Quick Cryptic Number 115 by Hurley

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A fairly straightforward puzzle with some super anagrams, only one double definition, and a couple of less familiar words to keep you on your toes. Most of the across clues went in on the first pass, whereas I had to scratch my head and wait for checkers for a few of the downs. We have a good mix of common crossword devices – an element, some sport, a bit of religion, a rank, initial letters, a hidden word and some French. I’m quite sure every beginner will learn something from this one, I certainly did!

Across
7 FRANCE – F (female) + RAN (hurried) + CE (Church of England) gives this country.
8 ABRUPT – curt from AB (able-bodied seaman) + RU (rugby union) + PT (as in, the Army’s PT Corps).
9 VETO – VET (animal surgeon) associated with O (elemental oxygen) makes ban.
10 OUTSIDER – anagram of US EDITOR (indicated by worked out), and he’s unlikely to win.
11 DIRECTOR – DI (detective inspector) + REC (leisure facility) + TOR (hill) gives film pro.
13 SCAM – MACS reversed (Scots on the rebound) for swindle.
15 OGLE – stare at from OG (own goal) + LE (the in French). I’ve not come across the footballing abbreviation before; this “credit” goes on the scoresheet.
16 SEABOARD – SEA (homophone of “see”, notice) + anagram of B ROAD (indicated by winding) gives coastal region.
18 ESCAPIST – literally, one escaping reality in duncE’S CAP IS Touching.
20 TARE – TAR (road surface) with finE (ultimately, i.e. last letter) for empty vehicle’s weight.
21 HAMLET – poor actor is HAM + LET (allowed) feature in this play.
22 MANUAL – instruction book comes from MAN (vb. to staff) + regular letters of UsAbLe.

Down
1 FREEZING – ZING (energy) with FREE at the start makes very cold. I’ve not seen zing for energy used before (usually E).
2 UNFORESEEABLE – anagram of (indicated by potentially?) LEBANESE FOR EU gives impossible to predict. Lovely surface meaning.
3 REPORT – RE (regarding, about) + PORT (Liverpool, say) gives account. Although this one was quite straightforward, the word “about” usually makes me wake up; it can mean C or CA (circa), RE or ON (regarding), as well as anagram or containment indicator. Any others?
4 PASTOR – PAST (previous life) + O (over, cricket) + R (right) for minister.
5 TRAINSPOTTING – this hobby is an anagram or STARTING POINT (indicated by new).
6 APSE – a failing is a lapse, which provides our recess if missing the L (learner leaves). This held me up on account of the unknown ecclesiastical niche, and a style of clue I find very tricky (the starting point is to look for a 5-letter word, but my mind’s accessing the 4-letter word file).
12 ODE – odd (unusual) with an unspecified revision to the last letter makes poem.
14 AGRARIAN – meaning of or relating to fields/farming, this is new vocabulary for me (the definition is concerned with land). I became fixed on agri- for a while, and was distracted by thoughts of “arable” or similar, but the correct answer comes from A + GR (greek) + ARIA (song) + N (new).
16 SHINTO – S (second) + H (husband) + INTO (enthusiastically involved in) for this religion.
17 AUTUMN – period of time from AUThor (half-cut) + first letters of Up My Nose (initially).
19 STAY – double definition. To guy is to fix or secure (like guy ropes of a tent).

15 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 115 by Hurley”

  1. Totally agree with William’s analysis. Thought I was heading for a very fast completion, then suddenly hit the buffers with a few to go.

    TRAINSPOTTING took me an age to get (even with most of the cross checkers in place), TARE was a bit of guesswork based on the overall clue construction, and have to confess I gave up on APSE (did not know the word and LAPSE for failing just eluded me for some reason).

  2. A very enjoyable puzzle completed in 9 minutes with a slight delay on TARE as my LOI as I didn’t know this meaning.

    Edited at 2014-08-15 07:51 am (UTC)

  3. 4 mins, and definitely the most straightforward QC of the week IMHO, but enjoyable nonetheless. UNFORESEEABLE was my LOI because I didn’t want to spend too much time trying to untangle the anagram fodder until I had all the checkers in place. I saw TRAINSPOTTING immediately so I didn’t have to take the same approach for that one.
  4. 4 minutes of writing in, possibly a record for me, they seem to be getting easier again.
  5. Took me 20 mins and had to guess Tare. Is tar actually a road surface – I know it is an ingredient in a road surface? Strikes me it is a bit like using cake as a clue for flour.
    1. Giles, my Chambers has one of the definitions of TAR as “a road surfacing of broken stone covered or mixed with tar”.
  6. Several interruptions whilst solving so no time. Not as tough as the last 3 but I did not find this very easy. Missed the hidden ESCAPIST which was my penultimate, LOI was SCAM. On the plus side, having previously spent a lot of time working out Liverpool say I was able to write 3d straight in.
  8. 13 minutes, a lot of this crossword seemed very familiar. I’m certain we’ve had trainspotting, report, France, escapist and hamlet before.
  9. getting there, anagrams ok but some of the others really obscure. This does help though for future ones
  10. Anagram of LEBANESE FOR EU is 13 letters and has four of the letter E so UNFORSEEABLE is incorrect. Correct answer is UNFORESEEABLE
      1. My spelling skills are much better than my cryptic clue solving skills! I struggled with this one.

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