Quick Cryptic 1814 by Pedro

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was very pleasant, and not too difficult for the most part. I seemed to biff my way through it fairly rapidly, getting held up only on 15ac and 16dn. 8 minutes.

Across

1 Turned up with barge: river an easy challenge (8)
PUSHOVER – PU (‘up’ backwards) + SHOVE + R for river
5 Gift paper maybe will revolutionise any present at the outset (4)
WRAP – Initial letters of Will Revolutionise Any Present
8 Trial episode: one’s gripped by storyline (5)
PILOT – PLOT with I inside
9 Peace in the time following admitting the French (7)
SILENCE – SINCE with LE inside
11 I will escape financial disaster in banking crisis? (3)
RUN – RUIN minus the I. A run on a bank is when everyone tries to take their money out at once.
12 Amateur’s debut in autumn fight? That’ll make you laugh (4,5)
FALL ABOUT – FALL (autumn) + BOUT (fight) with A for amateur inserted
13 Odds at this point offering a round figure (6)
SPHERE – SP (odds, starting price) + HERE
15 Direct pleasure offered by King’s mistress mostly (6)
FUNNEL – FUN (pleasure) + NEL(L) as in Gwyn, mistress of Charles II. This held me up for a bit because I failed to apply Curarist’s first law, which is: when stuck, change the part of speech. ‘Direct’ here is cleverly presented as an adjective when it is really a verb.
18 Attack expression of humour with tons going wrong outside (9)
ONSLAUGHT – LAUGH inside an anagram (‘going wrong’) of TONS
19 Little point in security number? (3)
PIN – double definition
20 Marine creature in hold at sea retains power (7)
DOLPHIN – anagram (‘at sea’) of IN HOLD with P for power inserted.
21 Prow of boat to survive storm (5)
BLAST – B (first letter, i.e. ‘prow’, of ‘boat’) + LAST
22 Runs are hard to come by (4)
RARE – R + ARE
23 Chartered accountant, for example, participating in Conservative group (8)
CATEGORY – CA (chartered accountant) + EG insterted into TORY

Down
1 Old man, unusually spry, snatching University manuscript from long ago (7)
PAPYRUS – PA + anagram (‘unusually’) of SPRY with U for university inserted
2 No US city’s backing artistic gathering (5)
SALON – NO LA’S backwards.
3 Panting, about to engage in towelling oneself down? (3,2,6)
OUT OF BREATH – RE (about) inserted into OUT OF BATH
4 Article is elevated in cathedral without difficulty (6)
EASILY – A (article) + SI (is ‘elevated’) inside the crossword setter’s favourite cathedral, ELY.
6 Lacking energy and listing (3,4)
RUN DOWN – Double definition, though my dictionary has the first one with a hyphen and the second as a single word.
7 Request time to make feature of dress (5)
PLEAT – PLEA + T
10 Allege beauty mostly misrepresented in sports ranking (6,5)
LEAGUE TABLE – anagram (‘misrepresented’) of ALLEGE BEAUT(y)
14 Swindler hurtles around (7)
HUSTLER – anagram (‘around’) of HURTLES
16 Extended line, English, for you in the Bible? (7)
LENGTHY – L (line) + ENG + THY (‘for you’ in biblical language). Not sure why I made such heavy weather of this.
17 Arab leader accepting last list of discussion items (6)
AGENDA – AGA with END inside
18 Tell British to abandon frontier (5)
ORDER – BORDER minus B for British
19 Scotsman in Post Office to get instrument (5)
PIANO – Remember that in crosswordland, all Scotsmen are called IAN. Insert into PO.

54 comments on “Quick Cryptic 1814 by Pedro”

  1. Judge me not, but I used a “crossword solver” on the LOI, 23a CATEGORY. I was convinced that the remaining letters were _A_TEGORY, with definition by example (for “chartered accountant”), and a four letter word for “participating in” followed by TORY. The clue can be read this way, I think, and my alphabet trawls came up with several near misses. Witha zoom call deadline approaching I used one of those solver pages.

    Good puzzle, heading for a comfortable 20 mins.

    COD: FUNNEL (although I thought it might start “QUEE”)

    Edited at 2021-02-19 08:00 am (UTC)

  2. I found parts of this decidedly tricky and sat staring blankly at the puzzle with a confused expression on my face whilst trying to decipher FUNNEL, LENGTHY and CATEGORY. With hindsight all were fairly clued I just had difficultly stringing the various bits of wordplay together in the right order.
    It also took a while for the penny to drop with SPHERE, where the only word I could think of that fitted the checkers was Sahara – but that made no sense at all. Lots to enjoy but my favourite clue was FUNNEL. Finished in 14.16.
    Thanks to curarist
  3. This took me a long time, but I can’t remember why, other than that I couldn’t think of the mistress and thought it was Moll Thing. 9:15.
    1. Possibly because the set of clues is about the wordiest I can ever remember seeing in a Quick Cryptic and they needed a lot of concentration to sort the definitions from the wordplay.

      As on Wednesday I had a mental block with three answers missing and must have read their clues around 20 times each before one of the solutions came to mind and the others followed on. These were, in order of solving, LENGTHY CATEGORY and FUNNEL.

      14 minutes (again).

      Edited at 2021-02-19 09:01 am (UTC)

      1. Struggled on exactly these ones, plus PUSHOVER, for a disappointing DNF. Nice to know it wasn’t just me that found these clues tricky.
  4. Miles off the the pace today. Bunged in passover at 1a, just couldn’t see it — and Curatist (thanks!) shows I was nowhere near it. Got there in the end with the others but some general knowledge missing (that perhaps shouldn’t have been — Nell Gwyn especially I expect) and some not parsed — OUT OF BREATH. There was a bright spot in that I remembered odds= starting price=SP.

    EDIT: LIke Merlin, only one all green this week.

    Edited at 2021-02-19 08:57 am (UTC)

  5. I find Pedro’s clues a bit long at times – 12A is a case in point, but once I’d got a few in the answers started leaping out from the definitions and checkers. FOI WRAP. LOI CATEGORY. COD to the neat RARE. 4:39
  6. Not an easy Friday outing for me. I jumped around and began to fill most of the grid fairly easily as more crossers emerged, allowing some biffing (all parsed, though). I came to grief in the SE with FUNNEL, LENGTHY, and LOI CATEGORY which held me up for many minutes and took me just into the SCC. All good clues and no cause for complaint but I didn’t really get into gear today apart from seeing the anagrams very quickly. Thanks to Pedro and to curarist — I will now peruse the blog to revisit some of the more clever and elegant clues. John M.

    Edited at 2021-02-19 09:03 am (UTC)

  7. Well that’s brought me thoroughly down to earth with a bump.

    It’s ages since I did so badly. Most of the clues were reasonable when I looked at the answers, but some eg LENGTHY would have been beyond my parsing abilities anyway.

    Oh well , I look forward to tomorrow.

    Diana

  8. Started with the downs today and they all fell in order except 16dn, where I was convinced that the “you in the Bible” was going to be “ye”. Then all the acrosses, by which time I was looking at L_N_T_Y which was quite easy! So once again I *nearly* managed the true clean sweep – but then that’s like *nearly* being pregnant.

    MER at “for you”/”you” being used for “thy” in 16dn. “Thy” is the possessive determiner – “thy rod and staff they comfort me”; “thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”. It doesn’t mean either “you” or “for you”.

    FOI PAPYRUS, LOI LENGTHY, COD SPHERE, time K + 32 seconds.

    Thanks Pedro and curarist (I’m going to try to remember your law!).

    Templar

  9. Some days everything clicks …
    … and this was one such, as I completed this in just under 9 minutes (and, exceptionally for me, just under 1K). Probably my fastest for a puzzle by Pedro.

    I had the same minor queries as Curarist on 6D Run down / Run-down / Rundown, and only saw the parsing of 3D Out of breath post completion, but otherwise the brow remained remarkably unfurrowed. An unaccustomed feeling …

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

  10. When I saw Pedro’s name I was braced for something harder than this. Whilst not exactly a pushover, it was a wrap in about 11 minutes on paper.
    I took a while to get CATEGORY (COD for me). My last two were LENGTHY and finally FUNNEL, a clue I had revisited several times during the solve.
    All seemed fair enough with hindsight. A good puzzle.
    David
  11. Probably more my mood but didn’t really enjoy this. I know we talk about peace and quiet, but silence does not equate with peace for me. I’m not familiar with Salon used in this way but I expect its in the dictionary. Just not on the wavelength today after a week of sub 10 finishes. Thanks though!
  12. Just in SCC territory, and probably might have sneaked over the border if I hadn’t buffed SLAUGHTER, having seen the laugh component and not bothering with the rest of the clue. 3D didn’t then fit lthough the answer seemed right — as it was — and it took a while to sort myself out down into the SW corner.
    “Old man” does now trigger its other meaning in my mind, the PA /MA type indicators having caught me out too many times in the past. Also assumed IAN for a Scot, so I am picking up some of the Crosswordese.
    LENGTHY was a pain as I saw the answer but assumed E = English as normal and couldn’t then account for the NG until L took a step back and saw the obvious.
    Thanks for a nicely challenging and engaging puzzle.

    Edited at 2021-02-19 10:24 am (UTC)

  13. Most of these slipped in without too much pen-chewing but I couldn’t parse loads of them. NHO SP for starting price, in SPHERE, forgot R for runs in RATE, didn’t see the personal hygiene moment in OUT OF BREATH, thought lazily that RUN, 11 across, was a simple double definition, NHO listing, the second meaning in RUN DOWN, have never come across Eng for English, only E, in LENGTHY…. Wowser…. Thanks, curarist!
    Actually, in that last clue, I agree with templarredux that THY is surely “your ” not “you “. It meant that, having biffed this answer from the definition and the checkers, I was left with L = line and E =English and NGTHY = NT, New Testament?? Beyond moi, that one.

    Thanks again curarist, and thanks too to Pedro.

    1. I think it is listing as in “here is a run down of the programs later”, but otherwise you have said pretty much exactly what I would have. I did parse 11a correctly but think it would have been better without “financial“ which seems redundant, and just adds verbosity.
      1. Ah, of course re RUNDOWN! I would call that a “round-up”, I think, but I totally get what you mean. Slaps head. Thanks!
  14. 18 minutes with the same delays as others, plus it took me ages to convince myself that SALON was an artistic gathering. For me it was CATEGORY which finally succumbed and allowed the others of the terrible treble (CATEGORY, LENGTHY and FUNNEL) to fall, in that order. 3d was biffed, with the parsing having to be explained when I came here. Thanks Curarist and Pedro.

    PS I agree Jackkt’s comment regarding the wordiness of the clues — I think I calculated 7 or 8 words per clue, which is high.
    PPS My blog yesterday attracted some 75 comments, which I think is a record for me — many thanks to all of you for joining the debate.

  15. This took me a long time, but I can’t remember why, other than that I couldn’t think of the mistress and thought it was Moll Thing. 9:15.

  16. FOI: 8a PILOT
    LOI: 9a SILENCE

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 23

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): Nil.

    Clues Unanswered: 2 (23a, 16d)

    Wrong Answers: 21a

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 23/26

    Aids Used: Nil

    Awfully slow start for me, with a speedy spurt in the middle. I thought I might get a completion as time went on, but 23a (CATEGORY) and 16d (LENGTHY) scuppered me. I also had a wrong answer. I put BRAVE for 21a for surviving a storm (“brave a storm”), even though it did not sit too comfortably with me.

    23a. CATEGORY – with the conservative group in the clue I thought of the answer ending in TORY, but just could not work out the answer for this one.

    16d. LENGTHY – With the “you in the Bible”, I was trying to fit THEE into the answer.

    So, a DNF to end the week on, but I am pleased with my effort when comparing it to the prior couple of days.

  17. 12 minutes. I had to do an alphabet trawl for FUNNEL having got _U_NEL. There was quite a bit of biffing including 1a PUSHOVER belatedly. Then I got SALON which I just hadn’t equated with an artistic gathering. This is the only solve this week outside my target so I am not complaining. Thanks curarist for the blog.
  18. The NW only yielded EASILY, easily, so I moved on and came back to it after proceeding in a clockwise direction. Plenty of concentration required to tease out the definitions today. Once I’d WRAPped up the NE I FUNNELed my attention on the SE and BLASTed my way to an ONSLAUGHT on the SW where for a a rare moment the SPHEREs aligned, and almost OUT OF BREATH, I inscribed the PAPYRUS, entered the SALON and finished with a PUSHOVER. Missed my target by a few seconds. 10:14. Thanks Pedro and Curarist.
  19. But then I came here, and it seems I was on Pedro’s wavelength.

    Only real holdup was because I had carelessly put in LENGTHEN from the L ENG instead of the correct LENGTHY. That made CATEGORY difficult. Soon fixed though.

    I thought 11 ac – RUN was very neatly put together for a 3 letter answer!

  20. A bit of a struggle today with answers coming only slowly. Like others, CATEGORY and LENGTHY were last in. Found it all a bit convoluted.
  21. FOI RUN, PIN
    LOI I took a LENGTHY time in SE.

    Slow on SPHERE, unparsed. Biffed Channel rather than FUNNEL (having settled on Nell) then got LEAGUE TABLE. Had earlier biffed OUT OF BREATH, also unparsed.

    So it wasn’t a PUSHOVER, as the OldBlighter said. Liked CATEGORY once solved.

    Thanks, Curarist, as ever.

    Edited at 2021-02-19 12:17 pm (UTC)

  22. I wrong-footed myself right at the start when I decided that 5a was NAPY (anagram of “any” followed by the outset of “present”). I had NAPERY in mind, a word I came across for the first time some weeks ago in one of these QCs. Fortunately, I realised my error 20+ minutes later when I was struggling with 6d and 7d.

    My last few in were 23a (CATEGORY), 16d (LENGTHY), 15a (FUNNEL) and 13a (SPHERE). I just didn’t see SP for “odds” and HERE for “at this point”. However, it all came good in the end and I finished in 41 minutes.

    Mrs Random was delayed by some of the same clues, but was less reticent about not being able to parse them. She finished in 29 minutes and, after some frustration on her part yesterday, order has returned to the Random household – just in time for the weekend.

    Thanks to Pedro and curarist.

  23. A bit like yesterday, I didn’t think this was straightforward and couldn’t get it into it. The NW corner was looking particularly bare after the first passing and I ended up limping home in 29 mins — just about stopping my prophecy of a series of dnf’s and 30+ mins solves.

    Once again I misread a clue and thought 3dn was a “painting”. Eventually I realised it wasn’t, and even though the answer was a write in, I struggled to parse it.

    Others that took longer than normal were 1dn “Papyrus”, 13ac “Sphere”, 2dn “Salon” (NHO) and 15ac “Funnel”.

    FOI — 5ac “Wrap”
    LOI — 23ac “Category”
    COD — 12ac “Fall About”

    Thanks as usual.

  24. Given that I feel like death warmed up at the moment (post jab), I was quite happy to drift into the SCC with two to go — Lengthy and Funnel. Lengthy eventually came with a shrug once I switched to Eng for English, but I gave up on Funnel. Category on the other hand was almost a write-in, which surprised me as well.
    Invariant
  25. All but 15a and 16d in 8 mins
    Annoyed with 15a as I had the NEL
    Echo the comments on THY which is definitely possessive
    Also surely all Scotsman are called IAIN
  26. I’m another one who struggles with Pedro, and I think Jack has hit the nail on the head – the clues are often very wordy and it’s hard to extract what you’re looking for. Good practice for the biggie, I suppose. Today, however, wasn’t too bad although there was a lot of post-biff parsing, and I never did work out what was going on at 3d OUT OF BREATH.

    Growing up in Windsor, I was very familiar with Nell Gwynn’s Tearooms – located in her house and very convenient for the castle! I wonder if it’s still there – the tearoom I mean! I’m certain the house is 😅 Anyway, she always jumps to mind when a king’s mistress is mentioned so FUNNEL didn’t cause any problems 😉 PIANO made me smile – I just like the image. I know I’ve seen SP for starting price before, probably in the biggie, but I didn’t remember it when solving so SPHERE was a semi-biff.

    FOI Papyrus
    LOI Category
    COD Run – lovely surface
    Time 9 minutes

    Thanks Pedro and Curarist

    Edited at 2021-02-19 01:12 pm (UTC)

  27. After a week of reasonably solvable puzzles this was very hard. I can only assume the blogger was doing a different puzzle to me as he found it simple. Sorry but anything but simple for those of us not experienced solvers.
  28. 15:21. Nicely tricky. I liked OUT OF BREATH which I put in because it fitted but the parsing then just clicked. COD to my LOI FUNNEL for the misdirection of “direct” causing so much trouble
  29. It took us 20 minutes to solve this tricky puzzle. Some very clever clues which were fun to solve but it took us ages to sort out the SE corner. Thanks Pedro – stimulating challenge at the end of what has seemed like a very long week (we thought it was Friday on both Wednesday and Thursday!)

    FOI: wrap
    LOI: blast
    COD: funnel

    Thanks for the blog Curarist.

  30. Enjoyed today, wasn’t concentrating when put in walkover for 1ac, my error was soon found out with the 1dn anagram. Nearly slipped up on 10dn with leader board in my head before I read the clue. ( yes, that ‘always read the question ‘ never goes away…).
    About 14minutes which is good for me.
    Thank you blogger & setter.
  31. Slow again today at seventeen mintues. FOI Wrap LOI Dolphin. Biffed and did not parse “lengthy” or “out of breath.” Solved at one sitting, didn’t have to leave off for cogitation today. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole puzzle. Thanks, curarist, for the blog, and particularly for the parsing I couldn’t see, and to Pedro. GW.
  32. Hi. Have tried to comment a couple of times but when I do it on this site via my laptop it tells me I have been banned from commenting. I have absolutely no idea why. I’ve only recently joined. Help please? Thanks. BillieJameson
    2. I get the same message, but I’ve found if I just ignore it I can still post as usual. Not sure why!

      WB

  33. Just under half an hour, so not an easy one for me. I too was held up by LENGTHY, going through biblical books in my head to try to fit the cross-checkers. Biffed OUT OF BREATH and am therefore grateful for the help in parsing! Thanks to setter and blogger.
  34. An odd puzzle today. I finished in 27:33, so within my 30 minute target for the fourth time this week which must be a record, but had I had to parse everything, this would have been a big fat DNF without question. If I can’t parse something or there’s a word I’m not familiar with, I put a circle round the number of the clue so I remember to check it on here. Usually these days I have either no circles or perhaps one or two. Today I had eight, starting with 1a which I’d parsed as PUSH = ‘barge’, with OVER = ‘turned up’, but I couldn’t work out where the extra river fitted in. I didn’t remember SP = starting price or Nell Gwyn, and I don’t recall getting SALON at all. I’d worked out the ALON bit, but wasn’t sure what went on the top so I left it blank meaning to come back to it. Then I got PUSHOVER and never thought about it again. Never heard of the ‘artistic gathering’ meaning of SALON though. My other biffings were OUT OF BREATH, RUN DOWN, LENGTHY and AGENDA. Overall some great clues and in retrospect very clever, but I think this was a puzzle that experienced solvers will find fairly straightforward, but noobs might struggle with. FOI 8a, LOI 21a, COD 1d. Thanks to Pedro and Curarist.

  35. I thought this was a bit trickier, but actually had got all bar 4 in around 13 minutes. My last 4 were pushover, where I suddenly saw the “up” turned with shove, & that led me to salon. I then remembered Nellie Gwyn for funnel and was left trying to fit something Tory in at 23ac. Finally clicked and all down (bar a typo) in just under 20, which is normally my aim. Thanks Curarist and Pedro.

  36. ….and LENGTHY was apposite, as I spent the final 30 seconds or so trawling for it and consequently missed my target. Thanks to Curarist for parsing OUT OF BREATH.

    FOI WRAP
    LOI LENGTHY
    COD FUNNEL
    TIME 5:16

  37. After a week of reasonably solvable puzzles this was very hard. I can only assume the blogger was doing a different puzzle to me as he found it simple. Sorry but anything but simple for those of us not experienced solvers.
  38. 3rd consecutive day in a row over target after 2 straightforward days at the beginning of this week. This took me 29 minutes and I failed to parse AGENDA and OUT OF BREATH (pleased to see I wasn’t the only one). LENGTHY and CATEGORY also caused me some grief but I had no problem with FUNNEL, having remembered the king’s mistress. All in all a bit of a struggle!

    FOI – 5ac WRAP
    LOI – 23ac CATEGORY
    COD – 22ac RARE

    Thanks to Pedro and Curarist

  39. Joined those who found this slow going. Made matters worse by bunging in walkover for 1ac, causing more problems in nw corner. Will we ever learn. Tried leader table for 10d, which did not help with the se. Did get there, eventually. We enjoy mr Random’s comments, we do it together which probably as well! Thanks to Pedro and for the blog.
    1. That’s very kind. Mrs Random would say, however, that my posts mask a great deal of “wailing and gnashing of teeth” – which I suppose is the objective of cryptic crossword setters. I will look out for your posts from now on. Good luck!
  40. An earlier than usual post from me. Tricky but managed to complete this one. FOI 1a Pushover. LOI 16d Lengthy. COD 10d League Table. I spent at least 10 minutes staring at my last two – 15a and 16d. Seems many others held up there too. I had immediately thought of Nell Gwyn but struggled to use that, did an alphabet trawl but dismissed funnel until the PDM. That didn’t really help me with 16d so Lengthy was biffed – as was Breath in 3d. Happily Curarist was able to give me the parsing needed. Remembered SP in 13a from an earlier blog discussion on a QC and that helped a lot. Was trying soiree for 2d but obviously too many letters so settled for Salon with all the checkers in place..
    I used an iPad today and found the functionality different to my iMac. I’m guessing this not ‘operator error’. Usually I solve from a print out of the on-line version as that gives me portability and plenty of space to scribble when stuck.
    A satisfying end to the week from Pedro.
    Thanks all round.
  41. Everything seemed really difficult, even what turned out to be easy answers. But I was determined to complete it and for once (when it is this difficult) I did!
    Salon and Run took ages as did Funnel and Lengthy.
    WCOD (my new Category — Worst Clue of the Day) 2d — I just wouldn’t be anywhere near without at least two of the letters.
    It took me another age to understand why Out of Breath, but there was a small smile (or was it a grimace?) on seeing the construction.
    A good crossword in many senses though, so
    Thanks all
    John George
  43. My casual read through yielded nothing obvious so I started on my go to theory that the setter runs out of clever twists by the time he /she gets to set the bottom of the puzzle, so started across the bottom and slowly worked my way up to NE corner then Westwards to finish in just under an hour for my longest solve of the week, but this was more convoluted due to lengthier clues.
    Thanks Pedro and Curarist

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