Times Quick Cryptic No 1508 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Nudging a bit past average difficulty from Hurley today, I found. I had all bar 19ac done around the 10 minute mark, and spent the next couple of minutes considering it and various Christmas related requirements before clicking on the answer. A well-crafted puzzle, with the easier bits mixed in good proportion with those more cryptic bits that are very difficult to get if it’s your first time seeing them. Round of applause if you crack the device in 22ac the first time you see it, for example – I’m vaguely certain I didn’t. Good fun – many thanks to Hurley, and a merry Christmas and happy New Year to all. 2020 still sounds very futuristic.

(I always remember a Tomorrow’s World episode from the late ’80s, by the way, where they showed how by 2020 we’ll have done away with those unpleasant mattress things and will instead be levitated by magnet-type things: a perfect night’s sleep in a bubble of temperature-controlled air. So that’s certainly something to look forward to next year.)

Across
1 Credit note returned — it may secure admission (6)
TICKET – on TICK = on credit; TE (note, also spelt TI: do re me, etc.) reversed.
4 Referring to group’s moral principle, going round North (6)
ETHNIC – ETHIC (moral principle) going around N(orth)
8 Where Times may end up — finding water pipe bans out of order? (10,3)
WASTEPAPER BIN – anagram (out of order) of WATER PIPE BANS
10 Severely criticize meat dish (5)
ROAST – double definition
11 Though briefly accepted by European, unsatisfactory road feature (7)
POTHOLE – THO (though, briefly) accepted by POLE (European)
13 Carry out pitchfork maybe (9)
IMPLEMENT – double definition
17 Charm of unusual name associated with us (7)
ENAMOUR – anagram (unusual) of NAME OUR (associated with us)
18 Inducement gets tribe to change leader (5)
BRIBE – well, simply change the leading letter of Tribe.
19 Get dressing down as result of gambling disaster? (4,4,5)
LOSE ONES SHIRT – cryptic definition, referring to what you would have to do if you literally lost the clothes on your back through bad betting. The surface reading describes getting a (deserved) carpeting after a gambling disaster. I managed to think of a plausible answer for give a dressing down, which was only one letter out, while the correct answer somehow remained elusive. Ah well.
21 Charge that is right for sword (6)
RAPIER – RAP (charge) IE (id est, that is) R(ight)
22 Queen by eastern extension (6)
ANNEXE – ANNE (queen) X (as in 2 x 4; 2 times 4; 2 by 4) E(astern)

Down
1 Poor quality marble, lacking interest (6)
TAWDRY – originally a noun, short for St Audrey’s lace, a popular silk lace worn by women in the 16th century. They became rather cheap and showy, hence the later sense. Edit: forgot to parse this! It’s TAW (marble, as in a glass one for playing – new to me) and DRY (lacking interest)
2 Country actor sharing top role in cinema appearance first of all (5,4)
COSTA RICA – CO-STAR (actor sharing top role) In Cinema Appearance “first of all”
3 Remove European plane holding 100 (5)
EJECT – E(uropean) JET (plane) holding C (hundred in Roman numerals)
5 Two articles on time about plays (7)
THEATRE – THE and A are two articles, on T(ime) RE (about). I suppose “plays” for “theatre” is a perfectly good synecdoche.
6 Point: cake’s been brought up (3)
NUB – BUN (cake) is brought up / reversed.
7 Indefinitely postpone siting of new Church in California (6)
CANCEL – siting of N(ew) CE (Church of England) in CAL(ifornia). I like the euphemism of indefinitely postponing!
9 Fruitful source — a very quiet let, really excellent earnings initially (5,4)
APPLE TREE – A; PP (pianissimo, very quiet); LET; Really Excellent Earnings “initially”
12 Once hit in crash, vulnerable (2,4,3)
ON THIN ICE – anagram (crash) of ONCE HIT IN
14 Anger professional with very satisfactory English (7)
PROVOKE – PRO(fessional) with V(ery) OK (satisfactory) E(nglish)
15 Some hide ale, ruining trader (6)
DEALER – “some” of the letters of hiDE ALE Ruining
16 Kind of gene, extremely typical inside (6)
GENTLE – GENE, TL (extremities of TypicaL going inside)
18 Seaman in sub? No, transferred (5)
BOSUN – ok, I ridiculously misparsed this one at the time of solving: I had OS (Ordinary Seaman) in BUN (sub), and was prepared to accept the answer as some sort of term in psychology for transference of negativity. Or something like that. I knew I’d seen the word, though, as indeed I had, precisely datable to the 5th July last year, when I blogged QC 1128 by Tracy. So a bosun is in fact a contraction of boatswain, who is someone seamanlike, and is also an anagram (transferred) of SUB NO.
20 Higher after second drink? (3)
SUP – UP (higher) after) S(econd)

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1508 by Hurley”

  1. Like Vinyl, I spent too long on CR, and finally biffed TICKET, then immediately saw how it worked. I was slowed down by LOI TAWDRY; couldn’t think of a marble, and couldn’t come up with TAWDRY either. 6:09.
  2. The combination of 1ac and 1dn did for me as far as achieving my target was concerned but I had made a very slow start anyway with nearly 2 minutes passing before I wrote in my first answer. By that stage I had even found myself checking that I was doing the QC rather than the main puzzle. Once under way I made good progress before coming a cropper as mentioned above. 13 minutes in all.
  3. 18 mins.

    Held up by tawdry (nho taw/marble), gentle, and LOI ethnic.

    Some nice clues: Costa rica, theatre, annexe, ticket.
    But Cod roast as it was amusing and festive.

  4. 23 minutes, so about average for a nice puzzle with, as usual for Hurley, excellent surfaces.
    I thought of TAWDRY first time round but DNK ‘taw’ for marble – I checked it in Chambers but didn’t scroll down far enough (it is there).
    Last two were ANNEXE where I couldn’t justify the X until the penny dropped, and then ETHNIC where a careful separation of the definition from the wordplay was needed.
    Thanks to Hurley and rolytoly.

    Brian

  5. I was held up at the end by TAWDRY since I’d never heard of TAW (as a marble, or, indeed, anything else). And “poor quality” didn’t make me think of tawdry anyway. I think of that more as kitschy, or gaudy. I suppose there is an implication of poor quality in there, but it’s not the main idea. Or maybe I’m just moaning because I got held up by something I couldn’t see immediately. Wouldn’t be the first time.
  6. Some tricky parsing today but I managed to work it all out apart from 1d, which left me completely baffled. Like others TAW was completely new to me. Considering all of that I was pleased to finish in 10.37.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. Nicely inside 13 minutes this morning, so a middling difficulty on my scale. I was also slow to start, but then accelerated nicely and finished with TAWDRY. I had only a vague recollection of taw as a marble, but it was enough. As an old matelot, I had no problem with BOSUN, but rather liked Roly’s alternative parsing given in the blog.
  9. My only knowledge of TAW as a marble came from a dim memory of something said in Stalky & Co, even though I remembered it as “tor”. (On a post solve check my memory was right – “’Oh, I say, Flint. King has sent me to you for playin’ marbles in the corridor an’ shoutin’ “alley tor” an’ “knuckle down.”‘)

    Anyway, TAWDRY didn’t delay me long but ETHNIC and ANNEXE did, finally clocking off at 1.6K for a Very Good Day.

    FOI BUN (because it caught my eye as I picked up the paper), LOI ETHNIC, COD IMPLEMENT

    Thanks Hurley and roly

    Templar

  10. I got nowhere when I started from the top so I moved south and worked my way back up. Finally held up by the NW corner with 1a and 1d going in last. Like others, I had never heard of St Audrey’s lace or taw (despite growing up in the north. I liked ANNEXE and IMPLEMENT. A whisker over 3K for me today. Thanks to Hurley for a nice puzzle and to Roly for a good blog including help with TAWDRY (which I biffed). John M.

    Edited at 2019-12-19 09:45 am (UTC)

  11. Thanks to Hurley and rolytoly.

    11:33 held up by TAWDRY. Like others, I DNK the marble but was very grateful for the interesting etymology.

    Does 19A work if you take ‘dressing down’s most literal sense of removing clothes as opposed to a reprimand ?

    Edited at 2019-12-19 09:45 am (UTC)

  12. Like others, TAWDRY was my LOI, causing a significant delay which took me over my target time. Knew Alley and Penka(the big one, that Geordie lost) as marbles, but not Taw. A peculiar shift into particle physics saw me shove BOSON into 18d, but it didn’t look right, so another look at the clue added weight to the feeling it should really be BOSUN. EJECT was my FOI. 10:21. Thanks Hurley and Roly. Compliments of the season to you too:-)
  13. ….in which I never had a chance.
    The game was rigged, the deck was marked,
    I could not tell at a glance.”
    (“Walk on Hot Coals” : Rory Gallagher)

    I decided to submit online with matching time after successfully solving on paper – and pressed submit by accident with two clues missing. Smartphone submission is definitely not recommended ! I was within my target time.

    FOI ETHNIC
    LOI GENTLE
    COD TAWDRY

  14. “Tawdry” wasn’t my last one in, but I didn’t have a clue regarding the parsing until I read the blog. Overall, definitely above average for time – taking me about 45 mins.

    Apart from 19ac that took longer than it should, only other struggle was around parsing 22ac “Annexe”. Not sure I’d seen the use of “x” for “by” before (although it makes complete sense). For some reason, I also got stuck on 6dn debating whether it was “Nib” or “Nub”, even though the latter was obvious.

    FOI = 3dn “Eject”
    LOI = 16dn “Gentle”
    COD = 19ac “Lose One’s Shirt”

    Thanks as usual

  15. Hard going at first, but then speeded up. Had to biff TAWDRY, though. Entertaining. Merry Christmas to all.
  16. I had 1ac straight away (a totally different story for 1d) and four or five others on the first pass, though I did hesitate over Pothole until I saw the parsing. After that it was a fairly steady solve, with Tawdry my sloi – just couldn’t see the marble connection at the time. So at 25mins that just left 4ac with *t*n*c. At which point I hit a brick wall, thinking it had to start with an S and it was just a matter of working through the vowel combinations for the other two missing letters. It took me a full 5mins to eventually arrive at Ethnic. Invariant
  17. Although I did not get 1 down as, like others here, I had never heard of a taw. In fact, fooled by “poor quality, ” I tried to turn the letters of “marble ” into a word that meant “lacking interest. ” Well, that was never going to happen, as became obvious the moment I cracked 1 and 8 across! Lovely clues here, though, I thought. In particular, I liked 19 and 22 across. Thanks so much, Rolytoly and Hurley.
  18. LOI GENTLE – stood alone for minutes as I tried to see what was going on. Amazed at how dim one can be when the answer finally came – sometimes there’s less going on that you imagine! Took a long time over LOSE ONES SHIRT too. All right but I feel beaten by the setter today – a good puzzle!
    2. Same here…toyed with “Genome” for a while, thinking it was a mixed clue where the definition was part of the solution. The answer was much more straightforward.
  19. Experience with 1a and 1d the same with others, biffed in , hoping they were correct. 11a very relevant at present, new ones appearing almost daily with this weather, easy to miss at night. 30m so on target.
  20. …who knew “taw”. I have seen it in books, and have a feeling Tom Sawyer’s treasures may have included one, although given how many decades it is since I read that, I may well be wrong. Certainly in my mind I associate it with American usage from before my lifetime.
    Bizarrely I spent a few seconds struggling with “dry” rather the “taw” part, no idea why, but maybe shows a well constructed clue can still confuse if you have the GK.

    Edited at 2019-12-19 04:30 pm (UTC)

  21. Happily I thought of “dry” and then immediately saw TAWDRY, despite not knowing the marble. I was right on the wavelength for the rest of the puzzle, apparently, having romped home in a PB of 3:48! Somewhat makes up for my near-hour on the 15×15 this morning…
    3. Thanks! There must be something about the mild state of delirium brought on by man-flu that helps me solve…
  22. Very late here as ,unbelievably, I was able to play in our pre Christmas golf game. The weather relented just enough.
    14:53 for this. LOI was Roast after Tawdry (dnk Taw).
    Not that easy and not too hard; perhaps the perfect combination today. COD to Costa Rica, one of my later ones-in.
    David

  23. Well, I guess those airjet mattresses may be the answer to a lot of back problems in 2020! Here’s wishing anyway 😊

    I also clocked in at 1.6 K for A Good Day. I didn’t find this particularly straightforward so was surprised to finish quite quickly, especially as I’ve been struggling to get anywhere near 15 mins over the last couple of weeks. Some great surfaces – full of charm and nothing tawdry – with a few candidates for COD. I particularly liked Wastepaper bin, On thin ice and Pothole. However, like many others, I just biffed Tawdry – I had no idea what was going on.

    FOI Ticket
    LOI Tawdry
    COD Lose ones shirt
    Time 10 mins

  24. Well I managed not to 19a LOSE ONES SHIRT by biffing 1d TAWDRY but 19a was my LOI. Other than the tiny hiccup of initially writing in BONUS for 18d all was done and dusted in 7:29. Just the 1a.

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