Quick Cryptic 779 by Mara

Author   galsprayPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Twice as hard as yesterday I reckon.  At least it took me twice as long, bang on 7 minutes.  Quite a few double defs and some whimsical wordplay making for a nice Friday challenge.

If you knew CHATEAUBRIAND then you were denied the pleasure of trying to construct it from the anagrist.  It was my LOI and probably my COD.  Thanks Mara.

Here’s how I solved the puzzle.  Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined.  Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised.  Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay.  (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’.

Across
1 French author passing around quiet university grounds (6)
CAMPUS – CAMUS (French author) around P (quiet)
That would be Albert Camus.  Taken too young in a car accident at the age of 46.
5 Music genre connected to house? (6)
GARAGE – Double def, the second slightly oblique.
In the US, garage music is regarded as a form of (or spin-off from) house music, which would make the clue barely cryptic.  But I assume the second def’s just referring to where you might park your car.
8 A hit with bean curd, a strange meat dish (13)
CHATEAUBRIAND – (A HIT BEAN CURD A)*
Nothing strange about the dish of course, that’s just the anagrind.
9 Rule not starting soon (4)
ANON – {C}ANON (rule), not starting
10 Time that may be passed? (8)
SENTENCE – Cryptic def.  A prison sentence, which may be passed, can be referred to as “doing time”.
11 Country accommodating a western nation (6)
MALAWI – MALI (country) “accommodating” A + W (western)
Mali is a big player on the world stage when it comes to crossword mentions.  G7 material at least.
13 One, say, feeling less? (6)
NUMBER – Double def
Two totally unrelated meanings of the word “number”.  Funny old language.
15 Nuts and biscuits (8)
CRACKERS – Double def
See previous clue.
17 Lift card (4)
JACK – Double def
See previous clues.
19 Sudden action, attack by lion? (7,6)
WILDCAT STRIKE – Yet another double def
The first def references a type of industrial action taken without union leadership approval.  The second is more of a suggested possibility, hence the question mark.
21 Fuel spoken of for flier (6)
PETREL – Homophone (spoken of) for PETROL (fuel)
22 Pass by eastern part of church behind back of chancel (6)
ELAPSE – E (eastern) + L (back of chancel) + APSE (part of church)
Some people complain about the number of drug references in the crosswords.  I reckon there’s too many church references.
Down
2 Shane, awfully pale (5)
ASHEN – (SHANE)*
Time for Warnie to top up the fake tan?
3 Plant, peanut I gathered (7)
PETUNIA – (PEANUT I)*
Pretty friendly for a plant clue.
4 Country lacking in spring (3)
SPA – SPA{IN} (country), lacking IN
5 Leave fruit — lose it! (2,7)
GO BANANAS – GO (leave) + BANANAS (fruit)
6 Lift beams, did you say? (5)
RAISE – Homophone (did you say?) for RAYS (beams)
7 Horse laid up, hurt — sweet thing (7)
GANACHE – GAN [NAG (horse), reversed (laid up)] + ACHE (hurt)
A chocolate and cream filling for confectioneries and cakes.  Delicious if you like that sort of thing.
10 Nasty person, thin, ruined label (9)
SLIMEBALL – SLIM (thin) + (LABEL)*
Is a slimeball better or worse than a sleazebag?  Discuss.
12 Business that takes off? (7)
AIRLINE – Cryptic definition
14 Island where big cat docked (7)
MAJORCA – MAJOR (big) + CA (CA{T}, docked)
16 Coming up in winter, a deciduous tree (5)
CEDAR – Reverse hidden (coming up) in (winteR A DECiduous)
18 Gateaux, last of those in different sack (5)
CAKES – E (last of those) in (SACK)*
20 Into fitness, healthy woman (3)
SHE – Hidden (into) in (fitnesS HEalthy)

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 779 by Mara”


  1. Middling difficulty with 8.28 on the clock.

    10ac SLIMEBALL LOI a phrase I eschew as ‘American’ along with douchebag, motherlover etc. Sleazebag preferred I suppose.

    Albert CAMUS played in goal for Racing Universitaire d’Alger and won both the North African Champions Cup and the North African Cup twice! Not bad for a genius. Einstein never wore the gloves.

    The team of my youth Lincoln City ‘The Imps’ take on the Arsenal at Highbury tomorrow afternoon – a shock would be nice! But not for ‘Old Vinegar face!’

    COD 8ac CHATEAUBRIAND followed by WOD7dn GANACHE.

    Edited at 2017-03-03 02:31 am (UTC)

  2. I agree this was not easy but I just crept home on target with 10 minutes on the clock. Among potential difficulties for newbies were CAMUS, CANON meaning “rule”, CHATEAUBRIAND, GANACHE (only known by me from watching “Masterchef”) and deciding between PETROL and PETREL (assuming both words were known, in which case it may have been easy just to bung in PETROL). The inclusion of the word at 19dn rather surprised me.
  3. Took us much longer, not helped by work distractions.

    I liked Majorca, both the clue and the island. Although not been there in forty years or so. I hear it’s less attractive these days. Too many tourists.

    Whilst I biffed it
    Rule not starting soon (4)
    ANON – {C}ANON (rule), not starting … I find a stretch. Fine once you see it.

    I should also state that I work in the same office as the inimitable Galspray.
    Although not for the same company 🙂

    Edited at 2017-03-03 06:14 am (UTC)

    1. Inimitable? Not sure anyone’s ever tried.

      Good to see you on board Ham. Impressive progress on the Quicky so far.

  4. … as an alternative clue for 10d?
    Definitely a chewy QC today with plenty to tax solvers new and old. COD goes to 19a.
    GeoffH 4’40”
  5. Tricky, that, only just inside my 30 min limit today.

    Never heard of Ganache and I had —-eball at 10d for ages before realising the right word for slim.

    On a point of order, I put petrol with an ‘O’ at 21a, does that make me a DNF officially?

    I’m currently involved with writing some mental health awarenesss training at work and one of the things we’ve discussed is that in a world where racist, or sexist, or ageist language is frowned upon, it stills seems acceptable to call somebody crazy, bonkers, nuts or mental. Today’s Quickie made me realise that crosswordland is full of them!

  6. Quite a shock to the system after yesterday. Don’t know if it was my mood (forced to wait in for a delivery) or the abruptness of the clues, but I didn’t enjoy today’s puzzle. Nothing seemed to flow and in the end I was just grateful to finish. 19ac at least made me smile. Invariant
  7. I think this was far too hard for a QC. I didn’t finish, having never heard of petrel, and airline just wasn’t presenting itself. Don’t really think it’s that great a clue anyway. Petunia, chateaubriand, wildcat strike, jack, anion and Malawi meant this was a right old slog. Gribb.
  8. I normally have a long tussle with Mara’s puzzles but I finished today with panache with Ganache in 14 minutes; I think a Mara PB for me.
    As we say, I was on the wavelength. MY FOI was 20d and I thought ,here we go again, but it all flowed after that. Enjoyed the puzzle; favourite today 13a. David

  9. DNF with quite a few short.

    But in other news, nearly cracked the 15×15 in not much more than an hour, which would smash my PB.

    QC bloggers alert me to the easier ones.

    1. I’m very impressed, Merlin. Today’s 15×15 was much harder than the others this week, and well beyond my efforts. Invariant
  10. could 21a be read both ways? With fuel as the definition and flier as the homophone, and vice versa?
    1. This type of clue can often be ambiguous, but in this case I think the homophone indicator is clearly attached to the fuel, suggesting we’re looking for something that sounds like petrol.
      The use of “for flier” also suggests that the bird is the intended result.
    2. I agree. I wrote petrol, since it made equal sense to assume it was the flier that was “spoken of”.
  11. I thought this was going to be a breeze as most of the top half went in without a pause. But the bottom half was much more Maralike and I got thoroughly bogged down in the SE (and 19a) corner – not helped by missing the simple anagram in 18d. Got all bar 10a in 20 minutes and then spent another five running through the alphabet before finally seeing what was going on. COD 13a. An enjoyable challenge to finish the week
  12. Fumbling with a keyboard and not having a bit of paper to hand for the long anagram drew my solving time out to 16:11. I’m usually a treeware person, but I have decided to move into the digital arena. Some tricky clues here, with some less well known words. A nice puzzle. Thanks Mara and Galspray.
  13. The cedar family (16d) are actually conifers and thus not deciduous. Cedars shed needles, not leaves (which they don’t have), and remain green throughout the year. Nonetheless it wasn’t very difficult to see what the solution was intended to be.
    1. But the definition isn’t “deciduous tree”, it’s “tree”, as per the blog.

      “Deciduous” is just part of the wordplay.

  17. About an hour.
    Some tough clues (e.g. 10a, 11a, 13a, 21a, 22a, 7d, 10d, 14d)

    Couldn’t parse Majorca.

    I guessed at Petral so technically a DNF.

    Edited at 2017-03-05 08:24 am (UTC)

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