Times Quick Cryptic No 1702 by Tracy

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1702 by Tracy”

1. I was nearly done in 5 minutes, but just struggled a little with the lower left and spent 30 seconds proofreading, ending at 8:17. Yes, I live in Connecticut, but I have heard of both Kidderminster and Melton Mowbray, which turned out to be very useful.

   The setter was a little pedantic, and used some unusual but correct meanings for some of the answers. For example, there are actually two words and spelled and pronounced tattoo, with different etymologies and meanings. One is from the Dutch, and refers to a military display, and the other is Tahitian, and refers to illustrated skin.

   A red card, Jeremy, is exactly that, a red card that is held up by the referee who is ejecting a player.

   1. I think you misunderstood my ‘card’ question. I was asking about the meaning, ‘eccentric’.
      1. ODE sv card: a person regarded as odd or amusing.
         I’ve always taken it in the ‘amusing’ sense, but it’s shown up here a couple of times as ‘eccentric’ (noun).
         1. Yes, but do you have a sense of the etymology? I was wondering if it was related to “wild card”.

            Edited at 2020-09-16 12:33 am (UTC)

            1. I realized too late that that’s what you meant; I have no idea, but your ‘wild card’ sounds good to me.
      2. Ah! The OED explains it as originating from the powers of particular cards in various games, such as a sure card or a leading card, and then that being applied to people who performed a similar function in real life, as having some peculiar or particular power.
2. I biffed KIDDERMINSTER & MELTON MOWBRAY, trusting the anagrist was all there in each case. No idea what was going on with Desperate Dan; all I know about him is his name. HORN-RIMS was my POI; like Jeremy, I didn’t let go of HARP for a while. RED-CARD my LOI. 4:26.
   1. Excuse my ignorance, but what does POI meam??
      1. I wondered that too. Penultimate One In?
         1. Got it in one. I picked it up from someone–Guy?–and have been using it for a while. I assumed it was in the glossary.
3. This was my quickest in a while at under 12 even with lengthy hold ups for RED CARD where even once I had red for wine I couldn’t work out from the definition – even though the only reason I know Kidderminister is from the Harriers (where I once saw Yeovil win away); and SITE which was my LOI and right to the end I wondered if ‘sete’ might be an alternative to ‘settee’ – a short alphabet trawl once I got MEANT (SLOI) saved that. Thanks to Jeremy’s blog I now realise I didn’t parse WADE IN correctly, ‘Waden’ sounded like it might be a port and that was good enough for me. I’m another who wanted HORM RIMS to start with ‘harp’ once my initial thought of ‘half moon’ was rejected.

   Edited at 2020-09-16 05:33 am (UTC)

   1. always meant to ask, what does SLOI and even POI mean? ……..one in
      1. Second to Last One In?
4. Good mix of clues, but was slow to see ENDING after we had ENDEARING just recently. Was LOI and COD. Well done Tracy.

   Knowledge of smallish Midland towns might be a bit of a stretch for some of our non-England based solvers. CARD for eccentric is certainly on my list of “hoarse chestnuts”, expressions that no-one has used in the last 50 years, try referring to someone as a “ bit of a card” in an Email today and see how that goes.

   Just as well VODKA was a total write-in as I toyed with both REPLY and RELAY since they both for sure mean respond, and LAY & PLY are indubitably “part of play”

   1. I think PLY as part of ‘play’ is pretty dubitable.
      1. I thought about Reply and Relay as well – the finer subtleties of QC rules being beyond me i didn’t immediately rule either out as Kevin has. So with two to choose from I very fortunately wrote in neither … and then 2D Vodka proved that both were wrong anyway!

         Cedric

5. (Almost) accomplished during the latter part of a restless night, mingled with dozing, so no time. Did not get 7D; I am sometimes blind to the cruciverbial meanings of words such as “close”. Convinced myself that the archaic word “sith”, which could mean an instant in time, could also mean place. Many thanks to Tracy and to Jeremy.
6. 6 minutes. MELTON MOWBRAY is the home of traditional English pork pies, an officially protected recipe that can only be produced in the surrounding area. It has associations with production of Stilton cheese too, also a protected ‘species’.

   Edited at 2020-09-16 06:13 am (UTC)

7. Quick solve, for me, at under 12 minutes. For once I did not need to write down any of the anagrams.

   Struggled a bit to see the definition in 7d which was my last but one with VIOLIN last and HAVE first. COD 4d for the smooth surface.

   Thanks to Tracy and Jeremy.

8. Oops. The previous entry was mine. On my phone and didn’t log in. 🙄
9. … and with the two long clues almost my first two in, the rest of the puzzle fell into place sweetly for a 7 minutes finish, one of my best of recent months.

   LOI 17A Violin, got mainly from the checkers and trusting that somewhere in all his works Shakespeare had included a Viola. Thanks Jeremy for pointing us to where!

   Many nice clues in, for me, a friendly puzzle. Thank you to Jeremy for the the blog.

   Cedric

10. Good puzzle which I managed in 11.26 despite being in a cafe (my phone decided this was ‘cage’ – b****y predictive text) being assaulted by loud ‘pop music’. I live in Leics and like an occasional pork pie so 14a was no problem. LOI was RED CARD because I biffed alternatives. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy. John M.
11. But I was glad not to have to go through the anagram process in KIDDERMINSTER and MELTON MOWBRAY. Luckily, as a British person, the two long towns were guessable from a quick glance at the available letters….w, y and 2 m’s for 14 across and a town beginning with K for 4 down. But tricky, I would expect, for the non Brits. I couldn’t parse WADE IN so thanks, Jeremy, for that. I liked PIE CHART and ENDING, the latter being similar to a clue a fortnight ago. I also was a bit fixated by my certainty that 1 down must include harp. All in all, it was good fun. Thanks, Jeremy, for the blog. I always appreciate the honesty of your personal take on the difficulty level. I find it encouraging. I also like your chatty tone and the detail you provide. 😊. Thanks also to Tracy for an entertaining puzzle.
12. UK GK a help here. I knew the towns; needed the K for one.
    There were some great clues here ( Leisure etc) and I enjoyed the journey. The odd hold-up: I tried to make GROTTO work at 8d and thought of CATCH at 18d before seeing the hidden.
    LOI was 1d which took a number of looks and about a minute at the end. I was sure about HORN but not the rest. 11:38 on the clock.
    David
13. For once my GK didn’t cause a problem. From English towns to a Red Sea port, a Shakespearean heroine and a comic character I managed all though not necessarily without a few checkers. My FOI was SKITTLES and then I solved clockwise with LOI HORN RIMS. Submitted in 7:47. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy.

    Edited at 2020-09-16 09:07 am (UTC)

14. That was me 6/7 mins …..Not sure why I was signed out
15. This seemed a bit harsh on non-UK solvers with the two towns being anagrams and hence with no wordplay to help, but thankfully this doesn’t include me. My brother-in-law used to live in Kidderminster, so that one came to mind easily, but Melton Mowbray took a while even though I drove through Leicestershire recently and did see it signposted. Anyway, no bad hold ups, though I was stuck for a while on 16d before I managed to remember the aforementioned pork pie place. I knew there was a Red Sea resort famous for swimming and diving etc that I couldn’t quite remember the name of, but I thought it might be something like Eidi’ie so I thought we were heading for that. Then, when I got the W, I realised the answer was WADE IN and the port was Aden. After coming on here I remembered the place I’d been thinking of was Eilat at the southern tip of Israel, so that didn’t even nearly fit. Last three in were HORN RIMS (I’ll probably be needing them soon if I follow the pattern set by my elder siblings whose eyesight seems to go in their mid-forties), TATTOO and RED CARD, which I really should have seen sooner. That was at 27:22 so not too bad for me but I probably should have done better. Thanks Jeremy and Tracy.
16. HAVE and HORNRIMS were my first 2 in, so MELTON MOWBRAY was a write in. I just needed the K from SKITTLES to biff KIDDERMINSTER from a brief glance at the anagrist. VIOLIN was my LOI. 759. Thanks Tracy and Jeremy.
17. Really seemed to get this today. Stopped the clock a fraction over 19 mins.

    I’m in awe of these sub 10 solvers, let alone the sub 5!!!

    Leave the crossword alone and sort out the virus and Brexit. Piece of cake!!

18. but defeated by Violin. Should have pondered longer.
    Aden seems to appear regularly so remembered that one. Liked Eyeliner and Pie Chart, but have not seen D Dan recently!
    Yes, eccentric/card only used in crosswords.
    Thanks to all.
    FOI Have. LOI Horn rims
    I always like the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, by the way.
19. Rapid fire today but even a rare foray into the 5 minute zone still left me in K+ country; it makes you realise just how very fast the best solvers are. Hats off to them.

    It’s all been said above, really. Only WADE IN made me pause over the parsing, plus I nearly biffed “odd ball” at 9ac (but didn’t).

    FOI HAVE, LOI PIE CHART, COD RED CARD, time 1.25K for an excellent Day.

    Thanks Tracy and Jeremy.

    Templar

    1. Scorchio 😃
       1. Thanks! Was crushed by Wurm though
    2. Nice one.
20. 6/7 minutes so probably a pb for me but then Melton Mowbray is only a few miles down the road (pretty town with shocking traffic system) and I’ve been to Kidderminster so lots of letters filled in quickly. Thanks setter and blogger
21. I loved this one, and halved yesterday’s time, thank goodness, so A Good Day today! tbh I thought the long anagrams were pretty easy but what great surfaces. MM in particular didn’t cause any problems to this Leicestershire resident *, although (sacrilege) I prefer Red Leicester to Stilton. SKITTLES used to be a very popular pub game, complete with Leicestershire supper, in these parts, but sadly many of the old pubs’ skittle alleys have been closed down or turned into function rooms. I’ve just remembered that the hefty lumps of wood you lobbed at the skittles are called cheeses!

    Even though we’ve seen this wordplay a few times recently, I still took a while to see what was going on at 12a! Great clue though – I also really liked PIE CHART.

    Did anyone else notice that the unches in column 8 spell IN OUT?

    FOI Have
    LOI Ending
    COD Melton Mowbray
    Time 10 minutes

    Thank you Tracy for the fun, and Jeremy for the blog

    * There seem to be a few of us here today – oldblighter, gcook52 and me for starters!

    Edited at 2020-09-16 11:04 am (UTC)

22. Many years ago I saw Alec Guinness play the role of Denry Machin in the film of Arnold Bennett’s “Five Towns” novel “The Card”. He was something of a practical joker, and I’d always assumed that “joker = card”, although I have no substantiated evidence for that.
23. Coasting along to a comfortable sub-20, I just had my last two to sort out: 16d and 9ac. I struggled a bit with Wade In, until I remembered Aden, and that left me needing to get 9ac quickly… I thought Red Hand was pushing it a bit for ‘eccentric person’, as I’m sure Ulster has no more than its fair share, but Red Maid definitely didn’t work. Only then did I consider the other end of the clue and Red Card was then so obvious it jumped out. Wrong side of 20mins for what seemed a very gentle puzzle from Tracy for UK solvers. Invariant
24. I look as if it could have been me these days, but never having visited MELTON MOWBRAY, the pie whose praises I sing is the fabulous home made cottage pie at KIDDERMINSTER Harriers. I did have two of them one season, which singles me out as a glutton – they’re a meal in their own right !

    FOI HAVE
    LOI WADE IN
    COD TRUST
    TIME 3:54

25. I am not the greatest crossword solver in the world, but I do like the Concise … but not yesterday’s!
    The clue, ‘Sub-atomic particles’ would never be my forte. One clue I’d happily accept, two I’d pull a spur face – but a fistful of them meant I gave up. I’m not a physicist so had no idea and this clue x six (I realise this is probably an exaggeration but I had lost the will to live) was way too many,

    I also think it was lazy and thoughtless on the part of the person setting it.

    If it had been the same with, say a historical subject such as a clue ‘wife of Henry Vlll’ repeated 6 times I would happily work on the answers, but but would still have thought it unfair for someone who has little knowledge of my favourite subject.

    Just sayin!

    Janet

    1. The thing with the concise is that there is a theme or nina everyday, so yesterday’s was obviously sub-atomic particles! But I couldn’t agree more – it was too hard even if you’ve got reasonable GK. I’d heard of hadrons (obvs) but I couldn’t have worked out the rest in a month of Sundays. No doubt all the physicists will have loved it 😉
       1. I too love the concise, mainly for its ninas. It’s as much fun spotting those as getting the answers.

          Sub-atomic particles didn’t trouble me, but poetry would have, but then I’d just look on that as broadening my horizons 🙂

          Funnily enough it was RESOLVED and SNIFF that I couldn’t see.

          H

          1. Well you’re right about broadening horizons! I’ve learnt about litotes and schwa just from doing the crosswords, for example. Still not much cop with poetry tbough 😊 Penny
    2. I’ve said this before, but I think the concise crossword is getting harder and harder and I hate the ones with about 6 different versions of the same clue.

       Yesterday’s sub atomic particles really did take the biscuit,

26. All was going well, very well in fact, and I was on for 5 minutes or so when I ran into 1D. Banged my head against it for another 4 or 5 minutes 🙁 Like some others I was fixating on harp because, well, it’s an instrument that you blow isn’t it, er, er …

    One day!

    H

27. 9.30 hereabouts for a very Anglo-centric puzzle. Nice one Tracy.

    FOI 3ac SKITTLES SOI KIDDERMINSTER home town to Sir Rowland Hill and the ‘Ingrain’ carpet.

    LOI 8ac RED CARD – ‘a bit of a card’ is rather Wodehousian ‘don’t y’know!’ ‘A cad and a bounder!’

    COD 24ac PIE CHART ‘cow pies’ with the horns sticking out!

    WOD 14ac MELTON MOWBRAY home to ‘Golden Boot’ Jamie Vardy
    and many ‘Foxes’ fans.

28. I thought this was a really lovely puzzle and finished just within my target of 15 minutes so thanks, Tracy.
    The only one I couldn’t parse was WADE IN but all the others seemed to flow relatively smoothly.
    I particularly enjoyed the two town anagrams plus TRUST, TIMID and my LOI VIOLIN. COD goes to EYELINER for its humour.
    Thanks to Chris for the enjoyable blog.
    1. Joe Bloggs was Jezza and not Chris!
       1. Sorry everyone!
29. I was born in Bromsgrove General Hospital, and spent the first 18 months of my life in Kidderminster. I remember nothing of it, and have never been back. Being a pork pie fan helped with the other small Midlands town!

    Aside than that, I’m sure I used to struggle with Tracy, but not at the moment. If I hadn’t been held up trying to put HARP into what turned out to be HORN RIMS, this would have been a PB. As it was, I had to “settle” for 3:46.

30. Desperate Dan’s favourite meal was Cow Pie I believe with the horns stuck out one end and the tail the other!
31. Too much British GK for me. The rest came quickly, but the long ones not so much. At least I know Desperate Dan from my youth.
32. I really enjoyed this and came in around 23 mins. Obviously it may have been harder for those outside the UK, although for what it’s worth I had to think twice whether 14ac was Melton Mowbray or Melton Mowbary. Luckily 6dn confirmed my initial thought.

    Other enjoyable answers included 9ac “Red Card”, 12ac “Ending” (which was fairly similar to a clue a few weeks back), 15dn “Leisure” and 24ac “Pie Chart”. There is an establishment I visit whose bathroom has a copy of The Dandy on the wall, and it never fails to make me chuckle when I see Desperate Dan tucking into one of his cow pies.

    FOI 1ac – “Have”
    LOI 8dn – “Tattoo”
    COD 13dn – “Eyeliner” – simple but still funny.

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-09-16 03:32 pm (UTC)

33. I found this pretty straightforward and 21 minutes (with no help!) is very good for me!
34. 6 mins, no hold ups except LOI mean.
    COD Red card.
35. Came to this late so fortunately it didn’t put up too much of a fight. My biggest issue was a lazily biffed CATCH at 18d which made LOI VIOLIN tricky. It didn’t hold me up for too long and I finished in 7.47.
    Thanks to Jeremy
36. Bit of a card might come from joker in the oack
37. Lots of great clues and, like other, we imagined that non-Brits might struggle a bit with the long town names which we had no bother with. Thanks to Tracy for a fun puzzle which took us 13 minutes to solve.

    FOI: have
    LOI: site
    COD: pie chart (Steed loved the Dandy when he was a boy – he’s a big fan of Dudley D Watkins)

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog – especially for explaining 16D

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