QC 2801 by Hurley

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

16:11, I struggled with both the long down anagrams, which made the solve slower than it should have been. NHO the slang SHAVER.

As previously noted I learnt my colours from the Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue. And No. SG87 (see below), in 1862, is the 9d STRAW. So if you ever wanted to know what the colour STRAW is, now you know. We can do the same trick with Sepia, Plum, Ultramarine, Vermillion, Buff etc

Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.

Across
1 Lacking confidence, note, in the skill shown by media boss (5-7)
FAINT-HEARTED – FA (note) + IN + THE + ART (skill) + ED (media boss)
8 Ray’s small nudge (5)
SPOKE – S{mall} + poke (nudge)

Mathematically speaking, a ray is a radial line from the centre to the edge. And that’s exactly what a spoke is.
9 Force aim on way back to seize leaders of insurgents left in town (7)
MILITIA – AIM reversed contains i{nsurgents} l{eft} i{n} t{own}
10 Tree, you heard (3)
YEW – Sounds like “you”
11 General agreement count of people must include acceptable syntax at outset (9)
CONSENSUS – CENSUS (count of people)  + ON (acceptable) + S{yntax}

ON=acceptable? Best phrase I could come up with is “That plan is on”
13 Around edges of timber noticed pale yellow colour (5)
STRAW – SAW (noticed) contains  T{imbe}R

See above for an example of STRAW colour.
14 Period of time — something magic maybe (5)
SPELL – Double def
16 Country a learner enters? Another one (9)
AUSTRALIA – AUSTRIA (country) contains A L{earner}
17 Party time for girl, briefly (3)
DOT – DO (party) + T{ime}

DOT is short for Dorothy, hence “girl briefly”
19 Readily accept emblem (not half!) with speed contest (7)
EMBRACE – EMB{lem} + RACE (speed contest)
21 Unsuitable home — apartment (5)
INAPT – IN (home) + apt (apartment)

Not a very common word. Note that “in” can be clued by just “home” as in “I got home at eleven”, although it is usually clued as “at home”
22 One examining person putting funds in about aid grant oddly absent (12)
INVESTIGATOR – INVESTOR (person putting funds in) contains {a}I{d}g{r}a{n}t
Down
1 If upset, nervous, suspicious (5)
FISHY – FI [upset] + SHY (nervous)

Colloquial use of FISHY for suspicious goes back to the mid 1800s. Not clear where it comes from. I would guess from the notion of “slipperiness,” or of giving off a bad smell.
2 Irk son — row about place of employment (9)
IRONWORKS – (IRK SON ROW)* [about]
3 Type of combat here, warn craft at sea (6,7)
TRENCH WARFARE – (HERE WARN CRAFT)* [at sea]

I saw that WAR was in the anagram, but took quite a few more checkers before this one popped out.
4 Fur, I hesitate to say, belonging to me (6)
ERMINE – ER (I hesitate) + MINE (belonging to me)
5 Fun on the move, lark, girl notes excitedly (6-7)
ROLLER-SKATING – (LARK GIRL NOTES)* [excitedly]

ROLLER COASTER was a quick biff until I actually checked the letters
6 Devour repast, regularly taken (3)
EAT – {r}E{p}A{s}T
7 Decorative item seen in Malta’s selected (6)
TASSEL – hidden in Malta’s selected

There are so many anagram indicators, I thought this might be an anagram of “MALTAS” with “selected” as the indicator. The checkers all fit. So who looked up “matsal” (Swedish for Dining Room) or “tamsal” (a prostate relaxant)  ?
12 Resolute holy person, head, failing to start, then period abstaining from food (9)
STEADFAST – ST (=saint, holy person) + {h}EAD + FAST {abstaining from food}
13 Young fellow, one putting money by, has initially to be welcomed (6)
SHAVER – SAVER (one putting money by) contains H{as}

That master of slang, Eric Partridge, says that the term “shaveling” meant a youth because of “the infrequency of his need to shave.” According to him (and Partridge wrote in the 1930s), a “shaver” means a child, and is often preceded by “young” or “little.”

I just checked my paper copy of Partridge (1984 printing) and it’s not in. I never heard it
15 Florida tune, moving, graceful (6)
FLUENT – FL + (UENT)* [moving]
18 One providing education in workers’ organisation to prosper finally (5)
TUTOR – TU (Trade Union)[Workers organisation] + TO + {prospe}R

This acronym pops up a lot in crosswords, but almost nowhere else. TUC yes. TO no.
20 Returning, arrest outlaw (3)
BAN – NAB (arrest) reversed [returning]

68 comments on “QC 2801 by Hurley”

  1. I came in under 10 minutes but I didn’t parse it all. I got SHAVER from the wordplay and biffed FAINT HEARTED from the checkers.

    I got the ‘census’ part of CONSENSUS and didn’t bother parsing the rest.

    I liked the clue for AUSTRALIA. I promise without bias!

    I expect to struggle for the rest of the week.

  2. I biffed the four long ones, inter alia. I suspect SHAVER isn’t in the 1984 Partridge because it’s no longer considered slang (ODE marks it ‘informal’); I certainly knew it, though I’ve never used it. 5:23.

  4. I seem to have been on the same wavelength as vinyl1 with today’s two puzzles as I sailed through the 15×15 in something approaching record time for me, whereas I really struggled with this QC and came home in 20 minutes, only 2 minutes faster than the biggie.

    FAINT-HEARTED was my LOI, ROLLER-SKATING took ages and, like v, I wanted 22ac to be INTERROGATOR despite already having the T-checker from FLUENT in place which prevented me actually writing it in. I even momentarily considered that FLUENT might be wrong and looked for an alternative answer ending in R.

    So the only long answer that went in without difficulty today was TRENCH WARFARE, probably because I had mentioned the expression in a discussion about trenches re the Jumbo blogged here on 28th September, and it was still in my mind.

    Bruce is right, about ‘acceptable / ON’ which these days is mostly used in the negative expression ‘not on’. I think this was discussed here very recently too.

  5. 9.59, smashing the 10-minute barrier. I thought a couple of these were quite hard for a quickie, especially the longer anagrams. FOI YEW, last two were ROLLER SKATING and MILITIA. The clue for STEADFAST was a marvel of well-ordered construction, and as branch says ‘not on’ gives the CONSENSUS clue the all-clear. Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.

  6. SHAVER unknown but gettable from wordplay. Everything else straightforward but some took some time.
    Thanks Merlin and setter.

    1. Sorry, Q, but I have edited out the reference to a clue in today’s 15×15 as others may not have solved it yet.

  7. Stared at the space where SPOKE went for ages. Tempted by ‘shone’ just to be able to get on with the day. Alphabet trawls at both ends before settling on SPOKE. Didn’t have the geometry to have much confidence in it. Not that my good fortune matter as I saw “survey of people” and what in ‘census’ then decided ‘con’ must mean “acceptable syntax” so put it at the start for CONcENSUS. The sort of mistake I usually say I wouldn’t make in an across clue – only it was. Not all green in 13.21.

  8. Like Mendeset, spoke was our LOI. I was trying what seemed a vast array of options to fit S-O-E while Mrs RH was in the thesaurus looking at ray and nudge. Finally I came up with spoke and bunged it in at 24.14 but couldn’t really parse without Merlin’s help, thanks M.

    Definitely a biff and parse day. Also noted that around 12.20 which was slower than yesterday’s time we were less than halfway done!

    Thanks Hurley

  9. Steadyish solve ruined by not remembering my mental note to go back and check CONSENSUS, which I decided to put an extra ‘c’ into and which looked wrong as I wrote it in.
    Struggled at the end to get the surprisingly tricky SPOKE.
    Thanks to Merlin

  10. 15.34 for me felt like it should have been quicker. Probably would have solved the long anagrams more quickly with a pen and paper to hand. Also handicapped myself by inexplicably entering as FOI EWE for the homophonic tree.

    Spent a while trying to put INVIGILATOR in and also gave myself a bum steer with the erroneous LIGHT-HEARTED
    LOI was SPOKE. Got there in the end.

    None stood out as COD but quite liked young SHAVER a word I was familiar with.

    Time to wake up

  11. 16:14 DNF with CONcENSUS spelled wrongly and couldn’t parse it due to the ON=acceptable bit and so never took a proper look. Also a typo in MILITIA.

    I’m rating that as not appropriate for the QC. Initial readthrough of clues bewildering. Even when I had answers, it wasn’t always easy to parse them e.g. TUTOR, NHO SHAVER and had to really stare to be sure it was H required. And the point at which I knew it had jumped the shark was IRONWORKS defined as place of employment. LOI SPOKE which have fortunately seen before as RAY but otherwise another toughie.

      1. I’m probably misusing it from its strictest sense. You wouldn’t be alone in NHO as it came up in a word puzzle last week and a couple of my friends said the same.

  12. Solved this steadily without many problems, although at first sight some of the clues seemed rather complicated. Getting the long words was very helpful!

  13. 10:20. A nice smooth solve although, like New Driver, I was disorientated by IRONWORKS; a “place of employment” is not the first defining characteristic that comes to mind. I knew (young) SHAVER but can’t imagine saying it

  14. No problems today apart from MER at ON meaning acceptable- thanks all for the explanation. IRONWORKS seems to be a very random place of employment. Thanks Merlin and Hurley.

  15. 10 minutes. The long down anagrams at 3D and 5D were not as forbidding as they first looked and gave me a good start, and thereafter a fair number biffed – grateful to the collected wisdom above for explaining the ON in CONSENSUS and I never parsed INVESTIGATOR either, where the surface was not the smoothest but the answer was clear from checkers. SHAVER also unknown in that meaning but very getable from the wordplay.

    Many thanks Merlin for the blog
    Cedric

  16. I got the CENSUS part of 11a and biffed it in the wrong place. CONCENSUS, Drat! 7.50 WOE. Thanks Hurley and Merlin.

  17. 9:42 with one pink square. There is a general concensus that an ability to spell is useful in crosswords.

    Thanks Hurley and Merlin

  18. A steady but pretty slow solve. Found WARFARE in the anagram which left me with the letters for TRENCH. (Had to write them in a circle too). Finally saw ROLLER SKATING. Other LOsI were FAINT HEARTED, SPELL, INVESTIGATOR and a corrected Fussy to FISHY.
    Dimly, very dimly, remembered (young) SHAVER. A Victorian expression?
    Was glad to have a few easy anchors like FLUENT, TASSEL and ERMINE.
    I may have mentioned I once saw a live ermine (winter stoat) outside my window in a ski resort.
    Thanks vm, Merlin.

  19. 14:00 ish

    Technically a DNF as pressed submit without realising the grid was incomplete. The clock stopped at 13:27 and I was super surprised to see 2 pink squares only to realise I hadn’t attempted SPELL. Annoying as I then saw it straight away.

    No problem with ON = ACCEPTABLE, e.g. that’s not on.

    1. One of those synonyms that is used in the negative sense (eg. “Not on”), but rarely in the positive.

  20. Just thirty or so seconds outside target at 10.33, although I would have been comfortably inside but for SPOKE. Like others I debated whether to put in SPOKE or SHINE, neither of which I was happy with. A rapid alphabet trawl didn’t produce any further options so I elected to put in SPOKE, fully expecting to find I’d missed something on the alphabet trawl. Happy days, it was right after all!

  21. Enjoyable and under 10 minutes although I don’t time my efforts. The phrase “young shaver” was often used by older work colleagues to refer to inexperienced young apprentices, a friendly term rather than abusive.

  22. Did this while processing emails and only half concentrating; paid the price by lazily shoving in INTERROGATOR as LOI even though it overwrote the T in FLUENT. Two x DPS, serves me right, 09:49 but.

    Many thanks Merly and Hurley.

  23. I suspect I had at least as much trouble solving this as Hurley did in putting together some of the clues – 22ac being a prime example. Not helped by my anagram hat being AWOL (I might even have to invest in a chin strap, given its propensity to wander), so Roller Skating took an age to see, despite the ‘k’ hint. Loi Spoke also took multiple alpha-trawls, but I did at least resist a very tempting Shove, because it didn’t parse. Overall, a slow standing room only solve, with CoD to 9ac, Militia. Invariant

  24. 10 minutes for me after trying to find something other than SPOKE at 8a; did not equate it with Ray but I could find nothing better.
    A question mark also about SHAVER.
    Otherwise a pleasing QC where no single clue stood out for me.
    David

  25. Very enjoyable. Not much in top half on first pass so solved from bottom up. That meaning of SPOKE was unknown. Tried CONSENSUS with a C but looked wrong so changed but couldn’t parse. Haven’t heard SHAVER for many, many years. Last two in were FAINT-HEARTED and FISHY. No standout clues but everything fair in retrospect. More challenges than yesterday so an enjoyable coffee-time. Thanks Hurley and Jack.

  26. Done mid Atlantic as I evacuate from repairing H. Helene’s impact while dreading further onslaught from H. Milton. Paradise Lost. I hope not.
    Perhaps having my mind on other matters may have helped me to make rapid progress through the puzzle. Long solved popped in easily and I think my lack of over analysis and going with the flow came in below my usual 20mins.
    I seem to find Hurley accessible, so thanks, and to Merlin too. Now back to live hurricane tracking. Fingers crossed we might just accessible past the tail.

  27. Managed to complete the puzzle without putting in a wrong letter today – quick panic when checking the spelling of Consensus!!
    An enjoyable solve helped a lot by the anagrams down. About 20 minutes.
    Thanks Hurley and Merlin

  28. Average kind of time for me.

    LOI DOT after I got the message that the puzzle was only 99% complete.

    6:33

  29. An earlier solve than usual for me today as Mrs T has left me to my own devices for 2-3 days and it’s still raining. 12:42 for a DNF on CONCENSUS. I’d like to think that I won’t ever make that mistake again. Couldn’t really see what acceptable syntax was going to be and ONS didn’t look any better once I discovered my mistake. Thanks for the explanation Merlin – another example of the value of this blog! LOI SPOKE which took quite a bit of thinking about and frequent repression of the irritating mental ‘shove’ . Thanks, Hurley, for some clever traps.

  30. Nice enjoyable puzzle as so often from Hurley (thanks); LOI INVESTIGATOR, easy once POI ROLLER-SKATING was in place. I too had a MER at acceptable = ON, and remembered STRAW from my once keen stamp-collecting days, upon which SHAVER was obvious.

  31. Testing in places and ended up staring at S_O_E for so long that I shoved in SHOVE with little enthusiasm just to finish. SPOKE is tough but fair so no complaints.
    Rather liked INAPT and DOT.
    Thanks Hurley and Merlin – your anagrams of Maltas made me laugh.

  32. 13 mins…

    Fairly straightforward I thought, although some of the clues felt a bit long and clunky. Didn’t know the term “Shaver” for 13dn, so thanks for the explanation. Had my usual debate between “faint” and “feint” – but the parsing had to point to the former.

    FOI – 6dn “Eat”
    LOI – “Faint Hearted”
    COD – 1dn “Fishy”

    Thanks as usual!

  33. Basically a bottom-up solve as I didn’t get too many at the top on first pass. All solved in 14 minutes but I didn’t bother to parse several where I could see what was required from the crossers (eg INVESTIGATOR and FAINT-HEARTED). This led to my downfall as I didn’t stop to parse 11ac and consequently spelt it incorrectly. I had heard of SHAVER in the sense used so that posed no problem.

    FOI – 10ac YEW
    LOI – 8ac SPOKE
    COD – 13dn SHAVER for the surface

    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin

  34. 15 minutes today, found some clues a bit convoluted but everything fell into place. LOIs were FISHY and SPOKE; did not really equate SHY with nervous, but it had to be. When did fishy enter the English language meaning suspicious: I can’t think of any Shakespearean use of the term. Enjoyed ERMINE, and TASSEL jumped out – as they do. 6 months ago I would never have got INAPT nor DOT for that matter. Huge thanks to this community for generous sharing of relevant information!

  35. Well that’s the second completion in a row for me, although I must admit a little dictionary work required so can’t claim a moral victory here. I also really struggled with the long anagrams, especially roller skating – my LOI
    COD – Ermine

    Thanks to Hurly and Merlin

  36. Only ever heard of shaver when preceded by “young”; which suggests the young part is tautological or maybe just doubled up for emphasis

  37. Put in a few at first cast, then biffed a lot of them, needing explanation despite head scratching. Perhaps inappropriate as a quicky

  38. 6.18 DNF. I frequently had to hop back a couple of clues to put an answer in, but nothing held out for long. It would have been an excellent time except, like others, I put CONCENSUS. Gah! Thanks Merlin and Hurley.

  39. 15:00 Like others was stuck on interrogate for investigate. I’m pretty sure I was often referred to as a SHAVER in the 1950’s(that is,when I wasn’t being called a whippersnapper).

    1. The sense of “fishy” meaning “shady, questionable, or suspicious” first appeared around 1840

  40. 15:46 so back to normal after yesterday’s shocker. Fun puzzle though I was tempted and fell, biffing 1A from the crossers. “Note” in a clue always induces despair because there are so, so many possibilities. LOI SPOKE, because I had trouble seeing it as a noun. I wasted quite a lot of time due to putting “work” as the start to 2D before the crossers put me on the right track. On reviewing I agree with vinyl1 that it was not a hard puzzle but overall took a mysteriously long time to do.

    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin! Interesting stamp lore.

  43. Nice puzzle. I had to get a pen and notebook to work out the long anagrams, but once they were in, it all came together.
    Thanks to blogger and setter
    A

  44. We put shove in for 8a, carelessly. Otherwise a steady solve with a reasonable time for us.

  45. 25 min ish finish (interrupted by being IT support for wife). LOI Faint Hearted, needed all the checkers there and Merlin to parse. Thanks

    Enjoyed crunching the long anagrams of 3D & 5D. Thanks Hurley

  46. 14.21 . Some tricky ones there which weren’t leaping out at me. SPOKE was my LOI. I liked AUSTRALIA and INAPT. Thanks both!

  47. 8:13

    Late entry – cat on keyboard since returning from lunchtime walk so eventually completed on phone. Felt tricky to get going with so this seems not too bad a time.

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

  48. I find Harley’s clueing style difficult to get my grey cells around – no criticism, my failing. However, just slipping into the SCC for a strong coffee and a doughnut, all correct and within my GK.
    The long anagrams took a bit of mental juggling but went in to give some help for the rest of the clues. SPOKAe seems to have been one of those words which is obvious once found, but elusive until. MILITIA also took a while to find and parse.

  49. Entertaining puzzle that turned out to be a lot easier than first suspected. ‘Young Shaver’ was quite a common term in my young days – always a kindly phrase. Surprised lots of people found a NHO… Spent some time on 8a dithering between Shove and Spoke before opting for the K.
    FOI 9a Militia
    LOI 8a Spoke
    COD 12d steadfast – for the construction

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