Times Quick Cryptic No 1338 by Mara

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this on the trickier side of things, being pushed over the 15 minute mark thanks to some faffing about in the NE. I mis-parsed 7d, and spent some time trying to square the answer with only half the definition. I also came a cropper at 9ac having entered a plausible enough alternative answer (well, plausible except for that pesky little detail about it having to intersect with other clues). Further time was spent at 10ac trying to remember that word for “delicate” that was on the tip of my tongue (“diaphanous” – right length, as it happens). I don’t think I was particularly quick round the rest of it either , but there were some nice clues – I remember particularly liking 4ac,16d and the two double definitions at 8ac and 24ac. Very good puzzle – many thanks to Mara!

Across
1 Some discontent on gallant island nation (5)
TONGA – Hidden in “some” of the letters of discontenT ON GAllant
4 Surrender vilified after retreat (7)
DELIVER –  REVILED = vilified, reversed = after retreat. Surrender/deliver/hand over/etc.
8 Heavy trampolinist? (7)
BOUNCER – double definition, a heavy = a guard, etc. Nice!
9 Average is capital! (5)
PARIS – PAR (average) IS. I had MEANS (mean’s = average’s) entered, and forgot on returning to the NE that I wasn’t quite 100% happy with it.
10 Expensive clasps are, almost entirely, delicate (10)
PRECARIOUS – PRECIOUS (expensive) clasps/holds AR (“ARe” almost entirely)
14 An American girl far from home? (6)
ABROAD – A broad = an American girl
15 Nebuchadnezzar, for example, daring (6)
BOTTLE – double definition. I thought a Nebuchadnezzar was the largest bottle size, coming in at 20 normal bottles of champagne/claret, but I see the largest is 40 bottles and called either Melchizedek or Midas. Good luck giving that thing a shake. Normally a stupid custom, but I’d have it as the opening round of a decadent strong man competition: a minute to shake it, points for highest fountain, and whatever’s left in the bottle must be consumed before continuing.
17 US president plying heroes with wine (10)
EISENHOWER – anagram (plying) of HEROES with WINE
20 Artist mid-morning, maybe, returning (5)
MANET – TEN AM is plausibly mid-morning, reverse/return
22 Hearing of our nation, this English composer (7)
BRITTEN – is heard the same as BRITAIN (our nation)
23 Give account of art near complex (7)
NARRATE – anagram (complex) of ART NEAR
24 Arctic fleet (5)
NIPPY – double definition. Fleet/quick/nippy. In my book, the lovely surface more than makes up for any temperature differential there might be between “arctic” and “nippy”.
Down
1 Instrument neighbour put up (4)
TUBA – to ABUT = to neighbour, put up/reversed
2 Absence of American intelligence (4)
NOUS – NO (absence of) US (American)
3 Discover fluff in car seat (9)
ASCERTAIN – anagram (fluff) of IN CAR SEAT
4 Frank having credit renewed (6)
DIRECT – anagram (renewed) of CREDIT
5 Drink: a complete round (3)
LAP – double definition
6 So bottomless, opening for drink (8)
VERMOUTH – VERY = So, bottomless = remove the bottom letter ; MOUTH (opening)
7 Incredible dessert I held back (8)
RESISTED – anagram (incredible) of DESSERT I. I was just blindly convinced that the parsing was an anagram of “dessert” within which the “I” was held, giving “back” for “resisted”. I know, doesn’t make any sense.
11 Old African horse and I, struggling (9)
RHODESIAN – anagram (struggling) of HORSE AND I
12 Out of order, nameless traders (8)
SALESMEN – anagram (out of order) of NAMELESS
13 Voting system about right, is one captive? (8)
PRISONER – PR (Proportional Representation = voting system) going about/around R(ight) IS ONE.
16 Fix strange blue drink (6)
DOUBLE – DO (fix) ; anagram (strange) of BLUE. Do = fix as in “the person came to do the boiler. Also works as a noun: in a do / a fix / a tight spot.
18 Cease work below street (4)
STOP – OP (work) below ST(reet)
19 Sole aplenty, reel in two, all tails up (4)
ONLY –  all tails up = all last letters, reversed of aplentY, reeL iN twO
21 Food and drink (3)
TEA – double definition.

33 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1338 by Mara”

  2. I really must get more cultured. A huge and not entirely enjoyable struggle to finish in 21m for the second day in a row – only I had BRITTON not BRITTAN. NE was tough. Didn’t know Nebuchadnezzer was a bottle. Could have done with rather fewer anagrams but appreciated the more cryptic than usual definitions.
  3. Mara often sets tricky puzzles and this was par for his course. I started quickly with 1a but then had a few hold ups. I thought VERMOUTH was the hardest clue but agree the Bottle might cause a few problems.
    MY LOI was ABROAD where I was convinced GAL was in there somehow. 16:02 in the end.
    Congratulations to Mara for giving us all a good test. David
  4. 21.07 for me, also finding some clues tricky but fun. Unaccountably messed up BRITTEN, thinking it was a mix of BR and NATION for an unheard of composer, notwithstanding that I used to work with Benjamin’s nephew’s wife. Thought MANET was particularly clever.
  5. The hardest for some while, I felt, with a lot of devices which were quite tricky for a QC. I finished eventually in 31mins but would have been quicker if I had picked up sooner on some of the anagrams. I’d spotted quite a few early on so was not on the lookout for them later on. I thought ‘fluff’ as an anagram indicator was clever and very much enjoyed MANET.
  6. I gave up after 30 minutes with a blank NE corner and no idea about any of the clues. Reading the blog (thank you rolytoly) I can see I was just not on the setter’s wavelength and I would never have made any sense of the clues, however long I spent on them.
    Friday tomorrow, and probably an Izetti . . . .
    Brian

    Edited at 2019-04-25 08:23 am (UTC)

  7. I made heavy weather of this with the NE proving stubborn but I also struggled to spot a number of the anagrams along the way, particularly 7d, 12d and 17a.
    An enjoyable challenge completed in 20.27 with LOI PRECARIOUS.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. 16 mins today, held up by PARIS (I too had MEANS for a while). Also bunged in MONET not MANET without reading the full clue. So really a DNF. Oh well

    NeilC

  9. My experience was very similar to Roly’s with similar stumbling blocks (apart from PARIS, a quickie for me). A tough test, I thought, and I was relieved to find others over 20mins. I took 21.58 in the end with the NE being the last to fall. I liked BOTTLE and PRECARIOUS but my COD was DELIVER – deceptive. I only got it after biffing Vermouth and I groaned when it clicked. Thanks to Mara and Roly. John M.

    Edited at 2019-04-25 08:45 am (UTC)

  10. I’m another one who needed 20 mins to solve. I biffed so many I lost count. Biffs include PRECARIOUS, ASCERTAIN, PRISONER and LOI after a lot of staring at the grid 6d VERMOUTH. Not my finest at 20:10. Thanks for the blog Roly.
  11. What a challenging start to the day! It wasn’t until I got to 18 down that I managed to write anything in at all. I was ready to give up after 10 minutes of staring at an almost empty grid but stuck at it and finished it but only after a further half an hour. The south and north west corners weren’t too bad but the eastern half was, for me at least, a proper mental workout! My LOI was 19 down which I put in as a synonym for “sole” but, frankly, I couldn’t even begin to understand what the clue was about until I read the blog. I liked 4, 8 and 24 across particularly today but can’t pick a single COD – too many contenders! Thanks so much, setter and blogger
  12. Some tenuous stuff here – do for fix – and double itself. I saw that justification for ‘do’ a few weeks ago in another crossword and it didn’t do it for me 🙂 Also very tricky elsewhere eg clasps are almost. Incidentally I once made a joke about the Norfolk Broads to an American woman and she told me that the term ‘broad’ is grossly offensive these days. Much to enjoy but I think this crossed the line for a quickie.
  13. Add me to the 20 minute club today; that was stiff! NE corner held me up too, with long struggles over most of them. Thank goodness for the relatively high number of anagrams (7 full and one partial) to make life easier. As QCs go that was definitely a black run. Thanks Mara and Roly.

    Templar

  14. Being of a contrary nature, I was fine with the NE but struggled with the SW. The cross of salesmen and abroad causing some but not too many problems. Came home in 12 minutes in the end which seems decent based on other comments. Monet wanted to go in but Manet ousted him just in time. Do we have a Nina at 3dn (a certainty) and 5dn (labradorian/labrodesian?).
    1. Yes interesting, there are a few of the downs which look a bit nina-esque now you mention it: we also have directable (direct double at 4d,16d), and then we have the squalid Vermouth Stop (6d,18d), that with a certainty could be resisted only (7d,19d) by Tuba salesmen (1d, 12d).

      Edited at 2019-04-26 12:56 am (UTC)

      1. Taken a while to get the squalid one – found the urbandictionary.com ‘enlightening’.
  15. I got to 8 minutes with 7 entries in the grid and ground to a halt. The NE proved intractable right up to the end, which was a dispiriting 23:26! BRITTEN and EISENHOWER eventually
    opened up the lower half for me, but the NE really had me struggling. Some tough stuff here. Thanks Mara and Roly.
  16. Lots to chew on this morning. I particularly liked DELIVER, MANET and PRECARIOUS (LOI).

    My thanks to setter and blogger.
    6’00”

  17. ….BOUNCER here, and I recorded my slowest finish in quite some time. I’ve actually had a quicker 15×15 recently ! All perfectly fair and enjoyable though – most of my problems were in the NE corner.

    FOI TONGA
    LOI RESISTED
    COD VERMOUTH
    TIME 7:54

  18. I struggled today! The NW and SE dropped in quickly and then …. oh dear! Like others, I thought the NE corner was the trickiest but I got there in the end, after a few stops and starts. Not sure of a time but definitely SCC today – maybe 25 minutes over a 45 minute stretch!

    FOI – Tonga
    LOI – Precarious
    COD – Manet

    I got on with the big one quite a bit better, only to fall at the very last hurdle (two letters just would not fall into place) so maybe others might like it too. Give it a whirl, anyway – it’s (nearly) always fun even if you don’t finish 🙂

  19. A DNF for me because of that pesky NE corner. To have to change ‘vilified’ to ‘reviled’ before reversing it was a step too far. Similarly to change ‘so’ to ‘very’ before removing the last letter. I completely forgot about champagne bottles and was struggling with Babylonians, kings and Matrix before giving up. This was the most difficult Quickie for a while.
  21. All we can do is to echo many of the comments above. Fell into the Manet trap and could not remember the bottle. Clever usage of words eg. Clasp in10a, a real workout!
  22. Finished over a large number of Leffe, but prob close to 45 mins, about the same as the 15×15, i just wasnt on the wavelength.

    Cod double.

    Edited at 2019-04-25 04:56 pm (UTC)

  23. Tough today. NE being the real problem. No problem with 15a or 17a -These went straight in. Took ages to see how 9a worked and that allowed 6d and the corner fell. Took me 65 minutes with a break to move Costa to Costa! FOI 1a LOI 4a. COD 20a really clever I thought. Very helpful blog and a good work out from Mara.
  24. Apart from being highly offensive as previously mentioned, “broad” has always been a slang term for a woman, not a girl.
  25. What a difference a day makes! 12 minutes yesterday and 35 minutes in three sittings today! I got there in the end with everything parsed though and seeing that others struggled I feel much better. I messed myself up for ages in the NE because I had stupidly put POP in 5d. This made 4a impossible of course. Eventually saw what was going on with 4a so my last one in was LAP. How daft is that?
    Thanks to Mara for a good challenge and to Rolytoly for the blog. MM
    FOI TONGA
    LOI LAP
    COD MANET
  26. Gave up on this. Having checked the answers I found I did the right thing. Very vague imprecise clues. Having finished an Izetti puzzle earlier in the week I’m not too downhearted.
  27. Just finished! (Sat eve)
    Several hours.
    Had to leave the NE corner for a few days – then managed to get VERMOUTH and the rest followed…
    Tricky but very enjoyable!
    Nick

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