Times Quick Cryptic No 1658 by Pedro

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit on the trickier side today, I found – the RHS certainly looked pretty sparse after a first read through of the acrosses, with only 19 and 23 going in. I don’t have an exact time as my phone rang shortly before the 10 minute mark with 4ac and 14d still to go, and I solved them over the next few minutes when my attention seemed dividable, but my target was missed either way. Lots to like, and a good range of clue types (just one double definition and two anagrams) kept it all very engaging – many thanks to Pedro!

Across
1 School is beginning to mend split (6)
SCHISM -SCH(ool), IS, M (“beginning” to Mend)
4 Plan to perform in an instant? Not quite (6)
TACTIC – ACT (perform) in a TICk (instant, not quite = dock the tail)
8 Weapon getting attention in company (7)
FIREARM – EAR (attention) in FIRM (company)
10 Quantity of wine, say, knocked back in boozy spree (5)
BINGE – BIN (quantity of wine) GE (eg = say, knocked back). For bin see here; binge derives from a dialect verb of soaking a wooden vessel.
11 Where you may see golfers run out in great quantity (5)
TROON – R.O. (run out, abbrev. in cricket) in TON (great quantity). Royal Troon is one of the Open courses.
12 Criticise fool with a mining tool (7)
NITPICK – NIT (fool) with a PICK (mining tool)
13 Love to search a maze of rooms? (9)
HONEYCOMB – HONEY (love/darling) COMB (search). Honeycomb can be used figuratively, but the definition works fine as an oblique description of honeycomb itself.
17 Doctor and a copper taking on the French vampire (7)
DRACULA – DR (doctor) and A, Cu (a, copper) taking on LA (the, French)
19 One drawing a tall building (5)
TOWER – double definition, the first in the sense of pulling.
20 Be a chauvinist, dismissing leader (5)
EXIST – sEXIST (chauvinist, dismissing leader). I suppose the original sense has largely been lost, making male chauvinist (pig) redundant, but it was originally “exaggerated, bellicose patriotism” in the vein of jingoism, named after a (probably fictitious) Napoleonic soldier called Nicolas Chauvin, and applied with ridicule to the soldier who kept an “idolatrous admiration” for Napoleon after his fall (OED). An inspired linking with misogyny, so whatever original sense is lost is more than gained by equating it with sexism.
21 Floor coverings rolled back in area displaying grit (7)
STAMINA – STAM (mats = floor coverings, rolled back) IN A(rea)
22 Row about two appearances of good friend to Pooh (6)
TIGGER – TIER (row) about GG (two appearances of good)
23 Black bird and dog (6)
BEAGLE – B(lack) EAGLE (bird)

Down
1 Security, for example, involving iron anklet ultimately (6)
SAFETY – SAY (for example) involving Fe (iron) T (ankleT, “ultimately”)
2 Deaf old fellow’s first to appear in severe part of court case (4,2,7)
HARD OF HEARING -O(ld) F (Fellow’s “first”) to appear in HARD(severe) HEARING (part of court case)
3 Name borne by quiet anonymous Irish river (7)
SHANNON – N(ame) borne by SH (quiet) ANON(ymous)
5 A couple of books — Biblical books — shown by religious leader (5)
ABBOT – A, BB (a, couple of books) OT (Old Testament = Biblical books)
6 Extraordinary to pleb, winning game (6,7)
TENPIN BOWLING – anagram (extraordinary) of TO PLEB WINNING. I would hyphenate “ten-pin” but no matter.
7 Shout after covering each kilometre, making harsh sound (6)
CREAKY – CRY (shout) after covering EA. (each) K(ilometre).
9 Rich person, one upset by probing magazines (9)
MONEYBAGS – ONE, YB (“upset” by) probing MAGS (magazines)
14 Unacceptable opinion in item not shown on TV? (3-4)
OUT-TAKE – OUT (unacceptable) TAKE (opinion)
15 Commercial I ignored in broadcast TV aired (6)
ADVERT – ignore the I in an anagram (broadcast) of TV A i RED
16 Legal action about soldiers in line (6)
CREASE – CASE (legal action) about RE (soldiers)
18 Canadian policeman allowing second to go free (5)
UNTIE – moUNTIE (Canadian policeman), with MO (second) going away.

43 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1658 by Pedro”

  1. Took way too long today. TACTIC, SHANNON, CREASE and CREAKY taxed my waking brain considerably.
    No reliable time today as my efforts were punctuated by espresso refills in an attempt to stimulate the ageing grey matter. Undoubtedly within my bottom quartile though.
  2. No particular problems but just generally on the slow side coming in at 12 minutes and missing my target by 2.
  3. Tough, tough, tough. 27m of struggle to get there eventually – and I’m not even that low on the early leaderboard! I had a rising sense of dread after I had to pass over clue after clue as my first run through of the acrosses yielded just two – DRACULA and BEAGLE. Downs started better but still some tough stuff in there. As panic rose I nearly bunged in PIGLET on the strength of the G and E but calmed down to see sense. East much harder than west I found. NE look like it might be impossible until BINGE went in when the extra checker let me see all the others in a flurry but the SE was a slog. OUT-TAKE took longest despite watching hours of Dennis Norden with my Gran, just couldn’t find a word _A_E except RAGE for a age but CREASE was LOI ahead of STAMINA with both involving pen and paper and an alphabet trawl or two. Not sure I was annoyed exactly Vinyl but certainly frustrated at having my weakness exposed!
    1. I tried so hard to make PIGLET work! Glad it wasn’t just me

      Edited at 2020-07-16 09:04 am (UTC)

  4. Apart from BINGE and ABBOT (having been unable to parse RABBI) the top half of this puzzle was a sea of blanks, so I settled in for a real challenge. Fortunately the bottom half proved a little more amenable with only OUT TAKE causing serious problems. Finally getting the two long down clues opened up the top until I was left with the
    4a/7d combination. CREAKY need all the checkers as I had missed ‘making’ out of the definition. Finished just over target in 15.07, with my favourites being DRACULA, CREAKY and STAMINA.
    Thanks to roly
  5. Over my target at 23:37 today, but significantly better than the car crash yesterday. Yet another crossword where I was stuck on my LTI – TACTIC and CREAKY which evaded me for many minutes, even though they seemed quite obvious after getting them. Never mind. Lots of enjoyable clues here in any case
  6. … than yesterday.

    Too many complicated clues for me, even with the aids. I’m hopeless at remembering the shortenings – SCH for school, EAR for attention, NIT for fool, EA for each … the list goes on.

    Perhaps I shouldn’t try this at breakfast, I might be more awake later on.

    Diana

    Roll on Monday.

    Edited at 2020-07-16 08:07 am (UTC)

    1. Maybe try Friday’s first or did you forget today is Thursday!
      1. Just picked this up – my experience is that it tends to get more difficult as the week goes by. And today proves it.

        D.

        Edited at 2020-07-17 05:22 pm (UTC)

        1. How true. I was completely at sea.. very much an Ancient Mariner day for me. Roll on Monday. I have not noticed that the QC gets harder as the week goes on. Some weeks it starts badly and I look optimistically to the rest of the week. Enjoy the weekend. I
    2. I agree. Shannon, Troon, etc. Tough call for us Canadians.
      At least we had Untie 🙂
  7. A great puzzle but in no way a Quick Cryptic in my opinion. Thanks to Roly. I will say no more. John M.
  8. Slower than usual at 14:22 for a Poor Day. I have to admit that I found that a rather joyless puzzle with little sparkle. The excellent blog more than made up for it, though – top work roly, thank you! I shall deploy my new-found knowledge of the origins of “chauvinism” with a superior air as soon as possible.

    FOI SCHISM, LOI TACTIC, no COD.

    Templar

  9. Better than yesterday I think at 17 minutes. LOI CREASE after an alphabet trawl made case obvious. Thanks both.
  10. When I saw Pedro’s name, I thought this might be a challenge. But FOI was SCHISM and the LHS was done in normal time.
    The RHS was a different matter for me. Lots of tough decoding to be done especially CREAKY and LOI TACTIC. I assumed 6d ended BEATING which was another delay.
    COD to late-in BINGE. Nice to see Troon mentioned; I was there in 2016 and saw Phil Mickelson just miss out on a 62 in the first round. It would have been the lowest round in Open history (and there’s quite a lot of that).
    Oh, and 22:50 on the clock; enjoyable and tough. David
  11. Bit of a slog to finish, got stuck on tactic, creaky, and LOI out take.

    COD binge.

  12. 27 minutes, but the last five spent on STAMINA, which I don’t think is really equivalent to ‘grit’, but I suppose is just about in the same area.
    Otherwise a difficult puzzle, done one clue at a time with each answer leading to the next.
    Thanks to Roly for the blog, although for once I understood all the wordplay.

    Brian

  13. Agree with our blogger – LHS was no problem but the RHS had to be picked apart. Any thoughts of a sub 10 ten went by the wayside as I stared at one then another clue hoping for inspiration. I think if the LHS hadn’t flown in I’d have been better prepared. As it was it all worked out in the end. Call outs to 12ac and LOI 14dn for completely fooling me on where the definition was in the clue. 15:56 – and SCC for me.
  14. Glad it wasn’t just me. A crossword of two halves to a greater extent than I ever remember. The left all went in fine, but I had absolutely nothing on the right except ABBOT. With only HONEYCOMB bridging across this made life somewhat difficult. I got BINGE fairly soon, though I parsed it as being a NIB of wine being reversed. I’d never heard of a nib, but it sounded reasonable. Probably should have got BEAGLE sooner, although having “outcast” for 14d didn’t help. Last two were TACTIC and then, finally, CREAKY (must remember EA for each). COD to MONEYBAGS, time was an embarrassing 64:01, but at least it shows I have 21a. Thanks Roly and Pedro.
  15. Too hard, especially right hand side – TACTIC, CREASE, STAMINA too subtle for me, a couple of the others just guessed.
  16. This was a really tricky one, with far too many obscure answers and clueing for me. The clock says 1hr10 but much of the right-hand side only went with aides, alphabet trawls and occasionally resorting to checking each letter as it went in. And it had looked so promising when 2D Hard of Hearing went in first! Hopefully Friday will be a little easier on the less experienced solvers!

    Thanks for the blog and the puzzle.

  17. Put Rabbi and Piglet at first which didn’t help. Guessed Troon but couldn’t parse (applies to several other clues today)

    Forgot I didn’t get the relatively easy Crease. Struggled with Tactic and Creaky but solved in the end.

    FOI Hard of Hearing

    Interesting that our blogger reckons the original meaning of Chauvinism has been lost. I suppose it has, though I still think of it as dislike of foreigners.

    Thanks as ever.

  18. Like others, I found the RHS much harder than the LHS, which gave no problems. I eentually saw TENPIN BOWLING, whiuch I had been looking at from the wrong end of the clue, with a tentative (mind?) BLOWING. CREASE and CREAKY took ages to see. I eventually crawled over the line after a quick proof read in 11:55, but alas, had failed to notice UUTIE. Drat! Thanks Pedro and Roly.
  19. Strangely enough I found this fairly straightforward the two long down clues helping enormously. CREAKY (LOI) threw me for a while. Would never have thought of it as a ‘harsh sound’. Never thought of TENPIN as a single word, but it had to be.
    Good fun
    PlayUpPompey
  20. Another DNF for me, with 16dn “Crease” just not coming. I was tying to fit “Writ”, thinking line had something to do with writing, but obviously not at all on the right path. The rest went in after about 45 mins – so well above my average.

    Definitely the hardest of the week I think. Whilst I know 11ac “Troon” and 3dn “Shannon” it took a while for the penny to drop. Made a dogs dinner of the SE corner in general, thinking 23ac was “Badger” and making up a new type of bird before I finally got 14dn. Not convinced “Creaky” is a harsh sound either – but I guess it’s acceptable.

    FOI – 1ac “Schism”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 9dn “Moneybags”…if only.

    Thanks as usual.

  21. … it seems from other comments, but home eventually in 15 minutes. Fast enough on the left side but badly held up in NE corner by 4A Tactic (I tend to think of the instant as tic anyway – as in “half a tic” – so didn’t see what the “Not quite” was doing in the clue), then 7D where I had Croaky first – better fit for “making a harsh sound” I thought but couldn’t parse it and it made 10A impossible too, so changed it eventually.

    COD to 13A Honeycomb, simple but sweet.

    Thanks to Pedro for a challenging puzzle, always fair and as Roly says, good variety in the clue constructions. And also to Roly for the blog.

    Cedric

  22. …. That was hard. I’ve no idea how long it took because I had lots of interruptions today but I think it was in the region of several months.

    Certainly in the first quarter of an hour, I’d managed to solve about half a dozen clues and two of those I got wrong, putting in rabbi instead of ABBOT and outcast instead of OUT TAKE. I honestly don’t think that any of these were unfair. The parsing took account of all of the segments of the clue (apart perhaps for “and” in 23 across, BEAGLE ) and was perfectly followable if, perhaps, a bit tortuous. But it was too hard for me and maybe, just my opinion, too hard for a quick crossword. I just got bored in the end and gave up because it wasn’t fun. Thanks to blogger and setter.

  23. This required 25 minutes of head-scratching to complete and my first one in wasn’t until 17A DRACULA.
    I biffed TROON which I only knew because I’d been there and I had a MER at CREAKY which didn’t seem to tally with the clue of ‘shout after’ as ‘cry’ is wrapped around ‘eak’.
    There were several clues I enjoyed though including TIGGER, SHANNON and UNTIE and my favourite was NITPICK which was one of the simpler ones.
    Thanks to Pedro and Roly – I enjoyed reading about the origin of ‘chauvinism’ even if Nicolas Chauvin didn’t exist!

  24. Very nearly 3x yesterday’s time at 8’50”. Nothing unfair or too obscure, but nearly every clue gave a good account of itself and refused to give up without a fight. A very fine puzzle.
    Chapeau to Pedro and think you to Roly.
  25. Struggled for quite a while with this one. First pass had only the extreme SW corner complete, with acres of blank spaces everywhere else. They all fell gradually but not without a fight. I spent quite a few minutes trying to parse HONEYMOON for 13ac before I saw the error of my ways. Nothing wrong with the clueing – just tricky!

    FOI – 17ac DRACULA
    LOI – 14dn OUT TAKE
    COD – 13ac HONEYCOMB

  26. After 1d and 1ac went in quite quickly, this turned into an unexpectedly difficult solve – and that was despite having remembered the Tower trick from previous crosswords. My time wasn’t helped by trying to stretch a biffed Held on Remand into 2d (I really should be able to count by now), and a long delay trying to parse Binge, which I thought would include a homophone. LTI were Moneybags and Honeycomb as the clock reached 30mins. That felt a bit slow, but now seems more reasonable having read the other comments. CoD to 22ac, Tigger, and many thanks to Roly for the informative blog. Invariant
  27. ….especially for those who don’t follow golf or cricket. I’m with Cedric on CREAKY – the description defines “croaky”, but the parsing is fair. An excellent puzzle otherwise, and I had little difficulty.

    FOI SCHISM
    LOI ABBOT
    COD OUT-TAKE
    TIME 4:13

  28. Three days of being woken at 5am has taken a toll…..well I am using that as an excuse for my lengthy solve. Yes this QC was hard and despite my tardy 19 mins solve I really did enjoy it. SCHISM was my FOI and CREASE my LOI with lots of aha moments in between. Now back to dusting away the 8 months of cobwebs in my Mallorca retreat!
  29. toughish, but fair. LOI was BINGE for some reason – eminently biffable from “boozy spree”.

    Lots to like though, SCHISM, NITPICK, TACTIC, FIREARM, MONEYBAGS all stood out for me as well-constructed clues.

    9:22, so a good couple of minutes, or a significant percentage over my (downwardly) revised target of 7 minutes. So, definitely on the harder side.

  30. As a first time poster i struggled with this but got there, I have on question of help, how do you collapse the comments after you have opened them.

    Thank you Worworcrossol

  31. Guessed TROON to complete the LHS, then took longer than it normally takes to finish one of these to fill the other half in. I am annoyed at myself not (as Vinyl implies) the setter, as there’s nothing really difficult. I suppose it highlights how much I rely on checking letters to have a guess while simultaneously unscrambling the clue.

    Not sure what Worworcrossol means exactly, but if you’re using the smartphone app to read comments, you need to press the back arrow in the top left to get the blog.

    1. when i finished reading the comments how do i collapse them so i cannot see the comments
  32. Even though I took at least an hour to complete.
    Congratulations to Phil and Invariant and Playuppompey who excelled in my opinion.
    So hard but I was in the mood and sunk two large Peroni in the process..Rabbi mislead yes, Tenpin Bowling didn’t see for ages, School = Sch Mer NHO took another month (haha LJ); Honeycomb eventually fell leading to Moneybags (COD) and finally Tactic LOI.
    So pleased to finish but needed to be in the mood.
    A great challenge for me.
    Glad I know Shannon well and Troon !!
    Thanks all,
    John George
    1. Thank you John for the compliment – some days work out better than others, but, despite my pen-name, consistency is not my strong suit.
      1. So did as I am new to the Times Crossword Club this made me think which despite my grey hair is a good thing
        (ha ha).
  33. Well, this was an interesting and cleverly puzzle which really taxed us. We made excellent progress and approached the finishing line in about 10 minutes. But, oh dear, we simply could not solve 16D despite our best efforts so we turned in a sad DNF after 27 minutes. Thanks to Pedro for a great challenge.

    FOI: Dracula
    LOI: crease (DNF)
    COD: honeycomb

    Thanks to Rolytoly for the blog and for explaining Troon which we had biffed.

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