A nice Quick Cryptic from Shay today with plenty of easy clues but a few trickier ones – there are some well-disguised definitions in places. My LOI was 12D which took me a while to see. The puzzle took me 4:34 so well below my average, but other may find it a bit more tricky. Thank-you Shay.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 135 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Nice socialist relatives (7) |
| KINDRED – KIND (nice) RED (socialist). I didn’t know the meaning of the word as “A group of relatives, family, clan” but only “Similar in kind”, but that’s just my ignorance. | |
| 5 | Piece of information concealed by chief actors (4) |
| FACT – Hidden in [concealed by] chieF ACTors. I sometimes struggle to spot a hidden answer clue, but not this one. | |
| 7 | Left after naked auntie — or before? (5) |
| UNTIL – {a}UNTI{e} without her last letters [naked], L (left). | |
| 8 | Spades and excavation in play area (7) |
| SANDPIT – S (spades) AND PIT (excavation). Don’t forget to bring along a bucket. | |
| 10 | Caught shy fish (3) |
| KOI – KOI sounds like [caught] COY (shy). | |
| 11 | Going to the bar and back? (5,4) |
| ROUND TRIP – Cryptic definition and my COD. You go to the bar to get a round of drinks in. | |
| 13 | They are mostly rough and ribald (6) |
| EARTHY – (They ar{e})* [rough]. Mostly meaning lose the last letter od “are”. | |
| 14 | Stupid amount of money for dumplings (3,3) |
| DIM SUM – DIM (stupid) SUM (amount of money). This article tells us “Some estimates claim that there are at least two thousand types of dim sum in total across China, but only about forty to fifty types are commonly sold outside of China.“ | |
| 17 | Bust put nearer entrance (9) |
| ENRAPTURE – [Bust] (put nearer)*. Sneakily, the surface reading makes you think the answer is a noun, but it isn’t – it’s the verb. | |
| 19 | Reportedly go out with marine (3) |
| SEA – SEA sounds like [reportedly] SEE (go out with). | |
| 20 | Downturn in trade after last month (7) |
| DECLINE – DEC (December, last month) LINE (…of business; trade). | |
| 22 | See you and Mike run regularly (5) |
| ADIEU – Alternate letters [regularly] of AnD mIkE rUn. Luckily I spotted the definition straight away – it’s pretty well disguised, I think. Nice one. | |
| 23 | Opening of exclusive retreat in paradise (4) |
| EDEN – First letter of Exclusive, DEN (retreat). | |
| 24 | Famous chapel is set in Barking (7) |
| SISTINE – (is set in)* [barking]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Joint leader is an idiot (11) |
| KNUCKLEHEAD – KNUCKLE (joint) HEAD (leader). | |
| 2 | Chat about setter being better dressed (7) |
| NATTIER – NATTER (chat) [about] I (the setter). | |
| 3 | Hurls ripe bananas in supremo’s office (9) |
| RULERSHIP – (hurls ripe)* [bananas]. The surface conjures up an amusing image. | |
| 4 | Endlessly debate athletic event (6) |
| DISCUS – DISCUS{s} (debate) without it’s end letter [endlessly]. | |
| 5 | Bit of fish finger, half gone (3) |
| FIN – FIN{ger} [half gone]. You have to separate the “fish finger” to find the definition. | |
| 6 | Hop bud, pickled (5) |
| CAPER – Double definition. | |
| 9 | Record means something important to tailor (4,7) |
| TAPE MEASURE – TAPE (record) MEASURE (a means to an end). | |
| 12 | Finally reprimanded for one’s manners in roads (9) |
| DRIVEWAYS – Last letters of reprimandeD foR, I’VE (one has, one’s) WAYS (manners). A bit tricky for a QC, I think, and my last one in. | |
| 15 | Japanese scoff and hiss — I am out of order (7) |
| SASHIMI – (hiss I am)* [out of order]. | |
| 16 | Force you to put on frock (6) |
| DURESS – U (textspeak for you) in DRESS (frock). | |
| 18 | Drove fast car over England’s borders (5) |
| RACED – CAR [over] -> RAC, and outer letters [borders] of EnglanD. | |
| 21 | Trendy new pub (3) |
| INN – IN (trendy) N (new). | |
Biffed EARTHY, ADIEU, TAPE MEASURE, parsed post-submission. Never figured out KOI; took ‘caught’ to be C until I got the K, and biffed. 7:31
It turns out that SASHIMI is not sushi with mi on the end, so a DNF WO careless E in about 10. I thought this was a classy puzzle with a good mix of easy and not so easy. Thanks Jack and Shay.
Not me today!
OMG sorry John, Jack does so much work around here that some automatic reflex made me credit him. Thanks for the blog.
Bugger! DNF. Having narrowly avoided joining Lindsay in the Japanese fish trap I succumbed to a typo with RADED / DEDLINE.
My first Quickie error since January 18, so I guess I was due. I thought I spotted the typo just as I clicked the submit button, but wasn’t sure. Then had that agonising wait while the system goes off to fetch some pink ink.
4:26 otherwise for an enjoyable puzzle. Agree that the parsing of DRIVEWAYS was at the tougher end of the Quickie spectrum.
Thanks Shay and John (John, you have a small typo in the parsing of 7ac. UNIT s/be UNTI)
Oops. Thanks. Typo fixed.
Went for the sushimi trap but managed to see the anagrist would not allow it. Didn’t like DRIVEWAYS for roads and would have thought of a driveway as a parking area in front of a house, but I suppose you could have a 2km driveway, which makes it a road. Thought the wordplay was tricky too for a quickie. Thought the fish was ‘koy’ until NATTIER went in. Took a while to see RACED. Didn’t fall for the ‘entrance’ trap in ENRAPTURE. COD to SISTINE.
Thanks John and setter.
10 minutes. A welcome return to normality for me after the previous two QCs that took me 19 and 18 minutes. 9 minutes. Those with concerns about ‘record / TAPE’ may be having misgivings again!
6:04 – also slowed by missing the oxytone ‘entrance’. Words like ‘klutz’ and ‘dunderhead’ were hard to banish from my thoughts before finally seeing KNUCKLEHEAD, which is a good word, though I prefer ‘lackwit’.
It wasn’t so much the parsing as the fact that my drive is only a bit longer than my car so getting from roads to DRIVEWAYS was a struggle and added a full three minutes at the end. Enjoyed having CAPER defined as ‘bud pickled’ and the simplicity of FIN really made me smile. Missed out on a fast one but great fun. All green in 12.10.
A game of 2 halves Brian! Saw lots very quickly but struggled badly on too many too to finally finish with driveways in26.02
Liked Dim Sum for a mid solve smile. Done up like a kipper with entrance, spent a very long time with the letters on a piece of paper trying to find a word that started with ear and was maybe a medical term for the opening there, d’oh!!
Thanks Shay and John for the parsing of driveways
A top quality puzzle with a couple of very pleasing puns to enjoy along the way. I initially biffed SuSHIMI but for once I listened to that little voice asking where the ‘u’ came from and went back and fully checked the parsing.
Started with FACT and finished with DRIVEWAYS in 7.59 with CsOD to ROUND TRIP and DIM SUM.
Thanks to John and Shay
I really enjoyed this puzzle, with lots of good clues that made me smile. KINDRED was my FOI, but the K then convinced me that the joint in 1D was Knee, which considerably slowed that one down. I share the slight surprise that DRIVEWAYS are considered roads, and biffed CAPER, but otherwise a smooth run for a 9:12 finish.
Many thanks John for the blog and I look forward to Sawbill’s Weekend Special.
I agree with our blogger – I biffed DRIVEWAYS, and had to come here for the parsing. Is a driveway a road anyway? In any event the surface is definitely OTT for QC solvers.
Otherwise this was a decent puzzle – thanks Shay and John.
FOI FACT
LOI DRIVEWAYS
COD ROUND TRIP
TIME 5:00
7.38
Really struggled to get going, not even seeing KOI and SEE, but sped up. Not easy I’d say but high quality with quite a few really nice surfaces.
Thanks John/Shay
Ps No errors since January for Galspray? I know Oz is a different continent but never knew it was a different planet. 🙂
Plenty of errors as usual, just not on the Quickie for some reason. I’ve managed to stuff up a Jumbo, two dailies and now a Quickie in the last week though, so things are returning to normal!
Thought this was an excellent puzzle. I really like the decoys, particularly ENTRANCE which is my COD. Agree DRIVEWAYS is tough (my LOI) but a question mark after ‘roads’ would suffice in my view.
12:38, I think a new PB for me.
Congratulations!
I feared for the worst after some of Shay’s early puzzles (2941 had a Snitch of 170, I recall) but this was fun and pitched at the right level for a QC IMO. I benefitted from a gradual filling up of the grid (instead of jumping all over the place) and so had more crossers – a great help with many of the answers.
I enjoyed the mix of clever clues, didn’t rush, and finished in 13.50 which is OK for me these days.
I liked DRIVEWAYS, ENTRANCE, and DURESS amongst others. Many thanks to Shay and John.
P.s. TftT operation seems to be fine now. Thanks to whoever sorted it out.
ENRAPTURE and DURESS just too difficult. That other meaning of entrance did occur to me, but couldn’t make it work. Likewise tried to use DRESS but failed. Otherwise ok despite NHO KNUCKLEHEAD (had to be). Thank you (which I would always write without the hyphen – any opinions?), John. (Oh: except adjectivally, as in a thank-you letter.)
7:21
No real issues, though did temporarily have WON TON at 14a, until disproved. Know of SASHIMI but still took a moment to be sure that all of the letters were in the right configuration. ENRAPTURE was a tricky anagram involving the scribbling out of all of the letters. KNUCKLEHEAD is something that Clyde of the Ant Hill Mob (from The Tales Of Penelope Pitstop) might have said.
Thanks John and Shay
Ha ha. If you haven’t done it already you might enjoy my latest Weekend Quick Cryptic from 4 weeks ago. You can find it here.
Found this difficult, taking 29:11 to finish. ENRAPTURE LOI, having finally seen the anagram and not the way in! Getting KNUCKLEHEAD was the breakthrough .
Just about recalled SASHIMI and biffed CAPER. Phew.
17:36, found this tricky.
Didn’t parse CAPER, and LOI was ROUNDTRIP.
RULERSHIP seems like a contrived word. In what context could it be used?
COD DIM SUM
Collins gives the example “ Foreign rulership of the country began in the 18th century”.
15 at least half bifd and checkers.
Didn’t get 1ac or 1d which made the west side more difficult. Strong east side apart from driveways.
3d I saw the anagrist and indicator but I thought the answer questionable.
Thanks John and Shay
Initially thought 1D would start with KNEE until got UNTIL. Couldn’t parse DRIVEWAYS – thanks John for explanation. Great puzzle from Shay with a good mix of write-ins and chewier clues which were all gettable.
13:10 for the solve. The SE corner held me up for almost half of that. Food & drink is my Kryptonite so to have DIM-SUM / SASHIMI intersecting felt unfair and CAPER went in fingers crossed as don’t really know either of the defs.
Same concerns as others about DRIVEWAYS – not a good clue for the QC – I couldn’t parse it afterwards even with a bit of staring. I would have thought the surface would be better with “on” rather than “in”.
Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle where I especially liked ROUND-TRIP, FIN and SISTINE.
1hr04 for my week which is decent. Have a good weekend everybody.
Thanks to JohnI for the blog and to Shay for the QC.
Edit: thanks to Sawbill for the Weekender – 10:03
A lot of very nice clues in this QC. Finished in 26.26.
LOI was the anagram RULERSHIP which was not the first word to come to mind.
Really liked SANDPIT and RACED.
Thanks Shay and John.
8:22 with LOI DRIVEWAYS. I nearly parsed it, but was missing the R. I’m not convinced that the “finally” can be read as applying to the “for” as well as the “determined”, but no doubt this device has been used before.
Thanks John and Shay
I found this tricky but enjoyable, crossing the line in 18.40.
DRIVEWAYS and EARTHY held me up the most, and I needed the blog to parse the former.
DIMSUM raised a smile, as did UNTIL.
Pi ❤️
From DISCUS to DRIVEWAY, which I spent a while getting my head round, but did finally parse, in 6:50. ENRAPTURE took a bit of thought too. Thanks Shay and John.
Took a while to get going but got there in the end, all correct. Enjoyable, too. Smiled at DIM SUM, KOI, UNTIL and FIN. Also liked KINDRED, ENRAPTURE, SANDPIT, ADIEU. I guess a CAPER is a pickled bud, come to think of it.
LOI DRIVEWAYS – slow to parse.
Thanks vm, John.
I was a bit apprehensive when I saw the setter’s name but was pleasantly surprised by this offering. FOI FACT and LOsI DECLINE and DURESS. I biffed DRIVEWAYS from checkers and parsed post solve. I particularly liked the cluing for DIM SUM and ENRAPTURE. 7:37 Thanks John
18:18
A strange solve. Raced through the first few, KINDRED and KNUCKLEHEAD going in straightaway, but slowed in the middle and was heading squarely towards the SCC when the last few suddenly fell into place. LOI EARTHY.
An excellent puzzle, no real holdups but all quite slow. Took longer then they deserved to get 6D and 10A, but both very good clues, I spent ages trying to remember what a hop bud was called. I used to work in Barking – not exactly known for its famous chapels. DNK sashimi but (just about) guessable, although all 6 of the possibilities were contenders. Also couldn’t parse driveways. I think 14A must refer to the restaurant in Leicester Square which used to charge me exactly that. The Dim Sum was good though.
Thanks to John and Shay.
Finished correctly in 46 minutes.
Easier than Thursday’s puzzle – but still tough.
Had to guess 12 Down – DRIVEWAYS – just glad these were no other clues as hard as this. I am still trying to work out the parsing.
I liked 3 down. For anyone interested, this is advice from a Monty Python sketch
about defending oneself against a banana attack :
” Sgt.: Tonight I shall be carrying on from where we got to last week when I was showing you how to defend yourselves against anyone who attacks you with armed with a piece of fresh fruit.
Groans from class.
Sgt.: Bananas. How to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. Now you, come at me with this banana. Catch! Now, it’s quite simple to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. First of all you force him to drop the banana; then, second, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. You have now rendered him ‘elpless. “