Times Quick Cryptic No 1538 by Tracy

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit on the gentler side today from Tracy: I came in about a minute under my target after finishing off with a slightly sluggish LH side and then taking a minute to locate the tip of my tongue for 23ac, my LOI – a nicely put together clue it was, too. The three other long clues along the borders were all generous enough and gave plenty of routes into the puzzle, so all good – many thanks to Tracy!

Across
1 Entertainment centre just by stadium (10)
FAIRGROUND – FAIR (just) by GROUND (stadium)
8 Humorous drawing of box containing nothing (7)
CARTOON – CATRON (box) contains O (nothing)
9 Hood following sheriff’s lead may make one frown (5)
SCOWL – COWL (hood) following S (Sheriff’s “lead”) may give one the answer.
10 Stinking row (4)
RANK – double definition, the second as in, say, chess or taxis.
11 Shipment greatly required by food shop (8)
DELIVERY – VERY (greatly) required by DELI (food shop)
13 Goad pointer (6)
NEEDLE – double definition
14 Put right about couple (6)
REPAIR – RE (about) PAIR (couple)
17 Substantial list includes North American soldier (8)
TANGIBLE – TABLE (list) includes N(orth) GI (American soldier)
19 Call outfit around noon, initially (4)
RING – RIG (outfit) around N (Noon, initially)
21 Mouthpiece for musical instrument (5)
ORGAN – double definition, the first as in an organ of government.
22 Italian composer ahead of court ruling (7)
VERDICT – VERDI (Italian composer) CT. (court)
23 What may decide winner of cup, about right after draw (10)
TIEBREAKER – BEAKER (cup) about R(ight) after TIE (draw)

Down
2 Set out with a compass, crossing top of ridge (7)
ARRANGE – A, the RANGE of = the compass of, crossing R (“top” of Ridge)
3 Swindle man on board (4)
ROOK – double definition
4 £10 brought up for cheesemaker (6)
RENNET – TENNER (£10) brought up/reversed.
5 Not appropriate, units due to be changed (8)
UNSUITED – anagram (to be changed) of UNITS DUE
6 Monotonous speaker, doctor on energy (5)
DRONE – DR (doctor), ON, E(nergy)
7 Predicament consuming terribly wary dramatist (10)
PLAYWRIGHT – PLIGHT (predicament) consuming an anagram (terribly) of WARY
8 My old country’s royal event (10)
CORONATION – COR (my/gosh/etc.) O(ld) NATION (country) is the answer.
12 Everyone at home welcoming a church wedding (8)
ALLIANCE – ALL (everyone) IN (at home) welcoming A, CE (Church of England = church)
15 Stupid in the way that number must cross island (7)
ASININE – AS (in the way that) NINE (number) to cross I(sland). I wonder how many people this has caught out in spelling bees? Easily done, and what a word to crash out on.
16 Bright in bar after opening of curtains (6)
CLEVER – LEVER (bar) after C (“opening” of Curtains)
18 Dark wicked thing (5)
NIGHT – anagram (wicked) of NIGHT. I was wondering if there was a short word for an UNLIT CANDLE after that inspired old chestnut clue “A wicked thing? (6)” – as in, a thing with a wick.
20 Song from Callas, not her first (4)
ARIA – MARIA Callas was a famous soprano (apparently), deduct the first letter.

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1538 by Tracy”

  1. I had completed all but three answers within 7 minutes but then suffered a brain-freeze. It cleared only just in time for me to make my target 10 minutes. The ones hard to find were CLEVER, TANGIBLE and TIEBREAKER, the last being particularly galling having just enjoyed watching Dominic Thiem win three of them to knock Nadal out of the Australian Open.

    Edited at 2020-01-30 06:22 am (UTC)

  3. 12:26, well under my 20 minute target and almost a PB, after struggling for most of the week. I was ‘on the wavelength’, especially on the down clues with my last three all across, TIEBREAKER, TANGIBLE then NEEDLE. I managed to parse everything except for cup = beaker. Thanks to Tracy and to rolytoly for the blog.

    Brian

  4. at 23ac was my LOI as it was hard to even with all the crossers.

    FOI 1ac FAIRGROUND

    COD 17dn NIGHT

    WOD 15dn ASININE

    Time 9.30 mins

  5. When one of my children became a vegetarian, we discovered that some cheeses (Parmesan in particular) are not suitable for vegetarians because they are made using RENNET, which is extracted from the stomachs of calves killed for veal production. Funny what you learn as you go along.

    Anyway, that didn’t help me today because I blew out on DELIVERY, where a severe attack of brain glue stopped me seeing which end of the clue was the definition. So DNF today.

    Thanks Tracy and roly.

    Templar

    1. It’s available from vegetable and microbial sources these days and used in production of Kosher and Halal cheeses making them suitable for vegetarians. I don’t know if there’s a vegetarian Parmesan but it wouldn’t surprise me.

      My mother and grandmother used rennet for making junket (aka curds and whey of Little Miss Muffet fame). I wonder if anyone still eats traditional English junket or has it disappeared under competition from panna cotta and other exotic foreign puddings?

      1. There are lots of vegetarian cheeses but if rennet is involved you have to check very carefully to establish the source of the enzymes. And no, there is no actual Parmesan which is vegetarian, because “Parmesan” is a legally protected name and can only be made with set ingredients, one of which is calf rennet. Calf rennet is also traditionally used for Gorgonzola, gruyere, Camembert, pecorino romano, Vacherin, Manchego … it’s a tough gig being vegetarian!
        1. I suspect 99% of vegetarians imbibe a little meaty stuff from time to time, without realising .. never look at a sprout under a microscope 😉
          I’m a sort of semi-vegetarian in that I don’t eat meat but don’t stress about things like rennet either. Life too short.
  6. A fairly gentle offering from Tracy today, although I made things a little tricky for myself by initially putting SCOLW in at 9a and then trying to start 7d with an anagram of awry. Other than untangling that little diversion there were no hold ups, finishing in 8.46 with LOI NIGHT.
    Thanks to Roly
  7. A fair puzzle from Tracy. I jumped about as usual having little joy in the top half at first. I didn’t help myself by having DEVIL (d evil) for 18d and it took a bit of thought about 21a to realise it had to be wrong (I thought NIGHT was quite well hidden). The delay took me over 3K. I needed crossers for almost all the double definitions. TIEBREAKER was my LOI, too; like others I biffed it. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-01-30 09:41 am (UTC)

    1. Yep. Made the same error. Convinced myself that it was a quasi &lit. Didn’t know rook for swindle which was my LOI but it’s in the free thesaurus on my phone so not obscure. Sub 30 so happy. Johnny
  8. Bang in the middle of my target range at just under 13 minutes for me. I got fixated on NIGGLE for NEEDLE at one point, but obviously couldn’t make it work. Otherwise, I think I liked RANK best.

    Roly, you missed the underline to define the definition In 2d. Thanks both.

  9. I’m afraid that Tracy’s QC proved too hard for me today.

    Not at all on the same page as the setter, with plenty of empty clues after 45 minutes. Struggled particularly with ARRANGE, ORGAN, TANGIBLE, NEEDLE, DELIVERY, RANK and FAIRGROUND. Stuck in 18ac D+EVIL rather than NIGHT.

    For some reason a lot of the wordplay seemed to complex to get my novice head around. Having seen it on the blog it does seem fair though.

  10. 9:53 which is a good time for me for a Tracy puzzle.

    Last few were tangential (list for table didnt jump out immediately), needle, arrange (same for compass/range) and LOI rank.

    COD coronation.

  11. 5:42, but blindsided by a mombled hidden TANTIALI instead of TANGIBLE. Bah humbug! Thanks Tracy and Roly.
  12. ….was almost as well known for being the long term love interest of Aristotle Onassis as she was for her operatic prowess. That was long before Jackie Kennedy appeared on his horizon.

    Nice puzzle from Tracy which caused me few problems and had some enjoyable clues.

    FOI FAIRGROUND
    LOI ALLIANCE
    COD TIEBREAKER

  13. Some great clues here. I loved the 2 double definitions, “rank ” and “needle” and thought that 4 down was a great clue, too, although glue-brain caused me to write “tenner” in at first before 1 across put me right. I guess this puzzle took me somewhere around a quarter of an hour but have to admit that there were three which I could not parse. The first of these was “arrange”. I could not see why there had to be a double R. Once I had read Rolytoly’s blog, all was clear and I didn’t feel too much of a dimwit because I think it wasn’t at all obvious. However, the other two were “tangible” and “tiebreaker” and I do think that I should have seen “table” for “list” and “beaker” for “cup”. Great fun, nevertheless. Thanks so much, Rolytoly, and thanks, too, to Tracy.
  14. No issues today, pretty much top to bottom solve with lots of biffing thanks to some very generous definitions. ‘Cor’ and ‘my’ are well worth remembering as synonyms, as are ‘bar’ and ‘lever’.

    My thanks to Tracy and Roly.
    2’50”

  15. … which was my LOI; still not really convinced that substantial and tangible are close enough in meaning to make the clue work quite.

    Otherwise a strange day in which the NE corner went in almost as fast as I could write and the SW corner held me up pretty comprehensively, for an 11 minute finish. But having seen Rolytoly’s excellent blog I’m really not sure why!

  16. After a couple of really sluggish days, this went in really quickly – so omitted to proof-check before submitting, and of course there was a really obvious typo. (It would be helpful if the grid didn’t disappear when you click ‘submit’ and are asked whether to go to the leaderboard.)
  17. I was delayed a little today, speed reading some clues and semi biffing them so I ended up with that well known cheesemaker ‘rekcin’ (nicker being £1) and dramatist as playwriter. I did manage to unravel my mistakes and crept in just under my 10 minutes target. My FOI was 1a FAIRGROUND and my LOI 17a TANGIBLE. I found NIGHT the trickiest clue! Thanks Tracy and Roly.
  18. 5:05. TIEBREAKER going in last.

    Seems to be an easier week this week. No doubt that’ll trigger a stinker tomorrow.

  19. I made up a new word for me – rennet but it was very familiar to SWMBO. Have to say a very fair puzzle – just the job for a quickie – thanks setter and blogger.
  20. An enjoyable puzzle – took me an hour or so even if I technically DNF. Unfortunately I did come a cropper on 15dn and put in “Anisine” against my better judgement as I thought the “Asinine” parsing didn’t work. Even more annoying as I got it right a few weeks before.

    I also stumbled over 4dn and put in “Tenner” which perplexed me for 1ac until I realised I’d got it the wrong way round.

    For a while I thought the cluing on 12dn was incorrect thinking the “in” should welcome the “a” and the “ce”. However, upon reflection, I realised it could be looked at either way.

    FOI – 8ac “Cartoon”
    LOI – 15dn “Anisine” (incorrectly)
    COD – 8dn “Coronation”

    Thanks as usual.

  21. After the first 10mins I thought this was surprisingly easy for Tracy. At the 20min mark, with Scowl and Coronation put to bed, I thought it was more like average, and after 30mins, with a good five on the Asinine Tangible Tiebreaker trio, I finally concluded that this was another tricky one from Tracy. At one point, I even wondered if a Tantiall was an old and (very) obscure American soldier… Invariant
  22. Have been golfing today in rather miserable grey drizzly weather, so late here. I thought this was fairly easy with some hard bits. I did know Rennet but it’s not mainstream.
    I was steady but held up significantly by my last two: TANGIBLE and TIEBREAKER which as already mentioned was difficult even with all the checkers, so COD to that. Time was 14:03. David
  23. Bang in the middle of my target range at just under 13 minutes for me. I got fixated on NIGGLE for NEEDLE at one point, but obviously couldn’t make it work. Otherwise, I think I liked RANK best.

    Roly, you missed the underline to define the definition In 2d. Thanks both.

      1. Ha! Yes I don’t know what it is with LJ when it does that but I’ve seen it a few times.

        Well spotted though Rotter. It’s a bit late in the day to merit correcting it… I was going to say at least the confused late solver has now been shown the way two times in the comments, except of course the actual definition is yet to be mentioned. Ah well!

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