Times Quick Cryptic 2010 by Orpheus

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 9 minutes. Maybe some tricky clues here.

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

7 Huge part of London, by the sound of it (8)
WHOPPING
Sounds like [by the sound of it] “Wapping” [part of London]
8 Expression used in Outer Mongolia (4)
TERM
Hidden [used] in{ou}TER M{ongolia}
9 Marine animal‘s nasty smell — in sea, mostly (6)
SPONGE
PONG (nasty smell) contained by [in] SE{a} [mostly]
10 Surpass old cubicle, so to speak (5)
EXCEL
EX (old), then CEL sounds like [so to speak] “cell” (cubicle)
11 Reduced price for salad ingredient (3)
COS
COS{t} (price) [reduced]. Lettuce.
12 Daughter in bar with Italian robber (6)
BANDIT
D (daughter) contained by [in] BAN (bar) + IT (Italian)
14 Salutation knocked back graduate, sad to say (6)
SALAAM
MA (gaduate) + ALAS (sad to say) all reversed [knocked back]
16 Part of body originally protecting “the King”? (6)
PELVIS
P{rotecting} [originally], ELVIS (“the King”)
18 Berliner, perhaps, almost suitable (6)
GERMAN
GERMAN{e} (suitable) [almost]. Reminscent of JFK: I am a doughnut.
19 Court without officials to begin with (3)
WOO
WO (without), O{fficials} [to begin with]
20 Sudden increase in twilled fabric, we hear (5)
SURGE
Sounds like [we hear] “serge” (twilled fabric)
21 Source of bananas, a blessing for a monkey (6)
BABOON
B{ananas} [source of …], A, BOON (blessing)
23 Soft cheese fly must abandon shortly (4)
BRIE
BRIE{fly} (shortly) [fly must abandon]
24 Contest the writer would finally leave: it’s late in the day (8)
EVENTIDE
EVENT (contest), I‘D (the writer would), {leav}E [finally]
Down
1 Fellow sailor transported him as pet (8)
SHIPMATE
Anagram [transported] of HIM AS PET
2 Extend across top of seagoing vessel (4)
SPAN
S{eagoing} [top], PAN (vessel)
3 Manage to be straightforward (6)
DIRECT
Two meanings
4 Way out, for example, on ship (6)
EGRESS
EG (for example), RE (on), SS (ship)
5 Fussy type covers front of ledger with adhesive label (8)
STICKLER
STICKER ((adhesive label) contains [covers] L{edger} [front]
6 Exam held in manor, always (4)
ORAL
Hidden [held] in {man}OR AL{ways}
13 Entertained underwater explorer, male (8)
DIVERTED
DIVER (underwater explorer}, TED (random male)
15 We hear girl studied a South American snake (8)
ANACONDA
Sounds like [we hear] “Anna” (girl) + “conned” (studied) + A
17 Married in former nurse’s part of Scandinavia (6)
SWEDEN
WED (married) contained by [in] SEN (former nurse – State Enrolled Nurse). Nursing qualifications were reorganised in the UK in the 1990’s and the SEN qualification was no longer available.
18 Drinking-vessel‘s small mouth? (6)
GOBLET
GOB (mouth), -LET (suffix sometimes indicating small)
20 Small vessel seen in Channel Island (4)
SARK
S (small), ARK (vessel)
22 Bishop at hotel in West Country city (4)
BATH
B (bishop), AT, H (NATO hotel)

71 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2010 by Orpheus”

  1. I thought of BRIE immediately (and EDAM, but it’s hard), but didn’t see how it worked, so passed on. Then when I had the checkers, I just typed it in and never did parse it. Jack, I think you meant [knocked back] at SALAAM. 5:18.
  2. I was on the 5.45 this morning 3dn to BATH.

    FOI 7av WHOPPING – Wapping is said to have gained its name from the caged-gibbets containing the bloated remains of pirates exposed at low-tide on the Thames. Most unpleasant if true! Also my WOD.

    LOI 9ac SPONGE – hence the nasty smell.

    COD 18dn GOBLET

    14ac!

    Messrs. Merlin & Rotter might enjoy today’s ‘Biggie’.

  3. Seven on the first pass of acrosses but with the feeling the others would be hard. The bottom filled up nicely with only ANACONDA causing delay (‘conned’ took a while) before the hard work started in the top. WHOPPING arrived once enough hard fought checkers went in before SALAAM finally yielded with a groan.
  5. Wrongly thinking that a BABOON is an ape not a monkey, I wasted some time trying to make “bonobo” work. Fun puzzle, 08:34, COD SALAAM.

    Thanks Jack and Orpheus.

    Templar

  6. Mainly straightforward but made life a bit tricky for myself by trying to crowbar VERNE into DIVERTED and it took some time to notice the far simpler solution. Struggled in the NW initially so came back to it in the end and but still needed the ‘h’ checker before WHOPPING came to mind. Finished in 8.10 with LOI SALAAM, which just pipped PELVIS for my COD.
    Thanks to Jack
  7. Couple of Pinks
    Two error for a poor start to the week. Got the homonym confused, putting “Whapping” in the grid. Could not see a fabric at 20a, and I don’t really know what “twilled” means, so looking at S-R-E I typed in SPREE for “sudden increase”.

    I also tried to make Bonobo work: how many 6 letter apes starting with B can there be? More than one.

    Sigh. EN for former nurse appears again.

    COD SALAAM, and GOBLET made me smile.

    1. SEN isn’t it, EN is a dash, narrower than an EM? State Enrolled Nurse. I’m 47, have never met, or heard of a SEN, but saw it once in a puzzle blog, remembered it and moved on. Setters use these abbreviations/acronyms because they are useful ways to get common groups of letters into a clue and still have a decent enough surface. I can’t get too bothered about them, even if they’re not common parlance.

      IN any case, married = WED, and if you have the S from PELVIS, you have SWED??, or even SWEDE?, depending on how you go round the grid, and it’s not a huge leap to work out which “part of Scandinavia” is required.

      1. SEN definitely part of the ward in the goo old dates. One notch up we’re SRNs State Registered Nurses – less likely to appear in crosswordland.
      2. Yes, EN is a printer’s measure. Narrower than a EM and nowadays usually used in terms of a dash, as you say.
    2. I made the same spelling error, Merlin. And, I’m fairly sure it wasn’t for the first time.
  8. … if I had not tried to fit the answer to “Berliner, perhaps” into 16A. Faced with -E-V-S I spent at least 3 minutes puzzled as to how either a doughnut or an inhabitant of the German capital could possibly fit the checkers before I realised I was looking at the wrong clue — this is one mistake that those solving online will not encounter!

    That apart, a very nice puzzle. Until I got the initial B from solving 18D Goblet I wondered if 21A Baboon could be Gibbon, but the final checker put me right on that.

    Many thanks to Jack for the blog.

  9. Quick time for me at 12 minutes but a stupid error at 16a where I biffed nerves and forgot to go back and check. Kicking myself for not getting that as it wasn’t that hard.
    FOI term
    LOI span
    COD sponge
    Thanks Jack & Orpheus

  10. Top to bottom slalom in 3:47 minutes with no tricky clues as forecast. COD Surge. The Bishop of Bath & Wells appears again.
  11. 12 minutes with a hold up for WHOPPING and SPAN at the end. I considered alternatives to whopping, including charring (cross), but forced myself to complete the alphabet trawl until the right answer appeared. Off to look at the 15 x 15 now after Horryd has tipped me the wink. Thanks both.
    1. My view on the 15×15 is keep away today. If the experienced bloggers can’t figure out several of the clues in the NW corner, where I always start, one to skip.
      1. were mostly from the Colonial Club and were not surprisingly unaware of 1ac’s DD, which are so very English in both respects.
        1. I didn’t notice any people, from the US or otherwise, who remained in doubt about 1ac at the time of their commenting, while the questions persisting regarding two other clues in that quadrant were not exclusive to colleagues from any particular part of the world.
      2. Well, I found it just about OK. I finished in under 40 mins which is good for me. Finished in the NW after having two tries at 1A (and biffing 5D given crossers). John
        I’ve just had a brief look at the ulaca blog and reckon I must have been on a lucky streak (after a fairly miserable QC today).

        Edited at 2021-11-22 12:28 pm (UTC)

        1. Me too – about half an hour, with about the same amount of time spent on 1a in both puzzles! Which was quite a lot 😉 But otherwise I’d say it was a pleasant puzzle. I particularly liked 25a as it featured one of my former employers! No names, no pack drill.
  12. Slow and not too steady today. Not many on first pass so I was reduced to jumping around the grid looking for sitters. I was left with gaps which were filled slowly including SARK, WOO (wanted to biff but didn’t parse at first), WHOPPING (I very nearly spelt it with an A instead of O), SURGE (came close to writing SERGE instead — careless), DIRECT, and LOI SPAN. My COD was SALAAM.
    I was interrupted so cannot post a time but it was probably pushing the SCC. Brain not really bright unlike this beautiful Monday morning. Thanks, both. John M.
  13. but my last three took a minute or so.

    SPAN, DIRECT and then WHOPPING.

    BABOON definitely my favourite, even if I had biffed BONOBO and had to replace it when it became obvious that it was not right when I came to ANACONDA and BATH.

    4:55

  14. Twelve minutes, so I found this relatively straightforward. Only four acrosses on first pass, but the downs went in a bit easier, then the infill followed on. Some nuances in the parsing revealed in the blog, thanks, Jack. Enjoyed the puzzle, thanks, Orpheus.
  15. PELVIS made me laugh, also liked WHOPPING, SPONGE, GERMAN, ANACONDA.
    FOI TERM, LOI SPAN.

    Thanks all, esp Jack.

  16. who are put off by today’s 15×15 could do worse than look at today’s Quiptic in the Guardian.

    Izetti = Pasquale, and it’s very doable, only one NHO for me, which is v fairly clued.

    1. Just found it, thanks very much for the tip. 2 short over there. Glad I managed the GK today for at least one completion.
  17. I raced through this in 07:54. LOI WHOPPING after SPAN. The NW is where I had initial problems.
    A few doubts along the way: SARK,BRIE not fully parsed. And SURGE had to be right but I worried abut Serge.
    This was enjoyable and not that easy. I was lucky with the GK today. COD to GOBLET.
    David
  19. Plenty of chuckles, and good for beginners except, I would guess, for as many as three chestnuts in 6-letter EG RE SS. Pleased to see I was not the only one to biff BRIE unparsed, but it’s actually so obvious, and an excellent clue; thanks for the enlightenment, Jack. FOI SHIPMATE, LOI SALAAM, and COD to GOBLET which, like BRIE I saw immediately, but took some time to parse without help.
  20. Though it was a DNF for me, I did enjoy this one.

    7a, 14a, 2d just would not reveal themselves to me, no matter how hard I thought about them. I even took a break to go for a nice walk, but that didn’t help.

    On seeing the answers here WHOPPING makes sense. I did answer ANACONDA, though I could not work out why “conned” means studied, and it still doesn’t sit right with me. But I guess it must be valid.

    No aids used today.

    1. con=study is no doubt something our grandparents may have been vaguely familiar with, but it’s alive and well in Crosswordland, and needs to be remembered.
  21. I found the bottom half more straightforward than the top half, especially the NW, which remained blank for some time. All complete in 19 mins although I have to confess to writing in SERGE instead of SURGE at 20ac. Took a long time to realise that 1dn was an anagram. Nice puzzle.

    FOI – 8ac TERM
    LOI – 2dn SPAN
    COD – 14ac SALAAM

  22. What a difference a week makes. I haven’t found time to do the QC and it showed today. FOI TERM, incorrectly put WHAPPING i.e. with a spelling mistake to boot and LOI SALAAM. 13:57 so things can only get better.
  23. 20 mins for everything except 14ac which just wouldn’t come, so a frustrating dnf. I was thinking “Shalom” but it obviously wouldn’t fit. Now that I see it I’m kicking myself somewhat.

    The rest went in steadily — although I nearly came a cropper on 24ac by initially putting in “Eventing”.

    FOI — 2dn “Span”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 16ac “Pelvis” — just made me laugh.

    Thanks as usual!

        1. May have been/Might have been/Could have been — your response prompted me to look up the alternatives and it appears that all three versions have exactly the same meaning.

          I’d be interested to hear if anyone disagrees, if you in the UK haven’t gone to bed by now …

          I enjoyed today’s puzzle, thanks all.

          Diana

  24. Struggled to get started until I looked at 1d, then SHIPMATE gave me SPONGE and I was off. BRIE brought up the rear at 6:17. Thanks Orpheus and Jack.
  25. … by an elementary spelling mistake. I mixed WHOPPING with WAPPING and wrote in WHAPPING. Therefore, despite finishing in what would have been a jolly good time for me (33 minutes) it has to go down in my records as a DNF.

    I struggled to get started and had to move down to the lower half of the grid to get going properly. Towards the end. both SALAAM and SPAN gave me some trouble, and my last two in were EGRESS and EXCEL.

    Mrs Random rarely mis-spells words and she finished in just 15 minutes today. Her sub-20 minute excursions are becoming more frequent and, from my viewpoint, she is receding into the distance once more.

    Many thanks to Orpheus and Jack.

    P.S. Over the weekend, Mrs R caught up on her four outstanding QCs from last week. Suffice to say that she successfully completed all four, the quickest of which was last Wednesday’s Teazel. Her time of 12 minutes was her third fastest ever – a bronze medal performance! It must have been that cup of tea I served her just beforehand.

  26. I thought this was distinctly tricky in parts, but battled on with the help of a few pdms only to come to grief with loi Salaam. Not sure I even knew the word, but should have worked it out from the cryptic. Like James, ‘shalom’ was an early contender and when crossers ruled that out I just couldn’t make the jump to Salaam. CoD to the parsing of 24ac Eventide. 23mins before pulling stumps. Invariant

    Edited at 2021-11-22 12:42 pm (UTC)

  27. 11 minutes, with FOUR of them spent on my last two in (yet again). Despite driving through Wapping regularly (admittedly back in the late 80s), the name just wouldn’t come to me. I’m sure we’ve seen this before, and I’m equally sure that I got stuck on it last time too 😅 And I was looking at the wrong end of 2d, trying to find a three letter word meaning extend to go across the S of seagoing to arrive at a vessel! There did seem to be a bit of a marine and vessel theme today.
    I thought this was a bit harder than more recent offerings from Orpheus, but no less enjoyable.
    FOI Term
    LOI Span
    COD Goblet
    Thanks Orpheus and Jack

    BTW Did anyone see the mention in Saturday’s Times about the anagram version of the London Tube map – highly entertaining and very clever! Apparently it’s been around for years, but I was unaware of it.

    Edited at 2021-11-22 01:37 pm (UTC)

    1. Yes. I did, but was unable to find it anywhere that the answers weren’t alongside. I would like to have attempted to solve them.
      1. It looks like there are a lot of similar quizzes around but the original from 2006 appears only to be available as artwork, which is a cumbersome way to try and solve those anagrams!
  29. 3:45 this morning after a week away in the Lake District, where the beautiful remaining autumn colours were unfortunately not enhanced by any sunshine until virtually the morning we had to leave! One has to be philosophical about the weather there, especially at this time of the year!
    I found this QC pretty straightforward with several generous definitions.
    Was held up briefly by POI 2 d “span” and LOI 7 ac ” whopping”.
    A few homophones today, I counted four.
    COD 18 d “goblet”.
    Thanks to Jack and to Orpheus for a gentle introduction to the week.

  30. Struggled with Orpheus last time and when I saw the grid…. So very pleased with sub 15 while eating a bowl of soup. PB for QC and food combo. J

  31. So, had to put this down, struggling with last four or five clues. Stupidly put SERGE at 20, (read the question carefully boy), and took an age getting WHOPPING AND SALAAM.
    Are they getting more difficult? Feels like it.
  32. Held up by 7a, whopping until we had the crossers, also had nerves for 15a, which we were not happy with, but forgot to go back to. Otherwise quite quick for us at abt 20m. Enjoyed 21a baboon, enjoyable puzzle.
  33. DNF.
    Just not on the ball today.
    I should have gotten 7 Across (WHOPPING) easily.

    When I worked in a council office many years ago, there was a rather large lady with a plummy accent. A bloke in the office with an unking sense of humour claimed she was a founder member of the Wapping Women’s League.

  35. Number 2010 completed in 20:10 (well, actually 20:09, but after stopping my watch I saw I’d misspelt WHOPPING so I’m adding on a second for correcting it). Most enjoyable all round. Wouldn’t have been certain about the spelling of SALAAM, but the wordplay was clear, and had only vaguely heard of serge, but it couldn’t be much else. As for the BABOON, I got it straight away, but would never have considered bonobo since they are most certainly apes, perhaps being even more closely related to humans than chimpanzees are. The easiest way to tell monkeys from apes is that monkeys have tails (except for the confusingly named Barbary Ape/macaque) and apes (gibbons, orang utans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, humans) do not. Anyway, LOI WHOPPING, COD EVENTIDE. Thanks Orpheus and Jack.
  36. One wouldn’t wish to make excuses, but Wiki says Whapping is old or alternative for Whopping. Anyway I finished but ‘Whapping’ and ‘Serge’ were two mistakes. Time was good, GN3 on my new index, not sure if it is very reliable yet. Thanks team.

    Edited at 2021-11-22 07:30 pm (UTC)

  37. NHO serge and failed to get surge, putting spree, which I wasn’t happy with. Struggled with salaam too, hence the slow time.
  38. Put scan instead of spam and spree rather than surge — a tricky start to the week for many of us
  39. First QC since my travels started – and they seem to agree with me. 6:33 with nary a hold up which seems highly respectable given other comments.
  40. Catching up again…

    We raced through this until we came to a full stop at 14A which took us an age to work out. We finally finished in 11 minutes.

    FOI: TERM
    LOI: SALAAM
    COD: STICKLER although we really enjoyed GOBLET

    Thanks Jackkt and Orpheus.

  41. I don’t see why re =on
    To me it means ‘in the matter of; with reference to; regarding’ not ‘on’
    Can someone advise please?
    1. It means ‘on the subject of…’ which can be shorted to ‘on’.

      SOED gives this example of ‘re’ in a sentence:

      I am glad to see that you have taken a strong line re the Irish railway situation.

      Substitute ‘on’ for ‘re’ and you will see it works just as well.

      1. Hmmm. I suppose so but it’s not really a correct translation of the Latin. I can see that ‘on the subject of’ would be fine but just ‘on’? Not totally convinced but I suppose English usage changes and I must accept. Thanks for explaining

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