Quick Cryptic 3121 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Middling difficulty, better-than-middling quality.

Lots to like today from Hurley, including a fun bit of &lit with our breakfast NIBBLER, and a couple of decent anagrams at 14ac and 4d, but my favourite was the novelty of 8ac.

I came home in 05:21 (with a fair bit of biffing), but with the early quitch hovering around 100 it seems I found that elusive wavelength. (The value, perhaps, of tackling this shortly after yesterday’s tough 15×15 puzzle.) Much enjoyed – many thanks to Hurley!

Across
1 Conservative girl with scope for teaching here (9)
CLASSROOM – C(onservative) LASS (girl) with ROOM (scope)
6 Write further — parent missing outsiders (3)
ADD – dADDy (parent) missing “outsiders”
8 Cutback altered at the outset for remote area (7)
OUTBACK – “alter at the outset” = change the first letter, so CUTBACK becomes OUTBACK. In this instance, however, ALTER could more precisely mean MODIFY, as to get from C to O we simply need to add a bit to complete the circle. Very neat.
9 Exit   permission (5)
LEAVE – double definition
10 Team welcoming large playground feature (5)
SLIDE – SIDE (team) welcoming L(arge)
12 British visiting new deli: everything to begin with is good to eat (6)
EDIBLE – B(ritish) visits/enters an anagram (“new”) of DELI; and then E (Everything “to begin with”)
14 Out on bail, unsafe sadly, bringing heroin in (13)
UNFASHIONABLE – anagram (sadly) of ON BAIL UNSAFE, bringing H(eroin) in. H and Horse are both (quite possibly rather dated) slang for Heroin.
16 Ultimately excellent party line — progress (6)
TRAVEL – T (“ultimately” excellenT) RAVE (party) L(ine)
17 What may be used to trace small amount of money reportedly? (5)
SCENT – sounds “reportedly” the same as CENT (small amount of money). The clue could work just as well without the word “reportedly”, as the wordplay could simply be S(mall) and CENT (amount of money), but this way gives some extra clue diversity from the otherwise similar 3 down.
19 Study tragic king, initially normal (5)
LEARN – LEAR (tragic king) N (“initially” Normal)
20 She’s primarily not into big breakfasts, leaving eggs, rashers? (7)
NIBBLER – a semi-&lit clue, where the whole clue provides the definition, but only some of it is cryptic wordplay (as opposed to a full &lit, where all of it must be). Here, SHE’S is not doing any wordplay, which is the “primary” letters of the rest of the clue.
22 Favourite   caress (3)
PET – double definition
23 In recent past? Indeed, before time, ready unexpectedly (9)
YESTERDAY – YES (indeed) before T(ime), anagram (unexpectedly) of READY
Down
1 Erase reference to our costs wrongly (5,3)
CROSS OUT – anagram (wrongly) of OUR COSTS
2 Suitable warpath regularly taken (3)
APT – “regularly taken” letters of w A r P a T h
3 Small step in vast area (5)
SPACE – S(mall) PACE (step)
4 Place royal kindness transformed (6,7)
ORKNEY ISLANDS – anagram (transformed) of ROYAL KINDNESS.

And what kindness that we are generally given something more specific than “place.”
5 Factory supported by region, not half a multitude? (7)
MILLION – MILL (factory) supported by regION “not half”. “Supported by” in a down clue means “sits on top of”.
6 On hand, a covering fabric, we hear, masterly (9)
AVAILABLE – A, VAIL (“we hear” the same as VEIL, covering fabric), ABLE (masterly)
7 Owed pounds for fight (4)
DUEL – DUE (owed) L (libra = pound, hence the £ sign)
11 Source of news on firm — maltreated worker (9)
INFORMANT – anagram (maltreated) of ON FIRM, and ANT (worker)
13 Recollected extremely raw, sleety wind (8)
WESTERLY – anagram (“re-collected”) of RW (“extremely” RaW) and SLEETY. If collect = assemble, recollect = reassemble.
15 Number, divisible by two, in animals’ home (7)
SEVENTY – EVEN (divisible by two) in STY (animals’ home)
17 Foils a break-in carrying weapon (5)
SABRE – is “carried” by foilS A BREak-in
18 Fuss, female friend upset (4)
FLAP – F(emale) PAL (friend) “upset”
21 Boy is happy but not good (3)
LAD – gLAD (happy) but not G(ood)

64 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3121 by Hurley”

  1. 13 minutes. I wasn’t aware of losing time on this but somehow it took me a little longer than most of my QC solves over the past week. No idea why. Very enjoyable anyway, and I liked NIBBLER.

  3. A solid six on the first pass of acrosses but I knew I was going to have to work hard. Downs went in more easily but it still tool a very long time to get UNFASHIONABLE, I’d identified the definition and all the right anagrist I just could unravel it. Forgot again that a party is a often a rave if it isn’t a do and needed INFORMANT to get to TRAVEL. Those were the big hold ups, everything else just took a bit more mulling time. All green in 17.13. Good one!

  4. 10:56, and I agree a puzzle of middling difficulty, above average quality. Much enjoyed, but I needed the blog to unravel the parsing of WESTERLY, as I didn’t see “recollected” as an anagram indicator.

    Many thanks Roly for the blog.

  5. Westerly came suddenly and just in time for a close shave to avoid the SCC again at 19.49, it’s been a good week. Maybe the dark mornings stop us looking out of the window!

    Liked recollected as anagrind, and nicely explained by Rolytoly, but faffed around too long trying to get the grist.

    With the SE holding out, Mrs RH said. “We’ve not had a hidden yet” and up popped sabre to give us the crossers we needed to get over the line.

    COD to Orkney Islands, great anagram.

    Thanks Hurley and Roly

  6. 10:25. FOI CLASSROOM. This gave the O at the start of 4dn which helped a lot with the ORKNEY ISLANDS anagram, unlike the definition – place – which didn’t help much at all and left me thinking I’d missed something. LOI the slightly odd NIBBLER. Still a good puzzle. Thanks Hurley and thank you rolytoly for the blog

  7. 19.50 for himself, 17.35 on my timer. Either way, we, too, happily out of the SCC. Held up by UNFASHIONABLE having beetled over ‘out’ with no thought to it being the definition.
    Little slow on WESTERLY as well. Challenged by anything directional, even here.

    Very clear blog – thank you, Rolytoly – and thanks to Hurley, a good puzzle, a happy morning.

  8. A quick start in the NW but things got a bit chewier further down.
    UNFASHIONABLE required pen and paper to untangle and WESTERLY was one of those clues that had plausible anagram indicators/definitions at both ends of the clue, so I obviously spent time looking at it backwards.
    Started with CLASSROOM and finished with SPACE in 8.13 with COD to WESTERLY (although there were several contenders).
    Thanks to Rolytoly and Hurley

  10. Similar to Plett – fast in the NW, slowing a bit, puzzled over WESTERLY. LOI TRAVEL after I finally realised that “ultimately excellent” meant T not E! (Durr.)

    A very enjoyable puzzle, finished in 07:55 for a Good Day. Many thanks roly and Hurley.

  11. Hurley has got harder than he used to be, but this was just about all doable. LOI MILLION. SCENT surely didn’t need “reportedly” (thank you, Roly, you’ve covered that).

  12. Like others, a quick start in the NW followed by a slowing down towards the end in the SE (not helped by multiple interruptions). Some good clues but I biffed MILLION, was slow to see the parsing of NIBBLER, and had trouble with my LOI WESTERLY. I just avoided the SCC after a jerky solve.
    Thanks to Hurley and Roly.

  13. 15 minutes. Slow to start and didn’t get any easier. NIBBLER held out till the very end but was satisfying to see.

    I wondered if there was more to the ORKNEY ISLANDS clue than a very non-specific def., admittedly with a helpful anagram. I knew nothing about this before but the islands were gifted to Scotland in 1468 as part of a wedding dowry paid by Christian I of Denmark and Norway on the marriage of his daughter Margaret of Denmark to James III of Scotland. As I said, new to me but it makes some sense of the surface.

    Thanks to Roly and Hurley

    2. Thank you BR. I will rub out my question mark against this clue and give Hurley the tick he deserves

  14. 12:09
    I took ages to see NIBBLER. My LOI ADD came only after I had exhausted all other parental names.

    Thanks Roly and Hurley

  15. 5.23

    ADD was my LOI, not immediately seeing the literal. Otherwise a clever anagram for the ISLANDS.

    Thanks RT and Hurley

  16. Just googled VAIL to see if it’s a ‘ proper’ word – learned this: to take off your hat or other head covering as a mark of respect to someone …. news to me I must say – grrrr!

  17. I struggled at times but was done in 13 minutes. LOI SABRE, another hidden missed for too long.
    Good puzzle. COD to UNFASHIONABLE just.
    David

  18. 14:39
    I thought Hurleys QC was pitched almost perfectly for its difficulty with a nice mixture of write ins and nibblers.
    A very satisfying QC.
    FOI: CLASSROOM
    LOI: WESTERLY
    COD: AVAILABLE

    Thanks to rolytoly and Hurley

  19. From CLASSROOM to ORKNEY ISLANDS in 8:32. Needed INFORMANT before UNFASHIONABLE hove into view. Thanks Hurley and Roly.

  20. Another window seat solve that should have been a lot quicker. This time I was trying to make a 13 letter place for 4d, having not bothered with/ignored the enumeration. It was only when the last part increasingly looked like islands that the penny dropped 🙄. 6ac Add also needed both crossers, so I can safely say today wasn’t my best effort. CoD to Unfashionable for the surface misdirection. Invariant

  21. 15:42

    Well, that was my first completed puzzle of the week so can’t complain. But what kind of definition is place for ORKNEY ISLANDS? Otherwise a great puzzle with just ADD and LOI DUEL causing me to scratch my head.

  22. Hurley’s crosswords like those of The Joker nearly always take me up to my target time, and today was no exception just creeping inside target at 9.58. As always with Hurley, a well judged puzzle that hits the mark as a QC. I did take a little too long on my LOI which was NIBBLER where with all the checkers in place I could initially only think of NEBULAR. I’m not sure I agree with Rolytoly’s praise for OUTBACK, a little too simplified a solving device I thought.

    1. Sometimes we miss the obvious. Nibbler was clued by primarily but I’m not sure what the she was there for.

  23. 24 out of 26, just failed on the extreme south west. Flap and pet. Caress = pet is a bit of a stretch for me. Pet = stroke a dog maybe? Friend I was going down the amie route for some reason.

    CoD for me unfashionable

    Thanks Hurley and Roly

      1. Do I sense a Rocky Horror Show quote coming of the woodwork? Heavy petting still maps more to stroking than cuddles to me. Might as well have been “outdated in northeast term of endearment”.

  24. Thanks to Hurley and rolytoly.
    Good puzzle.
    8a Outback very clever, took a while to suss it.
    20a Nibbler, again I wasted time on this as I missed the initialisation indicator.
    17d Sabre, as usual didn’t spot the containment straight away.

  26. Unnecessarily slow for me. Stuck for ages in SE until I hadthe usual (belated) thought of what types of clue are there which immediately gave 20a and 17d and thence 17a. Thanks to Hurley and rolytoly.

  28. 25:55 (average: 35, target: 36)

    A great puzzle. LOI SPACE. I was stuck with STARE for a long time trying to make sense of it as a small step. LAD threw me too as my first attempt was (G)LEE. I’m pretty sure I’ve done that before with almost exactly the same clue. I very much enjoyed getting to the answers on WESTERLY, NIBBLER, YESTERDAY, UNFASHIONABLE and AVAILABLE. So many good clues in this QC.

    Thanks Roly and Hurley

  29. I made heavy weather of this one, particularly with SCENT and WESTERLY at the end. A fun one, though, taking me 17:50 in all.

    Thank you for the blog!

  30. 25 minutes and all parsed except INFORMANT where I didn’t see the anagram. However a careless ‘and’ instead of ‘add’ at 6ac means a technical DNF (dandy for a parent anyone?). I had to write out both long anagrams to solve them.

    FOI – 8ac OUTBACK
    LOI – 6ac a misspelt ADD
    COD – 1ac CLASSROOM

    Thanks to Hurley and Rolytoly

  31. My quickest solve ever at 31 minutes so I’m happy with that but I still do not fully understand “add”. What has “write” got to do with the definition of add?

  32. I am in a minority as I thought this a real stinker. Obviously not on the right wavelength. A DNF for over 50% of the puzzle.

  33. 11.41 I wasn’t certain of ADD even after fully solving it. I was looking for something that meant “write further” more specifically. Followed with DUEL to finish. Having seen BR’s explanation above, ORKNEY ISLANDS is very nice. Thanks rolytoly and Hurley.

  34. 16 mins…

    Started off fairly quickly, but slowed down in the bottom half. Luckily managed to get 4dn “Orkney Islands” at first glance which helped on a number of other clues. Main hold up was recognising the anagram for 13dn “Westerly”.

    FOI – 1ac “Classroom”
    LOI – 17ac “Scent”
    COD – 11dn “Informant”

    Thanks as usual!

  35. Don’t know how long it took me to solve, but felt like stuff was going in without too much thinking time between answers. Really enjoyed it, with WESTERLY as my LOI, and felt really proud of figuring that final word out. Thanks for the blog 😁

  36. 24:55 – pretty slow, not seeing a couple of the hidden words for a while and struggling to solve a couple that were fairly obvious in retrospect.

  38. Another pretty straightforward day, apart from my LOI. I often make the same mistake – I see primarily / initially etc, and just take the first letter of the first word and wonder what to do with the rest of the clue. In fact, I got the answer via the checkers today, then went back and had a very big PDM 🤣 Interesting to see I was in good company! But will I ever learn?
    I liked the anagram at 4d very much, but did think ‘place’ was rather weak as the definition. However, BR has put that right – I can now see that it’s a very clever clue, even if the history is somewhat esoteric. Not if you’re an Orcadian though! I didn’t get the subtlety of 8a either.
    8:46 FOI Classroom LOI Nibbler COD Sabre
    Thanks Hurley and Roly

    I found the 15×15 fun today – it probably took about 25 minutes, with a few stops and starts over lunch. I think I shan’t bother with Wednesdays for the next few weeks though – if yesterday’s was the opening puzzle in the championship, I can’t imagine how much harder things will get! Actually, I can – I did look at the final puzzle earlier in the week 😂

  39. Slow start then picked up speed until we missed the two hidden at 20a and 17d. Nice puzzle for our standard in such.

  40. We’re just back from having our bodies and brains scanned (again) as part of the Biobank program. Maybe they got scrambled in the process, or perhaps that was the memory tests we had to do afterwards, but we were a little slower than normal with this. LOI WESTERLY went in at 13:57. Thanks, all.

  41. 14:40 here, slightly below my average. The two long anagrams were my last two in, otherwise not much to add to what’s already been said.

    Thanks to Hurley and rolytoly.

  42. A relativerly smooth solve that started with the CLASSROOM/CROSS OUT combination and finished with WESTERLY (given my surname is West it shouldn’t have taken so long to work out). Thanks rolytoly. 7:36

  43. 25 min finish. Available being my struggle, thinking Masterly was the definition. Other harder clues were very much assisted by the crossers provided by the clues that I found easier.

    Great puzzle. Thanks Hurley and Roly (I almost understand the parsing of Outback).

  44. I found this hard going. Resorted to aids to check I was on the right lines.
    FOI 10a Slide
    LOI 17d Sabre
    COD 14a Unfashionable

  45. Cry foul! ‘Out’ and ‘In’ in clue for UNFASH…ABLE, too misdirecting! I am a ?ADD? person and often called by that name, but I still thought ‘Dad’ was the part of the clue, and half decided ‘And’ equals ‘Further’ was good enough, but plumped for ADD in the end.

  46. 27 minutes completed in two sittings -started in Hampshire and finished in Wiltshire ( the air here must be clearer).
    Satisfying solve especially the Westerly clue.
    Thank you Hurley and Roly.

  49. Slow today but happily everything fell into place once I’d spotted a careless typo. One little error can make so much difference. All done in 18:54.

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