Times Quick Cryptic 2001 by Teazel – what are you doing Dave?

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Our odyssey through the pleasant terrain of Crosswordland continues with Teazel. Some of us spin through these adventures stately as a galleon while some – the sub 5 minuters – seem to be aboard a 25ac. For everyone it’s all about enjoying the journey. On the subject, I’ll be visiting (very new) family in USA for the next 4 weeks and plan to save all my time and energy for new Grandad duties – so thanks to whoever takes a step backwards later than the rest and so gets landed with the next 4 Tuesday QC blogs.

I found today’s puzzle to be an excellent QC. It was all gettable for me but I had to force several of the answers over the parsing line (which pushed me just over my 10 minutes) as I wasn’t sure enough of the definition to biff. 1ac, as LOI, was a case in point as I took a while to justify local store having that definition but ‘it just had to be’ given the parsing (although ‘cereal’ took a while too).

Good luck to all who choose to boldly go into this QC but take care – splitting ones infinitives (especially in infinity) can be fraught with danger.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Check on cereal in local store (6)
BRANCH – check (CH) on cereal (BRAN). Well, it took me some time as mentioned above.
4 Ruler gives extremely tacky and intemperate speech (6)
TYRANT – (T)rick(Y), intemperate speech (RANT).
8 Wine is nastier when drunk (7)
RETSINA – anagram (when drunk) of nastier. In my early 20s on one of my first trips properly abroad (i.e by plane), I could only afford the cheap stuff – which couldn’t really have been any nastier – it tasted of what I imagine creosote would taste like.
10 Really excellent police officer (5)
SUPER – double definition,
11 Come across heartless devil (4)
FIND – heartless devil (FI)e(ND).
12 I’m pink, burning with love (8)
FLAMINGO – burning (FLAMING) with love (O). It’s a flamingos own fault – they do insist on eating algae and brine shrimps which contain carotonoids (to you and me that’s the stuff which make carrots orange and tomatoes go red).
14 Carpet a church, around cross (9)
AXMINSTER – a church (A MINSTER) around cross (X). Not ‘to tear a strip off’,  then but an actual carpet.
18 No heroes worked in such a small town (3-5)
ONE-HORSE – anagram (worked) of NO HEROES.
20 Be aware of hearing refusal (4)
KNOW – honmophone (hearing) of refusal – NO.
22 Arab in USA I’d relocated (5)
SAUDI – anagram (relocated) of USA ID – very appropriate as I’m going to relocate there temporarily.
23 Barrier at site entrance: parking, indeed with everyone (7)
PAYWALL – parking (P), indeed (AY) with (W) everyone (ALL). I had AYE for indeed but it looked awful so I looked closer and saw WITH. When I’d got the answer I was imaginging something like a barrier at a car park but, whilst blogging, I saw it was a web site subscription page.
24 What a setter, or anyone antisocial, may drop (6)
LITTER – Cryptic or double definition? Whatever it is, I liked it. A female setter dog having a litter and the inconsiderate who seem to think that their rubbish is not their problem.
25 Spaceship alien lands on Gibraltar? (6)
ROCKET – alien (ET) lands on Gibraltar (ROCK).
Down
1 Deprived female wearing cap (6)
BEREFT – female (F) in cap (BERET).
2 A new banknote’s to be announced, one feels (7)
ANTENNA – a (A), new (N) homophone (to be announced) of bank note – TENNER. Having never had one, I can’t personally vouch for the feeling properties of an antenna but I’m sure they fulfil this useful purpose.
3 Short piece of film has Conservative on edge (4)
CLIP – Conservative (C) on edge (LIP).
5 US park is which some yeti is roaming (8)

YOSEMITE – anagram (is roaming) of SOME YETI. Should the clue say IN which or IS which?
6 In a compound, small tree (5)
ASPEN – inside a (A) and compound (PEN) is small (S).
7 Getting up to dry fish (6)
TURBOT – all upwards – to (TO), dry (BRUT – as in sparkling wine).
9 Everything finishes convincingly (3,4,2)
ALL ENDS UP – evrything (ALL), finishes (ENDS UP). Beaten all ends up (which I hope you weren’t today).
13 I’m on the phone still (8)
IMMOBILE – I’m (IM) on top of phone (MOBILE). Some companies do seem to make it hard work to get through to a human being – I’m recently bruised by being caught in 40 minutes or so of automated options where sometimes you had to answer by voice (and didn’t get understood).
15 Was in charge of big bag for plunder (7)
RANSACK – was in charge of big bag (RAN SACK).
16 Inspector left a dainty piece of food (6)
MORSEL – inspector (MORSE), left (L). WOD dainty.
17 Silly person crosses one line in the half-dark (6)
TWILIT – silly person (TWIT) crosses one (I) and line (L).
19 First of teeth, perfect, coming up, do this? (5)
ERUPT – all coming upwards – (T)eeth, perfect (PURE). I suppose teeth do this when they first appear out of the gum.
21 One maintaining uprightness in wild orgy (4)
GYRO – anagram (wild) of ORGY. Marvellous surface to finish off – I suppose gyros do maintain uprightness but only whilst spinning.

72 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2001 by Teazel – what are you doing Dave?”

  1. I messed up biffing TARPON instead of TURBOT based on the checkers and “fish” in the clue. So DNF in 12 mins. I don’t recall hearing the expression ALL ENDS UP before.
    2. Being from the North I have heard it plenty of times. It is one of those meaningless sayings which people parrot.
    3. To be beaten ALL ENDS UP implies total annihilation by one’s opponent(s). I was told in my youth that it originated from the game of bowls, where players change ends after each set of deliveries, the implication being that a particular player (or pair) had won every “end”. However, I can’t find any documentary evidence to support this.
    4. I have used the phrase here on several occasions — referring to the setter’s ability to bamboozle me — but not today.
  2. I needed all the checkers to get PAYWALL; and even with all the checkers I stalled on LITTER trying to see how it works and if it wasn’t actually LETTER. Finally the puppy litter occurred to me, but it had taken me beyond my 6-minute goal. 6:50, to be precise.
  3. Note to the early ‘Colonials’, 9dn Is proper Northern English — so stop thee mitherin’!

    FOI 2dn ANTENNA

    LOI 23ac PAYWALL

    COD 12ac FLAMINGO

    WOD 8ac RETSINA a favourite of mine and few else I imagine. Must be served ice-cold and with food — I would suggest with grilled haloumi — followed by roast spring chicken and a feta salad. A ‘parafino’ and not a ‘creosote’ !

    For ‘supertasters’ I would further recommend Lapsang Suchong — which also has notes of creosote!

    I was on the 9:00am from Axminster to Yosemite, which does not rhyme with Marmite!

    Edited at 2021-11-09 06:15 am (UTC)

    1. I believe paulmcl is English, I know Jack is; and neither they nor I did any mithering.
      1. Mither = worry/bother/complain. My time was 9 minutes.

        Edited at 2021-11-09 07:01 am (UTC)

  4. ALL ENDS UP went in immediately — though I think I’ve only ever heard it in cricket commentary in situations where the bowler has the upper hand. My problem was TURBOT where I didn’t know brut mean dry so I couldn’t parse, together with BRANCH — where I though of chess notation far too late — FIND and BEREFT my time went out from possible pb to a still good all green in 13. Lots to enjoy here. Going to the office for the second day in a row — for the first time since March 2020. My tip for hybrid commuters? Work on Mondays, the M40 was empty yesterday!

    Edited at 2021-11-09 06:59 am (UTC)

  5. 13 minutes, missing my target by 3, plus on error as I didn’t know the park and went for YESOMITE when placing the selection of unchecked vowels. I certainly didn’t recognise the word until I played an audio clip at Collins and learned that it’s pronounced YoSEMity, in which case I think I may have heard of it.

    It’s most apt that an anagram of RETSINA is ‘nastier’. Pine disinfectant may be a better comparison than creosote which is a smell I have always rather liked though I have never tasted it.

    Another here who has never heard of ALL ENDS UP.

    Edited at 2021-11-09 06:22 am (UTC)

  6. Beaten all ends up by Teazel. With both TARPON and LETTER. I thought about the (tiresome) canine “setter” but didn’t pursue it.

    NHO BRUT=dry

    I liked PAYWALL, always of fan of including post 2000 vocab.

    On train into London office for first time in 2 years.

  7. I was on the right wavelength today and finished in 12 minutes albeit with a couple not fully parsed — turbot & branch. I did toy with letter too but couldn’t see how it fitted with the antisocial person and then realized litter was a better fit, nice misdirection though from Teazel. I did pause on “All ends up” but felt I’d heard it before, like it all ends up well.

    Good luck to all the commuters, I’ve been in a couple of times and it seems like much more of a mission than it used to when it was a daily occurrence. I’ll have to start doing 50% in the office from the new year, I think.

    FOI: tyrant
    LOI: erupt
    COD: flamingo

  8. 25ish minutes; initial panic as very few early answers jumped out at me, but with a few eventually appearing, everything else came together. TURBOT puzzled me for some time but ALL ENDS UP went straight in. FLAMINGO was a wry smile moment when I realised, and helped me find that fish. PAYWALL was good and very contemporary.
  9. I had all the necessary GK and vocabulary which helped everything to click into place for a top to bottom solve. COD goes to PAYWALL but there was lots to enjoy throughout the grid. Finished in 6.47 with LOI ERUPT.
    Thanks to Chris and enjoy your granddad duties.
  10. Going greatish guns until grinding to halt on ERUPT, not divining the tooth context of the word and bugged by the possibility of EXULT (T + LUXE<), so wasted all of 2mins+ on final answer. Otherwise, really enjoyed rest of it. Strange how BEREFT also appeared in the weekend Jumbo. Thx to setter & blogger.
    1. Me too with regard to erupt/exult. I just felt when reading the latter answer back, the clue felt too contrived.
  11. … as it is my birthday and I am relieved of the normal morning busyness and chores around the house by generous family members. And the extra time put to good use as I solved and fully parsed this one in a stately 15 minutes — on more hurried days I might have been tempted to biff a few but today I gave Teazel the full treatment.

    Slightly surprised that “Brut” meaning dry has caused some issues for a few people — I thought that even if people were not familiar with it in real life, it was a fairly standard piece of crosswordese. I certainly recall seeing it … and I hope to be drinking it too at a celebratory birthday lunch a bit later today!

    No other real hold-ups, though I took time to see 14A Axminster (who knew that setters could actually mean a real carpet when they write Carpet?), and also a wee while spent on my LOI 24A Litter, a real PDM when I worked out it was a canine setter.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog — enjoy being a grandfather!
    Cedric

  12. CLIP and BRANCH were first 2 in and LITTER was my last, where, like Kevin, I dithered between LITTER and LETTER until I thought of pups. Needed crossers to get ALL ENDS UP. Liked MORSEL. 9:00. Thanks Teazel and Chris, and congrats to Grandad and Happy Birthday to Cedric!
  13. An enjoyable, fair puzzle that took me 2 mins under target (and under 2K). Having the A from RETSINA (can’t imagine why the stuff is still produced), ALL ENDS UP came to mind immediately but I hesitated until I had more crossers, thinking it was a bit off the usual track.
    I did most of the rest quite easily, returning to the NW for BRANCH and BEREFT but ending with SUPER and ASPEN. I enjoyed LITTER, ANTENNA, GYRO, and TURBOT. Well, that includes almost everything!
    The number of comments already suggests that this QC was widely appreciated. Thanks to Teazel and to Chris. Enjoy your Grandad duties, Chris, they will bring on a new and satisfying (if exhausting in a year or two) phase of life. John M.

    Edited at 2021-11-09 09:53 am (UTC)

        1. I take four vitamin D tablets and two vitamin B tablets on a daily basis, plus a couple of irony ones – as required.
        2. Old Blighter – Sir, there was no indication of irony whatsoever. An exclamation mark would have seen to that!
          1. I may be too subtle for you. This is a cryptic crossword blog. I intended “still produced” to mean “produced in a still”. The clue was in the reference to whisky, and the winking emoji. Never mind, I’m sure Horryd saw what I did.
            1. We all have your number Mr. Jordan – ‘er indoors birthday on Thursday as well! Why don’t you join us at the JStone for lunch?
              1. Shadows 20 Golden Greats — what a top album 😀 Just went to check out my copy and am devastated to find it no longer there. I must have sent it to the charity shop in one of my mad clearing-out sessions. I must stop doing that 😮

                Edited at 2021-11-09 05:08 pm (UTC)

  14. 13 minutes here, although I thought it felt longer after a slowish start. PAYWALL caught me out despite spending part of my working life managing a large team of web developers, although that was a long time ago — when terms like skinware were still fashionable. I saw YOSEMITE and ASPEN and wondered if we were in for a North American tourism theme — I hope you get to see some of those on your trip Chris. LOI AXMINSTER for me and needed all of the checkers before it came to me. Thanks both, and have a great trip C.
  15. In no rush today; a leisurely solve on paper beckoned. That turned into 22 minutes of hard but very rewarding work. An excellent puzzle I thought.
    My big problems were AXMINSTER where I considered every other meaning of carpet; and LOI IMMOBILE- I thought that had to end LINE. Fixed ideas are very damaging and I am slowly learning to ditch them more quickly.
    Also I spent ages trying to parse BRANCH only to put it in with a shrug before seeking enlightenment here.
    COD to MORSEL as I’m a fan and failed to spot this for too long.
    David

    Edited at 2021-11-09 10:11 am (UTC)

  16. DNF.
    Got half a dozen then had to give up. Just too hard for me.
    I had not heard of PAYWALL , TWILIT, YOSEMITE before so I suppose that I did learn something. But very depressing all the same.
  17. I should have gone back and checked Letter as I knew it didn’t make sense. Enjoyed the puzzle, though. LOI BRANCH, FOI AXMINSTER or YOSEMITE. I quite liked Retsina at the time.
    Also enjoyed ONE-HORSE, ANTENNA, RANSACK, BEREFT.
    Thanks all, esp Chris. Have a good trip to the USA!

  18. Another solve, but my last one in (TURBOT) took forever to work out. In the end I had to choose between TURBOT and TARPON. I went for the former.
  19. Hard. Needed a bit of help to get over the line. NHO PAYWALL, but guessed it. Top NW corner took some working out. Challenging!
  20. The most enjoyable solve for a while with some great surfaces and answers, although disappointed there were no 2001 references. Overall, finished in 17 mins.

    I initially thought 9dn was “All Tied Up”, but it became apparent it wouldn’t fit with 14ac and 18ac. Nice to see “Axminster” as an answer — haven’t seen that in ages. Also liked 12ac “Flamingo”, 23ac “Paywall” and the cheeky 21dn “Gyro”.

    FOI — 3dn “Clip”
    LOI — 19dn “Erupt” — although nearly put Exult.
    COD — 13dn “Immobile” — simple, but great.

    Thanks as usual!

      1. And I applaud your effort Chris (obviously in my comment I was talking about the crossword, not yourself regarding the lack of references).

        A few years back (pre pandemic) I was lucky enough to go to the Design Museum in London to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibition. The drawings and concepts of his futuristic vision were incredible – as was the realisation of HAL9000, voiced by the late Douglas Rain.

        1. A friend of mine, Brian Sanders, was commissioned by Stanley Kubrick to illustrate the storyboard for the film. Some of his drawings and pictures were shown at a solo exhibition at the Lever gallery in 2017. His work and meticulous attention to detail are superb, as are his skills as a fisherman.
  21. Enjoyed this one – strolled through the top half in less than 5 minutes before being done all ends up in the bottom – PAYWALL, ERUPT, and (strangely) IMMOBILE flummoxed me. Finally spotted the device for IMMOBILE after 11:40, so a pleasing-ish time as well in the end.
  22. This was not too Teazel-ly with COD to TURBOT. I thought BRUT was a universally known word, written on most champagne corks – although everyone’s on the Cava and Prosecco these days!

    Edited at 2021-11-09 12:12 pm (UTC)

  23. ….I don’t think ALL ENDS UP is at all an expression peculiar to Northern England. “”Any road up” is, but means something completely different, and is the title of the debut album by the grievously underrated Steve Gibbons Band.

    This was a lovely puzzle, and the post-solve reread of the clues took longer than actually solving it. Thanks Teazel, and to Grandpa Chris for an excellent blog.

    FOI TYRANT
    LOI TURBOT
    COD FLAMINGO
    TIME 3:55

    1. I seem to remember the expression ‘Any roads oop, chook’ delivered by Cilla, or was it from the days long ago when I used to watch Corrie? Definitely from north of Watford anyway!
  24. 5:46 this morning. I felt this was tougher than average, with the structure of some clues not being immediately obvious (to me at least). So for newcomers this might have created some difficulties. If that’s the case, Chris’ blog will be of great assistance in helping to analyse “what a clue is all about”.
    8 ac “Retsina” — the marmite of wines? Takes me back to my student days on vacation in Corfu, where I was so unimpressed that I moved from that beverage to Ouzo (and coke!!). Yeah I was young then! Incidentally, the Greek white Assyrtiko can be an excellent wine and goes particularly well with asparagus and seafood if that’s what rocks your boat.
    Plenty of very good clues, COD possibly 2d “antenna”
    Thanks to Chris for a fine blog (have a good trip!) and to Teazel for an excellent QC.
    1. I agree with you about Assyrtiko. I have been bowled over by Assyrtiko from Santorini but it is generally too expensive for normal drinking. We are now hooked on a fine example of Assyrtiko from Northern Greece (and seen as an absolute bargain by Decanter, Olly Smith et al.).
      I assume that it is not acceptable to name commercial products here. John.

      Edited at 2021-11-09 01:36 pm (UTC)

      1. I’m also a great fan of Santorini’s Assyrtiko, plus if you can find it, the red wine from the island, Mavrotragano. Well worth trying.
        Cedric
  25. This was very tricky for me but I did complete over a few sessions — so no time — estimate 40 minutes.

    I really enjoyed the challenge but did make one mistake — I had pencilled in Payeall — thinking aye for indeed, and didn’t revisit before reading the blog.

    LOI Branch
    POI Bereft

    Took too long on Aspen for no good reason.
    Like others I remembered drinking retsina on a Greek beach — which was pretty unpleasant, but got even worse as it warmed up. And then finished off with the cheap bottle of ouzo that was almost as nasty!

    Happy memories.

    Thanks all

    John George

  26. All done and parsed, but took twenty minutes. A nice ruminate, most enjoyable. Great memories aroused of drinking Retsina with a salad in The Plaka. We liked the wine there and bought some at home but it was not the same. Lacked the sunshine and the busy streets. FOI tyrant, LOI branch, as discussed above. Liked all the clues especially flamingo and turbot. There was some bad news about Axminster carpets this year – apparently they are no longer made. I’m a fan, and I like the idea that the wool we produce here is used, so I am sorry to see the demise. Can’t say I kept them in business with the purchases we made, and collectively it seems we didn’t.
    Thanks, Chris, enjoy your trip. Thanks, Teazel for a puzzle that took me into my usual time, and which I enjoyed for a difficulty that seemed just about perfect.
  27. … Well that is what I had initially instead of the required ALL ENDS UP. Nevertheless I can report an on target solve despite the error and a slow start. The 1s were my LOsI. I relied on the build instructions for PAYWALL as it is not a word I’m familiar with. 8:56 for an OK day.
  28. We thought this was a great puzzle — so much to enjoy. That said, we also found that the last few clues needed a bit of thought and we ended up finishing in 20 minutes.

    FOI: RETSINA (never tasted a good one)
    LOI: TWILIGHT
    COD: a few to choose from but we settled on TYRANT.

    Thanks Chris — hope you have a fab time in the States.

  29. Luckily TURBOT appeared previously in QC 1325, clued by Grumpy as “coming back to dry fish”. Nice puzzle. Thanks to Teazel and blogger. David F
  30. This has been a great start to the week for me. 21 minutes yesterday and just 17 minutes today — unheard of for Teazel — and all fully parsed.
    Actually, it felt as though I was sprinting the whole time, so I just can’t imagine how it must be for those of you who routinely polish off these QCs in a half/third/quarter/fifth/(sixth?) … of the time.

    Having recorded such a fast time (for me, at least), it woul be churlish of me to pick holes in the puzzle. Therefore, I will award my CoD to all 26 clues jointly.

    Many thanks to Teazel and Chris W.

    1. I forecast a good year in prospect for you Sir! – under tens next!? What is your PB – (not you Peebee!)
  31. Enjoyable puzzle and mo dodgy clues. PAYWALL crossed my mind quickly, but it took me ages to parse. Having lived in or near London for >80 years, I have heard ALL ENDS UP but am not sure what it means apart from literally, so it is probably a regional expression as suggested. FOI ONE HORSE, LOI BRANCH, COD GYRO.
  32. I struggled with this and came in at .9 of a Random 😉 Teazel is definitely one of the hardest setters, I find. The biggie didn’t take a great deal longer.
    I didn’t know ALL ENDS UP so that slowed me down quite a bit, and BRANCH took a while too. I liked ONE-HORSE and YOSEMITE.
    I’m in the anti-Retsina camp, and think ouzo is equally horrible! I do remember drinking Demestica in the Kolossi grill near Sadler’s Wells back in the day — cheap and cheerful but went well with the afelia. Probably would have been better on a Greek island in the sun though!
    FOI Tyrant
    LOI Branch
    COD Retsina
    Thanks Teazel and Chris — have a wonderful time with your family

  33. But evidently not.

    3 times longer than yesterday. Teazel always but always has me over a barrel, metaphorically speaking of course.

    North West was the main problem, but one of those puzzles where I’m always chasing my tail.

    Approx 10:20, but I’ve forgotten the exact time.

  34. Soundly beaten by Teazel today. Gave up after 31 with four in the NW still to get. Once I saw BRANCH on here, I quickly saw BEREFT and FIND, but I forgot that my CRIM for 3d was far from convincing as a short bit of film. Oh well. COD to TURBOT. Thanks Chris and Teazel.
  35. … to report a tie in the Random household. Despite my unusually fast time (reported earlier) Mrs R was never going to let me get the family point twice in a row. So, in a late solve, she conjoured up an identical solve to me — 17 minutes. Today might be the first day we have both escaped the SCC on the same day.
  36. Years ago our Gordon Setter had a litter of six lovely lively pups, with pin sharp teeth they sank into your fingers. Any road all ends up their new owners adored them.

    A fine teaser by Teazel with a gentle relaxing solve over 2h 17 min (!), which framed a very happy family Birthday dinner today.

  37. But TURBOT not parsed. Didn’t think of Brut for dry 🙄 so many thanks Chris. Found this very challenging, but pleased to finish, albeit really slowly. AXMINSTER, BRANCH and FLAMINGO took an age. Enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Teazel.

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