Times Quick Cryptic 2110 by Hurley

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 13 minutes. I struggled with 7 & 12ac for some reason, and so missed my target 10 minutes.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Put one’s foot in it — small gardening tool? (4)
SHOE
S (small), HOE (gardening tool)
7 “Guy in charge is entertaining island pair” I see what you’re saying (3-6)
LIP-READER
LEADER (guy in charge), containing [is entertaining] I (island) + PR (pair)
9 Conservative   not happy (4)
BLUE
Two meanings. Blue being the colour traditionally associated with the Conservative Party.
10 Shrub inapt? Dreadfully —this might add colour (10)
PAINTBRUSH
Anagram [dreadfully] of SHRUB INAPT
11 Become entangled in some shrubbery (4)
MESH
Hidden [in] {so}ME SH{rubbery}
12 CIA at court unusually, laying down the law? (10)
AUTOCRATIC
Anagram [unusually] of CIA AT COURT
16 Competitor making no changes to accommodate temperature and energy (10)
CONTESTANT
CONSTANT (making no changes) containing [to accommodate] T (temperature) + E (energy)
19 Tutor always holding test (4)
ORAL
Hidden in [holding] {tut}OR AL{ways}
21 Worker by sea with personal clothing (4-2-4)
HAND-ME-DOWN
HAND (worker), MED (sea), OWN (personal)
23 Very small quantity of iron that’s taken regularly (4)
IOTA
I{r}O{n} T{h}A{t} [taken regularly]
24 Cheerful, puts down in part of Scotland (9)
HIGHLANDS
HIGH (cheerful}, LANDS (puts down – as a pilot might an aircraft)
25 Lady’s love for principal character (4)
HERO
HER (lady’s), 0 (love)
Down
2 Initially having appeared, lax, vague even, share equally (5)
HALVE
H{aving} A{ppeared} L{ax} V{ague} E{ven} [initially]
3 Animal‘s name the panel worked out (8)
ELEPHANT
Anagram [worked out] of THE PANEL
4 See about the Italian, overindulged (6)
SPOILT
SPOT (see) containing [about] IL (‘the’ in Italian)
5 Describing distinctive cultural group of 100 — cite changes allowing 50 in (6)
CELTIC
C (100), then anagram [changes] of CITE containing [allowing…in] L (50)
6 Poem on river — European one (4)
ODER
ODE (poem), R (river)
8 Referring to country version of rugby — endless criticism follows (6)
RUSTIC
RU (version of rugby – Union as opposed to League), STIC{k} (criticism) [endless]
13 Choose page in Old Testament (3)
OPT
P (page) contained by [in] OT (Old Testament)
14 Surprise a lot when weight is heavy at the outset (8)
ASTONISH
AS (when), TON (weight), IS, H{eavy} [at the outset]
15 Fertilizer container, for example, hot (6)
POTASH
POT (container), AS (for example), H (hot)
17 Proper elm? Yes, surprisingly (6)
SEEMLY
Anagram [surprisingly] of ELM YES
18 Supply a horse for riding (6)
AMOUNT
A, MOUNT (horse for riding)
20 Change beer? About time! Right (5)
ALTER
ALE (beer) containing [about] T (time), then R (right)
22 Party, extremely grandiose, for Venice magistrate (4)
DOGE
DO (party), G{randios}E [extremely]

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2110 by Hurley”

  1. I struggled with LIP-READER too; didn’t parse it until after submitting. 6:49.
  2. Done in just over 15 minutes with LIP-READER too taking the most time and needing blogger’s help to parse. Thanks!
  3. Only three on the first pass of acrosses, so quite dissimilar to Vinyl, but then made good progress on the downs to finish all green in 13. Held up at RUSTIC where I was on the wrong sort of country and ‘Russia’ would fit and on unscrambling AUTOCRATIC, trying the U in second place took a very long time and by not spotting the glaring (in retrospect) hidden for ORAL. Enjoyed CONTESTANT. A very good QC I thought.

    Edited at 2022-04-11 05:45 am (UTC)

  4. Although my time was 18 minutes I got ELEPHANT walking from the printer before starting timing.
    All parsed and no real problems.
    FOI: ELEPHANT.
    LOI: POTASH.
    COD once I saw the wordplay: HAND-ME-DOWN.
  5. Taken just over target today with several of the anagrams needing to be written out. Like others LIP-READER proved slow to fall an LOI AMOUNT took longer than it should.
    Finished in 10.30
    Thanks to Jack

    1. I always need to write out the anagrams. It’s one of the many reasons why I rarely break out of the SCC. However, I quite often get the answer before I have finished scribing the letters.

  6. ….and some decent clues from Hurley.

    FOI SHOE
    LOI AMOUNT
    COD HAND-ME-DOWN
    TIME 3:34

  7. Thirteen minutes. FOI paintbrush, which I had to write out to see. Sixteen on first pass, but at a walking pace. LOI rustic. COD elephant – wonderful animals. A reasonable challenge without too much head scratching. Thanks, Jack, and Hurley.
  8. An excellent QC and I was home in under 8 minutes. LOI HAND ME DOWN, not fully parsed.
    After struggling mightily with the weekend puzzles this was a refreshing change. FOI SHOE. COD to HERO.
    David
  9. No real problems but spent too long trying to parse LIP-READER which took me first into the club at 22.02.
    Thanks Hurly and Jack
  10. I’m another one completing in 13 minutes — a popular time today! LOI SPOILT after LIP READER resolved itself. DOGE is a pleasing word I think, so I make that WOD. SHOE was FOI. Thanks Jackkt and Hurley.
    1. Couldn’t help but notice that you could pretty much get all of 14dn (apart from the second letter) from all of the other clues in SE corner. For an 8 letter word I found that quite surprising.
      1. Yes. The flipside was I needed ASTONISH before the SE corner opened up for me. HERO/IOTA/ALTER all dropped in 5-10 secs afterwards.

        ELEPHANT had the same thing going on and playing online (where I cursor around the grid) was struggling to bring up the clue – only available that way from the 7th square.

  12. Found this one tougher than average with COD LIP READER and SPOILT causing the most trouble despite remembering the Italian for the. 33:06. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
  13. 57 mins with middle daughter, 12. Went quite well, some unknowns I had to help with such as hand for worker and pr for pair.

    Didn’t seem too tricky.
    COD lip reader.

  14. I was off the pace this morning, taking 12:06 to get through this one. HALVE went in first, with SHOE and ELEPHANT following. Slowed in the bottom half. HAND ME DOWN and AMOUNT were last 2 in. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
  15. Struggled to see 18dn “Amount” which took me just into SCC territory.

    The rest went in fairly steadily with some fairly good clues I thought.

    FOI — 1ac “Shoe”
    LOI — 18dn “Amount”
    COD — 21ac “Hand Me Down”

    Thanks as usual!

  16. 50min DNF due to not getting AMOUNT. Or rather, I’d dismissed it in my early go through when I had no checkers and somehow never reconsidered it with thoughts centred unsatisfyingly on abound, around, adorns.

    Most of it done in 30-mins with SPOILT/LIP-READER pair and POTASH/HIGHLANDS/AMOUNT staring back at me for the next 20+ mins

    FOI SHOE
    LbOI HIGHLANDS
    COD LIP-READER

    Strange to have had Zero and Mounted on Friday then HERO and AMOUNT today.

  17. Struggled with lipreader which fell only when we had some crossers, otherwise we found this of average difficulty. No time due to puppy interfering from time to time.

  18. I find Hurley the most accommodating of the primary setter, and his offering today proved no exception. I crossed the line all correct in 23 minutes, but my LOI (AMOUNT) required a 5-minute alphabet trawl, which scuppered my hopes of a sub-SCC finish. Fiddlesticks!

    I am visiting my parents (92 and 90) today, and they have both dozed off at the moment. I wonder if I have time to tackle the chess puzzle and a Su-Doku before they wake up.

    Many thanks to Hurley and jackkt

  20. I’m another one who completed in 13 minutes, with everything parsed. Fairly straightforward with no great hold-ups. Nice puzzle.

    FOI – 9ac BLUE
    LOI – 25ac HERO
    COD – 21ac HAND-ME-DOWN

    Thanks to Hurley and Jack.

  21. Tho’ I got the answer, I don’t understand the cross reference to (6) in the clue for 5 down:
    “Describing distinctive cultural group of of 100 — cite changes allowing 50 in (6)”

    (6) down was ODER. There was no (6) across.

    Thanks for any enlightenment.

  22. Tho’ I got the answer to 5 down, I still don’t understand the clue’s cross-reference to (6):
    “Describing distinctive cultural group of 100 — cite changes allowing 50 in (6)”
    6 down is ODER. There is no 6 across.

    Thank you for any enlightenment.

    1. I think the 6 in brackets just refers to the number of letters in answer. The “in’ in front of 6 probably misled you!
    2. Yes, curryowen is correct. (6) is the enumeration. Fortunately The Times doesn’t often have cross-referenced clues, but when it does the number of the clue would never be in brackets because the numbers at the start of each clue are not.

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