Times Quick Cryptic 1547 by Orpheus

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
These are quite devious clues in which several parts have been handpicked for their ambiguity. This made for a tricky but ultimately satisfying solve. There are also some minor obscurities, but these are balanced by eminantly gettable wordplay.

A pleasant stroll up and back down the garden path.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Instrument of torture little Tom’s gang used (10)
THUMBSCREW – THUMB’S (little Tom’s) and CREW (gang).
8 Mean woman in bad temper, blowing top? (7)
AVERAGE – VERA (woman) surrounded by (in) rAGE (bad temper) missing its first letter (blowing top).
9 Cap soldiers had at Kitchener’s offensive, initially? (5)
SHAKO – first letter from (initially) Soldiers Had… etc. Thank goodness this was clued transparently; had this been a straight definitional crossword I would have had no chance.
10 Take a dekko — and see all right (4)
LOOK – LO (see) and OK (all right). Likewise; NHO.
11 Asian joke involving a retired nurse once (8)
JAPANESE – JAPE (joke) containing (involving) A and a reversal of (retired) SEN (State Enrolled Nurse, nurse once). If it’s your first time seeing this acronym, you have my sympathies. Nurse may also clue just EN or SRN/RN ((State) Registered Nurse).
13 Labrador, say, starts to gobble grub outside peacekeepers’ party? (6)
GUNDOG – first letters from (starts to) Gobble and Grub containing (outside) ‘UN DO’ (peacekeeper’s party).
14 Drunk beginning to braise game (6)
BLOTTO – first letter of (beginning to) Braise, then LOTTO (game).
17 A teacher receiving US vocalist in Oxon town (8)
ABINGDON – A and DON (teacher) containing (receiving) BING (Crosby, US vocalist).
19 Some of them market a 19th-century novel (4)
EMMA – hidden in (some of) thEM MArket.
21 Company absorbing revolutionary statement of belief (5)
CREDO – CO (company) containing (absorbing) RED (revolutionary).
22 Skill of old wife employed in section of media (7)
PROWESS – O (old) and W (wife) inside (employed in) PRESS (section of media).
23 Unusually hot steam starts to ruin this temperature regulator (10)
THERMOSTAT – anagram of (unusually) HOT STEAM with the first letters of (starts to) Ruin and This.
Down
2 Worked in garden before private dance (7)
HOEDOWN – HOED (worked in garden) with OWN (private). This didn’t quite click at the time, but ‘my own…X’  / ‘my private…X’ works fine.
3 Man turned up, crossing a defensive ditch (4)
MOAT – TOM (man) reversed (turned up) and surrounding (crossing) A.
4 Playground amenity was set up by diocese (6)
SEESAW – WAS reversed (set up) then SEE (diocese).
5 Mischievous like Charlie, disrupting mass meeting (8)
RASCALLY – AS (like) and C (charlie) contained by (disrupting) RALLY (mass meeting).
6 Texture of fabric you and I have spoken of (5)
WEAVE – sounds like (spoken of) “we’ve” (you and I have).
7 Happen to arrive at route through mountains (4,2,4)
COME TO PASS – COME TO (to arrive at) and PASS (route through mountains).
8 Loyalty for example accepted by coalition (10)
ALLEGIANCE – EG (for example) inside (accepted by) ALLIANCE (coalition).
12 Predatory mammal some go on about? (8)
MONGOOSE – anagram of (about) SOME GO ON.
15 Tone down a painting technique (7)
TEMPERA – TEMPER (tone down) and A.
16 Ornamental bobble a couple of dogs required (6)
POMPOM – repetition of (a couple of… required) POM (pomeranian, breed of dog).
18 Clumsy writer held up by computer technology (5)
INEPT – PEN (writer) reversed and inside (held up by) I.T. (computer technology).
20 Disadvantage the Spanish suffered originally (4)
LOSS – LOS (‘the’ in Spanish) plus the first letter of (originally) Suffered.

48 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1547 by Orpheus”

  1. I threw in the towel at 17ac: the only town I know of in Oxfordshire is Oxford (at least I’ve always assumed it was there; I suppose it could be like Kansas City, Missouri). And it seems to me a rather difficult job to come up with BING and DON in the absence of that knowledge; anyway, it was for me.
    1. Maybe you were confused because Abingdon-on-Thames was the county town of Berkshire until 1974.
  2. 8 minutes. It occurred to me that some may find some of this a bit obscure but I think everything was gettable from wordplay or definition, one way or another.

    ABINGDON is on the River Thames 8 miles south of the City of Oxford.

    ‘Take a dekko’ was in common parlance at one time, if not so much these days. SOED defines ‘dekko’ as: noun & verb. slang (orig. military slang). L19. [ORIGIN Hindi dekho polite imperative of dekhnā to look.

    Edited at 2020-02-12 06:23 am (UTC)

  3. 13 mins. No big hold ups. Dnk shako, dekko, or tempera.

    LOsI allegiance, look, and average.

    COD hoedown or mongoose.

    15 x 15 is nice today, but with 1 wrong.

  4. at 1ac was a fun start to proceedings and my FOI

    LOI PROWESS – more old wives

    COD 11ac JAPANESE I really think so! SEN & SRN were popular in the Telegraph Crossword in the sixties.

    WOD 16dn POMPOM

    Kevin, have you not heard of Abingdon Press?

    Time 8.30mins

    Edited at 2020-02-12 06:44 am (UTC)

    1. Isn’t it in Tennessee? Anyway, I didn’t say that I had never heard of Abingdon; I said I didn’t know it was in Oxfordshire. (My ignorance of UK geography is such that I doubt I could name any town in any county, although I could name lots of towns.)
      1. When Americans see my passport they are astonished- ‘You were born in Boston! Are you American!? Mmmm..no… Boston – England, from whence the Pilgrims came (not Plymouth – that’s where they eventually sailed from). The Boston United football team goes by the name ‘The Pilgrims’.

        Abingdon Tennessee is named after the Oxonian original, as is Boston Mass plus Portsmouth NH and thousands and thousands of others.

        Last night, in lieu of the Primary, I took time out to look at a map showing the main towns of New Hampshire. I only knew Manchester…

        Edited at 2020-02-12 08:40 am (UTC)

        1. You’re one up on me, then. (It couldn’t have taken you too much time to look up the main towns of NH; out of curiosity, what are the other two?)
        2. Just to confuse things further, Plymouth Argyle football club are also known as The Pilgrims. I’m off to Boston on Sunday (MA, not Lincs.)

          My fingers thought 1a was THUBSCREWS making a nonsense of the early down clues. Plain sailing once that was sorted out.

          My thanks to Orpheus and William.
          4’10”

  5. The bottom half seemed easier than the top today. My last two were HOEDOWN and SHAKO (perhaps vaguely known,but would never have occurred to me with just Cap as the definition).It helped that I thought of Abingdon straightaway. No major hold-ups but I was expecting 1a to end in STRAP for a while. Time:12:51. COD to HOEDOWN. David
  6. I thought this was fun but quite tricky in places – I never did parse JAPANESE (thank you William, I’d better add those abbreviations to the list of things I intend to remember but don’t). ABINGDON took a looong time to surface from the depths. I also took far too long to spot that MONGOOSE was an anagram – I think the question mark confused me. But I did know SHAKO and dekko. All eventually done in 14:17 which I think has to be scored as an Indifferent Day.

    FOI THUMBSCREW, LOI ABINGDON, COD MONGOOSE. Thanks William and Orpheus.

    Templar

  7. 17 minutes, under my 20 minute target for the first time in about a week. Everything was parsed, with just visits to Chambers to confirm SHAKO and to Google to place ABINGDON in Oxfordshire. As usual with Orpheus we got smooth surfaces and clever wordplay, 13A GUNDOG was a gem.
    Thanks to setter and to WJS.

    Brian

  8. Today’s ‘Championship’ 15×15 is surprisingly very gentle.

    Do have a bash it is far easier than yesterday’s QC.

    Next Wednesday’s is to be avoided, apparently.

  9. Again, outside the upper limit of my target range at 16 minutes, but another enjoyable challenge. I think it was yesterday that someone moaned about using a random name to part clue an answer, and today we had MOAT – my LOI for that very reason, even though ‘defensive ditch’ should have been a giveaway (I got hooked on DYKE, even though it had no A in it, and the only reversed random man’s name in it is ED). Thanks all.
    1. Completely agree my dear boy. I’d biffed Adam forgetting than a dam is a wall not a ditch. We also had Vera today. I’d stop and start with Adam and Eve. What next? Jadon ? Ciara? Johnny (man)
  10. I enjoyed this very much and finished it in just under a quarter of an hour. Lots of smiley faces in the margin. However, one which I thought was great, I now see wasn’t quite so great because I parsed it wrongly – duh! I am talking about 8 across – AVERAGE – which was my FOI . I got to it via “bad temper” = “‘AVE A RAGE” as in losing the first letter of “HAVE” – “blowing top”. There being no woman in it, mean or otherwise, passed me by entirely. Other super clues include 1, 17 and 23 across and 6 down. Super surfaces. In fact, no real hold-ups anywhere in this puzzle – everything flowed quickly and easily without any brain-frazzle at all.Thanks very much, William, for the blog and thanks, too, to Orpheus, for a super start to the day.
    1. Don’t worry, I initially did the same. Whether it’s intentional or not, I always like those clues where you get the answer and there seems to be an alternative parsing.
  11. 30 mins, but completed, which is some sort of triumph for me. ABINGDON was immediate, having run two marathons there – nice flat course. FOI AVERAGE for the wrong parsing, assuming mean was the definition and bad temper = RAGE and not bothering with the rest. NHO SHAKO but obvious even for me. LOI WEAVE – always slow with homophones.
  12. An enjoyable puzzle with a tantalising mix of tough and easy. I enjoyed many of the clues that others have highlighted above. There really are some crackers but I’m sure solvers have their own preferences. I did like AVERAGE, GUNDOG, and RASCALLY, though. DNK SHAKO but easy to work out, as was ABINGDON, given all the crossers. No K scale today so I’ll just say that my time matched bripriuk’s exactly. Many thanks to Orpheus for a very fine QC and to William (whose blog I will now read again for pleasure). John M.
  13. I agree that there were a lot of slightly devious clues. I guessed pom might be a dog but it turns out to be an abbreviation for Pomeranian. My main issue is that you probably need to be about 70 to have a chance of getting Abingdon from an American singer
  14. Having once spent a week in ABINGDON, house sitting for my ex wife’s sister’s parents in law, it wasn’t too difficult to spot 17a. The rest of the puzzle came together nicely, with only SHAKO being a bit obscure but generously clued. 7:19. Thanks Orpheus and William.
  15. Congrats if it really is exactly ) I don’t think any of my boys (40 37 and 33) would know Bing. I enjoyed his crooning to a point
  16. My solving times seem to be fairly consistent so far this week. Each day there has been one clue that has pushed me over my somewhat ambitious 10 minutes target. On Monday it was Tragediennes, on Tuesday it was Attribute and today it was 1a THUMBSCREW (not on wavelength). As others have said SHAKO was a DNK but clearly clued, ABINGDON a late solve despite it being a mere 40 miles drive from my home, AVERAGE parsed after solving and GUNDOG initially went in as doggie. 12:45 Thanks William and Orpheus.

    Edited at 2020-02-12 11:43 am (UTC)

  17. Finally finished one this week, albeit took about 45mins.

    For me, this is a good QC – ultimately solvable (within a reasonable time), but needing some thought. As a result, I felt pretty satisfied after having a good mental workout.

    Main hold ups were 8dn “Allegiance”, 2dn “Hoedown” and 10ac “Look”. I might have seen “own”=”private” previously, but it didn’t immediately come to mind.

    FOI – 11ac “Blotto”
    LOI – 10ac “Look”
    COD – 8ac “Average” – clever surface

    Thanks as usual.

  18. Bunged in SHAKO on first pass but wasnt sure until the end and that held up NE. RASCALLY the last to fall. Acrosses easier than downs all and all done in 12.01 – well below recent average. ABINGDON not far from here – just a short hop west across the border.
  19. I confess to getting ABINGDON on the basis of the crossers. Bing’s role only occurred after I had written it in.
  20. Struggled through to the end with help of paper dictionary, but many clues were finally satisfying.
    1. Well done! Keep going, keep reading the blog, and you’ll get better and better.
  21. ….used to be brewed in ABINGDON, until Molson Coors got their sweaty mitts on it. Now it’s a characterless bottled beer turned out at Burton.

    I should have broken 3 minutes today, but lost half a minute at the end trying to justify “Javanese” for my LOI.

    FOI THUMBSCREW
    LOI JAPANESE
    COD COME TO PASS

    2. Morlands was bought by Greene King and the bit beers are brewed in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. GK itself bought by CKA Hong Kong company last year.
      1. Thanks – I knew it wasn’t brewed at source any more, and had it in my head that it was bottled in the same plant as Doom Bar.
        1. I didn’t know bottled Doom Bar was from Burton! Will stick to Hook Norton! Thx.
          1. A very wise choice ! If I was placed in front of a firing squad with one last request, it would be a pint of Old Hooky.
  22. No one has mentioned it so maybe it’s obvious but why is diocese see? I got the saw so the answer was clear …but not the see!
    L&I
    1. see2
      —noun Ecclesiastical.

      the seat, center of authority, office, or jurisdiction of a bishop.

  23. Really enjoyed this. I don’t time myself as I am a beginner but today I could really feel how I am improving! Hoedown took a right to the end – got the own from the o and w but couldn’t think of hoeing just digging etc! Thanks for all the comments – it’s so encouraging to hear others having mental blocks etc especially when it’s one I have worked out fairly easily! Now to see if I can solve any of the harder one!
  24. This seemed to suit us for some reason, abt 18m is as fast as we have ever done. Some clues seem to have occured before eg 2d, 8a, 13a. Having spent about 50m on some puzzles recently, this was a very pleasant occurance.
  25. I went to school for 5 years about 2 miles from Abingdon. The town has 2 very minor claims to fame: in the 1840s the worthy citizens of the town banned the railway from coming to them (nasty smelly noisy steam engines) and to this day it swerves round the town, serving the nearby and much smaller village of Radley instead; and it was the last town in SE England to still have a manual telephone exchange.

    Can quite see though that these earthshattering facts are not quite enough to bring the town international fame and recognition!

    Nice puzzle today, 8 minute solve and COD 13A Gundog. The 15×15 is very gentle too and worth a try.

    Thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

  26. Couldn’t see 1ac nor 2d to start with, and instantly thought this was going to be another teaser from Orpheus, but after the first pass I had a good number of the across clues, and a fair sprinkling of the downs. Having driven past Abingdon quite a few times on the way to Harwell, 17ac was a gift. A small mer at 18d, as I thought held up for a down clue should indicate something at the end of a word, though the answer was obvious enough. A 20min finish beckoned, but having thought of Rascal for 5d I then decided I needed to squeeze in an extra C (Charlie) and M (mass) somewhere… The pdm came a minute or so too late. CoD to 22ac Prowess. My thanks to Orpheus and William. Invariant
  27. Another enjoyable QC. FOI 11a. LOI 12d. COD 9a for being a couple of centuries adrift so nicely obvious and misleading together. I bit tricky to get started but once in the swing, it all toppled in nicely. An interrupted solve having to leave Costa and return home but I’d say 45 minutes of good fun concentration. Possibly the interruption helped as I was not getting anywhere on the last 3 until I looked afresh. Really liked 17a, 13a, 22a, 4d, 2d. Thanks to Orpheus & William. I always enjoy reading and learning from the blog and comments.
  28. I found this one relatively straightforward. I knew SHAKO from the Sharpe novels and DEKKO took my back to my schooldays. My main issue was my determination to get GAG into 11a, my LOI. Finished in 9.12
    Thanks to william

Comments are closed.