Quick Cryptic 3092 by Kybos

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Well, that was hard work. The blog I mean, not the puzzle. How I miss the halcyon days of Javascript. The blog editor site seems to be possessed by an angry demon who randomly decides how much space is allowed between lines, and absolutely won’t be told otherwise.

As for the puzzle, I’ve had to solve it three times this morning (don’t ask) so I’m having trouble remembering what I thought about it. Enjoyable with a couple of chewy ones, I think. Time: no idea.

ACROSS

1  Section husband over wife’s performance (4)

SHOW – S + H + O + W. Not sure why S is ‘Section’

4 Come after job daughter had (8)

POSTDATE – POST (job) + D + ATE

8 Lively coach beginning to train swimmer (8)
BUSTLING – BUS (coach) + T for train + LING (fish)
9 Chat about a great story (4)
SAGA – GAS backwards (‘about’) + A
10 Clean city (4)
BATH – Double definition
11 Empty out all contents of bevy pack Mum hated (8)
EVACUATE – internal letters of BEVY PACK MUM HATED. Neat.
12 Scottish legend to take part in Innes siege (6)
NESSIE – hidden word. Loch Ness Monster, obvs
14 Cheery start to unknown piano hit (6)
UPBEAT – U for unknown + P + BEAT
16 Waiter’s ability is rustling up nice pâté (8)
PATIENCE  – anagram (‘rustling up’) of NICE PATE
18 Flash sucker (4)
TICK – double definition
19 One in every two coming back “flash” after leaving the south (4)
HALF – FLASH backwards minus S for south
20 It saves sailors and passengers fail to be moved (8)
LIFEBOAT – anagram (‘moved’) of FAIL TO BE
22 One who uses manoeuvre to stop military engineers retreating (8)
EMPLOYER – PLOY (manoeuvre) inside REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) backwards
23 Penny leaves fruit for every person (4)
EACH – PEACH minus P

DOWN
2 Laugh about covering American and European cost of transportation (7)
HAULAGE – anagram (‘about’) of LAUGH with A for American + E
3 Keep an eye out for one with hands around your wrist (5)
WATCH – double definition
4 Foreign character’s backed internet service provider (3)
PSI – ISP backwards
5 Characteristic of mounted US soldier’s personality (9)
SIGNATURE – GI’S backwards + NATURE
6 Trouble is I’d burst all over the place (7)
DISTURB – anagram (‘all over the place’) of I’D BURST
7 Shorter legwear saving money? (5)
TIGHT – TIGHT[S]
11 Join after dropping new friend forever (9)
ETERNALLY – ENTER ‘dropping’ (i.e. lowering) the N, + ALLY
13 Expert finally stops endless fun in coup de grâce (7)
SKILFUL – S (last letter of STOPS) + FU[N] inside KILL
15 Old fashioned chief advanced in charge (7)
ARCHAIC – ARCH (chief) + A + IC
17 A large gun? Panic! (5)
ALARM – A + L + ARM

18 Propose police officer leaves Tories (5)
TABLE – CONSTABLE minus CONS
21 Remote force returns (3)
FAR – RAF (Royal Air Force) backwards

94 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3092 by Kybos”

  1. I found this to be as tough as yesterday’s, and my time of 11.50 reflects that. I particularly had trouble in the nw corner where HAULAGE, WATCH and BUSTLING eluded me for a long time. Having said that, I think it was a well constructed puzzle with some excellent clueing. Well done Kybos.
    My total time for the week was 56.19, giving me a daily average of 11.16. A tough week, at least for me.
    I cannot believe I’m the first person to comment today, and assume there is something wrong with the system. Perhaps this comment won’t appear?

  2. Is this a debut from Kybos? If so I thought it was a fairly well pitched puzzle that I enjoyed getting to grips with. There were a few tricky ones but with enough checkers in place they did eventually succumb to some head scratching and a closer study of the wordplay.

    Started with SAGA and finished with the BUSTLING SIGNATURE combo in 9.46.
    Thanks to Curarist and Kybos

  3. Found this very tough, finally crossing the line at 30.13 with a couple unparsed, thanks Curarist for unpicking table and skilful in particular.

    Like AndyPandy found the NW very tricky but got a good foothold in the NE.

    Liked evacuate, thanks Kybos

    2. I think it’s from usage like “just a tick” and “quick as a flash” both meaning a short moment of time.

      Found this one tough but fair and fun, 19:37 for me.

    3. Do Americans call a tick a flash (as in correct not wrong in terms of marking homework). Not to be confused with the Nike swoosh.

      The clue left me cold…

      1. We (well, I anyway) don’t use ‘tick’ or ‘flash’ to indicate the symbol for ‘correct’, or ‘tick’ to mean a short moment.

  5. This one definitely put the Kibosh on me as I jumped around trying to get a foothold. Made progress in the lower half of the grid and slowly worked my way upwards with much gnashing of teeth.
    Not quick but got there just short of 30mins, so at the harder end of my scale.
    Thanks Curarist and welcome Kybos.

  6. I think I biffed SKILFUL; don’t really remember. EVACUATE took me some time; in fact, the whole puzzle seems to have taken me a lot of time. 9:51

  7. 11:53. Several harder ones slowed me down. SKILFUL was tricky and I was slow to separate the ‘Empty out’ and ‘all contents’ for EVACUATE. I’m not sure I’d seen S for ‘section’ before either, but (sorry) it’s in Chambers at least.

    On the basis of a TfTT site search it looks like this is Kybos’ first puzzle.

    Thanks and welcome to Kybos and thanks (and sympathies!) to Curarist

    1. S for SECTION is widely used in a legal context eg “He was arrested under s.43 of the Crossword Act 1846 for using four abbreviations in one clue.”

  8. 14:01. The new setter making us work hard, but then it all fell nicely into place. FOI SHOW which I thought was missing an initial letter indicator, but if S = Section it’s fine. LOIs the TICK / TABLE combo. I liked EVACUATE, very clever. Thanks Kybosh and thank you Curarist for going above and beyond

  9. 50:31 (average: 37, target: 47)

    I found this incredibly hard. But it’s the most enjoyable QC I’ve done. Everything was fair. No NHOs. NO BHOs. Just a lot of good misdirection. It was not hard in the way the 15×15 is. A really great QC.

    Thanks Curarist and Kybos

  10. 28.24 (goal 15). Doing ‘ok’, six to go, long pause then four came quickly and the final two (SKILFUL and BUSTLING) required a slow march through treacle. BUSTLING, in hindsight, annoyingly simple, my suggesting ‘fish’ in lieu of ‘ling’ didn’t help. Felt many answers came in at a slightly skewed angle (e.g. SIGNATURE, NESSIE, EMPLOYER), which we found both refreshing and challenging.
    An enjoyable half hour.
    COD EVACUATE.
    Thanks to Kybos and extra thanks to Curarist.

  11. 7:40; on the tough side for sure. Kept trying to make SKINFUL work for some reason. Enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you Curarist and Kybos.

  12. My Somerset members club membership is going to be revoked. Struggled with cider yesterday and BATH today. Generally hard with depressingly familar inaccurate typing with TAvLE also wrecking the LIFEvOAT. One pink square for two errors in 21.02. Loved HAULAGE – had me utterly, utterly baffled for ages.

  13. Always exciting to have a new setter. Kybos is Greek for “cube” or “die” (as in the singular of dice), so maybe we have a Classical gambler on our hands. Mind you it’s also an anagram of “bosky” and “kybosh” without the H, so possibilities abound.

    Really good puzzle, I thought, with plenty of easy ones to populate the grid but half a dozen toughies requiring winkling out. I made a hash of EVACUATE at first pass, reading it as “empty out all contents” and thus requiring the first and last letters … BY seemed a good start but bypkmmhd was less promising!

    COD to TABLE by a short head from BUSTLING. All done in 09:20 for a Good Day.

    Great fun, many thanks Kybos for rolling the dice and Curarist for slogging through the current lack of Java. (I too wrestled with the Demon of Random Line Spacing, failed to overcome it, and was then upbraided by someone yesterday for unsatisfactory line-spacing 🙄.)

  14. Toughish but ultimately satisfying puzzle all green in 15 minutes. Thanks setter.
    LOI was the unparsed SKILFUL so thanks Curarist. Also took ages to parse HAULAGE which seemed pretty straightforward in the end.

  15. I thought this was a very good crossword. At 16.04 I wasn’t exactly quick but it kept me interested the whole time. I enjoyed the sneaky nature of several clues which looked impossible and ended up being deceptively simple. Like SIGNATURE, BUSTLING and SKILFUL. Great start for Kybos, and thank you to our much put-upon blogger.

    ALSO, I should let everyone know I have been in touch with the lovely Tina, not seen here for quite some time, who says her life doesn’t leave much room for crosswords these days but says hi to all. We hope to see her back here again. Right now she’s on holiday in Greece, about to leave Athens for a wedding in Rhodes, so things aren’t so bad…

    2. That is very good news – was wondering what had happened to her. Well done to you, and warmest greetings to her.

    3. Do tell her she is remembered and missed. I always enjoyed her distinctive and entertaining comments. Hi, Tina!

    5. Thanks for the update, Lindsay. I had been worrying about Tina, since the last time I saw her post she was about to go into hospital! I miss her cheerful outlook on life and interesting posts.

    6. Thanks for keeping us up to date, Lindsay. It’s always hard to know whether to enquire about people when they disappear from the site, so it’s good news to hear that Tina is keeping well 😊

  16. I managed 13. Missed a couple that I should have solved eg EACH and the waiter anagram. I twigged REME but got no further.

    Thanks C and K

  17. First of all, a warm welcome to Kybos.
    Started quickly enough in the NW and, when CoD Bustling went in without too much delay, I thought our new setter was shaping up to be a very welcome addition. Things got a little harder lower down the grid, but a sub-20 was still in sight before Half 🙄 and loi Skilful (. . .wrong end of clue) made a mockery of that idea and left me scrambling for a window seat.
    I suspect Kybos will take a bit of getting used to, with most of my difficulties today coming from not understanding their word play, but a good start. Invariant

  18. Surprised to find myself 8th on the leaderboard despite being over my QSNITCH average. Two straight passes though!

    FOI POSTDATE
    LOI ALARM
    COD WATCH
    TIME 5:04

  20. A tricky but enjoyable puzzle. Took me ages to sort out HAULAGE. SHOW was FOI. TABLE brought u the rear. 9:31. Thanks Kybos and Curarist.

  21. Tricky. First one this week to take me into the SCC with 21:39.

    Chucked in the last two, TICK and SKILFUL without parsing. Also couldn’t see how ETERNALLY worked.

    TABLE looks odd. The tories leave the police officer not the other way around. I’ve commented about this kind of thing before but it apparently allowed.

    COD EVACUATE.

    1. I do agree about the parsing of TABLE, Merlin. I got it, of course, but found the construction very confusing.
      Note. I thought the ‘Error 500’ issue was less of a problem today. Fat chance; this is my fourth attempt to post this.

      1. Doesn’t do it for me, I’m afraid. In a sense, it doesn’t matter because we all got the answer.

        1. How about “leave” as in “abandon” (in both Collins and Chambers)? As in to leave one’s spouse.

          So police officer (constable) leaves (abandons, or rejects) the Tories (cons). Thus only “table” remains behind.

          1. Too arcane for me. I am a simple soul, at heart.
            To me, ‘Police officer leaves’ means he/she goes out of the door (or whatever). The ‘cons’ leave in this clue.

            1. With you Blighter I am – all the comments above I accept, but ultimately with this Yoda speak, I struggle 😅

  22. 22:44 for the solve. Slowest time since Aug 1st tells a story. 75% of it was done in nine mins but the intersection of PATIENCE, SKILFUL, ETERNALLY plus the outlying TICK and HAULAGE (LOI) were just blanks and evaded alphatrawls for a while. There were some enjoyable clues in there – I just don’t recall what now – the long endgame has wiped the memory of them.

    On looking back through almost every clue of this challenged in some way – either a misleading definition, multiple moving parts, an unknown abbreviation or a synonym. Of course we want some challenge – but the Goldilocks amount. Just a bit too much for my liking.

    It’s a been week of solves that’s got slower by the day – totalling 1hr12 but at least with 5/5 successful solves.

    Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to Curarist And Kybos – I won’t go for the abbreviation today!

  23. Too slow to be able to compete with the kybosh funnies.
    This was tough. I did most of it within the SCC barrier but the NW quadrant did for me. I made sure I finished but the counter showed 29 when I staggered over the line.
    Some very good clues but I did not get close to Kybos’s wavelength, I’m afraid. I’m sure a lot of thought went into setting this puzzle but it demanded more thought than usual from me for a QC. No problem with that; it was all fair (and it led to many d’oh moments).
    I’m just not happy with the way my brain made such heavy weather of it all.
    Thanks to Kybos and Curarist.

  25. DNF. Carelessly put Lifebelt at first instead of LIFEBOAT which made SE even trickier.
    Had to reveal SIGNATURE and various others.
    Heavy weather indeed.
    Thanks vm, Curarist. Again sorry the new format is such a hassle for bloggers.

  26. A slow but enjoyable solve with some long puzzled pauses: the TICK/TABLE pair were the last two in, after a lot of trawling.
    Plenty to chew on, felt closer to 15×15 style in several places but all quite fair once unravelled.
    Liked the EVACUATE clue but only saw what was going on once I had some checkers in place. I share Merlin’s comment on TABLE, even if the approach is allowed. I spent ages trying to find a work from which I could subtract DI, PC, DC, etc to get something that worked.
    Well done Curarist for battling through, and welcome to our new setter albeit I think they may give me some hard times in future…

  27. Tricky but not as hard as yesterday’s in my book. It took me a while to get used to Kybos’s style but I got there in the end, crossing the line at 26 minutes. At least 5 unparsed so I really needed the blog today – thanks Curarist.

    FOI – 10ac BATH
    LOI – 18dn TABLE
    COD- 11ac EVACUATE

    Thanks and welcome to Kybos

  28. DNF.
    I found this very tough and stopped at 30′.
    As SNITCH is 125 I don’t feel too bad with this.

    Just not on the wavelength.
    To me tick/ flash aren’t interchangeable – even with Dr Jack’s explanation. Oh well. I will hopefully remember it for crosswordland.

    Thanks for the helpful blog Curarist.

  29. 8:22

    On seeing a(nother) new setter, one always wonders how it will play out. I found the clueing quite accessible with only ETERNALLY not fully parsed – didn’t equate ‘join’ with ENTER whilst in flight. I liked DISTURB and BUSTLING.

    Thanks Curarist and welcome, Kybos

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