Times Quick Cryptic 1856 by Breadman

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Quite a tough work out from Breadman today which took 11 minutes. I found the word play quite tricky in parts (e.g. 13dn), had trouble with the font at 21ac and needed all the checkers to get LOI – the long anagram at 24ac. Only travels in Scotland allowed me not to make a spelling slip at 1ac.

Good luck!

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Racing driver somewhere in Scotland facing simple plant (8,4)
STIRLING MOSS – somewhere in Scotland (STIRLING – not Sterling), simple plant (MOSS).
8 Departed from port (4)
LEFT – double definition.
9 Accomplished musician excited Tom’s ear (7)
MAESTRO – anagram (excited) of TOMS EAR.
11 Authoritarian Conservative is brought in quickly (7)
FASCIST – Conservative (C) and is (IS) brought inside quickly (FAST).
12 Mark’s overcome by a certain World War One battle (5)
SOMME – Mark (M) is overcome (surrounded) by a certain (amount) (SOME).
14 Headwear initially tested in the city (6)
TURBAN – (T)ested, in the city (URBAN).
15 Formality of celebrity and Companion of Honour (6)
STARCH – celebrity (STAR), Companion of Honour (CH).
18 Duck‘s colour that is reflected (5)
EIDER – colour (RED) and that is (IE) – reflected/backwards (EI DER).
20 Charlie, unaccompanied, eating unknown Italian food (7)
CALZONE – Charlie (C), unaccompanied (ALONE) eating (outside) unknown (Z).
21 Worker on Iago, heartless character in Shakespeare (7)
ANTONIO – worker (ANT), on (ON), (I)ag(O) – heartless (without the middle). So Iago with an I is a character in Othello. I thought at first  this was lago (with an L)  which is an Italian lake. For the record, Antonio is a character in The Merchant of Venice.
23 Express disapproval with mass roar (4)
BOOM – express disapproval (BOO), mass (M).
24 See boiler suit troubled pioneering aviator (5,7)
LOUIS BLERIOT – see (LO), anagram (troubled) of BOILER SUIT. Looked like an anagram, felt like an anagram, and, by golly, it was an anagram – just not including the letters SEE which would, anyway, have been too long. LOI. He made the first flight across the Channel and so won £1,000 in 1909.
Down
2 Cherished walk around firm (9)
TREASURED – walk (TREAD) around firm (SURE).
3 Wine held by barman is termed uplifting (7)
RETSINA – held by barm(AN IS TER)med – uplifted/upwards.
4 Batting partner who’s doing a stretch (6)
INMATE – Batting (IN), partner (MATE). A stretch inside a prison.
5 Visitors ignoring temperature estimate (5)
GUESS – visitors (GUES)t(S) – without temperature (T).
6 Lofts stripped frequently (3)
OFT – l(OFT)s stripped of the outside letters.
7 Small nucleus with these distributed record of game (10)
SCORESHEET – small (S), nucleus (CORE), anagram (distributed) of THESE.
10 Unorthodox climbers might fall thus (3,3,4)
OFF THE WALL – anyone climbing a wall a falls would be off the wall.
13 Old European explorer hurt fellow on equestrian pursuit (5,4)
MARCO POLO – hurt (MAR/spoil/damage), fellow (CO as in co-conspirator), on top of equestrian pursuit (of a ball) (POLO).
16 Ring pub, finding traffic obstruction (4,3)
TOLL BAR – ring (TOLL as in a bell), pub (BAR).
17 Train group of dolphins (6)
SCHOOL – double definition.
19 Arena’s gymnastic equipment (5)
RINGS – double definition – the first is the plural of arena – with a deceptive ‘. Also, arena’s could be read as RING’S.
22 Greek character‘s teacup regularly avoided (3)
TAU – (T)e(A)c(U)p.

64 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1856 by Breadman”

  1. ANTONIO is, in fact, the merchant of Venice; but he’s also a character in ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, and ‘The Tempest’. I biffed BLERIOT, pretty sure I saw the anagrist, MARCO POLO, where I didn’t read the whole clue, and RETSINA, where (typically for me) I didn’t see the hidden until after submitting. 7d is a rather odd surface; what does it mean? I was pretty sure the town was stIrling, but would have called the racer stErling; so I looked them up. A poor clue, I’d say. 5:47.
    1. Stirling the town and Stirling the driver are both spelt the same way so I don’t see the problem!
      1. The issue for some solvers was that as a first name ‘Sterling’ is more usual than ‘Stirling’ so if one didn’t happen to know Stirling Moss, it might have seemed a bit confusing. Some of our commenters are not British and / or of a younger generation so the name (and spelling) Stirling Moss are not especially known to them.
  3. 6 minutes. Stirling Moss was seemingly the only racing driver of note in my childhood so I was in no doubt about the spelling.
  4. About 35m. FOI STIRLING MOSS, LOI STARCH. I had CALL BAR for 16d which left me with the inappropriate SCORCH for 15ac until I realized my error. Thanks to Breadman and Chris.
  5. foi STIRLING MOSS and loi the nho TOLL BAR (but the wordplay didn’t really leave room for anything else). I would think that STIRLING MOSS might be a bit unfair for any younger solvers, since he was racing ~60 years ago.
  6. NHO TOLL BAR and that held me up for quite a bit at the end although ring for toll ought to have come to me quicker. All done in 10 for the second day in a row which is fast for me but with schoLL not SCHOOL for the dolphins giving me a pink square. Held up a bit by SOMME where it took a while to convince myself that “some” could be clued by “a certain” and while I knew Bleriot and thought of him straightaway I had to hunt for the second L — finally realising what “see” was doing in the clue. Disappointed to have let carelessness in again!

    Edited at 2021-04-20 06:22 am (UTC)

  7. I got right on the wavelength of the setter today for a best ever time of 7:18 — normally I am around 20 mins so this was a very surprising turn of events. Very enjoyable!

    Pb

  8. 1a and all of it’s offshoots, bar the clever RETSINA, went in straight away, although I initially misspelt STIRLING and only picked it up when proofreading prior to submission.
    I needed most of the checkers before managing to dredge the flyer from the depths of my memory and the unknown TOLL BAR proved stubborn at the end. Finished in 8.51.
    Thanks to Chris, especially for putting me out of my misery re. the full parsing of MARCO POLO.
  9. Best time for a while. 14:43. Seemed to race through this one. Good start with FOI Sterling Moss. Famous when I was growing up. Always in the news back then.
  10. 11:14 and looked like a rare sub-10 until TOLL BAR. I certainly have heard of a toll booth, and a toll gate but never a toll bar. There are plenty of meanings of “ring” and the letters T-L- have plenty of possibilities so a tough clue to close it out.

    RETSINA is a common crossword drink, so biffed, after seeing the initial R, RIOJA is another popular one.

    I liked CALZONE, which I constructed as instructed. But COD has to be INMATE to describe a batsman.

  11. On for sub 5 mins but although I knew Bleriot I didn’t know him well enough to write it in so had to resort to writing out the (incorrect) anagrist, then squinting cos I’d written out the letters so untidily 😀 So bit of a shambles at the end

    Didn’t parse RINGS which was quite good

    Thanks Chris and Breadman for an enjoyable puzzle and blog

  12. FOI: 1a STIRLING MOSS
    LOI: 16d TOLL BAR

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 19

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 3d, 19d

    Clues Unanswered: 23a, 24a

    Wrong Answers: 20a

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 21/24

    Aids Used: Chambers

    I started off well, getting the first 3 clues in right away. I thought this might indicate an easy crossword for me, but alas no.

    20a. CALZONE – I did not know this one. I thought C for Conservative, followed by alone (unaccompanied), but could not think of a letter indicating unknown. So, I guessed at an answer, and guessed wrong (CALLONE)

    23a. BOOM – I concentrated too much on the mistaken belief that “express disapproval” was the definition. As a result, this ended up as an unanswered clue.

    24a. LOUIS BLERIOT – I hate it when the name of a person is the answer to a clue, as it is invariably somebody I have never heard of, as this one was.

    3d. RETSINA – A clue answered using a life. I should have known this one as I have seen it in crosswords before.

    19a. RINGS – I missed the double definition here. I was looking for a word for tools.

    William, one of my poison wyverns on Ark is missing, I cannot find him. That is my excuse for not being able to concentrate as well as normal on this crossword. Yeah, feeble excuse, I know.

  13. Managed a sensational, rip roaring sub 4K. Couldn’t parse Marco but decided not to think too much about it, similarly no doubt about Somme but was not comfortable.
    Once more onto the treadmill dear friends. Thanks Breadman for a good day, and Chris.
  14. Like Merlin, I thought I was on for a sub-10 finish today but failed because I had biffed ‘INSIDE’ for 4dn and it took a while to realise that the S was wrong for 9a so the anagram had to be MAESTRO. That delay wasn’t helped by making the same error as Plett and writing in Sterling (why on earth?). However, I also proofread and checked my parsing more carefully before submission and I, too, saw the error of my ways with STIRLING. I still managed a sub-12 min finish which is good for me for a Breadman puzzle. My first ca 2K for quite a while.
    Apart from the glitches, I was closer to the setter’s wavelength today. Thanks to Breadman and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2021-04-20 08:37 am (UTC)

  15. Enjoyed most of this so thanks Breadman and Chris. A shame about 24a and 19d. Poor clues for a quickie I thought.
  16. Oddly I struggled most with TOLL BAR – had to look up Ring for inspiration. Knew S. MOSS – always encouraging to get 1a immediately. Also struggled with the spelling of BLERIOT tho I knew him.
    Was a bit slow on FASCIST too. Otherwise it was a fairly fast biff-fest as far as I was concerned.
    Oh dear, just noticed I put Boos instead of BOOM.

    Thank you, Chris.

  17. I seem to be completing more often, 43 mins today. However I still generally need to the blog for the clues I can’t fully parse. Several today, Louis Bleriot with the sneaky Lo at the beginning, fellow = co in Marco Polo and certain (amount) = some, still don’t quite understand that! Thanks to Breadman and Chris.
  18. 12 minutes, so a bit quicker than yesterday. Like Plett, 1a went straight in with all of its offshoots (including RETSINA), so a very quick start. First one to cause any delay was FASCIST, but I skipped over that fairly quickly. The explorer, TOLL BAR and the spelling for the aviator were other slight delays. Good puzzle and blog — thanks both. Now off to get a haircut!
  19. 11:16 for me but with an error. I decided the WWI battle was SUMRE even though I’d never heard of it; should have paused for thought-this is the QC.
    Otherwise I thought TOLL BAR was tricky-and unknown.
    My first racing driver was STEWART from the Scottish connection; the unknown plant was Stewart’s Ease. I did correct that. Calzone another tricky one.
    COD to INMATE. Some testing stuff today but all fair.
    David
  20. Two early starts for me, yesterday and today. Started to comment on yesterday’s and abandoned the attempt as my husband got the car out and took me to see the bluebells which are showing well but not quite fully out in our local wood. Had to collect a parcel today that was delivered yesterday whilst we walked along the paths in the bluebell wood, so up early again. FOI left, then maestro, then nothing till boom. Six down clues on first pass then the grid finally fell apart leaving turban LOI, which was solved by husband as he passed by and glanced at what was left – he was filled with a warm glow as he fully understood the parsing. He’s getting less disinterested. He says I would have got it, but I’ll never know. I didn’t fully parse Marco Polo, but I see that others fill in the grid only needing part of the clue. Is that different to biffing? COD scoresheet – had scorecard at first, then saw the “these” bit. Thanks, Chris, for the blog, and Breadman for the entertainment. GW.
    1. I also had the pleasure of seeing some bluebells in a wood today. Not very many yet, but just enough to gladden the heart. They’re on their way.
  21. … and was all completed in 6½ minutes. I was about to add “… and all parsed”, but I was so sure that 24A was Louis Blériot and so certain it was an anagram that I did not check the letters or therefore even see the See = Lo at the start. otherwise no hold-ups and much enjoyed.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  22. LOUIS BLERIOT from the memory banks from a squint at the anagrist, didn’t spot the see=LO device, so technically unparsed! That was my LOI.

    I liked OFF THE WALL and INMATE. I’m from Coventry originally, and there’s an area of the city called Toll Bar End (I think it might even be named after a large roundabout!), so TOLL BAR went in easily enough.

    5:24.

  23. The standard opening line of any traffic cop when stopping a boy racer used to be “Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” so that was my FOI. I had to muse over CALZONE and SOMME, but got there eventually. Spotted part of the the aviator’s anagram but missed replacing see with LO. Nice puzzle. 7:42. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
  24. 21:59 for me this morning though cheated a little on Bleriot as a little (!) before my time. After a pretty miserable DNF yesterday happy to be back on speed.

    Starting to recognise clues/structures quite quickly, but the more advanced wordplay remains a challenge to spot and parse. Ah well, more practice needed.

  25. Both my FOI and LOI were names. I had no problem with STIRLING MOSS but I have to confess I have NHO LOUIS BLERIOT. I did manage to put the letters in the correct order but didn’t feel confident enough with my guess to submit to the leaderboard. Juggling the letters in 24a stretched me to 11:16. TOLL BAR was also a guess. TOLLBOOTH I know but TOLL BAR sounds American.
  26. … I had thought a bit more about 1ac and not tried to think of a type of ‘moss’, I’m sure this would have been a sub-20. As it was, I needed Guess and Retsina before Stirling became blindingly obvious. I thought some of the cluing was a bit quirky, but all the more interesting for it. All done and parsed in 21mins, though I think, Chris, that 10d is a reference to climbing plants rather than people. Invariant
  27. 25 mins today, but could have been sooner if I hadn’t got stuck on 24ac Louis Bleriot. Thankfully, I put the letters in the right order.

    NHO of “Toll Bar” either, but it couldn’t be anything else. Whilst Stirling Moss was before my time, he comes up quite a lot in crossword land.

    FOI — 1ac “Stirling Moss”
    LOI — 24a “Louis Bleriot”
    COD — 2dn “Treasured” — simple and to the point

    Thanks as usual!

  28. First for a long, long time. I just do not understand how Kevin and his fellow-ninjas like Phil are so fast, so consistently. Quite amazing.

    Anyway. Was on wavelength for that, obviously. In fact I’d have been sub-5 for the second time ever if I hadn’t typed OFF HTE WALL and thus left myself looking at H-R-A- for my LOI before spotting the error. Doh. (What is a TOLL BAR, though?)

    FOI STIRLING MOSS, LOI TURBAN, COD CALZONE, time 05:43 which makes this that rarest of all days, a Red Letter Day.

    Many thanks Breadman and Chris.

    Templar

    2. Hi Templar. I live in a Toll Bar cottage. At the time it was built (1668), a bar was placed between the cottage and the far side of the (main) road. A level crossing type of bar that swings up and down.
      As horses and carts clip-clopped up, or down, the road, the tollbar operator would go and check what was loaded on the cart. There might be a toll (tax) to pay. Then the bar was raised.
      1. Just to say that there’s a Toll Bar Cottage (moved there from Upper Beeding) at the Weald & Downland Museum in Singleton, West Sussex. It has a board displaying the schedule of fees charged for different goods, etc.
        N.B. The W&D museum is where The Repair Shop is filmed
  29. I got the dreaded pink square for spelling Mr Moss’s name incorrectly and looking at the number of single errors recorded, I suspect that I am not alone.
    Never mind, an enjoyable puzzle.

  30. I was doing fine at first then ground to a halt with my last two which I had nho – 24ac & 16dn. I guessed 24ac – had Louis then googled, but put talk bar for 16dn. My reasoning, after a week in South Wales with little phone reception, was that the lack of a bar could be an obstruction in phone traffic. Of course the actual answer was far less convoluted. I also hadn’t seen “co” used in this way before but biffed Marco Polo. Many thanks Chris for explaining and Breadman

  31. Nice mix of clues which made it a fun puzzle to solve. NHO TOLL BAR but couldn’t think it could be any other solution. We finished in 11 minutes.

    FOI: STIRLING MOSS
    LOI: TOLL BAR
    COD: CALZONE (and, coincidentally, Mrs Peel’s favourite pizza)

    Thanks to Breadman and Chris.

  32. Nearly finished it. Dolphins was a poor double def as it is not a school but a pod. And because of that I did not put it in. Getting better—-slowly
  33. Progressed fairly smoothly with this one having really struggled yesterday. Completed in 15 minutes having biffed SOMME, RETSINA and MARCO POLO – thanks for parsing these for me Chris. Slight hold up at 17dn where I was looking for a word with “pod” in the middle. Nice puzzle – thanks Breadman.

    FOI – 1ac STIRLING MOSS
    LOI – 23ac BOOM
    COD – 4dn INMATE

  34. I wonder if the Moderator could prevent inappropriate posts like this one from ‘johneere’ from reaching us?
    It is a misuse of this site in my opinion. John M.

    Edited at 2021-04-20 03:03 pm (UTC)

  36. I finished in 17 minutes to equal my PB, and it was my 10th successful QC solve in a row — my longest ever winning streak by quite a margin. All that in addition to some good deeds done for Mrs R’s parents … and a slice of Mrs R’s sister’s birthday cake still to come. I’ll need a lie down when I get home, followed by a quiet day tomorrow. Too much action after a year of hiding away.

    Oh dear! I’ve just remembered what follows the Lord Mayor’s show … I wonder how benevolent tomorrow’s setter is feeling.

    Many thanks to Breadman and chrisw91

  37. Got off to a racing start in more ways than one as I got STIRLING MOSS straight away (thankfully the possibility that I’d spelt it wrong only occurred to me when I read the comments on here and by then it was too late to worry, but I’d got it right anyway) and for a while I thought I might be on for a really fast time (sub-10???). I did slow down a bit, but I still finished in a 4th best ever 14:35. This inspired me to look back at my records (which only go back to last September, but I’m pretty sure I only did one time that qualifies before that) and make a top 10 fastest solves. Interestingly this one was Breadman’s third entry and no other setter is there more than once. I have to confess I am increasingly succumbing to the temptation to biff as I get better at these. A slippery slope I fear. Anyway, LOI RETSINA, COD 13d MARCO POLO. Thanks Breadman and Chris
    1. By all means biff, so long as you then parse. Essential for me to a) confirm the guess and b) enjoy the clue — I know most people don’t bother (some don’t even read all the clues…)
      1. Excellent comment. Satisfaction of speed is one thing, rounded enjoyment of the setter’s art is a greater pleasure. I’m sure there are those among us who enjoy both simultaneously.
  39. A new character added today as answers put in and parsed later
    What are / were all the suspended comments.
    Two courses needed today
    1. 23 posts attached to different threads of the discussion within a 13 minute time span suggests some sort of bot attack on the site. Evidently Live Journal picked up on this eventually, the only downside being that by suspending the account they have prevented us from deleting all reference to the postings.
  40. I also initially thought Sterling, interestingly Sterling Morrison is spelled with an E rather than an I
  41. ….STIRLING MOSS may be part of the reason that I’m 7th equal on the leaderboard so late in the day. Faster than Verlaine, but in Topical Tim’s slipstream. A very straightforward puzzle in my book.

    FOI STIRLING MOSS
    LOI RETSINA
    COD INMATE (also liked LOUIS BLERIOT)
    TIME 2:50

    1. That’s not a time – it’s a fleet (as of fleeting seconds). Congratulations!
      1. Thanks Chris — unfortunately I came to grief on the 15×15. Again. I think I’ve got Saturday’s right, but I’ve had three wrong in a row either side including Sunday’s prize puzzle. I think it’s my worst run since I first started in the late 1970’s.
  42. Interesting puzzle from Breadman – so thanks for that and for an enjoyable 35 minutes to wind down the day. Needed Chris’ blog to see the Co in Marco Polo so thanks for that help too. FOI 1a Stirling Moss – who else! LOI 19d Rings – for no reason other than it got left until the end. COD 14a Turban – had me looking for Topper, Bowler, hats with EC but really straightforward. Nice to see a reference to the great aviator and what a risk-taker too at 24a. 7d took a while – Score-sheet/cards/board all fitted at that stage. Liked 18a Eider and not Ruddy (sharing the available middle D). Good fun all round to end the day.
  43. Personally I’ve never used this term. I prefer péage. This is usually shouted as driver to the asleep navigator in the left hand seat when driving on the continent. Johnny.
  44. Following my mother’s death we have inherited her dog (we promised her we would take care of him and he is definitely enjoying the good life).

    I have taken to calling him IAGO after Roderigo’s accusation: “O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!”

    Because he is certainly an ‘inhuman dog’, and that description could only be Shakespearean. Of course a dog would be ‘inhuman’, and most writers would therefore reject it as being tautologically irrational. But Roderigo is dying and that is exactly the sort of irrational accusation a dying person might make in the confused throes of final agony. Only Shakespeare would get that far inside the skin of a dying man. And probably without even thinking about it.

    Total respect.

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