Times Quick Cryptic No 3134 by Cheeko

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Ouch! A real tester of a Quick Cryptic from Cheeko today with some deceptive definitions and intricate wordplay. No accurate time for me, but certainly over 8 minutes. Thank-you Cheeko. Oh, by the way, did you spot the Nina?
We have Vivaldi and his four seasons in the grid

 

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic.  This time it is Sawbill’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 141 here. Furthermore there is a bonus seasonal crossword from me (entitled “Trick or treat?”) which you can find here.

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

Across
1 Royal income’s half covered by news media (8)
PRINCESS –  Half of INC{ome} in PRESS (news media).
5 Detect the best turns (4)
SPOT – TOPS (the best) reversed [turns] -> SPOT.
8 Plant ’s extremely rare elaborate decoration (8)
REFINERY –  Outside letters, [extremely], of RarE, FINERY (elaborate decoration). Sneaky definition. Did you, like me, get hung up on trying to find something green and growing?
9 King returned gentleman’s dagger (4)
KRIS – K (King) and SIR (gentleman) [returned] -> RIS.
11 Meagre enemies partially concur (5)
AGREE – Hidden in Me AGRE Enemies.
12 After bringing forward note, ambiguous about energy? (7)
NUCLEAR – UNCLEAR (ambiguous) moving the N (note) forward -> NUCLEAR. Tricky.
13 Adder ’s venom finally treated with serum (6)
SUMMER – ({veno} m serum )* [treated]. Nice misleading surface – no not that sort of adder!
15 Faculty regularly joining core trio of alumnae fall for some (6)
AUTUMN – Alternate letters, [regularly], of fAcUlTy and middle three letters [core trio] of alUMNae.
18 He scored 50 on oral exam I’d brought back (7)
VIVALDI – VIVA (oral exam) L (Roman numeral for 50) and I’D reversed -> DI. The setter’s trick of referring to a composer as a ‘scorer’ is worth remembering.
19 Store ’s first-class service (5)
AMASS – A (first class) MASS (church service).
21 Medal attached to queen’s gown (4)
ROBE – R (Regina; queen) OBE (medal).
22 Antagonistic manner and posture (8)
ATTITUDE – Double definition. I needed the checkers to find this one.
23 Eg Jacob’s mate runs vessel (4)
EWER – A Jacob is a type of sheep, hence EWE (e.g. Jacob’s mate) R (runs).
24 Swirling patterns in part of church (8)
TRANSEPT – [Swirling] (patterns)*.
Down
1 Maybe piano phrase changed (7)
PERHAPS –  (p phrase)* [changed], with the musical abbreviation P for piano.
2 Deduce Hell is without number (5)
INFER – INFER{no} (hell) without the NO (number).
3 Pantomime character recalled in breaks (10)
CINDERELLA –  (recalled in)* [breaks].
4 Jump , beginning to pogo in small circle (6)
SPRING – First letter of Pogo in S (small) RING (circle).
6 Drunken rave-up gatecrashed by northern upstart (7)
PARVENU – N (northern) in [drunken] (rave-up)*.
7 Doctor rates provider of shocking treatment (5)
TASER – [Doctor] (rates)*.
10 Job control under a foreign power (10)
OCCUPATION – Double definition. My LOI… and it took me ages to see.
14 Second bishop in valley is not fixed (7)
MOVABLE –  MO (second) and B (bishop) in VALE (valley).
16 Walk in the park on waste ground (2,5)
NO SWEAT – (on waste)* [ground].
17 Victory period does not include last season (6)
WINTER – WIN (victory) TER{m} (period) without its last letter.
18 Clergyman cut grass border (5)
VERGE – VERGE{r} (clergyman) without the last letter. MER at the use of clergyman here as a verger is not an ordained minister. “Church caretaker” would have been more accurate, I think.
20 Entertain a writer’s inspiration? (5)
AMUSE – A MUSE (writer’s inspiration).

 

69 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3134 by Cheeko”

  1. 15:03 but there was a bit of biffing. I got the whole left side done in three minutes and took 12 minutes on the rest.

    I didn’t know what a verger was or that viva is an oral exam. No idea what a transept is, thought the definition was going to be a swirling pattern (paisley?) before I got some checkers.

    I enjoyed it though!

    My app tells me there’s a new crossword called a Ponder now and it looks like a US style crossword? I do like those, always happy to get more puzzles!

      1. I prefer the US style crossword and especially ones with a theme. I REALLY liked my first Ponder because unlike the NYT crosswords I didn’t have to know any us colleges or football teams etc.

    2. The Daily Telegraph has a daily US-style crossword, also missing much of the Americana found in the NYT, called Cross Atlantic. The Telegraph membership to access all their puzzles (crosswords, sudokus, and everything else) is only 30-odd quid per year in the UK and presumably something similar in Australia.

      1. Thanks Mohn. I did have a daily telegraph games subscription, but I found it was one too many. They keep trying to lure me back with cheaper and cheaper deals 😅

  2. 9:39
    DNK Jacob, so I had to wait for the checkers. Like John, I had a MER at ‘clergyman’; it’s just wrong. I also had a MER at AMASS=store.

  3. A slow and steady 19 minutes from AGREE to NUCLEAR. Outside my target time but it is the middle of the night and I’m supposed to be asleep.
    Spotting the nina helped add in a few crossers and I liked PRINCESS and AUTUMN. Less keen on AMASS.

  4. It must be a wavelength thing, because I went steadily through this to finish in 7.37 and it’s unprecedented that I’m quicker than John. A nice puzzle from Cheeko, thanks both.

  5. 6:50. Definitely on tougher side. Yes, I was looking for flora for a while at REFINERY. I think KRIS might be tough in terms of GK. I only know it from visits to Indonesia, and the self-stabbing frenzies in the Barong dance.

  6. 12:36, much helped by getting 1A and 1D straight away, which represents a fast completion for me for a setter I often find at the more challenging end of the spectrum. DK Jacob was a type of sheep, so EWER a bit of a guess, but otherwise this went smoothly. And for once I did spot the 4 seasons NINA.

    Many thanks John for the blog and I look forward to the double ration of Sunday Specials.

  7. I’m up and about early today undertaking a 400 mile round car trip, so I completed this very early morning. Perhaps an early start agrees with me as I finished under target at 9.02. Bearing in mind our bloggers comment on how tough this was, and the evidence of a couple of early times posted, I think I was right on Cheeko’s wavelength.
    A couple of blips on the way where I initially biffed VICAR for 18dn after seeing the starting V, and carelessly put UNCLEAR in for 12ac. Both were soon corrected and I finished with a SPRING in my step after putting in NUCLEAR.
    My total time for the week was 48.46, giving me a daily average of 9.45.

  8. A technical DNF as we resorted to testing the odd letter to unpick occupation as the clock passed 25. Like Tina, but not as quick, got through the LHS pretty easily then really held up on the right.

    Thanks Cheeko and John

  9. Slunk into the SCC having spent a long time starting, few on first sweep.
    Suspect we covered more ground than most, merrily running up every garden path (took a while to twig that Adder=summer, Vivaldi=scorer, Refinery = plant).
    NHO KRIS or Jacob the sheep.
    Very enjoyable puzzle. Blog needed (EWER, VIVALDI, MOVABLE, KRIS).
    Thank you Cheeko and JohnInterred.

  10. A good Friday workout with the right hand side of the grid proving much tougher than the left.

    Fortunately I knew the sheep as that had potential to cause a lot of problems but OCCUPATION, NUCLEAR and LOI, the unknown, KRIS proved a lot more stubborn (although all were fairly clued).

    Finished in an over par 9.41 with COD to SPRING.
    Thanks to John and Cheeko

  11. Lots to enjoy but a bit too tough for a quickie in my opinion (kris and jacob for example are very obscure)
    I think the clue for verge is a mistake. A clergyman is someone who is ordained, a verger wouldn’t normally be. Thanks all.

  12. NHO JACOB (meaning sheep), VIVA or KRIS, though it was the last of these that killed my chances of completion, somewhat ironically.

    Pi ❤️

  13. I was so desperate at one time that I wondered if tinsel might be consider elaborate decoration and if ‘retinsel’ might be a plant. Slowly worked it all out but PRINCESS, REFINERY (love it), MOVABLE and SPRING took a long time. Spring took ages because I joined the careless unclear gang and it took a long time to consider that it might not be correct. Annoying because I’ve seen Hinkley Point C from the top of the Quantocks most days this week. All green in 20.50.

  14. DNF
    Just could not see OCCUPATION, which now looks simple. Spent ages on AMASS as well. NHO KRIS, and didn’t understand Jacob=sheep.

    With two checkers I biffed TINKERBELL for my pantomime character.

    For once I saw the Nina, and put two of them in straight away. I have never noticed that they all have six letters.

    For those complaining that a verger is not a clergyman, “churchman” would have worked nicely.

  15. 16:22 Bedazzled by refinery of princess and taking an age to spot Kris sums it up. Ewer half parsed and round if applause for the elegant nuclear
    Ta JAC

  16. 13:47. I spotted the Nina after two seasons, so 4d and 17d were write-ins.
    Delayed at the end by ATTITUDE.
    Same MER over VERGER as everyone else.

    Thanks John and Cheeko

  17. Darn, again forgot to go back and try and solve KRIS. NHO?
    Amazingly I saw the NINA half way through, but this was a slow exhausting solve.
    Liked EWER, TRANSEPT, VIVALDI, among others. Jacob sheep graze in field behind us.
    Yes, MER at VERGER = clergyman, but Vicar didn’t work.
    Thanks vm, John.

  19. 6:31

    NHO KRIS, and VIVA and JACOB only tentatively known. Saw the nina early enough to confidently fill in the two missing seasons without much fuss. Only (short) delay was in wondering what 7d could be…

    Thanks John and Cheeko

  20. Eight after 20 minutes. 15 after 30 minutes, those seven mostly bifd using crossers including Cinderella from just the two Es and Princess from the P and the C. The eight included the four seasons. I had to do a viva voce at the University of Reading to get my 2:2 in Molecular Physics but I still didn’t get nuclear.

  21. Very clever, but also very difficult: completed after about two hours. NHO sheep Jacob. After the other three seasons it had to be SUMMER but couldn’t see where the adder fits in, thank you, John, I see it now! Mrs M is an Indonesianist so KRIS is familiar in this house.

  23. Well beaten by this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. A lot of it went in reasonably quickly but I had to engage in hand to hand combat with the last defenders – KRIS (NHO), NUCLEAR, ATTITUDE (that was a self-inflicted difficulty because after trying to think what could possibly end U~W I realised that I had typed NO SEWAT …) and LOI OCCUPATION. I just didn’t realise that it was a DD and was working away at non-existent wordplay.

    So well played Cheeko, great fun and that which does not kill me makes me stronger. Got there in 12:19 for a Too Good For Me Day. Thanks for the blog, John, and for spotting the Nina for me.

  24. Completed in 19 minutes but with a typo (for some reason I put in gris at 9ac although I knew and had parsed the correct answer). Biffed quite a number from checkers (attitude, winter, ewer, Cinderella and verge – a MER at the latter). NHO Jacob meaning sheep. I didn’t look for a Nina and, true to form, didn’t spot it.

    FOI – 1ac PRINCESS
    LOI – 23ac EWER
    COD- 8ac REFINERY. Also liked SUMMER

    Thanks to Cheeko and John

  25. Always look forward to a Cheeko, but this one almost undid me! Spent ages on the relatively simple ATTITUDE and OCCUPATION. I guess I wasn’t expecting a pair of double definitions and was overthinking. No other problems – I liked EWER, didn’t parse CINDERELLA and missed the Nina, naturally, though found it as soon as John mentioned it. KRIS was known, but NUCLEAR took a while to sort out, especially without the C crosser. Thanks, John and Cheeko.

  26. 6.53

    Tough. Definitely stuff in here that could be in the main fare (w/p and vocab). Liked NO SWEAT PERHAPS and SUMMER.

    Thanks John and Cheeko.

  27. DNF

    Well. I saw the Nina after SUMMER and AUTUMN but that was as good as it got.

    A rare double failure. NHO KRIS, thought king might be sire so returned it to get the made up eris. Struggled in the SE corner with AMASS and ATTITUDE causing real problems but my second fail was OCCUPATION, with hindsight fairly straightforward but didn’t see it and put accusation simply because it fit.

  28. 22:40 for my solve which was all but done at ten mins except AMASS, OCCUPATION and ATTITUDE which needed some trawls. Got SUMMER and AUTUMN on first parse and knew Cheeko has form for Ninas so immediately added SPRING and WINTER then VIVALDI plopped in on the next Across clue.

    Tentative about the the NHOs (Jacob producing EWER and KRIS) which completed my first ever clean sweep for a month. 27/27 puzzles with an avg of 13min31 which had almost a minute taken off it by the 10+min holdups of today and yesterday’s Izetti. Other visits to the SCC provided by Joker and Asp.

    Thanks to JohnI for the blog and Cheeko. Have a good weekend everybody 👍

  29. I thought it was going to be tough after getting only 4 on the first across pass, but all but 2 went in on the first down pass and they all tumbled in after that. DNK Kris or Jacob being a sheep but wordplay was clear. Winter was a gimme after getting summer and autumn, leaving only 16d as loi. Very enjoyable thanks Cheeko and John.

  30. Stared at the puzzle for a while before getting FOI PERHAPS.
    Then was pretty quick finishing in 11 minutes; LOI ATTITUDE.
    I liked this; just at the right level of difficulty for me, although I thought KRIS might cause some problems.
    COD to REFINERY for the misdirection.
    David

  31. 16:39 for me felt destined for SCC but slight change in mindset and they started dropping in. This was a great puzzle from Cheeko – really testing without resorting to obscurity. A few not fully parsed so looking forward to reading Johns blog in a leisurely fashion.

  32. My thanks to Cheeko and Johninterred.
    Quite hard for a QC. Missed the NINA as always, thanks Johninterred.
    1a Princess, took a while to find the INCome bit.
    8a Refinery, yes I too was seeking a plant.
    22a Attitude I found “antagonistic” misleading. But it is justifiable if you squint.
    18d Verge(r), agree misleading, no justification IMHO.

  33. Jacob’s ‘mate’ worked on another level for me. Rachel, one Jacob’s wives, means ‘ewe’ in (biblical) Hebrew. I know this only because it’s my name and I was given a mug as a present which explains its derivation! 😆 Much to like in this lovely QC including NO SWEAT, NUCLEAR and VIVALDI. Many thanks John and Cheeko.

    1. Ewe/Rachel – that’s lovely!
      We need a word or phrase for getting to the right answer through the wrong route. Suggestions??

  34. DNF.
    Vivaldi was not the scorer here :

    CHEEKO 1. GORDON KENNEDY 0

    But there will be other games.

  35. Unusually for me I got off to a flying start with this one, then came unstuck by OCCUPATION, NUCLEAR and ATTITUDE. Finally cracked NUCLEAR which led me to the other two, finishing in a slightly over-average 16:33.

    It’s interesting that so many people (including myself) struggled with OCCUPATION, because in hindsight it seems rather obvious. I think it may just be that there’s stuff in there that looks like wordplay but isn’t (“Find a word for ‘job’ and one for ‘control’, then stick them under an A to get a foreign power”).

    Thank you for the blog!

  36. I thought Cheeko had turned a new leaf, as I looked forward to a comfy seat with just the last four to get: Nuclear, Occupation, Amass and Attitude. No such luck. Nuclear Occupation (ironic, given it describes the bulk of my working life) finally prompted Amass, but even then the straightforward Attitude ensured a nod to the 30min post was in order. CoD to Infer(no) – I do sometimes idly wonder if a circle is reserved for Setters 😉 Invariant

  37. 19.32 Mostly fine until ATTITUDE, NUCLEAR and OCCUPATION held me up for ten minutes at the end. Thanks John and Cheeko.

  38. What a lovely Nina! My subconscious mind must have liked this QC because of it.
    Thanks to our blogger for parsing the Verge clue.

  39. 27 mins…

    Took a while, but I got there. Even though it was on the harder side, there were some great clues: my COD 18ac “Vivaldi”, 17dn “Winter” and 12ac “Nuclear” come to mind.

    FOI – 2dn “Infer”
    LOI – 10dn “Occupation”
    COD – 18ac “Vivaldi”

    Thanks as usual!

  40. Wow. Seriously difficult. Gave up after 25 minutes as that is my limit for a QC. Thought this was probably a little hard for a QC but “ sic friat crustulum “

    1. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles” is an odd enough expression without translation into Latin 😉

  41. First time I’ve spotted a nina. Tough but fun with SE corner being the slowest. Was helped by remembering being unimpressed with summer for adder the last time it came up.
    FOI Princess
    LOI Refinery
    COD Occupation was neat once the penny dropped

    thanks both

  42. 21.37
    Only 2 on the first across pass and 4 on the first downs.
    NHO of KRIS or VIVA bunging in the latter with fingers crossed.
    Took a while to stop trying to think of flora that fitted in 8ac and realise 10d was a double definition – nice misdirection – very clever.
    Another enjoyable education.
    FOI: SPOT
    LOI: NUCLEAR
    COD: REFINERY/OCCUPATION (Am I allowed 2?)

    Thanks to Cheeko and John

  43. 17:27 for me, a couple of minutes above my average. Lots to like, although I totally missed the Nina while solving.

    Thanks to Cheeko and John.

  44. LHS a (SUMMER) breeze. RHS much tougher. LOI OCCUPATION and I guessed KRIS. 9:54. Thanks John

  45. Four seasons very clever, didn’t see it. Much more exercised by shuffling a single letter to get NUCLEAR, not very good at this trick. Now this churchman, he’s the ‘Janny’, if you can translate you won’t be CofE! Liked the clue though, thanks Cheeko and all week.

  46. We joined many others it seems in having taken an age to see both LOI OCCUPATION and ATTITUDE. NUCLEAR also held us up for a long while. If it were not for those three our 16:46 might well have been in the 10 – 11 minute range. Nice one, Cheeko, and thank you, John.

  47. I started off very well and got to my last four (REFINERY, OCCUPATION, AMASS and NUCLEAR) in about 10 minutes and thought: ‘Ooh, Cheeko’s being a bit kinder today’ but then – breezeblock! I went off and did lots of jobs and came back about four hours later to finish in less than a minute. It’s just bizarre, and apart from my LOI, I don’t know why I made such heavy weather of them.
    All the same, I thought this was good fun, and what with all the news today, the surface for 1a seemed particularly appropriate 😅 I twigged the Jacob’s sheep connection at 23a straightaway and PARVENU made me giggle.
    11:47 inc the break FOI Spot LOI Nuclear COD Ewer
    Thanks Cheeko and John
    I’m now waiting for the first trick and treaters, but the weather is not so good, so I wonder if we’ll see many.

    1. Expected you to be out with your black cat tonight 🤣

      I too thought the surface of 1A was kind of topical .

  48. What a great puzzle. Took me best part of 30 mins. Spotting the Nina helped. Thanks Jack and Cheeko

  50. Lots of biffing. Some (!) use of the check button so a DNF but limped home in 35 mins.

    Lots of stuff that was new such as scored for composer. Got Vivaldi but couldn’t see how it fitted the definition. NHO KRIS and forgot all about Jacob sheep. GOT NUCLEAR with crossers but the need to find a synonym for ambiguous and then to move letters about was a first for me ( or would have been if I could have parsed it).
    Disliked verger = clergyman. BTW Cheeko, Clergy can be female as well.
    COD: OCCUPATION

    Thanks for the blog John.

    No trick or treaters tonight. Might be something to do with the torrential rain. Strange that – would have thought the rain would have added to the spooky ambience – though I admit a sopping wet witch or ghoul wouldn’t seem so scary.

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