We have several 4-part clues and, for once, no hidden answer in this tricky-in-parts teaser from Pedro. It took me a fair bit over target, finishing in 6:22. COD to 18A for the clever and uncommon bit of wordplay. Thank-you Pedro. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 102 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Energy left? Fellow initially joins sporting venue (4,5) |
| GOLF LINKS – A four-parter to start with. GO (energy) L (left), first letter of Fellow, LINKS (joins). | |
| 6 | Small and delicate, French finish after the Spanish (5) |
| ELFIN – EL (the in Spanish) FIN (finish in French). | |
| 8 | Zoo resident phoned in published article (5-4) |
| ORANG-UTAN – RANG (phoned), in OUT (published) AN (indefinite article). | |
| 9 | A lot of criticism about old patient (5) |
| STOIC – O (old) in all but the last letter of STIC{k} | |
| 10 | Tin with beer given to dry old painter (9) |
| CANALETTO – Another four-part construction job (aka charade). CAN (tin) ALE (beer) TT (teetotal; dry) O (old). | |
| 12 | Producing chopped fruit product (6) |
| RAISIN – RAISIN{g} (producing) without the last letter. | |
| 13 | Take weapons from police officers and a resident magistrate (6) |
| DISARM – DIS (Detective inspectors; police officers) A RM (resident magistrate). That wasn’t an abbreviation I was familiar with but it’s fairly obvious. | |
| 16 | Astute CIA and USA go off the rails with introduction of spies (9) |
| SAGACIOUS – (CIA USA go)* [off the rails] and the first letter, [introduction], of Spies. My LOI. | |
| 18 | Join fifth building on industrial estate? (5) |
| UNITE – If the buildings, aka units, of the industrial estate are named alphabetically, starting with UNIT A, the fifth one would be UNIT E. The ? indicates something cryptic is going on. | |
| 19 | Account about Liberal member — entirely an alert (5,4) |
| ALARM CALL – L (liberal) ARM (member), in A/C (account), ALL (entirely). Another 4-parter, this time with an inclusion. | |
| 21 | Still I will take angling gear round river (5) |
| INERT – R (river) in I NET (angling gear). | |
| 22 | Police work not involved with deceit (9) |
| DETECTION – (not deceit)* [involved]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cook coaching omitting a selection of dumplings (7) |
| GNOCCHI – [Cook] (co{a}ching)* without the A. | |
| 2 | Studied: was inclined to receive element of basic education? (6) |
| LEARNT – R (element of basic eduction) in LEANT (was inclined). The basic elements of education are Reading, wRiting and ‘Rithmetic, known as the three Rs…. which, you will note, doesn’t include spelling. | |
| 3 | Line of monarchs, not the first following the law (5) |
| LEGAL – L (line) {r}EGAL (of monarchs) but without the first letter. | |
| 4 | Fruit barrel turned upside-down (3) |
| NUT – TUN (barrel) reversed -> NUT. All nuts are fruits (unless they go on a bolt or sit on top of your neck or are crazy people or an en or a small lump of coal… etc), but not all fruits are nuts, although a fruitcake can be one even though he/she doesn’t have a shell. [Enough! Ed]. I’ll get my coat. | |
| 5 | Various memories not accommodating new episode of forgetfulness (6,6) |
| SENIOR MOMENT – N (new) in [various] (memories not)*. | |
| 6 | Trendies, alas, ruined Pacific location (6,6) |
| EASTER ISLAND – (Trendies alas)* [ruined]. | |
| 7 | Baffling element of decor (8) |
| FLOORING – Double definition. Not very obvious. I hope it didn’t baffle you. | |
| 11 | Public transport route rebuilt terminal (8) |
| TRAMLINE – (terminal)* [rebuilt]. | |
| 14 | Mostly derisory, cutting latest in investment for diabetes treatment (7) |
| INSULIN – INSUL{t}IN{g} (derisory). All but the last letter, [mostly], and also dropping [cutting] the last letter [latest] in investmenT. You didn’t just biff it and move on, did you? | |
| 15 | African resident very much linked to African country (6) |
| SOMALI – SO (very much) MALI (African country). | |
| 17 | Stand-up, say, having care of microphone (5) |
| COMIC – C/O (care of) MIC (microphone). | |
| 20 | No odd bits of walnut for insect (3) |
| ANT – Alternate letters of wAlNuT. | |
I found this incredibly difficult. DNF. I think for me this was the hardest of the last 2 weeks. Gave up after 40 minutes
I enjoyed the ORANG-UTAN clue but thought I might be having a 5d when putting in FLOORING !!
Thanks Pedro and John
23:22
A rather tricky one today and another DNF as I put an E instead of A in SAGACIOUS. LOI INERT.
08:55
Nice. Good time after a cider or two.
COD unite.
I messed up on 19A (got alarm ‘bell’ instead of call) sloppy parsing. This in turn meant I couldn’t get 15D (Somali). I enjoyed 8A (orangutan) when the penny dropped! As I don’t do this quick cryptic every day, I guess it wasn’t a bad effort. Not good enough to go for quick times, just happy if I can complete them. Good fun though. Thanks to Pedro for stretching my grey matter!
I messed up on 19A (got alarm ‘bell’ instead of call) sloppy parsing. This in turn meant I couldn’t get 15D (Somali). I enjoyed 8A (orangutan) when the penny dropped! As I don’t do this quick cryptic every day, I guess it wasn’t a bad effort. Not good enough to go for quick times, just happy if I can complete them. Good fun though.
I thought this was far harder than the Snitch score and was happy with my time.
I had a feeling that Monday’s breeze block (10 mins on last clue) would return to haunt me, and so it proved.
I missed my weekly target time by 5 lousy minutes:
M – 23
Tu – 13
W – 18
Th – 54
F – 17
I have achieved this target only once. Don’t know whether to 😆 or 😭! I’m still only ever one small step from disaster each day, as yesterday’s horrific showing demonstrates. I get close to my goal, but I never cross the line.
Thanks for the blog John.
Toughie today, but I generally find Pedro to very deceptive. Got there eventually. Really valuable blog helped parsing post-solve. Bottom half completed first.
11:18. FOI Elfin LOI Inert COD Senior moment (plenty of those 😅) Biffed UNITE and INSULIN – of course.
More interestingly, did anyone read the item about the ORANG UTAN which made a medicated poultice for a facial injury? Absolutely amazing!
Also, did anyone see Taskmaster last night when Steve Pemberton made a cryptic crossword as a prize task? Also amazing!
20:11. This felt like an unusual puzzle – the wordplay and parsing seemed very difficult for a QC, but the clear definitions helped out an awful lot. Hard for me to tell if that’s just me, or an effect intended by Pedro. Regardless, it was enjoyable and the blog was more than usually needed, so thank you!
Incidentally, Simon Anthony of the Cracking the Cryptic Youtube channel had a go at this one at the end of today’s usual Friday crossword video.
Have to do Friday’s on Saturday for various reasons (and on paper too). Great crossword and a fun blog as well
Just don’t start me off on fruit vs vegetables after the nuts bit though
Up to 14/15 I think
One of many recent TQCs that will drive me to The Telegraph. Many nonsensical clues, with barely tenuous connections to the answers . If this is the direction of the TQC (i.e. getting ever harder), then I’m checking out.