Quick Cryptic 1167 by Mara

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A striaghtforward puzzle with only 13ac (LOI) holding things up for me. I was trying to make an anagram of ‘complex Briton’ to no avail. I had to go back and check what was going on at 17ac as it is a slightly unusual construction, and that I hadn’t made a 15dn at 15dn, as the second meaning is one I haven’t used. Lots of easily overlooked letter a’s too. Thanks Mara!

Definitions underlined.

Across

1 Person checking donkeys, tailless kind (8)
ASSESSOR – ASSES (donkeys) then all but the last letter of (tailless) SORt (kind).
6 Run a bit (4)
DASH – double definition.
8 Country also in a muddle (4)
LAOS – anagram of (in a muddle) ALSO.
9 A-lister seen principally in Margate, surprisingly (8)
MEGASTAR – first letter of (principally) Seen, inside an anagram of (surprisingly) MARGATE. Great surface!
10 Greedy type has quite a few, hosting a New Year celebration (8)
HOGMANAY – HOG (greedy type), then MANY (quite a few) surrounding (hosting) A.
11 Choose something a miner would select? (4)
PICK – double definition.
13 Ludicrously complex Briton, he has moved on (5,8)
HEATH ROBINSON – anagram of (moved) BRITON HE HAS followed by ON. I think this held me up for so long because of the proper noun used as an adjective, and my inability to separate ‘moved’ from ‘on’.
16 Huge supply initially put in tank (4)
VAST – first letter of (initially) Supply in VAT (tank).
17 Costlier renovation for monastery, say? (8)
CLOISTER – anagram of (renovation) COSTLIER. I think this is a semi-&lit as the whole clue can be taken as the (whimsical) definition, but only the first half is used as wordplay.
19 Dance venue clearer, everyone going in (8)
BALLROOM – BROOM (clearer) with ALL (everyone) going inside.
21 God hurt back (4)
EROS – SORE (hurt) reversed (back).
22 Cook welcoming a fight (4)
FRAY – FRY (cook) surrounding (welcoming) A.
23 Impressive hitting (8)
STRIKING – double definition.

Down
2 Appear so excited about old TV show (4,5)
SOAP OPERA – anagram of (excited) APPEAR SO surrounding (about) O (old).
3 Surrey town in memo spelt the wrong way (5)
EPSOM – hidden in (in) a reversal of (the wrong way) meMO SPElt.
4 Study group remains disrupted (7)
SEMINAR – anagram of (disrupted) REMAINS.
5 Goalkeeper’s cap in red for game (5)
RUGBY – first letter (cap) of Goalkeeper inside RUBY (red).
6 Requiring change, stand up for rubbish collector (7)
DUSTPAN – anagram of (requiring change) STAND UP.
7 Stop emptying a bath (3)
SPA – outermost letters from (emptying) StoP then A.
12 Stop idiot necking incorrect dose (5,4)
CLOSE DOWN – CLOWN (idiot) surrounding (necking) an anagram of (incorrect) DOSE.
14 Absolutely having to match (7)
TOTALLY – TO and TALLY (match).
15 Loaf that’s made in error? (7)
BLOOMER – double definition.
17 Pass Christian symbol (5)
CROSS – double defintion.
18 Second top, say (5)
SPEAK – S (second) and PEAK (top)
20 Scottish town into Sunday racing (3)
AYR – hidden in (into) sundAY Racing.

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1167 by Mara”

  1. I had a hard time with this one. For one thing, I put in ‘smashing’ at 23ac, which seemed fine but of course made SPEAK impossible. It took forever for HEATH ROBINSON, a name I barely knew to start with, to come to mind, and longer to come up with BLOOMER and EROS. 8:55.
  2. Had never heard of HEATH ROBINSON. Worked him out from wordplay. Ten years older than our Rube Goldberg!
  3. At 10 minutes exactly this was the first time in a week’s worth of QCs that I have achieved my target. But HEATH ROBINSON nearly derailed me and even after having written out the anagrist I needed all the checkers to be in place before the answer came to mind. DASH and SPA also required a little extra time. I thought the RUGBY clue was outstanding.

    Edited at 2018-08-29 04:55 am (UTC)

  4. My first thought for 23a was SPANKING (no comments please). Like our esteemed blogger I spent far too long on 13a, thinking it was an anagram of “complex Briton” and although ROBINSON came to me, CRUSOE and JACK didn’t seem to fit.
    Other than that, a pleasant way to spend 10 minutes or so.
  5. Like our blogger I wasted a bit of time trying to rearrange “complex Briton”, but the checkers disabused me of that. The SE corner gave me the most trouble – SPEAK and STRIKING were slow coming and EROS my LOI. Unlike Kevin, I managed to avoid writing in SMASHING, which was my first thought. COD to CLOSE DOWN. Thanks William and Mara. 7:32.
  6. I was hoping for a sub 10 minute finish but my hopes were dashed at the 9 minute mark when I couldn’t solve 13a HEATH ROBINSON. I knew it was an anagram but DNK the definition so it took me to 11:37 to sort the letters into the correct order. Thank you Mara and William for the blog.

    Edited at 2018-08-29 07:23 am (UTC)

  7. Nice puzzle – thanks to Mara. I managed a few seconds over 1.5 Kevins so thanks to Heath Robinson as well. John M
  8. Inside 10 minutes for me, and only 40 seconds outside kevin’s time, so I am well pleased.

    Heath Robinson came fairly easy to me, as I used to have a print of one of his drawings on my bedroom wall. Nothing else caused any issues.

  9. For some reason I struggled mightily with this puzzle. I couldn’t get a foothold in the NW and my FOI was eventually VAST. The bottom half then went in sporadically and I climbed back up to the top, with HEATH ROBINSON my LOI by some margin. I also spent ages trying to rearrange COMPLEX BRITON until I saw it couldn’t work and looked more carefully for the correct fodder. 18:18. Thanks Mara and William.
  10. Very straightforward apart from HEATH ROBINSON where I too spent a long time trying to fit “complex Briton” until Robinson leapt out from the checkers. I think it must be an age thing as his cartoons were well known in my youth. BLOOMER is a bit of an old chestnut. COD RUGBY for the neat misdirection of a Goalkeepers cap.
    PlayUpPompey
  11. Only 1.1 Kevins. I think that’s the closest I’ve ever come to the Impossible Dream. Note to setters: could we please have more reallyreallyreally UK-specific words and phrases to slow Kevin down again?

    Like others HEATH ROBINSON was LOI but I wasn’t fooled by the surface, I just couldn’t do the anagram in my head and so left it till last when I could write it out with all the checkers … if only I’d been faster!

    Crispian, you can read up about Heath Robinson here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson I remember him from his Professor Branestawm illustrations!

  12. William Heath Robinson was a British cartoonist and illustrator working mostly in the first half of the 20th century. He was renowned for his drawings of overly complex machinery, usually constructed from mismatched everyday items, and designed to solve very simple or even non existent problems. I can’t post a link from my phone but it’s worth googling him.
    Everything clicked today for a 4’55”.
    Thanks as always to setter and blogger.
    1. Thanks for the information. I’ve looked him up now as well. A very interesting and talented man.
      Crispian
  13. Given it was Mara, that one wasn’t too difficult. 24mins including the inevitable ‘complex Briton’ misdirection and hesitation over striking/spanking at 23ac, until Bloomer settled the matter. Some nice short clues, with 18d a good example, but my favourite today was 7d, Spa. Nice surface. Invariant
  14. An enjoyable puzzle with lots of nice surfaces. I particularly liked 12d, which has a no doubt unintentional topical reference given the article in today’s paper about how clowns seem to be a dying breed. I can’t say I’m surprised as I never found them very funny. Anyway, my time of 38:55 is not a pb, but the few times I have bettered it have been on distinctly easier puzzles, so I feel progress is being made. I don’t often get to do the puzzles on the right day, so I rarely comment on here, but I always look up the blogs and find them really helpful, so thanks to all concerned. And finally, I had heard of Heath Robinson from somewhere, so with a few checkers he went in, but I don’t really know who he was or why he is ‘Ludicrously complex’. Can anyone fill in some details?
    Crispian.
  15. I left a comment earlier but apparently it was logged as spam … presumably because it had a link to the Wiki page on Heath Robinson! I never had these issues as an anon …

    Anyway. Blimey. Only 1.1 Kevins. I think that’s the closest I’ve ever come to the Impossible Dream. Note to setters: could we please have more reallyreallyreally UK-specific words and phrases to slow Kevin down again?

    Like others HEATH ROBINSON was LOI but I wasn’t fooled by the surface, I just couldn’t do the anagram in my head and so left it till last when I could write it out with all the checkers … if only I’d been faster!

    Crispian, you can read up about Heath Robinson by reading the Wiki page on him, which I’m not allowed to link. I remember him from his Professor Branestawm illustrations!

  16. A pleasant tussle with Mara today starting with Epsom, the first clue I read.
    I too chose Complex Briton as the anagram fodder at first. No particular hold-ups and it came down to 7d and 6a. Eventually I managed to parse Spa (very clever) and then tried to improve on Dose for 6a. I couldn’t and came here -so one wrong after about 20 minutes. COD to 18d. David
  17. Beautiful crossword, not a pb at 9:00, but all requiring some thought. Also none of that 1950s crap that creeps in to some.
    Blog just says dd for DASH, and a bit is a dash of eg lemonade in another drink (plus of course a short race for children, I remember doing the 50y dash at primary school, and my grandchildren still do the 25 or 40m dash depending on age). In right-up-to-date information theory a bit is the smallest amount of conveyable information, nowadays almost always a 0 or 1 on a computer, but also a dot or a dash in Morse code. So for me a beautiful triple definition in 3 words – I am sure Mara intended that

    Edited at 2018-08-29 04:22 pm (UTC)

  18. First few clues – I had no idea
    Then I get started, a few checkers and it gets easier
    Now my mind is in crossword mode and other, earlier clues unravel themselves
    Put in a few more and then I’m stumped by a couple of teasers.
    I used to have a Heath Robinson book when I was a child and so I finally get him.
    All done, no aids, a lovely challenge and a sense of achievement
    17 minutes of post prandial pleasure at Goldilocks standard.
    Thank you Mara.
  19. Novice that I am (this is my 3rd puzzle) I was glad to get within 4 clues before heading here. Interestingly the clue that led me to 12d was “necking” – if you neck a pint, you down it. I didn’t even spot the “incorrect dose”.
  20. Always happy just to finish, even in under 90 minutes (I know, I know). Suffered, like others, with complex Briton until Robinson leaped out. Then could think of no Robinson other than the appalling Tommy until eventually getting a grip and establishing the correct anagram.
    Also spent some time on 12D trying to shoehorn in chump for idiot (possibly the Robinson effect again).
    SPA was an elegant clue, IMHO.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

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