Quick Cryptic 994 by Hurley

Author   CuraristPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I enjoyed this. Mostly straightforward, but with a couple of decent teasers. I’ll be interested to hear what others think. I Came in at just under 10 minutes.

Across
1 Referring to Conservative and Green, return to earlier position (9)
RECONVERT – RE + CON + VERT (‘green’). It would be a bit unfair to just bung in any old French word without indicating it’s French, but VERT is a heraldic term, and therefore English. Cinderella has a glass slipper in English because of a mistranslation of VERT (i.e not VERRE)
6 Recording device cheers prier at outset (3)
TAP – TA (‘cheers’) + P
8 Publicises furious golfer’s poor stroke (3,4)
AIR SHOT – AIRS + HOT. I know slightly less than sod all about golf, but apparrently an air shot is when you miss the ball altogether.
9 Vegetable we had planted in southeast (5)
SWEDE – WED (we had) inside SE
10 New leads on little battle? That’s gossip (6-6)
TITTLE-TATTLE – self explanatory
12 Group of words becomes strained, we hear (6)
PHRASE – homophone of FRAYS (becomes strained)
13 Love it to change colour (6)
VIOLET – anagram of LOVE IT
16 A solo sit-in — it’s organised revealing one opposing partnership (12)
ISOLATIONIST – anagram of A SOLO SIT IN IT
19 Work stoppage fails to start — transport for child produced (5)
TRIKE – STRIKE without the first letter
20 Pay collecting article in US city (7)
SEATTLE – pay is SETTLE, with A inside
22 Somewhat grimy section of wheel (3)
RIM – hidden word
23 Find recording sad (5,4)
TRACK DOWN – TRACK is recording, DOWN is sad

Down
1 Loud noise from river paddle (4)
ROAR – R + OAR
2 Tray, cold, arrives? That is right (7)
CARRIER – C (cold) + ARR (arrives, as on railway timetables) + IE (that is) + R
3 Initially noted this high position in series? (3)
NTH – first letters of Noted This High. Who needs vowels?
4 In Brunei there’s offer of choice? (6)
EITHER – hidden word: BrunEI THERe’s
5 Islander sat up meeting obsession, new (9)
TASMANIAN – TAS (‘sat’ up) + MANIA (obsession) + N
6 After time regular outlay needed for river (5)
TRENT -T (time) + RENT (regular outlay). Hands up who wasted time trying to use the alternate letters of ‘outlay’
7 Senior pupil perfect after slight switch (7)
PREFECT – modification of ‘perfect’.
11 Last word after cricket match, requirement finally for proof (9)
TESTAMENT – TEST is cricket match, AMEN is the last word, + T.
12 Machine permit not dear oddly (7)
PRINTER – the odd letters of PeRmIt NoT dEaR
14 Country hotel, so exotic (7)
LESOTHO – anagram (‘exotic’) of HOTEL SO
15 Football Association secures new site for celebration (6)
FIESTA – FA is football association with anagram of SITE inside.
17 Hate Latin? (5)
ODIUM – er.. it’s latin for ‘hate’
18 Put together using every cardinal point (4)
SEWN – cardinal points are North, South etc. Anagram using all of them
21 Rescue vessel starts to apparently recover kayak (3)
ARK – first letters of Apparenly Recover Kayak

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic 994 by Hurley”

  1. 11 minutes, and with 9 consecutive 10-minute targets missed now I think it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that I will fail to achieve my goal.

    I was held up at the end by 23ac because I biffed NEWS at 18dn and I needed to correct my mistake before I could complete the grid.

    The ODIUM/hate clue was a bit odd as was NTH – although found to be perfectly valid when I looked it up later. My only query as such was 6ac where TAP is wrongly defined as ‘recording device’. It’s a listening device to which a recording device may or may not be attached. If there’s another meaning I’m not aware of it hasn’t made it to the usual sources.

    Edited at 2017-12-29 08:43 am (UTC)

  2. I though this was one of the easiest puzzles for a while with lots of clues which you can work out rather than lots of double definitions which you need inspiration to get. However, I have been sadly lacking in inspiration recently so maybe this wasn’t easier at all. 16 mins
  3. I’m pleased to say that this was a lot easier than my recent efforts, though 3d did give me quite a lot of pause for thought before the blindingly obvious struck.
    Incidentally, regarding 1a I thought glass slipper was a mistranslation of “vair” i.e. fur. But a quick consultation with Dr Google shows we are both wrong and the author Perrault did in fact write “verre”. There we go then. Poor Cinders.
  4. I know Curarist has only been doing the blogs for a short while, but I think he/she achieves just the right balance between some of the shorter, mainly technical, blogs and some of the more prolix ones. Thanks very much. Also the usual thanks to all the bloggers who give up their time to enlighten and entertain us novices; it really is appreciated. Happy new year to all TfTT contributors, participants and viewers from a cold and wet Norfolk in the UK.
  5. I missed this with a degree in mathematics and several years of addiction to scrabble. The blogger did not help me and I had to look it up in the dictionary. Blindingly obvious it seems now!

    Edited at 2017-12-29 10:48 am (UTC)

  6. Did Hurley concoct 17d to disprove the rule that two word clues are always double definitions?
  7. A slow start for me today, but I got there in my usual 20 minute-ish time. I enjoyed it, especially ‘nth’!
  8. Crept in under 10 minutes for the first time in a while. 9:49. FOI ROAR, LOI PHRASE. RECONVERT made me think for a while, as did PHRASE, but the rest of the puzzle flowed nicely. Thanks Hurley and Curarist.
  9. Just missed the 30min mark because of a hold up in the NW corner. Air shot was a write-in, and Reconvert seemed plausible enough, but then what on earth could be N*h ? Took several minutes to spot what should have been obvious. The delay was probably penance for Tasmanian and Lesotho, which both came straight to mind thanks to recent 15×15 excursions – though I had to check the latter’s spelling (again). Disappointing to hear that the green/glass slipper story is just another urban myth, when it seemed so plausible. Now, can anyone shed a light on these sub 5 min completion times. . . ? Happy New Year to one and all 😀 Invariant
  10. Made good progress on this and after 15 minutes had two left- 1a and 3d.
    At first I thought 3d was Doh -is that an acceptable spelling for Do Re Mi etc? That made 1a a problem. I was sure 1a started Recon .. and a careful read of 3d gave NTH (very clever clue I thought).
    I then thought of Vert for Green. Why not?
    So all done in 17 minutes. COD to 23a.
    Happy new year to all in QC land. David
  11. Yes, quite easy, though the NW sector was the hardest, making it a slower start. As an undistinguished golfer I was surprised to have found difficulty with ‘air shot’, having some years ago coined the phrase ‘no round complete without one.’ DM
  12. I found this one reasonably straightforward, though it still took me almost 22 minutes to complete it! I would have like to come in under 20min but 2d and 8a took the last 4 minutes… and I have no idea why. COD 23a – so neat and clever.
    Thanks to all contributors here for all the help and encouragement in 2017. Looking forward to more of the same… and improving my times (hopefully!!) in 2018. MM
  13. We failed on 1ac having reconnect, but should have found correct answer. Puzzled by nth. Otherwise fairly straightforward. Thanks to all contributors which makes things enjoyable and informative. A Happy New Year to all. Elin & Ian
  14. A nice gentle end of the week for me, completing in 12 minutes – I even spotted and solved the anagrams quickly for a change. Only really had to pause for thought over my last 2 in, the excellent 3d and 2d. COD goes to 23a.

  15. First sub 20 min ever, with a long time disbelieving nth even though the clue was clear and fair – perhaps the festive season has helped me to relax and free up the brain’s inner workings. Thanks to the blogger for nice clear explanations.

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