Times Quick Cryptic 1957 by Marty

70 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1957 by Marty”

1. No problem here; didn’t even notice anything about 3d. Biffed POLICE CAR, ACERBIC, parsed after. Where’s the Latin? William, you’ve got a typo at 2d: BAND–>BANG.
   5:51.
   1. Thanks Kevin – fixed the typo.

      Cave is the Latin I was referring to.

2. 10 minutes, but I only just scraped in under the wire to achieve my target time.

   I was delayed along the way by the parsing at 3dn where, as William has pointed out, ‘oddly dismissed’ needs to be applied separately to ‘old’ and then to ‘wives’. I wondered whether this should have been indicated in some way.

   Marty doesn’t visit us very often, this being only his nineteenth puzzle since his first in March 2014, and on the last two occasions he has given us themed puzzles on Camberwick Green / Trumpton and then Dad’s Army. I looked for a theme today but couldn’t find one other than perhaps coincidentally, AMBULANCE, POLICE CAR and EYEWITNESSES which may suggest a car crash! However I did spot NINA three times amongst the unchecked letters in rows 4, 6 and 10, so for once we have a Nina along the lines of Hirschfeld’s original which started the fashion and gave the device its name.

   Edited at 2021-09-08 05:22 am (UTC)

   1. An onomatopoeic NINA, especially if you allow the two ‘R’s…

      Ni-nar, ni-na, ni-nar…

      1. The very sound of the sirens on AMBULANCE and POLICE CAR!
      2. Very good – thanks Jackkt and Anon.
3. …and couldn’t see ambulance and eyewitnesses until I had all the checkers. I saw marquee = tent right away, but I still couldn’t solve the clue. Not my finest hour, time 10:40.
4. Quite tricky, but the anagrams got me going, and apart from issues with my clumsy fingers on the iPad, inputting the letters I didn’t want, all correct. I liked the ENAMEL clue surface.
   Thank you blogger and setter.
5. Steady plod through the grid. Didn’t look for the NINA until after I read it here. Thank you.
   Once I looked they are everywhere all over the grid, especially reading up and down eg 2D.
   BIC pops up again for pen, remembered this time but forgot NAME for title. LOI 16A which dropped in when I got EYE.
   Son returned from holiday yesterday so puppy back to his rightful owners. That frees up about 14 hours in my day but leaves me without a little pal. Back to work again!
6. I found this quite tricky, with several of the anagrams needing to be written out and some deceptive definitions such as PANDA CAR. All were fairly clued, although I had to double check 1d, before accepting that it may work for our more northerly colleagues. Held up at the end by EYEWITNESSES and LOI AVENUES.
   Finished in 13.19 with COD to BANNING.
   Thanks to William
7. About half an hour for me, and I’m still guessing a lot of the answers then checking them against the clues, rather than parsing the clues.

   Marquee = Tent came up quite recently, but yet again I failed to remember that quietly=piano.

   Vac took me ages, even when I had the C from police.

   And DW asked me what was wrong when I groaned loudly after getting Anti.

   Edited at 2021-09-08 07:33 am (UTC)

8. Only managed to answer half of the clues. I found myself using aids so much that I may have well just looked up the answers here first. Too many obscure clues for me.
9. All seemed to be going smoothly until my last two. I had no problems with 3d. Biffed ACERBIC. My last two were AVENUES (so not AN = article, AM = morning or SUN = star) and then finally I unravelled EYEWITNESS. 10:33 so I missed my target yet again. I still enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Marty.

   Edited at 2021-09-08 07:49 am (UTC)

10. My first Marty puzzle fully completed …
    … as all done and parsed in 11 minutes for a Surprisingly Good Day, as I have found Marty’s offerings very challenging in the past. The long anagrams at 1A Ambulance, 10A Mind-boggling and 16A Eyewitnesses certainly helped.

    You know you are becoming more familiar with crosswordland-ese when you see Cat and think Ounce. That would not have come in a million years when I started doing the QC!

    Many thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

11. Struggled with that, finding the acrosses particularly hard. With hindsight the cluster-solving method would have been better today! Had a very long wrestle with AVENUES, thinking that the Morning Star was the SUN and being encouraged in that thought by the S and U checkers.

    I like the Nina now that clever people have pointed it out to me!

    FOI AMBULANCE, LOI AUGUST, COD NATION, time 14:58 for 2.6K and a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Marty and William.

    Templar

12. Marty threw me completely, I’m afraid. Totally off-wavelength. Some answers came fairly quickly — VAC, ANTI, TANGENT, EIGHT (I used to row at Uni) but I needed crossers plus pen and paper for the longer anagrams. BANNING opened up a few in the NW but I took a while to see ACERBIC and my LOI AVENUES. I would have done better if I had not jumped around the grid at the start looking for easy short answers — I didn’t even look at 1ac at first and so missed a chance for a better start.
    Very slow, overall, today and I am left with a feeling of mental indigestion. I always fear for the worst when the dreaded OUNCE appears. I didn’t really think of this as a QC and, to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. Thanks to William for the blog (and for confirming my parsing). John M.

    Edited at 2021-09-08 01:51 pm (UTC)

    1. And I recovered some composure by doing today’s online Tgraph Cryptic in half the time this QC took me. John M.

       Edited at 2021-09-08 05:54 pm (UTC)

13. Did all of this bar two in 7 minutes but AVENUE proved stubborn and even after that I simply could not see EYEWITNESSES even when writing out the fodder.

    That was a nice clue as were several others

    Thanks William and Marty

14. I usually throw the towel in at 25 mins, but kept plodding through this one. No standout clues, but many took a fair bit of time to chase down.

    I knew that “cat” was one of the words I didn’t know, was thinking of OCELOT before remembering OUNCE as a crossword-only word.

    Isn’t A1 for fine a bit dated now? I’ve never heard it used IRL (now that’s a more up to date abbreviation)

    FOI BANNING
    LOI EIGHT
    COD AVENUES (although Venus is not a star)

15. I’m assuming a report is a BANG so band is a typo. I found this a bit tricky. At least I’m old enough to remember panda cars! Thanks though.
    1. When the going gets tough….
       1. was that reply meant for me – it was someone else who said too obscure
          1. As you noted, not meant for you, Sir!
16. After a few days away, Marty was perhaps not the easiest setter to encounter. And so it proved taking me 18 minutes. LOI needing all the checkers EYEWITNESSES. Prior to that AVENUES.
    I did not parse POLICE CAR properly; at first tried to fit in Leeches mostly.
    I thought there was probably a theme here but couldn’t see it.
    Some clever clues and nothing unfair with hindsight.
    David
17. Thirteen minutes, quite challenging, so very enjoyable. FOI amulance, LOI eyewitnesses, had to write out all the letters and gaps, cross out the letters used and look at what was left, like a beginner, for this one. Once I saw where the y fit, the PDM arrived. Thought I had parsed all but Sinai, but the blog has shown me more insight, as usual. Did not even think to look for a Nina, so very much enjoyed the revelation on the blog. Pretty sure I’ve never encountered Marty before. COD eyewitnesses.

    Can’t remember exactly when we switched from Telegraph to Times (but as an aside, I can remember why – tiger skin rugs pictured in the Saturday magazine as objects of desire. I wrote to the editor and got a smug, unsatisfactory response about them being “antique.” I’m still angry. I did carry on the argument – provenance unprovable – and was given the silent treatment). Sorry to bang on, I know it’s irrelevant here, but the thought sprang to mind as I remembered moving newspapers.

    Thanks, William, for the blog, and the enlightenment, great stuff. Thanks also to Marty for a very chewy puzzle. GW.

    1. I love people who have principles and stand up for them. My current stance is not dining in restaurants, in France or the UK, that serve fois gras.
18. Glad I had no eyewitnesses to my struggles to complete this. Only 3 acrosses and 6 downs on my first pass.
    With a few checkers in the top half wasn’t too bad but said witnesses held out for ages even with all checkers, with clues below falling at extended intervals.
    In retrospect, nothing was so hard or unusual, but I wasn’t seeing it today. Oh well, avoided the DNF which seemed inevitable for quite some time.
19. ….by my LOI, which I simply couldn’t crack despite immediately spotting the anagrist.

    For this NINA (unspotted as usual) to work properly, it surely needed a FIRE ENGINE — sorry Marty, must try harder !

    FOI AMBULANCE
    LOI EYEWITNESSES
    COD SINAI
    TIME 4:50

20. Totally off the wavelength for this one, and dipped my toe into the SCC. Had a total blindspot over EYEWITNESSES and took over 5 minutes to untangle it! 20:33. Thanks Marty and William. PS I spotted 2 of the ninas.
    1. This has to be a 1st.
       1. It may be connected with the Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc and Glenfiddich 12year old I consumed after returning from the inaugural Live-In-Person restart of Redcar’s Cutty Wren Folk Club last night! However, I can happily report that after a couple of strong coffees, the 15×15 yielded in normal time, despite an interruption from the window cleaner wanting payment:-)
21. After a disturbed night’s sleep (a power cut prompted a few house alarms into action), I was grateful for what to me seemed a fairly gentle puzzle. A steady 17min solve, with only loi Eyewitnesses causing issues, mainly because I forgot to include the ‘t’ when writing out the letters. And an excellent Nina as well, which I unsurprisingly completely missed, so a tip of the hat to Marty. CoD to 2d, Banning, with an unlikely Panda in hot pursuit. Invariant
22. But got there eventually.
    MIND-BOGGLING it was, but that was one of my FOsI. Had to keep hopping about the grid, tho top half was easier. Pleased to think of Venus, hence AVENUES. Liked POLICE CAR – took ages for that PDM. UNGAG a bit weird. Liked STRAND, ACERBIC, MOVABLE.
    Stared for even more ages at the anagram EYEWITNESSES, then annoyed with myself I didn’t see EIGHT sooner as I actually wondered where the letters ATE could fit in.
    LOI, eventually, SINAI
    Thanks all, esp William
    I half-groaned half-smiled at ANTI .

    Edited at 2021-09-08 10:33 am (UTC)

23. 5:49 this morning. Some easy clues, some more tricky with quite witty wordplay at times.
    Another Nina has passed me by I’m afraid. Maybe I should start looking out early for those setters with form.
    Off to a quick start but then delayed as others by LOI 16 ac “eyewitnesses” which took a little while to unravel.
    COD 23 ac “police car”.
    Thanks to William for his blog and nina alert and to Marty for an entertaining puzzle.
24. Very stop and start today, with bursts of (relative) speed and then slowing right down. Finished in 14 mins so just crept into premier coach (if I remember horryd’s categories correctly). There were some fun surfaces here, I thought.
    I remembered that Marty (as an occasional setter) usually offers up ninas, but naturally I got so engrossed in the solving that I then forgot to look for one. It wouldn’t have helped if I had! It’s amusing for sure.
    Aunt / ant is a thing in our house – I’m a southerner, he’s a Geordie, and we live in the Midlands. But when we were discussing it just now, we realised that even by English standards, it’s an odd pronunciation. Taunt, fraud – and a new word in our vocab since we’ve had builders here last week – flaunch! None of them with either a short or a long A! I’m sure some of you will now come up with examples but none spring to mind just now 🤔
    FOI She
    LOI August
    COD Avenues, although I liked Eyewitnesses a lot too
    Many thanks Marty and William
    1. I guess Aunt is like la tante.
       But was interested in your new word Flaunch.
       1. I like your suggestion about ‘tante’. Flaunch was a new one on me and I did wonder whether it was a local word, but no — here it is: a cement or mortar slope around a chimney top, manhole, etc, to throw off water, which makes perfect sense because it’s the top of our garden wall that has been flaunched!
25. 13 minutes and small change, with everything fully parsed, and the NINAS all spotted, although I didn’t get as far as seeing the phonetic link. The top two across answers were first in, quickly followed by all of the descendants to give an excellent start. LOI was ENAMEL, helped by looking for the final A of the last Nina to appear. Good fun!

    I am off to Gib tomorrow for a long weekend and Navy reunion, so not sure I’ll be able to comment before Tuesday. Have a great weekend.

26. Bang on average for me at 20 mins, with the anagrams helping towards the end. I was pleased to get August and remember panda=police car, not a common usage in my life time.
    I was puzzled by the anti=auntie clue but have seen pebee’s comment above so guess it depends on your accent.
    The vac/cave clue took me back to school where you always had to have someone “keep K.V” to watch if a teacher was coming. It was quite while before I linked it to the Latin!

    1. I have never seen Cave! written as K. V. before! Dictionary editors N.B.

       1. That was how we pronounced it at school, wildly incorrect!

27. Slow start, just two acrosses on the first pass and then faded. ANTI and auntie not very similar in the West Country but I tried a Manc version and convinced myself. Long pause with all checkers for AVENUES — lack of GK — EIGHT — totally fell for the misdirection — and SINAI — just dim.

    Hard but pleasureable and slow. Could be lunchtime solving as I’ve been in the actual office both today and Monday and have crawled on both QCs. WFH tomorrow — pb beckons!

28. FOI: AMBULANCE
    LOI: EYEWITNESSES

    Enjoyable. Thanks to william_j_s and Marty

29. though the “NINAR” went whoosh over my head at such a rate I may even have experienced the doppler effect as it passed me by.

    One of those where I would look at the clues, think I had no idea, then the answer would just pop into my head, so I ended up with what looks like a pretty decent time based on the above.

    I liked POLICE CAR and DISHING UP.

    4:11 – 2 and a bit Verlaines. It took me 1:53 to transcribe the answers into the club site. So Verlaine used 8 seconds of thinking time, maybe 20 seconds if he’s a better typist than me.

    Edited at 2021-09-08 01:15 pm (UTC)

    1. Damn you Hopkin ! 😂
    2. I doubt it takes him more than 30s to fill the grid in. Fast typing and efficient grid navigation are the dirty secrets of online solving.
30. Beware Kevin!

31. My third DNF in a row so a little dispiriting. I stopped at an hour with EYEWITNESSES, AVENUES and EIGHT unsolved. I couldn’t get the anagram (another Y not at the end!) and didn’t separate eastern from ways. I recognised 17d as a homophone and used to row so should really have got EIGHT – but I think of it as a crew rather than a team. COD to 12a ‘August’.

    Thanks Marty and William!

32. This was a cracker! With the NIN-A bonus, which like the damned Hopkinb, flickered past me.
    I’m old enough remember the coming of the’Panda’, and ‘Jam Sandwiches’!

    Today l am in ‘Premier Coach’ with the lovely Peebee, Psmith and Mr. Gib Rotter — with twelve minutes on the clock.

    FOI 1dn ANTI

    LOI 8ac TANGENT

    COD 13ac STRAND

    WOD ex-23ac ‘OLD PANDA’

    1. Good company for sure! I’m also sure that Rotter, Psmith and your kind self are lovely too 😊

       Edited at 2021-09-08 02:34 pm (UTC)

       1. Mmmmm! The ‘Likes’ are not piling up hereabouts.
          Some think I’m horryd. I am a twin, so at our rather formal school, brother Peter was horryp. My parents had obviously not thought it over fully. But as my dear mother would have told you, I do have my moments!
33. I am now resigned to QCs taking over 20 mins (which was my previous upper limit) as this is the 8th in a row. I found it difficult to get started, popping in answers all over the grid but never really getting a flow. Missed the nina (unsurprisingly), missed the hidden for UNGAG (surprisingly, as I usually see them quite quickly) and couldn’t parse ENAMEL (no idea why not – blindingly obvious when you know!). Thanks for helping with the latter William.

    FOI – 6ac SHE
    LOI – 15dn ENAMEL
    COD – 13ac STRAND

    Thanks to Marty for an enjoyable but tough puzzle.

    1. Just to say that, as expected, I’m back in the SCC as well today. By the law of averages, I only have another two months to wait until my next day out.
34. Held up by the sw corner, particularly 17d and 19a. Much more of a test than yesterday.
35. … whether a second escape from the SCC in a row was on the cards, as most of the top half of the grid went unusually quickly. However, something like normality then resumed and Marty made life significantly more difficult for me in the bottom half. In the end, I was very happy to finish in 35 minutes, which is still a good time for me.

    I was unsure about ANTI and didn’t really like UNGAG, but everything else was well clued in my view. Also, a very clever Nina, although I never saw it at the time.

    Many thanks to Marty and william_j_s.

36. Thought this one was going to be a fast one at first, but then I slowed right down. Eventually crossed the line with EMERGED after 30:10. Some great surfaces though. COD to TANGENT. Thanks Marty and William.
37. Shocker for me — totally not on the right wavelength and packed in after 35 mins with a substantial amount of the SW corner not finished.

    Just couldn’t see 12ac nor 12dn and failed to unravel the anagram of 16ac. Also had brain treacle moments for 1ac “Ambulance”, 23ac “Police Car” and 13ac “Strand”.

    Forget and move on I think.

    FOI — 6ac “She”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 14dn “Acerbic”, although I did like 1dn as well.

    Thanks as usual!

38. I forgot to mention in my main post above that today marked my 333rd QC since I started these infernal-but-addictive puzzles. Does anyone remember Graham Gooch’s innings against India, at Lord’s in 1990?
    1. Indeed – it was a fine way to celebrate my 18th. Didn’t he also get a century in the second innings?
       1. I think you may be correct. Well remembered! Perhaps it’s a good time for Joe Root to do something similar in the next few days.
    2. Yep, watched more or less the whole innings on tv. I would have just done my GCSEs. It seemed an eternal summer of perfect weather. I had 3 weeks work in June and early July cleaning mortar off old bricks for a reclaimed building supplies company on a demolition site in central Coventry. Piece work, I earned £1,050 in cash. In 1990 that was a lot of money especially for a 16 year old. The rest of the summer was spent playing and watching cricket, and enjoying the fruits of my labour. Happy times.
       1. Wow, that must have been a LOT of bricks! Prior to the flaunching, Lou the builder sat and cleaned the mortar off our old bricks — it didn’t look a lot of fun!
          1. 14 hour days…17th century bricks…

             Edited at 2021-09-08 08:10 pm (UTC)

39. I enjoyed this crossword and all the clever clues like those for tangent, acerbic and police car. The last clues I had to solve were in the bottom left corner. I had no idea what 16a was going on about and couldn’t work out the anagram with all those Es. I had to use an aid for that then the rest of that corner fell into place. Annoying not to finish it unaided but very enjoyable. Thank you Marty and William.
    FOI she
    LOI eight (I’ve only just realised ‘row’ wasn’t argument or tier!)
    COD anti for acknowledging that not everyone had a SE accent.
    Blue Stocking
40. Back to the wrong side of 20 minutes today. Really struggled with the bottom half, but it was Sinai that refused to come despite having lived many years in Egypt. Only got there because nothing else would fit.

    Edit, had I seen the NINA, which, of course, I never do, Sinai would have been easy.

    Edited at 2021-09-08 05:45 pm (UTC)

41. I thought this really hard. The clues were definitely not aimed at anyone starting puzzles, they were far to obtuse.

    Not even close to finishing this. I marvel at those who regularly finish these puzzles in minutes, although have no understanding why they bother doing a puzzle that offers no challenge. For me this was a challenge I could not meet.

    1. If you want “fir starters”, you’d best head to a garden centre. (Smiley emoji)

       It’s a cryptic crossword. I like doing them. It’s a hobby. It keeps the mind active and i enjoy the fluid problem solving. The QC is also a lot easier than the main Times puzzle, and many Guardian puzzles, which can be much more loosely clued, some of which leave me with a half filled grid after an hour.

       Hundreds, if not thousands of puzzles will get you there, but you’ll not do ’em if you don’t like ’em! If you like them, you’ll fail, come here and learn. And even after thousands, you’ll still fail sometimes. It doesn’t matter, it’s a puzzle, a bit of fun, a time filler.

42. I liked this one. Hard. But got there eventually. Maybe 40mins or so? Try as I have I cannot see the Nina you are all talking about. And I really would like to. Is there some way to highlight it? Whatever it is! Thanks so much. This blog is brilliantly helpful and actually brilliant too. Fred.
    1. If you read across the 4th row of letters (ignoring the ‘i’ and black squares) you’ll see ‘NINAR’. Similarly in the 10th row. In the 6th row we have NINA.

       As pointed out by those more observant than me, this fits with the emergency vehicles found on the top and bottom rows! Pretty funny Nina, eh?

43. Ah. Got it. Thanks so much. Very clever. Not helped for me by what I now see is a typo. I do the puzzles on paper! Thanks. Fred.

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