Quick Cryptic 2743 by Alex – Times for The Times (2024)

Author &nbsp TemplarPosted on 1st August 2024 at 2:00 AM1 August 2024Categories Quick Cryptic

Kitty and Mike usually get to blog Alex but today it’s my turn. Medium paced QC with lots to enjoy apart from one of my least favourite vegetables. COD to 1d for me, not least because it took me a long time to see how it worked. All done in 07:12; hope it went well for you!

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
1	Boasted about day being jam-packed (7)
	CROWDED – CROWED for “boasted”; that goes around (“about”) D for day.
7	Unchanging surface with cross removed (7)
	ETERNAL – “surface” is what’s “external”. Remove the X (“cross removed”) and you have ETERNAL.
9	Developing new ace perfume (7)
	NASCENT – N for “new”, A for “ace” (bridge), SCENT
10	Head of agriculture denies altering strongly flavoured plant (7)
	ANISEED – A for “head of agriculture” + anagram (“altering”) of “denies”. Somehow the French have managed to make pastis cool and the Greeks have managed to make ouzo disgusting. Go figure.
11	Skilled fellow left out of myth (4)
	ABLE – I thought this was certain to involve omitting an L (“left out”) from a word meaning “myth”. The obvious word for “myth” was “fable” so for a long time I thought it was the NHO “fabe”. Turns out it was omitting F for “fellow” instead. Gah.
12	EU actions involved firm (9)
	TENACIOUS – anagram (“involved”) of “EU actions”.
14	Select a bleach partly suitable for office (9)
	ELECTABLE – hidden (“partly”) inside “select a bleach”.
16	Blast barrier before end of construction (4)
	DAMN – DAM for “barrier”, before N which the last letter in “construction”. Ah those innocent days when “damn” was a bad word.
17	Work with iron causing distress (7)
	OPPRESS – OP for “work” (“opus”, Latin) + PRESS for “iron”. To OPPRESS someone might be to “distress” them; perhaps slightly loose.
20	Motor held by men I brutalised on the way back (7)
	TURBINE – reverse (“on the way back”) hidden (“held by”) inside “men I brutalised”.
21	Bizarre quarrels about dropping first of questions (7)
	SURREAL – anagram (“about”) of “quarrels” without the Q (“dropping first of questions”).
22	Speakfast (7)
	EXPRESS – double definition.

Down
1	Prison ship getting old American irritable (12)
	CANTANKEROUS – I found this hard because first I struggled to get past “hulk” for “prison ship” (lift and separate, dear boy, lift and separate) and then I had the false F checker from “fabe” (see 11a). Anyway, I got there in the end. CAN for “prison”; TANKER for “ship”; O for “old”; US for “American”. What a splendid word; originsadly uncertain.
2	Rising stench on fish with note “past sell by date” (8)
	OBSOLETE – LOI because I struggled to see OB for “rising stench” (it’s BO reversed, very neat). Then SOLE for “fish” and TE for “note” (do-ray-me etc).
3	Judge river minute (4)
	DEEM – DEE is our river; M for “minute”.
4	Hold back noise around estimated time of arrival (6)
	DETAIN – DIN for “noise”, going around ETA.
5	Rather inferior doctor about to ingest opiate initially (8)
	MEDIOCRE – MEDIC is “doctor”; RE is “about”; in between (“to ingest”) is O for “opiate initially”.
6	Regularly connected previously (4)
	ONCE – every other letter (“regularly”) of “connected”.
8	Safely grinds up okra (5,7)
	LADY’S FINGERS – anagram (“up”, tricky anagram indicator) of “safely grinds”. Okra is that bland, slimy vegetable also known as “bhindi”; no thanks. Stacks of vegetables have had the sobriquet LADY’S FINGERS over the years, including the kidney vetch which was the first and sole possessor of the name for centuries, but nowadays it seems to be only okra. I must admit that thanks to Keats (for his final long poem The Cap and Bells; don’t bother it’s awful, which is the sort of opinion that forced me to switch from English literature as an undergraduate) I struggle to think of LADY’S FINGERS as anything other than a long thin hard sponge biscuit. “Fetch me that Ottoman, and prithee keep Your voice low,” said the Emperor, “and steep Some lady’s fingers nice in Candy wine;”
12	Shabby gallery embarrassed to include exhibit finally (8)
	TATTERED – “gallery” is TATE, of course, and RED is “embarrassed”. Inside is T (“exhibit finally”, i.e. the last letter of “exhibit”).
13	Church musician giving up time for European run (8)
	ORGANISE – the obvious “church musician” is an ORGANIST. Lose the T (“giving up time”) and substitute an E (“European”).
15	Rush sculpture by the Parisian (6)
	BUSTLE – BUST for “sculpture”; LE for “the Parisian” (“the” in French).
18	Cut brace loudly (4)
	PARE – aural wordplay between PARE/pair (“brace”). I once had a very rich client from Yorkshire who often referred to the other side as “cheeseparing” when they were trying to reduce damages/costs after he had won.
19	Fall outing (4)
	TRIP – double definition.

When I read 1D I was sure it was going to be that prison in Dickens (Marshalsea, I just looked it up, it’s an actual prison not a prison ship, but Magwitch did escape from a prison ship…but luckily none of this had anything to do with the answer). Held up for a moment at the end on MEDIOCRE for some reason.
Reply
I was taken beyond my target range to 10.54 by spending ages on several that I thought were harder than they turned out to be, like MEDIOCRE, OBSOLETE, ETERNAL and TURBINE (my LOI, I realised too late it was a hidden, doh!). So well done Alex, and thank you Templar. A few weeks ago I was sitting in a beachside taverna on a hot day in Crete, sipping ouzo on ice and failing to realise how disgusting it was…stini yiamas!
Reply
1. To your health too; I love ouzo, nothing wrong with it. I prefer ouzo to Pernod which I prefer to Ricard, so there blogger!
  Thanks to piquet for an excellent blog.
  Oh, and 5d Mediocre eluded me for ages too; LOI
  Reply
Found this quite tricky and struggled to work out whether words were definitions, or parts of the answer, or instructions (like about can mean either re, c or put the previous word around the next one). This held me up a lot and in the end I DNF after 30 minutes, missing MEDIOCRE, OBSOLETE, and PARE. Could maybe had got them all but couldn’t find enough letters to add to MEDIC, or think of BO for stench, or go from PAIR to PARE. Bit disappointing, but I do think this puzzle had a lot of tricks up it’s sleeve.
Reply
10 minutes. CANTANKEROUS is a word that might have been invented to describe the character portrayed by ‘Gabby’ Hayes in countless Westerns starring the likes of Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Randolph Scott. That’s certainly where I first heard it.
Reply
1. Yes, great recall, Jack! I guess bouncing along on a horse all day, sleeping out on the hard prairie at night, all the while subsisting on beans and bad coffee would tend to make you CANTANKEROUS.
  Reply
37 minutes for an enjoyable puzzle, quite hard in places.
I like the word CANTANKEROUS as it sounds like what it means.
LOI ONCE which I initially had down as ANTE.
Thanks Alex and Templar.
Reply
No problems from FOI CANTANKEROUS I drew a smiley face beside the clue, to LOI TURBINE which took a while to see the hidden.
I also marked DAMN as a favourite for its surface along with 1dn.
Reply
Pleased to be all green after paying extra special attention to typing. Only three on the frist pass of acrosses but plenty of clues had seemed gettable – and when CANTANKEROUS went in all those first letter checkers helped a lot. Held up at the end by DAMN where I’d fixed on ‘barn’ which I hald convinced myself could mean ‘blast’ and that that was where ‘have barney’ came from. Showed good discipline and was rewarded. Had FINGERS well before LADY’S and took too long to see the anagram having got excited by ‘grinds up’ on first reading. Ended up in 16.22. Good one.
Reply
1. Same thoughts on BARN.
  Reply
Started with 1d which, after a brief foray down the ‘hulk road’, provided a lot of useful starting letters. After that it was a steady solve before having to resort to pen and paper for TENACIOUS.
I would add Raki to the list of aniseed flavoured drinks that should be avoided at all costs as a teenaged Plett11 once discovered 🤢🤢.
Finished with EXTERNAL in 7.13, or Templar +1, with WOD to CANTANKEROUS.
Thanks to Templar
Reply
1. I have French friends who can drink pastis until the cows come home. Personally, I’ve had two sips, the second years later to confirm my first impression.
  Reply
  1. Fond memories of a pastis in s French market listening to the street artist singing a Nina Simone number
    Reply
    1. unfond memories of raki in Istanbul; not aniseed and truly disgusting, with a strong hint of lighter fluid.
      Yes I do know the taste of lighter fluid; as a teen I had ambitions of being a fire-eater! I found the gas to be less revolting on the palate.
      Reply
2. May I suggest that raki (which we are given after every meal in Crete – love it – going soon – can’t wait) has nothing to do with aniseed; that’s Ouzo. Or are there variants, and raki somewhere else is made with aniseed, perhaps (there) synonymous with Ouzo?
  Reply
  1. From Collins:
    a strong spirit distilled in Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, etc, from grain, usually flavoured with aniseed or other aromatics
    Reply
  2. I think you’re right – Cretan raki is like French marc, or Italian grappa. Firewater distilled from what’s left over after pressing grapes for wine. Turkish raki is aniseed flavoured, like ouzo, pastis etc.
    Reply
11 minutes, which might suggest a routine-ish solve, but that hides a very mixed effort with several write-ins and several that took much longer. MEDIOCRE took longer than it should have, and I was misled just like our blogger on the mysterious FABE for ABLE (cluing F as Fellow threw me – seems a bit of a stretch). That led to CANTANKEROUS being my LOI.
I got LADY’S FINGERS straight away as Okra is one of my go-to sides at Indian restaurants (“bhindi bhaji”, and I would suggest the only way to eat them), but I would usually spell it Ladies’… Parsing the clue took longer, until I realised that “up” was the 107,256th word to be asked to do duty as an anagram indicator. Is there any word in the language that can’t be?
Many thanks Templar for the blog
Cedric
Reply
1. I thought it may be that the ‘left’ hand side of ‘fellow’ ie. “F” was ‘out’ of the word ‘myth’ – but I’m probably overthinking it.
  Reply
  1. F for fellow as in FRCS (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons) perhaps.🙂
    Reply
2. Cedric, Wiktionary spells the okra one “ladies’ fingers”, plural only, whereas lady(s)finger(s) (one word or two, singular or plural) is the biscuity thing in a trifle.
  See Also
  Saturday, August 3, 2024 |Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Lemon Drop DT 30684 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
  Reply
A bit of a struggle today. From FOI NASCENT to LOI OBSOLETE in 17:35. Held up most by ABLE and OBSOLETE. WOD CANTANKEROUS
Reply
A bit of a struggle took me over par to 30 minutes with a lot of puzzling to reach PARE. Needlessly worried about the RE in MEDIOCRE.
Liked CANTANKEROUS and hats off to OBSOLETE where the doh caught me up as usual.
I always associate Ladyfingers with trifle and the dreaded tiramisou while lady’s fingers are okra (which I like, lemon juice defeats the goo).
Thank Templar and Alex
Reply
24 mins…
Thought I wasn’t going to finish for a while, with 2dn “Obsolete”, 7ac “Eternal” and 5dn “Mediocre” all proving difficult. However, I remained 12ac and refused to be 1dn and got there in the end.
‘Damn’ is an interesting word, as I once shouted it in frustration at primary school when missing a rounders shot. The teacher, who was fairly religious, sent me to the sidelines immediately. Personally, I didn’t think it was that bad, and it now seems vaguely ridiculous, but I’ve never forgotten it.
FOI – 3dn “Deem”
LOI – 5dn “Mediocre”
COD – 1dn “Cantankerous”
Thanks as usual!
Reply
Made heavy weather of this, failing to spot definitions, looking for anagrams where there were none (20a ‘brutalised’), failing to spot others (‘up’?? No…), and blindly sticking to the instructions to produce NHOs ‘that had to be’ – FABE as per our blogger, and 16a BARN as a bar is a barrier. Obviously.
Eventually gained some momentum, with some very satisfying solves (CANTANKEROUS, MEDIOCRE) but overall too tricky to be truly enjoyable for me.
FOI ANISEED
LOI TENACIOUS
COD CANTANKEROUS
Time 25+ in two sittings with BARN remaining incorrect. Well, it fits the crossers…
Thanks Templar for an informative blog and for sorting out some of my mess.
Reply
There is nothing OK about okra in my book. An enjoyable puzzle though. One of my exes used to call me a CANTANKEROUS curmudgeon. On the occasions when that unarguably applied, she was usually the reason for it.
FOI CROWDED
LOI TENACIOUS
COD CANTANKEROUS
TIME 4:25
Reply
Thanks for the blog. Crossword number should be 2743
Reply
1. Thanks. Not sure if Templar is available just at the moment so I have amended it.
  Reply
  1. Thanks for fixing that, Jack. Had a busy day yesterday!
    Reply
DNF. Hard yards, but I kept going and struggled through to my last pair, Obsolete and Able. I would like to think that getting either would have given the other, but I didn’t, so I’ll never know for sure. Mediocre seems appropriate as a CoD. Invariant
Reply
11:27
Didn’t struggle too much with CANTANKEROUS, but the NHO term for okra proved more challenging. Hesitated over the parsing of ABLE and so didn’t put it in on first pass. A bit on the chewy side for me today, but not a horribly above average time.
FOI NASCENT
LOI LADY’S FINGERS
COD CANTANKEROUS
Reply
Defeated by PARE despite a half hearted alphabet trawl, as I couldn’t work out what loudly was doing as part of the clue – another to add to the hom*ophone indicator list!
OBSOLETE was LOI otherwise, bit of a MER at the BO def which is not in my book necessarily a “stench” but I got there eventually. Another small “word” which I am sure will recur.
Liked 1D, eventually.
Reply
16:00. After a fast start, I ground to a halt in the NW corner. I had erroneously entered RETAIN instead of DETAIN, which delayed CROWDED. 2d then took ages to see a word that fitted, and even the I could not parse it, OB for rising stench is exceedingly obscure.
I am trying to grow okra in my allotment this year, but most of the plants have fallen to slugs and snails, so I doubt I will get to harvest any LADYS FINGERS.
Thanks Templar and Alex
Reply
12:27. MEDIOCRE was my LOI and I may have missed it if I hadn’t seen it elsewhere recently. A MER at OPPRESS for ‘distress’; I agree, “… perhaps slightly loose”. I immediately thought of “brig”, rather than Templar’s “hulk”, for ‘Prison ship’ at 1d, with crossers revealing the correct parsing for CANTANKEROUS, my COD.
Thanks to Templar and Alex
Reply
Finished and enjoyed. Slow on CANTANKEROUS COD. Also liked DEEM, OPPRESS. LOI DAMN.
Yes, don’t much care for okra, or pastis.
Thanks vm, Templar.
Reply
9:03
Though I know of it, I can’t say with any certainty that I have tried okra before – perhaps one of those things I meant to try, but something else on the menu sounded more appealing. I found this quickish until it wasn’t, and I struggled to shoehorn in the last few, which included MEDIOCRE, OBSOLETE and ABLE.
Quick time for you though Templar – thanks for the blog – and thanks to Alex as well
Reply
A nice steady solve for me in 17:57. Very few immediate write-ins, but if the penny didn’t drop after a few moments thought, then it usually did the next time round with a few checkers, so an ideal QC. FOI NASCENT, LOI MEDIOCRE, COD ETERNAL. Thanks Alex and Templar.
Reply
Far too hard for me – could only solve 11 clues. Gave up in despair – probably my worst day ever on the QC.
Reply
13 minutes stuck at the end on 2d. I bunged in OBSOLETE and parsed it afterwards (not a recommended approach).
Have we established that Fellow = F? I wondered about this.
Nothing too difficult. COD to CANTANKEROUS.
There was / is a replica prison ship in the museum in Rochester; worth seeing, as was the Dickens section. But it was closed last time I was there.
David
Reply
1. I am convinced that F=Fellow often, at least in the 15*15.
  Wiktionary has inter alia:
  F
  …
  Abbreviation of fellow.
  FGS ― fellow of the Geological Society
  FRS ― fellow of the Royal Society
  Reply
Couldn’t see any at first – FOI TRIP – but gradually they all fell in, and LOI MEDIOCRE. Only failed PARE (my PERF has brace = PR and loudly = F, but still doesn’t quite work, I agree).
How is fellow = F justified, please?
I always thought okra were LADies’ FINGERS and that bhindi was the same thing (agree, won’t eat them), but weird: Collins says LADY’S FINGER [sic] = bhindi whereas LADies’ FINGERS = okra (as I thought). Two variants with slightly different names? Seems unlikely; can anyone arbitrate?
Digging a little further, look up okra: = ladies’ fingers. Look up bhindi: = “okra as used in Indian cooking, also called lady’s finger”. The confusion does not seem resolved.
Reply
I found it a bit tricky in parts today. Failed to separate prison and ship for a good while, but once I got CANTANKEROUS I was able to fill in a few coming off it. MEDIOCRE was another hold up and my LOI.
8:08
Reply
Just about on the money for me in terms of difficulty for a QC, coming in a little under target at 9.32. It looked unlikely that I would beat my target as I started slowly, but I picked up speed and my only real hold up was my LOI MEDIOCRE.
Reply
6:56
Slowish start, but sped up and returned to NW with checkers in place.
LOI DAMN.
Thanks Templar and Alex
Reply
Enjoyed this QC and the interesting blog, thanks Alex and Templar.
Discovered as a student that neither ouzo nor retsina travel well.
I brought some of both back for my parents who weren’t especially appreciative and I could see why. I don’t know how something can taste so different depending on whether it’s drunk on a Greek island or in Worthing but it certainly did.
We thought F could mean “Fellow” in something like FRCS – Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons – seen after surgeons’ names indicating they’ve passed their post-grad exams and are Fellows of said College.
Reply
1. I got the F in my letters just by having 5 years CPD.
  Reply
  1. Ah, right.
    Were you just “lashman” before? 😉
    Reply
    1. Sorry, SR! I didn’t see your excellent reply until after I wrote mine.
      Reply
      1. Great minds etc (we’ll ignore the “Fools seldom” version) 😊
        Reply
  2. Were you just Lashman before then?
    Reply
    1. Good one.
      Reply
      1. Lashman
        Reply
        Excellent! 😄
        Reply
        😂😂😂
        Reply
Very slow ~18m
I was worried that the prison ship was going to be the one in the news last year and I couldn’t remember the name (Bibby Stockholm!).
COD damn/cantankerous
Reply
I found it tricky. I couldn’t get either of the 1s initially so I was missing lots of first letter checkers. Really struggled with ABLE which was my third last in. I nearly gave up with my last two until I remembered LADY’S FINGERS for okra (I could see the anagram fodder but didn’t find it palatable) and LOI ETERNAL. 9:22
Reply
Difficult to get started, but then made good-ish progress until I ran into the sand with 8 or 9 clues to go. The first three Across clues and the first three Down clues remained unsolved until I finally got DEEM, after about 35 minutes or so. However, this gave me just enough of a foothold to build on and to fill in the previously empty NW corner.
My L2I were situated elsewhere: PARE and DAMN. Both very hard!
Time = 41 minutes, so well back in the SCC.
Thanks to Alex and Templar.
Reply
Just over 10 minutes, so way outside my usual five minute target. In retrospect I think I was just way off the wavelength today, has no real problems with anything. MER at a turbine being a motor, as I tend to think of it more of a generator.
Reply
1. I think of a turbine as a component of a motor or engine, which might or might not be being used as a generator, and I share your MER.
  Wiktionary doesn’t mention it but sometimes people use turbine as shorthand for “steam turbine” or “gas turbine”, for instance the Chief Engineer might say “the port turbine is U/S” to explain the circular route of the ship. Either way it is still only a component.
  Reply
Started well, getting 1a and 1d quickly, and continued in a similar vein until I slammed to a painful halt at OBSOLETE and (LOI) LADY’S FINGERS which collectively cost me about five minutes. Is the idea that “up” can be an anagram indicator in the sense of “What’s wrong” / “What’s up”?
17:14 in total. Thank you for the blog!
Reply
1. Or possibly “up” meaning “in revolt”.
  Reply
  1. Ah, yes, thank you!
    Reply
12.21 DNF. The short ones DAMN, ABLE and PARE held me up at the end. But I failed with OBSELETE, which looked completely wrong and didn’t include any fish I’d ever heard of. The correct spelling wouldn’t come so I hit submit. I’ll blame the heat. Thanks Templar and Alex.
Reply
16:30. Held up a long time by LADY’S FINGERS as L_D_S foxed me. I don’t think I would tackle okra as a vegetable on my plate. I have only consumed it as what gives the texture to gumbo. SURREAL was my COD.
Reply
From DEEM to PARE in 7:24 with MEDIOCRE and TENACIOUS needing crossers before I saw them. Took a while to see TURBINE too. Thanks Alex and Templar.
Reply
Somewhat on the slow side at 14:50. Spotting the reverse hidden for TURBINE took a lot longer than it should have done. Struggled to see the rising stench in OBSOLETE but moved on. Thanks for the clarification, Templar. I’m another one who contemplated ‘FABE’ and who had always thought of okra as Ladies’ Fingers. I try them occasionally (as part of an Indian meal out) for variety but, tbh, never enjoy them as much as I would like.
Reply
Tricky and clever, took me 18:38 for an entertaining morning.
LADYS FINGERS or indeed ladies fingers for okra was new to me, also “up” as anagrind, sheesh, sdnirgylefas, anyone? DAMN and blast it, can’t stand that veg. I’ll take the pastry instead, please. I join the fan club for CANTANKEROUS, such a good word, and I try to live up to it. By ranting about my least favorite thing, TE and other weird nonstandard spellings of solfège syllables. I took the inevitable wrong direction on 11a FABLE until 1d straightened me out.
Thanks to Alex and to Templar for the commentary, love “cheeseparing”, must get it into my vocabulary.
Edited to add: mercy, Keats’s “Cap and Bells” what awful stuff! I was intrigued because I knew Yeats’s poem of the same name from a choral arrangement. But no apparent relation. I recommend the Yeats.
Reply
Couldn’t really get going today, gave up after 20mins with only handful of clues filled in
Reply
slow start but the long clues fell into place and the rest followed. Abt 30 m which is good for us.
Reply
LOI-itus – I alphabet-trawled 18d to be PARE but couldn’t parse – also spent too long looking for an F for ‘loudly’… 16a Damn had to be but seemed tenuous to me.
FOI 1a Crowded
LOI other than 18d, was 5d Mediocre
COD 1d Cantankerous
Reply
A late solve for me and ended up revealing quite a few as I was just too tired to think 🤪 The ones that did for me were OBSOLETE, ABLE and PARE. It seems much easier when I do these at coffee time. Interesting blog and comments as always. Will have my thinking head on tomorrow.
Reply
DNF. OBSOLETE and ABLE. That “fellow left” was pretty tough.
Reply
1. Snap!
  Reply
Held up at the end by 16a. Couldn’t get barn out of my mind but eventually realised it was DAMN.
Reply
Came to this late and it was a slow solve, with two incorrect so DNF. My reasoning for BARN at 16a was blast as in “it’s a blast” so barn-storming seemed like a blast to me. Doh. No excuse for CHOCKER at 1a – put it in (jam-packed), couldn’t parse it, couldn’t get 3d so gave up. Bit of a shocker really! Better luck tomorrow 🤨
Reply
What’s the point in carrying on with this?
20 minute DNF after putting BARN rather than DAMN. I was thinking of the word barnstorming. I knew it looked dodgy but still put it in.
Yet another week blown.
65 minutes so far this week, but the DNF makes that an irrelevance.
I’m very depressed at my inability to achieve anything like a respectable weekly performance ☹️☹️☹️. I have more DNFs now than at any other point in the last 2 years, and that is clearly a sign of going backwards. I am clearly OBSOLETE. I’m certainly not ABLE.
Thanks for the blog.
Reply
1. And to cap off a miserable evening I missed completing the big crossword by one clue. Fed up!
  Reply
12.01. was going to be quicker but my children insisted on helping me and wanting explanations. hopefully one of them will catch the bug…
MER at LADY’S FINGERS. LOL at DAMN… it was a tough one to spot from the crossers!
thanks Alex and Templar!
Reply

Quick Cryptic 2743 by Alex – Times for The Times (2024)

Comment