Times Quick Cryptic 2077 by Orpheus

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bottom to top solve, in which 1ac gave me the most trouble.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Eccentric chap — Welsh (8)
CAMBRIAN – CAM (eccentric) and BRIAN (chap). This was my LOI having had trouble thinking of the association with the mechanical part.
6 Crazy nocturnal flyers (4)
BATS – double definition.
8 Fellow European, one from Odense, perhaps (4)
DANE – DAN (fellow) and E (European).
9 Stack of fruit in Irish county? (8)
LIMERICK – a RICK (stack) of LIMEs (fruit).
10 Knowledgeable English press chief pocketing old gold coin (8)
EDUCATED – E (English) and ED (press chief) containing (pocketing) DUCAT (old gold coin).
12 Principal supplier of gas or water (4)
MAIN – double definition.
13 Cart making noise at back of pub (6)
BARROW – ROW (noise) following (at back of) BAR (pub).
16 Tailor’s small boat (6)
CUTTER – double definition.
17 Comedian digesting beginning of royal court document (4)
WRIT – WIT (comedian) containing (digesting) the first letter (beginning) of Royal.
18 Declaration of doorman, one bringing in goods (8)
IMPORTER – “I’M PORTER” (declaration of doorman).
21 Avoid fish, offering young bird (8)
DUCKLING – DUCK (avoid) and LING (fish).
22 Simple, being tolerant (4)
EASY – double definition.
23 Poem initially recalling European river (4)
ODER – ODE (poem), and the first letter of (initially) Recalling.
24 Policeman’s information American woman takes in rapidly at first (8)
GENDARME – GEN (information), then DAME (American woman) containing (takes in) the first letter of (at first) Rapidly.

Down
2 A protégé’s recognition of merit (5)
AWARD – A and WARD (protégé).
3 Extra purchase, by the sound of it (3)
BYE – sounds like (by the sound of it) “buy” (purchase).
4 Small detached territory one’s rented out (5)
ISLET – I’S (one’s) and LET (rented out).
5 Old CID man surprisingly inclined to wander (7)
NOMADIC – anagram of (surprisingly) O (old) and CID MAN.
6 Term a bore devised for a measurer of pressure (9)
BAROMETER – anagram of (devised) TERM A BORE.
7 Tangible diplomacy over French island (7)
TACTILE – TACT (diplomacy) before (over) ÎLE (island in French).
11 Race round track regularly, finding concierge (9)
CARETAKER – CAREER (race) containing (round) every other letter from (regularly) TrAcK.
14 A singular reason for being beached (7)
AGROUND – A and GROUND (singular ‘grounds’, as in ‘grounds for’, reason for).
15 Hanging about for work in restaurant (7)
WAITING – double definition.
19 Heathen god of flocks and herds around Georgia (5)
PAGAN – PAN (Greek god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, god of flocks and herds) containing (around) GA (Georgia).
20 Old record thus maintained principally in horse racing venue (5)
EPSOM – EP (old record), SO (thus), and the first letter from (principally) Maintained.
22 Beginning of Egyptian sun god’s time (3)
ERA – first letter (beginning) of Egyptian, then RA (sun god).

80 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2077 by Orpheus”

  1. After my lightening charge yesterday (and thanks to all those kind commenters’ flames), I have retired to my usual corner chair in the club after a 26 minute circuit. All the aforementioned gotchas got me but in the end I felt that it was a worthy challenge. COD EPSOM for its memories of a time past.
    Thanks Orpheus and William
  2. We seemed to plod through the puzzle today — perhaps because we’re on holiday. Any how we finished in 17 .53 with CAMBRIAN taking ages to solve (will have to try and remember CAM for future reference).

    FOI: BATS
    LOI: WRIT
    COD: AGROUND

    Thanks William and Orpheus.

  3. Finished in abt 28m. No problem with Odense, once we had changed buy for bye. Two holidays in Denmark many years ago to go to Legoland with the kids. Slow to get 14d aground, the word singular in the clue seems superfluous. Enjoyable puzzle.
  4. I was surprised by a couple of clues. I would have expected that there would be something indicating it was not a British policeman in a QC, although it was fairly obvious with some checkers, and In 5d I was expecting the “O” for old to be the first letter of the answer rather than part of the anagrist. I don’t recall seeing this before (but with my memory…), to me it seems close to including something which isn’t in the clue in the anagrist. “CID man surprisingly hides old wanderer” seems to be a better construction to me.

    Edited at 2022-02-23 04:23 pm (UTC)

  5. Too many obscure defs in there for me with Odense, rick=stack, cam=eccentric, ile=island in french, ducat, Oder. Even CAMBRIAN itself, I thought was a geological period rather than an area. BIFD through some but came up stuck in the NW.

    Didn’t have the mental push today after an unusually busy morning.

    FOI BAROMETER
    COD IMPORTER

    Edited at 2022-02-23 04:37 pm (UTC)

  6. Was doing well until the cambrian/islet crosser.
    Completed on the laptop for the first time in ages, which is much nicer than the phone.
    11m
    COD bats/limerick.
  7. Packed up after 12 solves in 26 clues today. No great effort from me but perhaps a gentle hint on overall QC difficulty. Others may have views.
  8. Enjoyed today’s QC
    Sympathy with those who just do it without really knowing how. I am tne same with anagrams. I get the answer but cannot work out how i do it so i can’t teach any one else.
  9. Just when I thought I was about to complete the second QC in two days, Cambrian completely floored me! Got the brian bit but the cam eluded me. Maybe better tomorrow?
  10. Did this online, so slower than normal. CAMBRIAN last in.
    Not much else to add.
    Thanks for the blog.
  11. All was going well. The RHS flew in but gradually slowed until I was stuck for a full 5 minutes on last 2 ISLET and CAMBRIAN.
  12. I did complete it but with a lot of biffing. But in many multiples of 4 minutes.

    Cam/eccentric is a bit much for me.

  13. A similar pattern to yesterday with most of it going in quickly, but being slowed down at the end by a four letter word that required an alphabet trawl. Fortunately, this time I wasn’t scuppered by having spelt one of the crossers of the 4-letter word wrong, and as D is near the start of the alphabet, it didn’t take too long to come up with DANE. I still wasn’t sure of it, mind, as I was fairly certain Odense was on the Black Sea, and I now see I wasn’t being entirely (O)dense as I was thinking of Odessa. Anyway, 21:11 in the end. FOI BATS, LOI DANE, COD LIMERICK. Thanks Orpheus and William.
  14. Have had quite a busy day so a very late posting from me. I did this in 9 minutes this morning, and found it pleasant enough. Having seen CAM for eccentric quite often in the biggie, it didn’t cause any problems, and we’ve crossed the CAMBRIAN hills a few times, so that wasn’t too much of a stretch either! Talking about the biggie though 😱 Four inked in and two pencilled after about half an hour — it was like being back in the early days of solving! I abandoned it and haven’t even bothered looking at it again.
    FOI Bats
    LOI Writ
    COD CAMBRIAN (possibly a bit controversially 😅)
    Thanks Orpheus and William
  15. For us members of the SCC, Cambrian was v tough. I guessed it but then, like others, associated it more with geological periods. Didn’t know cam for eccentric, and at one point had ‘madbrian’. Then I thought it might begin with ‘dai’. After 30 mins put in Cambrian, and was surprised to find it was right.

    Cambrian apart I was on a flyer. As it is, I was somewhere around the hour mark.

    I’ll know it next time!

    Gary A

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