We have a new Quick Cryptic setter today going by the name of Asp. No proper time for this but I think it must have been over 11 minutes, and twice my target, after I got somewhat becalmed in the NE corner. Lots to enjoy but this is surely at top end of difficulty for a Quick Cryptic (or my solving skills are declining more than somewhat). Welcome and thank-you Asp for the excellent challenge. I look forward to more of these. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword (a bit easier than Asp’s today) here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 107 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | One who kills when soldiers do wrong (8) |
| ASSASSIN – AS (when) SAS (Special Air Services; soldiers) SIN (do wrong). | |
| 5 | I’m disgusted about leader of socialist party (4) |
| BASH – BOO, UGH, PAH, YUK…. I’m not sure why it took me so long to see it as BAH (I’m disgusted) about leader of Socialist. | |
| 9 | Doctor replaces front of record cover (5) |
| DRAPE – It’s record the verb in the wordplay, of course…. replace the first letter of TAPE with DR (doctor) -> DRAPE. Tricky. | |
| 10 | Call into question tax introduced by Tory (7) |
| CONTEST – CON (Conservative; Tory) TEST (tax, the verb). | |
| 11 | Football team meets referee halfway (12) |
| INTERMEDIATE – INTER (Italian football team) MEDIATE (referee, the verb). | |
| 13 | Stimulate ability to understand things we hear (6) |
| INCITE – Sounds like INSIGHT (ability to understand things). | |
| 15 | Order straightforward guide (6) |
| DIRECT – Triple definition… in three words. Nice one. | |
| 17 | Defends joint title (12) |
| CHAMPIONSHIP – CHAMPIONS (defends) HIP (joint). | |
| 20 | Ace airmen crashed somewhere in the Caucasus (7) |
| ARMENIA – A (Ace) (airmen)* [crash]. | |
| 21 | Scrap outside work biased individual (5) |
| BIGOT – GO (work) in BIT (scrap). Not OP for work for once. | |
| 22 | Change reflected ups and downs in the main (4) |
| TIDE – EDIT (change) reversed -> TIDE. | |
| 23 | Somehow trace son and parent? (8) |
| ANCESTOR – (trace son)* [somehow]. A ? as parent is a definition by example. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Assistant promoting last part of plan (4) |
| AIDE – IDEA (plan) with last letter moved to the front [promoting the last part of] -> AIDE. | |
| 2 | Health resort in country (5) |
| SPAIN – SPA (health resort) IN. | |
| 3 | Simple characterisation of, eg, poetry isn’t wrong (12) |
| STEREOTYPING – (eg poetry isn’t)* [wrong]. | |
| 4 | Redevelopment of mine secures company revenue (6) |
| INCOME – CO (company) in [redevelopment of] (mine)*. | |
| 6 | Great gallery means to project information (7) |
| ACETATE – ACE (great) TATE (art gallery). Tricky. Is the term used any more? The transparent material (more fully cellulose acetate) used for viewgraphs on an overhead projector before the days of Powerpoint presentations on a screen. I’m old enough to remember it (although it took me a while to recall it) but are you? | |
| 7 | Had an effect before other changes up to now (8) |
| HITHERTO – HIT (had an effect), (other)* [changes]. Another tricky one, I think. | |
| 8 | Popular publicity item for launching entertaining book is unacceptable (12) |
| INADMISSIBLE – Assemble the 4 parts. IN (popular) AD (publicity) and B (book) in MISSILE (item for launching). About as Ikean as a QC clue gets. | |
| 12 | What flies to display skill? (8) |
| AIRCRAFT – AIR (display) CRAFT (skill). | |
| 14 | Alleged Charlie was first to catch train (7) |
| CLAIMED – C (Charlie in the phonetic alphabet) LED (was first) outside AIM (train a weapon). | |
| 16 | Get rid of old lady’s area of expertise (6) |
| DOMAIN – DO MA IN (get rid of old lady). Ha ha. Love it. | |
| 18 | Bar selling other drinks (5) |
| INGOT – Hidden in sellING OTher. I’m not sure I’ve come across “drinks” as a hidden answer indicator before, but it leads to a good surface. | |
| 19 | Famous performer’s backing singers (4) |
| STAR – RATS (singers; snitches) reversed -> STAR. | |
Super crossword, and welcome, Asp! Some lovely surfaces, and DOMAIN made me chuckle. Great stuff.
Is there any room left at the bar? We finished but in 22:13 and thought that perhaps we’d just been having an unusually bad day. It had to be STAR we thought but thought that perhaps RATS was a reference to the Rat Pack. We are both old enough to have come across (and used!) ACETATEs but expected it to be problematic for younger folk. Thank goodness there is only one gallery in crossword land though as ACETATES was firmly at the back of mind. COD DOMAIN. Thanks to John and welcome Asp!
Any room left at the bar? We finished but in 22:13 and thought that perhaps we’d just been having an unusually bad day. STAR was practically a biff but we did wonder if RATS was a reference to the Rat Pack. We are old enough to remember ACETATEs and have even used them but expected that it would be problematic for younger solvers. COD DOMAIN. Thanks to John for the blog and to Asp for the substantial challenge!
As nervously anticipated, the counterweight to the recent easier ones. After a longer than usual absence I am happily back in the SCC, reviewing a completed grid soaked in sweat and blood, but nevertheless very much enjoyed. As difficult as I am ever likely to manage, I suspect. Like Izetti on steroids, hard but fair. Personally I’d love more like this. Equally, me a couple of years ago wouldn’t, but the balance overall this week seems fair for most.
like a lot of others I DNF and really don’t enjoy it when it’s so hard. welcome asp – please make it a bit easier next time!
32.36 I rarely make the top 100 on the leaderboard and I was very surprised to come in at 91 with this time. Looking at the comments and the Quitch I’m pleased to have finished. All of the NE was a struggle. ACETATE took an age but LOI CONTEST really shouldn’t have been so hard. A good puzzle though and DOMAIN made me laugh. Thanks John and Asp.
Finished, but only with help. Some done without understanding clue eg tide. A tough end to the week. We now need another G and T!!!
DNF. Many tricky clues here, proud I got most of them. I parsed rats as Bob Geldof’s ‘Boomtown rats’ or Sinatras rat pack. Knew they didn’t quite work but it fitted with the checkers.
Thanks John and welcome to Asp, hopefully a little gentler next time
The snake definitely did me in today! As others have said, not so much DNF as DNS. Turned away from my usual haunt in the SCC on account of so few answers.
Having read John’s blog and the first few posts above, I am now absolutely delighted (strangely) to have finished all correct in 56 minutes. This is just inside the notional target of 1 hour that I set myself when I started four years ago, but I can’t recall a more challenging QC that I’ve actually finished.
I had to wait until 20d (ARMENIA) for my FOI and I failed to fully parse three clues (CLAIMED, DOMAIN and STAR). My LOI was INCITE and it’s now time to pour myself a glass of something and to read through everyone’s comments above. Phew (cubed)!
Many thanks to Asp and John.
I’m delighted for you. It was quite a tough one.
Well done Mr Random – just ahead of me. Haven’t seen you posting recently – hope all is well?
Thankyou, LP. I didn’t post on Wednesday or Thursday, as I only did them this morning. 26 mins for Jalna and 36 mins for Beck. My progress with Beck was as follows:
0- 16 mins: 20 clues solved
17 – 33 mins: 0 clues solved
34 – 36 mins: 6 clues solved
Weird!
Sounds a familiar pattern … I think once you’ve reached our level of competence … one clue often seems to unlock things. Glad you are doing well 👍
Yes, a toughie. I thought it was exonerated by the excellent clues. Happy to have them this hard at times. But maybe I would improve if they came like this everyday and then I might move up to the often impenetrable 15×15! Plenty of pencil work and sometimes resorting to aides to get the PDMs to verify a hard won answer. Also grateful to our blogger for some of the subtleties along the way.
FOI 2d Spain to establish 1a was the old chestnut ‘Assassin’ rather than ‘Murderer’
LOI 1d Aide – one of those ‘had to be’ answers once I had another late entry 9a ‘Drape’
COD 17a Championship – I’m always surprised when a long clue only has two components.
Welcome Asp and happy to be tested out by these.
8.32 WOE
Bucked the trend here as didn’t realise it was a beast at the time though it did feel at the harder end. However can’t spell inadmissible. Bah!
Thanks John and Asp
Lol. BAH indeed. Bad luck on the pink square. Cracking time otherwise.
Never mind dnf I ces – couldn’t even start. This was way above QC level
59 minutes of torture.
Nightmare performance to finish off another bad week. So many clues where I saw the answer immediately but was afraid to put it in due to parsing issues.
There’s no excuse for such an appalling time, but that just demonstrates my lack of ability.
M -19 mins
T – 12 mins
W – 24 mins (DNF – OLDEST rather than OLDISH)
Th – 17 mins
F – 59 mins
131 mins, a DNF and some lame times on the easier ones.
When I had some spare time earlier in the week, I attempted the proper crossword. Much good it did me!
Thanks for the blog John.
Well done Gary! So many failed to finish today, but you managed it.
Thanks John, much appreciated
Well done, Mr A!
Thanks Mr R, and well done on your finish 👏👏
I attempted the big crossword on Tuesday and it was no harder than our QC today.
Really struggled to finish this one. Only got two clues on first pass. I’m too stubborn to give up but nearly did tonight. Thank goodness I only plod away and don’t go for speed!
An absolute stinker. I limped home but it took a long, long time and I only understood the likes of CLAIMED by reading this.
Sorry, a very late comment – only a day too late. I saw the name of our new setter Asp and thought “Hello, I think I know who this might be”. A setter called Jason Crampton sets as Serpent for the Indy and DT, Basilisk for the FT, the non-slithery (AFAIK) Jack for the Guardian and for The Times 15×15. I looked at his X/Twitter account and lo and behold, his tweet for yesterday (as I write this) was “I set today’s quick cryptic and cryptic crosswords in the Times. It’s my first outing in the quick cryptic slot, setting as Asp” so Professor Crampton has been a busy boy lately.
Anyway, I agree this was pretty tough and it took me 16:12. Worth it though for getting DO MA IN (even if some regard it as a chestnut) at the end.
Thanks and welcome to Asp and thanks to John.
Interesting to see who Asp is. Thanks.
I got most of the clues, but without fully understanding why! Glad you’ve said this was a bit trickier… was feeling rather deficient in the grey matter. Thanks for filling in a few clues for me – 9A, 5A and 6D.
Hmm. 116 comments (and counting). Quite a lot, and the most for a while, but still some way from the most ever (143 comments on Doofer’s QC 2492 post). Which reminds me (although I doubt anyone will read this at this stage) of an odd highlight of my career… the Toy Story.. The comment “And now, of course, I am forced to ask – “Where does the exotic dancer wear her clangers ?”” still makes me laugh.
I have attempted every QC since about 2021, and am now at the stage where I usually have either 0 or 1 DNFs per week. This time I gave up with 10 clues still to complete, and I found that two of my guesses were wrong. Even when I had guessed right I often could not work out the parsing. It was dispiriting and not fun. Certainly I have no problem with the variation of difficulty within the set of Quick Cryptics, but this was in my view outside the definition of a QC. Sometimes I struggle with a clue, but it makes me smile when I realise what the answer is. Sometimes I admire the cleverness of a clue, even if it makes me groan rather than smile. There were no such clues in this crossword. It’s a good thing to bring in new setters, but surely there should be some input from editors or reviewers to say, “No, this is too hard. You need to change some of the clues or answers to make them more accessible.” Seeing the comments from other people in this blog, this process does not appear to have happened.
Sympathies, Zajonc, this certainly was a toughie though many enjoyed it. I don’t know how closely you follow the discussions here but sadly crossword editing at The Times is a man down at the moment so there may not be the usual scrutiny. Hopefully a new editor will be appointed shortly.
Thanks jackkt, yes, you make a fair point about the staffing. I know about the circumstances but had not put two and two together.