Times Quick Cryptic No 1328 by Des

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’m afraid I have no time to offer. Self-inflicted cognitive impairment. Drunk, you might call it. I did try, I stared at the swimming letters for nearly ten minutes, even got an answer or two, but no. So I just clicked on the answers. Good fun parsing though – many thanks to Des for what looked like might have been a decent puzzle! 

Across
1 Deadly spray a fellow used with fruit (5,6)
AGENT ORANGE – A GENT (a fellow) with ORANGE (fruit)
8 Means to control extremes of rage at home (4)
REIN – extreme letters of RagE and HomE
9 German city-dweller to live right next to ship (8)
BERLINER – to live = to BE, R (right) next to LINER (ship)
10 Establish unit: set it in motion (9)
INSTITUTE – anagram (in motion) of UNIT SET IT.
11 Visibly embarrassed as books are spoken of (3)
RED – Books are READ (sounds like red)
12 Is not prudent using paper at first: expecting litter! (2,3)
IN PUP – This is a very satisfying clue: for the addled mind, it’s a join-the-dots mystery novel pitched at about the right level of difficulty.
15 Use train signal (5)
POINT – Nice triple defintiion, I reckon: what’s the use/point?; train/point/aim a gun; and point/signal the way. 
18 Sardonic and cautious, dismissing article (3)
WRY – wary = cautious, ditch the A (article)
19 People on a mission could be rude, crass (9)
CRUSADERS – As close enough to a litotes &lit as makes no difference: anagram (could be) of RUDE CRASS.
23 English novelist’s description of one cricket team (8)
FIELDING – double definition
24 Fuel that’s firm and pale in the middle (4)
COAL – Co. (firm) AL (pALe “in the middle”). This was one the clues I did manage to get…
25 Address mute, deranged Shakespearean fairy (11)
MUSTARDSEED – Seeing the answer, I guess there‘s a neuron in my mind somewhere devoted to the fairy Mustardseed, but if so it’s one neuron too much.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a loathsome play. Anagram (deranged) of ADDRESS MUTE.

Down
2 Gather what’s finally going spare (5)
GLEAN – G (“finally” goinG) LEAN (spare). Nice.
3 Old Poles in National Trust work continuously (7)
NONSTOP – O(ld) N/S = North/South (poles) in NT (National Trust) OP (work)
4 Manoeuvre around hint of rumour in death notice (5)
ORBIT – R (hint = first letter of Rumour) in OBIT (death notice)
5 Helipad moving to Paris (7)
AIRSTOP – move the letters of TO PARIS
6 Win something Gateshead, Galashiels, Dungannon, Donegal and Reigate all have (4)
GAIN – cryptic definition – generous, perhaps, but still nicely done: what do these five hubs of humanity have in common? Well lots of things, but on a trivial level they all have “GA” IN their names.
7 Pokes quietly with sticks (5)
PRODS – P = piano = quietly, with RODS (sticks)
11 Manage to flee (3)
RUN – Double definition, of the stock variety
13 French marshal appearing periodically in Annecy (3)
NEY – appearing “periodically” in aNnEcY. I know nothing about him, but honourable-seeming dying words: “Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I protest against my condemnation. I have fought a hundred battles for France, and not one against her … Soldiers, fire!”
14 Is salesman turning up on street last? (7)
PERSIST – IS REP = is salesman, reverse = turning up, ST = street
16 Signs I’d since altered (7)
INDICES – anagram (alteration) of ID SINCE
17 Fleet of foot, after short swim (5)
SWIFT – FT (foot) goes after a short(ened) SWIm. Nice!
20 Tease us for bringing up term of endearment (5)
SUGAR – to RAG US = to TEASE US, bring up = reverse.
21 Author dreaded missing tips (5)
READE – take the tips off dREADEd to get the famous author, Sophie Reade, contestant of Season 10 of Big Brother, who won the Nobel prize for literature a record seventeen times in one year, before turning her mind to physics, invented the “multiverse engine”, and thereafter took to jumping between universes to promulgate her unparallelled insight into the human condition. She hasn’t been seen for a while, admittedlty, so I guess she’s moved on to a different filament of existence and is now granted access into the pantheon of Times crossword worthies. Wikipedia also lists some other people called Reade, should you prefer.
22 Chief attraction featuring in scenic lough (4)
CLOU – hidden in the letters of sceniC LOUgh. Completley new to me, this word: literally French for “nail”, and in English means exactly as underlined: chief attraction. As in a 1927 quote from the Observer: “The ‘clou’ of the evening, a new string quartet by Arnold Schönberg”. Probably best used sparingly.

49 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1328 by Des”

  1. First time I’ve seen the word ‘loathsome’ applied to MND; grossly misapplied, actually, but wotthehell. I assumed READE was Charles, author of ‘The Cloister and the Hearth’–not ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ as I was about to write. (Haven’t read either.) NHO CLOU; what’s it doing here? 4:38.
    1. Yes, sorry that looks terrible – a read through might have edited that out. I was conflating the play with my experience of being taught it!
      1. I read once that Shaw refused to allow his plays to be used as school texts, because he didn’t want to be as hated as Shakespeare.
  2. 9 minutes despite unknowns AIRSTOP and CLOU. I also noted READE, NEY and AGENT ORANGE as answers that may not be familiar to all. I wasted a while trying to parse POINT before realising it was a triple def.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 05:21 am (UTC)

  3. Have we seen Des before? Anyway, I made fairly steady progress through this; after 14 minutes or so I was down to my LOI, 25a, and nothing occurred to me despite having all the checkers. So I wrote it out and eventually found Mustardseed, unknown to me as I was encouraged to dislike a different play at school.
    En route, CLOU was a surprise, AIRSTOP unknown and READE a fairly confident guess. 16:54.
    Now I am off to start a golf dominated day; playing this morning and the great pleasure of watching The Masters this afternoon and evening. I hope the weather in the US does not interfere. David
    1. Our school policy required the study of two plays. Mine were Julius Caesar from which I can only remember one scene and The Merchant of Venice which I enjoyed. To clarify, I am not the setter of this QC.

      Edited at 2019-04-11 10:13 am (UTC)

  4. Never heard of CLOU and never heard of MUSTARDSEED either. CLOU was more generously clued and I needed the I to make sense of the anagram for the fairy, which was LOI. Never read any READE or FIELDING, so today’s puzzle has made he feel a little uncultured. In the teens again, with the bottom very much heavier going.
  5. I think we should have more tipsy blogging, that was a most amusing read! Bravo roly, and I hope the Alka Seltzer does its job. Sophie Reade looks a lot more fun than the deservedly forgotten Charles.

    I thought this was a real curate’s egg of a puzzle, with good clues like 14dn having to keep company with dross like CLOU, READE and AIRSTOP, all of which are just far too obscure and were solved with a shrug of the shoulders. I have enjoyed discovering that Orwell said of Reade “it is unusual to meet anyone who has voluntarily read him”. Just over two Kevins, a Good Day.

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-04-11 07:17 am (UTC)

  6. Never heard of CLOU, AIRSTOP or READE. But enjoyed the puzzle, particularly mustardseed . Interesting how Shakespeare polarises people. I’ve just finished a short course at Oxford’s Continuing Education centre on five different Shakespeare plays – a real eye-opener.
    Diana
  7. I’ve just deleted a long rant about obscure names being clued by anagrams, so instead I’ll politely give 25a a GR. After staring at it blankly for 5 minutes I had to come here for the answer.
    I found the rest of the puzzle to be on the trickier side and would have probably just missed my 15 minute target time even without 25a. Enjoyed the penny drop moment at 6d.
    Thanks for the blog
    1. I’m usually among the first to rant about obscurites as anagrams but I can’t get too worked up about them unless they are both obscure AND foreign, or highly technical terms that are often derived from Greek or Latin so still count as foreign in my book.

      Today’s MUSTARDSEED may not be known to all as the name of a Shakespearean fairy but it’s derived from two perfectly common English words, so given that the anagram fodder is obvious and the solver is likely to have two or three checkers in place, it’s perhaps not too difficult to spot where the remaining letters fit to make something sensible that might just be the name of a fairy?

      Edited at 2019-04-11 10:41 am (UTC)

      1. It’s also a common spice used in cooking. I had far less trouble with 15a than 25a. I had no idea howiitwworked and didn’t believe it until I put it in my phone and used the check option.
          1. But one of my rules of thumb is that, in crossword land, such things are very fluid. One word, two words, hyphenated …. I’ve been caught out like that before 🙂
            1. It’s a very good rule of thumb, filbert, and a hyphen (or lack of it) should never get in the way of putting in an answer that’s obviously correct, but many of us who write the blogs tend take more notice of the enumeration e.g. (11) or (7,4) or (7-4) as what is given ought to be listed in at least one of the usual reference sources, Collins, Chambers or the Oxford Dictionary On-line.
    2. Rant away. But crosswords are a test of general knowledge as well as anagram-solving. If you don’t finish… well join the club. It means you failed! It means you have an area of ignorance. That’s good news if you have a curious mind.
  8. As Templar writes: a Curate’s egg indeed. I went reasonably well until I got stuck in the SW corner with MUSTARDSEED, FIELDING, CLOU (I saw this and set it aside until it became inevitable and I looked it up). PERSIST and SUGAR took me too long. I thought I had finished and saw that GLEAN was missing. Some very quirky clues. I quite liked NONSTOP but thought AIRSTOP was rather odd. COD GAIN. I see that the F1 group have posted already but I predict that there will be some longer times from later posters who, like me, are firmly in the SCC today. Just inside 30 mins. John M.

    Edited at 2019-04-11 08:11 am (UTC)

  9. Ditto above. I managed a consecutive sub10, squeaking in at 9.52 by biffing GLEAN, and finally seeing the light with AGENT ORANGE and GAIN. I knew the curate’s egg had its origins in Punch, but not that it came (Wiki) via the earlier satirical magazine, Judy, nor that in Punch’s final edition, the cartoon was republished with the curate saying: “The f***ing egg’s off!”.
    1. I’m impressed by your time. I was worried that I was losing a few marbles but I have just completed the Torygraph Cryptic in 2/3 of the time I spent on the QC this morning so perhaps there is yet hope!
      1. Thanks. I’ve been doing the 15×15 recently and I think the practice might be paying off. Then again my Monday performance wasn’t up to much!
  10. Slow going today, limping home eventually at 25:01 mainly because of the obscure words mentioned by others.
    I believe Des set the very first QC. Jackkt will know.
    Why are there two blogs about Microsoft etc in the list of blogs today?
    1. Yes, Des set the very first QC back in March 2014 and has only set 15 in all since then at a rate of roughly 3 per year. I blogged the first puzzle which had not been too easy to solve as the enumeration of multi-word / hyphenated answers was not indicated in the clues – through no fault of Des of course.

      Edited at 2019-04-11 10:29 am (UTC)

  11. I’m not sure about this one! I had to rely on the wordplay as there was a level of knowledge required outside my remit. I guessed at NEY, READE and CLOU and quite frankly cheated by having to google my LOI MUSTARDSEED. I knew it was an anagram but I didn’t know the fairy. Puck is the only one I can recall. 11 minutes but in reality a DNF.
    1. Other fairies we can look forward to from MND are Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Moth.
  12. A visit to the SCC for me today. I struggled with this one and came in just short of twice my target time at 19:26. One to forget. NHO, READE, CLOU or AIRSTOP. Thanks Des and Roly. Hope the head isn’t too sore!
  13. Slowed up today by seeing helipad moving and biffing ADELPHI as it sounded vaguely Parisian. Then, of course, “Ich bin ein …” wouldn’t fit. CLOU? Really?
    Altogether not my favourite today.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.
    7’15”
  14. Held up for ages by sugar, fielding, which confirmed clou and then loi the oddly named fairy.

    Cod fielding.

  15. My sleepy head this morning took Sophie Reade seriously followed by a jolt when I clicked on her web site. I consider myself to be well read but haven’t read Charles Reade yet.

    Thanks

    SRT

  16. About 9 minutes, after spending a couple on 15ac, which I eventually bunged in from the last definition, not seeing there were two more. It was good to see the return of Marshal Ney, who used to be a favourite among setters.
    The appearance of Charles Reade reminds me that some 80 years ago I had ‘The Cloister and the Hearth’ as a school prize – but I don’t remember having read a word.
  17. I hadn’t a CLOU about the word at 22D but it was clear from the wordplay and the checker from MUSTARDSEED. NHO of the author READE either. COD to NONSTOP. 6:24.
  18. Never heard of MUSTARDSEED, nor of READE, AIRSTOP or CLOU (although biffed the last 3). Interesting that CLOU is French for nail, as there is also a type of nail known as a ‘clout’ nail in English. All in all pretty unsatisfactory. Did enjoy FIELDING though.
    PlayUpPompey
  19. ….I haven’t a CLOU. This is what I call an “okapi word”, ie something a compiler is compelled to squeeze into a light where nothing else will slot between existing words. I’d never heard of it, but the clueing finally convinced me to slap it in. Unless you were to use the French “bleu” there’s nowt else available to the setter.

    AIRSTOP was another DNK, but made perfect sense. I’d heard of READE but I’ve never “readed” him.

    Almost a hat trick of missed targets, but I just scraped home.

    FOI REIN
    LOI CLOU
    COD FIELDING
    TIME 4:57

  20. 13 minutes getting held up by all the unknowns. Satisfying to grind them out subccessfully.
  21. Arrived at my loi, 25ac, just short of the 30 mins mark, and was faced with *u*t*r*s*e* for the name of a fairy (and in truth I wasn’t overly sure about the ‘u’ given that Clou was completely unknown). I guessed it was from MND, but we did MoV, Henry V and JC at school, so my knowledge of MND characters was limited to Puck and Bottom – not much help. Gave up after 5mins and looked up the answer to Des’s little teaser. I think one of us needs to try a bit harder… Invariant
  22. Awful puzzle. Equally awful blog. Still not a lot wiser after failing most miserably on this QC over the past 18 months or so. Sorry.
    1. There’s a threshold of understanding – which usually consists of not looking at the whole clue as a sentence but separating the parts. Keep on really reading the blogs and you may get there. You may not have enjoyed this puzzle, but it’s wrong to disparage the blog which is absolutely spot on and worth the read.

      Edited at 2019-04-11 10:31 pm (UTC)

    2. The only obscure bit of the blog was for IN PUP – which was the first letter of each of the first five words.
      Regards
  23. Much happier today! Although I was over my target 20 by 3 minutes, it was better than the last two days which took nearer 30 minutes. Having seen that many people struggled I’m quite proud of my effort. All completed and parsed (except for NONSTOP – thanks Roly for your help there! I had the word but couldn’t decipher the word play) despite the unknowns: Agent Orange, Ney, Airstop, Clou, Reade. They were so fairly cl(o)ued that I could hardly complain. I really must improve my general knowledge though! MM

    FOI REIN
    LOI COAL (shortly after READE) No idea why COAL took me so long!
    COD NONSTOP …. now I understand what’s going on!!!

  24. Airstop? Not a word that’s ever been used to describe a helipad. (Someone will prove me wrong of course but it’s very very obscure surely.)
    1. Airstop certainly not generally recognised. An ‘air stop’ would be acceptable.
  25. 13 minutes getting held up by all the unknowns. Satisfying to grind them out subccessfully.
  26. Clou was new to me. Ney, fortunately, has turned up in the big cryptic several times. Good to get these in before Brexit, after which we’ll need to pay import duty on French words.

    Did general Ney doing anything to warrant his recurrence in Times puzzles? I think that before I die, I’m going to change my name by deed-poll (if one indeed needs to do so these days) to something crosswordable so that I keep appearing in the Times. Perhaps “Ish”, or “Ing”, or maybe “Tion”.

  27. REIN
    Extreme letters of rage, but not extreme letters of home. IN means ‘at home’. Was that a misprint.?
      1. I think “an error by the blogger” was what was meant by “misprint” : if parsed as suggested it would give REHE as the answer.
        2. Yes, you’re quite right, an error/misprint it was – wasn’t at my most lucid!

Comments are closed.