QC 2867 by Hurley

17:11. No Christmas content in this puzzle as far as I could see. But still a good puzzle, although I was a bit slower than usual. A Merry Christmas to all our readers.

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

Across
7 One accommodates crude oil there (8)
HOTELIER – (OIL THERE)* [crude]

Seems an odd anagram indicator, something that is crude is not jumbled up in anyway that I can see. But I’ve long given up on justifying anagram indicators, after the first 500.

8 Extract as much as possible from, at heart, timid sort (4)
MILK –  {ti}M{id} + ILK (sort)

Tough to parse, I thought it was something to do with Milksop.

9 Kind agent leaves missing letters (6)
GENTLE – hidden in “agent leaves”
10 Fruit article — I’m surprised inwardly (5)
ACORN – AN (article) contains COR! (I’m surprised)

I had GEE, so was looking for an AGEEN. I’m not sure that COR=surprised, more a snort of approval, as in the classic headline “Cor! What a Scorcher”, for a couple of hot days in July.

11 Recall the German revolutionary (3)
RED – DER (“The” in German) reversed [recall]
12 Aide during break delivering meal (6)
REPAST – PA (aide) inside REST ( break)

Repast is the kind of word that is now only used ironically. Often by the kind of people who say Methinks.

14 Unusual ways of behaving from those opposed, hundred inside (6)
ANTICS – ANTIS (those opposed) contains C (hundred)

Antis (a word that looks flat out wring in its plural) was originally an opponent of federalism in the early years of American independence.

Their UK equivalents, the antidisestablishmentarianists didn’t see the need for a short version.

16 Event Ireland includes without exception (6)
ENTIRE – hidden in Event Ireland

Two hiddens today.

18 Something to wear — no rags involved (6)
SARONG – (NO RAGS)* [involved]

Sarong is part of formal dress for Malay men, like the Kilt for the Scots. But they wear a form of trousers underneath, which would look very odd in Scotland, if somewhat more practical.

19 Position of golfer’s ball   that’s deceptive (3)
LIE – Double def

Golf usage goes back 150 years, when golf balls were still made by stuffing feathers into a leather sack or by molding latex from gutta-percha.

Also, LIE is being incorrectly replaced by LAY, look out for “LIE of the land”.

20 Courageously confront bachelor party, wild (5)
BRAVE – B{achelor} + RAVE (party, wild)

Brave as a verb, as in “brave the elements”. I think the clue works much better without that “,wild” on the end. It’s not needed to further define party, and really messes up what would have been a great surface.

21 Nick for every policeman (6)
COPPER -COP (nick) + PER (for every)

“Cop” and “Nick” are both slang for getting caught by the police, although “cop” seems pretty dated now. You might say that you got “copped for speeding” or “nicked for speeding”.

Great surface with that “for” slipping in there unnoticed.

23 Objective globally missed on regular basis (4)
GOAL – G{l}O{b}A{l}L{y}

Man, I hate typing all those curly brackets.

Pet peeve is using “on a regular basis” for “regularly” and “on a daily basis” for “daily. The phrase “Live Simply, Act Wisely, Love boldly” will soon become “Live on a simple basis, act on a wise basis, love on a bold basis”

24 Weather table these are feature of periodically? (8)
ELEMENTS – Double def, second being cryptic

It’s the Periodic Table of Elements, so in a backwards sense the ELEMENTS feature on it periodically. Still doesn’t quite work for me, though.

February 7th is celebrated as Periodic Table Day, mark it in your new 2025 Diary now, right after “Pheasant shooting season ends”.

Down
1 One’s free after review — as known beforehand (8)
FORESEEN – (ONES FREE)* [after review]

I like puzzles that start of with a 1A/1D on the easy side, especially on Christmas Eve when there’s a lot to do. But this portcullis grid means that 1A/1D down don’t provide the gift of any initial letters.

2 Hard blow gets boxing prize? (4)
BELT – Double def. No need for a question mark, I think. It’s not cryptic.

I found out that the first belt given as a prize for boxing was presented in 1810 by King George III to bare-knuckle boxer Tom Cribb. Though why the king gave him this is not clear; was he worried about his shorts slipping down?

3 Amuse fan of water maybe over time (6)
DIVERT – DIVER (fan of water maybe) + T{ime}

Amusements are diversions, but the use of the verb divert=amuse is quite obscure these days.

4 Ships in a drama, unconventional (6)
ARMADA – (A DRAMA)* [unconventional]

Rather pleasingly the word comes from the Spanish as well.

5 I’m person taking items around for business buying from abroad (8)
IMPORTER – IM + PORTER (person taking items around)
6 Leading couples in plot, another scheme (4)
PLAN – First pair of letters in PL{ot} + AN{other}

“Leading Couples”. I device I’ve not seen before, simple and allows the creation of smooth surfaces

13 Good-natured friend from Paris on way to get TV (8)
AMICABLE – AMI(French for “friend”, hence “from Paris”) + CABLE (way to get TV)

I tried to get Amiable to fit, but on reflection they are subtly different: AMIABLE describes a person’s character, while AMICABLE describes the nature of interactions or relationships

Wow, Cable TV. We’ve never called it that in the UK, but interesting fact: when the infant BBC Television service was started in 1936, Rediffusion started providing “Pipe TV” to its customers who had difficulties tuning into the weak television broadcast signal.

15 Musical work firm accommodates once, right at the edges (8)
CONCERTO – CO (firm) contains (ONCE) & R{igh}T
17 Football team, English, left day before November (6)
ELEVEN – E + L{eft} + EVE (day before) + N{ovember}

The day before November is Halloween, but that’s a dead end.

18 Hidden from general view, group, about to be admitted (6)
SECRET – SECT (group) contains RE (about)

SET=group, and C=about was how I first parsed this.

20 High point — start of blazing argument? (4)
BROW – B{lazing} + ROW (argument)

Surprisingly the BROW on the face is hundreds of years older than the metaphorical Brow of a hill. I’d have guessed the metaphor running the other way.

22 Former Prime Minister’s zest (4)
PEEL – Double def.

Robert Peel, British prime minister (1834–35, 1841–46) and founder of the “boys in blue”— the  Conservative Party and the Metropolitan Police.

83 comments on “QC 2867 by Hurley”

  1. After a while, as Merlín suggests, one stops analysing anagram indicators too carefully. Crude meaning rough or careless, I guess passes muster. Nothing too difficult here, but there are some slowish times, so maybe it just suited me. 7:44

  2. 11 minutes. ‘Crude’ is in the long list of Chambers anagrinds, and synonyms include ‘clumsy’ and ‘rough’ so it seems fine to me.

    I remember people using the term Cable TV and signing up to it in the UK some 40+ years ago although it wasn’t available everywhere, only where cabling had been specially laid or existing cabling upgraded. Back in those days in my area on the outskirts of a town, satellite was the only option in order to receive multi-channel services.

    1. Pre satellite TV all sets received their pictures via cable, the coaxial cable from the aerial. It’s still the way most set get their free to air programs.

      1. Yes, but that was never called ‘cable TV’. Delivery used the same principals as domestic radio where receivers were called ‘wireless’ sets despite having wires / cables attached.

  3. A bit of a trudge, as the 15×15 was also. It’s a day with many distractions and stuff to do. About 18 in the end, minus a bit here and there. I actually think (sorry, methinks) ‘lie of the land’ (the way the land lies) sounds better. Thanks Hurlin and Merley, happy Christmas to all, enjoy the repast!

  4. 11 minutes. Looking at it now, there doesn’t seem anything too difficult but I had trouble with a few, eg MILK and like Merlin I went down the Halloween cul-de-sac for ELEVEN.

    I liked the ELEMENTS clue, with COPPER the only one I can see on display (named in full, not just as a chemical symbol) in the grid.

    Thanks to Hurley and thanks and merry Christmas to Merlin

  5. 11 minutes, held up mightily at the end trying to find REPAST. Nice puzzle, much to do today as family descends for festivities so short entry.

    Many thanks Merlin for the blog
    Cedric

  6. 7.49

    I think the two hiddens were my last two so outdoing Kevin there for a change!

    Nice puzzle but outdone by the blog today. “On a regular basis” – very amusing. Might have to attend more carefully to what I say in the future 🙂

  7. I found this fairly gentle with only DIVERT and GENTLE putting up much resistance.
    Finished in 6.22 with COD to ELEMENTS.
    Thanks to Merlin

  8. 5:58. I was a bit slow getting into this and failed to spot both hiddens until I had the checkers. Nothing marked on my copy, so all seemed hunky-dory. Thanks Hurley and Merlin

  9. I spent far too long trying to extract meaning from alternate letters (periodically) of “table these are feature of” before the answer popped out following the addition another couple of crossers, so I thought that was nicely deceptive.

    Like vinyl, I couldn’t understand how NT inside EIRE worked, but it fit from the definition, so that’s the main thing!

  10. A missed target again today at 11.20 mainly caused by my inability to spot the hiddens. I am also blaming my seven year old grandson who came in to see me mid solve, and to tell me he has trouble getting to sleep at the moment for some reason!
    A good test as ever from Hurley and enjoyable to boot. Now, where are those mince pies ………

  11. 20:34

    Started ok but ground to a halt on the last few. Failed to parse MILK and missed the anagram indicator for FORESEEN before failing to see the hidden word for LOI ENTIRE.

  12. Slow to get going, then quite fast but stuck on REPAST. Despite thinking of Secretary, had to look up synonyms for Aide to get PA – then penny dropped.
    Liked PEEL, ACORN, AMICABLE, ANTICS , MILK, among others.
    Thanks vm, Merlin. (Yes, I feel I am fighting a losing battle re people using ‘lay’ instead of ‘LIE’)
    Happy Christmas to one and all!

  13. 19:16 for the solve! Last five mins spent on GENTLE, DIVERT and MILK (LOI). With ELEMENTS / PEEL holding me up before that. Couldn’t get Pitt out of my head even though I knew elements were weather but didn’t twig the Periodic table connection. Some of the clues felt clunky in their surfaces and it seems like those were the ones which held me up most.

  14. 8:53

    Matching Vinyl’s time today, I was a bit slow on the uptake in the SE corner – eventually the logjam was unblocked with CONCERTO after which the answers started to flow freely once more. I noted ACORN ANTICS on the RHS, which reminded me of Victoria Wood’s creation (though that was, of course, Acorn Antiques).

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

  15. A sluggardly solve, spent too long working out which bits were which in 1A and slow through most of the top half, although the south was easier.
    I understand we have online puzzle fare tomorrow to amuse us whilst we unpack our stockings and open our sacks, so the fun never stops. Enjoy.

  16. 7:35 (Death of the Venerable Bede)

    After recent discussions about people disliking PER being clued as A, I wondered if Hurley had originally clued 21a as “Nick a policeman” but had it changed by the editor to its slightly less smooth surface.

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

  17. Just under 25 minutes to do this. Biffed MILK, took a while to see ACORN and the anagram for FORESEEN. Entertaining effort from Hurely. A very Merry Christmas to you all.

  18. Like Cedric again- held up at the end finding REPAST. 12 minutes in total, under 10 for the rest.
    A nice QC.
    COD HOTELIER.
    David

  19. Still four to the bad (HOTELIER, BELT, BRAVE, BROW) with several CNPs – not getting anywhere. Happy Christmas everyone and thank you, Merlin.
    I believe “Merry” Christmas is American? – though agree it goes better with ….and a Happy New Year.

    1. No, not American. See for example Dickens in “A Christmas Carol” – ” ‘A merry Christmas, Bob,’ said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. ‘A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. “

      1. Thank you for that, Templar – most interesting. Yes of course I should have recalled that, shouldn’t I. So: I wonder what the history of Merry versus Happy (or the reverse) is?

  20. Didn’t feel that easy, even though quite a few answers went straight in without needing checkers. Last few held me up a bit. Couldn’t see MILK before I got IMPORTER and then needed an alphabet trawl for DIVERT. Thankfully getting to D didn’t take long and I stopped the watch on 15:50. Thanks Hurley and Merlin, and merry Christmas everybody.

  21. Slow but completed. Enjoyed the blog, Merl.

    Btw, in your blog at 14a, wring is wrong. You can read that either way!

    Pi

  22. Found many of the clues difficult but pleased with a sub 20 mins finish. LOI Entire (trying to parse an answer using Eire).

    Thanks Hurley and Merry Xmas to all

  23. Eight, and all of them parsed rather than biffed. It’s as you like it. There won’t be any ham let into our kitchen. Eurostar from start to finish. Irish golfer meets old queen. Article required near term to exterminate vermin.

    I’ll get my coat….

  24. A slow solve starting with ACORN and finishing with HOTELIER. 8:53 matching both Vinyl’s and Mike Harper’s times!
    Merry Christmas to all.

  25. A slowish start, followed by a period of reasonable progress before running into the usual patch of quicksand with 7-8 clues remaining. Several minutes then passed with no additions to the grid, until ENTIRE came to my rescue and I regained momentum right through to the end. All done in around half an hour, I suppose.

    My final few in were REPAST, DIVERT, ANTICS and CONCERTO.

    Many thanks to Hurley and Merlin, and a merry Christmas to all from the Random household.

  26. 07:31
    It was the night before Christmas, and I found myself at the hotelier’s party, where milk punch flowed in gentle abundance, and acorn ornaments dotted the room. Clarissa, red-haired and radiant, handed me a repast. Gerald, the brave fellow, was tossing copper trays, aiming for the goal of impressing everyone.

    The elements of chaos soon took hold as the host, in his sarong, insisted I wear his belt for some strange tradition meant to divert attention. An importer arrived with party hats, and by eleven, the secret to avoiding overindulgence was lost. The antics escalated, leading to an entire conga line. Clarissa, ever amicable, dragged me into a plan to sing. A concerto of off-key carols ensued, and I swiftly peeled away, my brow slick with the foreseen effects of too much cheer.

    As I slipped away, I realized the party had become an armada of revelers chasing a lie of festive joy.
    LOI divert.
    COD elements.

    thanks and Merry Christmas!

  27. In an increasingly bizarre coincidence I also took 8:53, and then an additional 9:41 to finish it off for a total of 18:34.

    Thank you for the blog, and happy Christmas to you all!

  28. Straightforward today. If anyone is interested I’ve written some clues for my dad as part of his Xmas present – the answers are all Christmas related. Thought I’d share for a bit of fun / any feedback welcome

    1. Salvation Army has bad nit condition – they present annually? (5,4)

    2. Sounds like you will remember this for afters (4,3)

    3. We’re stuffed full – no starter, no heart motion when digesting (2,4,2,3,3)

    4. Prize targeted on the radio? (4)

    5. Breakdown service called back, oil drained and its belted for Christmas (5)

    6. Christmas number for Northern Ireland Listed first in Houses of Parliament? (6,5)

    7. Maybe A Professor’s first idiot (6)

    8. He’d stuff Christmas Jumper in sock, losing to king with empty gesture (7)

    9. Present bishop with short hymn arrangement(5)

    10. Holy man can start a new religion here (6)

    11. Note newspaper dropped by instant message to sick boy (4,3)

    12. Offering honest anger (12)

    1. Had a ponder of them for about 5mins and what I deciphered seem decent. Good surfaces. I’m sure your Dad will enjoy this if he’s good at cryptics.

      I managed to get 2, 5, 9, 12 from the clueing and 11 with a bif. And perhaps #1 albeit the 2nd word of my answer seems a bit tenuous for a synonym if I’m right.

      It’s tough without any checkers. I wonder if you ought to make it like the Cryptic Quintagram? Where all the letters involved are provided. Although with that many clues, I’m not sure how useful it would be.

      (I may have another look later when the evening descends)

      Edit: 6pm – added #8 and wondering whether the clue might be better amended to include an odd sock? Struggling to fully parse it otherwise.
      6:15pm – now ticked off #3 – excellent clue
      6:20pm – a bif for #6 but not sure it’s right

      1. I can’t see how odd sock fits so I suspect the parsing is off? I expect we are safe for spoiling these for others if you want to be explicit!

        6 is probably quite bffable

        Re a quintagram – I have arranged the clues so that when he gets all of them they will spell out his Christmas present vertically and I’ve given him the letters which anagram to make the present too so hopefully doable but appreciate that it’s artificially hard! Hoping the fact that all answers are Xmas related gets us over the hump

    2. on my phone so cant login

      I take 8 to be SC ROO GE but couldnt understand how “losing to king” got rid of the O from sock, I assume k=king

      whereas “odd sock” would give you the SC nicely and I thought “he’d stuff Christmas jumper in odd sock with empty gesture” works just as well

      1. Only just seen this after the Christmas madness, wish I’d seen it before it’s such an improvement!

        My clue was sock =StoCking – “to king” to get SC, mine is convoluted and makes the surface so much less smooth, bravo

  29. I think this was a decent challenge and a reasonable puzzle. DNF but close so not unhappy

    I do think that the puzzles should be renamed to. 15*15 and 13*13. As QC gives the impression that they are easier than the main puzzle. I am not sure they are, given the last few weeks I think they are just shorter.

    This might manage the expectations of many including myself, that the QC puzzle is aimed at beginners. I don’t believe they are and it certainly seems over the last month or two they have become much harder.

    Not complaining just think they are mis named.

    1. Whether the QC is easier depends, I think, on how long you’ve been doing them. At first they seemed equally impossible to me. Now I usually finish the QC but often don’t come even close with the Big Guy.

  30. Nice, gentle lunchtime solve before a much busier day tomorrow. Slowly ambled round the grid, encountering nothing that was too tricky, and appreciating this wonderful hobby. No particular stand out clues today (I do like the humorous ones) but still much to enjoy. Thanks Merlin and Hurley and a happy Christmas to everyone.

      1. Ho ho ho- best of Christmas and New Year’s to you too! ( you see how I cleverly avoided the Merry/Happy question).

  31. Eventually got there in 38mon. DIVERT was LOI.
    Looking back I can’t see why I struggled with this.
    A lovely QC.
    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.

    Happy Christmas and a big ” Thank you” to all the bloggers.

  32. Found a couple of the hiddens tricky to spot today, especially ENTIRE where EIRE was a clever diversion. Like Merlin, not keen on ‘party, wild’in our POI – another deliberate trap I’m sure but too clunky. Liked our LOI ELEMENTS though when we finally got there. Happy to finish in a rather slower than average 15:01. Thanks Merlin and Hurley and Happy Christmas to all.

  33. 9.19 I found this quite chewy but I didn’t get stuck. REPAST and the two hiddens were my last three. Thanks Merlin and Hurley.

    P.S. I enquired the other day about finding early QCs in the crossword club. Jack’s blog on QC No 1 says the puzzle wasn’t integrated with the crossword club, which explains why it isn’t there now.

    1. Sorry – didn’t see your enquiry the other day. Though the first few years of QCs preceded the current Crossword Club, they were added to it when it was rolled out – if you do a search and restrict the results to 10th March 2014 then that should give you QC 1.

    2. Ah – have just found your original question and you say that the date constraint gives you an error. Instead, try searching for the word “Number”, as all those early QCs have that in their title.

      1. Thank you! I was just going to ask if the naming convention was different. The first puzzle is Times Quick Cryptic (Number 01).

  34. 17:50 which is not too bad in my bleary-eyed state. Very slow to see my favorite clue, ELEMENTS. Had the same thought process parsing SECRET as our blogger. HOTELIER made me kick myself, because I saw HOTEL immediately but couldn’t complete it and decided it was a red herring. Also I forgot there is such a thing as a hidden; I almost always do.

    Thanks Hurley and Merlin! Diverting blog, methinks.

    Merry Christmas to all!

  35. Steady solve, but had to leave 1d until the end, as I just couldn’t see it- obvious in retrospect.
    I would say 25 minutes or so over soup and a roll.
    2/2 for the week so far.
    Many thanks to blogger and setter.

  36. A nice QC, just one cup of coffee, which gave enough time for vegetable prep ready for tomorrow. LOI ACORN, and slowed down by trying to parse PLAN, thanks for the explanation. “Merry Christmas “ was frowned on in our Methodist childhood home as it was seen to imply taking alcohol in excess!
    My usual greeting is “Have a peaceful Christmas “, which I share with all contributors to this blog.

    1. Thanks, same back to you and others on the site. And thanks to all here for providing so much stimulation and enjoyment over the year. I remember a sermon from our Baptist preacher seventy-odd years ago wherein he discussed various seasonal greetings and concluded by deciding his favourite was “Have a thoughtful Christmas”.

  37. 16.07 with no errors. I seem to be among the few that parsed (COD) MILK straight away, as in milking a situation to get as many laughs as possible. Also I immediately assumed “crude” was anagram indicator so HOTELIER became FOI. Didn’t do so well with the hiddens though, I took far to long to spot them. LOI ELEMENTS need all the checkers before the penny dropped. Thanks and Merry Christmas to Hurley, Merlin, and all the other compilers and bloggers.

  38. Only two solved on the first pass across but, as often happens, the downs came more easily providing some checkers and the rest followed for a 43 minute finish. I suppose this is how crosswords should work and what makes them so intriguing.
    Missed both the hiddens yet again.
    COD AMICABLE
    Thanks for the puzzle and the entertaining blog and Merry Christmas to one and all.

  39. 17 minutes.

    Felt much longer and failed to parse several. More luck than skill today.

    Best wishes for the festive season to the setters, bloggers and commenters. 🎅

  40. 17:12 here. Last two in were the two hiddens, which is unusual because those are often the ones I find quite quickly.

    Thanks to Merlin & Hurley.

    1. Think they were very well hidden today as on looking back a couple of my did not parse were in retrospect hiddens which like you I am normally alive too

  41. My initial thought was that crude oil should be in a refinery, but the crossers soon put paid to that. The mention of fruit in 10A led me away from ACORN for a long time. I guess I will not be putting them in the fruit salad (along with tomatoes). The rest of the puzzle was a steady plod that saw me home in around 25 minutes.

  42. 7.28 and all green for me if not fully parsed. Looking at some of the other regulars’ times think this was probably good effort relative to my regular standards.

    Was feeling pretty sharp following a couple of miles blowing the cobwebs away on a muddy Cumbrian schlep and the obligatory Christmas Eve couple of teatime pints.

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley – going to enjoy something a bit stronger whilst I work out the finer points of todays clues ahead of sneaking off to wrap my wife’s potentially underwhelming gifts.

    Have good festive times everyone have really enjoyed finding this webpage this year.

    Horners

  43. A flying visit mostly to wish you all a merry / happy / peaceful Christmas 🎄🎁
    Many thanks to everyone here who makes it such an interesting and entertaining forum – setters, bloggers and posters!
    8:22 today, FOI Hotelier LOI Elements COD Red
    Thanks Hurley and Merlin

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