Times Quick Cryptic 1940 by Teazel

59 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1940 by Teazel”

1. Straightforward, although I misparsed CARAT (CAR+AT), wondered at that, but forgot to return to it. 4:33.
2. ….but, like our blogger, I’m not sure why. Rumpus, Harrow, and munch were pretty good, but they must have been used before. Hebrides definitely was, and I believe has been given a more topical treatment over at the other paper. Time: 8:45.
3. At 22, I nearly put ‘denuke’, although an animal would probably lose more than a tail in such an apocalyptic scenario – and I’m not sure how I was accounting for the de- prefix.

   Notwithstanding all that, PERUSE is a particularly twee and irritating word, exacerbated by the fact it has two opposite meanings: the one I knew (to read casually) and this one (to study carefully).

   SCRABBLE Inc. are banning certain words for being offensive. This should be added to the list.

   1. What on earth is offensive about the word peruse?
      1. Perhaps they prefer Peruvian!

         What might the Scrabble proscriptive list contain!?

4. Could also be book it?
   1. There would be two problems with that. Firstly as far as I’m aware ‘book it’ is not a recognised expression meaning to ‘register (a) new arrival’, and secondly KIT doesn’t equate with ‘family’.

      Edited at 2021-08-16 04:45 am (UTC)

      1. KITH relates to family – if one drops the ‘haitch’!
         1. oo

            aa

            1. No one knows!
      2. Kit = a new member of a family? Book it = register?
         1. Answers generally need to be lexical units or phrases that appear in a dictionary, so whilst ‘book in’ for ‘register’ (as you might on arrival at a hotel) would be perfectly valid, ‘book it’ is not. The definition provided by the setter ‘register new arrival’ fits ‘book in’ perfectly

            I see now what you’re getting at with KIT as in kitten, young badger, fox etc, but to define it as ‘new arrival in family’ would be far too much of a stretch, and especially in a Quick Cryptic. Again ‘family’ = KIN is a perfect match.

            Very occasionally a valid alternative answer is available despite the best efforts of setter and editor to avoid it, and in that case the editor will usually allow it on appeal, but in this case I’m afraid there’s no chance of BOOK IT being accepted for the reasons I have given above. I hope this helps.

5. I found this quite a gentle offering, although did biff sign in instead of book in initially. I always think of Merlin when there is a school other than Eton, although I suppose Harrow isn’t much better!

   1. Indeed, Harrow makes a change, although I did parse it as HARROWING=tough with no end.
      1. I think you can take it as read that ‘no end’ ‘without end’ etc will mean delete only one letter. If it were to be more it would need to be indicated more explicitly.
         1. Harrowing …
            … is a nice synonym for tough but where then is “argument” in the parsing?
6. I didn’t find this gentle at all and came very close to downing tools with half the grid filled and 15m on the clock. It was the SW that caused me the most problems — RECEIVER should have been fast took a long time to come to me, I spotted CARAT immediately but couldn’t parse so left it blank (and ended up spelling it ‘carot’ anyway — giving me a pink square — what was I thinking?) and RUMPUS and PERUSE just took their time — although I’m partly letting me off for PERUSE because “In detail study” sounds like Yoda set the definition and partly because I have a blind spot where I always think it means the opposite to what it does, if I was asked to peruse something I’d flick through it! NO SHOW was the breakthrough clue — I finally realised ‘fare-dodger’ wasn’t going to fit and refocused. A hard start to the week for me. 25m and that pink square.

   Edited at 2021-08-16 06:19 am (UTC)

7. Gave up after 45 minutes. Simply too hard for me. Not at all enjoyable.
   1. Pw, obviously I have no knowledge of your circumstances re time constraints, but might I suggest if it’s possible, to put a puzzle aside when you are making little progress after, say, 15 or 20 minutes, and return to it later in the day. Sometimes taking a break can make all the difference.
   2. Jack is 100% correct PW. I sometimes put the harder puzzles like Mephisto and Club Monthly down for a couple of days. Invariably two or three clues will then appear blindingly obvious ! It’s often the case that your mind can be on other things, and the puzzle is only getting 75% of your attention — return with a fresh viewpoint, and it can all look very different.
      1. Well done, Mr McB. I found that reaching a 50% success ratio was a key milestone in my QC development. It took many months to get there, but I have since moved to somewhere around 75% — 80%, I think. Perseverance pays, even if it takes a while.
8. It appears that my theory that Teazel is the most ‘wavelengthy’ of our regular setters is holding true today. I fell into the group finding it relatively straightforward, with the exception of LOI FILE, which required a brief alphabet trawl.
   Finished in 7.38, with RUMPUS as my favourite
   Thanks to Jack
   1. I agree with you totally about wavelength. I found this absolutely straightforward.

      FOI PIRATE
      LOI PERUSE
      COD FILE
      TIME 3:55

9. Slow start but then rapid on RHS. I had SINK IN, for register, with sin=dissent. Another example of ‘close enough’ being my undoing.

   I liked HEBRIDES, although I was thinking along the lines of those pacific islands such as the Friendly Isles, or Society Islands. Probably all renamed since my stamp collecting days.

   COD MINISTRY

   Did not quite parse CARAT as I had wagon=car, as in a goods train.

   so, with 10 mins on the clock -E-U-E, how many words could fit? Den=study, then country=US or UK looked good. Then worried about MEET/MEAT, I’ve been caught out on those before. Con or gen for study? Through the towel in at 20 mins, with the unsatisfactory DENUSE.

   Got a £20 ticket for Lords today, so heading up there now.

10. A pleasant QC with some smiles along the way. I was almost 5 mins inside my target at 10.16 and would have been under 10 if I had not entered the wrong homophone for 20d (no, I don’t know why either). Couldn’t find _E_U_A for 22 so plugged my brain in. Thanks to Teazel for a simpler puzzle than usual and to jackkt for the blog. John M.

    Edited at 2021-08-16 10:04 am (UTC)

11. for me, I was on Teazel’s wavelength.

    No hold ups, LOI was FILE.

    4:31

    Edited at 2021-08-16 08:46 am (UTC)

12. I think I was on Teazels wavelength too. Thanks setter and blogger!. I must admit that I thought peruse meant a more casual reading, but it does mean to scrutinise. The wording of the clue is unhelpful for a quickie in my opinion, but the rest was fine for me so no gripes 🙂
13. This took me an enjoyable 30 mins — not that the answers were hard, but because some of the parsing was not straight forward and cleverly disguised to confuse. 15ac “Carat” and 22ac “Peruse” come to mind. I biffed 1dn “file”, but then scrubbed it out thinking it didn’t make sense, until I realised the setter had dropped the “a” from the beginning of the clue so put it back in again.

    FOI — 2dn “Harrow” — a change from Eton
    LOI — 12dn “Receiver”
    COD — 22ac “Peruse”

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-08-16 09:13 am (UTC)

14. Sort of between Mendesest and Oldblighter, at 17 minutes, with the last 3 of them battling with xExUxE and xIxE. FILE eventually fell first, then I played with DENUKE (DEN = study, UK country and Energy), but where was the definition. Eventually, I put the Yodaish first three words together, and Voila! — I saw PERUSE. Well played Teazel, and thanks Jackkt for the blog.

    Enjoy Lords Merlin, I envy you.

    Edited at 2021-08-16 09:18 am (UTC)

15. No problems with this one. PIRATE was FOI and I finished with PERUSE. 5:47. Thanks Teazel and Jack.
16. 12 mins is the fastest time I have recorded — I only get a time if using my iPad — so a good start to the week for me. My receiver was clearly on the wavelength and it all fell into place steadily. Liked PERUSE and RUMPUS.
17. I didn’t get PERUSE and like therotter I think “In detail study” is a rather Yoda-ish definition. I thought the rules were that you could ignore punctuation, but you should not be expected to infer it.
    1. I don’t even think the “In detail” piece is needed – unless of course it is intended to confuse, which based on a number of the clues I think it is.

       Whether it’s fair or not I will leave others to decide.

18. I don’t think this was quite as straight forward as some Monday offerings but I still managed an on target solve. PIRATE went straight in but I was left with plenty of gaps to fill in the NW. FILE, HEBRIDES and DEADBEAT were solved belatedly. I haven’t seen the cluing for HEBRIDES before so I really enjoyed that. My LOI was RECEIVER probably because I tend to think of a radio as a transmitter. My husband is permanently tuned in to Radio 6. 08:08
19. Thanks, as ever, to Jack for the blog. I read 15A as CART with the first letter of ASSEMBLED (assembled at the front) included — but it amounts to much the same thing!

    Cardorojo

20. Finished correctly in 35 minutes.
    May seem slow to some but I was delighted to start the week with a success.

    I liked 9 Across – “Hebrides” – it had me all over the place thinking of polygamy, bigamy etc. but just went through names of island groups till I got it.

    I liked 6 Down also “Hispanic” – Mans’s alarm.

21. I started this whilst having a new tyre fixed and hadn’t finished by the time it was done. I could pretend it was Formula 1 speed but I probably spent ten minutes on the puzzle there. Finished quite quickly once home. LOI RUMPUS. FOI MUNICH.
    COD to HEBRIDES.
    I thought this was enjoyable and testing in a good way.
    David
22. Quite quick until last three: DEADBEAT, BROWSE, RECEIVER. All good clues.
    Liked HEBRIDES, SLOGAN, ALL IN, PERUSE, ADMONISH, and many others.
    Thanks, blogger Jack.
23. Has someone mentioned to Jack that British English is B_E according to this puzzle setter?
24. … in 31 minutes which, given the setter and unhelpful grid design, is a good time for me. And, if I hadn’t been held up for 7 minutes by HEBRIDES (my LOI), it would have been much better.

    My FOI was TYPE, and I built from that single clue until the RHS of the grid was completely full. The LHS seemed harder, but an unscheduled break to answer the door somehow reset my brain and I made progress again … until I was faced with _E_R_D_S. This required a careful and lengthy alphabet trawl, as do so many of my final few clues in these QCs. How do our faster solvers manage either not have to face the dreaded alphabet trawl or bring them to a successful conclusion so quickly?

    Many thanks to Teazel and jackkt.

25. If I’d used pencil and paper, this would have been all correct, and done much more quickly. I neglected to check for typos, and I had incorrect letters in the HISPANIC, ALL IN and MUNICH section, which can happen solving on laptop if you’re not careful.
    PERUSE was last one in
    1. You raise an interesting point, which has been discussed here before. When is a DNF not a DNF? Personally, I think that if you have worked out the answers correctly but have just got a typo, you can justifiably say that you completed the puzzle. I know that if you’re doing it online, the computer will say ‘No’, and it wouldn’t count in competitions either, but that’s not where we are.
       If you can’t answer all the clues or resort to aids to fill gaps, that is definitely a DNF in my book. Something I was close to today, when I couldn’t get 1d and very nearly turned to The Crossword Solver!
       1. I wanted to start doing cryptic crosswords and finally took the plunge when Colin Dexter’s book came out. He positively encouraged aids.

          I still prefer a wholly solo effort but my Chambers is getting well thumbed.

          1. That’s interesting. I think there are some crosswords where it’s essential to have a dictionary beside you (Mephisto?) but as I am never going anywhere near those sorts, it won’t be an issue 😅 I wasn’t knocking the use of aids at all — I regularly refer to them when I get stuck, although sometimes you still can’t see the parsing (thank heavens for TffT!) There’s no doubt that they are a great help, especially when you’re starting out. It’s just how I score myself, and I wonder if others are disappointed if they feel a typo gives them a DNF.
             1. A pink square is annoying but I let myself off anything I wouldn’t have done on paper. Important to be honest with yourself though — so my carot for carat made today a definite dnf!
                1. I totally agree — I guess it’s the difference between a genuine slip of the finger and an actual spelling error!
26. 
    … and all done in 9 minutes. Why my predictive text insists that when I type “9 m…”, I am most likely to want it to be 9 months is a mystery to me (though if this was a Mephisto it would be more understandable).

    All fairly on wavelength, though I thought 1D File a poor clue; set of data = file is really rather weak. That apart,much enjoyed.

    For some reason LiveJournal has decided to log me out after every session, so I have to log in afresh each time. It never used to, and is slightly frustrating — does this happen to others?

    Many thanks to Jack for the blog
    Cedric

27. I had exactly the same experience as Plett11, including the thankfully rather brief alphabet trawl for 1dn. Unfortunately I took twice as long as he did, coming in at 14 mins, which towards the faster end of my normal times. Saw PIRATE at 7ac immediately for for some strange reason couldn’t parse it, so left it blank, to be revisited at the end, when it became blindingly obvious.

    FOI – 13ac ALL IN
    LOI – 1dn FILE
    COD – 6dn HISPANIC

    Thanks to Teazel and to Jackkt

28. Solved most very quickly, but held up by SW corner, not seeing PERUSE or RECEIVER for a while.
29. Finished in 30 mins or so after spending ages on BROWSE (like countrywoman I had BE for British English with ROWS in between) and RECEIVER. DNK that peruse also meant study in detail so entered tentatively based on Peru’s E. FOI PIRATE. Liked HEBRIDES, DEADBEAT and BOOK IN. Many thanks to Jack and Teazel.
30. 13 minutes on the nose. So in Premier Coach but not at Lords! 9ac HEBRIDES rides again!

    FOI 21dn REAL

    LOI 22dn PERUSE Doh!

    COD 6dn HISPANIC – but why not ‘Spanish’, rather than the longer ‘coming from Spain’?

    WOD 18dn NO SHOW which held me up in the south-east.t

    Edited at 2021-08-16 03:31 pm (UTC)

31. We were on Teazel’s wavelength today and finished in just over 6 minutes. Lots of contenders for COD — we enjoyed this puzzle a great deal.

    FOI: PIRATE
    LOI: FILE
    COD: MINISTRY, HISPANIC, HEBRIDES (take your pick)

    Thanks Teazel and Jackkt

32. The RHS went in fairly quickly, and the LHS er, didn’t. I worked around a workman fitting a new drain cover on our drive, someone drove a truck over our old one and cracked it. Glad we didn’t drive our car over it and have the trouble of extricating it from the drain. Anyway, I had four or five goes at this, LOI file (for goodness’sake). Thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t give a time, except it was a very long one. Liked all the clues on the LHS. Thanks, Jack, and Teazel. GW.
33. We had isis for 4d and sigh in for 8 ac which caused problems with 5d. All sorted by 23m which is good for us. Enjoyed 9a. A pleasant start to the week.
34. Borderline premier and coach class today at 15 minutes, but at least there weren’t any typos, so I made it onto the bus. I wasn’t on the wavelength here – I do find Teazel quite hard, and plodded through the clues, with 1d being particularly sticky! -I-E – there must be more than a hundred words you could pop in there. It just didn’t jump out at me so I did an alphabet trawl, and decided to start at the other end for a change. Big mistake! It took a while to get to F 😃
    I too immediately thought of Merlin when HARROW appeared!
    FOI Pirate
    LOI File
    COD Ministry – a most entertaining surface
    Thanks Teazel and Jack

35. 5:12 this afternoon after a week away.
    For whatever reason I felt a bit rusty because I thought this was a fairly typical QC for a Monday.
    COD 9 ac “Hebrides” although I’m sure it’s not at all the case.
    Thanks to Jack for the blog and to Teazel
36. ….about the grid. But these were unfounded as I completed this in a very speedy (for me) 12 minutes.
    FOI Ibis
    LOI Type
    WOD Admonish (Miranda style?)

    Slightly concerned about both Real and No-Show but they were good.

    Thanks all
    John George

37. A slow start and a breezy finish in 6.13 mins. COD 6dn HISPANIC!
38. Thanks. Now amended.

Comments are closed.