Times Quick Cryptic No 1708 by Teazel

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit of a trickier one today from Teazel – at a minute-and-a-half over target this took a touch longer than yesterday’s 15×15, with five fewer clues. That was also with several unparsed until post-solve, and a couple of unknowns given an unceremonious shrug along the way. Some lovely bits of misdirection and clever wordplay made an enjoyable solve and an equally enjoyable post-solve, so many thanks to Teazel!

Across
1 For transplant, scan iris and other flowers (8)
NARCISSI – Anagram (for transplant) of SCAN IRIS
5 Abbreviated state service (4)
MASS – Abbrev. of MASSachusettes (state). Well, that was my attempt at spelling it – I see it doesn’t have that final E (which looks wrong). But I got 10d correct, so I’m giving myself a pass in today’s spelling test.
8 Good man meets with resistance (5)
STAND – ST. (Saint = good man) meets AND (with). That pesky w/with/and, gets me every time.
9 Cheese and some apricot taken (7)
RICOTTA – “some” of apRICOT TAken. FOI.
11 Judge turned to note (3)
JOT – J(udge) OT (“turned” to). Tripped me up nicely: I was looking for a “judge”, which I have a mental block with. I always feel there are a ton of possibilities I can never quite think of.
12 Money’s problematic if in a clan (9)
FINANCIAL – anagram (is problematic) of IF IN A CLAN. As in money/financial difficulties. (I can’t think of an example where the possessive “money’s” meaning “relating to money” could be swapped with the answer.)
13 Dairy product from goat? (6)
BUTTER – double definition, the second as in a thing that butts.
15 Almost become unable to see mischievous spirit (6)
GOBLIN – GO BLINd (“almost” become unable to see)
18 Insect takes off from pages of book (9)
FLYLEAVES – FLY (insect) LEAVES (takes off). Unprinted pages at the front/back of a book. Oh yes, that’s what they’re called.
19 Drinking bout in front half of car (3)
JAG – JAGuar (front half of car). News to me. Lexico explains that the original sense of jag “was ‘portion, quantity’, later ‘as much alcohol as one can hold’, hence ‘a binge’.”
20 Sage parent accepts head covering (7)
MAHATMA – MAMA (parent) accepts HAT (head covering)
21 Cornish tourist came across me, back at the front (5)
EMMET – MET (came across) with EM (me, “back”), at the front. Also news to me/forgotten. The OED has a quote: ” ‘Grockle’ is the Devonian word for tourist, or tripper, or summer visitor. In Cornwall the word is ‘emmet’.” An emmet is an archaic/dialect word for an ant, with the tourist idea coming from a large crowd on a beach or the like resembling ants.
22 Ready to eat? Tear back from office (4)
RIPE – RIP (tear) E (“back” from officE)
23 Good for food, for example, which a poet might use? (3,5)
EYE RHYME – Cryptic definition. Made easier by appearing in Tuesday’s 15×15 (“Poetic device exemplified in Keats and Yeats”), blogged by Jack, who wrote: “Words that look as if they should rhyme but when spoken they don’t.”


Down
1 Face operation: expert does, we hear (4,3)
NOSE JOB – “we hear” the same as KNOWS JOB ([what an] expert does). Hmm, close enough; we do get more enjoyable clues if setters are given a bit of latitude.
2 Right oven, for this? (5)
ROAST – R(ight) OAST (oven). And I suppose an oast does roast, so the answer to the clue is yes.
3 Unconcerned to be popular, standing out from the crowd? (11)
INDIFFERENT – IN (popular) DIFFERENT (standing out from the crowd)
4 Shore leave in hopeless place (6)
STRAND – quality double definition.
6 Tiny workers’ high-rise accommodation (7)
ANTHILL – cryptic definition, with the surface reading misdirecting you to think of human workers. The QC will often give an extra hint compared to the 15×15, such as “tiny” here, or “in hopeless place” in the previous clue.
7 Second shopping area is modest (5)
SMALL – S(econd) MALL (shopping area)
10 Stupidly censorious about name for man of taste (11)
CONNOISSEUR – anagram (stupidly) of CENSORIOUS about N(ame)
14 Too shy to play piano in store (7)
TOYSHOP – anagram (to play) of TOO SHY, and P(iano)
16 Close match, one assumed after dark (7)
NIGHTIE -NIGH (close) TIE (match)
17 A change involving one in birdcage (6)
AVIARY – A, VARY (a, change) involving I (one). Not CANARY, then, which I bunged in in haste.
18 See me wrapped up in warm coat, but only part of leg (5)
FEMUR – ME enwrapped in FUR (warm coat)
19 Leap year makes us nervous (5)
JUMPY – JUMP (leap) Y(ear). Well this leap year’s doing a good job of it.

63 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1708 by Teazel”

  1. 10 minutes. Never heard of JAG as a word with heavy drinking connotations, and I thought I knew them all by now!
  2. I’m having difficulty lately getting in under my 6′ goal. No problem with JAG, but I see that ODE marks it as chiefly N. Amer. EMMET (which I only knew because it’s appeared in a 15×15) struck me as a bit arcane for a QC, even for UK solvers. LOI RIPE, which I put in without having parsed it. 6:28.
  3. A struggle all the way through. Only two on the first pass of acrosses after it started well with NARCISSI but many looking like they were going to take a lot of thought. Downs went better but the SW in particular looked empty after completing that pass. NHO of JAG, EYE RHYME or EMMET (we used grockle in Somerset) but all bunged in as things got tougher. Ended up all green in 25 and misdirection caused a lot of that – didn’t separate ‘shore’ from ‘leave’ for STRAND (loved SHORE LEAVE as a double definition, Roly) and failed to spot anagram indicators for both FINANCIAL and TOYSHOP for too long thanks to well written clues. Getting TOYSHOP let me see that I did actually know a third three letter insect after ‘bee’ and ‘ant’ to complete FLYLEAVES, which is turn led me to try to force FIBIA in (could a fiba be a sort of warm coat?) before seeing sense and making MAHATMA appear (I’d been looking for a five letter hat in PA for a herb taking my lead from 1a) and then LOI RIPE. So a good run comes to an end thanks to a particularly good puzzle.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 06:24 am (UTC)

  4. I managed 11 mins today which is still not good enough by half.But for Tuesday I do not think I would have gotten 23ac!

    FOI 5ac MASS

    LOI 14dn TOY SHOP

    COD 21ac EMMET but an old chestnut

    WOD 10dn CONNOISSEUR which I am! As well as old and chestnutty.

    Are we able to influence setters?

    Could you please use the answer BOSTONIAN in a forthcoming puzzle?

    Edited at 2020-09-24 06:23 am (UTC)

  5. 29:19, too long by half

    I did not enjoy this puzzle today. Without Roly’s blog I would not have understood half a dozen clues. I ended up bunging in the last few with no understanding.

    Cornish dialect? Strewth. When I was at Southampton University we went over to the Isle of Wight with T-Shirts made saying “Day of the Grockle”, the IOW word for, um, Emmet.

    And two clues didn’t really work for me, with no “construction” part: ANTHILL and EYE RHYME. I discounted ANT HILL since there was no way to construct its parts from the clue.

    NHO : JAG, EYE RHYME, or EMMET.

    COD: None.

    1. If you don’t like cryptic definitions you’d be far from alone, but I really like them as a slightly different clue that works more as a straight riddle-type thing without any construction. A good one can provide a great penny drop moment. They were covered recently in a series on different cryptic clue types in the clue writing contest here (No. 1811) – well worth a look.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-sunday-times-clue-writing-contest-pm6f9b0s2?shareToken=d2b6a9e9f377645c4ce5fcb64a88bdc6

      1. Great Link! Really enjoyed looking through some of these. I agree a good riddle is fine, and a nice change from a more mechanical “construction” clue. I was a big fan of the recent ENDEARING and ENDING. But these two today just seemed weak.
    2. I didn’t know that the IOW used grockle, I’ve always thought it was the Devonshire folk that bandied it about! Still no doubt the IOWers are happy to take your money (if you’ve any left after paying the ferryman).

      H

      1. No Vectians don’t use ‘grockle’ – the word for incomers from England is ‘overner[ (one of my father’s sisters wouldn’t speak to him for years because he’d married one). (BTW, we don’t usually call ourselves Vectians, which is rather posh, and more often found in print)
        1. I regret to inform you that my searches in Chambers and OED do not support you or Kevin Gregg.
          You say “clumsier” – please explain
          kpc
            1. Nice example. ‘The chicken is ready to eat’ shows up in linguistics textbooks as an example of structural ambiguity. Then there’s the ancient joke: A: You look good enough to eat. B: Great! Where shall we eat?
              1. Thank-you QAnon thank goodness that’s all over – that’s enough fun for one day!

                Edited at 2020-09-24 04:23 pm (UTC)

  8. I was enjoying this a lot, especially GOBLIN and BUTTER, both of which made me laugh, until I got to the last couple of clues. Oh, dear.
    I knew EMMET, but I totally understand why many wouldn’t. I’ve never heard of JAG, but put it in anyway .
    And, even with all the checkers in, I couldn’t see the answer to 23 across, EYE RHYME. This is a poetic device that I know well. It’s one that creates a sense of fracture and unease in a poem, a feeling that, below a harmonious surface, all may not be well. (Think of eg “cough” and “plough “, or “dead” and “mead “, etc ) But I don’t see how this answer fits with the first half of the clue. Or at least I can see one way (in as much as it provides the material – “food” – that a poet might use ) but, if that’s it, then I think it’s a pretty poor clue. Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day. Thanks, Roly, for the blog and thanks too to Teazel

    1. Think of eg “cough” and “plough “, or “dead” and “mead “, etc

      Or… um… “good” and “food” perhaps?

      Sorry, I don’t quite understand your objection. Okay, the ‘for’ is slightly misleading – ‘with’ would have worked better – but I think ‘for example’ makes it clear enough what the intention is.

      1. You’re right…. and I didn’t see it. So thanks for pointing it out. If course, now I feel very very stupid.
        2. Perhaps you got too sidetracked with explaining what eye rhymes do – thanks, that’s excellent and finally makes a bit of sense! If they are intended to sow discord then my estimation of them has gone up a lot, because they definitely do. (Not sure if it will quite get me to read much more poetry, though!)
          1. Thank you, Roly. That’s kind. I did get distracted by explaining eye rhymes, that’s for sure. In addition, I was fixated on finding an answer with G in it for “good ” plus EG for “for example “. This blinded me to what was, literally, in front of my eyes. That’ll lurn me….
        3. I got it but couldn’t parse it, and while I was mentally berating Roly for not having parsed it in the blog the penny suddenly dropped. To be fair to both of us, it is only just an eye rhyme, and not one at all with some dialects, but very satisfying when you see it.
            1. Which, of course, would mean that it isn’t an eye rhyme for you…. and probably for many others.
      2. Is there some form of English pronunciation where ‘good’ and ‘food’ don’t rhyme?

        Ulsterman now living in Nova Scotia

        1. Well, yes, food and good rhyme in Ulster and Scotland but the ‘oo’ is longer in food in RP etc. What a to-do it is today.
          1. We had no idea of the explanation of the eye-rhyme as good and food sound quite different to us. Both from the SE!
            1. Yes, they do sound different to most English people, I reckon. If I understand it correctly, an eye rhyme refers to two words that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently, so by eye they look as if they should rhyme but they don’t.
              All a bit obscure.
  9. This was a difficult, ornery sort of puzzle. Like Merlin, I didn’t enjoy it and I had a time similar to his. I had a problem with STAND (‘and’ again!) and ROAST held me up a bit, as did RIPE which had to be but which I left roly to parse. The SE corner gave me serious trouble. No problem with EMMET and RHYME went in as soon as CONNOISSEUR emerged but I have never heard of an EYE RHYME and I was slow to biff it even after AVIARY went in. I was convinced that 19a must be half of jamjar (car) but couldn’t make sense of it and JAG didn’t figure at all until I finally entered NIGHTIE (which was actually a good clue). A dog’s breakfast for me. Thanks to roly. John M.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 11:45 am (UTC)

  10. The hardest QC for a long time. I had two left after 23 minutes and I submitted after 27:46 with LOI RYE RHYME. I do recall seeing the Keats/Yeats clue but have no idea what Eye Rhyme means, so one wrong. Like others JAG was new but gettable. EMMET very obscure but gettable just for me. I mistyped CONNOISSEUR, my fault entirely, but the late arriving GOBLIN saved me there.
    COD to STRAND; also liked Nose Job and Nightie. Some great stuff in here but will cause agony to some.
    David
  11. Couldn’t see much difference between the QC and the 15×15. Not sure JAG, EMMET and EYE RHYME are QC material. Presumably Teasel set the 15×15 this week?
  12. My slowest time in over three weeks – at 22:02.
    I couldn’t parse STAND as I’d forgotten the dreaded ‘and’ for ‘with’ and I’m yet another member of the DNK JAG-EMMET-EYE RHYME club.
    There were, however, some lovely PDMs in RICOTTA (which took me a while to spot), BUTTER, GOBLIN and NIGHTIE.
    COD goes to FLY LEAVES for its humour.
    Thanks to Teazel for the workout and to Roly for all the explanations.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 09:51 am (UTC)

  13. This was a strange mix for me. Some very easy, some tricky and some OTT. Emmet and Jag were just plain ridiculous for a quickie – it’s bad enough having obscure local UK terms without throwing in stuff from across the pond!
  14. A toughie Indeed. After 50 mins I had at least completed the grid, although I incorrectly put “Tye Rhyme” for 23ac thinking it had something to with “thyme” (had no idea to be honest) and then spelt 10dn “Connoisseur” incorrectly.

    Lots to like, but some quite obscure GK I thought eg. the before mentioned 23ac, 21ac “Emmet”, 19ac “Jag”.

    FOI – 1dn “Nosejob”
    LOI – 23ac “Eye Rhyme”
    COD – 2dn “Roast”

    Thanks as usual

  15. Also didn’t enjoy with too much obscurity together in se corner. Had JAM for 19a for ages, a jam session certainly involves a lot of drinking as well as the music and it is front half of Jam jar crs for car
  16. Some tricky stuff today. Like others JAG, EMMET and EYE RHYME were new to me, the last of which went in with fingers crossed after an alphabet trawl. In addition I tried 3 or 4 different spellings of 10d before arriving at the correct version.
    There was also plenty to enjoy though including; FEMUR, GOBLIN, NOSE JOB and BUTTER. Finished in 17.38 with LOI EMMET.
    Thanks to Roly unscrambling some of today’s mysteries.
  17. Top half easy, bottom half tough was my experience. The EMMET has been in the news a bit recently as the Cornish object to Londoners descending on them during the plague. NHO JAG in that sense but the car is well-known so it had to be.

    EYE RHYME, however, was another matter … a 4 minute trawl as I tried all the vowels, with increasing despair, in between R and Y. And even when I realised that it must be RHYME and wrote it in, I still hadn’t heard of it and had to Google what an eye rhyme was, despite having read English at Cambridge. Since I don’t do the 15×15 I didn’t get the leg up from last week!

    Anyway, got there in the end and contrary to much of the above I rather enjoyed it; I thought it was a clever puzzle. BUTTER, FLYLEAVES and GOBLIN all very neat.

    FOI NARCISSI, LOI (by some considerable distance) EYE RHYME, COD NOSE JOB (lovely PDM), time a whisker under 2K for an OK Day.

    Thanks Teazel and roly.

    Templar

  18. Some obscure answers today – JAG, EMMET, MAHATMA, EYE RHYME unknown so had to look up. Very hard for a Quick Cryptic.
    1. I agree. But I’m enjoying the correspondence it started.
      I knew it was connoisseur but couldn’t get it to fit as I didn’t realise it had an i in it.

      Diana

  19. On the trickier side, but no serious hold ups. I visit Cornwall a lot, so EMMET was well known, EYE RHYME was in a 15×15 the other day, or I wouldn’t have got it (didn’t get it there!). No real hold ups, but definitely on the tricky side – 9:26 for me.
  20. The top half was quite straightforward but some of the clues in the bottom half really stretched us. However, there’s something extremely satisfying about solving a clue with a word or definition that you’ve never heard of – bit like cracking a code. Moreover, our vocabulary has now been expanded by 3 words which we need to remember for future reference! Thanks to Teazel for giving our little grey cells a 23 minute workout.

    FOI: nose job
    LOI: emmet
    COD: goblin

    Thanks to Rolytoly for the blog

    Thanks for the heads up about yesterday’s 15×15. We tried it, managed to solve most of it and enjoyed it.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 12:28 pm (UTC)

  21. … in finishing without too much delay in 11 minutes. To even be in the same territory as Vinyl and Jack is very rare for me.

    Not to say there weren’t a few shrugs of the shoulder on the way. First very small shrug at 8A: Stand = resistance? Yes probably I suppose. Slightly bigger shrug at 12A: Money = financial? Different part of speech entirely, and as has been said, not obvious you could construct a phrase in which they could be used interchangeably. Shrugging became really quite major at 19A Jag, not only because it is pretty obscure but also because Teazel could so easily have clued Jig or Jog or Jug, all of which are more than open to QC-level cluing. And by the time we reached 21A Emmet (obscure in spades, but also a question: is not a Cornish tourist a tourist from Cornwall, not a tourist going to Cornwall?) and 23A Eye rhyme (which I only heard of for the very first time in the 15×15 earlier this week),I began to wonder what level of solver Teazel had in mind for this puzzle.

    Strange, because there were some lovely clues amongst the MERs, including my COD 4D Strand with a really smooth surface.

    Many thanks to Roly for the blog
    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-09-24 12:36 pm (UTC)

    1. Whilst your point is perfectly valid in general terms I think some allowance has to be made for crossword clue shorthand without which puzzles would pedantically dull. The implication here is clearly ‘cornish (word for) tourist’.
  22. Struggled with Mahatma as I was fixated it was some kind of middle eastern head covering I sought. But the correct answer helped with Femur.

    I guessed rhyme and thought of Eye but dismissed it.

    Liked Butter and COD Nose Job.
    Knew Emmet and got Jag from the car.

    So I did enjoy most of this one, many thanks.

  23. ….JAG, leave the JAG in the garage. New word for my vocabulary ! No other problems.

    FOI NARCISSI
    LOI/COD STRAND
    TIME 4:04

  24. Finished in 24m but not knowing 23a which we pondered over even after putting in eye rhyme. Clever clue. Did not know jag, but it had to be the answer. A long ago holiday on a Cornish farm gave us emmet, which we thought was a synonym for ants, very descriptive we think. Thanks Teasel for an interesting puzzle, and also for the blog.
  25. Completed in 15 minutes but with three guesses. JAG and EMMET were guessed from wordplay and EYE RHYME was a leap in the dark. Perhaps I should now try the Tuesday 15×15 armed with this new knowledge. Thanks Roly
  26. Tough and like others did not know JAG, EMMET and EYE RHYME.

    Guessed the first two but gave up on the first part of 23a.

    First in NARCISSI and COD NIGHTIE.

    Found the downs easier than the acrosses. No time as I had a couple of breaks along the way.

  27. All done in 20 bar 23 across. I now understand the second part of the clue but would someone mind explaining how the first part relates to the answer. Johnny
    1. Because “good”/”food” is an example of an eye rhyme, assuming that you are an RP speaker!
  28. Not that he he needs my help, but I was amazed that jag as a drinking spree was so little known – to me it seems so ordinary that it wouldn’t occur to me that I was making the clue hard ( it was something like my third one in). Emmet may be a little more obscure, but again to me fairly straightforward as it has been in the news recently. I have no idea how I knew eye rhyme, certainly not from education, but then it is a form of assonance, and that I know from Educating (Rita, defined by her as “getting the rhyme wrong”).
    All I am trying to say is one person’s obscurity is another’s commonplace, and after all one of the pleasures of the crossword is learning new words/meanings.
    1. Yes, it’s good to increase the vocab and GK. Must think of an occasion where I can impress with Eye Rhymes, but there’s not much call for poetry round ‘ere.
  29. A bit harder today but at least others thought the same way – I worry when I find it hard and everybody else says it was a breeze! Obviously I discount kevingregg and PJ when making that sort of analysis.

    All words known to me, so I was surprised that EMMET and JAG gave some problems.

    FOI ROAST
    LOI CONNOISSEUR, but only because I wasn’t convinced I’d spell it correctly and didn’t want to mess up crossers!
    COD JOT or JAG

    H

  30. A DNF as I messed up 19a with JAR and then couldn’t resolved 16d nightie. I’m pretty sure we’ve seem 21a emmet in a QC before as otherwise I wouldn’t have know it…
    Started off in blank despair and then hit the wavelength by determinedly searching for anagrams on the basis there are ALWAYS anagrams. I thought a lot of the clues were obscure, and then some very straightforward. Solving in somewhat difficult circumstances today parked up in a lay-by didn’t help but got a proper foothold once I returned home nd reviving with a cuppa.
    FOI 1d nose-job; LOI DNF 19a/15d; COD 5a mass for the double-take it took.
    Well beaten by Teazel and grateful to our blogger and the discussions above.
  32. Toughie. Never heard of EMMET or EYE RHYME. Had to look up STRAND to put it into sense of meaning of shore. Drinking JAG and drinking binge have always been synonymous for me. Even MASS did not jump out until I had the crossers.
    GOBLIN and FLY LEAVES were smilers but they didn’t compensate for a lot of gnashing of teeth.
    Thanks everyone, Teazel and Roly.

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