Times Quick Cryptic No 1588 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A straightforward-enough puzzle, completed a couple of minutes under target. I was slow to see 1ac, for no good reason, and needed all the checkers for 8ac and several checkers for 10ac, but the rest was fairly 7d, so many thanks to Hurley! 

Across
1 They help you see clean contests, for a change (7,6)
CONTACT LENSES – anagram (for a change) of CLEAN CONTESTS
8 One stocktaking? (7)
RUSTLER – cryptic definition, as in one stealing livestock, with the surface implying a shopkeeper.
9 Musical instrument prohibition by judge, old (5)
BANJO – BAN (prohibition) by J(udge) O(ld)
10 Extremely simple, unvarying, way to produce TV programme (6,6)
SESAME STREET – SE (“extreme” letters of SimplE) SAME (unvarying) STREET (way)
12 Possibly painting European railway route (6)
ARTERY – ART (possibly painting) E(uropean) RY (railway)
14 Sir Isaac’s novel tone curtailed (6)
NEWTON – NEW (novel) TON (TONe, curtailed)
17 Church girl’s sacred vessel (7)
CHALICE – CH(urch) ALICE (girl)
19 Celebrates founder of communism, we hear (5)
MARKS – “we hear” the same as MARX (founder of communism)
20 Hospital thanks gift provider (5)
SANTA – SAN (sanatorium/hospital) TA (thanks)
21 Offence by Charlie before becoming genuine (7)
SINCERE – SIN (offence) by C (Charlie in phonetic alphabet) ERE (before)
22 Excitement as American writers visit southeast (8)
SUSPENSE –  US (American) PENS (writers) visit SE (southeast)
23 Section of most attractive figure (4)
STAT – “section of” moST ATtractive

Down
1 Cereal company supported by sailors (4)
CORN – CO. (company) supported by RN (Royal Navy/sailors)
2 Won seat unexpectedly? You’re welcome! (2,5)
NO SWEAT – anagram (unexpectedly) of WON SEAT
3 Initially athlete looks lively on arrival in Scottish town (5)
ALLOA – “Initially” Athlete Looks Lively On Arrival
4 Flop in the country (6)
TURKEY – double definition
5 Resentful state of English male had effect over period on hospital department (12)
EMBITTERMENT – E(nglish) M(ale) BIT (had effect) over TERM (period)
6 Faculty notice about new Society (5)
SENSE – SEE (notice) about N(ew) S(ociety)
7 Road tests, when arranged, agreeably brief (5,3,5)
SHORT AND SWEET – anagram (when arranged) of ROAD TESTS
11 200 like us saving gold in mountainous region (8)
CAUCASUS – CC (200 in Roman numerals) AS (like) US saving Au (gold). Given its origin, there’s a strong argument for abandoning the racial term “Caucasian”. You don’t see it very much any more, so I guess it is being abandoned.
13 Surrey town: agree it’s evolving (7)
REIGATE – anagram (is evolving) of AGREE IT
15 Downpour: worry, missing outsiders, in shelter (7)
TORRENT – ORR (wORRy, missing “outsiders”) in TENT (shelter)
16 Against observers using houses (6)
VERSUS – “housed” in the letters of obserVERS USing
18 Long periods entertaining Northern girl (5)
AGNES – AGES (long periods) entertains N(orthern)

51 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1588 by Hurley”

  1. I haven’t seen ‘Caucasian’ for decades, I’m happy to say. There’s also good reason to abandon the term ‘race’, which some setters have yet to do. Can’t remember anything about this puzzle other than biffing EMBITTERMENT, SHORT AND SWEET, and SESAME STREET [there, Horryd!]. 4:25.
    1. Fully agree on the term race, the whole concept having about as much validity as Blumenbach’s musings on Caucasians. As gcook says below, I think the only place I have heard it any time recently is in films or TV.
  2. Almost 30m to be the slowest of the all greens so far. All fair in retrospect but really struggled with the SW with only REIGATE, AGNES and SANTA going in without resistance. Started well enough but an unhelpful grid and lots of vowels as checkers slowed me up – as well as my own daftness, thought of VERSUS early but even though it was in front of my eyes couldn’t parse so moved on, perhaps having congratulated myself on spotting STAT I’d closed off that part of my mind. Also held up on SESAME STREET and although I had all the bits by CAUCASUS, just couldn’t work out what order to put the bits in – plus I was thinking OR not AU. This has done terrible thing to my week’s average solving time.
  3. 10 minutes with slight delays coming up with SESAME to go with the more obvious STREET and spotting the wordplay to confirm my biff at EMBITTERMENT.
  4. It took me a little longer than I would have liked to untangle the anagram at 1a but the time invested was worth it for all the first letters revealed. Other than that my main delays were CAUCASUS, especially the spelling of it, REIGATE, CHALICE and LOI RUSTLER where fell for the shopkeeper misdirection. There was nothing too tricky though and I finished in 10.13.
    Thanks to Roly
  5. Thanks Kevin-now I can read you like a book! (And not the Book of Numbers!) Time a healthy 6.50.

    FOI 1ac CONTACT LENSES which made life rather easy.

    LOI 21ac SINCERE

    COD 10ac SESAME STREET. Who didn’t like these Muppets!?

    WOD 13dn REIGATE where Martin Bormann lived for a while!!
    Before he buggered-off to Paraguay.

    2dn!

  6. A steady 24 mins. FOI 1a and off to a good start, then slowed. Not come across hospital = san before. COD 8a.
    Rolytoly – you missed a bit (ENT) at end of 5d!
    1. SAN may have provoked my first query on this blog maybe a dozen years ago.
      1. I am fairly sure that SANATORIUM is Morningside/Jean Brodie country and SAN is more Jennings & Darbyshire
        2. Well Jean Brodie would most certainly not have abbreviated it, but I’m not so sure about her girls.

          I enjoyed Jennings when aged about 11 but I tried re-reading one of the books last year in a quest for schooldays nostalgia and found it impossible to get through.

          1. Due to having so much time spare these days I am currently re-reading the whole set of Jennings- started the 5th one today in fact- still makes me laugh out loud!
            2. I read somewhere that some of the books were rewritten or expurgated (or whatever) to bring them up to date and avoid giving offence. Does anyone know more about this? The one I bought is certified ‘as originally published’.
              1. I had all the Jennings and Derbyshire books, and watched the BBC series as well. I remember them trying backslang as a secret code (the teacher became Retsim Snikliw).
    2. Short for sanatorium. it’s not much used outside Crosswordland these days, I think. It survived for many years in schoolboy literature of a certain era in which the ‘San’ would be supervised by Matron who could be sympathetic and kindly or a beastly dragon according to the needs of the story.

      Edited at 2020-04-09 07:22 am (UTC)

    3. Well spotted! Thanks. It’s a bit late to merit changing now, although I see (see below) I also forgot a bit of another clue.
  7. Enjoyable and mostly straightforward thanks Hurley and rolytoly. I do still occasionally hear Caucasian in US films and crime dramas unlike san short for sanitorium which is one of those words which only seems to exist in cryptic crosswords
    1. Ah yes, now you say it, I think that’s exactly where I’ve heard it any time recently (and thankfully nowhere else).
  8. Straightforward. There’s something satisfying about rattling in the answers. Under 10 mins for this. Good to see Santa coming early. The main puzzle has his big helper as an answer too. Don’t worry about the first few clues, the puzzle gets easier. Thanks to all.
    1. Thanks for the tip. I managed the 15×15 in ca. 40mins which is pretty good for me. I enjoyed it. John
    2. Thanks for the tip. I managed the 15×15 in ca. 40mins which is pretty good for me. I enjoyed it. John
  9. Like rotter, I marginally exceeded my target but this was an absorbing puzzle for this non-whizz kid. I didn’t get far in the NW at first, apart from 1d, so I took my usual circuitous route ending up with CONTACT LENSES, TURKEY, RUSTLER and NO SWEAT. I saw SESAME STREET as soon I twigged ‘extremely simple’ but EMBITTERMENT needed a few crossers. VERSUS took a moment longer than it should have and I needed a moment to parse SENSE. Many other nice clues. Thanks to Hurley and Roly. John M.
  10. Well I was outside my target range here at 17 minutes, and unusually for me biffed VERSUS, failing to spot the hidden. A bit of geography needed here with REIGATE, ALLOA, TURKEY and the CAUCASUS, but nothing too obscure or demanding. Thanks Roly and Hurley.
  11. And so ends my run of sub 10 mins solves this week. 1a was my FOI followed swiftly by 8a and 9a and then I had to pass on 10a SESAME STREET which was actually my LOI. The other clues that caused be some delay were MARKS, SANTA (too fixated on H for hospital), EMBITTERMENT, CAUCASUS and REIGATE (despite knowing it to be an anagram). 2.8K for a not so good day. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
    1. Ha! Yes indeed, good question… a friend was collided into by a jogger in a park the other day, just to make it a bit more difficult.
  13. Continuing my run of slow solves, but this one seemed more satisfying. Caucasus, Versus and Embitterment (didn’t like Bit/had effect) all took time to see, and only a final parsing sweep saved me from what would have been an embarrassing made up Resaler at 8ac. Ended up well north of 30mins, but a nice one to finish, with 22ac, Suspense, my CoD. Invariant
  14. Solving on paper after the dog walk today. FOI AGNES then raced around the grid from NW to SE, no problems. Just the SW left. Biffed DONOR at 20a wondering how it could parse. That was a big mistake as the recalcitrant R played havoc with the anagram at 13d. One of my best friends lives in Reigate and I’m often in that area so annoying not to get it quickly. I had to slow down and find Chalice and Artery to correct things before finishing with CAUCASUS (the most difficult clue I thought). COD to SANTA.
    Time was about 18 minutes after all the mishaps. David
  15. Hurley usually takes me up to or over my target time, but today I was more on his wavelength. CORN was my FOI, then a few more of the early down clues gave me CONTACT LENSES and I was off at a gallop. I worked my way from top to bottom and finished at REIGATE. 6:51. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
  16. Struggled through to the end eventually, once I got Caucasus and Reigate. Satisfying though.
    Many thanks all round.
    We had a san at my school in days of yore.

    Edited at 2020-04-09 11:13 am (UTC)

  17. Yes, it was short and sweet, and not too much sweat here today, which makes a pleasant change. At under 10 minutes, this makes for A Pretty Good Day 😊

    We had banjolele in the biggie yesterday (which was a stinker in my view). Here I liked contact lenses, no sweat (the anagram didn’t jump out straightaway), and Reigate. It did make me wonder what it might evolve into 😉 As usual the hidden at 16d took a bit of seeing! So it wasn’t a complete walk in the park (what’s one of those?)

    FOI Banjo
    LOI Versus
    COD Rustler
    Time 9:10

  18. Well, we fairly zipped through one this until we took much longer than we would have liked to spot Caucasus and sincere. We’re particulars enjoying this week’s offerings – sometimes it’s nice to have a few puzzles that you don’t have to sweat over. However, secretly, we just love a toughie – we’re expecting one any day now…..

    FOI: contact lenses
    LOI: sincere
    COD: rustler

    Happy days

  19. IYSWIM.

    7:19 to bring me back into a reasonable K range.

    Ashamed to say that I biffed my LOI, VERSUS, to discover it was a hidden. EMBITTERMENT was tremendously convoluted, and the surface could be construed as a commentary on the performance of the last few ministers of health, given the seemingly parlous state of the NHS during the current crisis.

  20. Great fun puzzle, another one this week which seemed fairly straightforward. The result was 1.6K and a Very Good Day (my standards are obviously slacker than PB’s). Eldest son solved this one too, he is very pleased. We both (independently) had a struggle to remember how to spell CAUCASUS and had to trust the wordplay.

    Jennings was marvellous but I must admit to a sneaking preference for Bunter. Yarooh!

    Thanks Hurley and roly.

    Templar

  21. My first post for a while. Question: Why is it that sitting at home all day with nothing to do makes me so busy? Answer: Mrs Meadvale is also at home all day, finding things to do.
    No problems at all with this one, cruised home in 5’ish.
    Many thanks to Hurley and Roly.
  22. About 30 mins again for me – but I enjoyed this. Quite a few clues with lots of elements to stick together.

    1ac came quickly, as I wear them as did 8ac “Rustler” (is this a chestnut? Always seems to be the answer when stocktaking is involved).

    Only quibble was “bit” for “had effect” – can’t really see the context, but hopefully someone will enlighten me.

    FOI – 1ac “Contact Lenses”
    LOI – 21ac “Sincere”
    COD – 23ac “Stat” – nice surface

    Thanks as usual.

  23. ….SHORT AND SWEET – indeed I suffered a degree of EMBITTERMENT as a result of being slower than Kevin for the second day in succession (1.09K).

    The problem was caused entirely by unaccountably failing to crack my LOI for almost a full minute.

    FOI CONTACT LENSES
    LOI TURKEY
    COD EMBITTERMENT (a Boris reference ?)

    1. As per my post, I thought Health Ministers, rather than Johnson specifically! Definitely seemed a topical surface though..
  24. This seemed to suit us with the two long anagrams going in quickly. Got 5d without parsing, slowed down by the sw corner, but just over 20 m is vg for us.
  25. Didn’t get versus and I see others struggled to spot it. Don’t normally get beaten by a hidden clue so hats off there. Longer than average and 2 errors but a few new terms for me. Nice puzzle.
    1. Funnily enough I was down to my last two clues and noticed none of the previous ones had been a hidden clue. So I thought at least one of them might be and luckily it was “versus”.
  26. 14.5mins, held up by LOi sesame St.
    C is for cookie etc.

    Had Blankety Blank in my mind…

    Cod no sweat.

  27. … as I went from NW corner to NE to SE before grinding to a bit of a stop in the SW. Where a couple of minutes’ cogitation were required before LOI 16D Versus went in, leaving me a smidge under 10 minutes. Which these days counts as a Good Day.

    It didn’t hold me up, but a question to more experienced solvers if I may: is it normal for the anagram to take only some of the letters in a word? I’m thinking of 13D, where one had to knock the S off [agree it’s] to get the letters for Reigate.

    A very nice puzzle; thank you to Hurley and to Roly for the blog.

    Cedric

    1. The punctuation does it…AGREE IT is (‘s) evolving. At least that’s how I see it.
    2. Yes sorry the blog wasn’t very clear on that – hopkinb has it exactly right: the anagram indicator is “is evolving”, abbreviated to “‘s evolving”. It’s useful to remember as it crops up a fair bit.
  28. Rather late to be pointing this out, but it’s an anagram of ROAD TESTS WHEN.
    1. Ah yes, so it is, well spotted – I think you’ve provided an exact indication of how many people troubled themselves to read the parsing of it!

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