Times Quick Cryptic 1731 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I found several points of interest, which extended my time, in this otherwise eminently biffable puzzle. Mistyping 5dn didn’t help at all, so to still come inside 10 minutes means there were plenty of easy clues here. So, for me, an excellent QC – quick and cryptic!

ACROSS

1. Dad’s time – historically (4)
PAST – Dad’s (PA’S), time (T).
4. Loathing awfully staid set (8)
DISTASTE – anagram (awfully) of STAID SET.
8. Challenging attitude of French guy engaged to wed (8)
DEFIANCE – ‘of’ in French (DE), guy engaged to wed (FIANCÉ).
9. Useless device supposed to show wind direction, we’re told (4)
VAIN – homophone (supposed) of vane. Homophone (we’re told) of vane). A very unusual construction – if I’ve got this right – where the homophone indicator isn’t obvious and it appears inside the homophone description. Rather than biff, I spent a while making myself confident with the answer. Of course, there’s a checker available when you get to 7dn.
10. Position on list highly offensive (4)
RANK – double definition.
11. Obviously strange play about tent (8)
PATENTLY – anagram (strange) of PLAY TENT or an anagram (strange) of PLAY around tent (TENT).
12. Some omen a certain source of danger (6)
MENACE – some of o(MEN A CE)rtain.
14. Perhaps priest‘s circle after Reformation (6)
CLERIC – anagram (after re-formation) of CIRCLE.
16. Charge for transportation in part of train (8)
CARRIAGE – double definition.
18. Upper-class, born for power? Nonsense (4)
BOSH – upper class is p(OSH). Swap born (B) for power (P). Another one where I spent time. This time I didn’t see the parsing and wasn’t happy to biff ‘bosh’ (what a fine phrase!) as it didn’t ring every bell in the tower.
19. Discovery of ski run, good, at last (4)
FIND – ski run (FIN), good (G). Last letters of o(F) sk(I) ru(N) goo(D). Here’s another that had me wondering. I still am after having consulted Collins and some skiing sites. Having a son who’s a professional skier should, surely, equip me to answer this one but  the best I can do is either – some kind of fin shaped ski jump/ridge or a term for a part of the ski itself (but then why would it be ski run?).
20. Wind alert? Yes, unfortunately (8)
EASTERLY – anagram (unfortunately) of ALERT YES.
22. Not long ago referring to coin, extremely low-key (8)
RECENTLY – referrring to (RE), coin (CENT), (L)ow-ke(Y).
23. Henry oddly abrupt delivering musical instrument (4)
HARP – Henry (H),(A)b(R)u(P)t.

DOWN

2. Usual time to collect Vera (7)
AVERAGE – time (AGE) inside which is (to collect)  Vera (VERA).
3. Moment about right for stunt (5)
TRICK – moment (TICK) and right (R).
4. Lecturer‘s Spanish title (3)
DON – double definition.
5. Place sect developed – an interesting sight (9)
SPECTACLE – anagram (developed) of PLACE SECT. Mistyping this caused problems in the NE.
6. Propose movement forward (7)
ADVANCE – double definition.
7. Hearing test (5)
TRIAL – double definition.
11. Stop aluminium coming in – that’s popular (9)
PREVALENT – stop (PREVENT) with aluminium (AL) inside.
13. Shorten a card game (7)
ABRIDGE – a (A), card game (BRIDGE).
15. Lacking wide interests, ruins a learner sadly (7)
INSULAR – anagram (sadly) of RUINS A and learner (L).
17. Nifty GI into beer? (5)
AGILE – GI inside beer (ALE).
18. By the sound of it, seaside tree (5)
BEECH – homophone (by the sound of it) of beach.
21. In Omsk yearly: heavens! (3)
SKY – inside Om(SK Y)early.

55 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1731 by Hurley”

  1. FIND is the last letters of “of ski run good”.

    My clue for VAIN had a “we’re told” at the end.

    Barely stopped to think on this one until the end, where a few anagrams gave me pause. Sounds like there were some clue differences, which surely would have made it harder!

    Edited at 2020-10-27 02:23 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks, Jeremy – blog fixed up. Shows what distractions can do. I’m currently helping care for my elderly mother and ‘distracting’ is a rather inadequate term.
  2. Chris, did you use the newspaper rather than the club site? As Jeremy says, the latter had the necessary homophone indicator. Anyway, no problems here. 3:34.
  3. Much easier than yesterday.

    The iPad version has “we’re told” at the end of 9a, but I still was not sure where I was with VAIN/VANE/VEIN, always a risk of picking the wrong one in this clue type. Fortunately BEECH/BEACH had a checker at the crucial point.

    LOI PATENTLY where I tried to over complicate the clue by looking for a four letter synonym for Tent, having pencilled in P——-ALY without revisiting that assumption. The dangers of the pencil.

    COD BOSH, and points to Chris for expressing that he had to biff bosh.

  4. A quick message to help others struggling to find the blog: the number should be 1731, not 1831.

    Thanks for all you and your colleagues do.

  6. A welcome return to a quick QC, all done in 9.01 – if I’d been more accurate with my first hurried mouse click I might even have crept under nine but still a fast time for me. Nine acrosses on the first pass which gave a good spread of checkers for the rest. Held up by EASTERLY where it took a while for the letters to rearrange themselves and had to biff both HARP and FIND but checkers gave me enough to trust the definition, even if in Chris’s lovely phrase, new to me, neither rang every bell in the tower (couldn’t make sense of ski run and H for Henry never occurred to me). The last two, PATENTLY and PREVALENT put up the stiffest resistance.

    A final comment on yesterday’s QC – I usually end up about 160th on the leaderboard at the end of the day but yesterday’s 33 (thirty three) minutes gave me one of my highest finishes in 123rd!

    1. Keep Henry (actually henry) for H in mind; it shows up often enough. (It’s a term from physics, a measure of inductance, and no, I don’t know what inductance is.)
        1. No, that’s (what Peirce calls) abduction; inductance is how you get into the Army if you don’t volunteer.
  7. 18 minutes, two under target and half of yesterday’s time.
    As usual with Hurley the surfaces were excellent, starting with 1A, and the phone app correctly has the homophone indicator ‘it’s said’ at the end of 9A.
    I needed checkers to help with most of the anagrams, and my last few were INSULAR and DEFIANCE.
    Thanks to Chris for the biff-bosh-blog.

    Brian

    Edited at 2020-10-27 07:35 am (UTC)

  9. A welcome relief after yesterday’s struggles. I was flying through this but came to a halt in the SE where the parsing of 18, & 23a and the answers to 11 and 18d and 20a took a bit working out.
    I never knew that BOSH meant nonsense, I’ve always associated it with hitting something i.e. an alternative to bash, so was surprised when I looked it up afterwards that this was the first definition in Collins. I may try to use it in the correct sense today.
    Finished in 9.28 with LOI BOSH
    Thanks to chris and to Hurley for the education!
  10. Thank goodness for Hurley putting the Q back in QC. Very enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI PAST, LOI FIND (I too was trying to work out what “fin” had to do with skiing before the penny dropped!), COD BOSH, time 1.9 Kevins for a Very Good Day.

    (I did this on my phone on the train today, since I’m going to London … for the first time since March! Fully braced for zombie hordes eating rats in the streets.)

    [on edit – the excitement of being in a train caused me rudely to forget to thank Chris and Hurley. Sorry and thanks!]

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-10-27 12:52 pm (UTC)

  11. 7 minutes for me, so easy. I was also baffled by FIN for ski-run, having not seen that it was all the last letters, not just the D. My LOI.
  12. A much smoother puzzle than yesterday’s excellent, but challenging QC. I was just inside 12 mins so within target (just) for a change but all parsed. My COD was BOSH. Thanks to Hurley and Chris. John M.

    Edited at 2020-10-27 08:35 am (UTC)

  13. … and all done in 8 minutes, with only LOI 18A Bosh causing a hold-up as while the answer was clear, the parsing was not. Or at least not immediately. Or at least not to me …

    11A Patently: I read this clue not so much as an anagram of PLAY and TENT, as an anagram of PLAY around the word TENT,the indicator being the word “about”. Of course both parsings are literally correct.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

  14. Almost made it a first sub 20 minute record, but then spent 5 minutes determined to justify FIND when it had to end in G and parse BOSH (failed) so crossed the line in 25. Very nice. Thanks Hurley, Chris and everyone.
  15. Slightly slower than yesterday for me at 14 minutes (rounded up), with BOSH, FIND and VAIN holding me up slightly. Mrs Rotter tested positive for COVID yesterday (asymptomatic), so we are now in isolation, so I think I’ll have a crack at the big’un. Thanks Chris and Hurley.
    1. … and I hope it stays uncomplicated and without symptoms, and that you both survive the isolation.

      Cedric

    2. Good luck to The Rotters!
      Hoping that the experience is passable – and by that I mean that your times don’t suffer too much!
      Best wishes.
  16. For me, a complete contrast to yesterday: everything pretty clear and straightforward, in cryptic terms of course.
    FOI AVERAGE and for once I started in the NW. Everything went in very smoothly until quite a long pause to parse BOSH ( I too had not seen that meaning before). For my LOI I had to write out the anagram. I had been looking for an ending in …STRALE so that held me up. 10:26 on the clock.
    COD to DEFIANCE. David
  17. I spent less than half the time I did yesterday and submitted under target at 8:38. I still managed to be thrown by a few clues. Initially BOSH went in as BiSH but I quickly realised pish is not the same as posh. VANE was corrected with the arrival of the i checker. I was trying to fit in fare in 16a. My penultimate solve, FIND, was a PDM with RANK my LOI. Thanks Hurley for the QC and Chris for the blog.
  18. After yesterday’s fiasco a return to form, completing everything in 15 mins. Probably would have been quicker if I hadn’t got held up on the obvious 10ac “Rank”.

    Nothing really stands out to be honest – just a good, straight forward QC.

    FOI – 1ac “Past”
    LOI – 10ac “Rank”
    COD – 14ac “Cleric” – enjoyed the surface.

    Thanks as usual.

  19. had to look up Rank in the CCD.
    Enjoyed this crossword. Biffed Find so thanks for parsing, Ditto Bosh.
    Some very easy like Don, Sky, Beech. some Ok like Spectacle and Prevalence. No problem with Vain.
    Thanks all as ever. I always enjoy the comments too. I was amused the other day when we were advised to look at the 15×15 comments how heated some were!
  20. Pretty easy today after yesterday’s failure. Biffed FIND and BOSH – thanks for clearing them up. Hurley is not usually as straightforward as this.
  21. Really pleased that this took me a whisker under 10 minutes which is, by some chunk, the fastest I’ve ever finished a QC. Rewarded myself with a second cup of caffeine. Some super surfaces here and lovely double definitions. They’re my second favourite kind of clue, just biting at the heels of puns. I especially liked TRIAL, 7 down. I couldn’t parse FIND, 19 across, either, and I too assumed it was done devilishly esoteric skiing term. Absolutely love the idea of bells not ringing in towers, Chris. Thanks for the blog. And thanks to Hurley for a great puzzle.
    2. Congratulations to another sub-ten minuter! The seconds become slightly more interesting now.
      1. I enjoyed the heady moment…but I’m not expecting to replicate it any time soon. Thanks, Chris!
    3. Congratulations. PBs do bring a smile to one’s face.

      Of course you’ve made a rod for your own back, as every time you’re a few seconds over the pb you’ll mutter 🙂 As we all do …

  22. I finished this in about a third of yesterday’s time, at just under 9 minutes.
    BOSH, HARP and FIND were all a bit tricky for 4-letter words but there were many straightforward clues. I particularly enjoyed working out DEFIANCE, PATENTLY and EASTERLY – and my COD goes to INSULAR for its wordplay.
    Thanks to Hurley for the light relief and to Chris for providing the blog under such difficult circumstances.
  23. I was heading for a slow (too many anagrams) but steady sub 20, when I came to my final pair – 8 and 10ac. Defiance ‘fell’ once I stopped trying to squeeze in Mec, but 10ac took me out to 22mins via 3 alphabet trawls: *ack, *ark and (finally) *ank. Hopefully I won’t get caught out by Rank next time, that is providing it comes up in the next week or two… Despite enjoying 7d Trial, CoD to 14ac, Cleric, for the surface. Invariant
    1. How people differ. For me anagrams are gimmes! You’ve got all the letters and probably the positions of some of them, so how hard can it be 🙂

      Where I get held up is on the double definitions, like TRIAL today, which took me a good few (precious) seconds to see. Other people probably waltz these!

      H

      1. I find that I either see them straight away, or they are painfully slow. Either way, they are not my favourite clue, though not as bad as homophones.
  24. 6:42 today. Phew. Some nice surfaces, for which COD to CLERIC. I took too long on TRIAL and, especially, DEFIANCE.

    H

  25. 18A reminded me of this Cleaners From Venus song “Bish Bash Bosh” from one of England’s most underrated musical eccentrics Martin Newell.

    I believe there have been two documentaries made about him now but still underappreciated in my book,

    Bungheid

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqmjRPHhgTU

  26. Almost a clean sweep for once, so just under 10 minutes (I get typos if I try to type faster) – needed a checker before getting RANK.
    I would have been a couple of minutes quicker had I not needed to go to the door for the post with my COVID self-test kit, so now am worrying about whether I can reach my tonsils with the swab unaided.
  27. Back to something approaching normality after my DNF yesterday. Took 17 mins in total but about 5 of these were puzzling over 18ac and 19ac. Never did manage to parse the latter so thanks to Chris for the explanation.

    FOI – 1ac PAST
    LOI – 19ac FIND
    COD – 8ac DEFIANCE for the mental image of an unco-operative French bridegroom!

  28. Another good puzzle which we completed in 15 minutes. Had to biff a couple of answers but, overall, it was pretty straightforward. Thank you Hurley.

    FOI: past
    LOI: defiance
    COD: recently

    Thanks to Chris for the blog and for clarifying our biffs 😀.

  29. A pleasant solve taking half of yesterday’s time. We did not see the parsing of 19d, but decided it must be find. Helped by the numerous anagrams. Thanks Hurley and for the blog.
  30. I was hoping this would be an easy one as I attempted it in a 20 minute window earlier between getting in from my daily run and taking my dad to pick his car up from its MOT/service. Luckily for me, Hurley delivered and I came in at 17:49, which ranks it in my top 10 somewhere (I only know my top 4 for certain which are all under 17). I was helped a bit by just having solved a nearly identical clue to 8a from a recent 15×15. Is it likely to be the same setter or is that clue a chestnut? Not sure I’ve come across BOSH for “nonsense” but it fitted the wordplay and sounded like tosh so it went in. Anyway, all very enjoyable, so thanks Chris and Hurley.
  31. ….free from bear traps, and nicely clued by Hurley.

    FOI PAST
    LOI FIND
    COD BOSH (obviously aimed at Bojo)
    TIME 2:50

    1. I can’t remember seeing a sub 3 minute solve on this QC site before.I hope you have lots to do the rest of the day!

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