Today the Quick Cryptic has reached #800 having started life on Monday 10 March 2014. These milestones always occur on my watch so I come to them half expecting a NINA in the grid or something in the clues to mark the occasion, but I can’t find anything of that sort today. It’s likely anyway that setters don’t normally have notice of when their puzzles will be published in the greater scheme of things. Incidentally if anyone has spotted it and is wondering why the milestone puzzles occur on Mondays rather on Fridays, the answer is that the editor slipped in an extra unnumbered puzzle on Christmas Day 2014.
This puzzle took me 6 minutes past my 10 minute target, but having now written the blog and thought about the clues again, I don’t know what delayed me. I look forward to reading how others got on with it.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 8 | Force admitting first error (7) |
| MISTAKE – MAKE (force) containing [admitting] 1ST (first) | |
| 9 | Ordered to include large part of oar (5) |
| BLADE – BADE (ordered) containing [to include] L (large) | |
| 10 | Initially struggling, win out of nowhere, become ecstatic (5) |
| SWOON – First letters [initially] of S{truggling}, W{in}, O{ut}, O{f}, N{owhere} | |
| 11 | Wrestle poorly — feel hot (7) |
| SWELTER – Anagram [poorly] of WRESTLE | |
| 12 | Cunningly, I plot out a device for aircraft (9) |
| AUTOPILOT – Anagram [cunningly] of I PLOT OUT A | |
| 14 | Soccer official gets parking for female salesperson (3) |
| REP – RE{f} (soccer official) + P [parking for female] | |
| 16 | Jabber as wages withdrawn? (3) |
| YAP – PAY (wages) reversed [withdrawn] | |
| 18 | Absurd farce, sure to occur again? (9) |
| RESURFACE – Anagram [absurd] of FARCE SURE | |
| 21 | Recall regular payment and criticize companion (7) |
| PARTNER – RENT (regular payment) + RAP (criticize) reversed [recall] | |
| 22 | Resentful about name — disturb peace at night? (5) |
| SNORE – SORE (resentful) containing [about] N (name) | |
| 23 | Royal Highness associated with a certain river (5) |
| RHONE – RH (Royal Highness), ONE (a certain) | |
| 24 | Joyful state of Northern Ireland artist having secured vehicle? (7) |
| NIRVANA – NI (Northern Ireland) then RA (artist) containing [having secured] VAN (vehicle) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | English girl fairly regularly visited diplomat (8) |
| EMISSARY – E (English), MISS (girl), {f}A{i}R{l}Y [regularly visited] | |
| 2 | Go with exotic corset (6) |
| ESCORT – Anagram [exotic] of CORSET | |
| 3 | Understood new cut (4) |
| SAWN – SAW (understood), N (new) | |
| 4 | Quite a selection including prickly plant (6) |
| TEASEL – Hidden [including] in {qui}TE A SEL{election} | |
| 5 | One arguing against aim, bore at heart (8) |
| OBJECTOR – OBJECT (aim), {b}OR{e} [at heart] | |
| 6 | Business agent following player (6) |
| FACTOR – F (following), ACTOR (player). I wasn’t quite sure of the definition here but later confirmed that a factor can be a person buying or selling on commission for another. | |
| 7 | Endure / ill-mannered guy (4) |
| BEAR – Two meanings, SOED has: a rough, unmannerly, or uncouth person. | |
| 13 | Combustible heap seen up in mountains (8) |
| PYRENEES – PYRE (combustible heap), SEEN reversed [up] | |
| 15 | Commoner, English, in biplane flying (8) |
| PLEBEIAN – E (English) in anagram [flying] of BIPLANE | |
| 17 | Expected scores by old northern clergyman (6) |
| PARSON – PARS (expected scores), O (old), N (northern) | |
| 19 | Garment from Salvation Army? Not correct reportedly (6) |
| SARONG – SA (Salvation Army), RONG sounds like [reportedly] “wrong” (not correct) | |
| 20 | Lacking principles, upset mother before exam (6) |
| AMORAL – MA (mother) reversed [upset], ORAL (exam) | |
| 21 | Country type, rustic — a bit (4) |
| PERU – Hidden in [a bit] {ty}PE RU{stic} | |
| 22 | Kind tips from studio recruit (4) |
| SORT – S{tudi}O R{ecrui}T [tips from…] | |
Edited at 2017-04-03 06:19 am (UTC)
A 10.32 crawl not good for a Monday.
WOD PLEBEIAN
Perhaps in future I should just write ,see plett11 above. David
FOI was 14ac REP, COD was 13d PYRENEES which made me chuckle once it finally clicked.
Other notables included 23ac RHONE which I originally had as RHEIN (mistaking “ein” as the German “a” and then misspelling the river in the process!). Also had 12ac as ALTIMETER for a while. Missed the anagram on 15d, parsing it completely differently but getting the same result and had to guess 4d TEASEL based on the hidden word.
My only issue was 22d and SORT. Am I being stupid but how does this relate to “kind”?
DR31
JJ
DR31
Surprised at the number of solvers struggling with Factor. I though the word was fairly well known. Perhaps showing my age (I’m not Scottish). But I really didn’t like f=following. Some setters seems to think it legit to abbreviate absolutely anything to its initial letter.
Abbreviations have to be corroborated by one or more of the source dictionaries, which for the Times cryptic are believed to be the Concise Oxford, Collins and Chambers, and f=following is in two of these (the exception being the COED, although it is in the larger Oxfords). There is, or was at one time, a policy of avoiding some of the more obscure single-letter abbreviations that can be found in the recesses of Chambers but if an abbreviation is in one of the others as well it’s probably fair game.
Quite apart from anything else f=following is not uncommon in crosswords so it’s worth remembering so as not to be caught out on future occasions.
Which brings me to a wider point. I’m a newcomer to the Times Quick Cryptic, which I can usually complete in about the time it takes me to eat a cooked breakfast. (I’m a slow eater!)
Gradually though, I am losing enthusiasm for the QC. The clueing seems to be consistently very ‘mechanical’ or ‘deconstructionist’. All those ‘first of’ and ‘heart of’ and ‘extremities of’ etc. Soon gets quite boring and one longs for a bit of wit. Not much of that around in the QCs. Perhaps it’s The Times’s style, or maybe even the modern style. I cut my teeth many, many years ago on the Telegraph cryptic, which is, or was, more fun. The Times 15×15 has nearly always been too hard for me, as have the Graun and the Indie. More crucially, though, I find some of them so little fun. Too dry.
In a minority, I’m sure. Thanks for listening (if you did).