Quick Cryptic 1544 by Wurm

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I liked this a lot, and I would say it is pitched just right for a QC. Lots of anagrams, but some with a little added complexity. My favourite is 18ac.

Across
1 Turn to hold mug and a tumbler (7)
ACROBAT – Turn is ACT with ROB + A inside
5 Exquisite having been cooked lightly (4)
RARE – double definition
7 Fast U-boat bags slow ship (3)
TUB – hidden word – fasT U-Boat
8 Game casserole almost ruined (8)
LACROSSE – anagram (‘ruined’) of CASSEROL (i.e. casserole ‘almost’)
10 Republican is greeting Hindu sage (5)
RISHI – R + IS + HI. A word I only know from doing crosswords
11 Ridicule pool man swimming (7)
LAMPOON – anagram (‘swimming’) of POOL MAN
13 Stolen trophy and dish (6)
HOTPOT – HOT + POT
15 Peg out to follow rotter, golfer’s attendant (6)
CADDIE – DIE after CAD
17 Mild Liberal embraced by setter? (7)
CLEMENT – L for Liberal inside CEMENT. ‘Setter’ is an interesting clue word with a range of very different meanings. The commonest is to indicate the guy writing the clue and denotes ME or I. There’s also the dog (red setter etc), the sun (which sets), and also as here cement or concrete etc.
18 Iranians at last in American airspace (5)
SINUS – S (last letter of IRANIANS) + IN + US. Nice definition.
20 Suppress line in novel (8)
STRANGLE – STRANGE with L inside
22 Scapegoat retaining such personal pride (3)
EGO – hidden word: scapEGOat
23 Crook from north in sack (4)
BEND – N inside BED
24 Performer one at rest moved around (7)
ARTISTE – anagram (‘moved around’) of I AT REST

Down
1 What could follow quake adapted for a sketch (10)
AFTERSHOCK – anagram (‘adapted’) of FOR A SKETCH
2 Puzzle about public transport (5)
REBUS – RE + BUS
3 Indian cooking style needs extra American port (9)
BALTIMORE – BALTI + MORE. Somewhere I used to live and the setting of the acclaimed drama ‘The Wire’, which if anything makes the place look nicer than it is.
4 Deal with fishing gear (6)
TACKLE – double definition
5 Animal that jumps in river with two ducks (3)
ROO – R + O x 2
6 Tortured person first to divulge answer (7)
RESPOND – anagram (‘tortured’) of PERSON plus D
9 Emphasis rude censor modified (10)
UNDERSCORE – anagram (‘modified’) of RUDE CENSOR
12 Scot cleaned out in tightest financial investigation (5,4)
MEANS TEST – SCOT ‘cleaned out’ is ST, insert into MEANEST
14 Fresh letters in support (7)
TRESTLE – anagram (‘fresh’) of LETTERS
16 Letter to Greeks — about time — becomes disgrace (6)
STIGMA – SIGMA with T inside
19 Can’t do without Geordie news bosses? (5)
NEEDS – NE (northeast i.e. Geordie) + EDS
21 Dry run cancelled — help! (3)
AID – ARID minus R for run.

31 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1544 by Wurm”

  1. The top half went in so easily apart from 9dn that I thought I may be heading for sub-5 minutes for the first time but then I found it hard to get a foothold in the almost blank lower half and eventually crawled to the finish, stopping the clock at 13 minutes.

    Edited at 2020-02-07 07:31 am (UTC)

  2. I thought of ACROBAT immediately, couldn’t see how it would work, and passed on, finally biffing it and parsing after. Also biffed 1d and 12d, parsing post-submission. Surely, Curarist, you remember the Maharishi of Beatles fame? maha [‘great’]+raja=maharaja, … Liked ACROBAT (once I got it) and MEANS TEST (ditto) especially. 4:54.
    1. It wasn’t any help to those who didn’t do it but 15×15 solvers learnt or were reminded of RISHI in a puzzle only last Thursday and somebody mentioned the Beatles’ Maharishi in a comment. That’s the only reason I knew it today.
  3. Rather slow going today with a couple of unfamiliarities. That being said, the clues were enjoyable and I found most of the wordplay clear and helpful, especially in 10ac RISHI which I DNK.

    I have seen REBUS puzzles in many a pub quiz but never new of their name! The clue was put in from wordplay with quick post-Googlage.

    Several clues in SW unfilled after 45 minutes, but many lessons learnt today so a rewarding end to the week.

  4. 22 minutes, average for a nice average QC. I liked BALTIMORE and MEANS TEST, and my last two were both anagrams – TRESTLE where I couldn’t get ‘trellis’ out of my head, and UNDERSCORE which required shuffling remaining letters until they fitted.
    Thanks to Wurm and Curarist

    Brian

  5. Like jackkt, I had a good start in the top half but I slowed and had mental blocks with RARE, STIGMA (don’t know why this held me up), SINUS (I needed the crossers), and LOI CLEMENT. A promising start (ACROBAT dropped out immediately) turned into a similar time to bripriuk’s. I liked some of the short ones – ARID, BEND, & NEEDS. It was a nice puzzle – many thanks to Wurm and to curarist for help with/confirmation of parsing esp. MEANS TEST and CLEMENT. John M.

    Edited at 2020-02-07 09:59 am (UTC)

  6. It was rather spooky reading Jack’s report, I started to wonder whether I’d written my entry already! I really thought I was on for a clean sweep and a sub-5 … and then the tougher clues in the bottom half duly deflated my EGO. By the time I’d limped my way through MEANS TEST, SINUS and STRANGLE I had arrived at a much more familiar 2.5K time. I’m still scoring this as a Good Day, though, because I enjoyed the puzzle so much: a real cracker.

    Did anyone else start to enter ASTAIRE at 24ac before realising that there were too many ts?

    FOI AFTERSHOCK, LOI STRANGLE, COD CLEMENT (I wondered if there was a Clement Freud gag in there but I couldn’t see it).

    Thanks Wurm and curarist.

    Templar

    1. Hi Templar. Thought the same with the C there Clement just popped into my brain. Mild Liberal is usually tautologous but reading Nicholas Parsons obit Herr Freud was anything but. Johnny
  7. I was also off to a flying start in the NW particularly, and then in the NE, but as with Jack and Templar, ground to a crawl in the lower half. I was held up by a biffed ACTRESS at 24a, which took some time to shift, and was only corrected when UNDERSCORE finally surfaced. Got there eventually in 11:55. Nice puzzle. I usually find Wurm a little bit tricky. Thanks Wurm and Curarist.
  8. Slightly over my target range at just under 18 minutes thanks to a few tricky clues. I didn’t see acrobat straight away and worked through gymnast and athlete before the answer came. Also slowed by CLEMENT, SINUS and STRANGLE. Good puzzle and blog.
  9. ….BEND after finishing pretty quickly. A really nice puzzle from Wurm.

    FOI ACROBAT
    LOI RISHI
    COD CLEMENT

  10. I submitted after 12:36 with a big doubt about the Greek letter clue. Sadly my parsing of ETA around AGE did not lead to a valid word. Should have started at the other end of the alphabet.
    Apart from that I made fairly quick time for a Wurm puzzle.
    COD to CLEMENT. David
  11. The definition of 19d suggests NEED in the singular to me.
    Seems like the clue needs something else? ‘Can’t do without these Geordie news bosses?’ perhaps.
    1. I/you can’t do without X –> I/you need X He/she can’t do without X –> He/she needs X. Where’s the problem?
  12. A very enjoyable puzzle to come back to after a couple of days in my wife’s home count(r)y – Yorkshire. Like others, I was fairly sure that 1ac was Acrobat, but couldn’t see the parsing and moved on until the crossers left no choice. The top half was definitely easier than the bottom, with the excellent 18ac Sinus pipping 12d Means Test for my CoD vote. Loi Bend was another delay, pushing me just beyond 25mins. Invariant
  13. 9.45 mins

    FOI 1dn AFTERSHOCK

    LOI 23ac BEND – deceptive!?

    COD 20ac STRANGLE

    WOD 8ac LACROSSE

  15. My machine is very sluggish now (I suspect there’s a bot that’s installed itself, but can’t find how to kill it) – I really ought to get one that does Windows 10. Waiting for its response pushed clocked time past 10 minutes, but several spent on something else.
  16. 27 minutes! I never did parse ACROBAT but most of the minutes were spent on CLEMENT, STRANGLE and LOI MEANS TEST. Roll on Monday.
  17. Similar experience to others: rapid north, sluggish south, not helped by a lazy TRELLIS. Just outside target at 5’20” but not a disaster.

    My thanks to Wurm and Tracey.

    PS: Predictive text threw up WUHAN as an alternative to WURM – I bet it didn’t a month ago …

  18. Like everyone else (it seems) I seemed to fly through the top half and then get bogged down in the bottom, particularly the SW corner. Overall, completed in around 45 mins.

    As already mentioned, some lovely clues today. Couldn’t parse 1ac “Acrobat” but didn’t dwell on it and enjoyed 17ac “Clement”, 18ac “Sinus” and 12dn “Means Test” (in which I had a slightly mean chuckle at the surface). Took a while to get 20ac “Strangle” as I always forget that definition of “novel”.

    FOI – 2dn “Rebus”
    LOI – 16dn “Stigma”
    COD – 18ac “Sinus” (completely threw me at first)

    Thanks as usual

  19. At least that’s how it felt. Slightly surpised to see only 7:32 on the clock as I submitted after some SINUS trouble.

    I liked MEANS TEST and CLEMENT.

  20. We managed the right hand side fairly quickly, the got bogged down on the left. Had to check for 10ac rishi, also found the short clues more tricky than usual. Liked 13a, hotpot.
  21. A very good day. SW issues with LOI Strangle.
    Very enjoyable – no sleeping today. Needed the blog for Aid (was wondering why Raid = Dry!)
    Maybe tipped into having a curry tonight!
    Oh drat, we have leftovers!!
    Thanks all,
    John George
  22. Just a bit too hard for me. Guessed RISHI (never heard of it) but still 3 answers short in the end.
  23. I got stuck in the SW after completing most of the grid in good time. STIGMA, TRESTLE and STRANGLE were particularly tricky. Thoroughly enjoyable end to the week with SINUS and MEANS TEST standing out in particular. Finished in 11.05.
    Thanks for the blog

    In other news I see that Magoo has posted his solving of the anniversary jumbo from last week on the Cracking the Cryptic website, which should be an interesting watch over the weekend.

  24. I know it’s late but could someone put me out of my misery and explain how the clue for Acrobat works. Please! I understand turn = act but just dont get the rest.
    1. Mug = Rob as in mugging someone. I didn’t see it either, and even when I read the blog, I didn’t see it right away.

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