A neat quick cryptic from Alex today, with a couple of new definitions for me, but they didn’t hold me up much – I finished in an average time of 5:15. COD to 19D for the surface. Thank-you Alex. 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 crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 113 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Spend long time in corridor (7) |
| PASSAGE – PASS AGE (spend long time). | |
| 7 | Break urn with male figure (7) |
| NUMERAL – [Break] (urn male)*. | |
| 9 | Strangely rude pet broke out (7) |
| ERUPTED – [Strangely] (rude pet)*. | |
| 10 | Occupy during routine (7) |
| INHABIT – IN (during) HABIT (routine). | |
| 11 | Drive outrigger periodically (4) |
| URGE – Alternate letters, [periodically], of oUtRiGgEr. | |
| 12 | Evacuation authorisation (9) |
| CLEARANCE – Double definition | |
| 14 | Stop white ant swallowing sodium (9) |
| TERMINATE – NA (chemical symbol for sodium) in TERMITE (white ant). | |
| 16 | Fastener caught edge (4) |
| CLIP – C (caught) LIP (edge). | |
| 17 | Sketch unpopular series of descendants (7) |
| OUTLINE – OUT (unpopular) LINE (series of descendants). | |
| 20 | Government of army unit lacking time (7) |
| REGIMEN – REGIMEN{t} (army unit) without the T (time). I didn’t know that meaning only the 3rd one in Chambers “Course of treatment, such as (medicine) a prescribed combination of diet, exercise, drugs, etc“ | |
| 21 | Something to fill gaps when mammal and insect meet (7) |
| SEALANT – SEAL (mammal) ANT (insect). | |
| 22 | More inflexible renters relocated (7) |
| STERNER – (renters)* [relocated]. I also didn’t know that meaning of STERN. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Press release by European — lavish and bold (12) |
| PRESUMPTUOUS – PR (press release) E (European) SUMPTUOUS (lavish). | |
| 2 | Runner is more complacent crossing line (8) |
| SMUGGLER – L (line) in SMUGGER (more complacent). | |
| 3 | A lieutenant with love for singer (4) |
| ALTO – A LT (lieutenant) O (0; love). | |
| 4 | Goal I have to produce vegetable (6) |
| ENDIVE – END (goal) I’VE. | |
| 5 | Jars of puréed ham or pea (8) |
| AMPHORAE -[puréed] (ham or pea). | |
| 6 | Crustacean head of classy pub rejected (4) |
| CRAB – First letter of Classy, BAR (pub) [rejected] -> RAB. | |
| 8 | Renter with key piece of office equipment (6,6) |
| LETTER OPENER – LETTER (renter) OPENER (key). | |
| 12 | Finding fault serious (8) |
| CRITICAL – Double definition. | |
| 13 | Head piece worn by the French peer (8) |
| NOBLEMAN – LE (the in French) in NOB (head) MAN (chess piece). My third unknown definition for today – NOB for head. | |
| 15 | Warns beer froths regularly (6) |
| ALERTS –ALE (beer) and alternate letters of [regularly] fRoThS | |
| 18 | Wood plate a knight holds (4) |
| TEAK – Hidden in plaTE A Knight [holds]. | |
| 19 | Heads of optometry giving lecture explaining eye (4) |
| OGLE – First letters of Optometry Giving Lecture Explaining. Nice surface. | |
24 minutes
Another day when relatively new solvers post times that make me wonder why I bother.
A horrible week, even by my pathetic standards.
149 minutes, 2 DNFs and 0 SCC escapes. Like everything else in life, this is so unfair. I spend hours trying to improve by having a go at the proper crossword, and I still can’t do the QC.
A miserable weekend awaits. I will beat myself up over my lack of progress.
I know that no-one is interested, but I spent 80 minutes on the proper crossword and I got 12.
Seriously, what’s the point of continuing? I don’t have the brain for this.
I’m feeling totally disillusioned. ☹️☹️☹️
PS Having read the blog, I got just 10. What an awful effort! A few easy ones that I completely messed up. I’m a no hoper! I got half of the answer for a few clues but was unable to get the rest.
DNF
Annoying as this was an easy one today, all done in 12 mins but having the checkers I biffed CRIMINAL as LOI for serious.
Much happier today, with a nice bunch of clearly signalled clues. I can spell and did Latin, so was only slightly taken aback when there was a space left after AMPHORA zipped in. It only took a moment to remember it was female and there was no such thing as an AMPHORUM! Pace Invariant, Mrs BFM remembered termites and then we only had CLEARANCE/CRITICAL/NOBLEMAN to go, and I went badly off piste chasing tricornes and bicornes as French hats. Ah well. Thanks, Alex and John.