Times Quick Cryptic No 1553 by Mara

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I wouldn’t call this easy – there are some chewy bits of parsing and a modicum of General Knowledge required, and some of the clues are deliberately misleading.  However, I finished it in 11 minutes, well inside my target range, so I can’t describe it as hard.

FOI for me was PECK, I have forgotten where I finished, but I admired much along the way.  CRS came to my rescue for 21d and I knew the answer for 10a for some time before I knew why it was the answer.

My thanks to Mara for an enjoyable puzzle.

Across

1  Tongue rotten, put away (6,3)
POLISH OFF – POLISH (tongue, as in the POLISH language) and OFF (rotten).  This didn’t leap off the page at me, and I needed most of the checkers to get it, so a tricky start.
6  River appeared without end (3)
CAM – CAM{e} – appeared without end, i.e. drop last letter of ‘came’ (appeared).
8 Old racer having discussion about former Olympic hosts (7)
CHARIOT – CHAT (discussion) containing (about) RIO (host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics)
9  Almost everyone I see gets a greeting (5)
ALOHA – AL{l} (everyone would be ALL, almost everyone is therefore AL) followed by OH (I see!) and A (gets a).  ALOHA means love or kindness in Hawaii, and is used as a greeting.
10  Shriek getting cuts – might this foam have helped? (7,5)
SHAVING CREAM – SCREAM (shriek) ‘cut by’ HAVING (getting), with a cryptic definition to the required answer.  The answer occurred to me from the few checkers that I had, and was parsed retrospectively before it could be entered into the grid.
12  Creative skill in work, to some extent (6)
PARTLY – ART (creative skill) inside (in) PLY (work).  To PLY a trade is to work at it steadily.
13  Good to enter better digit (6)
FINGER – G{ood} inside FINER (better).
16  Nice and sound after treatment, scarlet rash (12)
UNCONSIDERED – Anagram (after treatment) of [NICE] and [SOUND], followed by RED (scarlet).  Nice surface, requiring scarlet rash to be lifted and separated.  A rash act might be one that has not been given due consideration, or is UNCONSIDERED.
19  I wander back to see Antipodean people (5)
MAORI – I (I) and ROAM (wander) all reversed (back).
20  Misery caused by spinning of a spider (7)
DESPAIR – Anagram (spinning) of [A SPIDER]
22  Container idiot knocked over (3)
TIN – NIT (idiot) reversed (knocked over).
23  Enduring horrible revenge, sovereign incarcerated (9)
EVERGREEN – Anagram (horrible) of [REVENGE] containing ER (sovereign incarcerated).

Down

1  Kiss Hollywood great (4)
PECK – Double definition, the second referring to Eldred Gregory PECK, who memorably played Atticus Finch in the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird (amongst other great roles).
2  Hide face finally in bubbles (7)
LEATHER – LATHER (bubbles) containing {fac}E (finally).
3  Long blade in swordsman’s kit (3)
SKI – Hidden in {swordsman’}S KI{t}.
4  Chemical in petroleum at once exploding (6)
OCTANE – Anagram (exploding) of [AT ONCE].  My first thought was that OCTANE was more a measure of the volatility of petroleum, but that is actually the OCTANE number or rating.  An OCTANE is actually any of a group of 18 isomeric hydrocarbons, so is properly described as a chemical.
5  In European country, history ignores Tory voting privilege (9)
FRANCHISE – FRANCE (European country) containing HIS{tory} (ignores tory).
6  Job centre welcoming husband (5)
CHORE – CORE (centre) containing (welcoming) H{usband}.
7  Country where chap admits felony ultimately hurt  (7)
MYANMAR – MAN (chap) containing (admitting) {felon}Y (finally) and followed by MAR (hurt).  The republic of the union of MYANMAR is the country that used to be called Burma.
11  Venetian lover’s first, tragic sweetheart (9)
VALENTINE – Anagram (tragic) of [VENETIAN] and L{over’s} (first).
12 Drop fruit on me, last one in basket (7)
PLUMMET – PLUM (fruit) ‘on’ ME and last letter in (last one in) {Baske}T.
14  Something syrupy to drop in explosive device (7)
GRENADE – GRENAD{in}E is the name for pomegranate syrup.  When it ‘drops’ IN it becomes a GRENADE.
15  Found upside down in field, dirty puzzle (6)
RIDDLE – Reverse hidden (found upside down) in {fi}ELD, DIR{ty}.
17  Top money once (5)
CROWN – Double definition, the second referring to an old five-shilling piece, hence money ‘once’.
18  Irish working for club (4)
IRON – IR{ish} and ON (working), to give IRON (a type of golf club).
21  Hang rabbit up (3)
SAG – GAS (rabbit, as in Cockney Rhyming Slang – to rabbit and pork is to ‘talk’ or gas or chatter), reversed (up).

44 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1553 by Mara”

  1. Off to a slow start–FOI MAORI–and didn’t pick up much speed after that. Biffed SHAVING CREAM, MYANMAR. 7:18.
  2. Off to a very slow start and took forever to get some sort of flow into my solve, with odd words scattered around the grid for far too long. Then with 15 minutes on the clock (5 past my target 10) I came to a complete standstill facing M?A?M?R as the last remaining obstacle with, most probably, ‘country’ as the definition and clearly one I’d never heard of. Eventually I worked out something from wordplay and looked it up, only to find much to my amazement that it was correct despite not looking to be very likely. 20 minutes. Heavy stuff for a QC.

    Edited at 2020-02-20 05:19 am (UTC)

  4. Struggled and finished in 29m, only to see a typo for despair which is quite an achievement considering it was an anagram!

    COD unconsidered.

    Edited at 2020-02-20 06:06 am (UTC)

  5. which was my time for the 15×15 as well!

    I suggest the ‘biggun’ will give QCers less trouble!

    AT 1dn CRS for neck – is Gregory!

    FOI 22 ac TIN (or TUN!) Hergé’s adventures of TIN-TUN!

    LOI 8ac ALOAH!

    COD 10ac SHAVINGCREAM – great clue

    WOD 7dn MYANMAR

    High OCTANE stuff from MARA

    Edited at 2020-02-20 06:47 am (UTC)

    1. Before we get newby hopes up too much, I don’t think the main puzzle is particularly easy today as it contains some really tricky elements although for an experienced solver these are mitigated by helpful wordplay. By all means have a go but don’t be too disappointed if you don’t finish it.
      1. Jack – evidence shows that the QC is a puzzlement for the newbies! I thought this contained the trickier elements! Just Look at the QC times coming in. As you noted ‘Heavy stuff.’
  6. 34 minutes, a long time for a technical DNF, but with lots of misdirection, which I enjoy.
    I didn’t parse SHAVING CREAM, and didn’t spot the anagram in VALENTINE. The DNF came with TUN instead of TIN, which I think is just as good and is my nomination for a GR.
    Thanks to Rotter for sorting out the parsing.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-02-20 07:56 am (UTC)

  8. Heavy going indeed, even for Mara. A strange mix of pleasure and frustration. I was unhappy with OCTANE which is not strictly A chemical (although I appreciate rotter’s explanation). You can’t ask for 100 grams of octane, please. I was caught by TUN, too. Uncharacteristically sloppy because both TIN and TUN are acceptable to me. POLISH OFF was a bit tough for a 1across, I thought, but I liked SHAVING CREAM, FRANCHISE, GRENADE. A curate’s egg. Took me almost half an hour…… many thanks to rotter for a good blog. John M.
    1. Octane is an organic chemical C8H18 with 8 carbons as its backbone ( cf methane, ethane) etc
  9. Very impressed by the Rotter’s 11 mins, which is faster than everyone so far except Kevin! I’m another 20 minute man – after I’d been going for 7 minutes and had got three clues (CAM, SKI and IRON – really desperate!) I thought that I must have a bad case of Glue Brain after the sleeping draught I took last night, so it’s a great relief to come on here and find that I’m in good company. I’m going to give that an OK Day.

    I thought that was a real toughie, with lots of what were obscurities to me (“former Olympic hosts” for RIO, “I see” for OH, the ugly Yoda grammar of “getting cuts”). Also some superb clues, FRANCHISE and LEATHER among them. The COD award from me goes to the quite brilliant VALENTINE, a thing of beauty.

    Thanks Mara and Rotter.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-02-20 09:55 am (UTC)

  10. Well that was a struggle, but I was relieved to finish it with no pink squares after yesterday’s DNF. With hindsight it was all fairly clued but a lot of it felt like a step up from a regular QC. Having said that I’m glad I didn’t think of TUN/NUT option at 22a. Eventually stumbled over the line in 23.25 with LOIs SHAVING CREAM and VALENTINE.
    Thanks for the blog
  11. I found this challenging but got there in the end. Hollywood stars in the quickie are nearly always stars of the middle of last century which as I have suggested before could deter younger puzzlers. I do believe that the crown is still occasionally produced – is it legal tender (25p) I don’t suppose one would spend one mind!
    1. The Royal Mint do occasionally still produce big silver commemorative coins, but although they call them crowns, their face value is £5 now not the original 5 shillings.

      I think you are right, they are technically legal tender – but as you say they are not really for spending.

      Cedric

  13. The sort of time, that I have been acheiving for the main one recently; but it was enjoyable nonetheless. A real piece of setting art, I thought.
  14. Just a couple of comments on the comments above. I seem to have found it easier than many others – probably I was in the groove, or on the wavelength sort of thing. Certainly, I wasn’t bright enough to have been troubled by TUN, that clever thought never occurred to me. I’m pleased that most have enjoyed the challenge though. I’m going to look at the ‘biggun’ now and see how I do with that.
  15. That was definitely a tricky one, so I was grateful to stagger across the line just north of 40mins. Looking back, most of my problems came from a mix of Mara”s misdirection and (my own) stupidity – biffing Valentino made loi 23ac a semi-plausible nightmare to solve until I spotted my mistake. I also took an age to get Peck, which at least prompted Polish, but even then I couldn’t see why… I’ll go and have a dabble at the 15×15 once I’ve recovered. Invariant
  16. I thought this was a tricky puzzle. Still I raced through it and was quite pleased that I managed to submit in just over my target 10 minutes only to find I had 1 error. I award a Golden Raspberry to 22a TIN. NIT is probably a better fit for idiot than NUT but NUT/TUN works too. Oh well. FOI PECK (which I liked), biffed SHAVING CREAM (which I also liked when I eventually parsed it) and LOI UNCONSIDERED (where I neglected to lift and separate). Thanks Rotter and Mara.

    Edited at 2020-02-20 12:52 pm (UTC)

  17. DNF. Did not get PECK, POLISH (OFF), LEATHER or PARTLY. Obviously not on Mara’s wavelength (again).
  18. Lots of misdirection and other fun stuff, FOI CAM, LOI UNCONSIDERED. Enjoyed SHAVING CREAM. 10:12.

    Contrary to many it would seem, I think that TIN was the only realistic answer. Fine, TUN may spring to mind as a container, but although a NUT might be a crazy person, I can’t imagine using this particular noun as a synonym for idiot, and a quick look at Chambers online would support my view.

  19. Too difficult! Interesting to know that Grenadine is made from pomegranates. Had given up long before that corner though.
  20. Found this one tough, but fair. Very few write-ins and a lot of misdirection resulted in a long steady grind of 72:57, but it was more satisfying than the ones where I have most of it finished in 20 minutes and then spend as long again on the last couple. Didn’t parse polish off correctly. I assumed there must be some circumstance where it was acceptable to use one’s tongue to polish something. Last three in were SHAVING CREAM which allowed me to get VALENTINE, which unlocked PARTLY.
    1. Polish is the language. I never saw that either until crossword solver gave me the answer.
  21. We thought this was tough. It must have something to do with being on the setter’s wavelength as we have scorched through recent QCs.

    Maybe our celebrations at having our cruise to Asia cancelled (and refunded) impaired our focus. We’ll be back tomorrow with all guns blazing!

  22. …but having lurched around the grid in all directions for about 55 mins, I made it. Fell for every misdirection going initially, or just failed to find a direction at all, but bit by bit it emerged. Once finished however it all looked quite fair. Plymouthian
  23. ….POLISH OFF this puzzle within my target, and seem to have been almost alone in having absolutely no queries.

    I didn’t spot “tun”, but would have been slightly querulous had I done so. The correct answer went straighT IN.

    FOI CAM
    LOI POLISH OFF
    COD SHAVING CREAM

  24. Felt rather good last Saturday as, at the first time of trying, we finished the cryptic. We biffed a couple of the answers and wanted to understand them but there wasn’t a blog. Is this usual? Thanks
    1. Yes, that’s usual because the Saturday 15 x 15 is a prize puzzle for which entries are accepted up to the following Thursday. The blog usually appears about a week after the puzzle.

      Jim R

      1. Thanks Jim.

        We’ll give it another go this weekend. We’re more interested in the challenge than the prize.

        Lynda

  25. Four years practice and this one still took about one hour with much use of ‘crossword solver.’ Almost gave up. Felt as hard as a 15×15. Everything made sense in the end but I was way off the wavelength.
  26. We join those that find this tough and got there just over an hour, a quick break for a g and t seemed to help!
  27. I too thought this was harder than some recent quick cryptics. Lots of deliberate misdirection. I got stuck on hang rabbit up – not because I was thinking along wrong lines (of animal not talk) just couldn’t pull up gas from the depths. Got the cream bit of 10a but needed the crossers to get shaving. Overall reasonably happy with my performance as very much a beginner. Now to see if I can solve any of the 15×15!
  28. A bit late writing this as I got collared into watching Emma at the local cinema.

    Overall, thought this was tricky so was pleased to come in around 45 mins. Some nice little clues, although I will admit I was completely stumped by the parsing of 14dn – I didn’t know this was a syrup, but couldn’t see what else it could be apart from “Grenade”. Also took quite a while to get 1ac.

    FOI – 6ac “Cam”
    LOI – 12ac “Partly”
    COD – 10ac “Shaving Cream”

    Thanks as usual…

    1. I hope you enjoyed Emma – I’m not ashamed to admit that I did when I saw it a couple of days ago.
      1. A rare film that seemed to get better as it went on. Thought it was going to be a bit silly at first, but it settled down nicely for the last 90 mins. The production design and costumes were exquisite.

        Edited at 2020-02-20 07:29 pm (UTC)

  30. Slightly stressed by having to drop a team at Heathrow Terminal 2 and getting stuck in traffic – apparently the tunnel being shut – Uber fatality of some description – and just extricated car and managing to turn and deposit team at T5 for them to use the Heathrow Express to get into Heathrow Central!! Sorry just had to share…
    But what a trip this was!! Absolutely hated it to begin with and ended up enjoying lots of it. Amazed that I completed this. Time probably north of an hour at least half of which was trying to get the anagram of ‘Nice and sound’ for 16a until the Grenade dropped. So LOI Unconsidered with Crown SLOI. Liked many including 8, 13, 4d, 12d

    Thanks all

    John George

  31. Just finished a disjointed solve. First pass probably got me about 5 answers. Then got into a conversation with a neighbour in Costa. Then a few minutes while cooking supper managed to ink in some earlier pencil work. Most of this seemed a real struggle and then sitting on the bed just raced through the remaining ones with no trouble at all! I’d guess about 45 minutes in all which seems pretty ok for me (given the comments of others here). Can’t explain going from plaiting treacle to a final gallop. FOI 6a. LOI 2d. COD 8a. I suppose this turned out to be a great puzzle with some fiendish misdirection. So thx to Mara and to Rotter for explaining the parsing so succinctly.

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