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} |
Double definitions are not my friend.
Worth noting: two word clues are often double definitions!
Our late lamented blogger, The Ritter, called that. “Rotter’s Law”.
Oh yes I’m very good at spotting the dd, but even for an obvious dd like Burn Bright I just couldn’t think of the answer, and didn’t have any word play to assist with extra letters
Sometimes it helps to think of categories. I might say to myself: “burn … burn like a campfire; burn like a lovesick teenager; burn like a bee-sting .”
That might help generate useful thoughts! You might get from STING to SMART, for example.
I was convinced it was ‘shaft’ which almost works
“Don’t shaft/burn them with a low pay rise”; and a shaft of light is a bright light. Works for me.
Sorry to be a wet blanket. You might be able to muster dictionary support for the BURN/SHAFT definition, but I’d be very surprised to see support for “a SMART/BRIGHT of light”!
I wouldn’t say “burn bright” is an obvious DD. IMHO, a “good” DD clue is one where the two words together imply a different sense of both of those words than the answer. In this case, “burn bright” made me think of a torch or a fire or similar, and I couldn’t get that out of my head (which i think could be why I often struggle on these seemingly simple clues). It took me ages to get to burn = a sharp pain and bright = clever.
I have the same experience, they often leave me staring hopelessly. This time I managed it by running through all the synonyms I could think of, a long process.
Thanks Merlin for the explanations for a couple I couldn’t parse. I thought “sweatband” was fine, in the sense it protects your eyes from sweat running into them, or your hands from getting slippy when playing tennis etc.
I have perfect body, ‘cos my eyelashes catch my sweat.
I found this so easy it was hard. I’m not used to having the cryptic supply the actual word to be used in forming the answer. I stumbled home eventually.
Time: 10:43
I too found it mostly straightforward (8min). The only unknown meaning for me was LIE for an animal’s lair.
ROGUE did feel to me like an &lit, in the style of Everyman’s weekly “primarily” clue.
I didn’t have a problem with the wordplay for ANTLER, as that kind of ambiguity in the order of operations seems to be common (though sometimes annoying) in cryptics.
I’d never thought of ARGUE as a contronym, and even now it doesn’t feel as contronym-y as the better-known examples given by Merlin. I suppose the verb always describes the same action, fundamentally (making a point, or taking part in a discussion), while, say, “to cleave” can describe entirely opposite actions. But I don’t mean to start an argument (ahem).
Thanks to Merlin for the blog, I always enjoy the clue-by-clue annotations and comments.
Yes, I agree that ANTLER is a perfectly good clue and I’m not sure what Merlin’s (thanks for the blog!) problem is with it – I don’t understand what the issue is with the non-existent comma. The surface, whilst a trifle absurd, reads very well, whilst making the word assembly pretty clear.
10.13, all good though LIE took a while. Thanks Murley and Herlin.
Pretty quick except I couldn’t see the hidden TRESTLE until I’d got AUTO and that took ages – most of that trying to force ‘Audi’ to fit. I reckon those two must have doubled my time, although STALL took a while too. All green in what is looking like a pedestrian 16.42.
Ditto with Audi
We found this pretty tough, eventually limping home with NHO lie in 26.58
Sharps hooter raised a smile but most of the anagrams, even written out, proved elusive.
Thanks Hurley, and Merlin, enjoyed the contranyms.
I think HEW is another contranym.
I thought this was fairly tricky in places, particularly the NE and those sneaky three letter clues.
Started with SEA and finished with an unparsed LIE in 8.23.
Thanks to Merlin and Hurley.
23.00 on the nose, tough
I was slow to start and moved erratically through this. I was thrown by quite a few clues at first and I managed to complete the bottom half before returning to gaps in the top half.
The clues were all reasonable in retrospect but it didn’t flow smoothly for me. Finished in 18.55. Not too bad for a Hurley in my case.
Thanks, both.
Top half flew in but I found the bottom much tougher. Like vinyl it took me by surprise to find so much of the answer in the cryptic (e.g. astra{y}). Once I got my eye in progress resumed and I finished in 08:09 with LIE/ARGUE. COD AIRPORT.
Many thanks Hurley and Merley.
22.40 Despite admonishing selves after yesterday’s poor performance, we failed to stay out of SCC.
NHO LIE ( was momentarily worried that a fairy tale may be deemed such…that would have definitely ruined day… ). Phew.
Slow on SHARPSHOOTER -liked it though : )
Thank you Hurley and Merlin ( need you M, for various parsings and enjoyed the contronyms)
Don’t like to ruin the rest of your day, but surely that’s what the setter is implying with the double def??
Oh, gosh — obviously YES — was running out door – happily chatting about new word ‘ LIE’ for deer… commenting to himself about reindeer and going way off track ( yes, Too Often Lost) and now I look at it again and realise in my delight I had not focussed on which bit was the definition.
At least there are only a few hours left that can be ruined…
And I feel embarrassed as well.
I sort of thank you : ) .. I will try to not be so scatty again..
6.04
Thought I was slow on this, failing to get 1a straightaway and having to leave the two DDs in the NE (my nemesis also Tina) to the denouement. But those Guatemalan grains must have had some kick in them this morning (coffee I hasten to add).
LOI SMART was excellent; not sure I’ve seen it before.
Thanks Hurley and Merlin for another magic blog.
Also unaware of the hunting terminology and a bit slow with the DDs, hence 15:37.
A good mix of untangling and thinking until I got to LOI. LEE/LIE. Sadly went for LEE for a DNF in 24 mins after trying to justify ‘lie of the land’ which was incorrect use anyhow. So, inevitably in the SCC without a ticket.
Thanks Hurley and Merlin.
A ticket ? It’s cheaper to get a yearly pass. . .
Cheaper? Over 70 it’s free entry!
Damn, I forgot to cancell the direct debit !
5:11. No issues, although I did try SHED for 12A before I read the whole clue. I liked SMART the most. Thanks Hurley and Merlin.
I found this hard and really struggled to limp home in 31:54, by some distance the longest time taken in months. Just not on the right wavelength at all for a number of clues. LOI SHARPSHOOTER and NHO LIE in this context.
I was seeing partial anagrams that weren’t there, dyslexia comes in handy sometimes, lobe and sharp for example.
11 in 20 minutes, nothing after that.
Thanks H&M
11:51. LOI was SMART, where I wasted too long trying to think of synonyms of burn as in stream, beck, bourn, brook.
Thanks Merlin and Hurley
This took a bit longer than usual. Needed an alphabet trawl to get STALL and SMART. NHO LIE in hunting terminology and THIRST took a while when it should have been obvious. Thanks Hurley for good brain workout and Merlin for customary quality blog.
Difficult, I found. I needed help from CCD with ARGUE and SMART. (Had put Lay instead of LIE). Eventual PDM with SHARPSHOOTER gave me LOI TRESTLE, having missed the hidden
FOI SHAH, but took a while to see SWEATBANDS.
Liked STALL, ASTRAL, AUTO.
Thanks vm, Merlin. Blog much needed.
09:52. I found the clues a bit loosely worded for my taste at times, more time spent parsing than normal. quite a tricky puzzle I thought.
8:53 for the solve with last pair of LIE/ARGUE adding a few seconds trying to justify both defs for each.
No complaints about SWEATBAND as I wear one to protect my wrist from developing a sweatrash from my running watch. No complaints about ANTLER clue … wordplay is clear … put in ANT then R after LE.
Currently feeling nervous about the QC as now up to 38 in a row and seven sub-10s from November’s nine puzzles and fear there has to be a stinker round the corner. Practicing acceptance that it has to end sometime. That said, I like the standard it’s hitting, you only have to look through the blog to see there are people taking 15-30+ mins to complete these so they are by no means a write-in for everybody.
Thanks to Merlin and to Hurley – I really enjoyed the SHARPSHOOTER and BEDSPREAD clues.
If you “…wear one to protect [your] wrist from developing a sweatrash from [your] running watch.”, how does your Garmin optical HRM work?
Perhaps he doesn’t turn it on or wears a chest monitor? I wear a Garmin Forerunner 735 and find that sun cream is an issue.
I had a chest strap for many years but finally weaned myself off wearing that about a year ago.
Ignoring the inaccuracy of the optical sensors, it’s just a great bit of marketing but that’s all. Elite runners train using pace, elite cyclists use powermeters. You don’t see Premier League footballers checking they’re staying in zone 2 on a Saturday afternoon and I didn’t see anyone in the gym this afternoon checking their pulse after their set of deadlifts.
Have to agree. The optical wrist sensors are a useful guide, but not necessarily accurate.
25:07
Breezed through the top half in no time but came unstuck at the bottom. The wording of the clue for LOI TRESTLE fooled me and I nearly did put THEATRE until I spotted the hidden.
Tricky one for me, struggling with SMART and failing to parse LIE, among other problems. 18:41 overall.
Thank you for the blog!
10:09
Mostly OK but slowed considerably for the last three or four. Finished with the slightly disappointing ARGUE and LIE – wasn’t convinced with either clue.
Thanks Merlin and Hurley
Back to normal with 27.27.
The last two were the double definition crossers of SMART and STALL which, while initially dreaded, did not cause too much of a hold up.
Thanks Hurley and Merlin for the very informative blog.
My thanks to Hurley and Merlin.
A bit strange I thought as I was pretty unconvinced by a few such as
1a Sweatband, I really wondered if I had missed another anagram.
9a Smart, I had a block here for a while, no idea why.
23a Lie, NHO that def, and missed the def in the clue. I had lee without any justification so DNF.
18d Argue, I thought it was a weak def but I put it in anyway. Didn’t notice the contranym but that doesn’t make any difference IMO.
22d Cur, there wasn’t any pointer towards the textspeak but there was no doubt here.
13 minutes. LOI AUTO, unparsed, where for too long I was trying to justify Audi.
Also paused over LIE.
A good QC overall.
Thanks for the helpful blog.
David
Suck on 9a for quite a long time, I had smart or spark both of which seemed to fit, but neither particularly well. Eventually got actors which settled it. Once again forgot to look for inclusions which would have given me both actors and trestle (2 of last 3 in) had I remebered the basic rule of checking all the clue types. Slow solve but a good workout. Thanks Hurley and Merlin.
Another missed target at 10.50, but Hurley generally provides a puzzle that extends me. Like others I was surprised to see SWEATBAND defined as protective wear, and it took me a little while to parse LIE and ARGUE. Once I had seen the light, there was no argument from me as to whether they worked or not.
From SHAH to SMART, which took a moment or two, in 7:37. Needed all the crossers before seeing ASTRAL. Thanks Hurley and Merlin.
17:55
Put in WASTEBAND on the first pass spotting my error when 1d had to be SHAH.
I was 50/50 between LEE and LIE not making the fairy tale connection but I had heard of an animals lie.
Last one in went unparsed – as others, kept trying to make AUDI work until I finally saw the well hidden TRESTLE.
FOI: WASTEBAND/AIRPORT
LOI: AUTO
COD: SHARPSHOOTER
Thanks to Hurley and Merlin
Waking in the wee small hours and deciding to tackle the 15×15 first clearly addled my brain as I tried to make this way more complicated than it actually was.
I finally crawled home in a poor 19:37.
I found this quite tricky in places so, despite a fast start in the NW, I wasn’t overly surprised to end up in the SCC queue. An alpha-trawl for loi Smart🙄 then robbed me of the chance of a window seat. The noted owls was a great clue, but for me CoD has to be Auto, if only for the (eventual) pdm. Invariant
Got it done in 14 minutes, wasn’t sure if argue/lie were correct but couldn’t think of anything better.
23:00
13:11, but with a toss-up guess between LEE and LIE which I fortunately came out on the right side of. Not surprised that this is the clue exciting the most comment, as neither part of the DD is very obvious: to call fairy tales lies is I think harsh (fables I’d accept …), and the animal hide meaning is (as evidenced by many other posters’ remarks) “somewhat obscure”. That apart, no real hold-ups, though I was a little surprised there was no homophone indicator for You = U in CUR, SWEATBAND as protective wear went in with a shrug (on this reckoning, almost any item of clothing could be deemed protective wear, because they protect one from being cold, or being indecent in public, or whatever), and I also wondered about the seeming dissonance in parts of speech in DETERRENT without spotting Merlin’s get-out usage. So not entirely in sync with this one.
Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
Around here “fairy tale” is used derisively to call out a lie.
This was a regular QC (like regular coffee) from Hurley. I did wonder if the caught in the “caught, you” part of the clue for cur was doing double duty as an aural wordplay indicator for you and c for cricket caught.
13 mins. Most in about 8 but stymied in the SW by (yet again) the literal use of Astray and This plus the NHO animal LIE. Oh well, learning to adapt to different cryptic styles is an important lesson.
SHARPSHOOTER was excellent. Thanks Merlin and Hurley.
Held up by EARLOBE as I thought award was the definition for a while. Liked SHARPSHOOTER. Biffed LIE – thanks for the explanation Merlin.
It felt like we made heavy weather of this. I’d certainly agree with Templar that the bottom half was much tougher than the top. Nevertheless we did manage to come in a little under par at 11:43. The hiddens were good. Thanks, Merlin and Hurley.
I found this tricky, getting very few of the acrosses on first pass. The downs were a bit better but I was generally slow throughout. LIE went in with a shrug.
FOI – 12ac HERD
LOI – 9ac SMART (needed an alphabet trawl for this)
COD – 17ac SHARPSHOOTER
Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.
14.18 DNF. I had STAND for 6d and didn’t notice when DOUBLE DEALER turned it into the nonsensical STANL. A very poor day with an error in the Concise too. Thanks Merlin and Hurley.
14:13 and oddly I was unconscious of taking much time until I got snagged on the crossing of SMART and STALL and took a couple of minutes to reason my way through them. SWEATBAND for “protective gear” was remote enough to need several looks. I enjoyed the loud bleeder and the criminal speeder.
I still vividly remember how my Iranian fellow students expressed terror of the Shah’s agents planted among them.
Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.
Dnf…
Really struggled with this for some reason – even the now startingly obvious “Airport” failed to materialise. After a decent run of completions it looks like I’m heading down a non-completion phase, just as I thought my averages were improving for the year.
FOI – 1dn “Shah”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 17ac “Sharpshooter”
Thanks as usual!
Delayed by 3 double definitions today. I eventually solved them. STALL fell first followed by SMART and finally LIE. 9:25 Thanks Merlin
It all went in, though NHO SWEATBAND, and L2I were with a shrug of the shoulders: ARGUE (= cite evidence?) and NHO animals hiding in a LIE. But then I’m not a hunter-shooter-fisher …. Thanks, Hurley and Merlin.
In a court of law, the barrister acting on your behalf will argue/cite evidence to support your version of events . . .should the need ever arise 🙂
Ushered to my seat in the SCClubhouse by smart actors. 20:19. Thought the smart one definitely overplayed the role..
Ta HAM😉
11:34, from SEA to AUTO. I didn’t know the hunting definition of LIE, but it had to be.
Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.