Times Quick Cryptic No 1379 by Hurley

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A well-constructed and entertaining end of the QC week today. I breezed through this finishing in a sub-average time of less than 6 minutes, but maybe I was just on our setter’s wavelength. A nice mix of straightforward clues and a smattering of those requiring a bit more thought, to my mind – a couple of cryptic definitions and a potentially misleading one may cause some head-scratching. Or did they? COD to 18D with the current un-flaming June weather, although it’s too warm for the white stuff. Thanks Hurley for, I think, a Goldilocks-zone QC. Or did some of you find it too hard or soft? Hmm maybe I should have some porridge for breakfast later. How did you all get on?

Definitions underlined in italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Parent, with child, is stone dresser (5)
MASON – MA (parent) SON (child).
4 Do better than Spurs, say, almost unexpectedly (7)
SURPASS – (Spurs say)*, [unexpectedly] removing the last letter of say [almost]. A great example of a clue can confound you by suggesting multiple options for the definition or wordplay. Here the word “say” can be interpreted as meaning a homophone or definition by example, but It’s actually (mostly) part of the anagrist. Nice one!
8 One raising glass — it’s for Browning? (7)
TOASTER – Double definition. Neat misdirection in the surface with the addition of the capital… a common setter’s trick.
9 Duke drops pipe (5)
DRAIN – D (Duke) RAIN (drops).
10 Route to safety? Cook safe recipe (4,6)
FIRE ESCAPE – [cook] (safe recipe)*.
14 One making regular payments, torn, I hesitate to say (6)
RENTER – RENT (torn) ER (I hesitate to say). Victim of the perennial kerning problem, I read ‘torn’ as ‘tom’ at first and was somewhat puzzled. Grr.
15 Seaman repeatedly seen as fearsome person (6)
TARTAR – The seaman is a TAR. [Repeatedly seen], means add another one. If you describe someone, especially a woman in a position of authority, as a tartar, you mean that they are fierce, bad-tempered, and strict.
17 Small fliers, greenest distributed, in outskirts of Boulogne (5,5)
BRENT GEESE – (greenest)* [distributed] [in] the ouside letters of [outskirts of] BoulognE. Why “small”, you may ask? A Brent Goose is small in comparison with other geese. Sneaky. Were you, like me, thinking of an insect or a little bird like a tit?
20 It sweeps up? Right, in successful period (5)
BROOM – R (right) [in] BOOM (successful period).
22 Like some food products in cargo, exotic (7)
ORGANIC – (in cargo)* [exotic].
23 He concedes fielder needs new start (7)
YIELDER – fIELDER with a new first letter [new start]. A Y does the trick.
24 One scattering seeds ultimately manages to follow the supervisor (5)
SOWER – Last letters of [ultimately] manageS tO folloW thE supervisoR.
Down
1 Small creature’s power spoken about (4)
MITE – This is a homophone clue [spoken about]. MITE Sounds like MIGHT.
2 Remain in street? Indeed (4)
STAY – ST (street) AY (yes, indeed). Nice misdirection again, this time through the punctuation.
3 Food item held by parvenu — trim entryist (9)
NUTRIMENT – Hidden in [held by] parveNU TRIM ENTryist. If you didn’t immediately spot the indicator, the slightly clunky surface reading suggests it.
4 County certain to welcome king over year (6)
SURREY – SURE (certain) including [to welcome] R (king) [over], meaning on top of as this is a down clue, Y (year).
5 Friend regularly embarrassed-looking? (3)
RED – Alternate letters [regularly] of fRiEnD.
6 Separately priced — a vehicle coming in behind time (1,2,5)
A LA CARTE – A and CAR (vehicle) [coming in] LATE (behind time).
7 More sensible to include chapter referring to wine (8)
SANCERRE – Take SANER (more sensible) [to include] C (chapter) and add RE (referring to). Sancerre wine is from the area of the same name in the Loire valley. It is mostly white wine made from the Sauvignon Blanc, but you can get Sancerre rouge made from Pinot Noir.
11 Top performer makes commitment to join group including Leo? (4,5)
STAR SIGNS – STAR (top performer) SIGNS (makes commitment). As with 5D, the cryptic nature of the definition is indicated by a ?.
12 In all likelihood supporting Bishop in skilful way (8)
PROBABLY – PRO (supporting) B (Bishop) ABLY (in skilful way).
13 One moving fast from Dinant, eloper (8)
ANTELOPE – A second hidden word, [from] DinANT ELOPEr. See mrchumley’s comment below about the charms of Dinant.
16 Daughter altering route for longer one? (6)
DETOUR – D [altering] (route)*. The “?” cryptic indicator suggesting you substitute the “one” to get longer route as the real definition.
18 Wintry weather in South at present time (4)
SNOW – S (South) NOW (at present time).
19 Mark film award, overlooking nothing (4)
SCAR – The film award is an oSCAR, and here we are removing [overlooking] the O (nothing). The substitution for the letter O for the digit 0 is worth remembering.
21 Slander at first, most unfair detraction (3)
MUD – Initial letters [at first] of Most Unfair Detraction.

23 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1379 by Hurley”

  1. 17ac was sneaky, all right: a small elephant is not a small animal, and a small goose is not a small flier. Liked SURPASS. 5:50.
    1. A goose is not a small bird, true, but compared to a jumbo jet it is a small flier..
      1. Fair enough; so the setter has covered his proverbial. It still seems sneaky to me, at least in a QC. But fortunately I knew BRENT GEESE–while not knowing anything about Brent geese.
  2. 10 minutes, giving me a clear week of solves within my target time and a run of seven in a row since the last time I exceeded it. Prior to that I had four consecutive ‘failures’, and two of them were in my ‘red zone’ which starts at 15 minutes.

    I wrote in SURPASS straightaway but took a while to spot the parsing. Lost time thinking ‘brightly’ at 12dn. TARTAR was my LOI.

    Wot Kevin said about 17ac. Very naughty!

    Edited at 2019-06-21 04:58 am (UTC)

    1. …for 12D looks eminently plausible. I’m glad I didn’t think of it or I might have similarly lost time. But I already had BROOM in place from the across clues before I got to it so avoided the problem.
  3. I was also led astray by small flier, to the extent that I wrote down the anagrist before spotting it. Apart from that, I zipped through in 7:04. Thanks Hurley and John.
  4. Today is a gentle day in crosswordland.. folk here might like to have a go at the 15×15
  5. Got back from Scotland last night and was greeted this morning by this pleasant puzzle. The long hidden NUTRIMENT was obvious to me and Sancerre is one of my favourite wines so progress was quick until the small fliers appeared. BEES did not fit and the word had to end in S[?]; but resorting to the anagram fodder solved the problem. My last two were MITE and MASON. Finished in 10:46 so perhaps the holiday did me some good. COD to DRAIN. David
  6. 12 minutes here, so comfortably inside my target time. John, in 4a you say anagrind when I think you mean anagrist, and in 16d I read the question mark as indicating that a detour isn’t necessarily a longer route, just a deviation from the normal one. ThanksBlogger and Setter.
    1. Re 4a: Oops. I did. Thanks. Corrected.
      As for 16d I guess you’re right that a detour isn’t necessarily a longer route, but all the ones I’ve been on are. If it was a shorter route I would call it a shortcut rather than a detour, but your mileage may differ, as it were.

      Edited at 2019-06-21 11:16 am (UTC)

  7. 6.54 today so agree easier end. Lost time after guessing PROBABLE before correcting at 12D. Didn’t know the 15AC meaning either. A nice end to the week
  8. ….having only done yesterday’s QC this morning in exactly 5 minutes, and then being less than fluent in this one. A stupidly biffed “brightly” at 12D didn’t help matters. I also biffed SOWER.

    FOI MASON
    LOI BRENT GEESE
    COD SURPASS
    TIME 4:57

  9. I am the first SCC member to post again, although I did manage to be well under 3K. A nice end to the week – very interesting but fair. I had no trouble with the clues that troubled some of the above but, like Jack, I moved on without parsing SURPASS which was my COD. FOI MASON & LOI RENTER. Thanks to Hurley and John. John M.

    Edited at 2019-06-21 09:33 am (UTC)

  10. I didn’t find any particular problems today but then I guessed BRENT GEESE and also TARTAR. My only real hold up was that I bunged in PROBABLe at 12d which resulted in an alphabet trawl for 23a with E.E.D.R. I belatedly saw my error and finished in 8:08 with 6d A LA CARTE.
  11. A gentle end to the week, completed in 1.5K during a coffee break from a fish filleting course at Billingsgate Market. A Very Good Day. FOI MASON, COD SANCERRE (seen a lot of COD today), LOI SURPASS.

    Thanks Hurley and John.

    Templar

  12. I thought I might be on for a pb here as I motored (for me) through this, and, with 15:23 on the clock, was left with only 7d and 9a to get. That left me four minutes or so, but I knew that can evaporate before you know it and so it did. I relaxed a bit when my time ran out and then after a couple more minutes drain came to me and I was annoyed for not getting it sooner. It took a few minutes more to see the possibility that ‘more sensible’ might be saner and add the c and the re to get something that I hoped was a wine. Finished on 27:27 which is still better than usual so I can’t complain. I thought ‘antelope’ was a bit of an easy hidden though. I’d have thought that would lend itself quite well to some interesting wordplay involving workers having affairs or gambling stakes bounding off. Oh well. Thanks Hurley and John.

    Edited at 2019-06-21 10:08 am (UTC)

  13. 17 mins, might have been faster but I made the same mistake as desdeeloeste, putting probable.

    Cod drain or toaster.

    Forgot to say I knew sancerre first from red dwarf.

    Rimmer: Enough of this heresy. At the stroke of dawn take them out and kill them. And when you’ve killed them burn the bodies, then bring me the cold ashes on a silver plate with a glass of chilled sancerre.

    Edited at 2019-06-21 10:31 am (UTC)

  14. Thanks for the blog.

    I think Dinant deserves a bit of a mention as it’s well worth a visit. It’s a picturesque little city on the Meuse in Belgium with a citadel and war museum, an unusual gothic church, a saxophone museum at the house of Adolphe Sax (its inventor), the Leffe beer museum, the original Leffe Abbey, lots of nice eateries and quite a few riverside bars. There are a few interesting chateaux in the area as well. Highly recommended.

    1. Thanks for the tip. You are right it surely does deserve a mention. When I read the clue, I was thinking of Dinan in France, which is quite picturesque, but it isn’t spelt with a T on the end. You can read more about Dinant here.
  15. This would have been a comfortable sub 20 finish, but I spent some time trying to think of a fielding position with a different first letter for 23ac, and hesitated to enter Sancerre at 7d until I had all the initial s, thinking it was too obscure for a QC. Even so, 21mins is my quickest for some time, so no complaints from me. Invariant
  16. Still new to the cc this was only the second one I’ve fully completed. 15ac Tartar took ages whilst I worked with repeats of AB and RN, trying to jumble pirate, or see how the clue could disguise an answer as simple as sailor! All the while forgetting TAR = sailor.

    17ac Brent Geese the only unknown one but it had to fit and pleased to have got it without the knowledge, in part confidence given by regular reading of this blog.

    Thanks to all for your regular comments and especially to Hurley for a perfectly pitched puzzle (for me at least) and to John for the ever helpful blog which is still essential to me for confirming my parsing!

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