Times Quick Cryptic No 3055 by Mara

Author   TemplarPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

My third Mara in a row, a blogger’s hat trick. Starstruck’s “setter difficulty” table gives Mara an average rating of 91, and true to form the last two QUITCH scores were 100 and 83. I solved this one in 08:20, a fraction below my average, so I suspect it will score in the 90s. But if you got 1d quickly (I didn’t) it could go a lot faster.

Lots of fun with a couple of outstanding clues, I thought, at 8a and 18a. Thank you, Mara.

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
7 Try dissent, ultimately, for red card (5)
HEART – HEAR [try, as in what judges do – hear/try a case] + T [dissent, ultimately].
8 Roasting is what it is — ace! (7)
HOTSHOT – HOT’S HOT [roasting is what it is]. A brilliant clue and COD from me, bravo. I needed all the checkers.
10 Instinctive turn, a lad briefly bamboozled (7)
NATURAL – anagram [bamboozled] of “turn a la{d}” – removal of the final “d” of “lad” is shown by “lad briefly“.
11 Fly from central Germany initially, then east (5)
MIDGE – I got a bit tangled on this because I thought the M was “central Germany”, and then couldn’t parse the rest. Eventually I saw that it was MID [central] + G [Germany initially] + E [east]. I’m off to spend August in the Highlands and the word MIDGE does not fill me with joy.
12 Something in back of car, fat round the middle (5,4)
SPARE TYRE – double definition. Lots of cars now come without a spare tyre to save money: you just get a can of foam to inflate the flat enough to limp home.
14 Hardened  lot (3)
SET – double definition.
15 Some priceless diamonds (3)
ICE – hidden [some] in “priceless”.
16 Make a contribution soon and debit sorted (2,4,3)
DO ONES BIT – anagram [sorted] of “soon” and “debit”.
18 Playwright partial to Osborne’s big retrospective (5)
IBSEN – a reverse hidden [partial … retrospective] in “Osborne’s big”. Another excellent clue: what a surface. Henrik Ibsen was an outstanding C19 Norwegian dramatist; A Doll’s House remains one of the most performed plays in the world.
20 Follower bitter perhaps about job (7)
APOSTLE -ALE [bitter perhaps] going round [about] POST [job]. “Apostle” comes from the Latin for having been sent out, rather than following, so I did pause over the definition but Chambers has “any enthusiastic champion or supporter of a cause, belief, etc” and a supporter is a follower, so fair enough.
22 Refined bloke, slippery character? (7)
GENTEEL – GENT [bloke] + EEL [slippery character].
23 Proper choice at junction? (5)
RIGHT – definition with a cryptic hint.
Down
1 Holiday, time with actor Tom, generous (12)
THANKSGIVING – my LOI. I wasn’t sure which end the definition was, and for “actor Tom” I couldn’t get Mr Cruise out of my head. And it’s an American holiday, so it doesn’t really count anyway (I’m not bitter). It goes T [time] + HANKS [actor Tom, very good] + GIVING [generous].
2 Drat! Gear ruined clothing business (3,5)
RAG TRADE – anagram [ruined] of “drat gear”. Punctuation in a clue is almost invariably designed to distract and mislead.
3 Celebrity’s heavenly body (4)
STAR – double definition.
4 Cold spice, we hear? (6)
CHILLY – definition with a cryptic hint. The “chilly”/”chili/chilli” joke is so old that it goes back at least to 1847, when it appeared in Chapter 3 of “Vanity Fair” (Thackeray) – ““A chili,” said Rebecca, gasping. “Oh yes!” She thought a chili was something cool, as its name imported, and was served with some. “How fresh and green they look,” she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer.”
5 Charge made, pets treated (8)
STAMPEDE – anagram [treated] of “made pets”.
6 Drop off  cabin (4)
SHED – double definition.
9 Score after score, crystal clear (6-6)
TWENTY-TWENTY – as in 20/20 vision. A “score” is of course “twenty”.
13 Foot and spleen put at risk (8)
ENDANGER -END [foot, as in the last part of something] + ANGER [spleen]. Tricky.
14 Tea bag so damaged in act of destruction (8)
SABOTAGE – anagram [damaged] of “tea bag so”. Very neat.
17 Zero improve — how might medicine be taken? (6)
ORALLY – O [zero] + RALLY [improve – the patient rallied a little today].
19 Dip in last of liquids, coloured fluid (4)
SINK – S [last of liquids] + INK [coloured fluid].
21 Monster or ghoul, rather eerie originally (4)
OGRE – first letters [originally] of “or ghoul, rather eerie”.

82 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3055 by Mara”

  2. Sailed through this mostly but took a while to see what was going on with HOTSHOT before the penny dropped. Very clever. Saw THANKSGIVING straight off and TWENTY-TWENTY. Was thinking 23a would be something like ‘R OR L’. Also thrown by ‘mid Germany’ in MIDGE. Perfect quickie.
    Thanks Templar and setter.

  3. 6.57. I started with 1ac HEART and ended with its excellent neighbour HOTSHOT, about which I had no idea for quite a while. Very nice puzzle, thanks Mara and Templar.

  4. “HOTSHOT – HOT’S HOT [roasting is what it is].” I haven’t got this. How does this work please?

    1. Roasting is hot, as in ‘the weather was roasting’.

      ‘Hot’s hot’ = ‘roasting is roasting’ = ‘roasting is what it is’. Because everything is identical with itself.

  5. 4:02, fast but fun. My only quibble is with the ‘to’ in ‘Playwright partial to Osborne’s big retrospective’. It seems to me that for the wordplay reading to work, it would have to be ‘[answer] is [part of = partial to] Osborne’s big retrospective’. But can ‘partial to’ really mean ‘part of’? As in ‘the string ALE is partial to the string GALEN’?

    1. You may have a point on ‘partial to’ taking the expression absolutely literally, but I’d excuse it in a crossword on the grounds that clues often stretch meanings or grammar a little, especially in wordplay, in order to indicate instructions for humorous or devious effect.

      Normally we expect ‘partial to’ to mean ‘having a liking for’ but in the context of today’s clue and the example in your final sentence I don’t have any problem squinting a bit and interpreting it as ‘being a part of’. I feel it rather goes with the territory.

      1. Yeah absolutely – as is clear to you, my point had nothing to do with the surface reading’s familiar use of ‘partial to’.

        Since I started doing these I’ve been operating largely under the assumption that Times clues require strict syntactic replacement to meet synonymy conditions, whereas Guardian clues don’t. But as you say, that’s never going to be 100%.

        1. Quick search online for partial gives the examples … “The plan calls for partial deployment of missiles. The police have only a partial description of the suspect.”

          Seems reasonable to me … they are saying not the entire thing.

          1. Yes, the point is about the inclusion of ‘to’, not the ‘partial’ alone. ‘Nobleman’s partial deployment of flotilla’ would of course be fine for TOFF (not a great clue, I know).

  7. 7 minutes. Very enjoyable. Can this really be from the same setter who tortured me in his Guardian puzzle last Friday having been roundly thrashed by The Times 15×15 that same day?

  8. The downs were a lot more forgiving than the acrosses. I had a measly three after the first pass of acrosses and was fearing the worst because I was totally stuck on some of them. Then came the downs and after having to pass over THANKSGIVING almost the whole lot dropped in. All those checkers made life a lot easier – especially MIDGE, RIGHT and HOTSHOT. Ended up all green in 13.48 – five seconds slower than my new, best ever, Quick Snitch average.

  9. 24.12 with probably 10 of those coming back to 1d as each crosser appeared. Had Tom Hiddleston rammed in my head and didn’t even consider an American actor, or holiday. Only when it was LOI did we finally realise the definition was at the other end!!!

    It feels like the rest was fun and straight forward except hotshot which also took a while, but very clever. We do like a Mara for the clever misdirections,thanks

    Thanks Templar, enjoy Scotland.

    1. Similarly, I had Tom Cruise stuck in my head – thinking there was a link between ‘Holiday’ and ‘a cruise’.

  10. I took 12:12, got blocked at the end for several minutes by the combination of SHED and LOI HOTSHOT

  11. NHO spleen = anger

    “And it’s an American holiday, so it doesn’t really count anyway”
    Thanksgiving is a holiday in Canada too, albeit celebrated on a different day than the USA

  12. Right on Mara’s wavelength today finishing in 6.30. My only slight error was initially to put in CHILLI for 4dn because I didn’t read the clue properly. This was soon rectified by putting in SPARE TYRE, although I did hesitate slightly when I thought of the American version TIRE. THANKSGIVING isn’t the most obvious answer when thinking of a holiday in the UK, but no doubt will come straight to mind to those solvers across the pond.

  13. A top quality puzzle which I initially thought was going to be a bit of a struggle when the across clues proved rather obdurate but the downs were much more compliant and a brisk solve ensued.

    My main hold ups were THANKSGIVING (I couldn’t think past Mr. Holland), the parsing of MIDGE (where I initially went down the same root as our blogger) and LOI & COD HOTSHOT, where I managed to avoid the temptation to biff ‘hatchet’ from the checkers.

    Finished in 6.18.
    Thanks to Templar and Mara

  14. 12:13 but Bifd and half-parsed many. Lots of acrosses stumped me until imho the easier downs went in and surrendered their checkers.
    I’m rushing this morning (self-inflicted torture, or pilates as some call it) so I thoroughly enjoyed reading the blog and being served the PDMs on a plate.
    Thanks T&M

  15. 17:49, with main hold up being THANKSGIVING, couldn’t see Tom Hanks, one of my favourite actors.

    I’m not enamoured of the parsing of HOTSHOT, doesn’t make much sense to me. I will accept my minority view.

  16. Was going very well on this but held up at the last by my L2I, ENDANGER (did not see spleen = anger) and then THANKSGIVING, which of course I have heard of but it is not top of my mind when thinking of holidays. Finally completed in 10:13.

    Some excellent clues, though I never parsed HOTSHOT. Now I see the parsing it gets my COD.

    Many thanks Templar for the blog.

  17. 9:21. Just the right level of QC difficulty. Stumped by initially THANKSGIVING and then by HOTSHOT which was my LOI. Favourite was MIDGE.

    Thanks to Mara and Templar

  18. Only 3 across clues solved at first pass, but down clues easier and with a couple of biffs (MIDGE, HOTSHOT -surely COD) managed it in a respectable (for me) 21:21. I usually find Mara on the hard side.

  19. Rather like a chocolate eclair, this super puzzle from Mara was demolished far too quickly (Mohn’s time is practically superhuman!)

    I had the same line of thought as Templar over “central Germany” and eventually biffed MIDGE once I’d solved STAMPEDE. I also biffed THANKSGIVING (Tom Hanks was the first actor to come to mind. NHO Tom Holland, but then I no longer do movies, and Tom Mix was more my era).

    My LOI almost got COD, but the cheeky use of “partial to” swung it. I usually like to see a setter push the envelope – within reason!

    FOI NATURAL
    LOI HOTSHOT
    COD IBSEN
    TIME 3:44

  20. A very enjoyable, fair QC. I jumped around the grid picking off clues one by one, as usual (None of this ‘straight through the acrosses and then the downs’ nonsense for me). 😆
    I cannot get close to the impressive array of fast times above but was perfectly content with my 15.30. I liked HOTSHOT, MIDGE and GENTEEL amongst many. My LOI was THANKSGIVING.
    Thanks to Mara; I will now read Templar’s blog to see if all my parsing was correct.

  21. Apart from briefly wondering if I could fit CRUISE into 1D, had no problems today. Great puzzle. COD HOTSHOT. Thanks Templar and Mara.

  22. 12:24
    LOI was THANKSGIVING. I was another one who got stuck on Cruise and Holland, and took a while to see Hanks.

    Thanks Templar and Mara

  23. I’m surprised the Snitch is only 77 as this seems harder than that to me having jumped around all over the grid to finish in 28:18.
    Nice puzzle all the same with similar experience to others: LOI THANKSGIVING and COD HOTSHOT.
    Thanks Mara and Templar for the helpful blog.

  24. FOI THANKSGIVING (NHO Holland, went straight for Hanks) but must object: were it, say, a holiday (only) in Germany it wouldn’t be clued just “holiday”, so why one from the US, no less a different country than Germany is? Humph. All went in nicely .. until the last two. Thought of HOTSHOT but failed to parse it so didn’t dare; and defeated by CHILLY, ashamed to say this one was new to me.

    1. I have to say I agree with you, why is it that USA terms slang and so forth are taken as read in the QCs’s, but other countries are not. Is it a UK crossword or is it a worldwide one? Or is it Trump’s tiny footsteps

      1. Thank you, Ham! I wonder what some of the HOTSHOTs would say to us, but it may be too late in the day to find out.

  25. Much slower than yesterday, particularly 1D, nothing unreasonable though, including the parsing IMHO. Saw Ozzy’s “big retrospective” on the telly yesterday.
    Thanks to Mara and Templar.

  26. Another genuine QC today although I was briefly thrown by the holiday clue. I needed the H and N checkers in THANKS before I could solve it but as Templar says it isn’t a holiday in the UK! FOI HEART and LOI and COD to HOTSHOT. 5:58 Thanks Templar.

  27. Managed to finish in 25 minutes, really liked HOTSHOT. Got lucky with THANKSGIVING with HANKS being the first Tom I thought of, and it regularly having an epsiode dedicated to it in Bob’s Burgers. Thank you for the blog 🙂

  28. Was flying until I got breezeblocked by LOI, ENDANGER. Wasted too long trying to untangle end and spleen, which I now see don’t even add up to the right number of letters. Doh! HEART was FOI. HOTSHOT gets COD. 9:00. Thanks Mara and Templar.

  29. 26:13

    This was going well, just 4 left after 12 mins but then grounded to a halt. The NE corner, HOTSHOT, SHED and MIDGE delayed me for 10 minutes before spending the last 4 on LOI THANKSGIVING. Went through Tom actors; Holland, Conti, Courtenay but forgot about Hanks.

    1. Cruise and Hardy with a late thought for Hiddlestone. Can’t believe never thought of Hanks given he has starred in many decent films over the past forty years.

      1. There is also Tom Hollander, not to be confused with Tom Holland, although I believe one of them received a pay cheque for the other.

        1. You’re right – and I have been confusing them – Tom Hollander is that older bloke in About Time. Tom Holland hasn’t even turned 30 – I think he might have been a Spiderman. My modern film/tv knowledge is decidedly lacking.

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