Times Quick Cryptic No 1693 by Teazel

Author   therotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A good, but chewy QC from Teazel that took every second of my 15 minute target to solve and submit, but with TOILE parsed after submission.  Some general knowledge is required, but nothing too obtuse I hope.

My FOI was AGOG, LOI TOILE as I was barking up the wrong tree even after seeing the answer, with COD going to 18a for a lovely surface.  Thanks Teazel, and good luck to you all.

Across

1  Small team specially tasked to take the back off? (6)
DETAIL – In the military, a DETAIL is a small body set apart for special duties.  If one were to DE TAIL something, one would be taking its back off, possibly.  In my last blog, I had curtail!
4  Very excited in the past by golf (4)
AGOG – AGO (in the past) and G (golf in the NATO phonetic alphabet).
9  Cook slowly, throwing in a bit of lard?  Less fat (7)
SLIMMER – SIMMER (cook slowly) containing L{ard} (a bit of).  Who else started by looking for an anagram (cook) of [SLOWLY] containing another L?
10  An entrance in stone (5)
AGATE – A (an) and GATE (entrance).
11  Meaningfully I get close to den (2,7)
IN EARNEST – I (I) NEAR (get close to) and NEST (den).
12 Distinctive theory is mathematician’s first  (3)
ISM – IS (is) and M{athematician’s} (start).
13  County is grand nearly the whole time (6)
GALWAY – G{rand} and ALWAY{s} (nearly (drop the last letter) always, the whole time).
15  Pair with vision looked for victims (6)
PREYED – PR (pair) and EYED (with vision).
17  Some Syrian drowned valley (3)
RIA – Hidden (some) in {sy}RIA{n}.  I can’t say I was absolutely aware that a RIA was drowned as such, but I was aware of the word at least.
18  By its very nature top fiasco is disastrous (4,5)
IPSO FACTO – Anagram (disastrous) of [TOP FIASCO] to give IPSO FACTO (Latin for ‘thereby’).
21  Produce bypassing a Mediterranean island (5)
CRETE – CRE{a}TE (produce), bypassing A.
22  Data about popular drugs (7)
STATINS – STATS (data, short for statistics) surrounding (about) IN (popular).  Statins are familiar to those of us with heart problems.
23  Even I find this creature fantastic (4)
YETI – YET (even) and I (I).
24  Garment, new, shoplifted? (6)
STOLEN – STOLE (garment) and N{ew}.  The question mark is because other types of theft are available.

Down

1  Wiping light cover (7)
DUSTING – Double definition, the second as in a DUSTING / light cover of icing sugar.
2  Thin dress material poet picked up (5)
TOILE – This one caused me a headache as I was looking for a homophone (picked up) even after I got the impossible to pronounce TOILE.  It wasn’t until I became aware that there was no poet with a name that sounded like ‘twaaarl’ that I looked for an alternative and realised it was an instruction to spell it backwards, and ELIOT / TOILE emerged.  The poet is, of course, T S Eliot.
3  Crazy old-timers aim to be long remembered (12)
IMMORTALISED – Anagram (crazy) of [OLD-TIMERS AIM].
5  Seriousness of natural attraction (7)
GRAVITY – Double definition.
6  Glow, good meal being cooked (5)
GLEAM – G{ood} and an anagram (cooked) of [MEAL].
7  Shortly advise dairy product (4)
BRIE – BRIE{f} (shortly is to drop the last letter).  To BRIEF someone is to advise them.
8  Prosaic concern, not on law (6-2-4)
MATTER-OF-FACT – MATTER (concern) OFF (not on) and ACT (law).
14  Very thin ale sent for replacement (7)
LEANEST – Anagram (for replacement) of [ALE SENT].
16  Abjure wickedness, as casual visitor does (5,2)
DROPS IN – To abjure wickedness might be to DROP SIN.
17  These mountains tending to shake? (5)
ROCKY – A cryptic &Lit referring to the Rocky mountains in North America.  (Someone will tell me it isn’t an &Lit, as I always get these wrong).
19  Very, very indifferent (2-2)
SO-SO – SO (very) repeated.
20  Relax, unwell after church (5)
CHILL – CH(urch) and ILL (unwell).

34 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1693 by Teazel”

  1. I thought I was well on target with this one as I had solved all but two clues in just under 8 minutes, but then I hit a brick wall and needed another 5 minutes to come up with the intersecting answers at 1ac and 1dn. Should have been quicker with DUSTING after the discussion about ‘dust/brush’ a couple of days ago.

    Edited at 2020-09-03 05:54 am (UTC)

  2. Too hard for me today. Failed on TOILE, hadn’t heard of the fabric and was looking for a homophone but even then Eliot hadn’t come up as I started listing every poet I knew – a surprisingly short list. The whole NW was hard for me, struggled mightily with IN EARNEST, needed checkers to crack the county, was well misdirected by ‘light covering’ and I never got beyond thinking of types of dairy products to specific types. Only 4 on my first pass of acrosses and lots of confusion so I knew I was in for a hard day – Teazel most definitely won today!
  3. DNF with NW corner fail at 1a/1d. But impressive was the near anagram MEMORIALISED for IMMORTALISED. I don’t exactly check long anagrams, and got caught out this time.

    1d was tough as many words seemed close. I was tempted by LAWNING (L+AWNING , then considered SHADING, CASTING etc. Just three words in the clue, but fiendish.

    I was also looking for a poet, as “picked up “ felt like a homophone indicator. I got close but couldn’t quite remember the fabric, THULE? TULLE?

    I needed rotter’s blog to parse CRETE. And I am sure I haven’t heard the word RIA since Year 1 geography, so thanks Mr Shaw if you’re watching. Not in Live Journal’s spell checker I note, also.

    COD IPSO FACTO

    1. I too DNF with the NW corner and the biffed MEMORIALISED (that’ll learn me) leading to my downfall. The rest was easy enough, if a little chewy in places.

      H

  4. Utterly hopeless today

    I wasn’t on the same wavelength at all, and managed only a few before having a large cup of coffee and looking at the Rotter’s blog, for which many thanks

    Diana

  5. The right half of the grid went in without too many problems but I found the left half decidedly tricky. The 1s proved slow to fall, not helped by my assumption, like Merlin, that 3d would start with an ‘m’ from some version of memorial. TOILE had to be dredged from the depths and went in unparsed as I was also looking for a homophone. In the SW was just slow, as with hindsight it wasn’t overly complicated. Finished, over target, in 17.20 with the unknown RIA with my COD going to TOILE for it’s deception.
    Thanks to Rotter and well played Teazel.

    Edited at 2020-09-03 08:36 am (UTC)

  6. Nowhere near finishing with the top left completely blank, amongst others! Bit of a reality check after successfully completing a few 15x15s in the past few weeks.

    Must try harder 😄

  7. I managed this in about 15 too but it seemed tough. Thanks Teazel and therotter. I do think that the cluing for 2d is far too difficult for a quickie but it was the only one so all in all it was fair enough for me. Did anyone do the T2 Daily Quiz – I think there is a slight gaff by Olav today – anyone else spot it (the shoe city?)
  8. Back to reality after two good days. This was very chewy, as rotter says. I thought I was going well but had to wait for the crossers to get IPSO FACTO (doh!) and, having moved around the grid, came back to the NW where I did the same as Merlin and biffed MEMORIALISED for 3d. This made DETAIL (my LOI) impossible until I actually wrote down the letters and saw my error. So, the best part of half an hour went by. I liked IN EARNEST, STATINS, MATTER-OF-FACT, and DROPS IN but I agree that TOILE was very tough. Thanks to Teazel for a testing not-so-QC and to rotter for the good blog. John M.

    Edited at 2020-09-03 09:01 am (UTC)

  10. I gave up with two needed after 32 minutes. About 18 minutes needed to get to that point, so it had not been plain sailing. RIA unknown but gettable eventually.
    For 2d I was sure it was a homophone for a poet. The only fabric I could think of was MOIRE. As I only know about ten poets, it was possible that there was one out there with a name sounding like that. Then onto 1a, where I was sure it must be DE …but couldn’t think of the small team. OUTFIT was a good early candidate but DUSTING put paid to that. So, with the incorrect M complicating things I came here.
    A tough puzzle but no complaints. David
  11. … all totally fair but definitely a lot tougher than the rest of the puzzle. 1A Detail and 2D Toile my LOIs, for an 11 minute finish.

    8D brought back so many memories of my father. He was a barrister, and one of his many observations on the law was that “in criminal cases, the law is usually clear and the challenge is to establish the facts; in civil cases the facts are usually clear and the challenge is to establish the law”. So I biffed the answer even before a single checker was in … and only later saw the parsing.

    An enjoyable puzzle; thanks to Teazel and to Rotter for the blog.

    Cedric

  12. I found that tough, and like others, was delayed by a biffed MEMORIALISED, only corrected when I got my penultimate, DETAIL, which only arrived after getting TOILE. 15:50. Thanks Teazel and Rotter.
  15. DNF for me today, with the same trouble that others had. For me the 1a/2d crossers were too difficult for a QC. Putting obscure words in is fine if the wordplay is reasonable (as in RIA which I hadn’t come across before, but put in lightly based on the wordplay and later found it confirmed by checkers), and tricky wordplay is okay if the words aren’t too obscure, but to have both in two words that intersect is pushing it a bit, as evidenced by the fact that there are quite a few better solvers than me who gave up.
    Anyway, I was quite pleased to get everything done except 1a/2d in a few seconds over 20 minutes, but then spent another 30 trying to work out those last two. I have never heard of TOILE and like others was looking for a poet homophone. I first thought it might be “foile” which sounds like it could be a thin material and a poet called FOYLE. However I couldn’t do anything with an F in 1a so I resorted to checking for the existence of the afformentioned fabric and poet. The only poet called Foyle that came up was still alive, and there didn’t seem to be a fabric called foile, so I gave up on that, but shortly afterwards remembered “voile” which was what I had been thinking of when I thought of foile. I’m not sure I even remembered about the poet part of the clue at that point, and needless to say I couldn’t think of an answer that fitted 1a with a V in it. Eventually I bunged in “devoid” and hoped for the best, but even with a T there, I think I’d have been facing a long alphabet trawl before DETAIL would have come to mind. On a separate note, I’m not sure how PREYED means “looked for victims”. Surely the victims have to be caught, rather than just looked for in order to be preyed on. No doubt the dictionaries will prove me wrong though. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Thanks Rotter, and, I suppose, Teazel.
    1. As an intransitive verb, to prey is to hunt and / or kill another creature. In the past tense, ‘the serial killer frequented nightclubs and preyed on potential victims’ works OK I think. Not every hunt concludes with a kill!

      On edit, sorry, I just saw that Horryd made a similar point. Thanks H.

      Edited at 2020-09-03 04:23 pm (UTC)

  16. A few missing today including the normally reliable Osaka Express! My slow start ended after 11 minutes.

    FOI 24ac STOLEN

    LOI 10ac AGATE

    MER at 1dn – does DUSTING equal WIPING? In my book they are respectively wet and dry operations.

    COD 13ac GALWAY

    18ac IPSO FACTO was my WOD

    On Edit Mr. Crispy – ‘The Ripper preyed on these unfortunate women.’

    Edited at 2020-09-03 10:44 am (UTC)

    1. SOED has

      wipe – verb trans. Rub (something) gently with a soft cloth, a hand, etc., or on something else, so as to clear the surface of dust, dirt, moisture, etc.;

      There’s a better argument to be had over dusting and brushing as discussed here very recently but I think that one’s justifiable if one goes for figurative meanings rather than literal.

      Edited at 2020-09-03 11:46 am (UTC)

  17. judging from the comments so far I must have been on form today, or the right wavelength at least. TOILE needed a search of the memory banks, and RIA I had vaguely heard of without really knowing what it meant. Never parsed BRIE.
    Good challenge and very enjoyable.
    PlayUpPompey
  18. DNF, failed on DETAIL and TOILE. Like Merlin I had biffed MEMORIALISED and had spent so long looking at DE–M- that I had brain freeze by the time I realised the mistake.

    Hey ho, another one tomorrow!

    Thanks Teazel and Rotter.

    Templar

  19. ….the last DETAIL in 3:30, then gave up on it after another 4 or 5 minutes. No complaints – just couldn’t see it, or even find a word to biff.

    COD DUSTING

  20. a bit of a struggle with NW corner. Various lightbulb moments like Galway and Slimmer . LOI Brie. Luckily I remember a few military words so Detail clicked eventually. Made me smile as did In Earnest.
    Guessed Ria as felt the word was lurking somewhere in my mind.
    RH side went in quickly FOI Gleam and Ism
    Liked Drops In and Rocky.
    Couldn’t parse Crete but guessed.

    I believe grand dressmakers made a Toile or cheap fabric version of a dress to perfect the fit before cutting expensive silk or whatever. That’s the meaning I am more familiar with (no personal experience though!) I would say it is pronounced more like ‘twal’ than ‘twaarl’, still no rhyming poet, of course.

    Edited at 2020-09-03 11:44 am (UTC)

  22. Thought I was on track for a PB as most went in in 2 minutes. But the left half of the grid ground me down, and the clock kept ticking. Of course count me among those who put MEMORIALISED, so the last two clues took an eternity. DETAIL kept suggesting itself for 1 Across, but didn’t fit. Finally I reconsidered the anagram and was able to finish. DUSTING was a head scratcher.
  23. Like many others we struggled with the NW corner but, seconds away from throwing in the towel, we got 2D (toile) and then 1A and 11A fell into place. Thanks to Teazel for a testing Thursday QC which we finished in 29 minutes.

    FOI: agog
    LOI: in earnest
    COD: drops in

    Thanks to Rotter for the blog.

  24. me included, DETAIL and TOILE being the culprits when I gave up at 15 mins. Obvious when revealed.
  25. None of the across clues went in on first pass and I was starting to despair but the down clues opened up the door.
    I knew TOILE from the French for ‘web’ and enjoyed unravelling the anagram for IMMORTALISED but on returning to the across clues, I could not parse RIA or CRETE.
    Some of my favourites were GALWAY, YETI and ROCKY and my COD is DROPS IN for its double definition.
    Thanks to Teazel for 19 minutes of fun and to the Rotter for his comprehensive blog.

  26. After around 10 mins the right hand side was complete but the left almost completely blank. Worked my way round the SW corner including the unknown RIA. As with everybody else the NW corner proved a struggle. I had almost all the crossers for 3dn but luckily managed to avoid the “memorialised” trap as this would have made 1ac, 1dn and 2dn even harder than they already were. Had to resort to an alphabet trawl to solve 1dn, after which 1ac and 2dn fell in relatively short order. Ended up at 30 mins, surprisingly 2 mins ahead of my (admittedly pedestrian) time for yesterday.

    FOI – 11ac IN EARNEST
    LOI – 2dn TOILE
    COD – 16dn DROPS IN

    Thanks to Teazel for a sometimes frustrating but ultimately satisfying puzzle and to Rotter for the blog

  27. Joined those who found trouble with the nw corner. Dusting then fell, and we were left with 1a and 2d. Dragged oile from distant memory but not the first letter, t then gave us the answer to 1a, a clever clue. Some knowledge of forces terms helped from nat service long ago. Pleased to finish spot on our 30m target. Thanks Teazel and the blog.
  28. Thanks for all the comments today, and it looks like most suffered with the difficult ones in the NW, as I did, particularly TOILE and DETAIL. Luckily, and with my first career as a thrusting young defence executive (Naval officer), DETAIL came to me quite quickly when solving prior to blogging, which must have helped me a lot.

    I haven’t been around to respond to comments today, so thanks to those that did, especially the ever-reliable Jackkt. I’ll go through the comments again now and answer any remaining questions.

  29. I was another MEMORIALISED, which meant I couldn’t get 1A. I wasn’t even suspicous that MEMORIALISED wasn’t correct since it was an anagram…well, not quite the right letters as it happened.
  30. Gosh – well, we’re all different…Although I found this tough and needed aids to check a couple eg 17a RIA which was obvious but new to me. I had no difficulty with 1d or the pretty literal 1a. The obvious 9a SLIMMER brought 2D TOILE/checked out with Eliot. I spent a fair time unravelling 11a IN EARNEST and that prepared me for the same device in 16d DROPS IN. 21a CRETE was easily parsed once a couple of checkers were in place. We have seen 12a ISM before and I didn’t like it then, or again today – whether or not in any dictionary, it doesn’t seem a proper word to me. I’m sure we’ve seem 10a AGATE before too. I wasted more time looking for a UK county at 13a GALWAY but again a couple of checkers made it much easier. So, yes, tough and congratulations to Teael for making me work so hard, and for Rotter for being so lucid in his blog. It might have taken me over an hour, but I don’t set myself ‘give up’ times but enjoy a dogged pursuit until either I triumph or die in the ditch trying.

Comments are closed.