Once again I have the pleasure of blogging a Friday QC from Izetti. A relatively gentle crossword today with plenty of starter clues and nothing too tricky, I think – it took me just a few seconds under my target time of 5 minutes. My FOI was 1A and LOI 23A. We get a good smattering of references today to the NATO phonetic alphabet, a favourite of setters for use in wordplay. We are also treated to the usual Izetti smooth surfaces and wordplay – 14A was my COD. Thanks Izetti! How did everyone else get on?
[Update: I see from the comments so far that I have underestimated the difficulty of this with there being a few things I knew from experience that may not be familiar to many. Don’t worry if you found it tricky – you are in good company!].
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, which again has a bit of a seasonal theme, here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Goods initially inferior — look angry (6) |
| GLOWER – Goods [initially] LOWER (inferior). A nice friendly one to start and my First One In. | |
| 5 | King, say, starts to exhibit neurotic tendencies? I may act for him (6) |
| REGENT – R (Rex; King) E.G. (say; for example) and intial letters of [starts to] Exhibit Neurotic Tendencies. That made me think of the 25th amendment…. I’d better say no more. | |
| 8 | Like a table in the chemistry lab? (8) |
PERIODIC – Cryptic Definition. Many a chemistry lab has the Periodic Table displayed on the wall. Image from Sandbh, via Wikimedia Commons |
|
| 9 | Male getting personal is cut down (4) |
| MOWN – M (male) OWN (personal). | |
| 10 | Attempt to get a small whisky? (4) |
| SHOT – Double definition. | |
| 11 | Daughter feeling a loss of status (8) |
| DEMOTION – D (daughter) EMOTION (feeling). | |
| 12 | Wife leans over in car (6) |
| WHEELS – W (wife) HEELS (leans over). | |
| 14 | Man maybe is joined by boy around November (6) |
| ISLAND – IS and LAD (boy) [around] N (November in the NATO phonetic alphabet). Man = island, as in Isle of Man, comes up quite frequently | |
| 16 | Barely adequate sailor in lapses at sea (8) |
| PASSABLE – AB (Able Bodied seaman; sailor) [in] (lapses)* [at sea]. | |
| 18 | Bill, the fellow being a pain (4) |
| ACHE – AC (account; bill) HE (the fellow). | |
| 20 | Flimsy metal cladding for hotel (4) |
| THIN – TIN (metal) outside [cladding for] H (hotel in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 21 | Relative across the Atlantic (5,3) |
| UNCLE SAM – Cryptic Definition. Name for the USA. “The origin of the term Uncle Sam, though disputed, is usually associated with a businessman from Troy, New York, Samuel Wilson, known affectionately as “Uncle Sam” Wilson. The barrels of beef that he supplied the army during the War of 1812 were stamped “U.S.” to indicate government property. That identification is said to have led to the widespread use of the nickname Uncle Sam for the United States.” | |
| 23 | Ragged female begged to be spared penny (6) |
|
FRAYED – F (female) |
|
| 24 | Pose to be hugged by one at the scene (2-4) |
| ON-SITE – SIT (pose) inside [to be hugged by] ONE. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Parasite finds shelter on top of church (5) |
| LEECH – LEE (shelter) [on top of] (this is a down clue) CH (church). | |
| 3 | American artist’s short pipe (7) |
|
WHISTLE – WHISTLE |
|
| 4 | Cruel king — he dismissed staff (3) |
|
ROD – |
|
| 5 | Join again and be nicer, prepared to accept revolutionary MO (9) |
| RECOMBINE – (be nicer)* [prepared] outside [to accept] MO [revolutionary] -> OM. | |
| 6 | Range offered by school and university over time (5) |
| GAMUT – GAM (school of whales) U (university) [over] T (time). GAM for school is one to remember as it comes up quite often. | |
| 7 | Scientist drinking whiskey in Harlow? (3,4) |
| NEW TOWN – NEWTON (Sir Isaac; scientist) outside [drinking] W (whiskey – our 3rd NATO phonetic alphabet reference). As described here, Harlow celebrated its 70th anniversary as a New Town in 2017. | |
| 11 | Working in office of the French king, jump to it! (9) |
| DESKBOUND – DES (of the, in french) K (king) BOUND (jump). | |
| 13 | Woman showing passion — the fellow runs! (7) |
| HEATHER – HEAT (passion) HE (the fellow (again)) R (runs). | |
| 15 | Bosses as dodgy dealers (7) |
| LEADERS – (dealers)* [dodgy]. | |
| 17 | Gritty characters in boats and yachts (5) |
| SANDY – Hidden in [characters in] boatS AND Yachts. | |
| 19 | Card offering sympathy? (5) |
| HEART – Double definition. | |
| 22 | That’s surprising bird sound (3) |
| COO – Double definition. | |
FOI – 1ac GLOWER
LOI – 22dn COO
COD – a number of contenders today but I particularly liked 2dn LEECH
If you found this a struggle, take time out to consider how Izetti’s clues work – John’s blog is, as ever, a fine piece of deconstruction !
FOI GLOWER
LOI DESKBOUND
COD ROD (I thought it was brilliantly succinct)
TIMR 3:57
Like others I found the SW corner a bit if a challenge, particularly Wheels, Heather & Deskbound. I finally got the latter with the across clues but Wheels evaded me. Also had no idea how to parse Gamut so thanks John for the explanation of the rather lovely collective noun. No time for me as I print out and do it on the hoof in between home schooling and other tasks.