A typically witty Quick Cryptic from Wurm today with a couple of tricky bits that took me to a longer than average time of 06:10. I particularly liked the dig at the eminent politician and the state to go to for hip replacements. Thank-you Wurm! How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. As an added bonus for the first of our puzzles of the year, Phil has provided a 15×15 grid, but don’t worry – it is no more difficult than the usual 13x13s. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 146 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions}and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Patriarch backing wicked Tory (8) |
| BADENOCH – ENOCH (Hebrew patriarch, father of Methuselah) after [backing] BAD (wicked). “Wicked Tory”. Ha Ha! | |
| 5 | Finish second to peloton’s leader (4) |
| STOP – S (second) + TO + first letter [leader] of Peleton. | |
| 9 | Endlessly cunning vixen (5) |
| SHREW – SHREW{d} (cunning) without the last letter [endlessly]. | |
| 10 | Heather penning books — saucy ones? (7) |
| EROTICA – OT (Old Testament; books) in ERICA (genus of heather). | |
| 11 | What one cold year could be? (3) |
| ICY – I (one) + C (cold) + Y (tear) | |
| 12 | Old spaceman’s weapon powerful (9) |
| ARMSTRONG – ARM (weapon) + STRONG (powerful). Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. | |
| 13 | Acting company moving to Peru (6) |
| TROUPE – [moving] (to Peru)*. | |
| 15 | Poem shown in text regularly (6) |
| SONNET – Alternate letters, [regularly], of ShOwN iN tExT. | |
| 17 | Cleaner keeping Charles for patron (9) |
| PURCHASER – PURER (cleaner) outside [keeping] CHAS (Charles) | |
| 19 | Power and energy beginning to assist plant (3) |
| PEA – P (power) + E (energy) + A first letter of Assist. | |
| 20 | Small child to argue in deprived area (4,3) |
| SKID ROW – S (Small) + KID (child) + ROW (argue). | |
| 21 | Chapter in story reversing brilliant success (5) |
| ECLAT – C (Chapter) in TALE (story) -> TALCE, then all reversing. | |
| 22 | Continuous pain expert rings hospital (4) |
| ACHE – ACE (expert) outside, [rings], H (hospital). | |
| 23 | Intellectually deep expert discovered (8) |
| PROFOUND – PRO (expert) + FOUND (discovered). Our second “expert” in a row. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Book to help musician (7) |
| BASSIST –B (book) + ASSIST (help). | |
| 2 | US bowler in local match (5) |
| DERBY – Double definition. The first is the US name for a bowler hat. | |
| 3 | State where man’s hip receives treatment (3,9) |
| NEW HAMPSHIRE – (where man’s hip)* [receives treatment]. | |
| 4 | Best stuff about English (5) |
| CREAM – CRAM (stuff) about E (English). | |
| 6 | King I see wearing ripped hat (7) |
| TRICORN – R (Rex; King) I C (I see in txtspeak) in TORN (ripped). This one held me up as I tried to find something with an anagram of “hat” at first to give me a King. | |
| 7 | Police initially called to crash (5) |
| PRANG – Police [initially] + RANG (called). | |
| 8 | Reassemble tediously for work at home? (2-2-8) |
| DO-IT-YOURSELF – [Reassemble] (tediously for)*. | |
| 14 | Fantastic hero is good as Shrek say (7) |
| OGREISH – [Fantastic] (hero is g)*, with “g” for “good”. | |
| 16 | Tried eating duck lightly browned (7) |
| TOASTED – TASTED (tried) containing [eating] O (0; duck – score of 0 in cricket). | |
| 17 | Italian food in shop a staple (5) |
| PASTA – Hedden in shoP A STAple. | |
| 18 | Seamstress in underground conduit (5) |
| SEWER – Double definition. Homographs, but not homophones. | |
| 19 | Rice dish Pauli ruined (5) |
| PILAU – (Pauli)* [ruined]. | |
1a made me laugh a lot, although I’m quite surprised that Wurm managed to slip that through the censors 🤣 Current editorials seem to be rather pro her!
I’m with CW re 9a – the vixen / SHREW thing isn’t really so acceptable these days, although I accept that definition-wise, it’ll all be there in the dictionaries. And I’m with Martinů re PILAU. Otherwise, I thought this was fun and liked the geographical ones – DERBY and NEW HAMPSHIRE.
It’s been a fairly standard week for me, averaging around 10-11 minutes most days, and today was no exception. I have found the 15x15s very tricky this week.
10:43 FOI Erotica LOI Tricorn COD Do-it-yourself
Thanks Wurm and John
I’m with you on the 15x15s, Wednesday’s is still only half complete; not even going to look at today’s – Snitch c225!
I abandoned it after about 7 or 8 clues, and I wasn’t the only one! Even some of the big boys came unravelled 😂 The poor blogger certainly drew the short straw today.
By the way, the Enoch calendar was followed by a Jewish sect. The year has four 90 day seasons plus 4 initial days, plus presumably intercalary days for the solar year.
15:26 Couldn’t stop that shrew.
TaJAW
Around 13 minutes – which is blazingly quick for me!
An enjoyable puzzle today. Took a good while, but I really liked Do It Yourself. I had a notion that no-one living is included, except the monarch, so I was surprised to see Badenoch.
You’d have been be right up to a year or so ago, but that rule is no longer enforced. It was quite controversial when first introduced!
Thanks Penny 🙂. Doing the 13×13 in the books means I am still working through 2023, and haven’t come across this until now.
Ah, that would account for it 😊 Start watching out for it from about mid 2024. So far we’ve had pop stars, politicians, golfers and boxers among others – some of whom I’ve never heard of, although even I haven’t managed to avoid Taylor Swift 😅