Times Quick Cryptic No 928 by Hurley

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
If 100 is average difficulty (à la snitch), I’d put this at 100. The four long clues at the borders rather dictated the march of things: the north is an ungainly anagram; the east is an ungainly term; the south is an ungainly anagram of an ungainly term; and the west is currently a bit of a mystery to me. (But we can’t blame everything on Trump.) Perhaps I’m nursing a sore head and feeling a bit curmudgeonly. Perhaps not – I did enjoy some of the smaller clues. Either way, I’m going to say thanks to Hurley and go get a strong black coffee!

Across
1 No mileage in this sect’s remit? My! Strange (6,6)
METRIC SYSTEM – anagram (“strange”) of SECTS REMIT MY.
8 Malicious team going around noon (5)
SNIDE – SIDE (team) going round N(oon)
9 A bad habit, grasping openings for any riches? (7)
AVARICE – &lit, meaning the whole clue provides a valid definition, with some wordplay thrown in for good measure: here we have A VICE (a bad habit) grasping the opening letters of Any RIches, all of which gives the more-specific bad habit of avarice.
10 Creep is awful? Exactly right! (7)
PRECISE – anagram (awful) of CREEP IS
11 Runner, 50, by lake showing ability to perform well (5)
SKILL – a runner is a SKI; lake and 50 are both the letter “L”.
12 Where nails are available? (2,4)
ON HAND – unless they’re toenails, hence the question mark?
14 Chinese lecturer’s housing of excellent quality (6)
SELECT – the letters of ChineSE LECTurer house the answer.
17 Surprise leading group (5)
UPSET – UP = leading, SET = group, shock horror ensues.
19 Under discussion in answer paper (2,5)
AT ISSUE – A(nswer) TISSUE (paper). Very nice.
21 Leave one’s country (not good) for this territory? (7)
EMIRATE – EMIGRATE (leave one’s country) remove the “G” ((not good)).
22 Our group impressed by Heath, say, in river (5)
TWEED – TED (Ted Heath, say) impresses/seals WE (our group)
23 Very small, yet newsy — seen about (6-6)
TEENSY-WEENSY – anagram (about) of YET NEWSY SEEN.

Down
1 Service for Mussolini and daughter, widely available (4-8)
MASS-PRODUCED – hmn, I’m still drawing a bit of a blank at this one: I get the “D” for daughter, I get the “mass” for Italian service, I don’t see where “produce” fits in. Perhaps a service for an Italian equals the production of a mass for an Italian, in which case the closest this clue is going to get to CoD is codswallop. Please enlighten!
2 Work hard on English fabric (5)
TOILE – TOIL (work hard) on E(nglish)
3 Native of Russian region, beginning to go off a Spaniard? (7)
IBERIAN – SIBERIAN (native of Russian region), losing the “beginning”.
4 In Alaska, term for ice fan? (6)
SKATER – “In” the letters of AlaSKA TERm
5 Drenches Southern trees (5)
SOAKS – S(outhern) OAKS (trees)
6 Editor goes over uncertainty with diamonds in building (7)
EDIFICE – ED(itor) goes over IF (uncertainty – as in the noun) with ICE (diamonds – in some form of slang I’ve never heard used)
7 Embarrassed-looking landlord initially dismissive about your special occasion? (3-6,3)
RED-LETTER DAY – RED (embarrassed-looking), LETTER (landlord), Dismissive About Your (initially). From saints’ days in calendars – in the Russian Orthodox Church calendar, however, there were so many of these that a black-letter day marked a more special occasion.
13 Unfriendly crowd on French island (7)
HOSTILE – HOST (crowd) on ILE (island, in French)
15 Letter pile set to be rearranged (7)
EPISTLE – anagram (rearranged) of PILE SET
16 Fun in Georgia that is extremely trendy (6)
GAIETY – Ga. (Georgia), I.E. (that is), “extreme-ly” TrendY
18 Prepare series of carriages (5)
TRAIN – double definition
20 Back showing no leniency (5)
STERN – double definition

38 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 928 by Hurley”

  1. Started off slowly–I think SKILL was my FOI and maybe only OI in my first pass through the acrosses. Then finished really, really slowly, wasting great gobs of time trying to make sense of 14ac before finally seeing–what ‘Chinese lecturer’ should have told me–that this was a hidden. Hate it when that happens, and it happens all too often with hiddens. 7:47.
  2. 1dn: MASS (Italian service), PRO (for), DUCE (Mussolini), D (daughter). I had to go back for the parsing!

    At 1ac I needed most of the checkers before the answer presented itself to me. The other two long answers came a little easier. I’m was sure TEENSY-WEENSY came up in the main puzzle within the past few months but not according to google who list its only previous appearance as being in 2010. I don’t do many puzzles away from The Times, but perhaps it was in one of those.

    I finished in 9 minutes today.

    Edited at 2017-09-28 04:48 am (UTC)

    1. Actually, guys, it’s just MASS=service, no Italian (besides il Duce). Which reminds me: when Ignazio Silone came to Rome from his village as a young man in the early 20s, he found himself caught up in what was evidently some sort of political demonstration, where the crowd was shouting “cheDU! cheDU!”, which he couldn’t understand. He later realized it was “DU-ce! DU-ce!”
      1. Service = mass; for = pro; Mussolini = duce; daughter = d
        Took me ages to see this!The Florentine
        1. Thanks Jack and Kevin for clearing this up – I’ll blame the sore head for missing it, and I’m sticking to it!

          I do like the “cheDu” chant – it’s like the aural equivalent of a Necker cube.

  3. 42 mins. I thought this was going to be quick until the last few:
    skill, avarice, select, tweed, toile, epistle and the hardest for me the crossing at issue/stern.

    Toile unknown and added to the list of other (previously) unknown fabrics serge, drill.

    COD Avarice.

    Edited at 2017-09-28 11:34 am (UTC)

  4. I found this harder than usual – perhaps it was because (not the first time this has happened) I came to it thinking it was the 15×15! My anagram game might just not have been particularly good this early in the morning though.

  5. Hard. DNF. TOILE was an unknown word, and a few other words fitted : twin/twine being the most tempting.

    I though 1 down and 1 across were both good clues. Just shows how much personal taste is involved.

    But agree 23a was weak.

  6. A slow one for me at 21:37, and for the life of me I cant see why! Looking back I thought all the clues were fair and none were all that hard. I’ll put it down to not firing on all cylinders this morning after a tough training session last night. My COD was easily 1AC which I really liked, mainly because of the “no mileage in this” cryptic definition. I really am a sucker for a nicely crafted CD.
  7. 1ac and 1dn went in straight away and I had trouble parsing PRO DUCE. Nor did I see anything ungainly in any of the long edge clues – I thought this was the most enjoyable puzzle of the week so far and think Roly has been pretty harsh on Hurley!

    Like Kevin it was fast till I was left staring at the Chinese lecturer … arrrgghhh. Someone posted on here “if all else fails look for the hidden word” and I really need to remember that because it is sound advice!

    COD was AVARICE for me as well, a “lovely surface” as the cool kids round here say.

    I was told st school that the origin of RED LETTER DAY was the custom prevalent for a while of producing bibles in which the words of Jesus in the New Testament were printed in red ink, so when the daily reading included such a passage it was a red letter day. I’ll have to look that up now.

    Finished by London Bridge but with 30% of the time spent on 14ac.

    Templar

    2. I think you’re right about the puzzle – it’s not exactly the height of enlightened thinking, but a grumpy rant is a good purgative for a sore head. Well, if cursing works for a banged shin…
    1. Might I suggest that before rushing to provide an explanation that’s been missed in the blog it’s useful to check whether it has been covered already by a previous contributor?
  9. I’m with Roly on the average difficulty assessment. Just over 20 mins for me, with nothing particularly holding me up. I thought Avarice was a clever clue.
  10. My only hold up today was my LOI 9a – I seem to struggle with &lits – and I only parsed 1d after completing the grid. Enjoyed 19a and 12a. Completed in 21 minutes.
  11. I found this a complete write in. Whether it’s a wavelength thing or a clear head after a late evening drive yesterday (so no red wine) I’m not sure but probably a PB at 3′ dead.
  13. I had everything bar 9ac after 30 mins, and then spent another 10 mins before the golden penny dropped. Nice clue, but just beaten to CoD by 1ac. Invariant
    1. Maybe the multiple anonymous parsings are an embittered Hurley doing a DDoS attack on the blog!
  17. I rather liked this puzzle. LOI was 17a after 18 minutes.
    COD to 13d but I also liked 1a and 1d which I managed to solve through parsing.
    David
  18. Dreadful puzzle as the long clues felt forced. But very easy for me today in just over 5mins. I really wish someone could explain 1d to me as it’s driving me mad. I’ve been to Garda a few times but never heard of Mussolini! Thanks blogger
  19. I enjoyed this puzzle which took me 9:11 after a trip round the Farne Islands looking at seals and birds, followed by a trek back to the B&B. Knackered now! Started with 1d which I parsed at sight. 1a proved more resistant and I moved on, eventually digging out a pen and some paper for 1a which magically stared out of the sheet at me. TOILE and IBERIA completed the grid. Thanks Hurley and Roly.
  20. now that I do these last thing at night instead of first thing in the morning. Apart from a full minute of furiously staring at A_ I_S_E (19ac), every clue was entered straight away and I was all done in about six minutes, which is about as fast I can go on a phone. Faster, actually, as I typoed a Y for a T in HOSTILE

    Good stuff

  22. Got a deja vu doing this. I have seen it possibly in my local paper – which is the belfast telegraph.

    SRT

  23. 1down….mass=service
    For=pro
    and Mussolini was called a “DUCE”!!
    Plus “D” for daughter= mass produced.
    I hadn’t a clue about the Duce…helped by clever husband who does main cryptic crossword every day.
  24. Many thanks for blog and also for the comments, some quite amusing. 1 Down got past the editor so I’d say it was pretty much OK, once understood. Hurley.

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