Times Quick Cryptic 2992 by Pipsqueak

81 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2992 by Pipsqueak”

1. I wondered about TANG as I thought it was more associated with taste, but after looking it up I see it means ‘a strong taste, flavour or smell’. I found this a bit hard and some of the anagrams took a while to come. I couldn’t see HESITATE until I got the ‘H’ from HEAR. ORCA was a very well hidden for the hunter I thought. CREATURE was clever as I thought I was looking for a specific animal. Really liked OBSTACLE, AVERSION AND STAMPEDE. Should have seen CANNIBAL sooner, it comes up often enough but the wordplay always leads me down the wrong path. It gets my COD today.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

2. 16:03. FLAB, PROTRUDE, NARROW, and WITH IT were favourites.

3. I was slow because I couldn’t call the needed words to mind – I tried to think of prude, and all I could remember was prim. There were a few strange literals here – what is chicken? doing for creature? Yes, a chicken is an example of a creature, but so are many other things. And I could not think of Maine for the longest time, although it is not very far away.

   Time: 10:28

   1. I think it was just saved by the question mark, but it was a close-run thing!

   2. Question mark indicates it’s an example of the answer. Pretty standard.

4. Was fooled by ELEVATED (thought it was a dodgy def for very happy) and CREATURE for quite a while and don’t really get the CANNIBAL’s use of perfect, but an enjoyable and tricky solve. 12.10 for me, thanks Jack and Pipsqueak.

   1. It’s not elevated for happy, it’s just elated. Insert EV.

      1. Yes I saw the error of my ways…eventually!

5. Really must learn to be more careful. Saw that ‘hesitant’ had the right number of letters and bunged it in and so mucked up TANG. On reflection I can’t see where I thought the N was coming from! RHS went in before the left and I was left to mop up the NW, which had seemed tricky until FLAB and OBSTACLE went in. Not all green in 12.26.

6. 18:25 so on the harder side imho. The drink ‘Gin and It’ has come up before, but unless one’s of a certain age or a hardened solver, It will likely be an unknown. With all the checkers and fashionable being a likely definition I suppose it’s acceptable for a QC.
   I found it a pleasant challenge with clear clueing, interesting constructions and clever surfaces.
   Thanks J & P

7. Tricky in places, which pushed my time out to 11:38. WITH IT the last in after a word search on -I-H, but AVERSION and ERAS also took time. A fun puzzle with some nice quirky clues for a good start to the week.

   Many thanks Jack for the blog

8. Slow, quick, slow today.
   Most of my problems came from my anagram radar being on the fritz so it took me ages to realise that OBSTACLE and CREATURE (where I had a MER at the definition as well) were anagrams but once spotted they weren’t too hard to unravel.
   Started with PAL and finished with CANNIBAL in 7.43.
   Thanks to Jackkt and Pipsqueak

9. 12:25 with a correction on WITH-IT. Couldn’t be bothered to alpha-trawl the possibilities for “-I-H IT” and paid the price. Funny though how one clue can lead you to spiral into questioning if this is the right crossword for you. I’ve never met anyone who drinks martini, I doubt I ever will. Last week we had the unknown CAVE-CANEM maybe this is all just a bit too highbrow for me. Sixth puzzle in a row needing a correction. Today was on me again.

   Thanks to Jackkt and Pipsqueak. Good puzzle although I thought it had potential to be a little chewy in places.

10. Struggled more than necessary after reading the blog, but that can be often said.
    32 minutes for a decidedly slow start to Monday. Liked ETA.
    Thanks Jack and Pips

11. The opposite of Plett, quick, slow, quick with the NW proving a little difficult. 26.00

    Must try to remember that sometimes in just means in, spent too long trying to think of words that were C..H or C..E

    Liked cannibal when the penny finally drooped

    Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack

12. 10.18

    Similar experience to Vinyl. Couldn’t work out BEETLE for ages and needed an alphatrawl for _I_H IT my LOI (rather a good clue). Thanks Pipsqueak/Jackkt

13. Can’t do the puzzle as I am unable to log in: “ Can’t open page :network connection was lost” error comes up. Live Chat unable to fix problem. Anyone have an idea how to solve the problem?

    1. Try clearing your browser cache, works for a lot of issues on the (pretty flaky) Times website.

    2. If all else fails you can print a copy from the snitch.

14. I found this one mainly steady. Couldn’t get the anagrams until I had crossers, vaguely remembered that “Martini with It” was a thing (only from crosswords, I’ve never known anybody drink Martini and I’m over 50 – so Martini certainly can’t be accused of being “with it”!) and so had the grid complete, all bar CANNIBAL in about 8 minutes. A few minutes of head scratching followed by a facepalm later (have seen variations of this very same cryptic countless times I think, so should see it quickly by now) I was done in 11:48

    I’d say a nice puzzle, I don’t recall any cheese grater surfaces and nothing too taxing for a Monday QC with a mild hangover.

    1. A quick google suggests there is/was a drink called ‘Martini with It’ although the details are so vague that one suspects it has never been official name or recipe. Post-war and maybe into the 70s, ‘Gin and It’ was very popular at least in the UK. That’s gin with Italian vermouth, but I think away from the UK that’s pretty much what you got if you just ordered a Martini. I think some people may have drunk vermouth ‘neat’ but more usually it was mixed with something alcoholic or not.

    2. You’re missing out. A good martini is a thing of wonder. Forget James Bond and treat yourself to a trip to the Connaught Bar in the West End. It’s not cheap, but their martinis are a life changing experience.

    3. In my youth, when I was fearfully sophisticated, I drank Negroni cocktails. Campari, red vermouth, and possibly gin.

15. 15:40 (execution of Thomas Cromwell)

    A fast start, then a slow finish, with CREATURE holding out for a long time, and CANNIBAL requiring a pause of the timer and a cup of tea before finally seeing it.

    I don’t think I have ever encountered a Gin and It in real life, but it seems to be a popular drink in crosswordland.

    Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak

16. Did about half the 15×15 in 40 mins today. Spent 20-25 mins on this and hardly did anything. I fail to see what the purpose of setting a qc at this level is.

17. I found this quite difficult only managing four before I gave up and revealed the answers before then attempting to parse the clues. At least I got the Wordle in three lines today.

    7 for the feindish and 15 for the super feindish without using the notes, so at least that functionality is still there.

18. Today’s puzzle may seem a bit harder than average, but I think it’s only because of the grid structure – the NW (top right) is particularly offputting, with CANNIBAL having an intrusive ‘perfect’ in the clue.

    Thanks jack and pipsqueak.

19. As others, found this very hard. 12:53 DNF because I had to look up half the answers.

    Martini knowledge not up to WITH IT.

    Didn’t like 1d CANNIBAL very much. Just don’t think it’s a particularly great or funny cryptic def. Had to look it up.

    A few easier ones that inexplicably took a long time, like INCH, FLAB, ORCA. And other ones I had to look up, like almost all the bottom half of the puzzle.

    Misspelling stampede didn’t help much either.

    Agreed that chicken for creature is not synonymous enough.

20. DNF

    Tripped up by the innocuous HEAR. Failed to spot the hidden and tried head. Otherwise ok, though struggled to see CREATURE as an obvious synonym for chicken, the question mark notwithstanding.

21. I finished and parsed it all but found it much tougher than jackkt did.
    The unfriendly grid made it harder.
    I cannot understand how the SNITCH comes up as under 100. Perhaps I am just a bit thick?
    Thanks both but I think Pipsqueak was being just slightly too clever. This was not my sort of QC.

    1. Looking at the QUITCH, there are a lot of good solvers who didn’t find this very difficult. There just aren’t a lot of reference solvers with an average time over 15 minutes, and many of them solved this puzzle in less than their average time.

       1. Yes. Most of us less competitive solvers tend to solve from the online Newspaper rather than the Crossword App so our times don’t contribute to the SNITCH.
          That does limit its usefulness.

          1. Exactly, Blighter.

22. Sorry, still don’t get Cannibal .. and just “cryptic “ doesn’t explain it for me! Would be grateful for help..

    1. Who would want to eat you? A cannibal. For them you might provide the perfect meal.

       1. I’m with Susy. Remove ‘perfect’ and the clue works, um, perfectly, I don’t get the point of perfect either.

23. Oh dear, I failed on HEARing the Archdeacon. Ironic since I am lost in the audio world of Anthony Trollope at the moment. I had doubtfully put Head.
    Not on the wavelength today anyway, though solved most in the end. Struggled with PDM CANNIBAL, ALLURE, AVERSION, LOI ERAS.
    Finished w 1 error and 1 hint. Not my day, but thanks, Jack.

24. 10 across (pal) wins most excruciatingly wordy clue of the day, thankfully answer was obvious from the checking letters. Enjoyed elevated, surprising definition but very clean word play.

25. I really struggled with this one today, only just beating the twenty minute mark finishing in 19.38. As others who produce similar times to me were seemingly not far from their norm, it appears that I was simply not on Pipsqueak’s wavelength. CANNIBAL and my LOI BASEMENT caused me the greatest delay. Just pleased to finish in the end, but no gripes about the puzzle, it was fair enough.

26. From TANG to CANNIBAL, for which I needed all the checkers, in 8:37. Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack.

27. I thought this alarmingly hard to get into, apart from a few gimmes. Fairly easy in retrospect, though 14d Aversion, not sure version=adaptation.
    16d Beetle was a bit tricky.
    Thanks to jackkt and Pipsqueak.

28. Apart from the unkind clues for “Cannibal” and “With It” this felt good for a QC. Anyway, I do find the single cryptic def types harder usually because of lack of wordplay to work on. I need more maths for my daily brain food.

29. The top half went in with no problems but I found the bottom half much more chewy. However it was all complete in 18-19 minutes except for 24ac. In the end I gave up after 25 minutes and came here for the solution. I’m not sure I really understand it even now.

    FOI – 3ac HESITATE
    LOI – DNF
    COD – 19 ac ETA

    Thanks to Pipsqeak and Jack

    1. . . .a Strict/Narrow interpretation of the laws led to Saints being awarded the winning try despite a forward pass

30. I agree that the easy ones were ‘quite straightforward’, but unfortunately they were quite a rare breed as well. The result was a bitty, hop around the grid, type of solve. The Eras/Aversion pairing then turned the knife, pushing me out to 30mins.
    I still haven’t got used to Pipsqueak’s style, but at least it makes for some interesting clues, the pick of which I thought was the parsing of Basement. Invariant

31. 28:08 – not so much off the wavelength as operating on a completely different spectrum entirely. I think the problem was a combination of bits of it being genuinely on the tricky side, and a near-total inability on my part to correctly identify anagram fodder. In the end I was just relieved to stagger over the line.

    Thank you for the blog!

32. 17m Started quickly but slowed on the second half.
    Finished on orca and protrude. Managed to avoid the cannibal trap again.
    COD with it.

33. Jack. I grew up around Harrow. Next to North Harrow station there used to be graffiti saying ‘Norf Arra’. So not just the east end where aitches are dropped.
    About 25 today. Held up by tricky grid. J

34. Off to a flying start but then slowed down taking 40m overall.
    I think the grid shape added to the difficulties.
    Amused to struggle with HEAR despite having the first three letters. A hidden of course.
    CANNIBAL was LOI, COD and a PDM.
    Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jack.

35. 15:20 but pink square for SENT not CENT.

    Last time we had CANNIBALISM it was a bit of a weak cryptic, same today.

    Harrow in the East end would be “arrah ”, since a good set of darts (arrows) is always pronounced “great arrahs ”.

36. 13.12 Looking back it should have been quicker. I spent too long wondering if my LOI was the never heard of DEAC for learn. HESITATE put paid to that and I belatedly saw the hidden HEAR. Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak.

37. A slow start with only a very few of the Across clues going in on first reading, but I found the Down clues more accessible and I reached the point where the whole of the RHS of the grid was filled in and, with the exception of ORCA, the LHS was empty.

    Fortunately, I then found HEAR and CREATURE, both of which helped me work my way back to the West. WITH IT went in with a shrug, as I didn’t fully understand how the clue worked (and I still don’t, tbh), and BASEMENT was my LOI.

    Time ~26 minutes.

    Many thanks to Jack and Pipsqueak.

38. 24.01 – Similar to Roundabout Here as we so often are. Spent way too long on FLAB, TANG and CANNIBAL.
    Various others were obvious in hindsight.
    WITH IT we still don’t really understand. Clearly we are not…
    A good puzzle on review, though seemed less so in the doing.
    Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jackkt.

    1. IT seems to be crossword speak for vermouth. I’d never heard of it until starting to do QCs.

       1. Thank you! Every day we learn something new – today, two useful hints… yours now, and Dear Hector’s thoughtful recommendation… : )

          1. I hope you’re not too influenced by Dear Hector’s recommendation for the perfect meal.

    2. Gin and It used to be a cocktail in about the 1930s-40s (?). ‘It’ being short for Italian sweet vermouth. Maybe someone has said that already, sorry.

    3. Gin and it was colloquial for a stirred dry martini of sorts in the 1960s at least, when I was working on the bar at the Upper Thames Sailing Club. As a lunch time refresher tended to be a double Gordon’s and a full measure of vermouth over ice rather than the evening version of 10:1, usually without an olive.

       24a does seem badly constructed as it’s not immediately apparent that east end means remove the H from the left of Harrow. Easier if the N is there as a checker. Are we meant to read new as an indicator to use the N from new?

       1. East End or Bow or Cockney in a clue are standard indicators to drop the H at the beginning of a word. N is a standard abbreviation of ‘new’. Similarly O for ‘old’.

39. Slow to get going but grid gradually filled. Not sure why I found it tricky. Some clever clues but not quite as many smiles as usual. I did like ETA though 😆 Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak.

40. This seemingly straightforward QC nevertheless occupied nearly 19 minutes of my time. Partly because I typed a stray letter in an unchecked square and wasn’t awake enough to ask myself what it was doing there until I started to feel stuck. As sometimes happens, the unpleasant associations of a surface gummed up the solving works, in this case for 15a FLAB. CANNIBAL ate up some time too, as the cryptic clue is one of my weak points. IT for vermouth hasn’t come up for a while, I think, so had to be dragged out of the archive for WITH IT. Enough with the excuses! Entertaining puzzle.

    Thanks to Pipsqueak and jackkt.

41. 8:10

    A little slow around the board I felt, with a few in OBSTACLE and PROTRUDE that I might have seen sooner. Wondered how many might get stuck with BEETLE being a specific model of car – officially it’s known as the Type 1, and didn’t acquire its BEETLE name until the late 1960s, after around thirty years of production.

    Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak

42. 22 mins…

    Definitely tricky and could have quite easily got bogged down in the NW corner if I hadn’t pulled myself away and tried a different quadrant. Even though I’ve seen the “Cannibal” cryptic clue numerous times, it still took me longer than it should have to solve. Wasn’t that struck with 2dn “With It” – but, then again, I’m not a Martini drinker.

    FOI – 7ac “Marine”
    LOI – 2dn “With It”
    COD – 23ac “Protrude”

    Thanks as usual!

43. I parsed 20A as PROT (=protestant) RUDE … it’s not “concealing” anything but it worked for me!

44. From MARINE to CANNIBAL in 13:36. Happy to work out the anagrams without needing paper, for once.

    Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jackkt.

45. We started off well but somewhere around the middle Mrs T and I made a passable impression of being on different planets and were made to HESITATE; STAMPED and ELEVATED were particular OBSTACLES for no good reason. However, looking at some of the other comments perhaps our LOI AVERSION going in at 13:26 wasn’t too bad in the end. I’m a little surprised that nobody seems to have found the Ure obscure as a river. I’m both a Yorkshireman and a fan of Wensleydale but I would have expected at least overseas solvers to have a problem with it. COD WITH IT for me. Thanks, Jack and Pipsqueak

    1. I wonder if the River Ure is just particularly well known in Crosswordland?

       1. Right, like Cam or other monosyllabic rivers or geographical features. Crosswordese is a whole new experience.

       2. I’m sure that’s it.

46. Failed with cannibal and with it, seemed a medium level puzzle to us.

47. 10:03 for a good start to the week. I’m surprised to see above all the difficulties it has caused. My big delay was the very straightforward FLAB. I liked ETA and NARROW. Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jackkt

48. 12:44. Mostly straightforward but a few crunchy ones… really liked CANNIBAL… thanks both!

49. I enter a plea for Hannibal at 1d: the scene with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster is unforgettable as he describes his perfect (human) meal with fava beans etc. Hannibal Lector was a cannibal so he was my cod!
    I took some time to put ALLURE for tempt at 18d. Can you allure someone? Not sure. But it had to be.
    Enjoyed FLAB but took a while to get it!
    Thanks Pipsqueak and blogger.

50. 9:32 for me – decent puzzle I thought. Mind not quite in the game following a little sojourn from South London to North West London on Saturday. Thanks Jack for blog.

    LOI and COD (when I finally seen it after the event) was CANNIBAL

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