Quick Cryptic 1107 by Hawthorn

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Hawthorn’s previous puzzles have been elegant and witty (and slightly harder than average I’d say), and this one is no exception – a very enjoyable solve. We have some examples of clue types that are found less frequently in the QC (such as a triple definition, an &lit, a bit of cross referencing of clues) along with the inclusion of multiple red herrings (preparation of ≠ anagram), distracting capital letters and apostophes, nouns indicating verbs, etc., etc. Good training and good fun – thanks!

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Preparation of pavement art? (10)
GROUNDWORK – kinda double definition, the second requiring some lateral thinking.
7 Married in Polish before a dance (5)
RUMBA – M (married) inside RUB (polish) before A.
8 Natural rearrangement of 5 November (6)
INBORN – anagram (rearangement) of ROBIN (5dn) and N (november).
10 Ball transported by conveyor belt (3)
ORB – hidden in (transported by) conveyOR Belt.
12 Fundamental crack lets in sea (9)
ESSENTIAL – anagram of (crack) LETS IN SEA.
13 I recalled height on half frozen peak (6)
ZENITH – I, HT (height) backwards (recalled) on half of froZEN.
14 Demand or be condescending in speech (6)
ORDAIN – OR and a homophone of (in speech) “deign” (be condescending).
17 Ardently desires to hug American gents in underpants (4,5)
LONG JOHNS – LONGS (ardently desires) surrounding (hugs) JOHN (american slang for toilet, gents).
19 Regularly we climb tree (3)
ELM – every other letter from (regularly) wE cLiMb.
20 Band formed by priest after Reformation (6)
STRIPE – anagram of (after reformation) PRIEST.
21 Meat embargo restricting company (5)
BACON – BAN (embargo) surrounding (restricting) CO (company).
23 People turning up two hours before midnight to boogie (10)
ATTENDANCE – AT TEN (two hours before mignight) and DANCE (boogie).

Down
1 Monster in mythical tale by French author: cheesy fare (10)
GORGONZOLA – GORGON (monster in mythical tale) and ZOLA (french author).
2 A little resistance from old queen (3)
OHM – O (old) and HM (queen).
3 Those most close to me are in family home? (7)
NEAREST – ARE inside NEST (family home).
4 During the time that learner gets into card game (6)
WHILST – L (learner) inside WHIST (card game).
5 Bird with rook and duck on waste container (5)
ROBIN – R (rook, chess) and O (duck, out for no run in cricket) on BIN (waste container).
6 Anger and fury about dreadful trait (8)
IRRITATE – IRE (fury) around an anagram of (dreadful) TRAIT.
9 Cook can gamble, bringing in new dessert (10)
BLANCMANGE – anagram of (cook) CAN GAMBLE surrounding (bringing in) N (new).
11 Some money is secure, protected by curse (8)
BANKNOTE – KNOT (secure) inside (protected by) BANE (curse).
15 Something seen in our beds, developing? (7)
ROSEBUD – &lit. Anagram of (developing) OUR BEDS.
16 Squeal of excitement’s uttered for jolly idea (6)
WHEEZE – homophone of (uttered) “Whee!(‘s)” (squeal of excitement’s).
18 Make a note of eating in informal establishment (5)
JOINT – JOT (make a note of) surrounding (eating) IN.
22 Is able to seal in tin (3)
CAN – triple definition.

27 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1107 by Hawthorn”

  1. What Vinyl said; closer in feel, anyway, to a 15×15. My LOI was WHEEZE, which I didn’t know under that definition. 9:10.
  2. I’d agree this was at the top end of difficulty I would expect from a Quickie, but as it’s the stated policy that the QC exists, at least partially, as a stepping-stone to the 15×15 for those solvers who want that of it, then we need harder ones occasionally for that purpose. Today’s puzzle (set by the Puzzles Editor) merely serves to fulfil that role.

    None of the longer answers, nor any of the 6-letter ones, yielded on first reading, so I had an untidy solve hopping around the grid picking off the 3- and 4-letter words in the hope that the checkers would provide inspiration for the other clues, which eventually they did and I completed the puzzle in 12 minutes, missing my target 10.

    One tiny point in the blog. In the explanation of 16dn I think the “expression of excitement” is “whee” and the sound-alike bit is just -ze for -‘s. Of course, “wee” may make its presence felt if, for instance, a child gets overexcited!

    Edited at 2018-06-06 05:15 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks Jackkt – now changed. I didn’t really recognise ‘whee’ as a real word with a standard spelling! I guess puzzle editors tend to insist on that…
  3. 55 minutes, almost the same time as the main 15×15.
    I have a crack at the 15×15 most days, so am happy to have harder QCs, however this did feel quite tough. Inborn was particularly difficult.

    Couldn’t parse inborn or banknote.

    Last two were blancmange and inborn.
    I remember Zola from the main puzzle on Feb 19.

    COD rosebud robin or rumba.
    Thanks for the blog.

  4. 10 minutes with 51 seconds and a typo. ROSEBUD was a top quality &lit, and 5 November proved almost impossible to separate, so much so that I dithered between INBORN and INBRED before making it my last in.
  5. That’s two in a row 🙁

    Stumped by INBORN. DNK the word, and did not get the fact that “5” was indicating 5dn.

    Got through it fine otherwise within 2 Kevins, the only other hold up being ORDAIN (am I alone in thinking that that is a rather iffy definition? Ordain normally means decree/order/command, which is different in kind from “demanding”).

    Thanks for the blog, William.

    Templar

    2. I’m not sure if we’ve had this in a Quickie before, but it’s a convention that an Arabic number in a clue refers to another clue, whereas a number written out like ‘five’ does not.
      3. Thanks for that, kevin. I’m ashamed to admit that it’s a convention I was completely unaware of after a decade of blogging for TftT and many more decades of solving!
  6. 27 mins – it felt longer and I was pleasantly surprised when the time came up. I might have been quicker had I not ruled out in my mind using the ‘zen’ part of 1d, thus trying to construct a word with ‘fro’ in it. I eventually got Inborn from the wordplay, but for me also it was a DNK.
  7. Not much on first pass and ended up building from the SE corner. Got there in the end. LOIs ordain – retrospectively parsed – and banknote, which I had to come here to check and use the notes to parse, so thanks William I S!
  8. Definitely a tougher one. Not many answers went in easily and was pleased to complete the grid in 15 mins.
  9. Having solved a couple of clues in the NW, like Jack I had to hop around the grid to find crossing letters to help. Definitely a harder puzzle than many QCs. WHEEZE and ATTENDANCE were my last 2 in, OHM was my starter. A good workout. 13:58. Thanks Hawthorn and William.
  10. Enjoyable but tricky! Foxed somewhat by the capitalisation of Reformation and by the reference to a clue within a clue. Ah, well… another lesson to put in my book!
  11. This was a bit of a Brazil Nut of a crossword, hard to find an opening and get into, but rewarding when the inside is revealed. 20 minutes for me (I did more than 60% of the 15 x 15 in less time!).
  12. Like our blogger I found this a fun puzzle. A little bit harder than average, based on my time. Held up mostly by failing to spot that the 5 in 8a was a cross-reference… a nice bit of misdirection there. Like Z, I enjoyed ROSEBUD, but WHEEZE made me smile most.
  13. Definitely a bit tricky but not too bad at 18:04.

    As usual I missed the number as a reference to another clue, just as I usually miss the phonetic alphabet references, but I biffed it in the end.

    I’m not entirely convinced about the convention though, as we often see 500 in clues (for D). That would be quite some jumbo!

    Thanks anyway for the blog.

  14. I’d mirror all the other comments today – tough but enjoyable and I learnt the spelling of 9d, which I’d always assumed had a double m in the middle!! I couldn’t parse banknote and even deleted after an early bif before putting it back in once all the checkers were in place. Completed in 21.26 with LOI 16d.
    Thanks for the blog
  15. I couldn’t get a foothold on this one and thought it was going to be a long haul, but managed to finish it in 22 minutes, which isn’t bad for me. In fact that’s a minute less than yesterday’s.
    So many enjoyable clues today. How does one choose a COD?… perhaps 1a but then 1d really appealed too. FOI 19a LOI 16d.
    Thank you for a great puzzle and for the blog. MM
  16. Some really nice clues, especially 23ac, but my overall enjoyment was spoilt by being confused by a cross reference to another clue. When I see a numeric 5, I first think of 5, five, V, pentagon etc. What I don’t think of is the answer to clue number 5. Following it with November is just plain sneaky, but if tricking solvers is what counts, then congratulations Hawthorn, you had me today. Invariant
  17. Maybe I was just on the right wavelength today but I worked through this steadily and was pleased to finish. Loved Attendance and Rosebud. But dnf yesterday and left it with about 7 unsolved clues – whereas many seemed to find it a relative doddle. Oh well. Thanks all,
    John George
  18. No fish, birds, or Wittgenstein. Every word familiar and solved 9n 4.01 by someone who has never completed more than 50% of the 15×15
  19. Maybe I was just on the right wavelength today but I worked through this steadily and was pleased to finish. Loved Attendance and Rosebud. But dnf yesterday and left it with about 7 unsolved clues – whereas many seemed to find it a relative doddle. Oh well. Thanks all,
    John George

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