Times Quick Cryptic No 1662 by Mara

40 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1662 by Mara”

1. …and it gave me trouble too. I was most annoyed at not instantly recognizing the chestnut standoffish, a clue that I must have solved half a dozen times. I think I probably should have had a faster time than my 12:51, as there were many easy answers available.
   1. To be pipped on an off day is perhaps the most shameful.
2. Back over 20 minutes. Never completely stuck but pen and paper did have to come out a couple of times when I needed to see the downs from left to right. LOI was STANDOFFISH which made me doubt FLYING as having FF in the middle looked unpromising until I wrote it out and it suddenly appeared. Also held up by GESTATION – looking for ‘enlightenment’ or something – PENALTY AREA, ASCENDING, UNCANNY and ASCOT – all seem quite benign now but I was well misdirected at the time. Reading the blog I realise I never parsed REGALIA – thanks Jeremy. And it’s always annoying when tin doesn’t mean SN.

   Edited at 2020-07-22 05:39 am (UTC)

3. 11 minutes. I was also slow to get STAND OF FISH. I recognised at once that the answer was a chestnut involving FISH but needed several checkers to jog my mind to recall it. That answer going in early would have made the difference between achieving my target 10 minutes and just missing it by a whisker.
4. I thought that this was quite chewy and I only just snuck in under my 15 minute target time. The 2 long diwn clues held out to the end, which didn’t help matters, and I struggled with the definition for GAS LAMP.
   A good workout to start the day with my favourite being ASCOT and LOI was PENALTY AREA.
   Thanks to Jeremy
5. I joined mendesest, having similar delays (apart from ASCOT which I thought was a gift) and by going over 20 mins. Mara managed to unbalance me again with an enjoyable mix of easy and quite testing clues but a disappointment after a couple of pretty good times this week so far. I liked GAS LAMP, ORBITAL, and REGALIA Strangely, my LOI was STUMPED – it certainly stumped me until an alphabet trawl led to another doh moment. Thanks to Mara and Jeremy. John M.

   Edited at 2020-07-22 07:31 am (UTC)

6. Tough going, sorry to say I didn’t enjoy this start to the day. UNCANNY, GESTATION and GAS LAMP were unfathomable and STANDOFFISH only dropped in with all the checkers in place. Not a smile but a lot of grimacing. Thanks Jeremy and a hat tip to Mara.
7. Took too long on this at 25:24. STANDOFFISH was a good clue that took me forever to get, also enjoyed GAS LAMP and GESTATION. Was thrown by putting in NIP where PIP should have gone, by biffing a misread clue – thinking it was looking for a beet seed, not noticing that it said ‘beat’ instead.
8. 15 minutes exactly, so unlike Jackkt, I made my target by a whisker. I’ve been down in Devon for a few days, so have been absent from commenting here, although I did manage to do the puzzles. Back to blogging duties tomorrow, so let’s hope for a gentle return. I enjoyed this and had no major difficulties. I suppose FLYING SCHOOL in the middle row is accidental? Thanks both Setter and Blogger.

   Jeremy, Royal Ascot isn’t really a horse race, it is an event over a number of days.

   1. Indeed. I was going to mention it above but forgot. I wondered if Jeremy had perhaps never seen ‘My Fair Lady’ in which it is the setting of a notorious scene played to the accompaniment of the ‘Ascot Gavotte’.

      Edited at 2020-07-22 07:23 am (UTC)

      1. Of course I know My Fair Lady. But ain’t they at a horse race? A glorified one, but…
         1. Sorry, I should have been clearer. The Royal Ascot ‘event’ is a racing meeting, comprising of half a dozen or so horse races each day, together with a lot of eating and drinking and socialising. Or at least it was, before our new normal was established!
9. I was stumped for a while with about 8 remaining, then the stand of fish went in, should have been on the ball with that one and the rest fell easily enough.
   Even bitter and school didn’t come immediately, going to blame the red wine again.
   16m, with 2 CODs on the stand: regalia and penalty area.
10. I completed it in about 13 too but that includes the first four minutes of being stumped. I was convinced it was going to be a dnf and was having to content myself with a few easy ones. I was stumped till I worked out what birds may be then I was flying 🙂 Maybe a little tough but actually it was all fair enough. Thanks mara and plusjeremy
11. I was painfully slow today. In part I am blaming it on the clues with references to sports I have no interest in i.e 1a STUMPED and 9d PENALTY AREA but I also needed all the checkers for STANDOFFISH. I do not recall seeing this before. I biffed REGALIA and I never did parse it so thanks for that Jeremy. MY LOI after an alphabet trawl was GAS LAMP. SCC club at 20 mins.
12. Easy at the start -SNOW,SIS,OMANI -straight in. But then tricky Mara emerged and I was slowed down by several clues.
    My last two were Standoffish (COD to that) and Uncanny which took me ages to see.
    15:50 on the clock; could have been longer.
    A very fair puzzle I thought. Interesting to see it delayed some very experienced solvers, so well done Mara.
    David
13. Went well once I got past the first few (other than FOI SNOW) but I sensed this wasn’t going to be the day I got a pb because the ones I had missed out along the way seemed to be of the gettable-but-chewy kind. After about 25 minutes I just had a few on the left to get. Once I got HOTSPOT, I realised 1d probably ended with -ISH and it soon came to me, allowing me to get LOI ASCOT after 32:44. I liked 1d, but COD has to be 24a for its smooth and amusing surface. Thanks Mara and Jeremy.
14. I was going pretty well on this and seemed to be on the right wavelength with everything done in 15 mins apart from 9dn. Annoyingly, I then took another 10 mins just trying to complete that one word, even though I knew the first part was “penalty”. I just couldn’t get “kick” out of my head no matter how obvious the answer. So about a 25 min finish in all.

    However, some good clues today and for once I got a flying start on the NW corner.

    FOI – 5ac “Snow”
    LOI – 9dn “Penalty Area”
    COD – 1dn “Standoffish” – realise it’s a chestnut but it made me chuckle anyway.

    Thanks as usual.

    PS. Does anyone know how to follow this group via the Live Journal App? I seem to be able to post my own comments but not follow groups.

15. Hard. Messed it up by putting ABOUNDING, so couldn’t get SCHOOL.
16. ….STUMPED me, albeit I biffed it correctly, was 9D. I simply couldn’t parse it. I think having the consecutive letters of “year” in there blind-sided me.

    FOI STUMPED
    LOI UNCANNY
    COD PIP
    TIME 3:54

17. I was slow to solve 1d as I’d misread the first word of the clue as COD instead of COLD. Once I had the checkers, it went in with a metaphorical slap across the face with a wet fish. I got the PENALTY in 9d easily enough, but AREA needed INTER to get SPOT out of my head, after which the arrival of HOT at 20a led me to the aforementioned slap. My biggest hold ups were at 1a and 2d, my last 2 in, where UNCANNY came first and stopped me being STUMPED by 1a. 12:44. Thanks Mara and Jeremy.
18. Down to earth with a bump after yesterday. Started well enough in the NE (after passing on 1ac/d}, and picked up a few gifts from Mara, including Ascot, but I was still going round in a circle with the same half dozen (remaining) after 30mins, so stopped for a tea break. Finally cracked the Gestation/Ascending pairing, but even CoD Stumped didn’t immediately prompt anything for 1d. Took another five minutes, with all the crossers in place, to finally spot Standoffish. Nice clue, and hopefully one that will never catch me out again. Invariant

    Edited at 2020-07-22 04:43 pm (UTC)

19. Thanks to Mara for this enjoyable puzzle where I only had to biff GAS LAMP as I didn’t understand where ‘belt’ fitted in so thanks also to Jeremy for the explanation.
    I smiled at STANDOFFISH and REGALIA (must make a note of ‘potty’ as another anagram indicator).
    ASCENDING has to be my COD for being such a satisfying anagram.

    Edited at 2020-07-22 01:01 pm (UTC)

20. Slow to finish this off (about 25 minutes in all) having started well. Spent a long time on my last three: 1dn, 9dn and (surprisingly) 19ac. I must have seen the latter one many times before but it just wouldn’t come to mind until I had 9dn. Nice, if frustrating, puzzle.

    FOI 5ac SNOW
    LOI 1dn STANDOFFISH
    COD 9dn PENALTY AREA

21. We join those that found this much more of a challenge after yesterday. 1d and 9d caused us problems and sent us way over our target, down to earth after the pb yesterday
22. I was stumped by 1A and 1D which is a shame as I’d plodded steadily on through the rest and then returned to that point.
    I do like Stand of Fish though. Cod of the day indeed.

23. Didn’t see the cricket connection for 1a and therefore missed it! Dropped catch…convinced 1d might begin with c for cold and never got near it. Didn’t get 20a Hotspot either.
    But all of the rest in in 18 minutes. The last three not seen after a further 20.
    I went down the Chirpy line for 13a (flying) which I thought worked as well but then got Patagonia…
    COD 18d otter made me smile!
    Thanks all
    John George
24. We thought we were in deep trouble with this one – lots of staring blankly at the grid. Then, a couple answers went in and we were off and finished in 16 minutes. Really enjoyed the puzzle so thanks Mara.

    FOI: snow
    LOI: penalty area
    COD: standoffish (didn’t know it’s an old chestnut – made us chuckle)

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog.

    Edited at 2020-07-22 05:54 pm (UTC)

25. I liked this one a lot. A nice blend of write ins and head scratchers. I don’t remember STANDOFFISH from before but it gave me a chuckle.

    We were meant to be starting a Canadian road trip today but our friend C-19 intervened. Taken Mrs Meadvale to a rather nice hotel in Eastbourne for a couple of days to drown our sorrows. It’s one of the few places in the country that still makes me feel young!

    My thanks to Mara and Jeremy.
    6’20”

26. Set up an account in honour of a new PB of 11.42 fully parsed, particularly chuffed as it seems some of the more experienced solvers found it tougher! Stumbled across the blog during lockdown as I started to tackle the QC daily, thanks to all contributors, it has been invaluable and educational!
    1. Welcome. I’m in my 4th year of solving and couldn’t get near your time today.
    2. Yes, welcome, fairynuff. Hope to hear a lot more from you now that you’ve signed up officially.
27. Back on track today after being behind tackling the QCs this week. But have been following these invaluable blogs to keep abreast of tips and ideas. I thought today was a very difficult QC and I struggled to complete it in about 90 minutes! I remembered 8a Gas Lamp from a fairly recent QC. Didn’t spot the anagram 24a Regalia (how could I have missed that!). Lots of pencil before bringing out the pen. I find working from a printed copy easily the best method for me. FOI 5a Snow. LOI 18d ‘Otter although I had toyed with it earlier. COD has to be 1d Standoffish which others have pointed out as a chestnut. Hoping for an easier Thursday, but it was all fair enough. I confess to be rather jaded this evening but hopefully a good nights sleep will have me working quicker tomorrow! I rather miss Jeremy’s blow-by-blow blogs, and today would have been an interesting one methinks.
    1. What sort of details would you have liked to see?
       1. The thinking/reasoning process. This gives insights to the blind alleys and traps as well as how answers are built up from crossers. As a ‘purely for the fun of unraveling problems’ solver, never going to be a speed merchant, it’s educational to see someone who is much more expert tackles these QCs. After, I suppose, some 4 years of these it’s interesting to see how parallel my thinking and progress each day compares or contrasts with those who solve more quickly.
28. Bit of a challenge..liked the hooliganish BOY.

29. … after an unusually busy day. I thought this was tough, and after the first pass had only 3-4 clues solved. But then something clicked and I was pleasantly surprised to see the clock stop at 12 minutes.

    Never did parse 9D Penalty area till I read the blog, or 11A Gestation, though most of the rest made sense eventually.

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog
    Cedric

30. Yet again Mara, a 15×15 setter finds his/her way into the QC with a totally inappropriate crossword. Nothing wrong with the last two by Izetti or Joker being troublesome, but this was troublesome from start to finish. Go away Mara
31. Forgive me but I am new to quick cryptic and the lingo. Is a checker using an outside reference? Surely that should count against a good speed?
    1. No, a ‘checker’ or ‘checking letter’ is a letter obtained from a crossing word that helps you with the clue in question! Standard Times style (I believe) is that at least half of the letters in a clue should be checked.

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