Times Quick Cryptic No 1899 by Orpheus

67 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1899 by Orpheus”

1. Well, I thought I might be heading for a PB for a while, but was slowed down by KINSWOMAN and FEEDBACK. I’m not sure why KINSWOMAN took me so long. With 1ac, I couldn’t get past GEN for ‘information’ (I was parsing wrong, looking for a word for ‘defender’). The K finally made me see the light, and I got in, not in PB time but at least under my standard 6′. 5:18. [on edit] I think the first (maybe last) time I came across MIEN was with ‘The Raven’: ‘Not the least obeisance made he …but with mien of lord or lady/Perched above my chamber door…’

   Edited at 2021-06-18 09:31 am (UTC)

2. All but 10ac done in 9 minutes but I needed an extra 5 to bring FEVERFEW to mind, or rather the FEVER bit as FEW had been a write-in given the checkers. I knew I knew the plant but just couldn’t recall it without instigating a lengthy alphabet trawl.
   1. I’m sorry to read that you suffered the curse of the LOI today, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. However, it is somehow comforting to know that even proper solvers are required to endure a lengthy alphabet trawl on occasion. Good luck next week!
3. I feel that a filler phrase such as ‘displayed for’ is acceptable as long as it makes sense in the wordplay, which it does in the case of 10 Across. FEVER and FEW are being set out, or ‘displayed’, in order to give the answer.
   1. Aha. Good explanation. Thanks. I’ll amend the blog.
4. I seem to have bucked the trend by starting with FEEDBACK and then worked my way round the grid to end with MIEN and FEVERFEW. I feared that I was on for a lengthy alphabet trawl for the unknown plant a until moment of inspiration gave me fever but I was still relieved when it came back correct. Finished in 8.45
   Thanks to John
5. I started with KICKBACK at 1a, then changed it to FEEDBACK as soon as I saw DANTE, which was my second answer. Took a while to parse EVIDENT, which I biffed and then confirmed with STATUE and FEVERFEW, before seeing what was going on. I spotted a carelessly biffed LANDSLIE (LANDSLI(D)E) during proof reading, which pushed me over 7 minutes, but eliminated what would have been a pink square. 7:26. Thanks Orpheus and John.
6. We thought this was quite a meaty puzzle and spent 23 minutes chewing it over. Many excellent clues – a few write ins but we certainly exercised our little grey cells today.

   FOI: OATH
   LOI: RUTH
   COD: EVIDENT

   Thanks to Orpheus and John.

7. … which I think I made heavier weather of than I could have, taking 14 minutes in all. Slowed down by my poor GK, as neither 10A Feverfew not 11D Fieldfare known, but the checkers gave little option for the songbird after I had dismissed Fieldrafe as unlikley, and then I built my LOI Feverfew from the generous cluing and hoped it was right.

   A couple of chestnuts well up in the “School always means Eton” league — one sometimes wonders if there are any Italian poets except Dante, or priests except Eli, so often do they turn up in crosswordland. But they were balanced by the rare and delightful mention of peruke in the cluing for 23A Whig; such an appropriate 18th century word for an 18th century politician, and for this alone it earns my COD.

   Many thanks to John for the blog, and now on to another Saturday Special! A good weekend to all.
   Cedric

8. Beaten by the EVIDENT / MIEN cross where I had worked out the clue but then wrote in MEAN, and never noticed my error. Struggled anyway with the parsing for the down clue and didn’t resolve it. Oh well, if it isn’t working, double check your crossing answers…
9. Ah well, after a good start, I ended up 3 mins over target at 18mins. I had to think carefully about some spellings (MIEN, LEONINE) whilst rushing and biffing towards the end but I did parse everything before completion. No trouble with FEVERFEW but I was held up by FEEDBACK (no problem with ‘back’ but I was fixated by football positions) and KINSWOMAN which needed a bit of brainwork. Some very nice clues to round off an interesting week. Thanks to Orpheus and John.

   Edited at 2021-06-18 08:19 am (UTC)

10. I managed to regain some of my equilibrium, but this was no walkover as I logged 11.15 minutes.

    FOI 8ac MIEN

    LOI 17ac EMIR!

    COD 10ac FEVERFEW – enjoyed the illustrated blog!

    WOD 6dn RISSOLE made from a Rhode Island Red no doubt

11. Not much use for it outside law (and crosswords) admittedly, but very much in use in law today. All law students will have done “Contract and tort” as part of their course, to cover what goes on in civil courts.
12. Yet again a poor, very poor performance by me. What an awful week it’s been for me here. Gave up. Couldn’t be bothered. If I am honest I have had such a rubbish performance this week, that I came at this QC with a negative attitude.

    A nice break over the weekend and I’ll try again on Monday.

    1. Don’t be disheartened! I took 79 minutes (with tea and a shower) and help from my resident plant and wildlife expert for feverfew and the European thrush. Many of the clues were trickier than usual in their construction but made all the more elegant in the surface reading. When I started doing the QC I resorted to an app called crossword solver king pro, and I still need to resort to it from time to time. I found it of great benefit in helping me to improve by reverse engineering.

    2. Do not give up! I have so enjoyed your comments and reading of your progress.

       And equally, do try John and Phil’s weekend specials — there is one for tomorrow. They are really class QCs, totally fair and a good standard. And there is also a blog page to go with them too.

       Cedric

13. Morning John. PB territory for me today finishing with TOWER in 06:35. I managed to see every clue as I read it so solved as I went for once.
    Not a particularly easy puzzle but I was “on the wavelength”.
    David
    PS I think I have been under 6 minutes once in the past.

14. Put Sign instead of MIEN though knew it was wrong. Mien not a common word these days, innit. Also carelessly put Omar instead of EMIR. I was thinking vaguely of the poem Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
    No problem with FEVERFEW (COD) or FIELDFARE. Always thrilled when a flock of the latter visit.
    Also liked EXPORTER, FORECAST.
    Thanks vm, John.

    1. You were not alone with OMAR! But I got shot of him
    2. “Innit” — 🤣😂🤣
15. A bright start, but I really struggled with the unknown Fieldfare until I had all the crossers. Fortunately I knew the plant. I also vaguely knew loi Mien, but just couldn’t think of it when needed. With the half hour beckoning, I opted to use aids, so a DNF. CoD to 19ac, Donation, for the crafty surface. Invariant
    1. My experience exactly. Fieldfare and feverfew came very slowly but I couldn’t get past -I-N for mien. Still – an enjoyable quarter of an hour of brainwork.
       1. I’m fairly sure that four letter answers give me more grief than any other length, so when today’s came with a bonus loi curse, I knew straight away I was in trouble.
16. PW: A Personal Worst

    After a week of DNFs I allocated extra time on this one, but was still several clues short at the 30 min mark. I always faithfully press Submit in the Crossword Club when I DNF, meaning I proudly sit 460 out of 462 in the league.

    NHO of FIELDFEW or FEVERFARE or whatever they were, though was able to eventually get them. I had RISSOTO for RISSOLE for a long time. For EMIR I was playing with AGA/SAGA.

    I never knew that MIEN was pronounced MEAN, I thought it was French like “rien”. Would never have got that. For 2D I though “set up” was going to be “TES”, so “Contest” looked good. Not a fan of DI=girl, DBE with no indicator. I liked HAND for Pass, and WALL for defender at 1A. One more error on an error-strewn day.

    COD WHIG

    Looking forward to John’s puzzle, to end the week on a high (or at least a Finish).

    1. If I had done today’s QC online I’m sure I would have been sitting 463rd of the 462 submitters.
    2. 1900 on Monday! I hope you have a good start to the week — and a good historical fact to share with us 😊
    3. Well it’s Phil’s this week… which means it’s time I got started on my next one!
    4. Well I had a DNF on this too so you are in good company (if I can say so myself). My solving times this week have been pretty rubbish. I got a perverse feeling of satisfaction by achieving “Wickedest Witch” on Tuesday this week with the 15×15 on the SNITCH, by taking 1.99 times as long as I should have for the difficulty of the puzzle compared to my average. But next week is another week.
17. I spent yesterday walking up Skiddaw in Keswick as it was one of the few mountains in the Lakes I’ve just never got around to bagging. I’d always heard it was a little dull and a bit of a trudge (which probably put me off before), and whilst it wasn’t necessarily the former, the latter was an understatement. Maybe I’m just out of practice, but it was a brutal 930m ascent with not many bends or flat bits inbetween.

    Fast forward to this morning and I felt like I was doing it all again. Maybe I wasn’t on the right wavelength, but I didn’t get anywhere near the puzzle today and after 30 mins only had half of the grid completed. I didn’t sense a sudden tumbling of the dominoes like in previous days, so I abandoned before I became even more dispirited.

    DNK “Fieldfare”, “Feverfew” nor “Rissole” which didn’t help and missed the staggered anagram for 5dn.

    It’s not been a great week. As always, you start to wonder whether it’s the difficulty or your own sanity/acumen.

    FOI — 3dn “Dante”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 1ac “Feedback”

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-06-18 10:07 am (UTC)

    1. Which way did you climb Skiddaw? I would agree with your description of the ascent if it was from the so-called tourist car park. However the ascent via Ullock Pike is much more varied from my own experience. Whatever, well done in bagging it!
       1. For various reasons I had to start from Keswick town centre so I did end up doing the main route via the bottom of Latrigg Car Park.

          To be fair, the descent was better as I went down the Allerdale Ramble and got a great view of Ullock Pike and Longside Edge, eventually dropping down Carl Side into Applethwaite. However, this route is even steeper — add in some scree and hairpin paths and my knees were begging for it to end 😀

          1. I know the feeling!
18. Yes, 8 and 2 were my last in. Had to have a break and think about them. Solid clues all over the puzzle.
    Thanks for the blog. Have a good weekend.
    A

19. Very tricky for me today, maybe I was out of practice as a busy work week meant I haven’t tackled any QCs. DNK fieldfare or feverfew, struggled to spot the anagram at 5D, and also dnk landslip. I also wrote in mean rather than mien, which meant I couldn’t get 2D.
    The weather pretty much sums up my morning so far!

20. Took me a while, but others have breezed it.

    FEEDBACK was indeed my LOI. I’d put in the momble HANDBACK at 1ac, so it wasn’t until I got EVIDENT as my POI, that I could get FEED for pass and complete the puzzle.

    Again, as with others, the bird and the plant took some untangling, and I also had AGAS in (despite no plural indicator), but MOOSE put me right.

    Despite struggling a bit, I still liked the puzzle.

    9:13, so >50% over target.

21. Squeaked in just under my 10 minute target. I found this a mixed bag with some really quite easy clues, especially a group of acrosses in the lower half of the grid (OATH, STATUE, HEAT, EXPORTER – all with great surfaces though) and some much more meaty.
    No problem with the definitions of FIELDFARE and FEVERFEW, as I have had both in my garden, but teasing the answers out took a while!
    FOI Ruth
    LOI Feedback
    COD Whig – for exactly the reasons laid out by Cedric
    Thanks Orpheus and John for the great blog

    I’m now off to stand for three hours outside a National Trust property in the pouring rain, and am not expecting a lot of visitors ☔

    1. Your last line somehow reminds me of the lovely sentiment of Penny Lane!
       Which property.?
       1. Fortunately contingency planning meant we were able to stand just inside today, so not quite such a soaking after all! I did have my mac though – just in case. And we also had a good few visitors, so that was lovely 😊
    2. In the Welsh Marches we are desperate for rain!
       1. TBH we needed it here too — the garden is looking much happier today! I just wasn’t looking forward to standing outside in it all afternoon, and as it happened, I didn’t! I hope you get the right amount at the right time 😊
          1. I had a knock on the door from some poor souls doing a door-to-door for the Sue Ryder Charity. They asked me how I was. I said, “I’m fine because I’m indoors in the dry, unlike you, standing in the pouring rain”.. which elicited a mournful wry smile.
          2. Still no rain in the forecast — back to watering the veg. The weather girl on Midlands Today was adamant that everyone would be pleased about that!
22. Quite a tussle today and I was glad to finish in 19 mins. I then discovered that, having read 4dn and immediately realised it referred to the all/awl homophones, I had entered the wrong one. So 19 mins with 1 mistake. I had no problem with either the plant or the bird (although the anagram for the latter took a bit of unscrambling). Never parsed Ruth at 6ac, so thanks for the blog and the explanation John. Thanks also to Orpheus for a challenging QC.

    FOI – 10ac FEVERFEW
    LOI – 21ac FORECAST
    COD – 6dn RISSOLE

23. Another slow morning for me, but I KBO’d and finished in 45ish minutes.

    Only one entered on first pass of acrosses and 2 on first pass of downs, (OATH, DANTE, AWL respectively) and then made heavy weather from there, finally biffing EVIDENT what felt like a very long time later.

    1ac took me far too long — tried to spell Bulwark with an extra L to try and make it fit, and then couldn’t look past it.

    2dn I still don’t like the random girl/boy’s name — type clues, as you could sit there bashing in endless different variations if you’re unlucky.

    1. Yes, but not too many two letter ones . . .even if she is a slow learner 😉
    2. I couldn’t agree more, but Di is quite helpful — she does pop up a lot, along with Anne and Sal 😊 Of course, Mr and Mrs Random have a different view on the subject!
       ps Now you’ve baffled me — KBO?
    3. “Kuiper Belt Object?” Or maybe “Kept Buggering On” a la Winston Churchill?

       Edited at 2021-06-18 07:55 pm (UTC)

       1. Ah that makes sense 😂
24. 6:12 this morning. If it’s any consolation to those members who are still building up experience, I thought that this week’s QCs were of above average difficulty. So don’t get disheartened, this is where the blogs can contribute so much to learning the tricks of the trade.
    Again my snippets of GK helped today, as I was aware of all the words that might have otherwise tripped me up.
    I agree with John and others that 1 ac “Feedback” wasn’t an immediate solve though I’m not too sure as to why. However 6 ac “Ruth” was FOI.
    COD 5 d “Kinswoman” — the anagram took a little time to crack.
    Thanks to John for the blog and Orpheus for his usual level of challenge
    1. ‘…this week’s QCs were of above average diffIculty…’ Music to my ears! I’ve really struggled and felt like I was going backwards at times. Good to hear they have been a bit trickier!
25. After Wurm’s below-the-belt anagram (MEERSCHAUM) of yesterday and a bad DNF with Jalna earlier in the week, I really could have done without today’s battering from Orpheus. In the end, I managed to endure 83 minutes of extremely slow progress before giving up the ghost with the following five clues unsolved.

    8a MIEN: DNK the word
    5d KINSWOMAN: Never saw the anagram
    6d RISSOLE: SOLE for ‘one and only’ never came to mind
    15a MUESLI: NHO (or didn’t remember) the priest
    16d LEONINE: No idea what was going on here

    Also, whilst I did get WHIG and EMIR, both were entered rather tentatively, as I DNK ‘peruke’ or ‘rime’.

    All in all, a torrid week for me, so I will allow myself two pieces of Mrs Random’s excellent lemon-drizzle cake with my cup of tea this afternoon. Or, perhaps, six!

    Astonishingly (to me, at least), Mrs R floated her way serenely to a 28-minute finish – seemingly without any undue haste or difficulty.

    Thanks to Orpheus and johninterred.

    1. Quite like the sound of that lemon drizzle…
       1. It was delicious — both pieces! And there’s still some left for tomorrow.
26. Two goes at this. Thought I was on for a DNF (a recurring thought for me) with feedback, Dante, mien and evident lacking and nowhere in my consciousness. Nothing. I knew I was looking for some kind of back and something containing event, but the synapses wouldn’t deliver. Painted the wall edges in the kitchen, then sat down and finished the crossword to my amazement. The penny dropped with feedback. Dante! of course! Had to look up mien in the dictionary as I couldn’t remember which way round the i and the e went. (Use it a lot in polyword puzzles). FOI oath, LOI evident. COD muesli. Hard to choose. Very enjoyable puzzle. Very pleased to actually finish this off, in however long it took. Half an hour first go, five minutes or so after doing the bit of painting, but no doubt my brain was active on the crossword while my hands were busy with the paintbrush. Never did know how mien was pronounced, so another learning experience. Thanks, John, and Orpheus.
27. I’ve had a very disrupted morning so couldn’t get a proper run at this so maybe it seemed harder than it actually was. I was mainly OK until I hit the 1 across / 2 down combo whereupon I came over all brain fogged. I just couldn’t think of a word that meant info that ended in BACK. So, yes, it was a synonym hunter for me. Once FEEDBACK was in, I still stared for ages at the blank squares before it became EVIDENT…
    Lots to like here, though, especially RISSOLE (bleugh! ) and TAINT.
    Many thanks to John and Orpheus.
28. Just outside target at 15:07 after having to construct the NHO FEVERFEW and FIELDFARE from wordplay / anagrist. FORECAST was LOI, so it was the F’s what did it. Thanks both.
29. Yup mixture of some easier ones and some toughies. Knew the plant and bird for a change but I missed the clever anagram for KINSWOMAN which was my POI finally allowing me to crack FEEDBACK.

    Nice challenge. Thanks Orpheus and John

30. A bit longer than average for me. No stand out clues with the bird and plant unknown. The bird went in quickly but the plant was last in by some way.

    FOI RUTH
    COD TAINT
    LOI FEVERFEW

31. If I needed a good cry as a child I immersed myself in our well-worn copy of “Tales of the birds” — the one where the fieldfare dies. It’s still somewhere on my bookshelves.

    I liked peruke in the clue for 23a.

    But altogether too tricky a puzzle to finish.

    Thanks to Orpheus and John, and I look forward to tomorrow.

    Diana

32. Well FEEDBACK went in straight away despite the definition not being spot on; it was TORMENT (DNK tort) and STATUE that did for me today. I don’t know how long it took me but is was a very slow start followed by a struggle. I agree with the comment that the QCs have been generally harder recently; I don’t mind personally as I need the challenge in order to improve — and I’m still at the stage where on some days the 15×15 is a step too far. But discouraging for newbies (as I was a few yesars ago) I agree.
33. Four left after 40 minutes — 1a 8a 2d 3d — so all in the NW.
    Feverfew and Fieldfare not a problem.
    So my struggle with Orful Orpheus continues.
    But I did enjoy many clues but thought that Mien was too difficult.
    Had to look up peruke — nho
    Thanks all
    John George (a huge Kalvin Phillips fan)
34. By the way, I thought it was spelt peruque. I have been listening to Regency novels recently fortunately.
    1. I know it, with your spelling, too, CW.
35. No, I don’t know the word MIEN, so a DNF for me. I had “mean” in for a while too, until EVIDENT scuppered it. I put sign in eventually. Other than that it was a long, slow trawl to get all the words I never use (KINSWOMAN, LEONINE, LANDSLIP) and the possibly-seen-once-before-in-a-crossword-but-otherwise-nho FEVERFEW. That was my LOI after 57:30. Oh well, onwards and upwards.
36. This one took longer than of late, with the southwest corner being resistant. Finally a DNF because I don’t get 22d. POT, yes, but where does TOP come in….and I’ve just got it as I typed that. Duh! A solid 20 minutes, after a very uncertain start….and finish!
37. 
    I had exactly the same experience with 1A.
38. Keep Buggering On indeed 🙂

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