Times Quick Cryptic 1380 by Mara

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

At 6 minutes I found this one very easy and it takes my run of consecutive solves within my target 10 minutes to 8 so far. There are a few answers that may not be familiar to less practised solvers so there’s no need to be disheartened if you took a lot longer or struggled to finish.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Holiday destination to organise again? (6)
RESORT – RE-SORT (organise again). Not quite a double-definition as the second meaning would require a hyphen (2-4)
4 Maps leading to Turkish capital, finally (2,4)
AT LAST – ATLAS (maps), T{urkish} [capital]
9 Remit as difficult for great composers (7)
MAESTRI – Anagram [difficult] of REMIT AS. A maestro isn’t necessarily a composer so there’s an element of unsignalled DBE here. I much prefer the anglicised plural, ‘maestros’.
10 Shift later slightly amended (5)
ALTER – Anagram [slightly amended] of LATER. As indicated  by ‘slightly’, in fact only one letter needs to change position.
11 Obsessed with gin, toff drinks (4)
INTO – Hidden in [drinks] {g}IN TO{ff}
12 Toast is something found somewhere beneath the mouth, repeatedly (4-4)
CHIN-CHIN – CHIN (something found somewhere beneath the mouth) x 2 [repeatedly]
14 Earner Victor on a roll, perhaps? (11)
BREADWINNER – BREAD (roll perhaps), WINNER (victor)
18 Record call, getting to the point (8)
TAPERING – TAPE (record), RING (call)
20 Destroy one entering race (4)
RUIN –  I (one) contained by [entering] RUN (race)
22 Eastern assassin in prison in Japan (5)
NINJA – Hidden [in] {priso}N IN JA{pan}
23 Australian mammal chained, unfortunately (7)
ECHIDNA – Anagram [unfortunately] of CHAINED. Aka the spiny anteater, this is a word I know only from crosswords.
24 Ridiculous speed, I observed (6)
ESPIED – Anagram [ridiculous] of SPEED I
25 By the sound of it, poet not allowed (6)
BARRED – Sounds like [by the sound of it] “bard” (poet)
Down
1 Stay with marine or airmen on manoeuvres? (6)
REMAIN – Anagram [on manoeuvres] of MARINE or of AIRMAN – take your pick
2 Top person visibly hot? (7)
SWEATER – Two meanings. ‘Top’ as in jumper.
3 Consider cost (4)
RATE – Two meanings
5 Idiot ultimately falling for some practice (8)
TRAINING – {idio}T [ultimately] RAINING (falling)
6 A long letter (5)
AITCH – A, ITCH (long)
7 Seat chucked, we hear? (6)
THRONE – Sounds like [we hear] “thrown” [chucked]
8 Conservative player? (5-6)
RIGHT-WINGER – Two separate meanings (politics and sport) plus wordplay RIGHT (Conservative), WINGER (player)
13 Legitimate target in hoop-la, perhaps?  (4,4)
FAIR GAME – Again not quite a double definiton though I might describe ‘hoop-la’ as ‘a fairground game’
15 Duo race around country (7)
ECUADOR – Anagram [around] of DUO RACE
16 Expert bagging century immediately (2,4)
AT ONCE – ACE (expert) containing [bagging] TON (century)
17 Where fingers are present (2,4)
ON HAND – A cryptic hint precedes the main definition
19 Baby gripping popular model (3-2)
PIN-UP – PUP (baby) containing [gripping] IN (popular)
21 When hail of abuse starts, stop! (4)
WHOA – W{hen}, H{ail}, O{f}, A{buse} [starts]

21 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1380 by Mara”

  1. DNK ‘hoop-la’ in the required sense, but I assumed it must be a game and biffed accordingly. Also biffed AITCH, and actually didn’t see the wordplay until afterwards. 4:02.
  2. Anyone who would like to progress to the 15×15, today’s the day – most gentle.

    As was the QC 8 minutes.

    FOI 8dn RIGHT WINGER

    LOI 1ac RESORT

    COD 14ac BREAD WINNER

    WOD 21dn WHOA!

  3. Decided to try the qc first today and it paid off, 9 minutes, last 3 were resort, rate, and sweater.

    Cod remain.

  4. I was on Mara’s wavelength today apart from a couple of clues. The clock showed 8 minutes and I only needed 13d and 18a. Eventually I thought of FAIR GAME which led to LOI TAPERING. The clock was then at 11:48.
    So a quick time for me overall, but.
    Some very nice QC clues,liked WHOA, COD to TAPERING which held me up. David
  5. I awoke with a start, in the wee hours, to find less than half the grid completed and 47 minutes on the clock. By the time I’d remembered who, where and why I was, and finished the puzzle, 53:13 had elapsed. I may have slightly over indulged last night! Thanks Mara and Jack.

    Edited at 2019-06-24 01:21 pm (UTC)

  6. All fell into place for me. Barred reminded me that Shakespeare apparently found it virtually impossible to get served in a pub.
  7. Very gentle and completed in 6.54, just need all the checkers to be sure of the spelling of ECHIDNA.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. ….landlord says “Sorry sir, you’re Bard”.

    No problems, a nice, easy start to the week. Had I spotted RESORT straight away, I’d have been inside 3 minutes.

    FOI AT LAST
    LOI REMAIN (No thanks !)
    COD TAPERING
    TIME 3:01

  9. Nearly smashed my record by about 10 minutes … then realised I’d made a mistake. Ooops. Easy one though
  10. Inside 10m for a nice easy start to the week. I would have assumed that Ecuador had a Q in it if I’d been asked before seeing the anagrist, but it’s not a country I have knowingly spelled before. I liked TAPERING and AITCH. A plethora of anagrams, dds and homophones today. Thanks Mara and Jacckt.
    1. I have just returned from Ecuador where I stood at the equator. Interestingly, ecuador is spanish for equator.
  11. It’s a tough day when you get 8 minutes but still 2 Kevins! A gentle start to the week thank goodness, slowed up only by putting AT HAND first time round. Enjoyed TAPERING but it is pipped for COD by the topical REMAIN. Thanks Mara and Jack.

    Templar

  12. Like Templar, I thought it was unusually easy for a Mara but it still took me just over 2K. Some nice clues for a gentle start to Monday. COD BREADWINNER. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2019-06-24 10:33 am (UTC)

  14. 1ac and 1d went straight in, which is always a good start, and I didn’t have too much difficulty thereafter. Thought I was on course for a sub 20 finish, but then ran into difficulties in the SE corner. I guessed the four letter word in 17d had to be ‘hand’, which sorted out Echidna, but what to put in front? My original choice of At didn’t seem to fit too well (Quit/Destroy?), and I eventually realised 20ac had to be Ruin, so obviously 17d was In Hand… making 22 mins for a DNF. Invariant
  15. First word was right, but for the second word on 8d I had non crossers A, K, E. This solution surely fits the clue?
  16. I was just outside my PB completing in 7:16, so an easy Mara QC today. Thank you Mara and Jack.

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