To me from my solving time, a middle-of-the-road Quick Cryptic from Myles today that took me 5:39, just over my average, but I suspect some will find it rather harder. Did anyone else fall for thinking “short time” in 9A had to be T? It’s what held me up at the end. I thought 13A and 19A a bit tricky too. How did you all get on? Thank-you Myles.
Myles was one of the original QC setters – his first being No 10 on 21 March 2014, but then we didn’t get another one after number 29 until June last year. Checking that out, I discovered that the 10th anniversary of QC No 1 is this Sunday, 10th March. Of course there is no (Sunday) Times Quick Cryptic then, but if you are pining for one…
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 98 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Race had become disorderly farce (7) |
| CHARADE – (Race had)* [become disorderly], | |
| 5 | Near end of employment, a dark time (5) |
| NIGHT – NIGH (near) and last letter of employmenT. | |
| 8 | Brutality imprisoning a monarch for lack of personal experience (13) |
| VICARIOUSNESS – A R (Rex; monarch) in VICIOUSNESS (brutality). Hmm. A MER from me here… I’m not entirely convinced by the definition, but with a bit of squinting it sort of works. | |
| 9 | After short time, added piece that can give more power to your elbow (7) |
| TRICEPS – Hands up if, like me, you were sure “short time” had to be T. But no. Here we have TRICE (short time) PS (added piece at the end of a message, perhaps). Nice one. And my LOI. | |
| 10 | Insignificant actor in run — but no hit (5) |
| EXTRA – Double definition the second a cricketing cryptic hint. | |
| 11 | Makes keener ahead of time, I assure you (6) |
| HONEST – HONES (sharpens; makes keener) T (time). I love the definition! | |
| 13 | For example, join in with this position (6) |
| STANCE – This is rather upmarket for a quick crossword! INSTANCE (for example) can be constructed by joining IN with STANCE. | |
| 15 | Revolution engulfing one European city (5) |
| TURIN – I (one) in TURN (revolution). | |
| 16 | Humdrum reporter saying it’s useful for cutting (7) |
| HACKSAW – HACK (humdrum reporter) SAW (saying). | |
| 19 | Stop male, one in natural setting that’s undefined (13) |
| INDETERMINATE – I think our setter has been shopping at IKEA. Follow the construction instructions carefully….. Put DETER (stop) M (male) I (one) inside, [in… setting], INNATE (natural). Tricky! | |
| 20 | Amount of heat concealed by weathermen (5) |
| THERM – Hidden in weaTHERMan. | |
| 21 | Combination of scandium with other metal — that’s shocking (7) |
| SCANDAL – SC (chemical symbol of Scandium) AND (with) AL (chemical symbol of Aluminium; another metal). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Desire firm check (5) |
| COVET – CO (company; firm) VET (check). | |
| 2 | Card game requiring absurd caution: cross! (7,6) |
| AUCTION BRIDGE – [Absurd] (caution)*, BRIDGE (cross). Hmm. I’ve trouble making sense of the surface, but maybe I just can’t see it. | |
| 3 | Something opponents may do to do the opposite (5) |
| AGREE – Cryptic definition, based on the phrase “agree to disagree” (or as I had it “agree to differ”). A bit contrived, I feel, but maybe it’s just too clever for me. | |
| 4 | It goes badly for bighead (6) |
| EGOIST – (it goes)* [badly]. | |
| 5 | New climb just starting (7) |
| NASCENT – N (new) ASCENT (climbing). N + ASCENT is a bit of a chestnut, I think, last seen in the 15×15 28797 in December, a crossword from the Championships semi-final last year. | |
| 6 | Redirect gangs to be reformed as expression of friendship (9,4) |
| GREETINGS CARD – (Redirect gangs)* [to be reformed]. | |
| 7 | Having finally left everything one can leave (7) |
| TESTATE – [finally] lefT ESTATE (everything one can leave). A semi-&lit. (All but “Having” being part of the wordplay and the whole clue the definition). Very clever. | |
| 11 | E.g. top ten names provided to dangerous criminal (3,4) |
| HIT LIST – Double definition the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 12 | Problem about dreadful cant in sacred place (7) |
| SANCTUM – SUM (problem) about [dreadful] (cant)*. | |
| 14 | Repeated part of song about ancient deity (6) |
| CHORUS – C (circa; about) HORUS (ancient deity). | |
| 17 | Dishes from large part of the world (5) |
| CHINA – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 18 | Revolutionary movement‘s superficial mark, we hear (5) |
| WHEEL – WEAL (superficial mark), sounds like WHEEL. | |
Quite the opposite of a QC. My last six clues – COVET, VICARIOUSNESS, TRICEPS, AGREE, TESTATE and (my LOI) STANCE – added nearly 40 minutes to my time. I couldn’t parse the clues, couldn’t work out the definitions, couldn’t alphabet-trawl, couldn’t biff, …. I just couldn’t make any progress at all for about 25 of those 40 minutes. Eventually, COVET came, but the remaining five clues still needed to be prised out one by one. Not a pleasant experience.
Total time = 61 minutes.
Thanks to John for the blog.
Needed aids to finish another real toughie. Struggled with the 13 letter clues and AGREE/TRICEPS cross (guessed both). HIT LIST and STANCE also time consuming to get. A very hard last few days.
23 minutes (poor and I won’t be persuaded otherwise).
I was very disappointed with this time as I had a sub-20 there for the taking, but wasted time on VICARIOUSNESS (should have been simple for a lawyer). Also had my usual display of ineptitude by not getting 1ac immediately.
Although some answers were tricky, I found most either relatively straightforward or at least biffable. Some answers I couldn’t parse, but that’s normal. I was very surprised at how many found this hard, just as I am surprised when so many find easy the QCs that I struggle with.
Overall, another week in the ‘fail’ column:
M – 15 mins
Tu – 23 mins
W – 21 mins
Th – 40 mins DNF (one letter)
F – 23 mins
Two minutes and one letter outside my target, with just one SCC escape. Close to being ok, but a fail is a fail where I’m concerned. Perhaps I’m near to a breakthrough, although yesterday would suggest otherwise.
Thanks for the blog John. A tricky one for you today!
On a train today. Stared at the last four: TRICEPS, STANCE, AGREE and TESTATE for the entire hour’s journey there and back, got nowhere with any. Nor do I berate myself; all too difficult for me to have ever dreamt of getting.
a real stinker. I struggled for over an hour on Saturday then came back to it on Sunday and finished in 30 odd minutes. 10 years eh! Time flies.