Times Quick Cryptic 1451 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Just under ten minutes today which seems to be my new normal. A few clues were potential slip ups – particularly 14ac and 18dn and others had some interest – see below.

ACROSS

1. High-ranking officials, orchestra members? (5)
BRASS – double definition.
4. Summon don, serf out of order (4,3)
SEND FOR – anagram (out of order) of DON SERF.
8. Substitute to play a let? (7)
RESERVE – in tennis, a serve which clips the net and goes in is a ‘let’ which results in the serve being retaken (RE-SERVE). COD.
9. Song sung originally in tree! (5)
PSALM – (S)ung inside tree (PALM).
10. That’s the same monster plant (10)
SNAPDRAGON – that’s the same (SNAP), monster (DRAGON).
14. Young animal provided in here, surprisingly (6)
HEIFER – before my brain engaged, I was weighing up heiner or heiren as an anagram of ‘in here’. However, reason belatedly tottered back to the rescue – provided (IF) inside an anagram (surprisingly) of HERE.
15. Cleaner parasite (6)
SPONGE – double definition – something used to clean/someone who borrows money off others – parasite. I was proved right on research that sponge (the animal) isn’t a parasite.
17. The ratings wrong, put things right (10)
STRAIGHTEN – anagram (wrong) of THE RATINGS.
20. Dark near end of street (5)
NIGHT – near (NIGH), stree(T).
22. European Green on football team (7)
EVERTON – European (E), green (VERT), on (ON).
23. Get Ann excited with poet’s ultimate touching line (7)
TANGENT – anagram (excited) of GET ANN, poe(T).
24. Perfect, perhaps, under pressure (5)
TENSE – double definition – perfect tense/tension.

DOWN

1. Bay tree’s outer surface (4)
BARK – double definition – bay or howl/tree’s outer surface.
2. A London orchestra too (4)
ALSO – a (A), orchestra (London Symphony Orchestra).
3. Plain green ties knotted (9)
SERENGETI – anagram (knotted) of PLAIN GREEN TIES (thanks Anon/Kevin).
4. Quiet spot round sheltered side (6)
SLEEPY – spot (SPY) around sheltered side (LEE).
5. Doze, knocking over cooking vessel (3)
NAP – cooking vessel – pan backwards (NAP).
6. Weak semaphore? (8)
FLAGGING – double definition – if someone is flagging are they weak or getting weak?/semaphore flag work.
7. What’s left without a memo (8)
REMINDER – what’s left without the ‘a’ (REM)a(INDER).
11. Show or programme ends now (9)
REPRESENT – o(R) programm(E), now (PRESENT). Clever clue.
12. Box, security device for horse (8)
CHESTNUT – box (CHEST), security device (NUT). I ‘hmmed’ at a non-electric device but that just shows the modern world – a device is an object that has been invented for a particular purpose.
13. Gas ring, note, for repair (8)
NITROGEN – anagram (for repair) of RING NOTE.
16. Danger the art is fake (6)
THREAT – anagram (is fake) of THE ART.
18. Piece of music written up for school (4)
ETON – piece of music – note – written upwards (ETON). I started with NOTE as the answer as the clue can, imho, be read either way.
19. King previously called for a joint (4)
KNEE – King (K), previously called (NEE).
21. Golf supporter into orienteering (3)
TEE – inside orien(TEE)ring.

38 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1451 by Mara”

  1. 8 minutes with no problems but I was glad I had the I-checker in place by the time I came to write HEIFER.

    I too liked the tennis clue. A ‘let’ can also be awarded by the umpire if the server serves when the receiver isn’t ready or if there’s a last-second distraction such as a low-flying bird or a loose ball on the court.

    Edited at 2019-10-01 04:49 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks to you all. ‘Word blindness’ is interesting – when I first read your comment, I checked the blog only to ‘not see’ it.
        1. You can delete your message if it hasn’t been replied to; click on the garbage can icon immediately to the right of the dateline. But you actually caught a rare slip on Chris’s part; SERENGETI is an anagram of ‘green ties’.

          Edited at 2019-10-01 07:52 am (UTC)

          1. But to be fair to Chris, he did underline “plain” as the definition, so …

            Edited at 2019-10-01 08:13 am (UTC)

  2. I was plodding through this slowly enough as it was; but I never got past heiner/heiren, failing to notice the ‘provided’, which has been used countless times; really embarrassing.
  3. Enjoyable 13 mins, might have been quicker but was stuck on represent and sponge.

    Cod serengeti.

  4. Absolutely done like a kipper on this one. Wrote in HEINER on first pass with a mental query but then it fitted all the checkers so hey! Obviously an obscure farming word. I even thought “bit like heifer so must be right”. Durr. Wrote in NOTE on first pass (agree with Chris, obviously, that this clue can be read either way) which then caused me issues in the SE. The SE was generally a problem anyway since it never occurred to me that the Times would stoop as low as the name of a football club (and isn’t it a club rather than a team?) and as Chris says, 11dn was a clever clue and I wasn’t clever enough to see it for at least 5 minutes. So generally a disaster, taking 25 minutes to get it wrong anyway. Thank goodness there’s another one tomorrow!

    Thanks Chris and Mara, you win today

    Templar

  5. 13.15 with COD to 24ac. Held up in NE having bunged in SUCKER (thinking this would be like a vacuum cleaner) before FLAGGING sorted me out and the rest followed. Oh and I was another than took ages to see HEIFER as I also tried to anagram INHERE…

    NeilC

  6. Well, I was really annoyed with myself for putting ‘heiren’ instead of heifer, but seeing other much more experienced solvers than me also made the mistake, I feel a bit better. Still, I should have known better. “If it’s not a word you know, it’s probably wrong”, is a mantra I try to stick to, but when the clock is ticking it’s so tempting to imagine that an heir is often someone young, so it stands to reason that heiren could be a young animal. Anyway, 29:10 for that DNF, which I found hard at first (FOI snapdragon), but was helped by the multiple anagrams. Wasn’t sure why a nut was a security device. I suppose it stops something falling apart. Also wondered about vert meaning green. Is that English? I guess it can be as it’s in here. No problem with Everton being a club as well as the team that are on the pitch, and also thought the school in 18d was the obvious answer rather than note as the ‘for’ separates the two parts of the clue. COD 23a (or, begrudgingly, 14a).
    1. Vert is a shade of green but these days it mostly refers to the tincture green in heraldry – shields and the like. It’s originally French of course but now fully integrated to the English language.
  7. 22 minutes, but at least I got it finished! Held up by HEIFER, SPONGE, EVERTON, BARK, SERENGETI and LOI – KNEE. Congrats to Mara for the challenging puzzle, and thanks to Chris for the blog.
  8. Another DNF – I seem to be in good company today! And it took nearly 30 minutes not to get there 😕 A slow start, then I sped up a bit, then ground to a halt. My downfall was Represent – just couldn’t see what was going on, although it’s perfectly clear now Chris has explained it!

    FOI Tangent
    LOI Sponge – once I’d got represent from aids
    PDM Tense – it seemed to takes ages – I was looking for a word meaning ‘perhaps’ to follow P for pressure! Then that happy ah-hah moment 😊
    COD Serengeti – a lovely surface and great misdirection

  9. ….HEIFER is quite a popular pub name in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The one near Skipton is the example others can only aspire to. I used to drop into the one on Blackburn Road, heading out of Bolton, when it was a proper Thwaites’s boozer – alas real ale there is now but a memory. My mate used to call it “The Cowardly Cow”, but of course Craven is the area around Skipton where these cattle originated.

    OK – I surrender ! My heartfelt thanks to so many of you for your kind and positive comments. I’m back in harness, but with one change. As of today, I shall only post my time if I either exceed 6 minutes (a toughie by my standards), or break the 3 minute barrier (which means I was exceedingly sharp). Today I was comfortably in between those times, and it should be assumed that I am in future, unless I say otherwise.

    I enjoyed this offering from Mara, and was held up only by carelessly attempting to enter “remainder” even though I’d correctly identified REMINDER.

    FOI SEND FOR
    LOI NITROGEN
    COD BARK (with HEIFER a close second)

    1. I’m so pleased you’ve reconsidered your totally understandable earlier decision. Your contributions are never less than valuable and your times something to admire and strive towards.

      I found this offering from Mara quite heavy going. Even the clearly signposted anagrams needed some thought and often some checkers. COD and LOI to REPRESENT.

      My thanks as always to setter and blogger.
      6’40”

  10. There are devices called lock nuts where a second nut is put on a screw thread and the two nuts are tightened against each other so the first nut can’t work loose.
  11. I was out late last night watching the musical celebration of Richard Thompson’s 70th birthday, so perhaps I wasn’t on top form for one of Mara’s tricky puzzles. The first 13 minutes or so were OK but then I got stuck with four left; then the phone went and then the doorbell rang with a delivery.
    I eventually saw FLAGGING (COD) for me, but then took ages to get SPONGE and my last two were REPRESENT and TENSE where I fell into the trap of looking for a word starting P.
    Well done Mara, an excellent puzzle. Time well over 20 minutes but that’s not important; it was a terrific challenge.
    Welcome back Phil.A steak and king crab at The Craven Heifer would be welcome now.
    David
  12. I had no real problems with this until I reached my LOI, REPRESENT. Took me over a minute for that 1 clue taking me to 8:52. KNEE held me up briefly too. Thanks Mara and Chris.
  13. Apparently there is a more specific definition of nut in the field of rock climbing: a nut (or chock or chockstone) is a metal wedge threaded on a wire and is used for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock
  14. Always a pleasure to start with 1ac/1d, and for the next 10mins the answers were coming without too much difficulty. However, with about half a dozen or so to go it felt as though a different setter had taken over from Mara to finish the puzzle. I eventually saw Snapdragon, which opened the gate except for my last two – 24 and 14ac. Is there anything more annoying than not getting a clue where you have seen the setter’s trick used before? I’ve seen the Perfect/Tense one several times, but it still took an alphabet trawl to spot it today. I also thought I was slow with Heifer, but, given that I’m in such distinguished company, I will let myself off that one. CoD to 7d, Reminder, for its surface. Invariant
  15. I biffed it the end. Thought of herein. Which is spelt the same and almost means the same in German- enter! Pronounced hair-ine. Think Allo Allo. Johnny
  16. Another who had REPRESENT as their LOI… and nearly came a cropper with HEIFER too, thinking “in here” was the anagrist. Nice one Mara and Thanks Chris. 5:13.
  17. Hard but all fair – acouple of times I expected an obscure word but all just well disguised and clued. HEIFER my LOI but plenty of struggles before that following a fast start. Would have benefited from pen and paper today I think. Mendeset.
  18. As a newbie I love this blog. Too embarrassed to state my time but I finished which is a success in my book.
    Many thanks to setter, blogger and contributers.

    Newbie

    1. Welcome newbie! Do sign up for LiveJournal and pick a moniker – it’s painless!
    2. Adding to Templar’s welcome – finishing today was no mean feat – even the mighty Kevin fell at the heifer fence (hmm – that doesn’t sound quite right but I think it’s understandable). We welcome all abilities and times so now embarrassment necessary. Often, newer contributors encourage others if they do share their times. It’s surprising how quickly they come down, Good luck!
    3. Don’t be embarrassed about your time – you finished, and that’s great news 😊 Come and join the fun!
  19. In my determination to not put the crossword down until I’d solved the lot, I did nothing but this for 45 minutes. That’s the longest it’s taken me in ages. At this rate, joining the Slow Coach Club would be more of an undeserved honour than ever.I’m not even sure why – perhaps because there were more anagrams than usual? Not that I normally count them so I might be wrong about that.I think there were seven today and I met each one of them with a brain full of porridge.There were some great clues, though. I particularly liked 1, 10, 15 and 24 across, especially “snapdragon” which made me chuckle. I only got “Everton” because it’s been an answer in the QC a few times so it’s my go-to answer if I suspect we’re talking football. I don’t play tennis so didn’t know what “a let” was: I biffed that answer. I can’t really congratulate myself for having heard of the golf-related item…I know “heifer” caused a lot of problems today but it was not my LOI. Rather embarrassingly, that honour goes to 1 down which, despite knowing that it was “B-R-“, still had me scratching my head for the longest time. This was because I kept trying to find a word meaning “surface” which made use of the “outer” letters of “bay tree”. For goodness sake.Thanks hugely, Mara, for a super challenge and thanks, too, to Chris, for the great blog.
      1. Thank you, Chris. I guess my attitude is not quite so commendable if I admit that the other benefit of spending all this time cruciverbaling meant that I could put off the moment when I was forced to set off to the dentist’s chair and a mahoosive filling.
  20. Well this one had the grey cells working overtime. I was generally slow across the grid with the 1s proving slow to fall and I just managed to miss the HEIFER trap. But I got very stuck at the end in the SE where REPRESENT, TENSE and SPONGE took an age to crack. Stumbled across the line in 20.13 with my favourites being FLAGGING and HEIFER.
    Thanks for the blog
  22. I thought there were some tough but satisfying clues here, with LOI the clever REPRESENT. Despite cracking the rest of the puzzle, alas I was one of those to opt for a non-existent HEINER as a posited young animal, and so was a DNF. Clues I enjoyed included BARK, TANGENT and TENSE. Some of the anagrams (e.g. STRAIGHTEN, NITROGEN) I found tougher than I ought, but anagrams are funny things, sometimes I see them immediately, other times only after most of the checkers.
  23. Toughie today, but stuck with it and like Loisajaney, it took me 45 mins to complete. Very satisfying to do so. Thanks for the blog and to the setter. It’s been a huge help over the years since I started the QC.

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