Times Quick Cryptic 3100 by Oink

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

17 minutes, the last 5 of which were spent on 8ac. Apart from that I found this quite straightforward.

 

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Drive OAP mad, taking home too much (8)
OVERPAID – Anagram [mad] of DRIVE OAP
5 Bristly customer hiding in cupboard (4)
BOAR – Hidden [hiding] in {cup}BOAR{d}. Our setter’s signature clue for the day.
8 The Speaker’s delightful accommodation (5)
SUITE – Aural wordplay [the speaker’s]: “sweet” (delightful)
9 Article on southern constituent, one from Greece (7)
SPARTAN – S (southern), PART (constituent), AN (article)
11 Socialist losing head? Rubbish (3)
ROT – {T}ROT (Socialist) [losing head]
12 Fruit: entire can demolished (9)
NECTARINE – Anagram [demolished] of ENTIRE CAN
13 Crude burrow close to property (6)
EARTHY – EARTH (burrow), {propert}Y [close to …]
15 Dog runs away from miner (6)
COLLIE – COLLIE{r} (miner) [runs away]
18 They’re said to attract night and day, perhaps (9)
OPPOSITES – The literal is supported by an example of opposites
19 Trump’s headgear (3)
CAP – Two meanings
20 Neutral surprisingly annoyed (7)
ANODYNE – Anagram [surprisingly] of ANNOYED
21 Strange European found in Great Lake (5)
EERIE – E (European) contained by [found in] E~RIE (Great Lake)
22 The Greek I bit (4)
IOTA – Two meanings
23 Scholarly American attending artist’s premises (8)
STUDIOUS –STUDIO (artist’s premises), US (Amercan)
Down
1 Watch old boy start to rally (7)
OBSERVE – OB (old boy), SERVE (start to rally – tennis)
2 Poet in loo briefly keeling over (5)
ELIOT – TOILE{t} (loo) [briefly] reversed [keeling over]
3 Unrealistic hope of something to eat on plane (3,2,3,3)
PIE IN THE SKY -A cryptic hint adds support
4 Small creature quietly escaping from vet (6)
INSECT – INS{p}ECT (vet) [quietly escaping]
6 Up before the judge, as footballer might be? (2,5)
ON TRIAL -Two meanings
7 Rave about new Aga? (5)
RANGE – RA~GE (rave) containing [about] N (new)
10 Having nothing to do, doctor eats a noodle (2,1,5,3)
AT A LOOSE END – Anagram [doctor] of EATS A NOODLE
14 Criticise left’s understanding (7)
RAPPORT – RAP (criticise), PORT (left)
16 Former journalists in train maybe (7)
EXPRESS – EX (former), PRESS (journalists)
17 Provide evidence of watching Lord’s match? (6)
ATTEST – AT TEST (watching Lord’s match)
18 Some nymphomaniac from the Gulf? (5)
OMANI – Hidden in [some] {nymph}OMANI{ac}
19 Load vehicle and scarper (5)
CARGO – CAR (vehicle), GO (scarper)

36 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 3100 by Oink”

  1. 5:25
    Straightforward, although 10d might have been a problem if I hadn’t just learned that it’s singular in UK English; it’s ‘at loose ends’ in the US.
    There seems to be a problem with the SNITCH results.

    1. Also everyone needs to be aware that email notifications of comments are tied in with the domain name and are therefore temporarily suspended.

  2. Same experience with 8d but thankfully didn’t have to go through the whole of an alphabet trawl before SUITE popped into my head. Everything else was pretty straightforward for a Monday and COD to OPPOSITES, which I thought was quite good.
    Thanks Jack and setter.

  3. 7:42 for a nice start to the week with a typically enjoyable offering from Oink. It wasn’t 8a that held me up but the poet at 2d that crossed it – my LOI, and in a classic breezeblock, neither the wordplay nor the answer came to me for at least 90 seconds after the rest of the puzzle had been very rapid.

    Many thanks Jack for the blog.

    1. Could not log in to comment on Saturday’s puzzle (hard) and found it difficult today to do so. Medium difficulty I thought with SUITE LOI as with several others it seems.

  4. I’m in the two minutes to crack SUITE gang, my alphabet trawls always run out of steam once T has passed and today was no exception. Special mention to IOTA for the surface and the pleasure it gave me when the penny dropped. I was poised to whack in ‘torso’ where CARGO ended up have gone for ‘top’ over CAP during the first pass of across – so that yielded six not seven as I thought at the time. All green in 9:47 – a solid start to the week.

  5. 15 minutes. Same experience as Jack and several others with 8a being my last in by some margin; at least the alphabet trawl was eventually successful. I thought ANODYNE meant either soothing, or bland / unexciting rather than ‘Neutral’ but I guess it’s close enough. The non-Greek I liked IOTA too.

    Thanks to Jack and Oink

  6. 12.52 -a rare sub teens and a happy start to the week.
    LOI SUITE – like others, an alphabet trawl, one that took longer than it should have.
    Thought INSECT very clever.
    Misled (as always) by close meaning end rather than near.
    AND – HELP APPRECIATED – have repeatedly (via this fky.yin link) tried to reset password.
    Each time am told an email has been sent – no email received – what am I doing wrong?
    Am resigned to the fact that IT and I are not close friends (c.f. close… as per above).

  7. Until the timesforthetimes website is up and running again I think that all mail using @timesforthetimes.co.uk in the ‘from’ address will not work. Should be fixed shortly.

    1. Yes. That is right. I have a call between 11 and 11:30 this morning which I hope will solve the issue of the domain name being in limbo.

  8. 30 minutes with the last 8 spent on solving 8a SUITE.
    A nice mix of straight forward clues combined with some head scratchers from Oink. Nice to see BOAR appearing.
    COD INSECT
    Thanks Jack.

  9. 4:01… but then I discovered I hadn’t done 8A which took an extended alphabet trawl to find. Thanks Oink and Jackkt

  10. 9:38. Count me in to the 8ac club, spending time on the alphabet trawl for SUITE. I liked IOTA and OPPOSITES. Many thanks to Oink and jackkt

  11. My LIO was also SUITE. 8:03 for me. Spent a while thinking about STUDIOUS because, for some strange reason, I forgot premises was a singular and had it in my head that “artist’s premises” had to therefore be STUDIOS. Weird.

  12. 7:15
    Enjoyable puzzle.
    Loose ends, both plural and singular, seem to be popular with setters at the moment.
    LOI was ATTEST.

    Thanks Jack and Oink

  13. I made heavy weather of this one, too. I used to speed through an Oink puzzle with a smile on my face but not today. I won’t list all my stumbles but I joined the 8ac group. I only got SUITE because I had the I crosser from a biffed ELIOT (which I parsed later).
    I liked the choice of possible anagrist in 20 and spent time on the wrong one.

    Maybe it is just a Monday morning thing but I couldn’t avoid tripping into the SCC.
    Thanks to Oink, anyway, and to Jack for a good blog (and for info on the TffT state of play).
    Reading the blog again, Jack reminds me of some very nice clues that I saw quickly and moved on from rapidly; the tougher ones tend to stick in my mind.

  14. Failed on SUITE – should have been more patient. CNP ELIOT !
    Enjoyable witty puzzle though. Quite fast this morning. Liked BOAR, CAP, IOTA, ATTEST.
    Thanks vm, Jack.

  15. 5:55

    Gentlish Monday from Oink – plain sailing until the last few which were the ELIOT/SUITE crossing, and ATTEST, each of which took a few moments longer than they might have.

    Thanks Jack and Oink

  16. 17:42
    Had to take a break before seeing left=PORT, still work to do as many words end that way. Alphabet trawl got me to RAPPORT, although criticise=Dis leads to the probable-looking Disport, but not actually a word.

    COD ATTEST

    Love the performance of this new site, well done to all.

  17. 10:47 Troubled by Earthy Spartan… although Spartan was obvious once I spotted my crossing typo anyone heard of the holy beatnik St Atalooseend?
    Ta JAO

  18. For some reason, I decided to do a vowel trawl for the second letter of 8a before embarking on any other kind of alphabet trawl. I’d already spent a good few minutes trying to figure it out, but at least that saved me many more. Didn’t quite save me from the SCC though. 20:55. Liked IOTA. Thanks Oink and Jack.

  19. From BOAR to ATTEST in 6:27. Needed the crossers for SUITE, but saw it before needing an alpha trawl. Thanks Oink and Jack.

  21. Busy day so revealed LOI SUITE, then groaned. Failed to consider the speaker as a very obvious homophone indicator and had been trying to work with I’m/I’ve (dearie me). Otherwise all seemed fairly straightforward apart from COD IOTA which took much longer than it should have. Thanks Oink and Jack.
    Loving the speed of the new site – many thanks.

  22. 12:05 but with a typo, ECPRESS for EXPRESS. Gaaaah.

    IOTA gets my COD today.

    Thanks to Oink & Jackkt for the puzzle & the blog, and many thanks to John for all his work on getting the site up & working at the new provider. It does seem much zippier.

  25. 27 mins…

    Hard work from what I can remember. Not a lot more to add as the site was being migrated when I first tried to update. Well done on getting it back up and running as quickly as possible!

    FOI – 11ac “Rot”
    LOI – 13ac “Earthy”
    COD – 3dn “Pie in the Sky”

    Thanks as usual!

  26. Can I please ask why BOAR would be a customer? Is it a ‘contains’ hint? Though the clue already states ‘hiding’ which would indicate this.

    1. Back from holiday, so only did this today. A ‘customer’ is just a slang way of referring to any kind of person or thing. I would think in this context it’s intended to fudge the issue as to what kind of creature you’re looking for, as you might assume it was a person hidden in ‘cupboard’ rather than an animal. If you referred to someone as a dodgy customer the meaning would be dodgy person.

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