This took me 14 minutes with my last one in at 15dn losing me couple of minutes. I think it’s mostly quite straightforward with no unusual words other than perhaps ‘fedora’, a style of hat that possibly only survives in the ranks and columns of crossword puzzles.
I have included clues with definitions underlined having designed a new template when the matter of showing clues was first raised a couple of weeks ago. Since then there’s been discussion about hiding clues so that they appear at the hover of a mouse and I’ve been working on that too, perhaps for next time, but I thought I’d give this version an outing today to see how it goes down, so please feel free to comment.
On edit: I just visited this blog on my Samsung phone using the LJ mobile phone app and am disappointed to note that my bold formatting and underlinings are not shown. I don’t see any way round this and in any case I suspect the appearance may vary from device to device, so I can really only attempt to cater for how things are displayed when viewed on the internet. It doesn’t look too good in Opera either.
Across |
|
---|---|
7 | Vicar, one entering cathedral (8) |
MINISTER – I (one) inside MINSTER (cathedral) | |
8 | Record knock by opener for Essex (4) |
TAPE – TAP (knock), E |
|
9 | Fine English girl’s hat (6) |
FEDORA – F(fine), E(English), DORA (girl) | |
10 | Land forces to be led by bishop is bonkers (5) |
BARMY – B (bishop), ARMY (land forces). I wondered about the use of the plural in the clue but concluded an army consists of a number of different elements so it’s ok . | |
11 | Mineral spring in southern Pennsylvania (3) |
SPA – S (southern), PA (Pennsylvania) | |
12 | String of invectives from traffic island being absorbed (6) |
TIRADE – I (island) inside TRADE (traffic) | |
14 | Guide, one written by editor? (6) |
LEADER – Double definition | |
16 | Book containing accounts of both sides astride border (6) |
LEDGER – EDGE (border) inside LR (both sides, Left and Right) | |
18 | Live on edge (6) |
RESIDE – RE (on) SIDE (edge) | |
19 | Crack in a church (3) |
ACE – A, CE (church – of England) | |
20 | Ape tragic heroine beginning to cry (5) |
MIMIC – MIMI (tragic heroine – of ‘La Bohème’), C |
|
21 | Fiery pit shown in painting (6) |
ARDENT – DEN (pit) inside ART (painting) | |
23 | Depressed wife entertained by university teacher (4) |
DOWN – W (wife) inside DON (university teacher) | |
24 | LSD piece somehow blotted out (8) |
ECLIPSED – Anagram (indicated by ‘somehow’) of LSD PIECE | |
Down |
|
1 | In crew, I spilled last of the drink (4,4) |
RICE WINE – Anagram (indicated by ‘spilled’) of IN CREW I, |
|
2 | Cover over open-air swimming pool (4) |
LIDO – LID (cover), O (over) | |
3 | A kid free from anxiety (2,4) |
AT EASE – A,TEASE (kid) | |
4 | Family start to boo during court case (6) |
TRIBAL – B |
|
5 | Film luminary was going about first of remakes (4,4) |
STAR WARS – STAR (luminary), then R |
|
6 | Nimble, agent crossing river (4) |
SPRY – R (river) inside SPY (agent) | |
13 | Rum agent stupidly causing row (8) |
ARGUMENT – Anagram (indicated by ‘stupidly) of RUM AGENT | |
15 | Threaten to close, wind up (8) |
ENDANGER – END (close), ANGER (wind up) | |
17 | Bat‘s clattering noise (6) |
RACKET – Double definition | |
18 | Band together once more? No kidding (6) |
REALLY – RE- ALLY (once more – band together) | |
20 | Heavenly body, low by noon (4) |
MOON – MOO (low), N (noon) | |
22 | Information given by party training (4) |
DOPE – DO (party), PE (training) |
If you want to access the Quickie this way (I use it most days), it’s the day’s date in this style (20140407) followed by the number of the puzzle plus 100 plus 1 (this is The Times, after all).
At the moment…
Edited at 2014-04-07 04:33 am (UTC)
The link to the puzzle on the Play button is currently broken YET AGAIN and I offer this experience in the hope that it may help the Times to find out what’s going wrong.
Because I was due to blog Monday’s Quickie for TftT I was hoping to access the new puzzle as soon as possible after midnight. Shortly before that time I checked to see what was on the Play button and, as expected, it was still linked to Friday’s puzzle #20. At a few seconds past midnight (my computer clock read 00:00) I clicked the button again and was pleased that it went directly to Monday’s puzzle #21 with the url: thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140407/1 22/.
So that was all well and good and I acknoweldged the improvement in my comments at TftT, however on returning later this morning my attention was drawn to the link being broken and when I tested the button myself I found it linked to this url: thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140407/1 23/ – file not found
I assume you don’t have people hanging around in the middle of the night and changing such things manually so it would appear that something in the program is set to roll over automatically and link a new url to the button each day. My experience leads me to believe that this must be happening in two stages so that on the dot of midnight the correct url is inserted and a little later something else in the program is adding +1 to the last digit of the url so that it stops working correctly.
I hope this helps you to find the problem and correct it, and might I suggest that in the process it would help to avoid confusion if you bring the puzzle number and url puzzle code into alignment.
Edited at 2014-04-07 06:00 am (UTC)
Thankfully I solve from the print newspaper so have not been experiencing the problems others have. I am concentrating on the quick and have not been trying the main puzzle. Maybe in a little while….
This all went in very quickly for me. Maybe I’m getting better at them. Hope I haven’t spoken too soon 😉
Thanks for the blog Jack.
With some trepidation, might I respectfully take issue with our learned blogger’s assessment of the fedora as being consigned to history (other than in crosswords – which probably makes it the headgear equivalent of a beadle).
Until recently, I regularly sported a fedora as part of my standard winter business attire. This practice only ceased when said item was stolen from a coat stand in a pub in central Sydney, which presumably is testimony to its desirability (to the point where a chap would risk arrest in order to acquire one).
Edited at 2014-04-07 03:48 pm (UTC)
I’m not planning to use it for the main Times cryptic as there seems to be no general call for clues to be included there and I don’t want to be out of step with what other bloggers do. I may still think about the hover option for that one at some point.
Edited at 2014-04-07 11:10 pm (UTC)