Quick Cryptic Number 457 by Grumpy

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A proper laugh-out-load crossword with many of those penny dropping moments. Easily my favourite for some time. No obscure vocabulary, but plenty of deceptive wordplay and wit. Thank you, Grumpy.

Due to my not being able to get a sneak preview last night, however, I must post this quickly. Apologies for the brevity and any mistakes!

Definitions underlined.

1 Communications from dining room taking a long time (8)
MESSAGES – MESS (dining room) and AGES (long time).
5 Softy starts to whine, ignoring manly pursuits (4)
WIMP – first letters of (states to) Whine Ignoring Manly Pursuits.
8 Brought back puddings, under pressure (8)
STRESSED – reversal of (brought back) DESSERTS.
9 Voice that has changed a lot (4)
ALTO – anagram of (changed) A LOT.
11 Head leaving specimen that’s more than enough (5)
AMPLE – first letter removed from (head off) sAMPLE (specimen).
12 Wrong about a piece of jewellery (7)
EARRING – ERRING (wrong) around A.
13 Bring about English translation of Latin (6)
ENTAIL – E (english) and an anagram (translation) of LATIN.
15 Daddy and girl displaying Spanish dish (6)
PAELLA – PA (daddy) and ELLA (girl).
18 Put to death in river? Charming! (7)
EXECUTE – EXE (river) and CUTE (charming).
19 Key buried by Aberdeen terrier (5)
ENTER – hidden in (buried by) aberdeEN TERrier. Think computer keyboard.
21 Hit graduates hard (4)
BASH – BAS (Bachelor of Arts, graduates) and H (hard).
22 Astaire regularly eats fish (8)
SARDINES – regular letters of aStAiRe, plus DINES (eats).
23 Decline a new mobile (4)
WANE – anagram of (mobile) A NEW.
24 Parental correction before birth (8)
PRENATAL – anagram (correction) of PARENTAL.
1 Error discovered by end of term, I wager (7)
MISTAKE – end of terM, plus I and STAKE (wager).
2 Take off sports gear (5)
STRIP – double definition.
3 Cook I mess about, not eating or drinking a lot (10)
ABSTEMIOUS – anagram of (cook) I MESS ABOUT.
4 Number of team members: one seen after another? (6)
ELEVEN – the digit 1 seen after another 1, makes 11.
6 Animosity expressed by ailing Bard (3,4)
ILL WILL – ILL (ailing) and WILL (Shakespeare, bard).
7 Spike Milligan’s last seen in short programme (5)
PRONG – last of milligaN in PROG (short programme).
10 Give weapons to old fellow for final battle (10)
ARMAGEDDON – ARM (give weapons to), AGED (old), and DON (fellow).
14 Turncoat’s first motive for disloyalty (7)
TREASON – first letter of Turncoat, plus REASON (motive).
16 Lose oar tossed about in spray (7)
AEROSOL – anagram of (tossed about) LOSE OAR.
17 Go for garage job? (6)
REPAIR – double definition. One might repair to (go for) the peace of the drawing room.
18 Joint that’s associated with grease (5)
ELBOW – cryptic definition.
20 Principle unaffected by revolution (5)
TENET – a palindromic principle.

14 comments on “Quick Cryptic Number 457 by Grumpy”

  1. An excellent puzzle that took me 12 minutes and is bordering on the harder end of the spectrum perhaps. We’ve had something very similar to the ELEVEN clue recently, but maybe in the main puzzle where it delayed me for ages, so I was onto this one quite quickly. At 24ac the anagram is hardly worth the name so may have been better clued along the lines of moving one letter.
  2. After a run of difficult (for me) puzzles this one saw me back under the 10 minute mark for the first time in a while. So obviously I loved it.
  4. Agree, this was really fun to complete. COD 20d for me. And a fastest-ever finish for me (don’t know the exact time, but around 15 mins – getting better!)
  6. Yes, this was very enjoyable, with just 8ac and 17d causing enough problems to prevent a PB. 8ac, once the penny dropped, was my favourite. Invariant
  7. I enjoyed this too. Biffed a few and checked parsing post-solve, which allowed me to finish in under 5 minutes for the third day running. 7d my favourite, but several others made me smile too.

  8. Found this to be a bit easier than some, but enjoyable. COD for us was 6d. Very clever. Some of the anagrams were very obvious for a change.

  9. 18 mins here. Thought it was going to be record time, but held up somewhat by NE corner.

    edit: NW corner, I mean

    Edited at 2015-12-09 10:09 pm (UTC)

  10. An enjoyable and relatively quick solve. Was going to complain about the definition in 5a but have just reread it correctly as softy not softly, which makes a lot more sense. Plenty of contenders for COD but my nomination goes to 7d.
  11. Agree this was fun. Guessed only at 4d and smiled when I saw the explanation here – how could I have missed it?!
  12. I solved this after lunch. I hadn’t realised dessert backwards was … etc
    As others have remarked a very enjoyable crossword, hard enough for me. My LOI was 3d as I did not see the correct anagram fodder until later. Lots of good surfaces. David
  13. thought 4D may have been something to do with X (another) and 1

    kicked myself when I read the explanation, for which thanks !

  14. For me, the easiest in a long time – no idea how long but a single Costa indicates this for me. Really liked 7d, 8a, 10d – lots to smile at today!

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