An entertaining, as ever, Quick Cryptic from Wurm today with just a couple of tricky bits. It took me 5:55, just about 30 seconds over average for me – I was held up in the end by the crossing 15A and 16A, but not unduly so when I trusted to the wordplay for the unknown play. COD to FOOTSIE for the surface. Thank-you Wurm. 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 147 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Swimmer fine as filth swirls around (8) |
| FLATFISH – (f as filth)* [swirls around], with F for “fine”, as used in lead pencils. Nice surface. | |
| 5 | Period celebrated by mother and son (4) |
| XMAS – X (by; i.e. multiplied by) + MA (mother) + S (son). A bit sneaky. It’s worth remembering times = by = X as it often comes up. | |
| 8 | No backing with tune being broadcast (2,3) |
| ON AIR – NO reversed, [backing], -> ON + AIR (tune). | |
| 9 | Entertainer in Hobart is terrible (7) |
| ARTISTE – Hidden in HobART IS TErrible. A Tasmanian devil, perhaps? Sorry. I’ll get my coat. | |
| 11 | Observe bishop’s seat (3) |
| SEE – Double definition. | |
| 12 | One’s left us for dead (9) |
| EUPHEMISM – Tricky. “left us” is a EUPHEMISM for “dead”. Luckily I spotted it fairly quickly, but how about you? | |
| 13 | Riddle good in complex anime (6) |
| ENIGMA – G (good) in [complex] (anime)*. | |
| 15 | Transfer some money (6) |
| CHANGE – Double definition. I hesitated over this until I thought of “change trains” for “transfer to another train”. My SLOI. | |
| 18 | Manager or a singer possibly (9) |
| ORGANISER – (or a singer)* [possibly]. | |
| 19 | Small boy wanting first to lie down (3) |
| SAD – S (small) + {l}AD (boy) without [wanting] the first letter of Lie. You need to separate “lie down” to find the definition and wordplay. Another potential hold-up for some, I think. | |
| 20 | Cathedral cleric’s second one dismissed (7) |
| MINSTER – MIN{i}STER (cleric) with the second I (one) dropped. Minsters I have sung in include York, Beverly and Southwell. | |
| 21 | Mass with song for a von Trapp? (5) |
| MARIA – M (mass) + ARIA (song). “Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS (née Kutschera; 26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987), often styled as “Baroness”, was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family. She wrote the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version“ | |
| 22 | Attend to male news boss (4) |
| HEED – HE (male) + ED (news boss). | |
| 23 | Willing in the morning to empower (8) |
| AMENABLE – AM (in the morning) + ENABLE (to empower). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wiggling of toe is flirtatious activity (7) |
| FOOTSIE – [Wiggling] (of toes is)*. Another entertaining surface. | |
| 2 | Top-grade puzzle? Wow! (5) |
| AMAZE – A (top-grade) + MAZE (puzzle). “Wow” the verb is the definition. | |
| 3 | Don’t overlook the writer’s bloomer! (6-2-3) |
| FORGET-ME-NOT – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. | |
| 4 | Is upset about affected seafood (6) |
| SCAMPI – IS [upset] -> SI, about CAMP (affected). | |
| 6 | Fail to notice one on purpose (7) |
| MISSION – MISS (fail to notice) + I (one) + ON. | |
| 7 | Energy from second XI (5) |
| STEAM – S (second) + TEAM (XI; in football or cricket). | |
| 10 | Article on fielder in Carol Reed film (3,5,3) |
| THE THIRD MAN – THE (definite article) + THIRD MAN (cricket fielder). | |
| 14 | Uranium in engine bad for naive female (7) |
| INGENUE – U (chemical symbol for Uranium) in (engine)* [bad]. | |
| 16 | Absurd drama in close match (7) |
| ENDGAME – END (close) + GAME (match). Philistine that I am, I hadn’t heard of this absurdist drama by Samuel Beckett, so was puzzled by the definition and hesitated over putting in the answer. My LOI. | |
| 17 | Sheep under tree in hermitage (6) |
| ASHRAM – RAM (sheep) under ASH (tree). A word I learnt from crosswords. | |
| 18 | Drive round with zero speed? (5) |
| OOMPH – O (round letter) + O (zero shaped letter) + MPH (speed). Again you need to do some separation to find the definition, this time of “Drive round”. | |
| 19 | Rook in exotic bush, hibiscus maybe (5) |
| SHRUB – R (rook; as abbreviated in chess notation) in [exotic] (bush)*. | |
Not easy for me. Couldn’t see EUPHEMISM for the life of me. Also bunged in passion instead of MISSION thinking fail/pass. Also didn’t know the meaning of ENDMATE. Liked the two long anagrams, both write-ins. COD to OOMPH.
Thanks John and setter.