Quick Cryptic 23 by Hurley

I thought this was a good Quickie with a mix of some relatively straightforward clues to give a way in, and some trickier ones that were quite challenging. One piece of obscure (at least to me) vocabulary involved at 15 down, and one clue I thought was a bit dodgy (see further 20 ac): other than that, a very enjoyable puzzle and thanks to the setter – it must be hard getting the balance right in terms of “degree of difficulty”.

I’m afraid I have not yet worked out how to present the clues (whether by hover or otherwise) without totally stuffing up the remainder of the formatting of the template I am working with, so apologies for that. HTML code (well, any code come to that) is a dark art as far as I am concerned, roughly on a par with bagpipe manufacturing. I will seek assistance for next time…

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Across
1 HOSTELRY -“Pub” provides the definition. The wordplay also providing the answer is HOST (from “lots of people”), EL (“the” in “Spanish”), and RY (standard abbreviation for “railway”).
5 ITCH -“Causes discomfort” gives the definition. The wordplay giving the alternative route to the answer is HITCH (from “temporary difficulty”) without its initial H (“heading off”).
8 SLATE -Double definition – the verb “to slate” meaning to criticise, and slate (noun) also being a (very expensive these days) type of roofing.
9 REALISM -“Practical approach” is our definition. The wordplay is IS which is “covered by” REALM (“field of study”).
11 INTELLIGENT -One of the more complex ones, although plenty of cross checkers emerged to assist with it if you were able to get the first few Down clues. “Bright” is the definition. The answer is also built from IN (“popular”) then TELL (“instruct”) with GENT (“man”). The “I” before gent is a scientific abbreviation for “electric current”. Distant memories of the law as handed down by that nice Mr. Ohm being V=IR or something like that (never understood the concept but hey, it does not seem to have ruined my life…)
13 PRELIM -“early race” is the definition (prelim being a kind of heat in some sports events). The wordplay is MILER (“athlete”) reversed (“recalled”) to give RELIM “after” P (being standard abbreviation for “pressure”).
14 BESTOW – “Present gift” gives our definition. The wordplay is BE (BROWNIE disheartened – i.e. with the “heart” of the word being removed) with STOW (“pack”).
17 TERRITORIAL -“Its descriptive of army” is the definition – which might not resonate outside UK as I believe in many other countries what the Brits call the Territorial Army is referred to as “reservists” (or similar). The wordplay is TRIAL (“test”) with the letters of “rioter” being mixed in (“participates”) to provide the answer.
20 INNINGS -Unless I’m missing something, I thought this was a bit iffy as a clue. It’s a loose kind of double cryptic, as I see it. “Lord’s action” points us to cricketing activity on the hallowed turf in St. John’s Wood. In some formats of the game (e.g. county championship and test matches) there are indeed “four” innings. However (and here’s my gripe) a lot of cricket matches – including many played at Lord’s – are confined to two innings (one day matches and T20s). OK, I know there’s a question mark at the end to denote some kind of latitude might be called for, but I did not like this.
21 HEAVE – LOI as I was a bit uncertain about the full parsing with “specified direction”, but subsequent checking indicates that all is OK. “Move in specified direction” is, apparently, one of the specific meanings of “heave” (particularly in nautical usage). The answer is also derived from “bliss (endless)” being HEAVEN without its end (N).
22 STEW -“Difficult situation” gives our definition (as in “in a bit of a stew”), and the answer is also WETS (“moderates”) backwards (“setback”). A throwback to the Thatcher era…
23 INTEREST -“Financial stake” is the definition bit. The answer is also found “in” the phrase “SLAINTE RESTAURANT”.
Down
1 HISS -“sound of disapproval” gives our definition. The wordplay is HIS (“guy’s” – possessive) with the additional S coming as an abbreviation of “singular”.
2 SEASIDE -“Blackpool” points us towards the “seaside”, with the answer being constructed from sounds like (“Reportedly”) SEE (“watch”) SIDE (“team”).
3 ELECTRICIAN -“Tradesman” is the definition, with the answer being an anagram (signalled by “moved”) of “Nice article”.
4 RARELY -“Seldom” provides the definition. The wordplay is “artist” (giving RA – a frequently used device in crosswordland) combined with (“meeting”) RELY (“bank” – as in bank on).
6 TRITE -“Hackneyed” gives the definition. The wordplay is RITE (“procedure”) preceded by T (standard abbreviation for “time”).
7 HOME-TOWN -Tricky one, I thought – held me up for a fair while. “starting point” is the primary indicator of the answer (I hesitate to say “definition”), with the wordplay being HO (abbreviation of “house”) MET (as in London’s very own boys in blue – and I’m not referring to Chelsea…) and OWN (“have”).
10 ABIDE WITH ME -“Hymn” is the definition (or maybe that should be “exemplar”?) with the letters of “hit” being mixed up (“newly”) and mixed in (“associated”) with the letters of “web media” to produce the anagram answer. Traditionally sung before the FA Cup Final since 1927, apparently because it was a fave of George V (who was attending the match that year) and no one has seen fit to remove it from the sacred rituals of cup final day since.
12 UPSTAIRS -Another relatively complex construction. “at higher level” provides the definition. The answer is also constructed from P (“quiet”- musical abbreviation) with ST (abbreviation of “street”) and AIR (“ambience”) with the whole lot being surrounded by (“in”) US (i.e. America). Phew…
15 TILLAGE -Tillage, apparently, is the practice (or art) of “raising crops”. Thankfully, the answer can also be derived from the wordplay of “up to” (giving us TILL) with AGE (“specific period”- as in the Bronze Age). Must admit I lived for many years in rural Somerset and never once heard this word – neither do I recall it from any of Adge Cutler’s lyrics (my other reference source for agricultural terminology…)
16 COUSIN -“Relative” is the definition, with the answer also being derived from COIN (“money”) including (“keep”) US.
18 RANGE -Double definition kind of clue. Mountain range and cooking range.
19 LEFT -Another straightforward double definition. Left luggage and sailor’s term for left side.

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic 23 by Hurley”

  1. 13 minutes with a 2 minute gain on my time taken on Hurley’s previous outing. There’s nothing here to scare the horses but I didn’t know the required meaning of ‘heave’.

    As someone whose main interest in cricket is its terminology as used in Times crosswords I don’t have any problems with four innings at 20ac, though anything that reduces the length of a match sounds like a good idea to me.

    Excellent blog, Nick.

    Edited at 2014-04-09 01:43 am (UTC)

  2. Here I thought I was learning something about cricket–had no idea how many innings were in a game–and now I learn it’s much more complicated than that. Oh, well; since it’s cricket, I would have forgotten about it anyway. Wasn’t ‘Abide With Me’ played by the band on the Titanic as it went under?
    1. I think ‘Abide With Me’ was also sung as part of what used to be the pre-match entertainment at FA Cup Finals at Wembley…but those terms might well be foreign to you , Kevin!
  3. They may have had time for several numbers, but the best known one was “Nearer, My God, to Thee”.
  4. 6 mins for a puzzle that I found harder than a few of the recent QCs. HEAVE was my LOI from the wordplay because I didn’t know its “move in specified direction” definition.
  5. Excellent blog, Nick! I was thinking of a RACE of people for some time. And I also considered ELEVAGE before I realised that involves the raising of livestock. Similar to you, despite being brought up in rural East Sussex my knowledge of agricultural terms is a bit limited; Jethro Tull is another term I know but that comes to me from a different direction… If we are to be on the lookout for such terms in future, I commend AGIST to the congregation: take in and feed livestock for payment. Agree with barracuda3 that the site was easier to use today. It was like that 2 days ago but then changed for yesterday’s. 20 minutes for this so more difficult than yesterday’s. INTELLIGENT and UPSTAIRS will serve to induct relatively new solvers into more complex constructions, as Nick implies.
    1. Ah yes, Jethro Tull – first heard of as the seed drill man in history classes about the “agrarian revolution”, then reappearing as the flute driven band giving us Aqualung – a remarkable progression…

      Then I also seem to recall a chap called Turnip Townsend who invented the Norfolk rotation (which, contrary to popular opinion, is not a Morris dance): great grandfather of the more famous Pete?

  6. 15 minutes for me – last one in was 10d – couldn’t get away from “newly” being the anagrind. Still learning not to get fixated on one solution!
  7. Lovely blog, Nick for a pig of a crossword. Real contrast to yesterday’s. Lots more Z8ery today and some clues even stymied him temporarily. COD was 6dn. That was one of the few I got straight off without gruttering & mumbling. Hoping for something more palatable and accessible tomorrow.

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