Joker is in generous mood today with a fairly gentle puzzle. I skipped through this in just 4:10. A couple of slightly oblique definitions and a clever bit of wordplay (15D, my COD) were the only minor hold-ups for me, but, as always, your mileage may differ. Thank-you Joker.
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “The Bells” here. Can you identify the theme and find the thematic references? If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 139 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics , ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Yield and authorise again? (6) |
| RESIGN –RE–SIGN (authorise again). | |
| 4 | One who sings three times (6) |
| TREBLE – Double definition | |
| 8 | Cold capital — note that’s weather in general (7) |
| CLIMATE – C (cold) LIMA (capital) TE (note) | |
| 10 | Parasite mostly eating head of the water lily (5) |
| LOTUS – First letter of The in LOUS{e} (parasite) [mostly]. | |
| 11 | Impressive electronic image (4) |
| EPIC – E (electronic) PIC (image) | |
| 12 | Pure spirit inhabiting everywhere on the internet? (8) |
| VIRGINAL – GIN (spirit) in VIRAL (everywhere on the net). | |
| 14 | Boy I fed to alligator? This one put up a good fight (9) |
| GLADIATOR – LAD (boy) I in GATOR (alligator). Nice one. It reminded me of the one about the cannibal’s statement after eating his gran. No. Don’t ask. | |
| 18 | Festival of the Body — around four (8) |
| CARNIVAL – CARNAL (of the body) about IV (four in Roman numerals). | |
| 20 | Competent architect builds large edifices primarily (4) |
| ABLE -Initial letters [primarily] of Architect Builds Large Edifices. | |
| 22 | Strange degree in dance (5) |
| RUMBA – RUM (strange) BA (degree). | |
| 23 | Diligent chap receives top mark (7) |
| EARNEST – A (top mark) in ERNEST (man’s name; chap). I thought that an odd choice of definition, but it makes for a better surface than e.g. serious, sincere or eager. | |
| 24 | Rodney’s travelling over there (6) |
| YONDER – (Rodney)* [travelling]. | |
| 25 | Actor is back? (6) |
| PLAYER – Double definition, the second by example, hence the ?. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Missile plant (6) |
| ROCKET – Double definition. I rather like rocket in a salad. | |
| 2 | Being acceptable placement outside university (7) |
| SUITING – U (university) in SITING (placement). | |
| 3 | Quickly take unfinished canal boat northwards? (4) |
| GRAB – BARG{e} (canal boat) [unfinished] going upwards. | |
| 5 | Demote concerning papal emissary (8) |
| RELEGATE – RE (concerning) LEGATE (papal emissary). | |
| 6 | Stick no bill up (5) |
| BATON – NO TAB (bill) all going upwards. Do you remember the old graffiti on signs saying “Bill stickers will be prosecuted”? “Bill Stickers is innocent”. | |
| 7 | Lie, say, misled without difficulty (6) |
| EASILY – (lie say)* [misled]. | |
| 9 | Take out talkative bird entering high society (9) |
| ELIMINATE – MINA (talkative bird) in ELITE (high society). | |
| 13 | Confirm a detail’s wrong under verse (8) |
| VALIDATE – V (verse) (a detail)* [wrong]. | |
| 15 | Potentially doing a stretch with Oscar for the second crime (7) |
| ROBBERY – The only tricky clue today… It’s RUBBERY (potentially doing a stretch) changing the second letter to O (Oscar in the phonetic alphabet). My COD. | |
| 16 | Perhaps skip small Indian dish (6) |
| SCURRY – S (small) CURRY (Indian dish). Again a slightly indirect definition, indicated by the “perhaps”. | |
| 17 | Persistently annoy Lords member about empty statement (6) |
| PESTER – Outside letters of S{tatemen)T in PEER (Lords member). | |
| 19 | Right country for old Italian (5) |
| ROMAN – R (right) OMAN (country). A Roman can be a new Italian too. | |
| 21 | Test for singers missing church (4) |
| ORAL – {ch}ORAL (for singers) without the CH (church). | |
Enjoyable puzzle, slow but steady start in NE corner then a gradually work around.
22:39
I certainly didn’t find this easy, 1 on the first across pass, 4 on the first down pass and then a halting solve, biffing ELIMINATE and VIRGINAL (so I can’t join the MINA debate).
SW corner revealed itself in a gush followed by a slower SE. NE came next with the NW delivering me agonisingly into the SSC.
I seem to struggle to get onto Joker’s wavelength – not sure why, no issues with the clues.
FOI: ABLE
LOI: RESIGN
COD: not sure I have one.
Thanks to Joker and John
9.14. Having read the blog I realise that I misparsed ‘lotus’: I thought that it was ‘locust’ with the ‘t’ replacing the redundant ‘c’, but a locust is not parasitic.
Couldn’t be bothered to time myself but at least I finished. Parsed very little as I went. Still feeling angry about yesterday’s performance. Another disappointing week.
Another in the “this wasn’t easy” camp, although I’ve known Joker be a lot harder at times. Ended on EARNEST with 24:54. Thanks Joker and John.
I did this on my phone while waiting for a flight at the airport, so numerous distractions/interruptions. They also take the blame for an initial non-existant Corpival. I continue to be amazed every time a seemingly impossible clue (15d) is transformed into an obvious answer by the addition of a single letter – in this case the b of Able. No real idea of my time, but
perhaps around 20mins. Invariant