Times Quick Cryptic No 1573 by Pedro

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was comfortably inside my upper (generous?) time limit at 14 minutes, but again, held some traps.  Hopefully, you will have managed to complete in a reasonable time yourselves.  I see neither theme nor NINA, but did enjoy this puzzle from Pedro, particularly when reviewing the clues again to write the blog.

FOI was JACK.  I needed to write the anagrist for the two long anagrams before they revealed themselves to me, but nothing else was too obscure or difficult to see.  There was the need to lift and separate a couple of times.  Any other difficulties I have referred to in the commentary below.  My WOD is ANGUISH.

Keep 22 and 21 your facemasks to stem the 17 in these worrying times.

Across

1  Doctor takes no time in saying a little (7)
MODICUM – MO (doctor) and DIC{t}UM (saying, no T{ime}).
5  Sailor playing card (4)
JACK – Double definition, the first referring to JACK Tar, the second to one of the knaves in a deck of cards.
7 Problem with wrestling, nothing less (3)
SUM – SUM{o} wrestling, with the last letter removed – nothing less.
8  Organise a fight in a car (8)
RUNABOUT – Equivalent of RUN A BOUT (organise a fight).  A RUNABOUT is a small, light car.
10  Eagle’s attribute seen around river and island nest (5)
EYRIE – Eagles have several attributes, but one of them is famously an ‘eagle’s EYE’, which here surrounds R{iver} and I{sland} to give EYRIE, the nest of a bird of prey, such as an eagle.
11  Droop after shaking off head pain (7)
ANGUISH – {l}ANGUISH, having shaken off head, dropped first letter.  I wondered about the equivalence of anguish and pain, but it is perfectly acceptable according to Chambers.
13  Urge is visible, we hear (6)
INCITE – Sounds like (we hear) IN SIGHT.
15  Better to lose first slow walker (6)
AMBLER – {g}AMBLER (better, as in gambler) losing first letter.
17  Increase in students initially restricted by University clear-out (7)
UPSURGE – U{niversity} and PURGE (clear-out) containing S{tudents} (initially).
18  American to leave cuddling one Hispanic friend (5)
AMIGO – AM{erican) and GO (leave) surrounding (cuddling) I (one).  I don’t think I have seen AM as an abbreviation of American in the QC before, and it isn’t listed in Chambers, but I think it is fair enough if you think about the old air carrier Pan Am.
20  Tirade provided by one of several siblings in the quarter (8)
QUADRANT – RANT (tirade) after QUAD (one of a set of QUADruplets (one of several siblings)).
22  Able to run, following target of chase? (3)
FIT – F{ollowing} (an acceptable abbreviation according to my Chambers) and IT (as in you are IT, in games like tag).  One definition of IT in Chambers is – in children’s games, the player chosen to oppose all others.
23  Near average (4)
MEAN – Double definition.  I was unsure about the first, but being ‘near’ here relates to being stingy, parsimonious or MEAN, whilst I think the second is more obvious.
24  Selected comments maybe from drinker finally accepted by bar (7)
EXCERPT – EXCEPT (bar) containing {drinke}R (finally).

Down

1  Peculiar way to represent tourism? Yes (10)
MYSTERIOUS – Anagram (way to represent) of [TOURISM? YES]
2  Odd newsman raised objection (5)
DEMUR – RUM (odd) and ED{itor} (newsman) all reversed (raised).  DEMUR has always been a verb to me, and objection a noun, causing a slight pause in my progress.  However, I see that DEMUR as a noun is allowed by Chambers as an act of demurring or objection.
3  Come in in pursuit of fish and chips (9)
CARPENTER – ENTER (come in) after CARP (fish) to give the slang term for a CARPENTER.  Is it just me that struggles with the order of things when ‘in pursuit of’ or ‘chasing’ signifies to come before or after in a down clue?  I struggle with it nearly every time.
4  Fellows curtailed discussion of the mind (6)
MENTAL – MEN (fellows) and TAL{k} (curtailed discussion).
5  Sailor supporting Judge in critical comment (3)
JAB – AB (sailor – able-bodied) supporting J{udge}.
6  Key cricket club adopting different sport starts to inspire all league (7)
CRUCIAL – CC (cricket club) containing (adopting) RU (Rugby Union – different sport) and followed by first letters of (starts to) I{nspire} A[ll} L{eague}.
9  Heating control more than half nibbled by the rodent  (10)
THERMOSTAT – MOST (more than half) inside (nibbled by) THE (the) and RAT (rodent)
12  My acting’s odd, but vigorous (9)
GYMNASTIC – Anagram (odd) of [MY ACTING’S].
14  Bird turned up, bill on head – fancy dress? (7)
COSTUME – EMU (bird) reversed (turned up) with COST above (on head).
16  Picked up teaching degree and took in discussion (6)
DEBATE – Thanks to Anon below who pointed out that I had missed this clue in the blog, and to Kevin who provided an answer.  B.ED (teaching degree) reversed (picked up) and ATE (took in).
19  Conclude there’s no escaping from fire (5)
INFER – NO escaping from INFER{NO} (fire)
21  Finished with dismissal of English academic (3)
DON – DON(e) (with dismissal of E{nglish})

35 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1573 by Pedro”

  1. Biff City, with a half-dozen words going in on def alone. Parsed them all after submission, but still, at 6:26, over my limit.
    1. DEBATE: DEB = BED (B.Ed., teaching degree) reversed (picked up) + ATE (took in)
      1. Thanks Kevin, I’ll add to the blog as soon as I get to a computer instead of trying to edit on my phone.

        Obviously, mea culpa!

    2. Funnily enough I also forgot to finish this clue as I was doing the paper edition having trawled Waitrose for the odd morsel. (The online edition on the daily commute being a distant memory). I frequently find myself on Rotters wavelength and agree with the Carpenter point. My target is 2 Rotters which I achieved exactly today. Seems like the QC has been hard this week for all though possibly we’re a bit distracted. Johnny
  3. Exactly 20 mins but thought this was tough.

    Very few gimmes.
    Couldn’t parse modicum.

    LOI incite.

    Some good surfaces. Liked runabout, and thermostat, COD excerpt.

  4. 16 long minutes for this Pedro puzzle.

    FOI 23ac MEAN

    LOI 24ac EXCERPT

    COD 1dn MYSTERIOUS – what ‘er indoors calls wisteria.

    WOD 18ac AMIGO – solidarity with all those in the new lockdownland

    I struggle with the forced ‘and’ at 3dn – surface is everything I know.. but..its NQR.

  5. Clearly I’m off my top form at the moment as I have missed my target (10 minutes) the past two days at 13 and 12 minutes putting me in the Amber zone, and today’s 21 minutes landed me squarely in the Red. Even worse, I missed parsing 4 clues along the way and had to return to them after stopping the clock, which is out of line with my usual practice to include parsing in the time stated.

    There’s nothing to complain of although I wondered if 14dn might have read ‘bird turned up, bill on tail’ instead of ‘head’.

    Edited at 2020-03-19 06:41 am (UTC)

  6. Another tough day for me, again very close to 30m but at least all green. Some good clues here but rather too many just a little above my comfort zone not helped by iffy definitions – finally put in MEAN but totally unaware near has ever been used to mean stingy. EXCERPT was LOI – not a helpful set of checkers and would have needed an “former partner” type hint to get there any quicker. Hoping for calmer waters tomorrow. Not that I’m in a hurry lately, there’s no commute.
  7. Another challenging offering today but enjoyable nonetheless.

    FOI: Jack
    LOI: carpenter
    COD: mysterious

    Thanks Pedro and Rotter

  8. I found this quite tough and failed to parse a few of the clues, namely; 1, 11 and 23a but finished 2 seconds under my target time of 15 minutes. I also needed to to write out the anagrams at 1 and 12d which slowed things up. Overall an interesting solve with my only minor quibble the MEAN/NEAR link. Finished with MEAN and my favourite was RUNABOUT.
    Thanks to Rotter for the much needed explanations
    1. Mean / near/ stingy / miserly is in all the usual sources and comes up over and again in the main puzzle and I doubt this is its first appearance in a QC, so it’s best treated as one to remember.
  9. Thanks jackkt, I’ll try to log it in the memory banks, although it usually takes a few outings for these things to stick!!
  10. A fascinating outing – full of quirky clues. I agree with many comments above and my time was slightly above 3K, close to flashman’s. I liked many clues but I picked out ANGUISH, CARPENTER, and RUNABOUT. I must confess to biffing a couple, once crossers allowed, so rotter’s blog is a good read – thanks. And thanks to Pedro for a good puzzle with just a single ‘Spanish’ connection. John M.

    Edited at 2020-03-19 09:45 am (UTC)

  11. Once again I struggled with this puzzle, and having spotted the correct parsing for 5d, inexplicably typed in JIB instead of JAB. I think my brain is fading. 13:41, WOE. Thanks Pedro and Rotter.
  12. As I was solving this I thought there were a lot of quite tricky things which you only learn from doing crosswords e.g. mean =near. And like others I was struggling to parse some of my answers.
    FOI was JACK. Tried FOX at 22a and wanted 11a to start SAG; so they were a couple of hold-ups. I struggle with the spelling and meaning of eerie Erie eyrie etc so 10a required a long slow look at the parsing.
    COD to either UPSURGE or RUNABOUT. Some very good stuff in here, but challenging for beginners I imagine.
    18:28 on the clock.
    David
  13. For 3d, I’m with you Rotter on order confusion. Considered alone, ‘in pursuit’ suggests coming afterwards, but I tend to visualise the whole solution with ‘enter’ chasing ‘carp’.

    Thanks for the excellent blog.

  14. Struggled with this but eventually got there with a bit of help. Found some of the clues, especially 6d, rather convoluted.
  15. Really struggled with this one, and certainly not helped by needing several crossers to get the anagram at 1d. After a tortuous 30mins, I decided the enjoyment factor was in short supply and used aids to get Carpenter, which allowed me to finish off the NW corner. I thought Fit and Infer were both on the sneaky side for a QC. Not a good day. Invariant
  16. ….at 0.74K, but no real problems.

    It’s time that lexicographers marked “near” in this context as obsolete – outside of Crosswordland I’ve never encountered it in 72 years !

    FOI JACK
    LOI EXCERPT
    COD CARPENTER

  17. It had to be mean so I hope it’s not mean to say that near meaning mean is so archaic that I doubt it’s been used since Noah was a lad 🙂
  18. f/o is a cricket abbreviation for ‘following on’. Never heard of NEAR = mean. Haven’t heard CHIPS = carpenter for a long time. Hard work today, but enjoyable.
    PlayUpPompey
  20. Happy with solving in 25m, no real holdups, put mean for 23ac, did not know the meaning of near in this case. Took time to sort out 2d, demur, again two of the short clues were tricky.
  21. If this was a quick crossword, then I’m Dutchman’s left foot. Apart from loads of tortuous construction we have: “selected comments” = excerpt, “peculiar” = mysterious, “critical comment” = jab, “gymnastic” = vigorous, “bill” = cost, “took in” = ate. Please! Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
    1. Yeah, this was very much one for the crossword buff, rather than people who expect words to mean what they do to ordinary people !
  22. Crikey…another shocker for me. Probably about 6 clues unfinished before I gave up. Not sure if the puzzles this week are hard whether I’m just all over the place.

    Saying that “near” = “mean” was a new one on me and I completely failed to equate “chips” with “carpenter”.

    Let’s hope there is a more gentle end to the week in these unsettling times.

    FOI – 5ac “Jack”
    LOI – I wish….
    COD – 6dn “Crucial”

    Thanks as usual.

    1. Yes, ‘… fish for the chippy’ would have been a much better ending for 3d
      1. I’d agree with you. A “chippy” at least I’ve heard of (although I’m still not sure it would have twigged)
  23. Well this was far too tough for me. I can pretty much always finish, sometimes resorting to aids. Not today. I got half a dozen – some biffed and no idea of parsing. I came to the blog wondering if others would agree but it seems not really.

    Guess I’m just being dim. I’ll go back and read about what I’ve missed. Hoping tomorrow is easier.

  24. A late solve today. EXCERPT took me ages to get and was comfortably my LOI, but lots to think about.

    Seemed more 15×15 than QC, not to be taken as a complaint necessarily.

    16:50 [insert horrified emoji] for umpteen Kevins!

  25. This took me for ever- I had to keep coming back to it. I did complete it eventually without resorting to aids, which was pleasing. I couldn’t parse all the clues so thank you for the blog. There were some very good clues. I particularly liked 15a, 3d and 9d.
    FOI Jack
    LOI Excerpt
    This seems to have been a difficult week of QCs but maybe it’s the other distractions.
    Thank you
  26. Very tricky for me. Persevered and got there though – I was unsure of two on submission but got lucky this time. It took me at least twice my usual time though so definitely a tricky one for the non-pro.
  27. I see The blog’s pet Rottweiler is on good form again, admonishing anonymous heretics who dare to question the setters

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