Quick Cryptic 3053 by Wurm

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I found this QC from Wurm to be of above average difficulty. There were some less common senses of familiar words or expressions, eg 1a and 7d. A few words eg 19a, 11d and 14d which I can’t remember seeing in QC-land before added to the challenge.

I limped over the line in 12;56, finishing with the impression of MCC Members in the pavilion behaving badly, as conveyed by my LOI 16d.

Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.

Thanks to Wurm

Across
1 Be proud and resolute going outside (5,3)
STAND OUT – STOUT (‘resolute’) containing (‘going outside’) AND (‘and’)

I took ‘Be proud’ to be in the sense of projecting slightly above a surface, as in a nail which has not been fully hammered in. Not the first sense of ‘proud’ to occur, particularly when followed by the misleading ‘resolute’.
6 Play involving black fellow (4)
TOBY – TOY (‘Play’) containing (‘involving’) B (‘black’)
8 Leading character is somewhat lecherous (4)
HERO – Hidden (‘is somewhat’) in ‘lecHEROus‘
9 Drive away duck circling one small lake (8)
DISLODGE – DODGE (‘duck’) containing (‘circling’) I (‘one’) S (‘small’) L (‘lake’)
10 Welsh aim wrecked in London borough (8)
LEWISHAM – Anagram (‘wrecked’) of WELSH AIM
12 Too much love for German fellow (4)
OTTO – OTT (‘Too much’) O (‘love’)

OTT an initialism for “over the top”.
13 Organ swell that might hamper listener? (6)
EARWAX – EAR (‘Organ’) WAX (‘swell’)

Wax for ‘swell’, or getting bigger, as in the waxing of the moon.  The answer isn’t exactly music-related!
15 Shows disapproval about our heartless lecturers (6)
TUTORS –TUTS (‘Shows disapproval’) containing (‘about’) OUR (‘our heartless’)

The second QC appearance in two days for TUT which was clued yesterday by ‘rebuke’.
17 Addict from southeast in ancient city (4)
USER – SE (‘southeast’) contained in (‘in’) UR (‘ancient city’)
19 Wood in stacks sheltering a pig (8)
MAHOGANY – MANY (‘stacks’) containing (‘sheltering’) A HOG (‘a pig’)

No, Oink is not today’s setter. I see MAHOGANY has appeared in QC’s before; in 2016, 2020 and 2021.

For the sense of MANY, ‘stacks’ is usually followed by ‘of’.
21 Tyrant adroit manoeuvring around court (8)
DICTATOR – Anagram (‘manoeuvring’) of ADROIT containing (‘around’) CT (‘court’)
23 Turned on by Irish film genre (4)
NOIR – Reversal (‘turned’) of ON then IR (‘Irish’)

I like the Wikipedia description of “a style of Hollywood crime dramas that emphasises cynical attitudes and motivations”, although Hollywood wasn’t the only place to make films in this style.

I can already hear the zither.
24 Boss in educational activity mostly (4)
STUD – STUDY (‘educational activity mostly’)

A ‘boss’ is a STUD on eg the centre of a shield.
25 Force breaches defences (8)
RAMPARTS – RAM (‘Force’) PARTS (‘breaches’)

PARTS for ‘breaches’ as in “separates” as a verb. Again, this sense didn’t immediately come to mind.
Down
2 Perhaps May article on Salvation Army (7)
THERESA – THE (‘article’) RE (‘on’) SA (‘Salvation Army’)

The first name of the former PM.
3 Girl raised grouse on island (5)
NAOMI – Reversal (‘raised’) of MOAN (‘grouse’) above (in a down clue) (‘on’) I (‘island’)
4 No spring chicken daring to go topless (3)
OLD – BOLD (‘Daring to go topless’)

Amusing surface. Not always a good look.
5 Check striker fit for international? (4,5)
TEST MATCH – TEST (‘Check’) MATCH (‘striker’)

‘International’ in the sense of a sporting event between two countries. Our first cricketing reference.  I think ‘fit’ is here just for the surface.
6 Fish sandwiches to present without thought (4,3)
TROT OUT – TROUT (‘Fish’) contains (‘sandwiches’) TO (‘to’)
7 Intolerant sort to leave in short while (5)
BIGOT – GO (‘to leave’) contained in (‘in’) BIT (‘short while’)

Not the sense for BIT that immediately came to mind: “I’ll see you in a bit / in a short while”.
11 Six-footer encountered in verse? (9)
HEXAMETER – Cryptic definition

A HEXAMETER is a line of verse containing six metrical feet, hence the non-entomological ‘Six-footer’ (very good). I may be missing some wordplay here with MET for ‘encountered’, but if so I can’t see how the rest of the wordplay works.

This has appeared once before in a QC in 2022.
14 Material from most evil news boss (7)
WORSTED – WORST (‘most evil’) ED (‘news boss’)

“A fine smooth yarn spun from combed long-staple wool” according to Oxford Dictionaries.

Are we meant to be thinking of someone specific here? No comment.

Like the previous answer, has appeared once before in a QC in 2016.
16 Go berserk in high-scoring Lord’s game? (3,4)
RUN RIOT – Double definition, the second a somewhat cryptic cricket-related one, referring to a game in which many runs are scored.
18 Sell battered fish over time (5)
SHIFT – Anagram (‘battered’) of FISH above (‘over’) T (‘time’)

Sounds like Arthur Daley-speak; “Terry, we need to shift these motors”.
20 Italian city an ego destroyed (5)
GENOA – Anagram (‘destroyed’) of AN EGO

I’m not sure if there is any significance to the surface. Looking it up, there was a siege of Genoa, occupied by a French garrison at the time, in 1800 during which 30,000 people died. Napoleon’s name (?’ego’) comes up when reading about it, but I’m not sure he was directly involved.
22 Strange Caribbean spirit (3)
RUM – Double definition

73 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3053 by Wurm”

  1. NHO LEWISHAM. I biffed STAND OUT once I thought of ‘proud flesh’; never parsed it. 8:00

      1. Took me a long time too, and I used to visit Citigroup there weekly or more often.

  2. Biffed EARWIG without really thinking about it which meant HEXAMETER was never going to come, but maybe with the ‘x’ I might have got it. Everything else pretty standard fare. COD to MAHOGANY.
    Thanks BR and setter.

  3. 8.25. A good QC I thought, a straight-through solve requiring occasional pauses for thought. Like when I put CHER and the answer was HERO…well, she is quite a character. When I was at uni tutors and lecturers were separate species, though I suppose some lecturers did also run tutorials. It was only upon coming here that I found so much was going on with STAND OUT. LOI and COD HEXAMETER, thanks BR and Wurm.

    1. What LindsayO said. My own experience too – especially via-a-vis STAND OUT – although I could not parse HEXAMETER

  4. 11 minutes delayed a little by HEXAMETER which I tried to construct from wordplay around MET (encountered) which didn’t exist (unless we are all missing something). RUN RIOT also gave me pause for thought.

  6. HEXAMETER (via met and the H and the X reckoning it must end ER) and RUN RIOT the main hold ups. Worried out STAND OUT, slow on TROT OUT, TOBY and RAMPARTS. All green in 13.30.

  7. 10:18, so one of my faster solves for a puzzle by Wurm, though I never parsed STAND OUT and had to come here to have it explained. Otherwise no holdups, but sympathies for Kevin and anyone else who is not intimately au fait with the names of all 32 London boroughs – quite specialised GK I think.

    Many thanks BR for the blog. I too now cannot avoid hearing the zither …

  8. Couldn’t get past RUN WILD, NHO HEXAMETER (which I wanted to spell hexametre based on some distance pun I had imagined)

    both of the above meant I was never going to get RAMPARTS. Other than those 3 it came pretty easily

    DNF

  9. This took a while to get started, with 13 minutes on the clock only had about a third done. Thankfully the bottom half went in quicker to finish with earwax then Theresa at 23.10. MUST try to remember that in a down clue, on is a positional indicator but sometimes is wordplay for re, nice misdirection Wurm. Oh THAT kind of May!

    Thanks BR, like others we needed your parsing of stand out. Had persuaded ourselves that resolute = stand and going outside= out, it kinda works?

  10. I started with a careless ‘stick’ OUT causing me all sorts of problems wondering how to parse ‘capri’ for the island in 3d which in turn meant that HERO was a mite tricky. Eventually I tried parsing 1a and realised my mistake.
    Other than that I found this to be an average difficulty and high quality puzzle.
    Finished in 8.23
    Thanks to BR and Wurm

  11. 15:21. Naomi, Otto, Theresa and Toby run riot then trot out…
    Agree Lewisham might be tricky for non UK solvers. Didn’t get the wow factor today but appreciated the nod to the test match (I’m off to the Oval on Sunday🙌)
    Thanks BR and Wurm

  12. I completed the NW quadrant quickly and thought I was in for a quick solve. Most of the rest went in quickly but I took an age to see the riot in RUN RIOT, despite having all the crossers. That left BIGOT which clicked and DISLODGE where I ran out of steam and biffed the unparsed DISGORGE in desperation (to avoid the SCC). Silly me!
    I must try to stick to my guns and remind myself – forget the time and parse ’em all to get it right.
    Thanks to both. I agree with BR that this was not an easy QC.

  13. 6.32

    Nice puzzle. Also an EARWIG but HEXAMETER put paid to that. Liked WORSTED. Thanks BR and Wurm.

  14. I struggled with this and limped home in 28:28. Top half took a lot of unravelling – STAND OUT , DISLODGE, OTTO especially. Hats off to you rapid solvers.

  15. I was going along nicely until I reached my LOI, which I knew couldn’t be “run wild” as RAMPARTS was definitely correct. It took almost two minutes before the PDM.

    FOI HERO
    LOI RUN RIOT
    COD THERESA
    TIME 5:48

  16. Confident that I was on the wavelength today after starting at the bottom. Felt a little smug solving HEXAMETER. WORSTED made me smile, as did THERESA. Also liked MAHOGANY and RAMPARTS.
    But then came to a halt in NE, having to think hard about TOBY, OTTO, TROT OUT and LOI DISLODGE.
    Thanks vm, BR. CNP 1a.

  17. I really enjoyed this and after the first few minutes I was on Wurm’s wavelength.
    32 mins.
    On first pass I solved very few. I took it slowly concentrating a lot on word play and answers came – many PDMs for me.

    FOI HERO
    LOI TOBY
    COD RAMPARTS, though there were many excellent clues.

    Thanks BR and Wurm

  18. 7:40

    I was surprised to find that the Quitch is currently at 132 suggesting that many found this more difficult (until I realised that I was looking at the Snitch for the 15×15). The only sticking points for me were LEWISHAM (though I am a Londoner, this still didn’t leap to mind), and having stuck a not-fully-parsed RUN WILD in at 16d, I had to think again when RAMPARTS went in.

    Thanks for the enjoyable blog BR, and for the puzzle, Wurm

      1. Thanks Blighter – I found I was looking at the 15×15 Snitch rather than the Quitch – doh!

  19. 12:03 (death of Arthur of Brittany, possibly murdered by order of King John)

    I initially entered CHER as the hidden leading character in 8a, until the need to fit THERESA in 2d forced a rethink. I also had RUN WILD for 16d until RAMPARTS became apparent, leading to RUN RIOT being my LOI.

    Thank BR and Wurm

  20. Fairly straightforward for me all green in 8.14. Off to a flyer but slowed up at end looking for some kind of insect for POI HEXAMETER before LOI. EARWAX where I too resisted urge to put in EARWIG.

    Thanks Bletchley and Wurm

  21. Quit at 29mins unable to get HEXAMETER and EARWAX having spent a good 15+mins staring at them. The latter I was blocked by only being able to think of EARWIG and then EARbud which works for swell, but “to wax” is something I would never have thought of for swell although I know the moon does it.

    Didn’t like STAND-OUT because it included “outside” in the clue. I’m surprised there’s not more outrage about that. Must admit that while I understood the “be proud” definition I didn’t parse the STOUT – AND parsing. Also didn’t much like parts=breaches in RAMPARTS. So overall not an enjoyable puzzle but backhanded thanks to Wurm.

    In other clueing, with the ancient city of Ur being involved in USER, I can now say I’ve heard it mentioned outside of Crossworld as the BBC4 documentary on Agatha Christie last Saturday stated she had visited the ruins on her travels.

    Thanks to BR for the blog.

    1. But isn’t it “Stout” (for resolute) going outside of “and”? So whilst there is an element of “out” in the clue it isn’t a direct reference, unless I’m missing something.

      1. You’re right that that’s the breakdown. Still seems a little weird to me.

  23. Three random names in the same crossword, one of them German!

    I really can’t be doing with clues like that, where the definition part of the clue is of no help whatsoever.

  24. Funny how our perceptions differ. No problems here with 19a, 11d and 14d; on the other hand the NE corner defeated me totally (six to the bad) and I do find fellow = TOBY and German fellow = OTTO bogus, any random names will do. Also unimpressed by STAND OUT (though biffed), with “out” in the clue. Is resolute, STOUT? Also wondered about “be proud”= STAND OUT but you’re right, BR, thank you.
    Thought of DISLODGE but rejected it as it really does not = “drive” away (agree with Collins “remove from”).
    Surely a BIGOT is someone who is prejudiced, not intolerant.
    TROT OUT very difficult.

    1. Is resolute stout? I thought of the line from the song:
      “Give me some men who are stout-hearted men…”

  25. 27:15

    Gosh, quite a struggle. I echo the comment about needing to find 3 random names. Struggled with EARWAX, WORSTED and HEXAMETER. LOI DISLODGE having initially put DISGORGE but I knew it wasn’t right and an alphabet trawl revealed the correct solution.

  26. I started with OLD and finished with HEXAMETER, EARWAX and RAMPARTS in that order. I initially biffed RUN AMOK, but NOIR fixed that. Used to visit my aunt and uncle in LEWISHAM as a teenager. Had my first Indian meal in Catford as it was a Sunday and all the other restaurants were shut. Just needed that nudge. Love Indian food now! 9:23. Thanks Wurm and BR.

  27. 21:33

    So for me, I have to say an average QC – as in, I had to work at it.
    Three crossers in the first pass, more success with the downs and then just working (continually) around the grid, biffed RUN RIOT finishing in the NE corner.
    FOI: LEWISHAM
    LOI: TOBY
    COD: RAMPARTS

    Thanks to Bletchley and Wurm

  28. A cut above the average from Wrum today, so I was very relieved that at least some of the answers were queuing in an orderly fashion. Sadly, Earwax and Hexameter didn’t hear the whistle (one had an excuse 😉) and became my last pair by a margin.
    In the end I gave up trying to fully parse Hexameter just in time to nab a window seat, and now think ‘met’ was there accidentally.
    CoD, in a very strong field, to Trot Out for the parsing. Invariant

  29. Not as problematic as yesterday’s for me as I came home in 15 minutes, all parsed. For a while the right hand side was blank but things improved once I tackled the downs. No problem with HEXAMETER except for the positioning of the last two letters where I had to wait for RAMPARTS to be certain. I was also sure the capitalisation of ‘may’ in 2dn was a red herring until the PDM.

    FOI – 8ac HERO
    LOI – 12ac OTTO
    COD – 5dn TEST MATCH. Also liked the poetic six-footer and the mad cricket match.

    Thanks to Wurm and BR.

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