Quick Cryptic no. 37 by Marty

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I think this is an excellent crossword – on the harder side of usual (25 minutes for me including the parsing). There is so much play in the word play that I’ve taken the explanations out of the clues. A lot of great clues and surfaces – 17 across and 2 down stand out for me but take your own pick.

Across
1 Abbreviation – Making shorter flight around British border – rural England originally.
Flight (AVIATION) set around the first letters of (B)ritish (b)order (r)ural (E)ngland.
8 Dirge – Lament wrong grid (editor’s first).
Wrong is the indicator of the anagram of GRID followed by the first letter of (E)ditor.
9 Mistake – Tip from forum I post in error.
The final tip of forum (M) with (I) and post is (STAKE)
10 Abstain – Sailors, a part time force, in decline.
Able bodied seaman is an AB so sailors, plural, (ABS), the Territorial army (TA) is a part time force and in (IN).
11 Skier – One going downhill fast or soaring.
Double definition – a skier goes downhill fast (if they can’t snowplough) and something soaring into the sky is a skier.
12 Howler – Blunder that gets one screaming.
Double definition – To scream is to howl so someone screaming is a howler.
14 Agents – Spies a place to go.
a (A), place to go (GENTS). Excellent clue for those who like toilet humour.
17 Dixie – Peter out going round nine or eleven Southern states.
Peter out (DIE) put around nine (IX). This is such a good clue as it looks like we have the choice of using nine IX or eleven XI which would have been fun but maybe break some rules. A little research shows that there are eleven Dixie States. .
19 Asunder – Newspaper cutting English and German articles in two?
Newspaper (SUN) cutting inside English article (A) and ‘the’ in German (DER).
21 Opiates – New poet is a source of false contentment.
New is the indicator of the anagram POET IS A.
22 Arose – Came to pass in And(es or A)lps, when returning.
The answer is in the clue but returning (backwards).
23 Slip of the pen – Hints people changed around following editor’s bungle?
Changed is the indicator of the anagram HINTS PEOPLE, the result goes around F for following. The question mark is to show that it could, be but doesn’t have to be, an editor who makes the bungle – but these setters do seem to like to include ‘editor’ whenever possible – nothing like keeping in with the boss!

Down
1 At death’s door – Knocking on a bit? More than that!
A cryptic definition – you can tell by the question mark and the exclamation mark that this isn’t a ‘normal clue’. Knocking on a bit = getting old and more than that = extremely old.
2 Burns – Goes too far when toasting poet.
A great double definition. Q – when is the toast done? A – when the smoke alarm goes off. Burns – the poet – ‘toasted’ the English language marvelously e.g. Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie.
3 Elevate – Transport around English village initially providing lift.
Transport (ELATE) around initial letters of (E)nlglish (V)illage.
4 Immune – One Parisian in mime breaking free.
Breaking indicates the anagram of MIME. One Parisian (UN) is inside.
5 Tusks – Teeth that you floss look spotless, finally.
Final letters of tha(T) yo(U) flos(S) loo(K) spotles(S).
6 Ovation – Zero tax: a tiny bit charged: applause follows.
Zero (O) tax (VAT): a tiny bit charged (ION).
7 Neurosurgeon – Theatre operator needing new common currency to press forwards.
New (N) common currency (EURO) to press (SURGE) forwards (ON).
13 Waxbill – Flier showing what Madame Tussauds must pay?
I put in Waxwing far too hastily which held me up. A waxbill is a relative of the finch family and is also a bill for wax to make waxwork figures.
15 Goulash – Morbid person we hear, remains in stew.
‘We hear’ indicates a homophone of ghoul (GOUL) and remains (ASH).
16 Massif – Weight condition’s range.
Weight (MASS) condition’s (IF) – as in Massif Central.
18 Eat up – Use Cockney’s microwave?
To heat up darn sarf is ‘eat up.
20 Droop – Penurious husband at last raised flag.
Penurous (POOR), last letter of husban(D) all raised (backwards).

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic no. 37 by Marty”

  1. 9:05, rather longer than my last few; I think I only got 2 or 3 acrosses on the first pass. ‘Theater’=operating theater (7d) shows up with some frequency in cryptics, so it’s worth keeping in mind; which I didn’t. Mass=weight? Don’t let Jimbo see this! And I can remember numerous times where my use of opiates brought me pretty damned true contentment. And I liked AGENTS; there, I said it.
  2. This felt a little more like a main cryptic on an easier day and delayed me for 19 minutes during which very few answers went in on first reading. 14 and 17 were really excellent.

    Congrats on the blog, Chris, and to the first-time setter, Marty. More like this please.

  3. Thanks, Chris, for a lovely, clear blog 🙂

    22 mins but with heaps of Z8ery. I’d not met the indicator for 5dn before i.e. taking the *last* letter of each word.

    My COD is 18dn – laarv the umour!

    I am, however, somewhat unimpressed by the rather sexist connotations of 14ac. Personally, I’d rather go in the open air than use the gents, thanks, my nostrils couldn’t cope!

  4. About 12 mins for this one and if memory serves it is the first time I’ve gone into double figures for a QC. My brain was possibly fried after the main puzzle this morning, but this was a fine puzzle nonetheless. I had the most trouble at the top where it took me a while to get ABBREVIATION, and it was only once I had it that I was able to finish off with BURNS and ABSTAIN.
  5. Echoing the comments of our esteemed blogger and others to date, thought this was an excellent offering. Some tricky stuff that was on a par with the full cryptic, but no arcane GK. (I was lucky that I had an early career as a twitcher – before I discovered other pursuits – that gave me familiarity with Waxbill).

    COD 2 dn for its wit, closely followed by 17 ac for its neat construction. LOI GOULASH – purely a personal vocabulary thing (ghoul is not a front of mind word, and tend to think of remains as ashes rather than ash – but no complaints at all).

  6. 17 minutes plus, with trouble with two of the long ones (7 and 23)’, the latter not helped by not knowing WAXBILL and trying every other WAX**** I could think of, even as more checkers were revealed. Nice puzzle and a stiff Quickie test.
  7. A bit tricky for a quick cryptic, but very enjoyable with intricate clueing similar to the full cryptic. Today’s full cryptic is very tricky, polar opposite of yesterday’s- be warned. Nice blog Chris, lot of parsing to be explained.
  8. Very tricky for a beginner like me – had been getting round about 14 or 15 right – today only 7. Thanks again for the very helpful blog.
  9. New to the crossword game and never manage to finish the quick cryptic, although now managing about 70%. Could not even start todays, and unlike other commentators, who frankly must be very experienced to do it in 20 minutes, I thought this was too hard and really off putting. I never want to see another Marty crossword again.
    1. Couldn’t agree more! As a true beginner I found this one so hard that I needed to go and quickly polish off a Super Fiendish SuDoku just in order to restore my self-esteem!

      On the first read through I only got one answer (Burns) and even after seeding the grid with 6 of the longer words from the blog I’ve still only come up with 5 more answers myself.

      Let’s not give up. One day, I’m sure we too will be able to breeze through the seemingly impenetrable clues with ease. If it weren’t for this blog I’d not even stand a chance of understanding where the answers come from!

      1. I love the attitude! As you probably know the trick is to look for the definition within the clue and not be distracted by the whole clue. The meaning of the whole clue is often referred to as a ‘surface’ which is intended to fool the solver. In the same way as ‘you can let your eye rest on the glass or through it pass’, you can see the whole clue or break it up into separate words/phrases to get at the definition (which is nearly always at the beginning or end of the clue). Then you’ve got a ‘concise’ clue (which is a lot more get-able) and the rest which is the word play. Always try to see how the word play works when you get an answer as this is the experience you need to improve your solving skills.
        Good luck!

        Edited at 2014-04-30 07:35 am (UTC)

  10. Yesterday’s puzzle was a slog for me but today I got all 4 long answers quite quickly (for me) which greatly helped with the solve. Liked 2d and 17a but the surface of 5d made it my COD. LOI IMMUNE.
  11. A struggle with what was the hardest QC yet for me. Got held up at OVATION by entering abbreviating in 1ac. Didn’t know the definitions DROOP, ASUNDER or DIRGE. Balanced by some very satisfying breakthroughs.

    Thanks for the clear blog – I suspect it will get plenty of traffic!

  12. Teaching myself to do Cryptic crosswords through the QC’s and have been making steady progress.

    Did just less than half today which is among my best, but having looked at the answers I would have had no chance of the others. This is because the answers require a stupendously good vocabulary which I do not have.

    Other QC’s, having looked at the answers, are within the realms of possibility and with practice I would get. But half these clues I’d have stood no chance with years of practice.

    Please no more Marty!

  13. Found this one to be pretty testing I spent over 3 hours before finally finishing (I made two errors which were then sorted out with the aid of the blog). I think this one has been my toughest yet. Thanks for the blogs they are so helpful
    1. Excellent effort! It was a hard one. Please see my reply to docbee6 above and hopefully your times will come down and your enjoyment go up!
  14. ffuoMu I cannot thank you enough for the blog post.Thanks Again. Fantastic.

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