Times Quick Cryptic 1960 by Hurley

58 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1960 by Hurley”

1. …as several top solvers have fallen victim to an error. How many biffers put in assure without parsing?

   Canard and masterstroke are not that common nowadays, some solvers may have difficulty with them. What was that short story that Leopold Bloom was reading in the lav?

   1. “Matcham’s Masterstroke”, by Philip Beaufoy. I was thinking the same thing. (Just looked it up now, of course.)
   2. Those were the two I had in mind when I wrote my intro.

      I can see that ASSURE for ‘maintain’ might be tempting if thought of first (I didn’t) but I’m not sure why apparently a number of top solvers would ignore the rest of the clue altogether and biff it. Hopefully the diligence of some of our slower solvers will have paid off here and they came up with the right answer. I try to go fast but any QC times I quote here always include parsing unless otherwise (and very rarely) stated.

      1. I’m sure I am one of the slower solvers you refer to (except on the many days when I’m one of the slow non-solvers) and my diligence did indeed pay off, as I put ASSERT — fully parsed.
2. No problems, not even the hiddens. I wondered about the one error; ‘assure’?. 4:53.
3. Not sure I qualify as a top solver, but I bunged in ‘damson’ (no, it makes no sense) after finally getting ASSERT.

   So, if regular Quicksters found this tough, you’re in indifferent company.

   1. Same here…the curse of solving at speed. Some of the components sort of work (not quite finished = MAD(E) in reverse)…
4. I found this tough throughout. Only four on the first pass of acrosses and the pace then failed to pick up. I wanted RAISIN to be ‘damson’ too but resisted even as the clock passed 20m — it was my LOI at 22m. Loved TECHIE when I finally realised how badly I’d been overcomplicating things. CASTAWAY came quickly once I discarded ‘caps’ for players and remembered the theatre — lack of culture my undoing yet again — and I also enjoyed seeing SHEKEL emerge. All green in 22 makes me one of Jack’s ‘diligent slower solvers’ — that’ll do for me on a tricky day!
5. 11:56, steady stuff with FOI PALACE, anti-clockwise solve with LOI FLAGRANT

   I had ETON for “Call time in school” as E(t)ON, and was starting to harrumph about “bloody ETON again” before realising that I had made “time” do double duty in the clue.

   TECHIE was a tough anagram.

6. Came in under 13. DNK Canard but knew the French foul of course. Wasn’t troubled by assert assent (yes the joys of not feeling under time pressure!) Lots of anagrams which gave plenty of checkers. Clueing was sympathetic I thought, with well constructed surfaces. COD techie breaking the ice…nice!
   Thanks Jack and Hurley.
7. This went smoothly …
   … and all done and parsed in just under 10 minutes, with the only slight hesitation over 16D Canard, which I was not entirely sure I knew meant False report.

   Sometimes I sense that one has to be a better solver than me to see the setter’s carefully laid traps: in this case 4D Raisin and 7A Assert went in fairly quickly and the possibilities of Damson and Assure respectively never crossed my mind.

   A nice start to the week. Many thanks to Jack for the blog.
   Cedric

8. Didn’t find this particularly straightforward but persevered and thought I’d snuck in just under target, only to come back with a mistake.
   For some reason I wrote in SALT for LAST – not sure what happened or what my thinking was, as it makes no sense at all. I also toyed with DAMSON but couldn’t make sense of it so RAISIN was eventually my LOI. COD to TECHIE
   Thanks to Jacke
   1. Possibly, like me, you had SOLE but the downs converted it to SALT. Luckily, I saw it in time. Bob
      1. Thank you, that makes sense. I so now remember writing in sole an thinking it couldn’t be right. Clearly I forgot to go back and correct it. The perils of a biff!!
9. After one hour I had solved all but two clues, having to resort to Chambers five times. 9a and 21a completely alluded me, even with cross letters in place. 21a I can see now after coming here. 9a, I don’t think I would ever have got this one. I think I might have got it if the shoemaker’s reference was not in it. That threw me.

   There is no way this was easy, not by any stretch of the imagination.

   I do think these QCs have got a lot more difficult over the past couple of weeks.

   Lets’ see what tomorrow brings.

   1. I put sole down first and only when I got the down clue realised it was wrong. I then got it from last week’s QC which had it in!

10. The main problem for the SCC is the lack of starters for all the clues top (five) and left (six), so one has to know one’s trade.

    FOI 3dn TECHIE

    LOI 7ac ASSERT

    COD 1dn MACARONI

    WOD 16dn CANARD

    Time 9:15

    Edited at 2021-09-13 02:47 pm (UTC)

11. Exactly 15 minutes in the middle of packing for home bound flight for me, with the top half being much less recalcitrant than the bottom in my case. LOI SHEKEL, although I also found TECHIE difficult to crack, despite having been one. Thanks Hurley and Jackkt.
12. More like a QC today but with stings in the tail. I whipped through most of it but took an inordinate amount of time over ASSERT and (LOI) RAISIN. Both were clever clues with the traps of assure and damson looming wide open for biffers. I also liked TECHIE — I had to come back to it having failed to work out the anagram at first.
    Luckily, with my new-found aim to enjoying the ride (rather than failing to see the scenery by racing) I did parse everything and got the thumbs up just slightly over target. Thanks to Hurley and jackkt. John M.

    Edited at 2021-09-13 08:14 am (UTC)

    1. Those were the two clues I finished with. I wanted DAMSON to work, but couldn’t see the wordplay. Finally got RAISIN, which I think of as dried fruit- a separate foodstuff as far as I’m concerned.
       Thanks to Jack for the blog, and the setter
       Andrew

13. FTI 6A and 1D always give me encouragement and this was straightforward 4.5K in the end at an on par enjoyable 22 minutes.
    Tried out “sous vide” for first time to cook lunch for friends yesterday which was a striking success as we all marvelled at the outstanding skill and boldness of the US open final. Congratulations to Emma Radecanu for lifting the spirits of the nation. No champagne but a fine bottle of Beaune. What with Wentworth, McLaren getting a 1-2, Liverpool 3-0 and Ronaldo back to pop in a goal, there was something sporty for everyone to enjoy this weekend. Better than thinking about mismanagement of taxes and Covid passports for sure.
    Thanks Hurley and Jack. Have a good week everyone.

14. I thought this was on the tricky side for the QC, and I was one of those making an error – leaping on ERRANT (“with task”, by way of knights errant, although it looks like that’s not quite right anyhow) and not noticing that the first half of the clue was in the wrong tense. Might be where some others tripped up as well?
15. Struggled with right hand side after slowly completing left. LOsI ASSERT and SHEKEL, having tried to use a word beginning with P for the latter which made CASTAWAY (COD) difficult.
    Liked FOURTEEN, CAREER, HESITANT, GIST, SATISFACTORY.
    FOsI LAST, SAFE.
    Dithered with Damson and RAISIN stupidly. Latter so obvious but…
    Got CANARD after remembering prison = can.
    Thanks all, esp Jack.

16. Sticky in places. I don’t like grids which deprive me of so many first letters! Spent a wee while trying to understand how “damson” could be right.

    FOI PALACE, LOI TERM (which surely should have been clued as a DBE given that time is organised by terms outside schools as well, eg in the law), COD SHEKEL, time 08:58 for 1.8K and a Good Enough Day.

    Many thanks Jack and Hurley.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-09-13 08:46 am (UTC)

17. I managed this in about 10 or 11 so I must have been on the right wavelength. A bit surprised that masterstroke is felt to be obscure – heard it used frequently. Must admit I ‘made up’ Canard and hoped it meant a hoax.
18. I’d been struggling anyway for some reason, and bunged in DAMSON after 7:53.

    Then spent another 2 mins working out RAISIN.

    A day to forget!

    Onwards and upwards.

19. FOI: PALACE
    LOI: RAISIN

    Slowed down by FOURTEEN and LOI.

    Thank you to jackkt and Hurley.

20. ….damson, but didn’t fall for it. Eventually the light dawned after everything else was in place.

    FOI PALACE (who stuffed Spurs spectacularly)
    LOI RAISIN (I eat more of those than I do damsons)
    COD CANARD (Quack quack !)
    TIME 3:47

21. I was an ASSURE. Carelessly thought “ASSUME” to “ASSURE”. 1-0 to Hurley. Seems there were a few traps for the unwary though I’m not good enough for DAMSON to have crossed my mind

    Liked the puzzle — favourite probably TECHIE

    Thanks Hurley and Jackkt

22. back after a lovely holiday in the West Country, enjoying the Jurassic Coast in the sunshine.

    Green in 14:22, with CANARD as LOI – dimly heard of it from somewhere, but took an age to parse.
    Unlike others thankfully didn’t even consider DAMSON before parsing RAISIN – otherwise I’m sure I’d’ve fallen into the same trap.
    Stuck for a short while trying to match synonyms for calling time to any 4-letter school I could remember before rewinding and unpicking the clue.
    Otherwise felt very fairly clued, a pleasant reintroduction to crosswordland.

23. but happy enough with 5:58 mins. Today a raisin is a fruit! COD 4dn RAISIN

    Edited at 2021-09-13 10:02 am (UTC)

24. I saw PALACE straight away and kept going. Never thought of damson or assure. LOI CAREER and a PB at 4:41. I even had time to do a quick check for typos, of which there were none. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
25. FOI palace, always a good start. Fourteen on first pass, not going over any, then solved all over the place. Ten minutes for all but two clues, which I looked at and thought I might have to go away and come back to those, and then the penny dropped for both, still within ten minutes. All parsed, unusually for me. I did consider Eton for time inside eon at first but it didn’t feel quite right. Satisfactory and flagrant did for that, and the answer to t*r* was clear. LO’sI castaway and shekel. COD these two. Recommended method of moving on through all clues without ruminating and going over seems to be improving my time. Early days – I may have been on the wavelength since I read this and will find myself back in twenty minute territory any day now. Thanks, Jack, and Hurley. GW.
26. A mixture of straightforward and difficult, I found, but finally successful. SHEKEL, ASSENT and RAISIN proving most troublesome.
27. ’nuff said
28. ….is very straightforward (I’ve recorded a PB of 4:38) so it’s certainly worth a visit from those of you want to progress.
    1. Indeed it is, almost equalled my blazing 39 minute time from last week, comfortably inside target (42 mins)
    2. Agreed! I whizzed through it in a (for me) very quick 18 mins, poss a PB. Congrats on yours 😊
29. Feels like I’m going through a bad spell again. After 25 mins just had 2dn “Masterstroke” and 9ac “Last” to get. However, no matter what I did, I just couldn’t see the anagram for 2dn. I’ve seen 9ac before, but couldn’t remember it and didn’t have the patience for an alphabet trawl.

    FOI — 6ac “Palace”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 18ac “Announce”

    Thanks as usual!

30. … and there was me feeling quite pleased by sneaking in with a sub-20. Shekel and Assert did their best to slow things up, but my alphabet trawl for a specific profession at loi 21ac was the main delay. In fact, I found the bottom third of the grid quite tough, including the unknown meaning of Gist, a dimly remembered Canard and CoD Flagrant. Thank goodness Castaway was a write-in. Invariant
    1. ….had an error. As it is, JoeyC leads those with only one error at -5:24.
       1. What is a negative time?
          1. It was very popular on the Apollo launches: T minus 10… 😉
          2. I think negative time is probably quite normal in the parallel universe where the ‘neutrinos’ live. John.
             1. I have to wonder why they bother.
31. 4:43 this morning which is just under target although I didn’t think it was particularly easy.
    LOI 2 d “masterstroke” where I had to write out the letters on paper before the answer finally jumped out at me.
    I wasn’t too sure of the spelling of 3 d “techie” but the wordplay left no doubt really.
    COD 17 d “shekel” where I had to review all the permutations of “p” and “sh” for “quiet” and “r” and “k” for “king”.
    Thanks as ever to jack for the blog and Hurley for a fair start to the week
32. FOI LAST, ironically. Then swift progress before getting stuck on a few.
    I was another with Eton at first. Missed the hidden for the pasta and was trying to justify RIGATONI. Had CANTER as best guess for 21a and took ages to solve the MASTERSTROKE anagram, which was POI.
    LOI was the obvious CAREER-but I just didn’t think of it until the end.
    14:55 on the clock.
    A very good puzzle I thought.
    David
33. Well I never thought I’d be in the illustrious company as aphis99 but I made the same mistake with the same reasoning! Not that my time would be within shouting distance of his 😅
    In general an ok day, apart from the fact that I got one wrong! There’s something about Hurley’s puzzles that don’t click with me (my problem, not his — I know lots of people thoroughly enjoy his puzzles) and I plodded through this in 12 minutes. Not a bad time for me but it didn’t capture my imagination. 3d made me smile though.

    FOI Palace
    LOI Term
    COD Techie
    Thanks Hurley and Jack

    Edited at 2021-09-13 04:08 pm (UTC)

34. A DNF here as I was struggling with 17d, I knew eel should be in there somewhere but had to write the checkers out horizontally before I could see it. Then I came to the blog, forgetting that I hadn’t done 14d, so that would have been my LOI, if I’d got around to it. Canard came slowly and that gave me castaway which was the last one I did write in. I didn’t fall into any of the other traps mentioned and even, unusually for me, saw masterstroke very quickly, after writing out the anagrist (which I almost always have to do).
35. I thought we might finish quite quickly today but we were held up by the last few clues and came in at 20 mins. We really enjoyed the puzzle — some very clever clues.

    FOI: PALACE
    LOI: ASSERT
    COD: ANNOUNCE

    Thanks Hurley and Jack.

36. Joined others with trouble sorting out 4d and 7a. Started with assure, assume before finally getting assert. Otherwise seemed fairly straightforward, finished at about our target time.
37. … but an awkward grid design and some tricky clues, IMO.

    PALACE came straight away, but I only managed to solve 6-7 clues on my first pass. However, bit-by-bit they succumbed until I was left with just four to get – CANARD, CAREER, CASTAWAY and SHEKEL. I parsed CANARD but entered it into the grid only faintly, as I DNK its definition. I then rubbed it out and only wrote it back in again once I had solved CAREER. CASTAWAY and (my LOI) SHEKEL followed.

    My favourite clue, which raised a smile for some reason, was RAISIN.

    Having caught up with her backlog of QCs over the weekend, Mrs Random finished today’s puzzle in 21 minutes. She queried FOURTEEN with me after she had finished (she didn’t spot the anagram of ‘route’), but was otherwise very confident of her answers. Barring the occasional disaster, Mrs R is routinely below 30 minutes these days, and quite often breaks out of the SCC. I still have a long way to go to catch her up.

    Many thanks to Hurley and jackkt.

38. Like others, my final two were raisin and assert. Firmly over 20 here. I also dnk canard.

39. Found this really straightforward today. Very unusual for me…! LOI was MASTERSTROKE (helped by hubby when gave him definition and all the letters!) but otherwise no problems at all. Didn’t time myself but was probably around the 20 minute mark. I wonder whether the lack of time pressure helped? Happy with being in the SCC but all correct (with a little help). Many thanks for the blog and thanks of course to Hurley. Very enjoyable.
40. Started well but ground to a halt in the bottom half, with career in particular taking far too long. Nearly 4 minutes outside target.
41. Relatively straightforward today. Would never have come up with the word CANARD with the definition alone, although it has come up before I am sure, but the wordplay was kind. 16:32 for me. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
42. Do any of you not find it unseemly to post your amazingly quick solving times?
    Big Dave’s Telegraph bloggers rate the difficulty but are modest enough to keep personal times to themselves.

    Richard

    1. “Times for the Times” – the clue’s in the name

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