Quick Crossword 579 by Hurley

Author   emu66Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Phew! Some tricky clues here, in particular 7d and 15d, which made it feel harder than it actually was in the end. A few crosswordland abbreviations to watch out for – RA (Royal Academician) for artist and O for love (tennis score).
Thank you to Hurley.

Across
1 Daughter with strange instrument: DRUM
Daughter = D, strange = RUM
4 Western hemisphere wonder extremely well developed: NEW WORLD
Anagram (developed) of WONDER and WL (extremely WelL)
8 Smithy songbird? Have another think!: FORGET IT
Smithy = FORGE, songbird = TIT
9 Sailor has name for lake: TARN
Sailor = TAR, name = N
10 Steal secret file about cases: LIFT
Cases indicates hidden word ie the word is encased; about indicates reversal; secreT FILe
11 Slow mover tires too, unfortunately: TORTOISE
Anagram (unfortunately) of TIRES TOO
12 Book for students, prudish, I hesitate to say: PRIMER
Prudish = PRIM, I = I, hesitate to say = ER
14 Corporation after gold, given new fall in US: AUTUMN
Corporation = TUM (Trade Union Movement?), gold = AU, new = N
16 What tourists may do in place we hear – bishop’s one: SIGHTSEE
Homophone (we hear) of place = SITE, and a bishop’s place is a SEE
18 Single – golden oldie’s inside spinning: LONE
Another reversed (spinning) hdden (inside) clue
19 Prepare text – need hints regularly: EDIT
Alternate letters (regularly) of nEeD hInTs
20 Love mountains by railway – source of fruit: ORANGERY
Love = O, mountains = RANGE, railway = RY
22 Porch girl, northern, had recalled: VERANDAH
Girl = VERA, northern = N, had recalled = DAH
23 Prepare for crops – put money here: TILL
Double definition

Down
2 Having more space, dock on rise? That is right: ROOMIER
On rise = reversal of dock = MOOR, that is = IE, right = R
3 Vigour of man in good health, trim first of all: MIGHT
Initial letters (first of all) of the other words in the clue
4 Fool needing money to head North: NIT
Reversal (head north) of money = TIN
5 Change wet gear at location in canal, maybe: WATER GATE
Anagram (change) of WET GEAR
6 Soup tot toppled in distant location: OUTPOST
Anagram (toppled) of SOUP TOT
7 When female is put out by learner, crosses cricket ground: LORDS
Female (F) is replaced by learner (L) in FORDS (crosses)
11 Trio not entirely quiet used doorway: THRESHOLD
Trio not entirely = THRE(e), quiet = SH, used = OLD
13 Mother carries headgear for sage: MAHATMA
Mother = MAMA, including headgear = HAT
15 Drink this writer’s left when artist comes in: MINERAL
This writer’s = MINE, artist = RA, left = L
17 Music genre – country, mainly English: INDIE
Country, mainly = INDI(a), English = E
18 Move fast! It’s allowed: LEGIT
Move fast = LEG IT
21 Wood from Kashmir: ASH
Hidden word

29 comments on “Quick Crossword 579 by Hurley”

  1. I make that five on the trot of harder ones, but some really nice clues, 10a for example, very neat. I didn’t help myself by solving from SE to NW. I do have a question mark over TIT for songbird, the repetitive chirp of the great tit in our silver birch is NOT a song especially as he/she starts at 4am these days. No time today for the 15×15 so I wish you all luck. A thought has just struck me, I have found the 15×15 all on the easier side this week and the QC on the harder side, is there something we should be told.
  2. I got Lords purely from the cricket ground bit. There was no way I was getting it from the rest of the clue. Made absolute no sense to me haha. Managed to finish again, though, which, after 2 years of doing the Quick Cryptic, is finally a common occurrence,
  3. I think “corporation” = “stomach” = “tum”. Great blog; thanks very much.
  4. Yes, there was some tricky stuff going on here and, unusually for a QC I had three parsings with queries against them to revisit after I stopped the clock at 9 minutes 30 seconds. At 7ac both the surface reading and the one leading to wordplay seem a little awkward to me. And I’m not totally convinced that FORGET IT and “have another think” are necessarily the same thing.
  5. I put in LORDS from def, parsed it right after. I share Jack’s qualms; I’m OK with the L for F part, but I can’t make anything of the surface. With 8ac, I can see occasions where one could interchange ‘forget it’ and ‘think again’: “I was hoping you could lend me $50.” “Think again./Forget it.” Biffed 14ac from def, but I agree with johnhh about TUM. 7:01.
  6. Delayed by NW trying to think of synonyms for reconsider. Nice to see TARN make an appearance. 6’10” today. Good puzzle and thanks blogger.
  7. No time to give as I had about an hour’s interruption. I was advancing steadily, if slowly at times, but got to 8ac and for some reason failed to see smithy=forge. As the definition didn’t spring out this answer required going through the alphabet until at last light dawned. This has to be my COD because of all the brain power (or maybe lack of it?) I invested in it.
  8. 45 minutes, 15 over my target but at least I finished it – I seem to have been one or two clues short all week. Nice clues with lots of PDMs – “Legit’ was great – LOI were 13D then 16A
    Brian
  9. Thank God for that, was getting very despondent. They have definitely been very tricky over the last few days.
  10. I got held up by 8ac and 16ac, but otherwise this was a pleasant enough 40 min solve. I also managed to learn the meaning of Mahatma, though we seem to have an extra mother ? Invariant
    2. Yes, it should read MAMA (mother) with “carries” indicating the headgear is to be inserted.
      1. My thanks to all concerned for pointing out why we had two lots of ma. 😊 Invariant
  11. Mostly OK today with guesswork. But am left with some head scratchers. Most have been addressed with the blog and other comments. But why is does MINERAL=DRINK? I know mineral water is a drink, but mineral?
    1. “Mineral” as a type of drink, and not necessarily water, goes back to my childhood in the 1950s and probably long before that. I think the distinguishing feature was that the drink had to be fizzy.

      Edited at 2016-05-27 01:14 pm (UTC)

  13. Ended week on a good time, 25:43. Several remained unparsed, such as TIN for money. I liked 7d, and never complain about ungrammatical surfaces. 18d was COD.
  14. Hard work all week for me and mostly DNF’s. still struggling with corporation = stomach = sum! The blogs have been a great help. Fingers crossed for next week!
  15. Too tough for me today. Spent ages crawling towards the finish line only to draw a blank with 13d, which now seems so obvious. I was also missing a couple of parsings so thanks for the clarification emu. COD 18d
  16. I never quite got into my stride today. Needed a couple of sessions before ending up in NW and finally not having a clue how to solve 10a.
    I came back to 10a at dinner time and finally saw what was needed.
    So I thought this a tricky one. I liked 8a but agree the definition was slightly askew. And now I know how to spell verandah! David
  17. Hope someone picks this up
    23ac 577
    Since when has madam been Sal !
    And what’s the ‘leaving madam unaffected’?
    It’s always a bad clue when the answer doesn’t really explain it.
    And 19d – are flats low-lying. Guess that’s ok as a clue but I found the whole xword difficult – needed to cheat on 1ac as tried ‘pa’ and ‘pap’ – in two years of quick cryptic I don’t think ‘pop’ has cropped up
    Will repeat this query on Monday if no-one sees it
    Tor prim
    1. Hello Tor Prim
      You will need to post your query as a comment on the blog for 577 in order for the blogger, and possibly the setter, to see it. The blogger will receive a notification.

        1. I have just looked at the 577 blog and I think one of your questions has since been addressed (the madam clue). Makes more sense now.

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