Times Quick Cryptic No 1509 by Mara

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A nice QC from Mara, with plenty to delight us, but… Well I usually print out the crosswords and do them on paper before entering the answers online to create the outline of the blog (clues and answers) using Mohn2’s wizzy javascript, but today I solved directly on-screen… and came a cropper, taking over 10 minutes. It was the North-west corner that caused me trouble, firstly because I was convinced that the answer to 7A was… well see below, and then by typing 17A with the N and T in the middle the wrong way round. That took me ages to spot as I struggled to find an answer to 3D ending in a T. Doh! As for the rest of the crossword, there did seem to be rather a preponderance of double definitions, of which my favourite was 23A. One or two clues (e.g. 1D) are on the tricky side for a QC, perhaps. I’ll be interested to see how everyone else got on. Thanks Mara! Did you all have fun too? Oh, by the way, this is my last crossword blog of the decade, so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Religious body, one separating two vessels (7)
VATICAN – I (one) inside [separating] VAT and CAN (two vessels). Nice one.
5 Raise flag (4)
JACK – Double definition.
7 Leave a coat (5)
PARKA – PARK (leave your car, for example) A. Having the P already,  I bamboozled myself by putting in PAINT, thinking it a rather witty cryptic definition. Actually that couldnn’t be the answer as the A in the clue would be superfluous. But never mind. It added to the fun.
8 Glass, one rolling over and over (7)
TUMBLER – Double definition. Cue image of tumbleweeds blowing across a deserted scene.
10 Adopt American English (3)
USE – US (American) E (English).
11 Staff repel son fraudulently claiming compensation, finally (9)
PERSONNEL – Anagram of (repel son)* [fraudulently] outside [claiming] last letter of compensatioN [finally].
13 Young lover, little doll? (6)
TOYBOY – Double definition, second cryptic, as indicated by the ‘?’.
14 Shoot from the air, moving faster (6)
STRAFE – (faster)* [moving].
17 Some regular gent, in essence, from South America (9)
ARGENTINE – Hidden in [some] regulAR GENT IN Essence. It was finger trouble here that led to my downfall. Grr.
19 Talk, and sink back (3)
GAS – SAG (sink) reversed [back] -> GAS.
20 One roaming in path like a big cat (7)
LEONINE – (One)* [roaming] [in] LINE [path]. i.e. like a lion.
22 Region around northern amphitheatre (5)
ARENA – AREA (region) [around] N (northern).
23 Card game — suddenly lose it? (4)
SNAP – Double definition and a neat surface.
24 Range of colours allowed in meat spread (7)
PALETTE – LET (allowed) [in] PATE (meat spread). That will be one of those multi-layered ones then.
Down
1 Evidence of flight building up to arrival (6,5)
VAPOUR TRAIL – Anagram of [building] (up to arrival)*. This one puzzled me at first until I saw that “building” was an anagrind. Nice trick – you have to spot you need to separate “building up”.
2 Restyle complex shortly (7)
TERSELY – Another anagaram. (Restyle)* [complex]. Another tricky one, where either of the first two words could be be the anagrind or anagrist. If you are thinking “What are you talking about, John?”, see our glossary.
3 Restriction has Labour leader in party despondent (9)
CLAMPDOWN – My Last One In. It took me ages. Firstly I had to see that the answer to 7A was not PAINT to get 2D, and then that I had mistyped the answer to 17A as ARGETNINE. Actually I only spotted that when I had worked out the answer! It’s first letter of Labour [leader] [in] CAMP (party) DOWN (despondent).
4 Character breaking tea urn (6)
NATURE – [breaking] (tea urn)*.
5 Preserve hot water? (3)
JAM – Double definition, second cryptic. If you are in trouble you might be in hot water or in a JAM.
6 Horse briefly on mark (5)
COLON – COLt (horse) without the last letter [briefly] ON. Sometimes when you look at a clue like this you may think “What is going on here?”. The first thing is to identify what is the definition (usually the first or last part of the clue). In this case it is “mark”.. although it could have been “Horse”. Such is the setter’s art of trickery!
9 Wave goes over fish: one runs on foot (6,5)
ROLLER SKATE – ROLLER (wave) on top of (this is a down clue) [over] SKATE (fish).
12 Alert, looking to pass or shoot? (2,3,4)
ON THE BALL – Double definition, second cryptic again, referring to what a football player does.
15 Swell chaps ending in debt after a month (7)
AUGMENT – MEN (chaps) and last letter of debT [ending in] [after] AUG (month).
16 Hand raised? Stop trying! (4,2)
GIVE UP – GIVE (hand, as in hand someone something) UP (raised).
18 Complain when love concealed by relative (5)
GROAN – O (looks like 0; love) [concealed by] GRAN (relative).
21 Rogue is mighty puckish, originally (3)
IMP – First letters of Is Mighty Puckish [originally]. I think Mara has been a bit Puckish today, don’t you?

32 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1509 by Mara”

  1. 9 minutes and 50-something seconds, which I count as 10 minutes, so target achieve by skin of teeth. Looking for things hidden in the grid which is now second nature to me I didn’t find anything intentional but was amused by pairs of words in rows and columns that seemed to go together: VATICAN JACK (no chance!), TOYBOY STRAFE, ARGENTINE GAS, TERSELY GROAN and JAM ON THE BALL.
  2. I started off trying to do this while listening to the radio but I got stuck and then gave it my full attention. As often with Mara I found it tricky. Most of my problems were in the NW and 1a and 1d were slow to emerge. I was confident about PUPPET for 13a which became my LOI after corrections. I’m still not sure about Toyboy = Little Doll.
    If you have some checkers, it’s much easier.
    Finished in 22:44. COD to PARKA but 1d also very good.
    David
    1. As indicated in John’s blog, the second part of the clue is cryptic so doesn’t have to be taken word for word. More of a hint than a second definition perhaps?
      1. I rather like your description of those sorts of clue, jack. Indeed was tempted to use it for this one!
        1. Thanks, John, it’s a general ‘get-out’ I use when blogging to blur over the issue and hopefully avoid arguments. I’m not a believer in strict classification of every clue anyway as I don’t see the point.
        2. A final thought on this: Puppet is a synonym for doll,;pup could be young and pet could be lover. If you have no checkers at all, it works for me. I needed all the checkers for TOYBOY which I agree clearly means young lover.
  3. Brisk business from me today at 7:01, I must try solving after too little sleep and too many cocktails more often! (Christmas party last night.) Estimated at 1.4K and a Very Good Day. I nearly slapped on the PAINT too but fortunately was too dim to see the overall cryptic possibility so didn’t. Otherwise only COLON required a second visit.

    FOI & COD VATICAN, LOI PALETTE

    Thanks Mara and John, and happy Christmas to you too.

    Templar

  4. A nice puzzle with a few neat twists. A slow start in the NW for me so I started nibbling at the 3-letter words (although GAS was a gap that I filled as my LOI). I liked LEONINE and PALETTE because the clueing sent me in the wrong directions. JACK didn’t click at first and COLON needed crossers. Some nice anagrams – I thought VAPOUR TRAIL was well constructed. If we take Templar’s K estimate as a guide, I was certainly over 3K but I enjoyed the outing. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2019-12-20 09:41 am (UTC)

  5. This was quite taxing for me but enjoyable. Thanks setter and blogger! A reservation for me is that I’m not fond of ‘briefly’ because you never know whether its the beginning or end that’s been chopped and by how much. Also I get parka but only because it had to be that but I don’t like the clue.
    1. As a rule of thumb, ‘briefly’ would indicate to remove the last letter as something that’s brief starts but finishes early. If it’s more than the last letter to be removed the setter should specify by some other means.
  6. I also struggled with the NW and had to come back to it after solving the rest of the puzzle. CLAMPDOWN was my eventual key to the corner, as it opened up VATICAN and the rest fell easily. A tricky puzzle though which took me over my target to 12:44. Thanks Mara and John, and Christmas greetings to you too.
  7. No time today as interrupted by the postwoman with one to go (LOI STRAFE), and dealing with the delivery she made took a good half hour. Nice puzzle though, with some clever surfaces and misdirection. Thanks all.
  8. I usually enjoy Mara’s puzzles and today was no exception. It took me about twenty minutes which is on the long side for me – do we still have a Slow Coach Club? If so, I’m in it! The longer time was because I hesitated for ages over “parka” – I couldn’t think what else it could be but still… and my LOI, “clampdown ” which I think is a great clue. Other than that, no huge problems and lots of enjoyment. Also impressed by Mara’s skill in fitting in the whole of “Argentine” inside 4 words – nicely hidden. Thanks so much, Mara, and thanks, too, to John, for a great blog.
  9. ….at Jeremy Corbyn in my COD.

    I just about finished inside my target, but am indebted to John for parsing both my LOI and VAPOUR TRAIL. I rarely need parsings to be explained on a QC, and I don’t usually need to go four clues in to cut the first sod, so I suspect that less experienced solvers will have found this a struggle.

    FOI TUMBLER
    LOI GIVE UP
    COD CLAMPDOWN

  10. I was another one who ground to a halt in the NW corner. My penultimate solve was VAPOUR TRAIL which I biffed and parsed after submitting. I did not see ‘building’ as an anagram indicator. My LOI was also an anagram that I failed to spot, 14a STRAFE which pushed me nearly 3 minutes over my target time of 10 minutes. Thanks all.
  11. Another who struggled with NW corner until VAPOUR TRAIL guess led to getting the other clues.
  12. A very slowcoach clubber here: little went in quickly but there was lots to entertain and stretch me, and got there in the end. Saw the hidden only belatedly, v neat. Struggled to work out which bits of many of the clues were doing what, but all seemed fair once the light dawned each time. Plymouthian
  13. Drew an initial blank with 1ac/1d, so I guessed this was going to be a little tester from Mara. I certainly found the RHS slightly easier than the left, where I eventually spotted Vapour Trail from the definition and only then realised it was an anagram – if 1ac Vatican had gone in straight away, it might have been a different story. Still, I did manage to avoid Lionise at 20ac, crossing the line after 30mins with loi Clampdown. Invariant
  14. Thanks to Mara and John.

    14:16 for me today. Like others struggled in the NW but started making inroads with the clever 1d.

    Merry Christmas all!

  15. A really beautiful elegant clue ….. thanks Mara.

    Happy Christmas to johnexhumed (well, it is Christmas?).

  16. Frustratingly DNF as I didn’t get 14ac “Strafe”. Even more annoyingly, I think I’ve been done by this one before.

    Other than that, an enjoyable puzzle. Chuckled at the not so subtle dig at Corbyn on 3dn and 1ac “Vatican” (although I’m sure it’s been used many times in the past). Hardest part was the NW corner which only slotted into place once I’d got 3dn “Clampdown” and 13ac “Toyboy”. Also hesitated on 20ac “Leonine” but I couldn’t see it being anything else.

    FOI = 4dn “Nature”
    COD = 1ac “Vatican”

    Thanks as usual.

  17. Didn’t have too much trouble with this on the whole but although I parsed 3d the same way as you John, I couldn’t justify “camp” for “party”, so counted it as a biff. Nobody else seems to have a problem with this, so obviously I am missing something!
    2. Chambers has for “camp”… “a party or group supporting a certain set of beliefs or doctrine”, which is good enough for me. For example.. “both the liberal and conservative camps were annoyed by his high-handed manner”.
  18. I had a similar experience to many others it seems. Most of it went in without too much fuss but I was left with a very blank NW corner. I finally got a foothold with TERSELY and PARKA, then 1s fell into place and I finished with CLAMPDOWN and TOYBOY in 13.00.
    Usually the setters name is the first thing I look at when opening the puzzle but today I completely forgot to do so and didn’t know who the setter was until reading John’s blog introduction. Interestingly it didn’t seem to make any difference to my solve.
    Thanks for the blog.
    1. Interesting. I think that could be a reflection of the remarkably consistent level of difficulty across the team of setters and, I suspect, the work of Richard, our editor. We are blessed.

      Edited at 2019-12-20 07:52 pm (UTC)

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