Times Quick Cryptic No 1873 by Joker

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I was slow solving this, but remained short of the SCC at 19 minutes.  Looking back as I write the blog, I can’t think why I was so slow as nothing seems to be unusually tricky or obtuse.  I do remember that seeing the rather obvious anagram at 18a took longer than it should have, and with two possible anagram indicators (anagrinds) making up the definition of 21a, I did spend a few seconds looking for the anagrist that might go with one of them, before spotting the obvious answer.

My thanks to Joker for not embarrassing me any more than usual.  Please let me know how you got on.

Across

1  Perish swallowing salt water with sulphur, a possible cause of death(7)
DISEASE – DIE (perish) containing (swallowing) SEA (salt water) and S{ulphur}.
5  The woman had building in garden (4)
SHED – SHE’D (she had – the woman had).
7 Part of eye in centre of head behind ears, perhaps (6)
CORNEA – EA (centre of hEAd), behind CORN (ears perhaps).
8  Shore bird beloved by papa (6)
PLOVER – LOVER (beloved) by P{apa} (phonetic alphabet).
9 Disappointed about others completely trapped in marshy area (11)
CRESTFALLEN – This is a bit of an IKEA flat pack clue.  C (about – Circa) and REST (others) followed by ALL (completely) inside (trapped in) FEN (marshy area).  Et voila!
10  Swift pint after BBC concert (6)
PROMPT – PROM (BBC concert) followed by PT (abbreviation for PinT).
12  What young often do in earnest – learn (6)
NESTLE – Hidden (in) inside {ear}NEST – LE{arn}.
14  Mostly see a politician where stars are looked for? (11)
OBSERVATORY – OBSERVe (mostly see, drop last letter) and A (a) with TORY (politician).
17  Steer clear of social worker introducing great conflict (6)
BEWARE – BEE (social worker) containing (introducing) WAR (great conflict).
18  Hours revised taking in new career (6)
ONRUSH – Anagram (revised) of [HOURS] including N{ew}.
20  Lead actor’s reminder about line (4)
CLUE – CUE (actor’s reminder} about L{ine}.
21  High pulse is weirdly unusual (7)
OFFBEAT – OFF (high, as in the meat is OFF / rotten / high) and BEAT (pulse).  Either ‘weirdly’ or ‘unusual’ could have been an anagrind, but neither was in the end.

Down

1  Couple regularly encountered in Douro (3)
DUO – Alternate letters (regularly encountered) in DoUrO.
2  Unconventionally name bus “Ray” (7)
SUNBEAM – Anagram (unconventionally) of [NAME BUS].
3  Look forward to a Joker, accepting amswer (5)
AWAIT – A WIT (a Joker) containing (accepting) A.
4  Give a justification for former patent (7)
EXPLAIN – EX (former) and PLAIN (patent, as in patently / plainly clear, for example).
5 What could hold tape of privy last words turned up (5)
SPOOL – LOO (privy) and PS (post script – last words) all reversed (turned up).
6 Always near telly, unfortunately (9)
ETERNALLY – Anagram (unfortunately) of [NEAR TELLY].
9  Opening in material of reef relating to body (9)
CORPOREAL – PORE (opening) inside CORAL (material of reef).
11  Fuss about rapier regularly used for naval weapon (7)
TORPEDO – TO DO (fuss) surrounding RPE (RaPiEr – regularly used).
13  Cause suffering to company during sudden upturn (7)
SCOURGE – CO (company) inside (during) SURGE (sudden upturn).
15  Unsightly mark on European causing fright (5)
SCARE – SCAR (unsightly mark) on E{uropean}.
16  A mug served up cold (5)
ALOOF – A (a) and FOOL (mug) reversed (served up).
19  Class of small alien (3)
SET – S{mall} and ET (extra-terrestrial, alien).

61 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1873 by Joker”

  1. I was slow on this one by confidently writing PET,REL(papa as a relative is a stretch, I see now), and so taking a while to get the much easier SPOOOL.
  2. A bit over 10 minutes for me. I managed to avoid the common issue I have with the quickie that it all goes in easily and then I struggle to see the final clue, especially if it has unhelpful crossers.
  3. Like George, I thought of PETREL; and couldn’t think of any other P bird. Finally came up with PLOVER, which I was reluctant to put in–cluing LOVER with ‘beloved’ struck me as inept. 7:57.
  4. Only three on the first pass of acrosses to set up a difficult day. Downs went better but lots left to do in the bottom half. Crossed the line in a shade under 17 but wrecked things with my LOI where I got a careless pink square for aloff not ALOOF. Biggest hold up was with OBSERVATORY where I couldn’t settle on what sort of star I was looking for until SCOURGE went in. I took a long time on that one too and although I’ve seen ‘social worker’ before it held me up again today. A fair challenge I wasn’t quite up to!
  6. No major delays but steady progress around the grid. I spent a bit of time trying to remember what the chemical symbol for salt was at 1a (NA…?) – but then realised I was doing too much lifting and separating. I had a similar reaction to Kevin WRT beloved cluing lover. Thought OBSERVATORY was very good but my COD goes to PROMPT.
    Finished in 8.54 with LOI SPOOL
    Thanks to Rotter
      1. Glad I wasn’t the only one that went down that route. I quickly dismissed NaCl.
  7. After more than an hour I had only answered about half. Wordplay too difficult for me. Much of it made no sense as I read the clues. I gave up.

    Better luck tomorrow.

    1. Friday’s a better day for candy, anyway, PW! Good luck for tomorrow.
  8. A typo at CORNEA rendered that corner impossible, after the pink square horror show I quickly put in SUNBEAM and PROMPT. But I’ll still score a DNF as could not see BEWARE. I learnt recently that Social Worker is bee or ant, but I don’t like ‘introducing’ as a containment indicator in an Across clue. It surely means ‘precedes’. Secondary usages are part of the game for definitions, not so much for the rest of the clue.

    Did anyone not Biff CRESTFALLEN?

    I still don’t understand plain=patent, any examples as adjectives, not plainly=patently? This clue was not patent to me.

    Fans of the Saturday Special saw Plover last week, John clued it as “Pair admit affection for little wading bird (6)”

    COD CORPOREAL

    1. Tend to agree about introducing as a containment indicator. Certainly threw me off the scent
    2. Hello Mr Merlin. I got it (eventually) when patent leather shoes occurred to me. Would that equate to PLAIN leather shoes? I don’t know, but I entered EXPLAIN at that point and moved on.
      1. I think ‘patent leather’ is a bit of red herring. Chambers describes it as ‘finely varnished leather’ which is a long way from plain.

        The same source has as the second definition of the adjective “conspicuous, obvious, evident” which is close enough to PLAIN to me.

        Wikipedia has the following:

        “Patent leather is a type of coated leather that has a high-gloss finish. The coating process was introduced to the United States and improved by inventor Seth Boyden, of Newark, New Jersey, in 1818, with commercial manufacture beginning September 20, 1819. Boyden’s process (which he did not patent) used a lacquer coating that was based on linseed oil. Modern patent leather usually has a plastic coating.”

  9. I’m with rotter. A weird and unsettling QC that offered some 3-letter gifts and then tightened up dramatically. I began to doubt that I had any crosswording skills. In the end, I exceeded rotter’s time by 5 mins and sighed as I put down the iPad. I think Joker provided the right description with my LOI, OFFBEAT.
    None of it was too unreasonable with hindsight but it left me crawling round the floor looking for my marbles. Thanks to Joker for denting my confidence and to rotter for a very good blog. John M.

    Edited at 2021-05-13 09:02 am (UTC)

  10. I really enjoyed this one – tricky in places but all fairly clued and no obscure vocabulary (though on the latter point I was probably helped by a primary school trip to the Farne Islands, observing Ringed Plovers and Arctic Terns)

    Raced through most of it and then got stuck for a while on ALOOF and SCOURGE in the SE corner, though in hindsight I can’t see why. Still, all finished while the coffee was still warm.

    Thanks Joker and Rotter.

    Edited at 2021-05-13 08:55 am (UTC)

  11. OBSERVATORY was last in. I liked 1ac DISEASE very much indeed. CRESTFALLEN also a smashing clue, though I didn’t realise until after the solve! BELOVED=LOVER was a bit weak I suppose, but who am I to carp and cavil?

    5:59.

  12. An enjoyable test today. Mostly straightforward, but struggled with CORPOREAL for a while and also with OBSERVATORY, trying to fit MP in for a while. However, saw the light eventually and pleased to complete. No problem with PLOVER, although not a great clue.
    1. Well done, Mr Ed! I have spotted that you feel well and truly beaten sometimes, so to finish relatively quickly on a properly difficult day is excellent. You beat me by miles (no great shakes, perhaps), but you also beat Mrs Random today – and that’s something I rarely achieve.
  14. I had no trouble with PLOVER… and I see merlin has explained why. Quite tricky, I thought (e.g. ‘off’ for ‘high’) and I never got round to parsing CRESTFALLEN. Hesitated over CLUE for ‘lead’ until I remembered the whodunnit meaning. I liked DISEASE best. 5:17.
  15. Agree this was tricky. Would have just snuck under 10 minutes but stared blankly at A_A_T for 90 seconds at the end. Think I wanted Joker to be “J” despite (a) that’s the Jack in a pack of cards not the Joker and (b) it being patently obvious a “J” didn’t fit in. D’oh.

    I’ll blame work emails distracting me! 🙂

    Thanks Joker and therotter

  16. … and John’s Saturday Special clue was rather better, IMHO – I agree with Kevin that “beloved” for “lover” was weak.

    Otherwise this was well up to Joker’s usual high standards and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He is a very elegant setter.

    FOI DUO, LOI AWAIT, COD CRESTFALLEN not least because I didn’t biff it, time 09:58 for 1.25K and a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks Joker and Rotter.

    Templar

    1. Yes, though “my lover” and “my beloved” are not too far apart.
  17. An excellent challenge today. I finished in about 15 minutes except for observatory which I just couldn’t see, but which my husband saw straight away but knew not why, — and after he revealed it to me, I could parse. Did not parse five today — did not see the ears of corn, got crestfallen but no idea at all why, did not see high as off, did not see the PS in spool, only really know one naval weapon so biffed it, and could not parse it afterwards. FOI shed. Only eight on first pass. LOI and COD observatory. A DNF for me, then — all done except my LOI. Thanks, Rotter, for the excellent blog, and Joker for a tricky and enjoyable solve. GW.
  18. I don’t usually time myself but reckon half an hour.
    FOsI SHED, DUO, NESTLE
    OBSERVATORY made me laugh. Also liked PROMPT, ALOOF (LOI).
    PLOVER seemed easy but had to be. Luckily I have learnt that anything lavatorial must indicate LOO. And nearly forgot social worker indicates BEE.
    Needed the checkers for CRESTFALLEN.
    Thanks vm, Rotter.
  19. DUO was my FOI and I then tried to insert the briny into 1a, but once AWAIT went in I dipped my toe in the SEA and all was revealed. I noticed FEN in CRESTFALLEN and didn’t bother to parse any further. It took a moment or 2 to see SCOURGE, but otherwise a nice steady solve. 8:16. Thanks Joker and Rotter.
  20. 6:27 (all parsed) today almost 2 times yesterday’s performance but I really enjoyed this QC – excellent surfaces (apart from the lover/beloved link which Kevin has already mentioned) and very few “shoe-ins”, leading to a satisfying solve as far as I was concerned.
    COD (out of many candidates) was 7 ac Cornea. I found the anagram in 2 down a little stubborn but it eventually became apparent.
    Thanks to the ever reliable Joker and to Rotter for a very clear and concise blog
  21. 18 minutes. Longer than it should have taken as there were few major headaches today.

    Edited at 2021-05-13 11:21 am (UTC)

  22. 11:16 for me with a hold-up at the end for OBSERVATORY where I was hung up on Astronomy.
    FOI SHED and kept going.
    Some excellent clues and surfaces; my favourite was PROMPT.
    David
  23. Another unusually early solve. Only 2 Across and & 7 Down on first pass. FOI 5a Shed. LOI 3d Await. COD 9a Crestfallen – which I managed to parse to get the answer. Needed aids to check some answers. Liked Aloof, Disease, Clue, Torpedo. So with aids, strictly speaking a DNF but I always find Joker tricky and as they were only used to confirm, I’m letting myself off! Thanks for the blog, Rotter.
  24. As Vinyl says this was full of (on the face of it) simple clues with regular vocab, and I found it mostly quite straightforward, but there were some lovely moments, as expected with Joker 😊
    At 8d, when I only had the P, I was sure it had to be peewit (even though it didn’t parse) until I got the E in 6d and then PLOVER fell into place. And for those of you who aren’t so keen on birds, a peewit (also known as a lapwing) is a type of plover, so I was halfway there!
    I liked PROMPT and CLUE.
    FOI Disease
    LOI Onrush
    COD Sunbeam
    About 9 minutes

    Thanks Joker and Rotter

  25. Lost track of time on this due to a few interruptions but I reckon I finished in around 25 mins.

    As a few have mentioned above, I thought this was an odd sort of puzzle. I wasn’t particularly enamoured by beloved = lover either. Is “aloof” really cold? I wouldn’t have described it as that — snooty and obnoxious perhaps.

    Both 9ac and 14ac took far longer than they should have. Spent an age trying to fit Astronomy or something similar into the latter and then nearly made up a new word “Ajaye” for 3dn.

    FOI — 1dn “Duo”
    LOI — 3dn “Await”
    COD — 1ac “Disease”

    Thanks as usual.

  26. … then I know I will never be proficient enough to tackle a 15×15. That was 79 minutes of real hard grind for me, with hardly any clues succumbing without a struggle.

    The last to fall were LOOPS, CRESTFALLEN, ALOOF and OFFBEAT, but I don’t think they were particularly any harder than many of the others. They were all tough, IMHO. Joker did not require us to know any obscure GK, nor did he include any uncommon or archaic words, so I can only conclude that the difficulty lay in his wordplay today. Roll on tomorrow!

    Mrs Random was half an hour quicker, finishing in 50 minutes, but said she still found it hard going and never really got into her stride.

    Many thanks to Joker and to therotter.

    1. I look forward to the time when you are pushed to a 20 minutes ‘real hard grind’. It will happen, just as you will become proficient enough to tackle a 15×15.
      1. Many thanks for your vote of confidence. I’ll keep working at it.
        1. As someone who struggles with the 15×15 I thought I might have a look at today’s offering and see if it was doable. From the flashing red lights and sirens of the Snitch I gave up on that idea rather swiftly…
  27. I join others in being a little slow today but I am not sure why. Some of the cluing was quite wordy including my FOI DISEASE. I didn’t parse CRESTFALLEN. It went in as soon as I deduced that REST = others. My last two in were OFFBEAT and then ALOOF. 10:29 for a relatively OK day despite missing my target.
  28. Still not a good week – I couldn’t finish it by miles, so gave up after 40mins.

    I reckon it was definitely on the hard side, but liked SUNBEAM.

    Tks Joker and Rotter.

    Diana

  29. …unlike some of the other QCs we’ve completed in the last 2 weeks. We came in at 9 minutes – must have been on Joker’s wavelength today.

    FOI: DUO
    LOI: SCOURGE
    COD: OBSERVATORY (made us smile)

    Thanks to Joker and Rotter.

  30. I Biffed, Banged and Wallopped my way round the grid like a boxer at the end of a losing 14 round match, as I held onto the ropes feeling very CRESTFALLEN after more than 45 mins.
    Have to score this as a TKO as managed to stagger off for a coffee at the bell.
    Normally do OK with Joker but feel I need to get back to the gym to sharpen up my reflexes.
    Thanks Joker for the work out and Rotter as usual for the elucidation of the obvious from the obtuse.

    Edited at 2021-05-13 01:20 pm (UTC)

  31. Just squeaked into my target range of 15-20 mins on this one. Quite tricky I thought although I still managed to knock 5 minutes off yesterday’s rather pedestrian time. Never parsed CORNEA and only partially parsed CRESTFALLEN. An enjoyable 20 minute tussle – thanks to Joker and Rotter.

    FOI – 1ac DISEASE
    LOI – 7ac CORNEA
    COD – 14ac OBSERVATORY

  32. Worked pretty steadily through the questions here, but ground to a halt at 13D , 21 A and 18A.

    Am still a bit unclear about the ‘off’ in OFFBEAT — is the idea that a high pulse is ‘off’ because it’s abnormal?

    Also Never heard of ONRUSH, though I parsed it.

    All in all am finding that I am nearly finishing these crosswords, but there are a handful that will continue to elude me most days. I don’t bother with a timer as I sometimes have to dip in and out (time permitting) during the day.

    Thank you to Joker and therotter.

    1. Off …
      I think the thinking is that meat can be termed high if it is off, smelly, rank etc.

      I had more queries over patent = plain, which seems a stretch to me. Can’t immediately think of a natural sentence where they are interchangeable.

      Cedric

      1. It was a patent lie!

        It is a fact patent to the world that patent and plain are synonyms of each other.

        1. I see our replies on Off largely hit the blog at the same time! But on patent, I remain yours not entirely convinced, despite your examples — it seems to me that patent here means clear, obvious, self-evident, manifest, but not exactly “plain”.

          OTOH I suppose I could say “plainly we don’t agree”. So I am content to concede. And anyway it doesn’t detract from what was I thought a first rate crossword …

    2. OFF is a synonym for HIGH, as is BEAT for PULSE. OFF = HIGH, or smelly or rotten. BEAT= PULSE or throb. When they are put together to give OFFBEAT, then this becomes a synonym for WEIR or UNUSUAL, as in ‘the work from this artist is OFFBEAT, or UNUSUAL, or WEIRD’.
  33. Found this quite challenging …
    … and moderately surprised to find the clock stopped at 12 minutes only. Like many (most? all?) I biffed 9A Crestfallen, my LOI and the only word that fitted the checkers — hats off to Rotter for the full parsing!

    Surprised no-one has commented yet on Joker joining the self name-checking set with the clue to 3D. He even has a capital letter to ensure we think it is a self reference, and I duly tried to fit “me” or “I” into the answer somehow.

    A classy crossword, and many thanks to Rotter for the classy blog that accompanies it.
    Cedric

    Edited at 2021-05-13 02:10 pm (UTC)

  34. Absolutely agree. And tomorrow is navy pension pay day! Pay Day is always a candy day!
  35. ….why my LOI didn’t jump out and bite me ! This wasn’t anybody’s idea of a cakewalk, and I was relieved to squeeze inside my target. Now for the 15×15, which is a beast if SNITCH is to be taken at face value.

    FOI DISEASE
    LOI ONRUSH
    COD SPOOL
    TIME 4:45

  36. Too tough for my tired brain to cope with I’m afraid, and at some point, admittedly after I had got most of it, I completely zonked out. I woke up when my watch said 53 minutes and was then able to get SPOOL, ALOOF, BEWARE, OFFBEAT, SCARE and, LOI, SCOURGE in about five minutes in order to just beat the hour (58:54). As usual with Joker, nothing unfair and some great clues, but I needed to attempt this when a little fresher. Thanks to Joker and to Rotter for sorting out the wordplay that I still couldn’t see.
  37. But enjoyable
    Seemed to be on Joker’s wavelength
    ET has come up a lot as alien
    One course
  38. Unlike today’s 15×15 (Snitch 170) this was mildish – my time 7.45 just the ‘Kent’ corner gave pause for thought.

    FOI 1dn DUO

    LOI 18ac ONRUSH

    COD 9dn CORPOREAL

    WOD 12ac NESTLE – Swiss milk chocolate in my book

  39. Very difficult today and gave up after — well I don’t know — but still 8 to solve.
    The problem with this crossword for the relatively poor English student is that if you cannot bif the answer in many cases you cannot get it by other means.
    So whilst some were easy (not many) eg 1d, 6d if you saw the anagram and 19d many more were very hard.
    14a is a good example. I didn’t get Observatory — easy in hindsight, and a clever clue but I would never get it from “mostly see a politician”. Once I had failed on guessing Observatory I was sunk.
    Just not in the zone and very hard.
    Joker is consistent. Getting harder each time!
    Thanks all
    John George
  40. Disappointed to struggle with this one – poor brain worn out after my efforts with 27976. Note: do them t’other way round! But all complete eventually, after going wrong in north-east corner with wrongly spelled “pippit”. Oof.

Comments are closed.