Times Quick Cryptic 1651 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A zippy start to week – 6:33 yesterday and 6:54 today. This solve took on an X-rated approach starting by completing the NE then SW then up to NW and finally puzzling through the SE. LOI 17dn.

I don’t have a COD as there were smiles to be had all over the grid – thanks Mara.

ACROSS

1. Space traveller leaves (6)
ROCKET – my first pass missed this delightful double definition. I considered meteor at first but, of course, the second definition is ‘leaves’ which menus enjoy describing – scallop medallions and bacon nestling on a bed of green leaves. Mmm.
4. Proust novel in state of unconsciousness (6)
STUPOR – anagram (Nobel novel) of PROUST.
9. Hill over Canadian city (7)
TORONTO – hill (TOR) over (ONTO). Water poured over/onto the grass.
10. Primarily, noses always sound, appropriately, like – this? (5)
NASAL – (N)oses (A)lways (S)ound (A)ppropriately (L)ike.
11. Track fibber on the way back (4)
RAIL – fibber – liar – backwards (RAIL).
12. Thieves after a thousand items of underwear (8)
KNICKERS – thieves (NICKERS) after a thousand (K).
14. Rounding first of chairs, change row (11)
ALTERCATION – change (ALTERATION) around (C)hairs.
18. A bodybuilder – one’s out of this world! (8)
ASTEROID – a (A), body builder (STEROID).
20. Just blonde (4)
FAIR – double definition.
22. One ahead of pace, incensed (5)
IRATE – one (I) ahead of pace (RATE).
23. Always the same, educational document? (7)
UNIFORM – educational document (UNI FORM).
24. English county filing a suit (6)
HEARTS – English county (HERTS) containing (filing) a (A).
25. Spanish food bringing father and girl together (6)
PAELLA – father (PA), girl (ELLA).

DOWN

1. Stop working and hit the sack (6)
RETIRE – double definition.
2. Warm, fruit-flavoured drink (7)
CORDIAL – double definition.
3. Bird found in better neighbourhood (4)
ERNE – found in bett(ER NE)ighbourhood.
5. Eccentric in act, yet to show persistence (8)
TENACITY – anagram (eccentric) of IN ACT YET.
6. Pulp has gone over the top of everything (5)
PASTE – has gone (PAST) over (E)verything.
7. Greatly enjoy sauce (6)
RELISH – double definition.
8. US state I saw under bridge (11)
CONNECTICUT – I (I) and saw (CUT) under bridge (CONNECT).
13. Dire stew cooked up, most odd (8)
WEIRDEST – anagram (cooked uo) of DIRE STEW.
15. Where butter may be found in the groove (2,1,4)
ON A ROLL – another excellent double definition.
16. European run taking in Northern Ireland (6)
DANISH – run (DASH) taking in Northern Ireland (NI).
17. Misdeed on a European peninsula (6)
CRIMEA – misdeed (CRIME) on a (A). and European (E).
19. Jewelled item found in Croatia rarely (5)
TIARA – found in Croa(TIA RA)rely.
21. A drink knocked up in Tuscan city (4)
PISA – a (A) and drink (SIP) upwards.

53 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1651 by Mara”

  1. I was quite slow today for some reason. I didn’t help myself by biffing MISSISSIPPI when I had the I, thinking to come back later to justify it. It stayed in there, putting various acrosses out of reach until I finally saw the light. I also put in TERN at 3d. Didn’t understand how a UNIFORM could be a document. 8:59.
  2. I messed up at 3D by filling in the (to me) more obvious TERN, also hidden and a bird, so clearly correct. But TORONTO had to be right too. So it took a moment to sort that out.

    BTW at 4A you have “Nobel” instead of “novel” (I suspect you typed “nobel” by mistake and then some helpful spellchecker decided to capitalize it).

  3. 9:25. I thought I was headed for a quick time. Most of the grid went in without much fuss, but the corners had some crossing words I had to grind out at the end. (PISA, UNIFORM, and CRIMEA on the one hand; ROCKET and CORDIAL on the other.)

  4. Another TERN here – touché Mara, that really stuffed the NW for me.

    Actually, I was a bit stumped all over the place and limped over the line (I’ll blame the lockdown homebrew). Having come here to enquire if ‘always’ sounds like “as all”, I find that there’s nothing of the sort to complain about.

  5. Yes, I too fell into the same trap and spent too long trying to figure out another Canadian city with TOR in it! Nice one. Once I’d found the right answer the rest began to fall into place. But after that it was never going to be a PB for me so I just took my time and enjoyed the parsing.
    Favourite clue 18a ASTEROID.
    Today’s Doh! moment (as well as 3d ERNE) was 12a KNICKERS as my awakening brain thought L = 1,000 for a while so I was trying to fit in some variation on ‘Larcenist‘ before the penny dropped.
    Nice puzzle Mara. Thanks for a good start to the day at 21 minutes.

    Edited at 2020-07-07 04:43 am (UTC)

  6. Fat finger horror show with 2 pink squares giving three errors. Having finally uncovered the TERN / ERNE bear trap I then managed to type in ERRE so spoiling TORONTO too and then managed to enter DASISH for DANISH. Previously I’d struggled to bring CRIMEA to mind and not only got the wrong “row” but failed to separate it from “change” so ALTERCATION took an age. Also needed the blog to get ROCKET for leaves and hadn’t heard of the novel. I shall try to forget this one.
  7. Well my solving time of 16 minutes (in the red zone again) seems to confirm that I have a problem getting onto Mara’s wavelength, exactly as demonstrated in my latest ‘QC League table of difficulty by setter’ in which Mara was at the top of the list. When I published this last week, the Times Crossword Editor (no less!) expressed amazement as he always finds Mara’s puzzles among the easiest when he is test-solving.

    It can’t be that seeing Mara’s name inhibited me from the start because I did’t actually register the name of the setter until after I realised I was struggling. I don’t know what the problem was (other than falling into the TERN trap) but I was constantly hopping around the grid so there was little flow or joined-up solving to the process and the time just slipped away.

    Edited at 2020-07-07 05:51 am (UTC)

  8. Really good start for me, although I fell into the TERN trap. Once I had sorted that out I had a problem in the SW corner. So 19:16 ,just within my time limit. Very enjoyable puzzle though.
  9. Well I’m very relieved that I didn’t spot TERN in the hidden or I’d also have fallen into that trap. Instead ERNE went straight in and I thought I was on for a fast time. I was slowed down at the end by desperately wanting to put FINNISH in for the nationality, even though it didn’t fit, being slow to spot ASTEROID despite having seen similar clues before, having a brain freeze on the US state and needing all the checkers for UNIFORM.
    Having said all that I still registered a sub 10 minute time so I can’t complain. Lots to enjoy from Mara today but my favourite was UNIFORM.
    Thanks to chris

    Edited at 2020-07-07 07:35 am (UTC)

    1. We seem to be in a small group who didn’t go for tern. In my case, I wonder if I was lucky to have left the NE until later. By working my way up, I may have had a checking letter by the time I came to 4dn. Not getting 1ac always seems like a disadvantage but maybe not in this case.
      1. I’ve actually just remembered that I solved TORONTO before tackling the hidden so already had a very handy ‘N’ to work from and therefore didn’t even see the TERN option.
        1. I, too, had TORONTO before I got to 3d but that didn’t stop me putting TERN (I still have to look at the keyboard when typing) and I only noticed on my pre-submit checks that I had TORORTO.
          1. … but sheer good fortune in my case. Having done down clues before across yesterday, I did the across clues first today and so had the E for Erne and didn’t look at Tern at all. If I had done the down clues first again I’m sure that I’d have fallen into Mara’s clever trap too!

            Cedric

  10. Round and round I hopped from one corner to the next like a drunken sailor until finally collapsing on rocket. COD asteroid. Thanks to Mara for doing my head in and Chris for straightening it out.
  11. Slow – bang on my upper limit at exactly 20 mins today. I too fell into the TERN trap, rectified only when TORONTO went in. Failed to parse ALTERCATION correctly, which left me puzzled for too many minutes. ROCKET and CORDIAL also seemed like chestnuts – but only after I’d spent a long time trying to work out what the answers were. Lots of clues to enjoy in any case.

    FOI: stupor
    LOI: rocket
    COD: nasal

  12. As well as falling for the TERN trap I never know how to spell weird, (i before e except after c) so that held me up badly.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger.

    Diana

    Edited at 2020-07-07 07:52 am (UTC)

  13. A mix of obvious, nicely misleading, and rather chewy clues and very enjoyable. I finished in the NW corner having been slow to get ROCKET at the beginning – hence my funny TERN. Most of my other foul-ups have been listed above so I am relieved not to have been alone. In the end I was just under target at 14.27. My COD was ALTERCATION but I came close to choosing KNICKERS, especially after the exchange between John and Kevin above. Thanks to Mara and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2020-07-07 08:32 am (UTC)

  14. At 8:48 it’s a sub-K and thus a Red Letter Day! Huzzah. Fortunately I’d tackled the acrosses before the downs and so ERNE went in, but such was the magnetic power of TERN that I double-checked ROCKET first.

    Spent a wee while trying to get “tapas” into 25ac (well, it does have a PA in it …) but the two big hold ups for me were UNIFORM (where I saw the word quite quickly but just could not puzzle it out for ages) and then CRIMEA (I am rubbish at geography so needed all the checkers).

    Very smooth and witty puzzle, thanks Mara. FOI ROCKET, LOI CRIMEA, COD PAELLA. Thanks for the blog, Chris.

    Templar

  15. Yet another Tern here. It didn’t cause a major hold up as TORONTO was obviously correct; but correcting typing seems to take me ages.
    FOI was STUPOR. If I’d been able, I’d have put Stupour!
    After that steady progress. ROCKET came late because of Tern. LOI and COD to ASTEROID. 11:00 exactly on the clock.
    David
  16. Unlike Jackkt, I find Mara to be a setter whose wavelength I find one of the easier ones to find and follow. Today’s puzzle was no exception. I finished in just under 20 minutes with ALTERCATION, the parsing of which was a lot simpler than my initial reading of the clue made me think it was going to be. I had lots of chuckle moments today, with clues such as ROCKET, ASTEROID and KNICKERS (and someone’s answer to the final one in that list plus the comments which followed it ). I’m very pleased I saw ERNE before I saw TERN or the North East corner would have been impossible. Talking about “saw”, I liked its synonym of CUT in the US state referenced in 8 down. Very neat parsing altogether in that clue, I think. Like others here, I could not see how UNIFORM, 23 across, could be an “educational document ” so many thanks to Chris for sorting that one out! Great surfaces today, too. Thanks, Chris for the blog and thanks, too, to Mara for a super crossword
  17. I was amused to see we had two hidden birds for one in 3D. Fortunately I already had ROCKET otherwise I’m sure I would have put in TERN. Like Kevin, I was confused by UNIFORM, thinking double definition at first until I saw the correct parsing. I enjoyed KNOCKERS. 3:39
        1. As Les Dawson’s character Cosmo Smallpiece used to ejaculate “Knickers, knackers, knockers !”
      2. Thank you John and Kevin for making my day 🤣🤣 You’ve made cry with laughter!

        Edited at 2020-07-07 11:50 am (UTC)

    2. Thanks for a terrific weekend QC, John. Greatly enjoyed and as my eldest son said, more than good enough to have been in the paper – chapeau!
        1. John, I’d forgotten all about your weekend QC until Templar mentioned it, so it provided me with an entertaining Monday evening bonus. I even spotted the nina!! Many thanks.
  18. And another ‘tern’ here which brought me to a standstill in the NW corner. LOI 1d RETIRE after POI 1a ROCKET in a tardy 13 minutes. A very enjoyable Mara workout nonetheless.
  19. 16 minutes for me, held up by LTI ALTERCATION and CONNECTICUT, which I just couldn’t see despite having all the checkers except the shared one. As soon as the first fell, I saw the other. FOI ROCKET, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and saw TERN and ERNE simultaneously, but ERNE had to be right to fit 1a.

    Chris, the E for European isn’t required in 17d. European is part of the definition. Good blog and puzzle, thanks.

  20. Yet another TERN here, which held me up for ages with 1a, as I didn’t notice it had become TENN with the arrival of TORONTO until I was unable to solve 1a and had a rethink. UNIFORM, CRIMEA and CONNECTICUT were all late arrivals, dragged out of the fog after a struggle. ALTERCATION was my LOI after the L from CORDIAL and the, whoops should be E before I in WEIRDEST, moment arrived. Limped home in 14:29. Thanks Mara and Chris.
  21. Another sub 20 mins for me today (around 18 mins to be exact) which is fairly pleasing as it wasn’t a straightforward puzzle from Mara.

    Luckily I didn’t fall into the Tern trap as I got 1ac “Rocket” first. I biffed 4ac “Stupor”, but completely missed it being an anagram. Although “Toronto” was fairly obvious, watching the recent “Cardinal” on the BBC helped significantly.

    As already noted above, lots to enjoy today with what felt a very geographical/travelling theme: “Connecticut”, “Rocket”, “Pisa”, “Crimea” etc. come to mind.

    At one point, with the letters “A”, “R” and “I” I thought the “bodybuilder” was a sneaky reference to Mr. Schwarzenegger. Alas – it was not to be.

    FOI – 11ac “Rail”
    LOI – 18ac “Asteroid”
    COD – 12ac “Knickers” – always generates a giggle.

    Thanks as usual

    Edited at 2020-07-07 10:57 am (UTC)

  22. ….ROCKET Man (see yesterday’s 15×15 blog), and I prefer a PAELLA every time.

    Like Chris, I didn’t immediately spot ROCKET, and so it was that I reached the NW corner later, and got TORONTO before seeing ERNE – but not “tern”. A classic bear trap from Mara, and in keeping with a really good puzzle.

    FOI STUPOR
    LOI ASTEROID
    COD PASTE
    TIME 0.46K

  23. A lucky day for me as I completely missed seeing TERN and went straight for ERNE (a word I had never heard of until I started doing these, but they seem to be just about the most common birds in crosswordland, although, given that knockers have already been mentioned, I suppose owls (often hooters) come up quite frequently too). I was also fortunate to put WASTE in for 6d, although I put it in lightly as I didn’t know where the T came from. When I worked out STUPOR, the correct word for 6d was there already. Anyway, lots to enjoy here. I thought I was going slowly, but after going through most of the clues I saw I’d only been at it for thirteen minutes. I eventually stopped my watch after LOI ASTEROID, on 23:23, so a good day for me, slightly quicker than yesterday and for a more difficult puzzle I think, and under 3K! Not sure about COD. I had it down as 15d mid-solve, but having finished it, I am torn between that and 1a, 4a, 12a and 18a. 23a, 7d and 17d were good too. Let’s just call it a great puzzle all round. Thanks Mara and Chris.
  24. Oh dear, fell into the Tern trap and various others. Missed Altercation, for instance, and Asteroid ☄️ which is a nice clue. Even missed Rocket so not a good day, too distracted, I guess.

    Thanks though.

  25. 18 mins and an out of this world asterois typo.

    Got through all clues but 6 in about 7 mins, then hit a brick wall: altercation, asteroid, connecticut, danish, crimea, and LOI uniform.

    Finished the 15×15 for the first time in a few days, so might be worth a go.

    COD Crimea.

    Edited at 2020-07-07 11:30 am (UTC)

  26. Started with 4ac STUPOR and worked round in a clockwise direction until I ended up with the NW + 8dn and 14ac blank. I must have gone through at least 40 US states in my mind before alighting on CONNECTICUT. I then confidently entered TERN at 3dn and spent some time considering why 9ac should be ONTARIO. Revisiting 3dn was the key to unlocking the remainder but by then a considerable amount of time had elapsed, so not a good day.

    FOI 4ac STUPOR
    LOI 14ac ALTERCATION
    COD 18ac ASTEROID

  27. A Pretty Good Day at 1.3K – so back to par. Like everyone as said, this was an entertaining puzzle. I used to find Mara one of the hardest setters, but am more often on his wavelength these days.

    I started off quickly and had all bar four done in about 9 minutes, but those last ones took another 3 minutes – I’m embarrassed to admit that they were ROCKET, RETIRE, UNIFORM and ALTERCATION. None were that tricky but I couldn’t see them. However, 3d didn’t cause too much delay – as I got TORONTO first, tern made a brief flypast before ERNE came swiftly into view (thank goodness).

    So much to enjoy today – hard to pick a COD, but there are ticks next to RELISH and CONNECTICUT.

    FOI Stupor
    LOI Altercation
    COD Stupor – I’ve never attempted Proust, but fear that he may send me to sleep
    Time 12:20

    Thanks Mara and Chris

  28. Not that it slowed down my solve, but I don’t really like “HAS GONE” for “PAST”. They’re very different parts of speech and I can’t easily think of a phrase where one can be substituted for the other
    1. But I don’t think it’s ‘has gone’, it’s just ‘gone’ as in ‘times gone’ and ‘times past’. ‘Has’ is just a filler to help the surface reading.
  29. Luckily I, too, avoided the ‘tern’ trap as I already had TORONTO.
    I wasn’t too keen on PASTE but all the other smiles along the way more than made up for it. My COD has to go to ON A ROLL which was delightful.
    I’ve just realised that there were quite a few food & drink related clues today – the two above plus ROCKET, PAELLA, CORDIAL, RELISH and DANISH.
    Just seconds over my target of 15 minutes so not a bad day.
    Thanks to Mara and to Chris.
  30. Like a lot of others, I went for the wrong bird, so despite TORONTO obviously being the right answer, I spent a long time trying to think of another Canadian city.

    I’m another one who often struggles with Mara’s puzzles. A good challenge for me today. 11:07.

  31. … and by dint of good fortune in avoiding the Tern trap (which I have already commented on above) I came home in 12 minutes for a good day for me.

    There seemed to be a surprisingly large number of Double Definitions in this puzzle – at least 6 and possibly 7 if one includes 23A Uniform. And also rather a lot of food items: Rocket, Paella, Danish (pastry), Cordial, Paste, On a roll, Relish. Almost a mini-nina?

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  32. Well, luckily we went for erne not tern (clever bunker of a clue). Really well balanced challenging puzzle that we greatly enjoyed – although we laughed more at some of the comments than the clues 😂. As we always do the QC after lunch there are always lots of comments to read – most enjoyable! Thanks for a very entertaining puzzle Mara which took us 16 mins to complete.

    FOI: stupor
    LOI: Danish
    COD: knickers (and we had decided on that before reading today’s comments!)

    Thanks to Chris for the blog

    Edited at 2020-07-07 02:40 pm (UTC)

  33. I thought most of this was fairly straightforward (for Mara) but with a real sting in the tail (aka I struggled with the last couple). Having started with Retire and then Toronto, I had the comfort of being able to pick my bird from those on offer, and could then work my way steadily around the grid. I seem to have recently got into the habit of writing in the odd letter as I go along, even if I can’t complete the clue, so I confidently inserted a C at the start of 14ac before moving on… My final two, after about 20 mins were 8d and 14ac. Connecticut took an age to recall, but a lot quicker than the time it took me to realise what was going on with 14ac starting Cl*e! Finally limped over the line just north of 25 mins. Invariant
  34. DNF without 17d. Annoying as I recently finished reading Mrs Duberly’s War and about to start The Adventures of Mrs seacole in many lands – both prompted by the excellent No Place For A Lady and the recent exhibition of Roger Fenton’s photography (not intended to photographs but the raw materials for engravings firstly in newspapers). Anyway, enough beating oneself up! Fell into the 3D trap and forced to re-examine for 9a Toronto which insisted it was the right answer. Amused by 18a asteroid and 8d Connecticut. No problem here with 23a uniform. Always find Mara a challenge and perhaps not helped by a 05.15 start for silver hour at the supermarket! But, always very fair clue. Thank you Chris for a blog that helped sort out some of my parsing.

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