Quick Cryptic 1024 by Mara

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Sorry this is a bit late. I overslept, Friday being the new Saturday in this house. 8 minutes for me this morning. This is a good demonstration of the wonderful and infinite world of anagrinds, i.e. words indicating the presence of an anagram. As you see they can be convoluted, gathered, poor, sliding, strange, desperate, fancy or complicated. And when you think you’ve seen them all, they will come up with a new one.

Across
1 Note down the highest score ever? (6)
RECORD – double definition
4 A peak volume (6)
AMOUNT – A + MOUNT
8 Credit quote convoluted: it involves going through hoops (7)
CROQUET – CR (CREDIT) + anagram (‘convoluted’) of QUOTE
10 Figure seen on middle of sofa regularly (5)
OFTEN – middle of ‘sofa’ is OF, figure is TEN.Thrown by the word ‘regularly’ which normally commands us to go looking at alternate letters
11 A couple of kings happy to retire for real (5)
PUKKA – A + KK + UP all backwards
12 Dog lead (7)
POINTER – double definition
13 Vegetable gold, black and green, I gathered (9)
AUBERGINE – AU is gold B is black, the rest is an anagram (‘gathered’) of GREEN I
17 Poor Jack is in depressed condition (7)
LOCKJAW – anagram (‘poor’) of JACK, inside LOW (depressed)
19 Risk sliding around close to crevasse, for one going down mountain (5)
SKIER – Anagram (‘sliding’) of RISK, around E (close to, i.e. end of, ‘crevasse’)
20 Square, primarily, in proper solid shape (5)
PRISM – S (first letter of ‘square’) inside PRIM.
21 Report result of tight vote? (7)
RECOUNT – double definition
22 Unlikely flier, one strange bird! (6)
PIGEON – PIG (unlikely to fly) + Anagram (‘strange’) of ONE
23 Evaluate female equine? (6)
ASSESS – Female ass. I guess we put this as a cryptic definition

Down
1 Intervening in desperate scrap, judge finally sums up (6)
RECAPS – anagram (‘desperate’) of SCRAP with E (judge finally) ‘intervening’
2 Grandfather maybe witnessing activity of bored employee? (5-8)
CLOCK-WATCHING – GRANDFATHER is a type of clock + WATCHING
3 Regret overheard gibe, and waffle (7)
RHUBARB – LOI for me. RHU- sounds like RUE (‘overheard’), BARB is jibe
5 I wander uphill to see native New Zealander (5)
MAORI – I ROAM backwards (‘uphill’ for a down clue)
6 Latest out, umpteenth I fancy (2-2-3-6)
UP-TO-THE-MINUTE – anagram (‘fancy’) of OUT UMTEENTH I
7 Holding tureen is complicated (6)
TENURE – anagram (‘complicated’) of TUREEN
9 Outstanding spinner has trophy, perhaps, to lift (3-6)
TOP-DRAWER – spinner is TOP, trophy is REWARD, lifted (backwards)
14 Small animals in nonconformist groups (7)
INSECTS – IN + SECTS
15 Mistake students raised (4-2)
SLIP-UP – Students are PUPILS raised (backwards)
16 Gaol’s opening: despicable type is free! (6)
GRATIS – G + RAT + IS
18 Massive job mujaheddin must keep up (5)
JUMBO – hidden word, backwards jOB MUJaheddin

19 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1024 by Mara”

  1. 10 minutes, so within my target but only just. I put it down to having just finished reading an article about memory-loss and being unable to call words and names immediately to mind. As a result I felt somewhat inhibited.
  2. I biffed LOCKJAW, and never did get around to parsing it. And just as well: ‘condition’ is a pretty poor definition. 5:58.
    1. I think “condition” can mean a medical diagnosis and lockjaw being a term for tetanus allows “condition” to indicate “lockjaw” reasonably well IMHO!
  3. So much to enjoy in this offering from Mara. Nothing too obscure and all fairly clued, but some excellent misdirection and glassy smooth surfaces.
    Particularly liked 3d, 16d, 17a and COD 22a.
    WOD – a toss-up between RHUBARB and PUKKA
    Much obliged to both setter and blogger.
    7’15”
  4. I was struggling to keep my eyes open, but also reluctant to prise myself out of my armchair to retire when I did this puzzle. I found it reasonably straightforward and finished in 9:20, starting with RECAPS and finishing with PIGEON. TOP DRAWER gave me pause for thought and I only saw the parsing when I looked at it again this morning. Nice puzzle. Thanks Mara and Curarist.
  5. About average for me. Not heard PUKKA for a long time, so my COD. Thought “condition” for LOCKJAW was a bit weak, but in fairness to the setter anything more precise could have made for a very long clue.
    PlayUpPompey
  6. Struggled with Top Drawer (missed the reverse) and Lockjaw which was a rather loose clue for me. Otherwise completed it as a newbie so pleased.
  7. At 40mins a bit longer than average for me, with loi 3d and 9d responsible for most of the delay (my own inability goes without saying). 22ac was another one that took a bit of working out, but that’s the thing with a Mara QC: I never feel in control, and have to scratch around the grid for answers. Invariant
  8. I started this on the computer (very rare for me) as I was up early and then completed on paper, so no accurate time.
    Some excellent clues I thought with COD to 22a.
    My hold-ups were 17a 22a and LOI 9d where I had Top Drawer for a while without being able to parse it. David
    PS I do recommend Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube where Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe show you how to do it. It’s helped me enormously.
  10. I started slowly with my FOI being 19a and not getting many on my first run through the down clues either. But the fog started to lift with the two long down clues which helped open up the grid. Like others I struggled with 9d and also found 22a a bit tricky. Crossed the line with LOI 14d in 18 minutes with my COD going to 23a.
  11. I had to scramble about for a first foothold – eventually 19a was FOI. I managed most of the N but was very slow to complete the SW. I biffed 17a as my LOI and am grateful to our blogger for the explanation. Lots of lovely misdirection to spot. 23a made me smile, as did the clever 22a. Pleased to complete a Friday puzzle as that gives me the weekend to complete Thursday’s. A good workout from Mara – thanks.
  12. A poor performance on the QC and/or 15/15 seems to be glibly attributed to sleep issues by an astonishing number of the contributors to this blog..
    It is known that there is a massive correlation between high I.Q. and poor sleeping patterns. On the other hand, the solvers do, to some extent, have the problem in their own hands, judging from the times of submission and the time zones they appear to inhabit AT THAT TIME! Personally, I suspect that whisky, another cruciverballistic addiction may have its part to play
  14. … no one else had croquet as last one in. It sat empty for about a quarter of solving time. Convinced myself “going through hoops meant there was a OO in the middle (there was one with a space either side!) with credit as definition. NOw can’t see why on earth I would think that! Apart from that the SE corner was last to fall.
  15. 28 minutes, LOI up to the minute, where I couldn’t see the definition at first.

    COD pigeon.

    Didn’t like assess. Prefer:
    When three sons get drug fix.

  16. I don’t suppose anyone will see this, being a couple of days late. A very difficult one for me, couldn’t get many of the answers, and surely an insect is not an animal?

    Di

    1. I’ve only just finished it myself, liked the pigeon clue but a few tough ones in the NE.

      Think insects as animals is okay. Animal is a high-level taxonomy, anything else alive and bigger than microscopic would be a plant or a fungi… which insects certainly ain’t. 😋

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