Times Quick Cryptic No 3043 by Mara

Author   TemplarPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Right down the middle of the QC Avenue from Mara, taking me 08:30 which is my exact average time on the QUITCH. (Talking of which, have you seen Starstruck’s awesome new feature of a setters’ difficulty table ? The guy’s a genius!)

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
7 Classy refurbishment of shop (4)
POSH – anagram [refurbishment] of “shop”.
8 Admiral excited having penned good song (8)
MADRIGAL – anagram [excited] of “admiral” including [having penned] G [good].
9 Quick break in Post Office (6)
PRESTO – REST [break] inside PO [in Post Office]. A musical direction.
10 Capital in Austria then, sophisticated (6)
ATHENS – neatly hidden inside [in] “Austria then, sophisticated”.
11 Fringe say combed back on journalist (4)
EDGE – “say” = “eg”; reverse it [combed back] and you get GE; put that on ED [on journalist] et voila.
12 See hippo splashing about — one spraying water around? (8)
HOSEPIPE – anagram [splashing about] of “see hippo”. Southern Water has banned all spraying around of HOSEPIPEs in my neck of the woods at the moment.
15 Cut fruit’s surface again (8)
REAPPEAR – REAP [cut] + PEAR [fruit]. My LOI; “re-veneer” popped into my head and I had to call the bailiffs in to evict it.
17 Fill day with love, finally (4)
SATE – SAT [day] + E [love, finally].
18 Preacher in circle, dancing (6)
CLERIC – anagram [dancing] of “circle”. Unbelievably (having solved MADRIGAL and HOSEPIPE in nano-seconds) I just couldn’t work out this simple six letter anagram, and after failing for least a minute I had to move on and return when there were checkers. Funny how the brain works.
21 Country road originally on back street (6)
NORWAY – to get NOR you have to reverse [back] both “on” and R [road originally]. Then you add WAY [street]. I found that a tough clue and again needed checkers.
22 Pop group, elderly, dressed (8)
BANDAGED – BAND [pop group] + AGED [elderly]. As in “dress a wound”.
23 Thrill, footballing action? (4)
KICK – definition with a cryptic hint.
Down
1 Scottish food served in prison? (8)
PORRIDGE – definition with a cryptic hint. A slightly feeble clue,  perhaps, given that PORRIDGE became slang for time in prison (apparently first recorded in 1950 in the delightfully named “The Lag’s Lexicon”) precisely because it was so frequently used to feed convicts. PORRIDGE is now universally popular but was for a long time principally associated only with Scotland, hence Dr Johnson’s famous definition of oats: “A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” (Boswell, a proud Scot, claimed to have riposted “Aye, and that’s why England has such fine horses, and Scotland such fine people”.)
2 Immaculate sachet spoiled (6)
CHASTE – anagram [spoiled] of “sachet”. Both CHASTE and “immaculate” can mean “pure”, so I guess this is fair enough but  it might have been tougher as a double definition. Fortunately it was an anagram.
3 Charmer  blended fruit drink (8)
SMOOTHIE – double definition.
4 One short contract plan (4)
IDEA – I [one] + DEA{l} [short contract, i.e. “deal” without its last letter].
5 First of brides I give away is 18 (6)
BISHOP – yuk, a cross-referenced clue which you can’t really solve until you’ve solved 18a (which was “cleric”), at which point it solves itself. I really don’t like those. Anyway, it’s B [first of brides] + I [I] + SHOP [give away, as in “Kev shopped me and now I’m doing porridge”].
6 Chief parent at home (4)
MAIN – MA [parent] + IN [at home].
13 Need ears working for song! (8)
SERENADE – anagram [working] of “need ears”.
14 New patient fed 100 peanuts (8)
PITTANCE – anagram [new] of “patient” including C [fed 100, C being the Roman numeral for 1oo]. “Paid peanuts/paid a pittance”. “Peanuts” in this sense seems to have originated in the US in the 1930s.
16 Stick in money for satire (6)
PARODY – ROD [stick] inside [in] PAY [money].
17 Attack and walk out (6)
STRIKE – double definition.
19 Page left empty, as folio initially (4)
LEAF – L [left] + the first letters [initially] of “empty, as folio”.
20 Horrific media making me finally shut up (4)
CAGE – the final letters [finally] of “Horrific media making me“.

62 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3043 by Mara”

  1. Fairly easy trot through, I also got Bishop without the cross reference, I also dislike them, particularly when they are unnecessary, as Preacher is in the clue you don’t even need to solve 18a. (do Bishops preach?)
    Thanks Mara and Templar.

    1. “Preacher” is in 18a, but you don’t know that it’s the definition until you’ve solved the clue …

      1. True – but your own cited milliseconds of thought are required to eliminate the other three words in a 4 word clue.

  2. 6:54

    Slight delay at the end thinking of a country beginning with N and working backwards.

    Thanks Templar and Mara

  3. Am a great fan of Fletcher’s, and indeed of Mr MacKay’s, so I don’t know why PORRIDGE was my LOI.
    Also, due to distractions, a bit slow on REAPPEAR, NORWAY and PITTANCE. All good clues.
    Also liked SMOOTHIE and BANDAGED.
    Thanks vm, Templar.

  4. My LOI was CAGE, which I put in purely because I had the A and the E and because it means “shut in”; I couldn’t parse it at all, so thanks to Templar for the explanation. As usual, once explained, it seems obvious, but I’m still a relative newbie and still learning the tricks of the wordplay trade.

    On the whole, I thought this was nice and gentle, with lots of first pass answers going in.

  5. 10:33. Held up longest by SMOOTHIE- I think like Blighter I was looking too hard for something that wasn’t there!

  6. 5 down annoyed me, last one to fill in. I’d worked out the answer and could see it was B I SHOP but couldn’t see how BISHOP related to 18.

    Never thought about being related to 18 across – thanks for the explanation

  7. 9.16 Slow at the end on REAPPEAR, PARODY and NORWAY. Thanks Templar and Mara.

  8. First ever sub-half hour for me, at 23:38, which I was very happy with – helped by all the anagrams and other wordplay like ATHENS, LEAF and CAGE. Needed checkers for NORWAY, though, and couldn’t get the parsing for EDGE at all – my LOI, figured the ED but stuck for the GE. Thanks Templar and Mara.

      1. Hmm, well, the way today’s is going I wouldn’t count on that happening any time soon…

  9. 12 mins…

    Seem to have struggled the last week, so it’s nice to have something relatively straightforward.

    I never did get the “18” reference for 5dn, as it’s rare to see that type of clue in the QC, I thought it had something to do with the age a bishop had to be to marry, or something ridiculous like that. Like a few above, 21ac “Norway” also took a while to fathom, which is surprising considering I watched their poor team last night. Only other head scratcher was 20ac “Cage”, where I completely missed the ‘finally’ aspect until it was staring me in the face.

    FOI – 7ac “Posh”
    LOI – 16dn “Parody”
    COD – 16dn “Parody”

    Thanks as usual!

  10. Fun – I enjoy Mara’s puzzles and this was no exception. Got NORWAY quickly but took much longer over STRIKE/SATE crosser, because I thought “love, finally” meant that 17a ended in O. The light dawned when STRIKE went in and the day could only have been SAT or SUN. Duh. My cod was 15a – lol moment when I realised that surface again went together, not fruit’s surface. With MADRIGAL, SERENADE and PRESTO there seemed to be a musical theme (and the late Gerard Hoffnung once played the hosepipe in a gala concert!) and then composers began to appear with CAGE and (very nearly) SAT(I)E, but no, couldn’t pursue that line. 15 minutes enjoyment, thanks Mara and Templar.

  11. I’m going against the grain as I rather enjoyed BISHOP. I solved it straight away and briefly glanced at the cluing for 18 to confirm my answer. Since I went from POSH to NORWAY in 6:27 I think I was on wavelength. My COD for imagery and topicality goes to HOSEPIPE. Thanks Templar…..it has been raining a little here on the Beds/Bucks border with plenty more in the forecast.

  12. Not timed as very distracted by events at Portrush.
    I was very held up by LOI SMOOTHIE so it would have been a long time.
    A good QC.
    COD to NORWAY.
    David

  13. We got on rather well with this: 7:11 is our fastest for quite some time now. Interesting that splitting REAPPEAR into 2×4 rather than the usual three syllables makes its not quite palindromic nature so much more apparent. Thanks, Templar and Mara.

  14. 10:52 here and all parsed. A bit heavy on the anagrams for my taste: not my favourite type of clue. But lots to like: COD to REAPPEAR with an honorable mention for BANDAGED.

    Thanks to Mara and Templar.

  17. 18 minutes. Stupidly looked at Quitch first, saw it was ‘easy’ and became stressed when I began to struggle. Still nowhere near good enough for my aspirations and so did not enjoy it.

    Failed by at least 6 on 15 x 15 after well over an hour of frustration and angst.

    I am still completely at a loss as to how to improve.

  18. As well as being reminded of the great Ronnie Barker at 1d, 21a brought back memories of Slartibartfast winning an award for NORWAY in Hitchhiker’s Guide – maybe time to revisit that too 😅
    As usual, I got stuck for a minute or two with my last two – it happens pretty much every day. This time it was NORWAY and SMOOTHIE – like Blighter, I was trying make an anagram of that one for a while!
    Still not too bad a day.
    09:11 FOI Porridge LOI Smoothie – that little selection looks like breakfast time here! COD Hosepipe – a lovely surface but somewhat unfortunate timing for many.
    Despite Leicestershire now officially suffering from a drought, we are still not facing a hosepipe ban. Not sure how Severn Trent have managed that. But I have just chucked a washing-up bowl of water over the courgettes!
    Thanks Mara and Templar

  19. Fastest ever time today at 7:55. Why can’t I do this everyday. I hav struggled with h some of the so called easier puzzles. Ho hum

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