Times Quick Cryptic 1861 by Joker

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1861 by Joker”

1. Like Jeremy, I was thrown off by ‘set of octuplets’. Is GAME a double definition? ‘you might get in butchers’ isn’t a definition. I’d have thought the clue was a (single) cryptic def. Whatever. 5:02.
   1. I disagree. You might get in butcher’s is, at least to me, a definition. Butchers often sell game, therefore you might get game in a butchers.
      1. I think the clue would have to read ‘you might get it in the butchers’ or something similar for the definition to be to a type of meat.

         Edited at 2021-04-27 10:58 am (UTC)

   2. My blog would have read ‘A straight definition with a cryptic hint’. It’s a good dodge to avoid commitment and tbh I don’t really see the need to categorise every clue down to the last jot and tittle.
      1. I don’t think I’ve ever commented before on the type of clue, but ‘you might get in butchers’ simply isn’t on. (As Pebee says, something like ‘you might get it/one’ is necessary.) I agree with you wholeheartedly, as one who can never remember what ‘&lit’ means.
         1. Thanks, Kevin. I think I have a general understanding of &lit clues and sometimes they’re unmistakable, but long ago someone here introduced the concept of the ‘semi &lit’ where there may be one or more words in the clue that don’t fit the purist interpretation of &lit, and then of course there’s ‘cryptic’ to confuse the issue further.

            I enjoy discussing details of words and meanings but the finer points involved in categorising every clue as to type seems to me a somewhat pointless activity. Fine for those who enjoy it of course.

            Edited at 2021-04-27 01:23 pm (UTC)

2. Surprise ending for me, too, but for me it was GAME and FREIGHT. I couldn’t get past the idea that ‘set of octuplets’ was ‘sixteen’ somehow…
3. …just put in the obvious answers, and finished in 7:00. Only barbarian gave any trouble – I was asking why bar is clued twice, and then I saw the answer. Nothing else gave the slightest difficulty.
4. I also hesitated, but eventually decided “in” is the containment indicator, and “broken up” just means it’s spread across the two words.
5. 7 minutes
6. The grid was still pretty bare after the first pass of acrosses, particularly in the top half but the pace picked up with the downs leading to all green in 13. I didn’t know NAPOLEON was a coin and hadn’t heard of a REAMER or a LEGALIST (and in fact tried ‘legislat’ at first until BARBARIAN made me see sense) so submitted without full confidence. Showed my crosswording experience by trying to force ‘con’ into what ended up as CREAM once I saw I needed a word meaning study stating with C but rejected as it only led me to ‘coenh’. I solved GAME as a double def — once LOOK and then GOLF were rejected — but on closer inspection perhaps it isn’t! Solved BARBARIAN, enjoying the process of building it up but it seems I was lucky as I lost my way in the process, getting IAN from a misread “British fellow”, thinking ‘he’s usually a Scot’ as I typed him in.

   Edited at 2021-04-27 06:00 am (UTC)

7. 
   FOI: 24a. EDGE
   LOI: 8a EASE

   Time to Complete: 47 minutes (PB: 32 mins)

   Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 24

   Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 8a, 9a

   Clues Unanswered: Nil

   Wrong Answers: Nil

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

   Aids Used: Chambers

   I believe I could have been close to, or even beaten, my personal best with this clue, if I had not struggled for so long over 9a.

   9a. MANNERED – I was not convinced that either I was reading this clue correctly, or it was set correctly. I had M for male and RED for blushing. But the clue seemed to suggest that blushing (RED) should go around girl. But the answer shows that the girl (ANNE) went BEFORE red. So how does blushing go around (about) girl in this answer? Ah! The answer to my confusion suddenly hit me: M and RED go around ANNE.

   8a. EASE – This one would not come to me. But once I saw EASE in Chamber’s, I realised CEASE removing the cape (C).

   Other than my misunderstanding with 9a, I found this puzzle relatively easy.

   Edited at 2021-04-27 07:18 am (UTC)

   1. Great progress! It’s good to see your experience, and hopefully enjoyment, increasing.
8. Steady going for me. No major hold ups until REAMER and LOI LEGALIST, which where new words to me, although both were very kindly clued. I didn’t know the French coin but the answer couldn’t really have been anything else. Finished in 9.29.
   Thanks to Chris
9. Steadyish stuff. Nho REAMER; didn’t hesitate when G_M_ appeared; otherwise solid Tuesday fare

   Thanks Joker and Chris

10. Steady solve, no major hold-ups …
    … and all done in just under 10 minutes. A very nice, honest QC. LOI 13A Reamer, the only word I was not familiar with.

    My predictive text has clearly its own views on my skills as a cruciverbalist as when I typed in “just under 10 … ” it suggested hours, days or years as possible completions for the phrase!

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    Edited at 2021-04-27 07:56 am (UTC)

11. An easier Joker QC than I expected. I went round the grid quite quickly, slowing when I came back to the NE — with FACE, FREIGHT (my COD), and GAME. Under target at 11.5 mins. All very fair with some nice anagrams. REAMER was well hidden, I thought, and contributors with a practical bent will have no difficulty with the word although it has clearly caused problems for some. BARBARIAN was nicely constructed (even though it was an easy biff given some crossers). Many thanks to Joker and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2021-04-27 02:50 pm (UTC)

12. After much doubt, put Seamer instead of REAMER . Otherwise very fast and enjoyable.

    Thanks all, esp Chris.

13. DNF’d on EASE. Looked at -A-E, started to trawl, realised there were loads of words (turns out that 151 words fit that combination), gave up. That’s the spirit! 7 mins for the rest.

    FOI RAM, LOI & COD OUTCRY, time DNF for a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Joker and Chris.

    Templar

14. MEASURED was my FOI, quickly followed by it danglers. Needed FACE CREAM before I spotted FREIGHT. LEGALIST was LOI. 8:42. Thanks Joker and Chris.
15. Was slow to get going. FOI was EDGE. Then I proceeded steadily. Late in were EXAMINE and LEGALIST. I had had a couple of looks at 13a which I returned to as my LOI after 14 minutes. Was sure that AM =American and that SURE was involved somehow. It took me 4 minutes to re-think and see the hidden. NHO of REAMER but all correct in the end. 18:21.
    David
16. Very enjoyable, despite being stuck on MANNERED for the same reason as poison_wyvern , where I was convinced the ‘about’ indicator referred only to ‘blushing’.

    Didn’t know of a REAMER until today.

    In 1A didn’t consider using the word ‘me’ in the answer (as it was in the question), but this was the only way to go I saw in the end

    Otherwise a fun, straightforward QC with a nice range of clues.

17. FOI sinkable LOI reamer COD freight, fifteen minutes. Three acrosses on first pass, downs going in much quicker, also helping to ease other acrosses on the way. Held up by outcry, game, mannered, reamer. Alphabet trawl for reamer finally made it jump out of the clue. Was going like a train until these last four, which probably took a couple of minutes minutes each. Thanks, Chris, and Joker. GW.
18. Pretty much word for word as in plett11’s comments and a very similar time too. 9:03
19. Just inside 13 minutes for me, held up at the end by the REAMER MANDATE crossing, but they fell eventually when mandate occurred to me. FOI MEASURED and FACE.
20. A straightforward enough QC from Joker, once you have enough experience to spot the crosswordese — sure/certain, blushing/red etc. My only hold up was with 8ac, where an initially bifd Care wouldn’t parse and so had to be revisited at the end. Even then, (C)ease took another minute to come to mind, giving me an 18min finish. Four letter answers can often be surprisingly tricky — I had a parsable Open for 23ac, before Risotto forced a rethink. CoD to 19ac, Arsonist, for the surface. Invariant
21. A pleasing 15 mins for me which is the best I’ve had for a while. Hadn’t heard of 13ac “Reamer” but it was obvious from the clueing. Both 21ac “Legalist” and 14dn “Mandate” have tripped me up before, so it was nice to see them relatively early. Similarly, 8ac “Ease” could easily have been a head scratcher a few years back.

    FOI — 4dn “Ram”
    LOI — 15ac “Outcry”
    COD — 11dn “Barbarian”

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-04-27 10:29 am (UTC)

22. Goodness, it’s been the best part of a week since I last posted – I read the blog every day but have been too busy to post. There is a new puppy in the family and although he doesn’t live here, we seem to have spent a lot of time with him 😊
    Like many others, I found much of this very user-friendly but slowed right down for my last two – OUTCRY and REAMER. I’m so cross with myself for not seeing the hidden in 13a – after all, it screams at you from the page! Otherwise an enjoyable 10 minutes with some typically entertaining Joker clues – I liked BARBARIAN, SINKABLE and SPIN in particular.
    FOI Measured
    LOI Reamer
    COD Outcry (but we mustn’t be fattist!)

    Many thanks Joker and Chris

    Edited at 2021-04-27 11:15 am (UTC)

23. … but only just! All solved and fully parsed in 22 minutes, which is still a very fast time for me. Nothing held me up for any real length of time, although I was unsure about MANNERED for a while and I mis-spelled NAPOLEON to start with (getting RISOTTO put me right).

    FOI: MEASURED (several elements, but all straightforward)
    LOI: EASE (I have DNFd on this word more than once in the past)
    CoD: Toss up between GAME and BARBARIAN (although I don’t normally like people’s names in clues or solutions).

    Mrs Random recorded an almost identical time, having been delayed by biffing CARE instead of EASE before revisiting the clue and correcting her answer.

    Many thanks to Joker and chrisw91, and many thanks also to everyone who responded to my PB yesterday. I daresay it will be a while until there’s another one.

24. a REAMER or a LEGALIST, and these held me up a bit, as did MANNERED for some reason.

    Still a reasonable time at 5:54

25. Fairly straightforward today, solved and all parsed except 11dn in 15 mins. Lots of varied types of clues – very enjoyable.

    FOI – 1ac MEASURED
    LOI – 12ac GAME
    COD – a number of candidates today but I particularly liked 16dn RISOTTO

    Thanks to Joker and to Chris for the blog.

    1. Like yesterday this seemed to be on the easier end of the spectrum so we recorded a reasonably quick time with little holdups. Did not know legalist but generously clued.
26. ….CREAM until afterwards, this was smooth sailing. GAME didn’t worry me in the slightest, as it’s the sort of clue I like. EDGE, on the other hand, seemed unnecessarily clunky, and my first instinct was to find a reverse hidden.

    FOI MEASURED
    LOI REAMER
    COD VETO
    TIME 3:15

27. A late attempt today, so I was pleased to stop the clock on a familiar date — 14:15

    Same procedure as many, LOI REAMER.

    COD DANGEROUS

28. Single course today
29. Second fastest ever today at 10:54, so I’ll take that. Only problem with going that fast is that you don’t get time to fully appreciate Joker’s fine surfaces. Never heard of the French coin, nor a REAMER or a LEGALIST (though now I think of it, I think that one’s come up before), but in a tribute to the setter’s skill, he can put in things that are somewhat obscure but make them gettable. I was possibly helped slightly by having listened to Word of Mouth on Radio 4 as I was driving home this afternoon. Michael Rosen and guest were discussing coining words and “vet” for inspecting something was mentioned. I think they said something about Kipling bringing it over from India but I may have that wrong. Anyway, the word came instantly to mind when I saw the clue for 23a. Sadly I still didn’t manage to get the answer until I had the checkers. Don’t ask me how. Anyway, thanks Chris and Joker.
    1. Super time — congrats 😊
       1. From me too. I’m a bit late on everything today – lots going on.
30. Enjoyed this puzzle – we finished it in 11 minutes.

    FOI: FACE
    LOI: SPIN
    COD: VETO

    Thanks to Joker and Chris.

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