Times Quick Cryptic 101 by Hurley

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
As we might have expected, the button to today’s puzzle is broken and indeed our friends at SNAFU Central have excelled themselves by linking it back to puzzle #5 as published in March. Here’s the correct url:
http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140728/224/

And so we start on our second century of Quickies. This one took me 16 minutes which is a little longer than my over-all average for the first 100 (14 mins 35, if anyone’s interested). I lost time in the SW corner with 16dn, 21ac and the first word of 19ac eluded me for a while. I don’t think there’s any unusual vocabulary or obscure references today but as always it’s a matter of what one happens to know. I’m in for Macavity this week, so I’ll see you on Thursday too.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Coming back, encounters English value (6)
ESTEEM – E (English), MEETS (encounters) reversed [coming back]
5 First helping of pudding in excellent meal (6)
SUPPER – [first helping of] Pudding inside SUPER (excellent)
8 March maybe upset an old merchant (8,5)
CALENDAR MONTH – anagram [upset] of AN OLD MERCHANT
9 Ice sheet to move freely by sound of it (4)
FLOE – sounds like [by sound of it] ‘flow’ (move freely)
10 Expert to start showing great insight (8)
PROFOUND – PRO (expert), FOUND (start, as in ‘found a company’ for example)
11 Cuddle some felt sentimental about (6)
NESTLE – hidden and reversed [about] in ‘fELT SENtimental’
13 Sailor near thoroughfare in France perhaps (6)
ABROAD – AB (sailor, Able Seaman), ROAD (thoroughfare)
15 Seeing whale, need phlegm to start with – or composure? (8)
PORPOISE – [to start with] Phelgm, OR, POISE (composure). ‘Seeing’ adds to the surface reading but fulfils no other porpoise.
17 Obtain energy drink (4)
WINE – WIN (obtain), E (energy)
19 Sort claret and whisky, say, for someone like me? (7, 6)
KINDRED SPIRIT – KIND (sort), RED (claret), SPIRIT (whisky, say)
21 City in skilful switch to other side (6)
DEFECT – EC (city i.e. City of London postal district) in DEFT (skilful)
22 Old policeman‘s vegetable knife (6)
PEELER – double definition. Early policemen were known as ‘Peelers’ after the Home Secretary responsible for their establishment, Sir Robert Peel.

Down
2 Delay son finds hard to believe (5)
STALL – S (son), TALL (hard to believe, as in ‘a tall story’)
3 High point eclipsed by severe storm (7)
EVEREST – hidden in ‘sEVERE STorm’
4 Very angry as barrier overturned (3)
MAD – DAM (barrier) reversed [overturned]
5 Age or rust sadly – replacement required? (9)
SURROGATE – anagram [sadly] of AGE OR RUST
6 Snap phosphorus burning off (not very strong) (5)
PHOTO – P (Phosphorous), HOT (burning), Off [not very strong, i.e. remove FF – fortissimo – very loud or strongly in music]
7 Land, not sea, I recollected (7)
ESTONIA – anagram [re-collected] of NOT SEA I
10 Head of republic under pressure staying in hotel? (9)
PRESIDENT – P (pressure), RESIDENT (staying in hotel). There’s good misdirection in this clue with ‘head of republic’ suggesting the letter ‘R’ and ‘hotel’ perhaps as the definition, but it didn’t work out that way at all.
12 Reason to support European for arousing strong feeling (7)
EMOTIVE – E (European), MOTIVE (reason)
14 Whip found in place of concealment after conflict’s over (7)
RAWHIDE – WAR (conflict) reversed [over], HIDE (place of concealment, used as a noun in this context)
16 Army chaplain home with troops (5)
PADRE – PAD (home), RE (troops, Royal Engineers)
18 Number one single’s hollow sound? (5)
NOISE – NO (number), I (one), SinglE [hollow, i.e. remove the inner letters]
20 Concession from store husband extracted (3)
SOP – ShOP (store) with H (husband) removed [extracted]

19 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 101 by Hurley”

  1. I was getting panicky, with only FLOE, PEELER, MAD, & PADRE in after the first pass through the clues, but after getting the wrong end of several sticks–thinking ‘me in 19ac was ‘X setter’, that ‘Number one’ in 18d was ‘me’, etc.– managed to finish in 9:25. A number of challenging, but fair, clues, with, as Jack says, nothing arcane.
  2. Well, I thought this was tougher than the main course today, with four of the across clues all fit for transportation (10, 13, 15 and 21) and RAWHIDE in the downs a word I only recently learnt for ‘whip’. As Jack and Kevin say, there’s some very good misdirection around too, especially at 10 and 18 down.

    Anyone who finishes this should have a go at the Biggie.

    Edited at 2014-07-28 03:29 am (UTC)

    1. If memory serves (it still does, on occasion), there was a TV western called ‘Rawhide’–God, I just looked it up and it starred Clint Eastwood. As a young man.
      2. Ah, but I managed to know (‘know by acquaintance’ rather than intimately, as I’m not sure I ever watched it – The Virginian was more my era) the show and the song without knowing what the word meant.
      3. With theme song sung by Frankie Laine…
        On edit…sorry, have only just seen Jack’s comment about the theme song.

        Edited at 2014-07-28 10:49 am (UTC)

  3. I accessed this at about 12:15AM UK time and the link was correct from the Times website – a sign of progress?

    Only put in about 5 answers on my sweep through the acrosses but the downs came a lot quicker.

    1. Mystery upon mystery then because it’s not correct now, nor was it just after midnight or when I checked around 6 this morning.

      (Edit it’s now c7:30 AM despite the posting time indicated by LJ)

      (Further edit: Peter B has responded in the Club General forum and there’s more there if anyone’s interested).

      Edited at 2014-07-28 06:54 am (UTC)

      1. Interesting – I was accessing from an iMac running OSX (I’ve added this to the forum thread).
        1. And as i’ve added to the same thread, my Macbook Pro, running OSX, gave me #05 so I used Jack’s link. My feeling is that these stuff-ups are so regular that Jack should have a standard message ready to go each Sunday night/Monday morning with just a blank space of the date and crossword number.
  4. Found it hard but doable. Took me about 40 mins. Might be emboldened by the comments above to try the main one today.
  5. Too tricky for me today – gave up after a
    30 mins with very few completed.
  6. Failed to note the start time so no completion time. For some reason, although I know the usual meaning of “city”, I still put “desert”. Momentary lapse of reason. Also had problems with PORPOISE for some reason. Thanks for the explanation of PHOTO, Jack
    1. I think this is a very good clue – the porpoise us not the first cetacean you think of and you think ‘composure’ is the definition.
  7. Nice start to the week – very few popped in on first read-through, but all were very good clues and finished in 21 minutes. I toyed with revert and desert, not knowing the London post codes, but defect seemed most likely, thankfully!
  8. 6:19 and at several points I came across things that I thought might stretch newer solvers:
    Showing in 10 which looks like a link word but is part of the definition;
    The well-disguised definition at 13 where the clue looks like you have to put together sailor and near to get a foreign road;
    More disguise at 15 as discussed where the definition isn’t at one of the ends;
    At 5d, again the definition is not at an end;
    The subtraction of FF from off at 6;
    The yodaesque cryptic grammar at 10d (under pressure staying).

  9. 5 mins, although I agree that this wasn’t straightforward. PORPOISE was my LOI and I thought the “seeing” at the start of the clue didn’t add a lot to the surface reading, and it made it into a much harder clue. Maybe “Whale needs phlegm to start with – or composure?” would have been more in keeping with the spirit of the QC. Not that I know much about the moods of whales …………..
    1. Yes, I think it was the ‘Moby Dick’ potentiality of the clue from the seafarer’s perspective that attracted the setter and really makes it what it is. Hence, ‘seeing’.

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