Quick Cryptic No 247 by Hurley

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A steady write-in for me in 10 minutes, with an extra minute or two to parse 15d; nothing very controversial I hope.

Across
1 COMBAT – Hidden in Sit(COM BAT)hetic; def. fight. You don’t even have to know what bathetic means, which is, in a way, bathetic.
4 SAMPAN – SAM = US uncle, PAN = criticise; def. boat from the east.
8 AIRDRIE – AIR = attitude, DR = doctor, IE – that is; def. Lanarkshire town. Known to me from the odd-sounding team in the football results; Aidrieonians 0 …
10 MANOR – MAN = fellow, OR = other ranks; def. house.
11 LAIRD – LAIR = place of seclusion, D = daughter; def. Scottish landowner.
12 GENUINE – GEN = information, U = upper class, IN = home, E = English; def. authentic.
13 AMERICANS – (CANARIES M)*; the M = met at first; def. nationals.
17 ASSUAGE – ASS = silly person, U = initially upset, AGE = time; def. pacify.
19 SEINE – Double definition; a seine is a vertical hanging fishing net.
20 THANK – H = Henry, inside TANK = military vehicle; def. convey gratitude.
21 SEALANT – SET = group, has A LAN inserted; def. it may prevent leaks.
22 POSTER – POST = job, ER = indication of hesitation; def. advertisement.
23 INVENT – IN = fashionable, VENT = opening; def. act creatively.

Down
1 CRADLE – Hidden reversed in nov(EL DARC)y’s; def. embrace.
2 MARGINAL SEATS – MAR = ruin, GIN = drink, then (AT SALES)* indicated by ‘working’; def. hard to predict results here.
3 ABRIDGE – A = beginning of August, BRIDGE = game; def. curtail.
5 AMMAN – AM = in morning, MAN = provide staff; def. Middle East city, capital of Jordan.
6 PONTIUS PILATE – (PUPIL INTO SEAT)*; def. authority figure (old).
7 NARKED – NAKED = totally exposed, insert R = resistance; def. annoyed.
9 EGG TIMERS – EG = say, G = good, (MERITS)*; def. kitchen items.
14 ABSTAIN – AB = graduate, brought up, STAIN = blemish; def. express no view.
15 LAPTOP – LAP = circuit, T O P = initial letters of Tarnish Over Period; def. computer.
16 SEPTET – Alternate letters of ShErPa TrEaTs; def. group.
18 ANKLE – (R)ANK = indication of status, not R, LE = the French; def. joint.

21 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 247 by Hurley”

  1. 16 mins, so hardly a write-in for me; in fact, I thought it was pretty tough. The two long downs are both well disguised and clue phrases you don’t often find (or think about) in crosswords, and the second meaning of Seine is so obscure that even with an ‘s’ and an ‘e’ in you have to wait for more before you can decide between the Seine and the Saone. Narked always reminds me of Ronnie Barker and ‘Porridge’.
  2. I also found this tough. 20 minutes with the fishing net thing still unparsed when I came here; it never occurred to me it was a double definition so I failed to look it up. Am I missing something about PONTIUS PILATE as “authority figure”? Is this something that’s been passed into the language or is he just a random example?
  3. Couldn’t break the 10 minute barrier today.
    It was unusual to have 2 hidden words in 1a and 1d (even if one was reversed).
    LOI 19a but only because I guessed it couldn’t be anything else. I convinced myself that it was “SEE” netting “IN” as in all my born days I’d never heard of SEINE as a fishing net. Well, you live and learn.
    PONTIUS PILATE can be applied in a derogatory manner to any officious figure of authority as in “He’s a right little Pontius Pilate, he is”.
  4. I see the net d.d. is not a familiar word to you chaps; I don’t know why I knew it as I’m not a fishing expert, but it was not at all obscure to me… article ‘seine fishing’ on wiki tells you all you need to know (and more).
    I agree with deezzaa, a Pontius Pilate has become a term for a jumped up authority figure … our local maire, or a UK traffic warden perhaps.
  5. I think we are all in the same fishing boat this morning. Never heard of seine as a net but just assumed the river as the obvious answer. Otherwise a morning coffee time completion so quite a lot of easy ones but Pontius only came through tedious working through the alphabet. Thanks for the parsing help.

    Edited at 2015-02-18 11:21 am (UTC)

  6. After pipkirby I am reminded of the worst example I have known, a car park attendant with a peaked cap that had let me into my car park at the university every day for at least five years until I arrived one morning in my wife’s Citroen 2cv. He came up officiously and banged on the side window. Now if you know that car model you might guess what happens next. It had a window hinged horizontally across the middle. You undid a catch at the bottom and flipped it up to stick your arm out (to signal I guess). This was a windy day and it flipped open of its own accord removing his officious cap that then blew off and away down the road. I sailed straight in as he chased after it. Never tried it again but looked daggers every day as I smiled at him. A real PP.
  7. Thought this one was quite tough after yesterday’s which I really enjoyed. Only managed two answers in first quick sweep then managed a few more once brain engaged! Unable to finish it, thought 5d very tricky. Got seine early on but only because it was a French river that fit and guessed the right river!

  8. A pretty steady solve for me, too, in 13 minutes maybe because I also knew ‘seine’ and had no problems with 15dn. LOI 6dn, though, was another kettle of fish whether caught by seine or not – if only football crowds had a more extensive repertoire I’d have been better equipped for this crossword – I’ve never yet heard: ‘referee’s a Pontius Pilate, referee’s a Pontius Pilate, a la la la, a la la la’. On the subject, COD to 13ac for its reference to the chaps who attempt to entertain Delia at Carrow Road.

    Edited at 2015-02-18 01:58 pm (UTC)

  9. Took me ages to get the SE corner done, and like others I’d never heard of Seine being a net of some sort. The rest of it I thought was relatively straightforward, although I spent a fair amount of time on the second part of 2d. All in all a very enjoyable puzzle.
  10. Strangely, I didn’t find this one too difficult and certainly easier than yesterday’s. Ruined the chance of a PB by spending far too long getting Pontius Pilate. Do any of you experts have any tips for long anagrams? At the moment I just write down the letters in a line in random order and pray for inspiration to strike – a rather hit and miss approach in my case! Invariant
    1. If I can’t solve it in my head then, like you, I write out the letters randomly – I think the “randomly” is important so that you don’t get fixated on the words that form the anagram fodder. I find it helpful while doing this to immediately omit any checkers that are already in the grid (versus writing the whole anagram fodder out then crossing out the existing checkers) – it makes things a little less cluttered.

      I then consider what part of speech the definition element of the clue is. If a noun, then I’ll see if the anagram fodder contains common noun endings such as -TION or -MENT. I find endings are generally more helpful than beginnings, though there are certain starts to words that may be suggested by the definition, e.g. ANTI-, DIS- , etc. A plural will probably end in -S. If the definition is a past tense verb, then the answer’s highly likely to end in -ED. If the definition is an adverb, then the answer’s likely to end in -LY or -ALLY. There may also be other hints from the definition itself, e.g. diseases often end in -ITIS, chemicals in -ATE/IDE/ITE/etc.

      Any checkers already in the grid may also help you, either because they suggest a particular ending or because they constrain what the letters on either side of them can be, e.g. if you’re lucky enough to have a Q as checker, then the next letter pretty much has to be a U. If the answer ends in I_G then ten to one the letter in between is an N.

      If inspiration doesn’t strike from this, then (where applicable) try solving the clue that will give you the initial letter of the word – that’s generally the most useful letter for guessing purposes (unless you have a middle letter that’s something odd like a Q or Z). Failing that, try getting a letter “close” to any existing checkers – I find it much easier to guess at words where the checkers have one unknown letter between them rather than many unknown letters.

      Having said all that, hardly any of this would have helped you with PONTIUS PILATE 🙂 Two (or more) word constructions are sometimes easier to crack than single words because you may be able to get the initial letters of both constituent words, though not in this case. The main problem though is that PONTIUS PILATE is, like many proper names and places, a bit of a one-off construction (unlike -TION or -ING words, say) so it doesn’t really fit into any of the patterns that might otherwise help. In such cases, rather than getting stuck in a rut staring at a string of letters that refuse to resolve into any sensible answer, you may be best served simply trying to get the remaining checkers.

      1. If you’ve gone through Mohn2’s excellent rigmarole and are still stumped, you can always go to anagram-solver dot net, which seems to handle quite long anagrams well and provides multi word answers (as well as lots of gibberish). But you’d have to award yourself a formal DNF afterwards.
        1. I usually write the letters out in a circle big enough for them all, mixing them as I go, then apply the same logic as Mohn2 – endings, DIS beginnings, ED endings, and first letter if possible. It also works for the 9 letters on Countdown, I find, much better than in a straight line.
          1. Agree with all the above except that my letter circles are in the order of the clue and I assume that the setter has not got the same strings of letters in the answer.
            1. Failing the above methods, I write the letters in a random two-dimensional grid. If that doesn’t suggest the answer, then I repeat the letters -again randomly – around the edges. This way you get many more clues, including diagonals.

              After that, I ask the dog . .

              Philip

  11. After reading the earlier comments I’m very surprised to have found it so easy. Fairly zipped through today, with only SEINE not parsed.
  12. Re working anagrams out, I find it useful to write the letters in two lists, one of all the vowels in ABC order, the other of all the consonants similarly in ABC order. Then I mark (with an X or by crossing out) those letters that I already have from crossing entries. I find the answer sometimes suggests itself quite fast then from the remaining letters.
  13. Only just stumbled on this site, fascinating and v informative. But I am puzzled by claims about Pontius Pilate. He is famous for NOT being officious: he believed Jesus innocent but abdicated responsibility and let the crowd decide. Quick internet trawl doesn’t suggest evidence for suggested meaning.

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