Times Quick Cryptic 1821 by Breadman

74 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1821 by Breadman”

1. Mostly straightforward for me, but some dodo moments for me as well. I always forget that QUAY is pronounced like ‘key’ and not like ‘cay’ or ‘kway’. SUEZ also took a long time, and I’m embarrassed to say that until now I didn’t even know in which continent we would find the Suez Canal. I guess it’s one of those things like mixing up Catalonia and Caledonia?
   1. Technically the Suez Canal isn’t in any continent, so don’t feel too bad?
2. Biffed MUSHROOM. LOI SUEZ, a bit tricky. 3:46.
   1. That is, to me, a stunning time. Any idea if this is in pb territory?
      1. It wouldn’t surprise me; I’m surprised it didn’t register with me at the time. I just now checked to make sure I’d reported my time accurately, and find that I’m 28 on the leaderboard. No. 1 is mohn (he’s real, too) at 1:41.
3. 13 minutes.

   I didn’t find this easy and struggled to find some of the answers on the LH side, ISOBAR being my LOI.

   Edited at 2021-03-02 04:13 am (UTC)

4. …of ridiculously easy clues, and quite hard ones. We have sub-chestnuts like mare, and then we turn around and have stuff like Suez and toupee. I don’t think some of the less able solvers will care for it much. I did finish in 9:51, but I really had to think to finish.
5. My Suez Crisis accounted for 6 minutes and an eventual DNF. Just could not unpick this fair but novel clue type. And distracted by Giza which is a homophone for geezer. It’s good to have a totally new clue type, so well done Breadman. DODO also felt fresh.

   COD: DODO

   1. It’s not ‘a totally new clue type’. It’s been used many times before, although only occasionally in the Quick series. The most recent example I can find is 1a in 1732 by Joker last October: Dish: take hearts of some eels, feta and stew (8) Breadman indicated the device a bit less obviously.

      —AntsInPants

6. 6:07 which is fast for me. No holdups at all. A 4-letter place in Egypt well-known enough for the quickie is going to be Suez (and just seeing the “z” in the clue was enough for me…I decoded how it worked after submission).
7. Completed without error in 14 minutes, a PB and the first time I’ve come in under quarter of an hour.

   A typical solve for me is at least 20 minutes, with the occasional DNF when I pull the plug at 30 minutes, so very happy with this evening’s effort.

   I found everything fairly straightforward with the exception of THRACE, which I’m tempted to claim NHO, but it rang a very faint bell – and nothing else plausible fit the crossers after I rejected the options in the title of this post!

   WB

8. Couldn’t work out why ‘boy’ meant crucial but never paused to think that no one lands at a buoy either, just saw the U and Y and in it went as LOI. A surprise to get the pink squares followed by a groan at seeing it should have been QUAY. Another reminder not to quit the alphabet trawl too soon. Earlier troubles included forgetting once again that shade can mean colour, panicking about not knowing ancient regions or types of poems, both of which were unnecessary. A good puzzle that got me in the end. Most satisfaction came from DYNAMO which was my last correctly entered answer.

   Edited at 2021-03-02 07:25 am (UTC)

9. A nice workout without too much difficulty but no speed (about 35 mins in 2 goes) I found myself working clockwise down the right hand side and guessed it was a pangram once the X, Y, Z and J were in place.
   Couldn’t parse MUSHROOM but obvious and LOI and my COD 7A which was simple when I spotted there had to be a Q in the grid.
   Thanks Breadman and Chris.
10. … but ground to a painful crawl with 9a THRACE, 16d ISOBAR and 23a SUEZ. I managed to avoid any pink squares so overall I’m pleased with today’s effort. That’s two clean sweeps in a row this week. I’m on a roll! Not much lit my fire today, however my favourite was 17d MODEST.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 07:45 am (UTC)

11. My time of 15:48 surprised me since I don’t normally like this grid. Started in top left corner and worked my way around. DNK THRACE but biffed it eventually after a few checkers went in.
    Enjoyable.
12. Well, we absolutely raced through this today until we got stuck in the Suez Canal. So, after a great deal of head scratching, we eventually completed this fun puzzle in 11 minutes.

    FOI: quay
    LOI: Suez
    COD: omnivore

    Thanks Breadman and Chris.

13. A top to bottom solve with a brief pauses over THRACE and the parsing of TOUPEE and SUEZ, which just pipped DODO to COD. Finished in 6.18 with LOI SEEK, which just happened to be the last clue I looked at.
    Thanks to Chris
14. A PB following one on the 15×15 yesterday. Finished digging over the allotment yesterday. If we put one over the Bees tomorrow it’ll have been a good few days. OTBC.
    1. A fellow Canary! OTBC indeed!
       1. You wait for ever for one canary to show up then two come along at once – with me making that three! A big crowd in these days.
          1. I can’t pretend to be a Canaries supporter but I’m definitely a fan of the lovely city of Norwich 😊 Got to know it when my son was at UEA. In fact, he used to work at the pie stand at Carrow Road from time to time!
             1. It is lovely, but us (as once were) locals, would prefer ‘fine’. Rather a shame about the concrete nature of UAE I’ve always thought.
                1. Sorry only just seen this. Fine is good too! The Ziggurat was rather dramatic in its own way, I guess 😊
15. Knew THRACE; very much liked OMNIVORE (a chestnut?); ended with SUEZ.

    Thanks all

16. I rather enjoyed this, despite the slightly strange mixture of very easy and very difficult clues. I had all but 3D, 17D and 23A after just 17 minutes but that PB was not to be! Waterloo took an age to come to me for reasons unknown and the crossover of Modest and Suez took nearly 10 minutes to drag out, despite Suez seeming obvious now I reread the clue.

    COD to 11A Dodo – such a perfect surface!
    FOI 1A Mushroom, though I hesitated and pencilled it in because I couldn’t parse it at all.
    LOI 23A Suez

    Many thanks to Breadman and to Chris for the blog.

17. … as I came to my LOI, 23A Suez. A clever clue, and if I had not been looking for how to get a Z into the grid I might have struggled far longer. As it is, a 12 minute solve and possibly one of the few times I have not only spotted a pangram ahead of completion but actually used it as an aide. Thank you Breadman.

    Thought 10A Toupee also a tough clue for a QC, and I was momentarily put off by not thinking a tee is not part of the course — it is part of a golfer’s equipment, like his clubs. But I suppose fair enough to extend the meaning from the little stand for the ball to the piece of ground one sticks it into.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    1. A tee is the place where you tee off from – as well as the wooden/plastic stand. Hence white/yellow/red tees.

       Edited at 2021-03-02 09:17 am (UTC)

       1. Thanks — I suspected as much! You can tell I am not a golfer …
          1. I think that the place is actually called the teeing ground, with the tee being the bit of useful equipment, but the general usage allows reference to the first tee, etc. so I wouldn’t die in a ditch over it.
       2. Some years ago a Scottish woman joined our University department. Keen to be hospitable I asked if she played golf as we had access to the local golf club. She said she did and after extolling the delights of the club I asked her if she had a handicap. “Three” she said. I gasped. “Och it’s easy for me, I play off the ladies tees”. Speechless.
18. I didn’t like the look of the grid at first but started with WATERLOO and moved steadily clockwise around the grid without leaving any gaps until I finished in the top left with SUEZ, MUSHROOM, and DYNAMO. I’ve never managed that before and was very pleased to see that I came within 9 seconds of our esteemed blogger’s time at 9.09. It makes a nice change to know my grey cells can still work — I used to manage sub-10 times quite often.
    A good puzzle which I parsed as I went along but, as usual, the Nina passed me by…. Some very neat clues but I think DODO is the one for me. Many thanks to Breadman and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 09:37 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t always put my exact time – often going to the nearest minute. So an extra pat on the back is due to you – I’ve looked up and my time was 9:17
       1. Thanks, Chris. That adds to the (rare) pleasure of a sub-10 solve. John.
19. I found this tricky but a bit like chrisw91 it did come together. I should have got Suez from s?e? in Egypt but that would have been using general knowledge. I think the clue itself is clumsy for a quickie but overall enjoyable – thanks Breadman and Chris of course!
20. 14 minutes and inside target despite looking at SUEZ blankly for the last couple of minutes. I had suspected a pangram might be on the cards much earlier, but by LOI had misremembered that thought, so it didn’t really help me to spot the answer. Finally, it was an alphabet trawl for the second letter that brought SUEZ to mind, and reminded me of the likely pangram. Thanks both!
21. Despite staring at my LOI QUAY for what seemed like a long time, I was still home in under 10 minutes.
    A brief hold-up with SUEZ.
    A clever and original puzzle; my favourite was OMNIVORE.
    David
    1. I understood “mo” to mean second as in “Just a second” – “Just a mo”.

       Shade = indigo. I guess indigo can be classed as a shade of the colour blue.

       Edited at 2021-03-02 10:28 am (UTC)

22. A nice steady solve for me, although I did waste a little too much time on the first few clues for no gain other than APPENDIX. That probably cost me a sub-20 as I ended up on 21:50. Overall a good mix of clues and it’s always satisfying to have a pangram. If only I’d noticed it. FOI APPENDIX, LOI and COD SUEZ, although I also liked MUSHROOM a lot. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
23. 
    FOI: 17a MARE
    LOI: 23a SUEZ

    Time to Complete: 1hr 28 mins

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 22

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 23a, 2d

    Clues Unanswered: Nil

    Wrong Answers: Nil

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

    Aids Used: Chambers, Google

    Started off poorly, only seeing one obvious answer (MARE) on my first go round the grid. As I persevered, I started to have more answers pop into my head. Some answers I got were because of the intersecting letters already present. I then looked at the clue again to see if I could find how the answer was obtained.

    There were some real tricky ones that took me for ever to answer, both of which I needed help to find.

    2d. DYNAMO – Needed Chambers to answer this, though I was annoyed with myself for not spotting it before turning to the aid.

    9a. THRACE – I understood that I needed a three-letter word for vehicle, and it put into THE. This told me that the answer must start with a T, and end with an E. I was not immediately sure where the H would go, but it made more sense to place it immediately after the H, rather than before the E. I now needed a three-letter vehicle. All I could think of was VAN, CAR, CAB. Mixing the letters about, the only one that seemed possibly be a word was THRACE. Never heard of it, but I put it in. Yay.

    23a. SUEZ – This one had me stuck for ever, and was my last one in. In the end I Googled places in Egypt and saw SUEZ, which fits. It was the word REPEATEDLY in the clue that threw me, and it still does. I cannot see what purpose it serves in the clue. If it is a surplus word, then I feel that the setter was wrong for including it. Can anybody enlighten me as what purpose REPEATEDLY serves in this clue?

    So, and enjoyable solve, with some tricky clues. Number 8 for me.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 10:30 am (UTC)

    1. Oh, I think I have just clicked why the word repeatedly was used in this clue. It was trying to tell me that I needed to take the heart from BOTH (repeat) the preceding words.
       1. I agree, “repeatedly” put the clue out of reach for me, if the setter has used “both” I might have had a chance. Ah well.
24. Seventeen minutes. Only five across clues on the first pass, but the down clues went in much more easily, providing openers to the acrosses on the way. Not sure why it took so long. Against my usual procedure, I found myself hesitating, certain the answer was just within reach, instead of cracking on to new ground which might have been more fertile. FOI appendix. LOI omnivore, so that gets my vote for COD, too. All parsed for once. Thoroughly enjoyed this but I suppose that goes without saying since I have the habit. Thanks Chris and Breadman. GW.
25. Thank you for the blog. I biffed “mushroom” from the definition and checkers but couldn’t parse, so was grateful for the explanation. Favourite clues were dodo and suez, which I thought were very clever – and different.
26. At 6:17 I sit on the leaderboard between Jeremy and Plett which is a good place to be. I cannot remember the last time I managed a solving time near the 6 minutes mark but everything fell into place today with the exception of my LOI THRACE which was a guess. Thanks Breadman. Thanks Chris.
27. I enjoyed the variety of clue types and some fun surfaces. Funnily enough the pangram passed me by until very late on, whilst the 15×15 wasn’t quite a pangram, but I assumed it was and tried to invent a word to make it so… 15×15 is again worth a punt, some harder bits but rewarding when it clicks.
    1. Thanks for the hint. I managed the 15sq in under an hour (actually 50 mins) so it has been a good day for me. Hope my progress lasts the week. Yes, there were some satisfying ‘clicks’ for me, too. John

       Edited at 2021-03-02 05:19 pm (UTC)

28. I agree with some comments from fellow solvers that there were some very straightforward clues mixed with some very tricky ones indeed.

    I biffed JAPANESE but have never heard of a ‘jape’. Frustrates me when obscure definitions are used, truth be told.

    Liked the cleverness of TOUPEE clue, as well as INDIGO.

    My problem clues:
    Missed ISOBAR — stumped on that one.
    As a relative newbie (less than a year!) didn’t know that MS can be a short form of Manuscript in 17D
    Failed to see that ‘sum’ was a ‘problem’ in 1D

    1. Jape is indeed an old-fashioned word but MS for manuscript is common usage, I’d say. Though nowadays publishers talk about a TS (typescript). Sounds as if you are doing pretty well if you only started a year ago, though.
    2. I grew up (I use the words in a broad sense) reading inter alia the books of Frank Richards, which related the doings of boys at fictional public schools such as Greyfriars. In these stories, practical jokes were called “japes”. They were usually relatively harmless, e.g. leaving a mixture of gum and ink on the seat of an armchair or a bag of flower on the top of a door. Of course, the fun started when, instead of a member of one’s own form, usually the Remove, the victim turned out to be Coker of the Shell, or a form master.

       “Frank Richards” was one of the pen names of Charles Hamilton, who was thought to have written about one hundred million words in his lifetime.

       Edited at 2021-03-02 02:56 pm (UTC)

29. Definitely on the right wavelength today as I managed to rattle through this in 12 mins — although I also agree there was a mix of very easy, biffable clues with some head scratchers.

    Whilst 3dn is obviously a standard chestnut, it still took me a couple of looks until the penny dropped. Funnily enough, 23ac “Suez” didn’t cause me any issues.

    FOI — 7ac “Quay”
    LOI — 13ac “Famous”
    COD — 1dn “Mushroom” 🍄 — lovely surface and it made me chuckle.

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 11:28 am (UTC)

30. Zoomed through most of this then ground to a halt: just could not see SUEZ and needed help to get ISOBAR and FAMOUS, although obvious afterwards!
31. Must have been feeling dim today. Missed DODO (but liked it once I read the answer), DYNAMO, FAMOUS ( shd have got that), and ISOBAR. Oh dear. And SUEZ.

    All the rest zipped in quickly. FOI APPENDIX.

    I guess I should have been more patient.

32. I started with DYNAMO, but didn’t light up the scoreboard. Just a steady plod around the grid with the occasional pause to work out the parsing, finishing with OMNIVORE and then MUSHROOM. 9:14. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
33. 24 minutes gone and just five clues to solve (speedy for me). Then took the basically same time again to solve SUEZ, FAMOUS, QUAY, DYNAMO and THRACE (in that order). I spotted the likelihood of a pangram once I’d got SUEZ, and that helped me get QUAY. I have failed on this clue before, but luckily I remembered the advice of someone here: “When stuck on a word containing an unaccompanied U, try a Q” (probably not quoted verbatim). So, many thanks to whoever that was.

    In the end, I crossed the line in 47 minutes for my 100th sub-1 hour unaided solve (from 197 attempts). Hurrah! I wonder if Mrs Random will send me a congratulatory message.

    Speaking of Mrs R: she fairly zoomed along until she ran into the sand with just 9a (THRACE) to solve. She found this impossible until a quarter of an hour or so later, when she realised that MARTELLO, whilst being a decent attempt, was not the solution to 3d. Her finishing time was 38 minutes.

    Many thanks to Breadman and to chrisw91 for his blog.

    1. Hurrah indeed 😊
34. 12 minutes, but it must have taken at least 2 of them to get LOI SUEZ. An enjoyable mix of clues with a good overall feel. COD DODO
35. Started at a canter and knew Thrace, so after 10mins or so the top two thirds of the grid was complete. At that point I ‘decided’ to slow things down by spending several minutes trying to make an Asian national out of Sean + Joke (my Asian geography is a bit rusty to say the least). Loi Suez also took an age, including parsing, allowing me to stretch today’s solve out to 18mins. Invariant
36. For a brief while, I thought I was on for a sub-6 minutes solve and a PB by some way, but got held up by 1a. I continue to have trouble with KEY words (last week it was important / key – will I ever learn!) Still I fairly romped through this one, although I too found some of the clues (10a, 12a and 14d) a bit tortuous. But there were also some smiles along the way – I liked DODO and MODEST. SEEK made me smile too, reminding me of kings found under car parks!

    FOI Appendix
    LOI Quay
    COD Omnivore
    Time just over 7 minutes

    Many thanks Breadman and Chris

37. ….a young lady of THRACE, but it’s possibly a little too smutty to publish here.

    Held up by having to do the puzzle on my phone. I’ve put my back out, and can’t really sit at my desk.

    FOI APPENDIX
    LOI THRACE
    COD OMNIVORE
    TIME 4:11

    1. 4:11 – on a phone! Wow.

       1. It’s a miracle that I managed both QC and 15×15 without a typo !

    2. I nearly always do QC on my phone and it is slower and also invariably gets the odd wrong letter by dint of clumsiness, or poor finger tap accuracy.
       Hope your back is better soon.

       1. Thanks. It’s an old problem, and like most of those it becomes worse with age. I’m about to experiment with watching my team’s live stream on my partner’s tablet while lying flat on my back !

    3. Oh dear! I know a young lady from Thrace who may well be able to soothe your bad back. Good luck!
       somerandomchap
38. As noted by many, a mixture of straightforward clues with a few rather tricky ones. I motored through most of it but came to a sudden stop in the NW. My last 4 (1dn, 2dn, 7ac and 11ac) took 6 minutes of my total time of 19 minutes. I had got the answer to 1dn straight away but couldn’t parse it and so left it until I had 7ac and 11ac. Eventually I got 2dn when the rest followed in fairly short order. Had no problem with SUEZ and had heard of THRACE, so no problem there either.

    FOI – 8ac APPENDIX
    LOI – 11ac DODO
    COD – 15ac OMNIVORE

    Thanks to setter and blogger

39. Found this easier than some recent QCs — just a wavelength thing I think. Some lovely devices such as dodo and suez. Almost a start to finish run thru for me which is very unusual. 5:38

    Thanks Breadman and Chris

40. A very rare but marvellous day for me, since I finished this in a True Clean Sweep – all the acrosses in correct order at first pass, followed by all the downs in correct order at first pass. Unbelievably satisfying. It means you have no checkers for any of the acrosses, but all the checkers for the downs!

    FOI QUAY, LOI & COD SUEZ (hon mentions to THRACE and OMNIVORE), time – well it still took 1.8K but because of the TCS I’m giving this an Excellent Day rating.

    Many thanks Chris and Breadman.

    Templar

    1. Definitely an Excellent Day — congrats 😊
       1. Thanks pebee! It’s a bit artificial doing it that way but I do enjoy the challenge … it pays off about once a year!
    2. Very well done! A fantastic achievement! I’m gobsmacked (has that word ever appeared?). At the other end of the spectrum, sometime late last Summer, I didn’t manage to solve a single clue on my first pass. Let’s hope that experience doesn’t recur.
       Mr Random
41. Two full courses tonight
    Finished but only just
42. 14 minutes, a break and the another 4 = 18 with all done apart from 23a. Because I was (for me) so speedy I missed the emerging pangram – which would have solved 23a immediately. After FOI 7a all the crossers in top half went straight in and that meant so did all the down clues before tackling the remaining across clues. Only hesitations were 18a Famous and 22a Japanese. That last one, 23a Suez, took me far to long to see – re- and re-reading the clue and eventually hoping Suez fitted as one of the few GK answers that was likely. Thanks to Chris for parsing it properly for me. Thanks too for Breadman for the novelty of a fast solve. FOI 7a Quay. LOI 23a Suez. COD 9a Thrace – which brought back memories of A-level Ancient History in my distant youth.
43. … apart from 1D which I BIFD in as I didn’t see problem=SUM around=backwards.

    This was my fastest solve in a long time – perhaps 10-15 minutes. Hard to say for sure, as I don’t look at the clock, but everything was on the easy side of things for me, rarely happens but hey, I’ll take it while it happens. Did get glued up a bit in the SW corner but there were enough lights on to make make way in the darkness.

    FOI 8A
    LOI 22A
    COD 17A

    Thanks to Breadman and ChrisW

    Wood

44. 6:05

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