Ouch! A real tester of a Quick Cryptic from Cheeko today with some deceptive definitions and intricate wordplay. No accurate time for me, but certainly over 8 minutes. Thank-you Cheeko. Oh, by the way, did you spot the Nina?
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 141 here. Furthermore there is a bonus seasonal crossword from me (entitled “Trick or treat?”) which you can find here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics , (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Royal income’s half covered by news media (8) |
| PRINCESS – Half of INC{ome} in PRESS (news media). | |
| 5 | Detect the best turns (4) |
| SPOT – TOPS (the best) reversed [turns] -> SPOT. | |
| 8 | Plant ’s extremely rare elaborate decoration (8) |
| REFINERY – Outside letters, [extremely], of RarE, FINERY (elaborate decoration). Sneaky definition. Did you, like me, get hung up on trying to find something green and growing? | |
| 9 | King returned gentleman’s dagger (4) |
| KRIS – K (King) and SIR (gentleman) [returned] -> RIS. | |
| 11 | Meagre enemies partially concur (5) |
| AGREE – Hidden in Me AGRE Enemies. | |
| 12 | After bringing forward note, ambiguous about energy? (7) |
| NUCLEAR – UNCLEAR (ambiguous) moving the N (note) forward -> NUCLEAR. Tricky. | |
| 13 | Adder ’s venom finally treated with serum (6) |
| SUMMER – ({veno} m serum )* [treated]. Nice misleading surface – no not that sort of adder! | |
| 15 | Faculty regularly joining core trio of alumnae fall for some (6) |
| AUTUMN – Alternate letters, [regularly], of fAcUlTy and middle three letters [core trio] of alUMNae. | |
| 18 | He scored 50 on oral exam I’d brought back (7) |
| VIVALDI – VIVA (oral exam) L (Roman numeral for 50) and I’D reversed -> DI. The setter’s trick of referring to a composer as a ‘scorer’ is worth remembering. | |
| 19 | Store ’s first-class service (5) |
| AMASS – A (first class) MASS (church service). | |
| 21 | Medal attached to queen’s gown (4) |
| ROBE – R (Regina; queen) OBE (medal). | |
| 22 | Antagonistic manner and posture (8) |
| ATTITUDE – Double definition. I needed the checkers to find this one. | |
| 23 | Eg Jacob’s mate runs vessel (4) |
| EWER – A Jacob is a type of sheep, hence EWE (e.g. Jacob’s mate) R (runs). | |
| 24 | Swirling patterns in part of church (8) |
| TRANSEPT – [Swirling] (patterns)*. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Maybe piano phrase changed (7) |
| PERHAPS – (p phrase)* [changed], with the musical abbreviation P for piano. | |
| 2 | Deduce Hell is without number (5) |
| INFER – INFER{no} (hell) without the NO (number). | |
| 3 | Pantomime character recalled in breaks (10) |
| CINDERELLA – (recalled in)* [breaks]. | |
| 4 | Jump , beginning to pogo in small circle (6) |
| SPRING – First letter of Pogo in S (small) RING (circle). | |
| 6 | Drunken rave-up gatecrashed by northern upstart (7) |
| PARVENU – N (northern) in [drunken] (rave-up)*. | |
| 7 | Doctor rates provider of shocking treatment (5) |
| TASER – [Doctor] (rates)*. | |
| 10 | Job control under a foreign power (10) |
| OCCUPATION – Double definition. My LOI… and it took me ages to see. | |
| 14 | Second bishop in valley is not fixed (7) |
| MOVABLE – MO (second) and B (bishop) in VALE (valley). | |
| 16 | Walk in the park on waste ground (2,5) |
| NO SWEAT – (on waste)* [ground]. | |
| 17 | Victory period does not include last season (6) |
| WINTER – WIN (victory) TER{m} (period) without its last letter. | |
| 18 | Clergyman cut grass border (5) |
| VERGE – VERGE{r} (clergyman) without the last letter. MER at the use of clergyman here as a verger is not an ordained minister. “Church caretaker” would have been more accurate, I think. | |
| 20 | Entertain a writer’s inspiration? (5) |
| AMUSE – A MUSE (writer’s inspiration). | |
Luckily we find ourselves in Singapore and Malaysia most years where I often worked for many years so Kris was easy but thought it might be obscure for many others.
As for VIVA as an academic I’m obviously familiar. It’s a VIVA because it’s live. So I had a double advantage today. Nice to be ahead of the game for once!
Top left went in easily and the rest was horrendous. How anyone is expected to see Jacob and think of a male sheep and that its made would be a ewe and adding an r gets a ewer, for a vessel I also haven’t heard of, I have no idea.
25 minutes
Another lousy display to cap off a lousy week and a lousy month.
Three consecutive days in SCC. Today’s idiocy was to overthink clues that were simple (such as OCCUPATION). Every day I make a silly mistake like that.
I spent almost 2 hours on 15 x 15, only to fail by one clue. Says it all. I am useless at this.
Liked Vivaldi and the four seasons and felt well pleased to only fail by 3 (including the NHO KRIS).
And a verger is not (normally? ever?) a clergyman. All the vergers I have known have been lay people.