Times Quick Cryptic No 1458 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An enjoyable, average-difficulty puzzle from Hurley. I usually like to try the across clues first, which seemed like a slight handicap today, what with that nice big 7d on the far left – without it I managed only two along that side (17ac and 20ac). It never seems to make that much difference though: I find that if I work out from an easy opener I tend to get fixated on some clue with a checker or two that I feel I should get and forget to move on, so it sort of averages out. My slight hold up today, for no good reason, was the chestnutty girl at 22ac after which 16d fell quite quickly, and I came in just shy of 9 minutes. Good fun – many thanks to Hurley!

Across
1 Organised fight in temporary accommodation, that’s clear (11)
TRANSPARENT – RAN (organised) SPAR (fight) in TENT (temporary accommodation)
8 Powerful body’s miserable cop-outs (7)
OCTOPUS – is an anagram (miserable) of COP OUTS. In the figurative sense of far-reaching influence.
9 Partly glad I thought about such a wave (5)
TIDAL – “Partly” in the letters of gLAD I Thought; about = reversed
10 Satchel, it’s adapted for sport (9)
ATHLETICS – anagram (is adapted) of SATCHEL IT
12 Humdrum existence of Rugby Union team originally (3)
RUT – RU (Rugby Union) T (Team “originally”)
13 Fellow needing sleep first in Italian port (6)
NAPLES – LES (fellow) needing NAP (sleep) first
15 Not refined, bringing rowing gear into Church (6)
COARSE – OARS (rowing gear) into CE (Church of England)
17 Oddly silky and insidious (3)
SLY – “oddly” S i L k Y
18 Cricketer, sympathetic about trouble (4-5)
TAIL-ENDER – TENDER (sympathetic) about AIL (trouble). I was thinking of fielders, and got as far as “deep cover”, which would have worked perfectly, if deep meant sympathetic, and over meant trouble, and it was hyphenated.
20 Ignoring outsiders, Suzy, with gesture, say, for this Asian (5)
UZBEK – “Ignoring outsiders” sUZy with BEK (sounds like (“say”) BECK). Beck is an old contraction of the very old “beckon”.
22 Girl’s card game, lost at the end (7)
BRIDGET – BRIDGE (card game) T (losT “at the end”)
23 Some regret nag re-enters village courting couples frequented (6,5)
GRETNA GREEN – “some” of the letters of reGRET NAG REENters. If you thought that hiding Gretna Green in a sentence would be difficult, then this clue rather confirms it. Didn’t stop me from missing it on the first read through though.

Down
1 Problem getting new start for small person (5)
TITCH – HITCH (problem) gets a new starting letter. A clue will occasionally ask you to swap a letter (or perhaps two middle letters) with an unspecified one; embrace it into your 21d and rejoice that there are fewer random letters than there are random girls and boys.
2 A first part of timely gift now (2,7)
AT PRESENT – A T (first part of Timely) PRESENT (gift)
3 Excitedly kiss popular flier (6)
SISKIN – anagram (excitedly) of KISS; IN (popular)
4 Do something in law (3)
ACT – double definition.
5 At outskirts of Essen, German painter, one who’s lasted (7)
ENDURER – EN (“outskirts” of EsseN) DURER (German painter)
6 Be honest — order girl to include article on time (4,3,5)
TELL THE TRUTH – TELL (order) RUTH (girl) to include THE (article) on T(ime)
7 Rob hung jeans out in African city (12)
JOHANNESBURG – anagram (out) of ROB HUNG JEANS
11 Twenty queue for final result (9)
SCORELINE – SCORE (twenty) LINE (queue)
14 Sound of dog, rising, talented, due now? (7)
PAYABLE – PAY (YAP = sound of dog, “rising”) ABLE (talented)
16 Safety feature could be bargain? Almost (3,3)
AIR BAG – anagram (could be) of BARGAIn (almost = drop the last letter)
19 Eat eagerly, like at home (3,2)
DIG IN – DIG (like, as in “I dig it”) IN (at home)
21 Man’s range of knowledge (3)
KEN – Double definition

52 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1458 by Hurley”

  2. Hi all
    Sub 20 for me so happy. But what’s Siskin? Don’t usually contribute this early but in Japan for RWC. However now at a loose end Saturday with no QC. That said prefer typhoon to yesterday’s QC. Ugh! Johnny
    2. No Saturday QC and now no Saturday England v France either! Bad luck, Johnny, stay safe. I totally agree with the pleas for a Saturday QC. We need a campaign.
  3. LOI TAIL-ENDER; had no idea what it means, but assumed, correctly I imagine, that it had something to do with cricket. I don’t think I noticed the hidden in 23ac; just went with the definition, which seems fine to me. There’s a (once) famous novel by Frank Norris, ‘The Octopus’, where it’s the railroad company that’s the octopus; the term spread to corporations in general. 5:20.
    1. Your assumption is correct. A tail-ender is a player who is one of the last in to bat, normally numbers 9,10 & 11 on the list (referred to collectively as ‘the tail’. They will usually be specialist bowlers, often with limited batting ability.

      Very enjoyable puzzle but a complete brain freeze on AIR BAG pushed me over 6’.

      Many thanks to setter and blogger.

      Edited at 2019-10-10 10:09 am (UTC)

    2. I seem to remember recent discussions on the term “night watchman” – a lower order batsman who is sent in early in the batting order near the end of play to simply defend, and thus avoid a “proper” batsman being dismissed when his skills will be needed next day. The night watchman will usually be a TAIL-ENDER, because he is normally expected to bat at 9, 10, or 11 – so at the tail-end of the innings.

      Edited at 2019-10-10 10:17 am (UTC)

  4. Back after a short break in Cornwall. A couple of errors held me up. I tried VETERAN at 5d and thought 1d was HITCH so 1a was my LOI. Fortunately I suspected my errors so was quick to look for alternatives.
    TAIL-ENDER held me up for no good reason and the gimme at 7d was a huge help.
    Finished in 12:40.
    David
    1. I was also held up by having ‘Hitch’ for 1D since the clue works either way – seemingly confirmed by suggesting ‘Hut’ as the outer part of 1A!

      I’m also with Vinyl1 on Greta Green – doesn’t ‘frequent’ indicate revisiting, whereas a courting couple would likely head there just the once?

        1. Yes, its collective, but the use of that verb still suggests to me that each couple goes back for more! ‘Village popular with courting couples’ would perhaps?

          Reminds me of Sir Terry Wogan berating road sign makers for standardising on ‘Use Both Lanes’ rather than ‘Use Either Lane’!

          1. it makes perfect sense. When driving down a road with two lanes motorists should make use of both lanes depending on the speed and density of other traffic around them.
      2. I am with you I put hitch in and could not get 1 across. Still I have been at it a year and nearly got this one finished.
      3. I am with you I put hitch in and could not get 1 across. Still I have been at it a year and nearly got this one finished.
  5. 7 minutes. No problems.

    Vinyl1 is right in saying the couples who frequented Gretna Green had gone there to be married, but presumably they were already courting. I’m not sure there was a ‘shotgun’ element to any of it and that would be unlikely as the whole purpose of the visit was to get round a quirky difference between English and Scottish law by which parental consent to a marriage was required for under-21s in England but not in Scotland where the restriction was 14 for boys and 12 for girls! Gretna Green was handy for this, being just across the border.

    Edited at 2019-10-10 05:34 am (UTC)

  6. Because of the grid I thought I’d try to get 1ac or 7dn and build from there. Fortunately 7dn was a gimme and so I was able to work steadily across the grid with few delays. My main hesitation was whether “bek” could be a homophobe for “gesture” but I decided that beck and call must have something to do with it … needed all the checkers for TAIL ENDER. All done and dusted in a whisker over 2K for a Good Day.

    FOI JO’BURG, LOI KEN, COD COARSE. Thanks Hurley and thanks William for an excellent blog.

    Templar

    1. I can’t take credit for this one, but second the sentiment – thanks Roly!

      I was tempted to jump in at 7dn, too, but it was my LOI in the end having failed to spot it immediately (doh!) and moved on. Otherwise, back on form today.

  7. I found this a bit chewy in places, particularly the SE but I didn’t help myself by taking far too long to work out the AFrican city. LOI was AIR BAG, where I missed the anagram indicator. Finished in 14.14.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. A relief after yesterday’s test. I jumped around the grid but managed 2.4K which is pleasing for me. I finished in the SE with BRIDGET, DIG IN, and AIR BAG. I liked TITCH and TAILENDER but TIDAL wrong-footed me until I got the crossers. Thanks to Hurley and Roly. John M.
  9. I am happy with my mobile phone solve of 2K particular after yesterday’s disaster. I still had to biff ENDURER and guessed TAIL ENDER from the wordplay. I also hesitated over BEK and like Templar assumed it was something to do with ‘beck and call‘. Thanks all for the blog and comments.

    Edited at 2019-10-10 09:23 am (UTC)

  11. I was just about to start this puzzle when I noticed a large mucky patch on the window. Having just spent a while removing the secondary glazing and cleaning the damn things, I went to investigate and found a spider’s web on the outside causing the problem, so I removed it. When I returned I found the clock was at 2:56, so was expecting a poor time. However, I found myself submitting at 8:17, all green, so I’ll call that a good day! FOI, ACT, LOI, COARSE, as I found I’d missed it when I did a quick proof read. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
  12. A relief after yesterday’s brain bruiser, to tell the truth! A straightforward puzzle, I felt, with a fair range of clue types.

    FOI Rut
    LOI Transparent
    Time Just under nine minutes

  13. ….as I used to do in my cricketing days. I was quite an expensive medium pace bowler (limited overs certainly wouldn’t have helped me), would field anywhere my captain thought he could hide me, and was LOI when batting, so very definitely an 18A !

    An enjoyable offering from Hurley, completed within target.

    FOI TIDAL
    LOI TRANSPARENT
    COD TAIL-ENDER

  14. I was another one who went down the Hitch/Hut rabbit hole, which at least helped when it came to sorting out 6d. However, even I could see an eleven letter word beginning H*a for Clear was a bit of a stretch. Given that hold up, a 19min finish didn’t seem too bad – more than twice as quick, though not quite as enjoyable, as yesterday’s little teaser from Izetti. Brian will be relieved to know that I am making no predictions about Friday 😉 Invariant
  15. In an attempt to cut down on the number of tablet-solving-related typos I’ve been making of late, I invested in a nifty little bluetooth keyboard.

    So my new trick is now to hit “Q” instead of “tab” when switching between clues. And then not noticing. Hence (yet) another 2 errors today as, apparently, AIR-BAQ is not a thing, and neither is GRETNA QREEN.

    Sigh. Other than that, not too bad at 5.05, so certainly compares favourably to yesterday.

  16. 12.12 for me today, nicely middle of my target range, so definitely middling difficulty. Thanks all.
  17. Confidence restored after failure yesterday. Stuck on the ‘bek’ end of 20ac. The rest untangled quite easily. Couples eloped to Gretna Green, when not allowed to marry without parents’ permission if aged under 21. I don’t think they ” frequented” it for longer than necessary…. But an exciting adventure to the start of a marriage, in times now seeming long past.
    Please can you tell a New Solver what all the acronyms (COI etc) mean?
    1. Clue Of the Day
      Word Of the Day
      First One In
      Last One In
      You don’t need an account, but it helps everybody if you sign off with a pen-name (there are too many Anons) Invariant
      1. Thanks. I did, I think, make myself an account yesterday, with a name (sdbax) but wasn’t asked for this today. Will try to make it work. Not brilliant at techie stuff, being of the senior section of life. Have just discovered I can go into Live Journal before posting. I am progressing- I hope.
        1. A warm welcome to you, sdbax. I used a pen-name for ages before I had an account, so you have nothing to worry about. Invariant
      1. Oh wow, a glossary! I had no idea, that’s very good. Loved Momble, I do that occasionally.

        The glossary needs updating to include the GR (Golden Raspberry) for a particularly disliked QC clue (invented by LouisaJaney of this parish). And it mis-defines the Kevin, if I may say so as its originator – it is not a unit of SPEED but a unit of TIME. (I gave a full explanation in the blog to QC 1176 on 11 September 2018. Yes I am that sad.)

  18. I have an ancestor who married at 19 without parental consent. However, no exciting dash from Leatherhead to Gretna Green was involved. She simply lied about her age!
    I found this an enjoyable, middle of the road, puzzle. Thanks setter.
    PlayUpPompey
  19. For a slow novice this was pitched perfectly. Rarely, no major holdups even though I did not know siskin but it had to be from the clue. As I finish so few, this is a rare treat and spurs me on to continue.

    Thank you Hurley for an accessible puzzle.

    Graham

  20. 8 mins on my phone so better than yesterday.

    Probably the first time I didn’t write down the anagrams.

    Loi payable.
    Cod uzbek

    Count me in for the saturday qc demo.

  21. Agree with the request for Saturday qc – we solve mid afternoon and often feel something is missing on Saturdays. Enjoyed today after yesterdays “fun”.
  22. What a relief after yesterday’s bruising… only the one costa needed. I really liked 15a and 23a. FOI 10a led me to suspect another headache of a puzzle, but not so. LOI 22a once I had the checkers to be sure of reading the clue. COD the inventive 15a. Usual interesting and helpful blog. An unhurried 35 minutes relaxing at the end of a strenuous day. Thx to all.
  23. 17 minutes! Thoroughly enjoyed, thanks, Hurley. I didn’t know there was a Glossary and can’t see the link …

    Diana.

    3. Well done on the PB. I agree the glossary is very well hidden – I used the search function in the top right hand corner for ‘glossary’ and the link is in the 4th entry.
  25. Tackled this on the way home as no time this morning and managed 5.45 – almost PB but not quite, third in the list… maybe I should solve in the evening more…

    NeilC

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