Times Quick Cryptic No 1799 by Joker

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Joker is our Friday setter this week and he has given us a typically neat quick cryptic with plenty of concise clues, which I enjoy. I liked the beer that gives you wind and the reminder of Christmas in particular. 6A was my first one in and 19D my last. There are quite a few trickier clues, I think, that will make people work out the wordplay without being able to guess from the definition, so I suspect some will find some of this on the hard side. Those that had me headscratching included 1A, 10A and 4D, but I don’t mind that and it is rewarding to get the Penny Drop Moment when the answer finally appears. It took me 6:13. Thank-you Joker. Nice one! How did everyone else get on?

By the way, if you haven’t seen it already, you might be interested in fellow blogger Jackkt’s post yesterday, Difficult QCs, about his discussion with Richard Rogan, the editor, about level of difficulty. Yesterday’s setter, Izetti, has also commented there with his view.

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s  turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword here and the answers 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 Sent round a pack that’s consisting of bread and wine (9)
SACRAMENT – SENT [round] A, CRAM (pack). It took me a while to spot the definition and make the connection with the religious ceremony.
6 Music for dad? (3)
POP – Double definition. My first one in.
8 Mischievous child’s quiet after racket (5)
SCAMP – P (piano; quiet) [after] SCAM (racket). I was looking for a synonym of “din” for the start at first, falling for the misdirection of the surface.
9 100 travelling around a line on map (7)
CONTOUR – ISO-something, I thought, but no. It’s C (100) ON TOUR (travelling). The lines on a map I mostly travel on during lockdown are public footpaths. I didn’t remember it but a commenter pointed out we had a very similar clue recently.
10 Regimen upset when eating universal sweet food item (8)
MERINGUE – I needed the initial M before I could see this. (regimen)* [upset] outside [eating] U (universal)
11 Good beer gives you wind (4)
GALE – G (good) ALE (beer). The surface made me chuckle.
13 Tea put round in mostly warm English porcelain (9)
CHINAWARE – CHA (tea) [round] IN, [mostly] WARm E (English). Another smooth surface.
16 Fund kits centrally for some soldiers (4)
UNIT – Middle letters [centrally] of fUNd kITs.
17 One like Rudolph — check red round about tip of nose (8)
REINDEER – REIN, RED [round] -> DER [about] last letter [tip of] nosE. Unlike some today, an easy one to guess from the definition and then work our the wordplay, as I did. Lovely incorporation of a reference to our hero’s red nose in the surface.
20 X-rated outside broadcast picture (7)
OBSCENE – O.B. (outside broadcast) SCENE (picture).
21 What’s essential — some speculative returns (5)
VITAL – Reverse hidden in [some] speculative [returns] -> eVITALuceps.
22 Failure initially in stability device (3)
FIN – First letter [initially] of Failure, IN.
23 Strike back soon over one put away (9)
RETALIATE – LATER (soon) [over] -> RETAL, I (one) ATE (put away).
Down
1 Man’s coming in to look at oil-producing plant (6)
SESAME – SAM (man) inside [coming in] SEE (look).
2 Barnet is after Conservative for seat (5)
CHAIR – HAIR (Barnet) [after] C (Conservative). Barnet is Cockney Rhyming Slang, from Barnet Fair = Hair.
3 A very quiet finish before nine’s coda (8)
APPENDIX – A PP (pianissimo; very quiet) END (finish) IX (nine in roman numerals).
4 What champions give game encounter is going wrong (13)
ENCOURAGEMENT – (game encounter)* [going wrong]. It took me while to realise it was champion as in supporter rather than winner.
5 Dye can end in disappointment (4)
TINT – Dye for your Barnet, perhaps? TIN (can) and last letter of [end in] disappointmenT.
6 Fuel gas for energy under cooking vessel (7)
PROPANE – PRO (for) and then E (energy) after [under] PAN (cooking vessel).
7 Meeting to discuss terms involved player (6)
PARLEY – [involved] (player)*.
12 Fiesta motor, new, a line accommodating four (8)
CARNIVAL – CAR (motor), N (new) A L (line) outside IV (four in roman numerals). Neat reference in the surface to the ever-popular Ford model.
13 Carbon limit numbers rising? Looking embarrassed? (7)
CRIMSON – C (chemical symbol for Carbon) RIM (limit; edge) NOS (numbers) [rising] -> SON.
14 Strike holding to firm limit (3-3)
CUT-OFF – CUFF (strike) outside [holding] TO.
15 Cook needs the last of cheese grating (6)
GRILLE – GRILL (cook) and final letter of [last of] cheesE.
18 Run more (5)
EXTRA – Double definition, the first being a cricketing term for a bye, leg-bye, wide or no ball.
19 Tolerate European in pub (4)
BEAR – E (European) [in] BAR (pub).

70 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1799 by Joker”

  1. Lots of biffing for me, starting with SACRAMENT, so I felt like I was going to end up with a really fast time. And yet, when all was done, I still had a 7 minute time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, and 7 minutes is a very good time for me, but I’m just in awe of how some people consistently finish these puzzles in 2 minutes!

    Thanks to John for explaining many of the clues I hadn’t even looked at.

    Edited at 2021-01-29 03:09 am (UTC)

  2. I biffed a few, and still it took me a while, longer than I’d wanted. I liked GALE. 8:45.
  3. Not straightforward. I had to hop around the grid a lot so as not to lose momentum but eventually became becalmed in the SW corner with nowhere else to go. I completed the grid with everything parsed in 12 minutes.
  4. Similar time to yesterday at 17m but here I made fast progress until stalling in the NW for ages. Couldn’t parse SACRAMENT (NHO cram as a noun, so thanks John) and took a long time to see what would fit. Enjoyed TINT a lot, a short clue that had me looking in all the wrong places. The N from contour made me think it came from ‘can end’, so I was trying to find a three letter word for disappointment to put around it. Having got 1a gave the start letter to 1d and SESAME appeared. Enjoyed FIN for the cheekiness. Great end to a tough week.
    1. I think CRAM can be a noun, but it doesn’t have to be for 1ac to work. A is cluing A, and CRAM is clued by ‘pack’. It’s a lift and separate job.
      1. Thanks. You beat me to it. I’ve modified the blog to reflect the separation of the A.

        Edited at 2021-01-29 08:46 am (UTC)

      2. Yes, that makes sense. Shows how all at sea I was on that clue. Then confused myself by looking at Chambers to see the second definition as noun crush. But cram them in and pack them in has given me peace on this!
  5. Just enough chewy clues to make this a good challenge, with the NW proving particularly stubborn. I started in the NE with POP and then worked my way clockwise around the grid, pausing for a brief bout of contemplation over CUT-OFF. I managed to unscramble ENCOURAGEMENT without understanding the clue and had a huge PDM when reading John’s excellent blog. Eventually finished with MERINGUE, SESAME and SACRAMENT in 13.56, so within target for the first time in a few days. COD to PARLEY.
    Thanks to Joker and John
  6. Much biffery from the American Quarter.
    Perhaps for 2dn CHAIR, 18dn EXTRA, and no Ford Fiestas Stateside (you lucky people!) for the bonus point.

    Time 8.30

    FOI 1ac SACRAMENT – CRAM is short for CRAMMER and CRAM-full is packed with (goodness) I suppose.

    LOI 14dn CUT OFF!

    COD 3dn APPENDIX

    WOD 10ac MERINGUE

    Edited at 2021-01-29 08:24 am (UTC)

  7. I’m close to throwing in the towel on the QC, with another poor effort today.

    1a/1d never clicked, EUCHARIST also fitted my checkers, so hard to not spend time trying to make it work. Not all sacraments consist of Bread and Wine, so that is actually a definition by example. Like others “can end” =N was another blind alley.

    Also had CHAGRIN at 13d, another word that felt right.

    And 20a I tried BLUE for x-rated, outside a word for broadcast (AIR) and of course the word “broadcast “ is also an anagram indicator, A single X for X-rated was another red herring.

    COD : CARNIVAL

    Edited at 2021-01-29 08:27 am (UTC)

    1. Keep trying! I floundered for months before reaching the point where I can regularly finish, albeit in about 20-30 minutes.

      I’ve had patches where I’ve nearly given up, but I’m glad I persevered.

      WB

    2. Hang in there! Without wishing to start the whole debate again (we had a fair old go at it yesterday) I think the past three days’ puzzles have been above average in difficulty – I’ve certainly missed my target on all of them – so hopefully we shall get a run of easier ones before long.
    3. Please don’t give up. You really have helped me when I read your blogs, as I try to learn the art of cryptic crossword solving.
    6. I sympathise. My third in a row too. Got most of it, but some would have defeated me for ever. Can’t see why ‘involved’ should indicate an anagram.
      1. It’s involved = complicated = confused = muddled… or something like that. There is a list of generally accepted anagram indicators (aka anagrinds) here if you are interested. It is quite a long list!
        1. Copied from elsewhere with all due acknowledgement to Tim Moorey this short extract is a very useful introduction to the principles behind anagram indicators: https://jackkt.livejournal.com/

          His excellent book ‘How to Master the Times Crossword’ is available from all good book sellers.

    7. Please don’t go Merlin. I really enjoy your posts – love the way you link your time to historical events.

      We’ve had a really tough week too – it’s just the way the cookie crumbles

    8. I was trying to fit in blue too, kept looking for words that went “bl–eue”, needless to say I failed! Easy mistake to make

  8. Scraped in just under my 30 minute limit, with a decent chunk of time spent untangling SACRAMENT and MERINGUE despite having all the checkers for both.

    Didn’t we have a very similar clue for CONTOUR recently?

    WB

  10. FOI 1A: SACRAMENT
    LOI 14D: CUT OFF

    Submitted and discovered I had 10A: MERUNUUE ??? It’s all about U isn’t it?
    And hadn’t even attempted 3D.

    Thank you, johninterred and Joker

    Edited at 2021-01-29 08:47 am (UTC)

  11. Time to Complete: DNF

    FOI: 6a POP
    LOI: 1d SESAME

    Clues Answered without aids: 23

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): Nil

    Clues Unanswered: 3 (16a, 7d, 14d)

    Aids Used: Nil

    Total Answered: 23/26

    Oh, how disappointing. I did so well, getting 23 answers without the use of an aid. However, it was those last that got me.

    16a UNIT – I was looking for every combination of regiment abbreviations, such as RE and RA. I even tried using American soldier terms, such as GIS, but to no avail. Now that I have seen the answer here, I am annoyed with myself. My excuse is; I am ex-Navy, so Army terms are a foreign tongue to me!

    14d CUT OFF – I had the OFF, but the first part got me. I thought of HIT (strike) OFF but could not make it fit the clue.

    7d PARLEY – Kicking myself for not seeing the anagram indicator (involved).

    1a – I did get this right, but initially I had it spelt as sacrEment, but very quickly realised my error.

    17a REINDEER – I hesitated putting this as it seemed just too obvious to me. I had the answer even before reading the last part of the clue. Rudolph seemed to clearly be a reindeer. But I went with my gut and put it in. Same with 3d: it seemed obvious, and I understood the “nine’s” as being “IX”. But in it went.

    So, I am very happy with my efforts, but also a little disappointed that those last three prevented me from completion.

  12. Didn’t quite know how to handle most of this puzzle! I was thrown for a while because the bulk of the puzzle could actually and honestly be called a Quick Cryptic. This was something I had almost forgotten. I was guilty of some biffs and nearly came to grief when I biffed Festival instead of CARNIVAL but the obvious REINDEER soon sorted that one out and I did parse all my answers before completion.

    Thanks to Joker for some very nice clues and (for me) a sting in the tail in the SW corner which slowed me down. Luckily, I saw UNIT quickly but OBSCENE, CRIMSON, FIN, CUT OFF all gave me pause for thought and took me a couple of minutes over my target (guide). They were all good clues when my brain kicked in. I think my experiences during the past week or two had taught me to focus too much on looking for cleverness and complexity and this QC, whilst not easy, was fair and straightforward whilst providing enough of a challenge to satisfy most solvers.

    I sense that a couple of posters above have been caught out by errors resulting from their ‘need for speed’. The last few weeks have taught me to relax a bit, enjoy the journey more, and check things out before completion. Are ‘2-minute’ times really what the QC is about? (I would like to see some of them performed under ‘exam conditions’.)
    Thanks to John for his blog which I will now re-read properly to see if I have missed anything. John M.

    Edited at 2021-01-29 01:35 pm (UTC)

    1. My aim is to achieve a quick finish, and then go back and enjoy analysing the setter’s handiwork.
      1. Thanks, Phil. Yes. The nice thing is that we all enjoy the QC and the blog in our own way.
        I have just found myself moving away from the wish to do things quickly as my main priority. I still concentrate on doing the QC as quickly (and correctly) as I reasonably can but, after the last couple of weeks, my emphasis has changed a bit and I just wanted to share this. I was prompted by posts from others who clearly feel the same way.
        The QC and the 15×15 can satisfy all reasonable needs between them, I think. John.

        Edited at 2021-01-29 02:46 pm (UTC)


  13. REINDEER was quick, but nonetheless enjoyable, definitely my COD.

    I was stumped by 23a. I thought “ sooner “ was the antonym of “later “. (Sooner or later”. )

    So not quite finished, but good fun.

    Thank you Joker and John

    Diana

    1. As comparatives, “sooner” and “later” are antonyms
      As adverbs “soon” and “later” are near enough synonyms, depending on the context

      Strange language, innit?

  14. After an alphatrawl revealed TINT I looked at it for ages, thinking it was N (“can end”) in TIT and wondering how on earth TIT could mean disappointment. Once you get fixated on a particular construction of a clue, it’s very hard to see what’s staring you in the face!

    So that was one hold up. Others were RETALIATE (needed all checkers to biff it and then a minute to see LATER backwards), CUT-OFF and CRIMSON; and I puzzled for ages over the parsing of CHINAWARE, thinking that “china” was the “tea” and not seeing “cha”. Thanks for explaining it, John.

    What with one thing and another and a mild hangover, that all added up to 1.6K and a Sluggish Day. Great puzzle, though. COD to the farty beer.

    Many thanks Joker and John.

    Templar

    PS We had CONTOUR on Tuesday! Clued by Orpheus as “Profile of Conservative leader travelling from place to place”.

  15. Another day when I got stuck at the end. Most went in easily enough but PARLEY needed several looks.
    My big hold-up was in the SW. Both 13d and 14d contained the word Limit. Could not think of a stability device starting with F or any letter. So it was in a confused state I had a good rethink before FIN and CRIMSON emerged. I was never sure about the definition in 14d and was going for RUN OFF or RUB OFF before CUT OFF occurred to me.
    All correct in the end in 26:34. Nothing else to do in lockdown.
    An excellent puzzle with hidden (at least to me) depths.
    David
  16. Just too clever for me. Only got a couple of odd ones right I think it is a question of mindset. I will just read the blog to peruse the answers for a while – before I let myselF in for the humiliation of trying to actually complete any more of these puzzles.
    1. It is not a humiliation to either DNF or make errors.
      Nothing good ever came about without trying etc.
      Took us six months to get to where we usually finish. Times don’t matter IMHO
  17. I think I made heavy weather of this by overthinking a lot of clues. I suspect that may be something to do with the difficulties I have encountered over the last couple of days. My FOI was POP, I biffed RETALIATE and CRIMSON once a few checkers were in place and incorrectly put in festival instead of CARNIVAL which caused me problems with CHINAWARE and REINDEER…eventually I saw the light. My LOsI were 1a and 1d. I crept in just under 10 minutes but on reflection I should have been a lot quicker as everything was doable. Thanks to Joker and John.
  18. Back to nearer normal, although I went just over my target to proof read. TINT and SESAME were my first 2 in. The SW corner took longest to solve with CUT OFF LOI. SACRAMENT was a late entry too. 10:07. Thanks Joker and John.
  19. Like you ENCOURAGEMENT took a while to click, as did the fact that I’d somehow mis-spelt SACRAMENT on the first pass and messed up my APPENDIX. Otherwise a nicely challenging end to the week. Thanks John and Joker.

    COD – GALE, a good cryptic should always have a bit of humour somewhere.

  20. 25 mins overall — with at least 5 minutes stuck on 5dn “Tint”. How can such a small clue be so hard? After nearly biffing “blue” and abandoning “Tan” and “Tone”, I resorted to an alphabet trawl and still missed it the first time around!

    I liked a lot of this, although there were a few clues that had me running off down rabbit holes. Thought 1dn may have had something to do with “oil seed rape” and there were various formations of 14dn until I got to the right one. For some reason I thought 7dn “Parley” had a “z” at the end and I guess there may have been a few people trying to squeeze “imp” into 8ac as well.

    Quite a few were biffed: 12dn “Carnival”, 14dn “Crimson” and 23ac “Retaliate”.

    FOI — 6ac “Pop”
    LOI — 5dn “Tint”
    COD — 11ac “Gale”

    Thanks as usual.

  21. A good Friday puzzle …
    … if that means anything these days, as one can come across real toughies any day of the week now it seems.

    I thought this was quite challenging but all doable and fair, and very enjoyable. All finished in 14 minutes and although some were “biff-then-parse” solves, all parsed eventually except 4D Encouragement, where I completely failed to see that meaning of champion.

    I agree with John in his blog — the surface for 17A Reindeer was very clever, red nose and all. Definitely my COD.

    And now on to the Saturday special! Many thanks as always to John for the blog.
    Cedric

  23. On the Exasperometer scale, this was a 3, an Interesting Challenge, but it still took me longer than it should have done with my last answer going in at 25 minutes. Enjoyed it hugely, though, so doesn’t matter.
    The hard ones, the ones I had to think about for ages, were 1 across, SACRAMENT, where I kept trying to think of a 9 letter wine that would fit, and OBSCENE, 20 across, where I thought “broadcast ” was a homophone indicator.

    I was another one who was discombobulated — until I read the blog — by tit being a disappointment in TINT, 5 down….

    Super clues here with (for me) a broad range of difficulty, from easypeasy POP to much more complicated ones, including some where I literally had to follow the wordplay as if it were a map, eg APPENDIX, where I didn’t really know what a coda was.

    Smashing fun. Thanks so much, blogger and setter

  25. again, and I was well over target.

    Not helped by biffing CASTOR at 1d…

    SACRAMENT was LOI by some distance, looking for a type of wine.

    I liked constructing APPENDIX from the pieces.

    11:15.

  27. Very pleased to finish a Joker in just 43 minutes (in fact, very pleased to finish one of his QCs at all). Mrs Random is “much relieved” as well, as my success means that I am registering a low score on the ‘going-on-about-it-ometer’ today.

    FOI: POP, after which I maintained a reasonable pace throughout, managing to parse every clue except 23a: RETALIATE (although it had to be). LOI: PARLEY (it took a while for me to spot this was an anagram)

    Funniest moment: Working on the anagram at 10a and coming up with EERINGUM (it could be some sort of sweet food item) before seeing the light.

    Mrs R cruised home in 30 minutes, and said she thought there were several “traps for the unwary”. On this occasion, I was sufficiently wary to avoid them.

    Many thanks to johninterred and to Joker.

  28. Probably about 60% done but the puzzle was fair. Only one clue I thought was rubbish was 4 down. I used to be involved in working with champion athletes and the only thing they were focused on was themselves and their performance. I doubt I could count on one hand the number of times they would be encouraging their competitors.

    No doubt though over the last 3 or 4 months the puzzles have got a lot more difficult. But I will keep on trying

    1. The “champion”, as per the blog above, relates to being a supporter rather than an actual winner in the sporting sense. Think of it like a “health and safety champion” in the workplace.
  29. By no means a walk in the park, but much more straightforward than the last couple. Main hold ups in a 25min finish were the Crimson/Obscene crossers in the SW. Couldn’t see how limit was going to fit between C and N, so biffed the answer from the definition and only then saw the parsing. Followed a similar process for loi Obscene. CoD to 1ac, Sacrament, which turned out to be a lot easier than it first seemed. Invariant
  30. This has been a difficult week in QC land with some above average difficulty puzzles and clues in my opinion. As someone who has only ever completed three QC’s I gain most of my enjoyment in the travelling and on the rare occasions when I get close I often spend an hour desperately trying to work out the word play.

    However there have been some tremendous blog entries this week. Yesterdays discussion was fascinating and great to see the dialogue between the setter and his merry, (most of the time), followers.

    Thanks to all the bloggers again and to everyone who contributes as it genuinely helps. I’m in awe of the super quick club and the SCC’s are not in my book slow at all

    Looking forward to net week. Stay safe

  31. To comment on the issue of how long it takes to complete, I never time myself. I just don’t care about that at all. It’s all about working through and hey, if I don’t finish and need to look up some answers, no shame in that.

    I got so stuck on 1A and wondered if I’d have to refer to a dictionary for once as my word was SECRATEMENT (SENT around CRATE) . Dear oh dear.

    I totally missed the anagram indicator ‘involved’ in 7D that would have easily helped me with PARLEY.

    I also guessed CHAIR in 2D without understanding the CRS reference.

    Happy at least to end on a good result.

  32. I needed a few checkers for some of the chewier ones and a couple went in unparsed — sacrament (though it was clearly the answer) and tint where I was another tit

    Liked ENCOURAGEMENT and a very smooth surface at 7d (amongst others)

    Thanks J and J

  33. We thought this was reasonably tough but very good fun. Our time was around 20 minutes but we had 3 interruptions as we’re busy making marmalade today. We’re actually pleased that the level of difficulty varies – it’s so much more satisfying to solve harder puzzles. It’s also giving us confidence to have a go at the 15×15 every now and then. Thanks Joker.

    FOI: pop
    LOI: cut off
    COD: appendix

    Thanks for the blog John.

  34. ….but that’s a cross which I bear with fartitude.

    I found this quite straightforward, and some lovely clueing from Joker made it a pleasant experience.

    FOI POP (gives me worse wind than beer does)
    LOI CHINAWARE
    COD GALE
    TIME 3:48

  35. I thought this was just right for me — some straightforward, some less so. About 15 minutes. Thanks for the explanation for CUT OFF, which I biffed. I don’t know why I didn’t see it. Thanks as usual to setter and blogger.

  36. Much easier than the previous days although I struggled in the SW corner, trying to fit blue into 20A and red into 13D. I also misinterpreted 13A and has parsed China for tea so was unsure why “put round in” was needed, so thanks for putting me straight on that. Also took a while to get scam for racket so good misdirection there. Thanks John for the blog and Joker for the crossword.

  37. 14:15, so that’s OK. I started with POP in the North East and worked round clockwise, finding it increasingly tricky — eg CUT-OFF and FIN and even SCAMP when I couldn’t get IMP out of my head. And I took ages with LOI SACRAMENT before seeing A CRAM. A nice QC.
  38. Seemed easier than the last few days but still took me 22 minutes, slightly over my target. I had problems with the exact same clues as Old Blighter in the SW and was pleased in the end to solve 22ac FIN (which I had been over-complicating) which unlocked that corner. Didn’t parse REINDEER or RETALIATE and took an age to see the anagram indicator at 7dn.

    FOI – 9ac CONTOUR
    LOI – 14dn CUT OFF
    COD – 11ac GALE

    Thanks to setter and blogger for a great puzzle and blog respectively.

  39. Easier today but still a challenge, nearly meeting our target. Enjoyable blog as usual, thanks also to Joker.
  40. Bit late posting, but completed this this morning. As others have said, it was tricky in places, but doable. Failed to parse RETALIATE and PROPANE, but all done in 34:25. Joker comes up with the goods as usual. Thanks all.
  41. Hard in places after easy start
    Time one and a half courses (eating slowly)
    Thanks to setter and all bloggers
  42. At last, the only QC I have had any any success with this week: solved all bar 1d, 7d and 14d. So near and yet so far! Thanks to all for another week of erudite and entertaining blogging!
  43. A slow and steady enjoyable hop around the grid. Encouraged by a write in for Sesame and Sacrament but never take anything for granted and there were some head scratching.
    LOI Cutoff.
    Raised my cholesterol to untold heights after a cheese fondue today made by son. Can’t begin to count back the number of years to the last one. Very moreish. Shame the prospects of a trip to Switzerland for another are so remote.
    Thanks Joker, John et al.

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