Times Quick Cryptic 1777 by Hurley

57 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1777 by Hurley”

1. With my typical densitude with hidden clues, I wasted maybe 30 seconds on LOI TURBOT, wondering if TARPON might work, until the penny finally dropped. 5:39.
2. I got held up at the end by VIOLET snd had to do an alphabet trawl since I just didn’t see it. Otherwise I don’t remember other problems.
3. 11 minutes. Ditto what Paul said. That was the clue adding 2 minutes so that I missed my target 10.

   Edited at 2020-12-30 05:37 am (UTC)

4. 14ac was my downfall too and I was a horryd 14 minutes delayed. So my LOI & COD!

   FOI 9ac BRAIN

   WOD 21ac BROCADE – Chinese love it.

   The 15×15 is worth a look today. It does have one stinker but the rest should go in fairly quickly IMHO. Enjoy!

   On Edit – I was also put off by the strange grid.

   Edited at 2020-12-30 07:29 am (UTC)

   1. No one else seemed to notice that the grid is not symmetrical. Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen that before.
5. I thought I was going to smash all records today when the first five acrosses all went in without too much resistance but then came the bottom half where I ran out of ability. My last four of VIOLENT, LINEAGE, FEEBLE and finally the NHO BROCADE taking close to half of my 16m. I got TAKE CARE from the anagram of ‘race Kate’ so was a bit wrong footed trying to parse and it took a long time to spot a girl’s name to fit -I—-T but once I finally got LINEAGE from its unpromising looking anagrist it went straight in. Fascinating puzzle today. Thanks for the blog – needed to make me comfortable with the definition of ENCLAVE today.
6. A careless confectionAry made the vaguely known BROCADE a bit of a challenge until I noticed my mistake. Like others I was then left staring blankly at _I_L_T for a couple minutes wondering what girl’s name could possibly fit. Eventually the penny dropped allowing me to finish in 10.32.
   Thanks to william for the blog and Hurley for an enjoyable solve.
   1. Same experience – plus a minute.
      1. Ditto
7. I wonder if there’s a typo because if you include “it’s” in full there are too many S’s and I don’t understand what the device it to only include “it”. So perhaps it should have been “clan tartan – it’s” instead.

   After that it was a steady complete as all the checkers fell into place

   1. My mistake – the anagram fodder is just CLAN’S TARTAN IT, and the anagram is indicated by “is different”. I’ll amend the blog in a mo.
8. Date: Wed 30 Dec 20

   FOI: 19a TANGO
   LOI: 9a BRAIN

   Time before use of aids: 65 mins

   Total Answered: 22/26

   The QC obviously did not want me to get too cocky, and so it presented me with some difficult clues, resulting in a DNF, with two clues unanswered.

   A misspelling on my part of CONFECTIONERY, which I spelt with a NARY, ruined 21a for me, though I must admit to not knowing of the word BROCADE.

   My favourite clue was 4d TURBOT, as I worked it out using the clue pieces, even though I have never heard of TURBOT before.

   I also wasted far too much time on 5d, where I was looking for a word for the aviation industry. I was trying to fit aeronautics, or like words, in there. Chambers Crossword Dictionary got me there in the end. However, another slight spelling mistake wasted even more time with clues that crossed it.

   Finally, I have an issue with the summariser’s explanation of 1a TRANSATLANTIC – anagram of (different) CLAN’S TARTAN IT’S. This is a 13-letter clue, but CLAN’s TARTAN IT’s has 14 letters. I note you use the lower case of s in CLAN’s. I feel that the setter was a little unfair when, it appears, they intended for the s in CLAN’S not to be part of the anagram. I did get this clue but was left feeling confused with the extra letter.

   My two unanswered clues were:

   14a Harsh to exclude northern girl (6) I would have expected some reference to colour being in here.
   19a Ordered to include legendary bird in rich fabric (7)

   In the end I had to DNF, but I am still pleased with my efforts.

   Edited at 2020-12-30 08:36 am (UTC)

   1. Just to clarify it’s the apostrophe s of it’s that’s omitted from the anagrist, not the apostrophe s of clan’s.

      The first part of the clue should be read as (Clan’s tartan – it) is different. It’s being short for ‘it is’.

      Edited at 2020-12-30 09:08 am (UTC)

      1. So I guessed, and the answer was anyway unavoidable, but I have to say I am 100% with PW that to have one ‘s included in the anagrist and the other not is sneaky at best! Especially when, as Anon has observed, there is a neater and clearer alternative for the clue.

         Cedric

         1. I don’t see it as particularly sneaky. As you have said, the answer was unavoidable and the average solver (as opposed to the average TfTT contributor) probably wouldn’t have looked any further than that. For those who want to parse every detail and learn how clues work this is an excellent example of the sort of thing that can go on, as demonstrated by the conversations about it we are having here this morning.
      2. Sorry jackkt – I had responded to anon above before reading your explanation here.
      3. I wonder if it might also be interpreted as (CLAN has TARTAN IT’S)*, thus making the first ’s the one to ignore as a juxtaposition instruction?

         –AntsInPants

   2. Hello PW. I notice you got a long way today unaided. Very well done, in spite of not finishing.
9. 12:50, almost the same as yesterday.

   VIOLET was second LOI, felt relieved to get it, especially as harsh=violent was a stretch, they are not really synonyms. Also, in PEPPIER, there is a p which apparently can stand for “performed”. In what context? Is it in CD notes, programmes? And then wouldn’t it be “performed by”?

   Like many others, a mis-spelling at the end of CONFECTIONERY slowed me down.

   LOI ADAPT
   COD LINEAGE, nice misdirection with “in descent” (in a down clue, natch) being the definition not the constructor

   In other news, I’m giving myself an hour on the 15×15 this week (as I’m off work). My progress is hugely variable, yesterday went well. The QC blog has been a great education, thanks all bloggers for your posts.

10. A steady half an hour work out for me (34 minutes actually) with no real issues other than ROC which I had not heard of and as Paul wrote, an alphabet trawl and LOI for 14A which I kept revisiting with all the checkers in place but couldn’t see, realising it was a girl’s name.
    This one was right within my level of ability and puts me in a frame of mind prepared to set about spending the day doing my tax return.
    Thank you William and Hurley.

    Edited at 2020-12-30 09:10 am (UTC)

    1. Interestingly there is some evidence that the Roc derived from early Portuguese sighting of the soon-to-be extinct Elephant Bird on Madagascar, which stood at 3 metres.
       1. Thank you very much. On receipt of your comment I followed links to read about the extinct Madagascan Elephant bird. Absolutely fascinating. Little wonder that these enormous creatures became the thing of legend.
11. A puzzle for long word specialists …
    … with two at 13 letters and two more at 12. I usually find them difficult to get (though when you do they open the grid beautifully), but today 1A Transatlantic and 7D Confectionery popped up almost straight away and led to a steady and pleasant solve in just under 10 minutes,

    Apart from initially wanting 13D Starter to be Steward (stew as opening course, but clearly that left -ard unparsable) and – like Mendesest – thinking 11D Take care was an anagram of Race Kate (could “climbing” be an anagram indicator? Who knows – there seems to be almost no limit to the words that can be used!), nothing to comment further on. LOI 20A Adapt, as I was very slow to see dwelling = pad, and COD 21A Brocade.

    Many thanks to William for the blog
    Cedric

12. I loved the grid, very long words can often be easier than short ones as there are fewer to choose from, and when they cover seven starters for “downs” it’s a huge help for those of us who don’t find puzzles that easy to get going on.

    I was also puzzled by 1a but it couldn’t have been anything else. The explanation made sense (just).

    I took a bit of extra time on BROCADE because I could only think of “psammead” which anyway wasn’t a bird.

    Thank you William and Hurley.

    Diana

13. PS …
    … I know 2020 has been a year to forget, but why does our esteemed blogger want to write off 2021 so quickly and completely as well?
14. Very good puzzle today – thanks Hurley and william. Proper quickies for two days running – great stuff!
15. Mis-spelled 7dn as CONFECTIONARY which meant that BROCADE took a while to come out. Unlike others I thought of VIOLET quickly but wasn’t convinced that it was right (since “violent” didn’t seem a great fit for “harsh”), so waited for all the checkers. Got hung up on 5dn being something to do with “abridging” too, and all in all managed to trickle over 10 mins.

    Great news for the QC as a promoter of cryptics – my eldest son got into it during lockdown, recorded his PB today (18:08) and yesterday helped me and his mother knock off the Monday Jumbo in record time. So well done the QC and all who sail in her!

    FOI TRANSATLANTIC, LOI ADAPT, COD TURBOT because it’s my favourite fish (had Dover sole last night), time 1.9K for a Decent Day.

    Templar

16. A pleasing puzzle from Hurley today. I was fine with 1 across, TRANSATLANTIC, because, like others here, I read the final apostrophe S in “it’s ” as being part of the instruction (ie “is”) and not as part of the anagrist.

    I had more problems accepting the NHO PEPPIER, 8 across, and hesitated over putting it in, even though it had to be right.

    The south east corner took me the last 5 of the total 20 minutes which this puzzle took me to finish, as I mused for far too long over words which might mean “exotic ” in 15 down, LINEAGE. Super misdirection there, I think. Once that one was in the box, the word VIOLET, 14 across, simply jumped out of the grid et voilà, c’est finis.
    Thanks, William, for the blog and thanks too to Hurley

17. 16 minutes – not bad for me, but not one of my better times recently. It was mostly very straightforward, with just a few to slow me down considerably near the end. Thanks.
18. No problem, and it’s always bloggers’ prerogative to have their say when something they have written has been queried, even if others have got in first.
19. And it looks like my brain hasn’t started yet. 10:03, with 3 minutes on last two in, VIOLET and ADAPT. Just could not see a three letter dwelling. Otherwise, unlike yesterday, all parsed rather than biffed.
20. Then realised I had forgotten to go back and try to solve 14a , the dread VIOLET.
    I found the long clues fairly quickly guessable, and some others easy like TAKE CARE and TANGO.
    Liked EXPORTER, STARTER.
    FOsI TYPE, BRAIN. LOsI PEPPIER and APPROVE. (Had put Perkier which admittedly did not parse)

    Thanks, William, as ever.

21. 8 mins, last two brocade and feeble.
    COD Lineage.
    DNK brocade.
22. A fairly straight forward solve with the exception of the pesky name VIOLET and the intersecting LINEAGE which were my LOsI. To solve STARTER I required all the checkers but still came home in 8:19. Thanks William.
23. Just 10 minutes, but would have been sub-10 had I not mis-spelled CONFECTIONERY. A pleasing puzzle, thanks both.
24. A slow and steady 16:36. Got stuck on ABBREVIATION, starting with ABRIDGE and juggling with all kinds of books. Agree that harsh doesn’t quite equal violent, but VIOLET went straight in. We don’t always all have the same sticky ones. LOI ADAPT. We had pad=dwelling recently but i still couldn’t see it.
25. Put me down as another one who has gone through life thinking the posh word for sweets was confectionary. In my case, I knew Brocade must be the answer to 21ac, so that prompted a more careful inspection of the anagrist. Apart from that, a fairly straightforward 25mins solve, with five of those spent on my last pair, Violet and Adapt. I would have thought Violent was more to the cruel end of harsh, but no excuse for not spotting Pad, which only came after a repeated alphabet trawl. CoD to 5d, Abbreviation, and my thanks to William and Hurley. Invariant

    Edited at 2020-12-30 12:24 pm (UTC)

26. Hard work this. Took ages to get CONGLOMERATE and then could not see PEPPIER even with PE–IER in, since I don’t know PEPPY. Thought PERKIER, but couldn’t justify it. However, got there eventually when APPROVE clicked and I guessed PEPPIER. Another annoying girl’s name clue: they are a pain.
27. ….my BRAIN appears to be in gear, and I had no real problems with this nicely constructed puzzle from Hurley.

    FOI TRANSATLANTIC
    LOI VIOLET
    COD ABBREVIATION
    TIME 4:11

28. On paper today. About 11 minutes to get to my last two which were VIOLET and finally ADAPT; perhaps another 3 minutes for those. Nothing too difficult I thought apart from ENCLAVE which was clearly clued. COD to ADAPT.
    David
29. I started attempting these QCs on 1st June and this is the first time I’ve seen a grid that is not rotationally symmetric. I think it’s not reflectively symmetrical, either. Can anyone find any symmetry?

    I was on course for a PB today until two clues remained (20a: ADAPT and 14d: VIOLET). They then took as much time to solve as all of the previous clues combined. My alphabet trawling was not helped by having mis-spelled 7d (I had CONFECTIONARY for a long time) and not knowing BROCADE, although I had heard the word. In the end I took 34 minutes.

    Incidentally, I have noticed that I tend make spelling errors only in down clues. I imagine that’s because we get a lot of practise reading horizontally, but hardly any practise in reading vertically. Has anyone else noticed a similar tendency?

    My thanks to william_j_s for the explanation, and to Hurley for the puzzle.

30. If you go down the diagonal from the NE corner to the SW corner, you’ll see the symmetry.
31. …and all correct in 8:05. I did have the misspelt confectionary, but I saw brocade and counted the vowels again. My biggest problem was take care, which I biffed for my LOI, thinking it was an anagram.
32. 25 mins all completed apart from 14ac, so a dnf as I didn’t have time for the inevitable alphabet trawl.

    Probably just me but I hate these types of clues. Not only do you have to get the appropriate one word synonym (of which it could be any), but then you have to associate it with a random girl’s name (of which it could be any). Appreciate the checkers help – but all I could was sigh.

    However – according to the newspaper- if you sigh a lot then you are less likely to be depressed, so maybe it’s not a bad thing.

    Other than that another trickier Crimbo Limbo puzzle. Wasn’t sure about 8ac “Peppier” but I think I’ve seen it here before. Lots of long word clues, but thankfully they weren’t too obscure.

    FOI – 1dn “Type”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 21ac “Brocade”

    Thanks as usual.

33. I came to this after lunch and wish I hadn’t. I jumped all over the grid and filled bits in but then got most of the longer answers fairly easily (why did I join others in managing a typo re CONFECTIONERY? I know how to spell it). Careless. This meant I was slow to get BROCADE and FEEBLE (too close for comfort as a descrIption of my performance today). VIOLET took a while, too.
    In the end, I did finish in the same time as James. Maybe I should stick to the early morning for cranial contortions. Thanks both, though – it was a good puzzle. John M.
34. This seemed easier than yesterday but I ended up taking the same 16 minutes to complete. Wasn’t sure about 1ac having counted the letters I thought should make up the anagrist, so waited for a few crossers before entering. Also not sure I have ever heard the word peppier before, so a bit of a raised eyebrow about that one. Otherwise fairly plain sailing and an enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI – 8ac PEPPIER
    LOI – 14ac VIOLET
    COD – 2dn APPROVE

    My thanks to setter and blogger.

35. It’s so pleasing to know that so many of us can’t spell (which is a bit of drawback if you like doing crosswords). Even though confectionery was an anagram I still managed to spell it incorrectly! We didn’t notice the structure of the grid – why is this important? We finished in 12 minutes. Thanks Hurley – most enjoyable.

    FOI: transatlantic
    LOI: violet
    COD: abbreviation

    Thanks to William for the blog.

    1. Structure of the grid – symmetry tends to lead to a more pleasant grid appearance and is pretty much universally used in UK cryptics.
       1. So, all about aesthetics and nothing to do with solving the puzzle. Thank you
36. Started with TYPE, finished with STARTER. Was careful with anagrist to spell CONFECTIONERY. Needed the crossers before VIOLET came to mind. BRIEF delay on STING until I had the crossers too. Scraped in under my target at 9:40. Thanks Hurley and William.
37. Nice to see a number of our regular QCers dipping their toes into the 15×15, with quite a degree of success, I may add:-)
    1. With a little more time available I was pleased to almost complete the Xmas Eve 15×15. Unfortunately I tried yesterday’s which was also reported to be QCer accessible and failed miserably. Hardly managed to get any answers in so went to the blog to pick up some advice. Still couldn’t get anywhere even with extra checkers in place. What a disaster!! I think I shall have to stick to the QC where I nearly always finish and usually within my target 20 minutes.
       Today’s QC took me 12:55. MM

       FOI: 9a BRAIN
       LOI: 14a VIOLET
       COD: 10a CONGLOMERATE because I always appreciate the “piece together” solutions.
       WOD: 7a CONFECTIONERY just because I love chocolate!!!

       1. It’s always worth giving it a try. It’s experience that makes the difference: and reading the blogs:-) The breakthrough will come!
38. Not much to say that hasn’t already been said. Glad I’m not alone in not being able to spell CONFECTIONERY. FOI 1a, LOI 13d, COD 15d, Time 22:43. Thanks Hurley and William
39. Getting the two long anagrams quickly seemed to lead to carelessness in having arrange for 2d which caused us to fail with 10a and incorrect with perkier for 8a. Needed help to get 14a, could not think of the synonym for harsh, also Violet is no longer common as a girls name. So not one of our better days.
40. It is symmetrical as mentioned on a diagonal.
    Different but i like it if only because it confuses people.
    Why are crosswords usually symmetrical anyway.
41. A late post but at least I’m keeping up-to-date this week. FOI 9a Brain; LOI 10a Conglomerate (needing the checkers to find a fit and parse after); COD 5d Abbreviation (for the construction). Some chewy clues but with the checkers 14a Violet was a must. I’m always intrigued by those, especially among our more experienced contributors, who confess a lapse of vocabulary on words which I find very familiar. Was looking for 8a Perkier but settled on the cryptic for Peppier (and it allowed 2d too). Happily, a fairly early 1a led usefully 5d and 7d and that opened up the grid and then a handful in the south, 19a 20a 21a 22a 23a, really helped there too. Overall an entertaining workout from a setter I usually find daunting. So thanks to both our setter and blogger, and to the illuminating conversation this evening.

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