Times Quick Crossword No 1029 by Hawthorn

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I think this is my first opportunity to do the blog for a Hawthorn crossword. And it is a very nicely crafted puzzle too. It took me just about an average time, so, by my book, is just about right in terms of difficulty. Of course others may have differing views – please feel free to share! As a quick crossword I thought it was spot on as training for the 15×15, 10a and 12a being prime examples. What is more, we have an abundance of lovely smooth surfaces. I’m hard pressed to pick a clue of the day. 14d was close, as was 15d but I’m going to say 21d for the most amusing surface. Thanks to our setter for a great quickie – I look forward to the next! [Edit: It would appear not everyone found this as straightforward as I did – I must have been on top form when solving it! Nevertheless, I think most agree it was a great crossword, even if some found it a bit too tough].

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Backfire banged endlessly and resounded (9)
BOOMERANG – BOOME{d} (banged endlessly) + RANG. Also an Australian hunting weapon, of course. An MEB (minor eyebrow raise) at the definition initially, but it’s there fair and square in my shiny new Chambers dictionary.
6 Miss start of party for a little sleep (3)
KIP – {U}KIP. This one had me puzzled in parsing wondering how ‘skip’ could be a party, But I bunged it in anyway. Post-solve I spotted it was that sort of party. Doh!
8 Go back and put on another coat of creosote? (7)
RETREAT – When you put creosote on your fence you TREAT it. So go back and do it again. Lovely surface.
9 Blanket’s off early (5)
LAYER – (early)* [off]. Throwing off that extra layer from the bed is not for this time of year unless you’ve got your central heating turned up too high. When I were a lad, we had ice on the inside of the windows at night in February. We had it tough… but up Teesdale in Co.Durham, not Yorkshire.
10 Scrap of paper for drawing? (6,6)
RAFFLE TICKET – Cryptic definition. I saw it straight away, but did you? Lovely misdirection with the word ‘drawing’ and a great example of how you need to avoid assuming a word means what you first think it means in crosswordland.
12 Where one may make bloomer by holding onto ace, king and queen (6)
BAKERY – BY [holding onto] A + K + ER. Another nice example of giving you a wrong path to follow. The answer is nothing to do with making a mistake at a game of cards.
13 Fish served in delicious almonds (6)
SALMON – Hidden word [served in] {deliciou}S ALMON{ds}. I’ve had trout with almonds (delicious) but not tried salmon. Something for the Interred family meal plan for next week, perhaps. [Edit: Conincidentally, later in the day, I found that the Friday fish-of-day dish at our canteen at work was “Chalk Stream Trout with Almonds”].
16 Famous rock unfortunately stolen nearby (7,5)
BLARNEY STONE – (stolen nearby)* [unfortunately]. I’ve seen it but declined to kiss it. Which is maybe why no-one has ever admired my pitifully inadequate gift for the gab.
19 Telling stories in bed? (5)
LYING – Double definition, second cryptic. That takes me back. It’s many years since I read any of my kids a bedtime story!
20 Endorse software range (7)
APPROVE – APP + ROVE. Neat and concise. I commend.
22 Sister hiding in kitchen unit (3)
NUN – [hiding in] {kitche}N UN{it}. I hope she avoided the cutlery… What is black and white and red all over?* (see below).
23 Take down criminal with old martial art (9)
TAEKWONDO – (Take down)* [criminal] + O. I couldn’t tell you how this differs from other martial arts. But maybe this helps.

Down
1 Displayed calibre (4)
BORE – Double definition. This got me thinking of the possibilities of a triple definition. How about “Annoying person displayed calibre”? No. It’s better as it is, I think.
2 Bush flowering with support (7)
OUTBACK – OUT (flowering) with BACK (support). Bush as in the wild uncultivated sort of vegetation at the bottom of our garden when I lived in South Africa as a boy.
3 Creature found among seaweed regularly (3)
EWE – Alternate letters of {s}E{a}W{e}E{d} [regularly]. Do sheep eat seaweed? If not, what was it doing there? I think we should be told. [Edit: And we have been! See comments below].
4 Article on The Mikado’s opening song (6)
ANTHEM – AN (article) + THE M{ikado’s} [opening]. “A wandering minstrel I”.
5 Travel widely to get G&T containing exotic vanilla (9)
GALLIVANT – G and T [containing] (vanilla)* [exotic]. Not a word I’ve heard used in everyday conversation recently, but gallivanting is maybe something to put on my bucket list.
6 Boat that’s kilometres ahead of a large hairy beast (5)
KAYAK – K (kilometres) + A + YAK (large hairy beast). We had this in the palindromic Concise earlier this week. The surfaces begs a tale to explain. Why is a large hairy beast chasing a boat?
7 Train up converts to become extremely religious (7)
PURITAN – (Train up)* [converts]. If you were one of these, you would surely not have indulged with chocolate and other fancy food for Valentine’s day on Wednesday this week… Ash Wednesday. The church says no.
11 Castle and another piece ignoring king for some time (9)
FORTNIGHT – FORT (Castle) + {k}NIIGHT without the K. No it’s not ROO{k} without the K. Nice black and white clue.
12 Ancient city’s new life, with capital half revealed (7)
BABYLON – BABY (new life) + LON{don} (half of capital) [revealed]. Easy enough with the checkers.
14 A lot of wet weather now the weekend’s almost over? (7)
MONSOON – If the weekend’s nearly over it will be MON{day} SOON. This one raised a smile.
15 Wicket stifling your spin (6)
GYRATE – GATE (Wicket) including [stifling] YR (your). Lovely surface giving a nod in the direction of the convention of regularly including cricket-related clues in the 15×15.
17 A vehicle crossing island of birds (5)
AVIAN – A + VAN outside [crossing] I (island). If what I saw on a Farne Islands Trip a couple of years ago, you wouldn’t want to do this with an open top vehicle.
18 Champion cutting down murderous king (4)
HERO – Not NERO but the biblical slayer of baby boys HERO{d} [cut down].
21 Jerks on Westminster’s front bench (3)
PEW – PE (jerks) + W{estminster’s} [front]. A sly dig at our current MPs, perhaps? I love it!

* Answer to terrible joke of the day – A nun with a knife in her back. ….I’ll get my coat.

31 comments on “Times Quick Crossword No 1029 by Hawthorn”

  1. I experienced panic statiions with this one, taking several minutes to find a clue that I could answer. I usually go for a 3-letter word to get me going and was immediately disoriented by 6ac, thinking NAP or KIP but being unable to parse either, so I left it blank and moved on. Eventually I got started with the hidden fish at 13ac, built from there and completed the grid in 12 minutes.

    Having decided on KIP (given the checkers there was no alteranive) I took a while to understand the parsing and I also had some difficulty reconciling ‘displayed / bore’ at 1dn until I thought of ‘bore / displayed a resemblance to’.

    Edited at 2018-02-16 06:07 am (UTC)

  2. I found this one much harder than average too, vinyl1, don’t worry.

    I see that aphis99 had no such problems, but then he is an honorary Australian now so boomerangs and the outback are his everyday life at this point, I imagine!

  3. I completely mis-read this one and got the same solution. If you “miss” something you might “skip” it. Take away first letter =kip. I can see it now but still learning!

    As always thanks for the blog.

  4. Having sailed through recent QC’s and even some of the main ones i found this really difficult. But when I read this blog it made me smile. I too spent ages wondering how a skip could be a party 🙁 Thanks to all
  5. I started with BORE and EWE, but then stalled with nothing else in the NW coming to mind, so I moved on in a clockwise direction, entering NAP and then changing it to KIP for no other reason than I couldn’t parse it and 6d had to be KAYAK. Normal service was then resumed and I worked my way back to the NW finishing with BOOMERANG (unparsed) in 9:29. Having been caught out by TAEKWONDO several times in the past, I actually managed to get it right this time! Nice puzzle. Thanks Hawthorn and John.
  6. I thought this one was quite hard in places (eg 2, 15 and 18d), but time-wise I was a good 10mins faster than yesterday which makes it more like average for me – either that or I was just lucky with some of the clues. The misdirection in 10ac moves it ahead of 14d as my overall favourite today. The physicist in me means I can’t sign off without having a little moan at the use of k for kilometers in 6d, rather than km, though I concede it was clear what the setter wanted. For all that, this was still a very satisfying puzzle, so thank you Hawthorn (and blogger). Invariant
    1. As a fellow former physicist, I empathise on the km point, but it is common currency these days in sports distances.
  7. Found this quite straightforward apart from 1ac BOOMERANG which I think is rather strained. Now that the bigger has explained it I still think it is a poorly crafted clue. Ah well, can’t please everybody.
    PlayUpPompey
  8. Although I didn’t solve the crossword, I enjoyed solving the bits that I did. My favourite clue was 12 across.

    Edited at 2018-02-16 03:28 pm (UTC)

  9. I thought there was a lot of very clever stuff in this excellent puzzle. I noted 14d and 20a as my CODs.
    FOI was 3d, then 23a reflecting my search for ways in. After that pretty good progress finishing in 16 minutes with 15d.
    I also worried about the definition in 1a but the parsing was perfect. David
  10. I thought maybe Ki was a girl’s name, but, looking now, see Chambers dict does not have it in their very comprehensive list.

    Fine puzzle, a little harder than the average Quick Cryptic for me.

  11. I needed to check 23a and had plenty of pencil until the checkers began to come in. Quite tough for me, but doable. Missed the anagram in 9a. I count myself fortunate to have spotted ‘stone’ in 16 a and a couple of checkers then gave the right answer. Good puzzle & an entertaining blog – thanks. A testing end to the week.
  12. Sorry this is anonymous but I’m having trouble signing in. Yes sheep do eat seaweed. On one of the Shetland islands, sheep live on the sea shore at the bottom of the cliffs and eat seaweed all the time. I keep Shetland Sheep but not on an island, mine just eat normally!
    1. Fantastic. I love the way we can learn so much not just from the crosswords, but the eclectic knowledge of our blog commenters.
    2. Our ouessants (the world’s smallest sheep breed at 18″ high at the shoulders) would also eat seaweed on the island (aka Ushant) where they originated. Ours have to make do with grass – and hay in the winter.
  13. I found this a little harder than average and it took me a while to get going. I particularly enjoyed 10a (LOI) and 21d, which had me scratching my head for a while. Completed in 21 minutes.
    Thanks for the blog
    1. I didn’t enjoy this one. Took ages to get going and quite a few went in unparsed so thanks to the blogger.

      By the way, the Daily Worker also used to be black and white and red all over….

  14. Didn’t enjoy this- far too difficult for a quick cryptic. 1a especially a very poor clue. Managed to finish it though. Excellent blog by the way
  16. Nice puzzle, 6a ukip unparsed.

    48 mins but about half an hour spent on gyrate, and the last two crossers boomerang and bore.

    Boomerang was more difficult because of the use of the verb form in the definition.

    Otherwise it would be too easy:
    Australian’s curved shaft banged endlessly and tinkled.

    I liked monsoon, raffle ticket, gallivant, kayak and COD blarney stone

    Edited at 2018-02-18 06:08 am (UTC)

  17. Realise we’re months late (we’ve got a backlog!) but could anyone shed light on why “pe”=jerks in 21d?
    1. “Physical jerks”, sometimes just “jerks” is another term for exercises, i.e. Physical Education. It’s rather old-fashioned; I’m not sure I’ve heard it in real life since the 1970s.

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