A neat Quick Crossword from Shay with a couple of chewy bits, but some great surfaces. I finished in a slightly over average time of 5:36 finishing with 23A and then 17D. Thank-you Shay! 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 140 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics , ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chemist quick to bandage injury (8) |
| PHARMACY – PACY (quick) outside [to bandage] HARM (injury). | |
| 5 | Anglers regularly disappearing for long periods (4) |
| AGES – Alternate letters, [regularly disappearing] of A n G l E r S . | |
| 8 | Contract eaten by dog? (5) |
| INCUR – IN (eaten by) CUR (dog). Ho ho! | |
| 9 | Forceful tennis played by beginner in Essex (7) |
| INTENSE – ( tennis )* [played] and first letter of Essex. | |
| 11 | Law court led by American (3) |
| ACT – A (American) CT (court). | |
| 12 | Passes on effortlessly (5,4) |
| HANDS DOWN – Double definition. | |
| 13 | Take legal action, about to name station (6) |
| EUSTON – SUE (take legal action) reversed, [about], -> EUS, TO N (name). | |
| 15 | US spies entrapping rogue drone producer (6) |
| CICADA – CAD (rogue) inside CIA (US spies). | |
| 18 | Reads op-ed about outlaw (9) |
| DESPERADO – ( reads op-ed )* [about]. | |
| 19 | Unhappy , sulky and disgruntled at first (3) |
| SAD – Initial letters of S ulky A nd D isgruntled. | |
| 20 | Wreckage of spar returned on tide briefly (7) |
| FLOTSAM – FLO{w} (tide) [briefly], MAST (spar) [returned] -> TSAM. A bit tricky, this one. | |
| 21 | Empty last of contents out of potty (5) |
| INANE – IN{s}ANE (potty) without the last letter of contentS. Also a little tricky, but a great surface. My COD. | |
| 22 | Italian smoker lying around in Nantes (4) |
| ETNA – Reverse hidden in nANTEs. A bit of a whimsical definition for the volcano, but it has come up before. | |
| 23 | Old maids accepting essentially loveless overtures (8) |
| PRELUDES – Middle letters [essentially] of lovELess in PRUDES (old maids). Hmm. I think that old maids = prudes is a bit of a stretch, but it does make for a nice surface. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chatter about one’s bishop ? (7) |
| PRIMATE – I’M (one’s) in PRATE (chatter). | |
| 2 | Bringer of good luck, supposedly, heading off for racecourse (5) |
| ASCOT – {m}ASCOT (bringer of good luck, supposedly) without the first letter, [heading off]. | |
| 3 | Aristocrat chases minor criminal (11) |
| MARCHIONESS – ( chases minor )* [criminal]. | |
| 4 | Clubs let in awkward customer (6) |
| CLIENT – ( C let in )* [awkward], with C for Clubs. | |
| 6 | Transported gold on a boat (7) |
| GONDOLA – ( gold on a )* [transported]. | |
| 7 | Back incapable of bending (5) |
| STERN – Double definition, the second matching definition 4 in Chambers, “Hard, unyielding, inflexible”. | |
| 10 | Carelessly omit salient reference (11) |
| TESTIMONIAL – ( omit salient )* [carelessly]. | |
| 14 | War poet presently following special forces (7) |
| SASSOON – SAS (special forces) SOON (presently). | |
| 16 | Attend to element of salad dressing (7) |
| ADDRESS – Hidden in sal AD DRESS ing. | |
| 17 | Less worried about chronic condition in both hands (6) |
| CALMER – CA (circa, about), ME (myalgia encephalomyelitis; chronic condition) in L (left) and R(right) – both hands. | |
| 18 | Extremely disagreeable enemy for novelist (5) |
| DEFOE – Outside letters, [extremely], of DisagreeablE, FOE (enemy). | |
| 19 | Reportedly remained sober (5) |
| STAID – Sounds like, [reportedly], STAYED (remained). | |
Nearly completed what I thought was yet another excellently pitched QC
25 minutes of toil. Held up by inserting PRELATE for PRIMATE and not seeing PHARMACY early on.
Another lousy performance to end a dreadful week. 125 minutes with a DNF and only one SCC escape.
I spend hours and hours on the 15 x 15 in an effort to improve and I’m still b****y useless. Comfortably in the bottom 10% of solvers here.
2 hours on 15 x 15 today. Got roughly 2/3. Pathetic. I watched the video of the winner of the crossword championship explaining how he solved the final puzzle. He made it sound so easy. ☹️
Good puzzle, thanks to both. Sadly I made a complete pig’s ear of it, had prelate for 1d and never thought to question it. For reasons known only to my inner self I had 10d marked off as 4,7, how many anagrams of IMONIAL can you find. My late aunt described herself in her late forties as an old maid, despite her raunchy sense of humour. Fortunately she met, and married, a retired French bachelor postman 15 years her senior, who finally popped his clogs in his late seventies,
by all family accounts from over-exertion making up for lost time. Some prude!
I inherited his ww1 helmet – see picture.
Hi John
I dont know if you can see this but my comments are being deleted.
I can see them posted with my picture, but then when I come back they are gone.
We are on a second page of comments so you have to click the “newer comments” link at the bottom of the first page of comments to see them.
I thought this was the best QC for quite a while