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 16D, 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)*. | |
12 minutes.
Still an awful week. 2 stupid DNFs stopped me from getting 5 SCC escapes.
68 mins but only 3 finishes. Annoying.
1.5 hours on yesterday’s 15 x 15 and still 7 short. Way out of my depth!
DNF…
I thought this was tricky – both 5ac “Xmas” and 14dn “Ingenue” (I put ‘Eugenie’) went unsolved, whilst I had my fingers crossed for 16dn “Endgame”. A shame really, as I had pretty much everything else within 15 mins.
FOI – 8ac “On Air”
LOI – dnf
COD – 1dn “Footsie”
Thanks as usual!
Shame on me – biffed EUPHEMISM -won on that one, biffed MUNSTER for Cathedral, lost on that one. DNF OOMPH
Carol Reed new to us. The QC is full of educating moments.
Thank you Wurm, even though we rightly quake when we see it’s you. Thank you John I.
We DNF – 2 ND & 2 NFPd. We NHO the play ENDGAME; both saw 15A CHANGE immediately so we were surprised it caused others issues. We recalled THE THIRD MAN as being something our parents watched on TV in the fifties. Agree with others about the word XMAS. In all it seemed a bit trickier than we think a QC should be.
Maybe I’m just crabby after taking a very very long time to finish this at the end of a day of sad events, but I don’t think the EUPHEMISM clue is fair. Isn’t it a definition by example? And doesn’t that require signposting with a question mark or the like? (End of shouting into the void, apologies blogger.)
Thanks Wurm and John. Never mind my whining.
I hope your sad events weren’t personal ones. As for EUPHEMISM, the definition “one’s” itself says “left us” for “dead” is an example, so I don’t think it needs any more signposting. “For example, left us for dead” would mean the same thing and also work as the clue but would be less elegant.
Thanks for the good wishes. And indeed the “one’s” went right over my head, you are correct, very helpful clarification.
Nice to see the home town of Hobart make it into the QC! Not all our entertainers are terrible though, I’m sure.