Times Quick Cryptic No 1207 by Orpheus

Introduction

And I’m back! As discussed a few weeks ago, I’m going to experiment today with a new portion of the blog, aimed at beginners, describing in detail how I approached solving this puzzle. As this puzzle was on the easier side, it might not be as useful as it could be, but let’s start here and see where it goes! First, the solutions.

Solutions

Across

Down

Discussion

I approached this puzzle as I usually do: first going through all the Across clues, then all the Down clues, then back to any Across clues I missed, and so forth. This is a good strategy, especially for beginners, because it ensures that one is familiar with every clue. Sometimes if I’m really having trouble getting a foothold, I work Across and Down at the same time. (In larger puzzles, it can also be a good idea to start with the longest clues, because these often have simpler wordplay, and will yield a lot of crossing letters if the answer can be found.)

Below I list the 35 steps I took to solve the puzzle. I don’t claim that my approach is anywhere near best; I just want to show beginners who are struggling to get started how someone might do it.

1. Clue: 1 Across. I immediately see ‘awkward’ and I look for anagram letters. But ‘and lumbering’ doesn’t work. So I keep looking and I see ‘in an ugly’, which is the right number of letters, and the word ‘manoeuvre’, which definitely could indicate anagram. So now I know the definition is ‘awkward and lumbering’. I write ‘in an ugly’ backwards: YLGUNANI, and I immediately see the answer, UNGAINLY. Solved.
2. Clue: 5 Across. The first word is ‘male’, which makes me think M. I look to the end of the clue for the definition, most likely ‘drug’. Do I know a four-letter drug beginning with M? Maybe METH? But then I look at ‘politician’, and ETH isn’t one I know of. Usually, ‘politician’ is MP. Do I know a four-letter drug ending in MP? And do I know any alternative answers for ‘male’? HE works, and so does HEMP. Solved.
3. Clue: 8 Across. ‘Lofty’ doesn’t get me anywhere, but ‘duke’ is often D. ‘Following’ could mean the D comes at the end. So what about a four-letter ‘senior relative’? AUNT? No. My brain goes blank for a minute. I glance back at ‘lofty’, the definition, and at the same time, GRAN and the answer GRAND come to mind. Solved.
4. Clue: 9 Across. ‘Run’ could be R, ’round’ can be O, and ‘hard’ can be H, but that doesn’t get me anywhere. ‘Pebbles on beach’? Is that even a thing or is that more wordplay? I write RO? in the margin and move on. Not solved.
5. Clue: 11 Across. I can see right away that the definition is likely ‘diversion’ (a definition-y word), and ‘the frenzied may be driven to’ is another definition, likely alluding to an expression like “driven to [blank]”. But the answer is long and ideas aren’t forthcoming so I move on. I consider that ‘may be driven to’ indicates an anagram of ‘the frenzied’ so I write DEIZNERFEHT but I’m not convinced this is correct. Not solved.
6. Clue: 13 Across. I see ‘Have’, which is not likely the definition on its own or wordplay, so I read on: ‘have the money (for)’. Well, that sounds like a definition, but the answer doesn’t come to my sleepy brain, so I look to the wordplay: ‘a crossing, so to speak’. I know from experience that ‘so to speak’ indicates a homophone, so the answer likely begins with A, and now I need a synonym for ‘crossing’. I think about words meaning ‘have the money for’ starting with A, and I simultaneously think about crossing a river. As before, FORD and AFFORD come to mind at the same time. Solved.
7. Clue: 14 Across. I start scanning the clue and see “keeping most of this inside”. ‘Most of this’ is probably THI, so I want THI inside some other word. But what should I be putting THI inside? ‘First’? IST? But ITHIST or ISTHIT aren’t words, so I’m stumped and move on. It turns out that I’m stumped because ‘inside’ is the definition, but I don’t see this yet! Not solved.
8. Clue: 16 Across. I see ‘in favour of’, which is probably PRO, and the definition is probably ‘stirring up anger’, but what does ‘case’ mean? Some sort of briefcase? I can’t find the answer, so I write PRO in the margin and move on. Not solved.
9. Clue: 18 Across. Here I’m a bit confused. I see ‘through’, which could mean puttitng one word inside another, and ‘book’, which could indicate B. But I’m not sure what the wordplay could be here, and I overlook the simple double definition. Not solved.
10. Clue: 19 Across. I immediately latch on to ‘part of’ as indicating a hidden word and find ALTAR. Solved.
11. Clue: 20 Across. Once I see ‘mentioned in speech’, I assume this is a homophone clue. So I need a synonym for ‘vessel’ (which will either be a sailing vessel or some sort of cup) which is a synonym for ‘bring in’. I’m used to thinking of ‘bring in’ as being crosswordese for “make money”, so I think of EARN and double-check that ‘urn’ is a sort of vessel. Solved.
12. Clue: 21 Across. Hard to know where to start here. Possibly ‘amphibian’ is the answer. ‘Old’ could be the letter O. The word ‘originally’ probably means ‘first letter’, but is it first letter of ‘actor’ or ‘rescued’? It feels like the word play has to be: (originally rescued) in (thick mist). Could ‘thick mist’ be FOG? That would make FROG, which is definitely an amphibian. But what about the first word? That has to come from ‘old actor’, and I don’t know any. I’ve heard of a TREE FROG, but TREE doesn’t sound like the name of an actor. I fill in FROG for the second word, and put TREE in the margin for later. Partially solved.
13. Clue: 1 Down. I have the structure U _ G _ , and I’m already thinking URGE for ‘strong impulse’. The hidden word confirms the answer. Solved.
14. Clue: 2 Down. From the F in the middle I get OF as the middle word. Of course I don’t know the word for a ceremonial escort, but I do see the cryptic definition has ‘defence of’, which could be GUARD OF, which sounds right, and fits the crossing G _ A _ _ . As for the last word, a synonym of ‘integrity’, I haven’t a clue, since I only have the last letter R. Partially solved.
15. Clue: 3 Down. I see ‘hard-working’ and immediately plop in INDUSTRIOUS. I had the following crossers: I _ D _ _ _ R _ _ _ _ . Not such a wild guess, since the second letter most likely has to be N. Nice when your brain does the work for you! Solved.
16. Clue: 4 Down. I only have the L, so for ‘strong desire’ I wonder if it’s LONG. ‘With regard to’ sounds like RE or ON. Is LONGRE or LONGON a word having to do with light? Neither sounds right, though I write LONGRE? in the margin. Not solved.
17. Clue: 6 Down. I have E at the top, and T _ R at the bottom. Not much to go on, but ‘UK nationality’ makes me wonder if it might be ENGLISH something or other. ‘Barker’ sounds like a dog, perhaps, and I’ve heard of Irish setters. Then I see ‘crossword compiler’ which is a synonym for SETTER and I know I’m on the right track. I put in ENGLISH SETTER but I put a question mark in the margin because I’m not totally sure about ENGLISH (what else could it be though?) and I always want to look up things afterwards if I’ve never heard of them. Solved. (Maybe.)
18. Clue: 7 Down. I already have the P, which ‘quietly’ can clue. So I turn to the end of the clue for the definition, see the words ‘family way’, which means PREGNANT. I double check, a bit to my surprise, that the remaining letters spell REGNANT, meaning ‘ruling’. Though I have never used or seen that word, I know ‘regal’ and ‘reign’ so it must be right. Solved.
19. Clue: 10 Down. When I see weird words in a clue, it’s probably an anagram, especially when it’s the right number of letters. I write down TININAICREM and think, could it be INCRIMINATE? I cross off the letters to check that I’m not imagining it. Solved.
20. Clue: 12 Down. Here I’m a bit stumped. I have _ A _ _ _ _ _ E, and I know ‘friend’ can be PAL, but I can’t think of any word that begins with PAL, meaning ‘obvious’. As usual I write PAL in the margin and move on. Not solved.
21. Clue: 15 Down. When I see ‘comparatively’ I know the answer likely ends with ER. But then I see the other half of the clue is also a comparative, so I surmise this is a double definition. FAIRER is not hard to find. Solved.
22. Clue: 17 Down. I have _ R _ G, and I know the answer is probably R inside something else, but I can’t think of the ship or what _ _ G should be. (“Of some size” is, in retrospect, a confusing definition!) I put a question mark and move on again. I’m worried, because there’s no more crossing letters to get. Not solved.
23. Clue: 9 Across. I have no idea what’s going on here. (Tough definition.) Not solved.
24. Clue: 11 Across. From the crossing letters D _ S _ _ _ C _ I _ N, I realize it’s not an anagram, but I can’t see the answer. Not solved.
25. Clue: 14 Across. Now I have _ I _ H _ N so I fill in THI to get _ITHIN and see that it has to be WITHIN. Only then do I realize that ‘inside’ was the definition, not part of the wordplay. (In the parlance, I failed to “lift and separate”.) And ‘come first’ must be WIN. A nice penny-drop moment. Solved.
26. Clue: 16 Across. I have _ _ _ _ O _ A _ I _ E. I put in my guess, PRO, as well as the obvious ending letters, to get PRO_O_ATIVE. Looks like PROVOCATIVE, and VOCATIVE seems like a grammatical case like genitive, accusative, etc. Solved.
27. Clue: 18 Across. I have _ _ _ _ S _ R. I’m thinking computers… is it PARSER? COMPILER? No. I move on. Not solved.
28. Clue: 21 Across. Now I have the crossers _R_E for the first word, so if it isn’t TREE, I don’t know what it can be. I put it in. Solved. (Maybe.)
29. Clue: 4 Down. I have L _ S _ R _, so RE is definitely the ending, and LUST comes to mind for ‘strong desire’. Solved.
30. Clue: 11 Across. Technically I should be continuing with Down clues, but my eye catches D _ S _ R _ C _ I _ N and my mind fills in DISTRACTION. Not totally sure how that works but it’s probably right. Solved. (Maybe.)
31. Clue: 9 Across. Coming back to 9 Across, I have S _ I _ G _ E, and I’m thinking… SHINGLE? That’s a word I know but that doesn’t seem to fit with the definition. And yet, the H could be from ‘hard’, and SINGLE could be a ‘run’, so this is probably right. I put in SHINGLE and put a question mark in the margin. Solved. (Maybe.)
32. Clue: 2 Down. Now I have _ O _ _ _ R for the third word, and HONOUR comes to mind as a fitting final word. Solved. (Maybe, because I’ve never heard of it.)
33. Clue: 12 Down. I have _ A _ P _ _ _ E, and when I put in PAL, I get PALP _ _ _ E and I see it must be PALPABLE. Solved.
34. Clue: 18 Across. I have B _ O _ S _ R, and from the computer part I guess BROWSER. But if B is for ‘book’, what’s ROWSER? Oh, silly me, it was just a double definition. Solved.
35. Clue: 17 Down. Focussing on the ‘sailing vessel’ part, I come up with BRIG out of the depths of my mind, although I thought that was a maritime prison. But BIG makes sense so it’s probably right. Solved, and done!

Hopefully this is helpful for somebody! Until next week.