Times Quick Cryptic 1721 by Trelawney

Author   chrisw91Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Another zippy QC which unfolded from the NW and steadily filled in through to the SE finishing on 7dn. This process took 6:47 which is a very pleasing start to a Tuesday. Lots of short words and simple anagrams make this one that, hopefully, everyone will enjoy. I had half an idea that there was a comedian/comedy theme going on but can’t really justify it looking at the completed grid. Ah, well, it’s all fun.

ACROSS

1. Mum and family catching cold with rubbish raincoat (10)
MACKINTOSH – mum (MA) and family (KIN) holding cold (C), rubbish (TOSH).
8. Send back first five bits of non-explosive element (5)
XENON – first five letter of NON-EXplosive written backwards. If you were unaware of the element it was generously clued – especially with the ‘X’ from 1dn.
9. See you acclaim icon regularly (7)
CHEERIO – acclaim (CHEER), (I)c(O)n.
10. Prepare to cook fish, heading for event that’s black tie, perhaps (5,4)
DRESS CODE – prepare to cook (DRESS), fish (COD), (E)vent.
12. Writer‘s enclosure (3)
PEN – double definition.
13. Live in Barcelona I reckon (2,3)
ON AIR – in Barcel(ONA I R)eckon.
15. Starts to order dinghy, despite losing yacht in a strange way (5)
ODDLY – (O)rder (D)inghy (D)espite (L)osing (Y)acht.
17. Bounce explosive, eliminating dam finally (3)
BOB – explosive (BOmB) eliminating da(M).
18. Label I ran represented a dancer (9)
BALLERINA – anagram (represented) of LABEL I RAN.
20. Sneer at shabby grave (7)
EARNEST – anagram (shabby) of SNEER AT.
21. Scheme to capture Ireland’s first aviator (5)
PILOT – scheme (PLOT) to capture (I)reland.
22. Garden ably designed, for the most part (2,3,5)
BY AND LARGE – anagram (designed) of GARDEN ABLY.

DOWN

1. Stirred large drinks for Wimbledon match (5,7)
MIXED DOUBLES – stirred (MIXED), large drinks (DOUBLES). An example of where mixed doubles may be played is at a Wimbledon match. I rather think this should have been qualified, being a definition by example, however crosswordunclued.com says ‘The Ximenean requirement is that a definition by example must be qualified: word(s) like “for example“, “perhaps” must accompany the example. There is a shift away from too rigidly following this rule nowadays, notably in the Times crossword‘.
2. Heaving ocean, small boat (5)
CANOE – anagram (heaving) of OCEAN.
3. Pub‘s requirement for Guinness (3)
INN – the word Guinness needs the letters Gu(INN)ess.
4. Hurriedly add policy – no getting upset! (4,2)
TACK ON – policy (TACK – the board changed tack), no (NO) upside down.
5. Dock worker to wear down old soldiers heading north (9)
STEVEDORE – wear down (ERODE) and old soldiers (VETS) written for bottom to top.
6. Fall over extremely outdated photography gear (6)
TRIPOD – either fall over (TRIP) or fall (TRIP) over (O)utdate(D).
7. Clean-cut boys rebuilt blown-up fortress? (6,6)
BOUNCY CASTLE – anagram (rebuilt) of CLEAN-CUT BOYS. Amusing definition.
11. Small, hard, and chewy collection of plants (9)
SHRUBBERY – small (S), hard (H), chewy (RUBBERY).
14. Reddish-brown and gold torch (6)
AUBURN – gold (AU), torch (BURN).
16. Protein in wheat initially needed to support muscle (6)
GLUTEN – (N)eeded at the bottom of muscle (GLUTE).
19. Novel riled a lazy person (5)
IDLER – anagram (novel) of RILED.
21. Friend father left (3)
PAL – father (PA), left (L).

55 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1721 by Trelawney”

  1. Nothing to scare the proverbials, although I spent some time trying to think of a real castle. I biffed 5d from the S, only parsed post-submision. Didn’t even notice the DBE of MIXED DOUBLES. 5:37.
  2. 7 minutes. Not familiar with the abbreviated form GLUTE so I biffed that one.
  3. All green in 14 but made heavy weather of DRESS CODE (I kicked myself) and TACK ON (didn’t really believe that could be the answer until the green squares came up). Five on the first pass of acrosses and then rather better on the downs. Today’s odd delay was thinking of ‘plain’ rather than PILOT as a first guess for the aviator and taking a while to dismiss the idea. I’m another STEVEDORE biffer, that starting S was just too tempting. No other particular hold ups but not many answers came that easily.
  4. Maybe we should do the QC in the morning more often as we raced through this one in 7:27. We more or less wrote in every answer – a novel but very enjoyable experience. Thank you Trelawney!

    FOI: Mackintosh
    LOI: dress code
    COD: Mackintosh (we liked bouncy castle and mixed doubles too)

    Thanks to Chris for the blog

    2. We more or less wrote in every answer – a novel but very enjoyable experience.

      But if you could always do this, would it be boring? Like entering the Times Crossword Championship and knowing beyond a doubt that you were going to win it 🙂

      H

      1. Yes, you are right, it would. But only last week we took 30 mins on a couple of days and were close to a DNF. So a fast finish every once in a blue moon is nice to have.
        1. I know, I know. I suppose I was gently teasing 🙂

          I’m pleased when I get under 6 minutes, and delighted when I get under 5 minutes! I still hope for sub-four when it’s an easy Monday or I just happen to be on the right wavelength. But not sure that will happen now as the brain slowly ossifies.

          H

      2. Yes, you are right, it would. But only last week we took 30 mins on a couple of days and were close to a DNF. So a fast finish every once in a blue moon is nice to have.
  5. As a happy but decidedly slow solver I am confidently speeding up. 32 minutes yesterday, 31 today! Often difficult to know my true time if I split my solving into two, before falling asleep and on walking up!
    Puzzled yesterday by à propos as ignorantly have always written it 1-6 and today was determined to squeeze Crack on into 4-2.
    Thanks Trelawney, Chris and commenters all.
  6. Drat and double drat! I was on for a PB but, unaccountably, got hung up on my LOI DRESS CODE which took minutes and seemed to recede as I got more annoyed with myself. Still, I was under 10 mins by a few seconds which makes a change (as does being under 2K). A nice approachable QC for all to enjoy, I hope. Thanks to Trelawney and Chris. Now to go back and enjoy some of the subtleties (like 1d) with Chris’s blog. John M.

    Edited at 2020-10-13 08:33 am (UTC)

  7. I do hope that the anonymous poster yesterday who was so cross about the difficulty of the QC comes back and has a go at this one. A very good example of how Q a QC can be, but still an entertaining puzzle. Great stuff.

    FOI MACKINTOSH, LOI CHEERIO (the only clue requiring two visits – I started by trying every other letter of “acclaim icon” instead of just icon and then decided I needed checkers), COD SHRUBBERY because it reminded me of my father’s favourite joke (Customer in a Chinese restaurant – “Waiter waiter, this duck is rubbery!” Waiter – “Thank you velly much sir!”), time 1.2K or Chris minus 1 second!

    Many thanks to Chris and the Squire.

    Templar

  9. Some easy ones and a few which required extra work. I had to write out the anagrist to get BOUNCY having put in Castle early. I needed several looks and eventually all the checkers to get LOI SHRUBBERY. Some nice clues here and a good QC overall. COD to MIXED DOUBLES. Time 09:26. David
  10. 12 minutes today, after slowing myself with TAKE ON instead of TACK ON initially. The K looked unlikely as the first letter of 9a, but it took me a minute or so to reconsider TAKE TACK. BOUNCY CASTLE also held me up and was POI before correcting 4d and entering CHEERIO. GLUTES are usually referred to in the plural, but I guess a single glute can exist, although my spell checker doesn’t like it as I write this comment. Nice puzzle, thanks both.
  11. Stuck on Dress Code for some reason. Biffed Stevedore immediately but couldn’t parse.
    Liked Mixed Doubles, Bouncy Castle. Don’t understand Policy=Tack. I suppose tack means direction in sailing terms.
    Thanks as ever.

    Edited at 2020-10-13 10:42 am (UTC)

  12. I rose at 5:30am as I couldn’t sleep, and worked my way through the headlines, the Concise and this puzzle before re-retiring at 6:45. Having just surfaced again and put myself outside a cup of strong coffee, I can report that I started with INN and CANOE, continued with MACKINTOSH and MIXED DOUBLES, and submitted at 7:21 having finished in EARNEST. The BOUNCY bit of the CASTLE took a while! Thanks Trelawney and Chris.
  13. Another DNS for me today in terms of work, but followed by a DNF on this. Went through most of it pretty quickly, with only DRESSCODE causing any particular hold up, and so arrived at one to go with around 15 or 16 minutes on the clock. Having spent as long again trying to puzzle out what on earth could fit S_E_E_O_E for the Dock worker of 5d, I gave up and allowed myself a catnap. This did not help, however, so finally I admitted defeat. I am at least grateful that the answer is not a word I am kicking myself for not getting. Now I see STEVEDORE, I can remember it coming up once before here, but other than that it is totally unfamiliar. No idea what a stevedore might do. Do docks even have them any more? Anyway, perhaps next time I will remember it, so thanks Trelawney and Chris.
    1. From maritime info.org:
      In some ports the Stevedore has a wide range of responsibilities including the physical loading, securing and unloading of cargo, driving vehicles to transport cargo within the port, and operating highly technical loading and unloading equipment.
  14. There was lots to enjoy in Trelawney’s puzzle, but despite a good start with 1ac/d, I struggled in a few places and took nearly 7 mins longer than yesterday. Dress Code and Tack On didn’t come to mind too quickly, but my real hold up was 7d, Bouncy Castle, where I was convinced I needed the name of a real castle. Bouncy came with a clang after several frustrating minutes and seemed to knock me off my stride for the remaining clues. Finally crossed the line just north of 25mins. CoD (through clenched teeth) to 7d. Invariant
  15. … with a very nice puzzle that was definitely Q as well as C. All done and green in 8 minutes, but 5D Stevedore not parsed – needed Chris’s excellent blog for that.

    Like Rotter I also at first thought of Take on for 4D, but in my case it was solving 9A Cheerio that put me right not the other way round. Still not 100% convinced that “tack = policy” really works.

    18A Ballerina must be one of the easier 9-letter anagrams we have been presented with … and like others I found 7D Bouncy castle much harder to pin down. What makes some anagrams elusive and others leap out at one, I wonder?

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    Edited at 2020-10-13 10:22 am (UTC)

    1. What makes some anagrams elusive and others leap out at one, I wonder?

      What indeed! I think today we (some? most?) were set on trying to think of the name of a famous castle rather than just shuffling the letters to see what turned up. Clever misdirection by the setter?

      H

  16. Much excitement, as one of the Beta Testers for the new Times iPad app, I was able to use the new crossword user interface (almost exactly the same as the web browser version).

    So with the new visible clock adding pressure, and the exciting option of a pencil as well as a pen I was pleased to get in under the wire at 19:20.

    Can’t believe I needed all the checkers to see MIXED DOUBLES. At one point I even tried WOMBLES for the second word.

    Who is this Steve Dore chap? This was easy to Biff and hard to parse. IMHO that makes it a weak clue, but lots of good ones to offset it. Including my COD, BOUNCY CASTLE.

    1. Much excitement, as one of the Beta Testers for the new Times iPad app, I was able to use the new crossword user interface (almost exactly the same as the web browser version).

      Oh God, they’ve changed it. Why? Because it keeps programmers (and their managers) in a job 🙂 A whole new set of bugs to find a way around … I hope they haven’t made it like the Sunday Times crossword, just can’t get into that rhythm of typing.

      Mostly I just wish people would leave things be and concentrate on fixing the bugs (“obscure features”). That said, I hope they’ve allowed separate clocks for each puzzle, and allow the clock to stop/restart when you have to cut away to answer the door or whatever. The Polygon puzzle does this just fine, so why not the crosswords.

      H

      1. Agreed, Sunday Crosswords are just terrible to fill in.
        Hope iPad version allows ongoing checking as the iPhone does. Very useful for early intermediates like me.
    2. I think this might have been a notional PB for me, if I had timed it. I must have done all except my LOI in under 15 mins but got completely stuck on 16d, not realising that ‘glute’ is actually a word. My spelling checker doesn’t like it either. I had to consult my personal language advisor about it. Fortunately, she knew immediately!

      Anyway, I’m quite pleased with myself as I had no problems parsing 5d, so I must be learning something.

      Edited at 2020-10-13 05:47 pm (UTC)

  17. 6:40 today because I got stuck for far too long on DRESS CODE and BOUNCY CASTLE. Nearly had to write the letters out for BC, which I forbid myself to do as that would be “cheating” (hey, you’ve got a definition and all the letters, how hard can it be). But this one really stumped me. I kept trying to think of famous castles!

    And DRESS CODE, just didn’t see it despite deciding it must be DRESS something. I was wondering if dress robe was a word, but it didn’t make sense anyway. Interesting that one or two others have reported being stuck on the same clue – do we all fall into the same way of thinking?

    COD – XENON. I’ve not seen that form of clue used before.

    H

  18. Thoroughly enjoyed BOUNCY CASTLE. I look forward to asking my grandsons if they are having a blown-up fortress for their next birthday party!
  19. How annoying. After completing most of the grid in nearly 10 mins – a potential personal best – I just could not see 10ac “Dress Code”. For some reason I couldn’t get Dover Sole out of my head, even though I knew it wouldn’t fit. So, after pondering for another 15 mins, coming back every now and then, I had to concede defeat.

    However, the rest was fairly straightforward, with the only the other hesitations on 4dn “Tack On”, 5dn “Stevedore” and 11dn “Shrubbery”.

    FOI – 1ac “Mackintosh”
    LOI – 10ac dnf
    COD – 7dn “Bouncy Castle”

    Thanks as usual.

    Edited at 2020-10-13 11:28 am (UTC)

      1. It happens too often – it’s like falling at the final fence on your way to winning the Grand National.
  20. That’s how you appease the Knights! Obviously appeases Trelawney too, who set a nice crossword, not too difficult. Completed in 5:24.

    Exactly as our SI unit of QC completion times – I spent time looking for an actual castle (my LOI), and also failed to appreciate what a nicely constructed clue STEVEDORE is – having also bunged it in from the initial letter and definition.

    Edited at 2020-10-13 12:54 pm (UTC)

  21. …but enjoyable all the same.
    I biffed CHEERIO and STEVEDORE (both very clever) so thanks to Chris for the helpful blog.
    Some lovely clues – DRESS CODE, ODDLY and SHRUBBERY – and CoD goes to BOUNCY CASTLE for making lots of us rack our brains for an actual name.
    Thanks to Trelawney for just over 16 minutes of head-scratching.

  22. Does it still appear in the standard form Companies House Memorandum of Association?
    Surely time to replace with website designer
    Another sub 20 today with minimal biffing unlike yesterday.
    Johnny
  23. I had one of those rare days when I didn’t really have to think, the answers just flowed one after the other. I thought I might sneak in under 5 minutes but the brief pause over LOI BOUNCY CASTLE took me to 5.39.
    Sometimes when I’m on a roll I don’t have time to fully appreciate the clues but there were several today that made me smile, including MIXED DOUBLES, XENON, STEVEDORE and BOUNCY CASTLE but my favourite was SHRUBBERY.
    Thanks to Chris and Trelawney
  24. A very similar experience to everyone else – had to think twice about DRESS CODE, didn’t fully parse STEVEDORE etc! But a fun puzzle from Trelawney with plenty to smile at – especially SHRUBBERY and MACKINTOSH. A bit slower than yesterday. Still, Not a Bad Day!

    FOI Mackintosh
    LOI Bouncy Castle
    COD Bouncy Castle
    Time 9:56

    Many thanks Trelawney and Chris

  25. ….so congratulations to Trelawney.

    FOI MACKINTOSH
    LOI DRESS CODE
    COD BOUNCY CASTLE
    TIME 3:30

  26. A quick solve until the LIN, 16d, glute being unkown or forgotten. Long anagrams caused no trouble and 5 d went in without parsing. An enjoyable and satisfying puzzle. Thanks Trelawny and for the blog.
  27. Tack, as in change tack, means direction, not policy. It’s from sailing, eg the yacht was on the port tack. 4D is a weak clue IMO.
    1. Yeah correct but “Boris made a change in tack by….(add you preferred verbiage here….)” and you can see it works.
  28. Fairly straightforward today and all correct and parsed in 11 mins. Several nice clues to make you think mixed in with some very easy ones (21dn springs to mind). On the whole an enjoyable puzzle, so thank you Trelawney and thanks to Chris for the blog.

    FOI – 1ac MACKINTOSH
    LOI – 9ac CHEERIO
    COD – 1dn MIXED DOUBLES

  29. Just for a change I took an opportunity for an leisurely afternoon solve over a cuppa. That might have have helped but I think Trelawney gave us our a second benign puzzle in two days. I did notice my time was 27 minutes – which adding in the deliberately relaxed solving approach – counts as pretty good for me. I’m another who failed to parse 5d Stevedore but the first letter made it a given. It took two bites to solve 7d Bouncy Castle (having got the second word) and 10a Dress Code (having got Dress) but others were all very straightforward. FOI 1a Mackintosh, where I habitually err by omitting the K; LOI 4d Tack On where I had to be convinced of tack=policy and move on from my sailing days; COD 7d Bouncy Castle for the amusement value but it so obvious clue once the penny dropped. Now I have to find something else to do this evening. Thanks to Trelawney for a gentle puzzle and to Chris for showing how 8d worked and a concise blog.
    1. You could try today’s 15×15. I managed to finish so it must have been easy(ish) 🙂
      2. Thanks for the tip-off – I sat and toyed with the 15×15 on-line and having got a handful of, mainly, anagrams I began to take it seriously – 94 minutes all done but with some guesses in the NW – off to see the blog. Only the second one I’ve completed… Some QC’s take me longer! Thank you very much indeed!
        1. I have yet to break the hour barrier, so 94mins is perfectly respectable in my book.
  30. I had one of those bad experiences where you get stuck on the last one. Gluten. Not PEC OR AB ETC
    In total 17 mins, all done in 7 mins, and then 10 to open a bottle of red, and have another look.

    Returning to UK permanently in November so hopefully can attend some of the organised drinks.

    COD BOUNCY CASTLE

    1. A bottle of red with the QC, a lounge in the bath with a printed Saturday 15×15. Decadence is much underrated.
      1. Book of verse, loaf of bread I can do. But please don’t call on me to sing in the wilderness.
        1. Thank you. An extra smile on an already good day. Maybe you’d have a sing-along after the jug of wine?

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