Quick Cryptic No 2898 by Mara

 

Well, I hope you all had your anagram hats on today. I count a whopping seven anagrams in this one from Mara. Anagrams are my crosswording kryptonite so I’m happy to have finished below my target, taking 12:21. We also had a fair sprinkling of double definitions (four) and hidden words (three), so if those are your cup of tea, you probably had little trouble with this.

If, on the other hand, anagrams, double definitions and hidden words are your three least favourite types of clues, then that’s unlucky. But there’s always tomorrow.

My COD goes to SHAMROCK, because I love a good Dad joke.

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 Flask of rum or meths (7)
THERMOS – (or meths)*

This one may be harder for non-UK based folks. “Meths” is a abbreviation for “methylated spirits”, used as a fuel for camping stoves and suchlike in the UK.  Not that you really need to know that to solve the clue.

5 Pool where idol swims (4)
LIDO – (idol)*

Two anagrams in a row to start.

7 Section of Wood’s diary? (3)
LOG – double definition.

Ignore the capital W: it’s just there to deceive you.

8 Northern area set to change Lebanon’s region (4,4)
NEAR EAST – (n area set)*
10 Short piece from scriptwriter selected (5)
TERSE – hidden in [piece from] scriptwriTER SElected.
11 Sign is poor after treatment, having caught cold (7)
SCORPIO – (is poor)* including C for cold.

Oh, that sort of sign. And yet another anagram: at this point, of six clues I’d looked at, four had been anagrams.

13 Motive with respect to a family member (6)
REASON – RE (with respect to), A, SON (family member).
15 Aircraft windows letting in minimum of light (6)
PLANES – PANES (windows) including [letting in] the first letter [minimum] of Light.
17 Letter tiles arranged by each person, initially (7)
EPISTLE – First letters of Each Person [initially] and then – good grief, another anagram – (tiles)*.
18 Tea brought by idiot in the morning (5)
ASSAM – ASS (idiot), AM (in the morning).
20 Trefoil leaf in paste? (8)
SHAMROCK – double definition, the second a nice bit of whimsy: a paste diamond could indeed be a “sham rock”.
22 Main character on the radio (3)
SEA – sounds like [on the radio] ‘C’, a character.

I don’t think there’s anything more to this one. Fortunately C is early in the alphabet…

23 A little engraving on gold medal (4)
GONG – Hidden in [a little] engravinG ON Gold.
24 Sleeping accommodation rocks for rodents (7)
DORMICE – DORM (sleeping accommodation), ICE (rocks, diamonds).
Down
1 Discuss meat, but don’t mince words (4,6)
TALK TURKEY – TALK (discuss), TURKEY (meat)
2 Found in brasserie, a German very hungry (5)
EAGER -Hidden [found] in brasseriE A GERman.
3 Staff produce vegetable (9)
MANGETOUT – MAN (staff, a verb), GET OUT (produce, like an edition of a newspaper).
4 Extra bags seem, originally, meagre (6)
SPARSE – SPARE (extra) includes [bags, a verb] Seem [originally].

Brilliant misdirection on “extra bags”, where I thought of the ever-increasing pile of shopping bags in the back of my car.

5 Story line’s not new (3)
LIE – LInE [not new].
6 When messy, stand up for cleaning receptacle (7)
DUSTPAN – (stand up)*
9 Perfect floor covering in use (10)
CONSUMMATE – MAT (floor covering) in CONSUME (use).

This was my LOI.

12 Large ship, poor relation boarded by king (3,6)
OIL TANKER – K for King in (relation)*
14 Sound of patient with cold: what might wipe nose, did you say? (7)
ATISHOO – Another homophone clue, sounds like [did you say?] “a tissue”.
16 Not the first  moment in time! (6)
SECOND – Double definition. How have I not seen this before?
19 South American greeting Japanese dish (5)
SUSHI – S (South), US (American), HI (greeting).

Lift and separate “South American”.

21 Face  coffee container? (3)
MUG – Another double definition.

84 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 2898 by Mara”

  1. Beaten by MANGETOUT, can’t say I’ve heard of it. Everything else pretty straightforward with, as you say, lots of hiddens and anagrams. Liked SHAMROCK and CONSUMMATE.
    Thanks D and setter.

  2. 18:02 Stared at CONSUMMATE for a long time. Also thought SPARES first for SPARSE and got stuck on DISH(?) instead of DUST, so much time slipped away! Luckily I remembered ATISHOO and MANGETOUT from previous puzzles.

  3. Finished fine, although I just biffed SHAMROCK from the first word trefoil and never went back to see how the rest of the clue worked. CONSUMMATE was my LOI too since I needed the checkers to see what was going on.

  4. 9:59 with no errors, definitely one of my better crossword sessions as I also finished the 15 x 15
    in 48.01, which is one of my better times (finishing it at all is fairly uncommon for me although I do feel I’m slowly getting better at them). As usual I enjoyed Mara’s puzzle, especially CONSUMMATE and my LOI and COD – SHAMROCK. FOI was THERMOS. Thanks Mara and Doofenschmirtz.

  5. I biffed MANGETOUT from the M and O, never parsed it. I was going to say that this might be difficult for US solvers–we call them snow peas–and I see that we have one NHO already (I’m inferring that Q is not a Brit). 6:48.

    1. Well, my first 20 yrs in Britain and the last 50 in Oz. Only know them as sugar snaps and snow peas. And after some research found that mangetout means ‘eat all’, which makes sense as the peas as well as the pod are so young.

      1. No, sugar snaps are different! They’re next to each other in the supermarket and we usually buy both together. SS are thick and bulging, MT are thin but tasty.

        1. Yes, but i didn’t say they were the same, rather that the name MANGETOUT includes both sugar snaps and snow peas as the whole is eaten.

          1. I’m now nonplussed, bewildered, flummoxed. Can anyone arbitrate? Our supermarket sells mangetout here, sugar snaps there. The two are of different appearance. Humph.
            Thank you, Invariant (below); any response from Q?

    2. The other words that global solvers have trouble with are the names for sounds – I was raised with Achoo and I always have to think twice to get the spelling right

  6. CONSUMMATE was also my LOI, and I thought it was a very good clue though possibly not all that QCish. 8.11 for me, an enjoyable solve, thanks to Mara and the Doof.

  7. 12 minutes, whilst still within my revised target time, was my slowest solve since Tuesday of last week. I had to return several times before getting PLANES (distracted by ‘windows’), MANGETOUT and SHAMROCK.

  8. DNF. Whacked in ‘leg’ meaning ‘section’ when as Doofers said, I should have ignored the capital and seen the straightforward in retrospect LOG. But then I’d typoed my why to MnaGETOUT before that so mucked up NEAR EAST too. Don’t think I’ve previously written out ATISHOO, ended on CONSUMMATE.

    Good challenge but ended up with three errors in an obviously too fast 8.29.

  9. We always find Mara’s puzzles tough but enjoyable. On seeing the setters name I invariably say “ah, Mara, Queen of misdirection”. And so it was! 25.12

    Lots to enjoy with COD to mangetout, (oh, my autocorrect just turned that into man get out!). Such a simple elegant clue.

    Completely fooled by the poor relation and spent too much time looking for old uncles and aunts.

    Like almost everyone else so far LOI was consummate having at stared for the crossers and clue for probably 3 to 4 minutes. Considered mat as floor covering but as we had M?A? Didn’t twig it might be double M so discarded.

    Thanks Mara, and Doofers for the parsing of shamrock

    1. That’s what prompted the PDM for me: M?A pretty much has to be MMA, I think (or fortunately thought, anyway).

    2. Not sure if there’s a reference in your saying that I don’t get, but Mara’s real name is John and he set’s for The Guardian as Paul.

      1. Ah! Thanks for the info. We only know Mara as a female name so made that assumption. So he’s the King of misdirection then 😀

        1. And even more so when setting as Paul! His puzzles in The Guardian are often wonders to behold.

          I may be wrong, but I think the only QC setter known to be female is Alex.

  10. 7:24

    I seem to have a blind spot with astrological signs – even though I am a SCORPIO, this was my L2I before the unparsed CONSUMMATE went in – been caught out by SCORPIO before. Thought twice about the spelling of ATISHOO, pleased to remember MANGETOUT (though they are not my favourite veg by any stretch). All in all, a friendly-ish workout.

    Thanks Mara and Doofenschmirtz

  11. Steady going today and I was saved from a DPS by my post-solve read through where I’d spelt ATISHOO with a ‘c’ in place of the ‘s’.
    Started with LIDO and finished with SPARSE, which is my COD for the misdirection, in 8.07.
    Thanks to Doofers

  12. A disappointing 28.15 After early joy, tragically slow on EPISTLE (letter? missive? of alphabet? Greek? Ah! anagram? thistle? bristle? whistle? Oh! EPISTLE!! …good grief…). Tried to anagram LEBANON’S then plodded through treacle to get to TURKEY.
    Thanks Mara – and D for blog – showing, as always, how the answers are and were there, staring at us.
    Bring on tomorrow.🙂

  13. 9:50, and was on course for something considerably faster until my last two, MANGETOUT and CONSUMMATE, added well over 3 minutes on. Both only succumbed to the brute force of a letter search and I only parsed the pair of them after seeing the answers. Otherwise fairly straightforward in the main with much to enjoy.

    Many thanks Doofers for the blog
    Cedric

  14. A nice QC. 14.44 so under target again. I shared almost all the difficulties listed above. MANGETOUT came quickly, given crossers; I moved on before parsing SHAMROCK (d’oh); CONSUMMATE was my LOI. Liked DORMICE.
    Btw, I always used meths in the little ring below the burner on a primus stove to heat up the burner nozzle and ignite the paraffin fuel as it emerged on pumping. Meths was never used as the actual fuel for the stove. Too dangerous.
    Thanks to both.

    1. Used meths for my Mamod toy steam engine, until a spillage caused some bad burns to the table. I see they use solid fuel now, a bit like some kind of fire lighter.

      1. I am astonished that I caused no damage I can remember with the meths. Startlingly dangerous for a schoolboy to play with. Dad and I used some Meccano to make a steam-powered hammer.

        1. Nice! I had one for Christmas aged around 11 and built a Meccano windmill as my first project for it. I still remember the crushing disappointment I felt when we hooked it up and the thing went round like an aircraft propeller rather than the sedate turning I had expected!!!

      2. Having just been given a Mamod as a (10th?) birthday present, I was allowed to go to the local chemist to buy some meths (yes, I know it would never happen these days, but this was the 60s, and young boys were trusted to do that sort of thing).
        When asked what volume I wanted, I confidently said a gallon, because I knew that’s what was used for petrol. Once the chemist had finished laughing, he solved his financial gain vs safety dilemma by selling me an enormous bottle (probably two quarts worth) of meths.
        That I regularly managed to pour this (unsupervised!) into the small fuel box without burning the house down remains one of life’s endearing mysteries.
        I’ll keep the story about the chemistry set for another time. . .

  15. Can’t believe no-one’s mentioned “mange tout, Rodney” yet. What a high minded bunch.

    MANGETOUT was actually my LOI (“get out” didn’t come to mind for “produce”, thus was definitely biff-then-parse) so my inner Del Boy didn’t help much.

    Rest of it reasonably smooth, COD to the excellent SPARSE. 07:17 for 1.1K and a Good Day. Many thanks Mara and Doofers.

    1. I was going to mention it – but you beat me to it. Glad I wasn’t the only who immediately thought of that.

  16. 4:22. A steady solve, taking care not to biff EPSILON at 17A from scanning the clues and seeing the E P and “letter”. CONSUMMATE only parsed after solving. Neat puzzle. The surface of 1D made me shudder, though…using the same receptacle for rum and meths is a bad idea. I remember a story of some garage mechanic getting very ill as he found a cherry brandy bottle in the boot of the car he was servicing… which contained meths. Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  17. 9:29
    I grow MANGETOUT on my allotment, so that went in easily enough. SPARSE was my LOI.

    Thanks Doofers and Mara

  18. 19:54 for the solve. Didn’t really enjoy that and actually had thoughts about bailing out after 8-9mins even though I was about 3/4s complete. Just didn’t like the clueing for answers like TALK-TURKEY, MANGETOUT, ATISHOO even though they went straight in. Last four mins spent trying to figure out what to do with the checkers of CONSUMMATE.

    Three hidden words feels like it’s a poor attempt to make things more accessible which I don’t think works. I preferred it when it was generally limited to one hidden forwards and another backwards.

    1. There has never been a limitation on the number of hiddens in QCs; the limitation you mention applies only to the 15x15s.

  19. Mangetout (definitely not the same thing as sugar snaps) went in quickly enough, as did most of Mara’s anagrams, that is once I eventually spotted the right anagrist (8ac🙄). 17min brought me to loi Consummate, but *o*s*m*a*e, didn’t look particularly promising, especially when I wasn’t completely sure what the target was. Tried a couple of alpha-trawls, but decided to pull stumps at the 20min mark, which was probably for the best. CoD to the aforementioned Mangetout, for the succinct surface. Invariant

  20. Nice, fairly gentle offering. Nothing too controversial, but a few held me up. My LOI was also CONSUMMATE (didn’t realise it had a double M but then when everything else was there I had to put it in and hope it all went green). I finished in 8:57 so on the slightly quick side of par I think.

    I have one pet peeve with 15ac. I hate it when a device like “minimum of light” is used to indicate the initial letter. I just don’t think it works. “minimum” would surely mean the smallest thing that can be thought of as the thing that follows (in this case a photon). “L” can’t mean “minimum of light” in any context I’m aware of. I feel it is a pretty lazy way to clue a single letter to make the surface work. I always wonder, when I see things like this, whether the setters are under more time pressure when they make the quick cryptics as, surely, there has to be a better way to clue an L in PANES?

    1. I’m with you on this, I can’t think of any context where “minimum” means the start of. But I’m sure other bloggers will take up the challenge.

      1. If you write the minimum amount of the word LIGHT, you just write its first letter (any less and you’ve written nothing!). It might not be the smoothest device, but in the world of crosswords where a flower can be a river, I can’t really sustain an principled objection.

        1. Hmm… If you write the minimum of “LIGHT” it could be “L”, “I”, “G”, “H” or “T”. I agree “minimum” could mean a single letter, but it doesn’t say which one. When the setter uses a device like “initially” or “to start with” it unambiguously means the first letter. So I accept your point and, moreover, I fully accept your right to disagree with me! It is my pet peeve, not yours. 🙂

          Unless I’m mistaken, this seems to be a fairly recent innovation, so my peeve could also be a symptom of an increasingly older man being resistant to change.

          1. I’d agree it’s a device I’ve only seen being used in the last year or so. And possibly more so at The Guardian.

            I feel a little unsettled by it. Probably because it’s a device I haven’t seen often enough yet to get comfortable with.

  21. Drat! So that’s why CNP bLiNdS – almost “aircraft windows”, and certainly Venetian blinds do “let in a minimum of light”, just not right enough. CNP LOI SPARSE, difficult. NHO fake diamonds = paste, thank you Mrs M. Otherwise plenty of fun, thank you Mara and Doof.

  22. A second day with no real holdups and (for me) a very quick time.

    Like others I fiddled about with LOI CONSUMMATE. It still looks odd with two Ms.

    Thanks to both.

  23. DNF. My spelling of CONSUMEATE looks just as likely as the correct spelling. A word I can’t remember seeing written down before. Was on for a 12 minute solve, 3 stations on South West Trains.

    Had SCARCE for a long time until SCORPIO appeared.

    COD SHAMROCK but I didn’t appreciate the “Dad joke” until reading of it here — thanks Doofers.

  24. A neat crossword that stretched me a bit, although I managed to finish inside target at 9.03. As I was writing in MANGETOUT I had a vision of Del Boy in my head, and I can now see why it caused a few problems for those solvers not UK based. My main hold up was with my LOI SHAMROCK where it must have taken me approaching a minute to see it. I put the answer in and stopped the clock, still not having parsed it. Post solve, I stared at it for about another minute and the penny finally dropped. A good clue worthy of COD.

  25. Nice and straightforward today, as many others my LOI was CONSUMMATE. The use of “bags” in 4d confused me, a nice misdirection.

  26. Highly enjoyable and a 15 minute solve, although my 15a was BLINDS, like some others I note. So a dnf. Couldn’t parse OIL TANKER but put it in anyway, and once I’d decided on SPARSE rather than SCANTY or SCARCE, SCORPIO seemed obvious! Cod for me was ATISHOO – it made me laugh! Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  27. Gosh, lots of comments already. In England, supermarkets sell MANGETOUT and Sugar Snaps, two different varieties of pea.
    I raced through this fun QC then struggled before PDM with SCORPIO. LOI was CONSUMMATE which took me about the same time as the rest of the puzzle put together.
    Liked LOG, SHAMROCK, ATISHOO, DORMICE, GONG, among others.
    Thanks vm, Doofers.
    I am not familiar with the Mangetout reference in Only Fools and Horses but we do still sometimes quip ‘that gives it a certain Quelle Heure est il’ instead of a ‘Je ne sais quoi’, like DelBoy. When you type it out it doesn’t seem very funny, sorry.

  28. 19 minutes for me which I consider an acceptable time for a setter I always find tricky. Sparse, consummate and oil tanker all biffed from crossers and entered unparsed.

    FOI – 5ac LIDO
    LOI – 9dn CONSUMMATE
    CODs – liked MANGETOUT and SHAMROCK

    Thanks to Mara and to Doofers for the much needed blog

  29. 30 mins…

    Had pretty much everything after 20 mins, but was left scratching my head for another 10 with 1dn “Talk Turkey” (still not sure about it) and 9dn “Consummate” which just didn’t look right.

    The rest went in fairly steadily. For some reason, I always thought Mangetout was separated by a hyphen – obviously not.

    FOI – 5ac “Lido”
    LOI – 1dn “Talk Turkey”
    COD – 3dn “Mangetout” – purely for the Only Fools and Horses reference that popped up in my head.

    Thanks as usual!

  30. I’ve NHO the phrase TALK TURKEY but it seemed the only option. Spent ages trying and failing to parse GONG only to find it was a hidden 🙄 Everything else went in fairly smoothly with many biffed then parsed including CONSUMMATE, SHAMROCK, SUSHI and NEAR EAST. LOI SPARSE. COD to PLANES for surface. Thanks Mara and D.

  31. Oh the shame, DNF. Not so much shame, though, as I’ve never seen MANGETOUT and although I saw MAN, would never have thought of GET OUT for “produce”. And I’ve never seen ATISHOO either. Is that really a thing? Yes, says Collins. Well now I know, hope I can remember them.

    Thanks Mara and Doof.

    1. ‘Ring a ring of roses,
      A pocket full of posies,
      Atishoo, Atishoo,
      We all fall down.’
      Admittedly it doesn’t make much sense but it’s a nursery rhyme I sang as a small child.

      1. We were taught that it referred to the Black Death or some other ghastly plague – and the other similar mantra was “coughs and sneezes spread diseases”. The posies were presumably herbs to ward off infection!

      2. I believe this refers to The Great Plague…. trying to ward off with sweet smells, but still becoming infected and dying.

  32. A happy plod through this by this permanent member of the SCC.

    Never had a Mamod (still sad!) but occasionally used meths without (miraculously!) not causing any serious damage.

  33. 14 minutes for me. LOI GONG. I was a bit sleepy after golf- great to get out for the first time this year. Weather kind in the SE today- so far.
    COD to MANGETOUT. I enjoyed the discussion above.
    David

  34. 28 minutes.

    If that was only a 93 on the Snitch, then I am wasting my time here.

    A struggle throughout. I cannot compete with most people who post here. How do you see the clues so quickly? Why am I so slow?
    ☹️

    1. Don’t give up, Gary! Keep coming here to read the blog, get to know the little tricks the setters use, and how to spot them. I am sure it will soon all click, and you’ll be on the way!

  35. Very accessible QC. Possibly because of the many anagrams and hidden. Mangetout & Consummate beefed in revealed letters so helpful to see here how to parse them properly. Still have my meths Mamod – believe they are becoming valuable these days, esp since they have closed down.
    FOI 1a Thermos
    LOI 9d Consummate
    COD 24a Dormice.
    Thanks for the blog and to our setter.

  36. 13.08 CONSUMMATE and MANGETOUT took a good while at the end. I do eat mange-tout but I thought I might be looking for some kind of mangel. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  37. Beaten at 30 mins by Mangetout, despite having all the checkers. Kept thinking of something more obscure like mangleroot!
    Before that LOI was consummate (thanks Doof for parsing that). COD Shamrock. Thanks Mara

  38. 2 hours on 15 x 15 and 5 short. Three incorrect answers inserted and two answers incomplete, the latter caused largely by the former!

    I’m finding this very tough although, as yesterday, I should have got them all. Each day I feel like I’m hacking through rock with a teaspoon. Spending all this time on cryptics should by now be producing results. Sadly, it isn’t!

  39. 9:55. fairly straightforward until the last few (CONSUMMATE I’m looking at you). good puzzle, nice level of difficulty. thank you both

  40. A quicker solve today at c.40mins. A bit stumped at the end with SEA and was delighted when my lucky guess of and E as the missing letter came up green.

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