Times Quick Cryptic 991 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Greetings to all setters, bloggers, posters and lurkers. I found this quite tricky as I struggled to get the long clues at 1ac and 8dn. All highly enjoyable as usual.

1. Keyboarder – one typing email. LOI as I just couldn’t see it for ages but I liked it when the penny dropped. Crucial (KEY), member of dorm (BOARDER).
8. Beehive – hairstyle as popularised by Marge Simpson. Designed to accommodate the worker(bee)s.
9. Conga – South American dance. Study (CON), first letters (origins) of (G)eorgia (A)nd.
10. Rink – I think this is an ‘and literally so’ (&lit) clue (or partial one) where the definition is within the wordplay. Facility used by skate(R IN K)iev.
11. Suspense – uncertainty. American writers (US PENS) inside Home Counties (SE – it’s a crossword thing – the Home Counties are in the South East).
13. Eclair – cake. English (E), girl left unfinished (CLAIR)e.
14. Indigo – blue – the colour. During excavation (IN DIG), first letter of (opening for) (O)xford.
17. Superior – putting on airs. Mother superior supervises sisters/nuns.
19. Impi – the tribesmen well liked by setters. Politician (MP) found (encountered) in islands (I I).
21. Owlet – little bird. Oscar (O), left (L) inside damp (WET).
22. Overrun – take longer than expected. With regards to (OVER), marathon say (RUN).
23. Thoroughly – completely. Anagram (throwing) of HRH TOO UGLY.

DOWN

2. Eternal – lasting for ever. Anagram (unexpectedly) of REAL NET.
3. Bail – item of cricketing equipment. Miscreants sometimes jump bail.
4. Avenue – tree lined street. A (A), meeting place (VENUE).
5. Duckpond – a village feature perhaps. Avoid (DUCK), parking (P), on (ON), fiel(D).
6. Run-in – argument. Knight (N) in decayed building (RUIN).
7. Macedonian – one from Skopje perhaps. Staff (MACE) held up by two men (DON and IAN underneath).
8. Barbershop – close-harmony singing. US composers (Samuel BARBER’S), dance (HOP).
12. Libretto – book. Anagram (recollected) of TOIL BERT.
15. Immoral – debauched. Like the gods (IMMORtAL) lacking time (minus the T).
16. Rococo – florid style – a decorative style that was popular in Europe in the eighteenth century. (R)ousing, old (O), clown (COCO).
18. Pilot – aircraft operator. One (I) inside conspiracy (PLOT).
20. Berg – floating mass of use. Aquatic bird endlessly (GREB)e upwards (climbing).

15 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 991 by Orpheus”

  1. Definitely tricker than average QC, I’d say, and I overran my fallback target of 15 minutes by 1. I estimate that at least the last 5 minutes were spent on 1ac, a word I’m not familiar with* so it was ages before it occurred to me. I was fixed on the first three letters being BED as having something to do with ‘dorm’ and it wasn’t until I spotted KEY for ‘crucial’ that the remainder of the word fell into place.

    *A quick search of TftT reveals that KEYBOARDER came up once before in a 15×15 puzzle in August 2016, clued as ‘Touchy operative, essential person who has to get on’, on which occasion I let it pass without comment so presumably I solved it without difficulty. I wondered why such an ugly word would be needed rather than ‘typist’ but I suppose the latter has connotations with a job-title from a previous era that doesn’t quite reflect what the computer age involves. One interpretation I found suggests that a KEYBOARDER is the sort of computer operative who prefers to use key-strokes wherever possible when inputting data, rather than mouse or touch-screen commands.

    Edited at 2017-12-26 07:30 am (UTC)

  2. Including 14a – both COD and LOI. The others ending in o held me up too. Could be out of practice after a day off but i thought this was hard. Lack of culture exposed again – off to find out who Samuel Barber is.
  3. This was one where I felt I’d done much worse than in fact I had, especially as I really struggled over the last couple (13a & 1a), even though I’d got down to _E_BOARD.
    I would have thought Coco the Clown (aka Nicolai Poliakoff) is a mite obscure for those not familiar with mid-20th Century UK entertainment. I remember him visiting our primary school in the 50s to talk about road safety.
    It’s probably a chestnut but I enjoyed 15d in particular.
  4. Strangely enough I found this easier than other recent offerings, even with toddler grandchildren playing round me! A good Boxing Day energiser – thank-you!

  5. Not thrilled with 1a, which led to a DNF after a good run at everything else. Doesn’t seem a word that anyone would ever use/need.

    9a could have been Tango, or Samba until I got all the checkers as did not know CON for “study”: example anyone?

    Thanks for parsing of DUCKPOND, I was thinking “Avoid Parking” meant that a “p” was to be eliminated somehow. Good clue.

    1. I think I’ve heard ‘conned up’ for got the background information on. The definition is to study attentively or learn (esp in the phrase con by rote). Just in case there’s a future reference it also means to steer/helm a ship probably ‘take the con’ is short for ‘take control’.
  6. I found this fairly straightforward with a number of write ins, right up until my LOI 8d which took me a good 10 minutes to crack. I always get a bit of a sinking feeling when I see clues based on music or plants.
    I personally quite liked 1a although I did need a number of checkers before the penny dropped.
    Finally completed in 23 minutes. COD 15d
  7. Must have been doing something vaguely right this morning, as even with a long hold up with loi 1ac, I still managed a rare sub-30 mins finish. And what an ugly word it was as well. Skopje was an answer in the 15×15 last week, otherwise 7d would have taken a bit of working out, (likewise Impi). A small reward for hours of frustration ! Invariant
  8. I found this quite tricky with 1a and 7d holding me up most. I eventually spotted MACE for staff(I remembered Skopje from last week’s 15×15 but not the country), the DUCKPOND which gave me KEYBOARDER after which my LOI BAIL dropped in at 13:02. ETERNAL was my FOI. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.

    Edited at 2017-12-26 12:20 pm (UTC)

  9. Following upon recent discussion about competitive timings, this is an example of where one’s personal knowledge makes the difference. I found this pretty easy as I immediately got ‘Barbershop” as my FOI – there aren’t many well-known American composers – and then everything fell into place quickly.
    Except Impi – couldn’t think how to combine MP and IS for islands – and too much to do today to spend time researching possible tribe names!
    Thanks again to setter and blogger for a welcome break from the festive madness.
  10. I found this pretty easy….and completed in 30 minutes (which is pretty good for me). I was hoping for a long session by the fireside, but at least I still have a couple from last week yet to be finished. Nothing really challenging here but I needed at all the checkers to see 21a and to finally cotton-on to 15d; had difficulty in parsing 9a. Didn’t we have IMPI fairly recently? Anyway, still nice to have a break from the commercial hype pushed at us over this festive period so thanks to Chris and Orpheus.

  11. I thought this was a well balanced puzzle. Some of the difficulties alleviated by recent appearances of Impi and Skopje. I needed to get 1a before getting my LOI, the relatively innocuous 4d. I think that shows a Christmas induced sleepiness. But I was over the line in 20 minutes, so not too bad for me.
    COD to 11a. David
  12. Held up for an inordinate time by 1a, which didn’t seem like a real word, meaning this ended up taking nearly twice my average time. Otherwise not too scary. Skillfully (perhaps too strong a word – that would have been such a gaff) avoided CALEDONIAN for 7d (Skopje in Scotland?) 5d my favourite, but I liked 17a too. Thanks Chris and setter.
  13. QC 984 (December 15th 2017) was set by Felix and contained the word UNCTIOUS. In The Times of December 23rd Richard Rogan admitted that it was he who had set that particular QC.
    Malcolm
    BTW I always solve the QC after I have purchased the paper edition, and then always look at Times for the Times, which I thoroughly enjoy. Many thanks to all the bloggers and a Happy New Year.

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