Times Quick Cryptic No 1898 by Wurm

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A touch under 11 minutes, around a minute longer than yesterday’s, so tricky enough and it took a while to get going properly. A top-notch puzzle, with lovely surfaces and satisfying misdirection throughout. A few bits of obscurity that I recognised vaguely from crosswords past: I might have dredged up the meaning of 7d if presented with just the word, but would have been miles off 15d. Really enjoyed this – many thanks to Wurm!

Across
1 One Mr Opera is replaced as concert master (10)
IMPRESARIO – anagram (replaced) of I (one) MR OPERA IS
8 Meat in spoon finally wiped to be cleaner (7)
SHAMPOO – HAM (meat) in SPOOn (final letter wiped)
9 Story written around black board (5)
TABLE – TALE (story) written about B(lack)
10 Friend initially creates unpleasant smell (4)
CHUM – C (“initially” Creates) HUM (unpleasant smell)
11 Journalist on the beer (8)
REPORTER – RE (on/concerning) PORTER (beer)
13 One having an eye for provocation? (6)
NEEDLE – double definition
14 Line in exotic cigar that’s strongly flavoured (6)
GARLIC – L(ine) in an anagram (exotic) of CIGAR
17 Grin broadly after antler found in wood (8)
HORNBEAM – BEAM (grin broadly) after HORN (antler). I was initially toying with “hornring”.
19 Any number banned from stadium environs (4)
AREA – N (any number) banned from AREnA (stadium)
21 Girl reversing in limo anxiously (5)
NAOMI – “reversing in” LIMO ANxiously
22 Difficulty for British leaving en masse initially (7)
PROBLEM – PRO (for) B(ritish) LEM (Leaving En Masse “initially”)
23 Steak: hotel dinner cooked without starter (10)
TENDERLOIN – anagram (cooked) of OTEL DINNER (hOTEL “without starter”)

Down
2 Your writer confident around a music bar (7)
MEASURE – ME (your writer) SURE (confident) around A. News to me (I think): the OED lists this as chiefly North American.
3 Hitch, or something he directed? (4)
ROPE – somewhere between an &lit and a double definition: to ROPE = to hitch, and Hitch[cock] directed Rope. Good film, and Patrick Hamilton is well worth a read.
4 Demonstrator perhaps in rain? (6)
SHOWER – double definition
5 Helping a learner is sensible (8)
RATIONAL – RATION (helping) A L(earner)
6 Gold coin in circulation? (5)
ORBIT – OR (gold) BIT (coin)
7 Pipe cracked each summer (10)
MEERSCHAUM – anagram (cracked) of EACH SUMMER. It sounds like it could be a fabric, or a perfume, or perhaps a mountain, but no it’s a pipe.
8 Used as support worker (6,4)
SECOND HAND – to SECOND = to support, HAND (worker). The OED lists a jocular definition of second hand, relating to food, such as a joint after all the good bits are removed, or Rabelais’s colourful description of the bowels: “The Cupboard wherein second-hand-meat is kept.” Very good! (I was checking to see if a Second Hand was also a thing, like a second mate.)
12 European in biplane flying low (8)
PLEBEIAN – E(uropean) in an anagram (flying) of BIPLANE
15 German rock singer teaching the French one (7)
LORELEI – LORE (teaching) LE (the, French) I (one). Appeared in QC 1464 (Oct 2019) as: “Siren of traditional stories on the French island”, which Curarist pithily blogged as “A siren who lured boatmen to destruction on the Rhine, the bitch.”
16 Mum has good food for chatterer (6)
MAGPIE – MA (mum) has G(ood) PIE (food). I was only aware of the ‘hoarder’ sense, but a magpie is apparently also a chatterbox.
18 Aussie bouncers? Opener in trouble bats here! (5)
ROOST – ROOS (Aussie bouncers) T (“opener” in Trouble).
20 Bubble in black fuel (4)
BOIL – B(lack) OIL (fuel)

59 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1898 by Wurm”

  1. This took me forever. I had to struggle especially with IMPRESARIO (Roly, you’ve got a typo)–in the US the concertmaster is the first first violinist, the leader of the orchestra–PLEBEIAN, and ROPE–couldn’t recall the movie. 10:22.
  2. 14 minutes. My worst time for 3 weeks when Des took me to 18. HORNBEAM, MEERSCHAUM, AREA and PLEBEIAN held out longest. Hitchcock’s ROPE is famous for the action being continuous and taking place in real time. A series of very long takes, up to 10 minutes at a time, was used to maintain this effect and build tension. It was originally a stage play by Patrick Hamilton, also famous for ‘Gas Light’ which came up in a clue quite recently and led to an interesting discussion.

    Edited at 2021-06-17 04:04 am (UTC)

  3. Defeated. Aids had to come out twice for MEERSCHAUM, once to unravel the anagram then again to see what it was and I also had to look up Hitchcock films and found one to fit but didn’t think ROPE could mean hitch but bunged it in anyway, that technique then let me down with LOI BOIL where I read the clue backwards and wanted to put an O (bubble) in a word for black, so bunged in ‘coal’ to fit _O_L only to be rewarded with two pink squares. NHO LORELEI but gettable from the clue (wish I’d known who she was because it’s a funny definition). Even before the pipe my anagram brain hadn’t working well TENDERLOIN, PLEBEIAN and IMPRESSARIO all needed very careful extraction.

    Edited at 2021-06-17 05:45 am (UTC)

  4. Well that was a proper work out and a good education to boot. There were a number of unfamiliar words/definitions/GK but the wordplay was generally fair. I hadn’t heard of the film so ROPE went in with fingers crossed and I spent some time juggling the letters for the unknown pipe before something vaguely plausible appeared so was pleasantly surprised when there were no pink squares. Plenty to enjoy but my favourite clue was HORNBEAM. Finished in 15.31.
    Thanks to Roly and Wurm
  5. … the end of the hot weather also meant the end of my recent hot streak. Properly challenged by Wurm today and scraped in in 19 minutes. At least I am in good company looking at the comments so far; even the senior solvers have said that they were stretched.

    Never really got into a rhythm on this one, and was scrabbling around for answers all over the grid. I think all fair on reflection, but some tough anagrams and pretty obscure GK — one of Hitchcock’s lesser films from over 70 years ago, for example, or a piece of German folklore, or a type of smoker’s pipe now somewhat antique.

    Many thanks Roly for your blog — just one observation, in your parsing for 23A Tenderloin, it’s the H of Hotel that is missing from the anagrist, not the D of Dinner. Perhaps it’s a cockney feast.

    Cedric

  6. It’s really been a bad week for me for these QCs. This was way too difficult for me. Did I stumble onto the 15×15 by any chance?

    Tomorrow perhaps.

  7. It wasn’t just me having a bit of an off day then. DNK the Hitchcock film so entered ROPE last with misgivings. I liked NEEDLE best. 5:59.

  8. 45min with aids. I blame my lack of GK. I thought clues were fair: just easier if you are sure of definition.. Thanks

  9. Had to wake up the spare neuron again for this one! SHOWER went in first, then TABLE and SHAMPOO. Eventually I had enough crossers to untangle IMPRESARIO and with R_P_ in place, a very dim memory called up ROPE. PLEBEIAN held me up as I’m always thrown by the extra E. MEERSCHAUM brought me over the line, and my target time(but only slightly), at 19:19. Thanks Wurm and Roly.
  10. That was a struggle, as others have said.

    Had to write out the anagrist for PLEBEIAN. The top half was very empty for a long time, but once I got IMPRESARIO things started to flow a bit quicker up there. MAGPIE and HORNBEAM were sticky.

    I knew LORELEI and MEERSCHAUM, they were write ins for me. ROPE was a total guess.

    MAGPIE was LOI, and my 2 favourites were SECOND HAND and NEEDLE – v elegant surfaces.

    12:32

    Edited at 2021-06-17 08:35 am (UTC)

  11. No accurate time but well over 20 minutes but with one wrong. I had put in an unparsed COAL for 20d and did not revisit. Pleased I got the spelling of the pipe right with only a few checkers.

    FOI TABLE
    LOI PLEBEIAN
    COD HORNBEAM

    Overall good but difficult puzzle.

  12. After success yesterday, a fail today. Didn’t like the rare foreign word anagram clue at 7 (I must also remember it’s geological meaning for the future), and I biffed that well known Hitchcock film RISK at 3. So, DNF from me.
    Thanks for the blog!
  13. Tough. I couldn’t get going at first and, not unusually, only got some footholds in the bottom half before meandering back up to the NW corner. I had to guess my LOI, ROPE, on the basis of a rope hitch — nho the Hitchcock film. MEERSCHAUM and IMPRESARIO dropped out easily for me but I was hesitant to write SECOND in 8d. In the end, I was surprised to finish in 18.04 (under 2K!); I thought it was longer.
    There were some truly excellent clues but it would take too much space to list my favourites and roly has covered them all, anyway. Many thanks to Wurm for a standout QC (and to roly for a good blog). John M.

    Edited at 2021-06-17 08:42 am (UTC)

  14. One of the best in recent weeks, and kept me on the edge of my seat as to whether I would crack it all. So many to like, lovely surfaces but all seemed very fair once they clicked. I expect the German rock singer has been used before but it threw me completely at first sight. A rather more 15×15 feel to this one overall, l felt. Many thanks, Wurm, and Rolytoly. About 35 minutes of real enjoyment.
  15. Agree this was very good. Wurm not the easiest, but you get quality.

    Roly you have another typo, as at 23ac it’s the h that’s dropped (see what I did there) not the d, which would have rendered the clue unfair for many of us.

    1. Thanks, well spotted – will correct. Yes, agreed the d removal would have been unfair.
  16. Missing the easy SHAMPOO was my downfall in the NW corner. ROPE was hard as Hitch has at least two very different meanings (join and snag). Also did not know if I was looking for a film title, or some aspect of film making (reel?). A tough one.

    I left a pink square at LOREL_I, since I didn’t know the word and had no way of knowing with ‘the French’ was LE or LA.

    COD SHOWER

  17. Well, I thought 15d, Lorelei, was a stinker of a clue easily qualifying for a GR, but nobody else seems to have taken umbrage so it must be me. I had to keep on coming back to that one via Larklei and Larklai before Lore- seemed more plausible. Even then it was a toss up between Le/La. Apart from that, the NW corner (Measure, Shampoo and Chum) provided another hold up in an undistinguished 40min solve. CoD to 8d, Support Worker for the excellent surface. Invariant
  18. The clues are well crafted with smooth surfaces, clever misdirections and some obscurity. But overall the QC was spoilt for me by DNKs 3d & 7d & 15d (i’d never have got those even given the fair clueing) and 12d (my spelling wasn’t up to that one). I did though like 16d where the cross letters helped me find the way round the clueing because the answer was common vocabulary. Overall 55min for me before resolving the DNKs. Thanks for the blog. Why the setter should want to include such inaccessible vocabulary is beyond me. DavidS
  19. Interesting – I thought this was pretty un-wriggly for a Wurm puzzle, but seem to be in the minority, and came in on target at 10 minutes. Considering everyone else’s view, I’m going to claim this as A Good Day 😊
    I had the GK, although ROPE was a bit of stab in the dark (that’s probably a different Hitchcock film!). I think I saw it in a quiz recently – maybe Only Connect – because it did ring a faint bell. Having said that, I did think there would be a few raised eyebrows at some of the clues!
    Lots to grin at broadly for me though. Very hard to choose a COD – I really liked REPORTER, NEEDLE and ORBIT among a strong selection.
    We have quite a few MAGPIEs around here. I would say that chattering is a kind description of their absolutely awful raucous noise – especially at 5 o’clock in the morning!
    FOI Impresario
    LOI Plebeian
    COD Lorelei – maybe more of a 15×15 style though?

    Many thanks Wurm and Roly

    Edited at 2021-06-17 10:40 am (UTC)

  20. Took me ages — and lots of biffing going on, Meerschaum is somewhere in my memory from somewhere. I guessed rope with no real understanding -I was distracted by a hitch being a half-knot rather than a rope, but of course it works as a verb too. So hard work and a good challenge today — thanks.
  21. I was 23 minutes on what was like a Monday 15×15 with lots of obs.GK! A challenge indeed!

    FOI 6dn ORBIT

    LOI 3dn ROPE but it rang a bell!! (geddit!?)

    COD 8dn SECOND HAND

    WOD 7dn MEERSCHAUM

    Beam me up, Scottie!

    Edited at 2021-06-17 10:49 am (UTC)

  22. Taken into the SCC today by Wurm, finishing in 22 minutes with HORNBEAM after finally getting the spelling of PLEBEIAN correct, which had been holding me up. Guessed ROPE and wanted coke or coal to fit before BOIL occurred to me. A good challenge, luckily I was familiar with the unfamiliar. Thanks Wurm and Roly.
  23. Found this a struggle, but pleased to have got there in the end. Guessed ROPE (NHO the film), took a while to see SHAMPOO and CHUM. A good challenge this one.
  24. finally complete in 32 minutes – with a few aids.

    A couple of things I’d never heard of – MEERSCHAUM, LORELEI, ROPE as a Hitchcock film – but everything seemed pretty fairly clued. Just very slow this morning.

    One query – how does RATION = Helping?

      1. (Facepalm). Definitely drank too much last night – should have seen that!

        Thank you

  25. I’m another ROPE-guesser. Good tough puzzle. I could have sworn that I knew MEERSCHAUM from Conan Doyle but apparently not.

    FOI SECOND HAND, LOI PLEBEIAN, hard to choose a COD from such a strong field but I’m going for LORELEI, time 12:27 for 1.25K and a Decent Day.

    Many thanks Wurm and Roly.

    Templar

    1. My thought also on meerschaum – let me know if you come up with the real lead.
  26. Way to hard for me. This week has been horrible for those of us new to these puzzles. It would be nice to get the occasional break on these puzzles, but it is what it is.
  27. An anagram of (H)OTEL DINNER. ie leave off the H not the D. Need heard of the film ROPE, but biffed it anyway.
    PlayUpPompey
  28. Plus CCD x 3. Fair enough for PLEBEIAN but very feeble to have to look up CHUM and HORNBEAM. Failed on SHAMPOO, SECOND, NEEDLE (COD) and ROPE.
    However was pleased to get MEERSCHAUM and LORELEI. And one of the FOsI IMPRESARIO.

    A clever puzzle, too much so for me. Thanks vm to Roly. PDM after reading blog – Used = second-hand, also a good one.

  29. A very enjoyable half-hour solve. FOI table. Only eight on first pass but of course these helped the rest. Saw impresario early on but vaguely thought it needed a double ss until all the downs coming off it clarified that. LOI plebeian, another where the spelling needed thinking about. The holiday cottage we stayed in recently had a hornbeam by the gate, in which a couple of tawny owls perched, calling, at dusk. COD, hornbeam. Thanks, Roly, and Wurm. GW.

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