Quick Cryptic 1804 by Wurm

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I ripped through this in 5 minutes, in may cases without parsing, and on reflection there are some absolute crackers. I’m particularly fond of 1ac, 8ac, 14 ac and 3 dn, but overall the surfaces are fantastic. I’m not sure we see many cross-reference clues like 6dn/12dn in the QC, but this one is fairly straightforward. There are lots of examples of Curarist’s 1st law, which says to unlock a clue you change the part of speech. E.g 8 ac PASTY is pretending to be a noun when it’s an adjective; 13 MAN is pretending to be a noun when it’s a verb; as is16 ac SNOWBALL.

Across

1 Change at Naples for Nice (8)
PLEASANT – Anagram (‘change’) of AT NAPLES
5 Beer‘s mine with an indefinite number consumed (4)
PINT – PIT with N inside
8 Starters of artichokes served with chicken pasty (5)
ASHEN – A + S + HEN
9 Blooming bed clothes don’t wear out! (7)
BLASTED – BED placed outside (‘clothes’) LAST
11 Model boats moved around river in vital flow (11)
BLOODSTREAM – Anagram (‘moved’) of MODEL BOATS with R for river inside.
13 Killer’s success with staff (3,3)
HIT MAN – HIT (success) MAN (staff – verb)
14 Is this where bankers are hiding cream cake? (6)
ECLAIR – EC is the postcode often used as shorthand for the City of London, where all the banks are, LAIR is somewhere to hide,
16 Snowball put out a petrol fire (11)
PROLIFERATE – Anagram (‘put out’) of A PETROL FIRE
18 Six grand to put in soon in French city (7)
AVIGNON – VI (six) + G (grand) inside ANON
19 Royal attendant John having suntan? (5)
BROWN – Double definition, the first referring to the servant of Queen Victoria. He was played by Billy Connoly in Mrs Brown (1997) with Judi Dench as Victoria.
20 Has some food in great steakhouse (4)
EATS – hidden word: grEAT Steakhouse
21 Conceals mysteries about English (8)
SECRETES – SECRETS with E inside.

Down
1 Drive after parking vehicle used by mum (4)
PRAM – P + RAM
2 Show-off one to wear fancy tie in this box (13)
EXHIBITIONIST – Anagram (‘fancy’) of TIE IN THIS BOX with I added
3 Changing beat, I stay on ground to cover new cop (11)
SYNCOPATION – Anagram (‘ground’) of I STAY ON placed around N COP
4 Unimportant person’s problem encountered in solving murder? (6)
NOBODY – Solving a murder is a problem if there’s no body.
6 Sharing similar problems, as 12s are? (2,3,4,4)
IN THE SAME BOAT – 12s being shipmates
7 Note on country lacking northern coastline? (8)
TIDEMARK – TI (note – as in do re me etc) + DENMARK minus N for northern
10 There cabman shakes in waiting room (11)
ANTECHAMBER – Anagram (‘shakes’) of THERE CABMAN
12 Sailor Small accompanies really cool friend (8)
SHIPMATE – S + HIP + MATE
15 Such a gathering as might raise the spirits? (6)
SEANCE – cryptic definition
17 Duty — and where so often it seems to lie? (4)
ONUS – On Us.

78 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1804 by Wurm”

  1. All green in 18 after five went in on the first pass. Tried to get profiterole to fit which led me to proliferate. Didn’t parse ECLAIR or ONUS and TIDEMARK took a while — never quite sure if the note is Ti or Te but a lovely moment when Denmark popped into my head.
    1. All of the notes have alternative spellings.

      These are: DO/DOH, RE/RAY, ME/MI, FA/FAH, SO/SOH, LA/LAH, TE/TI.

      Additionally there are alternative names: UT (do/doh), SOL (so/soh), and SI (te/ti).

      1. If they all have alternative spelling, and they haven’t been used in music in any choir I’ve ever been part of maybe it’s time to retire this device, I am sure the term such as a Major Third are used exclusively these days to describe a musical interval.
        1. Tonic sol-fa is a learning aid much used in places where the rudiments of music are taught to children. I wouldn’t expect it to be used in any choir you’ve ever been part of. My understanding is that the various spellings are used in different countries as it is an international system.

          As for a ‘major third’, as far as I’m aware it’s a term specifically invented to describe a particular musical interval so I’d be interested to hear of any other context in which it might have been used in the past.

    2. Me too, seemed likely that snowball could be another name for profiterole – not something I can recall ever eating, under either name. I obviously didn’t check the anagrist properly.
  2. A very enjoyable puzzle that also provided a tough workout in places. Musical terms being a particular area of ignorance for me, I needed most of the checkers before SYNCOPATION revealed itself. I was then left with the tricky BLASTED, TIDEMARK and SECRETES, each of which needed to be eked out of the wordplay. I’d forgotten the film about Queen Victoria so BROWN went in with a shrug. I’m struggling to pick a favourite clue out of all the excellent surfaces but will plump for 1a PLEASANT for setting the tone for the rest of the puzzle. Finished in 13.08.
    Thanks to Curarist
  3. 48m14s but no errors. FOI 1ac, LOI 21ac. Didn’t parse the “EC” but “LAIR” was obvious. Was looking for an “M” to follow the “VI” in 18ac until the checkers forced the correct answer. Liked 7d TIDEMARK; I suppose the question mark excuses the inexactitude of the correspondence of meaning with “coastline”. All very enjoyable. Thank you, Wurm and curarist.
    1. At least you obtained this answer – I failed on it. I decided it was ? = cryptic, a coast (al) line when reading the blog.

  5. Yes many thanks. BTW I read staff and man as nouns and have always thought it a bit condescending (as in ‘I have a man that does that’) Thank you for a PDM (penny drop moment) Curarist and Wurm for the puzzle

  6. I had a DNF with PINT — what role is Indefinite playing in that clue? I got hung up on thinking it was indicating “i” as in the imaginary number, but that was probably over thinking
    2. Well it’s not just me then! I decided that Pi was the indefinite number and after 30 mins of intermittent head scratching could only conclude that the parsing was “Mine’s a pint, please”. Without the T I could not get TIDEMARK, so it all had to be. I did wonder about n for indefinite number but was too fixed on Pi which gave NT as unresolved as there was no hint of book or bible!!!.
      1. Pi is not indefinite, but is an irrational number (i.e. can’t be expressed as a ratio x/y.) It crops up occasionally and normally clued as ‘irrational’.
        1. Quite. Thank you. But when lacking a definitive parsing to an indefinite statement, one can mistakenly fit an irrational solution to a rational conundrum. If you see what I mean.

          Edited at 2021-02-05 11:24 am (UTC)

  7. 14:19. Going well until 10dn – obviously an anagram of there cabman but took a while to work it out even after seeing chamber was part of it. Enjoyed the snowball definition and much else. Failed to parse eclair – thanks, curarist.
  8. 10 minutes. Most of it was a write-in so I’m not sure why I was pushed to the limit of my target time.
  9. Sadly my goal of an aggregate of less than 60 mins for the week fell well short today, with a DNF after 27 mins. I stuck with PROFITEROLE until to long, the O in 10d then prevented me from seeing the anagram for ANTECHAMBER. Eventually backtracked to deciding it must be spelt -ALE which allowed a rapid finish with BLASTED. But of course this led to a red letter finish,

    I was more convinced of profiterole than I was for ECLAIR. Banker for City, then City for EC seems too much of a tenuous chain. Most bankers are in E14 (Canary Wharf) these days.

    COD AVIGNON

    1. I have noted the movement of bankers to Canary Wharf in previous blogs but I’m still happy with the ‘EC’ thing as it’s historical in the same way as ‘Fleet Street’ with reference to the printed press. The Bank of England is still in EC(2) anyway.

      Edited at 2021-02-05 11:55 am (UTC)

  10. Held up at the end by BLASTED and TIDEMARK; the PDM when I thought of Denmark raised a smile., as did ECLAIR when I parsed it. 5:36.
  11. … of which there seemed to be a lot today, bordering perhaps on an excess, and I suspect as a result that while those who solve anagrams easily will finish this in a flash like our blogger, those who don’t, won’t. Although I usually consider anagrams a forte, I fell into the latter category today and was a full 20 minutes before all done.

    Several very clever clues, I would say definitely at the more complex end of a QC — for example 3D Syncopation took me some time to work out how the clue worked, and I got 12D Shipmate completely the wrong way round for several minutes, looking for Sailor Small (AB+S? TAR+S?) and really cool (ICE?) combining to make friend. Happy moment when the penny dropped there.

    Many contenders for COD. I considered 7D Tidemark, but like Merlin I’m not really a fan of the notes that can be spelt many ways (I always thought of it as TE too), so I will give it to 1A Pleasant for one of the smoothest surfaces for a long time.

    Many thanks to Curarist for the blog, and a good weekend to all
    Cedric

    1. In my case, anagrams are not usually my forte but I got 10d straightaway, which proved that profiterole and gateau (for cream cake at 14a – not that I could parse it) were wrong..

      I did struggle with 3d, though, but I wasn’t totally sure what was the anagrist.

  12. A very good puzzle but with plenty of chewy clues to balance the easy ones. Once again, I was immersed and had no idea I had broken into the SCC by a minute. PINT, BLASTED, and TIDEMARK were late entries for me. It was only when I decided that my first thought for 18a, AVIGNON, had to be correct that I realised that I had stupidly biffed syncopating instead of SYNCOPATION and all dropped into place. Let that be a lesson to me! There were some very good anagrams and neat cryptics. My COD would have been TIDEMARK but for the unconvincing ‘TI’. However, many thanks to Wurm and to curarist whose speed of solving is very impressive, despite the admitted lack of parsing whilst solving. That’s what I call biffing! John M.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 09:42 am (UTC)

  13. Enjoyable – thanks setter and blogger. Don’t let Jenni Murray see the pram clue! I think blooming and blasted are a bit passe too but I suppose some folk might use them still.
    1. Quite. Both parents use prams, so there should have been some sort of DBE indicator, surely?
      1. ‘Vehicle used by (mum and) dad’ would have been very difficult to get I think for PRAM. Perhaps it is used by infant.
  14. Like Cedric the long crossing anagrams held me up today, and the coffee had gone cold by the time I finished it.

    Another nicely pitched crossword though – it’s been a good week in QC land in that regard. COD was NOBODY for me, made me smile.

    Thanks to Wurm and Curarist. Enjoy your weekends everyone.

  15. Battled through heroically until the NE corner which brought me to an abrupt stop (as noted above).
    Great fun. COD NOBODY as it made me smile.
    Thanks Curarist and Wurm. Have a nice weekend everyone. Blue sky here and sun is shining, for now.
    Richard
  16. As ever some tricky bits in this Wurm puzzle, but not super hard today.
    My FOI was PRAM then no big hold-ups until SYNCOPATION where I was looking for a word meaning policeman; a clever clue. My last two were SEANCE and then 2/3 minutes to get SECRETES. COD to BLASTED but other candidates too.
    A very good puzzle where you could easily get stuck. About 15 minutes for me.
    David
  17. FOI PLEASANT, LOI SECRETES.

    EXHIBITIONIST went in straight away. In fact LHS went in fairly easily but had to work on ANTECHAMBER, and PROLIFERATE for that matter. Biffed ECLAIR. Did not know 12s were shipmates, but clueing was clear.

    ASHEN clever, biffed AVIGNON (COD). Smiled at ONUS and NOBODY.

    Thanks for much needed blog, Curarist.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 10:38 am (UTC)

        1. Haha — what i meant was the reference to 12s in 6d was a reference to the answer in 12d 🙂
  18. This was a 2/3 for me in terms of difficulty but a 3/4 in terms of time, my LOI TIDEMARK going in just over the SCC barrier. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of tidemark to mean coastline but only as a dirty mark on skin or clothes. I wondered about Tranmere for a while but couldn’t parse it. I only got it once I’d twigged BLASTED, which I think is a super clue.

    Not wild about a PRAM being designated as “a vehicle used by mum” but I’m going with the assumed, but missing “… amongst others ” …

    Thanks so much, curarist, for the blog and thanks too to Wurm.

    3. When you go to the beach at low tide there’s a line of seaweed etc where the high tide has previously reached, i.e. the tidemark. The setter is leading us astray along the coastline, I reckon.
      1. Both mums and dads push prams but primarily they are ‘used’ by babies. Shouldn’t they be offended for not getting a mention in the clue?
  19. Great fun, this one. Fascinating how people react differently to these. Such a clear demonstration of our individuality. I started reading the blog to see if people got stuck on the same things that I found tricky. I thought the answer would be yes — but it was not. All part of the enjoyment. Satisfied to finish with no errors. Slow, though — 20 minutes. FOI pleasant at 1ac, unusual for me to get 1ac on the first pass. LOI — three or four fell at the end, syncopation, blasted, eclair and tidemark. Did not fully parse eclair. COD — can’t pick one, I like all the long words, so this was a treat for me. Thanks to curarist and wurm. GW

  20. FOI: 1a PLEASANT
    LOI: 20a EATS

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 12

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 3 (5a, 9a, 2d)

    Clues Unanswered: 5 (19a, 3d, 4d, 7d, 17d)

    Aids Used: Chambers

    Wrong Answers: 2

    Total Correctly Answered: 15/22

    I struggled with this one. Some of the clues just seemed nonsensical to me where I simply did not know where to start. I made a couple of wrong answers too, and just could not get 3d. In the clue it said “new cop”. I assumed this meant an anagram of cop.

    14a ECLAIR. I managed to answer this by assuming that bankers in London were to be mostly found in the EC district. I had no idea if that is correct until I read Merlin_55’s comment on this. I saw LAIR and knowing EC was a London area I added the two together to make eclair.

    So a DNF. It was quite enjoyable but the nonsensical (to me) clues took some of the enjoyment out of it.

    PS: Is it considered cheating if I want to put a word into the grid (having the right answer) but I need to check a dictionary for the spelling?

    1. There’s no such thing as cheating here. If there was, I’d have been thrown out years ago!

      I look on it as a very personal enjoyment, feeling pleased if I finish without aids, which hardly ever happens.

      The next pleasures are looking at the answers here and puzzling out the ones I biffed, then going on to the comments which are stimulating and often educational!

      Perhaps I lack the competitive spirit, but that’s fine, it’s really just the enjoyment of our wonderful language in wordplay.

      Oh, and I didn’t finish today’s either, but it was fun to do, so thanks everyone and have a good weekend.

      Diana

      Diana

    2. Personally, I often put a word in the e-grid (I normally do the QC on paper) when I’m not sure if I have the right answer.
  21. I got off to a PLEASANT start and then perambulated around the grid in a leisurely fashion and let the answered clues PROLIFERATE, until I was left with 19a and 21a which took a few moments of thought. Liked SYNCOPATION and ANTECHAMBER. 9:32. Thanks Wurm and Curarist.
  22. I found this hard with difficult long anagrams taking a while to solve. Struggled with PINT, TIDEMARK and BLASTED. Hats off to those who could do this in 5 minutes!
    1. Drive = ram I assumed to be in the context of Drive/Ram a wedge into a crack.
      Blooming/Blasted I assumed as a mild expletive, as in nuisance. B ED clothing LAST is how I understood it.

      It’s hard enough to understand the question usually, let alone the answers!!

      1. Drive could also refer to a computer hard drive which is a means of computer memory storage. RAM (Random Access Memory) is an alternative basis for computer memory storage. Probably not what the setter meant but it would have worked for me (if I had thought of it earlier). John

        Edited at 2021-02-05 08:35 pm (UTC)

    2. My father was always telling me not to ram the screw in or you’ll never get it out (… which I thought was the intention), so I was OK with Ram/Drive, but Blooming/Blasted was a stretch.
    3. I thought of it in the context of “driving” or “ramming” home an idea or concept — so I think it does work.
    4. I shared some of your confusion over blooming = blasted, and took some time to find an example of their equivalence. The best I could come up with is when either is used as an interjection, as in ‘the blooming / blasted weather has been appalling this week’.

      EC as a reference for the City of London, or the square mile, comes up a lot in Crosswordland, so add it to your repertoire — you will find it useful.

      One can drive or ram a stake into the ground, or drive or ram one car into another, so I think that is fine and justifiable.

      1. Oh for the days of such gentle expletives! Yet in their time they may well have brought on an attack of the vapours for some innocent souls.
    5. Practice does pay off
      EC for bankers is relatively common in times crosswords
      What you have to remember is the clues are codes to some extent- so if you see “east German” that is code for Ost! I’ve had to learn that the hard way having never had a German lesson in my life and only spent 1 evening passing through the country.
      So don’t despair – just try to learn the codes!
      Good luck
  23. I thought I might be in for a long haul when I saw I had to deal with a Wurm, but actually it proved to be not too bad. I had the vast majority done in not much more than 20 minutes and all but 3d in 28. That last one took me up to 34:00 so I missed my target, but not by too much. Lots to enjoy, but I particularly liked BLOODSTREAM and AVIGNON. FOI was 1a, LOI 3d, WOD PROLIFERATE. Thanks Wurm and Curarist.
  24. This was one of my tortoise 🐢 days where each clue seemed to take equally as long as the other. However, a great puzzle from Wurm completed in 35 mins — so 5 mins over my usual cut off time.

    Enjoyed 1ac “Pleasant”, 6dn “In The Same boat”, 3dn “Syncopation” and 16ac “Proliferate”. Today definitely did feel anagram heavy, so I felt sorry for those who I know are not keen on them.

    Main hold up was 9ac “Blasted” and 7dn “Tidemark” — mainly because I was expecting “Te” on the latter and didn’t realise there was another spelling. Couldn’t parse 15dn “Seance” and was interested to see what it was in the blog — in the end it was literally just a cryptic definition and nothing more.

    FOI — 1dn “Pram” — couldn’t they have used parent rather than Mum?
    LOI — 7dn “Tidemark”
    COD — 17dn “Onus” — simple but lovely.

    Thanks as usual.

  25. I really enjoyed Wurm’s cluing style, to the point where I was happy to mess around with the long anagrams before I had filled in all the write-ins. Not a good tactic, but today it made sense to trade speed (ish) for enjoyment. Lots of CoD candidates, with 7d, Tidemark, just getting the nod over Éclair and Snowball. A very pleasant 24mins. Invariant
  26. 16 minutes for me, taking time to understand and justify 9a as described above. Otherwise, tough but fair. Thanks both.
  27. NHO SYNCOPATION and although I knew it involved an anagram I was rearranging the wrong letters and trying to force beat into the mix. PRAM surprisingly was a late solve and ECLAIR went in unparsed. 13 mins on the clock before I gave up on SYNCOPATION. Ah well…a poor end to a pretty good QC week.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 12:32 pm (UTC)

  28. I thought. Certainly not a breeze for me.

    Quite a lot of variation in my times this week.

    Struggled with SYNCOPATION (LOI), TIDEMARK and SHIPMATE – that one probably because sailor immediately has me trying to shoehorn in TAR, AB, RATING, JACK etc etc.

    Bang on 9:00.

  29. I thought this was difficult. As a puzzle there were far too many long anagrams which to my way of thinking makes it a very poor crossword and definitely not easy for us starters. Still it was the hardest of 5he week for me and the least enjoyable. 4 out of 5 good puzzles is a result after the last couple of months of very hard ones.
    Thanks to the bloggers as usual

    Tim

  30. An ominous start, with only two solutions in the grid at the 10-minute mark. However, many seemed to be on the tip of my tongue (or pencil, in my case) and a blistering period followed, with the next 16 solutions going in at a rate of one per minute (almost undheard of for me). Then it was back down to earth, as my of final four clues (TIDEMARK, BLASTED, ECLAIR and SECRETES) took a further 27 minutes to succumb.

    I never did parse 14a (ECLAIR) and I had never heard of Queen Victoria’s servant, so BROWN for 19a was entered more in hope than expectation.

    Very pleased, in the end, to finish successfully in 53 minutes, especially as my track record with Wurm is not good.

    Many thanks, as usual, to curarist and Wurm.

  31. I can mostly do the QC but found this hard and DNF. But I don’t mind (much). I’m trying to improve my crossword skills, so find this blog very helpful – and a hard QC seems a stepping stone to the 15×15, which I attempt when the SNITCH score is low.
  33. Nearly stranded on the tideline and the NE corner generally, but left it for a while and on return I eventually pulled myself through. BLASTED held out for ages as well. A struggle today but a finish is a finish and enjoyable at times!
  34. DNF because couldn’t see that ‘clothes’ in 9A was the indicator, and 14A ECLAIR stumped me.
    Am not a huge fans of so many long anagrams but got there in the end with them.
    Some very clever clues which were fun — a decent end to the week!
  35. It was an inglorious DNF for us today. We were doing so well until we got really stuck on 16A, 5A and 7D simply stumped us. Hey ho, there’s always next week.

    FOI: pleasant
    LOI: DNF (tidemark)
    COD: nobody (lol)

    Thanks to Curarist and Wurm.

  36. A DNF for me as just couldn’t think of syncopation. I was also held up on Tidemark, I was trying to spell the note Ti, and secretes. Managed to get pint after helping year 6 with her algebra this morning, some benefits if home schooling!

    I liked Ec-lair though and no-body, nice old jokes. Agree with others on the un-pc nature of 1D, a small sigh for the out-dated clue.

    Thanks for the blog Curarist and the crossword Wurm. Hope the sun persists this weekend.

  37. Another good QC today. All done, but I don’t have a time as I left the clock running when summoned to help with the Ladygram. Bert Baker has come up with a tricky one this month. In the QC, LOI SYNCOPATION. I really enjoyed all the long ones today. But COD to ECLAIR (also enjoyable)
  38. ….and had an attack of the rigours when I went to bed. They don’t list that as a possible side effect, but my mate in Liverpool had the same experience 12 hours after his. So the “shaking cabman” was quite apposite.

    Quite a tricky puzzle from Wurm, but I crept just inside my target.

    FOI PLEASANT
    LOI TIDEMARK (not known in this context)
    COD SEANCE
    TIME 4:54

    Edited at 2021-02-05 04:59 pm (UTC)

  39. This was a DNF for me with the long anagrams my main stumbling block. I can write the letters in a jumble (assuming I spot it’s an anag) or use Scrabble tiles and still fail to see the answer. It’s just the way my brain is wired.
  40. I’ve never thought of eclair as a cake. Surely it’s a pastry? It’s made from choux pastry, not some sort of cake mix.
  42. Some tricky clues, but several fell into place too. On first pass 6a and 5d meant I was halfway there. FOI 1a Pleasant. LOI 8a Ashen. COD 7d Tidemark. How many times have we had 17d Onus clued exactly that way! Doubted 19a Brown – recognised immediately from the film – but all the checkers eliminated any other options. My quibble with 1d is not related to gender but because one sees few prams these days – buggies and strollers yes, prams seldom; anyway, as others have suggested, using ‘infant’ would be an elegant way out. Nothing to do now until Monday – one of the downsides of catching up with my backlog of QC’s…

    Thx to Curarist and to Wurm for a nice end to the week.

  43. After a while I was going to give up thinking that it was just beyond me, but persevered despite putting in Of The Same Mind before seeing Shipmate. Also Pint came to the rescue.
    Lots to enjoy as they dropped LOI Secretes preceded by Onus and Brown.
    Time in the region of 40 minutes. Came to the blog expecting others to struggle but surprised to see that the majority appeared to cope pretty well!
    Thanks all
    John George
  44. Okay, I was thinking about posting something to say how pleased I was that the upset of a few days ago had led to some less 15×15-like clueing. Then wurm steps up. Looks as though I was the only one to parse beat I stay on (3dn) to probationer for new cop which, once you can’t see anything else, completely floors you. 1ac is clearly pleasant but I went round in circles with that misplaced P. Ah well, DNF after a good run! Thank you all. BFM.
  45. For the record:

    Time 15 minutes

    FOI 1ac PLEASANT

    LOI 5ac PINT

    COD 3dn SYNCOPATION

    WOD 14ac ECLAIR but it is not a cake but a confection!

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