Times Quick Cryptic 976 by Mara

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
The debate on completion times last week established that some find them off-putting whilst others find them helpful or irrelevant. In order to try to please most of the people most of the time I’ll try (again) at easy/medium/hard. Those who appreciate the times can calibrate those terms against my timings – under 10, under 14, over 14.
Today’s offering from Mara was in the easy bracket but I confess to a certain amount of biffing. I think it took me as long to be confident enough of all the parsing for the blog as it did to complete the grid. I didn’t realise whilst solving that over a third of the clues have anagrams.
Here’s my take – as always do feel free to add your own interpretation.

ACROSS

1. Cobra – snake. Swan (COB), (R)uns (A)way. Cob has a surprising number of meanings from bread to swans and horses.
4. Stencil – card with a holed pattern. Anagram (redesigned) of CLIENTS.
8. Caterer – one who serves (food). Tom (CAT), two queens (ER ER).
9. Mount – horse. (M)osey, off (OUT – I think in the sense of ‘the dead reckoning was off/out by 10 miles) is round (N)ebraska.
10. Pretty-pretty – over-embellished. Quite (PRETTY), fairly (PRETTY).
12. Tiffin – meal – a light midday meal in India. Quarrel (TIFF), during (IN).
13. Dry run – rehearsal. Boring (DRY as in a speech), race (RUN).
16. Undergarment – knickers perhaps. Anagram (round) of GERMAN TURNED.
18. Trent – river. Runs (R) inside temporary home (TENT).
20. One-step – ballroom dance. Anagram (out) of SEEN OPT.
21. Hostage – someone held. Label (TAG) inside stockings (HOSE).
22. Shred – finely chop. Ceda(R) inside outhouse (SHED).

DOWN

1. Cockpit – pilot’s seat. Raise (COCK as in a rifle), tilt (TIP) written upwards.
2. Butterfingers – clumsy person. Anagram (playing with) FIRE GETS BURNT.
3. Air strike – bombing. Anagram (absurd) of RISK I TAKE.
4. Seraph – angel. Anagram (turn of) PHRASE.
5. Elm – tree. Some of haz(EL M)aybe.
6. Counterfeiter – forger. Anagram (dealt with) of TENERIFE COURT.
7. Lute – a played/possessed by a minstrel. Homophone (reportedly) of stolen property (loot).
11. Errorless – perfect. LOI. Anagram (imperfect) of OR ELSE around (R)ive(R), (S)outh.
14. Notepad – jotter. No (NO), record (EP) inside little (TAD).
15. Ignore – disregard. Anagram (poor) of REGION.
16. Utah- US state. Part of Connetic(UT A H)ospitable.
19. Tea – Earl Grey say. Homophone (reading out) letter (T).

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 976 by Mara”

  1. 30 minutes but last two in seraph and pretty pretty went in with fingers crossed.

    COD 16a undergarment.

  2. Nine anagrams? Seems a bit much, although I didn’t notice until I came here. I failed to notice that my keyboard had put in two A’s instead of an AD at NOTEPAD; surprisingly, although that of course also produced SHREA at 22a, the club leaderboard has me with one error; or is that the way they count errors? 4:28, spoiled in any case.
  3. 10 minutes fully parsed was just within my target time.

    Although I’ve never thought of them quite in terms of easy/medium/hard, I keep records of my own QC solving times based on a traffic-light system. They use conditional formatting as follows:

    RED (greater than 15)
    AMBER (between 10.01 and 15)
    GREEN (between 1 and 10)

  4. I really enjoyed that, super puzzle. Some brilliant anagrams – 16a, 4d and 6d all excellent but my COD was BUTTERFINGERS for the sheer elegance of the surface. Bravo!

    Have never heard of “pretty-pretty” which was LOI. I got to “cock” = “raise” via a dog’s ears, not a rifle.

    I’ve realised that another reason I’m not all that keen on the exact times being posted is the amount of special pleading it leads to – “well it was recorded as 6:48 but there was a typo and a software issue and the R key is a bit sticky so really it was …”. Sheesh. Just enjoy the puzzle already!

    Many thanks to Mara and Chris.

    Templar

  5. I agree with previous post. Braggers are off putting. Just enjoy crossword. Some days you are on the same wave length as setter and other days I need my mid morning coffee to finish it. I am just pleased if I can do the latter!
    1. This is a friendly forum, so can we please discuss things here with kindness and consideration and without labelling other contributors e.g. as ‘braggers’?

      Edited at 2017-12-05 06:05 pm (UTC)

    2. I agree with Templar and Anonymous. No need for such competitiveness about completion times. For instance, I don’t want to speed up my solving and feel that I have increasingly less time to enjoy the challenge. For those who do want to complete faster and faster – surely you are your own competitor? Sal

  6. 12:50 which is a good time for me.

    I was tempted with EQUERRY at 8 ac (two queens, one who serves). Also loved the surface at 2d.

    SERAPH only appears in ‘Thus spake the Seraph and forthwith’. One of the rare words in English to have a Hebrew plural.

    LOI 10ac as DNK it.

  7. I am in the easy/average/hard/ WOW camp. Today was average, but fun. Most of my problems came from trying to work out which words formed the anagram. I resorted to counting the letters to find which words fitted.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. I made what should have been relatively simple rather tricky by putting ‘tee’ in at 19d and then trying to work how to biff hosiery into LOI 21a. Fortunately I eventually twigged that I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition and all became clear.
    Completed in 16 minutes.
  9. Count me as another Tee and Hosiery person. I was suspicious though and once I was sure of Ignore 21a became my LOI.
    Some excellent anagrams today and a fun puzzle. COD to 4d.
    15 minutes in all. David
  10. 1a and 1d failed to inspire any thoughts so my FOI was 3d after writing the anagrist out. Things flowed nicely after that, as the A gave me the route into 1a. PRETTY PRETTY and TIFFIN finished things off and 8:56 had elapsed. Liked CATERER. Nice puzzle. Thanks Mara and Chris.
  11. This may be just serendipity, but when I read 2dn I immediately thought of the old folk remedy of treating burns with butter. This gave me the answer without even noticing the anagram. Has the setter managed to contrive a rarity – a helpful surface?
    Tradescant
  12. I’ve not finished the quick cryptic in weeks. I wondered if they’ve been a bit harder recently, or it’s just because I’ve been a bit busy at work. I finished this one though. 21 minutes for me, which is about as good as I get. More than happy with anything under 30 minutes. I hadn’t heard of SERAPH or TIPPIN, though.
  13. I was beginning to get on to your wavelength……but…….‘errorless’ had me beaten. 😢
    1. Likewise bamboozled by ‘errorless’, in my case caused by biffing ‘rat run’ and not thinking to return to it. A rare DNF as a result.

      The problem with easy/average/hard categories is their subjectivity. At least a time is objective and thus allows for a direct comparison. There are certain contributors who regularly post similar times to me and I find it interesting (albeit on a trivial level) to quietly compare performance.

      Many thanks, as ever, to B & S.

  14. by pretty pretty where I’d inserted pretty plenty. I hadn’t heard it previously.
    equally, I wasn’t sure on errorless, but at least I could parse even if I didn’t like it …
    COD4a
    LOI 10ac (and incorrectly so!)
    thanks Chris & Mara

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