Times Quick Cryptic No 1342 by Orpheus

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

This one took me about 46 minutes, thanks to a few clues in the lower left corner which stumped me for at least a half an hour. I was able to complete the puzzle only with the help of a thesaurus to look up a synonym at 13 Across, and some Google auto-completing to help with 16 Down.

In the end, I was disappointed with this puzzle. And that’s a shame, because most of it is an excellent introduction to the sort of wordplay found in the 15×15 puzzles. I imagine many beginners will find this puzzle frustrating. Try not to be discouraged, and learn what you can!

Solutions

Across

1 Englishman in Australia with power [and] self-importance (4)
POMP – POM (“Englishman in Australia”, Australian slang for British immigrants) + (“with”) P (“power”)

No real idea what this could be except for ‘power’ = P, so I move on. Not solved.

3 Grumble about old male, one involved in plot (8)
COMPLAIN – C (“about”, circa) + O (“old”) + M (“male”) + I (“one”) in (“involved in”) PLAN (“plot”)

Wonderfully deceptive, and I was fooled into trying to put OM in a synonym of ‘grumble’. The trickiness comes from the fact that ‘about’ can indicate one word outside another, and ‘one involved in plot’ could easily be a definition (of ‘schemer’ or ‘conspirator’, for example). Not solved.

8 Bizarre, associating Capone with English county briefly (7)
SURREAL – putting (“associating”) AL (“Capone”) next to (“with”) SURREY (“English county”) without the last letter (“briefly”)

Stumped again, although UK solvers might have gotten this one right away. I wasn’t familiar enough with Surrey, and AL seemed like it could also be the beginning of a word meaning ‘bizarre’. Not solved.

10 Antelope found in many a land (5)
NYALA – letters inside (“found in”) MANY A LAND (“many a land”)

A southern African antelope. This was straightforward, especially since I have a friend named Nyala! I imagine it could be tricky if you’ve never heard of the animal, but there’s no question this has to be a hidden word clue. Solved.

11 Superior? Not in status (11)
OUTSTANDING – OUT (“not in”) + STANDING (“status”)

Again, I would not be surprised if many solvers got this straight away. I did not, and it’s quite a tricky clue as well, since ‘not in’ could suggest to remove IN from another word. Not solved.

13 Declare right to divide benefit? (6)
ASSERT – R (“right”) in (“to divide”) ASSET (“benefit”)

This one hung me up til the very end. I never quite got past the idea that ‘declare’ was AVER. ‘Right’ could be R or RT. Not solved.

15 Gloomy maids wandering by lake (6)
DISMAL – MAIDS (“maids”) anagrammed (“wandering”) + (“by”) L (“lake”)

Our first anagram. Clear and not difficult. Solved.

17 Star briefly given share [in] festivities (11)
CELEBRATION – CELEBRITY (“star”) shortened informally (“briefly”) + (“given”) RATION (“share”)

Another wonderfully tricky clue. I was expecting ‘star briefly’ to be the name of a star without the last letter, like MAR(S) or CERE(S), and even once I had the answer, it took me until writing this blog to realize we were looking for a different kind of star altogether. Not solved.

20 Aboriginal inhabitant Chinese leader reined in at first? (5)
MAORI – MAO (“Chinese leader”) + REINED IN (“reined in”) reduced to their initials (“at first”)

Fooled again! I was pretty sure we were looking for an aboriginal inhabitant, but I assumed incorrectly that ‘Chinese leader’ meant the letter C, placed inside something meaning ‘at first’. Orpheus led me right down the primrose path. Not solved.

21 Levelling out / late in the day? (7)
EVENING – double definition

I accidentally skipped this clue the first time through. Not solved.

22 Wed profitably, so to speak, [in] plant (8)
MARIGOLD – MARRY GOLD (“wed profitably”) replaced by homophones (“so to speak”)

I knew this was a homophone clue, and that it probably started with MARI, but I was only thinking of MARIRITCH, MARIWELL, etc. I’ve never heard of the expression ‘marry gold’, so it’s probably a bit of a stretch. Not solved.

23 Issue film about military intelligence (4)
EMIT – E.T. (“film”) around (“about”) M.I. (“military intelligence”)

I was ready for ‘issue’ to give SON, but in fact the usual chestnuts were in full effect, with everyone’s favorite film, and a straightforward abbreviation. Solved.

So far I’ve only entered three answers, but I’m still feeling positive, and I’ve only used two or three minutes to get through half the clues.

Down

1 Former exam depicting rural life (8)
PASTORAL – PAST (“former”) + ORAL (“exam”)

I’m ready for this to be EX + TEST + … , but that’s not really getting me anywhere. I try a different way: ‘exam’ can often be ORAL, and that’s enough to help me get to PASTORAL. Solved.

2 Superior quality encountered around Rhode Island (5)
MERIT – MET (“encountered”) around (“around”) R.I. (“Rhode Island”)

Misled again. It was very clear that the answer was a three-letter word around RI, but I was looking for a synonym of ‘quality’, not ‘encountered’. It’s just these kinds of traps that one finds all the time in 15×15 puzzles. Not solved.

4 Figure obese blokes primarily yearn for? (6)
OBLONG – OBESE BLOKES (“obese blokes”) reduced to their initials (“primarily”) + LONG (“yearn for”)

I knew the answer likely started with OB, and ‘yearn’ is usually a synonym for LONG or PINE. That should have been enough, but in 37 years on the planet I’ve only ever heard OBLONG as an adjective, not a noun. So I rejected it as a possibility, and started searching my brain for geometric shapes that start with OB… OBTUSE triangles? That doesn’t work either. Well, it was a fair clue, but I don’t like it in a Quick Cryptic. Not solved.

5 Sound off, destroying petition café left unfinished (11)
PONTIFICATE – anagramming (“destroying”) PETITION CAFE (“petition cafe”) without its last letter (“left unfinished”)

Another easy anagram, though my crossing letters did help, as did the guess that the answer would end with -ATE, since the definition was a present-tense verb. Solved.

6 A largely masculine activity mostly [producing] alloy (7)
AMALGAM – A (“a”) + almost all the letters in (“largely”) MALE (“masculine”) + GAME (“activity”) without the last letter (“mostly”)

This charade wasn’t too hard to put together. Once the G went in, I knew 11 Across would end with ING. Solved.

7 Boat-builder[’s] failure to comply with doctor’s request? (4)
NOAH – NO ‘AH’ (“failure to comply with doctor’s request?”)

Classic doctor move to make you stick out your tongue and say, ‘ah’. I didn’t see this one on the first few passes, but it’s cute. Not solved.

9 Fascinating, / doing this to potential slaves? (11)
ENTHRALLING – double definition, the second being: “turning someone into a thrall (slave)”

Stumped. Not solved.

12 Strange thing, supporting a couple of Liberals through hours of darkness (3-5)
ALL-NIGHT – anagram of (“strange”) THING (“thing”) under (“supporting”) A (“a”) + two (“couple of”) ‘L’s (“liberals”)

I got ALL from the wordplay, then ALL-NIGHT from the definition (which is lovely), then worked back to see how NIGHT worked. I also put ING at the end of 21 Across. Solved.

14 Mug reportedly [giving such] support? (7)
SUCCOUR – SUCKER (“mug”) replaced by a homophone (“reportedly”)

This was my last one in, because I didn’t know of ‘mug’ = SUCKER. Not solved.

16 Descend rock-face [with] seaman — what he would do, they say (6)
ABSEIL – AB (“seaman”) + SAIL (“what he would do”) replaced by a homophone (“they say”)

This one frustrated me. I knew it was likely to include AB or TAR, but I don’t know any words that mean ‘descend rock-face’, and ABSEIL just doesn’t look like a word. Even if it’s fair game, I don’t believe it belongs in a Quickie. Not solved.

18 Two girls upset about one[’s] form of expression (5)
IDIOM – MO + DI (“two girls”) reversed (“upset”) around (“about”) I (“one”)

I already had the M from EMIT, and DI is a very common girl, so this was a relatively easy one to piece together. Solved.

19 Spiritual leader originally in Muslim area mainly (4)
IMAM – first letters of (“originally”) IN MUSLIM AREA MAINLY (“in Muslim area mainly”)

Although this is a simple clue, clearly Orpheus has put in other words like ‘area’ and ‘mainly’ that could clue other things. Solved.

* * *

Then I went back to the clues I didn’t get:

1 Across – Englishman in Australia with power and self-importance (4)
I had P _ _ _ , so I took a stab at P+EGO, hoping that PEGO is some famous expat I never heard of. Question mark?

3 Across – Grumble about old male, one involved in plot (8)
I had _ O _ P _ A _ _ , then put in _ OMP _ A _ _ from ‘male’ in the wordplay, then realized it was probably COMPLAIN for ‘grumble’ and saw that I had misparsed the clue! Solved.

8 Across – Bizarre, associating Capone with English county briefly (7)
I had S _ _ _ _ _ _ , so that told me AL had to be at the end, giving me S _ _ _ _ AL. Unfortunately I wasn’t confident with my counties to take it further, and the definition eluded me. Not solved.

11 Across – Superior? Not in status (11)
I had O _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ING, and not seeing the answer, thought that ‘superior’ might be giving OVER…ING, so I lightly put in OVER and moved on. Not solved.

13 Across – Declare right to divide benefit? (6)
I have A _ _ _ _ _ , and I still can’t see past ‘aver’ for ‘declare’. Not solved.

17 Across – Star briefly given share in festivities (11)
I have _ _ _ _ _ _ A _ I _ N, which leads to _ _ _ _ _ RATION, and then CELEBRATION from the definition, but I still can’t see what this star should be. Did I mention I was tired? Solved.

20 Across – Aboriginal inhabitant Chinese leader reined in at first? (5)
I have M _ _ _ _ , but I’m still thinking ‘Chinese leader’ = C so MACAU is coming to mind, but that can’t work. The definition leads me to consider MAORI, and then I see how the wordplay works and the penny satisfyingly drops! Solved.

21 Across – Levelling out late in the day? (7)
I have _ _ E _ ING, and I squeeze EVENING out of my tired brain. Solved.

2 Down – Superior quality encountered around Rhode Island (5)
Due to PEGO and OVER…ING, I have G _ R _ E, which then leads to G _ RIE, but how can ‘quality’ give G _ E? Then I pause and consider that we might have ‘encountered’ = MET, which would lead to MERIT, which works. So I erase my wrong letters at 1 and 11 Across and put MERIT in. Solved.

1 Across – Englishman in Australia with power and self-importance (4)
I had P _ M _ , so I can see the answer is POMP, and I have no idea how it works. Solved.

11 Across – Superior? Not in status (11)
I pause to sharpen my pencil, look at O _ T _ _ _ _ _ ING and immediately see that the answer has to be OUTSTANDING. Solved.

4 Down – Figure obese blokes primarily yearn for? (6)
Okay so it has to be OBLONG and I grumble. Solved.

7 Down – Boat-builder’s failure to comply with doctor’s request? (4)
I have N _ A _ but I’m still trying to think of nautical things and I don’t get the joke. Not solved.

9 Down – Fascinating, doing this to potential slaves? (11)
I have _ _ T _ _ _ L _ I _ _ , which is enough to get _ _ T _ _ _ L _ ING, but I can’t think of the right synonym. Not solved.

22 Across – Wed profitably, so to speak, in plant (8)
But the G from 9 Down is enough to give me MARIG _ _ _ and it’s clear it’s MARIGOLD. Solved.

14 Down – Mug reportedly giving such support? (7)
I have _ _ C _ O _ R , and I suspect _ _ C _ OUR, but beyond that I have no idea. Not solved.

16 Down – Descend rock-face with seaman — what he would do, they say (6)
I have AB _ E _ L and no idea what’s going on. Not solved.

8 Across – Bizarre, associating Capone with English county briefly (7)
I have S _ R _ _ AL , but am thinking about letter combinations like SEREDAL or SERITAL. Sneaky U! Not solved.

13 Across: No progress. Not solved.

9 Down: No progress. Not solved.

14 Down: No progress, and countless minutes are ticking by. Not solved.

7 Down: Finally I get the joke, and NOAH goes in. Solved.

8 Across: Finally I “see” SURREAL. Solved.

9 Down: After staring at E _ T _ _ _ L _ ING for what seems like hours, and trying EXT… as a starter, I finally hit on ENTHRALLING and it sort of makes sense. Solved.

16 Down: After reading the clue more closely, I finally start to think that ‘what a seaman might do’ is SAIL, but ABSEIL just doesn’t seem like a word in the English language. Definitely not a Quickie word. At the 45 minute mark (!) I finally decide to type it into Google and the groans start spilling out. Solved.

13 Across: I’m left with just 13 Across and 16 Down, and I decide it’s time to look up five-letter synonyms of ‘benefit’ that start with A. I immediately see ASSET and ASSERT goes in. “Solved”.

16 Down: Now I have S _ C _ OUR and I know the answer has to be SUCCOUR and I realize ‘mug’ must be slang for SUCKER. Solved and done.

36 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1342 by Orpheus”

  1. No problems here, but then I’ve been doing the 15x15s for a dozen years; I’m curious to see how many others share Jeremy’s assessment. NYALA and ABSEIL have been in a number of cryptics. I biffed CELEBRATION–I can’t remember what checkers I had–and only when reading Jeremy’s explanation did I realize that I’d been thinking of the star Deneb. Liked NOAH. 5:07.
    1. In fairness (to me), I had just returned from a weekend of debauchery — that is, a barbershop quartet competition. So my mind may not have been firing on all cylinders…
  2. Only two on the first pass of the acrosses, so feared the worst but downs were a little more forgiving and finally got there in a little under 20m. OUTSTANDING,, ENTHRALLING and CELEBRATION all among the last to fall and that left me short of checkers, removing much of the opportunity to biff and parse. ABSEIL went straight in and although I don’t have a friend called NYALA that seemed like all it could be. IDIOM and SUCCOUR that last two in. A good puzzle but an outstanding blog, thank you Jeremy, I really appreciate the tips and the insight when you blog this way – thanks very much for going to the effort.

    Edited at 2019-05-01 05:53 am (UTC)

  3. 9 minutes. No problems, although I had to be reminded after the event of the connection between ENTHRALLING and slavery.
  4. 25 minutes, was fearing a dnf wipeout but then finished fairly steadily after a coffee. Perhaps a lack of leffe which i will rectify tonight whilst watching the futty.

    I found Idiom, pontificate, complain, celebration, and loi enthralling the hardest.

    Dnk the enslave meaning.

    Cod from abseil, complain, oblong and groan noah.

    Thanks

  5. No hold ups today but like our blogger I initially thought about celestial objects at 17a and finished with SUCCOUR (which fortunately came up recently) and ASSERT. Particularly enjoyed 22a and 8d. Completed in 9.41.
    Another outstanding blog Jeremy, thank you.
  6. No real problems once I got going, but thought this on the chewyish side for 13.55, a couple minutes being spent misguidedly looking for a word at 3ac starting M. I had MOAN fixed in my head for COMPLAIN, thought I saw MEXICAN, began to write it in, saw it was wrong and forgot to erase the M. Thanks for the lucid blog and interesting to see how regional linguistic variations can make clues much harder!
  7. I had this down as medium difficult, clocking in at 3 Kevins (an OK Day). No issues with ENTHRALLING having read Paradise Lost at an impressionable age (“Thy self not free, but to thy self enthralled”). LOI was IDIOM because I kept trying to fit IS in there for “one’s”.

    I confess to having toyed with the possibility of an antelope called the YALAN but the boat-builder immediately scotched such thoughts. (Talking of Scotch I was in Edinburgh to hear the third Reith Lecture on Monday – do catch them if you can, the lecturer is Jonathan Sumption and he is quite brilliant.)

    Thanks blogger and setter.

    Templar

    1. I know of Jonathan Sumption Q.C., having been a lawyer in a previous existence. Described as having a brain the size of a planet (him, not me).
      1. That’s him – subsequently Lord Sumption JSC, now retired from judging.
  8. I was taken over my target to 10:58 by ENTHRALLING, which I had to write out horizontally and stare at for a while before the lights went on. Knew NYALA from the big puzzle. SURREAL and COMPLAIN also held me up as I decoded the wordplay laboriously. Nice puzzle though. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
  9. It doesn’t happen often, but when I get a clue before the blogger does I have a small 17ac

    It happened three times this morning!

    It was definitely an 11ac blog, Jeremy, thank you.
    Diana

  10. I must have been on the wavelength as I finished in 07:57 which included time for retyping a couple of answers when my typing went into unexpected squares (seems to happen to me quite a lot online).
    LOI was MARIGOLD. COD to Noah, but lots of good clues; and an antelope which was not hidden by too much vegetation.
    I liked the fact that most answers were normal words entertainingly clued. David
  11. A small consolation I’m sure but my LOI was also 13a ASSERT and I also toyed with aver. My penultimate solve was SUCCOUR. My biggest problem was actual getting started and my FOI was IMAM. I biffed COMPLAIN, AMALGAM and NOAH but parsed after submitting. I also DNK the alternative definition for ENTHRALLING so thank you Jeremy for the explanation. WOD to PONTIFICATE. 11:55
  12. 16m so outside my target, but satisfying nonetheless. Jeremy, how you find time to write your blog this way I’ll never know, but I am sure it is appreciated. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy. Let’s hope tomorrow’s is easier as I am blogging!
  13. A taxing puzzle with some interesting clues, especially to those who have not seen it all before (or have a poor memory). Not a ‘normal’ QC and would have been a challenge for newer solvers. Not the first in recent times to have clues that would grace the 15sq. I was forced to break off in the middle to ferry a friend to the station but managed it in a few seconds over 20 mins – clearly SCC. I was not helped by mis-typing ABSEIL as ANSEIL so found 17ac impossible until I realised my mistake. I thought NOAH was brilliant – my COD but I also liked MARIGOLD, SUCCOUR, IDIOM, OBLONG, COMPLAIN. LOI was ASSERT. Enjoyable puzzle and super, honest blog. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2019-05-01 09:22 am (UTC)

  14. 27 minutes, with the seven minutes over target spent on just two, ENTHRALLING and my LOI OBLONG .
    I knew NYALA from identifying african animals on-line, and having the S as the initial checker in 8A made it easy to find tje English county. ABSEIL was the first thing I thought of for ‘Descend rock face’ although I’ve never tried it.
    Thanks to Jeremy for a super blog, and to Orpheus for a good puzzle, although two random girl’s names in one clue is probably two too many.

    Brian

  15. What a good blog.

    I found this okay actually – 20 mins which makes it about average for me. It helped that on the couple of occasions that I stalled a really useful clue dropped into place giving checkers in others.

    By comparison I found yesterday’s unfathomable and DNF leaving 2 clues empty by the end of the day.

  16. I liked this one a lot, a good blend of subtle cryptics and hoary chestnuts with the odd biff thrown in.
    COD, WOD and LOI all go to ENTHRALLING.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger
    5’10”

  17. Most of this was a case of knowing what the answers must be then trying to justify. Never heard of NYALA for example, but it had to be. Took a few minutes for the no ah to drop but he’s the boat builder everytime isn’t he? rather like the film is nearly always ET. Not familiar with thrall but again it fitted.
  18. Very much a learner to quick crossword. The clue at 20 across “Aboriginal inhabitant Chinese leader reined in at first” is misleading. The answer is Maori but aboriginals are from Australia and not from New Zealand .
    I usually find Orpheus more straightforward than today’s puzzle
  19. ….I might not have divorced unprofitably !

    Not the most straightforward QC I’ve ever seen, but nothing that occasioned any real difficulty.

    FOI POMP
    LOI SURREAL (Surrey just didn’t jump out at me !)
    COD NOAH
    TIME 4:06

    1. “Call her Marigold and hope she does” was what my grandmother used to say whenever anyone had a baby girl!
  20. Really enjoyable QC, and easily the fastest this week. I have to agree with Brian in all of his points, but would add with the benefit of a very old metallurgy degree, one thing an amalgam is not is an alloy!
    I am still amazed by what a difference it makes being (or very much not being!) on the setters wavelength makes, clearly Jeremy fell into the “very much not”, which possibly makes his blog even more useful to the less experienced as an example of how to proceed when nothing falls into place.
  21. I enjoyed this and did not have to use any aids. I don’t think there was anything unsuitable for a QC though I dnk nyalga and I got 13a wrong. Oblong is fine as a noun- as a Maths teacher I was always telling children they should cal them rectangles. I’ve now done enough QC to get Noah straight away though I was trying to think what AH stood for. Cod 22a and 16d.
  22. Intrigued by the comments above…I only had 7 across and 4 down on first read through but more followed easily enough using those checkers. A couple of chewy ones that took ages (as usual). No words that I didn’t know, they just took time to parse. FOI 1a LOI 11a COD 22a for the humour. Happy to do this with newspaper & pencil – and to see odd ‘schoolboy error’ eg latterly spotting AMALGUM which at least was not a checker but all the more easy to overlook. The big snag was 11a where I started with O-T = OUT and then plumped for CLASS + ING. 9d scotched that and the rethink offered up 4d. Spread over 3 sessions, I guess it still took me an hour. But I wouldn’t have thought any of these words or constructions were 15×15 material… I’m one of the many who find Jeremy’s blogs very informative, but appreciate, and need, them all!
  23. Excellent blog as always – the explanations really help. I had no trouble with ‘abseil’ but your easy clue ‘idiom’ stumped me! Look froward to the next one.
  24. Rather late to comment but delighted to have finished in 14 minutes (way under my target 20). No strange words today for me so I was obviously on the setter’s wavelength. I was slow to start FOI NYALA but then it all flowed. I thought that my LOI NOAH was going to hold me up, but fortunately it didn’t. Very funny clue and worthy of COD, but I think MARIGOLD just won the prize for that! Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy for your very detailed blog. MM
  25. Just the right level of difficulty for this novice. Thanks setter and blogger
  26. How does someone who is so bad at cryptic crosswords get to write this blog? He’s terrible. This crossword was far from the toughest!

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