Times Quick Cryptic No 858 by Rongo

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Towards the gentler end of things from Rongo today, with the long anagrams at 1ac/1d opening things up nicely. I came in a bit under the 9 minute mark, almost to the second the same time as Tuesday’s, which I did immediately beforehand. I really liked 20d, but clue of the day to 14ac – a fine example of the Six-Word Story: a tragicomic epic writ small, but unfortunately the sequel (6d) all got a bit self-referential. So yes, a nice, breezy, very enjoyable puzzle – many thanks to Rongo!

Across
1 Unruly, awkward spouse Robert (12)
OBSTREPEROUS: Anagram (awkward) of SPOUSE ROBERT.
8 After church, former queen left a means of communication (7)
CHANNEL: CH(urch) ANNE (former queen), L(eft)
9 America backed desperate character in African republic (5)
SUDAN: SU (US/America backing) DAN (as in Desperate Dan)
10 Secrete 24th letter you had read out (5)
EXUDE: read out X, YOU’D.
11 About to start tennis book (7)
RESERVE: RE (about) SERVE (start in tennis)
12 Silly person taking article away from Belgian port (5)
TWERP: take AN (article) from ANTWERP (Belgian port)
14 Mother’s in an outhouse, drunk (7)
SMASHED: MA’S (mother’s) in SHED (outhouse)
15 Cockney’s “titfer” to give now (2,7)
AT PRESENT: Cockney’s hat =  ‘AT ; PRESENT (give)
17 Digit pointing in the direction of East (3)
TOE: To (in the direction of) E(ast)
19 Reckless stirring of prisoners’ bile (13)
IRRESPONSIBLE: anagram (stirring) of PRISONERS BILE
21 Outspoken sample of Anglican didacticism (6)
CANDID: a sample of the letters of AngliCAN DIDacticism
22 Sympathy about the end of Rome’s Holiness (5)
PIETY: PITY (sympathy) about E (end of Rome)

Down
1 Where players sit before stage — unusual to arch-priest (9,3)
ORCHESTRA PIT: anagram (unusual) of TO ARCH PRIEST
2 Any of USA’s territories accepting Utah law (7)
STATUTES: STATES (any of USA’s territories) accepting UT(ah).
3 Wash out bottom of basin during getting-up process (5)
RINSE: N (bottom of basin) during RISE (getting-up process)
4 Italian river and lake are almost like the Arctic, say (5)
POLAR: PO (italian river) and L(ake), AR (ARe, almost)
5 Uncooperative Laurel, maybe, interrupts second attempt at exam (9)
RESISTANT: STAN (Laurel, for example) interrupts RESIT (second attempt at exam)
6 14 across, not above board (5,3,5)
UNDER THE TABLE: double definition, I suppose, although I’ve never heard anyone say “I was royally under the table last night.”
7 Mean home nurse (6)
INTEND: IN (home) TEND (nurse)
13 Earnest requests before editor is happy (7)
PLEASED:PLEAS (earnest requests) before ED(itor)
14 Desperate, so tried bodybuilder’s short cut? (7)
STEROID: anagram (desperate) of SO TRIED
16 Coat for cold weather in grounds for public recreation area (5)
PARKA: PARK (grounds for public recreation) A(rea)
18 Soldiers captured by you no longer turned up as opposition (5)
ENEMY: MEN (soldiers) captured by YE (you no longer), reversed/turned up
20 Weaken gullible person’s vigour (3)
SAP: the lesser-seen triple definition – always welcome in my books: a verb, a noun, an abstract noun. Very nice.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 858 by Rongo”

  1. I was fortunate in being able to spot the long anagrams without writing down the letters; they provided lots of checkers, of course. I don’t care for cross-referencing clues in the first place, but all the less in the Quickies, although I suppose that these puzzles should give newcomers a taste of every type of clue. ‘Titfer’ may be troublesome to non-UK solvers; I knew it, but had forgotten it. On the other hand, from a Murcan point of view, territories are precisely what the 50 states are not. Some really lovely surfaces today: 19ac, 13d, 14d, and especially as Roly says, 14ac. 4:04.
  2. 38 minutes, got held up by putting referee for a tennis book?! but once I had corrected that, the LOI resistant resisted no more.

    15a was unparsed, I had titfer tat being some kind of tit for tat, losing the t, with present.

    CsOD reserve and smashed.

    20d, I bet the setter was itching to have
    backward father’s tree fluid to weaken gullible person’s vigour

    😊

    Edited at 2017-06-22 08:20 am (UTC)

  3. I found this to be at the easier end of the scale and completed it in 12 minutes. I did try making up a new word ‘Potor’ for 4d but it didn’t sound right even to me. The number of long anagrams certainly helped me along today. LOI 10a, COD 14a.
  4. About 9 mins allowing for some interruptions.
    I have heard of “drinking someone under the table” so guessed 6d fairly easily and that gave me 14a as I had originally thought that drunk was an anagrind
  5. at 1ac WOD – onomatopoeic curmudgeonliness……!

    COD 19ac IRRESPONSIBLE.

    I was home in 8.34 thus slightly easier than usual.

    Nice to see Desperate Dan get a mention!

    I don’t like cross references even in the 15×15 – all clues should stand by themselves.


  6. Bit more of a workout for me today, despite quick start with 1a and 1d, but got there in the end.
    LOI, 12a caused me the most trouble as I couldn’t think of any Belgian ports except Ostend (which may or may not be in Belgium for all i know but, in any case, doesn’t contain an article!) What a T-E-P I was until I got it.

    COD 11a for its topicality. I’m hoping Andy Murray can recoup!

    Thanks to Rongo and Roly

  8. 8 minutes. No problems apart from immediately thinking “green room” for 1dn before I read the enumeration. After that it was hard for a while to get my mind from backstage into the front of house.
  9. A slow 34 minutes here, with 1ac and 19ac responsible for a disproportionate part of that. Spotting the anagram is one thing, being able to work it out is something else. My CoD is 18d, easy enough to biff, but the parsing was more of a challenge. Invariant
  10. I was also slow to get the anagrams, apart from 1d which we’ve had recently elsewhere, as I didn’t bother with pen and paper. I couldn’t bring the Belgian port to mind for a while either. I eventually finished in 11:22 which is slower than usual for me. No complaints though. I don’t mind the occasional cross referential clue, but I don’t like them as a regular occurrence. Thanks Rongo and Roly.
  11. This was a joy, a real confidence builder for me as I finished it in 20 minutes. My only problems were RESERVE and INTEND – didn’t get the meaning of book, and was thinking of average for mean. Some great clues, 8ac being another nice example of a short story. Thanks Roly and Rongo 🙂
  12. Nice puzzle (Rongo), nice blog (Roly) which occupied me for less than 10 minutes but provided plenty of entertainment in that time. My biggest problem was remembering how to spell OBSTREPEROUS, which was clearly the answer. I also had no problems with the ‘drunk’ synonyms, or the linked clues. It is usually the linked clues which end in ‘…’ where the next one starts with ‘…’ that I fail to understand or enjoy.
  13. 4 out of 5 for me this week…let’s hope tomorrow doesn’t spoil it.

    All went in fairly easily apart from 1ac which I managed to work out (but didn’t know if it was right) and 4dn which was biffed. Didn’t know “tifter” either, but that was also worked out.

    Having just been to Belgium I should have known 13ac, but kept thinking of Ostend and anything else on the coast around there until I had enough fillers to work it out.

    Liked the use of “ye” in 18dn which I’ve not seen before.

    FOI 14ac, LOI 4dn and COD 5dn for the reference to Stan Laurel.

    DR31

    Thanks as usual to the blogger and setter.

  14. 30 minutes – my best time ever. Thanks to setter and blogger, I really enjoyed it. Diana.
  15. A bit of a struggle in parts. FOI 7dn, so I’m beginning to get the hang of some of the clues, at least.
    No problem with Antwerp, got 18d and 5d but couldn’t workout the wordplay.
  16. Did this the old-fashioned way after trying online for the last week or so and reinforced my view I do them quicker on paper by knocking nearly 2 minutes off my best time in the last week. But maybe I was helped by spotting the long anagrams straight away. Favourite is 15a, but I did enjoy OBSTREPEROUS getting an outing. Thanks for the link to the 6 word story, rolytoly. I’d never heard of it, but you are right – a clue like that is always satisfying in my book too. Thanks to Rongo too for a fun puzzle. 3:38.
  18. Took a bit of time to get into this one (FOI was 14 ac) but picked up later and finished in 52:36 to knock over five minutes off yesterday’s effort. Still in awe of the sub-10 minuters.
    Crispian

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