An fairly gentle puzzle from our wiggly friend today with plenty of straighforward clues to get you going and nothing, I think, to scare the horses. It took me 4:10, so I expect some fast times today. Very entertaining. Thank-you Wurm!
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 155 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mr Kite arranged for frog that sings (6) |
| KERMIT – (Mr Kite)* [arranged]. | |
| 5 | Pupils do this in absurd detail (6) |
| DILATE – [absurd] (detail)*. Nice misdirection to make you think of schoolkids. | |
| 8 | Fall short with man’s jolly character (8) |
| FALSTAFF – FAL{l} [short] + STAFF (man, the verb). | |
| 9 | Affected part in it we excise (4) |
| TWEE – Hidden in [part in] iT WE Exercise. | |
| 10 | Regularly sat by set, eyelid sore (4) |
| STYE – Alternate letters, [regularly], of SaT bY sEt. Nice surface. Yes – too much TV is surely bad for you. | |
| 11 | Tass long spreading Gorbachev policy (8) |
| GLASNOST – (Tass long)* [spreading]. | |
| 12 | Deny organisation backed limiting means of preventing erosion (6) |
| GROYNE – Reverse hidden in sENY ORGanisation [backed limiting]. Nice one. It took me a while to spot that. | |
| 14 | Home country far from sea (6) |
| INLAND – IN (home) + LAND (country). It would be churlish of me to quibble about “far from” as not being necessarily true, so I won’t. | |
| 16 | Slug in news report (8) |
| BULLETIN – BULLET (slug) + IN. e.g. “Slug ate prize lettuce! Shock! Horror!” | |
| 18 | Northern primate’s neck part (4) |
| NAPE – N (Northern) + APE (primate). | |
| 20 | Dynasty name Russian fighter protects (4) |
| MING – N (name) in MIG (Russian fighter aircraft). “The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was the ruling imperial dynasty of China, following the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and preceding the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Founded by the Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) after a successful peasant rebellion, it was the last dynasty ruled by the Han people, characterized by strong autocratic rule, economic growth, significant population growth, and cultural, artistic, and maritime achievements.” or so my AI pal tells. me. | |
| 21 | Like Titanic in reality? (2,6) |
| AT BOTTOM – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. | |
| 23 | Insect Ringo for example caught? (6) |
| BEETLE – Sounds like, [caught], BEATLE (Ringo for example). | |
| 24 | Damage counts for US city (6) |
| TUCSON – [Damage] (counts)*. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Done deed? Absolutely correct (5) |
| EXACT – A deed that’s been done may be an EX ACT. | |
| 3 | Teacher and head of year’s expertise (7) |
| MASTERY – MASTER (teacher) + [head of] Year. | |
| 4 | XI perhaps missing final in Assam, say (3) |
| TEA – TEA{m} (XI perhaps, eleven; number in a football or cricket team) without the last letter [missing final]. | |
| 5 | Problem with economy not failed, rocking (9) |
| DEFLATION – (not failed)* [rocking]. | |
| 6 | Language the French can put together (5) |
| LATIN – LA (the in French) + TIN (can). | |
| 7 | Senator ruined in betrayal (7) |
| TREASON -(senator)* [ruined]. | |
| 11 | Scooby-Doo possibly smashing Hamlet? (5,4) |
| GREAT DANE – GREAT (smashing) + DANE (Hamlet?) – the “possibly” and ? both indicating definitions by example. | |
| 13 | Soldier out in Egypt bears standard (7) |
| ROUTINE – Nicely hidden in soldieR OUT IN Egypt. | |
| 15 | A cult in Barking? Barking! (7) |
| LUNATIC – (A cult in)* [barking]. Nice one. | |
| 17 | Match not serious (5) |
| LIGHT – Double definition. | |
| 19 | Post Office holding saucy image (5) |
| PHOTO – HOT (saucy) in P.O. (Post Office). | |
| 22 | Vampire perhaps in club (3) |
| BAT – Double definition. | |
I was rocketing along until I hit a wall in the SW, where both GROYNE and ROUTINE failed to reveal themselves. And wadda ya know, both were hiddens that I missed completely. Then it turned out I had a typo somewhere, and by the time I tracked that down (MASYERY) I was near the 10-minute mark which sounds like it might be a bit of a fail on the day. Never mind, a fun puzzle, thanks John and Wurm. I appreciated the two nods to the Fab Four along the bottom.
Ditto LindsayO’s first two sentences word for word. Nevertheless I still finished in 8 minutes making this my fastest QC solve and first sub-10 minute job in roughly 4 weeks.
4:43
No problems. Surprised myself by spotting (and knowing) GROYNE.