Times Quick Cryptic 960 by Joker

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This one took me 10 minutes. I was expecting to complete it well within my target 10 but only just made it because of a hold-up at the end over 3dn.  I thought of STAGE originally but was not happy with it and embarked on an alphabet trawl looking for a more satisfactory answer. I’ve since discovered that there are at least 47 possibilities for S_A_E so it was just as well that SCA_E came very early in the proceedings. Other than that it all seemed quite straightforward.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Cheating player playing craps hard (9)
CARDSHARP – Anagram [playing] of CRAPS HARD. I shall resist the temptation to comment further on this!
6 Public school dismisses head for a lot of speed? (3)
TON – {e}TON (public school) [dismisses head]. TON is slang for 100 mph. In attempt to ward off pedantic comments, although its full name is ‘Eton College’  it is nevertheless in more general terms still an independent boarding school.
8 Tirade about a member of parliament that’s unrestrained (7)
RAMPANT – RANT (tirade) contains [about] A+MP (member of parliament)
9 Singer in first ENO Rigoletto (5)
TENOR – Hidden in {firs}T ENO R{igoletto}. For anyone who may not know, ENO is the English National Opera company and Rigoletto is an opera by Verdi
10 Eroded around front of ship — not so good (5)
WORSE – WORE (eroded) containing [around] S{hip} [front]
12 Visitor caught everyone with Queen (6)
CALLER – C (caught), ALL (everyone), ER (Queen)
14 New impression of non-monarchy and leaderless country (13)
REPUBLICATION – REPUBLIC (non-monarchy), {n}ATION (country) [leaderless]. ‘Impression’ is the process of printing so the first impression of a book  would be the first print-run and later there might be a new impression for republication.
16 Father has a chap returning hat (6)
PANAMA – PA (father), A + MAN (chap) [returning]. A type of straw hat originating in Ecuador.
17 Choirmaster’s beginning to repeat part of Mass (5)
CREDO – C{hoirmaster’s} [beginning], RE-DO (repeat). Literally “I believe…”. The principal parts of a Mass are Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei.
19 The man’s gaining tons in robbery (5)
HEIST – HE IS (the man’s), T (tons)
20 Moving to a more select café? (7)
TEAROOM – Anagram (moving) of TO A MORE
22 Black and silver item of luggage (3)
BAG – B (black), AG (silver – from the Latin Argentum)
23 A short month before Speaker becomes a moderniser of the House? (9)
DECORATOR – DEC (short month),  ORATOR (speaker)
Down
1 Tired and exhausted vehicle owner crashing (8)
CAREWORN – CAR (vehicle), anagram [crashing] of OWNER
2 Odd rumour, not owned by us (3)
RUM – RUM{our} [not owned by us]
3 Go up for graduation (5)
SCALE – Two meanings
4 Not in favour of the weather generally keeping Celsius — a bit of a let-down (13)
ANTICLIMACTIC – ANTI (not in favour of), CLIMATIC (the weather generally) containing [keeping] C (Celsius)
5 What tall ape could be reconstructed from? A kneecap (7)
PATELLA – Anagram of [could be reconstructed from] TALL APE
6 Get annoyed breaking fork’s point in citrus fruit (9)
TANGERINE – ANGER (get annoyed) contained by [breaking] TINE (fork’s point)
7 Standard offer of a choice of ends for Nottingham (8)
NORM – OR offers us a choice between the ends for N{ottingha}M
11 Travelling salesman having a meal and coming back again (9)
REPEATING – REP (travelling salesman), EATING (having a meal)
13 Tell-tale in class, ever on the outside (8)
INFORMER – IN, FORM (class), E{ve}R [on the outside]
15 Cursed, being literally last in bed (7)
BLASTED – Literally LAST in BED
17 Barnet follows Conservative leader of meeting (5)
CHAIR – C{onservative}, HAIR (Barnet – CRS: Barnet Fair)
18 Fish young bear has found hard to grab? (4)
CHUB – CUB (young bear) contains [to grab] H (hard)
21 Make a choice and compete regularly (3)
OPT – {c}O{m}P{e}T{e} [regularly]

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 960 by Joker”

  1. They all went in as I came to them, except for CREDO & SCALE, both of which required a second look. TEAROOM was great
    1. Same here – but add a minute on. STAGE never felt quite right but ended up submitting with it there anyway.
  3. 8.20 but likewise (or leastwise) popped in STAGE @3dn instead of SCALE! Mmmmm!

    Everything else was straightforward enough, it is after all only Monday.

    COD 1dn CAREWORN

    WOD 17ac CREDO

    I will make comment on 1ac ‘craps hard’ – I didn’t see it until you pointed it out, Jack!

    My scatalogicality is on the wane! Bummer!

    Edited at 2017-11-13 02:29 am (UTC)

    3. And me! That’s interesting – surely can only mean an error in the downloaded information, unless three iPads have the same bug . . .

      Philip

      1. And mine!! Several times…..How odd!

        Straightforward crossword but no time because of the crash.

    4. My guess would be some kind of memory overwriting error if the underlying code has allocated 8 spaces to the answer instead of the required four.
      1. That’s basically right. An app will crash if it tries to access an array element beyond the last one declared. In (hopefully) plain English, if you define an array with four elements (ie letters) and try to display a fifth, the app has nowhere to go so it terminates.

        It gives an interesting insight into how the app is programmed, as the 8 letters indicated in the clue is clearly more than just an indication to the solver.

        And yes, I am an iOS developer!

    5. I had the same. Especially annoying as I am sure it was my first time under 10 minutes. Grrr!!
  5. 44 minutes with 30 spent on the unknown guessed and unparsed (thanks Jack) credo, scale (didn’t see the graduation meaning), and republication (spent far too long searching for a country _A_I_N.

    COD blasted.

  6. Which is about as fast as it gets for me – therefore some word play got only a cursory check before the answer went in.
    I wondered unnecessarily about anger = get annoyed rather than annoy at 6dn and paused at loi 17ac before the seemingly baffling became obvious. I’m another who didn’t look past the dice game at 1ac so thanks for the reference – and thank goodness for the absence of a comma after ‘playing’.
    1. I read this that you understood it, Chris, having at first wondered about it, but just to be clarify, my interpretation is that if you ‘get (someone) annoyed’ you ‘anger’ them.
      1. Yes, sorry, I should have been clearer – I had to double take before seeing ‘get someone annoyed’.
  7. Every time I try to do 7 down which, incidentally has 4 spaces , not 8, my iPad switches off the Times app.
  8. Is part of a chapter title in The Compleat Angler. I remember from boyhood a nonsense poem beginning

    There is a fine stuffed chavender,
    A chavender, or chub,
    Which decks the rural pavender,
    The pavender, or pub,
    Wherein I eat my gravender,
    My gravender, or grub.

    CREDO (my COD, so elegant) went in fine but I was delayed by both NORM and SCALE (LOI). An enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks to joker and Jack.

    Templar

  9. My LOI was also 3d, but I didn’t think of stage. Instead, my first thought was SHADE, which fitted the graduation part of the clue but not the “go up”. Like Jack, I did an alphabet trawl which fortunately stopped at C. 10:37. Liked REPUBLICATION. Missed the scatological reference at 1a as I’m still half asleep after rising early to oversee the delivery of the new boards and felt for the repair of my garage roof, or rather to set the scene for my roofer to do so. Yawn! Nice puzzle with a couple of penny drop moments. Funnily enough TEAROOM took a while to drop. Thanks Joker and Jack.
  10. Along with others my LOI was 3d and I don’t have a time as I was using the iPad version which crashed on 7d. I think it would have been sub 15 mins as nothing really held me up.
  11. I thought I was going to break the 10 minute mark today, which is a very rare occurrence, but was held up by my last 2 – the unknown 17a and 3d which needed, like others, an alphabet trawl. Eventually completed in 13 minutes. COD 20a
  12. Yet another unduly delayed by these two clues. In hindsight they’re both quite simple, clearly deceptively so.
    If any QC improvers fancy a crack at a 15×15, I can recommend yesterday’s Sunday Times offering. The clueing is very much in QC territory and little by way of obscure general knowledge.
    6’30”
  13. Did anybody not finish on 3d today ? Thought about shape, but eventually the correct answer(s) fell from my eyes for a 27 mins finish. Nice Monday QC, with some good surfaces of which 23ac was my favourite. Tenor was well-hidden, and 2d was quite a neat clue, so overall an enjoyable solve. Invariant
    1. Yes I gave up on 3d and made a mess of republication. My day has been ‘unmade’ by the revelation that the Jumbo wa
      1. That went click before I had finished. I was saying that the Jumbo must have been very easy as I am just about to post off the solution! DM
  14. 4:20 helped by a clean sweep of the down clues. Unlike Jack and others I had no trouble with SCALE as I immediately thought of the chemical apparatus. Nice Monday fare. Thanks Jack and Joker.
  16. I also had the crashing 7d as I did this on the plane with my iPad rather than the usual Macbook and website.

    Due to not beng able to submit, it’s only now I discover that the suspect SHADE at 3d was indeed incorrect.

    Never mind, thanks for the blog.

  17. First (almost) completed quick cryptic after 6 months of learning and trying. Being an architect ‘scale’ came easily – only stuck on ‘credo’ . Excellent crossword – more from Joker please.
  19. Scale brings my run of completions to an end on 7. Stage did for me too, though I wasn’t entirely happy with it.

    Good puzzle tho – found it harder than some of the recent others.

    Hope to start another run tomorrow.

    Mighty

  20. Have been out all day and solved this on the train back.
    It took me about 20 minutes to get to a point where I just needed 3d. I managed to find Scale fairly quickly. Credo also late in.
    Thanks Joker for another excellent puzzle -not easier in my book. David
  21. Sorry, my keyboard is misbehaving. What I wanted to say was that Joker is my favourite setter but this milquetoast offering had nothing of the slightest interest.

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