Times Quick Cryptic 2107 by Tracy

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Quite tricky today. Although I managed to finish just inside my target time, Tracy has a way of making you second guess how the clue works while solving it. I did not know 3dn, 7dn, or 18dn so had to guess from wordplay and checking letters. The long answers, which seem quite straighforward now, also slowed me down.

Definiitons underlined.

Across
1 Crowd, largely out of order, in area set aside for reporters (5,7)
PRESS GALLERY – PRESS (pressure, crowd) then an anagram of (out of order) LARGELY.
8 Famous clown having a hot drink (5)
COCOA – COCO (famous clown) then A.
9 Draw large aquatic mammal close to quay (7)
LOTTERY – L (large), OTTER (aquatic mammal), and the last letter of (close to) quaY.
10 Sister in on understanding (3)
NUN – hidden in (in) oN UNderstanding.
11 Fish and fruit only (5,4)
LEMON SOLE – LEMON (fruit) and SOLE (only).
13 Fish from foreign parts (5)
SPRAT – anagram of (foreign) PARTS.
14 Mother’s working for fraternal society member (5)
MASON – MA’S (mother’s) and ON (working).
16 Meet knight in English bar (9)
ENCOUNTER – N (knight, in chess notation), contained by (in) E (English) and COUNTER (bar).
17 Mischievous child occupying him perpetually (3)
IMP – hidden in (occupying) hIM Perpetually.
19 Note about hospital department, as a reminder (7)
MEMENTO – MEMO (note) containing (about) ENT (hospital department).
21 Diagram may show daily temperature (5)
CHART – CHAR (charwoman, daily) and T (temperature).
22 Hurricane lamp in stern, normal tradition, originally, at sea (5,7)
STORM LANTERN – anagram of (at sea) STERN NORMAL with the first letter of (originally) Tradition.

Down
1 Nut from Cape, extraordinary one at heart (5)
PECAN – anagram of (extraordinary) CAPE then the middle letter of (at heart) oNe.
2 Unconventional opener for Essex County Cricket Club bagging ten bizarre runs against India (9)
ECCENTRIC – first letter of (opener for) Essex with CCC (county cricket club) containing (bagging) an anagram of (bizarre) TEN with R (runs) and I (india).
3 Climber in vivid red, athletic person (7,6)
SCARLET RUNNER – SCARLET (vivid red) and RUNNER (athletic person). A type of climbing bean.
4 Composure shown by doctor after a quiet look (6)
APLOMB – MB (doctor) after A, P (piano, quiet), and LO (look).
5 One from Peru, perhaps Lima, in a trance, dancing (5,8)
LATIN AMERICAN – anagram of (dancing) LIMA IN A TRANCE.
6 Nothing inside about eggs (3)
ROE – O (nothing) contained by (inside) RE (regarding, about).
7 Heraldic beast with very strange name (6)
WYVERN – W (with), then an anagram of (strange) VERY, then N (name). The dragon common on shields and coats of arms.
12 Stubborn old boy, say, outside home (9)
OBSTINATE – OB (old boy), then STATE (say) containing (outside) IN (home).
13 Passionate crew flanked by banks of Spey (6)
STEAMY – TEAM (crew) contained in (flanked by) the outermost letters from (banks of) SpeY.
15 Walk casually in street — go round and round (6)
STROLL – ST (street) and ROLL (go round and round).
18 Climbing aid‘s special point (5)
PITON – anagram of (special) POINT. A spike used as an anchor when rock climbing.
20 Rug friend shortened (3)
MAT – MATe (friend) without the last letter (shortened).

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2107 by Tracy”

  1. No problems, although I biffed ECCENTRIC, only parsing post-submission; and I DNK STORM LANTERN. I biffed LATIN AMERICAN from checkers; didn’t bother checking the clue. I’m surprised you didn’t know WYVERN, William; Poison Wyvern is one of our solvers. You may meet him today. 4:38.
  2. 5:00 exact, I think maybe my fastest ever. I biffed a couple that seemed the only choice like ECCENTRIC and OBSTINATE.
  3. 18 minutes from FOI: PRESS GALLERY to LOI: CHART. Also, didn’t know SCARLET RUNNER but the wordplay was helpful. No problem with WYVERN.

    BIFD: STORM LANTERN sorting the anagrist post solve.

    Marked two clues for COD, LOTTERY and ENCOUNTER both for their surface.

  4. A gentle QCC today which I zipped through in sub 20 mins for a change.
    Biffed ECCENTRIC and popped in the eponymous WYVERN.
    COD LEMON SOLE 🐟🐟
    Thanks William and Tracy
  5. All green in a little under 13 but I did use the internet to see if it was ‘potin’ or PITON. Also struggled to parse MEMENTO despite writing it in straightaway — I was on musical notes and that left me a ‘mo’ short on parsing for a while. Hadn’t heard of SCARLET RUNNER but it seemed inevitable and unknown plants aren’t unknown for me so went with it once all the checkers were in. Got SOLE on sight but needed a letter to see past dover to LEMON. Thought of PW as WYVERN went in — will he get to the candy store today?
  7. On the wavelength today. PRESS GALLERY straight in, LOI was SPRAT. 4:53. Thanks Tracy and William.
  8. A gentle work out today, starting with PRESS GALLERRY and all those useful first letters. The parsing of MEMENTO even meant that I spelt it correctly for once. For some reason I always want to replace the first e with an o.
    Finished in 5.32 with LOI SPRAT and COD to APLOMB
    Thanks to William
  9. Twelve minutes, with eccentric unparsed. FOI cocoa, seventeen on first pass. LOI lottery. COD press gallery. Thanks, William, and Tracy.
  10. I found this one tricky. Piton I have never heard of. Needed help with some of the clues.
  11. Pretty sure 7:15 is a Personal Best for me with a QC.
    LOI ROE, NHO SCARLET RUNNER

    Did not put PRESS GALLERY in straight away as the clue read to me as an anagram of “Crowd largely”.

  12. Daily appearances by Wyvern helped today.
    This puzzle was never easy and I put several in without full parsing. A big error was PORTRAY at 9a but I knew it was shaky.
    LOI was STORM LANTERN after 12 minutes.
    COD to LOTTERY which did me up like a kipper.
    David
  13. Did this on my tablet as we are away in Herefordshire for a few days. Normally that would slow me down but not today! All done and dusted in 6:49, so A Very Good Day 🙂
    FOI Cocoa
    LOI Steamy
    COD Latin American
    Thanks Tracy and William

    I was glad to see Vinyl’s update in the biggie blog yesterday — hopefully it won’t be too long before we can all be reunited 🤞 Continued thanks to all who are involved in sorting this out. It’s just a small thing — I wish there was more we could do 🇺🇦

  14. … probably my best performance ever until it wasn’t!

    Only had the NE corner left at 13-mins … only LOTTERY and WYVERN to go at about 17-mins.

    Stepped away for a few mins and came back and knocked ’em in for a 29:29 completion time.

    Food&drink – my least favoured trivia subject – some how able to deal with COCOA, SPRAT and PECAN; and LEMON-SOLE, SCARLET-RUNNER eventually.

    FOI PECAN
    LOI LOTTERY
    COD ROE
    NHO SCARLET-LETTER

    Thanks to William for a thorough breakdown and to Tracy
    BIFD PECAN, ECCENTRIC, OBSTINATE, STORM-LANTERN, CHART,

    Edited at 2022-04-06 10:05 am (UTC)

  15. 9 minutes and fastest solve for a while. Everything just went straight in except for RUNNER. After entering SCARLET with just the S in place, I needed to wait for a checker to confirm the guessed second word. Nice to see PW making an appearance. Thanks both.

    As an aside, I spent half the night with my brain trying to remember the name for FAT RASCALs, and then trying to make up a clue in my head for them. I can’t think what started me on this track, but it seriously disturbed my night’s rest. The best I could come up with was ‘Shellacs art after eating up a cake (3,6)’. It would need to be a down clue! Strange the way one’s brain works.

  16. I thought this was on the easier side, with my only hold up being 18dn where I couldn’t see the parsing. As a result, I wasn’t sure if it was Piton or Peton. Luckily, I chose the former.

    FOI — 1dn “Pecan”
    LOI — 18dn “Piton”
    COD — 2dn “Eccentric” — maybe a little wordy for the surface, but still a good effort.

    Thanks as usual!

  17. I got very few of the across clues on first pass but luckily it all started to flow as I tackled the downs. 14 minutes fully parsed. NHO scarlet runner but it couldn’t really be anything else. No issues with the rest of the vocabulary.

    FOI – 8ac COCOA
    LOI – 11ac LEMON SOLE
    COD – 19ac MEMENTO (mainly because of the surface but also because I spent some time trying to fit “ward” in the answer somewhere)

    Thanks to Tracy and William.

  19. ….as only my LOI evaded me on the first pass, and that went straight in with the checkers in place.

    FOI PRESS GALLERY
    LOI STORM LANTERN
    COD ECCENTRIC
    TIME 2:54 (with at least 3 genuine sub-2 minute solves in evidence, that’s almost sluggish !)

  20. 9 mins. Had to write out the anagrist for latin american, maybe I should do the quick before the main puzzle.
    Guessed piton not potin.
  21. I had to wait until MASON (14a) for my FOI, and then only added IMP from the rest of the acrosses. However, I fared better on my pass through the down clues and I then had enough of a structure to work from. I enjoyed WYVERN (of course) and COCOA, but had NHO SCARLET RUNNER. MEMENTO posed some problems and ENCOUNTER was my LOI. All of that enabled me to finish in spot on 20 minutes, which I don’t count as sub-SCC.

    Unusually, Mrs Random found it a little more tricky and turned in a slower time today – 26 minutes. She is now off to get her 4th jab, which, having recently undergone a course of radiotherapy, she qualifies for as a ‘vulnerable person’. In the meantime, I will finish the housework she started earlier and make her a nice cup of tea when she gets back.

    Many thanks to Tracy and William.

  22. Steady solve in around 18 mins today. No particular issues although biffed STORM LANTERN. NHO SCARLET RUNNER but guessed from wordplay. Originally had MOMENTO rather than MEMENTO so struggled to make sense of ‘momo’ for note! FOI PRESS GALLERY, LOI STORM LANTERN, COD STEAMY. Many thanks William and Tracy.
  23. Found this trickier than yesterday, but completed in 17:44, so I’m not complaining. Never heard of LOI PITON, but guessed it ended -ON rather than -IN because crampon ends in ON. Don’t know whether that is a legitimate reason, but it worked in this case. I vaguely remembered SCARLET RUNNER coming up on here before, but otherwise it was unknown. As I sometimes have in the past I forgot daily can mean cleaner = char, so I’m glad I’ve been reminded of that. COD to LOTTERY. Thanks Tracy and William
  24. Found this fairly straightforward overall, careless biffing for 11a caused unnecessary problems. Blame a pleasant large lunch out.
  25. Either I’m just getting faster all of a sudden, or we seem to be on a run of easier QC’s… Must be the latter. Trying to be leisurely about this I still finished in about 22 – and I ofter find Tracy harder than most. FOI 1a press gallery. LOI 22a storm lantern, despite all the crossers and because I hadn’t seen it was two words (!) nor, despite the clear indication, that it was an anagram. Well that proves I’m not getting better… Lots to enjoy, eg 13a 3d, 12d and 21a. Thx to all.
  27. Thanks William and Tracy. FOI 1D PECAN, which saved me wasting time looking for an anagram of 1A CROWD GALLERY. Another friendly touch was the VERY red in 3d, leading me to SCARLET. LOI 9A LOTTERY, having eventually eventually sussed the third meaning of DRAW only with all the crossers. COD STEAMY.
    I think Tracy is one of my favourite setters of QCs, not too difficult with about the right amount of trickery. And I appreciated last week’s “non-pangram”!

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