Times Quick Cryptic 1897 by Joker

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit of slang I didn’t know (5dn), but this didn’t really hold me up. Otherwise, staple fare finished comfortably within target. After a second look, I thought there might have been something fishy going on (if only Pequod had turned up in the checkers), but nothing has emerged to me as a clear Nina. It will be interesting to see if the hive mind can find one…

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Small bird box dispute (7)
SPARROW – SPAR (box) and ROW (dispute).
5 Backed local voting area appeal (4)
DRAW – reversal of (backed) WARD (local voting area).
7 Ocean of southeast Asia, primarily (3)
SEA – SE (southeast) and the first letter of (primarily) Asia.
8 Cute rare flying animal (8)
CREATURE – anagram of (flying) CUTE RARE.
10 Employ specialist to remove piano (5)
EXERT – EXpERT (specialist) after removing (to remove) ‘p’ (piano). I had to exert all of my brain cells in finding a way to make this pass the word substitution test.
11 Rich soup — food to get embarrassed about (7)
CHOWDER – CHOW (food) then RED (embarrassed) reversed (about).
13 Cola is served up in informal gathering (6)
SOCIAL – anagram of (served up) COLA IS.
15 Calm observed around queen, note (6)
SERENE – SEEN (observed) containing (around) R (Regina, queen), then E (musical note).
17 What keeps out water from paintings by family members (7)
OILSKIN – OILS (paintings) and KIN (family members).
18 British state is rather dull and uninteresting (5)
BLAND – B (British) and LAND (state).
20 Saint in charge with a large church (8)
BASILICA – BASIL (saint), IC (in charge), and A.
22 Coldness at the heart of policemen (3)
ICE – central letters from (at the heart of) polICEman.
23 Live without daughter and without difficulty (4)
WELL – dWELL (live) removing (without) ‘d’ (daughter).
24 Draw a veil over old America, very unpleasant (7)
HIDEOUS – HIDE (draw a veil over), O (old), and US (America).

Down
1 Removal of older person’s allowance after suspicion (10)
SUSPENSION – PENSION (older person’s allowance) after SUS (suspicion).
2 Area yielded plant of the aloe family (5)
AGAVE – A (area) and GAVE (yielded).
3 Frightful racket car produces here? (9)
RACETRACK – anagram of (frightful) RACKET CAR.
4 Unfortunate person to throw up after whiskey (6)
WRETCH – RETCH (to throw up) after W (whiskey)
5 Party time hit (3)
DOT – DO (party) and T (time). I did not know the slang ‘to dot’ meant ‘to hit’, but the clue is very forgiving of such ignorance.
6 Shorten a game (7)
ABRIDGE – A and BRIDGE (game).
9 Lonely end to the working week, going on for ever (10)
FRIENDLESS – FRI (Friday, end to the working week), and ENDLESS (going on forever).
12 Where chess players meet, heading for drink? (9)
OVERBOARD – cryptic hint. Chess players would meet over a (chess)board, and ‘drink’ is slang for ‘sea’.
14 Company with unfortunate legal picture (7)
COLLAGE – CO (company) and an anagram of (unfortunate) LEGAL.
16 Make wealthy leaders of English nobility remain in city homes (6)
ENRICH – first letters from (leaders of) English Nobility Remain In City Homes.
19 Friend with a note to pass (5)
AMIGO – A, MI (note), and GO (pass).
21 Unwell young mare loses coat (3)
ILL – fILLy (young mare) without the first and last letters (loses coat).

49 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1897 by Joker”

  1. Didn’t find this so easy. Many shrugs with words like WARD, DOT, etc, but fortunately there were plenty of gimmes to help get a foothold.
  2. Time 10 minutes

    FOI 5dn DOT (Wodehousian?)

    LOI 5ac DRAW! – no IT nor SA for once! (Sorry Mr. Billfrog! We crossed!)

    COD 12dn OVERBOARD – that sort of drink!

    WPD 2dn AGAVE – very popular yoghurt flavour in China; it tastes much like Factor 15! Others are rabbit and snake!

    Edited at 2021-06-16 03:43 am (UTC)

      1. It could have far been worse!!

        Frogs are very popular here too – but I haven’t encountered a frog flavoured yoghurt, as yet.

        However, I note the Americans do have ‘Tree-Frog Yoghurt Candies’ for kids! So it’s America First! Quite horryd

        Edited at 2021-06-16 04:32 am (UTC)

  3. I predict WARD is much more familiar to UK solvers, since electoral wards are part of the common discourse in local politics here, being the constituency of local councillors. For me, the only delay was in considering ‘it’ or ‘sa’ for ‘appeal’!
  4. 19:30 with 9 minutes on LOI AGAVE.

    EXPERT also tricky with the above missing. Elect, Enact etc looked possible, I often skip X on my alphabet trawls, which of course was painful here.

    NHO DOT=hit. Can someone provide an example of when DRAW=appeal?

    I thought BASIL as a definition by example for Saint was odd, why him? I wasn’t aware that he was some kind of canonical saint. There are 3000 of them, including just about every Christian name, mine included.

    COD WRETCH

    1. I too thought BASIL a bit unlikely as a saint, but there he is.

      “Her draw was irresistible”?

    3. Something acts as a draw , it appeals to some who are drawn in to the event as a result
  6. Had I not taken so long with 1A and not really concentrating, this would have been rather faster for me — I had decided dispute was the definition for no particular reason. Still done in 15 mins, just 1.5 Horryds. ENRICH was neatly done, usually first letter clues look very obvious, and FRIENDLESS was good.
  7. I found this fairly gentle, but enjoyable nonetheless. OVERBOARD made me smile when the penny dropped and DOT went in at the end with a shrug. Finished in 7.45
    Thanks to William
  8. Biffed 12D as “starboard” (heading for drink) — could parse board but not star DOH! Electorates in Oz not wards, so 5A took some time and even then unsure about appeal?? Biffed 4D, mistaking the poor wretch for a waster — too unkind. Thanks Joker and blogger 😀
  9. Basil of Caesarea, known as Basil the Great, 4th century, one of the three Cappadocian fathers, recognised as a Doctor of the Church, very much a world class theologian and saint!
  10. It’s been a bad week for me so far on the crossword front. Monday I DNF with one clue unanswered, and yesterday was a disaster. Today only about 60% of the clues answered after an hour. Sigh.

    Oh well, better luck tomorrow.

  11. A fair and interesting QC from Joker. I jumped around the grid looking for easy pickings, as ever, and worked my way back to the NW corner (although my LOI was SERENE). A couple of seconds within target. This is the same as Plymouthian’s time but I draw the line at his shorthand for 15 mins — a single horryd is quite enough for me. I liked BASILICA, EXERT, OVERBOARD, and FRIENDLESS. Thanks to both. John M.
  12. Very little came easy in this, but thankfully there were no real hold ups either and I crossed the line in 22:18. Lots of interesting clues but I think my favourite is OVERBOARD. Thanks William and Joker.
  13. After a smooth start I got stuck in the NE. I struggled to get WRETCH for some reason; then ignored the simple definition of CREATURE trying to find an exotic animal.
    DNK DOT = HIT so that caused further delay. LOI was WARD with 15:37 on the clock.
    A good challenge I thought. Nothing unfair but I will now look up DOT.
    COD to OVERBOARD.
    David
  14. … as this was all done and parsed in just under 8 minutes. The weather is due to change tomorrow and so, no doubt, will my success with the crossword!

    Like William I had to think quite hard about 10A Exert as a synonym for Employ; unlike him I didn’t think of his witty example though. That and LOI 5D Dot were the two main hold-ups; NHO Dot as hit someone/something but none of DAT, DET, DIT or DUT exist so it hat to be, and post submission I vaguely remember villains in movies saying menacingly “I’ll dot him one if he tries that again”.

    7A Sea had a lot going on in a small clue, because as well as the A coming from Asia, primarily, the SE was also in effect initials from Southeast. Question though, should it be Southeast (which I am told is more common in the US?), South-East (which I think is correct for compasses and is more common in the UK) or South East (which is correct for SE England and the Home Counties).

    COD to 3D Racetrack — a nice anagram and very smooth surface.

    Many thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

  15. Fifteen minutes approx. FOI sea, LOI dot as no other vowel would make a word and I had NHO dot used in this context. In answer to questions posed above, draw is sometimes used as a synonym for attract or attraction as in something draws you in, or the draw of the event was an appearance by an artiste you like. Hope that helps. C’sOD creature, sparrow being one such. Many others to enjoy. Thanks, William, and Joker. GW.
  16. A steady, but not easy solve. All correct though and parsed to my satisfaction, which given how badly I slept last night, is satisfying.
    Now back to ‘The God of small things’ and then a crack at the 15×15
  17. This wasn’t a smooth solve but things speeded up once I got a few checkers. Wasn’t sure about DOT but had to be. DRAW LOI

    Liked OVERBOARD

    Thanks all

  18. Couldn’t see 1ac, nor 1d, to start with and thought this was going to be difficult, but unlike yesterday the rest of the puzzle seemed more welcoming. Getting Chowder and Basilica opened up the grid, and once I had the final W, Sparrow and Suspension became obvious. In the end, only a delay over loi Exert prevented a sub-20. I agree with others that 12d, Overboard, was the stand out CoD. Invariant
  19. As a UK solver I had no problem with DRAW and it was my FOI. I’m somewhat surprised so many commenters had it as their LOI. I didn’t know DOT but it had to be. Nothing particularly held me up and I was very happy to cross the line in 7:04. Thanks to Joker for a within target solve and William for clarifying DOT.

    Edited at 2021-06-16 10:18 am (UTC)

    1. Fairly easy when you look at it now. With regards to elections, I always think Ward has more relevance at a local level.

      I thought of constituency and other variants before I even got to that.

  20. I must say I am surprised at the number of queries concerning DOT. It was a standard phrase at least half a century ago used to threaten a restrained hit but implying less than a full-on punch. ‘I’ll dot you one’ could mean, perhaps, a hit on the nose (but not enough to break it). More a ’shot across the bows’ than anything else and rarely followed through. John.
    1. Thanks for that. Half a century ago I was too young to comprehend such a threat.
  21. After a very tricky start to the week I comparatively cruised through this, finishing in 15. Trickiest area in the SE, but once I’d managed 12dn OVERBOARD everything slotted in to place.

    FOI 1dn Suspension, LOI 23ac WELL.

    NINA-wise this feels very sea-themed – Jack SPARROW, SEA CREATURE, CHOWDER, OILSKIN, ICE, OVERBOARD – but I can’t derive anything more profound than that.

  22. No accurate time today as unavoidably distracted. The elapsed time was 22 minutes, but I’d guess at more like 14 man-minutes of applied effort. LOI DRAW, WRETCH took too long, and I enjoyed many of the clues. WOD CHOWDER. Thanks William and Joker.
  23. 6:30, felt like a bit of a plod this morning.
    Picked up 5 d “Dot” on the first pass but wasn’t totally convinced by the equivalence to “hit”, which then delayed the completion of LOI 5 ac “draw” for about a minute. One of these clues that was obvious once I’d got my head round its structure but I wasn’t the only one to be delayed I gather.
    9dn “Friendless” — I thought the appearance of “end” in both the clue and the solution was a little odd but it didn’t hold me up.
    COD 3d “Racetrack” — nice surface
    Thanks to William and Joker
  24. …with Joker’s thought processes today, no real hold ups other than unpicking the anagrams RACETRACK and CREATURE (LOI).

    Not a greased lightning phil-bothering sub-4, but anything under 5 mins is a v good day as my target is 6 mins.

    WRETCH made me chuckle, and I enjoyed constructing FRIENDLESS and SUSPENSION.

    4:30.

  25. Change of routine today, straight out with the dog to help him avoid the full heat of the day so this and coffee had to wait until elevenses. Seemed to work as this was a vey rare sub-9 solve at a possible pb pf 8.42 — and on a phone too! Eight on the first pass of acrosses and then not too much delay until I had to cross my fingers on ILL because ‘filly’ was nowhere near my thoughts for “young mare” — not sure why not. WARD was no bother for this town planner.
  26. ….as one can retch without necessarily vomiting, but otherwise this was a top drawer example of what a QC should be. I originally marked EXERT as COD, but changed it when I reread the clues afterwards.

    I’m sure I wasn’t alone in trying to find a specific animal at 8A — CREATURE was a fine misdirection.

    Delighted to be 10 seconds quicker than the mighty Verlaine, and 10th on the leaderboard at present (7th without the three neutrinos at the top).

    FOI SPARROW
    LOI SERENE
    COD OVERBOARD
    TIME 3:24

  27. I always seem to find Joker puzzles tricky and sometimes I wonder if, the moment I see his name, I prepare to fail.
    I finished this crossword in about 18 minutes, the last chunk of which was spent trawling through the alphabet to complete my two remaining LOIs, DRAW and BASILICA. I had all the checkers, having somewhat reluctantly submitted the had to be, yet NHO, 5 down, DOT.. .. but I think, had I not been wrestling with silly Joker prejudice, I would have trusted myself to solve these two without resorting to “what letter could go here? ” last gasp methodology.
    Some great clues here, I think, especially SUSPENSION, WRETCH and my COD, OVERBOARD.
    Thanks, William, for your super blog and thanks, too, to Joker
  28. Another skewed result where I had nothing for ages and they all came tumbling in towards the end. Overall, another slowish 35 mins.

    DNK “Dot” = Hit, so although it was obvious I still hesitated whether I really had the right first letter for 5ac “Draw” (which also took an age). Had a bit of a meh moment when I realised suspicious had been shortened to “sus” for 1dn.

    FOI — 7ac “Sea”
    LOI — 5ac “Draw”
    COD — 12dn “Overboard”

    Thanks as usual!

  29. My grid was sparsely populated after 15-20 minutes, and I thought a huge DNF was on the cards. However, I managed to pick up speed and then fairly raced through until I had just one clue (DRAW) remaining. For some reason, I could only think of ‘constituency’ and I realised that, however small I wrote, I wasn’t going to fit an 11-letter word into a 4-letter space – backwards. Therefore, as usual, an alphabet trawl ensued, which added about 5 minutes to my time. In the end I finished in 35 minutes, which is good for me, particularly when the setter is Joker.

    Starting some minutes after me, Mrs Random propped open the French door near her seat with a potted AGAVE, started her attempt and immediately wrote in the answer to 2d. Her “luck” (my word) held for the remaining 25 clues and she put her pencil down after 14 minutes – just 3 minutes outside her PB. She’s back out in the garden now, still blissfully unaware of why some of the answers were what they were. I wish some of her innate ability to “guess” (my word) correctly would rub off on me, occasionally.

    Many thanks to Joker and to william_j_s.

  30. No hiccups here. Nothing unduly challenging. Done in precisely ten minutes.
  31. Having read through the comments earlier, I forgot to post my own experience, so here it is. I started with AGAVE and finished with BASILICA, having just scraped under my target at 9:32. BASIL always makes me think of Prunella Scales berating the unfortunate Mr Fawlty, so that raised a smile. DOT and DRAW held me up for a while, as I couldn’t equate DOT with hit, and had to wait for 5a to convince me. Thanks Joker and William.
  32. Steady solve in 19 mins. Was unduly held up by 1ac where I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition and by 8ac where I was looking for a specific animal rather than a generic term. However nothing unknown, including the rather dated use of the verb to dot. Slightly surprised to find the word end in both clue and answer at 9dn and my knowledge of saints is not nearly good enough to make the name Basil stand out as obvious. Nevertheless an enjoyable puzzle, so my thanks to Joker and to William for the blog.

    FOI – 5ac DRAW
    LOI – 2dn AGAVE
    COD – 12dn OVERBOARD

  33. We completed thr right hand side quickly, a little slower on the left, 10a caused us some problems, exert. Had not heard the word dot, 5d for many a year as to hit. Abt 20m for an eyoyable puzzle.
  34. Must have been on the wavelength as I solved it at a steady pace (on the beach) after a slow start.
    Agree I was looking for a specific animal rather than CREATURE so a PDM there. Realised large church ending in ‘a’ must be BASILICA and then recognised the saint. Again one letter helped me as I knew 4d (LOI)must begin with ‘w’ for whiskey even if I couldn’t immediately solve it, so hence 1ac must be SPARROW.
    FOI AGAVE, ABRIDGE
    An enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Joker and William.
  35. “sea creature”, “well hideous” … there’s GOT to be a Nina here, hasn’t there?! But as usual I can’t see it.

    Lovely puzzle, hesitated long over DOT and was left staring at -E-E-E for my LOI which was not a promising set of letters. Got there in the end.

    FOI SPARROW, LOI SERENE, COD FRIENDLESS, time 08:11 for an estimated 1.9 Kevins and a Good Day.

    Many thanks William and Joker.

    Templar

  37. Hit my target of 10 minutes this morning before going out to Belton House for the day. Most enjoyable, as was this puzzle 😊 Similar situation as yesterday in that I did it so many hours ago, I can’t remember the details but suffice to say there was a bit of DOTting around before I got into any sort of flow. Loved the surface for RACETRACK, and I liked CHOWDER, BASILICA and CREATURE a lot too.
    FOI Agave
    LOI Friendless
    COD Overboard
    Many thanks Joker and William
  38. The garden continues to dominate our lives and today we just didn’t have the opportunity to tackle the QC at lunchtime. Any how, we’ve just finished it prior to supper in 12 happy minutes. Neither of us has ever heard of “TO DOT” meaning “to hit”, but the answer couldn’t really have been anything else based on the direction in the clue. Other than that it was all pretty plain sailing…

    FOI: SEA
    LOI: EXERT
    COD: FRIENDLESS

    Thanks to Joker and William.

  39. I managed to finish in under half an hour — amazing for me! 😂 DNK DOT for ‘hit’ but trusted the clue. Thanks to William for blog. COD OVERBOARD, LOIs DRAW and DOT, submitted with bated breath…
  40. I didn’t think Aloe and Agave were the same so I looked it up and found the following
    “Aloe and Agave are two genera of drought-tolerant succulents that have similar appearances and care needs. … Aloe and Agave, however, are not closely related and the similar climates in which they evolved are in different hemispheres of the world.”

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