Quick Cryptic 1247 by Mara

57 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1247 by Mara”

1. Target missed by 1 minute again giving me a total solving time of 11 minutes, the same as yesterday. After discussions here yesterday about solving times in which my name was mentioned I thought I would remind those who follow such matters that my timings always include parsing the clues unless otherwise stated, so don’t necessarily compare exactly with times posted by others whose aim is position in the league table.

   Having said that, my parsing was inaccurate today at 5dn as I wrote in NOSTALGIC which led to difficulties at 17ac until I had corrected my error.

   No problems with FELLINI, not that I have seen any of his films, but I remember Harold Steptoe, who had upwardy mobile pretensions, always banging on about Fellini’s “8 1/2” when it was released in 1963.

   Edited at 2018-12-19 05:43 am (UTC)

   1. Doesn’t everyone parse the clues? I have to parse them to be able to work out the answers! Do biffers literally think “looks like X” and write in X without checking whether X actually fits the rest of the clue?? Pretty punchy if so! If I did that I’m sure my Times would rapidly become a sea of ink from crossing out earlier “inspired” biffs.
      1. I always solve “live” – so some parsing is needed, and yes some biffing goes on as well, hence sometimes accuracy is lost (it’s a fine balance between speed and accuracy as anyone that attends the finals day will confirm I’m sure. Especially magoo after this year’s champs). What I don’t do is wait till I’ve parsed everything before submitting.

         The mega-fast times (for the QC this would generally be under 2 minutes) are usually by people who have already solved it and are basically testing their typing speed (if you ever see the term “neutrino” used that’s who it refers to).

         1. MIke Osborne writes ‘The mega-fast times (for the QC this would generally be under 2 minutes) are usually by people who have already solved it and are basically testing their typing speed…… ‘

            Mike, this comes as a shock to me. I may be naive but I always assumed that people solved ‘live’ (as you and I do) and posted honest times. I find this disturbing – totally dishonest and deeply sad people. What is the point of doing this? I wonder if others have thoughts?

            1. I should qualify my comment and say “on the times leaderboard”. I have no dispute with any of the times posted here.

               It becomes even more obvious on the 15×15 when there could be a particularly tricky puzzle – for arguments sake let’s say Verlaine takes 12 minutes (which would make me think “dear god this is a hard one then} – there will still be people posting times at 3 minutes and under.

               What do they get from it? Your guess is as good as mine

               Edited at 2018-12-19 12:09 pm (UTC)

               1. I always wondered!
            2. There is endless discussion of this phenomenon on the club forum; the term ‘neutrino’ was invented some years ago already to designate the solvers who post times that are clearly not possible. Why these people do it is, frankly, beyond me, but they do it. If you go to the club site of a Saturday, say, you will find that a truly fast, truly gifted solver like Verlaine will be 55 on the leaderboard.
               1. There is the added probability that people solve the prize puzzles on paper, then type their answers into the club site to submit them that way rather than send them by snail mail.
                  1. Probability? Possibility, absolutely. But are the people who beat Verlaine all, or even most of them, unaware that there’s a leaderboard that they’re distorting? Do none of them ever read the forum?
                     1. Sadly, I guess there may be a number who would use Catherine Tate’s reply “Am I bovvered?” I agree it’s frustrating to see the Leaderboard distorted that way though.
      2. I can’t speak on behalf of the regular speed-merchants, but I know from my own experience that many answers in a QC leap out at me from a word or definition and I could choose to bung them in and move on to another clue, instead of which I take a little extra time to parse the wordplay. In a competitive situation as encouraged by the league table on the Times site I suspect that many solvers just cut to the chase.
         1. My (lesser) experience has been the same. Although for me the “leaping out” first requires a quick prediction about how the clue is supposed to work (without actually untangling it), an easy definition and a couple of checkers!

            As I’m trying to get quicker recently, I’ve allowed myself to biff these and move on. It is really distracting to worry about it for the rest of the solve, and to keep in mind that it may be incorrect, so I’m not so sure that it actually improves my times. Coupled with the more frequent errors this strategy produces, I’m having a rethink.

            P.S. I always parse the clues as far as I can after the fact, both for training purposes and because otherwise so much of the setter’s effort is lost..

      3. If I am going for a time, as I do with the Quickie, I definitely don’t parse obvious answers. Really fast solvers are able to pick key points out of the wordplay to confirm their answer without doing a full parse.

         Obviously, you can make mistakes this way.

         We used to have a commenter here, Mark Thakkar, who was a champion biffer. He had an infallible nose for what must be the right answer without having to analyze the clues overmuch. It’s a gift.

2. Couldn’t parse BITING so pressed submit with trepidation only to find I’d entered conversatiPn at 10a. I’m unlikely to have done that on the paper version so I’m going to let me off. Having seen the blog I’m now ashamed not to have been able to parse biting even once I knew what the answer must be. Took me longer than it should have to get 1a. A most enjoyable puzzle.
3. 12:35 today finishing with BUFFET after FANCIER.
   Overall I thought this was a very fair and enjoyable QC.
   Now off for my pre Christmas game of golf. It looks very wet out there and I wonder whether the course will be open.
   David
   1. Here in the US, low temperatures are discouraging some.

      Last Wednesday, one of my playing partners brought a hammer with a nail attached to it with a string. What is that for? You pound the nail into the frozen ground on the tee box, and then you can put your tee in. Clever!

      Fortunately, it was much warmer on Monday.

      1. That’s dedication!
4. 15 minutes including festive related interruptions.

   Loi fellini
   Cod buffet

5. If I recall, there were two clues that slowed me down a bunch; I think one of them was 7d, and the other wasn’t. I just noticed, reading William’s explication, that there are four clues where a word from the clue is part of the solution: 10ac (AT), 12ac (A), 20ac (A), and 6d (OR). Seems a bit much, even for a Quickie. 6:49. Jack, if you ever get a chance to see “Amarcord”, I would.
   1. I thought the same. There was a QC last week which was similar in this respect. Novice that I am, the single letter “a” being in both clue and solution doesn’t seem so bad , but longer letter chains – like today’s “out” – is, to my mind, a bit much.
      1. I missed OUT, as it were; that makes 5.
6. Well, it must have been (half-) listening to the depressing ‘Today’ on Radio 4 that encouraged my brain to focus on more satisfying things (Sajid Javid avoiding simple questions was the low point for me). My first sub-10 mins for a while (just!). Like jackkt, I biffed Nostalgic but soon realised my mistake when 17a emerged. No problem with Fellini which Fellout without hesitation. LTI were Fancier and Extension. Thanks to Mara for a puzzle that will encourage many and to William for a focussed blog. John M.
   1. 8.09. Glad to see my SCC pal hit a sub 10, too. I, like others, took a while to get 7dn. I also had to shush Mrs sonofjim who was discussing the Ocado delivery.
      1. Well done, sonofjim. We’ll have to agree how many sub-10 min performances we can allow before we are ejected from the SCC. Perhaps 3 strikes and you’re out? An average over a week/month? I don’t think my quick time today is likely to be a regular occurrence…. John M.
         1. Well, you two had better organise the SCC Christmas bash quickly whilst you’re still in the club to enjoy it!
            Seriously, though – well done to both of you.
7. Managed to incorrectly put in ACTING for 4d, having not even noticed the anagram, which then led to some tricky times as I neared the end and 10a refused to make any sort of sense. Once the mistake was spotted, was fairly routine.

   But as a relative newbie, i’ll put it out there for those wiser than me – why couldn’t ACTING be an acceptable answer? Doesn’t that work as a definition of ‘playing’? Await your counsel with interest 🙂

   1. Ignoring the anagram issue, you’d then be looking at a double definition clue. I don’t think you can say that ‘actors or cast’ is a precise synonym for ‘acting’. There would also be a rather redundant tortology in ‘actors or cast’. Hope that helps.
      1. That does help, thank you!
         1. Oops – apologies for the misspelling of tautology!
8. Relatively straight forward today. 25:42 is one of my best times. Didn’t know Fellini, but with the F and the word play it was likely to be that. LOI and probably COD was biting.
9. A rare sUb 10 minutes for me today, but no accurate time as disturbed mid-solve by the tellingbone. Everything went in easily with no problems – I must have been on Mara’s wavelength. The
10. 17 minutes for me.

    It’s a funny thing that as I look at the completed puzzle I often wonder why it took so long when it seems obvious, but of course it didn’t seem quite so obvious when (for example) I was looking to try and fit an ‘l’ for large in to 7d which as my LOI clearly had no option to accommodate an ‘l’. COD Birdbrain.

11. A nice, gentle start to the day with no real problems or hold ups. I guess it took me about 15 minutes or so which, for me, is warp speed. I did not know the cricket reference in 3 down but what else could the answer be? My FOI was 1 across, which I think was a very nicely constructed clue. My LOI was 7 down which foxed me for a bit. I especially liked 15 and 16 down which were easy but fun. Thank you so much, blogger and setter
12. I enjoyed my LOI in particular, BITING, and also the topical SPROUT. Did anyone else spend a moment wondering if 10ac was an anagram of “to grab at gets”? I felt a bit of a 1ac when I realised how it actually worked! All done and dusted in about 1.5 Kevins, a Very Good Day.

    Thanks to Mara and William.

    Templar

    1. I wondered about an anagram of ‘to grab at gets’ as well so you were not alone.
    2. Yes, me!
       1. Me too!
13. ….but hopes of a personal best were thwarted by the same pair of clues that held up David (but in the opposite order).

    FOI BIRDBRAIN
    LOI FANCIER
    COD BUFFET
    TIME 4:33

14. not so quick here … 7d taking me from 24 mins to 36 mins.
    quite a few double definitions today as well as parts of the answer appearing in the clue too.
    the troublesome clues for me were:
    21a: fancier, I’m not convinced that’s a lover?
    24a: extension for stretching, is the tense/grammar correct?
    7d: not an issue with the clue, just my ability to solve …
    FOI: 6a (mob)
    COD: 15d (sprout, I fell for the misdirection of Proust novel …)
    LOI: 7d
    thanks to blogger, setter and all who contribute.
    Carl
    1. Pigeon-fancier? ‘Lover’ not to be taken too literally!
       1. Ah, that’s a satisfying example. Thanks. I had had the same thought as Carl.
          1. yep, agreed. got it now. thanks
15. Just under my ten minute target today at 9:14
    A lovely puzzle, thanks to setter and blogger.

    Adrian

16. Worked up from the SE corner. No real problems, although FANCIER = ‘lover’ seemed a bit of a stretch. Perhaps I am just an ardent fancier but not much of a lover! Stuck on FELLINI for a while as I could not get BELLINI out of my head (my ex’s favourite drink).FOI NAN. LOI BITING. Tricky little clue I thought. COD BIRDBRAIN. Brought a smile.
    PlayUpPompey
17. Most of this puzzle went in quickly, but I was slowed down in the SE corner. FOI, BYE, LOI FELLINI. My first thought at 7d was BITTER, but it didn’t parse and I went back to it after CONVERSATION went in, when all became clear. Nice puzzle. 7:22. Thanks Mara and William.
18. So having posted earlier about the speed vs accuracy equation, I can now confess that, without bothering to check anything, my fingers had lagged behind my head, leading to LOI CONSERVATION also making a mess of SENTILATE.

    Stats being ruined by stupid mistakes this week, 4.13 with 2 wrong which could so easily have been 4.15 with all correct.

    ***note to self – do what your teachers kept banging on about all those years ago and CHECK YOUR WORK***

19. Very much an average performance for this QC by Mara. I was slow to start with FOI 3d BYE and slow to finish with LOI 14d FELLINI. Most clues required more than one visit e.g 17a PARTICULARLY (despite the anagram indicator) and 24a EXTENSION which I thought was going to be another anagram. COD to 1a BIRDBRAIN which is rather how I am feeling today after fretting until the small hours over my 19 year old son who was freely imbibing at his staff Christmas party. He came home at 4:15…..so 12:46 solve time today.

    Edited at 2018-12-19 12:46 pm (UTC)

20. My. What a lot of anagrams – I make it 5 1/2 (where BRAIN is only part of 1a)… and I thought 10a was one too at first. I didn’t mind OUT being part of the clue for SHOUT as it made such a nice surface. BIRDBRAIN my LOI. COD to ACTORS for another good surface. 5:28.
21. Finally a puzzle I could finish. Certainly at the very easy end of puzzles
22. Certainly easier than usual for me as completed in just under 10 minutes. I liked birdbrain – took me a while to earliest Martin was a bird.
23. Well, that’s my year complete – my second sub K ever – and this one using the crossword club site and definitely without any form of neutrino – having heard the shocking stories above. I need an oxygen mask to sit 3 places and 7 seconds above our revered time target. My admiration is, if possible, further increased by realising he does these super fast times day in day out (whereas I had a couple of stinkers last week).
    Loi conversation.

    William – congratulations on out-posting the 15×15 site today.

24. Congratulations to you! Presumably you now know something of how Roger Crabtree felt.

    I’ve always worked on the assumption that the number of comments is related to the quality/difficulty/noteworthiness of the puzzle rather than the blog. So belated thanks and congrats to Mara!.

    1. The way to get a lot of comments is to post early for a relatively easy puzzle.

       You’re certainly not going to get a lot of comments if nobody can finish!

25. I actually found this the hardest of the week so far and certainly the slowest at 29mins. Struggled with both 7d, having initially thought that 10ac would end with -ing, and then 10ac itself, where I couldn’t work out the cryptic and had to resort to alphabet trawls. 15d, Sprout, was my CoD for the nice misdirection. Invariant
26. This wasn’t too testing for me. 14d was one of the first but 1a took all of the checkers (looking for something with Amiss…). Missed the anagram in 4d and had to revisit to get 10a settled in place. Didn’t manage to satisfactorily parse 7d – but of course it now seems so obvious! FOI 6a LOI 7d COD the amusing 24a. As a fully-paid up, and likely to be Lifetime, member of the SCC I was pleased to spend a large Costs on this one and walk out with only checking this blog to do later… Nice blog and puzzle, and thx for the enlightening discussion on those speed merchants!
27. It’s nice to see it so busy on here today. I found this fairly straightforward and my only hold up was having a brainfreeze at 1a for my LOI and I finally completed it in 11.43.
    Thanks for the blog
28. Finally a puzzle I could finish. Certainly at the very easy end of puzzles

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