Times Quick Cryptic No 2762 by Jimmy

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A fun Quick Cryptic from Jimmy today which has plenty of straightforward clues but a few chewy bits needing a bit more thought. It took me 5:47, so just a little over average. My favourite was the clue for the 3-letter 19A. Thank-you Jimmy.

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 110 here.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Fixed structure’s exterior made better (7)
SECURED – Outside letters, [exterior], of StructurE, CURED (made better).
5 Hope wife lives with husband (4)
WISH – W (wife) IS (exists; lives) H (husband).
7 Flora’s partner heads for football arena up north, actually (5)
FAUNA -First letters [heads] of Football Arena Up North Actually. Often paired in the phrase FLORA and FAUNA, which refers to the plants and animals of a particular region.
8 Nobleman who, in France, admitted to damages (7)
MARQUIS – QUI (who in French) in MARS (damages). A nobleman in European countries (including France) ranking above a count and below a duke.
10 Fashionable joint (3)
HIP – Double definition. So how did “hip” come to mean “fashionable”? This article says “The term hip is recorded in African American Vernacular English in the early 1900s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it had become a common slang term, particularly in the African-American-dominated jazz scene. The origin of hip is unknown; there are many explanations for the etymology of hip, but they remain unproven.“
11 Stopping gin getting mixed after whisky (9)
SCOTCHING – SCOTCH (whisky), (gin)* [mixed]. I can’t imagine a mixture of whisky and gin tasting very nice…. and I’m not about to try it.
13 Portion of Häagen-Dazs — it’s brought to a meeting (6)
AGENDA – Hidden in HäAGEN-DAzs.
14 Quick pint emptied after school dance in America (6)
PROMPT – PROM (school dance in America) and P{in}T without its middle letters. Not just America now – my children’s upper school had proms when they finished their schooling (apart from my youngest, who got sent home when COVID  struck before the end of the spring term in 2020 and never went back to school).
17 Race inside wild techno club (9)
TRUNCHEON – RUN (race) in [wild] (techno)*.
19 Alternative form of aye? (3)
YEA – [alternative form of] (aye)*. A lovely &lit where the whole clue is both definition and wordplay.,
20 Protection of Parisian dealer in stolen goods (7)
DEFENCE – DE (of in French; of Parisian) FENCE (dealer in stolen goods).
22 I’m surprised by US soldier’s dog (5)
CORGI – COR (I’m surprised) GI (US soldier).
23 Half of undergrads perhaps displaying an earring? (4)
STUD – Half the letters of STUDents (undergrads perhaps).
24 Support for climbers still shaking, holding on (7)
TRELLIS – RE (on) in (still)* [shaking]. I tried sticking ON in an anagram of still, at first, until I thought of TRELLIS.
Down
1 Some suggestions of the art editor showing sympathy (4-7)
SOFT-HEARTED – A very neat “hidden” clue… [some] suggestionS OF THE ART EDitor
2 Awfully cruel about politician’s collapse (7)
CRUMPLE – MP (politician) in [awfully] (cruel)*.
3 Ecstatic hour in hip-hop disco, dancing around (9)
RHAPSODIC – My LOI, not knowing that hip-hop was a sort of rap.. H (hour) in RAP (hip-hop), (disco)* [dancing].
4 Bananas lifted by boy as soft fruit (6)
DAMSON – MAD (bananas) [lifted] -> DAM, SON (boy).
5 Inexperienced revolutionary in conflict (3)
WAR – RAW (inexperienced) reversed, [revolutionary], -> WAR.
6 Small German car coming from Riyadh? (5)
SAUDI – S (small) AUDI (German car).
9 A guitarist’s playing for a group of stars (11)
SAGITTARIUS – (A guitarist’s)* [playing].
12 Really bad French article in historical record (9)
CHRONICLE – CHRONIC (really bad) LE (the in French; French article).
15 Spring time examination of a public official (7)
MAYORAL – MAY (spring time) ORAL (examination).
16 Area with little moisture and 500 gnarled trees (6)
DESERT – D (500 in Roman numerals) (trees)* [gnarled].
18 Military detachment touring Finland’s capital, needing more exercise (5)
UNFIT – First letter of Finland [Finland’s capital] in UNIT (military detachment).
21 Academic turning up for affirmative action (3)
NOD – DON (academic) [turning up] -> NOD.

86 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2762 by Jimmy”

  1. Like the man said, fun with a little trickiness. I liked Softhearted, and I wasted time trying to figure a way to make the whiskey be hooch.

  2. No problems. Wrote in SOFT-HEARTED before reading the clue, RHAPSODIC without reading it. 4:37.

  3. 10:40. Really impressed by SOFT-HEARTED. L2I CHRONICLE and RHAPSODIC.

    Thanks to Jimmy and John.

      3. Agreed – as has been previously discussed in this blog. Chronic long acting in comparison with Acute for short acting in relation to disease processes.

  4. 25 mins with a couple of checks. liked the surface for AGENDA. Was held up by TRELLIS (trying to force ON into an anagram of still) and CHRONICLE as a result.

  5. Another to be held up by TRELLIS, but after all, that’s what it’s for! CHRONICLE took some time thinking I was looking for something meaning ‘really bad’. SOFTHEARTED reminded me of yesterday’s UNGOVERNABLE. Very enjoyable.
    Thanks setter and blogger.

  6. 9 minutes. No problems other than having to check the anagrist carefully for the spelling of SAGITTARIUS despite it being my own star sign! Outside the context of music RHAPSODIC is a word that only ever occurs to me once most of its checkers are in place.

    1. I did misspell it and only spotted that when checking before submission and picking up on PROMPI.

  7. Congratulations to Jimmy for wading without a care into the ‘is rap hip-hop?’ minefield. I was also going to ask whether anyone had checked to see if SAGITTARIUS really was an anagram of ‘a guitarist’s’ but I see Jack has undertaken that task. Fun crossword, 9.32 which was slower than I thought I’d be as I was solving. Late entries were CORGI, RHAPSODIC and LOI CHRONICLE. I’m awarding SOFT-HEARTED hidden of the year. Thanks John, especially for the ultimately inconclusive ‘hip’ etymology. Any ideas about ‘hop’?

    1. Your question on the anagram reminds me of a great moment by Paul Merton on the panel show Have I got news for you, many years ago. His timing is always impeccable and he said “did you know Michael Portillo is an anagram of I talk Bo**ocks [paused for just enough time while you thought it through, before going on ] … give or take a letter or two” 😂😂😂

      1. Joking aside, I love Michael’s railway progs. He’s an excellent presenter, no bo*****s at all.

  8. Pretty much bang on our target at 25.16. Lots to appreciate on the way, especially soft hearted with the clanging PDM, great hidden and not ‘safe’ something after all.

    Also tried hooch and complete brain freeze until the so obvious scotch came to mind, d’oh.

    Rhapsodic was LOI, knew h was in there somewhere but putting it after the r wasn’t happening for a long time until Mrs RH saw the light.

    COD to Agenda, do these setters spend their lives looking at the world trying to find words inside phrases I wondered!

    Thanks Jimmy, and John for the comprehensive blog

    1. “knew h was in there somewhere but putting it after the r wasn’t happening for a long time until Mrs RH saw the light.”

      Prompting Mr SR to say “Well, she would!” 😃

  9. Top quality puzzle which I made fairly short work of. Particular mentions to SOFT-HEARTED and SAGITTARIUS.
    Started with WISH and finished with RHAPSODIC in 5.32.
    Thanks to John

  10. An increasingly rare sub-ten today that I almost messed up by getting the wrong end of TRUNCHEON by trying to anagram ‘techno club’ to get a race. Saw sense with 9.54 on the clock. All green to end a tricky crosswording week on a high.

  11. Jimmy is rapidly becoming one of my favourite setters and this was another sparkling puzzle with clever clues and a most impressive hidden in SOFT-HEARTED. A hidden spread over 5 words, no less! And YEA is another stand-out clue – so simple but very neat indeed and an achievement to make a 3 letter clue so interesting.

    Minor hold-up as I remembered that Re and On can be used interchangeably, but otherwise no issues, and all green and much enjoyed in 9 minutes.

    Many thanks John for the blog and I look forward to the Sunday Special.
    Cedric

  12. Expecting a Friday toughie and was pleasantly surprised by a very straightforward on the ticket offering from Jimmy. COD SOFTHEARTED with honourable mention for MARQUIS for the simple reason I am usually drawn to mistakenly adding a second R.
    Sub 20 for a change giving time for a dog walk before work. Win-Win.
    Thanks John. Enjoy the long weekend ahead for all so fortunate.

  13. Woken up by panicked daughter shortly after midnight to remove 2 hornets from her bedroom. All green before our blogger had posted in what I believe to be a PB at 35 mins. Thanks Jimmy for a fun puzzle and to Johninterred for reaffirming my parsing. Think that is the first time ever I have correctly passed every clue😁😁😁

  14. 10:42
    LOI TRELLIS, fell into the same trap as others, wondering if TONNILS was a type of piton, before the E from CHRONICLES finally sorted things out.

    Thanks John and Jimmy

  15. 3:39 but ruined by “unfii/siud” at 18D/23A. I can listen (albeit briefly) to hip-hop, rap has me instantly reaching for the “off” button. COD YEA.

  16. A really good example of a QC – no obscure vocabulary and satisfying clues. Thanks Jimmy and John.

  17. I enjoyed this – thanks Jimmy and Johninterred! I’ve noticed that it’s becoming increasingly acceptable to use the word chronic to mean ‘terrible’ or ‘intense’ rather than ‘ongoing’ or similar. It seems that the meaning of the word is evolving chronically 🙂

  18. Excellent puzzle which I was pleased to finish. LOI TRUNCHEON; COD to the brilliant SOFT-HEARTED. Thanks, Jimmy.

  19. 7:20

    Completed on phone so maybe a trifle slower than I might have been. Failed to parse TRUNCHEON and TRELLIS in flight, so thanks for elucidation John.

    Thanks also to Jimmy

  20. Thought I could spell SAGGITARIUS. I can’t! Drat! 7.25 with 2 errors PROMPI! Should’ve gone to Specsavers! Thanks Jimmy and John.

  21. I enjoyed this offering from Jimmy, and a round of applause for the spectacularly hidden SOFT HEARTED. I put the answer in quickly enough, but it took me a while to spot it in the clue. A relatively quick 8.12 for me with my LOI SCOTCHING being the clue I spent most time on.
    My total time for the week was 52.30, giving me a daily average of 10.25. I’m happy with that, particularly as my Monday finishing time was 19.48.

  23. Best hidden for ages stayed hidden from me for ages, as did RHAPSODIC and CHRONICLE. My parsing muscles seem to have cramp. I have had a vague sense of what is going on with clues but not enough sense to do anything with it until I have glared at it for some time. At least I have finished, parsed, eventually. I enjoyed the puzzle, however slowly the individual clues fell into place.

  24. Enjoyable puzzle. FOI SOFT-HEARTED. Had to think before POI TRUNCHEON and LOI RHAPSODIC. I didn’t know hip-hop meant Rap either.
    Support for climbers = TRELLIS straight away, so didn’t stop to parse.
    Although I must be a confirmed SCC member, the pennies seem to be dropping slightly more quickly these days. Tempting fate, I know.
    Thanks vm, John.

  25. New solver back again!
    Might be my best job at a quick thus far (on the blog)!
    A solid 25 minute solve with only two tricky ones.

    Tricky ones:
    Scotching – not a word I have heard of and something about the wordplay really confused me. Scotch didn’t come to mind for some reason so I kept trying to put a “W” in the answer somewhere.
    Chronicle – this one also had me confused, I got the wrong end of the stick so kept trying to put a French article inside a word for a historical record.

    FOI – Wish
    LOI – Trellis
    COD – Soft-hearted (rare to see a hidden crossing so many words while having such a good surface)

    1. It was never going to be W. In the NATO alphabet W is whiskey (with an “e”). Whisky (without the “e”) is scotch

      1. All the dictionaries I have checked support what you say about Whiskey in the NATO alphabet, but beware in Crosswordland as none other than Peter Biddlecombe (TfTT founder and current Crossword Editor of The Sunday Times) has recently taken issue over the matter:

        “Whisky” as the indication for W in 10A is plain common sense. The Nato “phonetic” alphabet “letters” are spoken, not written, in normal use, so the -y and -ey spellings are equivalent. Anyone who says that “whisky” is wrong for W must logically also say that “Juliet” is wrong for J, as the official “spelling” is “Juliett” (presumably because it encourages Francophones to pronounce the final T).

        There’s a whole conversation on the subject here re the ST puzzle blogged on 24th April this year. I also recall from a separate discussion that capital letters don’t count either in Crossword clues other than for the proper nouns and X-ray.

        1. Thanks Jack, your response stopped me adding Kapietro’s words of wisdom as item 6,453 (or thereabouts) on my list of things to rembmber when solving cryptics

        2. Thank you, jackkt. It is unnerving when one’s “certainties” start to crumble. I think I also “knew” there was an issue with Juliet. Now I don’t have to worry

          1. I do have to worry though!
            I’d always looked for the “ey” in “whiskey” to reassure me I was looking for a “W”.
            “Whisky” today got me straight to “scotch”.
            Now I feel the firm foundations of my (few) certainties shudder beneath me…

  26. Only half a cup of coffee gone so am assuming fairly gentle today. SOFT-HEARTED was very impressive, and rather liked RHAPSODIC. Same feeling as gcook52 regarding use of ‘chronic’. I have always thought it meant long-term rather than bad. Thanks Jack and Jimmy.

    On edit: Apologies! Thanks John, not Jack!

  27. I achieved an on target solve starting with the excellent SOFT-HEARTED, was delayed with the spelling of the star sign and then finished with SCOTCHING/CHRONICLE intersection. Some lovely surfaces today. Thanks Jimmy. 7:36

  28. An excellent puzzle. 17:13, but I probably should have been faster. FOI FAUNA, LOI TRELLIS or CHRONICLE which I had to change the spelling of after I got TRELLIS. COD to SOFT-HEARTED. Thanks Jimmy and John.

  29. 9 minutes. A nice quick one using pen and paper, not my phone or tablet. Perhaps that says something about my typing skills. The two that held out to the end were RHAPSODIC and TRUNCHEON. SOFT-HEARTED was good

  31. Not too many in the top half at first so I basically solved from the bottom up. Finished in 18 minutes, all parsed, for an average sort of day. The only hitch came when I tried to biff ‘half-hearted’ at 1dn before rapidly realising that 7ac made this impossible. Less biffing and more reading of the clues is in order.

    FOI – 7ac FAUNA
    LOI – 3dn RHAPSODIC
    CODs – the 2 hiddens SOFT-HEARTED and AGENDA

    Thanks to Jimmy and to John

  32. Slightly late entry as I tried to beat the traffic by driving down to Somerset from London early this morning, which was only slightly successful due to the queue at stonehenge.

    Nice puzzle, as others have described. SCOTCHING went in last, and I failed to see the excellent hidden of SOFT HEARTED as I had crossers and just wrote it in.

    5:17

  33. 12:53 with no errors, easily my best time this week. I’m surprised at the number of comments about chronic. My parents used this to mean something very poor when I was a boy in the 1970s, and my late father’s 1969 edition of “The Little Oxford Dictionary” lists “bad” as an alternative to the main definition. FOI -WISH, LOI and COD – SOFT HEARTED. One of the best hidden clues I’ve seen. Thanks Jimmy for a very enjoyable puzzle and John for the great blog.

    1. Bit surprised about the comments about “chronic” here too.
      Mr SR and I both have medical backgrounds but are also aware that a phrase such as “My backache’s chronic” may not necessarily mean it’s been going on for a long time.
      That sort of use always reminds me of the Two Ronnies singing (to the tune of Blaze Away):
      Ain’t it a pity the pubs in the city
      All close at half past ten?
      If I had the power they’d close for an hour
      Then open up again.
      I could get chronic on vodka and tonic
      ‘Til any time I like,
      Then while the policeman watched my car
      I’d nip home on his bike…”

  34. No idea what went wrong today, but a quick dash came to a juddering halt with just four left: Truncheon, Rhapsodic, Scotching and Chronicle. All perfectly good clues, and not particularly difficult (especially when you know the answers. . .), but they easily took as long as all the others put together. Limped across the line in a time simply too embarrassing to mention. CoD to 24ac, Trellis, though 1d was admittedly a pretty good hidden. Invariant

  36. 15 minutes for me, my fastest of the week. And what an enjoyable outing. I nearly put in KIND HEARTED until I spotted that amazing hidden: one to remember! Soft spot for CORGI (owning two) and enjoyed FAUNA. But AGENDA was neatly hidden too. Great ending to the week – many thanks Jimmy and John up the road!

  37. I notice we’ve been inundated with a letter from our regular correspondent, Mrs TRELLIS from North Wales.

    Plainish sailing. Couldn’t spell SAGITTARIUS (it had more Gs than Ts until PROMPT came along) and couldn’t find “run” for race without all checkers. 07:29 in the break between innings.

    Many thanks to the two Js.

  38. SOFT-HEARTED was a very impressive clue. Had to look so carefully to confirm that it really was a hidden. 9:57 for us, quite a bit faster than average. We weren’t at all certain about hip-hop vs rap but it made the clue work. TRELLIS one of our last few in and it was unparsed. Thanks, Jimmy and John.

    The timer problem seems to have been fixed on our app though, having completed it, we don’t seem now to be able to get back to the crossword to review it. I can live with that as we can review it on the blog.

  39. Great puzzle. Fell into all the traps above.

    Many excellent clues.

    Wish someone would bring Haagen-Dazs to my meetings.

    COD: The alternative form of aye.

    LOI: SCOTCHING

    Thanks John and Jimmy

  40. A game of two halves. First 22 clues in 17 minutes, but a further 16 minutes for final four clues. So, an SCC escape opportunity well and truly SCOTCHed at the end.

    The four offending clues were TRUNCHEON, RHAPSODIC, CHRONICLE and SCOTCHING, each of which took 3-5 minutes of careful alphabet trawling. A laborious and dispiriting process.

    Along the way, I was properly impressed by the hidden SOFT-HEARTED and I learned that SAGITTARIUS contains two Ts. Time = 33 minutes.

    Then I came here and found that I’d written MARQUeS, even though I knew it was wrong. Even more dispiriting. Drat!

    Many thanks to Jimmy and John.

  41. 7.39 DNF

    Excellent crossword. I can’t spell the star sign either, made worse by double checking before submitting 🤷‍♂️ Missed the 1d hidden as well

    Thanks John and Jimmy

  43. 7:40 I just saw a documentary making the point that our common usage of the terms Flora and FAUNA should also include a third category, Funga.

    1. Flora’s partner is amusing girl almost (5)

      Izetti will come up with something more fiendish next week.

  44. Entertaining puzzle completed steadily. LOI SCOTCHING. Just the job to start the weekend.

  45. 7.18 for my fastest ever week, 48 minutes in total. This was very biffable. The splendid SOFT-HEARTED took a while to parse after I was finished. Thanks John and Jimmy.

  46. 18:43 but fouled up with a typo at the end when losing patience. Spent some time on the last two, SCOTCHING & CHRONICLE.

    Another SAGITTARIUS here.

  47. I’d go for CHRONIC as long- lived, not as ‘bad’ had to cheat a bit with SOFT HEARTED, but appreciated as an excellent clue.

  48. 09:00 exactly, much better than my performance over the rest of the week and very enjoyable. Is “yea” in this case an alternative spelling of “yeah”?

    Thank you to John for the blog!

    1. Just noticed your question – I think YEA is a lot older. Pronounced ‘yay’ – I think of it as a biblical ‘yes’! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death – that sort of thing.

  49. Very enjoyable puzzle as others have said. no exact time but it felt quick for us. Thanks Jimmy.

  50. Late to this after travelling all day but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it.
    All parsed except, of course, the hidden SOFTHEARTED.
    Thanks to the two Js.

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