Times Quick Cryptic 1791 by Oink

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Well, I have to say I made a real pig’s ear of this one and put it down to a bad day at the office. I would be telling porkies if I said I found it easy – at my usual target time, the grid was still littered with unsolved answers. There was a lot of grunt work to grind out some answers (including the two hiddens) and there was a sting in the curly tail when I just couldn’t see loi 22ac until the ‘vacation’ clicked. I, naturally, now expect everyone to say how easy it was. For me it was hats off to Oink who left a calling card at 20dn. 18 (long) minutes it took in the end. COD 7dn.

So let’s chop to the chase and see the answers.

ACROSS

1. No one charged for this public brawl? (4-3-3)
FREE-FOR-ALL – if no one is charged then it’s free for all.
8. A foolish person going round Brazil? (7)
NUTCASE – a nutcase goes round a Brazil nut.
9. One who photographs Her Majesty for The Times perhaps (5)
PAPER – one who photographs (PAP – paparazzi), Her Majesty (ER).
10. Sailor posed outside front of library (4)
SALT – posed (SAT) outside (L)ibrary.
11. Pudding confusion at posh boy’s school (4,4)
ETON MESS – confusion (MESS) at posh boy’s school (ETON). The strawberries I’d have but not the cream or meringue.
13. Maybe mum or dad given monthly payment (6)
PARENT – dad (PA), monthly payment (RENT).
14. Finds time for healthy activity vicar doesn’t like? (4,2)
FITS IN – healthy (FIT), activity vicar doesn’t like (SIN). I couldn’t separated healthy and activity for some time and the definition didn’t seem at all obvious.
17. Revolution helping to protect religious books (8)
ROTATION – helping (RATION) to protect religious books (OT).
19. Raised money for the speaker (4)
BRED – homophonone (for the speaker) of money=bread. I’m at a loss as to why I couldn’t see this for ages. I suspect I was having one of those days.
21. Manage to return, reaching hotel in time (5)
EPOCH – manage – cope – to return (EPOC), hotel (H).
22. Moan about a lady on vacation- something not quite right? (7)
ANOMALY –  anagram (about) of MOAN, a (A), lady on vacation (L)ad(Y) – well, of course it is!
23. Farmers opt mistakenly for unsuitable agricultural terrain (10)
PERMAFROST – anagram (mistakenly) of FARMERS OPT.

DOWN

2. Unnerve Republican who’s got a nasty bite? (7)
RATTLER – unnerve (RATTLE), Republican (R).
3. Departed, heading north with others (2,2)
ET AL – departed – late – heading northe in this down clue (ET AL).
4. Newcomer talks, getting round code of silence (6)
OMERTA – the first two words’ get round’ the answer – nec(OMER TA)lks.
Dnk this but absolutely nothing made any sense at all so I found the hidden in the end – Collins has a conspiracy of silence.
5. Bit at end of book that might be taken out? (8)
APPENDIX – the organ may be removed if you’re unlucky.
6. LSE admitting a professor’s first mistake (5)
LAPSE – LSE (LSE) admitting a (A) (P)rofessor’s
7. Contemporary description of Dec 25th? (7-3).
PRESENT DAY – a rather wonderful double definition which I got from ‘contemporary’ (PRESENT DAY) and wondered if the puzzle was meant to have been published a few weeks ago. Writing up the blog, I relished the full pleasure of the second definition (day on which presents are given – PRESENT DAY). I do feel as if my brain can’t have been on during this solve.
8. Koreans pry awfully – and so do I! (4,6)
NOSY PARKER – anagram (awfully) of KOREANS PRY. Partial &lit where the subject of the definition pries awfully.
12. One grabbing chest ran off (8)
SNATCHER – anagram (off) of CHEST RAN.
15. Almost certain to go top (7)
SURPASS – almost certain (SUR)e, go (PASS).
16. Some tracks on a tape and a work by Mozart? (6)
SONATA – another hidden (some) in track(S ON A TA)pe.
18. Soldiers having miserable time in retreat (5)
TROOP – miserable (POOR) – and time (T) backwards – in retreat.
20. Acorn eater rather a dull chap, I hear (4)
BOAR – homophone (I hear) of dull chap – bore

80 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1791 by Oink”

  1. I loved this one! I always enjoy Oink’s puzzles – full of wit, neat cluing and lovely surfaces, and I thought today was no exception. So many wonderful clues it’s hard to find a COD – PAPER, PERMAFROST, OMERTA and NOSY PARKER were all in the running. So everything fell into place for me – also some time pressure as we were aiming to go for our walk before the storm arrived so I had to get a move on!

    FOI Et al
    LOI Permafrost
    COD Present Day
    Time 10 minutes

    Thanks Oink for the fun, and Chris for the highly entertaining blog

  2. OMERTÀ? Come on, how many of us knew that one … not appropriate. for the QC I think. Or perhaps it’s just my ignorance.

    Actually apart from that it was a good day, and I always enjoy looking for the porcine clues from Oink.

    Thank you, setter and blogger.

    Diana

  3. A tough one this. At the 30 minute mark I had all but 2dn and 19ac. Decided to use aids after that which soon produced RATTLER for 2dn but I never did see BRED. Also failed to parse ANOMALY having been caught out by the phrase “on vacation” yet again. Definitely not a good day.

    FOI – 1ac FREE FOR ALL
    LOI – 19ac remainder outstanding until I came here
    COD – 7dn PRESENT DAY

  4. A promising start in the NW, where I benefitted from remembering Omerta, meant that after about 20mins I was left with ‘just’ the SE corner. At which point I came to a complete halt, struggling even to see how some of the remaining clues worked. Eventually the hidden in plain site Sonata gave me Boar and Anomaly (which I thought began with a reversed Moan typo…), but after another 5 mins I pulled stumps with Fits In, Surpass and Bred unsolved. A tough one from Oink. Invariant
  5. Took a while to get going and we really needed the checkers to solve some of the clues but we prevailed and finished in 21 minutes. We didn’t have any real issues (we were aware of omertà) we just needed time to work out Oink’s clever clues. Thank you Oink – this was a treat!

    FOI: free for all
    LOI: lapse
    COD: nosy parker

    Thanks for the fun blog Chris.

  6. Inspector Montalbano would be surprised people haven’t heard of OMERTA, but then it is a secret.
    And ETON MESS is easily made with yoghurt if you don’t like cream, but our esteemed blogger doesn’t even like meringues. NHO that 🙂

    Edited at 2021-01-19 03:08 pm (UTC)

  7. I began really quickly and thought this was going to be a light relief after some recent offerings but then I started to struggle. I failed to spot that 12d was an anagram so was not convinced it was snatcher – I wanted it to be a word for chest with r removed – and couldn’t think of any word for E-O-H. I ended up using an aid for 21a, 2d and 10a. I had forgotten sat for posed which we had just a few days ago. In the end I finished in half an hour which isn’t too bad for me.
    FOI 1a
    LOI 10a
    COD 14a
    Thank you to Oink & Chris especially for the piggy references- we have a granddaughter who has wanted to be a pig farmer when she grows up ever since she was about 3!
    Blue Stocking
  8. Got just over half in about 3 mins and then chugged though to 18 min finish held up by epoch and snatcher

    How does go = pass?

    1. From Collins:
      11. VERB
      If you pass through a stage of development or a period of time, you experience it.
      The country was passing through a grave crisis.

      Collins thesaurus:
      2 (verb) in the sense of go
      Definition
      to move onwards or over
      I passed through the doorway to ward B.
      Synonyms
      go
      move
      travel
      roll
      progress
      flow
      proceed
      move onwards

  10. Nice puzzle. Fortunately I spotted and recognised OMERTA, but probably known only from other puzzles. FOI FREE FOR ALL. LOI PERMAFROST. I enjoyed finding the porcine reference at 20D. 5:34.
  11. This was a longer solve than usual for me. A nap about three quarters of the way through did the trick so that I was able to complete! Thanks, Oink.
  12. FOI 1A: FREE-FOR-ALL
    LOI 4D: OMERTA

    Enjoyable and a little tricky. Thank you, chrisw91 and Oink.

  13. 25:42 for a surprisingly tough QC. Comforting to come here and find I am not alone. Lots to like including FITS IN, ANOMALY and even BRED for holding out for so long while being so short.
  14. ….and a puzzle that I had no problems with. I’m surprised how many people didn’t know OMERTA, though I could see that ETON MESS might present difficulties to non-British solvers.

    I’m surprised to be 10th fastest today at such a late hour, and being faster than Verlaine is always something I cherish.

    FOI FREE-FOR-ALL
    LOI EPOCH
    COD FITS IN
    TIME 3:18

  15. DNF for me too today. Similar to others, I struggled with “fits in”, “bred” and “epoch”. I also DNK rattler as a snake, US usage perhaps?
    Pretty sure I knew Omerta from the Godfather films!

    Was looking out for a piggy clue from Oink so was happy with boar.

  17. Another tough one for me, but unlike yesterday (DNF after 66 minutes – really not on Orpheus’s wavelength) I did at least finish. 58:07 though and had to hope OMERTA was right. Found the bottom half a completely different league to the top, most of which went straight in. Thought I might be on for a pb for a couple of minutes. The anagrams took an age, especially SNATCHER which I only realised was one after I’d got it. LTI were SURPASS and then FITS IN. Thanks Chris and Oink, but I hope we get something a tad easier tomorrow.
  18. I thought I was in for a fast time as the N flew in. Recognised 4d Omertà straight away. Had to push hard to get the S completed but a DNF on 14a Fits In – I thought of ‘sin’ but didn’t try it in the second half of the answer…doh! Some lovely clues in 17a 7d, and others too made it really disappointing not to finish it all. As the S began to fill up I was getting desperate to find the porcine clue, and then it took too long to find the four letter word. FOI 1a Free For All; LOI 19a Bred; COD 21a Epoch. However, a delightful puzzle from Oink and an entertaining and informative blog from Chris, and discussion.
  20. Having seen Oink before I was on the lookout for several porcine clues and having got Boar convinced myself that the anagram at 8d was something Porker having got the P of Parent only.
    As a result a pigs ear down the west coast and a DNF. Anyone else think similar? Johnny
  21. Just doing it before bedtime. The answer to 19d is Oink. Did our piggy friend set the Concise as well? Is that always the case? Johnny
  22. I have a target time of 15 – 20 minutes and finish ~70% in that time, but thought I was on for a PB until just 4d to go… I was there in 11 minutes but just didn’t apply the golden rule – if all else fails check for a hidden. Drat and double drat…
    So really on the wavelength but NHO Omerta.

    Enjoyable and surprised to see others comments…
    Oh well, heading for a fall tomorrow.
    Still haven’t tried Orpheus from yesterday…dreading that too

    Thanks all
    John George

Comments are closed.