Quick Cryptic No 236 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Several clues went in on a first pass and I thought this was going to be an easy one – I was wrong! Some clues were really satisfying – requiring building up sections of wordplay to eventually see the answer e.g. COD 1dn. Others stretched my abilities and time to complete (18 minutes) e.g. LOI 13dn. Then there were a couple of obscure ones (16ac, 18ac) and one (24 ac) which fooled me completely. I don’t think I’ve had to reference Collins online quite as much before in order to complete this blog.
At the end of all this, I thoroughly enjoyed this tussle – so thanks to Hurley. I am wondering how newcomers will get along but I’ve made such comments on difficulty before only for others to see the answers straight away so, as always, I look forward to hearing of your experiences.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
7 Maladroit, alas, I’m no famous smiler? (4,4)
&nbsp &nbspMONA LISA – Anagram (maladroit) of ALAS IM NO. Well, the famous smiler is very well known so I suppose the clue may have been too easy with a normal anagram indicator. Maladroit is defined by Collins as ‘showing or characterized by clumsiness; not dexterous’ so Hurley is asking us to mess about clumsily with the word play.
8 Prices down in this Northern town? (4)
&nbsp &nbspSALE – Double definition.
9 Fashionable tame animals round part of foot (6)
&nbsp &nbspINSTEP – Fashionable (IN), tame animals (PETS) backwards (around).
10 Small walk leading to unoccupied area (5)
&nbsp &nbspSPACE – Small (S), walk (PACE). An unoccupied area in a garden shed would be a space or, alternatively, and just as unlikely – “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now, you may say that Space IS occupied (by e.g. the Earth), but, according to my maths (which isn’t very good but then nor is my astronomy), once you start messing about with infinity, the percentage of Space occupied by anything is zero so, sadly, we probably don’t exist – which goes a long way to explaining a great deal.
11 Regularly retype for organ (3)
&nbsp &nbspEYE – Regular letters of rEtYpE.
12 Bird not finishing beer (6)
&nbsp &nbspBITTER – Bird (BITTERn) without the last letter (not finishing). No idea why this answer took me so long being familiar with both.
14 More insulting about daughter? This should give guidance (6)
&nbsp &nbspRUDDEr – Well, you may know that I do like boaty answers. More insulting (RUDER) around daughter (D). ‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by’. I had thought of guidance more as which direction to go in, but guide is also defined as ‘to control the movement or course of (an animal, vehicle, etc) by physical action; steer’.
16 Many for example embraced by celebrity (6)
&nbsp &nbspLEGION – For example (EG) embraced by celebrity (LION). Hmmm – not overly familiar with this definition of lion but it’s all good: ‘a celebrity or idol who attracts much publicity and a large following’.
18 Set of programmes has notices about Rhode Island (6)
&nbsp &nbspSERIES – Notices (SEES) around Rhode Island (RI). Hmmm again – just in case Hurley pulls this one again here’s the full list of RI’s from Collins:
Regina et Imperatrix
Rex et Imperator
Rhode Island
Royal Institution
religious instruction
(Republic of) Indonesia (international car registration)
19 Do the same as primate (3)
&nbsp &nbspAPE – Double definition.
20 Youngster born with attitude getting name (5)
&nbsp &nbspBAIRN – Born (B), attitude (AIR), name (N). Term used in Scotland and Northern England.
21 Colluders allowed to return following vehicle (6)
&nbsp &nbspCARTEL – Allowed (LET) backwards (to return) after (following) vehicle (CAR).
23 Channel shunned by Duke showing restless desire (4)
&nbsp &nbspITCH – Channel (dITCH) without the ‘D’ (shunned by Duke).
24 Description of ring man heading off brought to Northern Ireland — extremely tacky (8)
&nbsp &nbspETERNITY – Man (we have to pick a male name out of a zillion – this one is PETER), take off the first letter (heading off), Northern Ireland (NI), first and last letters (extremely) of TackY. Having got the answer, I confess I was completely fooled by this clue. I was getting in a strop about a ring or circle having no end so could perhaps be described as eternal: ‘denoting or relating to that which is without beginning and end, regarded as an attribute of God’, rather than eternity: ‘endless or infinite time’ not just endless. An eternity later – whilst competing this blog – I realised that there are such things as eternity rings – doh!

Down
1 Desire to include navy and leaders of private institutes in dance (8)
&nbsp &nbspHORNPIPE – I got this by thinking navy (RN) and first letters (leaders) of Private Institutes and then working out that desire (HOPE), when fitted around, made a dance. A very satisfactory workout. Not having the first letter crossing other clues made this harder.
2 Interruption has annoyed lecturer, tetchy, just starting (4)
&nbsp &nbspHALT – First letters (just starting) of Has Annoyed Lecturer Tetchy.
3 Small drink for each child (6)
&nbsp &nbspNIPPER – Small drink (NIP – as in a nip of whisky rather than a sip), for each (PER).
4 Old ruler needing some vodka is erratic (6)
&nbsp &nbspKAISER – The answer is in the clue (some) vodKA IS ERratic.
5 Douglas native perhaps one’s left with monarch (8)
&nbsp &nbspISLANDER – One’s (IS), left (L), with (AND), monarch (ER). Douglas being the capital and largest town of the Isle of Man, with a population of 28,939 people (2011).
6 Rush from fine shelter (4)
&nbsp &nbspFLEE – Fine (F – which came up last week – I particularly like F when applied as fine brandy), shelter (LEE).
13 Unyielding about incomplete bequest list in period of decline (8)
&nbsp &nbspTWILIGHT – Unyielding (TIGHT – on the definition: ‘not compliant, submissive, or flexible’), around bequest list (WILl) minus the last letter (incomplete). This isn’t the end of day period and the quality of light (which I was starting to hmmmm about) but is defined by: ‘a period in which strength, importance, etc, are waning ⇒ the twilight of his life’.
15 Blokes kept in by nasty sleet weather? (8)
&nbsp &nbspELEMENTS – Blokes (MEN) inside an anagram (nasty) of SLEET.
17 Northern worker at heart of best European port (6)
&nbsp &nbspNANTES – Northern (N), worker (ANT), middle letters (heart) of bESt.
18 About to get involved in religious group — not many know it (6)
&nbsp &nbspSECRET – About (RE) in religious group (SECT). Some obscurity with ‘about’ possibly being C and RE possibly being Religious Education.
20 The two clubs put off by poor quality repair (4)
&nbsp &nbspBOTH – Poor quality repair (BOTcH) without the C (clubs put off).
22 Managed to overlook a thousand — highly offensive! (4)
&nbsp &nbspRANK – Managed (RAN), over a thousand (K).

16 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 236 by Hurley”

  1. 9 minutes. 20dn nearly took me past my 10 minute target but I cracked it just in time. A grid containing nothing longer than 8-letter words is often an advantage, I find.

    Edited at 2015-02-03 06:12 am (UTC)

  2. I thought it was quite crunchy but ultimately enjoyable. Thanks for the blog which was very clear – I hadn’t parsed either kaiser or twilight because crossers made them obvious so I just moved on…(actually I couldn’t parse them but told myself that didn’t matter!)
  3. I thought this easier than yesterday’s: sub 10-minutes, which is my own benchmark (it hasn’t happened much recently).
    With 16a, you might be familiar with the phrase “to lionise” someone meaning to exalt them, hence by extension they become a “lion”.
    Thanks for the memory-jogger regarding HHGTTG – the sound of Peter Jones as The Book is indelible. I heard its very first transmission and am on record as saying at the time “This will become a cult”. What other series has been on radio, TV, film & stage? Oh, Dad’s Army I suppose.
    1. Dr Who. Which has also been a cartoon. And books. And a comic strip. And a concert tour. H2G2 hasn’t been a comic strip or a cartoon, to my knowledge. Nor a concert tour. Dad;s army hasn’t been a cartoon or books or a concert tour (it has been a comic strip though).
        1. Doctor who has had several stage productions over the years, in the west end and regional theatres, some including TV Doctors (3 and 6) and some not. 🙂 Plus there have been proms, Doctor Who Live which was a mix between a play and a concert that toured arenas a few years ago, and the symphonic spectacular which has toured the world and hits UK arenas later this year. 🙂
      2. ‘fraid it has – DC Comics published a 3-part comic book in 1993.
        OK – what about a video & adventure game then?
        And an app?
        And of course a towel?
        1. I meant in a magazine (you know, a weekly strip) rather than a book. But, fair enough. H2G2 and Dr Who both have more video games dedicated to them than you can shake a stick at. 🙂 DW has all the merch from hats to onesies via towels (my Tardis towel isn’t particularly hoopy but I do know where it is) and it has loads of Apps. DW also has not one but two magazines devoted to it (an early addition of Dr Who weekly as it was then featured stills from Douglas Adams’s City of Death on the cover).

          Both shows also branched into the realm of pop singles too – I still have my copy of Marvin the paranoid android’s record, there have been loads of DW related pop singles the most successful being doctorin’ the TARDIS.

          Sigh. If only I knew as much about answering crosswords as I do about sci fi stuff!

          Edited at 2015-02-03 02:53 pm (UTC)

          1. Phew! A bigger nerd than me (in the nicest possible way of course).
            BTW DW (or at least the Daleks) also appeared in an earlier comic as I clearly remember Frank Bellamy’s vivid illustrations in Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 during the ’60s.
  4. As the first clues went in very easily, I also thought it would be at the very easiest end of the quickie scale. Mostly it was that way, but as chrisw91 says there were a few quite excellent clues thrown in, which made you work for the answer. All in all still pretty quick, but quite fun. LOIs were LEGION, TWILIGHT, BITTER and HORNPIPE in that order.

    Thanks to chrisw91 for the fun blog and Hurley for the puzzle.

  5. First time I have not finished this year. The across clues all went in one after another until 16ac and then I came to a halt. I did not get any in the SW apart from NANTES. I found 23ac and 13d difficult and did not get the celebrity. Thanks for the very detailed and interesting blog.
  6. Like others, I started off quite quickly but then got stuck on the down clues and the SW corner. Only got 16ac because I remembered it from an earlier QC. Over 2 hrs in the end – poor going even by my standards. Invariant
  7. I usually find Hurley one of the easier setters, but 1dn, 13dn, 16ac were beyond my ability, also failed to get 2dn, which I should have seen. Many thanks for the blog which was very educational for me.

  8. No problem with the RHS, then an age to solve the rest. TWILIGHT went in last – couldn’t get trough/tough out of my mind. My COD.

    Great puzzle.

  9. Took me a while as well to get 16a. My ‘celebrity ‘ reasoning was that celebrity means star and that Leo the Lion is a star sign.
  10. I managed to finish as I use the OneLook Reverse Dictionary when I get stuck and the first of their 100 suggestions was LION. Then I tried it out on three word specialists and none of them could find the word Lion!

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