Quick Cryptic 512 by Mara

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An interesting mix from Mara with a few very easy clues (such as 11a, 19a, 21a) and some which were quite tricky I thought (most notably 7d, but 1a and 8d might also present a few challenges).

Personal favourite was 8d which had wit and required a little lateral thinking. Thanks to our setter for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–)

Across
1 Work colleague initially coming into store for valve (8)
STOPCOCK – OP (work – standard abbrev. Opus) + C (Colleague initially) ‘coming into’ STOCK (store). This clue had a slightly clunky feel to me (at least relative to the elegance of the rest of the puzzle), and I suspect some might struggle with the number of moving parts that need managing – albeit the answer jumped out at me as such matters are currently front of mind due to my dodgy cistern…
5 Worm food (4)
GRUB – DD: not much to add…
9 Ludicrous panto available (2,3)
ON TAP – *(PANTO) with “ludicrous” as the anagrind
10 Bartholomew, perhaps, bitter about job (7)
APOSTLE – ALE (bitter – as in beer) goes round (about) POST (job), giving us one of the lesser known of the Gang of 12…
11 Writing implement, a pound (3)
PEN – DD – today’s “gimme”
12 South American autocrat’s first entering in confusion (9)
ARGENTINE – A (Autocrat’s first) + *(ENTERING) with “in confusion” as the anagrind
13 One in commerce delivering outburst (6)
TIRADE – I (one) ‘in’ TRADE (commerce)
15 Hurry to collect record – go! (6)
DEPART – DART (hurry) ‘collects’ EP (record)
17 Reach out during break in European capital (9)
BUCHAREST – *(REACH) – with “out” as the anagrind – ‘in’ BUST (break)
19 Manage to go fast (3)
RUN – Another straightforward DD
20 Force items up cracks (7)
IMPETUS – *(ITEMS UP) with “cracks” as the anagrind
21 One entering part of the church, innocent (5)
NAIVE – I (one) ‘entering’ NAVE (part of the church)
22 Light touch in work is splendid (4)
KISS – Hidden (indicated by ‘in’) in worK IS Splendid
23 Wine to carry in for a member of the orchestra (8)
CLARINET – CLARET (wine) ‘carries’ IN to give us the harmonious liquorice stick
Down
1 Yell, welcoming leaders in the premier Olympic event (4-3)
SHOT PUT – SHOUT (yell) including (welcoming) first letters of (leaders in) The Premier
2 Regularly decimal? (5)
OFTEN – Main definition supported by secondary (slightly cryptic) OF TEN (i.e. decimal). Those of a pedantic bent (are there any in this house? surely not…!!) might argue that some event could occur every 5,000 years making it “regular” but not “often”, but hey – this is crosswordland and life’s too short (at least as far as I am concerned)
3 Method of transferring text from different notepads, pacy (4-3-5)
COPY AND PASTE – *(NOTEPADS PACY) with “different” as the anagrind
4 Ring family before end of evening (5)
CLANG – CLAN (family) ‘before’ G (end of eveninG). The definition might seem a tad odd in the digital age, but works well enough if you transport yourself back to the clanging of bells from the church tower
6 Battered tins are for wine (7)
RETSINA – *(TINS ARE) with “battered” as the anagrind, leading us to one of those “time and place” experiences, in that this particular tipple worked wonders when consumed in a taverna on a Greek beach, but somehow lost its appeal when ordered in a Greek restaurant in London. Ah well – happy memories
7 Note always a note, when written up! (5)
BREVE – EVER (always) + B (a musical note) all reversed (written up). Quite tricky, I thought, particularly if (like me) you got the middle E early on and convinced yourself that “ere” (for always) was going to be part of the solution.
8 Singer sounding note after the bar (12)
COUNTERTENOR – TENOR (sounds like “tenner” – sounding note) ‘after’ COUNTER (bar). Very nice, and my COD
14 Terribly precise cooking instructions (7)
RECIPES – *(PRECISE) with “terribly” as the anagrind
16 Touching line by man, a shade over the top? (7)
TANGENT – GENT (man) preceded by TAN (a shade over the top)
17 Initially, bear a hazard, as lively (5)
BRISK – B (initially Bear) + RISK (hazard)
18 Stand for an artist having facility with light, primarily (5)
EASEL – EASE (facility) + L (Light primarily)
19 Rule over shower, via speech? (5)
REIGN – Homophone (indicated by “via speech”) of Rain (shower)

24 comments on “Quick Cryptic 512 by Mara”

  1. This took me 12 minutes compared to yesterday’s 6 and I don’t know whether that’s down to the relative difficulty of the puzzles or my solving skills or a mixture of both. I do know that I needed lots of checkers in place before I could come up with some of the answers and this involved much hopping around the grid and lack of flow.
  2. 59 mins for me. I had MINIM for 7d, which I thought fit rather well. Didn’t see the construction of COUNTERTENOR although I put it in early. Not sure I like ‘counter’ for ‘bar’ so not COD for me. Struggled a bit with some of the simpler ones this morning, with 15a as Last One In.
    1. I was probably assisted with counter for bar as a result of the period I recently spent in Australia, where (at least in the more traditional rural areas) a “counter lunch” in a pub is essentially a synonym for bar food, with the meal having traditionally been eaten at the bar. My guess (not substantiated by research) is that this would have been an early adoption in Oz of an English term at the time of settlement…
  3. As a newbie who has really struggled over the last few weeks with puzzles that made no sense, I thought today’s was of a reasonable difficulty. Harder than yesterday but solvable. Not that I managed to do that without some help, but I came close all but 3 clues. As usual thanks to the bloggers.
    Again would like to hear from other newbies ( those taking over 30 minutes to complete) how they found it. I was around the 70 minute mark.
    1. I’m not one of the speed merchants, I dip in and out and so it takes me a couple of hours usually. Couldn’t get 8dn as never heard of it but got all the rest.

      Robin

    2. Both of us tackle it together and it still takes lunch and usually supper as well to finish but we are getting there. I tend to get stuck with what I consider slightly inaccurate definitions. I don’t consider ‘worm’ is a ‘grub’!
  4. 7m13s for me.
    Got held up by 5a, where I was a clever fool and wrote in “DIET” as in the Diet of Worms.
  5. Well, for a change, this one flew in. A full house in 26 mins, matching my PB. At first I thought 8d would be contratenor, but corrected myself when I looked at the clue more carefully. 16d is my COD, for the quality of its surface. Invariant
    1. Yes, 16d was rather good – not least because it caused me to re-examine the true meaning of Tangent (not a word I had ever thought much about, being of a non-mathematical bent)
  6. A DNF today. I got stuck in the SE corner after 45 minutes – a real comedown after a record 20 minutes yesterday. I think I was just being thick today, I should have got ‘depart’ and ‘run’ and I inexplicably missed the homophone in 19D. Having said that, I got the ‘difficult’ ones straight away.
    I really appreciate the new print option even if the font size is minute!
    Brian
    1. Brian

      I agree the font size is a problem. After putting up with it for a couple of days I’m now copying the new print view (using Snipping Tool), pasting it to Word, dragging the corner to enlarge it and printing it from there.

  7. In that (s)he always has lots of “gimme” clues, which leave you puzzling over the remainder which *should* be easy with all the checkers, but which take an age to go in…only to have the penny drop only after much head scratching.

    That’s what I reckon, anyway.

  8. No time today, as broken by meetings. Held up by putting Meal in for 5a, an error reveal by the fact I can’t name any wines beginning with E! I would agree with the characterisation of some very easy, some taxing, but as is typical, I found different ones hard to our blogger.
  9. Easiest of the week for me. Not sure that says anything except that different minds work in different ways.
    Totally agree with the blogger’s pedantry. Often is most certainly not the same as regularly. In fact it is not even being pedantic, it is just plain wrong.
    Playuppompey
      1. Nah, I disagree on this point.

        “I regularly go to the football” implies that you often go to a game – not that you have a set pattern of attendance…??

  10. Just a quick comment to encourage other newbies. I’ve been doing the QC regularly for about a year now and thanks to our wonderful bloggers and by now a reasonable amount of experience generally complete the puzzle in about 20-25 minutes. Today was 28 but yesterday gave me a real boost as just under 10 for the first time.
    Thanks again bloggers and of course setters and keep up the good work!
  11. 30 mins here, so a bit harder than yesterday.

    I carelessly bunged in “argentina” which held BREVE up a bit. SE corner was last in. I didn’t really parse STOPCOCK, but I was trying to beat yesterday’s time and it was fairly clearly correct, so…

  12. I had no idea what the reference to Bartholomew was -the only I could think of was Bart Simpson. I did think of ale but apostle never came to mind. Go the tenor bit but hadn’t come across a counter one.
  13. I struggled to get started today, perhaps because I came at this after a day on the golf course. My mind was elsewhere maybe.
    Looking for a clue to start with I thought of Argentinian for 12a but had to reject it as it did not fit. And I did not initially parse Pen at 11a so rejected that too!
    Once I got my thinking cap on I ploughed through it until I was left with 8d which I thought might be the name of a singer. In the end all done in under an hour approx.
    No particular standouts but a grown-up challenge I thought. David
  14. This was a struggle today, probably a wavelength thing as they all eventually went in correctly parsed. The NE corner proved to be particularly taxing with LOI 7d and I needed all the checkers for 8d. At a rough guess this probably took me about an hour over 3 sittings.
  15. As anticipated yesterday, this proved tricky for me. 45 minutes yielded half a dozen, including one while waiting in the queue at the fish & chip shop, and then a couple of hours break to get restated with a new head on. This got me going on some clues that then seemed more obvious, and eventually got it done but not without some help on e.g. 15a depart 8d countertenor. Surprisingly, others sailed in e.g. 17a bucharest 12a argentine and 1a stopcock. How that happens I really don’t know – the brain’s synapses clicking over? I guess this took me a couple of hours in all. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! Thx bloggers.

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