Times Quick Cryptic 1576 by Felix

Author   chrisw91Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A lot to enjoy in this offering from Felix – particularly the acrosses in the bottom half. Nothing proved too tricky as I was all complete except for 9ac and 1dn in about 7 minutes. 9ac fell first and then I had a struggle with 1dn, eventually putting in the answer with crossed fingers. The clock finally stopped on 9 minutes exactly for a fun and satisfying solve.

ACROSS

1. Boy is good artist and bad actor (6)
GRAHAM – good (G), artist (RA), bad actor (HAM).
4. One or two, for example, less feeling (6)
NUMBER – double definition.
9. Substantially increase level — put cork back, partially (7)
OCTUPLE – to make something eight times bigger is to substantially increase but it’s a tough definition. At least the answer is in the clue (backwards) lev(EL PUT CO)rk.
10. Might war prisoner, perhaps, when meeting the queen? (5)
POWER – war prisoner (POW), Queen (ER).
11. Binge over, guy must purge insides (4)
ORGY – (O)ve(R) (G)u(Y).
12. Converted triremes: most jolly! (8)
MERRIEST – anagram (converted) of TRIREMES.
14. Middle-Easterner, most sickly looking, at home with Scotsman? (11)
PALESTINIAN – had some difficulty piecing this all together – I started at the back with in Ian, then got the ‘est’ from most, then the whole thing – most sickly (PALEST), at home (IN), Scotsman (IAN).
18. Switch positions occasionally (2,3,3)
ON AND OFF – a lovely double definition which made me smile so gets COD.
20. Husband following Women’s Institute’s fancy (4)
WISH – husband (H) following Women’s Instuitute’s (WI’S).
22. Person who drags loom (5)
TOWER – another good double definition to tow is to drag/to loom over is to tower over.
23. Pained expression when cutting very short ticket (7)
VOUCHER – pained expression (OUCH) cutting very short (VER)y.
24. Hammers backing you to become England football manager (6)
RAMSEY – hammers (RAMS), you (YE) backwards.
25. Conservative pinching man’s idea (6)
THEORY – conservative (TORY) holding man (HE).

DOWN

1. A huge amount of sticky stuff: precious commodity, mostly (6)
GOOGOL – dnk that this is 1 followed by 100 zeroes/any very large number so that made this hard and I wasn’t confidant in the parsing (but am now). I got the mostly gold bit first then hoped that the final ‘o’ was right. Sticky stuff (GOO), precious commodity mostly (GOL)d.
2. Not in favour of August, on reflection, in Caribbean location (7)
ANTIGUA – not in favour of (ANTI), August (AUG) backwards.
3. Idiot grabbing first of poisonous snakes (4)
ASPS – idiot (ASS) holding (P)oisonous.
5. Politician I call, after uniform for referee’s job (8)
UMPIRING – politician I call (MP I RING) after uniform (U).
6. Fiddlestick that is used by rock star (5)
BOWIE – fiddlestick (BOW), that is (IE).
7. Try air shot: you don’t often see that! (6)
RARITY – well, you would if you saw me play golf. Anagram (shot) of TRY AIR.
8. Envy festive, exotic figure (7-4)
SEVENTY-FIVE – anagram (exotic) of ENVY FESTIVE.
13. Van to deliver greener sort of petrol (4-4)
LEAD-FREE – van (LEAD – short for vanguard – Nelson’s flag ship was in the van), deliver (from) (FREE).
15. A paper, it’s said, that may get someone’s blessing? (7)
ATISHOO – nice definition, homophone (it’s said) of a tissue.
16. Wobble from person summing up? (6)
TOTTER – to sum up is to tot so someone summing up is a totter. Possibly a double definition.
17. Two XVs in need of a drink with seconds to go (6)
THIRTY – in need of a drink with seconds (S) to go (THIR)s(TY).
19. Intention to keep South West afloat (5)
ASWIM – intention (AIM) to keep south West (SW).
21. A lot of money understandably can help at first (4)
MUCH – (M)oney (U)nderstandably (C)an (H)elp.

50 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1576 by Felix”

  1. The acrosses went well and then the bottom half flew in and I thought a run of slow times was over but I came to a standstill trying to solve the NE. Finally spotted the reversed hidden, which I’d looked for when I first read it and missed and then 1d was LOI, stopping the clock at 22m again. I had tried GOOGOL for an early answer but have never seen it written and always assumed it was spelled like the search engine. Yet another thing crosswords have taught me. Liked ORGY.
  2. 10 minutes. I thought I was going be in trouble over the football manager but even I have heard of Alf RAMSEY!

    I constructed GOOGOL from wordplay. I’d heard of it vaguely but like mendeset above I had always assumed it was spelt like the search engine.

    1. Ha ha – as I solved that, I thought “I wonder if Jack’s heard of him?”
  3. I spy a NINA… Graham’s Number, Ramsey Theory, Googol, Power, Seventy Five, Thirty… all very mathematical! Any ideas what’s going on?
    1. Having spotted the mathematical references – and it did seem unusual to me to have the two numbers in the grid – I’m afraid I couldn’t take it any further. Maybe a googol could feature in the two theories?
    2. Also OCTUPLE, TOTTER and POWER TOWER (one of the concepts in Graham’s Number). Interesting theme. I wondered if there was any connection to the puzzle number, but 1576 is just OCTUPLE 197.
  4. 12 minutes with atichoo!

    Last 2 orgy and the unknown googol.

    Liked voucher, COD orgy.

  5. Didn’t get 1D GOOGOL, so DNF, although I remember the word from childhood reading. Never heard it used and thought I was the only one left who knew it and that it would be unusable since Google. FOI 1A, COD THIRTY, lovely surface.
    Looking forward to hearing more about the nina!
  6. An initial WHIM for 20A and an unaccountable ATISSUE for 15D held me up in the SE corner, until I spotted WISH and then THIRTY and THEORY. Maybe I wasn’t fully awake. 6:31.
  7. Thanks Felix for an excellent puzzle. I was definitely on the wavelength as I seemed to get the cryptic quickly and I had the GK -Alf Ramsey came fairly quickly etc. Is there anyone called Alf these days? I remember Alf Tupper from boyhood comics.
    FOI was ANTIGUA and I solved in a circle finishing with UMPIRING.
    10:36 -could not have done it any quicker. David
  8. The Ipswich manager who won the World Cup 1966. Sir Alf RAMSEY honoured at 24ac – where’s Kevin? Maybe mathematics are not his thing!

    FOI 1ac GRAHAM

    LOI 16dn TOTTER

    COD 14ac PALESTINIAN

    WOD 9ac OCTUPLE

    My numbers were 9 and 17dn.

  9. I found this decidedly tricky and just could not get going. I even struggled to think of middle eastern countries that had more than about 6 letters. It was one of those puzzles that I enjoyed more when reading the blog than during the solve as it gave me the space/time to appreciate the clues rather than stare at them blankly!
    I finished with GOOGOL and OCTUPLE in 18.14 with my COD going to ATISHOO.
  10. A quick start and then holdups shared with many solvers above. Over target finally but that was partly down to welcome interruptions from family phone calls to reassure us about well-being. I’ll savour some of the clues again now the grid is full. Thanks to both. John M.
  11. 15 minutes exactly, after a fast start in the north. I can’t add to the NINA explanation – I’m not familiar enough with maths, but I agree that all the things identified are connected with very large numbers. Fascinating! I’d like to know more.
  13. I thought that GOOGOL would be quite well-known as a result of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which mentions a supercomputer called the Googleplex – yes, Adams miss-pelt it- Starthinker). (A googolplex is 10 squared to the power of 100.)

    Lovely puzzle, very witty. Ten minutes, with most time spent on LOI and COD ATISHOO.

    Thanks Felix and Chris.

    Templar

  14. As noted above Googol was in yesterday’s concise complete with definition. This was lucky for me. Sally
  15. On and Off suggests binary to me too. Octuple power is 256 – 1320 to go!
  16. …. although the maths Nina was wasted on a dullard such as I.

    Within target, but slowed on my LOI by initially failing to include the ‘s’ in my parsing. I worked PALESTINIAN in reverse.

    FOI GRAHAM
    LOI WISH
    COD RARITY

  17. I was taken over my target time by this puzzle. There was nothing I didn’t know but lots of definitions were well hidden and took some teasing out. Good fun though. Noticed some but not all of the mathematical terms. 11:42. Thanks Felix and Chris.
  18. 1ac and 1dn are linked. Googol is a defined big number. Interestingly GRAHAM’s number is another huge number, the largest to be used in calculations (qv).
  19. … is unimaginably big. Read a good explanation of it here.

    Edited at 2020-03-24 12:38 pm (UTC)

    1. What a fascinating article – I gave up when it said “don’t go on until you really understand this”. I wish I was a mathematician (like Hannah Fry). Enjoyed the puzzle too – but not “aswim” which is hardly a word imho.

      Diana

  20. Wow John that did my head! The biggest number I know of is the amount of bucks the US owes – which in February stood at $23,251,562,887,364 and 25 cents
  21. Failed on googol, Ramsey and Octuple. Started fast but came to a halt on west side. Had to look up Caribbean map for inspiration too.
    Like
    Palest In Ian
  23. Technical DNF as I didn’t get 1dn “Googol” – however, I should have, as it was in the times2crossword yesterday.

    Overall, took about 30 mins until defeated by 1dn.

    Some nice clues. Whilst I didn’t spot any particular Nina I did notice the mathematical/numerical references.

    FOI – 4ac “Number”
    LOI – ?
    COD – 17dn “Thirty”

    Thanks as usual

  24. Another Good Day 👍 ‘Powered’ my way through this despite a couple of mini-interruptions and slowing down for the football manager, in about 1 horryd (in the absence of Kevin).

    Lots of fun to be had today – I particularly liked on and off, and thirty, and enjoyed the image of the the two XVs tottering after their drinks 😊

    I did wonder why we had thirty and seventy five in the crossword but even then, I still didn’t twig that there might a theme. Now it’s been explained, I am – as always – amazed by both the setter for his creativity and those of you who a) spotted it, and b) understood it.

    FOI Graham
    LOI Ramsey
    COD Totter
    Time about 9:30

    Thanks Felix and Chris

    1. In the absence of Kevin, I am honoured to become a unit of measurement!
      horryd
  25. Oh dear, not our greatest hour. We raced through this and then just couldn’t get googol, orgy, aswim and Ramsey. Of course it doesn’t help that we got aswim only to dismiss it because we didn’t know the word! But apparently “sardines aswim in oil” – who knew? 😅.

  26. GOOGOL not a problem because I did the concise yesterday however I DNF because of RAMSEY. I still have no idea who RAMSEY is but I am guessing he was around in 1966! As a mum my exposure to football has only ever been of play during injury time when arriving to pick up my young son who is thankfully now 21.
  27. Alf Ramsey was the manager of the World Cup winning England football team in 1966.
  28. And as a relative they can occupy quite a bit of my day! I started well but caused myself problems because I put WHIM instead of WISH – I think it works with the clue just as well. This slowed me down with ATHISOO although I was thinking along the right lines. I took ages to see the hidden OCTUPLE and had never heard of GOOGOL! then I got slowed down because I didn’t think ASWIM was a word but finally accepted it because the clue was clear. I liked TOTTER and TOWER and NUMBER which I felt all used the same kind of double definition! I was too busy trying to solve it to notice the mathematical theme! Very enjoyable _ thank you!
  29. missed out the beginner in the first sentence!Must read what I am about to post.
    1. I believe it is also possible to edit posts, to hide one’s little oversights!
      1. Yes, you can. If your post hasn’t been read, you can edit by selecting the little pen symbol 😊
        1. The post can be read and still amended; it’s when somebody has attached a reply to it that the edit option is removed.
          1. Many thanks – I knew there was some point when you couldn’t amend it! I’m pretty hopeless on technology and the terminology 😯
  30. Came to this late in the day, but my brain seemed to still be in gear and/or Felix was in a generous mood. Either way, no real problems and would have comfortably broken into sub 20 territory if only I could have avoided a carelessly biffed Whim at 20ac. I share the concern of others about the validity of Aswim, but it seemed logical and so joined the (increasingly large) list of ‘unknown but must be’ words. Invariant
    1. aswim

      adverb
      in a drifting or bobbing manner
      overcooked vegetables aswim in a soupy sauce

      SOED gives its origin as mid 17th century

        1. I had looked at Chambers online and ‘aswim’ wasn’t listed, but that’s some sort of cut-down version of The Chambers Dictionary so in response to your query I checked my printed copy (12th edition) and yes, ‘aswim’ is listed there.

          I understand the main sources for Times cryptic puzzles are Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English (available online as Lexico) and 99.99% of dictionary-type answers can be found in one or other or both of those. It’s very rare indeed the Times has a word that’s only in Chambers, and I suspect that’s because setters compose puzzles for other publications and occasionally forget themselves.

          Edited at 2020-03-25 06:57 am (UTC)

  31. I knew Googol from the notoriety it received as the final question in the cheaters “who wants to be a Millionaire”…..

    £1,000,000 question

    The final question was: “A number one followed by 100 zeros is known by what name?”

    A googol, a megatron, a gigabit or a nanomol.

    Ingram: “I am not sure.”

    Tarrant: “Charles, you’ve not been sure since question number two.”

    Ingram: “The doubt is multiplied.

    How the hell did you do it?
    Diana Ingram
    “I think it is nanomol but it could be a gigabit, but I am not sure.

    “I do not think I can do this one.

    “I do not think it is a megatron. I do not think I have heard of a googol.”

    Cough

    etc . Etc…

    Thanks great crossword but dnf struggled with 15d 17d and 23a

    Thanks all

    John George

  32. My understanding is that the guys behind Google misspelt Googol. So presumably it’s the most misspelt word of all time. Johnny
    1. Have a look at Templar’s comment above – maybe it was Douglas Adams.
  33. A most enjoyable QC with lots of delightful clue. For me COD could be 9D or 14A or 22A or15D or 17A. It’s very satisfying to work them out.
    FOI 3D
    Last two in 1D and 11A.
    In the end DNF as I couldn’t work out 24A. I don’t know anything about football. Often English just means E so thinking it could be any nationality of football manager I rather gave up before I started. I got RAM but didn’t think of YE as that is usually signalled in the QC by ‘in the old days’ or some such. Well yes, I have heard of Ramsey but I woudn’t have guessed. But I still enjoyed it very much. Thank you both!
    Blue Stocking

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