Times Quick Cryptic No 1582 by Orpheus

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

DNF on account of 8 Across, despite lucky guesses at a few other places. Otherwise a pretty easy puzzle.

Stay safe everybody.

Solutions

Across

1 Start of exciting film, a blockbuster (4)
EPIC – first letter of EXCITING + PIC (film)
4 Flourish container for grain husks? (8)
BRANDISH – BRAN [for example] DISH
8 Rainstorm [in] Ulster county, on the rocks some say? (8)
DOWNPOUR – DOWN (Ulster county) + POOR (on the rocks) replaced by homophone
“Some say” may be indicating that POOR and POUR are only homophones in some dialects?
9 Self-satisfied, [having] rejected sweets (4)
SMUG – reversal of GUMS
10 Class going round rear of medieval fortress (6)
CASTLE – CASTE around last letter of MEDIEVAL
11 Impression [made by] one politician introducing bill (6)
IMPACT – I (one) + MP (politician) + ACT (bill)
12 Give the game away? / A clumsy greengrocer might (5,3,5)
SPILL THE BEANS – double definition, the latter literal
16 Particular sci-fi film seized by Irish legislators (6)
DETAIL – E.T. (sci-fi film) in DAIL (Irish legislators)
17 Extremely coarse, genuine breakfast food? (6)
CEREAL – first and last letters of COARSE + REAL (genuine)
19 House [in] Home Counties beside busy road (4)
SEMI – SE (south east = Home Counties) + MI (busy road)
Didn’t know the definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-detached.
20 Leaseholders finally circumvent any rent mix-up (8)
TENANTRY – last letter of CIRCUMVENT + ANY RENT anagrammed
21 Way fashionable eighteenth century elegist [identifies] fish (8)
STINGRAY – ST (way) + IN (fashionable) + GRAY (, Thomas — eighteenth century elegist)
Favorite clue.
22 Large jug sheep found by river (4)
EWER – EWE (sheep) + R (river)

Down

2 An old work about an Indian city (5)
POONA – AN + O + OP (work) reversed (about)
3 Trick woman into breaking up a group of stars (13)
CONSTELLATION – CON (trick) + STELLA + INTO anagrammed
4 Vocally expresses disapproval [of] alcoholic drink (5)
BOOZE – homophone of BOOS (expresses disapproval)
5 A row involving Irish transport organisation (7)
AIRLINE – A + LINE around IR
6 Loss [of] girl’s looks and bearing (13)
DISAPPEARANCE – DI’S + APPEARANCE (looks and bearing)
7 Liquid food caught on? Just a touch (7)
SOUPÇON – SOUP + C (caught) + ON
10 Reduced charge [for] salad ingredient (3)
COS – last letter removed from COST (charge)
13 Specious excuse [from] platoon leader regarding message (7)
PRETEXT – first letter of PLATOON + RE + TEXT
14 Communications satellite rattles frightfully (7)
TELSTAR – RATTLES anagrammed
15 Personification of sun initially shining over Llandudno (3)
SOL – first letters of SHINING OVER LLANDUDNO
17 Shrewd girl in outskirts of Coventry (5)
CANNY – ANN in first and last letters of COVENTRY
18 In maturity, engineers see eye to eye (5)
AGREE – RE (engineers) in AGE (maturity)

43 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1582 by Orpheus”

  1. ‘poor’ and ‘pour’ are not homophones in my dialect, but then my dialect is not the dialect of the puzzles. Anyway, 8ac took me a while. LOI POONA; it’s been Pune officially since 1978. 4:39.
  2. Pour and poor are homophones for speakers of Standard British English, which would include the prototypical Times solver.

    6 minutes and change for the puzzle. I’m still waiting to be served a Chicken Chennai in an Indian restaurant. Has a certain alliterative ring to it. I’m sure it would catch on.

    1. ODE annoyingly doesn’t bother giving the pronunciation of such words.
  3. No problem for me, but MER at POONA (my company has an office in Pune so I just guessed it was a different name for the same place, and the wordplay didn’t offer any alternative I could see). Also, TELSTAR seems a bit dated. It was launched in 1962 so is it reasonable to expect that as normal GK for someone who is, say, 30?
    1. Everyone should listen to the awesome Joe Meek “Telstar” song at least once a week, in my opinion. Still the sound of the future.
      1. A remarkable man, years ahead of his time. If they ever repeat the documentary on BBC4 it’s an absolute “must watch”. How he produced his amazing sounds with really primitive equipment is a thing of wonder !
    2. I am usually the first to moan about antiquated words but Telstar should certainly be GK, first functional (rather than experimental) comms satellite. We still know of Stephenson’s Rocket even though that was even longer ago.

      Edited at 2020-04-01 12:47 pm (UTC)

  4. Originally the game of Badminton was played under ‘Poona Rules’ as that was the city from where it emanated. I much prefer Poona – and it fits! There is also Poonch up by Kashmir.(Stanley Gibbons)

    Time 8 minutes.

    FOI 8ac DOWNPOUR – homophone for horryd

    LOI 20ac TENANTRY – the old Dr. Who Fan Club

    COD 12ac SPILL THE BEANS

    WOD TELSTAR and the ‘Shads’ recorded it – marvellous! Didn’t they do Stingray as well!? But no NINA as ‘The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt’ is not included.

    In Crosswordland the Under Thirties should be expected to know who Philip Larkin is, who won The FA Cup in 1949, who won the Battle of the Bulge, and much else. And what an Oxford comma is! That’s the deal! Otherwise take up Sudoku or similar.

    1. Never keen on cover versions, for me Telstar has to be by the Tornados with their clavione or whatever the electronic instrument was. The Shads recorded plenty of their own originals for us to enjoy. Talking PIctures TV is currently rerunning ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ and Cliff and the Shadows were top of the bill last Sunday in a show from 1965.
    2. And innumerable old poets, obscure plants, birds, and…there are so many antelopes. But, as Jim is always pointing out, you can get away with Einstein, Faraday, and maybe Planck (and only because his letters make for some unusual crossers).
  5. I thought I could be in for one of my fastest times as at 12 minutes I had just two to go, but it took me another five to solve AIRLINE, then PRETEXT.
    Di, Ann and Stella were possibly two random ladies too many, and Chambers has ‘pour’ as a homophone of ‘poor’, along with ‘paw’ and ‘pore’ so I suppose anything is possible.

    Brian

  6. 9 minutes, so back on target for the first time this week. Didn’t know, or had forgotten TENANTRY but this didn’t delay me unduly. One minor quibble is that Bill and Act are not the same thing in UK parliamentary terms. A bill is draft legislation subject to debate and amendment through various constitutional stages. When it has gone through these it’s then voted on and, if passed, receives the Royal Assent at which point it becomes an Act of Parliament and subject to the law of the land.

    It’s possible there’s another context in which the two terms are interchangeable, but if so, I’m not aware of it.

    Edited at 2020-04-01 06:03 am (UTC)

  7. FOI was SMUG. Had to dart around the grid to keep solving. Whenever I see ROW in a clue, I know it could be a long haul to find which meaning is intended. And 5d was MY LOI after quite a long pause to get AIRLINE.
    Telstar is probably the only satellite I could name. I remember well The Tornados and particularly a blond guitarist called Heinz. I think he-and Joe Meek-may have had unhappy lives. I will look them up and listen to the record later today.
    No problem with POONA as I just relied on the cryptic and did not know about the modern names. DOWNPOUR required a review of Irish counties -hold the mayo and uncork the booze (a lot of that in recent puzzles).
    DNK TENANTRY. Time:11:14. David
  8. All done in 19m and all green but hard work in the top. LOI POONA mainly due to not realising what ‘about’ was doing in the clue – successfully misdirected yet again – but also by DOWNPOUR outstaying its welcome too. Also kicked myself for taking so long over BRANDISH given we had it not very long ago. A game of two halves, bottom half flew in, top half was a struggle to the end. SOUPCON was the breakthrough at the top but had to read all the clue calmly to get there, satisfying when the penny dropped.
  9. c27 mins FOI BRANDISH which I wouldn’t have got so quickly if we hadn’t had it here a few days ago. Be interested to know in what dialect pour sounds like poor. It’s not RP, but i got there through semi-biffing and thinking of pouring something on the rocks.
    1. How on earth do you pronounce it then? I don’t think of ever heard either pronounced differently from each other
    2. How can they be different? Poor, Pour, Paw and Pore are all the same to me.
  10. A brain freeze with LOI TENANTRY added a minute or so to my time but other than that it was relatively plain sailing. I have no complaints about the homophone at 8a, but was surprised to see BRANDISH appear again so soon.
    Finished in 9.53 with my favourite being STINGRAY.
    Thanks to Jeremy
  11. Enjoyed this – have to say I can’t think of any UK dialect where pour and poor would not be homophones – paw and pure maybe??
    1. Maybe my NE upbringing, but I pronounce then like “pawr” and “Pooer”, Consequently I failed to parse 8A. Otherwise no difficulties. COD to SMUG. 4:10.

      Edited at 2020-04-01 09:00 am (UTC)

      1. Yes I had your region in mind but your spelling makes it clearer 🙂
  12. It felt quicker than my actual time but I was 5 mins under my target (within 2K in old parlance). I must be getting used to the lack of noise (traffic) outside the house – bliss. DOWNPOUR didn’t bother me (nor did POONA) but I needed the crossers to workout the unknown TENANTRY. I quite liked STINGRAY, SOUPCON and PRETEXT. I biffed a lot once many crossers were in but I did parse them all. Nice puzzle – thanks to Orpheus and Jeremy. John M.

    Edited at 2020-04-01 08:44 am (UTC)

  13. Daaah dah DAH, dah DAHDAHDAHDAHDAH … that’s my earworm sorted for the day then. I will report tomorrow on how the Under Thirties react to this puzzle since I have three of them living in lockdown with me and two of those are attempting the QC every day.

    Being an Over Fifty I found this straightforward and at 1.4K had a Very Good Day. The only real hold up was POONA, which eventually emerged through sweating the wordplay and dim memories of Kipling.

    Thanks Jeremy and Orpheus.

    Templar

  14. 10 mins. Knew telstar from playing guitar with my grandad (him on organ). Dnk tenantry.

    COD stingray, I can testify that you don’t want to get stung by one. 6 hrs of pain in hospital until the morphine kicked in.

  15. Just under 8 minutes for a ’round the clock’ solve – NW,NE,SE,SW. I liked spill the beans and will probably bore my local grocer with it.
  16. My FOI was CONSTELLATION and LOI wa EWER. I was a bit sluggish getting the rest of the NW, but after that just glided through from top to bottom. I biffed DOWNPOUR from the county and crossers, so didn’t consider the homophone. As a northeasterner, I’m with Johninterred on pronunciation. 6:58. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
  17. Oh dear! 2.5K today and all because I couldn’t get 13d PRETEXT. Of course it would have helped to know the meaning of specious…which I didn’t so I was completely relying on word play and TEXT required two alphabet trawls. Thanks Jeremy and Orpheus.
  18. A happy hour (& 34 secs) – thanks Orpheus – with 1.5 left requiring blog solutions – thanks plusjeremy. SOUPCON and impACT (oh dear) held out. I think I’m improving – it used always to be 4 clues that I came to the blog for.
    1. I’m still at the at-least-four-clues-needing-help stage, and the blog is wonderfully helpful.

      cod 14d as a child of the 60’s and Telstar is now my ear worm-of-the-day.
      Diana

  19. Well within our time – didn’t have an issue with downpour. However, we’ve just had a heated debate about how we each pronounce poor and pour. Turns out it’s not in the same way – after 33 years of marriage you might have thought we would have noticed 😂.

    Nice challenging puzzle today.

    FOI: epic
    LOI: tenantry (never heard of this word but it just had to be the answer)
    COD: detail (are there ever any other sci fi films apart from ET in crosswordland?)

  20. ….TENANTRY, this was quite straightforward for me (0.85K) and a pleasant relief after donning my mask and gloves to go to Anticoagulation Clinic. Apparently there’s more chance of me falling off the perch with a blood clot than with coronavirus.

    FOI BRANDISH
    LOI DOWNPOUR
    COD SPILL THE BEANS
    TIME 3:58

  21. I suspect Orpheus was in a generous mood, even to the point of recycling a very recent answer at 4ac. Either that, or I’ve finally latched onto his wavelength. A pleasant 21 min solve, with 20ac Tenantry and loi 13d Pretext the only real hold ups – the latter needing a slow alphabet trawl that put paid to a sub-twenty finish. CoD just has to be 14d, Telstar, not a great clue… but what memories it brings back. Invariant
  22. For a Kevphilesque sub 5 minute solve, but the DOWNPOUR and AIRLINE crossers pushed me out to 6:38.

    I always thought that Spike Milligan was born in POONA, but wikipedia tells me it was actually the nearby town of Ahmednagar.

    Edited at 2020-04-01 11:26 am (UTC)

  23. Had to check list of fish for stingray, but then realised I should have got Gray (shamed).
    Then finished.
    Thanks all.
  24. Another enjoyable day and another sub twenty minute solve. Maybe I’m improving or maybe you are being kind to us during this tricky time. I can’t say I’ve heard of Thomas Gray but I did the bottom half first and found the top half harder.
    FOI 12a
    LOI 5d
    COD 19a
    Thank you Jeremy and Orpheus.
    Blue Stocking
  25. About 30 mins for me – but got stuck on 5dn “Airline” and 13dn “Pretext” for longer than I should.

    Strangely, I didn’t even see the second part of 8ac “Downpour” as a homophone – I thought it was an example type of clue ie. something you might do “on the rocks” eg. pour a drink on ice. But, being from the North, I would have pronounced it “poo-er”.

    FOI – 10dn “Cos”
    LOI – 5dn “Airline”
    COD – 3dn “Booze” – a lot us are on it.

    Thanks as usual.

  26. … the Gods, or at least Orpheus, have smiled on me and I recorded my first sub-10 minute finish for a few weeks. Poor and pour sound identical to me, so no trouble with 8A, the bête-noire of today’s puzzle it seems, and the rest was an enjoyable solve, helped by all three of the 13 letter clues being very readily accessible.

    FOI 4A Brandish, LOI 21A Stingray, but only because I was working steadily down the puzzle.

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog
    Cedric

  27. I think I might be slowly getting onto Orpheus wavelength – at last! But I may be tempting fate so will simply say that it was a Very Good Day today 😊

    Lots to like – Constellation was pretty easy but put together beautifully! I also liked Spill the beans.

    I have never read Gray’s Elegy but feel I ought to. It was written at Stoke Poges near Slough – now there are challenging prounciations for you!

    FOI. Epic
    LOI Downpour – we have the same differences about pooer and poor, mooer and more etc, in this house too
    COD Stingray
    Time 8:8 – my best for a while!

    Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy

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