Times Quick Cryptic 2131 by Breadman

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I made something of a meal of this, finishing in 12 minutes. Some good, fun clues to enjoy – thanks Breadman.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics.

Across
1 Remote, minute place where animals are bred (4)
FARM – remote (FAR), minute (M).
4 Caught French friend alone getting undergarment (8)
CAMISOLE – caught (C), French friend (AMI), alone (SOLE).
8 Roman Emperor seizes drinking venue, hearing disorder (8)
TINNITUS – Roman Emporer (TITUS -Titus Caesar Vespasianus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. ) seizing drinking venue (INN).
9 Satellite television finally on low (4)
MOON – televisio(N) after low (MOO).
10 Meal in which diners help themselves to batter (6)
BUFFET – double definition.
11 Vibration from rocky peak restricting sleep (6)
TREMOR -rocky peak (TOR) holding sleep (REM – rapid eye movement phase of sleep).
12 Rod on newspaper that supports a communication network (9,4)
TELEGRAPH POLE – rod (POLE) after newspaper (TELEGRAPH).
16 Minion having round with boxer maybe (6)
LAPDOG – round (LAP), boxer maybe (DOG).
17 Very stupid to accommodate university element (6)
SODIUM – very stupid (SO DIM) holding university (U).
19 When halved, list Ray’s old foreign currency (4)
LIRA – (LI)st (RA)y’s.
20 Confined by fixed rota, cultivate food in Mexico (8)
TORTILLA – inside an avatar (fixed) of ROTA, put cultivate (TILL).
21 Jewellery put away by Alec recklessly (8)
NECKLACE – put away (NECK a pint), anagram (recklessly) of ALEC.
22 Uncivilised person acquired heroin (4)
GOTH – acquired (GOT), heroin (H).
Down
2 Promotion that is getting universal cheers (5)
ADIEU – promotion (ADvert), that is (IE), universal (U). Cheers as in cheerio.
3 Novel chap’s speciality power boat (9,4)
MANSFIELD PARK – my LOI with a smile at the jigsaw nature of the cluing – chap’s (MANS), speciality (FIELD), power (P), boat (ARK).
4 Manage Charlie and posh bird (3,2)
CUT IT – Charlie (C), posh (U), bird (TIT). Cut it as in ‘the mustard’.
5 Female teacher with favourite raised error (7)
MISSTEP – female teacher (MISS), favourite – pet – raised (TEP).
6 Dessert for one adding up bill? (6,7)
SUMMER PUDDING – to add is to sum so someone adding up is a (SUMMER). The ‘?’ Tells us that this is all pretty cryptic so we’re letting the adder-up have the dessert (PUDDING).
7 What’s put by toilet door, heading off into lounge (3,4)
LOO ROLL – this took a little unravelling (or unrolling). d(OOR) inside lounge (LOLL).
10 Bowled at cricketer (3)
BAT – bowled (B), at (AT).
13 Test area in former pit (7)
EXAMINE – area (A) inside former (EX) and pit (MINE).
14 Abroad, target a series of boat races (7)
REGATTA – anagram (abroad) of TARGET A.
15 Tree in travel magazine (3)
ELM – inside trav(EL M)agazine.
17 Pair in York perhaps binge (5)
SPREE – pair (PR) inside York perhaps (diocese of a bishop – SEE).
18 Working until dark (5)
UNLIT – anagram (working) of UNTIL.

 

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2131 by Breadman”

  1. LOO ROLL and SUMMER PUDDING were new to me. Enjoyed MANSFIELD PARK and SODIUM. Thanks for informative blog-especially for explaining the neck in NECKLACE!
  2. I saw exactly how 8ac worked, yet automatically typed TINNITIS and of course didn’t check. Didn’t get LOO ROLL, but was pretty sure it had to be. 6:33 but.
  3. I have not been doing very well at the Quickie lately, but this one was OK – clean solve, no typos, time 8:36. I biffed a fair number, but they were obvious ones like tortilla and regatta – not too many words fit those checking letters.
  5. 18 minutes from FOI: CAMISOLE to LOI: TORTILLA all parsed other than TORTILLA parsing post solve.
    COD: TORTILLA once parsed but I also smiled at SODIUM and MANSFIELD PARK.
    Fun puzzle.

  7. Well I never… for the first time ever I have come in under a blogger at 11:15. Medical background helped with ear ringing and a lot less hand wringing caused by Breadman than usual. Didn’t stop to fully parse many, so a half parsed effort ( but not lacking in power as Kevin once commented) many thanks Chris for making my day!

    1. Congratulations – and I’m pleased to have helped your day! Keep going and enjoy the next phase – sub-ten minute solving.

      Edited at 2022-05-10 09:32 am (UTC)

      1. Just out of the SCC…and I would need to use a PC rather than an android phone…and learn to touch type haha! Thanks for replying and the blog is such a useful resource

  8. I corrected one typo in MANSFIELD PARK but missed the second one, so a pink square for me today.
    Overall I felt I made harder work of this than I should, finishing in 10.59 with the TORTILLA/SPREE pair.
    Thanks to Chris
  9. I enjoyed this – thanks Breadman and Chris. However I’m not sure why a Goth would be uncivilised – I’m sure some might be offended by that. Also cheers is invariably used for thank you – I’m not convinced they are interchangeable. Just nitpicking though.
    1. I think the setter is referring to the Germanic race that helped bring down the civilisation that was the Western Roman Empire not the modern youth subculture.
      1. Thank you! I thought it might be something like that but I wasn’t sure whether they were ‘negative’ in that way.
  10. A gentle puzzle for me, with FARM FOI and SPREE finishing the job. 6:15. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
  11. That was a struggle but pleased to complete it. Lots of superior clue-setting that is beyond my level and had to be biffed.

    FOI FARM
    LOI SPREE
    NHO SUMMER-PUDDING

    COD UNLIT – had a moment where I thought it was UP=until, SET=DARK but couldn’t be working until GOTH gave me the T

    1. … or you could say that, unlike most of the population, you have been able to solve 20? You clearly have the skills? I’m a wine bottle half full sort of person.
  13. Slowish start but with the sense that the clues were gettable. Picked up the pace from there to finish all green in 12. Nice to see ‘see’ in an answer rather than a clue. Enjoyed SODIUM and was impressed so much clue wad compressed into ADIEU.

    Special mention to the cryptic quintagram — some great clues today.

  14. … as I had biffed MISSHAP (even though I know how to spell MISHAP). However, being unable to find a vibration that fitted H_E_O_, I double-checked and found my error.

    I started with CAMISOLE (FARM came surprisingly late on) and made relatively good progress throughout. Unusually, I didn’t suffer any agonising 10-15 minute barren spells and I reached the finish line in 28 minutes. My last three in were all in the far SE corner – TORTILLA, UNLIT and GOTH.

    I DNK about the Goths from ancient history, so I will go and read a little about them, and I couldn’t parse LOO ROLL until I came here (and found that I didn’t see the _OO R___ or the L__ _OLL bit). It had to be, though, so I wrote it in and moved on.

    Mrs Random just missed out on a SCC escape, finishing in 21 minutes. She has now gone round for a cup of tea with a friend, whom she hasn’t seen for all of 2-3 days (I think).

    Many thanks to Breadman and Chris.

  15. Just inside the SCC, again, but no real problems. Biffed LOO ROLL and needed blog to parse (thanks Chris). FOI FARM, LOI BAT, COD to ADIEU (so much packed in). Very enjoyable but still waiting for a quicker time… Thanks Breadman.

    Edited at 2022-05-10 12:01 pm (UTC)

  16. 9 minutes, although I didn’t fully parse LOO ROLL. I did wonder what some of our non-UK solvers would think of that. I guessed SUMMER PUDDING could be problematic too although I’m sure we’ve seen it before. No problems with that one here though — it’s my husband’s favourite 😋 I saw FARM before I’d finished reading the clue — that doesn’t happen very often. I liked Sodium a lot.
    Thanks Breadman and Chris

    I found the biggie quite user friendly today

  17. This one completely lost me. I did love Sodium though, I had to cycle though all of the elements ending in a ium eg radium and barium so when I got to sodium it gave me a big smile

    Grateful if someone could explain why posh = u?

    1. I believe the “u” stands for upper class ie. Posh — however, happy to be corrected if that’s not strictly right.
    3. Well, there’s U and non-U – it’s a Nancy Mitford thing. You could look it up.
  18. 13 minutes fully parsed, so a vast improvement on my efforts of yesterday. Managed quite a few clues on first pass and then steadily filled in the blanks. No problems with the parsing or any vocabulary, so pretty straightforward as far as I was concerned.

    FOI – 4ac CAMISOLE
    LOI – 3dn MANSFIELD PARK
    COD – 6dn SUMMER PUDDING

    Thanks to Breadman and Chris.

  19. Just under 9 mins, nice puzzle.
    15×15 is ok again today.

    COD mansfield park.

  20. We seemed to make hard work of this. Slow to sort out 17a sodium and 8a tinnitus. We are blaming the new puppy!
  21. Enjoyable this, although I also had a slight raised eyebrow at 22ac “Goth” until I read the historical Germanic explanation above.

    12ac “Telegraph Pole” is a contentious one around here at the moment, as Openreach have decided to erect numerous ones in our area for the sole purpose of providing full fibre broadband.

    The rest all went in fairly steadily, with only 17ac “Sodium” requiring an element trawl.

    FOI — 1ac “Farm”
    LOI — 22ac “Goth”
    COD — 3dn “Mansfield Park”

    Thanks as usual!

  23. 22 mins, held up in SE – always a surprise when they eventually go in that I couldn’t them sooner.

    COD to LOO ROLL for wonderful surface and big smile.

    Lovely puzzle today – thanks to Breadman. Prof

Comments are closed.