Times Quick Cryptic No 1548 by Felix

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Lots to like today in a good quality puzzle from Felix. I was held up a bit at the end by not expecting a second “hidden” clue – it’s an unoffical rule to only appear once in a 15×15 but I forget if there are any such rules in the QC (apart from the non-living persons one). I’ll blame that for just missing out on my target, although it did generally feel a bit harder than average when solving. Much enjoyed – many thanks to Felix!

Across
1 In Peru, let hero, ostensibly, reign (4,3,5)
RULE THE ROOST – is “in” the letters of peRU LET HERO OSTensibly. Well hidden – I’d assumed it was going to be an anagram clued by “ostensibly” until a letter count eventually proved otherwise.
8 Periodical by graduate is hot stuff! (5)
MAGMA – MAG (periodical) by MA (graduate)
9 Reluctance to move one near it, somehow (7)
INERTIA – I (one) and an anagram (somehow) of NEAR IT
10 Row initially about cuts as an alternative (3)
OAR – A (“initially” About) cuts/enters OR (as an alternative)
11 Female relative invading pitch is showing off (9)
FLAUNTING – AUNT (female relative) invades FLING (pitch)
13 Through which spirit is poured out of sight (5)
OPTIC – double definition
14 Character waited for leave period (5)
GODOT – As in Waiting for Godot: GO (leave) DOT (period – I think as in American English for full stop).
16 Call concerning result? (4,5)
COME ABOUT – COME (call – as in call/come round) ABOUT (concerning)
17 Triumphant expression every second from rash lad (3)
AHA – “every second” letter from r A s H l A d
19 Find lie’s upset non-believer (7)
INFIDEL – anagram (upset) of FIND LIE
21 Knowing a king is held in great respect (5)
AWARE – A ; R (Rex = king) is held in AWE (great respect)
22 Different strangers Des offended (12)
TRANSGRESSED – anagram (different) of STRANGERS DES.

Down
1 Artist and doctor: old, aggressive male (5)
RAMBO – RA (artist) and MB (doctor) O(ld). After John Rambo in the 1972 book First Blood, I see, before which it known only as a type of apple.
2 Exponent of record with a beat you can hear (9)
LOGARITHM – LOG (record) with what “you can hear” the same as A RHYTHM (a beat).
3 Female getting wind after car abandoned outside? (7,6)
TRAFFIC WARDEN – an &lit clue (see glossary): F(emale) gets an anagram (abandoned) of WIND AFTER CAR outside it. The whole clue is a broad definition of an enthusiastic traffic warden. I think the “wind” here is equatable to “energy” (as in “second wind”) – it’s more plausible than the sense of “getting wind of”, or that she developed an unfortunate bout of enraged flatulence at the transgression.
4 Robust defending judge, one revolutionary prophet (6)
ELIJAH – HALE (robust) defends/covers J(udge) I (one), revolutionary = reverse.
5 Not a day patient’s bag? (9,4)
OVERNIGHT CASE – double definition, the first whimsical.
6 Ready for some tennis (3)
SET – double definition. The setter had plenty of options, with “set” having the longest entry in the second edition of the OED, running to some 430 definitions and 60,000 words. (It’s neck and neck with “run”, with 396, but we’ll apparently have to wait until the third edition in 2037 to see if there’s a new winner.) Anyway, they should definitely sell The Oxford English Dictionary’s Complete Set as a book and market it as a great prize to disappoint the winner of a competition.
7 Instructed in pronunciation of tense (6)
TAUGHT – pronounced the same as TAUT (tense)
12 Locals embracing girl are natives of state (9)
INDIANANS – INNS (pubs/locals) embracing DIANA (girl). Odd looking word!
13 Killer at sea concealed bloomer (6)
ORCHID – ORC (killer at sea – apparently a variant of the better-known ORCA) HID (concealed)
15 Bend in centre of field: ogle girls (6)
DOGLEG – hidden slap bang in the centre of fielD OGLE Girls. Interestingly sinister surface.
18 Each leading (5)
AHEAD – each = A HEAD.
20 Pro might, abandoning civil engineer (3)
FOR – FORCE (might) losing CE (civil engineer) – as in to be pro/for something.

65 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1548 by Felix”

  1. I got thrown by 12 down thinking it must be the residents of the state of Indiana. They are called indianians, there is an I in the word I did eventually put this in but I believe felix is wrong if my thinking was right.
    1. I didn’t think to check, but Collins has both as fine, and the OED says that Indianian was earlier with Indianan now the more usual term. I think I would have guessed it was your way, but I see the official demonym is “Hoosier” so it doesn’t look like either crops up too often.

      Edited at 2020-02-13 04:30 am (UTC)

      1. I would say ‘Indianans’ not ‘Indianians’, (and certainly never ‘Hoosiers’), as I would say ‘Iowans’ and ‘Americans’.
          1. I thought INDIA NANS might be the leading suppliers of unleavened bread….
  2. I got thrown by 12 down thinking it must be the residents of the state of Indiana. They are called indianians, there is an I in the word I did eventually put this in but I believe felix is wrong if my thinking was right.
  3. 1ac was as Vinyl says, very impressive. There actually was a book about Rambo? 6:03.
    1. I know, who knew? Wikipedia says that Stephen King used it as a textbook when he taught cretive writing, so that’s.. something.
  4. At 11 minutes I missed my target by 1 minute. Delays along the way over LOGARITHM, actually my LOI, and GODOT which I thought of on first reading the clue but the wordplay didn’t come readily to mind so I waited until all the checkers were in place and leaving me no alternative.
  5. was a very impressive ‘extraction’ from Peru etc. No write in. My COD.

    15 minutes for a faithfully constructed puzzle.

    FOI 1dn RAMBO

    LOI second part of 3dn WARDEN – TRAFFIC GARDEN has yet to be invented – unless you count some roundabouts(not US).

    WOD 14ac GODOT he did arrive eventually.

    Time 15 minutes.

  6. Felix normally involves an extra layer of difficulty and sometimes a hidden message. Can’t see anything hidden today and quite tricky in places but all seems fair enough to me.
    FOI was RAMBO. It took me quite a while to get RULE THE ROOST(very well hidden) as I wanted to rule the world. I had GRANT instead of Godot until the hoosier appeared. Delayed a bit by the short orc and had to invoke Lovely Rita to persuade myself about the traffic warden. They’re all men round here.
    LOI DOGLEG. COD to LOGARITHM.
    14:57 on the clock. David
  7. 18 minutes but put in awake for 21a, not 100% happily, but didn’t go back to it.

    LOI orchid.
    Good hidden, but I’ll give COD to flaunting.

  8. 27 minutes for a difficult puzzle, with few ‘easy’ clues. I got 1A first while trying to sort it out as an anagram, but struggled to finish until I saw TRANSGRESSED.
    I don’t understand ‘come about’ = ‘result’, perhaps someone can help me, and thanks to Rolytoly for his heroic attempt to define ‘traffic warden’!

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-02-13 08:40 am (UTC)

  9. Popped over to the site to see if anyone else had picked up on the AWAKE vs. AWARE issue. I see Flashman made the same ‘error’ as me, but surely both are acceptable? They’re synonymous as per Chambers, and King is both K and R.
      1. I agree AWARE is better but I also erred with AWAKE. Al least it isnt WOKE (yeuch) Andyf
    2. Yes I’m with the consensus here – both absolutely fine with the slight edge in favour of R.
  10. A good puzzle with an unusually easy start in the NW. It got harder and I became more deeply immersed so the time flew. I was surprised to find my time showing up as marginally over 3K today, despite some biffable answers. My favourite clues seem to have been listed by others above so I’ll just thank Felix and Roly. John M.
  11. It’s a nice quibble, but AWARE is ever so slightly more knowing than AWAKE – but as it’s almost Valentine’s Day…

    Edited at 2020-02-13 09:01 am (UTC)

  12. A flying start with 1a going in straight away and most of the downs coming off it swiftly following suit. However I got very bogged down at the bottom, not helped by initially biffing COME ROUND for 16a. I had to write out the anagram for 22a, took an age to spot the hidden at 15d and for some reason went completely blank for the second word of 5d, my LOI. I was also baffled by the parsing of TRAFFIC WARDEN and eventually gave up trying to work it out. Finished in 13.47 with my favourite being 1a.
    Thanks to Roly
  13. Quick throwback to yesterday – I always have to check Abingdon because I thought it was in Berkshire. Indeed it was the county town before moving to Oxfordshire.
    As for today I can’t make any sense of the explanation for traffic warden. Most people would get it because it fits and I get the anagram but can’t see any recognizable definition of who or what one is in the clue. Also dot may be a period in the US but I buy a UK based paper so it would be helpful to have some extra hint that I might need to think internationally.
    1. I agree with you up to a point. There is no clear separate definition to make it a semi-&lit, and the clue isn’t quite tight enough for a true &lit. However, it did provide me with an enjoyable penny-drop moment so all is forgiven.

      I found this well to the tough side of average and needed to engage 15×15 gear to make any real headway. Ditto others for great hidden at 1a.

      Thank you Felix and Roly.
      8’25”

      1. ahh have I missed something?? – my penny hasn’t dropped yet – it still makes little sense to me
        1. I thought it was a rubbish clue, I’m afraid. Massive Golden raspberry from me!
        2. ‘Congrats if it really is exactly ) I don’t think any of my boys (40 37 and 33) would know Bing.

          I asked my kids (43 40 and 37) ‘If they knew of Bing Crosby?’

          Number One Son ‘White Christmas!’
          Number Two Son ‘And the little drummer boy with Bowie’
          Daughter ‘Yes!’

          1. Must admit I forgot about the Bowie duet – overall though I still think its ageist
        3. I think you might be overthinking it – &lit clues are often a bit on the broad/loose/cryptic side of defining the answer: here we simply have a woman who’s concerned with an abandoned/illegally-parked car. What is she?
          1. I saw that and hoped that it would be something more sensible (for a quickie anyway) We associate traffic wardens mainly with giving tickets don’t we? – dealing with abandoned cars is a very incidental function. If you’re right it is a very poor clue in my view, but it didn’t spoil the puzzle overall and at least it was obvious what it had to be and didn’t prevent completion
          2. Absolutely!
            Talk about a fuss over nothing!

            It’s just a fun sort of &lit – a traffic warden might very well be interested in an abandoned car as abandoned cars are often parked illegally – or simply just parked.
            The clue is only “sexist” surely if you disapprove of traffic wardens, who often pursue a thankless task with nothing but abuse.

            An objection might simply be that it’s rather a difficult clue for a QC

            FGBP

          3. Surely we have a woman who’s farting so badly that everyone in her car jumped out of it and ran away?
              1. Except it doesn’t say “getting wind of”. It says “getting wind after”.
  14. 24:21. Saw 1a straight away but LOI was DOGLEG which I couldn’t see for ages. Biffed a few so grateful for the blog, rolytoly, and thanks Felix.
  15. I had RULE THE ????? for a while before I spotted the hidden. Didn’t really get TRAFFIC WARDEN but the checkers agreed so I biffed and moved on. FOI, MAGMA, LOI TRANSGRESSED. 9:51. Thanks Felix and Roly.
  16. Completed in about 40 mins. I thought this was another tricky offering but, as for yesterday, very satisfying with some great clues and surfaces.

    Took a while to understand the parsing of 3dn “Traffic Warden” (didn’t spot the anagram for a while) but could tell it was a “lit” type clue. Also struggled with 13dn “Orchid” as I was looking for Orca – didn’t realise Orc was a variant.

    FOI – 8ac “Magma”
    LOI – 16ac “Come About”
    COD – 14ac “Godot”

    Thanks as usual…

  17. A curate’s egg if ever there was one – some splendid clues, like RULE THE ROOST, but an absolute stinker in TRAFFIC WARDEN which makes less and less sense as more and more people try to explain it. I liked GODOT and OVERNIGHT CASE.

    FOI & COD RULE THE ROOST, LOI GODOT, done in 2k for a Decent Day.

    Thanks Felix and roly.

    Templar

  18. Talk about doing things the hard way: completely missed both hiddens until I had the answers, missed the anagram at 3d, and delayed entering 13d as I was sure the killer at sea had to be Orca. Capped off the resulting 40min crawl by having Awake for 21ac. My CoD vote, for what it’s worth, to 12d Indianans – who would have thought Inns could be locals… Invariant
  19. …a bit of a Curate’s egg for me. I raced through the first 21 clues (FOI – 1 across, so a good start). I came to a grinding halt with 2 down as I have never heard of the maths term “exponent” so was looking for some kind of trailblazer-type word. Even when I had all the checkers,I couldn’t see what it was. That makes this my first DNF in a very long time.

    There were some nice clues here – I especially liked 11 and 13 across and 5 and 7 down (my COD).

    However, I’m not keen on 3 down. I could see fairly early on that it was “traffic warden” but I think the clue was rather poor. I say this in full and certain knowledge that I would not be able to improve on it(although lovely Rita springs to mind).The attribution of “aggressive” to Rambo also caused me a slight MER as the character could just as easily be described as a brave war hero suffering from PTSD following Vietnam.

    Mrs Grumpy.

    Thanks, Rolytoly, for the blog and thanks,too, to Felix for the puzzle.

  20. Enjoyed most of this, but for me Elijah, Godot, Indianans and optic were for crossword experts only. I had no chance with these, despite 4 years QC practice and the (very) occasional 15×15 solve. Perhaps I’m just hopeless.
  21. Like our blogger, I was trying to find the anagram in 1a but fortunately the light came on fairly soon. Very clever in any event. I am sure there have been other longish clever hiddens but this is the longest I remember seeing in my limited experience.
    Traffic warden it had to be, but hardly inherently a female role so share the general view on this.
    28 mins so a good day for me and enjoyable.
    Plymouthian
  22. … on 3D Traffic Warden; the answer was obvious from the checkers all right but has for me the slight disadvantage of having nothing to do with the clue!

    Also not met Orc as a legit alternative to Orca, but again, answer obvious and grateful to Roly ‘s blog for explanation.

    COD 1A – great hidden clue and almost the definition of “hidden in plain sight”.
    LOI 3D – waited till there was no alternative before writing it in.

    All off which led to an 11 minute solve and just sub 2K. Thanks to Roly and Felix.

    Cedric

  23. …”Hunting High and Low” (A-HA, 1985) and I’ve made the top 10 of the leader board again (Verlaine is at the top), although I’ll have sagged to the mid-teens by close of play no doubt. Luckily, I saw both AWARE and awake, and the choice was relatively easy.

    FOI MAGMA
    LOI TRAFFIC WARDEN
    COD GODOT

  24. 13 down. I think this refers to the legendary bird of prey, the roc, with “at sea ” simply suggesting an anagram of roc, i.e. orc.
    1. Nice idea but indirect anagrams aren’t allowed I’m afraid! (Which is merciful.)
      1. I recently submitted an entry for the Sunday Times clue writing competition which contained an indirect anagram but I had a question mark over it’s legitimacy. Thanks Roly for enlightening me. Is there a list of rules for cryptic clue setting that I can access?
          1. Thanks William. I think the unique answer principle has been inadvertently breached on more than one occasion. I certainly recall an ‘awake’ ‘aware’ controversy before now.
            1. Just to add to William’s useful link, and if you’re very interested, Tim Moorey’s book How to Master the Times Crossword can be picked up very cheaply second hand and has been recommended in the past by Peter Biddlecombe who runs the contest as useful for clue setting.

              Other than that, there’s of course the full analysis of each week’s clue writing contest each week at the bottom of the Crossword Club site, which gives good pointers about what to do and what to avoid.

  26. A lot of guesswork today, time twice that of yesterday, but we were pleased to finish eventually. Enjoyed the comments above as usual.
  27. I was another AWAKE so DNF. I never even noticed 1A was hidden. I wrote it in from the enumeration and the definition, and assumed it was an anagram without stopping to check.
  28. I am getting progressively slower as the week goes on. FOI RULE THE ROOST which I enjoyed, biffed TRAFFIC WARDEN which I thought a poor clue, thankfully remembered ORC for killer whale and then lost speed with my last two in, COME ABOUT and LOGARITHM. A mostly enjoyable solve in 13 minutes.
    1. No doubt Orc is a perfectly legitimate abbreviation of the more well-known Orca, but I have never come across it before – I won’t be caught out a second time… (hopefully).
  29. Easy at first but couldn’t do Logarithm and a couple of others. Thanks, bloggers, tho
  30. A DNF today. 12d escaped me completely. The outside went in first and then it became more inspired biffing followed by trying to parse each one. Maybe a wavelength thing today but rather surprised the biffing was so accurate – something must have been working subliminally….

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