Quick Cryptic No 2393 by Wurm – you are my everything!

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Another quickish one.  Whilst this took me only 11 minutes to solve, it took significantly longer to write the blog, partly trying to properly understand the parsing for 2d, which is still unsatisfactory as far as I am concerned.  If I have missed something stupid, your help would be appreciated.  15d was another that flummoxed me for a while, but it eventually became clear and is a perfectly good clue.  My COD is the amusing 17d.

Please let us all know how you got on, and I thank Wurm for his efforts on behalf of us all.

I am looking forwards to Army v Navy on Saturday at Twickenham (or as one of my mates describes it, Nelson’s Men v the South Pacific Islanders Invitation XV), where I shall be wallowing in the luxury (?) of expensive all-in hospitality with a bunch of old Shipmates (at our own expense, unfortunately).  Sponsors would be welcomed for next year’s fixture!

Across

1  Sacred poem from saint in tree (5)

PSALM – S{aint} inside PALM (tree).  Saint is more usually abbreviated to ST, but we have seen this version before, and we saw PALM only yesterday.

4  Lack of restrictions when squeezing Charlie’s spots (7)

NOTICES – NO TIES (lack of restrictions) containing (when squeezing) C{harlie}.

8  Stretch old kitchen utensils with energy (7)

EXPANSE – EX (old) PANS (kitchen utensils) and E{nergy}.

9  Old boy with cup sent back soup (5)

GUMBO – OB (old boy) and MUG (cup) all reversed (sent back).  GUMBO is a soup in the USA usually flavoured with Okra (my least favourite veggie).

10  Lace is enough to be worked into couch (6,6)

CHAISE LONGUE – Anagram (to be worked into) of [LACE IS ENOUGH].

12  Daughter in tune, or one braying? (6)

DONKEY – D[aughter} ON KEY (in tune).

13  Escapes when crossing gulf (6)

AVOIDS – AS (when) with VOID (gulf) inside (‘when’ crossing).

16  Wordless 6 from bad guy – an ogle possibly? (4,8)

BODY LANGUAGE – The answer to 6 down is communication, which makes the definition here ‘wordless communication’.  The answer is an anagram (from, possibly) of [BAD GUY – AN OGLE].

18  Expert in A-section? (5)

ADEPT – A (a) and DEPT (department, section).

20  Delayed catching rook in camp loo (7)

LATRINE – LATE (delayed) containing (catching) R{ook} IN.  LATRINE is defined in my Chambers as ‘A lavatory, esp in barracks, camps, etc.’

21  Using every effort in Home and Away? (4,3)

FLAT OUT – FLAT (home) and OUT (away).

22  Do famous marathon?  That gets you thin (5)

RUNNY – To ‘do’ a famous marathon might be to ‘RUN NY (New York)’.  Think runny custard for runny = thin.

Down

1  Ran through piece about king by duke (7)

PIERCED – PIECE containing (about) R (Rex, king) and then D{uke}.

2  Had a game plan sorted for keeping ball – most important element (5,3,5)

ALPHA AND OMEGA – Anagram (sorted) of [HAD A GAME PLAN] and O (keeping ball).  I must admit that I am bemused by the definition.  ALPHA AND OMEGA, meaning first and last, has often been used as a description of God, and Jesus defines himself with that phrase in Revelations.  It can also mean the whole lot, the kit and kaboodle, but how either of these usages relate to ‘the most important element’ I have no idea – perhaps someone can provide assistance.

3  Old knight in control in religious community (9)

MONASTERY – MASTERY (control) containing O{ld} and N (knight in chess notation).

4  Rivalry unnecessary when ship departs (6)

NEEDLE – NEEDLE{ss} (unnecessary) becomes NEEDLE after deleting SS (ship departs).

5  Mark’s catching game (3)

TAG – Double definition.

6  Moggy one in sharing thoughts gives message (13)

COMMUNICATION – CAT I (moggy one) inside COMMUNION (sharing thoughts).

7  Second drink, kiss and cuddle (4)

SNOG – S{econd} and NOG (drink).  Apart from the famous (and revolting?) yule-time quaff of Egg NOG, NOG can also mean strong Norwich ale, so it is a perfectly valid synonym for drink.

11  Viagra not stirring pilot (9)

NAVIGATOR – Anagram (stirring) of [VIAGRA NOT].

14  Background in the theatre? (7)

SCENERY – Slightly cryptic definition – not the best clue of the day IMHO.

15  Poor actor allowed in drama (6)

HAMLET – HAM (poor actor) and LET (allowed), to give the name of the Shakespeare play (drama).  Until I stopped thinking about a hamlet as a small village, and saw it as the play, I struggled with parsing this before entering it.  Was POOR the definition, or drama?

17  It’s back of leg or a little lower? (4)

CALF – Double definition, the second relying on the alternative definition of LOW, which is to make the noise of a cattle.  My COD.

19  Duo in ancient wood (3)

TWO – Hidden word in {ancien}T WO{od}.

81 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 2393 by Wurm – you are my everything!”

  1. Failed five, I’m afraid. Searched for a word for rivalry, would never think of NEEDLE – how does that work, please? Wanted it to be CALF but couldn’t parse it. Failed to see FLAT, NOTICES, TAG. Can’t see how NY works in RUNNY (but it had to be; and now answered by TheRotter below, thank you). NHO GUMBO but again it had to be. Slight MER with PIECE, retained unaltered from clue to grid?

    1. Collins:
      needle (ˈniːdəl)
      in British English
      NOUN
      15. informal
      a. anger or intense rivalry, esp in a sporting encounter
      b. (as modifier)
      a needle match

      1. Thank you – NHO – how rare / obscure is that? (Thank you jackkt and Random, below.) Thank you also to DaveC. I can imagine NEEDLE as a verb, but how does it work as a noun? Can one of you invent a plausible sentence?

  2. Right at the outer limit of my capability. 53 minutes, but how I reached the finish line I will never know.

    PSALM was my FOI and I had entered eight solutions by the time I had gone through all of the clues, which took nearly 15 minutes. Everything after that was a struggle and my last few were ALPHA AND OMEGA (no idea what was going on there), ADEPT, EXPANSE (couldn’t see past EXPANDe or EXPANDo), NOTICES (never parsed) and NEEDLE (doesn’t equate to rivalry, IMO). Not really a pleasant experience, I’m afraid.

    Mrs Random took 27 minutes and then proceeded to complete a Joker QC from a couple of weeks ago in just 18 minutes, thereby comfortably finishing two QCs before I’d done one. That’s the way it goes here.

    Many thanks to Wurm and Rotter.

    1. We’re in the same boat today, a finish but a long slog. Well done on getting through it.

  3. 16:26 (Coronation of King Charles I)

    A very tricky QC, taking longer than the combined time for the previous two days. Very few of the across clues solved on first pass.

    LOI was PIERCED.

    My copy of the one volume Oxford dictionary has “the essence or most important features” for Alpha and Omega.

  4. Dnf…

    Has a shocker on this, and it seems from above that I wasn’t the only one who found this hard.

    Didn’t get anything in the top half on first pass and then only had slim pickings on the rest until I chucked in the towel after 30 mins.

    “Alpha and Omega” for 2dn. Seriously? Still have no idea what is going on with that clue. At one point I thought it was Flora and Fauna, only because I couldn’t fit anything else in.

    FOI – 12ac “Donkey”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 17dn “Calf”

    Thanks as usual!

  5. 14:25

    Seemed much tougher to get into as others have mentioned – only DONKEY of the acrosses, plus four downs on the first pass. Still a bit of a slog after that and didn’t have my anagram-solving hat on, needing several checkers on each of the long ones to fill them in.

    Not too happy with TAG nor SCENERY clues, but LOI ADEPT was very good – took me a while to come up with that even with all checkers.

    Thanks Wurm and TheRotter

  6. NOTICES, NEEDLE and ADEPT were my downfall today, where some help was needed even to finish in 35:45. Liked CALF, particularly. Thanks Wurm and Rotter.

    1. Apart from thinking that donkey is one of the funniest clues I’ve seen, I didn’t get on with this much and couldn’t finish it. Done in by notices, needle and adept. Oh well tomorrow is another day. Fred.

  7. I needed help to get NOTICES, which unlocked my LOI NEEDLE. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this used to mean “rivalry” before. I was happy to get the long anagrams without aids. Overall pleased to finish in 22:03, on what I thought was a tough day. COD CALF.

    Thanks to Wurm & TheRotter.

  8. Trickier than average. A ‘duck ‘ in cricket is I think short for a ‘duck’s egg’ – apologies if I’ve missed someone noting this in the ‘O ‘ discussions. Liked BODY LANGUAGE – with ‘ogle possibly’ giving an ‘and lit ‘ feel. Incorrectly stuck in RANGY for RUNNY…….

  9. Am I to understand that there is a famous race in New York ….. namely the NY marathon? If not I don’t understand 22across. Any info would be appreciated.

    1. Correct! The NY City Marathon is the largest annual marathon in the world, and runs this year in November.

  10. 11.29

    Yup definitely on the hard side. Some excellent clues and a v nice anagram for CHAISE LONGUE but I am with Kevin on the cross reference clues. Not for me at all.

    Thanks all

  12. A pretty horrific day. Finished in somewhere around 50 minutes, but derived little enjoyment. Very hard to get going and definitely not on Wurm’s wavelength (is anyone?).

    I had hoped to achieve 5 finishes in less than 2 hours this week. As a result of today, I am now at 1 hour, 43 minutes. Annoying after 3 good days.

    Had to laugh at some of the speed solvers saying how slow they were. What I wouldn’t give for some of those times! It seems a long time since the day when I solved a Wurm in less than 20 mins.

    Thanks for the blog Rotter, entertaining and informative as always.

    1. Was a toughie but we solved it. Once I knew it was going to be hard work, I switched my mindset from time to just getting the completion. Just putting the focus in the right place so you feel some sense of achievement.

      I rate your chance of the sub2 week better than mine as I’ve totalled 1hr56 so far 🤣 I agree though it does get frustrating to get past Wednesday and feel it’s a possibility then have it trashed.

      I thought Wurm was a setter I got on with and I didn’t check until post-solve. Turns out my previous four attempts of this year came in at 19min, 53min, 16min, 29min. I don’t know how someone can be so variable in their setting.

      Your times for the same four were 17mins, “well under 20mins”, 13mins, “over an hour” (the Peter Sellers, gauntlet one) which makes 9th March the last time you solved a Wurm in under 20mins! 😉

      Hang in there GA. You’ve had three goodies this week. I don’t think anyone here thought this was easy. Oh, except Rotter that is 😂

  13. Thanks L-Plates. I hadn’t realised how well we had done with so many of Wurm’s previous offerings. Like so many QCs, if you can get a decent start and a good number of checkers, the answers to the tricky ones tend to look after themselves. Your stats show that he does throw in a real ‘stinker’ now and then!

    I’m happy to have completed today’s puzzle. I thought I was badly off form today but, on reflection, many solvers struggled.

    Fingers crossed 🤞 for tomorrow. It certainly won’t be the end of the world if I miss the 2 hour cut-off. A full week of solves will be a solid achievement.
    😊

Comments are closed.