Times Quick Cryptic No 1408 by Joker

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this a bit on the trickier side from Joker today. I had to spend a bit of time working out the long 6d before I could get 10ac and the easy enough 4ac, all of which took me a minute over my target. That was with several biffs along the way that merited a closer look post-solve – 14d being a good example. Overall a lovely puzzle with lots of inventive clues and a slight off-beat feel to it. Very much enjoyed it – many thanks to Joker!


Across
1 Sort seen in china tureen (6)
NATURE – “seen in” the letters of chiNA TUREen. As in, one could be of a good nature/character/sort.
4 Airliner ready for regular travellers (3,3)
JET SET – JET (airliner) SET (ready)
8 Something towed that’s wide for one fishing boat (7)
TRAWLER – TRAILER (something towed) that has W (wide) for I (one)
10 Offence taken when card game ends early (5)
PIQUE – PIQUET (card game) ends early. The Q in 6d was helpful, for it’s not a game that I was quick to recall.
11 Kingdom having significant millions (5)
REALM – REAL (significant) M(illions)
12 Guide badly unbalanced about Skye, perhaps (7)
MISLEAD – MAD (unbalanced) about ISLE (Skye, perhaps)
13 Settle pup that’s disturbed, one of several born together (9)
SEPTUPLET – anagram (that’s disturbed) of SETTLE PUP
17 Idea — but little time (7)
THOUGHT – THOUGH (but) T (“little” Time)
19 Southern potato when processed is a hit (5)
SMASH – S(outhern) MASH (potato when processed)
20 Test the uprightness of highly desirable bachelor (5)
PLUMB – PLUM (highly desirable) B(achelor). As in testing the verticality with a plumb line. A plumb also used to be called a “plummet”, hence the later verb (from testing the depth of water). A plum, while we’re on the subject, was old (C18) slang for £100,000, or more generally a fortune, and by extension a rich person. “Plummy”, however, appears somewhat unrelated, coming from the much earlier idea of speaking with a mannered mumble as if with a “plum-in-the-mouth”.
21 Down-to-earth person is entering later in disarray (7)
REALIST – IS enters an anagram (in disarray) of LATER
22 Park attendant stuck in orange roses (6)
RANGER – “Stuck in” the letters of oRANGE Roses.
23 Restless pa can’t sleep (6)
CATNAP – anagram (restless) of PA CAN’T

Down
1 Contract worker with no volunteers on railway (6)
NOTARY – NO ; TA (no ; volunteers) on RY. (railway)
2 Roman attraction running Jan-Mar? Consult (7,6)
TRAJAN’S COLUMN – anagram (running) of JAN MAR CONSULT. Considered one of the very best emperors, the statue of him atop his column somehow went AWOL in the Middle Ages (sounds like quite a heist, eh?) and was replaced some time after with a statue of St Peter.
3 Bun might initially work for pickled herring (7)
ROLLMOP – ROLL (bun) M (Might, “initially”) OP (work). I am a fan of pickled herring in various formats, but I’m doubtful of it working even initially in a bun.
5 Right out of goods sent abroad for shows (5)
EXPOS – Take RT (right) out of EXPORTS (goods sent abroad). I’m always slow to try Rt. for Right.
6 Confiscation of share after vacated site gets search (13)
SEQUESTRATION – RATION (share) after SE (“vacated”/emptied SITE) gets QUEST (search)
7 Attempt keeping hold of object that’s all the rage (6)
TRENDY – TRY (attempt) keeping hold of END (object/goal)
9 Unusual book, say, is something for the Christmas list? (3,6)
RUM BUTTER – RUM (unusual) B(ook) UTTER (say). I don’t think I’ve ever had rum butter. It would be good to make some rum butter with absinthe, as a surprise – it would certainly qualify as unusual.
14 Notes about Tosca not getting to Milan’s opera house (2,5)
LA SCALA – LA LA (notes) going about/around SCA (TOSCA without/not getting TO)
15 Puts up with men in a drunken daze? (6)
STUPOR – STUP (PUTS going “up”) with OR (Other Ranks / men)
16 Flirt with bird at university (4,2)
CHAT UP – CHAT (bird – bit like a thrush) UP (at university)
18 Roof end’s good, having enough strength (5)
GABLE – G(ood) ABLE (having enough strength)

21 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1408 by Joker”

  1. I suppose I must have encountered RUM BUTTER in a cryptic once, since I biffed it here (finally, it was my LOI). Also biffed LA SCALA, never bothered to parse it. Ditto for 2d, where I couldn’t remember what it was of Trajan’s, and ROLLMOP (R…P). All that biffery and it still took me 7:17.
  2. As per Kev, could not remember what 2dn TRAJAN owned!

    So a unique set of stats from me:-

    FOI 2dn TRAJANS

    LOI 2dn COLUMN

    COD 2dn TRAJANS COLUMN

    WOD 2dn TRAJANS COLUMN

    Please excuse the lack of the possessive. Time 7.45mins

    I would urge the QC community to at least have a look at the Big One today. It’s a ‘Vinnie’, from Grauniadland.

  3. 15 minutes with the missed target entirely down to never having heard of TRAJANS COLUMN – nor TRAJAN for that matter. I’m not sure it belongs in a QC and if I hadn’t realised belatedly that it was an anagram I’d never have solved the clue. I think ‘brandy butter’ is the traditional Christmas fare to be eaten with Christmas pud that has been flamed in brandy.
    1. Jack if Trajan’s Column doesn’t belong in the QC, has it ever ‘belonged’ in the 15×15?
      1. A quick google suggests not, although knowledge of the name of the emperor was required to parse a clue I blogged in October last year when ‘Roman emperor briefly’ provided 5 letters in EXTRA JAM. I said I didn’t know him then and his name evidently didn’t register as I got myself side-tracked into a very interesting discussion about the official designation of the preserve in question.

        Edited at 2019-08-01 06:47 am (UTC)

  4. As one of the newby very slow brigade I found this quite tricky but did manage to finish despite being 12 across misleading me – seeing ‘badly’ in the clue made me want to find some sort of anagram of Guide and something else. So I wasted a lot of time messing around with that one!
    Has anyone else now got an earworm ‘For mash get smash’ a la 1970s TV advert for packet mashed potatoes – clue 19a? I wonder if the setter had this in mind!
    Carolyn
  5. I needed SEQUESTRATION before PIQUE came to mind, and took a while to remember RUM BUTTER, but otherwise I had no problems until I came to my LOI, TRAJAN’S COLUMN, which I hadn’t heard of. No problems with the COLUMN bit, but I had to select the best arrangement of the other letters. Jack’s mention of Jam rings a bell, but the emperor’s name is still shrouded in the mists. 8:45. Thanks Joker and Roly.
  6. Finished in 12 minutes today on paper. No real problems but the GK suited me.
    FOI was 1a, always a confidence booster and my last two were Trajan’s Column and Rum Butter which I had pencilled in but not parsed until the end. I’m sure I have seen Trajan’s Column on a trip to Rome and parsing at the end made me sure of the answer. I have never been to Milan but La Scala came to mind with a couple of checkers. David
  7. My mother always made both brandy butter and RUM BUTTER at Christmas … it was still my penultimate one in.

    This took me 2K which is a Good Day, roughly divided into 5 minutes getting loads, 4 minutes getting none at all, and then 5 minutes finishing it off in a rush. Bizarre.

    Thanks for explaining TRAWLER to me, Roly, I couldn’t work it out. Now that I see what’s going on I wonder if Joker actually intended TRAILER to be the answer? Seems to work at least as well and possibly slightly better.

    FOI NATURE, LOI MISLEAD, COD STUPOR.

    Thanks Roly and Joker.

    Templar

    1. I think it has to be TRAWLER as ‘wide for one’ indicates the substitution that way round. To get TRAILER it would be ‘one for wide’.
      1. I was thinking that it could be “Something towed” (trailer) “that’s” (which is) “fishing boat” (trawler) if you put “wide for one” (if you take the i out and put in a w). Now I type it out it seems ridiculously convoluted though!

        Actually I suppose that anyone who solved this electronically (I’m a paper solver) will know from the green/pink square whether it’s trawler or trailer … [goes off and checks – it’s TRAWLER. Sorry for the wild goose!]

  9. Well – a good puzzle but what a range of difficulty. I completed well over half in record time but then came to grief. I worked out TRAJAN’S COLUMN after the crossers were all in but didn’t know it. It was the NW (oops! I meant the NE, of course) that slowed me to a crawl – SEQUESTRATION, EXPOS, PIQUE – all made worse because JET SET didn’t click until late. I ended up sliding into the SCC but under 3K. Many goodies such as TRAWLER and LA SCALA (even though it was biffable) but MISLEAD is my COD. Thanks to joker for a good time. John M.

    Edited at 2019-08-01 05:58 pm (UTC)

  10. Work interruptions again (so inconsiderate…) but around 25 mins. Got stuck on trendy, expos, sequestration, and loi pique.

    Also didn’t parse trailer, la scala or pique as dnk the card game.

    Cod smash.

  11. I thoroughly enjoyed this one despite being decidedly tricky in places. I’d heard of TRAJAN but had no idea about his COLUMN, so to speak, but ROLLMOP, RUM BUTTER and PIQUE were all new to me. I finished a minute over my target time in 15.58, with LOI PIQUE.
    Thanks for the blog
  12. Like Plett11 I thought that was very tricky in places, so I was happy enough to finish just north of 25mins. I was helped by spotting the Column part of 2d quickly, and remembering Sequestration from John Donaldson’s handiwork in the early 70s – funny things, minds. My favourite today was 9d, Rum Butter, even though I’ve never tried it. Invariant

    Edited at 2019-08-01 10:24 am (UTC)

    1. Never easy and slow but steady going throughout. Seeing the comments, a 1.5K time seems quite pleasing. Very entertaining – as was the blog – thanks for all the info.
  13. ….but was glad that I’d heard of it so that I could biff it. Parsed pretty quickly post-solve.

    I worked backwards on SEQUESTRATION as soon as I saw the possibility of “ration”. It made it much easier !

    Much to enjoy, and another day when reviewing and enjoying Joker’s art took longer than the actual solve.

    FOI NATURE
    LOI MISLEAD
    COD TRAWLER
    TIME 4:03

  14. I just couldn’t do the NE corner. Having done the rest I resorted to a trusty aid to get sequestration and could then do pique and trendy but I put expot for 5D so couldn’t do 12A. DNF – and yesterday I got the QC finished in record time while waiting to see the optometrist!

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