Quick Cryptic 1824 by Mara

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An enjoyable workout. Not sure I can predict how difficult people will find it, as there are some very straighforward clues as well as a few others that I couldn’t see straight away, e.g. 5ac, 10ac. 8 minutes for me.

Across

1 Timely cue (6)
PROMPT – double definition
5 Have doubts about English spinner (6)
WEAVER – WAVER around E for english.
8 Artist in private room, Bobby (4,9)
JOHN CONSTABLE – ‘Private room’ is usually loo, which in American parlance is JOHN. ‘Bobby’ is a policeman, or CONSTABLE.
9 Speculator initially selling tin and gold (4)
STAG – Frst letters of Selling Tin And Gold
10 Praise mending of tyre after punctured (8)
FLATTERY – Anagram (‘mending of’) of TYRE after FLAT (puncture)
11 Standard fellow, eh? (6)
PARDON – PAR (standard), DON (fellow of a college). DON also works as ‘fellow’ meaning a man’s name.
13 Drop class by the sound of it (6)
LESSEN -sounds like LESSON
15 Terrible despair after time moved slowly (8)
TRAIPSED – Anagram (‘terrible’) of DESPAIR after T for time
17 Quiet performance in ballroom I’m enjoying (4)
MIME – hidden word ballrooM IM Enjoying
19 Robert’s related to the solver, no problem! (4,4,5)
BOBS YOUR UNCLE – fairly self-explanatory
21 Reflexive pronoun is left out (6)
ITSELF – IS + Anagram (‘out’) of LEFT
22 Call by women’s group for electrical work (6)
WIRING – RING (call) after WI (women’s group)

Down
2 Home base accommodating students, primarily (5)
ROOST – ROOT (base) with S for students inside
3 Chap, ancient, coped (7)
MANAGED – MAN + AGED
4 Couple seen in quiet wood (3)
TWO – hidden word: quieT WOod
5 Cried, when hugging fool, and sang carols (9)
WASSAILED – WAILED with ASS inside
6 A role that’s separate (5)
APART – A PART
7 Swell general on manoeuvres? (7)
ENLARGE – Anagram (‘on manoeuvres’) of GENERAL
10 Eat fish in stews, rotten (6,3)
FINISH OFF – Anagram (‘stews’) of FISH IN, plus OFF (rotten)
12 Broadcast left for JFK, possibly? (7)
AIRPORT – AIR (broadcast) + PORT (left)
14 Class remains disorderly (7)
SEMINAR – Anagram (‘disorderly’) of REMAINS
16 Topic for debate is petition (5)
ISSUE – IS + SUE (petition)
18 Italian city somewhat international I mean, on reflection (5)
MILAN – reverse hidden word: internatioNAL I Mean
20 Natural conflict after uprising (3)
RAW – WAR backwards

76 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1824 by Mara”

  1. After 14 minutes just 21a to get… four more minutes to spot it was an anagram! Doh- and hence Itself…. 18 minutes and pleased with that.
    I like the word Traipsed…
    FOI Prompt — 1a always good to get.
    Very happy to get the Weaver and Wassailed combo… wassailed just familiar.
    Great!
    Thanks all
    John George
  2. A slow start and 5 unsolved after quite a while, but after a walk the brain had sorted itself out and the missing answers came easily. An enjoyable puzzle.
  3. I’m worried. The advert at the top is in Russian. Is Boris keeping something from us.
    1. Tim, it may vary with devices but in my experience I only see the Russian stuff when I am accidentally logged out. As soon as I log in again as jacckt it disappears.
  4. I agree with the sentiments in Steakcity’s post although I do like to time myself here – and my only rival is myself! The 15×15 is another matter. I certainly enjoy savouring the clues as I go, although sometimes the answers just jump out at you before you’ve even had the chance to parse fully. Today was an example of that for me — I romped through this in about 8 minutes while eating lunch, so I wasn’t even fully focused. So I did have to look back and enjoy the parsing afterwards — it does help focus the mind when choosing a COD if nothing else!

    I’m another one with an MER at the spinner / weaver combo and 10a and 10d took a few seconds to fall into place, but otherwise I thought this was a most enjoyable way to finish what has been a good week. I’ve had success with the biggie every day too, apart from today when I came completely unstuck 😯

    FOI Prompt
    LOI Flattery
    COD Flattery — definitely an good example of post-solve enjoyment of the clue

    Many thanks Curarist and Mara

  5. I had 5 left to do after 25 minutes. These were pretty hard as already had all or most of the crossers. I join the ‘not so happy with 5a brigade’ – I started by looking at spiders and dropped that to move on; despite the earlier discussion, I still think weavers are not spinners, but there… Thought 2 should be Rooms (esp with reference to students), but had to correct this. Careless parsing on 5d had me wondering how SS meant fools – then saw I had split the word with both As in wailed so that got resolved. Liked 10a – reminded me of an early business trip t Minneapolis when I left the hire car nose into a snow drift at the office and spent a fruitless hour on the telephone to the hire company trying to explain it was a flat battery, not a flat tyre, until I remembered to talk in American rather than English… Learnt the hard way that in the US turning off the ignition did not turn off the headlights (buried in the snow)!
    FOI 1a Prompt. LOI 5a Weaver, COD 8a John Constable gave me a wry smile. Other than for 5a, thx to Mara and a helpful blog from Curarist. Will probably have a go at the Saturday Jumbo and abandon attempts to complete the last one!

    Edited at 2021-03-05 05:59 pm (UTC)

  6. Something strange is going on. Just below my mid-afternoon post is one which is a direct copy of Kevin’s post from first thing this morning! It looks rather suspicious I think.

    Edited at 2021-03-05 06:19 pm (UTC)

    1. This happens from time to time; someone’s posting is copied verbatim, with a different avatar. No idea why. An administrator like Vinyl or Jackkt usually deletes them.
      1. Yes, it happens quite regularly, but not as often as the avatar with a single word comment such as ‘Nice’ or ‘Great’. The avatar is usually obviously commercial. I delete 4 or 5 of them most days. I have now removed 360 Organix who mirrored your posting.
        1. Thanks Jack and Kevin for explaining that – I was so surprised to see exactly the same message some hours later, and being quite twitchy about spam, phishing etc, I did wonder what on earth was going on. It must be very frustrating for you administrators to have to deal with this sort of thing several times a day, but you’re clearly quick off the mark as I’ve not noticed any escapees before!
  7. For the first time all five QC s finished this week
    Don’t really care about the time though one course at dinnertime is nice as it was this evening.
    I have to accept the weaver issue but my Mother would spin on her grave
  8. Have a look at all the answers with your Carry On hat on and tell me Mara wasn’t having some sport here. Or should that be Matron? Ooh. Johnny
  9. Lovely crossword — probably my favourite ever ( and I have done all 1824) nothing too easy or too hard nothing horrible (pi = bible basher always makes my spit)
    I don’t record times as I like to ponder but mid range
  10. I almost always use the Times iPad app, but today I had a few in front of me at the barber so pulled out the mobile phone to do this crossword.

    Finished the crossword in approx. 20 minutes and was surprised to see a pink square for the U in ISSUE. Did anyone else experience this? It’s not the first time the mobile interface has pink-squared a correct letter for me. Frustrating because it won’t show me my time until I put the ‘correct’ letter in!

    Back to the iPad from now on. Today’s puzzle was fairly straightforward I felt.

    WB

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