A plethora of anagrams and double definitions from Mara today, my second consecutive blog of a Mara puzzle. I like the dd at 1d, and the device used to drop letters from 16d, and give clues of the day jointly to them. 1a was FOI. Hopefully you will all find this one satisfyingly doable. I don’t have an accurate time as busy doing other things, but I feel this was certainly within my target.
Across
7 Sunny city on the French Riviera (4)
NICE – Double definition – nice!.
8 Shape on the page not entirely irregular (8)
HEPTAGON – Anagram (irregular) of [ON THE PAG[e}] (not entirely = drop the last letter of {pag}E from the anagrist).
9 A hybrid sort of clue (6)
ACROSS – A (a) and CROSS (hybrid).
10 Parade trinkets also (6)
TATTOO – TAT (trinkets) TOO (also).
11 Uninteresting place to live (4)
FLAT – Double definition – and Norfolk doesn’t fit.
12 Mention a funny name (8)
NOMINATE – Anagram (funny) of [MENTION A].
15 Alarm when the cut finger sprained (8)
FRIGHTEN – Anagram (sprained) of [TH{e} (cut = drop the last letter) FINGER]
17 Cricketer with beer to knock back (4)
SLIP – PILS (beer) reversed (to knock back). There are some excellent schematic maps of cricket fielding positions that may help our non-cricket-familiar friends, just google ‘map of cricket fielding positions’.
18 Nude is strangely finding knickers, say (6)
UNDIES – Anagram (strangely) of [NUDE IS].
21 Racket that has strings attached (6)
FIDDLE – Cryptic hint.
22 Complete reinvention of triangle (8)
INTEGRAL – Anagram (reinvention) of [TRIANGLE].
23 Song in concert, unexceptional (4)
TUNE – Hidden answer (in) {concer}T, UNE{xceptional}.
Down
1 Something sent round (8)
CIRCULAR – Double definition.
2 Again organise seaside town (6)
RESORT – Double definition.
3 Box fastener in wood (8)
CHESTNUT – CHEST (box) and NUT (fastener).
4 Notice spinners turning (4)
SPOT – TOPS (spinners) reversed (turning).
5 Box where sculpture perhaps hidden in deception (6)
CARTON – ART (sculpture perhaps) hidden inside CON (deception).
6 Nuts eaten by buffalo, countless (4)
LOCO – Hidden answer inside (eaten by) {buffa}LO, CO{untless}.
13 Chap, if elderly, having various functions (8)
MANIFOLD – MAN (chap) IF (if) OLD (elderly).
14 Fit girl running round bottom of garden, minor (8)
TRIFLING – Anagram (running round) of [FIT GIRL] and {garde}N (bottom of = last letter).
16 Plane top in Germany, though many lost (6)
GLIDER – LID (top) inside GER{many} (many lost means drop the last 4 letters).
17 Dope fixing a steed (6)
SEDATE – Anagram (fixing) of [A STEED].
19 Not any of it, sister said? (4)
NONE – Homophone, sounds like NUN (sister).
20 European sensing English rather bitter, first of all (4)
SERB – First letters (first of all) of Sensing English Rather Bitter.
Edited at 2022-05-12 04:42 am (UTC)
FOI: RESORT.
LOI: GLIDER.
I must say that doing the Quick Cryptic was a lot quicker for me than fat fingering an iPad keyboard!
The on-line puzzles are available via the Crossword Club link: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzleclub/crosswordclub/
Just made the SCC at 20:15. I expect some will have found the clues where one must discard letters a struggle. Less common in QC methinks?
Good fun and thanks Rotter and Mara
Thanks to Rotter
I have never heard of the word TAT before, but I’m fine with a tattoo being a parade.
COD integral and nominate.
Never did parse 16dn “Glider”, and whilst I recognised it was one where letters had to be dropped I didn’t realise it meant Germany (I assumed the G came from the “top in Germany”).
I thought “Nice” and “Slip” were ok.
FOI — 4dn “Spot”
LOI — 16dn “Glider”
COD — 18ac “Undies”
Thanks as usual!
PS. Seems to be a plethora of crossword discussions on TV and the radio this morning. Has something happened I’m not aware of?
Clue was something like “where The Queen gets her money from” (5,4) [not cryptic]
My FOI was NICE, which went in as I finished reading the clue, but also with a question mark, as I couldn’t see anything cryptic about the clue. The surface just read as a single definition to me, and it still does.
Nothing else in the top half came quickly, so I had to build slowly from the bottom. Most clues were fully parsed along the way, although I had to come here to understand how 16d (GLIDER) worked. Also, I DNK ‘Nuts’ = LOCO. My LOI was SLIP, partly because I had earlier biffed SWIG for ‘to knock back’.
Many thanks, both to Mara and Rotter.
Biggest stumbling block was going from penTAGON to sEPTAGAON to HEPTAGON. Which held up SPOT and CHESTNUT (LOI).
For a while, I thought ACROSS clue might be “sort of clue” but couldn’t make any sense of that.
COD ACROSS
Thanks to Rotter and Mara
FOI – 7ac NICE
LOI – 16dn GLIDER
COD – 18ac UNDIES, although there are honourable mentions to ACROSS, TATTOO, FLAT and SPOT for the very tight clueing.
Thanks to Mara and Rotter
decent enough puzzle from what I remember
6:48