Times Quick Cryptic No 1769 by Orpheus

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Orpheus is the provider of our Quick Crossword today. I found it not as hard as the last two I blogged, although I suspect a couple of bits of less common vocabulary may lead to a little head-scratching for some. But to me, that is one of the joys of doing crosswords – discovering words you didn’t know before. Alongside the trickier ones are a few simpler clues to get you going, like 7A, 10A and 13A, among others. Only one anagram, though, which is  a bit unusual.  It  took me just a bit over my target in 5:15. Thank you Orpheus! How did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, which has a bit of a seasonal theme, here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

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

Across
1 Old Nicaraguan guerrilla group’s smuggled goods (10)
CONTRABAND – CONTRA (Old Nicaraguan guerrilla) BAND (group). The Contras were right-wind rebel groups funded by the US and active from 1979 to the 1990s, as you can read about here.
7 A politician receiving duke without preparation (2,3)
AD LIB – A LIB (politician) outside [receiving] D (duke).
8 Shed tears about that woman’s fruit (6)
CHERRY – CRY (shed tears) [about] HER (that woman).
10 Greek character initially eating baked food (3)
PIE – PI (Greek alphabet character) [initially] Eating.
12 Vehicle in which politician and monarch visit Irish county? (6,3)
CAMPER VAN – MP (politician) ER (monarch) inside [visit] CAVAN (Irish County). Read more about the Irish County here.
13 Healthy food for environmentalists (6)
GREENS – Double definition.
14 Item of jewellery Oscar found in prehistoric tower (6)
BROOCH – O (Oscar in the NATO phonetic alphabet) in BROCH (prehistoric tower). I did vaguely know this word, but not what it meant. A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Read more about them here.
17 Unfashionable garments for the suburbs (9)
OUTSKIRTS – OUT (unfashionable) SKIRTS (garments).
19 Main directions given by African leader (3)
SEA – S.E (south, east; directions) and first letter [leader] of African.
20 Male journalist finally occupied covering conflict (6)
EDWARD – ED (editor; journalist) and last letter of [finally] occupieD outside [covering] WAR (conflict).
21 Live in luxury, perhaps, with daughter (5)
DWELL – D (daughter) WELL (in luxury perhaps).
23 Device some countryfolk need to keep in stock? (6,4)
CATTLE GRID – Cryptic definition. How to keep your cattle (stock) from leaving.
Down
1 Gent regularly tucking into prizewinning mushroom (10)
CHAMPIGNON – Alternate letters [regularly] of GeNt inside [tucking into] CHAMPION (prizewinning). I knew the French word, but not that it was used in English too.
2 Line up briefly for nothing (3)
NIL – All but last letter [briefly] of LINe, reversed [up] (this is a down clue) -> NIL.
3 Polish artwork in stream Caesar crossed (7)
RUBICON – A bit of a chestnut, I think. RUB (polish) ICON (artwork). The Crossing of the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC precipitated the Roman Civil War, which ultimately led to Caesar’s becoming dictator and the rise of the imperial era of Rome.
4 Change into suit (6)
BECOME – Double definition, the second as in “that becomes you”.
5 City area in Northern Ireland originally enticing family member (5)
NIECE – EC (City of London area) [in] NI (Northern Ireland) and first letter of [originally] Enticing.
6 Former priest accommodated by sanctimonious old American (8)
PREVIOUS – No. Not a “former priest”… It’s REV (priest) inside [accommodated by] PI (sanctiminonious) O (old) US (American).
9 Fascinated, being made a slave once (10)
ENTHRALLED – Double definition, the second an older one [once]. I remembered that from “thrall”, but it’s not exactly everyday conversation.
11 Water moving smoothly in latter part of day? (8)
EVENTIDE – EVEN (smoothly) TIDE (water moving).
15 Remains unwanted at first in army corps team (7)
RESIDUE – First letter of Unwanted [at first] [in] RE (Royal Engineers; army corps) SIDE (team)
16 Unusually direct source of pride (6)
CREDIT – (direct)* [unusually]. Our first and last anagram!
18 Marsupial known at first over a large area (5)
KOALA – Known [at first] O (over) A L (large) A (area).
22 Some choose a reed organ (3)
EAR – Hidden in [some] choosE A Reed.

76 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1769 by Orpheus”

  1. I did not get on well, putting in CATTLE PROD with a shrug. Don’t know the other term. Ah well. Thought this one was on the tough side for sure.
  2. Like Jeremy, I put in CATTLE PROD; although I do know CATTLE GRID, it didn’t occur to me and I was tired of the puzzle by then. I stupidly flung in OUTERWEAR and forgot about it, which of course delayed solving the three down clues. DNK BROCH but finally inferred it; rather arcane for a Quickie. Nicely tricked by ‘former priest’ into expecting EX ELI somewhere. No time–I was interrupted a couple of times–but it took quite a while.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 01:27 am (UTC)

  3. 8 minutes. DNK BROCH, nor ENTRALLED meaning ‘enslaved’ which Collins says is obsolete – acknowledged by Orpheus by inclusion of ‘once’. Thankfully both answers were readily gettable by other means.

    I’m familiar with the area of meaning of WELL required at 21ac but ‘in luxury’ is perhaps overstating it a bit.

    I’d no problem choosing CATTLE GRID over ‘cattle prod’ as the grid does exactly what’s stated in the clue, namely ‘keep in stock’.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 05:16 am (UTC)

    1. But surely a cattle prod is also used, on occasion, to ‘keep in stock’? A fine point, I think, as so many posts suggest. John.
      2. I think the definitive question here concerns “stock”. To me, that suggests more than one animal – which is realistically all you could control with a prod. A grid controls the entire herd.
        1. I think we are splitting hairs. I got the wrong answer but, like others, didn’t think it was entirely unreasonable. That’s it. 😉
    2. ‘La belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall’
      Keats.

      Edited at 2020-12-18 12:41 pm (UTC)

  4. Started well but stalled in the SE. Two clues entered without really being happy with the answer, NHO of a broch or realised a BROOCH was spelled like that and found it hard to get ‘well’ from luxury – and I tried to put the D at the wrong end. Both went in once I finally got ENTHRALLED which I’ve only thought of as ‘in thrall’ previously. On the bright side I really enjoyed CHERRY which I hadn’t got even as I had CHER typed in the grid – lovely moment of realisation – and RESIDUE which slowly revealed itself.

    And I got a pink square for carelessness with CHAMPIGNON even thought it couldn’t have been clued more clearly!

    Edited at 2020-12-18 06:13 am (UTC)

  5. This felt like a sluggish solve, despite it taking less time than yesterday’s. I struggled with 1a by trying to get Sandinista into it somehow and CONTRABAND was eventually my POI, before finishing with BECOME. I had two typos in ENTHRALLED, one of which made the tricky BROOCH even trickier by having it end in an ‘r’, until I spotted the mistake.
    On the positive side I learnt two new bits of GK today – an Irish county and an ancient tower, whether they stick in my mind or not is an entirely different matter. Finished in 13.04.
    Thanks to John for the blog and in advance for the weekend QC

    Edited at 2020-12-18 08:31 am (UTC)

  6. Had a DNF as I too had cattle prod – also originally put in outerwear but saw the error of my ways and groaned when I realised the answer.
    Happy Christmas to everyone ( odd though it will be) and let’s hope for a happier New Year.
    Thanks for all the blogs they helped keep me sane during lockdown.
    FP
  7. Good time after the disaster yesterday with Izetti, so the goal of five good solves for the week still eludes me.

    I was very tempted with NEWRY for 5dn with the initial N in place. At 3D (RUBICON) the initial P for Polish threw me (no doubt as Orpheus intended). Biffed the answer like most of us probably did, then thought that Rubic referred to the Cube, which is certainly artwork of a type (although Hungarian not Polish).

    My usual beef with the word “PI” which has never been used in my lifetime, especially as the clue could have used “pious” which IS still in use. Just clip the last two words from the clue.

    LOI: EDWARD
    COD: CHERRY with pleasing construction and tidy surface

    BRoch really is an obscure word. Did any of the bloggers know it?

  8. All done in 39:38 which is a PB. I don’t know whose arms I was figuratively in last night. Picture Hypnos, Somnos and Morpheus tossing me in a blanket. So, ‘‘twas completed during the middle watch (0001 to 0400), FOI 1ac, RUBICON was a write-in, and then I went widdershins around the grid to LOI 5d. Didn’t know “BROCH” but biffed with 15d in place I liked the layout of the NE and SW corners for some reason. Many thanks to Orpheus (but not his colleague with an “M”) and to John.
  9. I found this tricky in parts, with some obscure definitions and some easier clues. I still recorded a DNF at 23 minutes with PREVIOUS, having spent ages on an alphabet trawl for a former priest. A lovely bit of deception!

    Brian

  10. … with FOI 1A Contraband giving me a flying start and both the stumbling blocks people have reported on, 23A Cattle grid and 14A Brooch, largely write-ins for me. As a result, all done in 8 minutes which counts as a Good Day.

    I suspect Broch in particular is a word one has either met or not; having spent many holidays in the further extremities of Scotland it is one I am very familiar with. But that is the fascination of crosswords – one never knows if one is going to be faced with a familiar word or a “I have learnt something new today”.

    Nice to see the Main = Sea synonym getting another outing in 19A and after the extensive discussion in this blog a few days ago, hopefully it won’t catch as many people out this time!

    Thank you John for the blog, and in anticipation for the Weekend Special – it is always a highlight of the fortnight for me, and it’s only a slight shame more people don’t comment on it on the TfTT blog. Reading comments here from other solvers really is part of the fun.

    A good weekend to all
    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-12-18 09:13 am (UTC)

    1. If you go to John’s “reinterred” blog, the solutions to both his and my puzzles have a comments section very similar to this blog. Templarredux has very kindly been blogging most of the puzzles in good style there too !
      1. Phil – thank you, and yes I know it and do try to comment most fortnights. And Templar’s blog is excellent and much enjoyed. My only sadness is that more people don’t either know of the blogging facility for the Weekend Special or don’t use it more.

        Cedric

  11. …. to think more carefully about my LOI and consider GRID. Ah well, at least I was in good company. I’m sure Orpheus will chuckle having caught so many expert solvers (quite apart from me).
    I moved quite quickly through this but stalled at ENTHRALLED and needed all the crossers. Similarly, PREVIOUS only clicked for me when I had all the crossers in place – nice misdirection in the clue. I wasn’t impressed by the City area in NIECE but it didn’t impede progress much. Apart from that, there were some very good clues and I finished just 10 seconds over target (apart from being a formal DNF). Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 09:36 am (UTC)

  12. Fri, 18 Dec 20
    FOI: 22d EAR
    LOI: 6d PREVIOUS

    30 Minute Mark: 6
    60 Minute Mark: 21
    Time before use of aids: 35

    Total Answered: 21/24

    Started off very poorly on this one, with 12 minutes passing before I had even got the FOI. I daresay a fair few of you had completed this crossword before I had even placed my first answer. After 30 minutes I had only 6 clues in, but once I started to use aids (Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary and Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s List) I started to fill out the grid much faster.

    There were some clues that I only understood part of, which gave me only a portion of the answer, but with other letters being present, and a little thinking on my part, the answers came to me. 5d (NIECE) was an example of this. I had worked out the NI part, and that lead me to think of NIECE, though I did not understand the city part of the clue until I saw the explanation here.

    Another example of my only knowing part of the clue was 4d BECOME. The first part of the clue (change) got me to think of BECOME, even though I did not understand the “suit” part of it, until coming here.

    So, the week ends with me still not having my first completion. Monday and Tuesday were good efforts from me. Wednesday and Thursday were tougher. Friday, although starting off poorly, ended the week on a high, with only three left unanswered.

    2. PW – if you really want to stretch yourself try yesterday’s (Thursday) 15×15. It was fairly easy so you might find you can solve a few. And trying something harder sometimes helps you with something easier, i.e. the QC. Can’t hurt to take a look 🙂

      Fingers crossed for Monday for you!

      H

  13. Ah well, my times may not match others, but some of my mistakes do. I was delighted to have finished Izetti’s offering yesterday, albeit in glacial fashion, so today seemed a positive sprint in comparison apart from that last overconfident stumble over the grid.
    Liked PREVIOUS. Surprised that English mushrooms could be French and NHO BROCH, so yet more to add to things to remember.
    The explanatory blogs are of consistently high standard, thank you.
  14. DNF in 12:10 thanks to a careless PROD. It didn’t feel quite right even as I typed it, because I knew that prods are to make cattle move rather than keep them in, but I shoved it in anyway and got the dreaded “unlucky” message. Twerp.

    I found that two thirds very easy and one third very sticky, getting slower and slower until I was left with four clues in the SE, including the two long edge clues. Fortunately BROCH eventually emerged from the shadows of memory and they started to click after that. Not at all convinced by “in luxury, perhaps” = WELL, though.

    Many thanks Orpheus and John. Looking forward to the Saturday Special!! Will try to blog in the morning if Christmas tree duties do not prevent me.

    Templar

  15. I put in prod and for a while thought either might do, but I’m conceding defeat because a prod might move an animal but a grid definitely keeps stock in. Well for luxury perhaps is a bit thin as is icon for artwork but a good mix so thanks Orpheus and john
  16. Much easier than yesterday’s marathon! I finished in 18 happy minutes. I knew broch so BROOCH was OK for me. Some I hesitated over because they seemed a bit less clever than the rest eg CATTLE GRID which I got fairly early on. It seems too literal to me. Ditto EDWARD, which was an early answer – like many here, I’m not a fan of answers which are names. On the other hand, I very much liked 3 down, RUBICON, which may be a chestnut but is new to me. With 6 down, PREVIOUS I was looking for a combo of ex, eli and pi, o and us. Took a while to think of adding rev but when I did, the penny dropped. Very nice clue. I needed the blog, though, to tell me about the NHO Irish county in CAMPER VAN and to remind me who the Contras were in my FOI, CONTRABAND. Thanks, John, for putting me right on those and thanks, too, for the weekend special. And finally, thanks to orpheus
  17. Liked CONTRABAND, CAMPER VAN, GREENS

    No problem with CATTLE GRID as I was thinking of an enclosure of some kind. NHO Broch but easy to guess BROOCH.

    Thanks, John, for the helpful blog.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 12:03 pm (UTC)

  18. Another CATTLE PROD here – the trouble with cryptic definitions, I guess. Not that I have anyone to blame for mistyping CHEERY instead of CHERRY as well.
  19. A steady solve for me. I had to start with the three letter answers to get going. DNK BROCH and have always struggled with the spellings of broach/brooch. My LOI was PREVIOUS, quite a tough clue I thought, which solved the spelling problem. CATTLE GRID and CAMPER VAN needed some thought.
    About 14 minutes on paper.
    David
  20. As a regular visitor to the far reaches of Scotland, I have visited a couple of Brochs as well as an Iron Age wheelhouse and a souterraine, so BROOCH didn’t hold me up, and as I regularly drive around North Yorkshire, I have more than a passing acquaintance with CATTLE GRIDs, so that went straight in too. It took me a moment to remember CONTRA, and, like John, I wondered about CHAMPIGNON without there being a nod to the French Connection, but shrugged and moved on. NIL was my FOI and ENTHRALLED brought up the rear, the clock showing 9:59 as I typed my last entry. Discretion ruled, however and I took a few seconds to proof read, a precaution which, unusually, turned out to be unnecessary. 10:24. Thanks Orpheus and John.
  21. Another CATTLE PROD here, and whilst I can see that GRID would have been better, PROD seems to fit as adequately as many clues, so personally I’m not counting this as a DNF. This is one of the advantages of solving on paper. Overall an interesting puzzle I thought, with several words I didn’t know (CONTRA, BROCH, ENTHRALLED, CAVAN) but none that prevented me from getting the answers, which I think is the mark of a good QC. Came in just under target at 29:39. FOI was CHERRY, LOI DWELL, COD CHAMPIGNON, WOD CONTRABAND. Thanks Orpheus and John.
  22. Friday morning I took the 8.45 to town. It does seem that many solvers are quite au fait with the setters monikas and enjoy their various styles.
    So dear Felix, why not for the 15×15? It would surely add a fascinating dimension, don’t ya think?

    FOI 1ac CONTRABAND from Noriega.

    LOI 9dn ENTHRALLED

    COD 12ac the VW CAPER VAN

    WOD 23ac the CATTLE GRID at Quarrington, Lincs

    PS My dear WYVERN – get yourself a ‘FRANKLIN’ for Christmas, it might get you over the line.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 11:36 am (UTC)

      1. Kevin what are you thinking!? Ortega!??

        Bush met again with Noriega in December 1983 to discuss support for the Contras. Noriega had a working relationship with U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North by 1985. Noriega offered to assassinate or sabotage Sandinista leaders in return for North helping Noriega improve his image with the U.S. government. In June 1985 North met with Noriega in Panama and Noriega agreed to train Contra soldiers in Panama for an invasion of Nicaragua in 1986.Noriega has been reported to have played a role in the Iran–Contra affair in the mid-1980s, in which the proceeds of arms sales to Iran were smuggled to support the Contras. Wikipedia

      1. The VW ‘caper van’ comes round here every Friday and for a few Reminbi one can indulge oneself in the odd caper. The fish and chip van usually arrives around the same time but they don’t do capers, only Tartar Sauce. I do enjoy the haddock with mushy peas and proper fries. It’s my 71st next Wednesday and we’re (Me, my mate Corin, Noriega and ‘er indoors) off out to ‘The New Camden Lock Chippie’ in Ju Lu Lu, downtown Shanghai, for the works. Ace pickled onions. What a caper!?
        1. Many happy returns for next Wednesday. Hope you and your clan enjoy your celebratory fish dinner. Festive greetings too.
  23. I don’t think today’s clues were any harder than yesterday’s, but it certainly felt that way and I wasn’t surprised to end up just north of the 30min mark. Dipping out on both 1ac/1d on the first pass makes me wary and careful with the parsing of answers: a good job, otherwise Bumper Car might well have slipped through. Broch was completely unknown to me and made 14ac/9d my last pair by a long way. Cattle Grid on the other hand was a straightforward solve, which just goes to show how random these things can be. Invariant
  24. We raced through this fun QC in 8 minutes feeling on a high following yesterday’s debacle. So it was with a smidgeon of disappointment that we realised that we had tripped over the cattle grid. Never mind, great puzzle Orpheus – we enjoyed it.

    FOI: contraband
    LOI: sea
    COD: outskirts

    Thanks for the blog John and for finding the time to set the weekend crossword – we’ll be having a go!

  26. I don’t think this one was hard, but for some reason I dithered about with it for a couple of minutes putting hardly any answers in. Then the brain cell came up to working temperature and I zipped along for a 6:15 finish. If I’d warmed it up first it might have been a p.b. 🙂

    COD BECOME

    H

  27. This seems like the right sort of audience – has anybody tried the GCHQ Christmas Puzzle yet? I can safely say I’m stuck 🙂

    H

    1. I wondered if the letters were the first letters of the words of Christmas carols. That didn’t get me anywhere so i gave up. They won’t want me as a spy
    2. Had a quick look and got the 3 obvious ones, then deferred the rest until I was really bored! From what I did I suspect there may be a COVID theme.

      Edited at 2020-12-18 02:55 pm (UTC)

  28. Took a while to get going with this one – started off with a few random across answers but needed the downs to start speeding up. Eventually finished in a respectable (by my standards) 16 minutes. Quite a relief after yesterday’s debacle. Didn’t consider cattle prod and so was oblivious to that trap. Managed to dredge up broch from somewhere in the subconscious, so didn’t have any problem with 14ac. Didn’t parse 5dn or 6dn but had all the crossers by then.

    FOI – 8ac CHERRY
    LOI – 6dn PREVIOUS
    COD – 12ac CAMPER VAN because it conjured up a wonderful image of Boris and the Queen touring Ireland in a VW.

    1. PG, 16 mins is respectable by the standards of the vast majority of QC solvers. Well done.
      I have slowly learned not to let myself be influenced by the ‘Whizz Kid’ times, especially from the posters who write apologetically if they go over 5 mins. 😉
  29. After yesterday’s fiasco I set myself up in a quiet corner, with my favourite pen and invigorating coffee, and totally focused on the task in hand.

    Personally, I thought there was just as much difficulty in today’s clueing, however I managed to complete it all in 27 mins. Imagine my surprise then when I then discovered 23ac wasn’t “Cattle Prod” but “Cattle Grid”! 🤬 But – I’m ignoring the real answer, as I think Cattle Prod works equally well (as I think a few have alluded to above)

    DNK “Broch” for tower nor the other meaning for slavery, but they were all obtainable. Struggled with the parsing for 5dn, thinking it had something to do with “Nice” in France. As it was a name, I did not like 20ac “Edward”.

    FOI – 2dn “Nil”
    LOI – 4dn “Become”
    COD – 6dn “Previous”

    Thanks as usual.

    1. Dear James – ‘The Pink Square Brigade’ easily forget how comforting one’s favourite pen can be on the jolly old treeware and grid, (prod whatever!?).
      1. What else are you supposed to chew on or doodle with when pondering a specific clue?

        Quite happy to do online grids, but I always find they’re a nightmare when it comes to anagrams…

  30. 16:03 for an enjoyable solve. Spent too much time not knowing broch, including wondering if i should be looking for a tower (like a tractor or a tug), until with the crossers I just bunged BROOCH in. Liked BECOME, CHERRY, GREENS. DNK that a KOALA was a marsupial! kap
  31. ….ENTHRALLED, but this was enjoyable. NHO BROCH, and never thought of “cattle prod” – had I done so, I would have rejected it on the grounds I mentioned earlier.

    FOI CONTRABAND
    LOI NIECE
    COD CATTLE GRID
    TIME 3:46

  32. Enjoyed this. I put in cattle prod as did others but I can see that the grid fits the clue better. We have a lot of these down here in Pembrokeshire! Thanks all
  33. More approachable than yesterday’s stinker, but not easy. Managed in the end, guessing BROOCH, since never hard of BROCH. PREVIOUS also took a while, but nothing else fitted!
  34. Put me down as another to try my luck with CATTLE PROD and end up with some red letters.

    I imagine i’m probably in a minority here in enjoying the wonderful world of American professional wrestling, but it brought to mind the undefeated streak of the legendary brawler Bill Goldberg – brought to an unseemly end with the use of a cattle prod by an accomplice of his opponent, with the referee inevitably distracted by shenanigans elsewhere.

  35. A brisk run through with the only real holdup being trying to justify the redundant old American – I just parsed it as pious. It is funny that in crossword land we are expected to be more familiar with an obsolete abbreviation than the the still current full word!
  36. I put in PROD too, but certainly can’t join the clan of experienced solvers yet.

    I biffed quite a few of these, and enjoyed reading the explanations afterwards, so thank you , Orpheus and John.

    I look forward to tomorrow but somehow usually find Saturday’s a bit too challenging.

    Diana

  37. 21 minutes, so a little slow, but I’m not sure why when I look back over the clues. Perhaps I wasn’t concentrating. Cattle grid was fine – we come across them all the time round here keeping almost- free roaming sheep where they are meant to be – cattle prod isn’t a term I recognise.
    1. is indeed American English – used at Cow Pokes etc. see Borat. Let’s hope they have one to hand when it comes to clearing-out the White House come 20 January.
  38. Have been down several internet wormholes chasing the origins of the words thrall and slave. Slave seems to come from the Slavs, a people whose unfortunate lot in the Middle Ages was to be regularly captured and enslaved; the word reached English from medieval Latin via medieval French. Thrall on the other hand is old Danish / old English, and can still be seen in the modern Icelandic word for slave, which is Þræll (roughly pronounced Thrigh-tl but clearly connected to thrall). Greek on the other hand takes us down a different tack altogether; the Greek for slave is Δούλος, pronounced Doulos, which seems unconnected to either – until you think that a slave’s life was no doubt fairly dolorous.

    And thus passed a very happy half hour
    Cedric

  39. I got two “obvious” ones, but am stuck on the rest. I hadn’t thought of a Covid theme for the answer, good tip!

    H

        1. I’ve got five now :). Am trying to second guess the message to help with solutions to the sequences.

          H

            1. A sixth one came to me out of nowhere about an hour ago.

              Still have GMRPDR, POIUYT (which I’ve just solved!, doh) and DPMLSS to do. So, two now to go.

              H

              1. I’ve “solved” it! That is, I know what the message is, but I still have to figure out how two of the letters are generated.

                I shall be annoyed if Verlaine et al did the whole thing in five minutes 🙂

                H

  40. Took off like a rocket with 1A and 1D my FTI. Not a common start as I typically scratch around like a free-range chicken 🐔 looking for the obvious before pondering the obscure.
    Completed well under my target 40 minutes and surprisingly managed to avoid the traps that the experienced solvers side step but in which I inevitably plunge headfirst.
    Delighted to spot Main for SEA so soon after its recent explanation here, thank you, and was delighted to have remembered it. Had never heard of Broch as such but knew it as something else, so BROOCH was a write in. Such a curious word. Prod never crossed my mind, and ENTHRALLED came out of somewhere in my subconscious.
    Altogether, a very enjoyable puzzle and a suitable distraction from the foolishness of my broken ribs. Heyho.. Happy weekend and thanks everyone.

    Edited at 2020-12-18 05:07 pm (UTC)

  41. Needed to register my Prod too….
    LOI Champignon….
    Having lost it over the last Orpheus offering I found this much more accessible although with a tendency to the old fashioned style maybe?

    Thanks all
    John George

Comments are closed.