Times Quick Cryptic No 1823 by Hurley

46 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1823 by Hurley”

1. Held up for a minute at the end considering PASS. Finally the expression “come to a pretty pass” came to mind and I felt confident enough to submit.

   Signed up for Project Euler! Let’s discuss!

2. …as I plodded along. Solvers over 60 sometimes blank out on words they know they know, and it took me a minute to answer the question: what is a famous wine-growing region starting with B? I knew I knew it, but I just couldn’t bring it to the surface. That’s why I’ll never be really competitive. Fortunately, Rockies and undignified went in pretty easily, and then it came back.

   Those who are interested in hearing from the Quickie setters might want to look at the interview with Paul Bringloe in this week’s Guardian crossword blog. Around here, he’s Wurm.

   1. Snap, as they say. I thought of Beaujolais (which for some reason is big in Japan), started typing it and realized it wouldn’t work, and blanked and moved on. Needed some checkers to finally come up with Burgundy.
   2. I enjoyed that interview, thanks for the link. Particularly the answer to the clue “Features editor”.

      Not easygoing today, some of the clues too complicated for me.

      Diana

   3. Having solved 22 clues in 28 minutes (fast for me) I proceeded to “blank out” for more than half an hour on SWING (10a) and UNDIGNIFIED (3d) – two very common words, even though I correctly had parsed both clues. I admitted defeat in the end and came here.
3. A technical DNF as I had to look up a list of wine producing regions, wine and its associated infrastructure being quite near the top of my list of things I find tedious.

   Wasn’t 100% sure about PASS but now the parsing has been explained it makes sense.

   Almost a third of my time was spent unscrambling ACCIDENT PRONE! For some reason I just couldn’t see it.

   Tough, enjoyable, and I learned something new (wine is made in Burgandy) which will surely only be of use in future crosswords, what else can one ask for in a cryptic?

   WB

   1. That will give you a red square!
      1. Thankfully I didn’t make the same error in the puzzle itself!

         WB

4. 11 minutes represents my third consecutive day missing my target 10.

   Once again we have a set of quite wordy clues and I think that may be the factor that throws me off balance as it often takes me little longer to identify the definition.

   My technique with the QC is to look for easy pickings, so if the answer to a clue doesn’t leap out at me I move on swiftly to another hoping that the next one will. Today I must have glanced at 5 or 6 clues before striking lucky with my first answer, but even then it didn’t establish a steady flow of others and I had to hop around the grid trying to establish new footholds.

   Perhaps I need to forget about target times for QCs and be prepared to spend longer on individual clues before deciding to move on. That’s generally how I work on the 15×15 where I note my starting time but then usually forget about the clock until I have completed the grid. This technique seems to be serving me well at the moment as I have achieved or bettered my half-hour 15×15 target every day so far this week, which reassures me that I am not suddenly losing my grip on matters cryptic!

   Edited at 2021-03-04 06:24 am (UTC)

5. I had the same MER as The Rotter on UNDIGNIFIED, but it seems OK now. 6:42.
6. Blame the crossword club app for my recent slow times, 27:48 today.

   The NE corner was the hold up. PASS is pretty obscure and only used in the two expressions quoted. If I used it on my 9 o’clock zoom call, it would be met with blank looks.

   Beaujolais and Bordeaux put me off the scent at 1a, and the concise ADORE was tricky, I never think of “ado” for fuss, although setters think of it often.

   COD: PETROL

7. I thought this was a good test. I had a sluggish start with my FOI being CASH IN, having earlier written in PASS and then deleted it. I found the bottom half more accessible and then worked my way back up to the top finishing with PASS and SHELTER. ACCIDENT PRONE took a while to untangle, as did the parsing of BURGUNDY where I also needed a few checkers before ruling out Bordeaux.
   Finished in 10.53 with my favourite being DENNIS
   Thanks to Rotter
8. I struggled throughout. Having got nothing entered after 13a I decided to switch to downs and didn’t fare too much better. Finally built from the bottom up. I thought I only knew one wine producing region beginning with B and once Bordeaux wouldn’t parse was a bit stick. I have heard of BURGUNDY and could see rugby but didn’t unravel the rest — well done Rotter! Finally crossed the line all green in 23. Nothing too hard in retrospect and no reliance on obscurities so I should be raving about this one but it seemed to lack a little sparkle.
9. … and it took me 14 minutes to solve. Several quite intricate clues to parse, such as 1A Burgundy (with B-R as my first two checkers I tried Bordeaux at first, as closer to the rugby-playing part of France) and 3D Undignified, both of which took time. As did the long anagram at 8A Accident prone, which I needed to write out in full to see (20A Thunderstorms, on the other hand, was for some reason a write-in. No idea why I saw one immediately and the other only after a struggle — does anyone else suffer from this random ability/inability to see anagrams?)

   LOI was the seemingly innocuous 5A Pass, but mainly because I saw it, was uncertain about it, left it until I had checkers to confirm it and then forgot about it, only filling it in when I came to check the grid for typos. Neither definition really sings for me — pass = get through seems weak (it more usually implies get round, though I suppose one can pass/get through an exam), and pass = difficult state of affairs is also to my mind questionable, as it relies on the adjective applied to pass — for example a pretty pass, as Rotter says in his blog.

   COD to 4D Dennis, bringing back memories from my childhood of the comic character Dennis the Menace. “Dennis sinned” is both a palindrome and a fairly accurate description of what he got up to each week!

   Many thanks to Rotter for the blog
   Cedric

   1. I do (very) occasionally see anagrams but, as they say, it’s the hope that gets you… 😒

      Edited at 2021-03-04 11:40 am (UTC)

10. My FOI was definitely not 1A which was my JCOD with ROCKIES. As seems to be my style, I lurched across to the right and proceeded clockwise, more or less, in a chewy but very enjoyable 44:33.
    Have been to both Alicante and Bali for work, Bali wins. No plan to attempt Euler, it will not make it onto the bottom of my pastime bucket list below learning to read a Thai menu.
    Thank you Rotter and Hurley for a tough but fair workout.
11. Very enjoyable puzzle today – lots to get our teeth into. Took us an absolute age to get UNDIGNIFIED but we stuck with it and finished in 19 minutes. The anagrams were excellent.

    FOI: Burgundy
    LOI: long
    COD: accident prone

    Thanks to Hurley and Rotter.

12. I just couldn’t make real progress in the NW after writing in BRASS. Then I fared no better as I went around the grid until things began to click in the southern half. I found some clues I had failed ro solve were actually very straightforward given a couple of crossers. I enjoyed the anagrams and I accelerated to finish with DENNIS (nice clue) and OVERRUN. These two completed my slight overrun into the SCC. I have never found a QC so difficult to break into properly.
    I admired many of the clues highlighted by others above so won’t repeat them all but I did like ROCKIES, SHELTER, and BURGUNDY. Thanks to Hurley and to therotter (especially for parsing PASS properly for me). John M.

    Edited at 2021-03-04 09:39 am (UTC)

13. A good week so far indeed, no pinks on QC or 15×15, running comfortably under 100 for the NITCH and WITCH on starstrucks wonderful new page on the SNITCH. If you do the 15×15 and haven’t tried it, it’s on the NUETRINO page just click on your name. Thanks Hurley and Rotter for untangling 1a and an excellent blog as usual. 1-0 against the Bees. Only fly in the ointment Swansea’s last minute winner at Stoke, I wonder if the ref would have given a penalty if the Bet365 had been full. OTBC
14. Got nothing until 10 across, and then wasn’t sure. Six acrosses on first pass was not looking promising. I found the downs a lot less opaque, and they then started to assist with the acrosses. All done in thirteen minutes, the long anagrams being clarified by the crossing letters. FOI swing, LOI Burgundy, easy with all down clues in place. C’sOD — I like the long anagrams, but really, I enjoyed all the clues. I found this satisfying as it was tricky to get going but then it flowed. Not able to join your new pastime, Rotter, too numeric for me. I read that someone (right handed, obv) had taught themselves to write left handed during lockdown so I gave it a try as a right hander myself. I was slow, but produced surprisingly legible results. I don’t think it’s worthy of being adopted as a new pastime, so I’ll stick to reading our stock of books in preparation for getting rid of many of them. I’m managing the 15 x 15 this week (famous last words) so I will give it a try today. Thanks Rotter for the blog, and Hurley for the entertainment. GW.
15. FOI: 12a CASH IN
    LOI: 5a PASS

    Time to Complete: 109 minutes

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 21

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 5a, 10a, 5d

    Clues Unanswered: Nil

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 24/24

    Aids Used: Chambers, Bradford’s

    Wow, this one was a struggle for me.

    4d. DENNIS – For such a long time I had DANIEL pencilled in. I saw the word LIED anagrammed in the name (transgressed), but I could not see how the AN would fit in. Then I got 11a (INSPECT), the I of which threw my Daniel idea out. It took me forever and a day to answer this one. In the end I had to look in Bradford’s Solver’s List for help.

    8a. ACCIDENT PRONE – For another long time I was looking at DANCE in the clue as being the anagram indicator. Eventually the answer popped into my head; God knows how as all I had was the first letter of each of the two words. Then looking back at the clue I was able to see that UNFORTUNATELY was the anagram indicator.

    5a. PASS – My last one in. By this time, I was at 109 minutes trying to complete this crossword. I had the letters _ A _ S in place, but the answer just would not come to me. I looked in Chamber’s under “get through” and saw PASS. But “state of affairs” confused me, and I could not see how PASS could relate to that. In the end I was so fed up with this crossword that I just entered PASS and hoped for the best.

    Officially my slowest time so far in solving the QC since I started attempting them back in December of 2020. However, my tenth completion, and my third in a row this week! The candy store had better have some brain soothing candy in stock. I need it!

    Edited at 2021-03-04 10:04 am (UTC)

    1. Well done PW, three in a row — wow! You’ll be blogging before you know it.
       1. Thank you Rotter. 🙂
16. Not helped by carelessly biffing Bordeaux at 1a at first.
    FOsI CAPITAL, THUNDERSTORMS, PESSIMISTIC, ROCKIES, RIGOUR
    Struggled with NE, always forget fuss=ado. Liked BRASS, CASH IN, PASTIME. Penny drop moment with ACCIDENT PRONE.
    Thanks vm, Rotter.
17. Back online today and finished in 10:03 with LOI SPURN.
    I too headed for Bordeaux first and also struggled with the excellent anagram for ACCIDENT PRONE (COD for me but other good ones too).
    All very fair I thought and a good test. For once the hiddens were obvious to me.
    David
18. I have done enough QC’s now to steel myself for a challenge when I see Hurley’s name come up!

    Have not heard of ‘pass’ in the context of a state of affairs, but guessed it.

    Got slightly thrown in 4D as ‘upset’ is usually an anagram indicator in my limited experience, rather than a vertical reversal indicator.
    Similarly, in 13A I assumed the ‘initially’ referred only to the word closest to it. I’d love to learn how to identify when ‘initially’ is an indicator for a series of words, if anyone can let me know.

    1. Alas, there is no surefire way of telling whether “initially” refers to the the whole string of what precedes or follows it, or simply to the one word before or after. I can only suggest you try both !
19. I lost the plot early on when after 4 minutes I only had BRASS in the grid. I think RIGOUR was my second one in and then I solved SE, SW and NE (PASS was a guess after a thorough alphabet trawl for something better). I gave up at 17 minutes with my LOI ROCKIES. I never did solve BURGUNDY (doh!). I think I was too fixed on the idea of the answer being a South African wine region that I had never heard of.

    Edited at 2021-03-04 10:55 am (UTC)

20. Having made a very confident start with 1a BORDEAUX, which fitted reassuringly with 1d BRASS and 2d ROCKIES, I then got totally bogged down with 3d UNDIGNIFIED and 4d DENNIS before I realised that Bordeaux didn’t parse at all! 20a THUNDERSTORMS was my favourite today.
    My second mug of coffee was decidedly tepid by the time I got all green at just under 40 minutes.
    I’ve had a bit of a slow week of it so,am a little apprehensive about tomorrow’s puzzle.

    Edited at 2021-03-04 11:25 am (UTC)

21. A good challenge which I completed steadily until left with 5a and 6d. Eventually guessed PASS which left A-O-E, so guessed ADORE having been put off by clue saying ‘fuss ABOUT worship’: isn’t it fuss OVER worship??
    1. About=”RE” as in the first part of an Email. Of course it also indicates an anagram, which confused me this morning.
22. At 25 minutes, this was definitely on the harder side for me. At one point, I nearly threw in the towel — but I find that the puzzles that I manage to complete when I have so very nearly given in, are often ultimately the most satisfying . I hesitated ages over my last two in, PASS and DENNIS. I could see that “pass” might work, but I needed the Rotter to spell out to me what was going on with The Menace. Similarly, UNDIGNIFIED, where I could see “dig” in there, but not much else. Ditto, BURGUNDY — very clever parsing indeed but, once I’d taken rugby out of the wine growing region, I was mystified by “und”. Still I guess it makes for a change from German “and”.

    Many thanks to Rotter and Hurley

23. I usually find Hurley puzzles quite tractable, but I struggled with this one, probably, as Jack mentions, due to the wordiness of the clues. Anyway after getting BRASS and DENNIS in the NW, I had to hop around the grid looking for inspiration, but never got into a rhythm. I eventually stumbled over the line in 15:36. BURGUNDY and UNDIGNIFIED being my last 2 in. Never did parse BURGUNDY, and as for others, I didn’t push Bordeaux or Beaujolais out of mind until most of the checkers were there. Thanks Hurley and Rotter.
24. Some of those clues made me feel like an England batsman trying to read an Indian spinner … and the torment started with 1ac, where I wrote in BORDEAUX, looked at it, decided it didn’t make sense, wrote in BURGUNDY, saw the anagram of “rugby”, decided it must be right but couldn’t make head nor tail of the rest of it! Thanks for the explanation, Rotter.

    Mostly reasonably accessible but at the end I was left with a clutch of tough nuts. Eventually SWING gave me the G I needed to see UNDIGNIFIED and then a trawl for LOI. Hard yards.

    FOI BURGUNDY, LOI SPURN, COD ADORE, time 1.8K for a Decent Enough Day.

    Thanks Rotter and Hurley.

    Templar

25. Well over 30 mins today — but got there in the end (although I wasn’t 100% sure about “Pass”).

    I thought this was another “tricky but enjoyable” puzzle. Main hold ups were 3dn where I was trying to fit in “United”, 4dn “Dennis” and 16ac “Pastime” which tempted me with “Passage”

    FOI — 1ac “Burgundy”
    LOI — 4ac “Pass”
    COD — 9dn “Pessimistic”

    Thanks as usual.

26. Hurley doesn’t usually cause me too many problems, but as Jack said, many of these clues were rather wordy and difficult to get into and I didn’t get anything until 12a. After that it was a fairly steady solve until I was left with just 5a and 6d at around 25 minutes. I had thought for a long time that 5a could be PASS, but having never come across the expressions Rotter mentioned in his blog, I didn’t want to put it in. Once I’d got ADORE it seemed more likely that it was PASS but I still spent another few minutes racking my brains in case there was something else that fitted. I gave up and went with it on 33:56. I never managed to parse BURGUNDY either. Overall very enjoyable though with COD to 4d. Thanks Hurley and Rotter.
27. Hard yards today. Like Oldblighter, I really struggled to get a proper start, with even the write-ins being unhelpfully positioned. And as for the long anagrams… Crawled home just north of 30mins, with a chunk of those parsing CoD 1ac, Burgundy — a real pdm when I finally saw what was going on. The Undignified/Swing intersection was another major hold-up. Invariant
28. ….and no real difficulties encountered. A decent offering from Hurley, and the usual quality blog from Rotter — although Euler isn’t for me.

    FOI BURGUNDY
    LOI UNDIGNIFIED
    COD ACCIDENT-PRONE
    TIME 4:36

29. Less than 30 minutes gone and just two clues to solve – 10a (SWING) and 3d (UNDIGNIFIED). One hour gone and the same two clues still remained unsolved, in spite of having parsed both clues more-or-less correctly and having filled a sheet of A4 paper with just about every possibility under the sun … except the correct ones, of course (Why does that keep happening?). I gave up at that point, despairing of my inability to extract these everyday words from my brain.

    Thanks, as usual, to Hurley and therotter (although parsing wasn’t the problem today).

30. Steady solve top to bottom in 5:38 today.

    Some nice clues — enjoyed burgundy and undinifiedbalthough I can understand the slight mer at the latter.

    >800 at both QC and 15×15 today — a very rare day for me.

    Thanks rotter and Hurley

    And thanks for the other link — as a retired IT guy I’ll definitely have a look at that.

31. It was like driving with the handbrake engaged.

    FOI 22ac ALICANTE

    LOI 10ac SWING

    COD 1ac BURGUNDY – my first thought was BORDEAUX where les rugger-buggers ruck et maul.

    WOD 16ac PASTIME for its quaintness – but there were no real nuggets

    I have been somewhat spoken for recently, but I do like to do the QC when Mr. Rotter is at the helm. His blog is ever thoughtful, useful, dryly witty and concise. He’s nice to Mr. Wyvern, and now we can get free Euler!
    I doubt I’ll have time to put my faded BASIC skills to the test as history is more my thing. I am presently wrestling with HMS Fernie and the Dieppe Raid. It cost thousands of poor Canadian boys their lives.

    Edited at 2021-03-04 02:54 pm (UTC)

32. A very late post today as I had not quite finished when I had to go out for a bit and then had a Zoom social. So no exact time, no LOI and no COD! Couldn’t really parse BURGUNDY but no problem biffing (or indeed drinking) it 🍷PASS went in with a shrug.

    Thanks Rotter for the Euler link — not my sort of thing but I think my husband might really enjoy it 😊

    Thanks also for unravelling some quite tricky clues, and thanks to Hurley too

33. Sorry that was me! I cleared my history yesterday and forgot to log back in 😒
34. Slow eating and parsing today.
    Too many biffs
    Not sure about hoing back to basic programming after umpteen years away from it
35. A second DNF – 4a Dennis/Sinner being my blind spot today – so annoying to have just one that frustrates the solve! I managed to unravel 1a Burgundy without too much problem. 5a Pass was well known to me from one of my favourite duos – Flanders & Swann: ‘Things have come to a pretty UNDERpass while we’ve been gone (New York}….’ and faintly surprised other F&S enthusiasts haven’t alluded to this – so a usage that always brings a warm inner smile to me. Needed more thinking than I expected on some of the simpler clues – Swing, Spurn, Long (was looking at L**P). Recognised some stalwarts in Capital and Shelter. FOI 1a Burgundy. LOI 21a Long COD 12a Cash In. Some really elegant clues too eg 6d Adore and Petrol. A good puzzle from Hurley and a helpful blog from Rotter.

    1. I’m a big fan of F&S, Andrew, as you may have noticed, but I can’t place that one. Part of the patter I assume? If so it may have been edited out of the recordings in my collection.

       I immediately thought of the opening line of the Gershwin song, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off as sung originally by Fred & Ginger:

       Things have come to a pretty pass,
       Our romance is growing flat,
       For you like this and the other
       While I go for this and that.
       Goodness knows what the end will be,
       Oh, I don’t know where I’m at
       It looks as if we two will never be one,
       Something must be done.

       You say eether and I say eyether,
       You say neether and I say nyther,
       Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
       Let’s call the whole thing off!

       Edited at 2021-03-04 11:12 pm (UTC)

Comments are closed.