Times Quick Cryptic No 2483 by Hurley – well inside my 13

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Oh joy!  A simple QC from Hurley to let me get myself gently back into solving / blogging after my drunken landings in Normandy this past week.  11 minutes for me, although I think I could have been quicker had my eyes worked properly – I needed to re-read several clues through the haze.  No problems for me, but I was familiar with all the vocabulary.  My thanks to Hurley, and I hope that you all found this as gentle as I did – I expect to see some fast times.

Across

1  Leader having lost power, living somewhere  (8)

RESIDENT – PRESIDENT (leader), drop the P (having lost Power)

5  Information about lake valley (4)

GLEN – GEN (information) containing (about) L{ake}.

7  List of options guys use initially (4)

MENU – MEN (guys) and U{se} (initially).

8  Shrub climate’s spoilt (8)

CLEMATIS – Anagram (spoilt) of [CLIMATES].

9  Expert welcoming company fellow’s award (8)

ACCOLADE – ACE (expert) containing CO{mpany} and LAD (fellow).

11  Line not straight in bar chart (3)

ARC – Hidden answer inside bAR Chart

13  Start ignoring peripheral bits and understand objective (6)

TARGET – sTARt (ignoring peripheral bits, drop first and last letters) and GET (understand).

16  Job worry, I hesitate to say (6)

CAREER – CARE (worry) and ER (I hesitate to say, as in ‘Er, I think I can make it’.

18  Social gathering one providing buzz (3)

BEE – Double definition, the first as in ‘quilting BEE’ or ‘spelling BEE’, and the second being the insect.

19  Hat from East I associated with fellow, painstaking (8)

DILIGENT – LID (hat) reversed (from East) to give DIL, and then I and GENT (I associated with fellow).

20  Aggressive note easily seen by worker (8)

MILITANT – MI (note, from do, ray, mi…) with LIT (easily seen) and ANT (worker).

22  Rather indecent – not happy (4)

BLUE – Double definition.

23  Stringed instrument featuring in family reunion (4)

LYRE – Hidden in famiLY REunion.

24  Poorly attired, sloppy at the outset, and last to arrive (8)

TARDIEST – Anagram (poorly) of [ATTIRED] with S{loppy} (at the outset).

Down

1  Trace that’s survived in unexpected manner over time (7)

REMNANT – Anagram (unexpected) of [MANNER] followed by T{ime}.

2  At home in safe job, well-paid and undemanding (8)

SINECURE – IN (at home) inside (in) SECURE (safe).  I’m not sure that all of our solvers will be familiar with this term – it’s the kind of job I always wanted, but never managed to get!

3  Need ground to embrace supporter’s song, magical (9)

ENCHANTED – Anagram (ground) of [NEED] containing (to embrace) CHANT (supporter’s song).

4  Secure neckwear (3)

TIE – Double definition.

5  Linguistic rules diagram Mary keeps (7)

GRAMMAR – Hidden (kept by) {dia}GRAM MAR{y}.

6  Media boss provided dessert in building (7)

EDIFICE – ED (media boss, editor) and IF (provided) and ICE (dessert).  I wondered about ICE for DESSERT, but it is my dessert of choice quite regularly, in the form of ice cream.

10  A real cost potentially – alternative to stairs(9)

ESCALATOR – Anagram (potentially) of [A REAL COST].

12  Wake-up call – yell, with no introduction, I constantly recalled (8)

REVEILLE – {y}ELL (with no introduction) and I and EVER (constantly) all reversed (recalled).

14  Talent, a little, one learner’s shown inside over year (7)

ABILITY – A BIT (a little) containing I L (one learner’s shown inside) over Y{ear}.

15  Frank’s startled expression about religious sister I accommodated (7)

GENUINE – GEE (startled expression) containing (about) NUN (religious sister) which is itself containing (accommodating) I.  A Russian doll of a clue!

17  Referring to pleasant surprise in quiet place (7)

RETREAT – RE (referring to) and TREAT (pleasant surprise).

21  Fitting carpet evenly (3)

APT – The even / alternate letters of cArPeT.

70 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2483 by Hurley – well inside my 13”

  1. Pretty straightforward, nicely pitched for a QC. Didn’t realise that BEE was also a social gathering: have wondered for a while what a “spelling bee” actually was.

  3. Completed without too much difficulty, though 24a held me up for a while.

    I hesitantly entered BEE for 18a, thinking of the Spelling Bee that American children seem to enjoy. I’d always wondered what the bee in that phrase referred to.

  4. Another breeze block this time garnished with a clanger. I biffed away merrily before entering ENCHANT(ING) not ENCHAN(TED). Once I’d got past that I hit the buffers with ACCOLADE. I stared at it and it kept staring right back. Thought TARDIEST was pretty contrived although it didn’t hold me up.

    Got there in the end, but a bit of a self inflicted struggle.

    FOI GLEN
    LOI obvs ACCOLADE

    Thanks to both.

  5. Just over 12 minutes. Enjoyable puzzle and satisfying to solve. I found it not very easy for reasons I can’t identify now as there was nothing particularly obscure and wordplay wasn’t too complicated.

    Interesting discussion about BEE above.

    Thanks to Hurley and TheRotter

  6. The NW yielded only TIE and MENU on a first pass, so having spotted TARGET, I carried on down the SW then proceeded in an anticlickwise direction. 14d and 15d resisted the first assault so I left them unsolved for further cogitation. The NE was no trouble and then the NW yielded easily on the second pass. ABILITY was POI and GENUINE brought up the rear. 8:14. Thanks Hurley and Rotter.

  7. No real problems, but having completed my regulation two passes through the clues, I, like Plett11, suffered a bout of lastclueitis – albeit not with DILIGENT.

    FOI RESIDENT
    LOI MILITANT
    COD TARDIEST
    TIME 3:55

  8. 8:18 I looked at LOI “G E _ _ I _ E” thinking “I want to put nun in there but it doesn’t fit”. Despite that hurdle I found this the easiest for nearly a month. Thanks to Rotter and Hurley.

  9. 21 mins…

    Should have been quicker, but suffered from not knowing 12dn “Reveille” and having a brain block on 22ac “Blue”. For what it’s worth, I didn’t know 2dn “Sinecure” either, although it rang a faint bell from many puzzles ago and was obtainable from the wordplay.

    FOI – 7ac “Menu”
    LOI – 12dn “Reveille”
    COD – 20ac “Militant”

    Thanks as usual!

  10. 16 clues answered in as many minutes, and then I was stumped! The first four across clues took less than two minutes, so I thought I was on course for success.

    1. I think they are referring to clues like 11a and 18a where you didn’t need to solve the clues as the answers were all crossing letters from other clues, so it was possible to finish the puzzle without looking at those clues. This doesn’t normally happen in QCs, so was described as ‘odd’.

  12. I think this was my fastest ever. Around 20 mins. So I am with those who found it straight forward. Thanks everyone.

    Fred

  13. A very quick solve for me today, all done in 7:48, which I think is my second fastest ever, although I don’t keep records. Very happy with that. Back to reality tomorrow, no doubt.

    Thanks to Hurley and TheRotter.

  14. A lovely puzzle, just right for my afternoon tea break. Thank you Hurley! You have restored my faith in the QC. I was pleased to be able to spell REVEILLE and COD to EDIFICE. In both cases the clue made the spelling clear. Thank you Rotter for your blog

  15. Just a quick post today, as Mrs Random and I are on a short break in Devon and there’s lots to do.

    I worked my way through this quite steadily until I had four clues to go – all connected in the SE corner. R______E was never going to succumb to an alphabet trawl without some intermediate checkers, but CAREER and DILIGENT (but not BLUE) did arrive within a few minutes. My schoolboy French is worse than Private Eye’s ‘Let’s parler Franglais’ column, so REVEILLE still required a lot of work. BLUE then came in an instant.

    Time = 27 minutes.

    Many thanks to Hurley and Rotter.

  16. Lovely! On paper Vigilant seemed to fill the Militant spot so I thought it was just Reveille that prevent a first finish. Might take the stabilisers and knee pads off for the next Hurley. Thanks to Hurley and TheRotter!

  17. I was sure the answer was clematis but shrub misled me as it is usually classified in plant lists as climber.

  18. Thought this was going to be a really fast one as the first nine across clues went straight in, albeit I wasn’t 100% sure of BEE. Then I slowed up though and ended up finishing in 17:18 after spending several minutes sorting out the SE corner, where TARDIEST, REVEILLE and BLUE all gave me considerable pause. Having studied French with Duolingo for the last year helped considerably with getting REVEILLE as I now know this means to wake up in that language (and possibly others?), whereas I have never heard of it as an English word. Anyway, thanks Rotter and Hurley.

    1. REVEILLE is a bugle call that you wd probably recognise, but, as I said, the Army pronounce it reVALy

  19. This felt like that event in Gloucestershire (?) in which the competitors chase a cheese down a steep hill. I was flying but feared that at any moment I might crash. Thankfully I got to the end unscathed in 14 mins. LOI was RESIDENT, completely unparsed! Seemed like I jumped around the grid a lot and was never in full control.

    That’s 1 hr, 27 mins for the week. Need 32 mins or less tomorrow to make my target.

    Great blog as ever Rotter and thanks for clarifying the comments about the grid. I hadn’t noticed that.

    PS Struggling badly with the Quintagram at present. Only got one answer yesterday and three today.

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