Times Quick Cryptic No 1529 by Wurm

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I last blogged a QC by Wurm in October, and it generated lots of interesting discussion. I really enjoyed this one too. Like last time, I found it a little wiggly in places, but with some neat and entertaining clueing. A couple of clues, I thought, would not be out of place in the 15×15, so I think those who were looking for an easier one today may be disappointed. Bits I liked, in particular, were the gangster at 1A, the sneaky definition at 20A, the misleading bar paraphernalia at 2D and the filthy book collection at 12D. At just under 6 minutes I was over my average time and it was my slowest of the week, so I, at least, found it a bit trickier than usual. No real hold-ups for me but those slithery wiggles mite cast some muddy hillocks on your path and cause your solving to slow to a crawl and dragon a bit. [That’s enough – Ed]. Thank-you Wurm. Top hole! [I said that’s enough – Ed]. How did you all get on?

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

Across
1 One Mr Bad also awaiting trial (2,6)
ON REMAND – (One Mr)* [bad] AND (also). Lovely one to start – nice surface and neat wordplay.
6 Youngster brought to a Caribbean island (4)
CUBA – CUB (youngster) then [brought to] A. A bit of a ‘chestnut’ (a term to add to the Glossary, perhaps?). This has appeared at least 5 times before in a QC, most recently in this Izetti puzzle in September last year.
8 Go away for trial (3,3)
TRY OUT – TRY (go) OUT (away). A fine lesson in the technique of “lift and separate“, where you need to split the “go” and “away”. And we get to practice that some more a couple of times later.
9 Grand pubs prepared to welcome monarch (6)
SUPERB – (pubs)* [prepared] outside [to welcome] ER (Her Majesty; monarch).
10 House Chinese military guards (4)
SEMI – Hidden in ChineSE MIlitary [guards]. Do important people in China live in semi-detached houses?
11 Party favourite in power (8)
DOMINION – DO (party) MINION (favourite). My LOI. I hadn’t seen that definition for “minion” before, but I see from checking the dictionary I’m just ignorant. Not for the first time, I may add!
12 Son in tree produces sacred poem (5)
PSALM – S (son) [in] PALM (tree).
13 Divine messenger in a new set (5)
ANGEL – A N (new) GEL (set). One of those sneaky setter’s tricks is to use a noun in the clue that you have to treat as a verb in the wordplay. In action here for ‘set’.
15 Generous support for footballer (4,4)
FULL BACK – FULL (generous) BACK (support). Full as in a generous helping/full helping.
17 Arrest the devil (4)
NICK – Double definition. A missed opportunity for a triple definition, perhaps? “Arrest and jail the devil”? I’ll get my coat.
19 Oracle’s place, quiet in Asian metropolis (6)
DELPHI – P (piano; quitet) [in] DELHI (Asian metropolis). The Oracle aka Pythia.
20 Owner of bark in films sails out east (6)
LASSIE – Ha ha. Great disguised definition – which has nothing to do with saling vessels. (sails)* [out] E (east). The famous canine star.

Image in Public Domain.
21 Surprise as lunatics returning (4)
STUN – NUTS (lunatics) reversed [returning] -> STUN.
22 Ask again for change in Japanese city (8)
NAGASAKI – (Ask again)* [for change].
Down
2 Bottle perhaps attached to optic? (5)
NERVE – This is another sneaky one. Ignore the fine surface reading, where an optic is “a device fastened to the neck of an inverted bottle for measuring out spirits“. This is a double definition with “optic” in the second meaning, the eye, to which the “optic nerve” is attached, the perhaps indicating a definition by example. Or have I over-complicated that?
3 Blue material ripped up at ICA (7)
EROTICA – TORE (ripped) reversed [up, in a down clue] -> EROT. Add ICA to get what used to be on the top shelf.
4 Six-footer among banyan trees (3)
ANT – Hidden [among] banyAN Trees. In case you haven’t seen it before, “six-footer” refers to an animal with 6 feet – i.e. an insect.
5 Bird makes moves to leave boat (9)
DISEMBARK – (Bird makes)* [moves]. You could easily be misled (as I was briefly) to think the definition here was “Bird”. But it isn’t. Another bit of slitheriness from our Wurm – you need to separate “Makes moves”.
6 Chicken in vessel crossing river (5)
CAPON – CAN (vessel) outside [crossing] PO (river in Italy). Another bird as the answer.
7 Bird in pub now large (4,3)
BARN OWL – This time “Bird” is the definition. BAR (pub) NOW L (large). As with 1A this is another example of a setter’s trick. When the answer is in multiple parts, e.g. (4,3) as here, the wordplay doesn’t have to follow that enumeration – here the parts of the charade are (3,3,1).
11 Eternal punishment in Mother land? (9)
DAMNATION – DAM (Mother) NATION (land).
12 Discreet page fronts filthy book collection (7)
PRUDENT – P (page) [fronts] i.e. is before RUDE (filthy) NT (New Testament; book collection).
14 Start rock band (7)
GENESIS – Double definition. Rock is not my cup of tea. But, distractedly diving down a wurmhole, I was amazed to find there is a fictional Genesis Worm. I don’t remember that episode. Do you?
16 Learner at university in bloomer (5)
LUPIN – L (learner) UP (at university) IN. Here are some blooming…
18 Conservative connection in prison (5)
CLINK – C (Conservative) LINK (connection). I wonder if our setter was tempted to cross-reference 17A? But no. This isn’t the Guardian crossword.
20 On length for example (3)
LEG – L (length) EG (for example). Our cricketing clue of the day. Another sneaky trick – another “lift and separate”. You need to separate the phrase “On length” into its constituent parts.

50 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1529 by Wurm”

  1. Another in a series of tricky QCs this week, my time coming in at 17:09 today.

    I agree with your parsing of NERVE, John, and minion as favourite was new for me as well. An etymology website helpfully pointed out it comes from the French ‘mignon’ meaning darling or favourite which may explain filet mignon being considered a choice cut.

    FOI Superb
    LOI Try out (I’m forever forgetting try is a synonym of go)
    COD Nagasaki for its very plausible surface

    Many thanks to Wurm for a difficult but satisfying puzzle and John for his excellent blog and terrible jokes.

  2. Not that easy for me, although I can’t remember what slowed me down; maybe just generally sluggish. Liked LASSIE. 7:28.
  3. 9 minutes, so at the last moment of the week I completed a QC within my target 10 minutes after a run of 5 ‘misses’.

    Like our blogger I thought twice about ‘favourite / minion’ but what else could it have been?

    LASSIE, rather surprisingly, was my LOI as, on seeing’owner of bark’ in the clue I started thinking about trees beginning with L!

  4. I agree with vinyl1 – except for the clues which held me up at the end!
    Seeing Wurm’s name when I started put my brain into Wurm mode. I know he’s a tricky setter but every clue I read at the start I solved almost immediately with parsing. I thought I’d be easily under 10 minutes.
    Hold-ups were DOMINION which I left until BARN OWL appeared. When rushing I had tried to type in BROWN OWL which caused a correction delay. SUPERB required time for parsing and LOI was SEMI where I was racking my brains for something Chinese-ish -JEDI was waiting as an impatient final entry.Happily I paused once again to parse and SEMI emerged; this word has caught me out before. 13:00 on the clock.
    Excellent puzzle and lots of good clues. COD to DISEMBARK.
    David
  5. Didn’t finish a single QC this week… here’s hoping for something a bit easier next
  6. With ON REMAND and CUBA going straight in, I thought that for once I might be on the dreaded Wurm’s wavelength … but alas normality soon struck. Bloodied but unbowed I limped to the end in 2.5 Kevins for a Not Very Good At All Day. Hey ho, there’s another one on Monday.

    FOI ON REMAND, LOI CAPON (I kept trying to make “crock” work – cock crossing r = vessel – but inconsiderately the words were all in the wrong order in the clue) and COD NERVE. Did anyone else think that 3dn was a really clunky clue? What on earth is ICA anyway?

    Thanks Wurm (no really) and John.

    Templar

      1. Humph. Still a pretty clunky device, whatever it stands for – “here’s 3 out of the 7 letters of the answer, just stick them on the end”
  8. 13 minutes, under my target of 20 by about the same time as I’ve been over it for the previous four QCs.
    The lack of long anagrams helped, but I was definitely on the right wavelength and everything just clicked (for once).
    Thanks to Wurm and to John for the blog.

    Brian

  9. And the week, thank goodness, ends on a high! I really enjoyed this puzzle because it made me laugh out loud several times. I’ve doodled smiley faces all over the place today but special mention goes to 20 across and 2 down which are cheeky and smart. My LOI, by a long way, was 11 across. Even when my brain first saw what it must be, I was thinking of “do” (“party”) , “in” (“favourite”) “and “on” (“power”) …. And then I realised it was altogether simpler. I rather think that “minion” has been in the QC before to mean “favourite” and it caught me out on that occasion, too. My either slight MER was “prudent” as “discreet” . But these are quibbles! It was a great puzzle. Lots of references to fowl (3) and criminals (5/6) … The early bird catches the wurm…? Thanks, John, for your awful puns – I love them! – and to Wurm for a super end to the week
    1. Ha – there was I, thinking “Louisajaney is going to be REALLY cross about this”! Well done. I seem to be the only one to have found this by far the hardest of the week!
  10. Intriguing. I was slow to start in the NW (and ended up there with SEMI, EROTICA, TRY OUT and NERVE my LOI). I enjoyed BARN OWL, PRUDENT, GENESIS, DOMINION (a new slant on minion for me) and kicked myself when I finally saw SEMI. Enjoyable but still a chewy end to a tough week. I finished, yet again, on 3K. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-01-17 09:49 am (UTC)

  11. I agree with louisajaney – some lovely surfaces, funny and clever, and kept me at it after I might’ve given up. Bottom half came together quickly but struggled at the top – LOI DOMINION.
    Thank you Wurm!
  12. I had to put a spurt on at the end as I noticed the clock ticking inexorably towards my target time with a couple still to go. 20 seconds were left for proofreading and I submitted at 9:59 to a sea of green. ANT and NERVE were my first 2 in and LASSIE brought up the rear when, like Jack, I gave up on trees. I was also surprised to find that a minion can be a favourite. Lots of smile moments throughout the solve. Thanks Wurm and John.
  13. I found this the easiest for a long time. My only hold up was DOMINION as I had not heard of MINION in that sense before. Enjoyed 20ac and 3d
    PlayUpPompey
  14. An enjoyable and fun puzzle for the end of the week, completing in about 45 mins.

    As noted above, some great surfaces for the clues with criminality and filth seeming to pop up everywhere.

    Whilst some of these were well thought out, they were also quite easy to biff. As a result, the main hold ups for me were 11ac “Dominion” and 18ac “Delphi”. Didn’t realise “Minion” meant favourite which made me doubt my original answer. I also wasn’t sure about Prudent=Discreet, and as it started with a “P” was almost tempted to put in something relating to the top shelf.

    At least I spotted the “Up” for University today.

    FOI – 1ac “On Remand”
    LOI – 11ac “Dominion”
    COD – 12dn “Prudent” – great surface that made me laugh

    Thanks as usual.

  15. I suppose anything would have been an improvement on yesterday’s horror, but I genuinely enjoyed this puzzle. Once 1ac and 2d went in, I realised this was going to be another of Wurm’s quirky offerings, and so it proved. I was fortunate to spot Capon and Lassie without too much delay, and needed the P from Psalm to get Prudent, but after that my only delay came near the end with Erotica. I should also confess, in passing, to an alphabet trawl for the first part of 8ac… At 24mins, about a third of the time and infinitely more enjoyable than yesterday, so I was quite surprised to see that our esteemed blogger found it harder. CoD to 20ac, Lassie. My thanks to Wurm and John. Invariant

    Edited at 2020-01-17 12:52 pm (UTC)

  16. No exact time today as watching cricket at same time. No problems so probably <5’. Liked LASSIE a lot.
    Thanks to Wurm and John.
  17. I found this Wurm QC moderately difficult….my parsing skills seemed to have deserted me. I got really stuck in the SE corner. LEG for On in cricket was a DNK but had to be when I finally saw LASSIE. Perhaps if there had been a triple definition I would have got NICK sooner which then gave me my LOI GENESIS in 1.8K. I particularly liked the cluing for ANT, NAGASAKI and PRUDENT. Thanks John for the blog.

    Edited at 2020-01-17 01:09 pm (UTC)

  18. LOI SEMI – not the first time this week I’ve struggled with a hidden. Needed the blog to confirm CAPON but would have been all green if I hadn’t solved on paper. Great end to a tough week.
  19. ….but I do know my GENESIS songs.

    Nice puzzle from Wurm which kept me engaged over my pre-work pint of Pedigree. Solved just inside my target time – I’d have been quicker if I hadn’t tried to start 5D with “duck”.

    FOI ON REMAND
    LOI DOMINION
    COD LASSIE

    1. Pre-work pint of Pedigree. Sounds good. Perhaps I should try it. But starting work at 8:30 am might render that a bit impractical. I wonder if there are any pubs in Cambridge that serve that early?
      1. I wonder what Phil’s work is? Anything that requires/justifies/allows a pre-work pint is pretty niche. Maybe he’s a professional darts player now.
    2. Probably unrelated and pure coincidence, but knock the last letter off Dominion and you get a track off Invisible Touch…
  20. I seem to be in a minority, finding this far too hard to get anywhere near finishing it. I never mange to get on Wurm’s wavelength somehow.
    But thanks anyway, Wurm, John and the rest of you – maybe one day I’ll get there.

    Diana.

    1. Welcome, Diana, if this is your first visit. It DOES get easier with practice but even seasoned solvers suffer setbacks.
      1. Diana’s been around for yonks, hasn’t she? I’m sure I remember her from my early days here, with Nick the Novice.
      2. Apologies, Diana, and I see from comments below that my memory is failing! Good to have you contributing anyway.
        1. No offence taken, Jackkt. I don’t comment often, but always read everyone else’s.
          I’ll never make the main cryptic (and don’t really want to , to be honest) but thoroughly enjoy the QC nearly every day.
          Old age takes its toll.
          Diana
          1. Contrariwise, I always read all the comments I get on Crosswords I blog (and nearly all of those I don’t), and I do appreciate your contributions. We’re none of us getting any younger, but I learn something from TimesForTheTimes every day and, if I can remember it (!), it helps me get better. And that is what this blog is for so please keep visiting and sharing how you got on… and ask about anything we bloggers have failed to explain sufficiently. Maybe you will change your mind about the 15×15 when people here flag one as being on the easy side and you give it a go. You might be pleasantly surprised.
  22. Pre work pint of pedigree?! I might try that but would probably fall off my bike on the way to the office.
  23. I’m with you, Diana. I found this much harder than yesterday or Wednesday and nearly gave up. I got stuck on Genesis and Lassie. I wanted 14d to be something to do with granite and confused myself by putting free kick for 15a. I enjoyed 12d and 10a. Thank you Wurm and John.
    Bluestocking
  24. Diana. Don’t worry. I’m a regular 20 minutes solver and I got nowhere today.
    Phil. As u solve in sub 4 minutes how do u manage a pint at the same time? Do u hold the paper above your head as u swallow? Or are u also a sub 5 second pint man?
    Johnny
  25. After a week of struggling, this was much more our cup of tea. Enjoyed the lassie clue, finished in 22m, well within our target for the first time this week.Thanks Wurm for a pleasant solve.
  27. There seems to be a split today between those who found it tough and those found it straightforward. I fell somewhere in the middle as I had a slow start and had to jump around the grid a lot, but then everything seemed to fall into place and I finished at a bit of a gallop. Lots to enjoy but NERVE was the standout for me. Finished in 11.18 with PRUDENT.
    Thanks to John for the blog
    1. Interesting observation. I always enjoy seeing how people who have done a crossword I’ve blogged get along and I came to the same conclusion as you… there seems to be more of a polarisation than usual between those who found it relatively straightforward and those who found it hard. I find it hard when writing the blog to predict which way it will go. Our K benchmark is a pretty good indication I think. Today’s was at the difficult end of that scale, yet our (also) highly-experienced solver, Vinyl. had a PB! I think we need to get our Mr SNITCH (starstruck) on the case of the QC.
  28. Chuffed to bits today – 1K!!! Normally I find Wurm very – well – wriggly but today was most enjoyable. So definitely a Very Good Day.

    Lots of really entertaining surfaces – like Louisa, I had smiley faces all over! Nick, Lassie and Nerve were particular favourites.

    Started to post this at 11am – been out all day, so a bit late now. Anyway –

    FOI On remand
    LOI Barn owl
    COD Ant
    Mood 😊

    1. Never too late for me. Glad you and so many others enjoyed it as much as me. I think Wurm is becoming my favorite setter. P.S. Congrats on the 1K!

      Edited at 2020-01-17 07:25 pm (UTC)

      1. Ah thanks John. I also forgot to says thanks for the highly entertaining blog – I thoroughly enjoy an excruciating pun. In fact, the more the merrier! I agree with you about Wurm – s/he has a very quirky way of cluing. You definitely have to look at things a bit askance but you always get a good few smiles 😊
  29. Excellent puzzle. Loved ‘LASSIE’. My LOI was 13ac, trying to search for obscure Greek or Latin gods, missing the obvious. Lots of nice misdirection.

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