10:03 which is a good time for me on a Hurley puzzle which often trip me up.
18d is a double definition where the verb has two meanings which are almost opposite, these are called contranyms. Other examples
-
- Cleave : split apart or stick together
- Sanction : Approve (“sanction a policy”) or Punish (“sanctioned for lying”)
- Dust : Add Dust (“dust with icing”) or Remove Dust (“dust a room”)
- Seed : Add Seeds (“seed the lawn”) or Remove seeds (“seed the tomatoes)
Across
| 1 | Protective wear wasn’t bad after adjustment to accommodate English (9) |
| SWEATBAND – (WASNT BAD)* contains E{nglish}
Is a sweatband really “protective wear”? It protects the inside of a hat, I suppose. |
|
| 6 | Southeast Asia’s number one body of water (3) |
| SEA – SE (Southeaset) + A {sia} [number 1 = initial letter]
SEA is also an acceptable abbreviation for Southeast Asia, as in ASEAN, and many businesses have an SEA region to go with ANZ, EMEA, NAMER, LATAM etc |
|
| 8 | Bearing left in transport hub (7) |
| AIRPORT – AIR (Bearing) + PORT (left)
That’s bearing as in “he had a noble air/bearing” |
|
| 9 | Burn bright (5) |
| SMART – Double definition
An infection might burn/smart. |
|
| 10 | A loud bleeder, sadly one not to be trusted (6-6) |
| DOUBLE DEALER – (A LOUD BLEEDER)* | |
| 12 | Animals that lady’s finally organised (4) |
| HERD – HER (that lady’s) + {organize}D | |
| 13 | Wandering about after abandoning second-class car (4) |
| AUTO – (ABOUT)* with B(second class) omitted | |
| 17 | Notes owl, perhaps one’s aim is precise (12) |
| SHARPSHOOTER – SHARPS (notes) + HOOTER (owl, perhaps)
These are musical sharps [♯]. For Unicode pedants, that is a Sharp sign, U+266F, not the # sign. |
|
| 20 | Really obnoxious guy, untrustworthy, evil primarily (5) |
| ROGUE – Initial letters of “Really obnoxious guy, untrustworthy, evil”
This could be an &lit clue as all the words together describe a Rogue, sort of. |
|
| 21 | Musical performance article to be rewritten (7) |
| RECITAL – (ARTICLE)*
I wanted article=THE, for THEATRE. |
|
| 23 | Where animal hides in fairy tale (3) |
| LIE – Double def
In hunting terminology, a LIE is the place where a wild animal (esp. a deer) rests, lies low, or hides. “The lie of the deer” = the spot where the deer is concealed. |
|
| 24 | Discouraging new tree trend (9) |
| DETERRENT – (TREE TREND)*
This is an odd one, “Discouraging” is an adjective but “Deterrent” is usually a noun, but can also be an adjective (so says Mr Collins): “The law has a deterrent effect” |
Down
| 1 | Ruler of Iran has changed hotel (4) |
| SHAH – (HAS)* + H{otel}
Ruler in the past now, of course. The last Shah had a massive celebration of 2500 of rulers of Persia (since Cyrus the Great). But then was deposed just a few years later. |
|
| 2 | Part of listener’s noble award (7) |
| EARLOBE – EARL (noble) + OBE (award) | |
| 3 | Ignoring extremists, was candidate also (3) |
| TOO – {s}TOO{d} (was candidate) | |
| 4 | Worker runs after the French horn (6) |
| ANTLER – ANT (worker) + LE (The, French)+ R{uns}
Not a fan of this, since it is quite contrived to get the three pieces in the right order. You have to either assume a missing comma after Worker, an implied “that has” or speak Yoda. |
|
| 5 | Criminal road speed, out of order (9) |
| DESPERADO – (ROAD SPEED)*
I swear this word comes up a lot in crosswords. Just checked: twice in October and twice in August. |
|
| 6 | Hedge — temporary sales area? (5) |
| STALL – Double def
The first Hedge=Stall is nothing to do with farming, they are verbs. “She tried to hedge/stall on giving her answer until she had more information.” |
|
| 7 | Company members in fact or supposition? (6) |
| ACTORS – Hidden in “fact or supposition”
A group of actors is known as a company. |
|
| 11 | Cover education graduate on special study (9) |
| BEDSPREAD – (BED) (B. Ed. , education graduate) + SP{ecial} + READ (study)
SP used to feature on cars as a model identifier, for “special”, a few extra stripes and mud flaps made your Capri a Capri SP. |
|
| 14 | At rest, leisurely displaying framework, wooden perhaps (7) |
| TRESTLE – Hidden in “At rest, leisurely”
The “wooden perhaps” is supposed to make the clue easier, but sometimes, as in this case it makes it harder, as the crucial definition is now the antepenultimate word. |
|
| 15 | Astray, not entirely on line, like some faraway things (6) |
| ASTRAL – ASTRA{y} [not entirely] + L{ine}
I got a bit confused by “starry”, which seems like an anagram of “astray”, |
|
| 16 | Longing, this, to embrace right over time (6) |
| THIRST – THI^S contains R{ight} + T{ime}
Two consecutive clues where most of the letters were hidden in plain sight. |
|
| 18 | Cite evidence to support dispute (5) |
| ARGUE – Double Def, where the two definitions are almost opposite.
Oppositional: “They argued about who was right.” Persuasive: “She argued that honesty is the best policy.” |
|
| 19 | Fool’s clothing? Not half! (4) |
| CLOT – CLOT{HING} [Not half]
I think this is pretty old-fashioned. My grandfather used it and I’ve not heard anyone else use it since, except in the expression “clumsy clot” |
|
| 22 | Vicious dog caught, you rejoice initially (3) |
| CUR – C {aught}[in cricket] + U (you, as in textspeak) + R{ejoice} |
Over 20mins. Slowed down by the solving of the Argue/ Lie combo.
A shout out to Cuarist who in a recent blog, published his 3rd law ‘if a clue makes no sense, look for the hidden’. Actors!
Thanks Hurley and Merlin
Dimly remember Lie where an animal is lying still or hidden, I think, but if we’re going to have Fairy Tale for LIE, I’ll need to keep it in mind. A bit odd for me. CUR vicious, ill-tempered perhaps?
10.22. Not a fan: this puzzle had a bit of a Mara feel to it.
25 minutes ☹️
Another lousy display. Took forever to start and made numerous errors. I feel lost, confused and incapable of improvement. I can’t make headway with cryptics no matter how hard I try. People who began solving when I did are now achieving times which leave me feeling embarrassed at my own shortcomings.
Less than half on 15 x 15 in an hour. Beyond bad. Why can’t I do this? How do I become a good solver? There’s no satisfaction in treading water when I should be seeing an improvement in my skills. I still can’t decide if I’m simply incapable of doing this to a decent standard or if there is a secret that I haven’t yet discovered. Who knows?
Double definitions forever suck and I think SHARPSHOOTER was poorly clued.Notes are either represented by solfege or simply musical notes from A to G.Have never come across clues using notes as SHARP. The setter obviously has very poor musical understanding.