Times Quick Cryptic 1930 by Breadman

Solving time: 9 minutes. Dare I say I found this straightforward? Please let me know how you all got on.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across

1 Last female deer succeeded initially in annual test (8)
HINDMOST
HIND (female deer – specifically a red one), then S{ucceeded} [initially] contained by MOT (annual test – Ministry of Transport roadworthiness test)
5 Handled   soft fabric (4)
FELT
Two meanings
9 Jockey cleared the barrier finally (5)
RIDER
RID (cleared) then  {th}E + {barrie}R [finally]
10 A Greek character, the first woman to win (7)
ACHIEVE
A, CHI (Greek character), EVE (the first woman)
11 Run on to hill (3)
TOR
TO, R (run). Demonstrating the rule that in Across clues A on B = BA
12 German-born composer frequently heard another composer (9)
OFFENBACH
OFFEN sounds like [heard] “often” (frequently), BACH (another composer). Offenbach was born in Germany and became a French citizen.  For all his vast output of music his most famous composition remains his setting of the can-can, otherwise known as Infernal Galop from his operetta Orpheus in the Underworld.
13 Plump freshwater fish in reserve (6)
CHUBBY
CHUB (freshwater fish), BY (in reserve – put by)
15 Left personal documents in German aircraft (6)
GLIDER
L (left) + ID (personal documents) contained by [in] GER (German)
17 Island‘s crime associated with crack or Ecstasy (9)
SINGAPORE
SIN (crime), GAP (crack), OR, E (Ecstasy)
19 Father’s dance step (3)
PAS
PA’S (father’s). Especially a generic term for a step in ballet – perhaps even can-can kick!
20 Thin pastry split on the outside by uncultured learner (7)
STRUDEL
S{pli}T [on the outside], RUDE (uncultured), L (learner)
21 Opening some port, Nigel reflected (5)
INTRO
Hidden [some] and reversed [reflected] in {p}ORT NI{gel}
22 Plan central parts of kids’ meal (4)
IDEA
{k}ID{s} + {m}EA{l} [central parts]
23 Abroad, Pete’s acted as guide, describing some churches (8)
STEEPLED
Anagram [abroad] of PETE’S, then LED (acted as guide)
Down
1 Dissident woman’s quote retracted (7)
HERETIC
HER (woman’s), then CITE (quote) reversed [retracted]
2 Knight departs during broadcast’s lowest point (5)
NADIR
N (knight – chess notation), then D (departs) contained by [during] AIR (broadcast)
3 Film actor refurbished moorland barn (6,6)
MARLON BRANDO
Anagram [refurbished] of MOORLAND BARN
4 Rod‘s son cheers very loudly (5)
STAFF
S (son), TA (cheers – thank you), FF (very loudly – fortissimo – music)
6 Green alder decaying below upset me (7)
EMERALD
ME reversed [upset], anagram [decaying] of ALDER
7 Note the barking canines, for example (5)
TEETH
TE (note – music], anagram [barking] of THE
8 Body of policemen lean on pornographic business (4,4,4)
THIN BLUE LINE
THIN (lean), BLUE (pornographic), LINE (business). Here’s the link to Wiki if you want to know more.
14 Disconcert jogger heading off, vest half-exposed (7)
UNNERVE
{r}UNNER (jogger) [heading off], VE{st} [half-exposed]
16 Suspect ponders answer (7)
RESPOND
Anagram [suspect] of PONDERS
17 Mum in studio regularly selected Oriental food (5)
SUSHI
SH (mum – silence) contained by [in] S{t}U{d}I{o} [regularly selected]
18 Cockney’s cry of distress encountering alien young bird (5)
OWLET
{h}OWL (cry of distress) [Cockney’s], ET (alien)
19 Person cherished a large flower section (5)
PETAL
PET (person cherished), A, L (large)

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1930 by Breadman”

  1. Biffed STRUDEL, TEETH, THIN BLUE LINE, parsed post-sub. It took me a moment to make sure of BY in CHUBBY. 5:26.
  2. A few of the clues were tricky, and I hesitated to biff ones like strudel and nadir without parsing them. I also spent nearly a minute proofing after my string of typos last week. Time: 8:50.
  3. Steady going for me with with a couple of headscratchers to work out along the way. I tried hard to get MA into SUSHI and HINDMOST, MARLON BRANDO and UNNERVE slowed me down. Particularly enjoyed TEETH and SINGAPORE. Finished in 9.40 with LOI STRUDEL. An enjoyable start to the crosswording week.
    Thanks to Jack and Breadman
  4. Pretty quick for me, coming in at a little under 11 — but that included an internet search for “German composers beginning with O”. The cryptic was there to be solved in hindsight but I’ve never heard of OFFENBACH and while I do know the Can Can it’s the Bad Manners version I’m most familiar with.
    1. Yes, I remember seeing Buster Bloodvessel stomping around in his Dr Marten boots dancing the Can Can.
  5. FOI: 21a. INTRO
    LOI: 2d. NADIR
    Time to Complete: 64 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 24
    Clues Answered with Aids: 2
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: Nil
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 26/26
    Aids Used: Chambers

    One of those puzzles that I really did not think I would finish. So many of the clues seemed very obscure and difficult. However, as I slowly progressed, I began to see how the clues were made up. I ended up taking a little over an hour with two trips to Chambers, but I am happy with today’s result.

  6. Steady away today with NADIR and RIDER starting me off. The clues needed careful reading but I never felt held up. STEEPLED was LOI. 8:40. Thanks Breadman and Jack.
  7. Pretty steady but making sure of the parsing held me up for many clues including CHUBBY. TEETH AND THIN BLUE LINE took me a few seconds over 10 minutes.
  8. at home after a week away, and a return to some kind of form as back at a keyboard!

    I enjoyed this puzzle – particularly CHUBBY and SINGAPORE.

    LOI was ACHIEVE, where I had initially biffed ATHLETE before reading the clue – then realised “EVE” had to be in there.

    5:44

  9. A good puzzle and I moved quickly through most of it. My problem came with the SW corner. I entered SUMAI for 17d by putting MA in S U I — Sumai dumplings (SIU MAI, normally shortened to SUMAI — check a Google search). I felt this was a fair answer because the S and I were already in place. This completely prevented any chance of getting STRUDEL despite having the R D L in place. This took a while to unravel and took me over target to 16 mins. I had a similar experience last week with a plausible alternative. Did anyone else have a hiccup here?
    Apart from that, I enjoyed many fine clues and will only pick out my COD — OFFENBACH. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2021-08-02 08:41 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks, Invariant and heathrowexpress. It is good to know I wasn’t alone in this (to me very reasonable) interpretation of the clue, especially given the first and last letters. John
  10. 16:49 with another panic as the first minute ticked by without a clue. Surprised to see OFFENBACH for FOI then up and running in the right hand side. If you think you’ve never heard of him, google “Carmina Buranna, O Fortuna”, it’ll be familiar.

    I had SUMAI in confidently as my oriental food, I was thinking of SUMAC. This held up STRUEDEL.

    LOI CHUBBY. I don’t do well with fish, and was looking at RE=RESERVE.

    COD ACHIEVE

    1. If you think the famous setting of O Fortuna is by Offenbach, you’re Orff target …
      1. Sorry to have said almost the same thing but some time later, Templar.
        I should have refreshed my screen before posting. I was surprised that nobody had already pointed this out but you had.
        I was also surprised how many posters have not heard of Offenbach before. We all have our blind spots. John M.
        1. There are at least three composers whose names contain another composer – Offenbach is one of them.
    2. I don’t understand your suggestion of a link to Carmina Burana. The piece is by Carl Orff (1895 — 1982).
      Offenbach’s music is totally different. He lived from 1819 to 1880.

      Edited at 2021-08-02 05:37 pm (UTC)

  11. I did not find this straightforward. Needed some time to get FOI PAS. Then I found several clues where I wanted to insert the wrong word- Doe for deer, Ma for Mum.
    Parsing was not always easy either. RIDER not parsed when solving and others needed a good look. LOI SINGAPORE.
    Pleased to finish in 11:18.
    COD to OFFENBACH.
    David
  12. Almost a clean sweep but I failed to get STAFF on first inspection (had the clue the wrong way round). Otherwise it felt like Monday! Fun puzzle packed with clever clues.

    FOI HINDMOST, LOI STAFF, COD CHUBBY, time 06:44 for 1.2K and an Excellent Day.

    Many thanks Jack and Breaders.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-08-02 09:04 am (UTC)

  13. Very ‘off the wavelength’ here, and just missing the SCC at 19:52, held up at the end by MARLON BRANDO and CHUBBY. It was only after an alphabet trawl revealed CHUBBY that the starting B showed me the chubby actor (I know he was far from chubby in his earlier years, but that is how I now remember him). Otherwise, no real problems. I was pleased to get the composer from word play, although I admit to having heard of him. Thanks both.
  14. I didn’t find this as easy as Jackkt and struggled with TEETH, UNNERVE and ACHIEVE (not too good on the Greek alphabet), but after a rethink I got there in the end.
  15. Fortunately found this not exactly easy but doable.
    Hesitated in NE until the PDM with FELT.
    Amused that Moorland Barn is an anagram of MARLON BRANDO – got that one straight away – which helped with OFFENBACH.
    Some biffed from checkers like STRUDEL and SUSHI.
    FOI NADIR, LOI GLIDER
    Many thanks, Jack.
    Quip for those around in the 60s : I biffed CHUBBY from the Checkers (geddit?)
  16. Brain not in gear this morning, so I made harder work of this than it perhaps should have been and only finished in 42:26. Nevertheless very enjoyable, with lots of clues that misdirected me and so led to PDMs and forehead slapping. Particularly liked STAFF and OFFENBACH. Never heard of PAS though I’m guessing it must have come up in numerous crosswords before. I will try to remember it. Surprising how many six-letter first names you can get from moorland barn. Well, I tried out Norman and Ronald anyway, and I can see Roland is also there. Anyway, FOI FELT, LOI STEEPLED. Thanks to Breadman and Jack.
  17. 28 minutes today, which is a good time for me.

    My FOI was ACHIEVE and I then made steady progress until I had 8-9 clues to solve, mostly on RHS of the grid. A few minutes then passed before OFFENBACH and THIN BLUE LINE unlocked the rest. My LOI was STEEPLED and I put down my pencil having partially, but not fully, parsed NADIR, CHUBBY and STRUDEL. I also solved PAS by thinking of ‘pas-a-doble’ (sic), rather than ‘pas-de-deux’. Just shows what I know about dancing!

    Mrs Random cleaned the house this morning, even though I had cleaned it on Saturday (my efforts didn’t come up to scratch), and then successfully completed the puzzle in 24 minutes. She was held up for a while by MARLON BRANDO, but I think everything else went in quite smoothly.

    Many thanks to Breadmon for the challenge and jackkt for clarifying why the solutions were what they were.

  18. A promising enough start with Heretic and Hindmost (in that order) in the NW and brisk(ish) progress in the top half. The bottom half of the grid was a different story. It took me some time to spot Glider, via various German aircraft, but the real hold-up was in the SW. A quick Google check seemed to confirm Sumai as the oriental food, leaving me with M*r*d*l for the thin pastry — not very encouraging , but then I know very little about pastry: cue alphabet trawls in search of a familiar name. I eventually decided to just follow the cryptic, saw St and that gave me Strudel and a (slightly more common) type of oriental food. All that pushed me out to 27mins, so quite a slow start to the week. Invariant
    1. Quite slow? I did 28 minutes and it seemed very fast. Almost breathless progress for me. Well done!
      1. All the times given on here are relative. For me, this should have been in with a shout of a sub-20, so 27mins seemed on the slow side. Like everyone else, I started off doing these things with a diary. It’s the enjoyment that counts 😉
  19. After catching up on all of last week’s puzzles on Friday — it’s nice to be back.

    We finished in 12 minutes which, for us, suggests a puzzle of middling difficulty. Lots of great clues — very enjoyable start to the week.

    FOI: FELT
    LOI: HINDMOST
    COD: THIN BLUE LINE (amused us)

    Thanks Breadman and Jackkt

  20. Crawled over the line in 42 mins. Actually quite happy with that as I didn’t think I was going to finish at all! All correct but needed the blog to parse CHUBBY (not great on birds, and wouldn’t have thought of ‘by’ as in reserve) and TEETH (didn’t think of doh-re-mi, etc. for ‘note’ and in any case would have thought of ti not te…). Biffed SUSHI but took a long time to parse — mum for ‘sh’ has caught me out before… aaargh! PETAL also took a while because I tried my utmost to separate ‘person’ and ‘cherished’. Very enjoyable but a bit of a slog for me today. LOI THIN BLUE LINE, COD OFFENBACH. Thanks to Breadman and Jack.
  21. Tried this on the computer today. I find solving much quicker with pen and paper. I turned the clock off, as I found it intimidating. Still, all correct eventually!
  22. ….and just wish I could say the same about the 15×15, where my string of failures from last week has continued today.

    FOI HINDMOST
    LOI STEEPLED
    COD THIN BLUE LINE
    TIME 3:47

  23. We felt that we had to work hard for a number of clues, loi 1a hindmost which we did not fully parse. Finished within our target, so a good start to the week.
  24. On holiday and refreshed …
    … and consequently on fire for an 8 minute solve, with all bar 13A Chubby fully parsed too. Chubby was my LOI, biffed to stop the clock and with some doubt that Reserve = By. But the consensus is that the link works, so I’ll go with that!

    Many thanks to Jack for the blog
    Cedric

    1. The T-graph Cryptic today included ‘Carol’s first partner, plump (6)’.
      A preferable clue, I think. John.
  25. Slow but steady progress.
    Brando took too long as did Hindmost and Strudel (Sumai error for a while)
    FOI Tor
    LOI Teeth
    WOD Chubby
    I thought that this was generally tricky with several difficult clues but just about in my capability/patience level.
    Thanks all
    John George
  26. 5:15 late this morning. Just back from a week’s “activity break” (Photography and Walking) with no access to printed newspapers. Have to say when I had a spare moment or two, I tried to master the rather tortuous process of solving on my notepad but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Glad to be back to the stylus and wax tablet again!
    I found this was a well constructed puzzle with not a few tricky clues.
    LOI 17 ac “Singapore” and only after finally getting my head round 17 d “Sushi” when I identified the right “mum”.
    COD 8 d “Thin Blue Line” which was quite amusing.
    Thanks to Jack and Breadman
  27. 22:16

    Seemed pretty straightforward today except for the NW corner. The last 2, hindmost and nadir took 5 minutes by themselves. Still, got there in the end.

  28. Finally got round to this after a hectic day. FOI felt, LOI idea, lots of amusing clever clues, COD owlet. Fifteen minutes, all parsed except glider and Singapore.
    Thanks, Jack, and Breadman. GW.

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