Solving time: 09:06
A medium-strength offering from Hurley – should be nothing too tricky here, though there is a pink-square possibility if you are not careful….
About average time for me for this horsey-flavoured puzzle, though nearly fell into a maybe-unintentional trap with the un-horsey 14d. How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Bread — mine? Thanks (5) |
| PITTA – PIT (mine) TA (thanks)
Pitta bread is a flat, hollow, slightly leavened bread which can be split open to hold a filling – in the UK, often seen as the carbohydrate component of a doner kebab. |
|
| 4 | Leather firm is welcoming radio operator (7) |
| CHAMOIS – CO (firm) IS – insert HAM (radio operator) | |
| 8 | Help from above, rapid or otherwise (3,4) |
| AIR DROP – Anagram [otherwise] of RAPID OR
Whether humanitarian aid, leaflets or military equipment, an AIR DROP is made without the aircraft landing. |
|
| 9 | Dramatic work co-op oddly abandoned ahead of time (5) |
| OPERA – {c}O{-o}P [oddly abandoned i.e. remove the odd letters] + ERA (time) | |
| 10 | Horse race speeches, late unfortunately (12) |
| STEEPLECHASE – Anagram [unfortunately] of SPEECHES LATE
The name comes originally from horses and riders racing from one town’s church steeple to the next, where hedges, low stone walls and streams would have provided the obstacles. |
|
| 12 | Set of animals not easily moved (6) |
| STABLE – Double definition – ‘set of animals’ as in the racehorses of a particular training establishment. | |
| 13 | Referring to bones, plan is faulty (6) |
| SPINAL – Anagram [faulty] of PLAN IS | |
| 16 | Stupidly miss site logo for quake expert (12) |
| SEISMOLOGIST – Anagram [stupidly] of MISS SITE LOGO | |
| 18 | Warning signal after alcoholic drink? Right (5) |
| ALERT – ALE (alcoholic drink) RT (right) | |
| 20 | Unfinished journey by way of Lima? Of little importance (7) |
| TRIVIAL – TRI{p} (journey [unfinished – final letter removed]) VIA (by way of) L (for Lima from the NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 21 | Couple hosting popular European afternoon show (7) |
| MATINEE – MATE (couple – verb) containing [hosting] IN (popular) E (European)
Not clear from the cryptic whether the European should appear before or after the E from MATE i.e. could be MAT(IN E)E or MAT(IN)E E – thoughts welcome. |
|
| 22 | Silly person, Oscar, leaving tower at first sign of panic (5) |
| TWERP – T{o}WER (Remove O for Oscar) P{anic} [‘first sign of’ indicating the first letter] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Acclaims postscript about move up (7) |
| PRAISES – RAISE (move up) surrounded by PS (postscript) | |
| 2 | Fun for horsy set Friday through Sunday? (5-3,5) |
| THREE-DAY EVENT – Think the whole clue is the definition here, being a combination of dressage, cross-country and show jumping, indicated by ‘fun for horsy set’ being an EVENT running from Friday through Sunday i.e. over THREE DAYs. | |
| 3 | Pairs cool off in Athens landmark (9) |
| ACROPOLIS – Anagram [off] of PAIRS COOL | |
| 4 | Initially complex indeed, penning woman’s secret message (6) |
| CIPHER – C{omplex} I{ndeed} P{enning} HER (woman’s) | |
| 5 | A party making fuss (3) |
| ADO – A DO (party) – a chestnut | |
| 6 | Liable to be offended, sore even — visit going wrong (13) |
| OVERSENSITIVE – Anagram [going wrong] of SORE EVEN VISIT | |
| 7 | Disadvantage of small horse (4) |
| SNAG – S (small) NAG (horse) | |
| 11 | Mesmerising person trained this pony over time (9) |
| HYPNOTIST – Anagram [trained] THIS PONY. Stick T (time) on the end. | |
| 14 | Unintentionally say tenancy taken by cricket fielder (3,4) |
| LET SLIP – LET (tenancy taken) SLIP (cricket fielder)
Nearly pink-squared myself here by entering LEG SLIP (a different type of slip fielder, this time on the Leg/On side of the batsman) before realising I’d overwritten the T from 16a |
|
| 15 | Sally, kind, idle after vacation (6) |
| SORTIE – SORT (kind) I{dl}E [after vacation i.e. remove all but the first and last letters] | |
| 17 | Still involved in classical music (4) |
| CALM – Hidden word [involved in] classical music | |
| 19 | Metal, it’s brought up North (3) |
| TIN – TI (reverse IT [brought up – pertinent as this is a ‘down’ clue]) plus N (North) | |
Got a bit overexcited as was heading for an 8 min PB so went into superbiff mode. Hence the cypher and softie errors made by others. Left the fizz on ice. J
Loved it ! Everything went straight in other than red herring of softie and cypher initially. I’m finally getting the hang of QC .
I reckon this must be the easiest QC this year, as I completed 19 of the 24 clues in fairly short order. Then I gave up, beaten by CHAMOIS, TWERP (describes me!), CIPHER, OVERSENSITIVE (I had all the letters, on paper in a circle, but just couldn’t see the answer) and SNAG. I know I’ll never complete one, but am very pleased with today’s effort. Many thanks for the blog.
“I know I’ll never complete one”. But I know that one day you most certainly will!
You got the two (stable and sortie) that were my last ones in so there is hope for you yet Ian. Well done – keep plugging away at it 👍
I think you’ll get that breakthrough soon- maybe one day when you least expect it.”Courageous persistence” is the mantra I mumble to myself !
You have gone from “what’s the point!” to completing 19 out of 24 clues in fairly short order. That is progression – I am convinced you will get there.
If I can do it, you certainly can! There were some tricky ones today and that result is real progress. Well done.
From “Triumph” (a rare escape from the SCC, and a near PB) to “Disaster” (a DNF) in a matter of moments (reading Mike’s blog after I had finished). My LOI was SnAiLs for 12a, having initially had STAlLs, but Hurley had STABLE. Quite why my alternative answers are wrong beats me. My challenge now is to “treat those two imposters just the same”. Trouble is, I don’t think I come up to Kipling’s definition of “a man”.
Mrs Random finished (all correct) in 23 minutes. She’s on a good run at the moment. Her definition of ‘a man’ is not me. I’m often on the receiving end of “If you don’t/won’t/can’t do it I will get a man in – a proper man”.
Many thanks to Hurley and Mike.
As long as she’s only talking about putting up a shelf or some DIY, I’d let her get on with it. Will give you more time for the QC!!
9:41, with possible PB but spent 2 mins on STABLE at end, with STALLS looking very tempting.
Nothing else held me up, but did carefully study CYPHER/CIPHER.
I thought I was on track for a record time, until floored by my LOI, 12ac. I am another one who wanted it to be SNAILS, and just could not see STABLE, although it made perfect sense when revealed.
Many thanks
Very late to the party but since I recorded a super rare sub 6 minutes finish I needed to relish the moment. FOI PITTA and LOI SORTIE. 5:49
👍
Thank you Hurley. Delighted with my first ever sub 1 hour solve at 58:12.
LOI STABLE not helped by the final letter of 1d morphing into an I.
Spent ages on SORTIE until meaning of vacation became clear. Must remember that and IN for Popular. It’s like learning a new language.
Note to fellow Ian: keep plugging away.
Thanks Mike and others for the very helpful blog
👏 well done
My word, yet another Ian – did I miss numbers 2,3 and 4?
Well done that man! 👏 Very satisfying to see the round number barriers broken.
Nice and gentle today.
SWMBO likes horses so was happy
Hurley seems to have been a hit today. I was just into the SCC and was quite pleased, although your comments made me think I might have done better.
It’s remarkable how perceptions of a QC vary. I found yesterday’s QC straightforward and yet some people struggled.
Held up a little today by 15dn and 12ac. Great sympathy for those of you who put ‘snails’. It didn’t occur to me, but it looks like a good answer.
COD – 20ac
Many thanks for another great blog.
DNF
All done in about 15 minutes apart from STABLE, for which I put SNAILS thinking it an anagram of ANIMALS without the M. I knew it wasn’t right but couldn’t think of anything else.
Straightforward for me today with a 13th fastest ever 12:27, though I DNK ham was a radio operator. Thanks all.