Quick Cryptic 2554 by Hurley

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Nothing to scare the horses from Hurley this morning. A nice compact puzzle that I solved in just over 5 minutes. There’s a cross-reference at 5dn which I know some think shouldn’t be in the QC, but it’s quite a simple one. It occurs to me that cross-references always seem to refer forwards, i.e. to clues you haven’t done yet, which makes them chewier than they need be. Am I imagining it?

Across
1 Collection of beach pebbles, not hard — one only (6)
SINGLE – SHINGLE minus H for hard
4 Reportedly become aware of American count (6)
CENSUS – sounds like ‘sense’ + US
8 A French proviso a learner finds categorical (13)
UNCONDITIONAL – UN (a, French) + CONDITION (proviso) + A + L
10 Be in great need of Conservative party? (5)
CRAVE – C + RAVE
11 Is feeling cold in small area of activity by river, sunless initially (7)
SHIVERS – S + HIVE (area of activity) + R (river)+ S[unless]
13 Lack of knowledge of racing — one at sea (9)
IGNORANCE – anagram (‘at sea’) of RACING ONE
17 Past love, Tim, originally called around (3-4)
ONE-TIME – O (love) + TIM with NÉE (originally called) outside
18 Regularly missing usual uncle’s piquancy (5)
SAUCE – alternate letters
19 One seeking very best refit pics — note resort needed (13)
PERFECTIONIST – anagram (‘resort needed’) of REFIT PICS NOTE
21 Sword charge? That is right (6)
RAPIER – RAP (charge, as in rap sheet) + IE + R
22 Some intervene — erasing superficial display (6)
VENEER – hidden word
Down
1 Bitter, extremely credible, informant (6)
SOURCE – SOUR + C[redibl]E
2 Fruit, fine (not half!) — certain to be reordered (9)
NECTARINE – NE (half of ‘fine’) + anagram (‘to be reordered’) of CERTAIN
3 Move suddenly forward in swim? Not at first (5)
LUNGE – PLUNGE minus first letter
5 Issue of 6 maybe, ode in it surprisingly? (7)
EDITION – Cross reference from 6dn – i.e ‘issue of The Sun maybe’. anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ODE IN IT
6 Tabloid relative mentioned (3)
SUN – Sounds like SON
7 Ostentatious display cut — power intervenes (6)
SPLASH – SLASH with P for power inserted
9 Rising in South calling for immediate action (9)
INSURGENT – IN + S + URGENT
12 Senior worker no longer — energy reduction I’ve seen finally (9)
EXECUTIVE – EX + E + CUT + IVE. Not sure what the ‘seen finally’ is doing, though I suppose it needs something to finish off the sentence.
14 Want of sophistication in arena I ‘ve tested (7)
NAÏVETÉ – hidden French word
15 Police officer’s helicopter losing height (6)
COPPER – CHOPPER minus H for height
16 Society girl at first turns on Romeo — one owing money (6)
DEBTOR – DEB + T[urns] + O[n] + R
18 Ray said something (5)
SPOKE – double definition
20 Move fast for rent (3)
RIP – Double definition

63 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2554 by Hurley”

  1. I didn’t think anything at the time, but ‘finally’ in 12d seems unnecessary; we need the ‘seen’ (or something else) to complete the phrase. The whole clue is not that easy to make sense of. I had a brief MER at RIP, thinking ‘but “rent” is past tense”; but of course it’s a noun here, as is RIP. I did have, and do, a more major MER at 10ac: my craving for chocolate, or Scotch, while great, is not a need. 5:34

    1. But if the craving develops into a addiction I suppose the person or his doctor might call the craving a need( i.e. he can’t function without it).

      1. Even in that extreme case, the craving is not itself a need. (I agree with you, by the way, on bitter/sour.)

  2. 10:17. Some interesting definitions – bitter for SOUR, ray for SPOKE, past for ONE-TIME, and swim for pLUNGE. The others I can accept, but bitter = SOUR seems to cross the line!

  3. There are five tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami. Bitter and sour are not the same!

  4. I hardly ever work the clues “in order.” Each puzzle seems t0 evoke a different strategy.
    In some figurative senses, “bitter” and “sour” are equivalent, as in speaking of an experience that left a _____ taste in your mouth.
    NAÏVETÉ has been part of the English language for yonks now.
    You’ve a typo in your title.

  5. But for a couple of lazy typos, and getting SON instead of SUN (I’ve never been able to fully grasp the wordplay in those ‘sounds like’ clues) I finished in under 14 minutes so I’m taking this as a win. So, after a couple of poor showings I end the week on 3/5.
    I liked this puzzle and adjudge it a fine QC.
    Thank you Hurley and Curarist for a pleasant end to the week’s solving.
    I am hoping to be let out on my own to travel to Gloucester tomorrow to start my Christmas shopping and, more importantly, to watch the rugby – the perfect prelude to the festive long weekend.
    Happy Christmas all! 🎄

    1. You’re STARTING your Christmas shopping TOMORROW? Bravo! Enjoy the rugby and, of course, all that follows.

  6. I now feel greatly more informed about bitter/sour. Too many seasonal distractions to concentrate properly and 14.46 seems too long but an enjoyable puzzle. Took several unjustifiable minutes to get SPOKE and dopily put insurrect (?) for INSURGENT which took some tracking down. Some clever clues here like ONE-TIME and SHIVERS. Thanks to Hurley, thanks to Curarist and merry Christmas to all.

  7. 13:00. Seemed to be hard going at the time, but not looking at it now. Still, I needed to do a bit of biffing eg for ONE-TIME and spent a while working out why INSURGENCY was incorrect. The ‘Bitter’/SOUR controversy passed me by, but I think Guy’s example above gives the setter an out. SPOKE was a tricky one to finish with.

    Thanks to Hurley and Curarist

  8. 9 minutes with 18dn as my LOI by some way – I seem to recall that ‘ray/SPOKE’ gave me trouble on a previous occasion and triggered something of a debate here. It’s perfectly fine but perhaps not a synonym that’s familiar to all.

    I’ve no problem with ‘bitter/SOUR’ because as Guy has pointed out it can be justified figuratively. But leaving that aside, in general usage when referring to taste there is little if any distinction to be drawn between adjectives such as bitter, sour, sharp pungent, tart, acid etc – their overriding shared characteristic being that they are all antonyms of ‘sweet’.

  9. Beaten by inserting SHIVERY and, not budging on it, having to create SPLAYN.

    I was unsettled neither by the bitter/sour issue, thinking of them more as feelings than tastes/flavours in this instance, nor crave/need.

    Thanks Hurley for the puzzle and Curarist for this ‘qucikie’ blog.

  10. 8:17

    Mildly irked by more cat shenanighans leaving me forgetting to pause while attending to the beasts – only a minute or so, but irksome nevertheless. No real difficulties though needed all of the checkers for both L2I INSURGENT and CRAVE.

    Thanks Hurley and Curarist

  11. An enjoyable puzzle to end the QC week. Started with SINGLE and finished with the tricky SPOKE with only the parsing of ONE TIME causing much of a delay.
    The bitter/sour issue passed me by which is probably one of the benefits of not thinking too hard about things – if it fits the definition and wordplay looks about right then I’m happy to go with it. On the downside it may also explain why I so rarely finish the 15×15 where greater accuracy is needed.
    Crossed the line in 6.39 with COD to INSURGENT.
    Thanks to Curarist

  12. 21:21. Tempted to throw the towel in before knocking on the door of the empty SCC, the three that sent me there were CENSUS, SPLASH and LOI SOURCE. We also had the homophonic SAUCE, at least for us non-rhotics.

    COD COPPER

  13. Happy enough to finish this in just under 10 minutes after a few toughies earlier in the week, but some clunky surfaces and some rather forced “IKEA” type clues led to rather more “biff then try to work out parsing” than is wholly enjoyable. Throw in a few “stretched” synonyms (eg bitter/sour and ray/spoke, both no doubt legit but both feeling unnatural) and I felt that this was not Hurley’s finest.

    Many thanks to Curarist for the blog, and as this is the last QC before the festivities, a Merry Christmas to all
    Cedric

  14. After making THREE typos on Wednesday, I gave yesterday a swerve. The break seemed to work, and this morning I stopped trying a top to bottom solve, and reverted to working through the clues where I had crossers in place. This seemed to work and I’ll stick with it, albeit it’s a tad slower.

    FOI SINGLE
    LOI SHIVERS
    COD CENSUS
    TIME 4:20

  15. While (most of) the answers may have been horse friendly, some of the parsings had them jumping around. I had to visit One-time more than the suggested once before I realised that the definition was just the first word, and that the nho Onee was in fact O + née. Getting CoD 4ac, Census, finally unlocked Splash and explained why Shrivery wasn’t sunless, but by then I had edged into the SCC, so sat next to the jovial Merlin. Invariant

  16. Averageishly difficult puzzle and time, borne out by QUITCH. I agree with Cedric re the IKEAN nature of some of the clues today.

    Nevertheless, I liked my LOI CENSUS, which did cause some head scratching, and a 13 letter anagram is always impressive. Didn’t think of the difference between bitter and sour, that kind of thing passes me by if I get the answer quickly.

    6:12

  17. 12:29 (treaty of Jaffa consolidates Crusaders gains in the Middle East)

    Pleasantly challenging. The two long across clues took a while to work out, which held things up a bit. LOI was RIP.

    Thanks Hurley and Curarist

  18. 4:59. LOI CENSUS took all the checkers and still some thinking to come. I’m another who doesn’t equate bitter and sour. It always irks me when clues equate bitter and acid, but it is done so commonly I’ve stopped moaning about it. Incidently bitter and sour are two different styles of beer that you wouldn’t fail to recognise were different. Thanks Hurley and Curarist

  19. Finished and enjoyed. What a relief after recent dud performances. Must admit I biffed the long ones without checking the parsing too closely. LOI, after head-scratching, SPOKE.
    Liked RAPIER, CENSUS, INSURGENT, LUNGE, among others.
    Thanks vm, Curarist.
    Happy Christmas to all!

  20. Tricky today but unlike yesterday, in my opinion , fair enough. Spoke seemed to work but my Oxford dictionary didn’t reassure. Similarly ‘one time’ had to be otherwise the clue would have been a bit stretched for a quickie. Enjoyed it, though, so thanks Hurley and Curarist!

  21. Try telling a pregnant woman that her cravings aren’t needs!

    I submitted off leaderboard because I just couldn’t understand how CENSUS (which fitted the wordplay) could mean “court” (the definition, according to my tired old eyes). Searched immediately for the explanation on the blog … oh dear. First time I’ve fallen for the “n”/”r” similarity!

    Oh well, I’d spent at least 2 mins trying to think of an alternative before submitting so my 09:11 wouldn’t have been that great anyway.

    Liked CHOPPER, CRAVE and INSURGENT very much. Terribly clunky surface for EXECUTIVE though.

    Many thanks Hurley and curarist.

    Templar

  22. Managed to complete this one with the help of my cat on 12d. We both felt this was a poor clue, and agree that “finally” was unnecessary.

    Other than that I didn’t find anything to touch and found it to be an enjoyable QC.

  23. LOI SPLASH, but the clue that held me up was CENSUS. My time of 12 minutes was not helped by an unparsed LURCH at 3d.
    I also frowned at SPOKE.
    No big issues. Enjoyed it.
    David

  24. Nine minutes had elapsed with just 7dn to do. It took me a further three minutes of staring gormlessly at it before the penny dropped. I had put SHIVERY in for 11ac, and not returned to parse it. With an S in place instead of a Y, the correct answer came quickly and I finally stumbled over the line in 11.58.
    This gave me a total weekly time of 52.18 and a daily average of 10.28. Not a million miles away from my ten minute target, so bearing in mind there were some chewy puzzles this week, I am relatively happy with that.

  25. An unexpectedly pleasant Friday solve after a equally remarkably trouble-free trip to Sainsbury’s. Bring it on. Happy Christmas to all.

  26. 10.53 A pretty good time for me but it felt like it should have been quicker. ONE-TIME was LOI. 63 minutes in total and no visits to the SCC is also a pretty good week. Thanks Curarist and Hurley.

  28. Didn’t enjoy this much today, finding it rather obscure in places and taking 2 goes to fill in the blanks. LOI was CRAVE, not seeing that craving was a need and not thinking of RAVE as a party – it’s normally a DO. CENSUS, SPLASH and INSURGENT didn’t come readily to mind, either.

  29. DNF. Fell at the last hurdle. I couldn’t get CENSUS but with 10 minutes already on the clock I really wasn’t on wavelength today.

  30. I’m not convinced that spoke is a synonym for ray, but apart from that a nice straightforward puzzle. Thanks to Curarist and Hurley.
    Merry Christmas

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