Some nice Friday QC fun from Hurley today with a couple of clever clues to test us. Were the horses frightened? Not in my stable, but others may have had more neighing. I took little over average time of 5:59 held up mostly by the clever 17A. Thank-you Hurley. 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 128 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Merit of French verse in translation (7) |
| DESERVE – DE (of, in French) (verse)* [translation]. | |
| 7 | Mundane way to welcome home? (7) |
| ROUTINE – IN (home; at home) in ROUTE (way). | |
| 9 | Transport Glaswegian maybe carrying duck — I’m not sure! (7) |
| SCOOTER – O (zero; duck) in SCOT (Glaswegian, maybe), ER (I’m not sure). | |
| 10 | In middle of a maiden song, terribly tense (7) |
| AMONGST – A M (maiden, as recorded on a cricket score card) (song)* [terribly] T (tense). The wordplay’s a little tricky, but the answer is biffable. | |
| 11 | Part of Papal Mass this Sunday? (4) |
| PALM – Hidden in PaPAL Mass. | |
| 12 | Quality of thanks recalled: statement of admiration (9) |
| ATTRIBUTE – TA (thanks) reversed, [recalled], -> AT, TRIBUTE (statement of admiration). | |
| 14 | Angry at outset is returning rather inferior furniture item (9) |
| IRRITABLE – First letters, [at outset], of Is Returning Rather Inferior, TABLE (furniture item). | |
| 16 | Release charge about right (4) |
| FREE – FEE (charge) [about] R (right). | |
| 17 | Seven years at the coalface — finally moan constantly, effective at first (7) |
| TEENAGE – Last letters, [finally], of aT thE coalfacE, NAG (moan constantly) and first letter of Effective. 13,14,15,16,17,18, and 19. Very clever. My SLOI and it took me a while to get it. | |
| 20 | Looting — small community needs new start (7) |
| PILLAGE – P {v}ILLAGE (small community) replacing the first letter ,V, with another one… in this case P. Another where the answer came from the definition first. | |
| 21 | Reveal most of ugly dive has to be revamped (7) |
| DIVULGE – (ugl{y} dive)* [to be revamped]. Where [most of] indicates all but the last letter of. | |
| 22 | Tenant perhaps, full of energy, to go in again (2-5) |
| RE-ENTER – E (energy) in RENTER (tenant, perhaps). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Let down — initially dud is assigned to position (12) |
| DISAPPOINTED – First letter of Dud, IS, APPOINTED (assigned to position). | |
| 2 | Quiet, more mature, say, accepting you assume responsibility (8) |
| SHOULDER – SH (quiet) OLDER (more mature) outside, [accepting], U (you). | |
| 3 | Castigate pace of progress (4) |
| RATE – Double definition. | |
| 4 | Tirade supports former monarch going off the rails (6) |
| ERRANT – RANT (tirade) under ER (former monarch). | |
| 5 | Highly praise guile so easily at start — out of order! (8) |
| EULOGISE – (guile so e{asily})* [out of order], using only the first letter of easily, [at start]. | |
| 6 | Sovereign relations good (4) |
| KING – KIN (relations) G (good). | |
| 8 | Business person found in daycentre pre neurosurgery (12) |
| ENTREPRENEUR – Hidden in daycENTRE PRE NEURosurgery. Nice hidden! | |
| 12 | A constant trade union supporter in fact (8) |
| ACTUALLY – A C (constant) TU (trade union) ALLY (supporter). A four-part charade. | |
| 13 | Describing this turn made surprisingly? (8) |
| UNDREAMT – (turn made)* [surprisingly]. A semi-&lit, I think, where the whole clue is the definition and all but “describing this” the wordplay. If a turn that is made is a surprise, it might be one you hadn’t expected or even dreamed of. | |
| 15 | Device to remind social gathering agent’s coming up (6) |
| BEEPER – BEE (social gathering), REP (representative; agent) [coming up] -> PER. | |
| 18 | Diplomat ignoring Oscar’s resentment (4) |
| ENVY – ENV{o}Y (diplomat) without the O (Oscar in the phonetic alphabet). | |
| 19 | Unhappy Tory (4) |
| BLUE – Double definition. | |
Started late after a busy day. I got quite a few of the clues deemed difficult above (UNDREAMT etc.) but lost the will to continue well before the end.
DNF and DNE.
18:09 (birth of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln- both on 12th Feb)
Very slow today, delayed by ENVY and TEENAGE.
Thanks John and Hurley
Late solve today and not so much a game of two halves as grinding to a crawl with BEEPER, UNDREAMT and finally LOI TEENAGE, the latter going in unparsed with fingers crossed. Didn’t really like it but it was compensated for by the wonderfully hidden ENTREPRENEUR. A rather slow 15:37 but with the learning of BEE for social gathering (didn’t make the link to e.g. spelling bee) and T as tense (which we’d assumed had to be). Thanks to John and Hurley.
Got there with aids for amongst. Was trying for ages to make either a definition of terribly tense or to make an anagram involving tense.
I did get teenage by biffing desperately, but still don’t really see how 7 years is definition for teenage. OK 7 years 13-19 inc. but so? I wouldn’t define three years as undergraduate degree ( for instance).
(Chambers and Collins have no entry for seven years. They do have entry for seven years war….but even that doesn’t have definition of teenage 😉)
Thanks for the blog John. I really needed it today.
. . .more fool them 😂
27 minutes
Another inept performance. I’m wasting my time if this is the best I can do. Truly woeful.
Why am I incapable of improvement? There’s no point doing this if my times aren’t getting better.