Times Quick Cryptic No 1318 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Average difficulty puzzle from Hurley today, which isn’t to say that I managed to finish it: I had all bar 15d done by the 10 minute mark, and then spent two minutes on a less-than-algorithmic alphabet trawl before giving up and clicking on the answer. I might have to try a different approach to my alphabet trawls, rather than rehashing the first ten-or-so letters a couple of times and then jumping skittishly around the alphabet. I also spent a bit of time at 22ac simply trying to think of a country that fitted (6,6), let alone the anagram bit, but couldn’t think beyond Guinea-Bissau. Good fun – many thanks to Hurley!

Across
1 Company’s grouse about not entirely polite person, much-travelled? (12)
COSMOPOLITAN – CO’S (Company’s) MOAN (grouse) about POLIT (“not entirely” POLITe)
8 Old container, English, egg-shaped (5)
OVATE – O(ld) VAT (container) E(nglish)
9 Will’s involved in this legal process? (7)
PROBATE – cryptic definition, I suppose, with a pun on “Will” as a person and “will” of the legal variety.
10 Heard second person’s sheep (3)
EWE – sounds like YOU (second person)
11 Having changed a lot since land seen from sea (9)
COASTLINE – Anagram (having changed) of A LOT SINCE
13 Top bird, northern (5)
CROWN – CROW (bird) N(orthern)
14 Choose ends like every captain, toss at first (5)
ELECT –  Ends Like Every Captain, Toss “at first”
16 Difficult to understand — certain it must be rewritten (9)
INTRICATE – anagram (must be rewritten) of CERTAIN IT
17 Manage to flee (3)
RUN – Double definition
19 Examine closely popular page penned by religious group (7)
INSPECT – IN (popular), P(age) penned by SECT (religious group)
21 True masculine field of study (5)
REALM – REAL (true) M(asculine)
22 Country diet aunt sets out (6,6)
UNITED STATES – anagram (out) of DIET AUNT SETS

Down
1 Unpleasant task in branch or elsewhere (5)
CHORE – “In” the letters of branCH OR Elsewhere
2 Southern headland attack — he’s blamed unfairly (9)
SCAPEGOAT – S(outhern) CAPE (headlane) GO AT (attack)
3 Too sure of oneself for novice, tend to be mistaken (4-9)
OVER-CONFIDENT – anagram (to be mistaken) of FOR NOVICE TEND
4 Harp on about deprived child? (6)
ORPHAN – anagram (about) of HARP ON
5 Some ninon these Cretans can display having been tipped off? (2,2,3,6)
IN ON THE SECRET – hidden in “some” of the letters of n INON THESE CRTans. What would have been a nice hidden was rather tipped off by the obscurity (to me a least) of “ninon” – it’s a lightwieght fabric.
6 That’s surprising — bathmat oddly missing (3)
AHA – remove the odd letters of b A t H m A t
7 Referring to man, monarch’s stand-in (6)
REGENT – RE (referring to) GENT (man)
12 Bet inn air could become intoxicating (9)
INEBRIANT – anagram (could become) of BET INN AIR. I don’t recall seeing “inebriant” as an adjective, but there it is.
13 Upset Catholic, Italian, I initially considered a fault-finder (6)
CRITIC – CR (RC = Catholic, reversed/upset) IT(alian) I C (initially Considered)
15 Pruned around top of tulips and separated (6)
PARTED – PARED (pruned) around T (top of Tulip)
18 New house after revolution in French city (5)
NIMES – N(ew) IMES (semi = house, revolve/reverse)
20 Child, second, performing (3)
SON – S(econd) ON (performing)

37 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1318 by Hurley”

  1. Biffed COSMOPOLITAN (I had some checkers, natch) and SCAPEGOAT (although I saw the wordplay as I typed it). I tend to trawl the alphabet in the way that Roly describes, but fortunately I didn’t need to today. 4:05.
  2. 7 minutes with a slight hold-up along the way because my first thought for ‘egg-shaped’ at 8ac was ‘ovoid’ and that was going to cause problems with 3dn.

    TBH I’d got it into my head that ‘ovate’ is primarily a verb meaning ‘applaud’ and was a little concerned later not to find that meaning in the first 3 sources I consulted. I tracked it down eventually in the SOED where it’s listed without comment, and also in my printed edition of Chambers who have it as a ‘facetious back-formation’ of ‘ovation’. I’m not quite sure what they mean by ‘facetious’ but I gather they don’t exactly approve of it!

    I needed all the checkers and wordplay to come up with NIMES as my LOI.

    Edited at 2019-03-28 07:18 am (UTC)

  3. 20 mins, got stuck on regent, coastline and loi ovate, well it was that or ocane…

    Cod crown or orphan.

  4. Held up in the SW, not spotting how CRITIC worked and CROWN taking a long time too. Admired the attempt at a very long hidden and appreciated the anagrams – surprised how long it took me to unravel UNITED STATES. All done and all green in 18.30.
  5. Nearly a second sub 10 of the week with 10.17 (maybe my struggle with Mephisto is helping, though having done 10 clues, I think I have reached my limit) but a couple of wrong turns slowed things down. TESTATE and INEBRIATE involved rethinks, the latter making UNITED STATES hard work. LOI, with a more successful trawl than Roly, PARTED.
  6. Inebriant (12d) held me up as I could think no further than a wonderful TV play of the early 1970s called Edna the Inebriate Woman, starring the fantastic Patricia Hayes. Does anyone else remember it?
      1. Mrs soj had a pseudoaunt named Edna whom we always referred to as Edna the inebriate woman despite the fact that she was practically teetotal. Hence probably why I initially put it in.
  7. Wow! 17 minutes, almost a PB, and the first time I’ve been under my 20 minute target for well over a week. It was a surprise after my comprehensive DNF yesterday – I got the first four accross answers straight off and my LOI was PARTED.

    Brian

  8. A good puzzle. Some head-scratching with REGENT, CRITIC, NIMES, COASTLINE but all done and dusted in 17.58 (continuing a run of mid/upper teens that I seem to be stuck in). LOI OVATE; like others, I had to remove ‘ovoid’ before I could complete the top left. I liked COSMOPOLITAN and SCAPEGOAT. Thanks to Hurley and Roly. John M.

    Edited at 2019-03-28 11:22 am (UTC)

  9. Thanks for this – it ticked my boxes because it was tricky but fair. I put a few in without being able to justify (eg Nimes and Critic) but when I saw the explanations they were all perfectly clear.
  10. I was quick as well today, but at 10:26, not really approaching a PB. There seemed to be lots of anagrams today which always helps in my opinion.
  11. A steady solve today, held up at the end by the anagram at 16a and the unknown OVATE, where I considered OCANE and OPANE before the penny dropped. I wanted to give CoD to 5d but as rolytoly said it was too clearly signposted by ninon, instead I’ll give it to PARTED. Completed in 13.03.
    Thanks for the blog
  12. 11m and a handful of seconds, so quite happy with this. No particular problems with any of it, even NIMES fell quickly. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
  13. I trotted through this in 7:19, but my proof reading failed to notice that my INEBRIATE had become INEBRIATT when I put the States in. Careless biffing strikes again. Otherwise an unusually smooth ride for a Hurley puzzle. CHORE went in first and PARTED brought up the rear. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
    1. Exactly the same experience here – well, except that I took an extra 4 seconds to dnf! Good QC tho thanks all.
        1. And me – but I did manage to spot my error. No time today as solving was interspersed with mouthfuls of a truly wonderful Full English, a monthly treat these days.
          Thanks to setter and blogger.
          1. I’ll be closeted in a nice pub in the Scottish Borders soon for a weekend session with like minded Folkies and a Scottish breakfast or three built in. Back on the exercise bike when I get home!
  14. I found this a bit tricky in places, but Hurley was generous enough with the other clues, so overall a fair test. Needed several crossers to see Cosmopolitan, but the parsing is clear enough – I should really have seen that one straight off. My other hold up was the 21ac/18d combination. No excuse there either, given that our oldest French friends live in Nimes. Just short of 30mins in total. Invariant
  15. ….the UNITED STATES will be accustomed to the lazy use of OVATE to replace applaud. I got it quickly, having already solved SCAPEGOAT. Egg-shaped is the original definition, and still the best, though I use ovoid myself.

    No problems otherwise, despite my LOI holding me up for fully half a minute.

    FOI SCAPEGOAT
    LOI PARTED
    COD COSMOPOLITAN
    TIME 3:42

    1. Never heard of OVATE (=applaud), nor do I see what is lazy about it. Unnecessary yes; irritating, damn right; but lazy? (Mind you, I haven’t lived in the US much in the last 40 years.) And what’s wrong with ‘oval’? I would ovoid other forms.
      1. I use oval as a noun, and ovoid as an adjective, but that’s probably just my grammar school education. I’m an old dog these days – new tricks do not come easily !
  16. I seem to be getting closer to my 10 minutes target as the week goes on. FOI 1d CHORE and LOI 1a COSMOPOLITAN which was biffed and parsed after solving. I was another INEBRIAte until I unravelled the anagram at 22a UNITED STATES and I stared at 9a PROBATE for a while wondering if I was missing something in the cryptic definition but apparently I wasn’t. 11 mins.

    ON EDIT. Thanks Roly for the blog….I have just realised I completely missed the 5d hidden…I just thought it was an anagram which I see now is not possible.

    Edited at 2019-03-28 12:34 pm (UTC)

    1. Indeed, thanks to Roly. Even when I’ve happily solved and parsed, the blog is required reading. I’d just add that an alpha trawl works best on paper !
  17. This has been a good week, so far, after last week’s slogs – I’ve managed to finish all without too much resorting to aids.

    Today was just under 30 mins, but there were several biffs: 1ac, 2dn & 18dn, for example.

    Unlike others, ovate was my FOI as I had no difficulty building it up from the wordplay and it seems to me to be a regular crossword land option for egg shaped.

    Last ones were 16ac and 15dn – I didn’t connect pare with prune but I suppose it’s legal…

  18. Quickest for some days at 20m, wellwithin our target. Had to check 8a, thought of Nimes straight away but could not parse, thanks for explanation in blog and to Hurley for an enjoyable puzzle.
  19. My main problem was discovering that I did not have a pen when I opened the paper on the train to Preston.
    So I solved it in my head for the first time. No real problems in fact although INEBRIANT unknown. Quite quick too.
    David
  20. Ovate is a specific botanical term for a leaf that is egg-shaped. Also there is a term obovate where the leaf is an upside down egg shape.
    1. Interesting, good to know – I’ve only heard of obovate as the verb, “to give a laudatory fanfare with a woodwind instrument.” A standing obovation is quite a spectacle!
  21. Pitched just right for a quick cryptic. More like this please – tricky in places but possible. Thanks to setter and blogger

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