Times Quick Cryptic 859 by Hurley

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Galspray is having a well-earned Friday off so I am standing in. This took me 13 minutes but I can’t now account for why I missed my 10-minute target.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
3 Old magistrate imprisons Duke for trick (5)
DODGE – DOGE (old magistrate) contains (imprisons) D (duke). A title most usually applied to the chief magistrates of Venice and Genoa in the days when they were city states in their own right.
7 Boot that is fine at first (6)
WELLIE – WELL (fine), IE (that is). Short for Wellington boot. More usually spelt “welly” in the singular I’d have thought but apparently “-ie” is an alternative.
8 Singer — a lieutenant, old (4)
ALTO – A, LT (lieutenant), O (old). The voice range between soprano and tenor in choral singing.
9 A drink British always mature (8)
BEVERAGE – B (British), EVER (always), AGE (mature)
10 Leaves and makes excuses initially unconvincing (4)
LAME – L{eaves} A{nd} M{akes} E{xcuses} [initially]
11 Tip — try setting. It could make you well-off?! (7,6)
SITTING PRETTY – Anagram [it could make] TIP TRY SETTING
15 Facility leaving armchair viewer unmoved? (6,7)
REMOTE CONTROL – Cryptic definition. Hoofer-doofer and zapper are two popular alternative names for this. I found a website with 100 of them!
16 Reportedly run away from bloodsucker (4)
FLEA – Sounds like [reportedly] “flee” [run away]
18 Countryman has hot stuffing for bird (8)
PHEASANT – PEASANT (countryman) containing H [has hot stuffing]
20 Eels bred in odd places in river (4)
ELBE –  E{e}L{s} B{r}E{d} [in odd places]. This is the German name for the river that also flows through the Czech Republic where it is called the Labe.
21 Drink search organized (6)
CHASER – Anagram [organized] of SEARCH. For those who like to have two different drinks on the go at the same time.
22 Poet’s appointment about noon (5)
DANTE – DATE (appointment) containing [about] N (noon). Famous for his Inferno which feels like what we’ve been living in this week.
Down
1 Some sweetener I fetched in holiday island (8)
TENERIFE – Hidden [some] in {swee}TENER I FE{tched}
2 Prompt to include large hint (4)
CLUE – CUE (prompt) containing [to include] L (large)
3 Being forbidden to leave, in canteen I ate dinner, upset (8)
DETAINEE – Hidden [in] and reversed [upset] in {cant}EEN I ATE D{inner}.
4 Feature of Church maybe — new beginning for Italian capital (4)
DOME – {r}OME (Italian capital) with D as its new beginning
5 Nobleman, originally Irish, is in Paris — first to arrive? (8)
EARLIEST – EARL (nobleman), I{rish} [originally], EST (is, in Paris)
6 First half of alphabet or very small amount? (4)
ATOM – A TO M (first half of alphabet)
12 Deceitful act few do after reform (3-5)
TWO-FACED – Anagram [reform] of ACT FEW DO
13 Demonstrated as true Church here in France (8)
PROVENCE – PROVEN (demonstrated as true), CE (church)
14 Heavily beaten in end court somehow (8)
TROUNCED – Anagram [somehow] of END COURT
17 Girl, lively, not very English (4)
LILY – LI{ve}LY [not very English]
18 Clear I abandoned scheme (4)
PLAN – PLA{i}N (clear) [I abandoned]
19 Haul of southwest silver? (4)
SWAG – SW (southwest), AG (silver). Memories of comics in which villains often used to carry stolen goods in a bag labelled “swag”.

21 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 859 by Hurley”

  1. I also took 13:34 for this one. I think the two long across clues in the middle held me up most. I eventually had to write down the fodder for 11a. It also took me a while to conquer the NW corner. Some less than obvious clues, so a good challenge from Hurley. Tenerife was well hidden, or perhaps I’m tired:-) Thanks Hurley and Jack.
  2. I was going along at a decent pace, but 3d and 7ac were long in coming. I actually thought of ‘detained’, but that ruined 15ac. Those two long anagrams were a lot harder than yesterday’s. Jack, you have CHASER where you mean ‘search’. 6:54.
    1. Thanks, Kevin. Corrected now. It’s ironic that for reasons I won’t go into I’ve spent more time thinking about blogging this puzzle than ever before, yet I still managed to include an error, even if it was a slip of the fingers when my concentration must have flagged for a moment.
  3. Thanks Jack, enjoyed the break. Two seconds behind Kevin today, which is good enough for me.

    The long anagram and the long cryptic across the middle were the key to this one I think. If you got them early you were up and running.

    But I think Vinyl must have been on a roll, as I can’t see how this is “one of the easiest puzzles of all time” (elbe? doge? wellie?). The times reported so far seem to suggest a moderate level of difficulty at least.

    COD to DETAINEE, especially for the role played by “being”. Thanks Hurley and (again) Jack.

    (Jack, there’s some stray “blueness” at 10ac).

    1. It was a relief when I looked at it to find you meant THAT sort of blueness! I wondered for a moment if perhaps I had inadvertently written something naughty. Corrected now. Thanks.
  4. I did, and therefore this left me scratching my head with just 3ac to get. Until finally the penny dropped. Can someone explain how dodge means trick? Never come across this definition before. Other than that, I felt this was a more gentle offering than we’re used to on Friday. Although 11ac and 15ac were quite tricky. Gribb.
    1. Just put ‘define: dodge’ into your favourite search engine. Under ‘noun’ ‘informal’ you’ll see:

      a cunning trick or dishonest act, in particular one intended to avoid something unpleasant.
      “the grant system’s widespread use as a tax dodge”

      synonyms: ruse, ploy, scheme, tactic, stratagem, subterfuge, TRICK, hoax, wile, cheat, deception, blind, pretext, manoeuvre, device, machination, contrivance, artifice, expedient;

  5. There were quite a few clues where we did not have the first letter. I started slowly and thought 10a and 6d looked tricky so left them till later.
    After I got Remote Control (saw it straightaway) it all went in quickly until the aforementioned 10a and 6d. However they only took a couple of minutes in the end and I finished in 16 minutes. Nice puzzle. David
  6. 10.53 before I rested the mouse.

    Yup, this was harder than yer average.

    LOI 15ac REMOTE CONTROL

    COD 1dn TENERIFE. WOD PHEASANT which I lerve!

  7. Quite a little teaser from Hurley, with the parsing of my CoD 6d and loi 17d, pushing my time up to 28mins. Didn’t have anywhere near as much trouble with today’s anagrams, which just goes to show they are ‘easy’ iff you can do them. Invariant
  8. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Great anagrams and some clever cluing – DETAINEE. I, too, hung about over WELLIE until I got the checkers in. It’s not a spelling of the singular that I recognise. Thanks jackkt and Hurley.

  9. I was hoping I might achieve my first-ever ‘clean sweep’ for the week today but 15a had me beat.

    All the more annoying as, now I’ve seen the answer, I’m pretty sure we’ve had ‘remote’ as the answer for ‘device’ in the past month or two. Don’t think I got that time either – perhaps if I used one I might remember it!

    Thanks to Jackkt and Hurley.

  10. An excellent puzzle to end the week. Loved 6d. Like others I had to work hard on 15a. Now here’s my shame – I entered Donne for the poet without re-checking the parsing. So I failed to have the perfect QC week. Thanks Slogger.
  11. Dnf
    Didn’t think it was “really one of the easiest puzzles of all time, well-suited to beginners and low intermediates.”
    Just not on same wavelength.
    Did like 15a though.
    Thanks blogger for explanations (quite a few!!!)
  12. A steady solve today with my only slight struggles being with 7a, 3d (COD) and 17d, my LOI as it took me a while to see the parsing. Getting 11a quickly helped me a lot and I eventually finished in 17 minutes.
    Thanks for filling in again jackkt
  13. Well I didn’t get my clean sweep either.

    I was tearing out what little hair I have left on 1dn – just did not see Tenerife. I think because it was a longer answer I didn’t think it could be a hidden word. But, both this and 3dn have proved me wrong.

    Oh well – there’s always next week.

    Thanks as usual.

    DR31

  14. I found this a real struggle. Especially the top left. Most of the bottom went in OK. The poet was tricky as he didn’t come to me and I didn’t see appointment and date. I finally got 3d from checkers but no idea why it was correct – I was looking for an anagram (upset) but couldn’t see what the fodder would be.
    Got stuck on Tenerife as well as I didn’t know it was an island and certainly didn’t see it hidden, even when I had the answer.
    Thanks for the explanations, Jack..
    Not one for beginners, in my book!

    Edited at 2017-06-23 08:48 pm (UTC)

  15. One of my most successful puzzles! Thank you for finishing it off for me, 17D. My COD, 6D- made me laugh out loud when I twigged!

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