Solving time: 5:22
Today’s Quick Cryptic is the 3000th in the series, another milestone in the project introduced in 2014 by Richard Rogan, the then new Times crossword editor. The first puzzle appeared on Monday 10th March 2014 and was set by Des, one of Richard’s many pseudonyms.
Although Richard passed away last year, he left several puzzles for us to enjoy, and it is fitting that the 3000th QC published today should be one of Richard’s, this time under his Felix pseudonym. Mick Hodgkin has confirmed in the Puzzles Newsletter that today’s puzzle will be the last by Richard, marking the first anniversary of his death on June 1st.
As is typical with a Richard Rogan puzzle, there is a nina, which if you so choose, you can read about here…
Enjoy then, for the last time, a new puzzle by Richard Rogan, and do please let me know how you found it…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | The work of Johnson, say, or that of Pepys, embracing new tonic (10) |
| DICTIONARY – DIARY (that of Pepys i.e. The work of Pepys) containing [embracing] anagram [new] of TONIC | |
| 7 | Clean one’s teeth, having fluorine deprivation (5) |
| FLOSS – F (chemical symbol of fluorine) LOSS (deprivation) | |
| 8 | Australian native without means initially to play cricket (6) |
| WOMBAT – WO (without – the abbreviation would typically have a slash between the two letters i.e. w/o) then first letter [initially] of M{eans} BAT (to play cricket) | |
| 10 | Final goal (3) |
| NET – Double definition – the first of which is in an ‘after taxes’ sense e.g. Bob’s net/final salary was in the region of £500k per annum | |
| 12 | Nut I chop as it’s cracked (9) |
| PISTACHIO – Anagram [cracked] of I CHOP AS IT | |
| 13 | US DJ receiving kiss in Tuesday party (6) |
| TUXEDO – X (kiss) in TUE (Tuesday) followed by DO (party)
A dinner jacket (DJ) in the US is known as a TUXEDO, a man’s evening dress for semiformal occasions, named around 1889 after Tuxedo Park, then the chief “pretentious rural resort” for wealthy New Yorkers and site of a country club where it was first worn. |
|
| 14 | Tusked creature used to be grabbing large sort of football (6) |
| WALRUS – WAS (used to be) containing [grabbing] L (large) RU (sort of football i.e. Rugby Union) | |
| 17 | No returning the total in one’s account, all things considered (2,7) |
| ON BALANCE – NO reversed [returning], then BALANCE (the total in one’s account) | |
| 19 | Evasive person vexedly avoiding odd items (3) |
| EEL – The answer alludes to the idiom “as slippery as an eel,” which may refer to a person who is difficult to catch or pin down, or is cunning or evasive in their behavior. |
|
| 20 | Snack to show off on board? (3-3) |
| HOT-DOG – Double definition – the second being a mildly cryptic reference to the art of performing showy, and often dangerous stunts when surfing.
Matt Warshaw’s Encyclopedia of Surfing is more specific, describing hotdogging as a “quick and flashy style of surfing, generally limited to small waves” and including moves such as: the head dip; the fin first takeoff; and Mickey Munoz’s quasimoto [sic]. |
|
| 21 | A bad actor with Oscar from west US city (5) |
| OMAHA – A HAM (bad actor) with O (Oscar – NATO phonetic alphabet) all reversed [from west]
OMAHA is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. |
|
| 23 | Displayed by nobleman, a gem enticing handling (10) |
| MANAGEMENT – Hidden [Displayed by] in nobleman a gem enticing
Took me more than one pass to spot this… |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Meaning to dine in, if working (10) |
| DEFINITION – Anagram [working] of TO DINE IN IF | |
| 2 | My chef isn’t finished (3) |
| COO – COO{k} (chef) without its last letter [isn’t finished] | |
| 3 | At home, drink one had is tasteless (7) |
| INSIPID – IN (At home) SIP (drink) I (one) ‘D (had – HAD is often abbreviated to ‘D – e.g. “SHE HAD gone to see her grandmother” could be rewritten as “SHE’D gone to see her grandmother“) | |
| 4 | Most modern and cosy home we must visit (6) |
| NEWEST – NEST (cosy home) with WE inserted [must visit] | |
| 5 | Dance and drink with graduate (5) |
| RUMBA – RUM (drink) with BA (graduate i.e. abbreviation for Bachelor of Arts) | |
| 6 | Veteran fighter with arrow he’s shot (8) |
| WARHORSE – Anagram [shot] of ARROW HE’S
The figurative sense of “seasoned veteran” is attested by 1828. |
|
| 9 | Extremely useful to put in reliable senior doctor (10) |
| CONSULTANT – Outside letters [Extremely] of U{sefu}L put into CONSTANT (reliable) | |
| 11 | Send message to reserve standard publication (8) |
| TEXTBOOK – TEXT (Send message to) BOOK (reserve) | |
| 15 | Excellent payment — finally one is solvent! (7) |
| ACETONE – ACE (Excellent) then last letter [finally] of {paymen}T then ONE
ACETONE is literally “a derivative of acetic acid,” from Latin acetum “vinegar” + Greek-based chemical suffix -one denoting a “weaker” derivative. |
|
| 16 | Puzzle that’s complicated in game (6) |
| ENIGMA – Anagram [that’s complicated] of IN GAME | |
| 18 | Ancient region seen in early diagram (5) |
| LYDIA – Hidden [seen in] in early diagram
Lydia was an ancient country of Asia Minor bordering the Aegean. It’s last king was Croesus, famous for his wealth, who reigned from 585-546BC. |
|
| 22 | Cockney cuts audibly — using this? (3) |
| AXE – Homophone [audibly] of ‘ACKS (cuts – Cockney-fied i.e. HACKS with its leading H removed) | |
As a permanent resident of the SCC, I thought this was a really lovely puzzle. Thank you RR.
Not I didn’t know HOT DOG or LYDIA but both were gettable with my limited GK. Some nice mis-directions (e.g. solvent) and it took me an age to spot the hidden at 23a.
Please can we have more at this level!
We were indeed happy and fortunate to have one last offering from Felix on this anniversary, and I echo all the comments above.
I decided to take it gently today and just enjoy the ride, as I wanted to savour the experience one more time. Nevertheless, I fairly whizzed through, and had it all done and dusted in a pretty quick time for me. I even got the nina!
PISTACHIO was excellent, and I really liked FLOSS and WARHORSE too.
7:18 FOI Dictionary LOI Consultant COD Acetone
Thank you one last time to the much-missed RR, and to Mike for your – as always – interesting blog.
# 4000 here we come!
ACETATE ( couldn’t parse) in lieu of ACETONE, which I suddenly discovered I could, as above comments, great QC
Could somebody please explain why “my” and “coo” are synonymous?
Thanks for the blog, extremely useful for a newbie.
Both exclamations of surprise. Usually we see my! / cor!, so coo! made a pleasant change.
Thanks!
Echoing what almost everyone has said, this was a lovely one. I finished in 8:48, with a smile for TUXEDO and OMAHA, amongst others. What a shame this is our last puzzle from RR.
Thanks to Mike and everyone for making this community so vibrant.
12:02 I liked END much better than NET but it wasn’t to be.
It’s all been said above but what a terrific example of what a QC should be. I dawdled over this on the train from MK to Manchester Piccadilly to savour his high art of setting. Maybe we should have another chance to work through his peerless collection.
BTW if you’ve not been to the Lowry 360, then I heartedly recommend it. Tomorrow, the Whitworth and then an appointment at the University Archive before heading home. I wonder what the QC will be like then!
Late to this but much enjoyed RR’s final QC.
LOI WARHORSE. About 15 minutes.
I too had END before NET.
DNK LYDIA.
RR was a superb setter and an all-round great guy. He will be missed.
Thanks to Mick H for the tribute on Saturday and for giving us Richard’s final puzzles.
David
Is there going to be a Times book published with all of RR’s QC’s
Excitedly, but mistakenly, as it turned out reading Mikes blog, I was going to report a Pb of 11 mins. Alas, Warheroe was a total mistake 😡
Lovely to read the affection for the late Richard aka Felix. Thanks Mike
Still around although not posting a lot.
Have tried nearly all 3000 and learned a lot from this blog. RR started something of benefit to us all and which continues in his memory
I was on wavelength with this. Didn’t know the HOT-DOG or TUXEDO reference but still managed to post a PB, or atleast I would have if it weren’t for a stupid typo.
Got to say how great the QCs are. Not just that they are written with thought and effort, not just thrown for ‘the beginners’ but that the pitching in terms of difficulty is spot-on most of the time. I can imagine that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do as an editor. If you compare that to some of the other papers’ ‘quick crossword’ comparators the difficulty is all over the place, and they are not doing it 6 days out of 7.
Happy 3000th Quick Cryptic, may we have many ahead.
15 minute DNF.
NHO ACETONE. Put AWESOME (for excellent). There’s another week blown.
Did not enjoy today, particularly when I saw how straightforward most of you found it. I wouldn’t mind were it not for the fact that I spend hours trying to improve by attempting the 15 x 15! The harder I work at this, the worse I become.
Failed by five on 15 x 15 today in longer than it takes to play a football match. I really haven’t the skill for it.
Bad day (as usual). 2 hours, 2 failures. 😡
10.16, and I was not aware how many I biffed, but after reading the blog – a lot. Thanks, Mike, and RR, such a good setter, will be sadly missed. I managed the cryptic today, pleased to say, as I often do not.
Lovely QC and thanks to the blog for helping me with the parsing of the clues for Hot-dog and Acetone. Wonderful Nina too.
Dead on 48min solve for me. Very much enjoyed reading today’s contributions to this blog. Thanks all
Late to this after a busy day yesterday but just wanted to congratulate the QC on its 3000th birthday and praise the late RR for the pleasure that he and his fellow setters have given us over the years. Also the bloggers including Mike today.
Pleased to say that I competed it too.
I started this puzzle a day late and enjoyed it immensely. A quick finish (for me) and plenty of pleasure along the way.
RR knew exactly what a Quick Crossword should be and provided a fitting memorial to a remarkable life of crosswords.
I hope some of our more ‘erratic’ QC setters might look on this as a model.
Thanks to the much-missed RR for a fitting 3000th QC and to Mike for the blog.
Perimetric is a new word for me, and is in my OED and my Websters wanted me to pay for a definition! Google told me in the end.
Isn’t not is, in my OED
To be honest Viki, I use ‘perimetric’ only because I’ve seen it used in online comments on the Concise Crossword (where there is a nina every day) – I didn’t know it was in neither the OED nor Websters, however Collins Online does have it as an American English adjective.