A Quick Cryptic puzzle at the harder end of the difficulty scale to keep us on our toes for a Friday from Asp today. Lots of good clues, and a bit of head -scratching along the way took me to 7:03 – a minute and a half or so over my average. Last two in were the cleverly hidden 1D followed by 8A with a bit of a head-slap. Favourites included the &lit 9A, the groan-worthy homophone at 16A, the clever wordplay at 14D and the semi-&lit 17D. Thank-you Asp! How did you all get on? P.S. As he has outed himself on X, I don’t think he’ll mind me telling you Asp is a pseudonym of our crossword editor Jason Crampton. Thank-you, Jason, for all you do.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “See-saw to Arkansas” here. Can you (without googling the title) identify the theme and find the thematic references? If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 133 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | See what is being said? (3-4) |
| LIP-READ – Cryptic definition. I like it. | |
| 5 | Bring back drink fit for a king (5) |
| REGAL – LAGER (drink) brought back -> REGAL. | |
| 8 | What goes round room, bypassing senior management? (8,5) |
| SKIRTING BOARD – SKIRTING (bypassing) BOARD (senior management). My LOI misled into thinking rumours and the like. | |
| 9 | Work with case in theatre (7) |
| OPERATE – A neat &lit. OPERA (work) and outside letters [case] of T{heatr}E. | |
| 10 | Papers I returned to fool (5) |
| IDIOT – ID (papers) I and TO [returned] -> OT. | |
| 11 | In GCHQ, briefly shed light on computer problem (6) |
| GLITCH – GCHQ here is just GCHQ… [briefly] -> GCH, with LIT (shed light on) inside. | |
| 13 | Exquisite selection (6) |
| CHOICE – A straight forward double definition conforming to the late Rotter’s rule – “If a clue consists of only 2 words, it is very likely to be a double definition“. | |
| 15 | Strange article about invention (5) |
| ALIEN – LIE (invention) in AN (indefinite article). | |
| 16 | Successor man announced in letter? (7) |
| AIRMAIL – A groan-worthy homophone [announced], AIR MAIL sounds like HEIR (successor) MALE (man). | |
| 19 | Judgement voided debatable conclusion (13) |
| DETERMINATION – Outside letters of, [voided], DebatablE, TERMINATION (conclusion). Sometimes, like the bear of little brain, long words bother me, but not this one. | |
| 20 | Sign up loner to go travelling (5) |
| ENROL – (loner)* [to go travelling]. Our first anagram. | |
| 21 | Fantastic story can spread in capital city (7) |
| ROMANCE – (can)* [spread] in ROME (capital city). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Animal catcher employed by professional association (5) |
| LASSO – Hidden in [employed by] professionaL ASSOciation. Did anyone else take a while to spot this was a hidden answer? Nicely disguised, I think. | |
| 2 | Great office of strait-laced English clergyman (5,8) |
| PRIME MINISTER – PRIM (strait-laced) E (English) MINISTER (clergyman). | |
| 3 | Additional cast member having little to do (5) |
| EXTRA – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 4 | Stubborn person put on small island (6) |
| DONKEY – DON (put on clothes) KEY (small island; think Florida Keys). | |
| 5 | Refuse to criticise (7) |
| RUBBISH – Double definition with a neat surface. | |
| 6 | Pleasure beginning to gain approval (13) |
| GRATIFICATION – First letter of Gain, RATIFICATION (approval). | |
| 7 | Boisterous young woman jetted all over naked (7) |
| LADETTE – Reverse hidden, removing just the outside letters [over naked] of {j}ETTED AL{l} -> LADETTE. The answer came first but then I had to deduce the wordplay. | |
| 11 | Broadcast enraged eminent individual (7) |
| GRANDEE – [Broadcast] (enraged)*. | |
| 12 | Calm surrounds every other part of unitary authority (7) |
| CONTROL – You have to split “unitary authority” to get the definition. The wordplay is COOL surrounding alternate letters of [every other part of] uNiTaRy. | |
| 14 | Greek character stops behind raised weapon (6) |
| RAPIER – PI (Greek alphabetical character) inside [stops] REAR (behind) [raised] -> RAER. A bit tricky, that one. “Stops” for”goes inside” is worth remembering. Think cork stopping a bottle. | |
| 17 | Genuine monarch’s principal possession? (5) |
| REALM – REAL (genuine) and first letter [‘s principal] of Monarch. A semi-&lit where the whole clue is the definition and only “possession” isn’t part of the wordplay. | |
| 18 | Cut into network cable at both ends (5) |
| LANCE – LAN (local area network) and both end letters of CablE. | |
Enjoyable puzzle, the easier long clues were helpful. Slow to finish in the SW corner.
25 sticky minutes to complete what was a very enjoyable puzzle from Asp in between watching the TDF on tv. Top half flew in but the bottom more tricky. Airmail, Rapier and Lance were the last ones in, unlike Lance Armstrong who usually came in first but by dubious means! Thank you Asp and John.
I’ve been enjoying the ITV4 coverage of the TdF too. Cracking racing. Sorry to miss today’s apart from the last 10 minutes as I was on a 9 mile walk in mid-Suffolk in 29 deg heat. Now do I watch the TdF highlights or the cricket highlights at 7pm?
The answer’s always cricket!
Sneaked back into the SCC with 20:16, with AIRMAIL being the main culprit, though I needed more help with the parsing than I usually do.
Thank you for the blog!
40 minute DNF.
Put CENTRAL for CONTROL.
Another utterly appalling display. I struggled throughout. So many clues were impossible. I have no confidence at all and feel totally lost.
There’s no enjoyment or satisfaction to be had when I’m this incompetent. I honestly thought that I was improving but then Wednesday and today have crushed that. As I have said before, this is a game that I cannot play. ☹️
17:20. I wondered for a minute whether I was going to be able to finish it today! got there in the end. I didn’t enjoy the cluing as much as normal – perhaps it’s the end of the week … thank you both!
Is it a coincidence that the first letters of [man announced in letter] spell “MAIL” do you think?
Good spot, but there’s no “initial letters” indicator, whereas “announced” is the homophone indicator, so I guess just coincidence.