A gentle quick cryptic for a Friday from Jimmy today taking me about 4:30. I liked the cheese-lovers gathering, strudel lover and jumper purchasers best. Thank-you Jimmy! 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 114 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Shortest-lived gathering for French cheese enthusiasts? (8) |
| BRIEFEST – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint – BRIE FEST (a gathering for French cheese enthusiasts). | |
| 5 | Unwanted mail from American uncle, penning page (4) |
| SPAM – P (page) in SAM, Uncle Sam, a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. | |
| 9 | Republican collared by peace advocate is teed off, possibly (5) |
| DROVE – R (Republican) in DOVE (peace advocate). A golfing reference, not someone getting annoyed. | |
| 10 | We’re told a competitor’s coming (7) |
| ARRIVAL – Sounds like, [we’re told], A RIVAL (competitor). | |
| 11 | See Wesley at regular intervals (3) |
| ELY – Alternative letters [at regular intervals] of WEsLeY. See as in bishopric. | |
| 12 | Rebuke what people eschewing formal attire do (5,4) |
| DRESS DOWN – Double definition. | |
| 13 | Maybe witch doctor’s fake article (6) |
| SHAMAN – SHAM (fake) AN (article) | |
| 15 | Caught in relentless heat, hire protective cover (6) |
| SHEATH – Hidden in, [caught in], relentleS HEAT Hire. | |
| 17 | Who you wouldn’t trust to give you a hand? (9) |
| CARDSHARP – Cryptic definition. | |
| 19 | Like certain wines? Souse drained last of Barsac (3) |
| SEC – Outside letters of SousE [drained], and last letter of BarsaC. | |
| 20 | Someone who prefers the best portion of strudel — it is tasty! (7) |
| ELITIST – Another hidden. {portion of] strudEL IT IS Tasty. Nice surface. | |
| 21 | Eccentric rues eating bagel and French bread (5) |
| EUROS – A little tricky, this one. You need to know bagel can mean 0 – a term in tennis for a set lost 6-0… Put O (0; bagel) in [eccentric] (ruse)* to get money (bread) in France. | |
| 22 | Not many in audition — what a relief! (4) |
| PHEW – Sounds like FEW [in audition]. | |
| 23 | Annoyed by gesture of respect, one may get fired (8) |
| CROSSBOW – CROSS (annoyed) BOW (gesture of respect). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Burrowing animals — hounds or nags (7) |
| BADGERS – Triple definition. | |
| 2 | Rhetorical strategy from Press Secretary, ultimately (5) |
| IRONY – IRON (press clothes) and last letter of SecretarY. A slightly odd definition, but the original meaning of irony is “the Socratic method of discussion by professing ignorance“. | |
| 3 | Paul’s friend foolishly admitting one revealing lapse (8,4) |
| FREUDIAN SLIP – I (one) in (Paul’s friend)* [foolishly]. | |
| 4 | Husband tucked into Japanese wine and sweet drink (5) |
| SHAKE – H (husband) in, [tucked into], SAKE (Japanese wine). | |
| 6 | One who incited drooling with a meringue dessert (7) |
| PAVLOVA – PAVLOV (one who incited drooling) A. Read here about Pavlov’s famous dog experiment. | |
| 7 | Chap touring both sides of industrial city in Italy (5) |
| MILAN – Outside letters of, [both sides of], IndustriaL in MAN (chap). | |
| 8 | People making purchases going after awful rags, or little green jumpers? (12) |
| GRASSHOPPERS – (rags)* [awful], SHOPPERS (people making purchases). Nice one | |
| 14 | Company with high-flying employees? (7) |
| AIRLINE – Cryptic definition. | |
| 16 | Journalist spotted cutting implement (7) |
| HACKSAW – HACK (journalist) SAW (spotted). | |
| 17 | Start of concert by that fellow on a piano, going for a song (5) |
| CHEAP – [Start of] Concert, HE (that fellow) A P (piano). | |
| 18 | Dined on starter of radish, receiving pound in change (5) |
| ALTER – L (pound) in ATE (dined), and first letter, [starter], of Radish, | |
| 19 | Cultivated bush is about right — for this? (5) |
| SHRUB – R (right) in [cultivated] (bush)*. “This” meaning a shrub could be a cultivated bush. | |
Enjoyable puzzle, our time was way over many of those above, but we are pleased to be slow solvers so we can enjoy our G&T.
Had to go out early this morning to do an audit of croquet mallets, so didn’t get to look at the puzzle until teatime – haircut and other odd jobs had followed the mallets. A very enjoyable puzzle finished in faster than average time.
COD joint winners EUROS and BRIEFEST, each of which raised a grin
Thanks Jimmy
Lovely puzzle. Really liked GRASSHOPPERS, my mind insisted I was looking for a frog until the pdm!
Thanks Jimmy and John
It’s been such a busy week (again) so I’ve had little time to post, but I have enjoyed reading the blog at the end of every day.
I also enjoyed this kind offering from Jimmy – he does seem to be a nice antidote to the other newcomers Asp and Cheeko!
MrB really likes strudel, but is most certainly not an ELITIST! There are a few smileys along the way – PHEW, FREUDIAN SLIP and PAVLOVA were among my favourites.6:26 FOI and COD Briefest LOI Cardsharp – I too was relieved to have seen that the other day 😊
Thanks Jimmy and John, and good luck to everyone who’s going to London tomorrow!
Yay! Another rare completion from me and fairly quickly too, which is such a treat – though something happened with the timer because it might have been under 20mins but certainly not the 00:06 it congratulated me for!
So many enjoyable clues – BRIE-FEST, PHEW, GRASSHOPPERS, CROSSBOW all made me chuckle and lots of really fun PDMs. Probably my favourite puzzle to date though I would have struggled to parse SEC, MILAN and IRONY without the blog so thanks again!
18 minutes of frustration and self-loathing.
I just cannot do this in a time which I consider to be respectable. I haven’t looked, but I know solvers who I was once on a par with will have done this in half of my time. I dare say there will be many PBs.
I hate being so bad at this – 5 minutes on LOI, a hidden. Laughably bad.
Four narrow SCC escapes this week and I’m still a failure compared to others. All that time spent in the big crossword seems wasted.
Got all bar one on big crossword in around 100 mins. Please don’t tell me that’s good. It really isn’t. The usual weekend of self-recrimination awaits.
☹️☹️☹️
I played tennis for over 50 years but NHO bagel in that context. Completely foxed me so DNF.
09:29
COD briefest