Times Quick Cryptic No 1913 by Felix

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I very much enjoyed this puzzle from Felix, completing it just inside 11 minutes.  Some minimum GK required (11a), but nothing to cause any undue concern.  I expect to see some fast times as a result.  WOD has to be 15a, and COD to 8d for the neat surface.

Across

1  Some attitude: let everyone strike (6)
DELETE – Hidden (some) inside [attitu}DE: LET E{veryone}.  DELETE, as in to strike from the record.
4  Work, going forward and back, for counterpart (4)
OPPO – OP (opus or work) twice, once forwards, once backwards.  OPPO is itself an informal short form for OPPOsite number (counterpart).
9  Name Old Boy in case most virtuous (7)
NOBLEST – N{ame} O{ld} B{oy} and LEST (in case).
10  Trouble acquiring voting system within a month (5)
APRIL – PR (proportional representation – voting system) inside (within) AIL (trouble).  This is the second time we have had PR for voting system inside a couple of weeks.
11  Willing maiden grabbed by anonymous Greek hero (9)
AGAMEMNON – GAME (willing) M{aiden} inside (grabbed by) ANON (anonymous).  AGAMEMNON was the king of Mycenae, who led the combined Greek forces in the Trojan War.
12  One’s holding loud objections (3)
IFS – I’S (one’s) containing (holding) F (Forte, meaning loud in music).  IFS and buts are objections to a plan of action.
13  Withdraw from paradise, briefly after a moment (6)
SECEDE – SEC{ond} (moment) followed by EDE{n} (paradise briefly).  To SECEDE is to withdraw from a federation, etc., as the UK has recently SECEDEd from the EU.
15  Beat with right hand?  Dreadful myth (6)
RHYTHM – R{ight} H{and} and an anagram (dreadful) of [MYTH].  RHYTHM is one of the longer words in English that doesn’t contain a vowel, which may make the answer difficult to spot.
17  Cuppa from Peg, we hear (3)
TEA – Homophone clue, sounds like (we hear) TEE as in a golfer’s tee peg.
18  Frees one in Calais?  He’s crossing meadows (9)
UNLEASHES – UN (one in Calais or France) and HE’S (he’s) either side of (crossing) LEAS (meadows).
21  Praise, employing some pretext, oligarch (5)
EXTOL – Hidden (employing some) inside {pret}EXT, OL{igarch}.
22  One feels insect repelled girl (7)
ANTENNA – ANT (insect) and ANNE (girl) reversed (repelled).
23 Leave Father Jack in the end holding last of liquor (4)
PARK – PA (father) and {jac}K (in the end) holding {liquor}R (last of).
24  Commercial at this point getting stick (6)
ADHERE – AD (commercial) and HERE (at this point).
 
Down

1  Refusals of Pope, finally, to visit Craggy Island (7)
DENIALS – Anagram (craggy) of [ISLAND] and {pop}E (finally).
2  Sign left one bishop really angry, to start with (5)
LIBRA – L{eft} I (one) B{ishop} R{eally} A{ngry} (to start with).
3  Tune Mrs Doyle ruined to a great extent (12)
TREMENDOUSLY – Anagram (ruined) of [TUNE MRS DOYLE].
5  Strange priests carry on (7)
PERSIST – Anagram (strange) of [PRIESTS].
6 Lascivious looks Dougal gets every so often (5)
OGLES – Alternate letters (every so often) of dOuGaL gEtS.
7 Put out tabloid newspaper: about time (4)
STUN – SUN (tabloid newspaper) containing (about) T{ime}.
8  Father Ted in a curious yellow (12)
FAINTHEARTED – Anagram (curious) of [FATHER TED IN A].
14  Black distillate company placed on communion table (4,3)
COAL TAR – CO{mpany} and ALTAR (communion table).
16  Mass, I bet, is a blunder (7)
MISTAKE – M[ass} I (I) and STAKE (bet).
17  Actor’s article’s on how play begins (5)
THESP – THE’S (article’s) and P{lay} (how it begins).  THESP is informal for actor, from Thespian.
19  Idle head one can toast (4)
LOAF – Double definition, the second cryptic.
20  It follows chicken: empty cage (5)
HENCE – HEN (chicken) and C{ag}E (empty, i.e. take out the contents of).

62 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1913 by Felix”

  1. By some miracle, my monthly typo coincided with my monthly stupidity: I blindly followed the instructions at 2 down and wondered what on earth LOBRA was supposed to be. And of course I somehow entered MISKAKE at 16 down. But the ridiculous scoring system means I’m hardly punished at all

    Lovely Nina by the way, I’ll take that cup of tea now

      1. Well it passed me by completely, until prompted to look for one by Lou’s comment. I have never seen a single episode of Father Ted, so I at least have some kind of excuse. Being unaware, like Jackkt below, I’m sure there are many references in the clues / answers that I haven’t spotted, so I’ll leave it to an aficionado to point them out.
  2. 9 minutes. As usual with this setter there is a theme going on but it’s territory unfamiliar to me so I probably haven’t spotted all the references. They seem to be in the clues rather than the answers.
  3. Steady going today for an enjoyable amble around the grid. Finished with DENIALS where it took me a while to spot a new (to me) anagram indicator. Finished in 11.18.
    Thanks to Rotter

    1. Yes it was added to my list too. A good one.

      Diana

      Edited at 2021-07-08 08:47 am (UTC)

  4. DNF with carelessness a big contributor. I couldn’t parse DENIALS — and even when I read Rotter’s explanation I didn’t believe island plus E could yield it, so I was well beaten there, having previouly struggled with PARK meaning ‘leave’ — although cars have now occurred to me. But the error came with putting ‘second’ for SECEDE (mucking up TREMENDOUSLY in the process) to give three pink squares and two errors. I wanted ‘moment’ to be the definition and my (now inexplicable) theory was something to do with a reduction of ‘abscond’ which felt plausible in my head but looks embarrassingly terrible now I’ve typed it out. All that fitted into 15m.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 06:44 am (UTC)

  5. 15:40 and I was pleased with this, as it seemed a tough old puzzle. With OPPO FOI, I started with NE corner first, then danced to the SW corner. Clues dropped in regularly, but needed pen and paper for the long anagrams. At 8D I thought it would be a technical word for a yellow, most of which I know from my stamp collecting days. Aquamarine, Vermillion, Buff etc.

    OPPO is a tricky word, I’ve only heard it used in Rugby and military contexts. IFS and THESP also challenging vocab.

    I think 19d, LOAF, is that rare bird, the Triple Def.

    Add “craggy” to the unending list of words indicating an anagram, and a new one for me, hence DENIALS was LOI.

    COD ANTENNA: I like “one feels” as the definition.

    1. Philatelic yellows are buff, then cream (paper), ochre, lemon, primrose (GB), xanthic, and gold; these are usually combined with yellow as a suffix. Banana didn’t make it, but I believe there are stamps with banana flavoured gum!

      Vermilion is orange (orange-yellow and yellow-orange are famously noted on one bi-!coloured 1922 one shilling Jamaica stamp!)

      Aquamarine is a pale blue-green, and has nothing to do with the case, tra-la!

  6. FOI: 1a. DELETE
    LOI: 9a. NOBLEST
    Time to Complete: 47 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 21
    Clues Answered with Aids: 4
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: 1
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 25/26
    Aids Used: Chambers

    I do not think I have enjoyed a crossword as much as this one in a long time. I quickly saw the theme as it rather smacked me right in the face.

    Unfortunately, though, an incorrect answer (23a. I entered PART) resulted in a DNF. However, at 47 minutes it was my quickest this week.

  7. Isn’t is a wonderful morning? ………Only one more match to go!

    I wonder what prompted today’s theme. Fun puzzle with some great clues – we completed it in 14 minutes.

    FOI: DELETE
    LOI: PARK
    COD: FAINT HEARTED

    Thanks to Felix and Rotter.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 08:10 am (UTC)

  8. … and all done in 9 minutes, I think my fastest ever for a puzzle by Felix. Much helped by the long anagrams at 3D Tremendously and 8D Fainthearted going in very quickly — sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but when they do it certainly opens the puzzle up.

    Only real hesitation was over my LOI 23A Park — I wasn’t entirely convinced over the Leave = Park pairing but the cluing gave little room for alternatives.

    Agree with Plett11 that Craggy is a new anagrind. I took time to recognise it was one and at first could not see how the clue worked, but having seen it I shall add now it to the already voluminous list!

    Many thanks to Rotter for the blog
    Cedric

    1. Craggy Island is the fictional setting of ‘Father Ted’ sitcom so part of the NINA.
  9. An interesting mix of very easy and quite tough clues. I moved quickly initially and thought I might beat my good time of yesterday but I was slowed down, not least by the longer anagrams which needed most of the crossers. TREMENDOUSLY was not a problem but FAINTHEARTED took me too long and I resorted to pen and paper. That, and a typo for LIBRA (which slowed AGAMEMNON) took me 30 seconds over my 15 min target. Acceptable, in the circumstances. I quite liked DENIALS, RHYTHM, and THESP but hesitated over PARK. Thanks to Felix and rotter. John M.

    Edited at 2021-07-08 09:14 am (UTC)

  10. Leave = PARK?

    Really?

    This is meant to by the Quick Cryptic. How about “Quiet ship sounds like wreck”?

    1. I think leave = park is perfectly acceptable in a QC. Park that thought, park the bus, park the car, park your shopping trolley after use, park your bum over there are all valid examples of the specific usage. Chambers has as a definition for the transitive verb ‘1. To place and leave (a vehicle) in a parking place or elsewhere, 2. To deposit and leave, put (informal)’.

      Whist there is nothing wrong with your proposed alternative clue, it would remove a key part of the Nina if the Setter had used it.

      1. I’m still not convinced about leave/park. None of your examples convince me (apart, maybe, from the shopping trolley) but I’m clearly off piste here. Ho hum….

        Edited at 2021-07-08 11:37 am (UTC)

  11. Dnk OPPO, and have no idea what the NINA is. Am very doubtful about PARK, but just accept it.

    Otherwise a splendid puzzle, much enjoyed — particularly ANTONIA as there’s a family connection.

    Thank you, Felix and Rotter.

    Diana

  12. An on target solve and I spotted the NINA whilst doing it. I have never seen the sitcom. The 1s went in straight away. I also tried LOBRA for the sign but quickly corrected it. My LOI was FAINTHEARTED. I had the HEARTED but had to revisit to work out FAINT determined as I was not to resort to pen and paper. 9:04
  13. I was quick on this apart from four clues which held me up. I corrected a biffed PART at 23a having read the whole clue carefully. At 16d was looking for an anagram before I realised my MISTAKE. RHYTHM also proved tricky. LOI was IFS which took me nearly a minute to find.
    12:08 on the clock. Have not been a Father Ted watcher so the nina passed me by. COD to RHYTHM.
    David
  14. Father Ted is a gem of a sitcom, right up there with Fawlty Towers. If you haven’t ever watched it, do!

    Cracking fun puzzle. Loving the SAY FECK in the bottom line of unchers!

    FOI DELETE, LOI LOAF (which I read as a triple definition, Rotter – “idle”, and “head”, and “one can toast”), COD PERSIST for the joyous surface, time 09:09 for a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks to Felix and Rotter.

    Templar

  15. Not a Father Ted watcher either, although I have seen some episodes. Google describes this as a 1990s sitcom focused on three priests living on Craggy Island, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. Father Ted Crilly is sent to the island as punishment for using charitable funds for a holiday in Las Vegas, but his true punishment comes in the form of Father Dougal Maguire and Father Jack Hackett, one a fresh-faced naive young priest, and the other a foul-mouthed, rage-filled alcoholic. Mrs Doyle is their nosy housekeeper, who makes plentiful pots of tea. Despite their isolation, the priests get into their fair share of mildly sinful, entirely madcap adventures.
    Reading across the second last row gives you “say feck” which Google says is a popular oath in Ireland, occupying ground between the ultra-mild expletive flip and the often taboo f**k but of ancient origin not related to the common swear word. It is much used by Father Jack.
    I am sure there will be other references I have missed…
    Took me a while and a couple of mugs of tea but enjoyed it.
    1. Totally missed “Say Feck”, well spotted – possibly the most commonly used word in Father Ted.
  16. Father Ted one of my absolute favourites, highly recommended viewing for absolutely anyone. Thoroughly enjoyed this wander down memory lane as a result.

    Everything went in extremely easily and on target for a sub-10 minute solve – a rarity for me – until I came unstuck in the SE corner.

    LOAF I’d argue is a triple definition as well (can you have a triple &lit?!) and thoroughly stumped me even after checkers were in.

    NHO LEAS for meadows but eventually biffed after much head-scratching.

    Trouble as usual with random girls name for ANTENNA.

    Tried to convince myself that MIWAGER was a word before STAKE became clear.

    All in all, thoroughly enjoyable QC cleared in just under 14 minutes. Thanks Felix & Rotter!

  17. but totally missed the message in the unches – brilliant.

    The puzzle was pretty straightforward, but I enjoyed it, possibly because I was recalling episodes of Father Ted.

    I nearly DNF’d, having put PART for “leave” but couldn’t quite make it work, so spent some time getting PARK in the end..

    5:10

  18. A fun puzzle. I have the boxed set of DVDs for Father Ted, so spotted the theme straight away. Missed the message in the unches though:-) Always remember the line from Mrs Doyle to Father Jack, “What would you say to another cup of tea Father?” which elicited the response “Feck off cup!” Anyway back to the puzzle. FOI DELETE, LOI, OGLES. 8:34. Thanks Felix and Rotter.
  19. A rare Nina spot for me as well. Managed this in around 28 mins, with the main hold up being 11ac and getting the letters in the right order.

    I initially had “Part” for 23ac, but the parsing made no sense, so switched to the less satisfying “Park”. Whilst I enjoyed the surface of the clue, did get a feel this was one of those that felt forced to fit a theme. However, was disappointed not to find “Drink!” in there somewhere.

    FOI — 2dn “Libra”
    LOI — 11ac “Agamemnon”
    COD — 23ac “Park” — wasn’t that convinced, but still liked the surface

    Thanks as usual!

  20. Carelessly put Part instead of PARK, and, as I said, Antonia instead of ANTENNA.
    I didn’t think about the Nina, of course. Only watched Father Ted occasionally.
    Liked lots of clues including AGAMEMNON, UNLEASHES, ADHERE, LIBRA (put label at first), RHYTHM, MISTAKE.
    Cd not parse SECEDE. LOAF we had recently. I use OPPO meaning opposition rather than opposite number.
    FOI DELETE, LOI IFS.
    Thanks vm, Rotter.
    We were lucky enough to live in Greece in the 70s so were able to visit places like Agamemnon’s Mycenae in atmospheric peace.
  21. Lovely stuff, some really imaginative clues and nice Father Ted references – my favourite being DENIALS and its use of ‘craggy island’.
  22. I wouldn’t argue strongly with those claiming triple def status for 19d, the same thought occurred to me when solving. However, I talked myself out of it because a loaf can’t toast anything, but can be toasted, so ‘head one can toast’ makes a neater definition than ‘one can toast’ for LOAF IMHO.
  23. 4:15 this morning. Didn’t find this particularly easy, so happy with my time although I biffed 1 d “denials” as I didn’t recognise “craggy” as an anagrind.
    As ever, blissfully unaware of the Nina…Father who??
    COD 11 ac “Agamemnon” which I managed to recall from somewhere. Ancient History/Mythology is not exactly one of my specialist subjects.
    Thanks to Rotter for a comprehensive blog and to Felix for a well pitched QC, although many of the intricacies were lost on me!
  24. I found this quite tricky and missed my target solving time by quite a way. I eventually finished in 23 mins without having managed to parse 1dn. Pretty obvious really but I doubt I’d have got there without the blog – thanks Rotter. The two long anagrams slowed me down considerably and I had to write them both out on paper to finally crack them. Never saw the theme (but then I never do), but in my defence I have to say that I’ve never watched the programme concerned.

    FOI – 1ac DELETE
    LOI – 1dn DENIALS
    COD – 11ac AGAMEMNON

  25. As Templar says – give the eponymous priest a go! We’ve been watching the entire series of Black Books (very dark) and The IT Crowd (very silly) – both by Graham Linehan who co-wrote Father Ted – during lockdown, one a week as a treat! FT is next on the list. Suffice to say this is the one time when the main theme jumped out and hit me between the eyes, but I still didn’t see the very clever reference at the bottom of the grid. Maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but Father Ted was always in DENIAL(s) about his misdemeanour, Mrs Doyle was very PERSISTent, and Father Jack liked to OGLE! Dougal – now he just looked STUNned most of the time😂
    So yes – a heap of fun and a not-bad time for me (11 minutes) as I often struggle with Felix.
    FOI Delete
    LOI Loaf
    COD Tremendously
    Many thanks Felix (happy indeed) and Rotter
    1. “I hear you’re a racist now Father. What’s the Church’s official position on this? Should we all be racists? It’s just that I don’t have much time for the old racism what with the farm.”
  26. Just my luck — the first and only time I spot a Nina it relates to a TV programme I’ve only seen a couple of times. A 24m struggle, with Tremendously the main culprit: Fainthearted on the other hand went in with barely a moments thought, which is about par for long anagrams. CoD to 14d, Coal Tar. Invariant
  27. I have watched one episode of Father Ted and did not enjoy it one bit. Barchester Chronicles, One Foot in the Grave, Blackadder, Psychoville, MASH and The Office, both UK and US versions are more my thing. As a one time writer for Warren Mitchell, Penny Keith, the Two Ronnies, Robbie Coltrane and Frankie Howard, l do hold a bit of critical interest. So the Nina was entirely lost on me.

    FOI 1ac DELETE

    LOl 17dn THESP which is a tad derogatory imho.

    COD 1dn DENIALS

    WOD 14dn COAL TAR

    Time 11:30 mins

    Edited at 2021-07-08 01:45 pm (UTC)

    1. Clang, clang, clang!

      You might therefore know that Frankie was HowErd, not -Ard.

      1. I honestly thought that is what I had written! Clanger indeed!

        I used to visit Francis at his home in Eaton Square for script conferences with Mel Smith.
        Griff used to be his radio producer.
        Frankie and his butler Stanley were hilarious. Quite a double act. Like Hancock, he later had forgotten just how naturally funny he was!

        The football has just about vanished and the Olympics are looking to be in big trouble!
        You must be relieved!

  29. One of our slowest completions in ages. Never seen Father Ted so were perplexed in several clues.
  30. We never thought of Googling Father Ted nor Craggy Island so found it all a bit muddling.
  31. Loved this. The Nina is so clever. As well as the characters and setting, there’s SAY FECK in the bottom unches and maybe, just maybe, accent allowed, EIRSE in the top ones! What a corker. We just needed GURLZ, OGWAN and DRINK and it would be truly complete! Bravo, Felix !
    Meanwhile, super clueing and mainly excellent surfaces.
    Thanks,Rotter, for the blog and thanks, too, to Felix
  32. Ten minutes precisely but a hefty proportion of that was spent not seeing – or using my – LOAF! Clever clue. That eventually gave me ANTENNA as my LOI. FOI 1ac DELETE. Fun xword tho never having seen a single nanosecond of Father Ted that additional cleverness passed me by. Thanks, setter and blogger.
  33. It took me just 19 minutes to reach my LOI (extremely fast for me) and a rare opportunity to escape the SCC beckoned. Trouble was that I still needed to solve 11a (AGAMEMNON).

    I soon got both the ANON bit and the M for ‘maiden’, but despite a further 10 minutes of trying, GAME for ‘willing’ never came to mind. So, as I had NHO the greek hero I threw in the towel. I was beaten, as on so many previous occasions, by a combination of poor GK and a mental block on some basic vocabulary. I’m a little despondent at the moment.

    Mrs Random is at her parents’ today, so she will tackle this puzzle either this evening or tomorrow. She may or may not have heard of AGAMEMNON, but she simply doesn’t allow vocabulary-oriented brain freezes, so I predict a very fast time from her. I will report back in due course.

    Many thanks to Felix (except for 11a) and therotter (except for describing AGAMEMNON as “minimum GK”). No one studied classical anything where I was dredged up. It just wasn’t on the curriculum.

    1. You may not read this as we only did this crossword today and it’s months old but I wanted to say you are missing out hugely if you haven’t read any of the Greek myths. They are amazing stories full of life and death, war, sacrifice, family feuds and even love! There are a whole raft of books about them being published just now from Pat Barker to Stephen Fry to Natalie Haynes (A Thousand Ships) and more. The siege and fall of Troy is so moving and monumental. Do have a read if you can find time!
      1. Thankyou very much for the recommendation, and I will try to find the time. My knowledge of the classics is, basically, zilch and I’m often found out in croswordland.
  34. Found this slow going, but got there in the end, loi 3d which delayed us for some time, especially as we has second for 13a for a while. Thanks Felix for a good puzzle.
  35. 19 minutes; would have been much faster if I hadn’t been watching Wimbledon at the same time. Loved the Father Ted NINA; it justifies CRAGGY as an anagram pointer I think!
  36. Just avoided the SCC with 19:58, although I only parsed a few of them after I had stopped the clock. Enjoyed the Nina, although, apart from the “Say feck” it was just about as unhidden as they come. FOI DELETE, LOI FAINTHEARTED, COD to 20d HENCE. Thanks Felix and Rotter.
  37. Well I thought that this was rather tricky and enjoyed it. I was like Mr Random — Anon around what? I knew the sort of Greek hero word but couldn’t get it.
    Complete without Agamemnon in 19 minutes.
    I took a long time on Mistake. (Wrong anagram)
    Just saw Park in time before Part.
    Initially spelled Unleeshes getting my Lee and Lea muddled up which disturbed Fainthearted for a while.
    Thanks all
    John George
  38. Quick solve (thirteen minutes) but not all parsed. Late posting after a very busy day firstly at the hospital and later cleaning all the windows and doing some gardening. FOI delete, LOI fainthearted as was looking for a shade of yellow beginning with pa, and only saw the yellow characteristic after all the other clues were completed. Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle even though the whole Father Ted thing passed me by, have never seen it or wanted to, but after reading your comments here I might try an episode or two, I could do with a laugh. Only antenna here for the biologist so COD to that for me. Still, we had pangolin in the word game, a lovely animal. And Agamemnon dead. Thanks, rotter, and Felix. GW.
  39. Very late to the QC today but enjoyed the theme. I think you either love or hate Father Ted – it makes me howl with laughter. I’m especially fond of Mrs Doyle. Finished in 25 but biffed Agamemnon and misspelt — grrrr. Like others above did not see craggy as anagram indicator and needed blog to parse. Really enjoyable and brought back lots of Father Ted memories. Didn’t spot ‘say feck’, and please could someone tell me what ‘unches’ are? 😂 Many thanks to therotter and Felix
    1. Unch, unches – unchecked white squares in a crossword, ie that relate to only one clue. Unlike crossers, which relate to two.
      In this case, look at the second bottom line which is made up of inches, no crossing words there.
      This and other terms are set out in the glossary to this LJ site.
      1. Ah, many thanks for explanation. I’ve not seen the glossary yet. Will try and find…
        1. Depending on what device you’re using, it’s either at the top right of the opening page of TftT or right at the very bottom — just keep scrolling! It’s full of useful and entertaining info 😊
          1. Many thanks pebee. Still can’t locate on mobile version. Will try on laptop 😃

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