Quick Cryptic No 3102 by Mara

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This one took me 16:29, a little over my average time, and at that time I was tenth of ten on the leader board. So I’m guessing that this is a pretty middle-of-the-road puzzle that I just wasn’t quite in sync with.

For some reason, I feel differently about the need for an extra space in one of the definitions in 1 across and 20 across. Changing “stepson” to “steps on” for “crushes” made me smile, but changing “drawback” to “draw back” doesn’t quite work for me.

I started with TALC, ended with STEPSON and my COD goes to BOARDING PASS because I would never have spotted that SONGBIRD in there. Also because I got it quite quickly, which rarely happens for me with longer anagrams.

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 Shrink  disadvantage (8)
DRAWBACK – A double definition, the first in the sense of shrinking away from something, although I think I would normally have that as “draw back”.
5 Fine material captured by digital camera (4)
TALC – Hidden in [captured by] digiTAL Camera.
9 Saucy Hispanic moves? (5)
SALSA – the salsa is a Spanish dance, and also a condiment often served with Mexican food.

I initially had this down as a double definition, but ‘saucy’ the adjective doesn’t work for ‘salsa’, which is a noun and means ‘sauce’, not ‘saucy’. So I think it’s just a hint, and that the question mark is being asked to do a real job of work.
10 Litres spread on black hair (7)
BRISTLE – (LITRES)* on B for black.
11 Something done with a casket when emptied (3)
ACT – A (from the clue) + the first and last letters of CaskeT [when emptied].
12 Danger! Use plastic garment (9)
DUNGAREES – (DANGER USE)*

Not a word in common use where I live, where ‘overalls’ is the normal usage.
13 Year in quality NI county (6)
TYRONE – YR (year) inside [in] TONE (quality).

I surprised myself by dragging this county name up from the depths.
15 Only street on which cashpoint has nothing (2,4)
AT MOST – ATM (cashpoint) and ST for street, containing O (nothing).
17 Tape, pen or other means of recording ideas (9)
NOTEPAPER – (TAPE PEN OR)*

I don’t recall seeing ‘other’ used as an anagram indicator before.
19 Processed meat cut in health resort (3)
SPA – SPAm (processed meat), minus its last letter [cut].
20 Crushes  relative by marriage (7)
STEPSON – A double definition, the first of which requires you to add a space to produce “steps on”.
21 Adjust radio: eventually signal established then, first of all (5)
RESET – first letters of Radio Eventually Signal Established Then.

You won’t get a clearer indicator that you need the first letters than “first of all”.
22 Dish without starter — still to come? (4)
LATE – pLATE (dish) without the first letter [starter].

“Washing the dishes” includes the plates, so I think “plate” for “dish” is fair.
23 Sound of someone eating may blow up! (8)
DYNAMITE – Aural wordplay [sound of] for “diner” (someone eating) + “might” (may).

To avoid “may” doing double duty, we need the verb form of “dynamite”.
Down
1 Ascend where rocky, time for upper air? (7)
DESCANT – (ASCEND)* + T for time.

I only knew this word in association with a recorder that I played for a little while in primary school, until it became obvious that I had zero musical talent.

It turns out that it is also “an independent treble melody usually sung or played above a basic melody.” (Oxford Languages via Mr Google), so “upper air” is a perfect definition.
2 Issue frequently engulfing Lima (5)
ALLOT – A LOT (frequently, as in ‘this happens a lot’) including L (Lima in the phonetic alphabet).
3 Requirement for flight as a songbird remarkably maintains power (8,4)
BOARDING PASS – (AS A SONGBIRD)* including P for Power.
4 Young camper, an islander (5)
CUBAN – CUB (young camper, think of the Cub Scouts), + AN (from the clue).
6 Poorly rated, company style (3,4)
ART DECO – (RATED)* + CO (company).
7 Teams on ship sail around we hear (5)
CREWS – Another homophone, this time indicated by “we hear”. Sounds like CRUISE (sail around).
8 Ground dreariest, as a battlefield (8,4)
DISASTER AREA – (DREARIEST AS A)*
14 Shelter respecting nurse (7)
RETREAT – RE (regarding, respecting, as in the subject line of every email reply ever), + TREAT (nurse, the verb).
16 Rolled oats make fast hot snack (7)
TOASTIE – (OATS)* + TIE (make fast).

We didn’t have to lift and separate “hot snack”. Didn’t stop me trying.
17 Sniffy agency interested in space and light primarily (5)
NASAL – NASA (agency interested in space) + first letter [primarily] of Light.
18 Money  girl? (5)
PENNY – Another double definition
19 Last of pizzas, American hot one — take-away choice? (5)
SUSHI – [last of] pizzaS, US [American], H for hot, I for one.

65 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 3102 by Mara”

  1. I found parts of this quite tricky. Thought DUNGAREES should have been clued as ‘overalls’ but I suppose it’s also a garment to many. Needed most of the checkers to come up with DISASTER AREA, thought I was looking for an actual battle. Same with DYNAMITE where I was fixated on a synonym of munching! Liked BOARDING PASS. Took a while to see ‘respecting’ for ‘re’ in RETREAT. COD to NASAL.
    So good to be able to submit with confidence.
    Thanks D and setter.

  2. I found the last few clues very tough, and DNF with TYRONE (NHO and TONE and YR are not obvious synonyms), DESCANT (NHO (how obscure!!) and I didn’t consider “where rocky” acting as an anagram indicator), and RETREAT (feels loose). The rest I found fairly tricky too and I struggled all the way around the grid.

  3. I felt a bit off the pace today. Five on the first pass of acrosses and only a bit better on the down left a lot to do . DRAWBACK and finally DESCANT were the biggest hold ups but I took my time to get STEPSON (love it), RETREAT and TYRONE. With Tyrone, I thought of it early but couldn’t parse until all the checkers went in. All green in a challenging 17.39.

  4. I found this tough, and found every bear trap Mara set and several he didn’t as well. SALSA held me up as like Doofers I couldn’t work out why the clue said saucy not sauce; unlike Doofers I never rationalised it. DISASTER AREA also took time to see as the definition battlefield didn’t seem that close to the answer. For NASAL, I thought the SAL ending came from “space and light primarily” and wondered what agency was NA.

    Not my best effort therefore, with a 14:39 finish to bring me down to earth after a few fast ones. Many thanks Doofers for the blog.

  5. My QC solving times have been shot to pieces over the past week, perhaps because of all the other things going on at the moment.

    I needed 16 minutes for this one, so it’s now a full week since I solved within 10 minutes. Looking back, I really can’t see anything that should have delayed me today.

  6. 10:03

    Quitch of 113 (as I write) seems about right. This puzzle seemed a tad different from Mara’s usual fare which made some answers less easy to stumble upon. Worked my way through it until left with three – BOARDING PASS, which I saw as soon as I wrote out the letters; DRAWBACK, which I couldn’t see without the B; and finally, ALLOT.

    Thanks Mara and Doofers

  7. Tricky in places, particularly some of the anagrams and I needed to get pen and paper out to unravel the two long down ones. I was also convinced that I needed an actual battle for DISASTER AREA and a mechanical device for BOARDING PASS but Mara’s deception lead to a couple of lovely PDMs.

    Started with DRAWBACK and finished with DESCANT in 9.10.
    Thanks to Doofers and Mara

  8. Just – only just – stepped into SCC : (
    Took longer and had to work harder than we should have.
    Wandered down many garden paths.
    Agree re DRAW BACK and DRAWBACK.
    Hesitated about SALSA = saucy
    NHO TYRONE – (thankfully himself had).
    Used to sing DESCANTS but now mime. Not a pretty sound these days.
    Loved BOARDING PASS. Chuckled at STEPSON.
    Thanks to Mara and to Doofers

  9. About 14 but I made a mess of AT MOST so DNF. Enjoyable puzzle, liked DISASTER AREA and BOARDING PASS when they eventually arrived. Thanks to Mara and the Doof.

  11. I drifted over the 10-minute mark for the second time this week. On Monday it was all down to a blind spot for SUITE, but today the malaise was more general. Kept bumping into sharp objects, such as thinking of TYRONE immediately and dismissing it because there’s no such word as “trone” for quality. D’oh.

    No complaints though. Liked STEPSON and NASAL. Thanks Mara and Doof.

  12. 15:43 Blew up with dynamite🧨 …not even a half-parsed attempt but BIFD so thanks for explaining Doofers. Ready for two drums falling over…
    Ta DAM

  13. I found this pretty tough, but did complete it after a long slog of over 30 mins. Days like these make me concerned about diminishing faculties…

    Pi ❤️

  14. Well, this was a tougher than usual QC from Mara and took me longer than his recent puzzles. I finished around a minute into the SCC (and was not displeased after an unusually slow start).
    I needed crossers for quite a few biffs, e.g. DYNAMITE (I thought that was pushing it a bit and was grateful for the blog) and DESCANT (this brought a smile when it clicked, taking me back to church choral singing in my youth. A clever clue and definitely my COD).
    I needed a few crossers for the anagrams which then jumped out at me.
    Thanks to Mara for a stiff QC test (for me, at least); I finished yesterday’s Teazel in a much shorter time which surprised me.
    Thanks to Doofers for some help with parsing.

  15. Made unnecessarily heavy weather of this. If I had seen 1d was an anagram sooner, I’d have got DESCANT straight away, which wd have been a big help in NW. As it was, I tottered around, solving here and guessing there. But I did finish all correct, eventually.
    LOI AT MOST. Liked DUNGAREES, CREWS, STEPSON, among others.
    Deeply shocked by those who have not heard of Co TYRONE.
    Many thanks, Doofers.

    1. I’ve got to admit that, prior to this puzzle, I wouldn’t have been able to name you the NI Counties, partly due to thinking that Tyrone was “South of the Border” (but not down Mexico way!)

      I have done what my old primary school headmaster always drummed into us, and looked it up! Every day’s a school day….

  16. 13:14
    Nearly every choral arrangement of a Christmas carol has a DESCANT part in the penultimate verse, so no problems spotting that.
    DUNGAREES took a long time to spot, since I failed to see plastic as an anagram indicator.
    ALLOT was my LOI.

    Thanks Doofers and Mara

  17. Found this quite tough in parts. Couldn’t see how DRAWBACK meant shrink and didn’t understand use of SAUCY, but both explained in the blog. BOARDING PASS very unlikely anagram. AT MOST and NASAL my CODs. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  18. 15:41. Tricky throughout, I thought. LOIs DRAWBACK and ALLOT. I struggled with DUNGAREES after spotting UNDER [something] in the anagrist. I liked STEPSON. Thank you Mara and Doofers

  19. I found this tough going as well, very few on the first pass. Nothing that made me raise an eyebrow once I got the answer though, and nothing I couldn’t parse. I was slightly annoyed by 3 down, but only because I misread the clue (I thought it said “fight”, not “flight” so I was looking for something like a boxing glove) – is anybody else finding the new version of the website a bit harder to use now that it has bedded in? I can’t seem to get it to be as readable as it was before… Hopefully teething troubles.

    16:44 for me, with LOI DESCANT.

  20. Add me to the “thought that was tough” list. DESCANT was LOI because I was completely thrown by “where”. The anagrams were ok but I struggled to see DYNAMITE, AT MOST, TYRONE (taking year just to be Y), DRAWBACK and ALLOT. No wonder it took me 10:24 for a Wading Through Treacle Day.

    COD to NASAL, very good. Many thanks Doofers and Mara.

  21. Finished in the end, but three biffed, one (DiStANT??) wrong. No idea how to get to TYRONE or TALC (= material?), thank you, Doofers. Now a full week since I finished one correctly.

    1. I know Talc as the mineral that is rated softest on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which is ground up and (apparently) combined with corn starch to make talcum powder. I wondered about “material” as well – are all minerals materials? Its Wikipedia page says it is used as an ingredient in roofing material but that, on its own, seems a bit weak.

  22. Like others, I found this tough without quite understanding why: the clues, once solved, mostly seemed fair enough. LOI was AT MOST – I’ve never got into the habit of thinking of cash points as ATMs and now I never think of them at all. 19:44.

  23. I was surprised to read that Doofers thought this was middling in difficulty because I found it quite tough. I see from the comments above I wasn’t the only one. I thought at one time I was going to be super slow, but I picked up a bit at the end to finish in 12.07.
    First time I managed to log on this week, and for the record my times for Monday and Tuesday were 7.40 and 11.30 respectively.

  24. Whereas yesterday I started slowly and finished at a gallop today I started quickly and then ground to a halt. Most problems were in the NW where DRAWBACK, DESCANT, ALLOT and CUBAN were slow to arrive. Didn’t parse TYRONE because I was wondering how trone was derived! Otherwise all done in a rather leisurely 24 minutes. I am beginning to think I need my own chair in the SCC.

    FOI – 5ac TALC
    LOI – 4dn CUBAN
    CODs – liked STEPSON, DYNAMITE and TOASTIE.

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  25. I seem to have bucked the trend, as I had no problems and finished in two straight passes, and nearly half a minute inside my QSNITCH average. An excellent puzzle in my estimation – thanks Mara and Doofers.

    FOI TALC
    LOI TOASTIE
    COD DESCANT
    TIME 4:22

  26. DNF, which is almost unheard of for me. I just couldn’t see dynamite, but now having read the blog it is my COD! A good puzzle, thank you Mara and Doofers.

  27. Started in the NE corner and tried to do a methodical clockwise solve, but I convinced myself (easily done) that Dungarees was going to be Under-somthing, and had to switch to hopping around the grid in the hope of finding some easy ones. Spoiler: they were few and far between.
    Well into the SCC before reluctantly deciding the SW corner would need a second sitting, having failed even to spot Penny (I just hope she forgives me). As usual, the hold-outs then tumbled without further delay.
    Joint CoDs to the cunningly worded Nasal, with the appropriate Late to finish. Invariant

    1. I do 🤣 And SRC too!
      But we had a very similar experience today, by the sounds of it. Tea and toast in the SCC.

      1. Thanks for your understanding, but I still don’t know how I missed what should have been a write-in.

  28. Quite a stiff one taking 33 minutes over two visits.
    COD to DYNAMITE and I enjoyed assembling SUSHI and AT MOST.
    Thanks vm Mara and DOOFERS for explaining DRAWBACK and NASAL.

  29. A tad tougher than average, but all complete and parsed.
    Particularly liked DESCANT. And BOARDING PASS

    Glad to hear that the site is now fixed, as I enjoy reading the moans and groans.

    Thanks Mara and Doofers

  31. 12:41. Being so slow to get DRAWBACK at 1a put me at a disadvantage from which I never really recovered. DESCANT also reminded me of my tuneless efforts on the recorder in primary school. I liked the ‘Requirement for flight’, for which I was thinking of something to do with a staircase and my favourite, the aural wordplay for DYNAMITE.

    Thanks to Doofers and Mara

  32. Didn’t really have a problem with drawback. Doesn’t draw back work in the sense of acting almost as a homonym (???) with drawback, in that by saying draw back out loud for the first part gives you the actual answer of drawback? If that all makes sense.

  33. Definitely a tad trickier than Mara’s usual offerings. From ALLOT to TYRONE in 9:44, scraping in under my target. An enjoyable puzzle. Liked DYNAMITE. Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  34. Glad most other people found this tough. Finished with DISTANT on 25:48. I couldn’t see how the wordplay worked as I hadn’t seen it was an anagram, but the only other word that fitted was DESCANT and that didn’t seem to fit either wordplay or definition, so, wanting to get on, I bunged it in and hoped for a best which wasn’t forthcoming. It has not been a great week so far. Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  35. My thanks to Mara and Doofenschmirtz.
    I was very slow to start this but sped up a lot once I was rolling.
    1a Drawback was hard.
    FOI 4a Talc.
    LOI 16d Toastie as I thought it was (oatshot)* rather than (oats)* + TIE.
    22a (p)Late; a plate can be a course IMO, so dish is OK.
    1d Descant took a bit of thought.

  36. Did it with no mistakes in ten minutes which is good for me, but felt like a good performance, didn’t think it was that easy! Luckily Tyrone was easy to guess because there’s only 6 northern irish counties

  37. Unlike others here, DESCANT was my FOI. I used to play a descant recorder before moving to a treble recorder. Gave both of them up after primary school. I needed most of the checkers for DISASTER AREA and all of the checkers for ALLOT and my LOI TYRONE. I was in the trone = quality club. Thanks Doofers 7:39

  39. I got stuck at eight mostly in the south. If disaster area was clued as something to do with “band from the restaurant at the end of the universe?” I might have got that if it was six across and nine down.

    Thanks Dr Martins

  40. 24.07 I was mostly held up at the end by failing to parse the clue for DESCANT. Once I realised what was going on there that went in followed by DRAWBACK and ALLOT to finish. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  41. Found this quite tricky and just could not see the parsing of TYRONE – fixated on year being Y not Yr 🙄 Also held up by STEPSON which nonetheless gets COD, and DRAWBACK/ALLOT, although not quite sure why. Liked DYNAMITE. Nice and challenging. Thanks Mara and D.

  42. Extremely slow for me, in retrospect without good reason. Was obsessed with Downside/Downsize for 1a, each of which meets one of the definitions but not the other. Got Kitty for the money girl instantaneously and stuck to it for ages (nod to our esteemed blogger). Confirmed by Dynamite, but caused big problems with 20&22 A. Also had B____E, and had spotted the anagram but still took several minutes to see Bristle. Still enjoyable as there were no lengthy dry spells. Thanks to Mara and Doofers.
    Sang “The Lord’s my Shepherd” in the descant at school – horrendously difficult.
    Loved dynamite, all good homophones require an audible groan which that one got!

    Very well done to all those who worked on getting the site back working properly.

  43. Yesterday’s hopes for another fast week were well and truly dashed today. It’s the occasional puzzle like this which keep our average around the 12+ minute mark. The crossings of ALLOT and CUBAN with LOI DRAWBACK (for which we needed all the checkers) did a lot of the damage but it felt pretty tough elsewhere as well. 17:57 fully parsed. Thanks, all.

  44. 21 mins…

    I agree this was on the harder side, but was still surprised to see so many people struggle with it. The majority of my answers went in steadily and I thought I was on for a sub-20, however 15ac “At Most” took me over. I wonder how long before the word ATM is consigned to history.

    As an aside, I also played the recorder at primary school, but as the only boy felt pressurised to drop out, much to the disappointment of my teacher. In retrospect a bit sad – funny how you always remember the bad and awkward things from those early years. I did go on to learn the piano though which was probably a more useful instrument.

    FOI – 5ac “Talc”
    LOI – 15ac “At Most”
    COD – 23ac “Dynamite”

    Thanks as usual!

  45. I missed the anagram indicator (rocky) for Descant, the music related word I did not know.
    Thanks to Doof for parsing the aural wordplay for Dynamite.
    I did like the neat wordplay for Allot.

  46. A fun puzzle from Mara, whose name has lately been striking fear into my heart. Done in 13:46, neither fast nor slow. Embarrasingly, my POI was MY OWN NAME (Wilkie Collins fan here). DESCANT very cute. I thought “battlefield” for DISASTER AREA a bit suspect. NHO TOASTIE but plausible.

    I am pretty confused by the discussions of dish/plate. Is a plate not a flattish concave object for holding food? Is that not a sort of dish (plate, bowl, cup, etc.)?

    Thanks to Mara and Doof.

    1. A plate is flat and a dish is concave like a bowl, imo, but in cookery terms dish and plate are kind of the same. A platter is flat too.
      Hope that’s clear😀

  48. 18:31. DISASTER AREA, BRISTLE, and BOARDING PASS were very slow for me. DESCANT brought back memories of hymn-singing at church( female relatives enjoyed employing it).

  49. Agree with all who say tough, tricky, chewy… SCC for me today (first in a while). I liked the ATM clue and the STEPS ON, great fun. DESCANT and TYRONE took me ages, just not in the groove. Had a TOASTIE when I got in last night, so that went in. But my 1a was simply slow witted solving! Hey ho. Thanks setter and blogger nonetheless!

Comments are closed.