Times Quick Cryptic No 1482 by Hurley

25 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1482 by Hurley”

1. ARMY was my LOI; although I know the word, it isn’t in my dialect (which is probably the same, or as near as dammit, to Jeremy’s). ODE says that RUMBLE goes back to late Middle English, but also says that in the find out sense, it may be a different word; but says nothing about that possible word. I doubt that it’s CRS, though; CRS words lead to words with transparent meanings, so far as I know (which, granted, is not very far): China plate –> mate, trouble and strife –> wife, raspberry tart –> xxx, etc. Totter and stumble, say, –> rumble doesn’t fit that pattern. 6:20.
2. ….having all the necessary knowledge, such as ‘barmy’ and ‘rumble’. These words were common in casual speech in England during the 1890-1940 period, which is why it is useful to read old popular literature.
3. All done in shade under 13 minutes. Don’t think I’ve ever used rubberneck as a noun, so STARER was last one in with not much confidence, also held up by PLEASE because it doesn’t rhyme with lease. Quite a few paper solves recently but even so I reckon this was my fastest for while.
4. Struggled to stay out of the red zone today and just achieved it by finishing in 14 minutes with ARMY as my LOI. Still missed my target 10 though.

   The sources I’ve checked have ‘rumbled’ in this sense as late 19th century.

5. 11.5 mins.

   Struggled with antitank, noon, escapade, and LOI make it. Forgot catherine = kit.

   COD fasten or antitank.

6. 10.01 except actually it was DNF as I wrote TAKE IT rather than MAKE IT for my LOI. Oops. Otherwise no issues

   NeilC

7. Barmy as in Barmy Army of England’s ever hopeful brigade of followers.
   Rumble, as in, “I’ve been rumbled”.

   Edited at 2019-11-13 09:12 am (UTC)

8. Bang on target at 2K dead for a Good Day. Top half felt tougher than the bottom and I needed not one but two trawls for ARMY, since in my first one I assumed that the third letter had to be a vowel. Surprised that BLUDGEON = bully. Not a helpful grid!

   FOI (and COD for the smooth surface) AUTHOR; LOI ARMY

   Thanks Hurley and Jeremy.

   Templar

9. As usual, Hurley extended me so I missed my target 10 minutes. Nothing was out of my ken, but I did have to do a few mental gyrations to see what was wanted. ARMY took a few moments to see. A final proof read saved me from a pink square as I’d put TOTALATARIAN. I’d originally been trying to build up the word from the bottom up, and didn’t check the anagrist on first pass. 10:48. Thanks Hurley and Jeremy.
10. Good puzzle. I found myself moving all over the grid to get more than a toe-hold and then made good progress in the SE quadrant before jumping about once more. I liked BLUDGEON, GRUMBLER, FASTEN and appreciated TOTALITARIAN, BIRTHDAY CAKE and ANTITANK. I biffed my LOI MAKE IT since I didn’t know ‘kit’. SCC – it took me over 3.5K. Thanks to Hurley and Jeremy. John M.

    Edited at 2019-11-13 09:52 am (UTC)

11. 25:13 though that’s not a true figure as I had to resort to the check button as couldn’t figure MAKE IT or ARMY – thanks plusjeremy – though totally familiar with barmy and this meaning of rumble. It’s always interesting to hear what language doesn’t leave these shores.
12. …. I’ve never encountered Kit as a synonym for Catherine. Kitty maybe – but Kit is a shortened form of Christopher surely !

    I found this a struggle, and was well over target.

    FOI AUTHOR
    LOI TOTALITARIAN
    COD BRAINY
    TIME 6:02

    1. Indeed which is why we put take it as an anagram of kate.
    2. I am incensed by KIT, which is Christopher briefly. Yes, Catherine can be Kitty, but I have been unable to find Kit as a shortening of Catherine, or even Kitty.
13. Buoyed by successfully completing yesterday’s 15×15, I was in a confident mood and indeed started well enough with several footholds after the first pass. I was distracted a few times with callers and was very slow with both long anagrams, but my downfall was the 16d/21ac intersection. I actually knew Shanty as in Sea and Town but failed to make the connection. Kit for Catherine has managed to pass me by all these years, though Mrs Invariant rattled off a couple of names when I moaned about the obscurity of the clue. Glad to see from Phil’s Post that it wasn’t just me. CoD to 11ac, Bludgeon, not an everyday word, but nicely clued. Invariant
14. 14:59.
    Author and army being the last to fall. Army taking about 3 mins. The curse of the missing first letter.
    I rarely find myself on Hurley’s wavelength. Nothing to grumble about though, and I prefer to have struggled a bit.
15. I seem to be the only solver who had a complete blank on 2d BIRTHDAY CAKE. I knew it was an anagram but I was fixated on finding a two word accounting term. I put it down to the fact that I am an accountant who genuinely has never celebrated my birthday with cake. It didn’t help that my penultimate solve was 21a MAKE IT. I tentatively put in ‘xxxk at’ so the errant k just made a bad situation worse. 12 minutes for all but the last two and then another 10 minutes to complete and submit.
    1. You weren’t the only one to struggle with Birthday cake – I was looking for an annual theatrical production along the lines of a panto.
    2. I see where you were going with accounting terms. At first glance, I may have thought Balance Sheet, albeit the number of letters don’t fit!
16. Thought 21ac was terrible – surely there is a better clue to kit and haven’t come across ‘on radio’ to indicate a homophone.

    Never heard of Rill.

    I, of course, liked 13ac.

17. I managed the majority of the grid in about 30 mins, but got hung up on 15ac “Army”, 21ac “Make It” and 16dn “Shanty”. As a result, it took about an hour in total.

    Anyone else nearly biff “Nativity Play” for 2dn? I nearly did until I realised I made a similar error a few days earlier because I hadn’t read the clue properly.

    I wasn’t convinced about “Bludgeon”=Bully, but it was the only thing that seemed to fit. Also is “Antitank” actually a sort of weapon in its own right? Doesn’t it normally preface something else like missile/mine etc…

    I hadn’t heard of Rill, but made an educated guess on 14dn.

    Overall, a good puzzle, albeit on the slightly harder side.

    FOI = 6ac “Brainy”
    LOI = 21ac “Make it”
    COD = 7ac “Author”

    Thanks as usual to the setter and blog.

    Edited at 2019-11-13 06:33 pm (UTC)

18. I looked at this on the train on the way home from London so I had done a couple of clues before getting to my computer. It still took me 11:36. LOI was ARMY having struggled to get BIRTHDAY CAKE. Could not parse Make It.
    FOI was OMIT.
    I can tell from the comments above that this was challenging for many. I agree.
    David
19. I found this challenging and did not get MAKE IT, BLUDGEON, SHANTY or FASTEN. Wrong wavelength!
20. Slow going for me today, although I just squeaked in under my 15 minute target. I got completely the wrong end of the stick with 2d, was very confused by the female Kit, had to strongly resist biffing BREEZY for 6a and for some reason put GRUMBLIG in at 1d making LOI ARMY somewhat of a challenge. I managed to untangle everything in the end but it felt like hard work.
    Thanks to Jeremy
21. Very late posting tonight. I started this at 10.32, paused at 10.37 due to arrival of daughter for a day out, restarted at 17.48 and finished at 17.52, so I make that nine minutes with a very long gap in the middle! I think I was on the wavelength today – no major issues although Army took a little while to click. Very annoying as we had something similar in another recent crossword – can’t quite remember if it was a biggie or a jumbo tho.

    FOI Brainy
    LOI Army
    COD Birthday cake

    Thanks all 😊

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