Quick Cryptic 827 by Hurley

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Middle of the road, difficulty wise. I enjoyed the humour in 20ac and 8dn, amongst others.

I have no idea why Henry = H. Can anyone explain?

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Cask she’d toppled — price to pay here? (4,4)
CASH DESK – anagram of (toppled) CASK SHE’D.
5 Couple I encountered on way back (4)
ITEM – I and reversal of (on the way back) MET (encountered).
9 Accumulate degrees, when travelling around (5)
AMASS – MAS (Masters of Arts, degrees), AS (when) around the outside (travelling around).
10 Greek character featured by comic, Ronnie (7)
OMICRON – hidden in (featured by) cOMIC RONnie.
11 Writing material popular with king (3)
INK – IN (popular) and K (king).
12 Finished about noon, heady husband’s leaving, prepared for cooking? (4-5)
OVEN-READY – OVER (finished) around N (noon), with hEADY lacking H (husband’s leaving).
13 Omit former church associated with physical training (6)
EXCEPT – EX (former), CE (church) and PT (physical training).
15 Prance around farm vehicle, very old inside (6)
CAVORT – CART (farm vehicle) with V (very) and O (old) inside.
17 Winning move by constant girl, one’s school contemporary (9)
CLASSMATE – MATE (winning move, chess) next to C (constant) and LASS (girl).
19 Tree secure? Not entirely (3)
FIR – all but the last letter of (not entirely) FIRm (secure).
20 Canadian province supported by cheers at port city (7)
ONTARIO – ON (supported by), TA (thanks, cheers) and RIO (port city).
21 Beer about four makes one animated? (5)
ALIVE – ALE (beer) around IV (four).
22 Initially refund with money from Cape Town (4)
RAND – first letter of (initially) Refund, plus AND (with).
23 Nit-picking editor entering kitchen store (8)
PEDANTRY – ED (editor) inside (entering) PANTRY (kitchen store).
Down
1 Cup of tea by lake followed by dessert (7)
CHALICE – CHA (tea), L (lake) and ICE (dessert).
2 Henry in bed in hut (5)
SHACK – H (henry) inside SACK (bed).
3 Dip, ours, comes unexpectedly bringing unease (12)
DISCOMPOSURE – anagram of (unexpectedly) DIP OURS COMES.
4 Quiet individual was excellent (5)
SHONE – SH (quiet) and ONE (individual).
6 In two minds over a party storm (7)
TORNADO – TORN (in two minds) on top of A and DO (party).
7 Liberal lots will accept as courageous perhaps (5)
MANLY – MANY (lots) surrounding (will accept) L (liberal).
8 Range area invaders ravaged (6,6)
SIERRA NEVADA – anagram of (ravaged) AREA INVADERS.
14 Moderate speed in outskirts of Canton (7)
CHASTEN – HASTE (speed) inside outermost letters (outskirts) of CantoN.
16 With succinctness, new style captivating monarch (7)
TERSELY – anagram of (new) STYLE, surrounding (capturing) ER (monarch).
17 Sheets of paper, we hear, for singers (5)
CHOIR – homophone of (we hear) “quire” (sheets of paper). One twentieth of a ream, apparently.
18 Ascended in Kilimanjaro seemingly (5)
AROSE – hidden in kilimnjARO SEemingly.
19 Move quickly to embrace right tease? (5)
FLIRT – FLIT (move quickly) surrounding (to embrace) R (right).

22 comments on “Quick Cryptic 827 by Hurley”

  1. It’s a term from physics, “the SI unit of inductance, equal to an electromotive force of one volt in a closed circuit with a uniform rate of change of current of one ampere per second” (ODE). In other words, it’s a term from physics. Henry shows up often in these parts.
    1. I’d always thought H for Henry was for the King – as E for Elizabeth?
      1. But E is for Elizabeth only in ER, Elizabeth Regina. H would be the same if it was ever used.
    2. Thanks for this. I have never encountered the Henry unit before, and had assumed the H had a regal connection. This is much more satisfying, whether or not the setter had it in mind!
      Will
  2. Started off great, getting all the acrosses until 12, where I thought the solution was going to be OVER-something. That, and 14d, slowed me down a bunch. (I still don’t care for ‘moderate’=CHASTEN.) 20ac was something of a gimme; one checker (other than the R) will do. Liked 1d. 6:01.
  3. That one made me think a bit, but was quite enjoyable. FOI was CHALICE and LOI was DISCOMPOSURE. 9:08 in all. Thanks Hurley and William.
  4. Not too hard – I was just slow. The “range” took a while to unjumble. CLASSMATE made another recent appearance. Seemed to be a lot of first-letter-of-X-in-Y clues; they’re definitely the favourite device in QCs.

    FOI CASH DESK LOI CHALICE COD SHONE

  5. A bit rushed at work but a Dnf: 1d I had CHA_I_E and was looking for a dessert definition and a 4 letter word to fit lake.

    COD 12a.

  6. It was all going quite well until my LOI (8dn) where I completely overlooked the enumeration (6,6) and got into my head that I was looking for a 12-letter word. I must have spent at least 6 minutes on this before realising my error and the anagrist then fell straight into place. 17 minutes.
  7. Slightly quicker than average for me today but certainly not an easy challenge, although enjoyable. Nothing particularly held me up, but very few write-ins. 19:03
  8. An ok puzzle but felt a bit mechanical to me, not much fun there

    Thanks for the blog

    Templar

  9. 22a was my error so a DNF today – Reno was the best I could do. FOI 1a. LOI 4d. COD 12a. About 45 minutes might make others feel better!
  10. Mixed today. I managed everything with my lttle electronic helpers, so that’s a big improvment on most of last week. Don’t see chasten as moderate – it’s “to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement”. I could see it was the answer, though.
    Having learned the greek alphabet as a teenager has proved a boon in all sorts of crosswords!
  11. Faster than average for me. Would have been quick had it not been for DISCOMPOSURE where I had to resort to pen and paper and CHALICE (LOI) where it took me a long while to realise that I was looking for a cup rather than a dessert.
    Happy with H for Henry as in H VIII R (for those who have visited the Mary Rose)
    PlayUpPompey
  12. About 7 minutes with interruptions. I need a sign saying ‘keep away I’m doing a crossword’.
  13. At school we had Moderators for homework who remained silent (doing their own homework) unless it was necessary to chasten someone so I can see the connection.

    About 15 mins, no problems, but no flashes of inspiration either

  14. A steady solve today, coming in at 19 minutes, nothing really held me up but a lot of clues needed a little bit of thought e.g 14d, 23a (where I was stuck on larder for a while) and 9a. COD 1d, LOI 22a
  15. Well, this one started like a train, and at one point I thought I was on for a rare sub 30 min finish for Hurley. Ha ! I must have spent a good 10 mins on my last three: 1d. 9ac and the 8d anagram. Such is life. 17ac was easily my favourite today, but lots of nice clues. Invariant
    PS Merlin, my friend, where have you disappeared to ?
  16. No particular hold-ups, helped by getting 3d quickly. I only solved 8d towards the end as checking letters fell into place. LOI was 16d.
    Favourite 14d.
    No time as had big interruptions. David
  17. No particular hold-ups, helped by getting 3d quickly. I only solved 8d towards the end as checking letters fell into place. LOI was 16d.
    Favourite 14d.
    No time as had big interruptions. David
  18. Took almost of the day on and off but got there in the end.

    Agree with others about chasten = moderate. Not convinced about this and it held me up quite a while. For some reason I also had 10ac spelt with a “k” which meant I didn’t spot the hidden word.

    12ac, 17ac and 3dn all took longer than they should have, but I spotted 8dn fairly quickly.

    I’ve come to the conclusion that when given a name e.g. Henry, the first letter is used somewhere. I know it doesn’t always work, but it’s a good checker.

    FOI 11ac, LOI 17dn (biffed as I didn’t know “quire”) and COD 1dn.

    Thanks as usual.

    DR31

  19. 11 down – it’s not H for Henry, but Hal (Hal is the name often used by scholars to refer to the young Henry V in Shakespeare’s play of the same name).

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