A lovely Quick Cryptic today from Jimmy, one of our newer setters whose puzzles are consistently well-pitched. It took me an average time of 5:33. My LOI was the cleverly concealed 1A. Some great clues today, of which my pick is 1D for the entertaining surface. I also liked the reference to the controversial living person at 20A who you didn’t need to know to solve the clue. Thank-you Jimmy! 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 116 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
Across | |
1 | Republican did a test, screening people running for office (10) |
CANDIDATES – My LOI. Hidden in republiCAN DID A TESt [screening]. Nice one! | |
8 | Off-white climbing plant with gold in the middle (5) |
IVORY – OR (gold, in heraldry) in IVY (climbing plant). | |
9 | Idealist’s article in German covering many sheets of paper (7) |
DREAMER – REAM (many sheets of paper) in DER (The, i.e. article, in German). | |
10 | Female relative’s rage stirred up by jibe (5-4) |
GREAT-AUNT – (rage)* [stirred up], TAUNT (jibe). | |
12 | Move fast — fly, for example (3) |
ZIP – Double definition, the second a lovely cryptic hint. | |
13 | Complain in hotel in Bordeaux, perhaps (5) |
WHINE – H (Hotel in the phonetic alphabet) in WINE (Bordeaux, perhaps). | |
15 | Mystical old characters smuggle illegal drugs (5) |
RUNES – RUN (smuggle) E’S (illegal drugs, tablets of ecstasy) | |
17 | Deceitful person cheers king retreating (3) |
RAT – TA (Thank-you; cheers) R (king) all reversed [retreating]. | |
18 | Military adornment from Nepal duly better with all ends cut off (9) |
EPAULETTE – Remove the outside letters from each of nEPAl dULy bETTEr. | |
20 | Raygun dancing behind husband in European country (7) |
HUNGARY – H (Husband), (Raygun)* [dancing]. No it’s not a weird surface – Raygun is the performing name (sometimes prefixed with b-girl) of Australian academic and competitive breakdancer Rachel Gunn. She provoked quite a stir when competing at the 2024 Olympics. | |
21 | Sailor’s left nothing in Iberian city (5) |
PORTO – PORT (left at sea; sailor’s left) O (zero-like letter; nothing). | |
22 | Swimmers driven crazy in wild kiss (4,6) |
SKIN DIVERS – (driven)* [crazy] in (kiss)* [wild]. Two anagrams and an inclusion in one clue! |
Down | |
1 | Embarrassing Conservative — awful Tory whinger (12) |
CRINGEWORTHY – C (Conservative) [awful] (Tory whinger)*. Clue surface of the day! | |
2 | European shortly will spin around a piece of rope (5) |
NOOSE – E (European) SOON (shortly) all reversed -> NOOSE. | |
3 | Yours truly, extremely catty and hostile (3) |
ICY – I (yours truly) and outside letters [extremely] of C{att}Y. | |
4 | A queen forbidding great passion (6) |
ARDOUR –A R (queen) DOUR (forbidding). | |
5 | In novella, rot celebrity turned up about voting (9) |
ELECTORAL – Reverse hidden [in… turned up] in noveLA ROT CELEbrity. | |
6 | Endless shock, working for e-tailing giant (6) |
AMAZON – AMAZ{e} (shock) without the last letter, ON (working). | |
7 | Ridiculous trousers Pope gets tailored (12) |
PREPOSTEROUS – (trousers Pope)* [tailored]. | |
11 | Where to get fun rides in Noah’s boat, carrying politician from Brussels (5,4) |
THEME PARK – MEP (politician from Brussels) in THE ARK (Noah’s boat). | |
14 | I am inclined to welcome new aim (6) |
INTEND – N (new) in I TEND (am inclined). | |
16 | Criminal goes around a US city in deep depression (6) |
CANYON – A NY (New York; US city) in CON (criminal). | |
19 | Trio in plane possibly circling capital of Haiti (5) |
THREE – First letter, [capital] of Haiti in TREE (plane, possibly). Nice deception with the name of the tree. | |
21 | Page with greeting in letter from abroad (3) |
PHI – P (page) HI (greeting). |
I biffed the four long peripheral ones; didn’t see the hidden of CANDIDATES until after submitting! 7:15.
DNF I thought I’d finished in thirteen minutes but see I failed on INTEND because I entered the unparsable INTENT. I foolishly read aim as a noun. I imagine SKIN DIVERS would prefer to holiday at an ARDOUR CANYON rather than an ICY THEME PARK.
Great fools think alike!
I went fast, but was still careful. I spotted the intent/intend trap, and consulted the cryptic. I waited until I had all the crossers for 1 across, and then biffed it with great confidence. Porto was my LOI, and I needed all the crossers to see the obvious.
Time: 6:39
4:12 Gobsmacked that Raygun has achieved (some) international name recognition. Makes you wonder why the others bother!
Fun puzzle and great blog as always John. Agree with you on 1ac and 1dn, both very good.
It’s like Eddie the Eagle and Eric the Eel – a spectacular flop is somehow far more memorable than a polished success!
Another INTENT from me. Lesson learned, if it doesn’t parse, it ain’t right.
Nice friendly quickie today, most gettable from the literal alone. COD to ARDOUR.
Thanks J and setter
Or. If it doesn’t parse, I’m not clever enough to work it out. That often happens to me!
It happens to me too sometimes on some of the trickier crosswords (e.g. Mephisto and some Guardian/Independent/FT crosswords by unfamiliar compilers), where I go to the blog for the explanation… You can’t do that when you’re the blogger, though!
11:59
Lucked out with INTEND LOI as didn’t parse in spite of staring at it for a good few minutes. Didn’t see the Raygun surface, but very clever.
I’m going to PORTO for the first time next week, so that went in with a smile.
COD EPAULETTES— always nice to see a new clue type.
That was a nicely-pitched puzzle which took me 11.01. Was congratulating myself for seeing ELECTORAL was a hidden and missed CANDIDATES. The peripheral long ones were helpful and I got a couple of them quite early. I saw on the news some famous footballer in the US has taken to imitating Raygun’s kangaroo moves when he scores, and says he’s a huge fan. Shame all the abuse forced her to give it all away. Thanks to John and Jimmy, nice puzzle.
8.43 for me was on for a very quick one but then got held up by PORTO, THREE and LOI INTEND.
Ultimately though a pink square for aberrant O IN PREPOSTEROUS.
Some strong contenders for COD – both hiddens were good but I’m going to go with ZIP albeit it went in very easily given the Z provided by the straightforward crosser.
Started fast but faded. With eight on the first pass of acrosses I was getting excited but INTEND, CANDIDATES (pretty impressive), PREPOSTEROUS and CRINGEWORTHY all needed careful extraction. Raygun surface made me smile. All green in 12.47.
All added together that gave me 61.52 for the week with no pink sqaures. That is undoubtedly a pb.
11 minutes. No problems. I must have reverted to my old practice of not reading the surface of clues when I got to 20ac as I immediately spotted ‘raygun’ as potential anagrist and never thought about it as a word. Had I done so, its only meaning for me would have been to rayguns in the days of Dan Dare and Journey Into Space etc. I remember being given a battery-operated raygun for birthday or Christmas when I was 7 or 8 years old.
Some lovely clues to savour on our way to a sub 20 finish of 19.24, but we did enter intent and press check on the way which then prompted the correct answer.
Candidates is a great hidden, thanks John for parsing of Porto, didn’t take on board (!) the apostrophe in sailor’s left, and as a dinghy sailor myself am cross I couldn’t see it, even after the answer was obvious d’oh.
Thanks Jimmy, nice one.
A very rare day with 1A and 1D my first two entries, and the rest of the puzzle flowed smoothly from all those starting letters for an enjoyable 8 minute solve. I toyed with ABSLO and TARLO for the Iberian city before the initial P emerged, but otherwise no holdups.
Thank you John for the blog and I look forward to the Sunday Special.
Cedric
Another TARLO here. Always good to laugh at myself before breakfast.
A gentle but top notch puzzle from Jimmy.
Started with IVORY and finished with NOOSE (after finally seeing the cleverly hidden CANDIDATES) in 6.05 with COD PORTO for the PDM.
Thanks to John.
14:54 after taking ages to see LOI CANDIDATES. I liked both WHINE and THREE
10:15
I’m often slow to see hiddens, especially if the surface reads well, and CANDIDATES was no exception.
LOI was PREPOSTEROUS.
Thanks Jimmy and John
10:09
Nice puzzle. Struggled on seeing candidates. Then LOI noose was easy.
COD canyon, candidates, or zip.
A good puzzle; thank you, Jimmy. FOI PREPOSTEROUS, LOI SKIN DIVERS. For the first time, set the stopwatch – much good did it do me! 19′.
A few CNPs: missed the hidden in CANDIDATES (hence worried about the absence of any R – exactly setter’s INTENT!); NHO smuggle = RUN, and always stumped by anything to do with drugs; missed shortly = SOON and inclined = TEND. Thank you, John; no WHINE; will learn!
Whoops – I too had INTENT …
Gunrunners perhaps, or rumrunners during prohibition.
Exclusively US, perhaps?
I don’t think so – none of the usual dictionaries flag it as such.
I was bought up near a very secluded shingle beach on the river Hamble which sometimes got evening visitors who were always referred to as runners. No idea what they were running as we were not encouraged to take too much interest.
14:04
Quite straightforward. Got the wrong anagrist on 7dn, looking for word for tailored rather than ridiculous but once all the checkers were in the answer was clear. Biffed INTENT but luckily double checked the wordplay before submitting. LOI ARDOUR.
While Raygun was lost on me, she may appear again as an appalling homophone of a certain former American president (but not in one of my Weekend Specials – good luck to those of you accepting my challenge today!).
I confess to biffing SLOI CANDIDATES too. I thought this was an excellent puzzle. Thanks Jimmy and, of course, John.
FOI IVORY
LOI NOOSE
COD PORTO
TIME 4:33
It was actually common in certain political circles 40 years ago.
Wasn’t it “America’s secret weapon: the Ronald Raygun”? Not The Nine O’Clock News, perhaps?
A good puzzle that I was pleased to finish within target at 8.27. PREPOSTEROUS was my LOI as I couldn’t make my mind up on what was the definition, with both Ridiculous and Tailored being potential anagram indicators.
My total time for the week was 52.14, giving me a daily average of 10.27. I’ll take that, given one of my solves was over fifteen minutes.
6:22
Seemed to be on the money for most of this, at least until the last three consisting of 1a, 1d and 2d! Saw 1a first which gave the others – had written out the anagrist sans C for 1d and couldn’t see the answer – once the C from CANDIDATES was in, it was obvious… Never heard of Rachel “Raygun” Gunn – just saw the obvious anagrist to follow the H… COD to EPAULETTE – I wonder how long Jimmy struggled to come up with three words that would make the clue work.
Thanks John and Jimmy
10:12 but intent instead of intend. I bunged it in as the clock was just shy of ten mins and wanted that over bothering to figure out the parsing. Not sure the D would have occurred to me without the error forcing me to go through more possibilities.
Highly enjoyable puzzle from Jimmy and was hoping for something fast. So when my first pass of the Across clues only found dreamer, hungary, porto, I was beginning to think perhaps it’ll be a grind. The downs added another six where I enjoyed the hidden reverse of electoral and amazon. It was no write-in but a good puzzle. Also really liked the clues of candidates, epaulette and cringeworthy. But clue of the day to Hungary for getting a modern reference to Raygun in there.
For those not coming back – have a good weekend 👍
Very nice puzzle, took me 20mins with INTEND the last one in. I didn’t put AMAZON for ages as I didn’t want to to enter without understanding it, and couldn’t see what word less a letter meant “shock”….slow day for me I feel 🙂
Failed with INTENt and PRoPOSTEROUS.
Back to a better time after 2 very slow days. 16 minutes for me today but I couldn’t parse my last 2 – 1ac and 2dn. Didn’t see the hidden at 1ac and failed to understand the reverse of soon at 2dn. A very enjoyable puzzle from Jimmy.
FOI – 8ac IVORY
LOI – 2dn NOOSE
COD -12ac ZIP (among many 1ac)
Thanks to Jimmy and John
A lovely collection of clues, a very enjoyable solve. Excellent hiddens. Happy Friday and sunshine to boot.
I didn’t see the hidden at 1a until I had most of the crossers and biffed it. ICY was FOI. SKIN DIVERS brought up the rear. Nice puzzle. 7:55. Thanks Jimmy and John.
Does anyone remember Cuthbert CRINGEWORTHY (teacher’s pet of the Bash Street Kids in The Beano)? No one can accuse me of not knowing at least some of the great literary characters.
I found this rather more tricky than previous Jimmy’s, but I managed to cross the line unscathed. Untimed, but felt like 35-40 minutes. Had INTENt for a while before correcting my error. Last two in were CANDIDATES and NOOSE.
Many thanks to Jimmy and John.
Great end to the week: 15 minutes and all parsed and done! Wonderful find that a Tory whinger is CRINGEWORTHY! (with the added C). CANDIDATES was cleverly hidden and so was EPAULETTE. I thought GIDDY AUNT might fit the bill at 10a but THEME PARK scotched that. LOI SKIN DIVERS because I thought the crazy referred to the ten letters of ‘in wild kiss’ until I couldn’t invent a word to follow SKIN. Then I tried driven! Basic really. Thanks to Jimmy and to John for helpful blog.
Some excellent clues and a very good puzzle overall.
I picked out GREAT AUNT and THEME PARK whilst solving; others emerged later.
My LOI was WHINE. Time 11 minutes. Would have been quicker if I’d seen the hidden CANDIDATES when I first read the clue.
I biffed INTENT but then changed it on parsing; I am learning , slowly.
David
Very enjoyable puzzle but, like others, biffed Intent. Fairly quick today, with quite a bit of guessing before parsing, e.g. PREPOSTEROUS, CANDIDATES, SKIN DIVERS, CRINGEWORTHY.
LOI ICY. FOI IVORY.
Liked many inc AMAZON, ELECTORAL, THREE, PORTO.
Thanks so much, John. Beware typo at end of first line of blog.
Thanks. I can’t see the typo, but I can be blind to these things. Oh. I see Templar has shown me. Whoops!
INTEND/ intent as above, otherwise flew along
Marvellous!
I agree with Lindsay concerning Raygun. Feel for her that her outfit (Aussie Olympic kit) was popular for halloween.
Looking forward to Busman’s weekend cryptic.
Thanks John and Jimmy!
Managed this in 21 minutes, having biffed 3 answers: INTEND, ARDOUR & NOOSE. Quite a witty puzzle.
Dnf…
Just couldn’t see 4dn “Ardour” and made up an Iberian city of “Perlo” for 21ac, thinking “Per” was one of the many obscure names for a sailor.
I enjoyed the rest though.
FOI – 3dn “Icy”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 11dn “Theme Park” – amusing surface.
Thanks as usual!
What a cracking puzzle. Lots of wit and invention. And CANDIDATES (LOI and COD) was an exceptionally good hidden!
Also held up by revisiting INTEN{t} because I knew that the T was wrong but had to pull myself away from its malign influence, and by putting PILOT instead of PORTO (a pilot is a sort of sailor, there’s an LO in there for “left nothing” and so PIT must be a slightly obscure Iberian city … it seemed plausible for a bit …).
Really good fun, many thanks Jimmy and John. (PS John you have a typo “whose puzzles” not “who’s puzzles” in the intro!)
Oh. Thanks. Will fix. I’m blind to my own typos!
A good QC – enough to work on but no stoppers. I didn’t spot the two long hidden for a while. 11 minutes.
Lovely puzzle – really enjoyed it. 16mins and was wrong on INTENT like a few others but otherwise got there but took the blog to see candidates – easy once you know it’s there!
I found this tricky in places and very enjoyable all the way through, finishing in 17:24. Thank you, Jimmy!
I don’t think I’ve previously come across one anagram hiding inside another, and SKIN DIVERS was my LOI. My COD goes to CANYON – I love it when I have no idea what the answer is but manage to cobble chunks together via the wordplay, and find that I had been thoroughly misled.
Thank you for the blog!
10:32
Well, that was nothing like yesterday’s DNF! Quick but enjoyable, and the long politics-related clues/answers provided welcome comic relief to recent events. Pretty much did it top-to-bottom, a rarity for me.
Favorites: my LOI SKIN DIVERS, CRINGEWORTHY, PREPOSTEROUS.
Now I’m sad after looking up Raygun.
Thanks Jimmy and John! I couldn’t account for THE in THEME PARK, so I appreciate the explanation.
A perfect puzzle for a QC. O clue outstanding but thought this was set at the right level. A delight
Lovely puzzle. 16:03 WOE: add me to the “unparsed ‘INTENT’” crowd. Grrr. COD to CANDIDATES, best hidden for ages.
Thanks to John and Jimmy.
11.12, all parsed. CANDIDATES and NOOSE were the last two. Thanks John and Jimmy.
Lovely QC, though quiet in the SCC today. Like others I failed to spot 1a as a hidden and CNP. Yet another hidden missed.
24 minutes.Started off very slowly, but thankfully the pace quickened.
Thanks for the blog
7:05
Very enjoyable. Finished 1d, 1a. Liked THEME PARK.
Thanks Jimmy and John.
I was racing to a 15 min finish. Thrilled with this great Friday puzzle but defeated by the ‘easy-now-I-see-it’ Noose. Thanks all
I was aware of the person mentioned in 20a. Her performance was 1d.
A very disappointing week.
M -11 mins
Tu – 21 mins DNF (MALC for MALE)
W – 18 mins
Th – 25 mins DNF (misspelt PESCATARIAN)
F – 11 mins
2 DNFs that should never have happened.
Spent nearly 2 hours on big crossword today. Solved/guessed roughly half. Depressing.
PS I would never have finished the big crossword, but I missed some relatively straightforward clues. I am very poor at reading clues the correct way as I lack completely the mental gymnastics for this.