Quick Cryptic 1062 by Marty

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was one of those puzzles that I found tricky whilst solving, but then having written up the blog I can’t really figure out why.  No obscurities (other than, possibly, the heather in 3d – but then we were given all the letters in cross checkers so that was hardly going to be a problem), no dodgy definitions, and no whimsical cryptics requiring you to be on the setter’s wavelength.  All in all, solid fare but I found it quite a challenge.
I’ll be interested to see whether I was alone in my travails, or if some of the rest of you also found it curiously resistant.
So without further ado – other than to record grateful thanks to Marty – here’s how I think it all works…

Definitions underlined:  anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted etters indicated by {-}

Across
1 She’s not entirely above the law (5)
ETHEL – Hidden in (not entirely) abovE THE Law – and well hidden too, I thought: spent some time looking at this clue trying to justify EDICT…
7 I have arrived dead on time? You, one hears,
unprepared (9)
IMPROMPTU – I’M PROMPT (I have arrived dead on time) + U (sounds like – one hears – YOU)
9 Bear the onset of bankruptcy before downfall (5)
BRUIN – B (the onset of Bankruptcy) comes ‘before’ RUIN (downfall)
10 My amusing exercises here? (9)
GYMNASIUM – *(MY AMUSING) with “exercises” indicating the anagram
11 Use a needle having three points? (3)
SEW – The answer comprises three ‘points’ of the compass – South, East and West
12 Assigns new labels to right food additives (9)
RENUMBERS – R (right) + E NUMBERS (food additives)
14 Insult by English copper journalist grilled (9)
BARBECUED – BARB (insult) + E (English) + CU (copper) + ED (journalist)
16 Diamonds one found next to church (3)
ICE – I (one) ‘next to’ CE (Church – of England)
18 Pay Harris for repairs: I can fix locks (9)
HAIRSPRAY – *(PAY HARRIS) with “for repairs” signalling the anagram
20 Bungling in record time (5)
INEPT – IN + EP (record) + T (time)
21 Unusual thing: good to have this for one’s
retirement? (9)
NIGHTGOWN – *(THING) – with “unusual” signposting the anagram – + G (good) + OWN (to have)
22 Fellow crossing street blowing hard (5)
GUSTY – GUY (fellow) wraps around (crossing) ST (street)
Down
1 Yours truly lifted head to carve (6)
EMBOSS – ME reversed (yours truly lifted) + BOSS (head)
2 Party raising the temperature in Parliament? (5-7)
HOUSE-WARMING – cryptic steer from Parliament being the House
3 Heather Lake’s bra and pants? (8)
LINGERIE – LING (a type of heather) + ERIE (lake – one of the “great” ones)
4 Old primate, a quiet celebrity on the up (6)
APEMAN – A P (a quietly) + NAME reversed (celebrity on the up)
5 State of S English county appalling at first (4)
IOWA – IOW (Isle of Wight – Southern English county) + A (Appalling at first)
6 Buzz monsieur to go with us for a dip (6)
HUMMUS – HUM (buzz) + M (abbrev. Monsieur) + US
8 Champions, excited, wire reps in NZ (12)
PRIZEWINNERS – *(WIRE REPS IN NZ) with “excited” suggesting the anagram
13 Undid gym pants getting dirty (8)
MUDDYING – *(UNDID GYM) with “pants” pointing to the anagram
14 He turns up in tie, late (6)
BEHIND – HE reversed (he turns up) ‘in’ BIND (tie)
15 Completely remove our pot that’s broken (6)
UPROOT – *(OUR POT) with “broken” signalling the anagram
17 Sweetheart hypothetically, in part, crude (6)
EARTHY – Hidden in (in part) sweethEART HYpothetically
19 Stuff son consumed (4)
SATE – S (son) + ATE (consumed)

33 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1062 by Marty”

  1. Slow going here; I don’t think I’ve ever gone over 10′ before (although I have thrown in the towel a few times). What took me the longest was 12ac: with all the checkers in, all I could think of was RENUMBERS, and I couldn’t for the life of me see what that could have to do with food additives–I’d never heard of E numbers, which I just now looked up. Finally, using Sherlock Holmes’s over-cited principle, I typed it in. 10:01.
  2. I too was 10.01 – with HUMMUS my LOI

    e-numbers are obviously a British thing! Children love ’em!

    FOI 21ac NIGHTGOWN

    COD 10ac GYYMNASIUM

    WOD HUMMUS

    (Not WHIMSICAL again!)

  3. At 18 minutes I also struggled with this one, and initially just to get started and find a foothold on which to build.

    For those interested in such matters this is only Marty’s 12th appearance since his debut with QC37 on 29 April 2014. Three more puzzles followed that year and three each in 2015 and 2016. His last outing before today was 17 February 2017, just over 13 months ago.

  4. 28:32, so a slow one. COD a tie between LOI IMPROMPTU and the excellent RENUMBERS. I was convinced that SECA was one of those Indian states I’ve not heard of.

    Ling Heather was unknown, but definition in clue was easy.

  7. 34 minutes, held up by unknown bruin, house warming and LOI Iowa.

    Didn’t like renumbers.

    COD the saucy lingerie.

  8. What a lot of anagrams! I even momentarily tried for a 6th at 3d thinking ‘pants’ was an anagrind. I was a bit slow getting going and surprised to see I finished about 30s faster than average. I had GOODNIGHT for 21a at first (it sort of works), but 2d put paid to that. Rather a good puzzle, I thought. Thanks Marty and Nick.
  9. Like Jackkt, I was a little inside the 20 minutes, and like John above, I played with GOODNIGHT as a solution to the anagram at 21a, before seeing the possibility of it being only a part-anagram.

    I think I must put my slow time down to a lack of experience with this Setter’s style, and his very good, slightly teasing clues. A win for the Setter then from my point of view.

    I liked LINGERIE, RENUMBERS and BARBECUED, who all vie for CoD. WoD goes to SATE, which I’m now going to do with a large slice of coffee cake. Thanks Nick and Marty

  10. I found that quite tricky too. SEW, EMBOSS and HOUSE WARMING went in reasonably quickly but then I had to work for almost every answer. I spent ages trying to work out an anagram at 3d before IMPROMPTU nudged me in the right direction. The SW held me up as I’m solving without pen and paper for anagrams this week, (due to laziness rather than a lack of stationery). My LOI was the clever IOWA, where I almost gave up! 14:50. Nice one Marty and thanks Nick.
    1. I, too, managed to get totally hung up on Iowa. Can’t explain my mental block when I look back.
      Good puzzle – I got on well until Iowa but I had to start in the lower half and work my way up. Thanks, Marty.
    2. Yes, I too spent an age trying to rumble this (even with the O and A in place) and my feverish imagination ran riot – particularly after I’d decided that the southern English county must be SOMerset, trying to convince there must be a word SOMA meaning a “state of S-ness” (yes, I know…)

      Eventually I decided to focus on US states, and finally twigged what was going on. I think the difficulty is that I somehow never think of the IoW as being part of England (yes, howls of protest – sorry all you Cowes people), and I certainly never think of it as a county (and I checked – it is a “ceremonial county” apparently).

      Anyway, typical of this puzzle – perfectly fair and reasonable, bleedin’ obvious once the penny drops, but somehow just, well, hard…

  11. I really enjoyed that, many thanks to Marty. Lots of wit and sparkle on display. ON the hard side of medium for me. LOI was EARTHY – when I finally spotted it there was much slapping of forehead and remarking on my own idiocy. Brilliantly concealed (well I would say that).

    I was wondering if I’d ever done a Marty puzzle before and thanks to jackkt I now know that the answer is probably not.

    I never forget LING because one of the first crossword clues I ever encountered as a boy was “Poet asleep on the heather” (KIPLING), which was in a Times puzzle being solved by Sir Lancelot Spratt in one of the “Doctor in the House” novels. Funny how these things stay with you.

    Done as we pulled into Cannon Street (Charing Cross trains all messed up this morning).

    Templar

    1. To student doctor: You, what’s the bleeding-time?
      Distracted student (Dirk Bogarde): Er, ten-past-ten, Sir.
  12. This started slowly and carried on that way for 17 minutes when I finally saw the hidden at LOI 1ac. The other hidden at 17dn also took me in. A really enjoyable crossword with lots to work out and hats off to Marty for fooling me all along the way.
  13. Same here with IOWA. I put it in because I couldn’t think what else it could be, not seeing the IoW ref at all. This was a great puzzle, I thought, full of fun and just the right level of difficulty for me. Loved HUMMUS and HAIRSPRAY, and nice to see BRUIN! Hope we see more of Marty soon. Thanks Nick, too, for parsing that pesky 5D 🙂
  14. Still new to all this. Not generally a fan of “Girl” as the literal clue, too easy to fall into guess-the-specific-name-I’m-thinking-of.
  15. I think Nick is spot on with his comment about this one being tricky for no real reason. I found it on the harder side (35 mins), but I’m sure some of my difficulty was just down to unfamiliarity with Marty’s style – I missed the hidden Ethel in 1ac for ages, and spent far too long trying to make a word out of gym pants for 13d. Overall, a nice challenge, just a shame we don’t see Marty more often. Invariant
  16. Agree with all the above. Definitely on the tricky side. I’m sure IOW used to be part of Hampshire, so didn’t really come to mind immediately. LOI 17d. Took a long time to spot. One day I will remember the golden rule, when all else fails look for a hidden.
    Good challenge much enjoyed.
    PlayUpPompey
    1. There is a ‘silver’ rule as well – look at the other end of the clue 😉 Invariant
  17. Tricky one today but a nice test and it was very satisfying to finish it – even though it took 41 mins.
  18. Yesterday’s record time seemed a long way away. After a quick start from the bottom up, had to come back for a second sitting for the NE corner. Interesting others put those in first because for me ethel (massive slap on forehead on solving) housewarming and emboss (looking for a reverse of word meaning head after me) remained to the end.
    1. Ethel was a superbly well hidden hidden I reckon – no need for a head slap there!
  19. Struggled with emboss for carve – although the dictionary gives it, I have only ever seen it as almost an antonym for carve, meaning pushed up rather than cut away, so I only put it in because I couldn’t find anything else that fittted. Not sure about pants as an anagrind but the checkers gave it away. Generally I agree, looking at it now it looks easier than it felt doing it, possibly because I needed checkers for a lot of the answers, but with them it was straightforward, so it was a lengthier process to get there.
    1. I’ve noticed “pants” is rapidly becoming a preferred anagrind amongst some of the Times setters. It seems particularly popular on Sundays with Dean Mayer and David McLean both using it a lot. Maybe a generational thing – my (late middle aged) contemporaries never seem to use the word to mean ‘rubbish’, whereas my 30 year old son and his pals use it a lot.
  20. I thought this was one of the toughest for a while, with the NE proving particularly stubborn. Was eventually left starting blankly at 12a, which I thought was very clever, and my LOI 9a which went in very tentatively as I’d not heard of it before. Completed in a very enjoyable 31.53.
    Excellent blog Nick
  21. Solved this on a train returning from Liverpool whilst eating a sandwich which contained Houmous ( I checked the spelling on the wrapper).
    Anyway I solved steadily until I returned to 5d. I had the checkers and tried lots of variations. My problem was not considering that IOW could be a county ( I haven’t done any checking on this).
    After reading the rest of the paper I finally ran through US states and thought of Iowa.
    So no accurate time; not easy overall. David

  22. As someone who has only ever completed 2 of these ‘quick’ cryptics, I found this one next to impenetrable. Clearly though, given the amount of comments who said they found this enjoyable, I guess this is proof that the quick cryptic definitely is NOT the place for beginners. Back to the Unison ones for me…
    1. I think it’s fair to say the Quick Cryptics are of mixed levels of difficulty – some are very much at a beginner level, whereas others are quite tricky (like this one). And that is pretty much how it’s positioning was defined at the outset when it was launched. So, as I see it, it delivers on its promise.

      The original concept (as I understood it) was that the QC was essentially a bridge for solvers who were already solving “easy” cryptics (wherever they may be found – no idea!) but who found the Olympic level 15×15 Times crossword daunting. Thus, it was not intended for people who had no idea where to start with a cryptic crossword. It was a kind of intermediate level.

      Hope that assists in readjusting your expectations as to where it is intended to be pitched.

    2. I’m a bit late replying to the comment as I’m a few days behind solving them (school holidays mean I lose track of time…) but I was at the same stage as you a year or so ago. Nothing made sense and the whole process seemed frustrating and pointless. Now I’m annoyed when I don’t solve everything (Ethel too hidden; emboss and bruin outside my vocab today) but this was a tricky one. If you use this blog (a brilliant way of picking up the skills and knowledge) then it does get easier and more enjoyable. I occasionally even answer a few in the main cryptic on a good day. I’ll never be a main cryptic solver but this keeps a mere mortal close to the cryptix gods. Canard
    3. I’m a bit late replying to the comment as I’m a few days behind solving them (school holidays mean I lose track of time…) but I was at the same stage as you a year or so ago. Nothing made sense and the whole process seemed frustrating and pointless. Now I’m annoyed when I don’t solve everything (Ethel too hidden; emboss and bruin outside my vocab today) but this was a tricky one. If you use this blog (a brilliant way of picking up the skills and knowledge) then it does get easier and more enjoyable. I occasionally even answer a few in the main cryptic on a good day. I’ll never be a main cryptic solver but this keeps a mere mortal close to the cryptix gods. Canard

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