Quick Cryptic 466 by Mara.

Sorry for the delay today. Seems it’s easier to blog from around the World than with day to day happenings. Thanks to Jackkt for volunteering to step in.

So to today’s very enjoyable crossword. Even the long anagrams I often struggle with fell into place. I was held up at the end in SE but don’t expect our usual sub-10 finishers to have any problems.

ACROSS

1. So what – I don’t care. SOW with HAT.
4. Spells. A cryptic/double definition charms being spells as are periods.
8. Thought police – PC brigade. Anagram (smashed) of UP GOTHIC HOTEL.
10. Ruler. Double definition.
11. Mae West – old actress. EWE inside MAST.
12. Impersonate – pose as. Anagram (redirecting letters) of EIRE POSTMAN.
16. Tombola – lottery with a revolving drum. Grave (TOMB), old (O), Louisiana state (LA).
17. Farce – humorous work. Expression (FACE) around R.
18. Proliferation – rapid increase. Anagram (that’s extraordinary) of OIL EARN PROFIT.
19. Capital city – Athens. In Autri(A THEN S)witzerland.
20. Player – footballer perhaps. Zi(P), coat (LAYER).

DOWN

1. Saturn – planet. While (AS) upwards, rotate (TURN).
2. Woolly mammoth – hairy thing once. Vague (woolly), titanic (mammoth).
3. Anger – fury. Banger without the B.
5. Protein – basic dietary requirement. Anagram (fresh) of TRIPE NO.
6. Leicester City – a currently very successful football team. Anagram (falteringly) of CELTIC RISE YET.
7. Sheath – case. Second (S), prime minister (HEATH).
9. Timeshare – property agreement. Anagram (out) of HIRE TEAMS.
13. Emotion – feeling. Be(E)thoven, movement (MOTION).
14. Utopia – supposedly perfect state. In Xanad(U TOP I A)ssume.
15. Tenner – note. I was delayed by the surface into thinking of musical notes but it’s a homophone (heard) of tenor.
17. Frail – weak. (F)uddled, bar (RAIL).

6 comments on “Quick Cryptic 466 by Mara.”

  1. Very clever to get Leicester City into a crossword. It must be the first time it has happened when they have been top of the Premier League. Is this a record?
    The puzzle had a higher anagram content than any I can remember -perhaps another record? But they were satisfying anagrams and overall I enjoyed the puzzle. As ever a hidden answer was very slow to reveal itself to me. I finished with 14d but had no major problems; 30 minutes or so. David
  2. Only just crept in within 10 minutes and was unable to parse 16ac as I wrote the answer in. I guessed there had to be a US state abbreviated to LA but was unable to think of it; LA is usually clued as ‘city’.
  3. I normally struggle a bit with Mara, so I was pleased to find that today’s puzzle moved along fairly quickly, save for the SE corner. 4ac was my favourite today. Invariant
  4. It’s quiet on here today. I enjoyed this one, despite drawing a complete blank on 4a and eventually giving up on it. Could have kicked myself when I saw the answer on the blog.
    I particularly enjoyed 1a as it made me chuckle and thought 15d was very clever
  5. It took me a while to get into gear on this… late night restart of the brain problem, perhaps. 12a my first one in, but then things dropped into place. 7d, my LOI, held me up most, but the long anagrams and double helping of hidden words helped me to a just over average solving time. I too liked 1a, but 11a made me smile too.
  6. Would have come in under half an hour, but SHEATH held me up for 8 minutes, eventually crawling over the line in 37 minutes.

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