This time it is my turn to provide the fortnightly amateur weekend quick cryptic crossword. You can try and
solve it interactively here or download a PDF to print here. Alternatively you can copy and print the image below. Comments and queries welcome here or with the solution post (see below). Note that comments here are moderated so won't appear immediately, but I will react to them as soon as I can.
Great stuff, thanks John. A stiff challenge, particularly in the SE. Couldn't parse 4d so that really tested my spelling and read 'ear' as 'car' which made 13a rather tricky and always good to see the old city make an appearance. All with the added bonus of adding a musical term to my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteMendesest
LOL. 4D is an anagram, but you still need to spell the word with the letters in the right order
DeleteGood grief! I discounted anagrams because early on I wanted the second letter to be O and so decided 'confused' was misdirection and forgot to change my mind. Let's pretend it was clever misdirection by the setter and never mention it again.
DeleteThank you John for another very well judged QC - all finished in 13 minutes which is just a minute or two over my par time for the weekday QCs. And your guess is correct; I did biff 10A Elevens! Now it is explained, certainly COD. I also guessed 16D Urbane, only parsing after submission and wondering for a bit if the reference to an old city was Urbs ...
ReplyDeleteLovely puzzle, many thanks. I wonder if you or someone might provide a full blog at some point for us all?
Best wishes
Cedric
I thought this was a brilliant puzzle even though it stretched me to 29 minutes (my target is 20 but I have been struggling to achieve that all week - so perhaps I'm just going backwards!). All the surfaces were remarkably smooth. I was worried that I would fail completely at first as my FOI was 23a!!! LOI URBANE. If I have to choose a COD it would have to be 19a because it made me laugh but there were so many contenders. Of course 10a was amazing, once explained, but I didn't manage to parse it myself. Thank you, John, for a wonderful weekend distraction! MM
ReplyDeleteI'm late to the party but want to add my voice to those above - that was a cracking good puzzle and I enjoyed it enormously. Many thanks. Loved loved loved ELEVENS! What a clever clue.
ReplyDeleteFOI AUTUMN COLOURS, LOI LARGHETTO (NHO and even with all the checkers I had to write it out and suck my pencil!), COD ELEVENS, time 12 mins for a Decent Day.
Really appreciate you and Phil doing these, thanks.
Templar