Quick Cryptic 9 by Grumpy. Pumpkins at midnight for Marks & Sparks

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The office temp here (this is a one-off, it will be someone else next time) so I was watching the clock. It may have been blog fright but at 8 minutes I found this a bit harder than average. No byline was up when I posted so it will have to be added later.

Across

8 RAGTIME. Music. Played by Alexander’s band until the time Cinderella runs off leaving her glass slipper as her ball gown turns back to rags.
9 ROOST. Roo(s)t.
10 PLAIN. Plain = frank. Double definition.
11 GLADDEN. Please = gl(add)en.
12 SCARPERED. Left = Phys Ed in scarred.
14 PIP. Young Philip Pirrip in Great Expectations. Just beat, as in pip at the post. Double definition.
16 LOP. Lop(e).
18 ALCHEMIST. Old transformer. Anagram of St. Michael. Someone who claimed to turn base metal into gold, among other things.
21 FUNFAIR. Place of entertainment. F(rance) plus unfair as in not just.
22 AUDIT. Review. Every other letter in A (B)u(d)d(h)i(s)t.
23 FLUSH. Double definition. Not outstanding, as in built flush to the wall.
24 SUPREMO. Leader. Anagram of Euro MPs.

down

1 PROPOSAL. Motion, as in Parliament. Prop = part of plane plus anagram of also.
2 IGUANA. Lizard. 1 Gu(y)ana. This took me the longest to parse. I had the answer but Ghana kept sticking its head in because I’d forgotten about the S.A. country.
3 MIEN. Air. M(iles)i.e.n(umber).
4 LEDGER. Book. Ledge(r).
5 ORGANDIE. Material. What the ball gown was made of. Organ = publication plus die = pass on.
6 HOLD-UP. Double definition.
7 STUN. Taser. Nuts = heads reversed.
13 PHARAOHS. Kings. Homophone for Faroes, the islands in the old shipping forecasts.
15 PETITION. Solicitation. Petit = French for small plus i(r)on. Excellent clue.
17 PENT-UP. Repressed. Ear nose and throat dept in pup.
19 CERISE. Colour hidden in (Spen)cerise(ye-catching).
20 INDEED. Truly. In(deed).
21 FIFE. Double definition. Where the Prince met Kate.
22 ASPS. Snakes. As = like plus p(ython)s.

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 9 by Grumpy. Pumpkins at midnight for Marks & Sparks”

  1. The setter today is Grumpy.

    Thanks for minding the shop, O. You were 10 minutes under my solving time. I took a good minute to find my first answer for some reason but it then fell quite steadily into place. It warmed me up nicely for the big one though.

    You are missing 1dn, by the way.

    Edited at 2014-03-20 08:07 am (UTC)

    1. Edited. Thanks Jack. It was the middle of the night in NYC so I was a bit discombobulated.
  2. Yesterday’s Quickie was almost a standard text for setting techniques. This one is noticeably harder (and in fact took me almost as long as the main cryptic) but is in no way unfair. I think that unlike Jack, I am better suited to tackling the big one first.

    Well blogged, Olivia.

  4. 9 minutes, but like Jack I was halfway down the across clues and a good 2 minutes in) before any thing clicked. My subconscious solver came up with SCARPERED.
    I was pleased to get PHARAOHS right at first go, with the O and A temptingly swappable.
    Possibly more than just a warm-up for the main event today, ROOST and ASPS both contribute. I described the clue for ROOST in the Slowie as being “Quickie level”, and I think it possible they just got swapped.
    RAGTIME is a fine clue, crisp and witty. More, please, Grumpy!
    Nice blog Olivia (nice: adj, accurate, done with great care and exactness). Are you sure it’s just a temporary flirtation? How about if we introduced some editorial errors?
    1. Har Har Z. I saw your comment on the latest tls. I guess we’ll stay tuned.
  5. Thanks Olivia, enjoyed your blog.

    PETITION was indeed a ripper, as we say here in Oz: also liked RAGTIME.

    Enjoyed this one. Took me about 20 minutes (fastest yet) and now hacking through the main cryptic, inspired with confidence!

    Edited at 2014-03-20 09:41 am (UTC)

  6. 6 mins and I was probably just on the setter’s wavelength because this felt a little more difficult than some of the earlier QCs. I thought the clue for RAGTIME was excellent, and PROPOSAL was my LOI.
  7. Found this harder than yesterday. About 40 minutes but needed to cheat to get ORGANDIE.

    It was a very enjoyable puzzle nonetheless. My favourites were RAGTIME, FUNFAIR and FLUSH.

  8. Since I’d been told it would work, I tried this one (and yesterdays) on my smartarse phone – a motorola droid mini. This works rather well on my phone, and will add to the minutes I spend staring at it and poking, so thanks Times!

    Puzzle was fun, PROPOSAL last one in, very fair clueing.

  10. Oh dear, after bragging about my improvements yesterday I found this one really *hard* I only managed to solve 7 clues by myself even when I’d seeded the grid with some of your answers to help me.
    Positive self-image was restored though when the Super Fiendish Su Doku turned out to be nothing short of a doddle!
    1. Nil desperandum. It took me 15 years to get where I am and the real pros have been at it since their teens. It’s too late for me to get any better now but the thing is this is supposed to be fun – which it certainly is for me and very much hope it is for you. Don’t give up. By the way I can’t do SuDoku in my dreams. Letters and words, fine. Numbers – oh dear, MEGO (my eyes glaze over).
      1. There is no mathematics involved in Sudoku. It is pure logic. The numbers could be letters, fruits, colours or anything for want.
        1. I think you will find there is arithmetic in any normal sudoku. Even if you used fruit, they would have to add up to nine…
          1. Have you ever done a sudoku before?? There is no arithmetic. You don’t ADD any numbers. You have to ensure that every number between 1 and 9 is in every box, column and row.
  11. I’m a newbie to cryptic crosswords and I’m really enjoying trying to solve these new quick crosswords. I completed my first crossword yesterday. But alas today’s crossword is far too hard. I could only solve 4 clues. Grumpy is a right grump.
    1. Welcome aboard crypticguy. As Olivia says, you really will get better as time goes by and I hope that the trail is enjoyable. And I agree with you that there is minimal maths in Sudoku.

      Edited at 2014-03-20 09:40 pm (UTC)

    2. Keep at it crypticguy, you will get better. I know that I am.

      I don’t know if it will help you but I set myself a time limit that suits me. Wherever I am at the end of that time (well unless there is just one or two left), then I see little point in fretting over the remainder. I get much more from seeing the solution and how it is decoded. Sometimes I can’t work it out even if I do see the solution and so thank heavens for this blog that I wish I had discovered yonks ago.

      When I began flirting with the main puzzle I mostly couldn’t see the link between clue and solution. I often still struggle. However, it got better. As I persevered I started to be able to fill in more and when I first completed the main puzzle with all the aids imaginable, I was still proud.

      I think the thrill of the chase is more important than anything else. We all do crosswords because we enjoy the puzzle. So what if you can’t solve it in under 10 minutes!

      Of course I would still love to be confident about solving the main puzzle within any time limit but, hey, I won’t lose any sleep over it. I enjoy being entertained by the cleverness of the setters.

  12. I’ve spent 10 years talking about trying cryptic crosswords but never found the way in. Since the Times started the Quick Cryptic I’ve finally gave it a go. I’m getting about 3-4 clues a day at the moment but hopefully will improve over time.

    Thanks for this blog it’s helping me to crack the cryptic code – looking forward to finishing my first cryptic crossword in the coming months.

    1. Welcome, chorlton! It’s encouraging to see so many new faces here since the Quickie started. Keep up the good work and I hope you will become a regular contributor. I’m sure it won’t be long before you crack your first complete grid.
  13. I found this one really difficult – having solved some of the earlier ones. I hate to admit it but I solved ‘ragtime’ by googling the clue and finding that it was quoted in an article in the Daily Telegraph as someone’s favorite clue. So I guess that means that it had been used before.
    I find Sudokos easier but less fun.
    1. Hello. These things do take time so please don’t be discouraged. Why not give yourself a name and join us. We have NicktheNovice who is new and already has a following. There’s no shame in googling as long as you say so. We all do it now and then. Today’s regular cryptic was one that I and others thought very hard but other solvers found on their wavelength – so there’s no saying from day to day. The point is to enjoy them. Do stick around!

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