Quick Cryptic 611 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit of a hold up in the top half pushed this over the ten minute mark. Quite a bit of mental agility required in the word play plus a couple of bits of GN made this a brisk start to the day. Any questions please ask.

ACROSS

8. Juliana – Dutch Queen once (Juliana Louise Emma MarieWilhelmina. 1909–2004, queen of the Netherlands (1948–80). She abdicated in favour of her eldest daughter Beatrix). Description of calendar (JULIAN), A.
9. Accra – capital (of Ghana). Account (ACC), artist (RA).
10. Clean – without blemishes. Conservative (C), film director LEAN – Sir David Lean, CBE (25 March 1908 – 16 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics[1] such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia(1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965).
11. Totally – in full. Flirt (TOY) around hard to believe (TALL – as in tall stories).
12. Icelander – North European (with a very interesting football chant). Rich without limits (IC – without the end letters), anagram (terribly) of LEARNED.
14. See – double definition.
16. Gem – precious stone. Margaret (MEG) backwards.
18. Quadruple – in four parts. Anagram (redesigned) of RUDE PLAQU – mostly (without the final ‘e’). Please see kevingregg’s comment below – anagram of the same letters but with rude rather plaque without the final letter.
21. Brazier – receptacle for burning. Anagram (rickety) of BIZARRE.
22. Homer – old Greek. Dwelling (HOME), right (R).
23. Solve – work out. (V)elocity inside alone (SOLE).
24. Ancient – very old. Worker (ANT) around 101 (CI) and in from France (EN).

DOWN

1. Ejecting – dismissing. (E)nglish (J)udge (E)xceptionally (C)lever (T)hat (I)s (N)ot (G)ood.
2. Fleece – coat. Run away from (FLEE), church (CE).
3. Vain – conceited. Casano(VA IN)cessantly.
4. Parted – went their separate ways. Norm (PAR), Edward (TED).
5. Natterer – idle talker. Anagram (disturbed) REAR TENT.
6. Eccles – Northern town (famous for their cakes). (ECCLES)iasties.
7. Cautious – wary. Washington (WA), (R)eall(Y).
13. Acquired – got. A CD around a homophone (broadcast) of choir.
15. Denounce – execrate. Executive briefly (EXEC) over charge (RATE).
17. Measly – describing small amount. Anagram (damaged) of ELMS AYE.
19. Abroad – outside country. (A)dvise, BRO, publicity (AD).
20. Pamper – spoil. Holiday maker – camper. Remover cent (C) and insert parking (P).
21. Bust – double definition.
22. Hack – drudge. T(HACK)eray.

23 comments on “Quick Cryptic 611 by Hurley”

  2. All going well until 6d and 15d. Should have known 6d, a Northern Town is generally Eccles, EXECRATE is not a word I use often seeing as up until 10 minutes ago I didn’t really know what it meant, I’ll be using it all the time now. A middle of the road test so thank you Hurley, I didn’t want anything harder suffering as I am from a touch of man flu’, and blogger as I hadn’t fully parsed 24a.
  3. Some fancy wordplay here, like 24ac. 18ac should be read as RUD (mostly rude) + PLAQUE anagrammatized; there would be no reason to treat ‘rude plaque’ as an expression from which to chop the final E. Not knowing where ECCLES is forced me to think of OT books, something I’d rather not do. 6:45.
  6. Slightly slow start trying to fit BEATRIX into 1ac. Didn’t spot the pangram either! Thanks chris and Hurley. 8’28” today.
  7. I was also pushed a minute over my target 10 minutes following a smooth run that ground to a halt in the NE corner where ECCLES, ACCRA and TOTALLY gave me pause for thought.
  8. Yes, nearly full cryptic. I completed it only by spotting that it’s one of those puzzles with occurrences of every letter. I’m sure that they have a name ….!
  9. These QCs are getting harder, or I’m getting worse. Another big DNF. Having ICELANDIC didn’t help with 5 d, but should have got 11a and 4d. Why is ECCLES the ‘go to’ Northern town? Was hunting through all sorts of towns. EXECRATE is certainly an obscure word, and lots of others seemed to nearly fit.
    1. Perhaps more familiar in its adjectival form, “execrable”, applied to something of very poor quality. I learnt the word as a child when it was applied to a computer game in a magazine review. Back when commercial computer games were programmed by teenagers in bedrooms.
  10. This would have been a lot easier if I’d seen how 1d worked at the beginning, rather than 30 minutes later. Even so, I agree with Merlin that we have had two stinkers so far this week. Invariant
  11. I likewise would have been a lot quicker if I had spotted what was going on in 1d and if I had entered Quadruple right the first time instead of mistyping it with el at the end. Still 40 mins with no aids today so twice as fast as yesterday!
  12. 18:01 LOI ECCLES, which I got by remembering the cakes (warmed in the oven and inevitably burning your tongue on the hot raisins); fortunate, since my biblical knowledge is poor to non-existent.
  13. 20 minutes today with my last two Juliana and Ejecting (as ever failed to see hidden).
    I started in the bottom half which went in quickly. The odd hold-up. I agree some of the clues quite difficult for the QC but the cluing was fair. Would have struggled with 1a but managed to recall that Juliana probably was a Dutch queen, then I saw the parsing. Could not parse 11a so thanks as ever to blogger. David
    1. Curiously an IT background helps with it as Computers use so-called julian calendars, which just store the date as the number of days since jan 1st on a certain year (usually 1969 for mainframes and older machines, and 1900 for PCs)
  14. I also no nothing about OT books but was saved by my knowledge of all things northern cakes for my LOI
  15. Include me in the group that thinks it’s been a tough start to the week, but I find it a more satisfying solve when I have to really work at it. I completed this one in 50 minutes, about twice my target time. However the clues were all fair and looking back I’m not sure why it took me so long – the unknowns at 8a and 15d were gettable from the word play. LOI 20d
  16. Not being a film buff I had CLEAR for 10a and so spent 15 mins unsuccessfully on 3d. 15 mins apart from those two though. Also couldn’t parse 6d
  17. Annoyed with a DNF because I couldn’t see 1d ejecting when it was so clear but whether that would have given me 8a Juliana I doubt. So I agree it was tough! Thx for the blog explanations and to Hurley too for the challenge.
  18. This is no.53 in Book 3. Had difficulty understanding PAMPER e.g. for = PER. No problem with Eccles as used to go to MAKRO there. However, it was regarded as suburb of Greater Manchester rather than as a town!
    1. Holiday maker is a camper. Remove the cent (C) and insert parking (P) instead and you get pamper.
      Apparently Eccles is a town in Greater Manchester – I didn’t know it had a Makro though!

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