Quick Cryptic No 188 by Hurley

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Three of the four long answers being anagrams, and 5d too, means there are plenty of checking letters to work with once these are sorted. Out of curiosity I was moved to investigate the origin or etymology of a couple of answers (4d and 20a) see below. That apart, it took me 10 minutes to complete and be sure of parsing before starting the blog.

Across
1 CUBE – CUB (inexperienced person), E (last of appreciate); 8 is 2 cubed and 27 is 3 cubed.
3 SIGN OUT – (GIN TO US)*, def. indicate one is leaving.
8 ATLANTIC OCEAN – (AT CANAL NOTICE)*, indicated by ‘choppy’; def. water.
9 EVE – EVEN would be quits, def. the day before.
10 STEER – Cryptic double definition.
12 RE-ENTER – RENTER is a tenant; insert E (drug); def. go back in.
14 APPOINT – PA (Dad) backing is AP: PO (post office); IN (popular) T (time); def. decide on.
16 SHARP – S (son), HARP (musical instrument); def. stylish.
17 IMP – I’M (the setter’s, as the first person), P (beginning to pamper); def. mischievous child.
20 DYED-IN-THE-WOOL – (O HE’D YIELD NOWT)*, &lit; An idiom dating from the 16th century or earlier, meaning a traditionalist, unlikely to change; wool dyed before spinning into yarn was more likely to retain its colour.
21 ENTENTE – Hidden word in excellENT ENTErtainment; def. it’s agreed.
22 BLOC – Initial letters of Badger Left-winger Over Communist; def. (e.g. Communist) group.

Down
1 CHARISMA – CHAR (cleaner) IS MA (parent); def. appealing. I wish I had a few euros for each time I’ve seen this clue or a close variant.
2 BOLD – B (bishop) OLD (long established); def. ready to take risks.
3 SLIVER – S (small) LIVER (organ); def. piece cut. Reminded me of the cool 1993 movie, Sharon Stone being a bad girl.
4 GLOCKENSPIEL – (SKIP COLLEGE N)*, the N from new, def. instrument. I looked it up and found the Wiki entry amusing (or confusing) in part; In German, a carillon is also called a Glockenspiel, while in French, the glockenspiel is often called a carillon. In music scores the glockenspiel is sometimes designated by the Italian term campanelli.
5 OPERETTA – (TO REPEAT)*, def. musical work.
6 TUNA – Hidden in C(ANUT)E reversed; def. swimmer.
7 INTERMISSION – (W)INTER = cold season after wife leaves; MISSION = charity centre; def. break.
11 EXPONENT – EX (former), PO (petty officer), N (new) ENT (hospital dept.); def. skilled practitioner.
13 REPUBLIC – RELIC (memento from eariler time), has PUB (bar) inserted; def. state. And the name of a fantastic restaurant in Denia, where I’m heading off to after Christmas to escape the freeze.
15 TIPTOE – TIP (suggestion) TO E(nglish); def. walk quietly.
18 ADZE – Def. hand tool, sounds like ADDS = includes.
19 TOIL – Alternate letters of TwO gIrLs, def. work hard.

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 188 by Hurley”

  1. I paused briefly to wonder about steer=ox, since I was under the impression that steer were castrated; but evidently not necessarily.I also wondered about BLOC, which has no specific connectin to Communist groups, merely a strong association with the former Communist countries of Europe. At 18d I carelessly switched wordplay and definition and put in ‘adds’ at first, seeing the error of my ways with 21ac. 6′; but then I didn’t bother parsing some, like 4d.
    1. I understand ‘steer’ to be the US version of ‘bullock’, a castrated young bull. If the animal is not killed for beef it will eventually become an ox, to be used for pulling things etc. For me a precise and satisfying clue. Incidentally I often wonder if ‘steer’ was originally a corruption of ‘store’ cattle, that is bullocks sold on for finishing.
  2. 10 minutes or so, having resisted the temptation to chuck overture and tide in at 5/6d for OPERETTA and TUNA. Finished up in the NW with the two 1s, I think. Anything mathematical is bound to faze me.
  3. I had a hard time finishing this but I’m not entirely sure I didn’t nod off briefly. That’s my excuse anyway for recording a solving time of 28 minutes.

    Re 22ac, ‘Communist’ is not part of the definition, it’s there only to supply ‘C’ as the fourth letter of the answer.

    2. Yes I agree, I only put (Communist) to give an example of a BLOC and highlight the elegance of the surface.
  4. A few seconds over 9 minutes for me. Finished in the SE corner with 22 & 13. The long anagram at 8 was my FOI having seen it apparently referenced in 1a. Then I went looking for 27 only to remember that these grids aren’t as big as the standard cryptic. Never mind, it was a good a place to start as any, and it gave me lots of checkers. 1a appeals to the mathematician in me, so it gets my COD.
  5. I enjoyed this one, finding it a little tougher than average and taking a solid 13 mins over it. I got hung up on “intermission” (couldn’t get “mission” for “charity centre” aarrghh, kept trying to work with “ari”).

    Some very enjoyable clues; I particularly liked “bloc” because of the double-use of Communist and “glockenspiel” but my COD was “cube” because of the misleading nature of “8 and 27” – I fell for the setter’s trap and assumed that these were references to other clues and therefore left it till later when I’d got “8 and 27” – it was only once I’d got 8ac that I realised there was no 27 ac or dn!! Head-scratching ensued till the penny dropped.

    Only clue I didn’t like was 20ac, a highly artificial phrase for the anagram and then a very stretched definition.

    Good puzzle, thanks.

    PS tech incompetence admission – could someone kindly explain to me how to post as something other than “Anonymous”? I don’t understand the drop down menu which seems to give other choices. Is there some way of creating a username for this blog? Sorry to be a nuisance!


    1. Welcome to the blog.

      There’s a big blue button at the top of the page: CREATE AN ACCOUNT

      There’s no double use of Communist in 23ac, see comments above…

      1. Thanks! I’ve done it!

        I don’t agree about no double use, by the way – I thought it was very clever to use Communist twice, once for the C in bloc and once to give a subliminal nudge to the solver. That’s what made it a good clue.

    2. CLick Home on above menu and create a (free) Live Journal account, use a new username or password or an existing account tp log in (I use my Facebook one) and add an avatar pic if you need one. then you can post to Communities (like this one) and do various other things like keep your own blog if you wish.
      Otherwise, if no username, add your name or alias to the end of an Anon post, so we know which ‘Anon’ you are.
    3. Half agree about 20. But the phrase is usually used about a Yorkshireman and the anagram letters do a pretty good dialect/accent.
  6. “Technical DNF” (or am I just being kind to myself?) for what otherwise seemed mostly a pretty straightforward offering.

    Struggled with a few clues, BLOC went in only with the checkers in place as for some reason I had L and W in left winger as starting letters and then couldn’t see past that to get BLOC. Some clues such as GLOCKENSPIEL went in without parsing and my only mistake was ADZE. Didn’t know the word but worked out the sound alike should be ADDS so finished up putting in ADSE……

Comments are closed.