Times Quick Cryptic No 1563 by Mara

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I expect to see some very fast times quoted here, as I completed this in a PB of 6 minutes, which I think is a record by a long way.  My last blog was also a Mara puzzle that I found relatively easy, but others struggled with, so maybe I am just on the right wavelength, but there appears nothing difficult or obtuse here, and the clueing is beautifully concise in most cases.  OOLONG may be unknown to some, but I doubt it, and surely everyone has heard of Mount FUJI.

Thanks Mara for helping me achieve a personal milestone with a nicely crafted Quick Cryptic.  I hope that you all enjoyed this as much as I did.

Across

7  Yellow food, or black, say (6)
BUTTER – B{lack} and UTTER (say).
8  Tablet that’s stuck on teeth (6)
PLAQUE – Double definition
9  Value normally expected with a soldier (4)
PARA – PAR (value normally expected) and A (with a) to give the common abbreviation for a paratrooper (soldier).
10  Conrad is awfully cynical (8)
SARDONIC – Anagram (awfully) of [CONRAD IS].
11  One’s heard on the phone offering to negotiate, to some extent (8)
RINGTONE – Nice hidden answer (to some extent) in {offe}RING TO NE{gotiate}.
13 Implement: also utensil, ultimately (4)
TOOL – TOO (also) and {utensil}L (ultimately = last letter).
15  Unite king and idiot (4)
KNIT – K{ing} and NIT (idiot).
16  Very old figure kept in step (5-3)
STONE-AGE – ONE (figure) inside (kept in) STAGE (step, as in a step / stage in a project).
19  I had backed ally, so shockingly traitorous (8)
DISLOYAL – I’D (I had) reversed (backed) followed by an anagram (shockingly) of [ALLY, SO].
20  Spots all cheetahs need evidently, first of all (4)
ACNE – First letters (first of all) of A{ll} C{heetahs} N{eed} E{vidently}.
21  Penny, say, hugging American relative (6)
COUSIN – Not COUSIN in the John Le Carre sense, but COIN (penny, say) containing (hugging) US (American).
22  Insect in a pickle?  Most delightful (6)
NICEST – Anagram (in a pickle) of [INSECT]

Down

1  Time taken spreading it around (8)
DURATION – Anagram (spreading) of [IT AROUND]
2  Hand, honest and level (8,5)
STRAIGHT FLUSH – STRAIGHT (honest) and FLUSH (level), a STRAIGHT FLUSH being a run of five consecutive cards of the same suit in a poker hand, and very nice when it happens!
3  Others entering Italian river quickly (6)
PRESTO – REST (others) inside (entering) PO (an Italian river that is a favourite in Crosswordland).
4  Scattered boxes on bottom of pile (6)
SPARSE – SPARS (boxes, as in a sparring match) on last letter (bottom) of {pil}E.
5  Star performer, groom? (3,2,3,5)
MAN OF THE MATCH – Double definition, the first sporting and the second whimsical.
6  Mountain in Japan, utterly fabulous, initially, to climb (4)
FUJI – First letters (initially) of I{n} J{apan}, U{tterly} F{abulous), reversed (to climb in this down clue).  I don’t know the names of any other mountains in Japan I don’t think, but here ‘IN JAPAN’ is doing double duty as part of both the wordplay and the definition.
12  Catch a number up  (3)
NET – I read it as a double definition, the second being the number TEN reversed (up).
14  Creature roaming randomly round capital in Sudan (8)
ORGANISM – Anagram (randomly) of [ROAMING] and S{udan} (capital letter).
16  A sign that’s confused bearing unknown proverb (6)
SAYING – Anagram (that’s confused) of [A SIGN] and Y (unknown, as in algebra).
17  Tea extended after two ducks (6)
OOLONG – LONG (extended) after O and O (two ducks).  OOLONG is a variety of black tea, with the flavour of green.
19  Flatten metal (4)
IRON – Double definition.

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1563 by Mara”

  1. Mr. Rotter is on speed methink! PB – well done Sir! I was a whole five minutes slower and found it a bit harder going.

    FOI 19dn IRON

    LOI 5dn MAN OF THE MATCH

    COD 8ac PLAQUE

    WOD 17dn OOLONG delicious pale tea from black leaves

    There are 21 peaks in Japan over 3,000 meters.
    Fuji 3,776; Kita 3,193 Okuhotaka 3,190 are the topmost.
    I’ve only done Fuji, also flown over it which was pretty stunning.

    Edited at 2020-03-05 04:23 am (UTC)

  2. At 13 minutes I was more in tune with our Shanghai correspondent’s solving time than our blogger’s. I didn’t know the tea, which didn’t help, but the main problem was the shape of the grid with no answers around the edges on which to build. One of the editors, Richard (Felix) or David (Hawthorn), has told us these grids are going to disappear from the QC but evidently that decision hasn’t yet worked its way through the pipeline.
  3. Just under 20m today, so pretty slow and certainly a long way adrift on the early leaderboard. Held up by the crossing BUTTER and STRAIGHT FLUSH. On BUTTER because I was completely thrown by what I thought was a homophone indicator in 7a, and perhaps because I’d already met an unknown foodstuff at 17d wondered if there might be some other exotic unknown. I’m not a card player but even I’ve heard of a straight flush, so having established it must start with STRAIGHT I then spent an age fixating on the obviously wrong STRAIGHT CLASS, with the nagging feeling that hand must be labourer and that straight class might mean something. Got there in the end and all green. Five on the first pass of acrosses and five on the downs, then clockwise from the NE.

    Congratulations on the time Rotter – that is fast!

  4. This is the second time Rotter has declared a Mara puzzle easy and I have found it near impossible. Maybe I am not on her wavelength but it is certainly not an easy puzzle, quite the opposite.
  5. I seem to struggle with Mara, needed a second sitting to get LOI man of the match. Sparse and plaque also held me up. No accurate time but most likely 30 mins.

    CsOD knit and insect.

    Edited at 2020-03-05 08:43 am (UTC)

  6. It is a pleasure to add my congrats to rotter. Sometimes, things just click! Unfortunately they didn’t click very quickly for me today and I found my time very close to that of mendesest. Yet again I finished in the NW. BUTTER came late and I finished with RINGTONE and SPARSE (having thrown myself by biffing SPREAD without taking the time to try to parse it). I liked STONE AGE, STRAIGHT FLUSH, and DISLOYAL. Good puzzle and blog – thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-03-05 08:43 am (UTC)

  7. I had a fast start, a slow finish and then discovered I had made an error. So well done Rotter for racing through this so quickly.
    My FOI was PRESTO and I was pretty quick until slowed down by STRAIGHT FLUSH.I had two left after about 13 minutes – 8a and 5d. Just couldn’t get 5d which I was sure started TOP- top of the range etc;that complicated 8a.
    Eventually I got MAN OF THE MATCH (COD to that)and then I stared at 8a for a bit and entered PEANUT (not confidently). Time was 17:10 when the computer said not quite right.
    I think this will stretch people. David
  8. I’m in the Rotter camp with what was probably a PB at 5:47. It just all clicked. (I simply don’t understand how Kevin and Phil regularly clock this sort of time, in fact often significantly faster, day after day. It’s utterly exceptional for me. They are ninjas.)

    Great puzzle. Still didn’t clean sweep it (baffled by BUTTER on first pass). FOI PLAQUE, LOI BUTTER, COD MAN OF THE MATCH. Thanks Rotter and Mara.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-03-05 08:59 am (UTC)

    2. Verlaine does these in two minutes something every day; beyond my comprehension. I’ve never cracked 10 minutes.
      1. That was me – accidentally logged out. Anyway perhaps you’ll be heading for the champs at this rate 😊
  9. Definitely a non-Rotter experience for me – DNF after about half an hour, with plenty still to do.
  10. I was all over the place with this. Ten minutes in and I was still staring at an almost empty grid. At the half an hour mark – which is when I always stop trying – I had barely half the answers. I’m not even sure why. Everything seems fair. I was looking for a homophone in 7 across, couldn’t see the hidden in 11 across, didn’t identify the anagrind in 1 down, thought “scattered” in 4 down would be a verb not an adjective… and on and on goes the list of my abject hopelessness today. Sigh. Hoping for a better day tomorrow! Thanks, Rotter, for the excellent blog and thanks, too, to Mara.
  11. I found this decidedly chewy in places and was staring blankly at 7 & 8a and 5d for several minutes at the end with a sinking feeling that I was going to have to resort to aids. Instead I took a break and did a sudoku which seemed to unblock the grey matter, finally finishing with COD MAN OF THE MATCH. Time on the clock 14.24, time including sudoku about 30 minutes.
    Thanks to Rotter and congrats on the time.
  12. Bravo Rotter and Templar! Great times. I was decidedly slower, with LOI MAN OF THE MATCH holding me up for the best part of 2 minutes. PRESTO was my FOI, and BUTTER took for ever to see. Eventually came in over target at 10:24. Thanks Mara and Rotter.
  13. Difficult at first sight, but ground my way through although not being able to parse a couple. DNK OOLONG but guessed it from the clue.
  14. Six minutes – amazing! Not so amazing here though. The NW corner did it for me today. 10a was first one in – just because it caught my eye before I started going through the clues in order. Things fairly flew after that and I was hoping for a sub-10 solve, but it was not to be. The last three – 7a, 11a and 2d took ages to fall. In fact, I got completely stuck on Straight flush and ended up using aids – total glue brain! Of course, in retrospect, it wasn’t even that difficult – aargh!

    As we all often say: it’s a wavelength thing. Unfortunately, I don’t always find myself on Mara’s. However, there was lots to enjoy, as is usually the case with Mara. I liked Fuji – quite an easy clue but what a nice surface. I haven’t got any American cousins, but I’d probably have to do the elbow bump in any case!

    FOI Sardonic
    COD Man of the match
    DNF in 15 minutes

  15. Yesterday’s success quickly became a distant memory, as I slowly completed today’s grid. I knew Oolong and spotted the anagrams, but I certainly struggled with the 8sac/5d and 2d/7ac pairings. None of those answers were actually that difficult, but when you are adrift from the setter’s wavelength… Like others, I thought ‘say’ in 7ac was a homophone indicator, and it took quite some time to climb out of that rabbit hole, only to jump into the one caused by Plaque next door (ironically, I had briefly considered Tartar as the answer to 8ac on my first read through). Finally crawled across the line just north of 40mins. Invariant
  16. Like others, I struggled in the top left. Just couldn’t think of any yellow foods for LOI 7ac, except custard and that has ‘tar’ in it, which is black. Pity it’s too long.

    FOI 8ac and then a pretty steady solve, dotting around the grid as I got more checkers. Didn’t find it easy but nor did I need to resort to aids

    A bit if a MER for 10ac as sardonic us more scornful than cynical, IMHO.

    Must remember that Italian river. Didn’t come to mind but then nor did ‘rest’ for others.

    Thanks for the explanations Mr R.

  17. Well done Rotter and well done Templar. I however was not on wavelength and required 2 Rotters or 2 and a bit Templars to finish. My last two solves took an age. POI was STRAIGHT FLUSH and LOI MAN OF THE MATCH.
  18. No records broken today for us but congrats to those who achieved pbs. We fairly raced through the grid but, once again, the NW corner slowed us down.

    FOI and COD: man of the match
    LOI: para

  19. Some finding it difficult, and some with PBs (congrats to them). I was nowhere near a PB, but if I hadn’t spent a minute on my LOI – BUTTER, I would have been in the 5’s, which is quick, if not lightning quick, for me. However, I did, and finished with 6:44.

    Only parsed STONE AGE post submission, and biffed RINGTONE, before spotting the hidden.

    Edited at 2020-03-05 01:38 pm (UTC)

  20. DNF. Worst day for weeks. Disappointing after yesterday. Thanks for explanations though.
  21. While some of it fell into place smoothly I got very stuck on quite a few. Knew OOLONG and got 10a SARDONIC very quickly. Spent ages on 4 down and still didn’t understand until I came here as I was looking at 3dimensional square things for boxes instead of fighting!Didn’t see the hidden in 11a as I was looking for a homophone and had tried to start putting in bargai….! Missed the anagram in 1d although I got DURATION and finally I don’t understand why MAN OF THE MATCH has anything to do with grooming!! So not an encouraging day for me. Well done those who solved it so rapidly and thanks to all.
  22. ….BUTTER a few minutes, but I had three attempts at 7A before the penny dropped.

    FOI PLAQUE
    LOI BUTTER
    COD RINGTONE

      1. When I won this decanter as Northern Regional Champion in 1998, I solemnly vowed not to use it until I could celebrate winning the National. My closest was a 3rd in 2008, so it remains a display piece. I suspect it will still be pristine when it passes to my granddaughter !
        1. Well that’s a regional championship more than I will ever achieve – well done you!
  23. Well I’m glad the Rotter took 6 minutes.
    Took me well over two hours and I still missed three BUTTER, DURATION and FLUSH (got the straight)
    Not on Mara’s wavelength at all.
    Flush = level? Not sure about that. A door can be flush with the architrave but not level
    Hand – yes I suppose I forgot poker.
    Yellow food? B utter. Too clever for me.
    Nick

    1. My Chambers has as the second definition for FLUSH as ‘to make even, or to fill up to a level…’

      Certainly, I have regularly used the word FLUSH to indicate surfaces as being level.

  24. When I first started looking at this blog – nearly 3 years ago now I believe – I latched onto Mr. Rotter’s times as appearing to be sensible (although a long stretch for me at the time) and always kept an eye on the Rotterometer. I now finish most, but not all, and IF I finish, it is somewhere around the 20 minute mark (15 – 25)…. so slowly coming closer to where Mr Rotter was when I began.
    But I did achieve a 10 minute completion doing a QC from Book 3 (2016 offering) and it is really good when it all clicks.
    This has turned into a long-winded congratulations!!

    I finished today in approximately 25 minutes – two interruptions – struggling with LOI Butter, Plaque, and COD Man of the Match. FOI Para

    All very fair but slow to get to the bottom of many misdirections. Enjoyable and pleased to finish.

    Thanks all
    John George

    1. Indeed. My time is usually 2 Rotters. However today closer to 20. Hi hum. Thx all. Johnny
  25. Can’t work out whether this was really difficult or the effects of a rare couple of pints in the afternoon. Either way, I DNF…

    Once again, the NW corner seemed incredibly hard – but the ale may have befuddled my brain for the anagrams and hidden words. Was thinking “Pepper” for 7ac but it didn’t fit with 1dn. Missed both 2dn and 12ac.

    For what it’s worth COD = 5dn “Man of the Match” – very clever.

    Thanks as usual.

  26. On a rapid trip to New York, and started like a train – had the whole NE corner done as fast as I could enter them. Am I allowed to rename the NE corner the Upper East Side for the duration of my trip?

    Got very excited with the Q and J in 8A and 6D and started hoping for a pangram. Then slowly
    – the pangram disappeared
    – the chance of a good time disappeared
    – finally even a finish disappeared, as I could not get 7A. Not sure why not as all very clear when one reads the Rotter’s blog!

    Congratulations to those finishing in PBs. I am now off to do battle with the New York subway, which I find even more of a challenge than Mara’s puzzles.

    Cedric

  28. I kept thinking 9A might be DATA. TA = Territorial Army A TA might mean a soldier but I wasn’t convinced because of the D and because DATA is the plural of DATUM.

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