Times Quick Cryptic 3118 by Trelawney – International Day for Failure

Author   KittyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hi everybody.  Trelawney has taken us on a bit of an international tour, so I sought inspiration for the blog title by typing “international” into a search engine and looking at the autocomplete suggestions.  This was when I discovered that October 13th is International Day for Failure.  I failed to fail today, although there’s still time to find I made a typo or silly error in the blog.  If you didn’t finish or made a mistake, this one’s for you.

My favourite clue is the rotten water business in 17d.  A certain water company springs to mind, with others not far behind.  Thanks Trelawney!

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

Across
7a I give out cards? Perfect! (5)
IDEAL — I + DEAL (give out cards)
8a Essential part of diet not ripe unfortunately (7)
PROTEIN — An anagram of (… unfortunately) NOT RIPE
10a Musician beginning to drink with stranger (7)
DRUMMER — The first letter of (beginning to) Drink with RUMMER (stranger)
11a Farm fodder’s blemishes sent back (5)
STRAW — WARTS (blemishes) reversed (sent back)
12a Somehow a jerk with bail can escape? (9)
JAILBREAK — An anagram of (somehow) A JERK with BAIL
14a Odd bits of crude signal (3)
CUE — Odd letters of (odd bits of) CrUdE
15a Sister’s noise upset nan initially (3)
NUN — Noise Upset Nan, first letters (initially)
16a Flyer that a cutlery shopper may receive? (9)
SPOONBILL — A bit of whimsy: just as a grocery shopper would get a food bill, someone buying cutlery might receive a SPOON BILL
18a Force the Spanish to follow mischievous creature (5)
IMPEL — EL (the, Spanish) going after (to follow) IMP (mischievous creature)
20a Emergency responder’s broken arm fine (7)
FIREMAN — An anagram of (broken) ARM FINE
22a Natural instrument extremely idiosyncratic (7)
ORGANIC — ORGAN (instrument) + outer letters of (extremely) IdiosyncratiC
23a Charlie enters Scandinavian ball (5)
DANCE — C (Charlie) goes inside (enters) DANE (Scandinavian)
Down
1d I adore joiner’s new place in Brazil (3,2,7)
RIO DE JANEIRO — I ADORE JOINER is anagrammed (new)
2d South American travelling up ravine (8)
PERUVIAN — An anagram of (travelling) UP RAVINE
3d Criticise bridge contract (4)
SLAM — A double definition
4d Meagre boxes on floor of vehicle (6)
SPARSE — SPARS (boxes) on the last letter of (floor of) vehiclE
5d Some aperitif or sake now abandoned (8)
FORSAKEN — Some aperitiF OR SAKE Now
6d Majority of long 12 months (4)
YEAR — All but the last letter of (majority of) YEARn (long)
9d Antipodean from north east to stroll around fire (3,9)
NEW ZEALANDER — NE (north east) + WANDER (to stroll) around ZEAL (fire)
13d Heard some low notes in part of tennis court (8)
BASELINE — Sounds like (heard) BASSLINE (some low notes)
14d Fried potato brother picked up for animal (8)
CHIPMUNK — CHIP (fried potato) + MUNK, which sounds like (… picked up) MONK (brother)
17d Rotten form of water business (6)
OFFICE — OFF (rotten) + ICE (form of water)
19d Summon knight’s assistant (4)
PAGE — Two definitions
21d Free European roller-coaster, for example (4)
RIDE — RID (free) + E (European)

87 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 3118 by Trelawney – International Day for Failure”

  1. 10 minutes. No problems apart from misspelling the the capital city until checkers forced me to correct it.

          1. It used to be, so, while Jack could have said “former”, I defend his right to use the term “capital”, since at no point was Brazil mentioned.

    2. Rio was the capital until Brasilia was built. FWIW. I misspelt it too, but Impel put me right.

  2. International Day for Failure – lovely!

    Seven on the first pass of acrosses and pretty solid on the downs. Held up at the end by PERUVIAN – fixated on a reversed ravine – but still finished in a speedy 7.56 for a good start to the week. Now to tackle the mild congestion of Monday’s roads.

  3. No fails here, continuing our run of fast times, 11.30 is very speedy in these parts.

    Saw the anagram for Rio and Mrs RH knew the correct spelling so that gave us a great foothold. Really enjoyed spoonbill and the surface for jailbreak. We’re always amazed at how setters can find bits of words in others so enjoyed wander inside New Zealander,

    Thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  4. 14:30 here, got new zealander from the checkers, so thank you Kitty for explaining that, slam was loi as I have never played bridge and didn’t know the connection. Spoonbill was COD for me a lovely clue that made me smile.

  5. A top to bottom solve starting with IDEAL and finishing with CHIPMUNK (which I tried hard to misspell) in 3.58.
    Thanks to Kitty and Trelawny

  6. 5:06
    A rare success on this Failure Day; I actually came in under my unrealistic 6′ target time. My failure will come when I try the championship puzzle. Biffed the two long downs. Wasted some time taking 17d to be (FORM OF), but not much.

  7. 5:59 for a sparkling start to the week, all done and parsed without any nod to International Day for Failure. Trelawney is one of the most reliable of setters and this was another gem – on the less challenging side, certainly, but full of very enjoyable clues.

    Many thanks Kitty for the blog and the introduction to the ID for F. I must say the idea of the ID for F amazes me. What a thing to have a day for! Do we have to have a Day for everything, and what about people whose birthday it is – what message does it give them? And – extreme pedant alert! – I think Kitty your blog does have the most minor nod to the ID for F as it hasn’t put the initial N in Nun in the explanation for 15a in bold type.

    I’ll get my coat …

    2. Thanks Cedric, very eagle eyed of you! That’s the kind of nod to the day I can live with, but I’ll correct it in the blog as soon as I have something better to do and want to procrastinate.

  8. 9:14. I probably would have been spooked had I known it was International Day for Failure, so ignorance here was a help. As things turned out no real problems though I should have spotted a few like IDEAL more quickly. I liked SPOONBILL (the roseate one in particular is a beautiful bird though we don’t have them here) and the connection with the ‘cutlery shopper’.

    Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty

  9. Speediest for quite a while at 7m 48s … considering thinking/parsing/typing time, I don’t think I could possibly reduce solve to under 7m even with the easiest QCs. Age, quite possibly!

  10. 22:37 (average: 35, target: 25)

    Quick for a Times QC for me, but slow for a Trelawney QC. I thought this was generally a bit harder than the other Trelawney puzzles I’ve solved. On the whole a little more enjoyable too having to puzzle through some gentler misdirection.

    2 NHOs for me today: SLAM in bridge and SPOONBILL (might be BHO but very B).

    I imagine that International Day for Failure is a celebration of the contribution that failure makes to success, competitiveness, learning and perseverance. “You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.” as Muhammad Ali said. Reminds me of a post I saw by Curarist on here describing early experiences on the 15×15 which I’ve always found very motivating given the now very impressive solving times.

    Thanks Kitty. Interesting find! and thanks Trelawney

  11. At 8:46 the good times continue, no doubt a rude awakening is lurking somewhere in the near future.

  12. 5:13 for me which probably goes on top 5 of all time. Only meh was do animals eat straw ? Hay maybe. Very gentle Monday but enjoyable all the same – thanks Trelawney and Kitty

    1. Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
      No problems really but I do enjoy a good moan. 11a Straw. Not mainly used as fodder see Wiki extract:
      “Animal feed
      Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low digestible energy and nutrient content (as opposed to hay, which is much more nutritious).”
      Its main use is as bedding but several other uses as well. It was burnt where it stood as it has such a low value but farmers are no longer allowed to do that.

      1. I had the same thought, but decided to leave it and see what commenters had to say.

        Playing setter’s advocate, I think fodder doesn’t quite always have to be literal food. There are other uses such as canon fodder, and one of the definitions in Chambers is “Any constant resource”. I don’t think anagram fodder generally gets eaten by anything …

        … Oh, and I’ve now looked in Collins and Oxford, which both specifically mention straw as well as hay in their definitions. In that case I will eat my words.

        Conclusion: not the last STRAW. (©Too often Lost on the second page of comments.)

        1. Interesting that those dictionaries specify straw as fodder. I rather disagree but let’s not worry about it. Too often Lost seems to have disappeared; did they say something controversial?

  13. A good start to the week. I approached Trelawney with the knowledge that I have found his puzzles very fair and approachable in recent months. He did not disappoint; I did not rush, enjoyed the QC, and was surprised to finish in 10.40.
    Thanks to Trelawney and to Kitty for parsing a couple of obvious answers that I had not dwelt on during my solve – SLAM (I am not a bridge player) and YEAR (a neat clue).

  14. This would be an ideal puzzle as an introduction to QCs for a new solver. An unusual sub 20m for me.
    However I nearly came a cropper having typed ‘JANERIO’ and then trying to decide if RATEL could be a force. Fortunately IMPEL came to mind at last and all was resolved.
    Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

  15. DNF. I observed International Failure Day with a mistyped DRUUMER and a misspelt CHIPMONK.

    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

  16. From IDEAL to ORGANIC in 5:09. Today’s failures still to come. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

  18. I was right on wavelength for an incredible PB at 3:52. Only my second time under 5 minutes, which I never thought I’d do again, and a good 10 minutes faster than my average time. I can’t remember much about the clues, and can’t believe how is possible for people to routinely solve even faster.

  19. 8:09. CHIPMONK – with an O – might have been my entry ticket to the International Day for Failure, but it rang an alarm bell as I wrote it in. LOI the surprisingly hard to see PERUVIAN. I liked SPOONBILL and NEW ZEALANDER. Thank you Kitty and Trelawney

  20. 10 mins…

    A gentle start to the week. Only minor mishap was initially misspelling “Janeiro” for 1dn.

    FOI – 7ac “Ideal”
    LOI – 16ac “Spoonbill”
    COD – 9dn “New Zealander”

    Thanks as usual!

  22. 5:29- Fairly straightforward today. Although the “can escape” part in 12ac did make me think I was after a word ending “able” for a bit. Just me?

  23. 9:23 for me, with the last couple of minutes spent breezeblocked by LOIs SPOONBILL/CHIPMUNK. I don’t think I’ve heard of the former but have no excuses for the latter.

    Thank you for the blog!

  24. 9:20
    My 4th fastest solve – 3 of them from Trelawney.
    Biffed New Zealander and my second from last in OFFICE took me out of PB territory.
    FOI: CUE
    LOI: SPOONBILL
    COD: OFFICE

    Thanks to Kitty & Trelawney

  25. Started with RIO DE JANieRO and finished with BASELINE in 4:24. I fully parsed all but NEW ZEALANDER. I could see ZEAL for fire and that gave me enough. I thought the story telling in the anagrams was rather good today.

  26. Close to a PB at 5.26 but distracted by the people beside me in the coffee room playing a video on their phones at full volume 😡 probably cost me 30 seconds. Oh well, no one died….

  27. Ah, Trelawney, my favourite setter, thank you for another enjoyable breeze. LOI SPARSE. Just one CNP: it had to be YEAR but seemed too obvious – thank you Kitty for explaining the clue.

  28. Only missed 4 on first pass and they went in on 2nd. Nice sail through. Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.

  29. The squire being benevolent to the plebs today all right, with a very gentle start to the week. I finished in a speedy 5.30 but was left with a feeling I should have been a touch speedier. Quite a few instant answers at first sight, but one or two requiring a second view to solve.

  30. Fast then slow. Made a few bad guesses. DNF as couldn’t spell ChipMunk. Dare say I would have seen the mistake had it been an across clue.
    Also slower on BASELINE and SPOONBILL.FOI RIO.
    Thanks vm, Kitty.

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