Thank you to Pip for coming to the rescue last week. I should now be up and running for the foreseeable.
A good workout this week, with just a couple of clues causing a bit of a hold up for me. I tried to make 6d ENNA, as in ANNE raised, but, as far as I know, no Uncle Ennas exist and anyway, that didn’t make use of the ‘finally’, so this was my LOI, only by biffing and thinking about it later. I also stared long and hard at 18d, thinking it had to be something to do with B and Y, a hollow body, before the PDM came.
Thanks, Oran.
A good workout this week, with just a couple of clues causing a bit of a hold up for me. I tried to make 6d ENNA, as in ANNE raised, but, as far as I know, no Uncle Ennas exist and anyway, that didn’t make use of the ‘finally’, so this was my LOI, only by biffing and thinking about it later. I also stared long and hard at 18d, thinking it had to be something to do with B and Y, a hollow body, before the PDM came.
Thanks, Oran.
Across | |
1 | HEIGHTEN – raise; anagram (in need of repair) of THE HINGE |
7 | POETRY – verse; American writer = POE, attempt = TRY |
8 | DOCTOR NO – Bond film; dwarf = DOC, ripped = TORN, round = O |
9 | KNEE – joint; hidden in (reduced) reversal of (come back) bEEN Known |
10 | ICE – distance (as in coldness); wanted this to be arc for a while, but it’s one = I, church = CE (Church of England) |
11 | PENTAGON – defence department; Planning initially = P, followed by anagram (redeployed) of ON AGENT |
13 | RULE – law; the French = LE, following Rugby Union = RU |
15 | FLOW – run from; reversal (retreating) of wild animal = WOLF |
17 | ORDNANCE – munitions; regulation, exempting one = ORD(I)NANCE |
19 | REV – double definition |
22 | MAUL – paw (verb); obstinate beast with no tail= MUL(E), inserting A |
23 | COTTON ON – twig; fibre-producing plant = COTTON, reverse of NO |
24 | UNISEX – for him or for her; colleges = UNIS, partner no longer = EX |
25 | YACHTING – sailing; anagram (jogging) of CYNTHIA and beginning of Go |
Down | |
1 | JOHN PEEL – huntsman; anagram (mixed with) of JP HE LONE. Is this the same fellow causing discussion in an earlier blog this week? |
2 | STREET – thoroughfare; ash or elm = TREE, in the middle of cloiSTered |
3 | HYDE – dark side of doctor’s character; as in Dr Jekyll and …,homophone (it’s said) of conceal = HIDE |
4 | INCLINED – double definition; one slightly cryptic, and given, as in has a tendency to |
5 | HOOTER – double definition |
6 | EDNA – girl; reversal (raised) of with = AND, unclE |
12 | GIOVANNI – Italian; anagram (upset) of AVIGNON I |
14 | LECTURER – teacher; shocking treatment = ECT, included in seductress = LURER |
16 | WRETCH – miserable person; starts of With Rice, to eat in = ETCH |
18 | ARMPIT – body’s hollow; prepare = ARM, mine = PIT |
20 | SOFA – item of furniture; up to now incomplete = SO FA(R) |
21 | SNUG – cosy; reversal (raised) of arms = GUNS |
Some nice neat clues here: 18d especially. I was dubious at first about ICE for 10a, but maybe it’s another example of ratcheting up the deviousness of the Quickies.
LOI 6d as well.
Strange how that well known Cumbrian has made yet another appearance in the crosswords this week. Mind you, I don’t think he’ll be doing much hunting there at the moment. My thoughts go out to all flood victims there this week.
Yes, John Peel came up in the main puzzle recently when the song about him was inaccurately clued as “Scottish air”. JP was from Cumbria.
Edited at 2015-12-11 08:39 am (UTC)
re: difficultly, I prefer it when they’re on the easier side. It’s supposed to be a quick crossword. If I want difficult, there’s the 15×15.
Edited at 2015-12-11 12:16 pm (UTC)
Is there a case for the QC to become progressively trickier, as the main crossword does?
I got nowhere with the big cryptic today but I got a record half-way yesterday – a big vote of thanks to the QC and the bloggers.
Brian
edit: I tried it. It doesn’t seem to print well directly from Firefox. So (assuming you’re on Windows), use the Snipping Tool, then paste the snip into Word / Wordpad / Paint, and print from there.
Edited at 2015-12-11 11:00 pm (UTC)
From the Puzzles editor:
I appreciate this isn’t ideal, but for the time being, there is another way to print the Quick Cryptic (or in fact any other part of the paper).
– From the main Times site, go to ‘Papers’ in the top menu
– Select MINDGAMES in the Table of Contents to the right of the front page
– Right click on the page that appears, and select Print Custom Area
– Draw a box around the Quick Cryptic, and then follow the onscreen instructions
DP
The new edition appears around dawn each day otherwise you may get the previous day’s puzzle
Also note that electroplexy has been used twice this week: just a coincidence having not seen it before?
Edited at 2015-12-11 05:27 pm (UTC)
I don’t know if my memory’s gone but didn’t a virtually identical clue to 14d appear earlier in the week?
CODs 8a and 18d.