Times Quick Cryptic No 1749 by Teazel

Author   johninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I find that for the second blog in a row I am treated to a Teazel puzzle to blog. Unlike last time, I didn’t find this on the harder side and sailed through it unscathed, although your mileage may differ as there are a few tricky clues. When I couldn’t see the answers immediately, I left the long anagrams until I had some checkers, with my Last One In being 24A at the bottom. In all, it took me about 4 1/4 minutes, so well under my target time. We have some great clues today. I particularly enjoyed 14A, but liked the simple but neat 22D and the “Uxbridge English Dictionary” clue  too. Great puzzle. Thanks Teazel! How did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra cruciverbal entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, which has a bit of a zoological theme, 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
1 Last chairman sacked for fraud (12)
CHARLATANISM – (Last chairman)* [sacked].
8 Quarrel: it turns very loud (4)
TIFF – IT [turns] -> TI, FF (fortissimo; very loud).
9 Sham medicine put old boy back (7)
PLACEBO – PLACE (put) OB (old boy) [back] -> BO.
11 Former Soviet managed to seize one on American ship (7)
RUSSIAN – RAN (managed) outside [to seize], I (one) after [on] USS (American ship).
12 Jogger perhaps stirring below (5)
ELBOW – [stirring] (below)*.
14 Work hard in attempt to win this? (6)
TROPHY – OP (work) H (hard) [in] TRY (attempt).
15 Coins, almost one pound, for writer (6)
PENCIL – PENCe (coins) without the last letter [almost] I (one) L (pound).
18 Silently indicated wide road leading to sea (5)
MIMED – MI (M1; wide road) MED (Meditierranean sea).
20 Fuss by patient initially needing support in ward (7)
ADOPTEE – ADO (fuss) Patient [initially] TEE (support for golf ball).
21 Absence of credit bringing reprimand (4,3)
TICK OFF – TICK (credit) OFF (absence).
23 Start of last month turning very chilly (4)
ICED – The start of the last month (December) is DEC 1, [turning] -> ICED.
24 Free choice moving tabernacle round church (5,7)
CARTE BLANCHE – (tabernacle)* [moving] [round] CH (church).
Down
2 Terrible weather greets Mike behind rocky peak (9)
HAILSTORM –  HAILS (greets) M (Mike in NATO phonetic alphabet) [behind] TOR (rocky peak).
3 Flashy, like the air force? (7)
RAFFISH –  RAF (air force)… ISH (like), which might be spelt RAFFISH. One from the Uxbridge English Dictionary, perhaps? Compare with “cherish” – “a bit like a chair”.
4 A large tree or small plant (6)
ALPINE – A L (large) PINE (tree).
5 Come to a funeral party (5)
AWAKE – A WAKE (funeral party). Nice one.
6 Strong feeling, occasionally fierce (3)
IRE – Alternate letters [occasionally] of fIeRcE,
7 Dancer following in the steps of Armstrong? (10)
MOONWALKER – Definition and a cryptic hint… Neil “one small step for man” Armstrong, that is.
10 One can count on learning this at school (10)
ARITHMETIC – Cryptic definition.
13 Kicked the bucket, these sticking out of mouth (4,5)
BUCK TEETH – [Kicked] (the bucket)*. I never knew they were fatal.
16 Feeling ecstasy, joining movement (7)
EMOTION – E (ecstasy) MOTION (movement).
17 Permitted line very bad (6)
LAWFUL – L (line) AWFUL (very bad).
19 Flier finished crossing river (5)
DRONE – DONE (finished) outside [crossing] R (river).
22 Vehicle a worry, mostly (3)
CAR – CARe (worry) [mostly].

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1749 by Teazel”

  1. After a fairly quick start, I slowed down considerably over my last few. The only Armstrong I could think of at first was Louis, then Lance. And it took me a while to juggle the anagrist in my head to get CHARLATANISM. I didn’t care for BUCK TEETH, with ‘buck’ sitting there in the anagrist. 7:09.
  2. 8 minutes. I needed all the checkers in place to realise that 24ac was an imported foreign expression.
  3. Only two on my first pass of the acrosses – I can’t have had too many worse than that – but the answers at least did feel like they were dangling just out of reach. The downs in the top half were more forgiving so the grid began to fill before the bottom proved a stiffer challenge, especially in the SE. All perfectly fair and reasonable and, as is often the case with good clues, I can’t see what the problem was now for EMOTION, ICED, PENCIL, MIMED and DRONE but they all took careful extraction. ADOPTEE was the toughest nut to crack, lovely to see it was all there once I caught sight of what it might have been. Enjoyed lots about this one – especially ELBOW – just wish I hadn’t enjoyed it for quite as long as 19m.

    Edited at 2020-11-20 06:13 am (UTC)

  4. 43m 55s. Not too bad for my addled brain. FOI 9a, LOI 19d. NE fell first, then SE, NW, SW. COD 20a where inclusion of patient and ward successfully misdirected me for some time. Thanks to Teazel and John.
  5. … we’ve missed you, and I celebrated by filling it in as my FOI – most unusual for me to complete a long anagram with no checkers.

    And much of the rest of this very nice puzzle at the same pace – including our second Trophy in two days – before coming to a halt on my LOI 20A Adoptee. For a long time I could not get Apostle out of my mind, but as even I could see that was not even close to parsing, I eventually conceded, went back to the clue and worked it out from first principles.

    All done eventually in just over 10 minutes, of which at least 3 on the last. Which makes it my COD by a long way.

    Thank you John for your blog, and in anticipation for the Weekend Special. But can I ask what the reference to the Uxbridge English Dictionary is?

    A good weekend to all
    Cedric

    1. It is a regular round in the classic BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. It is described here as based on “Daffynitions”, a pun format involving the reinterpretation of an existing word, on the basis that it sounds like another word (or group of words). e.g. insolent: Fallen off the Isle of Wight ferry.
      1. Thank you. And now I know it I confidently predict I will be thinking of lots more all day. So that’s my Friday sorted!
        1. A new series of ISIHAC starts anew quite soon I think. Something to really look forward to.

          Dnf on this one, but a huge relief to get back to an easier grid.

          Diana

          1. I wish I could share your enthusiasm, Diana, but now that Tim has gone and with Barry and Graeme only turning up for one episode per series (if that, in Graeme’s case) it will have lost most of its appeal for me.
  6. A quick solve today but I DNF’d due to a typo in arithmAtic, which was doubly annoying as I paused over it in my spellcheck for not looking quite right. MOONWALKER made me smile so gets my COD and WOD goes to RAFFISH. I finished with LAWFUL.
    Thanks to John for the blog and in advance for the weekend QC
  7. Could not even get started on this one.
    Far too difficult for a Quick Cryptic.
    Find a setter who at least gives the average solver a chance.

    1. If you are struggling, do make use of these blogs to get you started and learn how the clues work. There are many here who have found it helps. The beginning is the hardest part. Try each of the clues – there will generally be some that can get you going.

      Edited at 2020-11-20 09:45 am (UTC)

      1. These blogs have been an immense help to me. It’s well worth persevering.
    4. They can’t make it too simple, otherwise newcomers would soon master it and then be left with a huge leap up to the full-blown cryptic. In a perfect world we might have simple, medium and hard cryptics (and I suppose they do for the sudoku) but there are only so many hours in the day for the setters and doubtless only so much money to pay for setters.

      As others have said, the blogs provide you with an excellent way to work your way into the nature of cryptics. Nothing like that when I first tackled The Times cryptic! Of course, we had it tough …

      Try the concise crossword. You should be aiming to finish this in four or five minutes and it will help build vocabulary, which in turn makes it much easier to think of synonyms and alternate meanings for words. This I consider an essential skill for completing cryptics quickly.

      Above all, persevere (persist, keep on, continue, stick at it …)

      H

      1. As a practised cryptic solver and TfTT blogger I gave up on concise-type puzzles decades ago because they too often defeat me. With cryptics there is always another way to the answer and it’s rarely that I can’t find it.
    5. Don’t give up. I usually feel like that if I look at the 15 by 15. With the QC I start with any three letter words or two word ones. Do use an aid; I have the Crossword Genie app on my phone. If you have a few letters the aid will give you lots of possible words and you can then use the clue to work out which is the right answer. I find this blog very helpful for understanding words I’ve biffed. Personally I can’t stand the non cryptic crosswords. At least each cryptic clue gives you two ways of getting to the answer. Keep at it!
      Blue Stocking
  8. 17:22, solid time for a solid puzzle. LOI ADOPTEE where I also had biffed APOSTLE (POST=support, an apostle sounds like a ward). Was surprised another word fitted.

    Also had MUTED for 18A for some time, which prevented 2D (HAILSTORM)

    COD 3D RAFFISH

  9. 13 minutes again, fast becoming a regular time for me, but by no means an average – with many more slower than that, but few much quicker. I imagine if I were to plot the frequency of my times on a graph, the curve would be far from Gaussian, but slewed greatly to the right of 13 minutes.

    This is a nice puzzle from Teazel, with plenty to admire. There are a few difficult clues, but plenty of gimmes which provide entry points, so I disagree with Anon’s assessment in the comment above. One can’t get much easier than 5 and 6d for example. LOI LAWFUL, FOI CHARLATANISM and COD RAFFISH. Thanks both.

  10. A good but testing puzzle for me. Slow to get going and filled in odd bits of the grid as I searched for the ‘gifts’ and toe holds. Well into the SCC today. Some clever clues and lots to enjoy but It was a disappointing time with which to end a very mixed week. Most of my likes have been listed by others above. Thanks, both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-11-20 11:41 am (UTC)

  11. I started with IRE and AWAKE and plodded steadily on until I was left with 15a, which took a moment’s thought. Liked RAFFISH and MOONWALKER. 7:20. Thanks Teazel and John.
  12. Hi

    I enjoyed this one. Took me 95 minutes (I’m new to cryptics) and I managed to answer 17 of the 24.

    Just couldn’t get 1 across, but annoyed with myself that I did not spot it was an anagram.

    My plan as I learn how to solve cryptic clues is to do the Quick Cryptic Times Crosswords Mon-Fri, and on each Monday attempt the main cryptic crossword.

    Weekends I’ll probably live to give my poor ageing brain a break.

    1. Welcome to the world of cryptic. Your plan sounds good. I would suggest that you initially set yourself a time limit at which point you can use aids, and maybe a later limit when you stop and turn to the blog. Seeing those limits reducing over time can be as rewarding as seeing your completion times reduce as you become more proficient. Good luck!
      1. Hi

        Thank you for your reply.

        I like your idea of using limits. Perhaps something like this:

        1) Give myself one hour to complete the crossword before I look up the answers on here.

        2) Read through all the clues first before attempting to answer, and go back to the ones that jump out at me.

        3) Perhaps 15 minutes before I allow myself to use aids (Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary, Bradford’s Solver Lists etc)

    2. Monday is not always the easiest. Google “crossword snitch” and have a look at all the difficulty ratings from all crosswords going back to 2015. Its a really useful site to find the easier ones.
    3. Well done and welcome! I find that putting in 15 minutes of solving then coming back to it a bit later helps for answers that were previously impenetrable to just hop out, as large as life. If your brain yearns for a little weekend challenge, generally on the milder side, follow the link at the beginning of Friday’s blog here, to a crossword set by one of our bloggers.
      Don’t worry about the 4 minute milers here, they are running a different race it seems, Many of us enjoy a more leisurely daily jog where finishing is quite the reward in itself and the reveal in the blog and supporting comments here are further to the enjoyment.
  13. I was pleased with my time of 13:02 as I thought this was very tricky in places. FOI was IRE. It took me ages and I had to write out all the letters to get Charlatanism. But I needed that to get the starters for other clues. My last two were PLACEBO and ALPINE.
    COD and another trophy to TROPHY. Lots of other good clues.
    David
  14. I made a right Horlicks of that. Brain freeze on ARITHMETIC and got properly stuck on MIMED – I spent a very long time trying to justify WAVED, on the basis W = “wide”, “AV” or “AVE” = “road” and D = err, err – something to do with sea. But then I decided the sea must be RED so switched to wasting my time looking at **RED instead. Equally futile. Dear oh dear. Rest of it was fine but those two doubled my time.

    FOI CHARLATANISM, LOI ARITHMETIC, COD MOONWALKER, time 2.3K for a Very Bad Day. So the week ends with an over-target average for a Bad Week. Boo.

    Many thanks Teazel and John.

    Templar

  15. No accurate time and very fuzzy head after receiving a sainsbury’s home delivery consisting mainly of duvel.

    Took ages on mimed, carte blanche and arithmetic.

    2 typos, need to knock those on the head before tomorrow…

  16. A pleasing 15 mins for me, although my LOI 3dn “Raffish” was an educated guess.

    As many have mentioned, lots to enjoy here and nice to see a 1ac that gives at least a few starting letters. Liked 18ac “Mimed”, 15ac “Pencil” and 24ac “Carte Blanche”. 14ac “Trophy” was pretty much biffed based on the other day.

    FOI – 6dn “Ire”
    LOI – 3dn “Raffish”
    COD – 20ac “Adoptee”

    Thanks as usual

  17. So, we had a proper 1ac today – the only problem is that I didn’t get it very quickly! Needed more than one checker, unlike CedricS … shows yet again that we all get stuck in different places. And normally anagrams are my strong suit. Agree that BUCK TEETH shouldn’t have had an unscrambled BUCK in the anagrist. Stuck, briefly, on ICED so I rolled in on 7:56.

    H

  18. I managed to finish with all parsed and without needing aids, so it must be on the gentler side. No idea of time, as I did it over lunch, stopping occasionally. Probably around 30 mins, I should think.

    Struggled with “iced” as “very chillyl – I guess the two terms would overlap on a Venn diagram but I don’t really see them as equivalent.

  19. FOsI Awake, Ire, Moonwalker (COD), Russian. I found the top half easier than the bottom.

    Stupidly Slow to see Arithmetic. LOsI Carte Blanche and Adoptee (clever clue too).

    Liked Tick Off, Lawful, Elbow, Awake.

    Thanks all, as ever.

    Edited at 2020-11-20 01:41 pm (UTC)

  21. It’s been one of those weeks (we haven’t even looked at Wednesday’s and Thursday’s QCs – will do so tomorrow along with the weekend QC). So, no time to report today but we really enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Teazel.

    FOI: awake
    LOI: drone
    COD: moonwalker

    Thanks to John for the blog and for setting the weekend QC.

    Edited at 2020-11-22 02:43 pm (UTC)

  22. Not helped by chucking in AIMED, the A1 being similarly wide as the M1, at least in places, and AIMED also meaning “silently indicated” perhaps? But no one else seems to have had any problem. Obviously MIMED works much better.

    Obviously that stuffed up ARITHMETIC. Someone else said the other day that if something obvious doesn’t go in then you should look for a wrong crosser. I eventually did.

    Also struggled with CARTE BLANCHE, eventually resorting to pen & paper to untangle the anagram.

    Oh yes, had also bunged in RAINSTORM, which mean CHARLATANISM difficult, and again, pen & paper.

    All in all, a bit of a dog’s dinner for me today!!

    14:54

    Edited at 2020-11-20 02:23 pm (UTC)

    1. If it makes you feel better, I initially had Aimed as well, knowing the A1 in its motorway form is definitely wider than the M1 in some places (Wetherby/Leeds comes to mind). But as you’ve said, the definition was a little tenuous.
  23. Worked steadily through this, helped greatly by getting anagram of CHARLATANISM, until 20a where I needed help to get ADOPTEE-a really neat clue.
  24. Most answers went in quite quickly but a few took a lot of working out which meant that I was well over my target at almost 20 minutes.
    I particularly struggled with PENCIL (even though I knew that ‘il’ would be in there somewhere), ADOPTEE (I was thinking of the hospital type of ward) and, embarrassingly, CARTE BLANCHE (which took me far too long to unravel).
    Some lovely clues though including MIMED, LAWFUL and TICK OFF and my COD has to be 1A for being such a great anagram and for providing so many useful checkers.
    Thanks to Teazel for a satisfying end to the week – and double thanks to John for the blog and the weekend puzzle.
    1. We’re a friendly lot on the whole in this community, and most of us would like to help you – after all, we all started out finding these puzzles hard, and it is only familiarity and practice which means we now find them easier. That, and the tips from the blogs and elder statemen.

      So, having taken the effort to come to the site and make your comment, why not tell us more? As it stands, your statement is somewhat bald, and given how many here have solved the puzzle, quite difficult I would have thought to justify on its own with no other background.

      Cedric

  26. I seem to remember struggling mightily with the last Teazel puzzle but managed to breeze through this one, finishing just inside my target time of 15-20 mins. Lots to like here so thanks to Teazel and to John for the blog.

    FOI – 1ac CHARLATANISM
    LOI – 24ac CARTE BLANCHE
    COD – 7dn MOONWALKER – made me smile anyway.

  27. Contrariwise, I do the Concise every day for the reasons Anonymous H above suggests. Furthermore, in the weekday ones there is always a theme or hidden message which is fun to try and work out, although today’s is in Latin and almost passed me by.

    Edited at 2020-11-20 03:54 pm (UTC)

  28. I took the 11.45 slow train this morning.

    FOI 3dn RAFFISH

    LOI 20ac ADOPTEE

    COD 7dn MOONWALKER why has no one mentioned Michael Jackson, who invented the dance?

    WOD 9ac PLACEBOs – much required for the efficacy of the forthcoming Covid vaccines.

    12ac The Spanish Archer – will hopefully be visiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue before too long.

  29. No one else has commented on 23A saying “last month “. That is not December. Blog says “the last month “ which makes more sense.
    1. The first definition of ‘last’ (as an adverb) in SOED is: ‘after all others in a series’, and that’s how it’s to be read in this clue.

      You are correct that it can also mean ‘most recent’ but a clue doesn’t have to cover every possible interpretation, one valid one is sufficient.

      Edited at 2020-11-20 06:18 pm (UTC)

  30. ….RUSSIAN ELBOW (though it’s more likely to be bursitis).

    Straightforward fare, but nicely presented on the whole.

    FOI TIFF
    LOI PENCIL
    COD ADOPTEE
    TIME 3:48

  31. Just Lawful and Adoptee left to get after 20 minutes.
    I thought that the answer was Aweful…oh dear!!
    And Adoptee difficult so didn’t get the A to help with Lawful – which has been around before…
    Drone took some time as I had Dove as the flier and R for river and it Drove me mad..
    Enjoyable.
    And for any newer person coming in to read comments I would have found this crossword very hard and only got a few clues before giving up several years back – maybe about three years – but now hope to complete in 20 minutes or less – finishing at least 4 out of every 5.
    This blog is great.
    Thanks all
    John George
  32. A satisfying but tricky puzzle today for me. 37:59 but I was somewhat distracted by having two begging rats running around (and up) me, and my son listening to the awful Tik Tok in the background. Only had four of the acrosses on my first sweep, but it was a steady solve after that, with my biggest hold up the result of putting MIMES in instead of MIMED for 18a, making 19d somewhat troublesome. LOI was 19d, CsOD to 20a and the smooth surface of 1a. Thanks Teazel and John
  33. Latin, eh? That’s why it slipped past me! Haven’t done any for [mumbles] years. Must enlist help of other half 🙂

    H

  34. Got everything apart from adoptee – not sure about fuss = ado. Shakespearean I suppose.
    I knew a P had to go in somewhere but couldn’t spot
    Nick
  35. liked 1A “last chairman sacked for fraud (12)”
    MJ’s moonwalk is worth a view.

    1. I liked the clever surface too, but neglected to mention it in the blog.
  36. Great fun and really enjoyed it.
    I have no idea how 11a works – any chance of enlightenment..??

    Thanks again John

    Barry

    1. There is a solution blog which explains here, but 11A is a (perhaps dodgy, depending on how you pronounce it), indicated by “we hear”, homophone… Barbie and Mr Potato Head are toys….

Comments are closed.