Times Quick Cryptic No 1459 by Wurm

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A good Friday workout from Wurm today, with plenty of cleverness and deception. I enjoyed this a lot, but I suspect some of our less experienced solvers (and maybe even some of our more experienced ones) will struggle to unravel some of the trickier clues . My favourites include 11A, my LOI, 5D and, my clue of the day, 2D. I finished in 5:44, but it felt harder than that. Thank you Wurm for the entertainment. How did everyone else get on?

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
7 Initially awkward kid in relaxed position (2,4)
AT EASE – Awkward [initially] TEASE (kid).
8 Factory stocking English revolver? (6)
PLANET – PLANT (factory) outside [stocking] E (English). I hesitated a little over this definition. Nothing to do with a gun, of course. But does a planet revolve? Hmm. I suppose an orbiting planet is revolving around the sun. But it did prompt me to look up the formal definition of a planet. So now I know why Pluto isn’t one any more.
9 Learner in badly managed Oxford college (8)
MAGDALEN – L (learner) in [badly] (managed)*. Of course [managed] is also sometimes an anagrind. Anyone try to make an anagram of  “L in badly”? As an alumnus and employee of the other place, I enjoyed the surface dig at the Dark blues.
10 Skin to keep dark (4)
HIDE – Double definition.
11 Dumb as leading character in Psycho? (6)
SILENT – My last one in. No you don’t need to know the characters in the film. It’s a cryptic definition… the leading character of the word, Psycho, is not pronounced. Lovely misleading surface.
13 Canine tooth one has right in middle (5)
CORGI – COG (tooth) I (one) with R (right) [in middle]. Another little trick. You need to separate the “canine” and “tooth”.
14 Farm animal in new enclosure (3)
EWE – Hidden in nEW Enclosure.
15 Be likely to consume ultimate in hipster fashion (5)
TREND – TEND (be likely) ouside [to consume] last letter of [ultimately in] hipsteR.
17 Beer taken round a camp (6)
LAAGER – LAGER (beer) [taken round] A. An Africaans word, which may not be familiar to some, but I lived in South Africa for 4 years as a boy, which is how I know it.
19 Went down hill (4)
FELL – Double definition. Jack and Jill spring to mind. I’ve never understood why they would go up the hill to find water. Down the hill is surely more likely,
20 Blanket a requirement in bad weather? (8)
UMBRELLA – Another double definition, second mildly cryptic, hence the “?”.
22 Fastener, one on tie (6)
PINION – PIN (fastener) I (one) ON. Another clue that can be read two ways. Did anyone else try to find a word for “fastener” at first like me?
23 Drunken treats for wine expert? (6)
TASTER – [Drunken] (treats)*.
Down
1 Walk under cover from Athens to Alexandria (4)
STOA – A second hidden word in AthenS TO Alexandria. Blimey. If you took the surface reading literally, it would be a pretty long one! An ancient greek architectural feature, hence the choice of cities. A word I think I learnt from crosswords, it seems to come up rather often.
2 Wicked thing in prison led astray (6)
CANDLE – Lovely clue with another deceptive definition, this one would not be out of place in the 15×15. CAN (prison) (led)* [astray]. My clue of the day. Wicked as in having a wick. Ho ho!
3 Reduced pressure having scrubbed round (8)
DEPLETED – P (pressure) having DELETED (scrubbed) [round]. [On edit: I see this caught lots of people out thinking the definition was “reduced pressure”, leading to DEFLATED as the answer. A good learning point – if the wordplay doesn’t make sense the your answer is wrong.]
4 Small vessel makes crossing (4)
SPAN – S (small) PAN (cooking vessel). MER (minor eyebrow raise) at this. A span normally refers to only part of a bridge, I think.
5 Hero losing round underneath Big Daddy (6)
FATHER – FAT (big) with HERo  without the o [losing round] [underneath]. Another great clue. Anyone else remember watching Big Daddy (real name Shirley Crabtree) with Giant Haystacks in the wrestling ring on TV?
6 Ideal end, somehow, to meet this? (8)
DEADLINE – (Ideal end)* [somehow] to give you something to meet. Like mine to get this blog done before too many people look for it.
12 One mistakenly printed in bold (8)
INTREPID – I and [mistakenly] (printed)*. Another lovely deceptive surface. The answer has nothing to do with fonts and typefaces.
13 Chaste priest on strike in church (8)
CELIBATE – ELI (crosswordland’s favourite priest) [on] BAT (strike) [in] CE (Church of England).
16 Eastern girl said to be delicious thing (6)
ECLAIR – E (Eastern) CLAIR sounds like [said to be] CLAIRE (girl’s name).
18 Resistant to some poetry? (6)
AVERSE – A VERSE (some poetry).
20 Careful, naturally, to bury this bone (4)
ULNA – A third hidden word! Hidden in [to bury] CarefUL NAturally.
21 Ship capsized becomes national symbol (4)
LEEK – KEEL (ship) upside down [capsized] becomes LEEK, national symbol of Wales.

61 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1459 by Wurm”

  1. Wurm is often tough and this was no exception, in fact one of his hardest I thought. I had no problem with the college but there were several I couldn’t parse immediately and SILENT was not parsed at all.CELIBATE required a long look and I thought CORGI very good.
    My LOI was the unknown STOA. COD to FATHER. Time 24:57.
    David
  2. 14 minutes, missing my target 10 but just saving myself from going into my ‘red’ zone (15+ minutes). I realised whilst solving that some words, such as STOA and LAAGER might give newer solvers some problems, but the ones that did for me were CORGI and MAGDALEN.

    I had thought of CORGI immediately I saw the I checker, but I delayed writing it in for ages because I couldn’t parse it – if only I’d written it down I’d probably have seen how it worked much sooner.

    I also thought of the correct Oxford college immediately but I had a memory blackout on how to spell it and doubts that MANAGED + L could be rearranged to make it – wasn’t there an I in it, and didn’t it end in E? Perhaps the setter had made an error? All this churned through my mind until sense at last prevailed, but too late for an on-target solve.

      1. Yes, I knew there were two, one with and one without a final E, without knowing which was Oxford and which was Cambridge, but it all added to my confusion when solving. Also I think one is pronounced as spelt and the other is said as ‘Maudlin’

        Edited at 2019-10-11 06:36 am (UTC)

        1. In my userpic? No that’s neither Oxford nor Cambridge, but only 30 miles east of the latter. There’s a (cryptic) clue in my user name. Well this is a crossword forum, right?
  3. Crikey. Wurm is my least favourite QC setter because he usually produces mini 15x15s and today was no exception. Fortunately I’ve been trying to graduate to the Big Boy puzzle and was able to struggle through this in 20 mins for an estimated 3.5K, but it wasn’t really a QC to my mind. Wurm must feel like Fred Truman bowling out tail-enders with unplayable deliveries which would have troubled any batsman – “That were wasted on thee, lad”.

    Anyway, it was jolly clever etc etc, and the “wicked thing” and “silent” were particularly good (now that I understand them, cheers John – thanks for the blog and congratulations on your time!). But it was more of a work out than I want from a QC, call me idle and unambitious if you like.

    FOI EWE (yes it took me that long to get a clue), LOI SILENT (which I had completely misconstrued), COD WICKED now that I have read the blog!

    Templar

  4. As usual, a DNF for a Wurm puzzle. There were too many loose definitions and synonyms from the obscure regions of dictionaries for me.
    I wonder if setters know how much this type of grid with no 1 Across and multiple unches and checkers detracts from my enjoyment of the puzzle? It’s probably just me, but it makes it artificially more difficult, and I seem to be fighting the grid as well as the setter. Why are they allowed in the QC but not used in the 15×15?
    Rant over!

    Brian

    1. What an interesting point, Brian! If I ever knew it I had forgotten. If anyone wants to know more on the subject, this posting from 2008 by Peter Biddlecombe (TftT founder and current editor of the Sunday Times puzzle) has all the details: https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/227851.html

      As to why this convention was not continued in the QC, I’d be interested to know if there’s ever been an official comment on the matter. I shall try to find out.

      On later edit: Okay, I have just posted this in the CC General forum:

      I understand there’s a convention that the Times 15×15 puzzles always have an answer at 1ac but the QC’s (such as today’s #1459) can omit this on occasion resulting in having unchecked letters all around the grid.

      Was there a conscious decision to allow this or did it just happen that way?

      It seems rather odd since it can make solving a lot more difficult, especially for beginners, and I understood that one of the ideas of the QC was to have it as a sort of training area for those who want learn and practise and eventually step up to the main puzzle. Why introduce a difficulty that solvers won’t encounter there?

      Edited at 2019-10-11 08:59 am (UTC)

        1. The Times Crossword Editor has responded:

          We are gradually phasing out the QC grids with overunched (less than 50% cross-checked) entries. It’ll take a while for them to disappear entirely. None of the other Times grids have this feature.

          There is no convention I’m aware of stipulating that grids in the daily puzzle should always have a 1 across. It’s just happened like that I think. Some grids do have unchecked letters at the sides, if not all the way round the grid.

          Someone once asked though why there are no grids with a 2 across.

          1. Boy am I glad I did the QC today – this grid discussion was great, and I would’ve missed it. Thx jack
      2. … but I don’t expect anything else on a Friday. As a sailor I really should have got 21d. However I enjoyed working it out with everyone’s input.

        Loved candles, never heard of stoa.

        Speaking personally, I am totally happy with the QC and have no aspirations to complete the main puzzle.

        Diana

  5. 30 mins with deflated, which is about right. Except for 3 or 4 clues, its not far from todays main crossword.

    A 13×13, not necessarily a quick cryptic.

    Didn’t parse psycho, dnk pinion.
    cod candle or planet.

  7. Mmm. That was a tough 24 minutes with a third of them spent on my last two in CANDLE and SILENT. Still, everything went in parsed and I enjoyed the workout. Thank you Wurm and John for the blog.
  8. I think overall this was a little too difficult to qualify as a quickie. Laager is obscure to say the least and although I got most of the misdirections I felt a bit lucky and maybe, enjoyable as they were individually, there were a couple too many. Just my opinion!
  9. Gave up after 30 mins. I had DEFLATED instead of DEPLETED for 3D and got stuck in the SW corner. COD 2D (which I did get). From now on I shall look on all candles as ‘wicked things’! Thanks to Wurm for a great puzzle and to johninterred for the blog.
  10. So even the QC has a Friday puzzle then?

    This took me just 9 (very enjoyable) minutes, but there were a couple of 15×15 definitions to slow the unwary up a bit. No bad thing if the QC series is, as opined above, intended in some ways as practice for those wishing to step up to the main puzzle.

    Thanks John and Wurm.

  11. ….a matter of a PINION. No problems for an old hand like what I am, but I could see all the elephant traps quite clearly.

    FOI AT EASE
    LOI CORGI
    COD HIDE

  12. Just over 20m here, but all solved and parsed correctly. A fine puzzle IMHO, with lots of candidates for COD. In the end I have to award that honour jointly to CANDLE and SILENT for their respective penny-drop moments.
  13. That was a proper workout! As previously commented, bordering on 15×15 level. I was much delayed by the beautifully deceptive SILENT.
    Many thanks to setter and blogger. Some very valid points made about the added difficulty of the grid.
    8’30” (slowest for yonks!)
  14. Having seen the “wicked” trick before, I wasn’t held up by that one, but the silent P did set the neuron in motion. LAAGER was another familiar word, but I had to cogitate to get DEPLETED and INTREPID. A good workout from Wurm. 10:41, taking me over my target. Thanks Wurm and John, and yes, I remember Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki, Mick MacMannus et al:-)
  15. I had problems with a couple of the definitions here. ECLAIR = ‘delicious thing’? Really? It’s just a cake. Why delicious necessarily?
    KEEL = ship? It is part of a ship. I come from a naval city and have never heard a ship referred to as a keel.
    Not happy.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. …is apparently a flat-bottomed boat of a kind formerly used on the Tyne and Wear Rivers for loading ships carrying coal.
      2. Oldies of a certain vintage may remember singing this at school, a staple of the English National Songbook:

        Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row
        Weel may the keel row that my wee laddie’s in
        Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row
        Weel may the keel row that my wee laddie’s in

        As I came through Sandgate, through Sandgate, through Sandgate
        As I came through Sandgate I heard a lassie sing
        As I came through Sandgate, through Sandgate, through Sandgate
        As I came through Sandgate I heard a lassie sing

        Wha’ s like my Johnnie, sae leish, sae blythe, sae bonnie
        He’s foremost ‘mang the mony keel lads o’ the Tyne
        Wha’ s like my Johnnie, sae leish, sae blythe, sae bonnie
        He’s foremost ‘mang the mony keel lads o’ the Tyne

        He wears a blue bonnet, blue bonnet, blue bonnet
        He wears a blue bonnet, a dimple on his chin
        He wears a blue bonnet, blue bonnet, blue bonnet
        He wears a blue bonnet, a dimple on his chin

        Edited at 2019-10-11 01:07 pm (UTC)

            1. Being from the northeast myself I the ‘keel row’ came into my head as soon as I read the query about it being a boat. Another person suffering from earworm! Waiting for a QC clue for Blaydon Races now 😉
              Lindy
    2. Yes I suppose “delicious thing” for ECLAIR is a bit vague.
      But as for KEEL.. this is what the dictionary says:

      keel 2
      /kiːl/
      noun British
      noun: keel; plural noun: keels

      A flat-bottomed boat of a kind formerly used on the Tyne and Wear Rivers for loading ships carrying coal.

      Edited at 2019-10-11 12:52 pm (UTC)

  16. Blimey. Tough or what! 19A said it all and I never got up. As I went through the across clues scratching my head I got to 23 and bingo an anagram. Downs were similar. After ages I finally gave up. Seven not answered. And one wrong. Now I like a challenge, and have been doing these for well over a year now, and usually finish, in my own time, but this was off my scale. Having read the excellent blog I am now somewhat enlightened. Psycho (one of the seven) was brilliant, now that it’s been explained! Would never have got 1D in a month of Sundays. Hey ho. Fun though.

    Being from close to Sunderland I agree with the Pompey supporter about Keel
    Do not stop the tough ones. The blogs are great and help people like me enormously

    Bill70

  17. As a white belt in the Times QC i am pleased if i get even 2 or 3 clues right…..and thats after studying Tim M’s book many times. You guys are all various coloured belts all the way up to black belt John.

    The blog and comments help my understanding of Times QC land so thank you all very much.

    Best wishes

    Brian Harford

  18. Another DNF for me today even though I got 3 answers right without knowing why (LEEK, SILENT and UMBRELLA). STOA? Never heard of it. 2d 4d & 8a too subtle for me, but I love the explanation for 2d.
  19. I started this in the late afternoon and I found it tough but interesting. Deep in the SCC today. My LOI was PLANET – it took too long before I heard the sound of a penny dropping. SILENT, CORGI, CELIBATE and LAAGER held me up a bit and I DNK STOA. DEPLETED was clever. I agree with flashman – this was a 13×13 and not really a QC. Fun, though, for an occasional mind stretch. Thanks, both. John M.
  20. I started doing the QC in 2016 with no knowledge of cryptics prior to that. I read the blog every day and have benefited hugely from its excellent content. Am in awe of those who finish in under 10 minutes. Can’t see I’ll ever get there but I’m not worried by that. Four years down the line my best solving time is just under 20 and I regularly need 50 mins. sometimes more. However, I do now finish almost every time – with just the occasional incorrect answer – and that is hugely satisfying.
    I’ve found Wurm tricky in the past but this is the first time I’ve been stumped. Didn’t occur to me that Laager was a word and Stoa is also new to me. Annoyed that I missed the ‘wicked’ clue and couldn’t see why ‘deflated’ worked. I now see that it didn’t!
    I’m unlikely to post often, as I rarely tackle the crossword on the day it’s published – always late to the party! Just wanted to say that I am one of no doubt many usually silent followers. This is a fantastic forum and, save for a few recent sour grapes from anonymous posters, its a welcoming, civil environment. Don’t be deterred by the trolls.
    All round thanks to setters and bloggers for their efforts.
    Lindy
    1. Thanks for dropping by, Lindy. Don’t worry about doing the crossword late. If you leave a comment with a query for the blogger we get a notification and can respond. I quite often get comments on the Friday QC on a Saturday or even a Sunday, and sometimes on Jumbo crosswords I blog many weeks or even months after the crossword was published!
  21. Cruelly deceived by getting 7A immediately, didn’t manage another write-in until 25A. Fared a bit better with the down clues and, gradually, it all fell into place. A tough but satisfying slog. 3D was my LOI: weary by that stage, I lazily went for DEFLATED (which I soon was on reading the blog and seeing my error). COD was 2D – solved long before parsed. The clue and the puzzle were WICKED in every sense. Thanks WURM
  22. I fell into the deflated trap – I wasn’t sure of it as I wrote it in and made a mental note to go back an parse it later but forgot. Other than that another tough work out.
    I’d seen the WICKED/CANDLE thing before so wasn’t held up by that but I couldn’t for the life of my parse SILENT. Now it’s been explained it gets my COD.
    Thanks for the blog
  23. Well, to be frank, I thought this was ridiculously hard for a QC and much more akin to a 15×15. I battled along, and finally crossed the line north of 50 mins. Having said that, I don’t finish anywhere near as quick as that for the real ones. However, having successfully managed to tease out answers like Fell, Leek, Pinion and even Candle(!), I was undone by a careless (and obviously unparsed) Deflated for 3d. Overall, I think this was a good example of the difference between a hard QC and a challenging but well-crafted one. Horses for courses, but I’ll take Izetti over Wrum any day. No doubt others will disagree, but that’s my view. Invariant
    1. I’m always fascinated to hear how people find the harder ones. So you find Izetti easier than Wurm? Interesting. Maybe not representative by I took 66% longer over Wednesday’s Izetti than this one, although I did shoot myself in the foot a couple of times. I did a quick look at the average solving times on the club site… 14:42 for Wednesday and 10:27 for today. Horses for courses, as you say!
      1. It’s probably a wavelength thing, but I have always (even when I have (often) struggled) really enjoyed Izetti’s puzzles, whereas Wurm has always been a bit of a slog. No doubt, human nature being what it is, if I regularly rattled Wurm off in a respectable time I would have a different view, but, as an example, how on earth can you define an Eclair as a ‘delicious thing’? As PlayUpPompey (a regular of this parish) points out, it’s a cake, nothing more, nothing less, so imho 16d is a poor clue.

        Edited at 2019-10-11 08:06 pm (UTC)

  24. I have seen keels used to refer to ships as “there were 10 keels anchored in the bay”. This to me is a better explanation in that it doesn’t require such eclectic knowledge of shipping on the Tyne (even though we are currently sitting about 800 yards from the Tyne). I thought stoa was poor as a hidden word, first time I have seen it in 2 years of QCs and never heard of it. Surely the point of a hidden word is you should be able to identify it, whereas I had to do an alphabet search and use dictionary, then parse it from the solution.
    Paan
  25. I got perverse pleasure from the penny dropping moments when I realized what ‘Silent’ and ‘Candle’ were doing – so they get my joint clues of the day.
    This was pretty tough, but I don’t mind that – this week we had (imho) 2 easy ones, one medium, and 2 ‘stinkers’. I enjoy the easy ones, but I think that I Iearn more from the stinkers!
    Keel for ship is an example of synecdoche, I think (a figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole). My Classical education made Stoa easy (it is the portico in Athens where the Stoics taught). And I had no problem with ‘maudlin’, as the one with the ‘e’ is my alma mater.
    Thanks to Wurm for a real workout, and to the blogger for a very clear exposition.

    Edited at 2019-10-11 08:17 pm (UTC)

  26. Agree this more a 13×13 than a QC but that’s ok. DNF as just couldn’t see 2d or 11a. I had both answers as possible but failed to read 2d clue sufficiently clearly to parse it. Nor 11a. Probably spent a couple of hours before getting too tired to persevere. FOI 17a. LOI 12d. COD 12d. Great blog and good to learn more about grids. Reference yesterday: how do we campaign for a Saturday QC
    1. Well I don’t know if the powers that be take any notice of the QC Blog, but, in case they do, let me add my vote for a Saturday QC. I would even volunteer to blog it!
  27. Nice for you that regularly complete the 15×15 to have an extra treat. Wurm is another setter who struggles to pitch the 13×13 at an appropriate level.
    1. It’s maybe not for me to say as one of those regulars you refer to, but to me this seemed a great intermediary level crossword bridging the gap between the regular QC and the daily 15×15. Yes it has some clues that are harder than a standard QC, but, from my experience of both, it is still below the easiest 15×15 in level of difficulty. And today is one of those days this blog is intended to support. Yes there are clues that some struggle with but my fellow bloggers and I do this blogging malarky to help people learn and progress. Fundamentally, I think, the objective of the QC is not to provide an easy cryptic crossword, but to help people learn the tools of trade to tackle the 15×15. Having some trickier clues now and then is an important part of that. [Soap box dismount].
  28. I started well, with 7, 8 and 9 across being my first three answers. Managed quite a few other trickier ones early on as well. But then I slowed to a crawl. Put in DEFLATED knowing it was almost certainly wrong. Didn’t feel that ECLAIR was that well defined. Eventually worked out CANDLE and SILENT but didn’t properly parse either and was particularly puzzled as to the association between candle and wicked – but now I see!! Many thanks to our blogger, and to Wurm: I enjoyed the trickier clues, especially those I managed to get 🙂
  29. Well I have had a different experience to others in the ‘beginner’ category. Maybe I’m learning! 9a went in quite quickly I’d been looking for a hidden in 1d but couldn’t see it. and then the ‘a’ at the end of 1d made me wonder about stoa and I looked it up to confirm. The ‘d’ in 2d gave me the hint for an anagram of ‘led’ and ‘can’ is often prison – put them together and the penny dropped.

    Vaguely remembered there was a word like lager for camp but was thinking of an ‘o’ or ‘r’ in it, misunderstanding the clue – had it look it up in the end.

    Struggled with a lot of others. 11a, for example – and others in the bottom left.

  30. Only just finished Wurm minus Stoa and Laager but agree i usually feel more satisfied with Izetti puzzles than Wurm.
    1. Interesting. Yes those two words are outside normal conversational vocabulary, so bad luck at getting stumped by them. We have had some commenters in the past complaining that Izetti is too difficult, but I think he has quite a fan club now. Setters have their own individual style and I rather like the quirkiness of Wurm’s. But I can see how the occasional rather-clever-for-a-QC clue and relatively obscure vocabulary (even if generously clued) can be a stumbling block. All good preparation for the 15×15, I think, where I find some setters relatively easy and others somewhat bamboozling (like today’s – i.e. Saturdays, which took me almost twice as long as the the Jumbo!).

      Edited at 2019-10-12 07:46 pm (UTC)

      1. I also prefer Tracey to Tracy. But I sometimes wish they were anonymous in case the anticipation of relative difficulty affects how easy or not I find the puzzle!
  31. I only do Friday’s QC and it’s taken me until today to get SPAN and PLANET. Then I biffed DEFLATED, unfortunately. It was hard, but I do enjoy the variety.

    Jack and Jill went up the hill because the closer you are to the source the less likely you are to have a dead sheep upstream.

    /c

  32. I think it is helpful to know the setter (and the day of the week). They add to the anticipation of difficulty and to the subsequent degree of glee (at success) or self-forgiveness (at failure).
    Misocapnic
  33. And, I should add, this puzzle (and the blog, with others’ comments) was delightful. (Quite a lot of self-forgiveness, and glee for solving 11 across.
    Misocapnic

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