A gentle Quick Cryptic for a Friday from Hurley today. It took me 4:14, hesitating over only the anagram at 16A. LOI SPEARHEAD. Thank-you Hurley. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 144 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Alter past ethos as quickly as possible (9) |
| POSTHASTE – [Alter] (past ethos)*. | |
| 6 | Dad’s attempt (3) |
| POP – Double definition. | |
| 8 | Broadcast frightens cat terribly? Just a bit (7) |
| SCATTER – Hidden, [just a bit], in frightenS CAT TERribly. | |
| 9 | Load vehicle and leave (5) |
| CARGO – CAR (vehicle) + GO (leave). | |
| 10 | Make two and two five? Call it ace sum bizarrely! (12) |
| MISCALCULATE – (call it ace sum)* [bizarrely]. | |
| 12 | Regretting welcoming learner’s decision (6) |
| RULING – L (learner) in RUING (regretting). | |
| 13 | Smart agent writing paper after returning (6) |
| DAPPER – REP (agent) + PAD (writing paper) reversed, [after returning], -> DAPPER. | |
| 16 | Down, need this read — novel (12) |
| DISHEARTENED – (need this read)* [novel]. | |
| 19 | Confusion as cash out of order with nothing being accepted (5) |
| CHAOS – O (nothing) in (cash)* [out of order]. | |
| 20 | Most important I have place for keeping documents (7) |
| ARCHIVE – ARCH (most important) + I’VE (I have). | |
| 22 | Part of tree record (3) |
| LOG – Double definition, the first being part of a tree only after it has been felled. | |
| 23 | Leader in parade, he’s getting excited (9) |
| SPEARHEAD – (parade he’s)* [getting excited]. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Model right to abandon writing (4) |
| POSE – P{r}OSE (writing) without, [to abandon], the R (right). | |
| 2 | Dog’s range that is large (7) |
| SPANIEL – SPAN (range) + I.E. (id est; that is) + L (large). | |
| 3 | Dwelling — haunt on regular basis (3) |
| HUT – Alternate letters, [on a regular basis], of HaUnT. | |
| 4 | Put street on list for walk (6) |
| STROLL – ST (street) + ROLL (list). Unlike in an across clue, A on B in a down clue means A + B. | |
| 5 | Inspire group of followers giving up time for Conservative (9) |
| ENCOURAGE – EN{t}OURAGE (group of followers) replacing the T (time) with C (conservative) -> ENCOURAGE. | |
| 6 | Jacket of expected standard, okay essentially (5) |
| PARKA – PAR (expected standard) + middle letters, [essentially], of oKAy. | |
| 7 | Spacecraft, one in landing place (7) |
| PIONEER – ONE in PIER (landing place). The Pioneer spacecraft were a series of NASA probes, starting in 1958, that explored the Moon, Venus, the asteroid belt, and the outer planets, with Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 famously becoming the first human-made objects to head out of the solar system, carrying plaques with info about humanity. | |
| 11 | Agreement population count must include only necessary statistics at first (9) |
| CONSENSUS – Initial letters, [at first], of Only Necessary Statistics in CENSUS (population count). | |
| 12 | Seeking major changes in type of tyre, costs initially to be absorbed (7) |
| RADICAL – First letter of Costs [initially] in [absorbed] by RADIAL (type of tyre). | |
| 14 | Accurate summary, English (7) |
| PRECISE – PRECIS (summary) + E (English). | |
| 15 | Oil country, they say (6) |
| GREASE – Sounds like, [they say], GREECE (country). | |
| 17 | Informed about Left’s colloquial talk (5) |
| SLANG – SANG (informed) about L (Left). | |
| 18 | Take notice of which three were ahead in the end (4) |
| HEED – Final letters, [in the end], of whicH threE werE aheaD. | |
| 21 | Copper right — it is an unfriendly beast (3) |
| CUR – CU (chemical symbol for copper) + R (right). | |
21:17
All parsed but dragged kicking and screaming into the SCC by PIONEER and POP in the NE corner.
I was fixated with PAS, can’t understand why it took so long to see POP and only after PIONEER went in.
Still, another very enjoyable QC.
FOI: CARGO
LOI: POP
COD: MISCALCULATE (unparsed until pen and paper revealed the anagram.)
Thanks to Hurley and John
A decent time at 9:12 but stupidly with a pink square through not pausing to check CONCENSUS the correct answer for which, as has been pointed out above, is clearly enumerated in the clue. I even knew there was a potential problem! I’ll try not make that mistake again. Thanks, all.
12 mins…
No real issues apart from having to think about how to spell “Consensus” and ensuring I had my Grease/Greece the right way round.
Is a log a part of a tree or is it the remains of a tree once chopped down? Can it still be part of tree then? Difficult questions for a Friday morning 😀
FOI – 1dn “Pose”
LOI – 20ac “Archive”
COD – 7dn “Pioneer”
Thanks as usual!
7:37, with a breezeblock at the end where I had to write out (and have a think about) the anagram with the letters D_S_E_R_E_ED. I see I’m not the only one; long words like that with only ultra-common checkers are always quite tricky. And as is often the case, no other words will fit other than the correct answer (ta Chambers app!). Very nice puzzle – thanks Hurley and John.
10.23 It was mostly very gentle but I spent ages on DISHEARTENED and, like Wombat, wondering what kind of a landing place a PONEER was. Thanks John and Hurley.
Thoroughly enjoyed, with a couple making me smile. 8mins. Thanks John and Hurley.
Also enjoyed the weekend special – thanks, Sawbill!
13:41 and no big frustrations, thank you Hurley, at the end of an, um, interesting week. I have an odd blindness to compound words, which made POSTHASTE and SPEARHEAD slow to come. PIONEER was my LOI, I could see the literal was “spacecraft” and even put ONE in the correct place, but still needed all the crossers. I was fooled by SCATTER and liked the simple elegance of CARGO.
Thanks Hurley and John.
Made quite heavy weather of this for no good reason but got there in the end.
Liked the 7d Spacecraft where I followed the instructions and amazingly PIONEER appeared.
Missed the hidden as usual.
LOI HEED which took a bit of head scratching before the penny dropped
Thanks both.
6:56 which looks like a good time. Ruined by a fat fingered pink square.
LOI ENCOURAGE
‘Too many requests’ here too. For me, the most straightforward of the week. LOI PIONEER (never did parse). Had to write the anagrist for CHAOS (dearie me) but everything else seemed to go in quite easily. Many thanks all.
Third DNF in a row, feeling disheartened as I usually finish and find a quiet corner in the SCC.
At least I wasn’t alone in wanting 6a to be PAS so never had a chance with PIONEER (the which spacecraft I had completely forgotten)
A disappointing 14:14. Disappointing because although I’m happy enough to be a steady plodder, today I was optimistic for a sub-ten minute solve until I bumped into ENCOURAGE, DAPPER and PIONEER which together took me over six minutes. Ah well.
SPEARHEAD last one in, apart from that took longer than usual, plus IT man visit extended things
I just give up with this.
Put PAS for 6ac and so no chance of 7dn. Don’t understand POP at all.
38 minute DNF.
Utter, utter incompetence. One of my worst experiences here.
I sweat blood over the 15 x 15 and I still can’t solve a simple QC.
Almost 2 hours and 2 DNFs this week.
Please don’t reply. I’m turning off my devices and won’t be back until Monday.
If I had any sense, I’d call it a day with this as I am getting nowhere. I wish I knew what the rest of you have that I clearly lack.
Easy one today but a MER for Grease=Oil. I’m sure Rotter led the charge on this, and I agree they are very different. Another MER as a log is not part of a tree – maybe part of an ex-tree. Also thought Sang a bit of a stretch in 17d.
I rationalised grease = oil by equating the verbs rather than nouns. I agree about “log”, though, and said so in the blog.
This is my first time posting, and first time doing the quick cryptic online. As others have mentioned, it was straightforward my time was 20:40, as I still write out the anagrams.
After many years reading this wonderful blog, (I normally complete the crosswords in the books) I wanted to thank the very many of you who have explained and helped me learn the craft.
Thanks today to John and Hurley.
Great to hear from you Jimmy. Do post again regularly!