Times Quick Cryptic 1610 by Pedro

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 9 minutes. I didn’t find this difficult but, as always, I shall be interested to see what others have to say.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Work at taking in a drama (4)
PLAY : PLY (work at – a trade, for example) containing [taking in] A
3 Quick way to switch off after electrical problem (8)
SHORTCUT : SHORT (electrical problem), CUT (switch off)
9 One probing two songs missing intros —  still an issue? (7)
ONGOING : I (one) contained by [probing] {s}ONG+{s}ONG [missing intros]
10 Sailor returned before the swim (5)
BATHE : AB (sailor) reversed [returned], THE
11 Girl seen between Rachel and Ena? (5)
HELEN : Hidden [seen between] {Rac}HEL and EN{a}. I’m not sure we’ve had an interrupted hidden word before, but it seems perfectly legitimate.
12 Article on board ship following a straight course (6)
LINEAR : A (article) contained by [on board] LINER (ship)
14 Awful villainy close in hi-tech area (7,6)
SILICON VALLEY : Anagram [awful] of VILLAINY CLOSE
17 Argument about a bar’s latest set of charges (6)
TARIFF : TIFF (argument) containing [about] A + {ba}R [latest]
19 Crime seen in financial newspaper? (5)
THEFT : THE FT (financial newspaper). Strictly speaking we need something to clue ‘The’ here as it’s not part of the title of the newspaper, but I suppose ‘The Financial Times‘ is common parlance.
22 Acceptable video about a learner (5)
VALID : VID (video) containing [about] A + L (learner)
23 Number, say, encountered in Bury (7)
INTEGER : EG (say) contained by [encountered in] INTER (bury). Note the legitimate use of the misleading capital letter here.
24 Disinclination to shift hospital: greatly upset about that (8)
LETHARGY : Anagram [upset] of GREATLY containing [about] H (hospital / that)
25 Live action’s beginning in region (4)
AREA : ARE (live), A{ction’s} [beginning]
Down
1 Predict he’s taking on Yard after getting support (8)
PROPHESY : PROP (support), HE’S, Y (yard)
2 Rise in support given to a new nurse? (5)
ANGEL : A, N (new), LEG (support) reversed [rise]   I wasn’t sure of a direct correlation here, but Chambers has angel as: colloq someone who works in the nursing profession.
4 Drunk to secure romance in dance in Inverness (8,5)
HIGHLAND FLING : HIGH (drunk), LAND (secure), FLING (romance). Other Scottish locations are available.
5 Bird starts to rummage on waste container (5)
ROBIN : R{ummage} + O{n} [starts], BIN (waste container)
6 Whip about to meet pair of Liberals getting derisive comment (7)
CATCALL : CAT (whip), CA (about), LL (pair of Liberals)
7 Watch maybe not showing minutes produces row (4)
TIER : TI{m}ER (watch, maybe) [not showing minutes – m]
8 The best prison, we hear, will offer outdoor excursion (6)
PICNIC : Sounds like [we hear] “pick” (best), “nick” (prison)
13 Panic diverted this year (8)
HYSTERIA : Anagram [diverted] of THIS YEAR
15 Felt ale, newly brewed, should get promotional material (7)
LEAFLET : Anagram [newly brewed] of FELT ALE
16 Thinking cannily when Egyptian King’s heading for Egypt (6)
ASTUTE : AS (when), TUT (Egyptian King), E{gypt} [heading]
18 Elected, with upturn in support, in Asian country (5)
INDIA : IN (elected), AID (support) reversed [upturn]. The third appearance of ‘support’ in today’s Down clues!
20 Little hesitation about the time — very keen (5)
EAGER : ER (little hesitation) containing [about] AGE (time)
21 Round? Very — almost entirely egg-shaped (4)
OVAL : O (round), V (very), AL{l} (entirely) [almost]

47 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1610 by Pedro”

  1. I was a bit thrown off by 11ac, wondering if HELAN was a name; I’d swear we’ve never had this kind of hidden before, here or in the 15x15s, but as Jack says, it seems perfectly legit. I biffed a bunch, not even looking at the clue for VALID, LETHARGY, & HIGHLAND FLING. 5:37.
  2. For some reason I had put in ‘Highland Reels’ having seen the word ‘Drunk’, which slowed me up a lot! Doh!

    I found 6dn very sexist – smelling salts for lunch!

    FOI 13dn HYSTERIA

    LOI 16dn ASTUTE

    COD 14ac SILICON VALLEY

    WOD 214ac LETHARGY

    My son Toby & his wife Ellie are on the QC Trail and did a 20 minuter on that VE Friday QC Special. Cue VEra.

      1. I had a little search through my photos from the Championship day last year to see if I had one of the biggest-puzzle-ever that we were invited to collectively solve. I found it. See here. The last clue was 472A!

        Edited at 2020-05-11 11:16 am (UTC)

        1. I solved my token clue in the SW quadrant and passed on.
  3. Only 3 acrosses at the first pass but fared better with the downs and then built from the bottom up to finish in a reasonable 16m but with a pink square for a PROPHRSY. I had to work quite hard throughout but never came fully unstuck.
  4. Not firing on all cylinders (maybe that should be all batteries these days) today, I couldn’t get a hold at all in the top half. Gradually it built up finishing on the 1s in 13 minutes.
  5. Steady solve to squeak in under ten at about 1.7K for a Good Day. ONGOING was far too clever for me and required a lot of pen-sucking and head-scratching.

    FOI PLAY, LOI and COD ONGOING. Thanks Jack and Pedro.

    Templar

  6. 18 minutes for a very slow day for me on what should have been an easy puzzle. I think I must be slowing down as a result of not socially distancing myself from my wine rack! Liked THEFT best of all, I think. Thanks Jackkt and Pedro.
  7. Would have had a rare completion if I hadn’t put lineal instead of linear. Bother.
    Good start to the day though.
    Thanks all.
    Diana
  8. I enjoyed this and found it all fair enough. Small quibble about high – I tend to think if people are high they are using other drugs , not sure I have ever heard a drunk being described as high. Maybe just me – thanks anyway!
    1. Collins has ‘high’ as: being in a state of altered consciousness, characterised esp by euphoria and often induced by the use of alcohol, narcotics, etc.

      As in ‘high as a kite’.

      1. Thanks I get that, but have you ever heard it applied to someone drunk ???
          1. Interesting – maybe a regional thing – I’ve lived in the midlands and south for my (best part of) 70 years and never heard it applied to anything other than weed or similar
            1. I’d agree! I know high can be defined as drunk but it doesn’t mean that that is how people generally use it these days (or for the last few decades): high – drugs, drunk – booze in my book 😉
  9. Apart from PLAY, HELEN, and ROBIN, I got nowhere in the top half at first so moved south and clawed my way back up the grid, accelerating as crossers emerged. Still just over the SC limit, though for a pedestrian start to the week. No complaints about the clues but I couldn’t develop any momentum. Ah well. I liked ONGOING (my COD) and ASTUTE but wondered if I had seen THEFT before? John M.
    1. P.S. I enjoyed the 15×15 today. It took a while but was manageable, I thought.
  10. Was slow to get started, probably due to a late night worrying why both the antivirus programs on my laptop had decided to crash at the same time, and running scans with one while the other rebuilt itself with an emergency update routine(clever Avast!) Kaspersky ran a full scan overnight and threw up no issues, so it’s fingers crossed. Anyway having started with PLAY, I eventually got moving with HELEN(eyebrows up!) and PROPHESY, before sticking again and moving to INDIA and its environs. I should’ve been quicker to see SILICON VALLEY, but it was my POI before PICNIC. HIGHLAND FLING was a biff confirmed by wordplay, and a big help. Still feeing consumed with 24a. 9:57. Thanks Pedro and Jack.
  11. This felt like a steady solve, rather than a quick one, and was surprised to sneak in under the 10 minute mark. PLAY went in straightaway but I found the rest of the NW quite tricky, especially PROPHESY, ANGEL and ONGOING, so I worked my way around the grid in a clockwise direction before finishing back where I started. HELEN was also a new clue type to me so went in with a shrug. I particularly enjoyed PICNIC and ONGOING.
    Thanks to Jackkt
  12. A slowish but steady solve today at 34:27. Didn’t entirely parse OVAL as I thought maybe “al” was short for almost. Had a MER at high for drunk too, but I guess if it’s in the dictionary I’m not going to quibble. LOI was PICNIC and COD to LETHARGY, something I am guilty of all too frequently.
  13. I was pleased to finish this at almost exactly 15 minutes which is my target time. The answers fairly leapt out at me almost more quickly than I could type them in – a novel experience for me. This speedy progress came to a halt with just 2 clues left to solve because five minutes or more was spent puzzling over the 9 across / 2 down axis. 9 across, ONGOING, fell first – such a clever clue! I put in 2 down, ANGEL, only because N and E were the only letters which would sensibly fit, and not because I thought that it was the right answer. Hmmm. I biffed 22 across, VALID, and needed the blog to learn that VID means “video”… have I led a sheltered life or is this an abbreviation which only exists in Crossword Land? Too many candidates for COD but my final choice, from a full field, is my LOI, 9 across, ONGOING. Thanks so much, Jackkt, for the blog, and thanks, too, to Pedro
    1. I looked twice at VID for ‘video’ but I checked the usual source dictionaries and it’s in all of them. SOED adds ‘orig.US’ but none of the others makes that distinction.
    2. Louisa, I’m with you on VID for video….. Janet

      Edited at 2020-05-11 10:05 am (UTC)

    3. During my teenage years we would often go and get a “vid” to rent from the local video shop (in the days of VHS video recorders which doesn’t seem that long ago)

      Of course, that could be just our shortening of the term rather than general usage, but it didn’t seem unusual to me.

  14. I was definitely on wavelength with Pedro. I completed a clockwise solve from my FOI 3a SHORTCUT to my LOI 2d ANGEL in 7 minutes. Short pauses at VALID, HELEN and ONGOING. Thanks Jack for the blog.
  15. Was a bit slow to get started and FOI was OVAL. After that everything went very smoothly and I finished in 08:45 with PICNIC.
    The whole NW was blank till I got back to it and that allowed Helen to emerge having looked for a straight hidden first time through.
    Good puzzle. COD to PICNIC. David
  16. …HYSTERIA and LETHARGY today. I’ve opted for the latter. No problems for me on this one.

    FOI PLAY
    LOI/COD ANGEL
    TIME 0.69K

  17. No dramas, although I was a little surprised at the split hidden at 11A. I don’t think I’ve seen that before either. COD to LEAFLET as I just bottled and labelled my latest beer on Saturday. 4:46.
  18. Got HIGHLAND FLING and SILICON VALLEY in a flash and ‘raced‘ through the bottom half, then slowly managed NE but stuck on NW corner. Thought of ANGEL but couldn’t parse.

    Thanks all round, as ever.

    There must be beginner-solvers who don’t blog, so I confess my struggles for their sake.

    Edited at 2020-05-11 11:30 am (UTC)

  19. I’m sure this was a biff feast for many, even those that like to read the clues first, but I always try and parse as I go along, so 23 mins seemed about average. Like some others, my last pair were Ongoing/Angel, but CoD for me was the humorous 8d Picnic. A gentle enough start to the week from Pedro. Invariant
    1. Just to mention, my stated timings for QC’s always include parsing except on the very rarest of occasions, in which case I always say so.
  20. Whipped through most of this in 10 minutes, but then had a brain dump for the NW corner. Got my Prophesy and Prophecy mixed up for 1dn and then got stuck on 9ac and 2dn. Overall, came in at 22 mins which is still better than average.

    FOI – 10ac “Bathe”
    LOI – 2dn “Angel”
    COD – 9ac “Ongoing”

    Thanks as usual.

  21. We didn’t have any problems with this one and finished pretty quickly. After a very busy morning in the garden it was just what we needed before girding our loins to face the freezing wind again.

    FOI: shortcut
    LOI: angel
    COD: theft

    Thanks to Pedro and Jack

  22. 7:17.

    Felt like it took longer, but I liked this puzzle. LINEAR was my LOI.

  23. The local bus from Rainbow Bridge to Waitan (The Bund) is the 271a – one helluva bus!
  24. No great problems today – everything went in fairly easily. Didn’t see the anagram at 14ac but the answer was obvious once a couple of crossers went in.

    FOI – 1ac Play
    LOI – 25ac Area
    COD – 8dn Picnic

    Thanks to Pedro and blogger.

  25. A very similar experience to Chris, but it took a minute longer!

    I couldn’t get started – felt really sluggish – and had to get nearly to the bottom of the across clues before entering anything with confidence. Things speeded up a bit after that but it still wasn’t my best effort, and the Ones definitely took their time. I didn’t love the clue for HELEN and VID is a bit of a meh-word, but ONGOING and SILICON VALLEY were great.

    FOI Integer
    LOI Play
    COD Picnic
    Time 14 m

    Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow 😊

    Thanks Pedro and Jack

  26. This one seemed to suit us and finished in a quick time for us. Noted comments about high and vid, which also seemed odd but were obvious within th clue. Thanks Pedro for a pleasant solve.
  27. I saw the split hidden at 11ac eventually but got it as ELENA, the name of my previous cleaner. The caused blockage of the whole NE corner
  28. … one of my favourite enjoyments. But as we don’t have 8 people in my household (or a ballroom) we must wait for happier days.

    A 12 minute solve for me, though I never got the parsing of 9A Ongoing until Jack explained all. In fact the NW corner was sticky all round and supplied not just my LOI but the two before it as well.

    I wondered at the split hidden in 11A Helen, but assumed this was a standard ploy, just something I had not seen before. Interesting that it appears to be an entirely new trick introduced by Pedro, but it seems fair enough if it is well flagged as today.

    Much enjoyed Jack’s blog for which many thanks
    Cedric

  29. 6:40 with LOI area, with fingers crossed, struggled to see are for live. I thought ongoing was very clever. Thanks blogger and Pedro.
  30. From today in France the ban on exercise beyond 1km from home has been lifted so I made the most of it and went for a lovely long bike ride (but still on my own and with mask).
    On my return Pedro kept me busy for 19 minutes and I thought there were some very clever clues – ONGOING, LETHARGY, PICNIC AND HYSTERIA to name but a few.
    Thanks to Jack for explaining those clues I’d biffed and thanks to Pedro for a great mental workout.

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