Times Quick Cryptic 2082 by Joker

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

10:31, a slowdown after a string of faster times. It feels good to roll up the sleeves. Some nice tricky stuff in here — I enjoy being fooled by Joker. Commentary below.

Solutions

Across

1   Useful plant, one doing badly (6)
INDIGO = I + DOING anagrammed
Useful? I hadn’t known. Drugs.com says, “Chiefly a source of dye, indigo also has been used as a nematicide and treatment for a range of ills including scorpion bites and ovarian and stomach cancer.”.

4   Reported effect of traffic jam in Paris? Sad (6)
RUEFUL = homophone of RUE FULL
Tricky and cute.

8   Right result upset cattle thief (7)
RUSTLER = R + RESULT anagrammed
Had HUSTLER for awhile which held me up.

10   Great disappointment about English not on top (5)
BELOW = BLOW around E

11   Begin royal house when banishing first of usurpers (5)
START = STUART without U

12   Appealing victory by a few (7)
WINSOME = WIN + SOME

13   Feeling thrilled about November period (9)
SENTIMENT = SENT around N + TIME

17   Outline for dossier (7)
PROFILE = FOR + FILE

19   Put down and leave a jacket (5)
PARKA = PARK + A
‘Put down and leave’ is an accurate, misleading definition!

20   Long for clubs with electronic dance music (5)
CRAVE = C + RAVE
I was trying to get EDM in there somehow…

21   A fool chasing home counties bird (7)
SEAGULL = A + GULL after SE

22   Work persistently beside river with great intensity (6)
DEEPLY = PLY next to DEE

23   Second piece of pollen removed from another part of stamen (6)
ANTHER = remove O from ANOTHER
Biffed this one after much consternation, only to realize the answer was staring me in the face!

Down

1   Result of implosion badly ruins hotel (6)
INRUSH = anagram of RUINS + H

2   Is ardent love during romantic meeting fair? (13)
DISPASSIONATE = IS PASSION in DATE

3   Italian ice creams with new food ingredient (7)
GELATIN = GELATI + N

5   Headgear but not the topper in town (5)
URBAN = TURBAN without first letter

6   Golfer’s action to succeed with first two of three below par? (6-7)
FOLLOW-THROUGH = FOLLOW + TH + ROUGH
Quite tricky. Ultimately I biffed it.

7   Tom, perhaps needs pounds for second legal representative (6)
LAWYER = SAWYER with L for S

9   Eats surrounded by arguments and loud behaviour (9)
ROWDINESS = DINES in ROWS

14   Clear up former flat (7)
EXPLAIN = EX + PLAIN

15   Coming at intervals in spring crocuses exceed daffodils at first (6)
SPACED = SPA + C + E + D

16   Fashion to follow as an alternative (6)
TAILOR = TAIL + OR

18   I pine for perfection (5)
IDEAL = I + DEAL

60 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2082 by Joker”

  1. Chewy indeed and it turned into a slog by the end. Had similar hold ups to those already mentioned plus an extra one from biffing gelatos, which made SENTIMENT even harder.
    Finished in 16.04 with LOI TAILOR.
    Thanks to Jeremy
  2. …that so many of you found this tricky too! I gave up after 45 mins with TAILOR and DEEPLY still unsolved and several queries: DNK ‘deal’ for ‘pine’ or ‘sent’ for ‘thrilled’ but guessed correctly. Loved RUEFUL. Thanks Jeremy and Joker (I think). Very tricky but glad not just me 😁
  3. Shouldn’t the definition for 5 Down be “in town” and not just “town”? That is, the “in” should be underlined too?
  4. Although seagull exists as a word, technically there isn’t a bird called a “seagull”, nor a grouping under this name. There are gulls, and many different kinds of them, but no seagulls. And more and more of them now live a long way from the sea anyway.
  5. Needed aids to get to the end of this one. A number of clues defeated us, eg deeply, spaced. Thanks for instructive blog.
  6. Looked at this after golf earlier today. It was hard. No time to report. Managed to work it all out in the end. DNK ANTHER or INDIGO as a useful plant.
    David
  7. Gave this a full 30mins this morning but then had to go out with half a dozen still to do. Second sitting produced Sentiment (sent = thrilled???), Seagull and Tailor, but gave up with Ideal and Deeply unsolved having wrongly rejected the former because pine/deal made no sense. While Rueful was an excellent clue, overall Joker (RR?) seems to have lost the plot as far as QCs go. Invariant
  8. Well, that was a struggle and a half. Had GELLATO for Italian ice cream and then couldn’t get SENTIMENT. All topped off with a failure on DEEPLY.
  9. on the MOHS scale runs from Talc (least hard) to Diamond (hardest of all). Well I didn’t have a diamond of a time doing today’s clues, nor Topaz (third hardest) which sounds much too jolly. Corundum, second only to diamond hardness, was the one for me. Enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a Conundrum (sic) just about gets there. Still, I’m ready for tomorrow! Well done Blog.
  10. I was dreading coming on here and being told it was easy, so I’m reassured by your comments as I found this tough. Almost got there but had gelatos for 3dn and only found out my mistake when using a checker. A few months ago this would have been way beyond me, so it’s progress of a sort. Very few write ins so tough to get going, but a good — if long — mental workout.

    Gary A

    1. Clearly not just ‘progress of a sort’ but making great strides 😊 I hope you don’t really dread coming here. One of the things I like about the Quickie blog is how honest and supportive people are. Keep going!
  11. The first time I have not solved a single clue. So nothing to get me going. I gather many would agree. Roll on tomorrow! Rosemary
  12. Not quite bucking the trend as I did find this challenging, but I finished just about within target in 24:49. NHO sent meaning thrilled, but other than that none of Joker’s tricks were too devious I thought. Interested to learn of the medicinal properties of my FOI INDIGO, so thanks for that, and thanks also to Jeremy and Joker.
  13. Needed aids to get through this. Therefore a clear DNF, but I wasn’t going to be completely defeated as I wanted to know how the clues worked and start afresh tomorrow. It took me a couple of hours even with the aids. I can see it’s all there in the clues but I must have been well below par in my thinking today. Roll on tomorrow!
  14. I was wondering if this great Duke Ellington piece would be referred to in the comments. I think if Horryd were present it might well have been- so I’ll do it instead in his honour!

Comments are closed.