Times Quick Cryptic No 1739 by Teazel

Author   johninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Happy Friday everyone. I’ve found several of Teazel’s recent quick crosswords quite tricky and today was no exception. It is one of those grids where none of the first letters of the Downs at the top of the grid are checked, which doesn’t help. Not knowing the word at 3D and struggling to remember the tuber at 4D along with a tricky SW corner took me to 50% over my target time, finishing in just under 7 1/2 minutes. My FOI was 7A, LOI 23A and my COD is the clever 13D. Thank-you Teazel. How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra cruciverbal entertainment. You can find his latest crossword here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
7 Unpaid assistant sketching thus? (8)
FREEHAND – FREE (unpaid) HAND (assistant). This made me wonder if the amanuensis Eric Fenby was paid.
8 Copper right to be abrupt (4)
CURT – CU (chemical symbol for copper) RT (right).
9 Hard to find evidence of being wounded by church (6)
SCARCE –  SCAR (evidence of being wounded) CE (church; of England).
10 Very light cat? (5)
OUNCE – Double definition.
11 A little merry, enjoying whisky (3)
RYE – Hidden [a little] in merRY Enjoying. In the USA/Canada perhaps, but it isn’t, to my mind, proper whisky like Bruichladdich, for example (my favourite).
12 Unscrupulous tradesman browbeat youngster (6)
COWBOY – COW (browbeat) BOY (youngster).
14 Band beginning to sing rubbish (6)
STRIPE – First letter of [beginning to] Sing, TRIPE (rubbish).
16 Phone assistant, American star (6)
SIRIUS – SIRI (iphone assistant) US (american)
18 To catcall twice is a mistake (6)
BOOBOO – BOO (catcall) [twice]. Nice one.
19 Look round everywhere, initially for a sign of summer (3)
LEO – LO (look) [round] E (everywhere). Leo being the sign of the zodiac covering July 23rd to August 22nd.
20 Very fit, but distracted (5)
VAGUE – V (very) AGUE (shivering fit). Distracted seems a bit of a stretch for the definition, but I suppose if you were distracted you might be “thinking or communicating in an unfocused or imprecise way”… i.e. being vague.
21 Sanity is concerning a family member (6)
REASON – RE (concerning; about) A SON (family member).
23 Admirer of Cockney’s home listened to (4)
BEAU – My last one in. Sounds like BOW (Cockney’s home) [listened to]
24 In all probability it’s nearly lunchtime? (3,2,3)
TEN TO ONE – Definition with a cryptic hint.
Down
1 Colic Rob gets shifting cabbage (8)
BROCCOLI – (Colic Rob)* [gets shifting]. A bit of a bizarre surface!
2 Exhibit courage finally in conflict (4)
WEAR – A bit of sneaky definition – you need to separate “Exhibit courage”. Take the last letter of couragE [finally] and stick it [in] WAR (conflict).
3 Part of neck line in linen (6)
NAPERY – NAPE (part of neck) RY (railway line). Not a word I knew.  It means “household linen, especially tablecloths and napkins”, apparently
4 Tubers Teddy’s given to deer (6)
EDDOES – ED (Teddy) DOES (deer). “Eddoes are small root vegetables, a variety of Taro. They offer an intensely flavourful alternative to standard potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams and can be prepared and eaten in much the same way. ” Commonly eaten in the Caribbean, but I’ve never seen any except in my Caribbean cook book. They look like this..

Image from https://www.itzcaribbean.com/
5 Story outline in coarse plays (8)
SCENARIO – (in coarse)* [plays].
6 Accurate time shown on French street (4)
TRUE – T (time) RUE (french street).
13 Emphasise where one fights in boxing match (5,3)
BRING OUT – RING (where one fights) inside [in] BOUT (boxing match). Clever surface.
15 Intellectually deep academic certain to release book (8)
PROFOUND – PROF (academic) bOUND (certain) without [to release] the “b”  (book)
17 Awkwardly hustle Holmes for one (6)
SLEUTH – (hustle)* [awkwardly].
18 Making holes is not interesting (6)
BORING – Double definition,
20 Contend with an opinion (4)
VIEW – VIE (contend) W (with).
22 Much to distribute to audience (1,3)
A LOT – Sounds like ALLOT (distribute) [to audience].

53 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1739 by Teazel”

  1. Several unknowns and half-knowns made for a slower solve: NAPERY (which I’d assumed was a double definition — thanks!), EDDOES, COWBOY (in that usage), etc. Even appearances like SIRI were subtly clued and took me extra time.

    I had a sense while solving, and I wonder if anyone else feels this way, that difficult Quickies are in some ways extra difficult, because there’s less interconnectivity in the grid. In the 15×15 I always find footholds.

    Edited at 2020-11-06 02:18 am (UTC)

    1. I am not sure that they are more difficult, just more frustrating, and the grid today doesn’t help, no starting letters until the bottom half so you tend to work from bottom to the top, oooh that’s a Beefheart earworm for the rest of the day, and no long clues. My targets are 15 for the quickie and 45 for the 15×15 but I am satisfied with no pinks on a 15×15 if the snitch is over 100, so I feel the pressure of time much more on the quickie.

  2. NHO EDDOES, which slowed me down while I looked hard and tried to see if there was another possibility. I also wondered about VAGUE, but it had to be. 5:43.
  3. The unknown EDDOES solved from wordplay disconcerted me so that when I came to my last clue (12ac) with ?O?BOY in place I had a mental block and convinced myself that it was going to be another word I never heard of, and gave up. Very silly. Other than that it was a 10 minutes solve.

    Edit: EDDOES (pl.) has come up at least once in the 15×15, in 2013 and EDDO (sing.) appeared a couple of times including a puzzle I blogged in January 2009 when I also didn’t know it. On that occasion it was hidden, which at least gave a better chance of solving it , and that’s the type of clue it ought to be in a QC in my opinion, if indeed it has to appear at all.

    Edited at 2020-11-06 06:08 am (UTC)

  4. I dragged this out to a little over 20m. All but three in 12 but BRING OUT, COWBOY and NAPERY added an extra 8. NHO of ague, EDDOES or NAPERY. I’ve never had a phone with Siri but an old phone had cortana and that got disabled for being annoying, so ‘phone assistant’ was a challenge but that clue did raise a smile in a puzzle that didn’t seem to have much humour in it. Started fast with most of the acrosses in the top going straight in but the bottom was barer. The grid filled up steadily from then. Just had to go with the cryptic for EDDOES and NAPERY – Ed seems to be an abbreviation of an abbreviation so I wanted to do something else with that word but couldn’t see what that might be (luckily). Good to learn so much about textiles this week with NAPERY following closely behind TAT – I’ll be prepared next time. Can’t explain my difficulties with BRING OUT, it’s all there, the empty bottom made me think ‘upper cut’ might work and though clearly it couldn’t I wonder it that shut down my neurological pathways to another three letter word with a U in the middle.
  5. Like mendesest, I just failed to stay within 20 mins but it was a fascinating puzzle. As usual, these days, I started well and thought I might make single figures but then the stings in the tail began to sap my strength. SIRIUS (my COD), VAGUE, BEAU all held me up and I thought VAGUE was tough (ague/fit seemed a bit far out to me). I liked BRING OUT and PROFOUND but EDDOES needed confidence in the wordplay. LOI (why?) was the straightforward COWBOY. Many thanks to Teazel and john. John M.
  6. Put your hand up, if you’ve ever heard of ‘eddoes’ before this morning.
    2. Sadly, I have! I expect they are on the shelf at Waitrose next to the sweet potato, yam, cassava and the Jerusalem artichoke (not an artichoke). Also familiar with AGUE, very Shakespearean, and NAPERY (not much in demand with home isolation) and BEAU, not a million miles from my undergraduate establishment. None of which helped me slog to success in the puzzle. Thank you Johninterred for the insight and Teazel for the mind teaser. Perhaps you might think of a rename as Bamboozle?
  7. This was tough going, with some tricky clueing to go along with the unknowns – NAPERY and EDDOES, where following the wordplay still left me with the equally plausible EDROES. I got held up with the STRIPE/PROFOUND combo as I got stuck thinking about musical bands, before finishing with COWBOY.
    Despite the trickiness I really enjoyed this with my COD being a toss up between SIRIUS for the penny drop moment and BRING OUT. Finished over target in 17.24.
    Thanks to John
  8. 22 minutes for a tough end to a tough week for me, and that only after resorting to aids to get the NHO EDDOES, so a comprehensive failure in reality. There was much to admire here, I liked the phone assistant, COWBOY, And the clever BRING OUT. Other than the tubers, I was slowest in the SW, with VAGUE, VIEW and BEAU all taking longer than they should. Thanks both.
  9. which I’d never heard of. But I enjoyed the rest. Weirdly Napery and Ounce did spring to mind straight away. Very slow on Stripe but then finally biffed Profound. Liked Freehand, Boring and Ten to One. Did not see Siri but biffed Sirius, having confusingly guessed Callas at first.
    Broccoli is very popular in Codeword so should have got it sooner. Beau seems to be a bit of a chestnut too. Must be the vowel ending.

    Thanks all.

    Edited at 2020-11-06 10:08 am (UTC)

  10. A bit of a grind for me too. Should have got one or two more easily but had to check that eddoes existed and not familiar with Siri. Irritated by my Chambers dictionary because I could see broccoli as fairly obvious but thought it was a cauliflower. Chambers confirmed that but then i double checked cauliflower and only there does it mention cabbage. It’s a bit like when you look up a word and is says ‘See ……’ – no why don’t you give me the basic and cross ref to ……. Sorry just me being a bit of a Victor Meldrew . Thanks Teazel and johninterred
  11. Another day, another QC with one error. I had EDROES instead of EDDOES- both unknowns but one apparently wrong. Time was 16:34.
    This seemed easy at first; depends on where you started. But there was quite a lot of difficult stuff: DNK Napery; Ounce learned from crosswords etc.
    There were also some great clues; COD to LEO for the best three letter clue for a very long time. SIRIUS and BRING OUT also very good.
    David
  12. Why is TEN TO ONE “in all probability”? Per Lexico that means “Used to convey that something is very likely”, but if the odds on something happening are 10-1 that means that the bookies think it is very *un*likely.

    Like David I hesitated between EDDOES and EDROES but fortunately I decided that the plural of “roe” is probably still “roe”. Unsatisfactory to have two perfectly plausible answers when the answer is such an obscure word though. NHO of NAPERY either.

    So the proverbial Curate’s Egg as far as I’m concerned.

    FOI BROCCOLI, LOI EDDOES, COD BRING OUT, time 2.75K for a Very Bad Day. Bring on the Saturday Special, sez I!

    Thanks Teazel (I think) and John.

    Templar

    1. but when EDDOES occurred to me I thought it a better answer.
      NHO Siri.
      Hate smartphones.
      Cortana drives me nuts as well, and I haven’t found out how to disable her. If I cancel the task from task manager it just restarts itself. Grrr, a Victor Meldrew moment.
      Andyf
    2. I think TEN TO ONE means something is likely because you’d be prepared to offer odds of 10 to 1 if someone would be prepared to bet against you.
      1. It does. The chances are so high that in ten cases out of eleven, it will happen.
          1. I wondered about this too, but I think the answer is that a bookie is giving odds of 10-1 against your horse winning… i.e. 10 times out of eleven it wont win, whereas “I’ll give you 10-1 it will rain tomorrow” is odds that it will happen

            Edited at 2020-11-06 01:34 pm (UTC)

            1. There is also the American expression « ten will get you one » which basically means that it will happen. Francois.
              1. Yes but “ten gets you one” means “bet 10, win 1”. In other words the same as ten to one on in common British usage.

                I’m with those who think this is just plain wrong. If the odds are ten to one, the event is not very likely. Which is not what “in all probability” means to me. But regardless of what I think, for a clue to generate this sort of debate shows that it is ambiguous at best.

                1. Exactly – “ten will get you one” = 1-10 on the racecourse, not 10-1! I’m sorry that a life misspent on the turf is showing here, but “ten to one” simply does not mean that it is probable; it means that the assessment of the odds-giver is that there is a one in ten chance of it happening.
                  1. Sorry. My example wasn’t properly expresed I meant it to be a statistical one. There is a difference between odds as a statistical term compared to odds expressed as a wager. “In statistics, odds are an expression of relative probabilities, generally quoted as the odds in favor. The odds (in favor) of an event or a proposition is the ratio of the probability that the event will happen to the probability that the event will not happen. “. So in statistics 10:1 means 10 times out of 11 it will happen. Not the same as the betting odds 10/1, as you and others have correctly explained.

                    Edited at 2020-11-06 04:10 pm (UTC)

            2. No John. Sorry, but that’s just betting illiteracy! In your weather example, you are the bookie. By saying “I’ll give you ten to one” you are offering odds. You are saying “stake a pound, and if it rains I’ll give you ten pounds back” (plus your stake, so £11 in all). You only do that if you think it’s UNLIKELY to rain.
      2. If you’ll give me odds of 10-1 on things that you think are very likely to happen, Crispb, do please open a betting shop!
    3. ‘Ten to one it will…’ is a commonly used phrase meaning something is very likely. It may not appear logical to the mathematically minded, but I don’t think the setter can be criticised for how a phrase is generally used. I struggled much more with eddoes and ounce.
    4. Hi Templar. I quite agree. It’s one of those expressions that seems to mean the complete opposite, similar to below par which of course for a golfer is a good thing.
      I also went down the route of ‘ouse for Cockney home which made me think of a skit by Micky Flanagan and how it’s a homophone of ass, the American for bottom.
      I would be banned for repeating it here so check out YouTube. After yesterday’s birdies and eagles I was way over par today. Johnny
  13. I only finished one QC this week, which is way down on my usual completion rate. And this one seemed the hardest of the five.

    I had WARE at 2D (WARE can mean an exhibit). Still don’t understand OUNCE=cat, I thought TINGE (or even GINGE) was likely.

    I dispute that ED is in any way short for TED. I mean Ed Heath or Ed Turner, Ted Milliband or Ted Balls? I also went for EDROES.

    Also on the wrong track with the Cockney at 23A, where I was looking for a dropped “h”, such as ‘ouse.

    NHO NAPERY either. 19A (LEO) was pretty obscure GK (who actually knows when anyone else’s star sign is? And I don’t know the context for E=everyone.

    I’ll stop there.

    I liked clues SIRIUS, TEN TO ONE and BORING.
    COD=SIRIUS

    1. Ounce is an alternative name for a snow leopard. In the Leo clue, it says “everywhere initially”.
  14. Fell asleep again in the middle of this (long day yesterday) so my time of 94:05 shouldn’t be taken at face value, but it would have taken quite a while anyway as there were a lot of tricky devices I thought and some unusual words. No problem with EDDOES though. I came across them a few years ago when I challenged myself to eat as many different vegetables as I could in a year (I do an eating challenge every year. 2020’s is nut and seed butters). I can’t remember being very moved by eddoes, but they are quite widely available, in Tesco for example. It did take a while, and three checkers, to remember OUNCE (I’ve been really into animals my whole life and have a zoology degree but I don’t think I’d ever heard a snow leopard referred to as an ounce before I started doing crosswords). Also took a while to remember I did know a name for part of the neck, which allowed me to get the unknown NAPERY. VAGUE, BEAU and BRING OUT also caused trouble. I wondered for a second about BROCCOLI being cabbage, but they are both derived from the same plant (along with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) so I suppose it’s fine. Anyway, a good work out from Teazel, who of late has been the toughest setter for me. Thanks as usual to both him and John.
  15. I was taken over my target by being slow to see COWBOY and SIRIUS, as well as BRING OUT. EDDOES were new to me, but the wordplay was clear enough. I needed the checkers for VAGUE. 10:59. Thanks Teazel and John.
  16. A tough end to the week that I didn’t finish. NHO of “Eddoes” nor “Ounce” as a cat. Also had trouble with the SW corner, especially with 23ac where I kept trying to drop an “h” for “ome”.

    Saying that there were some very good clues. Liked 7ac “Freehand”, 16ac “Sirius”, 17dn “Sleuth”, 19ac “Leo” and 24ac “Ten to One”.

    FOI – 8ac “Curt”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 13dn “Bring Out” – great surface

    Thanks as usual.

  17. Dunno whether just Friday brain, but I only just snuck in under 10 mins at 9:56. The unknown EDDOES went in last, feeling that a plurality of deer was much more likely to be DOES than ROES. I liked BRING OUT though, very neat to my mind.
  18. A perfect 5 unfinished with this being the hardest. Never heard of a couple of the answers but hopefully will know them next time

    It would be nice if at least one setter could give us newbies a puzzle that we get close to finishing once a week. It is a little dispiriting to have hards ones all week.

  19. DNK NAPERY or EDDOES but they were both just about biffable from the definitions. Thanks to John for the explanations.
    I liked the SCENARIO anagram and also the wordplay for PROFOUND and BRING OUT. My COD goes to BEAU for being today’s PDM after – like some others – desperately trying to think of a word beginning with ‘h’ and then dropping it!
    Thanks to Teazel for a workout of just over 15 minutes.
  20. Quite demanding with EDDOES and NAPERY unknown, but could be worked out readily from the clues plus letters already present. Not sure about 20a: AGUE = fit? (not illness)nor 24a: TEN TO ONE = probable? (not possible? TWO TO ONE would be probable.) Pleased to finish this one.
  21. All done this pm in 10 mins. No worries here but can see that NAPERY and EDDOES could cause some problems, but the wordplay was clear. Cowboy Builders are well known in the UK but where the expression came from I do not know. Perhaps cowboy =cavalier? Thank you J for the blog.
  22. ….SIRIUS !

    I knew all the words, so no real problems – although I only parsed PROFOUND later.

    FOI FREEHAND
    LOI SIRIUS
    COD VAGUE
    TIME 3:59

  23. … and joined many others in not knowing 4D Eddoes. But as others have said it is gettable from the wordplay. And likewise 10A Ounce: I think Ounce is actually the only word that can fit the checkers O-N-E, so in it went, even though I didn’t know the cat meaning and don’t think ounce is a good synonym for very light – think of diamonds, where a stone weighing a full ounce would be both heavy and extremely expensive!

    On the other hand, 3D Napery is a word I do know – which just goes to show that one person’s DK bafflement is another’s easy write-in.

    So all done in 16 minutes, albeit with a word search for Eddoes, for clearly my worst finish of the week. COD 13D Bring out, very clever surface.

    Many thanks to John for the blog, and Phil in advance for the Saturday special, and a good weekend to all.

    Cedric

  24. DNF.. Couldn’t get 16a as didn’t have a clue what ‘telephone assistant’ could be. Never used any of the various systems Alexa, Hey Google, etc. I was thinking it was a DD and looking for the name of a US film star, or similar, that could link to some synonym of receptionist or secretary.

    No problem with eddoes, once I had the crossers, it was clear from the clue. Had forgotten napery, though.

    A difficult end to the week. Ho hum

  25. 47 relaxed minutes for this enjoyable puzzle…
    liked 14A “band beginning to sing rubbish (6)”
  26. I found it hard to get going on this one. (FOI Curt) I knew napery and ounce but had never heard of eddoes -it had to be that or edroes. I surprised myself by finally getting there unaided though it took me just over half an hour and I spoiled it by foolishly putting boohoo. COD 13d. Thank you John and Teazel.
    Blue Stocking
  27. I knew NAPERY and worked out the unknown EDDOES. However I had a blind spot and did not get SIRIUS although I am well aware of the star.

    I am with John on TEN TO ONE. In this context it is not a betting expression but rather a statistical one.

    COD BRING OUT.

  28. Scotland’s whisky makers have forced Canadian rye makers to spell it “whiskey”.
  29. But sheer stubbornness meant that we persevered for 36 minutes until we finished this challenging puzzle. We must have spent at least 50% of our time working out eddoes (Mrs Peel plumbed the depths of her brain until she finally remembered this one) and ounce (a complete biff). Thanks to Teazel for a real teaser.

    FOI: freehand
    LOI: ounce
    COD: napery

    Thanks to John for the blog.

    Looking forward to having a go at Phil’s WEQC

    Edited at 2020-11-07 10:24 am (UTC)

  30. A perfect 5 unfinished with this being the hardest. Never heard of a couple of the answers but hopefully will know them next time

    It would be nice if at least one setter could give us newbies a puzzle that we get close to finishing once a week. It is a little dispiriting to have hards ones all week.

  31. Cheat. Use aids. Just try to work out how the clue works. I found that was the key to progress in the early days.
    Good luck. 😉

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