I thought this was a particularly good QC from Hurley, containing a mix of some straightforward fare to help everyone on their way, and some trickier stuff to stretch the old hands a bit or get newcomers to raise their game in readiness for the next level – depending on how you look at it.
My personal experience was that most of the grid filled in pretty smoothly, but then the north west corner put up stout resistance with 1a, 2d and 4d taking longer than the rest of the puzzle out together.
I was probably lucky in that the device used by Hurley at 17a had recently also appeared in a Sunday Times cryptic that I’d blogged – but for those who had not come across this ruse before, I can imagine it may well have caused problems as it requires some lateral thinking and does not readily fit into the more “orthodox” clue types with which we are generally familiar.
Loved the anagram at 11a!
I’ll be interested to see how everyone fared with this – I anticipate that newer players found it pretty tricky, but you never know… Thanks as ever to our setter.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Excellent example as writer of music embraces church (8) |
| SCORCHER – SCORER (writer of music) ’embraces’ CH (church). Somewhat ironically, 1ac was my last one in: the definition threw me off track as I was looking for something meaning a thing that is held out as an example of excellence – such as “paragon”. It’s perfectly fair – I was just being a bit dim… | |
| 5 | Smug person, greedy one — about right (4) |
| PRIG – PIG (greedy person) goes around (about) R (right) | |
| 9 | Bother man, non-Tory, on regular basis (5) |
| ANNOY – Every other letter (on a regular basis) of mAn, NoN-tOrY | |
| 10 | Port fashionable in the past (7) |
| CHICAGO – CHIC (fashionable) + AGO (in the past). Being so far from the sea, I must admit I don’t readily think of Chicago as a port although it obviously is, handling huge amounts of cargo transported through the great lakes. Fortunately the wordplay was sufficiently clear to prevent me getting bogged down here. | |
| 11 | Man sent tweet off? Writings from much earlier (3,9) |
| NEW TESTAMENT – *(MAN SENT TWEET) with “off” indicating the anagram – and what a beauty it is! | |
| 13 | Arrogant and noisily changing third letter (6) |
| LORDLY – LOUDLY (noisily) changes its third letter from U to R. Have to say I found the construction of the clue a bit too ‘mechanical’ for my taste, but maybe I’m being harsh. | |
| 15 | Dictator recalled in Marmara Sea chronicle (6) |
| CAESAR – marmaRA SEA Chronicle provides us with a very nice reverse hidden (signalled by ‘recalled in’) | |
| 17 | Characters in chintz are in such order (12) |
| ALPHABETICAL – Cryptic definition: the characters in C H I N T Z are indeed in alphabetical order. The same device was used by Jeff Pearce in a recent Sunday Times cryptic (4769) which coincidentally I happened to blog: as a result, I quickly spotted what was happening here, but I remember it took me a fair while for the penny drop when I first saw it a couple of Sundays ago. | |
| 20 | Charlie greeting thin foreigner (7) |
| CHILEAN – C (Charlie – phonetic alphabet) + HI (greeting) + LEAN (thin) | |
| 21 | Peace campaigner having crossed river, acted as chauffeur (5) |
| DROVE – DOVE (peace campaigner) goes around (crossed) R (river) | |
| 22 | Primarily treacly, tiny, over-pretty (4) |
| TWEE – T (first letter – ‘primarily’ – of Treacly) + WEE (tiny) | |
| 23 | After review one’s free as predicted (8) |
| FORESEEN – *(ONES FREE) with “after review” signalling the anagram | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Flier succeeded with wangle — not half! (4) |
| SWAN – S (abbrev. succeeded) + ‘not half’ of WAN{gle} | |
| 2 | With no pressure move to capture small portion (5) |
| OUNCE – {P}OUNCE – move to capture without its P (no Pressure) | |
| 3 | Possibly try gal’s craze — one looking ahead (7,5) |
| CRYSTAL GAZER – *(TRY GALS CRAZE) with “possibly” signposting the anagram | |
| 4 | Adaptable, she can exchange cheque for coins? (6) |
| ENCASH – *(SHE CAN) with “adaptable” signalling the anagram, giving a word that is rarely heard these days but was widely used when I were a lad… | |
| 6 | After upcoming editor brought in, backs lecturers (7) |
| READERS – REARS (backs) has ED reversed introduced into it (upcoming editor brought in). For anyone unfamiliar with the term, a “reader” is a title bestowed by some universities on senior lecturers. | |
| 7 |
Favour sentimental stuff, dulcet in the extreme, on vessel (4,4) |
| GOOD TURN – GOO (sentimental stuff) + DT (extremes of DulceT) + URN (vessel) | |
| 8 | Suitable for scamming? Very well! (3,2,1,6) |
| FIT AS A FIDDLE – If something is “suitable for scamming” then it could be said to be fit to be used as a fiddle – nice, whimsical cryptic steer towards the answer | |
| 12 | Cold king associated with economy — that’s definite (5-3) |
| CLEAR-CUT – C (cold) + LEAR (king) + CUT (economy) | |
| 14 | Split, make changes over stretch of turbulent water (7) |
| RIPTIDE – RIP (split) + EDIT reversed (make changes ‘over’) | |
| 16 | Shed in field not being moving (4-2) |
| LEAN-TO – LEA (field) + *(NOT) with “being moving” indicating the rearrangement | |
| 18 | Initially appearing lively, outgoing, now extremely solitary (5) |
| ALONE – First letters (initially) of Appearing Lively, Outgoing, Now Extremely | |
| 19 | Some prefer northern plant (4) |
| FERN – Hidden in (some) preFER Northen | |
For 11, it is curiously to think what those in the NT might have tweeted if Twitter had been available.
Excellent puzzle, just taxing enough for this beginner although I had to come back to it later because my 9 week old pup fell asleep on it 🙂
Enjoyable but really tricky, although that may be lack of sleep and coffee. Took ages to get lordly, Chilean (I wasn’t helped by sticking in Chinese), riptide, lean to and LOI twee.
Scorcher for excellent example was also fiddly.
16d “being” is a bit clunky, shed in field not moving might be better.
Some great clues: riptide, Chilean and COD alphabetical.
Edited at 2017-11-15 05:35 am (UTC)
It’s always interesting how different people’s minds work – which makes the blogger’s task of commenting on “degree of difficulty” very hazardous! The clues you single out (other than 1a) as being the one’s that you struggled with were one’s I thought were probably not too tricky, whereas the one’s I thought were hard you appear to have taken in your stride! Go figure, as they say…
riptide took longer as I tried to shoehorn in rapids.
7’15”
No complaints from me, but I suspect others will not be too happy.
Edited at 2017-11-15 05:59 am (UTC)
I also wrestled with PINCH for 2d before seeing the light, but all the long ones went in relatively easily, giving me a good base from which to work my way around. I usually look at the very long and very short answers first as I think they can be easier – there are far too many 7 letter words in the English language.
Thanks Nick and Hurley.
I think the main point is about where your expectations are, and whether you might consider adjusting them. For most people (self included) it’s a long, slow climb up the cryptic crossword ladder – OK, there is the odd genius who starts at ground zero and 12 months later is completing the 15×15 but they, I’d suggest, are extremely few and far between.
When I first started on cryptics about ten years ago I was doing the Sydney Morning Herald (I was based in Aus at that time). The SMH most days is, I’d say, roughly about the same level of difficulty as the QC. For the first year or so I was delighted if I got more than about a quarter of the puzzle completed. It took me about three years to get to the point where I confidently expected to complete the thing each day.
Then I decided to start having a go at the Times (the 15×15 – the QC did not exist at that time). It was almost back to square one – 4 or 5 clues done per day if I was lucky. But that was fine as far as I was concerned, because I expected it to be a long hard slog to get anywhere. I took me several years before I fully completed one puzzle – but the thrill when I did was massive!
So, I guess my point is that if you are really an absolute beginner, I would not expect to be solving the QC for quite a while. Sites like this can help a lot (it certainly helped me when I was starting to tackle the 15×15), but mainly it’s about perseverance (and, frankly, how your brain is wired – some people will simply never get it, just as I know I would never get Sudoku).
As for the QC itself and the setters, my personal view is that they do a very good job in delivering against an extremely tricky brief. If the QC is to be an effective “learning ground” for people who one day aspire to be able to tackle the 15×15 then it needs to be reasonably demanding, otherwise the jump from QC to 15×15 would be too great. As I say, they key to this is for absolute beginners to set realistic expectations for themselves and accept they are in for a long haul – and to enjoy the journey. Anyway, hope that helps…
I don’t often give up on a puzzle till I’ve exhausted all the tools and aids at my disposal but I did on this one.. Ho hum. Maybe tomorrow will be better…
Sorry Hurley, just not my cup of tea.
plenty I learnt esp. 17a.
thanks Nick and Hurley.
Carl
Thanks Nick
When solving, try to ignore the whole reading of the clue and try to find where the split is between definition and wordplay parts (the blogs usually show where it is). In practice there usually is only a very small number of places (often only one) where this split could occur. The shorter part is then usually the definition so see if you can think of a synonym. Also esp in these QC puzzles, there will usually be a hidden answer or two so look along the wordplay part for letters in succession.
Today’s NW corner, which drives the whole puzzle, was horrid.
1 ac. There is no way that Scorcher is a synonym for Excellent Example.
1 dn. not fair to use S from succeeded which is a past participle. Acceptable for compass points and right and left but that’s it IMHO. then it’s actually half of wangle not not half.
But some great clues and I’m grateful to Hurley and others for setting these. J
I too found this puzzle challenging but I enjoyed it very much.
I remembered the Alphabetical clue from the ST. LOI was 1a.
No time as done in bits but not quick. David
Very poor showing, missed about 1/3 of it. Still don’t see why not half means half. And s=succeeded? In what context?
I agree that in the real world ‘s’ as a shorthand for ‘succeed’ or ‘succeeded’ is hardly a common place term. But Crosswordland is rarely to be confused with the real world. The origins lie in notation for a line of succession, eg monarchs or pontiffs, etc. As long as setters continue to use it, ours is not to reason why.
Mighty