Times Quick Cryptic 1981 by Hurley

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I was galloping through the top half and then came a purler over some tricksy stuff in the bottom half – with a particular bliinkered spot in the SE.

It took me 12 minutes in the end and was all good fun. Here’s how I got on.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Disgrace, getting rid of Charlie’s footwear item (6)
SANDAL – disgrace (S)c(ANDAL) getting rid of charlie (C).
5 Greedily devours food, extremely tasty, in mess (6)
PIGSTY – greedily devours food (PIGS), (T)ast(Y).
8 Angry speech in new arena, huge, cut short (8)
HARANGUE – anagram (new) of ARENA HUG.
9 Propensity to become dishonest (4)
BENT – double definition.
10 Move gradually for advantage (4)
EDGE – double definition.
11 Lowborn Roman in plea — be for change (8)
PLEBEIAN – anagram (for change) of IN PLEA BE. Here’s what Collins says about the word origin – C16: from Latin plēbēius belonging to the people, from plēbs the common people of Ancient Rome
12 Being, swapping tips on Luger for this weapon? (6)
MORTAR – my first headlong plunge into the depths of confusion. I couldn’t see for some time what was going on. It’s Being (the noun – MORTAL) which then swaps the ends (tips) of (L)uge(R) – so MORTA(L) becomes MORTA(R).
14 Not clear about advertisement, English, for “Crown” (6)
DIADEM – not clear (DIM) about advertisement (AD) and English (E). I only know diadem from Harry Potter.
16 The French healer reserving time for teacher (8)
LECTURER – ‘the’ in French (LE), healer (CURER) holding time (T).
18 Religious group, dry, finally quit (4)
SECT – dry (SEC as in wine), qui(T).
20 Pack member’s flag (4)
JACK – double definition. A playing card (in a pack)/flag as in Union Jack.
21 Dog’s manor bed recollected (8)
DOBERMAN – anagram (recollected) of MANOR BED. I had the D but failed to quickly click the anagram to a dog.
23 Leading couples in love, undying, getting somewhere to relax (6)
LOUNGE – the leading couple of letters in (LO)ve (UN)dying (GE)tting.
24 Spanish gentleman with important animal (6)
DONKEY – Spanish gentleman (DON – I couldn’t get off Senor for too long), important (KEY).
Down
2 Prize fighting in our era (5)
AWARD – fighting (WAR) inside our era (A)nno (D)omini.
3 Unexpected detail about Conservative’s local speech (7)
DIALECT – anagram (unexpected) of DETAIL about Conservative (C).
4 Starts to like our groovy record (3)
LOG – starts – first letter only this time – of (L)ike (O)ur (G)roovy.
5 In advance of offer, one claims throne (9)
PRETENDER – in advance of (PRE), offer (TENDER).
6 Perhaps Clark’s end of house? (5)
GABLE – Clark Gable as an example.
7 Metal objects in water tossed about (7)
TINWARE – anagram (tossed about) of IN WATER.
11 Bird’s role on raised strip of land (9)
PARTRIDGE – role (PART), raised strip of land (RIDGE).
13 Found in moor — eg a normal herb (7)
OREGANO – found inside mo(OR EG A NO)rmal.
15 Loser is too organised (4-3)
ALSO-RAN – this was my final hurdle to overcome and it took an effort. A horse finishing so far out of the winning positions that it doesn’t count is an also-ran. Made up from too (ALSO), organised (RAN). Seems pathetically easy now.
17 Purely symbolic number approved for inclusion (5)
TOKEN – random number (TEN) including approved (OK).
19 End legal action to detain European (5)
CEASE – legal action (CASE) holding European (E). Once again, this is now obvious, but it wasn’t at the time.
22 Person’s day of birth briefly brought up (3)
BOD – day of birth (DOB) brought upwards/backwards.

64 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1981 by Hurley”

  1. Some testing clues, but eventual success when I saw the light over JACK. Guessed ALSO RAN from existing letters. It does now seem so obvious!
  2. Like others we had trouble with 12a mortar, which we eventualy did get, and 20a, jack. Thought of jack but could not sort out the word play, but a jack is a member of a pack of cards, so no grumbles. Quick top half and very slow bottom half.
  3. So many DNFs and ‘slow’ times above, whereas I raced (?) through this puzzle in just, er … 58 minutes. Actually, I found this very tough indeed — at the limit of my capability without using aids. However, I did manage to parse every clue fully during those 58 minutes, including MORTAR and JACK (my LOI).

    Mrs Random didn’t seem to have any real problems, except at the end with JACK and TOKEN (where she initially had TAKEN). She finished in 32 minutes, but admitted some clues weren’t fully parsed.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  4. I was feeling a bit embarrassed at not finishing, but find myself in esteemed company. Yes, 12a did for me too. I could see that the L and the R in Luger were involved, but how? And I made also made the mistake of thinking the second to last letter was either an E or an O, so the alphabet trawl made no difference!
    Funnily enough, we’ve just had the GABLE end of our house repointed, and there are loose bits of MORTAR (the other sort) in strange places all over the garden!
    Otherwise not too bad – 10 minutes until I ground to that halt. I’ve just completed the 15×15 in about 40 minutes – a strange feeling to finish the biggie but not the quickie 😅
    Thanks Hurley and Chris
    1. In the same vein:
      Mrs Random, a former LECTURER (with her MORTAR board), often HARANGUEs me for turning the LOUNGE into a PIGSTY. However, when it comes to crosswords she invariably has EDGE. I am just an ALSO-RAN.
  6. Two DNFs in succession, but this one was a bit closer than yesterday’s as I only failed on MORTAR. I even saw how the clue might work with the weapon having R as the last letter, but the being having an L, but I couldn’t think of anything to fill in the gaps. Then I assumed the penultimate letter was an E, figuring if it was anything else it would sound similar enough to give it away, and wrote down all the five letter combinations of *O_TER and _O*TER, but still nothing that sounded like a being or a weapon came to mind. So I gave in on 45 minutes, but at least I was in good company, and I have learnt, temporarily at least, how to spell PLEBEIAN. Thanks Hurley and Chris.
  7. Slow progress all the way. Once lecturer clicked it quickly unlocked Partridge and Pretender but then came Jack. I just couldn’t see it and ended up with Mark which could be sign and I thought one of the apostles as a pack member. I knew it was wrong, but there it is.
  8. 7:25 this morning. Same woes as for many others, primarily with LOI 12 ac ” mortar”. Although I could see how the clue was structured, I could see neither a name for a weapon nor a synonym for “being” that helped until eventually I worked from “mortal”. Anyway glad to know “it wasn’t just me”.
    It’s not the first time Hurley has stumped me with my LOI so I treat his puzzles with respect.
    Thanks to Chris and Hurley
  9. Was a toughie, tinware, gable, diadem, bent, loi mortar.
    Was determined to finish after a poor showing in the 15×15.
    Cod donkey.
  10. Sorry that some found one or two clues in this puzzle a little bit tricky for a QC, esp MORTAR. Was conscious that one might be and added “this” to try to make it fairly unambiguously clear the definition was a weapon. But maybe that was not quite enough. Thanks for excellent blog. Hurley

    1. Double definitions are never difficult if you see them — and almost impossible if you don’t! Not a lot to go on to guide you home …
      Cedric

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