Quick Cryptic No 2706 by Mara

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

With nine clues involving anagrams, I hope you all had your anagram hats close at hand today. I was pushed a little beyond my 15 minute target, finishing in 16:14. My last two in were ANNUAL and INTENDED. I very much liked some of the short answers: ETCH and AGAR in particular.

Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough.

Across
1 Zesty thing, failure (5)
LEMON – A double definition to open with.

The fifth definition of LEMON in my dictionary: “…a simpleton, a loser…”. I didn’t know this meaning: I knew the “lousy car” meaning and extrapolated from there.
4 Bright star seen in April, so extraordinary (7)
POLARIS – Anagram [extraordinary] of APRIL SO.
8 Deliverer of food in rebuilt terrace (7)
CATERER – Anagram [rebuilt] of TERRACE.
9 Eaglet ultimately has solitary short claw (5)
TALON – EagleT [ultimately] + ALONe (solitary) [short].
10 Athlete blasted club (4,6)
SHOT PUTTER – SHOT (blasted, like a gun), PUTTER (golf club).
14 Stop to pen a book (6)
ANNUAL – ANNUL (stop) containing [to pen] A.

This was my POI: I had the two As, but it took a good while for the “book” meaning of annual to dawn on me.
15 Position held by Pakistan, certainly (6)
STANCE – Hidden in [held by] PakiSTAN CErtainly.
17 Weather set to change, darling (10)
SWEETHEART – Anagram [to change] of WEATHER SET.
20 Broadcaster in South American city screening commercial (5)
RADIO – RIO (South American city) with AD (commercial) inside it [screening].
22 Snug clothes on in the near future (7)
TONIGHT – TIGHT (snug) surrounds [clothes] ON.

Clothes switches from a noun in the surface to a verb in the wordplay.
23 Tinkerer, one taking a bow? (7)
FIDDLER – Either a double definition, or a definition and a cryptic hint, the bow in question being a violin bow.
24 World having change of heart (5)
EARTH – Anagram [change] of HEART.
Down
1 Cuckoo caught by buffalo, comfortably (4)
LOCO – Hidden in [caught by] buffaLO COmfortably.
2 Dog leads on many, unlikely terriers tethered (4)
MUTT – First letters [leads on] Many Unlikely Terriers Tethered.
3 Remake has rotten direction (5-4)
NORTH-EAST – anagram [remake] of HAS ROTTEN.

Yes, I tried to make an anagram out of REMAKE HAS too.
4 Spread covering Irish Rover (6)
PIRATE – PATE (spread) covering IR for Irish.

Sallee Rovers were pirates in the Mediterranean in the 17th and 18th century. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen “rover” used to mean “pirate” without the “Sallee”, but it is the first definition in my dictionary.
5 Books on fire (3)
LIT – A double definition, the first being an abbreviation for literature.
6 Telling tale, grin maniacally (8)
RELATING – Anagram [maniacally] of TALE GRIN.
7 Newspaper airs bits and bobs (8)
SUNDRIES – SUN (newspaper), DRIES (airs).
11 Complete cane broken: something to say? (9)
UTTERANCE – UTTER (complete) + an anagram [broken] of CANE.
12 Sarnies organised with minimum of fuss, type without decoration (8)
SANSERIF – Anagram [organised] of SARNIES, plus the first letter [minimum] of Fuss.

I had always thought this was two words, sans serif, meaning “without the twiddly bits”, but the dictionary has this spelling as an alternative.

I would be failing in my blogging duty if I missed the chance to mention the nation of San Serriffe. This was published in The Guardian, which I seem to recall was the first major British newspaper to adopt a sans serif typeface. Coincidence?
13 Deliberate, one having finished absorbing religious books (8)
INTENDED – I (one) and ENDED (having finished) containing [absorbing] NT (New Testament – religious books).

This was my LOI, but once I got the crossing N from ANNUAL, it came quickly.
16 Person having a flutter fully recovered (6)
BETTER – A double definition, the first being slang for a small wager.
18 Gelatinous substance a scrap of cloth picked up (4)
AGAR – A RAG (a scrap of cloth) backwards [picked up, since this is a down clue].

This one sent me the wrong way: I thought ‘picked up’ was a homophone indicator. No doubt exactly as intended.
19 Cut the new bandages carefully at first (4)
ETCH – an anagram [new] of THE contains [bandages] Carefully [at first].
21 Bird on wall at regular intervals (3)
OWL – Every other letter [at regular intervals] of OnWaLl.

 

65 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 2706 by Mara”

  1. Sitting up with a sick dog I got the opportunity to solve this as soon as it was published. Usually I solve late in the day one evening and can post anytime after, say, 4pm. So I was surprised to pretty well solve this Mara from top down in a quick time for me.
    FOI 1a lemon
    LOI 19d etch
    Off now to the emergency vet…..

  3. Slow going on this one; SHOT PUTTER, ANNUAL (same problem as Doof), UTTERANCE, & especially LOI SUNDRIES all took much more time than they should have. 7:24.

  4. 8 minutes, no problems. ANNUAL was my LOI but came easily enough once I had all the checkers.

    There’s a problem with the printing format for today’s 15×15 which doesn’t seem to have affected this or any other puzzle so I assume it’s a glitch rather than a sudden change of policy. I certainly hope so!

  5. All the usual sources have both sans serif and sanserif and Chambers gives preference to sanserif. One of those instances where foreign words or expressions acquire an anglicised spelling which then becomes legitimate.

    1. Like Vinyl, I can tolerate the alternate spelling, though not without some residual regret at what is thus lost. (Or should I say perdu? Ha)

      1. I appreciate it would matter to French speakers but once an expression has been anglicised, for me it’s a case of san fairy ann.☺️

  6. Pretty much a top to bottom solve with much praise of the surfaces as we went. Typical Mara misdirection of bow!

    Last 2 same as Doofers, annual and intended, taking us from possible sub 20 to 21.33.

    Really liked owl, simple but effective.

    Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  7. I was slow here, taking just over 14 minutes. The NE was my undoing, with POLARIS, PIRATE and LIT all holding me up. Lit = books took time to see, and if I called any of Mrs S’s finest pâtés a spread I’d be in the doghouse for a week.

    But otherwise, difficult to see quite why I took so long, as all was fair (even SANSERIF as one word – I’m fairly sure we’ve seen that before) and a fine puzzle.

    Many thanks Doofers for the blog
    Cedric

  8. Only five on the first pass of acrosses but the helpful checkers from the downs meant I was then making good progress until SUNDRIES, ANNUAL and LOI ETCH saw me crawling over the line. ETCH in particular where the definition looked fine I just couldn’t make sense of the cryptic even though it was all there in front of me – and for some reason I thought ‘itch’ might work. All green a shade under 13.

  9. 16:02, train solve, done by New Malden.

    SE corner was the time sink. ETCH was tricky with “bandages” as a containment indicator and “the” as the most unlikely anagrist.

    And in AGAR, I thought “picked up” was a homophone indicator, as it usually is. For my LOI I came to the blog thinking that a “gaar” or “ghar” was some kind of cloth.

    COD TONIGHT, my other blocker in that corner, very clever how “clothes” was used.

  10. Anagram hat was quickly located and the puzzle didn’t put up much resistance until faced with ETCH, INTENDED and ANNUAL which slowed things down a little at the end.
    Finished in 6.50.
    Thanks to Doofers

  11. I had my gripe about SANSERIF last time Mara used it
    https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/times-quick-cryptic-2572-by-mara#comments
    But given that I’d seen it before it went in much more easily today.

    My other gripe is that I’m sure a person who bets is a BETTOR but I’m presumably wrong about that?

    I enjoyed this one a lot. I didn’t get ANNUAL or PIRATE, being that I couldn’t think of annual as a book or annul for stop, and pate for a spread or pirate for rover.

    But the rest was good!

    1. I’m pretty sure that bettor is preferred in Australia, NZ and US, but the Poms prefer better.

  12. 6:14

    Should have been on the Glasgow train this morning, but anything north of Crewe is currently screwed, so I’m working from home today.

    No issues, though took a few moments to puzzle out SUNDRIES before finishing with TONIGHT and ETCH.

    The Guardian’s elaborate San Serriffe April Fool is well remembered here.

    Thanks Doofers and Mara

  13. I sped through this one finishing in 6.02. Looking at some of the times posted so far, I was speedier than some who usually post quicker times than me, so I guess I must have been on form today and on the setters wavelength. The only clue to hold me up to any great extent was ETCH, where I needed to parse it before being confident enough to stop the clock.

  14. 10:41 (Edward the Confessor returns from exile in Normandy)

    I enjoyed this a lot. I wasted some time trying to make SOONEST fit 22a, but could not parse it. Eventually saw TONIGHT.
    LOI and COD was ETCH.

    Thanks Doofers and Mara

  15. Fairly quick completing as I went along. Just held up with ANNUAL and ETCH – my last two. Also remember the clever San Serriffe spoof in the Guardian. Think that was the first time there was an elaborate April fool in the serious press. Maybe even better was the Panorama/Richard Dimbleby spaghetti tree hoax from 1957. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  16. My anagram hat worked well and I nailed this very quickly.

    FOI CATERER
    LOI ANNUAL
    COD SUNDRIES
    TIME 3:20

  17. I got stuck quite a bit during this – couldn’t think of POLARIS, didn’t equate “rover” with PIRATE, first thought at 6d was “altering” and took a while to get that out of my head, burned time parsing ETCH (very clever, COD from me) and more time getting LOI ANNUAL. So struggled all over the grid today, well played Mara.

    All done in 08:26 for 1.1K and a Meh Day. Many thanks Mara and Doofster.

    Templar

  18. Enjoyable. LOsI ANNUAL and ETCH,latter unparsed.
    Yes, thought of SANS sERIF immediately so just pencilled it in without the extra S. Liked NORTH EAST , POLARIS, RADIO, LOCO, SHOT PUTTER.
    Thanks vm, Doofers.

  20. 07:54
    Quite fast for a Mara, only got stuck on annual and intended.
    COD sweetheart

  21. No problems with the anagrams, though parsing poi Etch certainly took a bit of working out. I initially thought cut was a bit iffy for etch, but I suppose you can ‘cut’ something with acid. Sadly I still managed to register a DNF, as 14ac A*n*a* just wouldn’t grow into an Annual no matter how many times I came back to it. A sub-20 for all the rest, with CoD to 7d Sundries, just ahead of Sanserif. Invariant

  22. 6:19
    It’s taken over a week, but we’re finally back in single digit minutes. Think the only clue that was vaguely 15x15ish was my LOI ANNUAL, as it’s composed only of three and four-letter words, all with many possible meanings, and checkers were similarly ungenerous.

  23. All finished and parsed – LOI ETCH – fun. Liked NORTH-EAST. Don’t like SANSERIF (agree better in two words) but we had this same conversation a few months ago and now I’m primed for it.

  24. A relatively quick one today but I was slowed down by bunging in Log for LIT , the clever wordplay for ETCH and solving my LOsI (like Doof and others) ANNUAL and INTENDED. 7:09

  25. 10 minutes for me, LOI ANNUAL after LIT.
    There were some tricky items here but the crossers were helpful.
    AGAR one to remember as I’ve now seen it several times in puzzles.
    COD to SHOT PUTTER. Perhaps that’s what Rory did when he got home.
    David

  26. 7.00

    A smidgeon of sluggishness here starting by getting fixated on lime rather than the citrus fruit with the correct number of letters.

    Liked NORTH EAST which also fooled me for a while

  27. 17 minutes today, which is an average time for me. I thought it might be quicker as I started pretty well on the acrosses at the top but slowed down rather as I got further south. Spent a lot of time on SUNDRIES, thinking that ‘airs’ in the clue meant I was looking for a homophone of bits. I saw PIRATE at 4dn quite quickly but hesitated as to whether it equated to ‘rover’ and only put it in when I had all the crossers.

    FOI – 4ac POLARIS
    LOI – 14ac ANNUAL
    COD – 7dn SUNDRIES, completely bamboozled by Mara there. Also liked SHOT PUTTER and SWEETHEART.

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  28. Steady solve today. Slight hold-ups with ETCH, SUNDRIES (COD) and LOI ANNUAL. Otherwise fairly plain sailing. Thanks D and Mara.

    1. If you enjoyed that, look at the Panorama spaghetti tree – amazing amount of seemingly authentic detail for something impossible!

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