As usual on a Monday the link on the Times button goes to the wrong puzzle so here’s the way in: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140602/168/
Teazel set a couple of hard puzzles during the first month of Quickies and then a couple of easier ones, but at 11 minutes I found this the easiest of his/her offerings to date. This came as a welcome relief after my last blogging experience on Friday. I hope others also found it a gentle start to the week. Definitions are underlined.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | Slight wound is no handicap (7) |
SCRATCH – Double definition, the second often with reference to golf | |
5 | Confront Bill with fine (4) |
FACE – F (fine), AC (bill, account) but the E is unclued unless I’m missing something | |
7 | Page in directory (5) |
RECTO – Hidden inside dRECTOry. This is the right-hand page of an open book. Watch out also for ‘verso’ meaning the left-hand page. | |
8 | One may be up for a party in the garden (7) |
MARQUEE – Cryptic definition | |
10 | From the start, worker is trading intelligence (3) |
WIT – First letters of Worker Is Trading | |
11 | Rat-catcher departs by sewer into breakwater (4,5) |
PIED PIPER – D (departs, abbreviation) + PIPE (sewer) inside PIER (breakwater). This refers to the character in the poem by Robert Browning. | |
13 | Show mercy, soldiers – fast (6) |
RELENT – RE (soldiers , Royal Engineers), LENT (fast, the period in the church calendar prior to Easter) | |
14 | Being poor is difficult at university (4,2) |
HARD UP – HARD (difficult), UP (at university, a crossword chestnut) | |
17 | Orchards invaders wrecked over years (9) |
VINEYARDS – Y (years) inside anagram [wrecked] of INVADERS | |
19 | Veg is not quite fruit (3) |
PEA – PEA |
|
20 | Was head of state, but stepped down, not having succeeded (7) |
REIGNED – RE |
|
22 | Not advanced from first degree, that’s what I meant (5) |
BASIC – BA (first degree – Bachelor of Arts), SIC (that’s what I meant, a Latin annotation indicating exactly as written or quoted) | |
23 | Not many would be heard in squabble (4) |
FEUD – Sounds like “few’d” (not many would) | |
24 | Where baby rocks the crown? (7) |
TREETOP – Double definition, the first with reference to the nursery rhyme “Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top” | |
Down |
|
1 | Implement warder’s given to cabbie (11) |
SCREWDRIVER – SCREW (warder, prison slang), DRIVER (cabbie) | |
2 | Article’s condemned singer’s performance, say (7) |
RECITAL – Anagram [condemned] of ARTICLE | |
3 | Cheap, at 200 for a pound? (3-1-5) |
TWO-A-PENNY – Double definition. The first is slang and the second is cryptic based on 2 x the 100 pennies that make a pound. It’s a very old expression though and prior to decimalization in 1971 you’d have got 480 for a pound. | |
4 | The village prince (6) |
HAMLET – Double definition, the second with reference to Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark | |
5 | Service thrown up a long way (3) |
FAR – RAF (service – Royal Air Force) reversed [thrown up] | |
6 | Stupid person caught by sleeping policeman (5) |
CHUMP – C (caught, in cricket), HUMP (sleeping policeman, a term used for a hump built into a road as a traffic-calming measure) | |
9 | Part of continental breakfast set prized by footballers? (8,3) |
EUROPEAN CUP – EUROPEAN (continental), CUP (part of…breakfast set, for tea, coffee or eggs perhaps) but the whole clue can be read as a cryptic definition | |
12 | Horribly abuse pill? Only too credible (9) |
PLAUSIBLE – Anagram [horribly] of ABUSE PILL | |
15 | One’s picked up in warehouse. and one’s put down (7) |
DEPOSIT – IS reversed [picked up] inside DEPOT (warehouse) | |
16 | Believe Devon town’s not working (6) |
CREDIT – CREDIT |
|
18 | Sound from hooter enveloping one (5) |
NOISE – I (one) inside NOSE (hooter, slang). Fans of Tony Hancock will have no trouble with the slang here. | |
21 | Indicate approval as new party set up (3) |
NOD – N (new), DO (party) reversed [set up] |
Glorious blog, Jack, crystal clear!
LOI FEUD in a close race with FACE, which still doesn’t parse right for me. Was there an airman called Bill who was a flying ace?? Or is Bill a name for an ace in Poker??
COD EUROPEAN CUP, which Spurs will win again, some day!
Edited at 2014-06-02 09:23 am (UTC)
Also did not parse FACE. Post solve looking at a thesaurus I see ace and bill are synonyms for a dollar. Somewhat obscure for a quick cryptic if that is what is going on.
I got stuck for a long while in the NW corner and RECITAL/RECTO/RELENT were my last in. I’m really liking solving the puzzle on my tablet (Nexus 7) but to get those last three words I had to resort to pencil and paper to get the juices flowing.
Your patience is acknowledged and appreciated.
Cheers
Alan
Regards, J
Edited at 2014-06-02 04:50 pm (UTC)