Times Quick Cryptic No 1603 by Breadman

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Happy last day of April everyone – I thought it would never end!

I think that this is the first QC from Breadman that I have blogged, and I enjoyed doing it despite the solve taking me 19 minutes, 4 over my target range.  There was one unknown for me, (but fairly clued) answer at 20a.  The grid is also one-letter short of being a pangram (B for Breadman (?) is missing!)

As indicated below, my WOD is YIKES and FOI was SPAIN.  Thanks to Breadman.  Let me know how you got on.

Across

1  Plain store oddly containing unknown egg-based drink (7,6)
PRAIRIE OYSTER – PRAIRIE (plain) and an anagram (oddly) of [STORE] containing Y (unknown).  There is nice misdirection in the definition part, which had me looking for an eggnog or advocaat type drink.  The anagrind (oddly) also had me looking to use alternate letters, so this took a while to unscramble, if you’ll forgive the pun.  For anyone not aware, a PRAIRIE OYSTER is a raw egg with condiments, often used as a hangover cure.
8  Belgian town in European country (5)
SPAIN – SPA (Belgian town, home of the Belgian Grand Prix when we have them) and IN (in).
9 Anonymous hunk now noticed partly (7)
UNKNOWN – Hidden answer in {h}UNK NOW N{oticed}.
10  James in Iowa recreated World War II battle (3,4)
IWO JIMA – JIM (James) inside an anagram (recreated) of [IOWA].  IWO JIMA was made even more famous by the Pulitzer prize-winning photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal of Associated Press, showing US Marines raising the flag of the USA after the battle.  This photograph was the basis for the Marine Corps Memorial, and can be seen here.
11  Flesh going off in storage space (5)
SHELF – An anagram (going off) of [FLESH] – about as easy as it gets!
13  Popular coach, when heart deficient, so essential (9)
INTRINSIC – IN (popular) and TR{a}IN (coach, when heart deficient, i.e. remove the middle letter) and SIC (Latin for so).
17  Perform better than old-fashioned party (5)
OUTDO – OUT (old-fashioned) and DO (party).
19  Alluring beauty finally deserting old Hollywood actress (7)
GLAMOUR – {desertin}G (finally) and Dorothy LAMOUR (old Hollywood actress).
20  Winged symbols appearing in diagram or in illustration (7)
AMORINI – This was new to me, but it is a clearly signalled hidden (appearing in) {diagr}AM OR IN I{llustration}.  An AMORINO is a cupid, and when there is more than one, they are AMORINI.
22  Supply key joke (5)
EQUIP – E (key) and QUIP (joke).  Let’s hope the PPE supply is sorted soon!
23  The vet yearned to reform equestrian contest (5-3,5)
THREE-DAY EVENT – Anagram (to reform) of [THE VET YEARNED]

Down

1  In short, delivery person that is after work up street (6)
POSTIE – Short for POSTMAN or POSTWOMAN.  It works like this – IE (that is) after OP (work) reversed (up) and with ST{reet} coming next.
2  Worker consuming tiny amount is expert on bodies (9)
ANATOMIST – ANT (worker) containing (consuming) ATOM (tiny amount) and IS (is).
3  Behave wildly, iron into track (3,4)
RUN RIOT – Wildly here is doing double duty, acting as a part of the definition, and as an anagrind.  An anagram (wildly) of [IRON] inside RUT (track)
4  1980s film teaching gunmen about technology (9,4)
EDUCATING RITA – EDUCATING (teaching) and RA (Royal Artillery, gunmen) containing IT (Information Technology).  I was an OU student at the time, as was the main protagonist in this amusing film, so it came readily to mind.
5  OK to pinch one thousand pounds?  Blimey (5)
YIKES – YES (OK) containing (to pinch) I (one) K (thousand pounds).  I guess the ‘pounds’ is a bit of redundancy, as the clue would work perfectly well without it.  This word always reminds me of Billy Bunter, so word of the day for me.
6  Anything northern rejected for couple (3)
TWO – ‘OWT (‘anything’ in a northern dialect apparently, as in ‘you don’t get owt for nowt’) reversed (rejected).
7  Printed name of female below artist  (3,3)
RAN OFF – N{ame} OF (of) F{emale} below RA (artist), as in ‘Mrs Rotter RAN OFF / printed a copy of the QC for me this morning’.
12  Constant look inside to make certain space fenced off (9)
ENCLOSURE – C{onstant} and LO (look) inside ENSURE (make certain).
14 Sort of cat is returned in the morning and leashed regularly (7)
SIAMESE – SI (is, returned, reversed) AM (in the morning) and alternate letters (regularly) of {l}E{a}S{h}E{d}.
15  Mother tours Australia with extremely reticent musical composer (6)
MOZART – MA (mother) around (tours) OZ (Australia) with R{eticen}T (extremely means outside letters).
16  Section on rubbish dump, raised place for deodorant? (6)
ARMPIT – ARM (section) and TIP (rubbish dump) reversed (raised).  The question mark is because one may apply deodorant to other parts of the body!  I wish they would open the council tips again.
18  Farm animal I’d put on drug, a chemical compound (5)
OXIDE – OX (farm animal) with I’D (I’d) and E{cstacy} (drug).
21  It’s used for paddling round a river (3)
OAR – O (round) A (a) and R{iver}.

46 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1603 by Breadman”

  1. Slow today, even with biffing RUN RIOT, EDUCATING RITA, & ENCLOSURE. POI SPAIN and LOI POSTIE took most of the time; couldn’t think of SPA, and didn’t know POSTIE. 8:50.
  2. Run of over 20m solves now reaches four – will it be a whole week of struggles? Only 3 went in on the first pass of acrosses but then seven of the down but a tricky grid combined with some tough clues took me to 21m. IWO JIMA was familiar enough to get from suspecting JIM was in there but PRAIRIE OYSTER was a total unknown. Special mention to 8a, a very short clue that caused me grief – on first pass thought “in” indicated a hidden and that it could be ANCOU – which turns out not to be a place anywhere – when checkers ruled that out I though the European meant E to be followed by a four letter country. It wasn’t until I slowed down and really went through POSTIE that I got the starting S and groaned mightily. Tough grid with some tough definitions but well clued, thanks Breadman, and thanks Rotter for letting me know SIC means so – a much neater definition that the one I carry around in my head.
    1. SIC was in yesterday’s 15 x 15, defined as thus, and thus and so are often used to define each other.
  3. 12 minutes, missing my target by 2 after a run of six consecutive targets achieved. THREE-DAY EVENT and PRAIRIE OYSTER delayed me longer than they should have.

    NHO AMORINI nor its singular ‘amorino’ although their alternatives ‘amoretti’ and ‘amoretto’ are familiar and the latter came up within the past week when I confused it with ‘amaretto’ the liqueur and macaroon. ‘Putto’ and ‘putti’ are other alternatives.

    Who, if they have seen it, could forget the film ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’ (1949) in which John Wayne led a squad of marines into the battle?

    Edited at 2020-04-30 05:44 am (UTC)

    1. Certainly the citizens of Iwo Jima have tried to put it behind them. No one is allowed to return – except for 300 special forces.
  4. I was held up by PRAIRIE OYSTER as I was trying to make (plain store)* with Y the anagrist, but was an R short. I needed all the crossers to see it, and it was my LOI. TWO was my FOI. Liked EDUCATING RITA. Didn’t know AMORINI, so glad it was hidden. As usual with this setter I was over my target at 11:42. Thanks Breadman and Rotter.
  5. 30 minutes, 10 over target, so a difficult puzzle. I got off to a good start with PRAIRIE OYSTER, although I havn’t had a decent hangover since the pubs closed, and my LOI was RUN RIOT after an alphabet trawl for the second R. I DNK AMORINI and parsed everything except TWO, so thanks to the rotter for the explanation.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-04-30 08:08 am (UTC)

  6. Another taxing QC. I couldn’t get going in the north but worked up from the south again. It became a question of looking at available crossers, adding the clue to the mental mix, then waiting for inspiration. So, I ended up outside my target again but only 2.1K so that is some compensation. My times seem to have been within a minute or two of rotter’s in the last few days so that can’t be bad either!
    I quite liked INTRINSIC and GLAMOUR and had to trust the letters with AMORINI. My slow start was explained by PRAIRIE OYSTER (ugh!), POSTIE, ANATOMIST, RAN OFF and YIKES. My COD is OWT/TWO – brilliant! Thanks to Breadman for a stiff work-out and to rotter for a good blog. John M.

    Edited at 2020-04-30 09:19 am (UTC)

  7. Excellent puzzle. No time as I was diverted by the celebrations for Captain Tom’s 100th birthday on BBC. What a hero and I must admit I found it very emotional seeing and hearing the fly past. Didn’t spot the near pangram and worked this out from bottom to top having failed to start well. Thanks all and thanks Captain Tom.
  8. I was expecting QC 1603 to contain a nod to the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James VI/I but alas no. Nor did QC 1588 have an Armada reference. Come on setters – you’re entering a rich seam of numbers for date-based Nina-creation!

    This was seriously tough, I thought, my worst raw time for a long time even if it was a respectable 2K on the K scale. Largely solved bottom up after being completely bamboozled by PRAIRIE OYSTER – (a) I tried to make an anagram of “plain store” + three letters equating to “unknown” (which I couldn’t think of unless it was XYZ); (b) in the course of this I saw that “plain store” contained “protein” which would be logical for an egg-based drink and thus boosted this theory; and (c) I drew further confirmation from getting both POSTIE and YIKES (shades of Scooby Doo). Further and further down the rabbit hole I went.

    Hey ho. Got there in the end. FOI POSTIE, LOI (taking almost half my time!) PRAIRIE OYSTER, COD TWO.

    Thanks Breadman and Rotter.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-04-30 08:25 am (UTC)

  9. Yikes. Hardest this week and a word I didn’t know – AMORINI. It looked like a pangram, but I hadn’t spotted the B was missing. Held up at the end by PRAIRIE OYSTER and RUN RTOT. I liked the clue for TWO. Thanks Breadman and Rotter. 5:30.
  10. I thought I was suffering from a severe attack of brain glue so I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one that struggled today. NHO of PRAIRIE OYSTER (and never want to taste it for that matter) but like others I was bamboozled by the options of it either including an anagram of or alternate letters of plain store.
    Lots to enjoy along the way despite the various hold ups but with honourable mentions to OWT and YIKES. My proof reading tipped me over the 20 minute mark after completing the grid with the bizarrely tricky SHELF.
    Well played Breadman and thanks to rotter.

    Edited at 2020-04-30 08:49 am (UTC)

  11. This was a real mix – some very good clues and some annoying ones. From the cluing and as more words went in it had to be amorini but I couldn’t find the word in the OED. Found a reference to amorino in Chambers under amoret but even there the plural wasn’t offered, but by now a least I knew it was probably right. I’ve sometimes been rebuked for suggesting that some words are obscure but it’s difficult to think of a more obvious example than this. I expect someone will tell me that it’s as clear as day in Collins, but heh! Educating Rita gets the odd airing but it would be known by many younger readers and Dorothy Lamour would be a complete mystery as well. rant over.
    1. The Chambers app on my phone has amoriti as the plural ( I had to check it )
      Brian

      Edited at 2020-04-30 09:56 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks – I maligned Chambers as in a closer look at my hard copy I found Amorini as a plural but it was under amoret so well tucked away.
  12. That was tough but very enjoyable. I realised early on that this was not going to be a race against the clock and settled happily into it. Across: PRAIRIE OYSTER required most of the checkers before it came to me as did IWO JIMA because I always struggle to spell the island. SIC for so took a moment, AMORINI was an unknown but obviously a hidden and my LOI was THREE-DAY EVENT probably because I was expecting the answer to be a DNK. Down: I initially put in RUN free at 3d (Fe for Iron) and EDUCATING RITA was biffed (love the film). Thanks to Breadman for the workout and to Rotter for the informative blog. I too wish the council tips would open again. 16 minutes.
  13. Found this one tough going like most others, especially 1a which took me at least 20% of my final 70:10 to figure out. I nearly gave up, thinking the answer was going to be some indecipherable name of a wine I hadn’t heard of that was an anagram of PLAIN STORE with a Y in it and somehow the “egg-based” gave the other two letters. Seeing the lack of a B to make the pangram, I toyed with the idea that one of those letters was a B, but finally hit upon the idea that I only needed the letters in STORE and a word for plain. Also hadn’t heard of amorini and didn’t know sic was Latin for so. I am now left wondering why sic is used to indicate a mistake when you are quoting one.
    1. ‘so’ or ‘such’. [sic]=’It was written so [so don’t blame me]’.
      1. I’m presuming this is the same “sic” used to show an error in someone else’s quote/writing and not that of the author writing it.
  14. About 20 mins, most time spent on oyster, spain, anatomist and glamour. Couldn’t parse glamour or spain.

    Didn’t like run riot.
    COD shelf.

  15. This was my second DNF in a week, having not had one for ages. After struggling for ages with the top half of the grid, I cheated finally by googling egg-based drinks. Never heard of PRAIRIE OYSTER and I have to say it sounds pretty yucky! Once I’d got that one, I was able to complete the puzzle at last but the difficulty of 1 across stuck twenty minutes on top of my target quarter of an hour. I also biffed SPAIN, 8 across as I’ve never heard of the Belgian town of Spa. I had originally put YPRES, in my excitement forgetting that that’s not how you spell Cyprus… Like Plett11, I too, was bemoaning my glue brain until I read the comments and realised that it wasn’t just me – this really was a tricky one. DNK AMORINI, 20 across but it could be nothing else. And is it just me or should there have been some kind of anagrind to indicate what to do in 9 across, UNKNOWN? I answered it and could see how it was parsed, obvs, but…. Hmmm. I didn’t enjoy this. Anyway, thanks, Rotter, for pointing out so many good things and thanks, too, to Breadman.

    1. No anagram indicator is needed at 9a as it isn’t an anagram. As a hidden word it is fairly indicated by the ‘hiddind’ (hidden indicator) which is the last word of the clue – partly.
  16. ….and being quick enough to sit in 9th place on the current leaderboard, it seems churlish to criticise. However, I agree with Flashman with regard to the clue for RUN RIOT. “Wildly” seems to be doing double duty. It’s essential to the definition part of the clue, and I therefore felt that a separate anagram indicator was called for.

    DNK AMORINI, but it was POI and, for once, I immediately spotted the hidden. EDUCATING RITA and ENCLOSURE were both parsed afterwards.

    My Dad used to observe of our next door neighbour, who would accept anything he was offered, whether it was useful or not, that “He’ll have owt for nowt’.

    FOI UNKNOWN
    LOI OAR
    COD TWO
    TIME 0.43K

  17. They say things come in threes and today proves it. I’ve now had a hat trick of concurrent puzzles where I’ve failed on my final clue.

    NHO of “Prairie Oyster” for 1ac, so the misdirection in the clueing was even more of a hindrance than normal.

    Other than that it was a good workout. Quite a few I DNK but worked out (20ac, 23ac), juggled a bit with my “j’s” and “w’s” for 10ac, enjoyed the northern expression for 6dn and marvelled in my complete mis-parsing for 4dn (Gunman = ira, Technology = t).

    FOI – 1dn “Postie”
    LOI – DNF
    COD – 6dn “Two”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-04-30 11:21 am (UTC)

  18. Could not guess PRAIRIE OYSTER or POSTIE. Too embarrassed to admit other mistakes.
    Am old enough to be able to remember D. Lamour but young people would not.

    I thought SIC was Latin for thus and am familiar with its usage, obviously. Oh, I see the Rotter has already said this. Anyway I guessed INTRINSIC without parsing.

    Thanks all round as ever.

  19. Another who found this tough as the GK did not come to mind quickly or was unknown. FOI was POSTIE but I soon slowed down. LOI was TWO as I could not parse it (I’d thought of it immediately) so I waited for what was really LOI when I laboriously worked out the unknown PRAIRIE OYSTER ( quite a tricky clue for a QC). 19:36 on the clock.
    I enjoyed the challenge and I have the time. David
  20. I have had more Prairie Oysters than I care to remember.
    Bloody Mary’s help short term.
    Having stayed so many times in Perugia, AMORINI was a write in those damned cherubs and their swansdown wings decorate every ‘Bachi’- style chocolate. Soooo sweet xx!

    The Iwo Jima photo was re-enacted several times as the original was not much cop! From memory I believe only five men in the original shot – six otherwise.

    FOI POSTIE – Isn’t he from Downunder?

    LOI 16dn ARMPIT now there’s an unpleasant word – the old name for Fernando Po.

    COD 6dn TWO

    WOD 4dn EDUCATING RITA

    Time 10 minutes 45 seconds

    Edited at 2020-04-30 11:47 am (UTC)

  21. On this side of the pond I put my garbage (rubbish) in a pit. I raise my arm to put on deodorant 🙂
    1. Two nations divided by a common language. 😊 We have garbage/rubbish cans or bins (formerly dustbins but we don’t tend to have coal fires these days so coal dust is a rarity) and a collector takes the contents away each week to tip it somewhere far from home. Or even recycle it!
      If you measure a sleeve length how do you describe the ‘(arm)pit to cuff’ length. Or the pit-to-pit length for the chest size? Common usage this side of the water.
  22. This was a pretty tough solve from beginning to end and Steed tuned in to Breadman’s wavelength ahead of me. However, there were some great clues that really made us think and we liked that. We finished about 10 mins outside of our target time.

    FOI: Iwo Jima
    LOI: unknown
    COD: prairie oyster

    Thanks to Breadman and Rotter

  23. Prairie Oyster, Anatomist and Iwo Jima stumped me. Rest slowly revealed themselves – another very enjoyable puzzle.
    Graham
  24. Tough but fair.

    I did need all the checkers for PRAIRIE OYSTER which was also my LOI. I liked POSTIE, which I constructed and had a penny-drop moment.

    12:46, so definitely on the hard side.

    Done this one, done the Guardian one, let’s see if there’s time for the 15×15.

  26. Hard going today. DNK amorini but that was fairly obvious. Quite a few of the across clues took a while to work out. As for prairie oyster, well I had heard of it as a drink but had no idea what it consisted of. All in all a long (with interruptions) but nevertheless enjoyable struggle.

    FOI 10ac Iwo Jima
    LOI 1ac Prairie Oyster
    COD 4dn Educating Rita

  27. … as it shaded from “tough” to “annoying”. And not even a pangram to compensate – why make the effort to include the “difficult” letters JQXZ and then omit a B?

    Rather too many clues merited an asterisk next to them on the paper, which is my personal way of saying “Oh really? Let’s see what the blog says on this one”. 13A Intrinsic – does this really mean essential? 17A old-fashioned = out? 20A Amorini – never heard of it/them. 1D Postie – trying too hard to be clever in the word construction? 3D Run riot – no anagram indicator; as others have observed, wildly is part of the definition. 16D Armpit – does section really imply arm?

    I’m sure they are all legit and fair, and I did in the end complete the puzzle, but it was 18 minutes of shaking my head. Perhaps Breadman and I are simply on different wavelengths.

    Thanks to Rotter for the blog.
    Cedric

  28. Blimey! I found this nice’n’easy and completed in 1K, which, bearing in mind all the comments above, makes for A Very Good Day. Having said that, I struggled big time with the 15×15.

    As usual I did this mid-morning but have only just got round to posting.

    Didn’t know AMORINI but no problem with the rest of the all GK. Did Jeeves make Bertie Wooster prairie oysters? I’ve certainly heard of them but however bad the hangover, I don’t think I’d take that cure!

    FOI Spain
    LOI Can’t remember – forgot to note it
    COD Prairie oyster – I liked the link with plain in the clue
    Time 8:50

    Thanks Breadman and Rotter for a great blog

  29. Not too proud to admit i convinced myself a thousand was Y1K – hence YIKES. Right answer, very wrong method.

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