Times Quick Cryptic No 1258 by Breadman

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A gentle enough puzzle from Breadman today – I was twelve minutes yesterday and just over half that today (making a welcome change of pace after yesterday’s championship crossword!). This is only Breadman’s tenth QC offering since 2015, but has been appearing more frequently over the last year. Some tougher ones in that list by the look of past blogs, this however was a very good entryish-level puzzle, with a broad mix of clues, some generous openers, little in the way of obscurity, and a number of nice surface readings to keep it all good fun. Happy new year and many thanks to Breadman!

Across
7 Regular characters in local, flushed, had a row (5)
OARED – “regular characters” in lOcAl, RED (flushed)
8 Popular one in academic period is temporary (7)
INTERIM – IN (popular), I (one) goes in TERM (academic period)
10 Quiet woman on river (7)
SHANNON – SH (quiet) ANN (woman) ON
11 Only altered new fabric (5)
NYLON – anagram (altered) of ONLY, N(ew)
12 Welshman tracks remote maiden where cows are milked? (5,4)
DAIRY FARM – DAI (Welshman) RY (railway/tracks) FAR (remote) M(aiden)
14 Father’s dance step (3)
PAS – PA’s = father’s. A dance step and a dance in its own right.
15 Pack run in the morning (3)
RAM – R(un) AM (in the morning)
16 Church function includes mostly pleasant historical record (9)
CHRONICLE – CH(urch) ROLE (function) includes NIC (“mostly” NICE, i.e. pleasant)
18 Piece of sculpture, disturbed by king, broke into pieces (5)
BURST – BUST (piece of sculpture), disturbed by R (rex/king)
20 Headwear around flat spoiled access for pet (3,4)
CAT FLAP – CAP (headwear) around an anagram (spoiled) of FLAT.
22 Divorcee confines energy outlay (7)
EXPENSE – EX (divorcee) PENS (confines) E(nergy)
23 Man on board eating right seafood (5)
PRAWN – PAWN (man on board) eats R(ight)
Down
1 Significant political party face Republican expert (12)
CONSIDERABLE – CON (political party) SIDE (face) R(epublican) ABLE (expert)
2 A living thing‘s heart perhaps is beginning to move (8)
ORGANISM – ORGAN (heart, perhaps), IS, M (“beginning” to Move)
3 Last ones in hike off-road stumble upon idyllic place (4)
EDEN – Last ones/letters in hikE off-roaD stumblE upoN
4 English Queen, the fourth to back European city (6)
VIENNA – ANNE (English queen) IV (the fourth) back/reversed
5 He’s paid for risky feats, double maybe (8)
STUNTMAN – cryptic(ish) definition with a pun on “double”: twice the pay in the surface reading; a lookalike in the cryptic.
6 Showing heart repeatedly, work pal’s spoken (4)
ORAL – the heart/centre letters of both wORk and pAL‘s
9 Clearing bombs from pits, visible upset (12)
MINESWEEPING – MINES (pits), WEEPING (visible upset)
13 Mad Cathy has drunk gin, guiding an aquatic vessel (8)
YACHTING – anagram (mad) of CATHY has an anagram (drunk) of GIN
14 Training copper who tells lies: strange (8)
PECULIAR – P.E. (training) Cu (Copper) LIAR ([someone] who tells lies)
17 Scam that’s employed in court (6)
RACKET – double definition
19 Engrossed artist emptied paint (4)
RAPT – RA (artist) empty the letters of PainT
21 Printing error in naughty postcard (4)
TYPO – “in” the letters of naughTY POstcard

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1258 by Breadman”

  1. Where I got into trouble was where I often get into trouble: not properly checking my answers before submitting. I had flung in ARM at 15ac (if I’m packing, I’m armed; no, I didn’t care for it either) and of course forgot about it, not noticing that CONSIDERABLE hat turned it to RRM. Biffed STUNTMAN & MINESWEEPING, and still went over 8′.
    1. Seems convincing enough to me, and to Paul and Jack – glad I didn’t consider it!
  2. I did exactly the same thing. Putting in ARM and then not noticing that CONSIDERABLE didn’t correctly cross. A few seconds over 10 mins apart from that.
  3. I also got into trouble, writing SIENNA at 4dn before realising IS had to be IV to account for ‘fourth’ in the clue. Also putting ARM (R in AM) at 15ac which later needed to be changed to RAM to accommodate the answer at 1dn. Apart from the obvious wordplay I was thinking someone carrying or armed with a gun may be said to be packing one. 11 minutes so my target 10 was just missed AGAIN!

    (Just noticed two others fell for ARM but they hadn’t commented when I read the blog)

    Edited at 2019-01-03 05:05 am (UTC)

      1. I thought it just about passed the substitution test with both as nouns, as in: “a well-aimed kick does not have to be powerful to elicit _____ from the recipient”. (Or something!) But yes, I hadn’t noticed, the clue doesn’t read properly as it stands.

        Edited at 2019-01-03 07:14 am (UTC)

        1. I simply assumed it was a misprint, but then I was a Guardian reader for many years.
  5. Under 15 minutes so back on form.

    No problem with ram/arm.

    Cod dairy farm and also liked prawn.

  6. 11:33 for me today. No major hold-ups and I tried not to rush in answers that seemed doubtful. So I just avoided the Dairy Shed and other traps. My last two were RACKET ( which I always want to spell Racquet if it’s a sport-I will check the spelling in a moment) and EXPENSE where I was looking for PINS in the middle at first.
    David
  7. I’m another who started with Arm instead of Ram. Thanks for the explanation of 6d – it had to be Oral from the checkers but I had no idea why. 19:23 so just under target for me.
  9. I enjoyed this. Just right for the morning train. Managed to avoid the traps. LOI cat flap. 12:40.
  10. Nice and gentle today. I briefly considered ARM but wasn’t convinced so decided to leave it blank and come back to it later by which point I’d solved 1d. Completed it in 11.27 with LOIs 2d and 7a.
    Thanks for the blog

    Edited at 2019-01-03 09:32 am (UTC)

  11. 18.01. ARM/RAM also affected me and failing to get the long 1dn early slowed things up. Personally found it moderate rather than gentle.
  12. Just sneaked in under my target 10 minutes at 9:37, so didn’t find it as easy as Roly, with CHRONICLE holding me up for quite a while. RACKET, of all things, was my LOI. OARED went in first. Wasn’t diverted by SIENNA. Packed an ARM at first glance, but noticed that CONSIDERABLE made that untenable. Thanks Breadman and Roly.
  13. This didn’t go smoothly for me – I jumped all over the place trying to gain some momentum and managed most of it before getting to grips with the NW corner. Finished with 1d, 2d, 10a and 12a. Got OARED early on but didn’t like it – not a word I’ve used, even when rowing at bow. I suppose I just wasn’t on Breadman’s wavelength but, on looking over the completed grid it was all very fair and interesting. It actually took me 20.59 to finish. Thanks, both. John M.
  14. Tried the “all the acrosses then all the downs” method today for a change; finished in less than 1.5 Kevins (a Very Good Day) so it worked this time! Only delayed myself by putting “expends” instead of “expense” at 22a, thus delaying LOI RACKET. I loved VIENNA and that gets COD from me, just pipping DAIRY FARM. Super puzzle and blog, thanks to Breadman and roly.

    Templar

  15. ….EDEN appearing next to VIENNA ensured that I have an Ultravox earworm for the rest of today.

    Escaped quickly from the”arm” trap, so avoided the TYPO.

    Took to long to spot RACKET, or I might have broken four minutes.

    FOI OARED
    LOI CHRONICLE
    COD YACHTING
    TIME 4:46

  16. Just over 30mins, fully parsed, so hopefully nudging back towards normality. Might have been a little quicker but my last pair, 16ac/17d, took ages to see, as did 1d. I thought 6d was a little gem that wouldn’t have been out of place in an Izetti, and so it gets my CoD vote. Invariant
  17. LOI 1dn by a long way – it was clearly CON- something, having ARM meant it couldn’t end -able, so had a struggle trying to think of anything to fit checkers. Eventually saw RAM was better, so got it right at last.
  18. Unlike Roly I found this more difficult than yesterday. Lots of hold ups today. I’m another one who had ARM for 15a but I did correct it before submitting. I delayed putting in 14a PAS as I had no idea it was a dance step and 9d MINESWEEPING was biffed, easy enough in retrospect. The two clues that I spent the longest time on were 2d ORGANISM and my LOI 4d VIENNA. I have no idea why it took so long for me to solve the wordplay for these two clues. 14:51

  20. 11 minutes and with Kevin’s RRM problem for the same reason so dnf. Also had dairy shed for some time so it seems I fell into all the traps.
  21. All finished and parsed in 34 minutes, about average for me but I’m still new enough to enjoy the achievement of finishing successfully. Some that took longer to get were CHRONICLE, OARED and (for some reason) BURST. Enjoyed RACKET, PRAWN, DAIRY FARM and VIENNA. Thank you Breadman.
  22. 18.01. ARM/RAM also affected me and failing to get the long 1dn early slowed things up. Personally found it moderate rather than gentle.
  23. 12mins would have been less but couldn’t parse 9d because of visible (which could have been omitted altogether) also had arm because the “in” signals it and I was slow on 6d

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