Times Quick Cryptic No 1528 by Orpheus

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Another tricky puzzle today from Orpheus, taking me two minutes over my target and about a minute longer than yesterday. It seemed to require more GK than average for a QC along with a number of unyielding cryptics (such as the joy of a random woman lurking in the crucial bit of an uncommon word at 10d). On a par with a few 15x15s that we’ve had since the New Year, so worth persevering with, and lots to enjoy along the way. Lovely puzzle – many thanks to Orpheus!

Across
1 Birds show pleasure endlessly, finding flowering plant (8)
LARKSPUR – LARKS (birds) PURR (show pleasure), endlessly = dock the tail. I see larkspur is also a colour, the latest hot trend of the Roaring Twenties: “Newest Season’s colours including Grey, Cocoa, Larkspur, Fawn,” claimed the Daily Express in 1927, describing it a couple of weeks later as “a pastel blue inclining slightly to the mauve.”
5 Clothing to boast about (4)
GARB – BRAG (boast) about = reverse.
8 Soldiers apt to be trustworthy (8)
RELIABLE – RE (Royal Engineers = Soldiers) LIABLE (apt)
9 English theologian introducing a collection of old Norse poems (4)
EDDA – E(nglish) DD (Doctor of Divinity = theologian) introduces A.
11 Hospital worker fastens fur badly (5,5)
STAFF NURSE – anagram (badly) of FASTENS FUR
14 Protest about being trapped in blooming railway! (6)
OUTCRY – C. (circa = about) trapped in OUT (blooming, as in flowers) RY (railway)
15 Go back and surrender again (6)
RECEDE – if CEDE is surrender, RE-CEDE could be to surrender again. It took 6d and 7d to convince me that TURN definitely couldn’t mean surrender, in the “turn in” vein, which looks a bit silly in retrospect.
17 Spanish youth rejected by an upper-class Welsh girl (10)
ANDALUSIAN – DAL (LAD/youth “rejected”) by AN, U (upper-class) SIAN (Welsh girl). I think this refers to the language, with Andalusian being a variety of Spanish.
20 Flat-bottomed boat made by firm in the Devon area (4)
SCOW – CO. (firm) in SW (Devon area)
21 Dinar Don changed for would-be priest? (8)
ORDINAND – anagram (changed) of DINAR DON. A person about to be ordained.
22 Symbol of rank crack troops held at first (4)
SASH – SAS (crack troops) H (Held “at first”)
23 Chum put down floor covering, interrupting exercise (8)
PLAYMATE – LAY (put down) MAT (floor covering) interrupting PE (exercise)

Down
1 Old stringed instrument storyteller talked of (4)
LYRE – spoken the same as LIAR (teller of stories). So there isn’t a Loot’s Fables I hadn’t heard of, then.
2 Bakery product — or part, so it’s said (4)
ROLL – is said the same as ROLE (part, as in actor’s)
3 Slovenly former nurse drinking coffee extremely languidly (10)
SLATTERNLY – SRN (State Registered Nurse = former nurse) drinking LATTE (coffee), LY (“extremely” LanguidlY). Good word – from the dialect verb slatter “to spill or splash awkwardly, to slop, to waste, etc.”
4 Put out about biography finally lacking spiritual elevation (6)
UPLIFT – anagram (out) of PUT about/around LIF (LIFE = biography, lacking final letter). As in uplifting, to lift the spirits.
6 Cow possibly turned up Japanese coin under tree (8)
ALDERNEY – NEY (YEN/Japanese coin, turned up = reversed) under ALDER (tree). “Possibly” as it’s also an island.
7 Couple allowed to make wrist ornament (8)
BRACELET – BRACE (couple) LET (allowed)
10 Untruthfulness of woman in popular financial area (10)
INVERACITY – VERA (woman) in IN (popular) CITY (financial area). No complaints, but a clumsy looking word, and very rarely used today – presumably due to the wealth of better alternatives.
12 Bitter syrup produced by Missouri girls (8)
MOLASSES – MO. (Missouri) LASSES (girls). I shrugged a bit at the “bitter” bit. The OED gives a good verb molass: to get drunk from drinking a molasses liquor. It’s Scottish, obsolete, and rare, with a single quote from 1772: “The common people have got so universally into the habit of drinking this base spirit, that when a porter or labourer is seen reeling along the streets, they say, he has got molassed.” 
13 Bookish boss with evidence of debts (8)
STUDIOUS – STUD (boss, as in a metal stud) with IOUs (evidence of debts). Can’t help being reminded of this!
16 A new star beginning to look like stars generally (6)
ASTRAL – A and an anagram (new) of STAR, L (“beginning” to Look)
18 Festive gathering a local leader established in Georgia (4)
GALA – A and L (Local “leader”) established in GA. (Georgia)
19 Advantage admitted by landed gentry (4)
EDGE – is admitted into the letters of landED GEntry

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1528 by Orpheus”

  1. A little slow today. I was surprised at ‘bitter’, too, but I see from ODE that US molasses is sweet. DNK ALDERNEY, but no problem. ANDALUSIAN could refer to the region as well as to the dialect (from the Arabic al-andalus ‘west’, I believe). DNK SRN, but having thought of SLATTERNLY and accounted for the LY and LATTE, I assumed it was a nurse of some kind. 7:02.
    1. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted raw molasses. I should probably give it a go sometime. As a Brit I was also surprised to find it defined as “bitter”.

      And I’d also like to thank our US contingent for introducing me to LARKSPUR in the tenth Nancy Drew book, The Password to Larkspur Lane. I suppose if Nancy had been born over here it would have been Delphinium Drive…

    2. Not a reply to Kevin, but just a note to say that a comment from gcook further down the page has a massive amount of blank space which makes it look as though the comments have ended, so keep scrolling down to see more comments.
    3. I have had raw molasses in my youth. It is vey sweet and not bitter at all (It is made by boiling sugar cane). I can’t see the point of the “bitter” it adds nothing to the clue which works just as well without it. Misdirection is part of the enjoyment of the crossword but not when it is putting in something that is just incorrect.
  2. 12 minutes, so my run of missed targets continues and is now in its 5th day.

    I lost time over the unknown ORDINAND and considering EDAD (by treating ‘introducing’ as a containment indicator) before remembering EDDA as the collection of Nordic poetry.

    Not sure I’ve met ALDERNEY as a type of cow before, but if Jersey and Guernsey can have their own breeds, then why not Alderney (but what then of Sark, Herm, Jethou and Brecquhou)?

    INVERACITY as my LOI took some digging out from wordplay.

    There were also surely several other difficult clues or answers for less experienced solvers.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 05:54 am (UTC)

  3. Difficult one today, taking about 25 mins.

    Inveracity, ordinand, alderney, slatternly, and uplift (LOI) all took some effort.

    COD outcry.

    15×15 is toughish but fair today. Finished after a bit of a struggle.

  4. Very pleased to finish this all correct in 22:54. It was a struggle. LOI was EDDA where I paid careful attention to the parsing. OFFA had occurred to me,but no idea who/what he was.Prior to that ALDERNEY which I know as an island and possibly recalled that a cow (like Jersey) might have developed there. Only the parsing persuaded me that INVERACITY was a word; it sounds more like a remote Scottish town.
    So tough all round and I haven’t even mentioned UPLIFT.
    David
  5. I agree with David – tough all round and we shared many of the most taxing clues (and an almost identical time). My LOI was SLATTERNLY. The longer answers including INVERACITY and ANDALUSIAN required some biffing followed by parsing. STUDIOUS prompted a sigh when I realised that the well-worn stud/boss had surfaced once more. Good puzzle and a particularly helpful blog. Thanks to Orpheus (with his LYRE) and Roly. John M.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 09:01 am (UTC)

  6. Just broke the hour mark, double my target. Good brain exercise and enjoyable. Thanks setter and thanks rolytoly for explaining boss as in stud rather than philanderer which makes sense to me now. COD 23a playmate
    1. Hi gcook52
      Could you try editing your comment to remove the large blank space if possible?
      Many thanks.
    2. Posted by
      gcook52
      Jan. 16th, 2020 10:08 am (local)

      I could say I found this easy but that would be a termninological inexactitude

  7. 20 minutes for me with a couple of distractions, but it would have been OMT (over my target) in any case. Good challenge and blog.

    Mr Cook above has a load of white space in his comment which may put off other commentators because they won’t see the ‘add comment’ box unless they scroll right down.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 10:26 am (UTC)

  8. I was also taken over my target time by this tricky offering. My last one in was the already mentioned INVERACITY, which I was surprised to find actually exists. LYRE was my FOI, but I had to fire up all the available neurons to make progress. Like others I assumed the Channel Island bovine would exist. A rushed proof reading revealed a careless EDEE at 19d just before I hit the submit button. Phew! 11:07. Thanks Orpheus and Rolytoly.
  9. Not one crossword so far this week on the easy side. Come on setters give us beginners a bit of a chance once a week.
  10. Very precise wordplay has rendered this a fair test, despite what may be, to some, obscure vocabulary and GK.

    No one clue stood out above the others but an all round excellent example of the setters’ art.

    My thanks to Orpheus and Roly
    5’30”

  11. This was fairly tough going and I had to learn some new (correct) spellings along the way – I’d always assumed (not that I think about it often) that SCOW was spelt with a K and Andalusian with a C. The COW was new to me but made sense due to it’s cousins on the other islands and I think I’ve seen EDDA in QCs before, but it still felt like one of those ones where I had to trust the wordplay. I left the plant to the end and it was my POI before finishing with UPLIFT in 16.16.
    Thanks to Roly
    1. You’re not the only one. I thought it had a “C” too, but obviously the Welsh Lass wouldn’t have fit.
  12. ….which took me just over my target, and had quite a lot of 15×15 standard clues. Those of you who are still learning the game should take the time to fully understand the parsings via the excellent blog, for it is puzzles like this which will help you to progress.

    I convinced myself that Andalucian was correct (though Lucia would be more a signorina than a Welsh lass) and that was the cause of my LOI after the truth dawned.

    FOI GARB
    LOI ASTRAL
    COD OUTCRY

    Thanks to both Orpheus and Roly.

  13. 28 minutes and a DNF for the fourth tricky puzzle this week, and probably the most difficult and obscure. There’s nothing wrong with a difficult QC, but four in a row risks putting beginners off.
    My DNF one was ORDINAND, I had the checkers but I couldn’t be bothered to shuffle the letters to get another unknown obscure word.

    Brian

  14. Oh, dear… Another give up at half an hour. Some lovely clues here : larkspur and Andalusian, for example. But also too many that went – for me, at least – beyond a fun mental challenge and into a grind. I’ve never heard of “scow” or “ordinand” and, although I got them right, I struggled with “inveracity ” and “Alderney “. It’s good for there to be a range but I’m hoping for something altogether more fun tomorrow. Thanks so much, blogger and setter.
  15. Yup, another toughie. Just had to trust my (usually inadequate) reading of the wordplay for EDDA, SCOW and ANDALUSIAN, though on the upside I know lots of vicars so ORDINAND went in with barely a glance! Anyway, the joy of reading “A little slow today” as Kevin’s opening line cannot be overstated and the result was a highly respectable 1.8K for a Very Good Day.

    Thanks to Orpheus and roly.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-01-16 12:35 pm (UTC)

  16. Another back-marker limping in with a DNF. Didn’t know scow or the cow, or edda but worked out/biffed them . Lot of biffing going on. Blooming = out for instance did not occur to me, and my heart always sinks when a girl’s name is needed. Stumbling blocks: recede, playmate, inveracity.
  17. If you were brought up on AA M you would know ‘The King’s breakfast’ : …
    The Alderney said sleepily
    “Many people nowadays have marmalade instead”
    for which of course the oranges come come from Seville in Andalusia
    andyf
  18. I thought ANDALUSIAN was spelt with a C, which made ASTRAL my LOI after checking the wordplay and correcting myself. I see the C spelling is only in Spanish, not English. Well I suppose this is an English crossword. No easy ones yet this week, but I got through this without other hold ups. 5:14.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 01:31 pm (UTC)

  19. Not much I can add really. Hard, but ultimately enjoyable, with some pretty tough vocabulary. I always thought MOLASSES were sweet. Live and learn.
    PlayUpPompey
  20. Thought we might have an easier puzzle today, but I think it was the hardest of the week (so far).

    Definitely thought this was straying into 15×15 territory with some of the parsing and the GK required: “Slatternly”, “Inveracity” (which wasn’t even in my Oxford dictionary), “Ordinand”, “Scow”, “Edda” etc.

    Anything involving species of flowers always makes my heart sink – so 1ac was not a good start. Didn’t really make any real progress until the bottom half and the rest was a bit of a slog until I finally gave up after a few hours on and off with one to go at 9ac.

    FOI – 5ac “Garb”
    COD – “Slatternly” (even though I didn’t know it)

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 02:46 pm (UTC)

  22. Oops. After 22 long minutes finishing with 1a/1d all my hard work was undone by bunging in ‘renege’ instead of RECEDE at 15a. Not a good day.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 04:25 pm (UTC)

  23. Tough but got there in the end. I struggle with the natural world clues but crossers helped dredge up LARKSPUR from somewhere in the memory bank and also led me to ALDERNEY (must be like a Jersey, which I did know). LOI was RECEDE after too much time trying to justify RENEGE. Very satisfying challenge from Orpheus and thanks to blogger and others who commented.
  24. A real struggle with this one. I think it probably took two and a half times my target 20 minutes and in two sittings (I gave up timing it exactly!!). I then found that EDSA wasn’t a word. I was going for Doctor of Scriptures and hoping that it existed! So after all that a DNF. I did enjoy the challenge though and having to create so many words from the parsing so thank you, Orpheus. If it had been a 15×15 I would have thrown in the towel long before but I kept telling myself that it was only a QC so it couldn’t be that hard. How wrong was I!? Thanks rolytoly for the blog. MM

    FOI: LYRE
    POI: ALDERNEY
    and I failed on the LOI: 9a
    COD1: LARSPUR
    COD2: ANDALUSIAN (am I allowed 2?)

  25. Needed several goes at this, so not sure of my time but probably around an hour overall. I’m not sure what to say about the run of QCs this week, other than they must be very off-putting for newcomers – and none too enjoyable for some of us who have been around a bit longer. Hard to pick out a CoD, but it certainly wasn’t Slatternly nor Inveracity. Invariant
  26. Anyone brought up on A A Milne’s poetry would know the Alderney as the cow who supplied the cream for the butter in The King’s Breakfast.
  27. Like many others a struggle and DNF – gave up with six outstanding. I fear Orpheus!!!! Either kind and reasonable or, like today, out for the kill.
    1a – absolutely no chance in my book unless you have seen the clue before or you have 75%+ checkers.
    9a – you need to know DD and then look it up to check (ie. DNK)
    23a – again hugely tricky
    3d – Slatternly – never heard of, and to be frank, never will hear of and never want to hear of.
    10d – don’t even bother

    All in all not pleasant for me.
    Sorry
    Thanks all
    John George

  30. Personally, I’d like to see the QC aiming to encourage beginners with relatively simple clues, particularly with regard to GK and vocab. I think SLATTERNLY, SCOW, LARKSPUR, EDDA, ALDERNEY would all have been fine clues for the main puzzle but are probably a step too far in this one.
  31. A hard joyless slog very off putting for a beginner, continuing a run of difficult puzzles.

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