Times Quick Cryptic 1962 by Oink

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Emergency Blog. No time for full explanations but if anything needs more detail please ask. I found this one particularly hard for some reason. I actually stopped the clock twice and took breaks.

Solving time: 20 minutes over three sessions.

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 Mooch about, indulged from time to time (4)
IDLE
I{n}D{u}L{g}E{d} [from time to time]
4 Get a grip! (8)
PURCHASE
DD
8 I teach PT badly. Sorry! (8)
PATHETIC
Anagram [badly] of I TEACH PT
9 Get rid of hut in garden (4)
SHED
DD
10 Right by snake, another wild creature (4)
BOAR
BOA (snake), R (right). Our customary porcine reference from this setter.
11 Detective inspectors try to show revulsion (8)
DISTASTE
DI’S (detective inspectors), TASTE (try)
12 Curious child, but likely to succeed? (4,2)
ODDS ON
ODD (curious), SON (child)
14 Latin dictionary limiting charge (6)
INDICT
Hidden in [limiting] {Lat}IN DICT{ionary}
16 Bachelor lounged about in club (8)
BLUDGEON
B (bachelor), anagram [about] of LOUNGED
18 Look, it’s the Speaker’s dog! (4)
PEEK
Sounds like [the Speaker’s] “peke” (dog)
19 Head knocking bishop out on one occasion (4)
ONCE
{b}ONCE (head) [knocking bishop out]
20 Where one might find pate de foie gras without much difficulty? (2,1,5)
ON A PLATE
DD
22 Noblewoman‘s fiddle, item of value must be returned (8)
CONTESSA
CON (fiddle), then ASSET (item of value) reversed [returned]
23 Endeavour to protect old Conservative (4)
TORY
TRY (endeavour) containing [to protect] O (old)
Down
2 No servant recalled duke, a very special chap (7)
DIAMOND
NO + MAID (servant) returned [recalled], D (duke)
3 Either one can go for anaesthetic (5)
ETHER
E{i}THER [one can go]
4 Kitty in retro blouse? (3)
POT
TOP (blouse) [in retro]
5 Crises one mishandled in slump (9)
RECESSION
Anagram [mishandled] of CRISES ONE
6 Save one’s partner? (7)
HUSBAND
DD
7 Reporters accommodation is delightful (5)
SWEET
Sounds like [reporter’s] “suite” [accommodation]
11 Hairy doctor argued with son (9)
DANGEROUS
Anagram [doctor] of ARGUED SON
13 Count up Es in street — most distressing! (7)
SADDEST
ADD E’S (count up Es) contained by [in] ST (street)
15 Instigator captured in massacre at orphanage (7)
CREATOR
Hidden [captured] in {massa}CRE AT OR{phanage}
17 Language game needs new beginning (5)
LINGO
Bingo (game) needs new beginning to become LINGO
18 Story about one’s guide (5)
PILOT
PLOT (story) contains [about] I (one)
21 Fathead occasionally ignored, I see (3)
AHA
{f}A{t}H{e}A{d} [occasionally ignored]

34 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1962 by Oink”

  1. Well beaten by Oink today, with two clues short in the NE: PURCHASE and SWEET. even went over 39 mins to try and winkle them out, but when a Double Def doesn’t come, there’s not much you can do.

  2. I thought this was particularly difficult from Oink and it took me ages to even get started. Overall – it took me 35 mins. Many of the answers didn’t feel straight forward, with 2dn “Diamond” and 17dn “Lingo” among many taking a long time to fathom. Debated for quite a while whether 18ac was “Peek” or “Peer”.

    FOI – 10ac “Boar”
    LOI – 18ac “Peek”
    COD – 12ac “Odds on” – although I seem to be seeing this a lot recently.

    Thanks as usual – and especially for providing the emergency blog!

  3. and “moan” about what a tricky b*gger this was!

    All fair enough, looking back, no obscure vocab or GK. Lots of misdirection though.

    Loved ODDS ON. Very macabre surface for CREATOR I thought! The other hidden INDICT also took a long time to jump out at me.

    Approx. twice the time I would normally take. Thanks for stepping in Jack.

    13:06

    Edited at 2021-09-15 12:42 pm (UTC)

  4. Glad to buck the trend and finish in a pretty normal 16m. Held up at the end like Merlin on SWEET, solved by a lengthy alphabet trawl and PURCHASE, where the inverted commas got me flustered. Missed the anagrist for a second day in a row for DANGEROUS taking ‘son’ just to mean S. Six on the first pass of acrosses, bottom fell before top.

    Edited at 2021-09-15 12:51 pm (UTC)

  5. So amazed to finally get PURCHASE (COD) and SWEET that I forgot I hadn’t solved PEEK and PILOT, where I had pencilled in bad guesses. Confess I also looked up HUSBAND. So worst performance for a while.
    Noted porcine BOAR.
    I completed LHS first – mostly slow going, nothing ON A PLATE, apart from the likes of TORY and ETHER.
    Thanks to Jack, as ever. Not many comments today.
    1. No, we’ve lost up to 10 hours of normal commenting time today. Hopefully the regulars who missed out early on will return and comment later.
    2. I also couldn’t get PEKE or PILOT today. Tough puzzle, and feel better that other people agreed with my assessment,
      BW
      Andrew
  6. Thanks Jack,
    Solved over lunch and found the QC quite chewy. FOI IDLE and LOI PURCHASE. I struggled mostly in the NW corner with DIAMOND, PATHETIC, POT and ODDS ON all being late solves. 14:43 which is pretty slow for an Oink QC.

    Edited at 2021-09-15 01:29 pm (UTC)

  7. I, too, was surprised by this QC from Oink. I normally get through them fairly easily but this one was tough. Some nice clues, as I remember, but it took me 10 mins over target. John M.
  8. Aargh, we were beaten by Oink today. Took us longer than usual to work out some of the answers and, after 32 minutes, we just couldn’t solve 2D and had to declare a DNF.

    FOI: SHED
    LOI: DNF (DIAMOND)
    COD: PURCHASE

    Thanks Oink and Jack (especially for explaining 2D).

    Edited at 2021-09-15 01:37 pm (UTC)

    1. It was my LOI. I thought it was a beast of a clue for a QC when solving but having arrived at the answer it seemed so obvious that I can’t understand why it took me so long. Possibly the mark of a good clue?
      1. You’re right — it was a good clue. I think my problem was that, early on, I thought the second part of the answer was LORD. Once I had that in my mind it seemed to dominate and close down my other possibilities. Never mind, you can’t win them all.
      2. You’re right — it was a good clue. I think my problem was that, early on, I thought the second part of the answer was LORD. Once I had that in my mind it seemed to dominate and close down my other possibilities. Never mind, you can’t win them all.
  9. A few write ins to get going and then some decidedly chewy clues to get bogged down with. I think the wordplay was all fair but I found some of the definitions tricky – although looking back now I’m struggling to remember which ones, apart from SWEET.
    Finished in 13.01 with LOI DIAMOND and COD to ODDS ON
    Thanks for filling in Jack, it’s greatly appreciated
  10. Extra point:

    From reading some of the comments above, I’ve also tended to think of Oink as being on the easier side of the QC setters. However, I’ve noticed recently they’ve been getting slightly more difficult and today’s was definitely the hardest that I can remember.

    Maybe they’ve just been lulling us into a false sense of security with their “porcine” references and somewhat straightforward clues and have decided to take the gloves off somewhat.

  11. Hardest Oink I can remember, and I came to several grinding halts before tottering over the line in a glacial time. IDLE, PEEK and TORY delayed me despite being blindingly obvious as soon as I got them whilst DIAMOND was even slower despite me having the gist of what was going on. Liked ODDS ON and the macabrely amusing CREATOR.
  13. I’m glad it wasn’t just me then. I thought this was unusually difficult for Oink, with some of the definitions from lower down the dictionary entry. All finished in 28mins, with loi Sweet still needing an alphabet trawl. CoD to Odds-on, another well disguised answer. Special thanks to Jackkt for stepping in at short notice. Invariant

    PS. This is not a day to look for a consoling 15×15 solve…

    Edited at 2021-09-15 03:02 pm (UTC)

  14. The nw corner caused us most trouble, particularly 2d a d 12a. Otherwise a rather slow and steady solve.
  15. Agreed re. the 15 x 15. I took one look at today’s Snitch and decided to go straight to the blog 😂
  16. An all round terrible day! No time for the quickie as I stopped and started several times over about 45 minutes. As everyone has said: hardest Oink ever. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and all the PDMs — there were some really entertaining clues here. I think Oink is still my favourite setter 😊
    As for the biggie, well after a couple of very good days, I came a total cropper today! I never check the snitch — I don’t want to be influenced before I even start.
    FOI Boar
    LOI Husband
    COD Pathetic (which sums up my crosswording day really!)
    Thanks Oink for the witty clues and Jack for stepping into the breach
  18. … that this was a real challenge, and the first time a puzzle from Oink has taken me into the SCC. I even had bacon for breakfast when I saw who had set the puzzle to get myself in the right frame of mind, too! NE corner was my undoing, as I got all but my last 3 clues in about 12 minutes but then spent a further 10 on 4A Purchase, 6D Husband and 7D Sweet to close out. It doesn’t help when the last few all cross each other but like a few other commentators, having got them I am not exactly sure, looking back, what was so hard. But this was definitely a toughie.

    I feel sure we have had Odd-son / Odds-on quite recently?

    Many thanks to Jack for the emergency blog. If nothing else I shall remember today as a 1.1 Jack day, which in itself is Memorable.
    Cedric

    Edited at 2021-09-15 05:22 pm (UTC)

  19. … but not quite! This time, I remembered to check my parsing of a previously-biffed clue (18a) before putting down my pencil and coming here, and I found PEEK where I’d had PEER. I also found PEEP, so it was then a question of deciding which best fitted the clue. Fortunately, I chose correctly and finished all correct in 36 minutes. Yesterday, I bunged in PHI (instead of PSI) without fully parsing the clue, and was rewarded with an annoying DNF.

    In summary, found this hard work today, but each time I feared I had ground to a halt another breakthrough occurred and I was very pleased to finish in what was a good-ish time for me.

    Many y thanks to Oink and jackkt.

  20. Like Captain Kirk I have been used to Oink being one of the easier setters, and found this quite challenging. It took me half an hour. FOI was idle, but it didn’t exactly provide much of a foothold for solving the rest. I had fourteen on first pass, but those left required use of my grey cell. Plenty to ruminate on, so despite my rather pathetic time, I really enjoyed the solve, and was pleased to have parsed everything. Not much piggy in here, just the boar to enjoy. Hope he is wild. LOI Diamond. Liked the odd son. Thanks, Jack, and Oink. GW.
  21. Belting puzzle, took me 15:30 great fun!

    I went bottom-up! So FOI 21dn AHA

    And LOI 1ac IDLE

    COD 2dn DIAMOND

    WOD 10ac BOAR Oink! Oink!

  22. “Oink turns into a swine” was my thought half way through this … fell into most of the traps and finally limped home in 13:55. Great fun.

    FOI & COD PATHETIC, LOI SWEET.

    Well done Jack and thanks Oink.

    Templar

  23. Even the anagrams seemed tough today. Stuck it out for 40 minutes, double my target time, before throwing in the towel. Just couldn’t crack the NE corner with purchase, husband and sweet refusing to yield.
  24. Hour and a half waiting for the car to be serviced
    Put in SWEET but didn’t get the dd
    Tough for an Oink — especially the anagrams
    Nick
  25. ….since I solved this, as I did it before going to bed, and I’ve done half a dozen other puzzles since, so I’ve forgotten much of the detail. However, it was definitely Oink’s toughest offering (perhaps he was trying not to BOAR us !) and took me over my limit to 5:58 after a short tussle to finish off with ONCE and my LOI DIAMOND. I liked the Speaker’s dog, and Kitty’s blouse, but COD to SWEET which flummoxed me until I had all the checkers in place. Thanks for stepping in Jack.
  26. I’m typing this from my B&B in Whitby where I just spent breakfast listening to the soothing strains of the organ in the church across the road. Met up with family last night to celebrate 4 birthdays, 2 of which hark back to Jan and Feb when my cousin Pete and I had our respective 70ths. My head feels surprisingly clear, unlike yesterday morning when I did this puzzle. ‘Twas definitely on the tricky side and took me to 14:03 with DIAMOND LOI. Thanks to Oink and to Jack for stepping into the breach.

    Edited at 2021-09-16 10:57 am (UTC)

  27. Couldn’t find this blog on Wednesday. Found it hard and recorded a DNF. Did not see the anagram for DANGEROUS and failed with DIAMOND and ODDS ON. Now I see why!!

Comments are closed.