Times Quick Cryptic 1290 by Mara

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I was pleased to finish just inside my target 10 minutes today having found last week’s batch of puzzles a little more difficult than usual. I hesitate to say there’s nothing too tricky here but I shall be interested to read how others fared.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Biscuit, a beauty (7)
CRACKER – Two meanings
5 Going in first, a significant force in East Germany (5)
STASI – Hidden [going] in {fir}ST A SI{gnificant}
8 Thinner stripe with ripples, I gathered (5,6)
WHITE SPIRIT – Anagram [ripples] of STRIPE WITH containing I [gathered]. Used for thinning paint.
10 Let loose, rhino initially seen in charge (4)
FREE – R{hino} [initially] contained by [seen in] FEE (charge)
11 Fish left in sink (8)
FLOUNDER – L (left) contained by [in] FOUNDER (sink)
12 Mature and elaborate plan (6)
AGENDA – AGE (mature), anagram [elaborate] of AND
14 When dropping borders, develop language (6)
HEBREW – {w}HE{n} [dropping borders], BREW (develop)
16 Creation of Croatian garment (8)
RAINCOAT – Anagram [creation] of CROATION
18 Delightful   place in the South of France (4)
NICE – Double definition
20 Do change same protein (11)
IMPERSONATE – Anagram [change] of SAME PROTEIN. Brits of a certain age may remember the popular vehicle for TV impressionists called Who do you do?
22 Pretty girl’s ring, ending on pinkie (5)
BELLE – BELL (ring), {pinki}E [ending]. Love the surface reading!
23 Fancy maid cardinal adored (7)
ADMIRED – Anagram [fancy] of MAID, RED (cardinal). I’m not sure that admiring and adoring are quite the same thing.
Down
2 One in eight, one argues (5)
ROWER – Two meanings; rowers in sport usually come in eights.
3 Greek character with thin South American (7)
CHILEAN – CHI (Greek character), LEAN (thin)
4 The night before armistice, finally Victory in Europe (3)
EVE – {armistic}E [finally], VE (Victory in Europe – as in VE-Day)
6 Revolution inspiring Italian leader somewhere in Italy (5)
TURIN – TURN (revolution) containing [inspiring] I{talian} [leader]
7 Upset about article? Don’t doubt it! (2,5)
SO THERE – SORE (upset) containing [about] THE (article)
9 Soothsayer gains, by the sound of it (7)
PROPHET – Sounds like [by the sound of it] “profit” [gains]. I wondered about a possible clash of singular and plural here, but on reflection I think it’s fine.
11 Taste pizza ingredient eating a starter in Venice (7)
FLAVOUR – FLOUR (pizza ingredient) containing [eating] A V{enice} [starter]
13 Trembling in great rock (7)
GRANITE – Anagram [trembling] of IN GREAT
15 Boy and girl, one Asian (7)
BENGALI – BEN (boy), GAL (girl), I (one)
17 Country lane winding around first of poplars (5)
NEPAL – Anagram [winding] of LANE containing [around] P{oplars} [first]
19 Island serving some mediocre tempura (5)
CRETE – Hidden in [some] {medio}CRE TE{mpura}
21 Those letters of Scot are so curious (3)
ODD – The ODD letters of S{c}O{t} give us ‘so’

26 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1290 by Mara”

    1. My knowledge of the sport is limited to THE boat race which has crews of eight so I’m in tune with Crosswordland on this one.

      Edited at 2019-02-18 09:14 am (UTC)

  2. DNK WHITE SPIRIT, but I gathered (and just now confirmed) that it’s my ‘turpentine’. ‘force in E. Germany’ certainly suggests STASI, but it took me a while–once again–to find the hidden. ODD was eminently biffable, and so I biffed it. Pity, because it was a lovely clue. 5:45.
    1. To be strictly accurate, there is a difference between white spirit and turpentine, although their uses are virtually interchangeable. White spirit is a petroleum based product used mainly to thin household paint while turpentine is vegetable based and is more popular with artists
  3. On the first run of acrosses I only had 1a and then nothing until 23a. Downs went in a little better but it took me a long time to find Mara’s wavelength and the suddenly it all went in a belated flurry. LOI was STASI, completely fooled by the clue it wan’t until I go SO THERE (second LOI) that I realised what it must be and then found it right in front of me. Also biffed ODD. Also took me a long time to spot what trembling was going in GRANITE. This was a brilliant puzzle that misdirected me all over the place. Bravo Mara.
  4. I failed to spot the nicely hidden STASI for too long and got stuck on the HEBREW/BENGALI intersection looking for a word for “develop” to drop the borders off rather than “when”. I liked FLAVOUR but COD to ODD. Well over my 6 minute target for the 4th QC in a row at 8:41. But then I see Verlaine took over 5 minutes, so I don’t feel so bad.
  5. 30 minutes for me – a masterclass in misdirection I thought. I join the admirers of 21d – definitely COD.
  6. Solid SCC 20.24. My experience almost exactly as mendesest with additional blind spot on BELLE as LOI.
  7. Just inside my target range at 14 minutes and change. Like others, STASI was my last one in, very well hidden, and I admired ODD – biffed first, and then parsed after, but within the quoted time. An excellent start to the week, so thanks Mara and Jack.
  8. Just over 10 minutes being held up by ‘so there’ not being obvious to me from ‘don’t doubt it’ but a smile when I twigged. Finally, I took time wondering about the parsing of ‘odd’. All very enjoyable.
  9. About 2.5 Kevins so a Decent Day. I forgot to apply the Blog’s Law that when you just can’t break a clue down it’s probably a hidden word, so I spent ages wrestling with STASI; the neatness of the concealment gets it COD from me, just ahead of a host of worthy contenders. A really clever and enjoyable puzzle, thanks Mara and Jack.

    Templar

    PS Turps and white spirit are very different things this side of the pond, Kevin.

  10. 26 minutes, so 6 over my target after being misdirected all over the place.
    LOI was ODD which I biffed, so thanks to Jackkt for the explanation.

    Brian

  11. 18 mins which I was happy with having struggled with some of this weekend’s puzzles. Lots to like about this offering from Mara and thanks to jackkt for explaining 21 down which I see I was not alone in biffing.
  12. A chewy start to the week, with a challenging puzzle. I finished in 8:48, but it seemed longer. The parsing of 21d completely passed me by as I just biffed it. Thanks to Mara for the workout and Jack for the blog.

    Adrian

  13. Like others I was bamboozled by the well hidden STASI for quite some time. I knew what the answer had to be, but struggled to see it! Other than that I zipped through the rest of the puzzle until 21d which I failed to parse until I pressed the submit button, hoping that it couldn’t be anything else. The penny dropped as the screen changed. 8:02. Thanks Mara and Jack.
  14. ….CRACKER with lots to enjoy and admire.

    I was held up chiefly by my inability to crack IMPERSONATE, so that ODD became a biff and the cleverness of the clue was picked up afterwards.

    FOI CRACKER
    LOI and COD ODD
    TIME 4:27

  15. I found this fairly tricky in places and like others STASI took me an age to spot which finally enabled me to get LOI SO THERE, which I was sure was going to start with NO. The parsing of 21d was way beyond me and added a couple of minutes to my time of 14.36 – thanks for putting me out of my misery jackkt. Eventually submitted with fingers crossed. Lots of excellent clues but my favourite was 8a.
  16. I solved this Mara QC in an average time. I had no idea what was going on in 21d and biffed ODD. I even had to read jackkt’s explanation twice to understand the parsing which I think is very clever. FOI 1a CRACKER and LOI despite spotting the anagram indicator was 8a WHITE SPIRIT. It took a while to see 16a RAINCOAT too. 12:47 puts me a long way down The Times Puzzle Club leaderboard.
    1. Self-referencing clues are often difficult to solve and even more so to explain succinctly in a blog. I’m sorry it wasn’t clearer.
      1. Thanks jackkt. There was nothing wrong with your explanation. I was just a little slow in my comprehension.
  17. 19 mins but a pink square for prophit!

    What a belle.

    Last few were free chilean cracker.

    Cod raincoat.

  18. I could barely get a toe hold anywhere on the grid, and so put Mara”s puzzle to one side and picked it up again this afternoon. Even then, I had to persevere with the anagrams at 8 and 20ac, with very few crossers in place, simply in order to get going. In the end, I was glad to stagger across the line. Still not sure what went wrong today, as none of the clues now look that difficult. Invariant
  19. Only looked at this on the train home after lunch in London. I saw Stasi straightaway and only realised it was a hidden later.
    I too took an age to find IMPERSONATE and then it was down to my last two: 15D AND 14A. I was sure that 15D started SON…which was unhelpful.
    It was on the bus after we had been turfed off the train because of the usual signalling delays in the Lewisham area that I found BENGALI and finally HEBREW.
    Could not parse ODD -very clever.
    Time not recorded but significant delays due to signalling. David
  20. An excellent QC. It took me 24 minutes, so over my 20 minute target (as most have been recently, I’m afraid) but, having read the comments here, I feel much better. I only failed to parse 21d, so thanks Jackkt for enlightening me on that one.
    FOI 2d (Trying the suggestion, in last week’s blog, to attempt Down clues first as they might be easier!)
    LOI 23a
    COD Oh, so many to choose from, but I especially enjoyed the misdirection in 8a.

    Thanks to those of you who advised that last Thursday’s 15×15 was doable for a QCer. I attempted it over the weekend and almost completed it. I wish I had spent more time checking the parsing on my 4 errors! I rarely look at the “big boy” crossword as it usually stumps me after just a few clues. I know this one was easy, but it still gives me hope!MM

  21. Great fun.

    What a lot of places and languages…CRETE, NEPAL, BENGALI, TURIN, CHILEAN, NICE, HEBREW.

    Croatian in the clue (you have a tiny typo with Croation, not that anyone will be confused). Also Scot. Venice, East Germany. And that’s leaving out the words in the clues that led directly to the answer (Asian for Bengali, for example).

  22. Second puzzle I’ve finished (after a few failures again last week) although not until this morning when IMPERSONATE came to me while away from the puzzle. The previous evening my 8 yr old son biffed CRACKER, once I told him I was looking for a biscuit and gave him what letters I had, but I still claim the victory as mine: I’d have got it in another few seconds (I tell myself). LOI: I did get ODD but only by biffing it, completely unable to parse it. Agree that ADMIRED is not the same as adored. Time probably adds up to around 70 mins. Thanks as ever for the blog.

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