Times Quick Cryptic No 1862 by Marty

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

No time today, as I solved with my five-year-old son, Oliver: his first introduction to the art of cryptic crosswords. He has a much easier time with these than he does with US crosswords because, on the whole, the demands on his vocabulary are far gentler. The letter-play makes sense to him as someone who’s been fascinated with letters since he was 1, and reading since he was 3.

Solutions

A brief summary of cryptic crosswords —feel free to skip— :

  • Each clue has at least one “definition”: an unbroken string of words which more-or-less straightforwardly indicates the answer. A definition can be as simple as a one-word synonym; but it can also be a descriptive phrase like ‘I’m used to wind’ for REEL or SPOOL. A definition by example must be indicated by a phrase like ‘for example’, or, more commonly, a question mark (?). Thus ‘color’ is a definition of RED, while ‘red, for example’ or ‘red?’ are definitions of COLOR. Punctuation (and capitalization) is otherwise irrelevant.

  • Each clue may also have an unbroken string of words which indicates the answer through wordplay, such as: using abbreviations; reversing the order of letters; indicating particular letters (first, last, outer, middle, every other, etc); placing words inside other words; rearranging letters (anagrams); replacing words by words that sound alike (homophones); and combinations of the above. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but the general theme is to reinterpret ordinary words as referring to letters, so that for example ‘lion’s head’ indicates the first letter of LION: namely, L.

  • Definitions and wordplay cannot overlap. The only other words allowed in clues are linking words or phrases that combine these. Thus we may see, for example: “(definition) gives (wordplay)” or “(definition) and (definition)” or “(wordplay) is (definition)”.

  • The most common clues have either two definitions, or one definition plus wordplay, in either order. But a single, very misleading definition is not uncommon, and very occasionally a definition can also be interpreted as wordplay leading to the same answer. Triple definitions (and more) are also possible.

My conventions in the solutions below are to underline definitions (including a defining phrase); put linking words in [brackets]; and put all wordplay indicators in boldface. I also use a solidus (/) to help break up the clue where necessary, especially for double definitions without linking words.

After the solutions, I list all the wordplay indicators and abbreviations in a Glossary.

Across

1   Purple loo with poster, not the first (8)
LAVENDER = LAV + (S)ENDER
Post = mail = send. Not a usage Oliver was familiar with, though of course he has heard of the ‘postal service’.

6   Grass going back inside garden wall (4)
LAWN = hidden reversed in GARDEN WALL
Our first in.

8   Sight of German — is one inside? (6)
VISION = VON around IS + I

9   Not exactly / a / part [for] a girl (6)
CAROLE = C + A + ROLE

10   Odd bits of beefcake [seen in] Northern stream (4)
BECK = odd-numbered letters in BEEFCAKE

11   Team coming in has pay altered: [that’s] breathtaking! (8)
ASPHYXIA = XI in anagram of HAS PAY

12   Set to be in / church (5)
BATCH = BAT + CH

13   Briefly sample new sacred song (5)
PSALM = SAMPLE without the last letter, anagrammed

15   I might need a ruler, me — a certain king? (8)
MEASURER = ME + A + SURE + R
Cute clue.

17   Breathe in sharply when embraced by doctor (4)
GASP = AS in G.P.

19   Remove coarser elements [from] puzzle (6)
RIDDLE = double definition
‘Riddle’ is a synonym of ‘sieve’.

20   Hang around, at first, looking on in the extreme rear (6)
LOITER = first letters of LOOKING ON IN THE EXTREME REAR

21   Boy is without a pulse (4)
BEAN = BEN around A
‘Within’ = ‘inside’, so ‘without’ = ‘outside’.

22   Time / to have / everything including hospital [and] municipal building (4,4)
TOWN HALL = T + OWN + ALL around H

Down

2   Beer keeping one very animated (5)
ALIVE = ALE around I + V

3   Unusual kite etc, one not made of paper (1-6)
E-TICKET = anagram of KITE ETC

4   Dull / agent demanding payment (3)
DUN = double definition
To dun is to demand payment; and a dun duns.

5   Insubstantial fare I prepare roughly / about / start of Christmas (4,5)
RICE PAPER = I PREPARE anagrammed about first letter of CHRISTMAS
Wrapper for spring rolls (and more).

6   Word of apology, / large, not small, one’s articulated? (5)
LORRY = SORRY with L instead of S

7   Boy is going to / India / in the morning (7)
WILLIAM = WILL + I + AM

11   Hateful injury to the person, or tear (9)
ABHORRENT = A.B.H. (actual bodily harm) + OR + RENT

12   Hairstyle / for busy people? (7)
BEEHIVE = double definition

14   Agony [as] Dicky hugs Ian (7)
ANGUISH = anagram of HUGS IAN

16   American saloon re-used anisette bottles (5)
SEDAN = hidden in RE-USED ANISETTE
The bar car on a train. Never heard of her.

18   Hard quality [that’s] appropriate when speaking? (5)
STEEL = homophone of STEAL

20   Behold, start of week [makes you] depressed (3)
LOW = LO + W

Glossary

Wordplay indicators

about = containment
altered = anagram
and = linking word
as = linking word
at first = first letters
bottles = containment
briefly = remove last letter
coming in = containment
dicky = anagram
embraced by = containment
for = linking word
from = linking word
German = translate to German
going back = reversal
including = containment
inside = containment
inside = hidden
keeping = containment
makes you = linking word
new = anagram
not the first = remove first letter
odd bits = odd-numbered letters
roughly = anagram
start = first letter
that’s = linking word
unusual = anagram
when speaking = homophone
with = next to
without = containment
X not Y = replace Y with X

Abbreviations and little bits

behold = LO
church = CH
doctor = GP (or DR, MO, MB, DD)
hospital = H
in the morning = AM
India = I
injury = ABH
king = R (or GR, K)
large = L
loo = LAV
not exactly = C (or CA)
one = I
small = S
team = XI
time = T
to be in = BAT
very = V
when = AS

61 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1862 by Marty”

  1. 14 minutes for me, which is longer than usual, although I don’t recall any real problems. LOI was PSALM.
  2. This didn’t take me twice as long as usual, although it felt like it; I was very slow to see how, say, CAROLE or ANGUISH worked. DNK ABH, DNK that RIDDLE was also a verb. SEDAN seems to have dropped out of use, but it was the standard (US) term for an automobile with a roof (as opposed to a convertible), and with the trunk separate from the passenger section (as opposed to a station wagon) ; the equivalent term in the UK was saloon car. 9:31.
  3. This took me roughly twice as long as usual and seemed unusually tough for a QC. Many super clues though, and the feeling that a lot were tricky and near back-page level might just be me. Thanks to Marty, and PlusJeremy – I wouldn’t be surprised if your five-year-old understood DUN before I did!

    – Blorenge

  4. 13 and a half minutes, with DUN in on a wing and a prayer.

    PlusJ, could you let me have PlusO’s email, so I can ask him for parsing when I’m clueless on a Monday.

    Tell him he can’t have my slot yet – in case he he gets ideas!

  5. I never quite got up to speed today, ending up in all green in a quicker than it seemed 17. Only five on the first pass of acrosses, mostly in the bottom half, followed by finding the downs hard too. In the end I was left with the NW, with VISION, LAVENDER and DUN holding out to the end. Today’s self-inflicted wound was putting sorry fort LORRY and so frustrating LAWN. Enjoyed ASPHYXIA. It felt like there were lots of names today but on count back surprising to see only CAROLE, WILLIAM and Ben.
  6. Although it’s 7 years tomorrow since we first heard from Marty, this is only his 18th contribution to the QC collection and indeed it was as long ago as March 2020 that one of his puzzles last appeared. On that occasion he gave us a Nina based on Trumpton and Camberwick Green so I was on the lookout for something similar today but failed to find it, although the presence of TOWN HALL did give me hope for a moment.

    I needed 14 minutes for this, my longest QC solve for a while, and I’m not sure why, although the second meaning of DUN was unknown to me and I needed both checkers before coming up with it.

    Edit: Following the nudge from Marty (below) and an anon poster, it’s now confirmed there is a ‘Dad’s Army’ Nina, although a bit of a strange one as some of the names are only approximations. I see TOWN HALL was relevant after all as there was a very famous episode with its climax set on the the roof of the town hall and its clock with mechanical figures.

    Edited at 2021-04-28 08:51 am (UTC)

  7. This felt quite chewy in places, but I always had enough checkers to avoid getting too bogged down. My lack of German held me up a bit, although VISION should have been biffable from the definition, and I needed the ‘n’ to be slightly more confident about DUN, as I’d NHO the 2nd definition. STEEL caused me a couple of moments of anxiety as I tried to remember which spelling meant which definition so was relieved when the grid came back with no pink squares.
    Finished with ASPHYXIA in 12.51 with my favourite being RIDDLE.
    Thanks to Jeremy and Oliver
  8. A fine, testing QC from Marty which I enjoyed. I stayed out of the SCC but was back to ca. 2K today so perhaps a reasonably OK solve in the circumstances. I thought of DUN early on but only entered it when LAVENDER emerged. Couldn’t make sense of it so thanks, Jeremy. I didn’t like dun/dun (or set/bat for that matter). There were other testing clues but my LOI ASPHYXIA tops the lot. Tough but fairly clued.
    I’ll now go through the clues again to savour the best ones from a fine selection. Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2021-04-28 07:47 am (UTC)

  9. Unlik yesturday I fownd this trikky. ABH?
    COD ASPHYXIA.
    All dun in 40 mins. Thks Marty, Jeremy and Oliver
  10. … with nearly half the clues uncompleted when I gave up after 20 minutes. Seeing the blog, some of the ones I missed were undoubtedly fair enough and my failure was probably down to receding enthusiasm for the struggle, but others seemed very tough for a QC. Agent = dun in 4D? Really? My dictionary says the noun use is “archaic”. 11A Asphyxia — too complicated a clue for me. NHO 19A Riddle = sieve.

    Several clues seemed to me to be constructed of rather too many moving parts, and more like 15×15 clues — a common indicator of this being long clues with rather clunky surfaces as the setter works all the bits in.

    Oh well. Tomorrow is another day, but personally, I am quite glad Marty is only a very occasional setter. Many thanks to Jeremy for the blog — much needed today
    Cedric


  11. FOI: 6a. LAWN
    LOI: 11a. ASPHYXIA

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 11

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 11a, 11d, 14d

    Clues Unanswered: 9a, 12a, 13a, 15a, 19a, 21a, 4d, 5d, 12d, 16d, 18d

    Wrong Answers: 2d

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 14/26

    Aids Used: Chamber’s, Bradford’s

    My first Marty crossword, and what a tough one. I only answered 15, including using 3 lives and having one of my answers incorrect.

    11a. ASPHYXIA – I couldn’t get this one without help, but on seeing the answer I thought it was a clever clue. First life used.

    11d. ABHORRENT – Ditto above; a great clue. Second life used.

    14d. ANGUISH – Totally missed that it was an anagram. Third and last life used.

    21a. BEAN – One of my unanswered clues. I kept thinking too much of pulse relating to heartbeat.

    So, no excuses from me, I simply was not experienced/good enough for this one. I didn’t dislike this puzzle though. It had some really good clues.

    Bah! I have a candy bar in the fridge in the hope for a completion. I hear it calling to me now. I bet I succumb by tea-time.

    Oh, and well done Oliver. I am worried now that a 5-year-old boy beat me on this one. I definitely will need that candy bar to comfort me now.

  12. Not at all on the right wavelength today.

    Even with the blog, for which thanks, I didn’t find it easy. “Re-used” as a hidden indicator defeated me.

    Roll on tomorrow.

    Diana

    1. The indicator is ‘bottles’ as in ‘holds inside it’. So you will find ‘sedan’ inside ‘re-used anisette’. It’s a very clever misdirection to use the hyphenated word!

  13. Most of this done in 10 minutes thinking there were a few tougher clues, some of which were not fully parsed.

    My problems were in the NE and NW. LORRY was very good but it took me a while to see the parsing. CAROLE followed. The real head slap moment was in the NW. I was completely perplexed by 1ac, not bringing to mind a synonym for purple and running through all the possibles for loo (gents ladies wc bog throne) but missing the most obvious. Perhaps because it started with the same letter as loo? Dunno. DUN then followed — I think I know the debt meaning better than the dull one but at any rate it’s unusual to have a three letter word as the LOI for a quickie

    Fat fingered typo at the end as well 😬

    Good challenge — thanks Jeremy and Marty

  14. A little slower than usual – I had not come across the non-dull definition of dun, so it was a partial guess.

    Thank you, plusjeremy and Marty.

  16. Quite tough I thought, especially the first half of the acrosses, but thankfully once I got down to MEASURER things started going in more frequently than not. I lightly put in FEE for 4d at first but then VISION scuppered that. I couldn’t think of anything that would fit then, but thought it would be obvious once I got 1a. Err, no. I kept coming back to it, wondering which of DAN, DEN, DIN, DON or the unlikely DUN it could be, and hoping that by the time I finished everything else I would have had a brainwave. Sadly it didn’t materialise. Eventually I got ABHORRENT and stopped my watch on 34:43 and then remembered I still hadn’t decided what to put for 4d. I restarted the watch and pondered some more, rueing Marty’s choice of word/clue for something that he could have made so simple. Nothing seemed to fit with any of the clue and then I remembered my sister once read a book called “The Dun Cow” and I wondered whether DUN could mean dull. I changed my penciled in O to a U, stopped my watch again, this time on 37:03 and hoped for the best. Phew!
    I did think this puzzle reeked of a Nina, so I was not surprised to see Marty’s comment above and then the one from Anonymous (Marty again?). Very clever, but I’m not surprised people didn’t pick up on it. Anyway, much to enjoy. COD to ASPHYXIA. Thanks Jeremy and Marty.
  17. Dived in with LAVENDER and DUN. Dun has come up several times in the 15×15, and as a one time frequenter of the Dun Cow pub in Durham, as well as an avid reader of the Saint books as a youngster, which have a character who is a debt collector, I was familiar with both meanings. I didn’t spot the parsing for BATCH, so thanks to Jeremy for that. ASPHYXIA was my LOI. 9:48. Thanks Marty and Jeremy. I didn’t spot the nina until anon pointed it out. Nice one Marty.
  19. There are various names of the cast of Dad’s Army, eg Lavender, Beck, Laurie, Dunn, Mesurier, Ridley, Lowe
  20. A tough one today. DUN was guessed and VISION was biffed. Looking back now I also didn’t parse BATCH. I spent the longest time on my LOI ABHORRENT. The solve took about 13 interrupted minutes which I would have been extremely pleased with in my early days of solving. Belatedly I spotted the NINA. Thanks Marty and Jeremy.
  21. Felt a bit feeble to have looked up LAVENDER but this was a hard Xword, as others said. FOsI LOW, TOWN HALL, BEEHIVE, Vision.
    Got ASPHYXIA wrong – invented a word!

    Looked up RIDDLE which I knew involved shaking out the ash with the, er, riddle grid in a woodburner or old-fashioned range, so belated PDM.

    Thanks vm, Jeremy

    Edited at 2021-04-28 12:19 pm (UTC)

        1. Sounds perfectly reasonable. Related to an altered circular shape I would say!
  22. I found this hard and needed help to get through. ASPHYXIA, ABHORRENT and DUN (nho in this sense) the culprits.
  23. Either I wasn’t on the right wavelength length or this was pretty tough. Finished it, but I crawled in after 45 mins which is in sharp contrast to yesterday. Even the “easy” three letter clues didn’t feel straight forward.

    1ac took much longer than it should of as I just couldn’t get “Magenta” out of my head. Then I thought 9ac might be “Erroll”, which screwed up 5dn for a while. “Batch”, “Steel”, “Bean” and “Anguish” all caused problems.

    FOI — 8ac “Vision”
    LOI — 21ac “Bean”
    COD — 17ac “Gasp” — lovely and simple

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-04-28 10:28 am (UTC)

  24. After 10mins and hardly any (useful) answers, I began to wonder if I was on the wrong waveband… A slight improvement during the next ten encouraged me to carry on, but it was north of 30mins before I was satisfied with all the parsings — Batch was especially tricky. Nothing today has improved my view of the impact Ninas have on crosswords, but I will concede there were some fine clues. CoD to 9ac, Carole, for the succinct surface. Invariant

    Edited at 2021-04-28 10:36 am (UTC)

  25. I’m with Invariant regarding ninas. I can admire the setter’s skill but as I rarely see them and have very little idea of who regular nina setters are anyway (except Felix), it’s all a bit wasted on me, as well making for some seriously tortured clues. Oddly enough, when I entered MEASURER, I did immediately think of the actor but never made any further connection!
    I did enjoy some of the clues in their own right – ASPHYXIA and ANGUISH in particular.
    FOI Alive
    LOI joint Batch and Beehive – I was playing around with those two for a while
    COD William – I liked the surface and it’s my son’s name – nuff said 😉
    Time 19 minutes – aaagh!
    If you haven’t tried the biggie yet, you may find some of it easier than this although there were a few tricky ones. I did it in 30 minutes.

    Edited at 2021-04-28 11:07 am (UTC)

  26. Spent 30+ mins before giving up, and really struggled today.

    So many abbreviations for Loo (“can” looked promising) and with this construction it is unclear how long the composite parts are so that makes it all the harder.

    Had to look up German for “of” (got confused with “Mitt”). I know a lady called Carola, so that looked good at 9a.

    MEASURER seemed like a contrived word to fit the Nina, I just checked the OED which had a surprising number of citations and usages.

    RIDDLE was biffed, I though it was something to do with taking the G off “griddle”.

    Also missed DUN and ABHORRENT: never heard of ABH, although tear=rent is very common in crosswords (and not IRL)

    COD: E-TICKET

  27. I’ll rewrite this as it failed to post last time I tried. No time today as I had to interrupt myself to take Mrs R’s car in for service, and then run a number of errands. However, I guess I would be in the SCC.

    I was on the look out for a Nina from the start because of the unusually rare setter, and then reinforced when familiar sounding names came up. Lavender Lawn was a credible alternative to The Camomile Lawn, and William Steel and Carole Beck were credible characters / actors. However, I was unable to connect anything until I came here and saw Marty’s comment above, when the Lavender, Dunn and Measurier pennies dropped, and I saw the answer. Very clever Marty, and well done on getting past most of us.

  28. Thanks for pointing out the Dad’s Army motif – explains why we got the tricky DUN in the mix. Nice puzzle, and definitely harder than usual.
  29. Not that I spotted it at the time, but isn’t this more of a theme than a Nina? Maybe a ghost theme, seeing as some of the names are just suggested. It’s not always clear to me what the difference is.

    Probably not part of the theme, but WILLIAM was Hodges’ first name, and also that of the actor who played him, James Beck’s middle name was Carroll (CAROLE), and (I’m not being that serious) Corporal Jones was obsessed with what he called “the old cold STEEL’!

    – Blorenge

      1. Yes! He and 1a are the last surviving members of the cast, I think.

        – Blorenge

    3. Yes, Blorenge, Ninas and themed puzzles tend to overlap in our ramblings these days, but as with categorisation of clues as discussed here yesterday, I don’t see it matters all that much.

  30. Gosh, hardest QC for many weeks for me and six clues incomplete. I learned a lot so feel happy despite the disaster. Thanks PlusJeremy for the blog and Marty for beating me all ends up.

    NHO ‘dun’ so good to learn something new. Also now realise the ‘appropriate’ can be read in two ways. Loved the misdirection of that and also of ‘bottles’ for contains.

    Onwards and upwards.

  31. Today is the anniversary of the Mutiny on the Bounty.
    Just thought I would share that.
  33. … comes the muck cart! I celebrated after achieving a PB on Monday and I was extremely pleased to record a very fast time (for me) yesterday. However, today’s performance was my worst since the end of June last year – just four weeks after starting these QCs.

    I have not seen a Marty crossword before and, having given up after 60 minutes with 8 clues still unsolved, I rather hope not to see another one for some time. Sorry Marty – your clues were probably fair, but the puzzle as a whole was just too hard for me.

    The clues I failed on were CAROLE, LORRY, BATCH, BEEHIVE, RIDDLE, SEDAN, BEAN and STEEL. I thought of CAROLE, STEEL and ‘sieve’ (and I know a RIDDLE is a gardener’s sieve, because I have one), but I just couldn’t see the parsing. All in all, I was thrashed today.

    I think Mrs Random may not get to her attempt until much later, or tomorrow, so I can’t report her outcome yet.

    Thanks to Marty and plusjeremy for his much-needed blog.

    1. Late news:
      Mrs Random has now attempted Marty’s offering. She finished in 56 minutes, having struggled with the parsing of some of the clues that beat me. Sadly, however, she plumped for SHELL instead of STEEL, so it has to go down as a DNF.
      Roll on tomorrow!
  34. the NINA/Theme, but then I never look for them, so that’s not surprising.

    The puzzle definitely had a different “feel” to most QC’s, but I didn’t seem to find it as tricky as most.

    My LOIs were LAVENDER then DUN, as MAGENTA kept intruding on my thoughts, even though it didn’t fit, either in number of letters, or in parsing! Only knew one meaning of DUN, but shoved it in as the most likely D?N.

    I liked WILLIAM and RIDDLE.

    7:24.

  35. More of a challenge than usual, so just over the half-hour. And I loved the NINA once I knew to look for it. Thanks!
  36. I’m still a newbie to Times Cryptic and am in awe of Jeremy’s son but I did find the info at the end of his answers really helpful, so, thank you
  37. A bit of a biff fest from me. I couldn’t parse ten of so of the clues, even though I eventually got it all finished.

    Quite pleased with myself to get 11a from the wordplay. Would never have thought of BAT for be in and still couldn’t understand the parsing when I read the blog, took a while to see what it was about. Nor do I understand 4d. I’m familiar with DUN as demanding money but why the AGENT?

    Oh well, maybe I’ll try the big boys crossword….

  38. My LOI was DUN with fingers crossed.
    ASPHYXIA and RIDDLE were late in.
    Quite tough and it took me 15:19.
    David
  39. Very tricky today and I was pleased to finish in 23 mins, leaving several unparsed. I was another who spent some time trying to fit magenta in at 1ac. Never saw the nina but then I never do, even when they’re a good deal more obvious than this.

    FOI – 6ac LAWN
    LOI – 19ac RIDDLE
    COD – 7dn WILLIAM

    Thanks to blogger and setter.

  40. Cracking puzzle and to discover the Nina afterwards was an added pleasure. Really good fun. I now see I misparsed BATCH (had it as B AT CH).

    FOI ALIVE, LOI LAVENDER, COD ASPHYXIA, time K+30s for an Excellent Day.

    Many thanks Marty and Jeremy.

    Templar

  41. ….and I wasn’t on Marty’s wavelength. Besides which, most of you know my view on NINA’s and themes *. I’d bet good money that, of the possibly thousands of solvers who don’t visit this site, less than 2% spotted this one. Admittedly very clever, but not my cup of tea at all.

    FOI LAWN
    LOI CAROLE
    COD WILLIAM
    TIME not recorded today, but certainly over my target at around 7-8 minutes ?

    * Yes, I know there was a mini-theme in my latest weekend puzzle, but I tried to sprinkle in a mere handful of St.George’s Day clues as a one-off. It’s not a road I intend to take too often !

    1. Ninas are not necessarily there to be spotted.
      So if less than 2% of people spot them it is no big deal.

      1. Whilst it wasn’t so much the case here, all too often a NINA will result in obscure words and forced clues, and that is not something that the target audience for a QC will be seeking. Are you suggesting that the NINA is there simply for the gratification of the setter ? Or perhaps that the setter enjoys the additional clueing handicap that it provides ?
  42. Welcome back Marty! A real change of gear was needed to deal with this puzzle. Very enjoyable with many good/clever clues. Missed the NINA (of course) but happy memories… FOI 6a Lawn. LOI 19a Riddle (needed Sedan to get this for certain). COD – many to choose from but possibly 11d ABH + OR + RENT. Helpful blog from Jeremy and please can we have more Marty (just to spice things up)?
  43. But, what to say – it was a definite DNF. We needed to look up 2 clues to finish in 27 minutes. First time in absolutely ages we just couldn’t finish it off.

    FOI: LAVENDER
    LOI: VISION (DNF)
    COD: LAVENDER

    Thanks Marty and Jeremy.

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