Times Quick Cryptic 1330 by Mara

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

On reflection this seems pretty straightforward but for some reason I needed 12 minutes (2 over my target 10) to unravel it all. If anything requires further explanation, please ask.

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
8 Eleven always comes before a hundred (7)
EVERTON – EVER (always), TON (a hundred). Eleven if you count only the number of Everton players on the pitch at any given time.
9 Grant a place in hospital (5)
AWARD – A, WARD (place in hospital)
10 Missing header, circumstance for player (5)
ACTOR – {f}ACTOR (circumstance) [missing header]
11 Painful expression I am to write into prayer (7)
GRIMACE – I’M (I am) contained by [to write into] GRACE (prayer)
12 Chief, best of the bunch? (3,6)
TOP BANANA – Two meanings. I imagine many know that a bunch of bananas is more properly called a ‘hand’ but it’s possibly less widely known that a single banana is a ‘finger’. The expression “top (or first) banana” began in American burlesque theatres where comedians were called “top/first, second or third banana” according to their ranking within an act or on the bill.
14 Label club the wrong way (3)
TAB – BAT (club) reversed [the wrong way]
16 Control race (3)
RUN – Two meanings
18 Generally at sea? (2,3,4)
IN THE MAIN – Two meanings
21 Some land replacing the acre (7)
HECTARE – Anagram of [replacing] THE ACRE. A good clue because to a large extent the hectare has indeed replaced the acre as the principal unit for measurement of land area although it’s actually 2.47 times as large as the older unit so less easy to imagine in one’s mind’s eye, at least for me.
22 Some chimp, and another animal (5)
PANDA – Hidden in [some] {chim}P AND A{nother}
23 Great movement of the sea (5)
SWELL – Two meanings
24 Bill, popular singer (7)
INVOICE – IN (popular), VOICE (singer)
Down
1 End of film remade as great for great celebrity (8)
MEGASTAR – {fil}M [end], anagram [remade] of AS GREAT
2 Deport degenerates daily (6)
REDTOP – Anagram [degenerates] of DEPORT. I haven’t managed to find this as a 6-letter word in any of the usual sources but Collins has it hyphenated and the ODO lists it as two words. It refers to tabloid newspapers (hence ‘daily’) that are characterised by sensationalism.
3 Mix in ingredients, tirelessly (4)
STIR – Hidden [in] {ingredient}S TIR{elessly}
4 Mystery when head of gold found in a hole pulled up (6)
ENIGMA – G{old} [head] contained by [found in] A+ MINE (hole) reversed [pulled up]
5 Mix in a dream sauce (8)
MARINADE – Anagram [mix] of IN A DREAM
6 Empty vessel another one’s filled? (6)
VACANT – VAT (vessel) containing [‘s filled (by)] CAN (another one – vessel)
7 I had lake drained: it’s not working (4)
IDLE – I’D (I had), L{ak}E  [drained]
13 Friendly taxi taking a long way round? (8)
AMICABLE –  A+MILE (long way) contains [round] CAB (taxi)
15 Dressed, pop group past it? (8)
BANDAGED – BAND (pop group), AGED (past it?)
17 Person stealing a pound (6)
NICKER – Two meanings
19 Unproved statement in article, relative (6)
THESIS – THE (article), SIS (relative)
20 A free family member (6)
AUNTIE – A, UNTIE (free)
21 Crowd shot all over the place (4)
HOST – Anagram [all over the place] of SHOT
22 Father, very exhausted initially, put down stones (4)
PAVE – PA (father), V{ery} E{xhausted} [initially]

21 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1330 by Mara”

  1. Straightforward, although in retrospect I don’t remember where ton=a hundred; it just came to me, and EVER followed. Fortunately the ‘pound’ meaning of NICKER came up fairly recently; it was new to me then. 5:03.
      1. Colins has: a score or achievement of a hundred, esp a hundred miles per hour, as on a motorcycle.

        You may have heard of ‘ton-up boys’ which Collins defines as:
        British old-fashioned, informal
        youths who habitually ride or drive a vehicle at speeds of a hundred miles per hour or more.

  2. Continuing trend of slow starts to the week with 18.38 and back to SCC. MEGASTAR, VACANT, TAB, THESIS (not THEORY), REDTOP, EVERTON and BANDAGED all caused some form of difficulty for my brain this morning. LOI VACANT and TAB the latter needing an alphabet trawl to trigger the former.
  3. I was very slow to get started today but found the bottom slipped in much easier than the top. Once I got going the grid filled in quite quickly and 17:26 is quicker than target for me but I doubt if I had more than three answers in during the first five minutes.
  4. HECTARE was definitely the TOP BANANA of the clues today. As for eleven players on the football pitch – yes, as long as one or more haven’t been sent off or left the field injured and not been substituted. 3:44. By the way, the 15×15 is very straightforward today, so some QCers might enjoy giving it a go.
    1. Seconded, certainly worth a go, though I, for one, wouldn’t say it was very straightforward, finishing in a SCC equivalent of 48.47.
      1. Ditto – some fun surfaces and enough challenges to make it interesting, but not too hard. Watch out, though, for one stinker that had many on the 15×15 blog going! Have fun 😊
  5. Most of this went in without any problems but was held up at the end by BANDAGED, TAB and (inexplicably) VACANT as my LOI. CoD to HECTARE. Completed in 9.56.
    Thanks for the blog
  6. A good way to start the week. 8.33 for this Mara QC. FOI AWARD, biffed VACANT and parsed after solving, guessed REDTOP (thought it was something to do with the milk bottles we used to have delivered daily) and LOI SWELL. Thanks Jack for the blog.
  7. Redtop might refer to a daily pint of milk, with the colour of the top indicating type of milk?
    1. I’m sure that the reference to newspapers is the one intended by the setter but you are quite right in your memories of red top (as opposed to gold top and silver top ) milk, and also the ‘daily pinta’ promotion of milk, back in the 50s and early 60s. Sometimes there’s only one way of interpreting wordplay but in this case you have found another that’s valid, and as long as it got you to the correct answer that’s all that matters.
  8. ….placed strategically behind them, just a second banana” (from the 2007 eponymous solo album by former John Mayall axeman Buddy Whittington).

    I might have broken the three minute barrier here, but was unable to nail EVERTON immediately (Fulham didn’t seem to find it too onerous a task on Saturday), and I wasted a few seconds trying to do something with “madeira(n)” at 5D.

    RED-TOP (note the hyphen) appears under “red” in Chambers, and defines it as a newspaper with a red banner (Sun, Star, Mirror) in a rather derogatory fashion.

    Nice offering from Mara, with some enjoyable surfaces.

    FOI AWARD
    LOI STIR
    COD EVERTON
    TIME 3:09

    Edited at 2019-04-15 10:41 am (UTC)

  9. Good puzzle. A fair start to the week with a couple of oddities to think about. 14.53 for me. LOI AMICABLE. I liked HECTARE and VACANT. Thanks both. John M.

    Edited at 2019-04-15 10:32 am (UTC)

  10. I’m not sure whether I was distracted by the family goings on and an interruption for bacon rolls etc, but this one took me over my target 10 minutes to 11:32. Looking back there was nothing too abstruse. Thanks setter and Jack.
  11. Nearly a ‘another’ sub-20, but loi Thesis pushed me over by a couple of minutes. I thought this was a little more straightforward than usual for Mara, but still tricky in places. I had 6d, Vacant, as my CoD for a long time, but the nice surface of 21ac, Hectare, is too good to ignore. Invariant
  12. Thought I had finished in 15 minutes, which is good for me, only to come here and realise that I hadn’t gone back to put THEORY right. I knew it was wrong because of INVOICE but I was completing on the paper (which I much prefer) and of course the grid looked complete. AAARGGHH!! So annoying because I am sure I would have got there in the end. So a rare DNF for me. This was pretty straightforward with no unusual words that had to be pieced together from wordplay so thanks, Mara, for a gentle start to the week and to Jackkt for explaining everything – I couldn’t work out the parsing of VACANT although I knew it was correct. MM
    FOI AWARD
    LOI REDTOP…. except, as I said, I missed THESIS altogether!!
    COD HECTARE
  13. 19 mins

    Hardest for me were actor, redtop, and vacant.

    Liked top banana, stir, invoice and bandaged.
    Thanks jackt and mara.

    15×15 is great today as mentioned, except for 1 sneaky clue.

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