Times Quick Cryptic No 2887 by Teazel

I always struggle with Teazel and this was no exception. Just like yesterday it was the NE wot dunnit, with 7d, 4a and 5d (in that order) fighting to the last bullet. To add insult to injury (the injury being 12:48 for a Very Slow Day) I’m now going to think in trochaic tetrameters all day (see 13d). Grr. Hope you all get on better than I did!

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
1 Doctor’s firm edict partly ignored (5)
MEDIC – hidden [partly ignored] within “firm edict”. Here “doctor” is not an anagram indicator.
4 MPs’ business finishing early is prudent (7)
POLITIC – my POI, just couldn’t think what “MPs’ business” was going to be once I’d exhausted incompetence, posturing, braying and stabbing each other in the back. In fact it was POLITIC{s} [shortened because “finishing early”].
8 Doctor reveals a few (7)
SEVERAL – doctor, doctor! Here doctor is an anagram indicator … it’s like trying to spot Warne’s googly today. It’s an anagram of “reveals”.
9 Keep shaking the cart (5)
WAGON – if you were to WAG ON, you might be said to “keep shaking”, ho ho.
10 Fight duel, drunk: hospital finally charming (10)
DELIGHTFUL – anagram [drunk] of “fight duel” + L [hospital finally].
14 Number needing a drink, not small! (6)
THIRTY – THIR{s}TY [“not small” indicates “remove an S”].
15 International law not broken (6)
INTACT – INT for “international” (yes it’s in Collins) + ACT for “law”.
17 Might provide accommodation for forceful individual (10)
POWERHOUSE – not sure how to parse the first half of this; maybe a cryptic hint? I didn’t find that clear and needed the checkers. [On edit: Kevin helpfully points out that this is “might” for “power” + “house” for “provide accommodation for”.]
20 Putting tea, say, in small bottle is essential (5)
VITAL – T [tea, say] in VIAL [small bottle]. Lovely surface.
22 Way of styling hair that’s short and curly (7)
PIGTAIL – pigs do indeed have short and curly tails so that’s another cryptic hint. My first thought was another sort of short and curly beginning with P, but I got there in the end.
23 Clergyman touring a nuclear plant (7)
REACTOR – RECTOR is our “clergyman” and he goes round A [touring a]. Female clergy are also available but the clue does specify a man so don’t flame me.
24 Deliberately lose  light blanket (5)
THROW – double def. To THROW a sports fixture is to lose it on purpose.
Down
1 Newly-pressed grape juice is essential (4)
MUST – double def. When grapes are harvested they are crushed together with their skins, stalks and stems to produce a sweet, thick, cloudy juice. That is vinum mustum (Latin for “young wine”), known as MUST.
2 Bird runs away from port (4)
DOVE – DOVE{r}. Maybe it was a bluebird.
3 Tradesman saw part of his equipment? (9)
CARPENTER – definition with a cryptic hint.
4 Sermon here: if no good, do this with text? (6)
PULPIT – I liked this very much. The PULPIT is where traditionally the vicar would go to deliver the sermon; and if text is no good you might PULP IT. Ho ho! COD from me.
5 Soft  sound from farm shed (3)
LOW – I think this is a double def. LOW is certainly “soft” (“a low whisper”); it would also be a “sound from farm shed”, if there were cattle lowing in the farm shed. But the word “shed” seems redundant (the clue works just as well with “sound from farm”), and cattle can low from fields just as well as from sheds, so then I wondered if it was a triple def? But I couldn’t find any trace of low = shed anywhere and then I got bored looking and gave up. My LOI and a bit of a GR in my book.
6 Strong backing needed for this sports-day event? (3-2-3)
TUG-OF-WAR – not totally sure how this one works either, but I think the idea is that you have a big strong person at the back of a TUG-OF-WAR team. So I’m putting it down as another cryptic hint.
7 Combine ice-cream with smooth filling (8)
CONFLATE – CONE [ice-cream] with FLAT [smooth] inside it [filling].
11 Post hoc ability to understand glimpse of deer? (9)
HINDSIGHT – only hindsight offers 20/20 vision, as litigators are fond of saying. If you catch “sight” of a “hind”, you’ve had a “glimpse of deer”.
12 Break in journey by provost travelling round east (8)
STOPOVER – anagram [travelling] of “provost” going around E. I tried hard to believe that “pitstop” had enough letters for a while.
13 Ha-ha! A wit convulsed native American leader (8)
HIAWATHAIn this clue did tricksy Teazel, Use the name of Hiawatha, Using it not like Longfellow, But as cunning anagrammer. Anagrist is “ha-ha! A wit”, And of course convulsed’s the signal, Telling us to rearrange it, Bringing us upon the answer. I cannot believe how many trochaic tetrameters Longfellow could churn out
16 Manager reserves parking for conductor (6)
COPPER – a COPER could be said to be a “manager” (coping with/managing); it contains [reserves] a P [parking] and the result is an excellent electrical conductor.
18 Blonde  not that good (4)
FAIR – double definition. “How did it go?” “Only fair I’m afraid”.
19 What wind did, sounding sad (4)
BLEW – aural wordplay [sounding] with “blue” [sad].
21 OT character’s fortune (3)
LOT – double definition. Lot is mostly remembered for the fact that his wife looked back at Sodom as they were leaving and was promptly turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). This gave rise to the famous apocryphal muddling of Old Testament stories in a school exam, leading a child to write “Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night”.

95 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2887 by Teazel”

  1. Is the NE becoming something of a Bermuda Triangle? For the second day in a row my LOsI were there, and they were the same as Templar’s: LOW, CONFLATE and POLITIC. I nevertheless managed to get around in 9.31 and feel happy with that. Coincidentally POWERHOUSE appeared in the biggie just two days ago, clued as follows: A forceful person, might he entertain round America? Thanks T&T, an enjoyable puzzle.

      1. If they’re going to change policies I’d much rather have seen the setter’s name than have the puzzle populated with the living, but there you go.

        1. Me too, hate the fact that even b-list “celeb’s” get a mention in the greatest crossword in the world.

        1. I prefer not to start a puzzle with pre-expectations according to who the setter is. Although it’s inevitable that it happens and I’m in no way criticising anyone who posts on the subject, but I don’t much enjoy the discussions that take place about the various merits or otherwise of Quick Cryptic setters, and wouldn’t want to see that carried over to the historic 15×15 puzzle.

  2. I think Teazel was just being kind in a QC by giving us shed i 5D to make it more obvious. Thanks for the entertaining blog Templar.

  3. Slow to start with only four acrosses clues in at the first pass but then lots of downs leaving not too much mopping up. That still look time though with careful arrangement of anagrist for HIAWATHA and just good old fashioned headscratching for INTACT (not an anagram of ‘law not’ despite my best efforts) and CONFLATE where though I came to ‘cone’ early took a fair while to lift and separate ‘smooth’ from ‘filling’. All green in 14.27.

  4. 12 minutes, which is 3 within my revised target time but I had some difficulties with it and had to hop around the grid in an attempt to keep things going. On reflection I can’t identify any particular problem other than few answers leaping out at me on first reading of the clues.

  5. A full two seconds quicker than our learned blogger. CARPENTER was the one I had trouble with at the end, trying to over-parse the cryptic hint.

    I liked 13d for the (Minne)HA-HA part of the wordplay but even more for the explanation from our resident TfTT versifier. Where’s a spondaic pentameter when you need it?

    Thanks to Templar and Teazel

  6. Continued excitement here. 13.15 (new best) after only 4 across in first sweep.
    Last in CONFLATE (clever), POLITICS (couldn’t think what MPs’ business was – still wondering at times). Education continues, about to edify selves — trochaic tetrameters and spondaic pentameters (and when will we need one? That may be the salient question…).
    And for any who are at the stage of sighs and groans and blank grids -take heart. As the blog shows, the answers are THERE in the clues – waiting to be found. Patience (not my forte) and practice. It truly gets better. Thanks to T and T.

  7. At 12 minutes and with lots done, I thought we might leave our debenture seat in the club vacant today, but the SE was our undoing taking us out to a respectable 22.40.

    Intact took ages to see, we also spent too long on anagrams of law not, and trifled with things to do with treaty before the PDM.

    Lots to enjoy with Teazel amusing us with wag on and pulp it and some super smooth surfaces, great stuff. COD to carpenter.

    Thanks Templar for a great blog, going to pour some more coffee and let Mrs RH tell me about trochaic tetrameters

  8. Fair going in the main but my last two in caused some issues – the unknown MUST, where I was very tempted by ‘mush’ as this is what newly pressed grapes may look like 😕 and CONFLATE.
    Tip of the hat to POWERHOUSE and HIAWATHA.
    Finished in 8.11.
    Thanks to Templar

  9. 10.01. I think that 6d is simply that a Tug of War requires the teams to show strength pulling backwards.

  10. 11:15, and a decent chunk of that spent trying to find an anagram of “law not”. Not entirely convinced by INT for international – and not in the least bit surprised to hear that Collins allows it. Pretty tolerant, that Mr Collins, allows almost anything …

    Many thanks Templar for the blog. I’m in awe of your Longfellow-esque compositions and won’t even try to emulate them.
    Cedric

    1. Not just Collins, it’s in the Oxfords and Chambers too. In fact Chambers lists it as two entries, int. and Int. This suggests that it’s universally accepted. You’ll find it used in company names, and with reference to sports teams and transport hubs, for example.

  11. Managed it quite easily/quickly today but then I don’t have to explain all of the answers in a blog!! LOI was 15A which I was certain was an anagram of LAWNOT. Enjoyed 10A and 7D as equal CODs

  12. As above, INTACT took ages to puzzle over INT ACT until no end of mental mumbling moved my brain out of its low gear into reverse.
    I liked the twists and turns and finished full of admiration for the setter’s skills in a reasonable time of 32 minutes after several laps of the grid. COD Joint first, PIGTAIL and HINDSIGHT
    Thanks Templar for the NHO term for the Dum-Dee-Dum-Dee and of course to the brilliant Teazel.

  13. The poetic lyricism is completely lost on me.

    Five write-ins within the first pass and then nothing.

    Third pass I use the pencil auto-complete to put some checkers in for the downs.

    Thanks to all concerned.

  14. 26:45 for the solve! Found the top half of that testing and had nothing up there except an uncertain TUG-OF-WAR and DELIGHTFUL until 12mins. Nonetheless went on to reach my last two of CONFLATE/INTACT just before 15mins and then stumbled. Saw the wordplay for the icecream but struggled to think/trawl FLAT or combine. Meanwhile INTACT held out for the last 4-5mins as I was trying to do something with the UN-.

    Must have ever heard of MUST for grapejuice as once I had the M-S checkers I was fairly sure about that. And only did Tuesday’s 15×15 last night so to come across POWERHOUSE this morning was a little mind blowing.

      1. Frustrated for you – but still a decent time #5. I note you also had more on your first pass than me – I could only see DELIGHTFUL and POWERHOUSE. The Downs were more forgiving with seven of those slotting in.

  15. DNF

    Raced through this in 13 minutes but was left with LOI INTACT. Unfortunately, given the checkers and wordplay I assumed I needed an anagram of law not. Plumped in hope for the made up ONWALT.

    POWERHOUSE was a write in having come up earlier in the week.

    1. We also plumped for the improbable ONWALT as our LOI. Shame because we were doing quite well. Saw INTACT at 9:50 once our error was revealed but we’d still have been a long way off our best. I’d parsed LOT as L(arge) ‘OT’ (being capitalised). Totally missed the much nicer biblical reference. The advantage of having the blog. Thanks all.

    2. ONWALT looked Anglo-Saxon to me, and sure enough research showed ONWEALD seems to be a legitimate Anglo-Saxon word for power.

  16. Thanks Templar for brilliant trochaic tetrameter parsing of 13D. Reminded me of a homework we were set after reading Hiawatha – with very variable results.

  17. Total disaster. Blanks all over the grid. Not helped by a typo in STOPOVER which made POWERHOUSE impossible, even though it appeared in the 15×15 on Tuesday.

    LOW – terrible clue
    MUST – guessed this one, but NHO
    INTACT – was convinced it was an anagram of LAW NOT
    Other misses : CONFLATE, INTACT, COPPER etc

    But really enjoyed the poetic blog. Reminded me of singing the whole thing age 11. Occasional fragments still stick with me.

  18. Six to the bad but par for the Teazel course. POLITIC shouldn’t have been all that difficult, but needed more crossers in that empty NE corner. Always forget ice-cream = CONE (will now learn). WAG ON a bit tenuous but would have been possible with that W, but LOW without any lights was not going to come. And COPPER and INTACT … well, ok, fair enough!
    I too tried so hard to make an anagram of “law not”, but once you have -N-A– the first letter would have to be O, then no permutations are anything, so ruled it out.
    Thank you, Templar (HIAWATHA was my FOI).

  19. DNF. Another ONWALT here, assuming it must be the name of an international sportsman that everyone knew but me.
    Or, in trochaic tetrameters:
    I regret I did not finish, since INTACT it did elude me, ONWALT seemed a likely answer, for a man I’d never heard of.

    Thanks Templar and Teazel

  20. About 25 minutes to solve, with the NE corner taking longest, as clearly several others also found. Still not sure of LOW parsing.

  21. 13 Down. Should have got this from “Ha Ha” ; probably a reference to Minnehaha – the lover of Hiawatha in Longfellow’s poem.

  22. 11.21. Good fun. LOI INTACT; the LOI isn’t always the one the one that takes the longest to get, but today it was, with the anagram that wasn’t and the possible involvement of the UN. Loved all the trochaic tetrameters (ah! that’s what they’re called). I know that if I try to recite Hiawatha I can’t help going faster and faster, like a train getting up speed

  23. A good puzzle with lots of clever angles and teazing. I started very well but slowed down rather sharply after an interruption. I found the NE quadrant OK but INTACT, my COD, caused a blockage. The answer only dawned on me when I had all the crossers in place and the clang when the penny dropped was audible upstairs.
    In the end, I avoided the SCC by the skin of my teeth but managed to include a stupid typo – an A for the E at the end of POWERHOUSE. So, a technical DNF but another enjoyable tussle with Teazel.
    Thanks to Teazel and to Templar for a predictably good and entertaining blog.

  24. Also only four acrosses on the first pass but fastest time of the week: 26:34.
    However a foolish BLOW (be low?) for 19d resulted in a DNF. It doesn’t even parse.
    COD CONFLATE
    Thanks Teazel and Templar. A fine blog.

  25. I got properly stuck in the NE.
    LOI PULPIT after 26 minutes; with hindsight that was not that difficult , but I needed POLITIC to get the P; that was a tough clue for a QC.
    Could not parse LOW and wasted lots of time with 3 letter words ending in W. Could MEW be a farm shed? I had rejected LOW at that point; it was my first thought!
    Otherwise averagely quick.
    COD to POWERHOUSE now that I have seen the parsing.
    Great blog.
    David

  26. Another delayed by the NE corner, and attempts to form a word from NOT LAW. Otherwise, from MEDIC to BLEW in 11:26. Thanks Teazel and Templar. Great blog!

  27. First time over my ten minute target this week at 11.07, but I’ll forgive myself as I thought this of above average difficulty. As with others, it was the ne section that was pretty much blank at the end of the solve, but getting POLITIC eventually enabled me to wrap things up with CONFLATE. I wasted valuable time by misreading the numbers and trying to write HIAWATHA into 11dn, and thinking where the hell is the other letter not mentioned in the anagram. Perhaps it was the fact that 11dn also started with an H that threw me. A really good puzzle with a special mention for the excellent PULPIT clue.

  28. A similar experience to yesterday with the left-hand side filling fairly quickly and the right-hand side, especially the NE corner, being a struggle. However I did manage to finish this one albeit in a slightly sluggish 22 minutes. Some excellent clues from Teazel and a wonderful blog from Templar.

    FOI- 8ac SEVERAL
    LOI – 16dn COPPER
    COD – multiple contenders. I particularly liked PIGTAIL, PULPIT and HINDSIGHT.

  29. Clever puzzle. Luckily I knew MUST so started well, but eventually had to go out before solving CONFLATE and INTACT. Managed both on return but needed an alphabet trawl for the latter.
    Liked COPPER, BLEW, PULPIT (COD), HIAWATHA, POLITIC, HINDSIGHT (runner-up COD).
    Yes, was uncertain about LOW for a while.
    Thanks vm for blog, Templar.

  30. 5. 35. Started quickly, but got slowed down by intact. I only had the second letter n, and both International (United Nations came to mind) and not broken made me think it must start with un.
    The excellent blog exposes my complete lack of knowledge, and sadly interest, in the technical elements of poetry. I remember an English lesson spending 45 minutes analysing a poem about a cat asleep on the window ledge. No passion, no fire, no interest. Thankfully a late introduction to Longfellow ignited my interest.

  31. 4d reminded me of Pulp Fiction so came fairly fast.
    13a Intact, tried until I had crossers to force Izaak Walton in here, but really angling isn’t international nor law-based, although he did write a biog of his mate John Donne.
    Fun Xword.

  32. 9.01 on the tiny iPhone which based on comments seems a good effort for me. No real problems for me other than LOI and COD contender COPPER. Also enjoyed CARPENTER which went in unparsed so thanks for explanation Templar.

    Swear we have seen POWERHOUSE somewhere recently. As a keen home brewer of amongst other things hedgerow wine MUST came easily enough.

    Cheers

    Horners

  33. 8:47

    Never read Longfellow – my knowledge of HIAWATHA comes entirely from Sweet’s “Wig-Wam Bam” – whether their verses are trochaic or not is neither here nor there… Like others, the NE corner was particularly sticky once more – I couldn’t believe ONWALT could be an answer so dug deeper, INTACT giving a full set of checkers for LOI CONFLATE.

    Thanks Templar and Teazel

  34. I’m mystified by the puzzlement, even disdain in one case, about the parsing of LOW which is simply a straight definition (soft, as in music sweet and low) plus a mildly cryptic hint. Cattle low (see Away in a Manger) and live in a shed, aka cowshed. What’s the problem? I feel for our setters sometimes.

    1. For me the problem (such as it was) arose from the fact that cattle also live in fields, so that “shed” seemed superfluous and I therefore spent some time wondering if it was a triple def.

  35. That more people in here seem to be comfortable with Longfellow’s trochaic tetrameters than Sonic the Hedgehog definitely makes me wonder whether I’m in the right place!

    Nonetheless, that was enjoyable with the exception of the north east corner, which largely baffled me.

    1. Dear sprainedmind (great name, btw),
      Fear not! You’re alone. In fact, knowing nothing about either Longfellow or Sonic the H, indicates that I for one am in an even wronger place.

  36. Lovely puzzle from Teazel. Slow going until I solved LOW, followed by WAGON, and then everything seemed to fall into place. Really liked PULPIT, CONFLATE and HIAWATHA. Lots to make me think, but that’s how I like it. Thanks for the blog. Agree with Jack – can’t see anything wrong with LOW (other than it took me a while to solve of course). Thanks Templar.

  37. From MEDIC to INTACT in 8:02. I biffed CARPENTER and saw the light post submission. I was grateful not to have to spell HIAWATHA unaided and I loved your reasoning Templar for struggling with POLITIC. That gave me a good chuckle so I’m awarding it COD (comment of the day).

  38. 23 mins…

    Felt very cryptic today with some clever little clues. Struggled with the top half to begin with, but the bottom half was more forgiving and once I got into a rhythm the rest gradually fell in. Enjoyed 4dn “Pulpit”, 9ac “Wagon” and 16dn “Copper”. 15dn “Intact” probably took longer than it should as I looked for a non-existing anagram.

    FOI – 10ac “Delightful”
    LOI – 15ac “Intact”
    COD – 11dn “Hindsight”

    Thanks as usual!

  39. 18:34 without errors. I also had a slow start with the across clues, only DELIGHTFUL and THIRTY on first run through, although I can’t believe I missed the hidden MEDIC. I too took a while to parse INTACT, if Teazel deliberately chose N A and T as the crossing letters then that has to be COD if not Clue of the Year so far. FOI – DELIGHTFUL, LOI – previously NHO (in that sense) MUST, COD – INTACT but honourable mentions to THIRTY, CARPENTER, HINDSIGHT and COPPER. Thanks Teazel and Templar.

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