Times Quick Cryptic 2067 by Breadman

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A sting in the tail of this one, as I missed the enumeration of 8ac and was convinced it would end -CIAN, and was flummuxod by the parsing of 24ac. All green in the end, though, and my fastest solve of the week so far.

Definitions underlined.

Across
3 Father unhappy with European article about Californian city (8)
PASADENA – PA (father), SAD (unhappy), E (European) then a reversal of (about) AN (article).
7 Way of cooking meat in France, on vacation (6)
FLAMBE – LAMBE (meat) contained by (in) the forst and last letters of (on vacation) FrancE.
8 Crustacean caught by Scotsman on net (4,4)
LAND CRAB – LAND (net), with C (caught) and RAB (Scotsman).
9 Greek character risked ace (4)
BETA – BET (risked) and A (ace).
10 Newsman set about new objective (3)
END – ED (editor, newsman) containing (about) N (new).
11 Joker‘s trick involving TV, newspapers, etc (8)
COMEDIAN – CON (trick) containing (involving) MEDIA (TV, newspapers, etc.).
13 Large-scale English film (4)
EPIC – E (English) and PIC (film).
15 Highly valued ruminant animal discussed (4)
DEAR – sounds like (discussed) “deer” (ruminant animal).
17 That lady’s driver follows small forest (8)
SHERWOOD – HER (that lady’s) and WOOD (driver, in golf), all following S (small).
19 Consumed tea messily (3)
ATE – anagram of (messily) TEA.
22 Ray‘s gymnastic apparatus (4)
BEAM – double definition.
23 Type of coffee — rep’s working fuel? (8)
ESPRESSO – anagram of (working) REP’S, then ESSO (fuel?).
24 Grumble about the Italian switching faith (6)
BELIEF – BEEF (grumble) containing (about) a reversal of (switching) IL (the, in Italian).
25 Enthusiast Angela, not half, in party dance (8)
FANDANGO – FAN (enthusiast), then the first three letters of (not half) ANGela contained by (in) DO (party).

Down
1 US puritan dejected by corrupt ones (8)
BLUENOSE – BLUE (dejected) and an anagram of (corrupted) ONES. Not a word I knew, but easy-ish from checkers.
2 Pierce, male friend in centre of Amiens (6)
IMPALE – M (male) and PAL (friend), all contiained by (in) the middle letters from (centre of) amIEns.
3 Training lieutenant to sprint (4)
PELT – PE (physical exercise, training) and LT (lieutenant).
4 Criminal may receive this, delivered enclosed with drug (8)
SENTENCE – SENT (delivered), ENC (enclosed), and E (ecstasy, drug).
5 Immoral to ignore series of religious books some years (6)
DECADE – DECADEnt (immoral) minus (to ignore) ‘NT’ (New Testament, series of religious books).
6 Close new organ (4)
NEAR – N (new) and EAR (organ).
12 Popular spice, ready for eating (2,6)
IN SEASON – IN (popular) and SEASON (spice).
14 One meets very tardy daughter, standing apart (8)
ISOLATED – I (one), SO LATE (very tardy), and D (daughter).
16 Disciplinarian hit staff (6)
RAMROD – RAM (hit) and ROD (staff).
18 Front of boat lifted, belly occasionally tremulous (6)
WOBBLY – reversal of (lifted) BOW (front of boat), then every other letter from (occasionally) BeLlY.
20 Huge land mass of Sumatra is amazing northwards (4)
ASIA – hidden in (of) sumatrA IS Amazing, when reversed (northwards).
21 Tramp‘s house with bad smell (4)
HOBO – HO (house) and BO (body odour, bad smell).

45 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2067 by Breadman”

  1. DNF. DNK LAND CRAB, and would never have thought of RAB for a Scotsman. I didn’t know that BLUENOSE was an Americanism.
  2. 23 minutes again.
    FOI: PASADENA
    LOI: EPIC
    BLUENOSE not sure I’ve come across that meaning before but the wordplay got me there.
    Enjoyed unravelling SHERWOOD, FANDANGO and ISOLATED.
    All in all, good fun, a good cryptic workout.

    Edited at 2022-02-09 06:32 am (UTC)

  3. A rare sub ten, held up by FANDANGO and IN SEASON at the end and by LAND CRAB a bit earlier. I had started with LINE CRAB which fitted but I couldn’t make net=line so kept up the search. I’ve only heard BLUENOSE in relation to football fans — Everton? Rangers? Somewhere anyway. Didn’t know the proper definition. Enjoyed seeing WOBBLY emerge.
  4. 9 minutes, also unware of RAMROD as a disciplinarian.

    The LAND bit of LANDCRAB took a while to emerge and I was also delayed there wondering about RAB as a Scotsman having temporarily forgotten about Rab C Nesbitt – not that I ever watched him, but I was aware.

    A little surprised to see the brand name ESSO in 23ac, but The Times seems to have abandoned any rules it once had about this. Anyway it reminded me of the jolly TV commercials that used to appear in the early days of ITV and continued for some years. Here’s one for your delectation, thought to feature the voices of Peter Sellers and June Whitfield – I’m sure about her but very doubtful about him. It contains national stereotyping but limits itself to the British Isles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS6dN-JGfKs

    Another one I found includes characters from around the world and would be considered deeply offensive now.

    Edited at 2022-02-09 07:20 am (UTC)

  5. ….when l crashed out at 14ac! ‘I don’t believe it!!’

    FOI 8dn LAND CRAB — whereverelse might poet RABBIE Burns hail from!?

    LOI I stuck in BILKED — beef round il! — IKEA Perugia

    COD 18dn WOBBLY — more tat from IKEA

    WOD 1dn BLUENOSE! — medical face masks from – ykw!

    There might just have been a Nina! Josh RAMROD; Phil FANDANGO; Brian SHERWOOD; Pete SENTENCE; Kyle DEER and Guy DeCADE all play for Lincoln City 2nd XI at Sincil Bank.

    Edited at 2022-02-09 07:29 am (UTC)

  6. A relatively gentle offering, with a short hold up at the end with BELIEF, where I took too long to pay attention to ‘switching’, at which point the answer became obvious.
    BLUENOSE was new to me and I’d not come across RAMROD in that sense before. Was a bit bemused by ESPRESSO but it couldn’t have been much else.
    Finished in 7.53 with COD to IN SEASON
    Thanks to William and Breadman
  7. C.11 mins with a couple of interruptions. Nice to see a variation on Ian for a Scotsman. BLUENOSE unknown to me so was LOI with checkers required. Some neat builds with FANDANGO, PASADENA and ISOLATED in an all round decent quickie.

    Thanks Breadman and William

  8. Yesterday I was shot by A Few Dollars More and today I was sunk by the Blue Planet.
    Otherwise all went well but no cigar.
    Thanks Breadman and William.
  9. That was going quickly but I got stuck on DEAR (must brush up my ruminants), RAMROD, IN SEASON and BELIEF and limped home. Very enjoyable puzzle.

    All sorts of football fans are called BLUENOSEs (the only context in which I had come across the word before), always fans of teams which play in a blue strip — eg Rangers, Birmingham City.

    FOI PASADENA, LOI BELIEF, COD FLAMBÉ, time 11:16 for a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Breaders and William.

    Templar

    Edited at 2022-02-09 01:27 pm (UTC)

  10. I didn’t find this easy, 31 mins grinding down the grid. Didnt know BLUENOSE at all, or RAMROD in that sense, and most clues had to be teased out with crossers and the cryptic, very little biff-ability for me, so probably a good test! Pleasing to complete but not a lot of smiles. Maybe I should have let the coffee kick in before I started.
  11. Stupidly forgot to go back and check Raprod which I knew was dodgy. Finished all. NHO BLUENOSE but easy to biff.
    Liked PASADENA, FANDANGO, COMEDIAN, SHERWOOD. COD FLAMBE.
    Not that easy at first, but improved as I jumped about the grid.
    Thanks, William, vm.
  12. Very enjoyable puzzle. We finished in 14 minutes after taking a while to get BLUENOSE (NHO so had to work out from the checkers).

    FOI: PASADENA
    LOI: BLUENOSE
    COD: IN SEASON

    Thanks William and Breadman.

  13. This seemed easy at first and I decided to look for a fast time. That ambition soon disappeared.
    BLUENOSE unknown and took a lot of working out. I managed to correct IMMATE to IMPALE as I slowed down but failed to revisit LINE CRAB so I had one wrong after 10 minutes.
    Some good clues; COD to FLAMBE.
    David
  14. Twenty minutes without bluenose (NHO, LOI, technical DNF) for which I had to do some trials on the electronic grid as to where the letters of ones went, and what word for dejected we were looking for. Did not see Rab, the con in comedian, the do in Fandango or the Enc E in sentence. Only seven on first pass. Dithering over hobo/boho slowed me down. Sherwood gave me wobbly. Isolated changed bars (which did not parse) to beam. COD Sherwood. Thanks, William, and Breadman.
  15. I thought I was in for a record time — the whole of the NW quadrant went in in double-quick time. Then the rot set in.
    There were answers I didn’t recognise but worked out from the (fair) clues — BLUENOSE and RAMROD. I liked SHERWOOD, ESPRESSO, BELIEF, ISOLATED, WOBBLY, FLAMBE but very nearly put in deer in my rush to finish.
    In the end, I was over target by 3 mins but quicker than the last two days, at least. Good puzzle and a crisp blog. Thanks, both. John M

    Edited at 2022-02-09 10:16 am (UTC)

  16. Held up by LAND CRAB, BLUENOSE(NHO), IN SEASON and RAMROD, but still managed to come in under my target. 8:54. Thanks Breadman and William.
  17. An enjoyable, but not very easy, solve that took 26mins including some tricky parsing. I think I’ve seen Flambé clued that way before, otherwise the unknown Bluenose would have been quite a stretch. Other hold ups included Wobbly (Bobby anyone?), Belief and loi Isolated. The last one is also my CoD, though Sherwood ran it close. Invariant
  18. Managed to put my travails of the past two days behind me with an all correct, and almost all fully parsed finish in 29 minutes. Anything under a half an hour is fast for me, so I’m very pleased to pass what I found was quite a tricky test unscathed.

    FOI was PASADENA, although it was at the third attempt. LOI was BEAM, in spite of the simplicity of the clue. DNK BLUENOSE, but it really had to be. Also NHO LAND CRAB, so I had to get it by fully parsing the clue.

    Relief all round in the Random household — especially for Mrs R, as she will not have to put up with any more of my grumbling from yesterday and Monday.

    Many thanks to Breadman and William.

  19. DNF
    Disaster, gave up after 20 minutes. Much too hard for me.

    Yet another one to write off to experience. I now have a lot of experience.

  20. I managed to rattle through this in 11 mins, which makes a change from the last few weeks. Only hesitation was 8ac “Land Crab”, which for a while I thought might be “Line Crab” (luckily I saw the Rab C Nesbitt reference — assuming that’s what it was).

    DNK 1dn “Bluenose”, but as noted above the clueing was generous.

    FOI — 3ac “Pasadena”
    LOI — 1dn “Bluenose”
    COD — 7ac “Flambé”

    Thanks as usual!

  21. Guessed BLUENOSE from clue, DNK LAND CRAB – did not see RAB as Scotsman: usually IAN? Don’t see why ‘on vacation’ refers to first and last letters of a word. A bit of a hotchpotch.
    1. If a word is vacated, everything it contains is removed. Therefore, ‘France’ upon vacation, is Franc</>E.
  22. Late to comment, and over target at 16 minutes. PASADENA FOI, BELIEF LOI, not much else to say.
  23. DNF as I had LiNe CRAB and DEeR. FOI PELT and LOI BLUENOSE in 10:43. I wasn’t in a hurry so there was really no excuse for not reading the clues properly. Even worse, I used LAND as a synonym for net in the clue that I wrote for the Christmas Cryptic.

    Edited at 2022-02-09 01:08 pm (UTC)

  25. ….and only knew BLUENOSE as an Everton supporter (and, as such, one deserving of our sympathy just now). Crept inside my target, but no rhythm to be found, and I jumped about all over the grid.

    FOI FLAMBE
    LOI RAMROD
    COD PASADENA
    TIME 4:51

  26. It really would help if I learnt to spell! I was sure PASADINA was the correct place but I couldn’t parse it. Eventually I realised my mistake 😅 And I spent a couple of minutes on 24a too until the PDM! Otherwise I enjoyed this, although in general I didn’t find it as easy as some commenters seem to have. The Rab that sprang to mind was Rabbie Burns.
    FOI Should have been Pasadena but was in fact Flambé
    LOI Would have been Belief but was in fact Pasadena
    COD Beam
    Thanks Breadman and William

    Edited at 2022-02-09 01:17 pm (UTC)

  27. Time around 25 minutes.
    NHO Bluenose but it had to be — oh and William — a tiddly E could come out of 7a blog…
    Great to see Ramrod in this since I had not heard of this meaning, but always knew of Ramrod as the main road crew man for the Grateful Dead….and now that nickname makes more sense. Excellent!
    Land Crab was a bit umm maybe.
    Thanks all
  28. …thought I’d signed up to the blog but apparently haven’t. It’s StoneRose here (think I’ve only posted once before, so for all given purposes pretty much anonymous!).
    I’ll try to remember to sign up this time.
    Very much enjoyed the crossword, thanks Breadman. Didn’t spot a “bread” reference, which I thought usually occurred in a Breadman crossword. Possibly getting mixed up with Oink and the porcine ref.
    Also many thanks for the blog, William.

    I’d only come across BLUENOSE in Terry Pratchett books in which it’s the Discworld form of Bluetooth technology.
    I’d assumed he’d used “nose” instead of “tooth” purely for comic effect, but am not surprised to find out it’s a real word and am positive the great man knew it was 🙂

    1. I don’t think that Breadman usually offers us a clue linked to his name but Oink (as you say) very definitely does 🐷 You might find this site interesting — Crossword Who’s Who on Best for Puzzles. Not sure how up to date it is though.
      Hope you get your account sorted out soon 😊
  29. Gave up after an hour and began checking for LANDCRAB and BLUENOSE (NHO of either). Never got RAMROD or DEAR (didn’t know what a ruminant animal is)

    FOI PASADENA
    COD ISOLATED

    1. Ruminant animal is one that chews the cud, eg cattle (and deer!), or those of us slow Xwd solvers that read the clue, then read it again several times with a certain amount of cogitating before extracting and digesting the solution. Unlike the ruminant, in my case, with mixed success.
      1. Thank-you for the explanation steakcity. Does it therefore have some etymological connection with ruminate?

        (I had it down as some kind of underground dwelling / hole digging creature like a mole, vole or badger and therefore “discusses” was signalling an anagram rather than homophone)

        1. Ruminants ‘chew the cud’ — in other words they swallow their food into a first stomach and then regurgitate it to chew it again. You may have seen sheep lying in a field working their jaws. So yes, definitely linked to ruminating.
        2. Yes, all very cryptic. Homophones are clued very widely, usually indicated by some kind of audible pointer, “on the radio”, discussed, as you point out, so DEER (ruminant animal, deer like cows chew the cud ie ruminate) sounds like DEAR (highly valued) and follows the convention that the answer to the clue in QCC land is given either at the beginning or the end of the clue. Anagrinds (anagram indicators) are the most diverse set of road signs with literally hundreds of ways of pointing (or disguising) the relevant word or collection of letters that make up the Anagrist (jumble of letters from which to make the answer). They do not usually appear as “sounds like” indicators. If you google homophones or anagrinds you will find lists of these sign post words, but never complete and by their nature are merely tools in the setter’s armamentarium to deceive us and open traps into which I generally fall head first. However, I do enjoy climbing out of the hole slowly and looking around to see that everyone else saw it a mile away and stepped safely round it.

          Edited at 2022-02-09 09:36 pm (UTC)

          1. Thank-you again. Useful to know anagrinds and homophones are essentially two separate lists.
  30. Came to this late today after a tiring day …
    … only to record a bad DNF. Bluenose, Land crab (both NHO) and Ramrod (not known in this sense) all defeated me. Took a long time to get Wobbly too — was fixated on Prow for the front of a boat not Bow.

    So, not a great day — it has been a difficult day but I hadn’t realised it had been that stressful and tiring!

    One to forget for me; roll on tomorrow.

    Many thanks to William for the blog.
    Cedric

    1. Some of the best customers hereabouts are indeed American. I have a feeling we may well have Irish and American setters and the odd Oz!
  32. I did it ages ago, but was busy, so forgot to post.

    BLUENOSE was LOI, NHO in that context, but cluing was straightforward.

    6:08 says the clock.

  33. NHO BLUENOSE but clear from the wordplay. Otherwise all straightforward apart from LOI BELIEF where I was looking for a word containing IL.
  34. No particular hold ups for me, but chewy enough to take me to 16:44. NHO BLUENOSE and RAMROD in this context (but now that I think about it, I’m not sure what other contexts there are to know. Some sort of car?) Anyway COD to BELIEF for adding to my portfolio of foreign words for ‘the’. Thanks to Breadman and William
  35. Another SCC ticket for me. Decent start but held up badly by land crab and belief. I normally find this setter to my liking so feel a bit depressed at only achieving my usual hour or so solving time.

    Gary A

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