Times Quick Cryptic No 1969 by Breadman

87 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1969 by Breadman”

1. ….at 9:32, but I didn’t think it was that easy. There was a lot of misdirection in the literals, and some vocabulary that is not esoteric, but not common either. I suspect that some members of the SCC will not have heard of at least one of the answers, probably espadrille, but maybe gannet or atelier. Back in the day, when I first started as a blogger in 2009, we used to have atelier, etagere, and Tiepolo just about every other day, but then they seemed to fall out of fashion. That was before the Quickie, of course.
   1. So some people who might be slower than you at cryptic crosswords may not know the words espadrille and gannet. Really?
      1. Yes, really. I never fail to be astonished by the gaps in people’s knowledge that are sometimes revealed on this blog. I’ve only ever encountered ESPADRILLE in Crosswordland, while a GANNET is more often used hereabouts to describe a greedy eater. Seabirds are not everybody’s area of expertise ! I notice you didn’t pick on ATELIER which is not a word I’ve ever used in conversation.
         1. Phil. Have you ever used the word ‘intercity’ in coversation?
            1. Certainly ! They once sponsored the Times championships.
   2. Am firmly in the SSC but usually have no problem with GK/vocabulary once the penny has dropped. For instance, am familiar with seabirds, shoes, workshops and unpleasant tasting digestives (Fernet Branca being the worst of the latter, imo).
      1. Once you’ve been ‘vaxed’ try getting ‘vocabed’ – then try ‘Punt e Mes’! Loverly jubberly!
   3. Anyone who hasn’t heard of ATELIER might like to try the Concise or GK crossword. It’s been there twice recently including this morning. I’m a member of SCC and have also heard of all the words in today’s puzzle. As I’m posting so late I don’t expect anybody will read this!
      1. Good point, but tell us who you are.
         1. That was my first ever comment. Maybe I should register. Annette
            1. Thank you Annette. Registering is pain-free, but if you prefer not to, just put your name at the end of your comments like several others here do.
      2. We all have gaps in our GK and there were a couple in here for me today. I did not know what espadrilles were, though I had heard the word. Looking them up online reveals they are what we called deck shoes. Also, atelier is a word I have only ever seen on a local boutique selling wedding dresses, hence I assumed it was a fashion term.

         As a late solver I always assume my comments will not be seen by many users.

         1. I’m sure I’m not the only one who pops back in the evening to see what else has been said during the day, so don’t think no-one will see your post😊
         2. As the blogger, I get notified of all comments no matter how late (sometimes months after the blog!) and always enjoy reading them. And I’m sure there are others like Pebee who come back to see what others have commented… I do, for one.
         3. I wouldn’t want to wear espadrilles on deck, not safe enough.
   4. Interesting comment. I thought I’d leave off replying until I saw a lot more responses. Yes I probably whizzed through this with the aid of experience… ATELIER is a word that comes up amazingly frequently so I knew that. ESPADRILLE was familiar as being a fashionable item of footwear here in the UK some time ago and we have plenty of GANNETS around the UK – about 2/3 of the worlds population. I thought it interesting that we had an apparently bipolar distribution of experiences – some found it easy and others found it tough. What fun we have with these Quick Cryptics, of which I thought today’s was a classic.
2. I biffed NINETIES, parsed post-submission; took me a moment to figure it out. I believe the Winchester rifle was invented by Sarah’s father-in-law, not husband. The story goes that she was troubled at inheriting a fortune based on guns, and that a fortune-teller told her that she wouldn’t die as long as she kept on building; which she did, but she did.4:23.

   Edited at 2021-09-24 02:25 am (UTC)

   1. Thanks. I’d forgotten it was her father-in-law, not husband who invented the original Winchester. Blog amended.
3. Since I live about 15 minutes from the Winchester Mystery House, that one went straight in. There were lots of different Winchester rifles, but Sarah who built the house was the widow of the owner of the company by then.

   9 minutes for me, and no typo for once.

   1. Have you been? I was taken there as a small child, but that was before it was restored.
      1. Funnily enough, only a couple of years ago, having lived here for over 30 years. It’s not that interesting tbh.
4. Those other Winchesters…. Simon WINCHESTER – wasn’t he often on ‘The Fast Show’? And this was the town which the Russians came to spread their poison. And a coat-rack for hanging up one’s 12ac Inverness, 20ac Fedora; one’s ‘wellies’ and espadrilles reside at the base at the base.
   I believe this puzzle to be a ‘Frederik’, Nina’s lesser half.

   WOD 9dn ESPADRILLE

   FOI 1dn WELLINGTON (Salop)

   LOI 7ac LINKS

   COD 23as CHARTREUSE horryd muck!

   1. ‘Hi, I’m Ed Winchester’
   2. The Russians spread their poison in Salisbury (although it’s not a million miles away !)
      1. Not angry — embarrassed!
5. Another tricky one to end a tricky week. Huge groan when the alphabet trawl revealed ON THE NOSE surpassing the previous groan for WINCHESTER. Spotted it was going to be ESPADRILLE quickly but had to trust the cryptic to add the e on the end and couldn’t have told you what an ATELIER was before starting but the word leapt out from the anagrist and fitted the checkers, so in it went. Looking forward to trying Sawbill’s puzzle tomorrow. All green in 17 after five on the first pass of acrosses.
6. 8 minutes, no problems. WINCHESTER the rifle known from various Westerns, most notably WINCHESTER ’73 (1950) starring James Stewart.
7. I found this more difficult than yesterday. ON THE NOSE was LOI, and it took a while for Penny to drop.
   Thanks for the blog, John, and thanks Mr Breadman
   BW
   Andrew
8. I found it tricky, too. I started with the easy 3-letter answers and then decelerated. Things picked up, as usual, as more crossers became available. I slowed at the end, though, with LINKS and NINETIES both going in unparsed. A couple of minutes over target but it seemed slower.
   I liked INVERNESS, GANNET, and smiled at ON THE NOSE. I thought some of the parsing was a bit contrived — e.g. LINKS, WINCHESTER, TUTELAGE, ESPADRILLE, WELLINGTON, but with many of the longer answers this was probably inevitable. Thanks both. A funny old week IMO, John M.

   Edited at 2021-09-24 07:17 am (UTC)

9. Another chewy one but enjoyable nonetheless.
   Unfortunately I had a complete brain fade – I put in a very tentative ENDS UP at 8a knowing that it didn’t feel right but forgot to revisit it later. At the end I was left with E_D_R at 5d so biffed ELDER thinking that it might be an evergreen tree, so two incorrect answers and 3 pink squares. One day I’ll learn….
   ‘Finished’ in 13.30 with COD to ON THE NOSE for the PDM.
   Thanks to John
10. Not as tricky as the last two days but I was still over the 20 minute mark. I was held up by links, was thinking lines or lanes may be course, atelier, nineties and tutelage.

    I needed the blog to parse Wellington and gannet. Thanks John & Breadman

11. between tricky/easy so far, as indirectly predicted by Vinyl, despite the snarky anon. comment.

    I thought it on the easier side, though WELLINGTON was not parsed. NINETIES was LOI.

    5:06

12. Did not really know Atelier, so missed spelled it as Alteier, which made ON THE NOSE is fruitless search with many possibilities.

    Poor showing after rapid FOIs at 1a and 1d should have led to a much better effort.

    I lived around San Jose for 10 years and never went to the Winchester Mystery House.

13. Personally I found this really tricky — managed to solve with lots of aids, but even then not entirely sure of the cryptic — so thank you again to the blogger for your explanations. Enter = log doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Nor does inks = signs
14. Liked ON THE NOSE and WELLINGTON. I agree with horryd about CHARTREUSE.

    As I set today’s fortnightly QC courtesy of John and Phil, I am being ESPecially polite to setters. Thanks Breadman.

15. Another toughie for me as I roamed aimlessly around the grid after an encouraging start with 1A and 1D. No problem with GANNET having grown up a stone’s throw from the beach and ATELIER dropped in having configured my past four cars in one so named Italian fancy showroom, also coupled to 1D.
    Couldn’t parse NINETIES and tried hard to put in NUT or TGWU into 6D. Seem to remember Espadrilles as women’s summer shoes festooned with string from the ’80s. Do they still exist? Thanks John and Breadman.
16. Did not get anywhere with this one. Too difficult for me. I have found a website where there are daily cryptic crosswords, free of charge. They have a cryptic there that is designed for beginners, and it really is more gentle than these QCs here. When I fail to solve here I go over there.
    1. Is that the Telegraph?
       1. No. The Telegraph does indeed offer a free crossword each day, but it’s not always the cryptic. It changes from day to day.

          I am not sure if I am permitted to post links to other sites here.

          1. Would be interested to hear about the crossword you’ve found poison_wyvern
          2. If you post a web address LJ spams your comment unless you are an author. But if you would like to post the address here I can unspam it so others can see.
             1. Rather than putting a link I will just say to Google “Simply Daily Puzzles”.
                1. Thanks. That worked for me… It got me to https://simplydailypuzzles.com
                   1. That’s the one!
17. I found that gentle enough, and very enjoyable. I didn’t help myself with some incompetent typing – today’s theme was starting to type the full word when the cursor was on the second letter square, thus ending up with (eg) HHOSTIE. This is not a recommended technique.

    I enjoyed learning about the Winchester family, thanks John and Kevin.

    FOI WELLINGTON, LOI ENTER (durr), COD INVERNESS, time 09:12 for 2.1K and an OK Day.

    Many thanks John and Breaders.

    Templar

18. “Nan” has appeared three times in the last few days. I thought that it should be spelt “Naan”
    1. “Naan” is an alternative spelling.

       Lexico: “nan (also naan) (in Indian cooking) a type of leavened bread, typically of teardrop shape and traditionally cooked in a clay oven. As modifier ‘nan bread’. Origin – From Urdu and Persian nān.”

19. Much better going but a lot of biffing at first, eg wrote in WELLINGTON very faintly but luckily it worked with the crossers.
    Liked many including FEDORA, IDEAL, INVERNESS, ON THE NOSE, CHARTREUSE.
    LOsI included LINKS, TUTELAGE and, embarrassingly, CANADA.
    Thanks vm, John.
20. Was flying through this with just over 5 minutes elapsed and 2 to go. Those 2 were CHARTREUSE and ESPADRILLE. 8:41! Thanks Breadman and John.
    1. Good to see you getting up to speed John – have a weekend! Meldrew

       Edited at 2021-09-24 10:01 am (UTC)

       1. Many thanks Victor:-)
21. After my daily ration of NAN bread, I had to dart around the grid to keep going.
    Nevertheless I had just one left after about 9 minutes -17a.
    I considered all the possible starting letters without improving on BONE, which I didn’t think I’d ever heard.
    Eventually I thought of ON THE NOSE. COD to that.
    Time was 12:50.
    A good challenging puzzle from Breadman.
    David
22. ….which I thoroughly enjoyed, and with which I could find no fault. I started slowly on the across clues, but the downs flew in to ensure that I was within my target.

    FOI INN
    LOI CHARTREUSE (consume only when desperate !)
    COD ON THE NOSE (simply brilliant misdirection)
    TIME 4:17

23. Not too tricky today — we finished in 11 minutes.

    FOI: NAN
    LOI: HOT AIR
    COD: ON THE NOSE

    Thanks to Breadman and John.

    Thanks to all of the weekend setters — we really appreciate your puzzles. Looking forward to trying Sawbill’s puzzle…..

    Edited at 2021-09-24 09:45 am (UTC)

24. Back to around twenty minutes at nineteen today. I seem to enjoy a slower solve, ruminating over the wordplay, so content to be regarded as a slower solver. FOI inn. Only 7 on first pass. Breadman is usually friendly, so it shows that setters can vary in the difficulty of their offerings. LOI links – could see ‘L’ plates and the course, not the signing. Other incomplete parsing, too. COD Chartreuse, I like the green version. Thanks, John, and Breadman. GW.
25. Just avoided the SCC today at 19 minutes and change, and was generally slow throughout. Nothing unheard here, but ATELIER needed to be exhumed from the depths. Thanks both.
26. On the slow side for me today finishing after 22 mins.

    Foxed for a while by INN, where I tried inserting H into OSLO in various formulations before the penny dropped – a real forehead-slapper.

    INVERNESS and WELLINGTON went in unparsed once I had a couple of checkers, being the only Scottish city with a V and boot respectively that I could think of that length.

    NHO “HO” as an abbreviation for House before, put that one in the bank.

    Really liked ON THE NOSE once the second meaning dropped – had entered ON THE BANK but couldn’t figure where bank came from and felt a bit literal.

    Otherwise just a regular, slow, hungover walk round the board.

    Thanks setter and blogger

27. A Much Better Day today, as all done and dusted in 8 minutes 😊 Most enjoyable with just a few knotty ones to up the difficulty level – 1d in particular. The words sports car automatically bring MGs to mind – my best car ever! So when I saw the G, I was very tempted to precede it with an M.
    The issue of GK raises its head again – as we all agree, it’s difficult to judge what is and isn’t obscure, and I think we should certainly be careful not make assumptions!
    But here is a piece of info regarding a book by the author Simon Winchester – a real person, not a comedy character – which I hope you word jugglers might enjoy. He wrote The Surgeon of Crowthorne (among many other great non-fiction books), which is about the making of the OED. One of its most prolific early contributors, William Chester Minor, a retired United States Army surgeon, was imprisoned in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, near the village of Crowthorne, in Berkshire, England (Wikipedia). And as a bonus, the public school Wellington College is located near by!
    FOI Eats up
    LOI Espadrille
    COD John was On the nose with this one 😅
    Thanks for all the fascinating extras today, John – it was a really interesting blog. Thanks also to Breadman for a pleasant end to a variable week

    Edited at 2021-09-24 11:08 am (UTC)

    1. The Surgeon of Crowthorne was brilliant. Thanks for reminding me of it. Will look out for other books by Simon Winchester.
    2. Interesting story. Thanks. By the way I had an MGB GT for a few years in the 1980a. Great fun to drive.
       1. The Map that changed the world was fascinating. The original hangs on the stairs in The Royal Geographic Society HQ in London.

          Diana

       2. MGB Roadster, glacier white, tan interior, overdrive, chrome bumpers – what a car!
28. I messed up what would have been a very satisfying sub-20 by biffing Swell (I had no idea what Apple was doing) for perfect, and then misspelling Chartreuse. That made Atelier impossible, until I spotted that an anagram of Elite was likely to be involved. Sorting all that out took me into the SCC by a couple of minutes. I have used the word Espadrille(s) in real life, which is more than can be said for Atelier. Overall, quite tricky in places, with loi Links my CoD, though On the Nose was pretty good. Invariant
29. I can recommend The Professor and the Madman (even though it features Mel Gibson) if you haven’t already seen it.
    1. I wasn’t aware of it — thanks 😊 I shall look out for it on one of the zillion channels we have to scroll through to find much to watch these days!
       If you haven’t read it, I really recommend The Map that Changed the World about the geologist William Smith — another cracker from Simon Winchester 😊
       1. It’s free on Amazon Prime at the moment.
          1. Many thanks 😊
30. An enjoyable 17 mins from me. There were definitely tricky clues, but some I’ve seen many times before eg. 23ac “Chartreuse”, 15dn “Atelier” and 9dn “Espardrille”. Nan/Naan bread seems to be flavour of the month at the moment, keep seeing it everywhere.

    I thought this was quite a current crossword — what with 7ac “Links” in relation to the Ryder Cup and the 11dn “Nineties” (we’ve just celebrated 25 years of the Oasis concert of Knebworth which I, ahem, attended in my youth). At one point I thought Isaac Asimov was going to make an appearance at 12ac — especially as his Foundation starts on Apple TV + today (which was also mentioned in 21ac).

    Anyway — lots to like and a bit of relief compared to the previous days puzzles. I can now look forward to tomorrow with the printed pdf of the weekend crossword and a coffee.

    FOI — 1dn “Wellington”
    LOI — 8dn “Espardrille”
    COD — 17ac “On the nose”

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-09-24 11:42 am (UTC)

31. 3:25 late this morning. First time I’ve been under 3:30 for a while, however I feel this was the easiest QC over that period. At the same time, I thought there was a good range of clues, all well constructed.
    FOI 1 ac “winchester” and then nothing really held me up before I hesitated briefly before parsing 21 ac “ideal” and submitting.
    COD 7 ac “links” where there was a neat piece of misdirection, although I’ve come across the wordplay before.
    Thanks to John for a fascinating blog and to Breadman for providing a pleasant end to the week.
    Looking forward to trying Sawbill’s QC tomorrow.
32. There’s Winchester, Wellington, Charterhouse (kind of). Actually I can’t see any more!
    1. Mercifully, there’s no mention of Merlin’s bête noire 😉
33. Threw in the towel after 30 minutes. Neither the long 1ac or 1d answered despite having most of the checkers in.

    6d TUTELAGE, 7ac LINKS, 13ac GANNET and 11d NINETIES were also incomplete.

    I spent far too long on 10ac INN, trying to convince myself that there was a word for a hotel in OSLO.

    A tricky end to the week I think, although having read the blog I’m not entirely sure why, the wordplay is fair and definitions are clear, on reflection.

    Have a good weekend all.

34. Not firing on all cylinders quite …
    … as day 3 of a mini-holiday sees me definitely in a slower mood. 16 minutes in all, but all done and enjoyed. Main hold-up was 15D Atelier, which I vaguely recall is a real word but could not tell you what it means, and LOI 23A Chartreuse, which needed all the checkers.

    Many thanks John for the blog, and i look forward to the Saturday Special. A good weekend to all.
    Cedric

35. Slower than yesterday at 16 mins but I’m not sure why. Nothing unknown in the vocabulary as far as I was concerned but one or two clues took a bit of unravelling. Never managed to parse LINKS or IDEAL (thanks John) but otherwise all ok. Nice puzzle, so thanks to Breadman.

    FOI – 8ac EATS UP
    LOI & COD – 17ac ON THE NOSE

36. Apologies if someone has already asked or commented, but seeing NAN encourages me to ask if Breadman has a thing for bread like Oink for pigs.

    Cardorojo

    1. I haven’t noticed if bread regularly features in his puzzles but the setter’s surname is Warburton.
    2. Good question. I must admit I’ve not paid attention to whether that is so when I’ve solved Breadman puzzles in the past but a quick view of a selection of previous blogs doesn’t reveal any such proclivity.
37. Not gentle at all, IMHO. A real struggle for me — maybe I was so badly wounded by yesterday’s tough one that I hadn’t the wherewithall to complete today’s with out a lot of biffing and resorting to aids. I think I’ll go and look for PWs Simple ones…
38. I nearly put ON THE NOTE, but fortunately decided to do an alphabet trawl, and I had to trust to luck with ATELIER (unknown to me). Otherwise, all clues went in relatively quickly and all were mostly, if not fully parsed. Total time = 27 minutes, which is jolly good for me.

    Mrs R hasn’t finished her attempt yet, but I think she may have already gone past my time. This would mean I suffer a glorious 1-4 defeat this week (significantly better than my usual 0-5).

    Many thanks to Breadman and johninterred.

39. Relatively straightforward.COD 1ac WINCHESTER. Why are ESPADRILLE(s) so little known?
    1. As I pointed out somewhere above, we always referred to them as deck shoes, possibly to conjure up images of glamorous cruise liners. We also had plimsolls (or plimmies), which seems to be a word that is vanishing from common use.
       1. I’m not sure that espadrilles are quite the same as deck shoes – the former were traditionally slip-ons with canvas uppers and rope soles (although there are all sorts of fashionable versions these days), while the latter are more often leather, with rubber soles and laces. They look quite different in photos!
          1. It’s good to know there is a late shift that reads the comments posted later in the day. My routine (and brain) does not suit a morning solve, so it’s early evening for me.
40. Aha. Thanks. I hadn’t looked it up but I’d always wondered if it might be Baker.
41. Three days in a row now which have included something I have never heard of, clued by an anagram. Thankfully, just like yesterday’s Bantustan, there weren’t many options for ATELIER, so I finished in a reasonably rapid 16:35. Not sure where I dredged ESPADRILLE from and CHARTREUSE came to me remarkably quickly too given I’m not a drinker. Not that you’d know it, doing things like forgetting to post this several hours ago. Oh well. Thanks Breadman and John.
42. Is that Jonathan Warburton perhaps?
    1. Mike

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