Quick Cryptic Number 427 by Hurley

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I struggled with this one much more than usual. The type of legal hearing was new to me, and I was on a very different wavelength at 5dn and 19dn, which all held me up. Also the abbreviation at 24ac, which I wanted to check for the blog after I bunged the answer in, is either one I have not seen before or have never stopped to notice.

There are sparkles of humour and wit in here, too. My favourite was 4dn, but working out the correct route through the wordplay at 1ac and 2dn was also fun.

Definitions underlined.

1 Room at the top in construction just starting (5)
ATTIC – first letter of (just starting) At The Top In Construction.
8 Omit a teen troublesome once? (2,3,4)
AT ONE TIME – anagram of (troublesome) OMIT A TEEN.
9 Mark, Saint, foremost of authors, popular (5)
STAIN – ST (saint), first of Authors, and IN (popular).
10 Taught and reformed rude tot (7)
TUTORED – anagram of (reformed) RUDE TOT.
11 Lady, English, thin, Tory at heart (7)
ELEANOR – E (english), LEAN (thin), and middle letters (heart) of tORy.
12 Business on the up, perhaps, broadcast policy (7)
AIRLINE – AIR (broadcast) and LINE (policy).
16 Inhibit lover, a Welshman? Not entirely (7)
OVERAWE – hidden in (not entirely) lOVER A WElshman.
17 Postscript about Queen has reduced power maybe (7)
PERHAPS – ER (Queen), HAs (reduced, missing last letter) and P (power), all surrounded by PS (postscript).
20 On return trod around guy, sleeping (7)
DORMANT – reversal of TROD around MAN (guy).
22 Instituted legal proceedings against eastern leather (5)
SUEDE – SUED (instigated legal proceedings against) and E (eastern).
23 Played lacrosse followed by European dish (9)
CASSEROLE – anagram of (played) LACROSSE, and E (european).
24 Swindler possibly succeeded — pay attention! (5)
SHARK – S (succeeded) and HARK (pay attention).
1 Part of supermarket area surrounded by water, we hear (5)
AISLE – homophone of ISLE (area surrounded by water).
2 Painting elevated over poetry — getting cross! (8)
TRAVERSE – ART (painting) written up (elevated) and VERSE (poetry).
3 Preserve operating rule (5)
CANON – CAN (preserve) and ON (operating).
4 Avoiding issue? Protection can potentially (13)
CONTRACEPTION – anagram of (potentially) PROTECTION CAN.
5 Our group back film (7)
WESTERN – WE (our group) and STERN (back).
6 Row right after match (4)
TIER – R (right) following TIE (match).
7 See Dad excited at a Middle East location (4,3)
DEAD SEA – anagram of (excited) SEE DAD, next to A.
13 Arrived during dreadful rain for such a hearing (2,6)
IN CAMERA – CAME (arrived) inside anagram of (dreadful) RAIN.
14 Argument against Channel’s behaviour (7)
CONDUCT – CON (argument against) and DUCT (channel).
15 One purring about simple floor show? (7)
CABARET – CAT (one that purrs) around BARE (simple).
18 Fruit seeds on regular basis in upward slopes (5)
RISES – regular letters from fRuIt SeEdS.
19 Tiny spot in glasses King needed for son (5)
SPECK – SPECs (glasses) with K (king) replacing s (son).
21 Move fast in plant (4)
RUSH – double definition.

13 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 427 by Hurley”

  1. About average for me. I didn’t get held up by much, although there are one or two tricky clues, like 13a and 17a. COD to CONTRACEPTION
  2. For a welcome change, this one went in very easily. 4d raised a smile, and I also liked the way 17ac was built up. Parsing 1ac took me longer than most of the clues. Invariant
  3. 15 minutes, so another at the trickier end of the spectrum. For me at least.

    William, I’m baffled by your reference to an unknown legal hearing in your intro. Which clue is that?

    Edited at 2015-10-28 02:23 pm (UTC)

    1. Jack, I hesitate to answer on behalf of our blogger but, in case he is offline at the moment, I suspect it is a reference to IN CAMERA.
    2. Indeed, in camera was new to me. I was also unclear about the “such a” part of the clue, since I see no connection between arriving in the rain and the private hearing. Maybe I’ve missed something; sorry in any case for the embafflement.
      1. I think the “such a” simply gives us a steer that we are looking for a particular type of hearing (i.e. no connection with the rain part of the clue per se).

        I guess Ximenes-inspired Ockham’s Razor artists might argue that “such a” is actually redundant, but given that an in camera hearing is a specific type of hearing I think it helps the solver narrow things down somewhat. An act of charity from our setter!

  4. Very enjoyable puzzle. Took a while to get going with this one, but then I seemed to tune in to the right wavelength and it then flowed pretty well,

    4dn was indeed a beauty, and I thought the hidden at 16a was very nicely disguised (I went off in all sorts of odd directions looking for a truncated Taf/Da etc. before finally spotting what was going on). Thanks to William for the blog, and to Hurley for a fun puzzle.

  5. I found this a strange puzzle. I started off thinking I could be on for a record time as I managed to solve the NW corner very quickly and it then seemed to get quite tricky. Eventually I was left with 5d which I finally gave up on only to have a real doh moment when I read the blog.
    Like others I thought 4d was excellent as was 16a – once I finally saw it.
    With regards to In Camera the only reason I know it was because it’s come up in the QC at least twice before – and this time I actually solved it!
  6. I solved today’s puzzle in a rather funny order; I got going in the NE then completed the SE part and had half the puzzle done with nothing in the left half. I then managed the SW and finished in the top left corner where I normally try to start.On reflection there was nothing too difficult but I couldn’t parse 1a which is probably why I moved on from that corner. LOI was 2d and my favourite 12a David
  7. Failed on 5d – now so obvious! Thx for the explanation. Must do better – as my old school reports used to say

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