Quick cryptic No 823 by Mara

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A good time for me as I stood on a chilly platform waiting for the next train: 10m 12s.  Nonetheless, very enjoyable.  I had to look up ‘feculent’ after completion, as it was a new word to me, but didn’t get in the way of answering the clue at 1d.  As a consequence it became my Word of the Day (WoD).

Plenty of nice anagrams, so I have treated the blog as a bit of a treatise on them, apologies to the more experienced reader for teaching granny to suck eggs.

Thanks to Mara for a very entertaining puzzle this morning, with plenty of nice surfaces.

Across
1  Weapon a touch in fashion (8)
CATAPULT – Fashion in this case is CULT, which includes A TAP (a touch)
5  Cry when tulip, say, knocked over (4)
BLUB – A tulip is an example of a BULB, which reversed (knocked over) provides the answer.  The ‘say’ is because other types of BULBs are available.
8  Learner surrounded by mediocre talent (5)
FLAIR – Mediocre gives FAIR which surrounds L{earner}
9  Superhero imprisoning last of villains: he doesn’t want to get out (7)
BATSMAN – The thinking man’s superhero is, of course, BATMAN.  This imprisons (or contains) last of {villain}S.  It is a BATSMAN’s job in cricket to not get out
11  Those for and against, experts and criminals (4,3,4)
PROS AND CONS – PROS are both supporters of a motion and experts (or PRO{fessional}S), and CONS oppose a motion as well as being CON{vict}S or criminals.  A kind of double definition I suppose, with each interpretation supporting the other, although the first is the more usual use of the phrase
13  Unfortunately, my seat is hot (6)
STEAMY – Nice anagram of [MY SEAT], with ‘unfortunately’ serving as the anagrind (anagram indicator)
14  Promise to put shelf behind piano (6)
PLEDGE – P{iano} followed by LEDGE (shelf)
17  Good times and bad – a lift attendant’s experiences? (3,3,5)
UPS AND DOWNS – Another double definition, sort of!  Possibly also a kind of &lit although the purists will probably quibble with that (and I would be interested to hear their arguments).  For those newbies amongst you, an &lit (short for ‘and literally so’, is a kind of clue with no real definition part, but where the whole clue acts as the definition or a cryptic indication of the solution </end of lecture>
20  No tucking into fatty birds from Italy (7)
GENOESE – The fatty birds are GEESE, which has NO tucked into it.  A GENOESE would naturally be from Italy, as would a Roman or a Milanese
21  Auntie finally hugged by lovely relative (5)
NEICE – {aunti}E finally gives E, which ‘is hugged’ by NICE (lovely)
22  Fire container (4)
SACK – Whenever you see a two word clue, first look for a double definition.  In this case, to SACK is to fire someone, whilst a SACK is a container
23  Private planes or otherwise (8)
PERSONAL – Anagram (the anagrind is ‘otherwise’) of [PLANES OR].  If the indicator is known as an ‘anagrind’, the fodder, or letters that make up the anagram is known in crosswordland as the ‘anagrist’

Down
1 Kept in attic, a feculent greasy spoon, perhaps (4)
CAFE – An example of a hidden answer clue, where the solution is hidden as in {atti}C A FE{culent}.  Feculent, incidentally, is my word of the day.  The ‘perhaps’ is there to indicate that not all CAFEs can be classified as ‘greasy spoons’
2  Tramp beating up pirates (7)
TRAIPSE – ‘Beating up’ is the unusual anagrind and [PIRATES] is the anagrist in this anagram clue.  To TRAIPSE can be the same thing as to TRAMP a weary path, for example
3  Show capital in Paris, France more exotic (11)
PERFORMANCE – Capital in P{aris} gives P, with the rest of the anagrist coming from [FRANCE MORE], and the anagrind being ‘exotic’.  This clue has a nice surface (e.g. it reads well!)
4  African introduced to Swahili by a nomad (6)
LIBYAN – Another example of a hidden answer clue, here in {swahi}LI BY A N{omad}
6  Member beginning to overcome period of uncertainty (5)
LIMBO – Member is LIMB (as in ‘arm’ or ‘leg’), with beginning to O{vercome}.  As well as being the borderland of hell, and a West Indian dance, LIMBO can mean ‘an uncertain or intermediate state’.  Look out for a similar clue in the 15 x 15 today
7  Railing is in raillery! (8)
BANISTER – BANTER is raillery, with IS in it!
10  Drunken flirtatious gestures perhaps, a game (11)
TIDDLYWINKS – Drunken is TIDDLY and WINKS can be flirtatious gestures, unless I’m doing them, when I look like I have a tic
12  Mincing of sausages is satisfying (8)
ASSUAGES – Nicely surfaced anagram with ‘mincing’ being the anagrind and [SAUSAGES] providing the anagrist
15  Pick out loose cinders (7)
DISCERN – And another one – indicated by ‘loose’ with [CINDERS] providing the grist
16  Stick notice on this crossword? (6)
ADHERE – AD is the notice (as in AD{vert}), and HERE indicates ‘in this place’, which means the crossword we are engaged in at the time of reading the clue
18  Very fast boy I caught (5)
SONIC – The boy is SON, with I (I) and C{aught}.  I assume supersonic would be clued by ‘very, very fast’
19  Spring, effectively (4)
WELL – Another two-word clue, another double definition.  As well as being a spring, WELL can mean effectively, as in when a task is done WELL

25 comments on “Quick cryptic No 823 by Mara”

  1. Thanks for the very thorough blog therotter. I found this to be relatively straightforward with some entertaining clues. I enjoyed the imagery of 2d and the wordplay in 10d but my COD goes to 7d.
    Only minor hold up was initially putting 3rd ‘a’ in 1a making the parsing a bit tricky. Completed in 10 minutes
  2. Nice to have a gentler offering after a seemingly long run of harder puzzles. My time came out at 20:14 which is bang on average for me, but that involved many interruptions by a new ‘Hearing Dog’ puppy in training who joined our family yesterday. He certainly contributed to my first DNF for ages yesterday!
  3. A speedy (for me) 18 minutes, and I think this was the easiest for some time. I put in CATAPULT without parsing as there were enough checkers again. I dallied for a while over the spelling of ASSUAGES. My LOI was actually WELL. Again, I often struggle for the four-letter double definition ones. Gribb.
    1. Same – SACK and WELL were my last. I stormed it apart from those two. Strange, isn’t it, how often the shorter the word the harder it is?
      Enjoyed today’s and the The Rotter’s notes made me laugh (would love to see him winking).
  4. An enjoyable puzzle with a couple of very nice clues, like 1d, 4d, 15d. I love the word ‘feculent’; it seems appropriate far too often, as when I talk about Trump. I think the clue that took me the longest was 4d, which would be appropriate given my problem spotting hidden clues. 5:50.
  5. Started slowly with my brain taking a while to get into gear, but gradually got moving and finished in 10:27. FOI was CAFE. I too had too look up feculent(just now, having glossed over it last night), although it didn’t affect my solving the clue. My LOI was GENOESE. Like BANISTER. Thanks Mara and Rotter.
  6. Just scraped home in 10 minutes. Had a moment’s doubt that TIDDLYWINKS might have an I in the middle rather than Y.
  7. Very quick but enjoyable. It always irritates me to see Batman (9 across) described as a superhero, although some definitions do allow this, because he is a “normal” human being, albeit endowed with superb athletic and martial arts abilities and a seemingly inexhaustible source of wealth (Bruce Wayne’s multi-millions). Definitely misspent youth, but then I used to read the backs of corn-flake packets as well! Ho hum.
  8. Easiest for a while and I think the quickest one I’ve done yet.

    Lots of answers easily biffed, with only 1ac and 6dn making me struggle on the parsing. Once again, I forgot member = leg, arm, limb!! (Will i ever learn)

    FOI 1dn – didn’t know feculent, but I know a greasy spoon when I see one and was lucky to spot the hidden word.

    LOO 23ac, COD 10dn

    Thanks!

    DR31

  9. Enjoyable crossword and about par for me. I will add “feculent” to my store of never to used in real life words, but particularlt enjoyed the cluing for “tiddlywinks” (I actually once played with two of the English Universities team).
    PlayupPompey
  10. A nice and save 22 minutes for me. LOI was WELL. Couldn’t quite parse fashion to mean cult in CATAPULT, but biffed it in.
  11. Thankfully I can conclude my tale of 2 days of DNF woe with an 18 minute breeze through Mara’s pleasant offering. Plenty of not too hard anagrams and several hiddens and straight forward cryptic/define type clues left me happy after feeling a bit thick after the last 2 offerings. So thank you Mara! Pexiter.
  12. Thank you for ‘Well’ in 19dn. I had persuaded myself it was ‘PEAL’: LEAP, up.
  13. I found this very straightforward (well under 10m) which hopefully shows that trying the main puzzles also pays dividends on the QC. I counted six “insertion” clues along with the six anagrams so a nice mixture of clues by Mara. Blogger 21a shoukd be Niece (pedant, me?). Thanks for an entertaining blog – always chuckle at your avatar
  14. My first ever completed qc!!!

    Hardest was 15d where I couldn’t get dissect out of my head and then was convinced cinders would mean ashes… until the obvious penny dropped.

    All in all though, very pleased with myself.

    1. …as well you should be!
      Congratulations and here’s hoping it’s the first of many.
  15. Not one of Mara’s hardest puzzles but still a good enjoyable test.
    FOI was Sonic, LOI was Banister. Liked the anagram at 12d. No particular hold-ups, time under 20 minutes. David
    PS there is no significance to my Subject other than I read the band has reformed.
  16. After yesterday’s self-inflicted problems, this was a welcome and very pleasant straightforward QC. Enlivened even further by an excellent blog by Rotter. CoD for me was 10d, just ahead of 9ac. Talking of which, I see Mara is a devotee of the Sir Geoffrey school of batting. . . Invariant
  17. Sonic used to have nothing to do with speed, it just meant pertaining to sound.
    Supersonic means faster than the speed of sound (approx. 780mph)
    However the advent of Sonic the hedgehog (who whizzes around at very high speed) in a computer game has now I think meant that Sonic irretrieveably also means fast.
  18. There’s always one who doesn’t agree! This weeks Cryptics, in my view from Mon -Wed have been very easy but Today’s was not easy at all. just my view.
  19. Catapult. Very hard indeed. A difficult clue for the 15×15, obviously in my opinion.
  20. Late to the party.
    33 mins. Head fuzzy after long flight yesterday.
    Nice puzzle.
    LOI 19d well.

    COD ups and downs or pros and cons.

  21. I confess to preferring ‘niece’ to neice’! Though it didn’t appear to cramp my style!!!
  22. Belated thanks to therotter for a useful blog. I’ve only just got round to this one, having put it down as too hard when I first got it. I didn’t find it particularly easy, not thinking of cult for fashion, for example.
    FOI was 5ac.
    DNF as I had no idea for 7d, even with the checkers.
    Wondered about the hidden answer in 1d but thought ‘kept’ must be the definition. At least ‘feculent’ sounds like its meaning! (not a word I knew either – but then neither does the livejournal spell checker!)

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