Quick Cryptic 1354 by Hurley

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I made unnecessarily heavy weather of this, but in retrospect I think it is quite fair. One problem is I’m typing in the car while Mrs Curarist drives us down to Folkestone with the sole apparent intention of making me throw up.

Across

1 Alcohol initially banned in skating area (4)
RINK – DRINK minus the first letter
3 Orchestral musician, popular, into red wine (8)
CLARINET – red wine is CLARET, with IN for popular inserted
9 Privateer recalling Capri as rocky in part (7)
CORSAIR – reverse hidden word; capRI AS ROCky.
10 Chess player’s success welcomed by bridge partners (5)
WHITE – success is HIT, West and East are bridge partners
11 Loudly announce point in cellar (5)
CRYPT – Loudly announce is CRY, point is PT
12 Flier’s usual nonsense? (6)
PARROT – PAR (usual) + ROT (nonsense)
14 Film “Titanic” — argued new version is needed (9,4)
EDUCATING RITA – anagram (“new version is needed”) of TITANIC ARGUED
17 Cardinal slow on way back, everybody disheartened (6)
WOLSEY – this got me hook line and sinker. Cardinal ending in Y? Twenty? Thirty? Ninety? No, for once it’s an ACTUAL cardinal. Overthinking it again. SLOW backwards + EY (”everybody” with the insides removed)
19 Scoundrel in vogue given new start (5)
ROGUE – VOGUE given new start.
22 Like sheep or like cow (not British) (5)
OVINE – BOVINE minus B for British
23 In from France, happy to embrace new country (7)
ENGLAND – EN + GLAD with N inserted
24 Present lady, without publicity, in kind manner (8)
TENDERLY – Present (verb) is TENDER, LADY minus the publicity (AD) is LY
25 Our group by Irish river feature (4)
WEIR – WE + IR. Spent hours trying to get US to fit in here.

Down
1 Erotic dancing outside church — rebound hard to predict? (8)
RICOCHET – anagram (“dancing”) of EROTIC with CH for church inside.
2 Irritable as vessel held in New York (5)
NARKY – ARK is vessel, NY is New York
4 Peer over lavatory, close, to see senior minister (4,5,4)
LORD PRIVY SEAL – Peer is LORD, lavatory is PRIVY, close is SEAL. An obsolete office of state whose original job was to look after the monarch’s personal seal, as opposed to the seal of the realm whose custodian is the Lord Chancellor.
5 One in boat dispute? I’m not sure (5)
ROWER – Dispute is ROW, I’m not sure is ER…
6 Atmosphere Old Boy found in Northern Ireland’s capital city (7)
NAIROBI – Atmosphere is AIR, old boy is OB, all inside NI.
7 River in the news oddly (4)
TEES – alternate letters of ThE nEwS
8 Slogan from shaman tradition (6)
MANTRA – hidden word shaMAN TRAdition
13 Originally Vicky learned about perfume (8)
LAVENDER – anagram (“orginally”) of V + LEARNED
15 Unrealistic upper-class head boy (7)
UTOPIAN – U is upper class thanks to Nancy Mitford, + TOP + IAN
16 Style of rock music that could get you back on road? (6)
GARAGE – double definition
18 Encirclement, say, if enemy gets energetic at outset (5)
SIEGE – initial letters of Say, If Enemy Gets Energetic
20 Stable worker in extremely grazeable clearing in forest (5)
GLADE – Stable worker is LAD, inside GE (the extremes of grazeable)
21 Foxtrot and tango as alternatives in soldiers’ place? (4)
FORT – Foxtrot or tango, F or T.

35 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1354 by Hurley”

  1. No other comments yet, I see. People must be stuck like I was. This took me 36:34. No excuses as all seems reasonable on review. I often find Hurley tricky. I solved the RHS in no time at all, then ran into quicksand. LOI was SIEGE and that took ages even with all the checkers.Well done Hurley. COD to WOLSEY as this foxed me for ages. David
  2. Around 15 minutes to get everything except siege, then probably 20 to get that, after several failed alphabet trawls. An easy clue in retrospect but I was fixated on finding a synonym for enemy matching S_E_ or S__E.

    Also had lord privy _E_L for too long until seeing seal.

    Cod ricochet.

    Thanks.

  3. 11 minutes, taken 1 minute past my target by a delay considering N(URN)Y at 2dn. Can’t say I know NARKY as I would use ‘narked’. On checking the TftT archive, it has never come up with this meaning before, only with reference to police informants – a context I know very well.

    Edited at 2019-05-17 06:12 am (UTC)

  4. Can’t remember what slowed me down; I think I was just sluggish across the board. I did have the same problem as Curarist with WOLSEY, although I added RED to the numbers as a candidate. I saw CORSAIR before I saw the hidden. And I got SIEGE by taking ‘say’ to be EG and skipping the rest; only saw the initials after submitting. 8:48.
  5. I dallied with “nervy” too, thinking RV = recreational vehicle so maybe ERV = …? electric recreational vehicle? But I couldn’t convince myself and fortunately NARKY popped unbidden into my mind.

    Hard yards today, I thought, but still only 2 Kevins so a Decent Day despite exceeding 15 minutes. Like David I found the right much easier than the left; like Curarist and Kevin I was sure that Cardinal was a number (I even felt smug about thinking of this, since last time it came up it was a number and I spent ages trying to recall historical Cardinals … doh!); but unlike others I wrote in SIEGE without a second thought. I took forever to see why it was RINK and never saw why it was PARROT at all (thanks for explaining, Curarist).

    FOI CLARINET, LOI TENDERLY, COD CORSAIR

    Thanks to Hurley too.

    Templar

  6. Of a crossword! Much enjoyed. DNF after 62 mins when I gave up on S-E-E and came to blog – clarifications in which get my many thanks. Frankyanne.
  8. I thought this was tricky but fair. I can’t say anything here grabbed me as especially noteworthy but I suspect that I am miffed by being held up for ages by 22 across. This is because my answer here was OVIDS. My parsing was “bovids ” – which apparently is a category of animals which includes both sheep and cows – from which I removed the B. This then wrecked 18 down which I eventually realised simply had to be SIEGE. Back to the drawing board for 22 across and, yes, I did finally amend it to OVINE but not until I’d experienced several harrumphing moments. Oh, dear. Thanks so much setter and blogger.
    1. I should of course add that I know that OVIDS was a dopey answer and that the clue specifically said “or ” not “and”.
  9. I seem to have bucked the trend. I really enjoyed this Hurley offering and I don’t recall any major hold ups other than my LOI 15d UTOPIAN. I had no problems with the long ones as 4d LORD PRIVY SEAL has appeared recently in crossword land and 14a EDUCATING RITA is one of my favourite films. 12a PARROT made me smile and gets my COD.
    9:09 so an excellent finish to an iffy solving week.
  10. No particular problems, although I was taken to close to my target time at 9:15. I considered NURNY for 2d but soon spotted ARK. “Everybody disheartened” sounded a klaxon for EY and I saw WOLSEY very quickly. TENDERLY and GARAGE took longer to see. EDUCATING RITA is one of my favourite films too. Biffed SIEGE and missed the wordplay! Nice puzzle. Thanks Hurley and Curarist.

    Edited at 2019-05-17 10:56 am (UTC)

  11. 30 minutes for a DNF with UTOPIAN and SEIGE. I find random boys and girls names in clues very difficult, and was simply beaten by the deceptive wordplay in 18D.
    Otherwise an excellent puzzle.

    Brian

  12. Bottom half tougher than top, and I missed my 5 minute target for the second time this week.

    FOI CORSAIR
    LOI SIEGE (DUH !!!)
    COD FORT
    TIME 6:26

  13. As someone above I had NERVY for 2d as I have never heard of NARKY. Not sure about the musician bit in 2a – clarinet is an instrument, clarinettist a musician.
    1. In orchestras, the musicians are referred to by the name of their instrument, eg 1st violin.
        1. 🙂 Doesn’t work quite like that with the Percussionist, as he or she plays a number of instruments. The percussion section is often referred to as the kitchen.
    2. I had no problem with CLARINET. After all, Nanki-Poo disguises himself as a second trombone.
  14. Struggled with this. Not sure about 3 across a musician is not a clarinet, it is an instrument. I kept going over this dismissing clarinet at first to try and find something else

    Not an easy week for me

    Tim

  15. I am reminded of a story (probably apocryphal) about Churchill who was in the toilet when he was told that a disliked cabinet colleague wished to speak to him. ‘Tell the Lord Privy Seal that I am on the privy and can only deal with one shit at a time.’
    Found this tough but enjoyable. WOLSEY had me for a while as well.
    PlayUpPompey
  16. I thought I was slow at just over 30mins, but I see from other posters that Hurley’s misdirections caught quite a few of us today. I had Flautist for 3ac to start with, when I just had the L crosser, and still think the clue is misleading – why not Musical instrument etc? I also went down the Nervy/Narky sideroad. Finally crossed the line with the Wolsey/Siege combination in a double penny drop moment. Invariant
  17. Like Kevin, I thought I was just being slow today, but it would appear others found this trickier than usual too. COD to WOLSEY as I will be walking the Wolsey Waddle in July. 7:31

    Edited at 2019-05-17 02:55 pm (UTC)

  18. The four word definition fooled us at 1d, unusual. Like others we found the right side easier than th left, thanks to Hurley for the challenge.
  19. I must have been on the Hurley’s wavelength as my only real hold up was wondering if there was an alcoholic drink called BISA that I hadn’t heard of. I then made steady progress from top to bottom finishing with LAVENDER in 10.36. It was helpful that it was 4d’s second outing recently. Particular mention to CORSAIR and WOLSEY.
    Thanks for the blog
  21. Had some sticky moments with this. Eventually ground to a halt in the SW and to fight my way through 22a, 24a 15d to finish. Not helped in NE by entering RICOCHET as RICOHCET but eventually spotted this fat-finger error and that resolved that corner. Not sure what brain wave suddenly saw 14a without having to work it out the hard way, but something twigged it correctly. FOI 3a LOI 24a COD 10a despite it being so familiar. I’m pleased I didn’t give up but my SW problems cost me 45 minutes alone. I always learn something from the blog, and today was no exception so thanks tooth Curarist and Hurley.
  22. 4 down brought back memories of 1960s: Google ‘That Was The Week That Was Lord Privy Seal’
  23. Please be careful when you euphemistically say ‘took hours’ for some of us it does , well on and off anyway
    1. I would argue that there is more enjoyment to be had in finally solving something after 5hrs than rattling through in 5mins – though my experience is solely based on the former. So long as you enjoy the challenge, that’s all that matters. Invariant
  24. Hurley always wrong-foots me. Very good puzzle but I ended spending longer than I should have in the far SW. A SCC end to the week but well under 3K so it fits the general tough pattern of QCs this week. Came to this on Sat. a.m. so will perhaps be better prepared for today’s Cryptic. Belated thanks to Hurley and Curarist. John M.
  25. Came back to it after a break to do the bottom half.
    All done except siege – gave up looking for a 4 letter word for enemy – and missed the obvious!
    Nick
    ps Garage is definitely not rock music – it’s a form of house music ie dance music re-mixed by enthusiasts – in their back room – or indeed garage…

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