Times Quick Cryptic 1867 by Hurley

47 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1867 by Hurley”

1. Today for some unknown reason I did all acrosses first, then downs. I like to change it up and today this seemed like the best strategy, as I wasn’t getting anywhere in the upper-left straight away.
2. Slow progress here and at 13 minutes I missed my target again. The grid didn’t help with four 13-letter answers, only two with 3 letters and none at all with 4. Also, like our blogger, I’d never heard of the duck at 13dn.

   Edited at 2021-05-05 05:08 am (UTC)

3. Started fast and faded. Held up by STAKE, DETER (made hard my misreading the hidden and sticking in ROE (which I put it because it was fishy and the clue was clearly a hidden but it didn’t feel right), REDHEAD, SARDINE, TUDOR and DEFECT. All seemed obvious once they’d gone in — except DEFECT didn’t go in, I had ‘reject’, so two pink squares for one error. If I’d thought of DEFECT I’d definitely have gone for it but I managed to convince myself that ‘going over’ was the same as ‘passing over’ for ‘reject’ which looks a bit weak in retrospect but not as bad as ‘imperfection’ for ‘reject’ which I’d sold to myself by thinking of faulty manufactures but I see now they are not interchangeable. Annoying. 17m of fun followed by searing pink square pain.

   Edited at 2021-05-05 06:17 am (UTC)

   1. Galling! I’m well acquainted with that type of pain.
4. My main hold up today was getting the 1s – both of which needed a few checkers before succumbing. Other than that I found this mainly straightforward, although I needed pen and paper the anagram of CRIMINOLOGIST and the duck went in with fingers crossed. Finished with the 14s in 8.44. An enjoyable start to the day.
   Thanks to William
5. … as after a fast start, the SW corner held me up. I join those who have not heard of the duck at 13D — names of waterfowl seen only in the Americas are not my speciality — and for some reason did not see 16D Stake either. That left me with just the final E of 21A Meddle as a checker, and the combination took a bit of cracking. Fortunately Redhead was generously clued, even if unknown, and having put it in with fingers crossed, the other two recalcitrants surrendered as well for a final finish in just under 15 minutes.

   It’s quite an unusual grid today with limited symmetry and the big black cross strangely off-centre. | thought it looked odd, wondered why, realised and then started thinking about the types of symmetry different grids have — rotational, reflections and so on. I wonder if there is a “grid-creator’s etiquette”— one almost never sees a QC grid (or 15×15 one for that matter) with no symmetry at all, for example. Are there any rules or standards that a “good” grid should follow? I know more senior posters than me sometime comment when the first across clue is not 1A and does not start with a checker.

   An enjoyable workout, and many thanks to William for the blog
   Cedric

   1. Almost all grids used in Times (Quick or 15X15) have rotational symmetry, but this one is different, being symmetric about the diagonal.
6. I think 16d could be SHARE. To share news I post it on social media. I own a share in a company. Is my logic faulty?
   1. ‘Share’ hadn’t occurred to me, but I think it’s nearly as good an alternative.

      The second definition, (social media) post = ‘share’ doesn’t parse quite as well as (wooden) post = ‘stake’, in my opinion.

      I’d be counting it as a completion, though!

7. 37m 42s. FOI 1d, LOI 7d, COD 11a. Yes, the symmetry is quite limited. If you look at the isolated blanks in quadrants NW-SE, NE-SW you may see a reflected symmetry and a rotated symmetry.

8. I usually try to ‘warm up’ with the QC before tackling the 15 x 15, and this was a straightforward solve of under 10 minutes (my daily target) until the final 7D. I then incorrectly assumed that this would begin with R and the ensuing mental trawl wasted 4 minutes before I realised my error. As it turned out, my time on the 15 x 15 was better than on the QC!

   Thank you, william_j_s and Hurley

   1. 4 minutes on an alpha trawl is impressive. I tend to lose interest rather more quickly than that!
      1. “4 minutes on an alpha trawl”. Is that all? That, and considerably longer, is an almost daily occurrence for me. Otherwise, I would end up with many more DNFs. I would love to ‘see’ words more quickly.
   2. Thanks for the tip re the 15sq today. It only took me a few minutes longer than the QC. That made a nice change and made me feel a bit better about sliding into the SCC today. Hurley’s offering must have stimulated my little grey cells. John.
      I would encourage others to try it, too.

      Edited at 2021-05-05 09:50 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks, John, I’ll go there, now.
   3. I did the same, except I diverted onto something else after putting in the “r” and forgot I had done it speculatively so spent a lot longer than 4 minutes trying to force an answer, trying to justify “reject”. Once I realised I saw it straight away.
   4. A tidy solve of the 15×15, thanks fir the tip. Time 63 mins, pretty good.
9. Missed target. Avoided thinking DEFECT started with a “r” for too long fortunately but like others the duck was unknown and I also struggled a bit with MEDDLE and STAKE at the end. As Jackkt says not the easiest grid (for me anyway) but no complaints

   Thanks William and Hurley

10. Not sure if because I didn’t sleep so well.

    Not helped by a typo ROOSY instead of ROOST, which meant I gawped at EDICT for far too long.

    Long anagrams in the QC always slow me down, as I don’t write down the anagrist.

    I liked SKATEBOARDING.

    9:39.

11. 
    FOI: 9a. SPIRE
    LOI: 13d REDHEAD

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 22

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 14a, 14d

    Clues Unanswered: Nil

    Wrong Answers: 7d

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 23/24

    Aids Used: Chambers

    As I started to type this, I was excited as I had another completion. However, when I checked my answers with this blog, I realised I had got one answer wrong. Had I completed this puzzle correctly, my average solves would have gone up from 1 in 5 to 1 in 4

    14d. CONSORT – I spent a long time on this clue before resorting to using a life. I had guessed CONS from arguments against, but I lost it when I had CONS _ _ OR. The OR came from nought and right. Chambers gave me CONSORT, and then I realised, right = RT.

    14d. CONDONE – I never thought of condone meaning to overlook, but rather to support, say, an action, as in I condone (or indeed do not condone) your action. Second life used, with Chambers coming to the rescue.

    13d. REDHEAD – I have never heard of this kind of duck, so this clue also held me up. In the end I had R – DHEAD, and inserting each of the vowels in the gap, one by one, redhead seemed to be the most likely answer, and in it went.

    7d. DEFECT – This was the one that killed my completion. I had pencilled in REPEAT (go over), but not getting the imperfection part I thought I would come back to it. REPEAT happened to fit. When I considered this puzzle completed, I came here and face-planted by head in my hands.

    Despite my misfortune I enjoyed this puzzle. My time for this puzzle was 74 minutes. However, that is no longer relevant, seeing as I messed up.

    Edited at 2021-05-05 08:39 am (UTC)

12. 17:47, seems just about average for me, and good to get a sub-20 finish after a few DNFs.

    1A went in first and the downs hanging off it next so up and running quickly.

    MEDDLE/MEDAL is getting close to a chestnut, although always need to look out for OM for ‘award’.

    NHO of REDHEAD, and LOI was the unpromising DEFECT with one of those double def clues that could be anything, and plenty of words to fit. Was tempted with RE- at the start to narrow the search down, as “go over” seemed as though it had to be something like REPEAT, REMAKE, REMARK etc.

    I liked TUDOR with the misdirection of “house workers”, which caught me.

    COD CONSORT

13. A tricky one for me. I didn’t get either of the 1s until over half way through when some crossers had emerged. A strange grid with fewer shorter answers to pick off. I enjoyed this, though, despite tipping a toe into the SCC. I liked SARDINE, TUDOR, DETER, and CONDONE but some of the anagrams were pleasing, too. Thanks to Hurley and William. John M.

    Edited at 2021-05-05 08:54 am (UTC)

14. Did anyone else put in share?
    1. I didn’t but might have done if I had thought of it. Seems a pretty good alternative answer to me
    2. I put ‘share’ too. Not posted for a while but enjoy reading comments. And at 6.57 my first ever sub Kevin, though a technical DNF.
       1. Should have written ‘not shared for a while’ of course.
15. Got off to a reasonable start on this one – FOI was CYPRIOT and I got many of the other accrosses – but the downs proved to be more chewy, as did the accrosses that I hadn’t got straight away. After what must have been around half an hour I was left with a few in the SW corner and 7d, which I’d had a brief go at but decided to come back to. 13d looked like it was going to be RED-something and REDHEAD seemed to fit the wordplay and sounded likely so I wrote it in lightly (I’d never heard of it, but according to Wikipedia the REDHEAD is an American duck related to the pochard). Eventually I ground out MEDDLE, STAKE and SKATEBOARDING, which left just 7d. I thought it probably began with RE (I did consider whether REPEAT could mean imperfection) but tried other things as well and at last came up with DEFECT. Slight MER at overlook = CONDONE. Surely “overlook” means either to not see something or to ignore it, whereas I think of condone meaning some degree of support for it. I’m sure the dictionaries will highlight my ignorance though. COD to 7d, Time: 39:00. Thanks Hurley and William.
16. 13 minutes and 14 seconds after a quick start seeing both of the 1s straightaway. My later efforts mirror many of the comments above — slow to see DEFECT, NHO the duck, MEDDLE LOI, struggled to see the crime expert. Some good challenges here, including coping with the unusual asymmetric grid. Thanks Hurley and William.
17. An annoying DNF. Just did not get DEFECT, STAKE and thought the duck was a REDNECK, so could not get MEDDLE as a result. Oh dear.
18. I was really slow today. I could see the anagram fodder for the long anagrams but I just couldn’t work them out. SPIRE was my FOI but I couldn’t build from the checkers despite recognizing two more anagram clues. I’ve NHO REDHEAD. I think I spent the longest time on TUDOR trying to juggle the abbreviations/substitutes Ho. ants reps do r exe dee. 14:55
19. I finished successfully in 41 minutes, but my final 4-5 clues took around 20 of those. My LOsI were REDHEAD, which I had to deduce from wordplay only, and MEDDLE, where was trying in vain to insert something inside CBE or MBE. Unfortunately, neither SURVEILLANCE nor SECURITY RISK arrived early, but when they did (roughly half-way through the puzzle), several other clues quickly followed.

    N.B. Mrs Random is out walking at the moment, so I will post again later in the day with her result.

    P.S. Has anyone spotted the unusual grid design? In my admittedly limited experience, the vast majority of Times QC grids possess only rotational symmetry – 180 (and sometimes even 90) degrees about the central cell. However, today’s grid possesses reflective symmetry, about the NW/SE diagonal, but no rotational symmetry. Interesting to a SADDO (we had that word yesterday) like me.

    Many thanks to Hurley and william_j_s

    1. Update:
       Just to say that Mrs R returned from her walk, polished off today’s puzzle in 22 minutes whilst drinking her coffee, and moved seamlessly on to her next task. Like several of us, she hadn’t heard of the duck, but said it had to be. Her verdict was “fairly benign”.
    2. If you look at the single blanks in the NE quadrant (6 of them plus the corner), rotate them 90 deg clockwise, then reflect them about a vertical axis, they will be equivalent to the single blanks in the SW. Agree with you re the other diagonal. (See my earlier comment).

       Solve the grid. Almost as much fun as the words!

20. 25 mins for everything bar 7dn, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t see it and didn’t want to put myself through an alphabet trawl. Annoyingly, I dismissed “reject”, however if I’d kept that line of thinking I may have got there.

    Generally, I found the bottom half more challenging, with 13dn “Redhead” and 14ac “Consort” being particular head scratchers.

    Not sure if there is a spy theme, but “Surveillance”, “Security risk”, “Rip cord” and “Criminologist” all got me thinking.

    FOI — 8ac “Cypriot”
    LOI — 7dn dnf
    COD — 1ac “Surveillance

    Thanks as usual!

21. and CONDONE (a bit dim there)
    Liked MEDDLE (LOI) STAKE, DEFECT (also slow to see)
    FOI CYPRIOT.
    Fortunately got SURVEILLANCE early on but was slow on bottom half in places.
    Could not parse DETER but it fitted.

    Thanks for much needed blog, William.

22. Couldn’t see 1ac but 1d went in straight away and gave some helpful starters. Thereafter a steady solve right up to loi 7d, Defect. Like others, I was convinced this would start Re- and so wasted several minutes trying to find suitable words to fit the cryptic. Defect eventually came to mind, but a comfortable sub-20 was turned into a narrow miss. CoD to 19ac, Skateboarding. Invariant

23. I started with EDICT, then worked on the downs until I had enough crossing letters to see SURVEILLANCE. SECURITY RISK then jumped out at me. No major holdups and finished with REDHEAD(from wordplay) and then CONDONE. 8:10. Thanks Hurley and William.
24. Made heavy weather of that, taking ages to see SKATEBOARDING and STAKE, and having to write out the anagrist for CRIMINOLOGIST and SECURITY RISK. (Whenever I have to write the anagrist out, it makes me realise how much faster it is if I can do them in my head.)

    Very high quality puzzle, much enjoyed.

    FOI SECURITY RISK, LOI STAKE, COD TUDOR, time 14:58 which in the absence of the great man himself I’m estimating at 2.5K and a Poor Day.

    Many thanks Orpheus and William.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-05-05 11:27 am (UTC)

25. A puzzle that was both challenging and enjoyable in equal measure – took us 16 minutes to complete.

    FOI: CYPRIOT
    LOI: DEFECT
    COD: CRIMINOLOGIST

    Thanks to Hurley and William.

    Edited at 2021-05-05 12:27 pm (UTC)

26. I found this quite tricky with the long clues and lack of symmetry.

    The “security risk” and “surveillance” made be wonder if there was a Nina of some sort here?

    1. Funny you should say that as I also felt there was some sort of weird theme going on.
27. Enjoyable puzzle which I completed in 18 mins. Never managed to parse RIPCORD, but it had to be. I hesitated over REDHEAD, not because I hadn’t heard of it but because it seemed a very obscure type of duck to be included in a QC. There are more obvious ways of defining the word, although it certainly made for a succinct clue with a good surface.

    FOI – 9ac SPIRE
    LOI – 7dn DEFECT
    COD – 19ac SKATEBOARDING

    Thanks to Hurley and William

28. Crashed through most in 12 minutes and then slowly got Consort, Condone, Redhead (NHO), Meddle and LOI Defect.
    I usually fear the 12 and 13 letter long words but these dropped in nicely after a few checkers for each.
    I got Stake quickly — surprising myself!
    Thanks all,
    John George
29. The unknown duck from wordplay, then LOI DEFECT which it took me a while to see.
    11:50 on the clock.
    David
30. Got the 1’s first and that helped a lot. Was very undecided over 7d Defect/Repeat but 17a’d for the right one. Never parsed 22a Deter – I would have preferred if it had been clued otherwise – maybe someone could come up with a clue based like: ‘Daughter looking for a headless secure place’… Didn’t manage to spot the reverse hidden in 10A Roost. Liked 12a Tudor and 14a Consort. FOI 1a Surveillance. LOI 21 Meddle. COD 19a Skateboarding – easy but amusing. Needed William’s blog to parse 22a so thanks for that, and Hurley for cleverly trying to misdirect me.
31. 12 minutes, so a lovely quick solve for me. Looking forward to the time I can set 10 min as an achievable target! DNK redhead.
32. ….and just scraped inside my target. The mysterious water fowl simply had to be correct.

    FOI CYPRIOT
    LOI EDICT
    COD SURVEILLANCE
    TIME 4:52

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