An enjoyable puzzle from Teazel to end the week. I liked the cryptic definitions, the neat hidden and the misdirection in a couple of clues, but COD to the clever 14D. 1A went in straight away and I finished with 3D in an about an average time for me of 5:17, but there is one word that I only knew from other crosswords. Thank-you Teazel! How did everyone else get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword, entitled “Anyone for tennis?”, 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 | Angry lawyers, one maybe hit by striker (8) |
| CROSSBAR – CROSS (angry) BAR (lawyers). A football striker, that is. | |
| 6 | Pungent vegetable left by artist in bowl (4) |
| DISH – raDISH (pungent vegetable) “left by” RA (artist). | |
| 8 | Divide up last of the sweet (4) |
| CUTE – CUT (divide up) “last of” thE. Sweet the adjective not the noun – neat misdirection. | |
| 9 | Possibly long calculation for army unit (8) |
| DIVISION – Double definition. We all learnt long division at school, didn’t we? | |
| 10 | Prison entrance breached by careering tram (8) |
| DARTMOOR – DOOR (entrance) “breached by” (tram)* “careering”. | |
| 12 | Key error admitted by party-pooper (4) |
| TYPO – Hidden in, “admitted by”, parTY POoper. | |
| 13 | Make good company, surrounded by pure chaos (6) |
| RECOUP – CO (company) “surrounded by” (pure)* “chaos”. | |
| 15 | Something performed by troublemaker for powerful effect (6) |
| IMPACT – IMP (troublemaker) ACT (something performed). This is one of two clues where the positional indicator, in this case “by”, means put the answer to the first part of the wordplay after the second. | |
| 17 | From mouth, put out narrow tongue (4) |
| SPIT – Double definition, first a cryptic hint. | |
| 19 | Helping a bookie’s business (8) |
| ABETTING – A BETTING (bookie’s business). | |
| 21 | Petitions soldier perhaps to be nice (8) |
| PLEASANT – PLEAS (petitions) ANT (soldier, perhaps). | |
| 23 | Man altered line (4) |
| NEIL – (line)* “altered”. | |
| 24 | Wooden knife’s first placed beside meal (4) |
| TEAK – Knife’s “first” after TEA (meal). This is the second answer part reversal, this time indicated by “placed beside”. | |
| 25 | From Nepal, the wild animal (8) |
| ELEPHANT – (Nepal the)* “wild”. You can read about elephants in Nepal here. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Upper-class boy tucking into eggs and Swiss roll, for example (7) |
| ROULADE – U (Upper-class) LAD (boy) “tucking into” ROE (eggs). | |
| 3 | Was out at night? (5) |
| SLEPT – Lovely cryptic definition. | |
| 4 | Almost ordered to be naughty (3) |
| BAD – “Almost” BADe (ordered). | |
| 5 | Bank going into driver’s identity (9) |
| RIVERSIDE – Hidden, “going into” dRIVER’S IDEntity. Nicely hidden. | |
| 6 | Daughter kept so untidy a work surface (7) |
| DESKTOP – D (daughter) (kept so)* “untidy”. | |
| 7 | Bend down, I would say, for this basin (5) |
| STOUP – Sounds like, “I would say”, STOOP (bend down). Did everyone know this word? [Edit: As I suspected this proved to be unknown to plenty of solvers, so if you didn’t get it, yoiu are in good company!] | |
| 11 | Children’s home parents are not expected to visit? (9) |
| ORPHANAGE – Another good cryptic definition. | |
| 14 | Return ticket maybe for part of Australia (7) |
| OUTBACK – OUT and BACK, which could be a return ticket. I like it. | |
| 16 | Transfer prisoner with a gesture (7) |
| CONSIGN – CON (prisoner) SIGN (gesture). | |
| 18 | Beans give a sign of life (5) |
| PULSE – Double definition. Hmm. shouldn’t “beans” be “pulses”? | |
| 20 | Fish stink when head is removed (5) |
| TENCH – sTENCH (stink) “with head removed”. | |
| 22 | Twine regularly used to do this (3) |
| TIE – Alternate letters, “regularly” of TwInE. | |
Thanks again for explaining the clues
BW
Andrew
And the reason for comment tonight — to express my distaste for the orphanage clue.
There was something similar before, about a year ago, but somehow this one left a bad taste.
Just saying…
Thanks all
John George