Greetings from the Northumberland Coast where I have been on holiday for the last week. Apologies in advance but as I will be travelling home today I wont be able to reply to comments until later this afternoon. BTW I will be at the Crossword Championship tomorrow. I hope to see some of you there.
There are more than one or two tricky bits in this Quick Cryptic from Juno, with a couple of definitions that seem a bit abstruse, including my LOI, 22A. In all it took me just over 7 minutes, well over my target, but I’m not complaining. COD to the cute 21A. With it being Juno as our setter, who has often given us a theme or a Nina, I’ve looked for one, but can’t find anything. Can the hive mind discover it? Thank-you for the teasing puzzle, Juno. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “Don’t Let It Bug You” here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 88 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Socialist student body returns, causing split (6) |
| SUNDER – RED (Socialist), NUS (National Union of Students) all reversed -> SUNDER. | |
| 4 | Wife into strong flavours making nasal sounds! (6) |
| TWANGS – W (wife) in TANGS (strong flavours). | |
| 8 | Problem Yankee finds easy to remember (6) |
| CATCHY – CATCH (problem) Y (Yankee in NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 9 | Route we can find in clinic ourselves (6) |
| COURSE – Hidden in cliniC OURSElves | |
| 10 | Hard-hearted, throwing bread out (8) |
| OBDURATE – (bread out)* [throwing]. | |
| 12 | Dropped subject, as not known initially (4) |
| SANK – Initial letters of Subject As Not Known. | |
| 14 | Truce organised as fierce battle’s ending (9) |
| CEASEFIRE – (as fierce)* [organised], last letter of battlE. | |
| 17 | Burrow, secure, hollow and dry (4) |
| SETT – Outer letters [hollow] of S{ecur}E, TT (Teetotaller; dry). | |
| 18 | Feathered singer finding warmth in clothing (8) |
| WHEATEAR – HEAT (warmth) in WEAR (clothing). | |
| 21 | One hug oddly is sufficient! (6) |
| ENOUGH – (one hug)* [oddly]. Nice one | |
| 22 | Doctor is after true comfort (6) |
| SOLACE – SO (true) LACE (doctor a drink, for example). My last one in. Try as I might, I can’t see how so = true, but the answer is clear from the checkers and definition. | |
| 23 | Fashionable star seen idly removing odd bits (6) |
| TRENDY – Alternate letters of sTaR sEeN iDlY. | |
| 24 | Fuel comes to an end — eight litres originally (6) |
| DIESEL – DIES (comes to an end), first letters of Eight Litres. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Moment on rocky peak to see area (6) |
| SECTOR – SEC (second; moment, as in “hang on a sec”) TOR (rocky peak). | |
| 2 | Observed someone other than Times boss? (5) |
| NOTED – NOT ED, (someone other than Times boss). I liked this one. | |
| 3 | English article, genuine, and spiritual (8) |
| ETHEREAL – E (English) THE (article) REAL (genuine). | |
| 5 | Deal perhaps without needing overdose (4) |
| WOOD – W/O (without) OD (overdose). | |
| 6 | Managed to turn up to class to do stories? (7) |
| NARRATE – RAN (managed) reversed -> NAR, RATE (class). | |
| 7 | Milky drink you might pick up for Arab leader (6) |
| SHEIKH – Sounds like SHAKE (milky drink). | |
| 11 | Force Peg to appear on Thursday (5) |
| TEETH – TEE (peg) on TH (Thursday). Not the most helpful definition, but the dictionary says… “force, sufficient power to be effective“ | |
| 13 | Pasta coming from Baltic port to NI (8) |
| RIGATONI – RIGA (Baltic port) TO NI. My favourite pasta shape. | |
| 14 | Conductor’s coat he’d ordered (7) |
| CATHODE – (coat he’d)* [ordered]. | |
| 15 | Approval since dispatched (6) |
| ASSENT – AS (since) SENT (dispatched). | |
| 16 | English author’s gold mine (6) |
| ORWELL – OR (gold) WELL (mine). Hmm. “mine” for “well” seems a bit of a stretch. | |
| 19 | Tests in multiculturalism — a xenophobe upset! (5) |
| EXAMS – Reverse hidden in multiculuraliSM A XEnophobe. | |
| 20 | Old Ed, silver on top (4) |
| AGED – AG (chemical symbol for silver) ED. | |
Feel free to have a laugh at my unbelievable incompetence…
DNF after 90 mins as couldn’t get TWANGS. A struggle from the beginning, made immeasurably worse by so many good times from others. I have fallen so far behind that I feel the last 3 years have been for nothing.
Utterly, utterly appalling performance today. Errors that I should have eliminated a long time ago. This was even worse than the dark days when I first attempted the QC without aids.
Not sure there is any point going on. I’m useless, period. Unless it’s easy, the QC is now beyond me. I can do the simple ones, but anything else is just a nightmare.
Six horror days in a couple of weeks. How has it come to this? I am mentally frazzled and shattered by the knowledge that I am getting worse and worse.
Good luck tomorrow John and thanks for the blog. I know the Northumberland coast well and hope you enjoyed it.
I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.
No-one laughing at you GA 😥 I’ve still no idea why TWANGS is nasal-related, and TW- starter is an easy alphabet trawl to overlook. Entirely reasonable to have DNFed on it. In all honesty, I thought it was a bit crap.
At least you didn’t jinx yourself on Thursday by revealing your excellent time on the Izetti 🤣 What was it?
You were about 47mins through Weds, so four quick solves. It’s easy to dismiss this as an easy week on the QC but we get what we get. I know a less able version of me would have struggled through them this week. Enjoy the good days when they roll by.
You seem too black and white about your ability, there is a grey area allowed. It seems to me you’re a very decent solver who is coming up against the next level of challenge. The real question is whether you’re wiling to accept that challenge?
Thanks L-Plates. I appreciate your advice.
I had another quick one on Thursday (10 mins) and was hoping to achieve my 2 hour/5 solves target with something to spare.
To be honest, I don’t enjoy the ‘easy’ ones which are a biff-fest as much as the reasonably challenging ones.
It’s either feast or famine with my solves currently, although the bad days can usually be put down either to a couple of very hard clues or sheer fatigue after a long day at work.
I am determined to accept the challenge going forward.
Thanks again for your message and well done on your great performances this week. Straightforward or not, that is an excellent series of times. 👏👏
Didn’t enjoy this one. Several left unachieved. Didn’t know wheatears sang. Couldn’t see solace, looking for a medic not a poisoner. Not sure why twang is nose like. Didn’t know obdurate so couldn’t get sector. Why is peg a tee? Some sporty thing I suppose. Disaaasterr. As Craig would say. (Strictly reference for those who don’t know!)