QC 1385 by Hurley

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

OK, this was officially the most straightforward crossword I have ever had to blog. I am claiming a PB for it at around the 6.30 mark even though I took ages over my LOI which was 5D. I could see that the answer was obviously MEDIATOR. I could see that it was obviously an anagram with ‘mad’ as the anagrind. But I was mystified by the anagrist which appeared to me to be NOT MADE. This was because I was doing the puzzle on a smaller than usual screen with my awful reading eyesight as corrected by a bad pair of pound shop reading glasses which made ‘ri’ appear as ‘n’ to me. As soon as I looked at it on my normal Mac screen with my normal glasses all became clear.

So many thanks to Hurley for providing me with my latest benchmark for future progress.

FOI was 7A as you would expect. COD is difficult to choose as there were no clues that really stood out from the others but I probably liked 2D the best.

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

Across
7 Performers etc involved in Old Testament (5)
OCTET – anagram of ETC = CTE (‘involved’) ‘in’ OT (Old Testament).
8 Demanding individual, Proust — peripheral sections cut (7)
ONEROUS – ONE (individual) + ROUS (pROUSt with the ‘peripheral sections’ cut).
10 He criticizes prison? (7)
SLAMMER – double definition. I’ve included the question mark which signifies that the second definition is ‘unexpected’, but in this case merely because it is a slang definition rather than cryptic.
11 Victor initially ignored private (5)
INNER – wINNER ‘initially ignored’.
12 Was late up — pet lovers wild (9)
OVERSLEPT – straight anagram (‘wild’) of PET LOVERS.
14 Drink is brought round — pub’s Number One (3)
SIP – SI (is ‘brought round’) + P (Pub’s ‘Number One’).
15 Evasive firm, untrustworthy ultimately (3)
COY – CO (company, often used to denote ‘firm’ in crossword land, where the legal distinction between a partnership and a company is less distinct than in the real world) + Y (untrustworthY ‘ultimately’).
16 A “wart” clue, poor, getting shrill response? (9)
CATERWAUL – straight anagram (‘poor’) of A WART CLUE.
18 Material from centres, industrial (5)
RESIN – hidden word: centRES INdustrial.
20 Bill left French water scene (7)
TABLEAU – TAB (bill) = L (left) + EAU (French for water)
22 Seeing that Religious Education’s genuine (7)
SINCERE – SINCE (seeing that) + RE (Religious Education).
23 Referring to girl, fit for king (5)
REGAL – RE (referring to) + GAL (girl).
Down
1 Collection featuring suits — it may not last long! (5,2,5)
HOUSE OF CARDS – a pack of cards may be seen as a collection of suits.
2 Get overthrown in maverick plan (8)
STRATEGY – TEG (GET ‘overthrown’) ‘in’ STRAY (maverick).
3 Art form oddly seen as something minute (4)
ATOM – odd letters of ArT fOrM.
4 Notice about Old Irish evening gathering (6)
SOIREE – SEE (notice) ‘about’ O (old) + IR (Irish).
5 One seeking agreement riot made mad (8)
MEDIATOR – straight anagram (‘mad’) of RIOT MADE.
6 Good — have dress for formal wear (4)
GOWN – G (good) + OWN (have).
9 Cull spurs you to change, taking great care (12)
SCRUPULOUSLY – straight anagram (‘to change’) of CULL SPURS YOU.
13 One supporting monarch after short time (8)
SECONDER – ER (monarch) after SECOND (short time).
14 Search of Southern grotto initially not good enough (8)
SCAVENGE – S (southern) + CAVE (grotto) + NGE (initials of Not Good Enough).
17 Measure of spirits and half of bitter — walk unsteadily? (6)
TOTTER – TOT (meaure of spirits) = TER (half of bitTER).
19 Smooth, starts to sing awfully, needling daughter (4)
SAND – initials letters (‘starts to’) Sing Awfully Needling Daughter.
21 Insult lawyers and bishop (4)
BARB – BAR (collective name for barristers) + B (bishop).

15 comments on “QC 1385 by Hurley”

  1. 16 minutes, I didn’t find it that easy.

    Last few to fall were slammer, soiree, house of cards, octet, and scavenge.

    Caterwaul familar from the Hairy Maclary book.
    Cod tableau.

    Edited at 2019-07-01 07:00 am (UTC)

  2. I didn’t find this as straightforward as our blogger, being held up at the end by STRATEGY and OCTET and I needed time to unscramble the long anagram at 9d. I initially put STIRRER in for 10a but fortunately ATOM rectified that one without too much delay.
    Completed in 13.09, so around average for me.
    Thanks for the blog
  3. Reasonably gentle, I thought, but nowhere near PB territory for me at 9:42 and an estimated 2K. Held up by ONEROUS because for some reason I was sure his Christian name would be involved and spent time trying to work in “arce” … that didn’t go well. Had to write out the anagrist for SCRUPULOUSLY, too.

    FOI OCTECT, LOI ONEROUSLY, COD SINCERE

    Thanks Hurley and Don.

    Templar

  4. I found this quite gentle and came in at 7:01. I was held up by MEDIATOR as I’d managed to type ONOEROU or some such gibberish at 8a which gave me an O as the second letter, otherwise I’d have been around the 6:30 mark. I was surprised to see Hurley was the setter when I glanced up after submitting. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Hurley and Don.
  5. I felt this was a little harder than some of late and was really surprised to find only 10 minutes on the clock as I entered my LOI, SCAVENGE.

    This means that I have achieved a milestone by breaking my previous record of 12 consecutive solves within 10 minutes. Before the start of this run I had 4 consecutive misses, and 2 of those exceeded 15 minutes. I don’t know whether this actually means anything with regard to levels of difficulty, but I pass it on as being of possible interest to those who are concerned about such matters.

    Edited at 2019-07-01 07:57 am (UTC)

    1. Well done on your personal record. A couple of years ago you produced your list of the relative difficulty of the puzzles set by various compilers. Any chance of an update?
      1. I have all the data to hand but I’m not sure how I worked from there the last time. I’ll see if I can find my previous calculations to jog my memory.
  6. Medium difficulty for me and I came in at less than a minute over flashman’s time, continuing the mid/higher teens from last week. Once again, I moved around the grid to pick off the easier clues and ended up back in the NW corner with HOUSE OF CARDS and OCTET. I felt the need to use pen and paper for 9d. I liked SINCERE, ONEROUS, SCAVENGE and STRATEGY. Thanks to Hurley and the Don. John M.
  7. 27 minutes, so over target and I had to resort to pen and paper for the anagrams at 12A and 16A. Once I had those the rest followed, with SINCERE my LOI.
    Unusually for Hurley I thought the surfaces for the anagrams were poor and didn’t make much sense (to me).

    Brian

  8. I made this a bit harder than it should have been, by missing a few of the more straightforward answers on my first read through – for example the hidden word in 18ac. However once I had 1d, the clutch of starters opened up the grid and I finished in 25mins, so about average difficulty for me. Invariant
  9. ….quite ONEROUS, not helped by trying to fit “stratagem” into 2D, and spending my last 45 seconds or so writing out and partially eliminating the anagrist for SCRUPULOUSLY.

    FOI OCTET
    LOI SCRUPULOUSLY
    COD SLAMMER
    TIME 4:32

  10. Almost a PB with 17:52, and would have been an easy PB if it wasn’t for 2D, which held me up for several minutes. I think I’ll need to renew my subscription to the SCC for a little while yet.
  11. Would have been within my 20 minute target but for MEDIATOR where I did exactly the same as our blogger and read RIOT as NOT. I really should get used to using my reading glasses!! Thanks, Astartedon, for ‘opening my eyes’ to this. MM
    FOI: 7a
    LOI: 5d
    COD: 1d
  12. I worked all the Across clues first, so for the rest hardly needed to read the clues!
  13. I also find this quick – 6:43 – I’m not often down to such small Kevin-esque times.

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