Times Quick Cryptic 1771 by Joker

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I find the difficulty of this one hard to call. I seemed to struggle throughout yet surprised myself by finishing in 8:53. FOI 1ac and then I worked down the LHS before getting checkers to start the RHS. The SE was next which gave me enough checkers to make the second word of 5dn (and therefore the whole thing) obvious. Struggled to finish in the NE being misled about what was going on in 7dn and thinking I didn’t have the GK. LOI 6dn.

Yesterday’s concise quintagram is, I feeel, worth a mention. Without, I hope, spoiling it for those who want a belated go at it, I think I can reference these definitions from it – Quick (clever, witty), Cryptic (hidden, camouflaged). This does apply to all our QCs (for which – thanks to all setters) and particularly to this one from Joker which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

ACROSS

1. Financier having 100 for northern supporter (6)
Backer – financier (BAnKER) replacing northern (N) with 100 (C). It could be argued that a financier could also be a backer but it’s very clear what’s going on.
4. Priest perhaps given lodging by Uncle Richard (6)
CLERIC – lodging inside un(CLE RIC)hard.
8. Rough sketch of simple boat on delta (5)
DRAFT – simple boat (RAFT) on delta (D). Take D and put RAFT onto it.
9. Reformed lamina including uranium metal oxide (7)
ALUMINA – anagram (reformed) of LAMINA including uranium (U). Dnk this but had no hesitation putting in based on the anagram and because it was ‘like aluminium’. This turns out to be another name for aluminium oxide.
10. Formal agreement dropping the first parliamentary statute (3)
ACT – formal agreement dropping the first p(ACT).
11. Painter’s way of working with black to speed up task (9)
BRUSHWORK – black (B) to speed uo (RUSH), task (WORK). I immediately assumed that I didn’t have the GK for this but very quickly realised that it was simple.
12. Turned over furrow to pinch root vegetable (6)
TURNIP – furrow – rut – turned over (TUR), pinch (NIP).
13. In diamonds I go for blue colour (6)
INDIGO – virtually a hidden – in (IN), diamonds (D), I (I), go (GO).
16. Mass at church with the French saint is without equal (9)
MATCHLESS – Mass (M), at (AT), church (CH), ‘the’ in French (LES), Saint (S).
18. Chicken when headless (3)
HEN – take the head off w(HEN). Mrs Chrisw91 will object to this synonym (despite Collins being happy with it) as she differentiates hens as what run around in farmyards and lay eggs from roast chicken. If anyone wants to argue about the term ‘running around like a headless chicken’, she would counter that, obviously, at this stage the hen is in the process of being converted into chicken. I offer no opinion and suggest we move on to the next clue.
19. Make division time stand up before court (7)
TRISECT – time (T), stand up (RISE) before court (CT). Tough definition but clear cryptic.
20. Circulate gold piece (5)
ORBIT – gold (OR), piece (BIT).
22. Tell Romeo story in reverse, with end at the start (6)
RELATE – Romeo (R), story – tale – in reverse (ELAT), (E)nd.
23. Backed exams taken again eliminating English winter sportsperson (6)
SKATER – exams taken again – retakes – backed (SeKATER) – eliminating English (E).

DOWN

1. I must replace what’s at heart of bad offer (3)
BID – I (I) replacing the middle of (B a=I D).
2. Talk about milliner (7)
CHATTER – about (C), milliner (HATTER).
3. Men bash titles for representing upper echelon (13)
ESTABLISHMENT – anagram (representing) of MEN BASH TITLES. This one flew in after only the briefest glance at the anagram material.
5. Like Hal’s Hals’ cavalier with reputation as an object of ridicule (8,5)
LAUGHING STOCK – Like Hal’s Hals’ cavalier (LAUGHING), reputation (STOCK). Well, as I’ve said, once I’d got ‘stock’ the answer was obvious. I had no idea what was going on with Hals but did know about the Laughing Cavalier – it turns out that a chap called Frans Hals painted it.
6. Dangerous creature runs around round outside hotel and inside (5)
RHINO – runs (R) and a-round round (O) outside hotel (H) and inside (IN). I assume this is how it works although I don’t remember seeing around = O before. Thanks to Dante21c for pointing out the typo here – there never was an ‘a’ in round.
7. Addictive form of cocaine reduced in repressive measure (9)
CRACKDOWN – addictive form of cocaine (CRACK), reduced (DOWN). Initial thought was that the definition was addictive form of cocaine and I struggled until seeing the light.
9. An object to touch (4)
ABUT – an (A), object (BUT).
10. Change outside of one meteorological flight instrument (9)
ALTIMETER – change (ALTER) outside of one (I), meteorological (MET). Dnk this last abbreviation – but it’s in Collins.
14. Occupy one new hospital a little at a time (7)
INHABIT – one (I), new (N), hospital (H), a little (A BIT).
15. Take a gamble importing European root crop (4)
BEET – take a gamble (BET) importing European (E). Second root vegetable but it doesn’t seem to be a theme.
17. Hearing test (5)
TRIAL – double definition.
21. What can protect wood in burnt arboretum.
TAR – inside burn(T AR)boretum.

66 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1771 by Joker”

  1. I biffed the last two acrosses and only parsed them post-submission. Errata: It’s Hals’ (I’d write it Hals’s, but), Chris; and it’s ’round’, which of course you’ve seen often enough. 5:06.
    1. Thanks – corrected. I have to type these blogs out in full so any typos/spellcheck in the clue tends to get carried through to the explanation. I find I can only try to proof read so many times before becoming ‘blind’ to the material – so your/others corrections are much appreciated.
    2. I would write Hals’s, too, Kevin. It is becoming common for people to use an apostrophe to make a word ending in s into a possessive, even when the original word is not a plural. Surely it is only a plural ending in s that can properly be made ‘possessive’ in this way. My name ends in ****ss and people write the possessive as ****ss’ when it should be ****ss’s. Drives me potty.

      Edited at 2020-12-22 02:33 pm (UTC)

  2. Sometimes I just don’t understand how I can feel like I’m barely stopping to think about 95% of these clues, and yet I’m still taking over six minutes while Verlaine finishes in under two! It’s really phenomenal when you think about it.

    Was only held up with ALUMINA (the placement of the LMN was a complete guess).

    1. If you’re doing it on a computer maybe it’s just as simple that V types faster and more accurately? When it’s not my brain cell that’s holding me up it usually my fingers. 🙂

      H

    2. Out of interest, I once took a screen shot, completed the puzzle, and then put in all the answers and I still took over 2 minutes. Those guys who complete in a time better than that are really marvellous.
      1. It almost makes me wonder if some super-fast solvers might not be using speech-to-text technology, reading out the letters for an app to put in the grid. That can be faster than writing/typing. But even here, some of the speeds are mind-boggling: I have just read out at a reasonably fast pace all the letters of all the solutions in today’s grid and even that took me just over a minute and a half – and that was without any thinking time!

        Whatever. I’m happy to be ordinary …

        Cedric

        1. About 4 seconds to read the clue, answer it, put it in and move on to the next. Truly fantastic! I couldn’t even aspire to that!
  3. 15 minutes, entirely down to my own stupidity. At 9 minutes I had all of the grid filled in other than the unchecked letters at 9dn and 11ac, and there I remained stuck for the next 5 minutes. The reason for this was that my first thought at 7dn had been CLAMPDOWN and I wrote it in on the assumption that ‘clamp’ was drug terminology that I didn’t know – quite reasonable as my knowledge of it is limited to what turns up in crosswords. Anyway, once I had thought of BRUSHWORK I was forced to reconsider and spotted the more obvious CRACKDOWN. ABUT then went straight in.

    Edited at 2020-12-22 05:57 am (UTC)

    1. I did almost exactly the same! Weird!

      FOI 1ac BACKER

      LOI 9dn ABUT

      COD 7dn CRACKDOWN

      WOD 3dn Peter Cook’s ESTABLISHMENT

      I was on the 12:15

      Edited at 2020-12-22 11:02 am (UTC)

  4. Despite it being clearly clued and a word I’m familiar with I still managed to enter ‘beat’ for BEET, so ruining an otherwise good 8m solve – annoying. Perhaps ‘take a’ in the clue befuddled me. I got seven on the first pass which is pretty good for me, although leaving a bit of a gap in in the middle, and the downs then filled in the grid nicely. I didn’t quite trust BRUSHWORK, the fact “way of working” was in the definition made me think it surely couldn’t end like that, and that made me unsure about the U in A_U_ for my last one in. Once I abandoned AJAR as an alternative – that made no sense – it all became clear. Annoying to get a pink square – I seem to have had quite a few lately!

    Edited at 2020-12-22 10:31 am (UTC)

  5. Tue, 22 Dec 20
    FOI: 13a INDIGO
    LOI: 19a TRISECT

    30 Minute Mark: 13
    60 Minute Mark: 24
    Time before use of aids: 33 mins

    Total Answered: 24/26

    It took me a few minutes to really get started with this before the clues started to fall into place. Quite often now I am working through the puzzle, and soon I find myself with only 2 or 3 remaining. But it’s always those last few that elude me.

    One thing I still don’t quite understand is how I am supposed to know, in some clue forms, when to use the first letter or an abbreviation as part of the answer, when there are no indicators for such. Here’s an example:

    16a Mass at church with the French saint is without equal.

    I am supposed to use the first letter of mass (M), but the whole word AT. This is followed by the abbreviation of church (CH), French for the (LES (plural, I guess), then S for saint.

    How am I supposed to know that I need to include a whole word of the clue (AT, for example)? I guess it just comes by experience as, although I don’t quite understand the intricacies of this type of clue, I did manage to get the answer by working out M (mass) … CH (church), LES (French for the), S (saint). The AT just fell into place.

    Anyway, an enjoyable and not too difficult crossword, though I DNF.

    1. Abbreviations – often to be found in Collins (it’s online and free) – like MET are, in my experience, picked up through experience. This is what will also help you to see when full words are to be included in the answer. The earlier age you start doing these helps probably in memory retention as much as giving those extra years of experience to go on. But, as others have said, you’re doing really well – we’ve all gone through this so can sympathise. It’s also a great feeling to realise you’ve got an answer through the experience you already have. Keep going and, most importantly, keep enjoying the challenge!
    2. The fact that you were able to build up a clue like this out of its parts shows you are getting very close. You just need a bit of luck and you will have cracked the QC any day now.
    3. What Chris and Merlin have already said, plus don’t worry too much about getting stuck on the last few clues or it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I only have to realise I’m within seconds of achieving a target (a new personal best, for example) and it’s often enough for my brain to seize up. In the end it doesn’t matter, it’s the enjoyment that counts most.
    4. Always enjoy your posts PW. I allow an hour and my personal target (after some time spent doing them) is to complete the QC – it happens now and again and always delights me! Today I managed 25/26 (trisect defeated me) and checked that alumina was a metal oxide. 38 mins.
      1. I believe that ‘The Eddie The Eagle’ syndrome is upon us.
        Consistent yet heroic failure appears as ever to engage audiences.
        Much like Trump trying to overturn his election failures over 60 times in the courts of America – it has fired up his base and made him well over $200 million.

        Don’t clap throw money!

        Mr. Wyvern, if you do succeed please keep it quiet, lest you lose your base and your USP.

    5. Initial letters are not random. If setters wanted to clue the letter W they could not use the word WARDROBE. They would have to use the word WHISKEY. Mostly you will just pick them up as you go. A short cut to start you off would be the NATO phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, Charlie, delta, etc) check it out.
    7. If you are completely stuck with just a few to go, try stopping for a cup of tea/coffee and a quick read of the paper. The answers will often come to mind straight away on your return – one of the mysteries of the human brain.
  6. A gentle start to the day for me, only having to pause briefly over the parsing of LOI RELATE and the untangling of the anagram for ESTABLISHMENT. Finished in 6.56.
    Thanks to Chris
  7. A personal best for this straggler at just under 20 minutes. I biffed ORBIT but unsure of the link between ‘gold’ and ‘OR’ – Olympic Record perhaps?
    1. It’s so commonly used that I’ve never looked it up. Wikipedia tells me it’s used in heraldry as gold. For information gold is also clued as Au – the chemical symbol.
      1. Funnily enough ‘aubit’ was my first reaction to the clue, and I was trying to convince myself that the clue was missing a ‘we hear’ or similar!
      2. Thank you Chris for the heraldic explanation. I always assumed it was French, Or being their standard word for gold … but this led to the separate puzzle of why it was not signposted as “in Paris” or something like that. Puzzle now solved.

        Are there any other heraldic terms one ought to know?

        Cedric

    2. ‘Or’ is the French word for gold. As to why this French word is used in crosswords, but not in everyday conversation, I have no idea.
  8. This one flew in and could have been sub 10 if I hadn’t spent so long on LOI. ABUt. Doubly annoying as it appeared first in my alphabet trawl, even jotted it down but did not see how it worked. So I moved On to AGUE, ALUM, AQUA etc.

    I agree that BRUSHWORK felt odd, with “work” in the clue. Brushback, brushlick, brushback all sounded like painting techniques to me.

    “Make division” is a bit of a weak definition for TRISECT.

    COD BACKER. I like clues where one letter is replaced by another, but only if the switched letter is on a crosser, otherwise danger of putting it in wrong.

  9. Another delayed by 11A Brushwork …
    … in fact I see I am in excellent company, as like Jack, the 9D / 11A crossing was my last two in and pushed a fast sub 9 minuter out to 11 minutes.

    Biffed 5D Laughing Stock – indeed I thought of it before I had any of the checkers at all, though I waited for a few before entering it – and never did parse it. Slightly disappointed with 12A Turnip, with Turn… the first 4 letters of both clue and answer. But otherwise, a very enjoyable puzzle.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  10. Another smooth run, coming inside 30 minutes. For some reason couldn’t parse ALTIMETER but didn’t spend too long on it.
    Noticed a picture of Astarte on the Times article on line re undisplayed Louvre art. Should bring a smile to Don.
  11. This was faster than usual for me working steadily down the grid, apart from ABUT which just wouldn’t come to mind until just past the 20 min mark. Should have just done an alphabet trawl! Seemed like more than usual replacing letters and chopping around, but all clearly clued.
  12. I’m in good company today. I just missed my target 10 with my final three answers CRACKDOWN, BRUSHWORK and ABUT.

    Edited at 2020-12-22 10:18 am (UTC)

  13. Started off with BID and CHATTER. ESTABLISHMENT needed a few checkers before I spotted it. I needed CRACKDOWN and ABUT before seeing BRUSHWORK. I biffed ALTIMETER from the initial A from ACT and T from Turnip. Last 2 in were SKATER, then TAR. 8:41. Thanks Joker and Chris.
  14. This seemed to be a much more gentle QC from Joker and I thought I was really motoring yet it took me a few seconds under my 15 min target. Still, it was an enjoyable puzzle. Like others, my LOsI were BRUSHWORK and ABUT. My COD was SKATER. Thanks to both. John M.
  15. I thought Joker made everything very clear this morning and careful reading of the clues led straight to the answers. FOI was BID;LOI SKATER (unparsed but I was confident).
    BACKER was clever and caused a slight delay. Liked a lot of the clues; TRIAL my COD.
    About 8 minutes on paper. David
  16. 12 minutes, so back to more like normality after yesterday’s trials. LOsI ALUMINA and ABUT (one triggered the other), FOI BACKER and COD ABUT. Like others, I found ESTABLISHMENT a bit difficult to see from the anagrist, so that needed some checkers before it emerged. Thanks Chris and Joker.
  17. In 54 minutes. Rather pleased as I thought this would never yield a completed QC, but the last clues fell into place when I realised that I had written Banker rather than Backer for 1A making 2D Chatter somewhat difficult to get.

    I also didn’t like 11A Brushwork. I’ve never seen before a word from the clue in the answer.

    And did anyone else look up “Aubit” to see if that was a word for 20A?! Didn’t know that gold could also be OR, so one to add to the memory banks.

    FOI – 1D Bid
    LOI – 11A Brushwork
    COD 16 – Matchless. Like PW, I put this together from the cryptic, not having any idea what the definition was meant to be.

    Thanks Joker for a great morning QC and Chris for the blog.

  18. I certainly found this easier than yesterday. Once I stopped agonising over Backer/Banker, courtesy of Chatter, the grid filled up quickly and I had hopes of a sub-20 until my last pair, 5d and 23ac. I tried to make sense of Resits and Retests, but it was only when I realised that the work of the Hal brothers (😉) was being referenced in 5d that Retakes came to mind. So a slightly disappointing 22mins in total. Invariant
  19. That went in like greased whatever. Wow. On wavelength + extra coffee = fast solving.

    FOI & COD BACKER, LOI SKATER, time 1K + 1 second for an Excellent Day.

    Thanks Joker and Chris.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-12-22 12:14 pm (UTC)

  20. Wrong guess on ALUMINA. As soon as I read the right answer I got CRACKDOWN. Failed on TRISECT too, but managed ABUT.

    Enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. Liked LAUGHING STOCK, COD. FOI BID and BACKER.

    I put BRUSHWORK but worried Work was in the clue, as others said. ESTABLISHMENT went in fine.

    Thanks all, as ever.

    Edited at 2020-12-22 12:51 pm (UTC)

  21. So, pretty straightforward but a decent mental workout, thanks Joker. We finished in 10 minutes with brushwork and abut consuming a disproportional chunk of time.

    FOI: draft
    LOI: abut
    COD: orbital

    Thanks for the blog Chris.

  22. A very typical DNF for me. Relatively speedy until five or six clues to go. Then, much slower going until three to go (9d, 11a and 7d) after 30 minutes. Total brain freeze kicked in at that point and only 7d (ABUT) was solved during my last 34 minutes of puzzling. After 64 minutes I gave up, inexplicably unable to think of CRACK for cocaine (I had CLAMP) or WORK for task. My fruitless struggle rather took the shine off an otherwise enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Joker and chrisw91.

  23. I must have been on Joker’s wavelength today. Just about everything went in on a first reading. 4:27.

    COD – ABUT

    H

  24. Solved this more or less from the bottom up as I initially had little joy in the top half, finishing in the NW in 19 minutes. In retrospect I’m not too sure what caused my difficulties as the clueing is generally perfectly straightforward. Enjoyable puzzle, so thanks to Joker and to Chris91 for the blog.

    FOI – 9ac ALUMINA
    LOI – 8ac DRAFT
    COD – 16ac MATCHLESS

  25. A very similar experience to yesterday for me, a fairly quick solve to start with, slowing down a bit towards the end, but no major hold-ups, and finishing on 28:35 (5 seconds slower than yesterday). I was surprised to see that 11a and 12a had “working” and “turned” respectively in the clue itself, when “work” and “turn” were in the answers. Anyway, plenty to enjoy from Joker as usual. I particularly liked 23a but COD to 18a, FOI 4a, LOI 9d WOD TRISECT (never heard of it, but I guessed if you could bisect something, you could also trisect it). Thanks Joker and Chris.
  26. ….RHINO clued without any allusion to its largely obsolete use to mean money.

    FOI BACKER
    LOI CRACKDOWN
    COD TRIAL
    TIME 3:46

  27. About 10 mins, last two were trisect and trial, had aural for a while for some reason.

    COD Cleric.

  28. Seem to be out of kilter with people today as I just couldn’t get into this and ended up taking 45 mins split across two sessions.

    The LHS was pretty fine, but the RHS left me chin scratching. I just couldn’t spot 5dn “Laughing Stock” nor 11ac “Brushwork” for ages. Wasn’t massively keen on the fact that “working” was included within the latter clue, although if it was a distraction technique it worked! 4ac “Cleric” also remained stubbornly allusive as a hidden word.

    However, it all seemed fair – so no real complaints here.

    FOI – 1dn “Bid”
    LOI – 6dn “Rhino”
    COD – 7dn “Crackdown”

    Thanks as usual.

  29. Hallelujah! Managed this without too much difficulty today. Guessed ALUMINA from anagram and knew Franz Hals. The possessive of Hals should be HALS’S – HALS’ is really American grammar. Cf Jesus’s etc.
  30. Finished within our target, loi was trisect, a word we did not recognise and had to check. Otherwise straightforward, thanks Joker and for the blog
  31. Trying to get stuff out of my inbox and into someone else’s before christmas has meant no time for crosswords.

    Quick but not lightning solve at 5:31, BACKER FOI, ABUT LOI.

  32. If a single-letter abbreviation is used, it will almost certainly be in Collins online free dictionary. If a first letter of a word is used, there will always be an indication of this eg “beginning of”. Also a short word in a clue eg “AT” can go straight into the answer – this adds to variety.
  34. Please explain how the quintagram works?

    Was very pleased to finish the puzzle yesterday as when I got home with the paper I found that clues 13 and 14 had been blotted out by an ink stain. Yes, I still do the puzzle with paper and pen. Very enjoyable puzzle, and very helpful blog Thank you. S.G.

    1. You’ll find it in the puzzles section – not much after the QC. The way to play is on there and it’s reasonably simple to complete the concise answers from the letters given. Much harder, often, is to spot the theme/link which is always there. There’s a forum which gives hints to the link from other solvers.
      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzleclub/crosswordclub/forums
      I mentioned these two answers as they were so relevant to the QC.
  35. I’m one of those who found this went in much more easily than usual – all done in 17 minutes, unusually low for me. Possibly helped by it being a late session with a small glass of wine and the fact I had had a lie in in the morning for the first time in a long time. For RHINO, my paper copy has “runs round”, not “runs around”, so the O seemed perfectly OK.

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