Times Quick Cryptic 1061 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
10 minutes meaning an average difficulty for this puzzle which had a mix of write-ins and longer clues requiring working out plus some lovely surfaces (5dn, 13dn and 18dn). COD to 5dn for the twist on our favourite revolutionary who came up as recently as last Tuesday. LOI 16ac.

ACROSS

1. Startling – amazing. Song bird (STARLING) keeping time (T).
6. Wag – double definition.
8. Rampart – defending position. Artist (RA), member of parliament (MP) with skill (ART)
9. Eliot – poet. Energy (E) and hard work recalled (TOIL backwards).
10. Gravy – sauce. Gravity with ‘it’ wanting (missing) giving us GRAVitY.
12. Enamel – paint. Spanish article (EL) about (around) name (NAME).
14. Fool’s Paradise – illusory happiness. Anagram (inaccurate) of LOADS OF PRAISE.
16. Ballet – Giselle say. Now I know that Giselle is the classic ballet of the Romantic era. It transformed the dance world when it was first performed in Paris in 1841 and remains at the centre of the classical repertory. Everything (ALL) into gamble (BET).
17. Treat – pleasant surprise. ThREAT – threat without husband (H).
19. Heidi – girl. Featured in t(HE IDI)ot.
20. Augusta – Georgian city. Month (AUGUST) beside a (A).
22. Pun – play on words. (P)riceless, a in French (UN).
23. Great Dane – pet (dog). This also describes Hans Christian Andersen.

DOWN

1. Shrug off – ignore. Anagram (terribly) of GRUFF HOS – not entirely meaning to ignore the final letter of host.
2. Arm – provide weapons for. Royal Marines (RM) following note (A).
3. Teary – liable to cry. Be quick (TEAR) over bab(Y).
4. In the fast lane – where one may be going quickly/making haste. Partial &lit clue where the definition (here maybe?) relies on the word play – which is an anagram (terribly) of LEAN FIT HASTEN.
5. Guevara – Che. So often ‘revolutionary’ in a cryptic puzzle gives us ‘Che’ – here it is turned around. The surface is really very good – initial letters of Going Underground Espousing Violence As Rebel Activist.
6. White wine – Chardonnay perhaps. After festival (WHIT), European (E), victory (WIN), tak(E).
7. Gate – crowd (at e.g. a football match). Good (G), at (AT), English (E).
11. Adoration – act of worship. Fuss (ADO) over helping (RATION).
13. Heatwave – extreme weather. Anagram (adapted) of A HAT WE’VE.
15. Solving – working answer out. 56 (LVI in Roman numerals) with ditty (SONG) about (around) it.
17. Tight – double definition.
18. Whip – political party official. (W)estminster, joint (HIP).
21. Spa – health resort. Agent (SPy) losing yen (Y) for an a (A) giving us spa.

18 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1061 by Hurley”

  1. Same reaction as Vinyl’s, and same difficulty with 4d. I make it a point not to write down anagrist in the Quickies, so it was only by getting enough checkers, then seeing that an F was needed, that I got it. Was a bit surprised at the one-wordiness of HEATWAVE, but I’ve become used to the setter’s enumeration differing from mine. 6:17.
    1. The setter was also surprised that HEATWAVE was one word, but that is what Collins Dictionary has. Hurley
      1. Thanks, Hurley. I believe Kevin is from US – Collins has their spelling as heat wave and the British version as heatwave.

  2. 13:02, In the Fast Lane.

    LOI and COD was GREAT DANE. Was tempted by FALSE at start of 14a for ‘illusory’, with these letters in the anagrist.

    I though 6a could be ANT or DEC, who have been in the news recently.

    I agree that the setters often combine compound words in their letter counts, to make the clues harder, hyphens seem almost unknown.

    Just 2 short in the 15×15 yesterday, after 90 mins.

  3. Scraped home within my target 10 minutes but only by a few seconds. As with others, it was 4dn which nearly did for me as the final seconds began to tick away I was still fixated by IN THE LAST _A_E and needed to write down the anagrist to work out which letters remained.

    Edited at 2018-04-03 04:50 am (UTC)

  4. 22 mins, and a spell check this time to avoid silly errors.

    Last few were fools paradise, startling and LOI Eliot.

    Liked gravy and great dane but COD to Guevara.

  5. 14:05 so definitely at the easier end of the spectrum from my perspective. A lot of clues which could be solved from the wordplay today rather than DDs which suited me.
  6. 18 minutes, my new record time for a phone solve, and a surprise after yesterday’s horror. The long anagrams were last in, but seemed to pop into my head, more from the definitions than the letters.
    Brian
  7. 13 minutes, so comfortably inside my old target, but outside my new one.

    Chris, final bit of parsing missing from 6d. The last E comes from fnally takE.

    Nice puzzle, nice blog. Thanks

  8. 18 minutes, my new record time for a phone solve, and a surprise after yesterday’s horror. The long anagrams were last in, but seemed to pop into my head, more from the definitions than the letters.
    Brian
  9. Fairly straightforward I thought, with a strange mixture of write-ins (hardly cryptic even) and quite complicated clue constructions. The two long anagrams took me a while, otherwise it flowed reasonably well. Enjoyed GUEVARA, that surface must have taken some figuring out.
    PlayUpPompey (they certainly did last night).
  10. Yes, this was one of Hurley’s easier offerings, though I still took nearly 30 mins by dint of trying to solve the anagram at 4d, with very few checkers in place – shan’t be doing that again in a hurry. I think the very clever surface makes 5d a walk-in for CoD. Invariant
  11. First time I’ve realised how fast you sub-10 lot are! My first time under 15 minutes didn’t seem to have much spare thinking time. Nice surprise to finish this quickly after having gaps left twice in the last week. LOIs were Fools Paradise and then adoration.

  12. Thought this was one word due to the funk band. Remember Boogie Nights? OED may differ. 14 ac. Had the F so assumed False Something. That’s biffing. 🤣 John
  13. A very gentle offering which I completed in 9.23. Fortunately, by accident rather than design, I left 4d to the end so had all the checkers in place before tackling it which made it relatively straightforward. Rather enjoyed 23a, amongst others.
    Thanks for the blog
  14. Another catch up job later in the afternoon, which took me just over my target 10 minutes by 35 seconds. FOI ARM, LOI GREAT DANE. Tricky in places. Thanks Hurley and Chris.

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