Times Quick Cryptic 1811 by Tracy

55 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1811 by Tracy”

1. COVENT GARDEN was my LOI, and I realize now that I never did parse it. Also biffed UP TO NOW, ARTIC, & NEWSLETTER, but parsed them post-submission. UP (or ‘up’) shows up from time to time with the sense of ‘revolting, rising’. 4:46.
2. Many put in from the definitions and crossing letters alone. COVENT GARDEN came very late in the game, at which point I barely had to read the clue.
3. 6 minutes. With home advantage I was able to write in COVENT GARDEN having seen the enumeration and reading only the first 3 words of the clue.
4. …as for some reason I thought I was looking for an Italian market, and didn’t put Covent Garden in until the very end. I biffed as of now, too, so not exactly a brilliant solve. Time, 10:23.
5. COVENT GARDEN went in quite quickly but a few of the clues didn’t immediately spring to mind so I was jumping around quite a lot. Was rather slow on the uptake for FIRECRACKERS even with the checking K. Got there in the end and enjoyed it

   Thanks all

6. NHO Covent Garden or ‘artic’ for lorry; I assume the latter is an abbreviation of ‘articulated’?

   Frustrating because the other clues were mostly straightforward!

   WB

   1. A little surprised to read ‘NHO Covent Garden’, WB. Are you UK-based or elsewhere in the world? Its name is synonymous with its former fruit and flower market, now one of London’s major tourist attractions for shopping and street entertainers, and also The Royal Opera House which is frequently referred to simply as ‘Covent Garden’.

      Edited at 2021-02-16 09:48 am (UTC)

      1. Born and raised in New Zealand; grew up on a steady diet of British books and culture so almost always have the required general knowledge for this crossword except when I don’t!

         Usually when I claim to have NHO a thing I realise later I had in fact encountered that thing before but was unable to dredge it up in the moment. In this case however I genuinely have no recollection of ever knowing that Covent Garden was a place.

         That being said, it’s possible that I’ve actually *been there* when I visited London many years ago; sadly my memories are mostly of being shouted at by a beggar who wanted my lunch, being shouted at by a French cafe worker who objected to my order, and being shouted at by a police officer for standing in the way of the Queen’s 50th jubilee procession!

         WB

7. Crept under 9m but today’s typo was ‘llgic’ so that took the shine off a good solve — getting a bit bored of letting myself off because I’d never had done it on paper (but I wouldn’t have!). COVENT GARDEN was first in but I had to battle. Increasingly less recent memories of repeatedly reading Paddington stories at bedtime meant I was fixated on ‘Portobello Road’ and that made me think the second word was going to be ‘Street’. Got there in the end on the way to five on the first pass of acrosses. Held up at the bottom by thinking ‘bangers’ would be sausages and spent some time trying to see why the checkers wouldn’t allow ‘frankfurters’. LOI was APPEASE — nice moment when I realised what the green seeds were. Couldn’t parse ARTIC (thanks Chris). A good puzzle well blogged!

   Edited at 2021-02-16 07:09 am (UTC)

8. FOI 1A: COVENT GARDEN
   LOI 14A: TETHER

   Similar time to yesterday but spoiled by 2 typos: UP TO NNW and BTIGADIER.

   Thank you chrisw91 and Tracy

9. I enjoyed this morning’s puzzle. I was held up by EMAIL, assuming wrongly that it should be a 1-4. Liked SPRINT and didn’t understand TOUCAN (the clue suggests TOOCAN). I obviously plumped for the former but still don’t see the homonym. I managed my porridge and one and a half coffees in a leisurely 27:13.
   1. ‘toucan’ is pronounced ‘tookan’.
10. Felt sluggish today …
    … with more clues than usual taking more time than I would have expected, leading to a 14 minute solve for a pleasant but in retrospect not over-challenging puzzle.

    Only one question mark for me, the connection revolting = up in 21A, which like Chris I’m not familiar with. But with Up also in 9A, perhaps Tracy was reaching for the second string definitions for it.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    1. “Up” as in “up in arms” is a fairly common setter’s trick, but one I don’t much like.
11. 1a went straight in and the rest followed without much delay, apart from a brief brain freeze over the LETTER part of 7d. COD and LOI to APPEASE and all finished in 6.17.
    Thanks to Chris
12. TETHER was LOI (apart from the DNF at 18a – EMAIL). Of course I thought about words such as MITHEN, SETHEC, TITHEM. MO also was a possibility. TERM was a real stretch.

    Also found COVENT GARDEN hard, knew there was an anagram, but one of the words needed replacing. Why not 6 letter synonyms for grand? So did not bother, and waited for enough checkers.

    Struggled in SW corner, eventually posting DNF after 25 minutes, NHO FREESIA and struggled with LOGIC

    COD: CABAL

13. I sometimes struggle to get going with a Tracy QC and today was a case in point. It just take me time to get on his wavelength, I suppose. Slow to get going today with only 2 of the across clues falling on a first pass through, but then I woke up and squeaked home just under my 5 minutes target. COD to the dancing rector in ORCHESTRA. Thanks Tracy and Chris.
14. COVENT GARDEN went in first. A few went in from definition and enumeration – OFF THE CUFF, UP TO NOW. LOI & favourite was APPEASE.

    My times for the past 3 QCs would suggest that the editor has taken his foot off our collective necks, so to speak.

    Snitch says todays 15×15 is quite tricky, so I’ll have a look at that over lunch time to be brought back to earth.
    4:13.

15. I must be recovering my mojo — 11.14 (but with OOCHESTRA so that includes correction time). I feel as though I have made up for my sluggish attempt at yesterday’s QC, helped by a PB for the biggie yesterday. It is funny the way some puzzles click and some do not. I hope others ‘clicked’ and trust we will get some positive comments from newer solvers today. Yes, I agree with hopkinb that the Editor seems to have decided to give us all a break.
    This was a puzzle that flowed smoothly, starting with COVENT GARDEN and moving clockwise round the grid to the W and SW without leaving many spaces along the way. This is more important than the solving time to me. A lot of answers were biffable, I thought.
    This seemed like an unusually generous gift from Tracy — thanks (and I will forgive you for allowing the QC diva to make yet another comeback). Thanks, also, to Chris. For confirmation of my parsing. John M.

    Edited at 2021-02-16 09:39 am (UTC)

16. Fifteen minutes for me today. FOI cabal, LOI email. Three biffed and unparsed after biffing — Covent Garden, artic and brigadier. COD off the cuff. After two very quick solves, I found this more satisfying — it seemed to engage the grey matter a bit more. So I guess I’m not so much motivated by getting the puzzle done quickly and enjoy being challenged — to the right degree at a personal level. Thanks Chris for the blog — I couldn’t see la or le in artic for toffee, and didn’t need to find the ten grand in Covent Garden, as I had all the checkers by the time I saw it. GW
17. Firmly back in SCC territory today. Stuttered through, missing the wavelength although 1A went in quickly, fortunately.
    TETHER held out for some time despite “the” being obvious. ARTIC had to be, but the parsing only clicked later in the solve. The short anagrams at 3D and 16D were frustratingly evasive. APPEASE also took a while.
    So overall, whilst I didn’t quite grind to a halt, it wasn’t fluent. Pleased to complete however. A good workout. Looks as if today isn’t the day to go play at the 15×15!
18. Had quite a few penny-drop moments. Yes, if I had biffed COVENT GARDEN straight away, it might have gone quicker.
    FOI PEP TALK
    LOsI OFF THE CUFF (COD) and FIRECRACKERS. Also liked TOUCAN. Slow to see UP TO NOW. APPEASE made me smile. Could not parse TETHER. Biffed ARTIC before seeing clever parsing.

    Thanks all round, as ever.

19. We didn’t get Covent Garden instantly but, as soon as we had solved a couple of clues, it was the obvious answer. We enjoyed the puzzle and finished it in 9 minutes – thanks Tracy.

    FOI: orchestra
    LOI: off the cuff
    COD: toucan (very funny)

    Thanks for the blog Chris.

20. I rarely finish Tracy, but did today — all except 3d where I carelessly put EM instead of EN. So I don’t know my time, but it would have been good (for me).

    I think I’m very gradually improving, or perhaps there’s so little else to do at the moment that my brain is clearer than usual.

    COD TOUCAN.

    Thank you, Tracy and Chris .

    Diana

    1. Like you Diana I rarely do well on a Tracy puzzle but today I was on the right wavelength and completed it just before Pop Master on radio 2! A record quick solve for me!Couldn’t parse 5d so thanks Chris for the explanation!
21. I did get COVENT GARDEN immediately then ORCHESTRA. I thought I might be on for a PB but biffing PLACATE at 20a (it has the letters for APE in it) led to some hold-ups at the end. LOI was APPEASE which I’ll make COD.
    About 8 minutes on paper.
    David
22. 11 minutes dead, so a happy result. LOI UP TIGHT, FOI ORCHESTRA and COD APPEASE. I got five of the first six down clues before seeing COVENT GARDEN, and I live inside the M25, so it wasn’t an easy spot for me. We seem to have had a number of scam emails and divas recently! Thanks Chris and Tracy.

23. I thought it was just straightforward and came in under 20 minutes at around 17. I didn’t get covent garden on the first pass, and was thinking it may be a bazaar or something, but once I had the checkers on the second pass, it was clear enough. Thanks Chris & Tracy.

24. DIN was my FOI and I needed all the checkers for GARDEN before I spotted the rest of 1a. No major hold ups, but I didn’t fly through the puzzle. 8:13. Thanks Tracy and Chris.

25. Felt more difficult than usual Tracy offering. 35 min but most of that was parsing BIFD answers. On reflection it was subtle misdirection e.g. resort as anagrind, drunk and run off, both at face value… enjoyable and good fun. Don’t be disheartened you’re new to QC as IMHO. this one was somewhat unconventional
    TC

26. FOI:  8a SCAM
    LOI:  23a AVID

    Time to Complete: 1 hour 40 mins

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids:  21

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives):  3 (18a, 7d, 19d)

    Clues Unanswered:  Nil

    Wrong Answers:  Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 24/24

    Aids Used: Chambers

    I woke up late this morning (7am) and so did not have time for my usual early morning run, so that put me on the back foot right away. When I first looked at this crossword I thought the day was going to continue downhill. I managed to answer three clues on my first go round the board, and then I was stuck. However persistence and slow methodical thinking started me on to completing this puzzle.

    I really struggled with a number of clues:

    17a – MANTRA. I was looking at the wrong end of the clue. I think it was because I saw the word “for”, which suggested to me that the clue up to then was the clue which would give me the answer relating to (“for”) a trapeze artist. It took me an hour and 40 minutes for it to pop into, my head, making me realise my mistake.

    18a – EMAIL. This is one I used one of my three lives on, and I was so annoyed with myself once I saw the word e-mail in Chambers. It’s so obvious!

    7d – NEWSLETTER. Also used a life here which disappointed me a little. If I had waited a bit longer I would have had more completed squares, and so probably would have been able to work it out for myself.

    4d – TOUCAN. This one confused me at first. “Also” to me = “Too”, not “Tou”. I did not realise that “picked up” indicated a homophone.

    However, I am very please with my result. My third completion in a row.

    Edited at 2021-02-16 10:57 am (UTC)

    1. Excellent work PW! You will soon be into double-figures. To infinty (maybe not quite) and beyond!
    2. Well done PW! You are making progress and so am I! I didn’t time myself but I would guess it was about the same time as you!
    3. There are a lot of homophone indicators – picked up, some say, on the radio, in the auditorium, by auditors, overheard, reported, etc.

       Of course, there is no guarantee that picked up is a homophone indicator, as it might indicate a reversal in a down clue. They’re trying to trick you!

27. It took me a frustrating 20 minutes to solve my last two clues, 4d (TOUCAN) and 9a (UP TO NOW). I had __ TO NOW and wrote down 32 two-letter words … none of which made sense with the clue. It’s uncanny, when alphabet-trawling, how often I manage to omit the correct word or letters. Eventually, however, I saw UP, but I still don’t really think it equates to ‘ahead’. That then gave me TOUCAN quite quickly, but I never saw the homophone instruction (and I thought the bird was spelt TUCAN), so I thought the setter just might have made a mistake in the clueing. In the end, I was pleased to be all correct in 49 minutes (especially after stupidly entering WONKY instead of WINDY yesterday).

    Mrs Random finished in 18 minutes and “couldn’t see where [I] could have got stuck”.

    Many thanks to Tracy and to chrisw91 for the very clear blog.

28. I was marginally faster than yesterday and perhaps that is because I saw 1a straight away from bay = COVE. I failed to parse it completely (nice clue) as all the first letter checkers worked. I can’t remember being held up anywhere but I still needed 7 minutes to finish.
29. Strangely, my first 5 clues were writes-ins (including 1ac Covent Garden) which helped towards another pleasing time of 13 mins.

    In fact it may have been quicker if I hadn’t got stuck with 19dn “Logic” and 21ac “Uptight”. The former I thought may be “Lyric”, but obviously didn’t fit with the latter. DNK, that drunk = tight nor up = revolting.

    FOI — 1ac “Covent Garden”
    LOI — 19dn “Logic”
    COD — 11ac “Freesia”

    Thanks as usual.

30. Looked hard at first, but things fell fairly easily into place once a start made. I thought COVENT GARDEN was pretty obvious as 6-6 with Bay = Cove. Guessed TETHER as couldn’t parse it.
31. … they were two goals up/ahead with five minutes to go.
    1. Thankyou, although “they” don’t sound like my team.
32. A good start with Covent Garden and most of the associated offspring going straight in. The second half of News- needed the L from Cabal, and Sprint took far too long to parse, but the grid was pleasingly full soon enough — apart from the SW corner. My main issue there was taking the definition in 10d to be Impromptu Strike and trying to think of a three word equivalence for wild cat. I had Off The, but Wall didn’t tie in with ‘appears’ and I couldn’t think of anything to fit. In the end Uptight and Firecrackers prompted Cuff and only then did I see how the clue worked. So, yet another frustrating 22min solve, with CoD to 5d Artic. Invariant
33. At first I thought I was going to have a clean sweep — the top half went in one after another, but TETHER put a halt to that! Just above average time-wise and some enjoyable surfaces on the way — I liked SCAM, ORCHESTRA and FREESIA (looking at and smelling some as I type — gorgeous 😊)

    FOI Covent Garden — used to spend a lot of time — and money — there
    LOI and COD Firecrackers
    10 mins

    Thanks Tracy and Chris

    No chance of a good time — or even a finish — on the biggie today 🤨 It’s been an hour and I still have 7 clues to go — time to pack it in, I think!

    1. I had a very similar experience with the 15×15, but in my case it was just 7 clues completed at the hour mark. 🙂
       1. Apparently the Snitch is measuring quite hard today — I never look because I don’t want to be influenced — so we shouldn’t feel too bad 😉
          1. I dnf’d it after 40 mins or so..2 left.

             I know I do the QC quickly, but a harder 15×15 is where I’m learning now. Fail, learn, try again.

34. A steady solve for me today. Saw that Garden was in Ten Grand and knew the market well from my time in London and it was my FOI.

    I always feel slightly more confident when I see a long 1ac as it can help with a good number of down clues and so it proved today and getting 1d quickly also helped.

    Had 50% of the grid completed in around eight minutes and then struggled with the lower half. Saw email late but it made me smile as did Appease which was my COD

    Thank all

    Edited at 2021-02-16 01:33 pm (UTC)

35. ….COVENT GARDEN from the first three words, but only biffed it part way through, and parsed it on completion.

    FOI SCAM
    LOI UPTIGHT
    COD OFF THE CUFF
    TIME 3:18

36. 16 minutes and complete.
    Last pair Logic and Uptight. Uptight pretty tricky imo. Covent Garden spotted just before moving on. Up to now took a while due to the comma misdirection — freesia spotted just before concern crept up on me..
    Slow but steady.
    Thanks all
    John George
37. Solved in 16 minutes with no real hold-ups. Biffed several answers (9ac & 14ac most notably) so thanks to Chris for the explanations. Thanks also to Mara for an enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI – 8ac SCAM
    LOI – 21ac UPTIGHT
    COD – 5dn ARTIC

38. Not in yesterday’s league, but still a fairly rapid solve for me today, coming in at 20:51. Haven’t yet assimilated CABAL into my vocabulary although I think it’s come up before and it was very gettable from wordplay today. TIGHT for drunk I did remember, although UP for revolting was new. LOI was TETHER having penciled in TITHEC which I knew had to be wrong. One thing I noticed afterwards is that there’s not a single first letter that starts an across clue as well as a down. I wondered how unusual this is as I don’t remember seeing a grid like it before, but then I don’t usually check. Anyway, FOI SCAM, CsOD 7d and 24a. Thanks Tracy and Chris.
39. Back to par and sadly x2 yesterday’s time, 40 mins, but no real problems except couldn’t parse TOUCAN so thanks everyone for the direction to homophones, and Chris and Tracy.
40. Just spotted a rare coincidence …
    … as the 15×15 and the QC both have exactly the same word as one of the answers. Perhaps one of our statisticians can say quite how rare this is, but with hundreds of thousands of words for setters to choose from, it cannot be all that common.

    Cedric

41. For fun I did this by trying all the long edge clues first – they all fell – and then doing all the clues off each edge clue, and then seeing what was left! (Which was only EN MASSE and APPEASE.)

    I haven’t had time for puzzles recently sadly but my son and his chums, who’ve got into them during lockdown, tell me that they’ve all been hitting PBs recently so I guess the Ed has had mercy!

    Anyway, lovely to have time to do one again. That was 7:16 and very enjoyable. Thanks Tracy and Chris.

    Templar

42. About 22-23 minutes as I was interrupted a couple of times and worried I had lost my momentum. This is quick for me, let alone for Tracy. I read in the comments that this is another benign puzzle, but, for me, very enjoyable to solve. FOI 1a as I spotted ‘garden’ and then it was obvious (I’m another very familiar with the area). That gave most of the associated down clues. Lost pace on the across clues at the halfway line but I think all the down clues fell straight Into place so that made the second pass pretty easy. LOI 14 Tether. COD 10d Off The Cuff – amusing and clever. I think I was on Tracy’s wavelength today as I was automatically translating the clues as I read them. Needed a moment to parse 5d Artic but knew it was correct. Thx to both setter and blogger.
43. Slow start but finished in just under 2 course.
    Some nice clueing

Comments are closed.