Times Quick Cryptic No 1362 by Breadman

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

Solved in 11 minutes, 30 seconds, after a long drive back after Memorial Day weekend. No time for a larger writeup, but feel free to ask questions in the comments and I’ll be happy to respond.

Order of solving
Across:  9, 18, 21
Down:  2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16, 17, 19, 22
Across:  24, 1, 10, 11, 14, 20
Down:  5, 7
Across:  12
Down:  13, 15
Across:  23

Solutions

Across

1 Steadfast continuation through divorce (12)
PERSEVERANCE – PER (“through”) + SEVERANCE (“divorce”)
9 Elastic material seen in lovely craftwork (5)
LYCRA – letters in (“seen in”) LOVELY CRAFTWORK (“lovely craftwork”)
10 Cheesy food, undercooked, cut using teeth (7)
RAREBIT – RARE (“undercooked”) + BIT (“cut using teeth”)
A fancy grilled cheese sandwich.
11 Italian filmmaker collapsed in middle of musical (7)
FELLINI – FELL (“collapsed”) + IN (“in”) + middle letter in (“middle of”) MUSICAL (“musical”)
12 Delay Cockney lady’s alcoholic drink (5)
LAGER – LAG (“delay”) + [ ‘H’ removed from (“Cockney”) HER (“lady’s”) ]
14 Trial, in my opinion, primarily needs youth[‘s] evidence (9)
TESTIMONY – TEST (“trial”) + IMO (“in my opinion”, internet slang) + first letters of (“primarily”) + NEEDS YOUTH (“needs youth”)
18 Mother goes after standard type of ham (5)
PARMA – MA (“mother”) after (“goes after”) PAR (“standard”)
20 Medical wrapping we fasten to maintain pressure (3,4)
WET PACK – WE (“we”) + TACK (“fasten”) around (“to maintain”) P (“pressure”)
Never heard of this, but it’s a treatment where the body is wrapped in wet cloths, apparently.
21 Up in the air during dance (2,5)
IN LIMBO – IN (“during”) + LIMBO (“dance”)
23 Agreed to restrain a newsman describing certain wines (5)
OAKED – OK (“agreed”) around (“to restrain”) A (“a”) + ED (“newsman”)
24 Fingerpost repositioned after recording English woodland area (6,6)
EPPING FOREST – FINGERPOST (“fingerpost”) anagrammed (“repositioned”) after (“after”) EP (“recording”)
This was a bit of a guess as I’ve never heard of the forest, which apparently straddles the border between London and Essex. The wordplay was clear, though.

Down

2 Alec’s reviewed schedule about moving staircase (9)
ESCALATOR – ALEC’S (“Alec’s”) anagrammed (“reviewed”) + ROTA (“schedule”) reversed (“about”)
3 Skin infection cases spread around British island (7)
SCABIES – CASES (“cases”) anagrammed (“spread”) outside (“around”) B (“British”) + I (“island”)
4 Old authoress [from] eastern US state with predatory canine, we hear (8,5)
VIRGINIA WOOLF – VIRGINIA (“eastern US state”) + (“with”) WOLF (“predatory canine”) replaced by a homophone (“we hear”)
5 Run by Russian river in the countryside (5)
RURAL – R (“run”) + (“by”) URAL (“Russian river”)
6 Arrest northern seaman (3)
NAB – N (“northern”) + AB (“seaman”)
7 Extremely alert entering weird cafe perhaps (6)
EATERY – first and last letters of (“extremely”) ALERT (“alert”) in (“entering”) EERY (“weird”)
Didn’t know (or forgot) this spelling of a word I know as ‘eerie’.
8 Split cents remaining (5)
CLEFT – C (“cents”) + LEFT (“remaining”)
13 Fellow frauds concealing wife, a conspirator once (3,6)
GUY FAWKES – GUY (“fellow”) + FAKES (“frauds”) around (“concealing”) W (“wife”)
15 In the open air, beat gold (7)
OUTDOOR – OUTDO (“beat”) + OR (“gold”)
16 Impish person confused priest (6)
SPRITE – anagram of (“confused”) PRIEST (“priest”)
17 Son, in front of children, slides uncontrollably (5)
SKIDS – S (“son”) + (“in front of”) KIDS (“children”)
19 In the morning, bishop maybe somewhere in Jordan (5)
AMMAN – AM (“in the morning”) + MAN (“bishop maybe”, on the chessboard)
22 Circuit of track friend recalled (3)
LAP – PAL (“friend”) reversed (“recalled”)

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1362 by Breadman”

  1. I biffed EATERY, so never noticed the EERY, which is new to me, too (it’s not in ODE, either). Also biffed 13d from Y and enumeration, parsed later. And I was sure 24ac was something FOREST, and had a vague memory of EPPING, so … I suspect that record=EP is, like SA and IT, too useful for the setter to abandon, but I wonder how many of our solvers have ever seen an EP? (I wonder if Vinyl still has any.) I suppose the setter was trying to be helpful by narrowing down the possibilities, but I could still have done without ‘authoress’; and ‘old’ seems less than appropriate for a 20th-century author. 4:38.
  2. 9 minutes. Like others, I had not heard of WET PACK nor ‘eerie’ spelt as EERY (it’s in Collins, but way, way down the on-line page).

    A RAREBIT is not a sandwich, it’s grilled cheese-on-toast. The topping is supposed to melt, bubble and brown, which it would not do in a sandwich.

    Vinyl1 didn’t respond to your question, Jeremy, but I have plenty of EPs in my record collection.

    Edited at 2019-05-29 05:03 am (UTC)

  3. Started with Escalator and proceeded quite quickly until my last three which included 1a and 4d, the two long answers.
    IN LIMBO went in late and I needed the O to get WOOLF. I was thinking that Rhode Island was the state using the R and I, so I was a long way from Virginia. After she appeared my perseverance paid off and I guessed Wet Pack as my LOI. Relived to see all correct in exactly 15:00.
    Enjoyable puzzle with a mixture of straightforward and tricky clues. David

  4. Just over 10 minutes, so fast for me.
    Nice puzzle.
    Cod Fellini.

    15×15 is ok today.

    Thanks.

  5. An interesting puzzle with a lot of jumping around the grid for me. Didn’t like EATERY and dnk WET PACK so a bit of biffing helped me to finish in 3K. I thought SCABIES and OAKED involved some nice misdirection. Thanks to Breadman and to Jeremy for confirming my parsing. John M.

    Edited at 2019-05-29 10:12 am (UTC)

    1. Your times seem to be catching me up – I think the committee will have to review your SCC membership shortly!
      1. Thanks for your encouragement, Chris. I’d give the SCC reappraisal some time though. I’m only now getting back to the sort of times I used to manage and there may yet be a relapse. I seem to do better when I have ‘Today’ on BBC Radio 4 as background. I think my brain is trying to filter out all the B****t and other political chaff that is on before 9am and achieves this through greater concentration and immersion in the puzzle! John M.
    2. Your times seem to be catching me up – I think the committee will have to review your SCC membership shortly!
  6. 8.15 here, back below 10 for first time in a few days. Order of solving was not dissimilar to the blogger in that his only acrosses on first read were same as mine. FELLINI held me up but cryptic was sufficient. No problem with the rest.

    NeilC

  7. I’m someone else who was very close to a PB today. I try not to just biff answers and work out the parsing as I go along but there was a lot of very biffable clues today I felt. Not a bad thing!
  8. Scraped in under my target at 9:38, with WOLFE holding me up until I arrived in EPPING FOREST, and I escaped from LIMBO. I was also delayed by the unusual spelling of EERY. I have several EPs in my vinyl collection. Nice puzzle. Thanks Breadman and Jeremy.
  9. I completed the grid in just over 10 minutes but submitted with one typo…..one too many Es in 1a PERSEVEReNCE. 1a and 4d were both late solves, the latter causing a hold up in the SE corner. LOsI 15d OUTDOOR (I always pluralise it) and 20a WET PACK. In retrospect I biffed quite a few.
  10. A bit naughty as entered single minded. Matches steadfast and through divorce you might be single minded!
    1. The main problem with that is that SINGLE-MINDED is hyphenated and would need the enumeration (6-6).
  11. Best time ever at 15mins, so not surprised that it wa on the easier side,
  12. Not too many difficulties here although I wasn’t always able to parse my answers e. g. 12 across and 7 down – like many others here today, I found “eery” an odd spelling. I did not know “wet pack” and hesitated for a while before entering it. COD 4 down. Thanks so much, Jeremy, for a great blog and thanks, too, to Breadman for a super puzzle.
  13. Back under the 10 minute line for the first time in a while. COD to Fellini. Like others, I biffed my way past eery straight to eatery and also dnk wet pack. Used to live near Epping Forest so that wasn’t a problem.
  14. ….Wolff ? Well I was, and it explains my LOI and 25% of the time spent.

    FOI LYCRA
    LOI IN LIMBO
    COD FELLINI
    TIME 4:44

  15. A steady solve today with similar issues to others with EATERY and WET PACK. I initially had WOLFE as the author but it was a mistake that didn’t take long to rectify. I struggled with LOI 1a, which I only parsed post solve – I was looking for a synonym for steadfast on it’s own. Finished in 12.25
    Thanks for the blog

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