Quick Cryptic 3066 by Mara

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I finished this one in 18:32, but never felt like I achieved any sort of rhythm. Anagrams are not my strongest clue, and we had eight of them today, so that’s probably why this one didn’t hit the sweet spot for me.

When I submitted, I had my fingers crossed because I wasn’t 100% convinced by my parsing of SNATCH for 23a. So I wasn’t entirely surprised to see that I had a mistake. But I WAS surprised when I found that SNATCH was right, and BEYOND was wrong for 15d. I don’t normally look at the Snitch before publishing the blog, but I just broke my rule and so far 4 of the 12 reference solvers have got errors, so I think I’m not alone.

I thought we were going to have a pangram, but there is no J in the grid.

Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.

Across
1 A calf I massaged in cosmetic treatment (6)
FACIAL – (A CALF I)*
4 Sporting figure in Lord’s  hat? (6)
BOWLER – A double definition, the first referring to a cricketer playing at the cricket ground in London called Lord’s.
8 Vault I have for record collection (7)
ARCHIVE – ARCH (vault, as in a ceiling), I’VE (I have).

Ah, that sort of record collection. Nice one.
10 Same rare quality’s captured (5)
EQUAL – Hidden in [captured] rarE QUALity.
11 European probe reported? (5)
CZECH – sounds like [reported] “check” (probe).
12 Praise adult I trained on piano (7)
PLAUDIT – P for piano + (ADULT I)*

I didn’t do myself any favours here by pencilling in the P at the wrong end of this word on my first pass.
13 Ultimately hilarious punning in cutting performance? (9)
SWORDPLAY – last letter [ultimately] of hilariouS + WORD PLAY (punning).
17 Test applied, odd parts ignored for instance (7)
EXAMPLE – EXAM (test) + the even letters [odd parts ignored] of aPpLiEd.
19 Characteristic of revolutionary paintings etc with it (5)
TRAIT – ART (paintings etc), reversed [revolutionary] + IT (from the clue).
20 Oil for cooking half of very green fruit? (5)
OLIVE – (OIL)* + half of VEry.
21 Versatile kitchen set (7)
THICKEN – (KITCHEN)*

Very neat.
22 Sweet piece of music entertaining lower classes, primarily (6)
DULCET – DUET (piece of music), containing [entertaining] the first letters [primarily] of Lower Classes.
23 Pilfer  handful of notes (6)
SNATCH – A double definition, I think. The “handful of notes” definition as in “a snatch of song”.
Down
1 Intended to work in cafe (6)
FIANCE – (IN CAFE)*
2 Bird bites as nip infuriated dog (6,7)
COCKER SPANIEL – COCKEREL (bird) contains [bites] (AS NIP)*
3 Sneeze in a sneeze catcher, did you say? (7)
ATISHOO – Sounds like [did you say?] “a tissue” (a sneeze catcher).
5 Greek character, old and big (5)
OMEGA – O (old), MEGA (big).
6 Place for dirty habits? (7,6)
LAUNDRY BASKET – A cryptic definition, which works well if you’re in a monastery.
7 Tell English story about being led by king (6)
RELATE – E for English + TALE all reversed [about], following [being led by] R (rex, king).
9 One going in deep next, where swimming appropriate (9)
EXPEDIENT – (I DEEP NEXT)*
14 Remarkably valiant European (7)
LATVIAN – (VALIANT)*
15 Further  back (6)
SECOND – A double definition. The first as in “to promote, to further”, the second as in “to second a motion”.

Huh. I think BEYOND works just as well, and once the phrase “back of beyond” had popped into my mind, nothing was dislodging this answer.
16 Beginning to sense fish smell badly (6)
STENCH – First letter of [beginning to] Sense, TENCH (a fish).

My Shorter Oxford English Dictionary marks the intransitive verb usage of “stench”, meaning “to stink”, as “rare”. Certainly I’ve never come across the verb form before. And it isn’t in my copy of Chambers, which only has a transitive verb usage, meaning “to cause to stink”.
18 Slice pastry, case unfilled (5)
PIECE – PIE (pastry) + the outer letters [unfilled] of CasE.

77 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3066 by Mara”

  1. DNF.
    Gave up after 30 minutes having got only a dozen clues. Many of the answers just
    did not seem to fit well. This is not sour grapes – but even if I had completed this puzzle correctly I would not have felt any satisfaction.
    I will avoid this setter in future.

  2. Dnf…

    24 mins for everything apart from, yes, “Beyond” for 15dn – which I also think works. Personally, if so many people are getting it wrong, and the correct answer is only marginally better, then it’s a poor clue to include.

    FOI – 1ac “Facial”
    LOI – 15dn “Beyond: (incorrect)
    COD – 6dn “Laundry Basket” – always makes me chuckle.

    Thanks as usual!

  3. From FACIAL to SWORDPLAY in 9:18 with a good while on my LOI. Didn’t think of BEYOND but was considering REMOTE until DULCET arrived. Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  4. Very straightforward sub-6, but scuppered by BEYOND. I too had a MER at STENCH, but Jack’s cleared that up.
    Thanks Doof and Mara

  5. Yet another one with BEYOND, which in retrospect did cause me the slightest of nagging doubt at the time, but not enough unfortunately for me to reevaluate. My initial thought on reading Doofers comments was that it was a perfectly satisfactory alternative, but I now readily accept that back cannot be a synonym for beyond. Amazing number of people who have made the same mistake, possibly a record? It rather took the gloss off a pretty good finishing time of 7.35.

  6. Missed SWORDPLAY, just couldn’t see any letters that would fit. Good clue.

    Also didn’t see SECOND or BEYOND, alphabet trawl brought up RECORD, BEHOLD etc. probably quite a few more.

  7. 15 minutes held up at the end by EXPEDIENT and LOI SWORDPLAY.
    But I too had BEYOND; I knew it had to be a double definition but could not think of anything better before coming here. SECOND is better.
    Some very good clues here; ticks for FIANCE, THICKEN and SWORDPLAY.
    Mara is often tricky, and was today.
    David

  8. Interesting. I am in the top 100 on the leaderboard but with 1 error. Yes you guessed it…..BEYOND. I didn’t think twice about putting in BEYOND because it worked with the checkers. The only other clue I had real trouble with was SWORDPLAY. Thanks Doofers

    I am really struggling to see how further = SECOND. Can anyone shed more light please? AI certainly doesn’t think the words are interchangeable.

    1. If you have two issues to raise, then after the first one you can introduce the next by saying further/second. . .

      1. Thanks Invariant. I still think that it is a bit woolly. Presumably further could be third or fourth also in this context.

  9. I found this very easy, surprised by the comments as I usually have the opposite exprience

    5:59 with a c not an s

  10. 9 minutes. Fortunate to put in SECOND at 15d as my LOI, even though I wasn’t convinced by the ‘Further’ def. Missed a couple of things – didn’t see that the def meant STENCH was a verb and couldn’t work out ‘handful of notes’ for SNATCH – but otherwise not too demanding. Favourite was our canine friend at 2d.

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  11. 18 minutes including the inevitable BEYOND. Before I got OLIVE I had briefly considered BEHIND for 15dn, so when OLIVE surfaced I thought of BEYOND immediately and never gave a SECOND thought to anything else. Didn’t like SNATCH very much as I don’t feel it’s synonymous with pilfer and I didn’t understand the handful of notes. Other than that, no problems!

    FOI – 1ac FACIAL
    LOI – 23ac SNATCH
    COD – 13ac SWORDPLAY. Also liked the versatile kitchen set.

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers.

  13. Back down to earth with a DNF after posting a great time yesterday.

    I had all but one clue solved (or so I thought) in just 19 minutes, but 13a defeated me, even though I got as far as SWORD_L_Y, and I threw in the towel 8-10 minutes later.

    Then, upon coming here and to my surprise, I found that bEyOND was wrong at 15d. Inexplicable! I’m struggling to understand SECOND as the solution. Too much ambiguity IMHO, so not a good clue for a QC.

    Many thanks to Doofers and Mara.

  14. 7.11 LAUNDRY BASKET took a while because I was looking for something explicitly clerical. I also MERed at STENCH and SECOND was LOI. I didn’t think of BEYOND fortunately. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  15. Finished in 42 minutes with the exception of, yep, SECOND, and I’m also in the group who’d not come across STENCH as a verb before. LOI was TRAIT, which I couldn’t see at all until the checker from LAUNDRY BASKET came in. Almost put SLIME in for OLIVE (with S being half of SO and LIME being the green fruit), but then figured you probably wouldn’t want to use it for cooking. Thanks Doofers and Mara!

  16. 18:18

    Thought there might be a pangram with all those Qs, Zs, Vs and Ks but not to be. Didn’t really parse COCKER SPANIEL or LOI EXAMPLE where I had examine until I saw PIECE.

  17. All correct (luckily ‘beyond’ never occurred to me) but tricky in places. My two PDMs were SWORDPLAY and, rather more embarrassingly, LOI BOWLER (dearie me). Bothered by STENCH not being right part of speech, but happy to be educated by D and others, for which many thanks. COD by quite some margin SWORDPLAY. Many thanks Mara, all very entertaining. Thanks D.

  18. Thanks to Mara and Doofenschmirtz.
    12a Plaudit. I too wanted the P to be last.
    13a Swordplay, probably a chestnut but COD.
    2d Cocker Spaniel, biffed, saw the cock but not the erel.
    16d NHO Stench as a verb.
    22a/15d DNF not Second but Before which seemed OK but made Dulcet impossible.
    23a Snatch. G&S, Mikado.
    “A wandering minstrel I —
    A thing of shreds and patches
    Of ballads, songs and snatches
    And dreamy lullaby!….”

  22. This resident of the SCC was going to say what a lovely QC. Then I discovered BEYOND was wrong 😥. At least I was in good company! But overall a good workout for me, and I was very happy about the word STENCH feeling pleased to know the fish. I didn’t stop to think of the use of STENCH as a verb.

  24. 6:21

    More than half of today’s contestants (117 out of 263 as I write) in the Crossword Club have stuffed this one up. I’m another BEYOND for the same reasons as others have justified their mistake. I don’t think it’s the worst answer ever, and sadly the puzzle is somewhat spoilt as a consequence – guess this possibility was not picked up in the editing.

    Thanks Doofers and Mara

  25. Fortunately beyond didn’t occur. Record did, but it was so obviously wrong that I was able to resist it. I never really saw SECOND/further, but SECOND/back was so strong that in it went.

    The number of errors does explain how on earth I am 56 of 265 with a time of 08:14!! COD to SWORDPLAY.

    Many thanks Doofers and Mara.

  26. Didn’t enjoy this one. No rhythm, nor much pace either. Another with Beyond and others to query too.

  27. I considered both BEYOND and SECOND and didn’t much like either of them, eventually going with the latter. So all green in 16:29 but not entirely satisfyingly, as a few of the definitions felt rather tenuous – perfectly legitimate, I know, but not to my personal taste.

    Thank you for the blog!

  28. Funny – I saw ‘back’ at 15d, biffed SECOND and then had a little think about ‘further’. It seemed a bit loose, but I went with it, for which I’m relieved. STENCH, as discussed above, was also biffed, but without pause for thought!
    I liked PLAUDIT, SNATCH, THICKEN and LAUNDRY BASKET. Quiche tonight, so our PIE case will be filled 😉
    8:55 FOI Facial LOI Bowler COD Swordplay
    Thanks Mara and Doofers

  29. All done and at least partly parsed. Second for back was the closest I got, hoping that you’d be insecond if you were further back. Thanks Invariant for the clearer example.

    FOI piece
    LOI laundry basket. I had laundry early but needed the checkers for basket
    COD Swordplay

    thanks Mara and Doofers

  30. 46 minute DNF.

    Spent half of my time looking at 13 ac and eventually put in SHODDILLY! At least that will give you all a laugh at my ineptitude.

    Well over an hour on proper crossword and got about 3/5.

    Over 2 hours on cryptics today and absolutely zilch to show for it. Another day when I come away feeling despondent. There is a secret to this that I cannot fathom. Frustrating beyond measure!

Comments are closed.