QC 1605 by Hurley

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Thank goodness this was an easy one. My Macbook screen is on the blink (literally) and my head is aching with trying to see the words through a blur of flickering lines and flashing colours. Add to that my normal visual difficulties and you can understand why I am very grateful to Hurley for giving me a puzzle that meant I was able to spend the minimum of time peering through the mess on my screen. Most of the answers were write-ins thanks to a large number of double definitions, hidden words, anagrams and charades.

Please excuse any mistakes or omisssions worse than usual as it really is quite difficult to see what is going on in front of me.

FOI was 1A and LOI was 1D which for some reason I didn’t see until everything else was in. I think that will also be my COD.

Sorry, I’ll have to leave you there. I’m off to arrange some strong analgesia.

Definitions are underlined in italics and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.

Across
1 Bachelor, thorough, gets trophy for plant (9)
BUTTERCUP – B (bachelor) + UTTER (thorough) + CUP (trophy).
6 Decrease in finance: stop filming (3)
CUT – double definition.
8 Unfashionable job in faraway place (7)
OUTPOST – OUT (unfashionable) + POST (job).
9 After leader’s changed, feels anxiety about approaches (5)
NEARS – FEARS (feels anxiety about) with ‘leader’ (first letter) changed.
10 Married lady treated in absurd way (5)
MADLY – M (married) + ADLY (anagram of LADY (‘treated’)).
12 Cut the Spanish metal (6)
NICKEL – NICK (cut) + EL (Spanish definite article).
14 Behind mountains, intended, we hear, to form new organisation (13)
REARRANGEMENT – REAR (behind) + RANGE (mountains) + MENT (intended, MEANT, ‘we hear’).
16 Outlaw born with exactly what’s needed (6)
BANDIT – B (born) + AND (with) + IT (exactly what’s needed).
17 Dance can go wrong (5)
CONGA – anagram (‘wrong’) of CAN GO.
19 Bring up commendation, but not initially (5)
RAISE – pRAISE (commendation) with first letter removed.
20 Popular old routine? Not accurate (7)
INEXACT – IN (popular) + EX (old) + ACT (routine).
22 From Idaho, tidings recently announced (3)
HOT – hidden word: ‘from’ idaHO Tidings.
23 Finding record old? Extremely (9)
DISCOVERY – DISC (record) + O (old) + VERY (extremely).
Down
1 On internet it helps to find reserve currency of past (8)
BOOKMARK – BOOK (reserve) + MARK (currency of past (in Germany before the Euro)).
2 Young child’s drink (3)
TOT – double definition, and one of the oldest chestnuts on the tree.
3 Wood, European, thin (5)
EBONY – E (European) + BONY (thin).
4 It punished old Roman, just short of ten stories for listeners (3-1-4-5)
CAT-O-NINE-TAILS – CATO (old Roman) + NINE (just short of ten) + TAILS (sounds like TALES, i.e. stories ‘for listeners’).
5 Criticise long dash (7)
PANACHE – PAN (criticise) + ACHE (long).
6 One adapting to surroundings of clean home, transformed (9)
CHAMELEON – anagram (‘transformed’) of CLEAN HOME.
7 Trial match (4)
TEST – double definition.
11 Drink at first for playwright (9)
DRAMATIST – DRAM (drink) + AT IST (at first).
13 Coy about drink with Lieutenant, cunning (8)
STEALTHY – SHY(coy) ‘about’ TEA + LT (drink with lieutenant).
15 Unexpectedly heard about editor’s girl with distinctive hair? (7)
REDHEAD – RHEAD (anagram of HEARD (‘unexpectedly’)) ‘about’ ED (editor).
17 Conservative referring to party’s belief set (5)
CREDO – C (conservative) + RE (referring to) + DO (party).
18 Chief, playfully mischievous (4)
ARCH – double definition.
21 Part of prayer? Yes (3)
AYE – hidden word: ‘part of’ prAYEr.

39 comments on “QC 1605 by Hurley”

  1. No problems, although I biffed CAT O NINE TAILS (with that enumeration, it was begging for biffing) and REDHEAD and only parsed post-submission. Is 6ac even cryptic? Sorry to hear about your computer problem, Don; this is certainly a bad time for it. 4:22.
  2. Calamity! Struggled mightily last week so pleased to submit under 14m only to find I’d weirdly entered STEALHTY for 13d giving me three pink squares and mucking up INEXACT at the same time. I’d even noted 13d as being a satisfying clue to solve after I’d built it up bit by bit to reach the answer. I do these with a pen and piece of paper in front of me and there on the sheet was the correct spelling. Inexplicable and annoying, especially as I had taken such care over CHAMELEON. LOI was BOOKMARK, I’d wanted it to be BROWSERS for ages, even though it clearly didn’t fit.
    1. I got nowhere with 1d. I was misled by ‘on internet’ without the normal ’the’, making me think there was some specific reason for leaving it out. I wondered about the answer having something like ’web’ in it at the bottom.
  4. A gentle start to the week with my only hold up being self-inflicted due to a typo in CREDO making LOI INEXACT impossible to solve as there was a D where E should have been. Finished in 9.13 with my favourite being STEALTHY.
    Thanks for the blog
  5. As mentioned already, a gentle start to the week. I started with BUTTERCUP and kept going until I popped in ARCH. 6:24. Thanks Hurley and Don. Sorry to hear of your screen issues. As Kevin says, not a good time to have IT problems.
  6. Oh dear! A mis-spelling of CHAMELEON messed up what should have been a quick solve, making the otherwise very easy 14a much more difficult until the error was spotted. I ended up with a completion time just inside my upper target of 15 minutes instead of something much lower down on the Rotterometer. For those of you that have recently admitted to using my times as some sort of benchmark (I’m flattered), here is a chance to do comparatively well. It should have been easier!
  8. Very straightforward. Only 1 mark on my copy – LOI for STEALTHY. 3:42.
  9. Oh dear. I clearly wasn’t on Hurley’s wavelength today. After some very straightforward answers, I just ground to a halt. I only finished with copious use of aids. Not a good start to the week.

    Hopefully, not everyone else will say how easy it was!

  10. ….Buttercup”, as I sang in our school production of “HMS Pinafore” 60 years ago. Other than parsing CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS afterwards, there were no problems here.

    FOI BUTTERCUP
    LOI ARCH
    COD DRAMATIST
    TIME 0.76K

  11. Thought I was heading for a fast time for me (maybe just over 20 minutes) as most of the across clues went in first time, but the down clues held me up a little more and then the final few – 1d, 3d and LOI 8a – took me right up to 45:14, even though none of them should have been that difficult. The only thing I was unsure about was ARCH. I put it in as it defined chief well enough, but “playfully mischievous”? I don’t think I’ve come across that before.
  12. I gather from the online leaderboard that this should have been easy. Not for me. I was off to a quick start with BUTTERCUP and CUT but then only wrote in OUT for OUTPOST. I don’t know why I couldn’t think of POST but more glue brain followed. I struggled mostly with CAT-O-NINE TAILS (think I’ve seen this before in a cryptic), STEALTHY – not convinced cunning is a synonym and my LOI BOOKMARK (because I was fixated on the word browser). 13:13, 3K for a poor day or 1 Rotter which makes me feel better.

    Edited at 2020-05-04 09:47 am (UTC)

  13. Another one ‘on wavelength’ here. Top to bottom solve in 3’0” give or take small change.
    My thanks as always to setter and blogger.
  14. An interesting start to the week – quick off the mark and then slowed down markedly by a few, including OUTPOST, BOOKMARK, PANACHE, INEXACT, and LOI STEALTHY (none of which were particularly difficult). I ended up within a minute of my target (and rotter) again). Thanks to both. John M.

    Edited at 2020-05-04 10:41 am (UTC)

  15. Post dog walk solve starting with CUT and proceeding clockwise. No particular problems although the definition of HOT raised an eyebrow en route. LOI was EBONY after 08:42, so a quick time for me.
    Did not pause to parse CAT O .. and a couple of others.
    Perfectly good puzzle to start the week. Now for the 15×15. David
  16. I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but of course they are in short supply these days… Anyway, a promising start soon slowed down to a more sedate pace before coming to a halt with just 18d and 1d remaining. I prefer to parse as I go along, and couldn’t see how Arch had anything to do with “playfully mischievous” – just the opposite when you think of, say, Moriarty. Eventually, I just had to assume it was a really obscure meaning. That left 1d as loi, and, as usually happens, I spent far too long focused on the wrong end of the clue. Bookmark was a real pdm, but I was disappointed to be north of 30mins on a fairly gentle offering from Hurley. CoD to 20ac, Inexact. Invariant
  17. Well Filbert, I didn’t think it was as easy as some have said! I came in bang on my par of 12 minutes and had a lot of head-scratching over 1d. I couldn’t see how to make Browser into an 8-letter word until MADLY finally fell into place 😉. I also still frequently forget that first can represent IST so DRAMATIST took longer than it should have done.

    FOI Cut
    LOI Bandit
    COD Chameleon

    A pleasant start to the week – thanks Hurley and Don. Good luck with sorting out the IT.

    PS We seem to be seeing IT clued as the very thing or what’s needed a lot more these days – a definite improvement on that ghastly old term ‘sex appeal’!

  18. Not so easy on west side, oh dear. Started well with Buttercup and Cat o’ nine tails but struggled towards the end.
  19. Was my last in, despite several of them staring me in the face. I’m doing these on my laptop at the moment, so all the bookmarks are in plain sight in my browser! A good clue, the only one that snagged me on my way to 5:08.
  20. Once again bloggers find it easy and I did not. It is slightly dispiriting to be told something one finds difficult is really easy. I know this comes down to experience. There is nothing more disheartening when learning something new to be reminded how easy it is by others when one is struggling. Perhaps that’s just me.
    1. Don’t be dispirited. It really is all about experience. I started doing cryptics in earnest when the QC first came out. Lots of 20 mins plus, lots of DNFs. I found this site enormously valuable in my learning.

      Most solvers will give an indication of whether they found a puzzle easy or hard alongside their time, showing that one solver’s hard puzzle takes the same time as another solver’s easy puzzle. One of the quickest will only give a time if significantly above or below his target.

      Keep at it, practice makes it a lot easier.

      1. There seem to be two sets of solvers who post here – the 5-10 minute chaps (at least they sound like chaps) who are using the QC as a warm up for the main one – and the rest of us 30-45 minuters or DNFers. Thing is, the quick solvers post first and say how easy it was, then later in the day the strugglers admit they struggled. I have improved slowly, very slowly, over the last couple of years, and am delighted if I finish, regardless of the time it takes.
        The bloggers are a great help, of course, in learning this esoteric crossword language.
  21. I must have been right on wavelength today and also benefitting from fairly standard cryptic techniques and no unusual words, to deliver what you pros say is a ‘write in’. First time for everything- tomorrow I will no doubt crash and burn. Lockdown has, for sure, improved my performances on cryptics- about bloody time.
  22. ……did not help at all. We started off at a pace then a couple of deliveries arrived followed by the washing line collapsing and, after repairing it, we sort of lost the plot. No idea of our time but it would have been a steady solve. Thanks Hurley for a very nice start to the week.

    FOI: cut
    LOI: dramatist
    COD: rearrangement

    Thanks for the blog Astartedon

  23. I didn’t think this was easy, but I’ve seen a lot worse. The western side seemed to cause the most problems, with 1dn and 11dn both taking longer than they should have. (Was looking for a specific playwright in 11d which didn’t help.)

    Also got hung up on 3dn “Ebony” which is annoying as this has held me back before.

    Overall took about 45 mins – but at least I finished this week!

    FOI – 6ac “Cut”
    LOI – 10ac “Madly”
    COD – 11dn “Dramatist” – simple, but effective.

    Thanks as usual.

  24. Straight through all the acrosses in order and then straight through all the downs in order. I didn’t do the QC terribly regularly before lockdown but I’ve certainly never done that before. A sort of Misère Ouverte version of the clean sweep.

    It still took 4:35 mindst. My typing is shocking.

    Edited at 2020-05-04 04:28 pm (UTC)

  25. Once again bloggers find it easy and I did not. It is slightly dispiriting to be told something one finds difficult is really easy. I know this comes down to experience. There is nothing more disheartening when learning something new to be reminded how easy it is by others when one is struggling. Perhaps that’s just me.
  26. Like a few others I struggled with this. I had to use aids but still couldn’t do 19a and 18d so DNF.
    Go
    FOI cat o nine tails
    COD discovery
    Is there a reference to G&S’s HMS Pinafore with poor little Buttercup and ‘It was the cat’ about the cat o nine tails?
    Thank you Hurley and Astartedon. I hope I’ll be on the right wavelength tomorrow.
    Blue Stocking
  27. … and I see that I missed the Rotterometer by 3 minutes!
    Nothing particularly difficult but BOOKMARK and STEALTHY took a long time to sort out.
    COD goes to DRAMATIST.
  28. Wrote in Tales in my delight of seeing Cat o nine tails which made Inexact a slow solve…but got there and enjoyed the crossword. Bookmark no problem but Outpost LOI.
    It seemed like there are a lot of letter ‘N’s and ‘T’s and ‘on’s …. feels like Treasure Island or similar…
    Oh well,
    Thanks all,
    John George
  29. … with a 16 minute solve, though I was interrupted throughout before the family got the message!

    I share the MER of some other solvers at 18D Arch – not sure it really means playfully mischievous – and I’m personally not familiar with “exactly what’s needed” being It, as in 16A. But those apart I was mainly slow rather than stumped.

    Thanks to Don for the blog and I hope your IT problems are resolved soon. My technology is paper and pencil – slow but it is future-proof!

    Cedric

    1. My Chambers app (admittedly not an approved reference for the QC) has “waggish, mischievous” as the 2nd def for ARCH.
  30. Thanks Everybody for your kind sympathy with the IT. As it happened it was one of those weeks where it didn’t rain but it poured – our boiler went on the blink as well!

    ARCH passed through my blogging process without any comment as I have known that as a valid definition for as long as I can remember.

    Sorry if my saying the crossroad was easy grated with some readers who are less experienced. As others have said all these things are relative and if we had all started earlier than we did then we would all be a lot faster than we are.

    There are different levels of the learning process. I think I know the main clue constructs nowadays but I certainly didn’t when I started (although I am proud to say that I worked them all out for myself in the early days when I used to struggle through and only get a fraction of the clues – back in those days there weren’t any blogs and the only ‘aid’ was to look at the printed solution the next day and work backwards through the logic.) But now I am finding that with that knowledge under my belt simple familiarity is kicking in to convert previously challenging clues into write-ins. An example that comes to mind from a recent 15×15 is ALASTAIR. That clue (or something very similar) turned up a few months ago and was one of the last ones I managed to solve that day. This time it went straight in without touching the sides.

    So when I say a crossword was easy I just mean that I did it more quickly than I usually do!

    Certainly a lot of the QC clues are write-ins for me nowadays and fewer of them in the 15×15. But I hope that if I carry on for long enough then I will reach a level where most of the 15×15 clues are write-ins as well. As with most things it really is a question of practice.

  31. There you are, that’s what this screen problem does for me: turns a crossword into a crossroad!
  32. A rare occasion when I know my time – 34 minutes – exactly. After 6 weeks of lockdown I was increasingly uncertain of the state of our car battery, a concern exacerbated by the alarm going off yesterday for no reason. Having researched the possibility of using my slightly dated charger on a newer car, I decided the safest option would be to top the battery up by running the engine, if it would start. Start it did, and the battery now has 34 minutes of alternator charging acquired without leaving the drive, and allowing me some peace and quiet to complete the crossword without domestic interruptions. No idea how effective a charging method this was, but it certainly worked for the crossword. All straightforward, have heard of the second meaning of ARCH, but like some others took longer than warranted for BOOKMARK.
  33. For the record:-

    FOI 1ac BUTTERCUP

    LOI 17ac CONGA

    COD 4dn CAT’O’NINE TAILS

    WOD 5dn PANACHE

    Time Rotter+1 I was almost asleep!

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