Hi all. I thought this puzzle from Pipsqueak was pitched well: it took me a little under my average time, which is normal for a Monday.
My clue of the day is 15d because it just does everything a cryptic clue should do, beautifully. I’ll also highlight the bishop unable to go first class (23a) and 10a’s early bird, the inspiration for the blog title – although no worm is in danger from a bird that early! Thanks Pipsqueak!
I’m a busy early worm today, so I’ve kept things brief and will be unlikely to check back in until late. If anyone does have any questions, though, the comments section is always full of lovely people who are willing to help.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | First couple of thuds below make an alarming sound (7) |
| THUNDER — The first couple of letters of THuds + UNDER (below) | |
| 5a | Friends lying about blow (4) |
| SLAP — PALS (friends) backwards (lying about) | |
| 7a | Public school backing son’s remarks (5) |
| NOTES — ETON (public school) reversing (backing) + S (son) | |
| 8a | Order soldier to drop back (7) |
| COMMAND — COMMANDo (soldier) removing the last letter (to drop back) | |
| 10a | Breakfast for the early bird? (3) |
| EGG — The definitions, the second whimsical. The egg came first, by the way | |
| 11a | Somehow admire Pep’s fanciful hope (4,5) |
| PIPE DREAM — An anagram of (somehow) ADMIRE PEP | |
| 13a | Giggle time after time in bank (6) |
| TITTER — T T (time after time) in TIER (bank) | |
| 14a | Moneylender safe in ancient city (6) |
| USURER — SURE (safe) in UR (ancient city) | |
| 17a | US prop one thumped deliberately (2,7) |
| ON PURPOSE — US PROP ONE anagrammed (thumped) | |
| 19a | Row endlessly about nothing (3) |
| NIL — LINe (row) without its last letter (endlessly) reversed (about) | |
| 20a | Attendant pulls back, holding note (7) |
| STEWARD — DRAWS (pulls) back containing (holding) TE (note) | |
| 22a | Gather for each church service (5) |
| AMASS — A (for each) + MASS (church service) | |
| 23a | Bishop had to return second class (4) |
| BETA — B (Bishop) + ATE (had) going backwards (to return) | |
| 24a | Inspected, as one’s bags may be? (7) |
| CHECKED — Double definition | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Controversial student, one I mistreated (11) |
| TENDENTIOUS — STUDENT, ONE I anagrammed (mistreated) | |
| 2d | Out of bed, stiff and tense (7) |
| UPTIGHT — UP (out of bed) + TIGHT (stiff) | |
| 3d | Be rude to a contemporary in speech — and scarper! (9) |
| DISAPPEAR — Sounds like (… in speech) DIS A PEER (be rude to a contemporary) | |
| 4d | Instructions of great length queen overturned (6) |
| RECIPE — Reversal of (… overturned) EPIC (of great length) and ER (queen) | |
| 5d | Problem a few reported (3) |
| SUM — SOME (a few), sounds like (reported) | |
| 6d | Come to American and Irish funeral festivities (5) |
| AWAKE — A (American) and WAKE (Irish funeral festivities) | |
| 9d | Disheartened soldier made off (11) |
| DEMORALISED — SOLDIER MADE anagrammed (off) | |
| 12d | Beside themselves, as TV housewives were (9) |
| DESPERATE — Two definitions, the second referring to the 2004-2012 TV series Desperate Housewives | |
| 15d | Managed to get rid of loot (7) |
| RANSACK — RAN (managed) + SACK (to get rid of) | |
| 16d | Lexicon or dictionary featuring this type of language? (6) |
| NORDIC — LexicoN OR DICtionary is featuring the answer | |
| 18d | Bit quiet, might one say? (5) |
| PIECE — PEACE (quiet), homophone (might one say?) | |
| 21d | Two articles about heroin, I see (3) |
| AHA — A A (two articles) around (about) H (heroin) | |
Whoop whoop. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on today’s offering as I managed a PB despite having to construct my LOI TENDENTIOUS (got the IOUS before the missing letters at the top). Only the one biff with DEMORALISED which I wasn’t. 4:23 Thanks Kitty
🔥🔥🔥
Zowie. ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
Congrats!
Whoop whoop indeed, well done! (My time was 6:08, so you beat the blogger!)
Like Andy Pandy, I’ve heard of DESPERATE Housewives, but never have and have no intention of watching it. Apart from that well pitched canter
Ah, UR was one of the first bits of Crosswordese that I learned; haven’t seen it for a while however. That school, on the other hand… 🙁
Fun puzzle, engaging without being overly stressful.
I knew the school would get comments, but am a bit surprised you’re the first to mention Ur. Something I learned from crosswords of old too.
16 minutes.
9ac sums up my feelings after seeing how easy it was on the Quitch. Will I never get the hang of these puzzles?
Another day of anxiety and stress. If that was easy, I’m wasting my time.
5.21
Late entry. Needed crossers for the two long anagrams and it generally never felt like a smooth solve but can’t complain at the time.
Nice puzzle. Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty
A respectable 28:50 for me. Needed Kitty’s help with the parsing of EGG and COMMAND though 🙏
Held up by DISAPPEAR and STEWARD, but biffed them eventually to finish in a slightly quicker than usual 19 minutes. Sorry to see that public school feature yet again: please ban it!
Thanks for your comments. I did actually watch some of Desperate Housewives back in the day – the first series was a staple in our student house. Much better than you’d expect from the title, although I’ve no idea if it stayed any good or how it would hold up now.