Times Quick Cryptic No 1352 by Des

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

I nearly finished this puzzle in 16’30”, but it took me another three minutes to puzzle out and then Google my answer for 8 Down. In any case, my longish time made sense: the puzzle was straightforward, but my seasonal allergies had me sneezing and stopping to blow my nose every 30 seconds or so. My head wasn’t together enough to push hard on any one clue, so I just kept moving and was able to finish the puzzle without any real difficulties.

Solutions

Across

1 Fan [is] something you cast in river (7)
DEVOTEE – VOTE (“something you cast”) in (“in”) DEE (“river”)

I understood this clue to mean ‘something you cast’ in ‘river’, but I was thinking more along the lines of POLE, which didn’t get me anywhere. Also, there was a time I was really up to snuff on my UK rivers, but I’ve let them slip these days. Not solved.

7 Many held briefly, improperly, [in] Wilts RAF base (7)
LYNEHAM – MANY (“many”) + HELD (“held”) without its last letter (“briefly”), anagrammed (“improperly”)

I got that this was an anagram of MANY+HEL(D), but no clue about the military base — I’ll need checkers. Not solved.

9 Promoted in the end, you chattered idly (7)
UPRATED – the last letter of (“in the end”) YOU (“you”) + PRATED (“chattered idly”)

I toyed around with the last letter of ‘promoted’ = D, then YE for ‘you’, but that didn’t get me anywhere and I moved on. (As I said, with my allergies I had very little energy to persist and try different parsings.) Not solved.

10 Part for ukelele an orchestra [gives] girl (7)
ELEANOR – letters in (“part for”) UKELELE AN ORCHESTRA (“ukelele an orchestra”)

Finally, an easy starter. This was clear to be a hidden word, and it only took a few seconds to find. Solved.

11 Feline, extra large, around New York, returning (4)
LYNX – XL (“extra large”) outside (“around”) NY (“New York”), reversed (“returning”)

This was a lovely one. With only four letters to work with, I found myself asking, how can XL and NY give me a type of cat? But then you put the pieces together as instructed and out pops a cat. Solved.

12 Move up, prior to [creating] miscellany (9)
POTPOURRI – anagram (“move”) UP PRIOR TO (“up prior to”)

Funny enough, I guessed from the definition immediately that this had to be POTPOURRI, but I couldn’t see the anagram, as I was fully misled by ‘prior to’ meaning either to place two words together, or perhaps the poetic ERE, so I missed this one on the first go-around. Not solved.

14 Captivated woman, married, going with our boss at The Times? (9)
ENAMOURED – ENA (“woman”) + M (“married”, from genealogy charts) + (“going with”) OUR (“our”) ED (“boss at The Times?”)

Thought the ‘woman’ might be DI, and forgot to check ‘ENA’. But I knew we had M for ‘married’ and ED for newspaper boss in the mix, so I wrote in ED for the last two letters. Not solved.

16 Lay next to a character from Athens (4)
BETA – BET (“lay”) + (“next to”) A (“a”)

Another frustrating one. In the fog of my brain I could only come up with IOTA and ZETA, which obviously weren’t right. And I undoubtedly was saying in my mind, “alpha, beta, gamma, …”, and nevertheless skipped right over the answer! I put in the A, though. Not solved.

17 The issue [of] hoax comes to an end (7)
KIDDIES – KID (“hoax”) + DIES (“comes to an end”)

No energy to think through this one yet. Not solved.

20 Uninspiring expert thus penning article (7)
PROSAIC – PRO (“expert”) + SIC (“thus”) outside (“penning”) A (“article”)

First my mind turned to PRO for ‘expert’, which started triggering PROSE/PROSAIC deep in the rumblings of my brain. Of course I went first to SO for ‘thus’, which doesn’t work, but that got me the S. All the ingredients together were enough to pull out the correct word from the definition. Solved.

21 Donor doesn’t ever, ice being broken (7)
RECEIVE – EVER ICE (“ever ice”) anagrammed (“being broken”)

This was a clear anagram, and therefore a sort of “inverse definition”, and the answer wasn’t hard to find. Solved.

22 Follows sailor, [providing] a bright night light (7)
DOGSTAR – DOGS (“follows”) + TAR (“sailor”)

I should have made the TAR/STAR connection right away, which probably would have allowed me to solve this one on the first pass, but I was also considering AB for ‘sailor’ and IF for ‘providing’, and didn’t have the wherewithal yet to sift through and find the aptest ingredients. Not solved.

Down

1 Public transport: / alternative to a submarine? (6-6)
DOUBLE-DECKER – double definition, one referring to submarines and double-deckers as sandwiches

I had _ _ _ _ L _ – _ _ _ _ _ R, and was able to get the answer from the first definition. Solved.

2 What might grow in garden, or in cave, unusually (8)
VERONICA – OR IN CAVE (“or in cave”) anagrammed (“unusually”)

The anagram was clear, but with only _ _ _ _ N _ _ _ , I wasn’t ready to solve or even really attempt. ‘Veronica’ is a lovely purple plant, by the way. Not solved.

3 Expression of disapproval at uniform skirt (4)
TUTU – TUT (“expression of disapproval”) + (“at”) U (“uniform”)

Standard ingredients, standard clue I’ve seen before. Solved.

4 As likely heir, perhaps, led set astray (6)
ELDEST – LED SET (“led set”) anagrammed (“astray”)

Easy anagram. I didn’t even need to write the letters backwards, which is rare for me. Solved.

5 Cricket side the best ever? [That’s] public knowledge (2,6)
ON RECORD – ON (“cricket side”) + RECORD (“the best ever”)

I remember seeing ‘Cricket side’, then looking to the enumeration, then letting out a horrific sneeze and solving this one at the same time. Solved.

6 Not fleshy, object when having bottom pinched (4)
THIN – THING (“object”) without its last letter (“when having bottom pinched”)

I had _ _ _ N, but was thinking more along the lines of ‘gaunt’ or ‘bare’ for ‘not fleshy’, rather than ‘thin’. Finally, I followed the principle of “likelier than not, use a definition of the word which *isn’t* how it’s used in the surface”, which led me to ‘object’ = THING and that was that. Solved.

8 Traditional performer: one pulling sledge after car? (6,6)
MORRIS DANCER – DANCER (“one pulling sledge”, one of Santa’s reindeer, that is) after (“after”) MORRIS (“car?”, a type of car)

As many of you UK solvers likely know, a Morris dance is a traditional pole dance. Perhaps I do know this somewhere in my brain, but I definitiely didn’t last night! Also, I don’t know the conveyance as a ‘sledge’, but rather as a ‘sled’. So, nothing doing on the first pass. Not solved.

12 Mostly opposing abortion, I note, having had many children? (8)
PROLIFIC – all letters except the last of (“mostly”) PRO-LIFE (“opposing abortion”) + I (“I”) + C (“note”)

This one was easy to piece together from the wordplay. I had _ _ _ _ _ _ I _ , but that was enough to give me -IC, and then PRO-LIFE and PROLIFIC sort of appeared at the same time. Solved.

13 Concerned with permit to collect vehicle [being] suitable (8)
RELEVANT – RE (“concerned with”) + LET (“permit”) outside (“to collect”) VAN (“vehicle”)

Pieced this one together as well, starting with the standard RE for ‘concerned with’. Briefly considered RE…CAR… , since CAR is likelier than VAN for vehicle, but the answer couldn’t hide for long. Solved.

15 Venomous snake in scarlet made harsh sounds (6)
RASPED – ASP (“venomous snake”) in (“in”) RED (“scarlet”)

I had _ _ _ P _ _ , which gave me ASP and its location, and in another second, the answer. Solved.

18 US detective [and] British ones upset king (4)
DICK – CID (“British ones”, detectives, meaning) reversed (“upset”) + K (“king”)

Being in the US, ‘dick’ came straight to mind, which I could easily verify against the wordplay. Solved.

19 Musical note no good — alas for this? (4)
SONG – SO (“musical note”) + NG (“no good”)

I had _ O _ _ and then _ ONG, but then I forgot that O was part of the musical note and started trying DONG, GONG, BONG, etc, none of which really made sense. I put in the NG and moved on. Not solved.

* * *

I only missed three Down clues on the first pass! Now I went back to the clues I didn’t get:

1 Across – Fan is something you cast in river (7)
I had D _ _ _ T _ E, and I believe I got the answer immediately from the definition ‘fan’, then saw VOTE and DEE. Solved.

7 Across – Many held briefly, improperly, in Wilts RAF base (7)
I had L _ N _ H _ _ , and the remaining anagram letters were EYAM, which could really only go in one way. Still, I wasn’t at all sure LYNEHAM was right. Question mark?

12 Across – Move up, prior to creating miscellany (9)
I had P _ T _ O _ R _ _ , so now I see immediately that the answer is POTPOURRI, as I’d guessed, and the anagram indication smacks me in my snot-covered face. Solved.

14 Across – Captivated woman, married, going with our boss at The Times? (9)
I had E _ _ _ O _ RED, which becomes E _ _ _ OURED, then E _ _ MOURED, then ENAMOURED. Solved.

16 Across – Lay next to a character from Athens (4)
I had _ E _ A, which finally allowed me to get BETA and slap my own face. Solved.

17 Across – The issue of hoax comes to an end (7)
I had K _ D _ I _ S, which immediately got me to KID _ I _ S, but I wasn’t quite sure if KID came from ‘issue’ or ‘hoax’. I sat with it for a second and then saw DIES = ‘comes to an end’. Solved.

22 Across – Follows sailor, providing a bright night light (7)
I had D _ G _ T _ _ , so I put in D _ G _ TAR, then D _ GSTAR, then DOGSTAR. Of course, I haven’t heard of this (it refers either to the star Sirius, or Keanu Reeves’s band), so I put a Question mark?

2 Down – What might grow in garden, or in cave, unusually (8)
I had V _ _ _ N _ _ A, which with the other anagram letters ECIRO is enough to get me the answer. Solved.

9 Across – Promoted in the end, you chattered idly (7)
I realized I skipped 9 Across on the second pass. I had U _ R _ TED, which tells me the U comes from the end of ‘you’, and I get the answer almost immediately. Solved.

19 Down – Musical note no good — alas for this? (4)
Now I realize the O is part of the note name, so it can only be DONG or SONG, and I understand the definition: a SONG will suffer (alas!) if one of its notes is no good. Solved.

8 Down – Traditional performer: one pulling sledge after car? (6,6)
Almost gave up on this one. I had M _ R _ I _ / _ A _ C _ R. From ‘performer’ and my crossing letters in the second half, I write in DANCER. What about the first half? MORRIS seems vaguely right. I Google it, roll my eyes, and blow my nose. Solved, and done.

47 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1352 by Des”

  1. I found this really tricky for a QC and took 17:00 to complete. At least I had no errors! Maybe I’m very tired, but I think a lot of these clues would be very much at home in the 15×15. Liked DOUBLE DECKER and MORRIS DANCER. Thanks Des and Jeremy.
  2. Definitely a tough one; even Verlaine required over 4 minutes! In retrospect, though, it seems fairly straightforward; but then in retrospect things often do. NHO LYNEHAM, which was my LOI. The ‘public transport’ in 1d is the double-decker bus (the public usually isn’t allowed on submarines!). 9:01.
    1. Sorry, I thought the first definition was clear and was only elucidating the ‘cheeky’ part. I should be more thorough.
  3. A slow time – attempted the QC as the 15×15 blog is not yet up.
    FOI 5dn ON RECORD
    LOI 15dn RASPED
    COD 7ac LYNEHAM (Kevin! STBO – of course you’ve never heard of it!!)
    WOD Not solved!
      1. Stating The Bloody Obvious. Textspeak!

        I do not know the names of any USAF bases except Cheddington!

        Edited at 2019-05-15 05:41 am (UTC)

  4. A rarish excursion into the red zone today with 16 minutes on the clock as I had to hop around the grid to get started and when I then tried to work up some momentum I kept getting stuck. Unless I’m missing something at 19dn the definition is a bit feeble and the superfluous ‘— alas’ only makes things worse.
    1. I also didn’t like 19D. I plumped for SONG but thought DONG plausible too. What am I missing?

      NeilC

        1. As I explained in the blog, if a note is wrong, that would be too bad for the song.
    2. I completely agree, Jackkt. I got the answer but it feels as if that was despite the final parts of the clue, rather than having been aided by them. Whilst I understand what Jeremy is suggesting in his – as always amazingly helpful – blog, I really don’t think that “alas for this ” was useful or especially relevant.
  5. Jeremy, As a newcomer and novice to cryptic crosswords I really appreciate your breakdown and analysis of your answers.many thanks
  6. Slow going today and it was tough to get a foothold. Once I’d accepted it wasn’t going to be an SCC day I settled in and really enjoyed working my way through each clue – maybe I should do this more often.
    Finished in 21.39 with 17a, but without really understanding what was going on in 1d.
    Thanks for the blog.
  7. Another very difficult QC which took me 21:13.
    I used to drive through Lyneham but it still took me a long time to remember it; very hard if you have never heard of it. Lots of tricky stuff I thought. My LOsI were Double Decker, Devotee and Uprated. FOI Lynx after looking at several clues for a way in. KIDDIES was a hold up, like many. David
  8. Yes, certainly another toughie. Well over 3K today after a reasonably quick start. I had to move clockwise from the NE and then struggle with the NW and W. My last in were 1a and 1d, following on from UPRATED which I thought was clever. I rather liked ENAMOURED, KIDDIES, and DOGSTAR. Lots to chew over and a particularly interesting blog from Jeremy – thanks both. John M.
  9. I found that tough too (20:39, mercifully only 2.3 Kevins so still a Decent Day) but I really, really enjoyed it. It felt quirky and playful and inventive. I enjoyed all the clues, even those that caused severe pen-chewing. Thank you Des!

    FOI ELEANOR, LOI KIDDIES (shades of Betjeman), COD POTPOURRI (such a well concealed anagram … the fatal attraction of that seductive comma, a real forehead slap when the penny dropped).

    NHO LYNEHAM but with the checkers it was either that or Lenyham and that didn’t feel right. Also NHO either submarine or DOUBLE DECKER as meaning a sandwich so had to come on here to find out what the heck was going on in 1dn – thanks Jeremy! (Are those Americanisms?)

    Templar

    1. All those Subway sandwich shops.. Named after the shape of the sandwiches….
    2. Collins has ‘double-decker’ sandwich as an Americanism but ‘submarine’ sandwich as both English and American. I don’t know when the submarine thing started but I only learnt of it via crosswords, and quite recently. For much of my life, say up to early 1970s, sandwiches were sandwiches (two slices of bread with filling) and rolls were just rolls, or occasionaly baps.
  10. Also tough – 19 minutes here. LYNEHAM was hard and KIDDIES took a while to see.

    NeilC

  12. 30 minutes.

    Lyneham mentioned in the 15×15 blog so that was easy.

    Struggled with kiddies, dick, double decker and loi song.

    Liked enamoured, Cod beta.

  13. ….looking at their ever-growing fleet of Biogas DOUBLE-DECKERS, I should have got started far more quickly ! I also took the chance to visit Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (allegedly England’s oldest pub).

    “Chattered idly” suggested “prattled” rather than “prated” to me, and held me up as a result.

    Definitely at the tougher end of QC difficulty, and took me almost twice as long as usual – it was almost a mini 15×15 in my opinion.

    FOI LYNX
    LOI UPRATED
    COD MORRIS DANCER or PROLIFIC – both excellent
    TIME 5:57

  14. According to Dr Google, Lyneham is an army base and has been since 2015!!
  15. This was the toughest QC I’ve seen in a while. 1a and 1d were very late solves and I couldn’t parse 1d. My penultimate solve was 17a KIDDIES and LOI 18d DICK with 23 minutes on the clock. I’m glad to see from the blog that others found it less than straight forward.
  16. There’s a tasteless clue in the 15×15, and there’s one here too. How anyone can equate ‘pro-life’ and ‘opposed to abortion’ is beyond me. ‘Opposed to abortion’ actually means opposed to safe, legal, abortion. Horrific things happening in Alabama and some other US states.

    Did the puzzle in a little over seven minutes, thought it was hard. Dnk LYNEHAM.

    1. I was going to comment on that but forgot; I’m glad you did. It has always bothered me that both sides (by which I mean right and wrong) have bought into the terminology.
      1. I don’t like the terminology either (which came from the right) but it’s hardly tasteless to use a word that has had a consistent definition for 50 years. (If it were an ethnic slur, that would be something else.) It’s a concept (a mystical belief in the magic of a few cells that have the potential to grow into a human, and the desire to protect those cells) with a word to reference it.

        Sure, it’s shameful that some under that banner promote some horrible ideologies. But it would not be “tasteless” to refer to a Muslim as a ‘follower of the word of Allah’, even in the wake of religion-inspired terrorist attacks.

        ‘Pro-life’ doesn’t mean “woman-hating religious bigot”, just as ‘Muslim’ doesn’t mean “terrorist”. To suggest otherwise based on the news of the day seems tasteless to me.

        1. I suppose I should have added that I didn’t share Rob’s judgement of tastelessness, but I didn’t want to add to a discussion that doesn’t really belong here in the first place. Aside from that, I don’t understand what you are saying. ‘Pro-life’ is a misnomer–to say the least–to describe the sort of people, as in the Alabama legislature, who are opposed to abortions.
          1. I’m not sure what else I can say to clarify myself because I think I put it pretty clearly, but I will add that, of course ‘pro-life’ is the correct word to describe those Alabama legislators, because that word means is: “opposed to abortions”. (I can think of plenty of other words to describe them.)

            The word you’re looking for to describe the bald-faced inaptness of that term, because of other meanings you can derive from its constituent parts, is ‘ironic’.

            But to dispute the term itself on those grounds is a political and ideological statement of your own, and has nothing to do with words and their definitions.

            Edited at 2019-05-15 01:51 pm (UTC)

            1. I agree, Jeremy. My Chambers says: “pro-lifer, n.: a person in favour of protecting and promoting the life of unborn children: a campaigner against abortion, experiments on embryos etc. adj. pro-life”. Des has used it accurately in accordance with the dictionaries.
              1. Neither Rob nor I were arguing that the term isn’t used as the dictionary says it is.
  17. A poor day for me – quite a few I didn’t get and when I saw the answer still didn’t like them. II suppose f there are good crosswords there have to be indifferent or bad ones. I didn’t enjoy this at all. sorry
  18. 9:25 and my slowest QC solve this year. I’m not sure in retrospect quite why. I was unaware there was such a thing as a DOUBLE DECKER sandwich and I took a while to convince myself the RAF base was LYNEHAM. MORRIS DANCER and PROSAIC my last 2 in.
  19. Sorry if anyone was offended by “pro-life” but it is the standard dictionary term.

    Some famous Des’s in the grid btw 🙂

    1. Oooo …

      Tutu
      Morris
      Dekker (homophone anyway!)
      Oh and another homophone, Lynam. Very good

      And there’s a RES in the unches!

  20. Did I miss a reference to Dancer as one of Santa’s reindeer? Generally found this both hard and unpleasant, with very poor surfaces, a clue which requires taking a deeply unpleasant view to parse. Longest solve this year, and needed real effort to bother to finish.
    Pwliv
  21. This was the hardest QC for a long time and I was only able to finish by using numerous aids and then couldn’t parse all answers. Was not on the setter’s wavelength at all.
  22. Some corkers here! Very much liked DOUBLE DECKER and MORRIS DANCER. Very clever and made me chuckle. VERONICA has made a QC appearance several times over this year so I was okay with that. LOI was KIDDIES which, until I read Jeremy’s wonderful blog, I could not understand the parsing of. Ditto PROSAIC which I knew was right but not why it was right. The word “sic ” never entered my head. Thanks so much, Jeremy, for your continued amazing efforts and thanks, too, to Des.
  23. I had a quick glance early this morning, before having to go to a funeral, and thought it looked tricky. Came back this afternoon and can confidently upgrade that assessment to very difficult. The key to a reasonable time was probably getting 1d quickly: It was almost my loi, so no surprise that my total time was around 50mins – my slowest for ages. Struggled with lots of clues, and found the anagrams difficult as well. All in all, a difficult day. Invariant
  24. Challenging. Took me a long time this evening, needing some aids to suggest possibilities for my last ones in, KIDDIES and DICK. Didn’t fully understand either 1d or 8d – it was clear what they were, but the references to types of sandwich just didn’t occur to me, nor did the names of Santa’s reindeer. Not at all familiar with DICK as a US term, and KIDDIES was hard to see without it. I had figured that issue might be offspring, but was just too slow to see KID. Although tough, I did enjoy the puzzle and the somewhat different style of thought that made it hard. I guess my American vocabulary needs improving. And I’m impressed by the hidden Des’s!! Many thanks for mentioning that, I would never have spotted it otherwise.
  25. Bloody ridiculous.
    Beta is a Greek character. Not an Athenian one.
    Sloppiness which typifies this setter.
  26. Did I miss a reference to Dancer as one of Santa’s reindeer? Generally found this both hard and unpleasant, with very poor surfaces, a clue which requires taking a deeply unpleasant view to parse. Longest solve this year, and needed real effort to bother to finish.
    Pwliv
  27. To ‘lay’ a bet is not the same thing as to ‘have’ a bet, in actual fact it’s really the reverse. A bookie lays a bet, a punter has a bet…I should know!
    I’ve always been frustrated by this type of clue, but unfortunately always forget why!!

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