Times Quick Cryptic No 1612 by Teazel

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

18:35. Without question the most difficult Quickie I’ve ever attempted. It was a real struggle to get home, and for a time I thought I might give up. Nevertheless, I appreciated having to think hard, and was satisfied to finish.

Solutions

Across

1 Security device [for] motorcycle triallist (9)
SCRAMBLER – double definition
The first sense is an encoder, the second is an off-road motorcycle.
6 [For] train company, endless pain (5)
COACH – CO (company) + ACHE (pain) without the last letter
This fooled me, as I assumed the answer was a UK company (like Amtrak in the US) that British solvers would get right away. Very sneaky!
8 Roguish nurse, they say, [shows] great spirit (9)
ARCHANGEL – ARCH (roguish) + ANGEL (nurse)
Not terribly certain what the ‘they say’ is doing, except that Collins lists ‘angel’ as “informal” as a synonym for ‘nurse’. An archangel is an angel of the highest rank.
9 Look up Volume One and take a chair (5)
VISIT – V (volume) + I (one) + SIT (take a chair)
Sneaky definition.
10 Cast absent? So casual (9)
THROWAWAY – THROW (cast) + AWAY (absent)
Straightforward enough, but the clue made it seem certain there should be an anagram, if not for the wrong number of letters!
12 Guard small opening (6)
SENTRY – S (small) + ENTRY (opening)
13 Twenty runs — noted down by him? (6)
SCORER – SCORE (twenty) + R (runs)
Cheeky definition, since a ‘scorer’ is another word for ‘composer’, that is, one who writes down notes.
16 Introduce staggering price cut (9)
REDUCTION – INTRODUCE anagrammed (staggering)
I was delayed here because I felt certain it couldn’t be an anagram of ‘reduction’.
18 Engineers welcomed by the cardinal (5)
THREE – R.E. (engineers) in THE
The cardinal numbers are: one, two, three, etc; while the ordinal numbers are: first, second, third, etc.
19 One making landfall? (9)
AVALANCHE – cheeky definition
21 Detailed plans / one can look through (5)
SPECS – double definition
The first, a standard shortening of ‘specifications’.
22 Failing to respect security classification (3,6)
TOP SECRET – anagram of TO RESPECT

Down

1 Devastate second member of Tea Party (7)
SHATTER – S (second) + HATTER (member of Tea Party)
A reference to the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
2 Make a note of / unparalleled achievement (6)
RECORD – double definition
A good one, too.
3 Catcall without purpose picked up (5)
MIAOW – W/O (without) + AIM (purpose), reversed (picked up)
I was looking to put MEW or MEOW around something here.
4 Stage left, for instance (3)
LEG – L (left) + E.G. (for instance)
5 Bring together clubs: are they heading for Monte Carlo? (5,7)
RALLY DRIVERS –  RALLY (bring together) + DRIVERS (clubs)
Never heard of this, but it’s is a sort of auto racing, which takes place in, for instance, Monte Carlo.
6 Polite bureaucrat? (5,7)
CIVIL SERVANT – cheeky definition
A ‘civil servant’ is a bureaucrat, with a pun on ‘civil’ which also means ‘polite’.
7 Shared out in the manner indicated (8)
ASSIGNED – AS (in the manner) + SIGNED (indicated)
Think ‘signed’ as in the sense of “giving a signal”.
11 Rare show broadcast — [and] film (3,5)
WAR HORSE – RARE SHOW anagrammed (broadcast)
2011 Spielberg movie.
14 Disagree with Charlie over a game of cricket (7)
CONTEST – C (Charlie) + ON (over) + TEST (a game of cricket)
Couldn’t get past this being PROTEST somehow. C is for ‘Charlie’ in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. In my children’s alphabet, C is for ‘cookie’.
15 Sort of movement / a crab displays (6)
PINCER – double definition
A ‘pincer movement’ is an attack that comes from both sides. This sense comes from ‘pincer’ as ‘pincher’ or ‘grabber’, which latter became applied to animal parts, such as a crab’s claw.
17 Stop saying “Six” in French (5)
CEASE – homophone of the French six
I stupidly put in SEIZE (the French word for ‘sixteen’) without pausing to think of French or pronunciation or the indicated definition. Caused problems!
20 One’s on the phone: appear to block ear (3)
APP – APPEAR without EAR
This one fooled me! Hiding in plain sight!

75 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1612 by Teazel”

  1. I agree it was hard. It took me just a few seconds under 15 minutes.

    At least 1 minute of my excess time (I aim for 10) was spent trying make sense of the parsing at 21ac where too many years of cryptic crossword solving led me immediately to read ‘detailed plans’ as ‘de-tailed plans’ i.e. an instruction to remove the last letter of a word meaning ‘plans’ to arrive at the answer. The answer was always going to be SPECS, an abbreviation of ‘specifications’, but there’s no ‘de-tailing’ going on and ‘detailed’ is part of the first of two definitions as blogged by Jeremy. Note to self: Beware of making things more complicated than they actually are!

    Edited at 2020-05-13 05:34 am (UTC)

  2. Definitely harder than normal. BTW a scorer can be someone who writes down the run etc in cricket. I used to do it when I was about 12 years old. It beat actually having to play cricket. I thought of AVALANCHE immediately but it seemed a bit of a weird definition, more like snow falling rather than land. SPECS took me an alphabet trawl at the end, my LOI. I just couldn’t see it. I thought APP was cleverly misleading since “on the phone” usually signals a homonym.
  3. I found this rather easier than Mon/Tues with a 9:45.

    FOI 6ac COACH

    LOI 2dn RECORD

    COD 19ac AVALANCHE coming from a different level.

    WOD 6dn CIVIL SERVANT naked or otherwise.

    At 5dn RALLY DRIVERS used to be the most famous people in the world – Pat Moss, Colin MacRae, Carlos Sainz and all those Finns. Can’t name one now! Please note that the Monte Carlo Rally isn’t ‘in Monte Carlo’, but starts there. The drivers used to have to run on foot to their cars at the start! Those were the days.

    It is interesting to note that ‘C’ ain’t for Cookie hereabouts -as we use the word Biscuit from the French. Cookie is reserved for our English Captains!

    Edited at 2020-05-13 04:56 am (UTC)

    1. I thought the Monte Carlo rally finished in MC rather than started there, with several starting points elsewhere in Europe. The point of the competition was to ‘rally’ in Monte Carlo, I.e. come together. I remember lots of exciting pictures of minis and other cars driving through the alps. It was the GP that used to have the famous MC start involving a run to the cars, I think.

      Edited at 2020-05-13 08:27 am (UTC)

      1. You are indeed correct – time has fuddled my once frabjous memory! These days grown men only run to their cars when they see a traffic warden heading in their direction.
    2. Do you have Sesame Street there? Is it Biscuit Monster and does he sing B is for Biscuit?
      1. Wow! Now I’ve gone down the rabbit hole and learned that while much American pop culture spreads worldwide, this isn’t true for kids’ shows. The story of Sesame Street and the UK is particularly interesting. (I didn’t grow up watching the show but it is fairly ubiquitous here.)
        1. Wow, thanks for the tip, I’m reading about Sesame Street and the UK now on Wikipedia.
  5. Only three acrosses followed up by only 4 downs on the first pass and then slow going to finish in 23m. Another disappointing time but for once our blogger confirmed it was tricky – thanks Jeremy! Had a moan to myself when I finally got 1a as I’ve always thought scrambling became motocross and trials have always been trials. But was soon forgotten as the amazing fact that REDUCTION is an anagram of introduce came to light – I’ve not been so staggered since Cameron and romance gave up the same information. That was where my fast middle finished and thoughts of a reasonable time evaporated, took ages to AVALANCHE and then SPECS and finally RALLY DRIVERS – a fair clue I made difficult for myself by overthinking. Always feared one of the double unches would get me.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 05:58 am (UTC)

  6. Oh dear, second day in a row DNF after skipping through it on Monday.
    Full of admiration for the non-Brits on here who have an extra hurdle to overcome, especially with the cricket terms. Thanks, Jeremy, for the explanations.
  7. Well that’s blown my long sequence of fast times. Definitely the hardest for some time. FOI SENTRY and I took a while to get the long ones down the side. ARCHANGEL and RECORD my last 2 in. COD to AVALANCHE. 8:25.
  8. Tricky and made harder by a curious brain freeze for the DRIVERS part of 5d and a careless PINDER at 15d making AVALANCHE a challenge. As a result I was just outside my target time, finishing in 15.32 with LOI RALLY DRIVERS. Despite my struggles I thought this was a very entertaining puzzle and like others did a double take at the REDUCTION/INTRODUCE anagram, so it gets my COD.
    Thanks to Jeremy
  9. Wot no Kevin? In the absence of the great man I am going to estimate my 11:42 at 2K or 2.5 Phils, but I am still going to declare this a Good Day in the light of the tales of woe above. (Woe is all relative of course … John’s lack of a fast time as he posts the fastest time on the blog so far, for example!)

    In re AVALANCHE. Bit of a marmite clue, it seems. I thought it was rubbish, to be honest, since I saw it immediately, thought “It can’t be as weak as that”, moved on and only put it in with a shrug when I had a load of checkers. REDUCTION was a cracker, by contrast (like mendesest I had to pause in simple wonder at that). Jeremy, in the blog you say “I felt certain it couldn’t be an anagram of ‘reduction'” but you mean “an anagram of introduce”.

    FOI CIVIL SERVANT, LOI SPECS (trawl), COD SCORER.

    Thanks Jeremy and Teazel.

    Templar

  10. Tough. Little progress at the top and a slog in the lower half. I jumped around after that but it all came together late on. I was marginally slower than Jeremy (but well within my SCC limit) and relieved that it wasn’t just me who found it hard. At one point, I thought I would have to start a search for my lost marbles. Lots of very good clues, on reflection, including MIAOW, APP, SPECS, COACH, PINCER, CEASE, SENTRY, REDUCTION, and LOI SCRAMBLER, although there were plenty of others to appreciate, too. A super enjoyable tease from Teazel. Many thanks to both. John M.
    P.s. Like Templar, I was surprised to see no Kevin either here or in the top 100 on the leaderboard. There must be a hidden story here.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 08:33 am (UTC)

  11. Definitely tougher for me too but I just about got there. Most of it was fair enough but I thought some of it could be kinder?
  12. 17:01 for me including an alphabet trawl for LOI APP. I had considered Amp for want of anything better. I don’t think our old phone in the hall has an app but I guess the clue was clear,once understood.
    Yes, it was tough throughout really.But excellent clues and a good challenge. Hard to pick a COD. David
  13. At the first read-through I thought it was going to be disastrous, but after looking up a couple of answers to get me going I really enjoyed it. Cod avalanche.
    Diana
  14. I didn’t find this as difficult as most, but did the same as Jeremy with SEIZE, only corrected when REDUCTION made it absurd. APP and SPECS held me up too. I still managed to submit in 8:34 though. I also totally failed to parse MIAOW as I was fixated on picked up meaning homophone! Thanks Teazel and Jeremy.
  15. Seemed to be the hardest in a while, although I’m not on Teazel’s wavelength.
    Unhelpful grid with doubles unchecked letters.

    Longest hold ups were archangel and rally drivers.

    COD top secret.

  16. My summary of this Teazel QC was that it was very different as opposed to very difficult. There were no unknown words but lots of uncommon wordplay and very few anagrams. Thank goodness the wordplay gave me the correct spelling for MIAOW as I was tempted to put in an e for the i. I also recited the french numbers from one to six in my head to get to CEASE. FOI was COACH and LOI the CIVIL part of CIVIL SERVANT. Given others comments I’m extremely happy with my 9:31 solve.
  17. I was the wrong side of 20 minutes by one and a bit, finding both the grid and the clueing difficult today. Some good clues though, with my LOI SENTRY, made difficult by biffing ASSORTED rather than ASSIGNED at 7d, and having to fix that error first. Thanks Jeremy and Teazel.
  18. I’m relieved that the experts that impress me every day thought this was difficult too- I thought lockdown had affected my brain !!Thanks for the blog which has helped me no end. I have improved – except for today!!
  19. Yes, a tricky one, taking me nearly a minute over target.

    I didn’t get any of the 6 9-letter acrosses on first pass, the anagram indicators were all very well-disguised and the CD for AVALANCHE was no write-in.

    We had family friends whose sons were both into motorbikes. One did scrambling and the other trials and they were both very different events. Scrambling is a race over muddy terrain whereas in trials each contestant tackles a course individually, over obstacles and up and down slopes, with time penalties added for “dabbing” (putting a foot down) or straying outside a marked boundary.

  20. … as after 15 minutes I was looking at a grid with more unsolved clues than solved. Went away, made coffee, did some gardening, and returned to finish it, though it took at least another 15 minutes for my Slowest Ever Completed Puzzle.

    So I was relieved that it wasn’t just me and even the greats are commenting that it wasn’t easy. How, ladies and gents who know, does it compare to an average 15×15?

    Many thanks to Jeremy for the blog
    Cedric

  21. As an ex motorcycle trials rider I’d argue with 1ac. Motorcycle trials and motorcycle scrambles are distinct and different sports!
      1. Anonymous contributors can be a trial, especially if their thoughts are scrambled. And I totally agree with your point.
  23. Glad that almost everybody found this one hard. I didn’t get any until 12a and then slowly laboured through until I had only 1 and 8a and 2,3 and 5d to get, but I just couldn’t see a way in to any of them. I thought I was going to have to give up, but then thinking that the ending of 1a might be LER allowed me to see RALLY DRIVERS and then ARCHANGEL (I was glad arch meaning mischievous cropped up last week). I guessed 3d must be MIAOW as “O” seemed to be the only likely letter that could sit between A and W, but I couldn’t parse it. I thought the “picked up” was a sounds like clue, but miaow didn’t sound like anything. After a few minutes break to help my dad with a computer problem (I am only marginally more adept than him) the last two fell into place for a total time of about 62 minutes. LOI 2d, COD 20d, but lots of contenders.
  24. Made steady but slow progress round the grid until I was left with the NE corner, still lacking 1ac, 8ac and 2,3 & 4dn. These took an age to come, not helped by my considering “lie” for 4dn. Had to go away for a while and come back to it to get the final 5 clues. A good workout which I enjoyed.
    FOI – 10ac Throwaway
    LOI – 8ac Archangel
    COD – 6dn Civil Servant
  26. was chosen as COD by three 15×15 stalwarts! And thanks by the way to whoever it was who sent me the two jars of Marmite and the Rawlplugs!

    Edited at 2020-05-13 10:38 am (UTC)

  27. Sorry, after a long think I don’t understand why 19 across is a strong clue for “avalanche”? Please could someone enlighten me?
    1. It is a clue – not a ‘strong clue’. It is flippant, yea ‘cheeky’- as per Jeremy Bloggs! The setters need to have a bit of fun in these difficult times. Lightened-up!?
  28. This is the hardest puzzle I remember in my two years of attempting the QC. And the harder I found it, the more dispirited I became – which made it even more impossible to finish. So many clues foxed me here that it would be depressing to list them. The extra (and, for me, misleading ) words in some of the clues didn’t help the situation – eg beginning 6 across, COACH, with “for ” led me, incorrectly, to answers beginning with “pro ” ; ”they say ” in 8 across, ARCHANGEL, made me think it was a homophone ; “by him ” in 13 across, SCORER, made by look for some kind of male personage. It wasn’t a totally grim experience – I liked, for instance, CIVIL SERVANT and RALLY DRIVER but, mainly, today’s crossword is one I aim to forget all about as quickly as possible. Thanks, Jeremy, for the blog and thanks, Teazel
      1. It really was.BTW, Nurse Ratchett, not seen you on here recently, I think. Nice to have you back!
        1. Thanks. I only ever seem to comment when I’m complaining, so perhaps I’ve had nothing to complain about for a while! The blog is very helpful, though, I’m happy to admit. Hope today’s puzzle is more reasonable …🙂
    2. For me, the main crossword is harder to complete, but perhaps easier to work on at times. With a hard Quickie, there’s really nowhere to turn. I’d rather get 75% of a main puzzle than get stuck on a Quickie.
      1. Thanks for this, Jeremy, but I don’t think I’m good enough to attempt the 15 X 15. Also, there’s so much on that I can only allow myself to spend half an hour maximum on crosswords and, in that time, I doubt I would even scratch the surface of the Big Crossword!
  29. A scrambler relates to the sport of moto cross and not motir cycle trials.
  30. 3.08P I’m afraid. I shall make no further reference to times in my post which follows.
  31. ….is another man’s clean sweep, although I can see where many solvers would have difficulties. As observed above, more different than difficult.

    FOI SCRAMBLER (even though it’s inaccurate)
    LOI REDUCTION. (tried to grind “price cut”. There aren’t enough letters. Idiot !)
    COD CEASE (a homophone that works, unless regional French accents have some variation that I don’t know about !)

    1. Dear Jordan, I was led to believe that you were once a taxi driver and not a taxidermist.
      Meldrew
  32. Finished it, but gave up on noting the time. However, I kind of enjoyed it. As mentioned above, I thought it was more different rather than difficult (I’m sure there have been harder QC’s) so it was all about getting on that elusive wavelength.

    Main problem for me was that I just couldn’t get those long answers of 1ac, 5dn and 6dn at first which meant the rest was a bit of an ordeal. Silly problems included biffing “Wax” for 20dn and nearly putting in “Steps” for 21ac.

    FOI – 13ac “Scorer” (seriously, the top half stumped me!)
    LOI – 12ac “Sentry”
    COD – 3dn “Miaow”

    Thanks as usual

  33. I thought I mistakenly was doing the main crossword. This was so hard I only got about 10 answers before giving up. If this is even close to what a main cryptic is like I know I will never be up to trying one. I did not enjoy today particularly as I try the QC for 30 minutes of fun not a couple of hours of wasted time.
    1. Quite. I think sometimes the setters forget which puzzle they’re setting .
  34. Definitely on the tough side today. Ground to a halt after 7’ with just one left. Three alphabet trawls and 2’ later ASSIGNED dropped into place. Any less experienced solvers completing this one, irrespective of time, are ready to step up a level.
    Many thanks as ever to Teazel and Jeremy.
    9’05”
  35. Definitely v. hard. Only finished with a lot of resorting to aids. no fun at all.

    My quibble is that specifications are the written part of, eg, a contract and plans are the drawings.

    Anyway, if we’re looking for an abbreviation rather than the word itself, that should be flagged.

        1. It is a shortening (like I said) but not an abbreviation (like I said) unless you take the meaning of ‘abbreviation’ literally to mean ‘shortening’. There is a word ‘spec’ — it’s not ‘spec.’ .
      2. Collins says that specs is short for specifications or spectacles – whether that’s an abbreviation or a shortening is a matter of semantics, in my book. It’s colloquial at best.

        I still think there should be some sort of indication that we’re looking for something that is short for and not for a ‘proper’ word…

        2. It is indeed a proper word. Just as specs short for spectacles is a proper word. It is not at all the same as an abbreviation like “cont.” for ‘continued’, which would not be acceptable as an answer to a crossword clue (but legal for a piece of said clue).

          ‘Perk’ is a shortening of ‘perquisite’ but it is a word, not an abbreviation. ‘Math(s)’ is short for ‘mathematics’ but is also a word, not an abbreviation. ‘Circ.’ is an abbreviation of ‘circle’, not a word. ‘Comm.’ is an abbreviation of ‘communications’ but not a word. Etc.

          The distinction exists even if you don’t care to make it.

          1. could surely write a legal handbook about this! I was told Perk was a coffee bar in NY. And are you not muddling up Circ. with Cirque? Comm ie might be a Communist. And as you well know – Math is not a word in UK and never will be!

            When in London……

  36. Took me two attempts to finish, but having said that I did not find it as difficult as others seem have done. I found yesterday’s harder SCORER must surely refer to a cricket scorer who notes down ‘runs’.
    Good one Teazel. Enjoyed it.
    PlayUpPompey
  37. For 1a, I can’t find a definition for SCRAMBLER as a motorcycle triallist (the rider), only for the machine itself. So ‘triallist’ seems redundant.
    But it can mean a person who walks over steep, mountainous terrain.
    So was a triple definition intended? If there was a typo and ‘trailist’ was intended, I’d certainly think so.
    1. I think the issue is that “for” is part of the definition (although this blog indicated otherwise). “For motorcycle triallist” makes it clear the device is being referred to, not the person.
  38. We approached this one in the same enthusiastic way as usual. Then, as the minutes ticked away, our FOI was 9A followed by another gap before the next one went in (gulp). A purple patch then ensued until we really struggled with the NE corner and we thought we might be on for a DNF. Happily we persevered and came in at 23 mins – phew!

    LOI: scrambler
    COD: specs

    Thanks to Teazel and Jeremy

  39. I still don’t get the parsing of this. Why ‘one making’? Wouldn’t this be avalancher? And an avalanche is not a fall of land, it’s a fall of ice and rock. Does an avalanche make land fall? Really. Seems such a weak and tenuous connection. Didn’t enjoy today. Thanks for the help blogger.
    1. An avalanche applies to snow and ice but, also, to rock, sand etc. (or to an avalanche of mail or other things). See Collins.
  40. I didn’t get any of the Across clues on my first pass and started to panic.
    Once I’d started to get some of the Down clues, I felt better and particularly enjoyed SHATTER, ASSIGNED and CEASE.
    Also amazed at the REDUCTION / INTRODUCE anagram.
    Very satisfying to complete in under 25 minutes so thanks to Teazel and to Jeremy for his entertaining blog.

  41. Jack – After what you said yesterday can we please get rid of these last two anons – anon?
    1. Done. It’s very rare for obvious spam such as this to get through without the LJ spam filter picking it up and putting it into abeyance as a suspicious message visible only to those of us with admin rights.

      Edited at 2020-05-13 05:23 pm (UTC)

  42. As so often, this seems to be a matter of being on the right wavelength. After steady progress we hit a bit of a road block with about 9 to go when we were interrupted. Returning 15 minutes later the remainder flew in, albeit with a mer from my atheistic self over archangel as a spirit. Excluding the the break, pretty much our usual unspectacular time.
    Thanks to Jeremy for what must have been a difficult blog, and Teazel for a refreshingly different QC.
  43. phew- that was hard- felt completely off the wavelength. 17 minutes with miaow and archangel last couple to yield, but goodness- it was tough. Thanks to blogger and setter.
  44. I thought I mistakenly was doing the main crossword. This was so hard I only got about 10 answers before giving up. If this is even close to what a main cryptic is like I know I will never be up to trying one. I did not enjoy today particularly as I try the QC for 30 minutes of fun not a couple of hours of wasted time.

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