Times Quick Cryptic No 1103 by Orpheus

22 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1103 by Orpheus”

1. Pretty straightforward, although FORMALLY and OOMPH took a bit of time. I would have thought, Rotter, that your question applies not to a mirror but to a photograph (or our eyeballs). 5:16.
2. 9 minutes with one or two answers seen recently elsewhere (OOMPH, for example) which helped matters along. A mirror doesn’t reverse left to right; it’s all down to the perception of the observer.

   Edited at 2018-05-31 05:07 am (UTC)

3. 35 minutes but struggled to get LOI becoming, needed an alphabet trawl which didn’t help, and then a break.

   Also found hard: ruins, enamel, and the unknown and weirdly named alfalfa.

   Put blooming at first for 12d which didn’t help with enamel.

   Wasn’t quite sure what was going on for chateau, I had cat + eau = French house and shrugged off the extra h.

   Thanks Orpheus and Rotter.

   COD ruins or Achilles heel.

4. I thought I was making slow progress today as nothing seemed to go in easily, particularly the long answers, but ended up in 25 mins which is only just above my target time. I particularly liked Locust.
5. I took an irritatingly long time to spot that 11a was an anagram and instead was trying to work out how one of the many abbreviations for doctor could fit into the answer. Other than that nothing too tricky today. 1a and 10a stood out for me. Completed in 13.49 with LOI 6d.
   Thanks for the blog
6. Think I may have seen the 10A idea in another Times puzzle, perhaps the daily. Nice idea! And there were other good ones here.

   As what you might call a ‘more advanced’ solver, I find it very difficult to judge the right level of difficulty for QCs. This took me around 10 minutes, however, so I didn’t exactly trudge through. I’m off to the daily now!

7. Only 13a and 12d gave me pause for thought in this puzzle, initially as, like Flashman, I thought of Blooming instead of BECOMING, and took a while to sort out the Spanish article and direction of the clue. Otherwise I ploughed through in 7:41. Liked CHATEAU and LOCUST. Nice puzzle, thanks Orpheus and Rotter.
8. I parsed 20a as IL(The in Italian)+ NESS(Head)containing a singular apostophed L(earner).
   1. Me too.
      1. Me Three
   2. Yes, at least equally valid.
9. It would be helpful to those of us just starting if comments could include how long the person has be at the QCS. So someone saying this puzzle is easy but has been at the quick puzzles for a couple of years gives us hope. On the other had if the comments are it’s easy and they have been at it a couple of weeks, it tells me I should pack it in. I did not find today’s easy or straight forward and did not finish. But I am learning.
   1. I’ve been at it for a year (ooh matron), and I didn’t find this easy either, anon. In fact it was a DNF due to that pesky 11A — though I reckon if I’d come back to it tonight after work I’d probably have seen it straight away! That’s my top tip for new solvers: have a break and return to it later. I always get stuff almost immediately, then, that I was totally baffled by first time round.
      1. I absolutely agree with your advice to have a break, Lucy. It always helps me. Must be the subconscious working overtime, I suppose. After 22 minutes I was left with four unsolved in the top left corner (1a,1d,2d,9a). Came back half an hour later and solved them in 2 minutes! I can never see why I was stuck in the first place when that happens. WOD OOMPH COD CHATEAU
         MM
   2. I don’t think I said it was easy, it was at the long end of my target window of 10 – 15 minutes. I’ve been solving the QCs for about 3 years, and blogging them for a couple, but I did have some cryptic experience before I started.
   3. You may have had me in mind, as I said it was pretty straightforward. I’ve been doing the Quickies from the beginning, and doing the 15x15s for over 10 years. In any case, I wouldn’t let other people’s times affect me; just do the puzzles and enjoy.
10. I also made a blooming mistake at 12d. I was very confident it was right so finding 13a became very difficult.
    Only 9 minutes until those last two but a lot more than that to finally unravel things. David
11. Two sittings again, so not back in the groove yet. Fell into the Blooming trap for 12d which, as Flashman noted, made 13ac quite tricky. 12d, Sterile, also took a lot longer than it should have done. Do CDs count as records, or did Orpheus think EP/LP were starting to become obsolete terms ? Better not tell Vinyl if that’s the case. Invariant
12. Great blog Rotter and a fascinating question, which I’ve given some thought to.

    When you turn to look in a mirror, you rotate around the vertical axis. What was to the left, in front of you, becomes the right behind you, regardless of the mirror.

    If instead the mirror was on the floor, and you rotated around the lateral axis (ie bent forward), what was top becomes bottom and vice versa.

    So it’s all a question of perspective. Or orientation. Or rotation. Or something.

    If you haven’t been, visit the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh, which explores many similar themes in a quite dramatic way. Or the Maison de la Magie in Blois, which is slightly less impressive but much closer to nice chateaux and vinyards.

    1. I’m sure there was a hall of mirrors in Blackpool funfair when I was a lad in the 60s. You could see how you’d look in thirty years time with middle-age spread. I thought this was a good puzzle with challenges for more experienced solvers and some good learning techniques for those still improving (which we all hopefully are). Done in just over 10 mins. Thanks Rotter for reminding me why I read The Times rather than The Mirror.
       1. Sadly I only need to look into the past to see middle age spread!
13. Late one today but feel quite pleased with my time of 11:45 after two glasses of wine.

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