Times Quick Cryptic 1817 by Felix

I was pleased to end up with a pretty quick time in the end, worrying as I solved that I might need a lot more general knowledge than I have. Luckily, though, most of it is not required in order to get the answers. Lots of anagrams to get some letters in the grid, which also usually helps. I enjoyed all of the short and pithy clues, but can’t choose between 12dn and 14dn for COD. Hope you enjoyed the challenge too.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Again starts Religious Education, arithmetic, taking in English (7)
RESUMES – R.E. (religious education) then SUMS (arithmetic) containing (taking in) E (English).
5 Strike part of sleeve (4)
CUFF – double definition.
7 Cross after the French becoming sloppy (3)
LAX – X (cross) after LA (the, in French).
8 One again inert, due to move (8)
REUNITED – anagram of (to move) INERT DUE.
10 Actress Jessica appearing in Shaft and Yentl (5)
TANDY – hidden in (appearing in) shafT AND Yenti. The first unknown person that I did not really need to know.
11 Constituent of tar: part primarily used by people (7)
BITUMEN – BIT (part), first letter of (primarily) Used, then MEN (people).
13 Empty tin in tank (6)
VACANT – CAN (tin) inside VAT (tank).
15 Ale not surprisingly found in shed (4-2)
LEAN-TO – anagram of (surprisingly) ALE NOT.
17 Storm as NY photo is doctored (7)
TYPHOON – anagram of (… is doctored) NY PHOTO.
18 An American taking in golf in Scottish region (5)
ANGUS – AN and US (American) containing (taking in) G (golf, phonetic alphabet).
20 German composer’s pal chasing small girl (8)
SCHUMANN – CHUM (pal) after (chasing) S (small), then ANN (girl).
22 Stefan, every so often, waves (3)
SEA – every other letter from (every so often) StEfAn.
23 Shock as spectacular feat is left unfinished (4)
STUN – STUNt (spectacular feat) missing its final letter (unfinished).
24 At the back, Charlie Lunnon held firm, tho’ was caught finally (7)
ENDMOST – last letters from (finally) charliE lunnoN helD firM thO waS caughT.  I suppose the definition could be at either end of this clue! The second unknown person for me – I assume not an actual person, as a cursory Google search reveals no-one of note?

Down
1 Subject of certain theories, complicated yet trivial (10)
RELATIVITY – anagram of (complicated) YET TRIVIAL.
2 Boy carrying short axe for German once (5)
SAXON – SON (boy) containing (carrying) all-but-the-last letter of (short) AXe.
3 After wedding, join Roy Martin dancing (5,4)
MARRY INTO – anagram of (dancing) ROY MARTIN. Another unkown person! Again, my ignorance did not stop me solving the clue, but I maybe missed the intended mental image of the prolific musician dancing at a party.
4 Painter picked up cigarette ends (6)
STUBBS – sounds like (picked up) “stubs” (cigarette ends). Finally, a person it would have been helpful to know, or at least what they did for a living; George Stubbs painted lots of horses.
5 Charlie greeting character from abroad (3)
CHI – C (charlie, phonetic alphabet) and HI (greeting). The 22nd letter (character) of the Greek alphabet.
6 Privileged citizen mean ref sent off (7)
FREEMAN – anagram of (sent off) MEAN REF.
9 Conservative coming in second, being far from reliable (10)
INCONSTANT – CON (conservative) inside (coming in) INSTANT (second).
12 Pretend an eccentric was boring (9)
TREPANNED – anagram of (eccentric) PRETEND AN. I will never forget this meaning after listening to a BBC R4 documentary with some crazies from the 60s who performed the procedure on themselves in order to get high.
14 Ape, Siamese perhaps, or parrot? (7)
COPYCAT – COPY (ape) and CAT (Siamese perhaps).
16 Dangerous guns: a few scaled back (6)
UNSAFE – hidden in (…scaled back) gUNS A FEw. I thought we were looking for a reverse hidden here, but I suppose we are to take ‘scaled back’ to mean ‘limited’ or ‘contained’.
19 Enthusiasm to blow over at the outset (5)
GUSTO – GUST (to blow) and the first letter of (at the outset) Over.
21 Rook stuck in a French vase (3)
URN – R (rook, chess) inside (stuck in) UN (a, in French).

60 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1817 by Felix”

  1. LAX was my FOI, followed by SAXON, then a steady plod to LOI, INCONSTANT. 9:06. Thanks Felix and William. Now back to bed to see if I can find the elusive arms of Morpheus…zzzz
  2. I needed the full 10 minutes of my target time, though on reflection I don’t recall any particular hold-ups. Maybe I was distracted by the unknown names and not being sure who TANDY was although I was vaguely aware of someone of that name. I’ve never knowingly seen her in anything. No problems with MARRY INTO though, as ‘marry into money’ is a common enough expression.
  3. Biffed RESUMES. I was a bit surprised to see Jessica TANDY, who I always thought of as a Broadway star (Hume Cronyn, her husband, and Jessica Tandy were a famous stage couple). 5:45.
  4. Seven on the first pass of acrosses which is pretty good for me but the answers were never flowing today. I knew Jessica TANDY was a person but not what she did and the same with STUBBS. I though there was a composer called SCHUMANN but I’ve never knowingly heard his stuff. Held up in the SE with ENDMOST where I lost time thinking the ends finished at END with firm clueing CO — don’t think I’ve come across ENDMOST before. I’m certain I haven’t come across TREPANNED. Once checkers were in there wasn’t much else to fi with the remaining letters but it still didn’t mean anything to me. I’m going to see what it is to see if it’s worth it for a high (thanks William).

    EDIT: It’s not.

    Edited at 2021-02-24 07:30 am (UTC)

  5. Having biffed STUBBS I spent some time trying to figure out how BUTTS for cigarette ends could be “picked up” to justify it so thank you for clarifying!

    In 19D I parsed “over at the outset” to mean O as the first letter of over rather than the cricket reference

    Pb

  6. I initially worried that I might struggle with the GK needed for the painter, actress and composer. Fortunately none of them were unknown to me and with a couple of checkers in place I didn’t have to dredge too deep to remember them. I first read about trepanning from the Patrick O’Brian, Aubrey and Maturin, novels and it’s one of those pieces of information that I’ve never forgotten.
    An enjoyable solve that I finished in 9.31 with LOI UNSAFE, COD to COPYCAT
  7. I surprised myself this morning by completing in 17 minutes. I enjoyed 20a SCHUMANN (Mendesest, try his symphony no. 4 if you’ve not heard him. Delightful.) I was delayed a little over 12d TREPANNED which was my LOI.
    A nice puzzle to start the day,

    Edited at 2021-02-24 08:40 am (UTC)

  8. 1213. Good to be out of the DNF club.

    Some obscurities, but all guessable. No NHO’s for me. With two checkers I had a bit of Schumann/Schubert anguish, as could not parse until a third checker showed.

    MARRY INTO seems like an obscure phrase, and biffers might have been tempted by HONEY MOON which was tempting.

    At 24A, I wondered why setter picked on “Charlie Lunnon”, rather than, say Charlie Brown or Charlie Chaplin. When I googled this guy, I only got one Investment Banker and several crossword blogs…

    LOI: UNSAFE
    COD: COPYCAT

  9. I was feeling good about this one after I found the hidden TANDY (NHO the actress) and derived TREPANNED despite completely missing the correct definition of ‘boring’.

    Came unstuck when I overlooked the ‘ape’ -> ‘copy’ pairing which I now remember learning about months ago in this very blog…

    Called it quits at 30 minutes with everything else in place, so pleased with the effort but annoyed I missed a ‘gimme’ at the end!

    WB

  10. I never quite got into a flow with this one taking a while to see how some of the clues worked – e.g. CHUM for “pal” and where to put the Conservative in 9D. I enjoyed “was boting” for TREPANNED most. 5:57.
  11. … which is a pleasant change after my struggles so far this week: I usually find him one of the tougher setters but all done in just under 12 minutes today. Perhaps it comes from doing it in the morning when I am fresh, rather than late afternoon as yesterday.

    No real hold-ups, though NHO Jessica Tandy, Roy Martin or Charlie Lunnon. Not that one needed to to get those three clues. Was anyone else misled though by “chasing” in 20A — I spent some time trying to fit a word meaning pal after a shortened girl’s name until I realised that the pal was chasing/following S for small.

    A wry smile at 1D Relativity. I studied Einstein’s Special and General Relativity at university — complicated it most certainly is, but trivial? Not exactly the word that comes to mind for the laws of how the universe works!

    Many thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

  12. Very quick today, eight of each across and down going in at the first pass, which demystified the rest of the grid. FOI cuff, LOI Saxon, COD trepanned, remembered from hearing miners talking about the trepanner and the dust it created when it was in action. Saw one once, in a coal seam. Big, impressive machine in a very tight space. It was not in action at the time. The noise when it was in operation must have been hellish to be around. I biffed Schumann, stun, so thanks to William for the parsing, obvious with hindsight, great gift that it is. And thanks to Felix for the entertainment.
  13. A mixed bag. I started quickly and enjoyed many of the clues but I slowed in the lower reaches. I was nearly seduced into biffing Schubert but soon sorted that when TREPANNED emerged. I only parsed SCHUMANN after completion, though. Sadly, I was lethargic this morning and was 4 mins over target. I enjoyed the neat anagrams. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2021-02-24 09:44 am (UTC)

  14. Is there a Nina? There usually is with Felix, but I can’t see one.

    Very jolly puzzle with some excellent surfaces. FOI RESUMES, LOI REUNITED (unusually I had to write down the anagrist for both this and POI MARRY INTO before they would click), COD RELATIVITY or STUBBS, time 1.7K for a Good Day. But it would be a better day if I could find a Nina!

    Many thanks Felix and William.

    Templar

  15. FOI: 5a – CUFF
    LOI: 16d – UNSAFE

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 24/26

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 20a

    Clues Unanswered: 24a

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 25/26

    Aids Used: Bradfords, Google

    I had high hopes for this puzzle. I was quickly finding many answers, and I thought I might have my quickest completion to date. Alas that was not to be true.

    12a. TREPANNED – Have not heard of this word but it was the only word I could make from the anagram referenced with the letters already present. So, in it went.

    20a. SCHUMANN – I do not know the names of many classical composers. My taste in music is quite varied (from Iron Maiden to Merle Haggard to Ozric Tentacles), but I find classical music mostly dull and not something I really listen to. I did know the name SCHUBERT, and I am not sure if he or she was German. But SCHUBERT did not really work with the clue. Bradford’s Solver List came to the rescue with this one.

    24a. ENDMOST – This is the clue I did not complete. I was fixated too much on Charlie Lunnon. Who the heck is/was he? I kept thinking. I even Googled him, but nothing came up except for the title of a post that was, in fact, the clue. I found the temptation to resist clicking on the Google entry too hard, and I did so, coming up with ENDMOST. I was so tempted to consider this a clue “answered correctly with an aid”, using one of my three lives and claim a completion. Had I not seen the answer but, as Big Dave’s blog does, an extra clue from which I was able to answer, then I would have classed it as answered. But in the end, I knew I would only be lying if I did not admit a DNF. So, a DNF it is. So disappointing.

  16. FOsI LAX, LEAN TO, SEA, ANGUS.
    No problem with the vocab mentioned by our esteemed blogger (in fact BITUMEN wafted into my head straight away) but stuck on UNSAFE (LOI) for ages.
    Also slow on MARRY INTO. Even RESUMES took a while.
    Thanks all, esp William.
  17. Hoyed in SCHUBERT without really thinking, therefore struggled with TREPANNED as I had 2 T’s, when the anagrist only had one. Got the CHUM and therefore SCHUMANN in the end, then the hidden UNSAFE was my LOI. Blind spot for hiddens sometimes.

    6:57

  18. A slightly different feel to this puzzle I thought; I had to allow myself to be led by the cryptic to find the answers which were pretty plain once I had worked through the clue.
    FOI URN; LOI REUNITED – I wrote out the letters even with all the checkers.
    An enjoyable 13 minutes on paper. COD to RELATIVITY.
    David
  19. Perhaps unwisely I attempted this while my son had a maths lesson on Zoom. This did not make for the distraction-free environment I find most conducive to completing the QC and my flow was further interrupted by having to get up to offer assistance at various points. Hence, my final time of 53:59 is not a true indication of how difficult the puzzle was, but having said that, I don’t think it would have been within my target time of 30 minutes anyway. LOI was ENDMOST which took ages to see what was going on. Jessica Tandy I knew, not because I can recall seeing her in anything, but I remember she holds (or once held at least) the record for being the oldest person to win a best actress Oscar for her role in Driving Miss Daisy at the age of 89 I think. No, upon Googling, she was 81, it was 1989 I was thinking of. Oh well. Thanks all.
    1. A tough one and I was a DNF with 4 clues unsolved. Driving Miss Daisy is a great film by the way!
  20. Steady solve, held up a little by the boring one where I couldn’t get the letters rearranged into a suitable word in my head. Would have been far easier on paper I think. TANDY was fortunately obvious as I wouldn’t have known her otherwise, and ENDMOST clicked to save me wondering about another obscure person.
    Deep into SCC times as I dipped in and out whilst organising my day, but thanks to Felix for a fun little mental exercise.
  21. … after the battering it has received so far this week, particularly as I have only once before fully solved a Felix QC. I finished in 39 minutes with all clues fully parsed, although I had never heard of the actress Jessica TANDY or of the word TREPANNED (I’ve just looked it up – and now wish I hadn’t). Overall, I found it tricky throughout, but I managed (just) to keep making progress, even when I thought all was lost. Phew!

    My last clue in was ENDMOST (24a), because it took me ages to get the structure of the clue. However, I then had to go back to 4d (STUBBS), as I didn’t know the artist and hadn’t sussed the significance of “picked up”.

    Many thanks to william_j_s and to Felix.

    1. I see what you mean about the surgical definition of trepan. Congratulations on your solve.
  22. I can’t say I particular enjoyed this Felix offering. I was not a fan of the construction of 3d for MARRY INTO with the unknown person being the anagram fodder and a loose definition. For most of the grid I had the required general knowledge having biffed TANDY without seeing the hidden and toying with Schubert (an Austrian not a German) at 20a but I have NHO TREPANNED. I had to wait until all the checkers were in place and guess it. Then I spent quite a bit of time post submission looking for a NINA. A petulant solve in 12.01.
  23. We decided to do the QC straight after a walk in the forest so I guess we were feeling quite chilled and we ambled rather than raced through this fun puzzle. No real issues and we were all done in 13 minutes. Thanks Felix.

    FOI: cuff
    LOI: reunited
    COD: a toss up between Schumann and relativity

    Thanks for the blog William.

  24. After the mauling from Felix last time (he was let) out, I was on my guard from the off, but found this a lot more friendly, finishing in 23 minutes. No real hold-ups, but I did hesitate over loi 9d Inconstant simply because it seemed such an odd word, and 23ac Stun — I could only think of stunning and was concerned that removing 4 letters broke the ‘rules’. Thank you William for the illumination. CoD to 14d, Copycat, for the cryptic. Invariant
  25. Finished in an enjoyable 22 mins after a couple of difficult days. There were some GK type answers, but I thought they were all solvable from the clueing and, in contrast to yesterday, a lot of anagrams.

    Nearly fell into the Honeymoon and Schubert trap — but held my nerve and waited for checkers and the parsing to drop.

    Like a few above, wasn’t that keen on “Marry Into” for 3dn nor 24ac “Endmost”. In relation to 12dn, I’m sure some there were some obscure clans in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” that were into “Trepanning” — but it’s been a while since I read them.

    FOI — 1ac “Reseumes”
    LOI — 12dn “Trepanned”
    COD — 12dn “Trepanned”

    Thanks as usual.

  26. Back on track after yesterday’s disaster, and pleased to finish within a whisker of my new target time of 10 minutes, despite this being a Felix. He’s another one I often struggle with. On reflection, I think there are very few setters I don’t struggle with!

    GK is a very personal thing and I do find it interesting what people do and don’t know. I would have thought many people of a certain age would have seen Driving Miss Daisy (even if they don’t remember the storyline) – the idea of the genteel Jessica Tandy appearing in Shaft is highly amusing! Equally, I imagine lots of people would recognise George Stubbs’ horse paintings even if they didn’t know the artist’s name. Check out Whistlejacket on the National Gallery website if you haven’t seen it.

    I jumped around the grid with this one and can’t quite plump for a COD, although RELATIVITY and ANGUS with their wry definitions made me smile.

    FOI Saxon
    LOI Unsafe – like others, I was looking for a reverse hidden!
    COD (at a push) Unconstant

    Thanks Felix and William

    1. Not sure why, but the first thought that popped into my head when I saw the clue was Jessica Rabbit.
  27. Sluggish time from me as didnt really get into the flow. Not massively keen on loads of anagrams. Strangely the two that held me up at the end were arguably the two easiest parse-wise namely UNSAFE and ENDMOST. Was looking for a reverse for the former and — doh — stopped at EN for the endings even though the answer occurred to me well before putting it in.

    I’ll blame it on the cricket 😬😬😬

    No complaints with the puzzle or the excellent blog as always

  28. ….but transcribed “freemen” on line (so not an easily identified typo) and nullified my entry.

    Only biffed ENDMOST and parsed it (with a groan) afterwards. My COD is entirely in recognition of “scaled down” which was a new definition of a hidden for me !

    FOI CUFF
    LOI SAXON
    COD UNSAFE
    TIME 4:17

    1. I do sometimes finish the QC more quickly than Mrs R, but not very often. Her time today was very similar to mine, but I can’t quite remember who was faster.

      I observe that Mrs R’s strategy with these QCs is to correctly guess the answers at random. Quite a skill of hers (along with being able to see around corners, etc.)!

      My strategy – trying to work out the solutions from the cryptic elements of the clues – is more laborious and generally slower. Maybe I should switch to guessing at random – correctly of course.

  29. I am sure that I am missing something about this crossword. Felix is an excellent setter but this one doesn’t match up. Taking 24a as an example, why Lunnon? Why tho’ to provide the ‘o’?
    1. Just to throw us, I imagine. Chaff to confuse the radar. John.

      Edited at 2021-02-24 03:44 pm (UTC)

  30. Another tricky one in a tricky week but easier than yesterday, at least as far as I was concerned. Clueing was unusual and I’m not sure I’m really a fan of names, either as answers or made up as part of the clue. There seemed to be a lot of anagrams which I can usually solve fairly quickly but I needed to write some of them out today. Completed in 24 minutes.

    FOI – 5ac CUFF
    LOI – 24ac ENDMOST
    COD – 23ac STUN

  31. An unusually early post from me. I started off printing but decided to have a gentle poke around while it was on the screen – and with a couple of mugs of tea finished in 30.54. Generally answers appeared in order but I stumbled a bit in the South. FOI 1a. LOI 24a COD Trepanned – not exactly an everyday word but well known to me, chosen mainly for the misdirecting clue. Nothing really tricky today but was not so impressed with 24a or 3d. There was a stunning Stubbs exhibition locally at the MK Gallery fairly recently and although not a favourite genre, I have to say was definitely worth the visit. I conclude that Felix was in a generous mood when working on this one. Thx too to William for a concise blog.
  32. But completed in 19 minutes.
    Most of my thoughts already well documented by others. Trepanned just rang a bell but needed all checkers.
    COD 14d
    LOI 16d
    Thanks all
    John George
  33. We raced through this until getting stuck for a few minutes on the hidden in 16d, possibly hypnotised by the number of anagrams we forgot to look for anything else.
  34. I didn’t find this as easy as most seem to have, but struggled through and got there in the end when then penny finally dropped with UNSAFE. A surfeit of anagrams!
  35. Hard going for me, none of the anagrams fell into place easily and I just didn’t feel like I was on the right wavelength. I did finish but no idea of time my time as printed it out this morning and was looking at it between meetings – maybe why it was so uneven.
    FOI LAX
    LOI UNSAFE
    COD TREPANNED

    I know someone who’s uncle trepanned himself and his wife with a home drill in the 70s. Luckily his sister interrupted them before they got to experiment on the children!

  36. Nho Tandy — those ancient performers will only get more obscure as time goes on. All setters seem to be locked in approx 1952.
    Tense error in 12d borING = trepannING, trepannED = borED, and clue would have worked just as well with bored. Couldn’t see 9d or 24a for ages for no apparent reason. Nice puzzle with plenty to chew on.
    1. But the definition is not ‘boring’, it’s ‘was boring’ as indicated by William in his blog.
  37. In 20 ac the pal ‘chum’ chasing small girl seems to say that the s should be before the girl and after the mate.
    Full two courses but a good QC
    1. You need to lift and separate ‘small’ from ‘girl’. It’s CHUM (pal) chasing S (small), then ANN (girl), again as indicated by William in his blog.
        1. In the cryptic reading of the clue ‘pal’ is chasing ‘small’. The girl then follows on as a separate item.

          The surface reading which leads you to think ‘pal’ is chasing ‘small girl’ is designed to mislead, and that’s part of the setter’s art. Part of the art of cryptic solving is to be prepared to separate the different elements of a clue and deal with them individually. For simplicity we sometimes refer to this as ‘lift and separate’, a slogan designed elsewhere for use in an advertising campaign.

  38. In fact, it’s another erroneous message from the Russians …

    So I’m back
    There is a Nina in this puzzle but rather an obscure one.

    I have never really understood why one or two people get so worked up about “random” names in clues. I do sympathise with objections to things like “girl” for ANN, etc, but as far as I can see a name used as eg anagram fodder is no more or less random than anything else …

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