Quick Cryptic 499 by Hurley

Author   emu66Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Not too many hold-ups with this one, despite a deliberately unhelpful capital letter in 3d – by then I had enough checkers not to be searching for French words. Clever turn of phrase in 23a, my favourite clue I think, because of this. LOI in 12d, despite having shell as the second part. For new solvers, chemical symbols are worth knowing; gold (Au), silver (Ag) (3d here) and copper (Cu), are popular, but others crop up too. 20a is also a favourite of setters, though more usually as part of the wordplay rather than the solution.
Thank you to Hurley.

Across
1 Sailors’ song in poor accommodation: SHANTY
Double definition
4 Sound, not smooth, you dread, last of all: THUD
Final letters (last of all) of four preceding words
9 Praising twofold on return a politician: LAUDATORY
LAUD = DUAL (twofold) backwards (on return), a politician = A TORY
10 Mug fellow: ROB
Double definition
11 One welcoming nice port site, redeveloped: RECEPTIONIST
Anagram (redeveloped) of NICE PORT SITE
13 With nothing to wear, relative’s endless publicity: UNCLAD
Relative’s endless = UNCL(e), publicity = AD
15 State’s source of metal almost gone: OREGON
Source of metal = ORE, almost GON(e)
17 Port in Spain unusually bans a siesta before noon: SAN SEBASTIAN
Anagram (unusually) of BANS A SIESTA, before N(oon)
20 Earned regularly before: ERE
EaRnEd
21 Religious book for distribution hits Mecca: CATECHISM
Anagram (for distribution) of HITS MECCA
22 Initially liking ukulele, totally engaging instrument: LUTE
First letters (initially) of next four words of the clue
23 Male’s content with one descendant – girl: ALISON
Male’s content = AL, (content as in what is contained), one = I, descendant = SON

Down
1 Fabric Society type needed: SILK
Society = S, type =ILK
2 Article, appealing, SHARP: ACUTE
Article = A, appealing = CUTE
3 Behind time, composer with silver currency half-ignored in Tours bureau: TRAVEL AGENCY
Time = T, composer = RAVEL, silver = AG, half-ignored (curr)ENCY
5 Husband making mistake getting fish: HERRING
Husband = H, making mistake = ERRING
6 First-timer upset editor with objection over worker: DEBUTANT
DE = upset ED(itor), objection = BUT, worker = ANT
7 Regular journey east after defeat: ROUTE
Defeat = ROUT, East = E
8 Chic oil party somehow failing to match claims?: HYPOCRITICAL
Anagram (somehow) of CHIC OIL PARTY
12 Hard cover served up surprise, anguish: NUTSHELL
NUTS = STUN (surprise) backwards (served up), anguish = HELL
14 Conservative opening religious building: CONVENT
Conservative = CON, opening = VENT
16 Some with a style rather rushed: HASTY
Hidden word
18 Wrong answer, teacher!: AMISS
Answer = A, teacher = MISS
19 Old soldiers sign: OMEN
Old = O, soldiers = MEN

9 comments on “Quick Cryptic 499 by Hurley”

  1. I didn’t notice it at the time, but we have an initial-letter clue (22ac) and a final-letter clue (4ac); don’t think I’ve seen that before. Four long anagrams, 3 across and one down; 8d and 17ac were not a problem, even though I didn’t know if SAN SEBASTIAN was a port or not; but RECEPTIONIST was opaque to me until I got most of the checkers in. Emu’s reminder about the elements is timely; also FE (iron), less often SN (tin). Also worth repeating: it’s OK to capitalize a word gratuitously (as in 3d, Tours for tours), but not the reverse (japan for Japan). 6′.
  2. 12 minutes, so not the best end to my week but I wasn’t actually aware of any problems whilst solving.

    We reach the 500th Quick Cryptic on Monday when it’s my turn to blog (as I did the very first one) and I am rather hoping we have something special to mark the occasion.

    Edited at 2016-02-05 07:52 am (UTC)

  3. Once I got started with 17a this all went in quite quickly in under 30 minutes. Having had a holiday in San Sebastian, I recall not much of a port and a place which regards itself as Basque rather than Spanish. But nothing wrong with the clue. My LOI was also 12d and also having guessed at Shell for the last part.I thought the long anagrams were fairly easy to spot and solve which I guess is the point of the QC. Enjoyable puzzle. David
  4. DNF for me today – completely baffled by 12d and in the end I was looking for another word for anguish so I wan on completely the wrong track. So thanks for clearing that up emu.
    Also missed the anagram in 21a and solved it from the checkers alone.
  5. Enjoyable; a quick start so I thought I was in for a record time, then got stuck for a while, then a quick finish. Loved 3D – my kind of clue too. biffed ‘thud’ without getting the parsing, so thank-you blogger! So obvious now!
  6. I enjoyed this, and would have had a quick time, apart from the fact that I’m not very good at anagrams and had the wrong end of the stick for LOI 12d. Like plett11, I was looking for a word meaning anguish for far too long. 23ac my favourite today. Invariant
  7. I made heavier weather of this than I should have done because I didn’t read the clue for 9ac properly and biffed “adulatory”. It was only when I couldn’t make 1dn work that I went back to 9ac and saw what a muppet I’d been.

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