Oh dear. I came a bit of a cropper with this one, getting stuck on my last clue (1A) and having to resort to a wordfinder to finish. I can’t remember the last time I had to do that for a Quick Cryptic. Apart from that I was all but done in an average time, although there are some other clues that are a bit tricky too. I don’t think we will see any PBs today, but I’ll be pleased to be proved wrong. Some nice clues, though, with my COD vote going to the sweaty sportswoman at 6A. Thank-you Orpheus. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword 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 | Information to pass to defender? (8) |
| FEEDBACK – FEED (pass to) BACK (defender, e.g. in football). My downfall. I couldn’t think of a word for “information” to fit and resorted to a wordfinder after scratching my head for a minute or so. There is rather a vague connection between the definition and answer, to my mind. In retrospect, though, having seen the second half of the word must be BACK, I should have got it. Did anyone else have trouble with this? | |
| 6 | Girl needing hot bath finally after game (4) |
| RUTH – hoT batH “finally”, “after” R.U. (Rugby Union; game). Nice surface. | |
| 8 | Lowly-sounding bearing (4) |
| MIEN – Homophone, “sounding”, of MEAN (lowly). Not a very common word. Did everyone know it? | |
| 9 | Touch down by mistake in fallen earth and rock (8) |
| LANDSLIP – LAND (touch down) SLIP (mistake). | |
| 10 | Passion not many displayed for European plant (8) |
FEVERFEW – FEVER (passion) FEW (not many). “Displayed” is a sort of positional indicator to say use one then the other. Not sure why the plant is qualified by “European”, as this says it’s found in Eurasia, North America and Chile. This is what it looks like…
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| 12 | It may be sworn round at hotel (4) |
| OATH – O (round letter) AT H (hotel in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 13 | Southern gallery accommodating high-class sculpture (6) |
| STATUE – S (Southern) TATE (gallery) “accommodating” U (high-class). | |
| 15 | Greek character, priest, consuming small cereal (6) |
| MUESLI – MU (greek character; letter) ELI (crosswordland’s favourite priest) “consuming” S (small). | |
| 17 | Muslim ruler old poem recalled (4) |
| EMIR – RIME (old poem, e.g. ‘The Rime of the ancient mariner‘) “recalled”, i.e. reversed -> EMIR. | |
| 19 | College lecturer breaking into a gift (8) |
| DONATION – DON (college lecturer) “breaking” (into a)*. | |
| 21 | Prediction supporting English players (8) |
| FORECAST – FOR (supporting) E (English) CAST (players). | |
| 23 | Husband in peruke, a politician once (4) |
| WHIG – H (husband) “in” WIG (peruke). | |
| 24 | Ambassador attending qualifying round (4) |
| HEAT – H.E. (His Excellency; ambassador) AT (attending). | |
| 25 | Former railway employee, an international trader (8) |
| EXPORTER – EX (former) PORTER (railway employee). Do the railways have porters any more? After being made redundant, those who used to be so-employed might be described as this. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Plain girl set up to enter item in sports programme (7) |
| EVIDENT – DI (girl) “set up” -> ID, inside, “to enter”, EVENT (item in sports programme). | |
| 3 | Italian poet’s output ultimately digested by Scandinavian (5) |
| DANTE – outpuT “ultimately” inside, “digested by”, DANE (Scandinavian). | |
| 4 | Reportedly everything a leather worker needs? (3) |
| AWL – The leather worker’s tool (need) is an AWL, which sounds like, “reportedly”, ALL (everything). | |
| 5 | Unexpected win associated with a monk’s blood relation (9) |
| KINSWOMAN – (win a monk’s)* “unexpected”. | |
| 6 | Rhode Island’s one and only minced meat dish (7) |
| RISSOLE – R.I.‘S (Rhode Island’s) SOLE (one and only). | |
| 7 | It isn’t commonly a stain or blemish (5) |
| TAINT – ‘T (it) AIN‘T (isn’t) “commonly”. Very neat and a strong COD candidate. | |
| 11 | Songbird destroying leaf, if red (9) |
| FIELDFARE – “destroying” (leaf if red)*. | |
| 14 | Pester chaps involved in civil wrong (7) |
| TORMENT – MEN (chaps) “involved in” TORT (civil wrong). Tort, a legal term, is one of those words all crossword solvers are expected to know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it anywhere except in a crossword. How about you? | |
| 16 | Note about one oddly like a big cat (7) |
| LEONINE – LINE (note; as in “I dropped her a line to say…”) “about” (one)* “oddly”. | |
| 18 | Second outsize European deer (5) |
| MOOSE – MO (moment; second) OS (outsize) E (European). Are moose found in Europe? Yes they are! See here. | |
| 20 | Fortress you and I observed in rocky peak (5) |
| TOWER – WE (you and I) “observed in” TOR (rocky peak). | |
| 22 | First vessel to be capsized (3) |
| TOP – POT (cooking vessel) upside down, “capsized”. -> TOP. | |
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