Times Quick Cryptic No 1672 by Hurley

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

Finally, I didn’t choke! 5:33 is on par with my other times lately, and I’ll gladly take it.

Unfortunately, I was doing so well on time that I forgot I was going to try to do a more in-depth blog this week. Oops! Next week, I promise.

Solutions

Across

1 Large area, no doubt — maybe Asia, some suggest initially (8)
LANDMASS – first letters of LARGE AREA NO DOUBT MAYBE ASIA SOME SUGGEST
I guess this is an all-in-one (& lit) clue, although I’m not sure how “some suggest initially” works for the definition. Certainly Asia was always a landmass. Actually, wait, it can’t be that Europe and Asia merged. So Asia was never technically a landmass. Hm.
6 Got up [to display] national emblem (4)
ROSE – double definition
The rose is, of course, the emblem of the sovereign nation of Iowa.
8 Time of day to return unchanged (4)
NOON – a sort of & lit
NOON is a time of day which, when reversed, yields NOON. In the parlance: a palindrome.
9 Renegade can’t tour after review (8)
TURNCOAT – CAN’T TOUR anagrammed
10 Sweetheart[’s] lively valley do (8)
LADYLOVE – anagram of VALLEY DO
12 Recalling a number one island (4)
IONA – reversing A + NO. (number) + I
13 Pair, ignoring me, come up with article in French (6)
COUPLE – COME without ME + UP + LE (article in French)
15 Credit facility line (6)
CREASE – CR (credit) + EASE
17 End street work (4)
STOP – ST + OP (work)
19 Highlights importance [of] introduction of safety locks (8)
STRESSES – first letter of SAFETY + TRESSES (locks)
21 Something loathed in gymkhana, the mare? (8)
ANATHEMA – hidden in GYMKHANA THE MARE
23 Forgo leer every so often — this one? (4)
OGLE – every other letter of FORGO LEER
The definition refers to the surface reading, ‘ogle’ being synonymous with ‘leer’ as a noun.
24 Sadly it may fall — hurry! (4)
TEAR – double definition
‘Hurry’ as in ‘tear down the road’.
25 Nit-picking editor briefly in small room off kitchen? (8)
PEDANTRY – ED (editor briefly) in PANTRY (small room off kitchen?)
Trying to get me with gerunds again, are we?

Down

2 Fuss about vocab omitting British fruit (7)
AVOCADO – ADO around VOCAB without B (British)
3 Daughter with Yankee beau (5)
DANDY – D (daughter) + AND (with) + Y (Yankee)
I only knew of ‘beau’ as in ‘lover’, but apparently it can also mean ‘dandy’.
4 Skill at crossing river (3)
ART – AT around R (river)
5 Test racer smashed vehicle! (9)
STREETCAR – TEST RACER anagrammed
6 Welcome referring to Church the writer’s supporting (7)
RECEIVE – RE (referring to) + CE (church) + I’VE (the writer’s) underneath (supporting)
7 Country health resort, fashionable (5)
SPAIN – SPA + IN
11 Be out longer than intended [having] finished taking skins up (9)
OVERSLEEP – OVER (finished) + PEELS (skins) reversed
14 Dad’s Army, right [for] Elvis, say? (3,4)
POP STAR – POP’S (dad’s) + TA (army) + R (right)
16 Like Great Bear, some mariners tell a rookie (7)
STELLAR – hidden in MARINERS TELL A ROOKIE
18 Maybe past / worrying (5)
TENSE – double definition
20 Second trite idea [leading to] derision (5)
SCORN – S (second) + CORN (trite idea)
22 Commercial securing India[‘s] support (3)
AID – AD around I (India)

66 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1672 by Hurley”

  1. I biffed COUPLE, and for some reason put in OVERSLEPT, which of course delayed PEDANTRY. Beau as in Beau Brummell. I liked the definition of OVERSLEEP. 5:47.
    2. I also had Overslept at first, thinking -slept as an anagram of pelts. But there is no anagram indicator and as you say, Pedantry puts one right fast enough.

      Cedric

    1. Good grief, I managed to misread your comment totally! Sorry. Isn’t ‘large area’ the definition?

      Edited at 2020-08-05 02:53 am (UTC)

      1. So the definition is the first two words, and the wordplay is the entire clue?
        1. That was how I took it, I think; if indeed I analysed it once I had ‘initially’.
  3. 2 minutes at the doing (another) increasingly frustrated alpha trawl staring at _E_R.

    Also liked RECEIVE

    LANDMASS POI so with all the checkers didnt fully appreciate the parsing. Nice

    Thanks Blogger and Setter

  4. 8:21. Only held up by tear and LOI scorn.

    COD tear.

    Edited at 2020-08-05 09:36 am (UTC)

  5. All green in 13 to bring a temporary halt to my run of typos or doing the puzzle in the wrong place. Seven of the acrosses went in on the first pass with a bias to the south but without feeling totally foxed by any. Downs started well to give lots of checkers to tackle the rest. Couldn’t parse COUPLE except for LE, so thanks to Jeremy for reminding me of the importance of reading the clue and for showing me I didn’t complete the parsing of OVERSLEEP. Held up by the TENSE / TEAR pair in the SW and by unraveling TURNCOAT. Pleased to get NOON on first pass after TENET trials of a few days ago.
  6. 8 minutes. Would have been 7 but I lost some time spotting the parsing of COUPLE.
  7. Thought I had a chance to move slightly out of the SCC when I had all but 2 completed in around 7 minutes, but then I had to spend time thinking, and then trawling through the alphabet for TENSE and TEAR, leaving me all done at 15:09 – really frustrating.
  8. A sub 8 mins solve which could have been quicker if I had not misread the cluing for SCORN. The bottom half of the grid seemed to take longer than the top half. I biffed COUPLE and my LOI was STRESSES. I didn’t understand the surface reading in the cluing for OVERSLEEP but I have since looked it up. Thanks Hurley and Jeremy.
  9. I found this relatively gentle and solved it from left to right, with the exception of LOI TEAR. I briefly put in PEDANTIC until it made a nonsense of 16d. Finished in 9.14, particularly enjoying DANDY and TENSE.
    Thanks to Jeremy

    Edited at 2020-08-05 08:41 am (UTC)

  11. I found this tricky even though I had had a good warm up with the 15 x15 again – perhaps I should do them the other way round. Is it just me or is 23 a bit odd? I get that ogle means leer and that the letters are within forego and leer but what on earth does ‘this one’ mean? Thanks Hurley and plusjeremy.
    1. “This one” is acting as a quasi definition. It is a rather odd clue however.
    2. This is a fairly common sort of phrasing in clues, but this happens to be a pretty awkward example. Sometimes it’s called an “almost & lit” because the wordplay is the entire clue, but grammatically there is no definition, so we have to tack on a ‘this’ or ‘this one’ or ‘this cat’.

      The idea is that the clue should read something like, “Leer one forgoes every so often”, or “Leer one has to forgo every so often”, but now the wordplay doesn’t work.

      In order to make the wordplay work, ‘leer’ has to be popped into the clue: “Forgo leer every so often”, but now there’s no definition! So we need to add something to tell the solver that the definition is ‘leer’, the noun: “Forgo leer every so often — this one”.

      Again, this is a common style of clue, but I think it’s a bit awkward, as “this one” is a bit of a strange way to reference the word ‘leer’ in this context.

      Edited at 2020-08-05 11:39 am (UTC)

  12. I completed the top half very quickly with no gaps but then shared many of the trips and stumbles mentioned above, Finally finished in seconds over 15mins after decelerating at the end with TEAR, SCORN, TENSE. A good puzzle – plenty to suck you in thinking it was easy and them some barbs to snag you. Thanks to both John M.
  13. Very much enjoyed this puzzle. Finished in just under 18 minutes and it was fun all the way. It would have been quicker but, for some reason, I was stumped for far too long by 24 across, TEAR. I know it’s come up a few times as “hurry ” but I think I was foxed by the smoothly deceptive first half of the clue. But I have a parsing question. (Whenever I post these, the responses always make me slap my own head so we’ll see). Here it is : I can’t see how the English of I’VE in RECEIVE, 6 down, equates with the English of “the writer’s”. I could understand “I’m ” (except it would result in RECEIM! ) but not “I’ve “… Or even, at a stretch, “the writer’s supported ” but not “supporting”. Can someone help me, please? What (almost certainly obvious ) thing am I missing? Thanks in advance. And thanks, too, to Jeremy and to Hurley.
    1. I think it’s just I own/I have/I’ve holding up (supporting) the rest of the answer on a down clue.
      1. Thanks so much, both. Once I’d posted my question (and the role of the possessive apostrophe), I pondered a bit more and came to the same conclusion as the one you very kindly suggest here. I still don’t think it’s a great device though!
    2. I’VE – I was going to ask the same thing. I’d prefer MINE when I see this cluing. From memory, it does come up quite often so I’m ready for it!

      I can only guess it must be I HAVE, i.e. the writer has something.

      8:14 today for me as I couldn’t get going.

    3. I used to ask the same question back in the day! The answer is basically that apostrophe-‘s’ can also mean ‘has’. Think of, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”, for example. It’s not “he is”, it’s “he has”.

      So in this case, “the writer’s” = “the writer has” = “I have” = “I’ve”.

      1. Thanks all for the discussion: “I’ve” for “the writer’s” baffled me too. I was misled into thinking it was a possessive …

        Cedric

  14. with doubts about Ogle. Yes, what does ‘this one’ mean?
    LOI Tear

    Many thanks, as ever

  15. Third consecutive day over target at 17 minutes. TEAR was LOI, with TENSE just before it. Good puzzle, good blog, poor solver!
  16. Thought I was on for a PB as I rattled through the western side of the puzzle. However, I slowed down as I moved SE and eventually came in at a disappointing 27 mins, 5 mins of which came from an alphabet trawl of 24ac “Tear”.

    Lots to like though, including 15ac “Crease”, 6dn “Receive” and 19ac “Stresses”. Personally, I didn’t have an issue with 23ac “Ogle”.

    FOI – 1ac “Landmass”
    LOI – 24ac “Tear”
    COD – 11dn “Oversleep” (very clever)

    Thanks as usual.

  17. Most of this went in fairly easily, but the SE corner held me up for a while as PEDANTRY, STRESSES and LOI SCORN refused to come to mind. I finished on 31:02, so officially slightly over target, but actually quicker than I’ve managed for over a week. Looking back, more of them should have been write-ins, especially LANDMASS, but that’s usually the way isn’t it? CsOD to 13a and 11d. Thanks Jeremy and Hurley.
  18. After a promising start (1ac, 2d and associated offspring) turned into a steady plod, I was still hopeful of a sub 20 finish. Not today though, with the Receive/Crease and Tense/Tear pairings pushing me out to 25mins. Tense for past and Crease for line have come up before, so it was disappointing to be delayed by them, but then CoD 19ac Stresses definitely benefited from yesterday’s 1ac Distressed, so it’s all swings and roundabouts. Nice puzzle from Hurley. Invariant
  19. ….as I’m currently 5th on the leaderboard, and ahead of both Verlaine and Aphis99 (by a whisker !)

    S’wonderful to find no less than 10 S’s in the grid.

    FOI LANDMASS
    LOI TEAR
    COD PEDANTRY (my worst vice apparently !)
    TIME 3:33

    1. Ahead of Verlaine! Wowsers, you’re on fire at the moment, Phil. (May I be the first pedant to observe that that should have been “no FEWER than 10 S’s”?!)
      1. Welcome to your honorary membership of “PJ’s PEDANTRY ASSOCIATION” !

        You might also consider joining my “Bah Humbug Club”. There are lots of activities during December, but we begin earlier most years. Friends in the hospitality sector reckon I should kick off any day soon.

    2. May I be the second pedant, to observe that there are also no fewer than eleven Esses

      and, yes, brilliant time. I took nearly ten minutes but did manage a Severesque Clean Sweep

      Edited at 2020-10-09 07:40 pm (UTC)

  20. Great fun over a cup of rubbish cafetiere coffee. I can’t work out if I’ve just lost the knack of making it in a cafetiere or if espresso has ruined cafetieres for me. I’m now in the Highlands where espresso opportunities are thin on the ground.

    Very nearly the true clean sweep but had to revisit two – CREASE and TEAR, which required a trawl and it’s a loooong way from A to T. Some really neat, clever cluing.

    FOI LANDMASS, LOI TEAR, COD PEDANTRY, time 1.6K.

    Many thanks Hurley and Jeremy.

    Templar

    1. “it’s a loooong way from A to T.”

      If (when!) I have to trawl I always start at M 🙂 Works more times than it doesn’t … and really one should probably start with S and T and then go back to M.

      No doubt somebody knows the best sequence. But, looking at the spines of the full OED, S seems to be the clear leader!

      1. Have to admit – I started doing it in a different sequence after trawling and ending up at “W” a few times. If only I’d done it today I wonder have completed it a lot quicker.

        I’m sure the light speed completers have a very good idea of the frequency of letters in words and the combinations they crop up in.

  21. “I only knew of ‘beau’ as in ‘lover’, but apparently it can also mean ‘dandy'”

    Think of Beau Brummell!

        1. Beau Brummell was a “favourite” of the Prince Regent (later George IV).

          Edited at 2020-08-05 11:55 am (UTC)

    1. Not in the sense of holding up, but you do sometimes see supporting used to indicate things like pro- in a longer word.
  23. A steady solve for me, starting with ART and DANDY, and finishing with LADYLOVE. Managed not to exceed my target this time. Great time Jeremy! 9:02. Thanks Hurley and Jeremy.

    Edited at 2020-08-05 11:58 am (UTC)

  25. So much going on at Mayfield Towers last week that we ended up catching up on the previous 7 QCs yesterday and very enjoyable it was too. However, we much prefer to do the QC on the day it’s published as the blog and comments mean so much more. A big thanks to Hurley for a really good challenge which we completed in 16 minutes.

    FOI: landmass
    LOI: crease
    COD: tear

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog.

  26. Steady solve finishing in around 15 minutes, with no great hold-ups on the way. Didn’t manage to parse 13ac or completely parse 1ac (in the latter case having already guessed the answer from the last 4 initials). A very enjoyable puzzle so thanks to Hurley and thanks also to Jeremy for providing the missing parsings.

    FOI – 6ac ROSE
    LOI – 24ac TEAR
    COD – 19ac STRESSES

  27. Whistled through this by my standards but ground to a halt with 19ac. Needed an alphabet trawl but got it eventually.

    Favourite 11dn for the definition.

    Good puzzle.

  28. … as I stared at blanks for 14D Pop star, 18D Tense and 24A Tear for a good 5 minutes. Pity, because before that I was on for a very good time for me! As it was I limped home in 14 minutes. Most people seem to have found Tear difficult even with the checkers: I can reveal it is impossible without them!

    Minor query over “trite idea” = corn in 20D, and over I’ve in 6D (on which I have already commented, above). And what is it with our hair, with Tresses being included twice in very quick succession?

    COD 25A Pedantry, for encouraging the thought that editors might be nit-picking …

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog
    Cedric

  29. Third day running we have missed our modest 30m target. Joined the overslept brigade 11d, which caused problems in the SE corner, until then we were doing ok. Interesting to see tresses appear again for hair, so picked that up quickly. Hoping for better time tomorrow. Thanks Hurley for the challenge.
  30. … after a lovely day at the seaside but better late than never.
    Thanks to Hurley for this clever puzzle. I too struggled with the ‘I’ve’ at 6D and wondered about ‘this one’ in 23A.
    Other than those two, everything else was plain-sailing, leading to a 16-minute finish and I particularly enjoyed PEDANTRY, TENSE and OVERSLEEP.
    My WOD is ANATHEMA for being such a pleasant word for such a horrible meaning.
    Thanks also to Jeremy for his helpful blog.
  31. Hello, I don’t usually post here as I attempt the QC in the half hour before The Archers, by which time the regulars have all moved on. My query is the use of TA for army, which I assume refers to the Territorial Army that ceased to exist in 2014. How many decades have to pass before this usage disappears or will it linger in crossword land like a dinosaur?
    1. Don’t see why it should disappear as the abbreviation is still valid historically.
    2. … hmm, Shakespeare’s plays are getting a bit long in the tooth as well 😉
  32. There are some words that linger on in crossword land for decades after anyone has used them in earnest in a real conversation. Maybe even centuries for the really obscure ones!

    Cedric

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