Times Quick Cryptic No 1472 by Orpheus

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

10 minutes to get all but the second letter of the Welshman’s name, but in the end a DNF as I had to look up the barn cart. A very enjoyable puzzle! There isn’t much to say about the wordplay, but the answers themselves were juicy and satisfying

Solutions

Across

1 Girl courted without energy [in] part of Los Angeles (9)
HOLLYWOOD – HOLLY (girl) + WOOED (courted) removing (without) E (energy)
E = energy is from physics.
6 Father[’s] report (3)
POP – double definition, the second being ‘a loud noise’
8 Male soldiers capturing unknown islanders (7)
MANXMEN – MAN (male) + MEN (soldiers) around (capturing) X (unknown)
X = unknown is from math(s).
9 Flowering plant groups of sheep or birds picked up (5)
PHLOX – FLOCKS (groups of sheep or birds) replaced by a homophone (picked up)
10 The MP I hear at unexpected scene of contests (12)
AMPHITHEATRE – THE MP I HEAR AT (the MP I hear at) anagrammed (unexpected)
12 Remarkable person aboard Queen Elizabeth (4)
ONER – ON (aboard) ER (Queen Elizabeth)
I know this word from crosswords only; I imagine it relates to the meaning “one of a kind”-er.
13 Foot injury initially needing a doctor (4)
IAMB – INJURY (injury) reduced to its first letter (initially) + (needing) A (a) + MB (doctor)
Medicinae Baccalaureus.
17 Painstaking character [of] oarsmen originally entering via loch (12)
THOROUGHNESS – OARSMEN (oarsmen) reduced to its first letter (originally) in (entering) THROUGH (via) + NESS (loch)
20 Arabian fellow visiting Sofia regularly (5)
OMANI – MAN (fellow) in (visiting) SOFIA (Sofia) reduced by every other letter (regularly)
21 First male worker showing stubborn determination (7)
ADAMANT – ADAM (first male) + ANT (worker)
23 Info [supplied by] senior officer briefly (3)
GEN – GENERAL (senior officer) abbreviated (briefly)
24 Treasurer finally dips into entrance money? Enter uninvited (9)
GATECRASH – TREASURER (treasurer) reduced to its last letter (finally) in (dips into) GATE (entrance) + CASH (money)

Down

1 Narcotic drug ambassador and politician [used] (4)
HEMP – H.E. (ambassador) + (and) M.P. (politician)
His/Her Excellency and Member of Parliament.
2 American footballer[’s] mother dressed in hard-wearing fabric (7)
LINEMAN – MA (mother) in (dressed in) LINEN (hard-wearing fabric)
3 Starchy tuber — part of many a meal (3)
YAM – hidden in (part of) MANY A MEAL (many a meal)
4 Decorated old sailors at end of battle (6)
ORNATE – O (old) + R.N. (sailors) + AT (at) + last letter of (end of) BATTLE (battle)
Royal Navy.
5 Dwindling [of] pile noted unhappily (9)
DEPLETION – PILE NOTED (pile noted) anagrammed (unhappily)
6 Airman[’s] plan to tour India (5)
PILOT – PLOT (plan) around (to tour) I (India)
From radio alphabet.
7 Little folk [in] team tucking into baked food (6)
PIXIES – XI (team) in (tucking into) PIES (baked food)
XI = team because of the number of players on a football team.
11 Agonising / undertaking for farm workers! (9)
HARROWING – double definition
A harrow is a piece of farm equipment for breaking up soil.
14 Old woman’s vehicle associated with a cosmetic (7)
MASCARA – MA’S (old woman’s) + CAR (vehicle) + (associated with) A (a)
15 Lied about extremities of tower [being] robust? (6)
STRONG – SONG (lied) around (about) first and last letters of (extremities of) TOWER (tower)
‘Lied’ is a German word for song.
16 Horrified! Part of bag has torn! (6)
AGHAST – hidden in (part of) BAG HAS TORN (bag has torn)
18 Welshman[’s] old farm cart (5)
OWAIN – O (old) + WAIN (farm cart)
19 Source of irritation [in] Italian church (4)
ITCH – IT (Italian) + CH (church)
22 Part of circle a Roman Catholic joined (3)
ARC – A (a), RC (Roman Catholic) next to it (joined)

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1472 by Orpheus”

  1. At last I was back on form completing this one in 7 minutes – my first target achieved since 18th October, and with 3 minutes to spare! Having said that, I don’t think this was particularly easy but there was nothing here which as an experienced solver I had not seen before.

    The only one I looked at twice was LINEMAN as I know nothing about American football (and not much about the British variety either, come to that!) and the only LINEMAN I’d heard of was the one from Wicheta sung about by Glen Campbell.

    I knew WAIN as a cart from the famous painting by John Constable called ‘The Hay Wain’.

    Edited at 2019-10-30 12:15 am (UTC)

  2. Biffed 17ac, 7d, parsed post-submission. ‘Lied’ fooled me for a while, and I only saw it once I typed in STRONG. Maybe a pb for me; certainly a rare under-4. 3:37.
  3. 8.30 mins without much flow.

    FOI 3dn YAM

    LOI 9ac PHLOX

    COD 10ac AMPHITHEATRE

    WOD 7dn PIXIES as it brought to mind the wonderful Parisienne boutique toy shop – Pixi & Cie in Rue de l’Echaudé.

    Edited at 2019-10-30 08:27 am (UTC)

  4. 17 mins on the phone before coffee, on a mindful leadership course.

    Struggled with owain, oner, and LOI pflox/phlox.

    COD Adam Ant

    Edited at 2019-10-30 04:31 am (UTC)

      1. Good point, although I sometimes marvel at the mind power needed to talk at length to avoid answering simple, straightforward questions and to try desperately to cover up for the inadequacy which many ‘leaders’ display.

        Edited at 2019-10-30 09:16 am (UTC)

  5. 11.20 with the last three spent on OWAIN. MANXMEN took a while to yield as well but otherwise all good.

    NeilC

  6. An enjoyable puzzle containing a couple of oddities. I worked out IAMB but had never heard the word. ONER seemed a bit desperate but I typed it in anyway. LOI was OWAIN and I quite liked PIXIES but my COD is STRONG. High teens today but avoided the SCC (I am too sensitive to quote my time in units of K!). Thanks to Orpheus for the workout and to Jeremy for the detailed blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-10-30 08:55 am (UTC)

  7. I thought 12 mins and small change was going to be ok but it turns out to be well north of 3K so this has to go down as a Not Very Good Day. Got stuck in the SW, thinking the Welshman would be a cart, that there must be an Arab called Manoi and not knowing what “lied” had to do with songs. Also spent some time trying to fit “eight” (for “oarsmen”) into 17ac, especially once I had the G crosser. Hey ho, another go tomorrow! COD to IAMB.

    Thanks Jeremy and Orpheus.

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-10-30 10:21 am (UTC)

  8. 13 minutes on a train heading North. LOI PHLOX after PIXIES.
    Agree with the comments above, OK if you are experienced.
    David
  9. ….though I just ONER say that this word is disallowed in all the word games that I play.

    FOI HOLLYWOOD
    LOI MANXMAN
    COD STRONG

    I shall be doing the next two days’ puzzles on my phone, and that means I try all the across, then all the down, then look what’s missing. Getting within my target will be a bigger challenge than usual !

    1. The only “oner” I’ve ever come across was in schoolboy games of conkers, where conkers were named after how many victories they had had.
  10. Like Kevin I biffed THOROUGHNESS and PIXIES but unlike Kevin my solving time was 10:17 which sounds better than just under 3K. I wasn’t sure about ONER and IAMB, so I just went with the wordplay. I took a while to see STRONG but my LOI was the name clue OWAIN. I finished with the name clue yesterday as well. Thanks to Jeremy and to Orpheus for a doable QC.
  11. I had an uncomfortable sleepless night, so rose at 3am and did this puzzle. I didn’t find it too difficult but in my hazy state didn’t light up the speed records as Kevin, Vinyl and Jack did. OWAIN took a minute’s thought. I tripped over my fingers trying to correct the missing H in AMPHITHEATRE, with the cursor going in every direction except the required one, and the cursing due to that ringing in my ears. A bit 11d, which also took time to see. No problem with LINEMAN, as I’ve seen it elsewhere quite recently. 9:24 with a minute of that proof reading. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.

    Edited at 2019-10-30 10:22 am (UTC)

  12. Top right corner flummoxed me. Phlox is a new word to me so was a DNF. Consequently did not get Pixies. Apart from that an enjoyable challenge but I failed to stumble over the finishing line. Bill70
  13. This turned out to be a slow 30min solve, with five of those spent at the death on the intersection of Lineman/Oner. Didn’t really know the former, and I’m still struggling with the concept of Oner as a word. I can only conclude that Orpheus must have been desperate to finish the grid. CoD to 11d, Harrowing – my local pub was called the Harrow at one point, but has changed ownership and name several times since then. Invariant
  14. A very good day – just over seven minutes, which might be a PeBee. I was sure Jack would be feeling happier today, and so it proved 😊

    Oner – another word to add to my grumpy list this week. But otherwise a nice, user-friendly puzzle with enough head-scratching to keep it sufficiently challenging. I can’t decide how I feel about 10a after last night’s announcement – it’s a fun clue but what it conjures up is enough to make me want to hide for the next six weeks! Actually, I do anyway …

    FOI Hollywood (any reference to the fact that it was the Bake-Off final last night?
    LOI Oner
    COD Owain
    Ear worm A contest between Wichita Lineman and Prince Charming – a bit of a muddle going on in my head at the moment!

  15. Another to whom Iamb and Oner were previously unknown. The rest was a steady fill, even saw what was happening with “Lied” which pleased me!
    Plymouthian
  16. Went through all the clues, writing at least half of them in in 15 minutes, then took another 12 to get down to having just 9a left, although I wasn’t convinced by oner. I had thought of flocks being groups of sheep or birds, but I couldn’t for the life of me see how the clue worked until it finally dawned on me that ‘picked up’ meant ‘sounds like’. I then wrote the answer in, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of the flower in question. I was always more into zoology than botany. Or gardening for that matter. Anyway, stopped my watch on 34:20. Had only vaguely heard of iamb, and song=lied was totally unknown. I presume it’s not just a German word. We’re not usually required to know more than very basic foreign and even then it’s usually clued as such. Does it have anything to do with a lay also being a song?
  17. A relatively straightforward puzzle today with nothing to frighten the horses – with the possible exception of the rather poor “oner “. As an English Literature teacher from Wales, I was fine with the Welshman and poetic foot. My COD is 21 across – it made me chuckle although, like peebee, I too, now have an ear worm going on – Adam Ant and “Stand and Deliver”! Very much liked 9 across, as well. Thanks, Jeremy, for the blog and thanks, too, to Orpheus.
  18. Pleasant solve in abt 17m which is good for us. Do not like “oner”. Knew iamb from the phrase “iambic foot”, poetry? Knew Owain, we have a grandson of that name, hardly archaic at age 12!
  19. The perfect difficulty IMHO. Thx
    DNF due to phlox. Tried to ram tulip into that hole.
    Also tried wagon instead of Owain due to the W. From Welshman. Just me?
    Vaguely knew iamb. Isn’t iambic pentameter something to do with Latin poetry? Vergil?
    Johnny

  20. Nothing too tricky as the more obscure words were kindly clued but I didn’t find it as straightforward as some. Before today my list of welsh names consisted of DAI, so I tried very hard to fit that into the answer, before deciding I needed to focus on the wordplay. I finished in 12.18 with the awful ONER, which, like Templar, I’d previously only associated with a rather lowly conker. COD to the islander.
    Thanks to Jeremy
  21. DNF for the second day running. I found this tricky, with a lot of the NE corner filled in by deduction rather than actually knowing the answer (“Phlox”, “Iamb”, “Oner”).

    May have missed this but still not sure why Report=”Pop”.

    In the end the SW corner got me. I just couldn’t get 17ac and 11dn and I’m kicking myself because I think this is the third time I have missed Info=”Gen”. Should have also known “Owain” due to a certain local weather man.

    Anyway COD was “Pixies”. Hopefully better tomorrow…

    Edited at 2019-10-30 07:43 pm (UTC)

  22. I found this very difficult.
    Stupidly didn’t see Pop, so Pixies was never on (stuck on Pas). Didn’t get Harrowing or Owain, but otherwise enjoyable experience.
    But I must pass comment on Hemp being defined as Narcotic drug. Hemp is a strain of cannabis that has a very low THC content – but the government still insist on trying to shut down U.K. hemp farms. Or screw them for mega bucks for a licence.
    So U.K. CBD manufacturers now have to import Hemp oil.
    It is such a shame that Hemp still has such a bad name considering all of the uses and benefits it can bring. Oh well, give it another 20 years and another generation may succeed in removing the stigma.

    Thanks all
    John George

  23. Very enjoyable solve, taking 35 minutes fully parsed. LOI PHLOX after PIXIES. LIED is from the German, but is so well established as a musical form that I think it counts as a loan word. Cardiff Singer of the Year normally involves Lieder, if I remember. The mis-direction in this case was exquisite!
  24. I need to follow your example! I didn’t spend the time proof-reading and ended up submitting a LINEMMN.

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