Times Quick Cryptic No 3031 by Mara

Author   TemplarPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A good one from Mara, heavy on the anagrams (8 full or partial) and with some witty surfaces. I found that this continued the run of easier puzzles we’ve had this week and it took me 06:58. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Definitions underlined in bold.

Across
1 Money for members of orchestra (5)
BRASS – double definition.
4 Style that’s uniform in chart I revised (7)
HAIRCUT – U [uniform, NATO alphabet] inside [in] an anagram [revised] of “chart I”.
8 Eight from Oxford, say, awful moaners (7)
OARSMEN – anagram [awful] of “moaners”. Rather apt to cover this year’s Boat Race, given Oxford’s awful moaning to get Cambridge rowers banned. They still lost.
9 Dishonesty on the floor, perhaps (5)
LYING – definition with a cryptic hint. I paused here since I thought I was looking for a word like carpet/rug/mat etc.
10 Feline mouse or chicken? (7-3)
SCAREDY-CAT – I’m not totally sure how this works, but (all from Collins): a SCAREDY-CAT is “a person who is unreasonably afraid”; a “mouse” is “a quiet, timid or cowardly person”; and a chicken is also “a cowardly person”. Therefore a “scaredy-cat” could also be described as a “mouse” or a “chicken”, and if you called a mouse/chicken a “scaredy-cat” it might be a “feline” mouse/chicken. Something along those lines. This feels like applying earnest textual analysis to a cracker-joke.
14 Seldom right, a bank (6)
RARELY – R [right] + A [a] + RELY [bank, as in “I was banking on that”].
15 Poor taste, English property (6)
ESTATE -anagram [poor] of “taste” + E [English].
17 I’d knocked over small hut affected by subsidence? (10)
DIMINISHED – DI [I’d knocked over, i.e. reversed] + MINI [small] + SHED [hut]. If something subsides then it diminishes and so could be said to be “affected by subsidence”, ho ho.
20 Idea has you pocketing millions (5)
THEME – THEE [you] including [pocketing] M [millions]. Bit sneaky  in QC-land not to indicate that we needed an old form of “you”, but  perfectly fair.
22 Underwear, really daring! (7)
BRAVERY – BRA [underwear] + VERY [really]. I held myself up a little by putting “bravest” first up (the logic being bra + vest = underwear, and if you’re the bravest then you’re “really daring”). TYPE sorted me out when I got to the downs.
23 Put right, start puzzle again? (7)
RESOLVE – cryptic hint. We “solve” a puzzle; if we start a puzzle again we “re-solve” it.
24 Series called “Beginning of Empire” (5)
RANGE – RANG [called, as in “I rang my mum yesterday”] + E [Beginning of Empire].
Down
1 Boxer’s head down, punch (4)
BLOW – B [boxer’s head] + LOW [down].
2 Area of land in Leicester carved up (4)
ACRE – reverse hidden [in … up, this being a down clue] in “Leicester carved”.
3 Mark Simon Cole wrong (9)
SEMICOLON – anagram [wrong] of “Simon Cole”. “Mark” for a piece of punctuation gets me every time, I always faff around trying to remember synonyms for “scar”.
4 Ambitious leader of association deported from country (6)
HUNGRY – HUNGaRY [leader of association deported from country]. My LOI since I am geographically challenged.
5 Iffy, lousy and liverish, primarily? (3)
ILL – the first letters [primarily] of “iffy, lousy and liverish”.
6 Difficulty filling kitty for talk (4-4)
CHIT-CHAT – HITCH [difficulty] inside [filling] CAT [kitty]. Very good, COD from me. I spent a while trying to get “pool” for “kitty” in there.
7 In partnership to win that lady (8)
TOGETHER – seeing “to get her” [to win that lady] in TOGETHER is no doubt a chestnut but it was new to me and I liked it!
11 Rides out of order, two in shocking state (9)
DISREPAIR – anagram [out of order] of “rides” + PAIR [two].
12 Hunter in trap rode off (8)
PREDATOR – anagram [off] of “trap rode”.
13 Breakfast items politician found in salt and pepper shakers, perhaps (8)
CRUMPETS – MP [politician] inside [found in] CRUETS [salt and pepper shakers, perhaps]. “Breakfast items”, forsooth??? Crumpets are for tea-time and anyone eating them at breakfast urgently needs help. Yes I know that there are Scottish pancake things also called crumpets but they shouldn’t be eaten at breakfast either. Mara may be thinking of muffins.
16 Practical, as lube that’s slippery (6)
USABLE – anagram [slippery] of “as lube”. This clue made me feel slightly queasy.
18 Place to drive with new youngster (4)
TEEN – TEE [place to drive, i.e. on a golf-course – the TEE is the area from which the first shot is made on each hole, as well as the little wooden/plastic peg the ball can be placed on for the first shot] + N [new].
19 Sort pet out, with puppy finally kennelled (4)
TYPE – anagram [out] of “pet” containing [kennelled] Y [puppy finally].
21 Fish found in three lakes (3)
EEL – hidden inside “three lakes”.

81 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3031 by Mara”

  1. I thought this was not the easiest of quickies with some answers requiring some thought. SCAREDY CAT, yes, I think it’s simply a mousey (timid) cat, nothing more to it. I agree that in a quickie it would have been helpful to give the old meaning of ‘you’ for THE(M)E, especially as it’s not the first synonym you’d think of for ‘idea’. HAIRCUT took a while to appear. SEMICOLON needed a few checkers before the penny dropped, thought I was looking for a scar/stain. Liked CRUMPETS, HUNGRY and TOGETHER. COD to BRAVERY.
    Thanks Templar and setter.

  2. 7.22

    Very early solve for me (an hour ahead and an early start).

    Nice puzzle; nice blog; liked BRAVERY.

    Thanks Mara/Templar

  3. Record early solve for us (sitting on a delayed v. early plane) but sadly no record time, our 14:36 being somewhat slower than average. SCAREDY-CAT occurred quickly but we delayed putting it in because we were looking for something more precise on the parsing. THEME went in quickly with a MER. Unconvinced by DIMINISHED / affected by subsidence but the parsing was at least clear. BRASS and BLOW were our last two. Thanks, Templar and Mara.

  4. A slow start then steady progress until RANGE, TEEN and BLOW all needed careful consideration. Enjoyed HAIRCUT emerging but my favourite was the ‘mini-shed’ in DIMINISHED. All green in 15.45.

  5. Fun puzzle with some great surfaces. As usual plenty of distraction from Mara but all done in 20.02 with a lot of smiles.

    Liked the mini shed

    Thanks Mara, and Templar

  7. Struggled a bit with this, held up by DIMINISHED (did not connect it with subsidence), DISREPAIR (mental blind spot) and LOI BLOW (left to the end as it needed a letter trawl). Biffed SCAREDY-CAT without really seeing a usable parsing, put in CRUMPETS with exactly the same reservation as Templar. All this led to a sluggish 13:26 for a Slow Day.

    Many thanks Templar for the blog.

  8. 12 minutes. RANGE and TEEN delayed me for a moment with a shared checker missing. SCAREDY-CAT needed some thinking through post-solve, but seems fine to me.

  9. Average difficulty for me but for some reason I decided to spell DIMINISHED with two ‘Ms’ thus producing two mistakes and leaving me last on the leaderboard at the time of writing 😒😒.

    Started with OARSMEN and finished with TEEN with CsOD to the mini shed and CHIT CHAT.
    Thanks to Templar and Mara.

  10. 12:59 Hungry scaredy-cat with diminished haircut in disrepair sums up my challenges. Generous checkers helped (fewer vowels) some nice surfaces and I’m always a sucker for Dad Joke Clues.
    Thanks T&M

  11. I struggled a bit with this and walked blindly into a number of Mara’s clever traps to finish in about 12. CRUMPETS and the deceptively simple BLOW came late, as did COD DIMINISHED. I kept trying to work another S for small in there somewhere, as was the setter’s cunning intent. Mini shed indeed, thanks to both.

  12. 25:59 for the solve. Clearly a struggle. Half of the puzzle flew in but then got stuck with the CRUMPETS/DIMINISHED/DESPAIR/BRAVERY bunch and TEEN/BLOW added five mins to my time.

    Thanks to Templar and Mara

  13. Not the easiest of QCs, but all good fun with some excellent clues including CHITCHAT. Took my time over HUNGRY, HAIRCUT and OARSMEN, all of which look quite straightforward in hindsight. 12:12.

  14. Not a doddle but enjoyable. I finished in 18 (continuing to avoid the SCC this week) with nearly all parsed but I must acknowledge a couple of biffs including my LOI RANGE.
    I liked DIMINISHED and BRAVERY.
    Thanks to Mara for a fun puzzle and Templar for a good blog and a little help with parsing.

  15. Nothing too hard here, I took 9:00 but was held up by putting in CHEST for 1ac (hidden in orchestra, “members of” – I thought it was tenuous) and then forgetting that it should have been only pencilled in for a while. I really should take advantage of the pencil occasionally on the website…

    I also found SCAREDY CAT problematic but it couldn’t be anything else.

    Nice puzzle overall, nice blog, thanks all.

  16. From BRASS to RANGE in 7:23. If I’m on holiday with the family and we’re having a big family breakfast, CRUMPETS often appear on the menu and are served with butter and pate (or jam for those with a predeliction for sweeter things). I find them very tasty. Perhaps it’s a Northern thing. I prefer them to croissants anyway :-). Mind you I like haggis and black pudding with a cooked breakfast too. Thanks Mara and Templar.

      2. Hot crumpets are excellent with butter and pate. I think they are even better with butter and camembert.

      1. Bear in mind that, as a retiree with a disinclination towards early rising, my breakfasts are more like brunches 🙂 Also, at home I usually have porridge and fruit.

        1. How nice! I once acted for an Armenian client who told me that their traditional winter breakfast is a soup called “khash” made of boiled cows’ feet, served with garlic and radishes. So it could be worse.

          2. 😱

            … and I haven’t had my breakfast yet. Maybe I’ll skip it.

  17. 12:28
    LOI BRAVERY which was held up by TEEN. Lots of “places to drive”, and I was sure the N was in third place. Tried Brazenly first. Oh, that kind of drive…

    This allows me to share my all time favourite clue: Bust down reason (8) . BRAINWASH.

    Liked TO GET HER, very clever. On seeing – – G – T at the start I confidently filled in an H for fourth letter. Held me up quite a bit. Memo to self, use the “pencil” option more.

    I like Templars comment “ earnest textual analysis to a cracker-joke”. I think this could be a fun party game.

    COD DIMINISHED

              1. Brainwash, when you destroy someone’s reasoning, or “bust down reason”. And of course “Bra in wash”.

                1. Oh OK, so is that an &lit? Actually I’ll withdraw that comment, we don’t need to go there…

    2. Sense of humour failure about Merlin’s favourite clue and other schoolboy jokes about bras.

  18. 11:52 (Louis VII divorces Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry Plantagenet marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.)
    Very slow to get going, with only three across clues on first pass.
    LOI was TEEN.
    COD to CHIT-CHAT.

    Thanks Templar and Mara

  19. 5:58

    Many a crumpet eaten at breakfast here (with Marmite), so no problem there.
    Enjoyed the puzzle very much, particularly the small hut, COD.
    Plenty of originality, thank you Mara and Templar.

  20. 10:25. Good one. LOI BLOW, somehow harder than it should have been. I liked SEMICOLON, SCAREDY CAT and BRAVERY.
    CRUMPETS have a weird off-putting texture, but Mrs K likes them and will happily eat them toasted for breakfast.
    Many thanks Mara for the puzzle and Templar for the blog

  21. Couldn’t see anything at first, FOI the last clue of all, EEL. NW and SE corners were hardest and never did get BLOW (first DNF for more than a week). OK, SCAREDY-CAT is a mousey feline but can’t get from there to a feline mouse. So wanted it to be the “really daring” BRAlEss (dream on!) but then (like Templar) BRAVEst was clearly better … until TYPE didn’t work, then the correct answer fell in.
    Liked TOGETHER. Thanks, Templar.

  22. Finished correctly in 35 minutes.
    I thought this quite hard. No real complaints but I am not really sure about the parsing for “Scaredy Cat”.
    I think that crumpets are, in England, traditionally eaten for tea – not breakfast. Though if I were served them for breakfast then I would eat them. But the same goes for curry or roast ox.
    I will go now and toast myself a few crumpets. All this solving has made me very hungry

  23. 14:38

    Eight as a synonym for rowers and tee as somewhere to drive seem to come up almost as much as that public school.

    Failed to parse SCAREDY CAT and wanted to put brazenly for LOI BRAVERY but it didn’t fit and had to resort to a quick alphabet trawl only to realise it was obvious all along.

  24. I didn’t get into a rhythm until about half way through the solve and then the answers came thick and fast. FOI BRASS and LOsI DISREPAIR and RANGE in 7:37. COD to BRAVERY but also liked TYPE. Thanks Templar

  25. Finished but slow today on some easy ones like BLOW, TEEN and RANGE.
    Doubtfully biffed SCAREDY CAT early on. PREDATOR helped, but again slow on HAIRCUT and CHITCHAT, as CNP the latter.
    Liked HUNGRY, SEMI-COLON.
    COD CRUMPETS which have produced some interesting menus.
    Thanks vm, Templar.

  26. Got most of these fairly quickly, though had a bit of trouble with CRUMPETS and DIMINISHED (though enjoyed that a lot when I worked it out). Annoyingly, though, just found myself entirely unable to see HUNGRY, TEEN or RESOLVE, despite getting every other letter for all of them. Thanks Templar.

  27. Tricky but fair. Got there in 22mins with plenty of pencil chewing. A really well pitched QC

  28. I had BEAT rather than BLOW until OARSMEN wouldn’t go in. “Down” can mean “eat”.

  29. All green in 11:23. A steady plod but based on others’ comments seems a reasonable effort. I too sraised an eyebrow at SCAREDY-CAT.

    LOI for me was BRASS shortly after BLOW – not sure why it took so long to see. Ultimately all very gettable so decent puzzle from Mara.

    Thanks for blog Templar.

  30. 8:01

    Wouldn’t say this was the easiest puzzle. I didn’t really get SCAREDY-CAT and was slow to fill in some of the many gaps – answers seem obvious once they’re in, but not so simple when trying to tease them out of the wordplay.

    Many thanks Templar and Mara

  31. 7:15 DNF due to BLOW. I thought this must be a word for ‘boxer’ with the head lowered. How silly.

    Otherwise, as usual with Mara, just glad to get out alive.

  32. I was already grumpy (I’m suffering with gout) and missing my target on this did nothing to help. CRUMPETS are like eating a bath sponge, but marginally preferable to the abomination of hash browns. Potato cakes or fried bread would be acceptable – though nowadays I have a banana, and a bacon roll later in the morning.

    However my main problem was refusing for quite some while to accept that “bravest” could possibly be wrong, even when my LOI was glaringly obvious.

    FOI OARSMEN
    LOI TYPE
    COD DIMINISHED
    TIME 7:00 (ouch!)

  33. Approx. 30 minutes today, so medium difficulty I would suggest.

    I got off to a faltering start by confidently entering CHEST at 1a and then struggling to find three Down clues beginning with C, E and T. Finding ACRE eventually made me question my solution to 1a and I was up and running at last …. until I wasn’t again.

    The bottom half of the grid was significantly more taxing than the top half and I found myself stuck for 2/3/4 minutes on several occasions. However, I got there unscathed in the end with BRAVERY being my LOI.

    Thanks to Templar and Mara.

  34. The human mind is a wonderful thing. No matter how well I’ve got to know mine over the years, it can still come up with some quite bizarre ideas. Loi Bravery started out as Brazeny (which as well as not parsing, isn’t even a word), before confidently progressing to Braseny (ditto), and finally a more run of the mill Bravery. And I gave up trying to parse Scaredy Cat when the coffee went cold.

    Couple all that with an anagram hat wash day (Haircut was nowhere in sight until Hungry turned up), and it was standing room only by the time I arrived at the SCC. CoD to Chit-Chat, but really, what a mess. Invariant

    1. Er …. Mrs R uses a different adjective to describe my mind (or what passes for it).

    2. You’re not alone Invariant – although I was inventing all kinds of different lingerie.

  35. Nice one – thanks Templar and Mara. A game of three halves for me, only 2 on first across pass, possibly worst ever, then raced through all but 4. Spent ages on them and trying (in vain) to parse scaredy cat. Break for second coffee and last four went in in seconds.

  36. I found this to be tougher than average as my relatively slow time of 13.28 would suggest. Even though I thought of SCAREDY CAT fairly quickly, I struggled as Templar did with the parsing. I’m still not convinced it’s a good clue. LOI was CRUMPETS which I should have got sooner as I devoured one only a few days ago. Lashings of butter only for me, no further topping required to suit my tastes.

  37. Finished in 45 minutes, would have been quicker if I spelt SCAREDY correctly instead of swapping the e and the d, and if I hadn’t put TYPE in 18d instead of 19d where it belonged 😆 Really enjoyed this puzzle, think COD for me goes to DIMINISHED. Thank you for the blog

  38. Nothing except butter will do for crumpets, whatever time of day. I didn’t know TOGETHER was a chestnut – but I do only 2 or 3 crosswords a week. It’s an excellent chestnut though! COD – BRAVERY. Very good QC, about middle of the difficulty scale I thought.

  39. Not that easy. RANGE, BLOW, RARELY biffed – thanks for explanations! 26.11 – slower than normal for me. Crumpets for breakfast ? Ye jest!
    .

  41. Six but I was distracted by the pain in my little finger having caught the end in a window catch yesterday chopping some skin off…..and I’m not good at spotting the Ikea anagrams yet.

  42. Did not comment yesterday as I was playing golf. But that was no help as I struggled with LOI 18d.
    I did get TEEN after a hard look and was finished in 13 minutes.
    Agree with most comments above. A good QC with some challenge.
    COD to BRAVERY.
    David

  43. DNF in 18:22, after spending about five minutes contemplating and trawling for 18d, threw up my hands and bet that WEA might be some unknown thing in the UK and put in WEAN for youngster.

    Off to read the blog and find out how silly that was — I did think of golf, briefly, and not hard enough. Didn’t equate “tee” with a place, and of course “range” and “course” did nothing for me.

    Enjoyed the moaning OARSMEN and SEMICOLON.

    Thanks to Mara and Templar.

  44. 8.35 A third of yesterday’s time but it felt slow. I spent a good minute at the end dithering over the parsing of RANGE. Thanks Templar and Mara.

  45. No real problems until I hit the SE corner, upon which it eventually dawned on me that I’d spelled SCAREDY-CAT wrong. I don’t know how I made that mistake because SCARDEY-CAT is clearly gibberish. Anyway, with that fixed, I finally finished in 13:36.

    Thank you for the blog!

  46. 17 mins…

    As this was a post bike ride solve, I was happy to finish sub-20. Overall, I thought it was medium to hard on the difficulty scale. Enjoyed 10ac “Scaredy Cat”, 3dn “Semicolon” (always gets me as well) and 17ac “Dimished”. Not sure about this crumpets for breakfast thing – we eat them whenever we want.

    FOI – 1ac “Brass”
    LOI – 17ac “Diminshed”
    COD – 6dn “Chit Chat”

    Thanks as usual!

  47. Reasonable on the left-hand side but the rhs remained obstinately blank for quite some time. Eventually I must have got on Mars’s wavelength as the final few answers went straight in. Unfortunately I was nearly 30 minutes in by that stage leaving me with a final time of 31 minutes all parsed.

    FOI – 8ac OARSMEN
    LOI – 4dn HUNGRY
    COD – 17ac DIMINISHED. Also liked TOGETHER (chestnut or not) and CRUMPETS.

    Thanks to Mara and Templar

  48. 13:23 Many great clues, fun to solve. Also many intriguing breakfast options mentioned by various commenters. I feel a little ashamed of my tame reliance on the oat kernel and the hen egg. In my very early youth(4 to 7?) we ranked a scaredy cat a tad less cowardly than the fraidy cat.

    1. We have my son staying with us just now and his breakfast this morning was the reheated remains of his takeaway curry last night. Not something I’ve ever tried myself at breakfast o’clock but it certainly smelled good!

  49. 22:15

    Struggled to get onto Mara’s wavelength with answers slow to come.
    LOI CRUMPETS took me into the SCC as I associated cruets with vinegar and oils and cellars with salt (though maybe not pepper). Also, I didn’t associate crumpets with breakfast.
    From the learned posts above, it looks like I’ll need to update my definition of breakfast items as well as cruets.

    Thanks to Mara and Templar

    1. CRUMPETS. My COD. Breakfast Crumpets are served at our abode with butter and either marmalade or black currant jam or no butter but with honey. Crumpets with pate, protocol is that they be served at eventide.

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