Times Quick Cryptic 1821 by Breadman

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A pangram and a tricky grid layout (not many crossers for first letters) from Breadman today. It felt like hard work at the time but the pace kept up, so the cluing must have been OK, and I finished in 9 minutes. I worked my way down the RHS before being able to get a grip in the LHS which I then worked down until LOI 16dn. COD to the definition in 11ac.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
7 Landing-place is crucial, we hear (4)
QUAY – homophone (we hear) of crucial – key.
8 Arranged index on a couple of pages: it may be at back of book (8)
APPENDIX – anagram (arranged) of INDEX sitting on/after a (A) couple of pages (PP).
9 Vehicle turned into the ancient region (6)
THRACE – vehicle turned car – (RAC) inside the (THE).
10 Hairpiece lifted on Owen’s head in part of golf course (6)
TOUPEE – lifted (UP) on/after (O)wen all inside part of golf course (TEE).
11 Grounded bird no longer parties (4)
DODO – parties (DO DO). Lovely definition given that the dodo was a flightlesss bird and is now extinct.
12 Expression of hilarity from female offspring showing different face (8)
LAUGHTER – female offspring d(AUGHTER) showing a different face/first letter – in this case L.
15 One who eats everything, having drunk more vino (8)
OMNIVORE – anagram (drunk) of MORE VINO.
17 Mother concerned with horse (4)
MARE – mother (MA), concerned with (RE).
18 Noted a tailless rodent after initially following (6)
FAMOUS – a (A) taless rodent (MOUS)e after (F)ollowing.
21 Shade during excavation nil (6)
INDIGO – during (IN), excavation (DIG), nil (O).
22 Asian involved Sean in joke (8)
JAPANESE – anagram (involved) of SEAN inside joke (JAPE).
23 Casual geezer repeatedly showing heart somewhere in Egypt (4)
SUEZ – the hearts of ca(SU)al and ge(EZ)er.
Down
1 Fungus problem around hotel pantry perhaps (8)
MUSHROOM – problem around/backwards sum – MUS, hotel (H), pantry perhaps (ROOM).
2 Andy repositioned second live wire (6)
DYNAMO – anagram (repositioned) of ANDY, second (MO).
3 Battle station (8)
WATERLOO – double definition.
4 Father interrupts street quarrel (4)
SPAT – father (PA) interrupts street (ST).
5 In French, Hugo managed adequately (6)
ENOUGH – ‘in’ in French (EN), anagram (managed) of HUGO.
6 Conceal British identity somewhat (4)
HIDE – this one DOESN’T begin with ‘B’ – somewhat means part of the clue – Britis(H IDE)ntity.
13 University study about diet strangely not corrected (8)
UNEDITED – university (U), study about/backwards den – NED, anagram (strangely) of DIET.
14 Sort of tea regularly gorged inside ahead of time (4,4)
EARL GREY – regularly (G)o(R)g(E)d inside ahead of time (EARLY).
16 Line on certain maps represents old pub (6)
ISOBAR – think weather charts/maps – represents old pub (IS O BAR).
17 Simple poem in manuscript ending in basket (6)
MODEST – poem (ODE) inside manuscript (MS), baske(T).
19 First male attorney to stand up in the morning (4)
ADAM – attorney to stand/upwards – da – AD, in the morning (AM). The surface wouldn’t have worked as ‘attorney in the morning’.
20 Look for king buried under religious grounds (4)
SEEK – king (K) buried under religious grounds (SEE – as in the usual favourite – ELY).

74 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1821 by Breadman”

  1. 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.

  2. 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.
  3. 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.

  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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

  7. ….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

    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
  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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. 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
  12. 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.
  13. … 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

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