Times Quick Cryptic 1626 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I struggled with the long anagrams, in fact, I struggled with almost everything around the grid. I suspect that wasn’t my finest quarter of an hour. LOI by about 2 minutes was 15dn as I just couldn’t see it. COD to 12dn. All very good and highly enjoyable though.

Here’s how I worked it out in the end.

ACROSS

1. Sweet drink accompanying spread (12)
BUTTERSCOTCH – drink (SCOTCH) accompanying spread (BUTTER).
8. Dance that’s unexpected (5)
TWIST – double definition – the second being the unexpected twist at the end of a detective story.
9. Unfortunately, I retain the lack of movement (7)
INERTIA – anagram (unfortunately) of I RETAIN.
10. Chat ends in lengthy tea break (3)
YAK – length(Y) te(A) brea(K).
11. Pub’s motto, questionably – this? (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP – anagram (questionably) of PUBS MOTTO. &lit clue where the anagram material informs the definition,
13. Thai rebuilt capital in independent country (5)
HAITI – anagram (rebuilt) of THAI, capital in (I)ndependent. Lovely surface – I liked the capital in independent.
14. Watch, say, brief spins (5)
TIMER – brief (REMIT) spins – backwards.
16. VIP from Lancashire, perhaps, on jumbo (3,6)
BIG CHEESE – Lancashire, perhaps (CHEESE) on jumbo (BIG).
17. Bed found in Croft, oddly (3)
COT – (C)r(O)f(T).
19. Communist leader, Elizabeth I perhaps? (7)
REDHEAD – communist (RED), leader (HEAD). Daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn (who had red hair).
21. Show lettuce concealing little bird (5)
OWLET – hidden in sh(OR LET)tuce.
22. Present intent, a wild party (2,10)
IN ATTENDANCE – anagram (wild) of INTENT A, party (DANCE).

DOWN

1. Sandwich behind pasty ultimately (5)
BUTTY – behind (BUTT), past(Y).
2. Second double fifty secured by man (9)
TWINKLING – double (TWIN), fifty (L) secured by man (on a chess board – KING). Collins has ‘a very short time/instant’ which helped me get over ‘a twinkling of an eye’.
3. Ablest men upset with this business (13)
ESTABLISHMENT – anagram (upset) of ABLEST MEN and THIS. We’re more used to the anagram material all being together in a QC so this took longer than maybe it should.
4. Thus penning clue for religion (6)
SHINTO – thus (SO) penning clue (HINT). It’s the traditional religion of Japan (according to Collins which knows a great deal more than I do).
5. Moving on to Hereford, a final pint downed? (3,3,3,4)
ONE FOR THE ROAD – anagram (moving) of ON TO HEREFORD A. I’m sure West Mercia Police would object to this clue.
6. Minor injury reduced (3)
CUT – double definition.
7. Obstruct basket (6)
HAMPER – double definition.
12. Is monocle ruined? There’s a little mark (9)
SEMICOLON – anagram (ruined) of IS MONOCLE.
13. Watering hole in sweltering Australian City (6)
HOBART – watering hole (BAR) inside sweltering (HOT).
15. Bait – is that eyed? (6)
NEEDLE – a needle has an eye. Didn’t see this for so long and also didn’t grasp bait as in provoke/annoy.
18. Bird left with English name (5)
TITLE – bird (TIT), left (L), English (E).
20. Racket held in hand inevitably (3)
DIN – held inside han(D IN)evitably.

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1626 by Mara”

  1. I was doing really well, even getting the long ones fairly quickly, but was totally undone by SHINTO which I put SHIITE down for to start. I still can’t see how to arrive at either though if I’m honest. 32 minutes today and two wrong. (I got HOBURN instead of HOBART. Serves me right for ‘rushing’ things. Doh!)
    Enjoy another fine day looms. Keep those rain dances going. My allotment is like a desert!

    Edited at 2020-06-02 05:44 am (UTC)

    1. Thus penning clue for religion – the religion is Shinto made up from this (SO) enclosing (penning) clue (HINT). For penning – think of sheep pens/enclosures.
  2. Firstly , congrats are in order as this is Mara’s 150th Quick Cryptic in a run that started with QC#19 on 3rd April 2014.Thanks for many happy hours of solving. Keep them coming!

    This one took me 10 minutes with NEEDLE as my LOI. I wondered if there might be a theme or something to mark the occasion but haven’t been able to find anything other than there seem to be a lot of I’s and T’s (three of them doubles), but I can’t see any significance in that. Very enjoyable anyway.

  3. Too hard for me today. Finished in 26m but at about 20 I was faced with a quit or use aids dilemma. Went for aids in the end and even then had to click and hope at the end, I’d never have worked out what was going on with TWINKLING – thanks Chris – that was my LOI, it was only once all the checkers were in that I abandoned the need for LL to be in there and even then didn’t get the definition. Must brush up on Australian geography!
  4. 11 mins.
    Only hold ups were twinkling and LOI shinto.

    COD bottoms up.
    Thanks Mara and Chris.

    1. It doesn’t need to be. ‘Capital’ here should be taken as meaning the first or leading letter of the word ‘independent’.

      Edited at 2020-06-02 06:52 am (UTC)

      1. To follow up on jackkt’s reply – this is why I took a long time over it but ended up liking it because of the deception.
  6. I got off to a quick start with BUTTERSCOTCH going straight in but I found this quite tricky in places. It took me far too long to unravel the anagram for ESTABLISHMENT and I spent time on my LOI NEEEDLE which eventually needed an alphabet trawl. Finished in 13.59.
    Thanks to chris and congrats to Mara for his 150, please keep them coming.
  7. DNF, the NEEDLE remaining in the haystack. By the time I realised that I still had one left I’d spent so long over the crossing TWIST/TWINKLING that I was thoroughly disheartened.

    Hey ho, there’s another one tomorrow!

    Thanks Mara and Chris.

    Templar

  8. Like others, I found this a slow solve and shared NEEDLE as LOI. After jumping around as usual, I got the long answers fairly easily but was held up a little by HOBART and SHINTO and by the parsing of BUTTY and TWINKLING. 3 mins over target. Thanks to Chris and congrats to Mara on a century and a half. John M.

    Edited at 2020-06-02 08:31 am (UTC)

  9. I surprised myself today finishing in 8 mins. I suspect the biffing of the long ones IN ATTENDANCE and ONE FOR THE ROAD helped. My FOI was BUTTY and LOI (like others) NEEDLE. COD for me was HOBART. Congratulations Mara on your 150th QC. Thanks to Chris too.
  10. A fairly good day for me considering others seemed to find this one reasonably testing. The NW corner held me up a little, but once I’d thought of BUTTERSCOTCH, the others fell into place, with LOI TWINKLING going in at 36:26. Lots to enjoy along the way. I liked the idea of Elizabeth I being a Communist leader, but COD to TWINKLING. Thanks to Mara and Chris.
  11. A careless (and not even a word) YAB at 10 made the already difficult TWINKLING even harder. Time also lost on my LOI, the tricky NEEDLE. Still managed to come in less than a minute over my 5-minute target.
  12. Second day running where I was taken to two minutes above my target range by some twisted clueing. A good and fair challenge in the end with LOI NEEDLE. Thanks Chris and Mara, and congratulations on the 150 milestone.
  13. Another LOI NEEDLE after 14:07. Mara in tricky form today. It took me nearly two minutes to get FOI COT but once I got going I solved steadily.
    It seems most of us found this challenging and I think beginners will struggle. COD to TWINKLING amongst a number of candidates. David
  14. Didn’t time myself on this one and kept getting interrupted which didn’t help. It was certainly at least half an hour. Some very nice clues, as is always the case with Mara. I especially liked BOTTOMS UP and BIG CHEESE but there are loads more here that were clever and imaginative. I twigged NEEDLE fairly early in but TWINKLING, my LOI, was a guess. I needed the blog for this clue in order to grasp, what is to me, quite complex parsing. Thanks so much, Chris! Thanks, too, to Mara
  15. I agree with all of the above. A real challenge today. TWINKLING and NEEDLE both needed all the checkers and still took a long while to spot.
    PlayUpPompey
  16. Below my par of 12 minutes today, but that is not unusual when I’m faced with one of Mara’s puzzles! All the same, it doesn’t seem to be too bad a day, considering everyone else’s experiences. When I take a first glance at the clues, if they are very short, I always think ‘Aha Mara!’, before checking the setter, and today was no different. Very tight cluing, but everything fair and ultimately doable – even NEEDLE, although it took ages! I liked BUTTERSCOTCH, BOTTOMS UP (btw there’s a similarly entertaining clue in the biggie today) and SEMICOLON.

    Re Mara’s 150th – are we IN ATTENDANCE at some celebrations of the alcoholic type?

    FOI Inertia
    LOI Needle
    COD One for the road – here’s to the next 150 🥂
    Time 14 mins

    Thanks Mara – it’s always fun – and to Chris, for the – as ever – clear explanations

  17. I really enjoyed solving this one and was pleased that everything slotted in just under my target time of 20 minutes.
    LOI was TWINKLING (unparsed) and my COD was ONE FOR THE ROAD although there were many contenders.
    Thanks and congratulations to Mara and also to Chris for his amusing blog.
  18. Almost did not start.
    I must have been feeling dim today. But I see others didn’t find it easy either, so that’s a comfort.
    Although I guessed e.g. ‘in attendance’ I find clues that are half anagram and half synonym tricky.
  20. I was already struggling with this, 9 minutes in, and less than half done, when my computer stopped responding to my increasingly anguished entreaties. Some 2 hours later, after having uninstalled my secondary antivirus software, I found that the clock had fortunately stopped at 10 minutes, and was able to continue where I left off, finishing with NEEDLE. TWINKLING also caused me some delay. 14:17. Congrats and thanks Mara, and thanks, Chris, for the blog.
  21. ….or rather Mara, and let’s hope there’s lots beyond ONE more FOR THE ROAD.

    FOI INERTIA
    LOI/COD TWINKLING
    TIME 4:30

  22. … as I finished in just under 10 minutes, which seems even more pleasing given the general views above on it being a tougher one. Sometimes one is just on the same wavelength as the setter!

    No real hold-ups except LOI 2D Twinkling, where I did not see man = king for an age. Thanks Chris for reminding me of the chess piece trick.

    COD to 13D Hobart – I was there 15 months ago, and yes it was a sweltering city in the February sun and yes it had many nice watering holes!

    Thanks to Mara for a nice puzzle and to Chris for the blog.

    Cedric

  23. Enjoyed this puzzle which seemed to suit us finishing in 23m which is good for us. Long anagrams went in quickly, loi 15d.
  24. I enjoyed this and completed it in around 25 mins only to find that I got 15dn wrong. I put in “Beadie” which in hindsight makes absolutely no sense and isn’t probably a word. All I can think of in my madness was that I connected it to “beady eye”.

    Anyway, other than that the rest was on wavelength, with only 2dn slowing me up.

    FOI – 1ac “Butterscotch”
    LOI – 8ac “Twist”
    COD – 11ac “Bottoms Up” – if only we could!

    Thanks as usual.

  25. Slow going today after a late start. A combination of tricky clueing and just not being on the wavelength. Shame really, as 1ac went in without a moment’s hesitation (possibly even in a twinkling) and I thought I might run straight through it. It was not to be and it took me an age to finish off my last three, 2dn, 10ac and 15dn. At least I wasn’t alone.

    FOI – 1 ac butterscotch
    LOI – 15dn needle
    COD – 13ac Haiti

  26. Came to this very late on, and after a long day. Suffice to say I now wish I hadn’t bothered. Finished, with Twinkling, of which there must be quite a few in a second. Invariant

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