Times Quick Cryptic No 1498 by Oink

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
On the gentle side today from Oink. A fairly straight solve, although a shoddy bit of spelling at 6d returned the Unlucky! sign a bit after the six minute mark. That’s about as quick as I get, but I’m nursing a slightly delicate head so no complaints from this quarter – indeed, many thanks to Oink!


Across
1 Clergyman with nose in turkey? (6)
PARSON – the parson’s nose is the (not flattering) term for the fatty rump of a chicken or turkey, etc. Was sometimes called the “pope’s nose”, and dates back to at least 1400, as seen in a church carving in Nantwich by a disgruntled carpenter.
4 Good Polish food (4)
GRUB – G(ood) RUB (polish)
9 Cut short a game of cards (7)
ABRIDGE – A BRIDGE (game of cards)
10 Princely Valentino bleeding a little (5)
NOBLE – “a little” of the letters of ValentiNO BLEeding
11 Long to have a Granny Smith? Or another fruit? (9)
PINEAPPLE – PINE (desire/long) to have an APPLE (Granny Smith)
12 Scout occasionally drunk (3)
SOT – the occasional or regular letters of S c O u T
13 Nothing unusual on thug (6)
NOUGHT – anagram (unusual) of ON THUG
15 Ship carrying fruit and some asparagus? (6)
SPEARS – SS (SteamShip) carries/holds/contains PEAR (fruit)
17 Badger or horse? (3)
NAG – double definition
18 Unruly Tibetan, so pig-headed! (9)
OBSTINATE – anagram (unruly) of TIBETAN SO
21 Mad after son’s departure? That’s silly (5)
INANE – INSANE (mad), and after the S(on) departs that’s the answer,
22 Titles, I suspect, will reveal a snob? (7)
ELITIST – anagram (suspect) of TITLES I
23 Observe ambassador meeting newspaper boss (4)
HEED – HE (His Excellency = ambassador) meets ED (newspaper boss)
24 Take no notice of Italian gentleman losing head (6)
IGNORE – SIGNORE (Italian gentleman) losing the head

Down
1 Pretend to be a writer, young one imprisoned here? (7)
PLAYPEN – PLAY (pretend to be) PEN (writer). Or if you object to the “a” as a linkword, you might whimsically say that to PLAY PEN is to pretend to be a writer.
2 Repeat programme showing Her Majesty in control (5)
RERUN –  ER (Her Majesty) inside RUN (control)
3 Cocktail that’s out of date? (3-9)
OLD-FASHIONED – double definition. The guy from Mad Men’s tipple of choice, if I remember correctly. Probably invented in the Pendennis Club in Kentucky as a reaction to the more elaborate cocktails that had become popular earlier in the (nineteenth) century.
5 Coffee makes you stronger, they say (7)
ROBUSTA – sounds like (they say) ROBUSTER (stronger). Hardier than Arabica, hence the name.
6 Grumble, as sheep in field might do (5)
BLEAT – double definition. Sorry, no results for “bleet” in the English dictionary, go stand in the corner and revise your rudimentary spelling.
7 Have a quick look around Tower (4)
KEEP – PEEK (have a quick look) around/reverse
8 Being bold, I present ring at sea (12)
ENTERPRISING – anagram (at sea) of I PRESENT RING
14 Advance quietly in university class (7)
UPGRADE – P (piano/quietly) in U(niversity) GRADE (class)
16 Dreadful secret involving quiet ghost (7)
SPECTRE – anagram (dreadful) of SECRET involving P (quiet)
17 Heard no horses do this (5)
NEIGH – sounds like / heard as NAY (no)
19 Killed a large number (4)
SLEW – double definition. Apparently from the Irish slua (or sluagh), for crowd or multitude, so there you are.
20 Before midday I leave to find companion (5)
AMIGO – AM (before midday) I GO (leave)

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1498 by Oink”

  1. 10 minutes, delayed by carelessly putting PEEK at 7dn and N having HO OLD-FASHIONED as a cocktail. Roly, you have a superfluous S in 15ac. Plenty of farmyard today!

    Edited at 2019-12-05 05:18 am (UTC)

  2. Shot off to a quick start with 1a PRIES T for nose and T, 1d PLAYPEN before grinding to an abrupt stop and realising the priest was a parson! Nice 20 minute solve for me. Thank you Oink et Al.
  4. Technically DNF as I’d biffed PEEP at 7d and forgot to return to it, but otherwise had 9.06 on the clock. Started fast but held up by ENTERPRISING and ROBUSTA, the latter of which didn’t seem familiar.

    NeilC

  5. Two errors today I’m afraid.I was quite quick,10:30 with just 3d remaining. But I could not think of a cocktail and ended up with OLD LASHTOWER in desperation. Needless to say that was wrong as was PEEP which had gone in after a check for something better.
    So not my best day.
    I think some will find this tricky. COD to ROBUSTA (tricky and good).
    David

    Edited at 2019-12-05 08:59 am (UTC)

  6. 11 minutes, for a nice puzzle from Oink. LOI was ROBUSTA which needed all the checkers, and with which I was unfamiliar – I don’t do fashionable coffee shops. I’m another who tried to spell BLEAT with a double-E, but luckily I spotted it whilst thinking about the coffee.
  7. I enjoyed this puzzle – I found it was pitched perfectly for a novice like me, with most clues being straightforward and a few lessons learnt along the way. Having said that, I called it a day after 45 minutes without making anything work for 19dn SLEW. Also, I incorrectly wrote IRATE for 21ac.

    NHO 5dn ROBUSTA but wordplay was clear and I also used a double-E for 6dn BLEAT!

    I biffed 1ac PARSON, having never heard of the ‘parson’s nose’ part of a turkey. I will keep my eyes peeled in 20 days time…

    COD OLD FASHIONED
    FOI PINEAPPLE

    Edited at 2019-12-05 10:30 am (UTC)

  8. Kevinless as we are, I shall have to record my actual time, which was 8:46. Since that is sub-jackkt this goes down as an Excellent Day. I enjoyed this but would probably still be looking at ROBUSTA had I not had to buy some more coffee beans the other day. Tough clue, I thought, but fortunately the word swam up from the depths just in time. I managed to resist biffing IRATE at 21ac but it was close!

    In re BLEAT – I tried to work out whether the “lea” had any connection with “in the field”, but if there is it was too subtle for me.

    FOI PARSON, LOI INANE, COD NOUGHT (because it totally fooled me on first pass and yet it was so simple).

    Many thanks to Oink and roly.

    Templar

  9. ….but the only pig seems to be in the clue to 18A.

    Foiled early in my clean sweep attempt by my eventual LOI, but saw this one off quickly.

    FOI PARSON
    LOI/COD PLAYPEN

  10. 7 minutes. A clean sweep for once, but that doesn’t make for a very fast time for me, as I then need to be careful when entering the downs to avoid entering the letters I already have.
    1. I turn off the “skip entered letters” feature in the settings and just type over them. I find it quicker than trying to jump over them.
  11. A gentle offering from Oink today, with only my LOI, ROBUSTA, unknown, but easily gettable from wordplay and crossers. I’ve never had one, but knew the cocktail, probably from reading Leslie Charteris’s The Saint books in years gone by. 5:59. Thanks Oink and Roly.
  12. With just one exception this was a top to bottom write-in today. Only ROBUSTA required a revisit. Lots of biffing and near-festive chestnuts for a massive PB at 2’25”.

    Many thanks to Roly and Oink.

    1. Lawksamercy. I don’t think I could write in all the answers that fast even if I knew them in advance! That is a truly amazing time, well done.
    2. Phew, indeed! Well done – and nicer to get a massive PB while breaking a round figure like 150 seconds. 153 seconds? Pish!
  14. Another gentle offering with the exception of the two drinks neither of which I’d ever heard and the cocktail eventually needed an alphabet trawl. Finished in 11.27.
    Thanks for the blog
  15. Thought this was going to be a 20min solve, but the SW corner (13, 14 and 21) combination made a mess of that idea. I eventually realised that 13ac was an anagram and quickly bunged in Nought, Upgrade and Irate. Thought about it a bit more and realised 21ac was Inane, not Irate. If only I had been a little more careful with 7d, where a biffed Peep stubbornly remained unparsed (and of course wrong). 25mins in total, with one mistake. Invariant
  16. About 30 mins for me today, also helped by my own (albeit limited) experience of previous clues.

    FOI = 1ac “Parson” – seen this so many times now, would be criminal if I didn’t know it straight off.

    The rest went in fairly gently, although there were a few that made me hesitate. I nearly biffed “Bleas” for 6dn, thinking it was a hidden word. As a Mad Men aficionado I should have known “Old Fashioned” but still had to rack my brains for various cocktails. 7dn went in the wrong way at first, which made 11ac an almost fruitless task.

    LOI = 21ac “Inane” which I also had to switch from Irate.

    COD = 5dn “Robusta” – hadn’t heard of it, but liked it.

    For what it’s worth, I also enjoyed a few minutes looking for the usual piggy references.

    Thanks as usual to the setter and blog.

  17. Not a quick solve but my second ever clean sweep. Having got all the across clues I thought I would be beaten by 3 down as I could only think of Old Manhattan which was both unparsed and not consistent with the checkers.

    COD to spears.

  18. Bailed at 12 minutes staring at LOI 3d. Obviously I got OLD but FASHIONED refused to yield despite an alphabet trawl. It seems I don’t know my cocktails! NHO of either Gin and It which made a recent appearance in the QC or today’s OLD-FASHIONED. I’d already guessed ROBUSTA and SLEW before my luck ran out.
  19. A good workout from Oink. Lots of opportunities for me to waste time (e.g. inane/irate, peep/peek/keep, cut/sot, shed/slew (my LOI) etc. With an interruption from my wife concerning a malfunctioning coffee maker, I was content to avoid the SCC today. Thanks to Oink and Roly.

    Edited at 2019-12-05 03:10 pm (UTC)

  20. 21 minutes, so a reasonable good solve for me.

    Did anyone else think of Star Trek, with ENTERPRISING, for “being bold”, or am I reading too much into it?

  21. Was racing through the first dozen clues and began thinking of a record fast time. But got stuck on the last two UPGRADE/INANE for what seemed like an age and it was 10:35 when pennies finally dropped. COD to NOUGHT, thanks to Oink and Roly.

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