Times Quick Cryptic 921 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Looking through jackkt’s excellent difficulty scale, Mara’s ‘last time’ (6.5) seems to indicate a generally medium difficultly level when compared to the other setters. This proved to be the case today as I found this tricky enough to push me over into 12 minutes.
There are no particularly hard clues – more a succession of interesting word plays which required some satisfying unentangling.

ACROSS

1. Molasses – thick liquid (black treacle). Oil emptied (O)i(L) inside tons (MASSES).
5. Emma – Jane Austen’s heroine. Backwards in sl(AMME)r.
8. Soave – wine. Keep (SAVE) drinking old (O).
9. Tumbler – glass. A glass which tumbles over is likely to break.
11. Ace – a tennis point which is not returned. I liked this one – although I feel I’ve seen it before.
12. Artillery – battery. Ailing (ILL) inside vessel (ARTERY).
13. Debris – rubbish. Anagram (foreign) of BRIDES. Foreign, I suppose, in the sense of not able to be understood/unintelligible. This clue had me guessing – the obvious anagram indication is ‘rubbish’ so I tried to find something meaning foreign.
15. Advent – is coming. Commercial (AD), outlet (VENT).
18. Inelastic – rigid. Anagram (flexible) of A STENCIL and one (I).
19. Pie – food (an excellent example of which I consumed in Seascale on Friday evening). Good (PI – pious), English (E).
20. Augusta – US City home of the US Masters. Eighth month of twelve (AUGUST), a (A).
21. Inset – lesser/smaller picture. At home (IN), TV (SET).
22. Oath – curse. Leaders of Of All Time Hapless.
23. Stone-age – very old. Individual (ONE) entering phase (STAGE).

DOWN

1. Mustard – that’s hot – well, English mustard freshly made from powder is. Sticky matter (MUD) about sun (STAR).
2. Lease – let. (L)oose on facility (EASE).
3. Shenanigans (wod) – mischief. Anagram (suspect) of NAN SHE NAGS I.
4. Estate – property. Eastern (E), country (STATE).
6. Moliere – French playwright. Story (LIE) encapsulated by additional (MORE).
7. Array – show. A(A), river (R), fish (RAY).
10. Malediction – curse. Anagram (turn) of TAIL DEMONIC.
14. Beer gut – cryptic definition. COD to this uncomfortable reading for any of us feeling a little less trim than of yore. A corporation is a stomach which, when filled with too much beer over too many years, obeys the law of gravity and hangs over the belt.
16. Theatre – playhouse. Anagram (disguised) of THREAT, fin(E).
17. Strait – channel. (S)even, characteristic (TRAIT).
18. Imago – fully developed specimen – an adult sexually mature insect produced after metamorphosis. I knew this – but if you didn’t the answer is helpfully provided in the clue – kept in tr(IM A GO)lfer.
19. Pasta – dish from Italy. Gone (PAST), a (A).

26 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 921 by Mara”

  1. Messed up by putting CUSTARD for 1d (is CUD any less sticku than MUD). That made 1A hard until I got suspicious. Then it dropped in.
  3. 10 minutes, so another skin-of-the-teeth job here. I had two errors in my spelling of SHENANIGANS which had to be corrected before intersecting words could be slotted in.

    I’m not sure my ‘difficulty’ analysis actually proves anything as it’s entirely based on my personal solving experience, and I’m not a beginner, but MARA at 6.5 was rated equal third most difficult in the previous analysis covering QCs 001-624, and at 1.9 is equal easiest in the latest covering QCs 625-908.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 02:42 am (UTC)

  4. Tricky crossword. An hour in total with interruptions.

    Dnk Moliere or imago but they were clued kindly. Also a challenge to get the unknown soave (LOI).

    Also hard were artillery, augusta (I thought of the 12 caesars before months, doh), lease (facility for ease didn’t come easily), and beer gut. I made mustard harder by putting “end” for 11a.

    Lots of good clues: beer gut, augusta, and ace, which was ace so my COD.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 06:15 am (UTC)

  5. DNF.

    I had IMAGE for IMAGO, a word I did not know. Did not get BEER GUT as forgot about the ridiculous corporation=stomach convention. Not happy about PI=good either.

    I’ve lived here all my life and never heard any use either of these.

    1. Where I come from, ‘beer belly’ is common; don’t know if I’ve heard ‘beer gut’, but it wouldn’t surprise me. ODE marks ‘corporation’ as ‘dated’ [on edit: I typed the word in angle brackets or whatever they’re called, the symbols for ‘less than/more than’, and that caused the entire word to disappear]; I learned of its existence from one of these cryptics (not a quicky). I was under the impression that ‘pi’ (ODE: ‘short for ‘pious’) meant sanctimoniously good, not just good tout court, but what do I know? It’s certainly shown up here often enough as ‘good’.

      Edited at 2017-09-19 08:50 am (UTC)

  6. 14:17 here, and it felt like a struggle all the way. I think this is because I wasn’t on the wavelength rather than because it was particularly hard.

    I struggled with the anagrams (still trying to get them in my head rather than write them down, which really isn’t easy for the longer ones), missed the obvious in AUGUSTA, my LOI, and felt rather like I was moving through 1a MOLASSES, which unusually for the QC wasn’t my first in (that was 2d LEASE.)

    COD the kickself 11a ACE; I get tennis clues quickly during Wimbledon, but have a hard time with them the rest of the year. Thanks to setter & blogger.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 07:40 am (UTC)

  7. I liked beer gut – made me smile. Has anybody come across anyone using pi (short for pious) outside of a crossword (or a dictionary of course)?
    1. Pi was a regular word in 1950s children’s fiction – I remember it from Billy Bunter, Biggles and Mallory Towers! Often used as part of “pi-jaw” (a contemptuous term used to dismiss some moralising talk from the authorities).

      Templar

      1. Thanks – must admit watched Billy Bunter rather than read it. I think my basic point holds – I don’t believe it is ever used now exists outside cryptic crosswords.
  8. Just like gothick_matt I struggled with this one although I’m not sure why I made such heavy weather of it. Also just like gothick_matt I finished it in 14:17 so clearly we were on the same wavelength – sadly it wasn’t the one the setter was on though.
  9. OATHs and MALEDICTIONs were in plentiful supply on the 06.29 train this morning, mostly because of the early hour but also because my brain seemed to be wading through MOLASSES.

    Mostly fairly straightforward (FOI DEBRIS) but was left staring at 1dn and 11ac for a very long time. Eventually I cut the MUSTARD but even when looking at A_E I was reduced to running through the alphabet in my head … twice … then writing down all the possibilities … more 2 of clubs than ACE.

    Finished just on arrival at Charing Cross.

    Moral: don’t catch the 06.29.

    Templar

  10. I had to engage my brain to solve this one. I struggled in the NW and had to leave 1a and 1d until the end. The long anagrams fell quickly, but INELASTIC resisted longer. I had the OL for 1a straight off but Masses for tons came as my penultimate entry, which then allowed me to switch from my fixation of SOL for sun at 1d and see STAR stuck in the mud instead. 10:05. Nice puzzle. Thanks Mara and Chris.
  11. A steady solve today at 20 minutes, with most of the problems coming in the NW, in particular my COD 11a and LOI 8a. Fortunately the two long down clues didn’t hold me up much which opened up the grid nicely and I was grateful that it was one of the (very) few French playwrights I know at 6d.
  12. Over 30 mins, worst time since QC was in doublé digits. Spelt 3d SHENANAGINS which didnt help, Ive not seen Foreign as an anagrind before, or Pi as good. My grandfather used to call a telly the TV Set, but it exited from everywhere except crossword-land several decades ago, goodness knows how anyone under 50 would get it, although it is the second time within a week it has been used in QC. (Does anyone under 50 do the QC?)
    I liked ACE even though (Like most &Lit) it took ages to get.
    Also nice to see Imago as an all too rare foray away from the usual Cricket/Military/Classics hegemony. For those wondering, insects go through a 4 step life-cycle of egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysallis) and imago (eg butterfly)
    1. I’m a mere stripling of 45, though I also recognised “set” for TV, so perhaps I’m older than my years 😀

      Who remembers Why Don’t You? on the tellybox? “Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead?” apparently carried on until 1995, and presumably the “set” survived in the theme tune that I remember…

      Edited at 2017-09-19 11:56 am (UTC)

  13. Two days in a row with I think well above average difficulty. Not complaining but I hope the setters in the rest of the week give some thought to newbies. Getting nowhere is a real turnoff.
  14. This was difficult, harder than yesterday. I often find Mara one of the trickiest setters.
    After 20 minutes I had about half the puzzle done and had to go out. I needed at least that again and lots of concentration on my return. Getting 1a was the big breakthrough. I was slow to get 10d despite seeing the anagram. Imago has appeared recently in a T2 puzzle and Beer Gut was a common expression where I lived.
    LOI was 11a. I was initially trying to justify Tee i.e. a pointed golf accessory which is a departure point. 1d eventually scotched that. Excellent clue as others have noted. David
  16. There is a useful rule that if nothing else seems to work, look for a hidden word. After 30 mins I had a dozen or so candidates to check out, but sadly only 18d proved successful! And I thought yesterday was hard. . . For the record, a DNF because of (an unparsed) Leave for 2d. Invariant
  17. Ace took me so long to get that I started to doubt that ‘lease’ was correct; my wife had kicked me out of bed, and I had to have my shower before the answer occurred to me

    Edited at 2017-09-20 04:36 am (UTC)

  18. I seem to be taking longer at these of late. I usually give up when I get to the hour or so, but I kept going on this one and stopped at 1:27:45 after I’d got Malediction. I had finished in the sense that I’d filled the grid, but I wasn’t at all hopeful all my biffings were correct, as didn’t know why ‘pi’ was good, why ‘inset’ had anything to do with a lesser picture (as a teacher, in-service training, INSET, days are supposed to give you a better idea of what’s going on), wasn’t sure soave was a wine, and most of all, had no idea what beer gut had to do with corporation. Even if corporation means stomach, I still don’t quite get the clue, as surely the ‘hangover’ IS the stomach, rather than being in it. And what’s with the “A’ at the beginning? I have no problem with ‘set’ meaning TV though (and I’m only 41) as not only is it common in crossword land, but in quite recent times there have been such things as set top boxes. Compilers have plenty of options with set, of course, as it is the word which has most meanings in English with over 400.
    Crispian
    1. Full marks for commitment and attitude.

      As for beer gut – A hangover in a corporation? Yes the hangover is the beer gut hanging over the belt – and corporation means a large paunch or belly. I said the clue is a Cryptic definition which means that the whole clue gives the answer rather than a separate wordplay and definition. However, one could argue that it is a double definition.
      I liked the clue as it was amusing and gettable.
      Setters do follow sets of rules – at the end of the day their aim is to mislead but have to allow the solver the chance of getting the answer.

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