QC 3107 by Hurley

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

14:50 for me today, with usual clever clues from Hurley. A little too many anagrams for my taste, but the long ones are impressive.

LOI was LATTER which was tough because the final three checkers (-A-T-R) have dozens of solutions, and the clue could read either of two ways. S + (coffee) meaning “right”; or (coffee) + R meaning (second).

Across

1 Epic drama about caring type (9)
PARAMEDIC – (EPIC DRAMA)*

I first heard of this word during coverage of the Challenger disaster, where parachutes were seen on the screen. The announcer said that these were not survivors but just paramedics attending the scene. Not knowing this word (which was not common in Britain we just had “ambulance drivers”) I thought the “para” suffix was just like para-trooper, or para-glider: that they were medics who arrived by parachute. Thought this for years.
6 Hackneyed conclusion of tedious story (5)
STALE – {tediou}S + TALE (story)

Hackney (in London) was historically known for supplying and grazing horses. The widespread use and frequent hiring of these horses led to the term “hackneyed” being used metaphorically to describe something that has become STALE. 
8 Fortitude in finish: you organised church (9)
ENDURANCE – END (finish) + U (you) + RAN (organised) + CH{urch}
9 Behind is displayed in daft error! (5)
AFTER – hidden in daft error
10 A levy reversed staff time for growth area (9)
ALLOTMENT – A + LLOT(=TOLL (levy) [reversed]) + MEN (staff) + T{ime}
12 Wife wearing jeans turning to twirl (6)
SWIVEL – W{ife} in SIVEL (=LEVIS(jeans) [turning])
13 Second coffee? Right (6)
LATTER – LATTE (coffee) + R{ight}

My LOI. See preamble for why.
16 Milan team left huddle regularly for break (9)
INTERLUDE – INTER [Inter Milan are a football team] + L{eft} + {h}U{d}D{l}E
18 Landlord’s first moderate rental agreement (5)
LEASE – L{andlord} + EASE (moderate, the verb)
19 One new currency unit, the writer’s stimulus (9)
INCENTIVE – I(one) + N{ew} + CENT (currency unit)+ I’VE (the writer has)
21 Swiftness ultimately sees top bicycle take lead (5)
SPEED – last letters of “sees top bicycle take lead”
22 Honeymooners, Lewis, Wendy, I missed out unfortunately (5-4)
NEWLY-WEDS – (LEW{I}S WENDY)*

Down

1 Nobles look mature (7)
PEERAGE – PEER (look) + AGE (mature, the verb)
2 Sieve   puzzle (6)
RIDDLE – Double definition

I always get confused between a Riddle and a Griddle, but the expression that something is “riddled with errors” brings the right one to mind.
3 Value that’s intrinsic to some rituals (5)
MERIT – Hidden in “some rituals”

Like many, I first heard of this word through the use of Merit badges at primary school.
4 End of second home racket (3)
DIN – {secon}D + IN (home)
5 Sofa lifted! Cheers wildly (12)
CHESTERFIELD– (LIFTED CHEERS)*

Apparently the 4th Earl of Chesterfield placed an order for an elegant and comfortable sofa sometime during the 18th century. And his Lordship’s name remains, along with Sandwich and Cardigan.

Very nice anagram, had me thinking of sofa, couch, futon, but couldn’t see how to get to twelve letters.
6 Titian cast is wrong, figures expert (12)
STATISTICIAN – (TITIAN CAST IS)*
7 Perhaps Thunberg’s performance, unconventional visit (8)
ACTIVIST – ACT (performance) + (VISIT)* [unconventional]

When you see a phrase like “perhaps Thunberg”, GRETA looks to be the likely answer, but not this time.
11 Judgment by European: it’s upset friend (8)
ESTIMATE – E{uropean} + (ITS)*[upset] + MATE (friend)
14 Fantastic sea legs never getting any older (7)
AGELESS – (SEA LEGS)*
15 Pointless dossier containing every other letter from cult (6)
FUTILE – FILE (dossier) contains {c}U{l}T
17 Angry about having long limbs (5)
RANGY – (ANGRY)*

The term was first used to describe animals, particularly livestock, that were accustomed to moving freely over large areas: RANGE-Y. Hence long-limbed, and later applied to people.
20
Firm, western, milk supplier (3)
COW  –  CO (firm) + W{estern}

80 comments on “QC 3107 by Hurley”

  2. As always an interesting blog from Merlin, does the horsey word ‘hack’ also relate to Hackney perhaps? Also I’m trying to figure out what paramedics with parachutes were doing at the Challenger disaster, which occurred nearly ten miles up. All done in 7.53, mostly straightforward though I spent time wondering whether the CHESTERFIELD anagram was some obscure French term. Thanks to both.

  3. Somewhat surreally, I had ANTIWEST/SKEWER for ACTIVIST/SWIVEL. Must be One Of Those Mornings. Had to come here to be put out of my misery. Thanks Merlin! And Hurley!

      1. Indeed. Although I think one of the moderators binned it. Pretty terrible, too many complements and too polite, not self-deprecating enough, stood out a mile.

  5. Six on the first pass of acrosses and then struggled with that numnber at the end with LATTER, ACTIVIST, SWIVEL, ALLOTMENT, RIDDLE and finally ESTIMATE all needing careful extraction. Ended up all green in 9.55.

  7. I found this straightforward until I hit SWIVEL and LATTER, the latter eventually coming to mind, but the former DNF’d me.

    Pi ❤️

  8. 9:03, and a very pleasant solve. Only CHESTERFIELD not known – thank you Merlin for the explanation – but once the checkers were in it could not be anything else. SWIVEL was my LOI; I toyed briefly with an anagram of W+jeans with turning as the anagram indicator (well why not, almost every other word in the language can be one it seems), but not surprisingly didn’t find one.

    Many thanks Merlin for the interesting blog.

    2. I tried that anagram too … “turning” is actually one of the more conventional anagram indicators!

  9. Apart from taking way too long to unravel PARAMEDIC I found this to be fairly straightforward.
    Started with STALE and finished with ALLOTMENT in 5.59.
    Thanks to Merlin and Hurley.

  10. Lovely friendly puzzle as so often from Hurley – thank you! LOI RIDDLE, needed all the checkers to recall that rare word for a sieve.

  11. A steady solve starting with STATISTICIAN and ending with SWIVEL – Levis, doh!
    Also tried to fit GRETA into 7d until PDM. Liked ALLOTMENT, NEWLY-WEDS, STALE.
    CHESTERFIELD easy to biff – in fact I found all the clues fair and fun, and felt I should have been even faster.
    Thanks vm, Merlin.

  12. I found this immeasurably easier than yesterdays but I note that the snitch is near identical, such is the mystery of crosswords.

    Early on I was threatening a PB time but was held up by the unfamiliar CHERSTERFIELD and the you = U in ENDURANCE, trying for a long time to make EPISCOPAL work. All green in 10:41

  13. As per Plett, as usual – couldn’t solve 1a. I then started solving the downs to get checkers for 1a, and found that everything else was flying in (except having to stick my tongue out to spell STATISTICIAN).

    All done in 05:43 for a Brisk Business Day. COD to SWIVEL. Many thanks Merley and Hurley.

    PS – Merlin – at 8a you have “CH{urch}”, but it should be “CE (Church)”.

    1. I was going to point that out too. For newcomers and learners: CE (Church) comes from Church of England.

      Thanks Merlin and Hurley.

  15. A good QC from Hurley, despite the unhelpful (in parts) grid. I had no trouble with the longer anagrams and finished in 14.40 (fully parsed) but I should have been quicker. I was held up by SWIVEL (yes, I tried S and JEANS, too) and by LATTER. LOI ESTIMATE didn’t click until the second T of latter was in place.
    Thanks, both.

  16. 9 minutes. 1a took a while to come as usual, not seeing the anagram straight away. Then worked steadily through with SWIVEL my LOI needing the checkers. Favourite was the smooth surface for STALE.

    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin

  17. 4:29. Neat puzzle as usual from Hurley. LOI SWIVEL which I left until I got the checkers when I didn’t see it quickly. Thanks Hurley and Merlin

  18. Really enjoyed this puzzle, solved in 40 minutes, would have been quicker if I had checked my spellings when I wrote them in, had PEARAGE instead of PEERAGE, and despite having to spell out statistic, still spelt it in the grid wrong 😆. Thanks for the blog 😁

  19. I always enjoy a Hurley puzzle, and this maintained his high standard. I was nicely tuned in to finish in 7.38 which is probably about two minutes inside my average for a Hurley.

  20. Finished in two straight passes, and every clue carefully sight checked having hit a K instead of an I while warming up on the Concise. My failure rate is currently around 1 in 3 and I’m AGAIN trying to slow myself down and take greater care.

    Merlin’s excellent blog set me thinking about “hackneyed”. I held a Hackney Carriage licence for 45 years, but when I pass my local rank these days there’s invariably a line of idle cabs, and vehicles of Uber and suchlike buzzing around like wasps. The trade has definitely become STALE.

    FOI PARAMEDIC
    LOI PEERAGE
    COD ACTIVIST (excellent misdirection)
    TIME 4:39

    1. Dear Busman,
      Would you like me to end you some of my (much more pedestrian) solving speed in exchange for some of yours?

  21. Great puzzle, great blog, thanks both.
    Time of 16.40 included repeated demands for attention from overly affectionate dog.

  22. Struggled with the top half acrosses, but got a few on the bottom half. Then found the downs much easier and with lots of crossers in finished in 21:11. Most enjoyable.

  23. From PEERAGE to COW in 6:25. Like Templar, when 1a didn’t jump out at me, I switched to the downs and PARAMEDIC then jumped from the crossers. Made sure I counted the Cs in the anagrist for STATISTICIAN. Thanks Hurley and Merlin.

  24. 4:42

    A gentle blast through this Hurley puzzle – no hold-ups bar my LOI INCENTIVE where it took several seconds to find the answer. I failed to parse SPEED also, but with the three checkers, it was a likely guess. CHESTERFIELD – used to have one years back, but ended up rather tatty once the dogs got hold of it…

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

  25. First time in a while I’ve eschewed the SCC, finishing in 15 minutes all parsed. Few hold-ups of any note although I had to write out the longer anagrams. Nice puzzle although a slightly strange grid.

    FOI – 6ac STALE
    LOI – 12ac SWIVEL (another who tried to anagram wjeans)
    COD – 8ac ENDURANCE

    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin

  26. Its very rare for me to be sub 10 minutes!
    Even managed to pass everything as I went except for SPEED, which looking back on I am not sure how I missed.
    This is an excellent one for getting people into cryptics, no archaic words or references to pre 2000 media or sport and very very few “crossword-isms”. Very approachable.
    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

  27. From STATISTICIAN, as I was slow to see PARAMEDIC, to INCENTIVE in a not too shabby 6:01. COD to SWIVEL. Thanks Merlin.

    I am now off to clear the detritus following a flash storm here in Mallorca yesterday. We lost electricity, had water ingress under the exterior doors and had a temporary new waterfall feature in the garden. 3 acres of field turned into a shallow lake. I do believe in climate change but I am not a big fan of the ACTIVIST in today’s QC. I really wanted to put in ‘annoying’ but it wouldn’t parse.

      1. Thanks Plett. No permanent damage and we have electricity again. We just have a big clear up operation the worst of which is reconstructing the gravel driveway.

    2. If it is any comfort to you, 7dn is directly above 20dn, so it reads ACTIVIST COW. Poor Greta.
      I hope you get cleared up all right

  28. All three of the long answers were write-ins for me, so for a long time this looked like being a comfortable sub-20, but you know what comes next. In this case, not knowing any of Thunberg’s middle names (I now see Hergé gets a nod), meant that 7d couldn’t help with Swivel, so I spent some time looking at (W+Jeans)* before the much less specific Activist put an end to that idea. My loi, Speed, probably vies with Cow and Din for the title of ‘easiest on the grid’, but instead I spent ages trying to ‘cycle’ a word to fit. The upshot of all this was a very borderline sub-20. CoD to Interlude for the surprise as the answer unfolded. Invariant

  29. Another thumbs-up (or should that be down to be historically accurate?) from me. All done in 11:21 for my seventh quickest solve of the year. LOI was INCENTIVE, COD to SWIVEL, which has just brought to mind the memory of telling people to “Swivel on that”, meaning “so there” or, as the dictionary online has it, “used to indicate that the person addressed will have to accept a particular situation, even if it is unwelcome.” Anyone else remember this piece of schoolyard slang? Anyway, thanks for the great blog Merlin, and to Hurley.

  30. 10:55
    Only 3 on the first across pass and 4 on the downs. NEWLY WEDS, CHESTERFIELD and STATISTICIAN being subsequent write ins helped to pick up the pace.
    A nice crossword from Hurley with my LOI taking me over a rare sub 10 min solve.
    FOI: AFTER
    LOI: LATTER
    COD: ENDURANCE

    A big thanks to Merlin and Hurley

    Edit: Just gone back to yesterday’s 15×15 cryptic and managed to finish it in 45:27 – my first ever 15×15 solve!! 🎉🥳
    A huge thanks to all the QC posters yesterday that indicated it was worth a go.

  31. A similar experience to some others in that I couldn’t get going in the top half, but found the bottom half much easier. This enabled met to work upwards to finish in 21.03. Thanks to Hurley for a fair test and Merlin for an informative blog (as always).

  32. I raced through this. Just under 6 minutes; LOI FUTILE. And mostly parsed en route.
    Nice clues , a proper QC I think.
    David

  33. I raced through this. Just under 6 minutes; LOI FUTILE. And mostly parsed en route.
    Nice clues , a proper QC I think.
    David

      1. It is easily done. Of course it is very easy for a poster to remove his/her own post. Just hit ‘edit’ and then delete.

  34. 9.09 Mostly quick. PARAMEDIC needed checkers and I spent a couple of minutes on ACTIVIST and SWIVEL. Thanks Merlin and Hurley.

  35. This was a nice QC indeed. Did wonder why an aural indicator was missing for the U/you in the clue for endurance .
    Thanks to Merlin for the paramedic story. Thanks to Hurley too for a standard QC.

  37. 9:01. Helped by spotting PARAMEDIC straight away. Sometimes anagrams just do that. LOI ACTIVIST. Like others, COD to SWIVEL.
    Thank you Hurley for the puzzle. Thank you Merlin for the blog; I now have an image of the 4th Earl sitting on his Chesterfield, wearing his Cardigan, eating his Sandwich

  38. Great to get PARAMEDIC and STALE straight away. And I maintained a brisk pace right up until five to go. However, despite spending seven minutes or so on those five, I still crossed the line in 23 minutes. A jolly good time for me.

    My last few in were SWIVEL and ACTIVIST on the LHS and CHESTERFIELD, ESTIMATE and LATTER on the right.

    Many thanks to Merlin and Hurley.

    1. A great time, Mr Random! I know, from reading your comments, how hard you’ve worked, over the years, at the QCs. It’s paying off. 👍🏻

      1. Hello Pam,
        Thank you very much for your morale boosting comment. That’s very kind of you. Mrs Random is generally much more tough on me.

  39. Very friendly. SWIVEL took me a couple of minutes to sort out, otherwise gentle going. Thanks both.

  41. Needed several checkers to see PARAMEDIC but another fairly swift one for us at 9:33. Not a fan of U / you (as in 8a) absent some homophone or SMS indicator but my impression is that we are seeing it more frequently recently: I’ll get used to it. Thanks to Merlin and Hurley.

  44. 13:26 for me, with LATTER being my LOI too for the same reasons as Merlin. Wasted some time trying to get a sofa that started with “chaise” despite the anagram fodder not having any As in it.

    Thank you for the blog!

  45. Very familiar with paramedic(s) from being scraped up metaphorically by three of them after my cycling accident. Actually very carefully rolled onto a spine board complete with head blocks. Now paraplegic unfortunately, very fortunately not tetraplegic.

    September is / was National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. There are approximately 100000 people in the UK with spinal cord injuries. Roughly half are a result of impact injuries, car accidents, motorcycle accidents and falls in the home, the other half from medical conditions including compression issues caused by obesity. I spent seven months in the spinal rehab unit at Stoke Mandeville.

    Solved 19 today leaving five, activist, latter, allotment, estimate and futile which I’m hoping were the more advanced clues.

    Thanks Merlin and Hurley

    1. Thank you for the information about the awareness month. Stoke Mandeville is indeed a wonderful place. Continued good wishes to you 😊

    2. Thanks for the update on Spinal Awareness month; so sorry to hear about your cycling accident. Our daughter had a spinal bleed many years ago crushing her spinal cord from T3 to T5 leading to her being paraplegic too. It’s quite life-changing. She spent a few months at Stoke Mandeville before transferring to the Spinal unit at Salisbury. Best wishes for your rehabilitation and progress.

      1. There were three young women and two young men in SM when I was there that had had spinal stokes. Not something I’d heard of before. Some thoughts that this increase in that condition may be linked to personal environmental factors. Two young men from driving into water that was too shallow. They were C level injuries that tend to lead to tetraplegia. I’m T4 incomplete so similar level to your daughter. It has affected my autonomic functions so my heart and lungs don’t work as well as they should. I was 72 when this happened to me. It’s probably easier for me to deal with at my age, and the fact that it was an accident that happened when I was doing the sport that I enjoyed. I wish your daughter well.

  46. 9:24 for me, a rare sub-10 time. FOI STALE, LOI SPEED, where it took me a while to spot the “last letters” trick.

    Thanks to Hurley and Merlin.

  48. A One-fail but not sure anyone else tried to squeeze in ‘Wrangler’ and as we know ‘mineD’ didn’t work, perhaps my wearing ‘Chinos’ blanked my mind for ‘Levi’s’! I know it doesn’t count but if I’d got it I would have finished.

  49. 20 mins…

    Didn’t think I was going to make my 20 mins target, but luckily a flurry of clues went in once I sorted out the 5dn “Chesterfield” anagram. A good puzzle from Hurley that required a bit of thought. Like many, 12ac “Swivel” took a while, as did the parsing for 21ac “Speed”.

    FOI – 4dn “Din”
    LOI – 10ac “Allotment”
    COD – 12ac “Swivel”

    Thanks as usual!

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