Times Quick Cryptic No 1928 by Orpheus

Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Some quite tricky things going on in an inventive puzzle from Orpheus: I was a 9:30 DNF, with a couple of optimistic guesses at 20ac before giving up and clicking on the answer. I was held up elsewhere in the SW, with 12d needing a bit of thought, and both elements of 13ac being closer to a guess than peripheral knowledge. I vaguely remember struggling with long answers like 2d and 3d when I first started these things, and I certainly needed them today for the tricky 1ac. Nice one – many thanks to Orpheus!

Across
1 Ethnic group eccentric’s source of information on course (8)
RACECARD – RACE (ethnic group) CARD (eccentric, rake, etc.)
5 Brandy and stuff going west (4)
MARC – CRAM (stuff) “going west”
8 Group of languages used in urban tutorials (5)
BANTU “used in” urBAN TUtorials
9 Mail worker’s position at head of staff (7)
POSTMAN – POST (position) at head of/in front of MAN (staff, as a verb). The ” ‘s ” is possessive in the surface reading and a contraction of “is” for “equals” in the cryptic (also in 1ac).
11 Bury loose cash where motorways cross (11)
INTERCHANGE -INTER (bury) CHANGE (loose cash)
13 Goodman, for example, consuming large fish (6)
BLENNY – BENNY (Goodman, for example) consuming L(arge). 
14 Folk regularly request small vessels for wine, say (6)
FLASKS – FL (FoLk “regularly”) ASK (request) S(mall)
16 Bar Eritrean eccentric, one holding up 1 down? (11)
TRAINBEARER – anagram (eccentric) of BAR ERITREAN. Train as in a trailing dress.
18 A requirement one’s retained for cake flavouring, perhaps (7)
ANISEED – A NEED (a requirement) with I’S (one’s) retained. I’m not sure I’d thank you for an aniseed flavoured cake. (Well I would, but I’m not sure I’d mean it.)
19 Books ambassador left outside lodging-place (5)
HOTEL OT (Old Testament = books) has HE (His Excellency = ambassador) and L(eft) outside. Tricksy construction.
20 Sound made by piano technician? Something fishy here (4)
TUNA -“sound made by [saying]” TUNER (piano technician). Tricky enough, with options aplenty and an oblique definition. I was thinking things like ting and tank.
21 Moderated rage displayed by top journalist (8)
TEMPERED – TEMPER (rage) by ED[itor] (top journalist)

Down
1 Formal garment initially receiving award (4)
ROBE R (“initially” Receiving) OBE (award)
2 Concern for othersthat’s something to think about (13)
CONSIDERATION double defintition
3 Put up with features (11)
COUNTENANCE double definition
4 Provide information about sound of gunshot (6)
REPORT double definition
6 Silly idiot ran trams — in this capacity? (13)
ADMINISTRATOR – anagram (silly) of IDIOT RAN TRAMS. “This” refers back to the running/managing of trams.
7 Study poetry? The opposite (8)
CONVERSE – CON (study) VERSE (poetry). To con for to study crops up frequently enough.
10 Award given to student for exceptional erudition? (11)
SCHOLARSHIP somewhere between an &lit and a double definition.
12 Remove painting by Kandinsky, possibly (8)
ABSTRACTdouble definition. To abstract as in to extract.
15 Stick one’s nose in, hearing gong (6)
MEDDLE – “hearing” MEDAL (gong) gets you the answer.
17 Good young fellow, and contented (4)
GLAD G(ood) LAD (young fellow)

39 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1928 by Orpheus”

  1. I’d never heard of BLENNY so that one was a bit of a long shot (“goodman” could have been “saint” or something). The long anagrams I found tricky.
  2. ABSTRACT took me too long, and I had real trouble trying to arrange the anagrist in my head for TRAINBEARER. Nice to see that the setter got BANTU right as a group of languages; last time, in a Concise I believe, the definition was ‘language’. 8:35.
  3. Wow, that was tough. Undone by a lack of vocabulary and ignorance. I remember not knowing Benny Goodman last time he came up — I probably cycled through Len and John endlessly then too — but as so often in life hours spent watching Octonauts with the children came to the rescue. The episode ‘Combtooth Blenny and the Oarfish’ is particularly strong. I also remember not knowing MARC before but I think this is the first time I’ve not known who Kandinsky was (I do recognise his work now I’ve looked him up though!). RACECARD held me up as I was on the golf course. Although I grew up in a horse racing town (Wincanton) I’ve never been racing. Also never heard of a TRAINBEARER and panicked when I had to think of cake ingredients. ADMINISTRATOR also took a long time to reveal itself. Right hand side was finished before very much had gone into the left. All green in 19 in the end, better than it might have been given how long I spent becalmed.

    Edited at 2021-07-29 05:53 am (UTC)

  4. Way too difficult for me. Got nowhere with this one. gave up. Not enjoyable at all.

    Try again tomorrow.

    Edited at 2021-07-29 06:11 am (UTC)

  5. 14 minutes, but I’m not sure why so long other than having to revisit the clues to ABSTRACT and TRAINBEARER several times before the answers came.

    Edit: I forgot to say that I would have no problem with BANTU defined as ‘language’ as that’s what it is. But to define it as ‘A language’ would clearly be wrong.

    Edited at 2021-07-29 12:37 pm (UTC)

  6. I saw the brandy clue and knew I had forgotten it, but the crossers got me through. Otherwise, knew what I needed to know, and it fell into place in about 25 mins whilst catching up on the Olympics. Blennies are common in our local rock pools and fun to look for. Managed the anagrams in my head and all the long answers went in without too much trouble, so it was then a matter of filing the gaps. Enjoyed this throughout.
  7. Wow, that was tough and I had my first visit to the SCC for a while. I had problems all over the place but a lack of GK in the SW and trouble with the long anagrams made things particularly difficult. Finished in 21.48 after a couple alphabet trawls for ABSTRACT and BLENNY.
    Happy to leave this one behind and hope for better luck tomorrow.
    Thanks to Roly for the blog
  8. 13 minutes but with three guesses. The two correct guesses were TUNA and BLENNY but I lucked out with my LOI RACECARS.
  9. Tricky! I knew tricky from a visit to Cognac and a tour of the Otard distillery.
    It helped I saw the long anagrams
    25 minutes with an interruption to brew the tea.
    BW
    Andrew
  10. Struggled here …
    … and rather surprised to see the clock stopped at only 11 minutes. The long clues were tough, and 16A Trainbearer was a guess as while the word is understandable enough, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it used in real life. Also NHO Kandinsky so 12D Abstract another “guess from checkers”.

    10D Scholarship another one to cause me to pause, for the different reason that it seemed too simple, indeed barely cryptic. Take the question mark out and I would say it wasn’t cryptic at all!

    Many thanks to Roly for the blog
    Cedric

    Edited at 2021-07-29 08:05 am (UTC)

  11. A tough one for sure with challenges as notes by most others. Was pleased to get TRAINBEARER early, but surprisingly last in was FLASKS where I had FLUTES, being more characteristic of wine.

    COD MEDDLE, a chestnut I think, but topical during these Olympics. Canoeing?? Wow, what a sport.

  12. Orpheus sucked me into this one — most of the RHS went in very quickly and I thought I was on for a genuine ‘quickie’ but I had a big empty hole on the LHS for a while with an unusual lack of crossers. Filling this and, especially, dealing with some of the longer clues took me to within a few seconds of joining the SCC. No problem with MARC or with BLENNY (once I started to motor) but my LOI TUNA took a while and was my Achilles heel. Too many good clues to list. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2021-07-29 10:30 pm (UTC)

  13. Twelve minutes, all parsed for once. FOI Bantu, LOI racecard, required a minute’s reflection. Had to write out the long anagrams – I usually do. COD Blenny but enjoyed them all. Thanks, Roly, and Orpheus. GW.
  14. Enjoyed this. Didn’t know blenny or marc. Didn’t believe that anyone would use aniseed in a cake but taste is subjective I suppose!
  15. Unlike others, I found this none too hard. The long down clue answers fell in quickly which helped a lot. LOI TEMPERED. Odd to see long words with the same root in both this and the 15×15 today. COD to INTERCHANGE, 3:32
  16. Started off with ROBE and BANTU, then CONSIDERATION dropped into place. TRAINBEARER and ABSTRACT held me up then LOI, TUNA also dropped into place. 7:58. Thanks Orpheus and Roly.
  17. 16 minutes after a fast start, with the SW mostly responsible for taking me over target. I struggled with the BLENNY, ABSTRACT, TUNA clues, and finally got them in that order. I was fixated on PORTRAIT for 13d for too long, but couldn’t make it work with ‘remove’. No problems with the long down clues, which came straight away. Thanks Roly and Orpheus.
    1. We are in a (seemingly) endless run of hard puzzles, so don’t despair. Try again in a week or two?
    2. It’s always great to be able to finish, but maybe there’s still lots to enjoy in merely attempting these puzzles… For me it’s about challenging my slow wits and learning new words. Finishing is always a bonus. Practice clearly makes perfect judging by some of the incredible times posted, but if us newbies were to find the QCs easy would there be as much motivation to return I wonder?
  18. Time-wise (and you can take that either way) my early teens are becoming a distant memory, and Orpheus is certainly not helping. Quite a tough one today, with a very empty LHS until Racecard unlocked a couple of the long answers. I thought of Benny as soon as I saw Goodman, but having never come across a Blenny (nor a Bennly) I had to wait for crossers. 28mins in total, a couple of which I can blame on a stray spot of ink above Gong in the 15d clue making me think it was ‘going’. CoD, by a country mile, to 1ac, Racecard. Invariant

    Edited at 2021-07-29 10:38 am (UTC)

  19. Penny drop moments – RACECARD, TEMPERED, MEDDLE, MARC, REPORT.
    Biffed ABSTRACT, NHO BLENNY but had to be.
    Wd not put ANISEED in a cake, possibly in a bun?
    SCHOLARSHIP seemed not cryptic but then there is a double def.
    Very slow today!
    Thanks, Roly, as ever.
  20. I always forget Brandy=Marc so spent a while thinking about snap or pans going west but couldn’t make it fit. I guessed Blenny but managed to get the other parts in a reasonable 15 minutes.

  21. I usually struggle with Orpheus but, for some reason, I found today’s more straightforward. Many went in as I got more crossers to prompt me. But I had to look up Kandinsky before I got anywhere with 12d. Initially, I didn’t expect to need to know who he was and was looking for hiddens and anagrams but the B at 13a put paid to that idea and I was getting nowhere with 16, 18 or 20, so looked him up and the answer was then obvious.

    Didn’t need to use aids anywhere else (no problem with BLENNNY, and MARC came quite quickly), so I think I’ll pat myself on the back. Especially as others found it tricky.

    I don’t usually bother with a COD but I thought 7d was really clever.

  22. I didn’t find this too difficult, certainly easier than yesterday’s offering. Or maybe it was just that mysterious wavelength thing again. Anyway all finished and parsed in 15 mins. No problem with any of the vocabulary or allusions, although I couldn’t initially remember what characterised Kandinsky’s work. Struggled with the anagram at 6dn and needed most of the crossers before the penny dropped.

    FOI – 8ac BANTU
    LOI – 1ac RACECARD
    COD – 20ac TUNA

  23. We enjoyed this one and were pleased to complete with only one “helper” (crossword solver app ) apart from the great help in checking the answers are right on the iPad if not quite sure.
  24. But I got there, finally, with a good 5 minutes pondering my NHO BLENNY. I knew it had to be that but it sounds like a word that shouldn’t exist. I remembered MARC from previous crossword outings so that was my FOI. I especially liked RACECARD -very clever!- and CONVERSE. On theother hand, I was a bit MER over SCHOLARSHIP,which seems too literal for a cryptic clue.Thanks,rolytoly,and thanks, too, to orpheus
  25. Another tough one, pushing me out to nearly twice my target, not helped by my phone always putting x where i wanted a c, e where i wanted an r etc…

    Tough but fair, though Benny Goodman took a while to dredge. Though it was CONSIDERATION and COUNTENANCE that finally gave me the crossers for LOI RACECARD.

    11:48.

  26. A 54-minute, single error DNF for me. Yesterday, I gave up after 54 minutes, unable to solve ICENI – a word I had NHO, specified by a (flaky, IMHO) clue I couldn’t parse – and today I put down my pencil at exactly the same time, having incorrectly entered TONE (I’d had NOTE for a long time) as my LOI. Given the number of elements to be correctly deduced in any crossword puzzle, a single-error DNF (often with that clue half-solved) is very frustrating – although not on the same scale as coming 4th in the Olympics.

    Like several others above, I found today’s puzzle rather challenging. In fact, I am quite surprised I made as much progress as I did. I am slowly making some progress with Teazel, but Orpheus remains my nemesis. I am yet to achieve a 40% success ratio with this setter, since I started (01/06/20).

    Unfortunately, Mrs Random is otherwise detained today, so I am unable to report on her experience. She will catch up in due course.

    Many thanks to Orpheus and to rolytoly.

  27. ….the “piano technician” obviously haven’t been tackling my “Weekend Specials”, as I used the same device there quite recently.

    Aniseed in a cake ? Not for me thanks. An ingredient I’ve religiously avoided since effectively losing an entire weekend courtesy of most of a bottle of Ouzo !

    FOI MARC
    LOI/COD RACECARD
    TIME 4:41

  28. Finished in abt 30m. Did not know 5a marc, or blenny but the cryptic was very helpful for that one. Enjoyed 20a tuna, overall we found this easier than yesterday.
  29. 25 mins but couldn’t get 13ac “Blenny”, mainly because I put “Subtract” for 12dn.

    Didn’t really enjoy this. Found the answers way too long and cumbersome for a QC. In addition, couldn’t even countenance the thought of aniseed in a cake.

    FOI — 1dn “Robe”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 21ac “Tempered”

    Thanks as usual!

  30. Trench warfare all the way but then I was doing it on my phone which always seems to make things feel tougher. Didn’t think it was a great puzzle — SCHOLARSHIP was barely cryptic.

    FOI ROBE, LOI CONSIDERATION, COD TUNA even though it was a pale rip-off of Phil, time 10:31 for 1.25K and a Decent Day.

    Many thanks Orpheus and roly.

    Templar

  31. Not easy, especially with the longer words. Guessed BLENNY from clue, NHO the fish. LOI was RACECARD. Enjoyably challenging.
  32. I enjoyed this one as I sit in the garden with a beverage. Having crashed onto concrete yesterday from a small stepladder — four foot height platform — cutting a hedge — I am sore but pleased to be ok. CT scan showed head injury ok and X-rays showed nothing broken. So job hazzard analysis lacking — so reason for writing this is to make any reader be ultra careful!!
    More care next time — but this is going to take weeks if not months to get over…
    DNF — after 40 minutes. 3 unanswered- Marc — annoying clue in my world. Tuna — clever but just a little too much deception maybe? And Meddle — still didn’t see it despite being tripped up by this in the past.
    But had to look up Trainbearer — I could only see Brain……. which didn’t work.
    Actually on reflection, not a good QC because of Marc and Trainbearer (and Tuna needs a tweak IMO)
    Thanks all
    John George

    Edited at 2021-07-29 06:46 pm (UTC)

    1. Glad you are Ok. Seems that solvers are having trouble outside the puzzles at the moment!

  33. 33:47

    I normally give up if I’m not there by 30 minutes but with just racecard, countenance and Marc to get I persevered. But golly, that was tough. Blenny, Bantu and trainbearer all stretched my vocabulary to the limit.

    Edited at 2021-07-29 08:50 pm (UTC)

Comments are closed.