Times Quick Cryptic No 1888 by Joker

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I think around 7 minutes to get to the ‘Unlucky!’ sign, and then another perplexed minute or so staring at 9ac and 6d before clicking on the answer: at the time of solving the answers to these clues have been swapped round in the grid. So a technical F (as opposed to a DNF). It took me about the same time as yesterday’s done a bit beforehand, but this definitely felt gentler. My favourite was 8d: I’ll happily take a couple of random notes when it yields a surface as smooth as that. Many thanks to Joker!

Across
1 University can back assembly (4)
UNIT – U(niversity) TIN (can) back/reversed.
7 Showing a certain incorruptibility unusual for Proust (9)
RUSTPROOF – anagram (unusual) of FOR PROUST
9 Heavy burden very well carried by you once (4)
YOKE – OK (very well) carried by YE (you, once)
10 Poisonous bacteria girl found on fish (10)
SALMONELLA – ELLA (girl) found on SALMN (fish).
11 Tend to look back (4)
KEEP – PEEK (look) backwards
12 Manage commercial unit in church (10)
ADMINISTER – AD (commercial) I (unit) in MINSTER (church). Unit as in: the size increases by a one / a unit each time.
16 A person who adores quarrel over sender of items abroad (10)
WORSHIPPER – ROW (quarrel) over/reversed, SHIPPER (sender of items abroad)
19 One singing in reverential tones (4)
ALTO – “in” reverentiAL TOnes
21 One constituent is in bar supporting both parties (10)
BIPARTISAN – I (one) PART (constituent) IS in BAN (bar)
23 Target girl carrying nothing (4)
GOAL – GAL (girl) carrying 0 (nothing)
24 Argued violently about foolish person’s appreciation of kindness (9)
GRATITUDE – anagram (violently) of ARGUED about TIT (foolish person). The ” ‘s ” is possessive in the surface reading and a contraction of “is” in the cryptic reading (as in “is equal to”).
25 Call round (4)
RING – neat double definition

Down
2 Rope going up without delay on execution’s beginning? (5)
NOOSE – SOON (without delay) going up on E (Execution’s “beginning“)
3 A stress developed about parking invasion (8)
TRESPASS – anagram (developed) of A STRESS about P(arking)
4 Place of safety unknown in a squalid urban area (6)
ASYLUM – Y (unknown, as in x and y) in A SLUM (a squalid urban area)
5 Primarily urban precinct, territory of wealthy natives? (6)
UPTOWN – &lit, where the whole clue is both a literal definition and a cryptic element, here “primarily” means take the first letters of the remaining six words of the clue.
6 Model of Greek sea god only half complete (4)
POSE – POSEidon (Greek sea god) only half complete
8 Wallet for holding pound notes (6)
FOLDER – FOR holds L (pound) and D and E ([musical] notes).
13 I am papa’s naughty child (3)
IMP – I’M (I am) P (papa in phonetic alphabet)
14 Throttling killer disposing of line is not so normal (8)
STRANGER – STRANGLER (throttling killer) disposing of L(ine)
15 Boasting when leading Conservative is ousted and getting into an argument (6)
ROWING – cROWING (boasting) when C (“leading” Conservative) is ousted.
17 Know instinctively dweller in the far north retains temperature (6)
INTUIT – INUIT (dweller in the far north) retains T(emperature)
18 Marsupial so quiet climbing on the whole? (6)
POSSUM – SO, P (quiet) climbing/reversing on the SUM (whole)
20 Retinue try very hard without leader (5)
TRAIN – sTRAIN (try very hard) without leader
22 A container is slightly open (4)
AJAR – A, JAR (container)

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1888 by Joker”

  1. This week so far has gone well for me with the QC’s — either I am getting better at them or they have been less challenging (and more in the spirit of ‘quick’)

    Very much enjoyed this puzzle, with 21A my favourite clue.

    Thanks to Joker and rolytoly

  2. I don’t really know how long it took as I came across ‘that’ problem — glad I’m not going crackers as those two clues had seemed very straightforward.
    It would have been an under 10 minute solve I think. Shame. But a minor issue in the overall scheme of things.
  3. I found this tough – I’m not sure why. It must be that wavelength thing again. Several went in unparsed or partly parsed and I really struggled with the anagram at 7ac. I also delayed entering 1ac because I can’t really equate unit with assembly. A long 27 mins for me today.

    FOI – 19ac ALTO
    LOI – 7ac RUSTPROOF
    COD – 10ac SALMONELLA

    Thanks to Joker and Rolytoly

  4. It’s too late to title this blog “Yoke? Oh… oh no!” Thankfully.
    –

    Nila Palin

  5. ….since I wasn’t anywhere near my usual level of sharpness, didn’t parse BIPARTISAN until after completion, and had to alpha-trawl my LOI.

    FOI UNIT
    LOI FOLDER
    COD KEEP
    TIME 4:26

  6. I was beaten by ROWING. I do not think there should be an “and” in the clue. i.e. Boasting, when leading Conservative is ousted, getting into an argument. (I have inserted commas to help with my understanding of the clue).
  8. The first half lasted 27 minutes, during which time I solved all but two of the clues. In spite of only getting three on my first pass, I managed to build on them and the four long solutions across the middle (SALMONELLA, ADMINISTER, WORSHIPPER and BIPARTISAN) all came in relatively quick succession after 15-20 minutes or so.

    Unfortunately, the second half lasted longer (30 minutes) than the first, even though I had only two clues to solve – POSE and KEEP. Both came to me right at the very end of that interminable half-hour. I just could not bring POSEidon to mind until after I had finished, and I could only think of ‘peep’ and ‘peer’ for a synonym of ‘look’ starting with a P.

    I think my head must be filled with excessive amounts of dark matter, much of which blocks the recall pathways for standard words and general knowledge. It’s all there … just inaccessible at times. Total time = 57 minutes.

    Many thanks to rolytoly and Joker.

  9. I put in tome as an answer as they are heavy and has me in
    Can’t blog under my user names as the system seems to have lost me
    Mark Davis
  10. Completed this morning but no time to post. 23:15. I taught a girl called Ella Salmon once and on the register the surname was written first. What were her parents thinking of? It made that clue a write-in though. Thanks Joker and Roly.
  11. Came to this after total defeat in the 15×15 27994 so poor old brain was pretty shredded. But, hurrah, made it to the finish line in about 29 mins. A struggle but even so… FOI 23ac GOAL which I took as a positive omen. LOI 15d ROWING. Phew. As usual I’m amazed and amused by those who describe this one as easy….
  12. Just completed a day late and my iPad version hasn’t yet corrected the errors — thought I was going mad till I looked at the comments! RUSTPROOF took me quite some time, but was my COD. Spent way too long on WORSHIPPER as I was trying to biff a person who adores quarrels! Did I use ‘biff’ correctly there?!
  13. We did this one this morning — I cut out and keep the crosswords from the newspaper for later delectation- we managed it once on Joker’s wavelength. Some even made me laugh. I thought the wallet one was folder because £ notes used to be called folding money and didn’t get the bit about the musical notes! 😂

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