Times Quick Cryptic No 1728 by Orpheus

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I’d say this was pitched at middling difficulty today from Orpheus, but I was held to two minutes over target with a tip-of-the-tongue moment (or two) at 20ac and then a longer pause at the clever bit of misdirection at 5ac. Nice mix of clues, although 13ac was uncomfortably close to reality, from which this provided a very welcome diversion, so many thanks to Orpheus!

Across
1 Backlash, possibly, with regard to lawsuit (8)
REACTION – RE (with regard to) ACTION (lawsuit)
5 Clustering plant associated with Stirling, nominally (4)
MOSS – as in the racing driver Stirling Moss. Good use of nominally in the ‘name’ sense rather than ‘minimally’, which had me assuming the S was Stirling, “nominally”. 
8 Dog pen Erica locks unhappily (6,7)
COCKER SPANIEL – anagram (unhappily) of PEN ERICA LOCKS
10 Instrument originally played in area near Oxford (5)
PIANO – Played In Area Near Oxford, “originally”
11 Outlay keeping female swans in river (7)
EXPENSE – keeping PENS (female swans) in EXE (river)
12 Burrowing marsupial initially waiting for start of fight (6)
WOMBAT – W (“initially” Waiting) for the start of COMBAT (fight). WIki tells me that today in Oz is an unofficial holiday called Wombat Day, going since 2005; it also says how one, enraged with mange, mauled a man who had to fight it with an axe.
13 Rat, possibly, in rubbish outside study (6)
RODENT – ROT (rubbish) outside DEN (study). Thankfully not quite, but a mouse rummaging in packaging in a bathroom made for a restless night last night. Lucky the packaging was there to act like a doorbell. And the task of hermetically sealing the house continues… Still, preferable to rabid wombat combat.
16 Crossword compiler, about fifty, one taking up residence (7)
SETTLER – SETTER (crossword compiler) about L (fifty)
18 Give more weapons back — one thousand (5)
REARM – REAR (back) M (one thousand)
20 Where councillors may be, securing merger (13)
INCORPORATION – IN CORPORATION (where councillors may be, as in a civic authority). ‘Securing’ is a linkword (see glossary) meaning it is ‘getting’ the answer.
21 Detest bowler, perhaps — and Essex opener! (4)
HATE – HOT (bowler, perhaps) and E (Essex “opener”)
22 Forceful, macho types held in check (8)
VEHEMENT – HE-MEN (macho types) held in VET (check). I would have been longer on this but remembered he-men.

Down
1 Go over again, bringing up horse (5)
RECAP – bringing up/reversing PACER (horse)
2 An assertion from the Speaker offering approval (7)
ACCLAIM – sounds like (“from the speaker”) A CLAIM (an assertion)
3 Abstainer, one calculating amount of Assam, do we hear? (11)
TEETOTALLER – sounds like (“do we hear”) TEA (Assam) TOTALLER (one calculating amount of). I vaguely thought the word had something to do with drinking ‘tea‘ vs alcohol, which obviously doesn’t work now I think about it: it is just a way of emphasising the word ‘total’ as in t-total abstinence and used by members of the Total Abstinence Society.
4 Losing head, violently destroy marine mollusc (6)
OYSTER – after losing the head letter, make an anagram (violently) of dESTROY.
6 Stars performing outside Brazilian port (5)
ORION – ON (performing) outside RIO (Brazilian port)
7 Solution Victor dropped in Channel at Cowes? (7)
SOLVENT – V(ictor) dropped in SOLENT (Channel at Cowes)
9 Suitable to steal (11)
APPROPRIATE – double definition
12 “Crotchety” used to be an expression of contempt (7)
WASPISH – WAS (used to be) PISH (expression of contempt)
14 Devious woman primarily serving in village eatery (7)
EVASIVE – EVA (woman), “primarily” Serving In Village Eatery
15 Furrow Oscar found in wooded area (6)
GROOVE – O(scar) found in GROVE (wooded area)
17 Silent diplomacy involving Irish leader (5)
TACIT – TACT (diplomacy involving I (Irish “leader”)
19 Painter’s instant source of information (5)
MONET – MO (instant) NET (source of [not always reliable, except here of course] information).

33 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1728 by Orpheus”

  1. Straightforward, except that it took a while to connect Stirling with MOSS; I’m surprised I even remembered the name. 5:46. Roly, you’ve got a typo at HATE.
  2. Seven at the first pass of across so a good strong start but hard work to pull the words out today, finally finishing in 22m. Took a very long time over OYSTER having completely failed to spot how the cryptic worked – I was looking for a simple first letter removal for a word meaning “violently destroy” and VEHEMENT where I knew how the clue worked but couldn’t bring the words to mind. I’ve heard of ‘waspish’ but I’ve obviously never known what it means – I have associated it with being mean spirited rather than crumpy (it now occurs to me I may not really know what ‘crotchety’ means either). No excuses for the time taken over GROOVE or ACCLAIM. On the bright side, MOSS went in practically before I’d finished reading the clue.

    Edited at 2020-10-22 05:52 am (UTC)

  3. I made heavy weather of this with a lot of time wasted on WOMBAT and more particularly 5ac. I had considered MOSS as the most biffable answer if ‘clustering plant’ was the definition, but like our blogger I had the last letter accounted for by ‘Stirling nominally’ and was left floundering as to where MOS might come from.

    14 minutes.

    Edited at 2020-10-22 05:20 am (UTC)

  4. Another case of jumping around the grid for me. Quite a few clues just failed to gel although a few answers fell out given some crossers. I must take issue with SOLVENT which is simply wrong. Solvent and solution are not synonymous – a SOLUTE dissolves in a SOLVENT to form a SOLUTION.
    I liked WOMBAT, VEHEMENT, INCORPORATION, WASPISH, EVASIVE but MOSS took me too long. This stretched to 19.00 in the end and I couldn’t quite see why so hats off to ORPHEUS (apart from 7d which was a nice clue apart from the definition). Thanks, too, to Roly. John M.

    Edited at 2020-10-22 09:18 am (UTC)

  5. We seemed to jump all over the place – needing checkers on several clues before solving them. Interruptions (due to the delivery of a freezer – calls and the actual delivery) meant that we didn’t record a time but would estimate that it was in the 15 minute region. Really enjoyed the puzzle – thanks Orpheus.

    FOI: cocker spaniel
    LOI: evasive
    COD: waspish

    Thanks to Roly for the blog – hope you sort your rodent problem 😀

  6. No major issues today but the clues that I spent most time on were the parsing of OYSTER, RECAP (where I looked at the wrong end of the clue for the definition and wanted to fit cob into the answer) and LOI EVASIVE. Finished in 8.49.
    Thanks to Roly
  7. … as the first 3 across clues went in almost as I read them – though I am just too young to have seen Stirling Moss race (last race in 1961) I am of the generation for whom he was still a household name. Many think him the finest racing driver never to have won the championship.

    Then I slowed. And slowed. And took an age over the SE corner, which held me up badly and gave me an 11 minute finish in the end. LOI 14D Evasive – it did not help that I thought “Woman primarily” was Eve and then I faced EV….E and how to parse ASIV going in there. What is the Village eatery? Can “serving in” indicate inclusion? And so on.

    But the joy of these puzzles is when the penny does finally drop – and then one thinks “why could I not see that?!”.

    So a most enjoyable puzzle from Orpheus. And thank you to Roly for the blog.

    Cedric

  8. MOSS was a very satisfying PDM. What a clever clue. I found this fun and straightforward, with only REARM and INCORPORATION requiring a second visit.

    FOI REACTION, LOI INCORPORATION (had to go to Lexico post solve to twig the “merger” meaning), COD WASPISH (just pipping MOSS), time 1.3K for an Excellent day.

    Many thanks roly and Orpheus.

    Templar

  9. Thanks Roly, that raised a smile.
    It seemed like combat to beat the 10 minute mark but the last few fell into place with 30 seconds to spare. I gave up puzzling over the parsing of evasive during the solve and went for the bif. I had assumed that ‘Eve’ was the woman primarily (as in Adam &). LOI was vehement which also raised a smile. Thanks also to our setter for an entertaining and challenging puzzle.
  10. DNF, giving up after 20 minutes with 5a unsolved after very clever misdirection from our Setter. There were just too many options for the definition and answer to go through all of the possibilities, so I stopped thinking. Hats off to Orpheus, associating Stirling with MOSS was a step too far for me this morning.

    Otherwise, a nicely clued crossword, with VEHEMENT and WASPISH taking a little time to get. Thanks Roly and Orpheus.

  11. Spent a full 10 minutes staring at this last clue. I had the clue structure, but had TEST for ‘check’ which kept me off the scent.

    Did not pass MONET, so was rolling the dice vs MANET.

    After reading the blog I’m surprised that MOSS tripped up so many. But then that is the nature of these puzzles, a write-in for some solvers and a 10 minutes dead end for others.

    ROT for ‘rubbish’ appears in crosswords, PG Wodehouse, Billy Bunter and not many other places. As for ‘PISH’, I think Stephen Fry is a fan of that word.

    COD WASPISH

    1. For me, PISH conjures up images (and the voice) of Rab C. Nesbitt. Once heard, never forgotten (if not always fully understood). 🙄

      Edited at 2020-10-22 10:21 am (UTC)

        1. If my memory is not playing tricks, they ran ‘Scottish’ sub-titles in a sketch where Rab was stopped by an English policeman 😊
    2. I think it was Robert Robinson who was a particular fan of ‘pish’ (and ‘tush’ ) and Fry took to using it having impersonated RR in a TV sketch.
  12. Another very frustrating DNF for me, this time after a full 87 minutes. It was all the more annoying as the majority went in very quickly for me. I ground to a halt after maybe 15 or 20 minutes with just 12d, 15d, 20a and 22a to get. I must admit I can’t understand why MOSS proved difficult for people. I am too young to know much about Stirling Moss, but I would have thought most UK-based people over 30 say would be familiar enough with his, somewhat unusual, name that MOSS would come to mind upon the mention of Stirling. Just shows how different we all are I guess. Anyway, what didn’t come to mind, at least for a long time, was WASPISH, despite seeing it was WAS_ _ _H. When it finally did, the initial “I” allowed me to piece together INCORPORATION, although I spelt it with an E in the middle at first, which didn’t help with GROOVE. That took an age to get even when I corrected my spelling, but 22a was just too hard. I tried everything I could think of, including having TEST for the “check” bit, but HE-MEN just isn’t in my vocabulary really, despite having seen it before here and “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” being my favourite programme when I was about 10. I bet he would have got VEHEMENT. He had the power after all. Sadly, today, I didn’t, but thanks anyway to Roly and to Orpheus for all the animals. COD to 12a so that I can share the fact that wombats produce cuboid-shaped droppings. Oh, and a bit of a science teacher MER at 7d. To me a solvent is the liquid that dissolves something to make a solution, they are not equivalent.
    1. With hindsight, I was surprised (like Merlin and you) that MOSS didn’t spring to mind, especially as I grew up with him at his peak. But, as Merlin says, that is the beauty of such puzzles – ‘a write-in for some solvers and a 10 min dead end for others’.
      Glad to have some support on the solvent/solution issue, too (above). A basic error imo.
  13. Have been staring at W-s-i-h for some time but gave up. Pish, pish indeed.
    Quick, quick but then very slow.
    FOI Cocker Spaniel
    LOI Incorporation (used CDC) which made me smile, as did Hate and Vehement.
    Liked Solvent and Monet. Am strong on marsupials so no problem with Wombat!

    Thanks all.

    Edited at 2020-10-22 10:57 am (UTC)

  14. I had to enter a few unparsed – VEHEMENT (didn’t think of ‘he-men’), RECAP (didn’t know ‘pacer’ and was trying to fit in ‘nag’ somehow) and EVASIVE (where I was racking my brain for another name for ‘eatery’) so thanks to Roly for the ‘always reliable’ blog.
    Some amusing clues such as TEETOTALLER and WASPISH – and my COD has to be the wonderful COCKER SPANIEL anagram. How do setters conjure up these gems?
    Thanks to Orpheus for almost 19 minutes of head-scratching.
  15. Nice puzzle from Orpheus today which took me 21 mins in all, fully parsed. Some tricky clues and also some, like 14dn, where the crossers were less than helpful. As a non-scientist the solvent/solution issue passed completely over my head.

    FOI – 8ac COCKER SPANIEL
    LOI – 22ac VEHEMENT
    COD – 9dn APPROPRIATE – nice double definition

  16. Having narrowly escaped a prolonged struggle yesterday, I suppose it was inevitable that today’s puzzle was going break the other way. Biffing Coin (aka Chinese money plant) for 5ac, when I only had the second letter, started me down a series of mis-steps that took time to unravel. I even had to resort to tackling dog names (I’m more of a cat person) without a full set of crossers. Loi, after 45 mins, was the appropriate Waspish. Invariant
  17. It seems I’m not alone in abandoning today.

    I don’t mind if it’s the odd clue, but I struggled with most of the SE corner, not helped by biffing in “Plough” for 15dn (I always forget “grove” as a wooded area). 20ac “Incorporation”, 18ac “Rearm”, 14dn “Evasive” and 22ac “Vehement” just wouldn’t come. Again – nothing special about them – but too many options in a similar area caused doubt, so gave up after an hour of head scratching.

    FOI – 10ac “Piano”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 3dn “Teetotaller” – probably a chestnut, but made me smile.

    Thanks as usual.

  18. popped straight in, well not quite immediately, I had moved on to the next clue, but then the other meaning of “nominally” struck me.

    GROOVE went in last, and I liked WASPISH!

    5:26

  19. All going well, all finished in about 8 minutes, apart from 5a, which stumped me! I decided that the S I already had was the initial letter of STIRLING and that I needed to find a word for plant that would end up giving me a word for clustering. Six minutes later the penny finally dropped for a time of 14 minutes. Will I never learn to abandon a parsing quickly if it’s not working out [bangs head on table]

    H

  20. ….to parse EVASIVE for me, but thanks are due to him.

    I found this a little tricky, but just hit my target.

    FOI COCKER SPANIEL
    LOI WOMBAT
    COD WASPISH
    TIME 5:00

  21. At first glance I thought this was going to be difficult but I made steady progress, enjoying the varied clues. I was almost there and at 15 minutes it would have been A Good Day but I was defeated by 22a. I guessed it would end MENT but still couldn’t think what kind of ‘check’ could go round it. I had to resort to a trusty aid to finish. An enjoyable puzzle, thank you Roly and Orpheus.
    Blue Stocking
  22. 15:05 of hard work for me. Started slowly with ORION FOI. Last two were ACCLAIM and WOMBAT; could not bring the pesky creature to mind until I had the M.
    I felt there was something to delay almost everyone in this puzzle. I was lucky MOSS occurred to me quickly. WASPISH was hard I thought.
    A good challenge from Orpheus. I enjoyed it.
    David
  23. We found this to be of medium difficulty, moss went in straight away, shows our ages. Failed to parse monet, waspish relying on the cross checkers. Nice puzzle, thanks Orpheus and for blog.
  24. After two dreadful days of solving I can honestly say I really enjoyed this QC. Some answers I thought of and parsed while typing into the grid….WOMBAT, WASPISH and RODENT from recollection. FOI RECAP and LOI MOSS with a sub 9 minutes finish for an excellent day. Thanks Roly.
  25. Hard solve but fun clues
    Anyone else ever read the Muddle Headed Wombat to their offspring?
    1. It’s under the Links heading at the top right-hand side underneath the calendar. Hope this helps.

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