Times Quick Cryptic 1836 by Tracy

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

No name as yet for the setter so I can’t congratulate them on beating me all ends up [on edit – thanks to jackkt for news from the tree-ware version of the setter’s name]. Was I not in the mood/on the wavelength or was this just hard? Only your collective experiences will let me know if I’m just having one of those dumb days. This was dnf for me in 15 minutes. I threw in the towel at 4dn having painfully struggled round the grid. There are a few recurring themes/terms dotted around the clues and a fair sprinkling of double definitions which added some interest. All the clues seem fairish enough on review so I’m minded to think this was one of my off days. Please let me know!

Definitions are underlined.

Across
6 Earth perhaps flat? Thinking initially (6)
PLANET – flat (PLANE), (T)hinking. I wasn’t thinking of plane in the sense of maths.
7 Anger involving theologian’s conundrum (6)
RIDDLE – anger – (RILE) holding theologian (DD).
9 Primate crossing small part of church (4)
APSE – primate (APE) crossing small (S).
10 Lottery? Many make random choices (4,4)
DRAW LOTS – lottery (DRAW) – not obvious to me, many (LOTS).
11 Flower sprang up by soft verge (8)
PRIMROSE – sprang up (ROSE), beside soft (P in music), verge (RIM).
13 Smashed sculpture (4)
BUST – double definition.
15 Notice heads turning (4)
SPOT – heads – tops – turning (SPOT).
16 Important stuff (8)
MATERIAL – double definition – or maybe triple – this is important stuff = it’s material.
18 Commissioner in mourning over northerners (8)
GOVERNOR – inside mournin(G OVER NOR)therners. High Commisioner would sit better with me – I struggled to link governor to administrator to commissioner – but I think that’s my off day kicking in.
20 Fuss excessively around daughter (2-2)
TO-DO – excessively (TOO) around daughter (D).
21 Tern flying by church in resort (6)
CENTRE – anagram (flying) of TERN by (next to) church (CE). A place many people go for recreation is a resort and, yes, you have sports centres. Again, the tie up isn’t sitting comfortably.
22 Appear on horseback following display (4,2)
SHOW UP – on horseback (UP – this crops up only and frequently in Crosswordland in my experience), following display (SHOW).
Down
1 Nonsense about character friend put up (8)
CLAPTRAP – about (C) then the rest of the clue is all upwards/backwards – character (PART), friend (PAL) = LAP TRAP.
2 Occasional aim to grasp word, Italian (12)
INTERMITTENT – aim (INTENT) to grasp word (TERM) and Italian (IT). COD.
3 American leaving academic in workshop (6)
STUDIO – AMERICAN (USj leaving academic (STUDIO)us.
4 Sophisticated town close to Florence (6)
URBANE – town (URBAN), Florenc(E). Collins has living in, belonging to or constituting a city so fair enough but I couldn’t see it at the time so was thinking of names of towns (until I gave up).
5 Dead level (4)
FLAT – double definition.
8 Thought of French being freed (12)
DELIBERATION – ‘of’ in French (DE), being freed (LIBERATION – I thought being freed = liberated but, on reflection, a ‘state of being freed’ is liberation).
12 First in sauna, the old man in health resort (3)
SPA – (S)auna, the old man (PA). Not ‘centre’ this time.
14 Exceptionally good stall, open (8)
STANDOUT – stall (STAND – in the sense of market stall, I think), open (OUT – as in daffodils).
16 Stall in market’s beginning to wind up (6)

MANGER – (M)arket, to wind up (ANGER). Stall following stall.
17 Slaughter husband in bunk (6)
THRASH – husband (H) inside bunk (TRASH – as in bunkum/debunk).
19 More than in the past (4)
OVER – double definition – more than (OVER the limit), it’s in the past (it’s OVER).

78 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1836 by Tracy”

  1. After a trip to Waitrose, I forgot to go back and try to solve URBANE. Also, I would like a stewards’ enquiry – I agree, a MANGER is absolutely not a stall. A stall is where horses are kept – a large stable building may be divided into stalls.
    But, Oh well, I guess there is:
    ‘And His cradle was a stall’

    Yes, I found this pretty hard too – a great deal of biffing then parsing after some thought. FOsI BUST, SPA, FLAT, TO DO. LOsI , apart from errors, THRASH, STANDOUT.

    Thanks, Chris, very much.

    Edited at 2021-03-23 01:40 pm (UTC)

  2. I guessed several answers from crossers including — studio, riddle, urbane with no idea of parsing till I read your comments.
    1. That’s what we’re about. Read us regularly, join in the fun and your understanding of how clues work will improve very quickly.
  3. We thought this was quite hard. We completed most of the puzzle pretty quickly but slowed down in the SE corner. However, with only one clue left to solve we were feeling upbeat – I mean with 3 checkers (including the first letter) how hard could it be? Well, I’m afraid MANGER simply stumped us….and we have a DNF.

    FOI: planet
    LOI: manger (DNF)
    COD: primrose

    Thanks to Tracy and Chris.

    Edited at 2021-03-23 01:47 pm (UTC)

  4. At one point, I had a complete LHS and nothing (not even Bust) on the RHS. I should have stopped then and cut my losses. Instead I persevered and arrived at loi, 4d, at the 30min mark. Couldn’t think of anything other than Ornate, which I suspected was wrong, but at that point, Tracy, I couldn’t be bothered to try and think of something else. One to forget. Invariant
  5. I found it fairly straightforward; 17 minutes is about average for me. I saw GOVERNOR straightaway, and wrote in CENTRE without questioning it, although I see the problem now.
  6. Very tough and DNF for me. Guessed a few without being able to parse them but left with the MANGER (= stall?? it’s more a trough) and GOVERNOR (= commissioner??) where I just did not see the hidden word.
  7. A very tough one today but I don’t agree with some of the comments that it was unfair. The offset grid is always a daunting start but I got away ok until derailed completely in the bottom half which took me a while to fathom.

    A big nod to the superbly hidden governor with a surface that suggested lots of ways to solve the clue other than the real one.

    12:15 thanks Chris and Tracy

  8. Got off to a flying start and then it got worse and worse throwing in the towel after 42 overs The grid was horrible and the clues really tough. Nee mind eh? Johnny
  9. Join those who found this hard work. Failed to get manger, we had mended in desperation. Urbane also caused us trouble.
  10. This felt like swimming against a strong current and I never managed to get going. The clues provided few enjoyable moments and, I’m afraid to say, I found it a largely turgid experience today. So, after more than an hour of toil, I gave up with five clues still unsolved – GOVERNOR, OVER, CENTRE and MANGER in the SE corner, and URBANE.

    Sorry not to be more positive, but I felt like I was playing an opponent a couple of levels above me.

    Thanks to Tracy and to chrisw91 for his much-needed explanations.


  11. Come on Tracy, you can do better than this! If it wasn’t lockdown, it would have gone in the bin.
  12. Found this hard. I can usually finish tgese days — occasionally I get stuck over the lazt one or at most 2. I gave up with 10 still to solve! Not a good day.
  14. Pretty poor effort by me — this type of crossword sorts the regular 15×15 solvers from the ‘QC only’ brigade I suspect.
    Count me firmly in the latter category.
    The problem is that once some clues are so obscure you don’t even see the ones that in hindsight are reasonable…
    Gave up after 25/30 minutes with less than half completed.
    Thanks all
    John George
    1. Life is full of differences. I print the weekend cryptics to solve in spare time during the week. For these I know I need to slow down and enjoy them carefully with no thought of how long it takes, I approach the QCs as a different beast – something to charge at and, hopefully, complete in a decent time. So – I’m a regular 15×15 solver but was in the QC only brigade today, I suppose I’m saying I’d have fared better if I’d have settled down to enjoy this as a 15×15 but ended up losing patience because it wasn’t fulfilling my burst-of-speed expectations. There’s probably a lesson in that for me and any others interested. Not sure any of this is down to Tracy but how we approach it.
    2. It’s not just a ‘QC only brigade’ thing. I always finish the Private Eye cryptic aiming to complete it the same day it drops on the mat. And most weeks I do the same with the Sunday Times cryptic. With work and kids I just don’t have the time in the week for a full one though, so a well crafted QC is perfect for me to enjoy in 10-20 mins over coffee and toast before getting on with the work of the day. When it gets much trickier than that, there’s really no point to it for me – the 15×15 would only take a short while longer.

      Edited at 2021-03-24 12:12 am (UTC)

  15. I have never posted on here because I always do the QC last thing before bed and don’t usually allow myself to retire until it’s done, when everyone’s finished and no one will read it! However this means the harder the crossword the more beers I have — it’s been a good night for that and a most pleasant hour although it took ages to get manger and to spot the hiding commissioner. A great way as ever to end the day.
    1. Glad you had a good evening – and I hope you’re all fresh and bright this morning! I find that a printed cryptic on a flight makes even that an enjoyable experience.
    2. I can’t speak for anyone else but I pop into the blog off and on through the day as there are always more posts to enjoy. Hope to see you again 😊
  16. Can’t remember when I last DNFed but the towel was chucked in after 20. Eventually got THRASH but that took some time and MANGER OVER GOVERNOR and URBANE were unsolved. Not sure I’d have got the last of those if I’d had another 20 minutes

    Hats off to Tracy for a superb hidden but some of the other synonyms were a tad of a stretch

    Thanks . ..I think!

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