QC 1175 by Hurley

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Well I found this a bit like eating a piece of cake during a walk in the park with a gentle breeze blowing whilst swiping tasty candy from passing babies with a load of children running around enjoying child’s play and rehearsing their ABCs and 123s. Perhaps it could have been a PB if someone hadn’t called me unexpectedly in the middle and busted my concentration. As it was I think it took me about 7 minutes but it felt like it should have been 5. One of these days I am going to seal myself in an isolation tube and do it under strictest exam conditions and really try and trim some flesh off the clock. But for now all I can say is that I found it very easy by my own lights and I am sure some of you others hardly even had to open your bleary eyes or lift your worn out fingers.

The main structure was composed of several juicy, low-hanging anagrams that fairly screamed out their identity and paid out in cascading jackpots of checkers. Add to this some straightforward hidden words and double definitions and a smattering of slightly less obvious clues and you have a recipe for pie. As in easy.

But for all that this was a fun puzzle, and as we have often said before it’s great for all you beginners out there to have something you can really get your teeth into. Meanwhile all you experienced PB-hunters can blaze away and fill your tucker bags to your hearts’ content. Many thanks to Hurley, I found it most enjoyable, and I hope that the whole spectrum of Monday-morning solvers did too.

FOI was 1A as you might expect in a puzzle of this sort. And I think also the LOI was appropriately enough 20D. But that was not because I did everything in absolute sequence. I didn’t do that, but not for the normal reason of finding a clue too difficult at first and moving on. It was more because I kept sort of seeing clues out of the corner of my eye (mostly the large anagrams) that solved themselves while I was thinking about another clue*. So then I would jump to that clue next to fill it in out of sequence and then have to backtrack to do the others. And then what was left at the end but just that last little minnow waiting to be gobbled up.

OK, going a bit off piste there, so getting back on track I think my COD was 22A. Half an anagram, bit of sports GK, nice twist in the surface and an overall pleasing mental image.

Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it.

*Hmmm. Solving one clue while thinking about another? Reminds me a bit of the classic advice for keeping a monogamous relatioship alive. And before you start lamenting my smutty mind, I should tell you that the thought has only just come to me now because it came up in an article in this very paper not more than a week ago.

Across
1 Snack costs — a top rip off (6,6)
POTATO CRISPS – a simple anagram to kick off with: COSTS A TOP RIP rearranged (‘off’). Reminds me of the famous graffito anagram back in the 70s: CATS LIKE PLAIN CRISPS. Those were the days.
8 Assistant catching second stage whisper (5)
ASIDE – AIDE (assistant) ‘catching’ S (second).
9 Senior common room raised the French moral doubt (7)
SCRUPLE – SCR (Senior Common Room) + UP (raised) + LE (French definite article).
10 Had meal Greek character brought over (3)
ATE – ETA, seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, reversed (‘brought over’).
11 Most likely to drop off pastries in wintry weather (9)
SLEEPIEST – who’s eaten all the PIES in this SLEET (wintry weather)?
13 Woodland creature upsets a tyrant to some extent (5)
SATYR – Hidden word: upsetS A TYRant. OK well I suppose it is a creature, but a mythical one. As James Thurber said: “The unicorn is a mythical beast…” Same for the satyr. And it sets off a string of memories and connections for me. First, I went to see The Merchant of Venice the other day, which reminded me of The Jew of Malta, which reminded me of Christopher Marlowe, which reminded me of The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, which has the lines “My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawn/Shall with their goats’ feet dance the antic hay”, which reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s Antic Hay, which quotes the lines on its title page, and which is how I first came across them back in the day when I just used to read everything I could in an endlessly exciting daisy chain of literature where one thing always referenced another, which led to another, and another. Sorry, this is turning out to be one of those nostalgic days for me. I’d better not get started on the difference between satyrs and fauns and Mr Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe or I’ll be here all day.
14 Snake putting two and two together? (5)
ADDER – well that’s fairly simple, isn’t it. Do I need to explain?
16 Excellent trees in front of Gallery? About right (5-4)
FIRST-RATE – FIRS (trees) ‘in front of’ TATE (gallery) ‘about’ R (right).
17 Small boy is cunning (3)
ART – if ARTHUR is a boy, then his contraction, ART, may cryptically be a ‘small’ boy.
19 Way out involving Apollo, disregarding odds? A feat! (7)
EXPLOIT – EXIT (way out) ‘involving’ PLO (the even letters of APOLLO, i.e. ‘disregarding the odds’).
21 Bankrupt agent abandoning resistance in end (5)
BROKE – a BROKER is an agent. Disregard the R at the end (resistance as in Ohm’s Law, V = IR) and there you have it.
22 Yell on poor football team: they’re looking for a match? (6,6)
LONELY HEARTS – anagram of YELL ON = LONELY, plus HEARTS, as in the Scottish football team Heart of Midlothian. Note that the anagrind is ‘poor’ and thus no football fans have been offended in the setting of this clue.
Down
1 Some hoopla, zany, in public area (5)
PLAZA – another hidden word: hooPL A ZAny.
2 Merit rest — could be three months (9)
TRIMESTER – another anagram. MERIT REST ‘could be’ TRIMESTER.
3 Worked over true rates: valuable find (8-5)
TREASURE-TROVE – and another one. OVER TRUE RATES ‘worked’ becomes TREASURE TROVE.
4 Money initially earned with type of nut (6)
CASHEW – CASH (money) + EW (initials of Earned With).
5 Label, epic, rare, potentially unique (13)
IRREPLACEABLE – keep hitting me with those anagrams! Go ahead, I can take it! LABEL EPIC RARE ‘potentially’.
6 Music for Dad (3)
POP – double definition.
7 One advising soldiers on hill (6)
MENTOR – MEN (soldiers) ‘on’ (in this down clue) TOR (hill).
12 Effort to finish with ultimately fine favour — start to go off (9)
ENDEAVOUR – END (to finish) + E (ultimately finE) + AVOUR (fAVOUR with the ‘start’ going off).
13 Become gentle, beginning to soothe frequently (6)
SOFTEN – S (beginning to Soothe) + OFTEN (frequently).
15 Insignificant attempt to support friend (6)
PALTRY – TRY (attempt) ‘supporting’ (in this down clue) PAL (friend).
18 Lock of hair given emphasis — not the first (5)
TRESS – STRESS (emphasis), but ‘not the first’ gives TRESS.
20 In favour of person getting paid (3)
PRO – double definition. PRO means for, and is also short for professional and prostitute. Take your pick as to whom you prefer to pay!

17 comments on “QC 1175 by Hurley”

  1. 6 minute solves don’t come along too often for me (only 18 to date of 1176 QCs or 1.5% to put it another way), but this is my second within only 4 days. If this is to become a more regular occurrence I may have to start noting down the seconds involved, despite my decision only to do this if I routinely record solving times under 5 minutes. There’s little danger of that circumstance at the moment because I have solved only 2 out of 1176 puzzles in that time (or 0.17%).

    I thought SATYR and TRIMESTER may give some problems for less experienced solvers, and I know that long anagrams (of which we have 4 in this puzzle) can be a bit daunting too, so please don’t be put off if you struggled to complete this or needed a lot more time than the ‘experts’. Always remember that enjoyment is the most important factor.

    Edited at 2018-09-10 05:41 am (UTC)

  2. Yes, this one sort of tripped off the fingers with a few clinging on for a bit more thought, but nonetheless enjoyable for that. PLAZA was my FOI, with ART needing a alphabet trawl at the end. LONELY HEARTS and POTATO CRISPS needed some cogitation too. 6:59. Thanks Hurley and Don.
  3. 11:47 to finish so outside PB territory. Typically I was troubled with 1a POTATO CRISPS. I knew it was an anagram but failed to solve it until I had most of the checkers in place. LOI 4d CASHEW. COD 11a SLEEPIEST.
  4. Very gentle but I was inexplicably held up towards the end by the anagram at 1a, which is what prevented a PB. Everything else went in very smoothly and I completed it in 9.26 with LOI 9a. 22a made me smile so it gets my vote for CoD.
  5. Ah well, perhaps I can offer some comfort to those who didn’t do it in well under 10 minutes, i was convinced that this would be a PB (especially with many anagrams that fell out without really trying) but was held up by sleepiest, endeavour, and took too long for lonely hearts. I liked first rate and exploit. LOI art. 15 mins in the end – ca. twice my PB. Thanks to Hurley and don. John M
  6. … and that was a nice gentle start to the week. I think it’s the first time it’s taken longer to read the blog than finish the puzzle – great work, Don!

    Only faint delay was ENDEAVOUR; once that had gone in then LOI ART came.

    Comfortably sub 10 but no doubt still 4 Kevins … COD was LONELY HEARTS, very witty. Thanks Hurley.

    Templar

  7. I’m usually pleased if I can get close to my 10k time (running that is, somewhere around 33 minutes now), but my 20:38 today (a big pb) would have beaten Sir Mo by a mile. FOI was 1a and they just kept on coming. I would have ducked under 20 but for that cunning small boy that I thought, given A_T, might be Art, but didn’t want to risk a technical DNF by getting it wrong, so I spent a minute or two considering if Ant could be cunning or if Apt could be both cunning and short for some boy’s name. Why exactly does art mean cunning? I know there’s the Artful Dodger, but in that case doesn’t the whole of artful mean cunning? And you wouldn’t say, “As art as a fox”, would you?
    Anyway, given I felt I was pretty much writing all the answers in as I went, and I still took over 14 minutes to get through all the clues with about 5 or 6 unanswered, I am even more amazed than ever that anyone can finish one of these in 5 minutes. And as for Verlaine’s 2:11, which I know isn’t his quickest, all I can say is that I’m in awe.

    Crispian

  8. 16 minutes, not quite on the wavelength. Last ones were endeavor and art.

    I thought the boy in 17a might be Bart.
    COD Sleepiest.

    Edited at 2018-09-10 10:30 am (UTC)

  9. Another fantastic blog, Astartedon! You always make me laugh and provide great entertainment/education. I finished in about 10 minutes, so a good result this end. Liked LONELY HEARTS and SLEEPIEST…does the word PRO (in “that” respect) only live on in crossword land, I wonder?
    Whatever, thanks Hurley and blogger for a fun start to the week.
  10. Struggled to find the blog – I normally search Quick Cryptic XXXX – but worth finding. Completed in the sun in the garden with dog as distracting company (barking at occasional passerby). 35 mins approx. As many, stuck on why Endeavour – took time to put that together – and Art. Such a small word but also was trying Ant for Anthony. Scruple is a nice word that I have not bumped into for a while and took a while to realise that I was not looking for a word for room reversed. And I missed Satyr for ages.
    Thanks all
    John George
    1. Not sure why you would have a problem finding the blog, John George. If you save TftT as a Favourite you will automatically arrive at the blogs of the day. You may find yourself at the QC or the 15×15, depending on which blog was posted later, but it’s only a matter of scrolling down if the QC is not at the top.
  11. Blazed through this one! So satisfying. But how on earth do some crossworders (is there such a word? ) finish any of these puzzles in sub 3 minutes? It’s astonishing! So many great clues today but CoD for me is 11 across. Thanks so much, blogger and setter.

  12. A PB for me as well at 10:29. And that includes boarding the train at Vauxhall after the cricket.

  13. Have been out all day. This took me 10 minutes on a train this morning.
    COD to Lonely Hearts. David

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