Times Quick Cryptic 981 by Flamande

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A real treat served up by Flamande today for those who like to look deeper into the meaning of clues rather than the biff brigade (4dn, 19dn). All this would have been ample entertainment but we also get a WOD at 1dn. Whilst quite gettable throughout, my time slipped from ‘quick’ to ‘medium’ with a couple of hold ups toward the end (20ac, 13dn).

ACROSS

1. Half-cut – drunk. 50% (HALF), reduction (CUT).
7. Open-top – a type of car. Anagram (disturbed) of POPE NOT.
9. Gives in – accepts the inevitable. Presents (GIVES), at home (IN).
10. Seaport – a place like Hull (putting on a good show for the City of Culture – well done to all the volunteers). Anagram (unusual) of POSTER about A.
11. Eire – Ireland. Royal figure (ER) and that is (IE) all heading westward (right to left).
12. Filling in – working as locum. Pun on the completion of a tooth filling.
14. Usherette – cinema employee. Anagram (as arranged) of THERE TUES.
16. Alto – singer. Appearing in festiv(AL TO)day.
17. Garbage – rubbish. (B)rought into part of house (GARAGE).
20. Manager – boss. LOI as I couldn’t get away from German=der. Staff (MAN), a (A), minor German (GER). I suppose minor simply means a smaller version of the full word ‘German’.
21. Resolve – decide. To seek the answer again (RE-SOLVE).
22. Start on – pick fight with. Lad (SON) embracing maid of honour? (TART). The question mark happily points us away from unpleasantness as it indicates that maid of honour is an example of a tart. Maids of Honour tart is a traditional English baked tart consisting of a puff pastry shell filled with cheese curd. (Phew!).

DOWN

1. Hugger-mugger – in secret. DNK this and initially assumed it was a description of the overly affectionate (and probably overly intoxicated) individuals at Office parties (back in the day, one hopes). This must be WOD and is defined as confusion, secrecy, with secrecy, in confusion, to keep secret or act secretly. Affectionate type (HUGGER), street criminal (MUGGER).
2. Liverish – crusty – in the sense of irritable (and possibly referring to said individuals in 1dn the morning after). Offal (LIVER), is (IS), hard (H).
3. Cash – double definition. American singer (Johnny) and cash (money). Kicked myself for not biffing this straight in as I was tied up with cent.
4. Tonsil – part of internal organ. Anagram (injured) of LISTON. This is far from random anagram material. Robert Liston operated as a pioneering and rather a showman/speed surgeon in the early 1800s but the only reference I can find to tonsils is that he publicly denounced fellow surgeon James Yearsley for treating stammering by removing the tonsils. In his haste during operations Liston also caused some injuries – so even the anagram indicator is excellent.
5. Negative – no. Local inhabitant (NATIVE) with for example (EG) inside.
6. Otto – the only German male name setters seem to know. It appears regularly because it reads the same both up and down.
8. Put one’s oar in – interfere. It’s also an activity undertaken in a rowing boat.
12. Formally – precisely/stiffly. Class (FORM), friend (ALLY). I think I’d have preferred ‘classmate’.
13. Gaslight – form of illumination. Note (G), a (A), far from significant (SLIGHT). Took a while to join ‘far from’ with ‘significant’.
15. Themes – topics. Where officers socialise (THE MES)s – curtailed.
18. Ruse – trick. Homophone (you say) of Australian native species (Roos).
19. Inca – member of ancient people of the Andes. At home (IN), (C)olumbi(A). I didn’t realise the Inca empire went so far north. Having looked it up, it extended to the ‘borders of Columbia’ – one of many excellent surfaces today – this final one gets COD.

23 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 981 by Flamande”

  2. A rare 6 minute solve for me today. There have only been 20 of these out of the 982 QCs to date, 4 of them set by Flamande and 4 by Orpheus, with the remainder made up in 1s or 2s by other setters. I’ve only solved two faster: 5 minute solves of puzzles set by Flamande (18/5/2015) and Orpheus (23/1/2017), and the fact that these two names cropped up in both categories might suggest that my personal measures of difficulty count for something or that it’s a pure coincidence.

    I’ve often thought that if I ever start hitting 5 minutes regularly I shall begin recording the seconds in my solving times but I seem to be a long way off achieving that. If anyone’s interested, I currently note the seconds mentally (without using an actual timer) and then round them up or down to the nearest minute.

    As Chris has noted, this was an excellent puzzle set at just the right level for a QC (unlike yesterday’s) without being too easy or bland.

    Edited at 2017-12-12 05:37 am (UTC)

  3. 12:54 Another decent time. Couple of words I had heard but didn’t really know the definition: HUGGER MUGGER, LIVERISH

    I liked the triple definition at 12a.

    COD INCA

  4. At a shade over 6 minutes, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself – until I found out it wasn’t CENT and GIVEN IN after all. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow.
    1. I think there is a case for both ‘cent’ and ‘given in’ being accepted as alternative answers.
      The rapper 50Cent is at times referred to as just Cent or Mr Cent.
      If ‘presents’ in 9a is read as a noun, then they may indeed be ‘given in’, i.e. given at home. ‘Accepts the inevitable’ can easily be rephrased as ‘has given in’.
      Maybe not what the setter intended but they fit both the grid and the cprytics.
      5’30” with the above plea for leniency!
      1. Nice try, but the alternative is simply too contrived even for the most sophisticated Mephisto puzzle, let alone a Quick Cryptic. And apart from anything else, living people are not allowed as answers under Times weekday cryptic crossword editorship, with the sole exception of HMQ.

        Edited at 2017-12-12 02:04 pm (UTC)

        1. I was tempted to continue to fight my corner on the cryptic argue argument but am forced to concede entirely on the living person reference. I just plain got it wrong.
  5. Flamande is becoming one of my favourite setters, since I stopped trying to just complete his/her puzzles as quickly as possible and started taking the time to enjoy the clues along the way. Today was no exception and I appreciate the added information provided by out blogger.
    Completed in 13 minutes with LOI 13d which I couldn’t fully parse as ‘GA’ doesn’t appear Do Ray Me… – my default option for ‘Note’.
    Favourite was 4d (now I know about Dr Liston)
  6. I might be dim, but cannot understand the 8 in the clue. Understand the answer and how it relates to no, but the 8 threw me. Can someone clarify. Thanks.
    1. The (8) is nothing more than the number of letters in the answer. ‘No’ in this instance refers to a negative response, not a number.
  7. I must avoid the temptation to do this puzzle just before I drag my carcass up the stairs to bed. I did this in 9:23, but with LLIVERIH for 2d and TTEMES for 15d. Despite the fact that my typo for 2d also changed 11a to EIEE, the site only gave me 2 errors. I was held up by GASLIGHT as I’d put FILLERS IN at 12a and it took a couple of minutes to sort out that and my LOI START ON. Thanks Flamande and Chris.
  8. Never come across HUGGER MUGGER before, and only bunged it in because I could not think of anything else for the first word. A MAID OF HONOUR tart was new to me as well. Despite that, a fast time for me.
    PlayUpPompey
  9. Very nice puzzle. I got 1a immediately and kept going. Finished with a pause over 22a. Did not know that Tart = Maid of Honour but thought it a plausible solution. COD to 1d for getting that word into a puzzle.
    8 minutes per the clock on my microwave. Anything under 10 minutes I regard as PB territory as the timing is not accurate. Certainly no real hold-ups.
    Thanks to setter and blogger. David
  10. Another day north of 40 mins, with not much of an excuse. Held up by 1d, Hugger-Mugger, as I had never come across it, and 22ac. There, I could see Start on was the answer from the definition, but not knowing the cake left me with RTO (being embraced by Stan) as some sort of obscure gong. So obscure, in fact, that Wikipedia doesn’t list it. . . Also, was I the only one to have initially thought of Cons 😀 as the answer for 18d? Invariant
    1. I was baffled by the choice between RTO and RTI by Stan being the lad, because I reckon “start in” works just as well as “start on” for “pick a fight with”. Luckily I picked right, making this the first Times puzzle I’ve successfully completed this week!

      Edited at 2017-12-12 11:27 pm (UTC)

  11. 12 mins 2 s for me. LOI Hugger mugger which I didn’t know. I kept trying to jam in hoodee hugger which slowed me up some and was slow with 2a as a result. Thanks to setter and blogger
  12. 4dn. I had assumed Sonny Liston who was beaten by M Ali as he became. My thinking was that when Joe Frazier beat Ali at MSG in 1971 his plan was to smash his liver and kidneys to pulp so that everything else stopped working. Brutal! J
  13. another finally completed and very enjoyable indeed.
    some really good clues.
    COD 12
    LOI 22 (I forgot lad=son).
  14. I found this both good fun and not so hard with a very good personal time of about 25 minutes leisurely parsed as I went along – it was just too good to hurry. FOI 1a. LOI22a. COD 13d. The Maids-of-honour ruse has appeared before but I still missed it first time around the grid.
  15. Probably the fastest I’ve ever completed one of the QC – everything just popped into my head. I don’t time myself but there were unusually no holdups – I got 1ac and 1dn right away so the rest fell into place. As I’ve posted before, sometimes you simply know the words and sometimes you don’t. I got the maid of honour reference but that’s because I do a lot of baking!
    Thanks to the setter and the blogger for this continuing useful resource.

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