I thought this quite a gentle 3rd Quick Cryptic from new setter Juji [Edit: But what do I know? From the comments it seems plenty of you didn’t find it easy]. I had all but 4 answers in a first pass through the clues finishing in 4:30 and no marks on paper copy except to underline the anagrist in 12D. Nice one. Thank-you Juji. Your mileage, as always, may differ from mine, of course – how did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “Going trekking”, here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 130 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Most ill-tempered priests opt to reform (10) |
| STROPPIEST – (priests opt)* [to reform]. | |
| 8 | Maybe a newspaper piece (7) |
| ARTICLE – Double definition, A being the indefinite article. | |
| 9 | Wipe out facility housing Resistance (5) |
| ERASE – R (resistance) in EASE (facility). | |
| 10 | Hide exposed spy, English lieutenant (4) |
| PELT – sPy without its outside letters [exposed], E (English) LT (lieutenant). | |
| 11 | Remove leads from dogs in Swiss cabin (8) |
| DISLODGE – First letters [leads] of Dogs In Swiss, LODGE (cabin). | |
| 13 | Liking sculpture primarily in gallery (5) |
| TASTE – First letter of Sculpture in TATE (gallery). | |
| 14 | Musketeer beat hostile guards (5) |
| ATHOS – Hidden in [guards] beaAT HOStile. One of the Three Musketeers along with Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan. Um. Doesn’t that make 4 musketeers? | |
| 16 | President locks spy chief in prison (8) |
| CHAIRMAN – HAIR (locks) ‘M‘ (spy chief), in CAN (American slang for prison). | |
| 17 | Section of fences supporting turning cat (4) |
| PUSS – Reverse hidden [section… turning] in fenceS SUPporting. | |
| 20 | Ring great Greek character (5) |
| OMEGA – O (round letter; ring) MEGA (great). | |
| 21 | Fabulous girl regularly dances on air (7) |
| ARIADNE – ARIA (operatic song; air) and alternate letters [regularly] of DaNcEs. | |
| 22 | Help repair broken device connected to computer (10) |
| PERIPHERAL – (Help repair)* [broken]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Son with stringed instrument is keen (5) |
| SHARP – S (Son) HARP (stringed instrument). | |
| 2 | Earnest talks to resettle venomous reptiles (12) |
| RATTLESNAKES – (Earnest talks)* [to resettle]. | |
| 3 | Father on church step (4) |
| PACE – PA (father) CE (Church of England; church). | |
| 4 | Leader abandoning African land for European peninsula (6) |
| IBERIA – {l}IBERIA (African land) without its first letter. | |
| 5 | Wealth that woman had — love received by boy (8) |
| SHEDLOAD – SHE’D (that woman had), O (0; love) in LAD (boy). | |
| 6 | Difficult to take responsibility for part of motorway (4,8) |
| HARD SHOULDER – HARD (difficult) SHOULDER (take responsibility). | |
| 7 | Rest on ship, welcoming cruise on vacation (6) |
| RECESS – Outside letters of C{ruis}E, [on vacation], in RE (on) SS (SteamShip; ship) | |
| 12 | Come down from cedar and see ground (8) |
| DECREASE – (cedar see)* [ground]. | |
| 13 | Vacated tiny company, working for business magnate (6) |
| TYCOON – Outside letters of T{in}Y, CO (company) ON (working). | |
| 15 | State why Gawain hid away from all outsiders (6) |
| HAWAII – Remove the outside letters, [away from all outsiders], of wHy gAWAIn hId. | |
| 18 | Give letters of enchantment (5) |
| SPELL – Double definition. | |
| 19 | Unclothed parts of legs reaching far up (4) |
| HIGH – And another “remove the outside letters”, [unclothed], {t}HIGH{s} (parts of legs). | |
For me, not so very gentle as it first appeared. 16 minutes to finish after a flying start. I started rattling through with RATTLESNAKES a write-in along with many others in the top half. ARTICLE was my first stumble, as I never parsed it (oh what a blind spot!) and put it in last with every expectation of a pink square. CHAIRMAN was difficult; as an American I find it hard to equate that with “president” and James Bond is a dim, unpleasant memory. DISLODGE was pleasingly sneaky, but my favorite was HAWAII.
Thanks to Juji and John.
Another truly abysmal day.
27 minutes, with 6 or 7 spent on DECREASE. If I can’t get that after 4.5 years, there’s no point doing this.
Those I could once beat are now so far ahead that it’s embarrassing. Only 2 SCC escapes (one by a minute) and a DNF this week. Useless.
Happy with 13:57 for this one. It would have been quicker but for DISLODGE, for which I have no excuse, and ARIADNE, which presumably is some classical reference that I don’t know. What was fabulous about her? I thought that was a very hard clue but perhaps it becomes approachable with the right bit of GK.
My COD goes to CHAIRMAN, which I thought was very clever.
Thank you for the blog!
Got 23/33 on 15 x 15 in 90+ minutes, a puzzle described in the blog as ‘relatively straightforward’. Need I say more? I have no confidence left with these puzzles. ☹️
I think you need to significantly lower your expectations Gary. Four and a half years is no time at all in cryptic solving terms. Maybe you’re expecting too much too soon. It’s all about practice… so I’d give it another 20 years or so! 😉
Not sure I’ll still be around in 20 years time (!), but I take your point.
😂
Hate to disagree with the blogger but this took me longer than the 15×15. ARIADNE, CHAIRMAN, DISLODGE, HAWAII, HIGH and PERIPHERAL particularly holding out. Maybe it was too hot today, maybe it’s the new setter, maybe I was just not on the wavelength.
COD: CHAIRMAN after the penny dropped and I stopped cursing that I couldn’t think of one of the lesser known US Heads of State.
Cheers blogger and setter
Fast start slowed to a crawl, SHEDLOAD?
14.17 with two of us at it. Recess LOI, parsing on that seemed a bit rough; biffed it anyway I suppose. Thanks Juji and John.