Quick Cryptic No 3114 by Mara

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

This one took me 15:56, a few seconds over my average. There are a couple of clues with definite Britishisms which may cause problems for overseas solvers, but that’s fair enough – The Times is a British newspaper.

I found the acrosses harder than the downs, with only 5 falling on the first pass. Most unusually for me, my COD is an anagram: I think “in a cocktail” is an inspired anagrind, since cocktails are mixed and sometimes shaken.

I’m not fully convinced by my parsing of 11ac, looking forward to the hive mind explaining it in a more satisfying way.

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 Sweet starter in banquet, say, with alcoholic drink (12)
BUTTERSCOTCH – first letter of [starter in] Banquet, UTTER (say), SCOTCH (alcoholic drink).
8 Celebrity  image (4)
ICON – A double definition.
9 Church had gold castle (7)
CHATEAU – CH for church, then ATE (had) and AU (chemical symbol for gold).
11 Something for dessert? Quite! (1,6)
A TRIFLE – I think this one is another double definition, but I’m not 100% certain. I put it in with no crossers, then removed it and only reinstated it once I had the R, F and E.

I love a good trifle, but it isn’t a common dish in the US.
12 Mark painful having caught cold (5)
SCORE – SORE (painful) with C for cold inside [having caught cold].
14 Very much respecting friend (6)
REALLY – RE (about, respecting), ALLY (friend).

We had the same definition of RE the last time I blogged, and that was also a Mara puzzle. A bit of a MER at “ally” being “friend”, since allies don’t necessarily have to be friends, and friends don’t have to be allies.
15 Energy absorbed by a host, a microscopic organism (6)
AMOEBA – E for energy inside A MOB (host) A.

The second ‘A’ is part of the word play, not part of the definition.
18 Wash in shower in Seville (5)
RINSE – Hidden [in] showeR IN SEville.
20 Last of wires going in and the new phone unit (7)
HANDSET – S [last letter of wireS] in (and the)*.
21 Filthy article written by relative (7)
UNCLEAN – AN (an article, like ‘a’ or ‘the’) next to UNCLE (relative).
23 Complaint — wrong order for vegetarian? (4)
BEEF – A definition and a cryptic hint.

Beef for “complaint” sounds very Raymond Chandler-esque to me.
24 Sweet thing is part shandy in a cocktail (6,6)
DANISH PASTRY – (IS PART SHANDY)*

I don’t recall seeing “in a cocktail” used as an anagram indicator before, but I think its great. Nice one.
Down
2 Shaky, shaky nut in race (9)
UNCERTAIN – (NUT IN RACE)*

As in “being on shaky ground”.
3 Melodious playing of lute, fun! (7)
TUNEFUL – (LUTE FUN)*
4 Shoot up in salad ingredient? (6)
ROCKET – A double definition.

The leaf known in my grocery store as “arugula”. One to store away for the non-UK-based crowd.
5 Crude line drawn up on ship (5)
CRASS – ARC (line), reversed [drawn up] on SS (steamship, ship).

Someone mentioned a couple of days ago how ships were almost always SS in Crosswordland, and I’m happy to show an example.
6 Report of Asian fixture (3)
TIE – Sounds like [report of] ‘Thai’ (Asian).

Only now as I write this blog has the sporting meaning of “fixture” come to mind. D’oh. I had been thinking of “tie bars” and other such things.
7 Lords and Conservatives, for example, function under one roof? (5,5)
HOUSE PARTY – HOUSE (Lords), PARTY (Conservatives).

I read this as “Lords and Commons”. The answer still came to mind, although accompanied by doubts about the parsing, and then I actually read the clue properly. That often helps.
10 Play area of a reasonable size reduced to dust? (10)
FAIRGROUND – FAIR (of a reasonable size), GROUND (reduced to dust).

“How big is the garden of the house you’re buying?” “Oh, it’s a fair size.”
13 Turn wheel too sharply to reverse the wrong way (9)
OVERSTEER – (TO REVERSE)*
16 One bishop enters without vehicle (7)
MINIBUS – I (one) and B (bishop, from chess notation) inside (enters) MINUS [without].
17 Extraordinary punch catching Ali finally — stay positive! (4,2)
CHIN UP – last letter [finally] of AlI inside (PUNCH)*
19 Odds — or else? (5)
EVENS – A definition and a cryptic hint, or possibly two definitions.

EVENS is the name of the odds on the bet where you win exactly your stake if you win. And I think the other half of the clue is referring to  numbers, where if you take away the odd ones, what is left is the evens.
22 Vessel in ocean actually capsized (3)
CAN – Hidden [in] oceaN ACtually reversed [capsized].

71 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 3114 by Mara”

  1. 14 minutes. A TRIFLE for ‘Quite!’ was my only query, but dr.shred gives a good example of substituting one for the other in the very first comment, so fair enough. The wordplay for CHIN UP was my favourite, given the pugilistic sense of CHIN.

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  3. Probably a bit over average time for me. Was a bit slow on my COD Butterscotch. Fun puzzle

    Thanks Mara and Doofers

  4. My thanks to Mara and Doofenschmirtz.
    11a A Trifle, I too was worried. It has occurred before as I see it is in my Cheating Machine.
    4d Rocket. DNK it is arugula.
    13d Oversteer. MER. As a word this has a clear definition, and it is NOT turning the wheel too sharply. As two words it could be that, but then it would be “green paint”.

    1. Didn’t occur to me at the time but you are right, oversteer is a fault of the car, not of the driver.

      1. Yes you may have a copy if you wish but it ain’t easy to use and it needs a fastish computer. Microsoft Excel. Drop me a line at apwfisher@hotmail.com if you would like a copy. I haven’t written the instructions yet… but will if you want it.

        1. You are nice! I’m sure it has taken quite an effort to create such a device – not happy to simply swoop in and benefit..though good to know it is out there.
          Carry on! And I will, as I always do, keep an eye out for input from your Cheating Machine 🙃

  5. Not many on first pass leading to a slow time of 21 minutes. Never realised that 13dn was an anagram and didn’t stop to parse my LOI. No issues with A TRIFLE.

    FOI – 9ac CHATEAU
    LOI – 16dn MINIBUS
    CODs – 10dn FAIRGROUND and 17dn CHIN UP

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  6. 21:21
    As others, slow to start with only 1 in the first across pass. Progress with the downs was better.
    Not associating a ‘mob’ as a ‘host’ in AMOEBA meant my last 2 in took me to my regular seat in the SCC.
    I did like the balance of the clues which made Mara’s QC a very enjoyable solve.
    FOI: RINSE
    LOI: HOUSE PARTY
    COD: BUTTERSCOTCH/CHIN UP

    Thanks to Mara and Doofers

  8. Very enjoyable if extremely slow solve. Fell into every trap including some of my own devising (Omnibus, playground, housemates, 24a was obviously a cocktail and 5d was obviously a ship, celebrity can’t mean icon can it?).
    Can’t see the problem with evens, as it says in the blog all numbers are either odd or even so any number is either one of the odds OR ELSE it is one of the evens. EVENS can also be the ODDS on a horse winning. Quite a clever clue, but one I am sure we have seen several times before. Also trifle seems fine to me, after a Merlot or two too many I can feel a trifle queasy (translate into English = quite sick).
    Thanks to Mara and Doofers.

  9. A steady solve until I got a trifle stuck with my last two: CRASS and SCORE. They didn’t take too much extra time, but enough to send me into the SCC on 20:28. COD to DANISH PASTRY. Thanks Mara and Doofers.

  10. Barely got anything on the first pass but then it all started flowing nicely. Very enjoyable.

  11. I had major problems accessing tftt today.
    I kept getting user has logged in …( error 429 I believe)
    It was the first time today.
    It persisted after clearing cache, cookies.
    Still couldn’t access with a different browser and after restarting the phone.

    Pretty certain I dont have a bot on the phone. Fully Norton protected and regularly scanned. Other sites are OK.

    Am now here because I have am using VPN.

    Not sure what is causing this. This new site is usually so speedy.
    Anyone else finding this? Tx

    1. We had an unexplained outage on the site although it was resolved quite quickly when I reported it. The site is currently being checked for malware.

  12. I enjoyed this. I usually find Mara’s very hard but this seemed straightforward.
    CODs FAIRGROUND, BEEF
    Thanks Doofers and Mara

    1. I forgot to add that I was confused by A TRIFLE. Quite! with the exclamation mark I associate with Absolutely! not with the other meaning of a vague “sort of”.

  13. 11:58 is a touch under par for us but that was without having parsed LOI AMOEBA (we’d slowed ourselves up by biffing it and then taking it out again because of that problem) and without having been entirely happy with it must be A TRIFLE. Thanks to Doofers and Dr. Shred for the help there. We had to think a little hard as well to avoid OMNIBUS and HEADSET. Good QC, Mara, thank you.

  14. Needed all the checkers for LOIs DANISH PASTRY and MINIBUS. Otherwise a slow steady plod through the rest. COD HOUSE PARTY for the misdirection. Many thanks Mara and D.

  15. 8.53 A slow start and a fairly quick finish. LOI FAIRGROUND. Thanks Doofers and Mara.

  16. Managed to finish, don’t know how long as kept coming back to it. My last 2, AMOEBA and OVERSTEER went in without understanding the wordplay, so glad to check the blog and work out how. Thanks 😁

  18. 11.44 which is slightly better than my 15 min target.

    Didn’t see the link from a trifle to quite so thanks to Dr Shred, Doofers and Mara.

  19. Found this difficult but registered a 30+ min finish. It was the long ones that slowed me down; Butterscotch, Fairground & Danish pastry. Glad i preserved and got there in the end. Thanks Doofs and Mara

  20. I enjoyed that but struggled, squeaking in at 18:49. DANISH PASTRY in particular gave me no end of problems until I finally clocked the anagram indicator, but I can blame nobody but myself. I hate it when that happens.

    Thank you for the blog!

  21. Here I am solving in the home town of our esteemed Johninterred! Have had a drink in the smallest pub in the UK and now off out to eat shortly so a flying visit.
    9:23 FOI Chateau LOI Fairground COD Bishop – it has to be after wandering the Abbey Gardens this afternoon 😊
    Thanks Mara and Doofers

  22. Here I am solving in the home town of our esteemed Mrs Random! Am having a drink in our annexe (as our living and dining rooms are both building sites at the moment) and now off to find something in our fridge to eat.

    All done in a little under half an hour, I think. Various interruptions, so I can’t be sure. Very enjoyable.

    Many thanks to Doofers and Mara.

  23. 18 minutes. Poor. Couldn’t even get CHATEAU first time. Nowhere near good enough.

    2 hours on 15 x 15. Failed by one. Why do I bother? To spend so long on this and come up just short is beyond agonising.

  24. 17 ish . Well out of the SCC, still have a 1 in front and still in the teens. Little brain cells trying their best and this was much enjoyed. BUTTERSCOTCH made us happy.
    Thank you Doofenschmirtz and Mara

  25. SCC again and floored by MINIBUS which in my solve was OMNIBUS (I see I wasn’t alone). So missed completing by an amoeba, having decided that a host plus an e was the anagram I was looking for. Daft in retrospect. But fun with the long anagrams and the butterscotch danish pastry was delicious! Thanks Mara and Doofers

  26. 08:11. Solved late in the day while enjoying a slice of chocolate cake with cream. a nice range of clue types and a good level of difficulty for me. thanks both!

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