Quick Cryptic 1144 by Marty

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I woke up a bit slow-witted this morning and made heavier weather of this than I might have, but I found it enjoyable solve with a good range of difficulty – plenty of write-ins but some posers as well. I wonder about some of the tougher ones, but we will see what the class thinks.

Across
1 Appearance in county’s principal city (5)
CAIRO – appearance is AIR, county is CO. This was my LOI for reasons I can’t explain.
8 Fanatic going after primate’s bit of food (6,3)
MONKEY NUT – Primate is MONKEY, fanatic is NUT
9 Panorama is a TV broadcast (5)
VISTA – anagram (‘broadcast’) of IS A TV
10 Journalist with Japanese money returned in carriage (7)
HACKNEY – Journalist is HACK, with YEN backwards
11 Silver ring found on pine in the distant past (4,3)
LONG AGO – pine is LONG, silver is AG, ring is O
12 Motorist association swindle taking in old forest dweller (7)
RACCOON – RAC is motorist organisation, swindle is CON, put O for old inside.
16 Greek feature partially fills up my loft when returned (7)
OLYMPUS – backwards hidden word. fillS UP MY LOft. I usually panic when I see things like ‘Greek Feature’, which often require some obscure term from classical architecture
17 Run past, wild and free? (7)
UNSTRAP – anagram (‘wild’) of RUN PAST
20 Be punished, with mistake in record of earnings (7)
PAYSLIP – PAY + SLIP
22 One — a halfwit — regularly seen in services canteen (5)
NAAFI – alternate letters of oNe A hAlFwIt. Navy, Army and Air Force Institute. Quite a difficult one if you hadn’t heard of it.
23 Muriel, maybe, with advert for engine part (5,4)
SPARK PLUG – Muriel SPARK (1918-2006, writer, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie etc,) + PLUG (advert). Beginners may or may not be aware of the Times Cryptic convention that real people can only be mentioned or referred to, in the clue or the answer, once they are dead. This convention is not observed in the Sunday Times cryptic, which still throws me every time.
24 Trace small American coin (5)
SCENT – S + CENT

Down
1 Polite figures from Ancient Rome (5)
CIVIL – Now, what do we think of this? I could see what he was up to but didn’t get it until the checkers were there. Basically, ‘construct a word out of Roman numerals’. Not sure I approve in the Quickie. Or am I just being a bit slow? I suppose once you twig that the only vowel available is I, it makes it a bit easier.
2 Being out to lunch isn’t any stranger after one (8)
INSANITY – anagram (‘stranger’) of ISNT ANY with I (one) in front.
3 A bad actor with Oscar from South American city (5)
OMAHA – Again, nice clue. Liked it. But perhaps a bit stiff for the QC? Hands up who spent ages thinking of a South American city, rather than an American city ‘from the south’ (i.e. backwards). Bad actor is HAM, so it A + HAM + O (oscar, phonetic alphabet), all backwards.
4 Unstylish prop, dreadfully hard to find? (2,5,6)
IN SHORT SUPPLY – anagram (‘dreadfully’) of UNSTYLISH PROP
5 Vain person in a heap after PE (7)
PEACOCK – PE + A + COCK, which means small haystack.
6 Soon member of clergy’s heading off (4)
ANON – CANON minus its head.
7 Carol, crossing Scottish river, is going nowhere (7)
STAYING – Carol is SING, Scottish river is TAY
13 A few deliveries arrived, crushed (8)
OVERCAME – OVER (six balls in cricket, hence a few deliveries) + CAME
14 Some cop, corrupt, is set up (7)
COMPOSE – anagram (‘corrupt’) of SOME COP
15 Copy, to appreciate, resembling our close relatives? (7)
APELIKE – APE + LIKE
18 Society concerned with G & S arias? (5)
SONGS – S + ON + G & S
19 Object when nothing put in glass of beer? (5)
POINT – O inside PINT
21 Portion of salary earned for a time (4)
YEAR – hidden word: salarY EARned

33 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1144 by Marty”

  1. 30 minutes with another rough head, well I am a bachelor for 4 weeks while the family escapes the heat of the desert…

    Held up by insanity, naafi and LOI overcame, looking for a word OVERSA_E!

    Dnk Muriel/spark,cock/haystack, and couldn’t see where the o came from in cairo, so thanks for the blog.

    Lots of very nice clues: I enjoyed unstrap, civil, Omaha, overcame, compose and songs but COD to insanity.

    Edited at 2018-07-27 07:31 am (UTC)

  2. Steady Friday solve until my LOI, you guessed it 21a NAAFI (DNK) so followed the wordplay. Although I biffed it correctly the online QC came up with unlucky, so I assumed I had gotten it wrong. Turns out I had put 17a UNSTRAP as unstrip. Also biffed 23a SPARK PLUG so thank you for the explanation. 16:39

    Edited at 2018-07-27 07:28 am (UTC)

  3. Definitely a day for using the QC as a warmdown after the eccentricities of Big Brother. Would have been better for me without a weird typo.
    The distinctive grid meant I had 4/5 letters for OMAHA: the clues better than such generosity deserves.
    I like the reverse hidden for OLYMPUS, not least because Greek and loft in the same clue divert you towards the useless “attic”.
    1. The clue’s better than such generosity deserves? Some linguist has coined a term, which I of course forget, for sentences that make sense until you try to work them out: A lot more people have visited Russia than I ever have; His paper fills a much-needed gap in the literature, etc. I think I’m going to add this to the collection.

      1. Well, be my guest. What I meant, which I think makes sense, is that with 4 letters already in the grid, OMA?A, the rather clever wordplay, especially with the South American misdirection, was, sadly, surplus to requirements.

  4. I can’t remember anything about this now, other than it took me a while to plow through. NAAFI is always a problem for me; I can never remember the final vowel. Luckily, this time I didn’t have to. I share our blogger’s distaste of CIVIL-like clues. The one exception to the no-living-person rule is the Queen, whose ER is just too useful for setters. 8:22.
  5. Nothing seemed to hold me up particularly, although I did not know the haystack, and was unsure of the Muriel, but I just managed to creep under my 10 minute target at 9:32. I didn’t pick up on the Roman numerals either, just biffed it. Thanks Marty and Curarist.
  6. I liked CIVIL – especially since it was very easy to get two checkers (a five letter anagram for VISTA giving the V and LONG AGO giving the L … after that it was a write in). A neat device, I thought.

    However, I did not like CAIRO, which was my LOI as it was for curarist. I can explain my reasons though – I don’t like place name clues, especially ones as vaguely clued as “principal city”. It wasn’t until I got the O from OMAHA (two connecting place names, grr) that I got there. And yes, I too spent some time traversing South America – a good bit of misdirection there.

    Anyway, an enjoyable puzzle clocking me in at 2 Kevins. Thanks to Marty and curarist.

    Templar

  7. Another sluggish effort after a tough big puzzle, with a fair bit of dodging around the grid. I can see CIVIL troubling quite a few people and agree that OMAHA was a waste of a good clue. 6:21
  8. The first QC this week to take me over my 10-minute target, but only by 1 minute. Thought SPARK and (hay)COCK may present some problems and the random mix of Roman numerals at 1dn.

    Marty has set 14 puzzles for us as follows:

    2014 – 4
    2015 – 3
    2016 – 3
    2017 – 1
    2018 (to date) – 3

    Edited at 2018-07-27 04:00 pm (UTC)

  9. A very enjoyable puzzle today. I think I was on Marty’s wavelength and so came in around 16 minutes which is good for me. 1d definitely COD.
  10. Nice puzzle. Couldn’t start it until I reached the SW corner then it gradually took off. 2.2K in the end. LOI Peacock. Too many nice clues to list. Thanks to Marty and curarist. John
  11. Not a fan of this sort of construction (see also – notes, points), and wondered if there might have been something else I was missing – seemingly not.

    Liked OMAHA – a great example of “lift and separate”. Similarly to others didn’t know Ms(?] Spark, but what else could it be?

    All in all a good Friday warm up with a number of good bridging clues for those looking to move up*

    Finally cleared in 4.51

    *if anyone is looking to move up from the quickie to the main, I wouldn’t start with either of the last 2 days – they could put you off forever

  12. I thought this was going to be difficult, after a slow start, but 26 mins puts it more in average territory. Some nice clues all around the grid, especially 1d, 19d and 16ac, but I thought 18d let the side down a bit. Interesting to see con used as swindle, rather than the c1720 definition. . . Invariant
  13. Another one at the tougher end of the scale for me. LOI INSANITY. Never heard the phrase “out to lunch” used in that context. Never heard of Ms SPARK either, but it had to be. Thought CIVIL was obvious enough, especially once I had the V and the L. My COD for originality. Biffed OMAHA, not a lot else it could be.
    Lots to enjoy.
    PlayUpPompey
  14. As a relative newbie to Times quick cryptic I rarely finish and use the blog to elucidate my unknowns. Today I did well – only one I could not figure out (overcame) in 68 mins. Not even considering 15 x 15 yet. Many thanks to setter and blogger. Be encouraged others! Frankyanne.
  15. Perhaps the Times refers to QE1 and the Sunday Times QE2 which would solve the dead or alive dilemma.
    Bit of a slog today but got there in about 45. John.
  16. I did this this morning before resuming the torture of yesterday’s 15×15, which I had left half done when I ran out of time yesterday. I spelt NAAFI wrong to start with (with a double FF), but OVERCAME disabused me of that. Otherwise, no difficulties, racing through in 2 minutes sub-average. I liked CAIRO for the misdirection in the surface and the neat reverse hidden OLYMPUS. Thanks Marty and curarist.
  17. Completed, but with lots of biffing. Still don’t understand a lot of the answers after the blog. Why is point object? Cock may mean haystack, but I doubt many farmers think their haystack is a heap (in fact I think there is a clear distinction between stack and heap). I also wasted a bit of time on this thinking the clue couldn’t be lame enough to state the first 2letters of the answer, surely “after exercise at school” would do the job infinitely better. In cricket a few deliveries would never be an over, it would be fewer balls, or span more than one over.
    On the other hand, my first Latin primer was civis romanus so civil wasn’t a leap for me.
    Paulw
  18. Bit of a midrange puzzle for me, completing it in 14.30 but it felt like there were some tricky clues along the way. It took me a stupidly long time to get MONKEY from primate and like others I hadn’t heard of Ms Spark or the haystack reference.
    1d seems like a bit of a Marmite clue but for me it was COD, LOI 5d.
    Thanks curarist
  19. Hello and thanks for everyones help. Still learning, but getting there. Can some one explain cairo? Principal city just refers to a state capital?
    kg
    2. It’s a bit deceptive, which is why it was my favourite clue of the day (COD). The “surface reading” of the clue (i.e. how it reads as a standard English sentence) makes you think the answer is a principal city of a county. But county is part of the wordplay, giving the C and O at each end of the answer. The definition “principal city” refers to a capital… in this case the capital of Egypt, as John D has said. Does that help?
  20. Missed a few today – 1a I plumped for cameo despite being unable to parse satisfactorily. That set me back on 2d… I recognised the cricketing flavour in 13d but still failed to get this right. So an unsatisfactory end to the week. I had no problem with 22a Naafi (it helps that I know what it stands for). In my haste I missed the 23a muriel=spark, but it had to be. I felt 7d a bit tenuous with carol=sing, but again, it had to be. But…lots to enjoy and savour elsewhere eg 8a 9a 10a 16a 20a 1d 3d 5d (a struggle to parse out of dim memory) and others. Without the blog I’d never have got this far! Thx too to Marty.
  22. I hoped that words and phrases that include unkind epithets, associated with mental illness and disturbance, would no longer be found in Times crosswords, cf ‘nut’, ‘halfwit’ and ‘out to lunch’. I am sure it would be possible to devise clues and answers that avoid such terms. Sal
  23. I struggled today! Give me Mara or Izzeti any day!

    But thank you for explaining it all! One day I’ll get there!

  25. Sorry I know this isn’t the right place to ask but I can’t find if there is a blog for the Cryptic Quintagrams please?

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