Times Quick Cryptic 926 by Felix

Well, this was fun – but not in a ‘zoom though a QC in less than ten minutes’ sort of way. There are all sorts of really clever clues which are worth appreciating – some verge, if I may be so bold, on 15×15 level. 20, 21 and 22ac stand out for me but 2dn just edged out 7dn for COD. In a QC blog I would mention unusual vocabulary first – but the unknown little monkey at the tail of the clues went in without a murmur (or should that be a chatter or hoot?).

ACROSS

1. Gulf Stream – brings us milder weather. A huge opening (GULF), flower of the flowing water variety (STREAM).
8. Patriot – nationalist. Glib (PAT) about three things (TRIO).
9. Whale – enormous creature. Wide (W), robust/healthy (HALE).
10. Yank – double definition.
11. Disliked – unpopular. Anagram (awful) of IDLE KIDS – nice surface.
13. Deign – stoop. I won’t deign to explain this one – oh, alright then – homophone (pronounced) of Dane.
14. Annoy – needle. Leading letter missing from PA system t(ANNOY).
16. Tap dance – perform on stage. Anagram (trained) of PANDA ETC.
17. Asps – snakes. Donkey (ASS) is circumventing quietly (P).
20. Virgo – sign of the zodiac. The clue ‘Miss sign?’ Comes with a question mark to get us to think of a zodiac sign represented by a young woman (a miss) and so get the answer Virgo.
21. Imagine – fancy. Yours truly’s opposed to (I’M AGIN), styl(E). Any relative newcomers to the QC who got that one reasonably easily are on their way to the 15×15.
22. Asterisked – with a star. Not the most obvious definition. Let’s get onto the word play – anagram (dicky) of EAST, took chances (RISKED).

DOWN

1. Guppy – small fish. The answer is in the words coilin(G UP PY)thon – indicated by ‘constricts’.
2. Luton Airport – an airport in Bedfordshire where a pilot could run a tour. Anagram (potentially) of PILOT RAN TOUR. I took a long time to solve this clue but was then quick to appreciate it’s cleverness – COD.
3. Skip – double definition.
4. Retail – sell. Track again (RE-TAIL).
5. As well as – into the bargain. A toff (A SWELL), and a (A) saint (S).
6. Walking stick. Cryptic definition. A constitutional is a walk so a staff providing support for such activity is a walking stick.
7. Heyday – prime. LOI by a mile. Homophone (it’s said) of time to cut grass – hay day.
12. Infamous – notorious. Anagram (sorted out) of MAFIOSi UN – all but one – except for one I.
13. Dative – case (grammatically). Fruit (DATE) with four (IV) inside.
15. Scribe – writer. Plagiarism (CRIB) going in(side) different directions – south and east (SE). I confess to not having worked this parsing out until writing the blog.
18. Steed – horse. I(S) pu(T) outsid(E) th(E) fiel(D), finally.
19. Saki – little monkey. Any of several small mostly arboreal New World monkeys of the genera Pithecia and Chiropotes, having long hair and a long bushy tail. Part of (S)h(A)r(K) o(I)l – at regular intervals. Dnk this monkey but the cluing was fair enough.

34 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 926 by Felix”

  1. At 2d, I panicked, as always when it looks like a British town is needed, and as usual, had no need to. DEIGN took me a while, but what really slowed me down were ANNOY & HEYDAY; I started to feel I’d never get them, until I finally did. I know ‘tannoy’, but it’s not in my vocabulary–I only know it from cryptics. I also knew SAKI–albeit only because I have a collection of Saki’s writings (H.H. Munro, definitely worth reading), and the possible origin of his pseudonym is discussed in the introduction–but as Chris says, the cluing was fair; ‘regular’ almost inevitably means ‘every other letter’. 8:48.

    Edited at 2017-09-26 06:22 am (UTC)

  2. I needed a minute over my target 10 to complete this one as I took longer than usual to get started (having read at least half-a-dozen clues before an answer leapt out at me) and the unknown monkey at 19dn threw me so that I had to check and then rely on wordplay to be confident about it. A little research suggests that it has never even appeared in a standard 15×15, but only in an incredibly difficult Club Monthly in 2012. I don’t waste my time looking at those.

    Edited at 2017-09-26 05:50 am (UTC)

  3. Enjoyable and done in a good time for me – but annoyingly I spelt ‘heydey’ like that! Oops!
  4. I took 11:12 to get through this one. The top half went in quickly enough, but the bottom half slowed me down. Fortunately the unknown monkey was fairly clued, but I needed all the checkers to get DEIGN. Luton Airport always makes me smile, as it reminds me of the Campari advert with Lorraine Chase, who is sitting on a stool at a bar looking very attractive, and is approached by a handsome guy who asks “Were you wafted here on a dream from Paradise?” and she replies in a broad Cockney accent, “Nah Luton Airpawt.” Thanks Felix and Chris.
      1. Leonard Rossiter did the Cinzano ads with Joan Collins. I don’t think he did the Campari ads.
  5. Going through this I couldn’t tell whether this was very tough or I was just on completely the wrong wavelength. Most of the answers, when finally solved, were fairly clued but they took some getting there. I had particular difficulty with 21a and LOI 15d.
    Staggered over the finish line in around 30 minutes with 20a unparsed.
    Thanks for the blog
  6. Got there after 45 mins, but only via a curious mix of write-ins (eg 1ac) and very difficult clues (7 and 13d, 21ac). I suppose that makes this a good QC – certainly an interesting one. Invariant
  7. I had most of this done quickly and then struggled for ages on the last few.

    Imagine – Haven’t heard of AGIN. Seems like northern slang.
    Couldn’t parse steed or the miss in virgo.
    Asterisked! Initially I had asterisks and wondered where the last letter was coming from, asterisksa?!
    Took a while to see crib for plagiarism.

    COD GULF STREAM or DATIVE.

    Edited at 2017-09-26 11:22 am (UTC)

    1. Agin – old fashioned barrister slang – ‘I’m agin you my dear fella’. (Brothers in Law). Too difficult for me today – punished for complacency? The Florentine.
  8. A real plod for me. I eventually limped over the line in 18:36, one of the worst times I’ve had in a while. My COD goes to WALKING STICK, but then I’m a sucker for a punny cryptic definition. Could somebody explain PLAGIARISM=CRIB to me please? I know the verb CRIB, but surely the equivalent would be PLAGIARISE? Am I missing something?
    1. Granted that crib can = plagiarise but a long way further down the list (at no 12) is:
      informal. – a theft, esp of another’s writing or thoughts.
      So there is the noun.
  9. I would agree it was difficult for a quickie but not ridiculously so. I needed the blog to be able to parse two of the answers which is unusual for me these days, so thanks as always to Chris.
  10. 15.29 mostly down to 1ac GULFSTREAM and
    2dn LUTON AIRPORT I was looking for the little Bedfordshirfe village of UPTON something-or-other whe Miss Marple hangs out! COD no less!

    Does anyone apart from Mohn look at the Club Monthly!?

    WOD HEYDAY – I’m past mine after today’s showing!

    Mood Meldrew!

    1. Just found an interesting fact (prompted by your comment) that even Meldrew Esq may find interesting!
      The quaint, sleepy village of St. Mary Mead was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Marple. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple’s introduction, in the 1928 Hercule Poirot novel The Mystery of the Blue Train. In that novel, St. Mary Mead is home to the book’s protagonist Katherine Grey.
      1. Christie also used the name James Bond in one of her novels that pre-dates Fleming – however I do not know which! Girls?

        It must then be Lorraine Chase who hangs out at UPTON something-or-other!

  11. This was definitely not a beginner’s QC. A lot of clues of a standard for the 15×15.
    My FOI was 17a and after 30 minutes I had four left -3d 7d 19d and 22a.
    I took a break then and need another 5 minutes to complete things. DNK Saki but it had to be. That left me with the star and I had anagram fodder of DICKY EAST A. Eventually I saw the way the clue worked -not easy but a good clue, and maybe too hard for a QC. David
  12. Very tough and not anywhere near a ‘Quick’ cryptic for me, but it was fun unpicking the difficult clues as I generally had the answers but was struggling to parse some of them. I thought some of the clueing was very clever and very satisfying to solve. Pexiter.
  13. Big DNF for me, after at least an hour. Nothing more to be said, others have pointed out the challenges of several of the clues.

  14. This felt faster than the 10:12 it took. Never really stuck anywhere, though it took me a while to see AS WELL AS; I’ve tried to get “swell” for “toff” into my brain, but it never seems to take.

    FOI 1d GUPPY, LOI 15d SCRIBE. Got SAKI from the satirist, and there is speculation that he got it from the monkey

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  15. will I attempt one of these in the a.m before having my wake-up juice. Not having heard of Tannoy, or Agin, not to mention Luton and its sodding airport, is no excuse for taking 19:50
  16. I was very pleased to finish this, albeit taking 1:11:31 (just about a half marathon time, though not for a few years now) and failing to parse ‘steed’ and ‘imagine’. A lot of nice clues, but particularly liked Heyday and Scribe. As I said, I know it’s unlikely anyone will read this, but just in case there are some latecomers who are of the kind who are pleased just to finish and can’t quite imagine how anybody can even read all the clues in under 10 minutes, I thought I’d show there are others of us out there.
    Crispian.
    1. Most people call me Chris – but feel free to call me ‘nobody’ 😉
      Bloggers always get to see comments – you’d get an email to the address you give on registering should someone reply to you. It’s free and safe.
      As for your efforts – excellent commitment and attitude – you sound like a true Times for the Times-er. Well done.

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