Times Quick Cryptic No 1638 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I found this of very similar difficulty to yesterday’s QC, which I did just beforehand, taking a bit over 7 minutes for each – this was perhaps helped along by doing them after yesterday’s 15×15, which was a bit tougher than we’ve had of recent. I had to give 1ac, 1d and 4d a bit of thought, deservedly as they were all nice clues; ditto to 13ac, post-solve. I particularly liked 7d: easy but very neatly done. Many thanks to Hurley!

Across
1 Small piece about love seat that’s poisonous (9)
TOADSTOOL – TAD (small piece) about O (zero/love) STOOL (seat)
6 Concession press opposed in part (3)
SOP – presS OPposed “in part”. I’ve wheeled this out before, but here we go again: as in the phrase “A sop to Cerberus”. A sop is a piece of soaked bread, and a drugged one was given to Cerberus to allow safe passage to the underworld, hence it’s meaning as a bribe/placation/concession.
8 Those remaining, cunning, begin again (7)
RESTART – REST (those remaining) ART (cunning)
9 Part of church one enters lacking sophistication (5)
NAIVE – NAVE (part of church) I (one) enters
10 British university caricature represented as involving red tape? (12)
BUREAUCRATIC – B(ritish) U(niversity) and an anagram (represented) of CARICATURE
12 Counterfoil in small container (4)
STUB – S(mall) TUB (container). I was squinting at SCAN for a bit.
13 Remark on distinctive vocal sound (4)
NOTE – double definition. The second definition could be “a distinctive sound made by a bird” (OED), or perhaps a distinctive quality or tone in speech, as in: there was no note of remorse in his voice. I suppose it could just be musical… in which case, and if I didn’t care, then I would have come teasingly close to acting out the next clue.
17 Got “piano” clue wrong — showing no regrets? (12)
UNAPOLOGETIC – anagram (wrong) of GOT PIANO CLUE
20 Uninteresting musicians, learner admitted (5)
BLAND – BAND (musicians) L(earner) admitted/entered
21 With gin, rest, we hear, in bar at circus? (7)
TRAPEZE – TRAP (gin, as in for catching animals) EZE “we hear” the same as EASE (rest)
23 Viewer, part of the year (3)
EYE – “part of” thE YEar
24 Left-wing group cut term for animal (3,6)
RED SETTER –RED (left-wing) SET (group) TER (“cut” TERm)

Down
1 Change routine (4)
TURN – double definition, the second as in a short act on stage, etc.
2 Attack a sailor, by the sound of it (7)
ASSAULT – A SALT (a sailor) “by the sound of it”
3 Openings for staff, promising, at health centre (3)
SPA – opening letters of Staff Promising At
4 Annoyed when halves are switched in this production (6)
OUTPUT – PUT OUT (annoyed) with halves switched
5 Left on farm describing some forecasts (4-5)
LONG-RANGE – L(eft) ON (on) GRANGE (farm)
6 Quick writer, Jonathan (5)
SWIFT – double definition
7 After pressure get to give sermon (6)
PREACH – after P(ressure), REACH (get to)
11 Add fanciful details to glowing piece about French King and daughter (9)
EMBROIDER – EMBER (glowing piece) about ROI (French king) and D(aughter)
14 Missile I had briefly seen in river (7)
TRIDENT – I’D (I HAD, “briefly”) seen in TRENT (river)
15 Type of crossword unfinished by the French in confusion (6)
JUMBLE – JUMBo (type of crossword, “unfinished”) by LE (the, French)
16 Kind newspaperman’s fixed up (6)
SORTED – SORT (kind) ED[itor] (newspaperman)
18 A means of access for jeweller’s stone (5)
AGATE – A GATE (a means of access)
19 Behind Republican listener (4)
REAR – R(epublican) EAR (listener)
22 Drink said to be healthy in Bow? (3)
ALE – HALE (healthy) pronounced à la cockney (in Bow)

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1638 by Hurley”

  1. Biffed TOADSTOOL and EMBROIDER, and I realize now that I never looked at them again. 3:54.
  2. 9 minutes with LOI at 1ac where I was distracted by the clever use of ‘love seat’ – I should know how to lift and separate by now!
  3. I’ll have to agree with rolytoly that this was of similar difficulty to yesterday as I submitted all green in 18.00 for the second day in a row. Raced through this before crawling over the line, having only five left with nine minutes on the clock. It was TOADSTOOL and the words that fed off it that caused the problem as I searched for a synomyn for poisonous rather than an example – and that was after I finally decided which end the definition was. Didn’t quite like TURN for routine and although I knew what was going on couldn’t settle on a word to switch about for OUTPUT- thinking whatever it was might start FUL plus I was in theatres not factories for my production! JUMBLE also held me up (!) and I’d forgotten what AGATE is yet again.
  4. But with a typo so dismissed to the lower regions of the Table

    Couldn’t see 1ac or 1d straightaway so started from the bottom up. Got there in the end but probably not the quickest way to do it especially as a carelessly biffed EMBROIDED led to some temporary head-scratching for the animal

    Liked OUTPUT

    Thanks to Hurley and Rolytoly

  5. Enjoyed this, but thought I’d done a lot worse until I looked at the time. Was a bit scattergun with the first clues I completed so had a smattering across the board but managed to fill in the gaps fairly easily.

    FOI: restart
    LOI: agate
    COD: toadstool

  6. I had to move away from the NW to make progress but then moved along pretty well, or so I thought. Came to grief with TURN, RESTART, OUTPUT, and LOI TOADSTOOL, all of which were perfectly reasonably clues without my blinkers on. I liked EMBROIDER, TRIDENT, and LONG-RANGE. A fair puzzle but not a gift, even though the anagrams dropped out easily for me. I didn’t go a bundle on TURN and needed the crossers for JUMBLE. I was surprised to see 18.30 in the end. I blame a couple of hours of ‘Today’ on R4 for my brain freeze. Thanks to both, maybe I’ll recover tomorrow. John M.

    Edited at 2020-06-18 08:37 am (UTC)

  7. A mainly straightforward solve with a sting in the tail which involved staring blankly at the 1s and 4d for what felt like an eternity. Eventually TURN revealed itself which unlocked the others and I crossed the line in 12.05 with a feeling of relief. I enjoyed EMBROIDER but it was pipped to COD by TRIDENT.
    Thanks to Roly
  8. 23 minutes for another enjoyable QC, with four spent on my LOI JUMBLE after an alphabet crawl. I seemed to do a lot of it for this puzzle. Long anagrams are always difficult on the phone, especially when all the checkers are vowels as in UNAPOLOGETIC! I didn’t spot that SOP was hidden, so thank you rolytoly for pointing it out and to Hurley for the QC.
    Brian P
  9. Can’t agree that this was the same difficulty as yesterday – I’m ashamed to say this took me over two hours compared to 26 minutes. In my defence I wasn’t fully awake when I started it and I ended up drifting off for a while as I solved it in bed, but even when I was fully with it I had trouble with the NW. Not knowing exactly how to spell bureaucratic (I got the A and the U mixed up) didn’t help. I only figured that out when I got PUT OUT. I did consider OUTPUT, but the clue seemed to work better if the definition was ‘annoyed’. I’ve only just realised that had the answer been PUT OUT then it would have been 3,3 not 6 letters. That might have saved a bit of time. LONG RANGE held me up a while too, though I guess it shouldn’t have given I had the R and the E. I didn’t realise grange was a farm though. TURN took ages and even after I got that it took a long time to see TOADSTOOL. I think I need to get to bed earlier.
  10. I absolutely agree that this is about the same level of difficulty as yesterday’s puzzle. It took me 31 minutes and most of that was spent on the intersection of TOADSTOOL, my COD, RESTART and TURN. No reasons for my slowness as all 26 clues are straightforward and clear and most fell into the grid quickly. When I look at the fast times achieved by some solvers here, I almost don’t want to say how long it took me in case I look stupid. On the other hand, if slower people like me never put in their times then only the speedy will ever say how long they took and then maybe the judgement of difficulty levels might end up as unbalanced. So here I am! In addition to TOADSTOOL, 21 across, TRAPEZE and 24 across, RED SETTER, were rather neat, I thought. Thanks so much, Rolytoly, for the blog and thanks, too, to Hurley.
  11. ….a SWIFT finish by my standards, and I’m in positive Kevins today. Like others, I was held up by the 1’s and 4D.

    FOI SOP
    LOI TURN
    COD TRAPEZE
    TIME 1.06K

  12. Luckily 10 ac and 17 ac and Embroider went in straight away.
    Had to leave NW to last as some others did and couldn’t parse Toadstool or Trident.
    Liked Assault when I finally got it, also Output.

    Thanks to all, as ever.

  13. Like a few others I didn’t find this as easy as some of the faster solvers! It took 63 minutes in all, mostly held up by the combination of toadstool, turn and output. Having never seen a clue about ‘halves’ before, I did not understand what was needed for 4D and trawled through synonyms for annoyed and production for very a long time! Thanks for the blog and the QC!

    FOI: 3D Spa
    LOI: 16D Sorted, which I wondered about but couldn’t parse
    COD: A toss up between Trident, Embroider and Red Setter, but I particularly like the latter for being simple to parse even though I didn’t know that particular breed of dog.

    Edited at 2020-06-18 10:25 am (UTC)

  14. Similar to Roly et al I got stuck on the 1s and 4d. They were my LOsI. OUTPUT gave me TOADSTOOL which then gave me TURN. I have to confess to biffing quite a few i.e RESTART, EMBROIDER, TRIDENT and RED SETTER. I really wanted to put quicle instead of JUMBLE at 15d but the b checker sorted me out. Just over 9 minutes so within target. Thanks all.
  15. All done bar the 1’s in 2K … another full Kevin to crack those two. So in the end 3K and a Bad Day. Ouch! I have a vague sense of grievance at TOADSTOOL being defined as “that’s poisonous”. I suppose that the “that’s” is to be taken as indicating that you’re looking for a noun? But I was looking for an adjective for a looooong time. Not generous cluing!

    Otherwise enjoyed, thanks Hurley and roly.

    FOI SOP, LOI TURN, COD OUTPUT.

    Templar

  16. I was going swimmingly with all but three done in about 08:30; but then I got mightily stuck.
    The problems were 1a, 1d and 4d. I looked at these for about a further ten minutes when I had to break off to go for a walk.
    On my return I finally worked out OUTPUT, then TOADSTOOL was obvious but I could not get it from parsing first. LOI TURN, so difficult when you only have one letter. I did think of a stage routine but not the right synonym. So eventually all correct in around 30 minutes all told.
    Nothing unfair about this. COD to the fiendish 1d. David
  17. I started off with ASSAULT and SPA, then made steady progress, with a bit of a pause while I re-read the clue for 11d and quickly changed my biffed EMBELLISH to EMBROIDER. Last 2 in were UNAPOLOGETIC and then JUMBLE. 7:26. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
  18. Back inside target range at 14 minutes for me, despite confusing myself with the non-existent SETTUP for 4d initially – doh! I thought we might see a pangram when I spotted the J and Z, but we are three short (K, Q and X), although the X could be easily accommodated in 22d. TOADSTOOL and TURN were L2I after correcting 4d. Nice puzzle, good blog thanks.
  19. About 8 minutes, but with a typo (stray F for R) – I keep forgetting to check carefully before submitting. No major problem, though TURN did give me pause.
  20. I am continuing with my new(ish) hobby of making clues harder than necessary; 15d is a good example. I had the U, B and E, so the ending was always going to be – ble. However, I parsed the B as the unfinished B{y}, so I was left trying to think of a crossword (or even cross word) fitting *u*, before the penny dropped. That little diversion was in addition to the more significant delay with the 4d/1ac combination, where my ‘annoyance’ at put-out being clued as six letters was only relieved when Toadstool flagged up I had been looking at the wrong end of the clue (a much older hobby). Limped across the line after 30mins, bruised if not battered. CoD to 11d, Embroider, for the lovely surface. Invariant
    1. I wondered whether “crossword” could mean a swear word or something similar – but I eventually came to the conclusion it would have been two separate words.
  21. My FOI was 12a STUB so I thought this was going to be one of those days.
    However, I worked steadily through until my LOI AGATE at just under 18 minutes.
    I enjoyed the long anagrams but my COD goes to EMBROIDER which I too first biffed as EMBELLISH.
    Thanks to Hurley and Rolytoly for an enjoyable puzzle and blog.
  22. Pleased to finish today after quite a bit of thought and the odd spot of inspiration. A good puzzle, I thought.
  23. I thought it was a similar difficulty to yesterday as well, although I did manage it slightly quicker at around 30 mins.

    After abandoning the NW corner, the rest went in fairly steadily. Nearly biffed “Torpedo” for 14dn until I realised it wouldn’t parse and had a struggle with 15dn thinking the answer was “Puzzle”. 20ac “Bland” put paid to that.

    Working my way clockwise I eventually returned to 1ac, 1dn and 4dn. After exhausting my portfolio of poisons I eventually thought of a stool for a seat and the rest fell in from there.

    FOI – 5dn “Long Range”
    LOI – 4dn “Output”
    COD – 11ac “Embroider” – lovely surface

    Thanks as usual.

  24. … like many others, and limped over the line in 19 minutes for a Slow Day.

    Major delay over 1D Turn, and while that much I share with quite a few, I feel perhaps more strongly than some that this was not a good clue. It’s fair enough to have one half of a double definition less than straightforward, but while Routine and Turn is a tough synonym, Change and Turn are not synonyms at all in my book.

    Fortunately other clues made up for it and I liked 5D Long range, 24A Red setter and COD 11D Embroider a lot.

    Thanks to Roly for the blog.

    Cedric

    1. “We TURNED our old larder into a laundry room”
      or
      “The witch TURNED the handsome prince into a toad”.
  25. trawling to get JUMBLE from ?U?BLE (rolls eyes). Easy enough in hindsight, but it extended what should have been a 5 minuter to 6:43.
  26. We thought this was quite tough. We started slowly, speeded up and then slowed right down again in the NW corner. Of course we didn’t help ourselves by answering putout instead of output for 4D which lead us to the incorrect conclusion that 1A was an anagram of love seat plus P. As soon as we got 1D the answer to 1A was obvious. So, a really good puzzle today, thanks Hurley.

    FOI: stub
    LOI: toadstool
    COD: agate

    Thanks to Roly for the blog

  27. As with yesterday’s I started well and progressed quite fast. Like others I was slowed down by the NW corner but got there after a bit of thought. Really came to grief with 15dn which must have taken me about as long to see as all the others put together. Quite obvious in retrospect of course.

    FOI – 9ac Naïve
    LOI – 15dn Jumble
    COD – Quite a few to choose from but I liked 4dn Output (once I’d figured out which way round the clue worked).

    Thanks to setter and blogger for an entertaining challenge.

  28. Struggled with some of this. Biffed 11d as ’embellished’ and that didn’t help until I managed to parse the correct answer. Never managed to properly parse 24a red setter but having had several, one sat at my feet right now, I was keen for it to be the correct answer! Clever dog! Had the same difficulties as others here with the NW with LOI 1d. FOI 6a, COD 21a for the misdirection. No idea of time as this was tackled in fits and starts throughout the day. Regards to all.

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