Quick Cryptic No 361 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An unusually unsymmetrical A diagonally symmetrical (thanks joecasey) grid from Hurley – possibly adjusted to fit in four long answers which may hold the key to how long this takes to solve. Two and a half of these are anagrams and, as I try to do these without resorting to a paper letter circle, my time ended up at 15 minutes (which I count as medium). With some complex word play and the odd metric unit there’s plenty of interest here.

Definitions underlined, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition, deletions CROSSED OUT

Across
1 Local scribe, I’m potentially one rising in company? (6,7)
&nbsp &nbspSOCIAL CLIMBER – Anagram (potentially) of LOCAL SCRIBE IM.
8 Part of Potomac I remarked about — its location (7)
&nbsp &nbspAMERICA – Potom(AC I REMA)rked- backwards (about). Potomac is in Maryland and borders the Potomac River.
9 Thanks artist carrying island headwear (5)
&nbsp &nbspTIARA – Thanks (TA), artist (RA) carrying island (I).
10 Embarrassing cold call they row about (12)
&nbsp &nbspCRINGEWORTHY – Cold (C), call (RING), anagram (about) of THEY ROW.
12 Asian cultivated alpine (6)
&nbsp &nbspNEPALI – Anagram (cultivated) of ALPINE.
14 Refreshment source regularly using the camp boat (6)
&nbsp &nbspTEAPOT – ThE cAmP bOaT.
17 Man finds European Union position not new (7)
&nbsp &nbspEUSTACE – EU, position (STAnCE) without the ‘n’.
19 Greek character impressed by deep brown (5)
&nbsp &nbspSEPIA – Greek character (PI) impressed by deep (SEA). It reads to me as sea is impressed by PI rather than the other way round.
20 A couple of billion people (5)
&nbsp &nbspBRACE – Billion (B), people (RACE).
21 Carrier has time to make progress — enemy losing heart (7)
&nbsp &nbspTROLLEY – Time (T), to make progress (ROLL), EnemY.
22 Regular rest ordered for equestrian competitors (8)
&nbsp &nbspEVENTERS – Regular (EVEN), anagram (ordered) of REST.
23 Group visit, finally, Brazilian port (4)
&nbsp &nbspTRIO – Visi(T), RIO.

Down
1 Upset, criticizes card game (4)
&nbsp &nbspSNAP – Criticizes (PANS) backwards (upset).
2 Explain king being aboard vessel (5,2)
&nbsp &nbspCLEAR UP – King (LEAR) inside vessel (CUP).
3 Strange answer: something that’s not true name (5)
&nbsp &nbspALIEN – Answer (A), LIE, name (N).
4 Talk about the French house (6)
&nbsp &nbspCHALET – CHAT about LE.
5 Opening adaptation not outward looking (12)
&nbsp &nbspINTROVERSION – Opening (INTRO), adaptation (VERSION).
6 With Society involved, overcome cruel person (5)
&nbsp &nbspBEAST – Society (S) inside BEAT.
7 Eyed a dog, stray, mongrel: prepare to run! (5,6,2)
&nbsp &nbspREADY STEADY GO – Anagram (mongrel) of EYED A DOG STRAY. Unusual but fair anagram indicator – mongrel=mixed.
11 Queen’s emblem features musicians (8)
&nbsp &nbspENSEMBLE – Que(ENS EMBLE)m.
13 Most unproductive meadow home (7)
&nbsp &nbspLEANEST – Meadow (LEA), home (NEST).
15 Much liked tree outside university (7)
&nbsp &nbspPOPULAR – POPLAR outside U.
16 Miserly to conceal court drink (6)
&nbsp &nbspNECTAR – Miserly (NEAR) outside court (CT).
18 Refrain from using special metric unit (5)
&nbsp &nbspSPARE – Special (SP), metric unit (ARE). An ‘are’ is a unit of area equal to 100 sq metres or 119.599 sq yards; one hundredth of a hectare. 1 hectare is equivalent to 10 000 square metres or 2.471 acres so hecto- or hect- denotes 100.

10 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 361 by Hurley”

  1. Went wrong at sevral places: looking for R or K in 2d, IN in 15d, etc. Had the INTRO but just couldn’t come up with the VERSION. Oddly enough, SPARE wasn’t a problem, probably because ARE shows up in the NY Times puzzles from time to time. 8:35.
  2. I agree this wasn’t the easiest of Quickies and took me 16 minutes – so over my target by some way. SPARE was my LOI and I was completely foxed by the metric unit element of the clue for several minutes.
  3. Eventually biffed SPARE for 18d, then spent another 7 minutes post-solve looking for a better answer before I remembered hectare was an SI unit, so there must be an underlying ARE. I liked the hidden musicians in 11d, and got fooled momentarily into looking for an anagram of ‘cold call they’ for 10a, so enjoyed finding the right answer. 8a and 2d also made me smile. 7:50.
  4. Diagonal symmetry – seen quite a lot in the quick, don’t remember seeing in the big Xw.
  5. Spent hours on this, so not particularly enjoyable for me. Near/miserly is certainly not common usage around here. Invariant
  6. My worst effort for quite some time. I think I left my brain somewhere over the weekend. 17a and 18d were just too difficult for me but I should have got 13d (I had the ‘Lea’ part but couldn’t figure out the rest of it) and 20a (where I was looking for something with two of ‘bs’ in it). I’m sure brace has appeared a couple of times previously, which makes my missing it even worse.
    A number of very enjoyable clues as well though esp. 8a, 2d and 21a.
  7. Take heart that two of the three “usual sources” have it as archaic. On the other hand it crops up quite a lot in crosswords so is worth remembering for the future.
  8. None of this was easy for me apart from 15d which got me started.I put in Alias for 3d and struggled with the anagram for 1a needing to guess that 5d started with Inter (wrong at the end!). I too had thought the anagram fodder at 10a was “cold call they”.
    After quite a while I was left with the SW corner-like others.I thought 13d was Laziest but it didn’t parse well. I was sure 22a was Trotters -not a bad fit I thought. That made getting the hidden answer at 11d rather difficult.
    Anyway a third sitting led me to finish with 18d and I put in Spare without understanding the Are. But in the end I got it right and feel very pleased.
    Another good QC and a different challenge I thought. David
    1. Your travails of today sound a lot like mine with many a 15×15. Great satisfaction to finish in the end though so well done.

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