Times Quick Cryptic No 64 by Grumpy

Author   macavity123Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Solving time: Easier end of scale.

A nice pleasant stroll today in the company of Grumpy. Nothing terribly complex, although I did wonder if 13 across should have had A in the clue as well (“A profit, which would equate to A GAIN).

I think this will go down well with our newer solvers.

Across
1 ATYPICAL – Definition is non-standard. A + anagram (variety) of CLAY PIT.
6 DROP – Double definition. A word for a small amount and to cast off /throw away.
8 SCAR – Def = mark. S (singular) + CAR (vehicle).
9 MANDRILL – Big Baboon = def. CHAP (Man) + DRILL (exercise).
10 DISAGREE – Don’t see eye-to-eye = def. An anagrasm (unfortunately) of REG & SADIE.
11 IDOL – An object of veneration = def. I (1) + DOL (half dollar).
13 AGAIN AND AGAIN – Repeatedly = def. A GAIN + Profit. Repeatedly = add another. Perhaps clue here should also indicate A?
16 ANNA – Karenin’s wife = def. The name is a palindrome.
17 FIRST AID – Emergency treatment = def. FIR (Tree) + STAID (Respectable).
19 CAST IRON – Unassailable = def. A STIR (a prison) inside CON (prisoner).
21 MEAD – Drink made from honey = def. E (energy) inside MAD (nuts).
22 DRAW – Sketch = def. Reverse WARD (backward).
24 ONE-LINER – Joke = def. ON (ABOUT) + E (energy) + LINER (passenger ship).

Down
2 TACKING ON – Adding = def. O (nothing) + N (new) goes after TACKING (Changing course in sailing).
3 PARKA – Coat = def. PARK (recreation place) + A (area)
4 CUMBRIA – Northern county = def. C (Cold) + UMBRIA (Region in Italy).
5 LANCE – Weapon = def. A word often placed in front of Corporal to give another rank.
6 DARLING – L (Head of lettuce) inside DARING (Bold).
7 OWL – Bird of prey = def. First letters (originally) of OBSERVED, WITHOUT and LIGHTS.
12 ORIGINATE – Start = def. An anagram (changing) of INTO GEAR I.
14 IN A STEW – Double definition. To be beside oneself and where you’d find beef and dumplings!
15 DERANGE – Disorder = def. An anagram (goes off) of GRENADE.
17 FORGO – Give up = def. FOR (on account of) + GO (square on Monopoly board).
18 TEMPI – Musical speeds =def. Hidden inside First Empire.
20 AIR – Song = def. (P)AIR -a word for a duo without the first letter.

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 64 by Grumpy”

  1. 4:40, so definitely an easier one (especially compared to yesterday’s). I agree on 13ac; the absence of A slowed me down some. 17d was my LOI; I was–unnecessarily, as it turned out–worried that this was going to refer to some street on the UK version of the game, which I wouldn’t know. And I realize these quickies are intended for newcomers, but 16ac struck me as a bit too easy.
    1. Congrats on as stunning time on today’s Concise. I was pleased with my time (albeit double yours) until I – a non-cocktail drinker – discovered that I had invented a new one, the ‘Cosmological’! (I had actually heard of the real one.)
  2. A very enjoyable 9 minutes on this one which came as something of a relief after yesterday’s ‘stinker’.
  3. 4 minutes 20 – my fastest ever! Big morale boost after yesterday’s miserable effort.
    Don’t agree about 13ac – it doesn’t necessarily need the indefinite article. You talk about “profit and loss” not “a profit and a loss”, so “profit” can mean “a gain” in its own right.
  4. Around 20 minutes. Fastest one of the week for me. Yesterdays took twice as long…

    Eurc.

  5. 16 mins all my myself! I like the misnamed Grumpy’s creations 🙂
    Excellent blog, thanks, Macavity, it certainly went down well with me.
    I think ANNA is OK as a clue – is your solver on the Clapham omnibus going to be into Tolstoy?
    LOI CAST IRON I sort of solved clockwise. I have a battle for COD between FIRST AID for the groan factor or MANDRILL for the fast solve – I’m in to Munk1s 🙂 On balance, the former gets it.

  6. A much happier outcome today. I finished all but TACKING ON, SCAR and CUMBRIA in exactly 1 hour! but then it took me the whole of breakfast to finish the rest (although I stupidly till had ICON instead of IDOL).

    I’m still regularly stumbling round in the dark trying to find many of the answers. For example, I put in CUMBRIA because it is a northern county. I know that Umbria is a region of Italy and I know that “C” is often indicated by “cold” in the clue, but it took me many more minutes till it dawned on me why CUMBRIA was right!

    Can you tell me, are clues regularly repeated? When you’ve done this a lot, is it common to recognise a clue you’ve seen before? I can’t help feeling that there must be finite amount of good wordplay.

    1. There is no limit to cluing possibilities . The same answers do turn up at times but the clues are rarely repeated verbatim in the Times.
    2. Another icon here. My only defence is that clueing dol as half of dollar doesn’t really seem very cryptic.
    3. It is rare for an actual clue to be repeated, but you may find certain answers popping up repeatedly because they contain useful “checkers” in crossword grids i.e. letters which are useful in answers that cross it. You will also frequently find many of the components and conventions of the questions repeated e.g. “banker” = river,(which is often “Po”), “number” = anaesthetic (frequently “ether”), “feature” = prominent part of the face (usually “chin”). This forum is an excellent source for learning about these. After a while some become second (“s” or “mo”) nature, though there are still times where the answer is simply staring you in the face – I’m continually forgetting that “key” can not only be any letter from a to e (musical) but also ESC or ALT (as in keyboard).
      You will also find these conventions wax and wane in popularity such that one compiler will find a cunning way of expressing part of a clue and it’s then taken up by others so that it becomes orthodoxy for a while.
      Hope this helps.
  7. When referring to time taken to complete the grid. Am I unusual in feeling disappointed when I finish quickly?
    Yesterdays which took much longer to solve, felt far more satisfying.

    Eurc.

  8. About three and a half minutes for this puzzle so definitely at the easier end of the spectrum. It usually helps when 1ac goes in straight away. FORGO was my LOI.
  9. Definitely at the easy end of the spectrum – quite a relief after yesterday!

    It must be devilishly tricky for the setters to work out where to pitch the Quickie in terms of “degree of difficulty”. Today’s was probably ideal for the authentic newbie, whilst being fairly straightforward for those (like me) who are in the limbo land between Quickie and main (sometimes knock out the main, but often it leaves me totally bemused). And for the seasoned campaigners who knock over the main in half an hour (or less!) this would have been Olympians tackling the Under 10’s gym circuit.

    Golf works so well as a sport because the handicap system allows players of wildly divergent abilities to have a good competitive game together. Ulaca might play off scratch and get down in 3, I might play off 14 and get down in 4, and docbee might play off 25 and get down in 6 – and it would all be pretty close as a competition. And we would all ultimately get the ball in the hole.

    But with crosswords it’s very different. The handicap concept can work up to a point (as stated before, I aspire to be within 3 times jackkt’s completion time – it’s just a metric I’ve developed based on empirical observation over the last 4 months since joining this site). However, if you can’t get the ball in the hole at all, it gets very frustrating.

    Not sure what the best approach is, but I offer this somewhat rambling comment as a start point for discussion.

  10. Solving cryptics is a game of two halves. On Monday I was sick as a parrot but on Tuesday I was over the moon.

    Hopefully from next week England can avoid everything to do with yesterday’s 3d

  11. I’m thrilled! I recognise it was easier than several of late, but I still feel a proper sense of achievement to have the first one under my belt.

    Totally agree with Nick the Novice: it’s must be very difficult for setters to pitch it right; and it’s nigh on impossible for a crossword to generate the type of multi-ability competition enjoyed by golf.

    But, in a round about way, the quickie does support competitive crosswording (apologies – terrible phrase) because it generates a whole host of new “players”. Before now, the world of the Times cryptic was completely shut off to me even because I had no guidance about how to break into it. The introduction of the quickie has been an absolute delight, and I’m determined one day to get good enough to join the big boys (and girls) tackling the main one.

    incidentally, apropos of nothing but seeing as I’m posting a rambling comment anyway, I thought I’d mention that: I’m old school, and I still do it every day with a biro on the paper version. I know I’m in the minority but I just love doing it that way.

    Thank you for indulging my long comment, and for the excellent support and blogs!

    1. Well done. I cut my teeth on the Telegraph crossword and it was a long time before I completed one correctly.
  12. And second this week! So I am definitely improving, although long train journeys this week gave me more time. Both completions this week took nearly an hour so I will apply the handicap scale and not get too upset when I read that some measure their completions in minutes rather than hours!
    I’ve been following the blog since the beginning and am very grateful for the help and explanations they contain. Many, many thanks to the bloggers! I am finally finding a way into the cryptics. I hope one day to graduate to the grown up version, but based on today’s attempt, that is a long way off!

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