Times Quick Cryptic 1501 by Hurley

I can’t give a time as I’d just crept to the 10 minute mark with 1ac, 5ac, 11dn and 21ac yet to complete when I was interrupted. I came back to find the timer at an extremely large number.

Anyone who struggled and is wondering how people got faster times should realise that it’s all a continuum. The fast solvers here will look with equal awe at Mark Goodliffe’s performance at the weekend – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-crossword-king-does-not-dither-in-regaining-his-crown-vmhrlhmrq (to whom – well done!).

A brief note to other bloggers – I’ve been having problems copying into the blog and (despite trepidation) had to resort to the new editor version.  I hope it can be viewed OK.

ACROSS

1. At work see about upper limit, finding way out (6)

ESCAPE – anagram (at work) of SEE around (about) upper limit (CAP) – not an easy starter.

5. Dog with hardly any time to come in? (6)

CURFEW – dog (CUR), hardly any (FEW).

8. Proud now — unexpectedly getting a fall? (8)

DOWNPOUR – anagram (unexpectedly) of PROUD NOW.

9. Get tender initially with US soldier on return (4)

TWIG – (T)ender (W)ith, US soldier on return (GI backwards).

10. Just love Northern Line railway in the end (4)

ONLY – love (O), Norther(N) Lin(E) railwa(Y).

11. Derisive star having no time to meet academic in charge (8)

SARDONIC – star having no time (S)t(AR), academic (DON), in charge (IC).

12. Brief minute with the German bodyguard (6)

MINDER – brief minute (MIN), the in German (DER).

14. Tricks female animals, impressing Director-General? (6)

DODGES – female animals (DOES) taking aboard (impressing) Director-General.

16. Golf side’s sad, wretched existence (4,4)

DOG’S LIFE – anagram (sad) of GOLD SIDE.

18. From finalist, a brave attempt (4)

STAB – from finali(ST A B)rave.

20. Trip organised using rep first of all? (4)

TOUR – (T)rip (O)rganised (U)sing (R)ep. The definition being used with the parsing of this partial &lit.

21. Reckless one — drop out (8)

TEARAWAY – drop (TEAR), out (AWAY).

23. Calm, extremely sure at romantic meeting (6)

SEDATE – (S)ur(E), romantic meeting (DATE).

24. Person’s speciality encountered? That is right (6)

METIER – encountered – MET), that is (IE), right (R).

DOWN

2. Second musical instrument cut (5)

SHORN – second (S)econd, instrument (HORN).

3. Girl and boy failing to start — editor cross (7)

ANNOYED – girl (ANN), boy failing to start b(OY), editor (ED).

4. Self-image, say, associated with Oscar (3)

EGO – say (EG), Oscar (O – phonetic alphabet).

5. Tottering, carried G&T in container (9)

CARTRIDGE – anagram (tottering) of CARRIED G and T.

6. A tango in Rio leading to relationship (5)

RATIO – a (A) and tango (T – phonetic alphabet) inside Rio (RIO).

7. English daughter with doubt over cool building (7)

EDIFICE – English (E), daughter (D), doubt (IF), over cool (ICE).

11. In street I’ve arranged something to assist consumer (9)

SERVIETTE – anagram (arranged) of STREET IVE).

13. Brought up by hero, no-risk metal source (4,3)

IRON ORE – brought up (all upwards/backwards) of ‘by’ indicating inside/owned by the clue h(ERO NO RI)sk.

15. Aloof, I’d upset street worker (7)

DISTANT – I’d upset (DI), street (ST), worker (ANT).

17. Country, say, troika visited regularly (5)

SYRIA – (S)a(Y) t(R)o(I)k(A).

19. As you say, an inducement, moderate (5)

ABATE – homophone (as you say) of an inducement (a bait).

22. Target excellent month (3)

AIM – excellent (AI), month (M).

29 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1501 by Hurley”

  1. This was tough, although I can’t remember all the reasons; but ESCAPE and CURFEW were, I’m pretty sure, my last ones in. 10:11.
  2. Another difficult one.

    About 30 mins.

    Struggled with shorn, curfew (COD), serviette, dogs life, tearaway (unparsed) and abate (LOI).

    There is a typo in the blog, 16a, golf for gold.

    Edited at 2019-12-10 08:34 am (UTC)

  3. Ouch! I struggled with TEARAWAY having unaccountably put in a reckless ABANADON in without even noticing the spurious extra A. But my biggest problem was at the end where I must have spent over 4 minutes staring at 6A. Surely CURSEC couldn’t be a word? Only an alphabet trawl found me CURFEW and reminded me that sometimes the definition is what you initially think! 12:30.
  4. Deceptively straightforward at first with stings in the long tail for me. I was therefore surprised to finish in 2.2K (all parsed). Some nice clues but ABATE held me up a bit and I join others in having a problem with ESCAPE and my LOI CURFEW. Nice clue! Thanks to Hurley and to Chris for an impeccable blog. John M.

    Edited at 2019-12-10 09:48 am (UTC)

  5. I started off okay, but then got bogged down a bit as I tried to progress. I managed to come in under my 10 minute target(just) by keeping my proofreading very brief. DOGS LIFE, SERVIETTE and TEARAWAY all took longer than they should have. CURFEW surprised me by having the definition at the opposite end of the clue to where I thought it was. A tricky offering. 9:58. Thanks Hurley and Chris.
  6. Chris, I have just noticed a slip in the blog. SERVIETTE is an anagram of STREET and IVE (not in). John
    1. Thank you. Blog updated. FYI I think I was distracted by the ‘in’ – it didn’t form any part of the clue and seemed a bit awkward. On review, I couldn’t think of any way the setter could have made it work better.
  7. 14 minutes with all the time over my target 10 spent on TEARAWAY and ABATE. I missed the wordplay on the former but by that point I was just pleased to get finished.
  8. That WAS tough – 2.2K here as well, which isn’t much less than it took me to do yesterday’s Big Puzzle (OK, the Snitch was very very low …). I think I’ve got to score that as a Not Very Good Day even though it’s respectable on the K Scale. I got hung up on CURFEW (glad I wasn’t the only one to wonder about CURSEC!) and TEARAWAY – looking at T_A_A_A_ for five+ minutes somehow fried my brain, all those As were mesmeric.

    FOI ESCAPE (tough clue, I immediately thought “This isn’t going to be easy”), LOI TEARAWAY, COD & POI CURFEW (so neat).

    Thanks Hurley and Chris.

    Templar

    Edited at 2019-12-10 11:11 am (UTC)

  9. I agree it was tough, with my own time somewhere north of 20 minutes. ESCAPE was LOI, and everything was fair – but I was not at my best after a very boozy day yesterday. When will I ever learn?
  10. I thoroughly enjoyed the wordplay in this QC. It wasn’t easy and I did get my idioms a bit entangled at first at 16a when I thought of a sod’s LIFE (sod’s law, dog’s life) but fortunately noticed I was missing the G. My last three were CURFEW, TEARAWAY and finally ABATE. Submitted in a very pleasing 12:23.
  11. A DNF as I just couldn’t get 5ac no matter how hard I tried. Annoying as I had “Cur” (which in my head is one of those obscure crossword things) but created a new word “Cursec” (also mentioned above) which sounded vaguely time related, but obviously incorrect.

    I had a feeling this would be tricky as soon as I saw the definition for 6dn “Ratio”. As a result, 9ac, 11dn and 14ac probably took longer than they should (Tricks = Dodges? – I can see it, but it wasn’t obvious). Didn’t help that I also started pondering the difference between “Serviette” and “Napkin” (is there one or is it a class thing?).

    FOI = 4dn “Ego”
    COD = 6dn “Ratio”

    Thanks as usual.

      1. As immortalised by Betjeman:

        Phone for the fish knives, Norman
        As cook is a little unnerved;
        You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
        And I must have things daintily served.

        Are the requisites all in the toilet?
        The frills round the cutlets can wait
        Till the girl has replenished the cruets
        And switched on the logs in the grate.

        It’s ever so close in the lounge dear,
        But the vestibule’s comfy for tea
        And Howard is riding on horseback
        So do come and take some with me

        Now here is a fork for your pastries
        And do use the couch for your feet;
        I know what I wanted to ask you-
        Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

        Milk and then just as it comes dear?
        I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones;
        Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doileys
        With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

  12. ….my CURFEW, and gave up after 10 minutes and a fruitless alpha-trawl. I feel I should have seen it, and it’s clearly COD.
  13. I found this hard going and scraped in just under the 20 minute mark. Like others CURSEC seemed to become more and more plausible the longer I stared blankly at 5a, until an alphabet trawl finally brought me to my senses. Also struggled with ESCAPE, TEARAWAY and my last in, ABATE. A good work out with my favourite being CURFEW.
    Thanks for the blog
  14. made this hard for myself by not being able to readily solve any of the longish anagrams and by persuading myself 11a ought to be PROLIFIC even after I decided SAR was in there. only six acrosses went in at first reading, downs a bit better to solve anticlockwise from SE. LOI? another ESCAPEe. Well misdirected by 5a, good groan when TWIGged the definition wa longer than I’d thought.
  15. I thought I was a bit slow at 28mins but, having read the comments, that now doesn’t seem too bad. I was helped by seeing Tearaway and Abate quite quickly, and even spotted Curfew (my CoD) with only a short delay. If only the same were true of Metier (I knew the French word, but didn’t realise until now that we had an English equivalent) and Escape, where I spent far too long trying to fit something around Max. Harder than usual for Hurley. Invariant
  16. 14:14, but it seems I was far from alone.

    Curfew, abate, serviette and tearaway all took time, serviette being last to fall, despite being an anagram with all the crossers in place.

    Normally as I edge towards 15 mins I throw my toys out of the pram and give up, but plodded on today.

    A good test.

  17. I’m always happy with a sub-30minute solve, so especially happy for this one in 21 minutes. Whilst I found it challenging, the answers were falling in steadily, as well as they ever do for me.
  18. A slow plod through this one, 40m, 10m over our target, also with help for 21a. Needed persistance to finish.
    1. It’s merely the abbreviation for WITH – sometimes used in lists with multiple similar short forms to save space. Not a device I like in crosswords . . .

      Philip

  19. POI is not in the Glossary. Clearly not typo for LOI nor (from the context) FOI, elucidation please. (It is probably something too obvious to be in the Glossary.) Otherwise agree tougher than usual but enjoyable and we had only one failure: 5 across. Misocapnic
  20. Thank you, that makes sense. Also its good to know that the notification of new comments you receive stays live for at least a week, its nice for us laggards to know that our comments are read.
    Misocapnic

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