Times Quick Cryptic 2125 by Oink

Author   KittyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hi everybody.  I have always liked Oink’s puzzles, finding them sound, gentle and a lot of fun – everything a Quick Cryptic should be.  After a good start I slowed in the SW and finished in a whisker over 6 and a half minutes, still towards the lower end of my usual time range.

We have to wait until the very end for Oink’s customary piggy reference, but then we’re home.  I think my pick of the clues is 19d because it immediately set Monty Python’s Lumberjack Song playing in my head.  I’m ok with that!  Thanks Oink!

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

Across
1 US dollars found with stolen ammunition (8)
BUCKSHOT — BUCKS (US dollars) found with HOT (stolen)
6 A girl scratching back sadly (4)
ALAS — A + LASs (girl) removing (scratching) the last letter (back)
8 Amaze fanatics on return (4)
STUN — NUTS (fanatics) on reversal (on return)
9 Quarrel unexpectedly at event involving daughter (8)
VENDETTA — An anagram of (unexpectedly) AT EVENT containing (involving) D (daughter)
10 Woman of good judgement? (8)
PRUDENCE — Cryptic definition / double definition.  I’ve underlined the lot because the given name comes from the word, but “woman” and “good judgement” also work perfectly well as standalone definitions
12 Nothing for cricketer to avoid (4)
DUCK — A double definition.  Zero on a scoresheet was originally called a duck’s egg, from which we get this cricketing usage of duck.  (Speaking of things which come from ducks’ eggs, this year we have an abundance of ducklings locally)
13 Someone who insults Her Majesty on a double-decker? (6)
ABUSER — ER (Her Majesty) next to (on) A BUS (a double-decker?)
16 Become very angry on being caught by children (3,3)
SEE RED — RE (on, concerning) inside (being caught by) SEED (children)
17 Henry getting answer twice? That’s a laugh (2-2)
HA-HA — H (henry, SI unit of inductance) + A (answer) repeated (twice)
18 “A sorry tale”, cries right-winger (3,5)
SOB STORY — SOBS (cries) + TORY (right-winger)
21 Plant flourishing as I write (8)
WISTERIA — An anagram of (flourishing) AS I WRITE
22 Single that’s music to one’s ears (4)
SOLE — The answer sounds like (… to one’s ears) SOUL (music)
23 So hard to be among trade union strikers to begin with (4)
THUS — H (hard, of pencil leads) going inside (to be among) TU (trade union) + the first letter of (… to begin with) Strikers.  (It would also be fine to dispense with the TU abbreviation and instead extend the “to begin with” to cover the preceding three words)
24 Some articles say I struck writer (8)
ESSAYIST — Some articlES SAY I STruck
Down
2 Complete madman losing head (5)
UTTER — nUTTER (madman) removing the first letter (losing head)
3 Relations I met in the middle of Orkney (3)
KIN — I is found (met) in between the central letters (middle) of orKNey
4 Harbour, perfect place to drop an E (5)
HAVEN — H[e]AVEN (perfect place) in which we need to remove (drop) an E
5 Notes singers in the auditorium (7)
TENNERS — TENORS (singers), as heard (in the auditorium)
6 Ten madmen surprisingly making an improvement (9)
AMENDMENT — TEN MADMEN anagrammed (surprisingly)
7 Join English diplomat (7)
ATTACHÉ — ATTACH (join) + E (English)
11 Philosopher’s desperately sad secret (9)
DESCARTES — An anagram of (desperately) SAD SECRET
14 Rude and bad-tempered, a bit like a grizzly? (7)
BEARISH — A double definition
15 Jam quietly disposed of, or set aside? (7)
RESERVE — [p]RESERVE (jam) with P (quietly, in music) removed (disposed of)
19 Money made by son wearing women’s clothing (5)
BRASS — S (son) in (wearing) BRAS (women’s clothing)
20 Car turns over (5)
ROLLS — Two definitions
22 Pen story where gold goes missing (3)
STY — ST[or]Y where OR (gold, heraldry) is removed (goes missing)

36 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2125 by Oink”

  1. Certainly a gentle start to the week. Too gentle in my case, as I glanced at the clock and saw that I was heading for a PB (I think), which resulted in a recklessly unparsed ABASER at 13ac.

    Thanks Oink and Kitty.

    (Small point of order Kitty, I think DUCK is a double def, one cryptic and one literal).

  2. A bit sluggish today, slow e.g. to see PRUDENCE and WISTERIA. Biffed VENDETTA without bothering to check. 6:38.
  3. I finished this one! Oink is my favourite and I only manage to finish their puzzles apparently.

    I didn’t parse them all though. SEE RED was biffed, my eyes completely glaze past words like ‘on’ and I really need to pay attention to every word in a clue. I didn’t see the hidden in ESSAYIST

    I’m glad I watch cricket.

    I remembered ER for Elizabeth Regina and OR for gold from previous puzzles!

    Are right wingers/conservatives always ‘tory’ in these?

    FOI: STUN
    LOI: ALAS (I was trying to find words I could fit in backwards)

    Thanks everyone!

    1. Conservative is often just C, Party can be L for Liberal or LAB for Labour. Democrat is D, and Republican is R. And don’t forget the DUP over there in NI.
    2. Rather appropriately you may also see ‘Con’, not that they in politics have exclusive rights to that particular trait!
      1. Ahahahaha were going through an election here right now, campaigns are the worst
  4. Either easy, or I was on the wavelength. I got most of the top-half across answers on the first pass, allowing me to just write in most of the downs. On the other hand, I missed the chestnut reserve, and couldn’t see the hidden essayist for a bit. I never did parse see red, but put it in as the obvious answer.

    Time: 6:01.

    1. Good to read of the progress made with the new website. I was alerted to todays announcement by a reference in this blog. Perhaps there are other, like me, who don’t tackle the 15×15 and who could miss the updates announced there. Might I suggest they are duplicated here? I am (hopefully) on ‘the list’ but miss the progress reported in the ‘other place’. I’m sure we’re all grateful for the effort that’s being made. – Andrew
  5. 8 minutes and a nice easy start to the week. I missed my target 10 minutes three times last week so I’m hoping to do better this time.
  6. 24 minutes from FOI: BUCKSHOT setting a good pace until slowing in the SW.
    SOB STORY took a while to see and BIFD SEE RED. I did revisit but still didn’t parse.
    LOI: SOLE.

    I also saw DUCK as a DD.

  7. LOIs ALAS and ATTACHÉ as I was looking for E to start the latter. 18 mins with short break. Nothing too tricky and DUCK a double definition to me too.

    Thanks Oink n Kitty

  8. Easy start to the week for me with just STY, SOLE and ROLLS holding me up enough to prevent a sub 5. 5:16. Thanks Oink and Kitty.
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  10. Gentle going with only LOI SOLE and the parsing of SEE RED causing any delay. Finished in 5.53.
    Thanks to Kitty
  11. All green in 9, so a good start to the week. Held up in the SE, very slow on ROLLS and SOLE and enjoyed SOB STORY once it arrived. Good one!

  12. Duck’s egg… can anyone tell me if the word love in sport, particularly tennis come from the French l’oeuf for egg? 14 min for me. Thanks Kitty and Oink

  13. I don’t time myself but this must have been a PB or close to it. Probably not much over two Kevins! A far cry from my usual 20 – 30 minutes. I couldn’t parse SEE RED nor HA HA (even though I knew the SI unit).
  14. This was mainly very easy but I invented a couple of traps for myself. I was looking for the pig answer so thought that 14d might be BOARISH; on review I persuaded myself that did not parse.
    And I had SAD STORY at 18a until LOI BRASS forced a correction.
    About 10 minutes on paper.
    COD to VENDETTA.
    David
  15. 12 minutes and no problems, thanks Oink and Kitty. We had VENDETTA recently, and the plant just emerged from the anagrist — unusual for me as flora is usually a weakness.
  16. THREE typos, but that was the least of my problems compared to my biffed LOI SOLO. I ain’t got no soul……
  17. Probably one of the easier offerings from Oink lately, but I spoiled it all by putting 22ac “Solo”. I had a niggling feeling it didn’t feel quite right, but the clue kind of worked at the time.

    Lots to like though with quite a few old chestnuts, especially in the top half of the grid. Main hold ups were the SW where I thought 14dn was “bearded” (thinking it was, incorrectly, an anagram) and trying to think of a kind of jam for 15dn.

    FOI — 3dn “Kin”
    LOI — 15dn “Reserve”
    COD — 19dn “Brass” — great surface.

    Thanks as usual!

  18. All done and dusted in 34 minutes, which I am quite happy with. Sufficiently tricky to make it a worthwhile puzzle, but not so daunting as to make me despair.

    My FOsI were DUCK, ABUSER and HA-HA, but it wasn’t until I got into the down clues that I picked up any real speed. The SW corner gradually filled up, but the top half of the grid remained fairly barren until the latter stages. I managed to parse most or even all of the clues as I went along, and my last three in were PRUDENCE, HAVEN and BUCKSHOT (in that order).

    I notice that someone above solved BUCKSHOT as their FOI (i.e with no checkers), whereas it was my LOI and took me a few minutes to crack, even with all of the checkers.

    Many thanks to Oink and Kitty.

  19. Fun! 7 minutes, with BUCKSHOT FOI and SOUL Loi. I like Oink’s puzzles a lot too 😊 SOB STORY made me smile, if somewhat ruefully, so gets COD.
    Thanks Oink and Kitty

    Thanks also to Vinyl for the message in the 15×15 blog re the new site. I’m sure I speak on behalf of many when I say how grateful I am for all the efforts that everyone has put in to get this sorted. Can’t wait 🍀😊 and no more ads for caviar or (most recently) private education either (quite apart from the actual serious issues)

  20. In the lounge at CPH. Therefore done on phone.

    No hold ups, other than lack of a proper keyboard.

    4:41

  21. … another DNF due to the SOLo mistake. Couldn’t parse it but the single bit seemed to send it towards music along with the rest of the clue.

    Bit slow to start and had my customary break at 32-mins. Somewhat amazed to come back and get the outstanding nine in 7min30ish for what would have been a sub-40.

    FOI DUCK
    LOI THUS
    COD ESSAYIST
    NHO BEARISH

    Thanks to Oink and Kitty

  22. Somewhat over 20 minutes (not accurately timed) but a technical DNF as I had unaccountably put TENDERS for 5dn. I spent a long time on the 22ac/20dn crossing, mostly due to having first had SONG and then SOUL at 22ac, making 22dn impossible. Luckily SOLO never occurred to me! When I originally had SONG I noted that you could anagram turns to get runts. Looked like a piggy reference but unfortunately nothing to do with cars.

    FOI – 8ac STUN
    LOI – 20dn ROLLS
    COD – I’ve got to go for 13ac ABUSER as it conjured up a wonderful image of HRH sitting on the top deck of a London bus.

    Thanks to Oink and Kitty

  23. Good time for me- just held up at the end by SOB STORY and BRASS. Enjoyed puzzle and entertaining blog- thanks!
  25. No hold ups today although failed to parse SEE RED. One of the easier puzzles.
  26. A gentle enough start to the week and month of QCs. DNK BEARISH, but that had to be the answer. COD to UTTER for the surface. 4:28.

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