Times Quick Cryptic 1787 by Joker

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
DNF – hopefully for technical reasons regarding 18ac. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I’m missing something… [On edit, looking at the leaderboard, it seems I’m in good company!]

Otherwise a puzzle of average difficulty. I didn’t get 1ac straight away and ended up swiping through clues to find some easy pickings before returning to the less obvious ones. I’m a big fan of 11dn (both the clue and it’s solution), but my COD vote goes to the original and funny 11ac!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Unruly argument in open discussion meetings with Liberal left (4-3-3)
FREE-FOR-ALL – FREE (open), FORA (plural of ‘forum’, discussion meetings), L (liberal), and L (left).
8 Kidnap a French duke in outskirts of Brest (6)
ABDUCT – A, then DUC (French duke) contained by (in) the first and last letters (outskirts) of BresT.
9 Sound quality of Britain reduced in time (6)
TIMBRE – BR (Britain, abbreviated (reduced)) contained by (in) TIME.
10 One mostly loved thought (4)
IDEA – I (one), and all-but-the-last letter of (mostly) DEAr (loved). Took a while to see the ‘dear’ bit.
11 Tanning facility located centrally in resort island, luring frumps? (8)
SOLARIUM – central pairs of letters from (located centrally in) reSOrt isLAnd luRIng frUMps.
12 Dandy around university runs business department (6)
BUREAU – BEAU (dandy) containing (around) U (university) and R (runs).
14 Better, except when editor’s replacing short part (6)
EXCEED – EXCEpt with ED (editor) replacing ‘pt’ (short part).
16 Brilliant group of puppies following good year (8)
GLITTERY – LITTER (group of puppies) after (following) G (good), then Y (year).
18 Noticed small cuts (4)
SOWN – no idea. I’m tempted to say that the clue and solution do not match here, perhaps due to an editing hiccough, but I also know that I am very stupid sometimes. I entered SAWS on the grounds that SAW (noticed) + S (small) = cuts, but got the dreaded pink squares and couldn’t (can’t) see an alternative interpretation.
SAWS – SAW (noticed) and S (small). Now corrected after an earlier mishap (see comments below).
20 Unproductive noble, by the sound of it (6)
BARREN – homophone of (by the sound of it) “baron” (noble).
21 Medicine man with counterfeit article (6)
SHAMAN – SHAM (counterfeit) and AN (article).
22 Some rubbish appears wet for recycling (10)
WASTEPAPER – anagram of (for recycling) APPEARS WET.

Down
2 Fanatical attack captures bishop (5)
RABID – RAID (attack) containing (captures) B (bishop).
3 Australian bird, a sort of teal, is mimic (7)
EMULATE – EMU (Australian bird) with an anagram (sort) of TEAL.
4 Not at home in Tynemouth (3)
OUT – hidden in (in) tynemOUTh.
5 Important transport link cut by hostile heavy guns (9)
ARTILLERY – ARTERY (important transport link) containing (cut by) ILL (hostile).
6 The French half murder Madagascan native (5)
LEMUR – LE (‘the’ in French) with half of MURder.
7 Gamekeeper’s beginning to stir up birds (6)
GROUSE – first letter of (…’s beginning) Gamekeeper, then ROUSE (to stir up).
11 Eastern US is mad for sweet wine (9)
SAUTERNES – anagram of (is mad) EASTERN US.
13 Loud PA broadcast put on a bigger system (6)
UPLOAD – anagram of (broadcast) LOUD PA.
15 Source of starch fool put in Spanish fizz (7)
CASSAVA – ASS (fool) inside (put in) CAVA (Spanish fizz).
17 Short time in drag for cast (5)
THROW – HR (hour abbreviated, short time) inside (in) TOW (drag).
19 Sea creature in western sound (5)
WHALE – W (western) and HALE (healthy, robust, sound).
21 View scene regularly omitted (3)
SEE – odd letters from (regularly omitted) ScEnE.

87 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1787 by Joker”

  1. FOI, OUT, LOI EXCEED. 6:04 with SAWS. Editing is getting a bit loose. Thanks Joker and William.
  2. I didn’t find this quite as easy as others, taking 25mins plus another five or so to sort out a couple of parsings – Exceed (just didn’t see the obvious) and Throw (where I had T for time…). Naturally I also had Saws for 18ac. CoD to the unknown 15d, Cassava. Invariant
  3. I’m assuming sown is an error too. Can anyone help me with a mystery from a different source. The Clue was “Rob again backed a fitter” and it has appeared a few times in different puzzles with the suggested answer TROWEL which is baffling me. I think TOOLER works better but does anyone agree with TROWEL and can explain why? Thanks anyway!
    1. I, like you, am baffled by TROWEL. I can see that TOOLER reversed to RE-LOOT is to rob again. Did the checkers support TROWEL? My best guess is that TOOLER is such a rarity that a spell-checker may have substituted TROWEL, which shares three letters in the same positions, at some stage in the compilation of the puzzle.
      1. Thank you – I’m waiting to see the answer this weekend. I don’t submit entries if I’ve googled a clue like this so it’s more an honour thing 🙂
  5. My sincere apologies. The error was clearly of my making, the result of a late change of word during cluing without remembering to update the grid to match, though the Editor is usually good at spotting such things. In this case I have just let the Puzzles Editor know and the error has been swiftly corrected.
    Joker
    1. Many thanks for your clarification Joker, and my apologies to the Editor for suggesting that the fault lay with him in my earlier comment.

      Your suggested clue for 18a made me smile, although it would be hard to choose between your suggestion and Merlin’s if choosing a COD.

    2. From memory, the editor DID spot it, but must have forgotten to update the online version

      The Editor

  6. Since poor old Joker seems to be missing a clue for SOWN, here’s my attempt:

    18A : Scattered drifts, second to last (4)

      1. Joker, thank you for your wonderful crosswords. Given the world context, if this is the worst thing that happens to me today I shall be extremely content.
      2. Brilliant. 18ac was the only clue I didn’t get in 20 mins. And I did the whole thing on paper🤣
  7. Like most people I was flummoxed by 18a. Did the rest fairly easily – a great change from the recent toughies.
  8. Unexpected bonus to having a long work call first thing – by the time I got to this, 18ac had been fixed. Shame it wasn’t a neutrino-trap though, that would have been excellent.

    Excellent puzzle as always from Joker, neat and witty. I delayed myself by entering DOCTOR at 21ac, on the basis that “counterfeit article” was a verb not a noun, but unscrambled it when I got WHALE. Fortunately the Q-ANON SHAMAN has had so much publicity recently that the correct solution readily presented itself.

    FOI FREE-FOR-ALL, LOI & COD EXCEED, time 1.2K for a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks Joker and William.

    Templar

  9. Pleasing to get my own back on clue writers with a bit of misdirection, scattered not being an anagram indicator

    1. Great clue Merlin. I thought as an alternative you could use “Scattered” as an anagrind and just have “Scattered snow”, which is possibly a semi-and lit, but I must admit I’m not too great at recognising the different types of clue.
  10. Yes, I can see exactly what you are doing. And you had drifts as another potential anagrind into the bargain.
  11. 52 minutes today, which makes it nine unaided solves from the last 10 QCs. My average solve time has risen, however, by 10 minutes or so. Focusing on fully parsing each clue, rather than trying to beat the clock, has significantly improved my success rate and this, in turn, has led to greater satisfaction and less frustration/annoyance on my part. Mrs Random is much relieved, as you might imagine (BTW, she did 24 minutes today, so I have a way to go yet).

    As I solve on paper, I did not suffer the ‘pink squares’ problem when I entered SAWS for 18a. I did, however, take an age to realise that EXCEED is not spelt excede. I could see that GROUSE was correct for 7d, but still spent many minutes trying to justify GROUND in it’s place, purely to work with my incorrect spelling of 14a.

    My main stumbling block, though, was the LHS of the grid, and I still had eight unsolved clues (all intersecting) after about 45 minutes. The penny eventually dropped on 3d: EMULATE, and the remaining seven clues fell fairly quickly thereafter.

    As always for me, a tough workout from Joker. Many thanks to william_j_s for the explanations.

  12. In case it hasn’t yet been reported here, David Parfitt has posted this in the Times forum:

    Many apologies for the error in the solution for 18A. This has now been corrected and the puzzle rescored.

    1. Have the “SOWN” brigade been marked as having an error? I can’t remember who any of them were to be able to check.
  13. ….as I didn’t get here until after lunch. I’m glad we don’t have to diSOWN Joker, whose puzzle was, as usual, neatly presented.

    FOI FREE-FOR-ALL
    LOI SOLARIUM
    COD ARTILLERY
    TIME 3:34

  14. Solving in the afternoon as I usually do means that any problems have been ironed out by the time I post. I can therefore say I had it all correct in 14 minutes. Nice puzzle – thanks Joker. Thanks also for the blog.

    FOI – 1ac FREE FOR ALL
    LOI – 14ac EXCEED
    COD – 11ac SOLARIUM

  15. This has been fascinating to understand that almost everyone must complete online to get all the pink squares….

    I enjoy the newspaper print copy.

    20 minutes with some tricky bits – NHO Cassava although gluing generous – couldn’t see why Throw – thanks for the blog..
    LOI Solarium – couldn’t think of the word and didn’t see the obvious constitution…

    Many thanks all,
    John George

    1. I buy the actual paper. I find it more difficult to solve crosswords on line. And also the Births, Marriages and Deaths are not in the on-line version. (Now reached the age where I mostly look at the latter.) I do read other papers on line though.

      Edited at 2021-01-13 05:49 pm (UTC)

    2. Happily we also complete on paper, because this was a resounding PB for us at around 9 minutes, made all the better by Kevin’s frozen fingers – never dreamt of getting with a minute of him! I have to say though that I think this is about as good as it gets, every clue seemed to be read, immediately see an answer, check the parsing and write it in, so utmost respect to those can complete in half the time.
    3. I can only say that (a) I buy the paper and complete with pen and ink, but (b) am guilty of from time to time using the phrase “all green” as a metaphorical way of saying all correct. I may not be completely alone in this …
    4. Re: buying the newspaper: I’m currently classed as ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ and therefore advised to shield so I am not visiting our village store on a daily basis to purchase a physical newspaper. In December, I decided to emerge from lurking here and try to improve my solving time by completing online against the clock.
  18. Posting late has its advantages and on paper. We realised something was up from the 60 + comments. Otherwise a nice puzzle which we finished in a good time for us, thanks for the entertainment above.
  19. Distracted by my sister’s birthday (it’s a milestone one and we’re trying to make it special from afar). Anyhow, we raced through the his one but, like everyone else it seems, got stuck on 18A (so pleased that the answer isn’t sown as it made no sense to us at all) which pushed our time up to 12 minutes. Other than that some very nice clues – thanks Joker.

    FOI: rabid
    LOI: DNF due to 18A
    COD: cassava

    Thanks for the blog William.

  20. I found this so much easier than yesterday and did it in under 20 minutes which is Very Good for me.
    FOI out
    LOI shaman
    COD solarium. I only spotted how it worked after I’d put it in. Very clever.
    I took a while to do 18a but I can’t see why there is a problem with SAWS. Noticed = saw, small =s, saws = cuts.
    Thank you William and Joker
    Blue Stocking
    1. There isn’t a problem with SAWS, but earlier entries had that marked as incorrect, with SOWN as the correct answer.
  21. Now I’ve read through other comments I understand that the sown/saws problem arose for those of you who solve online. I always do it on paper and come to this blog to understand the clues I have biffed, evidently an advantage today.
    Blue Stocking
  22. We do it on paper as we prefer it.
    Only using the on line version when we are away
    No problem with saws but felt that 11ac should have been wines not wine to match the anagram.
    Tricky puzzle but fun
    1. The wine is called SAUTERNES. With as S. You wouldn’t clue, say, CHABLIS as wines would you?
  23. Enjoyable straightforward puzzle, however I found WASTEPAPER tricky and got that with a solving aid. Same with SAUTERNES (I’m not a wine drinker).

    SAWS took me a while after my brain was whizzing about with other possibilities like SEEN SAWN etc. I think the difficulty here is the noun/verb indirection. In the clue cuts is a noun but in the solution it’s a verb.

    I liked 15D.

    Thanks,
    Woodspiral.

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