Times Quick Cryptic No 1453 by Trelawney

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this fairly easy with a rare sub-10m solve, so I expect to see some very quick times recorded. After seeing the letters X, Z and K in the first few answers, I suspected a pangram, but that failed to materialise. Despite some very concise clueing, I found nothing to single out as CoD, but this is a very adequate QC that should appeal to, and cater for newbies.

Thanks Trelawney, who I haven’t previously blogged.

Across

1 Starts to boycott another North Korean financial institution (4)
BANK – First letters (starts to) B{oycott} A{nother} N{orth} K{orean} .
3 Little animal swallows first of pills for infectious disease (8)
SMALLPOX – SMALL (little) and OX (animal) surrounding (swallows) P (first of P{ills}). The World Health Organisation certified the eradication of this killer disease in 1980.
9 Boy conceals scheme – to visit Santa here? (7)
LAPLAND – LAD (boy) containing (conceals) PLAN (scheme).
10 Drink Belgian ale at first dance (5)
RUMBA – RUM (drink) and first letters of B{elgian} A{le}.
11 Heard about up-market food shop: it’s in India (5)
DELHI – Sounds like (heard about) DELI{catessen} (up-market food shop)
12 One who samples new treats? (6)
TASTER – Anagram (new) of [TREATS].
14 Pedestrians have priority here – it’s black and white! (5,8)
ZEBRA CROSSING – Two facts about the answer linked together in an &Lit clue, where the whole clue provides the definition.
17 Phrase that’s chanted in Roman tragedy (6)
MANTRA – Hidden answer in {ro}MAN TRA{gedy}. In Hinduism and Buddhism a mantra is a word or phrase chanted or repeated inwardly in meditation (Chambers). In my limited experience, it isn’t always done inwardly!
19 Group of stars initially observed networking around Brazilian city (5)
ORION – First letters (initially) of O{bserved} N{etworking} containing (around) RIO (Brazilian city).
22 Stadium recalled a period of time (5)
ARENA – AN ERA (a period of time) reversed (recalled).
23 Takes off edges of enormous cloaks (7)
ESCAPES – First and last letters of (edges of) E{normou}S and CAPES (cloaks).
24 Lady and a monarch travelling by water (8)
KAYAKING – KAY (lady) and A KING (a monarch). A KAYAK is an Inuit seal-skin canoe.
25 Looked at some grey edifices (4)
EYED – another hidden (some) in {gr}EY ED{ifices}.

Down

1 Knock down animal and take a nap (8)
BULLDOZE – BULL (animal) and DOZE (take a nap).
2 Plane flies around mountainous country (5)
NEPAL – Anagram (flies around) of [PLANE]. It doesn’t get much simpler than this!
4 Body of water airman entered carelessly (13)
MEDITERRANEAN – Anagram (carelessly) of [AIRMAN ENTERED].
5 Noblemen watch cricket here (5)
LORDS – Double definition.
6 I’m Pope, I rebuilt an old Roman city (7)
POMPEII – Anagram (rebuilt) of [I’M POPE, I].
7 Scan dead fish, say? (1-3)
X-RAY – Sounds like (say) an ex-fish (i.e. a dead one).
8 Paint applied with a glossy coat (6)
PATINA – Anagram (applied) of [PAINT] with A. One definition of PATINA is ‘A sheen acquired from constant handling…’.
13 Worried San Diego is changing (8)
AGONISED – Anagram (changing) of [SAN DIEGO].
15 Underwear, extremely daring (7)
BRAVERY – BRA (underwear) and VERY (extremely).
16 Put an end to strong drink (6)
SCOTCH – Double definition, the first referring to SCOTCHing a rumour for instance.
18 Follow carriage heading north with king (5)
TRACK – CART (carriage) reversed (heading north) and K{ing}.
20 Absolutely doesn’t open hint (5)
IMPLY – {s}IMPLY (absolutely, not opening, i.e. dropping first letter)
21 Head of Mafia to request disguise (4)
MASK – M{afia} (head of, i.e. first letter) and ASK (to request).

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1453 by Trelawney”

  1. I always associated ‘scotch’ with Macbeth: ‘We have scotched the snake, not killed it’, and ODE gives as an archaic meaning ‘render … temporarily harmless’. But I see that it was originally (i.e. in the First Folio) ‘scorched’, and the Cambridge Shakespeare at least prefers that. (The examples ODE gives include a couple of US sources, and The Rotter’s ‘scotch a rumor’ is certainly familiar.) For once I was able to spot a hidden, with the help of the definition, and put in MANTRA on sight. A PB at 3:17.

    Edited at 2019-10-03 04:43 am (UTC)

    1. Oh wow. That’s seriously quick. Mazel tov, if that’s not cultural appropriation!
    2. Great time Kevin! Well done at beating the 4 minute mark for the first time and by quite some margin.
      1. Thanks; I surprised myself. I suppose the smart thing now would be to stop doing these.
  2. Could have been 6 minutes, but I spent nearly 4 more trying to figure out MANTRA (was searching for a homophone rather than a hidden word) and SCOTCH (a word I’m familiar with in cryptic puzzles but which I don’t think is so common in the US). Bah! Well, we’ll get there yet!

    Thanks for the blog, rotter!

  3. I agree with Rotter and others that this was fairly straightforward. At the end I was slowed down by ESCAPES and LOI IMPLY. No problem with SCOTCH but I can see that might trip a few people up.
    COD to BRAVERY which made me smile. A nice puzzle. 9 minutes on the clock.
    David
  4. I too looked for a pangram but I think we are missing 4 letters so on reflection it was nowhere near fitting the bill.

    After recent exposure of my ignorance of modern sub-continent geography I was almost surprised today to find that the name DELHI still exists.

    8 minutes with no problems, making a total of 10 consecutive solves within my 10-minute target. It doesn’t happen very often and on this occasion it has coincided with a really bad run on the 15x15s so I take it as encouragement that my brain has not yet completely turned to mush.

    Edited at 2019-10-03 05:44 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for the tip about yesterday’s 15 being worth a crack, Flash – I did most of it and enjoyed it! Got very stuck in the SW and was delighted to read the blog and find that others had struggled there too.
      1. No probs, I try it most days if I can manage at work.

        The snitch is also really useful for gauging if its accessible. Google crossword snitch.

        xwdsnitch.herokuapp

  6. Nice to have the Squire setting for us again, he has a sure touch. I liked the surface for TASTER but COD to the ex-fish at 7dn, which made me chuckle. FOI BANK, LOI SCOTCH.

    My certainty that this was going to be a pangram led to approaching each of the last half dozen clues on the basis that this was going to be where the J was … not helpful! Done and dusted in 2.75K for a Good Day.

    Thanks Trelawney and Rotter.

    Templar

  7. I was another looking for a pangram, but it wasn’t to be. I thought I might be on for a pb but came to a halt with ESCAPES and SCOTCH. Finished in an entertaining 8.36.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. Clearly, I’m not alone in finding this a bit of a doddle. It makes a nice change – thanks Trelawney. Just over 2 Kevins which is a record for me in recent times. Congrats to Kevin on his time – I hoped he might have been slower to improve the K/J ratio further. Ah well… Thanks to Rotter for the usual clear and concise blog. John M.
  9. Very straightforward, I thought, although I was held up by putting in BRAVEST for 15D at first, which sort of works and has twice the amount of underwear. 3:31
    1. Lawks – another speed of light time! I don’t think I could write them all in that fast if I knew the answers in advance! Well done
    2. Same here, though I’d go further and say that it absolutely works: we frequently see the superlative clued like this.

      Edited at 2019-10-03 08:50 am (UTC)

  10. A straightforward solve with only SCOTCH, KAYAKING and TRACK giving me pause for thought. 8:46. Congrats to Kevin and John on their blistering times! Thanks Trelawney and Rotter.
  11. Fairly straightforward and thought I might be on for a pb with most of it done and about 13 minutes on the clock, but I got a bit stuck in the SW corner. Couldn’t think of the last part of bravery (I was thinking along brazen lines) and I was trying to work out how to fit trail into 18d, and both of those were holding up working out 24a. I biffed aqualine briefly, thinking it might mean going by water, but putting in mask scotched that idea. Eventually ironed it all out in 27:08, which is still pretty good for me. I was surprised to see 14a called an &Lit. I guess it fits the definition of one, but I always got the impression that those were really clever clues, and I didn’t think much of zebra crossing. It was almost a straight definition I thought. Anyway LOI was 24a, COD 7d (though I quite liked the simplicity of 2d too).

    Edited at 2019-10-03 09:27 am (UTC)

  12. 11:12, a new PB, beating my previous one by three minutes. Definitely on the easy side, but welcome and enjoyable. My LOI was PATINA as I didn’t spot the anagram, I may even have beaten 10 minutes if I had.

    Brian

  13. LOI Smallpox
    Appreciated Zebra Crossing as an easy long answer and the Med went in quickly.
    16 minutes
    Enjoyable!
    Thanks all
    John George
  14. This is more like the standard for us mere mortals unlike yesterday’s QC which was ludicrously difficult.
  15. ….by saying that I didn’t find this at all easy ! I enjoyed the puzzle, and was within my parameters on completion (about 1.3 Kevins), but had to change direction a couple of times before I got home.

    FOI LAPLAND
    LOI ARENA
    COD PATINA or KAYAKING – both excellent

  16. When I saw Trelawney’s name, I was hopeful for a kind offering, and so it proved until LOI Scotch, which took far too long of my time today. I don’t know why – I just couldn’t see it. Anyway, got there in the end – about 17 minutes. I did think Zebra Crossing was too easy tbh, but otherwise it was a pleasant outing.

    FOI Bank
    LOI Scotch
    COD Bravery – it passed the chuckle test 😄

  17. This was a gentle enough offering from Traelawney that I managed to finish in 16mins. Might even have been a bit quicker, but I lost a minute or so parsing Arena and Imply. Fortunately, Patina and Scotch came to mind straight away, otherwise I’m sure I would have spent ages on them and missed out on a sub-20. My other piece of good fortune was that having the initial M for 4d made me think of Med for the body of water – the iterranean bit came quite quickly thereafter! Invariant
  18. On 5 down, would the clue be better with “Nobleman’s” as the cricket ground belonged to Thomas Lord hence Lord’s not Lords?
  19. Double R or double N in Mediterranean was the main hold up – had to count off the letters from the clue in the end. Definitely on the easier end and gratefully received. Solved on paper having got fed up with the phone so deprived of a time. Still can’t remember my password. Mendesest
    1. I’m fairly sure you can do a lost password reset just using your login name – instructions are sent to the associated email address.
  20. PB for me today, 8.56. Strangely unsatisfying though, as I barely had to think at all, a little more challenging, and longer times is more entertaining I feel.
  21. Well done Kevin. My new PB is exactly 2 Kevins at 6:34. I could have been a little quicker as I dithered over the spelling of POMPEII but I can’t imagine ever breaking 5 minutes.
  22. Almost a PB, could even have been sub-10 minutes as had only three left after 8 minutes. However, last three, ESCAPES, SCOTCH and IMPLY took a further 8 minutes or so. Final time, 16.58.

    I have not come across SCOTCH for stopping before, and only after ESCAPES hit me, did the crossers suggest SCOTCH and IMPLY.

    Always happy with anything under 20, though.

  24. I do a couple of these a week for the last few months and rarely finish but through this helpful blog get at least half on mist occasions. No times but usually spend between 30 mins and 1 hour if getting close. I do enjoy the challenge and occasionally the satisfaction of completing. I guess we all have different objectives!

    Got stuck on 2 clues today. 8 down – just didn’t know the word and 20 down I struggled to solve as did not recognise simply from absolutely.

    Graham

    1. Welcome aboard Graham. Keep doing the puzzles and reading the blog, and I’m sure that you’ll see your times coming down … your objectives may shift a little then! But whether they do or not, nice to have you.
  25. could just as well have been bravest until there were some checkers to tell you. I don’t like these ambiguous clues.
      1. I don’t know if you were making a joke, but my point was that both bra and vest are underwear, and the definition could easily be ‘extremely daring’.

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