Times Quick Cryptic No 1892 by Hurley

Author   plusjeremyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Introduction

DNF, on account of 16 Down.

Solutions

A brief summary of cryptic crosswords —feel free to skip— :

  • Each clue has at least one “definition”: an unbroken string of words which more-or-less straightforwardly indicates the answer. A definition can be as simple as a one-word synonym; but it can also be a descriptive phrase like ‘I’m used to wind’ for REEL or SPOOL. A definition by example must be indicated by a phrase like ‘for example’, or, more commonly, a question mark (?). Thus ‘color’ is a definition of RED, while ‘red, for example’ or ‘red?’ are definitions of COLOR. Punctuation is otherwise irrelevant. Proper nouns will appear capitalized, but otherwise capitalization is irrelevant as well.

  • Each clue may also have an unbroken string of words which indicates the answer through wordplay, such as: using abbreviations; reversing the order of letters; indicating particular letters (first, last, outer, middle, every other, etc); placing words inside other words; rearranging letters (anagrams); replacing words by words that sound alike (homophones); and combinations of the above. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but the general theme is to reinterpret ordinary words as referring to letters, so that for example ‘lion’s head’ indicates the first letter of LION: namely, L.

  • Definitions and wordplay cannot overlap. The only other words allowed in clues are linking words or phrases that combine these. Thus we may see, for example: “(definition) gives (wordplay)” or “(definition) and (definition)” or “(wordplay) is (definition)”.

  • The most common clues have either two definitions, or one definition plus wordplay, in either order. But a single, very misleading definition is not uncommon, and very occasionally a definition can also be interpreted as wordplay leading to the same answer. Triple definitions (and more) are also possible.

My conventions in the solutions below are to underline definitions (including a defining phrase); put linking words in [brackets]; and put all wordplay indicators in boldface. I also use a solidus (/) to help break up the clue where necessary, especially for double definitions without linking words.

After the solutions, I list all the wordplay indicators and abbreviations in a Glossary.

Across

1   Bad beer, old pal? Very bad! (10)
DEPLORABLE = anagram of BEER OLD PAL

8   Fierce swimmer Private Investigator / fled — that’s funny! (7)
PIRANHA = P.I. + RAN + HA

9   Fast-moving / group of ships (5)
FLEET = double definition

10   Having pale greyish colour when / extremely hoary (4)
ASHY = AS + first and last of HOARY

11   Speak contemptuously of redesigned title belt, unfinished (8)
BELITTLE = anagram of TITLE BELT without the last letter

13   Parent at / end of term, different (6)
MOTHER = last letter of TERM + OTHER

14   Honorary secretary in university departs (6)
UNPAID = P.A. in UNI + D

17   Case involving United closed — a learning experience (8)
TUTORIAL = TRIAL around U + TO

19   London architect[’s] songbird (4)
WREN = double definition
Christopher Wren (1632–1723)

21   Hospital in transaction [for] source of gas (5)
SHALE = H in SALE

22   Bomb danger at sea / ultimately preventable (7)
GRENADE = anagram of DANGER + last letter of PREVENTABLE

23   Those voting in the lector at evensong? (10)
ELECTORATE = hidden in THE LECTOR AT EVENSONG

Down

2   Oddly abandoned repairs before attempt [to find] range of sound (7)
EARSHOT = REPAIRS without odd-numbered letters + SHOT

3   This might help you see / French industrial town (4)
LENS = double definition

4   One travelling in Cairo — American (6)
ROAMER = hidden in CAIRO AMERICAN

5   Help [in] rewrite of brief, then finish (8)
BEFRIEND = anagram of BRIEF + END

6   Day before / National Trust[’s] planned occasion (5)
EVENT = EVE + N.T.

7   Head count at ball around two hours before midnight? (10)
ATTENDANCE = AT + DANCE around TEN

8   Rearranged AGM imparts realistic approach (10)
PRAGMATISM = anagram of AGM IMPARTS

12   Get back about / the rose at outset, / that is very English! (8)
RETRIEVE = RE + first letters of THE ROSE + I.E. + V + E

15   Alongside an animal, crossing river (7)
ABREAST = A BEAST around R

16   Dismissed at Lord’s, Charlie, over anything at all? (6)
CAUGHT = C + AUGHT

18   Wind up hearing sound of Northern river (5)
TEASE = homophone of TEES

20   Costly article secured by the German (4)
DEAR = A in DER (‘the’ in German)

Glossary

Wordplay indicators

‘s = linking word
around = containment
at = next to
at outset = first letter
at sea = anagram
bad = anagram
before = next to
crossing = containmenmt
end of = last letter
extremely = first and last letters
(to) find = linking word
for = linking word
hearing sound of = homophone
in = containment
in = hidden word
in = linking word
involving = containment
oddly abandoned = remove odd-numbered letters
over = before, in a down clue
redesigned = anagram
rewrite = anagram
secured by = containment
then = next to
ultimately = last letter
unfinished = remove last letter

Abbreviations and little bits

about = RE
article = A
Charlie = C
closed = TO
day before = EVE
departs = D
English = E
hospital = H
National Trust = NT
private investigator = PI
river = R
secretary = PA
that is = IE
that’s funny = HA
united = U
university = UNI
very = V
when = AS

54 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1892 by Hurley”

  1. I really struggled to complete this within my 10-minute target to continue my run of success, and made it just, but only by ignoring that I had two clues unparsed as time ran out. These were my last ones in, RETRIEVE and TUTORIAL.

    Edited at 2021-06-08 11:54 pm (UTC)

  2. RETRIEVE took me a moment to figure out, otherwise it was fairly smooth going. ELECTORATE has to be the worst hidden I’ve seen; I mean, I actually spotted it at once. 6:16.
  3. Being American (English mother) I played cricket at school in Boston – 16dn was a write-in. Went to Lords last week-end for the first NZ Test – Whatever 10cc sang! 4.49
  4. And a cicketer. That bodes interesting! Love that ‘Crittall’!

    FOI 19ac WREN

    LOI 13dn DERRIERE!!

    COD 14ac UNPAID

    WOD 8dn PRAGMATISM!

    Time 13 minutes

    1. Your LOI no doubt has many qualities, but existence is not one of them.
  5. All green in 13. Slightly worried when I had to pass over the first two clues before getting a better than average seven on the first pass of acrosses. All then went well until the last few — ABREAST (looking for a type of animal); TEASE (no excuse, just dim) and finally UNPAID (took too long to separate ‘unpaid’ from ‘secretary, well played Hurley!). Enjoyed constructing RETRIEVE which I did from the bottom up and TUTORIAL but only in retrospect because it went in unparsed and I needed Jeremy’s guidance to see how it worked.
    1. Since you have detailed all I would have written I shall merely state that I took 33 mins to maintain my position in the SCC. Mind was preoccupied on getting out press releases celebrating much welcome success which may have been a distraction, or vice versa.
  6. I was clearly on Hurley’s wavelength this morning as I sailed through this one. I was helped by DEPLORABLE and PRAGMATISM going straight in, which opened up the grid nicely and their offshoots quickly followed.
    My only hold up was trying to work out where the ‘to’ in TUTORIAL came from, and eventually left it unparsed.
    Like Kevin, I thought that ELECTORATE was an odd clue and had to double check that I’d read it correctly.
    An enjoyable puzzle that I finished in 6.51 with LOI ATTENDANCE.
    Thanks to Jeremey

  7. FOI: 1a. DEPLORABLE
    LOI: 7d. ATTENDANCE

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 19

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 17a, 7d

    Clues Unanswered: 14a, 15d, 18d

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 21/24

    Aids Used: Chambers

    I got the top half of the puzzle in quickly but slowed down in the lower half.

    5a. – BEFRIEND. I saw the anagram but could not see how befriend = help. I guess it must be a meaning of help I have not heard of before. To me, befriend meant to become friends with. However, it clearly was the answer and so in it went.

    2a. EARSHOT – Another one that caused me to hesitate before entering. I guess the range of sound would be within earshot.

    3d. LENS – I have never heard of this town, but it just had to be Lens.

    I was disappointed not to have finished as I was on track to beat my personal best. I must have been distracted by all those metal objects sticking to the site of my second covid jab I had yesterday.

    1. I only know Lens from the football team. I thought they’d been French Champions quite recently but it turns out to have been 1998 — how time flies!
  8. Around 15 minutes today, but biffed 17AC — even with Jeremy’s explanation I can’t see why CLOSED = TO — can anyone shed some light?

    Pb

    1. To is a word found in the Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary under Closed. I too am not sure how it works though
        1. Yes, I think you are right. My mum used to say “close the door to” when I was a kid.
    2. I agree with the posters above — ‘pull/push the door to’ was a standard request always used by my mother’s generation in Northern England. However, it was not used to mean fully ‘closed’; simply a request to leave the door almost closed (but enough to keep most of the draught or noise out).
    3. I agree with the posters above — ‘pull/push the door to’ was a standard request always used by my mother’s generation in Northern England. However, it was not used to mean fully ‘closed’; simply a request to leave the door almost closed (but enough to keep most of the draught or noise out).
  9. Was on the wavelength today, fortunately. But every time I solved a clue, the only checkers I achieved all seemed to be mostly the letter ‘e’, e.g. FOI EVENT.
    PRAGMATISM did help though.
    LOsI. CAUGHT, ABREAST
    Thanks vm, Jeremy.
  10. Another single letter error as I started to fill in PRAGMATIC, then ran out of letters and entered PRAGMATIST, it felt a bit wrong but never went back to it.

    Spend 5 mins on the UNPAID/ABREAST pair. Various dead ends such as LSE, HON, SEC, AIDE before PA came to mind. Very clever clueing. And of course ‘river’ means a trawl through short river names such as PO, USK, EXE, OB

    COD ATTENDANCE, although we have seen that “At Ten” device before. One to remember.

  11. … but would have been much closer to 8 or 9 except for my LOI 14A Unpaid. Failed for some time to separate Honorary and Secretary and could not see how the clue worked.

    Otherwise this went well and I was pleased to construct 12D Retrieve from the cluing — quite a lot of moving parts there. Aught (in 16D) is an interesting word — various sources suggest that as well as meaning “anything at all” it can mean “nothing”. Or even “all”, as in the phrase “For aught I know”. Truly an “all or nothing” word.

    Thanks to Jeremy for the blog
    Cedric

  12. A good run today at 20 mins, would have been faster if my brain hadn’t rejected the, correct, anagram answer at 1A which I then skipped to come back to, then realising I had been right first time. But I try to do all anagrams in my head to keep the cells moving. Groan at ATTENDANCE and a little time assembling the parsing of RETRIEVE .
  13. ABREAST, TEASE, SHALE, UNPAID and RETRIEVE, all causing a good old head scratch. No complaints, I think I have temporarily lost my touch at the QC post Monday’s PB, but improving on the 15×15, which I will have a go at later.

    12:28

  14. 09:25 for me with over a minute at the end undoing TWINE at 18d -it sounds a bit like Tyne. I then had a brief blank on other Northern rivers.
    Others late in were CAUGHT and RETRIEVE (I’ll make that COD).
    Not easy for foreign solvers perhaps but a good quality puzzle IMO.
    David

  15. I started with EVENT and FLEET and made steady progress, finishing with ABREAST. Took a while to see what was going on with RETRIEVE. 7:47. Thanks Hurley and Jeremy.
  16. DNF today. Everything was fine until I hit a brick wall after maybe 15 or a few more minutes with just 14a and 15d to get. After staring at them for quite a while, probably another 15 minutes, my early start, 7.5 mile run and a warm room, conspired to shut my brain down altogether. When I came to, I managed to think of ABREAST, but 14a still wouldn’t come. I should have thought of PA for secretary, but I’m not too annoyed with myself because for some reason I have never equated “honorary” with “unpaid”. It seems obvious now, but I can see why the definition eluded me and I am pleased to have filled in a gap in my knowledge. Anyway, COD to SHALE. Thanks Jeremy and Hurley.
  17. Started this as my husband started to knead the bread which takes ten minutes, and he challenged me to finish before the timer went off to tell him his kneading was done. The timer went off and I was still some way from solving everything here. Once I had completed I asked for a time – 13 minutes 30 secs. One way of getting a time. FOI fleet, LOI tease. COD piranha. Two animals for me today. Unparsed – unpaid, tutorial. NHO Lens in France – used only the first part of that clue. Thanks, Jeremy, and Hurley. GW.
  18. A pleasant 22 mins today, although I struggled to parse 13ac “Mother” (obvious now I’ve seen it) and the previously mentioned 17ac. For a while I also had “Nought” at 16dn until I sorted out the checkers and realised there had to be a “c” in there somewhere.

    Definitely on the right wavelength as the longer clues seem to go in fairly easily. Dappled with “Lyon” for 3dn, but couldn’t make it work, and wasted time wondering whether a grenade is really a bomb.

    FOI — 1ac “Deplorable” (a rare long word First solve)
    LOI — 17ac “Tutorial”
    COD — 14ac “Unpaid”

    Thanks as usual!

    Edited at 2021-06-09 10:38 am (UTC)

  19. Zipped through this then stuck on 14a & 15d which took some time to fathom. Not sure about ASHY – isn’t ASHEN more usual? Guessed TUTORIAL – thanks for explanation!
  20. Had a good run at this, and was on schedule for a sub-20, but my last pair Tease/Tutorial just pushed me a minute over — parsing the ‘to’ was the killer. Unpaid actually went in without too much difficulty, albeit with the N and D crossers in place. CoD to the nice surface in 22ac, Grenade, which only became obvious once I saw what was at sea. Invariant
  21. Like Plett I started off very quickly with DEPLORABLE and PRAGMATISM going straight in. There were some half biffs including UNPAID, TUTORIAL and ATTENDANCE and I parsed MOTHER incorrectly assuming it was an anagram. I was slowed by my last two in TEASE and finally ABREAST….not a bat or bear then! 7:58
  22. A DNF for me too, sadly; like others simply could not fathom UNPAID and ABREAST – the latter where I spent rather a long time combining various animals with the letter R.
    3. Dear Mr Ed,
      I’m so sorry to hear you suffered a TIA. All the best for a full recovery, and do keep plugging away at these infuriating QCs.
      Mr Random
  23. Ed, I was most concerned to hear of your attack, may you quickly recover from this. Looks like your facilities are unimpaired. May I be the first to wish you well. God bless.
    Sincerely horryd
  24. Some nice clues that needed thought but thankfully not too much today including Loi UNPAID which appeared from the checkers once I followed the instructions.

    Managed to do all the anagrams quickly for a change which helped

    I know the “to” sense of “closed” from the 15 x 15 which also helped

    Thanks Hurley and Jeremy

  25. 6:01. I tend to find that Liz’s puzzles have a couple of tricky clues that trip me up and today I hesitated over 7 d “Attendance”, 15 d “Abreast” (was trying to parse athwart briefly) and 16 d “Caught” where I was seeking a 6 letter word beginning with “out”). Clueing very fair as ever, so no complaints or MERs.
    COD 12d “Retriever”.
    Thanks to Jeremy and setter
  26. I don’t think ‘to’ is a valid synonym for ‘closed’ in 17a. The phrase ‘pull the door to’ is surely a shorthand or abbreviated way of saying ‘pull the door to the closed position’. Didn’t stop me getting the answer but left me unable to parse it!
    1. Anon, this is a debate that has come up before but if you are a newbie you may not have seen it. ‘To’ is well supported in the usual sources as meaning both ‘closed’ and ‘nearly closed’ (ajar). IIRC it may be a UK regional thing. In my world it always meant ajar.
  27. 30 minutes, but quite straightforward so it shouldn’t have taken so long. Thanks to those in the comments above who helped me TO see where on earth TO came from in TUTORIAL.
  28. ….which didn’t cause too many problems, although I only parsed TUTORIAL afterwards.

    FOI DEPLORABLE
    LOI UNPAID
    COD TEASE
    TIME 3:56

  29. I couldn’t see the wordplay for 17, so thanks for the explanation. All correct today after an error yesterday, so I’m 2 from 3 this week.
  30. … I reached three clues to go so quickly that a PB was on the cards. Then, it all came to a shuddering halt.

    I had entered SHELL instead of SHALE and it took me 25 minutes or so for it even to cross my mind that I might have erred on this clue (SHELL appeared to fit the clue perfectly), so TEASE, TUTORIAL and RETRIEVE all just remained out of my reach. Fortunately, I didn’t throw in the towel and I finally spotted my mistake, eventually finishing correctly in 40 minutes. Not a bad time for me, but it could have been so much better.

    Mrs Random had no such trouble with either puzzle and beat me fair and square on both, although I don’t have her times to hand at the moment. She also very gently reminded me that the Izetti clue that beat me (KEYBOARD – I put PEGBOARD) also beat me in exactly the same way some weeks ago. Galling!

    Many thanks to Hurley and plusjeremy today, and to Izetti and chrisw91 for yesterday’s QC.

    1. I had PEGBOARD too yesterday and was surprised nobody else had made that error. Pleased to find that I wasn’t alone after all!!! MM
  31. Very late post today as I’ve been out for a walk/ coffee / long chat in the park with a friend in lovely sunshine 😊 Did this in the morning on my tablet so have exact time of 10:05, so pretty much on target. Didn’t bother to fully parse RETRIEVE as I was in a hurry, otherwise everything else seemed straight forward.
    FOI Fleet
    LOI Retrieve (I think)
    COD Unpaid

    Thanks Hurley and Jeremy

    Took me a few minutes to get why Pitcaithlie referred to Liz’s puzzles 😅

  32. Done. Almost caught out by one of those darned cricketing terms in CAUGHT. That was my LOI. FOI was 1ac DEPLORABLE. Overall a wee bit tricky but not fearsome, and completed in 15 minutes with one eye on the news. Sigh.
  33. I just wanted to say thanks to Jeremy for such a wonderfully detailed explanation today.
    I have been following this blog for a while now, trying to unravel the secrets of the cryptic crossword, and this really helped. Many thanks.
  34. DNF 14A UNPAID. Thought this a very poor clue. Poor definition- unpaid is not a definition of honorary but an attribute. D for departs is feeble.

    Nick

    2. Collins
      (of a secretary, treasurer, etc) unpaid.

      Oxford Dictionary
      (of an office or its holder) unpaid.

      d = departs is a standard abbreviation

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