Times Quick Cryptic 1931 by Hurley

Author   chrisw91Posted on Categories Livejournal

The peace and quiet in which I started this puzzle was very soon shattered by Radio 4 being played loudly enough elsewhere that I could nearly, but not quite, make out what was being said. To cut and run and live to play another day, or to grimly continue to the bitter end? For you, dear reader, I pursued the latter course of action believing that my duty to the bolog was to provide some sort of difficulty rating based on my time. The fact that I took 11+ minutes before crawling home, somewhat grumpily, with 7dn may indicate that this wasn’t easy, however, I’m not sure my sacrifice for the cause has proven to be valuable. I may have taken 11 minutes for the concise cryptogram given the distraction. So please send in your times so that others can judge the difficulty.

In the more recent silence-is-golden phase of today, I have thoroughly enjoyed putting the blog together and appreciating Hurley’s art.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Lively artist gets one planning (10)
STRATEGIST – anagram (lively) of ARTIST GETS.
8 Early settler’s point of view (5)
ANGLE – double definition.
9 Innovator one’s seen in coastal landing place (7)
PIONEER – one (ONE) seen inside coastal landing place (PIER). good deception – I was sure one was going to be I.
10 Most important soldier with horse (9)
PARAMOUNT – soldier (PARA) with horse (MOUNT).
12 Hint mine will return (3)
TIP – mine – pit – backwards (TIP).
13 Somewhere to stay after golf before reaching India? (5)
HOTEL – Hurley inviting us to play with the Nato Phonetic Alphabet. Golf, hotel, India.
15 Hell! Some baby’s screaming! (5)
ABYSS -some of b(ABYS S)creaming.
17 Nothing odd in gorilla painting (3)
OIL – nothing odd (only the even letters) of g(O)r(I)l(L)a.
18 Deadlock as board move out? (9)
STALEMATE – a game on a chess board may finish with a move to create stalemate.
20 Green leader upset about motorway (7)
EMERALD – anagram (upset) of LEADER about motorway (M).
21 Fun for kids on at playhouse initially is revamped (5)
PANTO – anagram (is revamped) of ON AT (P)layhouse.
22 The writer recalled port and silo in big city (10)
METROPOLIS – the writer (ME), recalled port (TROP) and silo (OLIS).
Down
1 Marksman notes facial feature (12)
SHARPSHOOTER – notes (SHARPS), facial feature (HOOTER).
2 Message received, man! (5)
ROGER – double definition,
3 Article Esther conceals (3)
THE – concealed inside Es(THE)r.
4 Yankee visiting GP, some said, for plaster of Paris material (6)
GYPSUM – Yankee (Y) inside GP (GP), homophone (said) of some (SUM).
5 Strange task, chore, for a biscuit (9)
SHORTCAKE – anagram (strange) of TASK CHORE. When is a biscuit a cake? When it’s a Jaffa Cake. In the case of shortcake – in US it’s a crisp cake with layers of fruit and cream, in the U.K. it is another term for shortbread which is a rich, crumbly biscuit.
6 Good access for aristocracy (6)
GENTRY – good (G), access (ENTRY).
7 Wretched poseur holding placard that’s absurd (12)
PREPOSTEROUS – anagram (wretched) of POSEUR holding placard (POSTER).
11 Drink and fish after exploits (4,5)
MILK SHAKE – fish (HAKE) after exploits (MILKS).
14 It helps to guide one cultivating crops (6)
TILLER – double definition.
16 A goose — look! (6)
GANDER – double definition.
19 Invalidate at the outset archaic names not used lately (5)
ANNUL – (A)rchaic (N)ames (N)ot (U)sed (L)ately.
21 Much-loved parent (3)
POP – double definition – abbreviation for popular and dad.

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1931 by Hurley”

  1. I thought of STALEMATE immediately, but was rather dense in not seeing how it worked. I knew Golf=G and India=I, but didn’t know what H is, so again I was slow in seeing how HOTEL worked. 5:48.
  2. Always do the crosswords while listening to music – that way there’s no silence to disturb. Today was soukous, but almost anything will do – jazz, hip hop, rock
  3. 9 minutes with 18ac unparsed because I never thought of STALEMATE as a move.
  4. I don’t time myself as I seldom complete in one sitting. This morning I woke early having had less than 4 hours’ sleep and whizzed through, I didn’t time it but I’d say about 10m. Superfast for me. Despite that, I enjoyed the challenge and thought many clues were very well constructed. FOI Oil, LOI, Tiller. COD Sharpshooter.
  5. FOI: 12a. TIP
    LOI: 21d. POP
    Time to Complete: 27 minutes
    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 23
    Clues Answered with Aids: 1
    Clues Unanswered: Nil
    Wrong Answers: Nil
    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 23/24
    Aids Used: Chambers

    At 27 minutes this is my fastest solve ever. I used an aid once to answer 18a. STALEMATE, and immediately on seeing that I facepalmed myself. Of course!

    11d. MILKSHAKE – It was obvious to me what the answer was, but I just could not work out how the clue lead to that answer until I came here.

  6. Very fast for me at 8.55 — which is now enough time to run the 400m hurdles 11 and a half times! Submitted with fingers crossed as I didn’t know POP for much-loved (the other vowels looked most unlikely). Despite the rush to the finish I started slowly with only four acrosses going in on the first pass — starting with TIP. The downs though fell fast pretty — almost a clean sweep with only TILLER and POP needing to be revisited. All those checkers made the acrosses yield. I particularly enjoyed HOTEL and OIL.
    1. Radio, video
      Boogie with a suitcase
      Go living in a disco
      Forget about the rat race
      Let’s do the milkshake
      Selling like a hot cake
      Try some, buy some
      Fe, fi, foe, fum
      Talk about…..
  7. … with all done and all but 18A Stalemate parsed in 10 minutes. That was my LOI — I guessed it was the answer as soon as I had the S starting letter, but couldn’t work out the parsing so left it to the end and all the checkers. I still think it is the least strong of the clues today, though “board moves out” could I suppose mean that no board moves are possible.

    I’ve usually seen 11D Milk shake as one word — but the cluing was good and clever and it gets my COD.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    1. Yes I agree that “board moves out” means that “no moves are possible” but I just biffed it when I read deadlock
  8. 9 minutes for me. I was a bit suspicious of POP since I didn’t know it as an abbreviation for popular. But at least it fitted the parent bit (unlike PAP, PEP, PIP, or PUP). I think of MILK SHAKE as a single word, but I just looked and Chambers has it as two. My spellchecker underlines it in red as two words, though, and says it should be one.
  9. No pencil and paper again, so slower than normal I would say. 23mins 39seconds. Anagrams take longer in my head when e-solving. I liked the HOTEL clue.
    Thanks for the blog and thanks Hurley
    BW
    Andrew
  10. After a promising start with SHARPSHOOTER going straight in I felt sluggish making my way through this. I didn’t have my anagram head on meaning I had to write out the fodder for STRATEGIST and SHORTCAKE and an early biff of CHECKMATE didn’t help matters. Getting GYPSUM finally helped me untangle LOI STRATEGIST. Finished in 10.15 with COD to EMERALD.
    Thanks to Chris
  11. I moved quickly from clue to clue with a single checker often being enough to spark a response. Must have been in the mood. 3 mins under target at 12 mins but it felt quicker. Lots of fair but accessible clues. I liked PREPOSTEROUS and GYPSUM but my COD is HOTEL. Thanks to Hurley and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2021-08-03 08:10 am (UTC)

  12. Back to a more reasonable 12:20 after yesterday’s poor performance. I had to get some of the early down clues before I could see STRATEGIST and PIONEER was LOI because I was looking to squeeze I or I’S in there somewhere. PREPOSTEROUSly long getting 7d. Thanks both.
  13. 11:49, my current times seem to often find me in the crusades, that’s an improvement over the Hundred Years War times of last year.

    FOI 1a followed by 1d, that usually leads to a good time. A combination of momentum and initial letters.

    COD HOTEL, but did not quite parse it until coming here. I think STALEMATE is not quite up to Hurley’s very high standards.

    MILKSHAKE and SHARPSHOOTER both used the same clueing device, with the middle S transferring from one word to the other. I liked both clues.

    I thought RIGHT for 2d (ROGER) worked, right? I had to unpick once PARAMOUNT went in. Although PETAMOUNT could be a unit for an extremely large cavalry.

    LOI PREPOSTEROUS, ‘poseur’ could be split in many ways across the checkers, before I got placard=poster.

    1. My times usually put me 2-3 millennia out into the future. That’s if I finish at all, which I didn’t today. Well done on your “improvement”!
  14. Very enjoyable. A bit nearer my usual twenty minutes today at seventeen. FOI abyss, LOI pop, unparsed. COD I enjoyed all the long words. Thanks, Chris, and Hurley. GW.
  15. 08:41 today. LOI (like others) PREPOSTEROUS which was a half biff for me. Not everything parsed en route which helped my time. I did not stop to think about STALEMATE but now agree with some of the comments above.
    COD for me was PARAMOUNT.
    David
  16. 6:14, but in my haste to submit I didn’t notice that the second O didn’t register as I typed my LOI, METROPLISS. Registers gloom and despondency:-( Thanks Hurley and Chris. Commiserations on the racket Chris. I’ve been awoken by the sound of hammering or cement mixing from the landscape gardeners next door for that last week or more, while the neighbours swanned off on holiday to avoid the disruption. My heart was in my mouth yesterday as the Builders merchant swung several huge bags of aggregate over my car with a crane! How you can build Regents Park in a semi back garden beats me!
  17. I whizzed through this in twelve minutes which is about as fast as it gets for me. Lots to enjoy on the way. HOTEL comes up quite often as an answer and it was quite nice to see it clued rather differently today. And wasn’t EMERALD an answer really recently? Again, I enjoy seeing setters produce alternative routes to the same place. STALEMATE was my LOI and I couldn’t parse it so thanks, Chris , for explaining and for all of the other great stuff in your blog today. Thanks, too, to Hurley.
  18. I’m back in Blighty to enjoy a typical British summer…brr. This was a very fast solve for me starting with 1a STRATEGIST and ending with 1d SHARPSHOOTER. I couldn’t parse STALEMATE and I guessed POP was an acceptable abbreviation of popular from it’s use in pop art. COD and WOD to PREPOSTEROUS. 6:19
  19. Back within target today at 18:10 and it would have been nearly a minute faster had I not spent a while pondering 21d. Better to be safe than sorry I figured, considering that there was no blistering time at stake. I considered whether “pap” might somehow mean much-loved, but thankfully sense prevailed. FOI STRATEGIST, LOI POP, COD MILK SHAKE (which I usually think of as one word). Thanks Hurley and Chris.
  20. 1ac and 1d were practically write-ins and most of their offspring followed suit. A couple of hold ups later on, trying to start 22ac with Nep* and Pioneer took ages, but it was the parsing of 18ac, Stalemate, that really held me up. Just couldn’t see it, despite playing chess (badly) in my youth, so with the clock ticking on to 15mins I pulled stumps. Really enjoyed 13ac, Hotel, but for the image of a paratrooper on a horse, 10ac Paramount, gets my CoD vote. Invariant
  21. I absolutely can’t focus on the crossword if there is any noise around! Interesting how we all work in such different ways. Today, in peace and quiet (the puppy has gone home) I whizzed through this in a smidge over 7 minutes. The only hold-ups were – yes – STALEMATE and POP. I got the general drift of the parsing but was trying, particularly with 18a, to make it more complicated than it was. I’m with Merlin on the merit of that one.
    I don’t often find myself on Hurley’s wavelength but today was enjoyable with some amusing surfaces.
    FOI Angle
    LOI Stalemate
    COD Hotel

    Thanks both – commiserations on the noise pollution Chris. The mind boggles at the thought of Radio 4 being too loud!

    1. Agreed — tried doing it once whilst trying to listen to the radio at the same time on headphones. Never again.
  22. 2:54 this morning which I reckon is a PB for me for the QC.
    One of these rare experiences where every answer went straight in. Given the design of the puzzle, cracking the long words round the periphery was essential to a quick time.
    I confess I wasn’t absolutely sure of LOI 18 ac “stalemate” but decided the board in question related to chess (at which I’m dreadful) and the crossers confirmed this.
    COD 1d “sharpshooter”
    Thanks to Chris for the blog and to Hurley for the puzzle.
      1. Thanks Chris but I’m aware this is about average for Verlaine and certain others!
  23. but not enough to cause any concern.

    STALEMATE and POP went in with a shrug.

    Favourite was MILK SHAKE.

    6:09.

    1. Same two answers, same shrugs. Narrowly avoided biffing MILK STOUT. Not one of Hurley’s best IMO.

      FOI PIONEER
      LOI STRATEGIST
      COD SHARPSHOOTER
      TIME 4:11

  24. After a rare break yesterday (as I just didn’t have the time to get a paper), I was pleased to come in at 13 mins.

    Whilst it’s been commented that we’ve had “Hotel” and “Emerald” recently, I’m sure I’ve seen “Roger” somewhere as well.

    Lots to like as usual. 10ac “Paramount” invariably makes me think of Paramount Pictures and a trip I took to their fabled arches in my youth. (Does BUNAC and their summer student/work exchange programme still exist?)

    Not going to get into the short cake/short bread debate and whether one is a biscuit or not.

    FOI — 3dn “The”
    LOI — 14dn “Tiller”
    COD — 1dn “Sharpshooter”

    Thanks as usual!

  25. Finished in 18 mins with few hold-ups on the way – more a slow and steady solve. Liked most of the clues. Thanks to Hurley and to Chris for the blog.

    FOI – 12ac TIP
    LOI – 2dn ROGER
    COD – 13ac HOTEL

  26. Having successfully solved 25 out of 27 consecutive puzzles, I had hoped I might (at long last) be getting to grips with these QCs. No such luck, however, as I have now suffered 3 DNFs in the past 5 days … and today’s was perhaps the most galling.

    Initially, I struggled to get started (4+ minutes to solve my first clue), but managed somewhat haphazardly to fill the whole grid in 40 minutes – about par for the course for me nowadays. Unfortunately, I had made two errors, both of which I would suggest are less obvious, but still acceptable alternative solutions.

    I spotted that Hurley was playing with the NATO phonetic alphabet at 13d, but (not knowing it in its entirety) I put HOVEL, which is unarguably a place to stay, albeit a little less desirable, and fits neatly between ‘golf’ and ‘India’. That meant 14d started with a ‘V’, so it had to be VALLEY. Furrows are small ones, maybe, but they definitely help to guide tractor drivers when they plough their fields. Any chance of a successful completion on appeal?

    Mrs Random finished, untroubled, in 22 minutes (about par for the course also for her, at the moment) and suggested I should always re-think if I thought the answer to a clue was slightly strange. Trouble is, I already do, and I find many correct answers and their clues strange. And not just slightly, positively brain-twisting! Why does Mrs R never seem to opt for a less obvious, but still plausible answer?

    Many thanks to Hurley and chrisw91.

    1. I don’t know whether to put the laughing face or the sad one in, so will just say you have my sympathy, while still making me chuckle 😂😥
    2. That’s very sound advice from Mrs R, I just wish I had taken it yesterday with Sumai/Sushi.
    3. Well, your solutions, whilst incorrect, appealed to me – does that count? Bear in mind the progress you’ve made since you started – you’ll soon be in Mrs R territory!

  27. Most of the answers flew in but others left us scratching our heads. We had no idea that POP is an abbreviation for popular but it was the only answer that made any sense. It was perfectly peaceful here (apart from the odd bird tweet) but it still took us 12 minutes to complete the puzzle.

    FOI: STRATEGIST
    LOI: PIONEER
    COD: HOTEL

    Thanks Hurley and Chris.

  28. Not a good day. Half went in quickly but could not get e.g. SHARPSHOOTER and STALEMATE.
    Oh well.
    Thanks vm, Chris.
    Liked GANDER, HOTEL, TILLER, PARAMOUNT.
  29. Just to say that I found the biggie to be quite manageable today, if anyone fancies a go. I don’t have a time, as I did it over a couple of sessions but I’d say it was under half an hour in total.
    1. Indeed — it was my fastest solve for some months, and only 38 seconds longer than the QC. I needed that to restore my confidence after a run of poor performances.
        1. There were only 2 people quicker than me on the SNITCH. I’m always capable of doing something like this when everything falls right, and today it did for the first time this year.
  31. Rare escape from the scc at 17m. Trouble sorting out 21a and 21d, knew hotel from the phonetic alphabet being drummed in during National Service many years ago, experiences at that age tend to stick.
    1. I thought hotel was a great clue and agree about early experiences sticking – having had the pleasure of meeting a really super-fast solver of this site, their cryptic crossword experience started at a very early age – which is why their times seem light speed to us mere mortals who started in our twenties.
      1. Not much chance for those of us who didn’t start until their late 50s then 😉
  33. Struggled with this today, but eventually made it when finally MILK SHAKE and STALEMATE came to mind.
  34. 10:28

    Just over half my target time of 20 minutes with no hold ups. Didn’t fully parse milkshake but didn’t see what else it could be once the checkers were in.

  35. First time ever successful completion by a long time lurker on these boards, 33.20. Many thanks for all the help
    1. Congratulations! Every journey starts with a single step – sounds like you’re several steps on the way to the enjoyment and fascination of cryptics. If you register for a free livejournal login then we’ll know who you are and you will get an email notification if someone (like me) replies to one of your posts.
  36. A late report of a ten-minute solve, much enjoyed. And thanks for the tips re today’s 15×15. I might dip my toe back in that particular puddle over tomorrow’s porridge. Wish me luck!

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