Times Quick Cryptic No 1568 by Trelawney

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
After attempting both of yesterday’s puzzles with varying degrees of failure, I was starting to feel like patient zero in the latest twist to the zombie apocalypse whereby the brain is rendered down to a dimly cognizant sludge. Or perhaps it’s a hangover. Either way, I found this an excellent initial course of treatment, pitched somewhat towards the easier end with an array of fine surfaces. I got a thoroughly life-affirming ‘Congratulations!’ a mere three minutes over my target, and I might have been a notch quicker had it not been for spelling 10ac with the final E, overwriting the H and making 6d (my LOI) trickier than it already was. Hearty thanks to Trewlaney!

Across
1 Accepted being sent back to find healthier hot drink? (5)
DECAF – FACED (accepted) being sent back = reversed. Emphasis on the question mark, I’d say, given the use of a chemical solvent to remove the principal attribute of a drink. Chamomile tea is a pleasure, drink that instead.
7 Pitcher of beer for Spooner’s dance (9)
JITTERBUG – bitter jug = pitcher of beer, Spooner = swap initial letters. Can be a tricky type of clue to solve. My favourite is the Two Ronnies one about being mad as a hatter.
9 One in vehicle going to old African city (5)
CAIRO – I (one) in CAR (vehicle) going to O(ld)
10 Some crabs in thick green liquid (7)
ABSINTH – “Some” of the letters of crABS IN THick.  Absinte, with French pronunciation, didn’t immediately look wrong, making two QCs in a row where I’ve been dashed by wormwood.
11 Persuaded sculptor to box in gym (5,2)
ROPED IN – RODIN (sculptor) to box in PE (gym). Very neat.
12 Endurance refitting mast in Antarctica, primarily (7)
STAMINA – Anagram (refitting) of MAST IN A (Antarctica, “primarily”)
15 Alfred leaves one country for another (7)
AUSTRIA – AL (Alfred) leaves AUSTRALIA (one country)
18 What’s demanded by one who lost sleep at church? (7)
REMATCH – REM (rapid eye movement = sleep) AT CH(urch). What a lovely clue.
20 Angela’s baked a pasta dish (7)
LASAGNE – anagram (baked) of ANGELAS
22 Seize a former partner, reportedly (5)
ANNEX – reportedly = sounds like AN EX (a former partner)
23 Weather forecaster that can take the pressure? (9)
BAROMETER – cryptic definition, with a pun on pressure = stress for a meteorologist in the surface reading.
24 Work requirement, say (5)
KNEAD – say “NEED” (requirement)


Down
1 Final month with gold furnishings (5)
DECOR – DEC[ember] (final month) with OR (gold)
2 Camden’s first bohemians get takeaway from these? (8)
CHIPPIES -C (Camden’s “first”) HIPPIES (bohemians)
3 Crosses either side of Japan’s top water features (6)
FJORDS – FORDS (crosses) either side of J (Japan’s “top”)
4 Cambridge is happy to exhibit eastern performer (6)
GEISHA – “exhibited” in the letters of cambridGE IS HAppy
5 Scottish town beginning to organise prohibition (4)
OBAN – O (“beginning” to Organise) BAN (prohibition)
6 Urge schoolmaster’s top student? (7)
EGGHEAD – EGG (urge = as in encourage, egg on) HEAD (schoolmaster). My LOI, with L also standing for least-favourite.
8 Unfortunately, partner’s tan is see-through (11)
TRANSPARENT – anagram (unfortunately) of PARTNERS TAN IS
13 Cook an insect, for example (8)
INSTANCE – anagram (cook) of AN INSECT
14 Nobleman with decoration for body part (7)
EARLOBE –EARL (nobleman) with OBE (decoration)
16 Government cut short course of treatment (6)
REGIME – REGIMEN (course of treatment) cut short = dock the last letter
17 Go on with me up the pub: The King’s Head (6)
EMBARK – EM (me “up”, reversed) [the = a linkword] BAR (pub) K (King’s “head”)
19 Pay attention, holding cross that’s cursed (5)
HEXED – HEED (pay attention) holding X (cross)
21 Island‘s small boat (4)
SARK – S(mall) ARK (boat)

38 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1568 by Trelawney”

  1. Held up at the end by the intersecting DECAF and FJORDS. Faced is not the first word that comes to mind for “accepted”. And FJ wasn’t the first combination I tried! But I got there in the end. The quickie is so often like that, mostly easy but with a few clues I just don’t click on immediately.
  2. 20 mins with a careless kneed for knead, which I’ll blame on the lack of sleep watching the reds crash out of Europe til 2.30am.

    Cod chippies.

  4. Biffed REMATCH. LOI 6d, where I’ll join Jack and Roly; not only do I not like the equation of top student with EGGHEAD, but EGG does not mean ‘urge’; ‘egg on’ does. (He egged me to do it?) 5:19.

    Edited at 2020-03-12 06:16 am (UTC)

  5. I thought this was a really good test and was delighted to finish all correct in 15:18.
    FOI was DECOR, then steady progress for a bit, but hardly any gimmes.Five or six clues held out for very close inspection, mainly in the SE. LOI was HEXED and I submitted after a think about how to spell KNEAD.
    Lots of COD candidates. EARLOBE or EMBARK for me.
    David
  6. My heart sank when I saw the dreaded spoonerism as I find these by far the hardest clues to get my head round. Fortunately the ‘J’ at the start made it relatively simple in the end.
    Overall I thought this was a gentle but entertaining offering which I finished in 8.25 with LOI KNEAD, where I had a brief debate about the penultimate letter. My COD goes to REMATCH.
    Thanks to Roly
  7. Almost the ever-elusive clean sweep today – only two of the acrosses held out on first pass, and none of the downs. Curse you, DECAF and AUSTRIA! I enjoyed that and no eyebrows were raised during the solving of 6dn. Though I thought “Al” for Alfred was a bit questionable. Fun puzzle. (On edit – I forgot to say that it was 2K and a Good Day.)

    FOI JITTERBUG, LOI AUSTRIA, COD FJORDS

    Thanks Trelawney and roly.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-03-12 09:12 am (UTC)

  8. 12 mins today, but no complaints. Although if I’d thought about EGGHEAD then I would have complained!

    NeilC

  9. I think my brain must have turned into sludge, as I went into extra time while trying not to fall asleep and then biffed a careless ASSYRIA just because it fitted. 13:28 WOE. I should leave these until I wake up! Thanks Trelawney and Roly.
  10. Generally a good mix thanks all – I agree with Kevin about egg. Also I would say that Alfred is normally Alf – I would say it is shortened to Al approximately 0 % of the time but with some letters there it didn’t matter.
  11. Another ASSYRIA here, which nagged me enough by Alf’s absence that I had to reconsider. I ended up taking 19 minutes, also pausing over the spelling of KNEAD and struggling with the FJORD / JITTERBUG crossing. Thanks Roly and Trelawney.
  12. ….’ALF. Where is Australfia ?

    In 6D “egg on head” is rather “egg on face” for Trelawney.

    A shrug and move on day, and an early top 10 spot on the leader board.

    FOI CAIRO
    LOI REMATCH
    COD KNEAD

  13. Wikipedia has a list of the names that can be shortened to Al – and Alfred is included.
    It also gives examples, including the great Al Pacino – alias Alfredo James Pacino. So I think the setter is off the hook here!
  14. Most trouble in the SE – with EMBARK and ANNEX and REMATCH all to blame. Not a 6d fan but otherwise a good set of clues and good, if slow, fun.
  15. ALFRED – ALF, not AL. Took me a while to get into this. I wasn’t on the wavelength at all, but made it in the end. Enjoyed CHIPPIES.
    PlayUpPompey
  17. I was very slow to start (not helped by a slow recovery from a 5 hour multi-course gourmet dinner with superb matching wines presented by a famous Californian winemaker last night). I made little progress in the NW corner (apart from DECOR which was a gift). I moved erratically up from the bottom. LI were EGGHEAD, DECAF, FJORDS, and CHIPPIES (good clue but made difficult because I wrote in ALGERIA for no good reason). I found JITTERBUG, REMATCH, and ROPED IN quite tough but good clues. I agree that EGGHEAD was poor. Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable outing, overall, despite a 4K time. Thanks to Trelawney and Roly. John M.

    Edited at 2020-03-12 01:15 pm (UTC)

  18. As taxing as the southwesterlies making my ride home tougher than it should be.
    Trudged home in 10:55. Had biffed ASSYRIA but didn’t like it, so spent a minute getting AUSTRIA.
    Apart from that is just didn’t click, everything having to be prised out of me. I did like REMATCH though.
  19. Yet again this looked like a no hope for me but ended up completing it and enjoying the ride..
    Loved Jitterbug because I normally don’t get Spoonerisms – Chippies very good – and smiled at Earlobe. LOI as others Egghead and also hesitated based on definitions.
    But did misspell Kneed for Knead…partly because I had seen Heed in 19d and partly because it is not a word that I have written or seen in a while.
    Well done to setter and blogger.
    Thank you
    John George
  20. About 30 mins for me, with the SE corner proving the most taxing.

    I also wasn’t sure about “faced” = “accepted” eg. you can “face” the truth, but does that mean you accept it? Probably overthinking it to be honest.

    A toss up between 18ac “Rematch” and 17dn “Embark” for COD – but the surface of 18ac well and truly had me scuppered for a while.

    FOI – 1dn “Décor”
    LOI – 24ac “Knead”
    COD – 18ac “Rematch”

    Thanks as usual

  21. A quick finish today – well under our usual time. Good fun.

    FOI: decaf
    LOI: rematch
    COD: roped in

    Thanks Trelawney and Roly.

    Lynda

  22. then came to a bit of a grinding halt and struggled with quite a few. Managed DECAF once I had the D and C which helped me get FJOIRD and thus JITTERBUG! Took a lot of staring to get ROPED IN (not good on sculptors although I do off course know of Rodin!) Got AUSTRIA before working out its connection with AUSTRALIA (was trying to get it from Algeria or Albania! Struggled with HEXED but pleased to work it out. Agree with others that egg doesn’t mean urge but got it anyway. Wasn’t able to parse EMBARK so thanks for that, it was my LOI. Some days my brain just doesn’t work as well as others! Thanks again – I will look at the 15×15 and refuse to get discouraged!
  23. Where I confidently wrote in “chipshop” (c+hip shop where bohemians buy things) and then spent a long while wonder if there was some form of exercise “se”, and a phrase “rosed in”. Thought 13d was a nice bit of misdirection, but worried about “faced” and “egg” which both seemed a bit of a stretch.
  24. A few iffy clues, I thought. In anyone’s world a schoolmaster is a teacher, over whom the head rules. Now a school master would have worked.

    Al for Alfred? Nope, not in the UK. I’m not really interested in whether or not some dictionary has examples, dictionaries contain all sorts of stuff with little or no association with the real world. IMHO if it takes reference to the dictionary to support an answer, the setter has failed.

    Luckily, I’m perfect…🙂

  25. A bit of a slow day today at nearly 3K. Not sure what held me up – the SE corner took a while to tumble, that’s for sure. When Trelawney first appeared here, his / her earliest offerings seemed quite gentle, but I feel s/he is upping the ante now.

    I agree with all of you who struggle with Spoonerisms. I usually find them very obtuse but today – wonders will never cease – 7a revealed itself straightaway!

    FOI Jitterbug
    LOI. Knead
    COD Jitterbug
    Time 15:30

    Thanks all 😊

  26. I was certainly on wavelength today and scored a PB in 6:28 (6 secs faster than previously). FOI was DECOR and LOI EGGHEAD. I had a little hiccup at the JITTERBUG and FJORDS interchange but made up some time with a fair few write ins including CAIRO, AUSTRIA and ANNEX. An excellent day. Thanks Roly and Trelawney.

  27. A few minor quibbles with Egg (on), Alf, and Spoonerisms in general, but apart from those I thought this was a terrific puzzle from Trelawney. My only regret was finishing it in just over 20mins rather than a more sedate and enjoyable 30. Numerous CoD candidates, but I think 18ac, Rematch, gets the prize because of the parsing, with honourable mentions for 11ac, 22ac and 17d. Invariant
  28. Guessed clues without parsing, but finished. Put chipshop initially, which didn’t help.
    Many thanks all round.
  29. Many thanks for the explanations on the clues.
    As a total ‘noob’ on cryptics I find this super helpful.

    I am improving’ but still have face-palm moments.

    I am puzzled by the LOI, COD, FOI acronyms though

    1. There’s a link to a glossary at the top of the page (right hand side) on the desktop version of this site.

      If you can’r see it, it’s here: https://sites.google.com/view/tft-glossary/home

      I totally agree about the usefulness of this blog.. I’ve been doing them for a year or two but still struggle – especially today.

    2. LOI Last one in
      FOI First one in
      COD Clue of Day

      Also
      POI Penultimate one in
      GR Golden Raspberry (signifying displeasure in the clue construction/non unique answer)
      DNK Did not know
      NHO Never heard of
      GK General Knowledge

      That should do for now. Regards Janet West

    4. If you’re using a phone or tablet, you may find the glossary at the bottom of the opening page – it’s full of useful info 😊

      Welcome aboard!

      Edited at 2020-03-12 11:07 pm (UTC)

  30. Well, I found this a real slog, needing frequent deployment of aids to get a few of the answers.

    I also share the general dissatisfaction with some of the clues.

    Maybe better luck tomorrow….

    Edited at 2020-03-12 07:07 pm (UTC)

  31. FOI 1dn DECOR

    LOI 22ac ANNEX

    COD 14ac AUSTRIA

    WOD 7ac JITTERBUG

    8ac TRANSPARENT has a different meaning in the Uxbridge.

Comments are closed.