A 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]. Tass, if you didn’t know it, is a long-standing Russian news agancy, and you can read about Glasnost (which means “openness”) here. | |
| 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. | |
12:02 for me. One of those days where nothing came easily: summed up by taking ages to get Tucson as an anagram of “counts” despite having been there 3 weeks ago. Sigh.
Thanks to Wurm and John.
Fixated on tang not MING, , presuming ‘tag’ was something Russian I’d never heard of. Fiddling with ‘dyke’ wasted some time until GROYNE flashed up
I had an enjoyable solve in 9:34 with the final minute spent staring at AT BOTTOM (gruesome! but clever). Somehow the weirdly spelled (or weirdly pronounced?) TUCSON, though it is in my very own countree, would not disentangle itself without help from checkers. Other than that it was pretty smooth. I liked LUNATIC; I have a weakness for clues containing repeated words.
Thanks Wurm and John.
Tried hard to get in ‘Dyke’ but it wouldn’t go, instead I never saw backwards GROYNE. Oh Dear! I suppose someone has mentioned FALSTAFF and BOTTOM …
No they haven’t. Well spotted on the Shakespearean connection. I wonder if it was deliberate by Wurm?
Completed on homeward train journey with various interruptions so no time to speak of but under an hour – so at bottom a success! Enjoyable, fair, nothing obscure and groynes were fun in childhood to swim around. Surprised that GLASNOST unknown to some fellow solvers but maybe it’s my age… Falstaff jolly yes, but also wistful and tragic at times (esp in Verdi). Thanks Wurm and John.
Quite a surprise to dash through a Wiggly Wurm offering about as fast as I could write! In fact, this may be in PB territory (I don’t keep records so I’m not sure what my best time is, but I doubt it’s less than 5 minutes!)
There was certainly lots of fun to be had on the way although I did think the clue for 21a (AT BOTTOM) was a bit tasteless. But I liked KERMIT, DILATE and TEA.
I saw BEETLE similarly clued the other day – in the biggie perhaps? The musician was Lennon that time. Not being great on lyrics, I didn’t get the Beatles reference at TUCSON, but did make the connection with Mr Kite.
5:13 FOI Kermit LOI Routine (those pesky hiddens!) COD Glasnost
Thanks Wurm and John
Another happy day for this resident of the SCC. Living by the coast GROYNE is a familiar word so no problems there. Ditto being of the right age (i.e. old) for GLASNOST. Bit of a MER about AT BOTTOM, don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard that phrase (for me, Titanic is AT THE BOTTOM). Thanks Wurm.
7.24.