Times Quick Cryptic 1801 by Teazel

71 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1801 by Teazel”

1. I feel a bit NAUSEAS after my error…
2. I had the same questions as Chris, re THE, VERTEX (my LOI). And I’d never heard of LEG-CUTTER, so I had to wait for the checkers. NEEDFUL in ‘kneed full’ struck me as rather feeble a hidden clue; and I’m terrible with hiddens. NHO NUB but as Chris says, it had to be. 6:34.

   Edited at 2021-02-02 06:11 am (UTC)

   1. I only get this by remembering “vertiginous”…
3. …so I think this may not be that easy. Leg cutter is hard for solvers from non-cricket countries, and knee surgeons all use the arthroscope nowadays. I also had a little trouble with ‘be my guest’, thinking it might start with ‘by’.

   I would suggest that ‘one tiny’ = ‘the small’, if you don’t lift and separate.

4. 10 minutes with VERTEX unknown, but obviously no problem.
5. I biffed in ad nauseum but it didn’t look right. I biffed in rotter but I couldn’t parse it. But why not bun rather than nub? Do you have to wait for the checkers.
   1. Hairstyle (BUN) is swept up into small lump (NUB). There’s sometimes a little room for doubt so you might rely on checkers but not on this occasion
6. Really enjoyed this one, finishing all green in 13 — held up by LOI REPROVE which feels a bit milder than a carpeting but that doesn’t excuse it taking an age for me to add R and V to REP and the checkers — I think I hadn’t separated the instruction ‘on’ from ‘on tour’. Enjoyed IN TWO. I’m ashamed to admit I took a very long time to twig what G&S meant and didn’t get the Greek part of PSI but at least LEG CUTTER was on my level. I always get a little glow of pleasure from coping with ‘see’ and particularly enjoyed the surface of today’s appearance.
7. As a relatively new solver, I followed the discussion on difficulty last week with interest. Certainly after 2 or 3 DNFs (or at least without the use of aids) and finish times of around half an hour today and yesterday have, by comparison seemed much simpler. Yesterday I completed in 17mins and today in 10 and a bit. Perhaps I just got on the setter’s wavelength better both days but they certainly seemed “easier”.

   Anyway enjoyed today’s puzzle — LEG CUTTER my CoD and LOI once the dual meaning of ball dropped

   Pb

8. I was thinking my brain wasn’t working for this year, as so far found the puzzles very hard . Been doing average times between 20 to 40 minutes and sometimes not finishing at all. But today it all changed and finished in 10 minutes today, racing through. Enjoyed every minute.
9. Very enjoyable and of middling difficulty for me. I started with PROPER and finished with the unknown VERTEX. Strangely slow to spot what was going on with MISERY and the DRESS part of 19a. I briefly wondered if one of our bloggers was going to make an appearance at 7d and was disappointed when Rotter didn’t fit the wordplay. Finished in 12.28 with my favourite being LEG-CUTTER.
   Thanks to Chris
10. I found this rather tricky, getting stuck at the bottom until I finally spotted VERTEX was a hidden which then gave my UNISEX, my LOI. 7:04
11. I think the definition for 14d NEEDFUL is just ‘Vital’, with ‘contribution’ being part of the wordplay.

    –AntsInPants

    1. I was thinking of the needful – money or funds as a contribution – do you have the needful. However, I agree it could be just ‘vital’.
       1. It isn’t strictly necessary for either definition or wordplay, so it has to be justified as either a link word – which it obviously isn’t – or as an aid to one or the other. And for me at least the wordplay seems the more logical choice, but I can see the logic in your reasoning too. I don’t suppose it really matters at the end of the day.

          By the way, is anyone else here seeing a warning message on the Comment Form page, saying “- you have been banned from commenting in this journal.”? It doesn’t seem to be true, obviously, but it is kind of disconcerting.

          –AntsInPants

12. Exactly 1 second slower than blogger Chris. With LOI UNISEX, after hunting for OX=Oxford, and (one of my peeves!) UP=”At Oxford”

    And since I’m the main critic of the use of SA, and IT for sex, and Oxbridge words for university (SCR, DON, “UP” etc) I applaud the “UNISEX” clue. Although to get top marks from me maybe “at Loughborough” might just have nudged it.

    COD: LEG CUTTER. A good cryptic clue yields a wry smile when it pops into ones head.

    I think the word Sniper actually comes from the first riflemen who were able to shoot snipe, which was thought to be hard to hit with a weapon such as a musket with no rifling.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 09:33 am (UTC)

    1. Closely followed by me re the SA / it references! And as a resident of said small town with a large (and very popular) university, I couldn’t agree more about getting Luffbra in instead of Oxbridge, or to a lesser degree (!) Reading – it would certainly make a change 😉
       1. Luffbra? Perhaps you mean Loogaborooga (as a visiting Australian is said to have pronounced Loughborough many years ago). 😁
          1. I certainly do! Although it depends whether you’re saying it with Leicester accent or an Aussie one 😅
             1. 😆
13. I was slow to start from the top so it was another jumpy solve. Strange that 1ac didn’t click right away. Some very good clues and a few that felt they were just manufactured to fit the gaps (I suppose that applies to all clues, really). I was helped by seeing some of the longer answers quickly but had my doubts about LEG CUTTER and NEEDFUL which was a clear hidden but didn’t quite square with vital for me. Just avoided the SCC though.
    I quite liked BE MY GUEST, SHED TEARS, NO SWEAT, and I don’t believe I have seen the clever PSI before. My COD was MATRIX, with UNISEX and the well-hidden VERTEX coming close (and making me look through the puzzle for a Z to add to the rest of the alphabet before I realised that J, K, and Q were also absent. Good puzzle; not easy. Thanks to both, John M.
    1. I also had a quick check for a pangram.
14. AS NAUSEAM??

    I enjoyed LEG CUTTER

    Thank you, chrisw91 and Teazel

15. This flowed very smoothly …
    … and all done in 7:30. Sub-Kevin times remain very elusive but at 1.2K I declare a Good Day.

    Minor queries about corner = edge in 18D Ledge and Needful as a true synonym for vital in 14D, though I suppose one gets there via Needful is close to Necessary is close enough to Vital.

    In the dim and distant past when one could go to restaurants, I once dined at Rules in Covent Garden, which offers many game birds. Snipe was certainly on the menu, as were woodcock, partridge, pheasant and the like.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    1. I was able to dine there fairly often back in the day when long liquid lunches and expenses were de rigeur … the menus were long and mouth-watering. Have dined there for lunch and supper a few times last year and (although being ‘in season’) the menus were very short and the palest reflection of years past. My suggestion would be to remember past glories but not tarnish them with revisiting. There’s always the Savoy Grill only a few steps away…that will be my choice until the NPG Restaurant reopens after the refurbishment or unless I find myself looking for lunch near Tate Britain.
    2. oh, and wine list ditto….
16. Well at 17 minutes for me this was no walk in the park, despite a quick start with MISERY, PROPER and MATRIX going straight in. My LOI LEG CUTTER held me up despite my liking for the sport, and years spent as an umpire. My first thought for this was lap dance (after the first checker went in), but I clearly couldn’t make it work. No problems with VERTEX, we must all have heard the plural vertices. I good puzzle from Teazel, and blog from Chris — thanks both.

    PS — I wasn’t tempted by Rotter at 7d, seeing RATHER as soon as I read the clue.

17. Steady SCC pacing for me today, and a few more tricks for the book with “see” ( must remember the Ely option too), and LD for lord. No major problems but some pondering required for RIBALD and UNISEX which look obvious now, but ain’t that always the way. SHED TEARS was good, but reminds me mine really does need emptying and repacking…
    Made slight inroads to the 15×15 before coming here, and will nibble at it further as time permits today — or hurl the iPad across the room and go and do some drawing instead.
18. This was another in a string of 3s on the Exasperometer measure of difficulty, taking me 19 minutes to complete, my LOI, the NHO VERTEX, which I put in hesitantly because having discarded semtex as a possibility, I looked again, feverishly at the clue in case ‘revealing’ meant hidden. Which it did. I’ve also NHO LEG CUTTER but then, what else could it be? Kicked myself when I saw the parsing of ROMEO — I always forget what “see” can mean. Lots to enjoy here including PINAFORE DRESS, the clue for which led me right up the garden path for a while, looking for anagrams of “suitable for GS”.

    Thanks, Chris, for the blog — I really needed it today! And thanks too to teazel

    1. I often think of Semtex, usually in connection with my ex, Dastardly Denise.
    2. I’m not sure if the Exasperometer scale allows any finer measures, but I would rate this as 3.5 – just slightly tougher than yesterday’s 3. PSI is rather out of date now, though we recently had ERG which took me back to 1960s physics lessons. LD for lord?
       1. Yes Ld. is a standard abbreviation just like for those of lower status, Mr. or Mrs.
19. Was distracted by a link to some music today. I usually solve in silence, so I went sightly over my target to 10:31. FOI was MISERY and LOI, SHED TEARS. Thanks Teazel and Chris.
20. Hi Chris…I haven’t read all the comments yet but you have a typo in your blog for AD NAUSEAM…..You have the same spelling mistake as Jeremy….very easily done.
    1. Thank you. Now corrected.
21. .. with another careless typo NN SWEAT

    Really ought to do a quick check before pressing submit

    Liked the puzzle. Got the two longer ones quickly which helps

    COD SHED TEARS

    Thanks Teazel and Chris

22. Came to the QC for a break when I couldn’t get the last few in the 15×15. Enjoyable but not entirely straightforward for me. I thought several were worthy of the cryptic. At last! A cricket term, but it took me a while to parse. Liked 19ac, I remember they were quite fashionable in the 70’s. MER ( or maybe ooh matron ..) at 16dn. Surely not true.. had forgotten the python reference ! Thank you algol60.
    ‘See’ gets me every time . I liked 1 dn , 6dn I knew but thought maybe BAR is now used as the metric equivalent. Finished in around 20 mins .
    Thank you to blogger and setter.
23. As usual when I am quite pleased to finish one of these in a reasonable time (just sub-target at 29:50) I come on here to find other people’s times (the ones I think of as not too much better than me) are at least ten minutes faster, but never mind. I know it would have taken me an absolute age not too long ago, so I can’t complain, especially as there was so much to enjoy today. NHO LEG CUTTER, but the checkers gave it away. REPROVE took a while too as I’ve only come across that meaning of carpet on here and not for a while. LOI 1d, COD 13a. Thanks Chris and Teazel.
24. I was very much on wavelength today. My FOI was MISERY and then PROPER giving me lots of first letter checkers to build upon. I am another who queried the cluing of ‘THE’ in 8a but what else could it be. I actually checked the letters in the anagram for AD NAUSEAM and I had no problem with either NUB (I used to wear my hair in a bun when I was about 10) or VERTEX which I solved before seeing UNISEX. My LOI in just over 7 minutes was the unknown LEG CUTTER. Thanks Teazel.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 12:08 pm (UTC)

25. Enjoyed this, but NHO VERTEX (had to check) and struggled with LEG CUTTER and UNISEX until the X on VERTEX went in. Is a SNIPE a game bird??
    1. Apparently so.
       1. ‘He was so wet you could shoot snipe off him in August’. I thought this was a military expression but I see it in A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. Used to be a favourite writer but dare say he hasn’t stood the test of, er , time.
          (Snipe are very small, so maybe that’s why they are not usually served in restos?)

          Edited at 2021-02-02 01:34 pm (UTC)

26. FOI: 1a MISERY
    LOI: 17a NO SWEAT

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 17

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 4a, 5d

    Clues Unanswered: 3 (19a, 21a, 15d)

    Aids Used: Chambers

    Wrong Answers: 2 (5d typo, 20d)

    Total Answered: 17/24

    Started off well, completing the SE corner relatively quickly. Never heard of “Vertrex”, but I could see that the clue was a hidden one, and it was the only thing that seemed to fit.

    5d REPROVE: I wrote REPRODE. I guess a typo counts as a wrong answer, so I did not allow myself that one.

    20d NUB. Another clumsy mistake on my part. I had the BUN answer and put that in instead of reversing it.

    19a Did not answer this one. I assumed G&S was Gilbert and Sullivan. I knew they wrote operas but I did not know enough about them to get the answer.

    So, not an easy one for me, but I am still pleased with my effort. I am just annoyed at myself for the stupid mistakes in 5d and 20d

    1. Hey, PW. Too hard on yourself. Read what you have written aloud, as though giving feedback to someone else, who is a learner.
       I think you would be more encouraging, so, why not be kinder, to yourself?
       We are all rooting for you and can see regular improvements. More Wyvern, less Poison, please. You’ll soon be solving them, regularly!
       1. Hello Pam, and thank you for your encouragement.

          I really do enjoy trying to solve these puzzles. I don’t find them easy, not even these QCs, but I am definitely learning the tricks of the trade, albeit agonisingly slowly. Then again, I have only been trying the QC for a little under two months now. So you are quite right when you tell me not to be so hard on myself.

27. On paper today relaxing with a cup of tea. Was slow to get going. FOI MISERY but it was far from the first clue I read. After that steady progress through this tricky puzzle. As a cricket fan, LEG CUTTER emerged easily for me, but I thought it could be tough for others.
    My last two were VERTEX and UNISEX which gets my COD vote.
    Around 15 minutes. Good puzzle.
    David
28. Leg cutter is hard even if you are from cricket countries if you’re not remotely interested in the sport! NHO but worked it out from the wordplay. Another one here who biffed AD NAUSEUM – should have checked the anagrist! After a discussion last week about the differences between a DNF and a completed but incorrect grid, I’m not sure quite where one stands in situations like this – back to the technical DNF perhaps?

    UNISEX made me smile although it was more Private Eye than the Times! Several ticks so hard to choose COD.

    Things seemed to have calmed down a bit this week – nice to see newer members of the gang getting finishes and / or good times 😄

    FOI Misery
    LOI Vertex
    COD Log on
    Time 12 minutes with 1 error

    Many thanks Teazel and Chris

29. Definitely wasn’t on the right wavelength today so was pleased to haul myself over the line in 25 minutes. I’ll blame the snow.

    Like many, I wasn’t sure about the spelling of 13ac and wanted to substitute the “a” for an “u”. 19ac took far too long to see, but that was partly because I wasn’t sure whether 20dn was “Bun” or “Nub”. NHO of 21ac “Ribald” but clueing was fair.

    I’m also in the “Bar” tyre pressure club — but even though I knew Psi, for some reason it just didn’t click immediately. Similarly I had “Leg Breaks” for 9dn, but the plural didn’t make sense
    nor the checkers (is there a leg breaker delivery in cricket? I thought so)

    I think 14ac “Needful” was one of the more obvious hidden clues.

    FOI — 1dn “Matrix”
    LOI — 16dn “Unisex”
    COD — 8ac “The Small Print”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 12:44 pm (UTC)

    1. A leg break is bowled by holding the cricket ball in the palm of the hand with the seam running across under all the fingers. As the ball is released, the wrist is rotated to the left and the ball flicked by the ring finger, giving the ball an anti-clockwise spin as seen from behind.
       1. So the leg break is more of a slower, spin action — whilst the cutter is more movement off the seam by a fast bowler?
          1. They sound very similar except the cutter is slightly faster:
             For a leg cutter, a right-handed bowler pulls his fingers down the left side of the ball (from his viewpoint), rolling the ball out of his hand over the little finger, in an action similar to bowling a leg break, only at higher speed. This changes the axis of spin to make it more like a leg break, which makes the ball deviate to the left when it bounces on the pitch.
             1. Thanks Chris. I do like cricket, but never really got into the intricacies of bowling.
30. A very enjoyable workout today. DNF — suckered into “rotter,” and no amount of alphabet trawling would give me vertex even though it was there in plain sight. Got unison instead of unisex — it wouldn’t parse, of course, and the reveal made me giggle. After a really promising start I completely hit the wall at the vertex, and was surprised to find one (rotter) wrong, but the clue for rather instead was flawless.

    Thanks, Chris, and Teazel, and to Jackkt for the welcome yesterday.
    GW

    1. Welcome from me too GW. If you sign up for a free livejournal account then you can get a picture of your choice but, more importantly, get an email prompt when someone replies to you.
31. After yesterdays success I started well on this one with a number of the long clues causing little problem although try as I might my attempts at a leg cutter often get dispatched to the boundary

    However I then got bogged down, couldn’t see Vertex or Matrix and I biffed reprove with little confidence.

    16 down reminded me of a very old Monty Python joke

    “I’ve heard of unisex but I’ve never had it”

32. I often am, and today was no exception!

    A very sluggish 10:34 for me, never really hitting the wavelength at all. That’s 2.5 times as long as yesterday’s.

    Jumping around all over the grid trying to get a hold.

    Last two in were the VERTEX and UNISEX crossers. UNISEX raised a schoolboy titter.

33. I’d just like to thank you for the blog. I do lots of puzzles and am pleased to have found this. Some days I struggle to get answers, others I get answers but can’t always work out how (!) and sometimes it’s a clean and easy sweep. It’s nice almost to feel part of a community of solvers, especially during these trying times. All the best! Iain R
    1. Please feel free to delete the ‘almost’. You’re very welcome here – along with all solvers – new and experienced. It’s a real pleasure to see the progress made as people keep trying. If you get a free livejournal sign on you’ll get an email prompt should someone reply to you.
34. Not every day the answers include XXX 😛thanks Chris!
35. Isn’t an EDGE linear and a CORNER angled?
    1. A good point – I’m struggling here – I wonder if an edge with a 90 degree drop on the other side (cliff/curb) could be said to be a corner? There’s also a maths reference:
       Edge=a line joining two vertices of a graph – which would be a 90 degree corner?
       In trade there’s to corner the market – which gives an edge. Hmm – I’m running out of steam.
36. For some unknown reason, we’ve taken to trying the 15×15 before the QC. After a somewhat metaphorical pummelling it’s so nice to come back to the cosy world of the QC. Really enjoyed Teazel’s puzzle (thank you) which we finished in 11 minutes.

    FOI: proper
    LOI: vertex
    COD: the small print

    Thanks to Chris for the blog.

37. Nice puzzle from Teazel which I completed without any great problems in 18 minutes. DNK vertex but saw the hidden and checked 16dn for a possible ending in x before putting it in. Also completely missed the Greek letter at 6dn – just got it from the tyre pressure. Spent a little time mentally reviewing the titles of G&S operettas and thought of HMS Pinafore straight away but the penny didn’t drop immediately.

    FOI – 1ac MISERY
    LOI – 5dn REPROVE
    COD – 2dn SHED TEARS

38. With half an hour on my clock, and with only eight clues solved, I noticed Mrs R (who had started a few minutes after me) put down her newspaper and start to read something else. I had to struggle on for a further 40 minutes, but I was successful in the end.

    FOI: 1a (MISERY)
    LOsI: 5d (REPROVE), 4a (PROPER) and 6d (PSI)

    I am rarely successful with Teazel, so I’m quite pleased today, in spite of my slow time. All the clues seemed fair to me, although I wasn’t sure about 20d (NUB) and 5d (REPROVE). My uncertainty was due to my relatively poor active vocabulary, rather than those clues or solutions being obscure.

    16d (UNISEX) made me chuckle when I solved it.

    Many thanks to chrisw91 and to Teazel

39. A steady solve for us just about meeting our target. Enjoyed 9d, especially as both of us have had knee ops. Bottom went in quicker than the top.
40. ….NO SWEAT, but I slowed down considerably in my latter stages, particularly in the extreme SE corner.

    FOI MISERY
    LOI VERTEX
    COD LEG-CUTTER
    TIME 4:06

41. I went through this steadily and thoroughly enjoyed it. Under 25 minutes- I went to get a second cup of tea and answered a text in the middle I couldn’t imagine what 9d could be until the crossers made me realise what kind of ball it was and I then remembered some sort of ball in cricket. I could see nausea in the 13a anagram but couldn’t find a 7-letter word until my husband, who claims not to be able to do cryptic crosswords, gave me the answer. Interesting collection of remarks: rather, be my guest and no sweat. Those people who didn’t know vertex must have missed the maths lesson when you count the vertices, faces and edges of cubes, pyramids and other interesting solids.
    FOI psi
    LOI be my guest
    COD lots of clues made me smile but I particularly liked shed tears and unisex
    Thank you Teazel and Chris (I hadn’t spotted see=Rome)
    Blue Stocking
42. Two courses tonight
    Not on the setters wavelength
43. After yesterday’s excitement a solid 20 minutes for me today.
    I just bunged in Tap Dancer for Knee surgeon’s ball thinking that it had to be… which of course it wasn’t and then trying to shoehorn in Ad Nauseam with a novel way of spelling. No Sweat resolved my error and the rest was ok. I’d seen Unisex before (when I didn’t get it) so that came in handy and pleased to see Pinafore to work out the G&S bit..
    Good fun
    Thanks all
    John George
44. Cleary I move in the wrong social circles!
45. Still catching up but enjoyed this!

Comments are closed.