Times Quick Cryptic No 2069 by Hurley

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

We end the week of Times Quick Cryptics with one from Hurley. And what a pleasant and, dare I say, gentle end to the week it is. Nothing too tricky or obscure, I think, with plenty of neat surfaces. COD for me was the amusing 18A, but I liked 24A too. I finished in a rare, for me, sub 4 minute time of 3:53. Thank-you Hurley. How did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, titled “Two Kitchens”, here. Enjoy! If anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to all 44 here.

Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Liquid container artist’s seen in restaurant (6)
CARAFE – RA (Royal Academician; artist) [in] CAFE (restaurant). And yes you might well find one in a restaurant.
4 By the sound of it, ready for holiday agreement (4)
PACT – Sounds like, [by the sound of it], PACKED (ready for holiday).
9 Salvation Army practice to provide something to eat (7)
SAUSAGE – SA (Salvation Army) USAGE (practice). Nice surface. Sausage? Very charitable of them.
10 Perform better than unfashionable party (5)
OUTDO – OUT (unfashionable) DO (party).
11 Having finished first, directors getting from ship to water (9)
OVERBOARD – OVER (finished) BOARD (directors).
12 Determined clique (3)
SET – Double definition.
13 Aren’t excited about university’s refreshment facility (3,3)
TEA URN – (Aren’t)* [excited], [about] U (university).
15 Cheers that cut short negative knocking, spiteful initially (6)
THANKS – THAt [cut short] and first letters of Negative Knocking Spitefully, [initially].
17 A bridge partnership wonder (3)
AWE – A, WE (West and East; bridge partnership). In case you didn’t know… the places at a bridge table are named after the points of the compass and partners play opposite each other. The other partnership here would by NS.
18 Naff clue once shunned by beginners bringing riches? (9)
AFFLUENCE – nAFF cLUE oNCE without their first letters, [shunned by beginners]. Definitely not a naff clue – my COD. Some might find it a little tricky though if they can’t see the wordplay directive, which is a bit of an unusual one.
21 Religious pamphlet featuring area of land (5)
TRACT – Double definition.
22 Approve finishing point as alternative to London area (7)
ENDORSE – END (finishing point) OR (alternative) SE (South East; London area).
23 Bite of Conservative cut (4)
CHEW – C (Conservative) HEW (cut).
24 Voracious? Gorge, feed? Aye, regularly (6)
GREEDY –  Alternate letters of GoRgE fEeEd aYe, [regularly]. Nice one
Down
1 Expel actors, pouty, ignoring outsiders (4,3)
CAST OUT – CAST (actors) pOUTy without its first and last letters [ignoring outsiders].
2 Provoke game bird — not good (5)
ROUSE – gROUSE (game bird) without the G [not good].
3 Astounds Belfast with brags, crazy (12)
FLABBERGASTS – (Belfast brags)* [crazy]. A lovely word, but where does it come from? I checked. Chambers says “Probably connected with flabby and gast to astonish”. And gast is Shakespearean. Hmm. I must look out for it in a Mephisto.
5 Craft worker in Stuttgart is anxious (7)
ARTISAN – Hidden [in] StuttgART IS ANxious.
6 Grumpy guy, rogue ticket seller, coming across resistance (5)
TROUT – TOUT (rogue ticket seller) outside [coming across] R (resistance). I was slightly surprised by “guy”, thinking the word meant a grumpy woman, but Chambers has “an unpleasant interfering old person, esp. a woman”, so I guess it can be a guy too.
7 Wager — a second in series (4)
BETA – BET (wager) A. Second after alpha.
8 Snub old churl does — out of order! (4-8)
COLD-SHOULDER – (old churl does)* [out of order]. Another neat surface.
14 Fury after avenue seen as mediocre (7)
AVERAGE – RAGE (fury) [after] AVE (usual abbreviation for avenue).
16 Seen cry wildly — “That is beautiful to see” (7)
SCENERY – (Seen cry)* [wildly]. Cunning definition to make the surface reading of the clue work.
17 A non-drinker in charge of upper room (5)
ATTIC – A TT (teetotaller; non-drinker) IC (in charge).
19 Run away, initially finding shelter (4)
FLEE – [initially] Finding LEE (shelter).
20 Impudence visible from manner, vexatious (5)
NERVE – Hidden in, [visible from] manNER VExatious.

77 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2069 by Hurley”

  1. Cocked it up by putting CHINES for THANKS: mislead by the ‘cut’ bit of the clue and thinking of ‘whines’ as the negative knocking. Should have checked it!!
  2. but did not record, alas.
    Liked FLABBERGASTS, ENDORSE, COLD-SHOULDER (LOI). I too thought of TROUT as an old woman, not necessarily grumpy, eg (and I quote) ‘My wife’s got some old trouts round to tea,’
    Thanks all, esp John.
  3. Nice puzzle. Was stuck on 7d for a while. I’d mistakenly put in SAUSAAG at 9a for some reason, and wondered what ?G?A was likely to be. Once that was corrected, it was a smooth finish.
    Nice puzzle and blog
    BW
    Andrew
  5. Quickest for many a day, though did not break 10m by a minute or so. Thank Hurley for a pleasant end to the week.
  6. or is my brain unnumbed again. I seem to be on the cusp of racing horses, not hiring coaches, or not today anyway. 20 min and all done a GN4, never been here before. As much more eloquently spoken above, It’s you lot wot got me here! Grateful thanks.
  7. Technical DNFs, that is. Still in the GC with an overall time of about 1hr10-15.

    ***

    Spent 40-mins this morning on it while watching GB Women’s curling lose to South Korea. And had all bar 5-6 done – NW corner giving me issues.

    Went for a run – 9 miles in just over an hour. Lovely sunny blue sky day and no wind.

    Came back, finally figured out BETA and OVERBOARD (kept thinking variations of OFFBOARD due to the “having Finished First”. Then stuck on ROUSE (thinking riles even though only gamebird I could think of was grouse – doh). Sausage then slotted in.

    Turned out there was a major error in the NE corner. My FOI was STOUT (not TROUT – NHO). I’d struggled on an agreement of _A_S which I eventually decided was PAXS – that thing kids should when they’ve got fingers crossed. I was wrong.

    Finished off with CHEW which I felt was slightly dodgy for a bite but couldn’t see what else. The checker highlighted the NE corner issue but also CHEW as being incorrect so after quick correction in the NE, I spent five mins alphabet trawling before trying CHEW – who knows what happened there!

    ***

    TLDR ….. NW corner – major sticking point, NE corner – wrong, SW corner – who knows what I did there it. It all *points* to me having mistyped. Ran 9-miles quicker than I can do the QC.

    FOI ARTISAN (as stout/TROUT wasn’t).
    LOI CHEW or maybe PACT.
    COD TEA URN (some good ones there)

    Edited at 2022-02-11 05:18 pm (UTC)

    1. I well remember the days when I could run 9 miles faster than I could do the QC, but rest assured, it’s a lot easier and less painful to bring your QC times down than to run faster. Even on a good day with a flat course, I’m not sure I could even get to 4k in the time I did today, though running times are a lot less variable than times for the QC.
  8. A nice quick one to finish the week with. My LOI PACT caused me a slight hold up, but still crossed the line in 12:54 for my 11th fastest ever. Thanks Hurley and John.
  9. Took awhile to get LOI PACT despite the checkers. Otherwise straightforward and well under my 20 minute target.
  10. FOI 10ac OUTDO

    LOI 4ac PACT

    COD 2dn ROUSE

    WOD 3dn FLABBERGASTS a per Frankie Howerd

    Time 8:45

  11. For the first time I felt that I was able to put much of my experience gained over the last year or so to full use. I appreciate it was easy for most of you, but, for me, the joy of being able to deconstruct virtually all of the clues felt so satisfying. I may even have avoided the SCC!

    Gary A

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