Times Quick Cryptic 2022 by Trelawney

51 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2022 by Trelawney”

1. …I found it more difficult than our blogger did. A lot of the clues are easy, but I had a bit of trouble with some of the longer entries – I don’t really see why. Still, my time was just under 10 minutes.
2. 10 minutes
3. Did it again, for the 3d time in a month and a half: 2 stupid errors. ASIX and TAKE IN, managed to miss both in my perfunctory check for typos. Pitiful. 4:55, too.
4. Not too much trouble today, although the GENEALOGISTS anagram took a while to unpick.

   Thanks Jeremy and Trelawney.

5. It took me 7.30 minutes to get home on the 13dn.

   FOI 4dn TAKE ON

   LOI 10ac ESPOUSE

   COD 14ac GRENADINE

   WOD 9ac NITPICK

   1dn GENEALOGISTS was relatively speaking a bit of an anagram.

   No exclamation marks from me today, for a change.

6. Reasonably gentle today with lots of anagrams to help us along. I found the top half harder than the bottom half with genealogists, garment, misplace and espouse taking me a good few minutes to get. Around the 15 minute mark today so far better than my SCC times on Monday and Tuesday.

   FOI Bungalows
   LOI Espouse
   COD Surgeon

   Thanks Jeremy & Trelawney

7. The MISPLACE and ESPOUSE junction caused me a couple of minutes delay. Even with the former I had a mental block with the latter wanting an X as the second letter.

   1d was rather good — needed quite a few checkers as struggled to do the anagram in my head. DRESSING ROOM very definitely biffed and post-entry parsed

   Thanks Jeremy and Trelawney

8. Completed, but I did struggle with one or two of the clues.
9. Much quicker than usual. Probably because DW helped. She got Bracelet which was LOI.
10. 9:14 but with a mis-biffed ARIA. Doh! Thanks Trelawney and Jeremy.
11. Couldn’t spell GENEALOGISTS, couldn’t parse SURGEON, couldn’t spot ESPOUSE which enabled me to creep onto my comfy chair in the SCC. Mostly straightforward and clearly clued. COD DRESSING ROOM.
    Thanks Jeremy and Trelawney.
12. GENEALOGISTS needed all the checkers.

    ESPOUSE and MISPLACE were the last couple in.

    Lots of good clues though, filled the brief of a Quick Cryptic admirably.

    4:38

13. 12 minutes for this anagram infested puzzle, held up by misspelling GENEALOGISTS with an O instead of the A, which made the alliance impossible until that was resolved. Otherwise, no real problems except ESPOUSE which also held me up. I liked SURGEON and DRESSING ROOM. Thanks Jeremy and Trelawney.
14. It’s like the old days, solved in the paper in a cafe with a pen and timed on a watch. 17m with a long time on MISPLACE and ESPOUSE and GENEALOGISTS before that. Good one.

    Tried the 15×15 at lunch. Got three.

    Edited at 2021-12-08 12:40 pm (UTC)

15. An interesting puzzle with a couple of quite difficult answers to spot — my LOsI were MISPLACE and ESPOUSE. COD GENEALOGISTS. A couple of seconds over target (not at home — lots of interruptions) but enjoyable. Thanks to Trelawney and Jeremy.
    P.s. May I disagree with many later posters and say that I enjoy anagrams and this QC included some very good ones.

    Edited at 2021-12-08 01:10 pm (UTC)

    1. I also like anagrams, as they provide a degree of certainty and often help me get started. 3-4 per puzzle is about right, I think.
16. Didn’t enjoy this one as much as yesterday: too many anagrams for my taste.

    Like many above MISPLACE and ESPOUSE were latecomers.

    COD tied between SURGEON and DRESSING ROOM. Penalty shoot out follows.

    What is your favourite cocktail featuring GRENADINE? I’ll go first, Tequila Sunrise.

    1. No other takers! So to help you out, my favourite cocktail a ‘Singapore Sling’ and mocktail a ‘Shirley Temple’ – add vodka for a ‘Dirty Shirley’! Edwina

       Edited at 2021-12-08 03:59 pm (UTC)

       1. Roy Rogers. Never had one but Roger wants one in a memorable episode of American Dad.

          Must find out what grenadine tastes like.

       2. Yes, Singapore Sling, delicious. Also Planter’s Punch.
17. Twelve minutes, so on the easy side for me. Eighteen on first pass, FOI aniseed, LOI espouse, COD. All parsed, too. It is unusual for me not to miss several nuances. Thanks, Jeremy, and Trelawney.
18. This went very smoothly …
    … and all done in just under 8 minutes. Waited for all the checkers before entering my LOI 1D Genealogists, never sure where the vowels all go on words like this!

    COD 8D Dressing room — very topical chez nous as daughter is getting married in 2 months’ time.

    Many thanks to Jeremy for the blog.
    Cedric

19. Just under 10 for me too . All good stuff thanks – setter and blogger. S rather than St for saint is almost a misdirection for me but it crops up often enough, albeit mainly in crosswords.
20. Anagram Hat very much needed this morning – seven of the blighters! Plus the challenge of getting the vowels in GENEALOGISTS in the right order (which I did by the highly scientific method of typing, looking, and deciding when it felt right).

    FOI GENEALOGISTS (eventually), LOI MENU, COD GARMENT, time 08:42 for about 1.8K and a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks to Jeremy and the Squire.

    Templar

21. I was slow to start but accelerated to the finish. I misspelled genealogists, the a was an o at first, so AXIS was my penultimate solve. My LOI in a very pleasing 6:34 was ESPOUSE.
22. Nothing in the top half at first, but once I got into the bottom half the answers flowed fairly seamlessly, giving me a total time of 13 mins with everything parsed. Mostly an enjoyable puzzle but a few too many anagrams.

    FOI – 12ac BUNGALOWS
    LOI – 10ac ESPOUSE
    COD – liked both 1dn GENEALOGISTS and 8dn DRESSING ROOM

    Thanks to Trelawney and Jeremy

23. Hit my target to complete the QC and do so in 10xkevins! Next I’ll aim for 9kevins, very slowly improving. Like others, MISPLACE and ESPOUSE took a while to unravel.
24. Slow on DISPLACE /ESPOUSE, like others.

    Lots of clever clues inc DRESSING ROOM – 2nd one in. AXIS (long alphabet trawl!) GRENADINE, GENEALOGISTS. ( also needed to check spelling)

    Thanks all, esp Jeremy.

25. Loved this one and like a previous commenter, I very much enjoy anagrams. GENEALOGISTS was a brilliantly clever clue and even better I learned how to spell the word correctly! Same goes for INNATE which I now find I have been spelling incorrectly (with only one N) all my life. Not that I use it much 😉.

    I would have posted a PB except Mrs Prof helped with ESPOUSE which I was stuck on and was my LOI so the PB is struck off.

    Thanks Trelawney for a very enjoyable puzzle and to Jeremy for the blog.

    1. Well done, but also hard luck! However, I admire your honesty and integrity in disallowing it as a PB.
26. We love anagrams so we really enjoyed this puzzle although it did take us 16 minutes to complete it.

    FOI: BUNGALOW
    LOI: MISPLACE
    COD: GENEALOGISTS

    Thanks Trelawney and Jeremy.

27. Bang on 20 mins again — with the main hold ups being 1dn and 21ac, the latter taking far longer than it should. The use of “St” for saint is so engrained in my head, that I struggled to parse 17ac.

    I seem to be having a spell of misreading the number combinations in the clues, so for 4dn I thought it was just a 6 letter word rather than (4,2). As a result, I had no idea what “Takeon” was — apart from thinking it was a misspelt sub atomic particle.

    FOI — 1ac “Garment”
    LOI — 21ac “Subject”
    COD — 1dn “Genealogists” — nice surface.

    Thanks as usual!

28. 3:50 late this morning. Certainly the most straightforward QC so far this week but all very neatly constructed. No problem either with GK as far as I was concerned, which wasn’t the case with yesterday’s 15 x15.
    Particularly liked the surfaces of 1 d “genealogists” (the fact that this is one of Mrs P’s hobbies helped with the spelling) and 8 d “dressing room”.
    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog and to Trelawney
29. ….contained no full anagrams, and (I think) two partials. As an amateur, I don’t deliberately try to ration out particular types of clue, rather, having filled the grid with words that look workable, I simply clue them as I see fit. I’d guess complaints about any of my offerings would centre around too many double definitions ! Which tells you that I found this genuine QC puzzle to be problem-free, and full of great surfaces.

    FOI ANISEED
    LOI SUBJECT
    COD GENEALOGISTS
    TIME 3:47

    1. I love your and John’s (and recently, Sawbill’s) weekend specials, but the program rarely lets me log in.
       So, let me say it here: thank you all, so much. Your qcs are fair and fun!
       Pam
       1. Thanks Pam — it’s good that we’re appreciated.
    2. I prefer double defs over anagrams. So last weekends Saturday special was a real treat. But I just figured out that my wife’s name is an anagram of “nice heart”, so anagrams can be pleasing as well.
30. An enjoyable puzzle which took me just over 15 minutes on paper.
    My LOI was ESPOUSE; I had to discard ENTHUSE which has letters which fit but clearly does not parse. Strange how we sometimes try to hang on to ideas which just don’t work.
    POI was MISPLACE (COD) which did for Enthuse. There are so many fish in the sea-at least in Crosswordland.
    David

    1. PLAICE or COD?? 🙂
31. Tried hard but gave up on the Espouse / Misplace couple.

    Enjoyed the rest though. Took time to see Overhead but liked that one.

    Thanks all
    John George

32. Easier and quicker than average for me, though I never time myself. My FOI, 1 dn, Genealogists, leapt out at me straight away, so that helped a lot. Like many others I found my LOI, 5d, Misplace, where “reportedly” does double duty, and my COD, 10a, Espouse, quite tricky. Many thanks Trelawney and Jeremy.
33. Like others we finished with the 5d and 10a pair. Despite sitting together we could not think of spouse! Time abt 30m our target.
34. 30 minutes today, which (for me) is quite speedy. The solutions came at a steady rate throughout, more-or-less.

    Second last in (POI?) was SURGEON which, until I got BRACELET, I was sure had to be STR___N. Why is ‘Saint’ abbreviated to just S? My LOI was OVERHEAD — a solution I’m sure I’ve been beaten by in the past.

    Mrs R and I are visiting our respective parents today, so I think she will catch up tomorrow.

    Many thanks to Trelawney and Jeremy.

35. Time 4:25 with 10ac Espouse my LOI. Art Deco which as you can see I love – again! COD Grenadine as registered with Merlin above.
36. Who would time the coach and horses. Today started well and got quicker. I think my brain got excited seeing a finish ahead. My fastest yet, I must be learning something week by week, 22 min a record GN4. Of course, a drink (crofter’s cocktail) after solving, not before, may explain everything.
37. Would have been sub 15 minutes, a great time for me, but tripped up by SUBJECT.
38. Walk in the park today.
    Nice cluing for which thanks
39. Lots of lovely anagrams 😊
    Thank you, Trelawney and Jeremy.
40. Another sluggish solve today – I seem to be in a bit of a form slump this week. No obvious reasons just a general lack of inspiration. Finished with the tricky MISPLACE/ESPOUSE crossers in 12.10
    Thanks to Jeremy
41. I don’t often post on here but I have to mark a rare excursion out of the SCC. 16 minutes so it must have been an easy one. Having said that, I tried the technique of working through all the across clues first for the first time so maybe that was the secret.
42. Thanks Trelawney for a very approachable crossword. Made a rare exit from the SCC. Dave and Sal

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