Times Quick Cryptic No 1392 by Pedro

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

I’m usually pretty tolerant when it comes to cryptic clues, but I have to complain about 20 Across, which seems to me utterly ambiguous. It didn’t at the time of solving, and I got it “wrong”.

Otherwise, some very nice clues in this puzzle. Lots of anagrams, which I haven’t had in awhile.

Solutions

Across

1 Loud volume nearby, though not initially (5)
VOCAL – V (“volume”) + LOCAL (“nearby”) without the first letter (“though not initially”)
7 Misfired a shot — very rash (9)
OVERHASTY – anagram of (“misfired”) A SHOT (“a shot”) + VERY (“very”)
My instinct to try a different definition from the surface reading backfired here, and I was looking for some form of skin irritation. Hiding in plain sight.
9 Style of swimming [that’s] chilly in cold lake (5)
CRAWL – RAW (“chilly”) in (“in”) C (“cold”) + L (“lake”)
This one stumped me for awhile as I couldn’t see past C+ICY+L, which obviously isn’t a thing.
10 Story I want rewritten after I prepare to attack? (3,2,4)
LIE IN WAIT – LIE (“story”) + I WANT (“I want”) anagrammed (“rewritten”) after (“after”) I (“I”)
11 Key cricketer making comeback (3)
TAB – BAT (“cricketer”) reversed (“making comeback”)
12 Cute plane handled badly, [prompting] irritability (9)
PETULANCE – CUTE PLANE (“cute plane”) anagrammed (“handled badly”)
14 Get rid of reserve [in] collation of memories? (9)
SCRAPBOOK – SCRAP (“get rid of”) + BOOK (“reserve”)
16 Party time? [There’s] little point (3)
DOT – DO (“party”) + T (“time”)
18 Meat dish rises with cooking (5,4)
IRISH STEW – RISES WITH (“rises with”) anagrammed (“cooking”)
20 Conscious a King is surrounded by reverence (5)
AWARE – A (‘a”) + R (“King”, rex, that is) in (“surrounded by”) AWE (“reverence”)
Nothing wrong with R for ‘king’. But there’s also nothing wrong with K for ‘king’, and AWAKE is just as good a synonym for ‘conscious’ as AWARE is. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Grumble, I say.
21 US soldier very into vocation — medical attendant? (9)
CAREGIVER – GI (“US soldier”) + V (“very”) in (“into”) CAREER (“vocation”)
22 Sentimental Greek character retiring (5)
MUSHY – MU (“Greek character”) + SHY (“retiring”)
Lovely definitions for MUSHY and SHY here.

Down

1 Empty tin put in tank (6)
VACANT – CAN (“tin”) in (“put in”) VAT (“tank”)
2 Charlie spots lawyer removing street[’s] protection for drivers (5,7)
CRASH BARRIER – C (“Charlie”, radio alphabet, I imagine) + RASH (“spots”) + BARRISTER (“lawyer”) without (“removing”) ST (“street”)
3 Lie around with newspaper and popular item of confectionery (8)
LOLLIPOP – LOLL (“lie around”) + (“with”) I (“newspaper”) + (“and”) POP (“popular”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_(newspaper)
4 Leave / somewhere uncultivated (6)
DESERT – double definition
Took me forever to think of this word.
5 Avoid source of heat in fine weather (4)
SHUN – first letter of (“source of”) HEAT (“heat”) in (“in”) SUN (“fine weather”)
6 Fragrant shrub: attempt to block tree coming up (6)
MYRTLE – TRY (“attempt”) in (“to block”) ELM (“tree”) reversed (“coming up”)
8 Details snags after repairing church feature (7,5)
STAINED GLASS – DETAILS SNAGS (“details snags”) anagrammed (“after repairing”)
13 Tepid conflict linked to first of manuscripts overseen by gospel writer (8)
LUKEWARM – WAR (“conflict”) + (“linked to”) first letter of (“first of”) MANUSCRIPTS (“manuscripts”) under (“overseen by”) LUKE (“gospel writer”)
14 One informing idiot’s in school (6)
SNITCH – NIT’s (“idiot’s”) in (“in”) SCH (“school”)
15 Sequence of notes hermit finally placed in old grotto (6)
OCTAVE – HERMIT (“hermit”) reduced to last letter (“finally”) in (“placed in”) O (“old”) + CAVE (“grotto”)
17 Cathedral city supporting man, just when needed (6)
TIMELY – ELY (“cathedral city”) under (“supporting”) TIM (“man”)
19 Substantial front to garden, with colour around (4)
HUGE – first letter of (“front to”) GARDEN (“garden”) with (“with”) HUE (“colour”) around (“around”)

34 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1392 by Pedro”

  1. I’m in total agreement with Jeremy re 20a, and 6 solvers with 1 wrong answer out of 9 on the leaderboard indicates the same. 7:57 with AWAKE rather than AWARE. Bah Humbug. Thanks for the blog Jeremy.
  3. I’m glad I didn’t think of AWAKE; as Jeremy–and several people on the club forum–said, it’s in every way just as good as the ‘correct’ AWARE. Like Jeremy, I had trouble coming up with DESERT, which should have been a quick gimme. Parsed LIE IN WAIT only once I typed it in; LOI CRASH BARRIER I only figured out after submitting. 8:19.
  4. Be aware! ‘R’ is more commonly used for King than ‘K’ in Crosswordland.

    FOI 16ac DOT

    LOI 4dn DESERT

    COD 22ac MUSHY

    WOD WOKE

    Time 9.19 mins

    Edited at 2019-07-10 04:35 am (UTC)

    1. Be aware! ‘R’ is more commonly used for King than ‘K’

      Do you have the stats on this please?

    2. I don’t have any statistics myself. I’ve certainly seen my fair share of R and GR but my sense was that K was more common, even in the 15x15s. Shrug.
  5. Another of the AWAKE crew – I’ve been solving on paper recently and if I’d stuck to that I’d have given me full marks. Took a second over 20m, so not a quick solve but all fair. DESERT held out to the end, I think I would have needed “uncultivated area” to get there quicker, but MYRTLE the actual LOI – should have remembered that one by now but it didn’t come quickly to mind and I missed what “blocking” was doing in the clue – and couldn’t think of ELM, so double minus points for botany for me today.
  6. Another AWAKE. I recently worked a puzzle in which chess notation was a theme element, so K was the first thing to come to mind…
    I don’t see any other way to parse 10 than what you have here, Jeremy. Hmm…
      1. But that’s the parsing you already gave, above. That’s how I parsed it. That’s the only way I can see to parse it.
        1. Yeah I think you’re right. Don’t know what I was thinking.
  7. 10 minutes, but like most others so far I had AWAKE rather than AWARE, and like others (apart from our Shanghai correspondent) I can’t see a reason to favour one over the other, frequency of occurrence not withstanding as both K and R for ‘king’ occur in puzzles frequently enough.

    I’ve not heard of the word at 29ac and have not been able to find a date for its first appearance, but ‘carer’ apparently means exactly the same thing and dates from the 17th century, so if it was already in existence I don’t see why one would invent another very similar but longer word to use instead. I suspect it’s jargon for those in the habit of using longer words for the sake of it and to make the activity sound somehow more important (as if it isn’t anyway!). And if a CAREGIVER is a person administering care, does that make a person on the receiving end a ‘caretaker’?

    Edited at 2019-07-10 05:25 am (UTC)

    1. I gather from your comment that CAREGIVER is an Americanism, but it’s been around for some time; I can remember thinking the same thing about ‘caretaker’ years ago. But I find it preferable to ‘carer’ for its pronunciation: at least in a rhotic accent, ‘carer’ tends to become close to monosyllabic and hard to distinguish from ‘care’. It’s also more specific: a carer is someone who cares, whereas a caregiver is, so far as I’m aware, specifically a professional–doctor, nurse, physiotherapist, whatever.

      Edited at 2019-07-10 05:47 am (UTC)

      1. It hadn’t actually occurred to me that CAREGIVER was an Americanism although I had read all the entries in Collins and on re-reading them now I see they all mention America and/or Canada so I suppose it could have registered subconsciously, but in any case no slight was intended in my comment.

        However I can see nothing in those entries to convey the meaning you suggest although that’s clearly what the setter had in mind so may well be the correct one. Collins printed edition has only: ‘US and Canadian. A person who has accepted responsibility for looking after a vulnerable neighbour or relative’ which to me definitely doesn’t suggest a qualified professional.

        Edited at 2019-07-10 06:35 am (UTC)

        1. I think I’ve been misunderstanding the term for some time: Medline, for instance (US Nat.Inst. of Health) defines it thus: Caregivers provide help to another person in need. The person receiving care may be an adult – often a parent or a spouse – or a child with special medical needs. Some caregivers are family members. Others are paid. They do many things:

          Shop for food and cook
          Clean the house
          Pay bills
          Give medicine
          Help the person go to the toilet, bathe and dress
          Help the person eat
          Provide company and emotional support

  8. Fortunately I wasn’t AWAKE enough to think of anything other than AWARE. Oh this is an early train, and yet it’s full. Who are all these people who get up so early?

    Anyway. After a long time wading through mental treacle it came with a rush at the end for 1.9K and a Decent Day. FOI LOLLIPOP, LOI MUSHY (always freak out when I see the Greek alphabet), COD IRISH STEW. I thought for a while there were going to be loads of anagrams but that turned out just to be the first few clues I happened to alight upon.

    Why is “raw” “chilly”?

    Thanks Jeremy and Pedro.

    Templar (off to become both awake and aware through the miracle of espresso)

    Edited at 2019-07-10 06:55 am (UTC)

    1. This entry for RAW is from Collins:

      adjective
      Raw weather feels unpleasantly cold.
      Once they cleared the housetops, the wind was raw and biting.
      …a raw December morning.
      Synonyms: chilly, biting, cold, freezing

  9. Glad I am not on a train today but I am feeling a little tired after my ultimately very enjoyable trip to Arundel to watch cricket; the perfect English cricket venue on what turned out to be a beautiful day for weather. The only problem yesterday was the appearance of the the military man, General Disruption.
    My only problem today was finding that AWAKE was “wrong”. I had taken about 14 minutes to do the puzzle,after staring at LOI 4d for too long before DESERT occurred to me. Perhaps I was not fully awake!. Otherwise an enjoyable and not too difficult puzzle. David
  10. I got it right but now I agree with you – awake would be so much better. Crash Barrier shouted out but otherwise the clue was a bit tough (they are protection for more than the driver but I’m nit-picking. A great improvement on yesterday’s disappointing unenjoyable offering.
  11. ….OVERHASTY. Had I spotted “awake” I would have entered it. “R” is both King and queen, where “K” isn’t. I think it’s the better option, but I happily slapped in AWARE without a second’s hesitation. Bullet duly dodged !

    FOI OVERHASTY
    LOI VACANT
    COD CRASH BARRIER
    TIME 3:30

  12. A good day today, other than getting awake “wrong”, but I’m ignoring that. 26:14. LOI was desert and POI was Myrtle, which I was afraid might be an unknown as I am no gardener, but in fact I had heard of it. Only through doing these I think, so something must be staying in. COD to 7a which I thought at first was going to be an anagram of ‘Misfired a’ and then, when I realised it was ‘a shot very’ wasn’t sure whether it was a definition of misfired or of rash. Also liked Mushy. Thanks Pedro and Jeremy.
  13. I really enjoyed this QC until I got the unlucky message on the phone app. I was another with AWAKE and I had to use the check grid function to track down the error. 9:42 after correction.
  14. I think this was quite a tough one – lots of odd clues which I answered with fingers crossed. Yes, AWAKE caught me, too so I suppose I did not finish really, despite coming close to rejoining the SCC (actually under 2.3K but it seemed even longer). Thanks to jeremy for help with parsing biffs such as LOLLIPOP, MUSHY, and CRASH BARRIER. I quite liked LUKEWARM but, with the exception of the anagrams, I found many clues less satisfying. John M.

    Edited at 2019-07-10 09:28 am (UTC)

  15. Gone midday and no acknoweldgement from the editor of the problem at 20ac despite many more comments than usual in the Quickie forum, almost entirely on this issue.
    1. Editor probably gone down pub. Easy to criticise the editor and/or setter, but it is only apparent if you think of “K” before “R” – I ignorantly put in AWARE and couldn’t see the problem of ambiguity until explained on this forum.

      I take it people just want an acknowledgement rather than apology? It won’t stop it happening again one day.

      Perhaps the real acknowledgement is what a fantastic job the editor&setters do that this sort of problem has happened so rarely!?

      1. I don’t want anything except the opportunity to grumble.
      2. Your final paragraph is of course correct and their sterling efforts are much appreciated, however the Times Crossword Club site has an (optional) competitive feature by which on-line solvers compete against each other in league tables and score points for all-correct solutions.

        If people are being marked down for having ‘wrong’ answers when what they have put is a perfectly valid alternative it seems unfair. This is recognised by David Parfitt and his team at the Times and normally on occasions such as today they would acknowledge the slip-up and adjust the points scored accordingly. That they have not done so today is of course not the end of the world but it is disappointing for those who take part in the competition.

        Edited at 2019-07-10 03:43 pm (UTC)

  16. I never thought of Awake, so naturally I see nothing wrong with the answer… More seriously, we very rarely get two perfectly valid answers, (apart from when I’m wrong), so the editor seems pretty good at clue checking. I feel more inclined to grumble at 21ac, which I thought at the time was a made up word, albeit the cryptic was fair. Just north of 25mins in total. Invariant
    PS I did enjoy Jackkt’s ‘caretaker’ 🙂
  17. Awake here too. And even if R is commoner for the monarch, K for the chessman is a standard clue.
  18. I’m another in the AWAKE camp. I was going to have a moan but as others have pointed out it happens so infrequently that it feels a bit harsh to make a fuss.
    Other than that a perfectly pleasant puzzle, completed in 9.52 with LOI the surprisingly tricky DESERT.
    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog
      1. This sort of thing happens more often–although not often–in the Concise puzzles. Usually the setter recognizes the ambiguity and includes ‘(S not Z)’ or whatever in the clue, but every now and then fails to.

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