Times Quick Cryptic 1807 by Orpheus

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Due to considerable difficulty breaking into the NW corner, and a couple of other spiky clues, I finished in a respectable but above average time. I thought some of the anagrams (and indicators) were lovely. I only had to look up one piece of vocabulary post-solve. Did anyone else go searching for 27dn early on…?

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Continental fellow in Scotland perhaps, carrying twisted fibre (8)
EUROPEAN – EUAN (fellow in Scotland, perhaps) containg (carrying) ROPE (twisted fibre).
5 Live with copper — 27, possibly (4)
CUBE – BE (live) with CU (copper).
7 Longing to remove initiator of political clean-up (4)
URGE – pURGE (political clean-up) missing its first letter (to remove initiator).
8 Going on for ever about unidentified person outside (8)
EXTERNAL – ETERNAL (going on forever) containing (about) X (unknown person).
9 Sentimental type initially involved with Marconi (8)
ROMANTIC – anagram of (involved) the first letter of (initially) Type and (with) MARCONI.
11 Religious female going backwards and forwards (3)
NUN – palindromic (going backwards and forwards) religious female.
13 Rodney relaxed over there (6)
YONDER – anagram of (relaxed) RODNEY.
16 Get even with archdeacon in maturity (6)
AVENGE – VEN (Venerable, honorific for archdeacon) in AGE (maturity).
18 Greek character returned and dined (3)
ATE – ETA (Greek character) reversed (returned).
19 Sound money getting father something to suck (8)
LOLLIPOP – sounds like (sound) “lolly” (money) then POP (father).
20 A chap crossing Morecambe, maybe, one from the States (8)
AMERICAN – A MAN (a chap) containing (crossing) ERIC (Morecambe, maybe).
22 Knowledgeable about Shintoism? Not entirely (4)
INTO – hidden in (not entirely) shINTOism.
23 Responsibility of bachelor abandoning extra benefit (4)
ONUS – B (bachelor) removed from (abandoning) bONUS (extra benefit).
24 Change too much? About time to retire! (8)
OVEREDIT – OVER (about) and TIDE (time) reversed (to retire).

Down
1 Key question about king’s personal attendant (7)
EQUERRY – E (random musical key) and QUERY (question) containing (about) R (Rex, king). Tricky stuff.
2 I’m in surrogate ruler’s section of army (8)
REGIMENT – I’M inside REGENT (surrogate ruler).
3 English reader, a Liberal, relating to voters (9)
ELECTORAL – E (English), LECTOR (reader), A, and L (liberal). This was my missing vocab; a lector is a church reader or university lecturer.
4 Obsessive person in teachers’ union (3)
NUT – National Union of Teachers (teachers’ union). Solidarity.
5 Vivid red vehicle belonging to this compiler (7)
CARMINE – CAR (vehicle) and MINE (belonging to this compiler). Not your everyday colour but familiar enough, to me at least.
6 Like invigorating air beginning to boost activity at Epsom? (7)
BRACING – first letter of (beginning to) Boost, then RACING (activity at Epsom).
10 Confront Helen, a GLC eccentric (9)
CHALLENGE – anagram of (eccentric) HELEN A GLC.
12 University man receiving old writing implement still in wrapping (8)
UNOPENED – U (university) and NED (man) containing (receiving) O (old) and PEN (writing implement).
14 A Roman senator originally abandoned one on the river (7)
OARSMAN – anagram of (abandoned) A ROMAN and the first letter from (originally) Senator. My first thought was that I needed a Roman senator xOARSMAN missing his first. Thankfully not.
15 Just rewards — puddings. by the sound of it (7)
DESERTS – sounds like (by the sounds of it) “desserts” (puddings).
17 Take advantage of former plan to tour India (7)
EXPLOIT – EX (former) and PLOT (plan) containing (to tour) I (india, phonetic alphabet).
21 Imitate a dove? Goodness me (3)
COO – double definition.

99 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1807 by Orpheus”

  2. The printer has run out of ink so I did this via the Crossword Club on my tablet and consequently got an exact time, one I am pleased with as it’s within a cat’s whisker of 1K – a very rare occurrence! I much prefer solving on paper – no typos from fat finger syndrome for starters – but it’s quite a good exercise to try and work out clues without jotting lots of letters and blanks all over the place. However, I think it’s fair to say there was a lot more biffing and less returning to parse the clues today, so ultimately I find it a less satisfying way to solve.

    Once I got started, I enjoyed this though – some fun anagrams and surfaces.

    FOI Romantic
    LOI European – jumped to the same conclusions as everyone else!
    COD Cube – ditto (again a shortcoming of solving online – it’s much easier to scan the grid on paper!)

    My suggestion for the middling group, of which I am one and always will be: TWIX – a bit chewy, a bit crunchy and pretty good with a cup of tea, much like the quickie, I would say. Not forgetting beTWIXt and between 😅

    Thanks Orpheus and William

    Edited at 2021-02-10 01:28 pm (UTC)

  3. A very enjoyable QC — they nearly always are if you finish — albeit via the already mentioned diversions. I’m pleased to say that fibre didn’t catch me out until I had first exhausted all possibilities with flax + Ian and Mac! I completed just inside the 20min mark, with only Overedit unparsed — I could see tide/time, but was stuck with Re for about and so was left wondering where the Ov came from… Thank you William, and of course Orpheus. Invariant
  4. Not quite sure how we ended up taking 14 minutes to complete the puzzle – perhaps there was too much banter going on. Whatever, we thought this was pretty straightforward and very enjoyable – thanks Orpheus.

    FOI: external
    LOI: overedit
    COD: external

    Thanks for the blog William.

  5. If this debate is going to resurface, I’m once again not publishing my times.

    I tried anagramming “fibre” inside Ian, Don, and even mon ! That, and the senator, were what took me to a few seconds over my target time.

    FOI URGE
    LOI OARSMAN
    COD EQUERRY

    Edited at 2021-02-10 01:47 pm (UTC)

    1. But,as is often pointed out, the blog is ‘Times for the Times’. I quite like to see them, even though the faster ones will probably never be within my reach, just being happy to be able to finish. The fact that, eg you or Kevin, took x minutes, gives me a feeling for the toughness of the challenge.

      Edited at 2021-02-10 02:08 pm (UTC)

    2. Phil, we need some times on here to use as benchmarks. I dropped mine on the QC for a while some years ago and received complaints so I reinstated them.
      1. OK Jack, I’ll fill it in. I can’t help being quick, and I certainly don’t want to intimidate less experienced solvers (which is probably 95% of the folks on here !)

        Today’s was 5:04

        Edited at 2021-02-10 05:57 pm (UTC)

  6. Perhaps an advantage of not being a hardened solver meant I immediately thought of rope when I saw twisted fibre, anagrams didn’t occur to me.

    I worked through this steadily, dotting around the grud, until I was left with 14d and 24a. Oarsman came after I wrote the checkers and missing letters out – I find it much easier to solve horizontally than vertically. The problem with 24 was that I’d put ‘explore’ in 17d – couldn’t quite parse but tour could be explore and India a red herring. Saw the light when I put ut into my phone to check, PDM… Then I got to overedit but still couldn’t follow the parsing, so thanks for the explanation.

  7. After the first view of the NW thought this would be a slow fail but got going in the SW and proceeded counterclockwise until back in the tricky corner, before finally getting 1A and 1D. All rather satisfying.
    Graham
    1. I think there’s a misunderstanding here. Any abbreviation or acronym referring to an organisation has a life beyond that of the organisation itself. Check out MOT.

      Edited at 2021-02-10 03:01 pm (UTC)

      1. I agree that abbreviations or acronyms can still be used if an organisation doesn’t exist anymore, because obviously at some point it did. But whilst the Ministry of Transport is now the Department for Transport, the MOT Certificate still exists in its own right.
  9. We almost always take nearly an hour over lunch — we are both long retired and newish to crosswords — and thoroughly enjoy nudging the other to find the answer once it has been found by one of us. The only Times puzzle done against the clock is the visual cell blocks when anything over 30sec is slow!
  10. A steady solve in two parts, interrupted by a (mercifully routine) visit to the dentist. 16 minutes in total. Only half parsed overedit and european and fell into the same traps which pretty well everyone else seems to have done with twisted fibre and 27. An enjoyable solve, so thank you Orpheus and thanks also to William for the blog.

    FOI & COD – 8ac EXTERNAL
    LOI – 23ac ONUS

  11. I think that CUBE is a bit too difficult for a QC, I couldn’t even understand the answer until it was explained. So thank you, Penfold!

    This was quite a bad DNF, my parsing skills deserted me.

    I look forward to tomorrow.

    Diana

  12. I have to admit this is the first time I have ever finished the QC without needing to resort to any aids. Very encouraging. R Barker
  13. 4 mins 18 had passed.

    Anagram of fibre and clue number 27 both sought, and not found.

    LOI was ONUS, just because it was down there.

  14. I don’t often fare too well with Orpheus, but I guess he was being kind today as I completed this without any significant hold ups in 26:01. I was surprised to see some of the faster solvers had taken at least their target times or even more, but then the MCC/Inbetweeners/Middle Class group seemed to have done quite well. Perhaps this was something of a leveller puzzle then, one that was hard to do quickly for some reason, but contained nothing too tricky as long as you have a bit of experience. Anyway, FOI was CUBE, LOI EQUERRY, COD 1a WOD YONDER. Thanks William and Orpheus
  15. About 20 mins today despite falling for almost every trap. And that was over a bowl of soup. Perhaps I should learn to eat soup left handed. Johnny
  16. Found the definitions were generous today, solving the parsing afterwards. Rare occasion for us to escape from the SSC. Thanks to all.
  17. Superfast finish (for me) of 25 mins. I didn’t fall into any of the traps some of the more skilled solvers seem to have fallen into. FOI 11a. (nun), LOI 5a. (cube). COD 14d (oarsman).

    Stephen

  18. Nodded off so about 30 minutes. Like crispb I dread Orpheus and this was nearly the same as usual (I.e not to finish) — however today I managed. Just. Becu 27?? But not twisted fibre because I left that to the penultimate. LOI was Overedit.
    But I did misspell Lollipop with the ‘y’
    I guess once you see the constructional style they become easier.
    As an Epsom lad it was nice to see 6d.
    I still thought that this was very tricky so it is fascinating to see others sailing through it!
    Thanks all
    John George
  19. An enjoyable puzzle and a good time for me. I’m not keen on arbitrary men’s names but they weren’t really a problem. I wondered if there was something going on with European and American but I can’t see any other theme. I knew it was no longer the NUT so I hesitated over 4d and my FOI was nun. COD American. We’ve been watching The Bay and I thought Morecombe would refer to that.
    Thanks to William and Orpheus
    Blue Stocking
    1. I’ve seen the Eric/Morecombe trick a few times in the 15×15, but I don’t remember seeing it in the QC before. No doubt others will refresh my memory if I’m wrong.
  20. Just to say thanks for the book recommendation: I really enjoyed a quirky read. Not sure how else to send you a message other than “gatecrashing” another message stream – sorry!
  21. Funny, CUBE was the first thing that came into my head on reading 27, without even registering the rest of the clue — almost a write-in. Good clue for a mathematical chemist! I really enjoyed the puzzle and it wasn’t too hard — 20 mins while cooking supper. Thanks!
  22. Managed to get through them all until OVEREDIT, nice deflection using ABOUT = OVER as so used to ABOUT being RE or C or as a wordplay indicator although still struggling to think of hearing that usage in a sentence. I was not helped by my thinking that COR was the answer for 21D as “Goodness me!” apparently, this isn’t what it sounds like when doves cry…
  23. Humph – a DNF. I admit to not being my sharpest after a day of gruelling physical labour, but I managed to fight my way through the W but had snookered myself in the E. A bad answer for 11a Eve, instead of Nun screwed up not just 12d (looking for varsity or something) but also 16a Avenge. Also saw 5a Cu but assumed it ended the word rather than started it, so Cube was elusive (should have thought more about 27). 5d was initially Crimson but I knew it didn’t parse properly and anyway C wouldn’t be the start of 5a and so got bogged down. Deciding to cut my losses rather than stare at it dumbly while not firing on all cylinders I came here and that gave me 11a Nun and then everything fell into place immediately. So one initial error did for my solve… Managed only 3a (including the error Eve) and 8d on first pass. FOI 2d Regiment. LOI irrelevant. COD 14d Oarsman. Fell into all the usual traps too. Not an edifying performance today!
    I wasn’t putting up a good enough fight to overcome Orpheus’s fair challenge and really appreciated William’s blog and the discussion.
  24. Seeing the total contributions standing at 99 at 7 minutes to midnight I can’t resist adding one more just to make it the round ton. I’m not sure that’s ever been achieved before by a single puzzle of any sort!

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