS)s.
6. Greek character‘s cold greeting (3)
CHI – cold (C), greeting (HI).
7. One third of twelve – not odd number (6)
ELEVEN – one third of twelve – tw(EL)ve, not odd (EVEN).
9. Power or oil frequently turned up in list of investments (9)
PORTFOLIO – power (P), or (OR), oil and frequently (oft) turned upwards (TFOLIO).
12. Utter professional has word with civil engineer (9)
PRONOUNCE – professional (PRO), word (NOUN), civil engineer (CE).
14. No bridge partners surpass uninterruptedly (3-4)
NON-STOP – no (NO), bridge partners (NS – north, south), surpass (TOP).
15. Pet frightens with head right down (6)
CARESS – frightens – scares – with the first letter right down at the end s(CARES then S).
16. Hit with a band (6)
BELTED – double definition.
18. A lot of insects needing southern heat (5)
SWARM – southern (S), heat (WARM).
20. A long time shut up in seraglio (3)
ERA – inside s(ERA)glio. It doesn’t particularly matter to the clue but a seraglio was the harem of a Muslim house/a sultans palace.

38 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1736 by Joker”

  1. 4ac was rather odd; anyway, it reads “Hitchin caller …”, which yields the requisite I C I C L E. “Hitching” doesn’t. I biffed PORTFOLIO, forgot to parse it. Liked MANIFESTO. 6:34.
  2. I found this puzzle exceptionally easy at first, due to many clues just giving you the letters, either in anagram form, hidden words, or literal use such as in “turning paler”. But about 3/4ths of the way through, I suddenly ground to a halt as the clock kept ticking away into infinity. Mainly I was stuck on the longer anagrams. Eventually I ended at 16 Down and kept thinking, could it be PELTED? It didn’t seem right (and wasn’t), so I did not submit.
  3. I was well on course for completion within target but in haste I had written APPEAR at 22ac thinking it was an anagram containing [without] P. Careless! Only after I had failed to solve the two remaining clues, 16 & 18, did I decided to revisit 22ac and take a closer look at it. 13 minutes.
  5. Four of the first five went on first reading but that was it for the first pass of acrosses. On the downs, the top seemed easier too so I had lots of empty space to fill in the bottom of the grid and had to work hard to get there. All done in 20m but I didn’t understand everything that went on. In particular ELECTROMAGNET took all the checkers and even then although I’d found a word to fit – after thinking it might be a topical ‘election something’. My O level physics (grade C) didn’t help much with the definition and I needed Chris’s help to see what was going on – and also for NON-STOP and PORTFOLIO – but at least in those cases I could biff from the definition. IGNORAMUS was a surprisingly hard anagram and I was well misdirected by the clue too. Special mention to PRONOUNCE which I though was an excellent clue and brought a smile of pride to my face when I worked it all out. A great puzzle, 20m can seem like an age but this flew by.
    1. My degree in Physics didn’t help with the definition, and I still don’t really get the parsing
  6. 48m16s. Gradually getting quicker with practice, but I am slow solving anagrams. FOI 1ac, LOI 16d, where I sought a word with an “a” in it. COD 19ac. Relates to my profession; saved me from being one who is on dole. Thanks to Joker and Chris.
  7. I found this one very tricky, with the difficulty of solving long anagrams on the phone not helping. I took 33 minutes, well over my 20 minute target, most of the extra spent on my last four. 9D PORTFOLIO came first, although I never did parse it, then ELECTROMAGNET, which then gave me CARESS and my LOI BELTED.
    In the end I was happy just to finish it.
    Thanks to Joker for the puzzle and to Chris for sorting out 9D.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-11-03 08:17 am (UTC)

  8. Has anyone else got an issue with the concise today (online)? I can only see 4 of the down clues, the others look like they haven’t even been entered there. Would appreciate any way to fix

    As for the quick cryptic, enjoyed it today, and came in just under 12 minutes. Had to spend a fair amount of time on BELTED which I suspect might be a chestnut for some. Biffed TWENTY where ELEVEN should go but soon put that right. Enjoyed the constructions for CARESS and the ‘without’ I always miss for IMPEND.

    1. I got, repeatedly, a 404 message saying something to the effect, so far as I could tell, that they’d forgotten about the puzzle and shove off. Just now I tried and the puzzle came as called.
  9. A good test from Joker, most of which went in without too many problems but my final four had me completely stumped for a while. Eventually CARESS led to ELECTROMAGNET and then some further thought was required for IMPEND and BELTED.
    Crossed the line in 12.30 with another vote for MANIFESTO as COD.
    Thanks to Chris
  10. That’s better – but one or two stupid errors didn’t help.
    I put PHI instead of CHI and then couldn’t make icicle work , and thought 22a was airier.

    But otherwise it was a good start to the day.

    Thank you both, Joker and Chris.

    Diana

  11. Wow, I struggled with that one, just as I did yesterday. On the basis that misery loves company I’m sneakily pleased to see some other “slower than usual” times up there! Like mendesest I thought the top half was much easier than the bottom.

    FOI LOITER, LOI BELTED, COD NON-STOP, time 2K and a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Joker and Chris (great time, Chris!)

    Templar

  12. There were a lot of pauses to parse in my solve today. I started quickly with LOCUST and the long 8a went straight in. After that much thinking needed on several clues.
    Last two were IMPEND and finally two minutes justifying my first thought BELTED.
    Another good puzzle from Joker. Time 16:08. COD to MANIFESTO.
    David
  13. Zoomed through the top half but struggled with CARESS (thought it must be something to do with CAT = PET), ELECTROMAGNET, IMPEND and BELTED.
  14. ….after 7 minutes. Couldn’t crack ELECTROMAGNET, not helped by failing to see BELTED.

    COD MANIFESTO

  15. Zoomed through until I came to Electromagnet, Belted and Impend. (Had to look up the latter, LOI)
    Stared at Electromagnet checkers for ages until the penny dropped.

    Enjoyable, though, so thanks all, as ever.
    FOI Loiter and it all flowed on until I stuck, as I said.

    Edited at 2020-11-03 10:07 am (UTC)

  16. Just squeezed inside my target of 15 minutes after a very quick start in the north. Like others, the south required more brainpower than I was initially able to provide, but a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. IMPEND LOI after BELTED fell, and my COD was also MANIFESTO. It’s going to be hard to beat that for clue of the week, month or year – excellent! I liked the LOCUST SWARM and SORRY MANIFESTO random pairs. Any more? Thanks Chris and Joker.
  17. … as the top half flew in and the bottom half, er, didn’t. SE corner in particular proved very sticky, and I spent a full 3 minutes on LOI 22A Impend before remembering that “without pressure” can mean “put the letters all around a P” rather than “use the letters excluding a P”. But all done in the end in 14 minutes.

    Did anyone else notice the extreme lengths Joker went to to find different ways of cluing the letter S? in 1A it is given by Saint, in 10A Small, in 11A the initial letter of Suffer, in 18A we have Slight not light (a new construction to me which added to me finding the SE corner tough), in 14D we have South the bridge partner and in 18D we have Southern. Not to mention an S moving from front to back in 15D. Very clever!

    For all that my COD is 13A Manifesto, for the multiple layers in the surface. But 2D Ignoramus ran it close, a surprisingly difficult anagram to unravel.

    Thank you to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    * With apologies to our non-English colleagues for using this well-worn British cliché, beloved of countless football managers when they try explain why their team collapsed after half time!

  18. Some interesting comments today. I was very much on wavelength but I also only semi parsed some answers which I then had to correct e.g. CONTEMPLATIng. ELECTROMAGNET needed all but the last checker and I parsed it post submission. MANIFESTO was also a late solve. FOI was LOITER and LOI like others was BELTED. 8:21 for an excellent day.
  19. As usual with Joker (for me, at least), a quick start was followed by a serious deceleration towards the end, despite some answers that just fell out from the crossers. Some brilliant clues, not least my L4I – ELECTROMAGNET, CARESS, IMPEND, and BELTED so I was in good company judging by earlier posts. Too many good clues to list. Just the wrong side of 17 mins in the end but an enjoyable time. Many thanks to Joker and to chris. John M.

    Edited at 2020-11-03 01:04 pm (UTC)

  20. I had all bar 19a and 16d in 10 minutes, but then got seriously stuck. I spent ages trying to workout what the anagrist for 19a was, and failed miserably. I eventually saw ELECTROMAGNET, which gave me BELTED, but didn’t parse it until after submission. The whole sorry saga took another 11:47 taking my solving time to 21:47. Thanks Joker and Chris.
  21. We raced through the top half and slowed right down towards the bottom. Consequently, our completion time of 14 minutes wasn’t too bad. Great puzzle – lots to get our teeth into. Thanks Joker.

    FOI: loiter
    LOI: belted
    COD: pronounce

    Thanks to Chris for the blog.

  22. Raced through the first few and began to think I might be on for a quick one. Lots of anagrams helped, I’m reasonably quick at those. But then I ran into BELTED, which held me for longer than it should have, mutter. The penny eventually dropped and I finished in 6:37.

    LOI BELTED
    COD ELEVEN

    H

  23. I really enjoyed unravelling this one and finished a whisker within my target of 15 minutes.
    Everything went in parsed with the exception of CARESS which was much too clever for me.
    I enjoyed RELAPSE, MANIFESTO and PORTFOLIO – and PRONOUNCE has to be my COD for its clever construction.
    Thanks to Joker and to Chris for the helpful blog.
  24. I’m sure lots of solvers will have biffed away at this, but those who take the trouble to parse their answers will have been amply rewarded today. Nearly 35mins all told, (and, as a physicist, with several embarrassing ones spent on loi Electromagnet) but I could have quite happily spent longer. Any of Relapse, Manifesto (I thought that was going to be tricky when I just had the last letter), Portfolio and Non-Stop would make a good CoD, so to have four in the same puzzle was special. My thanks to Joker and Chris. Invariant
  25. Although after 30 mins I didn’t finish (I put “Stash” for 18dn thinking it was another &lit type clue and then couldn’t get 22ac), I really enjoyed this puzzle as it had some great surfaces.

    Lots to like, but favourites included 13ac “Manifesto”, 5dn “Chablis”, 9dn “Portfolio” and 18ac “Electromagnet”. Struggled with 16dn as I couldn’t decide if it was Belted, Belter or Pelted and took a while to realise that 1dn wasn’t an anagram of insect.

    FOI – 10ac “Sorry”
    LOI – 22ac dnf
    COD – 7dn “Eleven” – wonderfully puzzling.

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-11-03 02:53 pm (UTC)

  26. Lovely puzzle which I finished in 19 mins but with several unparsed (2dn, 9dn and 18ac). Thanks to Chris for the explanations on these and thanks to Joker for the mental workout.

    FOI – 1ac LOITER
    LOI – 18ac STONE
    COD – I’m adding to the majority vote for 13ac MANIFESTO

  27. This seemed to suit us today, no real holdups. Interesting to see the use of without again in 22ac, provoked comment some time ago. 20m which is good for us. Thanks Joker and for the blog.
  28. Yesterday I flew through the puzzle finishing in around 10 minutes, which is very fast for me.

    Today the top half went in smoothly and was hoping for another fast time but the bottom half put paid to that as I needed aids to get ELECTROMAGNET since I was fixated on the non fitting electroplating.

    Sadly I am not a fan of MANIFESTO, aims seems to be used twice.

    FOI LOITER
    COD ELEVEN

  29. We found this a fairly unpleasant QC, doable but spoilt by some truly horrible surfaces. I struggle with how 19a can be an &lit when the surface doesn’t make sense – we put it in as the only word we could parse given the checkers. Don’t like the “observed” in 4a, “finds” would make more sense.
    I did enjoy 7d though!
    1. I hate it when part of the literal clue is reused as part of the cryptic element. Frankly, it’s unfair (and weak). “Cheat”, I always shout, which can be embarrassing on the train.
  30. Complete in 18 minutes but had only 19a and 16d after 11 minutes.
    So very similar to most others.
    Contemplative was tentative but good! Chablis pleasing.
    I think Scampi was my COD since it gave me the biggest smile.
    LOI Belted with hesitation but correct – also thinking of Pelted.
    Thanks all,
    A good day
    John George

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