Category: Weekend Cryptic

What struck me in particular about this (as ever) challenging and engaging puzzle were the bits of cleverly deceptive wordiness.

A few clues caused momentary brain seizures – particularly 20ac, as discussed below, and 24dn. Overall, though, the solve flowed rather smoothly, with pauses for thought at 28ac and 14d. I enjoyed the reference at 13ac!

8:59. I’m on holiday at the moment and our wifi is extremely dodgy so I’m going to keep this short. Not a difficult puzzle but a model of elegance, as we’ve come to expect from this setter. Lovely stuff.

A few clues today stretched my general knowledge. The most mysterious was the Shakespearean character that I’d never heard of; various sources suggest he might sometimes be spelled with a J or a G rather than an I.

I plunged in at the easy 15-letter CD 10 and, after getting a few others quickly, was thinking this might be a cinch. Then I tackled 13, obviously an anagram, and when I surfaced with the (absolutely wonderful) answer, realized that I was heading into more treacherous waters.

I saw 1ac and thought this might be the Cardiff Times crossword. Oh wait – the Cardiff Times doesn’t exist any more, I gather! Anyway, lovely clue, but not necessarily Welsh.

22:14. I found this decidedly tricky, and as I solved I thought some of it was a bit loose.

This week had a mix of quite easy clues and quite hard ones, but happily no obscurity. I loved the thought of harlotry flourishing in a place like 28ac! My LOI was 20dn, where I imagined an answer of the type ‘Model describes his work as impressive’ = I’M POSING. Not close!

We’re looking (apparently) for some Caledonian somebody in the first clue, which may have even been my FOI, and then the last Down answer, and definitely my LOI, is a charming Scots term, which could also describe this puzzle, a thorough joy from start to finish.

This grid looked odd to me until I realised it has mirror symmetry about a diagonal, not the vertical axis. Happily there was nothing crooked about the puzzle.