Times Quick Cryptic No 978 by Teazel

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A slightly tricky puzzle today from Teazel, I found – it took me a good couple of minutes over my target ten to get the cherished “Unlucky!” sign. Presumably an image of Trump was to blame, as I’d bunged in “orange” for 4d, vaguely dissatisfied with the notion that “range” could be clued by “age”, and forgot to come back to it. Less likely still was the verb “to orange” for “to tan”, but it did lead me to the brilliant business idea of a chain of oranging salons for his legions of fans and superfans… apricatriots, that’s what we’ll call our orange-star patrons. Lots of good clues: I particularly liked 11ac, with its relevant surface reading, and the smooth wordplay of “firm centre”; 13ac as well, after I parsed it; and “romantic hero” was a very nice disguise at 14d. Many thanks to Teazel!

Across
7 Demolishing wings, smash large masonry (6)
ASHLAR – demolish the wing letters of smASH LARge. If I knew this word, I’d forgotten it: large, squared-off stonework.
8 Think about a child (6)
REASON – RE (about) A SON (a child)
9 Worker at first refuses drink (4)
BEER – BEE (worker) R (first refuses)
10 As horse move quickly round one’s box (8)
CANISTER – CANTER (as horse move quickly) round I’S (one’s)
11 Material giving firm centre when poured (8)
CONCRETE – Co. (firm) ; anagram (poured) of CENTRE.
13 Long hold-up after the start (4)
ITCH – HITCH (hold-up), after the start of which lies the answer. Long = pine, itch, etc.
15 I make large statue to worship (4)
IDOL – I DO (I make) L(arge)
16 Get crazier puzzle (8)
BEWILDER – as a command: be wilder! = get crazier!
18 Made a fuss after coat wrinkled (8)
FURROWED – ROWED (made a fuss) after FUR (coat)
20 Plan to put pound in kitty (4)
PLOT – put L (pound) in POT (kitty) 
21 Pay no attention to region on travels (6)
IGNORE – Anagram (on travels) of REGION.
22 Parrots and one rook escaping from HGVs (6)
LORIES – LORRIES (HGVs) with one R(ook) escaping.

Down
1 For exercise, rides to a distant rock (8)
ASTEROID – anagram (for exercise) RIDES TO A.
2 Some mistyping by the vicar? (8,5)
CLERICAL ERROR – cryptic definnition.
3 Old group of people around back of small shrine (6)
ORACLE – O(ld) RACE (group of people) around the back letter of smalL – it can be the site as well as the actual priest/ess.
4 Get a tan in old age (6)
BRONZE – cryptic hint: old age = Bronze age. 
5 Book chap’s meadow to leave car (9,4)
MANSFIELD PARK – MANS (chap’s) FIELD (meadow) PARK (leave car)
6 European found at the end of the earth? (4)
POLE – double definition
12 Draw in cup game (3)
TIE – double definition
14 Romantic hero keen to hide American (8)
CHEROKEE – romantiC HERO KEen craftily hides the answer.
16 One taking over hat (6)
BOWLER – double definition – over in cricket.
17 Become confused, following women’s swaying walk (6)
WADDLE – W(omen) ADDLE (become confused)
19 Press crumpled rug with energy (4)
URGE – anagram (crumpled) of RUG with E(nergy)

27 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 978 by Teazel”

  1. Well this was something of a first for me, at 42 minutes my worst ever QC solving time other than a couple of occasions when I nodded off with the clock still ticking.

    I had the two long Down answers early on and the lower half went in easily enough apart from a slight delay thinking about 22ac and working out LORIES from wordplay. But in the top half there were five clues that baffled me almost beyond belief.

    I’ve not really any excuse for my problems with the three in the NE corner (BRONZE, POLE and REASON) other than they intersected which deprived me of important checkers.

    But I think the two in the NW were both obscure in their way, even for a 15×15, ASHLAR just as a word, and ORACLE for its definition ‘shrine’ which is only mentioned in one of the the usual sources that I have consulted (Collins), whereas the Oxfords have simply ‘place’ (where the oracle is situated) and Chambers has, a shade more helpfully, ‘holy place’.

    Further on ASHLAR, it has come up only twice before in the standard 15×15, both in 2008 when for one of them I was the duty blogger and didn’t know it then either. It reappeared in one of Dean’s Sunday puzzles in 2012 (still didn’t know it), and twice in Mephistos (I don’t, i.e. can’t, do these).

    Having been thoroughly humbled if not actually disgraced by this appalling (for me) performance I immediately set about today’s main puzzle and polished it off in 32 minutes, so that was another first for me, beating my QC solving time (by 10 minutes).

    Edited at 2017-12-07 10:46 am (UTC)

  2. I empathise with jackkt – this took me around 22 minutes, twice my usual target and 2 minutes less than my time for today’s 15×15. I think I only had about 3 answers after my initial pass so I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Yet there were some pretty clever clues: 8a, 16a & 2d are worthy of a mention. But is a CANISTER really a box? 20a FOI, 1d LOI.

    Edited at 2017-12-07 09:20 am (UTC)

    1. Same experience as you and Jack. This was the first time I’ve found the day’s main Cryptic infinitely easier than the Quickie. Some very clever clues and tricky vocabulary.

      I agree with you about the slightly dodgy definition of CANISTER as “box”. Both are containers but the first is usually made of metal and the second of wood or cardboard. Still, perhaps we are being too nitpicking.

  3. I was apprehensive when I saw that this one was a Teasel with the worst possible grid. I gave up on it very quickly, and after reading the blog and jackkt’s comment I’m not surprised. Over the two or three years I’ve been doing the QC I’ve got my target down to 25 minutes, but this was like starting all over again. I don’t mind the odd difficult puzzle but this grid should be banned from the QC!

    Brian

  4. I struggled today as well, having managed under 10 minutes yesterday. If I can’t get an answer I like to be able to say ‘fair cop’ because I could or should have got there. Have to agree with much of the above though. The clue for oracle was fair, but it was for a very obscure usage. The clue for Ashlar was very difficult for, in this case, a very obscure word – I’d be surprised if many got it. So today I’m left feeling miffed!
    1. Ashlar was one of the few clues I could get – but, as an ex-cilvil engineer, it’s a familair word and I saw it as a simple hidden clue after I got the the ‘S’ and the ‘L’. I had no idea what the demolishing wings was all about.

      As for the rest, I managed about a third and most of those from the defs and no real idea how they were parsed. I gave up about half done – far too hard for me and no fun at all…

  5. I’m usually a plodder around 15-20 minutes, but this took me 46 minutes and I had to resort to aids for, of all clues, Cherokee! So it really did seem like a genuine transition towards the 15×15 which so far has been a distant dream for me.

    Thanks to setter and blogger. Though 12 minutes for this seemed indecent haste!

    Neil

  6. 49 minutes for me eventually, having resorted to a thesaurus for an alternative to masonry, and bunging in Itch without parsing it. Glad to read that it wasn’t just me who found it difficult. I have a vague memory of a discussion about Oracle being a place as well as a person a few months ago.
  7. Official time 2hr 33!!
    I had most done after 30 minutes, then lots of breaks and interruptions. Had to keep returning to get my last two, the crossing pair Cherokee and itch. Cherokee was really well hidden.

    Also ashlar, plot, Mansfield park and oracle held me up.

    Oracle in this form came up in the QC 20 Feb 2017 clued as
    Old people, about fifty, in shrine (6)

    Really don’t like the wording in 10a “as horse move quickly”
    It could have been: The way a horse runs round one’s box. Or

    A cretins fishy box.

    Recast in fabricated box.

    Wacky Races tin box.

    COD Bowler or Mansfield park.

    Edited at 2017-12-07 09:59 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for not pointing it out, Flashman, but I feel duty bound to own up to being the blogger for that particular puzzle and I said it was an obscure meaning then too. So much for learning from past difficulties! The checked letters were the same on that occasion as today so the grid didn’t have any bearing, but unlike today I probably had the R-checker in place so the word came more readily to mind as something that fitted, without my knowing that it could mean a shrine.
  8. After feeling very pleased with myself after aceing yesterday’s very tricky 15×15, I approached this QC with hubristic confidence … and then CRASH! That’ll teach me.
    No single clue stood out as particularly difficult but it was nearly 20’ before I crawled over the line. Good puzzle but definitely at the difficult end of the QC spectrum. Many thanks to S & B.
  9. The toughest for a while. After 15 minutes I put it down to go shopping having only answered 5 or 6 clues. I struggled to get a foothold in the NW until I finally spotted the anagram at 1d. My LOIs were the 13/14 intersection which nearly caused me to admit defeat and I never did parse 13a.
    Although 10a was one of the few I got early on I have to agree with deezzaa that a canister is not a box, regardless of what it might say in a dictionary.
    No time today, just relieved to complete it.
    Thanks for the blog
  10. Held up for a considerable while by GOTH for 6d, which (in isolation) works perfectly well.
  11. Like others I found this rather on the tricky side. I reached BEER before typing anything in. I’d never heard of ASHLAR and thought that the unusual device of removing 2 letters from each end of a phrase was a bit devious. No trouble with ORACLE. CHEROKEE was really well hidden. BRONZE was my LOI. 14:58. Thanks Teazel and Rolytoly.
  12. One of the toughest I’ve ever actually completed, but it took me over an hour. Living near Bath I am well acquainted with ASHLAR stonework, and very skilled craftsmanship it is. Mind you, parsing it was a challenge, not come across that formulation before. CLERICAL ERROR made me chuckle.
    A very satisfying puzzle to finish Teazel, but not too often thank you!
    PlayUpPompey
  13. Because I didn’t think that was any harder than Orpheus yesterday )apart from the difficult grid) and I finished it quite a bit faster than yesterday. But then encouraged by comments here I turn to the Big Boy crossword and can hardly get an answer! I must have some sort of psychological block.

    The hiding of CHEROKEE was brilliant. I’d run through Romeo, Mr Darcy, Mr Rochester and many others before the penny dropped. Chapeau!

    No problem with ORACLE as “shrine” but that’s reading too many Greek myths as a child for you.

    LOI was ITCH as I struggled to parse it and I follow the same rule as jackkt about not writing it in until I understand it. (On a day of firsts for jackkt here’s a dreadful one for him – it’s the first time he’s completed the QC more slowly than I did!)

    Many thanks for the blog and the puzzle.

    Templar

  14. This was hard and I DNF because I had GOTH for 6d (GOT=FOUND, end of eartH) so could not get CANISTER. Needed multiple aids for the rest. Not on the right wavelength at all here!
  15. I think this is too difficult for a QC. I took 30 mins and was left with 14d incomplete. I then remembered my rule – if all else fails, look for a hidden word – and what a brilliant hidden it was. Never heard of Ashlar and only biffed once I had the checkers. I was hoping for a Nina when ABC were the first letters in the first column, but alas. Thanks all
  16. Certainly one of the very hardest to complete, but also one of the most satisfying when one does complete. I write as a non-timekeeper, but always pleased to finish in 20 minutes or so, now feeling smug after about an hour of struggle. I hope this may help to make other with less experience/innate ability keep at it! DM
  17. We found this very tricky, failed to get 4d when we put in trance, which reflects what our brains felt like.! Had to use aids to finish, although with error. Hardest for some time. Elin & Ian.
  18. Glad to hear I’m in good company today. 25 minutes—well over half the time I took to successfully complete the 15×15, and with exactly the same mistake as our esteemed blogger. I did rather know “orange” was wrong when I finally bunged it in in desperation, and submitted it with the air of a chess player knocking over his king.

    DNK that meaning of Oracle, had completely missed that CHEROKEE was a hidden, so at least I can be put out of my misery on those.

  19. Glad others found it hard too. Spent 10 mins looking at it over a lunch time sandwich with almost no progress. Then went to some meetings and did most of it on the journey back when it seemed to flow somewhat more. No time for me but found it difficult. Almost fell into the bronze / orange trap. LOI 1d – was incredibly slow to see the anagram.
  21. Tough! Eventually completed the south and had a toe-hold in the NE. Really struggled to get through it all. Ashlar not a problem word but hard to parse. Deduced Lories and had to check the word existed. Probably took nearly one and a half hours over several sessions. Just pleased to get there in the end with some inspired ‘guesses’ worked out somewhere in the back of my brain eg Mansfield Park (not my kind of literature) and Cherokee wouldn’t budge so I had to find a way to parse it, and lo and behold….count me as another Goth until I had to put in the E and then saw the better correct answer. Felt I was in 15×15 territory at times. Anyway, a good work out so grateful to Teazel and to our blogger and contributors.
  22. Slightly faster than yesterday for me, like Templar, but I agree this is pretty close to medium 15×15 difficulty. COD to 16d. Like others I was hoodwinked by 14d, not spotting ‘Romantic’ was an anagrind – my LOI. A good tester from Teazel. If you can solve this, you are ready to tackle the 15×15.
  23. Much the worst failure I’ve had since starting to do the QC. Almost all the NW and NE empty, with no idea how to crack the clues. I found the two long Downs easy enough, but apart from them I solved only BEER in the top half.

    Is the QC really meant to be so difficult?

    treesparrow

  24. Finished in two sittings over two days. Comfortably my longest ever but nice to see that others found this tough too. Very satisfying to have finished (albeit Cherokee unparsed).

    Thanks all
    Mighty

Comments are closed.