Quick Cryptic 982 by Hurley

Author   nick_the_novicePosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
In terms of degree of difficulty, I thought this was a hard QC. Personally I enjoyed it a lot – plenty of neat wordplay, some very nice surfaces (particularly liked 7dn) and a lovely hidden at 8ac. However, I would imagine it was pretty challenging for newcomers to the game.

We’ve had endless debate on this forum about the role of the QC and the “appropriateness” of hard puzzles, and hopefully we won’t have to rehash all that stuff again today. Suffice to say that any relative newcomer who managed to complete and fully parse this puzzle should feel they are well on the way to being able to tackle a Times 15×15, and that anyone who found it beyond their current level of expertise will hopefully see it as a valuable learning experience.

All of that said, you might have all found it to be a stroll in the park and I may be alone in my assessment of it as “hard” – history suggests that these things are somewhat subjective. But somehow I doubt it. Anyway, we shall see.

Whilst one man’s “obscure” is another man’s “bleedin’ obvious”, I’d venture to suggest that 14a is a term that is not widely known outside legal (and IT industry) circles – fortunately for me I have worked in both those sectors. 7d will be well known to military history buffs, but could be a mystery to others (I happened to know it because it has cropped up in crosswords before). And 5d is one of those words that most people will probably have read but rarely, if ever, used – it certainly does not crop up in everyday conversation in the pubs of Cricklewood. But all of these are very fairly clued so should be gettable if you trust to the wordplay.

3d is a clue type (substitution of letters) that is common in the 15×15 but, to the best of my recollection, rarely appears in the QC. However, the definition is quite generous so it’s one of those where you may well be able to spot the answer and then retrospectively fathom out how it actually works.

So, thanks very much to Hurley for a very nicely constructed and challenging puzzle. Look forward to seeing how you all got on.

Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}

Across
1 Where executives fly shown by company form (8,5)
BUSINESS CLASS – ‘Company’ gives us BUSINESS, and ‘form’ gives us CLASS (as in a form/class at school)
8 Somewhat cross, I niggle composer (7)
ROSSINI – nicely hidden (somewhat) in cROSS I NIggle
9 Fashion initially marvellous computer device (5)
MODEM – MODE (fashion) + first letter (initially) of Marvellous
10 Unusual term one cited for life-saver? (4,8)
MINE DETECTOR – *(TERM ONE CITED) with “unusual” signalling the anagram
12 Type stocking extremely bizarre water ice (6)
SORBET – SORT (type) includes (stocking) the ‘extremes’ of BizarrE
14 European Society boast reveals money held by third
party (6)
ESCROW – E (European) + S (society) + CROW (boast) giving us the legal term describing the arrangement where the purchase price is held by a trusted third party and is only to be released to the vendor when certain conditions have been met.
17 What could give sect, say, great delight? (7)
ECSTASY – *(SECT SAY) with “what could give” pointing to the anagram
19 Trace of metal for example recalled (5)
TINGE – TIN (metal) + EG reversed (for example recalled)
20 Encourage sounds of disapproval? Terrible at first
(5)
BOOST – BOOS (sounds of disapproval) + T (Terrible at first)
21 Time outsiders avoid herring, English dish (7)
TERRINE – T (time) + {H}ERRIN{G} (i.e. without its ‘outside’ letters) + E (English)
22 Aristocracy, no longer grand, feel reduced cost of
admission (5,3)
ENTRY FEE – {G}ENTRY (aristocracy without the G – ‘no longer grand) + FEE{L} (feel reduced)
23 Opening contest shunned by beginner (4)
VENT – {E)VENT (contest minus its opening letter – ‘shunned by beginner’)
Down
1 Harsh noise from pub, King’s Head (4)
BARK – BAR (pub) + K (King’s ‘head’ – i.e. first letter)
2 More cheeky son, silly? That is right (7)
SASSIER – S (son) + ASS (silly) + IE (that is) + R (right)
3 Too trusting, don’t insist on getting name for whiskey
(5)
NAIVE – WAIVE (don’t insist on) gets an N (name) replacing (for) its W (whiskey – as in the phonetic alphabet)
4 Stole small cleaning cloth — shamed finally (6)
SWIPED – S (small) + WIPE (cleaning cloth) + last letter (finally) of shameD
5 Not half common writing instruments a politician
provided as replacement (12)
COMPENSATORY – Half of COM{mon} + PENS (writing instruments) + A TORY (a politician). Not a word that springs readily to mind for many solvers, I suspect, but the building blocks were nicely set out for us.
6 A Buddhist regularly missing inspection (5)
AUDIT – Every other letter of (regularly missing) A bUdDhIsT
7 Rebel mob wants restyled military wear (3,6,4)
SAM BROWNE BELT – *(REBEL MOB WANTS) with “restyled” signposting the anagram. Sam Browne VC was a remarkable character, very much in the Boys Own hero mould – worth checking out if you are not familiar with him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Browne
11 Get together, being clever, to get around flipping
mess? (8)
ASSEMBLE – ABLE (clever) goes ‘around’ MESS reversed (flipping)
13 Following old routine, lady drops a daughter off?
Precisely (7)
EXACTLY – After (following) EX ACT (old routine) comes L{AD}Y (A D ‘dropped off’)
15 Met ruin working out duration of program (3,4)
RUN TIME – *(MET RUIN) with “working out” indicating the anagram
16 Just starting maybe you really treasure lovely
evergreen shrub (6)
MYRTLE – First letters (just starting) of Maybe You Really Treasure Lovely Evergreen
18 From outskirts of Swindon, inaccurate informer (5)
SNOUT – SN (outskirts of SwindoN) + OUT (inaccurate)

25 comments on “Quick Cryptic 982 by Hurley”

  1. Yeah I was troubled by this — not necessarily a bad thing
    And I spelled ECSTASY with 2 Cs
  2. I found this easier than a couple we’ve had very recently but at 14 minutes it delayed me 4 over my target 10.

    I assume the spelling ‘program’ in 15dn indicates that RUN TIME is to do with computers or just an Americanism because it’s alien to my experience of TV programmes and films which have ‘running’ times.

    ‘Silly’ in 2dn has to be a noun to mean ‘ass’, a usage I only know from crossword puzzles. And SAM BROWNE and his BELT only exist for me in the world of black (or grey) and white squares.

      1. Fair enough, but I have personally known a couple of close friends who used “silly” as a noun / form of address in certain situations.
  3. Quite a challenge today. Normally finish but got stuck on the SW corner, although why I could not get “assemble” is beyond me. Always do the QC but find the jump to the 15×15 difficult.
  4. I wouldn’t rate this as hard but certainly on the more difficult side of things. I was helped by having had to set up an escrow account a few years ago and being vaguely aware of Sam Browne’s belt. Otherwise I suspect I would have been held up way beyond the 22 minutes which it took me.
  5. I didn’t find this too difficult. I vaguely knew the belt and, having done some computer programming in the dim and distant past, knew about run times. 5d was easy to assemble from its component parts. ESCROW was also vaguely familiar. The only hold up I had was 10a where I had to write the fodder down before I could see the answer. That took me to just over my target 10 minutes at 10:04. Thanks Hurley and Nick.
  6. It was while polishing SAM BROWNE BELTS (and boots) as a batman almost 50 years ago that I began doing cryptic crosswords. This was a summer job while at High School. All the older batmen would pin the crosswords on the walls of their cubbyholes and shout answers to each other down the corridors. We all start somewhere.
  7. Could someone explain the use of “not” in 5d? Confused me for a while, but bunged it in anyway.
    Cheers Nick for explanation of 3D
    1. It’s “common” but not half of the word. So losing the second half of the word gives you “COM”.
  8. Surely the ‘not’ simply means that half the word ‘common’ is in the answer and half is not. I do agree with the drift of the comments. This standard of difficulty is about ideal for me. It took me over the 30 minutes or so that I regard as acceptable and I still completed unaided. Naïve I biffed – so thanks for an explanation that I might have worked out for myself but became too set on the importance of the e in whiskey. DM
  9. Found this to be very difficult. The word play was not easy for a beginner. But hopefully have learnt something.
  10. I got 1d quickly and that was a big help for 8a and 1a. After that I was able to keep going with lots of letters to help me.
    I could see 7d was an anagram and left that till last as nothing occurred to me for military wear.
    Also I was not sure about Snout but it seemed plausible.
    All done in 15 minutes with a couple of guesses but the clueing was generous throughout I thought. David
  11. I agree that this was harder than average, but all very gettable. I finished in 18 minutes (with distractions). NP with SAM’s BELT or with ESCROW and initially thought of COMPENSATION before COMPENSATORY revealed itself. I liked 21a.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

    2. It’s not! The parsing is that the letters of ABLE go around the letters of MESS after those MESS letters have been reversed (flipped)

      On edit: sorry, looks like I posted a fraction of a second after John. Anyway, you got the answer in stereo…

      Edited at 2017-12-13 05:32 pm (UTC)

  13. A good mix of write ins (1a, 7d and 8a) and those that required a bit of thought. I had to fight very hard to not biff ‘compensation’ for 5d and it took me a while to work out the last 4 letters. I completely missed the letter substitution in 3d so it went in unparsed and 21a also took a while to see. I was relieved that I spotted what was going on with 16d quickly as my heart sank when I saw that I was looking for a shrub.
    Completed in 20 minutes with LOI 3d.
    Thanks for the blog
  14. This was fun! All gettable but nice to have to work at it. Thx for explanation of 3d and 12a. Getting 1a straight off was a great help. Too many lovely clues to have a favourite. Took me about 45 minutes of gentle concentration over my daily Costa. More like this please…
  16. QC just getting too hard for normal people I guess clever clogs rejoice in an opportunity to brag but it would be nice to have so ething ordinay folk can also cheer over sundowners
  17. Found this to be very difficult. The word play was not easy for a beginner. But hopefully have learnt something.
  18. I agree its on the tricky side for a quickie going 30%% over average time. 3d, for example, is a bit of a tester. I enjoyed it, but I can see how less experienced might struggle.
  19. Found this tough but enjoyable. DNF As put ‘test’ for 23a as a hidden without thinking too hard. Clearly it makes no sense for the wordplay. The rest all in in c45 mins. Not seen clueing like 3dn before so good learning exercise.

    Mighty

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