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. Not as quick as most Trelawneys for me, but still happy with 11.56. And he’s still my fave setter.
    Needed the blog to parse NEW ZEALANDER, though it was pretty clear from the checkers.
    Pi ❤️

  2. 23 in 28 minutes, failed on the somewhat cryptic spoonbill. A nice easy start for a Monday. 1d and 9d being write ins after 7 and 8 across. Jailbreak took a while for the penny to drop as did dance. Very enjoyable.

    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

    My father died 13th October 1990, heart attack, packing away his fishing gear on the side of the Thames. One of the better ways to go. RIP.

  3. The usual gentle but elegant fare from Trelawney – thank you, and to Kitty for pointing out that, when I fail on the Championship Final puzzle later, it is only what I should expect!

    FOI IDEAL
    LOI SPARSE
    COD JAILBREAK *
    TIME 3:11

    * I now have a Thin Lizzy earworm!

    1. I surprised myself by finishing the Championship puzzle correctly, although the biff meter was off the scale! However, I honoured the spirit of Failure Day by cocking up this morning’s Quordle 😂

  4. All clues entered on reading except for SLAM. Grrrr
    Floor of vehicle (e) doesn’t really make sense to me but it had to be.

  6. 10:40 but DNF

    Aargh. Misspelled CHIPMUNK, put a stray O in there even though the clue warned it was spelt differently from monk.

    Which is annoying as this was a gentle start to the week.

  8. Smoked a new personal best, with 4:01. That’s boiled egg territory.

    Only hold up was that like most, I don’t know how to spell JANEIRO. Which cost a bit odd time until IMPEL set it right.

  9. Very friendly start to the week.

    Enjoyed OFFICE, SPOONBILL and NEW ZEALANDER particularly.

    Thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  10. Thought Hurley’s QCs were the fastest often but Trelawney’s QCs also feel as fast.
    Thanks Kitty for the blog.

  11. 5.40 Very gentle. NEW ZEALANDER needed a few checkers and ORGANIC was LOI. Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.

  12. I’m sure Trelawney is perfectly capable of compiling more challenging crosswords, but he invariably sticks to the brief and almost always comes up with an enjoyable, accessible and achievable puzzle that can be completed over a cup of coffee. A pleasant interlude in a busy day. A QC, in fact. It would be so nice if other setters could do the same.

    15 minutes, which is really very quick for me, although I didn’t get started until JAILBREAK and CUE came to my rescue. Once I’d got going I maintained a good pace and, unusually, didn’t run into any quicksand towards the end.

    PROTEIN, ORGANIC and OFFICE probably caused the most trouble and were my L3I.

    Many thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.

  13. A gentle enough return, after a wet few days in Copenhagen, giving me a satisfying sub-15 start to the week. Might even have been a bit faster if I could only spell, but that bus has long gone. CoD to 12ac, Jailbreak, for the surface, where I strongly suspect Trelawney slipped in the subtle can/jail reference. Invariant

  14. It’s not all that often I succeed in actually completing the quyptic without clues, but I found today’s very approachable, with a 16:19 solve time! A good start to the week!

  15. A fairly swift 8:36 for us. Last two in OFFICE and SPOONBILL. Liked them both. Thanks, Kitty and Trelawney.

  16. I echo many of today’s comments: Trelawney nails the QC brief to perfection. All done in 10 minutes, and much to enjoy along the way. With dealing and slamming I was on the lookout for trumping and finessing but we then moved to South America and to other matters. Great fun – thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  17. My day for failure as I failed to spell CHIPMUNK correctly. Probably down to speed as I seemed to be on for a fast time. However the trio of ORGANIC, PAGE and OFFICE in the SW took what seemed like an age. No excuses – they were all perfectly good clues. Ended up with a time of 15 minutes with all parsed except NEW ZEALANDER which I saw immediately from a couple of crossers.

    FOI 7ac IDEAL
    LOI 19dn PAGE
    COD 16ac SPOONBILL

    Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.

  18. 23 minutes with some dithering on the U and O of chipmunk!
    Drummer? – musician – generous!
    Thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  20. Wish I’d timed it properly might have been able to claim a PB. But def below 10 mins. Spoonbill the only hold up until I realised the non pamphlet definition of flyer

    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

  21. 7:10, very quick for me. Hard to believe, but it would have been even quicker if I hadn’t spent well over a minute trying to find an anagram of OR SAKE NOW that meant “abandoned”, before spotting the hidden. And now I type this, I notice that I didn’t count the letters correctly. Gaaah. But that explains why no-one else has reported falling into that trap.

  23. Grateful for correct parsing, didn’t quite see where SPARSE came from, or YEAR I suppose quite unusual, and some Hmm’s but all correct regardless.

  24. Surprised myself with a v fast time- Costa still unfinished ! Waiting for fish&chip shop to open. Will be an early supper…. All straight in a L to R solve. Wish I’d timed this one. A great puzzle but I was fairly on the wavelength for a change. Some witty clues to enjoy.

  25. I thoroughly enjoyed this – so many good surfaces and lovely connections that it was really hard to pick a COD. I liked BASELINE because MrB plays bass; I liked RIO DE JANEIRO because our son lives in Brazil; we were lucky enough to see a SPOONBILL last time we were in Norfolk; and PROTEIN, JAILBREAK, PERUVIAN, and FORSAKEN were just good fun.
    And of course the old joke sprang to mind: What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A drummer!
    7:54 FOI Ideal LOI Baseline COD Office
    Many thanks Trelawney and Kitty – I’d say that’s a win all round today!

  26. International Day of Failure indeed – flying from one country to another. Definitely international. Multiple interruptions. No chance to properly measure our doubtless PB time – so definite failure. The finer details can merrily hover in our imagination, perhaps losing a few seconds in the process. 😉 That said – much fun. Chuckled at OFFICE. Himself could spell the J word in Rio de… and the last was STRAW – in its rightful place.
    Thank you all.

  28. An appalling 15 minutes, capped off with 5 mins on NEW ZEALANDER, which I read as (9,3) rather than (3,9). Yes, I am that bad. This should have easily been a sub-10 solve for me.

    How nice of them to name a day for people like me.

    Too fed up with this to even look at 15 x 15. Spent 2 hours on ST puzzle yesterday. Got about 2/3, but what’s the point when it takes that long?

    Glanced at the championship puzzle in the paper. Couldn’t see anything. Says it all.

  29. Finished! 40 min but I’ll still take that as a win. I got SLAM from criticise – but how does that relate to a bridge contract?

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