Times Quick Cryptic No 2784 by Trelawney

Author   Mike HarperPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 6:12

The Squire has served up an enjoyable melange of words in this accessible grid. I found that where the longer words didn’t come to mind immediately, a few checkers certainly helped to fill in the gaps without too much ado.

The answer to 10a saw the faintest of twitches from my eyebrow, while the first half of 17a had me mildly bemused until the third checker went in. But there was plenty to be cheered by, most notably the real meaning of 18d which you can read about below…

Let me know what you thought…

Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].

Across
1 After end of break, youngster returned for grilled food (5)
KEBAB – After end of i.e. after last letter of {brea}K, BABE (youngster) reversed [returned]
4 Media finished exercise (5-2)
PRESS-UP – PRESS (Media) UP (finished)

PRESS-UP or PUSH-UP? – place your bets now on which term came first…

PRESS-UP is the British term, PUSH-UP the American term for the same movement. PUSH-UP was first used between 1905 and 1910 whilst PRESS-UP was first used much later, between 1945 and 1950…
8 Family grabbing at a tongue in Barcelona? (7)
CATALAN – CLAN (Family) ‘grabbing’ i.e. insert AT A

One of the four official languages of Spain, (the others being Spanish, Euskara and Galician) CATALAN is spoken by four million people in Spain, and by more than ten million worldwide.
9 Ingredient for baking part of plant, reportedly (5)
FLOUR – Homophone [reportedly] of FLOWER (part of plant)

Surprisingly, aural wordplay fans, I needed all of the checkers to see this chestnut second time through the clues.
10 Aircraft, extremely heavy, to fall by road (10)
HYDROPLANE – End letters [extremely] of H{eav}Y, then DROP (fall) by LANE (road)

Mildly surprised by the definition as I understood a HYDROPLANE to be a motorboat designed to skim over the surface of the water.

But I see that it is also a US English term for a seaplane.
14 Hardly ever runs relay badly (6)
RARELY – Anagram [badly] of R (runs – cricket abbreviation) and RELAY
15 International organisation gives out pants (6)
UNDIES – UN (International organisation i.e. United Nations) DIES (gives out)

PANTS here has the UK meaning of underwear
17 Rewrite coarse poem? Get out of it! (6,4)
ESCAPE ROOM – Anagram [Rewrite] of COARSE POEM

An ESCAPE ROOM is a game in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time. The goal is often to escape from the site of the game.

Needed some checkers to see this as the first half of the surface does not easily point to the answer…
20 Adjust wood around front of window (5)
TWEAK – TEAK (wood) around first letter [front] of W{indow}

From Old English twiccian “to pluck” (and perhaps related to twitch), TWEAK originally meant a “pinch, pluck, twist,” applied usually to the nose. The meaning “to make fine adjustments” is much more recent, attested from 1966.
22 Piece of soap in pie does badly? (7)
EPISODE – Anagram [badly] of PIE DOES – ‘soap’ here is short for soap opera e.g. Coronation Street

That’s two uses of ‘badly’ to signify an anagram in the same puzzle – see also 14a
23 Football team, last in Bundesliga, learns dancing (7)
ARSENAL – Final letter [last] in {Bundeslig}A, followed by anagram [dancing] of LEARNS

I don’t expect too many will fall for the Bundesliga misdirection – The Bundesliga is the top division in Germany’s football league system, whereas ARSENAL play in the English Premier League.
24 Supply European with joke (5)
EQUIP – E (European) with QUIP (joke)

QUIP is from the 1530s, meaning “smart, sarcastic remark”

EQUIP is from around the same time, from French équiper “to fit out,” from 12th century Old French esquiper “fit out a ship, load on board”, which itself is probably from Old Norse skipa “arrange, place in order”.
Down
1 Abandon punt! (4)
KICK – Double definition
2 Nocturnal type beginning to have soak (4)
BATH – BAT (Nocturnal type) then first letter [beginning] of to H{ave}
3 Big splash from terrible campanologist? (5-4)
BELLY-FLOP – Some mildly cryptic wordplay here – a campanolgist is a bellringer, and if they were terrible at bellringing, they would be a BELL–Y FLOP
4 Criticise attempt to produce food store (6)
PANTRY – PAN (Criticise) TRY (attempt)

‘to produce’ is merely to improve the surface.

From early 14th century, panterie, pantre, “a storeroom or closet, especially for bread,” from Old French paneterie “bread room” and directly from Medieval Latin panataria “office or room of a servant who has charge of food”.

The sense in English soon evolved so that the word’s roots in “bread” (from the Latin panis) were no longer felt. It came to be used for any closet for provisions generally, or where plates and knives are cleaned.
5 Magical creature featured in selfie (3)
ELF – Hidden [featured] in selfie
6 Infrequent cop raids disrupted (8)
SPORADIC – Anagram [disrupted] of COP RAIDS
7 A bit of poetry is depraved (8)
PERVERSE – PER (A) VERSE (bit of poetry)

PER and A are interchangeable prepositions as follows:

She goes to the forest three times PER week.

She goes to the forest three times A week.
11 Move the camera towards silent performer in play (9)
PANTOMIME – PAN (Move the camera) TO (towards) MIME (silent performer)

In the 1610s, PANTOMIME referred to a “mime actor, one who expresses meaning by action, not words,” from Greek pantomimos “actor,” literally “imitator of all,” from panto- (genitive of pan) “all” + mimos “imitator”.

The meaning of “drama or play without words,” in which the plot was expressed by mute gestures, had become archaic by the mid-18th century. Christmas PANTOMIMEs with words and songs and stock characters, are said to have originated around 1717.
12 Generate weird drink (5,3)
GREEN TEA – Anagram [weird] of GENERATE
13 Insane accompaniment for cheese (8)
CRACKERS – Double definition
16 Writer seen in superior wellies (6)
ORWELL – Hidden in superior wellies
18 Vegetarian option toasted over fire uneaten at first (4)
TOFU – First letters [at first] of toasted over fire uneaten

Rotten beans anyone? TOFU is the Japanese word for soy bean curd, from Chinese doufu, from dou “beans” + fu “rotten.”
19 Sneakily look up and down? (4)
PEEP – “Sneakily look” is both the definition and part of the wordplay, while “up and down?” here indicates that whatever the answer is, it should be a palindrome – the checkers should give you all of the letters that you need to complete the answer.
21 Mostly tender-hearted relatives (3)
KIN – All but the last letter [Mostly] of KIN{d} (tender-hearted)

 

90 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2784 by Trelawney”

  1. 9:44. UNDIES, PANTOMIME, KEBAB, CATALAN, and HYDROPLANE were all very entertaining, but BELLY-FLOP would end up my favourite.

  3. I started out with ESCAPE FROM, having not checked the anagrist, which rather put a spanner in the ORWELL works for a while. Other delays included HYDROPLANE (never knew it could actually be a plane) and GREEN TEA where I assumed the ‘weird’ reference meant we were looking for some kind of rum and tried to reverse engineer everything back from there. Otherwise fairly straightforward, 7.55 with FOI KEBAB, LOI PEEP. Thanks Trelawney and Mike, I was educated by the mini-treatise on quip and may never look at a delicious bowl of agadashi tofu in the same way again.

  4. A rare sub-10 for me so will enter midweek with a spring in my step.

    Strange that today’s had very much a Monday feel about it, whereas Monday’s Izetti felt more grownup cryptic than quick

  6. 7½ minutes, with HYDROPLANE put in from checkers and wordplay but not fully understood, so thank you Mike for the explanation.

    Interesting etymology for EQUIP. I can see the connection to Old Norse skipa but that is so close to their word for a ship that one suspects a nautical meaning (eg to fit out a ship?) even then. The modern Icelandic að skipa means both to order (as in requesting something) and to crew (… a ship).

    Many thanks for the blog
    Cedric

    1. Yes, the same thought occurred to me, Cedric – I checked out the etymology for ship as well – I agree with you that there is surely a connection there.

  7. 9 minutes. I’m a fan of Uxbridge English Dictionary in I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue but I don’t think even they would sink as low as the BELL-Y FLOP pun!

    No problems with ESCAPE ROOM and I liked the clue.

  8. Fairly gentle going today and none the worse for it. I spent some time wondering how ‘cake’ fitted into EPISODE but other than that there were no delays.
    As often seems to be the case with crosswords, ignorance can be a blessing as I just assumed that a HYDROPLANE would be something that went in the air rather than on the water.
    Started with KEBAB and finished with TOFU in 5.59.
    Thanks to Mike and Trelawney

  9. My clean living ways were revealed as I was left with PERVERSE and UNDIES at the end. A rare sub-10.

  10. Rare sub 20 for me (17 min) so must have not been too many brain teasers and nothing too obscure for my vocab. I liked Belly flop but Hydroplane COD.
    Thanks Mike for expansive blog and Trelawney

  11. All good; LOI EPISODE. NHO HYDROPLANE but we all learn. Presume KICK = punt is something to do with football? (You don’t say, Mike, presumably assuming that we all know about sport?) But thank you for explaining TOFU – knew there was a reason why I won’t eat it!

  12. Am I the only mug to have tried to make an anagram out of “poetry is”, then? “Depraved” as the anagram indicator. All the checkers fitted too! (P-R-E-S-) Aarrggh. I spent soooooo long on that.

    What a fun puzzle and educational blog. COD to BELLY FLOP, I really chortled. But lots of competition, KEBAB and UNDIES right up there.

    All done in 06:40 for 1.3K and an Aaarrggh Day. Many thanks Mike and the Squire.

  13. 3:35. My quickest for a while – Trelawney puzzles always seem to be quite accessible. Interesting history of PANTOMIME. BELLY FLOP elicited a big groan, so that makes it COD for me. Thanks Trelawney and Mike.

  14. Lovely QC for a lovely day. Not a single breeze blocker and all finished in 22m.
    COD: 22a EPISODE as ‘soap’ had me fooled for a bit.
    I really enjoy the etymology and it was interesting to read about PANTRY’s connection to bread not to mention lessons about German, Icelandic and Catalan.
    Thanks Trelawney and Mike.

  15. A quick finish for me – 20’21 with no real holdups. Vaguely remembered ESCAPE ROOM from somewhere. COD BELLY FLOP – seems a popular choice.

  16. Very enjoyable – thanks Trelawney and Mike. Minor quibble with 1d – I think both definitions are a bit of a stretch but no other answer was sensible. Per for a in 7d is also pushing it but at least depraved pinned it down.

  17. An enjoyable QC today with just a MER at ‘silent performer’ for MIME – I would have preferred ‘silent performance’. Thanks Mike for explanation of how A = PER in your informative and entertaining blog.

  18. This turned into a pleasant enough 17min stroll, albeit after a minor Owl diversion in the NW. Incidentally, I can also confirm that the inhabitants of Barcelona can barely speak Spanish – I threw away my phrase book after the first morning.
    A passing mer at Hydroplane has been put to bed by Mike’s comprehensive blog. . . although I did wonder if ‘weird’ in 12ac was doing double duty 😉
    CoD to Catalan for the parsing, with Pantry close behind. Invariant

    1. I’d be surprised if the residents of Barcelona can’t speak Spanish – however, deliberately not speaking it I could understand.

      1. Yes, I’m sure it was wilful as well, but either way the phrase book was utterly (☺) useless

        1. I remember a holiday in the Netherlands in the 1960s in which my grandfather, who was completely fluent in German, assumed the locals would appreciate that more than English (nothing like so universal 60 years ago). We got surly looks and poor service – and at times, like Invariant, a blank refusal to understand. It wasn’t until they heard us speaking to each other in English that the ice was broken; after that we spoke in English and they replied with beaming smiles and super service.

          1. My other lasting memory of Barcelona was people sitting down for an evening meal at 10:30pm, and drinking sherry by the wine glass full. 😲

          2. We lived in NL in the sixties. If you were thought to be German, you would definitely not be well received.

  19. From KEBAB to PERVERSE in 7:16, with a couple of minutes wasted trying to use “poetry is” as anagrist for the latter. Thanks Trelawney and Mike.

  20. Mostly no problems but, like Templar, I spent a rather long time trying to anagram ‘poetry is’ at 7dn. Eventually all done and parsed in 15 minutes, a much improved time compared with my struggles of the past two days.

    FOI – 1ac KEBAB
    LOI – 7dn PERVERSE
    COD – 3dn BELLY FLOP. I also liked the clever constructions involved in HYDROPLANE and PANTOMIME.

    Thanks to Trelawny for an accessible QC and to Mike for an entertaining and informative blog

  21. What a very good crossword. Not quite as straightforward as some that Trelawney has served up, but full of excellent clues.

    PANTOMIME, PERVERSE, KEBAB and my LOI UNDIES were all very good. Impossible to pick a COD. Bravo Trelawney, and thanks Mike for the etymological blog!

    4:45

  22. Two straight passes, including all the Down solutions first go, but a very enjoyable puzzle

    FOI KEBAB
    LOI EPISODE
    COD BELLY-FLOP
    TIME 3:38

  23. 07:43
    Slow for a Trelawney, couldn’t get into the NW.
    So last few: bath, bellyflop, catalan, and kick.
    COD undies.

  24. Seemed on the gentle side today (still have half a cup of coffee to go). Steady progress throughout. Slight hold up parsing HYDROPLANE and understanding how punt=kick (is this a sporting thing?). COD to BELLY-FLOP (lovely). Great blog, especially etymology of PANTOMIME. Many thanks Mike.

    1. The fourth definition of punt in Collins Online reads:

      “In both rugby and American football, a punt is a kick where you drop the ball and then kick it before it reaches the ground, so that it goes a long way.”

      I assumed it was a fairly well-known synonym, so my apologies for not making it clearer to both you, Fabian, and Martinů, and any others who did not know this.

      1. In Australian Rules Football the punt has been part of the game since the 1800s. A set shot at goal is mostly known as the drop punt. A long-range kick, in which the ball spins rapidly as it goes through the air, is known as the torpedo punt. This has never been ARS for anything.

  25. Not super-fast but enjoyable. Smiled at UNDIES, also liked PRESS UP, KEBAB, PANTOMIME, BELLY FLOP.
    Had to think about CATALAN.
    Thanks for erudite blog, Mike.

  26. I was surprised to find on stopping the clock that my finishing time was 6.53 as I started so slowly. The answers were flying in in the later stages however with nothing really holding me up to any great extent. I don’t think ARSENAL would be too flattered with the inference that they would finish bottom of the Bundesliga! Is Trelawney a Spurs supporter?

  27. 6:34 but with one typo. Would have been my fastest by some distance, but skipped the final check, and found I had entered PEPP. The wait for a sub 7 continues.

    And it was HYDROPLANE that I was worried about. Couldnt parse it.

    COD PRESS UP

  29. A puzzle to make me feel I am getting better at this. It didn’t feel that easy, but I guess it must have been given other comments and my time of 8:55. That makes it my fifth best ever, and my third best of the year (which I was surprised about; the year must have gone on longer than I thought). All three of those have been thanks to Trelawney. I wonder whether I would have gone so fast had I not seen the name at the top. Anyway, FOI KEBAB, LOI KICK, which, incidentally seems to fit both definitions perfectly to me as you can kick a habit and punt a ball. COD to CATALAN. Thanks Trelawney and Mike

  31. 4.22

    Rare one where I wasn’t held up too long by any. Liked BELLY FLOP.

    As others have said a very nicely pitched crossword

  32. Good fun! All done and dusted in just 18 minutes, so a rare-ish excursion from the SCC for me.

    I started with PRESS UP, smiled when BELLY FLOP revealed itself and struggled a little with PERVERSE and EQUIP, which was my LOI.

    Many thanks to Trelawney and Mike.

  35. 13 mins…

    Best time for quite a while. Took a little while to get going, with the NW not being the best to start with, but I generally made steady progress. Still not massively convinced about 3dn “Belly-Flop”. I understand the link with bell ringing, but the additional “y” seems loose.

    FOI – 5dn “Elf”
    LOI – 7dn “Perverse”
    COD – 15ac “Undies”, although 11dn “Pantomime” was a close second.

    Thanks as usual!

  36. After yesterday’s DNF that was a satisfying solve in 16 minutes. FOI Kebab LOI Perverse after wasting time looking for an anagram of Poetry is! Thanks Trelawney and Mike

  37. So now I can’t even finish a Trelawney. Abysmal.

    DNF after 35 mins as not a clue about 7 down. As usual, I couldn’t see beyond my first thought, thinking ‘depraved’ indicated an anagram. Spent ages trying to find an 8-letter word for ‘A bit of’ from ‘poetry is’.

    Is there really any point in continuing with this daily assault on my self-esteem? I can’t remember when I last derived any sense of enjoyment from this. If I can’t complete a Trelawney after 4 years, it’s perhaps a sign to give up.

    No positives at all from the last four QCs I have attempted. Every day I am slow and confused, and it’s just one embarrassing error after another.

    My computer is now going off and will stay that way fro the remainder of the day.

    1. It happens. Happened to me just a few days ago, everyone else was all “easy puzzle” and I was all “ouch!”

    3. Are you saying you completed the entire puzzle apart from 7dn? Seems reasonable to me. Especially when the setter threw in a deliberate red herring with depraved.

    4. Well, you’re in good company – or at least, you’re in MY company – so we can wallow in our collective incompetence together.

    5. Gary I struggled and still do but have found that I improved when I looked at the bloggers answers and went back to the clue to understand the logic. Don’t give up you will get there

  38. 6.38 The top half flew in but the bottom was slower. ORWELL and CRACKERS took 90s at the end. Thanks Mike and Trelawney.

  39. 5.59 which I think must be a PB!

    Pantomime my COD – still smiling inside visualising that one.

    Green Tea was LOI. Like many I was thinking of types of rum, and on another day would have wasted a lot of time trying to make other clues work around that.

  40. What an enjoyable puzzle (especially after my failure yesterday). Lots of delightful clues: escape room, undies, pantomime, episode…. Many thanks to Trelawney for a fun and accessible QC and to Mike for such an interesting blog.

  41. Lots of amusing and smooth surfaces today! On reviewing I was impressed with how well crafted the clues were (and how dull I was to take 14:33 to finish). BELLY FLOP and EPISODE were favorites, but also got laughs from the superior wellies, the undead underwear, the dancing footballers, and the unappetizing vegetarian fare.

    Thanks to Trelawney! Great blogging Mike!

  42. I was just arriving in Barcelona when I started this QC so perhaps not surprisingly my FOI was CATALAN. I wavered on just two clues…. the first being 1d. Punt may mean KICK but it is not a definition I’m familiar with. The other was my LOI PERVERSE. I had forgotten the PER = a substitution. 6:36 so no complaints here.

  43. Model QC – straightforward, with lots of smooth surfaces. Liked ARSENAL Among others. Grateful thanks.

  44. thank to everyone for my warm welcome yesterday. I found today’s easier. last for me was PERVERSE – I wouldn’t automatically think of that as meaning depraved – depraved is a very strong word, where perverse is rather gentler

    1. I hear you, and that’s one of the lesser examples of what I call “remote synonyms”. It’s extremely common and often my downfall. Wurm is a master of it.

    1. If you read something to do with BELLs as an adjective, it might be BELL-LIKE, BELL-ISH or BELL-Y. Does that help?

  48. Woe, all is lost – my favourite compiler, and I was beaten by PERVERSE. About ten minutes for everything else, and then after another ten I just couldn’t bear it any more and put myself out of my misery. And yes, I’m now reasonably confident that there aren’t any anagrams of “poetry is”.

    Thank you for the blog!

    1. My thought process exactly. I was looking at porosity as “a bit of” but of course that didn’t quite fit the anagram. Only when I’d wasted time trying every anagram combo did I resort to the other parsing and see the answer.

    2. Same for me! The only sense I could make of 7d was an anagram of “poetry is”. Ho hum. Am I allowed in the SCC with a DNF?

  49. 16:20

    A couple of hold ups. Had to resort to an alphabet trawl for EQUIP and was convinced LOI PERVERSE was going to be an anagram of poetry is.

  50. Nice puzzle today although I also fell into the trap of trying to make an anagram of poetry is for 7d. BELLY-FLOP my favourite.
    Thanks setter and blogger

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