Times Quick Cryptic 1840 by Teazel

55 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1840 by Teazel”

1. …and I finished in 8:09 without too much trouble. I didn’t know gurn, but the checkers and cryptic are all pointing to one possible answer, so in it went. I nearly got stuck at the end on occupier and action, but then I thought of occur and finished quickly. I found two typos while proofreading, too, so I had to be extra careful before submitting.
2. I didn’t know GURN either, and dithered a bit before finally accepting it. (I trust, Jack, that the avatar will be replaced by tomorrow!) Biffed GOSLINGS. 5:51.
   1. Yes, you can be assured of that. I don’t have a default avatar so you can take it as a one-off.

      Edited at 2021-03-29 04:18 am (UTC)

3. Fairly straightforward with a bit of a hold up at the end, where ACTION, OCCUPIER and LOI BILLOWED took me a while to work out. I initially thought that 11a was going to be an anagram of ‘had a blow’ as it fitted the checkers I had at the time, which didn’t help matters.
   I always enjoy Teazel’s wit and today was no exception, with GOSLING, WASHED UP and TUBA being the stand outs for me. I also wondered if 8a might be an oblique reference to current events in that part of the world.
   Finished in 8.13.
   Thanks to Jack
4. Not easy for me — I had to to hop about the grid before finishing in the NW in a respectable all green sub 15. Had to trust the cryptic for SWITCH but a quick trip to Chambers post solve has cleared that up. Perhaps that ignorance reflects my well-behaved school days. I also though I was going to have to trust the cryptic for the ASWAN DAM too but once presented with it it turns out I knew it. Best moment was black bird clueing BOWL, lovely.
5. … for a 9 minute finish and a Good Start to the week. Enjoyed 20D Tuba — I was deceived by the capital letters for VAT for a bit until the penny dropped (and if VAT only added a penny to the price of things life would be much happier).

   In 13A Ergo, is the “in Rome” doing double duty, indicating both that So is in Latin (ie ergo) and I (ie ego)?

   I agree with Mendesest that separating black and bird in 23A was a nice moment and the clue gets my COD.

   Many thanks to Jack for the blog — but not the userpic!
   Cedric

6. Nice puzzle with a very quick start filling up the NE quadrant. I hesitated over ERGO (despite parsing OK) and waited for crossers. I was slowed by GOSLINGS and my LOI SIGNAL to take me a frustrating 2 mins over target.
   Quite a range of difficulty, I thought — some very easy clues but some chewy ones mixed in. My COD was GOSLINGS. Thanks to Teazel and jackkt. John M.

   Edited at 2021-03-29 08:42 am (UTC)

7. An excellent start to the week, and a pb for me at just over 16 minutes.

   I loved TUBA and GURN, and enjoyed the sideways glance at the present Suez blockage. LOI ERGO (I guessed I was near a good time and my brain went racing back — a very long way — to Latin lessons at school)

   So very many thanks to Jack and Teasel.

   Diana

8. Straightforward other than a temporary blank screen part-way through internet issue) and discovering that I had entered 2D as SIINAL for my Monday morning typo. I enjoyed 23A: DUST BOWL and 14D GOSLINGS.

   Thank you, jackkt and Teazel.

9. Much more encouraging than last week’s puzzles. Finished pretty quickly. FOI SYCAMORE then zoomed round clockwise. Had to think about NW slightly longer. LOsI. SIGNAL, GURN. ARMS made me smile, ERGO clever, liked BILLOWED, CLAP, SWITCH, OCCUPIER, ASWAN DAM. Got GOSLINGS straight away so not too ‘sneaky’.

   Many thanks, Jack.

10. I agree with jackkt, mostly straightforward. FOI was SNAG and then all bar three done in under 8 minutes.
    My hold-ups were SIGNAL, BILLOWED and DUST BOWL, the last taking a couple of minutes. Not having the first letter seems to give me problems. 11:13 in the end.
    Very good puzzle; hard to pick a COD.
    David
11. I’m having trouble finishing off these QCs, and yet again I fell a few clues short: DUSTBOWL, BILLOWING and SIGNAL all beat me today. I even tried the “take a break” technique, but the last 3 would not yield, so pressed “Reveal Grid” at the 20 min mark.

    ERGO, very clever, with Rome and Romeo

    COD ROYALIST : What a great anagram.

    1. I’m with you, those three beat me as well! But some lovely clues and I was pleased to dig out Latin O level to spot Ergo!
12. I enjoyed this quick solve, but I do feel ‘Canada’ in 14d (GOSLINGS) is a sneaky unqualified definition by example.

    By the way Jack, I think the definition for 24a (AVENGE) should include ‘for’. “I will avenge her death!” Substituted, “I will retaliate for her death!”

    —AntsInPants

    1. I’m sure that was my thinking too when I solved the puzzle but it didn’t make it to the blog. I have added it now. Thanks.

       On GOSLINGS I assumed ‘perhaps’ applied to the whole clue and not just the gin cocktails. There’s a school of thought that we ought not to worry about DBE’s at all and whilst I’m not in it myself I think it might be OTT to expect more than one indicator per clue. A single question mark at the end should suffice, or in this case ‘perhaps’.

       Edited at 2021-03-29 09:31 am (UTC)

       1. Yes, too many DBE qualifiers does look clunky, but there was a relatively simple fix in this clue: open it with ‘Perhaps’ and end it with a question mark. That would have looked fine.

          As for the wider debate: I’m definitely with you that unqualified DBEs should not be allowed in any case, as examples from large sets become nigh impossible to spot. And while I don’t generally mind one qualifier covering two examples — As Alberich covered in his excellent 2nd article on Ximenean cluing — I do feel they ought to be adjacent examples. This clue has ‘try’ = GO intervening, so it seems far less fair than Alberich’s example Could be Rover, a dog in Axminster? (6) for CARPET — which has ‘Could be’ covering Rover as a car example and dog as a pet example.

13. An enjoyable puzzle. SYCAMORE went in first and GOSLINGS flew in a little later. Liked DUST BOWL and GOSLINGS. 7:55. Thanks Teazel and Jack.
14. Comfortably within target at 13 minutes today, so a good start to the week. LOI DUST BOWL held me up a little, as I was fixed on something SOIL until the penny dropped. I agree with others above that this was a nice clue. DAIS always looks strange to me, and reminds me of school assemblies and parade grounds from my youth — not particularly enjoyable connections. I think gurning must be uniquely British — what other nation would even consider it? Thanks both.
15. No real hold ups, though I liked WASHED UP, SIGNAL and BILLOWED, these giving me the most pause for thought, with SIGNAL being my LOI.

    4:44.

16. I thought I was being slow and the times above bear that out. Well off the pace today, I’m blaming the hour change!

    Lovely puzzle, with lots of taut and witty clues. Bravo.

    FOI SYCAMORE, LOI SIGNAL, COD TUBA (completely misled me!) from a strong field, time 13:20 for 2.3K and a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Teazel and Gurning Jack.

    Templar

17. Straightforward here. Liked GOSLINGS. SIGNAL LOI

    Enjoyed it

    Thanks Teazel and Jackkt

18. FOI: 3a SYCAMORE
    LOI: 4d COWARDLY

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 16

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 17a, 2d, 16d

    Clues Unanswered: 7a, 11a, 13a, 23a, 3d, 14d, 20d

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 19/26

    Aids Used: Chambers

    I had hopes for this one as I started off very well, quickly finding many answers without much effort. However, I ground to a complete halt with my final 7 clues. I even stopped, went for a lengthy walk, came back and continued to stare blankly at the puzzle.

    4a. COWARDLY – My LOI, and one I was not completely happy with. I think that faint-hearted = cowardly is a bit of a stretch. Just because you may be faint-hearted it does not necessarily mean you are a coward. I answered this one purely because of the letters already present from other answers.

    13a. ERGO – This one had me totally stumped. I literally had not even the faintest idea where to begin on this one.

    20d. TUBA – Putting Vat all in capitals was a bit unfair, I think. Led me to concentrate on VAT meaning tax.

    All in all, an enjoyable puzzle, but I am disappointed in starting well but not being able to finish.

    1. Cogito, ergo sum. I think therefore I am (Descartes). Could be the underlying philosophy of crosswords!
       1. According to Frank Muir, the words were spoken by Descartes at a party, when a guest made a move towards the canapés which Mme Descartes was reserving for after midnight. What Rene actually said was, “I think they’re for 1 a.m.”
          1. And more..
             A horse walks into a bar and the barman says “Hello, do you want a beer?”. The horse replies, “I think not” and promptly disappears.
             Since you are clearly familiar with Descartes the inference is obvious. The horse thought not, and therefore wasn’t.

             But if I had explained that first I would have been putting Descartes before da horse…

             1. While we are on the subject then, I do remember a line which James Thurber was able to deliver at a party, when (I think) the relative merits of logic and literature were being discussed. He said, “If you suppose ‘I think therefore I am’ to be more important than ‘Non sum qualis eram’, you are putting Descartes before Horace.”
                1. I like that better!
    2. Chambers has faint-hearted: timid, cowardly, spiritless.
    3. IMHO ignore capitals, punctuation and, often, the possessive (‘s) as they are put there to mislead 🙂

       You’re nobler than I am, I will press on to the end, using aids as much as needed. It all contributes to the learning experience! Although, having been doing the QC for around four years now, I doubt I’m going to improve much.

19. I didn’t find this as straightforward as other contributors. Struggled with DUST BOWL, BILLOWED, DAIS. A bit dim today.
20. In case other SCC stalwarts are put off by the mostly merry comments above, I struggled badly in the NE with the 7 & 11A and and 1 & 2D holding out until the end on a generally slow solve. I usually manage well with DDs but this pair just wouldn’t come to me.
    The “occur” part of the clue didn’t, either, for ages.
    Some good anagrams, ROYALIST in particular. GOSLINGS had me scratching my head as to what Canada was doing in the clue for too long, so obvious in retrospect.
21. A full half an hour for me today, much longer than the three at the end of last week. Goodness knows why; there was nothing I didn’t know. The SW corner slowed me down but after a short break to make coffee it all fell into place. It often happens that way for me; when I’m stuck I leave it for a while and it seems that my brain continues to work pn it subconsciously.
    I liked GOSLINGS. LOI was DUST BOWL.
22. FOI Aswan Dam, LOI signal. Fourteen solved on first pass, the rest going in all over the shop with help from clues already solved. Billowed and signal were recalcitrant until my husband said it was something owed, and it was he who saw signal. C’sOD for me — the long anagrams. Did not parse cowardly. Thanks, Jack, for the blog and gurn, and Teazel for the entertainment. GW.
23. Three interruptions so no valid time, but probably around usual 30 mins. FOI SYCAMORE LOI SIGNAL. Couldn’t parse ARMS but it had to be that or LEGS! Biffed GOSLINGS and enjoyed ERGO as numerous permutations of EGO R and Thus etc. COD LEDGER.
    Big thanks to Phil for the Saturday quiz. It hit the button of a QC. Took as long to solve CICADA as it did to do the crossword itself and that was my COD. Great fun and lovely touch with nothing too obscure for me.
24. I must be out of step with everyone as I found this a struggle, albeit an enjoyable one. I finally came home in 40 mins after having a bit of a mare with the NW corner. As usual, nothing too difficult in hindsight, but when faced with a blank grid, not many checkers and lots of possibilities, not so straightforward at the time.

    Liked 9ac “Gurn”, 11ac “Billowed” (nearly put Bellowed), 1dn “Occupier” and 14dn “Gosling”.

    FOI — 3dn “Snag”
    LOI — 2dn “Signal”
    COD — 18dn “Ledger”

    Thanks as usual.

    1. Worry not! You weren’t “out of step” with me.
       1. Ditto…
    2. Likewise.
25. A bit of a rubbish time today, but only in terms of duration, not the experience! Having whizzed through the first half in about 5 or 6 minutes, I thought I was on for an easy ride, but it was not to be. I’m not sure why but I couldn’t see OCCUPIER, BILLOWED or SIGNAL for ages, despite having the occur and owed parts of the clues, which took me way over target to nearly 15 minutes. Never mind, I enjoyed the Teazel tease. As we’ve been told that the compilers set these well in advance, I guess it was a good job there was a puzzle lurking in the files with a Nile blockage reference! (Unless of course Teazel produced this one at very short notice!) It made me smile anyway. I also liked WORKLOAD and ROYALIST.
    FOI Sycamore
    LOI Arms
    COD Tuba

    Thanks both 😊

    1. And Phil got another topical reference to the Nile blockage into his Saturday Special!
       1. Ooh I haven’t done that yet — a treat in store when I’ve finished fighting a pair of curtains! That’s my WORKLOAD today …
26. We were slow to get OCCUPIER but, other than that, we didn’t have any problems and finished in 8 minutes. Really enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI: SYCAMORE
    LOI: SIGNAL
    COD: a toss up between GOSLINGS and BILLOWED

    Thanks to Teazel and Jackkt (love your gurning avatar!).

27. I was much relieved to finish all correct (and mostly
    fully parsed) in 55 minutes. The DAIS/LEDGER combination held me up for 15 minutes towards the end, and the ACTION/SIGNAL combination added a further 6 minutes after that. Even then, I spent another minute or two trying (in vain) to understand why 15a was ARMS – I still don’t really understand the clue.

    Before those unwanted delays I realised that I must have learned something since I started these QCs last Summer, as I successfully negotiated my way past ERGO and TUBA, both of which have tripped me up in the past. All in all, a satisfying, if rather laboured, start to the week.

    Mrs R cruised in in 31 minutes today and is now out in the garden sowing, planting, potting and re-potting. I daresay I’ll soon be enlisted to move some heavy pots from A to B (and probably back again from B to A), to dig out an old rootstock, or to hack back something prickly.

    Many thanks to Teazel and jackkt (I like the new avatar).

    1. Sorry if the blog isn’t clear, but I don’t know how better to explain it. Perhaps this will help:

       Harms = damages

       Harms, when it’s lacking H [‘out of’ hospital] = ARMS (limbs)

       Edited at 2021-03-29 01:06 pm (UTC)

28. P.S. Two Canada geese kindly obliged with a very low fly-past on my walk, earlier this morning. It felt like I could have reached up and touched them.
29. I started really quickly but it didn’t last. I have NHO of GURN and I was only a little more confident with SWITCH. I tried to make an anagram (to mean account unpaid) of ‘had a blow’ for BILLOWED. Although I wanted to put in GOSLINGS as soon as I read the clue I had DIAS (Spanish for days) instead of DAIS. All was eventually fixed in 9:19 but I feel I should have been quicker. COD, like my fellow accountant James, to LEDGER.

    Edited at 2021-03-29 01:32 pm (UTC)

30. ….to find that Chambers lists GURN as an alternative spelling of “girn”, which I’ve never seen. However, crossword lovers everywhere will think of that as “wry grin”, so it must be OK. The World Gurning Championships are an annual event in the small Cumbrian town of Egremont, and attract the occasional foreign competitor (unlike baseball’s World Series !)

    Once I’d seen the stupidity of entering “dished up” at 25A, this was easy enough to crack.

    FOI ACTION
    LOI GURN
    COD GOSLINGS
    TIME 3:35

    1. The World Series is a favourite nugget of mine, particularly with American friends, asking them how it can be called World if it predominantly includes North American teams. They invariably don’t know that the series is named after a newspaper called The World, which has nothing to do with its international pretentious or ambitions.
       1. Wikipedia notes the story about the series being named for the New York World newspaper, but marks it as ‘disputed’.
31. Slowish but steady solve for this most enjoyable puzzle. Not really held up anywhere but progressed steadily in a mainly clockwise direction from my FOI.

    FOI – 8ac ASWAN DAM
    LOI – 13ac ERGO
    COD – a lot of contenders for this but I would go for 20dn – TUBA.

32. I got off to a brilliant start completing the NE and then slowed up. I think I had nothing else on the across list until 24a Avenge and 25a Washed Up. Fought my way round the rest taking what I could. I had Owed for 11a but couldn’t see Bill… for ages – and it was really easy too! With several breaks I reckon it took me nearly an hour of solving time to complete. I admit being rather fuzzy with the clock change and a very early start to the day. FOI 3a Sycamore (often described as a weed rather than a tree – certainly growing their usual dense carpet of seedlings in our paddocks). LOI 14d Goslings as I struggled to make sense of Canada + youngsters, and not being expert on cocktails. COD 8a Aswan Dam. Liked the anagram for 17a Royalist/Solitary. Glad to read Jackkt’s blog and really a fair puzzle from Teazel – thx both.
33. Enjoyable today..single course only
    As has been said before one persons easy may well be another person’s hard.
    Did like the VAT trick
34. An enjoyable crossword that pushed me with some of the clues, but I got there in the end.

    I’m not sure anyone reads the comments later in the day. Perhaps us late posters should form a Supper Club for the evening solvers.

    1. Well, I really must comment so that you know you’ve been read! It was a day long leisurely solve today. I cracked every clue except 22a DAIS. So DNF. But thanks to Teazel for a good crossword and Jack for an enlightening blog.

       Maybe a midnight fridge-raider club….

35. All done except 2d Signal.

    Very tricky in places but enjoyable!

    Ledger and Dais took time as did gurn (NHO)

    About 30 minutes but just couldn’t see Signal — not familiar with the remarkable bit.

    Thanks all

    John George

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