Times Quick Cryptic 980 by Joker

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This one took me 10 minutes and I thought it was reasonably straightforward apart from two  scientific clues, one of which borders on the unfair as it’s considered by some sources to be obsolete. I suspect many will have fallen foul of this in the SE corner where the difficulty is compounded by having the two words intersecting, something which I feel should have been avoided in a QC.   

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 Foolish Hindu god returned flower (9)
AMARYLLIS – SILLY (foolish) + RAMA (Hindu god) reversed [returned]
6 Measure encountered by Her Majesty (5)
METER – MET (encountered), ER (Her Majesty)
8 Choosing to put into power four in south-east (9)
SELECTIVE – ELECT (put into power) + IV (four) in SE (south-east)
9 Distressed about clubs making a number of goals (5)
SCORE – SORE (distressed) containing [about] C (clubs)
10 Club near empty Thames vessel (9)
NIGHTSPOT – NIGH (near), T{hame}S [empty], POT (vessel)
12 Remember being concerned with visit (6)
RECALL – RE (being concerned with), CALL (visit)
13 Resistance in European nation is a joint problem (6)
SPRAIN – R (resistance) in SPAIN (European nation)
16 Fine food shop right to take promissory notes? Crazy (9)
DELIRIOUS – DELI (fine food shop), R (right), IOUS (promissory notes?)
18 I had a house in an American state (5)
IDAHO – I’D (I had), A, HO (house)
19 Doctor can upset agreement (9)
CONCORDAT – Anagram [upset] of DOCTOR CAN
21 Tanker, a steam-generating vessel, not the first (5)
OILER – {b}OILER (steam-generating vessel) [not the first]
22 Dilating abnormally, I injected heart drug (9)
DIGITALIN – I [injected] in anagram [abnormally] of DILATING. Not a word that I knew although ‘digitalis’ is familiar enough so I was expecting the last letter to be S until I worked it out from wordplay.
Down
1 Country roads run up underneath a weapons store (7)
ARSENAL – LANES (country roads) + R (run) reversed [up] underneath A
2 Assert without proof everyone European has good English (6)
ALLEGE – ALL (everyone), E (European), G (good), E (English)
3 Unusually achy time in sailing boat (5)
YACHT – Anagram [unusually] of ACHY, T (time)
4 Hawaiian garland that is left over (3)
LEI – IE (that is – id est) + L (left) reversed [over]
5 Donuts were as awful as some Chinese food (5-3-4)
SWEET-AND-SOUR – Anagram [awful] of DONUTS WERE AS
6 Turned out in numbers in service for Italian leader that’s died (4-8)
MASS-PRODUCED – MASS (service), PRO (for), DUCE (Italian leader), D (died). “That’s” short for “that has” here, i.e. “is next to”.
7 Current keeping river hot and humid (8)
TROPICAL – TOPICAL (current) containing [keeping] R (river)
11 Cooperate with what theatre may put on before dance (4,4)
PLAY BALL – PLAY (what theatre may put on), BALL (dance)
14 Former name for particle, one out of place (7)
POSITON – POSIT{i}ON (place) [one out of].  Collins has this as an ‘obsolete’ word for the more familiar ‘proton’ and the defintion in the clue appears to acknoweledge this by saying ‘former’ so perhaps it’s too obscure a word for a Quick Cryptic?
15 A poem of Byron delights (6)
RONDEL – Hidden in [of] {By}RON DEL{ights}
17 Grub around small hen-house (5)
ROOST – ROOT (grub) contains [around] S (small)
20 Old horse has problem dropping head (3)
NAG – {s}NAG (problem) [dropping head]

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 980 by Joker”

  1. I had trouble exactly where Jack predicted: My own fault for biffing ‘digitalis’ without double-checking the anagrist; this made 14d impossible to get, of course, so I finally corrected 22ac. I’ve never heard of POSITON; frankly, it looks like something that wandered in from a Mephisto, not a 15×15. 5:47.
  3. So it looks like I’m in good company biffing DIGITALIS and never having heard of POSITON.
    Squeaked just under 10 minutes.
  4. 16:48 for me so on the easier side of average difficulty for me. I had never heard of Positon either, but by the time I got to it I had five of the seven letters already filled in.
  5. I suspected that Positon rather than Positron would be in Collins as it certainly isn’t in my OED or Chambers. I put it in as it was the only vaguely sensible possibility and waited for this blog to verify. It’s a shame – spoiled an otherwise good puzzle for me. Any chance of the Times adopting standard dictionary like the torygraph used to (maybe still does) – don’t mind if it is Collins as long as I know.
    1. The last I heard on this, but it was ages ago, the daily Times uses Collins and the Concise Oxford, however that’s not to say there won’t be the occasional word that’s in neither of those but is in Chambers. Of course things have become a bit confused now because there are on-line versions of these available and I don’t think they can be relied on to mirror the content of the printed editions exactly.

      The Sunday Times has a different policy on dictionaries which I have heard more recently (from the current editor) but I’m afraid I can’t recall what it is.

      Generally speaking though, if you rely on the free on-line versions of Collins, Chambers and the ODO (Oxford Dictionary Online) when solving Times puzzles you should have all bases covered 99.9% of the time.

        1. Forgot to say, since this is in a QC discussion, I’ve never heard of a separate policy re the Quickies so I assume that the same sources are used as for the 15×15.

          Edited at 2017-12-11 11:28 am (UTC)

      2. The current hardback Chambers does include POSITON as an alternative to POSITRON, but not as a headword.
  6. I found this a bit of a struggle but mainly of my own making. I biffed ‘selecting’ for 8a making 5d very tricky and leaving me looking for an obscure chinese dish starting s_g_t. I also couldn’t work out the parsing of 1a until I spotted I’d put a ‘u’ in it instead of an ‘i’. No problem with 14d as there were a generous number of checkers in place by the time I got to it.
    Completed in 21 minutes with LOI 5d
  7. My tale looks familiar. Biffed Digitalis (didn’t check the letters), and had heard of Positron but never POSITON. Otherwise all very straightforward.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. I hadn’t heard of POSITON (POSITRON, yes) but having managed to correctly enter DIGITALIN, I was able to posit the correct answer. Unfortunately I biffed AMARYLLUS at 1a, which was my last in, as I tried to prise my eyes open just before hitting the hay. So an ignominious failure after 10:37. Thanks Joker and John.
  9. Tough for a Monday but very fair. I agree that ‘positon’ is very unusual but the cryptic and the generous supply of crossers make it very accessible. I knew digitalin to be the pharmacological reduction of the naturally occurring digitalis but it didn’t stop me getting it wrong in my first pass!
    WOD and COD to 1a.
    5’45”
  11. Not too difficult IMO

    LOI 14dn POSITON! It had to be once 23dn DIGITALIS correctlybecame DIGITALIN.

    FOI 1ac AMARYLLIS – there does appear to be a floral interfada herabouts.

    COD 6dn MASS PRODUCED

    WOD 15dn RONDEL

    Time 11.04

  12. The Times on Saturday at one time gave away Chambers Dictionaries as prizes.
    These days Merriam Webster (online) is creeping in a bit too!

    Edited at 2017-12-11 12:30 pm (UTC)

  13. Anyone who grew up on Isaac Asimov has the positronic brain branded into their own brain and it was a short step from there … well, possibly aided by the fact that before I got to it I had got six out of seven letters, ahem.

    My LOI was Henry’s FOI, I never think of AMARYLLIS as a plant but as a girl’s name (sport with Amaryllis in the shade etc).

    Thanks to Joker and Jack.

    Templar

  14. little by little for this learner and eventually finished!
    LOI 21 (not helped by 14, but wordplay left only one answer and Google confirmed my biff).
    COD 15 – I didn’t see for quite a while and reconciles with a great tip … if all else fails, look for a hidden!
  15. Good to have Joker back. This puzzle required some care and I slowed down a bit after putting Metre as FOI and followed the clues carefully. This worked on Digitalin (unknown) and Positon (ditto). Some quite obscure words e.g. Rondel but all gettable I thought. And I knew the plant! LOI was 9a where I needed all the checkers. COD to 10a. Took me just over 20 minutes -and I corrected 6a early on. David
  16. Made heavy going of this, with the bottom half of the grid causing most of the difficulty. 40 mins in the end, so at least 10 mins slower than I would have wished for even allowing for the unknown positon and rondel. Invariant

  17. 15:27 Some obscure words but reasonably gettable. Not mentioned so far in the blog but RONDEL seems pretty obscure as well.

  19. Nice and relatively easy this one. A couple of unknown words but they had to be right with all the other letters in. Good for general knowledge. Joker and Mara (also completed) seem fairly straightforward with sensible clues and parsing. Quite a contrast to all the difficult dnfs last week which were really tough and not enjoyable at all. Learning from the blogs which are excellent, maybe it will all get a little easier with time and practice and then move on to the 15 x 15 …..
    More from Mara and Joker please.
  20. South went in easily enough and then had to work through the NE to get a run in the rest. FOI 9a LOI 1a COD 10a. Split my time around chores but I reckon about 45 minutes, so fair for me.
  21. Hmmmmmmm! far too difficult for the QC and Joker knows that perfectly well.Nothing wrong with difficult clues in the Quick Cryptic as long as they are not mephisto standard.digoxin/digitalis or positron would have been fine.
  22. South went in easily enough and then had to work through the NE to get a run in the rest. FOI 9a LOI 1a COD 10a. Split my time around chores but I reckon about 45 minutes, so fair for me.

Comments are closed.