Times Quick Cryptic No 1039 by Tracy

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
After yesterday’s trickier than usual crossword, we have another testing one, courtesy of Tracy.  Testing? Well this  made me, at least,  think more. I liked that it included a smattering of more difficult clues, which I think are ideal for helping neophytes transition to the 15×15. I enjoyed this a lot with its smooth surfaces and neat teasers – 21 and my COD 3d being prime examples. But the real judges will be you, as always. What do you think? Thanks, Tracy!

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Army officers moved quickly leaving retail outlet (7,5)
GENERAL STORE – GENERALS + TORE. A neat example of the fun of taking a multi-part solution and moving the boundary between words.
8 Strong second row (5)
STIFF – S (second) + TIFF (row). Not a rugby clue as the surface might imply. Coming from north of the border, I did enjoy the result of the Calcutta Cup match.
9 Irish being buried in vault abroad is unreal (7)
VIRTUAL – IR in [buried] (vault)* [abroad]. Unreal? Yes. Why would you take your Irish Uncle’s body from Co. Antrim and bury him in Iceland, for example?
10 Cold and unemotional type in charge, diver recalled (7)
ICEBERG – Talking of ice… IC (in charge) + GREBE backwards [recalled]. My first thought was of the entertaining sight of the gannets diving into the sea between us and the Skerries from our holiday flat in Portrush last summer. But it’s grebes not gannets here.
11 Powerful drug: one taken with expression of doubt after operation (5)
OPIUM – OP + I + UM (expression of doubt). You wouldn’t want to get addicted to this after, say,  your hernia op, would you?
12 Be absorbed in thought about island’s waste (6)
MISUSE – MUSE outside IS. I didn’t have to muse too long over this one. Nor you, I expect.
14 Gift: story together with religious books (6)
TALENT – TALE (together with) NT (New Testament). Have you a talent for crossword solving? Yes, of course you do!
17 Unacceptable idea I dismissed (3,2)
NOT ON – NOT{i}ON. That raised a smile.
19 Character left in support (7)
FLAVOUR – L [in] FAVOUR. Slightly clunky, I thought. But maybe that’s being a bit picky,
21 Grass box breaking toe badly (7)
ESPARTO – Not “Grass box”, but “Grass”. SPAR (box) inside (toe)*. I liked this one too. No mowing the lawn here just yet – it’s covered in 3 inches of snow right now!
22 Shot below joint (5)
ELBOW – (below)*. I didn’t see that “Shot” was an anagrind at first. Doh.
23 Ringleader taking in very English sleuth (12)
INVESTIGATOR – INSTIGATOR [taking in] V + E. I left this until I got the checkers. I struggle with long words sometimes.

Down
1 Prognosis Meg put about, being spreader of rumours (12)
GOSSIPMONGER – (Prognosis Meg)*. I got the “monger” bit first and had to construct the beginning.
2 Sound coming from piano is extraordinary (5)
NOISE – Hidden word in piaNO IS Extraordinary. Like this perhaps?
3 Beams, having last of bread-and-butter pudding (7)
RAFTERS – A bit sneaky… Don’t take bread-and-butter pudding as a whole. It’s R [last of] (bread-and-butteR) + AFTERS (pudding). I like it!
4 Adore getting hold of a good herb (6)
LOVAGE – LOVE (Adore) with A + G in the middle [getting hold of]. Not a herb I’ve grown or use. A bit like a cross between celery and parsley, we’re told.
5 Trunk and tangled roots (5)
TORSO – (roots)*. No. Not a mangrove swamp.
6 Money drawn in by rake, as standard procedure (7)
ROUTINE – Alas, no trip to the casino in Monte Carlo today. The rake is a ROUE. Include TIN (money) to get what you usually do… if you are an elderly debauched man, perhaps? No we don’t have any of those here!
7 How farmer let off weapon (5-7)
FLAME-THROWER – (How farmer let)*. Woosh!
13 Determined to attack (3,4)
SET UPON – Double definition. This didn’t quite work for me. Determined is more SET ON to my mind. But what do I know?
15 Rotter‘s rotten gag about a deb coming out (1,3,3)
A BAD EGG – An unusual wordplay with two anagrams and an inclusion – (gag)* [about] (a deb)*. Hello fellow blogger with a mention here!
16 At sea in a launch (6)
AFLOAT – A + FLOAT (as in launch a business). Or you could be floating in a river or lake.
18 Courage of owner finally entering flat that’s been turned over (5)
NERVE – Nice surface that could lead you astray. Flat, of course, isn’t a dwelling here, but EVEN. Turn it round and insert owneR [finally].
20 Complete circuit, or segment? (5)
ORBIT – An easier one to finish… OR + BIT.

36 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1039 by Tracy”

  1. Plodded through this one. Never heard of LOVAGE, but fortunately it pretty much had to be. Like John, I got the MONGER, then put together the GOSSIP (I would say rumor-monger, or just gossip; don’t think I’ve come across gossip-monger). 15d struck me as a bit odd in having the article included. 8:33.
    1. Since a discussion here a few weeks ago with our breakfast correspondent I seem to have been thinking a lot about A’s in clues to the point where I am somewhat confused by what’s allegedly permissible and what’s against so-called convention. This one is a little different in that the query on the A is about the answer rather than the clue where its presence today is justified as part of the anagrist.

      On reflection I think it’s okay as I’d argue ‘a bad egg’ is an expression of itself which nearly always incorporates the inedefinite article, and this is borne out by its entry in Brewer’s where it is listed as “Bad egg, A”. It’s true the dictionaries don’t include it, but that’s the way they work, and so we’re possibly back to wondering whether crosswords are supposed to work that way too!

      1. I think it’s okay, too, but it did, and does, sort of seem odd in a way. Certainly we wouldn’t expect an article with a common noun (‘a tooth’?); and on the other hand we would expect it in a title (‘Farewell to Arms’?) or a set phrase (‘stitch in time’?). Maybe it’s that ‘a bad egg’ isn’t as set as ‘a stitch in time’ (there are bad eggs, and good eggs too, for that matter).
        1. I can’t recall an example at this moment but there have most definitely been occasions when ‘A’ or ‘The’ has been omitted as the first word of the title of a book or play. There was one quite recently that I nearly challenged but then just accepted it and moved on.
          1. Oh, well, I guess I’ll throw in a towel then. If I had the memory, and the stamina, I’d start looking out for A … examples in the 15x15s, but.
            1. An interesting point. I hadn’t noticed it was odd, but now you mention it…. I don’t think we would get ‘A HOT POTATO’ for example.
              1. Brewer’s lists ‘Hot potato’, no ‘A’. There must be a principle being applied, but who knows what it is?
      2. One of the arguments I’ve seen is that many (most?) nouns are defined in the dictionary using some kind of definite/indefinite article, e.g. in Chambers the definitions for “sea” include “A great wave” and “The tide”, hence it is fair for setters to lob such articles into clues even if that may mean that the substitution test fails. In theory, this would also justify putting articles into answers but fortunately we don’t usually see that. “A bad egg” seems to fall into the category where some dictionaries consider the article obligatory, e.g. “a bad egg” (but not “bad egg”) exists in Chambers (and, as you say, Brewer’s) but Collins and ODO have it without the article. So I think the setter has decent grounds for including the article in the answer. Similarly, and this came up in Quicky 935, “the briny” (but not “briny” as a noun) exists in Chambers and ODO but Collins has it with and without.

        I’m not at all a fan of titles of books/songs/etc having their articles omitted (pretty sure we’ve had REMAINS OF THE DAY, WOMAN IN WHITE, and MARSEILLAISE, for example). No doubt that sometimes happens colloquially but I always feel uneasy about usages that aren’t backed up by some appropriate reference work.

        There’s a semi-related discussion about Chekhov’s “(The) Three Sisters” here: https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/535834.html

        1. Thanks for that, mohn2. Very useful points. I can’t get too bothered about it one way or another but, like alleged superflous articles in clues, now that I’ve been made to think about it I shall be looking for it in future.

          Edited at 2018-03-02 05:41 pm (UTC)

        2. Very interesting. Yes I remember the conversation about “(the) briny”. I wonder if our setter will visit here and enlighten us?
        3. It’s interesting that your examples are of omission of THE not A; I’d be surprised to see, say, WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE. Similarly, “Ishiguro’s ‘Remains …'” is natural, where “Wilde’s ‘Woman of…'” seems less so.
  2. I got stumped on the 15×15 trying to work it during a boring set during a concert with my phone (discreetly) lighting the page, so I resorted to this, and filled it in with scant hesitation, except for a few seconds deciding ESPARTO and LOVAGE must really be words. Both seemed a bit out of place for a quickie, but maybe they will prove to be more familiar to some others here. (?) Guess botany is not my bag.
    (By the way, I can’t wait till Verlaine blogs the big puzzle, as I have some issues with it.)
  3. 9 minutes, but I might have struggled to complete within my target 10 if I hadn’t struck lucky with all four 12-letter answers around the edges.

    5 unchecked O’s in the second row made me look for a Nina or somesuch, but I didn’t find one unless having a total of 15 O’s is of significance. I also noted 4 V’s which is a little unusual for such a letter.

  4. Thanks for the explanation of routine – couldn’t justify it beyond ‘standard procedure’. Never heard of esparto so had to cheat for that one. All good though! Can someone enlighten me about the reference to ‘smooth surfaces’Thanks
    1. The ‘surface’ of a clue is how it reads as a normal sentence. An attribute of a good clue is that it reads like a natural phrase or sentence – if it does this, it is described as ‘smooth’.
        1. I neglected to say… A good one leads you up the garden path and distracts you from the real definition, like 8a or 6d.
  5. 11 minutes here with the NW being the last to crack. Once I’d stopped looking at row in 8ac meaning a tier all went well.
    If Tracy had changed 8ac to STILT and 3dn to ROTTERS the second row would have made OOOOOOF.
  6. This one stretched me to 11:20. Didn’t know LOVAGE and ESPARTO was at the limits of my memory. At 1a I assumed GOSSIP for the first part of the word which helped with 8a and 10a. Liked ICEBERG. Otherwise well hidden clues that kept me on my toes. Thanks Tracy and John.
  7. A gentle end to what for me anyway has been a gentle week. 1ac and 1d dropped in and after that it was fairly plain sailing. ESPARTO rings a vague bell, but that is about all. I thought TIN = “money” dated back to the 19thC, but may be wrong there. I liked RAFTERS. Very sneaky clue.
    Thanks to all this week’s setters and bloggers. Been a fun week.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. I don’t have an official time this morning as I started this on a cold railway station waiting for a delayed train, and had to stop when my hands turned blue, but it felt relatively normal for speed.

    I very much liked the clueing, with only ESPARTO unknown, but gettable (just) from checkers and wordplay.

    Nice to get another mention, but appreciated less the reference to the Calcutta Cup. Thanks John and Tracy.

  9. Again not easy today. FOI was Lovage which I thought might trouble some solvers. I solved steadily whilst watching the news on BBC and stopped each time a windswept and snow covered reporter appeared from places I visit. Trapped all night in a train near Christchurch sounded terrible- and so on.
    My last two were 3d and 8a. 3d was tricky- I looked for timbers at first and then for puddings. After that, 8a was easy but not without the F for me.
    The grass was unknown but fairly easy to assemble.
    A very good test this . COD to 6d. About 20 minutes of solving time. David
  10. The 1s went in at first glance which got me off to a speedy start and I didn’t have many hold ups along the way. 3d and 8a took a little figuring out and I left what I assumed would be an unknown plant to the end. Completed in 14 minutes, COD 3d.
    Thanks for the blog

  11. DNF with a few missing in the bottom half. I felt confident with the unknown LOVAGE but did not trust ESPARTO. Was not able to get INVESTIGATOR, in spite of having the anagrist, the definition and multiple checkers.

    I also had 1a as COD although pencilled in GENERAL STAFF first.

  12. Crawled over the line after 50mins, having failed to see 1d until most of the checkers were in place. Being able to write-in 7d was scant consolation for not having all those starters. (A) tricky end to the week. . . Invariant
  13. I thought this a little tough so was surprised to finish in just 26 minutes. I try to get under the 20 mark but accept under 30 on the more challenging days. Have to admit that I didn’t have exactly the correct parsing for a couple of the answers (6a and 3d) so very grateful to johninterred for putting me right. MM
    COD 21a
  14. Totally inappropriate for a “quick” cryptic. Getting fed up with this. The only people doing this crossword now are those who do the 15×15 as is evident from the comments. Shame
    1. I am absolutely hopeless at the 15×15 and can rarely spare the time to even look at it but, I managed this in 26 minutes, having persevered with the quickies for the last couple of years. I am sure I am not the only non-expert attempting these and almost always succeeding. The support on this site from the “old hands” is invaluable so I am very grateful to them for the time they take to educate us relative newbies. MM
    2. The number of people who contribute to TftT compared with those who complete Times puzzles generally is probably very small and even smaller for the Quick Cryptic in isolation, so I doubt your assertion has any validity.

    3. Speaking for myself, I never do the 15×15 but rarely fail to complete the QC. For me it is about the right length and level of difficulty. I actually found this one of the easiest week’s for a long time, others clearly disagree with me. Next week the situation might be completely reversed.. It’s horses for courses I guess.
    4. We just don’t think of trying the 15by15 as the QC is just the right difficulty for us – both in our mid-seventies – who started it about two years ago. It does get easier, slowly, and we couldn’t have managed at all without this blog in the early days. Many thanks for the blog.
      1. Thank-you for the message of support. Helping people like you is what the blog is for. Just because some of the seasoned bloggers and commenters enjoy the QC and share their thoughts here, doesn’t mean they are the only ones doing the crossword and reading the blog.
  16. 19 mins, quick for a Tracy puzzle.

    Dnk lovage or esparto but the clueing was generous.

    Last 3 in were esparto, afloat and flavour.

    Some good surfaces, I liked nerve and flamethrower, COD to virtual.

  17. Agree with other comments – if I get one or two in the 15×15 I’m doing well. The Quick Cryptic is just right for difficulty. Managed to finish 4 out of 5 this week and getting better all the time, albeit slowly. The help from the bloggers is invaluable – keep it coming.

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