Times Quick Cryptic No 1629 by Tracy

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Well hello everybody and welcome to this Friday’s Quick Crossword. Tracy is our setter today. I found this a bit of a curate’s egg and will be interested to hear everyone else got on. It’s not often I get stuck on a QC and I had all but one clue done in about 4 1/4 minutes. But then I was stuck for 2 minutes and had to result to an alphabet trawl to get 1D, finishing in 6:16. Rather a fiendish double definition for a QC, to my mind, and, what is more, a film I only vaguely remembered at 13D, but maybe that’s just my general ignorance playing up again. On the other hand some (ahem) Amusing clues and, to cap it all, we have a pangram! I liked 2D but COD to 18A for its great surface. Thanks Tracy! So over to you lot. How did you like it? And do tell me if I was just being dim with 1D, or whether a Golden Raspberry is merited.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
8 Aintree unsettled apprentice (7)
TRAINEE – (Aintree)* [unsettled].
9 Entertain a Greek goddess, one of nine (5)
AMUSE – A MUSE (Greek goddess, one of the nine)   A helpful qualification of the Greek goddess. The 9 Muses are worth remembering as they frequently crop up in crosswords (especially Erato). They are: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania.
10 Dine out before ten? Table found (5)
INDEX – (Dine)* [out] X (ten; the roman numeral)
11 Existing as an original part of one Butlin redesigned (7)
INBUILT – (I Butlin)* [redesigned]. I = one.
12 Rough Irish customer, a frequent visitor (9)
IRREGULAR – IR (Irish) REGULAR (customer, a frequent visitor). Another bit of extra help with “a frequent visitor”.
14 Bill in a flap (3)
TAB – Double definition.
16 Doctor saving a space (3)
GAP – GP (doctor) outside [saving] A.
18 Got a goal to battle back, achieving this as a result? (5,4)
SCORE DRAW – SCORED (got a goal) WAR (battle) [back] -> RAW. Lovely surface.
21 Victor with member, in truth, initially a pest (7)
VARMINT – V (Victor in the NATO alphabet) ARM (member) IN Truth [initially].
22 Whole of a litre after dram (5)
TOTAL – A L (litre) [after] TOT (dram). Now that is binge drinking!
23 Tree-dweller shot off holding end of tail (5).
SLOTH – (shot)* [off] outside [holding] last letter of [end of] taiL.
24 Conceive of silver being found in excavation on island (7)
IMAGINE – AG (chemical symbol for silver) [found in] MINE (excavation) all after [on] I (island).
Down
1 Catching out (8)
STRIKING – Double Definition. My LOI. This had me scratching my head. Knowing we were on for a pangram I could have spotted I was still missing the K. As it was, it took me an alphabet trawl to find. I think the first is as in “he knocked the other boxer out by catching him on the chin”, and the second as in “on strike”. Tricky, no?
2 Set of steps made to scale? (6)
LADDER – Cryptic definition. When you climb a ladder you scale it.
3 Gemstone in ring shown by New York Times (4)
ONYX – O (ring) NY (New York) X (Times).
4 Servant shuffling in lame (6)
MENIAL – (in lame)* [shuffling].
5 Crowd carried east for large rally (8)
JAMBOREE – JAM (crowd) BORE (carried) E (east).
6 Answer in Quintagram not half odd (6)
QUAINT – A (answer) [in] first half of  QUINTagram [not half].
7 Relish visiting Devizes tomorrow (4)
ZEST – Hidden [visiting] in DeviZES Tomorrow.
13 Film of Georgia, inconsequential (8)
GASLIGHT – GA (Georgia) SLIGHT (inconsequential). This film from 1944. I don’t think I’ve watched it, but I vaguely remembered it.
15 Puzzle: European playwright imprisoned by British (8)
BEWILDER – E (European) WILDE (Oscar Wilde; playwright) inside [imprisoned by] BR (British).
17 Standards concerning member of the clergy (6)
PARSON – PARS (standards) ON (concerning).
19 Revealed, suitable set of clothes (6)
OUTFIT – OUT (revealed) FIT (suitable).
20 Keep TA in control (6)
RETAIN – TA [in] REIN (control).
21 Huge tank storing sulphur (4)
VAST – VAT (tank) [outside] S (chemical symbol for sulphur).
22 Catch some climbing (4)
TRAP – PART (some) reversed [climbing] -> TRAP. A bit of a chestnut, methinks.

64 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1629 by Tracy”

  1. More congratulations are due today as another setter, this time Tracy, reaches his 150th Quickie set for our enjoyment. He began his run with QC#2 on 11 March 2014. Well done, and please keep them coming. Tracy has set many a crossword under other names elsewhere over the years, most notably a long stint as Everyman in the Observer where his elegant style has been much missed since he gave up that position a couple of years ago. Long may he continue to delight us here!

    I needed 12 minutes for this one, and like our blogger, it was the double definition at 1dn that held me up at the end, making me miss my target 10 minutes after a run of 11 consecutive ‘targets achieved’.

    Edited at 2020-06-05 05:54 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks Jack. And let me add my congratulations to Tracy. He always provides us with great puzzles.
  2. Beaten today, all done in good time but then very stuck on last two. Thoroughly, thoroughly misdirected by QUAINT and hadn’t ever realised it could mean odd, which didn’t reveal itself as the definition until very late in the day and I just couldn’t get 1d, so decided to stick in STICKING which didn’t feel quite right but in my exhaustion thought was defensible – only to find it doesn’t fit the checkers – no excuse as it mucked up INDEX, so two errors and 23m. A day to to forget at the end of a poor crosswording week.
  3. Oh dear. I spent a Very long time puzzling over 1d STRIKING and still think it a little too oblique. JAMBOREE I had to look up. Pretty dismal for me this morning (I always find Tracy tricky) but in my defence, M’Lud, this did include precious time making a second strong coffee in a vain attempt to stimulate those dozy little grey cells.
    1. Indeed. That’s what I thought I had put. Typo corrected. Thanks.

      Edited at 2020-06-19 12:35 pm (UTC)

  5. 1d was a right b****** IMHO. I was quietly chuffed to have dealt with a number of clever Tracy clues and to have reached the last three with a fast time but ended up with QUAINT, JAMBOREE and STRIKING which I dealt with painfully slowly in that order. I only put in the last one because I could think of nothing else to fit. My good start collapsed into a double target time. Not a happy bunny and I don’t think I will be alone in this. This was supposed to be a QC and these last clues (plus a few more) would not have been out of place in the 15×15. Am I bothered about a puzzle that is distorted for the sake of a pangram? Did I say I wuz bovvered? Well done johninterred but a raspberry to Tracy from me. John M.

    Edited at 2020-06-05 06:59 am (UTC)

    1. I was also stuck on the same last three as oldblighter, but in a remarkably quick time (for me anyway) of 18 minutes. I always enjoy Tracy’s compilations and usually finish them. As a newbie to the QC may I congratulate and compliment Tracy on reaching such an impressive milestone.
    2. 1d was one of our later answers, but having spotted the pangram early on, we knew we probably had to get a ”k” in, and that Made it fairly straightforward.
  6. This was tough in places and STRIKING went in last after an alphabet trawl and with a MER, although I’m not sure it quite qualifies as a GR in my mind. The film at 13d would have held me up for much longer if the term gaslighting hadn’t come to the fore in recent time with the increasing focus on mental health issues etc,as I would never have heard of it otherwise.
    Lots to enjoy with my WOD going to JAMBOREE and COD to IRREGULAR. Finished in 10.37.
    Thanks to johninterred and congratulations to Tracy

    Edited at 2020-06-05 07:20 am (UTC)

  7. Eye-catching came to mind for 1d… and could GA’s be of Georgia with Light being inconsequential…?
    Had to guess those and parse later. 26 min for me so a tricky one.
    Thanks for the blog and the puzzle.
    1. Yes. Eye-catching occurred to me, but I’ve never heard it abbreviated to just catching so didn’t think that was right. As for GA’s = of Georgia – yes that works. Luckily both parsing come to the same answer.
  8. I know that the Friday 15×15 is meant to be a difficult one. Perhaps we have adopted this for the QC?
    I never really got into my stride and didn’t suspect a pangram.
    FOI was ZEST. Hold-ups were GASLIGHT and JAMBOREE.
    After 20 minutes I just had 1d left and wasn’t planning to give up. Striping, Staining and a few others were rejected before a less than confident STRIKING went in. 24:36 on the clock and a sigh of relief.
    Congrats to Tracy on the 150 and for a real test today.
    David
  9. This was quite tough but satisfying in the end. Thanks to setter and blogger but also a brickbat I’m afraid from me for Gaslight – just plain ridiculous for a quickie in 2020.
  10. I was also held up at the end by STRIKING and had to resort to an alphabet trawl. That took me over my target time, just, but I spent anothe few seconds proof reading too. GASLIGHT didn’t ring a bell so I just followed the wordplay. JAMBOREE was my POI and took some thought. 10:20. Thanks Tracy and John.
  11. … as I did not get 1D, and I still don’t think it works (not at all, in fact, let alone at QC level) even after reading John’s blog and the comments above. I originally put in Sticking, as I knew it needed a K for the pangram, and catching = sticking is just possible (if you are a better slip fielder than I was and the ball sticks in your hand) and sticking out makes some sense … but all of this was clutching at straws and made 10A impossible too.

    So a DNF. Which prompts a thought – having decided he wants the word Striking as the answer in the grid, why does a setter choose the clue he does? We see the puzzle in one direction – have clue, need answer – but the other art – have answer, need clue – is equally fascinating. I know some on this blog have created crosswords – what alternative cluing for Striking which is less, er, questionable might one have come up with?

    Thanks to John for the blog and a good weekend to all

    Cedric

    1. An easy one for the starting corner might be:
      Stir around and ruler is out of the ordinary.
      I have no doubt there will be much better suggestions but this is a QC!
        1. Yup. Better.
          I’ve just been out repairing the pond pump between showers and thought of a few better variants than my first effort but I just wanted to respond quickly to Cedric.
  12. 4 out of 5 over target this week, which is unusual and speaks to the generally higher level of difficulty that we mere mortals have experienced. This one was hardest of the week IMHO, taking me to a few seconds over 20 minutes, but no complaints – just a sore head after a tough challenge. Like everyone else, I struggled to see my LOI, STRIKING. I was also slow to remember GASLIGHT and JAMBOREE, but I did appreciate the pangram, which I suspected early on after solving ONYX, ZEST and QUAINT.

    Congratulations to Tracy, 150 not out, and thanks to John for the blog.

  13. And it’s never fun when that happens. The only consolation is that, clearly, I am not the only one to have found this more than tricky.
    Apologies in advance but “Moan Warning” : I really don’t like it when setters add extra words which are well-intentioned and designed to be illuminatory – but which are redundant and confusing when it comes to finding parallels to them in the solution. So, yesterday, there was the unnecessary phrase “in USA”, and today we have both “a frequent visitor” and “customer” in 12 across, IRREGULAR. Having both of those definitions in the clue set me off on a wild goose chase.
    Like others here, I also found STRIKING an odd solution to the clue and, again, as others here, wonder why a less obscure route to that word could not have been devised. For me, this is definitely a GR.
    And, whilst I’m on this bad-tempered rant (sorry ), I’m more than surprised to find “odd” as a synonym for QUAINT. This may well exist in the dictionary as a possible, if obscure, pairing but surely not in the real world? That being one in which beginners attempt a “Quick Crossword” for fun.
    Crumbs. Enough, Mrs Angry.
    There were also some very nice clues here. I quite liked INDEX and OUTFIT. And VARMINT and SLOTH were fun (even if, IMO, the surfaces in these two were a bit clunky ).
    Thanks so much, John, for the blog. And thanks, too, to Tracy and sorry for being so bad-tempered.
      1. I know… Bit embarrassed now… Especially as, who am I to moan when I couldn’t begin to set one of these crosswords? All I’ve done is produce cross words….
        Sorry if I have offended anyone.
    2. I think you can add ‘made to scale’ (2d) to your little list – certainly stopped me from just writing in ladder.
      1. But without ‘made to scale’ it wouldn’t be a cryptic puzzle clue, just a ‘word-for-word’ one, more suited to the Times Two. Part of the delight of cryptic puzzles are distractions and misdirection so if the QC is to live up to the ‘cryptic’ in its title it needs to incorporate these from time to time.
    3. But if you just have customer that doesn’t give “regular”. I suppose you could have “frequent customer”, but personally I didn’t find it a problem, although I seemed to be on the right wavelength generally today. I had more of a problem with 11a where I put “builtin” on my first pass, fortunately since 4d was clearly an anagram without a “b” the error was easily spotted.
  14. Just to add to the STRIKING discourse for 1d, I read ‘out’ as in striking out in baseball? Anyway, I messed up by putting VARMINA for 21a as had never heard of varmint and the clueing still worked, so couldn’t work out 19d as a result 🤷‍♂️
  15. I thought I might be on for a good one today as the first four all went in straight away, but I slowed up a little after that. Surprisingly though, nothing provided real difficulty, even STRIKING, which I thought of quite early on but only put in lightly because it didn’t seem to really fit the clue. I went back to it later and spent a couple of minutes trying to find something better but in the end had to go with it. It was only when I realised there was no K anywhere else that I was happy it was the right choice. I was reminded of the importance of parsing fully when I went back to JAMBOREE and worked out that my spelling it with an IE at the end didn’t work. I think GASLIGHT must have come up on here fairly recently because it came to mind easily with only a couple of checkers despite the fact I have no conscious memory of the film or what the word has come to mean. Anyway, all done in 41:30. Lots of great clues, but I particularly liked 6d. I don’t usually choose a WOD but today it is most definitely VARMINT. Reminds me of Yosemite Sam for some reason.
  16. To Gaslight is now a well known phrase for convincing someone they are losing their mind. An otherwise forgettable film save for a star turn from a young Angela Lansbury.
    1. Oh yes, thanks, I meant to say that. It’s a well-known phrase these days and means that the film isn’t really that obscure, I think, even though I’ve never seen it.
    2. It won two Oscars, one for Ingrid Bergman as Best Actress in a Leading Role!
  17. *whispers* I didn’t think that was too bad, clocking off at 11:48 which today = 1 Jack and thus a Good Day. All the acrosses except INBUILT and TAB (a flap? really?) fell at first pass, but the going got much tougher on the downs even though by then I had a load of checkers. STRIKING and JAMBOREE both took a while but the one which really held me up was TRAP – needed a long alphabet trawl before finally slapping my forehead!

    I agree that “catching” is a bit obscure for STRIKING but overall I thought that that was a lovely and elegant puzzle. Thanks Tracy and congratulations on your 150th!

    Thanks too to johninterred, whom I think we haven’t seen since he set us a QC of his own for weekend amusement? Thanks for that John, it did indeed provide lots of fun and we enjoyed it here (especially the missing A in the anagrist for ENCYCLOPAEDIA … even Homer nods!).

    Templar

    1. Glad you enjoyed the crossword… and forgave the error my test solvers failed to spot.
  19. Congratulations Tracy on your 150th QC. Some clues like my FOI TRAINEE were write ins and others including STRIKING, LADDER and my LOI JAMBOREE required cogitation. I needed most of the checkers for GASLIGHT but I have seen it clued in a cryptic before now. For some reason I struggled with the ‘in lame’ anagram for MENIAL but got there eventually. 11:36 on the clock…. at least I finished today. Thanks John for the blog. I’m thinking 1d is more of a MER than a GR.
  21. A tricky puzzle, but at least I finished it – even if it took an hour.

    I agree, there were some strange definitions. “Quaint”= Odd comes to mind, but I didn’t have an issue with Striking thinking of both “eye catching” and “striking out” as in Baseball.

    For once, we had a film that wasn’t “ET” and whilst I admit I hadn’t heard of Varmint it was easy to get based on the clueing. 18ac “Score Draw” brought back memories of Grandstand and the pools panel.

    FOI – 8ac “Trainee”
    LOI – 15ac “Bewilder”
    COD – 13dn “Gaslight”

    Thanks as usual.

  22. Back to familiar territory – racing along (relatively) and then a complete halt with half a dozen still to go. Even after a tea break, it was hard going, with Quaint(!), Jamboree, Irregular (refused to believe Traveller), Gaslight and loi Striking only slowly coming to mind. In fact, I only worked out Striking by noting that a K was needed for the pangram – the first time this has helped. A tough end to the week. Invariant
  24. ….STRIKING if I hadn’t entered “stumping” quite happily, and then quickly realised that 10A couldn’t possibly begin with M.

    For once, I spotted the pangram – but the K didn’t enter my mind quickly enough to save me from going over target.

    FOI TRAINEE
    LOI STRIKING
    COD LADDER
    TIME 5:09

  25. Started off well but slowed down considerably at the end. Didn’t notice the pangram (I never do), but it didn’t cause too much delay with 1dn. Some very nice clueing here but I thought both 1dn and 2dn poor, and entered both with a bit of a shrug as nothing better presented itself.

    FOI – 8ac Trainee
    LOI – 9ac Amuse
    COD – 7dn Zest (took me longer than it should have done to see the hidden).

  26. As someone who needs at least an hour (more on a bad day) to complete the QC still this was at the impossible end of the scale unfortunately. Ironically 1D Striking went in okay but 13D Gaslight and 21A Varmint only went in with help and I couldn’t get to 5D Jamboree at all. I spent a very long time looking for 7 letter words meaning crowd that I could add an E into to get rally before finally revealing it. A frustrating end to the week. Hopefully next will be better!

    Thanks as ever for the blog, and thanks for the crossword. I look forward to the time when such a puzzle is doable in 10 minutes!

    2. Agreed. No trouble with Jamboree, but Striking was pretty much a guess. Like rsdon I look forward to a day I can do these in a quicker time. Cheers.
  27. and so it proved today.

    10:46 is a good 3-4 minutes longer than I usually take. As with others, I alphabet trawled for my LOI STRIKING. Didn’t spot the pangram.

  28. I solved some clues surprisingly easily but struggled with others (LADDER, JAMBOREE and VARMINT) until I tentatively entered my LOI STRIKING at just under 18 minutes.
    Some very clever clues though such as SCORE DRAW and BEWILDER but my COD goes to OUTFIT for its brevity.
    Thanks to John for his helpful list of the nine muses and congratulations to Tracy.
  29. “That’s a rather catching tie” is the sort of phrase I’ve heard in the past ie STRIKING / noticeable. Not that I got that answer though!
  30. We should have a regular tougher QC on a Saturday when there’splenty of time to chew it over. I cannot understand why there’s no Sat QC. Excellent crossword and blog though DNF thanks to varmint.
  31. I very much enjoyed it. I hope you might consider setting more Saturday delights?
  32. … to Mrs S, who regularly finishes the 15×15 faster than i do the QC. I read out the clue to 1D to her and gave her the checkers; it took her less than 5 seconds to come up with the answer. So clearly solvable, and therefore fair. “But”, she added, “it’s not a very good clue is it?”

    Have a good Saturday all. If sadly without a QC.

    Cedric

  33. Well, a big garden project meant that we didn’t get to this one until Saturday. However, it was worth the wait as we really enjoyed it. We came in at 15 minutes so it was a reasonable result for us. Thanks to Tracy and congratulations on your anniversary.

    FOI: trainee
    LOI: striking
    COD: imagine

    Thanks for the blog John.

  34. As somewhat of a newbie (I still barely make progress with the regular cryptic), one of the fascinating things in reading the blog is learning where others seem to pull answers seamlessly from the ether(!) and where there is more gnashing of teeth. I took 22 mins with this one..but 1D was my FOI. I read “catching” as “eye catching”…ie a particularly striking individual. And..because I live in the USA…”striking out” is a term I hear all the time. LOI..Jamboree…Just could not see it. My late father (a Cub Scout leader) would be so disappointed.
  35. Started off well, but then hit the last tricky clues. Spent a long time on 1D, before thinking to make use of the obvious pangram and the lack of a k elsewhere to confirm the solution and give me a chance to ponder why it could be true. Enjoyed the construction of JAMBOREE and BEWILDER and the confusing over-specification of IRREGULAR. Congratulations to Tracy!
  37. Did this on Sunday evening in an attempt to end my heavy backlog of QC’s. I’ve been frantically busy over the lockdown period as no-one told me that pensioners don’t get furloughed ands I took on too many extra (long) tasks to help out.
    Don’t understand the problems with 1d – on strike=out; striking colours etc.
    Was well misled with 5d Jamboree – was expecting a reversed word (carried east), but actually more straightforward than that.
    Spotted the potential anagram early on and helpfully checked off the missing letters as I went.
    Generally lots to work at but eventually all done – took a couple of hours!
    Hopefully I will back solving each day from tomorrow, but I promised myself that a few weeks back and it just couldn’t be fitted in. Heigh ho.

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