Times Quick Cryptic No 1909 by Teazel

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

An enjoyable puzzle from Teazel to end the week. I liked the cryptic definitions, the neat hidden and the misdirection in a couple of clues, but COD to the clever 14D. 1A went in straight away and I finished with 3D in an about an average time for me of 5:17, but there is one word that I only knew from other crosswords. Thank-you Teazel! How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, entitled “Anyone for tennis?”, 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 Angry lawyers, one maybe hit by striker (8)
CROSSBAR – CROSS (angry) BAR (lawyers). A football striker, that is.
6 Pungent vegetable left by artist in bowl (4)
DISH – raDISH (pungent vegetable) “left by” RA (artist).
8 Divide up last of the sweet (4)
CUTE – CUT (divide up) “last of” thE. Sweet the adjective not the noun – neat misdirection.
9 Possibly long calculation for army unit (8)
DIVISION – Double definition. We all learnt long division at school, didn’t we?
10 Prison entrance breached by careering tram (8)
DARTMOOR – DOOR (entrance) “breached by” (tram)* “careering”.
12 Key error admitted by party-pooper (4)
TYPO – Hidden in, “admitted by”, parTY POoper.
13 Make good company, surrounded by pure chaos (6)
RECOUP – CO (company) “surrounded by” (pure)* “chaos”.
15 Something performed by troublemaker for powerful effect (6)
IMPACT – IMP (troublemaker) ACT (something performed). This is one of two clues where the positional indicator, in this case “by”, means put the answer to the first part of the wordplay after the second.
17 From mouth, put out narrow tongue (4)
SPIT – Double definition, first a cryptic hint.
19 Helping a bookie’s business (8)
ABETTING – A BETTING (bookie’s business).
21 Petitions soldier perhaps to be nice (8)
PLEASANT – PLEAS (petitions) ANT (soldier, perhaps).
23 Man altered line (4)
NEIL – (line)* “altered”.
24 Wooden knife’s first placed beside meal (4)
TEAK – Knife’s “first” after TEA (meal). This is the second answer part reversal, this time indicated by “placed beside”.
25 From Nepal, the wild animal (8)
ELEPHANT – (Nepal the)* “wild”. You can read about elephants in Nepal here.
Down
2 Upper-class boy tucking into eggs and Swiss roll, for example (7)
ROULADE – U (Upper-class) LAD (boy) “tucking into” ROE (eggs).
3 Was out at night? (5)
SLEPT – Lovely cryptic definition.
4 Almost ordered to be naughty (3)
BAD – “Almost” BADe (ordered).
5 Bank going into driver’s identity (9)
RIVERSIDE – Hidden, “going into” dRIVER’S IDEntity. Nicely hidden.
6 Daughter kept so untidy a work surface (7)
DESKTOP – D (daughter) (kept so)* “untidy”.
7 Bend down, I would say, for this basin (5)
STOUP – Sounds like, “I would say”, STOOP (bend down). Did everyone know this word? [Edit: As I suspected this proved to be unknown to plenty of solvers, so if you didn’t get it, yoiu are in good company!]
11 Children’s home parents are not expected to visit? (9)
ORPHANAGE – Another good cryptic definition.
14 Return ticket maybe for part of Australia (7)
OUTBACK – OUT and BACK, which could be a return ticket. I like it.
16 Transfer prisoner with a gesture (7)
CONSIGN – CON (prisoner) SIGN (gesture).
18 Beans give a sign of life (5)
PULSE – Double definition. Hmm. shouldn’t “beans” be “pulses”?
20 Fish stink when head is removed (5)
TENCH – sTENCH (stink) “with head removed”.
22 Twine regularly used to do this (3)
TIE – Alternate letters, “regularly” of TwInE.

46 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1909 by Teazel”

  1. I’d never heard of STOUP so I put STOOP. I should have guessed that STOUP was a word since I could see the homophone indicator. So one wrong.
  2. CROSSBAR & DISH were long in coming. No problem with STOUP, though. So far as I know–Jackkt will correct me–‘by’, as opposed to ‘on’, does not indicate order, nor does ‘beside’. In the case of IMPACT, something performed by a troublemaker is an IMP ACT. With TEAK, KTEA is a non-starter. 8:36.
  3. I was hoping to redeem myself after a disastrous week of QC solving, but it was not to be. I needed 15 minutes to complete this grid and on reading the blog I found I had a wrong answer at 7dn through sheer carelessness. I saw both STOOP and STOUP and the homophone indicator but in my haste I misinterpreted it and wrote in STOOP. I had struggled all the way through and found the NW corner particularly heavy-going. I’ve no complaints about the puzzle. It’s just me going through a bad patch with QC’s whilst my 15×15 solving has been pretty good by my standards.

    Edited at 2021-07-02 05:46 am (UTC)

    1. For once a DD in your answer not the clue, as ttpo is “a typo of typo”!
      Cedric
  5. Steady going today, although as I was making my way around the grid I thought that there were some tricky clues. STOUP was last in with fingers crossed as it was a new word for me so had to resist the temptation to ignore the homophone indicator.
    I particularly enjoyed ROULADE (who doesn’t?), CROSSBAR and RIVERSIDE for an enjoyable end to the week. Finished in 9.25
    Thanks to John for the blog and in advance for the Saturday Special.
  6. Felt like a goodish time but I put in STOOP. Annoying as I knew both words and what they meant but didn’t pay enough attention to the w/p

    Liked CROSSBAR

    On which note am I allowed to say “C’mon Engerland!”

    No, thought not

    Have a nice weekend everyone

    Thanks Teazel and John

  7. I found the NW particularly difficult, with only FOI, ROULADE going in until I revisited after solving the rest of the puzzle. RIVERSIDE eventually allowed be to see CROSSBAR, which allowed me to see BAD(E). Then the penny dropped for SLEPT, and finally a short alpha trawl provided CUTE. I went the right way for STOUP without too much thought. 11:30. Thanks Teazel and John.
  8. FOI: 4d. BAD
    LOI: 2d. ROULADE
    Time to Complete: 47 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 20
    Clues Answered with Aids: 5
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: 1
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 25/26
    Aids Used: Chambers

    It was not until I reached 4d, that I was able to answer my first clue on the first swing round the puzzle. A misspelling (7d. – STO(o)P gave me a wrong answer and therefore a DNF. Reading through the comments, it seems I am not the only one to fall afoul of this one.

    There were a couple of made-up words within the answers:

    I needed help on some of the answers, such as ROULADE, a word I have never heard of before. But now I have!

    I enjoyed this puzzle, as I started off thinking I was going to get nowhere, but then the answers started to come to me. DNF due to a wrong answer/misspelling, in 47 minutes. I am quite happy with that.

    It’s Friday, so okay I will allow myself a candy bar. Now to find the biggest one I can. Incidentally, I had always wondered how “they” put the writing inside candy rock. After yesterday’s answer of Brighton Rock, I decided to look at the process on YouTube. I did not know it was all done by hand. I assumed there was a “magic machine” that somehow did it. Quite fascinating really.

  9. … and my experience almost exactly matched Rotter’s, with a finished in SCC territory at 24 minutes and Stoop not Stoup for 7D. NHO Stoup, and now I do I am not sure how often I would use it in real life, but good to learn a new word.

    A couple of MERs made this not a wholly enjoyable puzzle for me. What is Pungent doing in 6A, for example — I grow radishes and they are the sweetest mildest little vegetables; pungent they are not. And does Transfer really equate to Consign in 16D? The two are not synonyms for me. 17A Spit also confused me; John says the “from mouth” part of the clue is a cryptic hint but it made for a poor surface and I spent some time looking for a 5-letter word for mouth that I could remove an N (for narrow) from and give a word meaning tongue.

    On the other hand 5D Riverside was the best hidden I’ve seen for a while (and is my COD) and 3D Slept was a real PDM when I eventually realised what was going on.

    And now onto the Saturday special, where we can guarantee no MERs, no poor surfaces and great delight. Many thanks to John for the blog and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

    PS, after a surfeit of Russian adverts, my LiveJournal page is now showing instructions in Icelandic! “SVARA ÞESSU”, for example, for “Reply” to a comment. Any ideas???

    1. I agree with radishes being not pungent. I don’t think they have a very strong taste. Imagine someone tasting a glass of wine and saying “I’m getting a hint of radish”, or Walkers coming up with radish-flavoured crisps.
    2. My Chambers app at least defines it as the pungent root of the plant. If a dictionary says it’s pungent then for crossword purposes it’s pungent, regardless of what anyone else thinks or, indeed, reality.
  10. One of Teazel’s most challenging QCs as far as I am concerned. Some very good clues but a real struggle and, like rotter and paulmcl, I was caught by STOUP. I really had to teaze out the answers and fear I may have developed a bald patch by constant head scratching. Some doh moments — I groaned audibly when RIVERSIDE finally clicked. I strayed (no, I plunged) into the SCC again — by a full 4 mins today. I liked RECOUP but my COD has to be ORPHANAGE. Thanks to both. Better performance next week? John M.
    1. I liked this clue too – but I believe there may well be some complaints about it!

      Edited at 2021-07-02 09:24 am (UTC)

      1. You are right. The two ladies in front of me have tut-tutted on this one already.
  11. Taken into the SCC today, and with STOOP wrong (or right, Chambers gives STOOP as an alternative spelling for STOUP). I didn’t know it anyway, but do now. Thanks both, returning home from the north today, and about to leave shortly.
  12. Struggle in the NW like John Dun. Long time and much trawling to get CUTE and SLEPT, and slow to see RIVERSIDE.

    I Ninja Turtled my way to STOUP, mis-remembering that that is the name of the Harlequins’ home ground and mis-reasoning that it must be set in a basin of land (in fact the ground is “The Stoop” and it is named after an old player … oops).

    FOI & COD CROSSBAR, LOI SLEPT, time 13:19 for 1.6K and a Not Great Day.

    Many thanks Teazel and JOhn.

    Templar

  13. Really struggled today.

    SLEPT doesn’t work fir me, no PDM moment when I saw the answer here.
    Was fixated on PLAY for ‘something performed’, so ‘replay’ was in play.
    Failed also with CROSSBAR, RIVERSIDE and CONSIGN.

    I also would have had a pink square at STOUP.

    COD DARTMOOR

  14. Time 15:30 mins but with the STOOP anomaly. Dear me!

    FOI 25ac ELEPHANT – got rid of him quickly!

    LOI 8ac CUTE – that sort of sweet!

    COD 5dn RIVERSIDE cafe

    WOD 2dn ROULADE – can be sweet – Bejgli or savoury minced veal with cheese – but best eaten in Austro/German Switzerland. The Japanese call it Sushi – I had a semi-sweet one in my collation at lunchtime – Sweet eggroll filled with rice and semi-dried tuna – lightly coated in flying fish roe (Tobiko) with a dollop of strawberry jam (Ichigojamu) atop! I kid you not! Omoshiroi!?

    3dn SLEPT was clever

  15. Nowadays it’s rare for me to get almost totally stuck on a QC, but it happened today.
    A slow start with FOI NEIL, then quite quick to my last few.
    RIVERSIDE took ages and only coming here did I learn it was a hidden (COD to that).
    I had LIGHT at 3d for ages which stopped me hitting the CROSSBAR and finding CUTE. And DILL at 6a.
    After 34 minutes I finished with STOOP (DNK STOUP) and for good measure TYPE.
    So two errors today and I will now look up Stoup.
    David
  16. Firmly in the SCC today and I’m not sure why, really.
    1 across, CROSSBAR took ages, not helped by the fact that I hesitated too long over SLEPT, not believing that it could be the answer. I knew that 11 down was ORPHANAGE because we’ve had it before in the QC but, although I know others here see these last two solutions as clever, I find them a bit limp, ditto SPIT. I answered RIVERSIDE without seeing that it was a hidden and spent forever trying to think of a synonym for party pooper before seeing that TYPO, too, was a hidden.
    On the other hand, I did enjoy ROULADE.
    Just off wavelength today, I think.
    Very much looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge!
    Thanks, John, and thanks, too, to Teazel
  17. Yes, I did think of S African STOUP but still put Stoop. I see from comments above that the latter is an alternative (more usual?) spelling.
    Put Spent instead of SLEPT, having, I confess, looked up sweet, along with hints for PLEASANT and SPIT.
    I did manage ROULADE, CROSSBAR, RIVERSIDE once I had some checkers.
    Liked – PULSE, ABETTING, TENCH, CONSIGN, DARTMOOR.
    ORPHANAGE a sad clue, jokiness somehow inappropriate, imo.
    FOI DESKTOP.
    Pretty difficult in parts, but enjoyable in others. Thanks VM, John.

    Edited at 2021-07-02 09:54 am (UTC)

    1. I too, when seeing this word in the past, thought of the Afrikaaner STOEP (a veranda). We used to have on one our house in Umbogintwini in the 1960’s. But this time I remembered STOUP from a previous crossword.
      1. Sorry about mixing basin for holy water and S African veranda or N American stoop/porch! A learning experience.

        Edited at 2021-07-02 04:33 pm (UTC)

      2. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a recipe for STOUP. It’s a wholesome cross between a vegetable stew and a chunky vegetable soup (I daresay he may also do a meaty version). A real winter-warmer!
  18. Breezed through quite a decent puzzle. My COD Orphanage which covered off several parental options with – ‘not expected to visit.’ Stoup was a sitter! 4:35. What does the ‘Biggun’ hold?

    Edited at 2021-07-02 09:42 am (UTC)

  19. Having a new kitchen fitted, watching Wimbledon and driving around to get the car serviced so no crosswords for a couple of days. Finished yesterday’s very late. FOI today was division, LOI slept, and I am in the stoop club. COD elephant, I think I have seen this clued in this way before. I have seen elephants in Nepal so fond memories.
    Nineteen minutes. Parsing nuances revealed in the blog, so a good read as always. Thanks, John, and Teazel. GW.
    1. I am particularly interested in kitchens delivered by IKEA. Do keep us posted.
  20. Didn’t know STOUP, but fortunately I couldn’t think of any other way to spell something that sounded like STOOP, at least not with those checkers. Definitely on the tougher side for a QC today.
  21. After 20 mins had everything (or so I thought) apart from 3dn. Another 5 mins of an alphabet trawl dredged up “Slept” — but then I fell into the “Stoop” trap for 7dn, so a dnf.

    NW corner definitely felt the most tricky, with much time wasted on various boiled sweets and puddings for 8ac.

    Overall though a good end to the week.

    FOI — 12ac “Typo”
    LOI — 3dn “Slept”
    COD — 1ac “Crossbar”

    Thanks as usual!

  22. Found this hard, especially the NW corner and needed a couple of checkers to finish.
    Agree with others that radishes are not pungent.
  23. White Icicle – A five-to eight-inch-long white radish with a pungent taste. It cane be grown for eating along-side the milder English cultivars. Radishes are not always pink!
  24. Oh dear, not a great end to the week. We really struggled in the NW corner and took ages to very nearly, but not quite, complete the puzzle. I guess we weren’t entirely on Teazel’s wavelength today. That said, there were lots of excellent clues to enjoy.

    Looking forward to John’s QC tomorrow.

    Thanks to Teazel and John.

  25. ….I only had 3D left. Despite three alpha trawls, I couldn’t see it and gave up after 8 minutes.
  26. A real struggle for me. Lots of biffing and struggling to parse. Agree with many other comments above. Certainly NHO stoup. Ho hum.
    1. Three teetotal weeks certainly haven’t benefited me. The 15×15 was an even more tragic tale !
  28. DNF today. Struggled with SPIT and needed the blog to parse BAD of all things having been hung up on ‘ordered’ signifying an anagram. Took a while with TEAK until I got the ‘k’ from OUTBACK (loved this one) — ‘beside’ made me want to put the ‘k’ at the start for some reason and I couldn’t think of a wood beginning with ‘k’! Enjoyable as ever, but on the trickier side for me. Thanks all.
  29. because of STOOP…, very stoopid of me!

    Otherwise, I liked it – a good challenge.

    I liked ROULADE and SLEPT best.

    9:21, but with an error.

  30. I initially put down my pencil down, frustrated at not being able to parse either STOOP or DISH. Then, just before coming here, I thought of DROOP as another word for ‘Bend down’ and was immediately motivated to pick up my pencil again and to start a more thorough alphabet trawl. This led me to STOUP, which I had NHO, but which did account for the the inclusion of “I would say” in the clue. So, I made the change (with fingers crossed), trusting the clue structure more than the definition, and spent some more minutes trying unsuccessfully to parse DISH. In the end, I stopped after 68 minutes and was mightily relieved when I read John’s blog.

    Overall, I found this a very tricky QC, but I came away happy enough to get one notch closer to achieving a 50% solve rate with Teazel since I started just over a year ago (it’s only about 40% at the moment).

  31. A fail for me at 7 as well. Had not heard of the basin and it’s spelling. Initial entry of MAD at 4 also slowed me down. CONSIGN also took a while.
    Thanks again for explaining the clues
    BW
    Andrew
  32. Stoop of course…. Couldn’t get Slept….
    And the reason for comment tonight — to express my distaste for the orphanage clue.
    There was something similar before, about a year ago, but somehow this one left a bad taste.
    Just saying…
    Thanks all
    John George

Comments are closed.