Times Quick Cryptic 1350 by Mara

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 11 minutes. I had some difficulty getting going with this one and several longer answers (such as 1ac) needed most of their checkers before I could bring them to mind.

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 Pay Greek character heading for Belgium to follow truck (4,2,3,3)
PICK UP THE TAB – PICK-UP (truck), THETA (Greek character), B{elgium} [heading]
8 By the sound of it, taken to court for fraud (5)
PSEUD – Homophone [by the sound of it] of “sued” [taken to court]. Private Eye has featured  a Pseuds Corner for many a year.
9 Substitute book (7)
RESERVE – Two meanings
10 Cheek — that’s by the mouth (3)
LIP – A definition and a cryptic hint
11 Stepping down, agreeing terms again? (9)
RESIGNING – Two meanings, although the second would surely take a hyphen to avoid confusion since ‘resigning’ and ‘re-signing’ might well be opposites. The question mark in the clue gets round this.
13 Group getting cold in tub (5)
BATCH – C (cold) contained by [in] BATH (tub)
14 Awkward getting some sleep in it (5)
INAPT – NAP (some sleep) contained by [in] IT
16 Lass there, awfully cruel (9)
HEARTLESS – Anagram [awfully] of LASS THERE
17 Demon in Mephistopheles personified, originally (3)
IMP – First letters [originally] of I{n}, M{ephistopheles}, P{ersonified}
19 Second letter in a large, complicated branch of mathematics (7)
ALGEBRA – B (second letter) contained by [in] anagram [complicated] of A LARGE
21 Remove Times puzzle, finally (5)
ERASE – ERAS (times), {puzzl}E [finally]
22 A drug ring supplying interplanetary travellers (8,4)
ASTEROID BELT – A, STEROID (drug), BELT (ring)
Down
1 Student, bit of a looker? (5)
PUPIL – A straight defintion and a cryptic one with reference to the eye
2 Upset or placate female ruler (9)
CLEOPATRA – Anagram [upset] of OR PLACATE
3 Drunk? That’s illegal (5,3,5)
UNDER THE TABLE – Two meanings
4 Hit most of the spots (6)
THRASH – TH{e} [most of], RASH (spots)
5 Strangest idea to rebuild West Sussex Town (4,9)
EAST GRINSTEAD – Anagram [to rebuild] of  STRANGEST IDEA. I foresee problems with this one for some of our overseas contributors. I trawled itsWiki article and elsewhere looking for anything that might have spread its fame beyond our shores but without success other than it had a name-check in a Monty Python sketch. Apparently not even a single person of particular note was born or lived there, ever!
6 A middle section in dire tune (3)
AIR – A, {d}IR{e} [middle section]
7 First in hierarchy, number is top (6)
HEIGHT – H{ierarchy} [first], EIGHT (number)
12 One relative and one friend lacking spirit (9)
INANIMATE – I (one), NAN (relative), I (one), MATE (friend)
13 Execute that man bathed in a little sweat? (6)
BEHEAD – HE (that man) contained by [bathed in] BEAD (a little sweat)
15 Smooth gelato melted (6)
LEGATO – Anagram [melted] of GELATO
18 Fold petal another way (5)
PLEAT – Anagram [another way] of PETAL

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1350 by Mara”

  1. I don’t know if I knew EAST GRINSTEAD, but it was going to be EAST something, and the checkers were helpful. Biffed ASTEROID BELT & PICK UP THE TAB. So all was tickety-boo, until I noticed–just as I clicked to submit, that I had forgotten to solve 4d. Bad enough to do this at all, but I’ve submitted prematurely a couple of times in the last month or two; in Concises, but still. So 5:01 but.
  2. About 15 mins to get everything except pseud. The ps didn’t materialise from an alphabet trawl, so dnf.

    Thrash and erase for cod.

  3. Well, an interesting but testing (for me) start to the week. 1a came late (a clever clue) followed by my LOI PSEUD which took quite a time. I biffed ASTEROID BELT given a few checkers and then parsed it. INANIMATE was nice and CLEOPATRA took longer than it should have. A little over 5K so firmly in the SCC. Thanks to Mara and Jack. John M.

    Edited at 2019-05-13 08:09 am (UTC)

  4. I was going quite quickly through this and was not held up in East Grinstead which is not far from here. I have been held up in the traffic there in the past.
    Well under 10 minutes on the clock with two left. Asteroid Belt took me a while ( the Belt part) and then I stared at 8a for what seemed like ages. The only word which occurred to me was Plead but that clearly was not right. Eventually I got PSEUD which gets my COD vote. 13:37. David
  5. No particular problems for me, with EAST GRINSTEAD somehow being quite familiar. AIR was my FOI and BEHEAD brought up the rear. No trouble with PSEUD. I was slow to get the TABLE part of UNDER THE, needing checkers before the penny dropped. Nice puzzle. 9:12. Thanks Mara and Jack.
  6. Enjoyed this – thanks. I think mine was 11 mins too but only after 2 or 3 blank minutes before I finally put something in (14 really then). Does anybody refer to pseuds anymore? I seem to remember using it sneeringly in the 70’s as an abbreviation for various terms beginning with pseudo but I haven’t used it or heard it for years!
  7. Monday morning-itis for me, stopping the clock at 3.5 Kevins (a Bad Day). Found the downs easier than the acrosses (and I used to go to a gunsmith in East Grinstead) but still loads of pencil-chewing.

    Jack, what are the rules on capitals again? I looked at the T in “West Sussex Town” and wondered why it was there – post solve the answer was still not apparent to me! Thanks for the blog.

    Templar

    1. “Words that require capital letters in the cryptic reading must have them. However, ‘deceptive capitalisation’ is permitted. In other words, a word with a capital letter in the clue doesn’t necessarily have a wordplay meaning requiring a capital letter”.

      As described by Peter Biddlecombe (now ST Crossword Editor) when he set up TftT many years ago.

      I can’t see any reason for Town in 5d as it is not required under the rule but nor is it in anyway deceptive as it might be if ‘West Sussex Town’ were, say, the name of a football club. So I’m as mystified as you are!

      Edited at 2019-05-13 10:11 am (UTC)

  8. I was held up at the end by PSUED, where I eventually had to resort to an alphabet trawl, having resisted the temptation to just chuck in PLEAD. 22a gets my COD for the penny drop moment when I realised I wasn’t looking for spacemen or aliens. Completed in 10.25.
    Thanks for the blog
  9. As mentioned in the blog, Private Eye still has a ‘Pseuds Corner’ column, published every fortnight.
    1. ah thanks – I should have read that part of the blog – maybe even Private Eye 🙂

      Edited at 2019-05-13 08:42 am (UTC)

  10. Another DNF here because of PSEUD. I gave up at 12 minutes. Other than that 1a was pieced together very slowly first with THE then UP then TAB and finally PICK. Thanks jackkt.
  11. I seem to remember that East Grinstead was featured in ‘The Norman Conquests’
    by Aycbourne, a destination for an adulterous liason. I don’t know if any of his plays made it across the pond?

  12. I remember that East Grinstead used to be the site of the UK HQ of the self-styled Church of Scientology – perhaps that’s why it might be vaguely familiar.
    10 minutes, with a couple spent on 8ac, as PLEAD didn’t make sense, though nothing else seemed to fit.

    Edited at 2019-05-13 10:34 am (UTC)

    1. The Scientologists are still there. Pleasant, middle of the road offering today, not much else to add really.
      Thanks to setter and blogger, as always.
      4’50”
  13. ….I worked for the now defunct Independent Insurance Company who had a branch in EAST GRINSTEAD, so no problem with that – or with PSEUD as will be seen below. I parsed my LOI after completion.

    FOI PSEUD
    LOI PICK UP THE TAB
    COD ASTEROID BELT
    TIME 3:46

  14. An interesting mix from Mara, with most of it going in relatively quickly (23mins) before struggling with my last three – 21, 22 and of course 8ac. I got this month’s token Southern town without too much trouble, thanks to the crossers, but thought the two long across answers were a class above. Having said that, my favourite today was the short 22ac, Erase. Invariant
  15. Thanks for the blog. My version has a 20d “A blast – methane, perhaps?” which I am struggling on. Any ideas?
  16. As a resident of East Grinstead that clue was an absolute doddle.

    I do have to take issue with Jack about nobody famous ever living there though. The burns unit in the Queen Victoria Hospital in the town was run by Archibald McIndoe during the war who is regarded as the father of plastic surgery. Look up the “Guinea Pig Club” and the “Town that didn’t stare” for more information.

  17. I think East Grinstead is home to one of the world’s best known plastic surgery hospital – WW2 Guinea Pigs.

    I can see inept for awkward, but not so sure about inapt.

  18. Had extra time pressure today and I don’t know if that helped but I whizzed through this one! FIO was CLEOPATRA and LOI and COD definitely PSEUD which I thought was really clever. Great fun. Thanks so much to Jackkt and Mara.
  19. Enjoyed this one, abt 20m which is fast for us. LOI 8a, again got with alphabet trawl. Long clues went in quickly, had inept for 14a, until solving 12d.
  20. Am I the only one here who takes issue with the notion of PSEUD as a homophone for SUED?

    Surely the former is pronounced as in the second half of “pursued”, while the latter is simply said “sood” (rhymes with rude, mood, etc).

    It is by me, at any rate, and I would file anyone who does otherwise in the same strange box as those overenunciating oddballs who pronounce “sexual” as “sex-sue-wal” rather than “seck-shoe-al” and so forth.

    (Apologies for the anonymity: my handle is MisterGourmet but I seem to have logged myself out of my Google account and forgotten the password)

    1. I’m sure I’ve raised many a query about dodgy homophones in the 12 years I have been contributing and blogging for TftT but it’s very rare for there to be a consensus that any particular example is beyond the pale. Occasionally setters cover themselves by putting ‘some may say’ or similar expression in the clue, but that becomes boring so I think it’s generally accepted that a homophone is seldom applicable to every dialect in every part of the country and every part of the English-speaking world for that matter. ‘Pseud’ and ‘sued’ don’t sound quite the same when I say them, but not by much. However they would fit perfectly if spoken by the late art critic and writer, Brian Sewell.

      Edited at 2019-05-13 06:16 pm (UTC)

  21. Enjoyable puzzle with FOI PUPIL, LOI PICK UP THE TAB, and COD ASTEROID BELT. Familiar with East Grinstead courtesy of my sports-mad teenage years, as their hockey club provided several members of the 1988 Olympic gold-winning GB team.
  22. East Grinstead is famous: where Archibald McIndoe a plastic Surgeon developed treatments for burns in WW2

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