Times Quick Cryptic No 1502 by Orpheus

Introduction

I was putting my older son to bed while trying this one, so I guess I can blame my poor performance on that, but the truth is that this puzzle really stumped me. I was only able to finish by looking up the definition of ‘bulwark’. (I should have remembered it from Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.)

Solutions

Across

1 Slander American woman keeping keys (6)
DEFAME – DAME (American woman) around (keeping) EF (keys, from the musical scale)
4 School class cheers about layout of publication (6)
FORMAT – FORM (school class) + TA (cheers) reversed (about)
Wasn’t aware of this definition of ‘form’.
8 Girl detailed to receive plea [for] textile fibre (7)
ACRYLIC – ALICE (girl) without the last letter (de-tailed) around (to receive) CRY (plea)
This one really held me up. I guessed the answer but couldn’t see how the wordplay worked.
10 Lazy type this writer would ultimately enrol with hesitation (5)
IDLER – I’D (this writer would) + last letter of (ultimately) ENROL (enrol) + (with) ER (hesitation)
11 One of two writers [having] material rejected (5)
ELIOT – TOILE (material) reversed (rejected)
T.S. Eliot and George Eliot.
12 Poor unfortunate me, serving drink in inappropriate vessels! (7)
MUGGINS – putting (serving) GIN (drink) in (in) MUGS (inappropriate vessels)
Mugs, of course, being more appropriate for beer, rather than gin.
13 Trendy model? The opposite (9)
INVERSION – IN (trendy) + VERSION (model)
17 Starting-point for train-spotting, for example? (7)
ANAGRAM – cryptic definition
STARTING-POINT and TRAIN-SPOTTING are anagrams.
19 Brother — one who works in chippy, do we hear? (5)
FRIAR – fryer (one who works in chippy) replaced by a homophone (do we hear)
20 Greek poem, one backing Irish parliament (5)
ILIAD – I (one) + reverse of (backing) DAIL (Irish parliament)
21 Kids’ day centre user crossing river in New York (7)
NURSERY – USER (user) around (crossing) R (river) in (in) NY (New York)
22 Well-proportioned-sounding old cab (6)
HANSOM – HANDSOME (well-proportioned) replaced by a homophone (sounding)
A horse-drawn carriage. We have these in Central Park.
23 Money used to accommodate American relative (6)
COUSIN – COIN (money) around (used to accommodate) US (American)

Down

1 Storage compartment [for] draughtsman (6)
DRAWER – double definition
This one threw me because we’d probably write it as ‘draftsman’ and I thought something different was meant.
2 A certain number reportedly lie about a bulwark, say (13)
FORTIFICATION – FORTY (a certain number) replaced by homophone (reportedly) + FICTION (lie) around (about) A (a)
3 Soviet statesman[’s] action mostly restricting leader of our bunch (7)
MOLOTOV – MOVE (action) without the last letter (mostly) around (restriction) first letter of (leader of) OUR (our) + LOT (bunch)
Vyacheslav Molotov, that is.
5 Outstanding old part of building (5)
OWING – O (old) + WING (part of building)
6 Rich woman in Limassol somehow restraining anger (13)
MILLIONAIRESS – IN LIMASSOL (in Limassol) anagrammed (somehow) around (restraining) IRE (anger)
7 Drive [of] husband engaged by board of directors (6)
THRUST – H (husband) in (engaged by) TRUST (board of directors)
9 TV employee arrived with painter on island (9)
CAMERAMAN – CAME (arrived) + (with) RA (painter) + (on) MAN (island)
Isle of Man.
14 Big fire in centre of Toronto consuming plant (7)
INFERNO – IN (in) + middle letter of (center of) TORONTO (Toronto) around (consuming) FERN (plant)
15 Disappear, / rather like a commercial vehicle? (6)
VANISH – double definition
The latter humorous: something that is like a van could be called ‘van-ish’.
16 Chap involved in scam, a colourful writer (6)
CRAYON – RAY (chap) in (involved in) CON (scam)
This is probably a chestnut but I loved it!
18 Travelled on horseback finally to cattle round-up (5)
RODEO – RODE (travelled on horseback) + last letter of (finally) TO (to)

43 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1502 by Orpheus”

  1. This was a case of more haste less speed for me as I bunged in two wrong answers, one parsed, the other not – but I intended to return to that one later before stopping the clock. The first was DAM(A,G)E at 1ac, which almost works, and the other was ANCHORMAN at 9dn which doesn’t really but it was at the front of my mind after appearing twice elsewhere within the past week or two. Thus I was stymied in much of the top half of the grid until I had spotted and corrected my errors. Not helped by vague definitions such as ‘textile fibre’ for ACRYLIC and ‘writer/material rejected’ for ELIOT / TOILE at 11ac. 18 minutes.
  2. Slow going again today, despite biffing 5 answers: ACRYLIC, FORTIFICATION, MOLOTOV, MILLIONAIRESS, INFERNO. LOI 1d, which took bags of time. 17ac was lovely, although the juxtaposition of the two words made it easier to see the relationship. HANSOM reminded me of Coventry Patmore’s parody of Leigh Hunt’s
    The two divinest things that man has got,
    A lovely woman in a rural spot.
    namely,
    The two divinest things this world can grab,
    A handsome woman in a hansom cab.
    8:15.
  3. Recovering from a long Christmas lunch in town yesterday,so I did not feel on top form for this. It was not easy. After 20 minutes I had about five left. I thought of MOLOTOV and that was a big help; I’m sure many will find that clue intractable. ACRYLIC was very slow to emerge. My last two were OWING and MUGGINS, both very tricky. Mrs Miggins from Blackadder occurred to me; no doubt there are rules about characters from sitcoms. Characters from Dickens are accepted I think.
    26:32. Now time for a late breakfast.
    I thought this puzzle was excellent but very difficult for a QC.
    David
  4. Hard yards today – 3K and still a DNF because I just couldn’t get 17ac. Was it PB who posted the other day that she hates self-referential clues? I’m joining that club. Did not get how that worked at all, I was miles away. A Very Bad Day.

    Lots of other tough clues too, I thought. ELIOT, MOLOTOV and THRUST all took ages (MER at “trust” for “board of directors” – to a lawyer they are completely different things). COD INVERSION.

    Hey ho, another day tomorrow!

    Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.

    Templar

    1. Yes, it was me! Maybe not hate (in the words of the song – hate is a strong word, but i really, really, really don’t like you!) I’m not at all keen on reverse anagrams in particular, although I don’t think that is something we’ve seen in Quickieland. And, of course, I got stuck on this one too! It’s very clever – and obvious when explained, but even after using aids to fill the gaps, I still couldn’t see the parsing 😕 So thanks to Jetemy for clearing that one up.

      Anyway, a bit of a plod today – over 20 minutes, before I abandoned ship, so Not a Great Day. There were some nice PDMs: format and thrust took a while to reveal themselves for some reason, and I liked Molotov and vanish too.

      FOI Drawer (I liked crayon diagoally opposite on the grid)
      COD Muggins – a super clue
      DNF

  5. Not just me then, going over twelve minutes, with ANAGRAM LOI. MOLOTOV was a statesman, but probably most memorable for the ‘cocktail’ named after him.

    Thanks jeremy and Orpheus.

  6. I thought I would have to give up on this but got there in the end. Some of these clues would be considered very difficult even in a 15 x15 (eg 3d and 8a)
  7. An absolute b******d today IMO. Some very nice clues,on reflection, but some horrors, too. I took almost half an hour and was held up, like Jeremy, by FORTIFICATION and LOI ELIOT amongst others (Kevin’s list covers many of them). There were times when ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue’ came to mind and I was reminded again of this excellent programme by VANISH which I am sure is in The Uxbridge English Dictionary. MUGGINS raised a rare smile. Not a happy session but thanks to Jeremy for a valiant blog. John M.
  8. … and it’s a moany one! Sorry! I found this really hard. So hard that, after my standard half an hour of effort, I had to give in and eat two mince pies as comfort. Even with the checkers, I could not see 11 across and I did not like 12 across either. I also had my own intractable incompetence to deal with, exemplified by my inability to see beyond “anorak” for 17 across even though it does not have the right amount of letters. I got there in the end but could not see why. On the plus, altogether less complainy, side, I very much liked 13 across and 1 down. Thanks, Jeremy, for the usual engaging and honest blog and thanks, Orpheus, for the extra 200 calories your crossword cost me.
  9. A massive DNF after 30 minutes, mainly due to putting in ANCHORMAN and not doubting it, as in my limited knowledge of sailing a ‘painter’ had something to do with anchoring.
    Altogether very difficult – I think I did better (relatively) with today’s 15×15.

    Brian

  10. I had to engage the spare neuron to get anywhere with this one! Definitely a notch up on the difficulty scale. Took ages to see ACRYLIC, but a chopped Alice finally occurred to me. ANAGRAM took a while too. INVERSION led me to a biffed MOLOTOV, as I didn’t wait to parse it in my attempt to keep my time down. HANSOM and CAMERAMAN went straight in though. LOI was FORTIFICATION which needed all the crossers and pen and paper to give me a horizontal view. 11:45. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
  11. Really hard. DNF – could not get MUGGINS, OWING, ELIOT. Correct guesses with MOLOTOV, FORTIFICATION helped to get other clues.
  12. ….a veritable MOLOTOV cocktail, but I didn’t bomb. It was definitely tricky, and took me over my target time.

    I biffed FORTIFICATION, and came back to parse it afterwards.

    FOI DEFAME
    LOI CRAYON
    COD ANAGRAM
    TIME 6:23

  13. That’s two real bruisers in a row! Held up by biffing PLATFOR at 17a, not even noticing that the final M was a no-show. Needed all the checkers before the penny-dropped. Finally unravelled and finished in 7’55”.

    COD to the aforesaid 17a – worth the entrance fee alone.

    Jeremy, I think Central Park’s carriages are mostly landaus or similar. The Hanson cab was a two-wheeler, two-seater with the driver sitting high behind.

    My thanks to Orpheus and Jeremy.

  14. Crikey… I could tell this was going to be tricky after putting 15dn as my FOI.

    After a decent run last week, I have failed to get anywhere close to finishing today and yesterday’s QC!

    I managed to get about 50% of the clues today and gave up after an hour. Despite this, the clues I did manage were enjoyable, specifically FRIAR, CAMERAMAN and DRAWER.

    Even with a gun pointed at my head, I don’t think I would have ever solved 17ac ANAGRAM… Hopefully now I’ve seen this type of clue I may stand a chance in the future – it does strike me as slightly tricky for a QC, however.

    Could do with a more accessible offering tomorrow!

  15. Yes. A second hard one in a row. DNK the Soviet statesman, only the petrol bomb cocktail of the same name. I was a little puzzled by “One of two writers” at 11A. Wouldn’t “Writer having material rejected” do just as well? Are there really only two authors called Eliot? Never mind. Serves me right for thinking the definition was “One of two”. LOI ANAGRAM. I liked MUGGINS, the wordplay for ACRYLIC and the play on “American cousin” at 23A. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy. 8:10
  16. After 20 mins i bunged in the towel with 4 still left out there. I am weak.
    Acrylic, Eliot, Molotov, fortification.
    Thanks Orpheus and well done to our blogger!
  17. A 3K solve today. The right hand side of the crossword came quite easily probably because my FOI was 4a FORMAT. The left hand side was quite a different story. My two biffs were ILIAD and FORTIFICATION and my LOI, fully parsed, was 17a ANAGRAM.
  18. For the 3rd day in a row, I DNF (it definitely feels like one of those weeks). Got 11ac wrong, putting in “Evict” as I couldn’t think of anything else.

    Strangely, a lot of the other clues I knew straight away, although I didn’t get the parsing until much, much later. The NW corner comes to mind.

    The SE corner went in quite quickly, with the major hold ups on 2dn “Fortification”, 17 ac “Anagram” (which I guessed) and the beforementioned 11ac.

    FOI = 1dn “Drawer”
    COD = 12ac “Muggins” (as I felt like one)

    Thanks as usual

  19. Glad to see others found this difficult, we were starting to think our old brains were becoming addled. We did finish in abt 40m, without parsing many, just guessing correctly. Eg 17a, 11a, 3d, amongst a few others. Thanks Orpheus for a hard workout, hoping for something a little easier tomorrow!
  20. Got there in the end but a marathon slog. About half went in steadily at first, but it was hard pounding after that and the last few – MUGGINS, ELIOT and LOI ANAGRAM – took for ever. Glad to see that it really was a toughie quickie, so worth the effort.
  21. Have been much enjoying the discussions on this forum for a few weeks now, so time to join in! Finished today in about 15 minutes, slower than usual, so pleased that more experienced people also found it hard! Question: when people talk of finishing in “1.5K”, what does it mean please?
    1. It’s a measure of solving time relative to Kevingregg of this parish – he is quite quick and usually posts early, so a convenient benchmark (for some). Invariant
  22. Zero fun to be had from puzzles like this one. OK, Orpheus, we all know our intellects are puny compared to yours, no need to rub it in.
  23. RHS wasn’t too bad, but even after several visits the left side of the grid was a sorry sight. Didn’t help myself by sticking with Damage for most of the day, but even after I switched to Defame, my only further success was Molotov. Acrylic, Eliot (that’s twice Orpheus has got me with that one), Anagram and Fortification were all beyond me, but then I see I am in good company. Invariant
  24. Another tricky one today but, for me, not as tough as yesterdays work out. I particularly enjoyed INVERSION and ANAGRAM and particularly struggled with FORTIFICATION, ACRYLIC and MUGGINS. Finished in 15.39.
    Thanks for the blog
  25. The members of a trust are trustees not directors humph.
    Also not helped by putting in ACRYLAN which was the brand name. Did wonder whether Alan could also be a girls name
    1. Have to admit I wondered that as well. I put it down to one of those crossword things.
  26. Far too tough for me. I managed to get to the end but only by dint of resorting to various aids. Quite a few that I couldn’t parse, even when I had the answer. Hopefully tomorrow will be simpler..
  27. Ugh. But I enjoyed the blog. 17a was very clever, it took me ages to work it out even with the help
    Diana
  28. Not so much a DNF as a hardly started. Much too difficult for me, but glad to learn from the blog – thanks – that ‘detailed’ can mean tailless, which can go on the list with ‘flower’ which may be a river and ‘number’ who could be an anaesthetist. Any more of these I need to know?
    1. I’m afraid the list of tricks is quite a long one, and that’s only the ones I’ve come across – detailed was new to me as well.
    2. Oh yes. Plenty! As a rule, certainly with the 15×15, If the surface of the clue suggests one meaning of a word with more than one meaning, the definition or wordplay needs you to use another meaning. Let me see, what examples can I think of? Here are a few random ones…
      Banker = river (something with banks)
      Party = Do or Lib, Lab, Con
      Parliament = owls
      Bloomer = flower (no you can’t take another step to get to river!)
      Revolver = planet
      Side = XI (eleven)
      [enough already: Ed]
      Irrational = pi or e (irrational numbers)
      1. Every time I come across one of these I write them in a little book. However, I’ve never figured out whether consulting this book during the course of a puzzle is almost cheating.

        My logic was that the more I look at it, the more I won’t need it going forward as I learn some of these off by heart.

  29. Too many 15×15 type clues for me. Very hard and a dnf just as I was thinking I’d got the hang of the QC.

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