QC 1545 by Mara

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

This was a very straightworward offering made up mostly of the more obvious clue devices. By my quick reckoning there were four straight anagrams, three of them longer answers, giving a large number of checkers straight off. Then there were another five double definitions, with only one cryptic definition among the ten. Add on a few tops and tails and hidden words and a couple of first and last letter compositions and you have a recipe for a dish of the most digestible alphabetti spaghetti on the menu. Thank you Mara for a puzzle that I hope will be a confidence booster for the less experienced among our readers.

FOI was 6A, LOI was 16D. My COD goes to 10A, an anagram for a change, for the smooth surface and also because in this puzzle the anagrams were unusually some of the more difficult clues on offer.

Sorry, I can’t say much more as I am in the middle of trying to pack to leave early in the morning for a flight to Florence for a (roughly) 30-year anniversary of our honeymoon. So I must love you and leave you and see you in a couple of weeks.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can manage.

Across
1 Large tank destroying megastore (9)
GASOMETER – straight anagram (‘destroying’) of MEGASTORE.
6 Cat book unfinished (3)
TOM – TOMe (book) ‘unfinished’.
8 Second figure behind is wet (7)
MOISTEN – MO (second) + IS + TEN (figure).
9 Girl in song at Christmas? (5)
CAROL – double definition.
10 Broadcast precedes rant in part of magazine (6,6)
CENTRE SPREAD – straight anagram (‘broadcast’) of PRECEDES RANT.
12 Kind teacher, your perfect educator initially (4)
TYPE – Teacher Your Perfect Educator ‘initially’.
13 Bird dropping head a short distance (4)
INCH – fINCH ‘dropping head’.
17 Eccentric dating serene actresses (12)
TRAGEDIENNES – straight anagram (‘eccentric’) of DATING SERENE.
20 Article cheers Greek character (5)
THETA – THE (definite article) + TA (cheers). Last time I did this blog someone commented that they weren’t very familiar with the Greek alphabet so I’ll just mention that theta is letter number 8.
21 Bird entering weakest relationship (7)
KESTREL – hidden word: ‘entering’ weaKEST RELationship.
23 Success dealt a blow (3)
HIT – double definition.
24 Taken away, goat was asleep (9)
KIDNAPPED – KID (goat) NAPPED (was asleep).
Down
1 Seen in spring, a memorable match (4)
GAME – hidden word: ‘seen in’ sprinG A MEmorable.
2 His cooking, extremely cold (7)
SHIVERY – SHI (anagram of HIS (‘cooking’)) + VERY (extremely).
3 Police force from the Continent, all concluding (3)
MET – last letters (‘all concluding’) of froM thE continenT.
4 Caring offer (6)
TENDER – double definition.
5 Quality of TV signal, first class (9)
RECEPTION – another double definition.
6 Short letter sent, partially read? (5)
TERSE – hidden word: ‘partially read’ letTER SEnt.
7 Complaint uniting two females (6)
MALADY – MA + LADY (two females).
11 European politician in Noah’s temporary home — fun place? (5,4)
THEME PARK – MEP (Member of European Parliament) ‘in’ THE ARK (Noah’s temporary home).
14 Get brighter uniform in different parcel (5,2)
CLEAR UP – U (uniform) in CLEARP (anagram of PARCEL).
15 Pain, one produced by needle? (6)
STITCH – double definition, second one cryptic.
16 Good and bad (6)
WICKED – double definition. I believe that if you are more down with the kidz than I am you will know that sometimes they use words to mean the opposite of their usual meaning, as in for example ‘wicked’ and ‘sick’.
18 On the ball, shimmying later (5)
ALERT – straight anagram (‘shimmying’) of LATER.
19 Tramp left in shell (4)
PLOD – L (left) in POD (shell).
22 Main character in audition? (3)
SEA – sounds like (‘in audition’) C (character).

46 comments on “QC 1545 by Mara”

  2. It took me a while to juggle the anagrist of 17ac in my head, but by and large a steady solve. WICKED has been around for some time, and at least in parts of the US (like Maine) was not particularly a young folk’s expression. 6:20. Mazel tov, Don; enjoy yourself.
  3. Despite getting lots of practice over the weekend on the harder Saturday and Sunday puzzles, this did not seem easy to me. Quite a few went in unparsed but I was generally confident about the answers.
    FOI was TOM. Progress was steady after that and last two were CENTRE SPREAD (unparsed) and MALADY where Malice had occurred to me but I could only see one female and the meaning seemed wrong.
    Tragediennes required me to write out the anagrist even when I had all the checkers.
    14:38 on the clock. COD to SHIVERY.
    A fair test I thought. David
  4. I was surprised to find 3 hiddens today. The 15×15 allows only one. I had to correct EMP to MEP to get 11D, otherwise no difficulties. COD to the 1 word oxymoron at 18D. 4:59
    2. In theory. I have seen at least two 15x15s (albeit in about 5 years) with two. One was 27,287 for example. I think the other was more recent.

      I suspect it’s more a guideline than a hard rule, or perhaps the editor makes the setter sit on the naughty chair once he finds out. Personally I often love the hidden – one of the ones this weekend was a gem. – Rupert

      1. I think 2 are allowed when one of them is reversed, but not more than one ‘straight’.
  5. Yes a confidence booster indeed! A nice start to the week.

    Finished all but 17ac TRAGEDIENNES which I DNK and even with all the checkers could not complete. Also got held up in NE corner with TOM and MALADY.

    For 19dn I put CLAD – C[l]AD i.e. shell… oh well

  6. I didn’t find this was quite as straightforward as our blogger so was surprised to finish in 10.45. I needed most of the checkers for the anagrams at 1a and 17a and it took me far too long to spot that 21a was another hidden. My LOI was WICKED and favourite was MALADY.
    Thanks for the blog
    1. Same here, not that easy for me. Took ages on the last few (eg 15d, I see pain as the result of a stitch but maybe I’m wrong). Agree re 21a also. I’m lousy at anagrams and finally had to cheat use an aid for 17a. No idea of time, probably half to three quarters of an hour.
  7. 7.07 so towards the easier end here. I have on odd blind spot for spelling words like TRAGEDY so was glad to get the G and D round the right way. No complaints though, all very fair

    NeilC

  8. 22 minutes, about average but with a lot more biffing than usual, mainly due to me missing anagram indicators. I also can’t see ‘reception’ = ‘first class’, perhaps someone can help me out. LOI was SEA, S_A can’t be anything else!
    Thanks to astartedon for the blog, it was needed today.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-02-10 09:07 am (UTC)

    1. The first year at primary school is referred to “reception” in schools around here at least. It may be a relatively new term… my first year at school wasn’t called that, but my 3 children have all been to it.
    2. I believe the the first school class children enter is call Reception

      Just beaten to it by johninterred

      Edited at 2020-02-10 09:20 am (UTC)

  9. SCC for me at 2.5K. Oh my goodness it was a painful process working out TRAGEDIENNES, what a ridiculous word. For once the acrosses seemed much easier than the downs; shame I started with the downs! Very good puzzle, I think I just had a touch of Glue Brain.

    FOI GAME, LOI PLOD (long trawl), COD MALADY.

    Thanks Mara and Don; enjoy Florence!

    Templar

  10. The lockdown continues.

    FOI 1dn GAME

    LOI 6dn TERSE

    COD & WOD 17ac TRAGEDIENNES

    Time 9.45 mins.

  11. Well, as Don says, ‘I hope this was a confidence booster for the less experienced among our readers’. It was totally the reverse for me. I jumped around the grid and was well into the SCC today and am not sure why – the clues were not unreasonable. I liked MOISTEN, SHIVERY, and THEME PARK. LOI was 17a and I, too, needed to resort to pen and paper. I agree with Templar – what a ridiculous word. Who would use it these days? Perhaps I’m coming down with something. Not a happy start to the week. John M. ☹️

    Edited at 2020-02-10 10:18 am (UTC)

  12. Definitely not a confidence booster for this less experienced crossworder – clues well crafted but too well for me – more fitting to the 15x15rather than QC – David S
  13. Like Don, I found this relatively straightforward and completed in 7:24. GASOMETER was FOI and MALADY went in last. I was also surprised by the 3 hiddens. Have seen TRAGEDIENNES a few times in various 15x15s and Jumbos, so that was a write in. Thanks Don and Mara, and enjoy your trip Don.
  14. I’m definitely in the ‘not as easy as you think’ school. The long anagrams didn’t jump out at me and all the hiddens has me thinking something odd was going on. Given that the word ‘actress’ is now considered passé, if not downright patronising and offensive, surely TRAGEDIENNES should be consigned to the cruciverbal dustbin – no matter how clever the clue.

    My thanks to Mara (despite anachronistic howler) and Don.
    5’25”

    1. Perhaps we need a new source dictionary of words guaranteed not to cause any offence?
          2. A dictionary of words guaranteed not to cause offence could be very short! These days there are people who positively seek out ways to be offended; sadly they all too often claim to have succeeded.
      2. What’s the old gag? Don’t tell my mother I’m an actress. Tell her I’m a prostitute. DNK the T-word so a DNF. Johnny
  15. This took me ten minutes (a PB – whoop!)_so this is a Very Good Day. I don’t know whether part of this is mindset – as soon as I saw that it was a Mara puzzle, I felt confident because I can usually solve these relatively easily and without getting cross with myself!One thing I like in a clue is when you can see the anagrind but there are choices for the anagrist because more than one word/s has the right number of letters for the answer – an example today was 1 across where both “large tank” and “megastore” have 9 letters. I often wonder if this is by chance or design (probably the latter, I suspect).I enjoyed the unusual anagrinds today especially “shimmying” – they make for a super surface. Having said that, I think the surface in 24 across was not fab.One anagrind that led me astray was “broadcast” in 10 across – it had me looking initially for a homophone.Another smooth misdirection is “extremely” in 2 down because at first reading, it made me think I was looking for an answer which had the first and last letters of “cooking” and / or “cold”. I think the double definitons today were clever, too, especially 13 down. My COD is a tiny word – 22 down – I like the sleight of hand (clue?) of “main” which I know comes up loads but because it’s a homonym, is a great device. Thanks, Don, for the blog – have an amazing break in Florence! And , thanks, too, to Mara, for a super puzzle.
    1. … and 1d starting with a ‘g’ didn’t help matters re 1ac

      Anyway, well done with the PB

  16. Inside my target, but not by much, and I’m not sure what took me so long. A good puzzle, although the reception = first class beat me entirely until I came here.
  17. DNF. Just me then who struggled? Though missed a couple of hiddens, which I normally see quickly, and failed to remember that in crosswordland main = sea.
  18. I too didn’t think this was quite the walkover found by our blogger. At 26mins it was distinctly average, though not spotting Kestrel for ages, and struggling with loi Wicked (I thought it would begin Pi-) certainly didn’t help matters. It wasn’t that long ago that we had three (deliberately) hidden answers from Izetti, of all people, so the ‘one only’ rule definitely doesn’t apply to QCs. Invariant

    PS: I thought today’s 15×15 was very approachable, but it seems to be getting mixed reviews

    Edited at 2020-02-10 03:35 pm (UTC)

  20. 5:50 here.

    LOI GASOMETER. Just took a while to unravel the anagram.

    Other than that, quite straightforward.

  21. About normal time but seemed hard in places. I always prefer a solution to get its difficulty from the clue rather than obscurity so I wasnt thrilled with 17a – my LOI. Enjoyed the calvalcade of Ks in the SE – I used to keep goats so disappointed that the final across wasn’t a write in. About average at 15m but almost much mich faster!
  22. Dnk Tragediennes and couldn’t see it for looking.
    Otherwise fun and reasonable. Kestrel very tricky to spot.
    About 25minutes but dnf.
    Thanks all
    John George
  23. Apart from nearly putting “Cheer Up” for 14dn, I was doing well until 17ac (around the 25 min mark). Even though I had all the checkers I just couldn’t see it so DNF. Upon reading the blog, I think I may have seen it before but it wasn’t something that was obvious.

    Nothing more frustrating than going great guns and then getting snookered on one clue.

    FOI – 1dn “Game”
    COD – 5dn “Reception” (clever double definition)

    Thanks as usual.

    PS. Had to look up “Gasometer” as I had no clue what it was. Slightly embarrassing as I used to work in that industry (albeit Finance and not operations).

    Edited at 2020-02-10 02:58 pm (UTC)

  25. Not sure of time today as I did this in two parts but definitely under 10 minutes. TBH I thought it was really easy, especially for Mara, who I often struggle with – in fact I remember thinking that he was being very kind to us today! Just goes to show etc etc ….

    I liked the surface for Gasometer a lot – the ones in Leicester were destroyed recently, but I don’t know if a megastore is going up in their place!

    No problem with words like tragedienne – we may not use them much but they still exist. In any case, I suspect that even these days actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt would still be referred to tragediennes.

    FOI Tom
    LOI Tragediennes
    COD Malady

    Thanks Mara for an enjoyable start to the week and to Don for the blog – enjoy your trip 😊

    1. and well done on your time, too!And I agree with your comment on the T word.
  26. Just yesterday! “Renée Zellweger is the Oscars 2020 winner for ACTRESS in a Leading Role for her performance as Judy Garland in JUDY! Congratulations!”

    …….. Tut-tut!

    Edited at 2020-02-10 08:59 pm (UTC)

  27. A late comment with a middling time of 11:02 and my LOI the seldom used 17a TRAGEDIENNES.

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