Quite an inventive puzzle today from Teazel. Of similar difficulty to yesterday’s, I found, coming in close to 8 minutes for both. It took me a while to get going, failing on the first four acrosses, and then had a bit of a delay at the end with the large animal bit of 9ac and the unknown game at 5d. Most enjoyable – many thanks to Teazel!
| Across | |
| 1 | Criminal act, one perpetrated in prison? (6,3) |
| INSIDE JOB – cryptic hint, referring to ‘inside’ = ‘in prison’. | |
| 6 | American friend’s name rejected (3) |
| BUD – DUB (name) rejected = reversed | |
| 8 | Have contempt for small crop (5) |
| SCORN – S(mall) CORN (crop) | |
| 9 | Perhaps tape large creature next to tiny one (7) |
| SEALANT – SEAL (large creature) next to ANT (tiny one) | |
| 10 | Musically, Jane was a disaster (8) |
| CALAMITY – cryptic definition, as in Calamity Jane, my knowledge of which is limited to the TV series Deadwood. | |
| 11 | Land for each university (4) |
| PERU – PER (for each) U(niversity) | |
| 13 | Improbable — I completely refuse! (3,6) |
| NOT LIKELY – double definition, the second as in ‘absolutely not’. | |
| 16 | Henry swallowed strong emotion (4) |
| HATE – H (Henry, as in the regnal abbreviation) ATE (swallowed) | |
| 17 | Horribly sick near use of cosmetics (8) |
| SKINCARE – anagram (horribly) of SICK NEAR | |
| 20 | Vehicle snooty type gets to take away (4,3) |
| CART OFF – CAR (vehicle) TOFF (snooty type) | |
| 21 | Some children always concerned with part of body (5) |
| RENAL – “some” childREN ALways | |
| 22 | Solemn person starts to offer wise lessons (3) |
| OWL – “starts to” Offer Wise Lessons | |
| 23 | Taken by surprise being put out of cricket ground? (3,3,3) |
| HIT FOR SIX – double definition | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Bug popular dissenting group (6) |
| INSECT – IN (popular) SECT (dissenting group) | |
| 2 | Seat for sort of pigeon (5) |
| STOOL – double definition | |
| 3 | Man wrestling with deity is explosive (8) |
| DYNAMITE – anagram (wrestling) of MAN with DEITY | |
| 4 | Contemplate but don’t act; that shouldn’t happen (4,5,2,2) |
| JUST THINK OF IT – double-ish definition | |
| 5 | Card game in British newspaper (4) |
| BRAG – B(ritish) RAG (newspaper). It couldn’t be much else, in fairness, but I’d never heard of it. | |
| 6 | Courage of supporter to a great degree (7) |
| BRAVERY – BRA (supporter) VERY (to a great degree) | |
| 7 | Extremely dire, lengthy journey, not a direct route (6) |
| DETOUR – DE (“extremely” DirE) TOUR (lengthy journey) | |
| 12 | No ordeal disrupted Renaissance polymath (8) |
| LEONARDO – anagram (disrupted) of NO ORDEAL | |
| 13 | Unforced, one may cancel a flat (7) |
| NATURAL – double definition, the second in musical notation | |
| 14 | Share nothing, being mad (6) |
| WHACKO – WHACK (share) O (nothing) | |
| 15 | Involuntary response having half-read cable (6) |
| REFLEX – RE (“half” of REad) FLEX (cable) | |
| 18 | First off, discourages relatives (5) |
| AUNTS – take the first off DAUNTS (discourages). I could only think of ‘haunts’ for a while. | |
| 19 | Smart shop fails (4) |
| POSH – anagram (fails) of SHOP | |
FOI SCORN
LOI HATE
COD JUST THINK OF IT *
TIME 4:32
* Not so much that it “shouldn’t happen” but more that one wishes it would, for example “JUST THINK OF IT, a fortnight in the Seychelles !”
I remember 3 card brag from my youth. It’s quicker than poker. I seem to recall a very enjoyable game of strip brag.
Can you still say things like that? Doubt many wokes do the QC. Johnny
Natural second meaning difficult.
On the more tricky scale me thinks.
Thanks all
John George
FOI: SCORN
LOI: WHACKO
COD: JUST THINK OF IT
Thanks to Teazel and Rolytoly.