Times Quick Cryptic 1847 by Orpheus

76 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1847 by Orpheus”

1. Yes, Ellington/Wellington is a old trick, and as pirate is not far behind. However, I struggled with Aberdeen Angus, even though they have appeared several times before.

   I agree with the setter that tights are not suitable attire for the drunken son.

   There is some vocabulary here in smew, diorama, and ostler, which some of our less experienced solvers might not know.

   1. I think william is more in tune the majority.
   2. Thing is, Vinyl, as I remarked yesterday, you can be a less experienced (or SCC) solver but still have a fairly large vocabulary. It is a question of learning the ropes, or rather untangling them and remembering the knots. Admittedly setters appear to like some obscure words which fit conveniently into a grid eg Erne. We SCCers are not ignorant, just not Crosswordese experts.
      In fairness, I am sometimes surprised when e.g. Son3 doesn’t know the meaning of a word but maybe TV etc is to blame.
      I am much enjoying this blog, btw.

      Edited at 2021-04-07 11:34 am (UTC)

      1. I agree with you Countrywoman – it’s important to remember that knowledge is different from experience when tackling crosswords. I quite often get the words first and then have to untangle them (as you say) especially when attempting the biggie. So not full-fat biffing, but borderline! The funny thing is I find the concise extremely difficult, and rarely complete it. There is always one word that I simply can’t work out or just don’t know! I find double definitions among the hardest clues here too.
         It is quite interesting when reading the blog to see what people do and don’t know when it comes to vocab and GK. As quizzers say: it’s easy when you know the answer!

      2. Certainly, when compiling from scratch (and eschewing technical tools to make the job easier) there are times when only one or two obscure words can fit. The art is then to make sure the clue is easily parsed.
2. I biffed ABERDEEN ANGUS on the basis of a couple of checkers and what looked like anagrist. FRIENDLY took some time. SMEW shows up often enough in these cryptics, though maybe not the QCs. ASPIRATE here is a noun, I’d say, H being one. 6:40.
3. No problem for me since I knew SMEW, OSTLER, and any other unusual words. I was a bit bemused by the TIGHTS too, wondering if I was missing something really clever. After all, men do sometimes wear tights (although not really associated with alcohol).
4. 12 across has to be one of the most left-field clues I’ve ever seen. Is it cross-dressing that is being alluded to, or a career in ballet, or a penchant for dressing up as Robin Hood?

   I think we should be told.

   1. I think tights are generally inappropriate; unless, of course, you’ve got legs like mine.
5. Redoubtable equals fearful? Hardly!
   1. SOED:
      Redoubtable: to be feared
      Fearful: causing fear

      Two sides of the same coin I think.

      1. All the same, fearsome would have perhaps been better.
6. 9 minutes, but I thought whilst solving this will be difficult for some.

   As William has noted, 2dn uses a device that features almost daily in The Guardian cryptic but is by convention frowned upon in the Times and Sunday Times, in this instance ‘Gateshead’ to clue the letter G. Those wishing to know more about this sort of thing might care to take a look at last Sunday’s blog re 14dn where ‘homeworker’ is used to clue IN (home) and ANT (worker). Peter Biddlecombe, our founder and currently the ST crossword editor, contributed to the discussion. In that clue it was indicated that the two parts of ‘homeworker’ needed to be treated separately, but there is no such indication today. I know Orpheus is a distinguished setter who contributes puzzles to various publications and I wonder if perhaps he has overlooked the one he was setting for here, and the fact that it’s a Quick Cryptic. The general level of difficulty throughout this one might further support that theory.

   I’m as baffled as others by ‘inappropriate tights’, which I would not recommend googling, btw!

   Edited at 2021-04-07 06:54 am (UTC)

   1. This device came up in today’s DT. Having read this comment made the clue a write-in in stark contrast to the struggle I’d had earlier with Gateshead. Thanks jackkt!
7. Another time over 20m and with some big pauses between clues. Sometimes to work out the tricky anagrams and sometimes just in bafflement. Quite enjoyed looking up what aspirated consonants were. Wondered why Gateshead = G so thanks for clearing that up William. NHO SMEW but it was kindly clued but I am another who doesn’t know what ‘inappropriate’ is doing. A little lacking in sparkle today I thought but that could be because I struggled — both the people I use as markers on the leaderboard took only half my time.

8. Straightforward, working around 8A until the checkers gave ABERDEEN ANGUS. Near-obligatory typo: TOKON for TOKEN.

   Thank you, william_j_s and Orpheus

9. 37m 46s. FOI 1a ASPIRATE LOI 13a MEDDLE. There’s that ERNE again, diagonally opposite the SMEW, which spacing is probably of comfort to the latter. I enjoyed this puzzle, seeming to have tuned into Orpheus’ frequency quite quickly. Many thanks to Orpheus and to William.
10. Well, if I didn’t get SMEW I should be drummed out of the RSPB. It is the most beautiful of the sawbills (check out a picture if you do not know the bird).
11. Oh dear, I just managed to delete a rather long (by my standards) post and haven’t got time to recompose it all. In short, the NW was tricky with an eyebrow raise over the definition of REDOUBTABLE and even with Jack’s explanation I’m not convinced. I needed to rely on the wordplay of ASPIRATE because I didn’t understand the definition. I got into a muddle with the unknown duck based on trying to move the ‘O’ of meow before the penny dropped and TIGHTS went in with a bemused shrug.
    Overall an enjoyable solve finished in 10.13 with LOI SMEW.
    Thanks to William
12. Nice puzzle from Orpheus. I was slow to start but speeded up a little as the grid developed. I agree about the words questioned above but got them including LOI TIGHTS. Little Erne is getting to be a bit of a regular, despite dying 10 years ago. I realised that REDOUBTABLE was really only known to me as the name of a Royal Navy ship of a couple of centuries ago (and another built just prior to WW2) but can now define it properly. No problem with OSTLER and I liked TWADDLE and DEVOTED.Over target today but I stayed outside the SCC (not by much). Thanks to both. John M.
    I wonder if my reference go Erne above was a bit obscure for our non-UK participants. I was referring to Ernie Wise whose long-time comedy sidekick Eric Morecambe always referred to him as ‘little Ern, with the short, fat, hairy legs’.

    Edited at 2021-04-08 07:10 am (UTC)

13. I spent the first 5 minutes baffled by this puzzle. I checked to see whether I had entered the Cryptic puzzle by mistake. Finally got PEERING and MAGMA and some of the anagrams. Pleased to finish this in 22:10, but it made me sweat. DNK SMEW didn’t understand TIGHTS being inappropriate but hey, it was a very interesting puzzle. Thanks Orpheus and thanks for the explanations.
14. But REDOUBTABLE means the opposite of fearful, surely. Oh, I see Jack has clarified. Now I see one could say ‘My tights drawer was in a fearful muddle so I tidied it appropriately.’
    Relieved to get DUKE ELLINGTON (a FOI) as the upper half mostly blank at first. HAIKU a gift in a quite tricky puzzle. Struggled with ABERDEEN ANGUS.
    Biffed SMEW.
    ASPIRATE made me smile when penny dropped.
    No problem with OSTLER, ANTIBES.
    Thanks vm, William.

    Edited at 2021-04-07 08:26 am (UTC)

15. 19:39 ended up being a sub 20 time, a good result after scratching around at the ABERDEEN ANGUS anagram along with LOI PEERING. A short break unclogged the brain and they dropped in quickly after I got a pen out for the anagram.

    FOI 1a ASPIRATE but always a bit demoralising to come here and discover that it is a “chestnut”. Like most “chestnuts”, the first time you get ’em they seem very elegant (“ANAESTHETIST”)

    NHO SMEW, and I thought ANTIBES was pretty obscure. And the Gateshead thing had be beaten, was looking at a “NE” or even a NE slang word such as “Wor”.

    In the Times2 section today there is an article about whether Jill Biden’s tights were appropriate for a First Lady on a visit.

    COD FRIENDLY

    1. I checked to see if you are allowed to post links – well, you are now. Some moderator must have unspammed your comment.
       1. I used html maybe that’s the trick.

          Edited at 2021-04-07 02:09 pm (UTC)

16. … when you see “bird of prey” and immediately think “erne”. A species seldom seen in real life but crosswordland seems overrun by them!

    I found this a very enjoyable and addressable puzzle, all done in just over 10 minutes. The controversies over 2D Gateshead and 12A Tights largely passed me by while solving; I “understood” Gateshead to imply G but did not realise it was a device more suited to the Guardian, and therefore not quite the done thing, and as for tights being thought inappropriate for men, drunk or otherwise, I merely shrugged. There used to be a time when this might have been so, as in the glorious 1993 Mel Brooks spoof film Robin Hood: Men in tights, but these days, as we all know, nothing at all is inappropriate for anyone and each person’s choice of their own lived experience is entirely valid for them whatever anyone else thinks.

    As for 10A
    I saw the letters
    And filled in the right answer —
    A clue to enjoy

    Many thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

    1. ‘A device more suited to the Guardian’ – oh dear.
17. Always pleased to see the ERNE. I got ASPIRATE very quickly but had to rely on my rule that almost any combination of four letters can be a duck, bird or fish; SMEW was unknown.
    My LOI was TIGHTS where I wanted to put TOGA plus something else.
    Finished in 10: 40. As people have said, one for the more experienced solvers.
    David
18. LOI SMEW. COD ASPIRATE.
    About 40 minutes in two goes. Didn’t get too analytic of the G from Gateshead as I am learning not to reason why. If it looks like a duck etc.
    Closely familiar with Antibes, easier to biff than parse. I am beginning to greet Erne as a long lost friend.
    Very enjoyable. Thank you Izetti and Chris
    1. Forgive my ignorance, but what do parse and biff mean?

       I assume that parse means you worked out the answer by working out the various parts of the clue. Whereas biff means you just guessed it?

       1. Pretty much. Parse as in working out subject, verb, object or noun versus adverb etc in a sentence.
          I use Biff when the word looks like it might be the right answer, has the right number of letters and fits the crossers. Biff bang wallop and whack it in.
          1. Thanks. Must check out the glossary to get a few other acronyms sorted out.
       2. Check out the glossary (see ‘Links’ above).

19. FOI: 18a COVEN
    LOI: 18d OSTLER

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 14

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 3d, 15d

    Clues Unanswered: 1a, 10a, 11a, 16a, 1d, 2d, 4d

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 16/24

    Aids Used: Chambers, Bradfords

    As with yesterday’s puzzle, when I saw the setter, I knew I would struggle. Like Izetti, Orpheus is not a beginner friendly setter. However, I did better than I initially thought.

    5a. SMEW – I did get this, though I think I would have seen it more quickly if the setter had used kitten instead of cat. I always think of an adult cat’s cry as meow, and a kitten’s cry as mew. I had not heard of SMEW before, but I understood the “sacred at first” hint as being S.

    14d. DEVOTED – I answered this one using a pencil and piece of paper. Sometimes when I struggle to see an answer, I will just jot down single letters and abbreviations that parts of the clue seem to suggest. Here I saw “five” and so wrote down “V” on my paper. Next to it I put OT/NT for “religious books”. Because the definition (Dedicated) ended in ED, I guessed that the answer probably would too, and so I wrote ED at the end of what I already had. (It is the same with the definition being plural – I often assume that the last letter of the answer will end in S, which sometimes helps). This gave me either VOTED or VNTED. VOTED was the only one that made sense. As soon as I saw VOTED, I saw DEVOTED.

    15d. OSTLER – I did think of this but did not have the conviction to put it in. When I used Chambers and saw Ostler I was dismayed. It could have been an answered clue rather than a life used.

    21a. ERNE – I have done enough crosswords now to think of ERNE, even though I have no idea what one looks like. I’ll Google it in a moment.

    I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would, considering who the setter was. But ANTIBES and DIORAMA were words I had not heard of before, or at least not immediately familiar with.

20. Happy when I worked out ASPIRATE as FOI, having stared at it blankly for a while but sure it was not as obscure as my brain was trying to make it. A slow but fairly steady progress downwards from there on, although I too overthought TIGHTS due to the wording. Liked the cow once I got over the mental image of badger torturing. About 35 minutes of breakfast time fun, thanks.
21. I was led astray at 1a by trying to install HYDROGEN, but was saved by HAIKU and TRENDY pushing me in a different direction. SMEW was vaguely familiar. I was also puzzled by the inappropriate TIGHTS, but shrugged and moved on. Otherwise an uneventful solve. 6:42. Thanks Orpheus and William.
22. NHO of the duck, but wordplay was v clear. Liked ASPIRATE and ANTIBES. MER at Gateshead for G, but only very minor.

    LOI was FRIENDLY, which was only parsed post submission.

    Quite quick though, at 4:53.

23. VERY pleased to complete this, albeit with the help of a checker for ABERDEEN ANGUS, a couple of guesses/flashes of inspiration and items dredged from memory. Only had 5 clues in after first look through.
24. Having guessed correctly at SMEW and OSTLER I submitted in just under 9 minutes but with 1 pink square. Having thought of PEERING I actually typed in PEEKING. Drat! I think I was distracted by the use of the Gateshead G.

    I was surprised over the weekend to receive a CROSS pen for being a runner up in the Sunday Times crossword. I have looked up the model online to find it retails at £175. Very nice indeed.

    1. Well done! I received one of those out of the blue some months ago and failed to discover which crossword I had won, despite a trawl of the weekend prize crosswords going back as far as I reasonably could. They don’t seem to bother adding any paperwork — the prize seems to be sent from a third party, perhaps Cross. It came in a well-made presentation box.

       Edited at 2021-04-07 11:21 am (UTC)

       1. Yes it was out of the blue and there was only delivery paperwork but it did have a reference to a crossword on it. It was still a lovely surprise. I’ve printed out the Monthly Club Special just so I can use it!
       2. No I’m not 😅 But many congrats to you both!
    2. Well done!
25. At just under 9 minutes this was my fastest solve for some time, so I was surprised to see some of the comments above. I must have been on the right wavelength or something. I had no problem with SMEW, seeing the answer straight away, and just thought that the inappropriate tights were a reference to a couple of decades ago, where a son in tights might have been considered so. Otherwise, I found it all easy peasey lemon squeezy. Thanks William and Orpheus.
26. Tricky for sure! Inappropriate is inappropriate because it is unnnecessary. I prefer setters to stick with reasonably familiar words – I think the setter lumbered himself with trying to find a word which fitted ?m?w – I bet there aren’t many – might even be only the one!

    Thanks though!

27. A tip of the hat to anyone who started with my loi, Aspirate. After playing with Aitch, Letter, Capital etc for a few minutes I moved onto 5ac and drew a blank there as well. At least Orpheus set his stall out nice and early… Half an hour later, Smew and Aspirate were a tad more obvious. Overall, a solve where I never felt in control, with answers scattered around the grid. CoD to 22ac, Friendly — one at least that I did enjoy. Invariant
28. Did better on this trickier one than some other easier ones recently.

    SMEW last one in with crossed fingers though the w/p was fairly unambiguous. REDOUBTABLE POI biffed from checkers as I was slightly confused by the definition.

    Otherwise ASP…. gave me 1ac and OSTLER was known and generally kept moving round the grid knocking off the more accessible ones

    Was slightly surprised to see the Gateshead thing but even though I don’t cross to the dark side I knew that’s what they do over there*

    Thanks Setter and William

    * I jest of course — I read The Times then the Guardian and make my mind up on stuff on the basis that both have valid viewpoints — just like their crosswords!

29. Somewhat to my surprise, as I normally struggle with Orpheus, I managed to finish, and mostly parse, this one without aids in just over half an hour. No problem with the duck — my FOI — or any other of the vocab. As has been said above, vocabulary isn’t what consigns me to the lower echelons of the SCC — I’m just not very good at crosswords!

    Couldn’t parse 22ac, I didn’t realise that we were looking for a specific day as there was no DBE indicator. On the plus side, I finally twigged where the G in 2dn came from, so I must have learned something (and I don’t do The Guardian crosswords).

    1. Some solvers argue against the necessity of DBE indicators and I’m not overly bothered one way or the other these days, but whatever side of the argument one is on, the rule or convention would only apply to main definitions, not to individual elements of wordplay such as ‘day’ = FRI in this case. Not that that’s a DBE anyway, FRI = day would be.

       Edited at 2021-04-07 01:19 pm (UTC)

30. Bang on target today. I thought this was a middling crossword, with a few relatively easy clues and a couple of odd ones. Count me in as another one who was baffled by the inappropriate hosiery, and 22a FRIENDLY was a bit meh. But I really liked the clever anagrams and surfaces for ABERDEEN ANGUS and ADOLESCENCE.
    I could never classify myself as a proper birder, but I do enjoy birdwatching and had no problem with SMEW – I think I may even have seen one at Slimbridge a few years ago. Didn’t know they were sawbills tho!
    Re the Gateshead device: we’ve definitely seen a similar structure in other forms, such as swEetheart, so I’m not sure why G as the head of Gateshead is an issue? Maybe we’ve not seen it here before, just in the biggie? As a matter of fact, I rather like it!
    FOI Smew
    LOI Peering
    COD Aspirate

    Thanks Orpheus, and William for the clear explanations

31. Chewy today but got there bar 1 ac. As pirate in the role of buccaneer I get. But H perhaps?
    Could someone do this letter by letter for me. Thx. Johnny
    1. William explained this, but see eg ODE sv ‘aspirate’ (noun): an aspirated consonant; a sound of [h]
       (verb): pronounce the sound of [h] at the beginning of a word
       As I said in my comment, I think that it’s the noun that is wanted here.
       1. Kevin. I understand now. Common in NW England where haitch is the heighth letter of the halphabet.
          Never heard of it before so much obliged. Thx. Johnny

    2. H is an aspirated consonant, when you say the huh sound you exhale

32. I thought this was difficult while I was doing it. I hadn’t heard of Smew but did guess it from the clue and crossers. I did know Aberdeen Angus but was also unsure where the inappropriate tights fitted in. in the end I managed all but 1 across in just b over 20 mins, but could not for the life of me get 1ac, which is obvious now I know it! Thanks Orpheus and William

33. It’s that skirt that worries me. Wouldn’t want a sudden gust of wind.
    1. That’s all right; there are plenty who would.
    2. You wouldn’t want an attack of wind either !
34. Speaking as someone who had to wear TIGHTS (and knee britches and indeed patent leather shoes with diamante buckles) in order to take my oath of allegiance as Queen’s Counsel, I can confirm that they are a highly inappropriate garment for men, drunk or sober.

    I found that easy, even though I’d never heard of the SMEW, and good fun.

    FOI & COD ASPIRATE, LOI MEDDLE, time 07:28 for 1.1K and an Excellent Day.

    Many thanks William and Orpheus.

    Templar

35. 20:54 to finish after a slow start. FOI MEDDLE, then jumping around the grid. Did not help myself by putting in SMEE at 5ac — another duck, or another name for the same duck, with a MER at MEE rather than MEOW (perhaps “at first” elsewhere in the clue? I know it doesn’t work.) so struggled with the E at the start of 7dn (playing with eating or eroding = worrying?) Not my day. WOD TWADDLE
36. 11 minutes, no quibbles, love smews, no problem with Gateshead or tights — I really don’t want to come acroos a drunken son wearing them. My fastest time for a little while, I think. Thanks, Orpheus.
37. Not too many problems with this, finishing in a respectable 16 minutes including an interruption. No problems with vocabulary (or Gateshead or tights!). Thanks to Orpheus and to William for the blog.

    FOI – 5ac SMEW
    LOI – 9dn ADOLESCENCE
    COD – 1ac ASPIRATE

38. FOI smew LOI erne, bookended by birds. COD as pirate, did not realise it was a chestnut. 12 minutes all done and parsed except friendly. Thanks, William and Orpheus. GW.
39. A suitably tricky puzzle today for our 100th consecutive completed QC or maybe it was the stress of reaching our century that made it seem particularly tough. It now seems a long time from our first attempts at solving these puzzles when a half completed grid was a satisfactory outcome. It takes two of us to solve them and we don’t time ourselves – our approach is to correctly complete the grid no matter how long it takes.

    We just want to say a BIG thanks to the setters for all the many wonderful puzzles and to the bloggers who have taught us how to solve them.

    1. 100 consecutrive solves! Very well done indeed! Currently, after 223 attempts, my record is six in a row.
40. 28 mins for me, but a dnf as I put in “Smow” for 5ac – having NHO of the duck. The days of sub 20 min solves seem to be disappearing fast – not sure what’s going on, must be the trade off I alluded to a month or so back when I managed a rare sub 10 min solve.

    I enjoyed the rest but thought it was another tricky one. The NW corner was once again the main delay, with 1ac “Aspirate” and 3dn “Redoubtable” taking up a chunk of time. As someone noted above, it’s a sorry state of affairs when the first bird of prey I also think of is an Erne.

    FOI – 6dn “Magma”
    LOI – 1ac “Aspirate”
    COD – 1ac “Aspirate”

    Thanks as usual!

41. A rare victory over Orpheus for me today, albeit rather late in the day. I was mighty relieved to finish in 42 minutes after two very difficult days earlier this week.

    My LOI was ANTIBES (a resort I hadn’t heard of) after having to reconsider after a futile alphabet trawl for a three-letter word (A_S) to wrap around TO BE. I had also not heard of SMEW and was unsure about DIORAMA and ASPIRATE.

    Mrs Random completed the grid in 28 minutes after only hesitating slightly over SMEW. She already knew ANTIBES, so I presume she must have visited without my knowledge at some stage.

    Many thanks to Orpheus for the challenge, and to william_j_s for the blog.

    1. 
       Maybe Mrs Random has read ‘Three Fat Women of Antibes’ by WS Maugham?
42. Minehead ? Peterhead ? Don’t see the problem. But there are those who think I’m a D…….

    Sailed through this one, and avoided typos when I filled it in online afterwards (or rather I corrected three of them as I went).

    FOI ASPIRATE
    LOI FRIENDLY
    COD SMEW
    TIME 3:05

43. But finished this Orpheus and can report a large amount of pleasure in the process! Probably 35 minutes plus.
    FOI Smew
    LOI Aspirate
    WOD Diorama
    Lots of lovely clues.
    Tricky but fair so I do not reprise my recent couple of rants and say thanks to the setter….and…
    Thanks all
    John George
44. Did this this morning but didn’t get round to posting till now. Quite a few obscure words as I have come to expect from Orpheus, but nothing held me up too much until I got to my LOI 2d. I couldn’t get “peeking” out of my mind, but I couldn’t see how it worked so I resorted to an alphabet trawl and after another 5 minutes came up with PEERING. I somehow knew it was right, but I couldn’t see how ‘Gateshead’ gave us the g unless it was being used as “Gate’s head” which was a device I hadn’t seen before. As this turned out to be the case, I am grateful to Orpheus for the lesson. FOI a tentative SMEW, LOI PEERING, COD 7d, WOD TWADDLE, Time: 35:23 Thanks all.
45. Took us a while to gain a toehold but once we did we found the puzzle fairly straightforward. We finished in 13 minutes.

    FOI: PEERING
    LOI: TRENDY
    COD: ABERDEEN ANGUS

    Thanks Orpheus and William.

46. Last one in was 3d, once 1a had been sorted. One and a half courses.
    Don’t our American friends say something about tights getting in twist?
47. Have been doing these QCs for a few months now and I must say personally found this the easiest/ fastest one yet, even though I had to check after completion why a couple of answers were what they were. I particularly liked ‘ aspirate’, so a good start.
48. Having read all the comments, I’m surprised nobody else has remarked on 11ac. I BIFD it knowing what a diorama was, but I make I and O ODD letters in Ivor. Surely the clue should read either …oddly included in play or perhaps …regularly left out of play?
    1. Regularly means at regular intervals, so can indicate either odd or even letters.

       In this case it’s odd letters (IvOr regularly), and these letters are contained by (included in) DRAMA (play).

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