Times Quick Cryptic 1367 by Mara

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I was not on the wavelength for this one, just escaping my personal red zone, although in retrospect there’s nothing really hard. Even the unusual word at 19dn was quite generously signposted (and preceded by appearances in QCs past). I liked the Yoda-esque definition at 3dn once the penny dropped, but COD to 23ac which reads so deceptively well!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Pack with some cards for ship’s labourer (8)
DECKHAND – DECK (pack) with HAND (some cards).
5 Petticoat, a mistake (4)
SLIP – double definition.
9 Crate ordered to provide for event? (5)
CATER – anagram of (ordered) CRATE.
10 Greek character with stick — that’s bendy (7)
CHICANE – CHI (Greek character) with CANE (stick).
11 Part of spring blossom (3)
MAY – double definition; a month in (part of) spring, and a tree blossom.
12 Maintaining power, lord’s way disrupted fencing (9)
SWORDPLAY – anagram of (disrupted) LORD’S WAY, containing (maintaining) P (power).
13 Circuit best for computer (6)
LAPTOP – LAP (circuit) and TOP (best).
15 Gambler cured (6)
BETTER – double definition.
17 Rewritten novel isn’t ruined (9)
INSOLVENT – anagram of (rewritten) NOVEL ISN’T.
19 Nation abandoning popular resort (3)
SPA – SPAin (nation) removing (abandoning) ‘in’ (popular).
20 Plant we see, a new daffodil initially (7)
SEAWEED – anagram of (new) WE SEE A, and the first letter of (initially) Daffodil.
21 Build ship, perhaps? (5)
CRAFT – double definition.
22 By the sound of it, movement of water secured (4)
TIED – homophone of (by the sound of it) “tide” (movement of water).
23 Livelier person going downhill at the end of the working week? (8)
FRISKIER – SKIER (person going downhill) next to (at) FRI (end of the working week?).

Down
1 A pointed figure? (7)
DECIMAL – cryptic definition referring to a number (figure) containing a (decimal) point.
2 Spiteful getting claws out, perhaps? (5)
CATTY – double definition. So not an anagram of ‘claws’ then, which I wasted a daft amount of time on.
3 Difficult joint? By the way it is! (4,8)
HARD SHOULDER – HARD (difficult) and SHOULDER (joint). Something that is next to (by) the road (way).
4 Found in tin, a chocolate chip (5)
NACHO – hidden in tiN A CHOcolate.
6 Flier allowed to follow flea all over the place (7)
LEAFLET – LET (allow) after (to follow) an anagram of (all over the place) FLEA.
7 Pastry tray empty — goodness! (5)
PIETY – PIE (pastry) and the first and last letters from (empty) TraY.
8 Musical instrument jams — blow it! (12)
FIDDLESTICKS – FIDDLE (musical instrument) and STICKS (jams).
14 Gestapo fixed charge for delivery (7)
POSTAGE – anagram of (fixed) GESTAPO.
16 Minister welcoming a nuclear machine (7)
REACTOR – RECTOR (minister) surrounding (welcoming) A.
17 Something introduced yours truly sent off (5)
INSET – I (yours truly) and an anagram of (off) SENT.
18 Church’s official tree (5)
ELDER – double definition.
19 Hindu teacher moved across the Ganges perhaps before one (5)
SWAMI – SWAM (moved across the Ganges perhaps) before I (one).

22 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1367 by Mara”

  1. Found this challenging and my time of 27 mins reflects this. Last 3 were swordplay, swami and hard shoulder.

    Lots of nice clues: chicane, fiddlesticks, cater, insolvent, seaweed but favourite is friskier.

  2. I was–just now, reading the blog–wondering about ‘flier’, though I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I think I’d spell the leaflet with a Y, but who knows? Luckily for me, CHICANE showed up in a recent 15×15, before which time it was a DNK. 6:13.
  3. Panic stations here for a few moments at the start of solving when I read at least half-a-dozen clues without an answer leaping out of me – the most distressing being failure to to come up with the 3-letter word at 11ac. Eventually I got mysef started by trying the other end of the puzzle where both 19s went in easily and I continued to build from there. I finished in 10 minutes, just within my target, but it was another skin-of-the-teeth job.

    I’d never spell the leaflet as ‘flier’ btw, always ‘flyer’, and the one source I consulted suggests that ‘-ier’ is American in this context.

  4. For some reason I floundered badly and finished up with an all correct, but having taken 16:02. HARD SHOULDER took me ages up with which to come. Looking back, I can’t see why it took so long as I knew all the words. I guess it was a well crafted puzzle which deceived me for a while. Bravo Mara and thanks William.
  5. Even slower than Monday and Tuesday but all green at least. Only four on my first pass of the acrosses but the downs were a little more forgiving. I had heard of SWAMI but hadn’t associated it with a Hindu teacher (more ignorance exposed) so bunged in DALAI (I know, I know) because it ended in I and that wrecked my chances of getting CHART and SPA. Also took ages to spot FIDDLESTICKS and before that CHICANE. Getting FIDDLESTICKS gave me C_L_T for build ship and I finally revisited DALAI to cross the line in 25m.
  6. A brilliant and difficult puzzle from Mara which took me 21:57 of full concentration.I started off quickly enough but there were lots of traps and subtleties en route. Putting in CEDAR at 18d felt wrong but surely DAR could be a foreign official? Lots of clues where you could get stuck. COD to SWORDPLAY where I thought fencing referred to the letters of WAY.
    My last two were CRAFT and finally 8d which I thought had to start WIND for the instrument. Great stuff. David
  7. and my slowest ever TQC at 17.18

    Like Jack nothing gelled.

    FOI 1ac DECKHAND

    LOI 20ac SEAWEED

    COD 23ac FRISKIER with which I was off-piste

    WOD 8dn FIDDLESTICKS

  8. 10.09 today, so not easy for third day in a row this week. COD to FRISKIER even if it took a while to spot. The downs came more easily than the acrosses this time…

    NeilC

  9. Unlike some of the others on here, I managed to get started quite well and had most of the top half done in good time for me, with chicane being the one exception and my LOI despite realising it must start with chi. The bottom half was much trickier, but I got there in the end (53:14). Should have seen fiddlesticks earlier as I remember being held up before by a very similar clue for it. I particularly liked 3, 4 and 7dn. Never heard of May as a plant, despite, now I look it up and see it is a hawthorn, it being one of the few plants I could have identified both by sight and by its Latin name Crataegus monogyna. On a technical note, seaweed is not classified as a plant as it has no vascular tissue, but I don’t know if that matters in crosswordland. I guess not. Overall, a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Mara.

    1. Interesting seaweed gen, Chris. I didn’t know that a plant had to be vascular. Is it an algae then? Are algae not part of the plant kingdom? Just curious.

      1. Yes, seaweed counts as an alga and so is included, not in the plant kingdom, but in one called the Protista. Most of the other members of this group are unicellular. As it is basically a group of anything which has nucleated cells but which does not fit into the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, it is a very diverse group and many people think it should be split up further. Genetic techniques have moved classification on quite a lot in the 20+ years since I was at uni, so I’m afraid that’s about as far as my understanding goes, but hope that was of some help.
  10. Well! Clearly I am not the only one who was thrown by Mara today. I got on reasonably well until halted, inexplicably, by HARD SHOULDER, CHICANE, and SEAWEED. For some reason I put in Seawand for 20a – a type of kelp (lazy parsing and hence the problem with Shoulder). I thought this was a very clever QC and full of deceptions. Definitely SCC for me but no proper time since I am on the move and getting variable signals. Thanks to Mara and to William. John M.
  11. Found this slightly easier than Monday and Tuesdays offering. 8 down and 23 across had me floundering for a short while, but eventually they sprung to mind.

    Was left with T_E_ on 22 across for a brief moment searching for the homophone, when I remembered to put on an English accent in my brain… (it doesn’t work in my Glaswegian lilt)

  12. This was a proper midweek workout which I very much enjoyed. So many good clues but hats off to FRISKIER. I also had a MER at ‘flier’ but followed it with a ‘whatever’.

    Thanks as ever to setter and blogger.
    5’45”

  13. ….flier, and I say rubbish. Never considered which spelling is “correct”, but Chambers gives both. At my last flat, I actually saved all the fast food junk mail for a measured six month period – I received stuff from 47 different outlets within a five mile radius ! A waste of time sending them, since I always visited one of the same three outlets on the way home, ordered the food for 20 minutes time, and had a cheeky pint !

    Started exactly like Crispb, leaving “chi” for later, but whizzed through the bottom half, which left FIDDLESTICKS easy enough to spot.

    Much to like about this puzzle – thanks Mara.

    FOI DECKHAND
    LOI CHICANE
    COD HARD SHOULDER (FRISKIER ran it close)
    TIME 3:28

  14. Another high 30’s solve – that’s three on the trot. For some reason, I confidently biffed Hard Standing for 3d (laughing at Mara’s humour) and that caused all sorts of problems in the SW. I finally realised that the second word was Shoulder (nowhere near as funny) and that allowed me to tidy up the corner. That just left the Chicane/Piety combination, which also took ages to see. Not a good week so far. Invariant
  15. Contrary to the trend above I whizzed through this in a gratifying 1.5 Kevins for a Very Good Day. Only head scratching was over INSET, TIED (great clue) and CHICANE (the Greek alphabet always panics me if it’s not alpha, beta, omega or pi). Lots of fun, thanks Mara.

    FOI DECKHAND, LOI CHICANE, COD PIETY. Thanks for blogging, William.

    Templar

    1. I’m the same except it was 2 Kevins, despite the slow start which others experienced.
  16. Tricky in parts today but a DNF – defeated by 17d/22a. At 35 minutes I was doing very well (for me) until then! I think I recall that 14d appeared very recently… FOI 5a LOI7d CODs 14d and 3d.
  17. I didn’t find this as tricky as some seemed to have done but was inexplicably held up by my final two, 1d and 11a. Plenty to enjoy along the way with honourable mentions to 4d and 23a. Completed in 12.37.
    Thanks for the blog
  18. On attempting all the across clues I managed to get 9 correct straight off the bat! And followed that with 10 down answers – that allowed May in quickly. Remembering a recent Fidddlesticks helped and then finished with Swordplay, Chicane (LOI) and Swami. 21 minutes.
    Very pleasing.
    Thanks all,
    John George
  19. A real challenge today and all the better for it. I don’t record timings, since therein lies pressure. Why speed up something I enjoy doing? So, my benchmarks are –
    a) bit harder than usual, bhtu
    b) about the same as usual, asau
    c) bit easier than usual, betu
    Thank you, blogger and Mara, for a highly enjoyable puzzle. Sal

Comments are closed.