Very Teazy from Teazel today with plenty of trickery. I got a bit stuck in the SE corner until I saw the Q, taking 7:30 – well over par for me. Some great clues, though, including a lesser-spotted quadruple definition. Thank-you Teazel! How did you all get on?
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 153 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Support letters after appointment (4) |
| POST – A four word quadruple definition. Nice one! | |
| 4 | Birds wrangle with noisy arguments (8) |
| SPARROWS – SPAR (wrangle) + ROWS (noisy arguments). I spotted the ROWS first and then the birds, then “spar” =”wrangle”… well I suppose so, but I needed the answer to the clue to see that. | |
| 8 | More enthusiastic man painting? That is right (8) |
| HEARTIER – HE (man) + ART (painting) + I.E. (id est; that is) + R. You need to see you have to split “man painting”, which I didn’t at first. | |
| 9 | Creep along in church (4) |
| INCH – IN + CH (Church). Phew! An easy one. | |
| 10 | In two brief months, boil (6) |
| DECOCT – DEC (December) + OCT (October) – two brief months. I knew of decoct meaning “extract”, but not that it also meant “boil”. | |
| 11 | Preserved vegetables for cheeky child (6) |
| PICKLE – Double definition. The second definition was a new one on me, but what else could the answer be? | |
| 12 | Terrible war starts — a GP’s to seek desperate salvation (5,2,6) |
| GRASP AT STRAWS – [Terrible] (war starts a GP’s)*. | |
| 16 | Charlie no winner, but not so far behind (6) |
| CLOSER – C (Charlie in the phonetic alphabet) + LOSER (no winner). | |
| 17 | Friend beginning to recover after earth tremor (6) |
| QUAKER – QUAKE (earth tremor) + first letter of , [beginning to], Recover. Ah. That sort of friend… “Quakers, or members of the Religious Society of Friends, are a faith group founded in 17th-century England by George Fox. They believe in a direct, personal connection to the Divine, often called the “Inner Light” or “that of God in everyone”. Known for their commitment to equality, peace, truth, and simplicity, they worship in silence without clergy.“ | |
| 19 | Pheasant, for example, unable to walk properly (4) |
| GAME – Double definition. The dictionary says of the second definition “origin obscure”. It’s a synonym of “lame”. | |
| 20 | Beloved park in holy surroundings (8) |
| PRECIOUS – REC (park) in PIOUS (holy). Did anyone else get hung up on trying to get a P for “Parking” in the middle? Wrong trees and barking spring to mind. | |
| 21 | Methodist’s awful news about destruction of Yale (8) |
| WESLEYAN – [awful] (news)* about [destruction of] (Yale)*. A double anagram and inclusion – wordplay that’s perhaps a little tricky for a QC, but the definition and crossers should lead you to the answer. | |
| 22 | Crazy star taking time to make a comeback (4) |
| NUTS – Not any old star but our own… SUN (star) including T (time) all reversed. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Some robes evidently far too heavy (5) |
| OBESE – Hidden in , [some], rOBES Evidently. | |
| 3 | Reptiles, huge nuisance for cat (13) |
| TORTOISESHELL – TORTOISES (reptiles) + HELL (huge nuisance). | |
| 4 | Splashed front of parka in river mud (5) |
| SPILT – First letter, [front of], Parka in SILT (river mud). No it doesn’t begin with R for river with 3 letters meaning “mud”. | |
| 5 | A rugby player’s eating nothing suitable (7) |
| APROPOS – A + PROP’S (rugby player’s) including, [eating] O (letter that looks like 0; nothing). | |
| 6 | New form of an incinerator following refurbishment (13) |
| REINCARNATION – (an incinerator)* [following refurbishment]. | |
| 7 | Why candle almost out in Irish town? (7) |
| WICKLOW – WICK LOW (why candle is almost out). | |
| 10 | Ultimately unsuited to cycling, one walked (3) |
| DOG – Last letters, [ultimately], of unsuiteD tO cyclinG. Lovely definition! | |
| 13 | Free to take another contract (7) |
| RELEASE – RE-LEASE (take another contract). | |
| 14 | Degenerate American going to pot (7) |
| ATROPHY – A (American) + TROPHY (pot). “going to” here is a juxtaposition indicator I’ve not seen before. It took me a while to see this one. | |
| 15 | Aristocrat turning up conceals title (3) |
| SIR – Reverse hidden in [turning uop conceals], aRIStocrat. | |
| 17 | Almost strange name for band (5) |
| QUEEN – QUEE{r} (strange) without the last letter, [almost], + N (name). No, not a belt or a stripe, but a differnt sort of band. It took me a while to see QUEER, which then helped me complete the SE corner quite quickly. | |
| 18 | Perfect climbing over base of Everest, go up? (5) |
| ERUPT – PURE (perfect) [climbing] -> ERUP + last letter, [base], of EveresT. Another tricky one, I think, to finish. | |
I enjoyed the quadruple definition of POST. Thanks to setter and John as always.
I hope that the regulars on here will enjoy the Weekend QC. Do let me know how you get on.
I can absolutely guarantee I will enjoy it more than today’s imposter for a QC …
Looking forward to Sunday morning already.
The quad was my FOI, and I proceeded with alacrity from there. Wicklow we have seen before, although maybe not in a Quickie. Atrophy was my LOI, and I did not parse it.
Time: 9:57
15 minutes. LOI QUEEN forced by the Q -checker from QUAKER which had only just preceded it, and confirmed by wordplay. I know nothing of the band in question.
Quite a struggle, at 16.41 that’s two Johns and change. The south-east undid me, and I wasn’t helping myself by trying to make an anagram of earth + r instead of QUAKE + R for friend. For a while I thought the cat at 3dn was an anagram as well, and was fooled by the clever 4xdef POST for too long. A clever puzzle, thanks John and Teazel.
I also spent time trying to anagram earth + r.
And me!
Me too!
We tried to parse SHAKER — not sure if they have survived as a religion – not believing in sex may have been a limiting factor.
Bit above my paygrade and enjoyed more in retrospect. Pleased with myself when POST went straight in but hard from there. Ended up with a GAME/lame toss up half expecting the clue to be wrong. I’d previously struggled with DECOCT – clearly clued once you have the checkers – and TORTOISESHELL (my cat is a ragdoll rescue – the size and quantity of hairballs was not in the manual). ATROPHY hard too. Loved HEARTIER when in game. Some great clues in here. All green in 21.12.
22:24 Spent 15 minutes on precious queen with Quaker nuts erupt. Yes I know.
TaJAT
😅
Slow but steady progress this morning. Like others, the SE put up a fight at the end. DECOCT and GAME were new to me but I wondered if the latter was related to ‘gammy’ in some way.
Started with POST and finished with ATROPHY in 9.28.
Thanks to John for the blog and Teazel for the entertaining workout.
When the clock stopped at 21.20 we were pretty pleased after an interesting battle with this one. To come here and find it’s probably our first solve in under 3 Johns is very gratifying. NHO decoct but with the crossers it had to be. Held up a bit with swallows which fitted birds and available crossers and assumed an unknown parsing. The quadruple is very good indeed, thanks Teazel and John
DNF. And that is doubly annoying as I struggled mightily through what I do not think is a QC, only to fail at the last when in desperation to complete the puzzle I put in LAME for GAME. I do not understand setters who choose such a deliberately obscure meaning for a word – Merriam-Webster has 246 synonyms for GAME and being unable to walk isn’t among them – and to do so when the checkers are -A-E compounds the feeling that the clue was out of place in a QC.
Before then I was held up by several clues where although the wordplay was clear, the definition/vocabulary was unusual. DECOCT, for one (did not know it meant to boil) and DOG (“one walked”? I do, finally, see it but it is either very clever or far too clever-clever for a QC, take your pick), and I had not met GRASP AT STRAWS (I have only met Clutch at straws) or QUAKER as a friend.
There is certainly a place for clues where a difficult definition is clued with friendly wordplay, and clearly part of the game is using wordplay to construct an unknown answer. And of course some of the time the definition is not so much “difficult” as merely “unknown to me”. But four in the same puzzle strikes me as “too much of a good thing” and left me struggling to enjoy this one.
Many thanks John for the blog and I look forward to Sawbill’s Weekend Special even more than usual.
Strangely MW does mention game under GAMMY
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gammy
Phew, that was tough. I suspect that the blood of some regulars will be DECOCTing.
For me the holdups were (well, apart from half the puzzle – I mean the *particular* holdups) in all the SE – QUEEN, QUAKER, ERUPT and LOI ATROPHY. When I finally got QUEEN it unlocked it. “Going to” threw me out so I took comfort from it being new to our esteemed blogger as well.
Good tussle for 10:04 and a Workout Day; many thanks Teazel and John.
I wish the online version would name the setter. I’d have known better than to waste my time today!
Oh my goodness. Tussle indeed. Quadruple definition impressive – some clever clues – QUAKER, some fun clues CLOSER, WICKLOW …. however, DECOCT? GAME? We rather enjoy a little trickery – being teased, tripped up, taken up the garden path, all engineered with a friendly smile. Today, we could not help but feel a little taunted. So, decocting we are not, though we feel a slight simmering ….
All up, a good work out with an occasional grimace.
Thank you Teazel and John.
DECOCT was an outrage, wasn’t it? But fortunately the cryptic was super clear: two short months. Solve DOG (an easy one) and the first one now starts with D, so is DEC. Right, now what could the other one be? DECOCT seemed the only even faintly plausible possibility. At least it looked like a word!
GAME was easy enough if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan: someone who limps is often described as having a “game leg” (e.g. The Boscombe Valley Mystery: “Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. ‘I am a practical man,’ he said, ‘and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the laughing-stock of Scotland Yard.’ “).
12:54 for the solve. Agree that was tough but it seemed about right for a Friday puzzle – although I’m sure I’m only saying that because I came through unscathed. Held up by HEARTILY for a minute or so at the end. NHO DECOCT; thought GAME was perhaps the proper spelling of “gammy” but the latter is correct. Liked the DOG clue.
Tough week but this was the 2nd fastest. All solved in just under 1hr10. The good thing about tough weeks is they stop me making mistakes so April remains clean.
Thanks to JohnI and Teazel – have a good weekend everybody.
Well done #50. With times like that you should be tackling the 15*15.
Oddly this was my second fastest solve of the week.
NHO DECOCT but it was the only real possibility. Nor that meaning of PICKLE
Some of our ancestors had ‘Friend’ as a middle name so I knew about the Quaker connection. Another example of useless knowledge from one’s parents having a use after all.
ATROPHY nearly did for me until an alphabet trawl produced the T (Trophy for Pot is quite a tenuous link)
Thanks to Teazel and John
Dnf…
The SE corner did it for me – plus putting in 19ac “Lame”, which I agree was pretty obscure and a 50/50 toss up if you didn’t know.
Again, not one for doing if you’re in a rush.
FOI – 6dn “Reincarnation”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 10ac “Decoct”
Thanks as usual!
NHO GAME but presumed related in some way to gammy; Mrs M assured me DECOCT was a word, and reminded me WESLEYAN. But convinced the holy surroundings was PRECInct so no hope of ERUPT, those 2 to the bad. Thanks, John.