Times Quick Cryptic No 1099 by Joker

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’m doing this with a bit of a woozy head this morning after a visit to the Cambridge Beer Festival last night. Fortunately, we have quite a straightforward puzzle from Joker today; one for our less experienced solvers to get their teeth into, I think. But it was no less enjoyable for an experienced solver for that, as there are plenty of lovely surfaces and teasing clues. I liked the first crossword cuckoo of spring at 14a and the international collaboration at 17a, for example – and the image conjured by 21a, my COD. Thank-you Joker. What did you all make of it?

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

Across
1 What can help one see good girls after work on stage? (5,7)
OPERA GLASSES – OPERA (work on stage) + G (good) + LASSES. Not SPARE GLASSES, as I thought for a moment, from the checking letters, but couldn’t get to parse. Do people still use them at the opera, I wonder?
9 Caught by wise men doing spells (5)
MAGIC – MAGI (wise men) + C (caught). So who did they catch, doing what spells?
10 Result away from home — draw near? (7)
OUTCOME – OUT (away from home) + COME (draw near). Where’s your ambition? Surely an away win should be your target result!.
11 Garnet confused with one type of stone (7)
GRANITE – (Garnet + I)* [confused].(I = one). Pretty hard stuff… The answer, not the clue!
12 Finished before time — that’s clear (5)
OVERT – OVER  (finished) + T (time)… [before] indicating put this before the other bit. Simples.
13 Calmness of posh little gym, all empty (6)
PHLEGM – p{os}h + l{ittle}e + g{y}m, all losing their middle letters [empty]. Not an easy one, this, if you didn’t understand the “all empty” instruction to remove all but the end letters.
14 Cuckoo clock perhaps includes British wood (6)
TIMBER – You might use a cuckoo clock as a TIMER. Insert B{ritish}. I haven’t seen a cuckoo clock in years, but I heard one in a British wood the other day.
17 Spanish friend to work with a French one (5)
AMIGO – AMI (French friend) + GO (work with).
19 One who’s no illusions about a catalogue (7)
REALIST – RE (about) + A LIST. A bit sneaky using “who’s” rather than “who has”, to suggest the definition could be “One”, but the surface doesn’t make sense if you expand it to “who is”.
21 Tons raced to take a seat for crossing (7)
TRANSIT – You build your vehicle in order… T (Tons) + RAN (raced) + SIT (to take a seat). A ferry full of White Van Men?
22 Deduce knight consumed by raging fire (5)
INFER – (fire)* [raging] with N (knight symbolised in chess) inserted. The skills of an archaeologist in action.
23 Sport annoyed nation (5-7)
CROSS-COUNTRY – CROSS + COUNTRY. I remember having to do this at school in winter in Teesdale. A muddy business when the ground wasn’t frozen.

Down
2 Greedy person to follow long hairstyle (7)
PIGTAIL – PIG + TAIL (follow). If it’s single and a long one, it would more commonly be called a pony tail. “The term pigtail appears in English in the American colonies in the 17th century to describe a twist of chewing tobacco.” Well, I’ve learnt something today.
3 Cooks herrings in a stew, providing amusement for several children (7,6)
ROCKING HORSES – (Cooks herrings)* [in a stew]… and not [Cooks] (herrings)* inside a stew! My grandparents had one called Dobbin. I wonder where he was put out to pasture when they downsized?
4 Girl initially adores what boxers wear (6)
GLOVES – G{irl} [initially] + LOVES. It could only be that or shorts. The wordplay is hardly needed.
5 Domineering writer embraces Rita in front of Ian (13)
AUTHORITARIAN – AUTHOR (writer) outside [embraces] RITA and add IAN. Clued generously by giving the names literally.
6 Quiet individual did brilliantly (5)
SHONE – SH (quiet) + ONE. Like my son will have done in his GCSEs, I hope. We’ll find out in August.
7 Consumer’s after small western pullover (7)
SWEATER – Another straightforward construction clue (or charade). S (small) + W (western) + EATER (eater).
8 Self-satisfied when sweets maybe passed up (4)
SMUG – GUMS (sweets maybe) going upwards [passed up]. Not for me, thanks, either – I’m trying to lose weight. Hmm. Maybe I should have passed up on some of that beer last night.
13 Shortly choose holding final credit cards? (7)
PLASTIC – PIC{k} [Shortly] with LAST (final) inserted.
15 One making presentation is brusque before Queen (7)
BRIEFER – BRIEF (brusque) [before] ER (Her Majesty). Perhaps my blogs should be this?
16 Mostly unpleasant round small cave (6)
GROTTO – GROTT{y} [mostly] + O (round). “O” for round is worth remembering as an alternative for indicating a word is inside another.
18 I had a house in American state (5)
IDAHO – I’D + A HO (house). Is there anyone for whom this wasn’t a write-in?
20 Part of American car — exhaust? (4)
TIRE – Double definition – first the american spelling of “tyre”.

24 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1099 by Joker”

  1. Completed in 9 minutes which seems to be my norm for the moment. LOI PHLEGM as I needed all the checkers in place before having the confidence to follow the wordplay through to the end and coming up with the unlikely answer. The definition is sort of figurative so the solution was unlikely to leap to mind from that alone.

    Edited at 2018-05-25 04:57 am (UTC)

    1. Similar here – got phlegm, but didn’t realise it had this meaning (rather than sputum) so left out til looked in dictionary
  2. At first I thought your grandparents had a herring called Dobbin, like John Cleese’s halibut, Eric. Anyway, no such reading problems with the clues, which I read while still somewhat alert. Grotty comes from grotesque, which comes from grotto, which somehow seemed to weaken the clue for me. 4:04.
    1. Dobbin the pet herring. That would be unusual. I am reminded of a time when I was regularly staying in a hotel on business and I discovered the hotel staff had a game they played called “Word of the day”. They would take it in turns to nominate the word and then had a competition to see how many times they could use it in conversation with a guest. One day I found out the word of the day was Mongoose, so I thought I would help out the staff at reception. “Excuse me. I have a problem. My pet cobra has escaped. Is there anything you can do to help?”
  3. A nice gentle end to the week, thank you. 13:06, so a very good time for me but not approaching PB territory after a relatively slow start.
  4. A nice puzzle where 1a went in first, which is always helpful when it gives you the first letter of a lot of down clues, although having read the back of the clue first I postulated goggles for the second word G(ood) GELS, but that obviously wasn’t going to work, and starting from the front, all came into focus. Half of the puzzle was completed in less time than it took to type that last rambling sentence, and I carried on blithely until I reached my LOI, PLASTIC, where I struggled to see how PLASIC (round the final (credi)T) could mean a short choice and wasted another 30 seconds before the penny dropped. Like our esteemed blogger, I also tried to fit pickled herring into a stew, wasting more time. Still, all was completed in 7:39. Thanks Joker and John.

    Edited at 2018-05-25 08:54 am (UTC)

  5. Held up by PLASTIC, not being at all sure what the definition was. apart from that very straightforward. PHLEGM my COD. Took a while to spot what was going on there.
    PlayUpPompey
  6. Not on Joker’s wavelength today. Last one in 1ac OPERA GLASSES as struggled to get OPERA for some reason. Also hesitated with 13ac PHLEGM as dnk the calmness definition. Also dnk Americans spell tyre as tire. Very poor performance for me finishing at 17:54. I didn’t find it at all straightforward.
  8. Another excellent puzzle from Joker which took me about 17 minutes.
    LOI was 13a which I thought ended GY so I had to go back to an exact reading of the clue to get it. David
  9. I’m somewhat taken aback looking at the time for the finished puzzle – 4.49. I was simply enjoying filling in the grid – completing down the right side before moving up the left. 9ac was a write-in LOI and bang – there was what has to be a PB. Rather like a golf swing which happens, for once, to be perfect – there’s no apparent effort to it. A Kevin plus 45 seconds! COD to cross-country – as that PE excercise surely has annoyed most of the people of this nation at some point.
  10. This went in with barely a pause for what must be my first sub 8 minute solve – completing it in 7.47, just what I needed after a week trying to get my head round data protection law.
    LOI 21a, COD to 13a
    thanks for the blog
  11. A sub 10 minutes (just) for me for the first time ever. I know most found it easy, but nevertheless I am cock-a-hoop!!! (It felt as if I hardly had to stop to think, so how anyone can ever do it in the tiny times often posted here I can’t begin to imagine.) I worked from top to bottom and parsed everything completely. I still can’t quite believe it!! A MAGIC OUTCOME, so Joker (thank you to him) is now my AMIGO, which was my COD. Thank you too to all the bloggers and contributors for teaching me how to approach cryptic crosswords. MM
    FOI 1a LOI 21a
  12. Great clue. Didn’t get it tho despite having read dozens of US novels. Thx Joker.
    1. Sadly, I think we’ve been visited by a facetious troll. Your time of sub-10 minutes would put you in the fastest 80 solvers on the club site and ahead of some of our bloggers.
  15. Thank you. That’s really reassuring. Following the 98 seconds comment, I timed myself just reading through the clues and it took me just over a minute. MM
  16. You helped a lot, in spite of your woozy head! Thanks. Just been away in our motorhome Edi for a couple of days and while away enjoyed trying this old crossword. Wish I had a brother like you!!
  17. This was my first ever Times Quick Cryptic…took me 12 days to complete whilst on holiday. Not quick at all! And I still got a couple wrong!

    You’re all too clever for me!

    R.

    1. Don’t be discouraged. Keep trying and keep visiting here for help and explanations and you will soon get better at it. Come back soon!

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