Quick Cryptic 1691 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Very fast through this one until the SW slowed me down. A couple of clues I consider tricky crossed – 15ac/16dn which proved to be my LOsI. 9.28.

Otherwise lots of fun QC type clueing and all plain sailing – here’s how I saw it.

ACROSS

7. Street loves extremely game fall guy (6)
STOOGE – street ST, loves OO, (G)am(E).
8. Wisdom of a copper, soldiers (6)
ACUMEN – a A, copper CU, soldiers MEN.
9. A soccer official briefly in Wellington? Quite the opposite! (8)
BAREFOOT – a A and soccer official REF inside wellington BOOT. COD.
10. Emperor‘s refusal to receive queen (4)
NERO – refusal NO to receive queen ER.
11. Minister‘s history uncovered more? (6)
PASTOR – history PAST, m(OR)e.
13. Role key ultimately, for Labour? (5)
PARTY – role PART, ke(Y).
14. Copy extract from paper (3)
APE – extract from pAPEr.
15. Length of hair, mine, captivating the French (5)
PLAIT – mine PIT captivating ‘the’ in French – LA. I saw the anagram pit but tried for too long to use LE instead of LA. Even when I had the answer, I had to turn my thoughts from a measurable length to a hair style.
17. Welfare payment, including Channel Islands, easy to manage (6)
DOCILE – welfare payment DOLE including Channel Islands CI.
19. Check part of tobacco pipe (4)
STEM – double definition.
20. Limit referring to first of pair of states – Rhode Island and Connecticut (8)
RESTRICT – referring to RE, first pair of letters of STates, Rhode Island RI, Connecticut CT.
22. Retracting scandalous information in southeast – big step forward (6)
STRIDE – scandalous information – dirt is retracted (backwards) TRID inside southeast SE.
23. Maintain right to invest in something of value (6)
ASSERT – right R invested in something of value ASSET.

DOWN

1. Italian smoker regularly seen in Estonia (4)
ETNA – regularly in EsToNiA.
2. Majority welcome editor on return, self-effacing (6)
MODEST – majority MOST welcoming editor – ed – on return – DE.
3. US politician, comrade, somehow ahead of time (8)
DEMOCRAT – anagram (somehow) of COMRADE ahead of time T.
4. Move quickly as type of jazz brought up (4)
DART – type of jazz – trad – brought upwards DART.
5. Fugitive smuggler (6)
RUNNER – double or possibly triple definition.
6. Upset later by a disloyal act (8)
BETRAYAL – anagram (upset) of LATER BY A.
12. Desire to show Apple title learners missed? (8)
APPETITE – showing inside the clue APP(l)E TIT(l)E with the learners Ls missing. A rather different clue which I liked.
13. Support deal, step for a change (8)
PEDESTAL – anagram (for a change) of DEAL STEP.
16. Part I’m playing, hollow? (6)
ARMPIT – anagram (playing) of PART IM. Once again, I had the anagram but took some time to see this definition by example.
18. Colour used by officer is excellent (6)
CERISE – inside offiCER IS Excellent.
20. Start to recognise fish and equipment used to catch them? (4)
REEL – (R)ecognise, fish EEL.
21. Was concerned, missing English diamond maybe (4)
CARD – was concerned CAReD missing English E.

39 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1691 by Hurley”

  1. My only problem was failure to see the hidden; having the C and quickly checking that CRIMSON wouldn’t work, I thought of CERISE but didn’t see how it worked. Bunged it in when I had the checkers. Chris, you don’t mean ‘anagram’ at 15ac, do you? Liked BAREFOOT. 4:47.
  2. Still nipping at Kevin’s heels. DART/TRAD was a bit of a guess for me but it did make sense — I assume ‘trad’ refers to traditional jazz as opposed to, like, free jazz. CERISE easily took me 45 seconds to re-parse (I was trying CO+ROSE at first) until I realized the definition was ‘colour’, then got CERISE, and saw that it was a hidden word on the way to hitting Submit.
    2. I am sure I once sure SKA as part of a clue. I can see why it appeals to setters, not because of its music pedigree but for the obscure series of letters.
  3. 7 mins, slowed at the end for last three: pastor, appetite and stem which was a guess.

    COD ETNA.

  4. Missed both the hiddens. Bunged in CERISE with the rest of the grid completed having previously wondered how “to show” worked as an anagram indicator in getting APPETITE. So all green in 16 but having been very thoroughly misdirected twice. Thought I might be on for a fast time but was lulled into false hope by the top being very much easier than the bottom. SW fell before SE. We’ve had ‘cared’ for ‘being concerned’ recently but I still managed to miss that – and we’ve had a variation of BAREFOOT too – and eels have made regular appearances lately but it still took an age to get REEL, too long thinking ‘rod’ was the way in. Lots of great clues today, loved ARMPIT – didn’t seem to be much available from the anagrist – sets me up nicely for my return to work after a week off.

    Edited at 2020-09-01 06:45 am (UTC)

  5. Very similar solve to Chris, except that the two I got held up with in the SW were ARMPIT and LOI STEM, which I needed both checkers to be semi-confident about. Lot so of good surfaces to enjoy but my favourite was BETRAYAL. Finished in 9.15.
    Thanks to Chris
  6. …as I too found the top half went in quite fast and the bottom more chewy. All done in 12 minutes, but I’m another for whom 4D was a bit of a stab in the dark, not being familiar with jazz terminology – but trad/dart sounded plausible!

    LOI 18D Cerise; got from the checkers and only then did I see it was a hidden. COD 9A Barefoot, surface much enjoyed.

    Thank you Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  7. A much better effort on my part today – thanks to Hurley for an excellent puzzle that just ‘clicked’ for me. I finally finished within 10 mins for a change (despite an interruption from a family phone whatsapp video call). I was held up by stupidly filling in rods for 20d whilst on a roll. Daft not to have tried to parse it and it made my LOI STRIDE impossible until I put my brain back in and saw REEL. I won’t list all the attractive clues – I’ll just read Chris’s blog to enjoy them again. Thanks both. John M.
  8. 7 minutes for a straightforward puzzle.

    I nearly missed your blog today, Chris, because it’s sandwiched between two Verlaines. It took me a while to notice that the one I was looking at was new and not the one he posted previously. It didn’t help that his is dated 31st August whereas yours is dated 1st September yet is behind it. You might consider put a temporary sticky indicator on yours to bump it to the top so that others don’t miss it.

    Edited at 2020-09-01 07:57 am (UTC)

    1. I’ve tried your suggestion but get:
      You have no rights to make this entry sticky: Only maintainer or owner can post sticky post in community
      1. Okay, I hadn’t realised that. I’ve done it now. I shall remove it later this evening when everyone’s had their say.
  9. Only just inside 20 minutes again as held up by the CERISE ASSERT crossers in the SE. I do hope that I’m not getting worse at these! Very good crossword, with a mix of difficulty levels. My COD goes to CERISE for the excellent hidden that fooled me. Thanks Chris and Hurley
  10. Having boldly announced yesterday that 20:20 was my cut off time, I came up one clue short today, which was the somewhat simple PASTOR at 11A. i was convinced that “uncovered more” was going to be a comparative adjective ending in -ER. Then my subsequent alphabet search forgot that OR was a possibility.

    I also struggled with Cerise, although all of my colour names come from trying to determine colours of stamps. I think the 2 1/2p, the most common stamp after decimalisation was labelled as cerise. Other great crossword colours in Stanley Gibbons? Vermillion (the old 4d), Plum (the impossible to get 11d)

    COD 9A: BAREFOOT.

    1. You are not giving yourself much leeway, if you start to slow down – an extra 10secs in 2030?
    2. Perhaps if you go past 20:20 you could switch to dates BC rather than AD, though if you reach the Stone Age it might be time to admit defeat that day 🙂

      H

    3. As I spend more time on these puzzles I see my average times going down asymptotically. But I am concerned at the cross-over point when old age starts diminishing my skills.
    4. The most obscure I came across was ‘solferino’ (from Italy, if I remember) – which I eventually discovered to resemble magenta, being also named to commemorate a battle in the same war.
  11. Back after a short break away with my son, during which I made virtually no progress on the 15×15 I took with me (no. 27,748) despite repeated efforts. Must have been a hard one. At least I hope it was. Anyway, thankfully that did not indicate that I’d totally lost the little ability I have to do these as I finished this in 22:31. I spent some time after that trying to parse 18d but eventually gave up and just had to hope CERISE was right and it wasn’t some obscure word meaning ‘excellent’. I thought my LOI was BAREFOOT, but then I saw I’d missed out 16d, but that went in easily once I had the checkers. COD to 12d. Thanks Chris and Hurley.
    1. I’ve just checked the SNITCH and it has 27,748 in the ‘moderate’ range, but if you look at the times of individual solvers you’ll see that Verlaine and mauefw (both of this parish) struggled and finished in a time well above their average.

      My golden rule is, if Verlaine found the crossword hard, then it was hard!

      Martin Hill

    2. I’m glad to see you are back. I was worried you had deserted! I have started to use you as my benchmark. You have more perseverance than I, sometimes I just give up after about 40 minutes as there are other things to do. Thanks for your insights. 31 minutes today.
  12. FOI DART. LOI ARMPIT where I failed to see what was needed until a fourth look at this clue. PASTOR caused a slight delay. COD to BAREFOOT. 09:46
    David
  13. This one was mostly straightforward, assuming you have been doing these for a bit, with a couple of slightly tricky ones from a parsing perspective. One of the latter, 11ac Pastor, initially had me looking at the wrong end of the clue until I saw how ‘uncovered more’ worked. I also had a fun time trying to parse Cerise, before I realised it was well-hidden in the clue. 18 mins (or 1 Rotter 🙂) in total. Invariant
  14. A similar experience to Chris, in that I started very quickly – in fact the first third went in one after the other. But I never bank on a clean sweep or a fast time, and today was no exception! But like Rotter, it was the SW that did for me with 4 – yes 4 – minutes spent trying to solve CERISE and I never did parse it. Very well hidden, for sure.

    Lots to like today though, inc PASTOR, STEM and BETRAYAL.

    FOI Stooge
    LOI Assert
    COD Barefoot
    Time 13 mins

    Thanks Hurley and Chris

  15. 09:29 today. Got stuck on CERISE and PASTOR, though the rest went in easily enough.

    COD BAREFOOT – even though I “instantly” though of BOOT and A REF it took me several seconds to realise it spelt out barefoot! Nice one.

    929 AD places me somewhere near the Battle of Brunanburh (I read), though nobody knows where Brunanburh was! Athelstan defeated a combined Scots/Viking army trying to invade England.

    H

  16. ….STRIDE, and my only delay was not spotting my LOI first time round.

    FOI STOOGE
    LOI PASTOR
    COD BETRAYAL
    TIME 4:00

  17. About 25 mins today, with the main hold up in the SW corner – particularly on those already noted above.

    After inventing a new word for hair length – “Pilet” – I eventually realised 15ac was “Plait”. Considering “Armpit” was only 6 letters, and I knew it was an anagram, this also took far longer than it should have and nearly ended in a mini tantrum. Thankfully, I managed to contain myself and the penny eventually dropped so I could complete within my target time.

    Enjoyed the rest of the clues, although I thought the surface for 12dn was a little clunky.

    FOI – 7ac “Stooge”
    LOI – 16dn “Armpit”
    COD – 9ac “Barefoot”

    Thanks as usual…

  18. as usual, but got there in the end.
    FOI Stooge, then Party and Pedestal and Etna.
    LOI Barefoot and Assert. I thought of Restrict quite early on but could not parse.

    Thanks as ever.

  19. Like others, I was quick to start but was slowed down by CERISE (which was very well hidden) and RESTRICT (where I spent far too long fitting together the various abbreviations as they were all actually in the correct order!).
    PLAIT, STRIDE and BETRAYAL were all good clues and my COD has to be APPETITE for the clever wordplay.
    Thanks to Hurley for a workout of just under 15 minutes and also to Chris for the clear explanations.
  20. Nice steady solve after yesterday’s problems. We saw the hiddens quickly and finished in 17m, good for us.
  21. Enjoyed that; the only hold ups were the ones which everyone else has already commented on (PASTOR, DART, CERISE and ASSERT). With CERISE I was sure that the officer would be COL and only solved it in the end by applying the Blog’s Law that if you just can’t get a grip on a clue it may well be a hidden word.

    FOI STOOGE, LOI DART, COD BAREFOOT, time 2K but still sub 10 so I’m calling this a Good Day. Thanks Chris and Hurley.

    Templar

  22. No problems with the SW for me but rather the NE, mainly because I was trying to fit “acuity” into 8ac. Realised my mistake somewhat belatedly! A very nice crossword with a good mixture of clues – I particularly enjoyed 9ac, 20ac and 12dn. I also enjoyed the concept of relocating Mt Etna to the Baltic!

    FOI – 7ac STOOGE
    LOI – 5dn RUNNER
    COD – 9ac BAREFOOT by a short head

    1. Welcome to the world of posting – good to hear from you. Sounds like we have similar times.
  24. My FOI was 1dn ETNA and they all followed in a procession in 8 minutes, which is hardly warp speed.

    LOI 22ac STRIDE

    COD 18dn CERISE- nicely hidden

    WOD 3dn DEMOCRAT but not 16dn!

    I forgot to say White Rabbits, yesterday

  25. It’s funny that when you’re having a really busy day you tell yourself that you simply don’t have time for the QC. However, as it only took us 20 mins I think we might have managed to squeeze it in at some point. Very enjoyable puzzle – thanks Hurley.

    FOI: Etna
    LOI: barefoot
    COD: docile

    Thanks to Chris for the blog

  26. Nice quick-ish one today with a holdup in the SE corner with ASSERT and LOI CERISE which was a clever hidden. Should have clocked that it was the hidden given that there wasn’t another (I think).

    COD ETNA. Went there in 2018 and got a wobbly photo of it errupting from a ship tour. Didn’t have the time or means to climb it though I saw plenty of folk setting off to do just that. Dangerous things, volcanoes!

    Thanks to Chris and Hurley.

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