I think my brain may be a bit frazzled with trying to sort out this Server 500 error malarkey, but I found this rather hard. No time as I bizarrely suffered from an extended sneezing fit while solving, but certainly well over average. Lots of tricky bits and if you solved this without difficulty you are ready to tackle the 15×15. Thank-you Shay for the challenge! 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 138 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics , ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 7 | Killer whale from California on banks of Oder (4) |
| ORCA – Outside letters of OdeR, CA (California). | |
| 8 | Real thug suffering convulsions (8) |
| LAUGHTER – ( real thug )* [suffering]. Hmm. What is a “real thug” and why would he/she suffer from convulsions? A potential short story plot, methinks. | |
| 9 | Saunas struggling in Caribbean capital (6) |
| NASSAU – ( saunas )* [struggling]. How can a sauna struggle? Thumbs down from me for the surface here. | |
| 10 | Animal nipping right bosom (6) |
| BREAST – R (right) in BEAST (animal). | |
| 11 | Small child’s first to finish article (4) |
| ITEM – Take MITE (small child) and move the first letter to the end -> ITEM. Tricky. | |
| 12 | Poorest chewed on last of hard, thick slice of bread (8) |
| DOORSTEP – Last letter of harD, ( poorest )* [chewed]. | |
| 15 | Celebration of WI speciality endured by European (8) |
| JAMBOREE – JAM (WI speciality) BORE (endured) E (European). I wonder what any WI members among our solvers think of the stereotyping here? | |
| 17 | Feeling sad years after shock (4) |
| MOPY – Y (years) after MOP (shock of hair). | |
| 18 | Bemoan unconvincing part of Bible (6) |
| LAMENT – LAME (unconvincing) NT (New Testament; part of bible). I need the checkers to come up with LAME. | |
| 21 | One’s pens stay in the same place (6) |
| IBIDEM – BIDE (stay) in I’M (one’s). Another tricky one that I needed checkers for. | |
| 22 | Lie about end of war and conflict (8) |
| FRICTION – FICTION (lie) about last letter of waR. | |
| 23 | Passionate desire left American close to derangement (4) |
| LUST – L (left) US (American) and last letter of derangemenT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Macerate bananas for light meal (5,3) |
| CREAM TEA – ( macerate )* [bananas]. | |
| 2 | Perfume ingredient found in Gorbals, amazingly (6) |
| BALSAM – Hidden in Gor BALS AM azingly. | |
| 3 | Fish struggle in water ? (8) |
| FLOUNDER – Double definition. | |
| 4 | Restrain dog, beginning to bite (4) |
| CURB – CUR (dog) and first letter of Bite. | |
| 5 | Encourages heartless cheaters (6) |
| CHEERS – Remove the middle letters from CHE{at}ERS. | |
| 6 | Wimps are agitated when climbing (4) |
| WETS – STEW (are agitated) [climbing] -> WETS. | |
| 13 | Dutiful, I’d been to Barking (8) |
| OBEDIENT – ( I’d been to )* [barking]. | |
| 14 | Regularly sense journalists love strong drink (8) |
| ESPRESSO – Alternate letters, [regularly], of sEnSe, PRESS (journalists) O (0; zero; love).. | |
| 16 | Reportedly rupture buttocks (6) |
| BREECH – Sounds like, [reportedly], BREACH (rupture). Sounds painful! | |
| 17 | Virile embraces lead to intimacy, for the most part (6) |
| MAINLY – First letter on Intimacy in MANLY (virile). | |
| 19 | Leaving husband, unshaven and offhand (4) |
| AIRY – {h}AIRY (unshaven) without the H (husband). | |
| 20 | Cotton on top of Turkish rug (4) |
| TWIG – First letter of Turkish, WIG (rug). | |
“Jam & Jerusalem” has been the WI’s unofficial slogan for decades, so I don’t think the jam reference was offensive. In fact Jennifer Saunders wrote a sitcom of that title!
Shay the Merciless determined to maintain position at the top of the Setters Difficulty Leaderboard I see. Actually I didn’t find this too bad, since I knew where “ibid” comes from and could conjure up BREECH. STEW took a very long time though.
All done in 08:45 for a Very Good Day. Many thanks Shay and John (and super extra thanks to John for all the tech stuff he is doing in the background).
Thanks for the “jam and Jerusalem” pointer; I looked it up. It would seem the phrase is at worst derisive and at best patronising. No criticism intended of the clue though. (It always amuses me that British people seem to find “Jerusalem” so tiresome. I actually like it. But I suppose anything can be overdosed.)
Dnf…
Thankfully I wasn’t the only one who found this hard. A shame, as I was hoping for a clean sweep of sub-20 completions for the whole week (a rare event, if ever). I can’t add anymore regarding some of the really tricky ones: 21ac “Ibidem”, 6dn “Wets” and 11ac “Item” come to mind. I put “Cracks” for 16dn which, whilst somewhat vulgar, was worth a punt.
FOI – 7ac “Orca”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 10ac “Breast”
Thanks as usual!
Tricky, yes. Unreasonable, no.
FOI 7a Orca
LOI 20d Twig
COD 21a Ibidem
Many thanks to those working to fix the site probably while also contributing.
So, we flounder on today, not a surprise after better days this week. Desperately tried to get Cake into 15A just forgot all about Jam that would have helped. No description of Buttocks meant Rupture to me so empty squares there. One’s equals I’m question mark. Heaps of praise and admiration for Blog and Comments which make it all fun.
“One is going to the train station” / “I am going to the train station”
Ahh, thank you, very lateral One’s has always said ‘is’ to me so far
I went for IS – thought I was doing well to remember that’s what One’s would be. Nasty clue I thought
57 minute DNF.
Put IBIDES for IBIDEM.
Nightmare end to horrific week. Well over 2 hours and 2 DNFs. Worse than when I started.
I can’t remember the last time I derived anything but pain from attempting a cryptic crossword.
Thanks to all for the comments.
Testing comment
One’s (I’m) new to cryptic crosswords and find the Englishness ( cream tea, doorstep, W1, never mind the cricket and chess) a challenge. An Irishman in my sixties, I always print the Quick and the 15×15 on Fridays here in Barcelona. Their cleverness appeal to me.
Welcome to TfTT, Richie
My teacher had always warned me against dabbling in cryptic crosswords.He said it was like alcohol addiction,once into it you crave it even when you know its all RUBBISH !