QC 1705 by Mara

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A very enjoyable puzzle for the start to the week. Fairly straightforward as is the Monday tradition but once again I did enjoy quite a few of the clues even though they didn’t hold out for very long. 10A, 19A, 12D and 18D I particularly liked with COD probably going to 19A. It was mostly an anagram so the basic device was easy, but it charmed me with the unruffled calm of its surface. Many thanks to Mara for a dose of elegant simplicity.

People have commented in the past that I don’t mention my times and I have explained that I usually have difficulty in reading the clues properly so don’t see my times as necessarily representative. Other people as well as me have commented on the rn/m similarity which can certainly cause me problems, but today I had a different misreading error which held me up. I think I would normally regard 15A as a simple write-in but today it took me about a minute as I was reading ‘flight’ for ‘fight’ and was convinced it had something to do with ‘ALOFT’. So that was my LOI and I think my FOI was 5A.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Vault, source of water (6)
SPRING – double definition.
5 Piece of Hollywood, epic theatrical show (6)
DEPICT – hidden word: ‘piece of’ HollywooD EPIC Theatrical.
8 Modern gallery shrouded in gentle compassion (5,2,3,3)
STATE OF THE ART – TATE (gallery) ‘shrouded in’ SOFT HEART (gentle compassion).
9 Map pinpointing Libya and Nigeria, primarily (4)
PLAN – Pinpointing Libya And Nigeria ‘primarily’.
10 Shortened spanner held in hand, removing odd parts (8)
ABRIDGED – BRIDGE (spanner cryptically, i.e. something that spans) ‘held in’ AD (hAnD with the odd letters removed).
11 A trail way up mountain (6)
ASCENT – A + SCENT (trail).
13 Figure important, though not the first (6)
EIGHTY – wEIGHTY (important) without the first letter.
15 Loss of power, shortage in fight (8)
BLACKOUT – LACK (shortage) in BOUT (fight).
17 Lob some balls, so thrown back (4)
TOSS – reversed hidden word: ‘some’ ballS SO Thrown ‘back’.
19 Recent draw surprisingly inspiring pro footballer (6,7)
CENTRE FORWARD – anagram (‘surprisingly’) of RECENT DRAW ‘inspiring’ FOR (pro).
21 Highlight small curl of hair (6)
STRESS – S (small) + TRESS (curl of hair).
22 Hard, but having a go (6)
TRYING – double definition (first as in ‘these are trying (hard) times’).
Down
2 Plate smashed, bit of a bloomer (5)
PETAL – straight anagram (‘smashed’) of PLATE (with a cryptic definition).
3 Strong set with nine changes (7)
INTENSE – straight anagram (‘changes’) of SET + NINE.
4 Not entirely splendid, slimy stuff (3)
GOO – GOOd (splendid ‘not entirely’).
5 Cleaner put off, man! (9)
DETERGENT – DETER (put off) + GENT (man).
6 Petition putting pressure on chief (5)
PLEAD – P (pressure) ‘on’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) LEAD (chief).
7 Present flow of electricity (7)
CURRENT – double definition.
10 Woman writing a novel thus, Rose (9)
AUTHORESS – A + anagram (‘novel’) of THUS ROSE.
12 Most important way to welcome foreigner (7)
SALIENT – ST (street, way) ‘welcoming’ ALIEN (foreigner).
14 Go on holiday? You must be joking! (3,4)
GET AWAY – double definition.
16 Lovely thing diminished, that is (5)
CUTIE – CUT (diminished) + IE (id est, that is)
18 Father has name for seductress (5)
SIREN – SIRE (father) + N (name).
20 Unfashionable openers in our university team (3)
OUT – ‘openers’ in Our University Team.

40 comments on “QC 1705 by Mara”

  1. Nothing problematic, aside from AUTHORESS, a word we can do without. I’ll echo Jack’s suggestion as to the main puzzle; indeed, I complained on that blog that there were a number of clues that belonged here. 6:31.
      1. Authoress may be in the dictionary but it is desperately old-fashioned, that’s the point. No female writers call themselves an authoress today!
        1. Dear countryperson1: can words be proscribed? I think not.

          No one! What about Authoress Redd?

          Shakespeare, Swift, Chaucer, Beaumont, The King James’ Bible are sooo dreadfully old fashioned – so let’s reconsider them why don’t we?

          Prithee – the Dictionary Police are moving into Crosswordland. Heaven forefend!

  2. A very pleasant puzzle at the easier end of the spectrum that took me 6 minutes which is about as fast as I ever get and helped a little by spotting the answer at 1ac before the hard copy was out of the printer.

    Those aspiring to graduate to the main puzzle should have a go at today’s.

    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I did it in less time than usual (around 45-50 mins) but found quite a few chewy clues. I needed the occasional aid to confirm an answer that I had entered but was slightly unsure about. They were all correct as it turned out.
  3. I thought I might be making a rare trip under ten minutes this morning when I glimpsed the clock in the sevens with only three to go but ended up a little over. The SW was my problem, especially the crossing ASCENT and SALIENT for some reason having previously been held up by BLACKOUT where I had the BOUT bit straightaway but found LACK hard to come by. Biffed ABRIDGED, so thanks to Don for pointing out what has going on with ‘spanner’. Quite a lot of GOO lately. I’m going to print the 15×15 to tackle at elevenses (and probably afternoon tea too) – thanks for the tip offs.

    EDIT: miles off the pace in the 15 x 15. It’s going to be a while before I can make the jump from Telegraph to Times for my second puzzle if that was an easy one!

    Edited at 2020-09-21 12:28 pm (UTC)

  4. I’m doing well in stopping the clock on dates I actually know, last week I had 18:15, this one 15:58.

    LOI, SALIENT cost me a couple of minutes as I had it as a Superlative S-A-L-EST, with the ST welcoming a five letter word for foreigner, had me looking for a Demonym such as Swede, Turk, Balt etc. After an alphabet trawl I had to backtrack.

    8A was written in, but needed blog to parse. I think I’d not be alone in that today. And ‘Spanner’ (10A) for bridge is a chestnut, along with ‘bloomer’ (2D) for flower of course.

    I was careful to avoid the trap of ‘tepal’ for 2d, which is a word I only know from the QC, which is (apparently), and unfairly, another part of a flower, (there’s a ‘sepal’ as well)

    I think Authoress, along wit Poetess and Sculptress is a word that gives people pause these days. I should imagine the good people at Virago would get the vapours if one referred to their writers this way.

    COD DETERGENT, nice surface, elegant clue

  5. Another good time by my standards at 8:33 – not wanting to tempt fate but it’s possible I’ve actually improved over time. Anyway, some good clues here, I enjoyed SIREN because of the slightly outdated use of ‘sire’ here. Given the comments about the main cryptic above, I might give it a try (if I get the time)
  6. Whizzed through this one in 5:30 with SPRING FOI and TRYING bringing up the rear. Liked ABRIDGED and BLACKOUT. Thanks Mara and Don.
  7. I took this steadily and, like Don, enjoyed the ‘elegant simplicity’ of Mara’s offering finishing, all parsed, in just over 9 mins (under 1.5K which is a very good start to the week for me). Some lovely clues such as SALIENT. My COD STATE OF THE ART lifted mine. Many thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-09-21 02:11 pm (UTC)

  8. When I saw Mara’s name at the top of the puzzle I thought it was going to be a bit of a battle, but he was in a generous mood today. I was only held up at the end by LOI AUTHORESS where I assumed it was going to be a random name and took too long to see that it was an anagram. Lots to enjoy but my favourites were ABRIDGED and SIREN. Finished in 7.53.
    Thanks to astartedon
  9. Fairly straightforward today with the first four going in with not too much effort (is FONI a thing? First One Not In? If so, mine was 10a). There was then a bit of a gap before I got TOSS and the final two of the acrosses, but the downs were mostly kind and with the help of checkers the missing words presented themselves. LOI was 13a at 18:02. It doesn’t often happen that I get a date that’s actually in the past, but unfortunately I couldn’t think of anything that happened then. When I resorted to Wikipedia I saw why as Wiki couldn’t think of much either. Marie Tussaud first exhibited her waxworks in London and the first of the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone were brought here too. Oh, well, I’ll just have to keep getting sub-20s and hope to land on something more significant. COD to 10a, WOD to SALIENT. Thanks as usual.
    1. 1802 was the year of the Treaty of Amiens, a peace treaty between the UK and France. Wildly celebrated at the time as a return to near normailty, it proved only a temporary respite, as hostilities resumed just 14 months later. Shades alas of our current battles against the virus, also entering a second wave.

      The War against France went on for nearly a dozen years after the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens – let us all hope the resumed War against Covid is much shorter!

      Cedric

  11. Monday’s child is full of grace (actually, wasn’t that Tuesday in the rhyme? Oh well.). An easy amble, until I got hung up in the SW, not seeing BLACKOUT immediately and then getting fixated on 12dn ending …IEST. I liked “spanner” for “bridge”, no doubt a chestnut but new to me.

    FOI SPRING, LOI SALIENT, COD STATE OF THE ART (lovely nod to the Tate Modern, very neat), time 1.4K for a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks Mara and Don.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-09-21 09:41 am (UTC)

    2. Hi Templar

      In fact it is not quite a nod to the Tate Modern, but only to the Tate, as ‘modern’ is the definition…

      Don

      1. Hi Don

        Can’t agree with you there I’m afraid. Obviously “modern” is the definition, and “gallery” is indicating “tate”, but I think the setter was cleverly working in “modern gallery” as a nod (no more) to the existence of the Tate Modern. The indirect nature of the suggestion gave the clue an extra layer, and to my mind that was entirely intentional.

        Templar

        Edited at 2020-09-21 03:03 pm (UTC)

  12. Seemed easy today. And I managed not to make many typing errors, so I finished in a pleasing 4:49. The only one to hold me, briefly, up was CENTRE FORWARD as I tried to remember positions in a football team!

    FOI : PETAL
    LOI : CENTRE FORWARD
    COD : SIREN

    H

  13. An enjoyable start to the week with a number of answers that could have been my COD – all completed in 21 mins.

    Major hold ups were with the long clues across, particularly 8ac “State of the Art” and 19ac “Centre Forward” which I was convinced for a while had something to do with a lottery.

    FOI – 1ac “Spring
    LOI – 8ac “State of the Art”
    COD – 5dn “Detergent” – first chuckle of the day

    Thanks as usual.

  14. Guessed Authoress finally, once I got Abridged. Struggled with Salient though I think we had it recently. Admit I looked up Eighty..
    State of the art went in straightaway but could not parse.
    Liked Detergent!

    I did enjoy myself. Many thanks.

  15. As others have pointed out, a fairly gentle start to the week, and at 18mins a comfortable sub-20. Started with 2d/1ac and thereafter it was a steady top down solve. My only real hold-up was self inflicted: For some strange reason I convinced myself that 15ac would be Brownout, and it was only when I couldn’t see what the (unsurprisingly) unknown Rown had to do with shortage that Lack came to my rescue. Invariant
  17. ….but doesn’t detract from Mara’s excellent clueing.

    FOI SPRING
    LOI TRYING
    COD BLACKOUT
    TIME 3:09

  18. Back in the middle ground, coming in just under my par of 12 minutes. I definitely get on better with Mara these days (that’s tempting fate – watch me crash and burn next time one of his puzzles appears!) and this was no exception. A nice, steady solve with just the same few in the SW corner slowing me down a bit – BLACKOUT, SALIENT and CUTIE. Ticks went to SPRING and TOSS.

    FOI Plan
    LOI Cutie
    COD Salient
    Time 11:31 (I put the timer on today, instead of keeping an eye on the clock – somehow that makes me feel much more pressured)

    Thanks Mara and Don

    Re the biggie: compared to other commenters here, I didn’t find it that easy, although there were a couple of answers that I put in before I’d finished reading the clue. But definitely worth a go 😀

  19. Lovely puzzle with some great clues, particularly STATE OF THE ART, DETERGENT and SIREN.
    Thanks to Don for parsing ABRIDGED as I hadn’t thought of the spanner connection – clever!
    COD goes to GET AWAY for being so topical in view of the current travel restrictions.
    Thanks to Mara for enabling me to finish within target at just over 14 minutes.
  20. What a lovely puzzle – it was a pleasure to solve it (took us 11 minutes). Thanks Mara.

    FOI: spring
    LOI: ascent
    COD: detergent (😄)

    Thanks to Astartedon for the blog.

  21. … and several very elegant clues. All done in a most enjoyable 9 minutes, which just shows one can be both stylish and accessible.

    My only slight query is on 19A. I didn’t read this at first as having “for” (indicated by pro) included in the anagram, as I thought clues in the QC had to contain the actual letters in the anagrist somewhere, not a cryptic reference to them. But the answer could not be anything else.

    Many thanks to Don for the blog
    Cedric

    1. That would certainly be the case if the letters in ‘for’ had been shuffled, but ‘for’ appears intact in Forward, so it’s allowed.
      1. Ah. Thanks for explaining. In that case I presume “inspiring” is an indicator meaning “including”. Inspiring as in breathing in, inhaling? One to add to the List!

        Cedric

  22. No problems today apart from carelessness and mistypes. The main problem was putting BLOWOUT at 15a. Not enough letters! – but somehow I added an extra T. This made CUTIE my LOI after correcting things.
    A very nice puzzle which I should not have rushed. Got home in 10:57 in the end. David
  23. 12 mins for a meaty QC which I much preferred to the 15×15.

    FOI 1ac SPRING

    LOI & COD 19ac CENTRE FORWARD – Nat Lofthouse The Lion of Vienna

    WOD 12dn SALIENT

  24. Pleasant 15m for us, slight delay sorting out 19a, otherwise no problems. Just about as quick as we ever get.

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